As the heavy storm continued to pour in over the coach roofs, making the prickling sound of water bouncing off the roof ever more prevalent, a sound that nearly everyone would be familiar with and know, the soft snoring of a sleeping cyan pegasus was the only sound and sight that Spitfire could see, apart from the cold and rainy scenery that could be seen outside the windows of the coach. The train that she was on was a leased private engine from a friend of a friend who she was visiting. A generous act, one that she did not expect, but was insisted upon by both colleagues and said, friend. She looked around, her personal belongings resting in one side of the coach with RD’s own things being placed somewhere else nearby.
She looked outside the window, the threes and scenery changing in near instants because of the tremendous speed of the train, thanks to it being primarily made of steel, it was able to reach speeds that could both surpass the speed and hauling capacity of the engine used in the friendship express. She looked once again at a grandfather clock on one side of the room, the trip had been long, and preparations even longer, but she guessed by the time she once again awoke, she would be awake just in time to see the train arrive at the base station of Las Pegasus, and so, she decided to sleep, sleep with Rainbow Dash opposite to her, she looked at a picture that she would usually hide at her neck, behind her mane, which was placed in a picture frame just for the trip, it gave her a smile, she was about to meet a friend that she hadn’t seen in a while, and deep down, it excited her to know she could meet her once again, in Las Pegasus no less, it was an experience she won’t let go easily, especially since the storm seemed to have been made just for the occasion, and so, as she went into a soft and short slumber, a smile made its way into her face as she thought of her old memories of a time when she was younger, and in some cases, brasher.
A single strong whistle was all it took to wake Spitfire up, and once she did, she saw the distant casinos and towers that Las Pegasus was known for, she was finally here, some might say its paradise, and truth be told, it really was like it, it was a place that offered something unique that even Canterlot would struggle to compete with. Yet in those shining lights, she saw that their train had begun to slow down, and she made her way to wake up Rainbow Dash, who, miraculously, somehow managed to snore through the loud whistle earlier.
“Yo, Rainbow, wake up, where here...” Spitfire said as she nudged the rainbow pony, promptly receiving a disgruntled moan from her.
“Uuuggghhhh,” Rainbow replied, “five more minutes, I promise I'll wake up later.” She said as she repositioned herself, wanting to make the most of her sleepy state.
Spitfire, eyeing Rainbow for a moment, begrudgingly agreed to her request, “fine, fine, but you owe me slushy for fixing your things.”
“Yeah, yeah, thanks capt.” She said as she dozed off for the rest of the journey, agreeing unknowingly to Spitfire's request.
Spitfire for her part began to fix up hers and Rainbow's things, they were about to disembark the train in a few minutes, and she was already thankful in Celestia's name that she even had this chance, so dammit she planned to make it work and worth the wait.
After a short while of working, and a short chat with the conductor of their train, and after a while of one blue body being dragged off the bed later, and now Spitfire and Rainbow Dash had found themselves in front of the front desk of one of the casinos of Las Pegasus, “Fortune 13” as it is known, that just so happened to also be connected to the hotel where they were supposed to meet with the pony they were supposed to meet, plus it was close to a casino AND a tour guide for the whole of Las Pegasus, easy way to find direction since the city after all was huge in its own right.
“Ah, new faces I see,” the stallion of the front desk said as he raised his head to look towards the two mare's, “two of the Wonderbolts best flyers I see, Miss Dash and Captain Spitfire, how may I be of service to the both of you?” he asked while continuing whatever he was doing behind the desk.
“We would just like to check-in for two rooms, the best you’ve got,” Rainbow said as she placed a bag of bits on the counter, which the stallion took and began counting its contents, while also scanning through a notebook, presumably for available rooms.
"Sure, please, give me a moment to check, and while you wait, please enjoy the booth we have here on the ground floor," the stallion said with a smile as he resumed his job.
And after a few moments and a very quick trip to a food booth by Spitfire, the stallion was ready to respond back, “Two suites, correct?”
“Yup.” Rainbow responded, not noticing Spitfire return with a Milkshake in hoof instead of the slushy she wanted earlier, “Why? Will there be any problems?”
The stallion, giving a sheepish smile, responded in kind, “It, unfortunately, appears so,” he said as he lifted what appeared to be a papers map of the top five floors of the hotel that was connected to the casino, as he pointed a hoof on one side of the layout, he began to explain, “We recently had an inspection for the hotel section, specifically the top five floors and our manager's manager had decided to do a revamp of the layout and expand the hotel and casino a bit, and unexpectedly, an influx of visitors had arrived here in Las Pegasus and went here to find a room, after all, we provide a service that most other competitors won't dare venture because of the economic risk, and as you could maybe tell, more rooms are being filled and we had to tell off some ponies who couldn’t afford or flat out won’t accept the offers we have set,”
He said as he looked a bit disheartened by this setback, after all, the business had to keep going, but it also affected his pay even though he, either unknowingly or knowingly, was working for an economic empire that would barely be affected by this setback, but no pony knew that fact, it would be bad for business after all, “point is that unless you’ve got a room that was at least reserved for the both of you specifically or some other arrangement that we could work with, I can’t get you a room above the fourth-highest floor, that means at best, you could get one of the master's rooms at the fifth-highest and unfortunately not two individual rooms, services will also come in the final price tag, amongst other things.”
A short moment of thinking and a quick glance at Spitfire's notes (provided by her mystery friend) had shown what the pair would do next, “actually,” Spitfire began as she moved closer to show something, “a friend of mine did in fact reserve a room for the both of us at the top floor of the hotel, here’s the signature and original letter,” She said as she placed the note in front of the stallion.
The stallion, a bit hesitant and doubtful at first, once having fully read the note, immediately perked up from the letter, “Please, follow the pony I am about to call too, it is very rare to find some pony like you bring in this kind of letter of evidence, and we have a special way of doing this around for these kinds of... events,” he said as he proceeded to call for one of the employee’s to accommodate for the two mares.
After a long and tedious process of hauling, following, and eventually unloading of bags and other stuff related to settling in to their room, Rainbow and Spitfire had managed to reach the door that they had set out to open ever since their trip to Las Pegasus started. As they reached the door, as was proper manners, they knocked three times, expecting an immediate answer. When no answer came for the next fifteen seconds, they knocked again, which was promptly followed by what could only be described as “the comical noise of someone suddenly waking up and tripping over everything in their room as they try and approach to open their front door,”
Waiting for another few moments, the door finally opened, slowly at first, to reveal a pegasus mare with a light grey coat with a blondish mane, her cutie mark, at least from Rainbow's perspective, was a unique looking Eagle with its wings outstretched to the fullest.
“S-Spitfire? Is that you?” The mare asked, seemingly being taken aback by both Spitfire’s sudden appearances in her front door and, well, Spitfire’s appearance.
Spitfire, in-kind with a gentle smile, replied, “It is, and how have you been Messer? Long time no see, and I see you’ve made quite a comfy living, may we come in?”
The mare, in turn, allowed her door to swing fully to allow both of her new guests to enter, “Oh please, no need to call me by my old name, a bygone name honestly, just call me Mesha like we did when we were rookies.” She said as she suddenly shifted her attention towards Rainbow Dash and pointed a hoof at her, “And I presume she’s a rookie?”
Turning around, Spitfire saw the offended face that Rainbow Dash made at that remark, although she intervened before she could make a remark of her own, “By your old standards? Probably, but you know the academy had made adjustments over the years, can’t say it’s the same one we attended back in our heyday.”
“That’s my heyday, on the other hoof, you, Spitfire old friend, are still in yours, still growing and improving as I see, even teaching as an instructor, not particularly a job I would have easily accepted, but I try to keep myself up-to-date with what you’re up to.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Rainbow Dash butted in, “Spitfire, captain, could you explain to me why you’re speaking sooooo um… casually to this mare? I mean, no offense, really, but, I don’t believe I’ve seen or even heard of Spitfire talk about you.” Rainbow said as she looked at the mare in a somewhat accusing manner, partially because she felt as though she was being left out and felt as though she needed to get involved in some small way, but also because of the fact that this mare, at least at first glance, seemed to be a smith, a lineage very reminiscent of this mare's appearance.
A soft chuckle from the mare and then she answered, “None taken, and it isn’t any pony's fault that you don’t know my name, Miss Dash, it was a request I asked of Spitfire,” She said as she lead the two mare's into a table with a window that overlooked Las Pegasus, “and a formal introduction is needed for the both of us, seeing as it seems to be that your Spitfire’s friend,” a hoof extend from the mare, expecting a hoof shake from Rainbow Dash, “call me Mesha, Mesha Schmidt, first and only daughter of Steel Schmidt, co-founder of Iron Works and Smith Inc., and you are Rainbow Dash, correct?”
Rainbow Dash, hesitant at first, accepted the hoof shake and began talking, “Yep! Elemental bearer of Loyalty and the first and only pony to ever do a Sonic Rainboom!”
“Really?” Mesha asked, although Rainbow had already gained an increasingly substantial amount of popularity and she knew a great deal about her just through reading, she decided to humor the cyan pegasus, “I have heard of it before, but I haven’t actually seen one with my bare eyes, Spitfire, through the letters she sent me from time to time, had always made it seem like you were a hotshot, but meeting you miss Dash, its actually impressive, even if it seemed far-fetched, but all things considered, I suppose it is part of your special talent.”
“ppfffhhh, that’s just the stories, and please, um... is it alright if I just call you Mesha?” a quick nod from the mare and she continued, “Just call me Rainbow or Dash, it's fine, I mean, ‘miss’ is fine and all, but too formal for me, I'm sure you’ll understand.”
And sooner rather than later, the three mares had begun to make a bond as they talked through the day. They talked about their experiences as flyers (mostly Spitfire and Rainbow Dash) and shared stories on how things came to be, Mesha even explained her family linage to Rainbow, who unexpectedly found it interesting how things worked outside of the politics of Equestria. Despite this, the time seemingly became non-existent to the three until the twilight had begun to appear on the horizon, at which time, Mesha had a special plan for the three of them.
“So, Mesha, who are we meeting this time?” Spitfire asked in a sarcastic tone, one that Mesha expected because Spitfire had been dragged to plenty of similar things, “Got to be a good one if you somehow managed to get Rainbow to follow along instead of her running off to who knows where.”
A chuckle from the mare as they approached a reserved table that was set on a balcony was all that Spitfire needed to realize there was something amiss, and only now did she realize, Mesha had changed, like a whole lot since the last time they met each other, let alone flew together, but despite that, she was mostly the same mare she grew up with.
“Oh hush now,” Mesha responded, a smirk replacing the chuckle she had earlier, “you’ll only meet a pony who helped me after my incident, it won’t take long, plus, I'm sure Miss Dash would appreciate a little storytime.” She said, a frown only Spitfire noticed when the matter of her ‘incident’ was brought up, but before she could cheer her up, Rainbow interjected.
“Please, Mesha, what did I say about the ‘miss’ thing, too formal, Rainbow is what I like and will do, as I said earlier.” A hint of arrogance in her voice, no malice, of course, the usual for the cyan pegasus.
As they made themselves comfortable on the seat and had their orders taken by a waiter who came by, there was a sense of comradery as the three waited in the respective places.
“So, Mesha, you gonna tell the story this time?” Spitfire asked while looking upwards at the scenery that the balcony allowed them.
“Of course, and I’m sure Rainbow would like to hear your pitch in from time to time.”
“Hey! I’m fine with whoever decides to lead,” Rainbow Dash said defensively, “but it is interesting to know that even Spitfire would be willing to pitch in, this would probably be very cool!”
“Alright, alright,” Mesha said as she unfolded one of her wings, revealing a hidden strap that seemed to house her glasses, amongst other things that Rainbow didn’t catch quickly enough, and as Mesha wore her glasses, she began to speak of a tale, a story of her life, a story of war, “In a distant past, before the days of peace and when the fields of skirmishes and wars were soaked in the blood of friends and foes, high above the battlefield away from the blood-soaked sands and red-stained seas, there was another war, a war between the daredevils of the skies, known as the aces…”