//------------------------------//
// Dashie and the Wonderbolts 
// Story: Games Ponies Play 
// by lunabrony 
//------------------------------//

	An enormous crowd of ponies of every color lined the streets, guards blocking off corridors, alleys and intersections. Pegasi sat on clouds that had been arranged in rows near the street, over which floating barriers had been put in place to prevent fly by attacks. A rare event was taking place, and ponies were riding, teleporting, walking and flying in from all corners of Equestria to see it. Such an event only happened once in a while, and it was always a big deal when it did. The ponies' attention was focused on a large raft in the middle of the street, decorated with banners and insignia. The raft was being pulled by several strong stallions.
On the top of the raft stood several ponies dressed in uniforms, all of them grinning and waving to the large crowd. In the middle of the crowd was present a small blue filly with a brightly multicolored mane, perched on top the shoulders of her father. Her eyes were wide, and her father grunted several times as her small hooves pressed down on his head as she struggled to get higher for a better look.
"This is so awesome!" She was squealing. 
"Do you see the new Wonderbolt, Dashie?" The father asked. "It's not very frequently that they initiate a new member."
"Uh-huh!" Dash pointed towards the street. "She's up there! Her name's Spitfire!"
"Is that right?" Her father smiled, enjoying her excitement.
"Yeah!" The filly exclaimed, and climbed higher to get a better look. Or tried, at least. She lost her balance and wobbled a bit, losing her balance and tumbling down to the ground.
"BWAH!" Dashie exclaimed, rolling a few feet between several ponies legs before coming to a rest. Dashie had hit her head, and sniffled a bit, looking up at all the strangers. "Daddy?" she called.
No answer.
"Daddy?" A bit louder this time,a voice full of fear. Ponies were shuffling all around her, and the little filly quickly moved in the direction from which she thought she'd fallen, her head hurting and eyes watering. She didn't recognize anypony. No. this wouldn't do at all. She had to get higher!
Dashie flapped her wings and took to the air. Her teachers all said she was a natural born flyer, progressing faster in her lessons than the other children and knocking down records left and right. But she still couldn't stay airborne for very long, as her primaries weren't fully developed yet. She flew for several feet, casing the area in slowly widening circles as she searched desperately for the familiar colors of her father. Her wings began to hurt after about ten minutes of this, and she landed in frustration next to a cyan colored filly talking to another filly with purple and pink hair.
"I'm not making things up! I saw it in a book!" The cyan one was insisting.
"Sure you did," her friend replied, sounding as if she didn't believe the other one whatsoever.
Sighing with annoyance, the blue filly locked her gaze on Dashie. "Hey! You! Do you believe in-" She was silenced with a cream colored hoof stuffed in her mouth.
"Don't drag others into this, you're embarrassing yourself," the second one said, and the two wandered away, still arguing.
Rainbow Dash had no idea what that was all about, but didn't concern herself with it. She weaved through a few more ponies legs, wishing that they would get out of her way. And then quite suddenly, they were. She found herself in a clearing, and sighed with relief.
"Hey, somepony get that filly out of the road, she's going to get hurt!" Somepony called.
Dashie looked around, seeing nopony in the road. Someone was obviously crazy. She turned around, and her eyes widened, quite by chance finding herself moments away from being flattened by charging stallions with nowhere near enough time to slow down. She instinctively screamed and ducked beneath her own hooves, almost as if doing so would erect a force field of some kind. She knew she should be running out of the way, but her legs seemed to be rooted to the ground.
"Hey, look up there! What is that?"
"It's a bird!"
"No, it's too big for that."
"It's a plane!"
"What's a plane?"
"No! It's the new Wonderbolt! That's Spitfire!"
Dashie saw only a bolt of orange and blue as a streak of lightning slammed into her, scooping her up off the ground. She felt that sensational rush of air pick her up and flow across her wings, finding herself once more on solid ground. Upon being set down, she looked up at the new recruit in awe and wonder, while the crowd behind her burst into cheers.
"What were you doing?" Spitfire scolded.
"Trying to find my daddy, he's out here somewhere," she replied. "I'm kinda lost."
Spitfire's gaze softened. "Aw, well we'll find him in ten seconds flat, alright?"
Rainbow Dash grinned. She liked the sound of that, she'd have to use that later.
The near unfortunate accident had attracted quite a bit of attention, and it was not surprising that they had barely begun their search before a familiar stallion burst out of the crowd.
"Daddy!" Dashie exclaimed, reaching her hooves out.
The stallion sighed and picked her up. "Don't you ever do that again!"
Rainbow Dash felt her ears go back. "But I didn't mean-"	
"You could have been hurt! Or worse!" He shook his head. "Come on, we're going home. I'm just glad you're safe."
Spitfire called after them. "Hey, go easy on the kid. She's scared."
Dashie protested. "I'm not scared of anything!" She said, puffing her chest out.
***
At flight lessons the next day, the entire class was abuzz with excitement over their classmates adventure. The teacher had a heck of a time getting everypony to be quiet. She coughed a bit louder.
"Alright, alright, everypony settle down. We have a new classmate joining us today, and I want all you fillies and colts to be on your best behavior. Why don't you introduce yourself, honey?" She smiled kindly, and tried to nudge a small yellow filly out from behind a chair, but the filly just squeaked and remained clinging to the back of it.
"What's your name?" The teacher asked.
The filly mumbled.
Rainbow Dash sighed. This was going to be a long day.