To Dust

by BloomBoy06

Raindropping the news

“Miss Spitfire, may I come in?”

Normally, Spitfire would have held out until welcoming procedure was cemented, but her mind was not in the right places. She had come off the horseshoes of having what was arguably the best candidate for the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash, quit after having dealt with her lead pony. In what seemed to be just ten seconds, the silver badge had been thrust onto the desk and had not been touched since. It lay barren, untouched by anything but the papers beneath, ironically the ones which would send Lightning Dust out. Perhaps she had been too harsh, Rainbow’s wing may not have been clipped off, but looking back, it was injured enough to impede flight skills. Would that have changed anything? Odds would say no, but Spitfire had to have some form of distraction from these thoughts, however minimal it would be.

“Sorry, Raindrops,” Spitfire spoke as she returned to her senses, “A little distracted lately,” and then motioned for the teal-maned pony to enter.

Entering the room at a moderate pace, she inquired, “Dashie on the mind?” careful to add a small smirk to incite some happiness.

Spitfire responded the only way that would have fit the situation, “She’s been on my list of potential Wonderbolts for a long while, and having her just walk out the door like that…I guess I just wonder if I should have made Rainbow the lead pony in the first place.”

“What you’ve done you’ve done,” reminded the weather pony, “maybe you can fix it, but I think you were well warranted to let her follow somepony.” Raindrops felt a need to clarify, however. She had never seen the blank expression that had crossed the captain’s façade, and not wanting to watch drying paint any longer, she added, “Granted, Lightning Dust wasn’t the best one, but Rainbow needed to be taught that she can’t lead all the time. It showed that she had the will to follow orders to superiors, so at least she won’t become to haughty of herself,” the last words trailing off in an addendum-optimistic tone, hoping that the final thought would make Spitfire hopeful again.

No luck, “Even if Rainbow followed orders, at least they should have come from a more composed mind.”

“The second reason,” the yellow pegasus motioned, “why she handled it well. Sure, she can pull off a sonic rainboom, but even someone as hard-driven as herself has limits she won’t go beyond.”

“I have to admit,” and Spitfire did, “that does seem to make Rainbow Dash even more qualified,” the thought, however, trailed to even more regret, “too bad she already made for the exit.”

“Not like she’s departing anytime soon.”

“What does that mean, cadet?”

After a distasteful sigh, she continued, “Rainbow brought stuff here, didn’t she? Even though she can clear the sky with speed herself, she’s not that fast in packing her belongings. I’d say half hour at best, even at this point.”

“Even so,” reminded the otherwise defiant captain, “Trying to kick out Lighting Dust is kind of pointless at this point. Don’t get me wrong, Thunderlane’s story checked out with Cloudchaser, who complained shortly after today’s second frisk of trouble.”

“Only mentioned the obstacle course, did she?”

“Regrettably so,” and with that, the dull flame sulked back into her chair. Hopeless to answer her inside inquiry, she relayed across the desk, “I still need to hear more about this tornado that Rainbow Dash mentioned.”

The weatherpony was ready to reply, but needed to know how, “Is there a certain aspect of it you’d want to know?”

Quick to the draw, Spitfire responded, “Rainbow said her friends were caught in the tornado….”

“Why bother questioning which ones, you know it’s the mane six.”

She gawked at how nonchalantly that card had been played, “The. Mane. Six.”

“You know, Elements of Harmony and all that.”

“Yea, yea, yeah, I get that,” Spitfire shoved aside, “but why were they even there in the first place.”

“Apparently, they were growing worried at the lack of time that Rainbow Dash had been away, so they thought about sending a letter. After that plan fell through, they felt a care package would be better. However, when they realized that it might take until after the academy was over, they figured visiting a friend would be the best they could do. Definitely didn’t expect a tornado before arriving, though, they usually hit the ground if done properly – never mind, pet peeve detail – anyway, we all had to grab at least one of the ponies, though it was somewhat funny seeing Pumping Iron save the small care package.”

The captain had to do a spit take at what had been presented, “That’s a fair amount to take in.”

“I caught Pinkie Pie; I had to tell you the abbreviated version. I couldn’t comprehend all that she said in her fifteen second thank you,” and half-jokingly, Raindrops stopped to catch her breath.”

Spitfire giggled at the mere mention of Pinkie. She remembered the Gala when she attempted to make the patrons dance the pony pokey. After managing to dance to the first half, Soarin finally caught sight, and Spitfire felt it best to stop in her tracks, any more dancing would have caused much more embarrassment than had already been established. Still, in her mind, Pinkie had been the one party animal of the night, “That crazy mare. How Rainbow’s handled her this long, I have no idea.”

“Me neither.”

Raindrops thought she decided Spitfire’s mind for her, but one lingering thought halted the progress, “I guess Lightning Dust needs to be reprimanded, but Rainbow Dash was also part of it…”

“And she led us in the waterspout which gave Cloudsdale its water supply for the last year.”

“What are you saying in that?” she asked with a skeptical eye.

“Safe to say you trusted her to lead us up to 900 wingpower. We would have had it easy had the flu not been as strong that week. I never understood why it had to be exactly that much wingpower, but she managed to motivate Fluttershy to increase her wingpower tenfold. Someone like Lightning would have taken the credit upon herself, but Rainbow had the modesty to state that every small bit helps. In part, it was my fault that it faltered the first time or two, though not because I wasn’t trained well,” and then she followed with a stronger voice behind her, “we spent many hours preparing for it over the weeks leading to that. She was more strict toward us, not reckless. There was no way she could have been to blame.”

“Any other reasons that would dictate that?”

“That in addition to Lightning Dust being the one launched aside when the tornado spun out of control.”

“That explains a fair amount,” Spitfire sighed.

“But does it explain enough?” she questioned in doubt.

The Wonderbolts leader finally moved the silver lightning crest to reveal the reports at hand, having them in hoof, they were consistent with what was stated, “You mind signing here?”

“Is this the witness account?”

“Somewhat,” and then presented a few pages of details in front of the cadet, “We’ve compiled the report as to what she’s done, we only need signatures to make sure that the info is accurate.” As Raindrops went through the papers, the information continued to flow, “We go by rules of three. Thunderlane and Cloudchaser have already signed off, but none of the other ponies would comply.”

“Is the testimony anonymous?”

“Of course, wouldn’t want rivalries to form in case the claims happen to come out false.”

“Maybe you should have mentioned that to them first,” Raindrops admitted as she plunged her hoof in the ink to fortify her signature on the testimony, “I’m willing to bet that’s part of the reason nopony came out, too fearful to what Lightning Dust may do next; never know,” and she ended with her words punctuated by the hoofmark of confirmation.

“Thank you, Raindrops,” Spitfire said, “made sure I didn’t act rash to it all.”

“No problem. You have been known to act with little preparation.”

Spitfire felt a need to correct the statement, “None of us knew that the large dragon was a greedy version of Twilight’s friend.”

“…and Rarity’s crush.”

“Come again?”

“Nevermind, something else Pinkie managed to say. Comparing it to today’s incident or something like that. Anyway, are we finished here?”

“You tell me,” Spitfire replied with the most certainty Raindrops heard in the time of conversation, “You’re the one who entered in the first place.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she saluted, and began to walk out before inquiring one last detail of the captain, “Hey, don’t you normally have guards at the entrance?”

It was only then that Spitfire realized what had occurred, the conversation that took place only consisted of those two. Her guards must have tried to eat a second lunch again, making some time to talk with Soarin, all the more reason to take Thunderlane when the chance comes, “Oh, boy. I’ve gotta go to the break room to get them back. May as well get Soarin to bring Lightning Dust into the office while I’m at it, but why don’t you head on to the mess hall? You’re cutting in on refueling time.” Raindrops saluted and then closed the door, both realizing that trouble having been ignited, somepony had to burn as a result, and it had to be to the one who struck first.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So Thunderlane caught Rarity and Raindrops caught Pinkie Pie. I wonder how long until all the pegasi that saved the mane six are identified.

[i_am_the_jam]

I think the Mane 6 would be referred to as "The Knights of Harmony", given that they were knighted after they defeated Discord.