Being A Wonderbolt

by Flying Fantasy Horse

Chapter 3

The stars twinkled as the blanket of dark night took hold of Cloudsdale and its surrounding city. The air was cool and the breeze was moderate, making it a nice night.

However, Rainbow Dash was having trouble sleeping.

She laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling blankly. Her eyes were tired and drowsy and were open halfway. She spread her wings, knowing that she was not going back to sleep anytime soon. She groaned and smacked her lips while scratching her back.

Rainbow Dash wasn't only tired, but she was disturbed. The way Thunder Gust collapsed like that was head scratching, to say the least. She couldn't figure out a reason why he acted that way. Wasn't he supposed to be happy? He retired from the Wonderbolts, fully knowing that he would come down as a great flyer.

So what was wrong with him?

The book.

She turned her head to face the wall. Sitting against the wall was a brown knapsack with the book sticking out from its pocket. She bit her lip, then sighed. She got out of her bed and travelled to her knapsack. She pulled out the book and took it back to her bed. She sat down and studied it.

There didn't seem to be anything too wrong with it, except there was a lack of a title or a name for it. It was red in colour and it was relatively small in size, possibly holding only a hundred pages. She studied it from front to back and found nothing out of the ordinary. It looked just a regular book, save for the unknown name.

Satisfied, she opened the book to the first page. The book smelled musty and the pages were much more brown then regular books. There was nothing on the front page, so she flipped the page. She gasped suddenly.

The Wonderbolts Fan Booklet.

She remembered this book when she was just a little filly. It was a resource book for fans wanting to know every single detail about the Wonderbolts. It had descriptions of previous Wonderbolt costumes, fan letters, information about all of the Wonderbolts from the entire list spanning from its entire history.

She remembered the book so fondly, there was nothing bad about it. Although the book itself was outdated, it still held up to todays standards. Rainbow Dash flipped through the book, looking at what fans had to say and looking at all the fan art. It was truly something that made Rainbow Dash smile as a young foal.

But that only raised the question; why was Thunder Gust so shook up about the book? There had to be something wrong with it in order for him to react so badly to it. It was all so confusing and she was way too tired for her to figure it out. She slammed the book and placed it back in to her knapsack. She went back on to her bed and groaned. It was going to be a long night, and she knew it.

She wanted to know what was wrong with that book, but what was it?

---

"Alright team, let's go! Let's go!"

Rainbow Dash positioned her goggles and leaped off the ground. She immediately flapped and reached a fast speed. The air coursed through her mane and surrounded her face as she flew into the sky. She focused on positioning her body and getting faster. Other Wonderbolts flew alongside her. They nodded to each other and suddenly took a nosedive.

Rainbow Dash's mane felt like it was about to ripped off as it waved behind her as she flew her wings harder and harder. She almost reached the ground, then stuck out her legs. She made contact then immediately launched off. She flew straight up and arched her back. She soon found that the world under her was above her as she looped in the sky.

Completing the loop, she positioned her body and flew straight through the sky. Through her blurred vision, she could see hoops that zigzagged in position. Following a single file line consisting of Wonderbolts, she leaned left to right and flew across the hoops with expert precision.

After the hoops, the Wonderbolts formed into a V formation with Rainbow Dash leading. They gained enough speed that smoke and lightning started to trail behind. Suddenly, they flew up to the sky once again. It was up to Rainbow Dash to keep the group in check, and she knew that she wouldn't fail now.

All she could see was blue as she travelled to the ceiling of the sky. She flapped her wings harder and harder, causing her muscles to strain. She kept pushing herself, almost feeling as she had no breath left in her lungs. Soon, she would lean backwards to complete the next loop.

I'm going to do it, she thought to herself. This will show that I am Wonderbolt material!

Then, all of a sudden, the sky didn't look blue anymore. Its hue turned into a devilish red as all sound escaped from Rainbow Dash's ears. She squinted; what was going on? Why has the sky turned red? Her heart tightened as she struggled to figure out was going on. She looked at the other Wonderbolts that were following her.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Rather than the Wonderbolts that she was accustomed, all she saw was bony carcasses flapping their skeleton wings. Their heads were no more than mere skulls with their sockets torn out. It should have been impossible for them to be flying. As they flew, they opened their gaping mouths and shrieked into Rainbow's ears.

Rainbow Dash couldn't feel anymore. She couldn't fly anymore and her wings stopped flying. She felt her body dropping to the ground as the red colours consumed her. Her eyes were filled with tears as she screamed her way to the ground. She was helpless as she thrashed her legs through the air, knowing full well that she was about to plummet to her death.

Then, her vision turned to black.

---

RaInBoW, a...OkAy?

Rainbow Dash felt like her head was stretching in different directions as it writhed in pain. She could suddenly feel the pain surging through her entire body like an electric volt. She could only see blurry blobs as she opened her eyes. Eventually her vision settled as she could see Wonderbolts staring at her in bewilderment. She tried to get up and felt her back wince in pain.

"No, Rainbow Dash..." a voice said. "Settle down. You took a hard fall."

Rainbow Dash looked up to see Spitfire looking at her perturbed. Spitfire looked at her body and sighed.

"Well, it doesn't seem like anything is broken," she said. "But just to be sure, we'll get a doctor to look at your injuries. They look minor at best."

Rainbow Dash gazed at Spitfire. "What happened?"

Spitfire glanced at Rainbow. "It seems like you got tired and blacked out. It's odd; a flyer like you wouldn't do that..."

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and sighed. "Oh Celestia, I failed..."

Spitfire patted Rainbow Dash. "Hey, you're a rookie. You just have to do better, next time."

Another pierce of pain tormented Rainbow's body. Spitfire looked at the others.

"Get her into the infirmary and patch her up. We have a show in a week and we want to showcase her skills soon."

The others nodded and a couple of nurse ponies came to the scene. She was lifted to a stretcher and was taken somewhere. Rainbow Dash wouldn't know that.

She blacked out again.

---

Rainbow Dash opened her drowsy eyes. She found that she was in a small room and that she was in a comfortable white bed. There was pillows propped against the back of her head and a blanket kept her warm. It wasn't a regular hospital room; it was only for minor injured flyers to stay for a little bit.

She sat up and saw that the pain was almost gone, except for a small pinch. Her wings were sore and her legs felt like they were about to pop off. She saw through a closed window that it was still daytime. She must have been out for not too long. She sighed and wiggled her way into a comfortable position.

She didn't understand what happened to her that day. It was so scary and disturbing that it was surreal in a way. The first day of training and this incident happens to her. It was an odd one at best and she never experienced anything like it before. She never hallucinated or suffered strokes or anything, so what happened today?

This isn't just a coincidence, she thought to herself. There has to be more to that than this.

But how do I tell my friends?

It wouldn't be easy for her to tell her friends about the matter. They would worry too much and she didn't want them to get too worked up about it. But it did make her wonder if this means something more, if there was more to the puzzle. But where does she find the pieces?

"Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the doorway. A tough looking nurse stared at her with a clip board in hoof.

"Oh, hello," Rainbow replied feebly.

"Are you feeling alright? Is there something that you might need?"

"No, I'm alright."

The nurse nodded and started to walk away. Rainbow Dash thought for a moment and gasped.

"Wait!"

The nurse turned around to face Rainbow Dash again.

"Um, could you grab me my knapsack from my room? It's just a small brown knapsack."

"Alright."

The nurse stepped through the door, leaving Rainbow in the room. She waited patiently for the nurse to arrive, hoping that she left the Wonderbolts book in the knapsack. If it wasn't in there then it was all for nothing. Soon, the nurse came back with the knapsack. She handed it to Rainbow and left the room again.

Rainbow Dash opened the knapsack and found the book. She sighed in relief and pulled out the book. She started flipping through the pages, hoping that she would find something like a clue or something odd or out of place. As she flipped through the pages, she sucked in the information that was being told to her. It was odd to look back at the book like she was reading it as a filly.

Searching through the pages, she found little to nothing. She was starting to lose hope that the book actually meant something. If that was the truth, why would Thunder Gust give her the book and collapse like the way he did. He wouldn't give her the book for no apparent reason, so she knew there was something about the book.

There was also the hallucinations that she had that day. Ever since she has become a Wonderbolt, weird things have happened to her. First Thunder Gust, then the visions? It was becoming more of a problem than something that Rainbow Dash could enjoy. Maybe there was something about the two events that could possibly be connected.

But the thing was, what was it?

Looking through the book, she realized that there was a separate piece of paper sticking out through the pages of the book. She flipped to the page where the piece of paper was. It fell down to her stomach. Curious, Rainbow Dash picked up the paper. She raised her brow as she saw that there was a message on one of the sides.

Go to page 87. You will find the answers there.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe it. The note must have been left by Thunder Gust. He probably knew that Rainbow Dash wouldn't figure out the answers by herself. So he wrote the note himself so he can guide her to something. Rainbow Dash didn't know what to think. She voluntarily flipped to the eighty-seventh page.

It was a small article about Spitfire's office. There was a overhead diagram of the entire room with labels, possibly by a true fan of Spitfire. On the other page there was a sketch of the office in great detail. Rainbow Dash already knew what her office looked like, but she searched through both of these pictures. She found nothing at first glance.

Then she gasped. There was something at the back of the room, something like a tablet of stone. It was hard to see at first glance, but it was fairly small. It had an odd and eerie glow to it, according to the sketch. It had a symbol in which she couldn't make out, but it looked somewhat like the body of a pony.

She was glad that there was something that she could actually work with. But that only raised a ton of questions; what did the tablet mean? Why was it glowing? Most importantly, why did Spitfire have it in her office? It was so confusing that she slammed the book and placed it back into her knapsack.

She didn't know symbols or what seemed to be words in a different ancient language, but she knew somepony that could possibly figure that mystery out. But for now, she wanted nothing more than to rest. She had what she needed for now.

She leaned back into her pillow and closed her eyes. She would be out of there in maybe a day. She would ask Spitfire about the tablet later, once she had more information.

Rainbow Dash fell back into a deep sleep.

Comments

[Novak]

Wonderbolts some kind of secret demon cult perhaps? Hmmm...

[rogueunicorn]

Now I'm really curious.

[Flying Fantasy Horse]

4968575
Not really. Just you wait.

4971107

Sorry for not going through editing.

[nopeeeee]

[Aurora Steel]

SOOOOO COOL!!!

Question: is there going to be a SoarinDash in this or no relationships?

[Flying Fantasy Horse]

4977171
Well, there us Soarin. But not Dash.

4973584

[rogueunicorn]

4972468 Oh, quite all right. It turned out wonderfully without my help.

[Novak]

Cancelled? Damn, I really wanted to know the Wonderbolts secret..

[Flying Fantasy Horse]

5694728

Working on a new project. Don't worry, there will be way more chapters this time around as I am pre-writing them instead of writing a chapter and then immediately releasing it.

[Novak]

5694734 Will keep an eye out for it.

[Halfpaw]

It was a secret we mortals were never meant to know...