Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 3:7 - A Hunter's Dream

Chapter 3:7 – A Hunter’s Dream

Rainbow Dash flew through the Bloodpeak Mountains, with as much of her gear as she could carry strapped to her back and saddlebags. The Bloodpeak Mountains were about as inhospitable as terrain got in Equestria; ranges of razor-sharp peaks jutted up through the clouds that perpetually hung in the sky, snow clinging desperately to the few surfaces that weren’t too steep for it to slide off. The interior of the mountains was practically uninhabited, apart from one key exception. Castle Thorn appeared out of the clouds, built inside one of the broader mountains. Only its gate was visible to Rainbow Dash, flanked by blue-and-yellow banners hanging limply, one with a crescent of thorns, one with a winged lightning bolt. The former was the symbol of the Order of the Thorn, a unique Hunter order with no permanence whose members were firstly members of other orders but took more pride in being Hunters of the Thorn. It was a Hunter order that served only one purpose—to prepare Hunters for the other order represented here, an order with only six members: the Wonderbolts.

Not long after returning from her trip into the Everfree Forest to search for zap apples, Rainbow Dash had received a letter inviting her to Castle Thorn to join the order. It was a dream come true for the Hunter, whose ultimate ambition was to become a Wonderbolt, and this was the first step. A date had been specified for when she was to be at the castle, and she intended to make it. After saying goodbye to her friends, the Hunter headed north on her own, past the Hill Kingdoms and her old home of Glydrfell and through the lands of King Hadish of Manehattan, until she reached the Bloodpeak Mountains.

Castle Thorn’s gate was an arched opening in the side of the mountain, with arrow slits around it. There was a small natural ledge before the gate, made larger with a rickety wooden platform, but Rainbow Dash breezed over them without landing. The gates within the tunnel through which she flew had been opened and the portcullis was raised, so she had no difficulty entering the fortress. There was a wide-open space at its center, though most of the sky was blocked off by sharp peaks that curled inward overhead like a dome. The space below had been leveled with paving stones wherever there wasn’t a building. Rainbow Dash flew over to where a group of Hunters had congregated, most of them still looking around at the mostly abandoned fortress.

There were five of them at the moment besides Rainbow Dash, Hunters from across Equestria and beyond. The Orders Raven, Eagle, Bat, Owl, and Kite were all represented, and Rainbow Dash added Falcon. While they were waiting, two other Hunters arrived. One was a stallion from the Order of the Gull so bulging with muscles that it was a miracle his wings were able to lift him off the ground. The other was a mare from the Order of the Wren, a turquoise pegasus with a gold and orange mane and a scar across her nose. Apparently, she was the last to arrive, for no sooner had the Wren member landed with the others than Spitfire swooped down from wherever she’d been hiding and watching the new recruits.

“Welcome to the Order of the Thorn,” the captain of the Wonderbolts said as she landed, “That is, if you’re worthy of it. That remains to be seen. You will be tried in the coming days, and pray you are not found wanting.”

This Spitfire was not like the Spitfire that Rainbow Dash had met at the Gauntlet and the Grand Galloping Gala, but that was to be expected. Then they’d met as, if not equals, then something approaching it. Now Rainbow Dash and the other Hunters here had come as petitioners to plead for inclusion in the Order of the Thorn and eventually the Wonderbolts. Spitfire would be hard and critical, as was her right as Wonderbolt captain. Whenever a Wonderbolt died, a new member had to be chosen, and they were nearly always members of the Order of the Thorn. It was the responsibility of all of them to be sure that Hunters of the Thorn were worthy of the title and the possibility that they might one day become Wonderbolts.

“Do you think you are ready to be a Wonderbolt?” Spitfire demanded of one of the recruits.

“Yes,” she replied quickly, and Spitfire eyed her skeptically, “I mean, I … I don’t … maybe not yet, ma’am.”

“What about you?” Spitfire demanded of the bulky Gull Hunter, “Do you think you belong in the Order of the Thorn?”

“If not, then why was I invited?” the Hunter replied, starting boldly, but beginning to trail off as Spitfire intimidated him.

“You’re Fire Streak’s choice, aren’t you?” Spitfire asked as she eyed him. “I wouldn’t discount a mistake.”

As Rainbow Dash would later learn, when the Wonderbolts wished to recruit new members to the Order of the Thorn, they were each allowed to invite one Hunter, apart from the captain and the newest Wonderbolt, who could each invite two. None of the recruits knew who had invited them, but Rainbow Dash suspected that Spitfire had been the one to put her name forward. She was honored that the captain of the Wonderbolts would choose her, though she did wonder who Spitfire’s other choice had been.

“You think you’re a great Hunter? You think you have what it takes to be part of the Order of the Thorn?” Spitfire directed her demands at Rainbow Dash. “I would wager that you won’t last the week.”

“A piece of advice, ma’am; save your coin, for that is not a sound wager,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I will not leave, and I will not fail.”

“Hmm. And you?” Spitfire addressed the latecomer, “If you had so much trouble getting here that you arrived last, I doubt you’ll prove worthy.”

“You’re wrong; it was no trouble at all,” the pegasus replied bluntly. “In fact, I’m sure I could outfly you!”

“Is that so?” Spitfire asked, unamused by the challenge and the lack of respect.

“I don’t expect your little trials will be much of a challenge for a Hunter like me,” the recruit boasted. “Least of all a little flight through the Bloodpeak Mountains.”

“Pretty confident, aren’t you? You want to prove yourself? Fine. There is an outpost seven leagues northeast of here that could use some supplies. Supply it, and we’ll see how good you really are at traversing these mountains,” Spitfire ordered, gesturing to a collection of sacks piled against a nearby building. “All of you.”

Several of the other recruits shot hostile looks at the latecomer for saddling them with a test straightaway, but none complained aloud. The turquoise pegasus only smiled and trotted over to the pile of sacks. Rainbow Dash followed her and soon, so did the other recruits. Wanted or not, this was a test, and none of them wanted to start their initiation into the Order of the Thorn by getting on Spitfire’s bad side.

***

It was a perilous journey through the Bloodpeak Mountains, but the trial was nothing seasoned Hunters with enough potential to be invited into the Order of the Thorn couldn’t handle. It was still a challenge, and not just for the individuals. Rainbow Dash was determined to be the swiftest, but when she arrived at the outpost, the cocky mare who’d challenged Spitfire had preceded her. She was able to make some time up on the way back, taking shortcuts through the mountains wherever possible, and spotted the turquoise mare approaching Castle Thorn parallel to her as they neared the fortress. Spotting each other, each put on a burst of speed, zipping past the last few peaks and around the perilous outcroppings that jutted from the mountain Castle Thorn was built into from all directions. They descended on the courtyard from above, both landing near the waiting Spitfire—in the process of mending her armor—at the same moment.

“Hmm, not bad,” Spitfire commented, sparing the pair only the briefest of glances, “For recruits, of course. Find yourselves something to eat.”

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow introduced herself as they retrieved their personal possessions from where they’d left them.

“Lightning Dust,” the turquoise mare offered up her own name, “You’re pretty fast.”

“Thanks, you’re not so bad yourself,” Rainbow replied.

“I know,” Lightning Dust said. “Come on, let’s get some grub.”

***

Over the following days, Spitfire put the recruits through various challenges to gauge their abilities, as well as subjecting them to manual labor. Unlike other Hunter keeps, no Hunters lived in Castle Thorn permanently, so there was nopony to repair and resupply the castle and its outposts. Hunters of the Thorn had a whole other order’s keep to look after, and the Wonderbolts were here even less frequently than them (nor were they willing to engage in such work anyway). Because of this lack of consistent upkeep, any problem that didn’t immediately threaten the integrity of the fortress was kicked along until a batch of bright-eyed recruits came in and whatever Wonderbolt had taken on testing them could dig up the to-do list and take advantage of the influx of horsepower.

There was still slate dust in some of the recruits’ tails left over from their work retiling the castle’s roofs as they stood in a line awaiting Spitfire’s next challenge. While they’d been busy repairing Castle Thorn, Spitfire had been busy as well, assembling the obstacle course that stood before them. A tangled forest of wooden beams and rope had been built up, similar to the challenge that Rainbow Dash had faced in the Gauntlet but more complex and unnavigable.

“Listen up!” Spitfire bellowed. “This next challenge will test your ability to fight agilely in tight spaces. Consider you’re fighting a swarm of rakkeheim in a forest of poisonous thorns and you need to take them all down without poisoning yourself. That is your challenge here. Make it through, hit all the targets, and don’t bump into anything. And be quick about it. You, you’re up first.”

“Me?” asked the mare that Spitfire had thrust her hoof out toward.

“Of course you,” Spitfire said testily. “Go!”

The Hunter hurried to the obstacle course, grabbing a practice sword along the way. She dove in through the only obvious entrance to the maze and zipped around inside, striking the painted targets with her sword and causing a bell to chime whenever she did. Spitfire observed from above, counting each bell chime and each time the recruit bumped into or brushed against a piece of the course. Eventually, she emerged from the other side and trotted over to rejoin the other Wonderbolt hopefuls.

“Not bad, though if this were real, you’d be dead,” Spitfire said unenthusiastically as she landed. “You collided with twelve obstacles and you could have been quicker, but not bad. All right, Rainbow Dash. Let’s see what you can do.”

Rainbow Dash grabbed a practice sword in her teeth and approached the obstacle course. She had no idea what the path was through it, for it was too dense for her to have seen more than glimpses of her predecessor during her run, so the only thing to do was charge in. She rushed in as quickly as she could, dodging posts and hanging ropes as she wove her way deftly past every obstacle. Targets whirred by and she struck them, bells chiming almost continuously. Before she knew it, she was shooting out the other end of the course and she looped back around, dropping her sword back where she’d gotten it from before landing with the other recruits.

“Now that’s impressive,” Spitfire praised her, and Rainbow’s heart swelled with pride. “That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen this course done, and without missing a single target or hitting a single obstacle. Good job, Rainbow Dash, I knew you were a good pick.”

Rainbow Dash swelled with pride even more than before. Spitfire had been the one to nominate her for the Order of the Thorn after all! Rainbow Dash could see herself becoming a Wonderbolt herself already, with the great Spitfire’s approval.

“Lightning Dust, you’re next,” Spitfire ordered.

The Wren Hunter trotted toward the cache of practice swords, but before grabbing one, she first slipped a blindfold over her eyes.

“What are you—” Spitfire started to ask, but Lightning Dust grabbed a sword and took off like a shot toward the obstacle course.

She zipped through it, bells dinging again and again as she wove through. It took her longer than Rainbow Dash to complete it, but not by much, and she whipped off her blindfold as she exited the maze.

“Fast, and you only hit two obstacles, but what were you thinking?” Spitfire demanded of Lightning Dust as she landed in front of her. “Doing the course blindfolded was not part of the challenge!”

“Wasn’t it?” Lightning Dust asked smugly. “Rakkeheim can blind you with their gaze, so the safest way to fight them is blindfolded.”

“Hmm, I suppose so,” Spitfire said begrudgingly. “Get back with the others, and none of the rest of you try anything funny like that!”

The rest of the trial proceeded without incident. The other Hunters ran the course, but none of them came close to doing it as quickly as Rainbow Dash or Lightning Dust, or with so few errors. The two elite Hunters were able to spend the time basking in their own glory. Over the past days, the two of them had gotten to know each other better, and Rainbow Dash liked Lightning Dust, even if she did tend to show off.

“If you’re going to be a Hunter of the Thorn, or—Faust forbid you get any ideas into your little pony minds—a Wonderbolt, most of you are going to have to do much better and face harder challenges than this,” Spitfire said once everypony had gone through the course. “From now on, you won’t be facing the challenges alone, though. A Hunter is strongest when they’re working in a team, just like the Wonderbolts do. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be working in pairs. I’ll post the list in the morning, along with who will be lead pony and who will be wingpony. Until then, you are all dismissed, and good luck.”

“Like the two of us’ll need luck,” Lightning Dust snorted to Rainbow Dash, and she was forced to agree.

***

“Come in!” Spitfire called as knocking sounded urgently on her study’s door.

Unlike much of Castle Thorn, this study was truly hers and hers alone as captain of the Wonderbolts. Not that she spent much time in it. Spitfire had always believed that a Hunter’s place was on the road, never settled, always seeking the next Hunt. Her position as Wonderbolt Captain suited her, for the Wonderbolts were always on the move. There was no temptation to settle down in Castle Thorn, either, for though there were plenty of monsters surrounding it, there was nopony to pay for their elimination. She hadn’t made the study her own so much as added another layer to what all the Wonderbolt Captains before her had left. One bookcase was filled with tomes and scrolls on monsters that saw some use, but the rest of the furniture along the walls (and the walls themselves) were covered in trophies and memorabilia from previous captains. Skulls and claws, trinkets and ancient weapons, bits and bobs of Hunter armor—including the cape of Spitfire’s predecessor, the blood from Deadshot’s final wound still stained into it. Many of the mementos were macabre, but no Wonderbolt Captain worth her oats would shy away from them.

“Captain Spitfire, can I speak with you?” Rainbow Dash asked as she trotted into the study.

Spitfire sighed heavily as she pushed away the ledger she’d been filling out. She’d been expecting this.

“About the list?” Spitfire asked, staring down the young Hunter with steely eyes whose glow could be seen in the study, the room darkened by trophies stacked up in front of the windows.

“Yes, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash replied. “You know I’m the best Hunter out of all the candidates.”

“Are you?” Spitfire challenged her.

“Yes, I am,” Rainbow Dash replied after taking a moment to think back on all the challenges of the past few days in which she’d come out on top, “Why did you make me a wingpony?”

“You and Lightning Dust are leagues ahead of the other Hunters. You wouldn’t pair Baynar the Bold with a Hunter just out of the Order of the Sparrow, would you? It wouldn’t end well for either of them. I believe that, together, the two of you will be an unstoppable team, perhaps the best the Order of the Thorn has seen in centuries. Do you think I’m wrong?”

“No, of course not,” Rainbow Dash sputtered, “But why wasn’t I made lead pony?”

“You and Lightning Dust are both skilled Hunters, but she tends to push her limits more than you,” Spitfire explained. “That’s why she’s lead pony and not you. Do you still have a problem with my decision?”

“No, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash said remorsefully, and she turned to leave the study.

***

Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust glided together through the jagged Bloodpeak Mountains. They were not quite side-by-side, a fact that galled Rainbow Dash; as wingpony, she had to protect Lightning Dust’s rear, and so flew slightly back from her. They and the other recruits had been sent out in pairs on a Hunt by Spitfire, the first test of how they would work together.

“There’s one!” Rainbow Dash called out as she spotted an antlered creature galloping impossibly across the slopes below.

“Uh-huh,” Lightning Dust replied, still scanning the ground herself but giving no command to go after the beast.

Rainbow Dash was miffed. This was the third strag she’d spotted, and Lightning Dust had yet to call for an attack on any of them. There was a time limit on this test, the approaching sunset, at which point they were to present all the strag hides they’d managed to obtain to Spitfire; so far, they’d obtained none. Strags looked much like deer from a distance but were much larger and tended to tear out the throats of their lookalikes with their sharpened teeth if given the chance. They were tough to kill, but not overly so, and the two Hunters could easily have taken down at least two of the strags Rainbow had spotted by now. Lightning Dust seemed uninterested in the Hunt, however. Another strag appeared, jumping out of a cleft in the rock, and Rainbow Dash waited for Lightning Dust to call it out this time, in case she was stubbornly refusing to attack any strags she didn’t spot first herself.

“Are we going to hunt any strags today?” Rainbow Dash asked in exasperation when the strag clearly galloped across Lightning Dust’s field of vision, but the lead pony still said nothing.

“Of course. Well, we’ll collect their hides, anyway,” Lightning Dust replied, “I heard Nimbus talking about a parraglut that lives around here somewhere. We just need to wake it up.”

“Isn’t that a bit … dangerous?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh, yeah, but you want to win this thing, don’t you?” Lightning Dust asked.

“Of course,” Rainbow Dash said, though she was still unsure about her partner’s plan.

“Then follow my lead.”

Lightning Dust spied something that caught her attention at last and dove toward the ground. A strag brayed as she and Rainbow Dash swooped past it, first one and then both of them slicing at the trees they passed with their swords. The ground began to tremble, and Lightning Dust led the way back up into the sky. The little valley they’d been flying over was in motion now, the parraglut that had been underneath it digging itself out enough to strike at what had cut it. The trees weren’t trees at all, but extensions of its body that sprouted from long spiked tentacles, and the giant flower bud that Lightning Dust had spotted in the middle of the valley opened up into a beak filled with rings of teeth. A roaring screech went up from the angry parraglut, scaring away the rest of the birds that had been nesting in the not-trees. The screech drew the attention of all the strags in the valley; growing angry at the noise, they charged the parraglut, some prepared to use their antlers and others their knife-sharp teeth. The parraglut made quick work of them, slapping dozens to death with its tentacles and throwing many of them up into the air. In a few minutes, no living strag remained—just the parraglut.

“Now what do we do?” Rainbow Dash asked when it became clear that the parraglut did not intend to calm down and rebury itself any time soon.

“Now we have some fun,” Lightning Dust said with a wicked glint in her eye.

She descended toward the parraglut, dodging its flailing tentacles, and Rainbow Dash followed, trying to stay close without getting pulverized. It wasn’t easy, especially when Lightning Dust threaded through narrow gaps that were even narrower by the time Rainbow reached them. Both Hunters were throwing bombs at the parraglut, but it was such a massive beast that they had little effect.

Lightning Dust shot back up into the air and Rainbow Dash tried to follow. On her way up, however, she was hit by a tentacle, false branches of a false tree scratching where her armor didn’t protect her and sending her into an uncontrolled spin. By the time she recovered, Lightning Dust was diving toward the parraglut’s maw. She disappeared between its beak while Rainbow Dash tried to rejoin her. She continued to slash at the parraglut, trying to at least clear a path through the forest of lashing tentacles, if not to kill the beast. Lightning Dust finally reemerged from a hole cut out of the beast near its beak, covered in blood and bile. A few seconds later, underground rumblings signaled the detonation of the cluster of bombs she’d left behind. The parraglut’s spasms grew weaker until it collapsed, dead.

“Come on,” Lightning Dust told Rainbow Dash, flying in a loop to shake off most of the monster remains coating her. “The strags aren’t going to skin themselves.”

Rainbow Dash flew along after her, acutely conscious of the injuries she’d sustained in the fight. She’d been hurt and Lightning Dust could easily have died in myriad ways while inside the parraglut. However, they’d surely win with all the strag hides ripe for the taking, and apparently that was what Spitfire cared about, no matter the cost.

***

“Ugh, clearing clouds is so beneath Hunters, not to mention Wonderbolts,” Lightning Dust complained to Rainbow Dash.

“I guess that’s why Spitfire isn’t out here with us,” Rainbow Dash replied, trying to make light of the situation as she pounded a cloud to pieces.

Over the last few days since she’d been paired with Lightning Dust, she’d come to like the other Hunter less and less. She still had to admit that Lightning Dust was an incredibly skilled flier, but she didn’t seem to care about anything except being the best or anypony other than herself. Maybe she was more annoyed by it than usual because they were some of the same qualities one could attribute to her, but she’d never admit it. Lightning Dust was also incredibly reckless, sometimes seeming to take risks simply because she could. More often than not, it was Rainbow Dash who suffered the consequences of Lightning Dust’s bravado. She was covered in half-healed injuries, and it was really beginning to affect her performance. She should have been able to clear the patch of sky that Spitfire had assigned to them easily, but she was slower and less precise that usual due to Lightning Dust.

“I guess,” Lightning Dust snorted, unamused, “She just wants to keep us out here doing her grunt work, but the two of us should be Wonderbolts already. Say … I have an idea for how we can finish this off in no time at all.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked, taking a break from cloud kicking.

“We create a cyclone. I’m sure the two of us can pull it off,” Lightning Dust suggested.

Rainbow Dash sighed. It was always something big and dangerous with Lightning Dust. A cyclone might do the job, but it could also go very badly awry, especially with the other recruits clearing their own patches of sky nearby. And then there was the matter of how a cyclone might affect Castle Thorn beneath them. Would the overarching rock protect it, or would a cyclone tear up the outdoor supplies and the roof tiles? However, just like every other time that Lightning Dust had had a risky suggestion in the past days, the same thing came to Rainbow Dash’s mind. Spitfire’s words about Lightning Dust pushing herself harder echoed in her head, and she didn’t want Spitfire to think she wasn’t giving this her all.

“Let’s do it,” Rainbow Dash said.

The two Hunters established their circuit and began to fly in circles, following each other. They shaped the air between them and formed a funnel, which began to take visible shape as a bit of cloud was sucked in. The cyclone quickly grew and grew, but together the two Hunters were able to direct where it should go, keeping it clear of the others and the castle—for a time, that is. It was Lightning Dust who first began to lose control, unable to respond quickly enough to the changing winds as the cyclone grew. She was thrown free and Rainbow Dash followed her unwillingly a few seconds later. The cyclone had taken on a life of its own now and proceeded to move around unpredictably. The other Hunter recruits had all turned to watch as Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust had constructed it and were well-prepared to fly out of its way. Unprepared, unfortunately, were the new arrivals at Castle Thorn.

The other Brave Companions had just arrived, hoping to meet with Rainbow Dash and hear how things were going. Assuming correctly that suddenly appearing in the courtyard or within a building would not be well-received by the resident Wonderbolts, Twilight Sparkle had opened a portal to the castle’s entrance mere seconds before the cyclone whirled past it. The long tunnel into Castle Thorn became a pipe filled with wind as the cyclone sucked air through it, dragging the Brave Companions out into the air and over the jagged mountains. Twilight Sparkle tried to open another portal to save them, but an unsecured barrel that was pulled out with them struck her unconscious.

“No!” Rainbow Dash yelled when she realized what was happening.

Still partially stunned, she pushed herself off the mostly intact cloud she’d landed upon and dove toward her friends. She wouldn’t be able to catch all of them in time, but fortunately, she didn’t have to. The other recruits dove in pairs to catch her falling friends and brought them back up to Castle Thorn while the cyclone spun itself out.

“Are you all okay? Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked in the castle’s courtyard, and the sorceress groaned an affirmation as she came to. “What are you doing here?”

“We wanted to visit you!” Pinkamena said cheerily.

“Well, that’s nice,” Rainbow Dash said, still a little frazzled. “Kind of forbidden, but nice.”

“I had no idea there were storms like that in the Bloodpeak Mountains,” Twilight Sparkle said as she rubbed her head with a hoof, “I certainly did not see any when I scried it out before coming. What happened?”

“All right! We did it!” Lightning Dust exclaimed as she landed next to Rainbow Dash, “I knew that cyclone would be a good idea.”

“That ‘good idea’ almost killed my friends!” Rainbow replied angrily, gesturing to the five ponies and dragon around which the other recruits were gathered.

“Almost,” Spitfire emphasized with a grin that made Rainbow Dash want to scream. “It didn’t, though, and we cleared our clouds and then some. I don’t see what the problem is.”

“You’re too reckless!”

“Hey, for ponies with skills like us, it’s called being aggressive,” Lightning Dust argued.

“No,” Rainbow Dash stamped her hoof down, taking the stand she should have taken days earlier. “I understand that you want to push yourself and be the best, and I do too, but you take things too far.”

“Maybe I was wrong,” Lightning Dust said with a frown. “Maybe you’re not Wonderbolt material after all. After all, they don’t seem to think I take things too far. Spitfire made me lead pony, not you.”

“You’re right,” Rainbow Dash replied after taking a deep breath, but with very different meaning than all the other times that she’d agreed with something Lightning Dust had said in the last few days.

***

“What is it this time, Rainbow Dash?” Spitfire asked as the Hunter let herself into the captain’s office. “Surely you don’t have an objection to clearing clouds.”

“No, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Then you’d better get back out there and finish the job I gave you,” Spitfire said as she glanced up from the letter she was reading.

“The job is done, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash said stiffly. “Lightning Dust suggested we create a cyclone to clear the clouds.”

“Well, if the job is done, then it obviously worked, so why are you still here?” Spitfire said, hiding her surprise, “Do you want more work?”

“No, I just came to say that I’m done,” Rainbow Dash said with a frown. “I’m done with the Order of the Thorn.”

“Explain yourself,” Spitfire demanded, letting the letter drop completely now.

“Ever since I was a little filly, I dreamed of becoming a Wonderbolt, but these last few days have opened my eyes to something I didn’t want to see. Lightning Dust takes unnecessary risks, she’s reckless, and she’s rewarded for it. That cyclone could’ve killed the other recruits, and it did almost kill the Brave Companions,” Rainbow Dash explained, and at the mention of the Falcon Hunter’s friends, Spitfire snuck a peek at the courtyard. “There’s a difference between ‘pushing oneself’ and throwing caution to the wind. If Lightning Dust’s way is also the Wonderbolt way, then I don’t want any part of it.”

Rainbow Dash stormed away, turning her back on her idol.

“Rainbow Dash!” Spitfire yelled before she was through the office door. “Did you really think I’d let you leave after saying something like that?”

Rainbow slowly turned back to face Spitfire.

“You weren’t wrong about the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash. Wisdom is as much what makes us the best Hunters as raw skill, and that includes the wisdom to know which risks to take and which to leave be,” Spitfire said. “Perhaps my desire to shape others to join the ranks led me to push too hard and be blind to ruinous behavior. Unnecessary risks, especially those that place fellow Hunters in danger in order to advance one’s own cause, should not be tolerated. I will look into this, and if what you told me is true, then Lightning Dust must leave, not you. Until then, I want you to stay at Castle Thorn. Is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash agreed.

One day, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire thought, one day this office will be yours, and the Wonderbolts will be the greatest they’ve ever been. One day, but not yet.

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

10949085
The author has stated that they intend to eventually write the equivalent of every episode, and have probably a greater amount of original content spread in-between. Given that we're at just past Discord's return and about 80 chapters and half-a-million words in, the full story, if completed as envisioned, should be several hundred chapters (possibly over a thousand) and several million (possibly tens of millions) of words.

...It's quite the undertaking, that's for sure.