A New Dawn Chapter 2

Spitfire once again took her spot on the podium and addressed everypony present. "Congratulations are due to all of our competitors, for those that did not make it, keep trying and practicing and maybe you will be able to push yourself to reach the level that Equestria needs you to be. Now to our remaining applicants, we are entering the last section of the test. All of you have what takes to be a Wonderbolt, Speed, reflexes, agility, you all have it in spades, now we need to know If you can use your talents effectively and do so under adverse conditions, to do this we will being splitting you in to teams to ten. There are fifteen spots open on the Wonderbolts and the top three teams will make it. The teams are random and impartial, we need to know if we can count on you to work with those you're unfamiliar with. We need to know if you can stand next to a stranger and fly with them as if they were own your sister or brother. Now everyone form a line. "

All the pones lined up in one giant row, and began to count off by five,

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

Rainbow Dash's mind was racing. She had no idea what to think, she never practiced routines with others…not since flight school, but that was years ago.

"Four."

"Five."

"One."

They were getting closer to her, her stomach was churning. 'Please, oh please, oh please, be a good team!' She thought to herself. 

"Five."

"One."

"Two."

'OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!!'

"Four!" Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs startling the filly next to her. She blushed at her outburst and quickly made her way out of line to where the other fours were.

They were all huddled together in a circle but made room for her and the fifth and final member of the fourth team. Rainbow Dash did not know any of them. Her eyes looked from one pony to another; they did the same as well until a grey colt raised his hoof to the center of the group. Without words they all one by one raised their hoofs to touch his.  

"I don't know who you guys are," the grey colt said, his voice soft but confident, "But that doesn't matter cuz I know we're all here to win this thing. So, let's do this. Team Four on three, ONE! TWO! THREE!"

"TEAM FOUR!!" the five of them yelled.

Rainbow had known this colt for about a minute and already liked him, but now was not the time for introductions now was the time for winning. Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts were taking their places and directing the groups.

"Alright everyone listen up" Spitfire announced. "The last event is simple, First you race to Ponyville, then you pick up a  wounded dummy from Soarin', dodge "enemy fire" courtesy of the residents of Ponyville while providing cover for the wounded dummy and carrier, drop off the dummy at Sweet Apple Acres farm and I will be waiting to let you all know how you have done. Good luck!" After announcing the task they would have to face she and the other Wonderbolt's took their place.

Looking over the team Rainbow Dash, noticed that the grey colt was the only colt, and thus bigger than the other filly's, so she voiced her opinion on the matter.

"You," she said pointing at him, "You're bigger than the rest of us so I think you should carry the dummy, the rest of us will cover your flank."

The Colt snorted and nodded in agreement. "Shouldn't be a problem"

Just then they were called to the starting line which was at the edge of Cloudsdale overlooking Ponyville. Spitfire was standing with her hoof raised high. All the ponies got themselves ready for the starting leg. Then with a quick drop of her fore leg they were all off.

Rainbow Dash hurtled herself to the ground as fast as she could, she looked to her left and right and saw that while she was in the lead there were others that were hot on her tail, this truly was the best of Equestria going for broke, even the grey colt was struggling but still managing to follow Dash's lead without falling to far behind. As they all free-fell their way from the sky, the clouds parted and the earth sped closer and closer.

"Slow down!" a voice from behind Rainbow Dash yelled out. She turned and saw it was the grey Colt, still struggling to maintain his distance, "You need to slow down, the others can't fly as fast!"

Rainbow Dash scoffed, "Slow down?! The others will beat us!" Now Rainbow Dash was running on adrenaline and irked by the idea the other three of the team were slow pokes. Then it hit her. "Go back for the others I'm gonna try a buy us some time!" With that Rainbow Dash sped off leaving the colt behind not hearing him yell out one last thing.

Rainbow Dash saw that two of the other groups were clearly in the lead and maneuvered in front of them. She flapped her wings as fast as she could; she felt the wind sting her eyes causing her to tear up. There was a white film building up around her, vapor caused by the difference in pressure in the air as tore threw it. Then with one final strong flap, she heard a loud snapping noise that immediately grew silently and distant. There was no howl of the wind, now sound of her wings flapping, her vision was blurred around the edges, and with every last ounce of strength she turned her head against the force of the wind to look behind her, a smile across her face.

A magnificent circular rainbow expanded across the sky growing ever larger. Its colors dazzling against the blue afternoon skies it stretched out across the horizon. Rainbow Dash couldn't hear it out side of the initial snap, but her friends told her the Sonic Rainboom was deafening, the boom caused by breaking the sound barrier was sure to disorient those behind her, and the shockwave would definitely throw off their formations. Satisfied with herself, Rainbow Dash corrected course and prepped for her landing in Ponyville.  

As soon as she touched down, Rainbow saw the booths for the teams to grab their dummy, so she ran over to booth number 4. She was way ahead of everypony else, so now she had to wait for her team to show up.

"That was awesome!" Soarin' yelled out, reared up on his hind legs. He was behind the dummy booths to give instructions when the contestants came in. "That was even better than Rainboom you did at the Shining Amour's wedding. How do you do that?"

"It's easy when you're as fast as me," Rainbow Dash bragged in playful way, "If I get into the Wonderbolts, maybe I could show you how to do it. We could show each other all sorts of tricks when we're together, you and I." Rainbow said trying to sound as flirty as she could. She was never good at it, Rarity was the one who could always have the colts eating out of her hoof, but this was Soarin' of the Wonderbolts, she had to try.

Soarin' blushed, "Well, uhh…we'll see how the competition goes, not that I wouldn't mind having a pretty filly like you on team."

His response sent Rainbow mind whirling with delight, 'He thinks I'm pretty, OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH' She thought to herself, but then she shot back to reality at his next words.

"Speaking of team, where is yours?"

"Uh…" Rainbow reeled for answer "they were moving way too slow for me, so I zoomed ahead of the other teams and told them to hang back. Then I did the Sonic Rainboom to throw off the other teams to buy my slow teammates of extra time."

"So you left them behind?" Soarin' said with a sad disappointed look across his face. "Well that's not really-"

He was cut short by several more ponies landing, more and more by the second. He rushed over to instruct the groups on how to carry the wounded pony dummy. Rainbow Dash was pleased to see that her group had landed with the rest of the ponies and not far behind it looked like her plan worked. She saw the rest of the Fours run over to the booth, Rainbow Dash awaited there praise.

"What's the matter with you?" a young yellow filly from the team said.

"You just left us back there!" the other team member, a dark blue filly, agreed. "Haven't you ever been on a team before?

"Enough," the grey colt said, "we aren't gonna get anywhere yelling at her let's just move on." He quickly readied himself next to the dummy.

Rainbow Dash was dumbfounded "What, you ungrateful bunch of Mules!" She looked over her shoulder, "No offense"

"None taken," the town mule said.

"But I made it so the other teams didn't blow us out of the water, I did it because you guys were moving to slow, you should be thanking me!"

"Which part should we thank you for? The part where you ditched us to show off or the part where you knocked us all around with your Rainboom?" The dark blue pegasus yelled back angrily.

"I said enough!" The grey colt yelled while stomping his hoof loud enough get all of their attentions. The only one helping him with the dummy was smaller green filly who hadn't said anything. "We all need to stop fighting and start winning. We can't win at each other's throats. Now I got the dummy, the four of you, grab shields, the dummy is too heavy to fly with so I am going to run it as fast as I can to the barn. If we stay in a tight formation they won't be able to hit us or the dummy."

The four fillies didn't argue, and they all slid into saddle's that had big round shields on one side. As soon as they were suited up the surround the colt and dummy, and they all began to gallop to the barn. As they did town's folk were posted around them and began launching water balloons filled with paint at them with giant rubber bands. The balloons pelted and splattered hard against the shields splattering different paint colors against them. The Colt's feet pounded against the ground and his breathing was loud and he sucked in and blew air out through clenched teeth. The dark blue filly grunted as she got blasted with a water balloon on her side. Just then the green filly was hit hard and fell to the ground, Rainbow Dash saw her fall and a group of ponies aiming another balloon at her.

"Look out!" she yelled and leaped back to absorb the blow. Suddenly she did felt the left side of her neck explode with pain. Her risky move left her other half exposed and she was caught by an errant balloon, which splattered her bright blue coat with dark purple paint. The surprise and force of the attack caused her to stumble and she fell on the ground. The other pony managed to get up and join the other three. Rainbow struggled to get up but slipped on excess paint on the ground, there was with a loud 'THWACK!' and splash of green from another balloon struck against her hindquarter, she fell down once more. Her mind raced and head pounded as more balloons struck her. 'no...this was my chance, I'll never make it now…'    

"HANG ON!" the colt's voice rang out strong, and reassuring. Rainbow heard muffled arguing, "I DON'T CARE WE FINISH TOGETHER! GUARD THE DUMMY!"

The Colt dropped the dummy and ran back to where Rainbow was fighting to stand lowered his head under hers and propped her up the best he could. Rainbow Dash was aching all over; she was hit with what felt like the tenth balloon. Covered in all sorts of colors she looked at the colt with defeated, desperate eyes but took strength in his confident tone. She shook off her worries and put her hoof on his shoulder, "Together," she said half asking half telling.

"Together," he said. Then he lead her back to the others, who were huddled down by the dummy, Rainbow saw that the other teams were struggling two, other ponies had fallen, some just as paint splattered as her, there were some groups ahead and some behind. They hoisted the dummy on the colt and reformed up and ran again. It was only a few more minutes till they reached the barn.

"Congratulations," Spitfire said as they charged in. "wait for the others teams before we finish," She announced to all the competitors. However it was not long before the rest pulled in and Spitfire addressed all of them. "This is it contestants, your progress has been monitored this whole time by the other Wonderbolts and myself and your team has been graded and the standings will be given momentarily"

Fleet Foot and Soarin moved to her side, and gave their reports. The three conversed back and forth and argued, Soarin' seemed upset at something that Spitfire had said, but Fleet Foot had agreed with her and so he seemed to give up his point. Then Spitfire announced the team standings.

"Team Four and team One we are sorry but better luck next time. The winners are Team two, Team Five, and Team Three, With team Three being are our champions! Alright, everypony in teams Three, Five and Two we will see you in the winner's circle back in Cloudsdale, the rest of you are certainly welcome to come back and enjoy in the celebrations." With that Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts took off to Cloudsdale, with the celebrating winning teams close behind them.

Rainbow Dash's heart sank as her eyes turned back to the others, all of them with sullen defeated looks. All of the unsure of what to do. Then the green filly quietly turned and slowly flew away. They all watched her go, shortly after the other two fillies left. The colt was the last to go, beating his wings and taking to the air and began to fly off, but turned to Rainbow Dash before he left.

"Hey, your Rainboom was pretty cool, you wanna go grab a bite to eat?"

"No," Her voice cracked from fighting back tears. "I gotta head back to Cloudsdale, I got someone waiting for me there."