The New Recruit

The next several shows went off without any problems. In Baltimare, Ace was made part of the relay team. Messing around with the cloud generator had taught him that he could build a slide for himself, and while coasting down, if he dispersed it with a trailing hoof, he could slow his descent enough to brake his fall without leaving much of a trail.

In New Hoofshire, he figured out that he could twist the end of the slide up without dispersing the cloud, and that would launch him with the same speed he'd had on his first flag hunt. As long as he had a starting height and a cloud generator, he could repeatedly launch himself up into the air to three-quarters his last peak.

Having Spitfire's expense report of his dad's tickets allowed Ace to know where he was at the shows. He was easy enough to spot at the Appeloosa Aerodrome, as the turnout wasn't huge, but before he ever went up, Ace had found and locked in his mind: section BA, row twelve, seat seventeen for New Yoke City, and section J2, row three, seat six for Salt Lick City. When he did his fly-by, he could see his dad right there, and he could hear him shouting "That's my boy!" if he listened closely.

Things were going great for Ace at the end of his first month. He had about a week left before he could decide to go back to the academy for more training, and while he had been studying, he didn't know if his lack of training could mark him as being up to the task. Soarin mentioned that he'd probably be fine, and just to make sure, he'd do everything in his power to give Ace a few days of rigourous, intensive training before he was to take the test.

As Ace was winding down from the second show in Buffalo, he took a moment to examine his journey. Five months ago, he was signing up to join a demonstration for the head of the Wonderbolts Academy, and she was telling him that he'd never make it at the academy, because he'd never make it to the academy. That act of defiance; of climbing on the cloud and making his way up had led to all of this. He'd have never imagined that Lance-Commander Skylight would be taking him out for frozen yogurt and a back massage out in the city. And yet, here he was, having enjoyed his yogurt and currently having his back rubbed by a masseur.

That relaxation was about to end, though. The door flew open and Soarin walked in, prompting the shamisen player to stop her tune.

"You better have a good reason for turning off my tunes, Lieutenant," growled Skylight, picking up her head just long enough to verify who it was.

"Apologies, commander, but this is too important. Captain Spitfire thought it was important enough to send a high-speed courier all the way across Equestria just to make sure this arrived before the end of the day."

"Too late," chuckled the commander. "It's after sunset. We can deal with it tomorrow."

"Just listen," sighed Soarin.

Baltimare mourns the loss of Sunny McCloud today, a filly who just wanted to be like her hero. After seeing the Wonderbolts show three weeks prior, she was incredibly excited to see the amazing flying earth pony, Ace of Clubs. Ace is known mostly for his acts of daring flights with no wings. According to her parents, Sunny was so inspired that she begged and pleaded for his autograph, and she told him that he was her hero.

Two years ago, Sunny was in an accident that saw her hit by a cart. Her left wing never recovered, and she's been flightless ever since. "Seeing that Ace fellow move through the sky must have given her hope," her father told this reporter. "For me, seeing [Ace's act] just set me on edge. Who would want to tell flightless foals that it's okay to catapult yourself into the air with no way of coming back down?"

"I've never said any such thing," argued Ace. "I've always insisted on having at least one redundancy in landing."

"Let me finish," insisted Soarin.

Yesterday after school, before her parents came home, Sunny stepped out onto the fourth-floor balcony of her apartment building, according to four witnesses. Clutching her stuffed Wonderbolt doll that was done up to look like Ace and wearing her costume, she climbed up into the railing and jumped into the air. By the time the paramedics arrived, there was nothing they could do. Sunny McCloud was no more.

This is not the first instance of this event, either. Dandy Dancer of Salt Lick City met a similar fate when he and his friends built a catapult in his treehouse. He broke his neck on a neighbor's fence one week before this article was written. Silent Spring in New Hoofshire cracked his skull open trying to grab a cloud from the top of a tall tree. And Zippy Cakes of San Palomino would have met the same fate had it not been for a passing mare that caught her out of the air.

Forty-seven other injuries have been reported involving earth ponies, unicorns and injured pegasi trying to "be like Ace." They all thought that they could be the next Ace of Clubs, and be that special kid that could fly without the use of their wings.

Soarin lowered the paper. "They're calling for your head, Ace. Figuratively, of course..."

Ace didn't know what to say. The very idea that he'd caused the death of three kids, and almost fifty injuries, was absolutely mortifying.

"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Skylight. "As he said, every time he's been on the radio, he's urged safety. All we have to do is have him give a speech about flight safety, make a big deal about it, and he's golden. Then he just has to look like these events really bother him. Look, he's already figured out the right facial expression."

Ace lowered his face into the rest. "What's going to happen next?"

Soarin sighed. "Skylight's right. We're going to have you give a speech. I've already arranged to have your part in the show cut down in response to this. Spitfire added in the news that she's been fielding a lot of the legal repercussions, working with media outlets, trying to mitigate the damages to our image as the Wonderbolts, and your image, specifically. At the end of the season, we'll have you record a public service announcement, and after that, we should be able to just keep going."