Redemption of a Wonderbolt Cadet

by twilightsparkle3562

Return of the Dizzitron

Chapter 2

“Return of the Dizzitron”

Although Lightning Dust had been given a crucial second chance by Spitfire, it seemed that she was going to have to do whatever it took to finally achieve the goal of becoming a Wonderbolt. For the next level of the academy, Rainbow Dash would assume the role of lead pony while Lightning Dust was downgraded to wing pony. For Lightning Dust, in her mind at least, being downgraded to wing pony would only pale her in the shadows of her older brothers.

“You okay, Lightning Dust?” asked Rainbow Dash, as they stood at a machine that was believed to be the Dizzitron, covered with a blue tarp with the rest of their fellow cadets. “You look nervous.”

“Oh, I’m fine, Rainbow Dash,” replied Lightning Dust, sheepishly. “I’m just trying to keep the thought of my brothers out of my mind.”

Rainbow Dash felt sorry for her former rival and let out a heavy sigh as Spitfire stepped forward along with her two guards. What the cadets were going to do from here on in was move on to the next level of the academy which was a repeat of activities and exercises that they had done the first time around. This time, Spitfire would have the cadets do the activities only to a higher level.

“Good morning, cadets,” said Spitfire, her sunglasses beaming down on the cadets.

“Good morning, ma’am!” they replied in unison.

“Welcome to level two of the academy,” continued Spitfire, pacing back and forth in front of the cadets. “As you probably might have known by now, you realize that the Wonderbolts are the fastest and best precision flyers in the world. But, you also know that spinouts can still happen and when they do, a Wonderbolt must be able to recover quickly. So, to this end, we are bringing back the Dizzitron.”

Remembering the last time that they had to face the Dizzitron, some of the cadets groaned at having to do this again. But, Spitfire cocked her eyebrow to get them to stop complaining and so they did, although they weren’t thrilled about doing this again.

“However, I am sure that all of you may remember,” said Spitfire, as she motioned the two guards to remove the tarp from the Dizzitron. “That the Dizzitron will make you dizzy. This is the Dizzitron, but a far more advanced version of it. It will make you dizzier than the regular Dizzitron. The time you will spend on here is much shorter and the quicker you react is the difference between life and possibly death.”

The cadets cringed at hearing the thought of possibly being killed as a result of not recovering from a spin out. Even Rainbow Dash cringed, remembering the time that she ended up in the hospital as a result of not being able to recover from a spinout.

“Now then, who’s first?” asked Spitfire as she looked out among the cadets. “You, Bulky, you’re up first.”

Bulk Biceps trembled nervously at being called up first and cowered slightly before Spitfire. The mighty and tough Bulk Biceps was reduced to nothing more than a frightened little foal who by now, was probably wishing that he was back at the Ponyville Spa giving out massages.

“NOW!” shouted Spitfire, rising into the air and causing Bulk Biceps to fly over to the Dizzitron, strapping himself in. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” whimpered Bulk nervously as Spitfire turned her attention back to one of the two guards operating the advanced Dizzitron.

“Okay, go!” cried Spitfire as the guard turned on the Dizzitron. Everyone watched as the advanced dizzitron spun faster and faster than its previous counterpart. After a few seconds, the Dizzitron spun faster and faster to its maximum point and Spitfire gave the order to release Bulk from it.

“Release!” she called and the guard pulled the lever that sent Bulk Biceps flying into the air.

But the huge pony had small wings and thus was not able to recover as quickly as the other cadets and upon being released, came quickly crashing down onto the ground and landing on his front side. The hard crash caused some of the cadets to cringe at the sight of seeing the biggest of the cadets lying down on the ground like that.

“Hmm, ten point five seconds,” remarked Spitfire, looking at her stopwatch. “Slightly better, but not something I would go writing home about. Who’s next?”

Spitfire looked among the cadets and turned her attention towards Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust. In her mind, Spitfire thought that if Lightning Dust was going to make the best of her second chance at the academy, it would be now. She also knew that the latter had achieved six point five seconds on the old dizzitron and that Lightning Dust would achieve a similar time on the new dizzitron. So, in an effort to bring Lightning Dust down to Earth again, Spitfire turned her attention towards Rainbow Dash.

“All right, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “You’re up next.”

Saluting her idol, Rainbow Dash flew up to the dizzitron and strapped herself in for the agonizing spin that she was about to endure.

“Okay, go!” called Spitfire as the advanced dizzitron was once again turned on. Lightning Dust watched as the dizzitron spun faster and faster and after a few moments, Rainbow Dash was released and quickly recovered from the spinout that she was in. Lightning Dust was stunned to see Rainbow Dash perform the six point five seconds she had previously done.

Once Rainbow Dash had recovered quickly, Lightning Dust nervously walked up to the advanced Dizzitron and strapped herself in. As she strapped herself in, she looked to see a ghostly figure snickering down at her. The ghostly figure was a red male pony and had a tornado spinning for a cutie mark.

“Well, well, well,” laughed the ghost. “Try all you can, little sister, you will never be a wonderbolt now. There is a reason why mom and dad chose to love my brothers and me more than you.”

“Yeah,” added another ghost, who was dark blue and had the eye of a hurricane as a cutie mark. “You had a chance to prove yourself as a wonderbolt and now you are throwing it all away.”

Lightning Dust nervously gulped as the ghosts disappeared and she lowered her goggles over her eyes. She knew that the ghosts were that of two of her three older brothers and that she had to prove herself to get them to leave her alone.

“All right, Lightning Dust,” said Spitfire. “We have the Dizzitron at maximum speed which is to your liking. Are you ready?”

“Yes, ma’am,” whimpered Lightning Dust as Spitfire motioned for the advanced dizzitron to be turned on. As she felt the speed of the advanced dizzitron going faster and faster, she saw the ghosts again, taunting her at every rotation the dizzitron made. Once the dizzitron reached maximum speed, Spitfire felt the time had come for Lightning Dust to be released.

“Release!” she called and the guard pulled the lever to send Lightning Dust flying into the air. Stuck in a talespin, Lightning Dust struggled to recover and knew that she was not going to beat her original time.

“Face it, little sister!” laughed the red pony. “You will always be a nobody, no matter how hard you try.”

Trying to not let the ghost get her down, Lightning Dust quickly attempted to correct herself and saw that she was heading towards the ground. Reacting quickly, the gold haired Pegasus quickly straightened herself out and came in for a smooth landing. Once she was on the ground, Spitfire and Rainbow Dash ran over to her.

“All right, Lightning Dust,” said Spitfire, looking at her stopwatch. “You were at seven seconds, down from your previous time of six point five.”

But, that didn’t seem to matter to Lightning Dust who merely just looked down at the ground and turned away. This caused a form of concern for Spitfire who saw how sad Lightning Dust looked. But, Spitfire didn’t have time to console her and turned her attention back to the other cadets who had to endure the advanced dizzitron.

When Lightning Dust went to bed that night, Rainbow Dash wanted to find out why Lightning Dust looked so down spirited that night. In her mind, she thought that Lightning Dust was being a sore loser about having her time on the advanced dizzitron go down from her previous time.

“I don’t get it,” said Rainbow Dash. “Why are you being such a sore loser about your time, Lightning Dust? I thought you were not going to be reckless.”

“It’s not that, Rainbow Dash!” she cried, causing the rainbow haired Pegasus to jump into the air. “I saw something today on the dizzitron, somepony that had put me down ever since I was a foal.”

“Who?” wondered Rainbow Dash as Lightning Dust sat on the edge of her bed. “Who did you see?”

Lightning Dust took an enormous gulp and looked back up at Rainbow Dash. In her mind, she could still hear that crazy laughter that the ghosts had made while she was on the advanced dizzitron.

“I saw two of my three older brothers,” began Lightning Dust. “Tornado Spin and Hurricane Eye, two colts that would make younger siblings look like idiots. Ever since I was born, they always put me down and while they went on to achievements that made them recognized, I always was a step behind them. My parents were proud of all of us and what we had achieved as individuals. But, they always thought that nothing else in the world mattered to them and that they were the ones who would always be the ones to earn all the glory.”

Rainbow Dash was shocked to hear this story that her former rival had made. In fact, hearing about these brought back memories of when she was a cocky mare herself and that it was thanks to Twilight Sparkle and her friends that she was able to understand that being cocky was going to get her nowhere.

“I know how you feel,” sighed Rainbow Dash, feeling sympathetic for Lightning Dust. “I was once like them, feeling that getting all the attention was what makes a pony special. One time, I became so caught up in getting attention for doing all kinds of heroic deeds that it got to a point where my friends had to make me see sense.”

“How did you see sense?” asked Lightning Dust.

“My friends each took roles playing a character called Mare-Do-Well,” replied Rainbow Dash. “They were trying to show me that it's great to be really good at something, but it's important to act with grace and humility. Ever since then, I show grace and humility when others outshine me. You can be the greatest, Lightning Dust, but you need to have grace and humility.”

Lightning Dust knew what Rainbow Dash was talking about, she had to have grace and humility, two essentials that she didn’t have in her body. If she was going to be a wonderbolt, she was going to have to earn those.

“And as another thing,” finished Rainbow Dash, quickly getting Lightning Dust’s attention back for a second. “I also learned a long time ago that friendship is much more important than competition.”

“When did you learn that?” asked Lightning Dust.

“During the Running of the Leaves,” replied Rainbow Dash. “When I was competing against my friend, Applejack. I guess we put our rivalry above all else and that was what ultimately caused us to lose the race.”

Lightning Dust took each matter in seriously and Rainbow Dash could see that Lightning Dust would learn these same key lessons if she was her wing pony. Of course, only time would tell if these lessons would get into Lightning Dusts’ head and help her prove her two older brothers wrong.

Comments

[twilightsparkle3562]

4450148 Don't worry now. I'm continuing the story starting today.

[Sparkler774]

Congrats for getting featured!

[Richforce]

Look at the bright side Dust. At least your Dizzitron go didn't end like this...

http://mcwopper.deviantart.com/art/Dizzitron-failure-343178272

[Dragon of Shadows]

So, to this end, we are bringing back the Dizzitron.”

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!