Author's Note

Finally got back to this. Enjoy the chapter guys!

A Dream Come True

As the next day came around, I found myself waking up with a smile on my face. I had more energy and was more excited than I had been in a long time. Today was the day I would begin my training on how to fly. I sat up to find no pain for the first time since I got here. The day was already looking up if I felt this good.

I looked up to find myself surrounded by clouds, clouds, and more clouds, arranged in such a way as to fashion a ceiling.

After we made it back to ponyville, Rainbow asked me where my house was. After I told her I didn't have one, she offered to let me stay with her until I found one.

So there I was, in Rainbow's home, on the day of my training, with nothing to do until then but laze around, so that's what I was gonna do. After I ate of course.

I looked around for Rainbow. Yes, I was hungry. I was damn near starving, but I couldn't just go in her fridge without permission.

That is the number one rule in any home. Never eat someone's food before asking unless they serve it themselves. I was gonna head off in the direction of her room, but I caught her in the hall.

"Hi, Rainbow! How'd you sleep?"

"Hi! Eh, I could've used a few more minutes, but i'm good. What about you?"

"I had a wonderful sleep. I haven't felt this good in a long time."

"I see. So, you ready for your lessons?"

"You know it? Do we have to go now or something?"

"Nah, i'd say in about another..." She looks out the window. 'Hour or so? Yeah."

"You can tell the time just by looking out the window?"

"Yup. Besides being a wonderbolt, I'm a weather pony. We are trained to be able to tell the time of day simply by the sky alone. It's how we know when to do certain things with the weather."

"That is so cool."

"I know right? It's so awesome. You wanna get something to eat?"

"That's funny. I came out here to ask you that exact question."

"Well then what are we waiting for?"

With that she made her way downstairs and to her fridge where she pulls out what is no doubt four salads and placed them on the table.

I'm glad I didn't look in. She probably would've thought I tried to eat them.

I sit down in front of the right two, and she sits down in front of the left.

According to Rainbow, i'll leave to train in an hour, It's already 6: 40. Our little chat no doubt took ten minutes if that was the case.

"Wow, I can't believe I woke up at six thirty." I say as we eat.

"What time do you usually wake up?"

"Oh it's nothing too different really. I just wake up at seven. A good thirty minutes later."

"I see. Well, Like I said, i''m a wonderbolt. We have to get up early to practice."

"You have something important coming up?"

"Yeah. The wonderbolts are performers. We have a show next Monday"

"I see. Just in time for after my training then?"

"Oh, really? Yeah, it looks like it. You're getting personalized training after all. She wouldn't have said yes if it would get in the way."

"Yeah, this is Spitfire we're talking about, after all."

"You've met her before? Then why didn't you say so?! Is that why she was so nice to you? Were you her coltfriend?"

"No! Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Oh? So you're not dating her." She sighed in what sounded like relief(?), and said, "S-sorry about that. A-anyway, Let's eat, yeah?"

"Y-yeah...let's eat."

The hour passed by quickly after that, and soon, Rainbow and I were heading back up to the Wonderbolts Academy, searching for Spitfire.

I spoke up first, voicing what I was sure was both our concerns. "Where is she?"

"I dunno." Rainbow said as she kept pace with me on our little impromptu search party situation. "Maybe she's late?"

I didn't want to think a mare like Spitfire, with her whole leader of a flying team thing, would be one to be late, but it was true that she hadn't shown up yet. I opted to sit down and wait instead of spend energy on continuing this endeavor.

"Hey, Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"You think she decided not to train me?"

"If I know Spitfire, then once she's decided on something, she won't let up on it, especially if she's personally committed to it."

I had to think for a second. 'Personally committed huh?'

We fell into a comfortable silence, both of us no doubt wondering where she could be. But just as we were about to give up and go back to her house, we heard a slightly gravelly, yet obviously feminine voice say,

"Hey there, you two!"

I looked up to see Spitfire coming towards us, a smirk adorning her features.

''Where were you? We thought you were late." I asked, standing up on my hooves to look at her.

She gave me a wider smirk. "Relax, kid. Believe it or not I actually got here way before you two did."

We both looked at her in slight shock. "You did?"

"Yep. Look up there." She turned and pointed off into the sky. We turned our heads in to the direction she was pointing, and saw something that made our mouths drop to the cloud floor.

"Pretty awesome right. I made it myself."

Awesome was an understatement. The course was dominated by could rings, with tricky, if not tight hurdles in between. The cloud rings followed an upward path, and turned sharply at several points. The whole thing spanned the entire space between the academy itself, and the very end of the cloud track.

Seeing our stunned faces, Spitfire let out a small laugh. "Ha! You guys should see your faces right now. Comedy gold."

We both righted ourselves, a light blush staining our cheeks.

Spitfire came up to me and put a hoof around my shoulders. "This, kid, is your training course, specially built to train you to be the best flyer you can be. The rings are meant to test your accuracy and help you to learn to fly straight. The hurdles are meant to test your reaction time. The turns are meant to test your speed and control, while the very last bit at the end is meant to test your hovering skill. Teach you how to make a safe landing, you know?"

"Wow, you really did think of everything!"

"Not really. I just used what I usually train the wonderbolts on along with the information about that little incident of yours to create this track."

"How did you pull all that from my incident?"

"Simple, kid. First time flyers are always the same. They get caught up in the moment and think they're on top of the world. They like the feel of the air in their manes, the speed, the height. All of that. Your incident has actually happened several times before, and I knew just what to do to help you gain some skill to go with your enthusiasm."

"Wow. Um..thanks, Spitfire."

"Well, i am captain of the wonderbolts, after all. Don't go getting your wings in a twist though, you still have to be taught how to hover before you can try it in real time. If you were to finish the course like this, as difficult as that will be, you'll just fall once you stop. Let's try it a few times first."

"Alright."

"Good. Now flap your wings just enough to get you a few feet off the ground."

I do as she says, flapping my wings until I'm ten feet off the ground. The wind is in my mane once again, and I want so badly to take off, but I have to hold off on that for now.

"Good! Now flap your wings one last time, but stop just as they curve inward."

I didn't quite understand it, and I didn't have enough faith in my wing control to do it properly, but I did as she said.

I flapped my wings, stopped them, and curved them. Annnd I could immediately feel myself tipping over, I closed my eyes and prepared for the fall.

But it never came. I opened my eyes and looked around. I had indeed tipped over, but I had stopeed just short of flipping onto my back, and was now upright in the air.

I heard Spitfire's voice close to me. "Good Job, kid. That's how you hover. Your wings'll catch the air easier like this, letting you hover in the air for as long as you want. Just don't-"

I was so happy to hear that I was hovering, not that I wasn't listening, of course, that I let my wings fold back to my sides, and I flipped over entirely.

"-Relax your muscles too much." She sighed and flew down to catch me before I hit the ground.

After that little incident, my training started in earnest. I flew up in to the air and through the rings, catching my wing on the side of the third one at least five times before I managed to learn how to maneuver them. This was followed by flying face first into several hurdles and bursting through the turns in the rings many times after that. Long story short, I needed to make that week count. But, it was not without progress.

By the end of my first few training sessions, I could make it past one hurdle. Then I could make it past both and reach the turns, which took me another few session to figure out. then I had to use all of that several times in repeated trials followed by trying not to hit the ground face first, helped a lot by Spitfire, who offered to be my safety net.

Rainbow was surprised by this, but I just saw it as another nice thing to do. By the time my final test came around, I had the entire course down, now I just had to fly it perfectly.