Two more days past before Spitfire made her move to recruit the other two Wonderbolts. Misty And Silver Lining had some initial difficulty in learning the Bullet's ignition but they mastered it all the same. On average, the four members of the special team were up to four-hundred eighty wing-ups. It was getting downright gruesome to keep pushing those numbers up. Luckily, they didn't have much more strength to acquire and they would soon be making the first practice run for the Bullet.
Now, however, was the time for Spitfire to let in the two stallions that she had decided on. For reasons she did not want to admit to herself, she had chosen to speak to Fire Streak first. Thus she was in front of his hotel room door in the early hours of the morning. Unless they were on a for-sure stretch of free-time, most of the Wonderbolts were early risers. It was just a simple practice that was good for keeping in shape. There was no doubt that the stallion was wide awake.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Something clacked from the other side of the door after Spitfire knocked. Soon, the door was open and Fire Streak stood at the entrance with a confused look upon his face.
"Mind if I step in for a moment?" the captain asked evenly.
He opened his mouth as if to ask a question but then shut it, nodded slightly, and stepped aside to let the mare in. He was about to burst on the inside with the suspicion that Spitfire had finally come to recruit him for the Elite. Such was the name that kept getting past around by the Wonderbolts not in the captain's special group.
The mare walked all the way to the suite's kitchen counter before stopping. She took a seat on one of the stools as Fire Streak gently shut the door and nervously made his way to the opposite side of the counter. The captain's straight and calm expression only made the moment more tense for him.
"Do you know what I've been doing with Surprise, Misty, and Silver Lining?" she started.
Fire Streak frowned a bit in disappointment. Clearly, she didn't think that he was paying attention to what was going on.
"Of course!" he said a bit louder than he intended. "You've been gearing up for some big stunt. You mentioned it to the team a while back."
Spitfire nodded absently as she tried to recall that moment.
"That's just about it. This stunt is more demanding and dangerous than anything we've done before. I'm only going to have the top half of the Wonderbolts do it because I don't want anypony to get hurt if they can't manage it."
She paused and the silence was deafening. Fire Streak felt like he was going to die from the pressure.
"I want you to join the team. You're in the top half," she stated without any hint of ceremony.
Now the stallion really did feel like exploding. He had poured sweat and blood to overcome all obstacles and now he was getting what he wanted. Spitfire recognized him and he was going to be the best of the best. Distinguished even as a Wonderbolt. Lightening Streak was a rival far in the distant past now.
"It's going to be hard if you accept though. You're going to have to fight for every inch of progress. If you fail to properly perform the Bullet, you could get seriously injured or even die."
"Bullet?" Fire Streak asked while ignoring the warning. It was not that he disregarded the danger. He was just already aware of the consequences of high-ticket stunt failures. "Is that what the stunt is called?"
Spitfire nodded again and then smiled to break the mood.
"It's basically a fireball. Suits your name, doesn't it?" she almost giggled.
The stallion threw dignity to the wind and pumped his fore hooves in victory.
"Aw yeah!" he shouted. "Just my kind of thing!"
Spitfire felt like some weight had been removed from her shoulders. How did she get nervous about asking more Wonderbolts to join? And why? This is what the 'Bolts existed for in the first place, wasn't it?
"12:00. That's when I expect to see you in the hotel lobby. I'll be taking you to the training grounds. And," she added, "expect to get exhausted."
Fire Streak hovered up just below the ceiling and raised his fist as if to accept a challenge.
"You've got it!" he beamed.
At least I know he has the enthusiasm, Spitfire thought. But it was now time to visit the second stallion and the nervousness entered her gut once again. Why? It was just Soarin' she was going to talk to. She had been flying with that stallion for years now. He had been one of the pegasus that she started the Wonderbolts with. Maybe she felt as she did because she never hanged out with him like she used to back in the day. Their relationship had always been unique but it had changed greatly in recent years - even before the Bullet came up.
She bid farewell to Fire Streak, left his room, and walked the short distance to Soarin's. It would be a quick and simple matter to get the second stallion on board, right? Even as she raised her hoof once again to knock, she dreaded it.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Somehow, the wait seemed longer. It felt like hours before Soarin' answered the door. It was really the same amount of time though.
"Fire," Soarin' stated coolly. "It's about time. Come on in."
He stepped aside with confidence and the captain knew that he knew what she was there for. After all, she never went to individual rooms if she could just tell her Wonderbolts something at a team meet.
"Maybe you should tell me what's on your mind first," she suggested as she made her way to the counter. The hotel suite's were all alike.
But the tough stallion didn't go to the other side as Fire Streak had. Instead, he pulled a stool up to the one that Spitfire had decided to sit on. And he leaned over onto her with a fore hoof wrapped around her shoulder.
"The fact that we're not the same way we used to be," he answered the belated question. The short distance between their faces was making the mare even more nervous, but it was a very different kind of nervous.
"Everypony changes over time. It's inevitable," she replied.
"Yeah, but," he countered without taking his gaze from her eyes. "We used to be buddies. There's no reason we can't be the way we used to be with each other."
Spitfire felt that the conversation had rapidly gone somewhere that she never thought that it would. She hadn't come to discuss the past with him. Why was he bringing it up now of all times?
"Ponies look up to us, Soarin'. We were closer in the past because we were no-names. Nopony was paying attention to us. But we have to be respectable now."
"Respectable," he frowned and took on a dark tone. "We were respectable then, Spitfire. All we used to do was be ourselves. We didn't do anything bad. What you're talking about isn't 'respectable.' It's just being an uptight snob."
The orange mare finally pushed him off and away.
"Yeah, well maybe I don't like it either. But I'm not going to have every paper in Equestria running some scandal about me," Spitfire bit back.
To that, Soarin' outright laughed.
"They do that anyways, Firefly," he chuckled.
It had been a long time since he had called her that. It was like hitting a wall of nostalgia.
"Don't start, Soarin'. This is not what I came here for," she exclaimed with a small wobble in her voice.
The other pegasus wasn't going to let it go, though. Not by a long shot.
"I know what you came her for," he said just below a shout. "But you haven't given a single thought about it, have you? Don't you think I'm insulted that you didn't include me in your special training from the start? You picked Surprise over me. Surprise!"
Spitfire tried to speak but couldn't finish one word before he jumped off of the stool and knocked her off of hers. It was really just a gentle shove and not a violent hit. He grabbed her so that she didn't fall on her back, but he didn't let go.
"Maybe I slacked off. I admit it. I haven't been on top of my game. But I am now! And I want my spot back. I want things to be the way they used to be. I want Firefly back!"
Spitfire was more upset than angry and she looked him right in the eyes. Just as he was looking into hers.
"That's just a dumb nickname you gave me, Soarin'!"
"It's not dumb! You used to call me by a different name too!"
The mare's eyes shot wide. He was bringing that up too? How far was this going to go? A fire lit in her heart but she didn't know whether it was because she was upset or sad.
"Stop it, Soarin'! Why are you being this way?!"
Both of them were beyond the point of using a normal tone of voice. Shouting was becoming the standard.
"Because I'm sick to death of settling for less when I don't have to. You've only changed on the outside. Admit it! You're still the same Firefly I met in that back alley. You just traded me for Surprise!"
Everything was coming out all at once and Spitfire wasn't sure what to do. She had gotten used to things going slow but Soarin' was determined to deal with everything at the same time. It affected her because she knew that at least some part of what he said was true. Maybe she had alienated herself from Soarin' and befriended Surprise more in the past year. It didn't matter if she had never done anything wrong with Soarin' in the past. She just knew that if she looked to be too close with a stallion then the media would label it a scandal. And now she knew that she needed to compose her thoughts and decided to simply run away from the stallion. But when she turned and bolted for the door, she was grabbed once again by the male pegasus. The sudden jolt between them caused both ponies to fall to the floor.
"You're doing just what I did before I decided to wake up. You're pretending like you have everything down to a 'T' when you're just killing off everything that makes you who you are," Soarin' said with lower volume as he moved over to the mare in front of him. "You're getting all upset and running when all I want is to have our friendship back."
Spitfire heard the words but couldn't react. Her heart felt like it was on fire and it was now clear why she had been nervous before about coming to talk to Soarin'. Deep down, she knew that things between them had been bottling up so much that something was bound to explode. Soarin' had just let everything slide for so long that she thought he had completely forgotten. In reality, she was the one that had forgotten. Her entire life growing up in Las Pegasus was like something out of a living nightmare, but that was why Soarin' had quickly become her best friend. He had been one of the first of the Wonders - now called the Wonderbolts - and unlike all of the others, he was the only one that had stayed on her team through the years. He was the only one who had been with her when the Wonders were a homeless group of street performers in Las Pegasus. And now he was opening the lock that she had put on that past.
The stallion came alongside her on the carpeted floor and wrapped his hooves around her.
"Remember those days in the alleys? When we had to hold each other so that we wouldn't die from the cold?" he asked with a waver in his voice. Spitfire knew he was getting emotional in a way that he rarely did. "Remember when there was no fame or fortune and we were happy?"
After sorting through the mess of her inner thought, Spitfire looked back at him and responded.
"I'm happy as I am now."
Soarin' narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on her.
"Then why are you running away from this? Why do you want to bury our past?"
Why indeed? She didn't understand it herself. Why was this affecting her so much? It was took her from her normal calm and competent demeanor and burned her up on the inside. It took the other pony to answer and Soarin' spoke again when he saw that she had no response.
"You think that I'd do something to hurt you. That I'd go to the press and lie through my teeth if you don't give me whatever I want. You know me better than that, Firefly. The only one that's hurting you is yourself. You're too afraid of losing the image that others have given you."
Spitfire's heart calmed down but she felt torn to shreds on the inside. All she could do was lie there within his hooves, rest her head below his, and listen to everything she had been running from.
"I hardly slept last night because I just realized it myself. It's because you went on this journey to do the next best stunt and I felt like you were tossing me to the wind. It made me get off my rear and do something. I'm just sorry it took me this long to realize that I needed to do something for you," he explained. It was now obvious that just as much, if not more, had been going on with Soarin' than herself. Spitfire had begun to assume, at some point, that the world revolved around her. That nopony else had a complicated life.
"We should have talked about this a long time ago," Soarin' continued with a a short chuckle of irony. "I guess that's just like us to let things go on until we blow up on each other."
"It's my fault," the orange mare finally said. She no longer had any intention of getting up from the carpeted floor. "It wasn't fair for me to pretend like we barely knew each other. I started doing it years ago when we got that big break in Manehatten."
"It was my fault too, you know. I should never have let you take that deal. I knew that we'd have to start playing politics and I remember how much it ground me up inside," the stallion admitted.
"I hated it," Spitfire agreed with the male pony. They felt the same way but never spoke to each other about it. Now all the years of silence seemed so ridiculous. "We had a relationship that nopony else did."
"And we threw it away for the money," Soarin' concluded. "I guess we had forgotten that it wasn't the money that made us happy."
But maybe it's not too late, Spitfire thought. It was still possible for the two of them to get back what they had lost.
"Thank you," the mare declared.
"What for?" Soarin' asked surprised as he tilted his head to look down into the mare's eyes.
"For being the one to snap me out of it."
He smiled with the same smile he used to give her when he pulled off some new stunt in the back alleys. And he responded the same way as he did back then.
"I get the feeling that I'm going to be getting you out of trouble for the rest of my life."