The frown that was strewn across the blue Pegasus’s face was absolutely huge, and his head hung level with his back. His eyes too added to his look in that moment, narrowed half-way open, but being so from his eyebrows pressing downward instead of from any saddened weight to his eyelids.

It was annoyance, annoyance and aggravation, and the whole of that expression was even cast in shadow as a bright yellow wing stretched out just above him and began patting him on the head.

“Awww, come on Soarin! Nopony wants to be a wingpony but at least they made US a team!” the flaring yellow Pegasus mare that the wing belonged to prodded the pouting stallion with words, to which he gave no response other than an exhale through his nose that was just loud enough to be heard.

“Aren’t you even happy that we got paired up together?” she asked further, finally retracting her wing back to her side and stepping forth from her place beside him to face him more directly.

“It’s not that; I didn’t think they would with how everypony knows they don’t like putting friends together, so yeah I was kinda hoping they would make me a lead pony since I thought there was no way we'd be paired up anyway.” Soarin finally spoke up and answered his friend.

“Well yeah, I wasn’t seriously expecting them to put us together either, but come on! Us two as a team? This is gonna be the best!” She kept on with her attempts at rousing Soarin out of his moping state. Though she was soon interrupted by a fellow cadet with an unmistakable lisp to her speech.

“Don’t go getting too far ahead of yourself, Spitfire. One good flying audition doesn’t prove anything!” A blue Pegasus with a cloud-white mane mocked Spitfire, though doing so with a friendly smirk.

“Well well, if isn’t Footsie.” Spitfire said back in the same tone, the mention of the name drawing a scowl out from the other mare. “So? Who’s wingpony’d they make you?” Spitfire added on the inquiry.

“Hah, hah, funny funny, Spitty!” The blue mare shot back with a nick of her own, and went to correct Spitfire, “for your information: I’M the leadpony.” She in no way withheld herself from a using a boastful tone and ending by wearing a grin to match it. Her grin vanished though, the instant Spitfire just started laughing.

“Wow, Fleetfoot as a leadpony? Haha-who’s got enough bad luck to be stuck as YOUR wingpony?” the yellow mare teased the question to her friend, who just glared back at her for a good few seconds before she retaliated with anything.

“Hmpf! Hey Rapidfire! Get over here!” Fleetfoot shouted off over her shoulder, resulting in a Pegasus stallion galloping up next to her a few seconds later. He skidded hard to a halt to stand perfectly right beside her and even threw himself into the statuesque seated pose Wonderbolt posters always displayed the team members in. It drew an approving smirk from Fleetfoot, and even mildly impressed looks from Soarin and Spitfire.

“You need me, Fleets?” the new stallion asked eagerly, turning to his leadpony just in time to receive a restrained hoof-jab to his mouth.

“There’s a FOOT after that, and there is definitely no S after the T!” she scolded him from an eager smile into a nervous one.

“Ah-right, eh-sorry Fleetfoot,” Rapidfire made his stammering apology while timidly lifting one hoof from the ground and gently touching it to the dirt every few seconds.

“That’s better!” Fleetfoot approved before she spun back to Spitfire again. “See?” she asked, grabbing Rapidfire with one foreleg over his shoulder as she did, “MY wingpony’s actually excited about being paired up with me!" Rapidfire very visibly blushed both as Fleetfoot threw her foreleg over his shoulder and more so right after as she spoke about his attitude towards being partnered with her. “Unlike SOMEPONY’s sulking teammate,” Fleet foot added her last mocking bit to her bout of speaking.

“Hey!” Soarin suddenly said back to her before Spitfire even could, “I am not sulking, or moping, or pouting! I was just expecting to me made somepony else’s leadpony. I have NO gripes about being her wingpony!” he declared, standing up and point a hoof at Spitfire as he referred to her.

“Sorry, duly noted, Pie Face,” Fleetfoot ended in an irresitable snicker that Rapidfire joined briefly and Spitfire wasn’t even able to keep from contributing two laughs to. All Soarin did was glare, hard, with narrowed eyes and without even glaring at anypony in particular.

Spitfire stopped herself quick and directed a dismissive look at Fleetfoot as she told her, “Yeah, yeah, Footsie, why don’t you and your little yes-stallion get going and go get some practice in instead of running your mouth?”

Rapidfire’s face turned even more red, even as Fleetfoot released him in a shove. “Ha! Sure, whatever you say, our self-proclaimed future captain. See you on the aerial obstacle course,” she casted her last words at Spitfire before she took off with Rapidfire immediately flying after her.

Spitfire waited for a few seconds until the other pair was definitely long gone, then she looked over at Soarin once they were alone. His glare had let up a bit, but not by much. She let her eyelids come down a ways, and put on a light smile as she placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry for laughing with them about that; I can’t help that one sometimes, but I know that stuff still gets to you,” she made sure to be thorough in her apology. It was enough to get an exasperated sigh out of the stallion with the notoriously awkward voice, and to result in him finally picking his head back up after.

“Listen, Soarin, just forget about it. Fleetfoot just like to egg at other ponies and we both know she’s her own share of full of herself. But about this wingpony and leadpony stuff, just listen,” Spitfire went talking to him with a much more gentle voice than most ponies were used to hearing from her and waiting until Soarin met her gaze to keep going with what she wanted to say, “I get that it’s probably really upsetting not to get picked for leadpony, but I’ll tell you something right now.”

All Soarin did was make a noise, barely anything more than a grunt, just enough for Spitfire to decide he meant for her to go on.

“I know for fact that you’re only a wingpony because you got paired up with me, and I refuse to believe anything else. Yeah, you’re pretty clueless sometimes, and you’re kind of a dork,” she still kept going, only pausing for a second when he gave her a look at being called that, “but out there’s totally different. Out there in the sky, you’re something else, and no weird voice or stupid pie obsession is ever going to have anything to do with that!”

“Yeah, you always say stuff like that,” Soarin said back.

“Would you rather have me not?” Spitfire instantly replied with the rhetorical question.

Soarin let out another sigh before he responded to his friend a question of his own, one that he also already knew the answer to. “You sure you want fly with me as your wingpony?” he asked with a faint smile.

Spitfire took a step closer to him so that her face was practically right in front of his and returned his smile with a much larger one as she answered him, “Come on, how long have we been friends, Soarin? Why would I ever fly with anypony else?” Her words made his smile swell in size until it matched hers perfectly.

“It still always makes me feel better to hear that,” he told her.

“I know,” she responded, placing her hoof on his shoulder again, “and besides, what would the best flyer in Equestria be without the second best flyer in Equestria?”

Soarin laughed for a second at that. “You know just second ago you were saying Fleetfoot was full of herself?” he reminded her.

She rolled her eyes before answering with an obvious tone, “what she does IS boasting and being full of herself, because she’s not what she’s always trying to claim to be. All the stuff I’m saying is just telling the truth.” Soarin just kept laughing again after Spitfire had finished.

“Really though, there’s nopony out there as reliable as you,” she told him, and waited for him to beg her question on, which he unwittingly did.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah, I don’t any other stallions that’ll keep flying to the ends of Equestria so long as somepony’s dangling a pie in front of them,” she sprung her joke, and Soaring realized at the last instant that he’d walked right into it. Spitfire had her laugh for a moment, and unlike Fleetfoot, she only received a general look of annoyance from her friend. She was even about to make sure she nullified the action she just took, but he beat her to it with something else.

“Yeah, sure, but I better get the pie whenever we get where we’re flying,” he said back to her, actually playing to his own joke for once and taking Spitfire almost completely by surprise. Soarin sat pretty smug while he waited for her reaction, which she actual had to recompose herself to produce.

“Huh, well since I’ll be Captain: no matter what, even if there’s no bakery around whatsoever, I’ll always pull ever extra string to make sure you get your pie in the end,” she promised the still-smirking stallion.

“You sure you can afford that?” he questioned the potential finances of her proclamation.

“Hey, I said I’d always pull strings for you, but since I’m the one pulling them that means I’m the one decided how much I do,” she answered, though only to be countered.

“Hey yourself. I’m gonna be getting paid too you know?” he reminded her of the obvious, at which all she did was roll her eyes again.

“When were you going to get your next one? I’d image it’s pretty hard for you going this whole academy week without getting to eat one,” she moved on around his comment.

“Don’t you know it! I had a slice of my aunt’s pumpkin pie just before we flew up here. It was leftover from the family party we had when I got my acceptance letter. I’m hittin that place down in Ponyville for a nice, big apple one first thing after the week’s over with!” he went off right upon her prompting, leaving her laughing by the end of it, like always. In fact it was only hearing her laugh that even made Soarin stop at all.

“Fine, it’s on me when we get out,” she promised.

“Serious?” he asked with a sudden and gaping mouth.

All she did was all Spitfire knew she had to do. She just held her smile and nodded until Soarin believed it.

“Ha, alright! Score! This means I get two now!” he yelled out in blind thrill, while she facehoofed herself at his intention to still purchase one with his own bits as well.

Spitfire held her face in her hoof for a good moment, not even making a motion to pick her head back up or set her hoof back down. Only when Soarin actually spoke again, and with a voice that sounded more concerned than anything else.

“Uh . . . Spitty . . .” he started with her oldest, and formerly humiliating nickname, his eyes wandering one way then the other, picking paths at random to avoid meeting hers, “uh-I know I can really be a lot to put up with; I . . . I kind of just want to say thanks for sticking with me for so long . . ."

“Ugh, Soarin . . .” she couldn’t think to finish her sentence, she just resorted to a resigned , pleading expression.

Soarin returned a smile, plain and pure. It held no mischief, no provocation, no nervousness, nothing in excess of just the fundamental bliss that resided behind every upside-down frown. And it infected Spitfire, like his cheeriness always had, until she became so stricken that everything else of note left her face as well, and she was left with nothing but the same smile as her oldest, dorkiest, and best friend.

Spitfire broke their shared, smiling stare only to look around them really quick, making sure nopony else was around right at that moment. And then without a word she reached out and pulled him into a hug. Soarin’s eyes widened at the suddenness of it, though that died away quickly since he wasn’t really shocked by her hugging him to begin with. They’d hugged each other before, more than plenty of times, though it had been more so when they were younger, and she actually hadn’t hugged him in a long time. He guessed that was why he was blushing as he hugged her back, though he was mainly just glad right at that moment that she couldn’t see it, otherwise he knew she would tease him over it.

“I’m not ever gonna leave you behind, Soarin, no matter how far ahead I could get. I promised you when we both first learned learned to fly for the first time, remember?” she reiterated the promise in its exact words, and asked about his memory as she released him and pulled back away.

“Hey,” he protested, “that was different back then. I can keep up now!”

Spitfire’s smirk sprung back into place at its call to duty, and she said what was only fitting to say back to him, “prove it.”

Both raised their wings, and both of them rocketed upwards and away on the same indeterminable signal they read from each other.

They went off racing together.

Author's Note

The introduction to this story of mine that I've been building up in my head for a while.

It's basically just a moment's flashback from Soarin and Spitfire's induction to the Wonderbolt Academy. A good bit was inspired by this piece http://inuhoshi-to-darkpen.deviantart.com/art/Back-at-the-Academy-352577906

The story won't be sticking in their academy days, in fact that's kind of why I dubbed it the prologue, it's actually going to jump right up around "present time" as referred to by around when the show takes place.

Enjoy, if you want, that is :)