Spitfire tore through the air, the sun glinting off her silver metal wings. Rainbow followed right behind her, making sure not to get too close so she didn’t get hit.
“How do they feel?” She asked, yelling over the wind.
“They feel pretty good! A little different, but it’s like learning to fly aga-” Spitfire couldn’t finish that sentence because at that moment she took a swooping dive by accident, before swooping back up with a sheepish smile. “It’s like learning to fly again,” she finished, biting her lower lip as she tried to correct her altitude. Rainbow shook her head and chuckled at the act.
“Why don’t we learn to fly over to the train station and get back home?” Dash asked, angling her wings towards the ground, with Spitfire trying to follow suit. Rainbow landed quite easily, while Spitfire crashed into the ground with an audible ‘thump’. “You ok Spitfire?” Rainbow looked concerned.
“Let’s just say, I’m glad were taking the train,” Spitfire said, stumbling a bit while getting up.
“Yeah, well why don’t you go sit down and I’ll go get the train tickets.” Rainbow Dash led Spitfire over to a bench and sat her down. Afterwards, she went to get tickets for the next train to Ponyville. Sitting down on the bench, Spitfire tried flexing her new wings. She was surprised by how much she remembered from flying. Even if it wasn’t much, it was more then she had expected. Granted she had crashed a couple times on the way here, but she had still flown. Looking up from the ground she realized she was getting quite a few weird looks from most of the ponies around her. It wasn’t every day you saw the ex-captain of the Wonderbolts sitting on a bench at the train station with metal wings on her back which only gave all the more reason to stare. Spitfire, on the contrary, was not a fan of being stared at and silently wished for her to hurry up. All she wanted to do was to go home and, well yes show everypony her new wings, but really just sleep. She hadn’t slept in quite some time and even though she ‘slept’ through the operation she woke up feeling more tired than before. The whole event was really inconvenient to be honest. While she was having these thoughts of sleep, she looked back up to see Rainbow Dash walking towards her.
“Hey Spitfire, I got the tickets!” Rainbow Dash said, through clenched teeth.
“Finely, I just need to go home and sleep,” Spitfire said, taking one of the tickets for herself. As she took the ticket the train just so happened to pull up into the station and brake with a large hiss.
“Nine o’ clock run to Ponyville. All aboard!” the conductor yelled, leaning out of the engine.
“Well here’s our train.” Rainbow trotted over to the train and gave the conductor her ticket, with Spitfire following suit. Afterwards, they both went back to the sleeping car. And with Dash in Spitfire’s hooves, immediately fell asleep.
An hour later, which only seemed like a few minutes to the two, was all it took for the train to chug down the tracks to Ponyville. Stopping at the train station with a small jerk was all it took to wake them up and throw one off the bed.
Spitfire yawned, and asked, “Rainbow? Why are you on the floor?” She looked over the side of the bed.
“The bed got too crowded so I went down to the floor,” Dash said, dripping with sarcasm.
“Next time you can just ask me to scoot over,” Spitfire said, still half asleep, contrary to Rainbow, because getting thrown on the floor wakes you up rather quickly.
“Yeah ok, I’ll remember that next time" However Dash didn't look amused. "Anyways you should get up. We need to get off the train before it leaves for Canterlot,” Rainbow Dash said, pulling herself up off the floor.
“Ok, let’s go then,” Spitfire said, yawning once more as she got up off the bed. Forgetting to put her wings back at her side, she was stopped abruptly at the door. Doors simply weren’t big enough to fit her wings, and they reminded her of that. “Whoops, I guess it’s gonna take longer than I thought to get used to these,” she grunted as she tried to pull her wings in. With a satisfactory snap, they folded in on her sides and easily made it through the door.
“So Spitfire, what do you say we go grab some lunch? I’ll go tell Twi and see if she can get the others to come. How does that sound?” Rainbow asked, stretching her wings from the long train ride. The thing about
“Sounds great.” Spitfire kissed her on the nose. “I’m just going to quickly check on the house and then I’ll be right down.”
“Ok, see you later.” Dash took off into the sky in the direction of the large tree in the center of town. Spitfire took off in about the opposite direction and headed towards the house she shared with Rainbow.
-A Short While Later-
Dash flew over to Sugarcube corner, with Spitfire at her side as so she could be caught if needed. They had met at the house and had decided to fly over together. But before they could conjure up and conversation they were already in sights of Sugarcube Corner and quickly landed to meet the rest of the group.
"Now what in tarnation are those doohickies on your back?" Applejack asked before anyone could even say 'hi'.
Rarity shot a glance at Applejack "While I would have preferred a simple 'Hello'" She turned back to Spitfire "I do have to admit that I have the same question"
"Yeah What are they?" Pinkie asked, just arriving with the food. Twilight simply gave them a knowing look, and Fluttershy not wanting to speak simply turned her head to look at the two.
"You guys really do just jump straight to the question don't you?" Spitfire asked, slightly amused. They all gave her faces that while held traces of shame, were interested none the less. After finishing her story she looked at the five of them for some form of response however Twilight was the first to speak,
"Well, even though you went agains't all my warnings and got wings made of metal in a most likely less then sanitary operating room with an operation that could of killed you....I really am happy for you. Congratulations of your.....wings"
"Oh...well...I hope no one was hurt...." Fluttershy spoke up, her concern overpowering her fear.
"Nah don't worry about it Flutters, I was there to see the whole thing" Dash said, flying out of her chair and posing.
"You were asleep" Spitfire said, succeeding at taking Rainbow Dash down a notch.
"Well.....All the same thanks for your concern. But, no one got hurt" Dash said, sitting down in her seat. This earned a shy smile from fluttershy who whispered,
"Your welcome"
Rarity was the next to speak, "Well, even though I'm very....Happy that you have wings they simple clash horribly with your coat. You must come by the boutique later so I can fix this.....monstrosity"
"I'll.....Keep that in mind" Spitfire said, looking a little more then nervous.
"I still can't believe you even went through with that. I would trust a machine with my life" Applejack said, eyeing the wings suspiciously.
"Well I think that your wings are just Super!" Pinkie said, "And I know just the place where we can celebrate!"
-Some While Later-
Spitfire flew over the quiet town, the lights from the house illuminating the streets below. On said illuminated streets, tons of ponies walked. One would think that at this time of night ponies would be retiring to their homes to sleep, but not any longer. At this time, Spitfire and Dash, along with their friends, are going to a new club that was just opening tonight. Thus, the reason for the activity below. Spitfire was supposed to meet Rainbow and the others at the entrance to the club where Vinyl (She owed Pinkie a favor or two.) would get them in for free. It had all been planned in advance and Spitfire couldn’t think of a better way to spend her night. That and she got to show everypony her new ‘wings’. She had gotten used to the mechanical beasts over the course of the day and was flying somewhat comfortably through the gentle winds. Finally spotting the club (The large neon record out front was hard to miss.) along with its patrons, Spitfire flew down to see that everypony else had already gathered there.
“Hey Spitfire! What took you so long?” Dash asked, giving her marefriend a quick peck on the cheek.
“I was cleaning up your mess in the living room,” Spitfire said, earning a chuckle from Applejack. However, it only earned a glare from Rainbow Dash. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. I’m just givin’ you a hard time,” Spitfire apologized.
“Yeah. I noticed.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. Before any more banter could continue (Sadly.), the bouncer motioned with his hoof to come up to the line. Asking for I.D.s, he got them and waved them into the club. As they entered the club, the music pumping from the speakers and the mob of ponies down on the dance floor proved somewhat overwhelming for all but three of the party. While the rest of them were covering their ears to try to give some sort of protection from the assaulting noise, Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all bobbed their heads in time to the music. Obviously more accustomed to the atmosphere, they were unaffected by the loud noise and therefore were able to spot a white unicorn with electric blue hair coming towards them before the other four.
“Hey you guys!” Vinyl tried to yell over the music. “You enjoying the club?”
“Hay yeah! Right Spitfire?” Rainbow responded. Spitfire just nodding her head instead of yelling over the music as well.
“I’m afraid ‘enjoying’ wouldn’t be the right word, Darling,” Rarity responded for those you could not raise their voices loud enough.
“Huh. Well how ‘bout I take you guys somewhere a little more quiet?” Vinyl asked.
“What? But the party’s in here!” Pinkie said, gesturing all around the room.
“It’s got a private bar,” Vinyl said with a smirk. Pinkie shot of towards the door where she knew the alcohol would be. While the rest of the party followed Vinyl they tried to make small talk but it was made nearly impossible by the sheer volume of the music. Once they got back to the private room, Twilight was the first to speak.
“THANKS VINYL! THIS IS A LOT BETTER!”
“Um...Twi? You’re kinda yelling there,” Dash said, putting a hoof on her shoulder.
“I AM? SO-Ahem, sorry about that. The music was really loud,” Twilight said, blushing a bit.
“So, what do you guys think of the room?” Vinyl asked, gesturing her with her hoof once more at the large room. “Sound proof walls, private bar, Jacuzzi, and a sixty four inch plasma screen TV,” she said, pointing to each item in turn. Pinkie shot streight towards the bar and and started mixing drinks on the spot while Dash went over to join her. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity all went to the Jacuzzi, Twilight bringing a book with her. And Applejack went over to the T.V. and turned on the Apple© Channel, which earned a flat look from Rainbow Dash.
“Wow Vinyl, you’ve really made out here,” Spitfire said, looking around the room.
“Yeah. I have. Now you owe me an explanation here,” Vinyl said, lowering her glasses.
“What do you mean?” Spitfire asked tentatively.
“Wings. Explanation. Now.” Vinyl punctuated each period as though it were really there, followed by, “You don’t talk to me for a couple year and then all of a sudden you say you need to talk and you show up with mechanical wings? Yeah, I want an explanation.”
“Oh right. The wings. Eheheh, well you see, about, I don’t know.... four or five months ago, I fell and broke my wings. And Rainbow being the amazing marefrie-” Spitfire was interrupted.
“Marefriend? Spits, what’s been going on?” Vinyl asked. “What happened to ‘I’m never going to settle down’ and ‘Single forever’?”
“Vinyl. I was young, stupid and naive. Eventually we all meet somepony in our life that we really love. You can’t stop that,” Spitfire said, smiling fondly at Dash.
“Yeah. Whatever. I’m going to be single forever! HELLS YES!” Vinyl yelled, running over to the bar where Pinkie was bartending.
“Yeah. Right.” Spitfire had nothing more to say on the subject as she walked back over to Vinyl, “So are you going to let me finish my story?”
“Story what stor-Oh! Yeah, of course. Sorry about that.” Vinyl grinned sheepishly.
“Well Rainbow being the good marefriend that she is, took me to the hospital where the damage was so bad they had to amputate them a-” Spitfire was interrupted again.
“WHAT! You had to have your wings amputated?” Vinyl asked, her mouth agape. Spitfire fixed her a cold hard stare. “Sorry.”
“Anyways, after they were amputated, at our weddi-” Spitfire was still yet again interrupted.
“You got hitched?!” Vinyl’s mouth agape. Again.
“Are you going to be like this for the whole story?!” Spitfire snapped.
“Sorry! I’m just so surprised with what you’ve done with your life!” Vinyl tried to defend herself, but Spitfire simply brushed it off with a sarcastic remark.
“I could tell. Anyways at the wedding, some colt told me that he could give me mechanical wings. At first I didn’t want the-” Spitfire was intur-You know the drill by now.
“You didn’t want them?!? Why not?” Vinyl was on the edge of her seat now.
“Oh sweet Celestia, would you shut up for five minutes!” Spitfire threw her hooves up in the air. This time pinkie interrupted the conversation.
“But then the writer would have to write a wall of text instead of dialogue!” Pinkie said, throwing her hooves up in the air as well.
“Pinkie, what are you even talking about?” Spitfire looked at her now.
“Nothing!” She said in a sing song voice. “Cupcake?” She pulled a pan full of cupcakes out of seemingly nowhere.
“Okay?” Spitfire said, cautiously taking a cupcake.
“Aww, sweet! Thanks Pinks!” Vinyl said, taking a cupcake as well.
“Are we done with the interruptions?” Spitfire asked. When no one opposed her, she continued talking, “So. After realizing how much I missed flying with Dash, I ‘talked’ about the wings with her and ended up going to this crazy colts house to get them.”
“Did you die from the surgery? I bet you did. You did, didn’t you?” Vinyl asked taking a swig from her drink.
“Vinyl? If I died, how would I be talking to you?” Spitfire asked.
“Wel-I mea-. I don’t know,” Vinyl admitted.
“Right. Well I survived the surgery,” She aimed that sentence at Vinyl, “And it’s taking me a little bit to get used to the wings, but I’m pretty good with them now"
“Wow Spits tha-” This time Vinyl was interrupted.
“Spits?” Rainbow asked, “Since when were you called that?”
“Since High School,” Vinyl said. “We were both at Cel-”
“Vinyl. That was the most uncreative nickname ever,” Spitfire interrupted her. However before anymore interrupting could occur, the door to the room was opened and for a minute the roaring sounds of the crowd in the main room could be heard. A stallion with a futuristic helmet entered the room, his white-blue coat blending in nicely with the light gray of the helmet. His horn sticking out from the top, he used it to remove the helmet from his head, revealing a mane with that looked much like Vinyl’s with an almost turquoise blue color.
“Well sis, who are these ponies?” he asked.
“Sis?” Spitfire, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie asked simultaneously.
“Vinyl, I didn’t know you had a brother. Now who’s keeping secrets?” Spitfire asked.
“Ok, so I have a brother. His nam-” Vinyl was interrupted. AGAIN.
“Names S0und_C0d3” He introduced himself. Speaking much like pinkie in the fact that he was speaking the numbers in his name, “And welcome to my new club.”
“Your club? Then why is Vinyl playing here?” Twilight spoke up for the first time in a while.
“Well she was helping me get the crowd moving. She’s a natural, you know,” he said, tapping Vinyl lightly on the shoulder.
“Well it’s mighty nice ta meet ya,” Applejack said. “But what’s that there helmet for?”
“Ah this?” he confirmed, lifting up the helmet. “This is a custom made helmet by a guy in Stalliongrad. It allows me to see every part of the song, my playlist and change songs at will. Hoof made one of a kind” His explanation was met with oohs and awes.
“Well I think that’s enough bragging, don’t you?” Vinyl got up and flipped on her glasses, continuing, “How ‘bout we let this guy get back to his work and we can go dance?”
“Sounds good! How about you guys?” Twilight asked the rest. Fluttershy was the only one who wasn’t exactly excited.
“O-oh. I don’t know. It’s pretty loud out there. But I don’t want to ruin anyponies’ time.” Fluttershy scuffed her hoof nervously against the ground.
“Oh come on now Darling. It’ll be... fun.” Rarity started to have second thoughts of her own.
“Oh well, ok. I guess.” Fluttershy agreed, still slightly nervous about going out into the large, cramped room.
“Don’t worry, Sugarcube. We’ll be with ya the whole time,” Applejack reassured her. With that, the party made their way to the door where they were met with a wall of sound and sight. The ponies on the floor were all dancing albeit different styles.
“Well come on then! Let’s party!” Pinkie said, jumping the two stories onto the crowd which immediately started carrying her across the room. The others, preferring a much safer approach, simply walked down the steps and then scooted their way into the crowd where they fell into the rhythm of the song almost instantly.
Dancing with the rhythm, they almost didn’t notice when glow sticks began to drop from the ceiling and everypony grabbing them and waving them around. With the glow sticks in the air, the place almost looked like a rainbow. When Spitfire turned around, she locked eyes with Rainbow and without words the both took off into the air and grabbed each other. Locking their mouths, they began a simple dance in the air that inspired more pegasi to jump up with their loved ones and repeat the simple dance as well.
This in turn only inspired the unicorns in the audience to cast a simple spell that created the effects of a light show in the air. With this all happening at once, one could almost feel the emotion in the air. As the song slowed to a stop, and the pegasi and unicorns stopped their spontaneous performance, everyone stomped their hooves on the floor for the relatively new DJ. Stepping away from his table for a moment, Sound Code bowed before stepping back and starting a new and much simpler song. The others gathered around the door to say one final goodbye to Vinyl.
“Hey Vinyl. Thanks for the show. It really was fun,” Spitfire hugged her longtime friend.
“Hey, no problem. Be sure to keep in touch, ok?” Vinyl hugged her back. Nodding her head, Spitfire led the others to the outside where the made the way back to the town square. Seeing them go, Vinyl looked around for something else to entertain herself with. Seeing a grey mare in the corner booth holding some scotch, Vinyl made her way over that way. Her night was going to get a lot more interesting.