Bullets of Fire

by BlackWater

25 - Breaking Ground

High Winds kept silent to let her dear friend speak on her own time.

"Blaze figured it out somehow and tried to get it out that time we did Truth or Dare. I didn't want everypony to know but maybe it would have been better..."

Misty was skirting around the name and High Winds knew it. However, as a good friend, she was still gentle in the conversation. The whitish mare took a guess. "Do you have feelings for Spitfire?"

Now that made the yellow pegasus scrunch her face in a surprised and bewildered expression. "No...why would you even think that...?"

High Winds sighed in response. Misty was honest and that was good. A violent and joint-jerk response would have told her otherwise. But now the fashionista had some explaining to do. "Misty, I know you've always looked up to Spitfire in your own way. We all do. But I have to tell you that some ponies get...weird when it comes to our captain. Ever since she got on the team, she's been a magnet for all sorts of ponies that confuse admiration with intimate feelings."

"I'm not some obsessed fan though..." Misty interjected weakly in a low tone of voice.

"I know that, Misty. But it's something to keep in mind regardless of who you have feeling for," High Winds reigned in her voice as well as the conversation so that she remained gentle and open with her friend. "Now enough of my self-help. Who do you like?"

Misty's confidant threw on a cheesy smile to coax the mare, but the answer would have come out regardless.

"It's Silver Lining."

It took a good five seconds for the name to click in the mind of the concerned friend. It was not that High Winds was unable to fathom any attraction that a mare might have for the male Wonderbolt, but rather Misty had done well to remain aloof of obvious emotions while in the company of Silver Lining. How Blaze had figured it out was beyond her.

She spoke carefully, "I see..."

The mare didn't say anything else for the sake of figuring out what she was going to say. She wasn't a magical repository of advice or comfort as some ponies seemed to believe. Finally she continued, encouraged to speak by the ever worrying look on Misty's face, "Why do like like Silver?"

The yellow pegasus winced as if she had just bit her tongue. "Well, I don't really think about why I like him...I just do."

High Winds waited and the mare knew she was being prompted to figure it out. "Um...maybe I like him because he's different."

Her whitish friend began to smile to encourage the train of thought. Misty tried again, "He's not like all the other stallions I've seen or met. He's dependable and hard working...he doesn't complain. Well, he sort of does but he doesn't go on like others. He just powers through stuff."

"You like him for who he is and not the appearance he gives out."

"Huh?" Misty queried with confusion at her friends interjection.

"He talks to me about clothes and accessories from time to time and the other guys think that it's girly. His self-confidence lets him overcome peer pressure and it's that same confidence that makes him seem attractive to you. He's stable because he defines himself rather than letting himself be defined by others."

Misty hung her mouth open just a little before responding, "You always put things so perfectly..."

High Winds sighed. "I don't try to but I'm glad if my point got across. It's something I had to learn here in Canterlot. Most ponies here are pushed and pulled by what others think of them. The ones that stand out on their own either get praise for individuality or scorn for rebelliousness. I got a taste of both in my foalhood."

The sunny mare groaned. "I usually just got the scorn part."

"Well, not anymore right?"

Misty cracked a small smile that quivered from the nervousness that she still had for the conversation. "Wonderbolts don't get a whole lot of hate."

"There are some but we're getting really offtrack. Does Silver Lining know how you feel?"

Misty had just taken a tentative sip of tea and nearly spit it back out before swallowing it. "Of course not!"

High Winds figured as much but wanted to keep the mare talking. "Afraid to tell him?"

A nod was all that was needed and all that was given.

"Want help?"

Misty's eyes widened in surprise. "Help?! What do you mean?"

"Well..." the friend raised her brows conspiratorially. "I could talk to him like I normally do from time to time. Get some information...drop some hints...set something up."

The fashionista mare wasn't sure if her apparently shy teammate looked shocked, hesitant, or horrified.

"I'll take that as a green light to go," High Winds declared as she put her two fore hooves on one of Misty's that laid upon the table.

The yellow mare felt as if she had more to worry about now than before. Only, she did nothing to keep her friend from drawing up a scheme.

Spitfire tore into the meal as if it would be her last. Too much work brings too much appetite, as the saying goes. Wait. There's no saying like that, is there?

Surprise ate daintily in every manner that her best friend and captain did not. They had dinner ordered and brought to them in the hotel room. This time, it was a double room for the wing pair. Hotel arrangements changed regularly as training and performances did. There was, in the end, continual variety for the team - even if it seemed otherwise at times. The food, on the other hoof, was not so different. Go with what you know, as the saying goes. That was most certainly a saying.

Neither mare spoke for it was eating time. It was rude to speak with a full mouth but that was not a mannerism that either was particularly adept at. The lack of conversation was more attributable to the fact that both were very hungry and put higher priority on consuming the delicious hay fries than engaging in small talk or banter.

Not much else happened within the ensuing time. Meal finished and bellies full, both mares rested on the hotel beds and complained about there being nothing good on the room's TV. They eventually settled for the nature channel and became increasingly riveted with the survival of a certain prairie dog. The two Wonderbolts got to nicknaming him Jerry in the worry-filled conversations they held during the commercial breaks.

The night ended with the two mares asleep in their separate beds. It was not an unusual evening for either of them but it was certainly not the kind of life that the public knew about - in spite of often living it themselves. The Wonderbolts were still ponies, after all, and all ponies shared at least a few things in common.

Fire Streak, on the other hoof, was at odds with ponydom. He had been expending energy ferociously and, though some of it helped improve his physical ability, most of it was wasted breath and effort. He was frustrated with life and when one is frustrated with such a large and generic thing, there is no cure but to deal with it.

"Dumb rock," the stallion mumbled as he kicked a pebble with his left fore hoof. It was a rebel of a stone to be sitting in the streets of Canterlot. But then, it wasn't the only one.

It was late and the stars shone brilliantly even as the lights of the city tried to haze them into obscurity. The noise of the city was not deafening due to the hour but it was still at a high enough volume to produce a background buzz of activity. A nearby restaurant was in full swing for its late night customers. Somepony was complaining about the arrangement of parsley on their plate and Fire Streak had to roll his eyes. What a bunch of upper-crust dead-weights.

Having grown up in "everytown" Equestria, Fire Streak had no compassion for the privileged ponies of the capitol. Some of them even made him sick. He burned himself to the ground every day to train, act, and fly loops for their amusement. And even with the money and fame he got because he was a Wonderbolt, he still felt like he was at the bottom of the bucket of life.

"Fire!" a voice called out to him and seemed to get closer at the same time.

The frustrated male turned from his spot on the side of the road to make out another Wonderbolt walking up to him. He would have asked how Wave Chill had found him but he didn't want to bother. "Hey," was his acknowledgement.

"Thought I'd find you around here. It's a good spot to feel like crud, isn't it?" Wave Chill blurted out bluntly as he stopped and sat in front of his teammate.

Fire Streak winced. "Obvious?"

"From one 'Bolt to another. Yeah," he answered. Fire might not feel the same as him but he figured it was pretty much the same anyhow.

"So what's up?" the cream-colored pegasus continued as he returned his gaze to the restaurant across the street. The unicorn that had been complaining about the parsley was now making a fuss to the waiter.

"I was trying to find you...sort of have something that I want to get off my chest," Wave Chill breathed deeply as if indicating he had something serious to say.

"If it's about the performance then you should just go to Spitfire. I'm sure that she'd love to hear it," the line came out dripping with sarcasm and the dislike he had for the nameless unicorn across the way. An unintentional sharpness for the pony next to him.

The rainy blue 'Bolt tried to figure out what his friend was looking at but still spoke all the same. "I don't want the captain to know right now. I thought you might get me though."

Fire Streak had to tear his gaze away from the disaster in progress. "Get you? About what?"

"Well..." Wave Chill mumbled at first before nearly shouting the rest. "I think I might leave the team."

The pegasus didn't know how to respond at first but there were a few things that went straight through his mind. Wave Chill quit? Should I quit? Is that what I want? Open spots on the team...

"I'm starting to think that I just don't want this. I'm not cut out for the team and I'm not really happy in it either," the stallion continued to speak in Fire's silence. His voice wasn't shaky or uncertain. It sounded like he had already given it serious thought and was confident about it. Why didn't he want to talk to the captain though? "If Spitfire doesn't put me in the performance or if I can't pull everything off then I'm going to do it."

Fire looked him straight in the eye. "I guess I can get that. I'm not happy either to be honest."

His friend smiled at that. "I thought that might be the case. You looked less ecstatic than me during the last meet."

"Yeah..." A sting hit the cream pegasus as it forced him to remember Lightning and the country mare. "But I'm not going to stop being a Wonderbolt anytime soon."

Wave Chill nodded and seemed to have little more to say, "Yeah."

Nothing more had to be said for the two ponies to understand each other. They each had things they wanted to go for and time was running short. Nothing unusual was officially planned for them but there was a change in the wind. Fire Streak knew he couldn't stay like he was. He had to improve to get past the invisible wall in front of him. Wave Chill had to find his own calling in life and it might not turn out to be the Wonderbolts. The two stallions thus sat side-by-side in the night as they took to observing the restaurant across the artificially-lit street....

...until both of their stomachs growled.

"Doughnut run?" Wave Chill suggested calmly.

"Yeah."