Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane reached the Wonderbolts Academy in almost no time at all. It was built atop a high plateau encircled with clouds upon which were built several cloud-buildings, and along the plateau was a runway for fliers to get a running start before takeoff. Everywhere they saw cadets training hard and diligent, in aerobatics, in simulated weather conditions, in muscle build-up, flew courses in different formations, and all of them wore cadet uniforms with the same colors as the Wonderbolts uniform. But unlike the latter, the cadet uniform was more like a high-collared skin-tight shirt and didn’t cover the whole body, and each cadet also had a pair of goggles.
As they took it all in on the flyover, Thunderlane asked, “So, Dash, are you ready for this?”
“Oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash smirked, “this is gonna be sweet!”
They checked in at the administrative office and were given directions on where to meet with all the new arrivals. Once they got there, they saw a few familiar faces. They saw Cloud Chaser speaking with their neighbor from Ponyville, Bulk Biceps, while the rest they didn’t know.
But for some reason, one pegasus caught Rainbow’s eye. He was tall with a long wind-swept pale blue mane while his coat was dark blue, his eyes were red like a sunset, and his cutie-mark was a wing over a cloud. For some reason, he looked rather familiar. But she focused on the here and now as she stood between Thunderlane and another pegasus mare, whose coat was turquoise, and her mane was golden orange.
As the new cadets chattered, a voice made them all instantly stop and get in line.
“Lookie what we got here…”
It was Spitfire, Head Captain of the Wonderbolts, Captain of the Wonderbolt A-Squad, looking fierce in her officer’s uniform, sided by a couple stallions who worked as trainers in the academy. As Spitfire began to walk along the line of fresh meat, she said, “Bet you all think your Wonderbolt-material, don’cha?”
“Yes ma’am!” stated all the cadets.
“Think you’ve got what it takes to be an elite flyer?”
“Yes ma’am!”
“Well then, let me be the first to tell you… you don’t!” Spitfire snapped, pointing a hoof at a mare with a yellow coat and light blue mane.
“If you had what it took to be an elite flyer, you’d already be a Wonderbolt.”
She then got up in Cloud Chaser’s face, asking with a harsh manner, “Still think you’re something special?”
“N-no, ma’am,” Cloud Chaser replied with shaking knees.
Then Spitfire took in Bulk Biceps, who whimpered a bit as he tried to maintain his stoic profile. She looked at his teeny wings and secretly wondered, How does an overdone beefcake like this even get an inch off the ground?
She flapped up a bit to get eye-level with him and stared him down, “You think you’re hot stuff?”
Bulk simply whimpered at bit as he lowered himself, too afraid to answer.
She then looked at Thunderlane and secretly thought, Hmm… Well, this one doesn’t look like a waste of my time.
To Spitfire, Thunderlane’s mohawk styled mane and short tail were perfect for a flyer in certain ways. The style would cut through the air, the tail wouldn’t drag, and he certainly looked well-built in the right places. But she wasn’t gonna tell him that. So, to save face, she then faced Rainbow Dash and inwardly cheered at having such a promising recruit, but she couldn’t tell her that.
“You look like you’re the worst flyer in the whole academy!”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at that snide comment but wasn’t gonna take the bait.
“You’ll prob’ly quit after the first day!”
“No ma’am!” Rainbow disagreed while remaining stoic, “I’d never quit, ma’am!”
Spitfire smirked, liking that tenacious remark before moving onto the mare next to Rainbow Dash.
“What about you? Bet you couldn’t fly past the first flagpole without getting winded!”
“Try me, ma’am…” the mare remarked in a slightly challenging way that Spitfire lowered her sunglasses.
“What was that…?” she asked in a low tone, Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane watching the exchange out the left corners of their eyes.
“Let me show you what I’ve got, ma’am!” the mare said confidently.
“So… you want a chance to prove yourself, huh?”
“Yes, ma’am!” the mare replied almost eagerly.
“Then here’s your chance… gimme 500 laps,” Spitfire ordered before adding, “All of you!”
The cadets all groaned at the chore they’d just been given.
“NOW!” Spitfire snapped before harshly blowing her whistle, the cadets quickly taking off.
As she watched them get started, one of her assistant trainers asked, “Um, Captain… Is it really such a good idea to wear them out right off the bat?”
“Don’t you start with me, Fast Clip,” Spitfire said in a testy way. “I’ve already got the Wonderbolt Management Office on my ass, I don’t need it from you as well.”
“Would this have to do with that surprise inspector they told you about?” asked Spitfire’s other assistant, Whiplash.
“You’re damn right it is,” Spitfire said as she watched the noobs. She noticed out of the nine, four of them showed real promise. One of them was obviously Rainbow Dash, another was the one who gave Spitfire the challenging lip without actually disrespecting her. She also saw Thunderlane and noticed how he was maintaining a certain speed that allowed him to keep up with Rainbow Dash and also conserve his energy, hinting he might be more of an endurance flyer despite his impressive speed.
The fourth was the dark blue pegasus stallion with light red eyes. He flew like an amateur but she could tell he had experience, and for some reason she felt like she had seen him before but couldn’t put her feather on it.
The rest were flying at the average speed, some wearing themselves out a little too quickly, others just trying to get through the 500 laps, and all of them kept getting lapped by the four Spitfire had her eyes on.
“Those stuck-up office-types,” she growled to herself, “questioning my work ethics and abilities… I’ll show them, by whipping this sorry bunch into a class by themselves!”
After a while, Rainbow, Thunder, and Lightning, along with the blue stallion with red eyes were coming to their last lap.
“One more lap to go!” Rainbow noted to the others, giving them a challenging look.
“I’m game!” Thunderlane narrowed his eyes.
“You’re on!” added the turquoise mare.
The blue stallion simply smirked and had the nerve to take a head-start, forcing the other three to flap faster to catch up. Rainbow Dash trailed a rainbow, Thunderlane trailed an electric stream of cloud, the turquoise mare trailed lightning, and the blue stallion trailed a stream of vapor laced with electricity.
The stallions, fast as they were, were built more for endurance and so fell behind while the mares were neck in neck!
…and completed the 500th lap, Spitfire checking the stopwatch she had as her four most promising recruits all screeched to a skidding halt. She passed them by saying, with her snoot in the air, “Not bad… for a mob of noobs.”
The four of them shrugged as the mare introduced herself.
“Name’s Lightning Dust.”
“Rainbow Dash.”
“Thunderlane.”
“Call me Glide, seeya.”
The stallion called Glide made off rather quickly but his voice caught Rainbow Dash’s attention.
I could swear I’ve met him before…!
“Hey, I'm headed to the mess hall for some grub. Either of you hungry as well?” Lightning Dust asked Dash and Lane.
“Definitely,” Rainbow nodded.
“As a horse!” chuckled Thunder chuckled in a slightly cocky way.
Back in Ponyville, Twilight and Midnight were discussing some new spells Princess Celestia had sent them to study and were considering how to use them in Midnight’s experiments when there was a knock at the library door.
“Come in!” Twilight called and the door opened to reveal,” Applejack, what’s up?”
“Not Pinkie Pie t’ be sure,” Applejack answered as she came in.
“Oh no, she missing our favorite aspiring Wonderbolts?” asked Midnight with an unsurprised tone.
“Keeps lookin’ int’ her mailbox, hopin’ fer a letter from Dash n’ Thunder,” Applejack explained, “Ah suggested we come see yer new spells but she goes on a rant `bout how not reading a letter from Dash n’ Lane can lead t’ a whole mess o’ trouble. An’ Ah thawt Rarity was a drama-queen!”
“In other words, Pinkie’s being her unexplainable self,” Midnight chuckled understandingly.
“Darn tootin’,” Applejack shrugged. “So what were y’all talkin’ about before Ah came in?”
“It’s one of these spells the princess sent us,” Twilight explained. “It’s a spell that allows somepony to observe another’s dreams while they sleep by making a telepathic connection. Midnight suggested applying it in a way that allows somepony to observe a dream without the telepathic link.”
“The idea I have is to make a… window into a dream, I guess you could call it,” Midnight added. “This would enable us to watch a dream through the theoretical device, like television!”
“Sounds interestin’ but… Ah dunno, don’ tha’ sound a bit like an invasion o’ privacy?” Applejack brought up.
“Not unless the dreamer gives permission,” Midnight amended.
Back at the academy, the cadets had all been given their uniforms and goggles, and were standing single-file in front of Spitfire. Behind her was a large something concealed by a purple tarp, Fast Clip standing next to it while Whiplash was standing next to some kind of oversized and over-complicated speedometer.
“The Wonderbolts are the fastest, best precision fliers in the world,” Spitfire lectured, “but spinouts can still happen. When they do, a Wonderbolt must be able to recover quickly. Say hello to…”
Fast Clip took that cue and pulled off the tarp to reveal, “the Dizzi-tron!”
It was a giant wheel-like structure with a hypno-swirl pattern of purple and green. In the center was a cog interlocking with a bigger one, upon which was some kind of harness. In all honesty, it looked like a wild ride one could find at a carnival.
“It’s going to make you very – I repeat – very dizzy! The goal is to try an’ recover, and fly straight again ASAP! Once you have recovered, you must come in for a smooth landing. Now… who’s first?”
Unsurprisingly, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust raised their hooves, but Spitfire ignored them as she set her sights on a pink-coated and blonde maned pegasus named Wild Flower who stood at the end of the line closest to the Captain.
“You. You’re up.”
“Me?!” Wild Flower peered around Spitfire to look at the Dizzi-tron. She wasn’t even on it yet and already she was feeling woozy, gulping nervously.
“NOW!” Spitfire spat impatiently, Wild Flower zooming in a panic and getting herself set in. “Ready?”
Deciding to just get it over with, Wild Flower lowered her goggles, saying, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Go!” At Spitfire’s command, Whiplash activated the machine.
Everypony’s eyes followed Wild Flower as the machine accelerated while Wild Flower’s eyes teared up a bit in suspense.
“Release!”
Whiplash pulled a second lever, and the machine’s harness let Wild Flower go, sending her rolling head over tail into the sky.
She just barely managed to regain her sense of up n’ down and wobbly regained control as she went for her landing. However, Spitfire hadn’t been kidding – The Dizzi-tron had left Wild Flower’s eyes spiraling in her head as she came in, skidding and groaning, up to the Captain’s hooves.
“Ah, 15 seconds. Decent, but I wouldn’t go writing home about it. Who’s next?” Spitfire scanned the line. “Alright, Rainbow Dash! Let’s see what’cha got!”
“Yes ma’am!” Rainbow zipped onto the Dizzi-tron, eager to show Spitfire her stuff!
“Okay, go!”
Second verse was not so same as the first. Being a much more experienced flyer, Rainbow used the spinout to her advantage, enabling her to make a U-turn and quickly come in for a perfect landing.
“6 seconds!” Spitfire was impressed, as well as pleased. “That’s an academy record!”
Thunderlane smiled proudly of his friend as she alighted herself back into line, Wild Flower whispering in praise, “You make it look so easy!”
“Huh, I make everything look easy,” Rainbow boasted, Thunderlane rolling his eyes.
Humble as always, Dash.
“Okay, Lightning Dust, you’re up!” called Spitfire and Lightning quickly got ready. But as she got strapped in, her following words surprised everypony.
“Ma’am, can you set the Dizzi-tron at maximum speed? I wanna push my limits.”
The other cadets whispered in disbelief while Spitfire and Fast clip gave each other a look, Spitfire asking Dust, “You sure about that?”
“Yes ma’am!” Lightning Dust punctuated her response by snapping her goggles on.
“Okay, you asked for it,” Spitfire gave an approving nod to Whiplash, who started the machine.
But as the dizzy-tron got started, Whiplash cranked up the accelerator to maximum as Lightning had requested. But Spitfire let it spin for a tad longer than she had allowed for Wild Flower and Rainbow Dash before she yelled, “Release!”
Lightning Dust was sent for a spiral, outlined by her lightning trail, but she managed to use the acceleration and rose up before letting herself fall, keeping her limbs straight and her wings tucked until she came down far enough and she lifted up just enough to zoom along the runway to her landing.
“6.5 seconds, not bad!” Spitfire was blown. Perhaps Rainbow Dash wasn’t the jewel among this collection of newbies as she had originally thought!
Before long, everypony had taken their turn on the dizzy-tron. Rainbow Dash was happy to see Thunderlane had been timed 7 seconds and that other stallion, Glide, had timed 7.1.
Spitfire was pleased as well. There were plenty of promising recruits here, as well as a few that needed to polish their skills yet did show for some potential.
But that Glide character…
She regarded him as he stretched his wings. She’d paid him close attention as he’d taken his turn. Spitfire had a sharp eye, as any good captain should, because she had noticed Glide seemed to have intentionally slowed down just a little bit as he made his landing rather than doing it as quickly as he could. 7.1 was still impressive but she couldn’t help but feel that he’d deliberately held back!
Better keep an eye on that one. An’ perhaps he can help some of these guys.
She noticed Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Lightning Dust talking and called out, “Listen up! For the rest of the camp, you’ll be working in squads of three! Tomorrow morning I’ll post the teams and who will be lead pony and who will be wingponies. Good luck!”
“Like we’ll need it,” Lightning Dust said to Rainbow Dash as the teachers left.