It takes a good ten minutes or so to get from your home on the edge of the town to the heart of it. Even though you ran most of the way (Rainbow Dash being the far better athlete, and as a result you are now out of breath and sweating profusely) the town center is already packed with ponies of all kinds. Earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies were crammed almost shoulder to shoulder as a beige mare with her mane placed neatly in a bun and light blue horn rimmed glasses takes the stage. A unicorn next to her magically levitates the microphone and holds it in front of her face as she clears her throat.

“Welcome everyone, to the special, one night only, Wonder Bolt aerial show!”

The crowd bursts to life in shouting and applause as dash, still holding your hoof, elbows her way up to the stage.

“S’cuse me!”

“Pardon me!”

“Dude, lose some weight.”

For each comment she makes as she plows her way through, you smile and apologize on her be half.

“Sorry.”

“My bad!”

“I think you look great!”

Finally you reach edge of the sea of ponies and crane your neck, looking up at the stage. The Mayor is just finishing her speech, and rainbow dash is staring ahead with such intensity, you’re afraid she may set the stage on fire with her glare. Finally, the Mayor backs off to the side as four ponies make their way to the stage. Dash cheers as they step to the side, and welcome in their leader.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Give a warm welcome to the leader of the Wonder Bolts, SPITFIRE!”

You head fills with the sound of hooves on a chalk board as dash lets out a high pitched screech. Her wings spring out ward as spitfire takes the mike, strutting across the stage and throwing the crowd into a frenzy as she cheers them on. You have to duck in order to keep your eyes from being jabbed by Dash’s pin feathers.

“Hello Ponyville! Are you ready to get wild!?”

More applause and cheering. You’re a little lost in the sea of enthusiasm, but the energy in the air causes your heart to accelerate. You’re excited and you have no idea why, but you do know that you like it.

“I can’t hear you! Are you ready to get crazy?!” She pumps her forelegs and the crowd lets loose in a burst of cheers and screams. You find yourself being pressed forward as the crowd lunges for the yellow and orange pony in the jumpsuit as they reach out and slap a row of hooves, dashes included, who promptly lets out another squeal. You smile, her excitement prompting you to reach out as well as white and blue pony in an identical jump suit slaps your hoof five.

“Alright you rowdy bunch of ponies! We have a night filled with sheer awesomeness, and death defying stunts waiting just for you, so don’t go anywhere! We just need one more minute to prepare and we will utterly, BLOW. YOUR. MINDS!

The crowd roars and cheers as the ponies go back behind the big red curtain on the stage. Even as the noise dies down to excited murmurs and buzzes of conversation, your heart is still beating faster than ever.

“Where did they go?” You turn to dash, surprised to see her looking at you already.

“Oh, they gotta do some pre-show stretching, you know? Prevent cramps and tears and stuff like that.”

“Oh…. Yeah… I totally know all about that.”

Dash smiles and looks at your wings, still folded nicely on your side. “So, how did you sprain your wing anyways?”

Automatically, your brain switches into bull shit mode. “Oh, I was coming in for a landing, and uh… misjudged the breadth I had and accidentally clipped a tree branch…” You chuckle a bit. “Cest La Vie, you know?”

“Yowtch dude, that’s a major buzz kill.” She turns around and props herself up on the guard rail separating you the ground from the stage, flexing her wings out in all their cyan brilliance.

“See that scar on my flank? Just under my cutie Mark?”

You’re not sure if you’re supposed to stare or not, so you quickly glance down, then back up and nod. “yeah?”

“I got that after I crashed through a briar patch down by dry water gully.” She hops down off the railing and turns to you again. “So, any other battle scars ya got?”

You shake your head. “No.. I’m usually a pretty careful flier.”

“Pfft… Pansy. Flying isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about, feeling the wind in your mane, and the air stinging your eyes as your rush past, and every muscle in your wings screaming to stop but you keep pushing on until you’re going so fast, you never want to slow down!” She huffed and looked up into the sky. “When I’m flying… I feel invincible; totally and completely untouchable.”

You look up with her. You always wondered what the sky was like, being grounded since birth did that to you. Rainbow described flying just like you always thought it was; an adrenaline rush of unmatched proportions. If it wasn’t for the throngs of other ponies, and the risk of looking even less cool in front of Rainbow, you might have shed a tear. You were about to speak again when rainbow dash grabbed your arm and pointed to the stage. You look over and see spitfire take the center, microphone levitated by the unicorn off to the side, her goggles strapped tightly to her head.

“Alright every one, were going to get things started off here with a personal favorite of mine!” A spotlight moves across the stage a reveals a record player resting on a barrel in the corner. It lights us as the unicorn uses it’s magic to place the needle on the record. After a few seconds, Hayvid Bowie's “Major Tom” plays, and a rocketing is heard over head as the other three Wonder Bolts take off over head, leaving trails of smoke identical to their coats behind them.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Rainbow Dash grabs you and directs your head to the back of the crowd as the performers arc upwards and begin to double back, upside down, towards the direction of the stage.

“I can’t believe they are doing the Hayvid Bowie routine! I LOVE that song!”

You watch in silent awe as at the last moment, the group flips right side up and soars upwards again, this time by spitfire who jump straight up in the air and easily out distances the rest of her comrades.  There was a loud crack, followed by a boom and an explosion of orange and yellow light as Spitfire took off towards Canterlot, the light taking the shape of a flame.

“The Flame Thrower!”

Dash wasn’t kidding when she said the Wonder Bolts were amazing. Tonight you saw things that you only heard about, and they were far better than their descriptions of them had been. Your heart soars and your face breaks into a smile as two pones begin to fly in opposite directions circles around spitfire as she returns to the field, one going clockwise and the other goes counter clock wise, their smoke mixing and becoming a bright magenta before the two break apart and spitfire accelerates again, followed by another boom and an explosion of color. The orange and yellow quickly envelops the magenta and explodes into reigning sparkles of multicolored light.

“The Sunset Bomb!”

The crowed is filled with “oohs” and “ahhs” As the shimmering of lights fall to earth, disappearing shortly after they touch the coats of you and the audience.

“This is…. Incredible…” You’re breathless. Who knew flying could be so fantastic, so beautiful, so… mesmerizing!  Even after the shimmers fade from the air, the aerial acrobatics of the Wonder Bolts have your rapt attention. To your side, Rainbow Dash looks on with a look of smug satisfaction at having converted someone to the glory and sheer beauty that is the Wonder Bolts. For close to two hours, the Team zooms around over head, Rainbow Dash pointing out and naming each one of their tricks for you. You stopped waiting for her to tell you long ago, and started asking her each time something happened.

“That one?”

“The Dragon!”

“How about that one?”

“The Blue Phoenix!”

“And that one!”

Rainbow flashes you a cheeky grin. “That’s the Finale.”

The sky roars with thunderous noise as all four Pegasus ponies line up in a row and speed by over head, each of them leaving a different colored streak of smoke. Their speed increased; faster and faster until their colors merged and became a twisting rainbow that resulted in another crack, followed by a shock-wave of multicolored smoke as the Wonder Bolts landed back on the stage. For a brief moment, everything slows down. The smoke wafts through the crowed and various smells, Mango’s, Raspberries, Blue Berries, and fresh rain enter your nostrils, and fill your lungs as you take a deep breath before standing up on your hind legs, throwing your hooves in the air and jumping up, shouting at the top of your lungs.

“WOOO-HOOO! Wonder Bolts! HELL YEAH!”

Everyone is looking at you when your hooves touch back down on the ground. You look around, arms out stretched, a bright line of red blush spreading across your face. Your fall back to all fours and sheepishly lower your head as Rainbow dash gives you a pat on the back.

“Told ya you were going to love the show.”

You smiled a bit without looking up at her, still blushing. “Heh… yeah… guess I did.”

Spitfire smiles and shrugs as the microphone is magically brought up to her mouth again.

“Well hell, that’s the spirit! Did all you guys enjoy the show!?”

A swell of applause and cheering erupts as the crowed grow crazy, screaming various names and shouting  praise at the Wonder Bolts.

“Man, can you believe-“ You turn to Rainbow Dash, thinking to comment on the cheers, only to watch as she removes her shirt and tosses it towards Spitfire.

“Spitfire! I love you!” Her screams echo in your ears as you turn away from her and look to the stage, watching as Spitfire takes the shirt and mops her brow with it before slinging it over her shoulder.

“Rainbow Dash, is that you? You are at every single one of our shows girl, are you stalking us?” Rainbow giggles as her idol talks back to her, calling her by name. It was obvious the two had met before.

“Hey how about you and your pony friend there come around back to our hotel room and hang with us for a bit?”

Guy friend? A spot light swing over to your position, revealing you and Rainbow Dash standing very close to one another.  The emotion in the crowd changes as a collective “oooh” emerges; somepony off in the distance lets out a whistle, another howls like a wolf.  Rainbow Dash shrugs and wraps her leg around yours.

“What say you, “pony friend”? Wanna go hang with your new Heroes?”

You’re aware that you are blushing like mad, but honestly, you could care less. You can feel the heat radiating from your cheeks, and the wink Rainbow gives you kicks your emotions into overdrive.

“What the hay, why not?” Together, the two of you make your way through the crowd, the spotlight following you both as you depart; more ponies cheering.

“Alright guys, that’s it for the show! You have been a great audience! We will be selling merchandise and signing

autographs outside our hotel so meet us there!” With that, Spitfire gives the microphone a kick with her hind legs, the magical aura around it breaking as it fell into the crowd and several ponies diving for the souvenir.  

Next Chapter: The Big Secret Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 3 Minutes