“YAAAAAAAAAAAWN!!!!”
The human boy let out that terrible sound as he woke up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. After slowly getting out of his bed, he made his way to the curtains. He took a deep breath and prepared for the morning light to hit him like a pile of bricks. The human opened the windows and instinctively flinched, but found that the light wasn’t too bright this morning thanks to the clouds in the sky. He sighed in relief and started to make his way downstairs, but took a quick look in the mirror before leaving his room.
He had bags under his greenish-blue eyes, which was an unnatural color for someone of his dark complexion. A good breakfast and shower should take care of those bags. The human scratched through his short, black hair and proceeded downstairs, where his roommate, a unicorn stallion, was making breakfast. The unicorn had a light brown coat with sections of cream colored fur on his forearms, his hooves, and running down the middle of his face, including his horn.
“Morning, Cory,” he said.
“Morning, Gaffer,” said the human. “I thought it was my turn to make breakfast today.”
“Yeah, but remember when you made breakfast last week, even though it was my turn?” he asked.
“When you overslept? Yeah, I remember,” Cory answered.
“Well, I’m making up for the deficit,” Gaffer said with a smile.
“Thanks, man,” Cory said with a smile.
“No problem,” the unicorn said, smiling back and handing him a plate. Cory and Gaffer walk over to the couch and turn on the TV.
“Ugh, local news on a Saturday morning?” the human said with an exaggerated tone of boredom. “Change it!”
“Hold on!” Gaffer said. “Check out the headline!”
Cory raised an eyebrow and looked at the headline Gaffer was referring to. “Wonderbolts Arrive in Canterlot?” he read with a questioning tone. In the short two months that he’s lived here, Cory’s heard the name of the famous flying team several times in idle conversation. Judging from the way ponies talked about them, he assumed that they were kind of a big deal.
“They must be here to train for the national racing event in Vanhoover,” Gaffer surmised.
“And that is…” Cory asked. He had never paid attention to sports in the human world, and he was even more out-of-touch with sports from the pony world.
Gaffer chuckled. “Oh yeah, I forgot you’re still new to Equestria,” he said. “Basically, every year, one city in the country hosts an annual flying competition between the best flying teams. Last year it was in Las Pegasus, and this year it’s in Vanhoover.”
“Okay…” the human said, starting to get the gist of it. “So why are the Wonderbolts in Canterlot when the competition is in Vanhoover?”
“Well, the competition isn’t for another two months, and none of the other teams have taken advantage of the state-of-the-art training facilities that Canterlot has, so they most likely wanted to take care of that before any of their rivals do.”
“Oh, now I get it,” said Cory. “Can we watch something else now?”
“Equestrian sports don’t tickle your fancy?”
“NO sport tickles my fancy.”
Gaffer chuckled as he gulped down the last of his breakfast and stretched out his arms. “So, got anything planned for today?” he asked.
“Not necessarily,” Cory answered. “It’s Saturday, so I don’t have any classes. I do feel like getting some fresh air, so I might go out for lunch and maybe even catch a matinee movie.”
“Wish I could join you, but I’ve got to go to a meeting in an hour,” said the unicorn. “I’m meeting with some executives to discuss that trading card game we’ve been working on.”
“Sounds like fun,” said the human.
“Not when you’re in the development stages,” Gaffer corrected. “At this point, we’re just discussing target demographics, game rules, production costs, all the boring shit.”
“Meh, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Cory said.
“If you say so,” Gaffer replied. “I’m headed upstairs to get ready, and then I’m out. Don’t burn down the place while I’m gone.”
“That joke gets old after the eighty-seventh time,” said Cory.
“Screw you,” said Gaffer. “My jokes are awesome!”
“Whatever floats your boat, pal,” the human chuckled. Gaffer simply rolled his eyes at him and went upstairs.
Cory sighed as he was left alone in the living room. He thought to himself how lucky Gaffer was to have the kind of job he had. The guy didn’t know how good he had it. Gaffer was working for a game design company at twenty-four years old, while Cory was a nineteen-year-old transfer student at Canterlot University with an undeclared major, working at a comic book store on the weekdays to make money.
The one good thing about Cory’s situation was that his parents were paying for school, so the only expenses he had were food and living costs, which he had split with Gaffer. His folks would even send some extra money for him since school in Equestria was much cheaper than any school in the human world.
All in all, Cory’s situation wasn’t bad in any sense of the word, but he still felt like it was lacking. He still had yet to figure out what he wanted to do with his life; he was stuck in a rut.
A few hours later, after Gaffer had long since left the house, Cory got ready to go out for the day, since it was better than staying cooped up in his house. As he stepped out into the early afternoon sun, he wondered what he should do to pass the time.
His rumbling stomach answered that question.
“Lunch it is, then,” Cory said to himself. “I could probably go to that diner that Gaffer took me to once. Bite of Heaven, I think it’s called. Now if I can remember where it is…”
Cory shrugged his shoulders and continued on his walk towards the diner, figuring that he’ll remember where it was along the way.
“Hey, Fleetfoot!”
“AGH!”
THUMP!
It was earlier that same day at Garden Ridge, one of Canterlot’s most renowned hotels, and somepony was woken up from her nap a little earlier than she wanted to be.
“What is it, Spitfire?” Fleetfoot said groggily as she lay on the carpeted floor.
“You’re taking a nap when we just got here?” her captain said.
“Well, being hounded by the news at eight in the morning takes a lot out of me,” Fleetfoot retorted as she stretched her arms and wings before getting up off the ground. “Besides, the beds here are really comfy, so how could I not take a nap.”
Spitfire sighed. “Well, you got a point there,” she admitted.
“I know, right!” said Fleetfoot. “They have velvet sheets, too! They’re sooooo smooth!”
“Yeah, you can’t go wrong with velvet- HEY! Don’t change the subject!” Spitfire yelled, figuring out what Fleetfoot was trying to do.
The smaller mare shrugged her shoulders and scratched an itch in her snow white mane. “So, Captain, if I may ask,” she said with mock respect, “Why have you disturbed my slumber?”
The golden-coated mare chuckled. “Well, Soarin, Rapidfire and I are headed to the gym for some conditioning, and I figured that I should offer my roommate an invitation.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” said Fleetfoot. “We just got here this morning, and I think I’d rather spend my first day with some R and R.”
“Suit yourself,” said Spitfire. “I’m only going because I can’t trust Soarin’ and Rapidfire alone. You know how those two can be.”
“That’s very leader-like of you,” Fleetfoot laughed, “taking on foalsitting duty like that.”
“It’s called ‘taking one for the team’, Fleetie,” said the captain, receiving a playful punch from her teammate.
“Don’t call me that!” she said. “You know I hate that name!”
“Really?” I can never tell from the way you always chuckle when I call you by that name.
“Get out of here before the colts leave without you,” Fleetfoot teased.
“Fine, fine. Since you want me out so badly,” Spitfire pouted as she left the room.
Fleetfoot sighed to herself as she stretched again, getting all the kinks out of her, sky blue-coated body. She and Spitfire were always close, even though Spitfire was a year ahead of her in school. They were the two original members of the Wonderbolts, with Spitfire being its founder and Fleetfoot being its first recruit. Soarin was next, followed by Rapidfire, then Blaze and their most recent member, Misty Fly.
Even though Fleetfoot was Soarin’s senior on the team, Soarin was the most well-known member, next to Spitfire, of course. While Fleetfoot was the smallest and the fastest of the Wonderbolts, she had the lowest endurance, which was Soarin and Spitfire’s specialty. Because of this, she was usually the anchor of the races, or in laypony’s terms, “the last pony to race”. Fleetfoot was perfectly content with her position on the team, though. She still had a decent number of fans, and it wasn’t like she was an unimportant member of the team. She was responsible for putting new recruits through speed training in order to whip them into shape. Misty Fly still had those infamous drills fresh in her mind. Compared to other twenty-three-year-old mares, she had it pretty good.
“Well, I guess I can’t go back to my nap,” Fleetfoot thought to herself. “I can never go back to sleep again once I wake up.” She made her way to the window, which had a nice view of the Canterlot city square. “It is a nice day today. Maybe I’ll go out for a bite to eat.” She thought of the chances of being stopped and asked for an autograph.
“Meh, I think it’s safe,” she thought. “Most of the Wonderbolt fans are probably flocking to the gym to see Spitfire and Soarin, with Rapidfire being a bonus.”
With her plan set in her mind, the pegasus went to take a quick shower before getting dressed and heading out. As she walked down the hall, she spotted a mare with a yellow coat and a medium length blue mane walking in the opposite direction.
“Hey, Misty,” said Fleetfoot.
“Hi, Fleetfoot,” she said. “You trying to catch up with Spitfire and the boys?”
“Nah, I’m gonna take it easy today,” Fleetfoot replied. “I’m heading out into the city to get something to munch on.”
“Oh, in that case, there’s a really great place that opened since we were here last!” Misty Fly said enthusiastically. “It’s called Bite of Heaven. It’s a small diner not too far from here.”
“Really?” Fleetfoot asked, intrigued. “How far is ‘not too far,’ Misty?”
“When you leave from the hotel’s main entrance, make a right and walk three blocks. It’s right on the corner,” she explained.
“Thanks for the recommendation, kid.” Fleetfoot said. “Looks like having a member that grew up in Canterlot is more of a benefit than we thought.”
“When are you and the other’s gonna stop calling me ‘kid’?” asked Misty.
“It’s a Wonderbolt tradition,” the older mare explained. “The most recent member is called ‘kid’ until somepony else joins. Soarin had to go through it, too, y’know.”
The younger mare sighed. “In that case, I can’t wait until that Rainbow Dash filly becomes part of the team, then we can call her ‘kid’.”
“You’ll get used to it, Misty,” Fleetfoot chuckled. “Well, I’d better get going while all the fans are still flooding the gym to see Spitfire and Soarin.”
“Good call. Better haul flank, then,” she said.
“Later, kid,” Fleetfoot said as she parted ways with her. She smiled to herself as she walked away. She always found it ironic that she called all the new recruits “kid” when she’s always been the smallest Wonderbolt. Even Misty Fly was taller than her, and she was three years younger than her. If anything, Fleetfoot should be the one called “kid,” or some other nickname that reflected her size. She didn’t mind it, though. After all, what she lacks in size, she makes up for in speed.
Fleetfoot left out the front entrance of the hotel, following the directions given to her by Misty. As she got to the corner of the first block, she bumped into somepony that was walking in the other direction, the impact knocking them both back and staggering them a little. After getting herself together, she realized that the pony she bumped into wasn’t a pony at all, but a human. He had a dark complexion with contrasting bluish-green eyes and short, dark hair.
She looked at him.
He looked at her.
“Sorry about that,” they said simultaneously.