CH.8 pt.b) Full Metal Hoof
Misty Fly blew her whistle loudly, cutting the chatter among the recruits. “Alright, alright, at ease everypony. There’s plenty to cover this afternoon. First off, we’re going to go through our core daily exercises and then take laps around the track. Out on the activity field you will find there are small painted white X marks. You are to pick one to stand at for your exercising this afternoon. Once we are through what will be your daily regimen of exercise, we have a special surprise for-” She was interrupted by three ponies flying in, a recruit led by two academy cadets.
“Excuse us, ma’am,” one cadet spoke up as he saluted Misty Fly, “but we brought back one of the recruits who was with us during lunch. It’s our fault he is late.”
Silverstream saw who it was; it was Wind Raider. She and her two friends standing close by could see by the look on his face that he must have just cleaned himself up to make it here in time. He couldn’t clean off the redness of his eyes, though.
“You cadets know better than that. What were you three off doing? Causing some kind of mischief?” She eyed them suspiciously. The second cadet shook his head and spoke up in defense.
“No, ma’am, we were looking at the new memorial during lunch and lost track of the time.” That answer took the edge off of Misty Fly’s displeasure, realizing this recruit must have had a family member who perished in the battle.
“I see,” Misty Fly glanced first at the tardy recruit and then at her fellow Wonderbolt, seeing Silver Zoom shrug a little over whether this was an infraction worth noting or not. Misty Fly opted for the latter.
“You two get moving on back to class; you’re late as it is. You,” she turned to face Wind Raider, frowning, “get with the other recruits.” The two cadets saluted both Wonderbolts before taking to the air and flying back to the classroom building.
“Yes ma’am.” Wind Raider moved to join Stormbringer and their friends in listening to the instructions.
Silverstream couldn’t look at Wind Raider, she had to focus her mind on the next trial. There would be time for reflection and contemplation later. Silver Zoom picked up where his teammate left off.
“Like Wonderbolt Misty Fly was saying, we have a special surprise for you this afternoon. Some of our less-than-stellar cadets that need some remedial drill time will be joining you. That way, you can mess up together and we save the time of having to run two separate drill sessions.” Both Wonderbolts rechecked the list of recruits and did a quick head count, making sure all were present.
“Alright, newbies, find a spot on the field,” Misty Fly ordered, and each recruit stood on a spot on the grass that was marked off. In seconds, they were standing in their spots. Firebolt and Solar Flare stood close by Silverstream, wanting to be near her for support.
“Alright, newbies, let’s start off with some jumping flaps. Begin! One, two, three and four! One, two, three and four! One, two, three and four!” Misty Fly shouted as she and Silver Zoom walked up and down the small exercise area making sure these recruits were doing this correctly.
“Wingtips must be touching each-other at full extension on the one and three counts, newbies!” Silver Zoom stood in front of Gallus, pointing out his incorrect wing flapping. Doing this for a few minutes wasn’t so bad, but the session of jumping and flapping just kept going. Soon, every flyer was panting from the exertion.
This is crazy! I think I’m gonna puke! Nightflight felt his stomach slosh and churn, wishing he hadn’t been so gluttonous at mealtime.
Are they trying to kill us? Geez! How in Equestria is Solar Flare keeping up with this? Cloudy Sky could already feel his muscles start to ache, wondering if they were going to do this all afternoon.
Breathe! Keep breathing! That’s the trick! Breathe! Brightstar kept her eyes shut and focused on her breathing. Deep breath in and deep breath out, consciously pacing herself to not overexert her body. She’d done well through the first part of the day and she was determined to finish out the day on a high note by going the distance.
Solar Flare and Firebolt kept one eye on Silverstream and one on Wind Raider. Each could only speculate what they must be thinking about right then, having seen and heard what they had. A moment of distraction on Firebolt’s part got the drill instructor’s attention.
“Eyes forward, newbie!” Misty Fly got right up in Firebolt’s face, startling the mare and causing her to lose timing with the rest of the group.
“One, two, three and four and halt!” Silver Zoom ordered and the group readily complied.
“Let’s continue with some squat thrust action, newbies! Count them off as we go. Begin!” Silver Zoom blew his whistle and the recruits hit the deck, cranking through the four-movement exercise.
“Full extension of the hind legs for this routine, newbie!” Misty Fly ordered, shouting close to Nightflight’s ears.
“One… two… three… sixteen! One… two… three… seventeen! One… two… three... eighteen! One… two… three… nineteen! One… two… three…” the recruits shouted out in unison as the count continued to rise. Finally, after doing three dozen squat thrusts, Silver Zoom released them.
“Halt!”
The recruits stopped in near unison, getting into the rhythm of working and moving as one. Misty Fly added to her notes more of her observations on various recruit performance; who was leading and who was lagging. Letting Silver Zoom give the orders allowed her more freedom to pick apart each one of them.
Some of the recruits were starting to waver. “Alright newbies, wing ups! Drop and give us twenty five right now!” Silver Zoom blew his whistle, the air cracking with the high-pitched sound as it stabbed through each recruit’s brain.
Every flyer did as ordered, getting down on the ground and bracing their wings. Then…
“Begin!” All eleven of them pushed up against the ground, straining all the while to get through this drill. The two instructors drove them still.
“Oh come on, you prissy little canary!” Misty Fly got right in Gallus’ face, shouting at him, “I’ll bet you’re weakest flyer in this whole bunch!”
Gallus tried to block out the burning pain in his wing muscles and back, willing himself to keep pace. He’d rested up some during the lunch break but nowhere near enough to manage this level of strain.
“A-r-g-g-g-g-h!” Gallus made it to the top of another wing up, believing he’d blow his heart apart if he went on any further.
“C’mon! One for the commandant!” Misty Fly kept at him, driving Gallus to get another wing up done. It was pure hell for the griffon but he kept going.
“One for the Academy! Push! Get up there!” Misty Fly watched this griffon drive himself hard, refusing to give up. She could see real fire in his eyes.
“Weak little griffon.” The mumbled comment hit Silver Zoom’s ear just as he passed by a recruit. He looked down was incensed by the smug look on the recruit’s face. Silver Zoom didn’t tolerate talk during recruit workouts, even less so when it was somepony insulting another. He got right in Wind Raider’s face.
“Oh, well lookie what we got here! Some loudmouth who thinks he’s better at this then the griffon! For that remark, you’ll do twice as many as he completes! You got that?”
“Yes… sir!” Wind Raider cursed himself for that. Angering the drill instructor was not the way to impress a Wonderbolt with one’s commitment to becoming a cadet. He would suck it up and deal.
With their wing ups complete, the recruits got to their feet but all of them kept looking straight ahead, not turning to see what was going on. They could only listen. Wind Raider waited for his sentence, a little nervous but positive the griffon couldn’t have completed that many.
“He did them all.” Misty Fly announced, making Gallus’ friends proud for his having gone the distance, but also making some of them amused knowing what was in store for Wind Raider.
“That means fifty of them, bigmouth! Now count them off as you do them!” Silver Zoom let Wind Raider have it, giving him a good blast from the whistle.
“One sir, two sir, three sir…” the group listened to Wind Raider do all fifty wing ups, hearing him slow down as he went. Both drill instructors leaned in on him, so hard so that even Solar Flare cringed just a little. Finally, Wind Raider got to the end of his punishment, relieved beyond belief at finally getting through so many and got to his hooves once more. But the drill instructors weren’t done with him.
“You think this is some game, bigmouth? You think you’re so much superior then all the others here? Look at them!” Misty Fly pointed with a wing at the group.
“You think he’s just ‘some pony’, or she’s just ‘some mare’ or he’s just ‘some griff’ you don’t care about? You’re wrong!” Misty Fly pointed to Solar Flare, then at Brightstar and then at Gallus.
“These are your brothers! These are your sisters, and they’re going to save your life in combat someday, you stupid bucket of stall muck!”
Wind Raider was beside himself at being made a spectacle for the others to gawk at. He tried to look over their heads and imagine he was not being excoriated like this. He would be more mindful of who was nearby when he spoke.
“Now all of you recruits get going running some laps and don’t stop until the cadets get here!” Misty Fly sent them on a run around the track. Exiting from the classroom building were a group of cadets dressed in gym clothes, heading for the two Wonderbolts watching the recruits on the track. A rather stout looking pale-gray, middle-aged stallion with a graying mane and tail of black hair gave a toothy grin at seeing who was running the regiment of physical training.
“G’d afternoon tae ye both! How goes the training with the latest batch? Catchin’ any sassy back-talkin’ from ‘em?” The stallion’s unmistakable Emerald Isle accent loudly greeted the two Wonderbolts. He threw each a salute and gave them both a friendly pat on their backs, recognizing the former students of his class.
“Good afternoon, Sergeant Bullhorn. We’ve had them pacing around the track for the past twenty minutes while waiting for your squad to join us.” Silver Zoom remembered well the rough times he’d spent in the sergeant’s detention class. He couldn’t even begin to guess what infraction these cadets must have committed in order to be subjected to the sergeant’s disciplinary action. The score of cadets waited off to one side.
“Keh! I can’t believe we have to do this with some lousy recruits,” one of the cadets muttered, looking over at the raw recruits with contempt.
“I know. Who wants to be seen doing drills with some incompetent green newbies?” another commiserated. There was a general grumble of dissatisfaction about the situation among the cadets. They watched the cluster of recruits stagger back around and finally get across the starting line, winded and panting hard from the exercise.
“Alright, newbies, fall in and listen up!” Misty Fly ordered. They huddled in close but the cadets still purposefully kept themselves apart from the recruits.
“This is Sergeant Bullhorn, the academy’s foremost drill instructor. He’s brought with him some cadets to join in with today’s lesson. You will listen and do exactly as he instructs. Wonderbolt Silver Zoom and I will be assisting. Understood?” Misty Fly looked about the recruits, making sure they were listening.
“Yes ma’am!” They still managed to shout out a response.
“Ach, ye got some lively ones with ye this time ‘round! This should prove tae be a mite bit interestin’!” the sergeant quipped, impressed by how strongly the green recruits responded. He took control of the session.
“Alright newbies, I want the lot of you and the cadets to stand in two columns; recruits to the left an' cadets on the right. Now move!” The sergeant blew his whistle and the clutch of trainees quickly got into formation, standing at attention in single file. The sergeant was caught off-guard by the speed with which the recruits did as ordered, seeing his own score of cadets moping somewhat into place in their line.
Misty Fly and Silver Zoom walked up and down the rows, making sure each of them was the same distance apart front-to-back and from one column next to the next. Satisfied, the two Wonderbolts stepped back.
“Now, starting with the left forehoof leading,” the sergeant looked over the collection of recruits and cadets, “forward on the half-step, march! Left… left… left, right, left! Left… left… left, right left!”
Most of the recruits were clueless but simply mimicking how the cadets right next to them marched along seemed the fastest way to learn. While they tried to keep a steady pace, both Wonderbolt instructors moved up and down the lines and pointed out the flaws in either the recruits’ or the cadets’ steps.
“Eyes forward, you!” Misty Fly caught Stormbringer looking away, barking almost in his ear. They made it all the way to the end of field before the next command came.
“Company halt!” The entire group came to a disorganized shuffling stop, annoying the sergeant with their ineptness.
“About face!”
They spun about, none of the marchers turning about with any sense of unity.
“You have got to be the sorriest bunch of left-hoofed ponies I’ve ever seen! Right; forward on the half-step, march!” Left… left… left, right left!” He drilled them again, marching them all the way down to the opposite end of the field, his frustration growing at how they shuffled along, not marching in time.
“Och, for Celestia’s sake, ye march like a bunch of crippled ol’ goats! By the great Faustacorn herself, we’re goin' to be ‘ere day and night, everypony, ‘til we get this right! Left… left…left, right left!”
“Tuck those wings in closer, mister!” Silver Zoom shouted at a cadet that was lagging behind.
The cadet nearly jumped out of his skin, startled from the sudden blast of angry shouting aimed at him. Gallus felt himself tense up as the two Wonderbolt drill instructors passed by him, worried he’d get singled out for some misstep or infraction. With eyes forward and back straight, he kept in step as the sergeant commanded. Then he and Silverstream passed in front of Sergeant Bullhorn for the first time, catching the senior instructor’s attention.
The sergeant had overheard some cadets chattering this morning before class about seeing both a griffon and a hippogriff here on the academy grounds. But he’d dismissed it as the usual scuttlebutt of cadet misinformation and wishful thinking. But he was wrong. He wondered how these two non-pony recruits would react to his form of instruction. Sergeant Bullhorn went for the hippogriff first. Silverstream felt her whole body tensing up, unnerved by his closeness while still looking straight ahead.
“Oh, ‘tis a good day to ya missy Larkyn! Are you some sort of emissary or noblecrature? A spy or double agent of some kind? Or maybe you’d be some kinda seapony princess here tae mingle among we freakish sort of land creatures, eh?” He totally confounded her right then, the absurdity of the question coming from out of nowhere.
“Well, actually, my cousin is a prin-” She turned her head to look at Sergeant Bullhorn to answer but that only infuriated him. He reached out with both wings and jerked her head around forcefully.
“Don’t look at me! Look straight ahead!” he shouted, but she still tried to face him in order to answer.
“But you ask-”
“I said look straight ahead! Look straight ahead!” Again he yanked her head around so Silverstream was facing forward. “I’ll have yer hide for lunch, missy, if you don’t listen up!”
Silverstream quickly realized she’d been tripped up by a drill instructor’s method to throw off a recruit’s concentration. She had been thinking about what she’d seen earlier and that made it easy for the drill instructor to distract her. Gallus watched from a few places behind Silverstream, seeing how tough the sergeant was. He would make sure not to be on the receiving end of the sergeant’s wrath.
From across the field, Rainbow Dash kept glancing over to watch the happenings. Even at this distance, she could hear the drill sergeant yelling out commands and how relentless Misty Fly and Silver Zoom were on all who were marching. Rainbow Dash worried for her students, fearing they could not take the tough treatment of the drill instructors. She’d asked if they wanted to step back but they’d said no. Maybe she should have stepped in right then as their teacher and stopped this. This would have been more than enough of an experience to satisfy Twilight’s assignment for them to write about.
Clang! A bell’s toll pulled her attention back to the recruit flying right above her, now leaving the circuit after striking a nearby hoop. Rainbow Dash had almost forgotten what she was supposed to be doing. She watched the mare come gliding in, rolling and twisting along as she showed off her moves and then landed neatly on her hooves when her flight ran out of natural momentum.
“How was that, ma’am? Did I do well enough?” The young mare literally bounced on her hooves over to where Rainbow Dash stood, eager to find out her score. Rainbow Dash felt a small flush on her cheeks, realizing she hadn’t really paid attention to the last three flyers that’d gone so far. The score sheet on her clipboard was seriously lacking in notes and observations. She gave the mare a sheepish smile.
“Oh. Um, yeah. It was a pretty good run.” She fumbled through the clipboard’s stack of papers, trying to act like she’d been watching all along. The recruit wanted to hear more from this noted pony of fame.
“Did you see how I did that corkscrew twist through the tricky part of the course, ma’am? I thought it would make it easier to set up for the next hoop. What did you think?” She was all smiles with stars in her eyes, trying to impress the famous Wonderbolt instructor. But Rainbow Dash had not a clue what she’d done during her flight. She played along.
“Yeah, it was okay, Ms.….” Rainbow Dash quickly scanned the sheet with the names of the flyers she was supposed to be watching. The mare pointed to herself with a wing, a sunny smile gleaming on her face.
“Razzle Dazzle!” she giggled.
Rainbow Dash tried not to look so embarrassed for not paying attention. “Right. Maybe in the future you’d do fewer tricks and focus more on just going the distance.”
Razzle Dazzle blinked a few times, confused. “Um, just I did. I made it through seventeen hoops. Didn’t you see?”
Now Rainbow Dash really looked embarrassed. She was missing flyers who were meeting academy standards of acceptance. She made up anything complimentary she could when filling out her ‘observations’ and what score the recruit deserved overall for the performance.
“Of course you did! I mean, you did a bang up job up there! Why don’t you go back and join the rest of the recruits and rest up?” She gave a nervous laugh, the blush of embarrassment on her cheeks glowing.
“Okay! Thanks!” Razzle Dazzle gleefully flittered away. Even with the weights attached to her body she still preferred to fly around rather then walk back. Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe she’d gotten away with that. If anypony else had seen her slacking off…
“Hold up on your run, recruit. I’ll be right back.” Soarin suddenly stopped the orange stallion next in line from attempting his flight, and headed off towards the field where Rainbow Dash stood.
“Yes sir.” The recruits looked among themselves, not sure what was going on.
Soarin marched right over to her, seeing Rainbow Dash trying to put on an air of seriousness. But she couldn’t fool her team captain, he wasn’t smiling.
“What in Tartarus is going on over here, Dash?” He kept his body between her and the recruits who watched from nearby. None of them could see his face or hear what he was about to say. He reached out with a wing to take her clipboard away, startling her.
“What the-? What are you doing? Why is this page almost blank, Dash?” His anger now turned away from the page, boring into her with his eyes. She withered a little under his gaze.
“I didn’t mean to-” She fumbled for an excuse but Soarin wasn’t having any of it.
“This is important, Dash! The team got behind your proposal, even with the fact that somepony from Central Command is due or already here looking in on the trials!” Soarin snarled just loud enough to let her know how upset he was but not enough for the recruits to hear. She jerked her head up, shock in her eyes as she softly gasped.
He knows? Rainbow Dash suddenly felt a little sick to her stomach. She watched his eyes narrow.
“I’m still team captain, Dash. The Commander briefed me on the ‘situation’. I can’t believe you’re messing up like this with all that’s on the line right now!” The Wonderbolt captain shook his head in disappointment. Rainbow Dash’s head fell once more.
“Look at me when I’m speaking to you, Wonderbolt Dash!”
“Yes, sir.”
“You did not properly score the last three recruit attempts; why?” he demanded. Rainbow Dash told the truth, no sense in trying to cover it up.
“I’ve just been… a little distracted, Captain.” Off in the distance Soarin could hear Sergeant Bullhorn ordering the recruits around along with their Wonderbolt team members. He noticed how each time the sergeant or her teammates yelled at one of the recruits, Rainbow Dash involuntarily looked over to see if it was one of the two students from her school being reprimanded.
“It’s your students, right?” His voice lost some of its gruffness.
Rainbow Dash had no defense but the truth. “Yeah. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.” In fact, this was exactly what Twilight had been warning her about; not being able to do both jobs at the same time.
Rainbow Dash had downplayed Twilight’s concern, thinking it was just her friend’s usual eggheadedness that made her so over worried about something that was going to be so simple. But trying to be a teacher for two visiting students and trying to be part of Wonderbolt Academy trials was proving her wrong and Twilight right. She could almost hear Twilight lecturing her about it.
“I’ll bet you’re close to these two flyers; probably more so than your other students.” Soarin tried to gauge her feelings.
“They’ve only been at the School of Friendship for a few moons but it feels so much longer. Being their teacher sometimes feels like more than that. I’ve seen them grow so much at the School.”
“I think it’s admirable you’d want them to grow a little more by having them participate, but I need you here, Dash. The team needs you so we can get through this.” He tried to get her to understand. “Help us so we can help you.”
“I’m sorry if I let you or the team down, captain. I won’t let it happen again. I give you my word.” Rainbow Dash was a big enough pony to admit she was in over her head a little and needed help. This time it wasn’t Twilight or the others from Ponyville who were helping, it was her Wonderbolt team helping. Soarin could see by the look in her eyes she meant what she said. He felt surer now; he had his best Wing Pony back on the team.
“Alright then, let’s get done with the trials today. If you want, we can talk later about it. Okay? Clipper is here for you, Crash.” Soarin returned the clipboard back to her.
“I know you are.” Rainbow Dash gave him a quick smile before double checking her clipboard, making sure she had the right flyer’s name to follow on the next attempt.
“And by the way, I just saved your tail." Soarin shoved a hoof-ful of papers in Dash's direction. "You’re welcome.” The team captain didn’t look back as Rainbow Dash looked down to see he'd given her an accurate set of notes on the last three flyers.
For the next several hours, Rainbow Dash listened as the recruits and cadets were marched up and down the length of the activities field. Left, right, forwards and backwards, all the while learning how to step in time and move in unison. Rainbow Dash would not look over at the group, blocking out anything that might distract her from her duty. She had given her word to Soarin and she would keep it.
The marching around turned out to be a good distraction for Silverstream; having to focus on something rather than thinking about what she’d seen at the memorial a short time ago.
Firebolt and Solar Flare were occasionally sneaking a peek over at their hippogriff friend to see how she was doing. They couldn’t tell if she was better or worse than earlier this afternoon but would talk with her later, perhaps during chowtime.
Nightflight, Cloudy Sky and Brightstar marched right along in step, managing to avoid any serious scolding from either Wonderbolt instructor or Sergeant Bullhorn.
Finally, as the hours rolled on and sun dipped low in the west, the recruits and cadets heard the sweetest musical sound they could imagine come blasting over the public address system; the sound of a bugle playing the call to mealtime.
“Company halt!” the sergeant ordered and the entire group came to a stop in unison. “Right face!” he ordered again and the troop all spun to the right and faced the three instructors. Sergeant Bullhorn first glanced at Silver Zoom and then at Misty Fly.
“Wonderbolts, what be your thoughts on these sorry bags of bones? Ye think they got what it takes to be cadets?”
“I’d say they’re green left-hoofed newbies, but they didn’t stink that much.” Misty Fly was generous.
“Oh, stop gushing over them!” Silver Zoom gave no quarter. “Half of them couldn’t tell left from right when marching. It’s going to take a whole lot of practice to get these recruits ready for the academy.”
“You cadets are dismissed.” Sergeant Bullhorn’s detention duty for his troublesome cadets was done and the students all slipped away to their dorm rooms or other engagements before chowtime. “I thank both ye Wonderbolts for allowing us the honor of participating in today’s routine.” The academy’s long standing drill sergeant turned an eye to both Silverstream and Gallus, his withering look making both flyers shrink back.
“I’d be keeping me eyes on those two!” His voice, a low grumble of warning, made Silverstream recoil still more. She could only imagine just how tough of a drill instructor he could be on any recruit or cadet. She was almost glad it was two Wonderbolts leading this trial and not formal teachers from the academy.
The sergeant gave his fellow instructors a salute and headed off back to his office to finish up his work for the day. The almost-dozen recruits stood about in loose formation, all panting from the workout and too tired to do much else.
“Alright, newbies, that’s the end of the trials for the day. Your scores will be posted on the bulletin board in the morning along with the cut list. Dismissed.” Misty Fly was met with grateful groans of relief from the collection of flyers. Once more, every flyer was too exhausted to trade any barbs or petty insults after the workout they’d had. All of them had been run into the ground by the drill instructors. They moved off into familiar clumps of friends before departing the activities field once more.
“Thank the princesses we’re done for today!” the weary griffon groaned, plopping on the ground and rubbing his sore paws from so much marching about.
“You said it! I don’t know how much longer I could have gone on. My hooves are so tired right now.” Cloudy Sky sat down next to Gallus, exhausted.
“And just think, we’re probably going to have to do this at least two more times before we’re done with the trials.” Brightstar joined them, sitting on the ground to recover.
“Or the trials are done with us!” Nightflight, too, was feeling the soreness on his hooves too. “Never thought I could walk so much in one day and not actually get anywhere.”
“We just need a good meal and a solid eight hours sleep tonight. We’ll be okay in the morning.” Solar Flare stretched his legs again, trying to prevent his muscles from cramping up.
“That, and a hot shower.” Firebolt was already looking forward to that, wanting to wash off the grime and sweat from the day’s activities. The recruits moaned in agreement at the thought of that welcoming comfort.
“Should we eat or head back to the barracks to clean up first?” Silverstream watched most of the recruits heading off for the mess hall, all looking forward to a hot meal and some down time.
“I think we should eat first. If I shower now, I know I’ll not want to move from my bunk after I get dried off,” Firebolt confessed with a small chuckle, aware of her disposition about hot showers and how relaxing they could be for a tired pony. Her friends all nodded.
“We’ll eat and then go see the memorial together.” Solar Flare decided aloud.
“I guess this means we have to get up now.” Cloudy Sky hauled himself to his hooves, hunger driving him to get off his butt and head for the mess hall. Together, they slowly made their way to their destination, in dire need of sustenance and time to recuperate.
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Despite what Wind Raider went though last chapter he just couldn't spend one afternoon without his nasty mouth getting him in trouble, he asked for that one alright!
That drill session with Bullhorn was rough, I can see why Rainbow was worried about Gallus & Silver here with that treatment. Glad that at least Soarin was supportive to her.
These chapters are getting more & more amazing, especially with the sudden twists & turns lately, looking forward to the next one Jay!
That big mouth of his finally got Wind Raider into trouble! About time.
10064521
Glad you liked it. I wanted a tough drill pony but didn't want to use Spitfire; at least, not yet! Still have one more part coming for this chapter; more in the works.
10064777
As my editor calls him; 'Jerkface' instead of Wind Raider, has reason to be distrustful of both hippogriffs and griffons; it goes back (in at least my head cannon) back to the attack on Canterlot. It really effected him and his perception of who he felt he could trust/rely on in this world. Watch in the coming chapter or two, there's more to him and Stormbringer and some of the other cadets neither Gallus or Silverstream have met.
Ouch, all of that must've been pretty exhausting. The stuff they did earlier seems easier in comparison- flying through the rings and stuff.
Wind Raider is finally getting some consequences about his disrespect. That is as satisfying as a cup of lemonade on a hot summer day.
I feel sympathy for Rainbow. The trials aren't just tough for Silverstream and Gallus. They're tough for her too because she's their teacher who let them volunteer for this experience. Thank goodness for Soarin showing her some support. If Dash's proposal is going to work, then all three of them need to buckle down and work through this.
Great job!
10070300
Thanks so much, A.C. Hearing anypony say they like what I'm writing is a big boost to my heart. I'm getting plenty of reads on this story but so few comments, either good or bad. It's going to get tougher for Silverstream and her friends as the stress of the trials pushes their new friendships to the limit as who gets into the academy and who doesn't becomes more apparent and the pressure to perform increases. In chapter #9, there's going to be more about both Wind Raider and his friends and what they experienced before getting to the trials. I'd like to tell more, but i don't want to ruin the surprise for everypony to read!
10071799
Of course. Have to up the stakes as the process gets further. Still doesn't sound good for our heroes, all things considered. I am curious what's coming for Jerkface and his crew, though.