Glorified

When Mom taught me this maneuver, she did it by making a track out of clouds. Rather than fly it first, I ran it. As I got more used to the momentum, she’d have me keep my wings out, and then, she’d start destroying the track. Less and less ground to run, then eventually, I was flying during the whole turn. When the track wasn’t there, I’d still imitate and roll into spreading my wings to keep speed.

After a few hours of that, Monsoon managed to learn the U-turn.

It was about eleven in the afternoon when she’d gotten it fairly consistently and Pigeonhole was turning okay. He’d need a lot more time with the pole, but he was slowly improving.

“Alright, you guys, let’s go get some lunch.”

Pigeonhole nearly collapsed and hit himself against the pole. “Aah! Finally!”

“Prism, can I run the course again first? I can definitely get the U-turn now!”

As nice as it was to see her smiling and excited about this, there was still work for her to do before she could actually make the track. She might finish it, but she’ll take penalties without practicing sharp turning on its own. “Let’s eat first. We’ve been at this for hours.”

Pigeonhole unhooked himself from the tether and joined us at the other pole. “Yes! Food first! I haven’t worked this hard since I was a newbie with PegEx.”

“PegEx?” Monsoon questioned. “The Pegasus delivery company based in Las Pegasus?”

He nodded. “Yeah. That was my job before I got fired.”

I frowned. “Oh. What did they fire you for?”

He sighed. “Oh, you know. Only so many times they’ll let you deliver something to the wrong place, whether it's my fault or not. Couriers are a dime a dozen in Las Pegasus, and since I wasn’t part of any teams for larger deliveries, cutting me for a printing error wasn't about to hurt them one bit.”

Yikes. “Pretty big upgrade to go from courier to Wonderbolt, huh?”

He smiled and nodded. “Oh, yeah. Our first paycheck we’ll get this Friday is gonna be as much as three months working for PegEx.”

“Three months!” Monsoon shot. “Were you getting paid like crap, or are we making, like, a lot of money here? I thought all the money Wonderbolts made was based off sponsorships…”

I shrugged. “I’ve never had, like, another job, so I wouldn’t know. My family is pretty well off though since both my parents still get sponsor deals from this.”

Then Pigeonhole hugged himself. “Oh, but a sponsorship would be even more! I’d never have to work again if I landed one of those!”

“I mean, you would,” I began. “They don’t just give you a big bag of cash for nothing; you've still got to promote the product. As a Wonderbolt, that means entering as many races as you’re contracted for, and if you don’t place high, the sponsor is likely to drop you.”

He leaned down and eyed my jacket, then turned to Effie who had joined us and was still filming. “Well, flying in a race isn’t really too much work…”

“That’s only if you can get turning down, Mister Pigeonhole,” Effie said.

“He’s doing better at least,” I argued.

“Am I? I felt like it was taking a lot of time to make the rotations, and my wings started doing this weird twisting thing when I managed to get a little speed.”

I rubbed at my forehead. “Yeah, they’re supposed to do that. It’s called 'banking,' Pigeonhole.”

He lowered his brows. “Banking? Like, moving money in a bank?”

“No, it has more than one meaning. A bank is like a slope or a hill, and when you bank, it means you're tilting your wings.” Goddess among us, I cannot believe I am explaining what a word means.

“Today I learned. By the way, what were you guys doing over there? It looked kinda fun.”

“That’s because it was!” Monsoon announced. “I can’t believe nopony has ever taught me that before! Where did you learn to do that, Prism?”

“My Mom taught me like that back when I was little. Eight or nine years ago maybe.”

Then her face fell. “Eight or… how old are you again?”

“Eighteen.”

She covered her face. “Oh… that’s great…”

I coughed into my hoof. “Uh, Lunch, everypony?”

“Yeah!” Pigeonhole cheered.

“Yeah…” Monsoon moaned.

With Effie in tow, we flew over to the cafetera in between the three team’s barracks. While all the barracks had a common room kitchen, the cafeteria was there to ensure the Wonderbolts were getting proper meals. Mom has never been somepony who cooks well, and she had to feed herself between working for the Ponyville weather team back in the day and joining the Wonderbolts. She subsisted on junk food and sweets. Anything that was prepackaged and cheap would get her through the day. She’s also not an outlier in that regard when it comes to Wonderbolts. If they didn’t feed us, we’d eat badly.

There were a few different choices on today’s menu, with the Umanese curry catching my eye. Didn’t think this stuff was supposed to be all that healthy, but apparently it had a bunch of veggies and brown rice all with the soup. They even had a spicy version which I went for immediately.

Effie got what I got, Pigeonhole got a carrot dog combo, and Monsoon decided on soup and salad. There weren’t too many ponies here today as A-team was away for a race in Canterlot, and B-team had today off after their performance last Saturday. Everypony else was staff who worked at the facilities. Weirdly, none of the rest of C-team was here. Wonder if they already came? We sat at a table toward the front next to a big TV covering amateur races in Horseshoe Bay this week.

“So, Mister Prism, what did you do this weekend?” Effie asked.

I shrugged. “I went home, spent some time with the family. What about you?”

Effie groaned and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I spent all weekend editing footage of our Secret Sombra games. Mom wants to work with Trade Wind on making videos for us to post every week or so on the Cloudsdale Bolts MeTube page.”

Monsoon tilted her head. “Editing footage? What does that mean? I’m not much of a computer girl. I can barely work my phone as it is.”

Imagine being tech illiterate in this day and age.

“It just means cutting out bad parts and making smooth transitions from scene to scene. Most videos you watch are probably edited by somepony like me.” Effie was nowhere near as interested in talking to Monsoon as she was to me.

Pigeonhole swallowed a mouth full of fries. “What makes a bad part, exactly?”

Effie rolled a carrot around in her curry. “All of the cursing you guys did for one. Audio needs to be clean and ‘age appropriate,’ and the team needs to look good without making it boring. This is another tool to generate revenue for the Bolts and I think it’s a really good idea. I just… didn’t imagine that’s what I’d spend my weekend doing.”

Monsoon patted her shoulder. “Well, I’ll watch your video.” She crossed her forelegs. “I honestly need to see Raptor play again. I can’t tell if he’s a good or bad liar, but I was confused about it all night. It’s hard to do the math when you don’t have all the variables.”

After devouring half of his carrot dog, Pigeonhole said, “Is that, like, your talent or something? I don’t know anypony who does that kinda math without a calculator.”

She raised her little muzzle, thinking about it. “You could say that. My talent is about physical equations. My cutiemark is the eye of the storm, and I interpret it as clarity in extreme situations. I can sort of ‘see’ angles and measurements when I look at things and while I’m flying. Math and physics came really easy to me, and I’m always excited to learn and try out theories about how to move and fly myself, but…” She dragged her spoon around what was left of her soup, using it to write some kinda math problem on her bowl. “My talent is more about the immaterial, not the material itself. I can see what I should do, I know the movements I should make, but I can’t always do it. If the test hadn’t been so easy, I don’t know that my flying would’ve gotten me into the Wonderbolts this time either.”

I died a little inside hearing that. She thought it was easy. I shivered, thinking about it all. “I wish I had an easy time with the test. I can’t say how many times I took the practice test and never passed it. I’m only here because I got really lucky.”

Her ears perked up. “You… didn’t ace the test?”

I let my head sink into my hooves. “Goddess, no. That test lives in my nightmares, it was the only thing I did in April.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “It’s not a very nice thing to say but that does make me feel a bit better. You being so young and here on your first try is a little frustrating when I graduated college early just to get time to practice for the performance exam.

My eyes could’ve popped out of my head. “You… you graduated college early!?”

And now she was smiling again. “Well, I am pretty good at academics, and my dad is a professor.”

Pigeonhole huffed. “College is for ponies with money to blow. The rest of us have to work.” Then he turned his inquisitive eyes on me. “I’m also surprised you struggled with the test. I figure just working and flying all the time would be enough to get you to pass. I didn’t get a perfect score or anything, but I did pretty well on it.”

“Well—” Effie coughed into her hoof. “This year’s test was easier than last year’s test. There were only so many applicants up to Mom’s standards so things had to be… adjusted.”

That was a topic I wanted to avoid. “So, Monsoon, why did you want to be a Wonderbolt?”

She gave Effie some hard side eye before answering the question. “Hmm. I guess I just… love to watch ponies fly. My dad is an earth pony who loves pegasus stuff, but cloudwalk bands only last so long, so he couldn’t stay up here forever. We still went to every Wonderbolt performance we feasibly could, and he would show me the arcs ponies would fly and the forces acting on them as they did. After a while, I could see them too, and I started trying to practice flying like them myself. I didn’t have immediate success, but I practiced a lot and I was the captain of my high school team. The higher the level got, the more fun I had doing it, so I just like being here.”

I could see that. Between calling me impressive and getting that sparkle in her eyes during practice, she really shows her enjoyment. “It’s definitely more fun when you like it so much. I worry about some ponies not doing that.”

Monsoon nodded. “Yeah. With what I’ve heard about you, I figured you’d be kinda intense too, but that’s not really the case, huh?”

“What have you heard about him?” Pigeonhole asked. “I’m not the brightest guy around, but I know I’m kind of an outsider here. Nopony talks to me.”

“Well, there’s the mare locker room gossip between the three of us which is confidential, and the rest of it is mostly about his record. He’s placed first in everything he’s ever entered.” She coughed into her hoof. “You might’ve realized this, but Tropical Storm kinda hates you because she’s been racing against you all through school and never beat you once. I’m older than you guys, but I doubt she’s the only one who feels like that.”

I sighed. “Yeah, no, that checks out. Based on our Secret Sombra games, I could probably pick ponies out of a line-up.”

Pigeonhole frowned. “Why would ponies hate you for beating them? Doesn’t that just mean you’re more skilled than them in this particular area? What about that has to do with you getting along?”

That struck a nerve in Effie. “Have you never seen anypony who can do everything you wanted to and not felt any kind of… jealousy or even envy?”

Pigeonhole looked down at her like those were new words for him. “I mean, no, not really.”

Her eye twitched. “How!? Seeing someone else with talents you’ve always wanted that you just don’t have has never made you angry or resentful before?”

The bird-like stallion scratched at his cheek. “There’s not much I can’t do if I actually try for it. Like, sure I wish I had all the money in the world to do whatever I wanted to, but it’s not like there’s zero chance of me getting there if I work for it. I’m a Wonderbolt now, aren’t I?”

Effie stood up, hooves on the table. “Not everypony gets to be a Wonderbolt no matter how hard they try!”

She’d yelled in the mostly empty cafeteria, and where there was once some background noise, there was now none.

Pigeonhole didn’t know how to respond to that. “Uh…”

Effie took her tray of half-eaten curry and started toward the trash cans. “I’ll be waiting for you back at the rally track. I’m not hungry anymore.” And with a sour look on her face, she discarded her leftovers and set the tray and plates on the collection table. The door swung as Effie took to the air.

We were mostly done with our food by this point, but I figured Effie needed space. “So, do you guys have any hobbies?”

Pigeonhole shook his head. “I don’t make any money if I don’t work, so I just tried to work as much as I could before now. I spent this weekend looking for a part-time position just to have something to do.”

I blinked. So much of my life revolves around my hobbies that that just doesn’t compute. “Like… no hobbies at all? There’s nothing you like to do in your free time? What about your talent?”

He looked at me the same way. “My cutiemark is a pigeon stuck in a dart board beak first. I tried darts once, but I hit somepony and they had to go to the hospital after that. My best quality was that I could go far, really fast, and outside of that… I don’t have much else. I guess I go see my grandmother in Ponyville when I get the chance, but other than that, I try to work.”

Monsoon leaned in. “You don’t cook or read or watch TV or play games or anything? Why do you work?”

Pigeonhole rubbed his chin. “Well, I cook, but that’s only when I have to. I read sometimes, but I just get tired when I do that. A TV is an extra expense that uses electricity so I’ve never felt the need to own one, games and the like are kinda the same. My grandmother’s health has never been great since she used to be a delivery pony herself while trying to support my mom alone. My parents were never super wealthy and I wouldn’t call them well off, so I work to support them and my Grandmother. I don’t want them, or myself, to have to live like we did when I was a kid.”

Wow. It sounds like he has had a lot harder time growing up than either Monsoon or I did.

“That’s… very noble of you, Pigeonhole,” Monsoon said.

He smiled. “Thanks!”

Oh, man, what do I say now? I think I have a sense of who these ponies are now, but I really don’t know how I would become friends with him. Oh, wait! “What about flying? Do you enjoy it?”

He nodded. “Well, yeah, I don’t think I could do so much of it if I didn’t.”

“What about doing aerial stunts? You said Monsoon practicing the U-turn looked fun earlier.”

He nodded vigorously. “Oh, yeah, I love that stuff. Grandma used to take me to Wonderbolt performances up here. I loved to watch them do that color streak thing where they’d make pictures in the sky, but I could only ever make chess boards and weaves when I tried it. I’d love to be able to do more, but neither of my parents are pegasi and like I said, my grandmother can’t see very well, so she has a hard time doing spins and curvy things.”

This I can work with. “Alright, well, I’m really good at that stuff. Is there anything you wanted to learn how to draw in the sky?”

“Hmm. I’d love to be able to write my Grandma’s name out for her. Or maybe a message, like, ‘I’m a Wonderbolt now, Grandma!’ Something like that. If her eyes didn’t start getting bad when she was a kid, she might’ve been a Wonderbolt too.”

Alright, I’ve got my plans for the rest of the day. “Okay. You’ve been working on the tether pole for a while, so I’ll get you set up with gas and we’ll try drawing letters.” I turned to Monsoon. “You can join us because this requires hard turns as well. Once you can write in sans-serif Equestrian, you should be able to do the rally course.”

She reared her head back. “Sans-serif? Not cursive? I thought most Wonderbolt writing was done in cursive.”

“It is, but that’s because it’s much easier to fly a path than time opening and closing in the sky without ruining your letters. The best of us can write with regular letters which makes it easier for ponies to read. C- and B-team might stick to cursive, but A team writes in sans-serif. I think Mom can actually do things in serif fonts for that matter.”

Pigeonhole tilted his head at me. “Your… mom? Was she a Wonderbolt?”

I nodded, a little surprised he didn’t know that. “Uh, yeah. Both my parents were. My Dad was A-team captain here for a few years.”

He blew a raspberry. “No wonder you’re so good at this stuff.”

Monsoon slapped her cheek. “You’d think seeing them in the locker room last Monday would’ve tipped me off sooner. Your mom, the Rainbow Dash, taught you how to U-turn the same way you taught me earlier?”

“Yeah.” I pulled on my mane. “This isn't exactly common, ya know.”

She rubbed her eyes. “I must be blind.”

I feel that. “Don’t worry about it. We’re all done, right? Let’s get back to the rally track.”

“Yes, Sir,” and they saluted.

Weirdly, Pigeonhole ended up writing in capital letters somewhat easily. The way he comes to hard stops so quickly actually helped him here, but only for letters made of straight lines. He couldn’t make so much as a B without it looking like an old earth pony rune. Next time I work with him, I’ll be getting him to link that ability to stop with turning and he ought to be somepony special by the time he masters it.

Monsoon could write in cursive well enough, but coming to hard stops was difficult for her. However, she just needed time and practice. She tries to take things as a whole instead of doing them one step at a time, which is why her overall skills are good, but her fundamentals are lacking. Between the two of them, he could do the straight letters and she could do the curved letters, so they actually worked well together as a unit. We had his grandmother’s name ‘Derpy’ spelled out by the end of the day, and he’d even managed to write the ‘D’ himself without it looking like a triangle.

It was getting late however, and Spitfire called us back to end practice. Effie hadn’t said a word since we came back, but other than her, I thought we had a pretty good time working together. Spitfire’s group looked like they’d been beaten to death, and nopony was smiling in Raptor’s group. All of them were just silent and downcast.

The Captain later told me that her group was going to need more beatings before they got it into their heads that they were Wonderbolts, and Raptor’s hard worker group is trying to find ways to speed up. Because I have the ‘problem children’ she wants me to keep working with them for the week. I told her about the progress we were making, but she said she’d look at the video later. We’ll all group up on Friday to work on the routine for the morning, but then we’ll have some time to rest before the performance on Saturday at the arena.

I talked to Cheesette about what happened yesterday that night, and while she comforted me as well as she could, she didn’t really know what to say. Her grandparents are devout Goddess worshipers who stick hard to tradition, and her parents had never fought in front of her before. Like me, she didn’t realize the scene I saw actually happens in life. She did tell me that Pearl and Stout are having a fight and that’s not fun to hear about, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what my grandparents sound like.

The next day, after practice, I got a call from Dad. Sweet Wing told him what happened and said she was going to have Grandpa spill on Friday night. She wants him to bring Grandma up here, but he doesn’t think that’s a good idea. After consulting with her about it, Grandma would rather ‘let sleeping dogs lie,’ in her own words. Sweet Wing is still pushing for this to happen though, so on Friday night, I found myself headed for Grandpa’s house once again.