//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Flying Sky-High // by Calm Wind //------------------------------// MLP: FiM Flying Sky-High By: Calm Wind Chapter 8: “What’s eating ya lover boy?” Fleetfoot nudged Soarin in the side, breaking him from a daydream. They were waiting near the advanced obstacle course. “Sorry.” He shook his head, “I’m worried about Dash that’s all.” “I’M SO SURPRISED.” Fleetfoot said in a deep voice while pulling down on her face with her hooves. “Then why’d you ask?” Soarin rolled his eyes. “To annoy you.” She admitted and giggled. “Don’t worry about her Soarin,” Spitfire chimed in, “she’s a tough mare and you couldn’t have left her with better Wonderbolts. “Yeah, Silver Lining would've killed her if she was with the second squad.” Said Fleetfoot while hovering upside-down in a reclined position. “Thanks for reminding me, I have to talk to him about not running his team ragged every single day.” Spitfire shook her head. “He’s really gonna kill one of them if he doesn’t let up.” “You don’t think,” Soarin crossed his hooves, “he’s still bitter about us beating him out for the lead squad?” “I know he still is,” Spitfire shrugged, “but he can't dwell on it forever. We earned it fair and square.” She glanced around. “Okay, WHERE THE HELL IS RAPIDFIRE?!” She slammed her hooves to the ground. “Soarin, go check the locker room. If he’s in there, just tell him to hurry his ass up. I don’t care what he says, NO FIGHTING.” Spitfire pointed a hoof sternly at him. “Alright, alright.” Soarin grunted while turning back towards the locker room. Spitfire’s fuse was growing short. Rapidfire always pushed his luck but lately it had been twice, even three times as bad. One more push and Soarin was sure Rapidfire would send Spitfire over the edge. He pulled open the door to the locker room. “Rapidfire!?” He called in. No response. "Damn shit-headed asshole..." He grumbled multiple swears as he walked further in. As he began to check the rows of lockers, the front entrance from the hall opened. Rapidfire was standing in the doorway, looking out. “Fine, I’ll meet you there later.” He said to somepony before turning and coming face to face with Soarin. Rapidfire stopped and blinked for a moment, before glaring. “What do you want, pussy hoof?” He went right for the insults. “I wouldn’t be so smug, dickhead. You’re a half hour late. Spitfire is gonna tear you a new one already so hurry the hell up.” He turned and started back towards where he came. “I don’t give a flying shit what that bitch says.” He grumbled, stopping Soarin in his tracks. “Excuse me?” He was holding back, good lord he was holding back. “You heard me, I ain’t whipped like you. She can blow it out her ass. It’s not like she can fire me.” He said disturbingly casually as he put on his uniform. Soarin wanted nothing more than to put a hoof through his face for that one. “Her and Rainbow Whore, they both have you on a leash.” Soarin’s eyes widened in rage. He came back around the corner, turned Rapidfire around and slammed him against the lockers. “Words cannot describe how much I want to kill you for calling Dash that!” He snarled in Rapidfire’s face. “Go on. Do it.” He taunted into Soarin’s face. Soarin was not going to come down to Rapidfire’s level again. He’d learned from past encounters that scrapping would only get him in trouble. He released Rapidfire and snorted. “Just get ready.” Soarin stormed away before Rapid could say anything else. His ears caught Rapidfire say, “Wuss.” Soarin stopped picked up a hoof and shook it while gritting his teeth. He wouldn’t fall for it anymore, he refused to. He left the locker room to give Spitfire a very detailed report on Rapidfire’s tardiness. “Holy…hell…” Dash barely managed to say between gasps for air. Five sets of five laps around the small indoor course with three minutes of rest in between each. Sounded easy enough, but she was trying to keep pace with Wonderbolts. Normally Dash would take on a workout like this at maybe 75% effort so she could last through it all. There was no way any member of squad three was taking it that easy. After two sets Dash wasn’t sure if she could go one more, much less three. “Feeling alright Miss Dash?” Fire Streak asked politely as he kept an eye on a stop watch. “I’ll… be fine… just give me… a minute…” “Actually we only have thirty seconds.” He flashed the watch at her. Dash shook sweat out of her mane and stood up straight. She refused to show weakness in front of Wonderbolts. The rest of them looked like they were getting a good workout, but they were all clearly in much better cardiovascular shape than she was. “Feel free to take this one off if you’d like, I don’t want to force you through anything.” “Can I take this one off?” Lightning waved from a few feet away. “No.” Fire answered quickly and flatly without looking at his twin, “Going to rest?” He asked Dash again. She shook her head. “Absolutely not. If you guys are doing this, so am I. That’s the end of it.” She stated. Misty Fly tapped Fire on the back and motioned towards Dash. Fire nodded and made a few signs, followed by Misty smiling and making some back. “Misty likes your attitude.” Fire said with a grin. The watch beeped and Surprise was up on the cloud in the blink of an eye. “I’m ready!” She hopped up and down. Surprise looked like she hadn’t even come close to breaking a sweat. She really was a mirror image of Pinkie. Dash forced her wings into movement and flew up to the start with the rest. The indoor flight track was very simple. A 200 meter loop meant for work on sharp turns at high speeds. One would have very little time to pump their wings on the 50 meter straight-aways before pitching left or right to turn depending on which way they were going on the track. Dash readied herself as the rest of squad three took positions. “All ready? Let’s see if we can shave, oh, five seconds off our last run.” Fire suggested. Dash didn’t let it get to her. She didn’t care how hard it was, she’d keep up and leave a lasting impression. “And…GO!” Fire called out. Dash fired from the spot, hoping to use her reaction time to get a slight lead she could work with. They weren’t racing, but as said, she refused to back down. Fire and Lightning quickly passed her, flying side by side right before finishing one lap. Dash locked on to them to give herself something to chase as she pitched into her third turn. Surprise passed her as she rounded the fourth turn to complete the second lap. She was flying backwards and making a back stroke motion. Dash didn’t take it as a taunt, because silly ponies will be silly ponies. Dash moved her eyes to Surprise instead, trying to keep up with the incredible pace the three younger members of squad three exhibited. Dash managed to keep behind Surprise until the final lap, where coming out of the first turn she angled too hard trying to straighten out and lost her flight balance. She tried to straighten out, but it was easier said than done and high speeds. “Whoa!!” She yelped as she tried to prevent a head on collision with the very fast approaching padded walls. Right before she passed the last turn unintentionally, Misty Fly twisted in from Dash’s right and grabbed hold of her. The turned her hooves to put Dash back flat and they both angled into the turn and crossed the finish line. They came to a halt and hovered down beside the rest of the squad. Fire and Lightning still looked fine, but they were working up a sweat. Surprise was bouncing in place, fit as a fiddle. “Oh man that was close. Thanks Misty.” Dash said in Misty Fly’s direction, but Misty wasn’t looking at her. “Oh, right.” Dash bit her lip and looked around before dragging herself up to Fire Streak. “Hey Fire.” “Yes, m’lady?” He asked. Dash flattened her ears and sighed at him calling her that, but let it go. “How do you, um, say thank you in those symbols?” She asked timidly. “Oh, it’s actually an easy one.” He put a wing to his mouth and slowly extended it forward. Then nodded. “That’s it?” Dash blinked. “That’s it.” He confirmed. “But don’t pucker your lips though, unless you really take a liking to her.” “Yeah she’ll think you wanna bang.” Lightning said from behind Fire. “Brother…” Fire growled at him. “Thanks. I get it,” Dash chuckled and turned back to Misty Fly and gingerly moved into her field of view. Misty turned to Dash and tipped her head. Dash took her wing, put it up by her mouth and extended it slowly outward towards Misty while keeping her eyes locked with hers. Misty smiled cheerfully back before repeating the motion back to Dash. “If done after somepony does it to you, it means ‘you’re welcome.’” Fire said as he watched. Dash didn’t know what else to do so she just smiled warmly and nodded to Misty Fly before taking a seat to rest. Then the watch went off. “Oh! Two more everypony, let’s go!” Fire called to them. Dash’s eyes widened. She spent the whole break trying to figure out how to say thank you to Misty. But she didn’t regret it. It felt cool. “Didn’t we already do four?” Lightning asked shamelessly. “Nice try brother, get your hind quarters up the start.” “You can say ‘ass’ bro, we’re all outta high school here.” “Sometimes I wonder with you, now GO!” Fire gave his brother a kick. “Whoa alright, don’t clench it any tighter dude.” The two brothers went up with Dash following behind. Soarin was completely right, they were quite a show together. Rainbow Dash let her head fall against the table next to her tray of food. She survived the workout, but she felt completely spent already. And they had more to go? She would have to severely adjust her workout routine if she were to ever be on this level. Surprise leaned over, examined Dash’s posture, and application of face to table. “I know the food’s bad, but it’s not that bad, or maybe it is, I dunno I'M HUNGRY!” Surprise said, cutting herself off with her own urge to eat and plunging her face into a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Dash removed her head from the table and groaned at how sore her body already felt, especially her back, shoulders, and around her wings. The food didn't look that good as Surprise had said. Dash had avoided the soup counter and had gone right through the main line, picking up a single grilled chicken breast, some rotini noodles with marinara sauce, and a few pieces of asparagus. It all looked very generic, but it was a mess hall. She wasn’t expecting fine cuisine. The mess hall itself was a large open room with picnic table style seating. There were ten rows of five tables and each table could sit about three on each side. On the far end from the entrance there were multiple buffet style set-ups with chefs working behind a counter in the very back of the room. Anything that got depleted was quickly replaced. Dash was sitting with Surprise next to her with Fire Streak and Misty Fly sitting across. Misty had picked up on Dash looking a little beat up. She turned to Fire and made a few signal. Fire blinked and turned to Dash. “Misty wants to know if you’re okay.” He posed the question. Dash almost nodded, but she stopped, feeling like it would be better if, “What’s the sign for yes?” She asked. Fire put up his hoof and tipped the end of it up and down quickly. Dash turned back to Misty and repeated the motion, followed by the wing forward motion to say “thank you”. Misty smiled very wide and clapped her hooves together. She made more signals to Fire. “Misty says she really appreciates that you’re trying to learn how to talk to her.” Fire relayed. Misty made the thank you motion to Dash. Dash smiled and made the motion back to signal “you’re welcome.” Misty smiled even wider, got up from her seat, trotted around the table, and gave Dash a big hug before making her way towards the food for seconds. Dash felt super tingly. An icon from her fillyhood just gave her a hug. Misty Fly was clearly enjoying Dash's company. Leaving a lasting impression was important to Dash, and it extended beyond the flying skills. She wanted them to think she was nice to have around as well. “I must say Miss Dash,” Fire began as Dash finally got a start on her food, “it makes me quite happy to see you try communicating with Misty.” “Well,” Dash blushed, her weakness: celebrity praise, “she’s just so cool. Doing what she does despite being deaf. A pony like that is just plain special. I feel it would be more respectful if I knew how to speak with her, even if it’s just a little. Plus she was the most awesome Wonderbolt when I was a filly.” “There more to it than that,” Fire stated as he finished his chicken, “not many ponies make the effort. She has very few others she can 'speak' with outside of the squad. It’s not easy to learn the sign language, so she really doesn’t have anypony else besides us. When she hugged you just now for trying? That was the happiest I've seen her in a very long time.” “Huh.” Dash thought as she took a few bites of the surprisingly good tasting asparagus. She hadn’t thought of that. Maybe that’s why Misty appreciated it though, because Dash hadn't thought about it. She had gone ahead and tried without thinking too much about it. As Fire said, learning any language must less sign language was difficult. She was more than certain most would give up quickly. This all made Misty even more incredible to Dash. How hard has Misty's life been? How did her fillyhood go without being able to hear or speak? How grueling was the process to learn sign language? Or hell, become a Wonderbolt? After thinking about it all Dash found her view of Fire Streak improving as well. Surprise and Lightning Streak clearly knew the sign language, but whenever Misty wanted to say something, she always said it through Fire. He was always quick to help her. Fire also seemed to help her with other things. Dash saw him speaking with one of the chefs earlier, taking signals from Misty, to explain how she wanted her sandwich made. He was a little too proper at times, but it was very kind of him to help her out as much as he did. “Shrrsh rt trrk thrm frrrvrr tr mrk mrr chrlr.” Lightning Streak finally came to the table, dropping a tray next to Dash with a big bowl of chili and nothing else. His voice was completely muffled by a hot dog and bun he had shoved in his mouth. On the other hand, Dash found nothing redeeming about Fire’s twin. Lightning proceeded to wolf down the hot dog without it leaving his mouth before elbowing Dash in the side as he reached for the bowl. “Classy brother, as usual.” Fire face-hoofed and shook his head. Dash tried to edge away from him, but the more she moved the more space he seemed to take up. Fire eyed Lightning’s food selection with confusion. “So you were complaining about gas this morning and you decided to fix that by eating chili?” He rolled his eyes. “If you can’t beat it, add to it. Huhah.” He chuckled as he began sloppily eating. “You know what else gives me gas?” He said with a mouthful of chili. He reached over and pulled Dash into him. “Sexy mares. Wait is that good or bad?” As he failed to contemplate the stupidity of what he just said, Dash reached her wing up, and used it to press his face down into his bowl. “You. Are. Disgusting.” She said while holding his head down. She looked to Fire, who was trying not to choke on his water while laughing. “Finally! Celestia has seen fit to grace me with a sympathizer. I am blessed.” He swung his hooves up into the air. “Is he always like this?” Dash questioned as Lightning blew bubbles in his chili. “Always.” Fire grunted. “I shudder every time I realize we were born from the same mother.” “Aren’t they GREAT together though?!” Surprise finally spoke up. Dash turned to her and looked up with wide eyes, there were at least 13 soup bowls stacked up on her tray. “They are the perfect contrast! Proper and nasty, yin and yang, Packers and Bears, Ornstein and Smough, deep dish and thin crust, ET CETERA. You can’t write it any better than that! Right Windy?” Surprise, I get enough of this from Pinkie. Stay in the story. “Oh okay!” “Huh?” Dash glanced up to where Surprise was looking, but only saw the ceiling. “Nothing. I NEED MORE SOUP!” She tossed her tray up and ran back to the food. The tray fell back to the table and each bowl stacked up just the way it was prior upon landing. “I think you better let him up for air.” Fire said with a hint of reluctance as he pointed at his brother. “Oh, right.” Dash used her wing to pick Lightning’s head out of his chili. His face was completely covered in it. He licked the chili around his lips before saying, “She totally wants me.” “Ugh!” Dash shoved his face right back down. “See? She fits right in with them.” Said Spitfire as she and Soarin watched from across the mess hall at their usual table. Soarin nodded. “I know, but I'm just worried about her. I’m sure she’ll be fine with them, I’m just, y’know, being a good coltfriend who wants to watch over his mare.” He explained before going back to his lunch. “This is precisely why I gave my second reason for her not joining our squad today,” Spitfire began as Soarin looked up from his food and rolled his eyes. “She’s not even with us and you’re being distracted. You almost crashed head long into something multiple times during our obstacle course training. I haven’t seen you do that in a long time Mr. Precision.” “Fine, fine.” Soarin sighed. Okay so maybe he was a little distracted. “Soarin, you’re gonna have to trust her and those we assigned her to. Not just for now, but in the future too.” Spitfire caught his attention again, “believe me when I say this Soarin, Dash is by far the strongest prospect to become a Wonderbolt I have ever seen. It would take some sort of cosmic disaster for her to not join our ranks in the near future. Since this is the case you better find a way to cope with this worry, because I would hate to demote due to lack of focus. I’m okay with you being together, as long as you don’t forget your duties.” “ZING! POW!” Fleetfoot shouted beside him as she stood up and made a motion to fake punch herself across the face. Spitfire just gave her a look and Fleetfoot sat back down. Soarin didn’t retaliate or argue. Unlike Rapidfire, Soarin knew the importance of his job, and Spitfire would replace him if he suddenly under-performed. Their friendship aside, it was her duty as captain to keep the best on the lead squad. This wasn’t the first time she had threatened his position. “I’ll figure it out, don’t worry.” He assured her. “Good.” Spitfire took a drink of water before looking around, “Okay, now where did Rapidfire go? I know he doesn’t sit with us but I don’t see him anywhere. If he’s late to anything else today…” She trailed off. The other two also looked around for him. It was hard to miss Rapidfire, being bright orange with a red mane and all. “Bingo!” Fleetfoot pointed towards a table near the entrance. “Hey! It’s her again too!” Both Soarin and Spitfire followed her hoof to the table. Rapidfire was sitting and eating with the turquoise mare from the ball. “Who the hell is she?” Spitfire asked herself as they observed, “I’ve seen her three times since the ball in our compound. She's always with Rapid too.” “You know that’s the mare that tried to seduce me at the ball right?” Soarin reminded her. She nodded. “Fleetfoot told me. I’ll have to ask him later. You don’t think,” Spitfire’s eyes widened for a brief moment, “he’s trying to have a steady fillyfriend?” “HA!” Fleetfoot guffawed and slammed her hoof down, drawing some nearby attention. “Sorry.” “You do know who we’re talking about right?” Soarin chuckled. But he had to admit it was strange. Who was this mare and why did she keep coming to see Rapidfire? Rainbow Dash feared the worst when they left the mess hall to continue the day. Her body ached considerably from just flying laps with them. But when they led her to a small meeting room instead she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She quickly got excited, especially when they all sat down and Misty Fly Stood front and center at the white board. She grabbed one of the markers and began drawing up formations and flight maneuvers. Dash really wanted to see how this old coordinator style show worked. It was also very interesting because Misty Fly could now write words on the board to communicate, which she did at an incredible speed. Dash would now be able to fully understand her. She watched as the third squad went over basic signals she gave them. It was fun to watch the whole system reversed. Now Misty Fly had access to words, while they could only ask and answer questions using the sign language. Dash finally got to see Surprise use the signals to communicate. As expected she was very over the top with the movements, but she made Misty silent laugh more often than not. The whole experience was just very cool. Dash had never seen something lecture based be handled without a single word being spoken. It was a calm silence that allowed her to focus on everything that was being shown. A silence that was completely broken when Lightning Streak fell asleep beside her and began snoring extremely loud. The other members noticed, but of course Misty Fly couldn’t hear him. It wasn’t until she finished drawing a complicated triangle cloud cut pattern on the board that she turned around and glared at Lightning. She grabbed one of many erasers stacked along the white board and threw it at him. It was a direct hit right below the chin, jolting him awake. “UH, ISOCELES!” He yelled pointing at the triangle at the board. Misty had written his name with three exclamation marks on the board. She underlined it five times and tapped her hoof against it. Surprise fell out of her chair laughing while Fire Streak just shook his head. “Oh, uh,” Lightning put a hoof to his chest and made two clockwise motions. Misty Fly gave one stern nod before returning to the board. Dash figured that was the sign for “Sorry.” Dash liked this squad. They weren’t the lead squad and none of them were Soarin, but they were very fun and accepted her quickly. It made Dash confident that beside the Wonderbolt image a lot of them were also normal, fun-loving ponies. It reminded her of when she got to know Soarin back in Ponyville. As the review seemed to be coming to a close a few knocks sounded out. They all turned to the door, except for Misty, who kept drawing. Suddenly it opened and a dark blue pony with a matching dark blue mane stuck his head through. It was Wave Chill from squad 2. “Soarin and Rapidfire were selected to spar in combat training!” He Said. Instantly Lightning and Surprise were out of their seats and running for the door. Dash glanced between the board and the door as Fire went up to Misty. She turned and looked, confused. After Fire made some frantic signals, her eyes widened and she dropped the marker before following Fire and making a beckoning motion towards Dash. Dash was still processing what was going on, she heard that Soarin and Rapidfire were going to fight, but apparently this called for everything to stop and all ponies to come watch. Dash followed them out into the hallways as they sprinted for the combat arena. “No cause for alarm m’lady.” Fire slowed down and galloped beside her. "Soarin and Rapidfire are a very popular rivalry amongst the Wonderbolts." “I knew that! But I didn’t think we’d stop everything to watch.” Despite her confusion, Dash really wanted to see it. She wanted to see Soarin beat Rapidfire to a pulp. That probably wouldn’t happen because it was training, but if everypony was getting this excited about it, she was in for an awesome show. Rainbow Dash followed Fire Streak into the large combat dome and was nearly blown off her hooves. “HOLY...!” She was impressed by the dome, but the whole compound must’ve been there to watch. The dome was a large circular structure with an 80 meter diameter. Ten feet from every wall extended bleacher seats, which were filling up quickly with spectators. The rest of the space all the way to the center was a massive padded mat which, while it provided stable footing, was not soft or meant to absorb much impact. There were cloud machines spewing clouds to prepare the aerial portion of the inner circle as the place filled up. “This way Dash, we’ll get a good seat.” Fire grabbed hold of her hoof and guided her along behind the rest of the squad. “I wasn’t expecting a full turnout.” Dash thought out loud. “Always happens.” Fire put simply as he guided her along. They almost brought the whole dome down last time they fought. You’re in for a spectacle.” The more Fire spoke about it, the more excited she got. As they finally got some nice second row seats about a quarter of the way around. Dash peered out towards the center. Soarin and Rapidfire were in the center, facing each other, and wearing protective gear that consisted of padded boxing masks, general thin body padding, and light padded hoof gloves. Spitfire was standing between them. Dash couldn’t hear them from afar, but she had a pretty good idea of what Spitfire is saying. “So wait, if I know Spitfire, there is no way she’d let them go at it. They’d try to kill each other. Trust me I’ve seen it.” Dash motioned both her hooves towards them. “Well this is how our combat training works,” Fire began, “We do team combat maneuvers for an hour followed by a sparring match between two randomly selected Wonderbolts. It's meant to breed friendly competition and keep us sharp for actual combat. Combat training is always done with two squads at a time, meaning there are eight flyers. The selection process of who gets to fight who is completely random. Spitfire was the one who invented this process.” That made sense, but Dash was sure Spitfire didn’t like Soarin and Rapidfire being selected. Dash had seen first-hoof how much they loathed each other. This was probably not going to end well. Soarin glared daggers at Rapidfire who only smirked back a mere foot away. How ironic. Soarin wanted to tear him apart for his earlier comments and the random combat selection chose the two of them today. Spitfire stepped between them, looking at them both VERY sternly. “Listen up and LISTEN WELL you two.” She began, shooting them each a hard glance. “If I wasn’t the one who created tour selection policy I would not be allowing you two to fight. This will be a completely clean bout understand? Any attempt to seriously injure the other will be punished. Do I make myself crystal clear?” “Yes ma’am.” Soarin replied quickly. “Right.” Rapidfire replied unenthusiastically. Spitfire shot him a glare before grunting. “Don’t push me Rapidfire, you’re already on thin ice.” She snapped at him. He sighed. “Yes ma’am.” He tilted his head back and forth. Spitfire shook her head, "Slapdick..." She said under her breath before she continued, “alright, get in place.” She turned and flew towards the edge of the arena. “You better believe I haven’t forgotten the locker room this morning.” Soarin growled at him as they slowly turned. “Did you hear that?” Rapidfire glanced around, “it sounded like a little bitch.” He jeered before laughing and lifting off towards his starting spot. “Oh this is going to be so satisfying.” Soarin bumped his front hooves together, never feeling more ready to tear Rapidfire’s wings off. ---To be Continued---