Equestria's Finest (Open to Wonderbolts/Pegasi)

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A blue streak ripped through the icy gusts of the frozen north. A Wonderbolt in full flight uniform was flying at top speed through the harsh, cold winds unfettered. They weren't all that bad for him. Soarin'd dealt with worse.

Behind his goggles, Soarin' had on serious and determined expression, a far cry from his usual goofy self. There was a time for silliness, but that time was not now. Generally, whenever you get orders from the highest power in the land, it's most certainly NOT time to goof around.

It had been an all too normal morning for Soarin'. Woke up, got a shower, had a delicious breakfast...but it all changed when he went to check his mail and saw a letter from Princess Celestia herself calling the Wonderbolts to action. Soarin' dropped what he was doing, suited up and took off in the direction the letter had indicated: straight north to the Crystal Empire. You couldn't miss it, she said. Soarin' didn't see anything yet, but he figured this place was rather remote and that it'd take a while for him to reach his destination.

Now, Soarin' hadn't heard of any Crystal Empires or King Sombras before, but that didn't matter much to him. When the Princess says go, you gotta go. He just hopped that his teammates had gotten the note, too. He wasn't fully sure of what was going on with this Crystal Empire business, but he had a strong feeling this wasn't going to be a one pony job.

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Soarin was not the only Wonderbolt to get a summons. Fleetfoot had waited only long enough to get her affairs in order, send a note to Octavia, and pack a pair of saddlebags before hitting the skies. Fleet didn't know anything about anything going on, but she was glad she was involved. Not every Wonderbolt was going to be so lucky. Which made sense. You don't put all your eggs in one basket.

She didn't feel so lucky right now. She didn't feel much of anything. Especially not her nose, or her ears, both of which were exposed to the icy wind. Even her thickly feathered wings were numbing from hard use and cold air. She had both a scarf and a pair of earmuffs in one bag, the next time she stopped for a rest, she'd get them out. Up ahead, she spotted something two shades of blue, royal and navy. But even at this distance, she knew what it was. With a smile of affection and pride, Fleet increased her pace to overtake her teammate. Soarin' was no slowcoach, and he seemed to be having an easier time with the winds than she was. But even so, when Fleet put on the speed, she could catch up.

Passing over his head, Fleet banked to the right slightly before dropping down ahead of him, careful not to cut him off. She looked back over her shoulder and saluted, a friendly greeting to let him know she was there, before falling back to position herself behind his right wing, the beginnings of the 'V' formation that made for easier long-distance flying.

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Soarin' felt another rush of wind, this one coming from behind him. It certainly didn't feel like the wind had changed direction, so he angled his head to look behind him. All he he saw a flash of blue, yellow and white, a flash that was all to familiar to him. Sure enough, as he cocked his head forward again, he saw Fleetfoot flying ahead of him.

Having Fleetfoot around was a relief. For one, other Wonderbolts had gotten the message. Fleetfoot was possibly the fastest pegasus Soarin' knew of, and her speed would more than likely come in handy in whatever was going down at the Crystal Empire.

As Fleet formed on his wing, Soarin' saluted back and gave an affirmative nod. He'd have time to talk to his friend later; when they'd made landing in the Crystal Empire. Which would hopefully be sooner, rather than later.

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Ahead of the pair of Wonderbolts, it appeared that some sort of storm had kicked up. It looked rather like a wall of liquid white, shifting and swirling with invisible currents. It hardly seemed natural and, to be fair, it wasn't. While the train could make it through the storm due to a variety of enchantments, getting in by hoof or by wing was more difficult, as Sombra had set up some...distractions. However, somewhere in the wall of white, a small grey-and-green speck appeared. As they came closer, they might become aware of the tumbling form of a pegasus a fair bit below them in the gale, clothed in a heavy green coat and a tightly wound-and-tucked scarf, that had been swept up by the winds.

Thunderlane wasn't quite sure what his plan had been, but he'd judged that he should have been able to go fast enough to break through the storm without losing control. What he hadn't accounted for was the drag caused by the bag he'd strapped and tied to himself. About halfway through, a particularly strong gust had hit him and started him on his backwards journey, and he'd been rolling in the wrong direction ever since. He'd managed to tuck his wings well enough, so he wasn't particularly injured, but he knew he'd have to get control somehow. "Crap crap crap...!" He grimaced, or tried to the best he could. "Come on, come on..." He tested his muscles against the wind, tensing and relaxing, feeling for the right time until....

"Got it!" He tucked and rolled, spreading his wings and catching some favorable winds just as he was beyond the bounds of the magical zephyr. Not entirely sure where "up" was, he simply fought against whatever force was pulling him aside from the wind, accidentally overbanking and heading up at a sharp angle in the same direction he'd been headed.

What he didn't expect was that he was heading straight for one of the most famous ponies in Equestria.

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Fleet never even saw it coming! To be fair though, Thunderlane was blown both from underneath and from her right side, meaning that he was in a bit of a pegasus blind-spot for her. Unless a pony had eyes under their wings (and very few of them did nowadays) it was a little hard to see what was going on under there.

So when the grey and green figure slammed into her side, knocking the wind out of her, Fleet only had time to emit a very startled, alarmed yelp before she fell out of formation. And it was a fall. Somehow, the collision had gotten one of her wings somewhat tangled and enmeshed in the straps and ties of Thunderlane's luggage and without it's use, Fleetfoot had a one way-ticket to the ground, and Thunderlane would be coming along for the ride!

Fleet struggled to free her wing before they spun out of control, but first she was stunned by the blow, and then the severity of their situation made her clumsy! After a couple seconds, though, she stopped trying to fight the thing that had smacked into her and trapped her wing, and instead, she tried to even out their fall with her one good wing! Hopefully, this thing...she realized that it was another pony, suddenly, ...would see their predicament and try to work with her.

Otherwise, their only hope would be for very deep snow to land in!

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it a yelp, Thunderlane struggled a little bit for a few moments after getting tangled with the unknown pony. It seemed to be caught in the strap of his bag. Naturally. Suddenly, as they plummeted, he felt as though he'd opened one of his wings. Since they were both pressed to his side, he worked out that his partner in gravitational distress had opened one of theirs. Ah, He thought Gotcha.

He opened one of his own and gave it a good flap against their trajectory. It seemed to even them out a fair bit. Still, it wasn't perfect, and though they were now angled, they were still dropping pretty quick. He found that his bag had gotten beneath him and gripped with both arms. With one hoof, he managed to find the connector and press it in, releasing the bag from the strap. Then, slackening the tension on the strap as much as he could, he opened his other wing and gently pulled away, the strap slipping off of the other's wing and freeing them both.

With a triumphant "Ha!" he veered off to the side a little bit.

With a less triumphant *FWUMP*, he found himself half buried in a snow drift.

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As she felt the strap loosen on her wing, Fleet planted all four hooves on the bag and shoved herself free, wings catching a gust and righting herself perfectly just in time to land daintily on the very surface of the snow. She had time to see the other pony give a victorious "Ha!" and then flop into a snowbank. The Wonderbolt opened her mouth to laugh, but found it instantly full of snow as the falling bag plopped on top of her and pushed her neatly and easily into the snow like a hammer sinking a nail into wood.

The snow was deeper than she expected, and spluttering, it took her a moment to dig her way out from underneath the bag and flounder up to the surface again. But by the time she got clear, she was laughing. Their mission might be serious. They might have just narrowly avoided an accident. But the little interlude had dissolved most of her tension. If Thunderlane had not already pulled himself out of the drift, Fleetfoot would offer him a helping hoof.

"What in Equestria do you have in that bag?" she asked with a grin, "It weighs a ton! how did you even fly with that thing on?"

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If Fleetfoot hadn't seen it coming, there was no way Soarin' had seen it either. He didn't even really know what had happened at first, other than that his wingpony had vanished. He caught sight of the flailing (and falling) ball of blue, grey, yellow and green soon enough, though. He gave an aside glance to the no one that was there, but his expression was simply a question of "what the hell, dude?" to whatever higher power ordered this strange twist of fate.

Taking a sharp angle downwards, Soarin' sped after the falling pony pile. He trusted Fleet's ability to pull out of a fall like this...but it wasn't Fleet he was worrying about. It was that other fella. Keeping a sharp eye on the two, he was relieved to see them break out of their freefall and a bit amused to see the plumes of snow poof up as they made landings that...could've been worse?

Soarin' touched down near the two and trotted over to them in the deep snow. He was curious to say the least.

"Fleetfoot, are you alright?" He asked of his wingmate before turning to a rather snowy Thunderlane. "What are you doing out here, buddy? The Frozen North and the Crystal Empire are a bit remote for an early morning flight, don't ya think?."

On one hand, Soarin' felt like he should be a bit more stern. This new pegasus WAS interfering with Official Wonderbolt and ERAF business, after all. But he probably had a reason to be out this way and it wasn't like he was actively trying to sabotage their mission. Yet.

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"I vas anned tfo..." Thunderlane tried to say as he poked his head out of the drift. He worked his mouth for a moment and spit out the melting snow, trying again. "I was asked to come to the Crystal Empire to help with things..." He struggled with his stuck back legs, finally yanking them free and stretching them a little, kicking snow from his hooves. "I missed the train though, and the next one doesn't leave til tomorrow." He shook his head and rubbed his hooves over his eyes to clear the rest of the frozen annoyance from his mane and eyelashes. As he moved towards his bag and reached down to restrap it and pick it up, he realized who he was talking to.

"W-woah, wait, Soarin' and Fleetfoot?" He blinked and clocked the side of his head a few times, to make sure he wasn't imagining it. Unfortunately, this was neither the time nor the place. He quickly righted himself and regained his composure, tossing the bag over his shoulder. "It takes some getting used to, but it's not that bad. It's my equipment. I'm a bit of an inventor, and I'm hoping some of it will be of use over in the Empire. I'm Thunderlane, by the way. I actually attended the last Wonderbolt Academy." With a sigh, he wished there'd been more time for him to extract information, but...

"Unfortunately, this storm here isn't really natural." He looked over his shoulder. If it hadn't looked like a wall from a distance, it certainly did up close. "It's really wide, and it seems like it was meant to keep us pegasi from entering the Empire. Did a darn good job of it so far." He rubbed his shoulder. Admittedly, he was a bit embarrassed to have been caught off guard by the winds. Still, hopefully the appearance of these two would signal a shift in his luck, and they'd be able to find a way through.

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Thunderlane... She'd heard that name recently! Her mind supplied her with the memory of a bright-eyed little colt telling her "My name's Rumble, and I'm Thunderlane's little brother!" and of hearing the name mentioned by Spitfire, too. She grinned, half apologetically for what she was about to say next. "Of course! Thunderlane, Rumble's older brother. I've heard good things about you!" It was, of course, one thing to be known because of an older brother. It was quite another to be known because of an adorable younger one. She hoped the stallion wasn't offended.

"So this storm isn't natural... That explains more than a few things..." The Wonderbolt continued, looking up into the swirling storm speculatively. Some of those winds looked really quite violent, and it didn't surprise her that Thunderlane had been blown about. "Does the storm continue even beyond the cloud layer, do you know?" she asked him. "If not, maybe it would be better to simply fly over the storm." she continued, glancing at Soarin' who was, after all, wingleader when Spitfire wasn't around. Better than fighting gale-force winds anyway the smaller pegasus added, to herself.

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Soarin' gave the dark gray stallion time to explain himself. Now, this wasn't exactly the time to sit around and listen to ponies yammer on about things. There was an empire to save and all that. But this situation was different, since Thunderlane seemed like he might be of use to the Wonderbolts. Specifically for his information on the weather. Soarin' hadn't thought that the storm wasn't natural, he just assumed storms up here were just naturally strong. Hence why not many ponies lived here, something which made the fact that so powerful a storm was a-blowin' right now even more suspicious. Weather Ponies would have left this area pretty much untouched, so this had to be the work of someone or someTHING with exceptionally strong magic power...

The Wonderbolt had a bad feeling about this storm. Fortunately, Fleetfoot was there to chime in with her own advice. If this storm was as bad as Thunderlane said, heading right into it might be a bad idea, even if they could get a three pony formation going.

"Natural or not, a storm of this size is going to have an Eye," Soarin' said, using what he knew about weather. "Flying up and over the storm and back down in through the eye might be much easier than going right through it. Plus, if this storm is magic, it might be stationary and the Crystal Empire would be at the center in the eye."

It seemed like an alright plan to Soarin'. But there was a bit of a problem. Even though this would be far easier than plowing right through the storm, flying past the cloud layer and back down in was no cake walk, even for a professional fliers like himself and Fleetfoot. Thunderlane was no amateur, but Soarin' figured he didn't match up to either 'Bolt when it came to experience or skill.

But dammit, it's was worth a try, wasn't it?

"Thunderlane," he said, addressing the weather pony and civilian. "You said you attended the Academy. Think you remember enough to keep up with Fleet and I? Normally I wouldn't trust a rookie to keep up a formation with two pros, but desperate times call for desperate measures and you've made it this far into the storm well enough, so you're not a total novice. Plus, we could use more of your insight onto what's causing this storm. A three pony formation is our best chance for any of us breaking through and reaching the Empire, so what do you say? You up to the challenge?"

For all of their sakes, Soarin' hoped the answer to that last question was a big 'yes.'"

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Thunderlane stared at Fleetfoot for a moment. Not only was this another Wonderbolt he was meeting, but...How precisely did she know his brother? He blinked, mulling that over in his mind, rolling the fact around a bit. She knew him as "Rumble's Older Brother." How did that kid manage to...

"Uh, wha?" Thunderlane shook his head, realizing that Soarin' had asked him a question. "Going over?" He looked up, craning his neck back. Back back. Back back back. This was no petty storm, by any means, and the clouds seemed unnaturally high up there. He shifted the bag about. "I think I could keep up...we'd have to be taking our time anyway, right? Going that high up isn't gonna help the temperature at all." They'd have to keep moving, but if they overexerted themselves the cold, thin air would wreak havoc on their lungs and put extra strain on their muscles.

"Well, you guys know best. I'll follow your lead beyond the best of my abilities." He nodded. Being starstruck would have to wait until later.

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Fleetfoot took another look at the storm herself, and nearly groaned aloud. She wasn't built for this kind of hard flying, Wonderbolt or not. Her wings were already feeling limp from fighting the winds just to get here, and Soarin and Thunderlane looked like they had plenty of energy left. She felt like wet dishrag. Even going over and in was going to be hard, hard, hard.

But Fleet was a Wonderbolt, and she had a job to do. She felt she'd rather honestly drop down dead from exhaustion that whine and whimper and surrender. Besides, Soarin needed her. The Crystal Empire needed her, Equestria itself, needed her. Resolve stiffened her spine and determination set her expression like stone, at least as much as could be seen of it in uniform and goggles. She did, however, remember to go through her back this time and get out her scarf and earmuffs. her ears and nose felt frozen solid.

As they would soon all be, if they stood around in this never-lessening icy blast much longer. Fleet thought she could feel a chilly numbness setting into her wings. She secured the scarf tight around her face and tucked her ears under the warm furry pads of the muffs. "I'm ready when you are!" she announced to Soarin and Thunderlane.