• Published 26th Apr 2015
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Wonderbolt Trials and Tribulations - White Comet



Rainbow Dash finally gets the opportunity of a lifetime; a chance to join the Wonderbolts and fulfill her lifelong dream. She presumes that from this point on, it'll be smooth sailing. She was wrong...

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Chapter 1

The cold morning wind rushed through Rainbow Dash’s fur as she flew through the skies on the outskirts of Cloudsdale. The altitude providing a fresh scent, coupled with the breeze, cleared her sinuses well. Luna’s moon was only just beginning to make way for Celestia’s sun. Rainbow Dash had left early, way too early, but she had good reason to.

When her lifelong dream was the reason, there was no such thing as too early. All these years she has spent countless hours, and accomplished so much in the process. She had graduated from the Wonderbolt Academy, and also managed to secure herself a spot in the Wonderbolts reserve. Now, she had been given the opportunity of a lifetime.

A chance to get into the Wonderbolts full time. When the invite came through her letterbox months ago, she had to dart around the different rooms in her house a few times before she could even open it. She hasn’t been able to shut up about it to her friends ever since she got it.

She flew over a cloud and there it was. She remembered the route from when she went to the Wonderbolt Academy. Although this time, the tests will be A LOT more intensive. When it was over, there was only going to be 3 winners. She didn’t know how many would be turning up, as it was an invitation only event, but she’s heard stories about previous years where there was over a hundred.

She touched down on the entrance to the complex and pushed through the double doors. She was already familiar with the inside. It was a very large room that acted as a waiting room as well as reception. The theme for the building was very ‘blue’, obviously with it being in the sky and the fact that the Wonderbolts main colour scheme was blue.

She walked over to the reception desk where there was a pony with glasses sorting through a lot of papers. She noticed Rainbow Dash walking towards her as she was only a few hooves away. “Can I help you?” She asked. She was slightly older than middle-aged, and it showed in her voice.

Rainbow Dash shook her head as she returned to reality. The shock that she was actually here doing this was still catching up to her. “Um, I’m here for the Wonderbolts tryouts,” she said, still looking around and not at the mare.

The mare smiled and picked up a clipboard. Rainbow Dash’s attention turned back to her and she noticed paperwork, which she presumed that she would have to sign. She groaned under her breath as the mare went through it. There was loads of sheets of paper on that clipboard, would she have to read them all?

The mare flicked through to just before midway. “Rainbow Dash, isn’t it?” She still remembered Rainbow Dash from the Wonderbolt Academy. You don’t forget a rainbow mane with an attitude like hers too easily.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Dash replied, grinning as she felt a bit warm that she remembered her.

The mare ticked a box on the paper then put down the clipboard. “Alright, you’re signed in. I just need you to go through this paperwork then sign at the bottom for me.” She said as she drew out a bunch of papers from an open drawer at the bottom of her desk. It only appeared to be about 10 sheets or so.

Rainbow Dash pulled the papers towards her, but something hit her mind just before she wrote. That list on the clipboard was just the list of pegasi who were going to be here? There must be at least 200 pegasi invited if that’s the case.

She started reading through the papers. Most of it was just the standard waiver stuff. Health and safety and all that, nothing that Dash really cared about. It was common practice for her to toss paperwork to the wind.

As she neared the bottom of the final page, there was a line break and then in big bold writing it said ‘PLEASE RETURN TO RECEPTION’. As she passed it back to the mare on reception, she managed to read the first thing that she had to read the first thing she had to mark, which said ‘confirmation that candidate’s luggage is within established parameters’.

As the mare took it, she took a peak over the desk at what Rainbow Dash was carrying. She was wearing a saddle bag with a bag that went over each side. The mare was quite surprised to not see a suitcase, but she didn’t question it.

It took her less than a minute to sign everything else off, then went off into the backroom to get Rainbow Dash a few things. She emerged with a towel, a water bottle, and, the thing that caught Rainbow Dash’s attention the most, the flight suit. It was a genuine Wonderbolt flight suit instead of the trainee one she had at the academy. She was also handed a key for the room she was assigned to. It was just a key with a wooden keyring with the number ‘13’ engraved into it.

She walked down the corridor to drop her stuff off. The corridor was very long and ran near the edge of the building. There were doors on either side, odd numbers on the left, even numbers on the right. She walked down until she reached number 13, where she unlocked the door and walked in.

Inside, there was 8 beds, split in a 4 by 2 fashion up the room. There was a couple of meters clearance between each bed. Each bed was accompanied with a nightstand with a desktop lamp on it. She noticed that each bed had 2 pillows on it. Not a luxury they had the last time she was here. She patted her hoof on the pillows on the bed closest to her, and they were extremely soft. She did the same with the bed and the mattress. They had definitely made more of an investment in their cadet’s living spaces.

She slowly trotted down the middle of the room, eyeing up the beds and deciding which one she would like to pick, seeing as there was no obvious claim to any other bed. She walked down to the end of the room and examined the last bed on the left. She thought about it, but decided it was too close to the bathroom, so she went for the last bed on the right instead.

She threw her saddle bag onto the bed to claim it as hers and walked out of the room. She didn’t bother unpacking yet, as she didn’t really have anything to unpack. She always travelled lightly.

She walked back to the waiting room and…well, waited. She had lots of time to kill. There was a few ponies in the room, engaged in conversations, and there was a slow line beginning to form at reception, indicating things were picking up.

Rainbow Dash, however, was in her own world, thinking about the prize she’d always dreamed of and what she needed to do to achieve it. She knew that this would be no walk in the park, but she wasn’t sure how far from it it would be. They were going to be given trials that include training routines that the Wonderbolts use on a daily basis. Although she was psyched that they wouldn’t be holding anything back, there was still something bothering her that was lingering in the back of her mind. Sure, she was Rainbow Dash, radiator of pure skill and awesomeness, but bottom line, she’d never attempted anything officially licensed by the Wonderbolts before. Sure, she’d tried some of the things that she’d heard them talk about before, even on the rare occasions where she’s been able to speak to them, but there would be trials in there that she’d never even seen before, since they don’t keep everything about their training public. They wouldn’t be the best if they revealed their secrets after all.

“This seat taken?”

She was suddenly broken out of her deep thought by the voice of a stallion close by, that sounded like it was being directed at her. She looked to her left to see a cobalt blue stallion with a teal coloured combed-over mane standing next to her. He appeared to be younger than her.

She motioned with her hoof to the chair next to her, “knock yourself out.”

The stallion sat down next to her and extended his hoof, “Frostbite.”

Rainbow Dash smiled and bumped her hoof against his, “Rainbow Dash.”

Frostbite laid back in his seat, “So where you from, Rainbow Dash?” He spoke in a very carefree tone.

“Born in Cloudsdale, moved to Ponyville,” she replied. “You?”

“Born in Canterlot, lived there my whole life. Hopefully living here once this is over and I’m declared the winner.” He suddenly switched to a very egotistical tone on his last sentence.

Rainbow Dash was about to respond in a similar manner, but since he hadn’t questioned her ability, she decided to leave it be. She wanted to let her actions do the talking, and save the trash-talking for when it was needed. “Well, good luck to ya.”

The clock continued to tick as more and more ponies entered. Sometimes, Rainbow Dash would hear conversations suddenly turn when a well-known Pegasus entered the room. There was only about 10 minutes to the 9AM time they were told to meet at. Rainbow Dash overheard a lot of ponies change their topic of conversation. As she put the pieces of all the different ones she heard around the room together, she could hear that they were talking about a stallion. There seemed to be a little more chatter about this stallion this time though.

She turned her head towards the reception desk and saw the stallion in question walking over. He had a white coat and a black swept back mane, and his cutie mark was 2 chequered flags crossed over. He didn’t look like anything special. He seemed to ignore everypony else and just went to sit down.

As the clock entered the last minute, the anticipation was slowly getting to the better of Rainbow Dash, causing her to fidget in her seat. Although nopony really noticed as they all felt the same. The conversations had almost come to a complete stop by now.

“Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything.” A voice that Rainbow Dash recognised all too well entered the room. Out of a corridor straight in front of her stood Spitfire, followed by Soarin and Fleetfoot. “Looks like a full house. This is the first year we’ve had everypony we’ve sent an invite to turn up…”

She began walking through the aisles of the sat ponies. Dash had got a front row seat, and as their eyes locked, she almost wanted to greet Spitfire like they were old pals, but she thought better of it. She simply gave a small smile and nod.

Spitfire smirked back at her. “Well, good to see some old faces again. This program is mostly comprised of cadets and reservists anyway…although we have sent out some more invites to those we considered worthy. Let me be the first to say welcome aboard for a wild ride.”

She marched across the left side of the room, then as she saw a certain pony, she stopped in her tracks. A second later, her stride became a lot more casual as she walked up to the white Pegasus. “Well, it only took you 4 years to respond to our invitation, Comet.”

The Pegasus, who Spitfire identified as Comet, stood in front of her, chuckling as he stood up, a slight smile forming across his face. “It’s not my fault you time it so badly every year. I’ve been busy when you’ve been running it for the past 4 years.”

Spitfire chuffed, “if you weren’t, would you have come?”

He flicked his head away, “probably not.”

Everypony was in absolute shock about how casually he was taking this, especially Rainbow Dash. He must’ve known the Wonderbolts previously, it’s the only way he could be talking to Spitfire so casually. And he was invited 4 years in a row and didn’t go to a single one? Rainbow Dash would trade her soul for this opportunity, and he just batted it out the window like it was nothing? The mere thought of it made her tense up, but she didn’t know the reason he was busy, so she didn’t hold it against him for too long.

Spitfire tilted her head. “Why not? Why now?” She questioned.

Comet looked back at Spitfire, taking a deep breath as he turned his head. His brow furrowed, taking on a more serious look. “I just want to make this clear to you now that my intention in coming this time around is not to join the Wonderbolts. All I’m here to do is better my technique as a flyer. Whether you offer me a position on the Wonderbolts or not at the end, it doesn’t bother me.”

Spitfire chuckled, “some things never change, huh Comet? You always talk about technique, but if you spent more time with your head in the sky rather than in the books, you’d probably would’ve already been a Wonderbolt.”

“Although it would be a personal accomplishment for me, I feel like I cannot progress to the Wonderbolts until I have completed my current goals.”

“Oh, so you haven’t gotten bored of flying around in circles all day yet? There’s only so much racing you can do, Comet. Racing is completely different from air shows and combat, which is what we’re going to be specializing in here, so I don’t know what you would gain if you don’t intend to join.”

Racing? Rainbow Dash was suddenly able to put a name to his face. His name was White Comet, and he was quite a well-known racer, but not the derby types of races that were all official and had all the sponsors. His style of racing was circuit racing, which was rapidly gaining more of a following in Equestria. The main difference being it had turns that went right as well as left, and it had altitude changes. They are still considered controversial, as the racers normally move cloud formations around to make the tracks, which has been known to screw up the weather patterns in Equestria on a number of occasions.

A small smirk quickly formed across White Comet’s face, as if he’d just found the perfect response, then he returned to his straight face. “The reason you don’t know is the reason you’ll never beat me, Spitfire.”

If Rainbow Dash’s jaw could drop off her face and hit the floor, it would. She almost fell off the edge of her seat. Everypony else was also in shock from what they were witnessing. Even Soarin’ seemed to be taken aback by his comment. Rainbow Dash knew what was coming up, as she'd seen it firsthoof at the Academy of what happens when you trash-talk Spitfire.

The room remained silent for about 10 seconds before Spitfire responded with a “humph.” She sharply turned around 180 degrees, almost flicking White Comet with her tail in the process. “Touché,” she said as she walked back towards the front.

Wait…Spitfire was AGREEING with him!? Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe this. She’d seen Spitfire’s ‘on duty’ personality before and she wouldn’t take this kind of crap from anypony. Who was this stallion?

“Alright, let’s get down to business.” As Spitfire spoke, Soarin’ and Fleetfoot joined her by her side. “I just want to remind you again that this isn’t one of our regular tryouts. This is the biggest tryout we have ever held, and the prize is not something we hand out easily. There’s 200 odd of you, and only 3 spots available. We’re slowly going to wear those numbers down week by week until we have ourselves a top 8. Those fortunate enough to make it that far will battle it out for the 3 positions, then we will pick who joins us. We’ll thin the numbers out slowly each day. I bet by now you’re wondering why this process is taking so long when these tests could be completed in a matter of days. Well, you’re right. We could easily do this in a matter of days. But we’re looking for consistency. We want to make sure that what you do isn’t just a one-off stroke of luck. Don’t worry, they’ll still be some variety in the schedules. The last thing we want you to do is get bored and your performance suffers.”

She paused for a moment, examining the faces of the ponies she was speaking to, making sure everything she was saying was sinking in. “I guess that just about sums up everything I wanted to say. For today, we advise that you use it to become familiar with the facilities. Those of you that have been here before will probably recognise it, but there has been some changes since last time. You’re also going to be allowed access to areas you weren’t previously, meaning you’ll most likely bump into us on your travels. Feel free to approach us and ask us anything you want…within reason…that’s all I wanted to say, so be sure to think about what I said. Dismissed.” She turned to the corridor with Soarin and Fleetfoot in tow and disappeared down it.

Everypony stood from their seats and resumed talking to each other. Rainbow Dash didn’t take any notice of anypony else, as no one approached her. She just had her mind set on following Spitfire’s instructions. She already knew her way around roughly, so her plan was to just walk around to build up a mental picture.

She took her time walking around. She walked down the corridor where her assigned room was and continued down it until she came out the other side. There, she came to a junction with one arrow pointing right and one pointing left. The one pointing right said ‘GYM’ and the one pointing left said ‘MESS HALL’.

She headed right towards the gym. She pushed through her double doors into the gym. The gym was an incredibly large open-planned area. Various exercise equipment was placed down the right side of the gym, and there was an extremely large sports hall at the back. There was also an area sectioned off with a sign above the door that said ‘POOL’.

‘That’s new,’ Rainbow Dash thought to herself. She didn’t consider herself a very strong swimmer, and it was one of the last things she expected to be doing during her time here.

She took a quick glance inside, the scent of chlorinated water hitting her nostrils as soon as she opened the door. It was a very large pool, and it looked quite new. It had 3 diving boards at the deep end. There was a couple of Jacuzzi’s around the left side of the pool for relaxing in. Rainbow Dash tried to estimate the size, but found her answer as her eyes scanned across a sign on the left hand wall.

LENGTH: 164 FEET
DEPTH: PROGRESSES TO 20 FEET AT DEEPEST POINT

‘That’s pretty deep…’ she thought to herself, wondering if she’d be asked to do any swimming. A few Pegasi barged past her to take a closer look themselves, a couple of them messing around and pretending to shove each other into the pool.

Dash chuckled and continued on her way through her own little guided tour she was making herself. She proceeded back the way she came and went to the mess hall. It looked pretty basic, much the way she remembered it. Cheap plastic chairs and wooden rectangular tables that held a max of about 8 per table. The kitchen was behind a shutter where the food would be served during their meal times. A fair few ponies had congregated in the area, exchanging stories.

She gave herself a quick once-over of other areas she was unfamiliar with, then returned to her room, noticing that it had been unlocked. She pushed through and stepped into it. Inside, she found that all the beds had been occupied.

“HEEEEY!” Two male voices that sounded almost identical sounded from either side of her in the first two beds.

She glanced at the one on the left, then the other on the right. There were two stallions sitting on the edge of each bed. The one on the right had a grey coat with a lime green scruffy-looking mane.

“I’m Horizon!” She suddenly heard in her left ear, causing her to look that way. The stallion from the left had moved to within inches of her without her even noticing. He had orange fur and a turquoise mane. He had the same scruffy look to his mane, but his bunched up and poofed out more.

“I’m Crash Dive!” A voice suddenly bellowed in her right ear. She noticed that the other stallion had just done the same thing, only inches away from her.

“Umm…hey there…” She replied, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “Name's Rainbow Dash.”

“Called it!” Crash Dive announced and gave a sly look to Horizon, extending his hoof.

Horizon sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine, you win,” he said as he tossed some bits into Crash Dives extended hoof.

“Wait, you guys were betting on my name?” Rainbow Dash said with a slight chuckle.

“Sort of. I said you name would have ‘Rainbow’ somewhere in it--”

“But I didn’t,” Horizon added,

“so we had a little bet. And I won!” Crash Dive announced as he punched their air in victory, taunting Horizon with his bits.

Dash chuckled nervously. “You two seem to--”

“finish each other’s--”

“sentences?” Crash Dive then Horizon replied.

“Uhh…yeah.” Rainbow Dash replied. ‘What the hell is up with these guys?’

“We get that a lot.” Crash Dive replied, shrugging.

“It’s what happens when you’ve got the best duo in the world right here!” Horizon said proudly, then grabbed Crash Dive with his wing and pulled him over to him, striking a pose. “Brothers in arms…or wings, at the moment…”

“That’s what I’m talking about, bro! We’re gonna knock this one outta the park!” Crash Dive replied as he shifted into his own pose like Horizon.

“Fuck yeah,” Horizon replied as he looked at Crash Dive. “Do we look cool?” He whispered.

“Totally,” Crash Dive replied as he raised his hoof up.

“Boo-yah,” Horizon replied in a gruff tone as he bumped his hoof against Crash Dive’s.

Rainbow Dash was struggling not to snicker from the cheesy ‘performance’ they just put on. “So, you guys are brothers?”

“Twins actually,” they both replied at the same time.

“Although not sure how Mom pushed your fat ass out.” Crash Dive commented.

“You what!?” Horizon scowled at his brother whilst grabbing him around the neck. “Dem’s fightin’ words!” He suddenly dived onto him as the two of them got in a scrap on the floor.

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she walked around them. “Oh boy…this is gonna be a riot…it’s like watching a Pinkie Pie double act…”

She walked on, looking at the 2nd line of beds. On her left, she saw a stallion with a copper coat and a spikey navy blue and ruby coloured mane, with each spike switching colours. He was unpacking his things.

She continued her trot down the aisle before stopping directly in front of his bed, but still remaining in the middle of the room. “Hey there,” said in a friendly tone.

The stallion did not acknowledge her greeting and continued about his business.

Her smile quickly dissolved into a frown. She moved a few steps closer to his bed and tried again. “My name is Rainbow Dash. What’s yours?”

“I heard,” was the only response she got in a deep, gruff voice. “Call me Torque.”

“Kinda ironic for a pony who doesn’t ‘TALK’ very much!” Crash Dive suddenly appeared to sprout from his bag with his forelegs open wide and mile-long toothy smile stretching from corner to corner of his mouth.

*BA-DUM TISS*

Rainbow Dash, along with her roomates, covered their ears at that sound. She was pretty sure that most of the adjacent rooms heard it too. She looked over her shoulder to find Horizon sitting at a drum kit. She could still see the cymbal vibrating.

‘Where…where did he get that drum kit…?’ Dash quickly let the question leave her mind, as she learned not to question the randomness from being friends with Pinkie Pie for a number of years.

Torque gave Crash Dive a death stare. “You have exactly 3 seconds to leave my space.” He maintained his stare as he moved it onto Rainbow Dash, “you too.”

’Wow…rude…’ Rainbow Dash wasn’t even in his ‘space’. She was standing at least a pace away from the end of his bed.

She suddenly felt two hooves grab her around the chest. “Don’t worry, Babe, I’ll save you!”

All of a sudden, she was yanked backwards hard and into the air, the breath being forced from her lungs. Her natural reaction was to extend her wings, but whoever was grabbing her prevented her from doing that.

She landed on something surprisingly soft. It didn’t take her long to realise that she landed in the bed opposite to Torque. She looked to her left to see an orange stallion, about a shade darker than Scootaloo, with a long brown mane that covered his eyes slightly. It looked like something you’d expect from a problematic rebellious high school teenager, but not from a fully grown Stallion. Dash had to blink to confirm that she wasn’t imagining his size. He was huge!

“Welp, looks like Riptide saves the day again!” He announced, then looked down at Dash, glancing back and forth down to the bed, then up at her. “Well, looks like you ended up in my bed. You’re one lucky mare…whaddya say we give our roomies here a show, huh?” He wiggled his eyebrows and his mouth slowly formed a grin.

“Yeah, how ‘bout no,” Rainbow Dash replied bluntly as she deliberately pushed off him to get herself out of his bed. ‘Great, my knight in shining armour…’ she thought sarcastically.

“You got it babe! It takes two to tango,” He said and winked at her, but she wasn’t looking anyway.

‘Creep…’ She walked along to the bed next to hers to find a grey mare with a blue mane. It was a very bright blue, and it looked very strange on her dark coat. She had it combed over so that it covered her right eye. Her cutie mark was an eye with a puzzle piece as the pupil. She was writing in a book. It just had a black cover and nothing to really identify what it was.

“Hey there,” Dash introduced herself to the mare that she would be sleeping next to.

“Hey.” She replied in a flat, emotionless tone.

“Uh, my name is Rainbow Dash,” she was trying her hardest to keep the conversation afloat.

“That’s nice.” The mare replied in the same flat tone.

‘Not another one…’ Rainbow Dash could feel herself cringing, but kept a straight face. “What’s yours?”

“Bright Skies.” She replied in, yet again, the same tone.

“Oh. Nice…” ‘Kinda ironic considering her colours…’ Rainbow Dash noticed the book she was writing in. “Uh, nice book you got there. What you writing?”

“A book.” Was all that Rainbow Dash got in response.

She felt like facehoofing and walking away, but Rainbow Dash didn’t give too easily. “Uh, what kind of book?”

“A story.”

“Oh, so you’re an author? That’s awesome. Can I take a read?” Rainbow Dash didn’t really want to, but she felt like she had to do something to try and get her to come out of her shell. Besides, she remembered the last time she tried to read a book, and that didn’t turn out so bad.

“Sure,” Bright Skies replied, but just continued to write.

Dash extended her hoof, expecting her to hand her the book once she finished her sentence. But she just stood there for about 10 seconds. She tilted her head in confusion. “Um…can I read it?”

“Sure. When it’s published.” Bright Skies replied.

The frustration of trying to talk to this mare eventually got to Rainbow Dash, and she let a forced exhale leave her nose, causing a faint hiss as she exhaled.

“Well, you got further than I did.” Another mare’s voice came from behind Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash turned and began slowly trotting over in the direction that the voice came from. On the bed opposite Bright Skies, a mare was sitting on the edge unpacking her things. She had a coat like Twilight’s, but more purple than lavender. Her mane was styled like Dash’s, but cut a lot shorter. She had a red and white striped mane, with the stripes running along in the direction of her body. Her cutie mark was a tornado.

Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously as she approached her. “Yeeeaahh…”

She stopped organising her things to face Rainbow Dash. “I’m Dahila, I’m from Fillydelphia. Nice to see some competition here, Rainbow Dash. I heard about your little Sonic Rainboom stunt.”

“Oh, that,” Rainbow Dash batted her hoof at the comment, “that’s nothing. I’ve got plenty more where that came from.”

“I bet you have. I’d watch, but it’s difficult watching ponies lagging behind you.” She said as she raised her head high.

“Haha. Hahahaha.” Dash let out a few sarcastic chuckles. “I like your style, Dahila. You can talk the trash, but can you put your wings where your mouth is.”

Dahila stood up and fired a competitive glare straight into Rainbow Dash’s eyes. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” She extended her hoof.

“Oh, it’s on alright!” Rainbow Dash replied as she bumped her hoof against Dahila’s. She did a sharp 180 degree turn and flicked Dahila’s cheek with her tail. “Hope you like this view, ‘cause it’s all you’re gonna see.”

“Sweet, I love that view!” Dash got an unexpected response from Riptide, who was sticking a few small A4 sized posters up to the wall behind his bed. They were of a Wonderbolt photoshoot, where Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Surprise and Misty Fly had been modelling bathing suits. They all had the wet mane look to them and were staring into the camera with bedroom style eyes. As he stuck each one up, he paused for about 10 seconds to admire them.

‘Dream on…’ Dash shook her head as she made her way over to her bed. She grabbed her saddle bag and started to unpack her things. As she was unpacking, she looked over at the bed opposite of hers. Sitting on the side of the bed was a certain white stallion with a black mane. He had put on a pair of glasses and was reading a book.

Rainbow Dash decided that now was just a good a time as any other. She paused what she was doing and walked over to him. “Hey, there’s a few things I wanna ask you?” She didn’t even introduce herself. She noticed that he was reading a physics book.

White Comet stopped reading and looked up to his right at her. “What is it?”

She walked on over next to him, “How do you know Spitfire so well? And why did you decline the other offers you’ve had in previous years?”

He put the book down and took off his glasses, folding them up and placing them on top of the book. “Spitfire and I lived on the same block growing up. Although we shared the same dream of flight, it went in different directions. I’m only interested in pure speed and efficiency in getting from A to B. She was more interested in the stunts and combat side of things. We didn’t talk to each other for quite some time when we went to separate ways, but now I’m starting to get more and more pegasi interested in circuit racing, we’ve been talking some more.” He spoke in a very clear and concise manner, indicating that he was confident in what he was talking about.

“If it’s only racing that interests you, why are you here trying for the Wonderbolts?” This was a question that Spitfire already asked, but Rainbow Dash was seeking a more meaningful explanation.

“My interest here isn’t in joining the Wonderbolts. My reason for being here is simply to improve my flying technique. Whether I become a Wonderbolt or not at the end of it is irrelevant. All my aim to do is to make it to the end of this course, and I believe that I will have more refined technique by the end of it. I know it all sounds a little confusing, but as I said to Spitfire, if you never understand it, you’ll never beat me.”

“Uhh…that’s cool…I guess…” ‘Too many big words…my brain hurts…’ “I’m a weather pony in Ponyville, and I know that ‘racers’ like you screw up our weather patterns more often than not to make your courses. Do you think you can carry on like that? One day you’re gonna screw up the weather so badly you could get somepony killed.”

White Comet shrugged, “you’re standing beside me at the moment getting ready to undergo a test to become a Wonderbolt. Don’t try and tell me you don’t love the sensation of adrenalin.”

Rainbow Dash had no response to that as it was true. She loved the adrenalin rush she got from flying fast, and she could see where he was going with this.

“Until somepony designs a solution, we’re just gonna keep doing what we’re doing.”

“Well…I guess I can’t argue with that…” Rainbow Dash replied. “I can’t wait to see what you’re capable of tomorrow, Comet.”

“Likewise, Rainbow Dash. I’ve heard great things about you. I wanna see everything you’ve got.”

Rainbow Dash grinned, “then you won’t be disappointed.” She held her hoof up to him.

White Comet bumped his hoof against Rainbow Dash’s. “If you’d like a demonstration, I’d be more than willing to show you later on, since we have nothing better planned.”

A smirk suddenly crossed Rainbow Dash’s face. “Is that a challenge, White Comet?”

White Comet returned her smirk, “I don’t consider this a challenge. Merely a friendly competition and a chance to learn something before the real competition begins.”

‘If he’s gonna put it so damn politely, how can I refuse?’ Dash thought, “alright, I’m in. What about right now? We’re not doing anything, and won’t be until tomorrow.”

White Comet picked up his book and glasses. “Well, I would like to finish reading, then sleep. How about 4PM, just before dinner?”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but let out a snort. “Sleep? Really? I know we had to be here early, but you don’t look that tired.”

White Comet tapped his head, “a machine only works as fast as its slowest component. Something I’m sure you’ll understand soon enough.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t understand what he was trying to say, so she just nodded and went along with it. “Heh. Alright, I’ll see you there. The outside training ground right?”

“Of course,” White Comet replied.

“Great,” Rainbow Dash said as she turned around. She headed back to her bed and to her things. She didn’t really take a lot with her. She had the latest Daring Do book with her in case she found herself with nothing to do. She had a small amount of wing care products, but she wasn’t really one to cover her wings in massive amounts of products, no matter what wonders they did on her feathers. She was happy to stick with the basics, and good old fashioned preening. She had bought along a framed picture of her and her friends for motivation. She placed it atop the nightstand. She had a few more things, but nothing major.

She did another tour of the building before heading down to the mess hall for some lunch. After grabbing herself a plate, she went and saw some of her Ponyville friends sitting in a table. Derpy immediately noticed her and motioned for her to come and join them.

Not being invited to any other table, Dash walked over and took the last free seat alongside Derpy and Thunderlane. “Hey guys,” she began.

“I must’ve missed you earlier, Dash.” Thunderlane said as he went for another bite.

“I guess we must’ve passed each other at some point without even realising it.” She said with a chuckle. “I didn’t see you earlier either, Derpy.”

“Oh.” Derpy looked away and brushed her mane. “I kinda messed up my timings a bit. I was signing in just as Spitfire started talking.”

Rainbow Dash nodded in acknowledgement, this being something that she would expect from Derpy.

She didn’t even know that they were coming, so she was quite surprised to see them. They had a good discussion about what had happened so far, exchanging stories about their roommates and other things. Since they hadn’t seen each other for a while, they discussed what was going on back home prior to them coming here.

After lunch, Rainbow headed back into her room. Apart from Torque and White Comet, everypony else was out. Torque was lying on his bed, looking very mopey, but in deep thought. Although his posture didn’t show it, his eyes looked wide awake. Dash tried to talk to him, but he just grunted and turned the other way. ‘Seriously, what’s this guy’s problem!?’

She walked to the end and, as he said, White Comet was sleeping. Pretty soundly at that, since he wasn’t snoring. Or at least she presumed it was soundly, as he obviously wasn’t awoken by somepony drawing on his face. In a black marker, somepony, or someponies, had crudely drawn a moustache and a monacle around his right eye. Although the crème de la crème of the whole artpiece was the giant penis they had drawn on his forehead. Rainbow Dash let the beginning of a snort escape, but quickly covered her mouth with her hoof to prevent herself from waking him up.

There was a yellow post-it note stuck between his eyes. Dash lent in to read it.

Don’t worry, it washes off with water.

-Horizon and Crash Dive
-Hey, don’t drag me into this! It was all you!?
-Shut up, you were the one that drew the dick!
-Oh, come on!

Dash could see that the argument went onto the other side of the note, but she couldn’t bring her head down at a low enough angle to read it. At least not without it looking awkward and creepy.

She smiled and shook her head, deciding to let him rest and walked over to her bed. She still had difficulty getting her head around the fact that a pony could sleep so nonchalantly in the middle of the day. Sure, she took naps for around half an hour to an hour now and again, but this guy was committed to sleeping for hours! Rainbow Dash had far too much energy for that long of a nap.

She headed down to the gym about an hour prior to their little competition to prepare. She didn’t do much, as she didn’t want to tire herself out. Mainly, she just wanted to experiment with the equipment they had down there. She considered going for a swim, but thought better of it, as it would take too long to clean afterwards. She didn’t want to be flying around stinking of chlorine.

She took extra care not to tire herself out too much, and eventually 4PM came around. She headed out the back towards the outside area. To get to it, she had to walk down a short corridor which had locker rooms for mares and stallions on either side. When she pushed through the door on the other side, she was greeted by the lowered sun, due to it being late in the afternoon. The area didn’t seem to have any limits, since it was the sky after all, but there was a big long billboard that said ‘configurations’ at the top, and showed different designs of the track that were available.

“I thought that was you walking past.” A familiar voice said behind her.

Rainbow Dash turned around to face him. “So you were waiting in the locker room?”

“I was just doing some light reading whilst I was warming up to get my head in the game. This should be a fun experiment for us, Rainbow Dash. Before we start, I want to make it clear that I don’t consider this a race. This is for fun only. Agreed?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Rainbow Dash replied. She didn’t need to be told what type of ‘race’ it would be, all she needed to know was who she needed to beat. “So which one of these configurations are we using?”

“This one right here,” he pointed at the forth one down on the list. “It has a nice altitude variation and a mix of low and high speed turns. Something that should exploit our strengths and weaknesses fully.” He smiled, “and according to this, this is the layout it’s currently set to, and I don’t really feel like rearranging clouds.”

Dash smiled in response, “I agree with ya there. Alright, let’s get to it.” She hopped into the air, reaching the peak altitude her legs could provide, then extending her wings. White Comet held back a smirk, then followed her.

They flew other to the start line. The track was setup in a point to point type race, with cloud barriers on either side and a small line of clouds above and below to form a line to help them see when the altitude changed.

“Ready to eat my dust?” Rainbow Dash shot at White Comet as she took her position on the start line.

“We’ll wait and see,” he replied as he took position to the left her. “It depends if you can stay within eyesight of me.”

“Eyesight? Dude, I’ll have you within the first four corners!” She threw right back at him.

“Alright,” he knelt down into his starting position. “Whaddya say we let out wings do the talking? Since it was technically me that challenged you, you can go ahead and do the honours.”

Rainbow Dash looked straight ahead and her eyes narrowed as she imagined her start. “Three.” She knelt down to give herself a better push off. “Two.”

White Comet sighed as he relaxed into his position. He had his eyes closed, but his right ear was primed and pointed in her direction, waiting for her command.

“One.”

His eyes slowly opened up as he braced himself for the oncoming command.

“GO!”

They both shot off the line, leaving a big breeze behind them. Rainbow Dash took the leading heading into the first corner, a long sweeping right turn. She didn’t have to adjust her speed too much, but still entered it cautiously, as the last thing she wanted to do was head into the outside wall.

Coming out of the turn, she still had the lead. At the exit of the turn, the course began to head upwards. Rainbow Dash pumped her wings harder to compensate for gravity trying to pull her back down.

She glanced back for a second to see that she was pulling away, but didn’t have too long to think about at as she was rapidly approaching the next corner. A left hander. She wanted to attack at full speed, but she wasn’t familiar with this course. She was worried that it might turn out to be a tighter turn that she expected. But then again, this course was also new to White Comet. He was probably thinking the same thing as her.

With that in mind, she took another quick glance back before beginning her deceleration for the corner. She angled her left wing downwards slightly to make herself list a few degrees to the left. This compromised her speed slightly, as she had sacrificed a bit of upward force for a bit of turning force. However, she would be able to maintain a higher speed through the turn thanks to this.

She rounded the turn, which turned out to be a 90 degree left hander, and accelerated back out. She levelled off then took another look behind her. She was still pulling away from White Comet. She looked back forward and shook her head, smirking slightly.

She ran a few more corners before the course started to level out. Since they were no longer climbing, she relaxed a little bit, since she didn’t need as much force to propel herself at the same velocity. She looked back at White Comet, who had maintained a distance behind her of about 10 meters. Either he picked up the pace a notch or she had just relaxed on the level section since she could afford to. She was still in the lead either way, so she didn’t put too much thought into it.

After the next 2 corners, the course began to descend. ‘We’re going downhill, so this must be the final section.’ Knowing that the end was near, Rainbow Dash gave her wings a pump, but she couldn’t quite make the same power output due to her fatigue.

She attacked the first downhill corner head on, knowing that she didn’t have far to go. She almost ended up with a face full of cloud, brushing her body gently against the outside wall.

As she straightened herself out, she felt a change in back pressure behind her. She glanced back to find White Comet so close behind her he could almost bite her tail. Her eyes went wide as she saw him, then she looked forward again to concentrate on the course. ‘Crap, he’s right on my ass! How the hell did he cover that much ground so quickly!?’ She pumped her wings as hard as she could, but her energy was fading. ‘And since this section is downhill, the difference in wing power doesn’t matter as much…crap…I’m starting to get the feeling I flew right into a trap the moment I took the lead at the start…’

Since this part was downhill, she could vaguely see what was coming up. ‘A slight right followed by a sharp left, I’m gonna need to slow down big time for this one, otherwise that swing back around for the left is gonna throw me right into the clouds.’’

Rainbow Dash tried to get the widest entry possible to save her energy. She spotted her braking point and began decelerating, her muscles complaining as the force of the wind against her feathers strained them.

She looked right to turn it, but then all of a sudden, a dash of black and white flew past her vision. ‘What’s he doing!? There’s no room between the exit of this corner and the entry to the next! If he doesn’t slow down now, he’ll be into the clouds!’

As he passed her, she noticed that he was doing something weird with his legs. He was pointing his hind legs towards the outside of the corner, and his forelegs towards the inside. It almost looked as if he was flying sideways.

As they came out of the right and into the left, Rainbow Dash saw his wings flare out in the normal braking fashion. She prepared to watch him eat cloud. ‘That idiot! There’s no room to slow down, he’s going straight into the cloud barrier!’

Suddenly, he pulled his front hooves over to the left whilst throwing his hind legs out to the right. His body rolled to the left at an almost 90 degree angle.

“Woah!” Rainbow Dash almost lost her composure at the move, since she wasn’t expecting it. All she had to do was blink and he’d already cleared the corner. ‘What the hell was that!?’

She turned the corner herself and saw that White Comet was at least 5 meters ahead of her by the time she had cleared it. She pumped her wings to try and catch up, but she couldn’t accelerate as fast as she would’ve liked ‘Dammit, I’ve got nothing left…’

They turned a few more corners, but the gap just kept getting wider and wider. ‘I…I can’t close the gap…’ Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe it. She had lost. She had fallen into a trap of some description, but couldn’t put her hoof on what it was. Although her defeat was inevitable, she wouldn’t give up so easily. She pushed herself as hard as she could to try and catch up, but to no avail.

At the finish line, with a clear victory of about 4 seconds, White Comet perched himself on the edge of the barrier, catching his breath. He wasn’t left thinking about too much, since everything planned out exactly the way he planned it. Although his thoughts were more on Rainbow Dash rather than the race itself.

Rainbow Dash landed next to him. “You…got lucky…” she said as she panted. She was still trying to get her head around what just happened, but she blamed it on the lack of oxygen in her brain.

“No…it was skill.” White Comet replied.

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes at him. Who does he think he is, telling her she lacks skill?

Before she got a chance to give him a piece of her mind, he continued to speak. “The only reason you were in the lead for the first and second part was because I let you. I let you run off with the lead to wear yourself out, whereas I was sitting in your draft and conserving my energy, waiting for an opportunity to arise. When it did, I passed you, and since I had plenty of energy remaining, I just went all out in the last section. Something you couldn’t do as you were fighting to keep me off your tail. There’s nothing more to it than that. Just pure logic, tactics, strategy, and skill.”

He stood up and slowly began to walk back towards the locker rooms. “I hope you learned something from this, Rainbow Dash. You were extremely fast. I don’t doubt your technique, you just need to back it up with some sound theory. And when you learn that, you’ll be unstoppable in the skies.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t know how to react, as her brain was still taking it all in as she sat there. Although she didn’t understand it at first…everything he said was true. He was absolutely right. It just took her a while to see it. She was still in a world of her own thinking about it as she followed him towards the door. “So, you think I could’ve beaten you?”

He pushed through the door, “well, you’re only the third pony alive who was able to give me a run for my money without even thinking about it. Put it that way.” He turned to go into the locker room.

Rainbow Dash almost followed him into the stallions locker room without even realising it. She had so many more questions that she wanted to ask, but they were for another time.

“Talk to you later, Rainbow Dash.” He called through the door.

“Yeah, later,” Rainbow Dash felt the strong chill of the air conditioning inside the locker room, and decided to step hoof inside the mares locker room to use it to cool off. They were pretty basic rooms. Minimal lighting, lockers around the left and right edges, with a big communal changing area in the middle with some private ones backing it up at the back. There was another walkway at the back right which led off to the shower room. It looked very much like a bunker out of an old war film, except with a few modern touches, like the air condition. Rainbow Dash could get used to this. Although she wasn’t too sure if it would be as nice after stepping out of a nice warm shower.

After she let herself cool off for a few minutes, she glanced at the clock before she walked out. It was now 4:30, and she was beginning to feel slightly hungry. Not enough to eat yet, but she was getting there. She was sure that there were others getting ready to eat, so she decided to head back down to the Mess Hall to get herself a seat. Hopefully she would meet either her friends or roommates there too. Or both.

As she walked through the corridors, the sound of voices got louder as she got closer to it. This only confirmed her thoughts. She proceeded down the corridor, knowing that she had to take the next right to reach it. She suddenly heard a large number of voices amplify, and they mostly sounded female. It made Dash wonder what was going on, but she was pretty sure it was just some lame girly thing, fangirling over some stallion or something like that. Not something she really cared about.

As she approached the turn, she slowed her pace and eventually came to a stop as she heard something moving around in the ceiling above her. As she heard it, the sound of the voices instantly dropped. The sound of the something in the ceiling slowly moved towards her. She tracked the rough position of the sound with her eyes, but she wasn’t quite able to pinpoint the exact position.

The sound moved above her head, and Rainbow Dash saw that she was standing directly underneath a vent. Quickly putting 2 and 2 together, she gave a quick flap of her wings to thrust herself backwards, just in time as the sound of whatever was in there came straight out of it, revealing a light blue stallion with a dark blue blown back mane.

The stallion immediately pressed himself against the right wall, and almost jumped when he saw Rainbow Dash, but immediately settled down after recognizing her. “Oh, hey Rainbow Dash.”

“Uh, hi there, Soarin.” Rainbow Dash replied uneasily, not sure as to what was going on.

Soarin poked his head around the corner. “Damn fangirls, probably would’ve taken a cut of my mane and tail if I stayed any longer.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, “well, at least you can trust me.” She replied. Since she had met him a few times before, she was a lot more relaxed around him. Or maybe it just got all the fangirling out of her system.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a loud growling sound came from Soarin, making her giggle. “Well, thanks for reminding me how hungry I was getting.” She started walking back towards the mess hall. “Aren’t you gonna get something to? Or do you have your own, like, VIP section or something?”

“Nah, we get our food from the same place.” Soarin replied, turning his head to look at her. “We have a different room at the back of the mess hall to eat in, but we all have to get food from the same kitchen. And there’s no way I’m going back in there until all the mares calm down.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but snicker. “You seem to get all the mares, huh?” It didn’t surprise her too much, as he was the Wonderbolts 2nd in command after all.

Soarin popped a smile at her comment, “you could say that…” his voice trailed off, sounding like there was another side to it.

“But…?” Rainbow Dash egged him on to spill the beans. She could tell from the way his voice trailed off that there was something funny going on.

“Well, most of ‘em only fangirl over the position, not me. If I swapped position with sompony like Wave Chill, I wouldn’t get…NEARLY as a much attention.” He had to think carefully about what he was going to say, since he knew that although the levels of it varied, they still got a fair amount of attention because of the uniform. “Those kind of fans just give me the creeps…”

“I see what you mean,” Rainbow Dash replied.

His stomach complained again, and he gave it a gentle thump along with a rub. “Screw this, I’m gonna go get some decent food instead.” He started heading straight on instead of turning right. “You wanna come along?” He asked casually, seeing as she was the only one bar the other members of the Wonderbolts that was treating him normally.

Rainbow Dash felt the force of the question almost knock her back. Did a Wonderbolt really just ask her to join him for dinner? Okay, he may have done it casually, but still. “M-me?”

“Well, I don’t see anypony else here.” Soarin looked around to emphasize his point. “I’m going with or without you, Rainbow, so take it or leave it.” He wasn’t trying to be rude or anything, but he was getting hungry, and that made him impatient.

She thought it over for a minute. The food would probably be nicer at wherever they went, but that’s one of the things that concerned her. “I’d love to Soarin, but I don’t think I could afford any of the restaurants you probably eat it. I don’t have a lot of bits on me.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s on me. Think of it as a welcoming gift from an old friend.”

Soarin really considered her a friend? Although they had seen each other a couple of times before, Rainbow still felt like she didn’t really know him, and she presumed vice versa. She glanced away as she thought, flattening her ears and trying her hardest not to blush. She almost felt honoured that a Wonderbolt considered her this way. “Alright…I guess…” If he was going to be so friendly about it, how could she say no?

Soarin picked up the uncertainty in her voice, but he chose to ignore it, as he knew that it would go away quickly. He just put her on the spot all of a sudden, which probably threw her off. “Great, let’s go!” He headed over to a window on the corridor and opened it up. He then turned, stood aside, and bowed his head down. “Ladies first.”

“It seems like you’ve done this before…” Rainbow Dash said suspiciously as she flew out the window.

“Maybe…” Soarin replied with a smirk as he followed her and closed the window up. “Follow me. I know a nice place on the edge of Cloudsdale.” He started accelerating at a low rate, since there was no need to go fast. Rainbow Dash instantly matched his acceleration.
Rainbow Dash flew alongside him. She had not only just been invited to dinner by a Wonderbolt, but he was also offering to pay for it too. And he considered her a friend. Good thing she was slightly behind him, so he couldn’t see the goofy grin she had on her face. There was only one word she could use to describe it. And it was a word she lived by.

Awesome.

Author's Note:

Welp, I've decided to venture into the world of soarindash. Wish me luck :rainbowdetermined2:

I know my writings not that great, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading. :twilightsmile: