• Published 29th Apr 2013
  • 2,656 Views, 113 Comments

Bolt - InsignificantGryffindor



The two pegasi knew there could only be one. One who could fly with the best. One who could fulfill their dreams. One who could destroy the other's hope. And when hope is crushed, anger arises.

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The Introduction

It looked like any other building.

Besides the bright gold lightning bolt that hung as a sign above the plain wooden doors, it was normal. It was big, roughly the size of a large mansion, but it looked nothing like a mansion. The paint was a light red color, it's chipped sections revealing a worn brick underneath. The cracked windows had been dotted with water spots, their metal frames rusted. But the bright emblem gleamed brightly on top of it, its ivory wings glowing in the sun.

Rainbow Dash expected more from the Wonderbolts. This building was run down and beat up. It appeared as if it hadn't been occupied in years. She glanced around the empty Canterlot street, and sighed. For a world-class flying team, they sure didn't have that great of a headquarters.

Hesitantly, she trudged up the cracked stone stairs and pulled the rusty handle. Locked, she thought grudgingly. Who the hay sends the address to some dump anyways? She kicked the door in frustration and sat on the rough steps.

It had been a month since Rainbow Dash had received her letter. Once she was out of her casts she did nothing but practice tricks and flips. No more than a week later, she had received another letter detailing the Wonderbolts' whereabouts. She stopped her vigorous exercises to go to the headquarters, only to find a dump. She groaned in frustration.

"Who's there?" Came a gruff voice behind her. Rainbow Dash saw a pale green eye sticking out of the mail slot. The eye spotted her sitting on the step and growled, "Who're you?"

She gaped at the eye, then cleared her throat, "My name's Rainbow Dash..."

The eye widened and unstuck itself from the mail slot. Then came a series of clicks Rainbow Dash could only identify as locks being opened. The wooden door swung open, and Rainbow Dash apprehensively walked inside a small office. Papers floated everywhere as a rotating fan whirred and blew everything about the room. Filing cabinets lined the walls, its drawers protruding with papers and folders spilling out of the sides. A dark gray griffon sat at a desk, his light green gaze glued to a gun magazine.

Rainbow Dash scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "Um."

The gray griffon raised a black talon to a door on the side of the room, eyes never leaving his magazine. Rainbow Dash threw a inquisitive glance at the door and shuffled her hooves. "Right."

She crossed the unorganized office and opened the door quietly. The office she entered now was much bigger, minus floating papers. Instead of filing cabinets lining the walls, bookcases covered the back wall, containing shelves of framed pictures. In the middle of the room, sitting in a desk chair, was a yellow mare. It was Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts- her captain. She was writing loudly, not acknowledging the rainbow-haired mare standing at the threshold of her door.

Finally she raised her eyes from paperwork.

Her expression was impassive as Rainbow Dash stood straight and saluted. Rainbow felt a small amount of sweat trickle down her forehead as her captain inspected her. Then she did the last thing Rainbow Dash expected, she smiled. "There's no need to do that now, Rainbow Dash. You're part of the team, now."

Rainbow Dash's muscles loosened and she sighed. A bright grin spread across her face. "I won't let you down, Captain!"

Spitfire was silent for a moment, making Rainbow Dash nervous. When she spoke, Rainbow Dash held her breath. "You know, I was a little hesitant to let you into the team." Her heart dropped.

"You were big-headed, you were very stubborn, and you had a huge mouth. I thought you would never get into the Wonderbolts, myself." She went on, making Rainbow Dash feel worse. "You had no teamsmanship skills."

"But, when you risked your life to save your friends, to save my life, to save even Equestria, I thought that maybe you learned a couple things. So, ever since the Best Young Fliers Competition, I've been keeping an eye on you. I watched you perform your third sonic rainboom, I watched you join the Academy, and I watched- well Soarin' watched- as you passed the last test in order to become a Wonderbolt. I thought it was time," she crossed the room and opened a cabinet on the side wall. "to give you this." She clutched a brand new blue uniform with a yellow trim and a pair of flight goggles. The new uniform glowed from the sunlight that seeped through the blinds, and the goggles shimmered, the light reflecting off the lense creating a multi-colored halo around it. It was too good to be true. Rainbow Dash grinned, eyes sparkling with tears as she held out her hoof to receive the greatest gift she was ever given. Spitfire smiled again.

"Best! Day! Ever!" Rainbow Dash cheered, looping in the air and thrusting up her hoof. She looked down at Spitfire, who was looking at her with an amused smile. She blushed and floated to the ground. "I'll- uh- go put this on in the locker room, I suppose."

Spitfire eyes widened. "Oh, that reminds me! You're going to need somepony to show you the ropes around here. I know just the guy." She opened the door on the other side of her office and stuck out her head. "Soarin'! Come and meet the new member!"

A mere second later a pale blue stallion entered Spitfire's office, a bright shine in his green eyes. "Hey, it's the pie-saver!"

Rainbow Dash smirked in response, hardly believing anypony could remember something as small as that.

Spitfire rolled her eyes before giving off a list of instructions, "First, Soarin', I want you to give Rainbow Dash here a tour of the headquarters. Introduce her to the rest of the teammates, let her get to know them. This should take thirty minutes, tops. Once you're done, we need to practice for upcoming air show in Fillydelphia. Rainbow Dash, if you think you're up to it, I want you to do your Sonic Rainboom." She acknowledged them with a firey orange gaze.

Rainbow Dash smiled and saluted her new captain. "Sonic Rainbooms? Please, I can do that in my sleep."

The captain grinned. "At ease."


~***~

The two Pegasi left the office, entering a new room completely unlike the last. The entire room was a bluish gray, with high ceilings. The windows allowed light to escape into the gray atrium, though it was abruptly stopped by the stone beams that connected two walls opposite of each other. The rows of lockers lay on the left wall, the navy blue and gold metal glowing under the soft light. In the middle lay two square tables, and two Pegasi sat in wooden chairs, staring intently at the cards in their hooves. One was a pale blue mare, with a coat similar to Soarin's. Her curly navy blue mane was in a messy ponytail, and her red eyes were fixated on the cards she held. A fat cigar stuck out of her lips, emitting smoke in large gray clouds. She smirked and layed down her cards to show the stallion opposite her. "Read 'em and weep, Rapid." The stallion groaned as the mare took a mountain of chips away from the center of the table. She dealt the cards.

Soarin' gave the mare a mocking stern look. "Windsie, you know you're not supposed to smoke."

The mare did not look up from her cards as she responded, "Yeah, well, according to my therapist, I'm not supposed to gamble either." She glared at the stallion as he showed her his hand, four kings, and took back the chips he lost. He was a pale yellow stallion with pitch black hair. His dark brown eyes watched his hooves intently as he shuffled the cards.

Soarin' sighed his defeat. "Yeah, well, Spitfire will get you later. Put it out before she finds you and come and meet the rookie." The mare raised her scrutinizing gaze to Rainbow Dash, puffing her cigar. "You that rainbow pony?"

"Yup." Rainbow Dash met her gaze.

"Did the Sonic Rainboom?"

"Hay yeah!"

"... You're okay." She held out her hoof to be shaken. Rainbow Dash took hold of her hoof and shook it firmly. "Name's High Winds."

The stallion before her chuckled. "Appropriate name for her considering how much she-" he fell silent at the dirty look she was giving him.

The stallion dealed the cards to her and himself before raising his gaze to Rainbow Dash. "Glad to see you made it on the team, finally. Soarin' and Spitfire told us about you. My name's Rapidfire." When Rainbow Dash shook his hoof, he returned to his losing battle with High Winds. Rainbow Dash heard him mutter curses towards High Winds, and her snarky reply. She and Soarin' walked past the duo, right to one of the lockers.

"Don't worry about those two. When they're not practicing for shows, they're playing cards. Anyways, here's your locker. If you need anything, I'll be by the doors at the end of the room." He trotted towards the back of the room, away from Rainbow as she quickly slipped on the uniform, feeling it conform to her body. She opened the locker, thankful to see a mirror in it. She looked with an inflated heart at her reflection. It fit her like a glove, feeling taught but also quite maneuverable. It was cool on her warm body, making her feel unusually comfortable. The gold trim gleamed under the light, standing out against the bright blue base. She was in a Wonderbolts uniform for the first time ever.

Letting an excited squeal escape, she slipped the goggles over her head, letting it hang from her neck. She followed Soarin' inside to a long hallway, where he began to describe the building itself, "You may have noticed how crappy this building kind of looks on the outside, but rest assured it's completely fine. You see, the Wonderbolts used to be part of the military, now it's just stunt fliers. This used to be their headquarters, but we changed it up a bit. The walls are reinforced with a metal so thick, that if one hundred ponies screamed simultaneously inside this building, nopony would hear on the outside. We used it to ward away paparazzi, but of course they found us anyway. Sometimes, I swear they have this place bugged. I mean, how else would they know about my pie cravings and the exact time I go to bed?"

Rainbow Dash laughed with him as they pushed through heavy double doors and into another large room. It was obviously a gym, with walls so long they appeared to be twenty feet long. Large, expensive pieces of equipment were scattered around the room. Their hooves were muffled by the wood panel ground as they approached two similar looking stallions who were using the treadmills. One spotted Rainbow Dash and Soarin' and said, "Oi, mate," to his friend. They lifted themselves into the air and hovered towards them.

"This is Lightning Streak and Fire Streak. The two jokesters of the team." Soarin' said, if a little negative.

One, a pale cream stallion with lightning yellow hair bowed on his knee. "Pleasure to meet such a fine, young mare as yourself." His voice was Braytish, and his eyebrows lifted suggestively.

The other stallion, a pegasus with light ginger hair and the same creamy coat, pushed his companion out of the way and bowed in a similar manner. "Please ignore my pig-headed brother. I wish I could pay you back in some form... how about dinner?" He smiled a crooked smile.

Rainbow Dash backed away slightly, tail twitching, and glared at the two of them as they begn to squabble. Finally, with Lightning Streak as the victor, he trotted up to Rainbow Dash and smoothed back his hair. "So, like I was saying," he raised a sly eyebrow. "Dinner?"

Her glare intensified as she retorted, "Sorry, but no."

Lightning Streak shared a dissapointed look with his brother, before cockily braying, "I'll get the yes. I always get the yes." The brothers shared a brief hoof bump before returning to their exercises. Rainbow Dash turned to Soarin', who was also glaring at the twins. "Always thought they took stuff too far..." He saw Rainbow Dash looking at him, with an eyebrow cocked up, and smiled. "Just don't let them get to you. They hit on every mare in existence. And then get rejected by every mare in existence."

She smiled as they continued on through the gym, passing a couple of their teammates as they walked by. "There's Blaze," he indicated with his hoof at the yellow mare who was furiously doing wing-ups. "She's Spitfire's sister, as you probably already know. Always tries too hard. She's nice, but I think she acts too much like her sister sometimes." They maneuvered throughout the gym, Soarin' pointing out Silver Lining, a laid back gray stallion who was napping on one of the pull-up stations, Breeze, a white pegasus mare with yellow mane who seemed a ecstatic to meet Rainbow Dash, and Misty, a creamy mare with mint colored hair who barely responded when Soarin' called a friendly greeting. They passed the gym and climbed upstairs to the headquarters, and entered a hallway that reminded Rainbow Dash of college dorms.

A door on the far right end of the hallway opened, a pale blue mare trotting out. She had icy white hair and pale violet eyes that seemed to burn with pride. Rainbow Dash smiled widely, already knowing the name of this particular Wonderbolt, Fleetfoot, her favorite member of the team. She approached the two ponies in silence. It wasn't until Soarin' lifted his hoof in awkward greeting when the silence was broken, "Oh... hi, Fleetfoot. This is Rainbow Dash."

The mare regarded her coldly. "Why is she here?" Rainbow Dash's smile faltered.

"She's the new rookie. She just joined the team a month ago. She's the mare that performed-"

"The Sonic Rainboom." Fleetfoot supplied, but instead of the excited look many ponies had when discovering she did a Sonic Rainboom, she scowled. Rainbow Dash's heart fell to her hooves as the mare pushed them out her way and left the room. Soarin's forced smile disappeared when she did, and turned away from the door.

"Don't be offended. She acts that way to anypony who threatens her position on the team. Which is pretty much everypony." Soarin' said darkly. Her wings drooped as she followed the stallion down the hall and to a room diagonal to Fleetfoot's. "Anyway," Soarin' opened the door. "This'll be where your staying. I mean, you don't have to stay here, per say, but considering you live in Ponyville..."

The room was small, but big enough to live in. A neat twin bed lay in the middle of the room, a bright Wonderbolt's symbol stitched onto the covers. A sliding-door closet lay in the left wall, while the wall just opposite had a large white dresser. A curtained window was set above the bed, the dark blue curtains refusing any of the light to escape. A lamp sat in the corner of the room, its light turned on.

"Remember, practice in five minutes. I'll give you some time alone to settle in. There's some land outside of the headquarters that we use for practice; Wave Chill is probably out there now. Spitfire's pretty hard, so be prepared..." His eyes skimmed Rainbow's face briefly before saying, "I'm looking forward to getting to know you better, Rainbow Dash." He smiled briefly before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Rainbow Dash smirked and responded to empty air, "Me too."

Author's Note:

Sorry the formatting is a little weird, I had to use my phone to type this.

Anyways, I'm going to leave a really brief description of each of the Wonderbolts here for you guys. Thanks for reading!

Spitfire: stern but friendly mare. Afraid of showing her true feelings for somepony, but generally brave.
Soarin: goofy stallion that loves pies. Loves to be around everypony, and hates to be alone. Shy when it comes to mares.
High Winds: Notorious for gambling. Always takes cards seriously.
Rapidfire: likes gambling, too, but not quite as much as High Winds. Friendly and level-headed. Always can break up fight between team members.
Lightning and Fire Streak: Twin brothers who love chasing after mares. Both are very sly and cunning.
Blaze: Always trying to prove she's just as good or better than her sister, but then ends up failing in the process.
Silver Lining: gray stallion, oldest member on the team. Kind of lackadaisical due to being close to retirement.
Misty: adrenaline junkie, lives like Larry.
Fleetfoot: irritable and cold. Does not like being bested, so therefore tries to be the fastest pegasus ever.
Wave Chill: young stallion. Was the newest member before Dash, also does not like being bested. Complainer.