Long Distance Friendship

by Drag Orion

Chapter 1

Dear Princess Celestia,

Though I’m no longer your student, I am still your faithful friend, Twilight Sparkle. I know I am no longer required to write to you about the friendship lessons that I learn, but I feel this is one that I know you can relate to very well and hope hope you can send me your thoughts on the matter after you have finished reading what I have to say.
It all started the other day, when a few of my friends and I embarked on a friendship mission not together, but I think that it helped make us realize how much we appreciate the bonds of friendship we share.

“Is everyone okay?” asked a worried Rainbow Dash as she flew down to the cloudy fields of the Wonderbolt’s training grounds where three pony-shaped holes were made in them. Upon landing, she used a wing to remove her goggles and let them hang from her neck as she peeked into one of the holes to see her Captain, Spitfire in it. “Nothing’s broken, right?”

“I’m fine,” answered Spitfire climbing out. “It takes more than a few spills to take down a Wonderbolt.”

“Just a little sore,” admitted Soarin. “Well, maybe just my pride… oh, and my flank.” Fleetfoot poked her head out of the hole she was in and and gave Soarin a look as did Rainbow and Spitfire. “What? These are some pretty dense clouds.”

“Jokes aside,” interrupted Fleetfoot as she looked around the base and saw several more holes in the clouds along with damage to the real grounds around the runway and some of the trees and flagpoles. “I’m not sure how much more destruction this place can take.”

“But we’re so close,” cried Rainbow Dash with pleading eyes. “Sure you guys lost control thirty seven times already, but I have a gut feeling that number thirty eight will be our lucky try.”

“What’s the call, Spitfire?” asked Soarin.

“We just about had it that last time,” she answered. “We wouldn’t try this if we didn’t think we could do it and we’re not going to settle with ‘almost got it.’ Now let’s give it another try-” Behind her, one of the trees they had crashed into on a previous attempt came down with a mighty thud and interrupted the morale-boosting moment Spitfire had been attempting to create. “Uh, preferably before the groundskeeper sees the mess we made.”

All four took off into the sky once more and flapped their wings to maintain their altitude way above the training grounds. Save for Rainbow, the other three Wonderbolts looked worn from their previous attempts, their manes messy and wind blown, their outfits dirty and wet from crashing into the ground and clouds respectively. But in spite of all that they were all looking eager to try again.

“We all know our positions?” asked Spitfire as she instructed the others. “Crash leads and the three of us follow behind single file. We remain close to take advantage of the slipstream. When she reaches Sonic Rainboom speeds we have to be able to maintain our positions in the slipstream till the final moment. At the precise moment Crash reaches her max velocity we have to be ready to make our move. That’s the difficult part we’ve been failing at since there is no room for error, but we’ve almost figured it out. Just feel for the moment and act. We don’t have room to hesitate, do I make myself clear?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Rainbow Dash and the others answered and saluted.

“Very good!” she smiled. “Now let’s finally see if this new trick you wanted to try is actually worthy to be added to our shows, Crash. You remember the wager, right?”

“Cleaning the barracks for a month,” she replied. “But you know I wouldn’t take such a gamble if this wasn’t going to be the most awesomest thing ever.”

“That’s yet to be seen,” stated Spitfire. “But we’re all just as eager to make it work as you are. Everyone get in position.”

Quickly, the three moved themselves around Spitfire without any words between them. Rainbow Dash took the front ahead of Spitfire. Behind the two of them was Soarin and Fleetfoot was at the tail end. “Ready!” they all announced.

“Then let’s get started,” ordered Spitfire. “Crash get going!”

“Yes mam,” she grinned eagerly as he positioned her goggles on her face once more before diving almost straight down as quick as she could. Spitfire quickly followed her and then Soarin and Fleetfoot. Faster and faster they went as Rainbow Dash built up speed to break the color barrier. Her mane danced against the wind and her cheeks were getting pressed against her muzzle as the air pushed back against her. On her tail, Spitfire was following close behind, careful to maintain her speed while in such close proximity to her teammates on either side of her and the others did the same. They were all feeling the same g-forces on their body as they reached dizzying speeds.

“We’re almost there,” alerted Rainbow Dash. “Everypony get ready!”

“Feel it out everyone!” reminded Spitfire. “No hesitation! We’re getting it this time!”

“This is going to be soooooo AWESOME!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she finally broke through the color barrier. She shot forward with a tremendous burst of speed, a rainbow of color trailing behind her. At her sides, the other members of the Wonderbolts were also there moving with the rainbow of colors following them as well. Nearby, many of the Pegasi in the Wonderbolts training academy stared up at the sky in awe as the four streams of rainbows descending from the sky above.

“Oh yeah! We did it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “I knew it’d be awesome!”

“Focus, Crash,” Spitfire called over to her. “We’re not done yet and in case you haven’t forgotten we’re almost at the ground. Time for the rest of the routine.”

“Gladly,” she smiled eagerly as they kept going towards the ground and then made a sharp turn mere inches above it to shoot back up into the sky insync with the others. The four Wonderbolts then broke away from one another as they followed their roles in the routine as planned with the rainbow still trailing behind all of them. All over the area, not just the recruits in the academy, but also many of the residents in Cloudsdale caught sight of the streams of rainbows decorating the sky like nothing any of them could have imagined. Drawn to the sight, they all flew towards it for a closer look and before long, they had a full audience to their practice session.

“Alright, if we stick the landing then this is officially a successful attempt,” Spitfire informed them as they returned to group formation side by side. They carefully descended towards the landing strip making sure to reduce their speed bit by bit as they did, the rainbow trailing behind them fading along with their speed till it was gone completely. As they reached one end of the landing strip, they all made contact with it and went from flying to running as they used their wings as windbreaks to continue to decelerate. Halfway down it, they all came to a complete stop, panting hard and shaking, but still on their feet. Their manes looked even more a mess than before. All the Pegasi around them were loud with cheers and applause.

“Not that I’m complaining, but when did we get an audience?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Guess they must have seen us practicing and came to watch us finally complete our new routine.”

“Good thing we finally got it right,” added Fleetfoot. “It’d be embarrassing to have half of Cloudsdale see us wipe out again.”

“Wait, we actually did it this time,” gasped Rainbow Dash when the realization finally hit her.

“Hey, yeah! We did do it!” agreed Soarin as the excitement for their success finally erupted forth.

“Oh, yes! We did it! Finally we did it!” they cheered save for Spitfire.

“Yes, we did… once,” she reminded them having to keep her rank in mind and remain levelheaded. “That routine isn’t mastered after just one try. It’ll still require a lot more attempts before we can actually use it in our shows. That being said, that was indeed the most awesome things we’ve ever done!”

“I still can’t believe we all just did a Sonic Rainboom,” panted Soarin. “I mean we had to ride in your slipstream to be able to do it, but that was still unbelievable. My heart was in my throat the whole time and I think it’s still there.”

“Well, now might be a good time to take a nap,” suggested Fleetfoot. “If we’re going to have to practice it some more I’m gonna need to rest my wings and the rest of me.”

“Resting sounds good, but I’m gonna hit up the cafeteria first. I’m starved.”

“Hey, Crash,” Spitfire said with a casual tone instead of her authoritative one. “Mind coming with me to my office?”

“In a moment,” replied Rainbow Dash answering that way only because she knew she wasn’t being ordered to. She looked out at the audience still excited and cheering even after two of the four Wonderbolts had already left to rest and recover after practice. “I just want to bask in glory for a few moments more.”

A short while later, after Rainbow Dash got her fill of adoration from her fans, she entered into Spitfire’s office where she sat looking quite pleased herself. “I gotta hand it to you, Crash,” she praised her. “You’ve come quite a way since the Young Flier’s Competition. You’ve impressed many with not only your skills, but your passion, dedication, and enthusiasm that is not only inspiring, but contagious as well.”

“Thank you, sir,” she saluted. “Uh, all that’s good… right?”

“It’s much better than that,” she explained. “I told you before that you are a leader and I still believe that is true. Keep this up and you will make the rank of Captain even faster than me.”

“Me, a Captain?” gasped Rainbow Dash, her mouth dropping down in awe, before coming back up as she smiled with a twinkle of excitement in her eyes. “Wow, Captain Dash. Uh, what does that mean exactly?”

“Well on one hand, you have to do a lot of paperwork and handle a lot more responsibilities,” she told her. “But you also get to lead your own team. That means deciding the routines and getting to make all those kinds of decisions like the one I made to give your Rainboom routine a try.”

“I get to do all that?!?” panted Rainbow running short of breath from how excited all this was making her. “When do I start?”

“You aren’t a Captain yet,” Spitfire told her. “And just because I think you’d do a great job, the higher ups are the ones who decide all that. I can put a good word in for you to be recommended for the promotion, but then the rest is on you to show them your best. The only other thing I can offer you is one bit of advice.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“Move back to Cloudsdale,” Spitfire answered.

“Uh, how would that help me?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“You won’t get noticed as much if you spend most of your time in Ponyville and only come around during Wonderbolt Training,” she explained. “The rest of the team and I know how dedicated and hardworking you are, but those at the top would only know what you do while you’re here in Cloudsdale.”

“That makes sense, but I’ve still got responsibilities back home,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “I’m in charge of the weather and clearing away the clouds after all.”

“But that’s just been your part time job till you could become a Wonderbolt, right? There are plenty of other Pegasi that live in Ponyville that could handle the job for you, right?”

“They could,” agreed Rainbow Dash hesitantly as she kept thinking. “But I could also get called for some kind of emergency like a friendship problem.”

“Does it happen that often?” questioned Spitfire. “Cause I only recall it happening once for a problem here.”

“Well, it doesn’t happen too often,” she conceded.

“Are there any other responsibilities you have to consider?” Spitfire wondered.

“Well, I have my pet, Tank,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “He’s a tortoise, but he’s actually been getting the hang of flying pretty well so bringing him along shouldn’t be a problem. So, I guess that’s about all the responsibilities I can think of.”

“Then if you have nothing holding you back. You are free to decide,” Spitfire told her. “Stay in Ponyville or move back to Cloudsdale.”

“It sounds like a great idea, but I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash admitted hesitantly. “I need some time to think.”

“That fine,” nodded Spitfire with a friendly smile. “It’s a big decision to make, but as your friend I’m just trying to think about what’s best for you and your future as a Wonderbolt.”

“I know and I appreciate it greatly,” answered Rainbow Dash. “I’m going to go home and think it over. I’m sure I’ll have it figured out by our next Wonderbolt practice session.”

“I look forward to hearing what you decide,” she told her. There was a moment of silence between them. “Uh, is there anything else you need, Rainbow Dash?”

“You didn’t dismiss me yet,” Rainbow Dash told her.

“I invited you in here as your friend, not as your commander,” she reminded her. “You can leave at your own discretion.”

“Oh, right,” Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle and left. “You are my friend, but I have friends back in Ponyville too…”

Comments

[Xanderfox]

Dash, what about your surrogate sister Scootaloo?