Lost in Darkness

by ChocolateFan25

Chapter 1 - Pride

She slowly took a sip of her coffee, and waited for her tiredness to go away. The training and the stress of the last days became noticeable, and at some nights she nearly fell in her bed. But Fleetfoot always had a ray of hope. She would only have to concentrate on the training, for the next Wonderbolts derby, and then she would be due for vacation. It would only last for a few days, but it was worth it.

"Do we still have some coffee?" she heard someone ask. She turned around to see Misty Fly, entering the small kitchen of the Wonderbolts headquarters. Fleetfoot blinked, her eyelids hanging low, and said "Sure." She then pointed with her hoof towards the pot of coffee on the table.

Misty Fly took a mug out of one of the cupboards and filled it with the black, steaming liquid. "You look exhausted." Misty Fly noticed. Fleetfoot looked at her puzzled. The pegasus then took a seat at the table. "You started to train more than normally."

There was worry in her voice. It confused Fleetfoot even more. "As a Wonderbolt, I have to stay fit." she said and put a smile on. "Also, the derby is next week, and I don't want Fire Streak to laugh at me again for reaching the finish line after him." She gritted her teeth, when she thought about the last race. It had frustrated her to no end how he had bragged about 'letting her eat his dust'.

Misty Fly took another sip and thought about that. "But you started training that much since your encounter with Tirek."

Fleetfoot nearly choked on her drink and turned her head away. What she said was true. She was always aware of her strength and her skills, and relied on them. Until the day she met Tirek. The feeling of powerlessness and inner emptiness stayed for days.

"Oh... sorry. I didn't wanted to remind you of something bad..." Misty Fly lowered her ears.

Fleetfoot shook her head vigorously, and put her smile back on. "No, no. It is..." she said and stopped. "You worry too much. I'm really just training for the derby."

Misty Fly looked at her, raising an eyebrow, but she didn't say anything more.

"By the way," Fleetfoot said to change the subject. "why aren't you participating in the next race?"

Misty Fly's face brightened up again. "It's on the same day as the birthday of my little brother, and I wanted to take that day free for him." she said. "But I join in next time."

"How old will your brother be?" Fleetfoot asked curiously. "He'll be ten years. It's incredible how fast time goes by, if you don't live at home any longer."

"You're right." Fleetfoot said and chuckled. "I haven't seen my sister in an eternity. I should visit her sometime soon."

"Didn't your sister wrote you letters, from time to time?" Misty Fly asked.

Fleetfoot sighed and looked at the coffee between her hooves, her ears hanging low. "She did. But I think she grew too old for this. She's reaching puberty, and I think it is not 'cool' to write letters to your big sister anymore."

She heard somepony entering the kitchen, and turned around. High Winds walked straight towards her and held a sheet of paper in her mouth. "Hey, what do you have there?" Fleetfoot asked.

The white pegasus stopped next to her and laid it down on the table. "I thought it would interest you." High Winds said, waiting for her reaction.

Fleetfoot looked at the paper. It was a promotion of a well known book store in Fillydelphia. The author, Written Page, would publish her newest love novel, and would hold a book-signing in that store. Fleetfoot's eyes widened and she squealed with glee. "I waited for an eternity for that to happen! I have to go there!"

While she grinned and pondered, what book she should get signed, she didn't notice how Misty Fly took the paper and looked at it herself. "A book-signing? I didn't know you like love novels." Misty Fly said, lifting her brows.

Fleetfoot's grin fell, and she got a bad feeling. "Does she think I would be an egghead or something?" she thought. "I-I don't." she said and cleared her throat.

Her words gained her a confused look from High Winds. "You do." she said and lowered her eyebrows.

Fleetfoot glared at High Winds. "No, that would be ridiculous. I... well... I have a friend who likes stuff like that. But she has to work overtime quite often, so I keep an eye open for her." she explained to Misty Fly and tried to sound as neutral as possible. "I wish I could lie better." she thought and looked away whistling.

Misty Fly smiled and put the paper back down. "That's really nice of you." she said with a warm smile and got up. "I'll see you later on the training field, right?"

"You can bet on that." Fleetfoot replied and watched Misty Fly leaving the room.

"I didn't knew of this friend of yours." High Winds said and rubbed her head. "It seems, that my information about you is outdated."

"It was a white lie." Fleetfoot gave her the paper back.

High Winds cocked her head while looking at her. "For what reason?"

"High Winds, have you forgotten? We're here at the Wonderbolts. Ponies would give me strange looks just for even liking books, much less love novels." she said and left the table. "I have a reputation to maintain."

High Winds looked silently at the paper. "But you're going there anyway, right?"

"But of course!" she said and took a water bottle out of the fridge.

"We still see us later?" she heard High Winds ask, as she went to the door. In her voice she could hear worry for her.

Fleetfoot rubbed her chin and threw a look back. "Sure. It's not like I would disappear." The blue pegasus shook her head smiling, and left the room.

"Sometimes, I don't understand her thoughts." she thought and walked down the corridor, smiling carefree. Her walk seemed to have more of a swing than normal. "What book should I take with me? 'Dark Roses'? I even have the first edition. But I like 'Lifelong Promises' far more. On the other hoof, that book has an ugly spot on the cover. I shouldn't have dropped that slice of cake on it..."

She was deep in her thoughts, until she ran against somepony. For a few seconds she stumbled, before she could regain her balance, and looked up. Wave Chill stood in front of her and patted the dust from his training uniform with a growl.

"Can't you see where you go?!" he asked, his voice loud and demanding.

Fleetfoot snarled and said "You could have moved out of the way. It's not like the hall is too small for two ponies."

"You are not the center of everything." he hissed back and stomped away.

She cocked her head and looked after him. "What's gotten into him?" Fleetfoot decided not to think about it too much, and continued her way to the training field.

***

Sweat formed on her forehead while she pushed herself up and down with her wings. She kept her body as straight and tense as possible while she held her forelegs folded on her back. It would have been an easy training if it wasn't for Misty Fly standing on her and counting every wing-up she did. "It's much harder." Fleetfoot thought and gritted her teeth, while breathing heavily. "But it'll make me stronger."

"Can you still hold out?" she heard Misty Fly ask her from above.

Fleetfoot nodded and went on with her training. Her gaze shifted to the bench on the other side of the field. Wave Chill sat on it but Fleetfoot couldn't tell if he was bored or just not motivated. For two hours he sat there and hasn't done any training yet. It seemed he just waited for the training session to be over. With the coach being sick that day there was no one to force him.

Fleetfoot sighed heavily and lowered her eyelids. "If I think about it, I DID run into him." she thought and bit her lips. "I have to apologize to him. But he's still in a bad mood. Should I do it now? Or should I wait a bit?" Then she started to watch him more closely. He played with a water bottle between his hooves, his eyes looked into the distance without focus.

"Something more than that incident has happened." Fleetfoot thought and felt the weight vanishing from her back.

"You should take a break." Misty Fly said and helped Fleetfoot back on her hooves. She folded her aching wings and wished the sweat away.

Her gaze fell upon Wave Chill once more and she wanted to go to him, but something kept her from doing so. "If I apologize to him... wouldn't I show him weakness? If it was Soarin or Blaze, I would know, that they see it as a sign of companionship. But Wave is not Soarin or Blaze." Fleetfoot lowered her hoof again and looked away from Wave Chill. "He'll forget it in a few days."

She wanted to leave until Misty Fly came back and gave her a clean towel.

"Thanks." Fleetfoot with an honest smile and took it. She rubbed her short, white mane with it and put it away. "Can I ask you something?" she asked and looked to Misty Fly.

"Sure." Misty Fly said without any hesitation. Fleetfoot moved closer to her and pointed at Wave Chill with her head.

"Do you know why he is so grumpy lately?"

Misty Fly looked over her shoulder to the dark-blue pegasus who sat with glassy eyes on the bench. "You haven't heard it?" Misty Fly asked and raised an eyebrow.

Fleetfoot put a hoof on her chin and tried to remember anything important she could have forgotten. "What have I missed?" she asked and couldn't remember anything that would cause his mood.

Misty Fly came even closer to Fleetfoot and whispered in her ear "A few days ago his girlfriend broke up with him." Fleetfoot's ears shot up when she heard it. "They had a really bad fight before that." Misty Fly added and threw Wave Chill a rather pitiful look.

Fleetfoot lowered her head and sighed quietly. "I know that pain too well." she thought and tried to ignore the memories in her head. "How do you know all this?" She knew that Wave Chill was the opposite of a social butterfly.

"He told me yesterday after training. He was still mad about it." Misty Fly told as if it would have been the most normal thing in the world.

This made Fleetfoot raise an eyebrow. "I didn't notice, that they are close friends with each other. He rarely talks about... well, anything." she thought and felt a twinge of jealousy.

"Why do you ask?" Misty Fly asked.

"Just because." She wanted to tell of the incident. Instead of doing so, she scratched her head and looked away, as if she could ignore it forever.

From the corner of her eye she saw somepony walking towards them. She turned her head around and saw Fire Streak and Soarin entering the training field. Both wore their gray-white track suits and chatted about something. Fire Streak noticed he was watched and walked with a big grin to Fleetfoot and Misty Fly.

"Hey, ladies!" he greeted them and grinned slyly.

Misty Fly just shook her head. "Don't even try." she said in a deadpan voice.

Fire Streak laughed and said "But I would never do such a thing." He than added more quietly "I want to live the next day."

Fleetfoot couldn't help herself but chuckle. She knew of all the drama Fire Streak had with the female team members.

Soarin only rolled his eyes and turned to the others. "There is still this big obstacle course we used as training for the last show in the other room. Do you guys want to turn a round there?" he asked.

Fleetfoot remembered the obstacle course from last week. It was rather complicated with all kinds of obstacles and one would need good agility and body control to get through it. Without the knowledge of anypony else she trained there, sometimes until late into the night. Even days after the sessions her bruises hurt. But she was sure she could now ace it at any time.

"That sounds good." she said, smiling.

Misty Fly on the other hoof rubbed her chin in thought and wrinkled her mouth. "I don't know. Even Spitfire said that the obstacle course turned out to be much harder than she planned it to be. Wouldn't it be better if we continue our normal training until it gets rebuild again?"

Soarin thought about it but from Fire Streak's direction they could hear a quiet, but in volume growing cackle. His eyes were squinted and he grinned wide, like he always did.

Misty Fly blushed and lifted her head high into the air. "Hey!" she said with a snarl. "I'm only saying that it's unnecesary to break our bones there, just to prove a point! And I highly doubt you're much better at flying that obstacle course."

Fire Streak saw that as a challenge and said with visible pride "But I am better. And faster." He swept his mane out of his face just to embarrass her.

Misty Fly wouldn't let herself be a laughing stock. She stepped closer to him and pressed her head against his head. "A bit cocky today?" she asked with a smile.

Fleetfoot glanced at Soarin who looked back at her. He pointed with his head slightly to Fire Streak and rolled his eyes again to which Fleetfoot answered with a nod.

Fire Streak pulled his head back and walked to the side. "How about a small practice race? I would love to challenge you on the obstacle course, but winning with a two minuet gap would be rather boring. We do it here, ten rounds?" he asked and lifted dramatically a hoof to his forehead.

Misty Fly smelled a chance to put him back into his place and ignored his joking insults. "Why not?"

She turned with a smile to Fleetfoot and Soarin and asked "Do you want to join?"

"You're too afraid to race me alone?" Fire Streak asked and shook his head.

"No. But if we do a race, why not letting everypony have some fun?" Fire Streak had nothing to say against it and walked to the racecourse.

"That does sound like fun. Count me in." Fleetfoot said and smiled wide. "As if I would let such a chance go by."

But Soarin shook his head. "Not this time. But I can be the referee, if you want."

Misty Fly nodded and turned around. "Hey, Wave Chill!" she yelled. He took his attention of the water bottle and looked at her. His eyelids still hung low and he frowned. "Come on, join in on the race with us. We'll leave you alone after that, I promise." Misty Fly said.

Wave Chill thought for a a second. Like a foal he groaned and walked to them. "Good." he said with a blank face.

"That's great." Fleetfoot said smiling. Wave Chill was no caring or outgoing comrade. But she hated to see him suffer like that. "He'll get over it." she thought. "It takes a long time. But everything has to begin somewhere."

Wave Chill looked dismissively at her after hearing her words. "Don't even think that I would do this for you." Without another word he walked to the racecourse and left Fleetfoot gaping at him.

She lifted her head, lowered her eyebrows and snarled. "Good for you, I didn't." she replied with a raised voice.

Soarin and Misty Fly looked worriedly at each other before they followed. Fleetfoot stood in position and stretched her wings. "I won't let him ruin my day because he'll never stops being a sissy." she thought and squinted her eyes. Her comrades got in their positions with outstretched wings and each one of them was ready to show them their flying skills.

Soarin stood in a distance to the racecourse and lifted his foreleg into the air. The atmosphere was as tense as the muscles of the pegasi. Fleetfoot felt her body shaking with adrenalin. Soarin finally threw his leg down and yelled "Go!"

The four pegasi shot through the air and they were all giving their best. Fleetfoot quickly found her rhythm between beating her wings, pulling them shortly to her body to reduce air drag and getting done with the next powerful flap. She kept her forelegs close to her body and only her hind legs were swinging slightly behind her. It was necessary to not hurt the others if she passes them or in case the ponies in front of her fall back.

In mere seconds they turned curve after curve. Fleetfoot looked quickly to her side. Wave Chill and Fire Streak were in front of her and Misty Fly only slightly behind her. Fire Streak tried to pass Wave Chill in the next curve and swung to the right. Fleetfoot took this chance and flew out of his wind shadow, passing him straight.

She only had one obstacle in front of her to surpass: Wave Chill. "I only have two rounds left. Darn." she thought under pressure. Wave Chill knew how persistent she was in beating him and didn't gave her any chance to do so.

They reached the last round and Fleetfoot decided to risk it. She would have to fly at top speed. Her neck breaking speed was something she was always proud of, even if it always cost her a lot of energy to do so, and even other Wonderbolts praised her from time to time for that. With all power she got in her wings she pushed herself to her limits and closed her eyes so they would stop burning from the sharp wind. They would reach the finish line soon. She managed to roll in midair, flew past him and shot forward.

As soon as she noticed, that the training race was over, she pushed her wings backwards so she could land safely. A few seconds later she felt ground under her hooves again. With shaking legs, she panted and felt the sweat sticking to her clothing again.

"Congratulations." she heard behind her. Fleetfoot turned around and saw Misty Fly and Fire Streak came to a hold. "You gave all you had." Misty Fly remarked with an honest smile.

Fleetfoot nodded and felt her body calm down. "Even if it's just training, we shouldn't goof around." She raised her muzzle high into the air.

"That's something new." Fire Streak said and rubbed his head.

Fleetfoot didn't knew what he wanted to tell her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we all know how much you love to win. We all love it, or else we wouldn't be here. But you never tried to achieve it so... aggressively. It's just training so be more relaxed." He ended his explanation with a chuckle.

Fleetfoot felt the looks of worry on her and turned her head away. "Stop looking at me like that." she muttered and her cheeks turning a dark-red shade. "We shouldn't take things too lax. What if we... run into some powerful, magical creatures again? And get our flanks handed to us because we are too weak to fight in the important moments?"

She looked from pony to pony. Fire Streak still rubbed his head and tried to understand her, and Misty Fly had the same, worried look on her face. But Soarin lowered his ears and turned his gaze to the ground.

"You were there, Soarin." Fleetfoot thought, looking with hope in her eyes to her ice-blue comrade. "If somepony understands me, it should be you."

The silence became uncomfortable for all of them. At last, Misty Fly turned to Fire Streak and said "And? Who came in fourth place?"

"Yes, it was that loud-mouthed pegasus in front of you." he said with an embarrassed smile. Misty Fly grinned and bopped him softly. It made Fleetfoot smile and her gaze softened. "That's one of the good things about Misty. She's never angry for too long."

Her smile fell away when she looked to Wave Chill, who was on his way to get his water bottle and leave the field. "Breakup or not." she thought and lifted her muzzle again with visible pride. "I'll never let him take me my pride."

"Hey, Soarin." she heard Fire Streak yell. "You still want to do that obstacle course?"

Soarin nodded and they both went for the door. "You can follow us, if you want!" Soarin cried to the others before they left.

Shortly after their leaving somepony else stepped through the door. Spitfire was on her way to them. Her eyebrows were lowered and her lips were pursed. Her appearance in her blue jacket told the pegasi, that she didn't came to chat or train.

Fleetfoot and Misty Fly stood straight and saluted, to show her the respect they owed her. Spitfire answered with a nod and both of them let their hooves fall down. The yellow pegasus looked at both of them and then at Wave Chill, who was still there and didn't seem to notice Spitfire's arrival. "Come here for a second." Spitfire called. Slowly he trotted to her and saluted as well, but with less energy behind it.

Luckily for him she had more important things on her mind. "I have a mission for you." she explained. Fleetfoot felt a rush through her body and suppressed a smile. "Get into your uniforms and come to my office. And hurry." she said and left them in a quick walk.

"Did something happened?" Fleetfoot asked Misty Fly, but she was as unknowingly as she was herself.

"We should do what the Captain ordered."

***

Only a few minutes later the three Wonderbolts stood in their blue and yellow uniforms in Spitfires office. Their goggles hang loosely above their eyes, they wouldn't need them until they started to fly. Like before they saluted and waited for an answer.

"We got a report that a group of Timberwolves was seen very close to Dodge Junction."

These news made Fleetfoot frown. "I thought they would only live in the Everfree Forest?"

"I know that." Spitfire replied without answering her question. Instead she went on with her explanation. "A group of experts, specialized on Timberwolves, is on the way there. But we were asked to control the borders of the Hayseed Swamps and lure the Timberwolves back there, if they should decide to go on more expeditions."

Spitfire leant back in her chair and looked at the three ponies. "I leave it to you how to decide, if you should see them out of the forest. But don't do anything reckless. As soon as the expert team arrives, I want you to come back and report to me."

"Shouldn't we protect the team instead of leaving them with the beasts?" Misty Fly asked, her voice sounded unsure.

"Don't worry about that, they know how to handle such situations." Spitfire said and took her glasses of her face.

The details of the mission were clear for Fleetfoot so she went for the door. She stopped dead in her track when she heard Wave Chill's words.

"I would request a different team." Wave Chill looked without any emotion at the captain.

Spitfire glared at him and raised skeptically an eyebrow. "What's wrong with the team?" she asked and didn't sound pleased.

"It would be better if we replace Fleetfoot with Soarin."

That took Fleetfoot's breath away. "And what's your problem with me?" she asked, grinding her teeth.

He barely looked at her while talking. "If we fight Timberwolves, we need somepony stronger."

"You claim that I'm weak?!"

"I'm not claiming anything. That's the truth. And it's not my problem, if you can't accept that."

"Truth?! When did I ever showed weakness?!"

"You forgot Tirek?"

Fleetfoot stepped back. It made even Spitfire cringe. She felt her eyes burning with tears, but she didn't allow herself to let any of them roll down her cheeks.

"No... that's not your problem." She shook her head and started to fight back, her voice raising in volume. "Your problem is that you can't get over your darn girlfriend! For Celestia's sake, I know that it hurts, but you run around and let your frustration out on anypo--"

She stopped as she realized something. "No, you only let your frustration out on ME! What is it, that bugs you so much about me?! Do I remind you of her?!"

This time it was Wave Chill who was taken aback. Before anymore words could be said Spitfire stood up. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" she scolded them and snarled. "I gave you a mission and I want you to do it. There is no place here for needless fights. Fleetfoot stays in the team."

She then turned to Misty Fly, who had stepped back and frowned at the fight of her friends. "Misty, I appoint you to be the leader on this mission. Make sure they don't kill each other on the way." Misty Fly nodded with hesitance.

Wave Chill snarled and stormed out of the room. "This will be fun." Fleetfoot muttered under her breath, and walked after him.

Author's Note:

Please rate/comment the story.

Also, there is a reason in the story for Fleetfoot to be overly proud, and for Wave Chill to be easily angered. I hinted it already in this chapter, but it will be explained later on.

Comments

[Manaphy]

I'll start out by saying that you have a wonderful idea and that I did give it an upvote, as I could tell you put a lot of effort into this story, which I appreciate. Fleetfoot is a character that could use more love, so it's nice to see her in the spotlight. I think you did a good job with the interactions between the different characters and they all appear to have distinctive personalities.

However, what keeps me from giving it a favorite is that the prose and grammar needs some work. Instead of telling us that Fleetfoot was sad, for example, you could show it by mentioning her body language, her muscles tightening, and so on. Those aren't the best examples, I must admit, and there's plenty of room to experiment and it can give the reader a better insight into the characters. Try reading some of your favorite, highly rated fics on the site and see how they construct their prose. Try not to emulate it, but study how the author shows a character's emotions and behaviors. It will add to your writing as a result.

Lastly, I'd recommend getting a proofreader, as there were a number of grammar mistakes. They didn't detract from the story too much, but you should be careful with them and having clean grammar can make a story's presentation better. Here's a group that specializes with writers asking for people to proofread their rough drafts.

Looking for Editors

Anyway, I hope some of my advice helped. Don't give up, as you have a great idea and a story waiting to be told. With practice and polish, you'll start to improve bit by bit and this story and future stories you write will become even better. I wish you the best of luck.

[ChocolateFan25]

5841921
Thanks for your nice words and your help. I really appreciate it.

I checked the story a couple of times to be sure it would be free of errors. Well, translating a story sounded easier to me than it is. But you're right, I should start looking for an editor. Also, I thought I would needlessly expand the story by writing every single time how their bodies react to each emotion. But on second thought, it would make the story better to read.

Well, I'm glad you sort of liked the first chapter.

[Manaphy]

5843742 You're welcome. I wish you the best of luck on this story and any future stories you write.