The Washout Program (2e)

by AzuraKeres

Chapter 3

"So, what are we looking at here," Lightning heard her ex-captain, which would imply Lightning was formerly a wonderbolts if Spitfire weren’t such a stickler for regulations.

"This," Lightning emphasized on that word as she held out a hoof toward five hoops inclined from each other. "Is for the trick Gallus will be doing."

"Me," Gallus pointed at himself. "Alright, I'm ready."

"Not so fast, small beak," Lighting said. "You don't even know what you're doing."

"I just see five hoops," Spitfire said. "You gonna shoot him through them with a cannon or something?"

"Close," Lightning admitted. "But that wouldn't be awesome enough." Lightning withdrew a remote from a small saddlebag she carried. It held two buttons, and when she pressed a green one, all five of the hoops were suddenly inflamed with fire. "What Gallus is going to be doing is a trick I like to call 'The Phoenix Cannon'."

"Sounds cool," Smolder voiced. "But what's he doing exactly?"

"I'm getting to that," Lightning huffed at her impatient audience. She unfastened the saddlebag from herself and pushed a cannon to align in front of the hoops within yards of distance.

"So, you're just going to shoot through flaming hoops," Spitfire wondered. "Not gonna lie, I was kind of expecting more. Also, shouldn't you be wearing a helmet?

"You're always so little of faith," Lightning grumbled. "Just shut up and watch."

Lightning Dust lit the fuse of the cannon with a match and burrowed herself into the cannon. When the fuse was burned out, the cannon blasted her at high speed. Before passing through the first hoop, Lightning immediately began to twirl her body. The flames in each of the hoops latched upon Lightning as she carried them to the sky where she untwirled and flexed her body. Gallus and Smolder were at awe at the flames that coated her, giving her the appearance of a pegasus made of fire.

The flames dissipated almost immediately after she dazzled her students and then descended to the ground. Smolder and Gallus then rushed to her.

"That was so cool," Gallus voiced. "How'd you do that?"

"Yeah," Smolder said. "It looked like you were on fire, literally."

"All you have to do is coat yourself around some wind currents," Lightning explained. "Do that, and you can do whatever you want with the stuff around you. Easy, right?"

"Only if he's able to manipulate the currents that way he can," Spitfire voiced as she joined the group.

"I can totally do that," Gallus said. "I just have to do spins, right?"

“It's not a simple task Gallus,” Spitfire said. “We're going to have to take some steps to help you figure this out.”

"Why can't I do it," Smolder randomly asked.

"Where's the danger of a dragon flying through fire," Lightning asked. "But don't worry, I got something special for you."

"Wait," Gallus voiced. "Can't I try the trick first?"

"Not yet Gallus," Spitfire said. "I need to see this other trick first."

"Don't sound so unimpressed," Lightning voiced. "You have to admit that it was pretty cool."

"It being cool is not my concern right now," Spitfire said.

On another part of the field, Lightning presented her party to a long transparent pool. The group looked befuddled since the only thing they saw besides that was another cannon.

"You really like cannons," Spitfire voiced. "Don't you?"

"Ponies love cannons," Lightning retorted and then turned to Smolder. "Now what you're going to be doing is what I call 'The Crystal Boom'."

"Crystal Boom'?" Smolder raised a brow. "I don't get it. What am I supposed to do?"

"You're going to freeze that pool," Lightning pointed at the pool.

"What?” Smolder widened her eyes. "You do realize I'm a dragon, right? I breathe fire, not ice."

"It's pretty simple," Lightning said as she grabbed a large can from beside the cannon. "You're going to be doused with this and then you're going to speed around the pool. The only thing you should worry about is getting the maneuver right."

"What is that you're going to douse her with," Spitfire said as she examined the can that didn't have a label on it.

"It's just Hiemal," Lightning said. "How else do you expect this to work?".

"Um, what's Hiemal?" Smolder asked.

"It's a freezing liquid," Spitfire answered and then gazed at Lightning. "A really strong one at that."

"You sure this is safe," Smolder asked. "The cold isn't really my thing, you know?"

"It'll be fine," Lightning said. "I've done this plenty of times."

"Well that's because you had time to master it," Spitfire argued. "These stunts obviously have some serious hazards in them."

"Well what do you expect? It wouldn't be a stunt without them."

"They're just kids Lightning," Spitfire argued. "They're not as experienced in this as you are."

"Nice motivation," Lightning rolled her eyes. "I can see why you're the captain of the wonderbolts."

"Do I have to remind you who you're talking to," Spitfire stepped into Lightning's personal space and leered at her. Lightning would have liked to say that she had called on Spitfire's bluff, but that would've been the lie of the ages.

Lightning faltered yet again before the mare and mumbled, "I wasn't asking for a fight."

"Good, because we need to add some changes to these stunts of yours."

"What? No, they're perfect the way they are."

"As supervisor, I have the power to make any changes that I believe are suitable for our cadets. If you read the contract like any pony would, then would have known that."

"But, but…" Lightning gritted her teeth when she couldn't find a good comeback to make. That mare always gets the last words.

"Let's see," Spitfire tapped her chin. "For the 'Phoenix Cannon', I think we should start off with having Gallus wet with some cold water to prevent any possible burns. So, Gallus, go get a bucket of water."

"Yes ma'am," Gallus saluted and then went off.

"What about me," Smolder asked.

"We're going to have to use something to keep you warm if we're going to dunk Hiemal on you. Lightning, you got a thermal suit anywhere?"

"You haven't even seen the trick yet," Lightning voiced.

"I can already guess you're going to mix the wind current and the Hiemal to freeze the pool. That can wait until we have the suit for Smolder."

"Well that's good news," Smolder said in relief. "I'm not all that sure I would live long if you had that stuff on me."

"Is that alright with you," Spitfire glanced at the unhappy Washout pegasus.

"No," Lightning admitted. "But it's not like I have a choice, do I?"

"Nope," Spitfire confirmed and then went off to find Gallus who was taking too long to find water.

"Hey," Smolder approached Lightning. "I can see you're not liking this, but I appreciate that you're going along with it anyways."

"You heard her," Lightning said. "She can do whatever she wants to apparently. She's going to ruin everything I built."

"She's just looking out for us," Smolder said. "I'm actually glad she's doing that too. Cause I know you could convince Gallus to do anything with the way he is around you."

"He has commitment. That's got nothing to do when me."

"Trust me, him being here has everything to do with you. He really looks up to you."

"And why are you telling me this, " Lightning asked with a raised brow.

"I just don't want you to abuse his trust," Smolder said. "There aren't that many creatures he looks up to. And I really don't want him to lose one."

"If you can get the tricks down in less than a month then maybe I'll have no issue."

"Ten bits," Smolder said.

"What? Why are you betting?"

Because I can't pass on easy money."

"Oh, shut it. You haven't even seen the trick yet."

---

"I can't believe you actually mastered the trick already," Lightning widened at the two students. In only two weeks, Smolder and Gallus had their tricks so down pat that she nearly forgot that they had support on them.

Gallus appeared like a literal phoenix when he sprawled the flames off him. He then descended before Lightning and said, "How was that? Cool, wasn't it?"

"How'd you figured it out so fast?" Lighting asked. "It took me way more than two weeks to get that down."

"What can I say," Gallus grinned. "You gave some good pointers."

Lightning then turned her sights to Smolder, who got launched by a cannon and then performed a wingover maneuver around the long pool. A blue aura that was the wind current shooting surrounding Smolder blew the water in the pool up and then immediately froze. When she descended before Lightning in her white thermal suit, Smolder left behind an iced wave atop the pool.

Smolder then held out her claw and said, "Ten bits."

"Do you know how long it took me to figure out how to move those air currents where it didn't freeze me," Lightning voiced.

"Probably shouldn't have given me all of that advice, huh?" Smolder grinned.

"...You know what, I'm not even mad," Lightning grinned. "You guys have really impressed me."

"Really?" Gallus gleefully said.

"Gallus," Smolder said. "You got that fanboy face again."

"Eh," Lightning shrugged. "Let him have it. He's earned it. You guys go ahead and wash up. We're going out to eat before we get this tour started in a few days. It'll be my treat."

"Sweet," Smolder said. "But I still want my ten bits."

"Alright, alright," Lightning snapped. "You'll get your bits."

The students left the field and headed back to the hotels that Starlight rented for them with the school funds that Lightning is apparently supposed to pay back with the portions of the profit in her tour. But by the growth of her new crewmates, that'll only be a speck in her wallet.

"You really make a good teacher for them," Lightning heard Spitfire, who approached her.

"What do you mean," Lightning said. "They always had the talent in them."

"Woah," Spitfire awed. "Never thought I'd see you be modest."

"Oh, shut up, I'm just stating the obvious."

"Give yourself some credit, there was no way I could teach them all that stuff. I got zero experience with this kind of flying."

"How is that the first compliment I've heard since you've been here."

"Maybe if you were more cautious of the dangers in their stunts, I would be more open to that. Good thing I was here though, right?"

"Whatever," Lightning rolled her eyes. "I got dinner to go to."

"Treating your team to food?"

"Yeah, want to come?"

"Well it's not like I got anything else to do right now."

"Ten bits."

Comments

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Not bad. They got the hang of this fairly quickly, but then again, there *is* supervision involved here (thank goodness for Spitfire, actually being the voice of reason XD).

One thing I would advise? Some tweaking of the punctuation on some of the sentences, especially ones that are questions or exclamations. If Smolder asks "Why can't I do the stunt?" it should have the question mark there instead of a comma. And similarly, as Lightning's retort is also a question, same thing applies there too.

[Yoshifan30]

Wow Lightning You're starting to warm up to the new cadets even though you trying to act all cool and whatever