Author's Note

Hey there everyone!

Sorry for the sudden short update, but I was having trouble writing this one. I had an Idea, but no matter what I did nothing sounded good. So after a few rewrites I decided before I make i t worse I'll post the chapter. Hopefully it's good enough to satisfy you all until the next one.

Wind Rider, bet most of you weren't expecting that. Huh?

Honestly he's a good antagonist. He was done very well for that in the episode he was in. Arrogant and so self entitled that he felt he was above the law. Even tried to break it too. And he would have gotten away with it if it weren't for Rarity. So, what's his stake in all this? And who is the blue unicorn mare in the balloon with Twilight and her friends? Find out next time!

Cloudbusting

*Wonderbolt Academy a few days later*

Spitfire was watching the skies from her position on the grounds as the cadets flew around a large mountain area. Each of the cadets was paired with another in teams of two, searching high and low for flags in a competition of teamwork, coordination, and trust, in your wingpony.

Spitfire was impressed this time with everyone in the sky. She had two groups she was particularly interested in. The first was Bulk and Cloudchaser. The two were one of the slower teams, but Cloudchaser never left her teammate Bulk behind. The kept in contact with each other, and they helped each other with their flight weaknesses.

For Bulk he was a slow agile flier. So, Cloudchaser would use her slipstream to help him move along quicker and helped him with his aerial maneuvers. He in turn helped her with the obstacle course using his huge body to protect her from some of the harsher obstacles, such as the mach turbines that blew powerful tornado speed winds at the cadets.

*They’re an ideal team.* Spitfire thought watching them with pride. They really did know how to work together to makeup for each others shortcomings. She then turned her attention to her other ace team, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust.

*Those two; however, are something else.*

She watched in the sky as Lightning Dust made a crazy dive with Rainbow at her heels. Lighting erected her body like a pole, holding her legs at her sides and folding her wings in against her body as she dropped like a rock straight down into a narrow crevasse in the grounds. Rainbow Dash worriedly tried to imitate her partner and came out with a clipped wing. Spitfire was so fixated on Lighting Dust she failed to see how Rainbow clipped her wing as they approached.

Spitfire saw the flag in Lighting Dusts mouth. The lightning maned mare was standing tall and proud of her accomplishment. Rainbow Dash landed right behind Lighting Dust flexing her injured wing while Spitfire gave Lighting Dust a proud pat on the back.

“Nice work you two,” She said to them.

Lighting grinned and pushed her chest out with Pride. “Thank you ma’am.”

Spitfire nodded to Rainbow Dash who was hiding her injured wing as best as she could.

“You too, cadet. Keep on pushing and you two will become Wonderbolts yet,” Spitfire said.

Lightning Dust’s grin grew even wider after hearing that comment. Then like lightning itself Lighting Dust was back up in the air flying off in the distance with Rainbow limping behind her.

For the next hour the cadets continued to scour the grounds looking for any flags they had missed. Unbeknownst to them Spitfire had only place ten on the entire grounds and the tenth one wasn’t even hidden in plain view like the others. So, for over two more hours the cadets searched both high and low before any of them realized where Spitfire hid the last flag.

In all that time Spitfire kept on assessing the teams and individual ponies. Again only four really stood out this time around. Bulk, Cloud Chaser, Lightning and Rainbow. Each was determined to find the last flag. Bulk and Cloudchaser were trying to find just one to make it onto the next set of trials and not fall far behind. If Spitfire was honest they had more potential than Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash.

Sure they were better fliers, but Bulk and Cloudchaser showed better teamwork. That alone made them far better Wonderbolt material than Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash. Sure they worked well together, but they only saw themselves as two units working the same task, not a unit.

Spitfire, who had been doing this for years knew all too well what happened when you think a team is a bunch of ponies working on one or more tasks. It is both a hindrance to overall performance and it could be dangerous and or fatal.

Spitfire’s tail twitched as an familiar numbing ache made its rounds on her. Every time she went into heat this always came up. Where her ovaries had been removed and the scars of her encounter with a dragon in Ponyville left her crippled and almost killed her.

She remembered trying to play the hot shot hero so she could return home to Trixie with a tale to tell. She flew along the dragon's flank while her team blindsided it. The maneuver worked and the other Wonderbolts did indeed catch the dragon off guard. The beat his from the side and served several of his sharp spined off his back, but that was the limit of their success.

This ended up enraging him even more. His reprisal was swift and devastating. While distracting him, SPitfire had become separated from the main group and was singled out by the dragon. She remembered his dark green eyes full of greed and hate, as he swatted her with his massive claws. Spitfire cringed at the memory of his claws tearing away at her flesh and sending her pummeling to the ground.

That fight left scars on Spitfire, but none was more enduring than the emotional scarring she was left with. The injury had taken her ability to have foals of her own. Here was nothing that could have been done to help her regain this ability. True motherhood was lost to her forever, and yet she endured with Trixie by her side.

Looking up at the two groups of ponies, Lighting, Rainbow, Bulk, and Cloudchaser. Spitfire thought of all her cadets as her figurative children. After adopting Buttercup and Peanut she extended that view too many ponies in her life. Even old ones.

She remembered the time she use to spend with Fleetfoot as they grew up together. The times she had with Soarin, then Trixie, and now her very cadets she saw as family. She even got back into contact with her mother after a long period of not contacting her. Even her father was back in touch with her after almost three years.

Yet, in all that it was Buttercup and Peanut who filled the void in her heart after her loss. Now she looked up to her cadets, the future Wonderbolts, and was proud of everyone of them. Even if only a few would make it into the reserves she was still honored and privileged to call them her cadets.

As the final flag was found and the cadets were released to lunch she was looking forward to seeing the next and final event to determine who would make the cut before the final evaluations. It was cloudbusting.

Spitfire was happily waiting for the time to pass so she could oversee this last part of their training regiment, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be. A half hour later she got an urgent message from her XO saying to finish her paperwork ASAP. Her mood soured by this the Wonderbolt trudged back to her office after leaving the cadets under the groundskeeper ponies.

Back in her office she grunted with frustration as she did her paperwork. She hated not being able to watch and instruct her cadets. They were hers after all. They were her responsibility. She loved her cadets as them came, even if they failed, and never once has she ever turned her back on them.

*Knock! Knock!*

“Enter.”

Spitfire kept signing papers as the door to her office opened up and a taller light blue stallion came in. He wore an old worn flight jacket with a ivory scarf tied in a windsor knot around his neck. His eyes were old as easily indicated by his dark grey hair and the wrinkles over his face.

Spitfire got up and saluted the pony who saluted back as she sat back in her chair and continued to sign her papers.

“I heard the new batch of Wonderbolts are ready for their evaluations,” The stallion said in an almost mocking tone.

Spitfire sighed, and slumped in her chair rubbing her temples.

“What do you want Wind Rider?”

“That’s Major Wind Rider, Captain Spitfire,” Wind Rider snapped at the pony. “And I want to see the results of your evaluation once the cloud busting segment of the training is complete. Or are you too busy to evaluate your own cadets?”

Spitfire stopped signing. She felt anger swell up inside of her. Slowly she looked up at Wind Rider with a dangerous look in her eyes. Being her XO he was higher in the ranks and out ranked her by a significant margin, so she’d never call him outright, but she knew how to get her point across in a far less threatening way.

“I never don’t have time for my cadets evaluations. I have seen this group grow and prosper from the start to the finish-”

“Almost to the finished,” Wind Rider corrector her.

Spitfire’s eye twitched as the anger in her skyrocketed.

“Yes, almost,” She hissed at Wind Rider. “But, I won’t give my cadets evaluations to you. You don’t know them like I do. I spent time with each of them, and know who has made the cut and who didn’t.”

“Oh, please. You can’t be serious about that!”

“About what? That you unfairly give the best cadets false hope only to shoot them down with your own deranged version of an evaluation?”

Wind Rider narrowed his eyes at Spitfire dangerously.

“That’s a mighty bold claim you made there, Captain,” Wind Rider said to her in a cold tone.

Spitfire stood up and stepped around her desk to face Wind Rider up close and personal. She got to a hooves pace away from him and stared directly into his eyes. He didn’t flinch nor did Spitfire back down as they enter a mini staring contest.

Then Spitfire said to him, “I won’t allow you to evaluate my cadets. They’re my responsibility. Not yours.”

As the words left Spitfire’s mouth they couldn’t have felt more right than at that moment. She knew Wind Rider would grade the cadets on an unfair curve. She knew she'd done her cadets justice by preventing this. But as if the fates were conspiring against her one of the ground ponies came into her office abruptly with a panicked look on his face and panting.

“Captain! Sorry to barge in ma’am!” The pony said through heavy breaths.

Spitfire pushed past Wind Rider and patted the sweating pony on the back.

“What happened?” She asked the pony.

The pony shook his head and looked back at Spitfire.

“There was an incident ma’am. Two of the cadets created a tornado for the cloud busting portion of the trials. They, lost control of it and the tornado went wild,” The stallion said shaking his head.

Spitfire patted his back.

“Was anyone hurt?”

“Yes ma’am, also six civilians nearly lost their lives today as a result.”

Spitfire felt her heart sink. Six ponies almost died? By two of her cadets? This Was not only unacceptable it was downright shocking to her. She ran a tight ship and no one had ever used a tornado for cloud busting before. She wondered who these ponies were that almost died, the grounds pony said no one was hurt so they dodged a bullet with that one.

Feeling slightly more relaxed she took the stallion to her desk and offered him a seat. He took the seat with a kind smile and thankful nod to Spitfire. She then sat herself on the ground next to him as Wind Rider leaned against the door.

“What happened?” Spitfire asked.

“Well, ma’am,” The stallion started with a stautted. “Like I said we were doing the cloudbusting drill when Rainbow Dash and her lead Lighting Dust suddenly created a tornado to finish the job in a timely manner. They lost control and the tornado went wild and straight into a balloon that was coming up with six ponies. They would have died had a few other cadets not caught them in time.”

“I’m glad noone was killed, but who was injured and who were the ponies who came up in the balloon?” Spitfire asked him.

The stallion gave a worried look to Spitfire. He looked like he was trying to decide between running or trying to make it to the window nearby. Spitfire noticed his evasive behavior and held him down on the chair firmly. She looked him square in the eyes which prompted him to stop and look back at her undistracted.

“Who were the ponies who were almost killed?” She asked again.

“T-they were the Elements of Harmony ma’am.”

Spitfire again felt her heart twinkle as a feeling of dread overcame her. She knew the Element’s of Harmony well. Rather, she knew them well enough. Once at the Grand galloping Gala they all made quite a lasting impression on her, but Spitfire liked them. They were unique. There was Fluttershy the animal lover. Rarity the unicorn and fashion mare of Ponyville and soon Canterlot. Applejack, one of the heads of Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie Pie, who was Pinkie Pie. Spitfire didn’t even try to understand that one. Then of course Rainbow Dash one of her cadets.

Then in the back of her mind something clicked. She counted in her head how many ponies there were in the Element’s of Harmony. Six in total, but if Rainbow Dash was one and she was here at the Academy, then who was the sixth pony in the balloon with the rest of the Elements of Harmony? It perplexed the mare until her confused look got her a weary look from the grounds pony who looked like he was about to pass out.

“Who was the last pony?” She asked the grounds pony.

As if what happened wasn’t enough his next words struck Spitfire so hard it nearly toppled her over.

“The last pony was a unicorn mare, one I've never seen before.”

Spitfire tried to stand, but she felt the energy quickly slipping away as she leaned towards the pony with a scared look on her face.

"What did she look like?"

"Light blue, white mane and tail and a star cutie mark of some sort, I think."