The Wonderbolt Academy

Raindrops stood anxiously on a train station platform with her suitcase next to her as she idly listened to her fellow pegasi talking that she came with from Ponyville. She had applied for the Academy months in advance and had already taken her exam. Raindrops was more than surprised when she received her acceptance letter in the mail with orders to report to the Wonderbolt Academy. The jasmine pegasus brushed her teal mane out of her eyes, briefly glancing at her cutie mark of three raindrops on her toned flanks.

“Nervous?” Sprinkle Medley asked as she and White Lightning stood on either side of Raindrops with their own suitcase. “We are too. Surprised there’s only us, Sassaflash, Merry May, Dizzy Twister, Parasol and Cloudkicker.”

“Probably more up there,” White Lightning gestured up at the large cloud in the distance. “I’m a bit nervous myself. I’m a decent flyer but certainly not the best in the group. That’s definitely going to be Cloudkicker.”

“I’m nervous as hell,” Parasol chimed in and the pale yellow male shifted on her hooves. She was the most skittish of the Ponyville pegasi other than Fluttershy, but she would have never thought of trying out for this.

Cloudkicker blushed and crossed her forelegs. She didn’t necessarily like bragging about her abilities in general, unlike a certain rainbow maned pony she knew.

“Come on,” Cloudkicker answered and bit her suitcase handle. “They won’t wait forever for us. And we got five minutes to get up there. I’d rather not get chewed out on my first day.”

Raindrops personally agreed with that. She had heard the rumors just like everypony else about how hard Spitfire was on her trainees and Raindrops didn’t want to test the mare in any circumstance.

She joined her fellow pegasi in the sky as she hugged her suitcase to her chest to calm her nerves, breathing out softly. She was a bit nervous but would never say that in public like this.

Raindrops and the others faintly made out a few other pegasi standing next to a runway in a row as she and the other Ponyville pegasi landed, trotting over to them.

Raindrops set down her suitcase next to her and stood by a green stallion with a light teal mane and a pen for a cutie mark.

“Hello,” he said and glanced at her without moving his head to look at her.

“Hi,” Raindrops said and folded her wings against her body. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much. You?”

“Nothing.”

Raindrops opened her mouth to reply before hastily closing it as a stern faced Spitfire in a military uniform with some medals hanging on it and purple sunglasses started trotting to them with two identical looking white pegasus on either side of her.

“Look at what we have here,” Spitfire glared at them all as she trotted down the line before stopping at a stallion. “Your mane is out of regulation, cadet.”

“Sorry ma’am. I uhm forgot to get a haircut and-” he fell silent as Spitfire stepped closer and glared at him.

“Did I ask for an excuse? I didn’t hear me ask for one. Did you?” Spitfire asked as she continued glaring at him.

“N-no ma’am. I’ll get on it immediately ma’am.”

“Good. See to it that you do or I’ll have one of the others cut it for you,” Spitfire continued to glare at him for a second before stepping back and continued her walk, stopping to examine Raindrops as she froze nervously. “You. Name.”

“Raindrops. Ma’am,” Raindrops hastily added when Spitfire’s eyes narrowed slightly at her.

“Hmph. Your suitcase is leaking shampoo, cadet. Be sure to wash any belongings in the washing room or a cloud,” Spitfire pointed a hoof at the yellow suitcase as Raindrops gave it a startled look.

“Yes ma’am,” Raindrops saluted her and Spitfire stepped away.

“You all will be bunking with each other. The pony you are assigned as a wing pony will be the pony you will be staying with. You will sleep together, you will eat together. Hell, you will shower together, damn it. If you don’t like your partner, too fucking bad. Figure it out between your selves. If I have to get involved, I will make you two do laps around the campus while the others watch till you get along,” Spitfire explained as the others looked at each other. “You may not like one another, but you will respect each other. And if you do anything to fuck your partners chances of being a Wonderbolt or endanger others, I will personally escort you from the premise. Am I clear?”

“Yes ma’am!” Raindrops joined in the others and saluted as Spitfire gave a subtle nod.

“Now get up there and give me one hundred laps!” Spitfire shouted and pointed at Raindrops. “Not you, Shampoo. Get that mess cleaned up with a rag from over there and then join your team.”

Raindrops nodded as Spitfire glared at the other pegasi with a flat look.

“Did I say sit around and look at me like a bunch of lost puppies? No, I didn’t. Now get your sorry flanks in the sky and get those laps down. Five seconds to go before I increase the number to two hundred laps!” Spitfire threatened and the others hastily took off as she watched in satisfaction.

Spitfire sat in her office, watching the others do laps with a scowl. Spitfire folded her sunglasses and set them on her desk as Dizzy Twister flew by her window again with Parasol and Cloudkicker close behind her.

“How are they doing?” Soarin asked from his spot he had claimed in front of Spitfire’s desk with Fleetfoot in the other chair.

“Okay. Sassaflash needs to work on her form, especially on the turns. Merry May is lagging behind but we can always fix that. Sweet Dreams is probably the worst out of the group. I’ll most likely assign him to Starburst. Won’t see many shows or action but he’ll be in the Bolts. Might even pick up some talent in there.”

The other two winced slightly. Ponies only got assigned to Starbursts team if they either fucked up badly or were poor flyers. Starburst himself was a good flyer so he often got given the pegasi that weren’t so he could either get them in shape or have them do various field jobs for the other Wonderbolts at shows. Most didn’t stay long for the obvious reasons.

“Sprinkle Medley is okay. So is White Lightning. Thinking of partnering White Lightning as a lead pony with Lucky Charm. I can’t partner her with Sprinkle because they’re married or whatever.”

“What about Whiplash?” Fleetfoot suggested as she flipped through a file. “Age thirty. His dad is a commander for the Royal Guards along with his two brothers. Nothing in here about a mother.”

“Don’t we already have a Whiplash?” Soarin asked and leaned back in his chair. Spitfire nodded briefly as the mentioned green stallion went by.

“We have two now.”

“That was him,” Fleetfoot answered and adjusted her posture slightly. “Decent pace. Saw him and Raindrops talking before you had em doing laps. I like Raindrops, she seemed to get with the program. And she remembered to salute.”

“Hmph. We will see how she does. We’ve had ponies make a decent impression on the first day only to wipe out in the next week,” Spitfire scoffed as she turned to face the other two. “Midnight Strike is good too. Might make her a wing pony with Starry Eyes.”

“I support it,” Fleetfoot conceded and Soarin cracked his neck. “I’m interested in seeing how they handle getting woke up earlier in the morning and kept up late.”

The three chuckled to themselves and continued the pegasi flying around outside.

Raindrops and the others stood inside an air conditioned room as she stretched out wings. She personally felt pretty gross with her mane being stuck down on her head from sweat.

“These are going to be your permanent bunk assignments. Once again, if you don’t like your bunk mate too bad. Sort it out between yourselves. Being able to problem solve is an important skill to have as a Wonderbolt,” Soarin announced as the others watched and stapled a piece of paper onto a board. “You will get up at oh six hundred everyday. You should be in the shower and out by oh six thirty. Thirty minute shower tops. You’re expected to be getting breakfast by seven where you will sit with your fellow cadets.”

Raindrops stepped to the board and her blue eyes scanned the paper for her name, idly tracing against the paper. She gave a sigh as she stepped back to allow somepony else to find their names. She really wanted to be partnered with someone she knew. Just because she and Dizzy Twister came from the same town doesn’t mean she really knew her.

“Uh Dizzy Twister, right?” Raindrops asked as she stopped at a orange mare with two tornado cutie marks.

“That’s me. Guess we’re bunkmates,” Dizzy Twister held out a hoof and Raindrops shook it. “Hope you don’t snore.”

“Nah. You?”

“Nope,” Dizzy answered cheerfully with a smile. “I don’t know about you, but I feel filthy. We should probably go hit the showers after putting our suitcases in our rooms.”

“Same. I should have brought more shampoo. Stupid bottle broke open on the runway,” Raindrops grumbled and started pushing her own suitcase. “Might go down to that town and buy another bottle.”

“I got a spare you can use,” Dizzy offered and Raindrops looked at her with a small smile.

“Really?”

“Really,” Dizzy nodded with a grin. “We Ponyville pegasi gotta stick together. And you can do me a favor in return.”

Oh boy, Raindrops thought to herself and gave her a wary look as Dizzy laughed.

“Relax, nothing bad. If you hear any good gossip, let me know. I’m pretty chill. Watch my back, I’ll watch yours?” Dizzy suggested and Raindrops nodded after a moment. “Crazy how we never met before. Weren’t you a weatherpony on Dashs team?”

“Yeah, just dropped to part time. I’ve seen you around a few times. Just got too busy to say hey. Who do you think Cloudkicker and the others get?”

“I know Parasol got some stallion from Manehatten as a bunkmate. She’s a bit skittish around stallions so that’s probably why she got partnered with him. Heard a rumor Spitfire has files on all us in her office. Our likes, dislikes, hobbies, allergies. Normal stuff,” Dizzy commented as they both stopped at a dorm room with a number six on it. Raindrops didn’t necessarily approve of Parasol being partnered with a stallion and mentally made a note to keep an eye on her. “Well, this is it.”

Raindrops turned a key and felt the other mare behind her and Dizzy shut the door as the two examined their room. The room was fairly spartan in design. White walls with the Wonderbolt logo on it, a clock in the entry way and black curtains that were pulled back.

There was two beds a few feet away from each other with two pieces of papers on them that said their individual names. The beds were simple looking with white sheets and a pillow with a blue blanket.

“So I guess we get assigned beds too, huh? Guess that solves that problem of figuring out who sleeps were,” Raindrops said with a shrug as she slid her suitcase next to the bed closest to the window. “You like the dark or nah?”

“Not really. I’m uh a bit afraid of the dark,” Dizzy blushed and set down a nightlight on her bed. “I’m twenty seven and still afraid of the dark. Some Wonderbolt I’m gonna be, huh?”

“Between the two of us, I’m afraid of tornadoes. They’re scary and I’m a pegasus. They’re unpredictable. We can’t control the larger ones. I can keep the blinds open if you want.”

“I got my nightlight and plush. I’ll be fine. Thanks though,” Dizzy said with her back turned as she fished a turtle plush out of her suitcase that she lovingly called Shelly. She had that thing as long as she could remember and did her best to keep it in good condition. “If I need it, I’ll let you know. I’m ready to hit the showers. Here’s my shampoo bottle, by the way.”

Dizzy tossed it on Raindrops bed as the other mare gave her a grateful smile before reading the label. She didn’t necessarily like smelling like apples but she could tolerate it. Especially when she got offered it out of the blue. She could have had a way worse roommate.

“Showers are down the way we came I believe,” Raindrops said and closed the blinds. “I’m ready to feel like a pony again.”

“Same here.”

The two shared a brief laugh before leaving to go clean themselves up.