The Wonderbolts Initiative

by ScrambledCrackers


Wonderbolts Initiative: Your Flight Magic Primer [INTERNAL USE ONLY ROOKIE!]

The Wonderbolts Initiative

SEMPER VIGILANTES

Initial Flight Magic Primer

RESTRICTED DOCUMENT

Welcome Rookie.

If you’ve got a brain in your head like you must for getting accepted to our ranks, you’re already expecting this won’t be as dry as other military organizations in service to our Princesses.

We are the Wonderbolts.  We play by different rules.

The purpose of this short primer is giving you a quick rundown of some basic facts about us, pegasi flight magic, and some culture here.

As you know, our organization was created to carry on Commander Hurricane’s understanding of the Pegasus Warrior and our role in a more peaceful future of the united pony tribes.  Recognizing that although we may stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters among the Earth Ponies and Unicorns in peace, it is our duty to never forget we are ultimately their foremost protectors against hostile forces.

Unicorns take care of magical threats and help the tribes light up the world around them.  Earth Ponies form much of the foundation of our society and their hard work keeps us fed.  As Pegasi, our task is to keep an eye out for those on the ground and smooth out the weather.

Wonderbolts hold to our duty to forever be vigilant against the things no other can face.

Though we perform shows around the world, operate as the absolute best search and rescue teams on Equus and represent Equestria on more goodwill missions than any other organization in the various Equestrian Guard forces, we are doing them as second to our primary purpose.

At all times, we must be vigilant for when the moment arrives that groundies need us in the air above.  When danger arrives, so too shall we Wonderbolts appear and strike down any that would bring harm to our charges.  No matter what challenge attempts to rise, we answer.

We are peerless warriors above all.

Pegasi Flight Magic & Skyborne Elementals

Main functions of Pegasus Flight Magic

Pegasus flight magic and our natural inclination to wield part of the power of the sky is a mystery to most outside our organization.  The ancient clans we once flew as together left us a legacy of fighting potential that rivals anything the Unicorns brought with their magic.  Perhaps even greater in some ways.  There is plenty I could throw at you here, but you’ll have classes that cover this so I won’t waste the time.  We’ll be running you through plenty of details later, so I’ll just let you look over the basics.

One of the first things to understand is we fly on more than just flapping our wings.  If you made it this far without understanding the basics from Flight Camp when you were a foal, I don’t know how you got here.  As you know, we have minor gravity distortion when we fly.  Our mass and inertia is reduced.  All but the most rudimentary fliers understand how to curve the air around themselves as they move to improve drag characteristics.  Our not quite streamlined bodies become excellent in flight as a result.

Like ordinary birds that flutter around wishing they were as good as us pegasi, we grow up with the innate gift of flight instincts that allows almost all of us to enjoy basic tricks and stunts based on simple aerodynamics.  We can take turns tighter, climb faster, dive harder, and come to a stop quicker than anything else in the air.  We are natural masters of flight.

Skyborne Elementals & The Five Primary Types

Now we’re going to start going into things the public has largely forgotten.

We are born of the sky and it speaks to and through us with the natural elements we guide into harmony with our well-known weather control, not so unlike the gryphons and hippogriff races, though we are the most capable.

However, we pegasi are also born elementalists of the sky.

What has been almost forgotten outside our ranks is the fact that every pegasus is born with a connection to and capability to wield those very same elements when they’ve been taught accordingly.  The sparking clouds we often trail for airshows are one of the common skills we can all express within our Skyborne elemental abilities.

Beyond just the Treaties of the Unification, Commander Hurricane saw how important it was for the Pegasus Tribe to both preserve and restrict how to use our natural born talents as elemental warriors.  Alone, we can hit hard and fast.  As a united team however, we can raise forces of nature only the Princesses themselves would ever consider putting to use, to say nothing of the fact they’re the only one’s with enough power.  Be it creating clouds out of thin air or ripping apart a tornado before it hits a town, it is just a glimpse of our power.  And there is so much more than just wind and cloud.

Just don’t forget that anything you do depends on your being in the air and flying.  Some things are possible when standing on a cloud, but our Skyborne connections suffer when we are not in flight.  Touching the ground can often inhibit everything and leave you with only basic flight magic.

Wind Types

The first and most common incarnation of the Skyborne elementals are those born of Wind.  Those attuned to the wind around them have the capacity to fly faster and with more control than the other four in many cases and particularly storm conditions.  With proper training, those that wield the wind can learn how to shape different forms and even blades out of the air itself to cut through a number of different things or simply blast them apart through air pressure.  Being warriors, this is of course focused on it’s use as a weapon against threats.  I’m sure you can figure out the rest from that.

They wield a Sonic Cloudboom as their most basic signature.  Loud as thunder in Tartarus if unrestrained and a lot of concussive force with a ring cloud appearing at the leading edge of the shockwave which dissipates as it expands.

Some common humor is calling them Noisemakers, Huff’n’Puffs, and Shakies.

You’ll figure out how we fly by the end of your first day or we’ll have no end of fun messing with you, Rookie.

Eh, who am I kidding?  We’ll mess with you anyway.

Water Types

For those born of Water, they’ll have a natural inclination to pull rain out of clouds with hardly an effort, and even from the very moisture in the air once properly trained.  Despite water not sounding very dangerous, do not underestimate what water types are capable of.  You get in a sparring match and take a high speed water ball to the chest or wing, you’ll see just how much impact they can deliver.  In specific situations, they can work with two of the other types for particularly useful options, though I will not cover team maneuvers here.  They tend to function more as supportive than direct attackers if they lack the right level of experience.

Wielders of the Sonic Waterboom, they cause a sudden burst of water in a broad ring splash.  Smallest shockwave but hits like a charging Minotaur if they set one off next to anything solid and can even crack most unfortified walls, much like fires.  Yeah, doesn’t sound as interesting on the surface but they have their uses.  Of particular note is their natural abilities make them exceptional at firefighting operations.  I think that’s all you need to figure the rest.

Some names include Tinklers, Fancy Lawn Sprinklers, and Splat Masters.

The latter is usually used when they show somepony that doesn’t give them their due just how much water, or how little really, a skilled Water type can knock you down with, soaking wet, into the nearest cloud.

Ice Types

For those born of Ice, one of the more unique traits is an incredible resistance to cold.  Naturally, we pegasi are resistant to cold of course.  We fly high in the air over mountains covered with snow and just smile at the tops below us.  These cold-loving bastards are on a whole different level though.  They are capable of flying in conditions that ground the rest of us.  For reasons not fully explained, they do not suffer from wing icing in a winter storm or other similar conditions.  Able to condense moisture in the air and draw together chunks of solid ice beside themselves in the air, they have a powerful capacity for creating their own weapons.  Other unusual capabilities include forming hardened ice over a part of their own bodies in makeshift bandages, or even splints, if medical attention is not an immediate option.  Their ice only melts when they tell it to or they land.

They wield the Sonic Iceboom.  These are not to be taken lightly, even in training.  If uncontrolled, they have the potential to spontaneously generate shards that scatter with a substantial amount of force.  Those attuned to ice need to be taught control before you’re allowed to have free license to pull your booms around others or in anything less than a cloudless sky.  It is easy to control, however, leaving snow behind instead of ice shards.

They tend to hear themselves called Cold Crunchies, Numbnuts, and Brainfreezers.

Lightning Types

Those pegasi born of Lightning have a special gift.  Capable of building up static charges of a very wide range of strength, then direct the gathered energy, Lightning types are very capable fighters.  As part of the unique properties of their natural capabilities, they are also adept at non-lethal submission.  Granted, when we Wonderbolts go to fight, it is a rare blessing we’re not trying to kill a threat outright.  That said, they wield the power of lightning.  They have the potential to strike without warning and from unusual angles.  When they have enough skill, a lightning type can fire off a bolt of lighting they have charged up in any direction around them.  And they pack as much force as they can build up an electrical charge for.  Never try sparring with them in dry or ionized air if you aren’t looking for a serious challenge.

Wielders of the unusual Sonic Lightningboom, they have a heck of a sight for their boom with a ring of lightning spraying outward in one big flash.  Depending on how it is put to use, the lightningboom can be punishing electrical force or just set your mane and tail all frizzy, including the wielder.  Unlike the other boom forms, they require a chargeup time of some kind.  Has the potential to be as devastating as an Iceboom if ever you were fighting unassisted and didn’t have to worry about teammates in the air nearby.

Frequently dubbed Sparkies, Zap Slaps, and Bug Zappers.

Fire Types

Now to those born of Fire.  It goes without saying, fires have destructive potential.  Their natural affinity to flame and the ability to create fire and smoke from the air itself is something of an enigma compared to the other four elementals.  Fire is deeply tied to the air and in some rare natural weather events, can spawn naturally on Equus.  Capable of not only generating sustainable flames out of nowhere, fires can shape their flames.  That’s right, they manipulate fire like a wind type makes blades of air.  Be it balls they can launch or spikes of flame that can potentially pierce a target, fires are powerful in a fight against anything that doesn’t have resistance like a dragon.  Interestingly, fires can even wrap their flames around their bodies for several seconds at a time and use it like a shield from any fire they pass through.  Done right, they are practically immune to fire and nearly as good at firefighting operations as waters, due to their ability to snuff flames as much as make them.

Capable of the Sonic Fireboom, they are the only ones able to throw more concussive force than a cloudboom and almost as loud when they want to be.  Typical firebooms cause a large fireball that explodes into an expanding ring of smoke and flame.  Handled right, the force can be muted down to almost nothing even as a hot wave of air gets sent off.  Another form, they can set off something like a shaped blasting charge.  Like ice types and cold, in addition to their capacity to make a fire shield of sorts, they have almost dragon-like resistance to fire and local heat, though not to physical objects that happen to be hot.

You may often refer to them as Smokehouses, Five Alarms, and Coughing Colts/Fillies.

The Outsiders

Now that we’ve giving you a brief rundown of the primary stuff, there are two more types of flight magic we can classify, as well as mention the thestral divergence.  The following three summaries will give you an idea about thestrals and their different connection to the Skyborne elemental set, the practitioners of Cutting Feather, and the anomalous standout commonly referred to by a number of names.

We Wonderbolts traditionally refer to it as Commander Hurricane’s Legacy for the history buffs, but most of us just call it the Stuff Of Legends.

Thestrals

I won’t go into the story of where they came from.  There’s a library at the academy if you don’t already know, Rookie.  The reason they are mentioned separately here is because they have the strange capacity to wield only Wind, Ice, and Lighting affinities.  In addition, they always wield two.  In a seeming balance, thestrals are also often naturally weaker at each than a pegasus with one alone.  The reasons for this have yet to be well explained and ties into their origins, but suffice to say, for the few thestrals with strong enough flight magic to reach our ranks, and there have been quite many over the past thousand years since they first appeared, make them powerful allies in a fight.  If for no other reason than they can mix their dual set and attendant capabilities better than any team pair could ever hope for.

Practitioners of Cutting Feather

For reasons I’ve only ever heard speculation on, the pegasi born in this rare group have no Skyborne elemental affinity to speak of.  Beyond standard flight magic, it’s simply not there.  What makes them stand out is a very peculiar affinity to the ground.  Most notably, these pegasi have a strong capacity to manipulate particles of dust and soil around themselves.  There are even confirmed reports of them having the capability to navigate in the full blind conditions of a dust storm.  Something no other pegasi are capable of.

They are named after the martial style their unique gift spawned which dates back a few thousand years.  The Cutting Feather style is both dangerous enough and valuable enough that any Cutting Feather-capable pegasus wishing to study must sign up with the Guard, though that does mean they’re paid to study.  Capable of forming said particles, dust and sand into any shape they wish so long as they’re physically connected to it, their limitations are restricted more by imagination than anything else, assuming their unusual flight magic is strong enough.  They possess the ability to harden and make blades out of their own feathers to rival most steel weapons at will, hence where their name came from.  They can even form plates from dust as hard as stone if they are sufficiently advanced, effectively making them equipment neutral so long as they can get their hooves on enough dirt and sand.  They are the only pegasi that experience no difference in their flight magic whether in flight or standing on the ground.

Stuff Of Legends

This final form of Pegasus flight magic is something special.

According to legends and history, much of it preserved only because the Princesses  themselves carried it through the Reign of Discord in their memory, it was what Commander Hurricane herself wielded.  I know, sounds out there.  I thought the same thing back when I first joined the ranks, since I wasn’t into the legends growing up.  Since the Reign of Discord however, we have numerous accounts of it being wielded by some of the greatest pegasi heroes in history.  Every single one born with it that rose to become a hero, I am proud to say, ended up a Wonderbolt.

Both in the legends of Commander Hurricane and our more recent examples, this form of flight magic is unique.  Not for being some uber power pegasus thing, but because they don’t follow the rules of the Skyborne elementals by being limited to only one elemental.

They have all five.

Yes, you read that right.  All five Skyborne elementals as a single affinity.  Some prissyflank unicorns like to claim they’re a sixth elemental, saying it’s an affinity for straight up energy.  Personally, I don’t think it really even matters what we call it.  We call it the Stuff Of Legends because every pegasus with it that’s joined us has been one.

Near as we can tell, for reasons not even the Princesses have speculated on, only one pegasus is born every three generations with this gift, although we currently have not seen a single sign of one for over twelve straight generations now.

Oftentimes, they have capacity but lack the flight magic strength to rise to something great.  This is unfortunate, but it tends to appear somewhat random with how strong they are.  Those that have grown up to become one of us were living legends in their time.  When we Wonderbolts manage to locate a pony that shows signs of carrying this special gift, we try to keep an eye on them if they demonstrate an interest in a flight career, especially when they hope to join us someday.  A few of them have chosen peaceful lives, which they are free to do.

We keep information on this a secret even within our own ranks.  Don’t want idiots trying to pretend and getting their flanks hurt attempting the impossible.  Their special capability has been gone long enough at this point their signature boom has been relegated to myth.  We among the Wonderbolts keep waiting though, since we’ll see that hallmark again someday.  It’s not the first gap in the pattern after all.  Eventually like always, a pegasus will be born with it and be strong enough to pull off their signature move around the time they grow up to become an adult.

Personally, I hope I get to see one of their stunning trademarks in my lifetime.

A Sonic Rainboom.