Flames licked hungrily at my hazy surroundings, I spun round in a dizzying fashion, trying desperately to work out where I was, and what was going on. The heat of the inferno felt like a thousand pounds pushing down on my chest and preventing me from taking even the shallowest of breaths. My eyes watered against the smoke as I squinted and tried to focus on the figure that had inexplicably appeared in front of me. Before I could put a name to the figure, I was distracted by the blaze as it leaps forward, now burning the ground at my feet; the flames nipped at my hooves, and charred my fur. Looking up again I finally saw the ominous figure in complete clarity, before me stood a sneering Spitfire.
I rocketed up in my bed and came to rest in a sitting position. I gasped wildly, suddenly unable to get enough air; my heart was thrashing violently against my ribs; it filled my ears with its erratic thudding. I shoved my silky sheets from my body and jumped up from my bed. Stumbling across the room I passed through the door way into my bathroom and turned on the sink, splashing icy water on my face in a poor attempt to jar myself out of this forbidding sense of terror.
My mind's eye kept showing me Spitfires deranged face; it was completely unreasonable for me to feel this way because of a nightmare, after all, that was all it was, just a nightmare. I had done nothing to anger Spitfire; she had no reason to hate me. Still I couldn't shake the feeling that I should try my best to stay on her good side.
I stood, leaning over my sink taking deep breaths as I saw myself in the mirror, my face damp from the splashing. I eventually regained my regular breathing pattern and exited the bathroom. I busied myself by tidying up the mess I had made of my sheets. I must have thrashed around during the dream because all of my bedding was twisted and bunched in strange ways.
A quick glance at my alarm clock told me that I had an hour left until I would have been woken up by the standard harsh beeping, had I not been woken up by the phantom flames of my nightmare.
I quickly realized that I had no idea what to do with myself. It was far too early to show up for my assessments, and I didn't want to spend the next hour sitting in my room all alone. I eventually settled on just wandering around the base, and maybe grabbing a quick breakfast, if I could remember my way to the kitchen. After stepping out of my private quarters and ensuring that the door swung shut behind me.
I started on my way through the maze of marble. I trotted along, occasionally seeing doors that lead to mysterious new rooms I hadn't yet seen, and of course I flung them all open, seeing as I was desperate to discover more about my second home.
Behind the first door was a simple storage closet, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at something so ordinary in such an extraordinary place. I quickly shut the door and moved on, not wanting to waste my time poking around a small room of mops and rags.
As I opened the next door of my choosing, my eyes were met with the sight of a rather dull generic looking office, there was a simple dark wood desk positioned in the exact center of the room, the swiveling chair that sat behind it was a cheaply made back plastic one. Beside the desk was an ugly green filing cabinet. Finding no interest in the painfully lackluster office I closed the door and continued though the hallways.
After a few more doors, and just as many boring rooms, I managed to stumble upon the double doors that I remembered from my first night here, with the sign that read kitchen. Smiling to myself, and at my good fortune, I pushed through the doors and saw Patrick and 3 Wonderbolts meandering around the room.
WaveChill could be seen sitting at a flimsy table with MistyFly; MistyFly was very slight of stature, with a glacier blue mane, and a creamy yellow coat. She seemed to be very engaged in an overly animated conversation with WaveChill. Whiplash was off on the other side of the room talking with Patrick, in the doorway leading to the backroom full of pies. I remembered Whiplash from the Wonderbolts academy where he had functioned as a stand in security guard.
Shifting my focus to more important things I noticed the delicious smells floating through the air, I crossed the room to reach the breakfast buffet. I grabbed a small plate and surveyed the choices. A tray full of fresh sliced fruit, and glazed flakey pastries were the closest options out of many. I snatched up an interesting pastry, one with a red jam dollop on it, and grabbed an apple. I decided to forgo some of the more hardy breakfast foods, due to the fact that I was still rather shaken up by my unexplainable nightmare.
I turned around and noticed WaveChill trying to catch my eye, and gesturing for me to join him and MistyFly at their table. I sat down with them and quickly realized that MistyFly was a very bubbly pony, almost as bubbly as Pinky, but not quite. "Oh my gosh, you're the new Wonderbolt, that's amazing, you and Soarin were recruited so close together, usually we only get new members every few years, if that!" MistyFly shot through topics with ease. "Well, I guess you know that, you seemed like quite the Wonderbolts fan at the Young Flyers competition, I was a judge there, remember?" I could barely work in a nod before MistyFly launched into another string of verbal thoughts. Shifting my focus to WaveChill I noticed that his eyes were glued to the mare across from him. He wore a simple smile of content, while MistyFly continued talking about random things seemingly oblivious to WaveChills affection that he was so clearly displaying. I observed the pair as I munched on my shiny red apple, they would be cute together, not that it mattered much to me, I wasn't one for emotions, they only got you hurt, made you weak, and distracted you from important things like working, or napping, mainly napping.
After I finished my apple and the flaky pastry, I bid the adorable couple a soft goodbye and chanced a glance at the fragile kitchen clock, ten more minutes until training, I figured I might as well make my way out to the fields for the rest of my assessments, it wouldn't kill me to be a few minutes early.
Working my way through the Wonderbase was making more and more sense each time I did it, I remembered more turns, and recognized more doors; I eventually took to the upper part of the hallway and few lazily along the corridors in an attempt to work my now healed wing before it was pushed to the extreme.
After only getting lost once, I made it out of the base and into the foggy outdoors training area. I saw faint outlines of the training field and two ponies talking in the center. I made my way over to them and quickly discovered that it was SilverLining and Spitfire, when I saw Spitfire my blood ran cold, and I felt dizzy, I know I shouldn't feel scared, It was just a dream, nothing more.
I made my over to them, careful not to trip on anything hidden by the fog. "Looks like you're in for a rough set of tests." SilverLining commented as I walked up to him and Spitfire. "When I had my assessments it was crystal clear weather, and I still had trouble keeping up with the maneuvers."
Spitfire cut me off before I could respond. "Never mind that, let's get this over with, I need a good weekend, sponsors have put me through hell lately." She cast her gaze down to her clipboard. "Ok, so just warm up with ten laps, flying of course, and then we can start with the real stuff." I nodded and took off. I made short work of the laps; it was amazing to be flying outside again, my wing was still sore or course, but not nearly enough to keep me out of my home.
As I glided down to the grassy field Spitfire looked up at me gave me my next test. "OK, I hope you're warmed up because now we move into some flight patterns." She nodded toward SilverLining. "You and Silver will be up in the sky, and Silver will perform a few complex flight patterns, don't lose sight of him, and do everything he does immediately after him."
"Yes ma'am." I replied with steely resolve. I was fully committed to the Wonderbolts and would do my best no matter what task I was given.
I threw a glance at Silver just in time to see him wink at me and shot up into the clouds, with me trailing behind him of course. We kept going up for quite a while, then without a warning of any kind he shot to the left and into a barrel roll, with me seconds behind him, having barely been able to control my barrel roll. After stabilizing Silver started to roll up into a loop de loop, I continued to fallow him all the way through. He still hadn't so much as glanced behind him to see if I was still following.
I felt the foggy mist on my fur; it cooled me down and kept me hyper aware of every inch of my body. I was truly in my element, being in the sky made me feel whole, I breathed in the crisp chilly morning air as I passed through a cloud. MY shoulders relaxed with each flap of my wings, and my ears were being blown back by the wind, along with my colourful mane.
Silver continued to dive, spin, and speed up, and slow down, but no matter what he tried I couldn't be shaken off his trail. In what I suspected was a last attempt to lose me he banked right and allowed the wind to push him into a tighter curve, then at the apex of the impossibly tight curve he clamped him wings in tight and shot toward the ground like a bullet.
I eased into the curve, and tried to harness the wind as Silver had done, I only partially succeeded, and then when I felt my angle was right I pulled my wings in and dropped down. I plummeted faster, and faster, my gut screamed at me to pull out of the free fall, or at least gain a bit of control, but I knew I couldn't, I hadn't seen Silver do it, and I was not going to fail. The field was painfully close now, but Silver still hadn't slowed down at all.
Ever closer, and ever faster, I was seconds away from bracing for impact when I saw Silver flair out one wing and swing around so that he was zooming across the field grazing the grass with his hind hoofs. I copied him and somehow managed to make it out of the maneuver alive.
Silver landed in fort of Spitfire and reported what he had observed during the sequence of maneuvers. "She's a real fighter, couldn't shake her if I wanted to, she even kept up with the free fall trick." Spitfire and Sliver turned to look at me, both with a curious expression.
"You don't think….could she be, no way." Spitfire whispered at SilverLining
"I wouldn't doubt it; I've heard things about the Best Young Flier Competition." Silver countered, they both surveyed me, from hoof to tail. I stood frozen in place awkwardly. My mind raced through all the things they could be talking about, was I to be sacrificed to the volcano gods? Wait; was there even a volcano near here? Maybe it was mountain gods that I was to be offered up too. My mind got even farther away from realistic speculations as Silver and Spitfire continued to whisper back and forth. I grew even more paranoid by the minute, maybe they were going to make me dress up as a clown pony, and only let me preform as Rainbow the Wonderclown.
"RainbowDash" Spitfire emphasized my name firmly, bringing me out of my thoughts. "You are to do all the maneuvers that SilverLining assigns you, and I will be back shortly." I stood on the field quite confused as Spitfire raced away and into the Wonderbase.
"Ok… Well looks like most of the fog has burned off…" SilverLining offered glancing around awkwardly, quite clearly unprepared for the sudden absence of spitfire. "Umm, just… How about you just… Fly around, a bit, and maybe do a few dives, never mind." Silver huffed "Just show off."
I, of course was more than happy to oblige. With a snappy flap of my wings I was propelling myself high in the sky, and whipping around clouds and dashing across the horizon. I rolled, and dived, enjoying every second of my exhilarating joyride. The golden rays of sunlight sent shivers of warmth through my body, and the sharp clean air cleared my mind and lungs, allowing me to relax, and become a speed demon.
I climbed the sky, higher and higher, almost touching the sun, close enough to reach out and feel the flames peeling off it. Everything below me was completely forgotten. My fear over what Spitfire had in store for me had been thrown from my mind, and replaced with pure unabashed euphoria.
As the oxygen thinned and I struggled to pull in a lungful of air, I halted my dauntless climb and looked down at the splotch of green that was now my target. I steadied myself with my wings extended and flapping lazily. I closed my eyes now relying solely on instinct.
Then I fell, faster and faster, I angled myself straight down, flapping my wings faster and faster still, racing down to the growing green spot. My now open eyes burned against the fierce wind. Faster yet I pushed myself more and more, trying to get just a bit more speed. I shot down toward the ground, and suddenly, very suddenly, a gigantic immense boom radiated from me, along with the flourishing rainbow ring.
I cheered for myself as I painted rainbows across the sky, I couldn't have picked a better time to perform my signature trick, the Sonic Rainboom. I caught a glimpse of Spitfire and SilverLining Staring at me, mouths agape. As I twirled and looped, dived and danced across the clouds, tracing elegant rainbows across the sky.
Eventually I touched back down, once again quite scared of the plans Spitfire had for me. "My god!" I heard a familiar voice say from behind me. Spinning around I saw none other than Soarin standing a few paces behind me with a cheeky smile splayed out on his face. "That's almost as fantastic as my trick." He added with a wink.
"Your trick?" I asked, his statement having piqued my curiosity.
"You two." Spitfire intersected, before Soarin could explain. "Will work together on tandem flying, and on improving your unique skills." Spitfire finished, seemingly displeased by my Sonic RainBooming ability. "RainbowDash your training is no longer entirely standard, and I need more time to research training for you, so you are dismissed for the weekend early." With a wave of her hoof Spitfire turned to SilverLining, and they went back to whispering in hushed tones.
Soarin led me from the field and back into the base. "What trick?" I finally managed to ask.
With a sideways glance at me Soarin explained. "You make Rainbows, what do you think I could make?" he said cryptically.
"Do you mean, lightning, or a storm?"
"Something of the sort." He closed the topic cryptically.
We continued on our way through the base and in no time arrived at out living quarters. "Well. I don't exactly have any possessions to bring back to PonyVille." I stated lamely, I hadn't even brought… Well, I didn't have much to bring. All my needs were met by the amenities of the base, and I didn't have a great amount of personal knickknacks that I brought with me, when I left PonyVille.
"Depends." Soarin explained with a chortle. "Should I bring along a toothbrush, or do you have a spare?"
"I gotcha covered." I laughed, we descended in to a fit of giggles, despite the fact that neither of us thought that was overly funny, I guess I just loosened up around Soarin, he was shaping up to be a worthwhile friend. We continued along the smooth marble hallway and worked our way back outside, with a quick glance at the sun we positioned ourselves in the direction of PonyVille, and took to the skies.