Spitfire grunted as her hooves contacted the soft grass, her wings outstretched to help cushion the impact. A mild ache persisted in her right wing where her muscles were healing nicely enough. Spitfire looked at the wing with a small smile.
She had made great progress since she had started seeing Triage regularly. A daily regimen of stretches and exercises had given her full extension of her wing, and nearly three weeks after first injuring herself she was able to glide again without pain. On a good day she could even fly short distances.
Spitfire turned as Rainbow Dash landed beside her, the weather mare flashing the Wonderbolt a giddy smile.
“That was great, Spitfire! You glided at least three-hundred feet!”
“Thanks, Dash,” the Wonderbolt replied with a genuine smile.
“Does your wing still feel okay? Do you need to take a break?”
Spitfire took a second to look at her right wing, flexing it several times and carefully noting any sensation she felt. “I think I have a few good glides left in me, but after that I’ll give it a rest for a couple hours.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Rainbow said as she leaned close enough to steal a chaste nuzzle. “Just let me know if anything changes.”
Spitfire returned the nuzzle. “Sure will, Rainbow. Thanks again for flying me all the way out here to practice.”
“Hey, you made it a good chunk of the way by yourself. Besides, what are marefriends for?” Rainbow asked, sheepishly rubbing at the back of her head.
Spitfire chuckled as she leaned over to kiss Rainbow’s cheek. The hill that Rainbow and Spitfire had come to for Spitfire’s gliding therapy was the same hill Rainbow had landed on after the rainboom. It was also the same hill Rainbow had set up their picnic on almost two weeks earlier. It had become their spot when they needed to get away from the noise and crowds of Manehattan, their spot to hide from the responsibilities of the world.
Spitfire could hardly wait until she could fly the whole distance on her own. As nice as it was to hold close to Rainbow, to feel the beat of her heart and the breath in her lungs, Spitfire would always prefer to fly by her own power.
She had managed to glide a decent chunk of the way once she and Rainbow had found a few good thermal updrafts. Spitfire had felt like a filly learning to fly again, but it was worth the awkward sensation to be riding on her own wings again. Rainbow had kept close the whole time, never out of reach just in case anything went wrong.
When Spitfire’s wing did inevitably tire, Rainbow quickly maneuvered under her and allowed Spitfire to ride the rest of the way. After eating the lunches they had packed, Rainbow had helped Spitfire with some wing stretches and then the practice glides had begun.
Spitfire crouched down before she launched herself forward, catching the air in her wings and allowing the wind to carry her as far as possible. Rainbow wasn’t far behind her, catching up with a gentle flap of her wings.
“Hey, Spitfire?”
“Yesss?”
“Got any funny celebrity stories?”
Spitfire hummed for a moment, her hoof rubbing her chin as she thought about it. There were countless locker room stories from her time as a Wonderbolt and even before that when she and Soarin’ were still in the guard. Those stories, while entertaining, fell mostly into the category Spitfire liked to think of as the ‘you had to be there’ stories, and most Wonderbolt stories revolved around various in-jokes that had developed over the years. Spitfire’s thoughts turned to meet and greets after shows, she smiled as she recalled an amusing event.
“Do you know Prince Blueblood?” Spitfire asked.
“I know of him; my friend Rarity met him once, but she just gets mad whenever anypony asks her about it.”
Spitfire chuckled. “That seems to happen around him. Anyway, this was a few years ago, before I was the team captain, and the first time that I had performed at the Grand Galloping Gala. We did our show and then we had to spend the rest of the night doing meet and greets with the fancy ponies in the VIP section.
“I did that for a couple hours, then managed to catch enough of a break to get some food and find a quiet place to take a breather. That’s when Blueblood spotted me. Well, he had a few drinks before that and he was in a very forward mood, so he stumbled over and started putting the moves on me.”
“I bet that was interesting,” Rainbow said with an amused snicker.
Both mares grunted as they landed. The took a moment to turn around before launching themselves in the air again.
“Oh yes it was,” Spitfire answered, her wings giving a light flap to stay aloft. “This was back when Zephyr and I were still dating, and I had been ordered to keep my interest in mares quiet. So when Blueblood started hitting on me I told him I was flattered, but I was already in a relationship.
“Well, he leaned back in a huff and asked where my date was. Before I could answer he was sitting next to me with a hoof around my waist and started trying to woo me with his words. Which is when I noticed he was wearing a horn extension.”
“Wait, what!?” Rainbow balked.
Spitfire nodded, an amused grin on her lips as they landed again. “Yeah, when a unicorn wears one, if you’re close enough, you can see the adhesive along the base.”
“So...” Rainbow put her hoof to her lips to stifle her giggles, “so you’re saying that... that Prince Blueblood has a t-tiny horn?”
Spitfire gave Rainbow a matter of fact nod, holding her front hooves out so that the space between them was somewhat less than three inches.
“That’s terrible,” Rainbow managed to assert as she laughed.
“Protip, Rainbow, if you ever see a unicorn with a horn longer than five or six inches, then they’re wearing a horn extension.”
“So, how’d you get him to leave?”
“Well, he was explaining to me this newspaper he was starting called The Canterlot Daily where he would “personally hoof pick every article to ensure quality” when Soarin’ spotted me and came over. I managed to slip out of his grasp and introduced Soarin’ as my coltfriend. Soarin’ went along with the act, and Blueblood left in a huff.”
Rainbow chuckled as she shook her head. “I’ll have to tell Rarity about that sometime.”
“Oh, I forgot to ask you the other night, how did your meeting with Fleetfoot go?” Rainbow asked.
“She wasn’t home, actually,” Spitfire answered. “Wasted half my damn Wednesday waiting for her, then I find out from Misty that Fleetfoot have been on a camping trip to Neighagra falls for the last week and won’t be back till tomorrow sometime at the earliest.”
“Ahh, well in that case, how about I go with you?” Rainbow asked.
Spitfire hesitated as she thought about it. “You sure? I mean, Fleetfoot’s a pretty cool mare, but when she’s mad she can be kind of a pain in the flank.”
“What would she be mad about anyway? I mean is it just that we’re dating or what?”
Spitfire sighed and dug at the grass with a hoof. “It’s your rainboom, actually.”
“What about it?”
“Well,” Spitfire hummed for a moment as she thought of how best to continue. “Well, Dash, let me put it to you like this: How would you feel about teaching anypony else the Rainboom?”
Rainbow considered the question for a moment before she answered. “Um, well, maybe someday, sure. But not right now, no.”
“Fair enough, but why not now?” Spitfire challenged.
“I... I’m not ready to be a teacher yet.”
“You’re teaching cloud pushers to be lightning wranglers.”
“That’s different, that’s for work!” Rainbow said with stomp of her hoof.
“I know, but these are the kinds of arguments Fleetfoot would bring up, and if you’re gonna get hit with them I’d rather you be prepared.” Spitfire explained, draping her wing over Rainbow’s back. “So, why do you think you’re not ready to teach anypony a rainboom?”
“I,” Rainbow sighed, running a hoof through her mane, “I can’t teach it. Not yet.”
“Why not?” Spitfire asked, her curiosity piqued.
“I can do the rainboom, yeah, but I can’t do a perfect rainboom. The first two were happy accidents, and ever since then I can only do it if conditions are perfect. The slightest turbulence and the barrier snaps back just like it always used to. I’ve got it down so I can do it most of the time, but not all of the time. And to be perfectly honest, when the barrier snaps back it’s really dangerous. If you can’t recover then there’s a really good chance you’re gonna get hurt, and I don’t want anypony’s blood on my hooves.”
“I agree, the sonic barrier is exponentially harder to recover from than a normal wipeout,” Spitfire agreed. “However every Wonderbolt goes through rigorous training in wipeout recovery techniques just for emergencies like that.”
“Spitfire,” Rainbow began, her tone as serious as Spitfire had ever heard, “how many wonderbolts have attempted the rainboom?”
“Every one of us has, at least once since you did it at the Best Young Flyer competition,” she admitted reluctantly.
“And what happened when the barrier snapped back on you?” Rainbow asked.
Spitfire frowned in disappointment. “For the ponies that didn’t complete an aerial recovery, the injuries ranged from cuts and bruises, muscle strains, twisted joints, and in one instance a broken wing.”
“Who broke the wing?” Rainbow asked.
“Wave Chill.” Spitfire answered with a simple shrug.
“Is that why he was out last season?”
“Yup.”
“Dang, sorry to hear that.”
“Eh, he got better.”
“True,” Rainbow gave a quick shake of her head to get back on track, “anyway, the rainboom isn’t easy to do, even for me. When I can do it perfectly every time, then yeah, I’ll teach it, but until then I’m not ready and I don’t want anypony to get hurt because of something I did wrong.”
Spitfire smiled as she leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on Rainbow’s lips. “You’re gonna make a fantastic Wonderbolt someday, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow’s cheeks flushed red from the compliment as she grinned from ear to ear.
“So, I can go with you to meet Fleetfoot?”
“We’ll talk to her together, cross my heart and hope to die.”
“Awesome,” Rainbow cheered, “this is gonna be great!”
Spitfire chuckled and slowly stretched her wing again, holding it out to its full extension as long as she could. “Say, Dash, why don’t you take a break. I’ll just do a couple more glides and some cooldown exercises, then I’ll join you.”
“Okay, well, if you need anything though, just say so,” Rainbow said, giving Spitfire a hug before she trotted up to the large oak tree where they had left their bags.
Spitfire smiled, she loved how gullible Rainbow could be sometimes. She watched as Rainbow fished through her saddlebag and pulled out her Daring Do book. Rainbow sat with her back against the tree, the book held in front of her as she settled down to read.
True to her word, Spitfire did continue her glides and cooldown exercises. At least until Rainbow was entranced enough by her book that she wasn’t paying attention to Spitfire. Thats when she set her plan into motion.
Spitfire casually glided behind the nearest large tree she could get to. Peering out, she observed Rainbow, her magenta eyes fixated on the pages in front of her. She was oblivious to the predator that now stalked towards her.
Spitfire kept her body low to the ground, blades of grass tickling at her belly as she advanced. She moved carefully, using whatever tall grasses or shrubs she could as cover until the last possible moment. Slowly she spread her wings, vengeance for her shameful beating in the battle of pillows was so close that Spitfire could almost taste it.
With a lick of her lips, Spitfire leapt at Rainbow in a fierce warcry. Rainbow yelped in surprise as she caught the full brunt of the Wonderbolt-shaped projectile. After an all too brief tussle, Spitfire pressed her lips to Rainbow’s, silencing any question Rainbow had thought of. She noticed the irked glare Rainbow was shooting her, and responded with a playful wink and a smirk.
Rainbow accepted the silent challenge, her forelegs wrapping around Spitfire as she pressed deeper into the kiss. Spitfire let out a soft moan, her guard lowering for a moment; it was all Rainbow needed. Spitfire barely had time to squeal as Rainbow leveraged her strength and rolled them so Spitfire was underneath her.
Her protests were silenced when Rainbow’s tongue infiltrated her mouth. She heard Rainbow giggle as their tongues vied for dominance. Spitfire took stock of her situation: she was pinned on her back with her marefriend running the show. Spitfire also decided that it simply wouldn’t do to be defeated so easily.
She bided her time and enjoyed the kiss until Rainbow seemed to lose her focus on holding Spitfire down. Not that Spitfire blamed her; the heated passion of their kiss was very enjoyable for her as well. Sensing her opportunity, Spitfire let her hoof trace a line down Rainbow’s spine, the delicate action sending a shiver through the younger mare. Her hoof came to rest on Rainbow’s cutie mark, eliciting a surprised gasp from Rainbow.
It was the distraction Spitfire had needed, and in an instant she was back on top. The Wonderbolt soothed the weather manager’s pout with another tender kiss. Her left hoof traced tiny circles over Rainbow’s cutie mark while her right hoof reached up to gingerly stroke Rainbow’s cheek.
In turn, Rainbow’s right hoof slid over Spitfire’s back, their duel forgotten in favor of simpler passions. The kiss broke only long enough so both mares could catch their breath. A filly-like giggle escaped Spitfire, her hoof stroking Rainbow’s mane.
“You know, you’re really cute when you’re blushing,” Spitfire whispered.
“Sh-shut up!” Rainbow said, her cheeks burning fiercely.
“Oh, if you insist,” Spitfire said, her lips planting a gentle kiss on Rainbow’s forehead and a second on the tip of her nose before their lips met again. Spitfire’s hoof teased over Rainbow’s cutie mark again, earning a noticeable groan from the younger mare. Spitfire reluctantly broke their kiss again.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said, trying to avoid eye contact.
“Rainbow, what is it?” Spitfire asked.
Rainbow bit her bottom lip anxiously, her cheeks managing to achieve what may have been a new shade of red. She motioned to her hip where Spitfire was rubbing her cutie mark.
“Oh, ticklish there?” Spitfire asked, a mischievous grin forming on her lips.
“No, no, it’s... my, erm, well...” Rainbow squirmed uncomfortably. “It’s a um... you know...”
Spitfire’s face scrunched in confusion for a minute before the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. “Oh. Oh! Um, I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
“It’s okay, really,” Rainbow assured her.
“I won’t do that again, Rainbow. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Rainbow was quiet for a long moment before she spoke, her body shivering under Spitfire’s warmth.
“You could, if you wanted to...” she whispered.
Spitfire’s hoof gently caressed its way over Rainbow’s shoulder, moving to her chest where it traced a delicate line down until it came to rest on her midriff. Rainbow’s jaw trembled anxiously, her cheeks flushed crimson as Spitfire’s eyes remained locked with hers.
“Rainbow?”
“Yeah?” Rainbow said breathily.
“Are you... are you sure you want this?”
“Y-yeah,”
Spitfire gulped, her heart fluttering in her chest. Her hoof drifted lower. “Tell me to stop, and I’ll stop.”
Rainbow nodded, her body quaking like a leaf in the breeze. Spitfire leaned down, their lips meeting in another heated kiss.