Bullets of Fire

by BlackWater

30 - Heater

Spitfire lazily rolled out of bed - or would have if somepony wasn't holding onto her. Surprise had been adamant the previous night about her friend not going to sleep with a stressed mind. She said it wasn't good for her health or something like that. Spitfire questioned the legitimacy of the whole thing and was certain that her wingmare just wanted to sleep in the same bed. It was an innocent thing - like when Spitfire used to sleep with her parents on stormy nights. Or perhaps it was more akin to a young filly grasping a plush animal for comfort.

Her friend had changed for certain over the past month or so but she would never be rid of her core personality. The fact that Surprise was firmly holding Spitfire while still in dreamland was testament enough that the girl was still the shy insecure pegasus she was when she joined the Wonderbolts. Maybe she had become more light-hearted and talkative on the outside but Spitfire suspected that the mare was harboring some fear about losing her position...about losing the friendship they shared. Oh Celestia, maybe Spitfire was afraid of that too. After all, there was the deal with Wave Chill.

I can do the morning work in bed anyways, the orange mare thought to herself. The bed (and associated pony) were quite warm and comfy, after all. Spring was still seeing some mildly chill mornings in spite of warm to hot afternoons. It was no battle of wits to stay where the morning warmth was, but temperature was not what Spitfire needed to think about. She needed to concern herself with scheduling.

The captain had been throttling down events so that the team would have enough time and energy to train and get back on track. Lightning Streak would be available for the next event but Wave Chill was out of the picture. And then, of course, there was the matter of her special team. Surprise, Silver Lining, and Misty would be far enough along in training to do some pre-ignition practice for the Bullet. Speaking of which, Spitfire reminded herself, a trip to Celestia was in order. The mare had been absent with the addition of more Bullet trainees and Spitfire had a few questions to ask.

Neither of the lead mares had been able to add as many wing-ups as of late and Celestia had named five hundred as the goal. They were slowing down at four hundred each and the other two trainees were catching up. They would eventually even out but Spitfire was concerned they would cap at four hundred fifty.

She was about to start mental preparation for the upcoming stage performance when Surprise finally stirred. The whitish mare scrunched up her face and tightened her grip around Spitfire. It made the mare look back in time to notice a tear streak across the other's cheek.

"Huh?" the orange pegasus accidentally voiced aloud. Concerned, she forced her body around in her friend's grip and tried shaking her awake.

"Ah!" Surprise startled awake. It was as if the pony had been thrown from her slumber rather than shaken. As it happened, there were two other tears waiting to fall down from each eye. They made their journey as she blinked.

"What's with the tears, Prize? You usually cry in your sleep?"

The mare gave an expression halfway between frustration and embarrassment before letting go of her friend and turning away. "I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?"

"Of course not. I was already up. I just want to know if something's wrong," she replied with utmost honesty. There was really nothing more to it than that.

Taking the time to get out of bed, Surprise tried to hide her face behind her wild bed-hair. "I just had a bad dream that's all."

"I've heard that bad dreams tend to happen when you worry about stuff too much. You better not be worrying after what you told me last night."

The wingmare didn't answer as she went over to the bathroom and started washing her face. Spitfire was about to shrug it off when her friend leaned back out of the bathroom doorway. "I guess I should take my own advice. But there's just so much that can go wrong in our line of work."

"Oh?" Spitfire raised her brow as she also got out of bed. "You worried you'll take a dive like Lightning Streak?"

"It can happen to any of us. 'Professional' doesn't mean 'invincible.' One of us could get seriously hurt one these days."

To that, Spitfire just have a snort of dismissal. "That's obvious. You should have seen all the scrapes and bruises I got as a street performer. But even if you were to take a bad spill, I'd be right with you, Prize."

The white pony almost spoke again but her friend came up to her and laid a hoof on her shoulder just long enough to say "stop worrying." Spitfire continued on to the living room to retrieve her event planner and added "your words" to her last comment.

The walls of the royal Canterlot palace were mostly devoid of noise. The low thrum of a heater was one of the few discernible disturbances. It's vibration-like utterance was constant within Princess Luna's room. She had been feeling just the tad bit chilly and thus had decided to turn it on despite the season not being quite right for it. Other than that, only a few blips echoed within the walls of the princess' room. They were merely stray bits of sound that managed to escape the unusual contraption that was affixed to the pony's head. She called it "headphones." Apparently, it was some new fangled thing that the younger ponies were into. Same as those video game things.

Thus Princess Celestia had no reservations at all about disturbing her younger sister, who was engrossed in some game that she was in the middle of playing. "Huzzah!" cried the white mare as she launched herself onto her sister's back.

"Gah! For Pete's sake!" Luna cried as the headphones went careening off of her head. "No!" was her next exclamation as, within the same second, her in-game character got mauled by a manticore and reached zero hit points. The dark sister turned her head to give her back-mounted sister a scornful gaze...only to be met with a look of utter aloofness. Celestia was completely oblivious to the problem she had created.

"Sister!" cried the mare of the night.

"Yes, sister?" replied the mare of the day.

"You killed me!"

Obliviousness turned to confusion and then glee as Celestia shook her mane and wrapped her fore hooves around the mare. "Do I didn't. You're right here. Alive!"

Luna felt that she had every right to feel exasperated with the princess. "Celly..."

"Mmmmyes?" the alicorn's voice barely escaped as she began nuzzling her face into her sister's starry mane.

"You're bored, aren't you?" Luna deadpanned.

Still burying her face in her sister's mane, the mare huffed, "You have no idea."

"What about that pegasus, Spitfire? Are you not training her?" the younger alicorn turned over. As Celestia flopped off of her back, Luna finally got a look at her sister's face. It looked like she had died and come back to life.

"She's training others now. I just have to give her a few more short instructions and she'll be off again with her Wonderbolts. I'm not really needed anymore. Lulu, my life," the white mare gestured with her front hooves, "feels so empty."

"Well, what about Twilight Sparkle then?" the sister asked as she moved over to her bed and laid on the silky sheets. "You mentioned that you used to spend a lot of time mentoring her. I'm sure she can keep you busy. After all, the last time I went to Ponyvi-"

"I can't do that!" Celestia interrupted as she hopped onto the bed with her sibling. "She's perfect where she is...along with her friends. She doesn't need me anymore. She's even stopped sending letters."

"Oh?" Luna rolled onto her side to face the white mare.

It was clear that Celestia was entering distress in her own way. "I'm just...not needed anymore."

Princess Luna rolled over again onto her back and tapped her chin with a fore hoof. "Perhaps we can change that..."

The light-colored sister looked intently back. "Are you going back to your old 'we' vocabulary?"

"No! No. I just think that the both of us can find a way to make you important again," Luna schemed.

However, Princess Celestia merely widened her eyes. "Are you implying that I'm not important anymore?"

"That's what you were implying," the sister deadpanned back. "Now it has to be something big. An event that causes some sort of disturbance. It must be something..."

"That significantly changes Equestrian dynamics?" Celestia tried to finish.

Luna turned her head back to the side to behold her sisters beaming face. It had been so very long since they had schemed together. She had forgotten how enjoyable it was. "Or the dynamics of something smaller," she suggested.

Celestia furrowed her brows before a lightbulb blinked on within her head. "Like a town?"

Luna's eyes took on a sparkle like the stars that shined within her mane. "Or a pony."

The white mare nearly bolted upright on the bed. Scooting over excitedly to grab her sister's shoulder, she giggled, "Like Twilight Sparkle?"

Princess Luna smiled. This was a much better idea then attempting to storm Cavaria with only a party of level forty dragoons. It almost made up for the fact that she would have to replay the last boss that she defeated in her video game (due to sisterly interruption). "Yes..." she grabbed her sister's shoulder in response. They both looked like they were planning some crime but, as the rulers of Equestria, there was no crime they couldn't legally commit. "It has to be drastic, though."

Celestia let go of the dark mare, rolled onto her back, and grabbed a pillow that she could hug. "Something drastic..."

The alicorns had to think hard and it was the mare of the sun that finally had the idea. "We'll give her wings!"

Princess Luna whipped a horrified expression to her sister. "Make her an alicorn?"

"She'll have to learn how to fly with them. It'll be just like when she was still a filly!" Celestia beamed ever brighter as she clopped her front hooves together in happiness.

"But...will she be immortal?" Luna worried. "It will seriously affect her psychological state. Her friends..."

"Oh pish posh, Lulu. We'll just tell her that friendship is magic and that magic never dies. It just lives on in your heart or something like that. She'll buy it. Besides, nopony ever bothers to ask how I would feel about losing Twilight," the white alicorn huffed.

"Nor of me losing all of those I had known before my imprisonment. Celly, are you suggesting that we make Twilight Sparkle our fellow prisoner of time?" the night-maned alicorn gently inquired.

"It will be so much fun, Lulu!" Princess Celestia continued to beam, letting her sunny talent shine through almost blindingly. "We could have sleepovers in my room. Set up our little tents beside the bed and pretend it's a camp out!"

It had been so very long since they had done that. It was something that Celestia had simply adored when Luna was still quite young. Forgetting that it was unrelated to Twilight's wing acquisition, the dark mare remembered those times fondly. "Perhaps that is not entirely a bad ide-"

Bang!

A harsh and rapid knock started to repeat. The pattern and strength could only mean that it was one of the guards. Luna looked to the door and then glanced back to her sister with a confused expression. It was a very odd time for anypony to be making a personal call to the princesses and neither of them had much tolerance for matters of the kingdom to be brought to their living quarters.

Princess Celestia got up from the warmed-up bed and trotted over to answer the knocking pony. As it turned out, it was indeed one of the guards. In fact, it was the one that she had ordered to handle Spitfire should the pegasus decide to visit. That same pegasus was behind the white-coated guard.

"Spitfire?" Celestia asked with an honestly surprised tone. She had not been expected for at least a few more days.

The guard turned away and went back to his regular patrol as the orange mare stepped forward. "Yeah. Thought I'd drop by and get the final pointers for that special move of yours."