Chapter 1: Forming The Band
The Wonderband
Written by: Thunder Bolt
Chapter 1
Spitfire was filling out some paperwork, when she heard a sudden knocking on her office door. She glanced up at the source of the noise. “Come in.” She invited. The door opened revealing a Wonderbolt lieutenant who went by the name of Thunder Bolt.
His coat was grey, and his wind-swept mane was dark brown with yellow highlights on the sides. His tail was also dark brown with a yellow stripe going down the center. His cutie mark was a quill rested in an inkwell, representing his talent for writing. He closed the door behind him and saluted, Spitfire returned the salute.
“At ease.”
Thunder lowered his hoof and relaxed a bit, but continued to stand.
“Is there something you needed?” Spitfire inquired.
“Yes, ma’am.” Thunder confirmed, keeping up a professional tone. “But… this is something that would be better discussed if I were sitting down.” He mentally prayed that saying this wouldn’t somehow get on Spitfire’s nerves. She gave him a skeptical look, but thought, ‘Why not’.
“You can take a seat.” She pointed to the chair on Thunder Bolt’s right, so he sat there.
“Well what I wanted to talk to you about was… erm…” Thunder struggled to find the right words. “You know how the Royal Guard has their own band?”
Well, that was random.
Spitfire paused and looked up from a sheet of paper she had started writing on “...yes…” She had to process the question, since it had been completely out of the blue. “Yes, I’m aware of the Royal Guard band.”
“Well,” He called upon the courage to ask this. “I was going to propose that the Wonderbolts form their own band.” Thunder explained, hoping she would agree with him.
Spitfire just stared at him, and blinked twice, before she came to her senses and shook her head to bring her back to the real world. Did he really just say that?
“You’re proposing that the Wonderbolts form a… band?” Spitfire said each word slowly, still coming to grips with such an idea.
“Yes ma’am.” Thunder answered.
Spitfire narrowed her eyes in thought. A Wonderbolt band? That would certainly be interesting. But would it be practical? What about costs for equipment? Those issues would need to be addressed.
“Why should we have a band?” Spitfire asked the lieutenant. She hoped that he had actually thought this through, and that this wasn’t a ‘spur of the moment’ type of deal.
“Well,” He started. “It could help out morale, I think the type of music this band would play would definitely…” Thunder paused. “Soothe the soul, I’ll put it that way.”
“Soothe the soul?” Spitfire repeated with a chuckle. “What music were you thinking of playing?”
“Um… rock” Thunder put simply.
Again, Spitfire was paralyzed at the randomness of his answer.
“Rock?” Spitfire repeated, making sure she heard that right.
“Yes ma’am, rock” He confirmed.
Spitfire furrowed her eyebrows, deep in thought. This had certainly taken an interesting turn. Not just a Wonderbolt band now, but a Wonderbolt rock band…
Rock.
Of all things.
She realized she was looking down at her desk. She glanced up at Thunder Bolt, who was still waiting for an answer.
“What about costs for equipment? Where do you suppose we get the money for that?” This was a very important part of this discussion, and she hoped Thunder had thought through expenses just as much as having the reason for having a band.
“Well, I already have a drum set. I could also get a keyboard, harmonica, and saxophone. I think my Dad has a couple of spare guitars too. That stuff would be coming out my pocket.” He pointed to himself. “But as for sound equipment and cords, maybe even a sound mixing machine…” He trailed off. “That would have to come from you guys.”
“Mmm…” Spitfire thought about it. Morale booster, that was definitely good. But this was one of those things that, while she could see a clear benefit from this, she wasn’t quite sure about it. She leaned back in her chair, and gazed up at the ceiling fan. It was spinning rather slowly, she’d have to get a mechanic on that.
Wait, what was she thinking about?
Oh, right, band.
Spitfire looked back down at Thunder, who was looking around the room while she thought. She let out a long breath, and finally addressed him.
“You do you realize that the Wonderbolts are a quick reaction force for the Royal Guard? That we are a military force.” Spitfire stared intently at Thunder. He snapped his head back to her.
“Well, yeah…” He replied. “But I’m not suggesting anything crazy formal like the Guard, I’m thinking more of something casual. Recreational.” He explained himself. “We wouldn’t really be playing in front of a huge audience at a big formal event. We’d be playing once or twice a week, in whatever gym is available. Like, in front of other Wonderbolts only.”
After hearing that, Spitfire wasn’t as apprehensive about the idea. In fact, she was started to like it.. It was supposed to be recreational. Nothing more. That put her at ease about the whole thing. After a moment of thought, she finally decided to give this a go. It was supposed to be recreational strictly. She was just fine with that.
“Ma’am?” A voice called out. Spitfire jumped in surprise, and saw that Thunder was waiting on an answer.
“Oh…” She got her professional composure about her, and spoke. “Lieutenant, I think a band would be good for the Wonderbolts, you have my permission to lead the recruiting effort.”
Thunder Bolt grinned. He couldn’t believe he convinced Spitfire to go along with this crazy idea of his.
Wow. This was legitimately awesome. “Thank you, ma’am. I’ll start tomorrow.” He could barely contain his excitement. Spitfire picked up on it and chuckled.
“See to it that you do.” She said finally. “Oh, and you said the money for the instruments would be coming out of your pocket?” She asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” He answered.
“And that the sound equipment would be coming from the Wonderbolt budget?”
He nodded. “And even if we can't afford that stuff, I’m sure my dad would be more than willing to make that donation.”
Spitfire leaned back in her chair. “Okay, good, because it’s going to take a while for the financial department to sort out our budget so that the band has some money.” She explained.
“Yes, ma’am”
With that, he stood from the chair, saluted, and walked out of Spitfires office.
Spitfire sighed, knowing that there was probably going to be extra paperwork to do because of this. But she also knew that the benefits would be worth it.
Thunder stood by the break room printer with a coffee mug in on hoof. The other rested on said printer, which was humming and vibrating as it printed copies of the poster Thunder Bolt was going to put up around the compound. He only needed about 25 copies, so it was a rather short wait. The coffee was to keep him awake. He had gotten up early so that after he put up the posters, more ‘Bolts would be able to see them before ‘lights-out’ at the end of the day.
The printer spat out the last copy. Thunder picked up the posters in his mug-free hoof. They read:
BAND MEMBERS WANTED!!!
All Wonderbolts who are able to play the following instruments:
Drums
Keyboard
Guitar
Saxophone
Harmonica
Please report to Gym 5 if you are interested in joining the new Wonderbolts band. Lieutenant Thunder Bolt will be overseeing the tryouts. If you have a decent singing voice, we invite you as well! (We’re looking at you, Fire Streak)
Thunder let out a snort at that last bit. It was well known around base that Fire Streak had a fantastic voice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t often heard due to his natural silence.
“Better get going then.” He said to himself, as he took a sip from his mug. He then trotted out of the break room, but stopped suddenly. “Oh, wait.” He turned around and went back inside the room. He glanced over to the top of the printer. He had forgotten the hoof tacks. Thunder rolled his eyes at his mistake. “Nice going Thunder.” He scolded himself.
He downed the rest of the mug in a few chugs, and rested it on the counter at the back of the break room near the sink. Somepony would clean it up later. He then picked up the container of hoof tacks in the hoof that had previously held the mug. Making sure he had everything this time (he did), Thunder trotted out of the break room for the second time.
“Woah!” Thunder nearly dropped the hoof tacks as he ran face first into Soarin. However, the posters were not so lucky as they spread and flopped all across the floor.
“Jeez, you okay?” Soarin asked, concerned. He had barely moved an inch, a consequence of toned body. Thunder had to shake his head to bring his senses back, before looking at Soarin.
“Huh, oh! Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Thunder glanced down at the mess of posters on the floor. “Wish I could say the same for the, uh, posters.”
“Posters?” Soarin inquired. He glanced down, and picked one of them up. He read it as Thunder started to collect the other sheets of paper, his eyes growing slightly wider as he read. He chuckled as he finished, having read the last part with Fire Streak. He looked up at Thunder with a surprised look. “The Wonderbolts are forming a band?”
“Yep, that’s what the poster says.” Thunder replied.
“Huh, cool…” Soarin trailed off, before looking down and realizing in horror that he had allowed Thunder to pick up most of the posters during the duration of their conversation. “Oh crap!” Exclaimed Soarin. He quickly bent down and picked up the rest of the flyers for him, mentally cursing himself. “Here you go, sorry about that!” He quickly apologized, handing him the remaining flyers. “I would’ve helped, but we started talking, and… ya know…” He felt terrible for letting Thunder do most of the work.
Thunder Bolt rolled his eyes in amusement. Classic Soarin, always trying to help somepony out. And apologizing profusely when he felt he hadn’t done all he could to assist that pony. Most would take a quick glance at him, see his large muscles and assume he was a confident mares-stallion. He was confident, sure. But a mares-stallion? No. That responsibility was left to Lightning Streak.
But Soarin definitely wasn’t overconfident. He believed his muscles were simply another job requirement. After all, at times during his shows he would have to literally throw a fellow ‘Bolt through the air. That obviously required a lot of strength.
“Clipper,” Thunder called him by his nickname. “You don’t have to apologize, okay?”
“Yeah, I know…” Soarin looked down. “That’s just how I’m wired, ya know?”
“Yeah, everypony here knows.” Thunder replied with a chuckle. “Besides, you know what Silver says about apologies.”
Soarin’ rolled his eyes and smirked. “Yeah, true.”
Thunder looked at the flyers where they belonged in his hoof, and at the hoof tacks. “I think I’m going to get to putting these up, see you around.” He didn’t know why he was expecting to say that and be able to move on because Soarin immediately offered his services.
“You want me to help?” He asked enthusiastically.
Thunder looked down at the floor and sighed. This was starting to become annoying, he just wanted to just get these flyers up, set up the recruiting table in gym 5, and start a band. He glanced up Soarin, who was waiting patiently for an answer.
“No, I’m good.” He answered, managing to calm himself before he answered.
“You sure? I can actually take care of all the posters while you set up in the gym.”
While that prospect did sound inviting, Thunder suddenly remembered something.
“Hey, don’t you have a practice scheduled for today?” He inquired. Almost instantly, Soarin’s face drained of color, as he glanced at the clock on the room’s wall. He was two minutes late for practice on the newest routine. Spitfire was going to be pissed.
Soarin put on his best ‘Oh shit’ face, as his pupils shrank substantially. “Oooohhh crap! Okay, uuuuhh, sorry I couldn’t help you! Uuuuuuhhh, gotta go!” With that, he was off with more speed than Thunder had ever seen before.
Thunder snorted in amusement. He shook his head and set out to put up the posters.
Thunder Bolt opened up the door to the storage room in gym 5. He looked to his left to find a round table with folding legs leaned up against a wall. He started hovering of the ground, and floated up to it. He placed his hooves on the top of the table and started rolling it out of the storage room.
He would have to hurry, there had to have been a few Wonderbolts who had seen the posters, and were probably on their way now. Then again, there werea lot of practice sessions scheduled, so maybe he was good for now.
He had already set up a sign outside, which said: Wonderbolt band recruiting. So anybody who was interested in joining the band would be able to find it easily.
Thunder rolled the table across the floor of the gym until it was next to the door. He then proceeded to unfold all the legs, and then set the table upright. He glided back to the storage closet, spotted a fold-out chair, and took it back to the table to set it up. He sat down on the seat once it was up, and waited.
After about five minutes, he realized he should probably check the schedule. Since the Wonderbolts had practices every day, it was likely that he would have to wait until the afternoon to start recruiting.
He got up and opened up the door out into the hall. He took a left down the hall, the walls painted in dark blue. He reached the end of the hall, which held the entrance leading outside. He pushed it open onto the magically floating rock known as Wonderbolt HQ, getting a refreshing wave of cool air. He glanced right, at a board mounted on the side of the building with all the demonstration and combat squadrons schedules (Reserve squads trained monthly, and training squadrons memorized their schedules).
Thunder glanced up to see Soarin, Fleetfoot, Blaze, and High Winds practicing a maneuver in the clouds, with Spitfire hollering corrections up at them. He smirked at the sight before trotting to his right to the board. He looked it over, his eyebrows raising as he looked them over.
Wow. It looked like just about every squadron had a practice scheduled for the day. He mentally thanked Celestia for having the thought of coming up here and checking. Who knows how long he would’ve been sitting in the gym, the time being wasted. It looked like most of the squadrons got off of practice sessions at around five o'clock. He could could probably head over to workout room, throw some punches at the heavy bag, maybe even spar if somepony was available. Yeah, that sounded good.
Thunder Bolt trotted back into the gym, to find that his table, chair, sign-up paper, and pencil had not been moved. Good.
He wiped a few beads of sweat of his forehead. It had been one hell of a workout. He had spent most of the time pumping iron on the machines, and threw some hits at the punching bag for about thirty minutes, before finally sparring with Rapidfire. He was, not surprisingly, an excellent fighter. He had been a Royal Guard before the ‘Bolts, so combat was second nature to him. In the end though, Thunder was victorious, simply because he had the more specialized training.
Honestly though, Rapidfire was a very impressive opponent. He would to ask what type of combat training he received the guard later. Thunder slumped down on the chair, and glanced at the clock to his left.
It was high noon.
He sighed. He still had five more hours, and simply didn’t know what to do. Well, then again, maybe he could practice some flight maneuvers in the obstacle course made especially for the combat squadrons. Seemed better than just sitting around and doing nothing.
But just as he was about to get up from his seat, Fast Clip pushed open the door and peeked his head in.
“Is this where the band tryouts are?” He inquired, still standing in the doorway.
“Uh,” Thunder paused, surprised at the suddenness of his entrance. “Yeah… yeah! Yeah, well, this where you sign up actually.” He pointed a hoof at the sign-up sheet.
“Oh, good.” He made his way inside, the door closing behind him with a ca-chunk. Clip trotted to the table, but paused. He suddenly felt unsure about this. Before, he had figured that this could be something fun to do. But… at the same time he had his daughter to take care of. He couldn’t just go and join a band all willy-nilly! He looked up at Thunder with a nervous look. “What’s the practice schedule?” He inquired.
Thunder bit his lower lip. “Ah… well… we haven’t gotten that far on things. Spitfire just agreed to this yesterday.” He explained.
“Hmm…” Clip appeared deep in thought. Thunder didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but he didn’t want a potential band member to slip through his hooves.
“If you want, I could just put your name down. If it doesn’t work out, you don’t have to worry about a commitment.” He offered. Clip seemed to perk up at this.
“Ok. That’s sounds good. Go ahead and do that.” Clip replied. As Thunder began writing down his name, he explained himself. “It’s just that I’m a single dad, and I’m kind of trying to raise my three year old daughter. I’m just thinking of her.”
“Really?” Thunder stopped writing so that he could confirm what he just said. Clip nodded.
“Yeah, ex left me ‘bout a year ago…” He said, adding a sigh right after. Thunder cringed at this information.
“Jeez, sorry to hear that.”
“Eh, I’ve gotten over her.” He waved a hoof dismissal. “I’m just concerned about my kid now.”
“Mmm… that’s good.” Thunder then remembered something important. “Oh! Hey, what instrument do you play?” He inquired.
“Guitar.” Clip put simply.
“Alright, I guess I’ll talk to Spitfire when I get enough sign-ups.” He said as he wrote down Clips instrument. “Then I’ll be able to get a solid practice schedule.” He looked up at him. “See you around?”
“Yup.” Fast Clip then headed out the door, leaving Thunder alone again.
“HIYA THUNDER!”
“Geeyah!” Thunder fell off the chair flat on his face. He quickly turned around to lie on his back, seeing Surprise sitting on the seat he had just fallen from, very casually. As if she didn’t just caused a fellow Wonderbolt to possibly injure himself. He grunted as he lifted himself off the ground with his wings.
After dusting himself off, he dropped to the floor. With a more than slightly annoyed expression on his face, he gave Surprise a ‘you have five seconds to get out of my chair before I wallop you’ look. She just giggled and did a backflip, landing squarely on her hooves. The sound of the impact echoed throughout the gym.
“Sooooooo, heard you starting a band!” Surprise said excitedly. He hovered into the air and got right in Thunder’s face, causing him to lean his head back a little.
“Uhhhh… yeah…” He replied apprehensively. He glanced around the room nervously, uncomfortable with the mares assault on his personal bubble. She seemed to pick up it and backed up slightly, still hovering. Her smile remained. “So, do you play anything?” Thunder asked. He really hoped Surprise wasn’t here to just annoy him.
“Oh yeah! Absolutely! I play Old Maid, Poker, Buckball, Halo 3…” She started naming off random games. Thunder blinked in confusion, and held up a hoof to stop her.
“No, no, not… games.” He corrected. “Instruments. Do you play a musical instrument?” Thunder tried not to wonder why she started naming something as random as that. Best not to try and figure out Surprises mind. For the sake of your sanity. (Wonderbolt equivalent to “Pinkie being Pinkie”)
“Ohhhh… yeah! Totally!” Surprise answered. She shifted her wings, so that she started spinning in the air. Round and round and round, until she became an unrecognizable blur. She suddenly stopped midair. Seemingly from nowhere she had gotten a saxophone with a neck strap around her neck, and a harmonica in her mouth.
Surprise tried to speak, but the words went through the harmonica and came out as the trademark distorted wheezes of the instrument. She spat it out into her free hoof, and looked down at Thunder with a smile. “I can play the harmonica and saxophone!” She exclaimed.
Thunder just stared at the hovering mare. Where did she get the instruments from? You know what? No. He remembered that he didn’t want to figure out anything that had to do with her. He really didn’t want a part of that headache.
“Oh… uh… yeah, okay, good.” Thunder stuttered as he tried and failed to form a complete sentence. “Just… sign up over… there.” He pointed a hoof at the table, where the sign-up sheet lay. Surprise folded her wings and landed on the ground with a loud THUNK.
Thunder did a double take when he realized that Surprise’s instruments were gone. Without noticing his apparent shock, Surprise happily trotted up to the sign-up sheet and looked down at it. A massive grin spread across her face as she saw that Fast Clip’s name was also on the sheet.
“Oh! That’s so cool! Fast Clip signed up? I didn’t even know that he played-” Her eyes widened but her smile remained. “-guitar!?” She gasped dramatically. “That. Is. Awesome!”
She started giddily writing down her name, and the instruments she played. She looked at Thunder and grinned. “Hope you get everybody you need! Bye!” With that, she literally took off like a bullet from a high-caliber rifle. The only thing she left behind was a cloud that was in her shape, before that dissipated into thin air. As the cloud settled, the gym door closed slowly. Thunder could only assume that had been the way Surprise exited the room.
Thunder… well… he just decided to sit back down and let the shock of that encounter wear off.
He glanced up at the clock to see the time was nearly half past noon. Thunder’s eyebrows raised up in surprise as he remembered that it was almost lunch time. Actually, now that he thought of it, he was getting pretty hungry.
As Thunder opened up the left double-swing door to the mess hall, his nose got hit by a flurry of smells. He couldn’t quite place a name for every single one, though he didn’t really care to. His hunger had grown as he made his way across base to here. As he stepped into the sandwich line, he decided to get something simple: A B.L.T., and some water.
After he had gotten his food, he paused for a moment to sweep his gaze across the large space. By this time, a lot of the Wonderbolts had halted practices for the lunch break. And there were still ‘Bolts coming into the mess hall. He was looking for one mare in particular… and he saw her, sitting at one the tables on the far wall.
Blue poofy mane. Frost white coat. It was High Winds.
Thunder smiled as he made his way through the mild confusion of eating ponies. When he got cornered in his path, he took to the air and gently glided over to their table.
“Hey Windy,” He greeted, as he set himself down at the table. He took a seat beside her.
“Yo.” She replied simply, before wolfing down an apple she had started to eat. Thunder waited for her to finish the morsel, before continuing the conversation.
“So… I saw you up with Clipper, Flapfoot, and Slowpoke. You looked pretty good.”
“Mmm, thankth.” She replied, her mouth full of food.
“Anymore crap Fleur or Blueblood trying to pull?” He asked with a chuckle. He referred to the two candidates competing for votes in this year’s election for becoming Canterlot’s delegate in parliament.
High Winds finished munching on the apple, and let out a loud belch. Thunder leaned his head back, it was so loud. Winds glanced at Thunder.
“Eh, thame old. Fleur is lying her ass off, and Blueblood is still chanting ‘build a wall’, and ‘keep the breezies out of Equesthria’, and all that crap.” She complained, speaking in a lisp.
One would have a lot of trouble understanding the mare when meeting her for the first time. But these two had spent a lot of time together during recruit training. Therefore, Thunder Bolt was able to understand a lot of what she said.
“Same old?” Thunder asked.
“Thame frickin’ old.” Winds confirmed.
The two pegasi continued to eat their meals, before High Winds seemed to remember something. “Oh yeah, I thaw those pothers out there. We got a band now?” She inquired.
“Mm hm.” Thunder nodded. “Do you know anybody who can play any instruments?” He asked.
High Winds put on a big smirk. “Well, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I am a pretty darn good keyboard player.” She smiled widely.
“You’re a keyboard player?” Thunder was curious, she had never mentioned any sort of musical ability she might have had. In response, she nodded with pride in her face.
“Yeah, and I wath justh wondering if I could sign up?” She sounded pretty excited to do it. Maybe she just wanted to brush the cobwebs off her skills, or maybe it was all in the name of good fun. But whatever it was, Thunder was just glad he had all the proper band members in place.
“Yeah, of course you can join. I’ll just need to put your name and instrument in my sign-up sheet and you should be good to go.” Thunder nodded.
“Cool.” High Winds replied with a grin. She turned back to the table to resume eating. As Thunder bit into his B.L.T., Winds suddenly cracked a smirk. She tapped a hoof on his shoulder. He glanced at her from his sandwich.
“There ith actually thomething pretty funny that happened.” She started giggling. Thunder’s mouth was full, chewing his sandwich. He simply nodded at her to show he was paying attention.
It appeared that whatever High Winds wanted to say was hilarious, because she could barely contain her laughter. “Okay, tho at one of the debateth a while ago, Fleur was theen wearing-” She chuckled heartily before continuing. “-an ear piece!” She slammed her hooves against the table and let loose a barrage of laughter. Thunder just gave her a puzzled expression. He swallowed the chunk of sandwich he was chewing.
“Wait. What?” He tilted his head in confusion.
Winds managed to get her laughing under control before turning to her friend. “Okay, tho I have a friend who workth for the Canterlot Timeth.” She explained. “And she thent me a bunch of pictureth from one of the debateth from a while ago.”
“Okay.” Thunder put his elbow on the table and rested his cheek on his hoof as he listened.
“And you can see that she hath an ear piece in one of her ears!” She exclaimed excitedly. Winds giggled again in spite of herself. “And thath not even the beth part! After the pictureth went up in the paper, her perthonal thecurity actually banned any press from getting shots at that angle.”
Thunder eyebrows shot up to the top of his head. He grinned smugly and snickered. Boy, he knew Fleur was a liar, but he didn’t think she had to be spoon fed information in debates. Plus there was all the talk of her health problems. It was a wonder she was still allowed to run.
Of course, there was probably some sort of inner conflict going on in the government over that. Probably the only reason she was still able to run was that if she did get elected, she’d be the first female delegate for Canterlot. God, listening to High Winds talk about politics never got old.
He looked up at the clock. It was getting close to 1:15, meaning the end of the lunch break.
“Welp, I should probably get back to recruiting.” He said as he finished his sandwich, and jugged down the rest of his water. “Nice talking to you.”
“Yep.” Winds replied. Thunder then brought his hoof up, while Winds brought her hoof down. The two hooves met with a CLOP. Then Thunder brought his hoof down, and Winds brought her hoof up, and they met again with a loud CLOP. They finished their secret hoofshake with with a hoof bump.
With that, Thunder got up from the table with his wings. He glided over to the trash can/tray and dish drop-off. He placed the dishes and tray in the drop-off above the trash. Finally, he hurried back to the gym to get back to his recruiting.
Author's Note
Alright, so... welcome to my first one-shot!
This shall be the first of a series of short stories centered around the Wonderbolts.
Also, if you care, here is a picture of Thunder Bolt.
And his cutie mark.
And in case your wondering who Fast Clip is, he was one of the flight instructors beside Spitfire in 'WonderBolt Academy'
Thanks for reading! Next chapter should be out soon.
