Rainbow opted to stay quiet as Spitfire led her, along with Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser, the others to have stepped up to replace Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot while they were in Mareitania, to a part of the Wonderbolts headquarters that Rainbow had seen plenty of times before, but had never been into; the mysterious hangar three.

Truthfully Rainbow didn't much care as she understandably had plenty of other stuff on her mind. Not least that she'd been asked to pack up a lot of her life and move to the Wonderbolts' headquarters, as she was now stationed there, or something. Even that paled in comparison to her friends being kidnapped, Twilight going off somewhere, and Pinkie... Rainbow wasn't sure what Pinkie was doing, but she was doing it without her friends, which she knew had to be crushing the poor mare.

"Why are there so many other ponies on base Captain?" Cloud Chaser asked as they flew towards the hangar. "I mean, some of them aren't even in the reserves."

"As of Princess Celestia's announcement yesterday, the reserves, some retirees, and even some washouts, are to be given the choice to become full members of the Wonderbolts. Equestria might be at war soon, and the Wonderbolts will be ready to do their part."

Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser shared a look, "What do you mean they'll be given the choice?"

"I mean just that. The reserves, and anypony else, get a choice over whether they want to join or not."

"But we didn't get a choice," Cloud Chaser said, sounding unsure.

Spitfire smiled without sympathy, "That's because you made your choice when you joined the Wonderbolts and took the oath. From that point on you were in both the E.U.P, as well as the Wonderbolts, meaning you recognised the possibility that you might be called to serve like you are now."

"Oh..."

"You aren't trying to back out of this, are you?"

"No!" Cloud Chaser said quickly. "I mean, no ma'am. I just- It's... just a bit scary. Don't worry Captain, Thunderlane and I have some payback to give for what they did to our friend Flitter."

"Alright," Spitfire glanced at Rainbow and shrugged, "but don't let your need for revenge cloud your judgement, or make you reckless. We're a team, remember." Spitfire landed in front of the hangar and opened a small door set in the larger one. She led them in and stepped aside to let them all have a look around. "Welcome to hangar three."

Row upon row of shelves filled the hangar, full to the brim with armour, weapons, and every conceivable thing a Wonderbolt could need to complete any mission.

"Woah..." Thunderlane looked up and down the shelves, "So, is this the Wonderbolts' armoury or something?"

"That's right," said Spitfire. "In here we have pretty much everything the Wonderbolts need to fight, except for enough armour since our numbers are being bumped up. But apart from that we have combat armour, hoofblades, some explosives we kept over from our time in Mareitania, smoke canisters, incendiary bombs, and a bunch of other stuff." Spitfire pointed sideways at Cloud Chaser as the mare teased a liquid filled glass orb out of a box, "Really, do not drop that, and not because it's probably older than your great grandmother."

Cloud Chaser carefully returned the orb to its place, "What are those?"

"Ogres and oubliettes nerds might call it alchemist's fire, and it does pretty much the same thing. Put simply, the stuff in that orb catches fire when it comes into contact with air. You throw it, it smashes, and boom! You got fire."

Cloud Chaser took a rapid step back from the box, "What the heck do we need that for?"

"At the moment, nothing. All that should concern you right now, is what I'm about to show you." Spitfire led them between the shelves, idly inspecting everything as she went. Apart from a bit of dust, everything appeared ready to go, which was good if the rest of the Wonderbolts returned with bad news. She stopped by the armour racks, picked up a helmet with attached muzzleguard, and tossed it at Thunderlane. He almost fumbled the catch, but managed to get hold of it, and noticed the marks on each side of the helmet.

"It has my cutie marks on it."

"That's right," said Spitfire, tossing another helmet at Cloud Chaser with her own marks on it. "Each Wonderbolt gets their own set of combat armour made the moment they join. For most Wonderbolts, the only time they ever wear it is during combat training, but it seems those times are about to change, and since you three skipped over your combat training when you joined, you're going to have to learn now instead. Spitfire threw another helmet to Rainbow, "Try them on."

Rainbow stared at the front of the helmet for a few seconds, then turned it around and slid it on. It fit perfectly. She clipped the muzzleguard in place and pulled the goggles down, finding the mix a bit claustrophobic, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. A moment later a full body suit with built in armour landed in front of her, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser.

"Suit up," Spitfire told them. "We have to go inspire some ponies to join us in a bit, so lets at least try to look the part."
The three of them wriggled into the suits, learning how to put them on with only sparse instructions from Spitfire as she was busy squeezing into her own suit. Rainbow pulled the final zip shut, and jigged up and down, pleasantly surprised by how light the whole ensemble was. It was probably going to drag a little, but otherwise it didn't restrict her movement in the slightest.

"Okay." Spitfire placed her own helmet on her head, "We have one more stop to make, then we'll go meet our new recruits. She led them back down the shelves towards the exit, and stopped in front of another set of racks containing hoof blades. She gave a set each to Rainbow, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser, then picked up the pair that had seen her through the war in Mareitania. Sure they might have broke her leg that one time, but they were still hers.

Cloud studied the weapons for a moment, seeming confused by them, "So we're not using wing-blades?"

There was a thunk as Spitfire gently head-butted a shelf. "Where do you ponies get these ideas about wing-blades? They're hard to make, hard to teach how to use, harder to learn how to use, and can be just as dangerous to the user as they can to their enemy. I think the griffon emperor's honour guards are the only ones to even use them as standard any more, and they're mostly just ceremonial.

"Oh. Sorry ma'am."

Spitfire strapped her blades into place on her back legs, put on the bracers on her front legs, then pulled one of the sturdy blades free. "Those blades are now yours, meaning that you maintain and clean them yourself while we're on deployment. They're made of toughened, stainless sky iron, and even though they aren't anywhere near as tough as thunder iron, they can take a beating before they break, and are more likely to break your leg first, as I found out the hard way. Feel free to customise the sheaths and bracers as you see fit, and even engrave or enchant the blades if you can find a unicorn capable of doing so. As I said, they are now yours."

"Neat." Cloud Chaser nudged Rainbow, "I bet Princess Twilight would be happy to enchant yours for you if you get the chance."

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess."

"Are you okay Rainbow? You seem kinda off today."

"Considering what's been going on over the last few days, I don't know how you aren't." Rainbow pulled one of the blades out, "It doesn't matter how I feel about it anyway."

"I...suppose not."

Rainbow chose to ignore her as she slid the blade back into its sheath, then strapped the blades into place. She just started strapping the bracers on when Spitfire stopped her.

"Wrong way Dash. The bit that holds the blade goes on the front of your hoof."

"They do?" Rainbow spun the bracer around on her hoof. She didn't know a massive amount about hoof blades, but she was fairly sure you attached them to the back of your hoof. "Why?"

"They had a bit of a redesign after we got back from Mareitania. The old way was better for diving, but not much else. It'll make sense during your training, trust me. Anyway, get those on, and let's get moving; the new recruits should be gathered on the runway by now." Spitfire paused, "Okay, I say new recruits, but you know what I mean."

The short flight back to the runway was conducted in silence as each of them adjusted to flying in their armour. As Rainbow has expected, the armour dragged a little, but that was inconsequential to what she didn't think it would do. The insulated suit stopped her feeling the air moving over her body, which she'd never really thought about before. The display uniforms didn't have that issue, but the armour did, and as she wore it, Rainbow felt strangely detached from her movements, like her personal awareness was limited only to what she could see and hear.

"I guess that's why training in it is so important," Thunderlane said to Cloud Chaser as Rainbow caught the end of a short conversation. Clearly they were having similar issues to herself.

Stood in three rows on the runway were slightly less than fifty ponies, a mix of reserves in their uniforms, retirees from the Wonderbolts, and ponies that didn't quite make the cut to keep their place in the reserves. Rainbow wasn't surprised, although she was aghast, to see a turquoise pegasus with an amber coloured mane and tail standing amongst them. Rainbow was about to ask Spitfire why Lightning Dust had been called up here, but changed her mind as she remembered the mare was an exceptional flyer. It was just her attitude that sucked.

They landed in front of the gathered ponies, and waited a beat for all of them to snap to attention. Rainbow met Lightning Dust's eye, but rather than anger, or hatred, or any of the other emotions Rainbow expected to see on Lightning's face before the mare looked away, she saw shame. Rainbow wasn't about to give Lightning the full benefit of the doubt, or any really, and didn't think it was worth making a fuss over yet.

"Good morning everypony," Spitfire said after a few moments. "I'm not going to beat about the bush here. All of you should know the reason why you've been summoned here today, and if you don't I suggest you read a newspaper sometime. Equestria is in danger, and the Wonderbolts will be doing their part in whatever comes. However, to do that we will be expanding our numbers, and all of you will be given the option, yes, option, to join us if you so wish, because as reserves you are civilians, and I can't order you to join. This is entirely voluntary."

Spitfire stepped back and pointed at the white dotted line running up the middle of the runway. "Any of you that wish to join the Wonderbolts and fight with us through whatever comes, step forwards over this line. Before you do though, I want to remind you that we are a force of elite fliers in service to Equestria and its princesses, and if it comes to war, we will be in the thick of it. It will be tough, it will violent, and ponies will die. If you can't handle the thought of that, do not cross that line."

A hoof was held up, and Rainbow recognised it as belonging to Sky Stinger. She cursed internally, because if he joined, Vapor Trail was sure to follow, and she was...soft. Rainbow felt bad thinking it, but Vapor Trail was shy, demure, and almost as softly spoken as Fluttershy. Rainbow couldn't imagine her in a battle.

"So you're saying that if we cross that line we become Wonderbolts? No questions asked?"

"If you think you have what it takes, then yes. Bearing in mind that you will be soldiers, and you may be required to take lives in the execution of your duty." Spitfire stared hard at Sky Stinger, "I suggest you keep that in mind as you make your decision."

"Heck, as soon as I heard that they would be asking for volunteers to form an army, I was going to sign up anyway. At least this way I get to be a Wonderbolt too." Sky Stinger stepped forward over the line, then grinned back at the ponies behind them. "Best of the best, am I right?"

With the first pony over the line, others soon followed, and to give these ponies their due, there wasn't many that didn't. Among those that did were Vapor Trail, much to Rainbow's concern, and Lightning Dust, to her annoyance, but all of the washouts had seemed keen to join. Rainbow hoped that they decided to not repeat whatever got them kicked out in the first place. It seemed odd to her that the ones that didn't cross the line were a half dozen reserves.

"Okay," Spitfire said once it became clear that those on the far side of the line were staying there. "Those of you that joined, welcome to the Wonderbolts. Or welcome back," she added for those that had retired. "Those of you that didn't volunteer, you are dismissed, and can leave your uniforms at the barracks."

"What?" A pale brown mare with a bow in her red streaked hair waved her hoof for attention. "You never said anything about getting kicked out!"

"Sorry Angel Wings, but there are no reserves now, so if you didn't cross the line, you aren't in the Wonderbolts."

Angel Wings quickly stepped over the line, "I volunteer!"

"Too late Angel. The fact that you didn't cross that line already tells me you don't have what it takes to be a Wonderbolt."

"B-but, I-I-I can do this! I can!"

Spitfire sighed, then smiled gently at the distressed pegasus. "Maybe. Maybe not. Look, if you want to have a chance to join us again, enlist with the regular army, and after some time to prove yourself there, you'll definitely be considered for a place with us. The fact is though, you weren't immediately willing to cross that line to do your part to defend Equestria, and I don't want any pony that might cut and run at the first sign of trouble."

"But I wouldn't do that!"

"Sorry Angel, but my mind's made up. Do what I said and you'll have your chance again. But until then, you're dismissed."
Rainbow watched impassively as the now ex-reserves trudged off, and found herself a little jealous of them having the choice. If she had the choice, she'd go get Pinkie, and go with Twilight. She knew she still could technically, but she knew that would be extreme, even for her.

"Alright, for the rest of you, we have two weeks to turn you into the greatest fighting force Equestria has seen in centuries, which means your training starts today. Unfortunately we don't have enough uniforms for all of you yet, and we don't have enough training blades, so we'll be splitting into two groups. Fire Streak, you and the other retirees already know all this, so if you can start drilling half of them on combat manoeuvres, I'll start on the weapons training."

"Why aren't the other Wonderbolts doing this?" Fire Streak asked. He looked around the area, not seeing a single other Wonderbolt, except for Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser. "In fact, why aren't they even here? I don't see any of them."

"They're on a mission, so it's just us for now. Anyway, I want two even groups." Spitfire walked through the group, splitting them into two, "Group A will be doing manoeuvres and close quarters flying with Fire Streak, and group B's with me. Dash, Cloud, Thunder, you're with me as well. Dismissed."

Rainbow started following after Spitfire, and missed Lightning Dust falling into step beside her until the other pegasus spoke.

"Uh, hey, Rainbow."

"Lightning," Rainbow said back tersely.

"I just wanted to say congratulations on becoming a Wonderbolt. You really earned it."

Rainbow finally decided to look in Lightning's direction, and found that she was actually giving Rainbow a convincingly sincere smile. Rainbow didn't buy it for a second. She wasn't about to call Lightning out on it though. Not yet.

"Thanks," Rainbow said when she realised the pause was becoming a bit long.

"So, uh... You're friends with the princesses and stuff right? Is it really true about what they said about Mareitania turning on us? That we might be at war soon?"

"Do you really think this would be happening if it wasn't true?"

"I guess not, but this is kinda huge, you know?"

"Yeah, I do. And that means we'll be having to do everything we can to fight, which means working together. Don't think for a moment that I've forgotten anything you did at the academy, Lightning. You messed up bad, and if you think of acting like that again, I will be giving Spitfire my personal recommendation that you be kicked out again, you got me?"

Lightning took a step back, surprised at Rainbow's aggression. "I've changed Rainbow. I'm not like that anymore."

"Oh yeah? I guess we'll soon see how different you claim to be." Rainbow stepped up her pace and left Lightning behind. If she'd have known that Spitfire was going to invite her, she would have argued against it from the start. Hopefully Lightning's crappy attitude got her kicked out soon enough.

"Alright," Spitfire said, getting their attention while behind her the moustachioed ponies that seemed to hang around the academy set up straw training dummies, and wheeled out a rack of training blades. "Today you'll be learning how to dive, which is the simplest method of attacking a ground based target. However, get it wrong, and it can be just as deadly to you as it can your target."

Spitfire pulled some training blades out of the rack, and attached one to her bracers. "Now, for your safety, these are as blunt as hell." She swung the blade at some dandelions growing beside the runway, and failed to cut through most of them. "See? Unfortunately we don't have the new type of bracers for the training blades, so you'll be learning with the old ones on the back of the hoof, which are better for diving anyway."

"Actually," Cloud Chaser said nervously, "I was wondering why you don't have a blade attachment on the front and back of your hoof, so you can change your blade from front to back, depending on what you're doing."

Cloud Chaser grinned nervously as Spitfire spluttered, "That's... That's crazy talk. Who in their right mind would..." Spitfire waved one of the ponies setting up dummies over, and whispered into his ear for several seconds, whereupon he pulled out a note pad, jotted something down, then ran off. "Yeah... Anyway, I would normally talk you through a demonstration given by one of the others, but since I'm the only one here that knows how to do it, I guess you'll just have to pay attention."

"Captain?"

"Yes Rainbow?"

"I've been told how it's done by Princess Twilight, and I'd like to have a go if you don't mind?"

"By all means Dash, go ahead. Slide your bracers around so they're like the training ones first."

Rainbow did so, then flew straight up, the feeling that she was about to make a fool of herself creeping up on her as everypony watched from below. It took a few tries for her to reach back and slot her own blades into place, then once she was ready, she dived towards the dummy on the ground. The wind whistled in her ears as her target rapidly grew closer, and she swung her rear around so she was leading in with her back legs, bringing them down in the middle of the dummy's back, and plunging her blades into the shoulders of the dummy that collapsed beneath her and slammed into the ground. Hard.

"Aah!" Rainbow yelped as something went pop in her back legs, and she fell back so she ended up sitting on the dummy. "Ow!" Her ears twitched at the sound of slow clapping, and her cheeks burned as she saw it was Spitfire doing it.

"I gotta say Dash, that was the worst good attempt at that that I've ever seen, and was a great example of how to not do it. It was also only half a demonstration. Want to know what you did wrong?"

Rainbow flapped her wings until she hovered a few meters above the ground, and sheathed her weapons. "I came in too fast."

"Not really. As long as you can slow yourself enough you can do that as fast as you like. But you barely slowed yourself at all. You also forgot to take off again after, which is pretty important. In all fairness though you did lead in with your rear correctly, and I couldn't fault you on the stab, so I'll give you a c-minus for that. Good effort. I'm all out of gold stars though, so you'll have to imagine one."

"Yes Captain." Rainbow landed again, and squawked with pain as she put weight on her back legs. She collapsed onto her rear, and whimpered.

"And that is why it's so important to nail the landing," said Spitfire. "This method of attacking is pretty hard on your legs when you're doing it right, let alone doing it wrong. You okay Dash?"

"Yeah, I just need a minute."

"Alright, while Crash takes a minute there, I'll show you how to do it properly."

Rainbow stayed sat and idly massaged her throbbing hooves as Spitfire executed a perfect dive attack. Seriously, that dummy didn't know what hit it. Spitfire ran through it again just in case they didn't get it, then pointed at her first victims to have a go.

"Alright Sky, show me what you got."

"Sure thing." Sky Stinger soared up and readied himself to dive. He fumbled about for a moment, then dropped one of his blades, which fell right onto the dummy, barely disturbing it as the blade stuck in its back.

"That's one way to do it," Spitfire deadpanned. "How about you spend a minute there working out how to draw your weapons without dropping them while Vapor has a go." Ponies chuckled as Sky's cheeks burned with shame.

Vapor managed to draw her weapons first time, and set into a smooth dive that wasn't too fast or too slow. She swung her rear into the lead, and flared her wings to slow herself before landing neatly on the back of the dummy and stabbing it just in front of her own hooves. She then overbalanced and fell forward, bumping her nose on the ground. "Oof!"

"Nice try, but your stab was too near your landing point, which is why you fell over there. Get yourself together and have another go in a minute."

Spitfire pointed at Thunderlane to have a go on a different target, leaving Vapor to try and get up on her own with her blades still attached. She tried to stand, failed, then flapped her wings once and groaned. Rainbow was about to get up and help her when Lightning trotted over and helped her up into a sitting position.

"You alright there...Vapor?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Vapour wrinkled her nose and sneezed cutely, making Lightning chuckle. "Sorry."

"Don't be. That was freaking adorable."

"Voted the greatest sneeze in Stratusburg," said Vapour, blushing.

"Yeah, I can believe it. I'm Lightning Dust."

"Vapor Trail. I don't think I've seen you before. Are you in the academy?"

"I...was. It's a long story."

"Oh, okay. I guess I better have another go at a dive. Nice to meet you Lightning."

"And you." Lightning held a smile as Vapor flew off, and kept holding it, as much as it confused Rainbow. She expected Lightning to make some little comment insulting Vapor or something, but nothing happened until Spitfire called Lightning up for her own go. She nailed it perfectly.

"Okay, nice work guys. Tomorrow we'll be trading places with Fire Streak's group, which is going to be one hell of a workout for some of you, so get rested. Wake up call's at six in the morning. Don't miss it."

Most of them collapsed to the ground as Spitfire flew off, including Rainbow, but that had more to do with a desperate need to get out of her armour. As light as it was, it really did get a bit much after a while, and seemed to collect sweat. Once she had it off, she gathered it in her hooves and chased after Spitfire. "Spitfire! Wait up!"

"Is there a problem Dash?"

"I... I wanted to talk to you about some of the ponies here. Are you sure all of them are really what you're looking for?"

"Anypony you particularly have in mind?"

"One or two," Rainbow admitted guiltily. "No offense to any of them; they're all great fliers, but I don't think they're all made of stern enough stuff for what we're going to be doing."

"And you are?"

"Huh?"

"I know what you've done Dash, and I know you've had some experience in a fight, but you've never had to take a life, have you?"

"No, of course not."

"Then to me you're no different to any of the others here. Who knows how you'll react when push comes to shove, and you find yourself having to kill or be killed." Spitfire sighed as Rainbow looked down at the ground, "Look, I know not everypony is cut out for this, and I imagine we'll have a few drop out before the end of the week, but right now, you're all equal, and I won't be taking anypony out unless they either want to, or simply can't keep up with what's expected of them."

"And what about Lightning Dust? You know what she's like! Do you really think she's capable of working as a team through this?"

"Ah." Spitfire chuckled slowly, "So that's what this is about. I'm not going to lie Dash, I had second thoughts about asking her to come here, but all things said, she was an excellent flier. If she's still a reckless glory hound, then she'll soon find herself out again, but so far she's been nothing but helpful and decent to the other recruits. Maybe she learnt her lesson after last time? Give it time Dash, and we'll see if she's still the pony we remember her to be.

Five minutes after closing her eyes, it was dawn. Or at least that's what it felt like as they were rudely awoken by a bugle being sounded right outside the barracks. A second later the door banged open, and Spitfire entered, looking far too pleased with herself over what she was doing.

"Up and at 'em ponies! We have a long day ahead of us, so let's get moving. I want you all up and out on the runway in the next forty five minutes! Normally I'd do an inspection, but I think we can skip that today. Tomorrow though... Not a chance. Now get moving!"

Rainbow calmly got up and made her bed as ponies scrambled around her, the fear of Spitfire powering their every action. She wasn't so worried though, and stayed that way as she washed and breakfasted, and still managed to be on the runway before most of the others. They'd learn.

"Keen to get going Dash?" Spitfire asked playfully.

"I'll never learn to sleep on my hooves if I keep sleeping in bed instead."

"Well you must be asleep now because you seem to have forgotten something."

"I have?" Spitfire patted her armour, then nodded at the display uniform Rainbow had put on. "Aw shoot! Be right back!"

By the time Rainbow had forced herself into her armour, strapped on her blades, and found her helmet, she was very definitely the last there. All the impatiently watching ponies made that very clear. "Sorry."

"Uh-huh," Spitfire grunted. "Now that you're all here, good morning! I hope you're all ready for a fun filled day of activities that that will be lasting until the sun goes down." Spitfire grinned evilly as the assembled ponies groaned. "Welcome to the Wonderbolts ponies. Fire Streak, your group will be on weapons training, while my group, we're going to having some fun. Fall out."

Spitfire waited as Fire Streak led his group away. "Now they're gone, let me explain what we're doing. Close quarters flying, or c.q.f, is the skill of flying through narrow spaces. Now I can almost hear you thinking 'that sounds easy,' and it is, but it is also very necessary. If you find yourself fighting in a urban environment, you'll be thanking your lucky stars for this. Follow me."

Spitfire led them to a hole in the ground on the edge of the plateau. "I'm sure you're all familiar with this from the flag hunt we do in the academy, but this is just part of a larger system of caves that go all through the plateau. We've set up a course that you'll be flying, three at a time, while another three fly it in the opposite direction. Your objective is to stick together, make it all through the course, and not collide with the team coming in the opposite direction."

"That's insane," one of the ponies there said quietly to another.

"Hardly," said Spitfire, who heard them perfectly well. "In combat in a city, you will not be aware of where all the other flyers are, and you may well find yourself having to very quickly make enough room for oncoming ponies, while not hitting the sides of any buildings. This is about as close to that as you can get without learning about it firsthoof. Now let's get going. Cloud, Dash, and Thunder, you're up first, against Sky, Vapor, and..." Spitfire smirked at Rainbow, "Lightning Dust. Pick who's leading you, and get ready."

"Alright Dash, you're the best flier here, so I think you should lead," said Cloud Chaser.

Rainbow was about to accept when she thought of the other team, and who was in it. "Actually, I think you should lead Cloud. You're better at cornering, and I know I'll go too fast with them coming the other way."

"Really? Wow. Okay then."

They waited as the other group picked their leader, and Rainbow was surprised to find Lightning being quiet, neither asking to lead, nor suggesting others to lead. Sky Stinger was less so, but agreed on letting Vapor lead in this case.
Their leaders decided, they took positions on either side of the hole, and waited for Spitfire's signal. "The tunnel splits left and right past here. Cloud, you're going right. Vapor, you're going left. Follow the markers through the caves, and don't crash." Spitfire held her whistle up to her mouth and blew a shrill signal to begin.

All of the ponies leapt up and dived into the hole, alternating between ponies on each team so they didn't collide. Rainbow ended up going last, following just to the side and behind Thunderlane, just as he followed behind Cloud as she navigated the way through the steep dive that came out of a cave into the open air halfway down the side of the plateau.
A marker on a cloud pointed straight up in a steep climb that led to a narrow, vertical entrance, that they had to loop around and fly into sideways to enter. The tunnel opened out on the other side, and they found themselves gliding down a gentle decline with a few horizontal and vertical pillars of rock that they had to dodge around. It occurred to Rainbow that none of these cave formations could be natural.

At the bottom the tunnel went flat, and they caught sight of the cave going left in an impossibly tight turn, but they went past it into a dead end with a flat surface at the end that had a U-turn arrow painted on it. All of them shifted in the air so their rear legs hit the giant sign, and they used it to launch themselves in the opposite direction, and followed the signs that pointed up the tunnel they missed. A tunnel the other group was coming down.

Rainbow threw herself to the side, rolling so her stomach almost scraped the rock, and even then she felt the tip of a feather run down her back as the others squeezed through whatever space there was. Then, in the blink of an eye, the other team was past them, and Rainbow fully understood why this was so important, and thanked Celestia none of them were holding their weapons.

With the other team having passed them, Cloud upped the pace a bit, and quickly led them up a curving incline that eventually turned back on itself, so they had to roll to remain level to the ground. Then there was only some narrow bends that they had to quickly bank from side to side to get through, and then they found themselves flying up through the exit at the top of the plateau.

"Nice work you guys." Spitfire checked her stopwatch, "Hardly an academy record, but still pretty good. How'd the pass go?"

"Pretty hairy," said Thunderlane. "I think I smacked Vapor in the face with the tip of my wing."

"Mmhmm," Spitfire said thoughtfully. "And that would another reason why we don't use wingblades, Cloud Chaser."

"Yes ma'am. No kidding ma'am. I thought smacking my head against Sky's ass was bad enough."

They all looked up as the other team soared up and out of the hole and looped back down to the ground. Spitfire checked her stopwatch again and frowned, "I know it wasn't the point of the exercise, but that was a little slow there guys."

"Sorry," Vapor murmured. "I got nervous about the others coming the other way, and slowed down a bit too much."

"I figured. I'm going to say this now; a slow pegasus is a dead pegasus in battle, so you're going to have to push yourself a little. Still, this was your first time, and there was no serious collisions, so good work all of you. Next teams!"

The first six took a break as two more teams took their positions and flew into the course. Rainbow stretched out onto her back, enjoying the break they had, however short it might be. She was about to congratulate Cloud on getting them through it, when she overheard Vapor.

"I'm sorry I didn't go fast enough guys. If this was a real battle I'd have gotten you killed."

"Hey, no worries," Lightning said as Sky side-hugged his best friend. "This is training right? This is what training's for. A bit more practice, and we'll be through there in no time."

"Really?" Rainbow said before she could stop herself. "You hate going slow!"

"And I still do, but I'm not the only pony in this team, and I'm not like that any more! Sure, the old me would've insisted on leading, gone too fast, left the others behind, and not cared as long as I got through. And the old me would've failed the course. Seriously Rainbow, get off my case."

"Okay, I hadn't planned on this today, but apparently some antsy folks took my request for some Royal Guards to train with very seriously, because they're here already." Spitfire gestured back at the dozen grey unicorns in their golden armour, "Any guesses what they're for?"

Nopony said anything, or held up a hoof, until Rainbow hazarded a guess. "Is this to do with those unicorn soldiers in Mareitania?"

"Partially," said Spitfire. "The Adepts are a dangerous bunch at the best of times, but, for anypony that knows the basic rules of pony versus pony combat, they are especially dangerous for pegasi. While they have range, nothing short of a tornado is going to worry them against pegasi. They can shoot us at distance, then shield themselves as we get close, and basically give us a very hard time. We are going to be learning how to counter that as best we can."

With a signal from Spitfire, the guards drew into a circle and raised their horns, forming a silvery shield that Spitfire flew over and stood on. "We'll do the simpler thing first, and learn how to bust shields. And I mean it when I say simple." Spitfire jumped up and slammed her hooves on the shield, barely even touching it. "On your own you have no chance, unless you've rediscovered the ancient art of throwing lightning off your wings. In a group though..."

Spitfire picked out a dozen of the trainee Wonderbolts. "You want to concentrate on as small a part of the shield as possible for greater effect. All of you concentrate a kick at the top of the shield."

The dozen ponies she picked out kicked at the shield, focusing at the point Spitfire said. The shield shimmered, and cracks formed in it, but it didn't break. The cracks filled back in as the guards repaired the shield.

"Okay, now do a dive and kick." Spitfire waited as the trainees complied, and grinned as the shield collapsed. "See? What did I tell you? Easy peasy. Of course, half as many earth ponies could kick that shield down twice as easy, but we aren't going to able to rely on that. Now, the rest of you have a go, and we'll move onto the fun stuff."

Once everypony had a go, they were obviously pleased to discover that the fun stuff would consist of being shot at by the guards. "A pegasi's greatest asset past their wings, and maybe legs, is their eyesight," Spitfire started to explain. "We can see things coming other ponies might not, including magic. As fast as it is, a sharp eyed pegasus can easily dodge incoming magical blasts, which is good, because these gentleponies here are going to spend the next five minutes trying to hit you. Have fun!"

"Wait? Are you serious?" Rainbow asked Spitfire, only to find the other mare cheerfully flying away. Then the sky became remarkably busy as bolts of silvery magic started shooting up into the sky from the guards below. Several quickly found their targets, and there were a few short screams until they worked out the magic being directed at them was totally harmless, and didn't so much as tickle. Then they started trying to dodge them.

Rainbow dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding being hit, then dodged to the right again as another bolt of magic almost hit her. "Fly around," she said loud enough for the others to hear. "We're sitting ducks like this!" To make her point, Rainbow started flying around, keeping an eye on what came from below, as well as the other trainees.

"Damn it!" one of the others cursed. "They're still hitting us."

"They're predicting our paths," said Lightning. "Try flying around randomly."

After a few minutes the hits ponies took grew less and less, until it was mostly by luck that the guards were hitting them at all. Spitfire called a stop to the activity to promise them even more fun.

"I see you've all mostly mastered not getting shot at a distance. Bravo. Now it's time to put it all into practice. Dodging at this distance is easy enough, but it gets harder and harder the closer you get, which is why we're going to make it a bit of a challenge for you. You'll be divided into squadrons of twelve, and your objective will be to take those unicorns down. Gently, mind you."

Spitfire took an inkpad off one of the instructors, "This will be your weapon. When one of those guards gets a hoofprint on him, he is out of the fight. On the other hoof, their magic will now sting, and you will know when it hits you. If you get hit anywhere on your body and wings, you're out, otherwise the rest is entirely up to you. Hits on tails are allowed."

Rainbow found herself teamed up with Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane in their little trio again, while Sky Stinger, Vapor Trail, and Lightning Dust made up another wing of their team. The other six were a mix of ex-retirees and reserves, whom Rainbow hoped knew their stuff. They each dipped a hoof in the ink pad, and took to the skies.

"What's the plan Fire Streak?" Rainbow asked, hoping that the retiree's experience might help them out.

"Split up into your wings and attack from all sides. The more spread their attention is, the better. They'll switch to their shield once we're close enough, so we'll need to work together to bring that down. Past that though..." Fire Streak shrugged, "All you have is luck then I'm afraid."

Sky Stinger scoffed, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

A whistle from below informed them it was time to begin, and they split up into their wings. They spread out and flew away before looping back around to converge on the ring of guards. Rainbow dived down then flew low, weaving side to side as randomly as she could, hoping the lower trajectory would confuse the guards. She was horribly wrong, and Thunderlane squealed girlishly as a blast of magic hit him on the side. Elsewhere other pegasi were squeaking as they found the shorter distance between them and the unicorns much harder to dodge in.

Rainbow pulled up as they got much closer, ready to work together with the others to slam down on the shield, only the shield never came, and two more pegasi were taken out as the unicorns kept firing. Lightning shoved Rainbow out of the way of a bolt of magic, surprising her.

"Attack them! Now!" Lightning shouted before diving back down. Rainbow and the remaining members of their squadron quickly followed, and made to attack the unicorns. It didn't work as they hoped.

One of the unicorns grabbed Cloud Chaser in his magic while another blasted her, quickly taking her out of the fight. A trio of guards shot Lightning down, but not before she could slap her hoof on a fourth. Rainbow caught sight of Fire Streak as he rolled low to the ground and slapped his hoof on the ass of a guard, but another caught him and dragged him to the ground before taking him out of the fight.

With most of their squadron taken out, Rainbow decided she could at least take one or two with her, and flew as fast as she could towards one of the guards with her hoof outstretched. She almost reached him when she felt something tug at her, stopping her almost immediately. Then magic grabbed her hoof and very purposefully pressed it against her own face.

One of the guards stood in front of Rainbow and grinned as she remained frozen on the spot. "Poor, poor Wonderbolts. You think you know everything," he said before blasting her point blank on the chest.

"Eep!" Rainbow squeaked as the magic stung as much as was promised, and she flopped to the ground and curled up as the guard released her. She remained there until she saw Spitfire standing over her and tutting.

"That's just embarrassing Rainbow. In fact I dare say this entire thing was embarrassing. A dozen of you against a dozen of them, and they lost only three, while you were wiped out in seconds. And Rainbow, you don't attack unicorns low. They have a much harder time looking up and aiming than they do against what you did. Now get yourselves up so another bunch can have a go."

Rainbow took the hoof Thunderlane offered her, and let him pull her to her hooves. "I guess that could have gone better."

"No kidding." Rainbow tried to rub the ink off her face. "This better not stain." She stopped rubbing as she saw Lightning pull one of the others up, and surprised herself by feeling guilty. Lightning had pushed her out of the way of a magic bolt. If this had been real, Lightning would have just saved her life. "Aw nuts. Lightning, can we talk?"

"Uh, sure, I guess." Lightning sounded as surprised that Rainbow was asking, than Rainbow felt by asking. "What's up?"

"Okay, first I want to apologise. I just assumed you would be like you used to be, and I'm sorry for not accepting you might change. I mean, if this was real you would have saved my life by pushing me out the way of that magic."

Lightning shrugged lazily, "Hey, no worries. All that stuff that happened is in the past, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow laughed nervously, "Funny you should say it like that though. What happened to you since I last saw you? I thought you'd hate my guts if you saw me again."

"Oh, I did, don't you worry. If I'd have known where you lived I might have paid you a visit if you know what I mean. From my perspective, you got me kicked out of the Wonderbolts, and completely crushed my dreams. Believe me when I say I might well have hospitalised you if I saw you again."

Rainbow grinned cheekily at Lightning, "You could have tried." Rainbow smiled as Lightning rolled her eyes, "So what changed to make you stop hating me?"

"I did. My life basically crumbled around me. I had nothing to look forward to, or work for, or anything. The one thing I wanted above all else was gone, and all I had left was my hatred of you. And maybe Spitfire. I stopped going to work, I stopped paying my bills, and I stopped washing for like a month, which was pretty grim. I was solidly sitting on rock bottom, and I reached the point that I was so consumed with ineffectual anger I had to either kill myself, or accept that maybe... just maybe, you were right about me."

Rainbow was shocked, and it took her a moment to get herself together enough to speak. "You tried to kill yourself?!"

"No... I admitted you were right about me..." Lightning pulled a face at Rainbow, "Are you even listening?"

"Yeah, sorry. I just-" Rainbow shook her head, "Sorry. Carry on."

"There's not much more to tell. I got help dealing with my anger, and tried my best to start becoming a better pony. A pony more like you. Got another job, started paying rent again, and tried to build a life for myself where I wasn't a Wonderbolt. Of course, I still love flying, so when the news about Mareitania and the possibility of war came out, and I got the summons from Spitfire, I knew this was my chance to really prove I'm a better pony now, and do something good, y'know?"

"A pony more like me huh?" Rainbow sighed as Lightning blushed and nodded. "You might want to aim a little higher than that, because I'm very capable of being a total jerk."

"Yeah, I've noticed, but at least you realise when you're doing it, and apologise."

Rainbow thought of the way she'd sometimes treated Twilight over the last six months, and silently disagreed. "Not always. Still, I gotta say I like the new you, so is it okay if we give being friends another go without either of us being jerks?"

"Sounds good to me." Lightning held out a hoof, and Rainbow bumped her own against it. "I'm still faster than you though."

"Oh yeah? In your dreams Lightning. How many sonic rainbooms have you done lately?"

"That doesn't count."

"Sure it doesn't."

Lightning was about to retort when Spitfire shouted at them. "Hey, lovebirds! You're up again, so get back into your squadron, and get moving!"

"Yes ma'am!" they both responded together.

"Come on Rainbow, we'll get them this time."

"Yeah we will."

Spitfire watched with increasing despair as the unicorn guards once again picked apart and utterly defeated the Wonderbolts attacking them.

"It's going to be a long two weeks," she sighed.

Author's Notes:

I have no idea why I turned this chapter into a giant training montage. No idea at all. Pretty sure I was going for something else entirely. Oh well.