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“And you’re absolutely sure that this is necessary?” Spitfire asked yet another time, rubbing the dark circles under her eyes with a hoof, too tired to care that she was demonstrating poor manners in the presence of the most powerful being in Equestria. Besides, she’d already lost all of her dignity when she’d started pacing around the room and whacking things with her wings in frustration.

“Yes. I’m sorry, but we simply don’t have the funds to continue the program. We’ve spent too much on repairing the damage left by the numerous attacks on the city, and we need to save up as much as possible because we anticipate even more in the future.”

The Wonderbolts’ captain sighed and walked out of the conference room, unable to continue this conversation any longer.

“What?!” Rainbow Dash slammed the paper down onto the ground, hovering above it as if reading it from a different angle would change the content of the letter, eyes so wide they looked like they could fall out at any second. “No. Nonononono. Nuh uh. This is a forged signature, right here”—she jabbed a hoof at the bottom of the sheet—”and this is just a cruel joke, because some dimwits want to take my place as a Wonderbolt. That’s what this is.”

Twilight frowned and wrapped her magical aura around the piece of paper, then shook her head and released it. “It’s legitimate,” she told her friend. “Looks like it’s not a hoax. The Wonderbolts program is being shut down.”

“No.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. The Wonderbolts couldn’t just shut down.That’s not how things worked; the center of her life couldn’t just disappear with barely any warning. What was the point in anything if she couldn’t ever be the elite flier that she’d always wanted to be?