//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Masters of the Sky // by klockwork //------------------------------// "Soarin!!" Rainbow Dash called as she zoomed forward. "Yes?" Soarin sighed. "So, tell me, what they hay is up? I went to talk to Spitfire about why you guys took a little filly before me and then she said something about how it was because of something in Cloudsdale that she wouldn't tell me and I don't even remember! So... WHATS GOING ON!" Rainbow Dash couldn't hide the anger in her voice. She didn't care anymore either. I don't wanna deal with this, I don't wanna deal with this, I don't wanna deal with this. Maybe telling her I'll give her a tryout will calm her down, then if she remembers or discovers anything, I can deal with it later, Soarin thought to himself. He had no other excuse besides telling her the truth, and that wouldn't help anypony. He was in a tough spot, no matter which decision he made, it wouldn't be correct. It simply came down to which would be less negative, and he knew which that was. "OK fine. Come with me. We'll see if you are up to Wonderbolts material and give you a tryout. First we have to find Coach then we can go to the track." Soarin said with a small hint of annoyedness in his voice. Rainbows emotions were to conflicted to notice anyways. "Really!" Her tone shot up from angry to happy in seconds. Heh, from what Spitfire said, I wouldn't think it would've been as easy as to say 'GIMME A TRYOUT!', she thought to herself. "Well what are you waiting for? Lets go!" She said immediately before shooting off. As the Wonderbolt's biggest fan, she already knew where they were headed. "I'm waiting for a new idea." Soarin mumbled to himself as he flew off after Rainbow. He just had to make sure that Rainbow didn't run into her and everything would be fine. If she did, she might remember her past then everypony would be screwed. Or even if she didn't remember, the other pegasus may remember. It still surprised him as well that she could trot around with that pink pony everyday and never even remember anything. "Rainbow Dash! Wait up!" Scootaloo called. She had finally managed to catch a glimpse of Rainbow, right before she zoomed off again. Scootaloo sighed and continued on trailing behind Rainbow, and now Soarin too. The two of them were polar opposites. Rainbow was more excited and happy than ever since she knew she was seconds away from accomplishing her goal. Soarin looked like he wanted to just slam his head on the wall and pass out just to get away from this. You know what they say, 'Hell is what you make it.', Soarin said to himself. He knew that part of this story was his fault anyways. He still wasn't sure whether he was in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. He had saved both of the pegasi's lives that day. Maybe I can just skip town and go live in Baltimare and get a new identity, Soarin joked to himself. As enticing as it sounded based on current times, he knew he couldn't. He knew he just had to suck it up and be a real colt and not a wuss. Deep down he knew this was how it would all end up anyways. He just never wanted to admit it to himself. It didn't take long before Rainbow and Soarin arrived at the Wonderbolt's track in Cloudsdale. "We're here Rainbow, now lets go find Coach." Soarin said as they slowed down. Soarin went up to the base cloud-house and unlocked the door and led Rainbow Dash inside "Coach! Coach! You in here? Its Soarin!" Soarin called out once they were inside the house. It was the Wonderbolts main office place, if you wanted to put a name to it. Even so, not much office work was ever done inside. It was more of an indoor practice room or just a place to hang out, as that was what it was used for. Whenever they needed to do some paperwork or something of the sort, their coach would always whip through it, and they rarely ever got paperwork anyways. "Yes? Soarin? Whatcha need boy." The coach said as he came into view. "Ay, ya brought a girl with ya?" "Ya... I want her to try out to join the Wonderbolts." Soarin replied. "We got special talent falling from the skies this week! Three in only a few days. Our teams gonna double by the end of this week at this rate." The coach joked. "Come on you two, lets get to it." The coach was a pegasi as well. He had a dark blue coat and a greyed mane that had tiny remnants of blue in it. Rainbow's first impression of him was that he must be old by now and he used to have a blue mane. She thought he was probably in the Wonderbolts before he got too hold, and when we was too old he was hired as their coach. "Ya'know Soarin, I've been wondering how long it would be until you asked this'in to join. I saw her amazing performance during the last young fliers competition. A sonic rainboom! And 'ere I thought they were just myths. In all my years, I had never seen one before." The coach said as they walked outside to the track. Then he began rambling on about his past and how flight talent was back then. It didn't interest Rainbow that much and Soarin had heard all of it more than once already. Outside on the track the coach explained the routine that Rainbow would have to perform. First he wanted to see how she compared up to current members, so her first trial was to fly a set with Soarin around the track. "On yer mark! Get set! Go!" The coach brought down a checkered flag to signal for the two pegasi to begin their race. The two rocketed off from the starting line and spun around three laps. It wasn't much of a race though. Soarin wasn't even all that surprised at the outcome. Rainbow had a lead on him the entire race. It wasn't a huge lead, but it was still a lead on one of the fastest fliers of Equestria. Soarin knew that chances were, Rainbow Dash would be in at least the top 3 fliers. Maybe even #1, but he doubted she was faster than that other pegasus... Now that the coach saw that she could at least fly and the rest of this wouldn't be pointless, he instructed her on her next obstacle course. He explained it while he set up the course. First she would have to fly around moving disks. The disks were set up so that some moved in a horizontal circle and some moved in a vertical circle. They weren't organized and their setting was random. The disks also moved fast and the opening was only 35% of their surface area. Afterwards, he wanted her to spin some clouds, just like she had done in the young fliers competition. The coach had liked that display enough to add it as a test in the tryouts session for the Wonderbolts. He already knew she would succeed on this part, but he still wanted to see it again. Probably just for his entertainment. Then she would have to do vertical dives and jumps. She would have to make turns on a dime while going straight. He set up markers to show when to dive or go up. She had to go straight the entire time, with the exception of 90 degree turns. The area given to begin the turn was also very small, and she wasn't allowed to slow down either. The final test was the simplest one, but also one of the most important. It required her to fly around the track as many times as possible. It was just a stamina test, to see how long she could last at top speed before slowing down. The coach had a speedometer with him to make sure she maintained her speed the entire time. When she began to drop dramatically, she was done. Rainbow Dash enthusiastically rushed through and completed all of the trials easily. She didn't make one single mistake, she was perfect. She even managed to do 27 laps around the track before falling down. When she was done though, she felt like fainting from the strain she had put on her wings to manage 27 laps. Soarin's record had only been 23 and Spitfires was 25. The other Wonderbolts were between 17-22. The minimum amount of laps the coach was looking for depended on the performance on the other trials. For Rainbow Dash, the minimum happened to be 16, meaning she greatly surpassed her required ability. "Oi! I haven't seen such fresh speed, agility, and stamina in a while. I remember back in the day when Spitfire first tried out. She was just like you, except not as good!" The coach laughed. "Well needless to say it doesn't require much thinking over to say you fit in perfectly. Screw the paperwork, I'm pulling you in now! Yer one of the best fliers I've seen in a very long time." He laughed again. "Great job Rainbow! Now we're like partners!" A voice called down from the stands. Nopony had noticed that during the trials, Scootaloo had finally caught up and had been watching Rainbow's spectacular performance the entire time. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'M FINALLY A WONDERBOLT! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" Rainbow cheered ignoring everything around her. She started flying and dancing about ecstatically. All of the negative emotions from before had left her. She then flew up and gave her little buddy a hug. "Heck ya were partners! You ready to set records all over Equestria as the best fliers ever?" She cheered. All her anger and contempt and jealousy towards Scootaloo had disappeared. She couldn't even believe she had ever been mad at the cute little orange filly in the first place. "Ya!" Scootaloo cheered back. She had also completely forgot that part of the reason she wanted to find Rainbow was because she thought somepony broke into her home. "So, what are ya gonna do first?" Soarin asked Rainbow Dash when she calmed down a little bit. "I'm gonna go tell everypony!" She said before zooming off to go tell all of her friends the great news. "Soarin," Scootaloo began, "how come she wasn't already a member? Coach said she's the best flier he has ever seen. And hes old, hes seen a lot!" "First off, don't call your elders 'old' or any variants, its rude. Secondly, I don't know why." He lied. He never shared the full story with anypony else yet and he wasn't going to start with a child.