Bad Habits

by Idylex

Prologue

Rainbow Dash stood alone in a dark cloud hallway. Behind her was a T intersection, illuminated by only a single fluorescent light. Going to the left would lead to the stallions’ locker room and restroom. To right would be mare’s locker room and restroom, and beyond that the lobby. The hallway was decorated with a plethora of posters for different pegasus sports teams. Rainbow Dash read them while she waited anxiously. The Cloudsdale Hurricanes, a well-known Hoovesball team, was but one of many sports team she regularly followed.

In front of her was the exit into the flyers’ pits, where light shown in and helped to brighten the dimly lit hallway. Beyond the low wall, Rainbow Dash could see the stands. Soon, all of the ponies would be sitting there with their popcorn and banners, waiting for her to come out and make her big appearance. Currently, there was no pony to be found in the seats, but that didn’t stop Rainbow Dash from getting hyped up and wanting to throw up.

She waited a few more minutes, but when no pony arrived she concluded that she must be either early or late. Rainbow Dash never was the best at tracking time… She began walking forward. When she was outside she took in a breath of fresh air. The Cloudsdale stadium was massive. 100 rows of seats surrounded the field, which was really just an empty space, in an oval. Above the seats were magnificent columns holding up a ring of engraved clouds. On the other side of the stadium, directly opposite of Rainbow Dash, was the opposing teams’ flyers’ pits.

Above her were 7 pegasi performing several different warm up exercises in their Wonderbolt uniforms; Laps, wing-ups, cloud maneuvering. Among those ponies were Spitfire and Soarin.

Spitfire hung high above the ponies and watched. She came down and gave two mares her orders, then blew the the whistle hanging around her neck. As the two mares went off, Spitfire looked around at the other pegasi. She yelled something inaudible at Soarin, who transferred the information to a pair of stallions performing wing ups on a cloud. Spitfire looked around one more time and then noticed Rainbow Dash. She flew down to the flyers’ pit and landed softly on the cloud platform.

“You’re late.” Spitfire said teasingly.

“Am I?” Rainbow Dash said nervously. She looked to her left hoof, only to realize that she never had a watch.

“Where’s your uniform?”

Rainbow Dash looked down at her bare chest. “I wasn’t given a uniform. I figured I would get one when I arrived.” She laughed uncomfortably.

“Hmm...” Spitfire scratched her head. “Wait here.”

Spitfire flew off to Soarin. She said something to him and Soarin shrugged. They exchanged a few more words and finally Soarin pointed somewhere beyond Rainbow Dash. Spitfire waved a thanks and came back.

“I’ll find you your outfit when practice is over. First, I'll go over the basic rules of practice.” Spitfire cleared her throat. “Practice takes place every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Practice will begin at 8am and end at noon. The first hour will be basic warm-ups; Laps, hoof-ups, wing-ups, all of which I assume you’re familiar with…” Spitfire waited, and when Rainbow Dash nodded her head slightly she continued. “After warm-ups, we shall spend a good 20 - 30 minutes going over the routine. Usually, it just the same boring thing over and over. You do this, go here, do that, blah blah blah. But every once in a while we will think up a new trick, and then every pony is totally thrown off. Kinda funny actually.” Spitfire chuckled then straightened up. “Lunch is at 11 and you’ll have thirty minutes. The last 30 minutes will be pacing around the stadium. Any questions?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Then get started! 30 laps, NOW!” Spitfire blew the whistle.

Rainbow Dash straightened up, raised her right hoof to her right temple and shouted: “Yes Ma'am!” She flew off into the stadium and began her warm-up.

Two mares were already performing laps before her. Rainbow Dash followed behind them, not too far but also not too close. She flew at a mediocre speed, trying not to seem slacking but also resisting the urge to show off.

She felt as if everypony was watching her and was not entirely wrong. Her very existence seemed to create a wave of silence. Everypony stopped once or twice to look over their shoulders, see what the new pony would do and then quickly turn away when they made eye contact with her. Rainbow Dash was not entirely sure what she was going to do either… Should she demonstrate her full capabilities? Or would she come off to the other ponies as cocky? She didn’t want the other Wonderbolts to think she was lazy or over-confident, but she also wanted to make a good first impression.

But somepony caught Rainbow Dash’s eye. A blue pegasus stallion that wouldn’t normally catch anyone’s attention, but for some reason caught her’s. He set up a table in the Wonderbolts’ flyers’ pit and place on top of it a plastic orange container. The stallion laid out several clear plastic cups and began filling them up from the spout.
“It’s just the watercolt,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself.

Rainbow Dash was tired, but still had enough energy to get her through practice. She couldn’t slow down now, she told herself, not yet. It’s only been an hour. She still had 3 hours to go.

Spitfire blew the whistle and everypony stopped. “All in, everypony!”

The lead pegasus flew down into the flyers’ pit and exchanged a few words with the mysterious blue stallion before drinking from one of the cups. One by one the Wonderbolts landed and drank from the cups lined up on the table, and then exited the flyers’ pit.

Rainbow Dash was the last to do so. She landed softly on the cloud platform and lowered her head. She inhaled slowly and exhaled, allowing herself to regain control of her breathing. She breathed in and out until she finally felt she had enough energy to follow.

“Thirsty?”

Rainbow Dash looked up and her eyes met with the stallion’s. “Me?” She asked.

“There’s no one else here,” he said politely. Rainbow Dash looked around. There wasn’t anyone else there.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and exhaled. “Sure.” She grabbed one of the clear plastic cups and drank. When it was empty she crumbled the plastic in her hoof and threw it in the trash bin. Her eyes turned to turn the orange container. It was large, probably 2 x 3 feet, and was adorned with a large white cap. In the middle of it above the spout was a crude drawing of a pony’s head, presumably the stallion’s, with a cocky grin done in sharpie marker. “Thanks.” She nodded.

“No problem,” the stallion said.

Rainbow Dash walked into the decorated hallway not knowing where the other ponies went.

“Ms. Rainbow Dash!” The pony called to her. Rainbow Dash stopped and turned. “Good luck today!”

Rainbow Dash waved her hoof in thanks and went to catch up.

To the right of the stallions’ locker room was an old wooden door with a white sign that said “EMPLOYEES AND PLAYERS ONLY”. Rainbow Dash took an educated guess and went inside. The room shared a resemblance with the locker rooms. It was a small space surrounded by cracked and dirty tile floor and walls. In the middle of the room was a single wooden bench, currently occupied with the members of the Wonderbolts. In the back of the room Spitfire and Soarin stood on opposite ends of a whiteboard marked with random Xs and Os. They pointed to the board then pointed to a pony and explained their roles in the routine, but it wasn’t as if they hadn’t heard it before.

When Rainbow Dash entered the room, all heads turned to her. Spitfire nodded to Soarin, who, in turn, nodded back.

“Wonderbolts!” Soarin roared. “This seems like a good time to introduce our brand new member! Ms. Rainbow Dash!” RD stiffened. “Would you please come to the front and introduce yourself?”

“I-” Rainbow Dash stuttered. “S-sureeee…” Rainbow walked to the front of the room with all eyes fixed on her. “Well… my name is Rainbow Dash. You might remember me as the one who saved your captains at the the Best Young Flyer Competition and performed the Sonic Rainboom. Hehe…” She looked to Spitfire for inspiration, who motioned for her continue. “I live in Ponyville but I was born here in Cloudsdale. Um… Well I - I would just like to say that it’s… it’s such an honor to be working with you guys! I’ve been a huge fan of the Wonderbolts since I was a filly!”

Silence. Then Spitfire began the slow clap, then Soarin joined her and one by one the members the Wonderbolts joined in on the applause.

“Well said, Rainbow Dash!” Spitfire commanded, “Come up to the front and meet your new teammate!”

One by one the Wonderbolts got up and formed a straight line in front of Rainbow Dash. Each member exchanged a friendly hoofshake and welcomed her with a friendly, “Nice to meet you,” or, “Welcome to the team,” before sitting back down and resuming their gossip. Rainbow Dash looked to Spitfire who motioned for her to sit down as well. She did.

“Alright, Wonderbolts!” Spitfire began. “Our next performance is in six weeks in Las Pegasus.”

Comments

[Manes]

Hmmm this story intrigued me please go on.

[Ironfire Skies]

love the first chapter!! it's a good start.

[Puzzle Piece]

Asking for edits are you? Time to pretend I know what I'm talking about!

[Behind her was a three-way T intersection,...]
-The inclusion of "three-way" in this description is redundant. T's have three ends so it would be assumed that it is a three way.
[“Hmm...” Spitfire scratched her head. “Wait here.”
Spitfire flew off to Soarin.]
-It seems to me that the indents on the paragraphs around this point are missing.
[First, I shall go over the basic rules of practice.]
-This line sounded a bit out of character for Spitfire, focusing on the word "shall". I just can't hear her say that. "I'll"
seems more appropriate in my opinion instead of "I shall".
[“Yes Maam!” ]
-"Yes Ma'am!"
[or would she come off to the other ponies as cocky?]
-Either the "or" needs to be capitalized or the sentence needs to be combined with the one preceding it. They are both questions directed at Rainbow Dash by herself so they would fit together by replacing the "?" in the first sentence with a comma. If you were trying to put more emphasis on the second question by separating them, then the "or" should definitely be capitalized.
[“Pervert,” she muttered]
-I don't know where you're going with this. I saw nothing to indicate that she would think that.

This is all I found. And that's good because, by volume, that puts it on par with some of the better stuff on this site. Some of this is nitpicking and some of it is opinion and personal preference. If you did any of this on purpose, pay no mind to me. I'm no professional anyway.
Final opinion: It's short. I like stories starting out with short chapters. It gives you a sampling of what is to come without requiring a huge investment of time to figure out if you'll care to continue or not. On the whole, this is a good start to a story. I'll be pushing ahead into the rest post haste.