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// Touchdown and Takeoff 
// Story: If the Flight Suit Fits 
// by TheLastBrunnenG 
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I feel the walls of the Wonderbolts lounge closing in, and it’s not doing anything for my patience. “Misty Fly, you are out of line! Control yourself. Listen, I was - “

“You were with us, Soarin! You were as pissed as the rest of us, maybe more from the sounds of it.” Misty knows how to push my buttons, and here it comes. “You’re our number two. If Spitfire wants to shirk off, that’s her business, but you should have been named Acting Captain, not some teenage whore who’s screwing the boss!”

That’s it. I’ve got better things to do than let some hothead wreck what little is holding us together, and I don’t have time to play nice. I pull out the Second in Command voice and the real shouting starts. “Enough! First, I was wrong. Spitfire’s the Captain and her word is law here. She wants to make Rainbow Dash the boss for a day, so be it. With Dash in charge we took Best In Show and swept all the technical awards, too, so I’d say Spitfire was dead on right.”

I’ve gotta stop to breathe here before I rattle the pictures off the wall. For what it’s worth, Misty just sat back down, and the rest of the team just stopped nodding and smiling. “Whether she knew that would happen or she was just giving her marefriend a little present, it doesn’t matter. Dash got results, so deal with it.”

I spin and head out the door. Before I leave to take care of the real problem, I look over my shoulder and shoot icicles at that little upstart. “And second, Misty Fly – you’re grounded until further notice.” She leaps up and I cut her off before the shouting starts again. “No buts, no arguments, unless you want it to last longer. As you reminded me, I’m number two around here, and that means only Spitfire can overrule me.”

I squint and drop my voice to a growl – this is a point I have to drive home and it’d better stick. “This goes for you, and for everyone in this room, and yes, for me as well – you may not like the mare wearing the Captain’s stripes and you may not like how she got them, but without exception you will respect the rank.”

I wheel around and catch a glimpse of a tail, orange and green and blue and more, heading around the corner. There’s only one of those in the Wonderbolts, probably in all Equestria, and there’s no feathering way she missed that conversation. My luck, she was probably right outside the whole time.

I sprint down the corridor and there she is. I can hear her teeth grinding from here. I shake my head and suck it up, stepping alongside her as she trudges down the hall. This has to be done, and I’m the sucker that just volunteered. “Dash? Hey, Dash, got a second?”

“No,” she spits. Beautiful, this is gonna go just perfectly.

“Rainbow, I need to talk. Please?” She cuts her eyes at me and keeps moving but doesn’t punch me in the teeth, so I take that as an affirmative. Walk and talk it is, I guess. “For what it’s worth, I‘m supposed to know better and I feathered it up. I set a bad example for everypony else, and I’m sorry. You brought home the gold, and…" Stings to say this, but it's as true as the sky is blue. "And Spitfire made the right choice. Even if it was just for one day, Dash, you deserved the Captain's stripes.” Here comes my trump card. “You really did earn it, Rainbow.”

She freezes mid-stride and looks at me, wrinkling her muzzle. She looks at me like she’s deciding if I’m poison or not, then nods and turns to keep walking. As she trots away, I hear her call back over her shoulder, “Thanks.” One word, and it’s more than I hoped for. That could have gone oh so very much worse – I’ll take it. Two down, one to go. Luna help me.

Somehow I knew Spitfire would still be here, in the perfectly and oppressively grey prison cell she calls an office. I’m sorry to say I’m right. I let myself in; years of experience have taught me that when she’s distracted, there’s no use knocking. “Spitfire? Hey, Boss, I wanted to…“ Oh, sweet mercy, that’s not good. She’s staring at the Best in Show trophy, or what’s left of it. Looks like somepony took a hammer to it, and I’m guessing the hammer was rainbow-maned and ticked off.

“You were right, Soarin. You all were.” Her voice is low and her ears are drooping, and her eyes haven’t left the remains of that trophy. This is bad. “It was all a mistake. All of it – letting her aboard, making her Captain, all of it. Us. Fifteen years I’ve been doing this and I was doomed the moment I set eyes on her." She looks up, eyes wet for the first time I’ve seen in over a decade.  "I’ve lost it, haven’t I, Soar?”

Worse than I thought. I’ve seen her fly with broken bones and bore straight through thunderheads that sent the best weatherponies in Equestria cowering, and she’s never looked like this. Here goes nothing. “Spitfire, yeah – you made mistakes. We all do. You moved too fast falling for her, and look what it got you – the hottest mare in town is head over hooves in love with you and she’s stuck around for ten times the abuse and aggravation and crap that anypony else ever would have.” She twitches an ear, so I’ve hit a nerve – I need to keep talking before I lose her. “You moved too fast naming her Captain, or Acting Captain, whatever – and look what it got you. A Best In Show and a case full of trophies and the papers are going wild about 'Spitfire discovers the Next Big Thing'.”

She's on the edge and I've only got one card left to play. Time to roll the dice. “Spitfire, as a friend, I’m telling you, here's your life and hers in a nutshell: all speed, all the time. That’s the only way the two of you will make it.  If you care for her, if you care about this team, you’ve still got time - show some speed and go do what you do best.”

Before I can blink she's gone and the chair’s on fire. Celestia help us all, but I think the team’ll make it through the night. 

And I need a drink.