Wonderbolt's Base
The wind rushed past her ears, her mane whipped behind her like a flame in the middle of a huge fire. Spitfire narrowed her eyes and went into a quick roll through the last cloud ring, then made a hard bank down and to the right, shooting toward the finish line. A small light blue, and dark blue dot stood on the cloudbase. The light blue, and dark blue dot grew as she drew closer and closer to the finish line, taking on a more defined shape. Spikey blue mane, and a deep blue sports jacket worn proudly. Soarin held one hoof out in front, glancing from Spitfire to something in hoof and back again.
The whistling in her ears, the rapidly approaching clouds, the adrenaline pumping through her as she pushed her body to the absolute limit to her target. Spitfire gave a tight-lipped smile, a trick she had taught herself to avoid catching bugs. She would then flare her wings just in time to swoop over the cloud and cross the finish line.
"Time!” she heard Soarin yell as she went streaking by.
Her hooves touched down on the cloud surface. Her lungs burned, aching for breath. Spitfire would take her flight goggles from her face and let them hang limply around her neck as she gasped for air. Somehow, the sleek, form-fitting flight suit, seemed to almost compress her insides. But she’d be bucked in the head if it didn’t feel good. Pushing herself, fighting to get that extra burst of speed. The soft thudding of hooves on cloud made her ears prick up. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Soarin dangling a water bottle near her shoulder.
“Nice job boss” He said smoothly. “You almost have your old record beat.”
"Stop the flattery Clipper and just say it blunt" Spitfire said as she walked over to a cooler, taking out a bottle of water and opening it, immediately drinking it.
Soarin would sigh and take out his stopwatch, showing it to hot-headed mare "You just barely made it by ten seconds.."
"Ten seconds?!" Spitfire said "Ugh...buck me sideways.."
"Hey look, it's not that bad right? you still made the goal" Soarin said reassuring her "Besides, you and I both know that Command would not even think about letting you go."
"Soarin it's not about what command thinks, it's what I think" She would say "Ever since they added this 'Time Trial' segment to their requirements it's been a pain in the flank for us. Both of us are lucky that we were even able to make it, just by the bare of our fur."
"But we made it! That's good!" Soarin said "Both of us can still keep our positions in the bolts, so we are set!"
Spitfire would sigh as she took another sip of her water, then she put it back into the cooler "Yah your right...I just—I wanted to prove to myself that I did not need a damn Time Trial to prove I'm a good bolt, and ten seconds? it's just...cutting it closer than I thought."
"Hay, both me and you know for a fact that you are one of the fastest bolts here. Yeah ten seconds is cutting it a bit close, but that should not really matter. We have been Bolts for a long time now, and we have proved ourselves more than once. If command thinks that because we did not make the time trial, we are not as good as we used to be? then they can shove it."
"Thanks Clipper" Spitfire would say, an exhausted smile coming from her face.
As she dried her mane, Spitfire trotted out of the shower. The warm water worked wonders to chase away the tired, aching feeling in her muscles and wash away all the sweat. She would then grab a towel and dry herself off, making sure her mane and tail were thoroughly dry. She then shook out her mane and spared a cursory glance at her reflection in the mirror to check her style; Still spiked up as usual, and her mane was all dry.
"Checking yourself out again Captain?" Fleetfoot said as she walked into the building, looked like she had just arrived too.
"Pff no, just making sure I dried off completely that's all" She would say as she closed her locker "What's up Flatfoot?"
"Well, besides the sky, Soarin wanted me to tell you the recruits are coming and we need to be prepared for the next batch of bolts" Fleetfoot said "He would have told you himself, but he had other matters to attend too."
"Are those other matters by any chance a young black stallion with a white mane?" Spitfire said, which then got a chuckle out of Fleetfoot, which then caused Spitfire to laugh as well "Seriously, those two better admit their feelings to each other by now, or Celestia help me I'm locking them in a room together."
"Oh you're evil" Fleetfoot chuckled as she took out her flight suit. "Besides, the two of them tease each other enough already, it's bound to happen at some point."
"So...Recruitment is already here? Damn, I thought that was not for another three weeks..."
"Command is pushing it up this year, they said they want to try out a new touring schedule. So earlier recruitments are necessary" Fleetfoot said "Nothing to major right?"
"Yeah you have a point" Spitfire said "I'm just hoping to not have too many recruits this time around, last year was a hoof-full."
"I know! last year was crazy!" Fleetfoot said "I swear I thought I almost saw Crash fall asleep in the air with the amount of practice she had to do" Fleetfoot said, as she would finish putting her uniform out "So any plans for tonight? Thunderlane and Soarin were thinking about doing a Bolt's Dinner today if you wanna join? Crash is gonna be there too" she said.
"That's not a bad idea! Count me in, just make sure someone watches what Clipper eats, don't need him giving us a bill of 1,000 Bits for every pie he wants" Spitfire said chuckling "Ill make sure to tell Rapidfire to join, that is if I can get him off his ass."
"Oh please, Rapid would not miss out a chance to get on your nerve" Fleetfoot said chuckling
"Oh don't worry, I'll make sure my Brother stays in check this time. If he does not then I'm gonna become a single child" Spitfire said laughing, which was soon joined by Fleetfoot.
"Well then I'll see you later tonight Captain" Fleetfoot would say as she left the locker room. Spitfire would then go into her locker again and take out a couple more things before leaving the room. She would continue to walk until she reached her office, opening the door she would walk in and go to her desk, once there she would open a drawer and pull out some papers, laying them out on her desk for tomorrow.
Most of the paperwork was miscellaneous, ranging from purchase orders on the team checkbook, to tour spots and requests from upper management. "Oh the duties of a Captian" Spitfire would say to herself as she went to grab her personal bag above the filing cabinet. As she did so, her bag would fall onto the ground spilling some of her things.
"Celestia bucking damn it.." She said, as she went to pick up her stuff, most of it being personal belongings like her wallet, sunglasses, and whistle. Then she came across an old photo, she tilted her head sideways a bit as she flipped the photo. It was quite the old photo judging how yellow it was. It contained five ponies in Wonderbolt Training Uniforms, She recognized herself obviously, then there was Surprise, she had changed a lot since then. She also recognized a mare who bore a striking resemblance to Rainbow Dash she remembered her as Prism, But her memory was a bit foggy on her. Lastly she came across a white stallion with a mane and tail consisting of blue, light blue, cyan, and light green. She remembered him as Orion, she smiled and put the photo back into her bag.
It had been almost 29 years since that photo was taken, so much had happened since then, it was hard to imagine that she and Surprise were all that was left of The 2001 Graduation Year, well...Graduation and Re-Take, the Year of 2002 was when Spitfire met the rest of the bolts along with Fleetfoot, Blaze, Misty, Wave Chill, and everypony else she had gotten to know. She always did wonder what happened to the other two ponies, as she never saw them after that.
After collecting her things she walked out the door of her office, closing and locking it behind her before she made her way out of the building. It was only 3:00 in the afternoon so she had a bit longer to relax before she had to go and meet the rest of the bolts. So with the trot of her hoofsteps and the flapping of her wings, she made her way to Downtown Cloudsdale for some personal fun.
Downtown Cloudsdale
Cloudsdale was one of the third largest cities in Equestria, and rightfully so. It was just as busy as ever, with Cloud Taxis running amok. Ponies walking around shopping, going to work, and living their lives. Spitfire was used to this, having grown up in the higher class of the Clouds. So going shopping and all of that stuff was relatively boring for her, she had enough of that stuff at home when she was younger to know that. So the pegasus spent most of her time doing more practical things ideally going to see sports shows and going to plenty of restaurants. However Spitfire also had one guilty pleasure she liked that not many ponies knew about.
Spitfire would make her way over to the park area, where the tallest mountain would peek out of the clouds, allowing trees and vegetation to reach the top. There in the center was a public gazebo and inside that gazebo were a few pegasi who were playing some music. Spitfire quietly sat on the bench in the park, far enough from the actual gazebo for anyone to know she was there to listen to the music coming from it.
She quietly leaned into the bench and relaxed while the music played in the background. Spitfire was always a fan of music, most ponies would not know this however say for Soarin and her Brother. They were mainly the only ponies who she trusted enough with her secret hobby. She just never felt comfortable with the other bolts knowing their strong, loud, and commanding captain was into sappy soft music. She chuckled a bit to herself "I sound like Rainbow Dash talking about Daring Doo" she said to herself.
Looking around the park she could see plenty of other ponies just enjoying their life, going about it as if there was nothing going on. However she then noticed something, looking near a concession stand she saw a pony who looked familiar, slowly getting up and getting a better look at the pony she could make out his cutie mark, a Lightning bolt and a Music note. His mane and tail then caught her eye as she remembered the old photo in her bag. Taking it out for a split second she looked at it, then back to the pony.
"Orion?" Spitfire asked, getting close enough for the pony to hear her.
The pony would turn around upon hearing the name, looking to Spitfire. His eyes grew wide as he realized who it was. "Spitfire?"
The two looked at each other for a couple of moments before smiling and going up to each other, giving a hug. After a couple of seconds they let go and laughed a bit. "My god it's been so long Spitfire! How are you?" Orion asked.
“Im good!” Spitfire said "What about you? What brings you to Cloudsdale after all these years?"
"Oh It’s a long story” Orion admitted with a chuckle. “Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not!” Spitfire said smiling; this alone was almost enough to make the day better! She enthusiastically waved a hoof for Orion to follow her to the empty seat on the bench beside her.
Orion gladly followed her, following her over to the bench and sitting down next to her.
“So,” Spitfire started, attempting to start the conversation back up “What brings you to Cloudsdale?”
"Well, my parents recently moved from Cloudsdale to live in Seaward Shoals, and they ended up needing to sell my childhood home in order to get the Bits. I got into a bit of an uh...disagreement with them, and I'm currently trying to buy the house back" Orion said "I had plans to actually purchase the house myself from them, but things went sideways"
“That stinks,” Spitfire winced. "I remember when our parents sold our home to move to a better area closer to the downtown area. My brother and I were not happy, so I understand where your coming from."
"Yeah, hopefully I can convince Cloudsdale Bank to let me buy it back before it's sold" Orion said "Until then I'm staying in a hotel here, It’s gonna be at least a month till the bank can decide if they're gonna foreclosure it or not” he admitted.
"I'm sorry to hear, but hay...I bet things will be good for ya" Spitfire said smiling a bit
"Thanks" Orion said smiling he had to admit; the mare was cute when she was being nice. ‘Whoa there, brain,’ he warned himself. ‘Let's keep out of the gutter, she probably doesn’t even like me that way.’
"Hay no problem" Spitfire said, leaning back a bit in her seat.
"So what about you? What's up with The Captian of The Wonderbolt's lately" Orion said chuckling a bit "Seriously, when I found out Hurricane gave you the position I almost fell out of my chair."
Spitfire laughed a bit "I would have loved to see that" She said "As for what I'm doing? Not much really this is the time we take to schedule our next batch of shows and fulfill our commercial obligations. But recruitment does also start up in a few days so we are going to probably be flooded in both paperwork and tryouts" As much as she loved her job and the fans around it, she absolutely hated the press side of it. “Guess that's just part of the job eh?” she said with a chuckle.
"Damn, that's going to be a lot of work" Orion said, straightening himself up a bit "I can't believe you are able to do this every year, if I were in your shoes I would have gone crazy!"
Spitfire would laugh again "Trust me, a few times I did go crazy. Soarin and the others were this close to strapping me to a chair" After finishing that sentence, Spitfire would look to the small road clocks and notice the time "Anyways, I should probably get going. I have a bolt meeting to attend too."
"Oh cool, what are you guys doing? Maneuver practices? Arial combat training" Orion asked.
"Nah, we are just having our annual Bolt's Dinner. We usually have one every time we finish doing performances. So its kinda tradition."
"Oh that's cool!" Orion said smiling, as he too would get up "Well I hope you have fun. Hopefully we can see each other again at some point?"
"Oh absolutely, I bet Surprise would wanna catch up too" Spitfire said smirking coyly
"Nooooo thank you" Orion laughed "I don't think I could handle her randomness even after all these years."
"Actually she has changed a lot since you last saw her. Even changed her mane so it's all spiky and stuff. I barely recognized her when I saw her again."
"Well then make sure to tell her I said hi then alright?" Orion said
"Will do" Spitfire said as she began to walk out, before turning around "Hay uh...if you wanna see each other again do you maybe wanna meet up again for like...a coffee or something?" Spitfire asked.
Orion looked at her for a moment before smiling a bit "Sure, I'll meet you at the local Ponybucks at Cirius Avenue at 1:00 pm tomorrow, and we can grab something."
"Alright! see you tomorrow!" Spitfire said as she went into the city’s bustling commercial district.
Wing’s Diner - Cloudsdale
"Alright alright alright, here's one. A Skellapony walks into the bar, he orders a beer and a mop" Rapidfire said "Why does he need the mop?" He would tell the table. Most if not all the Wonderbolts were at the table, Soarin and Thunderlane were on the right side of the table, while Fleetfoot, Surprise, and Rainbow Dash were sitting on the left. Rapid was sitting close to Soarin and a seat beside him was empty for Spitfire.
"Is it to clean up the awful joke?" Soarin said, chuckling to himself.
"Hay it's not bad! I'll have you know that this joke makes all of the fans laugh their flanks off!" Rapid said.
"Yah, probably because they're laughing at how stupid the joke is" Rainbow said, chuckling to herself.
"Alright then Id like to see if any of you could do better" Rapid said, crossing his hoofs.
"Alright here's one. A terrible drill Sargent would never stop yelling...blank" Soarin said.
"Oh it's one of those fill-in-the-sentence jokes" Thunderlane said "Uhhh....Ooo I got it 'A terrible drill Sargent would never stop yelling in Germane' there's your joke" Thunderlane said chuckling.
"Pfff that's weak" Rapid said.
"Alright how about...'A terrible drill Sargent would never stop yelling fuck me' how's that?" Rainbow said.
"No no wait, how about 'A terrible drill Sargent would never stop yelling I pissed myself' huh?" Fleetfoot said.
Soarin would chuckle a bit "Ok that's better..." Soarin said "Alright again the sentence is A terrible drill Sargent would never stop yelling..."
"Daddy~" Surprise said, which then got the entire table to burst out laughing, Fleetfoot and Soarin both wheezing as they laughed.
"Oh my Celestia wait!" Rainbow said as she then messed with her mane a bit and made it look all spiky like Spitfire and Surprise's mane "Drop and give me 20 Daddy!" Everypony would continue to laugh until Spitfire came through the door, some of them going quiet but failing to actually tell Rainbow that she was now in the building. The mare still having her mane looking like Spitfire's.
"Daddy! I want you to give me 10 laps!" She said, putting her hoofs to her side in the form of triangles as She, Rapid, and Soarin continued to laugh.
Spitfire would be standing behind Rainbow as she cleared her throat. Which caused the mare to freeze in place and turn around to look at Spitfire "You done yet?"
"Y-yes mam" Rainbow said.
"Good...because I want you to now go and give me 50 laps...." Spitfire said before smerking "Daddy~" She said seductively.
"I-" Rainbow would freeze with a massive blush on her face as the entire table burst into an uncontrollable laughter
“Might wanna fold your wings to Crash; other ponies might talk,” Spitfire said with a playful wink. Which only caused the table to burst into a burst of bigger laughter. it was almost worth seeing Rainbow’s cyan cheeks turn almost as red as the streak in her hair while she frantically got her body language under control. The mare would then sit down in her saved spot “Ok kids,” Spitfire spoke up "Did we think of an order yet or were you all just making small talk until I came?"
"Nah, we ordered a couple baskets of Hay Fries while we waited" Rapid said "We were gonna wait until you came to order the actual food."
"How thoughtful Rapid, I could almost take it as flattery" Spitfire said.
"Don't push your luck" He would say nudging her in the shoulder.
Spitfire would chuckle as she looked to Rainbow "Hay thanks again for coming out today, we all really missed you at practice"
"No sweat cap, I wouldn't miss a bolt dinner for the world" Rainbow said smiling "Besides Im coming back tomorrow anyway, so might as well spend today hanging out with you guys right?"
"Hay you said it Rainbow" Soarin said
"By the way, were you Spitfire? We arrived here expecting you to already be here. You're not usually this late" Surprise said.
"Actually it's funny you mention that, you won't guess who I ran into" Spitfire said.
"Was it another fan-boy trying to steal your bag?" Fleetfoot commented.
"No" Spitfire said, giving Fleet a look which was basically playfully "I ran into Orion."
"Shut the front door really?!" Surprise said, almost bursting out of her seat.
"I know right! I never thought I would see him again" Spitfire said "I ran into him while I was making my way over here and we had a bit of a conversation."
"Sorry uh...who's Orion?" Fleetfoot asked.
"He was a cadet with me and Spitfire back when we were in the academy" Surprise spoke up "He did not make the cut, but he was a really nice guy" Surprise said, looking over to Spitfire with a smirk "I remember somepony even had a small boy crush on him~."
"N-no I did not! Shut up Surprise" Spitfire said flushing slightly.
"You had a crush on somepony who was not me? I feel insulted" Soarin said, acting like he was shot in the heart by an arrow and limping over the booth.
"Oh shut it Clipper" Spitfire said "Its nothing like that, we were just close in the academy that's all."
"So what brings him in Cloudsdale?" Surprise asked.
"I don't think I should say, it sounded kinda personal."
"Ahh I get it" Surprise said "Still it's really awesome you got to see him again. I wonder how he is doing."
"From what he told me he is doing good" Spitfire said, grabbing a hay fry from the basket in the middle of the table "Said he is gonna be in Cloudsdale for a month or so."
"Oh sweet, maybe we will get to see him again?" Surprise asked.
"Maybe yah" She said, getting a bit quiet.
"Come on Spits...I can tell something is on your mind" Soarin said.
"Nothing on my mind Woo Bear, why don't you go back to looking at Thunderlane's flank huh?" Spitfire said smirking widely, which then got a flush out of both Soarin and Thunderlane, which in turn got the table to laugh again.
Soarin' mumbled something indistinguishable as he leaned into his seat. He then noticed Thunderlane, who was struggling not to burst out laughing.
“Don’t you do it…” he warned Thunderlane. The black stallion’s expression degraded the more he struggled not to laugh “Thunderlane, don’t you dare…” Soarin' warned again.
“Sure thing…” Thunderlane's voice cracked as a giggle nearly escaped him “…Woo Bear!” he cried as he burst out laughing. Soarin' pressed his hoof to his forehead and contemplated all the possible ways he could think of for revenge.
“I hate you…” he grumbled, “so much.”
“Love you too … Woo Bear” Thunderlane retorted, trying desperately to quell his laughter.
"Where did Woo Bear come from?" Rainbow asked, wiping the tears of joy away from her eyes
"Back in the academy, Soarin had a Stuffed Ursa-Minor he would sleep within his bunk, and one day we all found it. So we gave him the nickname Woo Bear!" Fleetfoot said, which in turn made the table laugh even more.
"I hate you all..." Soarin said.
Downtown Cloudsdale
"Alright we will see you all tomorrow for early training!" Spitfire yelled as she watched the rest of the bolts take off in separate directions. While she and Soarin would take an easy.
"Man the food there was great, we should go there more often." Soarin said.
"Pff, your only saying that because of the fact Thunderlane paid for a pie."
"I'm not!" Soarin said, giving Spitfire a nudge. The two of them would continue to walk for a mile or so, Soarin would notice that Spitfire was looking down a bit "You alright?"
"Yah I'm fine..just...thinking.."
"What are you thinking about?" He would ask.
"Just...ok promise not to tell Rapid or Thunderlane, those two are blabbermouths."
"Alright got it" Soarin said "So what's up?"
"Ok so...you know how I said I saw Orion right?"
"Yeah, you said he and you had a cool conversation why?" Soarin said "Did he say something?" He would raise an eyebrow.
"No no nothing like that" Spitfire said "He told me he is staying in a hotel because his parents sold his house."
"Yikes...that's unfortunate" Soarin said "So the guy does not have a home?"
"Well...I never really asked but...from the sound of things I don't think so" Spitfire said stopping to face Soarin "I just...have this feeling I should have said something that's all."
"Well...do you have any plans on seeing him again?" Soarin asked.
"We made plans to get coffee tomorrow yah" Spitfire said.
"Well then tomorrow, ask him about his living situation. If you think you need to take action? ask him to stay with you" Soarin said.
"I.." Spitfire flushed a bit "Yah I guess that could work."
"Alright then" Soarin said as he got into the air "Ill see you tomorrow then" Soarin would say, then he would get a bit further before shouting "And have fun on your date!!"
Spitfire blushed a bit before turning around to yell something before Soarin vanished into the sky. She looked down a bit and thought to herself "It's...just a hangout...there's nothing romantic going on at all.." She said to herself "Right?"