Splinterbolts

by Brass Polish

1 Nostalgia

Fluttershy watched as Rainbow Dash flew in circles around the top of her cottage. It was a familiar sight to her; it filled her with nostalgia. It had been a long time since she’d brought it up, and she couldn’t resist when Rainbow had finished.

“Wow, Rainbow. You didn’t spin out once,” she remarked. “I can remember when we were foals, and you flew around my dad’s garden shed, you’d always veer off and bump into something.”

Rainbow chuckled. “Remember that time I knocked over that jar with that Cumulus he collected, and it floated away and dissipated, and we had to rush off to find a new one to replace it before he found out?”

“Oh. Actually, I told him shortly after you left,” admitted Fluttershy.

“What?!”

“He didn’t get mad,” Fluttershy went on. “He was just glad we intended to replace it.”

“Huh. Well, did he say if he liked the one we found?” asked Rainbow.

Fluttershy grinned. “He said it was even better than the one he got from work… but I think he was just trying to cheer me up after our little fright.”

“Wow. I had no idea he knew that wasn’t the original Cumulus,” said Rainbow Dash. “I mean, he never tried to stop me from flying around his shed after that day. You’d think he wouldn’t want me anywhere near it.”

“Oh, he knew how much you loved training yourself,” said Fluttershy. “My mom said he once spent an hour watching you from the kitchen window.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat by the river bridge and continued to reminisce.

“I’d have thought somepony else in your family would spend hours watching me from a window,” said Rainbow, half joking, half groaning.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” grinned Fluttershy. “Zephyr Breeze did often say how much he appreciated you putting on a show for him.

Rainbow grunted. “I’ll never forget how hard he made me laugh when he offered to introduce me to the captain of the Wonderbolts if I agreed to go out with him. Ha! As if he knew Beeswax.”

“Oh. I didn’t even know who the Wonderbolts’ captain was when we were foals,” said Fluttershy.

“You didn’t think Spitfire joined when she was just a filly, did you?” chuckled Rainbow.

Fluttershy went a bit pink.

“Don’t ever tell him I said this,” Rainbow said sternly, “but I was tempted. I think I’d have had a heart attack if I’d met Captain Beeswax at that age. But like I said, there was no way in Tartarus Zeph knew him personally. I gave him a big fat NO, and I flew the heck away from him.”

“I saw that,” nodded Fluttershy. “That was the fastest I’d ever seen you fly back then.”

“No kidding,” said Rainbow Dash. “From then on, any time you told me he was coming while I was flying around your house, I was off like a…”

Rainbow Dash spotted the guilty look on Fluttershy’s face.

“He never was coming when you said he was, was he?”

“Well… not every time,” admitted Fluttershy.

“So most of those was you just trying to give me a boost?” asked Rainbow.

“Well it worked,” grinned Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash shrugged this off.

“It’s almost like how Vapour Trail secretly helped Sky Stinger when they were foals,” she said.

It took Fluttershy a second to remember what Rainbow and Twilight had told her about their mission at Wonderbolt Academy.

“Only I could keep myself in the air,” finished Rainbow. “Actually, it’s kinda like how Lightning Dust trained herself to pick up her pace too. She’d fly around the lake in Loch Azure trying to avoid any swells in case the monster everypony thought lived down there was coming up.”

“Sure,” said Fluttershy, “but it didn’t do her much good, did it?”

“Well, if by that you mean she lost her shot at becoming a Wonderbolt, then yeah,” said Rainbow. “But by now, I don’t think she’s too bugged about that.”

“Really? Rarity and Pinkie Pie told me she tried to break a bunch of records to get Spitfire to change her mind,” said Fluttershy. “And she was determined to win the Millennium Rally.”

“Yeah, but after she helped me and Scootaloo escape from the Frostaceans and I gave her her knighthood,” said Rainbow Dash, “I never heard her mention anything about the Wonderbolts again. And now that she found a way to get Amber Aldis off that glacier, I only ever hear her talk about how she’s always darting in and out of that backwards comic book she got from Spike.”

“It sounds like she’s found a way to get over her disappointment,” smiled Fluttershy. “I’m glad she was able to make good on her promise that day you knighted her and Spitfire. Um, how weird does it feel taking orders from one of your knights whenever you’re flying with the Wonderbolts?”

“Pretty weird,” said Rainbow Dash. “But I know she’s making good on her vow as well.”

“Oh, yes! How is Snowdrop?” asked Fluttershy.

“Spitfire says she’s still not ready for all the attention. You know how iconic she is. But I haven’t heard anything bad,” assured Rainbow. “I doubt it’ll be long before she gets comfortable in modern Equestria.”

“I think her story was more inspirational to me when I grew up than when I was young,” said Fluttershy. “I guess I was too young to understand what it all meant. I didn’t quite see how it could apply to me, because I was never blind. But as I got older, the more I realised that there was more to it than that.”

“I didn’t think I could learn anything from Snowdrop either when I was a filly,” said Rainbow Dash. “We really were dumb when we were foals, weren’t we?”

Fluttershy chuckled. She and Rainbow Dash went on reminiscing for so long, it took them several minutes to realise their cutie marks were glowing.

“Hey! I think we have a mission!” shouted Rainbow at last.

“Oh! But you’ve got to go to the compound soon,” replied Fluttershy.

Rainbow groaned. “I doubt the Map wants me there. Well, come on. Twilight’s probably waiting for us.”

Soon, they arrived at Twilight’s castle. Into the throne room they flew, and off came their cutie marks.

“Again?” remarked Fluttershy as hers and Rainbow’s cutie marks orbited above Las Pegasus.

“Well, it’s not the first time,” put in Twilight. “Rarity’s been called to Canterlot twice now.”

“Wait!” exclaimed Rainbow. “They’re moving!”

Sure enough, the cutie marks shifted over towards the Wonderbolts compound.

“Oh, no. It’s gonna be like the time it moved my cutie mark all over the place, isn’t it?” groaned Rainbow Dash.

But after a few minutes, it seemed the duo of cutie marks was only pinballing between Wonderbolt headquarters and Las Pegasus.

“Which place should we go first?” asked Fluttershy.

“Your marks went over Las Pegasus first,” said Twilight.

“But I want to let Spitfire know I can’t fly with them tomorrow,” said Rainbow Dash. “The sooner she can call a Reserve, the better.”

“We could each go to one place,” suggested Fluttershy. “You can go talk to Spitfire, and I’ll go see Flim and Flam.”

Rainbow Dash remembered what happened when she and Pinkie Pie split up in Griffonstone.

“Uh, I’d rather we stuck together as much as we can,” she said.

So Fluttershy agreed to join Rainbow Dash as she made her way to the Wonderbolts’ compound. Spitfire was waiting by the runway when they arrived.

“Ah! Crash. You’re a bit early,” she remarked. “We were expecting you until this afternoon.”

“Well, I hate to break it to ya,” Rainbow Grimaced, “but you’re gonna have to call a reserve. Me and Fluttershy here were called on a mission.”

Spitfire frowned. “That’s gonna be tough.”

“Why?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Because they all ran off to Las Pegasus,” grouched Spitfire.

“Las Pegasus?!” Fluttershy piped up. “That’s where the Map wants us. Well, one of the places.”

“Huh. Then I guess it’s up to you to stop Wind Rider in his tracks, Crash,” said Spitfire.

“Wind Rider?!” exclaimed Rainbow. “What’s he up to?”

“He’s started his own flight group,” growled Spitfire. “He and one of our reserves. You know Up N Up?”

“Yeah, of course I know her,” answered Rainbow Dash. “She’s been in the reserves longer than I have.”

“Uh, huh. And I think that might be part of the problem,” said Spitfire. “I’ll bet my jacket that she’s mad that you went from reserve to Wonderbolt while she spent years being an on-call flyer.”

“If she’s been in the reserves longer than Rainbow,” said Fluttershy, “why was she never made a Wonderbolt?”

“She’s got talent,” replied Spitfire, “but she cracks under pressure. Too many performances would overwhelm her. We all agreed she’s better off as a stand-in.”

“Well obviously she’s not satisfied,” grunted Rainbow Dash, “if she’s stooping to teaming up with that sneak Wind Rider.”

Spitfire sighed. “I’ll try sending out for a reserve to take your place. Hopefully not all of them are gonna defect.”

Las Pegasus was huge, noisy, and crowded. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy knew when they arrived that finding Wind Rider and Up N Up was going to be tricky. Spitfire had no information on where their headquarters was or what they were planning to name their little club… or if she did, she was in too much of a fury to mention it. Rainbow didn’t want to press the issue, but she also didn’t want to leave anything to chance on this mission in case her absence hindered the Wonderbolts’ performance tomorrow.

“There are adverts for stuff all over this city,” she said when they arrived. “There’ll be something to points us in the right direction somewhere.”

“I hope we don’t have to keep going from the compound to here and back like our cutie marks did,” panted Fluttershy.

“It’s a good thing we went to see Spitfire first,” sad Rainbow. “Now we know exactly what the problem is.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “We do?”

“Well, yeah. Wind Rider and Up N Up are trying to spite her and the rest of the Wonderbolts,” said Rainbow Dash. “Unless we pull the plug on this, there’ll be a huge rift between the Bolts and the reserves. And that’ll be the thin and of the wedge. If this new group gets popular and young aspiring flyers want to try out with them, the Bolts might lose out on a lot of talent.”

Even though Fluttershy had been there once before, Las Pegasus’ bright lights and excessive noises still irked her. She was glad to be with somepony who revelled in boisterous sights and sounds. Unfortunately, despite being perfectly comfortable in this giant funfair of a city, Rainbow Dash was far from happy.

“I should’ve known Up N Up wouldn’t take my promotion lying down,” she groaned. “I mean, I didn’t talk to her much, and only when we were both reserves, but I do remember hearing a rumour that she wanted to quit.”

“Do you think Spitfire will make her quit if she insists on forming this new group?” asked Fluttershy.

“No doubt about it,” replied Dash. “Especially if he’s joining forces with that snake Wind Rider.”

“Did you say Wind Rider?” came a familiar voice.

Rainbow Dash smiled when he saw Angel Wings flying towards them.

“Oh, hi,” she said. “Yeah. I’m looking for him and Up N Up.”

Angel Wings’ face lit up at the mention of Up N Up’s names.

“I was just showing them my cloud busting skills I learned at the academy,” she told Rainbow. “They said I was a natural.”

Rainbow remembered what Spitfire said when she was observing Angel Wings as she gave a cloud a pitiful nudge.

“I take it you got better since the last time I saw you?” she asked.

“Wind Rider and Up N Up sure think so,” smiled Angel. “They were so nice to me and everypony else who showed up. They’re my two new favourite ponies in all of Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “You know Wind Rider tried to frame me for sabotaging Spitfire?”

Angel Wings blinked.

“That’s why he’s not a Wonderbolt anymore,” Rainbow went on.

Angel shuffled her hooves a little, and then took off as fast as she could down the lane.

Author's Note:

Came up with this at the same time as PSSSD Cubed... in the car park at my mum's work. Good times.

Comments

[BellChime]

What is ol' Wind rider up to?