Wonderbolt vs Washoutby PRlNCESS CADENCEChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 1It was a wonder she’d ever idolized spandex as much as she had. In all the years she’d spent fantasizing about wearing the majestic blue and yellow leotard that the Wonderbolts wore while flying through the sky, she never really considered how much it would ride up on her tail by the end of the day. As good as she looked in a mirror, there was no denying how good she felt getting that scratchy outfit off of her back and stretching her muscles as a fabric-free mare again. Just as she was getting her limbs nice and loose, though, she felt them tense up once again at the feeling of a hoof slapping against her back, making her fall forwards, nearly losing her balance. “Nice work today, Crash,” the raspy voice behind her said. “Kinda had me worried at that ninety-degree turn, though. Last thing I need is for another somepony else to get sent to the hospital after a bad run in with the long side of a mountain.” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head with a soft chuckle. “Yeah. Sorry, Spitfire. My goggles fogged up right when I needed them.” “Don’t sweat it!” Spitfire then wrapped her hoof around Rainbow’s neck, pulling her in close while rubbing her hoof into Rainbow’s mane. “It’s not like that’s the first time you’ve shown off how reckless you can be.” The cyan mare smirked. “Uhh, I think ‘resourceful’ is the word you’re looking for.” “Right, right. Way to use your resources. Speaking of which, I have a favor to ask you.” Spitfire then let go of Rainbow Dash’s neck, but right when Rainbow Dash was about to roll her eyes at whatever her captain wanted, she saw an atypical cringe on the pegasus’s face. With an eyebrow raised, Rainbow muttered, “Uhh, sure! What did you need, boss?” “Well,” Spitfire began, rubbing the back of her neck. “You know how that whole festival thing is coming up, right? The Festival of the Two Sisters?” Rainbow Dash finally gave her that eyeroll she was saving up, flicking her hoof nonchalantly. “Duhh! We headline that event every year! What, did you need somepony to do a solo event? Because I am so--” “That’s just it. We’re not headlining this year.” Just as Rainbow Dash was about to finish her thought, the air got trapped in her lungs with her jaw frozen and mouth wide open. “At least, not that I know of. Normally we would have heard from the princesses by now, but ever since the new transition, things have been a little, uhh…” Spitfire didn’t need to finish. There was no doubt that things had been different ever since Celestia and Luna retired--not necessarily in a bad way, but definitely in a different way. Twilight knew immediately that she wouldn’t be able to handle her responsibilities every waking moment of the day, just like Celestia needed her sister to help during her own rule. Thus, she recruited her friend Sunset Shimmer to help until the sun went down, giving Twilight the responsibilities that came while the sun was below the horizon. Even though it was a diarchy similar to what existed before, the transition came with it a new generation of personalities and a new way of governing. “You know both of the princesses, right?” Spitfire continued. “Uhh, I guess so. How come?” “Well, I was hoping you and me could go talk to ‘em, see if they’re just behind or anything.” Rainbow Dash’s eyebrow rose higher. “As in you want me to try and talk them into having us headline the festival.” Once the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Spitfire quickly held her hooves up in defense, almost as if she had planned on Rainbow Dash coming to that conclusion. “Me? Using you to rub shoulders with the princesses? Come on, I thought you knew me better than that!” Rainbow Dash smirked. “Right, because you totally wouldn’t get your ego hurt if the princesses decided on another act to open up the festival.” “Are you saying you wouldn’t?” As much as she wanted to deny it, Spitfire did have a point, and it wasn’t like Rainbow Dash wasn’t at least a little bit curious about why they hadn’t been asked to headline yet. True, knowing Twilight, she was probably up to her ears in checklists, giving herself way more responsibility than she needed, but all she had to do was bring it up to Rainbow Dash during one of their get-togethers. Had something like this really just slipped her mind, or did she actually have something else in mind? “Maybe you’re right,” Rainbow said with a less-than-confident smile. “We should probably go talk to her. But only to make sure she didn’t forget!” “Riiiight,” Spitfire retorted, patting Rainbow Dash on the back. “Whatever you say.” Rainbow Dash tried to ignore Spitfire’s snarky attitude, but she couldn’t deny that it stung just a little bit. Twilight hadn’t really just gone and picked somepony else to perform without even telling her… Did she? By the time they arrived at the castle, the sun was beginning to set, which meant that this was the best chance they’d have at being able to catch both princesses at once. Honestly, for any other ponies trying to get an audience with the princesses, they’d probably get turned down before they even made it to the courtyard, but these weren’t just any ponies. Even the guards knew Rainbow Dash and Spitfire by name at this point, giving them at least one less thing to worry about for now. “Like I said,” Rainbow began, “it probably just slipped her mind. It’s not like Twilight doesn’t have a bajillion other things to worry about right now!” “Alright, alright. We’re just here to make sure.” Rainbow Dash lowered her head while gritting her teeth slightly. Even with all the confidence she pretended to have on the outside, just the thought of going this year without headlining for the festival made her gut churn. Luckily for them both, however, once they made it to the door to the throne room, the guard standing out front just happened to be the best candidate to get them through as quick as possible. In fact, the moment they arrived, he practically stepped to the side as a large grin arose on his beak. “Hey, Professor! Long time no see, huh?” “Nice to see you too, Gallus,” Rainbow said, trying her best to smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know which princess is on duty right now, would you?” “You’re just in time, actually!” he replied, slowly pushing the large door open. “They’re about to do a shift change, so you’ll probably get to see them both! Oh, actually, now that I think about it--” “Thanks, Gallus! You’re the best!” “Huh? H-hang on! There’s already somepony in there talking to them!” Rainbow Dash might have heard what he said through the sudden wind whipping past her ears, but even if she did, it was too late to turn back now. This was her chance to see them both while she still could and avoid the bureaucracy that would be involved if the two princesses had to communicate between waking periods. She still wasn’t sure if Spitfire was right behind her, but if she wasn’t, she’d just have to fill her in on the details later. “Twilight!” she called, skidding to a halt with a black streak trailing where she landed. The purple alicorn, however, tilted her head curiously with her eyes squinting in confusion. “Rainbow Dash? What are you doing--” “Oh, you know. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by and say hello.” Twilight blinked. “That’s… very thoughtful of you, Rainbow Dash, but as you can see, I’m a little preoccupied right--” “You know, when was the last time we had a picnic? We should really do one of those sometime. I’ve been meaning to find some time just to relax after all the hard work I’ve been doing lately. Plus, I’ve been craving some of Pinkie Pie’s double chocolate chip cupcakes.” “Definitely!” Twilight tried to smile past the cringe on her face. “We should definitely talk about that later! You know, when I don’t have somepony right in front of--” “Speeeeaking of all the hard work I’ve been doing lately--you know, as a Wonderbolt--I couldn’t help but notice that we haven’t been invited to do the opening ceremony for the Festival of the Two Sisters! Don’t worry. I get it. Paperwork, am I right? Just wanted to check in and--” “RAINBOW DASH!!” The cyan mare turned her head to find that the outburst hadn’t come from Twilight, but rather the orange alicorn in the throne beside her, who had a much less compassionate look on her face. “Oh, hey, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash said with an oblivious wave. “Anyway, like I was saying--” “We didn’t forget to tell you, Rainbow Dash,” Sunset continued. “We went with another group this year.” Several seconds passed where Rainbow Dash stood with a lighthearted smile, waiting for the punchline, but after waiting in silence for an uncomfortably long time, the smile gradually began to fade, replaced with a look of bewilderment, then anger. “Wait, what?! What do you mean you found another group to perform?!” “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Twilight shouted, pointing her hoof at the space Rainbow hadn’t seen with her peripheral vision. “We’ve decided that maybe this year we could try out something different.” “Different?! Who could you even think of that you think would be better than--” Once Rainbow’s eyes finally followed Twilight’s hoof to notice the three ponies who had been standing there the whole time, her breath caught in her throat. Her eyelids went wide as her heartbeat pulsed at twice the speed, flipping between feelings of confusion, anger, and disappointment. One of them was a short, stout stallion with a red coat and yellow mane. On the other end was the tallest pony in the group, a pegasus mare with a purple coat and cloudy white mane. In the middle, though, was the pony Rainbow wanted to see the least, a teal pegasus mare with a mane the color of lightning itself, and all three of them wore the same matching black and green leotard. These ponies were… “Lightning Dust!” Rainbow exclaimed. “And… whoever the two of you are. I can’t remember your names right now.” “MY NAME IS SHORT FUSE! HOW HARD IS THAT TO REMEMBEEERRRR?!” “Easy there, mate,” the larger mare said, pulling the stallion away before he could cause a scene. “I’m Rolling Thunder, but I reckon I’m prolly not the one ye wanna be talkin’ to right now, am I?” Of course she wasn’t! Rainbow Dash didn’t even know who she was! (Although Rainbow knew she probably should at least try to remember for next time.) The real pony she wanted to talk to was the mare with the teal coat standing in the middle of the group with her head held high and a large smirk across her face. “I knew it would only be a matter of time before I got to see you again,” she said with her smirk growing wider. “We wouldn’t be rivals if I didn’t.” “Forget that whole rivalry thing!” Rainbow shouted, turning towards Twilight. “You aren’t seriously thinking of having the Washpants performing instead of us, are you?!” Again, Short Fuse leapt in the air, but luckily, Rolling Thunder was able to grab him in time. “If you’re talking about the Washouts,” Sunset began, “then yes. We are planning on having them perform at the festival.” “But why?! You’ve seen how dangerous their acts are! What if somepony in the crowd got hurt?!” “Actually,” said Twilight, “the Washouts have been taking tremendous steps towards safety these past couple of years. Their act focuses mainly on aerial acrobatics more than death-defying stunts nowadays, and they’ve actually been gaining a pretty large following.” “Larger than the Wonderbolts?!” “What’s the matter?” Lightning Dust jeered, nudging at Rainbow Dash’s side. “You’re not afraid of the competition, are you?” “As if!” As Rainbow Dash retorted, she swiped away Lightning Dust’s hoof, which the teal mare quickly brought to her mouth as she giggled louder. “Twilight, the Wonderbolts have been opening for this festival for the past five years! Are you really just going to forget about us as soon as something new and shiny comes along?” The question made Twilight put her hoof to her chin in thought, but before she could answer, Sunset chimed in for her. “It’s not like that, Rainbow Dash. It’s not like we’re just forgetting about you. We both decided that we should allow other acts that chance to open for the festival. There’s no rule that says that it has to be the Wonderbolts.” “But--” “Actually,” Twilight began, cutting the pegasus off, “I think I agree with Rainbow Dash on this one.” Both Rainbow and Sunset blinked in confusion. ““You do?”” “Yes, and while it’s important to give opportunities to other ponies, I don’t necessarily think it’s worth sacrificing tradition over either.” Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof in victory as Rolling Thunder quickly grabbed hold of Short Fuse before he could do something stupid. “Hang on, Your Majesty,” Lightning Dust began, approaching the princesses even closer. “I thought you said we would be the ones performing. Are you saying we’re fired just like that?” “Yup!” Rainbow said, gently pushing Lightning Dust towards the exit. “Sorry. Maybe next year. Don’t forget to keep practicing in the meantime!” “Wait a second, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow suddenly stopped pushing Lightning Dust and turned her head to see Twilight giving her an unenthusiastic stare. “I never said that she wouldn’t be performing.” “Sorry,” said Spitfire, who had been waiting in the background for who knows how long. “I got here a little late. So who is going to be opening for the festival? The Wonderbolts or the Washouts?” To that, Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “Why not both?” Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped. Her heart sank. This wasn’t happening. If this wasn’t just as bad as the Washouts performing instead of her, it might have been just a little bit worse. “You don’t mean…” “Rainbow Dash, I think this would be the perfect opportunity for the Wonderbolts and the Washouts to be the opening act at the Festival of the Two Sisters.” “NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!........” Everypony in the room flinched from the rainbow pegasus’s outburst, leaving all the ponies with a small cringe until Sunset finally broke the silence. “Come on, Rainbow Dash. I thought you’d be on cloud nine after hearing something like that. Twilight just gave you permission to open for the festival! What else do you want?” Rainbow opened her mouth to rebut, but Spitfire quickly put her hoof into Rainbow’s mouth before she could answer. “That sounds like a great compromise, Your Highness. Besides, I’m sure Lightning Dust has learned a thing or two since her days at the academy.” Lightning Dust smirked. “You mean like how to actually draw a crowd?” Spitfire growled at a volume that only Rainbow Dash could hear before doing an about-face towards the exit. “Come on, Rainbow. We’d better get to practicing if we wanna have a better performance than these phonies.” “Sure,” Rolling Thunder said with a chuckle. “You sheilas go right ahead ‘n practice those twirls all ye’d like. Not like it’ll be able to top what we’ve come up with.” Suddenly, Spitfire turned right back around with her mouth open in anger, but before she could give the Washout a piece of her mind, Twilight quickly said, “Er… I think there might be a little miscommunication.” The comment made all five pegasi turn their heads towards the princess. “What do you mean?” Lightning Dust asked. “Well, when I said you’d both be performing, I meant together. As in one act.” This time, Rainbow Dash flinched so hard that it pulled her up into the air. “Whoooaaa whoa whoa whoa! You can’t seriously be saying that you want us to perform as a team.” “I think she is,” Sunset concurred. “That won’t be a problem, will it?” “Yeah, it will! That’ll be a HUGE problem! Me and Lightning Dust don’t see eye to eye on anything!” “Then I think now might be a good time to learn,” Twilight said, putting a period on the discussion altogether. Rainbow Dash looked like she still wanted to argue, but Twilight’s stern eyes slowly brought her back down to her hooves. “I’m assuming that won’t be a problem for you three either?” The Washouts all flinched once her gaze shifted towards them. “N-no, ma’am,” Lightning Dust said for her group, eliciting a smile from the purple alicorn. “Good. Since the festival is in two weeks, I assume that means I can count on you all to be ready for a dress rehearsal before then?” The five pegasi all hung their heads with an identical “yes, ma’am,” before Twilight nodded her head one last time. “I hope you all know that I’m not doing this to be mean. I really want you all to have the chance to perform at the festival, and this was really the only way I could think of to make it happen. Who knows? Maybe after this, you’ll all end up friends!” As soon as the princess said those words, the two groups turned to glare at each other. The chances of them being all buddy-buddy at the end wasn’t likely, and there was basically no chance of that happening any time soon. Rainbow Dash may not have known one way or the other how Lightning Dust would feel about the two of them working together, but she knew that she didn’t want to see her face any longer than she had to. These were going to be a long two weeks… “Keep those hooves straight, ladies! Put your backs into! Come on! Move, move, move!” Rainbow Dash tried to keep all of the physical stress from showing up on her face. The Wonderbolts had to not only look cool, but they had to make what they were doing seem effortless to their fans. After a quick loop, all four pegasi zoomed back down to the ground, turning at a right angle just before they crash landed, continuing to fly forward with billowy smoke trails behind them. Rainbow had barely managed to skid to a halt before seeing three more ponies casually walking up to the practice area, each of them carrying duffle bags under their wings. “Sorry we’re late,” Lightning Dust said with a smirk, tossing her bag to the side as the other two began to stretch. “It took us a while to convince the guard out front that we weren’t just trying to swipe a couple autographs.” Rainbow Dash pulled her goggles off of her face with a confused stare. “Why? We told him you three were coming.” “Oh, you know. The guard didn’t believe that Short Fuse was a full-grown stallion, Short Fuse threatened to give him an extra belly button, you know how it goes sometimes.” “I wish you would have let me do it, too!” the red pegasus shouted, getting more tense even though he was supposed to be doing the opposite. Rainbow Dash then turned her attention towards Spitfire, giving her a concerned look that she hoped would communicate what a bad idea this probably was. Luckily, Spitfire nodded her head, which meant that she either telepathically understood what Rainbow was thinking or she was just trying to look more confident than she actually was. As much as Rainbow Dash didn’t want to admit it, though, it was probably the latter. “Glad you three managed to show up,” the captain projected. “We were just getting warmed up ourselves. I’ve managed to choreograph our half of the show if you wanted to take a look at it.” Lightning Dust looked Spitfire up and down before waving her away with a lackadaisical hoof. “Nah, I think we’re good. I was thinking we could either do both of our acts at the same time or just split them into two halves. Which would you prefer?” “Uhh, hello!” Rainbow Dash intervened. “Twilight said she wanted us to perform together. You know, as one unit?” Again, Lightning Dust waved her hoof with an eyeroll. “That’s just code for ‘she only had enough time for one act,’ which means that we can either do two acts at the same time or cut both of our acts in half. So which is it gonna be, Captain?” Lightning Dust then pulled herself back onto all fours and put her muzzle up against Spitfire’s, grinning a cocky smile as the yellow mare growled in frustration. “You could at least watch what we put together before deciding to ignore the princess’s request completely,” Spitfire said through gritted teeth in an obvious bout to control her temper. “Fine,” the teal mare said, stepping back and lifting up a foreleg. “You guys can go ahead and show us. We’ll just stretch in the meantime.” Rainbow Dash looked over at Spitfire with a nervous expression, but after getting a shrug from her captain, what other option did they really have? With the matter settled for now, the cyan mare pulled her goggles over her head and leapt into the air, flying about as high as she could before bumping into the cirrus clouds. The other three looked so small from down there that she couldn’t tell if they were even watching, but even if they weren’t yet, they would once they saw what Spitfire had put together. “Everypony ready?” Spitfire called. The ponies in the sky all gave a salute, and with the wave of a flag, the show had started. The four pegasi in the air all peeled off in different directions, falling backwards as if on a freefall collision course with the ground. Just as it looked like they were about to slam against the terrain, however, they curved back into the air, spiralling around each other like two interconnected rings. Then, the two rings converged, creating one giant loop where one pony would flick out from the top like a fountain before falling right back where they were in line. Rainbow Dash wanted to look over and see if they were even paying attention, but if she pulled her attention away from the stunts she was doing for even a second, it could end up in more than just her getting injured. Finally, the four pegasi flipped together, spinning in place before shooting up so high that anypony on the ground would barely be able to see them. Then, with one final loop, they all soared towards the ground again before making a ninety degree angle and hurtling forward, leaving a trail of smoke behind them. Rainbow couldn’t wait to pull her goggles off of her face and look back to see if they’d actually seen any of it, but when she did, all she got was a half-hearted clap from Lightning Dust while the other two yawned apathetically. “So?” Spitfire said, holding her shoulders back. “Still don’t think you want to be part of our show?” Lightning Dust turned towards Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, both of whom gave her the same sinister grin that she was giving them. Then, facing Spitfire with a cocky smile, Lightning Dust said, “You might wanna hold that thought until you see what we have in store.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless. “Alright. Let’s see what you’ve got.” The three pegasi all gave each other a matching smile one last time before jumping into the air, flying at twice the speed the Wonderbolts had. In fact, they even flew up to twice the altitude, disappearing completely as their bodies shrank beyond what the naked eye could see. Rainbow Dash waited with anticipation, trying not to let her jaw drop just knowing how long they were up there with the diminished oxygen, but before she even saw them come back down, she heard the sonic boom that erupted in the sky as all three of them shot back towards the bleachers. All of the Wonderbolts quickly ducked with their hooves over their heads, feeling the wind brush past them as the Washouts came within inches from crashing into them. Once they felt safe enough to lift their heads, the pegasi curved back around, hurdling back to the center of the training field in a spiral pattern. Then, Rolling Thunder broke off from the others as the remaining two circled endlessly in the air. The pony on the ground grabbed a bucket of water and splashed it on each of the two in the air before dunking the rest on herself, and once she joined in the middle of the circle, they all started flying faster, and faster, and faster, and faster! Suddenly, the ponies disappeared completely, and left in their place was a rainbow showering to the ground in an array of sunshine and colors. Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped, but luckily, before anypony noticed, the three Washouts gradually slowed down until they returned back to the ground, bowing as if there was a crowd cheering for them already. Rainbow Dash turned towards Spitfire, whose eyes were just as wide as hers. Both Rainbow and Spitfire had just assumed that they’d need dangerous props in order to be entertaining, let alone that they’d prepared something like that in the meantime. As much as Rainbow wanted to pretend that their act was nothing out of the ordinary, she knew that they would be able to tell she was lying. “So,” Lightning Dust said, approaching the Wonderbolts. “We’re ready to teach you our routine if you’re interested.” Spitfire tilted her sunglasses, turning to her fellow bolts for their opinions. Fleetfoot, Thunderlane and Soarin all switched looks between themselves, none of them speaking knowing that they’d probably just embarrass themselves if they did. With nopony speaking their mind, however, Spitfire pushed her sunglasses back up her muzzle and nodded at the Washouts. “It was good,” she said simply. “I’m sure that we should be able to put something together that’ll really get ponies excited.” Lightning Dust scoffed. “Put something together? In case you couldn’t tell, we’ve already got something put together. Feel free to join us if you’d like, but if not, we can just go back to the original plan of each of us doing half a show.” “HEY!” Everypony quickly moved their heads in the direction the voice had come from, but by the time their necks had turned, Rainbow Dash had disappeared, reappearing once again in Lightning Dust’s face. “I don’t care if you’ve got a show that’ll get ponies excited. The princesses specifically told us to work together! Am I gonna have to go to Twilight and tell them what’s going on?!” Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow in curiosity, then smiled. “You mean tell them that we’ve done some amazing choreography and that for some reason, you don’t want to have any part in it?” Rainbow flinched, getting out of Lightning Dust’s face before glaring again. “No! Hey, we’ve got a great performance planned too! How come you don’t want to be part of our routine?” As soon as the words left her lips, Lightning Dust turned back towards Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, and suddenly, all three of them began laughing at the top of their lungs. Rainbow Dash tried to hold her glare, but she couldn’t help her ears falling over and her cheeks turning red. “Sorry,” Lightning said, wiping a tear from her eye. “Look, you guys have come up with some really cool stunts. It’s just… they’re kinda boring, don’t you think?” Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped again. “Boring?!” “Yeah, I mean, they might be entertaining for old ladies, but we’re trying to impress the younger crowd. You know, like kids and young adults. We’re not exactly trying to impress your grandma here.” The cyan mare took a step forward to confront her, but before she could, Spitfire held her hoof up, stopping Rainbow Dash in her tracks. Spitfire’s eyes never deviated from Lightning Dust’s, which only made the teal pegasus smile wider. “Cut the junk, Lightning Dust,” Spitfire said. “You know as well as I do that there are going to be all sorts of demographics at this festival, which is all the more reason we should put our two acts together. That’s why the princesses chose both of us.” “The princesses chose both of us because you threw a tantrum.” The Wonderbolts gasped. Spitfire tilted her sunglasses forward. “Excuse me?” “You heard me,” Lightning Dust continued. “You were so upset to find out that your little team might not be performing that you went to see the princesses to get them to change their mind. Must be nice knowing them personally. I bet you get them to do all sorts of favors for you.” “Back. Off.” “You know, none of us were on a first name basis with either of the princesses before this. We got an audience with them through talent and hard work alone. Be honest. You two just walked in without an appointment, didn’t you?” “She said that’s enough!” Rainbow exclaimed, getting into Lightning Dust’s face again. “Oh, that’s right. That was our appointment you interrupted, and Twilight felt so bad for you that she decided to let you take half of our show. No wonder we’re drawing more crowds than you. Even you guys know you have no talent.” “THAT’S IT!” Suddenly, Lightning Dust’s eyes went wide as Rainbow Dash tackled her to the ground. The ponies around all gasped as Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash rolled around on the field, grumbling, pinching and biting as they each tried fighting the other off. Quickly, before either of them could do any real damage, however, Spitfire and Fleetfoot jumped in to grab Rainbow Dash as Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse grabbed Lightning Dust, pulling them away no matter how much they fought to break free. “Practice is cancelled for today!” Spitfire shouted, handing Rainbow Dash off to Fleetfoot and Thunderlane. “You three can have the field for the remainder of the day. We’ll pick this back up again tomorrow.” Lightning Dust seethed in anger until suddenly, a small smirk crept up her lips. “Can’t wait. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Chapter 2Rainbow Dash entered the dark room, looking around to see if anypony was looking at her before slumping down at the counter at the end of the room. Nopony had asked her for an autograph so far, but she still believed that at some point, some random pony would approach her and ask to take a picture with her. Today, though, was not a day she was ready to smile for the camera, or for any reason for that matter. “Hey, Dash,” said the pony behind the counter, wiping down the inside of a glass mug with a white washcloth. “The same thing you’ve had all week?” “Yeah. Leave the bottle. I’ll be here for a while.” The bartender chuckled, putting the glass down as he reached below the counter. Rainbow didn’t even bother looking in his direction anymore, especially knowing that she’d have to pretend to be grateful if she accidentally made eye contact. Instead, she stared out the window with her cheek laying against her hoof, only knowing when the drink arrived from the quiet thunk against the wooden tabletop. “Thanks,” she mumbled, again refusing to make eye contact. Then, uncorking the bottle, she whipped her head back and chugged down the fizziest, most bubbly cider that the bar had to offer, guzzling it down like she was on the brink of thirst. Once she’d had all she could drink in one gulp, however, she smacked the bottle back down to the counter and wiped her mouth of the excess liquids drizzling down her lips, breathing heavily before she went for her second round. “Now, I know something’s buggin’ ya,” the bartender said, picking up his mug and rag again, continuing to wipe where he left off. “The only question is what’s so bad that you’ve gotta come to the shadiest part of town and pay half of my rent in one night?” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “I’ve been here for the past six days and you’re just barely asking me what’s the matter?” “I figured it just must be work stress. Ponies come here all the time after work to help themselves relax. Then, they go home, take a nap, and wake up to do it all over again the next day.” The bartender pulled the rag out of the glass to point in Rainbow’s face. “You, on the other hoof, have been comin’ here for a week straight. Not many ponies need extra help relaxing on a weekend.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before taking another swig and wiping away the dribble. “Most ponies aren’t Wonderbolts with a performance coming up in a week.” “Ahh, so it is work. I’m guessing you’ve been pretty busy this whole time.” There was a brief pause before Rainbow set her drink down and rested her chin on her hooves, looking out the window with a deepwinded sigh. “That’s not it. I mean it is, but not really. The Bolts have all come up with a great routine, and we’re basically ready for the festival.” The bartender held the glass up to his eye and wiped down one last spot before placing the glass to the side. “OK, now I really don’t know what’s goin’ on.” “Ugh. Don’t worry about it. It’s not important.” Rainbow grabbed her bottle, swung her head back and downed the rest of the liquids inside, burning her throat in the process. Even if it hurt going down, she loved the way the fizz bubbled up to her brain, like it somehow caught some of her anxious thoughts on the way and made them pop along with the bubbles. Then, once she’d finished the bottle off with a gasp for air, she smacked the empty container onto the table, burying her face into her hooves while waiting for the bartender to find her a new one. *Ring, ring!* “Welcome! Be right with ya!” Rainbow could hear somepony walking up to the counter, but even in her curiosity, she didn’t exactly feel like moving her head right now. Besides, if it turned out that this pony was somepony looking for an autograph, she wasn’t exactly in the right mindset for customer service right now. Of course, nopony had ever stopped her in public before, but she still didn’t want to take her chances. “Kinda quiet tonight, eh, barkeep?” the voice asked along with the screeching of the chair beside her on the wooden floor. “It’s Sunday. Not very many ponies looking to stay up late when they’ve got work in the mornin’.” “Gotcha. Hey, can I have one club soda on the rocks?” “You got it, Lightning Dust.” Once the name escaped his lips, Rainbow’s head shot up, turning to her side to see a teal mare beside her flinching suddenly. After Lightning Dust took a moment to get air back in her lungs, though, a large smirk spread across her cheeks, making Rainbow’s hoof tense up discreetly. “Hey, Rainbow,” Lightning said with an arrogant tone. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here before. I thought you’d be up in Cloudsdale soaking it up with those top-rated bars, not down here with us lowlifes.” “I was here first!” Rainbow shot back. “Actually, I’ve been here every night for the past week, so I don’t wanna hear that from you!” Lightning Dust flinched, then chuckled. “Whoa. Seriously? Every single night? I didn’t know the festival was weighing you down that much.” “Ohh, go fly a kite, you hussy! You know it’s not the festival that’s got me worked up!” Then, before things could escalate further, the bartender placed a new bottle of cider in front of Rainbow Dash along with a glass of club soda for Lightning Dust. The teal pegasus was obviously waiting for Rainbow Dash to elaborate, but Rainbow Dash just grabbed her bottle and started swigging it down again, trying to enjoy the fizz as much as she could. Once she slammed her bottle down to the counter with an exasperated sigh, however, she saw the pegasus beside her mimicking her movements almost like she was looking into a mirror. “What?” asked Lightning Dust, making Rainbow Dash flinch before turning her attention back to her drink. Lightning Dust couldn’t help but smile. “You’re wondering what I’m doing here, aren’t you?” “Ugh.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You’re probably just here because you like club soda.” Lightning Dust shrugged. “True, but it’s not like you’re the only one with stress.” Hearing Lightning Dust say that made Rainbow Dash bite her lip before she accidentally said something that she’d regret. Of course, she wouldn’t regret saying it, but she’d regret it if this civil conversation escalated into a bar fight. “What stress do you have?” Rainbow asked with an edge in her tone. “You guys already have your performance down pat! You’ve basically been spending this past week seeing who could make the best cloud pillows. Plus, the princesses went to you guys first! The Wonderbolts are only getting a chance to perform because--” “Because you’re friends with Twilight.” Rainbow Dash shook her head before dropping eye contact and facing forward. “Whatever.” As Rainbow Dash took another drink, though, Lightning Dust held her drink up to her lips, raising an eyebrow without actually drinking it. “I’m not wrong, am I?” Once Rainbow had finished her gulp, she slammed her bottle down even harder, glaring at the pegasus beside her. “What’s your problem?! Seriously, why do you have it in for us so bad that you refuse to even work together like the princesses asked?” Lightning Dust’s eyes travelled to her hoof, swishing the drink in her glass before leaning her head back and knocking down her club soda. She was far more graceful in returning her container to the counter, but she still didn’t even bother looking Rainbow Dash in the eye. “My dream…” Lightning Dust began, “...was to be somepony important, somepony that others looked up to.” “Aaaaaand that’s why you’re refusing to work with us?” “No, it’s not--” Lightning Dust sighed. “I’m not refusing to work with you.” “Uhh, yeah you are. You remember when you said that we’d both cut our performances in half and just do them independently of each other? You remember when Spitfire tried to work with you guys so that we could all put on a great show that involved all of our talents?” Lightning Dust held up her glass for the bartender to see. “Hey, barkeep. Could I get another one of these? Thanks.” The bartender nodded his head, taking the glass out of her hoof, leaving her to sigh with her chin buried in her forelegs on the counter. “I want our show to be special. I want other ponies to know that we worked our butts off to get to where we are and that we didn’t just land a gig by piggybacking off of the Wonderbolts.” The bartender once again placed a full glass of club soda onto the counter in front of Lightning Dust, which she wasted no time chasing down. “Look,” Rainbow began while Lightning’s throat was still full of her own fizzy drink. “I know what this show means to you, but the fact of the matter is, Twilight wants us to perform together. I know you have your own interpretation of that--” “And I think my interpretation is right.” Rainbow Dash stared at the other pegasus for a few moments, and then, once she had given the message a few moments to sink in, she shook her head in disbelief. “OK. You know what? Let’s go with your definition of ‘working together’ then. How does two separate performances count as working together?” “Because, Rainbow Dash, I see you as a rival.” The rainbow-maned mare squinted her eyes, but before she could respond, Lightning Dust held up her hoof to silence her. “And I think the rest of the crowd would rather us fight than work together. Even if my team dropped all the flaming hoops and wrecking balls that got the Washouts started, our team still focuses mainly on pushing our limits, whereas your team focuses on synchronization. Sure, we could come up with something that would cater to both of our teams’ strengths, but then we’d only be playing at half of our potential. Even if it’s not what the princesses had in mind, I still think my idea would give the audience the best experience.” By this point, the bubbles were finally starting to have an impact on Rainbow’s mind. She could feel them popping along her throat, fizzling their way into Rainbow’s bloodstream, making Rainbow wonder whether Lightning Dust was actually making sense or if Rainbow was just a little bubble-happy right now. “So the reason you wanted us to perform separately isn’t because you hate me?” Lightning Dust turned towards Rainbow with shock on her face. “Hate you? I’ve never hated you. How could I? You were my wingpony, after all.” The comment made Rainbow Dash scratch her head in confusion. “So you’re not just trying to ruin the Wonderbolts’ reputation and make us all look bad?” “What?” Lightning Dust scoffed. “Rainbow, not to be a jerk or anything, but don’t you think it’s a little conceited to think that I was really only doing this to spite you?” “No! Because…” The teal pegasus tilted her head. “Because…?” A brief moment passed where neither of them spoke, but after a soft sigh, Rainbow Dash faced Lightning Dust again and said, “Because I was hoping that I’d be able to use our differences to maybe… sorta… get you guys kicked out of the show.” Rainbow Dash flinched immediately, but all Lightning Dust could do was shake her head in disbelief. “You… what?” “ I know! It was stupid and selfish and I regret even thinking it!” “But why, Rainbow?! Why do you hate me so much?! What did I ever do to you?! In case you don’t remember, you got me kicked out of the academy. Is it because of what almost happened to your friends?” “Well--” “Is it because of that Scootaloo filly?” “Uhh…” “Even after all that’s happened, I’ve only ever thought of you as a rival, never as a bad pony. If you were seriously planning on going behind my back and getting us cancelled altogether, why shouldn’t I think that about you now?” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Come on, Lightning Dust! It’s not like anything actually happened!” Lightning Dust, though, scowled even harder. “Funny. That’s what I said back at the academy. You know, before I was kicked out, but you know what? I’ve got a better idea.” Suddenly, Lightning Dust stood up from her stool and threw a couple of bits onto the counter. “Why don’t you tell the princesses why the Washouts suddenly decided not to perform at the festival after all?” Just as Lightning turned towards the exit, however, Rainbow held out her hoof urgently. “Wait! Hang on!” “What for? This way you get what you’ve wanted all along. Besides, the Washouts are done being the Wonderbolts’ shadow.” “You’re not our shadow! You guys have a great act, and it was wrong of me to hold a grudge against you. If anypony shouldn’t be performing, it should be us.” Rainbow Dash hung her head in embarrassment, but once her confidence came back, she looked Lightning Dust in the eye and said, “I’ll talk with the princesses tomorrow.” “OK…? About what?” “I’ll tell them that the Washouts should perform instead of us. You guys were their original choice anyway.” Lightning Dust tilted her head in curiosity until finally, she put her hoof to her mouth, visibly trying not to crack up in hilarity. Sadly, she only lasted about another three seconds before she started guffawing at the top of her lungs, making Rainbow’s cheeks turn a bright shade of crimson. “Sorry,” Lightning Dust said once she could finally speak again. “It’s just… Don’t you think that plan is kinda stupid?” “Wow, you really don’t hold back, do you?” “It’s not that.” With a wave to the bartender, Lightning Dust took her seat next to Rainbow Dash again. “Hey, could you get me another soda? Oh, and one for my friend here too. I have a feeling we’ll be a little while.” The bartender nodded with a grin as Lightning Dust turned to Rainbow Dash with a smile of her own. “You don’t really wanna back out of the festival, do you?” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish grin. “Not really. I guess I’ve just had one too many ciders. Not exactly thinking straight right now.” “Well, if it’s any consolation, I think that backing out on behalf of your entire team is probably not the best way to handle your guilt. Even if I’m not the biggest fan of how the Wonderbolts got a spot in the first place, I’m not petty enough to have you guys back out to make us look better.” Then, the bartender placed two glasses of club soda onto the counter in front of them, and Lightning Dust didn’t waste a second grabbing her own. “Cheers.” While the teal mare beside her tossed down her own glass, however, Rainbow Dash barely even held hers, swishing the contents around and seeing the bubbles fizz to the top. “So what do you think we should do?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, if you don’t want us to work together and you don’t want us to quit, then what is your plan, exactly?” Lightning Dust sighed with triumph after downing her drink, shaking her head to speed up the speed of the bubbles entering her bloodstream. “My plan? I already told you. I think it would be best if we each did half a performance or just did our acts in unison with each other.” “Yeah, sorry, but I don’t think that’ll fly with the Bolts.” Finally, Rainbow Dash brought her drink up to her lips and let the taste of the completely different fizzy soda trickle down her taste buds. “OK? So what do we do? If we try to mesh our talents together, we’ll just put on a lackluster performance that won’t impress anypony. I was thinking that our show would just transition into yours.” Suddenly, Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Say that again!” “Uhh… ‘I was thinking that our show would just transition into yours’?” The moment the words left her lips, Rainbow Dash put down her drink and grabbed Lightning Dust by the shoulders. “That’s it! Maybe you were onto something!” Lightning Dust tilted her head. “You mean you’ve changed your mind?” “Not exactly, but we’ve gotta tell Spitfire about this idea! It’s gonna be legendary!” Before Rainbow Dash could leap off of her stool and fly out the door (which she probably didn’t have the coordination for anyway), Lightning Dust grabbed her by the hoof, barely keeping her reined in. “Hang on there, Turbo. Mind filling me in on what this plan of yours is first?” “I think I may have found a way to get our shows to work that’ll bring out the best of the Washouts and the Wonderbolts!” “Great! Soooo what is it?” Rainbow Dash grinned, holding up her hoof to get the bartender’s attention yet again. “Two more ciders, please! I have a feeling we’re gonna be here a while.” Rainbow then flashed a smile towards her friend, who flashed a smile right back at her. Chapter 3By the time the festival had arrived, both teams were near exhaustion. They knew that they shouldn’t practice too hard and wear themselves out before the ceremony started, but they knew that if they wanted to pull off what they were trying to do, it would take all night to make sure it was perfect. They’d be performing at the break of dawn, after all, which meant that they wouldn’t exactly get much morning practice done anyway. Both teams had decided to wear their normal outfits, which wouldn’t be much of a surprise to anypony. Not only would they have a tough time getting outfits made that suited all of them perfectly in time for the performance, but for what they had planned, it made sense for the audience to be able to separate between them while they were in the air. As dawn approached closer and closer, more and more ponies began trickling in, which meant that it was just about time for the opening act to take their places. “You all about ready?” asked Spitfire, peeking out the curtain that would eventually be pulled to welcome in the sun. “Pssh,” Rainbow chuckled with the flick of her hoof. “Are you kidding? After all the practice we’ve done, it would be hard not to do everything perfectly.” “Sure you won’t need any potty breaks mid-performance?” quipped Lightning Dust, nudging her hoof into Rainbow’s side. Rainbow Dash, though, rolled her eyes with another chuckle. “This coming from the pony who spent the whole day in the bathroom after--” “I thought we agreed not to talk about that.” Just as Rainbow Dash was about to jab at her with more banter, however, Twilight emerged from the curtain, smiling at both Lightning and Rainbow Dash. “Weeeell,” she began. “Looks like you two have become close friends.” ““NO, WE HAVEN’T!”” Twilight couldn’t help but giggle, covering her mouth with her hooves in an attempt to not be too offensive, but she still ended up giving both Rainbow and Lightning Dust rosy cheeks. “Princess Sunset will be here any minute for the opening ceremony. Do you think you’re ready?” “WHY IS EVERYPONY ASKING US THAT?! GET OFF OUR BACKS!!!” Twilight flinched, but Rolling Thunder quickly pulled Short Fuse back to the ground before his anger could cause any issues. “You don’t need to worry ‘bout us,” the purple pegasus said. “Just tell us when to go ‘n we’ll give you the best show ye’ve ever seen.” Just as Twilight nodded her head, however, Princess Sunset walked through the curtains with a loud yawn, lazily rubbing her eye boogers away. “Ugh. Why do mornings have to be so early? Is everypony ready?” Short Fuse leapt into the air again, but before he could explode, Spitfire stepped in front of him. “Affirmative, Princess. We’ll be waiting for your signal.” “Well, that signal’s gonna be any minute now, so you might wanna take your places.” Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust turned their heads towards each other, and with a mirroring smile, they looked back at the princess of the morning and exclaimed, ““Yes, ma’am!”” before flying off into the distance with their teams following behind them. Their starting point would be the peak that looked over all of Canterlot, the second tallest part of the city besides the castle itself. The Washouts and Wonderbolts both took their places at the top of the hill, making sure that nopony in the crowd would be able to see them. Even if they were ready, just knowing the kind of act they’d be performing made Rainbow’s heart race. This was probably going to be the most elaborate performance ever put together in pegasus history, and even though they’d done it perfectly a dozen times already, there were plenty of opportunities to screw up the one time it counted. “Hey.” Before Rainbow could work herself up too much, though, Lightning Dust placed a hoof on her back, and somehow, the stress seemed to disappear all at once. “Don’t mess up out there, OK?” And then it came right back. Still, though, Rainbow flashed a cocky smile nudging Lightning Dust with her head held high. “You don’t need to tell me. Which one of us is the Wonderbolt, after all?” “Oh, right, because the crowd is definitely gonna be checking out the grandmas in the leotards.” Right when the two of them began a playful shoving match, however, they saw Spitfire perk up, and out the corner of their eyes, they could see the sun gradually beginning to rise in the background. “The ceremony’s starting!” Spitfire announced. “Places, everypony!” The eight ponies in the group all crouched to the ground, placing their backhooves down like they were at the starting block. In the next moment, they saw Princess Twilight and Princess Sunset opening up the curtains to the stage, revealing the crescent-shaped sun statue to symbolize the lowering of the moon and the raising of the sun. None of them could hear what either of them were saying--probably just some namby pamby stuff about what the festival symbolized--but that wasn’t important to them. The only signal they needed was when the moon fell from the sky and the sun took its place. One minute seemed like an eternity to pass, but gradually, the sun came up higher and higher towards the horizon as the moon gradually made its descent. Finally, Twilight nodded towards Sunset, and all eight ponies raised their wings, watching closely for their cue. Then, as both princesses turned towards the sky, the moon slowly fell behind the earth as the sun gently floated its way into the sky. “Now!” And with that, all eight ponies launched into the sky, creating a smoke trail behind them as they flew through the air. They could see some ponies in the crowd begin to look up and notice them, waving at them from their seats, but they all remained in perfect uniform, none of them moving any faster or slower than the pony beside them. Once they’d made it over the stage, they angled their sides and quickly made their descent towards the ground. They could just barely hear the amazed gasps of the ponies in the crowd, but rather than pulling up, they descended behind the horizon, disappearing completely. Seconds passed without movement, and they could tell that the ponies in the crowd were beginning to wonder what was going on. Right before any of them could start to get impatient, however, the Wonderbolts zoomed into the sky again as the Washouts flew in barrel rolls, coming within inches of hitting the podium’s support beams. While the Wonderbolts circled in the sky, the Washouts reached their hooves out towards the crowd, slapping the hooves of their adoring fans. After making a few laps around the stands, the Washouts then flew behind the crowd as far as they could, and just as the ponies in the crowd started murmuring about what was going on, the three of them zipped at supersonic speeds, pulling their wings into their bodies as they each flew through the narrow crescent-shaped statue of that symbolized the festival. The crowd roared with amazement as they made their way back into the sky, joining the Wonderbolts as they changed their course. Once both teams were back together, they once again zipped through the sky, splitting into two groups of four and flying off in opposite directions. Then, after the groups had made a far enough distance between each other, they spun upwards and started racing in the other direction, zooming on a collision course with the other group. Rainbow could barely hear the crowd gasping through the wind in her ear, but with a smile on her face, she lifted up her leg and hoof-bumped Lightning Dust, just barely avoiding a straight collision as even their manes slid by each other. Again, the crowd roared loudly, which she could hear more and more as all eight of them plummeted towards the ground, but right before they smashed into the grass, they all lifted themselves up at the last second, circling in the air. Once again, the Wonderbolts and Washouts split apart, the former spouting up like a fountain as the latter descended the rest of their way to the ground. As the Washouts scurried away, the Wonderbolts split into two intersecting circles, creating a three-dimensional fountain where one pony shot up into the air before joining the other circle’s rotation. The crowd was so fixated on the Wonderbolts that they didn’t even notice the Washouts grabbing three buckets of water. Once the Washouts returned, Lightning Dust splashed her own pail onto the Wonderbolts, Short Fuse splashed his own bucket onto the two mares in his group, and Rolling Thunder splashed hers onto Short Fuse. Then, all eight of them flew into the air again, this time with the Washouts flying at a higher altitude than the Wonderbolts. Once everypony was in position again, the Wonderbolts circled around in a ring, flying faster and faster, zooming so quickly that their appearance disappeared entirely, replaced with a giant rainbow halo that glittered down all the colors in the light spectrum. The crowd was practically losing their minds, but they hadn’t even seen the best part yet. In the next moment, Rolling Thunder zoomed through the halo, intersecting it perfectly and leaving a rainbow trail through its center. Then came Short Fuse, intersecting it from a different angle, creating a rainbow-colored target in the center. Everypony quickly looked up, seeing Lightning Dust hovering over the center and waving to the fans. What the fans didn’t notice, however, was that the ring was getting smaller as the Wonderbolts gradually closed the gap between them. This was it, the defining moment of the performance. Lightning Dust flew so far into the air that nopony in the crowd would be able to see her. As dizzy as Rainbow was getting, she was more worried about Lightning Dust even being able to breathe from the altitude she was at. In the next moment, though, Lightning Dust soared down as fast as she could, creating a rainbow-colored mach cone around her with a lightning smoke trail following behind. By this point, the crowd was beginning to notice how little space she had to work with. She would need pinpoint accuracy, otherwise somepony could end up with more than just an injury. Everypony held their breath waiting to see what would happen, some even closing their eyes. Finally, in the next second, Lightning Dust barely slipped through the halo, and once she did, the Wonderbolts slowly circled around her as they descended back to the terrain. To the audience, though, it looked like one rainbow-colored trail in the center with a similar spiraling rainbow that descended to the ground. Just as Rainbow Dash landed, trying to keep her legs balanced despite how much they wanted to wobble in dizziness, the crowd roared so loud that it knocked her center of gravity back in an instant. The Wonderbolts pulled off their goggles. The Washouts took off their helmets. Even after all the crowds they’d seen cheering for them, never before had they seen one as lively as full of life as the one they were watching right now. In the next second, Rainbow Dash felt Lightning Dust wrap her hoof around hers, giving her a wide smile, but to Lightning’s surprise, Spitfire arrived at her other side doing the same thing. “Good job, you two,” said Spitfire. “Now, what’s say we take a bow?” Rainbow and Lightning Dust nodded their heads, and with all eight of them facing the crowd, they all bowed their heads down, hearing the crowd explode even louder. Even after spending most of her life being on the other side of the table, Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite understand how a couple scribbles and a hoofprint could wind up making somepony so dang happy. There was so little effort on her part; all she had to do was smile, say how happy she was that the pony enjoyed her performance and write her name on a picture--a picture of herself no less. Still, though, it seemed like everypony that came by was completely thrilled just to walk away with some proof that they’d actually spoken with a member of the Wonderbolts… or the Washouts, who had their own audience lined up to see them as well. “And who am I making this bad boy out to?” asked Lightning Dust, sitting to Rainbow’s right. “I’m Sugar Stix!” replied a filly with a frizzy blue mane. “You were amazing! How did you do those tricks?! You went so fast! I wish I could be like you someday, but I’m just an earth pony. I wish I could fly.” Lightning Dust giggled, patting the filly on the head. “You know something? My dream was to be a Wonderbolt one day, but my life took me in a different direction. Just remember to keep following your dreams in the meantime, OK? You never know where you’ll end up later if you just keep trying.” Then with a quick scribble and a hoofprint, Lightning Dust handed the picture of herself back to the filly, who beamed the biggest grin Rainbow had ever seen. “Thank you, Miss Lightning Dust! I love you so much!” Lightning Dust blushed as the filly pranced away, leaving Rainbow Dash laughing beside her. “What’s the matter?” asked Rainbow as her own fan walked away with a smiling face. “Not used to actually being a role model?” “Something like that.” Lightning Dust rubbed the back of her neck. “When your career is based off of sticking it to the ponies you looked up to, it’s kinda weird having ponies looking up to you.” “Maybe that’s just it,” replied Spitfire, on Lightning Dust’s other side. “Maybe you should go through a rebranding stage, one where you guys stop trying to ‘stick it’ to anypony and focus on how talented you are in the first place. No rivalries, no chip on your shoulder--” “Thanks, but I think we’ll pass on that one.” Lightning Dust then smiled at the next pony who came up to talk to her, but once the three of them had another chance to talk, Spitfire didn’t waste a moment picking up where they’d left off. “You know, I don’t regret kicking you out of the academy.” “I know. I don’t regret it either. You were right that me and Rainbow made a pretty unstoppable team. It just took me a while to figure out that I was even better with other ponies like me.” The teal mare looked over Rainbow’s shoulder at Rolling Thunder, then at Short Fuse on the other end of the lineup. “The Wonderbolts aren’t for everypony,” Spitfire continued, “but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even up to the very end, I never once thought that you weren’t one of the most talented prospects the academy had ever seen.” Lightning Dust scoffed. “Yeah, you just didn’t approve of my methods. I don’t regret anything I did either. I still got to live my dream, and I ended up living it my own way. Plus, I still got to fly with the Wonderbolts, just like I’d always dreamed of since I was a filly.” Again, another round of fans came up to the table, each of whom got to meet their idol and a little piece of history before walking away with a smile on their face. Once the stallion getting his autograph from Lightning Dust turned away, though, Rainbow couldn’t help but notice that Lightning Dust’s smile faded a little bit more than the other ponies at the table. “You know, this doesn’t need to be the end.” Lightning Dust turned to Rainbow Dash with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Was I supposed to think something was ending?” “No,” Rainbow replied, shaking her head. “What I mean is, this doesn’t need to be the last time you perform with the Wonderbolts. Captain Spitfire!” Spitfire moved her neck to see past Lightning’s head. “You know that all Wonderbolt affairs have to go through me first. Don’t go planning any shows without getting my permission.” “I know, but--” “That being said, I think you have a point. It would be pretty anticlimactic if our troupes never performed again. Lightning Dust, am I safe to assume you’re the general manager of your squad?” Lightning Dust smirked. “Don’t let Short Fuse hear you say that, but yeah.” “Then I believe it would be in the best interests for both of our acts to have occasional collaborations like this, whether that be just the Festival of the Two Sisters or otherwise. I know you don’t need us anymore, but we’d still like to keep that fire burning if at all possible.” Then, for the first time Rainbow Dash had ever seen around Lightning Dust, Spitfire smiled. It wasn’t like the kind of customer service smile that she gave to the ponies lined up for autographs--nopony in Equestria would get her to smile like that if she had the choice--but still in a subtle way where Rainbow knew it was genuine, and hopefully Lightning Dust did too. “We’ll have to get back to you on that one,” Lightning replied with a grin. “Even if I end up forgiving you guys for kicking me out of the academy, it doesn’t mean they will.” Spitfire nodded her head. “Understandable.” “Hope you ladies don’t mind me overhearin’,” said the pony to Rainbow Dash’s left, “but I think that maybe if Spitfire over there did some grovellin’, maybe we’d consider it. Ye know, just tellin’ us how much better we are and how much she needs us for the Wonderbolts to stay relevant.” “Not on your life.” Rolling Thunder chuckled. “Can’t blame me for tryin’ at least. Sure you’ll be alright with me doin’ barrel rolls through 90 million volts of electricity in ragin’ thunder storms?” Spitfire seemed to stare into Rolling Thunder’s eyes for what seemed like minutes, but the purple mare’s poker face never changed. Finally, after a sigh, Spitfire faced forward and said, “Just keep me out of your line of fire.” Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash turned to each other with a matching smile and immediately started cracking up. It was like all the anger that Rainbow had been storing since the academy just felt like a funny joke at this point, and it was beginning to rub off on both teams. As much as Rainbow never thought she’d ever do any kind of work with the Washouts, maybe they’d never imagined working with her either. Now, though, her only regret was not closing this gap sooner. She spent all this time holding a grudge when she could have just spent it bonding with her new friends. All three of them. “Hey, barkeep! One more for my friend here!” “Uh, I think she means give her another club soda on me.” “Hey! How come nopony’s paying for my drink?!” Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash giggled as Spitfire grumbled. The bartender, however, grabbed two glasses and began filling one with cider and the other with club soda. “Sorry, boss,” Rainbow replied with a snicker. “It’s not that we don’t think you can hold your cider or anything.” “Yeah,” Lightning Dust continued, “we’re just kinda having a contest to see which one of us barfs first.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “You know, most ponies come here to actually enjoy their drink.” “Most ponies aren’t us!” Just as soon as Rainbow finished her sentence, the bartender returned with their drinks, which they immediately clinked together before chugging them down. Once she felt the bubbles burning her throat, everything else seemed to disappear. She felt like she could be anypony she wanted to be, not that she’d ever be anypony else anyway, but it was still nice to have the happy feeling while she did. “You’re more than welcome to join in,” said Lightning Dust, swaying her glass with a quick hiccup. “Thanks,” Spitfire said, “but I think I’ll pass. I don’t want to spend my entire paycheck just to throw it back up later. In fact, I was actually thinking about calling it a night.” The yellow pegasus then spun around in her stool and hopped back to the ground, followed by disappointed groans from the other two pegasi. “C’mon, Spitfire!” Lightning pleaded with her head wobbling. “I thought we was *hic* friends.” “Rainbow Dash, be sure she gets plenty of water. That’s an order.” “Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow Dash saluted her captain, who again turned towards Lightning Dust with a cringe. “And you don’t need to worry about her. She’ll be fine.” Spitfire smirked. “She always has been, hasn’t she? Well, I guess that just proves that you don’t need me around anymore. I should go back and help clean up the fields. It’s mostly our mess anyway.” “You want me to help out too?” “No, you stay right where you are. She may not need me, but she definitely still needs you.” Rainbow tilted her head to the side in confusion, but Spitfire just walked away with a laugh. By the time that Rainbow turned back towards Lightning Dust, however, she was already passed out on the counter, sleeping like a baby. The cyan mare chuckled to herself, assuming that this meant that she automatically won, but right as soon as she started digging into her saddlebag for bits, she felt something bubbling in her stomach. “You little cheater,” Rainbow muttered, holding her hoof to her mouth before she accidentally tossed her cookies. Then, after getting her bits and throwing them onto the counter, she turned towards the bathroom, but right before leaving, she leaned into Lightning Dust’s ear and whispered, “Rivals for life.”
Chapter 1It was a wonder she’d ever idolized spandex as much as she had. In all the years she’d spent fantasizing about wearing the majestic blue and yellow leotard that the Wonderbolts wore while flying through the sky, she never really considered how much it would ride up on her tail by the end of the day. As good as she looked in a mirror, there was no denying how good she felt getting that scratchy outfit off of her back and stretching her muscles as a fabric-free mare again. Just as she was getting her limbs nice and loose, though, she felt them tense up once again at the feeling of a hoof slapping against her back, making her fall forwards, nearly losing her balance. “Nice work today, Crash,” the raspy voice behind her said. “Kinda had me worried at that ninety-degree turn, though. Last thing I need is for another somepony else to get sent to the hospital after a bad run in with the long side of a mountain.” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head with a soft chuckle. “Yeah. Sorry, Spitfire. My goggles fogged up right when I needed them.” “Don’t sweat it!” Spitfire then wrapped her hoof around Rainbow’s neck, pulling her in close while rubbing her hoof into Rainbow’s mane. “It’s not like that’s the first time you’ve shown off how reckless you can be.” The cyan mare smirked. “Uhh, I think ‘resourceful’ is the word you’re looking for.” “Right, right. Way to use your resources. Speaking of which, I have a favor to ask you.” Spitfire then let go of Rainbow Dash’s neck, but right when Rainbow Dash was about to roll her eyes at whatever her captain wanted, she saw an atypical cringe on the pegasus’s face. With an eyebrow raised, Rainbow muttered, “Uhh, sure! What did you need, boss?” “Well,” Spitfire began, rubbing the back of her neck. “You know how that whole festival thing is coming up, right? The Festival of the Two Sisters?” Rainbow Dash finally gave her that eyeroll she was saving up, flicking her hoof nonchalantly. “Duhh! We headline that event every year! What, did you need somepony to do a solo event? Because I am so--” “That’s just it. We’re not headlining this year.” Just as Rainbow Dash was about to finish her thought, the air got trapped in her lungs with her jaw frozen and mouth wide open. “At least, not that I know of. Normally we would have heard from the princesses by now, but ever since the new transition, things have been a little, uhh…” Spitfire didn’t need to finish. There was no doubt that things had been different ever since Celestia and Luna retired--not necessarily in a bad way, but definitely in a different way. Twilight knew immediately that she wouldn’t be able to handle her responsibilities every waking moment of the day, just like Celestia needed her sister to help during her own rule. Thus, she recruited her friend Sunset Shimmer to help until the sun went down, giving Twilight the responsibilities that came while the sun was below the horizon. Even though it was a diarchy similar to what existed before, the transition came with it a new generation of personalities and a new way of governing. “You know both of the princesses, right?” Spitfire continued. “Uhh, I guess so. How come?” “Well, I was hoping you and me could go talk to ‘em, see if they’re just behind or anything.” Rainbow Dash’s eyebrow rose higher. “As in you want me to try and talk them into having us headline the festival.” Once the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Spitfire quickly held her hooves up in defense, almost as if she had planned on Rainbow Dash coming to that conclusion. “Me? Using you to rub shoulders with the princesses? Come on, I thought you knew me better than that!” Rainbow Dash smirked. “Right, because you totally wouldn’t get your ego hurt if the princesses decided on another act to open up the festival.” “Are you saying you wouldn’t?” As much as she wanted to deny it, Spitfire did have a point, and it wasn’t like Rainbow Dash wasn’t at least a little bit curious about why they hadn’t been asked to headline yet. True, knowing Twilight, she was probably up to her ears in checklists, giving herself way more responsibility than she needed, but all she had to do was bring it up to Rainbow Dash during one of their get-togethers. Had something like this really just slipped her mind, or did she actually have something else in mind? “Maybe you’re right,” Rainbow said with a less-than-confident smile. “We should probably go talk to her. But only to make sure she didn’t forget!” “Riiiight,” Spitfire retorted, patting Rainbow Dash on the back. “Whatever you say.” Rainbow Dash tried to ignore Spitfire’s snarky attitude, but she couldn’t deny that it stung just a little bit. Twilight hadn’t really just gone and picked somepony else to perform without even telling her… Did she? By the time they arrived at the castle, the sun was beginning to set, which meant that this was the best chance they’d have at being able to catch both princesses at once. Honestly, for any other ponies trying to get an audience with the princesses, they’d probably get turned down before they even made it to the courtyard, but these weren’t just any ponies. Even the guards knew Rainbow Dash and Spitfire by name at this point, giving them at least one less thing to worry about for now. “Like I said,” Rainbow began, “it probably just slipped her mind. It’s not like Twilight doesn’t have a bajillion other things to worry about right now!” “Alright, alright. We’re just here to make sure.” Rainbow Dash lowered her head while gritting her teeth slightly. Even with all the confidence she pretended to have on the outside, just the thought of going this year without headlining for the festival made her gut churn. Luckily for them both, however, once they made it to the door to the throne room, the guard standing out front just happened to be the best candidate to get them through as quick as possible. In fact, the moment they arrived, he practically stepped to the side as a large grin arose on his beak. “Hey, Professor! Long time no see, huh?” “Nice to see you too, Gallus,” Rainbow said, trying her best to smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know which princess is on duty right now, would you?” “You’re just in time, actually!” he replied, slowly pushing the large door open. “They’re about to do a shift change, so you’ll probably get to see them both! Oh, actually, now that I think about it--” “Thanks, Gallus! You’re the best!” “Huh? H-hang on! There’s already somepony in there talking to them!” Rainbow Dash might have heard what he said through the sudden wind whipping past her ears, but even if she did, it was too late to turn back now. This was her chance to see them both while she still could and avoid the bureaucracy that would be involved if the two princesses had to communicate between waking periods. She still wasn’t sure if Spitfire was right behind her, but if she wasn’t, she’d just have to fill her in on the details later. “Twilight!” she called, skidding to a halt with a black streak trailing where she landed. The purple alicorn, however, tilted her head curiously with her eyes squinting in confusion. “Rainbow Dash? What are you doing--” “Oh, you know. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by and say hello.” Twilight blinked. “That’s… very thoughtful of you, Rainbow Dash, but as you can see, I’m a little preoccupied right--” “You know, when was the last time we had a picnic? We should really do one of those sometime. I’ve been meaning to find some time just to relax after all the hard work I’ve been doing lately. Plus, I’ve been craving some of Pinkie Pie’s double chocolate chip cupcakes.” “Definitely!” Twilight tried to smile past the cringe on her face. “We should definitely talk about that later! You know, when I don’t have somepony right in front of--” “Speeeeaking of all the hard work I’ve been doing lately--you know, as a Wonderbolt--I couldn’t help but notice that we haven’t been invited to do the opening ceremony for the Festival of the Two Sisters! Don’t worry. I get it. Paperwork, am I right? Just wanted to check in and--” “RAINBOW DASH!!” The cyan mare turned her head to find that the outburst hadn’t come from Twilight, but rather the orange alicorn in the throne beside her, who had a much less compassionate look on her face. “Oh, hey, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash said with an oblivious wave. “Anyway, like I was saying--” “We didn’t forget to tell you, Rainbow Dash,” Sunset continued. “We went with another group this year.” Several seconds passed where Rainbow Dash stood with a lighthearted smile, waiting for the punchline, but after waiting in silence for an uncomfortably long time, the smile gradually began to fade, replaced with a look of bewilderment, then anger. “Wait, what?! What do you mean you found another group to perform?!” “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Twilight shouted, pointing her hoof at the space Rainbow hadn’t seen with her peripheral vision. “We’ve decided that maybe this year we could try out something different.” “Different?! Who could you even think of that you think would be better than--” Once Rainbow’s eyes finally followed Twilight’s hoof to notice the three ponies who had been standing there the whole time, her breath caught in her throat. Her eyelids went wide as her heartbeat pulsed at twice the speed, flipping between feelings of confusion, anger, and disappointment. One of them was a short, stout stallion with a red coat and yellow mane. On the other end was the tallest pony in the group, a pegasus mare with a purple coat and cloudy white mane. In the middle, though, was the pony Rainbow wanted to see the least, a teal pegasus mare with a mane the color of lightning itself, and all three of them wore the same matching black and green leotard. These ponies were… “Lightning Dust!” Rainbow exclaimed. “And… whoever the two of you are. I can’t remember your names right now.” “MY NAME IS SHORT FUSE! HOW HARD IS THAT TO REMEMBEEERRRR?!” “Easy there, mate,” the larger mare said, pulling the stallion away before he could cause a scene. “I’m Rolling Thunder, but I reckon I’m prolly not the one ye wanna be talkin’ to right now, am I?” Of course she wasn’t! Rainbow Dash didn’t even know who she was! (Although Rainbow knew she probably should at least try to remember for next time.) The real pony she wanted to talk to was the mare with the teal coat standing in the middle of the group with her head held high and a large smirk across her face. “I knew it would only be a matter of time before I got to see you again,” she said with her smirk growing wider. “We wouldn’t be rivals if I didn’t.” “Forget that whole rivalry thing!” Rainbow shouted, turning towards Twilight. “You aren’t seriously thinking of having the Washpants performing instead of us, are you?!” Again, Short Fuse leapt in the air, but luckily, Rolling Thunder was able to grab him in time. “If you’re talking about the Washouts,” Sunset began, “then yes. We are planning on having them perform at the festival.” “But why?! You’ve seen how dangerous their acts are! What if somepony in the crowd got hurt?!” “Actually,” said Twilight, “the Washouts have been taking tremendous steps towards safety these past couple of years. Their act focuses mainly on aerial acrobatics more than death-defying stunts nowadays, and they’ve actually been gaining a pretty large following.” “Larger than the Wonderbolts?!” “What’s the matter?” Lightning Dust jeered, nudging at Rainbow Dash’s side. “You’re not afraid of the competition, are you?” “As if!” As Rainbow Dash retorted, she swiped away Lightning Dust’s hoof, which the teal mare quickly brought to her mouth as she giggled louder. “Twilight, the Wonderbolts have been opening for this festival for the past five years! Are you really just going to forget about us as soon as something new and shiny comes along?” The question made Twilight put her hoof to her chin in thought, but before she could answer, Sunset chimed in for her. “It’s not like that, Rainbow Dash. It’s not like we’re just forgetting about you. We both decided that we should allow other acts that chance to open for the festival. There’s no rule that says that it has to be the Wonderbolts.” “But--” “Actually,” Twilight began, cutting the pegasus off, “I think I agree with Rainbow Dash on this one.” Both Rainbow and Sunset blinked in confusion. ““You do?”” “Yes, and while it’s important to give opportunities to other ponies, I don’t necessarily think it’s worth sacrificing tradition over either.” Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof in victory as Rolling Thunder quickly grabbed hold of Short Fuse before he could do something stupid. “Hang on, Your Majesty,” Lightning Dust began, approaching the princesses even closer. “I thought you said we would be the ones performing. Are you saying we’re fired just like that?” “Yup!” Rainbow said, gently pushing Lightning Dust towards the exit. “Sorry. Maybe next year. Don’t forget to keep practicing in the meantime!” “Wait a second, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow suddenly stopped pushing Lightning Dust and turned her head to see Twilight giving her an unenthusiastic stare. “I never said that she wouldn’t be performing.” “Sorry,” said Spitfire, who had been waiting in the background for who knows how long. “I got here a little late. So who is going to be opening for the festival? The Wonderbolts or the Washouts?” To that, Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “Why not both?” Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped. Her heart sank. This wasn’t happening. If this wasn’t just as bad as the Washouts performing instead of her, it might have been just a little bit worse. “You don’t mean…” “Rainbow Dash, I think this would be the perfect opportunity for the Wonderbolts and the Washouts to be the opening act at the Festival of the Two Sisters.” “NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!........” Everypony in the room flinched from the rainbow pegasus’s outburst, leaving all the ponies with a small cringe until Sunset finally broke the silence. “Come on, Rainbow Dash. I thought you’d be on cloud nine after hearing something like that. Twilight just gave you permission to open for the festival! What else do you want?” Rainbow opened her mouth to rebut, but Spitfire quickly put her hoof into Rainbow’s mouth before she could answer. “That sounds like a great compromise, Your Highness. Besides, I’m sure Lightning Dust has learned a thing or two since her days at the academy.” Lightning Dust smirked. “You mean like how to actually draw a crowd?” Spitfire growled at a volume that only Rainbow Dash could hear before doing an about-face towards the exit. “Come on, Rainbow. We’d better get to practicing if we wanna have a better performance than these phonies.” “Sure,” Rolling Thunder said with a chuckle. “You sheilas go right ahead ‘n practice those twirls all ye’d like. Not like it’ll be able to top what we’ve come up with.” Suddenly, Spitfire turned right back around with her mouth open in anger, but before she could give the Washout a piece of her mind, Twilight quickly said, “Er… I think there might be a little miscommunication.” The comment made all five pegasi turn their heads towards the princess. “What do you mean?” Lightning Dust asked. “Well, when I said you’d both be performing, I meant together. As in one act.” This time, Rainbow Dash flinched so hard that it pulled her up into the air. “Whoooaaa whoa whoa whoa! You can’t seriously be saying that you want us to perform as a team.” “I think she is,” Sunset concurred. “That won’t be a problem, will it?” “Yeah, it will! That’ll be a HUGE problem! Me and Lightning Dust don’t see eye to eye on anything!” “Then I think now might be a good time to learn,” Twilight said, putting a period on the discussion altogether. Rainbow Dash looked like she still wanted to argue, but Twilight’s stern eyes slowly brought her back down to her hooves. “I’m assuming that won’t be a problem for you three either?” The Washouts all flinched once her gaze shifted towards them. “N-no, ma’am,” Lightning Dust said for her group, eliciting a smile from the purple alicorn. “Good. Since the festival is in two weeks, I assume that means I can count on you all to be ready for a dress rehearsal before then?” The five pegasi all hung their heads with an identical “yes, ma’am,” before Twilight nodded her head one last time. “I hope you all know that I’m not doing this to be mean. I really want you all to have the chance to perform at the festival, and this was really the only way I could think of to make it happen. Who knows? Maybe after this, you’ll all end up friends!” As soon as the princess said those words, the two groups turned to glare at each other. The chances of them being all buddy-buddy at the end wasn’t likely, and there was basically no chance of that happening any time soon. Rainbow Dash may not have known one way or the other how Lightning Dust would feel about the two of them working together, but she knew that she didn’t want to see her face any longer than she had to. These were going to be a long two weeks… “Keep those hooves straight, ladies! Put your backs into! Come on! Move, move, move!” Rainbow Dash tried to keep all of the physical stress from showing up on her face. The Wonderbolts had to not only look cool, but they had to make what they were doing seem effortless to their fans. After a quick loop, all four pegasi zoomed back down to the ground, turning at a right angle just before they crash landed, continuing to fly forward with billowy smoke trails behind them. Rainbow had barely managed to skid to a halt before seeing three more ponies casually walking up to the practice area, each of them carrying duffle bags under their wings. “Sorry we’re late,” Lightning Dust said with a smirk, tossing her bag to the side as the other two began to stretch. “It took us a while to convince the guard out front that we weren’t just trying to swipe a couple autographs.” Rainbow Dash pulled her goggles off of her face with a confused stare. “Why? We told him you three were coming.” “Oh, you know. The guard didn’t believe that Short Fuse was a full-grown stallion, Short Fuse threatened to give him an extra belly button, you know how it goes sometimes.” “I wish you would have let me do it, too!” the red pegasus shouted, getting more tense even though he was supposed to be doing the opposite. Rainbow Dash then turned her attention towards Spitfire, giving her a concerned look that she hoped would communicate what a bad idea this probably was. Luckily, Spitfire nodded her head, which meant that she either telepathically understood what Rainbow was thinking or she was just trying to look more confident than she actually was. As much as Rainbow Dash didn’t want to admit it, though, it was probably the latter. “Glad you three managed to show up,” the captain projected. “We were just getting warmed up ourselves. I’ve managed to choreograph our half of the show if you wanted to take a look at it.” Lightning Dust looked Spitfire up and down before waving her away with a lackadaisical hoof. “Nah, I think we’re good. I was thinking we could either do both of our acts at the same time or just split them into two halves. Which would you prefer?” “Uhh, hello!” Rainbow Dash intervened. “Twilight said she wanted us to perform together. You know, as one unit?” Again, Lightning Dust waved her hoof with an eyeroll. “That’s just code for ‘she only had enough time for one act,’ which means that we can either do two acts at the same time or cut both of our acts in half. So which is it gonna be, Captain?” Lightning Dust then pulled herself back onto all fours and put her muzzle up against Spitfire’s, grinning a cocky smile as the yellow mare growled in frustration. “You could at least watch what we put together before deciding to ignore the princess’s request completely,” Spitfire said through gritted teeth in an obvious bout to control her temper. “Fine,” the teal mare said, stepping back and lifting up a foreleg. “You guys can go ahead and show us. We’ll just stretch in the meantime.” Rainbow Dash looked over at Spitfire with a nervous expression, but after getting a shrug from her captain, what other option did they really have? With the matter settled for now, the cyan mare pulled her goggles over her head and leapt into the air, flying about as high as she could before bumping into the cirrus clouds. The other three looked so small from down there that she couldn’t tell if they were even watching, but even if they weren’t yet, they would once they saw what Spitfire had put together. “Everypony ready?” Spitfire called. The ponies in the sky all gave a salute, and with the wave of a flag, the show had started. The four pegasi in the air all peeled off in different directions, falling backwards as if on a freefall collision course with the ground. Just as it looked like they were about to slam against the terrain, however, they curved back into the air, spiralling around each other like two interconnected rings. Then, the two rings converged, creating one giant loop where one pony would flick out from the top like a fountain before falling right back where they were in line. Rainbow Dash wanted to look over and see if they were even paying attention, but if she pulled her attention away from the stunts she was doing for even a second, it could end up in more than just her getting injured. Finally, the four pegasi flipped together, spinning in place before shooting up so high that anypony on the ground would barely be able to see them. Then, with one final loop, they all soared towards the ground again before making a ninety degree angle and hurtling forward, leaving a trail of smoke behind them. Rainbow couldn’t wait to pull her goggles off of her face and look back to see if they’d actually seen any of it, but when she did, all she got was a half-hearted clap from Lightning Dust while the other two yawned apathetically. “So?” Spitfire said, holding her shoulders back. “Still don’t think you want to be part of our show?” Lightning Dust turned towards Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, both of whom gave her the same sinister grin that she was giving them. Then, facing Spitfire with a cocky smile, Lightning Dust said, “You might wanna hold that thought until you see what we have in store.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless. “Alright. Let’s see what you’ve got.” The three pegasi all gave each other a matching smile one last time before jumping into the air, flying at twice the speed the Wonderbolts had. In fact, they even flew up to twice the altitude, disappearing completely as their bodies shrank beyond what the naked eye could see. Rainbow Dash waited with anticipation, trying not to let her jaw drop just knowing how long they were up there with the diminished oxygen, but before she even saw them come back down, she heard the sonic boom that erupted in the sky as all three of them shot back towards the bleachers. All of the Wonderbolts quickly ducked with their hooves over their heads, feeling the wind brush past them as the Washouts came within inches from crashing into them. Once they felt safe enough to lift their heads, the pegasi curved back around, hurdling back to the center of the training field in a spiral pattern. Then, Rolling Thunder broke off from the others as the remaining two circled endlessly in the air. The pony on the ground grabbed a bucket of water and splashed it on each of the two in the air before dunking the rest on herself, and once she joined in the middle of the circle, they all started flying faster, and faster, and faster, and faster! Suddenly, the ponies disappeared completely, and left in their place was a rainbow showering to the ground in an array of sunshine and colors. Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped, but luckily, before anypony noticed, the three Washouts gradually slowed down until they returned back to the ground, bowing as if there was a crowd cheering for them already. Rainbow Dash turned towards Spitfire, whose eyes were just as wide as hers. Both Rainbow and Spitfire had just assumed that they’d need dangerous props in order to be entertaining, let alone that they’d prepared something like that in the meantime. As much as Rainbow wanted to pretend that their act was nothing out of the ordinary, she knew that they would be able to tell she was lying. “So,” Lightning Dust said, approaching the Wonderbolts. “We’re ready to teach you our routine if you’re interested.” Spitfire tilted her sunglasses, turning to her fellow bolts for their opinions. Fleetfoot, Thunderlane and Soarin all switched looks between themselves, none of them speaking knowing that they’d probably just embarrass themselves if they did. With nopony speaking their mind, however, Spitfire pushed her sunglasses back up her muzzle and nodded at the Washouts. “It was good,” she said simply. “I’m sure that we should be able to put something together that’ll really get ponies excited.” Lightning Dust scoffed. “Put something together? In case you couldn’t tell, we’ve already got something put together. Feel free to join us if you’d like, but if not, we can just go back to the original plan of each of us doing half a show.” “HEY!” Everypony quickly moved their heads in the direction the voice had come from, but by the time their necks had turned, Rainbow Dash had disappeared, reappearing once again in Lightning Dust’s face. “I don’t care if you’ve got a show that’ll get ponies excited. The princesses specifically told us to work together! Am I gonna have to go to Twilight and tell them what’s going on?!” Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow in curiosity, then smiled. “You mean tell them that we’ve done some amazing choreography and that for some reason, you don’t want to have any part in it?” Rainbow flinched, getting out of Lightning Dust’s face before glaring again. “No! Hey, we’ve got a great performance planned too! How come you don’t want to be part of our routine?” As soon as the words left her lips, Lightning Dust turned back towards Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, and suddenly, all three of them began laughing at the top of their lungs. Rainbow Dash tried to hold her glare, but she couldn’t help her ears falling over and her cheeks turning red. “Sorry,” Lightning said, wiping a tear from her eye. “Look, you guys have come up with some really cool stunts. It’s just… they’re kinda boring, don’t you think?” Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped again. “Boring?!” “Yeah, I mean, they might be entertaining for old ladies, but we’re trying to impress the younger crowd. You know, like kids and young adults. We’re not exactly trying to impress your grandma here.” The cyan mare took a step forward to confront her, but before she could, Spitfire held her hoof up, stopping Rainbow Dash in her tracks. Spitfire’s eyes never deviated from Lightning Dust’s, which only made the teal pegasus smile wider. “Cut the junk, Lightning Dust,” Spitfire said. “You know as well as I do that there are going to be all sorts of demographics at this festival, which is all the more reason we should put our two acts together. That’s why the princesses chose both of us.” “The princesses chose both of us because you threw a tantrum.” The Wonderbolts gasped. Spitfire tilted her sunglasses forward. “Excuse me?” “You heard me,” Lightning Dust continued. “You were so upset to find out that your little team might not be performing that you went to see the princesses to get them to change their mind. Must be nice knowing them personally. I bet you get them to do all sorts of favors for you.” “Back. Off.” “You know, none of us were on a first name basis with either of the princesses before this. We got an audience with them through talent and hard work alone. Be honest. You two just walked in without an appointment, didn’t you?” “She said that’s enough!” Rainbow exclaimed, getting into Lightning Dust’s face again. “Oh, that’s right. That was our appointment you interrupted, and Twilight felt so bad for you that she decided to let you take half of our show. No wonder we’re drawing more crowds than you. Even you guys know you have no talent.” “THAT’S IT!” Suddenly, Lightning Dust’s eyes went wide as Rainbow Dash tackled her to the ground. The ponies around all gasped as Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash rolled around on the field, grumbling, pinching and biting as they each tried fighting the other off. Quickly, before either of them could do any real damage, however, Spitfire and Fleetfoot jumped in to grab Rainbow Dash as Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse grabbed Lightning Dust, pulling them away no matter how much they fought to break free. “Practice is cancelled for today!” Spitfire shouted, handing Rainbow Dash off to Fleetfoot and Thunderlane. “You three can have the field for the remainder of the day. We’ll pick this back up again tomorrow.” Lightning Dust seethed in anger until suddenly, a small smirk crept up her lips. “Can’t wait. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Chapter 2Rainbow Dash entered the dark room, looking around to see if anypony was looking at her before slumping down at the counter at the end of the room. Nopony had asked her for an autograph so far, but she still believed that at some point, some random pony would approach her and ask to take a picture with her. Today, though, was not a day she was ready to smile for the camera, or for any reason for that matter. “Hey, Dash,” said the pony behind the counter, wiping down the inside of a glass mug with a white washcloth. “The same thing you’ve had all week?” “Yeah. Leave the bottle. I’ll be here for a while.” The bartender chuckled, putting the glass down as he reached below the counter. Rainbow didn’t even bother looking in his direction anymore, especially knowing that she’d have to pretend to be grateful if she accidentally made eye contact. Instead, she stared out the window with her cheek laying against her hoof, only knowing when the drink arrived from the quiet thunk against the wooden tabletop. “Thanks,” she mumbled, again refusing to make eye contact. Then, uncorking the bottle, she whipped her head back and chugged down the fizziest, most bubbly cider that the bar had to offer, guzzling it down like she was on the brink of thirst. Once she’d had all she could drink in one gulp, however, she smacked the bottle back down to the counter and wiped her mouth of the excess liquids drizzling down her lips, breathing heavily before she went for her second round. “Now, I know something’s buggin’ ya,” the bartender said, picking up his mug and rag again, continuing to wipe where he left off. “The only question is what’s so bad that you’ve gotta come to the shadiest part of town and pay half of my rent in one night?” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “I’ve been here for the past six days and you’re just barely asking me what’s the matter?” “I figured it just must be work stress. Ponies come here all the time after work to help themselves relax. Then, they go home, take a nap, and wake up to do it all over again the next day.” The bartender pulled the rag out of the glass to point in Rainbow’s face. “You, on the other hoof, have been comin’ here for a week straight. Not many ponies need extra help relaxing on a weekend.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before taking another swig and wiping away the dribble. “Most ponies aren’t Wonderbolts with a performance coming up in a week.” “Ahh, so it is work. I’m guessing you’ve been pretty busy this whole time.” There was a brief pause before Rainbow set her drink down and rested her chin on her hooves, looking out the window with a deepwinded sigh. “That’s not it. I mean it is, but not really. The Bolts have all come up with a great routine, and we’re basically ready for the festival.” The bartender held the glass up to his eye and wiped down one last spot before placing the glass to the side. “OK, now I really don’t know what’s goin’ on.” “Ugh. Don’t worry about it. It’s not important.” Rainbow grabbed her bottle, swung her head back and downed the rest of the liquids inside, burning her throat in the process. Even if it hurt going down, she loved the way the fizz bubbled up to her brain, like it somehow caught some of her anxious thoughts on the way and made them pop along with the bubbles. Then, once she’d finished the bottle off with a gasp for air, she smacked the empty container onto the table, burying her face into her hooves while waiting for the bartender to find her a new one. *Ring, ring!* “Welcome! Be right with ya!” Rainbow could hear somepony walking up to the counter, but even in her curiosity, she didn’t exactly feel like moving her head right now. Besides, if it turned out that this pony was somepony looking for an autograph, she wasn’t exactly in the right mindset for customer service right now. Of course, nopony had ever stopped her in public before, but she still didn’t want to take her chances. “Kinda quiet tonight, eh, barkeep?” the voice asked along with the screeching of the chair beside her on the wooden floor. “It’s Sunday. Not very many ponies looking to stay up late when they’ve got work in the mornin’.” “Gotcha. Hey, can I have one club soda on the rocks?” “You got it, Lightning Dust.” Once the name escaped his lips, Rainbow’s head shot up, turning to her side to see a teal mare beside her flinching suddenly. After Lightning Dust took a moment to get air back in her lungs, though, a large smirk spread across her cheeks, making Rainbow’s hoof tense up discreetly. “Hey, Rainbow,” Lightning said with an arrogant tone. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here before. I thought you’d be up in Cloudsdale soaking it up with those top-rated bars, not down here with us lowlifes.” “I was here first!” Rainbow shot back. “Actually, I’ve been here every night for the past week, so I don’t wanna hear that from you!” Lightning Dust flinched, then chuckled. “Whoa. Seriously? Every single night? I didn’t know the festival was weighing you down that much.” “Ohh, go fly a kite, you hussy! You know it’s not the festival that’s got me worked up!” Then, before things could escalate further, the bartender placed a new bottle of cider in front of Rainbow Dash along with a glass of club soda for Lightning Dust. The teal pegasus was obviously waiting for Rainbow Dash to elaborate, but Rainbow Dash just grabbed her bottle and started swigging it down again, trying to enjoy the fizz as much as she could. Once she slammed her bottle down to the counter with an exasperated sigh, however, she saw the pegasus beside her mimicking her movements almost like she was looking into a mirror. “What?” asked Lightning Dust, making Rainbow Dash flinch before turning her attention back to her drink. Lightning Dust couldn’t help but smile. “You’re wondering what I’m doing here, aren’t you?” “Ugh.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You’re probably just here because you like club soda.” Lightning Dust shrugged. “True, but it’s not like you’re the only one with stress.” Hearing Lightning Dust say that made Rainbow Dash bite her lip before she accidentally said something that she’d regret. Of course, she wouldn’t regret saying it, but she’d regret it if this civil conversation escalated into a bar fight. “What stress do you have?” Rainbow asked with an edge in her tone. “You guys already have your performance down pat! You’ve basically been spending this past week seeing who could make the best cloud pillows. Plus, the princesses went to you guys first! The Wonderbolts are only getting a chance to perform because--” “Because you’re friends with Twilight.” Rainbow Dash shook her head before dropping eye contact and facing forward. “Whatever.” As Rainbow Dash took another drink, though, Lightning Dust held her drink up to her lips, raising an eyebrow without actually drinking it. “I’m not wrong, am I?” Once Rainbow had finished her gulp, she slammed her bottle down even harder, glaring at the pegasus beside her. “What’s your problem?! Seriously, why do you have it in for us so bad that you refuse to even work together like the princesses asked?” Lightning Dust’s eyes travelled to her hoof, swishing the drink in her glass before leaning her head back and knocking down her club soda. She was far more graceful in returning her container to the counter, but she still didn’t even bother looking Rainbow Dash in the eye. “My dream…” Lightning Dust began, “...was to be somepony important, somepony that others looked up to.” “Aaaaaand that’s why you’re refusing to work with us?” “No, it’s not--” Lightning Dust sighed. “I’m not refusing to work with you.” “Uhh, yeah you are. You remember when you said that we’d both cut our performances in half and just do them independently of each other? You remember when Spitfire tried to work with you guys so that we could all put on a great show that involved all of our talents?” Lightning Dust held up her glass for the bartender to see. “Hey, barkeep. Could I get another one of these? Thanks.” The bartender nodded his head, taking the glass out of her hoof, leaving her to sigh with her chin buried in her forelegs on the counter. “I want our show to be special. I want other ponies to know that we worked our butts off to get to where we are and that we didn’t just land a gig by piggybacking off of the Wonderbolts.” The bartender once again placed a full glass of club soda onto the counter in front of Lightning Dust, which she wasted no time chasing down. “Look,” Rainbow began while Lightning’s throat was still full of her own fizzy drink. “I know what this show means to you, but the fact of the matter is, Twilight wants us to perform together. I know you have your own interpretation of that--” “And I think my interpretation is right.” Rainbow Dash stared at the other pegasus for a few moments, and then, once she had given the message a few moments to sink in, she shook her head in disbelief. “OK. You know what? Let’s go with your definition of ‘working together’ then. How does two separate performances count as working together?” “Because, Rainbow Dash, I see you as a rival.” The rainbow-maned mare squinted her eyes, but before she could respond, Lightning Dust held up her hoof to silence her. “And I think the rest of the crowd would rather us fight than work together. Even if my team dropped all the flaming hoops and wrecking balls that got the Washouts started, our team still focuses mainly on pushing our limits, whereas your team focuses on synchronization. Sure, we could come up with something that would cater to both of our teams’ strengths, but then we’d only be playing at half of our potential. Even if it’s not what the princesses had in mind, I still think my idea would give the audience the best experience.” By this point, the bubbles were finally starting to have an impact on Rainbow’s mind. She could feel them popping along her throat, fizzling their way into Rainbow’s bloodstream, making Rainbow wonder whether Lightning Dust was actually making sense or if Rainbow was just a little bubble-happy right now. “So the reason you wanted us to perform separately isn’t because you hate me?” Lightning Dust turned towards Rainbow with shock on her face. “Hate you? I’ve never hated you. How could I? You were my wingpony, after all.” The comment made Rainbow Dash scratch her head in confusion. “So you’re not just trying to ruin the Wonderbolts’ reputation and make us all look bad?” “What?” Lightning Dust scoffed. “Rainbow, not to be a jerk or anything, but don’t you think it’s a little conceited to think that I was really only doing this to spite you?” “No! Because…” The teal pegasus tilted her head. “Because…?” A brief moment passed where neither of them spoke, but after a soft sigh, Rainbow Dash faced Lightning Dust again and said, “Because I was hoping that I’d be able to use our differences to maybe… sorta… get you guys kicked out of the show.” Rainbow Dash flinched immediately, but all Lightning Dust could do was shake her head in disbelief. “You… what?” “ I know! It was stupid and selfish and I regret even thinking it!” “But why, Rainbow?! Why do you hate me so much?! What did I ever do to you?! In case you don’t remember, you got me kicked out of the academy. Is it because of what almost happened to your friends?” “Well--” “Is it because of that Scootaloo filly?” “Uhh…” “Even after all that’s happened, I’ve only ever thought of you as a rival, never as a bad pony. If you were seriously planning on going behind my back and getting us cancelled altogether, why shouldn’t I think that about you now?” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Come on, Lightning Dust! It’s not like anything actually happened!” Lightning Dust, though, scowled even harder. “Funny. That’s what I said back at the academy. You know, before I was kicked out, but you know what? I’ve got a better idea.” Suddenly, Lightning Dust stood up from her stool and threw a couple of bits onto the counter. “Why don’t you tell the princesses why the Washouts suddenly decided not to perform at the festival after all?” Just as Lightning turned towards the exit, however, Rainbow held out her hoof urgently. “Wait! Hang on!” “What for? This way you get what you’ve wanted all along. Besides, the Washouts are done being the Wonderbolts’ shadow.” “You’re not our shadow! You guys have a great act, and it was wrong of me to hold a grudge against you. If anypony shouldn’t be performing, it should be us.” Rainbow Dash hung her head in embarrassment, but once her confidence came back, she looked Lightning Dust in the eye and said, “I’ll talk with the princesses tomorrow.” “OK…? About what?” “I’ll tell them that the Washouts should perform instead of us. You guys were their original choice anyway.” Lightning Dust tilted her head in curiosity until finally, she put her hoof to her mouth, visibly trying not to crack up in hilarity. Sadly, she only lasted about another three seconds before she started guffawing at the top of her lungs, making Rainbow’s cheeks turn a bright shade of crimson. “Sorry,” Lightning Dust said once she could finally speak again. “It’s just… Don’t you think that plan is kinda stupid?” “Wow, you really don’t hold back, do you?” “It’s not that.” With a wave to the bartender, Lightning Dust took her seat next to Rainbow Dash again. “Hey, could you get me another soda? Oh, and one for my friend here too. I have a feeling we’ll be a little while.” The bartender nodded with a grin as Lightning Dust turned to Rainbow Dash with a smile of her own. “You don’t really wanna back out of the festival, do you?” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish grin. “Not really. I guess I’ve just had one too many ciders. Not exactly thinking straight right now.” “Well, if it’s any consolation, I think that backing out on behalf of your entire team is probably not the best way to handle your guilt. Even if I’m not the biggest fan of how the Wonderbolts got a spot in the first place, I’m not petty enough to have you guys back out to make us look better.” Then, the bartender placed two glasses of club soda onto the counter in front of them, and Lightning Dust didn’t waste a second grabbing her own. “Cheers.” While the teal mare beside her tossed down her own glass, however, Rainbow Dash barely even held hers, swishing the contents around and seeing the bubbles fizz to the top. “So what do you think we should do?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, if you don’t want us to work together and you don’t want us to quit, then what is your plan, exactly?” Lightning Dust sighed with triumph after downing her drink, shaking her head to speed up the speed of the bubbles entering her bloodstream. “My plan? I already told you. I think it would be best if we each did half a performance or just did our acts in unison with each other.” “Yeah, sorry, but I don’t think that’ll fly with the Bolts.” Finally, Rainbow Dash brought her drink up to her lips and let the taste of the completely different fizzy soda trickle down her taste buds. “OK? So what do we do? If we try to mesh our talents together, we’ll just put on a lackluster performance that won’t impress anypony. I was thinking that our show would just transition into yours.” Suddenly, Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Say that again!” “Uhh… ‘I was thinking that our show would just transition into yours’?” The moment the words left her lips, Rainbow Dash put down her drink and grabbed Lightning Dust by the shoulders. “That’s it! Maybe you were onto something!” Lightning Dust tilted her head. “You mean you’ve changed your mind?” “Not exactly, but we’ve gotta tell Spitfire about this idea! It’s gonna be legendary!” Before Rainbow Dash could leap off of her stool and fly out the door (which she probably didn’t have the coordination for anyway), Lightning Dust grabbed her by the hoof, barely keeping her reined in. “Hang on there, Turbo. Mind filling me in on what this plan of yours is first?” “I think I may have found a way to get our shows to work that’ll bring out the best of the Washouts and the Wonderbolts!” “Great! Soooo what is it?” Rainbow Dash grinned, holding up her hoof to get the bartender’s attention yet again. “Two more ciders, please! I have a feeling we’re gonna be here a while.” Rainbow then flashed a smile towards her friend, who flashed a smile right back at her.
Chapter 3By the time the festival had arrived, both teams were near exhaustion. They knew that they shouldn’t practice too hard and wear themselves out before the ceremony started, but they knew that if they wanted to pull off what they were trying to do, it would take all night to make sure it was perfect. They’d be performing at the break of dawn, after all, which meant that they wouldn’t exactly get much morning practice done anyway. Both teams had decided to wear their normal outfits, which wouldn’t be much of a surprise to anypony. Not only would they have a tough time getting outfits made that suited all of them perfectly in time for the performance, but for what they had planned, it made sense for the audience to be able to separate between them while they were in the air. As dawn approached closer and closer, more and more ponies began trickling in, which meant that it was just about time for the opening act to take their places. “You all about ready?” asked Spitfire, peeking out the curtain that would eventually be pulled to welcome in the sun. “Pssh,” Rainbow chuckled with the flick of her hoof. “Are you kidding? After all the practice we’ve done, it would be hard not to do everything perfectly.” “Sure you won’t need any potty breaks mid-performance?” quipped Lightning Dust, nudging her hoof into Rainbow’s side. Rainbow Dash, though, rolled her eyes with another chuckle. “This coming from the pony who spent the whole day in the bathroom after--” “I thought we agreed not to talk about that.” Just as Rainbow Dash was about to jab at her with more banter, however, Twilight emerged from the curtain, smiling at both Lightning and Rainbow Dash. “Weeeell,” she began. “Looks like you two have become close friends.” ““NO, WE HAVEN’T!”” Twilight couldn’t help but giggle, covering her mouth with her hooves in an attempt to not be too offensive, but she still ended up giving both Rainbow and Lightning Dust rosy cheeks. “Princess Sunset will be here any minute for the opening ceremony. Do you think you’re ready?” “WHY IS EVERYPONY ASKING US THAT?! GET OFF OUR BACKS!!!” Twilight flinched, but Rolling Thunder quickly pulled Short Fuse back to the ground before his anger could cause any issues. “You don’t need to worry ‘bout us,” the purple pegasus said. “Just tell us when to go ‘n we’ll give you the best show ye’ve ever seen.” Just as Twilight nodded her head, however, Princess Sunset walked through the curtains with a loud yawn, lazily rubbing her eye boogers away. “Ugh. Why do mornings have to be so early? Is everypony ready?” Short Fuse leapt into the air again, but before he could explode, Spitfire stepped in front of him. “Affirmative, Princess. We’ll be waiting for your signal.” “Well, that signal’s gonna be any minute now, so you might wanna take your places.” Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust turned their heads towards each other, and with a mirroring smile, they looked back at the princess of the morning and exclaimed, ““Yes, ma’am!”” before flying off into the distance with their teams following behind them. Their starting point would be the peak that looked over all of Canterlot, the second tallest part of the city besides the castle itself. The Washouts and Wonderbolts both took their places at the top of the hill, making sure that nopony in the crowd would be able to see them. Even if they were ready, just knowing the kind of act they’d be performing made Rainbow’s heart race. This was probably going to be the most elaborate performance ever put together in pegasus history, and even though they’d done it perfectly a dozen times already, there were plenty of opportunities to screw up the one time it counted. “Hey.” Before Rainbow could work herself up too much, though, Lightning Dust placed a hoof on her back, and somehow, the stress seemed to disappear all at once. “Don’t mess up out there, OK?” And then it came right back. Still, though, Rainbow flashed a cocky smile nudging Lightning Dust with her head held high. “You don’t need to tell me. Which one of us is the Wonderbolt, after all?” “Oh, right, because the crowd is definitely gonna be checking out the grandmas in the leotards.” Right when the two of them began a playful shoving match, however, they saw Spitfire perk up, and out the corner of their eyes, they could see the sun gradually beginning to rise in the background. “The ceremony’s starting!” Spitfire announced. “Places, everypony!” The eight ponies in the group all crouched to the ground, placing their backhooves down like they were at the starting block. In the next moment, they saw Princess Twilight and Princess Sunset opening up the curtains to the stage, revealing the crescent-shaped sun statue to symbolize the lowering of the moon and the raising of the sun. None of them could hear what either of them were saying--probably just some namby pamby stuff about what the festival symbolized--but that wasn’t important to them. The only signal they needed was when the moon fell from the sky and the sun took its place. One minute seemed like an eternity to pass, but gradually, the sun came up higher and higher towards the horizon as the moon gradually made its descent. Finally, Twilight nodded towards Sunset, and all eight ponies raised their wings, watching closely for their cue. Then, as both princesses turned towards the sky, the moon slowly fell behind the earth as the sun gently floated its way into the sky. “Now!” And with that, all eight ponies launched into the sky, creating a smoke trail behind them as they flew through the air. They could see some ponies in the crowd begin to look up and notice them, waving at them from their seats, but they all remained in perfect uniform, none of them moving any faster or slower than the pony beside them. Once they’d made it over the stage, they angled their sides and quickly made their descent towards the ground. They could just barely hear the amazed gasps of the ponies in the crowd, but rather than pulling up, they descended behind the horizon, disappearing completely. Seconds passed without movement, and they could tell that the ponies in the crowd were beginning to wonder what was going on. Right before any of them could start to get impatient, however, the Wonderbolts zoomed into the sky again as the Washouts flew in barrel rolls, coming within inches of hitting the podium’s support beams. While the Wonderbolts circled in the sky, the Washouts reached their hooves out towards the crowd, slapping the hooves of their adoring fans. After making a few laps around the stands, the Washouts then flew behind the crowd as far as they could, and just as the ponies in the crowd started murmuring about what was going on, the three of them zipped at supersonic speeds, pulling their wings into their bodies as they each flew through the narrow crescent-shaped statue of that symbolized the festival. The crowd roared with amazement as they made their way back into the sky, joining the Wonderbolts as they changed their course. Once both teams were back together, they once again zipped through the sky, splitting into two groups of four and flying off in opposite directions. Then, after the groups had made a far enough distance between each other, they spun upwards and started racing in the other direction, zooming on a collision course with the other group. Rainbow could barely hear the crowd gasping through the wind in her ear, but with a smile on her face, she lifted up her leg and hoof-bumped Lightning Dust, just barely avoiding a straight collision as even their manes slid by each other. Again, the crowd roared loudly, which she could hear more and more as all eight of them plummeted towards the ground, but right before they smashed into the grass, they all lifted themselves up at the last second, circling in the air. Once again, the Wonderbolts and Washouts split apart, the former spouting up like a fountain as the latter descended the rest of their way to the ground. As the Washouts scurried away, the Wonderbolts split into two intersecting circles, creating a three-dimensional fountain where one pony shot up into the air before joining the other circle’s rotation. The crowd was so fixated on the Wonderbolts that they didn’t even notice the Washouts grabbing three buckets of water. Once the Washouts returned, Lightning Dust splashed her own pail onto the Wonderbolts, Short Fuse splashed his own bucket onto the two mares in his group, and Rolling Thunder splashed hers onto Short Fuse. Then, all eight of them flew into the air again, this time with the Washouts flying at a higher altitude than the Wonderbolts. Once everypony was in position again, the Wonderbolts circled around in a ring, flying faster and faster, zooming so quickly that their appearance disappeared entirely, replaced with a giant rainbow halo that glittered down all the colors in the light spectrum. The crowd was practically losing their minds, but they hadn’t even seen the best part yet. In the next moment, Rolling Thunder zoomed through the halo, intersecting it perfectly and leaving a rainbow trail through its center. Then came Short Fuse, intersecting it from a different angle, creating a rainbow-colored target in the center. Everypony quickly looked up, seeing Lightning Dust hovering over the center and waving to the fans. What the fans didn’t notice, however, was that the ring was getting smaller as the Wonderbolts gradually closed the gap between them. This was it, the defining moment of the performance. Lightning Dust flew so far into the air that nopony in the crowd would be able to see her. As dizzy as Rainbow was getting, she was more worried about Lightning Dust even being able to breathe from the altitude she was at. In the next moment, though, Lightning Dust soared down as fast as she could, creating a rainbow-colored mach cone around her with a lightning smoke trail following behind. By this point, the crowd was beginning to notice how little space she had to work with. She would need pinpoint accuracy, otherwise somepony could end up with more than just an injury. Everypony held their breath waiting to see what would happen, some even closing their eyes. Finally, in the next second, Lightning Dust barely slipped through the halo, and once she did, the Wonderbolts slowly circled around her as they descended back to the terrain. To the audience, though, it looked like one rainbow-colored trail in the center with a similar spiraling rainbow that descended to the ground. Just as Rainbow Dash landed, trying to keep her legs balanced despite how much they wanted to wobble in dizziness, the crowd roared so loud that it knocked her center of gravity back in an instant. The Wonderbolts pulled off their goggles. The Washouts took off their helmets. Even after all the crowds they’d seen cheering for them, never before had they seen one as lively as full of life as the one they were watching right now. In the next second, Rainbow Dash felt Lightning Dust wrap her hoof around hers, giving her a wide smile, but to Lightning’s surprise, Spitfire arrived at her other side doing the same thing. “Good job, you two,” said Spitfire. “Now, what’s say we take a bow?” Rainbow and Lightning Dust nodded their heads, and with all eight of them facing the crowd, they all bowed their heads down, hearing the crowd explode even louder. Even after spending most of her life being on the other side of the table, Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite understand how a couple scribbles and a hoofprint could wind up making somepony so dang happy. There was so little effort on her part; all she had to do was smile, say how happy she was that the pony enjoyed her performance and write her name on a picture--a picture of herself no less. Still, though, it seemed like everypony that came by was completely thrilled just to walk away with some proof that they’d actually spoken with a member of the Wonderbolts… or the Washouts, who had their own audience lined up to see them as well. “And who am I making this bad boy out to?” asked Lightning Dust, sitting to Rainbow’s right. “I’m Sugar Stix!” replied a filly with a frizzy blue mane. “You were amazing! How did you do those tricks?! You went so fast! I wish I could be like you someday, but I’m just an earth pony. I wish I could fly.” Lightning Dust giggled, patting the filly on the head. “You know something? My dream was to be a Wonderbolt one day, but my life took me in a different direction. Just remember to keep following your dreams in the meantime, OK? You never know where you’ll end up later if you just keep trying.” Then with a quick scribble and a hoofprint, Lightning Dust handed the picture of herself back to the filly, who beamed the biggest grin Rainbow had ever seen. “Thank you, Miss Lightning Dust! I love you so much!” Lightning Dust blushed as the filly pranced away, leaving Rainbow Dash laughing beside her. “What’s the matter?” asked Rainbow as her own fan walked away with a smiling face. “Not used to actually being a role model?” “Something like that.” Lightning Dust rubbed the back of her neck. “When your career is based off of sticking it to the ponies you looked up to, it’s kinda weird having ponies looking up to you.” “Maybe that’s just it,” replied Spitfire, on Lightning Dust’s other side. “Maybe you should go through a rebranding stage, one where you guys stop trying to ‘stick it’ to anypony and focus on how talented you are in the first place. No rivalries, no chip on your shoulder--” “Thanks, but I think we’ll pass on that one.” Lightning Dust then smiled at the next pony who came up to talk to her, but once the three of them had another chance to talk, Spitfire didn’t waste a moment picking up where they’d left off. “You know, I don’t regret kicking you out of the academy.” “I know. I don’t regret it either. You were right that me and Rainbow made a pretty unstoppable team. It just took me a while to figure out that I was even better with other ponies like me.” The teal mare looked over Rainbow’s shoulder at Rolling Thunder, then at Short Fuse on the other end of the lineup. “The Wonderbolts aren’t for everypony,” Spitfire continued, “but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even up to the very end, I never once thought that you weren’t one of the most talented prospects the academy had ever seen.” Lightning Dust scoffed. “Yeah, you just didn’t approve of my methods. I don’t regret anything I did either. I still got to live my dream, and I ended up living it my own way. Plus, I still got to fly with the Wonderbolts, just like I’d always dreamed of since I was a filly.” Again, another round of fans came up to the table, each of whom got to meet their idol and a little piece of history before walking away with a smile on their face. Once the stallion getting his autograph from Lightning Dust turned away, though, Rainbow couldn’t help but notice that Lightning Dust’s smile faded a little bit more than the other ponies at the table. “You know, this doesn’t need to be the end.” Lightning Dust turned to Rainbow Dash with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. “Was I supposed to think something was ending?” “No,” Rainbow replied, shaking her head. “What I mean is, this doesn’t need to be the last time you perform with the Wonderbolts. Captain Spitfire!” Spitfire moved her neck to see past Lightning’s head. “You know that all Wonderbolt affairs have to go through me first. Don’t go planning any shows without getting my permission.” “I know, but--” “That being said, I think you have a point. It would be pretty anticlimactic if our troupes never performed again. Lightning Dust, am I safe to assume you’re the general manager of your squad?” Lightning Dust smirked. “Don’t let Short Fuse hear you say that, but yeah.” “Then I believe it would be in the best interests for both of our acts to have occasional collaborations like this, whether that be just the Festival of the Two Sisters or otherwise. I know you don’t need us anymore, but we’d still like to keep that fire burning if at all possible.” Then, for the first time Rainbow Dash had ever seen around Lightning Dust, Spitfire smiled. It wasn’t like the kind of customer service smile that she gave to the ponies lined up for autographs--nopony in Equestria would get her to smile like that if she had the choice--but still in a subtle way where Rainbow knew it was genuine, and hopefully Lightning Dust did too. “We’ll have to get back to you on that one,” Lightning replied with a grin. “Even if I end up forgiving you guys for kicking me out of the academy, it doesn’t mean they will.” Spitfire nodded her head. “Understandable.” “Hope you ladies don’t mind me overhearin’,” said the pony to Rainbow Dash’s left, “but I think that maybe if Spitfire over there did some grovellin’, maybe we’d consider it. Ye know, just tellin’ us how much better we are and how much she needs us for the Wonderbolts to stay relevant.” “Not on your life.” Rolling Thunder chuckled. “Can’t blame me for tryin’ at least. Sure you’ll be alright with me doin’ barrel rolls through 90 million volts of electricity in ragin’ thunder storms?” Spitfire seemed to stare into Rolling Thunder’s eyes for what seemed like minutes, but the purple mare’s poker face never changed. Finally, after a sigh, Spitfire faced forward and said, “Just keep me out of your line of fire.” Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash turned to each other with a matching smile and immediately started cracking up. It was like all the anger that Rainbow had been storing since the academy just felt like a funny joke at this point, and it was beginning to rub off on both teams. As much as Rainbow never thought she’d ever do any kind of work with the Washouts, maybe they’d never imagined working with her either. Now, though, her only regret was not closing this gap sooner. She spent all this time holding a grudge when she could have just spent it bonding with her new friends. All three of them. “Hey, barkeep! One more for my friend here!” “Uh, I think she means give her another club soda on me.” “Hey! How come nopony’s paying for my drink?!” Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash giggled as Spitfire grumbled. The bartender, however, grabbed two glasses and began filling one with cider and the other with club soda. “Sorry, boss,” Rainbow replied with a snicker. “It’s not that we don’t think you can hold your cider or anything.” “Yeah,” Lightning Dust continued, “we’re just kinda having a contest to see which one of us barfs first.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “You know, most ponies come here to actually enjoy their drink.” “Most ponies aren’t us!” Just as soon as Rainbow finished her sentence, the bartender returned with their drinks, which they immediately clinked together before chugging them down. Once she felt the bubbles burning her throat, everything else seemed to disappear. She felt like she could be anypony she wanted to be, not that she’d ever be anypony else anyway, but it was still nice to have the happy feeling while she did. “You’re more than welcome to join in,” said Lightning Dust, swaying her glass with a quick hiccup. “Thanks,” Spitfire said, “but I think I’ll pass. I don’t want to spend my entire paycheck just to throw it back up later. In fact, I was actually thinking about calling it a night.” The yellow pegasus then spun around in her stool and hopped back to the ground, followed by disappointed groans from the other two pegasi. “C’mon, Spitfire!” Lightning pleaded with her head wobbling. “I thought we was *hic* friends.” “Rainbow Dash, be sure she gets plenty of water. That’s an order.” “Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow Dash saluted her captain, who again turned towards Lightning Dust with a cringe. “And you don’t need to worry about her. She’ll be fine.” Spitfire smirked. “She always has been, hasn’t she? Well, I guess that just proves that you don’t need me around anymore. I should go back and help clean up the fields. It’s mostly our mess anyway.” “You want me to help out too?” “No, you stay right where you are. She may not need me, but she definitely still needs you.” Rainbow tilted her head to the side in confusion, but Spitfire just walked away with a laugh. By the time that Rainbow turned back towards Lightning Dust, however, she was already passed out on the counter, sleeping like a baby. The cyan mare chuckled to herself, assuming that this meant that she automatically won, but right as soon as she started digging into her saddlebag for bits, she felt something bubbling in her stomach. “You little cheater,” Rainbow muttered, holding her hoof to her mouth before she accidentally tossed her cookies. Then, after getting her bits and throwing them onto the counter, she turned towards the bathroom, but right before leaving, she leaned into Lightning Dust’s ear and whispered, “Rivals for life.”
