Race the Wind

by Skyblitz

Chapter 8: The Wonderbolts

Chapter 8: The Wonderbolts

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"Lightning strikes and thunder roars. Of one whose heart shines bright as dawn..."

---

Soarin' lay on his bed grinning stupidly at the ceiling. Stuck above his bed was a promontional poster of the Wonderbolts, the blue and golden silhoettes of the team members standing boldly against the azure and purple stars in the background. The pale blue pegasus let out a little foalish giggle to himself. The sun had long since gone down, and silvery moonlight flooded through his open bedroom window. He still couldn't quite believe what had transpired earlier that day. The Wonderbolts - I'm a candidate! I'm a candidate for the Wonderbolts! Oh my Celestia! was all that seemed to race through his head.

Soarin' couldn't honestly remember the last time he felt so excited, excluding that night with Spitfire under the starry night on the cloud. The blue pegasus breathed a contented sigh as he rolled on his side. He almost screamed with shock when he saw his marefriend's cute smiling face on his windowsill.

"Ahhh! Sweet Celestia Spitty, don't do that! I don't need a heart attack on top of everythin' else". The golden mare giggled and pulled herself up into Soarin's room. She landed lightly on her hooves before trotting over to her coltfriend's bed.

"Didn't know I was that scary Soar. How long you been awake?" she asked as she placed herself next to the pale blue pegasus. Soarin' through off his covers before draping a wing over Spitfire's body, drawing her close.

"I haven't slept at all. How buckin' can I?! I mean, imagine it Spitty... You, me, Rapidfire and Fleetfoot in the Wonderbolts together..." he said dreamily, lifting his forehoof in a wide arc as if pointing to his imagined fantasies. Spitfire smiled and let out a small chuckle.

"Yeah, that'd be amazing. I dunno what I'd do if it really happened, I mean... The Wonderbolts... I still feel dizzy from seein' them face to face today. I've always wanted to fly with them, those... Gods of aerobatics. Ya know what I mean Soar?"

Her coltfriend nuzzled her mane closely, causing Spitfire's heart to melt with comfort. "Yeah I do... I know exactly what you mean". He gently kissed her on the back of her neck, stroking her body with his wings. Spitfire giggled lightly at the tickling caused by Soarin's feathers. As the yellow mare snuggled up closer to the pale blue stallion, she was overcome with a wave of warmth and comfort. Spitfire closed her eyes softly as Soarin' continued to hug her, his lips moving across her cheek until they met her own.

And there the two ponies lay, wrapped in the warm loving embrace of each other's emotions. Spitfire pulled away from the kiss, regretting so as she did. Soarin's face flickered briefly to confusion until Spitfire gave the most powerful smile that the young stallion had ever seen. It wasn't the size of her smile that made it so astonishing, it was... The love that it radiated. Soarin' beamed back a little too quickly, gaining an amused chuckle from the orange maned mare.

"What?" asked Soarin', grinning stupidly at his marefriend's eyes. Those wonderful, wonderful eyes.

"Oh Soar, you featherbrain..." she whispered. She leaned forward and gently, ever so gently, kissed him. Her forehooves traced up beneath his jawline and cradled his slightly confused face. "I love you..."

---

The next day dawned slightly earlier than usual - well Soarin' thought so anyway. He pulled his face up from his sheets and pillows, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he did so. Spitfire hadn't stayed over that night, but it had been one of the most surreal and perfect moments of the young stallion's life to date. Spitty had said those three words, the words that everypony wants to say sometime in their life to their Very Special Somepony. I love you.

Three incredibly simple yet so powerful words. She had said them... The mare of his dreams said those three beautiful words to him last night. He almost fell out of the bed, so enthralling was the memory that Soarin' didn't really pay attention to where he was putting his hooves. Cursing as he stumbled into his kitchen, the blue pegasus hurled several pieces of general refuse from his fridge as he scrambled to find some form of edible food. Soarin' had only moved into this new apartment two weeks ago after leaving his parent's house.

The rent was cheap, and the apartment itself fairly spacious. Although all the space was now occupied by Soarin's vast collection of junk and leftover takeaway boxes. Pizza boxes littered the living room floor, table and sofa whilst boxes stacked high from when the stallion first moved into the flat leaned precariously along the walls of the hallway, bedroom and kitchen. A large glass wall that looked out over the greater city of Cloudsdale offered Soarin' excellent views of the floating settlement.

After finding some leftover cheesy pizza, Soarin' gulped down his pitiful breakfast with a swig of apple juice before trotting out of the door, racing down the flight of cloud built stairs before leaping out of the front door of his building. The clear morning skies beckoned to him, and the pegasus responded by taking to the air. Soarin' smiled as the wind rushed beneath his wings, carassing each and every feather lovingly.

"Freedom...", he whispered to himself. Among all of the happy times in Soarin's life, nothing - excluding Spitfire - could offer the sense of complete and utter freedom that flight gave him. It was so liberating, so exhilarating, and so pure. Up here in the clouds, with nothing but the free air and the glorious shining sunlight, all the cares of everyday life just seemed to melt away. It was bliss. No more sorrow, no more hate.

No more anger, no more pain.

Just freedom...

Spitfire was only half listening to Fleetfoot's ramblings on nerves, worries and excitement. Her mind was occupied on Soarin'.

"Do you think they'll make us all race again? Or maybe they'll get us to race them. Goddess, I dunno what to do. Do you think they'll yell at me if I fail? I'm not sure about this whole thing. What d'you think?" Fleetfoot babbled to her orange maned friend.

Spitfire blankly turned round before simply replying, "Hmm?"

Fleetfoot let out a grunt of frustration and instead turned to Rapidfire. Spitfire kept her gaze skyward looking for her coltfriend. The ponies had all gathered at the famed Cloudesium of Cloudsdale, a colossal cloud built arena that hovered above the outskirts of the floating city. The stadium was at least five times the size of the Flight Academy's, and could hold hundreds of ponies at once. Large Wonderbolt banners and flags waved in the wind, proclaiming the presence of the famed flyers.

They had all been told to meet here to begin the final trial. While Spitfire was an exceptional athlete, she doubted that even she or any of her friends could stand up to Hurricane's raw physical power when it came to flight. The fiery maned mare shot a glance over to the white stallion, who was thankfully paying them no form of attention on the other side of the stadium. He was surrounded by his usual three goons, Storm Rider, Sky Splitter, and Gale Force. Their laughter was almost painful to Spitfire's ears, but she restrained herself not to go into full confrontaion mode. She was the better pony.

Thankfully, the blue winged form of Soarin' finally crested the clouds, the sun shining at his back. Spitfire beamed hugely as her coltfriend landed beside her gently. The events of the previous night were still fresh in her mind, when she had said those three wonderful words to him.

"Hey Spitty, miss me?" Soarin' said lazily as he nuzzled her cheek tenderly. Spitfire kissed him on the lips briefly, her smile causing Soarin' to mimic her grin. "Well somepony's happy to see me" he said as Spitfire leaned her forehead against his own.

"You're over twenty minutes late Soar, you had us all worried for bit". The pale blue pegasus looked over Spitfire's shoulder. Rapidfire and Fleetfoot were locked firmly together in a loving embrace whilst chatting happily away.

"Yeah... Everypony seems so tense" he chuckled. Spitfire ruffled his mane as the tall intimidating form of Tempest Wind strode towards the two groups of chattering ponies.

The Wonderbolt captain was clad in his flight suit, but had the hood lowered. To Soarin's surprise, he had a aqua coloured coat. Soarin' had always thought it some was form of grey.

"Welcome everypony. I'm sure you all know who I am already so I'll skip the introductions. First, let me start by saying well done to you all for making it this far. It shows that you have the courage and the determination to excel in the art of flight, and that you have the potential to surpass all of your peers. However, like I said at your stadium yesterday - only four of you can be allowed to join the team. If it were up to me, I'll take you all on. But due to the price of taking on new members and available placements, four is the maximum that I can allow within our ranks. But enough talk. Time to show you what you face..."

The eight pegasi followed Tempest Wind into the skies above the Cloudesium. The Wonderbolt leader circled round the ring shaped building once before climbing high into the upper clouds. What greeted them was a sight that took Soarin's breath away... It was a race track, but not one bound by lanes and oval shaped arenas. The track wove and twisted around cloudrings and slaloms, all set at random intervals on multiple levels of height. The course was well over a mile long by Soarin's guess, and extended far into the blue yonder.

Multiple cloud platforms dotted the side boundaries of the track, and upon each of the a single member of the Wonderbolts stood tall and proud.

"As you can see, this isn't your average race track", Tempest Wind declared as he directed everpony to the large cumulus where the starting line was set, "Along the edges of the course, the team watches your every dive, swoop and twist, watching for any imperfections in your flying. Speed is not the only contributing factor here, you must also be agile".

Soarin' understood why. The Wonderbolts were not a race team, they were master aerobats - and that required alot of tricks, flips and twists in order to make a good show, all of which had to be done in perfect harmony with each other.

"Oh boy..." muttered Rapidfire nervously. Soarin' put a foreleg around his friend's shoulders in some small effort to calm him down.

"Don't worry buddy, we can do this. Just uh, focus on the track... Or something... Um,” Soarin' facehoofed as he realised just how pitiful his comforting skills were. He wouldn't make a very good leader at anything.

"Okay everpony, so you all know the basics. The race will start in half an hour. Feel free to have warm up flights if you want," Tempest Wind said before leaping off to join his own team members. It didn't take long for Hurricane to start up an argument.

"I would say good luck, but, you're gonna lose anyway, so why buckin' bother?" the white stallion chuckled as he whipped the end of his blue tail against Spitfire's flank. Everypony rounded on him in a heartbeat.

"Don't you dare touch me, you lowlife mule!"

"Do that again and I'm gonna knock your teeth out!"

"Oh, are you? Well I'd like to see that, cripple wings!"

"Shut up, you leave him alone!"

For good half a minute the immediate area descended into a verbal battle of egos. Not even Hurricane was stupid enough to cause an actual fight in the presence of the Wonderbolts. But Soarin' was...

"You Goddess-damn piece of crap! Why can't you just leave everypony alone, what the buck did we ever do to you in the first place?" The pale blue pegasus ranted at the white one. Hurricane raised an eyebrow and chuckled to himself.

"Why, you cheated on the start line that day in the stadium. You threw cloud in my face just as we start-". Hurricane was silence by a hoof to the mouth.

Not even reeling from the blow Soarin' gave him, Hurricane returned the punch with one of his own, but was stopped by Soarin's other foreleg. Hurricane continued to press forwards, knocking the smaller pegasus on his back flat against the cloud. "You buckin', coltcuddling piece of crap!" yelled the white pegasus loudly. Soarin' kicked him hard the chest, knocking him off onto his back. As Soarin' moved in to finish the fight, a dark blue wing made contact with his face hard. Storm Rider struck again, this time with a forehoof, battering Soarin' over the poll. The dark pegasus was stopped by both of Rapidfire's rear hooves smashing into his jaw.

"Goddess-dammit, Soar stop it! Rapid, stop it! You'll get us all kicked out!" screamed Fleetfoot as she dragged Soarin' by the shoulders away from the rising Hurricane. The white stallion was stopped by Gale Force, who unfortunately received a punch round his own muzzle for his actions. Spitfire stood before the white stallion, her wings raised in an aggressive stance, her feathers ruffling making her look predatory. The steel glare that she gave Hurricane actually caused him to stop for a moment.

"Spitty, don't. Don't go near him, not after what he did" Soarin' called as Fleetfoot continued to drag him away. Hurricane's ears stood up as he heard him.

"Now what did I do now?" he asked sarcastically.

"You threatened to rape her, you ass!" Soarin' screamed as he battled Fleetfoot's hold. The entire cloud fell silent. Everypony other than Soarin', Spitfire and Hurricane had looks of sheer shock plastered on their faces. "Don't make those faces you mules, I know you were there too!" yelled Soarin' to Storm Rider and the others. Rapidfire spoke in a voice so cold it almost seemed to make the sun dim.

"You... What?" he whispered to Hurricane, who tossed his blue mane from his face to meet Rapidfire's cold glare. The white stallion smirked slightly as the other pegasi's eyes burned holes through him.

"Did I? I can't remember, can you Storm... Nah neither can - oh wait! I remember now, yeah, yeah... I did. Shame really, I kinda wish she almost hadn't accepted the deal we made. She looks so buckin' hot," Hurricane gloated. Rapidfire started towards the white pony, fiery vengeance clearly on his mind. As the light grey stallion marched towards Hurricane, he was stopped by a golden feathered wing.

"Spitfire, let me through. He deserves everything that's co-"

"I know... Just, don't. Not here..." muttered the orange maned mare grudgingly. Her cousin still continued to try and push past her until Fleetfoot put a comforting foreleg across his withers and pulled him back.

"I'll kill you... I swear to you" he whispered icily at the smirking stallion before him. Hurricane nodded in sarcastic understanding as the fuming golden maned stallion was dragged backwards.

Soarin' fixed his jaded eyes upon his friend. What he wouldn't give to see Rapidfire's promise come into fruition. The rest of the half hour passed in tangible silence.

The tension was almost physical, like the actual pressure around them had rose. Soarin' was amazed that Tempest Wind or the other Wonderbolts hadn't noticed the minor war that transpired on the cloud. The Wonderbolt leader returned with three minutes to go before the allocated start of the race.

"Okay everypony, its almost time. I take it you're all prepared." Everypony gave brief nods of agreement. "Good, so lets get started".

Each pegasus stepped up to the start line side by side. All ponies were to race together, and the race was only a single run through the course. Soarin' suspected it was because of its sheer length. He turned to his left and smirked as Spitfire winked at him. To his right, Rapidfire and Fleetfoot gave single nods of encouragement. All they had to do was stay ahead of Hurricane and his thugs. That, and somehow pull of several minor aerobatic moves whilst racing at high speeds. Soarin' gulped. He didn't know any aerobatic tricks other than simple things like loops. Deciding to deal with each obstacle when he came to it, Soarin' raised his wings into ready position.

He saw Spitfire ruffling her feathers, checking for any faults. Rapidfire stretched his quickly, warming up the muscles. Fleetfoot stood there like a petrified statue. Tempest Wind circled over them twice before settling on a high drifting cloud. Raising his right foreleg up, Soarin' tensed every muscle in his wings and legs. This was it...

"GO!"

With all the strength he could muster, Soarin' beat down hard with his pent up wings and pushed back off the cloud with his rear and fore legs. As the wind rushed up to meet him, his wings almost began to beat on their own accord. The feathers rippled as the air currents swept over them with a fury. The pale blue pegasi's mane stayed in its seemingly permanent wind swept spiky position as Soarin' reached the his major obstacle on the track: a massive near vertical dive.

"Oh sweet Celestia..." he whispered to himself as he folded his wings close to his barrel, bending them like a falcon. With a small flick of the tail, the blue stallion dived with breathtaking speed. In his peripherals Soarin' could make out Spitty, just ahead of him by a bare few inches. He would have turned his head all the face to face her as she flipped to her right, spinning like a bullet as she stooped. Aerobatics, right...

Soarin' thought as he came up with a ridiculous idea. Silently saying a prayer to the Sun Goddess in case he died, Soarin' simply let all his strength drain away until his body was limp. He wings gradually unfurled, slowing him down considerably. His legs were starting to flail, but still the pegasus did not reassert his strength. Let gravity do the work. Soon, his body began to reach terminal velocity - a speed faster than anypony could dive at. Slowly, Soarin's free falling form inched in front of Spitty's.

Hazarding a glance to his left, Soarin' laughed as he saw Spitfire's dumbfounded face. His smile soon infected her as she broke out in a wide grin, shaking her head slightly. Soarin' guessed Rapidfire had a similar expression plastered on his face. But the sight which greeted Soarin' next gave him a feeling of cold satisfaction. Hurricane was actually struggling to keep up with them, his white wings folded in as close as they would go without actually being tucked away. But their larger size betrayed him, and they were picking up far more air resistance than Spitty's.

Soarin' smile as he turned his gaze forward again. He almost shrieked as the track suddenly raced towards his face as the dive zone ended sharply. Quickly channelling all of his strength back into his muscles, Soarin' beat his wings incredibly hard, actually causing an audible boom as he re-caught the air currents. The pale blue pegasus shot before the other racers like a bullet, throwing himself straight into first place.

Spitfire gasped as she saw her coltfriend zoom past her as the dive ended. She let herself smile at what he had done. She actually remembered a time when they were foals. Soarin' had come up with this stupid but exhilarating idea of seeing what it would be like to fall out of the sky like a stone before quickly zooming back up. The Soarin' Showdive he called it. The yellow mare chuckled as she curled her left wing, flipping her onto at side, her right wing raised high as she glided lazily on her side, her wing looking like a shark fin. As she righted herself, she almost cursed as she saw Storm Rider somehow launch himself into second place, Hurricane disturbingly remaining in fourth.

Powering her wings to the point of them almost becoming solid blurs, the yellow mare gradually began to edge forwards until she was neck and neck with the dark navy blue pegasus.

Storm Rider turned his face towards the fiery maned mare to his right and scowled heavily. Spitfire gave him a cold hard stare. The stallion started to move towards her quickly, intending to ram her. Reacting rapidly, Spitfire flipped high above Storm Rider and rolled over him, end up on his left. The baffled stallion was so transfixed by Spitfire's amazing aerobatic display that he never noticed the large metal pole he was about to fly into. With a resounding crack, the dark blue pegasus smashed into the first pole of the slaloms that now littered the track.

Expertly gliding to her left and right, Spitfire veered around the metal poles with ease. Rapidfire and Fleetfoot joined her, both handling this obstacle easily enough. Soarin' doing likewise up ahead. The next obstruction however was much more interesting: Two dozen hoops scattered on various clouds at random intervals on multiple levels of height. Spinning as she climbed higher towards the first hoop, Spitfire saw from the corner of her eye a large white and blue shape heading straight for her. The yellow mare barely had time to flip out of the way of a clearly vengeful looking Hurricane. The white stallion set his indigo eyes on her and rounded towards her again.

Spitfire twisted round as she arced through the second hoop. The larger stallion on her tail gracefully followed, following her every turn and glide as he followed her through the hoops. Diverting most of her strength into the bases of her furiously beating wings, Spitfire managed to power through the third and fourth loops, forcing Hurricane behind her. Suddenly hearing a loud thud echo behind her, the orange maned mare hazarded a glance to her rear. Sky Splitter had tried to knock Fleetfoot off the course and failed in the process, smashing into one of the hoops. The bruised pegasus now trailed in last place next to Storm Rider as Fleetfoot zoomed far ahead of them.

Spitfire quickly did a small loop in the air before diving through the fifth ring. Soarin' was just a few metres ahead of her, but she kept a respectable distance from her coltfriend as to not distract or surprise him. She knew Soarin' kind of zoned out when it came to high speed racing, and Spitfire wasn't about to break that moment of concentration. However, that all changed when Hurricane barrelled past her golden form and knocked her to the left. The white stallion simply gave her a scornful stare before launching himself into second place. Spitfire doubted that the plothole would pay the same respect for Soarin' that she did.

"You complete ass..." she whispered under her breath, and flapped her wings all the harder as they spun through ring number six.

Soarin' dived through the seventh hoop with ease, the wind rushing beneath his wings. The race seemed to be going his way so far, and he damn well intended to keep it that way. Until a certain unwelcome sight loomed in his peripherals.

"Hey coltcuddler!" Hurricane yelled at the top of his lungs in Soarin's ear. The pale blue pegasus faltered severely, his perfectly balanced wings suddenly jerking out of position as his flaps became erratic. Nopony interrupted him when in the racing zen mode he often drifted into. Nopony!

"Hey plothole, enjoying the race?" Soarin' called back as he looped upside down through the eighth and ninth hoops, buffeting Hurricane with his wing-blast. The white stallion dived through to regain joint first with Soarin', his expansive white wings hitting Soarin' on his side as they opened out again.

Soarin' briefly considered ramming his full body weight against Hurricane in retaliation, but thought better of it. Nopony wanted a repeat of that day at the Academy's track. He could do this, of course he could. Why couldn't he? He was better than Hurricane, and he had the determination to win this.

Bring it on...

Funnelling all of his strength reserves to his wings, Soarin' leapt through the tenth ring before doing three barrel rolls in the air. Hurricane responded with a triple loop before zoomed through the eleventh hoop at almost the exact same time as Soarin'. But the pale blue pegasus was considerably lighter than the white, and that weight difference was what kept Soarin' a bare few feet ahead of Hurricane. If he could somehow keep this up, the race would be fine.

A flash of fiery gold heralded the arrival of Spitfire, the agile mare coming in on the other side of Hurricane. The white stallion was trapped with Soarin' on his left and Spitfire on his right. "Buck you two, this race is mine!" thundered the white pegasus angrily, and beat his wings ever harder, pulling out in front of the smaller ponies by a few feet. It was then that Soarin' realised that there were no more obstacles in sight. This was it. The final sprint to the finish. Hurricane's sheer strength was keeping him ahead of Soarin' and Spitfire for a long time, and nothing the other two ponies seemed to do could compensate for the taller stallion's pure unadulterated speed.

But then Soarin' had an idea... A crazy, insane, stupid idea... But it could work...

"Spitty! Our special talents! Remember?" Soarin' called out to his right. Spitfire barely heard him over the rushing wind in her ears, and furrowed her brow.

"What?"

"Our talents! Use them!"

Spitfire's eyes widened in realisation before a sly smirk crept up on her mouth. She winked at Soarin', and soon began to channel all of the energy needed for aerobatics into the final sprint, Soarin' doing likewise. The energy and strength filled Soarin's wings, and soon his feathery limbs were complete solid blurs. Soarin' extended both his forehooves in front of him and squinted his emerald eyes, with his head low and his mane and tail whipping furiously behind him. A small smile began to surface when the pale blue pegasus felt a tingling sensation run down his back and onto his flanks. He quickly glanced towards Spitfire, who now had tiny flickers of flame igniting were cutie mark.

The winged lightning bolts on Soarin's flanks began to glow and spark with static charges. This was it.

"Hey Hurricane! Hey, look at me you plothole!" Soarin' laughed. The white pegasus quickly threw him an angry stare, that immediately melted away into a look of confusing and quite frankly, fear. The white stallion said nothing, but only mouthed words that looked like something along the lines of "what-the-buck". Soarin' turned to Spitfire. Both gave each other nods of agreement. With a blinding burst of speed, both pegasi rocketed forwards.

Behind them blazed trails of golden sparkling fire and thundering angry storm clouds. Hurricane gasped in shock more than anything, and his precise and controlled wing beats suddenly became unstable. Spitfire zoomed past the white stallion first, a look of satisfied retribution decorating her face. The blazing fire that stream behind her lapped at the primary wing-tip feathers of the white stallion beside her.

"Ahh dammit, you Goddess-damn mule!" roared the blue maned stallion furiously. Spitfire only winked at him mockingly and soared away from him, taking the lead. Soarin' next zoomed in close to Hurricane, a plan already forming in his head. As the pale blue pegasus leaned in close to the white one, Hurricane snapped his gaze back to the stallion that he had made the serious mistake of crossing. Soarin' had a smug look plastered on his face.

"Ya know what Hurricane, this race is ours..." he said pridefully, inclining his head towards the fiery mare ahead of them. The white stallion remained silent, but instead started to veer towards Soarin' quickly. Looks like he was willing to have a repeat of that day at the track. But Soarin' was quicker. As Hurricane leaned in to ram him off the track, the pale blue pegasus rose high above the intended blow, arcing high and gracefully over Hurricane, who only had a look of terrified awe on his face. "See ya later featherbrain, I've got a race to win" Soarin' chuckled.

Hurricane suddenly made a lunge to grab Soarin' left wing, but with a powerful wing beat, the smaller stallion leapt forwards with a mighty boom. Thunder echoed throughout the sky, shaking the slaloms and hoops all the way behind Soarin'. The furious storm clouds roared with pent up energy, and lightning crackled and flashed within them. As Soarin' made the final move forwards, that pent up energy exploded outwards with a fury. A dozen lightning bolts leapt from the depths of the storm clouds trailing behind Soarin' and struck Hurricane full in the chest.

The blow was quick, but enough to destabilise the last of Hurricane's energy. The white stallion howled in pain before crashing head first into the white cloud built track with a poof. The pale blue pegasus laughed hysterically as he raced up quickly alongside his marefriend. Spitfire gave him a wonderful beaming smile as the two of them crossed the finish line together. As the two ponies zoomed past the posts, both immediately veered upwards, flying alongside each other as they climbed higher and higher into the sky. With some unplanned, unspoken command, both ponies separated from each other as they reached their zenith. Soarin' flipped onto his back one way as Spitfire mirrored him perfectly.

The result was an amazing heart emblazoned in the sky made from burning flames and thundering storm clouds.

---

As all the ponies lined up together, Tempest Wind gave the two young pegasi at the far end of the line a long look before smiling briefly.

"This is it everypony. You've made it this far, and you have all done extremely well. Go from this experience feeling proud of yourselves, knowing that you had the power and the agility to make it this far". Soarin' puffed his chest out slightly at hearing those words. "But, I said to you at the start of this entire endeavour that only four could be chosen. And we, the Wonderbolts, have chosen four".

The other members of the infamous flight team stood behind Tempest Wind, masks up but clearly smiling broadly beneath them. One of them stepped forwards, an athletic mare with a wispy ice blue mane. In her forehooves she carried a bundle of material. Soarin' almost leapt in the air with joy. Our uniforms! Oh my Celestia, oh my Celestia, this can't be happening!

Tempest Wind picked up two of the neatly folded flightsuits and turned back to the line of exhausted ponies. "It is my honour and privilege to welcome Rapidfire and Fleetfoot to our ranks!" The two ponies almost fainted with disbelief. Well, Fleetfoot did anyway. Rapidfire tentatively stepped forwards, gently nudging Fleetfoot with his wing. The white maned mare slowly followed her coltfriend up to the tall proud Wonderbolt captain. He handed them their uniforms softly, as if they were made of glass and could shatter at any moment. As soon as the two dumbstruck pegasi said their thanks and returned to the line did Tempest Wind glance at Soarin' and Spitfire.

"Never before in all my years of flying have I ever seen such a display from ones so young" declared the captain proudly, "and it is my honour and privilege to welcome Spitfire and Soarin' to our ranks!" Soarin' didn't move at first, but soon regained his composure and walked slowly with Spitfire up to the one pony they had all pinned their hopes and dreams on. Tempest Wind handed them their flightsuits with equal delicacy, and patted Soarin' on the shoulder as the young stallion looked at what he held with reverence.

"Well done kid," whispered the captain. Soarin' couldn't think of what to say. The entire Wonderbolt team suddenly started clopping their hooves together and stamping them on the cloud in applause, welcoming their new teammates warmly. The four best friends, the four lifelong friends, stood there baffled.

This was it. Their dreams had come true.

Gale Force, Sky Splitter, and even Storm Rider grudgingly started to clap as well, not daring to show such disrespect in front of the Wonderbolts. Hurricane however, simply glared at the group of beaming ponies with unadulterated resentment, remaining silent and still as everypony around him celebrated.

Soarin' locked gazes with him, indigo battling green. The unspoken conversation between them said more then Soarin' ever realised, and Hurricane broke the staring contest first.

But nothing about that even mattered anymore. This moment in time is what mattered most now. Their dreams had been fulfilled. And nothing in the world would change that.

No more sorrow, no more hate...

No more anger, no more pain...

Just bliss

Comments

[Commentator]

Typos,typos everywhere. Sorry I couldn't tell you which are the mistakes...but I suggest you read it through to check...if you don't mind,that is...

[Skyblitz]

1109037
yeah...i kinda couldnt be bothered to check it through. i just wanted to post it really badly
Thanks for feedback, and ill go over it soon

[destinedjagold]

i liked it. as i read, i can imagine the scene quite nicely.
well done. :)

[lillytheomegawolf]

Wonderful wonderful chapter. This would turn out so awesomely on the screen.
So far this is my faveroute Soarin/Spitfire fic. They are my second fave pairing and you are doing them justice.

[redactedandredacted]

In spite of your insistence on using the word "shear" whenever you mean to say "sheer", as well as your poor understanding of aerodynamics and terminal velocity... I loved this SO MUCH. Freakin awesome.

[Cadencegirl1]

PLEASE REVISE YOUR WORK BEFORE POSTING IT...wait that was caps lock

[Cadencegirl1]

i suggest you use paragraphs and you spell it like this:
REALIZED NOT realised

[Gallifrey]

1292732
In Britain, we spell it with an s.

[Cadencegirl1]

ohhhhhhh

[Leapingriver]

You say solid blur a lot. It's kind of bugging me. It appeared in like almost every other sentence. And the end of the race was just cliche. "Use your talent" it was a great line but idk. Gret chapter though, I'm happy you actually spent the time to describe their acrobatics and all but Soarin free falling would actually have been slower as his feathers would've caught in the air and slowed him down. But whatever. Great chap it was cute. Now lets see what happens next.
Oh wait I forgot to mention, that staring match Soarin and Hurricane had, where Hurricane turned away first. That's a sign of submission in animals, and humans as well, that was freakin awesome! I don't know if you knew that while writing it but I just loved that that was placed there!

[vullture]

A great chapter, I loved it. I did notice this though

"Hey plothole, enjoying the race?" Soarin' called back as her

shouldn't it be "he" not "her?"