ECRL: The Wonderhawks

by WildFire15

The Immediate Rivals

Rainbow flew over the snowy airport again, looking for the right hanger. Quite a few of the wealthier Canterlot ponies owned Airships, Powered Gliders and Hot Air Balloons and they needed to keep them somewhere, but it still surprised Rainbow Dash how many and how big the hangers actually were.

Rainbow raked her brains over who her other team-mates might be, pulling her hat on further and tightening her scarf, as well as this potential other team. To Dash, the Wonderbolts had no rivals, so why exactly they’d work together with another team completely evaded her. Besides the amateur teams such as the Dodge Junction Hornets and the Cleveland Bays, the only team Dash could think of was the now zombie like Red Hawks, who she knew Spitfire had flown for early in her career.

The falling snow was making it more difficult to make out the hanger numbers from this height, especially with the lights reflecting off the snow as the sun hadn't come up fully yet, so she flew in lower and started flying between the hangers, keeping her eyes open for the right number. It wasn't long before she stopped in surprise when she noticed a familiar trail fading away in front of her.

Dash followed the lightning streaked trail between the hangers before she happened upon Lightning Dust, who seemed to be in the same position as herself, as well as wearing a similar hat and scarf.

“Why aren't these things in freaking order?” Lightning Dust muttered to herself as she looked at Hanger 10 which was opposite Hanger 17, not aware of Rainbow Dash standing behind her.

Rainbow couldn't ask for a more perfect opportunity, so she quickly jumped up onto the hanger Lightning Dust had just turned away from and quickly gave the snow at the edge of the roof a kick, causing it to fall onto Lightning Dust who yelped in surprise.

Rainbow Dash rolled around laughing on the roof as Dust dug herself out, cursing loudly at the weather.

“What’s going on?” Came a new voice with a very distinct accent. Rainbow leaned over the roof top to see a grey Pegasus stallion with deep green mane, tail and goatee beard suddenly appear out of the still falling snow. For whatever reason, he wasn't wearing anything yet he didn't seem fazed by the cold.

Dust poked her head out of the pile of snow she was under, looking up to see where it had fallen from and noticed Rainbow.

“Rainbow Dash!” She ejaculated furiously at the still giggling Dash, shaking her hoof.

“Hi Lightning Dust.” Rainbow waved back.

“Get down here.” The Pegasus said simply to Rainbow. She realised his accent was from the Highlands to the North East and his tone seemed to encourage but not quite demand respect.

Rainbow did as she was told, landing next to Dust as she finished shaking off the snow. The Highland Pegasus regarded them for a moment.

“So you’re Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust, eh? Let’s hope your flying is better than your time keeping.” He said simply, prompting Dash to check her watch. She hadn't realized she was nearly half an hour late.

“Who are you?” Dash inquired.

“My name’s Hurricane, I lead the Red Hawks and we’ve been waiting for you lass’ to show up.” He said, inspecting the two mares “Now let’s go before you two freeze.” Hurricane added before turning and walking away.

So it was the Red Hawks, Rainbow thought. A team as good as dead for years that had suddenly sprung back to life a year ago when the Wonderbolts had to cancel a performance in some distant town she had never heard of.

Rainbow Dash put the thought of out her head as she and Lightning Dust followed Hurricane past four hangers, numbered 7, 2, 19 and 12 for reasons neither could work out. Dust was avoiding looking directly at Dash, likely as she hadn't forgiven her for what happened at the academy.

Dash had to admit she wasn't surprised Dust was here, presuming the gold maned mare was going to be her team mate. Even if she was able to match her for speed, she was likely to find herself embedded in a wall well before challenging Dash.

Eventually, they arrived at the right hanger, the number of which was obscured behind a large mound of snow that appeared to have been pushed off the air strip itself. Even before the door was opened and over the wind, Rainbow Dash could hear what sounded like some pony playing on an out of tune guitar.

Hurricane opened the door to the hanger and her suspicions about the guitar were confirmed, before the familiar voice of Spitfire shouted over it.

“Knock that racket off!” She shouted at whoever was playing.

“Alright, alright, alright!” Came another voice. His accent was distinctive as well but definitely different to Hurricane’s. “Sweet Celestia, I was just trying to amuse myself.”

“Well you can do whatever you like apart from play that damn guitar.” Spit replied, sounding annoyed.

“I could work on my stand-up comedy routine.” The stallion replied, jokingly.

“If you do then it’ll be with your head stuck in the ground.”

“That could be my gimmick! Concorde: Upside-down Comic!”

“Knock it on the head, Corde. They’re here.” Hurricane said to the still out of view pony.

“Son of a gun, so they’re not figments of your imagination.”

The white body and scarlet mane and tail of a similarly aged Pegasus to Rainbow Dash jump off the top of an upturned Airship Gondola that seemed to be midway through being repaired and trotted over to them.

“How you doing? I'm Concorde.” He smiled, offering his hoof. Rainbow shuck it first.

“Rainbow Dash.” She grinned.

“Lightning Dust.” Dust added, shaking his hoof after Dash.

“You get lost among these hangers as well? It’s like some sort of deranged maze out there.”

“Yeah. I don’t know who numbered these things but I doubt they went to school.” Dash remarked, taking off her hat.

“Aye, didn't help some idiot bulldozed a load a snow up against some of the numbers. Took me about ten minutes to find the place.”

Rainbow really couldn't help but be amused by how Concorde spoke, as if he couldn't be bothered to fully pronounce some of his words. She still couldn't place exactly where his accent was from but she assumed it was somewhere near the Highlands.

“Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, front and centre!” Spitfire suddenly commanded and the two mares did so straight away, standing to attention and saluted.

“You don’t want me to start doing that as well, do you?” Concorde asked Hurricane.

“No.” He replied simply.

“Aww, I'm disappointed now.” Concorde replied with mock disappointment.

“Be quiet.” Spitfire said simply to Concorde before returning to the mares. “He may have already told you, but this is Hurricane.” She continued, indicating to the grey stallion. “He’s the leader of the Red Hawks.”

“He did introduce himself, Ma’am.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Can I ask a question, Ma’am?” Dust added.

“Spit, Dust. And yes.”

“Why are we having a meeting with the Red Hawks? They’re old news.”

Spitfire regarded Dust with an annoyed look. Hurricane’s expression was neutral while Concorde seemed to be watching the older stallion as if looking forwards to what he was going to say.

“Last I checked, Lightning Dust,” Spitfire said slowly. “they were performing regularly which means they aren't ‘old news’. You may not have been reading the media recently, but the Wonderbolts aren't as highly regarded as they used to be.

“What makes you say that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’ll let you read the papers and find out, Dash. For now all you need to know is we’re trying to improve our image and we’re working with the Red Hawks to make our presence known in the league. You two are among the best flyers to go through the Wonderbolts Academy while Concorde’s one of the most talented racers Echo’s ever seen, so first of all I want to see how you stack up against each other. You see that?”

Rainbow looked over into the far side of the hanger. The largely empty hanger had a small circuit built of clouds inside, complete with a small loop-de-loop, wide sweeping corners and a few small, twisty corners.

A balloon floated alongside the long straight, a blue unicorn with ginger hair sat inside the basket who waved back.

“I thought you forgot about me for a moment!” the female unicorn shouted back.

“All three of you are to do one hundred laps. Fly up and wait by the balloon until Maffett instructed to start.”