//------------------------------//
// 10 - Wingmare 
// Story: Bullets of Fire 
// by BlackWater 
//------------------------------//









Spitfire went through more exercises with the Princess and started to feel the exhaustion come on. She didn't improve much on the wing-ups but she didn't expect to with her recent lull in confidence. Surprise's breakdown had left her feeling inadequate as a leader. Celestia knew this feeling all too well. Even after her many years the princess would still feel incompetent when somepony close to her broke down. Twilight was the most recent example of it.
The white alicorn had a plan. It was something she had first wanted to do with Twilight but never had the time to pull off. She fumed silently at her position as ruler. It prevented her from doing what she wanted to do on a regular basis and sometimes it even prevented her from doing what she knew she should do. With Spitfire at the castle, she could at least do something. 
Leaving the tired pegasus in the garden, Celestia made her way back to her bedroom. Quite some time had past now that she had finished the final stretching exercises with the Wonderbolt. Surprise would be getting up if she weren't already. Now the princess knew she didn't have the kind of influence necessary to connect to the mare. There was a very important difference between royal influence and personal influence, so she wouldn't try to persuade the mare into anything herself. Spitfire would be doing everything. She was the captain, after all.
She snickered at how everything was going to work out.









"Prize," Spitfire called as she saw the mare come back into the garden along with the Princess. She internally decided that it would be better to refer to her friend as "Prize" since it might help the mare feel that she belonged. Spitfire found herself doing more and more of that kind of subtle work when she became captain. The role was certainly not as glorified as it seemed when she was just a regular member of the team. "How are you feeling?" she continued to ask gently.
Surprise just mumbled, "Okay."
Obviously, the mare was still troubled. Celestia spoke up before Spitfire could say anything else, "We won't be able to do much more, but I thought this would be the best time to start."
Both mares looked at the Princess with confused looks. Neither knew what she was going on about. Celestia savored the moment while reclaiming her silky cushion beside the garden path. Once she was settled, she addressed them again, "Surprise will be the first Wonderbolt to join you in your training, Fire."
Surprise gasped but only understood a fraction of what it meant - not knowing about the trick behind the training. Spitfire, however, was skeptical. "I thought you didn't-"
"Oh, I knew you'd want your whole team to learn the Bullet. I just didn't want things to get out of hand. I still don't but I think one more mare will be fine. I'm sure Surprise can keep a secret and it'll be all the better for you two to teach the rest of the team without bringing my name up."
"I suppose," Spitfire conceded. The advantage of taking Surprise as her wingmare for the training didn't escape her notice. Of all the Wonderbolts, Surprise was the one pony that was at risk for quitting the team. The shy pegasus would no longer consider doing that if she was flying par with the captain. Besides that, she would be hard to train for such a difficult move in a group environment. The current setting was perfect and Spitfire found herself almost grateful for the breakdown that led them to this situation.
"You two should take a flight to talk things over," Celestia suggested.
Spitfire turned her gaze to the white pegasus. She was just standing there on the cobblestone garden path trying to sort out what was going on around her. She almost looked surreal under the glow of the sun and the lush garden greenery made her uncertain expression look out of place.
"What exactly is the 'Bullet'?" the white 'Bolt asked her friend.
"I haven't learned it yet so I can't show you," Spitfire conceded as she spread her wings and started lifting off of the ground. "But...I have a lot that I need to tell you so we should accept Celestia's offer."
Surprise took the cue and joined the orange mare in the air. With a wavering voice she replied, "Where to?"









Rapidfire groaned as he tried to get out of bed. His whole body hurt after that ridiculous misadventure that Fire Streak had put them through the previous day. It was not that he was out of shape - he was a 'Bolt and respectively fit. It was the fact that they had been doing hoof work rather than flight maneuvers. His leg muscles weren't as built up as his wings were. "I'm going to get him for this," he mumbled.
There was a knock on his door and he groggily stumbled over to it to see who it was. Recognizing the stallion from two rooms down, he let him in. "What are you doing up so early, Silver?"
Silver Lining had a satchel on him and he wasted no time in getting to Rapidfire's bed to spill the contents. The sleepy stallion gawked and almost forgot to close the door. There were probably a hundred letters there and they all looked alike - all the same unique red envelope. "What's up with your fan mail?"
Each Wonderbolt was used to getting a large volume of mail from their fans so it wasn't surprising to see the mess of papers. What was interesting was that these letters all looked the same. Silver Lining was nearly in panic mode. "It's all the same! One mare sent all of these!"
Rapidfire walked over and swiped a letter from his bed. The label showed the sender to be "Red Tulip." Was there really a pony by that name? Sometimes their fans would give themselves monickers for one reason or another. Either they thought it was cool or else they thought it would make them stand out from all the other letters. In any case, all of the mail was indeed sent by the same mare.
"So...why are you bringing this to me?" Rapidfire asked in confusion even as he shook the remaining sleepiness from his head.
"Because you're the only one I can trust to help me out," Silver Lining replied anxiously.
A silence passed between them before Rapidfire broke it. "Seriously?"
"You know the other guys. They'd just poke fun like they did with the movie. This is serious. I could have a stalker!"
Rapidfire sighed. He knew his friend was right. "Well what do they say?"
"Different things. Some of them are short, some are long. This one," he drew out a letter from one of the envelops that had already been opened, "is really long."
The letter looked more like a scroll used to document complex legal proceedings. Silver Lining held his hoof as high as he could reach and the letter continued to unfold until it reached the floor. Rapidfire almost grinned and caught himself when he remembered that it was supposed to be unsettling rather than amusing.
"Some of them are innocent. But not all of them," Silver continued.
"So what do you want me to do about it," Rapidfire puzzled.
The other stallion's eyes narrowed. "Help me figure out who this 'Red Tulip' is and if she's dangerous."
It was a good thing that the mares in the team had set up a vacation, because it gave the stallions some extra time off. Rapidfire didn't have anything planned so he just resigned himself to be Silver Lining's co-investigator. 
"Let's get to it then."









"Where's the dynamic duo?" Blaze asked her fellow 'Bolts. They had just gathered up again after milling around Chance's for a bit too long - even for High Winds' standards.
"I haven't seen them for a while," Misty admitted.
"I already checked the store and they're not here," Fleetfoot added.
High Winds made the obvious suggestion, "Did you check the dressing rooms?"
Fleetfoot nodded and Blaze gave a "humph." There was a moment of contemplation while each mare considered the options.
"You think they ditched the dare?" Fleetfoot offered.
Misty agreed to the possibility while criticizing Blazes indiscretion in the matter.
"They weren't that miserable," Blaze countered.
"But where are they?" High Winds repeated the problem.
Misty took charge, "We'll just have to split up and look." The group decided that was the best - if only - option and they left Chance's Fashion to search Canterlot. It would be a simple affair for four Wonderbolts to find two of their own in the otherwise crowded city. A Pegasus always had the advantage in that respect.









Soarin' was often the one that flied beside Spitfire during a performance and she had Misty fly beside her when Soarin' wasn't available. So it was a very odd sensation for Surprise to fly side-by-side with the famous Wonderbolt leader. She just kept reminding herself that they were not in some performance at the moment. They were just taking a leisurely flight around Canterlot. Spitfire had explained the Bullet maneuver to her and how she lucked out with the Princess' attention. Now they were just small chatting and, somehow, Surprise felt closer to the other mare than she had in all the time she had been a Wonderbolt. 
"I didn't know you hated cherries," Spitfire laughed.
"I've hated them ever since elementary school. My dad would always get me cherry flavored candies because I didn't know that color didn't equal the flavor. I loved strawberries so I'd always ask for the red candy."
"And he thought you meant cherry," Spitfire finished.
Surprise smiled at the memory. "It wasn't his fault."
"Well I have to say you were lucky. My parents wouldn't let me have any candy. They thought it would give me bad grades or something like that."
"That's silly!"
"I know," Spitfire laughed at it rather than getting mad. "It really was..."
Suddenly both mares heard a shout from below. The Canterlot street they were flying over was packed with what looked like mares. No stallions. Odd. 
"What's going on down there?" Spitfire asked even as she wandered down to get a better look. Surprise had a bad feeling but followed her friend anyways.
The group of mares was crowded in front of a building that was made with some very extravagant woods. The dark wood paneling was an offset to the other buildings and towers of Canterlot, which preferred light colors. Deep red draperies decorated the windows and gave it the refined look appropriate for the city. 
Spitfire hovered above the crowd beside a few other pegasus mares and tried to read the signs in the store windows. "What is this place? It's a store of some kind, right?" Spitfire mumbled.
Surprise found the building's identifying sign almost obscured by the crowd. "Red Tulip? It says it's a 'Special Message Service.' What does that mean?" she asked her new wingmare.
Spitfire turned to the white pegasus by her side and fumbled mentally as she failed to figure out what the title meant. "I've never heard of something like that..."
Below them, a strong-looking stallion shoved his way out of the store's doorway and raised his voice to the crowd. "We are currently overbooked! We regret that we cannot accept any more requests for today so please take your messages home until tomorrow!"
The crowd moaned and began dispersing. Spitfire saw her chance and landed straight in front of the stallion. He was the large kind of pony one would expect to be working as a security officer or some such role. His deep brown coat simply added to the intimidation factor. His response was unexpectedly gentle, "Can I help you, miss?"
"Can I have a brochure?" Spitfire asked in a voice that matched his politeness.
"Here you go ma'am," he grabbed a piece of paper from a thick sack on his back. "Please remember that we get a large volume of requests, so your chances of submitting a message are best during our early morning hours."
Spitfire nodded and walked away with the dwindling crowd. She mentally booked the stallion as one of the best customer service ponies she'd ever encountered. It didn't take her long to fly back up to the patiently waiting Surprise.
"So what is it?" the white mare asked.
Spitfire began reading a few lines from the paper, "Don't know the address? Can't get noticed? Red Tulip is here to get your message across! We deliver your special mail fast and in style. We also offer Xtra spEd: Get your mail marked as 'Red Tulip' for extra fast delivery through the Equestrian Royal Postal Service."
"Really?" Surprise asked in a shocked tone. "I didn't know that was possible..."
"Me neither," Spitfire agreed with suspicion. "Something's not right about this."
"Isn't the Royal Postal only for a few members of the High Court?"
"I suppose we could ask Celestia about it," Spitfire's voice muffled as she held the brochure in her mouth. "Let's get back. I don't want to-"
"Spitfire!" a familiar voice called. Both mares looked to find High Winds soaring over to them. She must have spotted them from the nearby intersection, which crossed a major road through Canterlot.
"Be found?" Surprise finished for her leader.