//------------------------------// // Air Under My Wings // Story: Under the Moonlight // by Thunderblast //------------------------------// Blackness. The only thing that Thunderblast could see for nine and a half hours, more like five minutes. The sound of trumpets being played from around the castle shook Thunderblast and Shining Armor out of bed, Shining rolling off the wrong side of his bed and onto the floor, making a loud thud that woke the other recruits up. "Ouch.." Shining said, laying on the floor face down. "Do you mind?" An earth pony recruit said, taking a pillow off of his face and glaring at Shining, then hearing the trumpets go off. "Oh, I guess it's alright then." he said before crawling out of bed, as did his buddy on the bunk above. Shining Armor peeled his face off of the concrete floor and stood up, dusting himself off. Thunderblast yawned and slowly sat up and stretched his hooves. "Mmm. Is it Wednesday already?" he asked, sounding very tired. "Yep. You know what today is right?" Shining said back. "Hump day?" Thunderblast replied. "Yay that means we have tomorrow off." he said, rubbing his eyes. "Yes, Hump day, but what else?" Shining Armor asked. "I don't know. More PT?" Thunder said back. "No! The flight race for the pegasi royal guards, to see who the fastest in the recruits is, and I think it'll be you." Shining said. "Flight race? How come I didn't hear about this until right now?" Thunder asked. "I thought you knew already." Shining replied. "No, I didn't." Thunder said back. "Well, I did, but at the time I didn't know how to fly, and now I do." "Well, maybe you aren't signed up for it. You can always ask Iron when you head out to the airport." Shining said. "Alright." Thunderblast said, yawning and wiggling out of his blanket, mane, wing feathers and coat messy. "You better get a shower first." Shining chuckled. "I don't think my uncle will be pleased to see you like that." Thunderblast looked up at his mane and back at his body. "Oh, right." he said, chuckling lightly. After showering and breakfast at the mess hall, Thunderblast lifted a few weights to get himself ready for the race, if he did have to participate, and then flew to the Canterlot airport, which seemed busier today than usual. "Wow, i've never seen that many airships in my life." Thunderblast said, moving a pair of goggles similar to the Wonderbolts to his forehead, then he continued to the east side of the airfield, where pegasi guard recruits, Iron Armor, and a drill sergeant were waiting. "YOU CALL THOSE WING-UPS? I BET YOUR MOTHER COULD DO TEN TIMES BETTER THAN YOU." The drill sergeant, a brown pegasus the size of Iron Armor yelled at some recruits doing lousy wing ups. Iron Armor noticed Thunderblast approaching, and trotted up to him when he landed. "Good morning sir." Thunder said, saluting. "Good morning Thunderblast!" Iron Armor said back, returning the salute. "I didn't expect you to be here today." "I was told I had to come here for a flight race?" Thunderblast said. "Oh, well, when you told me you couldn't fly, I didn't sign you up for the race. Do you still want to participate now that you can fly?" Iron asked. "Of course. I'd like to get to know my wings better and see how I can fly." Thunder said back, sounding very determined. Iron chuckled. "Alright, Thunder. Go and join the recruits doing the wing ups." he said, pointing to them. Thunder trotted over and dropped to the ground, and tried using his wings to do wing ups. He didn't do so well at first, but slowly got better and began doing wing ups slightly faster than the other recruits. "YOU!" The drill sergeant yelled, trotting up to Thunder and lowering his head to Thunder's ear so he can yell. "GO FASTER! YOUR GRANDMA COULD DO BETTER THAN THAT. FASTER! FASTER! FASTER!" he yelled. Thunder picked up the pace a little bit, but not by much. "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING? FASTER! SWEET CELESTIA, YOUR MOM COULD DO WING UPS TEN TIMES FASTER THAN THAT." The drill sergeant yelled, causing Thunder to stop doing wing ups. The moment those words hit him, he started to zone out into bad flashbacks, which he shook his head to block out, then he did one last big wing up, which pushed him into the sky, and he floated above where he once was, and he glared at the drill sergeant. "When does this race start?" Thunderblast asked, now ticked off completely. "When you finish your wing ups, recruit. Now GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE BEFORE I WHIP YOUR FLANK!" The drill sergeant replied. Thunder groaned and floated back down and continued his wing ups, taking more degrading words from the drill sergeant, but he kept going, despite the feelings inside about to break him down. After twenty more minutes of wing ups, Thunderblast and the other recruits were finally ready for the race. Then, suddenly. "Hello Thundercrash." A familiar voice rang out, and chuckled afterwards. When Thunder looked to his left, Spear was standing right next to him. "I didn't think you'd be stallion enough to actually attend this race." "Of course I would attend this race, unlike you, chicken. Bwak bwak bwak!" Thunderblast said, making chicken noises and flapping his wings. "Is there a problem over here recruits?" The drill sergeant came over to them in a slightly angry tone. "No sir." They both said, looking completely straight ahead of them. "That's what I thought." He said, trotting back down the line of pegasus ponies. Spear turned and smirked at Thunderblast. "I'm going to win this thing, and if you even get in my way to stop me, I will kill you." he whispered. "Spear, this isn't that kind of race. This is just to see who flies the fastest, there's no trophy or anything." Thunder whispered back. "Who will be me." Spear whispered, putting his hoof up to his chest. "I don't care what kind of race this is, I will win it." "Whatever. May the best and fastest flyer win." Thunderblast said, smirking at Spear. "You all will do two laps around Mount Solar, flying through checkpoints. If you miss one checkpoint, you will have five seconds added to your time. This is not I repeat not that kind of race. This is just to see how fast each and every one of you can fly. There will be NO bumping, hitting, wing slapping, punching, or competition of any kind. If any of you are caught doing those, you will be disqualified and demoted back to square one of training. Do I make myself clear?!" Iron Armor said. "Yes sir!" The recruits said at once. "I said, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!" Iron Armor said again. "YES SIR!" The recruits all yelled at once. "Alright. You will all take off on my mark." Iron Armor said, pulling out a pistol. Every pony opened their wings and got into a takeoff position, some scraping their hooves on the cement. "GO!" Iron yelled, shooting the gun, and all of the recruits took off at different speeds. Spear and Thunderblast stayed neck and neck for a couple of minutes. When they reached the other side of the mountain, opposite of the city, Spear flew closer to Thunder. "Y'know Thunder, nopony can see us now." He said, smirking. "Yeah, and?" Thunderblast said back. "And THIS!" Spear said, kicking Thunder into the side of the mountain. "AAH!" he screamed, crashing into the side of the mountain, then fell down the side of it, too dizzy to do anything. A couple of recruits saw Thunder falling, and quickly flew after him, catching him just after he dropped into cloud cover, and they slowly lifted him back up. "Ow... What happened?" Thunderblast said, rubbing his head. "Spear kicked you into the mountain." A dark red pegasus said. "He WHAT?" Thunder said, getting back into the air out of their hooves. "Come on, we need to finish this thing." The other white pegasus said, and they all flew off, Thunder flying much faster than them, now angry because of what Spear had just done. Spear laughed, now in the lead. "I'm totally going to win this thing!" he said, just before getting spun out of the sky by a grey and black streak. Thunderblast raced past the others and Spear, close to breaking the sound barrier. He tried not to, as he was afraid it would disqualify him, but he couldn't slow down in time. Soon enough, there was a loud boom, and he blacked out for a brief moment, then landing and sliding to a quick stop at the end of the race, out of breath. Thunder collapsed onto the ground, a couple of royal guards rushing to him to help him onto a bench, and at that moment, a very angry Iron Armor ran up to Thunderblast. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? YOU KNOCKED THE OTHER RECRUITS CLEAN OUT OF THE RACE! Your sonic rainboom blew them into the ground!" Iron yelled. "What? Sonic Rainboom?" Thunder panted. "That." Iron Armor pointed to a rainbow trail leading from where Thunderblast just came from, as well as a fiery rainbow ring in the sky, which faded away a moment later. "B..but." Thunderblast stuttered. "No buts. You're not disqualified, you're FIRED. A sonic rainboom is a big no in these races." Iron said back in a very angry tone. "Sir, you can't fire him." said the dark red pegasus that helped save Thunder from falling, who landed behind Iron with the other pegasus that saved Thunder. "Stay out of this, Shuriken, you too Whiteblade." Iron turned around to face him, then back to Thunder to yell even more. "I shouldn't have to, sir. He didn't mean to do a sonic rainboom. In fact, it's Spear that should be fired. He kicked Thunder into the mountain where nopony could see him do it except us, and Thunder fell. Had we not saved him, Thunderblast here would have died." Shuriken said. "It's true, sir. But, I still do deserve to be fired. I did something that was not allowed." Thunder said. Iron Armor looked at Thunderblast then to Shuriken and Whiteblade, then to Spear. He walked up to Spear and narrowed his eyes onto Spear's. "Did you kick Thunder into the mountain?" Iron asked. "No sir, he's lying!" Spear replied. "The only one lying here is you, Spear. You're known to lie to me and to other guards, and for that..." Iron said, then punching Spear in the side of his face, hard. "You're going back to basic training." Spear's jaw dropped, then he growled at Iron, before being taken away by another guard. "And you, Thunderblast." Iron said, turning and walking up to Thunder. "You're suspended for a week. You are still allowed at your barrack and to the mess hall, however." Thunder looked up at Iron, then to Shuriken and Whiteblade who were standing behind him, and they nodded. Thunderblast sighed. "I accept my punishment, sir." he said. "Good. Everypony return to your stations." Iron said, walking through the crowd of guards. Thunder lowered his head, then got up and walked back to his barrack. When he got there, he slowly walked inside and layed down on his bed. Shining Armor was in there already, and he was tapping his hooves while staring at the ceiling from his bed. "Hey! Thunder! How'd it go?" Shining Armor asked, hopping down from his bed and smiling at Thunder, who didn't return the smile. "I got suspended." Thunderblast replied. Shining gasped. "What? Why?" "I did a sonic rainboom in the final leg." Thunder said, laying down on his bed. "Oh... Yeah those aren't allowed." Shining said, sitting next to Thunder's bed. "He didn't mention them not being allowed in the rules, so how would I know?" Thunder said back. "True, but it was kind of obvious." Shining said. "How long are you suspended?" he asked. "A week." Thunder replied. "Oh, that isn't too bad. At least he didn't fire you." Shining said back. "He was, until two other ponies saved my flank." Thunderblast replied. "I'm glad he didn't fire you. Otherwise, I would have come crawling to him begging to bring you back." Shining chuckled. Thunder smiled slightly and turned to look at Shining. "You'd do that for me?" he asked. "Of course I would, you're like my best friend." Shining replied, smiling back. "R-really?" Thunder sat up, now feeling happy. "Well, duh." Shining said, moving his hoof while he talked. "Anyways buddy, i'm gonna head over to the recreation room, i'm gonna lift some weights. See you later." he said, walking out the door. "See ya, Shining!" Thunder said back, watching Shining leave, before turning his head and looking up at the bottom of the bed above him, then closing his eyes and going into a deep thought. After thinking, Thunderblast got up and wrote something down on a piece of paper and left it on his bed, then he went into his locker which he had under his bed, next to Shining's, and he grabbed his bits bag and walked out the door. "Hey buddy, i'm ba-." Shining said, getting cut off when he noticed Thunder was gone, then he noticed the letter on Thunder's bed and picked it up and read it. Dear Shining, If you're reading this, i'm either on my way or already in Ponyville. Don't worry, i'll be back once my suspension is over. I thought i'd take this chance to head back and see family while I still can. ~Your friend, Thunderblast Shining sighed, and climbed up in his bed and layed down.