Spitfire did not play chess. She wasn’t good at board games in general. That said, she appreciated the analogy. Comparing things to a game helped trivialise it to Spitfire, helped her disconnect herself from the consequence of failure. It was a neat little mind trick she had come to somewhat enjoy.
In her mind, she played a game. She played a game with ponies, and life was the board. Her adversary was Professor Vector. What were they playing for? The continued existence of each of their organisations. Fun! It sounded cynical, but as usual, money was the king. Money, funding, all that good stuff meant that Spitfire could keep paying for her uniforms, her headquarters, training equipment, and most valuable of all, her Wonderbolts. The best flyers in Equestria, all under one roof.
Spitfire opened her locker, unveiling her flight uniform, goggles, and the rest of her flying effects and memorabilia. There was not much of it. A few pictures, mostly of her and her team. She particularly liked the one she had with her, Misty, and Soarin. Despite everything, she had a soft spot for Soarin. She and him had both joined the Wonderbolts at the same time; she through vicious perseverance, and Soarin because… Spitfire wasn’t sure. She’d have to ask him, sometime.
She picked up her flying suit and began to put it on.
Rainbow Dash was blocked by pawns, too many to count. In real life terms, she was blocked by confusion, by anxiety, by lack of knowledge. If she could shake free from those…
Spitfire slid her suit on, the tight fabric rubbing seamlessly against her coat. She breathed in, enjoying the feeling. She liked being part of a team. It meant that, when they won, so did she.
She wrapped her goggles around her neck and trotted out into the corridor. She needed to get to the organisers quickly if she wanted to have time to make the appropriate changes.
Rainbow Dash was already in her uniform when Applejack emerged from the hotel bedroom. Rainbow felt knotted up inside, her muscles tense and stiff. She had been training, yes, but she hadn’t been competing, and competition itself was a skill that needed to be constantly practiced and honed. The stress, the adrenaline, all of it needed to be managed. It changed how she flew, how anypony would fly. Ponies didn’t perform the way they usually did under the scrutiny of a crowd, or a judge, or even their rivals.
“You gonna be okay?” Applejack asked.
“Don’t know,” Rainbow replied. “But it’s now or never, right? If I lose, the EIA will bleed the Wonderbolts dry trying to suck up Vector’s lab.”
Applejack was quiet, and bit her lip. In her eyes, Rainbow Dash could already see her concern.
“Even if you lose…” Applejack began.
“I won’t lose,” Rainbow said, adjusting her suit. It felt tight and restrictive over her chest. Had she gained muscles during her intense training? Earth pony training wasn’t easy. It was all lifting and dragging and pulling… nothing like what she’d do at Wonderbolts HQ. “I can’t lose.”
She moved to the mirror, staring at herself for a second.
She looked older than she did when she had been in the Junior Flying Competition, when she had performed the Sonic Rainboom for the second time. Her mane looked stiffer, more swept back after too many hours flying fast for practice. Her eyes looked darker, too. Were those wrinkles under her eyelids? Or just grey bags?
“I look terrible,” she muttered.
“You look great,” Applejack replied, moving next to her and also appearing in-frame. “Well, you don’t look any worse than me, at least.”
It was true. Perhaps Rainbow had been blinded by her admiration for the farmpony, but Applejack also appeared more… sunken by age, by stress. A little more hollow. Maybe it had only taken Applejack admitting to also being lonely as a result of their friends leaving Ponyville for Rainbow to notice.
Despite that, she still looked strong as ever, and there was an omnipresent confidence in her stare, a commitment that never wavered. She was worn, yes, but in the same way a cliff face would be worn away by the water. It only revealed the hard stone underneath.
Did Applejack see something similar in Rainbow? It’d take a mind-reader to know.
“Let’s get you to Wonderbolts HQ,” Applejack said. “We’ll see what we can do once we’re there.”
“What do you mean, I’m not flying?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed loudly. “What’s the whole point of you bringing me here if I’m not?”
Spitfire continued stretching out her wings, her eyes fixed on the runway, where the other ponies and creatures were gathering. “Because it’s part of the strategy.”
Rainbow grabbed ahold of Spitfire’s side and pulled her around, coming face to face with the Wonderbolt captain. “Strategy? What strategy?” Rainbow Dash pointed towards the jet, looming behind the other competitors and casting a shadow over the starting line. “You said that you wanted your best flyer to race against that thing. That’s me, right?” Rainbow’s voice quivered. “Right?”
Spitfire brushed Rainbow’s hoof off her. “Yes. Yes, it still is.”
“Then why?!”
“Because this race isn’t the endgame right now,” Spitfire said. “Because if you fly and lose, we lose everything. Public respect, funding, our position in Cloudsdale, all gone because our poster-pony lost.” Spitfire paused for dramatic effect. “But I am not the Wonderbolt’s poster-pony anymore.”
“So what?” Rainbow asked. “You lose to, what, leave open the possibility of being able to win later?”
Applejack frowned. “That ain’t a good plan.”
“It wouldn’t be,” Spitfire went on. “But it means I have the opportunity to scout the jet out. See what it can do, analyse it for weaknesses, exploits. Gaps in its armour.” She pointed at Rainbow Dash. “All things you don’t do very well.”
“Hey!”
“Am I wrong?” Spitfire asked, turning towards Applejack.
Applejack sucked air in through her nose. “Don’t bring me into this,” she snapped. “I ain’t takin’ your side.”
“I can fly against the jet, figure it out. You can watch it from down here and study how it flies on your end as best you can.” Spitfire squared her jaw, strengthening her posture. “Most importantly, I can buy you time to get into a better mindset.”
“I have a better mindset!” Rainbow replied.
Spitfire rolled her eyes and looked at Applejack again. This time, the farmpony was quiet. “On my side now?” Spitfire asked.
“No.”
“Well, worth a shot.” Spitfire pulled her goggles down over her eyes. “Look, this isn’t going to be fun for me. I’m probably not going to come out of this looking good, but me ‘looking good’ isn’t the win condition for us. The survival of the Wonderbolts is.”
Rainbow was quiet as well now, clearly feeling the lack of support from Applejack. Spitfire leaned in, and pointed Rainbow Dash towards the jet, her voice lowering.
“Keep your eyes on the jet. You learn by seeing, don’t you? Don’t take your eyes off it. Don’t. Even. Blink.” She pulled away, leaving a startled Rainbow in her wake. “Got it?”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Well, that’d really suck, wouldn’t it?” Spitfire said, trotting towards the starting line. “I feel like rolling that dice, though.”
Rainbow sat down, shaking her head. “I don’t,” Spitfire heard Rainbow mutter.
Spitfire trotted up to the starting line. Next to her, Mach Maximum was waiting, standing next to his precious jet. He narrowed his eyes at the Wonderbolt captain.
“You’re not Rainbow Dash,” he said.
“Nope.” Spitfire smirked. “That a problem?”
Mach sucked the air in through his teeth. “You’d better be a challenge. We’re here to win big, not small.”
Spitfire shrugged. “Me too, in my own way.”
Rainbow Dash sat furiously in the stands, livid. To her, this was the last straw. Yes, she was upset, and yes, she was struggling to figure out her current place in the world and how to move forwards with her life. Yes, she was worried about the race and yes, she had admitted that she didn’t know for certain if she could win. But to have herself be undermined by her captain, to have Spitfire go behind her back and try to do it herself… and lose, for that matter, which seemed inevitable… showed Rainbow just how little she was trusted by the ponies around her.
Did she deserve it? Maybe. Rainbow wasn’t sure, but didn’t care. She had been dragged all the way here, she had brought Applejack along, and now she wasn’t even going to fly? What even was the point?
To make things worse, Spitfire had even tried to turn Applejack against her. Rainbow huffed, hot air ejected from her nostrils.
“Well, this is interestin’,” Applejack said.
“Hrmph.”
Rainbow wasn’t talking to Applejack, who looked over at Rainbow. Cracking a smile, she chuckled. “Glad some things don’t change.”
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “What?!”
“You still sulk when you’re upset.”
“I’m not upset,” Rainbow growled unhappily. “Everything is sunshine and ice-cream.” She wasn’t sure she enjoyed Applejack getting a rise from this situation. She grunted. “Fine. Interesting how?”
Applejack leaned back. “Well, we got a lil’ glimpse of the jet earlier in the hotel. We’ve heard loads about it, and even seen it up close. We ain’t seen it fly up close, though.”
“You sound like Spitfire.”
“An’ you sound like Apple Bloom when I told her she couldn’t survive on marshmallows when she was five,” Applejack retorted. “This is happenin’ anyhow… might as well take a look… who knows, maybe this is all just a load of hooey and we oughtn’t been worried in the first place…”
Mach Maximum passed in front of Spitfire, eyes narrowed. He was keeping a careful eye on the captain, as if expecting some kind of trick… some surprise Spitfire had hidden up her proverbial sleeve.
“No tricks,” Spitfire told him. “It’s just me, Mad Machs.”
“Please don’t call me that,” Mach replied. “It’s been years since I’ve performed under that name.”
Spitfire grinned. “I can tell you like to be taken seriously.”
Mach clicked his tongue. “It’s not easy, coming from a performance act.” He leaned in. “Every racer doesn’t even bother to pay attention to you, and whenever you win, they remind you that you’re not a real racer. Not really. Any real racer wouldn’t do what I do, pull the stunts I pull, and drive, fly, or sail as fast as I do.” Mach grunted. “They lose all the same.”
“And when that doesn’t happen, I bet they say that it was the machine you were in that carried you,” Spitfire said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, then you’re lucky you’re flying against me,” Spitfire said. “I watched your performances a few times. I take you seriously.”
“Do you now?”
Spitfire nodded. “I do performance acts too. Cute little things like setting myself on fire. Nothing major. Thing is, the harder the act, the more you need to practice. Over and over and over until everything is flawless… then you practice and practice some more to make it look like it isn’t. I saw that in your acts, and later on, your races.”
Mach was quiet for a moment.
“Thanks.”
Spitfire smiled back at him. Ooze confidence… that was the rule. Mach was only spilling his guts now because he was taut, seeking release. Spitfire had seen it many times before… Prior to a race, a stunt, something difficult, ponies would start explaining the why of it all. Why were they trying something so hard?
It was a reaction to anxiety, a reiteration of motivation.
“Why do you fly?” Mach asked.
Spitfire shrugged.
“I don’t need a reason to be good at things.”
For a second, a split second, Spitfire felt… apologetic. Not for anything she had done, but for everything she was about to do. Then, once that split second was over, she crushed that feeling and never looked back.
Rainbow recalled the jet, shooting like an arrow through the sky, flying by as she watched from the hotel balcony. ‘Hooey’, Rainbow didn’t think this was.
This was not the balcony of the hotel, though. The entire Wonderbolts academy runway had been converted into the starting line, and stands had been propped up both on the cliff face of HQ as well as on clouds that had been brought in from the city of Cloudsdale. They were all populated with pegasi of every colour and background.
Hovering on a large, well-structured cloud was a vast screen, big enough to be seen from the far side of the academy. On it was displayed the starting line to make it easier for those with eyes less piercing than a pegasus’s, as well as for when the flyers were too far away to make out even with binoculars. Many ponies had them anyway, of course, along with flags and streamers to play with.
The starting line was fully populated by racers from across Equestria. The jet itself, a massive hulking beast of a machine, hung behind the starting line as there was no other space for it. The only other racer that didn’t have enough room at the front was Forest, the dragon flyer.
The racetrack itself was a large one. Several clouds had been positioned over the many miles of ‘track’, marking the borders that the racers had to follow. The rules were that each flyer needed to pass the special clouds… each with flags on them… with the cloud on their right. The track involved going up and down, with the clouds also serving to mark the altitude which the racers had to be.
A team of judges were observing. A multi-species group of experts.
The crowd, sitting on the stands and flying around like bees from a hive, was deiverse. Largely comprised of pegasi, there were also many changelings, a fair few griffons, and on rare occasion, a dragon. Rainbow noted that there were not many Earth ponies and unicorns… naturally, considering that the race was taking place in Cloudsdale and not many could actually stand in the city. Despite this, it seemed clear to Rainbow that this was a race with the pegasi’s pride at stake.
Rainbow’s eyes drifted towards Spitfire, who was nonchalantly stretching as final preparations were put in place. Rainbow grit her teeth. To all the world, it looked as if she wasn’t even taking this seriously… She narrowed her eyes. Was Spitfire planning to outright throw the race? Would she stoop that low?
No. That didn’t make sense. Spitfire would want to be as close to the jet as possible so as to better examine how it worked in flight. She wouldn’t let it get far away, and if she could actually win… even if that seemed unlikely… she would never let that chance get away from her if the opportunity presented itself.
It took a special kind of pony to push beyond their limits even when defeat was all but assured…
Rainbow’s attention turned to the jet. Mach Maximum climbed inside the cockpit, and over his head positioned a helmet. It was completely black, hiding his eyes and appearance. A tube went from a mask that covered his muzzle down below him. Where the tube went, Rainbow had no idea. What was it for?
A high-pitched whine began to rise, causing Rainbow to wince and bring a hoof to her ears. The air around the jet’s engine began to shimmer and warp. The heat pouring out of it must be incredible… The other flyers looked like strong wind was buffeting them, pushing them away. Spitfire brought a hoof to her mane and took a small step to the side, putting some distance between her and the jet.
The others… they looked shocked, unsettled. Grizzle was eyeing the machine with a nervous stare…
Applejack whistled, although Rainbow could hardly hear it over the din. The high-pitched whine became a roar.
“Well ain’t that somethin’...”
Rainbow looked over towards Applejack. She saw Applejack swallow nervously as she stared, transfixed, at the jet.
“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked.
“Nothin’... Just rememberin’ the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy.” Applejack chuckled. “It looked a bit silly compared to this, but that machine nearly cost me my farm.” She narrowed her eyes. “That and Granny’s foalish bet…”
Rainbow considered Applejack’s statement. It made sense that Applejack would compare the jet to that cider machine… Even though the Super Speedy was made of wood and cobbled together with carpentry, whereas the jet was powerful, sleek, elegant and engineered by the finest Cloudsdale engineers…
It was like comparing a stick with an arbalest. They were not in the same league.
“Ready!”
Rainbow leaned forwards, her heart pounding. A part of her hoped that Spitfire might be able to win regardless. Surely the captain had to have a plan that went beyond just losing well? She had to have some tricks up her sleeve…
“Set!”
The flyers all lowered their bodies as they prepared to accelerate. The roar from the engine became louder, drowning out all cheers and sound of wind. It rocked the very ground Rainbow sat on, rattling the stands and shaking her spirit to its core.
Spitfire was low against the ground, coiled like a cobra and prepared to leap forwards. Her wings were folded, elegant, beside her.
“Fly!”
All flyers minus the jet shot forwards, like arrows let loose from bows. Grizzle shot forwards the fastest, his massive griffon wings acting as massive sails, catching the air and powering his propulsion forwards. Forest was lagging behind the others, his size making it difficult for him to accelerate at the same rate as the others. The jet slowly, inexorably, began to shift forwards… before the engine flared to life, and a sound like a detonation rolled over the crowd.
The screen focussed on the racers in front, but the screen wasn’t where Rainbow was looking. She was looking at the machine.
The jet was on the move, powering down the runway as fast as any of the other flyers. It had given the others a head start, potentially due to its size and engine, but it wouldn’t be long before it caught up.
Its wings, made of steel, looked like blades threatening to cut through the flyers in front of it. Rainbow felt nervous just looking at them…
The jet shot upwards, its speed dropping as it gained altitude. It climbed after the other flyers, twisting to the side, allowing it to turn and pass the first cloud to the right.
The effect on the crowd was quick as they all gasped, amazed that something so large, heavy, and cumbersome, could gain so much speed so quickly.
The effect on the other flyers was immediate. They heard the noise, felt the increase in pressure, and many turned to look behind them… a mistake. Changelings were scattered aside as they dove to avoid the metal monstrosity.
Grizzle and Forest powered onwards. Grizzle, older and more confident, narrowed his wings in order to slide through the air faster. Perhaps he thought that if he accelerated fast enough, he could put some distance between him and the jet. Forest was more methodical, simply beating his wings and pacing himself.
Forest was overtaken first. Rainbow saw sparks fly as the edge of the wing cut against Forest’s brilliant green scales. To Rainbow’s amazement and outrage, Forest’s scales appeared to be the ones to come out of the encounter worse.
“That can’t be fair!” Applejack exclaimed, as Forest rocked to the side, struggling to catch the air with his wings again. A large gash had appeared in his side… not enough to break through the scales, but enough to leave a visible mark, even from this distance.
Rainbow was silent. She was staring straight at the jet. She needed to pay attention… Spitfire was counting on her. The wheels of the jet retreated inside its body… was that normal? Little flaps on the backs of the wings flipped up and down… like a normal pegasus wing, she noted. So it gathered lift the same way she did…
Now the jet was on the screen, the focus of every pony in the stands. How could it not be?
Grizzle was clearly struggling, flapping his wings as hard as he could. The jet was still accelerating, however, even as Grizzle’s speed was beginning to plateau… The jet and he were now far away from the stands, reaching the second cloud. They were climbing upwards, trying to reach it and pass on the right, as per the rules of the contest. The constant acceleration and the climb was taking its toll on Grizzle…
The jet and Grizzle passed behind the cloud, disappearing from view for a split-second at the same time. The jet reappeared first as Grizzle spun out of control.
Rainbow clenched. What had thrown Grizzle off course? The jet was large… had it bumped into him as well? Or was it simply going so fast that the air around it was turbulent.
Next up was a long, straight stretch, going out further than Rainbow could make out, and the screen was failing to follow the racers smoothly, whatever magic was powering it unable to keep up with the racers speed. She strained her eyes to see. “AJ, get me binoculars!”
Applejack went through the saddlebags and pulled out a pair. “Good thing I’m always prepared. Where’s Spitfire?”
Rainbow brought the binoculars to her eyes. Good question…
The jet was still gathering speed. How fast could that thing go? It was like a train, unstoppable and indomitable. Spitfire must have fallen behind by now…
Rainbow’s eyes widened.
“What?” Applejack asked.
The screen caught up with the racers, and began following them smoothly, providing a clear picture to all at last. Rainbow lowered the binoculars… she wouldn’t need them any more, and the racers were too far away anyway by this point. “Look behind the jet.”
Applejack peered at the screen, and her jaw dropped. “What the hay?”
Spitfire was keeping pace, amazingly. She was wobbling from side to side, her wings trembling as she flew, but she was still keeping up, remaining behind the jet at a constant distance away.
How was that possible? Even the likes of Grizzle, one of the best accelerators in the flying business, had fallen behind. This early in the race, how could Spitfire have matched its speed?
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “It’s like she’s being dragged along by the ride…” She gasped in surprise. “Drag! That’s how she’s done it…”
The nerve, Rainbow thought. Spitfire wasn’t racing against the jet… she was performing experiments. She was flying inside the wake of the jet, letting the jet push apart the air it flew through. She was riding the wake.
She was so close to the engine Rainbow imagined her catching fire at any moment. The nerve! Rainbow hadn’t seen a flyer with nerves so steely before.
The jet began to slow as it prepared to turn around the next cloud. Made sense. If Rainbow was right, and it flew like Rainbow did, it would lean to the side, its belly facing outwards, in order to make a tight turn.
Rainbow Dash was right. Clearly, Spitfire had the same thought, because she took the opportunity to turn with more speed and agility than the jet could muster to pass in front.
She shot past like a missile, trailing smoke as she did so.
The jet was slow to make the turn by comparison… it couldn’t turn as narrowly. Its engine flared as it began to accelerate again. Rainbow Dash could only imagine Mach Maximum’s face upon realising that he had been overtaken by Spitfire.
Spitfire had been right… it wasn’t a good idea to underestimate Wonderbolts. They had tricks up their sleeves…
Spitfire was on fire, literally. She must have flown too close to the jet’s engine and her suit caught fire. Shooting through the air, smoke billowed out behind her.
Rainbow bit her lip, staring at the scene. Applejack tried to muscle in. “What’s happenin’? Is Spitfire…”
Rainbow shook her head, watching Spitfire bob up and down. “She’s fine,” Rainbow said. “She’s being cheeky.” Rainbow handed Applejack the binoculars again. “She’s using the smoke to block the jet’s vision.”
Applejack gaped. “Surely that ain’t fair!”
“Spitfire doesn’t like fair.”
The jet and Spitfire both flew in a straight line over the crowd. Spitfire’s wings were shaking, rattling in their sockets, the strain of pushing against the resistance of the air taking its toll. Unlike the jet, she wasn’t made of metal.
Regardless, as the last of Spitfire’s uniform burned off, Rainbow felt awed. Spitfire was many things… cunning, ruthless, unkind even. Right now, soaring above the crowd with the jet struggling to find an opportunity to overtake her, though… she looked to be nothing less than gold.
The two flew overhead, Spitfire currently in the lead. She no longer had the cover of smoke to hide in, though… Mach had visibility once again, and confidently, the jet began to accelerate.
Spitfire’s best efforts were overwhelmed. The nose of the jet came ever closer to her, the compressed air in front of it bumping against her, causing her to rock even more. No matter how much she flapped her wings to try and overcome the jet, it was simply accelerating faster than her.
Eventually, Rainbow saw a cone begin to form in front of Spitfire. On the edge of her seat, Rainbow breathed in.
“She lettin’ the jet push her through a Rainboom?” Applejack asked.
“No, she’s just flying fast enough on her own,” Rainbow said. “Spitfire has been able to go past the speed of sound. She practiced it in order to keep up with me…”
A Rainboom was what happened when a pony passed the speed of sound. They were unique to each pony. Rainbow Dash had one, and after performing it, there had been a rush for elite flyers to try and replicate it. Twilight Sparkle had performed it once, too, as a result of having powerful alicorn wings and still riding the high of her recent ascension…
Spitfire was struggling. She wasn’t as powerful as Twilight nor as blindingly fast as Rainbow Dash… regardless, she powered through anyway. With a snap, the cone of air in front of her was broken, and in a shower of blinding orange and yellow, Spitfire accelerated, leaving the jet in her dust.
The jet wobbled, shaken by the sonic boom, and dropped in speed. Spitfire was firing ahead on all canisters, putting distance between her and Mach.
The crowd cheered. Many pegasi were on their hooves, crying Spitfire’s name. It meant a lot for pegasi for Spitfire to be able to compete with the jet… it meant a lot for every flyer in Equestria.
Spitfire passed the next cloud, a fiery trail licking the obstacles behind her, leaving them charred.
The jet, not to be outdone, blasted ahead, aiming to catch up with the runaway pegasus. It turned, nimbler than before as Mach must have been pushing the machine beyond its limits, feeling the heat.
The roar was deafening. It wasn’t just noise any more, but an orchestra dedicated to power and speed. It built up, a cacophonous crescendo, gaining in intensity as a cone of compressed air began to form around the jet. It, too, was preparing to fly past the speed of sound.
Rainbow swallowed.
Spitfire rounded another cloud… only three left to go.
With a sound closer to cannon-fire than an engine, the jet pummeled through the sound barrier. With no obstacles in its way, it continued to accelerate, jumping in speed as it tore through the air, ripping through the sky. There were no lights, no magical pattern in the air as it burst past the speed of sound. Only noise, and speed.
Spitfire passed the second to last cloud.
The cone around the jet narrowed further…
Rainbow shot to her hooves.
With no more fanfare, the jet’s speed increased again, clearly travelling faster than two times the speed of sound.
Spitfire didn’t turn her head. She was too focussed on the finish line. She passed the final cloud, and sped with all haste towards the finish.
Rainbow’s eyes followed the jet, and she noted that it was reaching three times the speed of sound, the cone of air around it narrowing further still, but before it could accelerate that amount, it overtook Spitfire. The shockwave rocked her to the side, and she disappeared.
The jet passed the finish line.
The race ended.
Rainbow sat down heavily. The crowd was silent, stunned.
The jet continued flying, going too fast to simply land. It slowed itself, but even as it decelerated, it was still going so fast that already it was miles away from the finish line.
“...Darn,” Applejack muttered.
Rainbow leaned her head back. For just a second, she had thought that maybe Spitfire had a chance… but seeing the jet come close to reaching a speed three times greater than that required for a Rainboom... The jet was too fast, too powerful… overwhelmingly so.
The machine turned, returning to the runway. The other flyers, such as they were, were all scrambling to catch up, but it’d be a long time before they reached the finish line. They might as well not have been part of the competition…
“Where’s Spitfire?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow scanned the sky. There was no sign of the orange pegasus flyer anywhere… had she been hit by the jet?
A murmur began to spread amongst the crowd. Hooves were pointed towards the jet. Rainbow’s eyes snapped towards a small speck of orange on the side of the machine. Her heart jumped into her throat… was Spitfire…
Applejack brought the binoculars to her eyes. She let out a loud snort, and passed them back to Rainbow Dash. “Don’t you worry none,” she said. “Spitfire’s bein’ real mischievous.”
Rainbow peered at the jet. Spitfire was… what?
The Wonderbolt captain was sitting on the jet, letting it carry her to the runway. She was yawning.
Laughter began to erupt in the crowd. The feeling of tension was replaced by a humorous one. The captain wasn’t competing, wasn’t taking it seriously. She was making fun of the situation.
She was making fun of the jet.
The jet skidded to a halt on the runway. Spitfire leaned against the cockpit, seemingly enjoying herself.
“Nice ride you’ve got there,” Spitfire said, once it had come to a full stop. “Gotta admit, it’s a lot less effort riding one of these.”
Another laugh passed over the crowd.
Rainbow stared at her captain, mouth agape. Could only Rainbow see the truth? Spitfire wasn’t relaxed. She was drenched in sweat, and her wings were shaking, no matter how much she was trying to control them. She was just barely hanging on. This was just a facade, a trick!
Spitfire was lying, making it look like she hadn’t been utterly crushed in the final stretch. She was making it look like she hadn’t been trying, and only Rainbow could see it?
The cockpit opened. Inside, Mach Maximum was staring at his unwanted passenger from behind his obsidian visor, but Rainbow could see that he was shaking. Not with exhaustion, as Spitfire was, nor anxiety, but rage. Spitfire hopped off onto the runway, rolling her neck. She was keeping her breath under control, but Rainbow could see her go redder and stiff just trying to force her body to not show weakness. She leapt to her hooves and flew towards her captain. Applejack was not far behind her.
Rainbow passed an army of staff trying to reach the jet, and approached Spitfire cautiously. The captain held her hoof out to Rainbow.
“Careful,” she said through gritted teeth. “Keep up appearances, now…”
Rainbow wasn’t sure she could, so unsettled was she by Spitfire’s unhealthy appearance. She looked to be on the edge of passing out. Her eyes were glazed and unfocussed, and her breathing, whilst slow, was ragged and halting.
“...Nice flying,” Rainbow said, and tried to pull Spitfire away from the crowd. “Let’s get you sitting down.”
Applejack passed around the other side of Spitfire, trying to shield her from view. A little more hidden, Spitfire allowed herself to wince as she was brought away from the jet.
Mach was standing atop his machine. His helmet was off now, and he looked furious.
“You said you took me seriously!” he shouted, letting his helmet clatter into the cockpit behind him. “What was the point of telling me that?!”
They were the last words Spitfire heard from him that day, but Rainbow heard two from Spitfire, so quiet none of the ponies watching, least of all Mach, could hear them. Then she felt Spitfire slump, and she began carrying the pegasus in earnest. Spitfire’s hooves were no longer working…
“Whoops,” Spitfire muttered, half-jokingly. “Looks like I’ve cramped up a bit, ha-ha…”
“No talkin’,” Applejack snapped. “You ain’t in good shape.”
Spitfire chuckled. “Yeah… n-no kidding…”
Exhaustion, dehydration, several minor burns (it was a good thing Spitfire was disturbingly resilient to flames), cramps, and several pulled muscles. It was frankly good fortune that Spitfire hadn’t come out of the race worse off.
She was sipping on water, trying to put on a strong, collected face as the other racers flew in. She had refused stretchers, refused anything that would reveal her true condition to the world. That would ruin the point.
She needed to convince the ponies watching that even though she had lost, she could have won. She could have. She had put every trick she had on full display. She had let the jet carry her along, appearing to keep pace with it as it accelerated. In truth, she had barely been able to avoid having her flight disrupted by the wake of the jet. She had flown in front of the jet, blocking its view with smoke, a trick she had often performed in acrobatic shows for fun. It had only been sheer luck and good fortune that Mach hadn’t been confident enough to simply accelerate and shove her aside; if he had, she might have come out of the race with broken bones. She had let the compressed air in front of the jet propel her forwards, yes, but one wrong move and she would have been catapulted into the stands. She had performed her own rainboom, disrupting the flight of the jet, but it had been poised to break through the speed of sound three times, and had recovered from the shockwave almost instantly.
The list of ways in which Spitfire could have gotten injured, been utterly trounced publicly, and had every hope she had dashed upon the rocks of fate were too numerous to list. Despite this, the hardest challenge right now was staying awake. She was close to passing out from the strain. It was only Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were propping her up, keeping up the illusion that she had nearly beaten the jet.
“You’re crazy,” Rainbow told her.
“Thank Celestia for that,” Spitfire replied. “Or else that… wouldn’t have…”
“Keep your trap shut,” Applejack told her. “Just breathe.”
“Ugh… fine…”
Rainbow was shaking her head. Spitfire wasn’t so far gone as to not notice the troubled look in her eyes. She had been shaken by seeing Spitfire in this state, how hard she had been forced to push herself just to put up the appearance of having had a chance in the first place.
“You’re… mad.”
Rainbow was staring straight at Mach Maximum, flanked by Professor Vector, standing surrounded by journalists and reporters all eager to talk to the winner of the contest. Mach did not look happy. Spitfire felt a mixture of satisfaction and regret, but at least she hadn’t played into their hooves...
“What are we supposed to do now?” Rainbow asked. “We’ve lost, and yeah, you made the whole thing look like one big show, but remember, you’re the one who has to deal with the stupid EIA. They won’t be happy you lost, right?”
Spitfire shook her head, taking another sip of water. “Nope.”
“What if you get fired?”
Spitfire shrugged. “Then I won’t have to do paperwork any more. Good riddance.”
Rainbow turned towards Spitfire. “Are you crazy?” She sighed. “What am I saying? Of course you are. You’re madder than Discord ever was… at least you knew what to expect with him!”
“What?” Spitfire breathed in, trying to sit up straight. Every muscle she had burned like it was on fire, or rather, only slightly less on fire than it had been during the race. “I’m not joking. I hate compromising with the EIA. Let somepony else do it, if they want to get rid of me so badly.” She coughed. “It’s a no-lose scenario. I can go back to just being a flyer, and maybe enjoy the simpler things in life.”
“It is if I lose! Then there won’t be Wonderbolts any more, and certainly not without you leading them.”
“Oh yeah.” Spitfire shrugged. “You’ll have to avoid doing that, then.”
Rainbow spluttered. Spitfire leaned in.
“You were paying attention, right? Watching everything. I had to figure everything out on the spot. You can see things more clearly, though, right?”
Rainbow closed her mouth, going quiet. “Y-yeah, I was watching.”
“Even when I was flying, I was able to figure out some exploits. If you go in and actually build a strategy around them…”
Rainbow breathed in. “This is insane,” she said. “I can’t rely on some… tricks to win!” She pointed at the jet. “I’m not like you, I can’t… strategise and stuff! I just do things and then other things happen! Look what it did to you! The difference between us isn’t that big, you know!”
Spitfire tilted her head. “Still pretty big, though. You probably won’t even realise you’re doing them; your body will just flap around and put itself in the right places on its own. Isn’t that what you always do?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“It’s better than nothing.” Spitfire struggled to her hooves. “Okay… I need to go and… talk to the press. Make it look like I wasn’t trying too hard, or… something.”
Applejack was on her hooves faster than Spitfire was. Spitfire grunted. Was the farmpony going to stop her?
“You’re worse’n Dash when she gets in a mood,” Applejack told her. “I’m goin’ with you.”
“I’ve got to stand on my own,” Spitfire countered. “Take care of Dash… she looks kinda shaken…”
Spitfire attempted to push past Applejack, but it was like trying to move a mountain… or a planet. Between Spitfire’s own physical weakness and Applejack’s heavily built frame, Spitfire merely bounced off the side of the strong Earth pony.
“She’ll be fine,” Applejack said, ignoring Spitfire’s futile attempt. “You’re the one nearly fallin’ apart, literally.”
Spitfire looked over at Rainbow. She had remembered spying on her when she had gotten that letter, the night before. She then looked at Applejack. She didn’t believe her when she said Rainbow would be fine. All her hopes were now on Rainbow Dash, and winning… she needed emotional support more than Spitfire needed physical support.
“I said…”
“And I said can it,” Applejack snapped. “RD is tougher than you give her credit for, no matter what you see or hear. Trust me when I say she’s good to go.”
Spitfire found herself staring into Applejack’s eyes. She searched them for any sign of doubt, but instead found nothing… nothing other than unwavering confidence, belief, and security. Where before, prior to the race, she had been able to sense doubt in Applejack, now, it was like staring at granite. Perhaps having seen what they were up against, Applejack too had found some measure of resolve...
“RD always pulls through when the goin’ gets tough. No matter what.” Applejack squared her jaw. “That’s why she’s special to me. She’s a mess nine-tenths of the time, but it’s that last tiny fraction that makes everything worth it, every time.”
Spitfire hesitated. She couldn’t deny that, at least… Well, the first bit. She wasn’t sure she was on the same page as Applejack regarding the whole ‘special’ spiel. Still, it was… a nice sentiment.
Perhaps one day, somepony might say something similar about Spitfire… but not today.
“Let’s go, then,” she said, giving in.
As Applejack and Spitfire walked down the stairs, towards the crowd, Applejack leaned in closer to Spitfire.
“What was that all about… with Mach?”
“Hmm? Oh. It’s nothing.” Spitfire sighed. “He just wanted to be seen as a good racer. I guess he feels kind of bad that I ruined that. Poor guy just wants attention and I kinda… messed that all up for him, on purpose.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t… a pretty tactic.”
"You'll do anything to win, right?"
"Maybe not everything." Spitfire looked over at Applejack. "Just most things, because the Wonderbolts are important to me. They're... fun." She tilted her head. "Not really my style to have fun and stuff, but there you go. Wouldn't you do anything for Rainbow Dash?"
"Not everything. Just most things."
Spitfire tried to laugh, but it ended up being closer to a splutter and a cough. "Ah, ha... yeah." Spitfire snorted. "Think you can get her in gear for tomorrow?"
"She's already in gear." Applejack glared at Spitfire. "She ain't happy about how things have gone down. I can tell; she was glarin' and starin' at you and that jet ever since you two landed. It's in her eyes; fire I ain't seen in a while. She can't wait no longer."
"Well, that sounds good to me," Spitfire said. "Anything else that needs to be done?"
Applejack was quiet a moment. She frowned, and then tilted her head, pondering. “I want a favour.”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
“I’m going to want you to deliver a letter for me. Real fast.” Applejack looked at Spitfire. “You in any condition to do that?”
“No,” Spitfire replied. “But… I will be, soon.” She raised her eyebrow. “What letter is this?”
Rainbow Dash stared out the window into the night sky beyond. She could only imagine how livid Mach and Vector would be, but to Rainbow Dash, this day felt like nothing but defeat. It had taken everything… everything Spitfire had, potentially even her job, to simply delay them.
Was it just a matter of time before Rainbow was next? Before all the Wonderbolts were next? Would any of her friends have any reason to talk to Rainbow once she wasn’t a Wonderbolt any more? Even now, they couldn’t find the time to come and watch her.
It was worse than that. The prospect of Spitfire losing her job highlighted something that Rainbow hadn’t even considered before. If she wasn’t a Wonderbolt, how was she supposed to help support Applejack? Her farm? Sure, they had a good harvest recently, but for years they had been struggling… how long until they fell upon hard times again?
A Wonderbolt salary could help. It could make all the difference, in fact… But if she lost her job, along with Spitfire, as a result of the Wonderbolts money being taken away by the EIA in favour of them dumping it all into jet research...
Rainbow couldn’t let that happen. Applejack was giving her so much as it was. She deserved so much more than a broken pegasus with no job, no friends, and no future.
The door to the hotel room opened.
“Hey there,” Applejack said.
Rainbow turned to face Applejack, watching her as she approached. In response, Applejack smiled.
“What’re you thinkin’ about?” Applejack asked.
It wouldn’t have been that long ago that Rainbow would have struggled to do anything when faced with this kind of desperation. She had panicked in the young fliers competition, struggled to come to terms with Tank hibernating, and hadn’t been able to move past being taunted and teased as a filly.
Things would be different, now. Rainbow would make it so.
“Y’know, I don’t like thinking.”
“How do you feel, then?”
“Honestly?” Rainbow snorted air in through her nostrils. “I’m angry. I’m angry at everything.” She stared out at the night sky. “Angry at Mach and Vector for trying to compete with us for everything we are. Angry at myself for being too weak to do anything about it. Angry at the EIA for being such losers, and angry at Spitfire for throwing herself under the bus like that because even she doesn’t think I could win, and she's the pony who hired me.” She threw her hooves in the air. “Seriously! Spitfire is crazy! I knew she was weird for being the youngest captain ever, but this is just… just…”
Applejack chuckled, and nuzzled against Rainbow Dash. “Well, now you know how I feel.”
“Huh?”
“Watchin’ you do all this crazy stuff… it’s nuts.” Applejack wrapped herself around Rainbow Dash. “Sometimes I wish I could keep you closer, close enough so you’d not keep on doin’ such insane stunts all the time. I reckon you wouldn’t like that, though.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Doesn’t sound that bad to me, sometimes.”
“Trust me, you’d hate it. You hate me bein’ controlling.”
“Okay,” Rainbow laughed. “I trust you.”
“Besides,” Applejack went on, “I kinda like takin’ care of you when you come back all bruised ‘n stuff. It’s endearin’.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You… like taking care of me?”
“Yeah. Why not?” Applejack shrugged. “It ain’t weird. I’m not weird.”
Rainbow huffed, amused. There was still so little she understood about Applejack, she realised. Rainbow had wanted to display her independence this whole time, for Applejack’s sake, when to Applejack, it probably didn’t even matter.
So what if she lost?
“If I lose…”
“I don’t care. You’ll find another way to win in somethin’ else.” Applejack leaned into Rainbow. “You always come through in the end. It’s just a matter of when ‘the end’ is, you see.”
Rainbow pulled Applejack away from the window, and dove in towards her mouth. She kissed her, leaning in and letting Applejack rock back on the backs of her hooves.
When Rainbow pulled away, she grinned.
“You’re plenty weird, by the way” she said.
Applejack gave her a playful push. “Shut up.” She folded her hooves. “I expect you’ll be racin' that jet tomorrow?”
“Before Mach runs away to his lab? Heck yeah,” Rainbow replied. “I'm not Spitfire. I don't play chess, or whatever it is she thinks is so clever.” Rainbow's lips curled around her teeth into an aggressive snarl, before retreating back into a softer expression as Applejack's weight sank into her. "I'm just a flyer, so I'll do that instead."
Applejack rested her forehead against Rainbow’s neck, closing her eyes.
“Good.”