OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh! This was all Rainbow could think to herself as she walked through the greaty Cloudsdale Coliseum. Hter eyes wandered over the intricate beauty of the structure, captured by both the design and the meaning. Many ponies simply admired the work for the craftsponyship. Very few actually took the time to notice the minute details of Equestrian history carved forever into the building. From battles long gone, to Celestia's triumph over Nightmare Moon, the origin of the Wonderbolts, and even the grand return of Princess Luna to Celestia's side! These halls payed homage to pony culture, and most would never know. Rainbow Dash on the other hand recognized all of it. Though she would never admit it to Twilight, there was one thing she would study. That would be anything and everything to do with the Wonderbolts. She was an egghead when it came to their past and their present, and the sheer awe-inspiring history that was carved into this very building was not unnoticed by her.

Making her way to the center of the field she spied two dozen or so other ponies who had already gathered. All of them waiting for a chance to become a Wonderbolt. All of them praying to be the BEST of the best to be on the demonstration team alongside the likes of Captain Spitfire and Lieutenant Soarin. As the ponies milled around waiting, wondering, too awe struck to even speak, the clock struck noon. At the far south end of the field, away from where Rainbow had entered, a large double door opened up. Six ponies walked out wearing Wonderbolt blues. All of them with a chest full of ribbons, their uniforms adorned with gold, their buttons and rank insignia glinting in the summer sun, eyes all hidden behind the same aviator style sunglasses. At the head of the pack was a firey maned mare. Her golden color reflecting the sunlight like a beacon. Captain Spitfire. Leader of the Wonderbolts demonstration team. Rainbow Dash was so star struck she didn't even hear the mare as her lips began to move. Shortly after, ALL of the Wonderbolts' lips began to move.

"LET'S GO LET'S GO! GET INSIDE! MOVE MOVE MOVE!" All the cadets looked at each other before breaking off in a gallop towards the open double doors. Rainbow Dash bolted to the front of the pack. Not wanting to be last. She had no idea what to expect but with nearly three dozen ponies and six instructors present she knew she didn't want to be one that drew their attention. As she ran she saw the Wonderbolts converging on the stragglers of the bunch. Those who didn't hear the commands or stumbled along the way and were falling behind. They were like Timberwolves on raw meat.... Out of nowhere three instructors were on a mint green pony with a dazzling white mane.

"Let's go, beat your muzzle! I want to see wing-ups! MOVE MOVE MOVE!" they screamed at her. The pony was doing everything she could to do the wing-ups as fast as she possibly could. Another pony stumbled, a deep blue stallion with a jet black mane. The instructors shifted towards him, yelling at the mare to get back on her feet and follow the group. "LET'S GO BLUE, WING UPS! NOW! PUSH PUSH PUSH, BEAT YOUR MUZZLE!" Rainbow didn't bother to stick around to watch. She just wanted to get through the first set of doors without painting a target on herself.

Once inside she found herself with all her fellow cadets in a large gymnasium. Another Wonderbolt was standing there screaming for everyone to form up. He was instructing every pony to get in line with eachother, four rows deep. Several press ponies wearing glistening gold badges were flying around documenting the entire thing with cameras. Clearly they were the elite of the media. The Wonderbolts' chosen few. As soon as all the ponies were in line the lone instructor shouted. "Class, attention!" Most didn't know what specifically to do, but EVERYPONY knew to shut up and face forward. The doors swung open and Spitfire walked towards the front of the group.

"Class! Welcome to the Wonderbolts Academy. You are class 953 of more than 1000 years of tradition! All of you are here because you want to be the best! MOST of you, will NOT make it through. Some of you will make become Wonderbolts. But only a few of you... " she paused for effect, her eyes sweeping over the class, "will make it to the demo team. Only a select few of you will get to show your skills as primary members of Equestria's elite demonstration fliers. Is that what you want?!"

A resounding "yes ma'am" came from the class.

"Good!" Spitfire stopped dead center at the front of the class. "Because we only want the best! The Wonderbolts are draped in tradition, mystique, and honor! We are Celestia's best, and there is no compromise! You're all here because you want to be a part of something, well now is your time to prove it. The next 6 months will be the hardest of your lives! BUT. If you survive, IF you make it through, you'll have earned the right to wear this blue uniform. Anyone who wants to back away, do so now." Not a soul moved, save for the press ponies buzzing about, recording every detail. "So be it! Lieutenant Soarin!" A light blue stallion with a navy blue mane promptly walked up to Spitfire and saluted. After returning the salute she gave the order. "Get these maggots processed and into their barracks!"

Soarin turned to the class. "Fall out and follow the golden line on the floor, get signed in and get the BUCK TO YOUR ROOMS! MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Everypony gave a resounding "Yes sir" and scrambled to follow the line on the floor. The other Wonderbolts were following the line looking for anypony who didn't keep their eyes forward. Anypony who didn't stand at attention. Rainbow watched as they began to call ponies out and demand wingups or flutter kicks. Her knees began to shake as she moved forward, keeping her eyes as level as possible. Praying they wouldn't focus on her. After all, it wasn't even day "one" yet.

Rainbow Dash was a zombie.

Not literally, but figuratively for certain. It had been two weeks at the Wonderbolt Academy, and she was tired. She had trained for years and never felt this exhausted. The past few months she had flown farther, harder, and faster than ever before. She had done wing ups, flutter kicks, every exercise she could think of, it didn't matter. The instructors knew how ponies trained, they knew how to break them. Instead of just flying they made the ponies carry extra weights in their hooves. Instead of running their wings were strapped so they couldn't beat them. Instead of being able to put their hooves under them for leg lifts they had to cross their barrels. The instructors truly thought of how every pony might train, and then changed the training so everypony essentially started at nothing.

Every muscle in Rainbow's body screamed for mercy. Her mind was being beaten left and right. But she endured. Two weeks in. 13 days total. She was surviving. She could do this. This was up until Treasure Cove. After a 14 hour day already the instructors ushered all the cadets to the field with their added weights and instructed them to follow on a flight. After flying well out of the Cloudsdale limits the ponies came to a clearing on the ground just outside of Whitetail Woods. They touched down on a grass field surrounding a section of trees. Instructors yelling for ponies to fall into formation, urging them to succeed, goading them to be slow enough to "make their day." There was no way to be fast enough. The ponies were made to hold their weights high with their wings while jumping, squating, and running in place. There was no way to succeed. Spitfire's voice boomed over the class.

"We have tried to give you latitude. But no more! You forget, we have eyes and ears everywhere! When one of you bucks up, you ALL buck up. And you ALL pay the price. Such it is if you become a Wonderbolt. When ONE of us makes a mistake, we ALL pay for it. Because of that, YOU will all pay for it now." After 45 minutes more of exercise, the class struggled to low crawl around the trees. If they failed to do so in the proper time they were made to do so again. Finally Spitfire ordered the class to recover. Only to order them back into the woods to retrieve 24 golden horse shoes.

"24 shoes!" She bellowed. "24 shoes to represent 24 Wonderbolts who have DIED in the line of duty. Whether during a show or in some far off land. These ponies DIED as part of a team. The weight of their loss so we may continue to live on is on all of us daily, and now it is on all of YOU! Those shoes are NEVER to touch the ground. EVER! Or so help me, you will all pay until we are ALL in Tartarus." As Spitfire began to instruct the class further in PT the class was ordered to do a significant amount of jumps, being ordered to the air and to their bellies as fast as possible. As an exhausted Rainbow Dash went down, her front legs stayed straight, her back legs gave out, and a loud snap reverberated from her back. She let out a yelp and felt as if someone stabbed her in the spine. Rainbow pressed forward until the instructors finally granted relief in the form of a flight back to the academy and sleep. Her whole body ached, masking the pain from any particular area. But the flight back was labored, she didn't notice her wing speed seemed a bit slower than normal, she didn't realize the tingling in her hooves. She didn't realize what it all meant.

At 0500 the next morning the lights came on. Ponies were flying out of their bunks trying to get ready for the day's training. Rainbow rolled out of her bunk and couldn't bear to stand. A trip to the team medic confirmed only that SOMETHING was wrong with her. They couldn't explain what. That would require a specialist. That would mean she was done. Rainbow hobbled into Spitfire's office at 0800. The fiery mare looked at her knowingly. The grimace on Rainbow's face and the tears in the corners of her eyes said it all. She was done. Spitefire shook her hoof, patted her on the shoulder, and processed her out.

"Dash, I know it sucks. But you're an amazing flier. You were born for this. You'll be back again someday. Just.... not now. We can't risk you getting hurt further." Spitfire tried to comfort the cerulean mare, but it didn't help. This was her idle. Her icon. She was seeing Dash at her worst of times. She filled out her forms as quick as she could as tears started to roll down her face. Her back shattered, just like her dreams. Rainbow was given a chariot ride back to her cloud home. As she sat upon her sofa in her old home she replayed the events of the past few weeks in her mind. All for nothing. She was glad she lived alone. Because she would've hated for anyone to see her, the mighty Rainbow Dash, crying like a school filly. All her dreams, gone. All the support from her friends, for nothing. She let herself down. She let them down. She let everyone down. She cried.