Dashing and Soaring
Chapter 9: Horseshoe Hunting
Previous Chapter Next ChapterAuthors Note: This chapter is rated T for some slight bloodshed.
Sparkling-nexis137- I teared up a little when I read that my story was your favourite. Thank you! *hugs*. I promise that this story will get better, too.
"I can't believe I've been here two weeks already," Rainbow Dash sighed as she reclined atop the fluffy cloud that was suspended directly above the academy, putting her shades on to block out the sun. With March slowly turning into April, the weather was growing warmer. Drills had ended for today and Rainbow Dash and Soarin had just finished their latest lesson. Soarin had taught her a double Buccaneer Blaze, as promised, and Rainbow was now relaxing with a soda in one hoof, stress free and feeling fulfilled. Soarin sat beside her, sipping some lemonade.
"It's gone too fast," He agreed, swallowing his drink. "Pretty soon you'll be leaving for Ponyville again…" he sounded almost sad. Rainbow lifted up her shades and gave Soarin and annoyed glower.
"Don't say that, Soar. There's still over three months!" Rainbow didn't want the boot camp to end, either, but she was looking forward to seeing her friends again. Speaking of Dash's friends, they had agreed over letters to meet up sometime, maybe at the Spring Celebration that Ponyville held each year to celebrate the arrival of spring.
"Sorry, Dash. I don't want you to leave, that's all," he sighed, laying on his tummy and putting his head in one hoof. Rainbow was a little confused. Did he mean that he'd miss her or he'd miss all the cadets? True, he didn't really know most of the cadets that well, though. Maybe he just wasn't looking forward to all that work that came after the boot camp.
"Hey, I'll become a Wonderbolt soon enough and then we can fly together all the time," Rainbow tried to perk him up, falling into another of her daydreams of flying with her lifelong heroes. Soarin gave her a huge smile.
"I know you'll be a Wonderbolt, too, Dashie. I don't have a single doubt in my mind."
Rainbow lifted up her shades and gave Soarin a weird look. "Dashie?" She echoed him. Nopony except her friends called her Dashie. Soarin shifted his eyes.
"Oh, sorry, Dash. I understand if you don't want me to call you that. It's just that I heard your friends call you Dashie before and… I just liked the sound of it," he shrugged. Rainbow gave him a smirk that said 'meh'.
"I don't mind, Soarin, you go ahead and call me whatever you want," she told him, putting her shades back on and taking a gulp of her soda. She would miss hanging out with him. It wasn't every day that a Wonderbolt came up to her offering to help her with tricks. Now that she thought about it, she would consider Soarin her best friend at the academy. A little over a week ago she may have said it was Spring Song, but now the pink mare was acting like a jerk. For the past week Rainbow Dash had been avoiding the blond pegasus like the plague. She hadn't been bothered by her for quite some time; maybe she'd given up and realised that Rainbow wasn't easy prey. She smirked as she imagined a blue bunny outrunning an angry pink fox.
"What are you smiling at?" Soarin asked her, noticing Dash's expression. Dash smirked a little more, picturing the pink fox covered in mud, now.
"Oh, nothin'," She chuckled, sipping her soda again.
…..
Horseshoe Hunting.
It was one of the more elusive activities at the academy, but it was by far the most intense. It combined the Wonderbolts' skills of flight, defence, attack and speed in one big activity.
The rules of Horseshoe Hunting were simple. There were twenty horseshoes hidden around the training grounds, some silver, and some gold. The cadets were separated into two teams, also gold or silver. The ponies in the gold team had to find all the silver horseshoes and put them in their stash (most commonly a crack in a cloud or cliff) and the silver team had to find all the gold horseshoes and put them in their stash. But it wasn't all that simple. The teams can get their horseshoes back by stealing them from their opponents' stash and fighting for them. The first team to find all of their horseshoes wins. Most Horseshoe Hunts could last anywhere from one hour to four, but on the rare occasion, they took more than one set of drills to finish.
Rainbow Dash couldn't wait to get started. The Horseshoe Hunt sounded super fun. She was on the gold team with Beau, Stargazer, Sugar Swoop, Paradise, Smart Set and Free Fall.
"We're totally gonna kick the other teams flanks!" Sugar Swoop declared putting on his most determined face. Rainbow Dash had made it her goal to win, especially since Spring Song was on the silver team. Since Rainbow was on the gold team, she had a gold coloured band around her hoof that was identical to the ones the rest of her team was wearing.
"Are you all ready?" Spitfire called out to the cadets as they stood on opposite sides of the landing strip. The golden mare was replied by a bunch of enthusiastic cheers of agreement. She blew her whistle and the two teams of seven took off into the air to find those horseshoes. Rainbow Dash saw that her team was mostly searching around the mountain, so she decided to look by the Dizzitron. She zoomed over to the towering device and nosed around the clouds surrounding it. She looked on top of it and then finally trotted over to the control panel that worked the machine. She let out a silent cheer as she saw a silver horseshoe hooked around one of the levers. She took it in her teeth and flapped off, deciding to find the others and find out where their stash was.
She encountered Sugar Swoop atop a cloud hovering close to the mountain. "Hey guys, I found one," she declared, taking the horseshoe out of her mouth so she could talk. Sugar Swoop gave her a slap on the back.
"Awesome, Dash!" He congratulated her. "The stash is over here," he led her over to a crevice in the mountain. Rainbow Dash, however, didn't think this was the best place for their stash.
"Seriously, Sugar Swoop, a hole in the mountain? That's too obvious. We need to place our stash somewhere that the other team won't even think to look," Rainbow threw her hooves into the air to emphasize. The rest of her team gathered around to try and think of somewhere to hide their stash. Rainbow tapped her noggin as if trying to knock an idea into her head. She let out a gasp as she got an idea. She knew that pegasi tended to fly high above the ground to see things better. So the answer was simple. They needed to hide it under something.
"Did ya think of something?" Free Fall asked Rainbow, looking hopeful. Rainbow Dash nodded and motioned for them to fly around the mountain a little. The group were led to a large shrub perched on an outcrop of a cliff.
"We can hide the horseshoes under here," she placed her silver horseshoe under the shrub to demonstrate and then, as if given a silent command, Stargazer fluttered into the air and looked down at the shrub.
"Nice thinking, Rainbow Dash, I can't see it at all from up here," the charcoal coloured mare reported in that usual high, hippie-like voice of hers. Rainbow grinned to herself, congratulating herself on a job-well-done.
"Now, we need somepony to stay here and guard our stash just in case. Who wants to be our guard?" Rainbow Dash asked her team.
"Ooh, pick me!" Paradise raised her hoof. Rainbow Dash saw that none of the other ponies wanted to take this position so she allowed Paradise to guard the stash, reminding her that she had to pretend to look for horseshoes so she wouldn't give away their stash.
"As for the rest of us, Beau and Free Fall will look around the mountain some more, Sugar Swoop will try and find out where the other teams stash is, Stargazer and Smart Set will look around the air obstacle course and I'll look by the other training devices," She listed the team's positions and they eagerly split up to search for horseshoes.
Rainbow Dash managed to find one buried in a clump of clouds beside the racetrack and headed to the stash to put it there. Paradise was doing a good job being the guard. She was flapping around the clouds near the cliff face, making sure to keep one eye on the shrub at all times. Rainbow gave her a nod of approval, which Paradise quickly returned. The green mare was slowly talking to Rainbow Dash more, though she only did whenever Spring Song wasn't around. That wasn't very often at all since Paradise followed Spring Song around like a shadow. Dash almost felt sorry for Paradise. Spring Song treated her like a slave, when Paradise saw Spring Song as her BFF. Rainbow frowned as she realised that Paradise probably didn't even know what real friendship was. She wished she could help her. She sighed and returned to looking for horseshoes. She encountered Lullaby and Cinder searching by the Dizzitron. She was about to tell them that there weren't any horseshoes there before remembering that they were on the opposite team. Instead, she waved at them. Lullaby cupped a hoof around her mouth and called out:
"We're totally gonna win!"
Rainbow smirked before yelling back. "In your dreams!"
They both burst out laughing and Cinder giggled a little, too. Rainbow suddenly felt the air go cold and as she looked up from her spot at the end of the landing strip to see a familiar pink pegasus flapping down to talk to Lullaby and Cinder.
"Did you find any horseshoes, yet?" Spring Song asked Lullaby. The purple mare beamed as she held up her hoof. She had cleverly tucked the horseshoe in the silver band she was wearing.
"Nice job, Lullaby," Spring Song smiled at the other mare. "Now, go and put it in the stash and make sure nopony from the gold team follows you."
Rainbow Dash realised that Spring Song probably hadn't noticed her yet, which gave her the perfect chance to find the other teams stash and plan a way to steal the horseshoes and hide them again. She suddenly became aware of Spring Song speaking to Cinder. The timid blue mare shrunk back a little, not meeting Spring Song's gaze.
"Well?" Spring Song hissed at Cinder. "Did you find any horseshoes or not?"
"N-n-no. Sorry, S-s-spring Song," Cinder trembled, as sweat began to appear on her brow. Spring Song shoved her face in Cinders so they were nose to nose.
"Well, you'd better find some or I'll take every stuttering syllable of yours and shove them back down your throat," she threatened. Cinder flew off faster than Rainbow had ever seen her fly before. She was basically a dark blue blur. Rainbow felt her blood boil and marched over to Spring Song.
"Hey, Spring Song, what they hay was that for?" Dash poked the pink pegasus roughly on the shoulder. Spring Song gave Rainbow Dash a phoney smile.
"Oh, hey there, Rainbow Dash," she chirped, saying Rainbow Dash the same way you'd say 'garbage'.
"Enough of the chatter, Spring Song, you didn't have to talk to Cinder like that, ya know."
Spring Song rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up, Rainbow Crash, Cinder can handle it. She may be the most useless cadet here, but she's think-skinned."
Rainbow raised her hoof to slap the pink mare senseless, before forcing herself to put it back down, tapping it on the cloudy ground instead to keep it occupied. "How dare you speak about her that way, you…you…" Rainbow couldn't think of anything insulting enough to say.
"Just go away, Dash. Don't you have some horseshoes to find…not that you will find any," Spring Song flapped away after that, leaving Rainbow Dash alone with her pent up anger. She briefly lost herself in a vision of strapping Spring Song to the Dizzitron before telling herself to just continue with the Horseshoe Hunt. She wanted it all to be over. Still muttering negative things about Spring Song, Rainbow Dash made her way back to Paradise at the stash.
"How many horseshoes are there, now?" she asked the green mare. Paradise fluttered down to land beside the shrub and lifted it up revealing nine silver horseshoes.
"One more to go," Paradise smiled brightly. Rainbow was relieved that this game would soon end. "Turns out that the silver team were finding their own horseshoes and hiding them all in a different stash and you should have seen their faces when Sugar Swoop stole them all," she added, giggling.
"Thank Celestia for that," Rainbow commented, wiping her brow. "You heard anything from Stargazer, Smart Set and the others?"
"Yeah, Beau and Free Fall found two around the mountain. Stargazer and Smart set found a gold one but apart from that, nothing," Paradise reported. "I'm just glad you didn't send anypony to look in the storm clouds. I mean you'd have to be a total pea brain to go in there," she added, looking warily up at the cluster of storm clouds that Dash had flown through in the race. A light bulb went off in Rainbow Dash's head.
The storm clouds!
Of course!
There must be a horseshoe or two hidden in there somewhere. It was the most challenging place to go in the entire academy, so it must be some kind of test of strength to see who could brave the tempest clouds. Rainbow took off without another word at full speed towards the cluster of clouds, ignoring Paradise's cry of 'I didn't know you were a pea brain!'
Rainbow gulped as she flew into the greyness of the storm clouds. She braved the strong winds and focused on trying to locate a silver horseshoe on one of the clouds. She looked and looked and looked with no luck. UGH! Maybe there weren't any horseshoes in here. Suddenly she saw something glint out of the corner of her eye. She gasped and zoomed over to it, trying her best to shield her eyes from the pummelling of the wind. She reached out a hoof and smiled as she felt something heavy and horseshoe-shaped. She triumphantly looked at the prize in her hoof only for her features to fall when she saw what it was.
A gold horseshoe.
"OH, COME ON!" Rainbow yelled, looking with fury at the horseshoe. Where in Equestria was the last silver one?
"Rainbow Dash?"
Oh no.
Spring Song loomed at one end of the cluster of clouds, one eyebrow raised. She caught sight of what Rainbow Dash was holding and began flapping over. "Give me that, Rainbow Crash. That's the last one my team needs!"
"What? There's no way you're getting this!" Rainbow clutched the horseshoe to her chest like it was some kind of precious treasure. "Why would I give you this anyways, 'cause I know it'll cause my team to lose?"
"Whoa, it's smarter than I thought," Spring Song muttered to herself. Rainbow felt her entire body burn as the word 'it' came out of Spring Song's big mouth. She'd started calling Dash an 'It'!
"Go away, Spring Song. My team's gonna win and ya know what the best part about it is? There's nothing you can do about it!" Rainbow Dash taunted the pink pegasus, who gave the rainbow maned mare her signature scowl.
"Is that so?" She suddenly smirked. What was she up to? Suddenly, she lunged at Rainbow Dash and grabbed the horseshow, trying to tug it from Rainbow Dash's grasp.
"Hey, no fair!" Rainbow tugged harder. She then remembered that the cadets were free to fight each other for the horseshoes. Rainbow delivered a sharp kick to Spring Song's stomach, knocking the breath out of the pink demon-pony, causing her to clutch her tummy. Rainbow flapped her wings frantically, cursing as a furious gust of wind sent her tumbling over and over. She felt a strong pain between her ears and for a moment everything went fuzzy. She didn't realise that Spring Song had grabbed the horseshoe until she waved it in front of the cyan mare's face. Despite the throbbing in her head, Rainbow Dash grabbed Spring Song's hind legs as she tried to fly away and pulled her back, taking pleasure in the pink mare's squeals as she tried desperately to free herself from Rainbow Dash's strong hold. Rainbow winced as Spring Song suddenly kicked back with her left leg and made contact with Rainbow Dash's cheek. Rainbow clutched her sore cheek. She probed the inside of it with her tongue and tasted blood.
Spring Song was gonna get it.
Lightning cracked over their heads as Rainbow wrapped her front hooves around the fleeing Spring Song's waist and shook her, laughing with pride as she released the horseshoe, leaving Rainbow free to grab it and zoom away. The lighting crackled around her, darn near striking Rainbow as she weaved her way around the fast streaks of electricity. The wind was stronger and it was getting harder and harder to fly. To top it all off, it was raining. The storm cloud cluster in the Academy was the only place where you could find tempest clouds that never stopped spawning lightning. Usually, the entire area around it was safe from the thunder and other hazards. Rainbow knew that all she had to do to get to safety was make her way out of the clouds. She felt Spring Song tackle her from behind again and wrap her hooves around her throat. Rainbow gagged as the pink mare squeezed the air from her lungs. Rainbow managed to buck the mare from her back and turned to face her as she regained her control. Looks like they were gonna have to do things the hard way,
The two cadets zoomed at one another, Spring Song roaring in that stupid high voice of hers. Rainbow gritted her teeth as Spring Song rammed into her head-first. Each mare struggled at get a good hold of the other, pawing and punching each other. Spring Song managed to punch Rainbow's cheek, the same one as before, and Rainbow spat out some blood. She kicked Spring Song off her, still managing to keep hold of the horseshoe. Spring Song steadied herself and looked up just in time to get a slug in the face from Dash. Rainbow Dash became more frustrated as Soring Song blocked two more of her punches. They flew around each other, each glaring daggers at the other. Rainbow Dash knew that this was getting a little out of control but by now she was too angry to care.
Spring Song threw a flurry of punches at Rainbow's face, which the cyan mare blocked with ease. But with her hooves guarding her face, Spring Song had a clear target: her stomach. With a powerful hind-hoof-kick, Rainbow got the air pummelled from her. Rainbow felt tears sting her eyes as she clutched her throbbing tummy. This gave Spring Song more than enough time to sock Dash round the face again. Rainbow flew back, clashing with a storm cloud, wincing at the electric shock it gave her. The horseshoe was still safely in Rainbow's hoof.
Was it worth it? All this for a horseshoe?
Or was there more to it than that? Was Spring Song still mad at her for the whole Ray thing the other day? Spring Song just wouldn't listen to reason. When she told her that she didn't like Ray, the pink mare didn't believe her, but why?
"Hey, Dash, I know you like lounging bout and all, but this is a fight! GET UP!" Spring Song mocked, looking like a fierce beast with the blood trickling down her cheek, the lightning that crashed down all around her just added to her extreme evil-ness. Rainbow ducked as Spring Song whizzed towards her and the cyan mare punched Spring Song in her soft tummy as she sailed overhead. Spring Song bounced off the clouds, back into the fight and right into Rainbow Dash's clenched hoof. Spring Song clutched her jaw and spat out some blood before whipping round and returning Rainbow's punch, grabbing the horseshoe at last. Rainbow flapped up and used both hind legs to kick Spring Song in the gut, making the pegasus mare double over with a yelp of pain. Rainbow wrapped her fore hooves around Spring Song's windpipe and she squeezed. Spring Song began to splutter and choke and her eyes grew cloudy.
"Not so tough after all, eh?" Rainbow taunted, squeezing as hard as she could. Spring Song looked up to meet Dash's eyes. Rainbow was about to deliver a punch to the mare's face when her features softened and everything seemed to stop.
What was she doing?
She was fighting another pony over something as worthless as a stallion. Spring Song was bleeding heaving and now Rainbow Dash was strangling her. Judging by the limpness of her body, Spring Song was barely conscious. Rainbow felt her heart ache as she realised that she was being as much of a monster as Spring Song. She released the mare who took the biggest gulp of air ever, her messed up mane sticking to her face due to the rain. She looked like something that had just crawled out of the gutter, the gash on her cheek oozing blood one of her eyes swollen and purple coloured.
"Spring Song-" Rainbow Dash was suddenly knocked back by Spring Song again and pinned against a storm cloud that sent volts of electricity through her body.
"You! Useless! Pile of! Feathers!" Spring Song kicked Rainbow Dash roughly with each outburst. The two mares brawled for what felt like forever, punching, kicking, biting, ripping each other's fur until finally, Spring Song bucked Rainbow Dash away, right into the path of an oncoming lightning bolt. Rainbow felt her entire body sting like never before and the edges of her vision became blurry. She couldn't remember ever being in this much pain before. The electricity flowed through her veins like fire and she felt herself falling. She tried to flap her wings, call for help, anything, but it was like she couldn't control her body anymore. She was just a mind falling through the air, through the clouds. She felt her body go limp.
The last thing she heard was somepony calling her name before she blacked out.
"Rainbow Dash?"
The cyan mare tried to open her eyes but it was like they were glued shut. They were so heavy it was like trying to lift an elephant. She opened her mouth and a pained groan escaped her lips.
"She's awake, Doc!"
"S-Soarin?" Rainbow managed to open her eyes and she squinted at the sudden light. When her magenta eyes finally adjusted to the light she saw Soarin, Braeburn and Spitfire standing around her, looking down at her with concern.
"Wh-what happened?" Rainbow asked, sitting up. She was in a bed, her bed, in her room.
"You got struck by lightning," Spitfire replied, passing Rainbow a glass of water, which she eagerly downed in seconds. "What were you doing up there, anyway?"
Rainbow tilted her head. "Looking for horseshoes, of course," she answered. It was Spitfire's turn to look confused.
"We never put any horseshoes in the tempest cloud cluster," she informed Dash. "It's too dangerous."
"But…there was a horseshoe there. A gold one. Spring Song had it," Rainbow explained. This was crazy. If Spitfire, Whiplash and Fast Clip never hid horseshoes up there, then how could there possibly be one tucked in a cloud? She was hurting too much to put much thought into it and the same nurse who had helped Fast Clip the other day showed up, holding a clipboard.
"It's good to see you're okay, Rainbow Dash. It's a good thing that lightning bolt only struck your wing otherwise things could've been a lot worse," she smiled down at Rainbow. "It's a good thing Spitfire was there to catch you," she added, looking gratefully at the Wonderbolt captain. Rainbow made a mental note to thank Spitfire once she'd got out of bed. Wait! That reminded her of something.
"I'm not bedridden am I, doc?" Rainbow asked hopefully. She hated being stuck in bed. The nurse shook her head.
"No, you'll be fine by morning. You just have to stay firmly on the ground for the rest of today, just to give your struck wing some time to get better. Struck wings are perfectly fine until overused, so just let it rest."
Rainbow heaved a sigh of relief, the fuzziness finally disappearing from her head. She sat up in bed and stretched, realising that she wasn't wearing her cadet uniform anymore. Somepony must have taken it off for her. She got up and shook herself, looking in the mirror on the wall. Her cheek had a band aid on it and a dark purple bruise was on her tummy. Apart from that, she was the same old Rainbow Dash. The nurse left after that after reminding Rainbow not to fly until tomorrow.
"How's about we go to the kitchen and get some pie?" Braeburn suggested. Soarin licked his lips.
"That sounds great, Brae. Race ya!" Soarin galloped out of the room and charged down the hall.
"The kitchen's the other way!" Rainbow Dash called after him. A moment later, Soarin whizzed past the door again and Rainbow rolled her eyes at his behaviour.
"I've gotta get back to my office," Spitfire excused herself, beginning to trot away. Rainbow put a hoof on the captain's shoulder.
"Nope. You're not getting out of it this time. You're gonna come to the kitchen with us whether ya like it or not, right Braeburn?" Rainbow looked over to the earth pony for back up. He shifted his eyes.
"Well…ya don't have to, but um…you could- Ah mean, err…" Rainbow raised a hoof to get him to shut up. It was a simple yes or no question.
"You could use a break," Rainbow pointed out. "Pleeeeeaaase?" she squeed, putting on a pair of puppy dog eyes that could turn a chicken hawk soft. Spitfire face hoofed.
"Ugh! If I say yes will you never do that eye thing again?" she asked, adjusting her shades. "It freaks me out a little."
"YES!"
The two mares jumped and looked over to see Braeburn jumping in the air. He became aware of their eyes on him and began trotting down the hall, grinning sheepishly and his face red. Rainbow shook her head, dismissing Braeburn's crazy behaviour.
"Is he usually that…" Spitfire fumbled to find the right word.
"Crazy?" Rainbow suggested.
"Yeah," Spitfire agreed.
"Yeah…he hangs around Soarin way too much," Rainbow chuckled. The two mares and Braeburn headed to the kitchen, where Soarin was already getting the ingredients. Rainbow headed through the door and turned to see Braeburn holding the door open for Spitfire, who gave him a nod of thanks. Braeburn closed the door but forgot to move, causing the door to slam into his head. Rainbow buried her face in a hoof, muttering something negative about the earth pony.
"Okay, let's bake, then," Braeburn put on his blue apron.
"NO!" Rainbow Dash and Soarin yelled in unison, surprising Braeburn.
"You can cook, we learnt our lesson about cooking without you yesterday," Soarin admitted, turning green at the memory. Braeburn raised a brow.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You don't wanna know," Rainbow replied, shaking her head. Braeburn shrugged it off.
"Ya wanna help, ma'am?" Braeburn asked Spitfire, who looked surprised he asked.
"Me? Oh…I don't bake," she replied, looking a little ashamed. Braeburn shook his head at her.
"Anypony can bake, ma'am. Ya just need to give it a try," he insisted. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say that that wasn't always true when Soarin clamped a hoof over her mouth for some reason.
"Sorry, Cowboy, I just can't bake," Spitfire repeated herself.
"Well at least watch, then maybe you'll change your mind?" Braeburn suggested. Spitfire looked away for a moment, before sighing and walking over to stand beside Braeburn at the counter. He looked pleased she'd decided to watch and began explaining how to make apple pie. Soarin finally took his hoof away from Rainbow's mouth allowing her to speak.
"What the hay was that for?" she asked him. Soarin chuckled, his eyes never leaving the two ponies at the counter.
"Oh…nothin'."
Hi, everypony,
Nothing really happened today. Drills were fine although my team lost the game. There's no reason to worry about me whatsoever, so just carry on with your lives as normal.
Yours normally,
Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow sighed in relief, relieved to have finished her letter. She had no intention of telling her friends what happened. She didn't even want to think about it. She flopped down on her bed after putting the letter in her saddle bags and looked over at Spring Song's empty bed.
She wished that they could just make amends, then none of this would happen. She was feeling fine now although she could feel a scar on the inside of her cheek. Rainbow got up and trotted across the room, opening up the window and sticking her head out, the night breeze ruffling her rainbow coloured mane. She could see the training grounds from here and her stomach lurched when she saw the cluster of tempest clouds. Spitfire's words from earlier about how horseshoes were never hidden up there returned and the cyan mare's suspicion grew. How did the horseshoe get up there? She had a feeling that this was no mistake. Somepony had put the horseshoe up there without Spitfire or her assistants knowing.
And she was determined to find out who.
Endnote: Oh my gosh! That fight scene was fun to write. This is the first time I've ever written something like that and I apologise if it wasn't all that good. Tune in next time when Soarin takes Rainbow Dash on a day around Cloudsdale to clear her head.