• Published 4th Jun 2012
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Take to the Skies - Gallifrey



Rainbow tries out for the Thunderway 500, a racing event that this year is being held in Ponyville.

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Take to the Skies

Take to the Skies

by Gallifrey


Chapter Eight
Take to the Skies

Spitfire woke before Rainbow Dash the next morning. She kept her eyes shut, and enjoyed this sleepy half slumber of the early hours of the day. She pushed her head into her pillow, savouring its squashy comfortableness. She could feel the warmth of a certain cyan pony's body beside her, one of her hooves lying on Spitfire's belly, her warm breath on her face, in time with the slow, steady rise and fall of her chest. She could smell the sweet, spicy scent of her friend, blended with the fresh morning air that crept through the window. She slowly cracked open one eye. The beautiful cyan mare lay snoozing in absolute serenity in front of her, the gentle smile that was upon her face made Spitfire's heart flutter like a butterfly within her. She twitched in her sleep and one of her ears flicked.

"Sp-Spitfire," she murmured dreamily.

A smile grew upon the yellow mare's face and she scooted even closer to Rainbow, so that their bellies were now pressed together and her face was mere inches from Rainbow's. Rainbow's eyes flittered and she awoke.

"Mornin' Spits," she whispered to her yellow friend. "How are ya?"

"Morning Rainbow, I'm pretty good, yourself?"

"Pretty awesome, I'm looking forward to seeing you at work."

"If you say so."

"I do say so! I've wanted to see what you guys do since I was a filly!"

"Really?"

"Yeah yeah! You guys have been my idols for as long as I can remember."

Spitfire thought to her own foalhood, and how much the Wonderbolts had inspired her back then, Soarin' in particular, who was now the most well seasoned and experienced member of the team.

"I understand. Thinking back, I always wanted to see the Wonderbolts training myself before I joined."

"So you know how excited I am?"

"I sure do now, c'mon pony gal, let's get going!"

--------------

The Sun was peeking out from behind the clouds by the time Spitfire and Rainbow reached Cloudsdale Stadium, where the Wonderbolts often trained when it wasn't being used.

"Mornin' Soars!" called Spitfire as they entered the great, powder blue arena. Rainbow had been here many a time before, but she had never seen it empty like this. She stood with wide eyes, it somehow seemed so much more imposing now that it was all but devoid of a crowd of ponies, or perhaps that feeling was due to being an outsider encroaching upon her idols' territory.

"Hey hey Spits!" he shouted, trotting up to meet them, "Oh! And good morning Miss Rainbow Dash," he said, surprised.

"You didn't tell them I was coming?" asked Rainbow.

"Oh course I did, but feather brain here can't remember anything except how many pies he has at home."

"It's not that bad!" defended Soarin'.

"Not far off though am I?" said Spitfire with a sly grin.

"N-no," he admitted reluctantly.

"At any rate, I did tell you Rainbow was coming to see what a day with us is like."

"Okie dae, I just hope we live up to your expectations, Rainbow."

"I'm sure you will," said Rainbow, "and then some."

-------------

Spitfire led Rainbow into a wooden panelled room with several tables with comfortable coverings upon them.

"Err, Spits, what's this got to do with flying?"

"Remember yesterday and I said you gotta warm up first?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I lied, we get somepony else to warm us up instead."

"I don't follow."

"These are massage beds you klutz," said Spitfire.

"They are?" she said, looking at them more closely. "I never go to the spa treatments so I don't know much about these things."

"Don't blame ya, I never go in for those things myself either, but trust me, you're gonna love this, though it perhaps won't be as good as mine."

"Wait, what?" said Rainbow as they both clambered onto beds, the stallion masseurs entering the room.

"You seriously don't remember?"

"Remember what?" she asked as the two stallions got to work on loosening the tension in their muscles.

"Urgh, all that hard work for nothing, that massage I gave you when you were drunk! "

"Is that why my wings cracked and felt amazing the other day?"

"Yes! I did that for you, and you never even knew." She grinned. "You are one of a kind, Dash."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Did I enjoy this massage?"

"Enjoyed it? You were like putty in my hooves. These kind gentlecolts here teach me a few things, don't ya lads?"
They nodded in affirmation, "Help give me magic hooves you see?" She winked at Rainbow.

"Well, don't feel the need to hold back if you wanna show me these magic hooves any time."

The two stallions exchanged knowing glances with each other during the two mares' conversation, and they simply nodded in the mutual agreement that they were both indeed very attractive.

---------

After their very vigorous warm up, Rainbow and the Wonderbolts began the training proper, consisting mainly of extremely complex manoeuvres that Rainbow simply could not do. She grew increasingly frustrated as she attempted each of the tricks after watching the Wonderbolts do it themselves.

"Come on Rainbow!" shouted Spitfire as encouragement, "you can do it!"

The cyan mare dove for the ground and hit it hard in her dissatisfaction.

"This is impossible!" she said desperately, "I can't do it! I'm making a fool of myself in front of you all!"

"Hey, hey, c'mere," said Spitfire soothingly, "now you listen to me."

She whispered in Rainbow's ears, words of hints, tactics and strategy. But she also injected confidence and asserted her belief in Rainbow's abilities. Something ignited deep within Rainbow, an urge to prove herself and impress all the Wonderbolts, Spitfire most of all. With a grin, she tore into the sky, steeled herself, and with a flourish, swooped through the air, performing stunts she didn't believe she was capable of doing. Complex twists and aerial patterns, dives and loops. She suddenly felt invincible. Unquestionably, undeniably, unstoppable. Spitfire spurred her on from the clouds, whooping and cheering. Rainbow performed one last triumphant somersault, and came flying back down to solid and fluffy ground
with head held proud and a slight manic glint in her eyes.

"I knew you could do it Rainbow!" shouted Spitfire, galloping up and hugging her.

"I actually did it!" she squealed, "Awww yeah! That was amazing, I never knew I could do that!"

"I did, believe me Rainbow, you have so much raw talent in you, it's quite staggering."

"Y-you really think so?" she half stammered, hearing that from Spitfire meant so much for the pegasus.

"One hundred percent, pony gal." She walked up to Rainbow and whispered again in her ear. "Don't get your hopes up just yet, but I'll put in a few good words about you here and there, being Captain gives me a fair bit of sway in the goings on around here."

"Thank you, Spitfire," she whispered in return.

---------

The rest of the day followed in a similar fashion, Spitfire was giving Rainbow a real taste of what it was to be a true Wonderbolt, and Rainbow was loving every single second of it.
All too soon for the cyan mare, the day's training had come to an end. She was exhausted, but also exhilarated. She hoped to be able to do this again someday, in fact almost every day, with Spitfire by her side the whole way.

"So, uh, I guess you enjoyed today?" said Spitfire outside her home.

"I'm never going to forget it."

"Would you like to come in? I'm gonna be making tea if you want any."

"Please, thanks again Spits."

"No worries."

After Spitfire had made tea, they sat down together in her living room.

"Do you think we better understand one another now then?" asked Rainbow.

"Oh definitely," said Spitfire in a slightly muffled voice, her mouth was full of chocolate biscuit. "I've learnt so much about you these last few days, more than I even thought possible."

"So, what do we do now?"

"What everypony else does? Let's just roll with it and see where it goes. Speaking of which, I know we've been doing this a lot recently, but you know you're more than welcome to stay here tonight if you want. My home is your home and all that."

"I'd love to," said Rainbow brightly. "Hey, you're off tomorrow right?"

"Yup, why do you ask?"

"Because I'm off too. I was wondering if we might be able to race together?"

"Oh, I dunno Dash," Spitfire began, then her mouth split into a grin. "Why wait tomorrow, for what we can do today?"

A competitive sparkle gleamed in Rainbow's eyes.

"Oh, you are so on!"

-------------

The Sun was starting to go down as Spitfire and Rainbow lined up side by side.

"You see that cloud over there?" said Spitfire, pointing out to a medium sized cumulus cloud about two miles away.

"You mean the only one in the sky?" pointed out Rainbow, looking around.

"Yuhuh, that one. First one to land on it wins."

"Okie dae."

"You ready pony gal?" Spitfire asked, bumping her flank into Rainbow's. The cyan mare smiled.

"You bet."

"Three. Two. One. Go!"

Wind rushed, wings strained, and hearts started pounding as the two ponies took to the air like rockets. Rainbow looked to her side and saw Spitfire, her fiery mane swept back into her characteristic flare, buffeted by the wind in such a sexy way. She spurred herself on faster and faster, Spitfire's speciality was speed, and in this head to head, she was certainly giving the poor cyan pegasus a run for her money.
Rainbow began to feel a familiar sensation at the tips of her hooves as they began to grow hot, sparks forming and the resistance of the air increasing with every moment. Spitfire was in a similar position herself, she, like Rainbow, had broken the sound barrier many times too, though she never produced the band of multicoloured light like Rainbow did, there was only a deafening bang when she broke it.
Spitfire looked at Rainbow. She could see her fierce conviction, her face contorted into one of pure concentration, the desire to win was clearly burning in her heart. She glanced at Spitfire, and through all her determination, Spitfire could see a tender and loving smile, she could almost feel the warmth radiating from her. The Wonderbolt was struck with a sudden idea and when she turned away again, Spitfire decided to put her idea into action.
Rainbow knew it would be any second now before her legendary sonic rainboom. She looked to her side again to look at Spitfire, but the yellow mare wasn't there. She looked all around for the pegasus, but couldn't see her at all. Assuming that this was a trick of hers, she continued her flight.

Splitting spectrums, ripping sound so easily,

Spitfire watched in awe from her vantage point as the cyan mare tore through the sound barrier, a great disc of broken light shimmered and radiated outwards from the epicentre that was Rainbow Dash, and still faster she went, not satisfied with seven hundred and sixty eight mile per hour.

You have the heart and soul that I could only wish to be.

Rainbow was nearly at the cloud, Spitfire was nowhere in sight, she was going to win this! She figured that she should probably slow down so that she didn't collide with the cloud too hard.

Spread your wings, come with me, we'll fly away,

Spitfire began acting out her plan, spinning through the air in graceful sweeps and loops.
Rainbow impacted the cloud roughly, sealing her victory.

"I win! I win! What do I get?"

She turned around, still no Spitfire. She looked up, and her jaw hung wide.

I'll write in clouds, 'cause I ain't afraid to say,

I love you.

There, emblazoned against the sky of the setting Sun, were those three words, written in Spitfire's elegant script.
Rainbow could only sit on the cloud, at a complete loss. She was so touched by the gesture, that she even completely forgot she had won.
A yellow pegasus came into view, flying from the direction of the writing. She came to land softly next to Rainbow.

"Do you like it?" she asked tentatively.

"Spitfire, I-I..."

"I understand if it's a bit soon," she started lamely.

"No. It's not that. It's just- Oh Spitfire, it's beautiful! You've even got me all acting like a school filly! And believe me, not many ponies can do that... Do you mean it?"

"Rainbow, I would never lie to you. I love you, completely."

Rainbow smiled.

"I love you too Spits."

The looked at each other, as if they finally saw each other for the first time as who they truly were. The magenta eyes looked searchingly into the amber, and they spoke volumes to each other, without a single word being spoken. Spitfire moved closer to the cyan mare, touching her face with a hoof and drawing her closer and they shared their first real kiss. A kiss, not of lust, but of love. A deep warmth suffused both of them as they shared their tender embrace, under the dying light of the setting Sun.

The End

Well, that's that, I do hope you enjoyed reading! This one was a blast to write, I love RainbowFire, but there is a distinct lack of it on this site, so I have helped to correct that. Special thanks to Alex, Reevsie and Danupert for editing and giving advice. A few acknowledgements should go to Chain Algorithm, who I used lyrics from Beautiful Blue Wings, check that out, it's a good song. Also, Owl City, who I've used so many times I've simply lost count, but the main usage is in the title itself, a delightful song he wrote called To the Sky. Anyway, I know there's more but I can't remember them...
A final thanks to you, the reader, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be writing.
Until next time. <3 X