“Do you have what it takes?”
“I do, I do!”
“I said, do you have what it takes? I can’t hear you!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Then get up there and give me twenty!”
“Yes ma’am!” The grey colt saluted, turned around, and broke into a gallop.
Lightning Dust smirked as the little colt jumped into the air, struggling to catch the lift. He bunnyhopped on the ground, catching a few new inches each time. She thought about giving a wing assist and pushing him up. He managed to get it on the fifth bounce and hovered, albeit struggling, but he was hovering, alright.
“Looks like the sprain is almost completely gone now,” Lightning Dust muttered as she watched the colt fly through a cloud ring, testing his control of higher altitude. She grinned and took off herself while muttering, “You go, Rumble.”
While she had been drilling Rumble, a new addition to Cloudsdale’s flight camp, the rest of the fillies and colts had been finishing up their morning warm-ups. They gathered on various floating clouds to chat, laugh, and nap on the cloudy fluff while they waited for their instructor. One even found his way inside a cloud. His hind legs flailed outside as he struggled to pull himself out.
Lightning Dust flew five meters above, circling over the heads of the foals, her students. None noticed her, too engrossed in their childish fun to even look up.
Heh, that’s kinda funny. Best way to hide from a pegasus is to fly above them! Lightning Dust noted the irony before folding her wings and dipping her nose into a divebomb. She dropped in the air and accelerated, aiming for the empty space between the circling clouds. The foals took notice of her and cheered as she zoomed past.
She would pop her wings out, pull back and loop de loop. If she timed it right, she would land on her hooves onto the waiting cloud platform. Or she would, had the cloud-stricken colt not fallen out the wrong side.
The blast of air from her descent rocked the clouds, dislodging the colt from his trap and down toward the earth. He tried to catch himself, but his wings fluttered uselessly as he fell belly-side up.
Lightning Dust’s ears, despite the wind screaming in her ears, caught the shrieking of a frightened colt. Through her tunnel vision, she managed to divert her course by adding an extra loop, catch the colt with her waiting forelegs, and land on the cloud as if she had planned it all.
The foals cheered for their bold and skilled instructor with cries and catcalls.
Lightning Dust’s feathered bristled as a warm sensation ran through, relishing her moment in the limelight as she set the colt down. She smiled down at him, the shivering blue foal, and gave his dark mane a small ruffle to calm his nerves.
“You’ll be alright, buddy,” she said, keeping her voice low to avoid embarrassing him in front of his friends. “We all fall from time to time.”
“R-really? Even y-you?” he asked. His heavy breathing alleviated, soothed by her calming words. He looked up at her with wide eyes. He tried to persist, keeping his gaze upon many a foal’s idol, but his eyes dropped to his fidgeting hooves.
Lightning Dust laughed, “Of course not! Look at me!” She spread her wings out to their full length. “I’m way too cool to fall! You’re looking at Wonderbolt material—” She closed her mouth as a wild memory flitted through her mind. She shook it off and shooed the colt off with her hooves, pushing him to join his friends so they could begin.
She returned her attention to the group and commanded each foal to line up by name. They scrambled over each other, wrestling and playfully bucking each other to get to their rightful spots. She allowed the cloud fluff to settle before pacing back and forth, going through her mental list before calling out their names in order.
“...and Star Dust!” she finished, trotting to the end of the line.
“Hi cousin!” a little green filly waved at her instructor, sharing the same style blonde mane. Lightning Dust rolled her eyes.
“That’s Instructor Dust to you, rookie! If I hear you trying that again, it’s going to be five laps!” Lightning Dust barked, smirking at her groaning cousin. The filly saluted, returning a smile with a roll of her eyes. “Good! Now everypony follow me!”
Despite her earlier slip of tongue, Lightning Dust’s veins pumped with adrenaline that morning. Forget the schedule, today is a flying day! she thought, flapping her wings and taking the lead of the group. Barking a couple orders to the foals, ordering the weaker flyers to the back she led them in a mock migrative pattern: a solid v-formation. It allowed the air current to carry the weaker flyers along, while the leaders with active wind resistance would be unable to blaze ahead.
They flew above multiple groups, each led by an adult instructor, performing their own morning warmups. A couple were doing wing-ups, several were running laps on the clouds, but hers was the first to take flight above toward the training grounds.
Lightning Dust broke formation to hover above her charges as they landed on the large cloud, one by one. She took special note of Rumble, her favorite little flyer. He had arrived from Ponyville with his older brother to spend the week learning to more advanced flying, and had sprained his wing on the third day. Many ponies would have thought to send him home, but an instructor trained in sports medicine knew that taking it easy was important, but light exercise to keep the wing muscles even on both sides was equally so.
One side atrophies, and there goes your balance, Lightning Dust thought to herself as Rumble landed on the cloud without stumbling. His left wing was strong again, and soon he wouldn’t need Lightning Dust secretly babying him, even if she would never admit it.
The group gathered in front of the chalkboard, enchanted by unicorns to stay afloat on clouds. They waited for Lightning Dust to zoom in at high speeds, deaccelerate with her wings alone, and come to a neat, sliding stop. The foals cheered, Lightning Dust bowed, and she turned to the chalkboard. Picking up the chalk in her mouth, she quickly scribbled:
Today’s Lesson:
Sharing the sky!
Her group started to grumble, knowing what was in store, as a another group swooped down to join them. One instructor, Rumble’s brother Thunderlane, led them at a steady trot to integrate with Lightning Dust’s group. Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow as he waved at her, their staff flight suit tight on his toned muscles, and waited for him to join her side.
“Morning, Dust!” Thunderlane greeted as he bumped wings with her. “Didn’t know you were working today.” The two groups of foals began chatting with each other, waiting for their partnered instructors to decide on the lead pony for the day.
“Bite me,” Lightning Dust teased as she began walking toward the edge of the large crowd. “Now, I’m going to take the lead and you’re going to follow. Got that?”
“Aw,” Thunderlane pouted, a small frown touched on his lips. “Why do you always have to play leader?”
“Because –” Lightning Dust popped her wing out and flipped Thunderlane’s closed wing open, startling the unwary stallion into a fury of flapping “–I’m awesome, and you’re not!”
The foals laughed and pointed at Thunderlane. He blushed as he regained his composure, having nothing to defend himself. Lightning Dust took his silence as an opportunity to lead, taking a step forward to address the group.
“Alright rookies, settle down!” she barked, commanding silence from her foals. “Now, while ‘Thunderhen’ gets a hold of himself, we’re going to over the rules! When flying in flight camp, what’s the first rule?” She cocked her head and placed a hoof behind her ear, waiting for the usual enthusiastic response.
“Never fly alone! Always have a buddy!”
She leaned closer, her ear perked and listening, and said, “What was that? I can’t hear you!”
“Never fly alone! Always have a buddy!!” the foals screamed louder, only making Lightning Dust’s grin wider.
“What?! I. Can’t. Hear. You!”
“NEVER FLY ALONE! ALWAYS HAVE A BUDDY!”
Lightning Dust shouted, “That’s right! We’re doing synchronized flying today! Everypony grab a partner!” She turned to her bemused co-worker. “That includes you, pretty boy. You’re mine today!”
“Yay, fun,” Thunderlane deadpanned as he took off, flying in circles in sync with Lightning Dust. Everypony would begin warming up with simple circles before trying more complicated flight techniques, like twisters.
Lightning Dust teased him with a wink, but stopped her advances from there. Shame, he’s pretty cute, but he’s only volunteering for the week. Well, then again, so— Lightning Dust was brought out of thoughts as she spiraled out of her pattern, thrown as as Thunderlane picked up speed.
“What’s the matter, Dusty? Can’t keep up?” Thunderlane quipped as he began circling in the air faster and faster. Wind spiraled underneath as he began to form a tornado. A few foals tried to emulate him, to no avail, as Lightning Dust landed softly on the cloud. Gritting her teeth, she crouched and launched into the air, joining Thunderlane to show the foals how it’s done.
She matched his speed in a single moment, accelerating with him until everything became a blur. Only Thunderlane was visible in her tunnel vision, and to him she blew a raspberry. She furrowed her brow and pumped her wings harder than usual, resisting the air resistance as she began to overtake Thunderlane. She inched closer and closer to his tail, intending to pass him, throw him off course and out of the tornado.
This is going to be hilarious! she thought as she prepared to launch past the unaware stallion, too choked up in tears as the wind dug into his eyes. Not only would he be caught by surprise, she was going to launch him through one of the course rings. If her aim would true, no doubt the foals would be talking about it for weeks.
At least she was, until she heard a colt cry in pain.
Rumble! Lightning Dust gritted her teeth and tried to slow herself, but Thunderlane accelerated and carried her in his drag current. He flicked his tail against her nose and pushed forward out of her reach.
“What’s the matter, Dusty?” he taunted, having not heard his own brother yelp. Lightning Dust saw his ears were pinned to the sides of his head, making it nigh impossible for him to hear anything beyond the tornado.
Lightning Dust’s eyes twitched to the side of the cyclone; a conflict raged in her consciousness. I got to check on Rumble! But Thunderlane might…
Her mind, no longer willing to quell her guilt in favor of ignorance, flashed with scenes from her past. She saw the academy, when she had out-flown everyone on the Dizzitron. Even Rainbow Dash hadn’t been able to beat her time.
Rainbow Dash, what would she do? Her mind flicked through scenes of that fateful day, when their large tornado had wreaked havoc and nearly harmed bystanders. At first she had found their feat amazing, but guilt settled in after her academic suspension. Rainbow Dash’s reprimanding words stayed with her since, even if she had blown it off with ...Yeah? The suspension only made it hit closer to home.
Whelp, if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that a pony’s safety is more important that just being cool! Lightning Dust grinded her teeth as she dived out of the tornado. She popped out, and a rush of warmth kissed her coat as the sudden lack of wind caught up to her. She shook her dizzied head and looked toward the source of Rumble’s cries.
There he was, in the middle of a twister, at the mercy of his rough, competitive partner. Lightning Dust hovered above the mini-twister to gauge the situation. Rumble was still managing to fly, but he was shouting at his oblivious partner to stop. Lightning Dust cursed herself for not teaching them to disengage from group weather patterns. Control was not her forte, unfortunately.
Since their twister was clockwise, Lightning Dust began to circle them counterclockwise. Instinct screamed for her to embrace her inner speed demon, but she forced herself to take a manageable speed at first to prevent harming the colts. She gradually picked up speed around the twister, going faster and faster, until she began to see tunnel vision. Maintaining that low speed, she continued until she could no longer hear Rumble’s cry.
Lightning Dust sighed and stopped to land without hardly any effort, and turned around. Rumble laid on the cloud, his hurt wing twitching at his side as the other colt looked at his instructor with a perplexed frown. Lightning Dust trotted to them.
“Comet! What did I tell you!” she yelled, bristling with anger. “What am I going to have to tell your mother, Hailey? What was rule number one? Share the skies! Not hog the thing and drag your partner around like a leaf!” She gasped for breath, trying to contain herself as Comet’s cringing made it look like he was trying to sink through the clouds. She sighed, releasing her pent-up anger.
She rubbed the top of his mane and said, “Look, kid, I get it. You just wanted to show off a bit and forgot your partner for a moment.” He looked up at her, wiping his tears away as she continued. “It happens, more that most ponies admit.”
“I was just trying to be cool like you,” he whimpered. Lightning Dust raised her head to see Thunderlane calm his brother, examining his wing for any injuries. She returned her attention to him.
“And that’s fine! I mean, look at me!” She giggled and showed off her large wings in jest. She returned them to her sides and regained her serious composure. She placed a hoof under his chin and brought his gaze to her eyes. “Comet, look. You can be awesome any time you want, but sometimes it’s a two-pony show. Lightning wouldn’t be nearly as awesome without Thunder—”
She felt a wing rest on her shoulder. Smiling, she held out her hoof and hoof-bumped Thunderlane as Rumble rested on his back. The two allowed Comet to return to flying, having learned his lesson.
“You know, I never knew you had a sensitive side,” Thunderlane said as they watched the foals continue their synchronized flying. Comet joined a pair of fillies, forming a triad-twister together. “Kinda cute, really.”
“Oh, shove it!” Lightning Dust pushed his wing off and stuck her tongue out. “I’m not sensitive! I’m just an awesome role model!”
“Sure you are.” Thunderlane scratched his mane, looking into Lightning Dust’s eyes. “Still, that was really nice of you to say. You mean it?”
“Well, yeah!” Lightning Dust shrugged. “I mean, going lone wolf isn’t always the answer, especially when it involves harming others. I, uh, learned that the hard way…”
“Your suspension from the academy?” His tone dropped, a hint of pity laced on his tongue. Lightning Dust closed her eyes and lowered her head in shame.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that our boss sent that letter, eh?”
Lightning Dust’s head shot up to glare at him. “What? What letter?”
Thunderlane smirked and said, “A letter of recommendation, for good behavior. The head of flight camp is an old geezer, ya know. She practically taught the Wonderbolts herself!”
“But—but why would she do that for me?”
Thunderlane sighed and hoof-bumped her shoulder. “You know, it’s not a secret that you work overtime under the pretense of ‘community service.’ You love flying, and we know it. The boss just wanted to award you for working hard and being a good role model for the kids.” He looked behind him, watching Rumble’s chest rise as he snored in a gentle slumber.
One thing didn’t quite click inside Lightning Dust’s head. “Wait,” she said, walking over until she was nearly nose-to-nose with him. “How would you know about that, anyway?”
Thunderlane shrugged. “She mentioned it when I stopped by to check on my brother at the nurse. Said that she got a letter in the mail, and that you were going to be ecstatic when you heard the good—”
He blinked rapidly, his eyes watering from a sudden rush of wind. “—news?”
Cloud fluff rose from the trail Lightning Dust had burnt in her mad rush toward the boss’s office. He turned his body to peer in the distance: his boss handing Lightning Dust her letter, and the Wonderbolt-wannabe flying loop de loops like a filly flying for the first time. It was a sight that made him chuckle.
Rumble stirred on his back. “Ugh… big brother, what is it?”
“Looks like Dusty is getting her dream after all.” Thunderlane felt the mad rush of hooves trying to stand on his back, and heard the mad fluttering of wings in a rush.
“Lightning Dust is going back?!” Rumble asked, bouncing on Thunderlane’s back. He returned his gaze to her, watching her spin and tumble in the sky in euphoria.
“Yep,” he said, something tugging in his chest. Pride, maybe?
“She really earned it, didn’t she?"
