//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - Reassignment // Story: Steady as She Flies // by Witching Hour //------------------------------// Witching Hour paces anxiously around her apartment, running through a mental check-list multiple times aloud, convinced she was forgetting something. “Relax Twitchy-Witchy… You’re not forgetting anything…” Monkey Wrench says with a sigh from her seat on a couch. “And it’s not like you’re going far. You’re not even leaving Canterlot!” she adds with a slight flip of her wings, sending rays of green light flashing from the crystalline edges. Witching Hour casts her pegasus friend an exasperated glance. “That’s not the point, Monkey!” she snaps irritably before sighing as well. “Did you even know the Wonderbolts had non-pegasi staff?!” she demands, flopping onto the other couch in the apartment the pair shared. Since Witching Hour had saved Monkey Wrench’s ability to fly, the unlikely pair had been nearly inseparable. Monkey Wrench had moved to Canterlot to keep her physical therapy/retraining herself to fly with Witching Hour, and eventually that lead to spending their downtime together… Which lead to Monkey Wrench getting a job with the Weather Team, and them moving into an apartment together about a month before Witching Hour’s newest assignment from Princess Luna. “And that’s not the point either, Witch,” Monkey retorts. “You don’t even have to pack to move into the compound. It’s barely further than you walk to get to the castle. And I’ve already promised that the house won’t become a sty. Chill, girl… You realize how lucky you are? You get to work with the Wonderbolts! I would happily maim to get another shot at flying with them!” Witching Hour turns a frustrated glare on Monkey Wrench, brushing a stray lock of blue mane back into place. “Monkey… We’ve been over this… There’s no reason you couldn’t try to join…” Monkey cut the unicorn off by spreading one wing out, the crystal edge sending another sparkling array of green light throughout their living area. “Um… I think that’s a perfectly good reason…” “And I’ve told you that it’s not…” “It is!” Monkey snaps, and turns to look out the window, attempting to end the uncomfortable conversation. “Oh for buck’s sake, Monkey!” Witching Hour sighs, getting up and standing in front of her roommate. “It’s not cheating that your natural wing power makes you go faster and turn sharper now…” she says, poking at Monkey’s chest with her hoof. “So what if you say it’s not… Not everyone agrees with you, Witch. You’re not a pegasus,” Monkey replied, turning hard green eyes on her friend. Her eyes catch on the wall-mounted clock and she sighs, shaking her head, causing her short red mane to flip wildly. “Look, Witch… I appreciate the encouragement, but it’s not going to change the fact that my competitive flying days are done… And if you want to argue more about it, you know where I sleep, because if you don’t get going soon, you’ll be late for your first shift.” Witch looks as though she were about to argue, but then the words ‘going to be late’ sunk into her brain. “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Dammit all!!!” Witch wails, running into her room, then reappearing with her work saddlebag over her lab coat before she zips into the kitchen and dashes out of the apartment, levitating a lunch bag ahead of her. Almost immediately after the door closed behind her, it opens and Witch peers around the edge. “Don’t think this conversation is over, Miss Wrench!” she states firmly, glowering at the pegasus. Monkey, though irritated at the unicorn’s persistence, merely raises an eyebrow at her. “Late?” she suggests simply, garnering Witch’s panicked reaction and the door slams behind her again. Witch gallops hard through the streets of Canterlot, her lunch bag now stashed safely in her saddlebag. With her stipend from her parents and Princess Luna, combined with Monkey’s income, they’d managed to afford a much nicer place than she’d had before, and was therefore much closer to the hospital. Of course, that point was now moot, since the Princess had enlisted her with the Wonderbolts, but it wasn’t much further to get to the Wonderbolts compound. Her mind still spins with thoughts as she concentrates on running hard to get to the compound. Just like Monkey to use her ‘early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable’ thought process to get herself out of the conversation. She’d been there when Monkey had been called a cheater. It had been at a small competition for young pegasi in Canterlot. The race had been nothing huge or important; just for fun and pride… But one pegasus that took losing poorly had called Monkey a cheater since her wings had obviously been meddled with. Witch slowed her pace as she got into more crowded avenues, only managing a slow trot through the masses of ponies around. She was frustrated with Monkey for letting it get under her skin; it was just a sour comment from a sore loser, but Monkey had decided afterwards that she’d have nothing to do with competitive flying whatsoever. She had even tossed the small winged trophy she’d gotten for first place in the trash. (Witch had rescued it on multiple occasions until she finally hid it in her room.) Witch sighs, stopping at a cross street, and shakes her head. She resigns herself to  worrying about Monkey later… For now, she had to concentrate on work. She glances around quickly, glad to see that her thoughts had not taken her off her path to the compound. She turns right, and finds the streets thankfully less packed the further into the high end district she got. She still had trouble with the knowledge Princess Luna had leveled on her two weeks before; that the Wonderbolts were actually a military organization, and earth ponies and unicorns were among them as ground support! And now she was joining them?! She shakes her head, one of the restrained tails of her mane flipping into her face before she puffs a breath at it to get it back in place. She looks up the steps to the compound, feeling a little daunted. While Luna had been correct in stating that her work at Canterlot General was starting to take its toll on her, Witch wasn’t, and still isn’t, sure it was such a great idea to reassign her to a new practice… Would she still be doing medical work? Probably… Celestia and Luna knew how often training injuries happened, even without the idea that the Wonderbolts were also training to do combat. But Luna had also implied that she’d need to stretch herself into new areas for this… She couldn’t help but worry anxiously about what exactly she’d be doing. Witch takes the steps quickly up to the entrance and goes in. Upon entering, Witch feels a new swell of anxiety, and distinctly tiny in the grand foyer. Her eyes go wide as she takes the whole place in; three floors, and lots of pegasi flitting about. Feeling horribly out of place, she pushes the urge to turn right back around and head straight back home aside, reminding herself that Monkey would never let her hear the end of it if she did, and slowly approaches the front desk where a unicorn stallion (‘Oh thank Luna, another unicorn here!’ she thinks with a mental sigh of relief) sorts the mail. “Um… Ahem… Excuse me?” she starts, gaining his attention. “I’m Witching Hour… Princess Lu-” “Ah yes! Witching Hour,” he says before pulling a note taped to the near edge of the mail desk. “Princess Luna said to expect you today… Report to Siren Bliss in the trainer room, and she’ll have your schedule. Just head past the staircase, then hang a right down the hall to the east wing; just past the mess hall on the right.” “Thank you very much,” Witch replies and starts to head in the direction indicated before the stallion catches her attention again. “And hey!” he starts, and waits for her to turn around before continuing. “Welcome to the Wonderbolts.”