//------------------------------// // Thundersnow // Story: Spits Fire // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// “Can ya hoof me them sliced apples please?” Putting the last of the cut up apples in a bowl, Spitfire passed it along over the table, a bright smile plastered on her face as she did so. Back at the fence Applejack had kept comforting her while she poured her heart out until Dash had returned. Happiness like this was something the captain had sorely missed since… well, forever. Rainbow, meanwhile, was taking a nap on the living room's couch, her marefriend showing off her uncanny ability to fall asleep anywhere. Applejack quickly finished the last of the two pies with the apple slices and placed them into the oven. “There, them pies should be done by the afternoon.” “Thanks, you're a lifesaver. Soarin is going to really love these!” Spitfire said, smiling brightly as Applejack cleaned off the kitchen counter and chuckled. “The way ya make it sound ya'd have me think Ah'm gonna have another regular.” Spitfire snorted at the retort. “I can guarantee that,” she chuckled, helping with the cleaning efforts. The two headed into the living room where Dash was loudly snoring. A smile made it onto her face as she gently brushed her fellow Bolts' cheek with a wingtip. “Ah'd let her sleep. She can get mighty grumpy if she's woken up,” Applejack whispered, moving over to the window to look at the first flakes of snow falling down onto her property. “Wanna help me with another little errand til she gets up?” Thinking for a moment, Spitfire, while keeping her gaze locked on the sky blue pegasus, gave a nod. “Can you get me some paper to write her a note?” Applejack nodded quickly getting a pencil and paper and the two were on their way into Ponyville minutes later. While walking, Spitfire noticed the sky rapidly darkening further and the snowfall increasing accordingly, a frown forming on her face as she studied the clouds above. “Somethin' wrong?” Applejack asked as she saw the concern etched onto Spitfire's face. The captain didn't answer and looked back in the direction of the farm and by extension the Everfree forest. A curse escaped her mouth as she noticed the cloudbanks rolling out of the forest and mixing with the Cloudsdale-made snow clouds. “The rogue weather is mixing with its controlled counterpart which is making them-” KABOOM! “-unstable…” Spitfire winced as the snowfall increased dramatically and lighting shot through the sky. “GET RAINBOW! TELL HER IT'S A WEATHER CODE RED!” Without waiting for an answer the pegasus shot off, flying into the cloud cover in an attempt to break through. Snow and ice immediately built up on her wings as she ascended into the sky, making it harder to push higher every second she remained in the cloud. Lighting flashed around her again as she struggled to find a solution. Can't give up. Need to get above the clouds! She opened her mouth and a jet of flames shot out of it, the intense heat generating an updraft and removing the ice from her wings. Using her firebreath, Spitfire eventually managed to break through the upper clouds, the sun's rays illuminating the dark clouds from above while lightning lit them up from below. Around her she could see pegasi frantically trying to bust the clouds but the Everfree ones had already started a chain reaction of destabilization.  After identifying the lead pegasus, she was soaring towards her at breakneck speed and came to a stop only a pony length away from her, the leader missing a wingbeat in surprise at the Wonderbolt's arrival. “Sitrep!” Spitfire immediately demanded, pulling the other pegasus out her stupor. “T-The rogue weather came in too rapidly. We couldn't stop it from mixing with the snow clouds,” she stammered. Spitfire looked around to see the other pegasi flying in and out of the clouds in an attempt to get them under control. They're obviously experienced with breaking these up, but this is way too big a mess for a small team like this… The captain had to admit that the Ponyville weatherponies were acting admirably, rotating the few pegasi in groups so that one group had rest while the others were busting clouds. There simply weren't enough of them to make a serious dent. Horseapples, how does Dash avoid these situations with this few ponies?! “You're the leader here. Where do you need me?” Spitfire asked scanning the clouds for herself as well. “Northeast of here, one click. I only have three pegasi there to keep the clouds back, they need all the help they can get!” the leader said and pointed in the direction. “Understood! I sent Applejack to wake up Dash in Sweet Apple Acres, so she should be here soon as well!” Spitfire said before flying off towards the northeast, scanning the clouds to find the three pegasi that were assigned to this section. She eventually spotted a resting pony on a small cloud above the storm. “You! I'm part of this rotation now, where are the others?!” As if summoned a pegasus shot up from the clouds below and landed on the little cloud platform. Completely out of breath, she looked between her colleague and the captain. “What are you doing here ma'am?” she managed to say, gasping for air. “I'm your backup. Pass that word to the other who's still in there!” Spitfire turned to the pony who had been resting on the cloud when she'd arrived. “We're up! I'll stay in the cloud longer and take the rotation behind you!” The pegasus saluted sloppily which gave Spitfire the excuse to drop down into the clouds and start busting. Lightning flashed around her as she tore into the destabilized mess of cumulous. Icy winds tore at her wings, hailstones doing their very best to take her down and let her drop to the cold hard ground below… Spitfire wasn't having any of it.  She was the captain of the Wonderbolts, and no little storm would beat her! “IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, STUPID CLOUDS?!” She smashed through a line of black clouds dissipating them into fine mist. The static that had built up in them buzzed over her feathers, but the captain didn't care. Clouds turned to mist every pass she made but would just as swiftly be replaced by new ones that were eager to fill the gaps. Panting heavily Spitfire shot up out of the clouds, looking around to see where the little resting cloud was located. “Captain!” Spitfire turned to where the shout had come from. One of the two pegasi who'd been on the cloud, looking much more ragged than before, flew at her. “We're losing pegasi in other sectors and…” KABOOM! A rainbow coloured trail shot up through the clouds and into the air where Spitfire reckoned Sweet Apple acres should be located, and a massive ring of colour swept through the black clouds, annihilating them. Spitfire only appreciated the sight for mere moments before turning back to the other pegasus. “Line up the casualties later! That list will only get longer if we don't get a handle on this!” Having had enough rest, Spitfire dove back into the cloud, redoubling her efforts to take apart the storm, and with Dash- BANG! Spitfire's world turned a bright white as pain erupted through her body, her ears ringing, the smell of ozone filling her nostrils, and her sense of direction completely disrupted. The captain didn't scream in agony… She roared. A jet of flame escaped her mouth as she tumbled from the air, smoke trailing from her wings as she broke through the bottom of the clouds. Buck! Pull yourself together Spitfire or you're going to be a bloodstain on the ground! Pain stung at her wings as she opened them, flaring in an attempt at reducing her airspeed. Years of training and precision flying told her that these efforts would definitely not be enough for a graceful landing. Steering herself to an empty street, the captain kept bleeding off speed right up to the point where she'd smash into the ground. There she pulled in her wings to avoid having them twisted in awkward angles. The ground came hard as Spitfire smashed into it, the layer of snow that had already formed doing nothing to reduce the impact. A small gulch had formed behind her by the time she came to a halt. She groaned in agony as she slowly moved her legs one by one, checking if they were broken. Thank Celestia for being part dragon. She pushed herself onto her legs and  looked up at the sky. Rainbow trails could be seen everywhere as Dash expertly utilized her sonic rainboom to break up the clouds into easy-to-bust sections. The other weather pegasi gladly did the work for their weather captain. A warm smile formed on Spitfire's face as she appreciated her marefriend's work, though this feeling of elation didn’t last as her nose picked something up. Smoke… horseapples, the lightning must have struck! The captain pushed through the pain and  moved through the street trying to pick up where the smoke was coming from, not having to search for long. A set of houses in the residential area were ablaze and with the snowstorm dying down, ponies were exiting their houses to prevent the fire from spreading. “Pass that bucket!…” “Somepony signal the weatherponies!…” “A friend of ours is trapped in the house!…” Spitfire's heart skipped a beat as she heard the last shout from the little white unicorn who'd shouted the plea for help. Next to her stood a yellow earth pony, Apple Bloom if she remembered correctly from the morning. Help was needed, but a good look at the fire made it very clear that any regular pony going in there would never be getting out. This is going to hurt some more, isn't it? Not like I was going to get out of this without some scars anyway. Gritting her teeth Spitfire went into a gallop, charging at the door of the burning building that was being pointed at by the unicorn filly. Some ponies shouted at her to stop as they noticed her trajectory, but by that point they were already too late, not that the fiery maned pegasus cared to stop. With a crash her aching body smashed the door open, smoke immediately forcing itself into her lungs. A regular pony might have had trouble breathing, but to Spitfire the air was only slightly crispy. “IF YOU HEAR ME THEN SHOUT!” Spitfire roared, falling silent to the sound of the fire eating away at the building. No reply came. Cursing, the captain started moving through the building and looking through rooms. Her fur singed and burned in patches, only being fire resistant to a point, revealing scales below them. The smoke was becoming thicker and thicker while she was looking through the rooms. Though not an issue with breathing, it was an issue for her sight. Spitfire had to spend increasingly more time investigating rooms as she couldn't see further than a pony length ahead of her. Above, the captain could hear wood crack, reminding her that she had a very limited time window to find the filly. “H-help!” Spitfire's ears swiveled in the direction of the little raspy voice, moving into the room from which it came. A small orange pegasus with a purple mane was curled up in the corner of the room clutching a scooter. Spitfire sighed a breath of relief as she quickly ran over to the filly. “Hey kid, I'd talk more but we need to get out of here.” The filly looked up at the captain, her face going from surprise at an answer to her plea and then terror at the soot and blood covered pegasus with burning hair. Spitfire noticed none of this as she scooped up the filly, scooter and all, and looked for an exit as going back the way she came was not an option. The little pegasus wouldn't survive it. CRACK! One of the support beams that held up the roof broke right through the middle, falling down and grazing Spitfire's side. The captain felt it piercing her scaly skin and blood started pouring from the wound. After having been hit by lightning, crashing into the ground, and running into a burning building, this was the final straw to break the camel's back. In a furious roar she sent a fireball at the outer wall and blew it away in a spectacular explosion. Not waiting for the fire to return after her fireball briefly blew it out with its shockwave, Spitfire jumped through the hole and into the snow outside which sizzled as her burning hot body touched it. The little filly still protectively wrapped within her legs. Behind her the building cracked and collapsed, the hole she'd made destroying it's integrity.  Several ponies that had seen them jump out of the burning house carefully approached the smoking pile of pony, afraid of what they'd find. Not that Spitfire was focused on that, she was more concerned with the coughing filly she was cradling. “You okay, kid?” The little pegasus trembled as she looked at her saviour again, nodding only to cough up some smoke. “Y-You're all burned and stuff. D-Doesn't that h-hurt?” “I'll be fine. I can handle stuff like this. You on the other hoof should be taken to a doctor.” As if to punctuate this point, the filly went into a coughing fit, some smoke forcing itself from her lungs. The two got up onto their hooves, both a little wobbly. This was the first time Spitfire really looked at the small crowd that had formed around her, a cold sweat breaking out across her body as she realised she was completely exposed. They heard me roar, can see my scales, s-see that I'm not normal… They're going to brand me a freak! Chase me from the village and tell everypony! Spitfire took a fearful step back as she eyed the bystanders, hearing the murmurs in the crowd. “Spitfire!” Dash landed in front of the battered captain and looked at the filly. “Scootaloo?” Spitfire meanwhile was in a full panic, her breathing ragged and rapid, eyes darting around to keep an eye on everyone. “Spits, look at me,” Dash instructed, her eyes locking with those of her marefriend. “Take a deep breath and listen to them.” Following the instruction Spitfire calmed her breath and listened to the crowd. No angry and terrified shouts coming fourth but… cheers? Spitfire just looked at the crowd as some of them were cheering her on. Her legs began to wobble again as emotions overtook her. No! I'm walking out of here with my own hooves and head held high! “Dash, the filly needs a doctor.” Spitfire croaked, her voice cracking as she held back tears. “She's not the only one, Cap.” Dash picked the shivering Scootaloo off of the snowy floor and placed her on her back. “There's a Canterlot emergency contingent that's taken over weather patrols for the time being, got to thank Twilight for that at some point, so don't worry about things going bad again.” Spitfire nodded and took a shaky step forward… followed by another… and another, until she reached the crowd of ponies and was allowed through by them. The few cheers having turned into a cacophony of praises and stomping hooves. All the while Spitfire held her head high. They're cheering… They're actually cheering and just don't care about my condition!  A smile tugged at the corners of her cheeks and turned into a full smile, her little fangs on full display to everyone, but nothing seemed to dissuade the crowd's enthusiasm. These ponies… I think I'll fit right in this village.