Touch the Sky

by Witching Hour

Pt. 4 - Flying Interference

Amber eyes watch Cadet Squad Apple with baffled curiosity, bemused as first Dancer then Sky are deflected from their captain by the other three. Shaking her head and unable to make sense of it, she finishes helping a pair of pegasi in Cadet Squad Daisy with properly using the machine they’re on, and makes her way over to Riptide.

“How’s Squad Ditzy… I mean Daisy… doing, Midnight?” the captain asks, shaking her head as she slips and uses Sky’s somewhat affectionate nickname for the fourth cadet squad comprised almost entirely of very silly ponies.

Midnight chuckles, a smile turning the corners of her mouth up at Tide’s lapse. “They’re really not that bad… But they’re not who I wanted to talk to you about…” she replies as she steps along side her squadmate.

Tide simply raises an eyebrow at the lowest ranked member of her squad. “Do tell?” she prompts.

Midnight nods her head in the direction of the quartet currently lifting weights; Leaf spotting for Midnight Storm while the two mares do leg presses near by. Tide opens her mouth to yell at Midnight Storm, seeing him start to struggle with his weight, but Midnight quickly puts a hoof over her mouth. “Just watch Apple…” she says, removing her hoof as Dancer swings by again.

Tide sighs, directing a brief scowl at Midnight, before turning her attention back to the scene unfolding. Just as she had, Dancer opens his mouth to reprimand the stallions when Sky’s sister calls out, “Commander Dancer? Can you tell me if I have this set up properly? I had to change the weight setting.” Even from where she observes the interaction, Tide can see Dancer heave a sigh and turns away to help. An eyebrow twitches upward as she then sees Leaf lean down and whisper something to Midnight Storm, and he corrects his performance.

“That’s not the first time they’ve done that if you’re pointing it out to me,” Tide states more than asks, though her voice raises in pitch towards the end. Midnight simply nods, making Tide sigh again. “SKY! GET YER PLOT OVER HERE!!!” she yells, summoning the little brother of Squad Six from the far side of the weight room where he was working with Butterfly Squad.

Sky quickly extricates himself from his efforts and makes his way over to Tide. “Yes, Captain?” he queries, confused.

“Apple’s playing Keep Away with us, using their captain as the ball. Talk to your sister. Get what’s going on out of her,” Tide orders, keeping her voice quiet.

Sky nods and makes as though heading towards Squad Cherry, before quickly side-stepping to approach Starry.

---

“I think we might need to switch with the colts soon… There’s only so many times we can use the excuse of changing the weights on these things,” Monkey whispers to her teammate as they work on a pair of leg press machines.

“You might be -” Starry quickly cuts herself off as she hears hoofsteps approaching them. Looking to her other side, her older brother looms over her. “Yes, Lieutenant Sky?” Monkey chokes on a snicker, Starry’s query sounding far too innocent and nonchalant.

“Cadet, a word in private,” Sky replies. Though the serious mask is ill-fitting, it’s enough to make Monkey and Starry exchange a nervous glance.

“Yes sir,” Starry replies, then carefully lets the weights back down and stands. Sky gestures with his head to a secluded corner of the weight room before leading her there.

He stops a little ways from the corner, and has Starry come around to face him so his face can’t be seen by the other cadets. “Look, sis… Nice going on the feints but you do know we’re a combat squad, right? The only way your blocking maneuvers could get more obvious is if you played theme music and had a light show in the background… So you’re protecting your captain, and that’s good, but you need to let us know what’s going on so we can fix this. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure my captain’s going to confront him about it and no one wants that…”

Starry chews on her lower lip nervously, her eyes flicking over her brother’s shoulder to glance at her team gathered around the weight racks and talking while glancing in her direction. Grimacing, Starry sighs. “Clear… It’s not my place to give details, but he got some news from home that’s got him stressed out… No pony died, but… It’s still tripped him up a lot. You can’t honestly tell me that you’d be any better off if you got bad news from Mom or me.”

“No… I wouldn’t,” Sky agrees.

“Stormy wants to stay, and we seem to have it under control right now… But I promise, if it goes too long or gets worse, we’ll bring him in to talk. Trust us until then?” Starry pleads earnestly, dark blue eyes wide.

Sky sighs, pressing a hoof to his face. “Dammit Starry… You know I can’t say ‘no’ when you look at me like that!” he complains, though he seems in good enough humor.

Starry beams at him, smiling brightly, and shifts her weight as though to leap at him for a hug, but seems to remember herself at the last moment. She chuckles a little sheepishly before clearing her throat. “Permission to be dismissed, sir?”

“Return to your squad, Cadet,” Sky replies. Starry flashes him one last smile before she schools her expression back into neutrality and hurries back to Monkey, Leaf and Stormy.

“Cover has been blown… I repeat, our cover has been blown,” Starry says in a stage whisper when she joins her friends. Stormy sighs heavily, grabbing his water bottle and taking a long pull from it. “I didn’t tell Clear any specifics, but they know what we’re up to… It’s okay, Stormy… We’ve got you covered,” Starry adds quickly, putting a consoling hoof on his shoulder.

Leaf gives Stormy a friendly punch to his other shoulder, smiling. “C’mon, Cap… You’ve been waiting a long time to come here, and I know it hasn’t worked out exactly as you wanted it to, but you’re here now… Unless you’re gonna quit on us…”

Stormy looks at Leaf with a shaky smirk. “What? And leave you or Monkey in charge? Not on your life, Leaf,” he replies with more bravado than he feels.

“What’s wrong with me?!” Starry demands, though she’s ignored but for smiles on her teammates’ faces.

“That’s the spirit,” Leaf responds, smirking back. “C’mon, buddy… Leg pressing awaits… The girls can handle themselves over here…” he adds, wiggling his eyebrows at Starry and Monkey.

Monkey scoffs at him, her wing missing his flank and making his short purple and pink tail swish. “Just because you helped this time doesn’t mean you’re actually capable of it, Leaf!” she retorts to their retreating backs. Leaf looks over his shoulder and teasingly uses his own wing to blow Monkey a kiss, making her roll her eyes.

“Stallions…” Monkey grumbles before looking at Starry. “I’ll spot first?” she suggests.

“Sure.”

---

Captain Riptide sits quietly at her desk, a steaming mug of tea sitting next to her as she goes over the paperwork for the day, most of it simply cadet reviews; how they had performed during the day’s weight training among other things. As was to be expected, the performance of the different squads was spread out, with Daisy being on the side of not completing as much as the others due to… accidents, up to Apple which had done well despite today’s obvious distraction of their Captain.

In fact, Apple had her a little worried. They were a strong squad, very loyal and dedicated to one another which reminded her of herself and her squad, but there was clearly something wrong with their Captain. He was distracted, and it was reflecting in the day’s performance reports. Hopefully, he would come clean about it before she had to go and confront him about it, because she really didn’t wish to do that. She might be strict, but she had learned over the years that if there was one thing you didn’t do, it was corner a fellow Captain about their problems. Even if he’s only a Cadet Captain, she had chosen him to lead Apple because she’d seen qualities in him that were required to be a leader, and one does not undermine the authority or position of a squad’s leader simply because they were distracted.

Her choice to put him as their leader was only reinforced today when Midnight had pointed out the way his squad was covering for him, skillfully distracting her own squad from a proverbial weak link in such a way that even she hadn’t noticed it initially. Though she had not shown it outwardly, she had been smiling at the display of loyalty. Squad Apple already had the most important thing to being a Wonderbolt down, something they could not teach into a classroom, nor instill into their recruits. It had to already be present in the ponies, and Squad Apple has it in spades.

Taking a sip from her mug, Tide absently wonders where Midnight got her this tea. It’s an amazing blend, something she could drink all day if she allowed herself. Honestly, she didn’t know why Midnight had gone out of her way to find her this tea, but she was silently thankful for the attention to detail that mare had. She takes another sip as a knock comes from the door.

“Enter,” Tide says curtly, not even looking up from her paperwork. The sound of hooves on the floor of her office stops just short of her desk. “Please, have a seat.” The chair in front of her desk creaks, and she looks up at last to find the subject of her worry seated before her. “Captain Midnight Storm, what brings you to my office?”

“Ma’am,” Stormy starts, then sighs. “I need to talk to you about my performance today, and what’s been causing it.”

Nodding slowly and holding her mug in her hooves, Tide regards the cadet captain with critical eyes. “Lieutenant Sky informed me there were some problems at home, they’ve been causing you some distraction?”

“That’s correct, ma’am,” Stormy replies, sitting in the chair stiffly. “I received a letter from my uncle informing me that my mother’s ill. I typically keep the house in order, and make sure my sisters are looked after. It… It’s been bothering me a lot that I am not there to take care of things, especially since what I’d saved up was didn’t account for losing my mom’s income.”

“I see.” Tide replies putting her mug down on the desk and sighing. “I have to ask then, is it your intention to see this flight camp to the end? Or are you here to request dismissal on the grounds of a family emergency?” She gestures with a hoof to Stormy. “I’ll grant it, if…”

“No,” Stormy says sharply, cutting Tide off. “Erm… Sorry ma’am. I don’t want to go home. My uncle’s taken over things at home while I’m gone. However, after what Starry told her brother, I didn’t want to hide behind them anymore… At least not with you… Does that even make sense?”

Smiling a little, Tide nods. “Yes, it does. You were chosen to be the leader for Apple Squad because I felt you had a good head on your shoulders.” She slides a piece of paper across the table to him. “That said, I took the liberty of drawing up, and filling out, the form that will allow you to leave the camp should things grow worse at home.” She holds a hoof up to forestall Stormy’s response. “I’m not telling you to quit, far from it. But I know how it goes, and I’m giving you a viable way to get out and go home. The Wonderbolts might be a military organization outside the public eye, but we’re also a family.” She picks up her tea again and leans back in her chair. “And family looks out for each other. So, one Captain to another; if you mother gets any worse, and you feel you’re needed at home, don’t hesitate to tell me. I’ll assure a spot in the next flight camp for you, even if I have to badger Spitfire myself to do it.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Stormy says slowly, sighing in obvious relief. “That takes a lot off my shoulders.”

“Good. Will there be anything else?” Tide says with a smirk. “I’m sure if your squad hasn’t been listening from the door by now, they’re likely eager to hear how this meeting went.”

As if on cue, there’s the sound of muffled cursing outside the door, and the sound of hooves quickly retreating.

Chuckling, Stormy nods. “Well, I am sure by the time I get back, Starry will have told the others how this went.” He shakes his head and smiles, obviously relieved that Tide had not yelled at him over his state of mind.

“Oh, I know the feeling. When her older brother and I were going through recruitment training, I had to speak with Silver Lining on something.” She sighs, shaking her head slowly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony jump so high when Silver told him to stop eavesdropping lest he ‘find more creative uses’ for his ears or something.”

Laughing, Stormy looks to Tide. “I’ve had to deal with her for barely three days, but I have to admit, if her brother is anything like her, you must have nerves of steel.”

Waving a hoof absently, Tide shrugs. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it. But, it’s really in how you handle him.” She looks to the wall to her left. “ISN’T THAT RIGHT, LIEUTENANT?” There’s a yelp and a large crashing noise in response to her yelled question. Tide looks back to Stormy and smirks. “See? Easy once you know how to deal with it. The real test of wills comes when we have to get him out of bed. I usually leave that to Dancer, since they’re roommates, but sometimes, just to keep him on his hooves, I borrow a page from Silver Lining’s book, and use an air horn.”

“Ah… Opposite problem… She wakes the rest of us up with so much…” Stormy trails off, making a brief disgusted noise. “How can somepony be that awake at five-thirty?!” Stormy demands rhetorically, throwing his hooves up in the air in frustration.

“Explains the talking that early in the morning,” Tide says from behind her mug as she takes a sip of her tea. “I might just have to borrow her sometime, sick her on her brother.” She then sighs and looks to the clock on her desk. “But, I should return to my paperwork, and you to your squadmates.” She puts her mug down and reaches over her desk, offering a hoof to Stormy. “Have a good evening, Cadet. I look forward to seeing how you and your squad progress this flight camp. I expect to be impressed.”

Standing and accepting the hoof, Stormy nods. “I’ll try and do so, ma’am.” He then backs away offers a salute, and then exits the office.

Tide resumes her seat, and sighs again as she picks her mug up and sips at the tea. Absently, she muses aloud, “Where does Midnight get this tea?”

Comments

[The Forgotten Comrade]

If the tea is that good I want some!

[Sylvian]

I honestly cannot get over how well you wrote Riptide as well as the rest of Squad Six.

*Sips tea* And, where does Midnight get this tea?

[Witching Hour]

6534907

I'll let you know what the blend is as soon as I figure it out.

6535116

Well... it certainly helps that I had you reading over my shoulder... And you hand-held me through the last part...

[Sylvian]

6536528

True enough

But you did quite well, hand holding or not. I mean, it's not like you don't do the same thing when I write some of our characters.

6534907

You and me both... when she figures it out... I'll have to get some made.

[erictheblue]

The real test of wills comes when we have to get him out of bed. I usually leave that to Dancer, since they’re roommates, but sometimes, just to keep him on his hooves, I borrow a page from Silver Lining’s book, and use an air horn.”

[Witching Hour]

10898085
I'm glad you're liking the stories!