MLP: FiM
Piercing the Heavens
By: Calm Wind
Chapter 27:
Rainbow Dash took several deep breaths as she turned towards the doors of the auxiliary gym.
It was time for focus.
Time for speed.
Time for power.
Time for success.
Visualize success.
Be victorious.
Be the best, and nothing else.
Dash mentally prepped herself for the challenges ahead. This wasn’t going to be easy, but she was ready. She did all the training, she did all the wing ups, she lifted all the weights, and she wasn't gonna let it all go to waste.
“Nervous?” Storm Front’s voice suddenly came from her right as she entered the gym. She glanced up at him.
“Would you think I’m lying if I said no?” she smirked. Storm chuckled and shrugged.
“I would expect you to scoff in my face and say something like who the hell I think you are or something,” he joked.
“Three days in and you know me too well,” Dash chuckled along with him as they joined the much smaller crowd of fifty cadets.
The gym had no Wonderbolts in it, save for Silver Lining and Fleetfoot at the entrance. The curtain was down, leaving them in the open area of the first fourth of the gym. The cadets were all standing together as the last few entered. Fleet and Silver closed the doors as Soarin and Spitfire flew over the top of the curtain and down towards them.
Dash stood firm and confident, ready for anything they would throw at her. She wasn’t “hoping” she was ready. SHE. WAS. READY. She focused on Soarin as he and Spitfire hovered a few feet above all of them. The rest of the cadets followed her example as Soarin floated in place, crossed his arms, and looked all of them over. His head bobbed up and down slightly as if he was counting them.
“Hmm… all still here, huh? We’ve got some balls on these cadets. Last time we did this half of them ran off after the pep talk,” he nodded. “We’ll see which of you can live up to your confidence,” he turned around and looked at the closed curtain. “Today is gonna be a little different compared to the other two days… all three tests… are going to be held before lunch,” he said while sharply turning back to them.
It seemed like he purposely paused to let it sink in. Dash was unaffected, but a small stir past through the cadets. It was a slight change up, but after how weird yesterday was, Dash was prepared for anything. Perhaps that was the true reason of Fleetfoot’s tests… to prepare them all for the unexpected… even if it’s just the next day.
“I have three courses set up behind me,” Soarin continued. You will get only one chance on each course, so make it count!” he floated back and forth. “These courses are all from my personal collection. I will warn you right now: they are not for the faint of heart. If you make it through all three tests without taking at least one, hard, painful fall… I’ll eat my damn goggles for lunch.”
A few snickers came from the crowd.
“You think it’s funny now, but I don’t think you’ll be laughing much soon,” Soarin growled at them. “We will go from course to course with no rest time in between. This is going to be about efficiency and your ability to keep up with vigorous training… Open up!!!” Soarin suddenly yelled. The curtain behind him activated and slowly rose up from the ground.
“Oh man…” Storm said as the first course came into view.
The first course was a series of small moving rings. Big enough for a pegasus to fit through with about three feet of space from the edges if one went through the center. The rings were swinging back and forth at different paces; some slow and some fast. Each ring was about fifteen feet apart and there was a total of twenty of them extending from start to finish.
It seemed like a simple rings course… but of course it wasn’t that simple.
Flanking the space between each ring were two contraptions on both sides that had long cannon barrels pointing in. Whatever they were for, they were probably going to find out soon enough. There were four of them pointing in between every two rings. It was probably going to be some sort of distraction. There was also a large mat laid on the floor. Probably to cushion falls.
Soarin began gliding towards it and beckoned all of the cadets to follow. They all lifted off and followed him slowly. Dash was gliding along naturally until something shoved her from the left. She easily regained control of her flight, but quickly glared in the direction it came from. She spotted Arctic Blast just as she finished scowling and turned her head away.
What the hell? Was Slutty McFangirlgasm trying to start something? Again, this was not the type of response Dash was expecting. Instead of leaving Arctic in a broken crying heap, she seemed to have… enraged her. Dash decided to keep one eye on Arctic when she wasn’t testing. Who knew what an angered, desperate mare like her would do?
They all flew up to a starting platform at the front end of the course. As they closed in and landed, Dash found the course to be elevated roughly thirty feet in the air. She looked out towards the rings and each one of them was covered with padding from the base all the way up. Good thing too, it would probably hurt like a bitch to hit one of those while falling.
“So here we have the ‘Moving Rings and Projectile course…’ I like to call it the ‘Multitask course’ for short,” Soarin flew up above them again with squads two and three joining behind him. “The point of this test will be to test your ability to control the speed of your flight, while changing directions, and while dodging,” he floated back towards the course within the line of sight of the first cannon. The cannon automatically zeroed in on him and fired. A large red dodge ball careened towards him. He reached up his left hoof and caught it before gliding back down to the cadets.
“The cannons will be firing these heavy dodge balls at you… not too bad right?” he shrugged. “Oops!” he let it drop out of his hoof. It fell to the platform and landed with a loud PLOP, bouncing about an inch before it rested firmly on the ground. “Don’t expect them to be soft,” Soarin dropped down and picked the ball back up. “And don’t expect them to be easy to catch should you think you’re a badass…” he suddenly flung the ball towards Lightning Streak. Lightning reacted and lifted his hooves to catch it in his chest. The ball SLAMMED against him and nearly knocked him out of the air.
“Oof!!!” Lightning grunted as he struggled to balance his flight.
“A couple of other things to note before we begin…” Soarin floated up to the first ring, which was stationary. “These are magically enhanced rings. There is a barrier within each one. Not only will it let us know if you actually went through a ring…” he reached up and held his hoof towards the center of the ring. It struck an invisible force and Soarin pulled his hoof away quickly. “It also will only allow you through the ring if you are going fast enough. How fast? Hell if I know, I don’t hover through courses; I FLY through courses.” He hovered back down. “Oh, and that mat on the gym floor? I wouldn’t count on that providing a soft landing. And finally, speaking of rough landings…” his expression turned very harsh, adding weight to his presence as if he wanted this last point to be very clear.
“If you fall and wipe out… Your run is NOT over. Read my lips cadets. If you fall, you get your ass back up and keep going. Your run isn’t finished until you’re on the finish platform. If you can’t complete the course… I guess you can fly over it to the finish, but I don’t think we’ll find that very appealing,” he finished and glanced around at them as they remained silent.
Dash smirked as she thought about it. Magical moving rings with speed force fields, rock hard dodge ball cannons, and the possibility of rough landings? All in a day’s work. She was stoked.
“Since I have a little bit of a heart…” Soarin began again. “I’ll spare the first poor bastard in line the challenge of figuring it out for the rest of you. Want to know how it’s supposed to look? Watch and learn,” Soarin said as he lowered himself to the starting line.
Dash’s ears stood up and her eyes widened. She got to see Soarin in action! It had been such a long time, she was sure it would be an awesome show.
All the cadets backed away as Soarin landed and firmly grinded his hooves into the platform. The rest of the Wonderbolts, save for Spitfire and Fleetfoot, all took off and glided down to the gym floor.
Soarin fixed his eyes on the stationary ring and waited for the moving ring beyond it to be in a position to his liking. When it hit just the right spot, Soarin leaned back and held his wings forward. Dash braced herself, knowing exactly what was coming. Soarin pushed through the motions of the Sonic Blast-off and catapulted from the line. The burst of wind smacked against Dash and the cadets. She held firm, but the rest staggered slightly against the force.
Soarin careened towards the first ring and burst right through the magic barrier within it, leaving small sparks behind as he passed. The four cannons between the first two rings instantly turned to him and fired separately in a random pattern. Soarin did an inline twist while thrusting his arms and legs out to bat away all four dodge balls as they flew at him. He pierced through the second barrier, and pitched hard to the left without sacrificing speed. He caught one ball flying at him and twisted to chuck it at another two incoming, avoid the fourth, and even himself out through the third ring all at the same time.
It didn’t matter how sharp of a turn he had to make, Soarin’s powerful wings and the shifting of his powerful body allowed him to navigate the rings while maintaining his speed. The more impressive part was how easily he dodged and knocked away the dodge balls as if he could sense them coming. His reflexes were something else.
Each ring was flawless. He weaved and pitched with extreme expertise while fending off the projectiles with ease. However, right before he cleared the nineteenth ring…
“Argh!” Soarin grunted as he caught one ball while another smacked right into the side of his face. He was knocked off course, but he quickly pumped his wings to put himself back into position. The one problem was that he lost most of his speed.
He did not falter.
Soarin slowed all the way down, and placed all four of his hooves on the barrier within the final ring. He performed the Sonic Blast-off again, shooting himself off the barrier and straight up into the air. He did a hard loop, coming all the way back down and firing through the last ring as hard as he could.
“Heh… bitch slapped at the end,” Fleetfoot chuckled beside Spitfire. Spitfire let one snort go before giving Fleetfoot a light elbow to make her shut up.
Soarin flew back around while shaking his head out. He reached up and felt around the metal band that held the false horn in place. Once again, it didn’t budge. The metal headpiece was most definitely not going to move.
“Well then!” Soarin said began as he came to a stop above all the wide eyed cadets. “As you can see…” he reached up and rubbed his left cheek. “Even I have trouble getting through these courses perfectly clean. So my offer to eat my goggles stands,” he chuckled before hardening his expression again. “I’m sure you also saw my recovery. Here’s something I want all of you to think about before we start. I care less about how fast you get through the first two courses… more about if you get through them or not. That being said, as you saw, speed is still required to get through some of the obstacles. I’m looking for effort! Not records!”
This calmed Dash’s nerves a little. She wasn’t nervous about the courses, but she had gotten a little nervous when Soarin mentioned they were getting only one chance per course. It didn’t matter how clean it was, this was about being tough and showing effort. Although Dash was sure they would be impressed if one managed to get through unhindered.
Soarin turned and glanced over the edge to see squads two and three had gathered up all the dodge balls and were placing them in the reload tubes near the floor. He nodded and clapped his hooves together.
“Let’s get this day rolling then, shall we? Line up! Give me something to be excited about!”
Dash decided to play it safe as she had with day one. She found a nice spot about ten cadets back from the front of the line to get more good looks at how the course operated. Something else she was still debating was using the Sonic Blast-off. She wanted to impress them, but Soarin made it clear they weren’t looking for times. In fact, it didn’t look like any of the Wonderbolts were timing. This was about getting from point A to point B no matter what stood in their way… that’s exactly the kind of course she expected from Soarin.
The other things she worried about with the Blast-off was the control. Soarin was obviously much better than her when it came to controlling trajectory while at high speed. It was unreal how easily he navigated the sharp turns required to hit each ring while moving so fast. It was a luxury his great strength provided him… a strength she did not possess. She’d have to sacrifice a little bit of awe to make sure she didn’t screw up. It’s not like she didn’t have other moves at her disposal. She knew how to use the abilities of Twister, Storm, and Matteo. Besides… it was still the first test. She didn’t want to tire herself out. She’d save using the Sonic Blast-off for if and when she needed to use it.
Dash moved up in line little by little, visualizing victory as before. A positive mindset would be the key to success. She knew she still had six other’s ahead of her. Matteo, Storm, Thunderlane, Twister, and… Dash took a brief look around… and Arctic. All got sucked into the back of the line. Dash glanced out to see if she recognized any ahead of her, but was surprised to see only five cadets ahead. She blinked and stepped further out.
But there were six cadets there… one of them… Dash just couldn’t see her!
Dash stared in confusion at what seemed to be a small, bright yellow filly that stood next in line to run the course. She was smaller than Scootaloo! She had a long, magenta colored mane and tail with small yellow stripes that ran through it and a pair of viridian eyes. Her cutie mark was three black outlines of stars interlocked in a triangle pattern.
Dash quickly stepped back as the filly turned and looked towards her. Dash tried to register what she had seen. Had this filly been here the whole time? How could Dash miss a cadet like that?! Well, besides the fact that she barely reached the bottom of Dash’s chest in terms of height.
Then it hit her… Little Star.
Dash wondered if this tiny filly was the name that kept appearing in third on the ranking board. Well… Dash was about to find out, because the filly was up next.
Dash stepped out to get a better view as the filly stepped up to the line.
Spitfire looked up toward Soarin, who was floating near the middle of the course to observe. Soarin watched to make sure all the dodge balls were reloaded before waving to Spitfire. Spitfire turned to the filly and nodded.
The filly did a little plot wiggle as she crouched down before leaping up and shooting towards the first ring. She made it through the speed barrier… and then stopped. Dash blinked, wondering what she was doing. The filly was just outside the sensor range of the cannons. She stuck her small wings out flat and began flapping them so fast they made a very faint buzzing sound.
She suddenly shot forward and the cannons fired. Not a single one hit their mark. She moved through the air so randomly with sudden jerks and movements. The way she moved and the way her wings buzzed reminded Dash of a dragonfly. Whenever an obstacle came near, she could shift or correct her trajectory… all while remaining perfectly straight and upright in the air. It was a very interesting flight style that Dash had never seen before. It seemed flawless at first… but nothing ever is.
With a loud crackle and pop, the filly was repelled from the second ring. The buzzing flight really increased her agility, but it killed her speed. She quickly recovered however, pulled back and gained some momentum before bursting through.
It took her a while to get through the course due to her unique flight, but she made it from start to finish with a little mishap here and there including another few barriers not broken on the first try and one dodge ball that got lucky and knocked her clear out of the air. It was damn impressive. Dash wondered how old the filly was. It was nuts that such a young flyer made it this far into the tryouts and was ranked so high on top of that.
Competition was steep, but it was better this way. Dash felt it would be awesome if the Wonderbolts just let her in… but it would be no fun. Competition added spice and challenge to it, not to mention Dash would feel like she earned it.
After a few more minutes and witnessing two rather hard falls by other cadets, it was Dash’s turn.
Dash took a deep breath as she stepped up to the line. Fleetfoot looked back at her and gave her a subtle wink as she approached while mouthing the words: “Good luck” as she smiled back, glad that at least Fleetfoot didn’t give a damn about remaining completely professional. Spitfire turned to Dash and gave her a nod.
It was time.
Dash focused on the first ring, remembering what she saw Soarin do. He had waited for the second ring to line up with the first one and got through both of them at the same time. She’d have to start a little earlier because she couldn’t risk the Sonic Blast-off, but she had good timing, she could figure it out. Then she had to worry about the dodge balls. She was the dodge ball champ back when she was a filly. That part wouldn’t be too hard. Now the question remained, could she do it all at the same time?
The second ring swung back around… GO!
Dash pulled back and fired forward. She knew she was going fast enough, but she couldn’t help but squint slightly as she pushed through the first barrier. There was no extra shock to it confirming to Dash it was just a matter of going fast enough. Then she heard the cannons fire. She actually had briefly forgotten about them. Luckily her instincts kicked in. She did a half Spiral Turn and forced her wings back to do an Air Burst. The sudden propulsion not only threw a blast of wind against the balls, knocking them away from her, but it also pushed Dash right through the second ring.
“Ah!” Dash yelped as the third ring was way off course from the first two. She was forced to slow almost to a complete stop right as the second set of cannons fired. She halted herself completely, leaning back to let the first two balls fly past her. Then she tucked her body and wings in, letting herself drop downward. The second two balls collided right where her waist would have been had she not dropped. She quickly untucked her wings and body while giving a hard downward flap to regain flight. She pitched left and pumped her wings hard as the third ring neared the end of its swing and started back in her direction. Dash forced all of her weight to the right, turning her body with the speed she had built up, and penetrating the third ring.
Then she looked forward.
She saw an opening… about a second from the current moment… the next ten rings would be swinging in an interval where she could possibly get though all of them at once. Was it worth the risk? She had no time to decide… so because she was the one and only Rainbow Dash… she went for it. Dash pulled back to let all four dodge balls whisk by between the third and fourth ring before she locked onto the fourth. She glanced behind her and made her back hooves slightly uneven. The ring she had just passed through was coming back around.
She tapped one back hoof to the ring, and then kicked the other against it HARD. She executed Storm’s Surface Tap, effectively firing her forward with more than enough speed to break the speed barriers. Her timing was perfect. The rings were lining up as she went. She passed through the fourth, making it to the fifth before the cannons could even fire. Then from the fifth to the sixth. Then the seventh… the eighth… the ninth… tenth… eleventh…
It was working! Dash couldn’t believe it worked! She only had two more to clear before she had to retake control, but it looked like it was going to be close.
She squeaked through the twelfth and gritted her teeth as she pushed her wings to the limit. The thirteenth ring was already in place… her better judgment told her to pull up and play it safe, but her inner badass told her not to pussy out.
She hardened her nerves and went for it….
It wasn’t going to work… at least if she stayed straight. Dash forced her body to the left, trying to give herself just enough of an angle at her speed in order to still make it through the ring cleanly. Even with the slight correction, it was gonna be real close. She quickly mixed Twister’s and Matteo’s moves again, doing a Spiral Air Burst to propel herself even faster. She risked not being able to control herself between the thirteenth and fourteenth rings, but at least she wouldn’t have a painful collision.
The first half of her body passed through with barely an inch between her and the edge of the ring… but then the ring struck her back legs.
“WHOA!!!” She yelled as it forced her body to tip forward wildly. She quickly ceased pumping her wings and flattened them out as she did a full front flip. The fourteenth ring was already coming about and she had to control herself. Unfortunately, she lost a lot of speed, but she couldn’t stick around or else she’d be pulverized by the dodge balls. She evened out and made a quick, hard, single flap to push herself towards the ring… and smashed right against the barrier.
“OW!” Dash yelped as she bounced off and tumbled back. She regained her flight quickly and made ready to adjust, but then…
BAM
SMACK
THUMP
She took four dodge balls to the body. The first to the right arm, the second to the side of the head, forcing her body to turn and allowing the third to smack her square in the gut. She exhaled loudly as all the air was forced up out of her lungs. Then the last ball flew in and struck her in the back, right between the wings.
“AHH!!” Dash cried out as her body was forced into a flailing fall. She was startled by the glancing blow on the arm, disoriented from the blow to the face, barely able to breathe from the blow to the stomach, and left in extreme discomfort by the blow to the back… right on the spot that was cramped up in the morning. With so many things diverting her focus, she couldn’t find her equilibrium. All she could do was curl her body up as the ground approached.
“HRG!!!” she grunted as she hit the floor mat. Soarin wasn’t kidding. It probably helped absorb some of the shock, but the mat was NOT soft in the slightest. “Oof!!” she grunted again as she bounced and tried to put her hooves to the mat, only to have them slip, causing her to land and painfully skid on her stomach. She ignored the pain and stood up quickly while wobbling. She looked up back into the course, but she was still a little dizzy. She fell back down and grunted before forcing herself up again. She spread her wings, but the left shoulder attached to her wing had a sharp spasm as she did.
“OW!” Dash cried out as she dropped back down.
NO!
NO! NO! NO!
She would NOT let this happen!
From above, Soarin held his place. Dash had taken a hard fall, but she would get up. He knew she would. She didn’t need to be saved. If anypony tried, they’d regret it. Soarin chuckled as he saw Fire Streak turn and head towards her. Oh, Fire was in for it.
Fire Streak glided over to Dash as she continued to struggle. He reached out to her as she tried to stand again. Dash looked over at him and instantly glared.
“No!” she yelled while sweeping her hoof out and knocking his away. She fell right back down without the support of all four hooves.
“Miss Dash… really, you’re hurt!” Fire tried to convince her. He quickly stepped back as she growled loudly.
“BACK OFF!” she spat at him as she forced her body up and forced her wings out again. The left wing lurched in pain as her shoulder had another spasm. “Dammit! WORK WITH ME!” she yelled as she forced her left wing in and out over and over again, wincing in pain each time. Then a loud CRACK echoed from her wing and Dash screamed in pain.
“MISS DASH!!!” Fire reacted while readying to help her, but he stopped when he saw Dash moving her left wing about normally.
“HAHA! YES!” she cheered before she crouched down and fired herself back up into the course, leaving Fire Streak in her dust.
She shot right back up into the course. She wasn’t sure if she was in the same spot that she was before falling, but it didn’t matter. She went right to work, piercing through the first ring. The cannons fired, but she dodged and used her wings to swat them away. She burst through the next ring… then the next… and the next, making slight flight adjustments between each and moving about to dodge more projectile collisions.
She was in the zone now. She had fought through the pain and the adrenaline was pumping like crazy.
With only three more rings to go, she pulled back to let the balls fly past her, and then shot forward. She penetrated the eighteenth, used the Spiral Turn to make a sharp move to the right and catch the nineteenth, and then came out of the Spiral with enough force to use the Air Burst, pushing her wings back to propel herself at an angle and through the twentieth.
She angled around and aimed for the finish platform… but was going way to fast.
“Whoooooaaaaaa!!!! OOF!!!!” Dash slammed flat against the platform and bounced, sending her over the edge. “AHHH!!!” she yelped as she tumbled all the way down and crashed to the floor again. Dash pulled her face off of the mat and sighed with a small smirk.
Not the smoothest landing… but she did it! They were looking for effort, right? Well, she couldn’t really give much more than that.
Soarin winced as he watched Dash’s “graceful” finish. It was sloppy and a little painful for him to watch, but he wasn’t looking for a smooth run.
THAT EFFORT.
Dash just got pulverized by the dodge balls. It looked like she had a wing problem too, but she forced herself up, made her wings agree with her, then finished the course. She skipped one ring on her way back up, but he didn’t care. He was looking for toughness and boy, did she show it there. He couldn’t help but also be impressed at how she discerned the swing interval of the rings and shot in a straight line through almost ten of them in a row. He had never pulled that off before!
Dash was off to one hell of a good start. She was at the top of the ranking board for a reason. Now she just had to show him if she was right for the elite spot. She wasn’t the only candidate, but he was rooting for her.
“Oo… Ow… Ah…” Dash cringed as she glided back over to the cadets. “Haaaaa…” she sighed when she found the group of the ponies down on the gym floor who had finished. She caught a glimpse of the bright yellow filly again, but was too focused on the pain in her wing to give it much thought.
She plopped down and began flexing and extending her left wing to make sure it stayed loose.
“Way to take a hit RIGHT to the tender spot…” Dash mumbled to herself as she rotated the wing. When she was down it felt just like it had earlier. The spasm returned and it was painful to move. She didn’t have Bliss to smooth it out, but apparently forcing it out painfully was enough to get it to smooth out.
Oh yeah, that was painful. She was glad she was in the zone, because she hadn’t felt that much pain since Nightshade dislocated her wings.
Dash glanced up just in time to see Storm Front step up. She kept rotating, flexing, and extending her wing as she watched. Storm had little trouble with the rings. He was able to cleanly maintain his speed throughout. He had more problems with the dodge balls, taking at least one hit between every ring. They were mostly glancing blows, but even when he did take one to the side or the back, he held firm. He definitely showed his sturdiness. Dash hadn’t seen him, or many of the others take any hits yet. These tests would show who could take the pain.
Storm had a rough landing on the finish platform, skidding across, but not falling off like Dash had. He grunted as he stood and shook his head out before gliding down. Dash gave him a wave as he approached and he turned to land beside her.
“Ow,” he said while comically swinging his head around.
“Did you suck at dodge ball back in school?” Dash initiated the smarm immediately. Storm tipped his head and snorted once while holding in a laugh. “What?”
“Says you. It looked like you got hit by a wrecking ball when you went down,” Storm fired back with a chuckle.
“Oh, haha…” Dash rolled her eyes but shared in the laughter.
“But man…” Storm rotated his right arm. “That was brutal! The Wonderbolts sure don’t mess around when they get serious… I hope nopony gets hurt…” he sighed in frustration as he looked over. He flinched as he saw Twister take a hit to the face and go falling towards the ground. Storm took a step forward and spread his wings, but quickly grunted and snapped them both back against his body.
“You’re really serious about keeping ponies from harm, huh?” Dash observed as Storm turned back to her.
“I wasn’t kidding. I hate it when others receive pain I could have prevented… don’t ask, I don’t know why… I guess that’s just how my brain is wired. I hate seeing others get hurt,” he explained.
“I wasn’t calling it a bad thing…” Dash cleared up as they watched Twister swan dive face plant onto the finish line. They both cringed. “But… I’m sure you’ve been holding back something fierce already,” she nudged him with a smirk.
“I have actually…” Storm frowned. “But I will respect what the Wonderbolts want here.”
“Oh man…” Dash suddenly looked up.
“What?” Storm looked over to the starting platform.
“I dunno, you may want to consider saving this one,” Dash took a deep breath and exhaled. Thunderlane was up. She wanted to have confidence in him, but… after how banged up he got from Surprise’s slide… this wasn’t going to be pretty. At all.
“Oh…” Storm looked back at Dash. “He’s—”
“He’s gonna get pulverized,” Dash finished for him.
The two watched…
“Oo…” Dash cringed.
“Ow…” Storm grimaced.
“Yikes…”
“Oh damn…”
“That’s gonna leave a—”
“OH SHIT!!!!” They yelled in unison.
“WhoaaaaAHHHHH!!!!” Thunderlane yelled as he fell and slammed to the ground shoulder first. He bounced twice, tumbled to a halt… and didn’t move.
“Dammit…” Wave Chill shook his head while looking up at Soarin.
“Let’s help him,” Fire Streak tapped Wave on the shoulder as he passed. Wave nodded and the two approached Thunderlane.
“RGH!” Thunderlane suddenly grunted and forced himself up. Wave and Fire both stopped and blinked in surprise as Thunderlane shot back up towards the course.
THWACK
“AAHHH!!!!” Thunderlane fell right back down and landed roughly once again.
“Cadet!” Wave called as he and Fire moved to assist.
“WAVE! FIRE! BACK OFF!” Soarin yelled from above. The two stopped and looked up at Soarin incredulously. Soarin stared down at Thunderlane from above. He was keeping an intense analytical eye on him.
“Come on… get up again…” Soarin said to himself as Thunderlane stirred.
“Damn!” Thunderlane cursed as he rolled over and forced himself back to his hooves.
Ignoring how much his body hurt, Thunderlane fired skyward once more… and was knocked down again. He got up a third time… flew up… got knocked down. The process repeated and repeated and repeated until he fell for the tenth time.
“AH! Ahhhh…” Thunderlane sprawled out on the ground. He was covered in bruises, had a black eye, and a small trickle of blood slid down his nose.
“That’s enough!” Fire jumped over to Thunderlane and tried to assist.
“NO!” Thunderlane lurched up and threw Fire’s hoof off. Fire glared.
“Cadet! I will not allow you to hurt yourself like this!” he grabbed Thunderlane’s arm before he could attempt another takeoff. Wave joined in and held him down from the other side.
“LET ME GO!” Thunderlane yelled as he tried to shake them off. “I CAN DO IT!!!” He thrust his wings out and knocked the two of them off. “ARGH!” he grunted in pain and fell back to the ground. He pulled his face up from the mat and shook his head out before forcing his hooves to the ground and standing up once again, but his face ran right into Soarin’s chest.
“Stop,” Soarin said calmly while pressing his hoof down on Thunderlane’s shoulder. Thunderlane looked up at him while wheezing and gasping as he grimaced from pain all over. Soarin chuckled. “Heh… just like when I first met you. Nice to see that attitude hasn’t changed,” he turned and slung Thunderlane’s arm over his shoulder. “No more, you’ve shown me what I wanted to see,” he said as he turned his head to Wave and Fire. “One of you go get Bliss. He’s done for the day,” he ordered. Wave gave a salute and headed for the gym doors. Soarin lifted off, pulling the disoriented Thunderlane with him.
“Huh… wait! No!” Thunderlane realized through his daze what Soarin was suggesting. “I’m fine! I can do it!” he struggled. Soarin shook his head.
“Relax,” Soarin gave him a nudge to make him stop as they approached the finish platform. “I don’t need to see any more from you. You’ve made your point… and trust me… we’ve taken notice,” Soarin winked to him as he landed on the finish platform. He let go of Thunderlane, who collapsed as soon as Soarin let go of him. Fleetfoot and Spitfire glided over to them. Soarin made a head motion to Fleetfoot.
“Could you take him to the doors so Bliss doesn’t have to walk all the way in here?” he asked. Fleetfoot smirked.
“Sure,” she said while landing and crouching beside Thunderlane. “Hey sandbag, still with us?”
“Urgh…” Thunderlane grunted quietly in pain.
“Come on, let’s get you up,” she reached down and pulled him up before pulling his arms over her shoulders and propping him up on her back. “Sheesh… you’ve really got some determination…” Fleetfoot commented as she examined his physical state. She took off with him, leaving Spitfire with Soarin.
“That was quite something…” Spitfire thought out loud. Soarin nodded as the two took back to the air.
“I’ve never seen a pony keep trying like that before… his will to keep trying is unreal,” Soarin commented. Spitfire chuckled.
“I’ve seen it before,” she smirked. Soarin glanced at her and blinked.
“Really? Who?” he asked. Spitfire rolled her eyes and gave him an unamused look. Soarin tipped his head to the side and flopped his ears down as he tried to read what she was saying. “Oh…” he grinned.
“Took you long enough…” she chuckled. “Your medical record speaks for itself.”
“Alright, alright…” Soarin smiled and shook his head.
“Is that the same Thunderlane that whined all through breakfast about his body hurting?” Storm asked while glancing back at Dash.
“That’s how he is,” Dash Shrugged. “He moans and groans about everything, but when shit hits the fan he never quits… he’s a strange mix.”
“Well, Soarin had to give him a personal ceasefire there… He was about to break himself,” said Storm as they watched who had left to go.
Matteo was up next.
As expected, the big guy had some trouble with the rings. Not only was he about four to five times the girth of the others, but the added precision made it hard for him to hit the rings at the right speed. He had to use the Air Burst to get through almost every single one. On the flip side, it was rather amusing to watch him not even bother to dodge the projectile attacks. The dodge balls literally bounced off of him as he focused on making it through the rings. Soarin wanted toughness? He’d definitely get it here, no question.
It seemed like there was no right way to go through the course. Dash felt like that was the case on purpose. It was less about how you got through the course and more about if you could adapt to the course. Soarin couldn’t fool her, that’s exactly the kind of thing he would set up.
“Hm?” Something caught Dash’s eye. The pony up next… Arctic Blast. Storm was being hassled by Twister, who had just randomly decided to appear, so Dash focused entirely on Arctic. She wasn’t worried about Arctic outdoing her… but she couldn’t shake a bad feeling that Arctic would find a way to make it through. Dash began to wonder if laying it on super thick to her last night gave Arctic incentive to try harder.
Arctic began her run, and as expected, had little trouble getting through the rings. Arctic’s biggest flaw in flight had been her control. She had decent speed and maneuverability, but her precision and ability to slow down were cringe worthy. She overshot the rings almost every time… but she always arced back around to hit the ones she missed. She seemed pretty good at dodging.
What Dash wasn’t expecting though, was the show of resilience. Arctic took hits, she crashed twice, not very roughly, but she was forced to land. Yet, she kept at it… and eventually made it all the way to the end.
Dash’s eyes narrowed as Arctic lifted off from the finish platform and glided back over. Had Dash accidentally created a worthy adversary? She refused to respect Arctic in any way like that, but Arctic’s new determination was clear. Her mane was a mess after taking those few falls, and she didn’t even flinch at it. She clearly had a new motivation.
Arctic landed nearby and trotted towards the gathering finishers. She looked around until her eyes met Dash’s glare, and she glared right back as sharply as she could. Arctic took an angle to move closer to Dash, never breaking eye contact.
Dash lifted an eyebrow as Arctic approached. What was she gonna do? Yap at her agai—
Arctic suddenly spat. Dash winced as the spit splashed right between her eyes.
“AH! HEY!” Dash quickly wiped the saliva off her face and looked towards Arctic with a mix of anger and disbelief.
“HMPH!” Arctic scoffed as she continued walking.
“Did she just...?” Storm glanced over and blinked. The action had also grabbed Twister’s attention.
“Popped a loogie right between the eyeballs, eh? Mares sure are NASTY to each other!” Twister snickered while sneering.
“What the HELL?!” Dash grunted as she glared in Arctic’s direction. “What a bitch…” she shook her head and growled. Under any other circumstances she would have rearranged Arctic’s face for that, but she didn’t want to cause trouble. For all she knew, Arctic could be baiting her to do something stupid. She wouldn’t fall for that.
Arctic wouldn’t catch her off guard. There was too much on the line for Dash to lose focus. She would keep doing her best, and laugh as soon as Arctic was sent home in a nice broken pile of bitching and whining.
Soarin floated down towards the cadets as he observed the group post ring test. They were all a bit banged up, some worse than others. There was some moaning and groaning, but a good majority of them still had a look of determination in their eyes.
“So let me get this straight…” Spitfire hovered down beside him. “You’re going to put them through the Blast Walls… and then you expect them to run your challenge course?” she didn’t sound to enthused.
“Spitfire… I’ve gotten enough of this from the others already…” Soarin rolled his eyes. Spitfire didn’t like that.
“Soarin, you are walking a thin line between what we’re allowed and not allowed to do. I’m giving you this one warning right now. If any cadets end up in the hospital, there will be consequences.”
“Huh?” Soarin glanced at her in confusion. “You’re sending me mixed signals here. A few minutes ago you were going nuts over Thunderlane getting the tar beat out of him,” he pointed out.
“But he’ll be fine. He pushed himself to exhaustion through external pain. I know it’s been hard for you to understand lately with all this dark magic business, but the body does have limits. If you strain the cadets to a point where a bone gets broken, as I said, there will be consequences. I want tough cadets, but don’t leave your good judgment behind. I’m expecting you to take proper action should the testing become too brutal. We want to see who fights through adversity… not who breaks last, got it?” she poked him in the shoulder. Soarin sighed. Once again he was powerless under Spitfire’s logic and reasoning.
“Fine,” he acknowledged as they stopped and faced the cadets. The cadets quickly turned their attention to Soarin as he scanned the group over again. “Alright! Not bad! I’m gonna admit, I didn’t expect most of you to get from start to finish, but you proved me wrong. Now it’s time to see if you can keep it up!” he yelled as he turned and gave a twirling hoof signal in the air. Squad two and three disappeared over the second curtain. “Because it’s not gonna get any easier!”
The curtain separating the second and third sections of the gym lifted, revealing the second course.
“Let’s go! Hop to it!” Soarin clapped his hooves and beckoned the cadets to follow.
Dash lifted off carefully as the cadets began following Soarin. Her wing seemed to behave itself. This had certainly been the three most physically challenging days of her life. She had been pushed to her limits and beyond in the past, but it was never constant. With her wing cooperating, she flew further forward to escape the middle of the pack and to get a look at the second course approaching.
The course was… very different.
The layout of the course was a straightaway, a U-turn, and a third path the waved back and forth with very long, lazy curves. The path was marked by padded flagpoles that flanked the flight path. The avenue of travel was about seven feet wide. Except for the sharp U-turn at the halfway point, it seemed rather easy and short. Yet of course, it was more than a simple flight track. There were obstacles.
After the first thirty feet of the opening straightaway there were what appeared to be three padded walls. At the very peak of the sharp U-turn there was another wall. Then on the lazy, wavy path, there was a padded wall placed at the wide end of each curve.
So there were seven walls in their way? It had to be more than that.
“This is the Strength Efficiency Course!” Soarin suddenly began as they all landed on the starting platform. “I have a solid belief that there is no point in having strength if you don’t know how to properly use it!” Soarin hovered over to the finish platform a few feet from the starting one and pointed at the back of the last wall. “If you take a look here, these are not straight up walls! He hovered closely and tapped a spring contraption that was attached to the back of it. “These are ‘Blast Walls!’ If you hit them hard enough from the front…” Soarin suddenly pumped his wings hard and forced himself into full flight. He did a full loop, moving up, over, and back down, picking up speed and shooting towards the front side of the last wall. He pulled his right arm back and thrust his shoulder forward into the padded surface. The wall split in half from the force like a pair of double doors as Soarin shot through them and immediately put on the brakes. He slammed his hooves to the finish platform and slid to a stop. “… then they’ll be polite and let you through!”
He hopped up and hovered back over to the cadets.
“This is a similar concept to the rings. If you don’t go fast enough, you will bounce off. Only this time it’s a solid object, so do yourself a favor and hit them with enough power to move them,” he glanced up at Spitfire, who was giving him a stern look. He rolled his eyes. He was getting to it. “Also, just as before, we want you to attempt breaking through as many as you can. We want to see effort, not record times!” he repeated from the first test. “But believe me! We will most definitely be more impressed if you break through them! So let’s go! Line up! Show me what you’ve got!” Soarin ordered while motioning to the course.
Controlling strength. That was the game Soarin had going here. Dash felt like she had a slight advantage. Through her recent unintentional experiences with combat, she had learned a thing or two about putting her weight into a punch or strike of any kind. She saw Soarin throw his shoulder into the wall to break through it. This would be much easier for her than the rings, at least at first glance. She had no idea how much force was required to split the walls, but she had a feeling Soarin left that out on purpose.
Thunderlane got let off easy. Dash wasn’t sure what getting forced to stop was going to do for his chances, but with the state he was in after the first course, she doubted he’d be in one piece after this one… and they still had another course left to go.
“Oo!” Dash winced as she took an awkward step.
Pain. Not just in her wings, but in her body now too. Thank god for being more built than she used to be. Her newfound sturdiness would clearly be a key factor in her surviving this hellfire of final tests. It was nothing she couldn’t handle at this point, but they were far from done.
She moved to get into the forming line. She wasn’t in a very good position to be near the front, but she made an effort to slip in closer to the start rather than farther. She didn’t want her wings to relax too much in fear of her left cramping up again.
“Move it,” a harsh, grumpy voice suddenly came from behind her as she was nudged aside.
“Hey!” Dash reacted, expecting it to be Arctic… but the voice was masculine. The owner of the voice had pushed past her and was now in line right in front of her. It was the grey, brown maned stallion that had scowled at her by the ranking board the day before. Dash glared into the back of his head. She didn’t know if this stallion was the number two ranked Squall or not, but that was just plain rude. “That was kinda dickish you know,” Dash said to him. He didn’t look at her. He just continued to stare forward. “Hey! I’m talking to you!” she tried again. He ignored her again. Dash narrowed her eyes further and shook her head while backing off. “What a jerk…”
Forget it, not everypony she met was going to be friendly in their own way. She had already learned that from Arctic, but it was frustrating to meet another. She decided to take her mind off of it by watching the first cadets run through the course.
The very first pony in line was the little yellow filly. Dash felt sorry for her before she even began. How was she supposed to break through the barriers? That little body could only generate so much power.
As Dash suspected, the filly had a lot of trouble. However, she did get through the barriers. The filly approached each wall as fast as she could. While she didn’t blow through them like Soarin had, she hit them with just enough power to force it open slowly and slip through. It wasn’t the most impressive run, and it took her forever to finish, but she made it all the way to the end. Dash was sure the Wonderbolts would take into account the size to strength ratio when figuring out how impressive certain cadets were.
Speaking of size, Matteo was up right after. To the surprise of absolutely nopony there, he put on quite a show. Matteo didn’t even need to use speed. He made each wall move aside by simply striking it hard with either a punch or a shoulder ram. His run was far from perfect though. Three times during the course his large body was his downfall. The walls kept lightly nicking him on the leg or body as they closed behind him. The U-turn wall and two of the three walls in the wavy path to the finish caught him painfully by the leg. He took a sharp fall each time it happened, but managed to catch himself before hitting the ground. Besides those little mishaps, he ran a mostly clean run.
Then came a moment Dash had been secretly wishing to see. Arctic was ahead of her in line this time, and it was her turn. Dash had to see this.
Arctic fired from the start, locked onto the first wall, and pumped her wings to build speed.
Then she bounced right off the first wall.
Dash threw her hooves over her mouth to stifle laughter as a loud snort escaped her nose. That was gonna leave a beauty mark… and not the good kind.
Arctic growled, leveled out, and went at it again. She bounced right off. She simply didn’t have any strength to speak of. She tried again and again and again, but never got the springs attached to the walls to budge an inch.
“Okay, okay that’s enough…sheesh…” Blaze said as she and High Winds flew up and held her back.
“LEMME GO!” she snapped at them.
“No can do,” Winds replied with a yawn. “I hate your whiney ass, but we can’t let you break your neck,” she said bluntly as the two forced her down to where the finishers were gathering.
She put forth the effort… but in terms of strength that was just laughable. Dash was confident Arctic wouldn’t be in her mane any longer after these tests, but the fact remained that she was until they reached that point. After having her eyes spat in, Dash was keeping tabs on where Arctic was and what she was doing. Arctic was clearly trying to disrupt her. She wasn’t going to grace the bitch with the chance.
The line moved on, and several cadets that Dash had never interacted with took their turn in the course. There were a few cringe worthy falls and collisions, but there was nothing that really stood out. Eventually it was nearly her turn… and she finally got to confirm if this jerk in front of her was really the second ranked cadet. If this guy actually was Squall… he would have to be very impressive.
The stallion ground his hooves into the platform and shot towards the first. The start was the first indication that this guy was good. It wasn’t Sonic Blast-off caliber by any means, but his start and acceleration had to be the fastest she had ever seen without the assist of special techniques. He approached the first wall, but suddenly straightened upright.
Dash tipped her head as she watched. What was he doing? Why did he pull up? He was going to smash right into the—
“RRRAAHHH!!!” the stallion spun around and put all of his weight into a punch. His hoof struck the wall and it blasted open roughly, slamming against the limits of its hinges as he coasted through. He focused on the second, spun in the other direction and landed a punch to the next wall with his other hoof, knocking it clean open again. He turned his body so his back hooves were facing forward. He kicked them both out as he reached the third wall and once again blew it open. He flipped back around and pumped his wings into the U-turn, pitching hard to the right. He lost a considerable amount of speed on the sharp turn, but as he approached the wall at the edge of the turn he turned upright again. He put up his hooves in front of him, crossed, but one slightly further out than the other.
“HRYA!” he yelled out as he struck the wall with two rapid punches, one to each section of the wall. The wall slammed open… but he wasn’t going fast enough. He had hit it with so much force that the hinges bounced, and sent the wall panels right back at him. He edged past the right one, but the left smacked against his shoulder. He was sent spiraling downward and struggled to regain his balance. With no other option, he stuck his hooves out right before impact and slammed them to the ground. No more than an instant later, he was airborne again and shooting up towards the path to the finish.
He used similar methods to break through the last three walls as he had with the first and slammed to the finish platform. His hooves bounced once, but he found the ground and steadied himself as he slid to a stop.
Not that… was impressive. If not for the slip up at the U-turn, Soarin would be putting salt and pepper on his goggles. Those moves he used… those looked like martial arts! Dash suddenly recalled seeing a silhouette of a pony during the foggy pie battle throwing unique punches and kicks to deflect the pies. Was that this stallion? It had to be. She also assumed this stallion was Squall. Especially after the performance he just put on. If they were ranking her over him… she had to be doing something she didn’t realize.
Too bad he was a jerk. Maybe his rude demeanor was dragging him down. Dash could only imagine how the tests that required flash teamwork went with him.
Dash was snapped from her thoughts by a whistle. She blinked and looked up to see Soarin looking down at her.
“Come on! Let’s get going!” he called down to her.
Oh, right… she was up next.
Dash quickly refocused and rotated her left wing a few times to make sure it was still loose. No problems, it was still behaving itself. Hopefully it stayed that way. She pushed down her flight goggles and shuffled her hooves around to shake out her body and take a ready stance. Again, she decided against the Sonic Blast-off. No need for too much speed here, just get through the walls, make use of the body she trained so hard to get. She took a deep breath and exhaled, opening her eyes wide and locking on the first wall.
Focus Dash.
Focus.
Focus and EXPLODE!
Dash pulled back and leapt into the air while throwing her wings back for an initial burst of speed. She went right into pumping her wings as hard as she could as the first wall approached. She felt a slight tinge of pain in her left wing, but the muscle didn’t cramp up. It was merely tender from so much action.
Dash remembered what she saw Soarin do, and decided to give the first wall a good, solid shoulder. She pulled back her right arm and thrust her shoulder towards the door.
“Oof!” She grunted as the impact sent a slight shock through her body. The wall opened and she made it through, but yow! They were NOT as soft as they looked!
The impact reduced her speed, but she made up for it by getting three hard wing pumps in before approaching the second wall. Her right shoulder was still tingling from the first hit, so she threw her left shoulder instead. The second impact yielded enough force to let her through again… but now her arms were both numb.
“Damn!” Dash cursed as she tried to shake her arms out. She didn’t have much time. The third wall in the initial line was approaching fast. She forced her arms to move and desperately punched both hooves at the wall. The impact sent more shocks through her, making her arms almost go numb again, but the feeling clung to them. The wall panels themselves pushed open, but not enough for her to get through. In fact, they sprung back against her. “RGH!” Dash grunted as she flapped her wings hard and pushed with all her strength, straining her muscles against the weight of the panels and the returning force of the springs. They inched apart just a tiny bit more, but that was all she needed, she gave one mighty push and flattened her body, twisting through the door before it slammed shut on her.
She desperately shook her arms out as she flew into the U-turn. She wasn’t doing something right. She was hitting them with similar force and style to Soarin and others she had witnessed, but why did she go numb after each hit? Maybe she had to put more weight behind the hits? She was just throwing herself into the walls. She recalled watching Squall and seeing him use martial arts against the wall. Now while copying his martial arts moves would be impossible, she did remember his way of shifting his weight right before a strike. It was crazy how the wall panels literally blew aside for him with each attack he dealt.
Luckily for Dash, feeling returned in her right shoulder as the U-turn wall neared. She did her best to recall Squall’s movements as she readied her shoulder for another strike. She leaned her upper body backward and fired it back forward while thrusting her shoulder at the same time.
The impact felt surprisingly light… and she watched in awe as the wall panels burst open in front of her.
“HAHA! Alright!” she cheered at her discovery as she continued around the turn, now with feeling returned in both arms. She reached the end of the turn with only three doors and a lazy side to side pitch standing between her and the finish line. Part of her secretly wanted to see Soarin eat his goggles for making such a bold claim earlier.
Using Squall’s attack method, she burst through the first wall, shifted right to follow the path, burst through the second wall, shifted back left, now only one more!
She pulled back, but mistimed her shoulder thrust.
SLAM
Dash bounced right off the wall and fell towards the ground.
“Yikes!” Dash yelped as she tucked her body into a ball. She crashed against the ground back first and damn luckily on the non-cramping side. The landing was rough, but Dash quickly ignored the pain, rolled onto her hooves and leapt skyward. She realigned herself with the final wall, did a half Spiral Turn to build power followed by Matteo’s Air Burst to propel herself at the door. She pulled back, and this time lined up the attack and thrust perfectly.
She burst through the panels and angled for the finish platform.
“WHOA!” She angled a little too high and found herself touching down more than halfway across the platform. She quickly put her weight on her front hooves as she skidded closer and closer to the edge. She came to a halt, with the tips of her hooves just reaching over the edge. She pushed herself backward and landed with a solid plop on her plot. “Phew…”
Up above Soarin released a loud sigh of relief. Spitfire chuckled to herself as she hovered up beside him.
“That’s twice now you’ve come close to having your goggles for lunch. I think you underestimated some of these cadets,” she commented with a smirk.
“I should’ve picked a harder course…” Soarin shivered. “I like these goggles…”
Dash glided down towards the gathering of finished cadets, heart still pounding and breath still heavy from the strenuous activity. Wanting to avoid all contact with Arctic, Dash quickly spotted Skinnybones Malcobitch and landed on the opposite side of the group from her.
“Oooo!!!”
“Oh damn!”
A few reactions caught Dash’s attention. She looked up just in time to see a cadet mare take a hard fall. The mare struggled over and over again to stand, but couldn’t find her hooves. Soarin and Spitfire quickly landed beside her as Misty and Surprise flew over too. They helped the mare stand, but she looked extremely disoriented. Fleetfoot landed and said a couple words to the four of them before they handed the mare over to her. Fleetfoot supported the mare and took off, flying her over to the mock trainer area set up by Bliss and a few others.
That was two cadets knocked out before the end. Dash glanced back at Soarin to see him and Spitfire arguing quietly about something. Spitfire kept making motions towards the mare and Soarin kept shrugging.
These tests were pretty rough… and Soarin said these courses came from his personal collection… Dash had a feeling this wasn’t sitting well with Spitfire. These were courses built for an elite among the elite. There was no way any of the cadets would get through unscathed.
She could imagine Soarin’s thought process though. After all the encounters and messed up scenarios within the past year… of course they’re looking for a tougher brand of Wonderbolt. In Dash’s opinion, these courses were perfect for this purpose. They needed fighters, not those who shied away from pain.
“Have you no moves of your own?” Matteo’s voice suddenly came from behind her. Dash blinked and turned to him. He was wearing a smug smirk on his face as he approached. Dash met the smugness of her own.
“What? Afraid I’ll get better than you at your own move?” she taunted between her heavy breaths as she sat down. Matteo scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“You aren’t even close. I’ll be impressed the day you pull it off without cheating,” he said as he sat down beside her.
“Cheating?”
“You use Twister’s Spiral turn to create momentum before thrusting the wings back. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to pull it off,” he chuckled.
“I call that being resourceful, not cheating,” Dash whipped her mane around. “I’m awesome like that.”
“Do tell,” Matteo snorted with a smile as he looked up at the course. “You also copied Squall’s movements…” he added. Dash blinked and looked up at him.
“Wow, you saw that from over here? All I did was shift my weight…” she explained while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
“The effect was the same… and you’d be surprised how good the eyes of an eagle are,” he pointed to his face.
“Guess there’s no fooling you, huh?” Dash shrugged and smiled. “Yeah… I may have taken a little from him… So he IS Squall… I was wondering about him…”
“Twister.” Matteo pointed up.
“Eh?” Dash looked towards the start just as Twister had taken off.
“WHEEEEEEHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!” he cackled as he began twisting long before he hit the first wall.
“How does his brain work?” Dash sighed while shaking her head.
“I stopped trying to figure that out,” Matteo added as they watched.
Twister blasted right through the first three walls as if they weren’t even there. He was hitting them so dead center while twisting that they pushed aside easily. He wasn’t even hitting them that hard. They opened just enough for him to get through and immediately closed behind him.
But when he got to the U-turn wall…
“HURK!” He suddenly grunted and his body whiplashed back. His minimal use of force ended up being his undoing. The wall closed before he could make it through, wedging him in between the panels. He kicked and flailed, but none of his attempts freed him.
“HA!” Surprise was suddenly in front of him and pointing a hoof at his face.
“Surprise,” Fire’s voice came from behind Twister. “Just help me,” he asked while peering around the front side of the wall.
“Aw, fine…” she moved around as Twister stared at her with a smirk while making his eyes as wide as possible.
Fire and Surprise gave the both panels a hard kick. It pushed the wall open just enough to dislodge Twister. He immediately continued as if nothing had happened and penetrated the next two walls with the same ease as before… only to get stuck in the last one too. He blinked and glanced up at Soarin and Spitfire.
“Assistance pleeeeeeeeeease?” he said with a grin as Soarin and Spitfire sighed.
“Looks like even Twister got punked…” Dash snickered as she and Matteo watched Soarin pull him out of the last wall.
“At least they finally gave us a true challenge,” Matteo chimed in. “I was getting tired of all the simple tests and practical jokes.”
“More your cup of tea?” Dash asked while she stood up to move her wings about a bit. Matteo nodded.
“These courses remind me of my Sky Wings training… only my training used the environment and not these… contraptions,” he explained.
“Punch a lot of rocks?” Dash said jokingly.
“Yes, actually,” Matteo replied quickly. Dash blinked and chuckled.
“I wasn’t serious, but for some reason I have a hard time not believing you,” she said as she shook her wings out and began making circular motions with her left wing.
“Storm’s up,” Matteo pointed up, catching Dash’s attention again.
“YESSSSSSSSSS he issssssss,” Twister was suddenly resting his arms atop Dash’s head. Dash blinked and flattened her brow.
“Twister… planning on having foals someday?” she said flatly. Twister leaned forward far enough so he could look into Dash’s eyes upside-down.
“What makes you ask, hmmmmmmmm?”
“Cause if you don’t get off…” Dash narrowed her eyes and folded her ears back. “I’ll make sure you never do.” The instant she finished the sentence Twister was gone and in the exact same position, only atop Matteo’s head.
“No time to argue, Storm’s going!” Twister ignored the subject and pointed. Dash quickly turned to catch Storm’s run.
Storm was already up and through the first wall by the time Dash looked up. His approach was similar to Dash’s initial attempts. He threw his shoulder into the first three walls and sped around the curve. As he came around the U-turn, he shifted his strategy. He readied his hooves in a similar manner to the way he did for his Surface Tap maneuver. He aimed near the center of the wall and gave it the soft tap followed by the hard punch.
It didn’t have the desired effect.
His technique was used to ricochet off surfaces, not push them. He ended up almost completely killing his speed upon impact, despite having blown the wall wide open. He made a dive for the opening before it could close, but didn’t quite make it through cleanly. The left panel struck him in the flank as he tried to preemptively pitch into the second half of the U-turn. His body was forced into a twist and his awkward angle caused him to go into a nosedive. He managed to turn upright and pull up, but not without dragging his hooves noisily across the mat on the gym floor. He made a hard left turn, spiraling back upward and into the course, propelling through the last three walls using the same methods he had with the first three. He managed to land cleanly on the finish platform, but looked frustrated.
Dash couldn’t blame him for feeling that way. Once again, Soarin got lucky with his goggles. Had Storm not taken the chance on the U-turn, his run would have been flawless.
“Not bad,” Matteo was the first to comment. Dash looked over to see him casually watching Storm while holding Twister by the neck out to his side. Twister wasn’t even trying to get free, he was just trying to reach his tongue down to lick Matteo’s talon, but it was just out of his tongue’s reach.
“I think Soarin is freaking out,” Dash chuckled. “Most of us are coming really close to clean runs.
“Hey Wainbow…” Twister was suddenly turned around in Matteo’s grip and looking down at Dash. Dash rolled her eyes and glanced up at Twister.
“What?”
“I think you’ve got a secret admirer…” he looked over Dash. She turned around and through the crowd spotted Arctic Blast glaring at her. Dash lifted an eyebrow, and didn’t even hesitate before reaching up her wing and closing all her feathers down save for the middle one. Arctic scoffed and turned away as Twister burst out laughing. “WOW! No hesitation! I love it!” he was suddenly out of Matteo’s grip and down right beside Dash.
“I’m tired of her bullshit,” Dash growled while completely ignoring Twister’s shenanigans.
The second test was concluded. Luckily for Soarin, but to the dismay of Fleetfoot, none of the cadets pulled off a perfect run, saving Soarin the glory of eating his goggles.
Dash and the others were feeling the blows, but their spirits still ran high. There was only one test left. One more test and the tryouts would be over. Dash was confident she had made the cut, but she was gunning for the elite squad spot. She was already ranked at the top of the cadets two days straight. She had to make this run count. Three days in a row at the top would most certainly guarantee her being lifted straight into the elite ranks.
She’d reach her life dream much earlier than she could have ever imagined… thus being able to live the dream longer than most.
What more reason did she need to push through the pain and give it her all? None, but she had more anyway. She’d also get Soarin and never be without him again.
With this in mind, Dash paid attention as Soarin gave one more signal in the air. Squad two opened the last curtain to reveal…
“Sweet foal Luna…” Dash’s jaw dropped as the last ‘course’ came into view.
“BEHOLD!” Soarin yelled while flying up above the cadets and motioning his hooves towards the complicated course. “This is my personal challenge course! My wingmates call me crazy!”
“You ARE crazy!” Fleetfoot called from off to the side.
“And I ignore them!” Soarin continued without hesitation.
Complicated was actually a rather weak way to describe it. Dash felt ‘what the hell’ or ‘holy shit’ would be better. It appeared complicated, but that was only because of how many contraptions were packed into it. The path of the course was simple, much like the second test. It was a switchback path with four straight sections and three sharp U-turns… however the straight sections looked impossible to actually traverse in a straight line.
Each straightaway was littered with contraptions and obstacles, some moving and some stationary. There were pendulums, narrow tunnels, fixed walls, windmills, and a few surprise obstacles that shot up at random intervals.
It was impossible to see from below how one was supposed to navigate the course. Dash tried to get a better view as the cadets followed Soarin up to the starting platform, but it was still hard to see through the cacophony of contraptions.
Who built this stuff for them?! Whoever it was, they had to be a genius.
“I’m going to do all of you two favors here,” Soarin caught their attention as he hovered above them. "First… I want everypony to follow me up to get a good look at this course layout,” he glanced at Spitfire as she nodded in approval. “Come on, let’s go,” he beckoned them. The cadets obeyed and they rose off the platform to look down at the course.
Dash could see it now. Also… this was going to be really difficult.
Each straightaway had a path marked by small flags much like it had been in the second test. The path itself was only about six feet wide and it winded in, out, and around the obstacles. It split around some of them as well, offering more than one option to get around something.
The first straightaway was a large collection of padded pendulums of six foot wide padded poles that were placed in a very staggered formation. There were six on the right and six on the left with fifteen feet of spacing between the line on the left and the line on the right, but barely five feet between a pendulum and the one that came right after it. The path marked was sharply zigzagged, forcing the flyer to pass through a point that could possibly be completely blocked by the pendulum. Since they were currently not moving, the pendulums sat right between marker flags of the path, showing that they did indeed take up the whole path if when in the exact center of its swing.
Should one be fortunate enough to even make it through the first part, after the sharp U-turn were three transparent tunnels. They were all very small, and large enough for a pegasus with its wings fully spread to fit into. Each tunnel led a different path, but they were all the same length and all converged into a single large tunnel for ten feet right before the exit.
Immediately outside the exit was another wide pendulum that didn’t cover the whole exit, but its swing arc was wider than the dimensions of the exit, meaning a pegasus had to be ready to react if the pendulum swung down suddenly as they neared the tunnel exit. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a stationary padded wall about seven feet from the tunnel. It completely blocked the path, save for a small opening to the right. The tunnel released the flyer near the left side of the wall, so they would have to put on the brakes and adjust to get around the wall.
The final insult to injury was one more pendulum right around the turn past the wall. If successfully avoided, the flyer made it into the second U-turn and into the third stretch.
Down the third stretch the path was very winding and angular, flanked on both sides by tall padded walls that were at least ten feet tall. From the outside Dash could see pistons attached to sections of the wall. These pistons were meant to suddenly and randomly force small sections of the wall out and into the way of the flyers as they navigated the airborne canyon. The sudden, angled turns within the path looked like they required precise control of speed to navigate effectively. That mixed with trying to dodge being slapped in the face by the wall pistons made the section a formidable challenge.
Once out of the path and around the final U-turn, the path widened considerably into a long straight shot to the finish line… save for one obstacle. There was a large double sided windmill like contraption. It had two sets of four large padded panels. The one in front turned counterclockwise, and the one behind it turned clockwise a little faster than the first, giving the flyer multiple avenues of travel that kept opening and closing in random places. Once one passed this obstacle, it was thirty-five yards to the finish platform.
Dash and the cadets carefully analyzed the course. Soarin’s personal challenge course, huh? While Dash was a little nervous, she was also psyched. The personal course of a lead squad Wonderbolt… even if it didn’t go well, this was the real deal. She was experiencing challenges faced by Wonderbolts daily. This one was probably a little more over the top than most of the personal courses, but that made it even more of a beast that would be twice as satisfying to tackle.
“And now… to prove I’m not just blowing my ego out of my ass…” Soarin began lowering himself down. Dash perked up, realizing what was about to happen. “I’ll give a demonstration!”
“Show off!!!” Fleetfoot yelled from off to the side.
“And will somepony please fire a cannon into the peanut gallery!” Soarin added without flinching as he lowered himself all the way down to the start.
Now Dash was even more psyched. Another chance to watch Soarin at work… It sent chills through her.
Soarin touched down to the platform and forced the goggles’ strap taught as he pulled the eye protection over his false horn and placed it atop his eyes. He took a deep breath and focused straight forward.
He whistled down to squad three below. Fire Streak answered with a salute, before approaching a machine at the base of the first support beam. There were wires and pipes running from it along the ground, towards, and up every support beam. Fire reached for a large lever on the machine, grabbed it with both hooves and yanked it down. The machine came to life and suddenly a soft hum spread throughout the entire course.
Slowly, the pendulums began to swing, the wall pistons began to fire, and the double windmill at the end began turning. The whole course had come alive. Soarin smiled contently as he readied for takeoff.
To Dash’s surprise, Soarin did not use the Sonic Blast-off. He crouched down and leaned back, before snapping forward and leaping into the air. He spread his powerful wings and pumped them hard to gain speed as he pitched right and flew towards the first pendulum. He reached it while the pendulum was out of the way, so all he had to do was adjust his speed and make the very sharp turn towards the second pendulum. Unlike the first, the second pendulum was swinging down, and moved right in his path as he approached. Soarin quickly changed the rate he flapped his wings to “stutter” his speed and slow down briefly as the pendulum passed, before he reset his flight and burst towards the next.
He navigated each pendulum masterfully, either breaking past them in the nick of time or adjusting his speed to avoid collisions. He came around the last pendulum before he shot into the U-turn and pitched his body hard to the right, using his strength to withstand the wind pressure as he maintained his speed.
He came out of the curve and aimed right for the center of the three small tunnels. Soarin was bigger than the average pegasus, but he still slipped in. The cadets watched with awe as Soarin easily navigated the winding and twisting confined space through the transparent tubes. He came to the joint exit and tipped sideways to try and slip by the pendulum swinging around by the exit.
It nicked his back hoof and disrupted his flight path. He found himself turning out of control as he careened towards the stationary wall.
“HRG!” He grunted as he forced his torso to turn and spin his body upright. He crossed his hooves in front of his face and ran straight into the padded wall. He bounced off of it, but thrust his wings out and did a backward somersault before pressing forward once more and moving down the wall. He grabbed the edge of the wall, forcing his body to stop as the second surprise pendulum swung by before he pulled his body around the wall and kicked his back hooves against it to propel himself into the third U-turn.
He shot around and flew right into the confined wall canyon. He slowed down as he came to the first turn, using the walls to help him navigate. He kicked off the walls into the angled turns, passing through quickly and efficiently. The wall pistons began firing, occasionally forcing Soarin to change his trajectory or make quick adjustments to his flight path. The last piston before the exit sprung right up in front of his face.
Soarin instinctively pulled back his right hoof and punched the wall padding as hard as he could. The pop-up panel was forced right back to its starting position as he flew by it and into the last heavy turn.
He evened out and pumped his wings as hard as he could towards the double windmill, keeping his eyes locked on possible openings. He found a perfect moment approaching and flew perfectly straight in the middle of the widened path. To the cadets it looked like he was going to slam right into the large metal pillar that held the windmills up. Soarin was crazy, but not that crazy. Moments away from hitting the pillar, Soarin pulled upward hard while angling right. He threw himself into a barrel roll corkscrew, passing perfectly through a small opening on the right side of the windmill while facing upside-down. Once free of the windmills, he finished the maneuver and slammed to the finish platform, skidding to a stop perfectly in the center of the platform.
“Damn!” He cursed while panting slightly. He pushed his goggles up, only to have them bounce and fall back over his face by the fake horn. He pulled them down over his neck instead and growled in frustration. He was so close to a perfect run. If not for the tunnel exit pendulum catching the edge of his hoof, the run would have been flawless.
“Hot… sexy… damn…” Dash said quietly as she stared wide eyed at her stallion from above. Soarin had never mentioned his courses before… or how well he could navigate such perilous obstacles… and even make messing up look badass… how did he hide all these things that multiplied his sexiness? She had seen him fight, but she had never really seen the extent of his flying abilities. They were absolutely unreal.
Soarin pushed his frustration aside and flew back up towards the cadets.
“Well, there you have it… it’s doable.”
“Especially if you’re a pretty princess!!! OW!!!” Fleetfoot yelled from above followed by Spitfire jabbing her in the side.
“Thank you Spitfire!” Soarin yelled without looking towards them. “This test will show us how well you can adapt and control yourself in very unlikely flight situations. You won’t always have time to stop and think!” he paused and smirked. “And to assure that you DON'T stop and think too much… you are going three at a time… and racing.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“No way!”
The group reacted. Spitfire quickly flew down and tapped Soarin on the shoulder.
“What?” he turned to her.
“Are you kidding me Soarin? This course is dangerous enough, did you not listen to me before?” she snapped at him quietly. Soarin grunted.
“Spitfire, I did listen. But you know what? I would really like it if you stepped back and trusted me. This is the last test and I KNOW what I’m doing,” he made clear while meeting Spitfire’s glare head on. They tested each other’s will for a few moments more, before Spitfire growled and shook her head.
“Fine,” she gave in. “BUT!” she pointed at him. “My previous words still stand. Send one of these cadets to the hospital an I’m tearing you a new one. Got it?”
“Got it,” Soarin complied as he turned back to the cadets. “So, any questions before the mayhem begins?” he asked as all the cadets went silent again. For a moment, it remained quiet, but then Matteo raised a talon. “Yes?” Soarin pointed to him. Matteo looked down at the second section of the course with the small tunnels.
“I hope you don’t expect me to fit in those little tunnels…” Matteo said, slightly embarrassed. Soarin blinked, realizing Matteo had a point. He looked down at the tunnels while a few laughs emitted from the group of cadets. Soarin turned back and shrugged.
“Fly alongside one of the tunnels, there’s really nothing else you can do. We’ll station a Wonderbolt down there to make sure you don’t cheat it. That was a very good question, I don’t want to break my course,” Soarin joked before he hardened his gaze on the cadets again. “Anything else?” he asked. The cadets remained silent and stared at him. “Then let’s do this. Just line up, you’ll go in groups of three with whoever is in line with you,” he motioned down.
Dash began floating down while contemplating the possibilities. A race, huh? That added a whole new factor to the test.
“Oh, and I should mention,” Soarin chimed in from above, catching their attention. “Whoever wins the race amongst the three of you will be given extra points… so don’t lose,” he nodded with a grin.
Another wave of adrenaline rushed through Dash. Oh yeah, competition really got her psyched. She was the best, and she liked nothing more than proving that fact.
“Soarin!” Spitfire grabbed him and forced him to dace her. “You can’t be serious! We can’t show favor like that! They need to be judged equally!”
“They will be,” he answered with a smug smile. Spitfire blinked.
“But, you just said…”
“I lied,” Soarin admitted straight up. Spitfire’s jaw dropped. “It’s called motivation Spitfire. Sometimes desperation can bring out the strongest traits and abilities in a pony… trust me… I’ve been there more than once,” he turned away from her and flew up to get a better view of the course.
Dash moved along as a line started to form on the platform. For some reason, she felt like spicing it up. She didn’t want to straight up decide who she wanted to race again. She wanted to be surprised. So as she approached the line, she kept her head down and shuffled into place. As soon as she had a place in line, she looked up and stared right into the back of Storm Front’s head.
“Oh…” Dash blinked and chuckled. So much for a ‘new’ opponent. Storm turned around and looked at her.
“Oh hey,” he chuckled. “Trying to get back at me for catching you yesterday?”
“You wish, I walked up with my head down… I think you're following me to make sure I don’t fall again,” she joked back.
“I promise you I won’t go out of my way to save your life this time… that’s if we’re even together…” he glanced over as the first three stepped up. He couldn’t count exactly how many were in line ahead of them, but there was a chance Storm would be the third in a group of three and Dash was stuck with two others.
Dash looked behind her and saw two other mares conversing. She didn’t know either of them. She didn’t recognize the stallion in front of Storm either. So no matter what happened there was going to be at least one pony in her test run that she was unfamiliar with.
Dash and Storm waited patiently as the line moved little by little. This was different from the other tests. It was hard to see any of the runs taking place before them because of all the contraptions blocking their view. Both Matteo and Twister were in line ahead of them. Dash only caught brief glimpses of them as they went. Matteo seemed to make it through okay, but Twister, surprisingly, finished way behind the other two in his group and crash landed on top of it.
Dash and Storm could only wonder how such a mishap occurred. It was quickly put into the back of their minds though. Their turn was approaching, and by the looks of things, it was going to be Storm, Dash, and the mare behind her.
The group in front of them stepped up and was given the signal to start. They took off, and sloppily made their way through the pendulums before disappearing into the second section of the course.
Storm took a deep breath as Dash waited patiently behind him. She smirked.
“Nervous?” she asked, mocking him from earlier.
“To be honest… yes,” he admitted, surprising Dash.
“Huh? Why? You’ve been putting on a good show, they’d be stupid to reject you,” Dash nudged him, but he frowned and shook his head.
“After that fall I took on the ranking board after yesterday I can’t afford any major mistakes… I envy you Dash, you’ve been ranked first the whole time… your position is secured… mine isn’t. I can’t help but worry…”
“Stop,” Dash smacked him upside the head.
“Ow! What was that—”
“Enough!”
“Dash—”
“SHUT IT!” Dash stuffed her hoof over his mouth. “You’re gonna be fine. Just give it your all, that’s what they wanna see,” she leaned back and crossed her arms. “Quit being such a downer, you’re depressing me over here.”
“Heh,” Storm rolled his eyes. “I’m glad you’re sympathizing with me,” he chuckled sarcastically.
“Psh, why would I? I’m about to beat you in a race!” she taunted.
“Oh, are you now?” Storm lifted an eyebrow at her. “I see what you just did, now I have the urge to kick your ass.”
“That’s the spirit!” Dash jabbed him in the arm. “It’s no fun if the competition is depressing!”
“HEY!” a voice suddenly came from behind them. Dash turned around to see mare behind them get shoved out of the way… by none other than Arctic Blast. “Wow, bitch…” the mare commented and just let Arctic have her way.
Dash scrunched her face and scowled at Arctic. She had just forced her way into the line so she could be part of Dash’s group.
“Seriously?” Dash asked while putting her hooves out to the side. Arctic just stared at her. “Can’t you just piss off?” Dash tried again. Arctic only glared harder. Dash looked at Storm. He was looking at Arctic uncomfortably, remembering well how mean she had been to Derpy.
Dash glared back at Arctic. It was clear she wasn’t going to respond, and it was clear she was up to something.
Great.
This was something neither Dash nor Storm needed right now. Arctic had effectively put herself in a position to race against them, and now Dash had to worry about Arctic pulling something. She still had no idea what Arctic’s true intentions were. Her actions so far had given off an air of either being annoying, trying to get Soarin to be hers, or trying to hinder Dash. There was no constant, but whatever it was, it was meant to have an effect on Dash’s performance.
Dash was not about to let Arctic get in her way on her path to victory. If Arctic stepped over that line, Dash was going to do something about it. There was no room for blunders, and even less room for dumb shit caused by personal vendettas.
Whatever, it’s not like Arctic could keep up with Dash anyway… at least she assumed. Dash had not competed against Arctic yet, but she was willing to bet Arctic would have trouble with the obstacles. In a way, Dash felt this could help too. It would give her added incentive to keep a good lead.
Whatever the result of Arctic forcing into their group would be… Dash was about to find out.
The group ahead of them finished.
It was their turn.
Dash and Storm both stepped up to the starting line while keeping a wary eye on Arctic. She took her place beside Dash and faced forward.
Dash shook her head and focused as well.
No distractions. Use this as motivation. Leave her in the dust. Beat STORM, not Arctic… she’s not worth the time. Dash drilled herself as she shuffled her wings to keep them loose. She had to ignore Arctic, she was nothing. Storm was the challenge here. Arctic was clearly just trying to get under Dash’s skin. Dash wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Finish line is clear!” Lightning Streak called out from over on the finish platform while waving both arms in the air. Fire Streak nodded and turned to the three.
“All set?” Fire asked. Dash and Storm gave a nod. Arctic just huffed. Fire took it as a yes and continued. “Good luck cadets… begin on my mark,” he ordered as he reached his left hoof up.
Dash unfolded her wings and firmly planted her hooves. She focused all of her attention on the first path in front of her and how it angled towards the first pendulum. Fire had faced away from them, watching the pendulum move. Dash was waiting for the exact moment Fire thrust his arm down. She would use her quick reflexes to get an early lead.
She watched… and waited… body lightly tingling in anticipation.
And then a white wing reached over and batted her in the face.
“Hey!” Dash pulled her head back and shook it out. Then blasts of wind blew her mane back from both sides. She blinked and saw Fire’s arm down. Both Storm and Arctic had started! “Shit!” Dash quickly burst into the air from the starting line and gave chase.
That bitch…
Oh, that bitch…
Arctic… she was most definitely in it to hinder Dash. While Dash was determined to ignore her, Arctic was going to make it very hard to do so.
Because of Arctic’s craven tactics, Dash was forced to make up ground on top of navigating the complicated course.
Both Storm and Arctic were already approaching the second pendulum by the time Dash reached the first. She barely made it around the tight corner before the pendulum gave her a one way ticket to the gym floor. She pumped her wings vigorously as she approached the second, but was forced to stop and let it pass before she could move on.
In the brief moment that she had to pause she noticed something ahead of her. Storm had already gained a lead on Arctic, and Dash was slowly gaining on Arctic. Dash remembered Arctic’s fatal flight flaw: momentum control. She was flying very slowly between the pendulums. If she picked up any more speed she would fly right past them or be unable to avoid smacking into them.
Because she was forced to wait for the second pendulum, Dash was now two pendulums behind Arctic and four behind Storm. Storm was really booking it. Dash made it her goal to catch Arctic first.
Quickly, but carefully, Dash navigated back and forth throughout the pendulum zigzag. She stopped if she needed to wait, and sped around the sharp turns if there was an opening. With the help of Twister’s Spiral Turn she was able to keep her speed around them. She avoided using Matteo’s Air Burst though, in fear of it giving her too much momentum. This part was about being fast, but cautious.
She slowly closed the gap between her and Arctic. Dash made the last turn before the final pendulum, but cursed as she was forced to stop and let it pass. She got another good look ahead of her. Arctic was about to head into the U-turn, but Storm was out of sight.
Dash was legitimately pissed off. She was so ready to compete and hold a lead… and then Arctic ruined it. Now here she was playing catch-up when she could’ve… SHOULD’VE been in front racing Storm.
Dash forced her wings to flap with all the strength and speed her body could muster as the path past the last pendulum cleared. She would catch Arctic RIGHT NOW during the U-turn, leave her in the dust, and focus on catching Storm.
Arctic had picked up speed into the turn, but she was still keeping her speed down a little due to her lack of control. Dash used this to her advantage, giving 150% effort as she pitched hard to the right and sped around the turn. She ended up closing the distance between her and Arctic to three pony lengths as they hit the straightaway leading towards the three small tunnels.
Arctic had sped up since she was now flying in a straight line. Dash was still closing in, but only little bits at a time. Dash glanced over Arctic and up at the transparent tubes. Storm was already within the center one that extended up above the other two as it made a few loops. Dash grimaced slightly as Storm suddenly wiped out in the tube and slid back down. He was back up quickly though, and continued through his tube a little more carefully. The little mishap would eventually help Dash catch him (if she didn’t mess up herself), but she couldn’t help but cringe at it. Crashing in a confined space seemed uncomfortable by default.
Dash looked back down and shifted right. She would take the right tunnel. She took a moment to follow its layout with her eyes so she could get a good idea of how she would be flying through it.
It wasn’t until she drew near however, that Arctic suddenly pulled back beside her and began pressing against Dash.
“What the—?!” Dash was caught off guard. She wasn’t expecting Arctic to purposely slow down. Arctic used Dash’s confusion to her advantage and nudged her off course in a manner that she disguised as fighting Dash for positioning. “Crap!” Dash yelled as she was forced into a flight path that would put her face right into the outer edge of the tunnel. She had no choice. She was forced to put on the brakes and pull up. Dash swore she heard Arctic scoff as she successfully warded her off. Dash quickly made a sharp right turn loop around and slung herself into the pipe on the far left instead.
Arctic had not once, but TWICE hindered her. Dash was determined to not let it get to her, but that time it was incredibly blatant. Arctic still had some space on her and she purposely slowed down to get in Dash’s way.
Dash was now also put at the disadvantage of having no idea how the left tunnel was laid out. She dipped down, doing her best to fly fast and smart. The tunnel dropped, followed by a tight corkscrew, then turned hard to the right and made a large vertical loop that wrapped around the other two tunnels. Dash pushed the speed through all of these the best she could without sacrificing control. She could see out of her tunnel and into the one Arctic was navigating. The tunnels were the same length, but of different configuration, so Dash had no idea if she was actually catching up or not. It was irrelevant. All she needed to do was try her hardest because when all was said and done… SHE WAS BETTER THAN ARCTIC.
After the end of the loop, the tunnel turned immediately towards the converging tunnel that had the exit. Dash came out of the loop a little too hard and ended up dragging her hooves along the bottom of the tunnel for a good portion of the final turn. She winced in discomfort, but pressed on as she shot out of the small tunnel and into the large one. Arctic was only about ten feet ahead of her.
Arctic sped out of the exit, but Dash was forced to stop as the large exit pendulum swung by and nearly took her nose off. It was like the pendulums were out to get her or something. Dash was frustrated at how often she was forced to stop, but luckily for her, a chance came.
Arctic did not approach the tunnel exit well. She was going very fast, and had completely forgotten about the solid wall placed right after the tunnel. The pendulum moved out of the way just in time for Dash see Arctic crash headlong into the wall, bounce off, and tumble downward.
The pendulum blocking Dash was actually a blessing this time. Dash had forgotten about the stationary wall as well. The pendulum gave her a moment to see it and approach it slower. It also knocked Arctic the hell out.
Dash accelerated past the pendulum and pitched hard to the right to make the turn against the wall. She gave the wall a small jab with her front hooves to keep her from slamming against it as she approached the wall corner. She glanced down briefly to see Arctic getting to her hooves, but she still had to fly back up and get back into the course. Dash glanced ahead of her next and caught a glimpse of Storm’s flank right before it disappeared around the second U-turn.
Perfect.
As long as Dash kept up the hard flying, Arctic was effectively out of the picture. Now she just had to catch Storm. The canyon of high walls and pop-up obstacles was ahead. Hopefully it would slow him down. She should be able to catch him either way… and she should’ve been paying more attention.
“AUGH!” Dash grunted in surprise as the hidden pendulum around the wall corner struck her in the side. It punted her to the left, sending her tumbling side over side towards the ground.
SMOOTH RAINBOW DASH! SMOOTH! Dash berated herself as she tried to gain control. On instinct she turned her torso in the direction she was spinning, effectively giving it enough power to equal the Spiral Turn. She waited until an exact moment where her body was facing down and forced her wings down hard. The momentum of the turn and the force from her wings caused an Air Burst beneath her. It propelled her right back up.
“Whoa!” Dash blinked as she hovered in place for a second before realizing it worked. She chuckled as she restarted and shot into the U-turn. She glance to her left as she cleared the turn to see Arctic just entering it.
Thank Celestia her instincts kicked in and used the Spiral Turn/Air Burst combination to make a quick midair recovery. Had she crash landed, Arctic would have surely made up all the ground Dash had gained on her.
Dash quickly refocused, not wanting to repeat a mistake she just made. The canyon of walls was approaching and the first right angle turn was visible from outside. Dash wished she had paid more attention when she watched Soarin do this part. She knew there was a quick left turn right after the first right, but beyond that she’d have to take a more controlled approach.
She entered the airborne canyon and made quick adjustments to her flight pattern to hit the first two angled turns. Then she had to slow way down. There was no way for her to see or predict the turns coming. Her speed was cut in half as she navigated through, but she couldn’t shake thinking there was a better way to approach this.
If she was on the skill level of Soarin, she could use the walls to her advantage. She remembered how he kicked off the walls gracefully and efficiently… Wait…
Dash realized she was trying to catch somepony who had a move that used surfaces to change the direction of momentum: Storm’s Surface Tap move. But was it a good idea in here? The walls were far enough apart for her to move freely, but some of the sharp angles and turns came up so fast. Would she be able to reset her hooves into the Surface Tap’s starting position each time? The result was a quick burst of speed after all… she risked slamming into the wall.
She had to catch him though. If she thought it was reckless, Storm most likely thought it was reckless too. He didn’t share her love for reckless maneuvers. She was more than certain he was taking this part slow.
Pull out all the stops. This was no time to be careful. It was time to take action.
Dash approached the next turn, staggered her back hooves, and shifted her body to aim them against the wall opposite of the turn. She tapped the first and kicked the second rapidly, propelling herself towards the next wall mere feet away. She readied her front hooves and repeated the tap/kick, propelling her in the right direction once again. She had it! She could do it! She had a second or less each time to prep the next surface tap, but she was a badass. A second was more than enough time to put her hooves up or back. She bounced through the canyon, a little sloppily, but it was much more efficient.
At this rate she’d catch Storm in no ti—
“ACK!” Dash heard from around the next corner as she readied the Surface Tap, only to get struck in the side by something large. She wasn’t hit very hard, in fact the pressure was almost instantly lifted from her and she didn’t lose a hold of her flight. She quickly straightened up and saw it was actually Storm who had run into her! Why? She didn’t know nor care. She had caught him. She didn’t bother to figure out what caused him to fly into her, she whisked around him and made her way into a much less angled corridor of the walls…
But she couldn’t shake the suspicion that she had forgotten something important.
“WHOA!” She yelped as a section of the wall suddenly popped out and nearly hit her right in the face. She pumped her wings down hard to propel herself over the padded panel the instant before collision. The upward thrust sent her into an awkward upward tumble, but she quickly rounded out and blinked as she glanced down at the piston.
Right… the SURPRISE BITCH walls…
“Ah!” Dash regained her focus as Storm approached the wall she just narrowly avoided, flipped over it, and Surface Tapped his back hooves against the other side of the panel. He fired forward, while adjusting his speed to meet the panels as they sprung into his path and repeat the move.
Dash didn’t have time to acknowledge how cool it looked. She quickly dove back down into the path. The piston walls were harder to avoid than she thought. They were being activated randomly, so she had no way of knowing if she was in danger or not. She was forced to slow down to avoid getting a padded facial, allowing Storm with his superior execution of the Surface Tap to pull ahead again.
She then remembered something she had seen earlier that day. Little Star… or the filly she thought was Little Star. She had an interesting flight style where flapped her wings minimally and rapidly, allowing her make sudden shifts in her trajectory.
Dash’s wings were much bigger than the filly’s, but maybe she could make similar movements by using a flat, rapid winged flight style. Maybe at least faster movements than she was currently making. Dash took another gamble and tried it out. She flattened her wings into a glide as she made it around a piston wall, and began flapping very minimally. The next piston wall popped up and Dash moved to the right.
“Yipe!” Dash yelped as she suddenly lurched to the right. She quickly stuck her right hoof out to prevent herself from smashing against the wall, but smiled right after. It did work. It was a little different, but it worked!
She flew up a little higher and angled down into a glide to pick up some speed as she flattened out her wings and repeated the same wing motions. She was now going twice as fast as her careful flight, but every time a wall panel popped in front of her, the littlest movements pushed her flight path out of harm’s way. With her increased speed she was able to keep up with Storm and prevent the gap between them from increasing.
Storm eventually cleared the canyon and made haste for the last U-turn. Dash closed in on the exit and dodged a panel a few feet from the end, only to have another one pop up directly in front of her. Even with the filly’s flight style, she wouldn’t move out of the way in time. Dash’s body reacted before she could think.
Soarin punched one of these panels to move it out of his way. There were much sturdier than the blast walls… so Dash couldn’t just hit them and expect them to move, but at the same time she had seen a move that added force to a blow. Squall’s martial arts, the quick two hoof strike.
In the mere second she had before impact, her instincts put the possibility together that Squall’s move could clear her path. She didn’t know what sort of martial arts he used, but his stance and movements were clear in her head.
She shifted upright, put one hoof out while keeping the other in. She leaned her body back, and thrust forward while rapidly jabbing both hooves once into the padded wall.
The wall panel blew back into its starting position. Dash quickly flattened out, and executed the Spiral Turn/Air Burst combo to propel herself out of the canyon and after Storm. The momentum from her Air Burst was a boon. She shot out of the canyon like it was a cannon and soon found herself passing by Storm right before the curve. She saw him visually flinch in surprise as she flew by. Finally she was in the lead! To top it off Arctic had been nowhere in sight. This was going to end well, she could feel it!
Dash approached the last turn at full speed. This was it, all that stood before her and finishing first in the hardest test was this curve and one more giant double windmill before a straight shot to the finish line. Storm suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision.
Dash cursed to herself as Storm pulled up to her right. She should’ve taken the turn tighter! She left too much space and Storm managed to get inside of her on the curve. It wasn’t a sharp curve, so Dash put all of her effort into pumping her wings, adding to her speed to compensate for the wider angle she had to take compared to Storm.
Despite her best efforts, they came off the curve staggered with Storm slightly ahead of her. The last factor was dead ahead: the windmills. Dash and Storm’s angle put them on course to pass by on the left side. There was an open opportunity approaching. The wide, padded panel moving down the front windmill on left side had just hit eight o’clock and the second behind it had just passed nine o’clock. There would be a clear opening between them for a few precious seconds. They both adjusted their speed down slightly to time their flight through the opening. They’d pass through at the exact same time at this rate with only thirty five yards to make a final push right after. Dash knew she was faster than Storm. With nothing in the way it would be easy to just out-fly him. If only that were the case…
“RRRGGHHHH!!!!!!!” A loud growl came from behind them. Dash blinked and glanced behind her.
Arctic?!
What? How? How did she catch up? Dash and Storm had slowed down to make a clean pass through the windmill obstacle, but Dash hadn’t seen Arctic once behind her since she left her in the dust in the second section.
“OH, COME ON!!!!” Dash gritted her teeth as Arctic pulled up to Dash’s left and pushed against her again. They glared at each other as they neared the windmill. With Arctic nudging into her she couldn’t pump her wings efficiently. Storm began to pull slightly ahead of them and if she didn’t speed up, Dash would miss her chance to speed smoothly past the windmill. The next panel on the front windmill was already at ten o’clock, and would soon be in her way…
That did it. Once... was annoying. Twice… was angering. Three times… Arctic had crossed the line. Dash had had it with her.
Dash snapped her eyes towards Arctic with the sharpest glare she could muster. Just before they reached the windmill, Dash shifted to her left and thrust her body back to the right, ramming Arctic as hard as she could.
“Ah!” Arctic yelped and was pushed slightly upward…
She ran face first into the bottom edge of the front windmill’s panel at full speed, her whole body got clothes lined… knocking her out and sending her tumbling downward.
Dash quickly did Twister’s Spiral Turn and Matteo’s Air Burst, propelling her past the second set of windmill blades and towards Storm. Storm glanced over his shoulder as Dash passed by his left.
She had pulled out in front. An adrenaline fueled wave of victory rushed over her as she shot through the finish line.
“YES!” she called out as she angled down, slammed her hooves to the finish platform and skidded to a halt. “HAHA!” she pumped her hooves up into the air. She turned, expecting to see Storm right there behind her… but he wasn’t. He was nowhere to be seen. “Huh?” Dash wondered out loud as she looked around for him.
Then he rose up from below, still a good thirty yards from the finish line…
He was cradling Arctic Blast in his arms.
“What?” Dash blinked as she watched him cross the finish line with the unconscious Arctic and gently set her down.
“Phew! That was a close one…” he shook his head as the Streak twins hurried over to check on Arctic. Dash didn’t say a word. She only looked between Storm and Arctic, beyond puzzled.
Why?
Why the hell…?
From above, Soarin and Spitfire looked down upon the scene on the finish platform. Soarin glanced at Spitfire, who was rubbing her chin.
“Hmm…” she pondered aloud. Soarin watched her carefully as she shook her head. He looked back towards Dash himself. He crossed his arms and looked carefully down at Dash.
Well, that did it. Dash was done with the tryouts.
Now he just had to make a decision. It was most certainly not going to be an easy one either.
“Oo! That’s cold! COLD!” Dash yelped as Bliss placed a plastic bag full of ice over the base of Dash’s left wing.
“Ice is cold, honey,” Bliss said with a giggle as she heaved up two much larger bags of ice over to Matteo on a double table across from Dash. She heaved them up and placed them at the base of both his wings.
“Thanks,” he said as Bliss rushed around to help whoever was next.
The training room was packed to the brim with cadets after the brutal third tests were over. Dash was glad she did well… at least she thought she did well. It would suck to have to go home, not only after taking such a beating, but after making it this far into the tryouts as well. She felt sorry for Thunderlane in particular. He got the crap beat out of him immediately and was forced to bail after the pleasant surprise of making it so far.
Dash looked up as she winced and shivered at the cold touch of the ice on her back. She huffed as she saw Matteo not even flinching under the cold pressure of the much larger ice bags.
“How can you…” she paused to shiver. “…take this so easily?” she asked. Matteo gave a very subtle shrug.
“I suck it up, because I know it will help,” he put plainly.
“It’s so cold…” Dash grimaced. Matteo looked to his right and chuckled.
“Well, I’d do that if I fit in them,” he made a head motion towards the metal tubs. Dash looked to her left. She was only two trainer tables from the start this time, so she was still within sight and speaking distance of the tubs. Storm Front was sitting in one of the tubs. It was filled with water and ice.
“Dear god! She reacted upon seeing Storm sit in the tub so casually. Storm blinked and turned to her.
“What?” he said with a confused look. Dash motioned a hoof towards the tub.
“Isn’t that… like… REALLY painful? How cold is that?!” she asked in disbelief.
“I dunno, it hurt like hell for about two minutes… now it feels amazing,” Storm exhaled comfortably. “Probably because I can’t feel my body anymore,” he chuckled.
“You’re crazy,” Dash shook her head. There was no way in hell she was ever taking an ice bath, she could barely stand one pack of ice on her back.
“GAH!” Storm suddenly yelped the instant Dash looked away. She looked back to see Twister had suddenly appeared in the tube with Storm.
“No, I’M crazy!” he sneered while tipping his head ninety degrees to the right and bouncing his eyebrows.
“That’s it, ice bath’s over…” Storm shakily stood up and forced his limbs to pull him out of the ice tub despite how numb he felt.
Dash rolled her eyes and chuckled. She really hoped they all made it through. These guys were too much fun. She looked around for more familiar faces. She hadn’t seen Thunderlane since he was taken away. She guessed he was probably already taken care of and sent on his way. He did get a good hour head start to the training room ahead of all of them.
She kept looking and her eyes landed on… Arctic Blast.
She was lying on her back on a trainer table about ten down from Matteo. Her eyes were open and she was looking around occasionally, but she looked really out of it. She had an ice bag sitting on her forehead and a tissue stuffed in her nose that was stained with blood.
Whatever, the bitch deserved it. Multiple times during the last test she tried to push Dash, yank her down, or in general mix up her flight path. It was nothing bad, but she was being so damn annoying and hindering Dash’s chances of finishing ahead of Storm. Dash was tired of her shit, and Arctic finally learned what happened when you messed with her.
Speaking of Storm…
Dash turned back to Storm as he tried wiping his body dry with a towel.
“Storm,” she called his name. He blinked and looked up at her.
“Yeah?”
“Why did you do it?” she asked. He stared as if waiting for her to say more. So she did. “Why did you catch Arctic?” she asked further while making a head motion towards Arctic’s bed. Storm sighed and flattened his brow.
“Dash, we’ve been over this. I don’t like ponies getting hurt,” he said with a hint of annoyance as if Dash didn’t seem to get the point. Dash glanced between Storm and Arctic.
“Storm… she’s been nothing but a horrible pony to everypony here…”
“I don’t care.”
“You remember what she said to Derpy?” Dash pressed.
“I said I don’t care!” Storm snapped. Dash flinched in surprise. “Personal vendettas mean nothing to me! I don’t like her either! But she was falling head first, she could have broken her neck or worse had I not caught her. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if something bad had happened to her when I could’ve prevented it… I’m sure she’s already concussed. I didn’t see it, but she must’ve hit the windmill really hard. As soon as I saw her falling I had to help… I don’t give a damn who it is…” he said as he went back to drying himself off.
Dash pondered his words as she looked back and forth again.
Storm’s reasoning was… chivalrous and protective… but… why her, WHY HER? It seemed backward that he would do a favor for Arctic, especially after how she treated Derpy! Dash thought he’d feel more like her… that Arctic deserved the pain she got for being such a thorn in everypony’s side.
To each their own. Dash was a-okay with it. Arctic had it coming anyway.
Once again, Dash was barely at her table for more than a minute for lunch. She was already late to the mess hall because of her stop in the training room, so she was sure the ranking board was already posted. Top twenty-one become recruits… one of them becomes an elite squad member… Dash was psyched. She was already number one for two days straight. She was sure her odds of being selected for the spot would be ridiculously high even if she wasn’t in first anymore.
Dash quickly stuffed her tray unevenly into the return racks and sprinted out of the hall. She pushed past Thunderlane as she ran through the hall. Under normal circumstances she would have stopped and asked him how he was doing… but there was too much she had to know right then and now. She approached the board in the lobby, which already had a good twenty cadets in front of it. She slid to a halt and stared up at the board.
The payoff was instant.
Dash’s eyes grew and her smile nearly ripped her mouth off of her face.
SHE.
WAS.
STILL.
NUMBER.
ONE.
No cheering this time. Dash was too busy staring at her name beside the number one spot on the board.
Three days straight. All three days she was deemed to be the best cadet… in a group that had performed better than any current recruits that the Wonderbolts had… that sealed it. SHE WAS THE BEST CADET. She was a recruit, but this acknowledgement indicated there was more for her on the horizon. Elite spot, here she comes.
“Sheesh Dash, you should try harder," Thunderlane said as he came up behind her and eyed her name before scanning down the list.
Dash didn’t even hear him. She was so excited and internally squealing so loud she couldn’t hear anything else. She was the best cadet… the best cadet. Best cadet. Best cadet. Best cadet. She could smell the elite squad spot already.
She took a deep breath and tapped her front hooves happily against the floor to somewhat vent her excitement, but most of it stayed bundled up in her brain and had a rave party. It was such an incredible feeling. The Wonderbolts thought she was the best of all three hundred cadets that initially showed. She never would have predicted this outcome… but she was badass… so maybe she should’ve seen this coming.
With her own excitement still running laps around her head, she started looking down the list, realizing there were quite a few names she wanted to see up there.
But first up...
2nd: Little Star
Oh wow… the little filly had over taken Squall… seeing as how he was grumpy about being in second, Dash could only imagine how hard he scowled at this result.
3rd: Squall
Yep… he had been taken down a notch. Karma for being a jerky grump. Dash continued down the list.
6th: Matteo
Not surprising. Matteo had put on an amazing show of strength during the day’s tests. He deserved it.
7th: Twister
Also not surprising. He was crazy… but showcased great skill in flight and maneuvers. Despite his crash landing at the end of the third test, he must’ve done something else to grab their attention.
Dash continued down the list… and blinked as she continued down. She bit her lip nervously, but then sighed heavily in relief.
15th: Storm Front
He pushed his way back into contention. Good. He deserved it. She liked Storm a lot. It was impossible to ever think badly of him, he was such a nice guy.
“Phew, Storm made it back in. Close call, eh?” she nudged Thunderlane beside her… but he didn’t answer. Dash blinked and turned to him. “Thunderlane?”
He wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at the board with his eyes wide and his jaw nearly unhinged. What was he looking at? Dash looked back at the board and ran down the list.
“OH!” she hopped slightly in surprise as she found what he was looking at.
21st: Thunderlane
Oh… sweet… Celestia…
Dash turned to Thunderlane with a look of happy disbelief.
“Thunderlane!!!!!!!” she grabbed his shoulder and began shaking him. “DUDE! DUDEDUDEDUDEDUDE!!!!!! YOU MADE IT!!!!!!!”
“Uh…” Thunderlane responded while remaining completely stiff.
“HOLY SHIT! THUNDERLANE YOU ARE A WONDERBOLT RECRUIT!!!!!!!” she shook him harder.
“Buh…” Thunderlane uttered nothing more.
“HAHAHA!!!! Oh man! Wait till Applejack here’s about this! I think you’ve proved a thing or two!”
“Fuh…” Thunderlane blinked. Dash chuckled and ruffled his mane fiercely with her hoof. It wasn’t pretty, but he made it. Soarin mentioned they were looking for effort in the tests today. Thunderlane didn’t even make it through the first course, but damn did he try, he kept trying until Soarin himself had to stop him. That was the kind of attitude they wanted to see.
But then Dash realized something else…
Something that effectively tripled the victory right after it had been doubled…
Arctic Blast… was not in the top twenty-one. In fact, Dash scanned down the list, and found her name at 42nd.
Game… set… and match… BITCH!
Wow… could this day get any better?
The tryouts were over, Dash was considered the best cadet, all of the ponies she liked were recruits, THUNDERLANE beat all odds and became a recruit, and now Arctic Blast was done. The only thing left to happen was for Dash to get the elite spot. Who else would they choose? They clearly thought she was the best.
Soarin leaned against the wall of Spitfire’s office. He kept his eyes up at the fluorescent lights on her ceiling. It was for no particular reason, but he really had nothing better to do… besides worry about the incoming decision.
He glanced down at the couch across the room from him. Fleetfoot was reclined on her back with her hooves behind her head. She had her legs crossed and was continuously swing one of her hooves up and down gently. She kept glancing between Spitfire, the wall clock, and the ceiling directly overhead.
Soarin looked towards Spitfire. She had a stack of papers on her desk that she was looking over carefully. The papers were eleven personal reports, one from each currently acting members of the top three Wonderbolt elite squads.
Before the third day began, the elite of the elite members were assigned to watch the cadets closely, and then put together a small report of cadets that stood out amongst the twenty-one chosen. Right after the conclusion of the third day, they all went to their personal quarters and put together a quick report for Spitfire to analyze alongside her own. From there, she was going to determine which cadets showed the best potential to be in the elite squad.
Spitfire finally pushed the papers down and sighed. Soarin pushed off the wall and Fleetfoot swung around before sitting up.
“So… I read through the reports… and it looks like a few names stand out,” she began. “However…” she switched gears suddenly. “It looks like the reports have made this simple for us. I was expecting at least four or five to choose from… but of all the cadets observed… there are two that have showcased traits that we are looking for in an elite member beyond personal skill…” she paused.
“Well?” Fleetfoot beckoned her to continue. Spitfire looked at her sternly.
“Fleetfoot… and you too Soarin…” she shifted and gave him a look as well. “I will give you one final reminder… we cannot let personal feelings guide our choices. Both of these cadets have shown us great ability as well as personality and drive… but we can only choose one of them, and I trust you choose based on what you have seen… not how you feel.”
“Who’s the other one Spitfire? I get it,” Soarin rolled his eyes. “Rainbow Dash and who?” he glared at her sharply. He thought they were done playing this game. Spitfire remained completely unaffected by his glare.
“Rainbow Dash and Storm Front,” Spitfire said flatly. “Based on the consistency of his performance, and his willingness to put others before him no matter what the circumstances… I vote for Storm Front,” she kept her eyes on Soarin… but like a good professional, Soarin showed no reaction. Fleetfoot cleared her throat and leaned against Spitfire’s desk.
“Well I hear you loud and clear Spitfire… but I’m making this choice based entirely on what I’ve seen. I’m voting for Rainbow Dash. She’s shown great heart and a willingness to succeed unlike anything I’ve ever seen. She barely batted an eye in my courses, took risks that yielded rewards on the first day, and ran Soarin’s courses pretty well. Plus, can we deny that her ability to copy moves is an incredibly rare find?” she finished while leaning towards Spitfire.
“I stand by my choice Fleetfoot just as I believe you will stand by yours.”
“Shit…” Soarin muttered to himself as they both turned to him.
This was exactly… EXACTLY what he was afraid was going to happen. The choice had boiled down to whatever he decided. Choose his lover, who he felt did do a lot to earn the chance… or choose another who showed him many other specific qualities that would be amazing to have in their ranks. He still thought about the consequences of choosing Dash. Would the media call it a scandal once their relationship came into the light? Would she be able to handle it? Would she be mature about it?
Maturity… on second thought there was something here he had thought about. Was Dash ready for the responsibility of being a Wonderbolt? Storm Front did show a lot more qualities specific to duty and responsibility. On the flipside, Dash’s abilities were much more impressive than Storm’s. As Fleetfoot said, her copying ability was extremely rare.
He had to look at this professionally. He could almost feel Spitfire’s eyes testing him. Forget the possibility of a scandal. Which of these two showed that they are ready to be a Wonderbolt?
…
Actually… something that had occurred during the third tests… proved which of them was… and which of them wasn’t. As a professional, he had to choose who would be the best for the Wonderbolts. Ability was a factor, personality was a factor, drive was a factor, perseverance was a factor… loyalty was a very important factor… And one of them radiated the loyalty they needed. He knew who to choose.
“Well Soarin?” Fleetfoot chimed in. Soarin blinked and saw both of them staring at him.
“Who’s it going to be Soarin?” Spitfire pressed. Soarin took a deep breath and sighed.
“I choose…”
“Humph… I didn’t want to be a Wonderbolt anyway…” Arctic pushed past Dash. Dash just rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag from beneath her bed.
It was the usual exit of cadets who didn’t get selected, only this time it was a double process. The cadets who were dismissed had to leave and the cadets who were becoming recruits had to move their belongings into recruit barracks number six. Dash had already moved most of her stuff into her new living space. It literally looked identical to the main half where all the cadets had been stuffed, only with a lot more space between the bunks.
They were told to get situated and stay out of the way once moved while the staff began disassembling the makeshift beds in the hall to clear it out. Dash knew it was going to be weird the first time she stepped out into the main barracks hallway and it was not only free of beds, but also so wide.
“Humph!” Arctic huffed again. Dash rolled her eyes.
“Sheesh, I think I preferred it when you were scowling at me,” she jeered as she quickly moved her copy of Daring Do and the picture of Soarin out of the drawer and into the bag.
“Psh, you aren’t worth my time. None of this is,” Arctic scoffed as she made hoof motions to everything around her. Dash flattened her brow and ears while looking at Arctic in disbelief. Again… there was at least one cadet that had to go home before they should have because this bitch with a mixed up ambition made it through. It would forever seem like an injustice to Dash.
“Good! I hope I never see you again!” Dash whispered to herself as she went on gathering her goggles and toiletries. She glanced up and saw Arctic leaving, then glanced up and saw the poster of Soarin still on the wall. Dash felt an evil urge to pour salt on the wound. “Hey! You forgot the poster of YOUR stallion!” she snickered multiple times as she spoke. Arctic stopped and turned sharply to her, glaring for about three seconds before suddenly stopping.
“Feh, whatevs… I’m too good for him anyway, I got better fish to catch,” she said very smoothly.
WOW.
Dash had never known a more shallow pony, and hoped to CELESTIA she would never meet one worse because holy GEEZE… you just can’t make this stuff up. On the flip side… Dash could keep this poster, she wouldn’t complain about that… at least Arctic brought something worthwhile.
As Arctic began walking again, Lightning Streak was coming through the aisle, chaperoning the moving with Fire, who was by the entrance handing out the vouchers for train tickets.
“Yo, hurry it up, our staff’s already itching to kick our asses. Get a move on so they can clean this hall out!” he yelled while looking back and forth at the commotion around him. Arctic’s eyes lit up as Lightning approached and she quickly rushed up to him, planting her side against his chest. He flinched and stopped dead in his tracks, blinking as he looked down at her.
“Hey sexy!” she said shamelessly. Dash thought her jaw was going to unhinge. Like she said… you just… CANNOT… make this stuff up.
“Uh… hi…” Lightning tipped his head while looking down at her.
“You free this week, I’d love to have a good time with you…” she flirted while gently tracing his chest muscles with her hoof.
“Eh…” Lightning looked up and straight forward. “Whoa man…” he shook his head. “It… ain’t the same when they want it first…” he quickly removed himself from Arctic and began back in the other direction.
“Hey! Come back handsome!” Arctic called after him.
And that was that…
Dash never had to see Arctic again.
She entered a nuisance… and left a nuisance.
Dash felt the strangest wave of relief rush over her. Arctic had been nothing but a full blown pain in the ass the whole time… and now it was gone. So this is what heaven felt like…
“Listen up recruits!” Fire Streak walked up the aisle. All the cadets were gone now. Something about being called a recruit made Dash shiver. “Get situated in your new living spaces while the maintenance team moves in to clear out all these unsightly bed frames. At 6:30 you are all invited to the mess hall to eat dinner with squads one, two, and three to celebrate your success. We will also be naming the lucky recruit who has been selected to ascend to elite status… so don’t be late!” he looked around as all the recruit’s eyes lit up upon mentioning the elite squad selection. “As you were,” he nodded and the recruits all began moving into room six.
Scratch that, Dash was at the gates of heaven. Once they chose her for the elite spot… then she would know what heaven feels like.
Damn she was excited. Her heart hadn’t beat this fast since the first time Soarin kissed her… and her heart had to beat really fast to match that.
She wasn’t the only one excited.
All the recruits were excited. Storm, Twister… Thunderlane was still shocked, but happy. Even Matteo couldn’t hold back a grin on his beak. This had to be a defining moment for him in general. Dash could only imagine how hard he must’ve taken it when the Sky Wings turned him away for such a dumb reason. After how hard he worked too… it must’ve been awful. She felt so glad for him… and hey, maybe if Gilda ever visited she could get in that bitch’s face and grill her on how weird it was for her to be married and be mother… AND NEVER TELL HER OLD PAL.
Either way, Dash was glad for him, and she was happy in general too.
She STILL couldn’t believe Thunderlane made it all the way through. He came along as support… and hit the jackpot. Derpy and Bulk were sure to be ecstatic when they found out. Dash was also beyond happy for him because he was heavily rewarded for all the punishment he took. Seriously, Thunderlane got the ever-loving crap beat out of him by all the strenuous tests. Now he emerged from the pain with a chance to do what most pegasi could only dream of. She was proud of him, he earned it.
Dash caught a glimpse of the yellow filly on her way into the mess hall. Dash was more than certain the filly was Little Star now. Dash decided to go congratulate the little squirt at some point… maybe after dinner if she got the chance. The fact that such a young filly made it to recruit status was astounding.
Lastly… even in the air of celebration there had to be at least one downer. Squall cut her off as they entered the mess hall. Dash didn’t even try speaking to him. It really wouldn’t hurt him to smile. He was actually a pretty good looking stallion… he just never looked friendly.
Ah, what a refreshing feeling. The feeling of success… everypony gathering in the mess hall had the air about them, and Dash was ready to receive more. She was the top cadet after all.
They all got their food and sat down at one large table that was pushed together. To show the welcoming air of the small event, the Wonderbolts all sat among them. Each recruit had at least one Wonderbolt sitting next to them. Dash ended up between Storm Front and High Winds… with whom Dash soon learned it was hard to keep a conversation going due to her always nodding off.
Soarin was sitting three seats down and across from her. She wished he had set next to her… but at the same time she could tell the professional atmosphere was still being upheld. Oh well, she’d have him soon enough as an elite member. Finally no more barriers between them! The thought made her giddier than she already was.
The dinner progressed smoothly and the Wonderbolts did an amazing job making them all feel welcome. It was like they were all being pulled into a new family. When the eating was mostly done, Spitfire, who was sitting at the head of the table, stood up and cleared her throat and whistled loudly.
All the recruits and Wonderbolts quieted down and turned to face her.
“Recruits, I want to be the first to formally congratulate all of you on making it through the tryouts,” she began. “You should all be very proud of what you’ve accomplished. We’ve never had more than eighty cadets show up at a time for tryouts. There were three hundred this time… and even with such a large pool of different skills and talent… you all stood out amongst them. We are all very impressed and are looking forward to what you show us when formal training begins… welcome to the Wonderbolts,” as she finished all the elite Wonderbolts present began clapping for them.
Welcome to the Wonderbolts. Those words sent chills down Dash’s spine… The best kind of chills.
“Now that that’s been said… here is the schedule going forward,” Spitfire continued as the clapping died down. “Your recruit training program will begin in a week from now. We encourage you to go home, rest, and relax. We understand we’ve put you through a lot these past three days. We want you to be fully recovered and ready by the time we begin the real training…” she paused and stepped away from the table. “Now I’m sure you’re all curious about our recruit squads… since there are only five members per squad on the recruit level. Well, this is how it works. After a month of heavy training, we will be selecting five of the twenty of you to remain on the compound as an official recruit squad that will take part in our daily routines and be invited to perform when we do shows… the other fifteen will be sent home…” she paused as a sudden stir passed through the cadets. “They will be sent home as official members of the Wonderbolt reserve…” she paused again and smiled as the stir instantly faded. She secretly loved that little moment every time she did this. “As reserve Wonderbolts you may be summoned often to partake in events or fill roles of recruits who are away or for some reason cannot partake in certain activities. You will also be on the top of our list to send invitations for future formation of recruitment squads should we decide to add more.
Only five… Dash thought while nodding. It looked like there was still one challenge yet to overcome for the recruits, but even if they didn’t get chosen to stay, they still earned the official right to call themselves Wonderbolts.
“But I’m sure you’ve realized that there are twenty-ONE of you… not twenty,” Spitfire suddenly spoke again. One could almost hear the heartbeats of all the recruits quicken.
This was it…
“One of you has been chosen for the opportunity of a lifetime… the chance to be given elite status fresh out of the tryouts… we never expected such an amazing turn out… but we of the Wonderbolt elite have found one of you to be very worthy of walking amongst our ranks…”
The suspense was unreal… Dash thought her heart was going to leap right out of her throat.
“This cadet… above all the others… showcased all the best qualities that we look for when determining who deserved this position… they showcased consistent skill, a desire to succeed, and a certain quality of loyalty that we have never seen before…”
Dash’s ears shot up. Loyalty? Spitfire might as well have called her name out right there! That sealed it. They chose her. Like there was ever any doubt at all…
“It is my pleasure to welcome to our ranks… Storm Front!”
…
…
Wait…
Hold up…
That didn’t sound like Rainbow Dash…
Dash’s eyes opened wide and her face grew slightly pale. If her expression was capable of making noise it would have sounded like a window shattering.
Storm…
Front…
Spitfire said Storm Front… not Rainbow Dash.
Dash turned and looked at Storm beside her as Lightning Streak put him in a friendly headlock.
Her ears went deaf to all noise around her. She merely stared at Storm as everypony around her clapped and cheered.
Storm looked unbelievably happy, in fact he had tears in his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. They had chosen him!
Dash couldn’t believe it either… they chose Storm… Storm was ranked… 15th…
She was ranked 1st…
1st…
15th…
1st…
15th…
What was wrong with this picture? Since when did placing fifteenth win a gold medal?
This… this made no sense! What… what happened? Did she do something wrong?!
And loyalty… they mentioned loyalty… she was the freaking ELEMENT of loyalty! How did… somepony else show it more than her?
Dash slowly turned and looked towards Soarin.
Soarin wasn’t looking at her… in fact it looked like he was specifically trying to avoid eye contact with her.
Dash had to know. She had to know what the hell had just happened. She was happy for Storm… she guessed. It’s not like she could get angry at him, he was impossible to get angry at… but she couldn’t help but feel she had been cheated… in some… sick… and twisted sort of way…
She had to talk to Soarin… there had to be some kind of mistake. First thing after being dismissed, she was going right to his room.
Soarin saw it. He saw it in her eyes as soon as Spitfire made the announcement. It almost looked like Dash’s brain had broken. Soarin was afraid of this. He was afraid of how she would react. From his time with Dash he had come to learn she was one that worked her tail off for everything, and if she didn’t get what she believed she rightfully earned… hell was paid.
He chose Storm Front. He chose Storm Front over her. He had his reasons… while some were more personal, he made the choice based on the PROFFESSIONAL reasons. He could see the initial shock in Dash’s eyes, but he hoped that she would soften up and make the right connection. She would understand that they had reasons for making their choices… right?
Soarin flinched as a rapid knocking came from his door.
He was in his room. He left as quickly as he could after dismissal and hoped that Dash wouldn’t come to him. He didn’t know if it actually was Dash outside… but his instincts were telling him it was her… and he braced for impact as he opened the door.
He could almost feel her gaze floor him in the face as he looked out into the hall.
It was Dash. Dash had come to him. This… was not going to go well.
“Hey… Dash, uh… congrats on becoming a—”
“Soarin, what’s going on?” she quickly asked while forcing herself into the room. She stared up at him with a mix of confusion and anger.
“What?”
“Soarin, why wasn’t I chosen for the elite spot!?” she pressed. Just as he feared… what the hell was he supposed to do now? “Soarin I was the top cadet on the ranking boards ALL THREE DAYS in a row… how did…” she trailed off while looking down at his hooves and shaking her head in bewilderment.
“Dash…” Soarin sighed and shook his head. “You were the top ranked cadet… the highest prospect for becoming a recruit… but we… looked at more than skill to determine that. Other qualities that mattered…” he flinched as she stepped right up to him and looked into his eyes, mortified. He could see it… she was going to ask it.
“You didn’t…” Dash blinked and her mouth hung slightly agape. “You didn’t choose me?”
Soarin looked down at her. He shut his eyes and swallowed before taking a deep breath and looking into her eyes with most serious look he could muster.
“I chose Storm Front.”
“WHAT?!?!?!?!” Dash slammed her hooves against her head and yanked at her mane.
“Dash…” Soarin tried to calm her down.
“What… what the HELL Soarin?! How could you?! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!?!” she yelled in his face. Soarin struggled to try and control her. She was getting hysterical. She was clearly not thinking straight.
“Dash… calm down…” he kept trying.
“Did you... is this why you were so lovey dovey last night!?” she snapped at him. “To butter me up and make me all soft… thinking I would take the blow better when you dropped the damn news on me?!?!”
“DASH!!!” Soarin glared at her incredulously. How could she say something like that? Could she really not accept something that was handled fairly? Her brain was making up terrible things and she was blurting them out without even a thought! “Dash! Listen to me!” he grabbed her by the shoulders. “The selection was narrowed down to either you or Storm! You two were equals in what we were looking for all the way up to the LAST TEST. I chose Storm because he sacrificed his cadet ranking for the well being of another pony… not to mention… the pony he SAVED was the mare that you TOOK OUT before the finish line… a fellow cadet Dash…”
“What? Arctic? You’re kidding me right? She was an unpleasant BITCH! She had done nothing but annoy the shit out of me! She was HELL to be around!”
“SO WAS RAPIDFIRE!” Soarin slammed both his hooves to the floor. Dash flinched and her eyes widened slightly. Soarin shook his head. “I hated Rapidfire with a bloody passion… but he was STILL a member of my squad… a fellow Wonderbolt… while he was still among our ranks, I wouldn’t have hesitated to save him from harm if need be. We fought in competition as well, but I would NEVER have aimed to seriously injure him… EVEN IF he did so to me.”
“Soarin… that is a load of BULLSHIT!” Dash yelled back in his face as tears began to squeak out of his eyes. Soarin released a heavy, groaning sigh while turning away from her. “And what was that bullshit about showing loyalty?!” she referred to Spitfire’s choice of words. “You guys were looking for loyalty? Have you forgotten that I represent the very freaking ELEMENT of loyalty?!”
“You sure showed Wonderbolt loyalty Dash… the best I’ve ever seen!” Soarin couldn’t help but reply sarcastically. What was he supposed to do to get through to her? She wasn’t thinking straight, and she was stubborn. It was a horrible combination. “Wonderbolt prime rule number one Dash!” he leaned closer to her in hopes she would hear it loud and clear. “No Wonderbolt shall EVER attempt to seriously injure another! Bumps and bruises are fine, we do combat for god sakes, but during the test you put another pony’s head into a metal beam and left her to fall unconscious! If you were a Wonderbolt, that would be considered a DIRECT violation of our most important prime rule! LOYALTY to the Wonderbolts includes recognizing and never breaking our codes or rules… HOW ABOUT YOU SIT AND THINK ABOUT SOMETHING FOR ONCE?!” he gritted his teeth as she stared up at him. She shook her head, tears now streaming out of her eyes.
“I thought I meant something to you…” Dash suddenly said. Soarin blinked.
“Dash?! Are you even listening to me?!” she was avoiding the point… why? Why was she avoiding the point?!
“All the help… all the training… all the encouragement… and this is what you do…”
“Dash, STOP IT!” he reached out to grab her, but she leaned away from him.
“You do so much for me and then bar me from my dream… you… are a sick BASTARD!” she scowled at him, the tears moving around her scowl and dripping from her cheeks to the floor. Soarin couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You don’t get in for free!” he tried. Dash blinked and tipped her head while glaring harder.
“DIDN’T YOU?!?! MR. BLAZETAIL-AND-FLASHWIND-FOUND-ME-IN-A-DUMP-SOMEWHERE?!”
“GOD DAMMIT DASH! NO! I DIDN’T GET IN FOR FREE! I EARNED IT!” he yelled while pressing his face to hers and nearly pushing her over. She pulled back sharply and looked at him with broken disbelief. She shook her head.
”Forget this…” she suddenly said. Soarin’s ears stood up.
“What?!”
“I guess I’ll go have fun being a lowly recruit… and don’t expect me to come get any more… 'help' from you… asshole…” she said harshly as she turned away from him and headed for the door, droplets still dripping from her face and staining the floor.
“Dash?!” Alarms went off in Soarin’s head.
No… she wasn’t seriously… walking out on him?
“DASH!!!!!” He stopped the door from closing and looked out into the hallway as Rainbow Dash broke into a sprint for the stairs. His heart felt heavy as she turned the corner and disappeared. His ears flopped down and his face was wrought with a sudden anguish. “Dash…”
---END OF PART 1---
Dash is finally within the Wonderbolt ranks...
But her failure to reach the top weighs heavy on her.
She was barred from instantly realizing her dream because of a choice Soarin made.
A choice that was firm and just... but a choice she could not accept.
The road to Dash's dream... has torn them apart.
How will things go from here?
Will Dash survive the grueling recruit training?
How will Soarin go forward in his magic training?
Will the two... be able to look past this incident, mend their relationship, and accept the embrace of love once more?
We shall all see...
As we continue into:
Art by: Scootafail/Chiweee
Piercing the Heavens Part 2: Wonderbolt Life and Love
---To be Continued---