Captain's Orders

Soarin hated this part of the day with a passion that was completely unexplainable. Still, it had to be done, and if it wasn't, nopony was happy for the rest of the week to come.

"Rise and shine, newbies!" he belted, letting his voice penetrate the half-asleep thoughts of the other five new Wonderbolt recruits in the room. "You've got a long day ahead of you!"

A few muffled groans greeted him, along with a pale green hoof that appeared from under one of the thin sheets covering the bed just off to his right. Eventually, the hoof that slipped out before revealed a very tired looking pegasus stallion with a bad case of bed-mane.

With an audible humph, Soarin turned to the first recruit of the morning. "You, what's your name again?"

"Aileron, sir," the stallion stated plainly, a hint of tiredness still hidden in his voice.

Soarin couldn't help but give a vague smile at what he was sure Spitfire had told them was protocol. "I like you, newbie. But there's one thing you'll need to learn pretty quickly."

"What, sir?"

"Save that title for the Captain."

"In that case, what do I call you, s-"

Soarin held his hoof up to Aileron's mouth and shushed him before he could say 'sir' again. "You can refer to me as... um... Just call me that until I can think of something witty, okay?"

"Yush sher," Aileron squeezed out from around Soarin's hoof, before the second-in-command removed it. "What about the rest of them, if you don't mind me asking?"

"The first time should be enough," Soarin explained, leaving more questions than answers in the rookie's mind. "When the Captain comes in and wakes them her special way, they won't resist getting up anymore."

As if a wire had just been tripped in her mind, the mare at the other end of the same row pushed herself up, struggling to get out of the knot she'd made with herself and the sheet during the night. "Cross Current reporting for training, sir," she bluntly stated, still struggling with the sheet tightly wrapped around her. By the time she'd finished introducing herself, she'd managed to get her front hooves out of the tangle of sheet and pony.

"Relax, rookie. If anything, you're better than the rest of them."

Though Aileron hadn't said anything, Soarin could tell that the blush on his cheeks was more than just the heat in the room. He giggled to himself as Aileron's blush reddened when Cross looked him straight in the eye. "Hey, you alive?"

"Y-yeah..." Aileron stammered, obviously trying not to make a fool of himself. "I was just-"

The sound of a door slamming open in the distance cut him off in mid-sentence. Soarin signaled for the two of them to head for the entrance to the locker rooms, and the two of them slipped over just as rushed hoofsteps appeared at the other doorway. Just seconds after they'd reached the locker room, a disappointed Spitfire flung the door open, causing it to crash into one of the full bunks.

Spitfire removed her trademark glasses and trotted over to where Soarin was standing. "How many this morning?"

"Two, already getting ready."

"Names?"

"Aileron Roll and Cross Current."

Spitfire opened the cabinet on the wall and pulled out a megaphone that she'd hidden for just this reason. "Attention, new recruits," she said, her voice amplified about three times her normal decibel level, "in order to be a wonderbolt, one must be able to wake up on time. As such, and as your Captain, it is my duty to tell you to... WAKE UP!"

Three extremely startled pegasi almost flew out of their beds at her yelling wake-up call. As Spitfire put the megaphone away, Soarin removed his hooves from his ears and headed over into the locker room to learn more about Cross and Aileron.

However, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. Cross Current was bent down with her plot in the air, three of her legs in a suit that was clearly too small for her. Meanwhile, at least from what Soarin could see, Aileron was stealing a glance at the emphasized rear end in his line of sight.

"Enjoying the view there, rookie?"

Cross bolted upright and gave Soarin a confused look. "Very funny, s-" As if the situation had just hit her, she spun immediately and glared at Aileron. "What do you think you're doing?"

Aileron's face blushed a crimson red, and he stammered, "I... I s-swear I wasn't-"

"Okay," Soarin interjected before things could get out of control. "Lock it down, both of you." Soarin turned to Cross and explained, "In his defense, that uniform really is way too small for you."

"It's the largest of the female uniforms, sir. What can I do if it doesn't fit?"

Soarin looked over at the rack where the uniforms were hanging and saw her mistake right away. He trotted over and pulled the female suit at the end of the row off the hook, draped it over his back, and told both of them, "The largest ones are on the edges. You're actually putting on the smallest one we have."

"Oh..." she murmured, blushing about as red as Aileron had just seconds before. She then faced him and admitted, "I guess I flew off the handle a little. But if I catch you looking at me that way again..."

Aileron frantically nodded and headed over to the rack, where he pulled off the second-largest male uniform and brought it back over to the corner where he had been standing before.

Eventually, three more obviously tired and surprised pegasi stumbled into the locker room, each of them with a horrible case of dark bags under their eyes. The first stallion sighed heavily and pulled a random uniform off the shelf, heading over into the other corner across from where Aileron was standing, already fully in his suit.

The other two - a stallion and a mare - did the same, except they stayed by the door and slipped into their flight suits with incredible ease.

By the time Spitfire came through the door, everypony, including Soarin, was ready to stretch and get on with practice. "Alright, recruits," Spitfire said, giving each of them a look-over, "Today we're starting with standard laps, then we're going into formation training. Follow Soarin out, and line up where he tells you."

He nodded to the five new recruits and headed over to the other door that led outside. Once all of them were outside, Soarin gestured to the cloud line across the track and told them, "There's the starting line. You might want to stretch for a bit first."

Slowly, they all sauntered over, and Aileron joined in as Soarin warmed up with two sets of wing flaps. Though he could tell Aileron was trying too hard, he was nice and let the new recruit do the same things he was doing.

The only problem came from when one of the recruits Soarin hadn't met bumped into the other mare that Spitfire had to wake up. "Excuse me," she accused, pure dislike dripping from through her voice, "I don't think you need that much space to warm up."

"Come on," the stallion argued, "it was just my wing."

"I gave you more than enough room, okay? Just move over."

"Why don't you move over?"

By that time, Soarin had taken enough of their arguing. He turned around to face them and ordered, "Both of you, separate. You'll need to work together eventually, but until that happens, don't be near each other."

The two of them reluctantly went separate ways, and Soarin returned to stretching, until Aileron spoke up. "Sir, I think my wing is stuck."

Sure enough, Soarin could tell that Aileron had held his wing out in place too far, probably due to the fact that he had dealt with the two warring pegasi behind him. Because he was responsible, he went over to where Aileron was standing and applied pressure on the top half of the joint, popping it completely back into the socket, allowing him to lift his wing again.

"Thank you, sir."

"Just remember not to hold it out that long next time, alright?"

"Yes, sir."

Soarin silently reminded himself to come up with something else for Aileron to call him, and returned to where he had been warming up just in time for Spitfire to blow her whistle. "Two laps on my command," she explained as simply as possible. "Now!"

The six of them took off, with Soarin heavily in the lead and Aileron and the mare that he didn't know directly behind. As they rounded the first corner of the track, Aileron shot forward and almost caught up, leading Soarin to increase his flapping speed. Luckily, Cross passed the other mare shortly afterwards, launching herself up to second position.

Using their competition as an advantage, Soarin slowly gained a lead on the two of them, managing to be the first to cross the finish line. However, something strange happened at that very moment.

Before he could adjust, something knocked him sideways and out of the track. As if to make matter worse, he ended up spinning wildly out of control as he fell down toward the ground.

Being careful not to fully extend his wings and make his death or severe injury certain, Soarin stopped his spiral and steadied his body. With a quick look around, he noticed that he was sideways and made the proper adjustments before flapping his way right-side-up and heading back to the training ground.

By the time Soarin reached the track again, Spitfire was trying - and failing - to keep the recruits calm.

"Why did this happen," a pale blue mare asked, nervously flapping her wings. Then it hit him: that had been the stallion that had fought with the mare from earlier.

When he looked at everypony there, he realized that they were all the opposite gender of what they were before. Even Spitfire was male, which strangely appealed to him for some unknown reason.

Eventually, she looked over her shoulder and saw him. Without a chance to prepare for her response, Spitfire leapt at him and wrapped her forelegs around him in a tight hug. "Oh thank Celestia," she said with a sigh, "I thought I'd have to tell the rest of the team that we'd lost you."

Though he wanted their embrace to last forever, Spitfire returned her attention to the recruits and tried to calm them again. "Vector, stop panicking! Look, this may seem bad, but it's perfectly manageable."

"How is it 'fine'?" the other stallion asked, stepping forward to address her. "Last I checked, it wasn't okay for me to be a mare!"

Before Spitfire could fly off the handle, Soarin stepped in and told him off. "Now you're telling me that you're about to yell at your potential future captain?"

"I-"

"Don't answer that. You do realize that we only have two open slots for the team right now, and the rest of you will be relief flyers, right?"

At that remark, the stallion just nodded and went along with what Soarin was saying.

"Good. Do you have any idea how often our relief flyers get to perform?"

"No, sir."

For once, Soarin almost smiled at being called by his proper title. Still, he had to drill the point into the ignorant recruit's head, so he continued, "I'll give you a hint, they only get to fly when one of us is injured badly enough that we can't fly for over ten days, which is rare in itself. So tell me, would you like to be in that position?"

"Soarin," Spitfire whispered, nudging him in the back, "I think he gets it."

"What's his name anyway?" Soarin whispered back, realizing that he still didn't know the name of the recruit he was lecturing.

"Updraft."

Now that he knew a name, he returned his attention to him. "So, you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes sir," Updraft said plainly, no hint of any emotion in his voice at all. The least Soarin would have expected was some resentment, but it was almost like he had taken it all without question. In fact, it almost felt a little unnerving to see a rookie react the way that he had.

Spitfire took back control and announced, "I know things look bad, but we should keep practicing for now. Line up again."

A chorus of groans arose from the rookies, but with a glare from their captain, they all followed Soarin back to the starting line and got ready to start again.

-=(1)=-

By the time the six of them had finished their twentieth lap around the track, it was time for wing training. And so, with grudging resistance, they all went over to where the weight equipment was housed in another room by the entrance.

When they entered, Soarin instructed, "Pair off and choose something to start with, do four reps, and switch. If we have enough time, you'll be able to repeat. Everybody get that?"