Chapter 88 - Chronicles: Spitfire
This was it. The big party. The celebration before the competition. The entire airship brimmed with excitement of Rainbow Dash announcing her challenge against Applejack in the big race. However, Scootaloo could not share the same feeling at the moment. In these narrow steel halls, there were ponies everywhere blocking her and her friends' way as they tried to make it to the stage. Almost every one of these ponies were wearing colorful costumes, masks, glow rings, and live exotic birds topped onto their heads as a hat. Blame Fluttershy for the last part. She had allowed so many birds in that there was one for everypony. The smell of sweat and bird poop made Scootaloo a bit nauseous. She didn't know how anypony could tolerate this.
Earlier before, Applejack and Fluttershy had inadvertently parted with the fillies in order to get dressed, though it was obvious that the former with her rolling eyes and a furrowing brow made it clear that she was disinterested in this embarrassment. Regretfully, Scootaloo could use the yellow pegasus's help since she and Applejack were the Captain's favorites. They would have arrived at the dressing room closest to the stage. Scootaloo realized this as the line of ponies and birds saw no end in sight, and she punched the wall in frustration.
This was no time to lose her cool right now. She could feel the weight of her friends' concern over her. She then turned around and stood up on her hind legs with a feigned smile.
"Don't worry girls," Scootaloo proclaimed. "As one of the first members of the crew, I know places that neither mares or stallions could pass through. Follow me!"
The three fillies maneuvered through a forest of pony legs until they reached an accessible vent Scootaloo kicked open. They were small enough to squeeze through, though they had a slow and uncomfortable crawl up through the ductwork. After a few scraped knees, they advanced higher up and ended above the hallways and the endless line of ponies and birds trying to join the celebration. Through these ducts, the three fillies heard the murmurs of the audience grow into a huge swell of cheers right as loud rock filled the dining hall. Already Scootaloo could picture in her mind the bright lights and excited ponies.
"Ladies and gentlecolts!" cried Spike who was dressed in a sparkly white tuxedo. "Get ready for the big event: Applejack versus Rainbow Dash; Big Race at the Ghastly Gorge! With me today is my co-announcer Pinkalicious Pie!"
"Thanks, Spike!" said Pinkie, who was dressed in a sparkly pink tuxedo. "Let's get ready for our mane event! Introducing our challenger, weighing in at an apple-bucking force 490 kilograms, the apple of our eye, the diamond in the rough, here is Rebel Mare Applejack!"
Scootaloo shifted her head slightly so that her eyes could peer past the ductwork seams. On stage right (audience left), Applejack half-heartedly trudged up onto the stage garbed impressively in a sparkling red and green cape, a diamond-encrusted apple-shaped mask, and her usual Stetson. Twilight was right by her side dressed more modestly in a blue cape, a star-shaped mask, and an Owlowiscious for a hat. Neither of them paid any acknowledgement of the playful boos from the audience. Whether they cared or not, neither Twilight nor Applejack appeared to enjoy being put on the spotlight.
"Hey!" Apple Bloom cried. "How dare they boo my sister? Go big sis! Go Applejack!"
"Defending her title, weighing in at a sexy 360 kilograms, here comes the svelte and suave mattress shaker the foolly-coolly Pirate King Rainbow Dash!"
Even behind the thin steel of the vents, Scootaloo could feel Rainbow Dash bursting in through the curtains in her technicolor bravado. Fireworks exploded in the air and on the stage. Lights pulsed to near-epileptic levels, and the wub-sounds of Vinyl Scratch whipped the crowds into a frenzy. The blue pegasus herself had been doused with sparkling glitter as was her rainbow cape and rainbow-hued mask. Her mad rounds in the air rattled the airship's ceiling and walls, and after three consecutive loops, she coolly landed on the stage and tossed her cape into the hooves of Fluttershy and Rarity, both of whom were also dressed in decorative capes and masks. She received the microphone from Pinkie Pie, and then strutted right up to the muzzle of her “challenger”.
"So you want to challenge the mighty Rainbow Dash on who's the best in speed, battle, and bed?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"What?" cried Applejack. "That's not what we rehearsed!"
"C'mon, stay in character!"
"And do I really have to read this?" asked Applejack as she glanced at a stack of cards Twilight was levitating.
"Do it for entertainment value. Or I'll kiss Twilight again."
"Darn you RD. Ahem. 'You're goin' down Captain. You may be a hot and sexy pegasus who is good in both bed and battle, but you're no match for the bucking fury of La Manzana. For those who don't habla hoofspañol, La Manzana is Spanish for… The Manzana.' Ugh, I'm gonna guess you and Pinkie collaborated on this."
The "trash talk" droned on, with Rainbow Dash hamming it up while moving in the air while Applejack read off the cue cards Twilight cycled before her eyes in plain sight. With all pony eyes drawn towards the stage of the two competitors and their companions, Scootaloo decided that it would be time to move towards an accessible vent to exit out before the bird-hatted adult ponies went off to dance the night away.
Yet the pegasus filly found herself stuck. A yellow hoof had pinned her tail against the metal surface, and Apple Bloom was making the strangest faces Scootaloo had only seen on the stallions' magazines.
"Quit pokin' me, Sweetie Belle!" cried Apple Bloom.
"I'm not trying to!" cried Sweetie Belle. "I can't see anything!"
"Will you two cut it out?" Scootaloo cried. "We're going to--"
Creak. Creak. Boom! Scootaloo and her friends fell through the broken ductwork towards the stage below. The pegasus filly flapped her wings at its hardest just to give herself that one extra oomph of control to grab hold of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Once she secured her friends, she then lunged in and clamped her teeth at the top of the velvet and crimson curtain. Their descent slowed themselves down enough for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to swoop in for the rescue. While Fluttershy distributed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to their respective older sisters, Scootaloo found herself gently placed on the center of the stage by the Captain herself.
"Scoots, whaddya doin' here?" the Captain asked. "Are you hurt?"
Scootaloo's sudden stage fright sealed her lips. Ponies were silently staring at her, and perhaps judging her. If she knew how to fly properly, she would have made a grand entrance and saved her friends without anypony's assistance. She wanted cry, but she sniffed her tears back into her eyes before they fell. She lifted her head to face Rainbow Dash, and after one deep breath, she spoke:
"We were trying to find out how to get our Nature's Calls, Destiny Glyphs, Heaven's Insignia, blah-blah-blah, and we tried looking for you in Secret Love Nest #5, Coco's sewing workshop, the dining hall, the library, the deck, Love Nest Zero, and we nearly got into accidents that killed us, but were able to hear all of the new crew's stories--but they were all sappy and they were all about finding out who you are and stuff like that. All I wanted to hear now is how you got yours."
Captain Rainbow Dash's face appeared expressionless. There had been times that the Captain often slept during the Lieutenant Twins' strategy meetings or was simply zoned out and daydreaming. Luckily, this wasn't the moment, and the Captain reassured the pegasus filly's doubts of her attentiveness with a warm smile and a messy noogie on her purple mane.
"Since you made an awesome entrance, you deserve to know how I earned my awesome and cute marks," said Rainbow. "Listen up everypony! Take a seat and grab a drink. This story will tug your heartstrings and rock your socks off."
Living in the cloudlands of Pegasopolis was brutal from birth to death. Us foals were taken from our parents upon our birth, and after we were judged fit to live, we were then herded into our junior barracks of Cloud 6 to be raised under a warrior resting from battle. Knight Colonel Firefly was our matron, and living under for several years made me think that her parenting skills were both harsh and non-existent.
In our little herd, we weren't given much. Blankets were scarce, and we would always shiver to sleep on our hard beds since we live so high up. Food was also scarce, and oftentimes we ended up stealing from each other. The only thing Firefly gave us as toys were live weapons, and she did nothing to prevent us from hurting each other.
The few times she was generous was when she took us to the colosseum for one day only. I was flying ahead of Firefly who took her sweet time walking to the front gates. Even a hundred feet away, the walls of the colosseum rose up higher than my junior barracks and there were streams of pegasi and griffons pouring in from all directions. Their cheers echoed into the heavens, and already I recognized the smell of fresh blood and charred flesh. I really wanted to fly myself into the belly of this awesome beast, but Firefly pulled me down by the tail and took me and the rest of my foalmates to a special entrance. She led us through a dark and narrow hall and directly towards a lobby of some sort filled VIP ponies and creatures from our allied nations. Here I saw griffon kings and high-ranking pegasi warriors in their awesome armor regalia, like Soarin of the Wind and Captain Surprise. I so wanted to talk to them, but the horns of battle blew, and everyone made their way to their seats. Firefly shuttled us to our own box seats and it was so large that it fitted us all. It was odd for me since all the other box seats had two or three ponies in each of them along with a pair of waiting slaves. Of course, we had our own pair of female slaves serving us all the food we ever need. We ate like horses, and we had so much food we ended up doing food fights. I ate so much that I nearly threw up over the railing. Luckily, the slave assigned to us immediately flew in with a bucket, and I puked for a long time before eating a second helping of my hay bacon strips.
"Contain yourself, Rainbow Dash," said Firefly. "You'll need to see a true Fire Master at work."
A pegasus's main ability is the manipulation of the weather--Atmos Particles if you will. They are everywhere, and even in the most confined caves we can muster up an ice blade to help defend ourselves. Besides flying, pegasi can create rain, clouds, ice, and lightning. Very few can create fire, and fewer can do it well. By now, I heard the announcer announcing an "honor battle" of six stallions vying to win the hoof of a Fire Master. I soon stopped eating, and a slave propped me up on stool so I could get a better view.
Then I saw her on a circular platform rising from underneath the bloodstained arena floor with head tilted slightly upwards to evoke superior awesomeness. She was unarmed and naked like most pegasi living in Pegasopolis, but her six opponents--six burly stallions--were armed and armored to the teeth with ice flails, steel claws, and heavy gauntlets. These six stallions were fast too. Their heavy armor and weapons did nothing to slow them down right as they launched towards Spitfire, and for a moment I thought for sure she was done for. I thought wrong, for at the last second, the area around her exploded into a ball of flame. Spitfire rocketed from the fireball with the three remaining stallions chasing after her. She zipped through the air and then zipped straight towards her opponents to create a trail of blazing fire before delivering her trademark Pinwheel Kick to two of the stallions. With the last aerial stallion, she looped downward and rocketed back up with a Rising Dragon punch that sent the guy ablaze and flying right out of the colosseum.
The crowd went wild! And they chanted her name over and over again. The excitement was so contagious that I started yelling "Spitfire" at the top of my lungs, and in contrast to her fiery moves, she accepted a shower of diamonds and roses with humble bows as coolly as she could.
Then her eyes locked onto me. I thought she was looking at somepony else, but her grin says that she was looking at me. Omigosh. I can't believe she singled me out, and she was hovering right towards me! She was almost ready to give me a rose as a fan gift, and I was almost ready to faint if she came any closer.
But then, a pink hoof knocked the rose away before I could even grab it.
"Your performance against your suitors is admirable, but it's not up to snuff in my opinion," said Firefly. "I don't want Rainbow Dash to develop any unhealthy expectations about you."
"Fair enough," said Spitfire. "Obviously, there's no way I can match up to you Knight Colonel Firefly."
"My current condition is just a reprieve from the greater battles to come. I am only hoping you do not disappoint Empress Commander Wind Whistler on the upcoming assault on the San Palomino Fort."
I think that's what they discussed, and before I knew it, Spitfire flew up to greet the Empress Commander and her two Lord Generals who had their own massive box seat for themselves high above us. More importantly, I was pretty mad at Firefly for knocking that Spitfire's rose out of the way, and I was still mad when I got home. I couldn't sleep that night, and I got out of bed and rushed into Firefly's bedroom where she was doing one-hoof push-ups.
"Why did you do that?" I asked.
"Gifts like that have no place in the battlefield," said Firefly. "Besides, she is going to be a bad influence to you."
"How come?"
"Trust me. I know cowards when I saw one, and she is the worst. She should have died during that match."
How dare she insult Spitfire? Spitfire is a celebrated hero of Pegasopolis and in line to become Empress Commander Wind Whistler's next Lord General. I lunged after Firefly, and just as quickly as she was quiet, she sidestepped and pinned my head down to the floor with one hoof. I could feel the clouds beneath me slowly breaking apart, and if she was serious, she could have plummeted me to the ground below.
"Stay away from Spitfire if you know what's best for you," she told me.
From then on, Firefly made my life miserable. She would beat me if I mentioned Spitfire, and yet she spared other colts and fillies if they did the same. Any Spitfire memorabilia I collected she would confiscate and tear it up right in front of me. Then she would beat me again.
Outside in the skies, I would try to imitate Spitfire's moves to see if could master Atmos Fire Arts, but try as I might, I couldn't seem to find a way to ignite the air to create a blaze of glory. All I ended up doing was singeing my foalmates' fur with lightning and collapsing the floor underneath me with a powerful cloudburst. It was not long that Firefly saw me doing this, and as usual, she would beat me in front of my peers.
Still, my admiration for Spitfire did not die down. I would often sneak out of lessons and training exercises to meet up with older soldiers around Cloud 6, often in mess halls where they served the strongest apple cider that I had the pleasure of tasting. I would hear from them tales of Spitfire trailblazing the skies to knocking down Gaean jets with a single chop of her hoof and taking out an entire fleet of aerial battleships with a powerful hind-kick to their engines. I could imagine her sending the enemy air force fleeing with their tails between their legs, and then she would snipe them off one by one by shooting flares from the tips of her hooves. Every night, I would dream of flying with her and the rest of the Wonderbolts Striker Division defeating each and every earth pony soldier in order to extend Pegasopolis's glory from coast to coast. I wished I was older so I could at least join the reserves--no, the reserves are for sissies. I wanted to fight in the front lines with her, and maybe on lonely nights we could snuggle up and…
Okay, I was getting ahead of myself. Firefly had eventually barred me from visiting the mess halls, but there was nothing she could do to stop my dream. Then one early morning, Firefly took me and me alone high up to Cloud 1, also known as White Cloud. I was very sleepy at the time, but I couldn't forget the sight of the towering megafortress of the Empress Commander and her Lord Generals. White was a boring color, but you gotta admit that White Cloud's spiraling spires looked beautifully awesome in the sunrise, and the number of pegasi flowing in like a swarm of bugs did little to taint its view. I mean, there were a lot of pegasi, maybe more than my time at the colosseum. So this must be a huge thing like the Empress Commander promoting a soldier to her inner circle, which I heard was rare. However, I began to hear passing pegasi whispering to each other about a pony being charged for treason.
I guess Firefly wanted to show me what happens to pegasi who disobey a superior officer's orders. I have heard that they are publically shot by ice bullets or have their wings clipped right before they fall to the surface. As luck would have it, Firefly and I were given front row seats in White Cloud's grand hall. With morbid excitement, I fidgeted in my seat as I was eager to see the pony who was about to be sentenced.
To my horror, it was none other than Spitfire. She emerged from the gates fresh from torture with patches her fur and mane shaved or fallen out to expose scalp and skin. With each step from her shackled hooves, feathers fell from her bound wings as hooded guards dragged her down the long aisle. The entire hall roared with disgust as they lobbed slurs and insults that Spitfire was an earth pony lover. Many of them threw snowballs and rotten fruit and vegetables at her. She kept a stiff posture of pride as her bruised hooves trudged across the carpeted floor. Her eyes blazed confidence even as she was thrown to the floor to bow before the aged might Empress Commander Wind Whistler and Lord Generals Written Script and Laurette.
"Lady Commodore Spitfire of the Wonderbolts Striker Division," spoke Script. "You have been found guilty of gross disobedience against your Sky Admiral and the highest form of treason against our nation. Do you have anything to say before we sentence you?"
"I want no pity or forgiveness from the likes of you," said Spitfire.
The pegasi in the grand hall roared louder in anger, and many threw more snowballs and rotten fruit. They all chanted, "Death! Death! Death!"
"Death is too good for the mud pony lover!" cried a pegasus. Almost universally, the other ponies agreed, and they started chanting, "Clip! Clip! Clip!"
The hall immediately became quiet when Wind Whistler lifted her hoof with a soft gesture. She appeared almost frail underneath her platinum armor and cyan cape, but the shadows cast on her face by her ornate helmet made her look scary. She then put her hoof down, and turned her head towards Written Script who had to gulp hard before resuming the sentencing.
"Then I hereby declare Commodore Spitfire be stripped of her rank and her title," said Written Script. "May her name be stricken from the Record of Heroes, her statues shattered, and her wings clipped before all to see. She shall be cast out to the surface below like all traitors before her. If she dares to survive the fall, then let it be known that only the true hell of the land awaits her."
My heart sank. I was thunderstruck. I could not believe she would be found guilty of treason. A part of me wanted to hate her, and for an instant I nearly believed those allegations. Yet a part of me wanted to believe she did the right thing in the battlefield. All the same, I could not bear to watch the ceremony of clipping a condemned pegasus's wings, but Firefly forced me to watch with one of her hooves pressed up against my chin and another tugging at my eyelid. I tried to blank out everything that I could see, but right before the hooded guards severed her wings, Spitfire turned her head around. I could see her face and her smile directed towards me, and it was the last thing I remembered from that day.