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Part the First - In Which Spitfire has NO sympathy893 words
Part the Second - In Which Squad 3 gets a visitor1,092 words
Part the Third - In Which Glimmer IS the Alpha Mare852 words
Part the Fourth - In Which Aurora gets burned and passes the feeling along1,933 words
Part the Fifth - In Which what HAPPENS in Los Pegasus does not STAY in Los Pegasus1,362 words

Part the Fourth - In Which Aurora gets burned and passes the feeling along

Glimmer’s heart races with adrenaline from the exhilarating combination of performing and handling elements at high speeds. Taking a quick breath at the top of her arcing flight, she looks down to make sure Nimbus had the clouds in place for her run through the double-helix trail of Aurora and Blitz’s blue and gold fire.

One less knowledgeable of Squad Alpha’s abilities might accuse Glimmer of using her captaincy to show off, but none of her other squadmates could handle lightning capably. She catches Zee’s eyes and he and Nimbus dive, pulling the fine mist of clouds along with them. Glimmer dives after them, riding their wake.

Zee and Nimbus fly with their backs nearly touching, almost swimming in horizontal spirals through the light display playing out as the vapor from the clouds refract the firelight into brilliant points of colored light. It never fails to please Glimmer to see that, despite his stand-off attitude towards Nimbus, Zee could still synchronize his flying with their youngest member.

Glimmer grins almost manically as the fire creates lightning in the clouds trailing behind the two stallions. With her close position behind them, she catches all of it and she has to focus her mind on controlling the element gathering around her, leaving a sparkling and dangerous trail behind her.

Nimbus and Zee peel away, going in separate directions to meet up with Blitz and Aurora respectively. She flies forward further, getting almost to the edge of the stadium before she turns sharply up and backwards, barrel rolling by herself while her squadmates do so in pairs, trailing streams of vapor and fire and arcing like a deadly rainbow.

Glimmer already feels the rush of completion as they begin their downward arc, unable to stop herself from laughing in sheer euphoria for a finished routine. Her jubilation is cut short when a sudden clap of thunder and concussive blast of heat sends her reeling to the left. She catches herself in the air quickly enough, but Nimbus and Blitz have already lost their trails, having nearly crashed into the stands. Her thrill turns to mortification as she quickly looks to her right; Zee had caught himself as well, but is obviously stunned. Further down, and heading for a painful crash, Aurora struggles to stay aloft with a singed wing.

“AURIE!” Glimmer shrieks in panic, immediately turning to dive after her. Some rational part of her mind knows that her angle is too shallow to build up enough speed to catch her in time, but the rest of her screams that part into silence with its insistence to try, straining and reaching with outstretched hooves for her friend.

A white blur from below blitzes in from another direction, catching Aurora a scant twenty-five feet from the ground. Glimmer pulls up hard, wings spread wide to brake. A collective sigh of relief echoes throughout the arena at Aurora’s rescue, but it’s not one that Glimmer can partake in, since she can easily see that while Aurora isn’t fighting her rescuer, she’s certainly ranting at him as he carries her over to the exit, thankfully not far from the pair as it had been the designated end-point of their performance. She turns quickly to gesture to the three stallions to form up, and then pumps her wings hard to catch up with her irate second.

Fire doesn’t let Aurora down until they’re at the backstage entrance to the field with the rest of Squad Alpha. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Glimmer hears him ask and the expression of sheer frustration on Aurora’s face tells the captain that her brother’s question had been a frequent one, undoubtedly asked non-stop since he caught her.

“I’m fine. Let me go!” Aurora snaps, pushing him away. She clearly isn’t though, with the burned wing half-extended despite her obvious desire to make her words true by folding it back neatly.

Sighing, Fire glances out to the cheering stadium and steps to the side as the recruit squad takes a quick bow. “I’ll be right back!” Fire says, obviously reluctant to leave even as he lifts off into a low hover. However, as the highest ranking Wonderbolt, it fell to him to do the announcing, and he definitely had some work cut out for him with the accident cutting off the last few moments of the routine.

“Don’t worry, Third Captain… I’ve got this,” Glimmer responds quickly, and hurriedly herds Aurora into the backstage area, trusting the rest of her squad to follow at her pace. Just inside the tunnel to the locker room, Squad Charlie looks on with wide eyes.

Their captain, a yellow mare with purple and blue dreadlocks, approaches Glimmer and Aurora cautiously. “You all in the clear? That sounded nasty from in here…” Prismatic Spray comments, casting an anxious glance at Aurora’s injured wing.

Before Aurora can reply, Glimmer puts her squadmate in a headlock with a hoof over her mouth. “It was… We’re dealing with it, Prisma…” she replies, almost brusque in her rush to silence Aurora. Glimmer offers a shaky smile to her fellow captain, hoping to convey with her expression that she’d hear more about it later.

“All good, Glimmer. Hope it isn’t too serious…” Prisma shrugs and returns to her squad. “Charlie, move out!”

Glimmer finally hauls Aurora into the locker room, with the rest of her squad following, just as Fire returns. He zips past them, his anxiousness clearly visible. “I’ll go get a trainer!” he calls over his shoulder before he vanishes down the hall.

Aurora growls impotently, lips curled into a snarl. “I oughta -”

“Nope!” Glimmer counters quickly, hoisting the irate mare over her shoulder and carrying her into the lockers and towards the showers, the stallions peeling off to stay clear of further explosions. “You’re not doing anything to anyone before you get that wing looked at, and you’ve calmed down.”

“Calm down?! LIKE HELL I’LL CALM DOWN!” Aurora yells, and Glimmer’s ears lay flat against her head against the deafening volume. Casting her eyes around, she spots Black Bird, the Ensign on Squad Twenty, and Third Commander Surprise standing like sentinels at an open shower stall with water already pouring down from the showerhead. Almost smiling at the helpfulness from the two elite Wonderbolts, Glimmer heads straight for them and easily tosses Aurora into the stall, dousing her with cold water.

Aurora shrieks in surprise and curses at Glimmer even though her captain remains unfazed by the profanity spilling from her mouth. She moves to pull herself out of the icy spray, but Glimmer knocks her back down the moment she gets to her hooves. “Stay down, or I’ll give you a limp to go with the burned wing,” Glimmer snarls quietly, ignoring Surprise and Black Bird snickering behind her. “And when the Third Captain gets back, you’re going to thank him-”

“WHAT?!” Aurora shrieks, springing back up in her indignation. Glimmer rears back and punches Aurora, sending the younger mare reeling backwards.

“You heard me! Thank him for saving your sorry ass!” Glimmer shouts back, years of frustration feeding into her adrenaline-fueled anger. “If it weren’t for him, you’d have more than some singed feathers!”

“This way, Chief Hour.” Fire’s professional voice comes from the entrance to the shower area, quickly followed by him and Witching Hour, wearing a medical saddle bag. “She should be right in here, hopefully it only looks bad and isn’t actually serious.”

“We’ll know soon enough, Third Captain,” Witch agrees. “Lighting burns often don’t reveal the true extent of their damage until later.”

“I have every confidence in your abilities, Chief,” Fire replies softly as he comes into view, a worried frown on his face. “I’m sure…”

“She should have stuck to her fire handling; it’s what she is good at.” Lightning’s voice cuts through the already tense air much like the thunder had the stadium earlier. “You might be shocked how dangerous that can be…” he adds with a laugh that practically drops the IQ of anyone listening to it.

Aurora growls loudly, first when she hears Fire, and then even more so when she hears what Lightning says. She rises, but is beat by Glimmer turning around and stomping out of the shower with a furious look in her eyes.

“And what exactly do you mean by that?!” Glimmer belts as she storms over to Lightning, ears folded back and the feathers on her wings puffed out. “I’ve heard a lot of things come out of your worthless, pathetic excuse for a mouth, and I’ve heard you farting on Taco Tuesday! I’ve always assumed you were just stupid, that Fire got all his charm and grace because one of you had to get it.” She presses a hoof into Lightning’s chest as he backs up into a wall. “But this, this takes the whole cake and then some. I swear, I have half a mind to beat you senseless, rank or not! The other half?” She presses her hoof hard into his chest, pounding it with each word as she belts into his face. “The other part of me wants to SHOVE MY HOOF SO FAR UP YOUR WORTHLESS ASS, IT’LL TAKE A DIVINE MIRACLE TO GET IT OUT!”

“Recruit Captain Glimmer,” Fire starts from behind Glimmer, who instantly rounds on him.

“With all due respect, Third Captain,” Glimmer cuts him off in a dangerously low voice. “I thought we agreed that you would keep this worthless sack of mareizing garbage away from your sister.” She advances towards him, eyes narrowed. “You saved one of my squad, and I thank you for that. But frankly,” she points to Lightning and gets right in Fire’s face and growls, “get him out of here before I make you and Aurie the only members of the Streak family in the Wonderbolts.”

“Are you giving me an order, Recruit Captain?” Fire questions, his professional tone cracking.

“Promising,” Glimmer corrects sharply, almost hissing. “Promising that if you don’t remove that Shit Streak from my sight, I’m going to make him a stain on the carpet worthy of that name.”

Looking to his brother, then back and Glimmer, Fire sighs and moves around the enraged mare. “Come along, brother. We’d best allow Captain Glimmer to attend to her injured squadmate.” He pauses next to Glimmer and looks at her from the corner of one eye. “Take care of her,” he whispers softly, before walking to his brother, and dragging the still stunned Lightning out the door.

Watching the Streak twins depart with a loud snort, Glimmer turns around and heads to the vacant stall next to the one Aurora and Witch are currently occupying. She pauses as she opens the door and says to nopony in particular, “Not a word.” She then enters the stall, closing the door behind her and turning on the cold water.

She sits under the stream of water, head hanging, as she slowly strips off her uniform and allows the cold water to temper the red hot fury still seething through her veins.

As her blood finally cools and reality starts to sink in, a sense of looming dread replaces it, wringing a groan from her. She really does have bigger problems than her squad budget to worry about… And the trip was only barely half-over…

Author's Note:

Massive kudos to Sylvian for hand-holding me through Glimmer's explosion...

Glimmer... You poor fool... What have you done?!