“Hey Monkey!”
Monkey turns her head slightly to see the dark-red stallion closing in on her right wing. It’d been a long flight to get to the Wonderbolt Academy, but the leisurely flying is exactly what Monkey wants at this point. “Hey Leaf… Long time, no see. How was Vietmane?” she asks as the high plateau comes into view from behind a cloud.
“Eh… You know… Running errands for Double Dee, keeping her camp supplied, making sure the locals don’t try to kill us… The usual…” he replies with a slight shrug as they continue their wide arc towards the landing strip spanning the diameter of the academy grounds. “I’m surprised Sis didn’t keep you in Canterlot…” he comments dryly, and Monkey scoffs at him.
“Please… After all the hassle I put her through over competitive flying, I’d have to break these for her to even think about having me stay home…” she retorts and then barrel-rolls, sending rays of green light flashing off the crystal edges.
“S’pose that’s true…” Leaf laughs in reply as they spot a group of flight cadets with a squad of Wonderbolts, seemingly waiting for something… Or rather more accurately, the time when all second-time cadets were supposed to report in.
“Shit…” they curse simultaneously, turning sharply and diving in for a landing with the gathered cadets.
As soon as the pair land and drop their bags behind them, the captain of the Wonderbolts squad, a muscular light red mare in full uniform with her black mane and tail cropped short, steps forward, eyeing all of them with a skeptical expression in her green eyes.
“Alright Cadets,” the mare says in a no-nonsense voice. “Listen up, because I am only going to say this once!” she stops in front of the first Cadet in the line. “I am Captain Riptide of the Elite Squad Six. I’ve been tasked with whipping your sorry plots into shape.” She starts down the line, her eyes narrowed. “The three behind me are my squad mates, who have the honor of assisting me!” She stops in front of Monkey and Leaf, eyeing both of them sternly. “We will be pushing you to your limits, and we will be pushing them to the point I am sure some of you will break.”
Riptide turns, and starts down the line again, “Why, you might be asking yourself, are we doing this?” One of the pegasi in the line raises a hoof, and Tide instantly rounds on them with a growl, “That was rhetorical, now put that hoof down before I make you eat it!” The poor soul lowers their hoof with a whimper, Tide narrowing her eyes. “Good, you can follow orders.” She resumes her pacing. “And before anypony else gets it into their heads that they know the answer, you don’t.” She stops and points to one of her squadmates, a grey stallion with a dark brown mane, “Commander Dancer, what are the Wonderbolts?”
“The Wonderbolts are the first and last line of defense for Equestria against threats that go above and beyond the Royal Guard and regular military forces,” the stallion replies in a near shout, standing at attention in the line beside the other two squadmates. Captain Riptide nods and resumes her pacing.
“That’s right! We might fly around in pretty patterns for the general public, but you all signed up to be Wonderbolts, and I’m not going to sugar coat it. You’re all going to train like us, eat like us, and sleep like us. By the end of this, if you don’t have bruises the same color as her,” she says, pointing to a dark-blue mare (who smiles and waves slightly at the line of cadets which earns herself flat stare from Tide), “then you haven’t tried hard enough!” She rounds on the cadets and points at them, the one directly in front of her shrinking a little. “And you had better try your hardest! Or by Luna’s crescent-marked backside, I’ll give you nightmares so horrible, even she won’t be able to pull your sorry tails out of them! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Leaf practically shouts his reply, already mimicking the Wonderbolts under Captain Riptide’s command and standing at attention, while the rest of the cadets, Monkey included, are still trying to digest Commander Dancer’s description for the Wonderbolts and only manage a few scattered and shaky answers of “Yes ma’am.”
Tide, initially scowling at the rest of the recruits, turns her attention on Leaf with a raised eyebrow. “Looks like at least one of you can reply with any sort of quickness! Doesn't mean you've earned any points in my book! In fact, you're a little too eager for this! Perhaps you need to run off some of that energy! Gimme five-hundred laps, all of you! See if some exercise loosens your tongues!”
Monkey knows better than to groan like a few of the other recruits, so she immediately takes off, a downstroke of her wings behind Leaf.
“On your -” Without thinking, Monkey whips around to her left, smacking Leaf in the face with her tray.
“Say that one more time Leaf, and I’m siccing Tricks on you… I will fly to Ponyville, bring him back and have him torment you for the rest of the two weeks, whatever Witch might think of it,” Monkey deadpans in all seriousness.
Leaf chuckles, rubbing his nose. “Oh c’mon, Monks… You can’t blame me for being better at long distance flying… I gotta keep up with Double Dee somehow! Besides, you saw first-hoof how I can’t turn at speed…”
Monkey smirks back at him, the memory of how many times her friend’s brother had plowed headlong into an obstacle giving her no small amount of vindication. “You’d better be more careful going forward… Don’t want Doctor Witching Hour to have to save her baby brother’s wings too, now…” she teases with a grin.
“Yeah… I dunno… But say she did, do you think she could make mine purple? Green looks terrible on me…”
Monkey’s amused demeanor vanishes, and she whacks the back of his head with her wing hard enough to make him stagger forward. “Don’t even joke about that, Leaf. I’ll tell her to make you walk for a week,” she retorts seriously, her voice and face flat and clearly unamused. Leaf, to his credit, smiles sheepishly, ducking his head slightly as they move forward in the press of pegasi jockeying for lunch. Sighing, she shakes her head, unable to stay angry at him. “C’mon… Witch said the safest bet at lunch is the sandwich line…”
They start to break out of the main line to head in the direction of the deli counter, only a voice behind them calls out, “Hey wait up!” Monkey and Leaf turn slightly to look, spotting the waving navy blue stallion with streaks of sky blue in his darker blue mane. Both remember the pegasus as one that hadn’t done particularly well in either endurance or the obstacle runs, but fairly well in his wingball match, rallying his group into a passable strategy, had they been capable of executing it with any sort of effectiveness.
“What’s up?” Monkey asks as Leaf turns back to the line and starts ordering his lunch. The pegasus pants slightly, looking a fair bit battered from their rigorous morning and a touch out of breath. He smiles shyly at Monkey, a slight blush barely visible under his dark coat.
“Sorry… but I heard you talking about Doctor Witching Hour… Princess Luna’s student, correct?” he asks, receiving a brief nod from Monkey in confirmation. “I met her at the Grand Galloping Ball… Um… Oh! I’m Midnight Storm.” He again looks embarrassed, so Monkey smiles reassuringly.
“Well, nice to meet you. I’m Monkey Wrench, Witch’s roommate, patient, friend and several other things…”
“Marefriend,” Leaf coughs loudly, making Monkey scowl and hit his head with her wing again.
“Please… I’m always going to be a patient to her… Between her and your mom, it’s like I never left Cloudsdale,” she retorts irritably with a roll of her eyes. “And this oaf who moonlights as a comedian is her brother, Leaf Wind,” she adds with a quick jerk of her head in his direction while turning back to Midnight Storm. “So, you met our Witch at the ball, huh? Well, she said she was in the receiving line… Oh wait! You’re the guy she cut out of dancing with!”
Monkey grins as Leaf whips around, stopping mid-order to the sandwich server, and Midnight Storm turns practically purple from blushing. “Chill, Leaf… Witchy was just stressed out… You know how she is when she’s like that. One wrong word and she’s out of the room faster than you can imagine her with wings and call her ‘Soarin’!” Monkey cuts him off, clarifying the situation so Leaf wouldn’t think Midnight Storm had done anything to hurt his sister.
Leaf still gives Midnight Storm a stink-eye before turning back and finishing his order, making Monkey laugh before she shoulder-bumps the still-blushing stallion. “Relax Stormy… Brothers are generally protective of their sisters… Especially when their as high-strung as our Witchy,” Monkey explains, finally breaking Midnight Storm out of his mortified freeze.
The trio get through the line easily, though to their amusement and brief delay, Midnight Storm has at least five glasses of water carefully balanced on his tray, not including the few he downed while filling his glasses.
As they take an open end of one table, there’s a small commotion when a dappled white and gray mare drops her tray nearly on top of Midnight Storm’s and goes speeding off towards the squad who’d been running them ragged this morning and had just entered the cafeteria; specifically, the yellow stallion who’d been mostly silent but for occasionally making whispered comments that made the dark blue mare laugh and subsequently made Captain Riptide scowl.
“CLEAR!!!” she shouts, her silver-streaked dark blue mane streaming behind her. The veritable sea of pegasi between her and the yellow stallion parts, some diving directly under the tables, assuming that her call was for a clear path. The mare’s target looks up at the shout, his blue eyes widening as she careens towards him.
“Horsefeathers,” he curses, having only time to brace himself before the mare collides with him, sending them both tumbling back through the doors. The dark blue mare collapses in a fit of giggles, clutching her sides as she rolls about on the floor.
While Captain Riptide simply rolls her eyes and heads towards the food lines, Commander Dancer snorts, looking through the doors. “Sweet Celestia, Sky… Even your little sister can knock you over? She’s not that buff, so obviously you need to stop slacking in training…”
Whatever Sky’s response was, it makes the mare laugh even harder, sending her back to the floor. All the while, Monkey, Midnight Storm and Leaf look on in bemused confusion.
“Our group has the little sister of one of our instructors…” Midnight Storm states, though his voice rises slightly as though in question.
“And she just tackled him through the door…” Monkey adds, trying not to laugh.
“I know how he feels…” Leaf comments drily as Sky and his sister come back through the doors.
“Says the colt who wouldn’t believe that his sister was actually a Wonderbolt until his marefriend confirmed it?” Monkey smirks as Leaf sputters into his glass of orange juice.
“The Wonderbolts accept unicorns?” Midnight Storm exclaims in surprise. “And Doctor Witching Hour is among them?”
“Sure do! They’re in research and training, mainly.” The dappled mare who’d tackled Sky returns just then, sliding into the seat across from Midnight Storm and next to Monkey. “They’ve even got earth ponies in their security and trainer forces. I’m Starry Sky, by the way. Hi! Sorry about nearly dumping my tray on you.”
Midnight Storm smiles and waves his hoof to dismiss the need for her apology. “No harm done. I’m Midnight Storm. You’re sitting next to Monkey Wrench, and this is Leaf Wind.”
“Sky said the team listings would be up after lunch,” Starry Sky says, smiling.
“I just hope I’m not stuck with all the clutzes they grouped me with me before,” Monkey responds drily.
“Hey! I was one of those clutzes!” Leaf exclaims, indignant.
“And how many obstacles did you crash into again?” Monkey fires back, a skeptical eyebrow raised.
“All of them, and several that weren’t even on the course,” Leaf retorts, sounding almost proud of it.
“I don’t think you have much room to complain, Miss Wrench… At least you didn’t have my group…” Midnight Storm sighs heavily in irritation. “I’m pretty sure they’d need instructions to find their own plots, and even then, they’d find ways to screw it up…”
Starry, Leaf and Monkey all laugh loudly.
“Well that’s good luck,” Monkey mutters with a smirk as she retreats from the press of veteran cadets to rejoin Leaf, Midnight Storm and Starry. “Well Stormy, looks like you did something right during that wingball game. You’re the leader of Cadet Squad Apple…” she says, smiling as Leaf and Starry both continue to stare at her expectantly, their eyes attempting to bore holes into her brain as though that would extract the information they desired. “Yes, we’re his squad-mates. Let’s go claim our beds… A note attached to the flier said we need to take two bunks for our group.”
“OH MY GOSH I’M SO GLAD I’M GROUPED WITH YOU GUYS!!!” Starry squeals happily, jumping and putting her arms around Leaf and Midnight Storm.
Midnight Storm grunts and his knees nearly buckle under the mare’s enthusiastic gesture. “Ouch… Starry… Ease up… I’m still wrecked from the other tests,” he groans.
Starry giggles, but does release him, hopping to Leaf’s other side to mimic the action with him and Monkey. “Yes sir, Captain, sir!”
Monkey chuckles as Midnight Storm groans again, shaking his head, while Leaf simply dips his wing under Starry and flips her onto his back. Starry makes a squeak of protest as she moved and then scowls at Leaf. “What was that for?!” she demands crossly, though not irritated enough to remove herself from his back.
Leaf merely shrugs, and answers, “If you’re going to molest your squadmates, I’d rather it be me. You’re making Stormy turn purple from blushing so hard, and Witchy’ll get jealous.”
“My doctor has no reason to be jealous over who touches me, Leaf… Dee, on the other hoof, does have reason to get jealous over who touches you,” Monkey retorts, glaring at Leaf with narrowed eyes.
Leaf shrugs again. “Eh… Dee won’t kill me for carting a hoovesy mare on my back… All I have to do is remind her how many times she would’ve starved or poisoned herself on her adventures without me.”
“Ah, true love,” Monkey comments, rolling her eyes and voice full of sarcasm, “apparently synonymous with survival instincts…”
Meanwhile…
Fire Streak sighs wistfully as he waits for the crowd around the bulletin board to clear to post the pairings for the first-time academy attendees, his eyes following the odd group of veteran cadets, and the dappled white and gray mare specifically.
“Was that Lieutenant Clear Sky’s sister?” asks the blue stallion that stands beside him.
Fire Streak sighs again, nodding. “Indeed, Second Commander,” he answers, clearly distracted.
“Isn’t your sister in the Recruits?” Wave Chill continues, rather confused at the preoccupation of his partner in training the new cadets.
“Yes, that’s Aurora. Recruit Squad Alpha, under Captain Dusk Glimmer,” Fire replies, almost mumbling now.
“Must be nice having a sibling that doesn’t infuriate you around all the time…” Wave comments, trying to draw his companion out.
“It would be… If she gave me the time of day in a clock factory… She never responds to anything beyond an order, and then only with ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir’...” Fire responds irritably, frustration evident in his voice and posture.
“I could understand why she mightn’t like your brother, but…” Wave starts, his own brows furrowing in confusion.
“I’m lead to believe that it has something to do with how my brother and I were protective of her growing up…” Fire starts. “You can imagine my brother was not quite as tactful as he could have been, and while I did try to explain myself logically to her on several occasions, she views us both as overbearing,” he explains further. “What little contact I have with her is through Dusk Glimmer giving me regular updates on how she’s doing…”
“Well… at least your sister isn’t like the Captain’s…”
As if on cue, Blaze enters the cafeteria, swearing about paperwork, cursing Silver Lining for assigning her to the paperwork, and then shouting vulgarities at the chefs until they give her all the jalapenos she desires. Fire and Wave exchange a look of shared understanding, smiling slightly before Fire moves to post the list of Lead and Wing ponies.