//------------------------------//
// Welcome to Ponyville 
// Story: Spits Fire 
// by CommanderApplejack 
//------------------------------//


Spitfire dried herself with a towel. Her hair had lost all of its stiffness in the shower. After lunch at Fluttershy’s she and Dash had just run around the village having fun, starting a couple of snowball fights along the way. By the time they were done goofing around the sun was already lowering to the horizon and Dash had made a cryptic comment about getting ready for the evening.

Ponyfeathers, stupid hair get out of my face… Rainbow must have something for that around here somewhere…  Aha!

Pushing the hair out of her face, Spitfire rummaged through the cupboard in Dash’s bathroom until she found a hairband to tie her hair back into a ponytail. The little bit of hair creating a bang was much less annoying than all of her hair falling in front of her face and obscuring her view.

“Are you done, Spits?” Dash had already taken her shower and had been relatively patient in waiting on the captain to finish her turn in the bathroom so they could go out again.

“Yeah, nearly done. I’ll be right there!” she shouted back at her marefriend, drying off the rest of her fur and hanging her towel on the drying rack. Instead of going through the annoying motion of re-bandaging the bare spots on her back, the captain pulled out one of Rainbow's Wonderbolt merch hoodies and put it on. Dash was sitting in the hallway, leaning against the wall as she left the bathroom, immediately getting up as she noticed Spitfire.

“Alright! Let’s go… whoa.” Rainbow’s wings shot open and her face turned a shade of red, Spitfire following suit with a blush. “U-uhm, nice hairstyle.”

“T-thanks. It’s nice to put it up so every now and then, glad you like it,” Spitfire stammered back, the two looking at each other with their blushes and snickering, Rainbow giving her a nuzzle.

“You should wear it like that more often. It suits you,” Rainbow complimented. “Now let’s go, we shouldn’t be late!”

And with that Rainbow was off while Spitfire was none the wiser about what exactly they were going to do. Deciding that she was going to find out soon enough, Spitfire sighed and followed Dash out of the house and into the air over Ponyville. “So when are you going to tell me what we’re going to do?” Spitfire asked as Rainbow banked in the direction of Twilight’s castle.

“If I tell it won’t be a surprise,” Rainbow cryptically responded as she had done every time before when asked.

“Fine, keep your secrets then,” Spitfire relented as they landed at the front porch of the castle. Dash opening and holding the door of the castle.

“Ladies first,” she said, bowing slightly while smirking. Spitfire returned a smirk of her own as she entered through the opening.

“That rules you out,” the captain shot back, sticking out her tongue at Rainbow.

Dash snorted amusedly. “Why’d I want to be a lady? I wouldn’t survive a day acting all proper.”

“Touche,” Spitfire smirked, looking into the darkness of the castle’s main hall. “So what are we doing he-”

“Surprise!”

Spitfire jumped and flew a good two pony-lengths into the air as the lights turned on and about half the town shouted ‘surprise’ simultaneously.

“Were you surprised? Were you?” The pink pony who had gasped and ran in the morning was now bouncing on a trampoline to reach her height.

“What?” Spitfire asked completely baffled, her brain still catching up with the events around her while everyone in attendance watched her with smiles on their faces.

“Your welcome to Ponyville and thanks for saving a pony from a burning house party, that’s what silly,” the pink pony said joyfully. “When I first saw you I was like, ‘Gasp’ a new pony but I already knew you so not completely a new pony and also that’s Rainbow’s bestest idol!”

“Calm down, Pinkie. Let her breathe,” Dash chuckled, pulling Spitfire back down to the ground as she stammered at the display. In the background music had started playing, but there were still some guests waiting to speak to the captain before going to party themselves.

“This… is all for me?” the captain still couldn’t fully wrap her head around the fact that all of this was organized for her.

“Yup, that’s Pinkie Pie for you.” Dash laughed. “Now come on, have some fun. It’s your party after all!” Rainbow gave her a quick nuzzle and walked into the crowd. Spitfire walked after her into the same crowd, getting various ponies stopping her to give their thanks, slowing her way down. Eventually, Spitfire spotted Princess Twilight sitting at a table along with Spike, Rainbow, and a bowl of punch.

“You look a lot better than this morning, ma’am,” Spitfire commented as Twilight didn’t look like the relatively sleep-deprived wreck she’d been in the morning.

“I took a nap to get my energy back up,” Twilight answered as Spitfire took a seat at the table and got a glass of the drink. The alicorn looked between the two and bit her lower lip. “Sooo… The two of you?”

Rainbow smirked and wrapped a wing around the captain, pulling her close and giving her a quick kiss. “For a couple of weeks now,” Dash confirmed for Twilight.

“Wow, never thought I'd see you of all ponies act that mushy, Dash,” Spike snickered, getting a wing to the back of the head from Twilight.

“Don't be rude, Spike. I'm happy you two fell for each other.”

“Thank you ma'am,” Spitfire smiled and looked over to the small dragon. “We really didn't speak a lot this morning, I'm glad to meet you.”

Spike chuckled. “Nice to meet you too… So what Twilight has been researching. Is it really true that you're part dragon?” the little dragon asked with amazement.

“Yup, my dad was a dragon, but sadly I never met him. I don't think my mom, or anyone for that matter, thought somepony like me was possible,” Spitfire chuckled but Spike seemed to sink into thought. “Anything wrong?”

“I think he has somepony on his mind, don't you now Spike?” Twilight asked teasingly, the dragon's cheeks turning red.

“N-NO! I w-was just… uhm, I'm going to get some cupcakes!” Spike bolted away from the table, the three ponies snickering in amusement. Spitfire eventually noticed a filly standing a little away, hesitant to step forward. It didn't take longer than a second for Spitfire to recognize her. “Hi there. Scootaloo was your name, right?” The purple maned, orange pegasus filly nodded her head. Looking very nervously at the Wonderbolt.

“Hey Scoots, what's wrong? You're never this shy.” Dash leaned forward to look at her honorary little sister who now dared to take a step closer. The little pegasus had some bandages wrapped around her barrel from the day before.

“I-I just w-wanted to thank C-Captain Spitfire for saving me,” Scootaloo stammered, tears in her eyes as she trembled. Spitfire opened the wing that wasn't pressed against Dash and pulled the filly close into a hug.

“I'm just glad that I got to you in time.” Scootaloo broke down crying in the captain's hoody as Spitfire couldn't help but try and comfort the little kid. “Hey calm down, you're safe.”

“I-I was s-so scared, and then y-you came in and looked all like this m-monster out of the fire, but you were there t-to help,” Scootaloo cried her eyes out while Spitfire gently stroked her hair. “D-didn't you get hurt trying to s-save me?” Scootaloo asked with tearful eyes.

“Shall I tell you something only a couple of ponies know about yet?” the captain asked, Scootaloo giving a weak nod. “The reason I was able to walk through that fire is because I'm not fully a pony. I'm part dragon.” Scootaloo's eyes widened in awe and her mouth fell slightly open. “Cool isn't it?”

“Y-Yeah! That's awesome!” the filly exclaimed, smiling again as she released her grip on the captain and wiped away her tears.

“Heh, thanks. Now I'm sure those two friends of yours are around here somewhere. You should go party with them. I've already seen there's plenty of sweets around that you can try out,” Spitfire smirked down at the filly as she ruffled her hair.

“Definitely! See you around, ma'am!” With that Scootaloo shot into the crowd, looking for her two best friends. Spitfire's attention was drawn to something else as Dash pulled her close and placed a passionate kiss on her lips.

“What was that for?” she asked, definitely not complaining though.

“For making my biggest fan and little sister happy,” Rainbow simply stated, stealing another quick kiss before standing up and going. “Don't mind me. I'm going to look for the cupcakes before Pinkie eats them all.”

Spitfire chuckled as she looked at her marefriend walk into the crowd, Twilight excusing herself soon after as well, and she went into a bit of a daydream while observing the dancing and laughing crowd. Her eyes passed over Fluttershy and the two connected for a moment, the shy pegasus jumping behind another pony to hide.

I guess her being here is admirable enough… I should be glad that I found this place. Everypony is just so loose and nice, even though I'm sure that none of them will have missed the rumours about me…

The door of the castle opened as a latecomer to the party entered, a stallion Spitfire would recognise even without his Wonderbolt uniform. It didn't take long then for Soarin to pick her out of the crowd as she waved at him.

“Thank Celestia you're alright! I heard what had happened here and rushed over as soon as possible.” The stallion took a seat across from Spitfire, and looked at the party around him. “So what’s this all about?”

“It’s my ‘welcome to Ponyville and thanks for saving a pony from a burning house’ party,” Spitfire chuckled, taking a sip of the punch. “I’ve had a bit of a crazy two days.”

“You’re telling me. I got a code red passed onto my desk saying Ponyville was hit by an Everfree rogue, scared the life out of me… Also, did you run into a burning house to save somepony?!” Soarin exclaimed, his expression between a smile and disbelief.

“Also got hit by lightning and crashed before even getting that far,” the captain casually added with a cocky grin.

Soarin stared at her for a good ten seconds, “How are you still alive?!”

Spitfire’s smile dropped and she looked around. She’d told a couple of ponies about herself, but admitting the truth to a fellow ‘Bolt seemed daunting. “Follow me. We should go somewhere more private.” Standing up from the table Spitfire headed for the stairs with the lieutenant trailing behind her in some confusion. The music from the party fell away as they stepped onto one of the main balconies, the full moon and stars shining down at them.

“What’s this about, Cap? You know I’m always there to give you a listening ear, right?” Soarin said, joining Spitfire at the railing of the balcony looking out over the village.

“I’ve been keeping a secret Soarin. One I’m no longer able to nor want to keep.” Spitfire sighed and trembled slightly, and the lieutenant put a wing over her back to calm her down. “I’m not fully a pegasus, Soarin,” the captain said, glancing at the lieutenant who raised an eyebrow beckoning her to continue. Spitfire took a deep breath and looked at the open air…

Groawwwwr!

A jet of flame along with a thundering roar shot into the night sky, brightly lighting up the balcony and warming up from the dragonfire. Soarin yelped and jumped back, gawking at the display. With a huff, Spitfire forced some smoke from her nostrils and looked back over to her lieutenant and flumped onto her butt. “I’m tired of hiding, Soarin, tired of hiding my draconic parts.”

“What…?” The lieutenant stood frozen in place with a slackened jaw.

“Spitfire!?” A slightly panicked looking Dash flew out onto the balcony, spotting her marefriend and tackled her into a hug. “What’s wrong? Oh…” Rainbow noticed the other baffled Wonderbolt. “Hello, Soarin.”

The stallion shook his head, getting out of his daze, “Breathing fire…” The gears in his head churned along as he categorized this new information. “You’re part dragon. Wow, that’s one hell of an admission…”

“Is that a problem?” Rainbow asked, glaring at the stallion and protectively surrounding the captain with her wings.

“Of course that’s not a problem! Communitate valemus, girls. We’re Wonderbolts. We have each other’s back when it’s needed,” Soaring smiled, his eyes getting a devious glint in them. “Also, I didn’t take you for the mushy type, Rainbow.”

“Oh, she’s a total softy once you get through the outer shell,” Spitfire found herself smirking, glad that the stallion was taking it as well as he had, quickly stealing a kiss from Dash.

“Come on! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Dash grumbled as Spitfire stood up, the rainbow maned mare clinging and lazilly riding on her back. Spitfire laughed and carried her back down towards the party, laughing alongside with Soarin at the pouting mare on her back.

“Sooo, about those Pies…”

Spitfire yawned as she woke up in the soft cloud bed. Beside her splayed out on the bed was Rainbow softly snoring while the morning sun cast its first rays into the bedroom. She'd switched bedrooms to allow Soarin to sleep in the guestroom. They weren't going to force him to fly back to Cloudsdale in the middle of the night. Letting out another yawn, Spitfire rolled out of the bed and stretched. Deciding that she’d let the other mare sleep a bit longer, the captain silently left the room and went downstairs to get some breakfast ready. Getting three plates Spitfire proceeded to make a couple of different sandwiches.

“Mornin’ Cap.” Soarin came trudging into the room, still looking very tired from the party he’d joined the previous night, slumping down on one of the kitchen chairs. Spitfire pushed a plate with one of the sandwiches under his nose.

“Morning to you too,” Spitfire greeted, biting down on her own meal.

“The fangs are going to take some getting used to…” Soarin muttered, earning a confused stare from Spitfire. Swallowing the piece of sandwich in her mouth she ran her tongue past her fangs, finding that they were indeed much bigger than she remembered.

“You two are really up early…” Rainbow came walking into the kitchen with the worst case of morning hair, even by her standards, making a beeline for the coffee machine.

“Or you’re just slow to rise,” Spitfire noted, Rainbow huffing in reply as she turned on the machine to start making coffee for the three of them.

“Be right back, I’m going to check the mail,” Dash grunted. Spitfire meanwhile returned to her conundrum about her fangs.

They really shouldn’t be this big… They couldn’t have grown over night, could they? Ugh, I’ll deal with it later.

“Guys, we might have an issue…” Rainbow came running back into the kitchen, holding a couple of newspapers and other mail under her wing which she threw to the side, only taking a single tabloid to the table.

“Why do you have a subscription to the Gawking Unicorn. It’s literally the worst of low rags. They post lies and scandalous material to then claim they are 'helping' their target.” Soarin commented in disgust on seeing the tabloid.

“Gift from a friend for my birthday. Don’t ask,” Rainbow growled and then pointed at the big headline dead center of the paper, “Look at that.”

Spitfire’s eyes widened and pupils shrank as she read the large headline with the low quality image of Spitfire standing on Twilight’s castle’s balcony, breathing a plume of fire into the sky.

BREAKING: Captain Spitfire a Changeling?!
Read about our reporter’s findings on page 3!

Spitfire held the tabloid in her hooves, looking at it for a bit before slowly starting to bare her teeth and growling at the paper, blood boiling off in her veins as she flipped to page three and read some of the article. Rainbow sat down beside her and pulled her close.

Why did you EVER think it was a good idea to breathe fire like that, you stupid half lizard.

“We need to inform the other ‘Bolts Cap. We need to get our stories straight because there’s just enough here for things to blow up in our faces,” Soarin said very seriously as he scanned the content of the paper as well.

“Agreed. We should get to Cloudsdale ASAP.” Spitfire stood up and stashed the rest of the sandwich into her mouth, swallowing it before pouring the bit of coffee already in Dash’s pot into a cup and downing it.

Stupid, rotten, tabloids…