//------------------------------//
// After the Performance 
// Story: No Hard Feelings, Rainbow Dash 
// by twilightsparkle3562 
//------------------------------//

               Rainbow Dash sighed “I sure dodged a bullet.” she glumly told herself. The said bullet had been being kicked out of The Wonderbolts, the group she had dreamed of joining ever since she was a filly.

                The newly full fledged member of the premiere flight team was currently looking back on how her first official show with The Wonderbolts had ended so disastrously. One moment, the retirement of one of the veteran Wonderbolts was the opportunity of a lifetime, the next it was a personal Tartarus for the rookie that had come so far.

              Rainbow Dash could remember how difficult it had been just to make it into the reverses, she had barely passed the entrance exam after an insanely stressful study session the day before. Since then, she’d only flown with The Wonderbolts once, at a special party for Princess Celestia in Canterlot. And although Rainbow Dash had enjoyed her moment in the spotlight, the mood had been ruined by the fact that another Wonderbolt had tried to frame her for Spitfire’s disappearance.

               However, the recent events that had transpired, had all started with Rainbow Dash being saddled with a mortifying nickname from her fillyhood. “Rainbow Crash” was a nickname she’d hoped she’d never hear again, after pulling off the Sonic Rainboom for The Best Young Flyers Competition. And as a result, she’d ended up making a complete idiot out of herself. 

“If only I hadn’t been so thickheaded and just tried to talk things out with Spitfire, I could’ve saved myself the embarrassment. Now I’m pretty sure some of The Wonderbolts are never gonna let me live this ordeal down,” Rainbow Dash thought to herself. 

And now, here she was, on probation. That mean cleaning the Wonderbolts’ compound for an entire month.     Still, Rainbow Dash kept her spirits up despite the situation she was in. At least she hadn’t clipped her wing like Soarin had, or crashed in front of Spitfire like Fleetfoot had. And the less said about what Spitfire had done to earn her embarrassing nickname, the better.

             



             As Rainbow Dash finished cleaning the compound's bedroom, a knock was heard on the door. “That’s odd, I thought everypony had gone home.” Dash thought to herself.

"Dash," called a voice, Rainbow Dash recognizing at once who the voice belonged to, Rainbow Dash responded with. "Mind if I come in for a minute?"
          
"Sure, Spitfire," replied Rainbow Dash.  She was slightly confused when her superior and captain came walking into the room, but not for the reason she was probably thinking. This was first time since becoming a Wonderbolt that Rainbow Dash had been called by her normal name. Still, she had a job to do, and she didn’t want Spitfire to think she was slacking off. 

"I was, uh, just finishing up with making the beds and such." she nervously told Spitfire.

 "That doesn't matter right now," sighed Spitfire as she advanced towards her most promising Wonderbolt. "There’s something I want to talk to you about, Dash. Something I should’ve tried to do much earlier. I just hope we weren't too hard on you."

"Hard on me for what, Spitfire?" Rainbow Dash asked, a hint of confusion in her voice. "You had every right to be hard on me because of my performance. What I did was wrong, and I’m lucky nopony got hurt except me."

“True, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. It wasn't your performance today that I wanted to discuss. It’s something else,” Spitfire said, hanging her head for a moment. She then lifted it back up to give Rainbow Dash her undivided attention. 

"Rainbow Dash," she sighed, her voice filled with remorse. "I don’t know quite how to say this, but I feel bad about calling you 'Crash'. I didn’t realize it carried such heavy baggage for you, otherwise I probably would’ve picked something less embarrassing."

"But isn't 'Crash' my nickname?" Rainbow Dash wondered. "Isn't that how it works around here, Spitfire? Or did that change because of me?"

Spitfire then moved over to one of the beds and sat down on the edge of it. Rainbow Dash could strongly tell that there was guilt ridden all over Spitfire's body language. It was very rare of Spitfire to show a look of depression, especially while on Wonderbolt grounds. She was like any other pony, capable of making mistakes. But this current look of unhappiness was quite telling.

 "I did say that, Rainbow Dash," Spitfire replied, trying not to sound too upset. "But, I can't help but ask myself ‘Did we go too far with the newbie shaming’? As Soarin said, you’re the most promising flyer we've ever had. And from time to time, you’ve shown us the right and wrong ways of being a Wonderbolt. You deserved a little more respect than what you got, Rainbow Dash. I let the name calling go too far, just like I didn’t notice Lightning Dust or Wind Rider’s behavior until after the fact. I’m sorry if I haven’t been the best captain, sometimes I even wonder why I still have this job."


          "And why do you think that, Spitfire?" Rainbow Dash asked, sitting on the bed across from her. "Isn't me being called by my new nickname how things work around here? I should’ve told you how much the nickname ‘Crash’ hurt me, instead of making a fool of myself for the sake of trying to get a cooler nickname, imitating my friends and all. What makes you think this is your fault, and not mine?" 

Rainbow Dash felt at this moment as if there was something that Spitfire had forgotten to mention to her prior to joining the Wonderbolts. 

“Well, whatever it is, she can tell me now.” Dash thought to herself.

 "There’s a rule that we have among us Wonderbolts," Spitfire explained. "It’s a personal rule that we’ve had for a long time, since even before I was captain. And now I let it that rule be broken. The rule is, we keep our mortifying nicknames private to ourselves and only focus on the names that make us who we are."

"But, isn't Soarin's nickname mortifying?" wondered Rainbow Dash. "I mean, isn't he called ‘Clipper' for a reason?"

 "Only because he said he was okay with it. I personally didn’t approve, when he clipped his wing he was out of commission for months. I almost we’d have to replace him forever." Spitfire answered. "What happened yesterday wasn’t like what happened with Soarin. We all got caught up in the moment, and forgot to understand the mistakes that we’ve made. I shouldn’t have put ‘Crash’ on your jacket, that was going too far. If you don’t want to be called ‘Crash’ anymore once your probation period is up, you can tell me now. I can come up with something better, something less hurtful."

"You mean it?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her eyes widening. "I don't have to be called ‘Crash' anymore?!"

         "We were just trying to have fun with you, that's all," Spitfire chuckled. "But, we do have the option of making it public or keeping it private. And in your case, I think you've suffered enough. So, we can keep it private from now on, we can even take it off your jacket if you want to. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to do that." 

Then she tried her best not to look too embarassed as Rainbow Dash snickered a bit. 

“Given the choice, I’d still have told her even if she hadn’t made a fool of herself at the show. Better she hear it from me, rather than from somepony else,” Spitfire thought to herself.


Rainbow was so excited to be hearing all of this, that she began doing airborne dance moves. Unfortunately however, Spitfire still had one more thing to say to Rainbow Dash.

"You’re still on probation for a month, newbie. Don’t think you’re getting off the hook for your showboating, we’ll have none of that nonsense! Now if I were you, I'd get back to work!"


        "Yes, ma'am!" replied Rainbow Dash, and quickly went back to sweeping up the compound. 

“I wish this wasn’t so boring, this is going to be a long month,” Dash thought to herself.

        Spitfire smiled, Rainbow Dash’s enthusiasm didn’t seem to have faded in spite of her rough initiation period. Good, she would need that positive attitude and unending determination if she was going to survive. 

“Just wait, Mother,” Spitfire thought to herself, as she exited the compound. “With Rainbow Dash, I think we’ve finally found a rookie who can break all of the academy records. Even yours.”