-CLICK-
-FLASH-
-SKIDDIDEEBOPMDADA-
“Spitfire, why have you decided to retire?”
“Is it old age, or something more sinister?!”
Spitfire let out a sigh and looked towards Rainbow Dash, who was standing off-stage giving her best ‘You go girl!’ look. After 22 years of faithful service to the Wonderbolts, Spitfire was finally retiring. While she didn’t like press releases, it came with the job as leader of the Wonderbolts, and it would feel wrong if she just left the announcement to her successor standing off stage.
“There is no foul play, and I am certainly not old! I’m 43 years young, I’ll have you know.” The old pegasus gave a small grin to the crowd and raised her sunglasses, posing like Insane Bolt, coaxing ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ out of the crowd. “Still got it, baby.”
“But if not age, then why?” Asked a reporter from the Baltimare Bugle.
Spitfire scratched her chin. She hadn’t really thought about it to much. She just kinda felt like it was time to go, and she made the thought known to the reporters. “Look, I understand it might be a bit hard for some ponies to come to terms with. I have been on the ‘Bolts for longer than a good chunk of our fans have even been alive, after all. But sometimes, times change. I want to live life a bit, and not worry about a new routine or… talking to reporters…” She said that last part with no small amount of pure disdain and hatred. “… I’m just… bored. I don’t know, it’s complicated. But I’m not old!”
This statement was met with a lot of ‘Oh, sures’ and ‘Yeah rights’, bringing a frown to Spitfire’s face. “Regardless of your incorrect definitions of ‘old’, I am also announcing the tryouts for my replacement, open to all current Reservists.” This was received a lot more positively, and with new questions, all of which were ignored.
“As this is my last press release,” Spitfire shook her hoof in the air and mouthed ‘Thank Celestia’, “I just want to say that the last 22 years have been truly wonderful. I have met so many great creatures in my travels, and it’s with a heavy heart I say goodbye. But all good things must come to an end. So, without further ado, adieu. I have to get to Pony Rico!” The pegasus jumped of of stage and flew out the open doors of the small room, blowing papers and surprised expressions everywhere in an effort to start her retirement as quickly as possible.
—
…Hello and good evening Cloudsdale! It is a cool 53 degrees out with a chinook coming in, and we have some warming tunes to put the spring in your wing! But first, the news. Hold onto something solid, folks, for our Wonderbolt’s captain, Spitfire, has decided to retire after 22 years of service! I remember watching her when I was a filly! We’ll certainly miss you, Spitfire, may the winds favor you. In related news, the pony to fill the vacant spot in the Wonderbolts lineup will be determined by a classic Top Bolt challenge, though this one will be called the ’New Bolt’ challenge. Can’t wait to see the newest member, that’s for sure! Alright, with that out of the way, lets get back to the music with Pinkie Pie’s S.M.I.L.E…
“Ugh… wait what!?” Sky Stinger fell out of the bed, landing softly on the cloud floor that made up his and Vapor Trail’s house. “Honey! Did you hear that!?”
Sky heard some rustling and the flap of wings, the love of his life flinging open the door with an inquisitive look.
“Hear what?”
“DJ said there was going to be another Top Bolt challenge!”
Vapor lowered her wings. “They have those every year, love.”
“Yeah, but this one’s special! It’ll determine the next Wonderbolt! Spitfire’s retiring, you know.”
“Yeah, it isn’t a secret that the senior citizen has been thinking of calling it quits for awhile now. Where’s the competition taking place anyway?”
“I don’t know. We should go ask-“
-DING DONG-
“Well, maybe that’s them!” The couple flew down the stairs and into the kitchen, opening the backdoor with gusto. They had installed a doorbell in the backdoor, as it had become the unofficial entrance since the paparazzi started camping outside of their home. A grey mail mare popped open a telegram and started reading it.
“Dear Sky Stingah and Vapa Twail, you ah co-oderwee invited to da Top Boat challenge at da Cloudsdale Twaining Centa. Pwease bwing all of your equipment and a watah bottle (Thank Fwuttershy for da watah bottle thang). Sincerewee, Acting Wonderbolt’s Captain, Wainbow Dash. P.S. On’t telegwams so cool? It’s wike sending a wetter, but some pony else weads it off!” The mare gave a warm smile and a salute before flying off to deliver more letters.
“We have a phone, right?” Vapor wondered aloud.
“Sure do!” Sky pulled the device off the wall and shook it around.
—
“Aten, HUT.”
Ah, the shifting of hooves, uncomfortable uniforms, and seemingly perpetual bad weather. Vapor felt like she was back in the Academy already! Sky Stinger had fallen into formation a few lines behind her, so she was feeling a bit lonely up in the front. Though today was an important occasion, and she wasn’t about to give her 50% so she could just go back home to be with him.
“Alright you impudent welps, today is the most important day of your worthless lives, for today, we will see if you have what it takes to become the newest ‘Bolt!” Vapor had to admit, Rainbow was really doing a fine job of filling in for Spitfire. She even adopted her signature sunglasses!
“This Top Bolt challenge is a bit more special this year, however. As some of you may know, Spitfire is retiring, and we need another pony to fill in! Do you hear me!?”
“Ma’am yes ma’am!” Everypony called out in unison.
“As this is special, each of you worms will be divided into teams of five. A few ‘Bolts will hoof out the itinerary for the next weeks competition.” On cue, Fleetfoot and Blaze started flying around the crowd, hoofing out the aforementioned itinerary’s
Next weeks?!
“And don’t worry about any jobs or school. All of that has been taken care of.”
Thank Celestia!
“Now! Fall back and find your new teammates!”
“Ma’am yes ma’am!”
—
Let’s see here… Icy Wind, Me, Goose Down, Sky Stinger, and Airfoil. Well, hopefully the ponies I don’t know have their names plastered on their foreheads.
“Hey Vapor! Over here!” The pegasus was alerted to the presence of of her coltfriend. Swinging around, she saw that he was standing with two ponies and a griffin. It was at that point she realized that her itinerary had a great big ‘7’ plastered on the back, and that the other members of her team also had 7’s on the backs of their papers.
How did he notice that before me? I must be slipping up somehow.
Vapor moved towards the group, where introductions were already taking place. She moved up to who she assumed was Icy Wind.
“Hey, my names Vapor Trail. Nice to meet you, Icy Wind!” She held out her hoof for a hoofshake, but it was knocked down with malice.
“I don’t know you, I don’t care about you. And you call me ‘Icemare’, not Icy Wind. Got it?.”
O-kay, rude much?
Vapor turned to look at Sky with sass, but he was in conversation with Goose Down, a fellow Academy graduate who came out with their class. Instead, she decided to introduce herself with the griffin, who must have been Airfoil.
She reached her hoof out, a bit more apprehensive due to her previous interaction. “Hey, my names Vapor Trail. Nice to meet you, Airfoil.”
The griffon reciprocated Vapors hesitation, but reached out her hand anyway. “Nice to meet you to.”
They stood in awkward silence for a few moments, not really wanting to talk to the other. This was a competition, after all. Why should they cooperate? After a few more minutes of standing around doing nothing in particular, the group is called to attention by a really loud airhorn.
Pinkie Pie made her presence known by hopping on top of the airhorn she just blew. “Alright, everybody! Let’s get this show on the road!”
—
The first day was mostly just them re-learning the history of the Wonderbolts, as well as motivational and informational seminars from various Wonderbolts, current and retired, as well as a few friends of Rainbow Dash. It was really quite drab, to say the least.
No pon- I mean, no creature, really even want’s to be here. Can we just go fly now? Vapor thought to herself. Thankfully, she was not the only one who shared this sentiment.
Halfway through one of the seminars being headed by Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash burst through the door and said they had an emergency. Turns out, this ‘emergency’ was just a thinly veiled attempt at a team exercise. The whole class jammed their ways out of the door, piling out to the main foyer. There they saw that there were 7 ponies hanging off of ledges at various points around the Training Field, corresponding to the 7 teams that had been formed in hours previous.
“The horror!” Called out one of them.
“Will anypony help me?!” Called out another.
“This is so cool! I mean AHAHAAAAH!!!” Called out a bad actor.
Well, no time like the present, I suppose…
Vapor unfurled her wings as if to take off when Rainbow Dash jumped ahead of the mob a waved her arms around like a lunatic.
“Wait! You, uh… can only save the ponies with your teammates!”
A particularly outgoing stallion from the crowd called her out. “But wouldn’t it be best to just fly over as quickly as possible rather than waste time and form up to save them?” For that, he got a rolled up newspaper chucked at him by the rainbow colored pegasus.
“Any more stupid questions?!” She asked threateningly whilst rolling up another piece of crumpled newspaper. When nobody responded, she chuckled.
“BREAK!”
34 ponies and one griffin separated into their respective groups and flew towards a dangling pony. Vapor was flying as fast as possible, but was still beaten by Aerofoil and the self-proclaimed Icemare. They easily pulled the pegasus to safety by the time Vapor, Sky and Goose had flown in.
“Easy as pie.” Claimed the posing Icemare.
Aerofoil was a bit more caring, however. “Are you okay sir?” She asked the newly saved pony, who was laying on the floor.
The stallion who had been ‘saved’ feigned (quite badly) that he was absolutely devastated. “I don’t think I will ever recover!”
Vapor noticed, however, that the stallion was also a pegasus. Before she could point it out, however, Icemare beat her to the punch.“Couldn’t you have just flown up? You know, with the wings you have?”
The pony’s face went blank. “Oh! Uh… these old things? I… uh… hurt them! Yeah, so hurt…” He presented his wing, mouthing an ‘ouch!’ when he did so. The looks on everybody’s faces told him that not a single one of them were convinced, so he just embarrassingly flew off. Icemare laughed in the stallions stead, drawing the ire from her teammates.
Goose stepped up. “He was just trying to do his job, ‘Icemare’, don’t gotta be so mean about it.” Despite the confrontation, Icemare wasn’t fazed in the slightest and jumped up to fly back down to where Rainbow and the other judges were waiting. “Bye losers!”
Vapor was appalled at the display, but she had to continue on like the rest of them, and followed the pegasus who called herself ‘Icemare’.
What a jerk.
—
“Listen up, everybody. We regret to inform you that Team 4 has been eliminated on the grounds that they totally blew it. Somehow, 3 members were hospitalized, a fourth is M.I.A., and the final one will need psychiatric help for at least the next decade.” Rainbow had found herself utterly stunned by the spectacle, having given a cold shudder after the announcement. Vapor could have sworn that if she wasn’t wearing the her sunglasses, her eyes would be as wide as the now-setting sun. “It’s getting late, everybody, time to hanker down. Females to the East Barracks, males to the West. Any questions?” Smartly, nobody asked a single question, fearing the newly acquired microphone in Rainbow Dash’s ever growing arsenal. “BREAK!”
Vapor turned to Sky, giving him a hug and a kiss. “Goodnight, honey.” He returned the pleasantries, and headed over to the West Barracks. Vapor bemoaned the departure. This would be their first night apart, and it made her stomach sick. She knew he was going to get into some crazy shenanigans that night. But, there was nothing she could do about it, so she followed Icemare and Airfoil to the East Barracks for a slightly colder night of sleep.
Making her way over, she looked out upon the rest of Cloudsdale. It was beautiful this time at night, and she did ever so want to share it with Sky, because Icemare and Airfoil weren’t exactly looking like very good company so far. Maybe they would open up over a friendly game of Truth or Dare?
Maybe.
—
“So, girls, anybody up for a game of Truth or Dare?” Vapor asked not so subtly. The females of Team 7 had their own room, like every other team, but theirs only had a single bunk bed. To settle the impending butting of heads, Vapor elected to lay on the floor in a sleeping bag.
Airfoil rolled over. “Truth.”
Score!
Vapor went to ask her question, but Icemare once again sniped an opportunity away from her. “So, how did a Griffin come into a competition to see who the next Wonderbolt would be?”
Even though it was a bit antagonistic of a question, Airfoil didn’t mind. She scratched her chin and grinned. “Well, my cousin Gallus was the first Griffin Royal Guard up in Canterlot, and I wanted to show him up by becoming the first Wonderbolt. Can’t wait to see his face when I show up in the blue and yellow!”
Icemare gave a snort in return. “Yeah, if I somehow don’t get it first.” Airfoil gave the icy blue pegasus a dirty look, but before the two could come to hoofticuffs, Vapor changed the subject.
“Your turn, Airfoil!”
The Griffins attention was (thankfully) diverted, looking at Vapor instead of Icemare. “Vapor, Truth or Dare?”
Vapor sat up, thinking about it. “Truth.”
Airfoil leaned in towards Vapor. She pointed towards the West Barracks with a grin. “How many times have you and flycolt over there done it?”
Vapor felt as though she had been hit by a freight train. She was not prepared for the extremely personal question. Even Icemare had put down the book she was reading and poked her head out from the top bunk to look at Vapor’s squirming figure. Even so, Vapor tried to play dumb.
“What do you mean by ‘it’?”
“Oh, you know…” Airfoil formed a circle with one of her hands and used a claw to mimic the motions of passionate love, forcing Vapor to blush a deep red.
“Well, it’s not like I have been counting!” Vapor answered, but neither of the other two were convinced.
Airfoil laughed and got all googly eyed. “Come on, a pwecious wittle mare like you would 100% be counting.”
Vapor blushed to the point where she looked more like a tomato than a pony. “Fine! If you must know, we’ve-“
The room started to shake with the utterly debilitating noise of several air raid sirens going off around the camp. Vapor and Icemare covered their ears while Airfoil ran out of the room squawking. The pitch of the horns came down a significant notch and Rainbow Dash’s voice came over the intercom.
“Hello!? Can anybody hear me? Because I can’t hear myself! That was loud, and awesome!” The mare cleared her throat. “Red alert! There are intruders on the western perimeter! All available Wonderbolts respond!”
Who would be breaking in now? This is easily the worst time to do it!
“Oh, and uh, sorry about that, recruits.” The intercom ringed close, kicking Icemare and Vapor into action. Icemare hopped out of her bed and joined Vapor in the hall.
Icemare nudged Vapor in the side. “Hey, where do you think the Griffin went?”
Vapor shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll check in here, you go look outside.” Vapor shifted uncomfortably. “She has a name, by the way.”
“Sure.” Icemare flew off down the hall. By this time, most of the other mares had shuffled out of their rooms in various states of consciousness, but none of them being happy about the rather abrupt and untimely wakeup call. Vapor pushed herself past several of them, giving apologies to each of them as she did. She made her way to the little fillies room and pushed open the door to reveal an unconscious Airfoil laying on the ground.
“Airfoil!?” Vapor rushed towards the Griffin, turning on a nearby faucet and splashing some water on her face. Airfoil sputtered back to life with a very upset look on her face. She sneered at Vapor, as if she wasn’t the mare she wanted to see.
“Where’s Rainbow Dash!?” She demanded.
“I don’t know.” Vapor answered honestly.
Airfoil pushed Vapor off of her, and started walking towards the door with a very noticeable sway. Vapor rushed to her side, correcting her balance.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. Look, I don’t think you should be walking to Rainbow, let alone fly to her.”
The Griffin seemed to have taken that personally. “And why not!? I am fine!”
Vapor sunk down. “But your hurt…” She squeaked.
“I’m not!.. Ugh!” Airfoil seemed very conflicted. Probably a mix of pride not wanting to back down and not wanting to be so mean “Fine. I’ll stay here if you absolutely need me to.” She smiled then. “And don’t think I forgot about my question.”
Vapor just blushed. “I-I will find Rainbow Dash for you. Bye!” She flew out the bathroom and outside, aptly leaving vapor trails in her wake.
—
“So, what’s the situation?” Vapor had flown out to the main courtyard and found Icemare and a few other ponies looking at Rainbow Dash and the other Wonderbolts laying into the West Barracks’ inhabitants.
Icemare giggled. “The colts tried to sneak out to see us, but the dolts tripped the alarm.” Vapor facehoofed.
Of course they did! I just know, deep down, Sky had something to do with this.
“And Rainbow is mad.” Icemare added with a chuckle. Indeed, Rainbow Dash was flying around the cowering group of stallions yelling various profanities.
Vapor dispelled her negative thoughts and focused on her mission. “I need to talk to Rainbow. Well, Airfoil needs to talk to her.”
Icemare looked at her in disbelief. “What, did the sirens really mess her up that badly?”
“Apparently so. Guess Griffins are a bit more sensitive when it comes to that sort of thing.”
Rainbow was calming down a bit with a little help from Fleetfoot, who was giving her a sip of water whenever she needed it. Sky Stinger, despite being in the front, was looking at the two mares like they were goddesses from the heavens. Starstruck, Vapor reasoned.
“And if you morons try to pull this kind of thing again, you can all kiss your chances at becoming the next Wonderbolt goodbye!”
Holy moly, she is angry…
“DISMISSED!” The colts of the West Barracks needed no more words of encouragement and eagerly skulked back to their rooms. Once Rainbow Dash had gotten a decent amount away from the crowd of nitwits, Vapor Trail flew after Rainbow and her entourage of Wonderbolts.
“Uh, RD?”
Rainbow turned around with righteous vengeance. “What!?” Then she noticed who it was. “Oh… sorry Vapor.” Rainbow’s voice was a bit raspy from all the yelling, and she looked genuinely worried that she might have upset her friend. “Whats up?”
Vapor fiddled with her hooves, not really knowing exactly what to say. “Well, the sirens you called out had a pretty devastating effect on Airfoil… and she kinda wanted to talk to you about it…”
“Airfoil? Oh! Isn’t that Gilda’s niece or something?” Rainbow masterfully deflected.
“Yeah, she’s kinda messed up right now. Could you go and talk to her?”
Rainbow hung her head in defeat. She couldn’t just ignore the needs of her students. “Sure.”
Vapor beamed. “Thank you!” With that out of the way, Vapor returned to her room, curled up into a ball, and fell asleep.
That is, if she wasn’t nudged back awake not 20 minutes after she closed her eyes.
“Hey, Vapor, thanks for doing me a solid, but you still gotta spill the beans on you and Sky.”
“Oh sugarcubes.”
—
Vapor awoke to the soothing melody of a harpsichord playing over the intercom, followed by a dejected sounding Rainbow Dash speaking gently into the mic, her voice still a bit rough from the night before. “Hey, everybody. Wake up, pwetty pwease. It’s da wakeup call.”
Vapor sat up in a daze. What had gotten into RD? Well, the laughing Griffin behind her didn’t let her deeds go unknown. Upon noticing Vapor looking at her with a confused look, she stopped her laughing just enough to explain.
“I told her last night that if she plays anything on the intercoms to loudly, I would explode!”
Vapor giggled a bit in disbelief. “And she believed that?!”
“Only after we called up Gilda, and she totally winggriffined me!” She puffed up her chest and gave her best Gilda impression. “Oh yeah, RD, us Griffons will go BOOM if you do that intercom stuff to loudly. Think about it, have you ever seen any speakers in Griffonstone? Didn’t think so!” The two laughed heartily together, Icemare still being asleep even through the raucous laughter of the two below her perch.
The intercoms clicked back to life, the soft nurturing voice of Fluttershy coming out. “And make sure to bring your water bottle. If you don’t mind, that is.”
To be continued…
