Haven't read what led up to this, Battleships are Magic and Connection? Don't worry, they aren't essential.

July, 1993

Pensacola, Florida

The men in blue jumpsuits stood beside the row of aircraft. On the lapel of each was an embroidered patch depicting a golden shield with outspread wings, the mark of a naval aviator. From her perch in the grandstands, Rainbow Dash looked on. The pilots began to board their airplanes, getting ready for the performance.

First up would be a repurposed cargo aircraft. It rolled onto the runway, spinning up its engines. It was a large plane with four propellers. The blue, white, and yellow paint gleamed brightly in the sun.

As the aircraft began to travel down the runway, four small rockets on either side of the fuselage fired. The white-hot flames propelled the plane forward quickly and it lifted off, climbing at a forty-five degree angle.

Rainbow sat watching the feat with the rest of the audience. Many were smiling, although hers was argueably the widest. It was her first air show.

Ponies and humans had only been interacting for a few months. The system of trans-dimensional doorways that connected their worlds had been an unexpected development in technology, but all of them were getting used to it. There was still some awkward staring at Rainbow when she visited Earth, but today, the whole crowd was watching the spectacle in front of them.

The large airplane made a few passes over the crowd. They made the appropriate oohs and ahs. Rainbow couldn’t believe that something that big could move so fast. With her good mood, she had temporarily forgotten something that had been upsetting her.

The Wonderbolts flight demonstration team had been all she’d thought about while growing up in Equestria. They performed flight shows all over the country, and it had been Rainbow’s dream to someday join them.

When she’d auditioned the month before, she felt confident that she was going to be accepted. She was sure that she'd performed everything right and landed back in front of the ‘Bolts feeling great.

They’d seemed impressed, but had bad news.

“Don’t get us wrong, you’re a very talented pegasus,” said Soarin’.

“There are a couple of things that disqualify you, though,” said Spitfire, sounding regretful. “Your mane doesn’t fit acceptable color patterns.”

“I’ll dye it!”

“As a weather pony, you don’t have much experience with low altitude flying.”

“I practically live on the ground!”

“You don’t have a lot of group experience. We’re about to embark on a tour of Earth, and we won’t have time to quickly train someone in the finer points of formation flying.”

“But I…”

“Sorry, Rainbow Dash. You’re a great flier, but we can’t use you.”

The cargo airplane pulled off a few more stunts and landed after its brief show. Rainbow was eager to see what came next. Four sleek blue and yellow jets taxied onto the runway. A cloud of white smoke burst from behind them as they began to roll, quickly getting into the air.

The planes formed into a diamond pattern, spaced impossibly close together and still trailing smoke. The group executed a couple of loops, never breaking perfect formation.

On the runway, two more jets began to take off. One leaped into the air and flipped over. The other pulled up sharply and began to gain altitude like a rocket. After a loop, it flashed back across the runway at high speed, rolling over. Block letters painted on the underside of the wings spelled out US NAVY.

Rainbow had been crushed at the Wonderbolts’ rejection. It was all she had ever wanted, and now the opportunity was gone. She’d sulked, feeling depressed.

It was lucky she had such great friends. They’d noticed her mood, and tried to cheer her up. It had been Twilight that had come up with the idea of getting her a ticket to the air show. The featured performance was by a very different flight demonstration team: The Blue Angels.

The four aircraft in formation passed close by the crowd, seemingly stacked even tighter than before. Behind them, the two solo aircraft met head-on, somehow missing each other. They came back around, flying low to the runway with one of them hanging upside down.

The diamond crossed back in front of the crowd, half of the aircraft now inverted. One of the solo planes ripped into a tight turn and lit the afterburners to climb vertically. Meeting the other soloist, they barely missed each other again.

Meanwhile, the four jets had broken out of the diamond and arranged themselves in a line. They split off in different directions, their smoke making a star in the sky. Unnoticed by the crowd, the two solo planes had maneuvered around to overfly the grandstands from behind, taking many by surprise.

The six jets formed up together into a triangle formation. They rolled into a knot and then diverged, six trails of smoke going in all directions. A quick change of heading, and they all sliced back over the crowd simultaneously, rolling to form back up into the triangle.

The formation passed back over one more time in salute. Each jet broke off one by one, circling around for a landing.

Rainbow Dash cheered with the rest of the crowd. She’d never seen anything like that performance before. She’d never known anything so totally awesome could exist.

There was a new goal forming in her mind. Even the Wonderbolts weren’t as impressive as this. Rainbow wanted to be a part of it, she wanted it more than anything. The technicalities and limitations could be worried about later. She was going to be a pilot.