Chapters Light Crash's Last Flight
"So you going or not?" Asks the green mare.
"I don't know, it's a tempting offer and all, but I just don't know." Light Crash replies.
"Oh come on dude," his friend, Bright Shine, a blue unicorn, jumps down in front of Crash from his perch in the tree the four friends were resting under. "I may not be a pegasus like you, but even I'd jump at the chance for this." Bright Shine swipes the note from Crash's hands and waves it in his friend's face. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, getting a chance to join the Wonderbolts, why are you considering it? Get your flank out'ta here and show them what you're made of."
Crash takes the letter from his friend's hands back and looks at it for the eighth time today, staring at the paper with the green check mark ribbon. "Come on, think about the advantages you'll get if you pass. Fame, fortune, partying with celebrates, who wouldn't want that?" Boom Powder, Bright Shines big brother asks.
"Well yeah, that does seem pretty cool and all, but I just don't know." Crash says unsure of himself.
"Hey," Serene, the green mare with her yellow mane tied back, she had her arms crossed and looked deep into his eyes. Out of these four friends, the two unicorns were Shine and Powder, the trouble-brothers, and like how Crash was the only pegasus, Serene was the only earth pony. "Remember when we were kids? We said that if either of us would become famous we'de take it instantly? Well this is your chance, so why don't you take it already?"
Light Crash looks down at his hooves, ashamed that he'd forgotten the promise. Without he reminding him, he never would have remembered. He thinks this over a little longer in his head, should he go or shouldn't he? After a minute of silence he comes to a decision.
"You're right guys, this may be the best offer I'll ever get, I don't want to regret this later on in the future." He folds the letter and sticks it in his pocket. "It says that I'll be there for a week. If I pass then I join the Wonderbolts, if I fail, I come back."
"Really? That seems kind of simple." Boom asks in his low voice, knowing that something didn't wasn't entirely right about that.
"Well, if I pass then I'll be relocating homes, and spend most of my time training. I was summarizing okay?" Crash says annoyed that he had to go through explaining, dropping the bomb. Yeah, if Crash passes then he has to move towns, not being able to see his friends as much as he'd like.
"Hey, don't sweat it man. If you, excuse me, when you pass, we'll keep in touch. And we'll visit you as much as we can." Shine puts a reassuring hand on his black-coal friend's shoulder.
"And it isn't like we'll never see each other again." Serene chips in.
"Just don't forget about us little ponies when you become famous." Boom adds.
"Forget you guys? Gimme a break. And Boom, you? Little? Please." Crash laughs an puts on a goofy smile. Boom Powder was not just the oldest of the four, but he was also the biggest. He had to keep himself in top form for his boxing matches. "Okay, I'm going to stop by my place, grab some stuff, and I'll be off." He takes off into the sky and heads to his place.
"Good luck!" Serene calls after him.
"And try not to make a fool of yourself!" Bright Shine yells and laughs as he sees Light Crash give him the finger.
Crash bides his time as he flies over the clouds, still uncertain of this decision. The wind passing through his blue and red mane. His black jacket flapping in the wind as he flies while his plane white t-shirt sticks to his body. He stays lost in his thoughts when suddenly a cyan coloured mare shoots past him, leaving a rainbow spectrum behind her.
'Damn that's fast.' He thinks, getting off topic of what he had on his mind before that mare passed him. He then sees a, well he wouldn't call it a mountain, but a structure of land, in the clouds. There was grass and trees healthily growing on it, and a long paced landing pad stretching from one end to the next. He saw peagsi training to be future Wonderbolts, they raced, tested acrobatic abilities, and pushed their physical condition to the maximum. Slightly above the ground were clouds and buildings molded from the clouds with emblems on them. The cloud area seemed to be for resting as he could he see that all the pegasi on the clouds didn't train and would simply talk amongst one another.
He saw a sign with an arrow saying 'New recruits: That way.' He landed on the ground and stared at the sign a little longer. He could read perfectly fine, but he felt like he needed to stay there for a little bit. He felt that once he'd cross that sign, his life would change, an he was worried about that. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes, he pulls one out and grabs his lighter from his other pocket and lights it. He inhales deeply and lets the smoke out. He knew that it was a bad habit, and to be a Wonderbolt he had to take care of his body, but no matter how many times he tried kicking his addiction, he always failed.
After prolonging it long enough, he took his first step and headed in the right direction. He saw seven other pegasi talking amongst one another, waiting for their flight instructor to show. As he got closer he saw a familiar pony in tight grey jeans and a purple tank top. It was her mane style that confirmed his suspicion. "Cloudchaser? That you?" The pony turned away from the pony she was talking to, curious as to who called her. Her expression soon turned from curiosity to joy.
"Crash!" She fling her arms around his neck in excitement, giving him a big hug and minding the cigarette. "I didn't expect to see you here, I don't mean that I didn't think you'd ever make it, but I'm just so surprised. How's it going? How's the old gang?" She asks, excited seeing an old friend again.
"I'm doing good, Serene's still supportive, Boom Powder's still big, and Bright Shine's still an idiot." He jokingly says about one of his closest friend, causing Cloudchaser to laugh. "How's your sis?" He asks joining her in laughter. Back when Crash and the others were in high school, Cloudchaser and Flitter were part of their group. But because of their parents divorce, their mother took custody of the sisters and moved towns, taking them with her. It hurt Crash inside when that happened, Clouchaser too. They thought that they could have a future together.
"You haven't changed a bit. And Flitter's still Flitter. Let me introduce you to my friends. Hey guys, this is my friend, Light Crash. Crash this is Thunderlane and Snowflake." She points me to two stallions, one was about the same size and a shade lighter than Light Crash, his mane was a very light blue mohawk, he wore a yellow tee-shirt under a black unbuttoned over-shirt, and a regular pair of blue jeans like Crash.
"Hey there." He says nonchalantly. The other guy was a huge piece of work, he had bulging muscles bigger than Boom Poweder. He was absolutely ripped, his veins were bulging out in places and his triceps were as big as his head. He wore a white wife beater and red shorts, revealing his vein throbbing legs. Crash didn't even know that it was possible to be this big, he had a ring on his left and kept his mane short.
"Uhh, hey." Crash says trying not to be intimidated by his appearance as he made eye contact with his red eyes.
"YEAH!" He yells back. Before any of them could say anything else, someone from out of the group speaks up.
"Look at me have here." She says. Everypony turned their attention to the owners voice, they instantly turned at attention in a straight line as they realized it was Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts. A stallion and two mares were on the far right side, then Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, Snipwflake, and then Light Crash with two other mares to his left. Something was caught in the corner of his eye and got a quick glimpse of what it was. It was the mare beside him, she was also the mare that passed him on the way here. She had a rainbow mane that was unkempt and looked like it hadn't seen a comb in forever, she wore track pants and a blue hoodie and had a look of confidence on her face. He quickly turned his attention back to Spitfire before the rainbow maned mare noticed him looking at her.
Spitfire was accompanied by two stallions, they all wore military jackets. It was unsurprising to anypony, they knew that the Wonderbolts were division of the Equestrian military. "You all think you're Wonderbolt material, don't yeah?" She asks everypony.
"Yeas ma'am!" They all respond in unison.
"Think you got what it takes to be an elite flier?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Well them, let me be the first to tell you." She walks up to a mare. "You're don't!" She yell in her face. Crash knew that this was the first part of their training. They would be intimidated and observed. Those that would show fear or didn't look confident would most likely be marked and their chances of pacing would thin out. Psychology 101.
"If you had what it took to be an elite flier you already be a Wonderbolt." She stops at Cloudchaser. "Still think you're something special?" She asks and looks at Cloudchaser in the eyes. Her legs began to shake a little.
"No ma'am." She replies knowing that it was probably over for her.
Spitfire then walks over to Snowflake and eyes him up. He may have towered over her, but he was scared but didn't show it by avoiding her gaze. Crash knew that that was as bad, maybe worse, then fully showing fear, he tried hiding it by looking oblivious. But it was written all over his face.
Spitfire looks at his wings, Crash couldn't believe his eyes. This gargantuan of a giant, had the tiniest wings Crash has ever seen on a full grown stallion. Spitfireflies up so they're eye level, she puts her hands on her hips and gives him a disappointing look. "Yeah think you're hot stuff?" She asks the giant.
"Yeah?" He replies. Unsure of his own answer. Spitfire continues to stare at him, expecting a proper answer. And she receives it, Snowflake shrinks down low to the ground. Scared and embarrassed.
She lands on the ground and walks up to Light Crash next and he put on his best poker face. He feels his heart race fast, he knows that it's a test, he knows the fundamentals and what not to do. But he's only mortal. She looks at his cigarette still in his mouth and glares disapprovingly at it behind her sunglasses and swipes it out of his mouth.
"Do you know what this is?" She asks holing it front of his face.
"I believe the ponies in the Uneighted kingdom call it a 'fag' ma'am." Light Crash gives a smart ass reply.
"Well the Wonderbolts call it a death stick. To be a Wonderbolt you need to always be in top form, and these things will give you countless medical problems. Weak lungs for starters. And a Wonderbolt needs the strongest!" She tosses it on the ground and puts it out with her foot.
"Well ma'am," Light Crash says back reaching into his pocket and pulls out another cigarette and his lighter. He puts the smoke in his mouth and lights it in front of her. "I'm not a Wonderbolt... Yet." She crosses her arms and scoffs, not the kind that you receive when ponies don't believe you and take you for a liar, but the kind that gets approval when others are impressed. She unfolds her arms away from her chest and moves on to the blue mare beside Crash.
"You look like you're the worst flier in the whole academy. You'd probably quit after the first day."
"No ma'am! I never quit ma'am!" She replies without looking at their instructor. Spitfire gives a look of content, glad to find a pony with backbone. Crash too was impressed by her, not showing a hint of fear, of worry. She know why she's here. Without another she moves to the last pony. An light opal mare with yellow and orange hair. She wore short shorts the same color as her coat but a little darker, and a long sleeve white shirt under a grey vest grey.
"What about you?" She asks. "I bet you couldn't get past the first flag pole without getting winded!"
"Try me ma'am." The mare replies. Everyponies attention was on her now, none of them could believe what she just said.
"What's that?" Spitfire asks lowering her shades so their bare eyes looked at one another.
"Le me show you what I got ma'am." She says in full confidence. Crash was impressed, he didn't show his fear, the mare beside him showed her determination. But this mare was showing her confidence, a risky move. Crash knows that if she can't back up your words, she'll get shot down faster than the rest of them.
"Good, now's your chance. Give me five hundred laps. All off you!" The others groaned, except for three. "Now!" Spitfire orders and blows her whistle. The two mare beside Light Crash were determined to be Wonderbolt, won't complain, won't pout, won't be a problem. And, Crash he kept his eyes on the mare opal mare, still surprised at her attitude.
At the sound of the whistle, everypony took off. The cyan and opal mares shot a head of everypony else, leaving them in the dust, while the rest went flew after them. Light Crash kept his eyes on the two mares that impressed Spitfire, impressed himself, and he wondered: what will the future hold for him with those two in it.
Author's Note
This is a different writing style than what I'm used to, so if you see any mistakes that Knightmare or I didn't catch or if there is anything that confuses you please write it in the comment section below. Thank you.
Light Crash's Last Flight
Those two mares were flying circles around everypony else. The rest of the fliers were still on three hundred and something when the cyan and opal mares were done. It became hard for Light Crash to breathe no thanks to those smokes. He hated that he depended on them.
When he was finally done with his five hundredth lap, he headed to the mess hall. He was third to last to finish, two others whose names Crash didn't know were still going. Before entering he dug out another smoke and lit it. He looked in his package and found that he only had five left.
'Doubt that I could buy any more in a place like this.' He thinks after taking another drag from his smoke.
After finishing it, he throws it down and smothers the flame with his shoe. He opens the door to the mess hall and the smell of food wafts through the air. Light grabs an apple juice, a few carrots, and a sandwich. He hears grunts of struggling and sees Snowflake arm wrestling two stallions at the same time, with only one arm. Cloudchaser was beside him and Thunderlane opposite of them. They watched in amusement as the two other stallions tried with all their might to beat Snowflake, who didn't even look like he was trying.
Crash sits on the same side as Thunderlane, just in time as Snowflake finally decides to end the futile struggling. He slams both of their arms down, throwing both of them off their seats and winning in one try. Thunderlane and Cloudchaser laugh and congratulate their friend as he stands up, yelling out a "YEAH!" in victory as he puts both fists in the air. Crash laughs along, seeing the embarrassment of the faces on the other two.
"Hey, Light Crash, glad to see you finally made it, beginning to think you died out there." Thunderlane jokes, just noticing his presence.
"It's not going to be that easy." He looks around the mess hall and notices that the two mares from before aren't around. "So where are they?" He asks the others.
"Who?" Cloudchaser asks, not sure who he means.
"The two mares that made us look bad. Who are they anyway?"
"Oh, them. Not sure where they are. But the one with the rainbow mane is Rainbow Dash, the best flier in our town by far." Thunderlane answers. "It's always been her dream to join the Wonderbolts. I’m surprised that it took this long for them to notice her, especially since she saved their lives." Light Crash thinks a bit, knowing that he heard that name somewhere.
"Wait, Rainbow Dash, where have I heard that before?" He leans back sifting through his memory bank. Then it finally clicks. "Wait, you mean the Rainbow Dash? The same Rainbow Dash who won the Best Young Fliers competition that happened about two years ago, and performed the Sonic Rainboom?" The three of them nod their heads. "Damn, what of the other mare?"
"No idea, none of us have seen her before. But from what we've seen, she's got about as good a chance as Dash does at becoming a Wonderbolt." Cloudchaser says. "Say Light, can you still do that thing?" She asks with a devilish grin coming across her face changing the subject.
"What do you- oh, you mean that. Yeah, I can still do it." He confirms, not sure where she's going with this.
"Well then, why don't you arm wrestle Snowflake here. He's one away from winning ten in a row." She suggests.
"No, you know the repercussions of me doing that, and I always hate when it happens."
"Oh come on, it'll be great." She starts begging.
"Nope, not going to do it." He starts eating his meal and looks back at her; she was giving him the puppy dog eyes. "Not the eyes. Please." She kept pushing. "Fine." She whoops in cheer that he accepted.
"What's she talking about?" Thunderlane asks Light Crash.
"Sit tight and you'll find out." He pushes his food to the side. "Okay big guy, let's get this over with." They grip each others’ hands, while Thunderlane covers his head with his own.
"Okay boys, basic rules. First to drive the other's hand into the table, or whosoever arm doesn't snap off, wins. No distractions of any kind, using any other part of your body other than you hand will be considered cheating, and leave the smack talk for later. Or not, your choice." He lets go, signaling for them to start.
Light Crash uses all his strength against Snowflake right from the start, struggling to win. But through all his might, Snowflake's arm doesn't budge an inch. But he knows this isn't going to work, it’s just a part of his plan. Stage one, he deceives the opponent into thinking that he's nothing special. Snowflake lets out amused laughter and he slowly bends his arm down, becoming the obvious winner.
Stage two of Crash's plan, he uses his ace.
Light Crash's blood starts rushing through his body fast, his heart rate increases, and he gains strength. Pools of strength. Snowflake's arm stops moving one way and starts going the other, while Light Crash's began going up. Snowflake, not sure how to explain this turn of events, starts trying. He grits his teeth together and tenses his muscles, his veins bulging out more than they already were.
A small crowd gathered around, joining in the excitement, they were all dumbfounded by what was happening. The only two that were uncertain as how this was possible was Cloudchaser, who only looked amused to see the white stallion actually trying, and Light Crash.
Sweat starts coming down from both of their brows, each struggling to gain the upper hand.
The two fight with all their might and if they try any harder, they'd literally be sweating bullets. A bloody curdling cry is heard through the entire mess hall, catching everyponies' attention. Spectators watch in disbelief as they see Snowflake's arm pressed against the table with Light Crash's on top.
The room is silent, with the exception of two stallions breathing heavily. "How did you do that?" Thunderlane asks breaking the silence, disbelief that the obvious winner just lost in a duel of might. Light Crash was feverishly taking in oxygen.
"Yeah?" Snowflake asks, just as winded as Crash.
"That... That's a... secret." He responds, finally catching his breath.
"He can activate his adrenaline at command, boosting his strength, speed, and stamina to unimaginable heights while and reducing pain."
"Cloud!" Light yells at her, now knowing that everyone else knows.
"Since when did that become a secret?" She teases. "But it has one unfortunate side effect..." And as if right on queue Light Crash loses all strength and flops onto the table surface and his stomach growls louder than Snowflake’s blood cry. "He gets pathetically weak."
"FOOO-OHOHOH-OD!" Light Crash complains, unable to use the muscles in his body to reach for his tray.
"Thunderlane, help me get this lunk head to the emergency room." Cloudchaser says to her friend.
"Why am I the lunk head? You're the one that said I should do it." Light Crash says weakly.
"That doesn't mean you should've listened to me." She says to her friend as the two grab each of his arms and throw him over their shoulders, dragging his body to the infirmary.
"I'm surprised that you're even alive let alone conscious." A light gray pegasus says after she took a look at his vitals. "Normally, anypony using that much power would leave some serious strain on their body, may never be able to use those muscles again, and using adrenaline consciously to boot. And let's not even get started on how your lungs are looking,"
'Damn smokes. Wish I could quit.' Light Crash thinks to himself as he sits on the bed, strength fully recovered.
"But other than any of that, everything else looks good. Still unsure how you're alive though."
"Well if it makes you feel any better the first time I found out I was able to do this I nearly did die. I spent three months in the hospital recovering."
"It doesn't. If it's alright with you I'd like to run some tests and figure out how any of this is possible."
"Sorry doc," Crash says to her as he slides off the bed. "But I've gone through that with countless others, and the latest hasn't come any closer than the last. And personally, I find it a complete invasion of personal space."
"Well, I can't force you into this. Okay, you're free to go." Light Crash walks out the door and lights another cigarette, inhaling deeply. It always feels good having a smoke after an adrenaline rush; it's like sex.
"Hey there." A familiar mare greets Light Crash.
"Hello," He says back, unsure if she's just being friendly or wants to talk to him.
"That was pretty cool what you did at the mess hall back there. I saw the whole thing."
"Thanks." Light Crash thinks back but doesn't remember seeing her there. But that doesn't surprise him; there were a lot of ponies gathered around. "You know I must say that you impressed me when Spitfire addressed you. You showed no fear and full confidence. That tells me one of two things about you: You're either determined to be a Wonderbolt, or an idiot."
"What'd you call me?" She asks feeling offended.
"I mean that unless you're truly determined to be a Wonderbolt, and by the way you fly I can tell that you do, you'd be an idiot not to be scared by Spitfire's intimidation." He clarifies before being beaten into next week.
"Oh, well what about you? You didn't look scared of her either, and you didn't finish that early."
"Are you kidding? I was terrified! But I knew the method to her madness. Thanks to the information that I held, your boldness, and that other mare's competitiveness, our own chances of becoming a Wonderbolts increased. And from seeing how you two faired in the speed department during the five-hundred laps, I'd say the two of you will become Wonderbolts hands down. But me, I can't say."
"Hey what do you mean 'our chances' increased?" She asks. Light Crash was caught off guard.
"Didn't you know that it was a test? Pick those that had the mental ability to stay calm under pressure?" She shakes her head. Was he the only one that caught on? "Well, you better look out for that when they're around. Everything they do to us is a test. Whether it's seeing how strong you are, or how tough you can look. To be a Wonderbolt is not just how good a flier you are, it's how much pressure you can take."
"Everything?" Light crash nods his head. "Wow, I knew becoming a Wonderbolt would be tough, but that hard?" He nods again. She puts her hands in her pocket and her eyes go heavy; that special spark that Light Crash noticed in her back in the lineup was gone. "Hey, I never introduced myself. Name’s Rainbow Dash." She pulls her hand out of her pocket and is instantly out of her gloom, the spark back in her eyes.
"I'm Light Crash." He shakes her hand; it's surprisingly strong.
"Hey, Crash!" He hears a familiar voice and sees an even more familiar mare flying their way.
"Yo." He says simply to her when she arrives.
"Hey Cloudchaser, you know this guy?" Rainbow Dash asks her.
"Yup, knew him before I knew you. Hey, if you don't mind I'd like to borrow him for a while." She says.
"Sure, catch ya later." She waves to Light Crash and flies off.
"So, what do you need me for?" Light Crash asks after Dash leaves.
"Just follow me." She tugs on his arm and they fly in the opposite direction as Rainbow Dash.
"So how's Snowflake?" Light Crash asks as she drags him.
"He'll live, but his pride will never be the same. And don't worry about him jumping you in the middle of night and snapping your neck, he's a good sport about these kinds of things." She teases.
"Well, never thought that would happen until now. Thanks for putting my mind at ease." They share a laugh, and just for a second, everything seemed like it used to be; before Cloudchaser moved away.
They fly away from the academy unseen, as it's prohibited to leave and the punishment is expulsion, but they've never been the type to follow rules. She leads him to a spring; a mountain grew high up one side with a waterfall running into a pool. To the other side was lush with green grass and flowers of many different colors. It was a little patch of heaven. They sit on a cloud and watch the wild animals spend their time playing.
"So what's your life been like since moving?" Light Crash asks as he rolls on his back and stares at the sky.
"Hasn't been that bad. Ponyville’s a nice town and all, and there's a lot of excitement that happens, but it's not the same. Can't say the same for Flitter, she got into the swing of things on day one. I was able to finish High school with passing grades; not great, but passing. Dropped out of college and found a nice job. Flitter and I decided to be roommates and have rented a house. She's still in college, made new friends as you can tell, mom's still..."
"Always on your case?" Light Crash finishes for her.
"Yes, but she means well. How about you? How's everything back in the old town and the others?" She asks rolling on her side to face him.
"They're well. Boom's making a career for himself as a boxer, no surprise there. Shine, Serene, and I are all in college. Shine and I are still doing stupid things with Serene constantly yelling at us." Cloudchaser laughs, recalling some of the things those two would do.
"Some things never change, huh?"
"Yeah, but nothing stays the same." He turns to face her, his eyes dull; years of their life together, gone. All the laughter, shouting, crying, the good times, the bad; all lost. Only memories now. "What happened?"
"I didn't have a choice, you know that." She replies, thinking the same as him.
"No, not that, what happened between us? Did it really work out?"
"Of course," She sits up. "We loved each other, we were great together." Light Crash sits up with her.
"So why'd we stop? Why don't we start over, pick up where we left off? I know where you live now. I'll drop out of college and leave town. I'll move to Ponyville and everything will be just like it used to be for the two of us."
"You can't do that; you'll be throwing your future away!"She raises her voice. "You aren't doing that! We may have had something once, and we still could, but what you're saying is stupid. And I know about stupid." Instead of yelling back at her to push her to give in, he leans in, grabs her arms, and kisses her. Cloudchaser was caught off guard from this, surprised by his quick act. At first she didn't know what to do, but soon gave in, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment as their tongues danced together. He finally broke the connection, they breathed lightly, holding each other closely.
"I've missed you." She says quietly to him, tears in her eyes. "Okay, maybe this can work out. But on one condition."
"What?"
"You quit smoking when you move in." She teases by holding her nose, causing the two to laugh together. A warm, hearty laugh that lasted a second longer than usual. "Come on, we should head back before we're noticed missing."
They fly once more through the sky, a now setting sun changing the color of the clouds and sky. They made it to the Academy by nightfall, making sure to not be seen. They kiss once more before departing to their dormitories. Light Crash flies in through the open window, making as little noise as possible. He floats into one of the many beds in the dorm where all the newcomers stay.
"Hey, where have you been?" Thunderlane whispers, popping his head over the bunk bead that he shares with Light Crash. "We didn't see you or Cloud after what happened in the mess hall."
"Yeah?" Snowflake was beside them, his bed looked like it was about to collapse from his weight. Light Crash tried figuring out how he never saw them as he flew in.
"We were... out." He puts his arms behind his head and dozes off, only willing to give that little bit of information. The two stallions look at each other, not sure what he means by that. After giving a shrug to one another, they follow his lead and fall asleep. Well, sleep wasn't the right word. Thanks to Snowflakes loud snoring, everypony else in the room are more so moaning.
Light Crash's Last Flight
"Wonderbolts are the fastest, best precision fliers in the world! But spin outs can still happen, a Wonderbolt must learn to recover quick." Spitfire stands in front of something huge hidden under a purple sheet. She adresses the new recruits who were all given their own uniforms. They were skin tight and in the usual Wonderbolt pattern. Light Crash felt a little uncomfortable wearing one, but then he wondered how Snowflake felt. He went through four other uniforms before they could hind something that could actually fit him. "This, is the Dizzatron," one of the coaches pulled back the purple sheet and revealed what it hid. What was revealed was most certainly something that the name 'Dizzatron' would fit.
It was a spiralling wheel with a small gear at the center and a bigger gear on the edge of the wheel that held a seat. If Light Crash had to guess, not only would the wheel be spinning, but so would their seat. "It will make you very, I repeat very dizzy. Your task is to try and recover and fly straight again, as soon as possible." Spitfire adresses the class once more. "Once you have recovered you must come in for a smooth landing. Now, who's first?" Rainbow Dash and the mare Lightning Dust raised their hands instantly, both eager to prove themselves. "You," Rainbow Dash silently pointed to herself wondering if Spitfire meant her. She didn't. "You're up." She looks at the pink mare beside her.
"Me?" She asks sounding a little fearful. She looks at the Dizzatron and gulps harshly, fear gradually growing.
"NOW!" Spitfire yells. And within a less than two seconds she's at the Dizzatron leaving behind a dust cloud. "Ready?" Spitire asks as she's seated in. The mare looks around nervously.
"Yes ma'am." She finally says gets around to saying seeing that there's nothing around to get her out of this situation. She pulls down her goggles as one of the stallions pulls a lever forward, starting the Dizzatron. As Light Crash was proven right, both the seat and wheel began to spin, quickly increasing speed. Everypony began to follower her as she went round and round, just watching her made the others feel a bit dizzy.
"Release!" Spitfire orders. The stallion pulls the lever back, releasing the mare from her seat. She tumbles though the air, twirling around. She eventually stops herself from spinning and flies back to the ground in a not so straight line. Her landing was less than elegant, the dizziness gets the better of her and she falls over in front, sliding to Spitfire's feet on her stomach.
"Huh, fifteen seconds. Decent." She says to the pink mare after recording her time. "But I wouln't go riding home about it. Who next?" The ambitious mares once again lifted their hands the very instant they were asked. "Alright, Rainbow Dash, let's see what you've got." She says noticing that Dash was the quicker of the two to raise her hand. All the while, Light Crash quietly observed as one of the two best mares flew into the Dizzatron's seat.
She starts the timer and the Dizzatron is started. Spitfire calls release after an appropriate time has passed, flinging Rainbow Dash into the air. She's quick to stop herself spinning through the air, making half a second's pause then flying at max speed past everypony else.
"Six seconds?" Spitfire announces as she sees the timer, surprised that somepony was able to be that fast. "That's an accademy record!"
"You made it look so easy." The mare that went first whispers to her as she proudly floats back to her spot.
"I make everything look easy." She brags.
"Okay, Lightning Dust, you're up." The called mare flies to her seat, eager for her time to shine.
"Ma'am, can you push the Dizzatron at max speed? I wanna test my limits." She say as she comfortably squeezes into the seat. Light Crash wasn't too surprised by her question. He knew that she or Dash being the two most determined would try to push themselves farther than the rest. But to go max speed, she was pushing too hard.
"You sure about that?" Spitfire asks her after sharing a glance with the partner.
"Yes ma'am."
"Okay, you aked for it." She nods to the other stallion. He pushes the lever to start the machine. He then pulled the second lever beside it back. The dial on the engine went from the picture of a turtle which was standard to a picture of a skull and wings with lightning bolts, indicating the danger and speed level. The Dizzatron spins faster and faster until the mare inside it becomes a opal blur. Spitfire calls for her tobe released. Lightning Dust is shot faster and farther than the two before her, leaving behind a streak the same color as her coat with a zig zaging line going down the center. She flies up and gains controle, holds her wings in and lets herself drop like a rock. She the unfolds her wings and bolts past everypony just like how Rainbow Dash did.
"Six point five seconds. Not bad." Spitfire announces. But behind her large aviator sunglasses her eyes wide open in disbelief. Light Crash was shocked from her performance too. Not only could she prove to succesfully land after going from the fastest speed, but her technique and form were spectacular. All under seven seconds too!
"NEXT!" Spitfire out.
Light Crash was the final one to be called up. His new friends were all looking rather dizzy. Cloudchaser's landing was just as bad as the first mare's but had a better time. Thunderlane finished at thirteen seconds, apparently a better than average time. He'd be so proud of himself if he hadn't landed on his head and was out cold. And finally there was Snowflake, who simply barreled through the air and then fell like a ball of white lead, yelling 'YEAH' the entire time through. He finished with time of eighteen seconds. So far nopoy's come anywhere close to either of Dash of Dust.
Light Crash sits into the seat of the Dizzatron and pulls his gogles over his eyes. He nods to Spitfire and she calls out for it to start. It starts out slow just like for everypony else and quickly speeds up. He hears the something that sounded like 'release' but was unsure because it was broken up do to the rushing wind. It was the moment he realized that he was right when he was no longer in the machines seat. He saw everypony's method to be the same, quickly stop yourself from spinning and bolt to the end. But due to a prank gone horribly wrong several years ago, he knew of a better method that could only work for him. He starts moving with the momentum, spinning around faster. He activates his adreanline and time seems to slow down for him, he shifts his body to point towards the ground and with one powerful flap he shoots straight down. He stops his adrenaline, using it for more than four seconds will causes him side effects. He spins straight to the ground and pulls up, slowly due to the velocity. He passes by Spitfire and breaks the spin, spreading his hooves and hands and slamming them to the ground to slow himself down. The paved stretch tears his hands as he slowly comes to a stop.
"Eleven seconds. Impressive." Spitfire announces to him. He covers his hands in his arms, subsiding the pain. He looks back and sees how red they are, but thankfully no tearing. "Listen up!" Spitfire announces to everypony now that the last one has finished the exercise. "For the rest of the camp you'll be working in pairs. Tomorrow morning I'll post the teams along with who will be lead pony and who will be wing pony. Good luck." She and the other two stallions leave after giving their news, freeing the recruits for the day.
"That was pretty nifty," Cloudchaser, Snowflake, and Thunderlane -- who was still unconscious and being carried by Snowflake -- came up to him. "How'd you figure that out?" Cloudchaser asks.
"Remember that time I singed my mane when Bright Shine and I attempted that false fire alarm prank on our school?" He answers in the form of a question. It took her a while to piece it together, then her eyes go wide and starts laughing out loud, recalling how their plan backfired. Actually it wasn't all that funny, they started an actual fire, but she was more laughing at the apperance of the two after all of it.
"Hey Snow," She turns to her muscle bound friend, finally coming out of her laughing fit. "Think you can take Thunderlane to the infermary by yourself? I've got plans with Crash here." She grips his arm, pulling herself towards him and closing distance. He looks at Cloudchaser and the Light Crash, then back to Cloud then Crash again. He shrugs his shoulders and heads off to get Thunderlane patched up.
"We've got plans?" Light Crash asks her once Snowflake was out of ear shot.
"We do now." She lets go of him and flies away, motioning for him to follow. He does so and is on her tail. They don't leave the academy this time, they had no reason to. Although they had no reason to not too either.
She leads him to a more open area in the academy with plenty of flying room.
"Okay, so I'll ask the question: why are we here?" Crash asks flying up to eye level with her. Cloudchasers face went a little red and held her hands behind her back.
"Well, you remember how before I left, you asked me out to the dance? Only we were never able to get around to doing that? Well, I..." Her face goes red as she mumbles something inaudible under her breath, like she was embarassed to ask. But Light Crash had a pretty good idea as to what she wanted to ask.
"I'm sorry? What was that?" He may have known what she was going to ask, but he wanted her to say it out loud just for his amusement.
"I'd... like you to dance with me." She mummbles a little louder.
"Didn't quite catch that.."
"I'd... like you to dance with me.
"No, still too quiet. Once more maybe."
"Oh for the love of -- I want you to dance with me!" She yells in his ear. Light Crash was left with a ringing in his ear but satisfied that he'd been able to get her to say it. For Cloudchaser to ask for something like that was a rare occasion indeed. She'd never been one to act like an actual girl, unlike her sister Flitter. So somethig like dancing didn't amuse her.
"Well why didn't you just say so?" He asks with a cheap smile. She growls at him, clear frustaration in her face. Her expression quickly changed as he slides in close to her, one hand going around her back and the other holding her own. She holds his hand more firmly with her own and places her free one on his shoulder. All the while they gently flapped their wings to keep themselves suspended in the air.
"Hang on, it's just not the same without anything to dance to." Crash says, not breaking their connection.
"We could think of something to sing to." Cloudchaser suggests. "But what?" They thought about that for a while.
"I might have something, " Crash starts humming something familiar. From a film they saw together years back.
"Far over the misty mountains cold. To dungeons deep, and caverns old. We must away, at break of day."
Cloudchaser joins in, remember the song.
"To find our long forgotten gold. The pines were roaring on the height. The winds were moaning in the night. The fire was red, it flaming spread. The trees like torches blazed with light."
That night they saw a film was also the night that they shared their first kiss. It wasn't a very romantic song, but it was a beautiful one that they loved to listen to. They slowly spun around, as they continue to sing together they ascended higher into the sky. Soon reaching cloud level. They stopped using their wings and started using the clouds to support themselves.
As Crash finishes the song with the same humming tune that he started with, he gently pulled her forward, and once more they kissed. But not a forsed one like before. A true kiss. A lovers kiss. They pulled back and Crash put both his arms around Cloud. The two embrase each other for a good period of time.
"Do you think we'll be partnered?" Cloudchaser asks him into his chest. "Because I hope we will be."
"So do I." He says sharing her thoughts. They begin to hear somethingt hat sounded like snickering, they looked around to hind the source of the noise. hey look down to the cloud, pinpointing the source of the noise. Light Crash opens parts the cloud to find Thunderlane and Snowflake, now outright laughing that they've been caught.
"Oh dear Snow, it seems we've been caught. Did we interupt your dance?" Thunderlane asks only to cause himself and Snowflake to laugh even more.
"How long have have you two been watching us? And how long have you been conscious Thunderlane?" Cloudchaser asks pushing away from Light Crash who was just as embarassed by this.
"Oh, I woke up when Snowflake was about half way to the infermary." He calms down, enough to talk without giggling. "He told me that you two had 'plans.' Seemed fishy to me so we scoped around trying to find you just in time to make kissy face."
"Yeah!" This only ended with the two laughing uncontrolably once more.
"You assholes!" She yells at the. Pure anger dispayed on her face.
"Uh oh Snowflake, I think she's about to kill us. Maybe we should leave?"
"Yeah!" The two flew away as fast as they possibly could, the sound of their laughter getting quieter as they got farther away. Cloudchaser growled in frusteration, hating the fact that he'd been caught slowdancing. But what she really hated was that her friends were the once to catch her.
"Crash," She says facing away from him.
"Yeah?" He asks not liking the tone in her voice.
She turns back to face him with a devilish grin on her face. "Have you lost your touch at pranks?" Suddenly Light Crash liked the tone in her voice a lot now as he shared the same devilsh grin as her.
Author's Note
Editor's Note: Here's chapter 3. Sorry for lateness.
Yeah, we meant to get this released days ago. Knightmare's got personal things that's kept him from editing on schedual. But hey, we got it now so here you go.
Light Crash's Last Flight
The next morning Light Crash is found by himself, happy in his solitude. He is having a smoke outside the mess hall, while the rest are inside, either eating breakfast or seeing who they've been partnered with. The hall was just missing four ponies: Light Crash, Rainbow Dash, who apparently refused to get out of bed according to Cloudchaser, Thunderlane, and Snowflake. Light Crash chuckles to himself, waiting for the grand appearance of the two missing stallions. The only thing that is screwing up his morning is how annoyed he is that he has to cut back on smoking. He only has two left now.
His mood instantly perks up as he hears the sounds of stifled laughter and sees two familiar stallions walk up, both extremely embarrassed to be seen in public. One was scrawny with a charcoal black coat, while the other is quite his counterpart with a white coat bulging with muscles. But they had one incredible new change to them. Thunderlane's mohawk was once a sky blue color with near white streaks, and Snowflake's short cut was a light brown. Now, both are a bright and very noticeable deep pink.
Light Crash snickers as the two approach, soon growing into a deep, booming laughter. "Hey guys," He says in between breathes. "Change of style?"
"Apparently while we weren't looking, somepony switched our shampoo bottles with dye coloring in the shower room." Thunderlane says putting emphasis on 'somepony' while giving Light Crash the stink eye.
"Yeah." Snowflake growls.
"Well I wonder who that could have been." He stops laughing at his new friends, and their new choice of hair styling. "Here's some advice for the both of you in the future: Tartarus' flames are cold, and Celestia's pity is everlasting, but only for the stallions scorned by a mare."
"We'll keep that in mind." Thunderlane says miserably and pushes past Crash. Soon a bellow of laughter is heard from inside the mess hall after the stallions’ grand appearance. Light Crash shares one more chuckle as he hears the uproar. A shadow passes overhead of him, and he looks up to see a rainbow maned mare fly towards the mess hall. She lands just catching the last of the laughter from inside.
"Hey, what's with all the laughter from inside?"
"Heh-heh-heh. Come see for yourself." Light Crash ushers Rainbow Dash inside, and inside everypony is laughing and pointing at two objects. Rainbow Dash joins in with the laughing and pointing as she relives the targets, gripping her side in painful pleasure.
"Oh Celestia, what happened to those two?" She asks Cloudchaser and the pink mare who was first on the Dizzatron, both of whom were still getting over their fits of laughter.
"Let's just say that they've learned what happens when you get caught spying on ponies." Cloudchaser answers.
"How sorry I feel for those two. On a latter note, which of you ponies gets to be my wing pony?" The two mares stop laughing and look at each other with serious looks. They start a series of giggles afterwards; not as strong as the laughter Thunderlane and Snowflake were subjected to, but enough to reveal that something wasn't right.
"You might want to check the board. But what I will say about who's paired with who, we're not Crash." A wave of disappointment comes over him. He wasn't angry though; there were another six ponies who could have been nominated to be his partner, so it was a fairly slim chance he'd be with his marefriend.
"Damn, well I'm going to check it out. You coming Dash?"
"Actually that may not be necessary," The pink mare pipes up. "I'm your wing pony." She extends her hand for Light Crash to shake it. "We also haven't been properly introduced, and Cloud said she knew you so she was going to introduce us to each other. I'm Sungrowth."
"Light Crash." He says with a smile while shaking her hand. "I'll join you girls in a minute. I want to grab something to eat first. And marvel at Thunderlane’s and Snowflake’s new mane styles." He announced the last part a little louder than most would. He's met with a response of a growl from the big one. A very threatening death growl.
"Maybe I shouldn't tell my partner that it was me who came up with the prank. He looks rather pissed." Cloudchaser says looking at Snowflake.
"Maybe you shouldn't." Crash agrees. He, his love, and wing pony all share a quiet chuckle without Dash. "Something wrong?" Crash asks taking in her absence of laughter.
"Maybe..." She walks over to wall with the list of who was wing pony and who was lead pony.
"Don't take too long eating, there's not much time left for breakfast." Cloudchaser gives him a playful wink and the two leave. Crash grabs an orange, coffee, and the standard bowl of oatmeal everypony's given. He happily enjoys his breakfast when his two new favorite stylists sit opposite of him on the same table.
"'Sup?" He asks eating a wedge from his orange.
"Okay, we get it. We're sorry for spying on you guys." Thunderlane starts. "But can you blame us? We've known Cloudchaser for the past six years, and we’ve never seen her like this. She's usually rowdy and always going to clubs, plus she spends most of her time with Flitter. We just found it strange is all."
"Yeah."
"So what did happen with you two? Before we knew her. Was she always like that? Or more like she is now?" Thunderlane asks, taking a bite from an apple he grabbed for himself.
Light Crash leans back a little, sifting through past memories of her. "Well, going to clubs and being with Flitter certainly sounds like her from what I remember. But no, singing and slow dancing has never been her thing. She hasn't changed a lot through the years from what I've seen."
"Well, I'm glad for that. But listen, if you're taking things serious with her I want you to know one thing." Thunderlane's eyes go cold and narrowed while Snowflake's muscles look like they are getting bigger. "She's a very good friend to us. And I don't care what kind of past you two had or have. If you end up hurting her, we promise we'll make sure you'll live to regret it." An ominous silence passes over them for a short time.
"Trust me," Light Crash says in just as serious a tone. "If I hurt her, I promise I'll make myself live to regret it. And then some. Now if you excuse me, today’s training is soon to start." Light Crash leaves, hiding his fury that they would even suggest that he would do something like that to her. He'd prefer death first.
The eight mares and stallions are all lined up and being given a gold pin if they are lead pony, while their partner is given a silver one, indicating them to be wing pony. He notices that Rainbow Dash has a silver pin. Shocked that she is a wing pony, he wondered why Spitfire made her one. The when he saw that she was standing with Lightning Dust, who wore a gold pin, it clicked for him. Those two are the perfect team. If they were both lead ponies, they'd be slowed down by their wing pony. They were the best two, only they could keep up with each other; the others would be left behind in the dust.
Spitfire arrives and doesn't waste any time. "Today we'll be having a flag hunt. We'll divide you into two teams: red," One of her escorts appears in between Light Crash, Sungrowth, Snowflake, and Cloudchaser holding a red flag, indicating them to be one team. "And blue." The other stallion appears in between Lightning Dust, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Raindrops, indicating them to be blue team holding a blue flag. "Whoever finds the most flags of the opposing team's color wins." Her announcement was ended with a cheer from some of the ponies.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Light Crash's partner says to him. Spitfire overhears her remark and bolts over to her.
"If you think this is going to be fun, you're sadly mistaken! This is for training purposes. This is not recess. Lead ponies and wing ponies must fly together. If any pair is split apart you will be immediately disqualified!" She stares at Snowflake and Cloudchaser when adding that last part. The two get closer to show that they don't want for that to happen. This causes Light Crash to become a trifle bit jealous.
"Do you understand?" Everypony confirms their understanding of this training session and its penalties. "Then let's go!" Spitfire blows her whistle and the two teams fly off.
Light Crash and Sungrowth split off from Snowflake and Cloudchaser; the two separate divisions of their team would be able to cover more area if they split up. "Looks like blue team has the same idea." Sungrowth points to Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash, who split off from Thunderlane and Raindrops.
"We better pick up the pace. At the speed those two are going, they'll have found every one of our flags before we're able to find one of theirs."
"Right!" The team flies in every given direction, looking for an indicated flag. "Over there." Sungrowth points to the mountain side; a small gap has been cut in it over the years, letting nature take its course.
"Good spotting." The pair fly to the flag. Light crash tries grabbing it. "It's too narrow, you try." Sungrowth grabs the flag with success thanks to her slimmer arms. They high-five and fly to back to the start to gain a point.
"Red has found their first flag thanks to Light Crash and Sungrowth." Spitfire announces. Light Crash's grin soon slips away as he sees blue team has already found three of their flags. It may not be a game, but with how their training exercise was going, it certainly felt like one.
By the end of the exercise, blue team found all twenty flags in under two hours thanks to Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust, declaring to be a new academy record, while red team only found thirteen. Light Crash couldn't complain much, it was fun.
Light Crash headed off to the infirmary. One of the flags got stuck under some boulders, and he had to pull it out, causing a small rock slide. A small, sharp rock cut him and opened a wound. It was no more than a scratch, but Spitfire ordered him to get it checked. She knew many flyers that had been in the same situation and left their wounds to mend for themselves, only to end up getting infected. She would have none of that.
He waits for the doctor while she is attending to another patient. "Ah, Mr. Crash, what seems to be the problem this time?" The mare returns, a few bandages nestled in her arm.
"Hey doc, got cut by a sharp stone. Spitfire insisted that I come see you to check for infections. And that's me using the term 'insisted' loosely."
"You were right to come. It happens more times than you'd think. Let me get you some antibiotics, fresh bandages, and something to clean that wound." She points to the wound under his hand to suppress the blood from dripping out. She walks into a room and closes the door, not that long after a familiar mare comes out of the same room that the doctor came out from.
"Oh, uh, hey." Rainbow Dash says sheepishly.
"'Sup. Congratulations on today's practice. What are you doing here?"
"Uh, I clipped my wing when we found the first flag. Had to make sure nothing was wrong." She unfurls her bruised wing, bandages wrapped around marginal covert. "Doc says it's only some bruising and will be fine tomorrow, but she also says I shouldn't try pushing myself too hard for a little while." She tries to hide her look of disappointment, but Light Crash catches it. "What about you?" She asks, trying to divert the conversation. Crash removes his hand to show the open cut, blood smeared over his palm.
"Rock cut it open. Spitfire says there's a possibility that there could be an infection. So I'm just getting that checked." He shares an uneasy silence for a while; something was definitely wrong. "Are you... feeling okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I just-- Look I have to go." She shoves past Light Crash and throws open the door, leaving in hurry. The doctor returns, not having a clue as to what happened from her brief absence. She happily applies the antibiotics over Light Crash's arm, wraps it in bandages, and sends him off.
He walks off in a gloom, stumped as to what was bothering Rainbow Dash. He didn't know her well, much like Lightning Dust, but he was concerned. Since day one she's been determined and has been giving her all, so what was bothering her?
"Hey," Cloudchaser comes up beside him without him noticing.
"Hm? Oh hey Cloud."
"Something wrong?" She asks seeing the expression of puzzlement on his face.
"Maybe, I just met Dash at the infirmary. She seemed kind of upset."
"Why was she in the infirmary?"
"Bashed her wing. It'll heal up no problem, but if she pushes herself things will only get worse. My guess is that she feels she can't work at her full potential now, and if Spitfire thinks she's slacking she'll probably think that she won't become a Wonderbolt, and if she does push herself she'll damage her wing and still won't become a Wonderbolt."
"So she's in a lose-lose situation?" Light Crash nods his head. "Makes sense, even before she got her cutie mark she's wanted to become a Wonderbolt. The thought of her coming so close to achieving her goal, only for it to be taken away." She's quiet for a while as the two walk side by side. "What happens if one of us fails?"
Crash looks at her precariously. "Don't worry about that. Whatever happens, whether one of us, neither of us, or both of us makes it, we'll be together. We can make it work." He slides his hand into hers, interlocking their fingers. They gaze into each other's eyes, not sure what the future holds. But they hope, they know , that whatever will happen, they'll have each other.
Author's Note
Okay yeah, she doesn't have a proper name and wiki says that it's 'Cadet #2', but I needed a name for her. Anyway, I think Sungrowth is a fitting name for this character, we need to get this out to the brony public.
Light Crash's Last Flight
Day five. It's said that the last three days at the academy are the hardest. Light Crash wonders if that is true. They stood in front of a huge obsticle course, everywhere Light Crash looked there were hoops and some form of weather condition was happening. And none of it were good conditions.
"Today we'll be doing our air obsticle course." Spitfire announces to everypony. "And don't worry about winning, it's not a race." That was a hefty amount of weight off Crash's chest, the previous night he had a horrible time falling asleep and woke up dead tired in the morning. Knowing that he could take things easy was a relief. But he still wasn't up to par. "Now everypony, get on your marks!" The group put their goggles over their eyes. When they heard the starting whistle blow, each team departed single file with their partner.
The beginning was easy enough, just fly through the designated hoop. Crash and his partner Sungrowth were second in line. Snowflake --who shaved off what little of pink mane he had-- and Cloudchaser up front, Crash and Sungrowth up next, Thunderlane --also with a shaved head-- and his parnter after. And finally Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust bringing up the rear. Crash was mainly focused on the obsticle course, but had two things stuck is his mind. One was Dash, this exercise wasn't a race so she didn't have to worry about going too extreme, but wondered what she was thinking. The second thing that was stuck in his mind was how good Cloud's ass looked. He had a great view from his position.
But his full attention was quickly snapped back to the reality of his situation when a pink cloud burst from under them and exploded in a tiny lightning storm right next to them. Ponies where pouring some liquid into machines that spat it back ot into a cloudy substance and caused a harmless explosion. Dash and Dust slid past Thunderlane and his partner after they get hit my a cloud.
More pink clouds incresed the farther they went, luckily the clouds where easy enough to dodge. Once completing the second part of the obsticle, they fly into a grey storm cloud. Inside the cloud was pouring with heavy rain and fierce head winds. Crash and Sun have slight dificulty passing through, but nothing they couldn't handle. All the while Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust move past them too, securing their spot at second in line.
Light Crash hears something from Lightning, but it was rather inaudible due to the rushing wind. After everypony makes it out of the storm cloud, Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash shoot ahead and push past Snowflake and Cloudchaser. The two lose controle of their flight and plow into everypony behind them. Light Crash's eyes go wide with realization as the biggest of the two is thrown right at him. He curses under his breathe right before he's thrown back with the giant ball of muscle. Cloudchaser flies into Sungrowth and the four of them fly into Thunderlane and his partner, and the parade all crash into the only objects in the sky: clouds.
Thank goodness for small miracles, Light Crash thinks to himself. He pulls himslef out of the cloud and hear's a chorus of moans. He helps pull Cloudchaser out from where she's stuck. "You okay?"
"Yeah, wasn't expecting that," she massages the back of here neck.
"Help me get the others out." Crash pulls Thunderlane out just as Spitfire and her to assistants show up.
"Looks like you folks had a bit of a tumble." The two stallions pull out Snowflake with the help of Light Crash as Thunderlane gets his partner out and Cloudchaser pulls out Sungrowth. "Well, I can see that everything's fine here. After you're done with the rest of the course head to the mess hall and get something to eat. I expect to see you all back at thirteen hundred."
Crash gives an annoyed grunt before he was able to explain their situation to Spitfire or her assisstants. The three teams continue flying as they were before, ticked off from that stunt done by Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash.
The last bit was easy. Gusts of wind are blown from machines at the side and slowly move up and down. Moving past them was easy, but that still didn't change the fact as to the stunt those two just pulled.
Everypony quietly finishes their lunch, having an eventful conversation was an overstatement, in fact, it was dreadfully boring and dull. It seems that it wasn't just Light Crash to suffer from his sleep deprivation, the others seemd tired too. And now they were sore. But it's not like they had anything to talk about anyways.
Crash sits by himself at the table after the others get up and put their trays away, slowly drinking a cup of milk. He sifts through his memory banks, remembering all the good times, the bad times, and generaly anything else. When his dog died, first meeting Cloud, the hundreds of pranks he and Bright would pull, family field trips, the fights he would get in with his friends, how his marks have suffered and grown throughout school, all the trouble he and Bright Shine would get into, whatching Boom Powder's matches, snowball fight, all the yelling from Serene. Every bit of memory made him laugh or tear up, and he realizes something. He never once thought that one day he might become a Wonderbolt. It never crossed his mind until now. And that just made him laugh a bit more. He swigs back the rest of the milk and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He gets up from his spot and pushes the cafateria doors open.
And there he sees them, his new friends, and his lost love. And realizes something once more, these new friends of his aren't much different from his friends back home. He heads to the group, the next training of the day was about to start.
"Now that you've completed the precision part of your training, we'll go on to the next event." Spitfire calls to the group. "A Wonderbolt isn't just somepony who can put on a show, they have to do their part in keeping the skies cleared too. I want each of you, with your partner, to clear the skies. We'll be keeping track as to which team clears the most number of clouds." An assistant wheels over a chalk board divided into quarters, each quarter had the cutie marks of both lead pony and wing pony. After the short briefing a whistle was blown, signalling the start. Each team took to the skies and quickly divided from one another. Everypony knew how to clear clouds, it was a basic part of training while you first learn to fly.
Crash and Sungrowth cleared clouds by using the simple basics, punches, kicks, tackling, and Crash's personal favorite, crashing. They cleared every cloud in their way, not sparing any. He cathces a glimps at some of the others' methods. Thunderlane used velocity and gravity to continuously kick through clouds while his partner followed behind, using one cloud to bounced off to another getting the ones Thunderlane missed. Cloudchaser was sticking to basics much like Crash and Sun, while Snowflake was literally tearing them to pieces with his teeth and would yell the only word, that Light Crash was now convinced by this point, that he knew. Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust were outstanding. For the bigger ones they combined their strength to take them down while they cut through the smaller ones. They weren't even phased or stalled for a single second when a cloud disappeared. He saw the chalk board, those two were well ahead of the rest.
An idea pops into Crash's head. "Hey, Sungrowth!" He flies over to her and grabs her hands. "I have an idea that can get us some points. But you have to trust me on this."
"What do I have to do?" She asks.
"I'm going to fling you into that cluster over there," He indicated to a large group of clouds close together. "When I throw you, curl up into a ball. Can you do that?"
She bites her lip, thinking hard. "Yeah, I think I can do that." Crash gives her a warm smile.
"Then here we go!" He spins around with Sungrowth attached, increasing his speed little by little. "Now!" He lets go and sends her hurtling towards the target. She roles into a ball and barrels through most of the clouds, that chalked them up a few notches. It was wonderful, for a moment, Light Crash forgot that he was training to become a Wonderbolt, and he felt like he was just having fun with a bunch of friends who bet each other how could be the best. But the moment didn't last long. Wind started to pick up and increase. Crash turns his attention to where this wind was coming from, and fear struck him.
Moving towards him was a gigantic tornado. Two objects flew out of it, he didn't pay attention to that because fear held him in place as the tornado moved quickly towards his direction. He quickly grabbed hold of the situation and tries flying away, but the vacuum was too strong and he was sucked in and spat back out. A relapse of the Dizzitron came back to him, he spun with the force and activates his adrenaline. Much like last time, time slows down again and he shoots to the ground. He stops the adrenaline rush and pulls up, but clips the ground in the process.
He tumbles and rolls, covering himself in new bruises. He slows down and finds Rainbow Dash in the same situation. Before he could ask her as to what happend or what was happening he hears screaming. A pink hot air ballon is caught in the tornado, and in it were five mares. The ropes snap and the mares are thrown out, plumetting to the ground. Rainbow Dash pulls herself out of her own confussion when she heard the screaming. "NOOOO!" She yells.
She unfurls her wings to chace after them, but then lets out a sharp cry of pain and grabs her injured wing. She pushed herself too hard and has suffered the punishment. Two words whisper out of her mouth, two pleading words that sounded like she has lost everything. "My friends." Without hesitation, Light Crash gives his wings a strong push. Five mares are about to die, and he'd be damned if he doesn't do anything to stop it.
He dives over the cliff with Cloudchaser, Snowflake, Thunderlane and Sungrowth following. "We're not going to make it!" Cloud shouts over the rushing wind. He could tell that she was right, by their falling speed and his increase of flight, they won't make it. They were too far apart.
"Like hell!" Crash pumps his adrenaline as much as his body would allow it. His speed increases immensly as he pumps his wings to force hiim to fly faster, and much like a bullet, he quickly closes the large gap and leaved the others behind; but it was not just his speed that increased. He grabs the flailing arms of one white unicorn and an orange earth pony. With his increased strength and determined will, he pushes his body past limits and throws the two mares up. For a normal pony, that wouldn't have worked, but Light Crash was not normal. He was actually able to throw them farher than possible, all the way up to the other four who were far behind them. Thunderlane catches the white unicorn and Sungrowth catches the earth pony. With two of the damsels saved they slow down their decent. Next was a purple unicorn and a yellow pegasus. Crash didn't bother wondering why the pegasus didn't just fly, he didn't have time to wonder. He grabs those two and throws them up just like with the first two mares. Snowflake catches them both, prompting them to sit on his beefy shoulders.
Finally there was a pink earth pony. Crash didn't have to throw her, he could just grab her and float safely to the ground. That is, if things went his way. His right wing hits an outstretching tree branch, his force was strong enough to hear a snapping sound from the branch, and from his wing. He spins out, trying to regain controle. He'd cry in pain if the adrenaline would allow his body to process it, but what his mind would process is that if he didn't save this mare, neither of them would survive. He forces his body to come to even height with the mare's. He slides one hand around her waist and the other hand under her legs. "Next, stop up!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," the mare stops him. "The care package." She points to a crushed box. He rolls his eyes and throws the mare up and slides his foot under the box, using the added momentum he kicks it up. She grabs the box as she's caught by Cloudchaser.
They're safe now...
He removes the smoke from his mouth and whispers one word. One word that means everything to him. That means the world to him. "Cloudchaser..."
*THUMP*
The mares are flown to safety at the top of the academy. "OH MY GOSH! Are all you okay?" Rainbow Dash asks, Sungrowth helps her stand. She gives them all huge meaningful hugs and notices one missing. She looks around to find her firend Pinkie Pie lying on the ground. "Pinkie Pie!"
At the call of her name she begins to tear up and jumps into her friend's arms. "You remember me!"
"Uh, yeah." Dash answers confused as to why her friend would think that she'd be forgotten in less than a week. "What are you all doing here?"
"We wanted to bring you a care package," Applejack answers. "We didn't realize that you'de be in some kind of crazy tornado drill." Before she could explain what really happened Lighting Dust jumps in.
"That... Was... Awsome!"
"Awsome? My friends could have been smashed to pieces." Rainbow Dash answers annoyed that her lead pony doesn't understand the danger or the reprecussions of her actions.
"Yeah, but they weren't, right?" She replies, catching that everypony was staring at her. "Can't say the same for the clouds. We totally wiped them out with that tornado. The other cadets will be up there for days to bust as many as we did." She extends her hand, expecting Dash to high five her.
"Are you serious? You made me clip my wing, you send half our class into serious tail spins in the obsticle course, you unleash a tornado that nearly demolished my friends!"
"And somepony else had to clean it all up for you!" Cloudchaser adds in furiously. "If it weren't for Crash you would have been in even more trouble than you already are." She points to an empty spot, expecting Light Crashto be there.
"Hey, where is he?" Thunderlane asks. Everypony else looks around, talking to each other and wondering why he's not around.
"Crash?" Cloud asks aloud trying to spot him. Her attention goes back to the cliff, the fear sinks into her. "Crash...?"
You'de think that it would rain on somepony's funeral. But it was worse. There was no rain, the sky was covered in grey clouds, preventing any sunlight, but they refused to rain. Many ponies gathered around a tombstone. Some were crying freely, others held back tears, while others just quietly mourned.
Many showed up. Bright Shine held a weeping Serene in his arms, trying everything to stop his own tears from flowing. Boom Powder stood beside them, a grim expression on his face. Twilight Sparkle and her friends came to pay their respects, but they didn't cry, they only knew him as the stallion that saved their lives. Snowfake was the strongest pony there, but at that moment, he felt very, very weak. But possibly the one who took this the worst was Cloudchaser. Her sister was usually the weaker of the two, but now Cloudchaser couldn't find any of her strength and sobbed into her sister's shirt, soaking it in sorrow tears.
You promised, Thunderlane thinks angrily eyeing his friend who refused to stop crying. You promised that you'de live to regret ever hurting her.
"This isn't what's supposed to happen." Spitfire says through gritted teeth to her fellow Wonderbolt and close friend Soarin. "Things like this aren't supposed to happen."
"What of the one responsible for this?" Soarin looks through the crowd, he was given a description of the mare, but he didn't see her in the sea of faces. "What will happen to Lightning Dust?"
"She's kicked out, and I've made sure that the commity and all other teams know of her actions. Nopony will accept her after this." Spitfire says enraged.
"After what happened, I wouldn't be surprised if any team decilned her application just by seeing her name."
The diggers began to bury the casket. Thunderlane dug into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, one that doesn't belong to him. He managed to scavange it while searching the area. He throws it into the grave, where it'll be buried with it's owner.
Ponies began to leave one at a time, all that was left behind was a dead pony with flowers and tears on his grave. On his tombstone read:
Here lies one who selflessly sacrificed his own life for the sake of others.
It was simple with few words. But sometimes the less words there are the more meaning it holds. But Cloudchaser felt that it was missing something. He was a hero and a friend, nopony could deny that. But he was also something much more. Something much, much more.
A love.
Author's Note
Okay so yeah, I suppose I may have over exagerated in the part where he saves the mane six minus Dash, but hey, stories don't have to be one hundred percent accurate. So sue me.
But in other news, that's the end. It's over. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing, and if you didn't, well there's the door right there.
