Aerial Dreams

by BNuts

2. Wings Come In Pairs

Author's Note:

Just a reminder I've renamed 'Fleetfoot' as 'Hasty Hoof.'

Aerial was used to flying the skies solo, but she didn’t mind company either, which was good because the way the barracks were set out, she was bunking with all the other mares from her recruitment group. This included Spitfire, and the silver mare, Hasty Hoof.

Today they would be placed into Lead and Wingpony pairs based on performance scores created during their first flight the other day. While Aerial had finished first, Spitfire and Hasty Hoof had started to lag behind as their stamina failed, the latter more than the former, so maybe she was more of a sprinter. Aerial, being used to gliding as much as flying, could stay aloft for days if she had to, but she wasn’t as good when it came to pure speed.

Maybe that was why Lightning Strike paired her with Hasty Hoof, who was Aerial’s opposite in flying focus. She paired Spitfire with a black-maned stallion, Soarin,’ who came in near the tail end of the main group and before any of the stragglers.

“Cadets, congrats on completing the admission process to the Academy. Now say ‘hello’ to your partners for the remainder of your training tour,” Lightning Strike said.

Before anyone could actually say anything, Thunder Strike continued. “For your first pair exercise, you’ll be flying through this obstacle course together. To complete the exercise, you must both cross the finish line together.”

“This is not a race,” the black-maned, blue-white coated mare said.

“All the same, watch yourselves,” the blue-white maned, black coated stallion said. “It gets narrow up there. Go!”

It took an instant for the cadets to realize they’d been given the signal, but then they were in the air. Spitfire and Hasty Hoof were both eager to get this thing done, but they had to fall back a bit to allow their partners to catch up. The others also adjusted their paces accordingly.

“Come on, we’re being passed!” Hasty Hoof whined as Aerial flew up to her.

“The Captains said this isn’t a race,”

“Everything’s a race, or at least, a competition. Crank it up if you don’t wanna get ejected!”

Aerial hated to admit that Hasty Hoof might have a point, so she just focused on speeding up so she could keep up with her partner’s more aggressive style. All the same, some slower pairs beat them into the first narrow section, forcing them to slow up or crash.

“I hate getting stuck,” Hasty growled.

“Come on,” Aerial said. “If you’ve got to move fast no matter what, we can do some moves while we wait.”

“Great idea: It’ll bring up our scores!” Hasty started leading Aerial through loops between the checkpoints, but as soon as the course became wide enough, she shot between the pairs ahead of them and the cloud-walls to get ahead, and Aerial had to fly hard to even come close to staying with her. She even bumped gently against some of the ponies they passed, sending them back toward the course’s center and stopping them from getting planted in the clouds.

At the end of the course, Hasty remembered the rule about crossing together and slowed down to allow Aerial to catch up again. This allowed Spitfire and Soarin’ to cross the finish line just ahead of them.

“You really… need to… learn to… fly faster!” Hasty said.

“And you seem winded,” Aerial said mildly. “But you’re right, so I’ll try.”

“Thanks. Gonna sit down now.”