Could Be a...

Chapter 8 – Winds to the east captain

The early morning military like trumpets didn't really catch the young pegasus off guard, however at the time they definitely had an effect. There's no clocks in the dorm hallways so at best Sparky has figured out its about an hour earlier than last semester that he's been getting up, the cooler air also gives this thought some credit.

"...Alright, everypony seems to be out now."

Sparky's thoughts come to a halt as he turns his head towards the white coated stallion who hooves above the group, "First things first Puffins, you are not in first year anymore..." Streak's voice holds it's strong deep tone, however despite it's leadership qualities it strangely brings a feeling of comradery as it continues to ring out. "...You all know your rules, and you all know why you decided to come back.-..."

Streak's speech is cut off as the dark brown coated stallion a little ways down from Sparky rushes out a comment,"Ya, I know why I came back, and it wasn't to freeze my coat off. What is with us not being allowed to wear anything for this cold!"

A slight laugh comes up from everypony even Sparky as they all slightly shift a little too another cool gust of air running through the Wonderbolt’s open track.

"Oh, you're cold are ya Chase?" A slight grin cracks across Streak's face as everypony quites down, "...Well soak it in everypony, because every day we have track, air or ground we will be coming out without any winter fluff."

"What?" Chase again speaks up with the same thought everypony now has running through their minds.

Streak waves his hoof to the comment as he continues to hold the smile, "Your first year is the basic stuff, as a Wonderbolt you need to be able to deal with any condition. You need to be able to fly even if your tail is half frozen." His voice comes to an end as he takes a loud and deep breath of air, "Soak it all up boys, because before you can get to your warm period class you all have to demonstrate something."

As Streak's voice comes to an end the chatters of conversations starts to run up from behind the line of stallions that stands on the track.

Sparky, like everypony around him turns his head to the chatter as he looks over the group of cozy winter dressed mares that start to come out of the side building of the Wonderbolt’s hall.

"Today you will be demonstrating something in front of a crowd... And today's crowd will be your mare's counterparts." Streak slowly brings himself down to the ground as he folds his wings to his back.

The group of mares begin to slow for a moment as they all start to look over the slightly shivering stallions they now begin to trot past.

As the group moves to the other side of the track the pale yellow mare with cyan blue mane that Sparky met yesterday emerges from the group and begins to trot towards were Streak stands. A slight laugh comes up from the mare as she looks over the row of stallions, "Still making Puffins stand out in the cold huh Streak?"

The comment doesn't change his deep leader sounding tone, but Streak does cock a smile to the comment, "It builds character."

"Pff, well lets get this going Dodos got the track today." The comment flicks Streak's ear as he nods and looks back to the stallions, "Alright..." Streak's deep gold eyes turn to his row, "...Whiplash, you're going first."

A large dark yellow stallion with white and blond streaked mane takes a step forward as he speaks up with a slight teeth chatter, "O-ok, what do I do?"

Streak and the other wonderbolt outfitted weird mare trot from the track as Streak speaks up, "You decide..." Streak stops his trot as he lifts his hoof towards the right of the track, "You can go down to that end and test your speed or..." He move his hoof towards the other side as he points to the other side of the track that has a few low clouds sitting on it, "...You could try your agility at dodging obstacles while flying, or you could do something else."

The dark stallion nods his head as he sparks his wings up, "I'll do speed."

A slight smile comes up from Streak as he looks over the big stallion, "Good choice."

Whiplash brings himself from the ground as he brings his flight towards the right side of the track.

"Hey Streak, can I race him?" The light blue stallion next to Sparky rises his hoof as he waits for a response.

However, no response comes from Streak as the dark brown stallion a little ways down speaks up, "Whoa, hey if I can get out of the cold now I'll do it."

"Chase stop complaining..." Streak turns his eyes to the stallion next to Sparky as he shrugs, "IF you want to race Jiffy get down there before the whistle."

"Alright." Right as his comment ends the stallion has sparked his wings up as he bolts down the track were Whiplash has already set up.

Streak slowly brings his hoof to the whistle around his neck as he takes another step off the track, as he brings the whistle into his mouth he moves his hoof to a pocket on his outfit as he pulls out a small stopwatch. With the watch now in hoof he gives a little smile to the mare next to him.

The mare nods her head as she brings her voice up towards the group of mares across from her, "Alright, you filles better give it to them."

Sparky like all the other young stallions blink to the comment as they watch the group of mares starting to spread themselves out down the track's side.

As the mare's stop their movement Streak blows to the whistle, "FFFFFF!!" the loud chimes runs down the track and the two stallions waiting at the ends of it start their wings up.

Sparky turns his head to the quickly approaching stallions. There's really no competition between the two stallions as the smaller Jiffy quickly takes the lead.

However, just as he begins to pass by the group of spaced out mares a loud fake giggle begins to ring up from all of them as they point to the stallion.

Jiffy's concentration to his flight path is slowed by the sound as he briefly turns his head to the laughing. However, just the simple slowing down of turning his head has allowed Whiplash to pull a head.

As the stallion pass by Streak he blows to the whistle again, "FFFFFF!!"

The sound brings the two stallion's wings to a halt as they both pant a little to the cold air they've been sucking down their throats.

Streak moves the whistle from his mouth as he looks to Jiffy, "Well, I'm actually surprised that little distraction worked."

As his comment ends one of the mare's across the track starts up still holding a slight laugh, "Better luck next time fly-colt."

The mare's slightly giggly comment brings a response from Chase as he speaks up, "Ya, you looked good out their Jiffy, I really enjoyed the part where you choked."

"Ya ya..."

Streak cuts the stallion off as he points to the building, "Alright, you two get to class."

As the two stallions start to trot away Streak turns his attention back to the group in front of him, "Alright, uh... Sparky your turn."

Sparky blinks to the comment as he slowly starts to move from the group. Streak trots back to his spot as he moves the whistle back to his mouth.

However, Sparky doesn't immediately trot towards one end of the track as he speaks up, "Um, I can do anything right?"

Streak rolls the whistle in his mouth as he nods.

Sparky straightens his posture as he speaks up, "Ok, then what cloud can I use for cloud shaping?"

"HA HA HA HA!" A laugh rolls up from most of the mares for a moment as one finally is able to speak up, "W-why would you do cloud shaping in an academy created to help pegasus learn how to fly and perform better?"

Sparky turns his head to the light pink coated and rose red maned mare as she continues to lead the laughing group around her.

However the giggles come to an end as Streak moves the whistle from his mouth and speaks up, "Chase get a cloud from the obstacle track."

The dark brown stallion hesitates for a moment, but he eventually brings his wings up as he bolts towards the closest cloud.

As the stallion starts to come back with the cloud the mare next to Streak waves her hoof to the mare, "Hey Cloud-colt, what are you going to sculpt?"

Sparky blinks to the pale yellow mare's stare as he tries to figure out if she's talking to him, "Um...Anything?"

The comment brings a smile to the mare's face as she speaks up, "Cocky aren't ya... Alright, Jay, you're going to be the model."

The light pink coated mare blinks to the comment as she speaks up, "What? Why?"

"Because, rule one of the Wonderbolts is to be respectful, and you are not being respectful to your stallion counterpart. So step out forward." The mare holds her smile as she watches Jay slowly moving forward.

As the mare moves a little next to Sparky, Chase comes back with a large white fluffy cloud that he eases to the ground from where he hovers above the track.

"Thank you Chase." Streak's comment brings the stallion back to the line as Sparky looks over the large and ragged looking cloud in front of him.

Streak moves the whistle back to his mouth as he speaks past it, "Nod when you're ready Cloudshaper."

Sparky moves his sight to the mare next to him as he speaks up, "Um...Could you move to your right a little."

The mare blinks to the request but she eventually moves as she speaks up with a slightly annoying tone, "But this puts me further from the cloud..." Her hoof dramatically comes up to her chest as she smiles, "Don't you need to look at my pretty face while you sculpt it?"

Chase starts up with a laugh as the mare's comment ends, "HA! Pretty?"

The mare quickly snaps to the laugh as she turns her pink eyes to the brown stallion, "Go get caught in a tornado Chase."

"Enough!" Streak's voice turns Sparky's head as the white stallion continues, "Sparky can you start please?"

Sparky nods his head as he begins he sprawls his wings back and begins to think over Violet's training.

With and hard flap forward a loud thunder like and bright bolt of orange magic runs from his wings and cuts through the bulk of the cloud, leaving only what Sparky wanted. The sight of his plan working brings a confidence to the light orange stallion as he happily begins to lightly flap his wings to clear the cloud. All the while moving his hooves to the cloud's cool and soft surface as he begins to quickly make a pony like shape out of the cloud.

The area around Sparky is dead silent, not that the stallion pays much attention to it as he continues to just work out a pony like figure from the cloud.

It takes a good minute and a half for a decent figure to poke out from the cloud, it's mane, tail and eyes are not really defined yet but the body is smooth and almost looks like it was crafted from stone.

Sparky stops for the moment as he turns back to the white stallion, his voice is excited but the realization as to how long it's been starts to catch up with the stallion as he speaks up, "Um, how long do I have left?"

No answer comes from Streak as the stallion, like every other pony continues to just stare wide eyed and open mouthed to the bolt of magic they just saw from the smaller orange pegasus.

Sparky's ears flop down a little as he looks around to every ponies's awestruck expression, however to Sparky their faces only bring thoughts of failing the little test.

But, before he can speak up Streak finally blinks his eyes and brings his head back as he clears his throat, "How did you do that?"

Sparky blinks to the comment as he looks back to the cloud figure, "W-well I could have done a little more but I didn't know how long I-..."

"No...The lighting??" Streak's comment brings out a response from everypony as they all nod their heads, "Ya,howdidyoudothat?"

Sparky shrugs as he rubs his hoof to his other, "Oh, it's just a simple spell my friend taught me..."

The mare next to him speaks up as he taps him, "Whoa! C-can you teach me?"

Sparky blinks to the mare's smile as he shakes his head with a laugh, "I-I'm nowhere near as smart as her, I can't teach it..."

"Why not?" The young ponies around Sparky all start to speak up as they all stare to him.

However, just as their chatter starts to get loud Streak blows to the whistle, "Hey hey, you all get a chance to learn Combat magic when you're a Strix..." Streak squints his eyes to Sparky as he continues, "I'm just surprised you can even do that stuff."

The mare next to Streak nudges him as she speaks up, "Ya, that was even better than Streak's attempts."

Sparky gets a slight smile to the comment as Streak quickly brings his voice over the mare, "Alright, we've wasted enough time, get to class Sparky... Next stallion."

Sparky brings his trot up as Streak's comment ends, however as he passes by the line of stallions Chase pops out and begins to follow him towards the building with a wide smile, "H-hey man remember were friends now right so-..."

"Chase, you're turn."

The dark brown stallion reluctantly moves himself from Sparky's side as he slowly trots towards the tack with his head still to Sparky, "C-ya Sparky-lighting."

Sparky gives a friendly smile as he continues to trot towards the Wonderbolt’s hall.

End of chapter 8