Tap...Tap...Tap. Spitfire scribbled her name over the form, and shoved it aside to her pile of finished paperwork on her desk. A sigh escaping her lips, as she pushed her chair backwards and trotted towards the door to the end of a long day. She opened up the door, and was tackled to the ground by a familiar blue pegasus.
“RAINBOW CRASH.” Spitfire shouted, landing on her back from the sudden assault of her fellow wonderbolt. “What in Celestia’s name do you want this time? I already told you that you can’t teach the rookies the new routine, it’s way too dangerous.”
“Sorry about that Spitfire. I actually just wanted to talk.” Replied Rainbow Dash with a slight blush raising to her cheeks. Spitfire rolled her eyes, as she got up and dusted herself off.
“Alright. Five minutes. Make it quick.” She groaned. Spitfire muttered under her breath. This had better be important. She felt the sweat dripping down her face. Ponies don’t realize how hard my job is. Rainbow Dash needs to learn.
“Welp...how do I put this? Applejack invited me to go with her to Appleplooza for the weekend.”
Spitfire stopped her right there. “Let me guess you want some time off so you can go?”
“Yeah...basically. But I was sorta hoping you and Soarin could come too.” Rainbow Dash smiled, rubbing the back of her head, feeling the sweat drops running down her own face.
“Listen, Rainbow. I’m really honored you’d ask me to come, but I can’t just up and leave. I have paperwork to do, recruits to teach, wonderbolts like you to keep in line. I don’t have time for a vacation,” Spitfire groaned, and sighed.
“Come on PLEASE. I’ll never ask for anything ever again.” spoke Rainbow Dash, attempting to make her best pout face. Her lips curled downwards, eyes widening, batting her eyelashes at her, going so far as to kneel in front of her.
“You know that approach might work on Soarin, but not me. Crash, I simply don’t have time. I have too much…” she began rattling on about her work again. “WHAT are you doing!?!” Spitfire questioned as Rainbow Dash, literally threw her paperwork out the window.
“There. No more paperwork.”
Spitfire lifted her hoof, hitting her forehead. “You idiot, that was the paperwork I had just finished!”
“Whoops.” Rainbow Dash replied, suddenly backing away from her desk.
Spitfire shook her head, muttering under her breath. She couldn’t believe the nerve of Rainbow Dash. No she could believe it, but she thought she had learnt her lesson.
“Listen to me for once in your life Crash. I cannot afford to take a vacation. Do you even know how backlogged I am already? And to make things worse you just went and took all the work I did, and threw it out the window.”
“I’ll get it back. I promise!” she interjected quickly.
It was seeming more and more like Rainbow Dash was either oblivious, or wasn’t going to give up the chase until she agreed. She glanced over to her desk. She groaned at how much work she would have to do if she took a whole weekend off. On her desk was the typical amount of daily paperwork. Her finished pile was gone. She groaned more as she turned her attention to Rainbow Dash once more.
“I will go with you on this vacation on one condition.” She tilted the frames of her sunglasses down to look directly into her eyes. “You help with the mess of paperwork this is going to cause.”
Rainbow Dash bit her lips, but nodded. “Awesome! Heck yeah, you got a deal. I can’t wait to tell Soarin.”
“You mean you didn’t ask him first?” questioned Spitfire, fixing her sunglasses back upon her face properly, coughing against her forehoof.
“I asked him like two weeks ago. He was so easy to convince. All I had to do was offer him some freshly made pies from Aj’s farm, and I had him eating out of my hooves,” she smirked a wide eyed, proud grin.
“You’ve had this planned for weeks now? It’s not like you to be this focused.”
“What do you mean? I’m always focused. It helps that I’m already awesome at just about everything.”
“Including crashing.” Spitfire reminded her. She felt Dash sulk in her steps. She wrapped a wing around her. “Sheesh, I’m just messing with you Crash. You’re a valued member of the team, but sometimes you need to tone it down a bit.”
“That’s fair. I’ll meet you at the train station in an hour. Be sure to clean up before then! You smell like a musky old rat!” Rainbow Dash teased as she flew out the door, before Spitfire could lash back at her.
“Huh...What have I gotten myself roped into this time? I mean I’ve never actually been to Appleloosa. It might be nice.” Spitfire muttered to herself as she sniffed at her underarms. “Shessh, I really do smell like an musky old rat. I’d best shower up. Wouldn’t want to make a bad first impression,” she reminded herself.
Spitfire made her way out of her office, and to the locker room, she put her shades away, as well as her coat and hat. She grabbed her sweat towel, and headed straight for the showers. Stepping inside the shower area, she went to one of the stalls, and turnt the water on to about a medium temperature, not scolding hot, but not lukewarm either. A nice middle ground of soothing comfort. She sighed as she felt the water pouring down over her body. She closed her eyes, and began to wash herself up, starting with her mane and tail. Grabbing the bottle of shampoo, she spread it through her mane, scrubbing at her roots to get all the clumps of dirt and grime out, and doing the same with her tail.
Spitfire then reached for the washrag, and lathered it with the ivory soap she had purchased from a local maker right in Cloudsdale. Spitfire always liked helping out where she could. Many thought her to be nothing but a brute aggressive leader of the Wonderbolts, but she had a caring heart, and pushed the team like she did, because she knew what was best.
She began with her face, keeping her eyelids shut, she rubbed the cloth over her forehead, cheeks and her muzzle and chin, moving her way down to her neck, continuing onto her chest fluff, and down to her torso, moving to her front legs, and then her back hindlegs, washing over her rump, and finally cleaning her sensitive bits, before finally rinsing the soap off the cloth, putting the washrag back over the rack to dry, and rinsing the suds off of her body. Letting out a sigh of content, she reached for her towel and immediately put it into her face to clear her eyes of any soap, water, or dirt that might have still remained.
“I may as well fly down to the train station.” Spitfire said as she glanced up at a clock. It was already fifteen minutes until the time Rainbow Dash told her to meet her at the train station. She exited the headquarters in a full on sprint, and the second she was out the door, she spread her wingspan out fully, flapping them up and down, and soaring off into the sky. She expected that Soarin had likely stayed in Ponyville with the promise of pie, so she wasn’t really worried about him being late. But, she was a mare of deadlines, and there was no way she was going to be late.
Flying through the sky, always gave Spitfire this sense of calm. There was nothing to worry about, but the weather itself. She flew through the clouds, and dove down towards the train station. Landing with a heavy thud, she huffed and looked around for signs of Rainbow. Surely enough, she was already there.
“Hey Spitfire! You made it, and just in the knick of time too.” Rainbow Dash went over to her, and wrapped her wings around her.
“Yeah...Yeah...I’m here. You went to a lot of trouble for this. You are so in for it when we get back.” Spitfire reminded her. Though she did return the hug, wrapping a wing around Rainbow Dash in return.
“Howdy there, Sugarcube. Rainbow here’ has told me a lot about ya, and the other Wonderbolts. I reckon we don’t really get to see ya much outside of your line of duty. I think it’ll be nice bonding for all of us. Ain’t that right Rainbow?” Applejack smirked as she pulled Rainbow tightly against her, causing Rainbow Dash’s face to flush.
“Applejack! Stop, you are totally embarrassing me in front of my heroes.” Rainbow Dash pouted, lips curling downwards. Spitfire couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. That’s what she got for ruining all her hard work!
“Aww, come on Rainbow don’t be such a stick in the mud.” Applejack smiled, nuzzling her affectionately.
“Yeah, I could really use a vacation. It’s just so time consuming being a Wonderbolt. It doesn’t give you a lot of time to just mess around.” said Spitfire, rubbing the back of her mane with her forehoof.
“Well, that all changes as of right now. I want both you and Soarin to actually enjoy yourselves. Applejack and I have plans already, so you two can do whatever you want once we get there.” Rainbow Dash instructed.
Spitfire raised an eyebrow at this. “Since when are you the one giving orders Crash?” questioned Spitfire.
“Since this was my idea! And you're on vacation. So that means, right now you aren’t my boss.”
“You’re certainly right about that, I am your boss ain’t I Sugarcube?” smirked Applejack. Rainbow Dash tensed up as she felt a drop of sweat landing on the ground beneath her.
“Anyways. We have a train to catch.” Rainbow Dash interjected quickly. Spitfire could tell she was trying to hide something, which would only make her punishment when they got back, that much more rewarding.
“Hey guys! Wait for me.” spoke Soarin as he trotted up to the train station with exhaustion on his face. Sweat Drops pouring down his cheeks. His stomach clearly expanded from a recent big meal. “Man...I didn’t think I would make it.”
“Sheesh, and you call yourself a Wonderbolt.” Rainbow Dash teased him, jabbing her elbow right at him.
“Oww. Come on Rainbow. You’re the one that said I could eat as much pie as I wanted. And well I couldn’t stop. It was just so good.”
“I might not like pie, but Applejack is one hell of a cook.” smirked Rainbow Dash, wrapping her wing around her. Applejack flushed slightly, putting a forehoof against her cheek.
“Awwh, shucks. I just follow the recipes really. Ain’t nothing fancy about it. I’m pretty darn sure I ain’t the best cook in Equestria.”
“You’re the best in my books.” Rainbow Dash replied with a simple nod.
“You two are adorable, but the train will be here any minute now.” spoke Spitfire, just loving that she could tease Rainbow Dash a bit more.
The train pulled up to the station, tooting to signal it’s arrival, as it stopped, and allowed the ponies on board to get off at the station. After all the ponies from the train departed, the conductor called for the ponies to hand in their tickets and hop on board. Rainbow Dash bolted for the train, and handed over her ticket first.
“Always in such a hurry. What’s the rush?” questioned Spitfire.
“She’s just full of spirit that’s all.” Applejack said as she handed over her own ticket and hopped on board. Soarin was behind her, still groaning about eating too much pie.
“Ugh...I hope this ride doesn’t make me sick.” he said as he hopped on board.
Spitfire was the last one to get on the train of their little group. She sighed as she handed in her ticket, and decided to sit next to Soarin. Though she decided to let him have the outside seat, just in case.
“So what’s it like in Appleloosa? You ever been there before?” questioned Spitfire.
“A few times. It’s a nice place with a lot of nice ponies. It’s a lot like Ponyville. And everyone wears hats for some reason. I hope we won’t need any hats. I didn’t bring any.”
“Not going to wear a pie hat?” questioned Spitfire, in a clearly sarcastic tone.
“Hey! That’s actually a really good idea. But where on earth do you find a pie hat?” questioned Soarin, as he seemed to ponder on that thought.
“I’m surrounded by idiots.” Spitfire muttered to herself. She glanced out the window, towards Ponyville. She couldn’t help wondering if this vacation would actually be good for her or not, or if she’d just be more annoyed and frustrated by the end of it. She figured she should at least give it a chance. She was sure with Applejack keeping Rainbow Dash distracted,she’d at least be able to admire the scenery of the place.
The train started up, letting out a huff of steam, as the conductor made his last call for passengers.
“All aboard! Last call! Alright every pony. Next stop Appleloosa!” he spoke over the loudspeaker.
Spitfire glanced out the window, just lounging back in her seat. It would be a while until they arrived. She looked over towards Soarin, whose face was red as a beet, and already he was dashing to the bathroom.
“That’s why you shouldn’t eat so much pie.” she called out to him. She knew he heard her, but was in too much of a hurry to get to where he was going.
“Man, Rainbow Dash is right about one thing. I really do need a vacation.” Spitfire sighed to herself, trying to relax, and not think for the length of the ride.