Practice (Patreon)

Another moment from the antho MLP movie I saw in a dream of mine had several days ago. A couple of my watchers have asked if this the start  of new, alternate Equestria dreamscape and my answer to you is most  likely not. Although I may come back to it in the future. While the  film/dream ended with the apparent defeat of the main villain and the closure of the portal there were several unanswered questions, and  unresolved conflicts. So perhaps I my subconscious will revisit it in  the future, but for the moment we have Fleetfoot to deal with. Well actually Rumble has to deal with her.

    The door opened letting  light pour into the unlit room. Fleetfoot instinctively threw the light  switch by the front door as she stepped quickly into her townhouse on the 22nd floor of the Manehatten tower. A couple seconds a little less  certain Cadet Rumble followed her in.

    "Cadet. Don't leave the door open. Close it. Trust me if they're had been intruders in here  the wards on the status panel alongside the front door would've informed  us."

    The young cadet nodded his head in agreement. Then he  turned and closed the door; with that task completed he turned back and  addressed the Wonderbolt.

    "Actually M'am that wasn't what I  concerned about. It's just..." His voice faltered. "It's just I'm  worried that this might be perceived as fraternizing with a superior  officer, and that might adversely effect my chances of becoming..."

     Fleetfoot raised a hand and stopped the cadet mid-sentence. "Cadet  Rumble. What has happened up to this point would not be considered  fraternizing by a military tribunal. Besides General Spitfire has a  fairly generous and accommodating view of what she allows the troops  under her command do."

    The blue mare shot the cadet a  smoldering stare. "And I am even more generous. Besides considering how rough this struggle has been we have to do what we can to keep morale  up!"

    The pegasus mare strolled over to a small wet bar and  made herself a bourbon highball with ginger ale. Looking back at the  stallion she smiled.

    "Can I make you a drink?"

    Rumble shook his head. "No M'am I don't drink."

     The mare looked back at him a smirk. "At the moment you don't." She  took a swig of her drink. "If you make it into the unit you will  eventually."

    Fleetfoot stared down at her glass. "I once didn't drink as much as I do now, but...." Her voice trailed off.

    Looking back up at the cadet she smirked again. "Do you know why you've made it into the program cadet?"

     Rumble shrugged his shoulders causing his pale grey wings bounce.  "Well my flight skills were adequate for the preliminary exam, I was in  the top 15% on the written exam, and I figure that my security  background check was favorable."

    The mare took another swig of her drink before replying. "All those things are true, but the truth  is cadet you and all of your fellow cadets who've made it this far are  an insurance policy for the Wonderbolts."

    The stallion cocked his head to one side then back the other way with obvious look of  confusion on his face. "Insurance policy?"

    "Yeah." Said the mare. "The Wonderbolts are an elite unit and we are rather selective in  who we choose. However because we are an elite unit we also get some of  the tougher assignments in this conflict."

    The mare slugged back the rest of her drink then continued. "That also means we've taken a  larger number of casualties than other units. With our current tempo of  operations we can't afford to have a team out of circulation because it  is under-strengthened. Even the usual pool of alternate team members is  being chewed up too quickly."

    She set her glass back on the  bar and then crossed her arms and looked the cadet. "That's why you and  your fellow candidates are in the program. We're staffing the  Wonderbolts well above its normal levels to allow us to patch up holes  in teams faster.

    "And that's why you're an insurance policy  cadet." She crossed her arms causing her breasts to squish together.  Something that the snug, black, shiny flight suit accentuated quite  nicely. Despite trying not look Rumble still found his eyes drawn to it,  and then down to her hips.

    On the her right hip as a  holstered GSh-18 pistol but it was what was on her left hip that had his  attention. Tightly coiled and slung to her hip was a reddish-black whip  that had to be at least 15+ ft long. That alone made him pause when  he'd first met Fleetfoot, but what had him staring at the whip was the  fact that he could see faint violet vapors emanating from it.

    And the fact that the whip was obviously moving of its own accord.

    Fleetfoot seemed to know exactly what he was thinking about. "You're curious about it aren't you?"

    The cadet nodded his head silently. She got a slight pained look on her face and looked down at it.

    "It's being temperamental today."

   "It's being temperamental?" said the cadet.

     "Yeah I was involved in a operation yesterday. It was there, but I  never got to use it. The operation was over so quickly it never got to  feed."

    She looked back up at the cadet. "And it senses your fear."

     Rumble started to speak up and once again the mare held up a black, gloved hand. "I don't say that as an insult to you. Fear is natural and  understandable in light of the struggle we're fighting. In fact if it  didn't sense any fear coming from you you'd either have to be dead or  very stupid, and in our line of work stupid becomes dead very quickly.  Being a bit afraid means you appreciate how serious this situation is."

     Slowly she started tracing her finger down the length of the whips  handle. In response the whip squirmed and rubbed against Fleetfoot's  gloved hand like a playful kitten. She looked down at it and continued  speaking.

    "There's nothing to be ashamed about being afraid.  What matters more is whether you can still do what needs to be done  even when you're scared out of your mind. When the chips are down can  you still carry out your orders even when everything says you should run  away."

    She looked back up at him. "That's what the  Wonderbolts are looking for. I know what fear is. Luna, Luna has taught  me about it and how to use it to your advantage."

    "Um, you said it didn't get fed." Said Rumble. "Uh, wait does a whip eat anyways?"

     Fleetfoot once again had that smirk on her face. "Oh physically it  eat things like blood and flesh. Technically it's one long, strong  tongue. But it also feeds on fear, pain. According to Luna in the native  tongue of the Realm of Shadows it's called Hunger!"

    "Of which you remember why I asked to come back to my place don't you?"

     She reached up pulled the zipper of  her flight suit down toward her  crotch. The first thing the young stallion saw was a t-shirt with the  word PRACTICE printed on it.

    "Time to work on those team building skills, and like my whip I'm hungry!"