I trot back into my cabin, where I have my saddlebag waiting for me on the bed. I pack it with various items. Pinkie Pie's care package, my lead pony badge, and a complementary junior wonderbolts uniform hoofed to everypony in the academy. I know, it sounds cheesy; but Spitfire says it motivates us to get to work to get a real Wonderbolts' uniform. My guess is that ponies will most likely do that just cause of this tacky design. No lining or anything, just yellow. Nothing but yellow. A yellow belt is supposed to go before a blue belt, after all. I close the saddlebag and pick it up with my mouth after packing it to put it on my back.
"Nice job, cadet." A yellow mare with a red and yellow fiery mane appears in my cabin. "You just might become a wonderbolt yet."
I take my mouth off of my saddlebag after putting it on my back to look up at her. "Thank you, ma'am. I'll do my best, ma'am."
"You sure have a lot of potential, cadet. If you keep up how you've been doing, we might meet again very soon." As Spitfire takes her leave trotting out of my cabin, I follow her out. I wave my hoof goodbye, then fly off to my cloud home in Ponyville.
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Inside, I take off my saddlebag and open it. I place the care package contents on my shelf, my lead pony badge on my desk, then I carefully hang the yellow uniform in my closet. I take some time and smile at the memorabilia I managed to collect for working towards my dream.
"HEY, RAINBOW DASH!" Oh, right. I told Twilight and the others when I would get home, so of course they would've been waiting out for me. I trot over to my door and push it open with my hoof.
I see a group of five excited mares--well, and one semi-excited baby dragon--looking up from the ground in front of my house. Some of them look exhausted from galloping to see me again, but Pinkie Pie still has that same vast energy she's always had.
"I told you all to arrive at Rainbow Dash's home atleast 5 minutes before the time she got here, so you wouldn't have to rush! Don't act like I'M the crazy pony here with my scheduling! You should've listened to me."
I smile at the purple "unicorn with wings" as I fly down to the ground to meet the others. "Twilight, it's fine. I'm just glad you all made it."
"Are you kidding me!?" Pinkie Pie abruptly makes this statement. "Of COURSE we would make it! We had to! You told us when you would get back from the academy, and we all knew that you telling us meant you were expectig us to see you when you did get back, and we didn't want to make you to have to wait and wait and wait and wait for us and dissapoint you, because we're your friends!"
"Uhhh..thanks, Pinkie?" I will never know how that pony does that. I have to remember to ask her one day.
"Um...." Fluttershy catches my attention so I turn away from Pinkie Pie to look at her. "How did it go?"
I smirk a little at that. "'How did it go?' Spitfire basically told me that I'm awesome. She said that she might see me when I get into the Wonderbolts! She has total confidence in my skills."
"I don't know about that, Rainbow Dash. Just make sure you don't let it all go to your head. Although, you do have a knack of doing that." I know she only tells me this because she's my friend, but it's like Twilight thinks I wouldn't have learned from last time. She's treating me like a foal.
"Yeah, maybe I do, but it's gonna be different this time. I promise you, Twilight, all I'm going to do about it is practice to make that actually happen."
"Oh, but you can't possibly be thinking about practicing tonight, are you?" Rarity trots up to me and takes a closer look at my face. "I know you're putting up a brave front, but you did leave the academy a little too early in the morning. Be honest, do you usually get up that early? You probably need some rest, else you'll be a mess for the rest of the day."
I look away from Rarity to the other 4 ponies here, then back at Rarity. "Well, if you say so..but what are the rest of you going to be doing? Will you be okay without me there?"
"Don't you fret, sugarcube." Applejack looks at me reassuringly. "We ain't gonna do nothin' that we can't do without ya, so don't ya worry about a thang."
I look at all my friends and smile. "Right. Thanks, guys. I should go back inside now." I fly back up to my cloud home as I hear my friends wishing me goodbye. By the time I go inside and shut the door, their voices stop.
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I sit still on the bed. For some reason, I can't sleep. I look over to my closet, and see my junior wonderbolt uniform. Practice... I think to myself. Practice, and that one word brings an idea to my head that feels silly that I didn't think of it sooner. I get up to bring my uniform down off the hanger and I put it on. I grab my lead pony badge from the academy and pin it on the uniform. If i'm going to be a wonderbolt, I need some field experience, now don't I?
[Chapter1-Practice: END]