“Oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, as Jet Stream hurried alongside her. “I always planned to be a Wonderbolt. All the way from the Junior Speedsters.” She signed the photograph he had given her and tucked her pen back into her windbreaker. The picture floated back down to Jet, and his little wings buzzing like a hummingbird’s as he took it. Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Careful you don’t take off early there, champ.”

“Oh!” Jet Stream slowed his wings, and quickly tucked the picture into his bag. “Sorry. Heh.” He picked up the pace of his hooves to move slightly ahead of Rainbow, turning back to face her. “So, I’m not crazy to want to go to flight camp now?”

“Not at all.” Rainbow shook her head. “Being a pro-flyer is something you start young. You need to build the right habits and get a training plan. It takes years to build the right body type for it. By the time you’re an adult, it’s too late to start.”

“Really?” Jet asked. The two of them were walking through the middle of Ponyville, towards the park at the edge of town. The statue of Empress Sparkle dominated the area in front of the town hall, taking it in with a kind yet stern expression. “Is that how you got to be a Wonderbolt? All that training? Mom said you were born that way.”

“Oh yeah. Uniform and everything. The doctors freaked out.” Rainbow gave a good-natured smile and rolled her eyes, and Jet’s wings buzzed again as he looked away. “Sorry, champ. I shouldn’t make fun. I was born with a good body type for flying, but that’s not enough on its own! You have to get a plan and practice every day. And get your parents to sign the permission slip so I can teach you.”

The two of them came to the airlock that marked the exit to Ponyville, and Rainbow reached down into her windbreaker to find her breath mask and goggles. Her earrings glowed, and they floated into the air, before neatly affixing themselves to her muzzle and face.

“But what if they won’t let me?” Jet Steam asked. He reverted to his natural changeling form in a flash of green light, freeing up his horn to affix his own mask and goggles. “My dad says that flying is a waste. That I’ll go through all that effort, and if my wings didn’t happen to grow in just the right way, I’ll never be a real flyer. He wants me to be a soldier like he was.”

“That can happen,” Rainbow admitted. “Not all ponies have the right body type for the pro-circuit. But that doesn’t mean flying is a waste of time. And I’ll be happy to tell your dad that if you bring him to the field. Now, turn into whatever you’re turning into so I can make sure your mask is on right.”

Jet transformed back into the brown dappled pegasus colt he’d been before, and Rainbow checked the seal on his mask, making him take a few test breaths. She pulled her windbreaker up over her head, tightening the hood around the goggles and mask so none of her face was exposed. Jet did the same, and the two finished their trot up to the gate.

“You really thing you can talk him into it?” Jet Stream asked.

“Totally.” Rainbow’s earrings glowed, the light barely visible through her hood. The unicorn magic within seized the airlock’s controls, turning them slowly as the pair moved forward. “Flying teaches you all kinds of great life skills. Discipline, athleticism, willpower. And you know, don’t worry too much about your body type. Just focus on sticking to your goal.”

The airlock cycled, and the two of them walked out into the field outside Ponyville. The dust storm hit them immediately, striking them with such force the grains of sand were like a hail of knives. Dead trees stood at angles under a sun and moon frozen high overhead in perpetual eclipse. Though the haze of dirt, the two saw Rainbow’s junior flight-training class waiting outside, and they leaned into the wind to force themselves that way.

“I mean, look at me!” Rainbow shouted through her mask and over the wind’s roar. “Nobody thought I was going to be a pro-flyer either! But I stuck to it, and my life turned out just how I thought it would!”