Piercing the Heavens

by Calm Wind

Chapter 137: Our Imperfections Make Us Real (Part 2)

MLP: FiM
Piercing the Heavens
By: Calm Wind

Chapter 137: Our Imperfections Make Us Real (Part 2)

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“Squall… Stop glaring at Soarin,” Dash ordered as she glanced behind her. “Squall…” she repeated his name when he didn’t listen.

“Don’t worry about it.” Soarin shook his head as he led them towards the lobby. “I deserve it.”

“Yeah, no shit you do,” Dash retorted in a casually sharp manner as she turned her focus to him, some of her frustration with Squall venting out. “But we don’t need to hold grudges right now. RIGHT Squall?” she said without looking back at him.

“Hmph…” Squall grunted.

“Yeesh… brutally honest,” Soarin said with a light chuckle. It was quite a sudden turn around after the mood they were all in following Descent and Storm’s conversation. But Soarin knew the subject of his misguided threats to Star would be a touchy one for a little while.

Rainbow Dash shook her head out, trying to get her mind off of it for now as she remained at Soarin’s side. Her squad followed behind them as they made their way back towards the lobby and beneath the canopy of creepy, sleepy, ceiling dwellers above them. Dash swallowed as they stepped out beneath the hanging thestrals again, certain that she would never get used to such a sight, should they end up spending lots of time working with them.

It was impressive how heavy of sleepers they were though. Not everypony was being quiet in the lobby, whether they knew about the nightmare inducing visual above them or not, yet the thestrals were sleeping soundly. As if the sight wasn’t creepy enough, the fact that they hung there completely motionless and silent just added to their freaky presence.

One voice in particular among those in the lobby had caught Dash’s attention. It sounded like it was coming from across the lobby on the other side of the large bridge pillar. She couldn’t hear it quite clearly, mostly because a lot of her attention was directly up, but whoever it was seemed to not give a damn that they were speaking in their full voice with sleeping bats overhead. They either weren’t aware, didn’t care, or knew that they were sleeping regardless of how loud he or she was being.

“Huh?” Soarin stopped walking and reached his neck to the right. Dash finally ripped her eyes free from the thestrals and looked towards Soarin, stopping as well as his ears moved, picking up the voice. “Spitfire?”

Dash blinked, focusing on the voice entirely now. She wasn’t paying attention enough to deduce it earlier, but… that WAS Spitfire. And she sounded… worried?

“That sounds like Spitfire.” Soarin broke away from their path, making his way towards the pillar and taking an angle to walk around it. Dash instinctively followed with Squall, Matteo, Star, and presumably Twister all keeping pace with Dash.

Soarin stopped once he had a view of the other side of the lobby. Dash shifted and moved right up beside him, immediately finding Spitfire, but wondering exactly what she was looking at.

Spitfire was walking around quickly moving from pony to pony. She had one of their ration boxes, unopened and tucked beneath her wing. She was all the way over by the east hallway and her back was turned, so they couldn’t quite make out what she was saying as she stopped and pressed one of their earth pony security guards about something. The stallion shook his head and kept walking.

“What’s going on here?” Soarin asked out loud before moving again, starting en route to intercept Spitfire as she frantically looked around. Dash followed right behind Soarin, sharing his curiosity, but right before they could reach Spitfire, she turned and locked her eyes on Calm Wind as he and the rest of Squad Zero emerged from the east hallway, battered and bruised, but patched up and doing their best.

“Calm!” Spitfire turned and galloped over to them. Squad Zero all flinched and froze, Swift and Playbitz both running into Calm’s plot and falling in different directions. Shine Struck glanced between Spitfire and her ‘fallen’ squadmates as they rolled over and groaned. Since Spitfire seemed focused on Calm, she slipped behind his bulk to avoid Spitfire and help the other two instead.

“Er… yes… Captain?” Calm answered stiffly and hesitantly as Spitfire walked right up to him and stared up, poking a hoof against his chest.

“Have you—”

Once again her voice failed to fully reach Soarin and Dash with Spitfire’s back turned to them and with her lowering her voice once she was closer. Curiosity driving them forward, the two picked up their pace slightly, hoping to figure out what Spitfire’s deal was.

“W…what?” Calm blinked, a very faint red hue appearing over his nose. “Why are you asking me?” he asked, his voice almost cracking.

“Because you’re one of the usual targets,” Spitfire said casually as Calm scrunched his face and puffed his cheeks out slightly. He exhaled and shook his head, the light blush still visible.

“No… I haven’t seen her…” he answered.

Her? Who was her? There were a few obvious choices, but ‘mare’ didn’t exactly narrow it down. Dash was confused, but upon glancing up at Soarin he seemed to have an idea. Either way, they both kept moving, Soarin prepared to confront his worried captain.

“Hey, Spitfire, what’s up?” Soarin asked as they came within range. Spitfire’s ears stood up as Soarin spoke. She quickly turned around, completely freeing Calm from her gaze as the big doofus turned around to help Shine stop Swift from acting like a drama queen on the floor about how much pain he was in.

“Soarin!” Spitfire yelled his name, her eyes widening as she took a few very quick steps that immediately put her right in front of them both, forcing Soarin and Dash to stop in their tracks. Spitfire reached her hooves up, placed them on Soarin’s chest and got right up in his face with a worried expression. “Have you seen Fleet?!”

Soarin blinked, pulling his neck back slightly, but Spitfire just leaned forward to stay right in his face.

“Fleet…?” Soarin asked as he tried to process and gain control of the situation, but it was hard to redirect Spitfire’s eagerness.

“Yes! Have you seen her?!” she asked again.

“Uh…” Soarin glanced back and forth, turning his head towards Dash for a moment before returning his eyes to Spitfire. “I… haven’t, why?” he answered truthfully. He looked at Dash again, tipping his head slightly. Dash caught on, shrugging and shaking her head. Dash, in turn, turned to the rest of her squad, all of whom mimicked her shrugging gesture. She had been with her squad all morning, and hadn’t seen Fleetfoot last night either after they returned from… oh wait…

“Nopony knows where she is!!!” Spitfire yelled in Soarin’s face before finally stepping down from his chest. “I’ve looked all over! I even checked the rafters in all the gyms! Almost everypony I’ve asked hasn’t seen her since we returned last night! It’s like she just vanished!”

“Oh… that’s not good… She did come back with us though, right? She was flying right in front of—” Soarin gritted his teeth, but before he could look at Dash again, Spitfire reached her hooves up, grabbed him by the face and yanked his head down.

“OF COURSE IT’S NOT GOOD!” she yelled while shaking him lightly.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Soarin reached up his hooves, grabbed hers and pulled her arms off of him. “Spitfire, calm down!” he demanded sternly, giving her a light glare as she blinked, shook her head out and took a deep breath.

“Sorry, it’s just… after how she’s been acting and how she’s being so secretive…” Spitfire glanced at Dash. “I just want to know where she is.”

“Fleetfoot…” Dash said to herself, drawing Soarin’s attention she looked down at her hooves and briefly contemplated the whole scenario with Fleetfoot. She glanced at her wrapped up shoulder and wondered… if her wound wasn’t the largest one inflicted by Nightshade.

Soarin watched Dash for a moment before turning back to Spitfire, eyeing the box of food under her wing. He stared at it for a few seconds before his eyes widened in realization. He pointed at the box, and opened his mouth, but Spitfire cut him off.

“We have to find her! If nopony has seen her then I don’t think she’s gotten treatment or eaten anything since yesterday either!” Spitfire pointed out, which gave a little more insight to her frantic behavior, because those little facts made Soarin very concerned as well.

“Right, we definitely have to find her then!” he agreed with Spitfire. Dash quickly stepped up.

“Let me help, my squad can help too!” Dash asked, making it clear she was just as concerned for a friend. Plus, since she was sure it was all related to what happened with Nightshade, she made a promise to be there for Fleetfoot.

“Where have you already looked?” Soarin asked as everypony stood ready to help out, but Spitfire didn’t seem too confident.

“That’s just it. I’ve pretty much combed the entire place and haven’t found her!” Spitfire was clearly upset with this. Obviously if one was missing a friend there would be worry involved, but Spitfire was their captain. Her recently regained controlled demeanor seemed to be slipping, but under such circumstances it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Fleetfoot was a close friend before she was one of her officers.

“Oh, that’s not good…” Soarin said again, but held up a hoof before Spitfire could repeat herself. “Yes, yes, I know it’s not good, I’m thinking out loud…” Soarin calmed her, speaking a little harshly, but it was for her benefit as he thought about the possibilities. “You don’t think she left do you?” Soarin asked. Spitfire immediately gasped, but shut her eyes and shook her head, clearing her throat.

“No, she couldn’t have… she’s smarter than that,” Spitfire immediately denied that possibility as Dash stepped up beside Soarin to pitch in.

“I don’t think she’s in any condition to fly anyway,” Dash explained, earning a somewhat bewildered look from both of them. Dash quickly put up a hoof. “Just trust me on that one, okay?” She didn’t like keeping secrets about Fleetfoot from them, but that’s how she wanted it to be for now. Fleetfoot wasn’t quite as beat up on the outside, but her body was probably burning on the inside… both physically and mentally from what Nightshade did to her. “But… maybe…” Dash continued to think aloud. “She may not be able to fly away but she could be moving to avoid us…”

“Go on,” Spitfire coerced her. It didn’t matter who was talking as long as they may have an idea. Dash pointed right at Spitfire.

“I mean, you saw how she looked at you yesterday before I stepped in,” Dash remained her. The look on Spitfire’s face nearly broke Dash’s heart. Spitfire looked crushed, as if the thought of Fleetfoot avoiding her was a direct blow to the trust they had as friends. Soarin looked just as disappointed, but Spitfire was taking it especially hard, probably due to her already frantic search.

Something about that look made Dash think. Maybe it was wrong for her to keep Fleetfoot’s troubles secret… she would NOT go back on her words but… maybe she didn’t have to tell them. They had to find Fleetfoot, and once they did, Dash decided she had some convincing to do. Fleetfoot needed to stop running from them.

“Spitfire, I’ve barely gone anywhere in the Nimbus today, where are there the least amount of other ponies right now?” Dash asked, hoping to bring Spitfire out of her brief shock and back to reality. Spitfire blinked and dipped her head down for a moment, exhaling loudly before looking back up at Dash. She had shed the expression and was back in frantic search mode, which wasn’t good, but it helped their cause.

“The second and third floor,” she quickly answered. “I already looked up there, but… if Fleetfoot is eluding us, it would be much easier for her up there.”

“I agree,” Soarin nodded, looking towards the mangled stairwell. “There are lots of places up there to slip away and hide. Plus she’s always been small and sneaky, so…”

Dash flinched hard. She knew that Soarin meant absolutely no harm in that statement, but she hoped he would not repeat it once they found her… because the whole ‘small’ thing was… well…

“Guys,” Dash struck the thought from her head as she turned and faced her squad. “Spitfire, Soarin, and I are going to search upstairs, split up in pairs and comb the first floor, ask everypony you see about Fleetfoot, okay? And do your best to keep clear of the end of the west wing. Give Starry some privacy.”

Squall and Matteo nodded as Matteo reached up to his chest, intending to pull Twister out of his fur to join Squall. But after patting himself down, he couldn’t find Twister… even though he could hear ruffling feathers and constant sinister giggling. After several failed attempts to find him, Matteo gave up and instead reached over his back. Star squeaked, but didn’t resist as Matteo gently lifted her up and placed her on Squall’s back. Squall seemed, subtly pleased at being given Little Star, but—

“HURK!” Squall grunted as Star latched to his neck with all of her limbs, squeezing it tightly. “Star… too tight… too tight…” he complained, but moved anyway as they split with Matteo and Twister to ask around.

“Come on,” Soarin made a quick head motion towards the stairs. Dash and Spitfire both turned, following behind him quickly as they trotted and lifted off.

---

The search for Fleetfoot was underway, and with Dash’s theory that she could be moving around to avoid them, they split up again to cover more ground. Soarin and Spitfire stopped at the second floor to search the offices and meeting rooms that had been seldom used since takeoff. Dash kept going up to start searching the third floor, ready to comb the dormitories and check on the bridge.

Dash struggled a little as she made her way up, her wings aching as much, if not more than the rest of her body. Alas, she pumped her wings and made her way around the central propeller pillar and broken stairs. Her right wing was still disagreeing with her, the joints between the wing base and shoulder feeling a little strained from so much action. The more she moved about and tried to fly, the more she was convinced her role would be limited in the coming surge towards the Crystal Empire. But that went for the rest of the elites as well… how was that going to go for them?

At the moment it didn’t matter, and was not the problem at hoof. She would think about it AFTER they found Fleetfoot. Like Spitfire, Dash wasn’t about to entertain the possibility that Fleetfoot ran off, but in the unlikely scenario that she did… they had a serious situation on their hooves.

After making it to the top, Dash turned towards the bridge right behind her, grunting as she folded her twitching wings. She could hear voices inside. Probably Rivet and some others working on the Nimbus control mechanisms. She doubted Fleetfoot would be in there, but given her tendency to scoop up and non-consensually hug Rivet it didn’t hurt to look.

Dash pushed the door open and peered in. She squinted as a bright flashing light met her eyes. About a yard from the throttle, a floor panel had been opened and Rivet was sitting in it, wearing a large welding mask and thick hoof gloves as sparks flew up around him. Lucky was standing by the controls, waiting for Rivet to finish as Point Dex and Lead Runner worked with a few of Rivet’s unicorn staff to right the control station that had fallen atop Soarin.

“Okay…” Rivet spoke up, his welding mask muffling his voice as he shut off his blow torch and waved towards Lucky. “Try it now.”

“Right-o!” Lucky saluted casually as he reached for the throttle lever and pushed it lightly forward. A quiet whirring sound came from beneath the floor for a few seconds before a loud POP and a thick cloud of steam shot right into Rivet’s face. Thankfully, his welding mask shielded him, but…

“GAH! FFFFFFFF—TURN IT OFF!” Rivet demanded as he flailed.

Dash turned and let the door close behind her.

“Nope,” she quickly concluded as she made her way back around the top of the stairs and stopped in the center of the third floor hallway.

She looked left.

She looked right.

She had her work cut out for her. It was far from the first time she had seen the third floor dormitories, but she never expected she’d have to sweep through every single one. Where would she start? What was the most efficient way to do it? Fleetfoot could also easily move and elude her while she was in another room… if she was up here.

“Hmmm…” Dash hummed to herself as she kept looking back and forth, but then she stopped while facing left again.

Her eyes landed right on Fleetfoot’s door. She blinked as she stared at it for several seconds.

There was absolutely no way that Spitfire had not already checked Fleetfoot’s room. And if Fleetfoot was trying to avoid them, her own room was the last place she would go… or was it?

“Nah…” Dash looked away, but before she could take a step to the right, she stopped and looked back at the door again.

It didn’t hurt to look… Besides, Spitfire met them downstairs. Dash didn’t know how long Spitfire had been down there, maybe Fleetfoot came back or waited until Spitfire was gone.

She swallowed and turned towards Fleetfoot’s door and slowly walked towards it.

Plus, if Fleetfoot was really in there, the door would be locked. So…

Dash grabbed the doorknob and turned it. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked, but Dash went on anyway. Why? She wasn’t sure. The door not being locked likely confirmed that Fleetfoot wasn’t there, but something kept her going. Maybe that’s what Fleetfoot wanted her to think? That the door being unlocked meant she wasn’t there? Or did she just forget to lock it?

Dash shook her head out quickly. She was thinking too hard. Just go in. Just look. If she’s not there, leave. It was as simple as that.

The door creaked very quietly as she pushed it open far enough for her to fit through. She stepped into Fleetfoot’s room and glanced around.

She had already been in Soarin’s room, so she knew the basic layout of the lead squad’s single rooms, but it was organized a lot differently… and by organized, not really organized. Fleetfoot’s room was a bit on the messy side. Her bed was pushed up against the wall instead of in the middle of her room like Soarin’s, creating a large space between it and the opposite wall. There were several Wonderbolt flight suits on the floor, most of them balled up as if they were just tossed aside after use. The shelves bolted to the floor were bare, but Dash guessed most of her personal belongings were secured elsewhere. Her desk was similarly completely clear of anything, her swivel chair in the corner of the wall, tipped over on its side. While the room appeared to not be very tidy, Dash also considered that they were flying the day before so there was a good chance some of the paraphernalia strewn about had been freshly thrown around.

Dash walked into the center of the room and looked around.

There was no sign of Fleetfoot. Even listening carefully, she couldn’t hear any signs of breathing, sniffling, or anything that would indicate her hidden presence. But she kept looking anyway, just to be sure.

One of the sliding doors to Fleetfoot’s closet was slightly ajar, catching Dash’s attention before anything else. Determined to check all hiding places, Dash stepped up and gently pushed the door open. On the off chance Fleetfoot was inside, she wanted the least hostile approach possible to keep Fleetfoot comfortable.

Dash blinked, her eyes widening slightly as she pushed the closet open. Soarin’s closet was filled with nothing but Wonderbolt flight suits and one or two formal outfits, but Fleetfoot’s was JAM packed. There were flight suits too, but they were smushed to the edge by numerous other outfits, some formal, some dressy, and many that were also skin tight like the flight suits… but they clearly were not flight suits. Dash guessed that these were from her modeling endeavors.

As much as Dash wanted to look at all the form fitting outfits ranging from badass to sexy… there was no sign of Fleetfoot and she was the top priority.

She stepped back from the closet, not bothering to close it as she looked around the room for any more hiding places. But her eyes landed on the bed.

The sheets were disturbed and there was a slight crease and divot in the mattress… Did that mean Fleetfoot was recently here? That was better than nothing. Dash walked up to the mattress, resting a hoof on the scrunched up sheets and pushing them slightly to look at more of the bed.

But then she felt something. She glanced at her hoof upon the sheets. It felt like there was something underneath it. She pushed it slightly further, uncovering the corner of a… photo? Without thinking twice, Dash grabbed the sheet and slowly pulled it all the way aside.

She froze. Her eyes grew a little wider. There wasn’t just one photo… there were a lot of photos underneath the sheets. Dash just stared at them at first, but as she examined them from afar, something was very similar about all of them. She reached down and swished her hoof back and forth among them, confirming her thought.

Every single photo was of Fleetfoot with Spitfire, Soarin, or both. They looked to be a wide assortment. Some of them were from sports photo shoots, some vacation photos, and some just silly pictures, but the common theme in every photo was that Fleetfoot was right up beside one or both them. The picture right on the top of the pile was the three of them at a beach. Soarin was taking up half the picture, making a silly face and flexing his muscles with Fleetfoot cracking up and Spitfire rolling her eyes in the background.

Dash stared at the fun photo for several seconds, then glanced around at all the others. There was no way these were already sitting out already with how much the Nimbus had moved and how the rest of the room looked as a result. These were recently put here… Dash bit her lower lip, her ears folding back as she started connecting the dots, thinking back to what Nightshade did to Fleetfoot and all the things Dash heard her say in her temptation. As all these pictures showed clearly, Fleetfoot was small compared to Soarin and Spitfire. She was smaller and sleeker, nowhere near as muscular, imposing, or physically intimidating as them. It was something that bothered her, that much was clear… and if these were out so soon after they returned…

Dash had to find Fleetfoot… she had to. She was clearly distraught and the presence of these pictures implied she was possibly getting down on herself as well. She had to find her before she inflicted any more damage.

Dash quickly turned away from the photos, but as she did, her hoof tapped against something beneath the bed, causing it to slide and poke out. Dash stopped, looking straight down.

A cardboard box? With an open top? And it looked like there were magazines inside. With her hoof already right beside it, Dash hooked the edge of the box and pulled it the rest of the way out. There were two stacks of magazines, but the motion of the box caused the large stack to tip and slide out onto the second stack. The toppled stack seemed to be a collection Sports Equestrian magazines, the most widely read sport magazine among the pony population of the land. With the stack toppled and several of the covers visible, Dash noticed that every one of them had Fleetfoot on the cover. She reached down and picked up the one on the top. It had Fleetfoot lounging in a beach chair in a very suggestive pose, tipping a pair of lavender sunglasses down and giving the camera bedroom eyes.

The moment Dash picked it up, she noticed that several of the pages were dog eared. She blinked and glanced down to see the rest of the magazines in the toppled stack had the same.

Dash couldn’t hold herself back. She as she slipped her hoof into the gap left by the first dog eared page, and she opened right to it.

It led directly to another picture of Fleetfoot, this one a shot of her from behind as she lay flat on a towel and looked over her shoulder with her back hooves crossed. Dash blinked and went for the next eared page. Then another, and another, and another. They all led to pictures of her… but why?

Then her eyes caught something on the fourth image. She looked at the top of the page and saw… writing? Fleetfoot’s hoof writing? Were these… notes?

Dash didn’t read what was on the particular page, she flipped back to the first eared page and looked around, finding there were notes scribbled there too. What did they say?

“Small… weak… you look so puny… so frail…” Dash whispered to herself as she squinted to make out the scribbled letters. Her eyes went wide and she gasped quietly.

Shaming? Self-shaming?

Dash revisited all the pages she had seen, each one boasting similar notes, all very negative towards the specifics of her body’s appearance. Then she flipped to one she hadn’t seen yet. But… it was completely different.

It was a picture of Spitfire.

She clearly did not look too thrilled to be part of the photoshoot, but was posed to stand with a hoof atop a beach ball, wearing her sunglasses and a whistle around her neck. The shot was from below, capturing a great angle that showed off Spitfire’s impressive athletic body.

And there were notes scribbled beneath it too.

“See how great she looks? She’s better than you in every way. You need to pick it the hell up. She’s bigger, she’s stronger, she’s a real leader, and she looks it too.”

The page went limp as Dash slipped her hoof out from beneath it, placing it over her mouth as her eyes grew wide. Her curiosity had propelled her this far, but she now realized that she had just pried heavily into something she shouldn’t have, going deeper into Fleetfoot’s secrets than she deserved to be. She had to stop… she had to put everything back where it belonged and get out of the room before Fleetfoot suddenly showed herself or something.

She closed the magazine, glancing at the door as she grew anxious she’d be caught. The script had completely flipped from her hoping to find Fleetfoot to her hoping Fleetfoot didn’t find her and see what she stumbled upon. She reached down to fix the pile that had slid over, shifting them all neatly back into place and reaching the magazine she had down to complete the stack…

But the second stack weren’t the same magazines. Dash stopped and blinked as she set down the Sports Equestrian magazine, looking closely at the top of the other stack.

It was a… fitness magazine?

Dash told herself not to, she told herself to stop, but… despite the risks she was already taking, something was propelling her forward. She already clearly knew more than Fleetfoot wanted her too… then on top of it discovered her self-shaming habits. She shouldn’t do it, but Fleetfoot already placed trust in her to keep it all to herself and not tell a soul, not even her best friends. Dash wanted to help Fleetfoot, and in order to help she needed to know as much as possible. It felt so wrong, but the need to understand was already causing her to lean back down towards the box.

Dash touched the top magazine and pushed it aside, revealing another behind it. Was this whole stack the same magazine, just like the other? Pushing a few more aside confirmed it, they were all a magazine called ‘Gym Pony’. Pretty straight forward. Every cover featured either a mare or a stallion that was in really damn good shape, well-toned, and very strong looking. And just like the other stack of magazines, they all had pages dog-eared.

The voice screaming at her to stop had been completely snuffed out as Dash picked up the first and flipped through the pages. The magazine featured several articles including advice for workouts, dieting, and overall gym lifestyle. Dash had read magazines like these before, but she wondered what Fleetfoot had marked exactly, flipping the pages until she landed on the first eared page. She blinked, as the page opened to reveal a workout plan focused on building strength and muscle mass, complete with a diet plan harsher than the one Dash followed after all the advice Soarin gave her. There were no notes or anything like on her modeling pictures, but several of the suggested workout plans were circled or starred.

But as Dash looked through them all and flipped to another eared page to see more of the same, she noticed how… physically demanding and time consuming the plans were. These required an incredible amount of commitment and would definitely never fit into a schedule like Fleetfoot’s. The time table of a lead squad Wonderbolt was very busy. Soarin found extra time to hit the gym hard, but Fleetfoot made a lot more public appearances, and also did all her modeling. She did the standard training like the rest, but she clearly wanted to do more. Could she not because of her schedule, or… was there more to it? Was it part of her anxiety? The fact that all of these magazines were stacked right beside several modeling magazines that featured her and were almost defaced with self-degrading notes was setting off all sorts of alarm bells in Dash’s head.

Just how long had Fleetfoot been keeping this all bottled up? HOW LONG? It all felt so backwards. Fleetfoot had always seemed like the living breathing example of confidence, a lead squad Wonderbolt, flirtatious, sassy, sexy, and not afraid to show it.

Everything Dash was seeing contrasted with that image so hard. She had already learned a little from Fleetfoot after Nightshade got a hold of her… but if this was how emotionally intense her personal anxieties were… then no wonder Nightshade was able get in her head and break her so effortlessly!

Then Dash flinched really hard as the sound of a doorknob turning met her ears. She gritted her teeth, her eyes widening as she turned towards the door, but the door wasn’t moving.

Then realization hit her. She had completely forgotten one specific detail about the lead squad single dorms… they had a personal bathroom.

Dash’s head snapped towards the corner of the room to the left of the door, her eyes landing right on the one spot in the room she had not faced since entering. Yep… there was the bathroom… and yes… the doorknob had turned and the door was opening. Dash froze, knowing there was absolutely nothing she could do to avoid being seen.

The door opened fully, giving Dash an angled view into the bathroom, but her eyes snapped directly to… Fleetfoot.

But Fleetfoot wasn’t looking at her or seemed to not notice she wasn’t alone yet. She was standing in the doorway, but looking down at the floor. Her eyes were bloodshot and tired. She looked like she hadn’t slept. Her mane was a complete mess and her fur was very uneven and split. Her bruises and wounds from the battle showing through her bright turquoise color.

Dash found it hard to look at anything else, but her eyes lifted briefly to see into Fleetfoot’s bathroom. The mirror was broken or at least had several large cracks in it. Were they made recently? If they were…

Dash wasn’t able to think on it any further, because the moment of dread arrived. Fleetfoot’s ears twitched, and her head shot up, her eyes locking with Dash’s.

Dash was speechless, there was nothing she could say or do, especially once Fleetfoot’s eyes began to dart.

Fleetfoot glanced towards the bed and the photos, then to the box of magazines on the floor, then to the magazine still in Dash’s hoof.

Her jaw dropped, her eyes growing as wide as her face allowed. Her pupils shrunk to tiny dots and her ears flopped to the sides of her head. She started breathing quickly, small, frail squeaks escaping her throat as her limbs began to shake.

Nothing could describe the wave of dread that passed through Dash as she saw Fleetfoot come to full realization.

She had just fucked up… SEVERELY.

Fleetfoot released a very weak, high pitched scream as she turned around, almost stumbling over herself as she dove back into the bathroom, slammed the door shut, and locked it behind her.

“FLEET!” Dash yelled as she dropped the magazine back into the box and shoved it back beneath the bed. “Fleet, wait!” Dash galloped over to the door and placed both hooves on it. “I didn’t mean… I wasn’t digging around your room!” she frantically tried to explain herself. “I was looking for you! I found them by accident!” she pleaded her case. “I’m sorry!” she apologized, adding it on for good measure, but got no response.

This was bad… and could get worse. Dash considered Fleetfoot to be a good friend at this point, but she was still technically a recruit… and she had just invaded the privacy of one of the highest ranking Wonderbolts…

Oh, who was she kidding? Rank had nothing to do with this! In fact, this was FAR WORSE! She was the one pony Fleetfoot trusted about all this and she probably just blew her chances of fixing it or approaching it softly.

“Dash?” A voice came from behind the wall. Dash’s ears perked up. It sounded like Soarin, and it sounded like he was right outside Fleetfoot’s room.

Thinking a mile a minute, Dash quickly turned, galloped out the door, and into the hallway, looking left, then right until she saw Soarin and Spitfire walking down the west wing of the hall.

“GUYS!” she yelled while waving her arms, the two of them looking over their shoulder quickly. Dash didn’t know what to do now… she felt like she pretty much ruined her chances to help Fleetfoot, so she was immediately turning to the next best thing, Fleetfoot’s oldest friends. If she could get them in there, maybe they could coax her out and Dash could fully explain herself. “She’s here!” Dash pointed at Fleetfoot’s door. “In her roo—”

Before Dash could finish, Fleetfoot’s door suddenly slammed shut, followed by a CLICK.

Dash squeaked, her eyes darting to the door.

“Aw… dammit…” Dash’s voice cracked as she turned and grabbed the doorknob, only to find it locked tight as the sound of galloping hooves approached her.

“Fleetfoot is in her room?!” Spitfire exclaimed in disbelief as she and Soarin skidded to a halt behind Dash. “But… I already looked here!”

“Then she really was moving around,” Soarin added as the two watched Dash tip the doorknob back and forth, failing to open it. Dash put her ear to it, tapping her hoof against it.

“Fleeeeeeeet!” she slurred as her heart sank. She felt awful. She completely stepped over the line. It didn’t matter if her intentions were good, she shouldn’t have done it out of respect. She wanted so badly to apologize to her, but the constant silence from within was tearing her apart. “Yipe!” Dash yelped as Spitfire suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back, stepping up to the door.

“Fleet?! FLEET!” Spitfire began knocking her hoof on the door. “Are you in there?!” she yelled frantically as Soarin moved up beside her and put his ear to the door before placing a hoof on it.

“Fleet! It’s us! Please let us in!” he echoed Spitfire’s concern. It looked like Spitfire’s worry had rubbed off on him. Dash had a feeling it would quickly. The three were like siblings, after all. It probably didn’t help that Dash had a look on her face that implied something was very wrong. The moment they turned and saw her and the way she motioned towards Fleetfoot’s door probably made them panic.

Dash sat behind Spitfire and Soarin, watching as the two pleaded for Fleetfoot to open the door, but as she watched… she started to think. She came down from her worry, she shelved the dread, she took a few deep breaths and thought. She had just made a horrible, horrible mistake. The worst thing she could do right now was lie down and wallow in it. So instead, she carefully thought through all of it.

She thought about what Fleetfoot had told her so far. She thought about everything she just saw in the room. She thought about the photos on the bed. She thought about self-shaming in the magazines. She thought about the marked workout plans. She thought about how disheveled Fleetfoot looked. She thought about the broken mirror.

Finally, she looked up at Spitfire and Soarin, and how directly they were trying to approach the situation.

This wasn’t going to work.

She messed up. She really messed up… but she was still the only one Fleetfoot had spoken to about her tightly locked away troubles.

She had to retake control of the situation.

“Guys…” she quietly addressed Soarin and Spitfire, moving beside them before pushing herself between them and the door. Both Soarin and Spitfire were forced to step back and look down at her. “Stop,” she requested simply as she shook her head.

“Dash,” Spitfire glared at her. “We need to get her food! This isn’t the time for her to hide and—”

“I know,” Dash cut her off. “And we’ll get her food, but please… let me do something first.”

It felt like slight déjà vu. And for a good reason, Dash had literally done the same thing yesterday to Spitfire, and she clearly wasn’t thrilled.

“Really? Again?” Spitfire added a pout to her glare, clearly not happy that Dash kept cutting her off from one of her closest friends.

“Just trust me?” Dash pleaded, knowing that she was, in fact, once again pushing Spitfire back. Spitfire didn’t budge, but Soarin suddenly placed a hoof on her shoulder. Spitfire sighed, rolling her eyes as she glanced up at him.

“Lemme guess…” Spitfire began while shooting him a flat look. Soarin was holding his mouth open, ready to speak but waiting for Spitfire to finish. “You’re gonna say… ‘Spitfire, let’s let her.’ Am I right?”

“Uh…” Soarin closed his mouth, his lips curling into a weak smile, realizing that this had become a normal occurrence.

“Fine,” Spitfire grunted, sitting her plot down on the floor and releasing a hard sigh. Soarin blinked and looked up at Dash, flashing her a brief grin before waving a hoof at her.

“She knows me too well. Go ahead,” Soarin acknowledged.

“Thanks,” Dash smiled back at him before facing Fleetfoot’s door and sitting down. She waited for a few seconds, taking one long deep breath before reaching a hoof up and gently knocking on the door. “Fleet…?” She waited. No answer. “It’s Dash…” Still no answer. Dash’s ears flopped down and she sighed, but she didn’t give up. “I’m seriously sorry. I’m telling the truth, I wasn’t poking around your room or your personal things. I stumbled upon them while looking for you, that’s all. I shouldn’t have looked at them, but when I saw them, my curiosity got the better of me,” she fully admitted fault.

Dash waited and listened, but there was no reply, not even any noise from within. Dash had no idea if Fleetfoot was hearing any of it, but she forged on anyway.

“Do you remember back when Soarin and I were not talking to each other? Right after the tryouts?” Dash suddenly asked, pausing briefly. “I wasn’t doing too well, and feeling down on myself for everything that I had done and said. I was afraid to speak to any of you. But then you walked right up to me and acted like nothing had happened. You still treated me like a friend. You have no idea how much better that made me feel, how much it helped me relax and take a weight off my shoulders. Now I want to repay the favor… I owe you for that, I really do. So please… believe me when I say I didn’t mean any harm, I wasn’t trying to invade your privacy.”

Dash felt like she was talking to a wall. Or in this case a door. She wasn’t going to bet on any of this working or convincing Fleetfoot, but she had to try, she had to at least go through with it.

“You can talk to me about anything, remember? I told you that yesterday and I meant it. I’m all ears, whenever you want. If you think anything I accidentally saw just now changes that, you’re wrong. Nothing is going to change that. So… please let me in? I’m not the only one worried about you. Soarin and Spitfire are worried sick, but I made them promise they’re going to wait out here.” Dash lied, turning and immediately glaring at both of them. Both Spitfire and Soarin expressed surprise as Dash dropped that on them. Spitfire narrowed her eyes and gave a pout of disapproval, but Soarin tipped his head and nodded, reluctantly agreeing as Dash pulled the fast one on them. “So, it’s just going to be me,” Dash continued, doing her best to project as much reassurance as possible. “So please…?” she asked one final time.

But no answer came.

Dash gave up, sighing as she leaned back from the door and turned to the side, looking down the hall.

It was worth a shot, but in the end she screwed up and ran right into a brick wall she built herself. What a stupid move, she should have kept her hooves to herself.

CLICK

Dash blinked, her head and eyes snapping back towards the door.

That sounded like the door unlocking.

She just stared for a few moments, swallowing before she reached for the door and touched the knob with her hoof. She gently twisted her hoof… and the doorknob turned with it.

She heard a brief clip clop of hooves behind her. Dash immediately turned around and extended a hoof, pointing at and stopping Spitfire right in her tracks. Spitfire blinked, quickly scrunching her face and huffing, but Dash shook her head. Soarin reached over and clamped his hooves atop Spitfire’s shoulders, pulling her back from the door before giving Dash a nod. He wanted to go in just as much as Spitfire, but after Dash’s promise of her coming in alone seemed to do the trick, he felt like they had to wait outside. Whatever was up with Fleetfoot, he didn’t want to overwhelm her.

Dash shot him a smile, satisfied that Soarin was seeing the situation from her point of view.

With everything set, and with a chance to make things right again, Dash took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.

---

It didn’t take long to find Fleetfoot. The moment Dash stepped through the door and closed it behind her, she turned her head to the left to see Fleetfoot sitting on the floor beside the door. She was hunched over, her posture as weak and broken as possible without tipping forward. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes locked directly on the box beneath her bed.

Dash couldn’t tell earlier since she was across the room, but now that she was closer she could see Fleetfoot’s body shaking. It was very subtle, small shivers with a harsh twitch here and there every few seconds or so. Dash wasn’t sure if it was an emotional reaction or if it was due to her body being sore. It was probably both. But Dash couldn’t even imagine how Fleetfoot’s body had to feel right now.

Dash swallowed awkwardly as she faced Fleetfoot and moved right up to her side.

“Hey…” Dash greeted, taking things one step at a time. Fleetfoot didn’t answer, she didn’t even look. She just kept staring at the box beneath the bed as her body continued to feel aftershocks from her nerves. Dash glanced over her shoulder at the box, her eyes moving to the photos on the bed as well. She had to be a little more direct, nothing pushy, just… not too soft. Fleetfoot needed to know none of this changed anything.

Instead of trying more small talk, Dash turned around and sat herself down right beside Fleetfoot, resting her back against the wall.

“If you want to talk about anything, I’ll listen,” she began, speaking forward instead of to Fleetfoot directly. She wanted to give the feeling of simply being a presence instead of something focused and bearing down on Fleetfoot. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine too. Either way, I’m just going to sit here for a while, alright?”

Dash glanced at Fleetfoot briefly. She still hadn’t moved or reacted beyond her current position and posture. Dash’s ears flopped down as she looked away, letting the silence encircle them for a few moments.

“I’ve said this like… four times now, I think, but,” Dash glanced at her again, but still didn’t quite face her directly. “I’m seriously sorry about seeing the pictures and the magazines. I came in here to look for you. I had no intention of digging through your stuff… My curiosity got the better of me when I stumbled upon them.” Dash waited for a response, but she knew she wasn’t going to get one. But then Fleetfoot suddenly released a muffled, weak squeak before tipping her head down, hugging herself, and curling up as much as her body allowed. Dash sighed as she watched Fleetfoot try and make herself as small as possible. “You don’t have to accept my apology, I don’t deserve it for being nosey, even if I didn’t mean to.”

Fleetfoot replied with another tiny squeak.

At least Dash was getting some kind of response now. It was a start. Fleetfoot was making no attempt to lash out or chastise her either, which she appreciated. It signaled that Fleetfoot was either not taking it personally, or that she was too distraught to retort. Sensing she was not going to get much or any resistance at all, Dash shifted closer to Fleetfoot, opening her wing and reaching it around to give some physical comfort.

Fleetfoot let it happen, remaining curled up as Dash’s feathers rested softly over her back.

Dash kept her eyes on Fleetfoot for a minute or two before looking over her shoulder at the door beside them. Spitfire and Soarin were no doubt listening in. She was surprised Spitfire had not barged her way in yet, but Soarin was likely holding her back. Dash had to find a way to get them involved. But how? They were part of this… that much was clear.

All she had for now was her presence. Fleetfoot didn’t seem to mind her being there despite everything that had just happened. She had to take advantage of it and provide comfort, but at the same time she had to get Fleetfoot to acknowledge Soarin and Spitfire.

“Fleet…” she began as she rubbed her wing gently against her. “I get why you’re hiding away right now,” Dash tried to shift the subject. She winced as she felt Fleetfoot tense up slightly, but she continued anyway. “I’m glad that you’re letting me in a little, but… after you’ve taken the time you need, don’t avoid your friends. Especially Soarin and Spitfire. None of us want you to be alone.”

“Mrph…” Fleetfoot made another sound as she suddenly tipped to her right and rested herself against Dash’s shoulder.

Dash took that as an agreement, at least for now. There had to be something else she could do. Normally, she’d give a pony their deserved space and give them time to work some things out, but this was not a normal case. Dash knew full well how deep Nightshade could scar a pony. Fleetfoot needed all the support she could get. She continued to ponder as Fleetfoot leaned against her, soft sniffling and hiccups coming from her as she nestled her cheek into Dash’s shoulder.

But then she suddenly tilted back up, lifting her head up from her arms and loosening her grip on herself. Dash perked up and glanced at her as she made the move.

“Well…” Fleetfoot spoke, her voice raspy, broken, and quiet. “You know it all now…”

“Fleet?” Dash blinked, turning all of her focus on Fleetfoot. Was she about to spill it all? To be perfectly honest with herself, Dash was not expecting it to happen, but if it did…

“Everything. You know everything,” Fleetfoot continued as her lips began to quiver and her eyelids began to twitch gently. She tilted her head back down, but only a little, looking straight at the floor. “Everything that Nightshade said… it’s all true. Every bit of it… and… and…” she sniffled loudly, her eyes beginning to look a little misty as she made a very weak head motion towards her bed. “And now you saw it too… the pictures… the magazines… and…” She suddenly flinched, shivering so hard that it made Dash jump slightly in surprise and lift her wing up from her. Fleetfoot groaned and stuffed her hooves over her face shaking her head as she held the groan for several seconds. Dash quickly put her wing back on her, rubbing it gently again. “I’m so selfish…”

“No you’re not,” Dash quickly tried to deny her self-judgment.

“YES I AM!” Fleetfoot suddenly blurted out, slamming her hooves down to the floor and pushing her body up. Dash flinched and tipped away in surprise as Fleetfoot stumbled away from her, wobbling towards the pile of Wonderbolt flight suits on the floor. Her movements were very stiff and shaky. Dash’s ears twitched uncomfortably as Fleetfoot’s movements were accompanied by many painful cracks and pops from her muscles and joints. Her body was rivaling Silver’s in terms of how much noise it could make, Fleetfoot grunting and gasping painfully as she slipped and fell face first into the pile of suits, but instead of landing softly, her slip up ended with a loud noise that sounded like a rock hitting wood. Fleetfoot yelped as she hit it, pulling her head right out and thrusting her hooves into the pile as Dash finally stood up and tried to follow behind her.

Dash froze in place halfway as Fleetfoot suddenly pulled the top end of a large, body length mirror out from beneath the suits, revealing several other outfits from modeling that were also apparently buried beneath. Stumbling and grunting, Fleetfoot pushed the mirror all the way up until it smacked against the shelf behind the pile. She turned around and thrashed her hooves back and forth pushing the pile of clothes in several directions, the outfits flinging and flying about with one of her Wonderbolt suits landing on Dash’s face. After Dash shook the suit off, she saw Fleetfoot standing on the floor with nothing around her, staring directly into the mirror at herself, her eyes traveling up and down her body.

“LOOK AT ME!” she yelled as she turned and displayed her body to Dash, turning to the side so she could see all of it. Dash blinked, her pupils shrinking and her jaw hanging open as Fleetfoot lost it. She wanted Fleetfoot to let it out, but this leapt way over the line faster than she could have anticipated.

Fleetfoot’s eyes darted over to her bed. She awkwardly moved towards the bed, nearly falling down twice as she placed a hoof on her bed, reached the other beneath the bed, and yanked the box out. She reached in and grabbed several of the magazines with her on the cover, gripping them so tightly that many of the pages crackled and bent. She stared at them, gritting her teeth and shaking.

“Fleet—!” Dash quickly moved and reached for her, but Fleetfoot turned and threw the magazines at Dash.

“LOOK AT MEEEEEEE!!!!!!”

“Ah!” Dash covered her face as the magazines flipped and flailed apart, the noise of flapping pages filling the air as the magazines went in all directions, some of them losing a page or two as Fleetfoot reached in, pulled out the rest of her modeling covers and threw those as well. “FLEET! STOP IT!” Dash yelled, lowering her arms to see the magazines strewn all over the floor, open, upside-down, bent, or torn. As Dash looked up, Fleetfoot held one of the covers right up to Dash, a picture of her on a bed, on her back, and in a seductive pose while biting her hoof.

“THIS IS ME!” Fleetfoot yelled as she swiped her arm across her body, flinging the magazine across the room, its cover smacking flat against the wall before falling. Dash watched the magazine fall before looking back at Fleetfoot as she touched her hooves to her body, to her chest, her shoulders, her legs, everything. “I SHOULD BE PROUD!” she yelled, her voice breaking down. “I SHOULD BE HAPPY!” she screamed, tears forming in her eyes. “BUT I’M NOT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT SO MUCH!” she yelled, pounding her hooves against the floor. She pounded her hooves twice, the second looked to be more than her arms could take as they gave out and caused her to flop face first to the floor. She gave no effort to stand, she just threw her hooves over the top of her head and grabbed her mane. “IT’S… IT’S…” Fleetfoot was almost hyperventilating. “It’s…” Her breathing suddenly calmed down, but she was shaking and sniffling. “It’s stupid… I have it all, but it feels like it doesn’t matter… It’s a distraction, it’s a reminder that I’ll never be… how I want to be.”

Dash was stunned. She stared at Fleetfoot as she shook on the floor. What the hell was she supposed to say or do here?

“This is why I’m selfish…” Fleetfoot wailed into the floor. “This is how messed up I am! We’re going through hell, we’re fighting for our lives, ponies have DIED… but despite all that, I’m still thinking about this! I’m still focused on myself!” she yelled as she bopped her head against the ground.

Fleetfoot looked like she was in so much pain, physically and mentally. Dash wanted to comfort her, but from what? And how? This had entered territory she was unprepared to handle.

But still… watching Fleetfoot on the floor, her body twitching and wincing every few moments... it was motivating Dash to do something, anything. She just had to THINK!

“It’s…” Fleetfoot suddenly spoke again, her voice slightly muffled by the floor as she turned her head to the side, pointing her face away from Dash. “It’s on my mind twenty-four seven. I can never get away from it. Nightshade pulled it right out of me so easily, she manipulated me with it, she put me on display… and…” Fleetfoot rolled over onto her side and curled up. “I’m lucky that’s all she brought out of me. There’s so much more… I’m such a fucking wreck...”

Dash couldn’t take it anymore. She had to act. It was going so far that she felt like she could feel Fleetfoot’s pain. Fleetfoot had to get everything off her chest. She had to. She clearly had so much bottled up it was a wonder she hadn’t exploded yet. If she didn’t have some kind of mass relief, she’d never get back on her hooves.

Dash swallowed and took a deep breath, walking up to Fleetfoot and lowering herself down beside her, placing a hoof on her back.

“Fleet…” Dash rubbed a hoof up and down her side gently, feeling the vibrations of her body as she quivered. “I want you to do something for me.”

Fleetfoot’s ears twitched. She rolled away from Dash onto her stomach and turned her head towards her, her eyes wet and tears dripping down her face from her bloodshot eyes. Dash quickly shifted to place herself right next to her again. She had her attention, she had to keep it up.

“I want you to tell me everything…” she asked sternly, but not harshly. “Everything from top to bottom. I want to understand this so I can help you. Everything, no details left out.”

“B…but…!” Fleetfoot looked shocked and horrified, her ears folding backwards as she slowly leaned away, but Dash reached for her shoulder and stopped her in place. She kept up a stern gaze, but kept the rest of her expression soft, the kind of face a friend would wear if deeply concerned and looking for a solution.

“I already saw what she did to you, remember? You don’t need to hide it from me, I just want the context,” Dash explained, but Fleetfoot started glancing back and forth between Dash and the door.

“But… Spitfire… and Soarin are…” she blubbered, biting her lower lip as she fixed her eyes on the door and whimpered. Dash quickly touched her face and pushed her head back to look at her.

“Fleet, have I judged you for any of this?” she asked. Fleetfoot only answered with a hiccup. Dash shook her head. “It’s the same with them. They are your friends and have been your friends for a long time. Don’t you believe for a second that either of them would suddenly dislike you, EVER, for any reason whatsoever.”

“But…” Fleetfoot still didn’t comply, trailing off as she looked at the door, but this time Dash didn’t force her to look back. She let Fleetfoot stare at the door that separated the two of them from Spitfire and Soarin.

“They want to help you just like I am,” Dash reassured her, but Fleetfoot’s ears shifted to the sides of her head as she lowered her chin to the floor.

“But… it has to do with them… they’re part of it. I can’t…” she covered her face with her hooves. “I could never look them in the eye and…” she trailed off, shivering as her hooves went further and flattened her ears with her hooves. Then Dash’s ears perked.

“Then don’t.” she said simply.

“Huh?” Fleetfoot peeked out from beneath her arms, her teary eyes looking through her fur towards Dash. Dash reached down and pushed Fleetfoot’s arm aside so she could look at her.

“There’s a door right there…” Dash pointed to the door. “Between you and them. You don’t have to face them, but you should still talk to them.” Dash encouraged, but Fleetfoot still looked completely reluctant. “They want to help you Fleet, just like I am. And they will listen like I am. If you don’t want to look into their eyes, then speak to their ears.”

“I…” Fleetfoot squeaked and shuddered, her eyes locked on the door. “Eep!” she yelped as Dash grabbed her arms and gently forced her to stand up.

“Come over here,” Dash turned and pulled her along, being wary of Fleetfoot’s sore body as she moved them over to the door slowly. Dash could feel Fleet’s body twitching and shaking in very sudden and uneven patterns. Nightshade hadn’t broken any of her bones or dislocated any joints, but it was clear Fleetfoot’s body was barely under her own control, her pain receptors sending unending jolts through her.

The two of them stopped in front of the door, Dash turning to Fleetfoot as she began to whimper.

“Sit down with me,” Dash ordered as she sat down and gently pulled Fleetfoot down beside her. They rested their backs against the door as Dash reached a hoof over her shoulder and knocked on the door twice.

---

Soarin and Spitfire both had an ear pressed to the door, the two of them leaning back slightly in surprise as two hard knocks rapped on the door from the other side.

They glanced at one another briefly, wondering what was being signaled to them.

“Guys,” Dash spoke through the door. “Sit with your backs against the door.”

She said nothing else, leaving Spitfire and Soarin with just that. Soarin quickly looked towards Spitfire, ready to reach out and stop her from an inevitable attempt to enter and take it all into her own hooves, but he was surprised when she simply stood there.

Though she did look like she was hesitating, but in which direction? Hesitating to jump in, or hesitating to do as Dash said? Spitfire turned her head to Soarin, their eyes locking. Soarin could see it. He could see desperation in her eyes. Spitfire was a strong, steadfast commander. Her limits had been tested in the recent days, but she eventually overcame it all. But this was different, this was personal and it wasn’t even about her. It was the same look she had in her eyes when they discovered Wave had been infected by the crystals. It was a look of extreme worry for somepony she cared about. But this time, she was keeping herself under control, she wasn’t trying to break the door down.

She was putting her faith in Rainbow Dash. It was quite a sight to Soarin, knowing that Spitfire was always one to grab hold of things and take control, but it was another testament to how much trust she had in Dash after all they had been through.

Spitfire clearly didn’t like being left on the outside, but she was bearing it.

Soarin wasted no time in doing as Dash said. He turned and sat down and tapped the floor beside him, signaling to Spitfire to sit down too. She swallowed and did just that, turning, sitting, and resting her back against the door.

Once both of them were in place, Soarin reached up a hoof over and knocked twice.

---

Dash grinned and nodded as the two knocks came in response. She reached a wing over Fleetfoot, resting it gently on her twitching body for a moment. She wanted Fleetfoot to adjust, to let it sink in that her two best friends were right outside.

“They’re listening, Fleet,” Dash began as Fleetfoot sniffled, looking down at the floor and hesitating. “Talk to us, let it all out,” Dash encouraged. “The four of us have been through a lot together. I may be new to the pack, but it feels like it’s been so long since we met in Ponyville for the first time. I’ve trusted you as a friend since… and can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate you trusting me on this topic thus far, but…” Dash tapped a hoof lightly against the door. “You’ve known them for years, I don’t nearly deserve that trust as much as they do.”

Fleetfoot sniffled and slowly picked her head up, turning her head away from Dash, but letting her eyes shift over to look at the door behind her. Dash gave her a light squeeze with her wing, touching a hoof to her arm as well.

“Forget about everything else for a moment. Forget about Nightshade, forget about the Shadowbolts, forget about what we’ve been going through. Right now, it’s about you. We’re worried about you.”

Fleetfoot looked back at the floor, shutting her eyes tight as her lips quivered.

“Hey, c’mon,” Dash suddenly nudged her, giving Fleet a wink and a grin as she turned to look at her. “You don’t need to be afraid of us,” she said, taking on a somewhat lighter tone, trying to add a casual vibe to reinforce the fact that she was among those who cared. Dash glanced at the door. “I bet Spitfire has plenty of things she keeps to herself that are embarrassing too!”

They both jumped in surprise as a loud knock, more like a THUMP slammed against the door. Dash chuckled and pointed at it.

“SEE?! She’s agreeing!” Dash giggled. The two of them nearly tipped forward as a loud WHAM, came from the door, complete with hard vibrations.

“Spitfire, stop…” Soarin’s voice came through the door, no further abuse of the door following.

“Yeesh,” Dash rubbed the back of her head as she and Fleetfoot rested against the door again. “What a grouch…” She quickly turned her focus back to Fleetfoot. “But you get me,” Dash rested a hoof on Fleetfoot’s shoulder, drawing her eyes back to her. “We don’t care what it is, we just want to help. It’s what friends do.” Dash gave her another wink. “You’d do the same for us.”

That seemed to do the trick. Fleetfoot’s eyes widened just a little, but it was a reaction. Her ears stood up as she looked at the door again. She sniffled, light tears still dripping through the fur on her face as her ears slowly flopped all the way back down. She took a deep breath as she turned around, and then exhaled long and loudly as she slumped her back against the door.

Dash placed both her wing and an arm over Fleetfoot’s shoulder, confident that she was about to let it all go. Dash had heard most of it from Nightshade, just not the fine details. Soarin and Spitfire needed to hear it, they were the ones that Fleetfoot really needed to tell. But either way, she needed to let it all out… just like Dash did the night before when Soarin was tending to her wounds. Fleetfoot could use the same relief that had done wonders for her.

“It’s… not very complicated, really…” Fleetfoot began, her voice weak, but loud enough for Spitfire and Soarin to hear beyond the door. “All it really boils down to… is that I feel small.”

She paused as the words sunk in to everypony listening. Dash blinked and tipped her head slightly, looking Fleetfoot up and down. Fleetfoot was about the same size as her, not as built, but sleeker and definitely more toned. She looked up as Fleetfoot glanced in her direction, catching Dash’s eyes as they scanned her. Fleetfoot shook her head lightly.

“Not like… actually little. I know I’m fairly average sized for a pegasus. I just, compare myself to others around me. It’s been like this my whole life and… I think it’s because of my dad,” Fleetfoot explained, piquing Dash’s interest.

“Your dad?” Dash went along, providing hoof holds and stepping stones to help Fleetfoot get through it. Fleetfoot nodded, as she looked down at the floor, pausing for several moments as she gathered her thoughts.

“Mom and Dad are a very odd looking couple. Mom is smaller than me, a little pegasus, about the size of Surprise, but Dad? Well… He’s the captain of the Sentinels in the Fillydelphia division of the royal guard.”

Dash’s eyes widened slightly. A Sentinel? But those were…

“You know…” Fleetfoot tipped her head slightly. “The large earth ponies recruited to guard the treasuries, royal visitors, or important shipments to Canterlot.”

Dash looked Fleetfoot up and down again. Fleetfoot’s father is an earth pony? Fleetfoot didn’t have a SINGLE trace of earth pony traits… but, maybe that was part of it.

“My dad is huge,” Fleetfoot continued. “Not as big as that farm pony you know back in Ponyville. What was his name again? Big Mac?” she glanced at Dash, who nodded while still trying to process it. “Yeah, him. My dad isn’t as big as him, but he’s pretty close. He’s definitely larger than Soarin, but you know how big some earth ponies can get. He’s really strong too, wears a full suit of heavy armor all day while on duty, but it barely fazes him. But even though he’s so big and intimidating, he’s such a big softy. He’s always been so gentle with my mother and I.”

It was beginning to take shape for Dash. Fleetfoot was really telling her everything, but from what she had heard so far, it wasn’t hard to draw a few early conclusions. Large father, small mother, being a filly and how things influence one when they are young… Dash knew how that worked.

“All through my fillyhood, I was in so much awe of him,” Fleetfoot continued. “He was so big and so strong, like a mountain and probably just as sturdy. He had such a commanding presence too, drawing respect from everypony around him for both his rank and his stature. He’d walk into a room and all eyes would go to him. It didn’t matter if he was around his sentinels or if we were in a family restaurant. Everypony would look, some would say ‘wow,’ and it filled my little filly head with so much pride. Everypony thought my dad was so cool, I wore it like a badge of honor. I bragged about him all the time at school, on the playground, and even at flight camps even though he wasn’t a pegasus. It’s needless to say, I won every argument about whose dad could beat up whose…” Fleetfoot cracked a small smile, but it looked like it was only a brief bliss of nostalgia poking its way into her current state.

Dash had no doubts now. Everything she saw and everything Nightshade said to her… there was a reason the temptation led to manipulating Fleetfoot’s body. She really did feel small. But there were still more details. Dash kept listening.

“It was so simple when I was a filly…” Fleetfoot’s grin faded as she looked up at the ceiling, a single tear gently dripping down her face. “Every day I looked up at him, and he smiled down at me with that friendly gentle smile of his… it made me puff my chest out and look forward to growing up. I always said to myself, every day of my life… ‘One day, I’m going to be big and strong, just like Daddy. I’m going to be a leader, just like Daddy. Everypony will look up to me in awe, just like Daddy…” Fleetfoot’s lip quivered. “Just… like Daddy…” she repeated.

Fleetfoot closed her eyes and slumped down.

“Well…” she continued, slowly opening her eyes and sniffling. “I grew up… I got older, but those little filly hopes and dreams faded quickly. I didn’t grow much… but I held on to hopes that I’d have some kind of spontaneous growth spurt long past maturing. But I was eventually forced to realize that I inherited more of my mom’s genes than my dad’s. When I turned eighteen and it finally hit me that it wasn’t going to happen… I was devastated. My whole life I had watched my dad and it was drilled into my little filly head that a great leader has to be big, strong, and imposing… I’m not stupid, there’s obviously so much more involved than that, but after believing it for so long? It hammered a belief into me that I would never be a leader like him.” Fleetfoot shook her head. “Both my mom and dad saw it coming. They both tried to encourage me to keep aiming high, but I didn’t have it, I rejected the idea, I even snapped at them a few times. It was so silly and immature of me, but it was there, it was solid and I couldn’t get rid of it. In my head I was a pipsqueak and would never have the image of a leader.”

Yet here she was, part of the lead squad of one of the most prestigious military forces in Equestria. Dash needed to know the rest. How did she get here? Did it continue? How had she kept it all hidden? She was sure Spitfire and Soarin were equally curious.

“Life went on,” Fleetfoot kept going. “But my approach completely changed. I still wanted to be great and do great things, I still wanted to be a part of something like my dad was, but I never wanted, no, I refused to put myself in a position of leadership. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t look at myself and do it. I didn’t fit my personal visual definition of a leader. I couldn’t bear to be what I didn’t believe in, so… I always aimed to be part of something rather than be the head of something.” Fleetfoot hugged herself tightly, curling up as much as she could beneath Dash’s arm and wing. “I’ve been doing it for years and I eventually came to terms with it all. I was normal, it’s what I believed, but something happened in the wake of it all. I suddenly had this… strange obsession left over from what I left behind. I found myself becoming jealous, but not in a bitter way. I envied those who were bigger and stronger than me, but I didn’t want to avoid them or shun them, I wanted to be closer to them. I had accepted that I would never have it myself, but the closer I got to a large or built pony, the more I unconsciously began to… visualize. It’s like a leftover, lingering desire from my lost fillyhood dreams trying to squeeze its way out of me even though I buried it.” Fleetfoot paused as a sharp twitch and shiver rushed through her, causing Dash to tighten her hold on her a little. “I competed against lots of ponies who fit that category in races, stunt shows, and other competitions, but I never befriended any of them. I was afraid that they’d… notice my odd fascination with them and be weirded out or disturbed.”

Fleetfoot stopped shivering, her body twitching once as she ceased speaking for a few seconds. She uncurled her body a little, but kept hugging herself.

“But then everything changed when I met Soarin and Spitfire…” she said as she turned her head and glanced at the door behind them.

“The youth flyer competition in Manehatten…” Dash thought out loud as Fleetfoot nodded and quickly looked away from the door. She hesitated, gritting her teeth as a quiet, barely audible wail sounded from the back of her throat. She knew they were listening. She was about to bring them into the picture and they were the ones she was avoiding in the first place. Dash gave Fleetfoot’s opposite shoulder a light squeeze, keeping her wing rested gently over her to provide as much physical comfort as she could muster, because this was likely going to be the hardest part for her.

“At first it was the same as everypony else like them…” she forged on, her voice shaking with a clear struggle in between her words. “Two ponies, both physically larger and stronger than me. I couldn’t hold it down, I gravitated towards them little by little, shivering as I looked them over and thought about what it’s like to be like that, but I kept enough distance, I never let them see just how much I wanted to get closer. It wasn’t enough to break my focus from the competition. I kept my mind on track and competed like I always do. After a heated contest, it was over and life was about to go on as always. I was ready to make a quick exit to avoid any awkward encounters, but I ran right into them. I had had a few chance encounters in the past, but always excused myself. It was a little harder this time though because they were just so… nice. I was so nervous as they stood there and talked to me. I had trouble controlling my eyes. They kept twitching and trying to move towards their bodies. Soarin was one of the biggest pegasi I had ever seen, but it was mostly…” Fleetfoot stopped and squeaked, her ears folding backwards as she hesitated. She glanced over her shoulder at the door, knowing that Spitfire was right outside, but she pushed onward. “I had such a hard time not staring a Spitfire’s body… she was such a strong looking mare, I almost wanted to touch her.” Fleetfoot fought to keep speaking. Dash could only imagine how hard this was to admit. Under normal circumstances this could have sexual implications, but it was actually something traumatic. “Thank Celestia they were so interested in me and kept asking me about myself, where I was from, how I trained, and other things among compliments towards my performance… because it was just enough to distract me long enough. And then… I was bailed out when Blazetail and Flashwind appeared.”

Dash remembered. The first time she ever spent casual time with Spitfire and Fleetfoot she learned all about their unlikely encounter with the two legendary captains. It was that chance encounter that put Spitfire, Soarin, Fleetfoot, and eventually Rapidfire on their road to becoming the youngest lead squad in the history of the force. But all of this with Fleetfoot… this view put such a different perspective on it all and Dash was sure Spitfire and Soarin agreed with her outside the room. All this time and she kept it all to herself?

“At first I didn’t mind…” Fleetfoot continued on. “The Wonderbolts were a perfect distraction, and with Spitfire in charge of our recruit squad and eventually low tier elite squad with Rapidfire I was content I’d never be in a position of command. But then, we were named the lead squad. We were entered into consideration by Blazetail and Flashwind, but I had no confidence that we’d be chosen. How could we compare to some of the top tier elites? Hell, we were competing against Silver Lining’s squad! I never thought we would get it… but somehow we did.”

Fleetfoot cringed and twitched, her body nearly bouncing off Dash as she groaned and shook her head.

“It all came rushing back, all my fears, all my worries, and most of all, all my expectations. We were the leaders, we were at the top, we were the head of the pack. We were everything I never wanted to be, everything I was afraid of being. I wasn’t the lead captain, but I was officially in a position of leadership as a first commander. I was in a position where, under certain circumstances, I’d have to take command and lead. It terrified me. I didn’t say a word during the transfer of command ceremony and I didn’t go to the after party. I slipped away without telling anypony and hid in my room. I was sweating, shaking, and hyperventilating. My heart was beating so fast, my legs could barely hold me up, my head was spinning. I felt sick, nauseous, and threw up everything I had just eaten at the banquet before the ceremony. I was so scared… I threw myself onto my bed and curled up into a ball as everything, everything from my fillyhood broke free from where I had kept it bottled up and it poured out over my head like ice cold water.”

She paused and shivered as if her own analogy made her feel cold.

“No. I couldn’t do it, I can’t lead, I’m small, I’m not strong,” she turned herself away from Dash, but Dash’s grip on her prevented her from tipping away. “It wasn’t right. I didn’t have what I needed. How could I be an effective leader? I had the skill and the speed, I had the capabilities to be named to the position, but it felt wrong. I was missing the two things that I felt I needed, Size and strength. I had believed that my whole life and now here I was where I didn’t want to be, lacking what I felt was required to even be there in the first place. It’s stupid, it’s unreasonable, but it’s permanently stuck in my head where I was completely conflicted with what I was comfortable with and it hurt… it hurt so much. It clawed at me.” She stopped trying to tip away, breathing heavily for a moment as she looked back towards Dash, but quickly averted her eyes. “And… it has ever since. I’ve never taken the reigns, I’ve always danced around my duties, and I’ve always deferred decisions to Spitfire or Soarin. Even now during all this crap I’ve frozen more than once when put on the spot. Silver had to step in and give orders at one point!” Fleetfoot suddenly smacked her hooves against her head, prompting Dash to quickly reach up and stop her.

“Fleet don’t—”

“AND WHY?!” she blurted out, not referring to Dash. “BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE MY BODY?!” She ripped her arms free of Dash’s hoof. “I’m a fucking Wonderbolt! I but I can’t give orders because I have body issues?!” She slammed her hooves on the floor several times, leaning down as she stopped to catch her breath, her body shivering from the strenuous motions. “See? See how stupid this all is? See what’s wrong with me? It’s all some self-made trauma that little filly Fleet never grew up to be like daddy! Now here I am, twenty fucking four years old and something like this keeps me down! I’m so dumb…”

“No you’re…” Dash began quietly, but stopped as Fleetfoot calmed down. She decided not to say anything and let Fleetfoot gather herself. She wanted her to get through everything and she was certain that wasn’t all of it. She had broken away a little and gone on a small rant about her unwillingness to lead, but that didn’t cover everything, especially with the body image.

But Dash was curious, something coming to mind as she waited for Fleetfoot to continue. There was one time that Fleetfoot was the highest ranking Wonderbolt around, that she could recall at least. When she and Soarin were captured during their initial confrontation and imprisonment in the Shadowbolt Fortress, Fleetfoot showed up with the entire force, engaging the Shadowbolts. Though there were some interesting circumstances there. Dash had only gotten details and not the full story, but Spitfire was around, just recovering, Discord had given them the instructions on how to find them, and Misty Fly was the one who led them to the flying fortress. Not to mention there wasn’t much in terms of orders or decisions to be made. It was about saving friends and everypony was probably on board with that without a single command. Fleetfoot was likely so focused on that that she didn’t realize she was more or less in charge.

Or was she? Again, Dash never got the full story aside from the specific details and never got Fleetfoot’s point of view. Dash was only told what had happened that eventually led to the battle. Who eventually made the calls? Silver? Fire Streak? Luna? Or did they just act on instinct to save them? That specific detail had been left out.

“Hmmmrrr…” Fleetfoot groaned as she tipped over and leaned her head on Dash’s shoulder, her eyes closed, and sniffling. Dash could feel the wetness of her eyes on her shoulder as she gently rubbed Fleetfoot’s opposite shoulder. “Sorry…” she apologized. “That was… a bit much.”

“No it wasn’t,” Dash assured her. “Keep going, you’re doing great,” she encouraged. Fleetfoot turned and looked right at Dash for a moment. Dash was surprised, but quickly threw on a warm smile to show Fleetfoot she wasn’t judging and was listening intently. Fleetfoot didn’t smile back, she just stared for a little while before looking forward and nestling herself against Dash’s side again.

“The shock… was awful,” she went on, her voice still lacking strength or confidence. “I didn’t know what to do or how to handle it. I thought I had put away my fillyhood issues for good, but in my new position they… all came surging back into me. The issues and dissatisfaction with myself were dangling above me all over again. And… with all the pressure bearing down on me, my obsessions seemed to grow, they grew stronger, got worse… I felt like I was losing control of myself. It got to a point where I was eyeballing and ogling anypony that had an inch of height on me or the slightest bit of muscle on their body, which… is kind of hard not to see among the Wonderbolts. And new oddities developed too, like also gravitating towards those that were smaller just so I could feel big. I hovered around everypony, I had to physically force myself to look away or stay back from others, but it didn’t always work. I would get close and stare, I would gawk. I was so embarrassed I thought I was going to explode… but I couldn’t stop it no matter how hard I tried.”

Fleetfoot reached up her hooves and flattened her ears.

“So… I didn’t and instead tried to find a way around it… a way to hide my obsession. And eventually, I decided to disguise it as… flirting, and purposely did it to a point where it became a norm and others expected it from me. That way I could get up close and personal, but ‘oh, that’s just how she is.’ It was the perfect smokescreen, I could let myself near anypony I wanted without fear of them suspecting something. Is it all fake? No, in fact, it’s not fake at all. My interest and fascination at times also led to… sexual desire. And to be honest… I eventually fully embraced it. I’ve come to enjoy being known as the ‘sexy’ Wonderbolt commander. It’s fun, I love being flirtatious, I love being sexy, I love interacting with other ponies, and I love physical affection… but being labeled a flirtatious sex symbol mixed with my base intentions for doing it… it makes me feel so dirty, like I’m exploiting ponies sexually for my own benefit. It also threw up another wall for me, fear of commitment, fear of getting too close to anypony. If I were to get into a steady relationship, I was afraid my cover up would be exposed. I’m too scared of everypony finding out. But… sometimes I wonder if I even care, if having somepony special means as much to me as fulfilling my own personal desires. There’s so much conflict, but I don’t risk anything. My cover up works, it hides my problem, it hides my insecurity… So I keep doing it and I never question it, but because of it… I’m stuck in this awful, endless cycle.”

She paused and glanced at the box, sniffling loudly.

“With my issues resurfacing and forcing me into all these different behaviors and cover ups… part of me wanted to do something about it,” she kept going, prompting Dash to also look towards the box of magazines, the second stack of fitness magazines still piled inside of it. “I knew I wasn’t going to get any taller, but I could get stronger, right? That was something I could do with the right amount of effort, so why not try? But… no matter how much I looked for extra workouts, I started to fear, before I even started, that they either wouldn’t be effective or others might start asking me why I was doing them. Time also became an issue. I had my regular training schedule, but no free time to do more. My fabricated flirtatious nature, while not always received positively, landed me the role as the sex symbol of the Wonderbolts like I said. And as a result, several modeling gigs above and beyond the typical photo ops started weighing me down. I was also booked to for other public appearances. If any Wonderbolts were going to be at an event, they had to have the ‘babe-bolt’ there too, after all ‘nothing sells tickets to stallions like the cover mare!’ It all effectively killed the little bit of free time I had as a lead squad Wonderbolt.”

Fleetfoot shook her head, her breaths becoming quicker, resembling hiccups as the dam holding back full blown tears seemed to be close to failing.

“So now I have a problem I want to get rid of, but don’t have time to… That I hide by acting like a slut, which makes me feel terrible, but now it’s basically become who others see me as and it’s fueled by something I’ve become known for… and… I just… I can’t…”

She started shaking, it wasn’t twitching or shivering, it was pure shaking like saying all of this actually had a physically painful effect on her. Dash tightened her grip, rubbing Fleetfoot’s shoulder as she nearly covered her whole body with her wing. Knowing how much Fleetfoot’s body was dealing with the aches and soreness, the shaking probably hurt like hell.

“None of this should matter,” her voice had a gentle vibration in it as she shook. “It really shouldn’t. I’m a top Wonderbolt, I have responsibilities and duties. I don’t like them, I’m afraid of them, but I have them and I need to fulfill them… yet, this won’t go away, I can’t get rid of it. I try to dance around it, but it’s always following me. With all the battles we’ve been fighting, with all the focus on survival and confronting the Shadowbolts, I came close… VERY CLOSE to focusing on what mattered for the first time in my life. But then Nightshade… Nightshade ruined everything, she made it all flood over and…” she started twitching heavily, squeaking and gasping. “Ow! OW!!!! Owowow!” she began crying out as she pressed her hooves over to her body, running them over certain spots as her body began having visible muscle spasms. Dash quickly turned and reached her other arm around Fleetfoot, holding onto her tightly as she tried to sit still. Dash could feel each twitch as they pulsed through Fleetfoot, the spasms were so strong that it felt like Fleetfoot was trying to wiggle free even though she wasn’t moving herself at all. Dash kept up the pressure, holding onto her until her body finally relaxed, the slight shaking remained, but the twitching died down.

Dash frowned as she lightened her grip. Fleetfoot was literally a wreck from every point of view imaginable, barely holding herself together.

“I’m so ashamed…” Fleetfoot shut her eyes tight, the dam breaking as tears started squeezing through her eyelids. “Ashamed of what happened out there. Not because you saw it though… because… because she…” Fleetfoot was choking in between her words.

“Take your ti—”

“MMMMMMMGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!” Fleetfoot cut off Dash, pressing her arms to her mouth and screaming into her own fur. Dash jumped in surprise, but refused to move, giving Fleetfoot all the time she needed to let it out with her comforting presence. “She… Nightshade… She really did give me what I wanted…” Fleetfoot admitted with heavy tones of dread and regret making their way in between her sniffles and hiccups. “She gave it to me and I… didn’t even try to resist her, I let her do it. The moment she picked my problems right out of my head, I seized up. The one thing I refused to ever tell anypony about me was suddenly being told to me. I lost all control of my body and I let her have her way. Suddenly nothing mattered to me anymore. I didn’t care that Nightshade was advancing on me, I didn’t care that all my friends were down and hurt. Somepony else was aware of something I kept locked away and it chilled me to the bone. I don’t even remember what I was thinking in those moments she approached me…” she began shaking again, lifting her head up from down by her arms and staring directly at the box of magazines. “Then she pushed the crystal into me and… made my body change. It was… it felt… incredible.”

Dash’s eyes widened slightly as Fleetfoot began the recount of the transformation. The last word, ‘incredible,’ had a slightly different tone to it, a tone of slight pleasure. Fleetfoot’s shaking turned into a shiver and she bit down on her lower lip. The sight sent a slight chill through Dash. It reminded her of the way Nightshade expressed pleasure while charging herself full of the crystal magic. Dash herself had never experienced the enhancements the crystals offered, but based on Fleetfoot’s slight shift here, it had to be hard to forget.

“It felt… perfect…” Fleetfoot went on, her voice mixing in conflicting tones of desire and regret as if she couldn’t separate the two. “I loved every second of it, like an intense warmth was filling up my entire body. And… when she showed me how I looked, it sealed it. There was this massive rush of euphoria.”

Dash suddenly began to worry, because there was a very subtle grin curling onto Fleetfoot’s lips.

“I was shocked on the outside, but on the inside I was in a state of unbelievable joy. The size of my body, the powerful muscles… I looked just as big and as strong as my dad!”

Dash breathed a sigh of relief as Fleetfoot’s slight grin faded, the look of pure dread returning to her face as she shut her eyes.

“It was a lost fillyhood dream come true…” she sniffled loudly as tears continued to squeak between her eyelids. “And… that’s exactly why I’m so scared right now.” She suddenly shifted roughly against Dash and hugged her. Dash exhaled as Fleetfoot squeezed her, but tightened her grip around her as well. “If it wasn’t for the unbearable pain that followed my body changing…” she began again slightly muffled, but then turned her head so her mouth was free from Dash’s side. “I don’t… I don’t think I would have… even hesitated to play along!” Her voice lifted an octave. “I was going to accept it! I was going to betray you, my friends, my family, EVERYTHING! All just because some stupid desire I gave up on long ago was suddenly real and right in front of me! I didn’t think once about fighting it or staying true to the Wonderbolts and everypony I love… Not once…” she pulled away from Dash, curling up as much as her body allowed while sitting. “And that’s not even the worst part…”

Fleetfoot paused for a long time. Dash remained quiet, glancing behind her at the door as she waited for Fleet to gather herself and continue. She wondered how Spitfire and Soarin were handling all this? That last point especially had to be jarring to hear, but these were the crystals they were talking about. After seeing Starry Skies completely break down for a day or two after being forced to control the Falcon’s crystal, it was clear they had a terrifying effect. Starry’s advantage though, was that it was not new to her. Fleetfoot had been floored by it and had never felt it before. Dash shuddered at the thought, hoping she could hold her ground in the future and never come under the temptations.

But honestly, Dash was more curious how Spitfire and Soarin were handling hearing about Fleetfoot’s secrets. They were both involved after all.

“The worst part is…”

Dash quickly turned back to Fleetfoot as she continued, her voice growing even shakier, but barely hanging onto a coherent pattern.

“I… I actually—” Fleetfoot was cut off as her body shook and shuddered. She hugged herself tightly as a helpless wail escaped from her throat. “I… want it again…” she admitted in between quiet grunts and gasps of pain. Dash bit her lower lip, wincing as Fleetfoot revealed that little bit of info. “Now that I saw what the crystal magic can do to me, there’s part of me that’s desperate to go to Nightshade, to try again, to face the pain so I can have that body again!” Fleetfoot threw her hooves over her eyes and whipped her head back, releasing a sudden, high pitched scream as if saying those words hurt physically. Dash’s ears twitched as Fleetfoot’s scream shot right through her head, but she held on.

Dash could remember watching Misty Fly when Nightshade tempted her with the gift of a voice and hearing… she remembered the look of pain on Misty’s face when she forced herself to reject the overwhelming temptation. Now Fleetfoot was going through the same thing. Both strong Wonderbolts, both turned inside out by Nightshade. Dash was sure that if Misty could talk, she’d have a lot to say about the experience and how much she wished she could have it back.

“What’s WRONG with me?!” Fleetfoot suddenly thrust her wings and arms out, jabbing Dash in the side with her left. Dash grunted but held it in, not letting go. “What the hell am I thinking?!” Fleetfoot grabbed her wings and pulled them around the front of her. “This is the magic we’re fighting against! It’s the tool of our enemy! It’s literally something that corrupts ponies!” She let go of her wings and stared at her own hooves. “Am I really that weak? Am I really that easily manipulated?! How selfish and vulnerable am I that I’m actually considering such a horrific thing?! Maybe I really only care about myself and everything else is just a BIG FAT LIE!!!!!!!!” she yelled, whipping her head back and forth so hard that her tears were jumping from her face and sprinkling on Dash. “The Wonderbolts are what matter! Soarin and Spitfire are what matter! I’m not really a big or strong pony! The crystals are just giving me what I can’t have!” she slammed her hooves to the floor, hiccupping and sniffling as she started slumping forwards slowly. “This is a no brainer, this isn’t a hard choice to make… so why… why am I…? Why can’t I just focus on what I know is right? Why can’t I shake the urge? It’s sickening… I’m such a horrible… awful… irredeemable pony…” She closed her eyes, the tears flowing hard now. “All of it, everything… everything about me… from growing up, to being a Wonderbolt, to this crap… it’s all wrong…all so very wrong…”

Dash didn’t know why, but the moment Fleetfoot finished and fell into a pile of sniffles, wails, and tears, she felt it was the right moment to finally say or do something. She wasn’t sure what had sparked it, but thinking over what she had just heard, perhaps it was right at the end when Fleetfoot exclaimed that there was something seriously wrong with her. She had avoided everypony because of that fact, she may argue it was more than that, but it was overwhelmingly because she felt there was something wrong with her.

It was time to show her she was wrong about that.

But now the question was say something or do something?

Dash blinked in surprise as Fleetfoot pushed herself up onto her hooves, her legs wobbling and joints popping as she stumbled a few steps into the middle of the room and plopped right back down, several of the magazines around them pushed aside by the slight gust of her motion, and her tears dripping from her chin and staining the floor beneath her.

“They don’t need me… Soarin and Spitfire,” Fleetfoot said with her voice on the verge of cracking. “They should leave me out from here on. If this is all I really care about then I’m unfit to serve. I’ll just pose a danger. They’ve never needed me… I’ve never done anything useful… I’m just the third wheel that’s spinning even though it’s on the verge of falling off. They’re better off without me…”

Dash’s answer: Do something. And there was only one thing to do at this point.

She stood up, turned around…

And opened the door.

Fleetfoot gasped and her ears stood up as the sound of creaking hinges surged through her ears. Her body had gone stiff, even holding down the shaking and spasms that had been plaguing her. She slowly turned herself around and faced the door.

Soarin and Spitfire were standing in the doorway, Dash standing aside to let them in. They both entered. Spitfire had tears in her eyes and Soarin wore a look of intense sympathy. The two of them looked around the room, spotting the magazines on the floor and the pictures on the bed, putting it all together with what they heard as well. Fleetfoot just stared at them as her ears folded back and she began hunching down, making herself smaller and twitching again as the two entered the room.

But before she could retreat any further, Spitfire lunged towards her. Fleetfoot squeaked and shut her eyes, but Spitfire grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a very strong hug. Fleetfoot opened her eyes as her cheek pressed into Spitfire’s chest. Spitfire was shaking, but holding her in the tightest hug she had ever experienced.

“Fleet…” Spitfire spoke, her tone was firm yet caring. “Don’t you EVER say we don’t need you!” she exclaimed, nearly squeezing the air out of Fleetfoot as she held on tight.

“H-huh…?” Fleetfoot looked confused as she tried, and failed to turn her head to look at Spitfire, her face still firmly nestled in Spitfire’s chest. Dash smiled as Soarin approached Fleetfoot as well. Nothing stopped somepony’s crazy talk like a healthy dose of reality and how great their friends really were.

“Better off without you?” Soarin repeated her words as he sat down and placed a hoof atop Fleetfoot’s head. “Without you, we wouldn’t be… well… us,” he said with a smile as Fleetfoot’s eyes focused on him and widened.

Dash couldn’t believe Fleetfoot would ever think these two could get angry at her for something like this, but then again, she had been in her hooves before, letting emotions get the better of reason and saying things you don’t mean. She did the exact same thing after the tryouts.

“But… But I…” Fleetfoot began stuttering as she pressed her hooves to Spitfire’s fur. “I…” she sniffled, unable to get the words out.

“NO BUTS!” Spitfire yelled, squeezing Fleetfoot even more, forcing a hiccup and squeak out of her. Spitfire quickly realized she was crushing her and loosened her grip, but only a little, keeping the tight hug going. “You’re part of the family, Fleet. That’s final.”

Fleetfoot, finally with a little room to move her head, glanced at Spitfire as she lowered her head down to nuzzle her neck against hers. Then Fleetfoot looked up at Soarin sitting beside them. He kept up his smile as he shifted and bent down to join in hugging her.

Thoroughly sandwiched between her two closest friends, despite everything she had just revealed and was worried about…

Fleetfoot completely lost it. Crying and wailing as she slipped her arms around Spitfire’s body and hugged her back. She let it all out as Spitfire and Soarin embraced her.

Dash watched from beside the door, smiling. She remained still, not wanting to get in the way.

“Hm?” she blinked as she saw Soarin look towards her. Soarin made quick head motions removing a hoof from Fleetfoot for a moment to beckon her towards the group hug. Dash quickly put up a hoof and shook her head, again not wanting to get between something special, but Soarin didn’t have it. He firmly pointed at Fleetfoot, signaling that she had earned the right to be a part of it. Dash smiled weakly, giving into the fact that… these three, who were once idols of hers, had really become true friends. She did as she was told, walking towards them, finding an open spot and joining in embracing Fleetfoot. Dash dared Fleetfoot to think her friends didn’t need her now.

After a long hug that easily lasted several minutes with no talking and not a peep aside from Fleetfoot’s crying, Dash, Spitfire and Soarin all slowly let up. Soarin and Dash both let go of her while remaining up close, but Spitfire didn’t let go, holding Fleetfoot at arm’s length. Taking a moment to wipe the light tears from her own eyes before locking them with Fleetfoot’s. Fleetfoot sniffled, tears still falling, but she didn’t look away from Spitfire, she couldn’t.

“Fleet… I need you,” she said firmly before glancing at Soarin and Rainbow Dash. “We need you… we ALL need you. Don’t ever think that’s not true, you’re irreplaceable,” she explained in an adamant, urging tone. Fleetfoot just kept staring. Soarin suddenly comically scooted his plot along the floor and crashed lightly into Spitfire’s side, draping his arm over Spitfire’s head and letting his hoof hang down in her face.

“You’re damn right I need you, do you have any idea how bad Spitfire would be without you to even it all out? I think I’d be bald from pulling my mane out!”

Dash immediately threw a hoof over her mouth as Spitfire narrowed her eyes and shifted her head to look past Soarin’s hoof. She snorted as she lifted an eyebrow.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” she hissed at him as Soarin lowered his head down and gave her a smarmy grin.

“Oh, don’t tempt me to go down that road…” Soarin cooed in response. Before Spitfire could fight back, Soarin shifted his focus to Fleetfoot, hoping the lighthearted comment would have an effect, but she was still only staring. Spitfire caught on and glanced at Fleetfoot also.

“But…” Fleetfoot barely managed to speak. “But… my problems… all of this… I’m not focused on what I should be…” Fleetfoot was still clinging somewhat to her previous case, but the way she delivered it suggested they were starting to break through to her. “I can’t… do this with everything going on in my head, I’m—”

“Then don’t run away from us,” Soarin cut her off, immediately throwing the offer out there. Fleetfoot’s eyes widened considerably as she looked up into the eyes of both Soarin and Spitfire. They both towered over her, but for some reason, her anxieties didn’t take hold. The concern in their eyes overpowered anything clawing at her. “Fleet,” Soarin continued while shaking his head. “How long have we been friends? How long have we flown together? Almost… six? Six years now? After everything we’ve been through together you really think we’d abandon you? You’re acting like we discovered you’re a serial murderer or something,” he ended with a grin, reaching a hoof up and placing it softly on her shoulder.

“Exactly,” Spitfire chimed in, also giving her a smile. “This is something you’ve kept hidden that you’re embarrassed about and that’s perfectly natural, Fleet. These are the kinds of things we want to be around you for! We’re here to help you through these kinds of things, not judge you for them. That’s why we’re friends,” Spitfire explained as she shifted over to Fleetfoot’s side and draped a hoof over her shoulder.

Fleetfoot’s ears twitched and she blinked twice as she turned and glanced at Dash. Dash smiled and held out a hoof, tipping her head to the side. It was a silent gesture, showing Fleetfoot that she was dead serious about everything she had said before and wasn’t just saying so to make her feel better. Soarin and Spitfire wouldn’t care one bit, they wanted to help her.

“In fact…” Soarin chuckled. “We all have personal things that bother us or make us trip up. It doesn’t matter what it is, none of us are perfect.”

“But…” Fleetfoot bit her lower lip and looked down. “But mine are so stupid and—EEP!” she squeaked as Spitfire reached up her other hoof and pressed it lightly against Fleetfoot’s forehead.

“Hush,” she shushed her while shaking her head. “No personal issue is stupid. Our shortcomings are part of what make us who we are, there’s no going around them and no ignoring them,” she paused, removing her hoof from Fleetfoot’s head and instead placing it beneath her chin, tipping her head up to look her in the eye. “What’s really important is figuring out how to benefit from them and how to learn from them. To be honest, based on everything I heard, your assessment of what happened with Nightshade is purely negative. You know what I heard when I was listening to you just now? I heard that you have a desire to be a great leader.”

Fleetfoot blinked, sniffling once as she stared wide eyed at Spitfire.

“There are some extra standards that you hold yourself to based on your fillyhood experiences, and you hate that you don’t have them. But aside from that setback that keeps you down, you’ve always wanted to be a great leader like your dad. Believe me,” Spitfire placed a hoof on her chest. “I completely understand the desire to be a great leader… it’s literally my job and it’s a very daunting task. I know how you feel when it comes to having high standards for yourself, it doesn’t matter what those standards are.”

Spitfire flinched as Soarin pounded his chest hard enough to make a loud THUMP sound throughout the room.

“And if you wanted some help working out and getting stronger… you should have said something to me! I’m an endless source for this kind of thing,” he explained while glancing and winking at Dash. “I would have been more than happy to help you out.”

“But… you heard why I…” Fleetfoot came close to diving right back in but Soarin quickly intervened.

“Fleet,” he tapped his head then pounded his chest again. “I’m a stallion and a gym rat. When I’m in the gym, I pick up heavy things and put them back down. I guarantee I wouldn’t have thought for a moment about any other hidden motives, or reasons for you being there. Rule number one of the gym: don’t think too hard about it, just pump iron,” Soarin ended with a grin and bounced his eyebrows. “I see you rolling your eyes over there, Spitty,” Soarin added with a chuckle as he pointed at her.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Spitfire haphazardly defended herself.

Fleetfoot glanced back and forth between them rapidly with her eyes stuck open wide and her fur beneath them stained from tears. The two of them had just completely rejected the notion that her problems would have any effect on them… and both offered counter views to some of the worst things that were bothering her. She abruptly stopped and stared at Dash as she approached and sat down near Soarin.

“See?” Dash said with a smile. “I told you that you shouldn’t be worried. It’s personal… sure, but…” Dash sat down and lifted her hooves towards Spitfire and Soarin. “You have GREAT friends.”

Fleetfoot was sold. At least that’s how it looked to Dash. She closed her eyes and leaned into Spitfire, stuffing her face into Spitfire’s shoulder fur. Spitfire draped a wing over her and pulled her in tight, just letting it all sink in for her. But as they all sat in silence and watched as Fleetfoot accepted their care and desire to help, Dash saw an interesting look in Spitfire’s eyes. Nothing strange or out of the ordinary, but it looked as though she was contemplating something. Then she smiled as if an idea had sprung to mind.

“Fleet, look at me,” Spitfire suddenly urged, allowing Fleetfoot a moment to regain herself and look up on her own power. “Let’s strike the iron while it’s hot, shall we?” Spitfire winked. “You revealed something your embarrassed about and some issues you deal with… so now we’ll tell you ours.”

Fleetfoot blinked in surprise as Spitfire looked away from her towards Dash and Soarin. She didn’t wait for their approval, she went right ahead.

“Want to know what I struggle with?” Spitfire began while returning her focus to Fleetfoot right beside her. “Control, and I’m not just talking about being captain, I’m talking about everything.”

Even if Soarin or Dash felt the need to protest, they struck the very thought the moment they saw Fleetfoot entirely focused on Spitfire. This was a brilliant idea.

“There’s nothing I find more embarrassing than making mistakes… that may be typical for most ponies, but it’s rather… extreme for me,” Spitfire continued. “I’m a perfectionist to a freakish degree, I plan and try to figure out a seamless way around everything I do, but when the time comes, if anything goes even slightly off the rails… I panic. But, there’s another problem. Instead of coming right out and admitting it, I try to roll with it and fix it before anyone can notice, but it tends to become one big mess. Over time I’ve learned to control it… mostly. My job demanded it. But it still happens. And… I hate to admit it, but there has not been a larger example of this than how I’ve been handling myself throughout most of this conflict.”

Spitfire shut her eyes and shivered as she brought up her recent blunders, but she was coming out with it entirely, not holding anything back to show Fleetfoot they were on even ground.

“But like I said, it hits me everywhere, not just with command functions,” she went on. “You saw me get hysterical when I was in heat. You saw me flounder and screw up constantly while coming to grips with my feelings for Wave. I kept trying to grab hold of the issues and kept telling myself it was all under control, but it just led to one embarrassing incident after another. Hell… not even everyday activities are exempt from this. Just ask Soarin,” she made a hoof motion to Soarin. “Soarin, remember the first day of our recruit training when I tried using the omelet maker in the mess hall?”

Dash and Fleetfoot both flinched in surprise as Soarin suddenly puffed his cheeks out, breath shooting from between his lips for a moment before he burst out laughing. Both Dash and Fleetfoot looked back at Spitfire as she rolled her eyes.

“He promised to keep it between us as long as he could always make fun of me for it,” Spitfire said with a chuckle as she turned back to Fleet. “There’s a reason I refuse to use any of the ‘do-it-yourself’ stuff in the mess hall.” She blushed lightly as she glanced away from them. “Let’s just say I… messed up on every step, but because I’m silly about this kind of thing, I tried to compensate and fix it mid steps instead of starting over or asking for help… and the omelet exploded out of the machine while Jet Stream was walking by right behind me… I’m just glad Blazetail and Flashwind found it hilarious, because I was mortified.”

“Spitty’s eyes were wider than dinner plates,” Soarin added as he tried to contain his laughter. “I wish you could have seen Jet Stream’s face, she looked utterly confused with egg and cheese dripping down her face.”

“But you get it,” Spitfire quickly focused her attention back on Fleetfoot, still blushing lightly as she recounted the humiliating blunder. “I hate acknowledging when things are going wrong, and I panic when things go wrong. That’s an awful combination and it’s gotten me into so many embarrassing situations, not to mention I let the tendency get the better of me recently and affected several ponies. You have no idea how hard it was for me to admit I needed to turn things around to Luna… I’m glad Flashwind nudged me in the right direction, who knows what the situation would be like right now if she hadn’t. Putting my hoof down was the easy part, I’ve learned how to do that effectively, the hard part was coming to grips with the fact that I’d been doing everything horribly wrong. This is a problem I’ve been dealing with my whole life. My track record on preventing its effect on my actions is far from perfect.”

Fleetfoot had stopped crying, she still had tear stains on her eyes, but her ears were fully turned to Spitfire and she was listening intently. Spitfire’s decision to even the playing field and share a vulnerability of her own was clearly having an effect.

“Well?” Spitfire glanced over at Soarin. “Soarin, your turn,” she said while waving a hoof at him.

“Nah,” Soarin shrugged while smirking. “I’m totally perfect,” he said jokingly, earning an immediate glare from Spitfire. “I’m kidding…” He waved off Spitfire while chuckling as Dash giggled along. “But, you’re probably already familiar with mine, it’s far from subtle,” Soarin began as Fleetfoot turned her focus to him. “You see it from me all the time, I’m hyper-reactive to towards anypony I feel is in any sort of danger, but my judgment on what ‘danger’ is… sometimes misses the mark by a mile. I have a reflex to be overprotective. It’s led to more than a few times where I’ve stepped in for something, only to find out there was either no problem at all or I get yelled at for not respecting the ability of who I jumped in to protect.” He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t mean to make all this crap we’re going through sound good or anything, but… all the danger we’ve been in and all the fighting, it’s kind of… disguised it and justified it. I haven’t had to worry about it at all since, well… protecting my friends is a normal part of what we’re dealing with.” Soarin looked down and sighed. “But, honestly, it goes way deeper. I genuinely worry about things that I don’t have control over, especially if somepony important to me is not in my sight and I can’t come to their aid if something were to happen to them. I’ve more or less learned how to hide it completely, but I get very anxious. I hate it when I get separated from my squadmates or any group I’ve been assigned to. The thought of something happening to them even if I’m out of their range for a few seconds terrifies me. I get nervous, the fear claws at me, I fret over it, and if it’s over the course of a few days I lose sleep over it. And it can happen over something as simple as Spitfire and Fleetfoot going to a public appearance or meeting for a few days without me.”

“Gosh…” Dash suddenly spoke up, turning Soarin’s attention to her. “How many heart attacks have I given you then?” she asked with incredulous concern. Soarin chuckled and shook his head.

“Several thousand, but hey, I’ve only known you for what, a year? And you worry me as much as these two do,” he motioned to Spitfire and Fleetfoot. “So that should pump up your ego a bit.”

“Oh, stop,” Dash suddenly snorted, smirking while waving a hoof at him. “But wait…” she blinked. “When you visited me on the Apple farm… you know when Thunderlane had his wings tied to work for them, Spitfire and Fleetfoot left you there…”

“I was thoroughly distracted by you,” Soarin admitted while bouncing his eyebrows at her.

“Oh,” Spitfire cut in. “So we suddenly didn’t matter?”

“What?! NO!” Soarin quickly turned to her. “Of course not! You…” he trailed off as Spitfire snickered and shook her head.

“Soarin, I’m teasing you,” she clarified as Soarin blinked and looked away sheepishly.

“You’d think I’d know you well enough by now…” Soarin chuckled along with them before continuing. “But yeah, much like Spitfire, you all saw the worst of it just now. I was so worried about Dash flying out to meet the thestrals that I acted like a colt, harshly threatened one of our recruits, disobeyed direct orders, mishandled the situation entirely, and got myself caught in a trap. I had a vision of Dash falling… and it immediately put me over the top. I disregarded every smidgen of reason. It may have seemed justified in a crisis situation, I understand that orders are meant to keep order, not to hold me down if a life is in danger, but I still have to approach those kinds of things with a level head… and I didn’t. In short, I have a irrationally strong tendency to be a white knight in shining armor, but I rarely get a chance to use it when it’s actually necessary… in times of conflict it gets me into danger, and in times of peace it makes me do a lot of stupid things.”

“That’s for sure,” Spitfire chimed in again.

“Oh, shut it…” Soarin chuckled.

Both of them quickly glanced at Fleetfoot as she smiled and giggled softly. It was the first positive reaction they had gotten out of her so far. Every little victory mattered.

“Oh,” Soarin perked up as he focused on Fleetfoot. “And in a way, I can relate to you a little here, Fleet.” His words caught her interest. Fleetfoot stopped giggling, her eyes and ears focusing on him as he went on. “Because I also have a fear of not being strong enough. I know that sounds funny, considering I’m the strongest Wonderbolt or at least among the current Wonderbolts. But it really is something that worries me. I love to lift weights and all, but I'd be lying if I said I didn’t have more than one reason. It links right into everything I just mentioned. I’m protective, I have the desire to protect everypony, but what if I’m not strong enough to? I refuse to let that happen.”

“You’re also afraid of being the skinny rail you used to be,” Spitfire butted in again.

“Alright…” Soarin shot her a flat, yet humorous look. “I shut my mouth when you were talking…”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Spitfire chuckled while flashing a wise-cracking grin, Dash holding a hoof over her mouth, muffling laughter. Fleetfoot was smiling again as well, wearing a look that suggested she was definitely happier and enjoying being surrounded by her friends.

“Wait a sec…” Dash put her hooves out in front of her and turned towards Soarin. “You? SKINNY?!” she asked as she looked his body up and down.

“Yes, but as you can see…” Soarin cocked an eyebrow and a confident grin. “Ten years in the gym has done me wonders, if I do say so myself,” he said in a forced sexual tone while flexing his chest muscles and making them bounce up and down.

“Oh god, kill me…” Spitfire made gagging noises as Fleetfoot erupted in giggles, leaning herself into Spitfire as Soarin did a few more poses to ham it up.

As the silliness and giggling died down… Spitfire and Soarin turned to Dash, Fleetfoot doing the same as her laughter finally ceased.

Dash glanced between all of them, blinking as she realized they were expecting her to go next. Despite knowing it was likely coming her way, she felt a little embarrassed and anxious. She wasn’t sure she wanted to reveal a certain fear to… well… her boss that had expectations under it, but this was for Fleetfoot. Fleetfoot needed full confirmation that there was nothing wrong with her. Dash glanced up at the ceiling.

“Oh, my turn, huh?” she asked smarmily, keeping the casual mood going. Soarin slowly leaned towards her.

“You bet you colorful butt you’re not getting out of this,” he said with a smirk as he poked her shoulder.

“I know you LOVE this colorful butt!” Dash fired back as she hopped up turned around and wiggled her plot at Soarin, bopping him back and forth across the face with her tail.

Fleetfoot got lost in a fit of giggles again, and that exactly what Dash wanted, but Spitfire turned a slight shade of red and puffed her cheeks out.

“Okay, okay, c’mon Dash,” Spitfire rotated her free hoof. “Hurry up and embarrass yourself before Mr. Leap-Before-He-Looks over here gets any ideas with his pelvis.”

“I bet she’d like tha—AH! HAHA! STOP!!” Soarin yelped as Dash suddenly grabbed his sides and roughly rubbed her hooves up and down them. Soarin pulled away, throwing a hoof over his mouth before staring wide eyed at Spitfire and Fleetfoot.

“The hell was that?” Spitfire asked while lifting an eyebrow.

“NOTHI—”

“He’s absurdly ticklish,” Dash cut him off, Soarin throwing his hooves up and clamping his mouth shut as he forced air out between his teeth and lips.

“Dammit Dash, you’ve doomed me for life!” he yelled comically.

“Alright, alright,” Spitfire laughed while snickering to herself. “I guess we’re learning all your secret’s Soarin, but you…” Spitfire pointed at Dash. “Out with it,” she ordered, while pointing at the subtly smiling Fleetfoot.

“Ah, right…” Dash cleared her throat as Soarin hunched over and hugged his legs while comically pouting and glaring at her.

Dash focused all of her attention on Fleetfoot and opened up just like the others had.

“Well… there’s nothing I’m more afraid of than disappointing others,” she began. “I have performance anxiety, MAJOR performance anxiety. Anytime I’m being held to expectations or am about to do something in front of an audience, large crowd, or whatever, I get really nervous to the point of shaking.” She motioned towards Fleetfoot. “You weren’t there, but I know Soarin and Spitfire remember,” she glanced at the other two. “Remember when you two and Misty Fly showed up for the flying competition in Cloudsdale?” She paused and smiled weakly. “You know… the one where my friend Rarity wore enough makeup to suffocate a full grown dragon and caused some trouble with her magic butterfly wings.” The moment she brought up Rarity alongside a flight competition, both Soarin and Spitfire winced hard.

“Oh god… that…” Spitfire smacked a hoof against her face and groaned.

“Yeah,” Soarin gritted his teeth, his eyelids twitching. “That was embarrassing. For being a pampered beauty queen she sure throws a mean right hook…” Soarin shook his head out, recalling how Rarity’s flailing hooves somehow clocked and dazed three of the toughest pegasi in Equestria. Surely that wasn’t good advertising.

“Yeah, that…” Dash nodded. “I still don’t know how I managed to both catch and carry all four of you…, it must’ve been the momentum… or I was geeking out so hard at you three that I forgot how heavy Soarin was.”

“Okay, now you guys are just trying to—”

“ANYWAY,” Dash continued as she cut off Soarin, reached a wing up, and batted him playfully in the face. “I was so nervous to go out and perform, especially in front of you guys, that I went as far as swapping numbers with the other competitors until I had the last number on my flank. I was super nervous before our show in Cloudsdale recently too, even though I was just doing an introductory fly-by with my squad. I guess a real big part of it is how much I want others to be proud of me. I always want to make you guys proud, make my friends proud, make my family proud… This is kind of like you, Spitfire,” Dash motioned towards her. “I’m afraid of screwing up and ruining my chance to show everypony what I can do,” Dash blinked and her ears tilted down slightly as she looked towards the floor. “Honestly, I never put this much thought into it, but I’ve recognized this and a lot of other things about myself because of Silver Lining. And believe me, after what I’ve been through with him, I think I was more eager to make him proud than any other pony. I think I’d probably fly five hundred laps around the Nimbus if it meant Silver would just pat me on the head and tell me ‘good job.’”

“I’m actually a little surprised,” Spitfire spoke up, drawing attention to her. “I mean, you…” she pointed at Dash, “Performance anxiety…” she glanced at Soarin and Fleetfoot. Soarin seemed to already know, he wasn’t reacting at all, but Fleetfoot looked just as curious as her. “You’re the last pony I’d expect to be nervous when showing off.”

“Heh… yeah, that’s why I keep it to myself,” Dash admitted. “I’ve got the image to keep up, y’know?” she said while running a hoof through her mane. Spitfire and Fleetfoot both chuckled, but Soarin tipped towards her with a mischievous look on his face.

“She’s a tough talker… She’s got the spunk where it counts, but…” Soarin bounced his eyebrows. Dash glanced towards him with a skeptical look, waiting for what she assumed would be something she could punch him for. “You’ve barely seen half of her, she’s got a softer, calmer side too… and a side that melts when I—”

“Go any further,” Dash quickly cut him off. “I’ll break off your horn… You know the one I’m talking about.”

“Then how would I give it to you?” Soarin shot right back, making Dash turn red. Fleetfoot snickered off to the side as Soarin kept leaning closer to Dash, turning his head to press his cheek to her nose. “HMMMM?”

“Soarin… choice of words,” Spitfire cut in. “Unless you want me to wonder how that ‘spunk’ got in her in the first place.”

“OH GOD!” Dash flinched and fell backwards. Fleetfoot burst out laughing, pressing herself into Spitfire’s side as she and Soarin watched and exchanged winks. As soon as Dash sprung back up and saw Fleetfoot giggling heartily, she let the comment go, this was all for Fleetfoot’s benefit and it was working. Laughing with friends was proving to be just what the doctor ordered.

But as they watched, Dash was suddenly struck with a thought… While she really wasn’t sure about revealing her fear of lighting to Spitfire, it was a fear that was exploited by Nightshade… much like how Fleetfoot had her fears exploited, at least in a way. How things played out were different, and while Fleetfoot was hit with temptation and Dash was simply tortured, they were both emotionally manipulated. So, she felt bringing it up would help a lot. Fleetfoot needed this a lot more than Dash needed a little secret.

“Actually,” Dash spoke up, drawing all eyes to her again. “There’s something else I’m afraid of. Deathly afraid of actually. And Fleet? You weren’t alone out there,” Dash explained, easily drawing intense curiosity from Fleetfoot. “After you got knocked out, Nightshade turned on me and exploited one of my worst fears. It’s more of a phobia, but still, she shifted from you to me and manipulated me as well.”

Dash paused, looked between all of them, and took a deep breath.

“I’m deathly afraid of lightning,” she admitted straight out.

Soarin didn’t react, but he knew already. Spitfire and Fleetfoot just stared in surprise, but… it wasn’t the kind of surprise Dash was expecting. She was expecting shock, but instead they looked confused. Then Dash caught on and quickly shook her head.

“No, no, not Lightning Streak. Like, ACTUAL lightning,” she explained.

“Ohhhhhhh…” Spitfire blinked and tipped her head to the side. “I was gonna say…”

Fleetfoot remained quiet, but Dash winced as she saw Spitfire narrow her eyes and examine her carefully. Dash knew this was coming.

“You’re afraid of lightning…” Spitfire repeated, but it wasn’t a question, it was more… strict? No not strict, Dash was turning it into that. It was more curious than anything. Spitfire turned and looked at Soarin, who gave a light nod.

“She’s told me,” Soarin put simply. Spitfire tipped her head back and forth while lifting her brow.

“Should’ve figured that…” she said as she returned her eyes to Dash, giving her a look that fell just short of demanding an explanation. Dash cringed as she received the look. Again, it wasn’t her first choice to reveal to her boss that she was afraid of something she’s regularly expected to handle, but it wasn’t like Spitfire would suddenly kick her out of the Wonderbolts or anything. So instead of fretting over it, Dash went right to explaining herself.

“It’s not something I’ve had forever, it’s very recent,” she began. “It happened back in Ponyville, when I first got to really spend time with you guys and when we first encountered the Shadowbolts.” She motioned to Spitfire. “After you saved me from Nightshade, I went after Descent and Soarin while they were grappling above us. Soarin had just pumped Descent full of lightning, but he was so far gone in rage that he pushed back against it, forcing the two to struggle while the powerful ribbons of electricity danced and surged through them. I rammed Descent from the side at full speed and sent both of us spiraling into the densely packed storm clouds they were saving up in the middle of the tornado to release over Ponyville. When we collided with the clouds, the lightning surging between us intensified and combined with the lightning stored in the clouds. The force of the energy was so intense that it pulled both of us in, I couldn’t get away. I wasn’t caught dead center like Descent was, but I was really close when the lightning exploded and shot in every direction. It gave me the strongest, most painful instant shock I have ever felt in my life and it knocked me out cold in an instant. I honestly don’t know how I survived it… or managed to come to so quickly. It had a lasting effect as well, I was jittering at random for weeks after you guys left. Since then I’ve had some… difficulty handling it, and get very nervous around it.”

Dash glanced up to see Spitfire’s expression had lightened post-explanation. Not that it was that bad to begin with, it was mostly in Dash’s head.

“Silver has been trying his best to shake me out of the fear,” she continued. “He’s been putting me through some basics and crash courses, starting from the ground up to get me back. He was apparently afraid of fire for a while after he got his burn scar, but eventually retrained himself, so I know it’s possible. It’s a work in progress, but I’m probably going to have to continue it on my own once I get the chance.” She couldn’t say the last part without feeling a little sad. She had gotten so used to training with Silver that training without him seemed unheard of.

Dash refocused on Fleetfoot, ready to connect the story.

“And… Nightshade easily pulled that fear from my head just like she pulled yours from you,” she explained. “She held me down and taunted me, using her magic to conjure each of the other three elements while acting like she was doing it by accident. The moment I caught on, I went from resisting her with all my strength to screaming and shouting in utter terror. I kicked, I struggled, but I couldn’t get free as she conjured the lightning and started… moving it closer to me. I was sweating, shaking, and gasping for air. Then she pushed her hoof over me and let the lightning surge through me. I had been reduced to a small, frightened animal. I wasn’t thinking at all about the situation. The only thing I thought about was how can I get away from it. Nightshade must’ve sensed my emotions because she reached down, picked me up, and hugged me tight to her body, turning up the energy and voltage so the shocks were stronger, more painful… she held me there and made me experience a nightmare while wide awake. Nightshade and lightning, the two things that I had come to fear in the recent past were now both upon me and I had no escape. And then to put the icing on the cake…” Dash pointed to her shoulder, covered in bandages. “Then she bit me… really hard. Mixed with the agenizing shocks from the lightning, it all hurt so much that my voice cracked and went silent even though I was still exhaling as hard as I could.”

Dash shivered as she recounted the story… again. It was quite a bit different from Fleetfoot’s but the concept was the same, Nightshade manipulating them, their fears, and their emotions. And if Fleetfoot’s face was any indication, the story had an impact. She looked both shocked and worried, showing focus away from what she was dealing with. Spitfire looked less shocked, but there was a visible cringe in her expression: Sympathy. Good, Dash was glad Spitfire was not viewing this from a captain’s standpoint. She kind of just revealed how she was greatly exploited by their enemy, but maybe there was a little more to it. Dash wasn’t the only one who got exploited after all, several of the Wonderbolts had been, to varying degrees.

Dash glanced at Soarin to see him giving her a weak smile, one that she quickly returned. He didn’t need to say anything, because she already felt it herself. Just the night before she was a complete wreck over what Nightshade had done to her, but here? She faced it head on and willingly to help out Fleetfoot.

“I can feel for you a bit here too, Fleet,” Spitfire chimed in while pulling Fleetfoot in closer and smushing her cheek to her shoulder. Fleetfoot blinked and shifted her eyes up to the warm smile Spitfire was aiming toward her. “Remember when Lightning Dust manipulated me with the magic? When Rapidfire defected.” Spitfire paused as Fleetfoot gave her a weak nod, her wet eyes wide and focused on Spitfire. “I was dealing with many deep emotions that I was trying to keep from everyone else, my feelings of loneliness and stress that were piling on top of one another. She used the magic on me and cracked them wide open, turning them against me and amplifying them until I became lost in uncontrollable rage against a pony I would never wish harm upon…” she slowly looked up at Soarin, her ears flopping down as she recounted how twisted and awful the experience was.

Soarin remembered it clearly as well… He would never forget the chilling moment when Spitfire pleaded for him to kill her and free her from the agony.

“It wasn’t through Nightshade… but I’ve felt the horrible effects of the magic just like you have,” she rubbed Fleetfoot’s shoulder gently with her wing, feeling the slight twitching and spasms that still coursed through her body. “So you’re definitely not alone here, just as Dash says. But you don’t have to hide behind us either. Everypony, every Wonderbolt is here for you, and don’t you ever forget it, alright?” Spitfire ended, her eyes looking a little misty themselves as she smiled down at Fleetfoot, and it was for a good reason.

Fleetfoot’s lip was quivering. She looked like she was about to burst into tears again as her sniffling returned, but it was different this time. While her face didn’t show it, her eyes certainly did.

Joy, relief, and comfort.

As her eyes let loose, she pushed her whole body against Spitfire, reaching her arms around and hugging her old friend as tightly as she could. She pushed her face into Spitfire’s side, turning her head and glancing at Soarin and Dash as the two smiled at her as well.

Fleetfoot sniffled loudly and swallowed as she closed her eyes tightly, several tears squeezing right through her eyelids as she held onto Spitfire like her life depended on it.

“You… guys… I…” she sputtered, barely able to get any words out as she hiccupped and blubbered through it. “I… thank you…” she managed to say, Spitfire exhaling in surprise as Fleetfoot squeezed her waist even harder. “For everything… I’m… I love you all…” she went on as she continued to let it all out.

Ignoring the intense pressure around her body from the vice grip Fleetfoot was applying, Spitfire reached a hoof up and gently rubbed the back of Fleetfoot’s head.

Soarin and Dash both scooted in to sit close and surround Fleetfoot with those she could count on.

The journey had been long, and the ponies had been pushed to the brink several times… but they refused to break. And if one of them cracked, the others would come in to patch it up. That went for every single one of them.

Now, on the verge of reaching their destination… all they needed was one final push before they could finally breath a much needed sigh of relief, and everypony was going to get there, no matter what.

“Fleet, are you hungry?” Spitfire ask as she rested her chin atop Fleetfoot’s head.

“Y…yes…” Fleetfoot immediately replied with a nod.

“We brought food,” Spitfire made a quick hoof motion to Soarin. Soarin was up and moving before she even finished the point.

“I’m… very hungry…” Fleetfoot admitted as Soarin quickly re-entered after grabbing the ration box from outside. He sat it down and slid it across the floor all the way over to Spitfire.

“Go ahead,” Spitfire released Fleetfoot, but not vice versa as Spitfire opened the box and moved it up to her. “We have the whole day to ourselves, we’ll stay here as long as you want.”

But for now? They could use a quick break. And Fleetfoot was about to chow down on their sub-par rations like it was fine cuisine. But it’s always nice to eat in the company of friends.

---To Be Continued---

Author's Note:

Art in this chapter by: Foxenawolf

Poor Fleetfoot... It's when you grow up wanting to be just like a certain idol of yours, only to end up nothing like them. I know that feeling well. Not everyone is created equal when it comes to physical appearance, natural strength and stature, but it doesn't make you any less of a person (pony). Everyone has things that bother them and things they keep bottled up, but real friends will always be there for you regardless.

Fleetfoot has troubles, but so do Soarin, Spitfire, and Dash. And they were willing to put their own problems into perspective to help Fleetfoot see that she's not alone when it comes to personal inner battles.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!

GOD, LOOK AT THIS ADORABLE BADASS FILLY!

Comments

[*Rainbow Dash*]

About time! you need to like commit every hour of every day to writing! non stop!

[deltablaze22]

ye

[Workman]

OH.
MY.
D'AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
im almost crying. I'm halfway between Daw and Wah. Dawah?

[Gargon94]

Wow... that is a lot of emotions going around in the air. Well, we now know some backstory to Feetfoot and her problems.

[Dusk_Writer]

Oh my…

Oh my, oh my, oh my!

This ran way deeper than I thought it would! I get Fleetfoot's problems and that she isn't exactly happy but, to the point of body shaming? Being flirtatious to get close to ponies? I don't judge her at all but, by that point, you know it's serious!

This was absolutely amazing, like always! I've gotta give credit to Kestrel too, he edited it so fast! xD

This has been a long and painful journey for all of them, it really shows how much they've endured and pushed through over the past year. Everyone has issues, but for some of them it's not so obvious.

I love how it felt Dash was a part of the group, it proves all of them have gone from idols and fangirl to actually good friends.

She waited for a few seconds, taking one long deep breath before reaching a hoof up and gently knocking on the door. “Fleet…?” She waited. No answer. “It’s Dash…” Still no answer.

I'm sorry but…
That reminds me so much of 'Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?'

Also, is anyone else wondering if the rest of Foxtrot is still searching? xD

[Brawny Steed]

Filly Fleetfoot looks like she could take on the whole world. And win.

But... does this mean- Nah, I thought for a moment that she had a daddy complex, but no. She just likes strong ponies and I can't blame her for that.

Now if only she could go over to Calm Wind and talk to him about a certain few things...

[Solitare]

I think this is in the top 5 best chapters of this story. I LOVE IT!!!

[Midday Giggle]

SUCH AMAIZING CHAPTER! GREAT JOB CALM!

[Sylvian]

My heart, my poor, aching, heart...

I THOUGHT I WAS THE MASTER OF HEARTBREAK! But once more, Calm, has proven me to be but an apprentice in the shadow of the master.

[CowgirlVK]

An hour to read... then an hour outside sitting on a bridge staring off into nothing...

To be honest, this is something my grandfather brought up to me just this morning... and something I've had on my mind all day. I really sympathize with Fleet. In more ways than one.

The topic? College. I'm a poor girl, I can't afford to go to college just for the joy of it. I repeated 3rd, and barely scraped by fighting every single test and just barely passing. I hear of people who get through school with A's... and maybe a few B's... and I feel crushed. I'm a C student. C... for Pitifully average... if that was the only area I'm pitifully average in, it'd be fine. I'm an average artist. I'm an average singer, I'm an average writer, I'm an average runner.... who am I kidding that I'd ever make anything for myself. I'm an average sister, I'm an average daughter... I'm an average friend.... Pitifully average...

After this morning, Grandpa did say, "VK, you have something that many others would kill to have." I figured he'd say tenasity. For through having to fight for every accomplishment, it's the one thing I've always considered as my chief thing... he said a Strong Voice... I've honestly always thought my voice as my biggest curse. I wish more than anything my voice was soft and pretty like Cat's or Glitter's. Then maybe people wouldn't think I'm so mean and treat me like skum...

Thanks Calm... it was an amazing chapter as always. I needed that. We're going to take forever on the podcast with these two.

[Magical Shield]

I cried... So... Damn... Hard... WHY CALM? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!!?

Give Fleety a hug for me okay? She needs a lot of 'em

Now, let me go eat a tub of ice-cream-- Anyone wanna join?

Good chapter, it was so heart-breaking I literally cried X/ Loved it

s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/87/bb/9d/87bb9dd8037b3d6048c2ae1b5ec9ea24.jpg

Also, Fleet looks ADORABLE!

[*Rainbow Dash*]

7825788 um i was being sarcastic.......

[PinkDiamond67]

So sad and funny at the same time

[Magical Shield]

7825811 Chocolate or something else?

And...

i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/747/563/fb1.png

I caught that one!

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

IRL, a lot of movie stars & models have body issues. Fleet should either talk to Little Star (as someone who would sympathize) or utterly avoid her (because she wouldn't see that Fleet has much to complain about)

[Soaring Soarin]

orig03.deviantart.net/fa9e/f/2012/244/0/b/crying_soarin_by_keanno-d5d5jgb.gif

Damn this chapter was heavy... Also hit rather close to home for me as well

Loved this chapter regardless.

See ya in the next chapter calm

[jnzsblzs]

Holy hell calm for the first time you managed to make me uncomfortable... It's no easy task given that I'm generally not the one who's gonna empathise with fictional characters too much, but this chapter was something else.

That whole introductory scene with dash finding the magazines felt so specific. I know for a fact that you like to put personal experiences into your fics and i couldn't help but wonder if anything you written about there actually happened to you or anybody else you know. And given that you are an avid gymrat (and the gym is probably the best place to find people with all sort of body issues) this scene was uncomfortably realistic.

Also the scene where Fleetfoot admitted that she is still carving for what the crystals could give her gotta be one of my favourite moment in the whole story. Too bad that nopony bothered to assess that situation in any way whatsoever. I think I know why you did it this way but still I don't feel that is a problem that they could just ignore like this. But I assume you gonna get back to this topic in the following chapters.

So overall solid chapter, definitely one of your better ones even though there are a few problems and inconsistencies with the events leading up to this, but still the sheer number of small details you managed tie up in one neat chapter is really impressive.

[The Pony Eclipse]

DAH!! da feels! they.. they... FEEL!! actually i needed this. i was just at the last immage when imy mother-n-law had me take her o the funeral home to approve the headstone for my wife. they screwed it up. of all my old friends, my wife was the one i could always count on, always there for me no matter how stupid i was. she never judged me and always loved me... as a friend then as the mother of my daughter. i've always been a loner, the silent protecter, leading by example instead of taking charge. even in the navy i refused command, preferring to be with my shipmates to give them a boost when they needed it and a swift kick in the rear when they Really needed it. even on christmas stand down, i was on the skeleton crew while my crew went home for the holiday. EVERY single one of them called all over the base untill they got ahold of me personally to wish me a merry christmas. from my friends and family back home... nothing. i miss the comeraderie of my old friends and my shipmates. any one of them would take a bullet or a beating for me as fast as i would for them. true friends are few and far between, but their love and understanding will never fade for i keep them in my heart.

[Those Kids In The Corner]

I am honestly shocked how close Soarin's description of his fear is to mine. Minus the strength portion, I feel an overwhelming need to protect also to the point where I blow things completely out of proportion. Even letting friends get something from the fridge when I'm not there makes me worry that they'll drop something and hurt themselves to the point where I refuse to let the get whatever they need and I do it myself.

[TuxOKC]

EDIT: I neglected to mention I clicked through on this chapter originally because it was in the feature box for a brief time!! WooT!

Minor edits and typss... typos vanquished!

[cierragp]

I can relate. It's hell when you don't grow up to what you want to be.

And you made me cry during this chapter...

[Sonic rainbow]

That was really good

Poor fleet

Can't wait for more

[Blue Eyed Brony]

Fleetfoot breaking down like that is heartbreaking. I can relate with her not being happy with the way she is all too well.

Confessing everything she kept bottled up inside to Spitfire and Soarin is a great step helping herself but now they're going to have to help her recover.

[Dragon Eye]

I am not ok, Calm why must you do this

[Laveria Dreams]

...of all your chapters, I think this one was the most personal and most relatable...

[IndigoMoon]

7825923 I do a similar thing. If someone insults someone I care about, i will go batshit crazy to the point of losing all sense of rationality and i just lose all sanity. I'm normally the last person to get into a fight but if someone insults a loved one of mine, the scrawny, unitimidating Harry-Potter-lookalike geek suddenly becomes very, very dangerous. And it's only happened once. That person had a bruise on their arm for about a month.

[Colorful Melody]

I tend not to tear up too often in your stories. I'm not heartless it's just.. if you have read Project Horizons, nothing has ever been able to make me cry like that story did. I didn't even cry during the last bit, with Descent and Storm. I always feel something, but rarely tears. There have been a few chapters where I have broken down into tears and I'm always so proud of your writing and its ability to make me feel sad in ways I don't usually feel.

This on the other hand, really has broken me down to levels I was in while reading Project Horizons. The thing about depression, my depression at least, is it dims out other senses and fills you with the desire to be accepted and loved unconditionally. And this chapter brought me to tears like the day I kicked my depression for the most part because of all the support friends can give.

I'm touched, I'm astonished, and I'm proud of this chapter because I can connect with Fleet. The feels are overwhelming and the trust and bond between best friends, it's just so.. powerful. It makes me smile, and I have no doubt it will make everyone else smile too. Well done, it couldn't have been better.

Thank you for writing

Edit: Reading this back, I feel it may seem self-centered and that's not my intention at all. I kicked depression a long time ago, and I purely wish to imply that it's writing like Calm's that helped me so long ago.

[Colorful Melody]

7825784

2 things;
One, I think filly Fleetfoot is going to be the new image of all-time supreme cuteness, all praise be unto Foxena for such an amazingly cute image (I think I died at least 3 times...)

Two, I'm severely tempted to make 1000 alt accounts and upvote this story into oblivion. The only reason this story doesn't have more is because people aren't willing to commit to reading something this long. For example, all 7 of the Harry Potter books contained a total of 1,084,170 words. And how high are we now? "1,540,571 words total" It's so disappointing to me every time I look at that number and how low it is, and then other short stories that have 2000 upvotes because this is such an amazing story with the fastest update times ever, and a dedicated, responsive author who finds time to read every single comment left on this chapter despite having a separate life. What are your thoughts on this?

[Angeletta]

“Then how would I give it to you?” Soarin shot right back, making Dash turn red.

Easily, with a STRAP ON.

Get it cuz the horns name-? Because it's called a-, you know what nevermind.

[Those Kids In The Corner]

7826583
I definitely get that. I remember some twerp messing with my boyfriend on the bus by sticking his hands in his pants and grabbing his junk and then smacking him. I got so angry that i took out my pencil and, well, he was grabbing his junk for an entirely new reason afterwards. I didn't mean to go that far per se but i was blinded by anger after seeing his assholery.

[blastguard]

Wow,that was quite...I was on the verge of tears after watching a movie of Will Smith but as soon as i read certain parts of these chapter i just couldnt take it anymore and wept!What are you doin to us?!Still it was an impressive work from your part.it was about time after the encounter with nightshade for Fleetfoot to release the flow of emotions she was holding back until now...Many people have the same fears as her in real life and i know how painfull it can be(personall experiense speaking)...It's never an easy task to overcome that specific problem(hating your body)But with the support of good and loyal friends and faith in yourself and abilties everything can solved.

[Easy breezey]

AWWWW THAT WAS SOOO ADORABLE!!!! I love Filly Fleet question is it hard to do this to Fleet? Or not and great chap as usuall and well nice to know that even Dashie is not all perfect and an explination on why Soarin accted that way during the little 'Vision' of his

[Joybelle]

Right In the feels

[AndyDash]

Poor Fleetfoot. Sadly I understand what she's feeling-I don't know a single woman, myself included, who hasn't struggled with body image at some point in their lives. It's one of my biggest worries about raising a daughter-trying to show how to live a healthy lifestyle without emphasis on appearance.

I loved the relationship between Dash and the lead trio here. It's nice to see how their friendship has evolved over the course of the story. Although Spitfire's crack about spunk was a bit much

[NyOs29]

7827083
The problem is that not every woman is as lucky to have the support of her friends or family. My maternal grandparents wanted only sons but were more than willing to direct how their daughters were suppose to live their lives: get married, have children, and put their entire life on hold to take care of them in their old age while leaving everything they own to their sons.

And its hard for women in general not to dwell on such matters as in today's society (no matter which type) a woman has to continuously prove her worth and thus must constantly justify her position, influence, even her very existence to society. She is forced to be cold, emotionaless and absolutely ruthless, or else.

A primary example of this is Captain Spitfire. In many countries her ascension to Captain of the entire Wonderbolt organization would be met with thinly veiled hostility and suspicion especially considering her combat inexperienced squad was even chosen over other squads that contained older yet more experienced ponies such as Silver Lining. On top of that the fact that the Co-captains' son was her squadmate her detractors would no doubt spread false accusations that she slept with Rapidfire in order to get her squad ahead and become captain. These people would wait in the shadows for her to make an error even one that she had nothing to do with and they would tear into her, make her seen as unworthy, break the public's trust in her (if the public had any in the first place), and ultimately destroy her life. And those would just be the detractors from the opposite gender!

[AndyDash]

7825879
I'm so sorry to read about your wife. My husband is my best friend and I know I would be gutted if I lost him. Sincerely, I hope you find peace.

[Soarin skiash]

That was... Interesting. I mean there were some things I expected but, interesting chapter.
So yeah. Nice work.

(Speaking Nonchalantly because I'm tired this was amazing)

[AndyDash]

7827361
Women in general are held to impossible standards in modern society. I had dinner with my best friend of over twenty years a few nights ago and we talked about this. Our lives have gone in different directions (after college I got married, have moved across the country and back again for my husband's career and eventually gave up my career to be a stay at home mom; she's never married and has been climbing up the career ladder and has very little interest in marriage and becoming a mother), yet we both feel as though we aren't doing enough to measure up to society's standards. It's ridiculous, because we both lead busy, full lives as well as finding time to take care of ourselves, our homes and everyone in our lives. I don't consider either of us to be weak, yet we still feel insecure at times. And that's just my little corner of the world-not going to open the can of worms that was the double standard applied to the presidential candidates

[blastguard]

7827361 I totaly agree with you on that.Women stuggle more than men in such issues when it comes to prove their worth thus for them is an endless battle considaring the hostilty or jealousy they may encounter...

[jnzsblzs]

Is it just me or that baby Fleetfoot has surprisingly adult-like proportions? Was this a deliberate move and if so why?

[Veyron]

That was an awesome chapter and now you will have to excuse me while I die of the cuteness that is filly Fleet.

[HarlenBooks]

This is why this is one of my favorite fanfics, the character development is perfect and deep and very well executed

[Jim Hoxworth]

Okay, now that I have a moment to breathe from work...

First thing...

Dash pushed the door open and peered in. She squinted as a bright flashing light met her eyes. About a yard from the throttle, a floor panel had been opened and Rivet was sitting in it, wearing a large welding mask and thick hoof gloves as sparks flew up around him. Lucky was standing by the controls, waiting for Rivet to finish as Point Dex and Lead Runner worked with a few of Rivet’s unicorn staff to right the control station that had fallen atop Soarin.
“Okay…” Rivet spoke up, his welding mask muffling his voice as he shut off his blow torch and waved towards Lucky. “Try it now.”
“Right-o!” Lucky saluted casually as he reached for the throttle lever and pushed it lightly forward. A quiet whirring sound came from beneath the floor for a few seconds before a loud POP and a thick cloud of steam shot right into Rivet’s face. Thankfully, his welding mask shielded him, but…
“GAH! FFFFFFFF—TURN IT OFF!” Rivet demanded as he flailed.

....Empire Strikes Back reference... I like it...

Also,

“No personal issue is stupid. Our shortcomings are part of what make us who we are, there’s no going around them and no ignoring them,” -Spitfire

That moment when the captain says something that Twister said first....

Fantastic chapter, Calm.

[Calm Wind]

7825501

TYPING INTENSIFIES

(Based on the comment rating, looks like my readers clearly don't know that we're acquaintances )

[Calm Wind]

7825509

7825518

ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTION!!!

7825534

Indeed, much needed deeper character development for one of my most used characters

7825549

Indeed, i was hoping to take the readers for a very unexpected emotional ride

7825586

I'm so glad it's being received so positively

[Calm Wind]

7825561

She certainly was daddy's little filly, but i may or may not have also had a slight motive of setting it up so that she'd be drawn more to a pony like Calm Not gonna do anything significant with them in this story, but it's always good to plan ahead

7825600

Thank you!

[Calm Wind]

7825617

You have much to learn, young grasshopper

[Calm Wind]

7825634

You've gotta make do with what you've got. i know that's easy for me to say as someone who is well off, but it goes for more than just wealth, it can be applied to any struggle you face in life.

[Calm Wind]

7825678

*Gently rubs your face on the floor*

Yesssssssssssssssssssssss, get floored tenderly...