Captain Spitfire’s office is by no means large or ostentatious. The promotional poster of their next upcoming event, blown up to the largest standard size, hangs on the wall. There are other pictures: the Captain and her team during a show, a solo shot of her soaring through the sky, and her favorite: her and Soarin and the rest of the ‘Colts finally making it, and their unanimous decision to promote her.

A mahogany desk dominates the center of the room, barely leaving enough space for her to do wingups or pace if she needs to work off the stress of the job. Normally the desk is topped with curios, a lamp in the shape of a soaring pegasus, a placard with her name and title. For this meeting she has cleared off the entirety of her desk, leaving a single tan folder open to the first of five pages.

Captain Spitfire sits in her chair, elbows propped up, forehooves polished to a golden gleam. Shades that don’t quite cover her glare adorn her face despite being indoors, her dress uniform otherwise pristine. M. D. Vac casually leans his tall form against the wall as he flips through a magazine for newer models of syringes.

Two large windows overlook the plateau of the Wonderbolt Academy, though she’d have to spin on her swivel chair to do so. Said windows currently have the shades down, though no amount of secrecy would hide what is about to happen inside these walls.

The door opens. Sight Seer, wearing the standard blue Wonderbolt jacket, crisply walks inside, Fast Clip right behind. The gray pegasus comes up to the desk, eyes widening as he sees the folder, while the white instructor takes a position flanking the door.

Sight Seer wasn’t worried when Fast Clip came to retrieve him. It’s not infrequent for Captain Spitfire to want to go over some of his scouting reports, to get a better idea of what the new recruits were working on or places they were struggling. He had just asked Fast Clip which recruit the meeting would be about, and quickly ran over all his interactions with and observations about Rainbow Dash.

The paper on the desk, though, chills his blood as he immediately recalls exactly what he had put on the scouting report.

He had declared that he had gone to Rainbow Dash’s cloudominium, of course. It would be ludicrous not to; there were dozens of witnesses, at the very least. And, of course, he claimed that no untoward business occurred during said visit. He had initially been worried, but was pleasantly surprised at the time to find her heat had ended. But from the Captain’s point of view?

The timeline was suspicious enough, and the Wonderbolts did not tolerate scandals or failure.

Sight Seer takes a single stoic step forwards, steeling himself. “When would you like my resignation?”

He hopes they will give him even that small mercy.

“Ze Fohlen is not yours,” the red doctor remarks from the side, tucking the magazine under a wing.

Sight Seer’s heart skips a beat, his breath releasing in a tidal wave of relief. He barely stammers, “Then?”

Captain Spitfire motions to the report. “Explain this.”

“I included-”

“-I read that,” Captain Spitfire cuts Sight Seer off brusquely. “What you didn’t include. Gossip. Hearsay. Anything. I hate asking questions I do not know the answer to.”

Sight Seer glances down at the paper again, meets Captain Spitfire’s eyes, and begins talking.

Some five minutes later and a boisterous Rainbow Dash pauses just outside Captain Spitfire’s office. She giddily prances on her hooves, trying to get all the energy out of her system. She can’t believe she’s already being called to the Captain’s office! Are they giving her a medal for the highest score on the tests? It can’t be. Could it? Maybe her flight score outweighed her written, and combined with her perfect physical she got the highest combined score ever?!

She wouldn’t put it past them if they just up and made her a fully fledged Wonderbolt here and now.

Whiplash clearing his throat behind her earns an eye roll and flippant flick of her chromatic mane. Rainbow Dash takes a deep breath, then struts to the door. She enters holding her head high.

Captain Spitfire is staring out the open window and barely acknowledges her entrance. The two drill instructors flank the door behind Rainbow Dash, while that red doctor leans against the wall.

“You wanted to see me?” Rainbow Dash asks with a cocky grin as she lightly bounces to the desk. Her eyes don’t leave the yellow pegasus. “Maybe something about a medal?”

Captain Spitfire watches the sun reach its zenith, seemingly ignoring the cerulean pegasus now nervously shifting on her hooves.

Rainbow Dash glances around the room, trying to figure out what is going on. Both drill instructors stare directly forward, avoiding eye contact with her. She thought that the red doctor would stand out against the blue walls, but instead he seems to blend in, almost disappearing entirely. The thin tan folder on the desk is folded shut and offers no clues.

“Is this about my written exam?” Rainbow Dash tries. “Because I can study the history more. I’m just not very good with names, and-”

“You were called here,” Captain Spitfire says slowly, turning around and locking eyes with Rainbow Dash, “to discuss the results of one very specific test.” In one smooth motion she sits down at her desk, a wing flipping the folder open.

Rainbow Dash is drawn to the large purple ‘x’ stamped across the top page. “But…” she starts, finding her name at the top. Magenta eyes flick back and forth as she reads through each section. “Pass… pass… pass… Ma’am, if I didn’t know any better, I would say I’m in the best shape of my life.”

“Keep reading,” Captain Spitfire says, never blinking.

Rainbow Dash huffs, but continues. “Pass. Puh… pregnant?!”

Pupils shrink to pinpricks as Rainbow Dash stares as the words. Her heart pounds against her chest, fear filling her worse than any time she faced an Everfree storm. Her legs feel like jelly and by some miracle hold her up, her mouth dry as ashes.

Then magenta eyes glint like steel, raising to meet Captain Spitfire’s brown. “Is this a joke?” she demands harshly, a hoof raising and threatening to sweep the papers to the floor. “Hazing the newbie?”

“It is no joke, Frau Dash,” the red doctor explains from the side. “Ze tests confirm it." He concedes after a split second, “Though, there was a… discrepancy.”

“But… that’s impossible,” Rainbow Dash ekes out as the steel leaves her like a bolt exiting her body, a gaping wound remaining. She can barely concentrate; it feels like the walls are spinning around her, that large purple ‘x’ the only thing not moving.

M. D. Vac snorts derisively. “Not even die Hoheit Überirdisch claims a virgin birth.”

“I’m not saying that,” Rainbow Dash spits out. She’d be floored if they didn’t know about Doug bedding her. “But I got tested! And I don’t feel any…”

Rainbow Dash pales as she realizes, all the signs lining up like racers at the starting line, each getting ready to trounce her: the unnaturally strong attraction to Doug after the fact, and desire to spend time with him. Lessened acceleration on the most magically demanding of her maneuvers. Getting tired more easily, and not minding resting on the ground near her stallion instead of on a cloud.

What would she do? What could she do? Would she-

“Do you know,” Captain Spitfire states evenly, breaking Rainbow Dash out of her musing, “how many Wonderbolts have performed while pregnant?”

“None,” Rainbow Dash whispers, headlines from when she was a foal bubbling to the forefront of her mind, “The closest one I know of, Sun Streak, found out when she wasn’t able to keep up just before a performance, and they needed to have the backup flyer take over.”

“And she was dishonorably discharged because she skipped her test, afraid her salted mistake might haunt her.” Captain Spitfire callously taps her hooves together, scraping them back and forth. “Those the test did catch, those who admitted what happened, were moved to administrative positions. Permanently.”

A thought begins to form in Rainbow Dash’s mind, and she stands a little straighter.

“We do this for two reasons.” Captain Spitfire stands, unable to hold her boiling rage in, and if she doesn’t at least start pacing she’s afraid she’ll explode. “Number one, the safety of the dam and foal.” She reaches the end of her office, turning around, her eyes never leaving Rainbow Dash. “This is the most demanding job a pegasus can take! It requires one hundred percent! Of your time, your energy, your dedication! You can not do that with a foal!!”

“Ma-”

Captain Spitfire nearly leaps over her desk to plant a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s chest, nearly forcing her to the ground. Rainbow Dash grunts but stands firm, looking up at the pegasus towering over her.

“I’M NOT FINISHED!!” Captain Spitfire bellows, spittle flying in Rainbow Dash’s face. The two instructors by the door wince from the air rushing past them.

Rainbow Dash weathers the storm, ears briefly folding back before defiantly perking up.

“Reason number two,” Captain Spitfire says as she backs off, almost at a shout but in control, ”is that the Wonderbolts have a reputation to uphold.” She holds up her hoof as she lists off, “That means no hard cider, no salt, and no sex. We don't allow herds because we are supposed to be above that.” She points to the promotional poster on the wall. It’s slightly crooked. “Do you see any stallions in a provocative pose on that poster?”

Rainbow Dash doesn’t need to turn her head; she has the poster, now signed by Sight Seer. “No, Ma’am. But-”

“That is because we are the best.” Captain Spitfire walks over to the poster, adjusting it to perfection. “We don’t need explosions, or death defying stunts, or base eroticism to entice anypony."

“I know all this,” mutters Rainbow Dash, earning her a glare from the yellow captain. She continues piecing together her plan in her head, waiting for the opportune moment.

“Well, then, what I want to know,” Captain Spitfire pauses as she returns to her desk, planting a hoof on the medical report, “is why one of the most promising recruits we’ve had, who didn’t make it last time only because she spent too much time flying at the speed of sound instead of practicing her cornering-” that hoof slams down on the desk, and even Rainbow Dash winces “-would risk all that on a simple lay!”

Rainbow Dash straightens up, taking a deep breath. “Permission to speak freely, ma’am?”

“After you answer the question,” Captain Spitfire says through gritted teeth.

Rainbow Dash dutifully nods. “I did it to improve my focus and spend more time practicing to join the Wonderbolts.”

A loud snort echoes through the room as Captain Spitfire collapses into her chair.

“With all due respect,” Rainbow Dash says, offering the captain a curt nod, “legally, you can’t kick me out because I’m pregnant.”

“You need to pass a valid medical exam,” Captain Spitfire counters. “And to pass our exam, you must be in top shape.”

Rainbow Dash grits her teeth. “Those other Wonderbolts didn’t make it because they couldn’t keep up. And nopony had the teats to challenge this.” She points a hoof back at Fast Clip and Whiplash. “I did, and I do. You even said yourself that I had one of the best scores you’ve seen.”

“Because you performed a routine based on style instead of strength.” Captain Spitfire waves a hoof at the windows. “How well do you think you’ll perform at the races?”

“I’ll win every one,” Rainbow Dash snaps out.

“You’ll burn yourself out,” Captain Spitfire states harshly, “and never make it past the second lap. I saw how you were after your practical.”

“Then I pace myself,” Rainbow Dash says, her tone taken down a notch. “If I have to, I finish at the bare minimum. The last recruit to make it in. But I do make it in.”

Captain Spitfire shakes her head. “I ought to ice you right now, taking such a risk.”

“But all I need is a doctor to sign off on it, right?” Rainbow Dash turns to the red doctor, her gaze boring into him.

M.D. Vac seems entirely nonplussed about the situation. “I vould be interested in ze results, ja?”

Captain Spitfire snorts, shaking her head. “You would clear a pegasus to fly with two broken wings just to see how far she went.”

M. D. Vac offers a thin smile and vague shrug as he concedes the point.

“That's why we have two doctors sign, and I can tell you what Life Guard would say.” Captain Spitfire meets Rainbow Dash’s stony gaze. “Absolutely not.”

“Unacceptable, Ma’am,” Rainbow Dash says, barely keeping her wings from flaring out.

“No, what would be acceptable is ending up in a full body wing-and-hoof cast drinking from a straw!” Captain Spitfire slaps the folder, pages spewing into Rainbow Dash’s face. The purple ‘x’ covers Dash’s scowling right eye. “That!” Captain Spitfire shouts, “is unacceptable! Dismissed.”

Rainbow Dash feels like a volcano about to erupt, every muscle in her body readying to dash at her idol, her false idol, who might as well have lit the match and burned down her dreams around her. She barely manages to spin on her hoof, not bothering to salute.

The door closes behind her.

“RRgghh!” Rainbow Dash shouts, her hooves pressing into her head so hard she’s almost afraid she might crush her own skull. “Why!?” She drops down to the floor, sobbing, her dreams slipping through her hooves just like her tears. She barely acknowledges the door opening behind her.

A red hoof takes a single step past the downed pegasus and then stops. M. D. Vac calmly organizes the papers back in the folder with his wing, the magazine open to a picture of various bonesaws.

Rainbow Dash looks up, vision blurry. “What am I going to do, doc?” His ears perk, but he says nothing. “Is there anything I can do?”

M. D. Vac seems to space out, his eyes focusing on a pointy saw with a syringe strapped underneath. He mutters in a low voice, “Ze healing is not as revarding as ze hurting.”

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash asks as she sniffles, barely able to hear. “No pain, no gain?”

The red doctor clears his head with a quick shake, then regards Rainbow Dash’s magenta eyes for a few long seconds. “Zat depends,” he finally says, his voice hard and unmistakable. “Are you ze only von vith a claim to ze foal?”

Rainbow Dash thinks back. If a stallion ‘persuaded’ a mare when she was in heat, the mare had the legal right to do basically whatever she wished. She could join the stallion’s herd or start one if he was without. Alternatively, if she kept the foal, she could leave it with him or take it herself, but no self-respecting mare would deprive a foal of both their parents unless the stallion was a complete scumbag.

But if the mare went to the stallion - and she certainly had gone to Doug - then he had an equal say. They would come to a consensus, with an arbiter if needed, and that would be that.

“It seems no,” M. D. Vac says, the disappointment in his voice obvious.

Rainbow Dash nods to herself. All she needs to do is go see Doug.

Next Chapter: Ch. 70 - Mutewind Seal Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 25 Minutes