Second Best
****
Lightning Dust stood at ease waiting for Spitfire to finish autographing a small remaining pile of Wonderbolts posters.
It hadn’t been a long wait, but waiting in general was pretty grueling for the cyan pegasus. Waiting in the captain’s office was especially maddening given the last time she was here she received a pretty epic dressing down for endangering personnel and civilian lives with her tornado stunt.
Shortly (though it felt like hours to Lightning Dust), Spitfire pressed a hoof print to the final poster and added it to her finished pile, finally looking up from her desk.
“I suppose you’re wondering why I called you here.”
Lightning Dust paused. She was wondering actually. She knew very much she was on thin ice, and had behaved accordingly. She had diligently followed every order and avoided any risk taking, so why..?
“Have I done something wrong, ma’am?”
Spitfire sighed, “No, newbie, you haven’t.”
“Then I don’t understand, ma’am. If I haven’t done anything wrong, then…”
Spitfire tapped her hooves together as she peered at Lightning Dust through her aviator sunglasses, “I’ll get straight to the point. You and Rainbow Dash are an unstoppable team, but I think you two can be better.”
Lightning Dust grimaced, “Do you think I’m holding Rainbow Dash back?”
Spitfire sighed again, and rested her head on a hoof. She knew this was going to be difficult to explain. “Not exactly.”
“Well ma’am,” Lightning Dust began, allowing some annoyance to seep into her voice, “what, exactly do you mean.”
Spitfire narrowed her eyes, she probably shouldn’t let that slide, but she was going to have to show some diplomacy if she wanted any results out of this talk. Spitfire took off her sunglasses and set them on her desk, stood up from her chair, and slowly trotted to the other side.
“You two are good, very likely the best set of cadets this academy has ever seen, but I think you two can be better. Ever since the incident with the tornado…”
Lightning Dust winced, she knew that would come up.
“…I don’t think you’ve been reaching your full potential.”
“With all due respect, ma’am, you told me not to be reckless.”
Spitfire gave her third sigh, she knew that would come up. “You don’t have to be reckless to be good, cadet.”
“Apparently my best and reckless are one in the same.”
That was the last straw, “Stow that nonsense, right now, newbie. You’re good. You can be better. If you think your best requires endangering your lead-pony, other ponies, or yourself, then you might as well leave this academy right now. Am I making myself clear?”
Lighting Dust took a couple short, shallow breaths, “Yes.”
Spitfire moved her face within inches of Lightning Dust’s, “Yes, what?” she asked with a growl.
Lighting Dust backed down. “Yes, ma’am!” she said with a salute.
Spitfire nodded, “Good. Dismissed.”
Lightning Dust wordlessly left the office. It definitely could have gone better, but like pretty much every pegasi at the academy, becoming a Wonderbolt was her dream. She started the long flight down the hallway, but was stopped by a familiar face.
“Hey Lightning Dust. Spitfire wanted to see you, too?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Lightning Dust replied.
Rainbow Dash cringed, she had tried to talk to Lightning Dust after the incident, forgave her even. At first she thought Lightning Dust had taken it well. Lightning Dust had, after all, dutifully taken her position as wing-pony without so much as a complaint. However, it soon became apparent that things weren’t okay between the two. Lightning Dust was too dutiful. Calling Rainbow Dash ‘ma’am’ was an unpleasant reminder that the cyan pegasus still resented what happened.
“Hey, um…” Rainbow Dash searched for something to say, asking Lightning Dust to stop calling her 'ma’am' hadn’t panned out so far. “Good job out there, today,” Dash offered.
“Not good enough, apparently," Lightning Dust mumbled as she continued on her way past Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash looked back at her wing-pony quizzically, happy she didn’t get another “Yes, ma’am” for a change, but not sure what to make of that last statement.
Rainbow Dash made her way to Spitfire’s office.
Spitfire was waiting behind her desk, glasses still resting on its surface.
Rainbow Dash saluted, “Reporting as ordered, ma’am!”
“You’re late, cadet.”
“Yes ma’am. Sorry ma’am. I have no excuses ma’am.”
“Did you see Lightning Dust on your way in?”
Rainbow Dash paused “…Yes ma’am.”
Spitfire sighed again. Sorting out attitude problems wasn’t her forte, but it was also a crucial part of the academy and she’d need help if she wanted results.
“At ease, cadet.”
Rainbow Dash lowered her salute.
“You can speak freely.”
“Erm…yes ma’am,” Rainbow Dash responded with no small amount of confusion in her voice.
“Did Lightning Dust have anything to say?”
“Not a lot…ma’am.”
“Just call me Spitfire for now, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yes, ma’am…I mean Spitfire…”
“…”
“Ma’am.”
Spitfire allowed herself a little grin. Rainbow Dash and she had met a few times before the academy, and she had noted the rainbow haired pegasus didn’t seem to have an issue with going up and talking to her then. The academy had changed that dynamic quite a bit. It wasn’t surprising Dash would have issues reverting after weeks and weeks of training.
“So…” Spitfire continued, “Of what little she had to say, what did she say?”
“Just something about not doing good enough, maSpitfire.”
“How do you think she’s doing?”
“We’ll, we’re an unstoppable team. Just like you wanted.”
“Rainbow Dash, you know that’s not what I asked.”
“Sh…She’s not the same now…” Rainbow Dash stammered out. “…Is she?” she added, hoping for confirmation she wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Spitfire folded her forelegs in front of her on top of her desk and leaned her head on them, slumping in her chair. “No, she’s not.”
“I’m…I’m not sure what to do…” Rainbow Dash admitted.
Spitfire sat back up, “I have an idea, but I’ll need your help.”
“Are you kidding me? Count me in. If I have to hear one more ‘yes, ma’am’ from her, I might actually hand her my lead-pony pin just to shut her up.”
Spitfire chuckled, “That’s very diplomatic of you.”
“It was a lot nicer sounding than what I was actually thinking of doing…” Rainbow Dash admitted with a wry grin.
Spitfire laughed out loud.
Rainbow Dash loosened the tension in her body, finally starting to feel a little more relaxed around her captain.
Spitfire came around her desk and threw a yellow foreleg around Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, she pointed at the light blue pegasus with her other hoof, “I think we can break through to her by appealing to her competitive nature.”
“Well, we’re already leagues above the other pairs.”
“Not them. You. I want Lightning Dust to compete with you.”
“Well that won’t work because I’m leagues above her.”
Spitfire fought the urge to warn Rainbow Dash about her attitude problem, she did grant her permission to speak freely after all.
Spitfire removed her hoof, but maintained a smile, “I know you’ll give her a run for her money. I’m counting on it. I just need to make sure you keep her from doing anything stupid. Like creating a typhoon that might take out the academy, stuff like that.”
“You can count on me.”
Spitfire nodded, “Dismissed.”
Rainbow Dash turned to exit the office, as she opened the door she flinched slightly as Spitfire called out, “Leagues above her, huh?”
Rainbow Dash turned her head with a small smile, “Well…maybe just one…”
Spitfire rolled her eyes but still managed to keep her smile, “Just remember to keep a lid on that attitude, cadet.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
***
Lightning Dust stood at attention with her lead-pony and other cadets. She was still conflicted about what, exactly, she needed to do at this point to prove herself. Didn’t look like today would be the day either. From the looks of things, they were simply in for another flag hunt.
“Alright, so I know you’ve all done the flag hunt before, however we’re going to try something a little different,” Spitfire began.
Lightning Dust caught the hints of a smile on the corners of Rainbow Dash’s face. Something was up.
“Blue teams and red teams will remain the same…”
There was a series of groans from the red team. Competing with Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust was essentially the same as losing.
Spitfire fixed the red team with a glare, causing the team to tense back up into position.
Spitfire continued, “What’s different is that lead-ponies and wing-ponies are not required to stick together.”
Lightning Dust felt a playful nudge from Rainbow Dash. She turned to see the light blue pegasus sporting a competitive grin. A grin she slowly began to match.
Who knows, maybe this was her chance to finally show up Rainbow Dash.
“Everyone understand?” Spitfire asked to the nods of her cadets.
“Good,” Spitfire blew her whistle and the pegasi were off in all directions.
***
Lightning Dust smiled to herself, feeling free for the first time in weeks. It felt good to not be chained to another pony, good to finally show what she was capable of without the constant concern that she’d slip up somehow, and end up back in front of the captain’s desk.
She caught a rainbow colored streak out of the corner of her eye, as it dove towards a flag and plucked it in flash.
Right! No time to dwell on her new found freedom. She was competing with Rainbow Dash now, and if anyone here could give her some competition, it was Dash.
She spotted a flag and dove, snagging it in her mouth, then zooming back up into the sky to spot the next.
She heard a forceful, “YEAH!” and looked to see Snowflake rapidly moving his bulk on a flag.
Oh no you don’t! She thought, racing towards the flag, snatching it a split second before Snowflake, the force of her speed causing him to spin out of control a bit.
Whoops, I hope no one saw that. She thought, risking a glimpse to make sure the muscly pegasus was alright.
She continued her hunt, snagging two and even three at a time, awkwardly carrying the collection of flags in her mouth, and depositing them in front of Spitfire.
Soon the field was clear.
“18…19…20,” Spitfire counted out, favoring Lightning Dust with a smile, “Not bad. You might have actually beat everypony else.”
Lightning Dust grinned, no way Rainbow Dash was going to beat…
“Jush a sheccond, ma’aam,” Rainbow Dash uttered, trying to keep her mouth around the five flags she was holding.
She dropped her sizable pile of flags at Spitfire’s feet.
Spitfire and Lightning Dust looked mildly surprised at the haul. The fact that Rainbow Dash could still manage stable flight at the speeds she took and carry that much was definitely praiseworthy.
“My friends are always telling me I have a big mouth,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile.
Spitfire looked at her clipboard, and began her count.
Lightning Dust’s heart immediately began to sink.
“18…19…20…21…22,” Spitfire counted. Spitfire looked up from her clipboard with a smile, “You two collected almost all the flags for your team, there were 50 out there for each. Nice work.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am,” Rainbow Dash replied.
Lightning Dust remembered herself, and said, “Yes, ma’am.”
***
Spitfire stood in front of a vertical cloud wall and looked over her cadets. The cloud glowed a light blue and seemed to go up for quite some distance, with air currents moving swiftly downwards.
“Listen up, newbie’s, this next task is no joke,” Spitfire rapidly flapped a wing against the cloud wall, revealing there was a solid wall with spider web cracks, the wall itself seemed to be emanating the light blue glow. “Welcome to, ‘The Wall’.
“Unicorn magic keeps this wall afloat, and the cloud stream offers some form of a buffer, but…” To demonstrate, Spitfire hovered to a red line a few meters in front of the wall, she pulled a small rock from a pocket and rocketed it at the wall with a flap of her wing. There was a resounding ‘crack’ as the rock hit the wall at full force.
There was a series of gulps and murmurs from the cadets.
Spitfire continued, “Your task is accelerate up to this redline then shoot up the vertical cloud before you crash into it. This is about speed and control, but also knowing your limits.” Spitfire shot a quick glance at Lightning Dust, “Do NOT push yourself faster than you think you can reasonably recover from. This wall has cut many a trainee’s time here short.”
Spitfire now turned directly to Lightning Dust, “Lightning Dust. You’re up.”
Lightning Dust got into position.
Spitfire made a quick prayer that she wasn’t about to send a pony to the infirmary…or the morgue.
“Go!”
Lightning Dust accelerated to a blur of cyan and gold. She quickly crossed the red line and arched her trajectory up, hard. She held her breath as she felt the clouds tickle her underside, but she flapped hard against the wall and kept shooting up.
Soon, she was in front of Spitfire again.
“Great speed, Lightning Dust,” Spitfire said with a smile. “A tad closer than I’d like to see to the wall,” Spitfire qualified while lowering her sunglasses so Lightning Dust could get the full impact of her mildly disapproving expression, “but good otherwise.”
Lightning Dust allowed herself a proud smile. “Thank you, ma’am,” she answered.
Spitfire turned to the rainbow maned pony, “Rainbow Dash, you’re next.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and shouted, “Ready!”
“Go!”
In a rainbow colored flash, Dash was over the line and then shooting up the wall, almost changing her angle on a dime. The force of her speed disturbing the cloud flow against the wall, forcing it to dissipate.
The other cadets gasped as Rainbow Dash returned to the visibly shaken group.
“Uh, what’s everypony looking at? Did I clip a wing or somethin’?” Rainbow Dash looked herself over for injury as her fellow cadets pointed to the wall behind her.
Without the cloud cover the wall was an imposing mass covered with painful and even lethal looking impact marks from other’s who challenged the wall and came out losers.
Even Spitfire gawked at it, the wall had been a part of Wonderbolts training for decades, possibly centuries before she even joined the force, she herself had almost added marks of her own, but she’d never seen more than a glimpse of it without the cloud cover.
“Whoops,” was all Rainbow Dash had to say, herself starting to look a bit easy looking up at what appeared to be a monument to untimely injury and death.
Spitfire paused, “Sorry cadets, no more wall for today…”
The cadets breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Spitfire walked over to one of her sunglasses wearing assistants, “Get ahold of the Unicorn branch and ask them to get that thing off my training facility. ‘The Wall’ can just be a vertical cloud from now on, and I’ll just scream at anyone who screws up.”
Her assistant nodded and flew off.
Spitfire turned to see Rainbow Dash staring right at her.
“What is it, Rainbow Dash?”
“I’m…sorry, ma’am,” Dash offered.
“For what? Breaking all existing records so badly that we now need to retire this primeval training tool? Don’t be. Heck, I think I just might have them make a plaque with your name on it to put in the thing before it ends up in a war museum somewhere…”
Rainbow Dash beamed with pride.
Lightning Dust quietly gritted her teeth.
***
“Alright Cadets. This next challenge is a simple routine course.”
Lightning Dust looked over a number of cloud columns, neatly lined up in a line.
“Simply weave back in forth between the clouds, then” -- Spitfire pointed up to a handful of clouds in the air above the group.-- “I want to see those clouds up there spinning. Once that’s done, simply report back to me. Once again, lead-ponies and wing-ponies will be separate."
Lightning Dust smiled, this looked easy, and she had a leg up she was quite certain the other’s didn’t…
“You’re up, Lightning Dust,” Spitfire commanded.
Lightning Dust got into position.
“Go!”
Lightning Dust was off like a bullet, expertly weaving through the columns within seconds, and quickly arching her flight path up into the sky. Quickly she’d get a cloud spinning fast enough to keep going to get the next, and the one after that.
Soon she was standing in front of her captain who gave her a smile as she clicked a hoof against her stopwatch.
Spitfire signaled for her crew to stop the spinning of the clouds, and soon the course was reset.
“Rainbow Dash, you’re up.”
Rainbow Dash smiled confidently and leaned into position.
“Go!”
The other ponies looked on in awe as a Rainbow blur flew through the columns, the rainbow streak that followed the pony creating the only visual confirmation that she was weaving in and out of the columns as commanded.
Soon she shot straight up into the sky, without so much as having to arch her trajectory.
Clouds became blurs of spinning rainbow colors.
Within seconds of starting, Rainbow Dash was standing in front of her captain who favored her with a proud smile.
Lightning Dust looked furious.
“Ah, Captain? I don’t think this was a fair race….” Rainbow Dash began.
“Oh? Why’s that, newbie?” Spitfire asked with a raised eyebrow.
“This was sorta part of my routine for the Young Flyers Competition, remember?”
Spitfire looked surprised, she knew the simple course was familiar, but she couldn’t place from where. Rainbow Dash’s Sonicrainboom was by far the most memorably part of that day. She had forgotten entirely that Rainbow Dash actually had a course before that.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” Lightning Dust shouted.
The other two pegasi turned to face her, Lightning Dust’s face had started to flush with anger.
“Sorry trainee, this was my bad,” Spitfire admitted. “Tomorrow we’ll…”
“Set something else up to prove that Rainbow Dash is better than me in every way possible?” Lightning Dust offered angrily.
Spitfire clenched her teeth deciding between mercy and punishment for her cadet. Spitfire did feel like she had screwed up, but it wasn’t Lightning Dust’s place to question her.
Lightning Dust managed to calm herself down long enough to get out a, “Permission to be dismissed, ma’am.”
Spitfire removed her sunglasses with one hoof and rubbed a frustrated hoof at the space between her closed eyes. “Dismissed,” She answered.
Lightning Dust took off in a flash.
“I uhh…should probably go after her…” Rainbow Dash offered.
Without moving her hoof, Spitfire said, “Yes, that would probably be best.”
Rainbow Dash was up and after Lightning Dust in an instant, “Lightning Dust! Wait up…”
Spitfire sighed.
Why does managing attitudes have to be so hard?
***
Lightning Dust took long breaths. She was pretty worn out before she took off, and had fled quite far.
She laid down on an errant cloud and looked out into the sky. Celestia was in the last stages of lowering the sun, and the day had gone from a bright blue to a fiery orange as twilight overtook the sky.
Her ears perked up at the sound of another pegasus landing on her cloud. She looked up to see, surprise, surprise, Rainbow Dash.
Lightning Dust looked away, “What do you want Rainbow Dash? Did you come to brag? Tell me you’re the ‘coolest most awesomest Pegasus ever’? I don’t need a recap. I had a front row seat, remember?”
“No I…” Rainbow Dash searched for the words, “It’s just…what’s it going to take for things to be cool between us, again?”
Lightning Dust stood up and fixed a glare on her lead-pony, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you can stop being so great at everything you do.”
“Uhhh…I’m not sure I can do that…”
“Of course, it just comes natural to you.”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash said defensively. “It’s not like…”
“What is your’s and Spitfire’s deal anyhow?” Lightning Dust interrupted.
Rainbow Dash sat on her hindquarters and sighed, rolling her eyes, “Spitfire…we…don’t think you’re putting your full effort out there anymore.”
“Is that a fact?” Lightning Dust asked flatly. “You two think I’m slacking?”
“Well…kinda. Yeah.”
Lightning Dust looked like she was going to explode with anger, but instead exhaled and bowed her head in silence.
Silence that Rainbow Dash broke, “It doesn’t come natural to me…”
Lightning Dust looked up, “What?”
“I practice flying every day at home. In fact, the reason I did so well on the last course because I had practiced a similar course over and over again, it wasn’t fa…”
Lightning Dust put up a hoof to silence her, “I did, too.”
“Huh? No way! When would?..”
“I also practiced for the Young Flyers Competition. Somehow, you picked a routine very similar to mine.”
“Oh…uh…I didn’t know…” Rainbow Dash said, not sure of what to say. “But you weren’t in that competition.”
Lightning Dust sighed, “I came down with the feather flu the day of the competition.”
“Heh…yeah, that happens…” Rainbow Dash responded, remembering how feather flu had almost wrecked Ponyville’s attempt at raising rainwater into Cloudsdale.
“It’s just…it’s just, I thought I proved I was the best when I was made lead-pony…you know. That I could have won that day at the competition... and then you got made lead-pony and then we were doing even awesomer as a team. Breaking records we had just set days before.” Lightning Dust lowered her head, “I just…I couldn’t keep pushing myself to keep up with you…not if it just meant I was just there you make you look better…”
Rainbow Dash put a hoof on her wing-pony’s shoulder, “Hey, don’t worry about it. Tomorrow we’ll start fresh, you know? We’re still the best duo this academy has ever seen.”
Lightning Dust looked up with a glare, and smacked Rainbow Dash’s hoof off her. “Yes, ma’am,” she replied.
Lightning Dust didn’t even see the punch Rainbow Dash threw, but when she collected herself and looked back, ready to throw down, she was staring at the golden lead-pony badge in Rainbow’s hoof.
“Take it,” Rainbow Dash said. “If it means that much to you…”
Lightning Dust swatted Rainbow Dash’s forehoof aside, “Keep it! If I get to wear it, it’ll be because I beat you.” She flapped her wings and lifted into the sky, “You can tell Spitfire she got what she wanted, and I guess you’ll be happy you won’t have a slacker for a wing-pony.”
“No, I…”
Rainbow Dash cut off as Lightning Dust darted back towards the academy.
Rainbow Dash bowed her head, “I just want to be your friend, again…”
***
Lightning Dust sat in front of the same course she had lost at many hours before. Trying to catch her breath.
Luna had already cast the moon high into the night sky and the clouds glowed pale with the light. It helped, but it was still pretty dark. Lightning Dust was starting to memorize cloud placement, and lead as much by memory as by sight.
It wasn’t enough.
She was getting worse as fatigue set in. She had already peaked, and the last few runs had been slower, not faster.
She needed something else.
Something else she could prove herself on.
The Wall…
***
Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain poured over the course. The staff had obviously tried to make The Wall even more uninviting looking, in case the sign they had affixed to the stone that said, “Do not use.” followed by several pony skulls and crossbones painted below wasn’t warning enough.
Lightning Dust sighed and pushed many of the clouds out of her way. It’s not like bad weather could really stop a pegasus for long.
She took her position and carefully eyed The Wall as she mentally noted where the red line was. It was pretty hard to see in the dark, and her vision was starting to blur a little but that wasn’t going to stop her from proving she was the best.
She took off, in a flash she hit the red line, or maybe a little past it? She arched up and watched to her horror as The Wall was much, much closer than she thought it would be.
And it was rapidly getting closer as her speed carried her forward.
She hadn’t realized just how much the clouds had stopped her, before.
But she did now.
And it was far too late.
She was going to die.
Simply because she refused to believe there could be another pony out there who could outperform her.
She closed her eyes.
She heard an ear splitting boom and felt a hard impact.
And to her amazement, she felt herself rolling on something soft…
Cloud?
When she stopped rolling she looked up.
Right into the crying eyes of Rainbow Dash.
“YOU FEATHERBRAINED IDIOT! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOURSELF! DIDN’T YOU LEARN ANYTHING LAST TIME?! DOES BEING BETTER THAN ME MEAN YOU’RE GOING TO PUSH YOURSELF UNTIL SOMEONE DIES?!” Rainbow Dash boomed over the rain and thunder. Her breathing shallow, her face a mixture of fear and anger.
Lightning Dust felt her heart pounding in her chest. She was alive!
She stood up, and slowly looked into the face of her savior, “I’m sorry.”
“YOU'RE DARN RIGHT, YOU’RE SORRY! IF I HADN’T NOTICED YOU WEREN’T IN YOUR BUNK YOU’D BE…be…”
“Dead?” Lightning Dust offered.
Rainbow Dash made a frustrated, “UHHHGGGG!” and threw her forehooves into the air, “That’s it! I’m through, you can be somepony else’s problem from now on.”
“No I…” Lightning Dust began to tear up, “I wanna be your wing-pony!” She pleaded, breaking into sobs as she collapsed into a heap.
She felt a hoof on her shoulder, and looked up into Rainbow Dash’s crying, smiling face.
“Really?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Lightning Dust took Rainbow’s hoof as the light blue pegasus helped her to her feat. “More than anything,” she answered.
Rainbow Dash embraced her, and Lightning Dust found herself returning the hug.
Rainbow Dash broke the silence, “We cool?”
Lighting Dust let go and wiped tears from her eyes. “We cool,” she answered.
“You know…” Rainbow Dash began, “if I had known I just needed to save your life to get you to come around, I would have let you have kept being reckless for a bit more,” she said with a wry grin.
Lighting Dust chuckled and shook her head, “No way. I don’t think they let dead ponies join the Wonderbolts.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and looked at the moon slowly lowering in the night’s sky.
“We should probably get back,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’ve got a full day ahead of us.”
“Anything you say, ma’am,” Lightning Dust said with a grin.
Rainbow Dash gave her a playful shove, “I’m going to have to deal with that forever, aren’t I?”
Lightning Dust’s smile grew, “Yes ma’am.”
***
Lightning Dust looked over the familiar precision obstacle course. The normally easy looking course somehow looked more imposing with her blurred vision. She had only gotten a few hours of sleep, and she wasn’t sure if it was enough.
Rainbow Dash leaned in close, letting Lightning Dust shift some of her weight onto the Rainbow maned pegasus.
“We’ll take it easy, today. Okay?” Rainbow Dash offered.
Lightning Dust shook her head, “No way. That’s what got me in trouble in the first place.”
Rainbow Dash smiled, “Alright, we fly hard and fast.”
Lightning Dust matched her lead-ponies expression, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Spitfire blew her whistle, and the two were off, they made it through the first two loops, then suddenly the third doubled in Lightning Dust’s vision, she clipped her wing on it and went tumbling to the cloud floor.
Once her vision had cleared she looked up to see Spitfire flying over to her, a small look of concern on her face.
Spitfire was stopped as one of her assistants flew up and whispered something to her ear. Her expression changed from concern into rage, and the bright yellow pegasus was in front of Lightning Dust in an instant, face red and eyes fixed into lasers behind her aviator sun glasses.
“I’ve just been told clouds around The Wall where disturbed last night.”
“Ma’am, I can explain…” Lightning Dust began.
“DON’T YOU, ‘MA’AM’ ME! YOU’RE THROUGH! THERE’S NO ROOM FOR LIABILITIES ON THE WONDERBOLTS.” Spitfire held out her hoof, “Don’t make me rip this badge off, too.”
Lightning Dust’s lip quivered as she reached for her wing-pony badge. Before she could get it off, both her and Spitfire were staring at a gold lean-pony badge..
“I went to The Wall last night, ma’am.” Rainbow Dash said. “I thought I could do even better than before.”
Spitfire, cocked an eyebrow behind her glasses, “Seriously?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Spitfire considered this, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense given just how well Rainbow Dash had done the day before, but she was pushing herself more and more, and…
Suddenly a silver wing-pony badge was thrust in her face.
“She’s lying,” Lightning Dust spoke up, “I went out there last night, I wanted…needed to prove I could beat her…but…she’s just better…no, I mean…she’s trained harder than me.”
Spitfire sighed, it was a lesson learned too late. She collected the silver badge…
…and quickly felt her hoof being pulled as a gold badge was added.
She looked up at Rainbow Dash. “Again?” she said with a sigh.
“Sorry ma’am. I’ll clear out immediately,” Rainbow Dash answered.
“But you didn’t do anything wrong!” Lightning Dust said.
Rainbow Dash looked back at her, “Hey, I lied to my commanding officer. That’s gotta be at least minor treason, or something!” she insisted.
“I can’t accept this Rainbow Dash.” Spitfire said.
“Sorry ma’am. You’ll have to.”,
Spitfire let out an exasperated sigh.
Is it Insubordination Day?!
Did I forget to check my day calendar or something?!
“And why’s that?” Spitfire asked.
“Because if my wing-pony made a mistake, I made a mistake. We’re a team, ma’am. We fly together, and we’ll fall together.” Rainbow Dash‘s expression went deadly serious. “Even if it means out of the academy,” she said sternly.
Lightning Dust was shocked beyond words.
Spitfire similarly said nothing. Slowly, she removed her glasses and gently put them into a breast pocket. She slowly refixed the wing-pony badge to Lightning Dust’s uniform then the lead-pony badge to Rainbow Dash’s.
Spitfire put on her best poker face, “500 laps, both of you. Then get some rest. I better not see this team screw up on loops again…in fact, I expect to start seeing you two beating all your old records.”
She looked her cadets over carefully, “Am I making myself clear?”
“Yes ma’am” the blue pegasi said in unison.
“Good, now you two have some laps to do,” Spitfire blew her whistle and the two were up in the sky.
Once the two were gone, Spitfire finally allowed herself a grin, knowing she, no, The Wonderbolts were soon the receive two of the best fliers she had ever seen.
*
Rainbow Dash held out a hoof that her wing-pony gleefully bumped with her own.
“You’re beyond amazing, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash grinned wide, “Yeah, I know…” Rainbow Dash looked forward for a second, then looked back, “Race ya.”
Lightning Dust smiled warmly, “Yes ma’am.”
Within a short time, Rainbow Dash was leading far in front of her wing-pony.
Lightning Dust just smiled to herself.
She could live with being second best so long as it meant Rainbow Dash was first.
The End.
