//------------------------------// // ECRL Round 2: Baltimare - Qualifying // Story: ECRL: The Wonderhawks // by WildFire15 //------------------------------// Racers were encouraged to go to bed early. It was important to be relaxed, ready and full of energy ahead of a hard day of fast flying through perilously thin tracks. Though dealing with the foals she managed, Fleetfoot had to pretty much order her team to go to bed when she found them messing around in the lounge of the hotel. Lightning Dust was sharing a room with Rainbow Dash after the team drew straws and her fellow Wonderbolts Academy graduate and tattle tale was currently snoozing away. Dust, meanwhile, was still awake; watching her camera footage on a laptop while also wearing a pair of high quality headphones she’d found in their team stable. She wasn’t particularly bothered about disturbing Dash, but she didn’t want her to know what she was doing. Once the footage of her lap finished, she played the footage of Nicki Hest’s pole position lap from the previous season. Dust frowned as she watched his lap unfold, taking considerably more speed into corners and getting much closer to barriers then she was, possibly even glancing them more then once. She strained her ears for any sounds that could help her improve her lap, but eventually gave up and focused on the footage itself. The Danish Pegasus’ movements were incredible to watch, even more so considering he was the oldest competitor on the grid. His snap rolls and thrusts were fast, precise and almost effortless as he propelled himself through the tricky turn five, six, seven chicane. Dust had been working on her snap rolls throughout practice two to try and speed herself up through the chicanes and while she was getting quicker, she was still in the bottom five flyers. She had to get closer to the barriers to get faster and further up the grid. Dust leaned back against her pillow, her eyes slightly heavy. She’d continue watching the footage after a quick nap, so she allowed her eyes to close. The next thing she remembered was the sound of the laptop being slammed shut, which jolted her away. The sun was up and the curtains drawn, a light breeze carrying bird song into the room. Dust looked at Fleetfoot stood next to her bed, who was wearing a very amuse smirk. “Rise and shine cadet. Breakfast in five.” She said before walking out of the room. As she walked out of the door, Concorde walked in carrying a bowl and noticed Dust was awake. “Aw, Fleet! I had a water bowl ready and everything!” He said, sounding disappointed before following her out. After a second, he poked his head back around the door. “Morning!” He added brightly before disappearing again. *** The day seemed slow while Dust was stuck in the hours leading up to Qualifying, where she desperately wanted to show how good she was. Once qualifying started, however, time seemed to speed up as Dust thundered around lap after lap, her times keeping her in the bottom five. “Three minutes left, Dust.” Spanner informed her, which kept breaking her concentration. “You’ll have two more laps left at the end of this one.” “Got it. Stop with the damn countdown.” Dust shot back, missing the apex of turn eight and having to slow to avoid the wall. The constant reminders were getting on her nerves and she desperately wanted to focus. She glided through turns nine and ten towards the final group of corners, Mercedes and Rossi speeding past her as she focused herself, shaking her head to try and focus her mind. The turn five, six, seven and turn fourteen and fifteen chicanes had been the bane of her existence on this track and she was going to get them right this time. After gliding through turn thirteen, she started to accelerate and banked fully over into turn fourteen giving herself as straight an exit as she could as he sped down the long main straight. Even if it wasn’t as long as Cloudsdale’s Morning Glory, it still felt like it went on forever as Dust spotted her slowing point while also trying to ignore the flyer ahead of her. She pushed her slowing marker a fraction further then it had been and threw herself out as wide as possible, with her wings and both front and back wings fully spread to drag her speed down. The corner seemed to still be coming up fast to meet her and she was risking being too wide, so she banked herself over and accelerated through the turn, coming perilously close to an embrace with the air barrier. Dust allowed herself to breath, having held her breath as she slowed and turned. That was the fastest she’d been through turn one but she had to keep herself focused with another thirteen corners to deal with. Dust flapped her wings hard as she went through turn two, past a slow moving Lotus Stream, who moved well out of the way as Dust headed for turn three. She threw herself out as wide as possible again to slow down fast as late as she could before banking over, making sure the wall at the apex of the corner would pass above her head before speeding up towards turn four. It was an easy corner, but with it being hidden in the shadow of the warehouse in the middle of the track it became trickier as her references were difficult to see. She forced the detail from her mind and threw herself into the corner, perfectly throwing her hind around and countering the movement to turn perfectly ninety degrees to head towards the first of the dreaded chicanes. As she went down the back straight, the ‘hook’ on the inside of turn six almost seemed to wave to her, as if letting her know it was ready to get her if she made even the slightest of mistakes, but now wasn’t the time for misgivings. She knew she was quick after the first part of the track and she’d be damned if she’d back out now. Dust desperately wanted to screw her eyes shut as she tucked her left wing in to take turn five, the tips of her feathers barely sticking out as she snap rolled into the corner, hurtling left. Forcing her eyes to stay open, she snap rolled back the one hundred and eighty degrees she needed and reversed her wings, turning her right and extending her left wing again fully. Her eyes barely kept up with the rapid direction change and she desperately hopped she wouldn’t be having a sudden meeting with the hook on the inside. Barely any time after that thought crossed her mind, she felt something brush her body for a moment. Without thinking, she thrust her right wing back out and snap rolled back into turn five, flapping her wings hard to get the thrust down the pit straight. She’d defiantly glanced the hook, but now wasn’t the time to consider how lucky she was as she thundered into turn seven, her heart pounding hard enough to be noticed even at the speeds she was travelling. She threw herself into turn eight, tilted right over to make sure she got the lift to make the corner, but this time making sure she tilted back sooner so she could get the thrust out as she beat her wings, against clipping the air fence as she went by. The massive amount of road on the outside of turn nine simply didn’t seem enough as she barrelled into the corner, barely slowing down. The air fence looked more than ready to grab her as her line took her closer and closer, but she just about missed it as she turned to head down the straight to turn ten. With the speed she was carrying, she could simply glide through turn ten and eleven, running the tip of her wing against each wall as she went through. The turn twelve and the final chicane came next, the corners she’d struggled with the most. Remembering the footage of Hest’s lap she’d watched last night, she remembered there were three points where she needed to turn. She slowed, trying to keep as much speed as she dared as she banked into turn twelve late, trying not to tense up as she came close to glancing the wall at the apex. Her line would bring her gently over to the right wall on the short straight ahead of turn thirteen, giving her time to quickly thrust herself forwards before slowing again. As Hest had done the previous year, she didn’t level out before banking fully into turn thirteen, again fighting off the urge to tense up. She’d clipped two apexes perfectly, but if she didn’t get the last corner right then she would ruin her drive for the line and waste her effort. As her line took her across the middle of the short straight between thirteen and fourteen, she snap rolled left before throwing her hind around as carefully as she could. The sharp change in direction worked as, as soon as she saw the open main straight ahead, she flapped her wings with all her might and propelled herself to the finish line. “Eighth, Dust.” Spanner said excitedly after she crossed the line, sounding as if he’d been holding his breath for the whole lap. “You’ve got one more lap.” Eighth. Better, Dust thought; considerably better, but she could do better as she grit her teeth and hurtled for the first corner. She pushed her slowing mark, throwing her hind into the turn, brushing against the inside wall as she had done the previous lap. Once satisfied, she focused her gaze on the second corner. As she levelled out slightly to prepare to snap roll into the turn, she felt the tip of her left wing rub against the air fence. Before she could form the thought to move away, she realised she was still drifting left into the barrier and the joint of her wing caught it, causing her to veer left into and bounce off the barrier. She managed to push off the barrier and flat spin back to facing the right direction, but the damage had already been done and her lap was ruined barely after it started. “F***!” She explosively swore, even being heard by some of the marshals she passed. “Don’t worry about it, Dust. Box this lap and remember to keep out of the way.” Dust grit her teeth and sighed, her heart still pounding. She glided along the side of the track, keeping an eye over her shoulder for anyone else, but it seemed she was largely in clear track as she returned to the pits. “Last lap’s just finished, Dust.” Spanner informed her, leaning back and looking down the pit lane as Dust glided along. “You’re eleventh on the grid.” “Wait, what? I thought I was eighth?” Dust exclaimed, surprised and angry at the news. “You were, but Quicksilver, Red Rum and Nicki Hest put in quicker laps.” Spanner replied, making her angry as she flew into the team’s stable. “Power Drive was set to beat your lap too but Skyline blocked him. Should put him to the back of the grid. Still, it’s fantastic work after starting at the back of the grid last ti-” Spanner’s voice was cut off as Dust took her helmet off, the cable for the radio detaching at the same time. “Good lap, Dust.” Fleetfoot commented, making notes on a clip board. “Concorde was ninth and Rainbow Dash was nineteenth.” Fleet added, which initially annoyed but then pleased Dust. She’d obliterated Dash, which would look more then good on any records Spitfire was keeping. Beating the idiot Yorkshire pony would just have to wait for tomorrow.