Six days flew by awkwardly for the six Elite Wonderbolts. It was like sitting on the edge of a knife. The anticipation was thick but, unfortunately, the complaints from Blaze were even thicker. The mare believed she had been short-changed by not being included in the group despite the hard work she had undergone to match Spitfire's ability. The captain was not convinced that adding her would be a good idea and, with six members in the special team, had no reason to add her anyways.
Now, the best of the Wonderbolts were warming up in the training meadow. Spitfire hoped without any assurance that Celestia was watching from somewhere. After all, they were going to make the first actual performance of the Bullet. In all honesty, they would have done so two days prior if Fire Streak had been further along strength-wise. But none of them held it against him.
"I know I'm ready," Misty enthused from the end of the wavy line of pegasi that they had formed during warm up.
"Quite," agreed the stallion, Silver Lining, next to her. The two rarely showed affection towards each other when others were around but Spitfire could still feel it in the air between them. There was just something palpable about ponies that truly cared for each other. In fact, a slightly similar aura stretched to her from two other 'Bolts - Soarin' and Surprise.
"Alright, Wonderbolts," the orange captain commanded. "Get in formation."
The five other pegasi moved into their proper spots, forming a shallow V with Spitfire and Surprise as the middle two points.
"You know the plan but I'm going to say it again because this is a very - I repeat - very dangerous stunt," she continued. "We will not attempt a formation performance until each of us has succeeded twice individually. We will start with me. I will call you each by name to proceed afterwards. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" cried the five.
Alright, Spitfire assured herself. This was the moment of truth and she could feel her blood boil up to it. Time to heat thing up.
One step, two, and then she leapt into the air. Her wings beat once then twice and took her upwards, climbing altitude quickly. They beat fast and she sped up until her mane was tearing behind her in the wind. Before her was the stretch of Equestria that lead to the wastelands beyond. She could only hope that Celestia's cover barrier worked to conceal the explosion of the Bullet.
Faster and faster. It was good that she secured her flying goggles because she would not be able to see otherwise at this point. The air was almost painful in the way it tore past her. And then it came. She felt the invisible barrier gather around her and her wings ceased beating for just one second. In that short time, Spitfire's waved her feathers through the ignition maneuver and effortlessly slid back into the push to keep her soaring. What resulted was an explosion of flame that first enveloped her and then fell behind. The flames trickled behind her and the world seemed to shoot by faster than she could adequately perceive it. The blur scared her at first but the slow-in-coming boom behind her was what scared her more. She wobbled dangerously in her flight path before regaining herself.
To those on the meadow below and behind, she appeared as a fireball. Surprise was grinning nearly to the point of forming tears. Soarin' just smirked, content that Spitfire was pulling off a milestone once again. Misty, Silver Lining, and Fire Streak stared in awe but reveled in the fact that they would soon do the same. All in all, it seemed that things were going smoothly.
Spitfire was well out of sight by the time she stopped and was, in fact, far past the point at which she intended to stop. Got to get a hang on the brakes, she muttered to herself. It had indeed been exciting - a rush for sure - but it was not some end-all experience that she had built it up to be in her mind. Oh well, the strong orange mare decided as she hovered above the ground that she had begun lowering to. One particularly tired piece of wisdom came to mind.
The journey is more important than the destination.
Surprise gasped as the captain shot back before them in a ball of fire. Apparently, the mare had decided to spend her second try on the return journey. Steam surrounded her as she finally got her hooves to the grassy ground before them.
"Have fun?" Soarin' joked.
Spitfire smirked, satisfied with what happened.
"You might say that. Now before I have Surprise get up there," she gestured in the general direction of the sky, "I have a few things to warn you all about."
All five pegasi leaned forward in expectation.
"Plan your stops ahead. You need to slow down a good ten seconds before you actually think that you need to. And don't slow down too fast or else the fire will catch up and you'll be cooking your backside."
Fire Streak laughed. Apparently, he found it amusing.
"And you have to turn hard if you want to turn at all. The air doesn't seem to like it when you go anywhere but dead forward."
Misty nodded solemnly.
"There's a loud explosion when you first ignite the Bullet. Be ready for it so that it doesn't scare you into a nose dive. Not that there's too much risk since the speed limits movement."
Surprise started to look nervous.
"Make sure your goggles are really secure and don't worry about the blur. You won't be as out-of-control as you might feel. Sorry, this is getting kind of long," Spitfire finally admitted after giving one too many warnings.
"No, no," the others all tried to chime in. They were honestly grateful for having a heads-up.
The captain started to smile but then coughed instead. Her throat was parched.
"Anypony got water handy?" she croaked.
Silver Lining raised a hoof before running around to get the bottle. The captain downed it instantly when he got it to her. After swallowing a large amount of it and giving a sigh of satisfaction, she made to remark.
"And you're going to be very thirsty. Apparently," she laughed. "Alright, Prize. You're up."
The white mare looked unsure but slowly lifted into the sky.
"Don't doubt it, Surprise! Just believe in your training!" Soarin' shouted up in encouragement. He wasn't about to let Spitfire be the only one for all of the spirit lifting.
The mare in the air hadn't expected it though and felt happy about it for some reason. Soarin' hadn't often directed anything towards her before and it was nice to know that he cared. Time to do it, she decided with resolve.
In mere seconds, the second Wonderbolt was careening like a meteor into the distance.
"Fire Streak, go get us some more water. We're going to need it," the captain commanded as she sat back into the grassy meadow and beamed like a filly. As the stallion flew off back to Canterlot, she knew that today was a good day.
Surprise finished her two tries without any problems. She was a bit shaken at first but so had been the captain and she was honest about it. It wasn't that the experience was incredible but rather that the sense of danger was nerve-wrenching. In any case, Silver Lining and Misty both had their rounds and finished without a problem. To Spitfire's total lack of surprise, Soarin' completed both attempts in the shortest amount of time and came back acting as if he had just flown to the market for groceries. The orange mare suspected he was just putting on a show for her though. It was something he always liked to do in the past and she saw him in a different light for it now. Instead of confusing it for arrogance, she took it as the friendly gesture that he meant it as.
"Looks like fire-sport get his shot now," Soarin' remarked as Fire Streak hovered up into the air. He had just returned from his errand for water and was more eager than any of the others to do his rounds. Maybe he really did have a natural affinity for the element of fire.
The stallion in question sniffed in response.
"Of course, just you watch," his eyes narrowed in determination.
Spitfire made to say something but he was off like a flash and she closed her mouth instead. He was not the kind of pegasi to listen anyways and she trusted him all the same. He exploded into the bullet of fire within short order and the orange mare had to admit that his fireball was indeed a tad more fierce than any of the others.
"He manages it," Soarin' whispered to her, "because he has a one track mind. Really good at focusing on just one thing at a time."
Surprise joined in, having been paying extremely close attention to anything said from or to the captain.
"It's like his special talent. And I mean that in a good way," she said hopefully.
"Oh?" Spitfire raised a brow to the mare on her right side. "You like thinking about his good points?"
The statement was purely for effect, which was quick in coming from the wingmare. She blushed and was too flustered to respond with Soarin' listening in. She probably didn't have any special feelings for Fire Streak but it was fun to play with her anyways.
"So," Soarin' got serious. "We got an event for the Bullet scheduled?"
"More or less," Spitfire responded in similar tone. "Looks like Fire Streak has it down too so I'll set something up with the Triplet's Ring."
"That place? Can't we do better?" the stallion whined in complaint.
"It's not a bad stage ground, Shiner. We're going to need the space and open grounds for the spectators to see clearly."
Surprise perked her ears up at the nickname that just flew.
"I guess so," Soarin' relented. It wasn't a matter that could be helped.
"Gahahaha!" Fire Streak laughed maniacally as he skidded to a fiery halt before them. With a snap of his tail, he extinguished the fire that had caught on the tip of it. "I'm a desert. Where's the water?"
Stallions, Spitfire giggled mentally as she trotted over to the water packs that he had brought earlier. Tossing one to Fire Streak, she then turned to face and address all pegasi present.
"Alright! Everypony tighten that formation and get ready. We're about to do a team Bullet. Remember to keep the distance and stop precisely fifteen seconds after ignition. That goes double for you, Fire Streak!"
The stallion smirked almost evilly in return.
"It's been going extremely well so far so I don't want any accidents," Spitfire continued. "Time to fly!"
As captain, she was the first to hop up and fly to the proper altitude. After the others we're in position on her left and right sides, she pushed forward with her wings and started a steady speed climb. She didn't notice any timing issues with the others and she didn't expect to. They were Wonderbolts and Wonderbolts already had stunt timing down to a "T." Still, a multi-pony ignition explosion was going to be interesting.
They may have done it individually but that didn't mean much for doing it together. Too much of a difference in ignition could place them a long distance apart and severely deter additional stunts. Typical with doing any group act for the first-time, it seemed to take forever before they were to the point of erupting into flame. But then "erupting into flame" was not the kind of thing that anypony said very often. At least not in this context.
The wind was racing against Spitfire's face once more and she knew it was time. Without daring to look behind to check her teammates' positions, she ignited. But she was not being careless. Rather Spitfire knew she could trust the others to be in wing formation and ignite with her on time.
When the team later exited the high-speed maneuver, Spitfire found that her trust was not betrayed. Five other fireballs successfully came to a smoking halt.