The New Recruit

The weekend came and went with little fanfare for Ace. As Soarin had prophesised, Spitfire had come to him at breakfast on Saturday morning and apologised for yelling at him the day prior, but after that, she'd primarily stayed in her office until halfway through Sunday, where she did some flying of her own. Running the academy full-time was a great honour, but it left little time to stay in peak condition.

Soarin had actually been spending a fair bit of time with Ace, as well as some of the other instructors. Soarin had gone to every major party, as well as some of the small ones, to see if any of them would let Ace join in, and the general consensus was "Do we have to?" He even broke a few up, sending hosts and partygoers to the brig for having broken actual rules or damaging school property. This did lead to a fight once, leaving Soarin with a black eye, Ace with a split lip, and two drunk pegasi cuffed in the brig, but for the most part, they just said "no." So Ace joined a few of the staff members for drinks and board games. Not really his favourite thing to do, but at least he was allowed in.

On Monday, he was assigned his new partner for the next two months. Every Wonderbolt was expected to be able to work with every other Wonderbolt, so you couldn't just have the same partner throughout your entire four years as a student. Unless, of course, you always matched up with the same pony, but that meant that neither had changed places, or rather, they had moved together or apart by the same amount.

More importantly, because Ace had improved his grades so much, he was now in the top half of the class, if just barely. That meant that his role was no longer wing pony. He was a lead pony. He couldn't partner up with Peregrine if he wanted to, because they were both supposed to be leading now.

Ace met his new wing pony at breakfast. They were in the same group, but they'd never spoken directly to each other before. Ace was the first to extend his hoof. "I'm Ace."

"I'm eating. Go away."

"I'm supposed to be your new partner. I was hoping we could talk before class."

"No."

"Can I at least have your name to make sure I'm talking to the right pony?"

"No. Go away."

With a sigh, Ace went to his table, just as Soarin came in with the paper. "Good morning. Have you spoken to your new partner yet?"

"I believe so," answered Ace.

Soarin scowled. "That's not a usual answer..."

"I believe the stallion I spoke to is my partner, but we didn't really talk... Still a pariah, you know."

"Maybe this will help with that," answered Soarin, pushing the paper across the table. "Flair's story was published this morning."

Ace pulled it across the table. "I doubt it, but thanks. How's your eye, by the way?"

Soarin waved his hoof. "Don't even worry about me, rookie. I'll be fine."

Ace nodded. "Ponies are going to believe whatever they want. I can tell the truth over and over, but that doesn't mean they're going to believe me. Not even my partner."

Soarin shook his head. "He has to work with you. His grade, as well as yours, depends on it. Even so, your instructors aren't going to be idiots. I can tell who's working and who's not. Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Whisper Winds, Silverstream when he's around... If you're putting in the effort, and your partner is ignoring you, we'll see it. This isn't just about how well you perform. It's about how well you work with others, and we've seen that you can. Just... try to work with him, okay?"

"I will do what I can," promised Ace.

Their first task was an old one, with a simple twist. Cloudbusting was easy, and it was a great way to see if having new partners would change how it was done. There was a lot of trouble with the line-up to begin with, as all wing ponies were supposed to stand next to their lead ponies, and Ace's wingpony, Crop Duster, kept moving down the line to increase the distance. Every time Ace would move closer, he'd move away, until Spitfire threatened to expel him on the spot. Worst of all, he had to think about it before he finally agreed to stand still.

They were assigned their sections of sky and Ace turned to his partner. "So, first, we should go out to the center of the area. Are you fami--"

He made it no further, as Crop had already flown off to bust clouds on his own, using the most basic technique of just moving from one cloud to the next. Spitfire had heard the whole thing, as had Peregrine, who offered to let his time falter a bit to bring Ace out to a cloud, even though they were supposed to be competing. Ace thanked him, but refused the offer, hopping a cloud of his own to row out and supplement Crop's technique.

Ace didn't actually bust any clouds except for the last two. He came close a few times, but Crop intentionally broke from his path to remove any clouds from Ace's area. Again, Peregrine took a small hit to his score to send a cloud toward Ace so that he could claim that he busted at least one cloud, and then after he was done, he busted the cloud that he'd been riding around on.

At the end of the lesson, it was Peregrine and Crop Duster that were called to the front of the class. Crop was chastised for being uncooperative, for which he claimed that Ace didn't even bust any clouds, a statement that he didn't know was false because he hadn't been paying close attention.

Peregrine, on the other hoof, was given a commendation. While he hadn't performed particularly well with his new partner, Spitfire had taken into account his actions outside of the range of the task. "It is the sign of a good leader that, rather than worrying only about your own team, you've opted to assist a struggling competitor. Your grade has moved up two ranks because of that."