Moments of Calm

by The Iguana Man

A Revealing Conversation

“You're kidding?!” Spitfire said, her eyes widening as she put her coffee quickly down on her office desk, worried she might spill it.

Fluttershy shook her head, somehow doing so while taking a sip of her tea and not spilling a drop. “I wish I was – if I could come up with a character like Zephyr, I'd probably be a writer. No, he really was like that.”

Spitfire's gaze lost focus for a little, trying to imagine Fluttershy getting as irritated as she was describing, but quickly coming up empty. After a moment, she gave a short baffled laugh before taking a sip of coffee – black and without a single drop of whiskey in it, something Spitfire knew she shouldn't have felt proud of, but couldn't help it. “Wow. No wonder you weren't fazed when I unloaded all of my annoyances onto you.”

The two were sitting in Spitfire's office, chatting as they drank and Spitfire did some light paperwork – the kind that could be done while maintaining a conversation. This was their fourth meeting and in all but that initial one, Spitfire hadn't felt the need to go on such a tirade, something she did feel okay being proud of. Not that she hadn't done a bit of complaining, but only because Fluttershy had sincerely insisted she could and, even then, it was relatively tame, only concerned with the more petty and normal problems that came with captaincy. As such, there had been far more of an opportunity afterwards to talk and get to know each other, something Spitfire was more thankful for with each meeting with the remarkable mare before her.

Fluttershy nodded for a moment, although she pushed her mouth to the side a little, indicating she wasn't agreeing totally. “Well, yes, I did understand, but... well, I think that was you being frustrated, not annoyed.”

Spitfire tilted her head a little. “What's the difference?”

Fluttershy awkwardly rubbed her hindhooves together. “Well, it's sort of... hard to explain and it isn't really that much, but... well, I guess one thing is that getting annoyed is about... smaller things. To be honest, I probably shouldn't have gotten as mad as I did. I even, well, um... even dropped the... _p-word.

Spitfire felt her jaw drop as she stared in astonishment. After a moment, she shook her head and blinked heavily. “Well, all I'll say is that if he could draw that from you, I don't wanna meet this guy.”

Fluttershy nodded, a slight blush coming onto her cheeks. “Well, you should hear what Rainbow Dash says about him.”

“If he's as persistent with her as you say he...” Spitfire trailed off, the thought sparking a brief journey into her memory. “Hang on, this brother of yours... is he green? Blonde mane? Looks like he spends eight hours every morning making himself look like he's been up all night?”

Fluttershy started slightly. “How did you... oh no, please don't tell me he's been stalking her.”

Spitfire shook her head quickly, hoping to get ahead of any worry. “No, no, nothing like that. Well, if he has, he's good enough at it that none of our guys have seen him... which I doubt anyone is. No, it's just one time he tried to get backstage at a show by saying he was her... er, her coltfriend? Fiancé? Eh, something like that, but no one was fooled and he got thrown out pretty quick. Don't even think Rainbow had a chance to notice him.”

Fluttershy sighed, though after a moment she got a slightly confused look on her face. “You can’t remember something like that?”

Spitfire shrugged. “Hey, cut me some slack, we're the Wonderbolts. We see that kinda thing three, four times a week. Only reason it stuck out at all is that it's almost always one of the main team that gets 'loved ones' dropping by. That's why I had to tell the guards you were the real thing.” Spitfire chuckled for a fraction of a second before what she'd said registered. “I mean... that you're really someone I know visiting, not, er...”

Fortunately, Spitfire was saved from further babbling, and Fluttershy from going even more red, by a knock on the office's door. The two took a moment to collect themselves before Spitfire said, “Come.”

“Captain Spitfire, ma'am!” Rainbow Dash said as she entered and stood to attention, snapping off a salute and fixing her eyes forward. “Wave Chill asked if you could come to the entrance, the dignitaries from Head Office are waiting for... Fluttershy?!”

“Um, hello,” Fluttershy gave a small wave, drawing a little chuckle from Spitfire.

“At ease, Dash,” Spitfire said, an impish smirk on her muzzle. “And, well, I assumed they wanted me, but if they want Fluttershy instead, I'd let her make the decision.” She shot a mischievous glance at Fluttershy, revelling internally in the mixture of amusement and embarrassment on her face.

Dash shook her head, her posture loosening. “Oh, no, he was asking for you, it's just...” she thought for a moment before her eyes widened and her expression dropped. “Captain, ma'am, I'm sorry, I should have told you about Fluttershy – she's my friend, she's not dangerous or...”

“At ease, Dash,” Spitfire repeated, holding up a hoof calmly. “She's not being detained. I know she's a friend of yours and I was just keeping her company while she waited for you to get off-duty.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Mm-hm. It's okay, Dash, we were just passing the time together. I didn't think you'd be finished so quickly with...” she trailed off as her eyes finally looked at the clock on the office's wall. “Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, Dash, I completely lost track of time! I should have met you half an hour ago, I...”

“Woah, woah,” Spitfire interrupted, “it's fine, you're not the only one – should have been with Wave Chill a couple minutes ago. Seems we let things slip a little.”

Fluttershy swallowed, clearly not convinced. “I guess, but that doesn't mean... Rainbow Dash? Are you okay?”

Looking over, Spitfire saw Rainbow looking between the two of them, her head tilted and eyes squinted in a way that looked uncannily like a Labrador Spitfire had once known. “I, er... yeah, I'm fine, it's just... has the Captain been... have you... has... has everything been... okay?” She finished, clearly at a loss to put whatever she was asking into words.

Still, Fluttershy seemed to understand as she nodded. “Oh, yes, we've been having a very nice time. Oh, but I should probably let you get on with things, Spitfire.” She lowered herself gently from her chair and made her way to the door. “Thank you very much for the tea. I'll see you later.”

A slightly odd feeling flashed across Spitfire's stomach for an instant, but she soon found herself smiling. “Talk to you later, Fluttershy.”

The two left and Spitfire began quickly putting away the forms she'd been working on, listening to their conversation as it faded into the distance.

“That... 'Talk to you later'? No way would... what was that all about, 'Shy?”

“Well, we were just talking. She was doing things that didn't require her full attention, so we talked while I waited to give you Pinkie's letter.”

“Yeah, but... wait, Pinkie's?”

“Yes, she, um, heard about your promotion and asked me to deliver it personally.”

“Right, should probably open it in the bomb disposal area, just to be...”

Spitfire chuckled as she put on her formal jacket and opened the door, remembering what both Dash and Fluttershy had said about this 'Pinkie' and... curious to see what this letter would contain, but not overly worried.

As she made her way through the corridors, she did notice a few more ponies than normal giving her odd looks, but didn't pay it much mind. She just assumed that she'd put her jacket on wrong or that the lack of sunglasses seemed unusual. A quick brush up of her appearance in one of the bathrooms was enough to assuage any worries before she met the party from Head Office.

Really, her appearance was just a formality and it was Wave Chill who would be showing them around and explaining why, no, the budget did not need to be cut by ponies who made more money when they sneezed than she did in a month. Still, it didn't hurt to make a good impression and, well, Spitfire was responsible for the continued well-being of those under her command. Oddly enough, it was something she felt a small bit of kinship with Fluttershy about, even if the gentle mare would be the first to say that her responsibilities were nowhere near as stressful as Spitfire's.

Still, though the comparison did linger in her mind, she focused on the meet-and-greet. Soon enough, it was over, Wave Chill leading the officials away with a slightly confused tone, though Spitfire barely noticed.

She did, however, notice when Surprise leapt into the air the moment they passed each other, letting out a gasp that felt like it would suck half the air from the corridor.

“What?” Spitfire asked, more bemused than anything as Surprise stared at her, her expression truly reflecting her name.

“Cappy! You... you're... you're actually...”

Spitfire rolled her eyes, amused at Surprise's theatrics but a little impatient. “Yes? Spit it out, already.”

“You're... smiling!”

Spitfire felt her face scrunch up in confusion. “Huh?”

“Okay, not any more cause I said that,” Surprise quickly modified before nodding. “But yeah... you were actually smiling!”

Spitfire's face remained locked in confusion, her patience for Surprise's oddities rapidly diminishing. “So?”

“I've never seen you smile before,” Surprise said after a moment.

“What are you talking about?” Spitfire asked, her mouth hanging open in a baffled half-sneer. “I smile all the time... even if you keep trying to wipe 'em off my face, I smile plenty.”

“No, you don't,” Surprise replied, the blunt, authoritative statement catching Spitfire off-guard. “Oh, you smirk a lot, that's true. You've got an okay patronising or indulgent beam and your sadistic grin's second-to-none. And there's always the old standby, the horrified rictus,” she demonstrated for a moment, drawing a startled gasp from someone far behind Spitfire before continuing, “but an honest-to-goodness, no-muss-no-fuss smile? Nope, that's a new one.”

Spitfire stood silent for a moment, her face unmoving. Idly, she wondered if she had that same dog-trying-to-understand-advanced-mathematics look, as she felt completely lost. “What... what are you saying?”

“You're happy,” Surprise shrugged. “You're not just satisfied or thrilled or keen, you're straight-up happy. In all the time I've known you, I don't think I've ever seen you happy.” She gave a bright smile as she started walking past. “Gotta say, it's a good look for you, Cappy! Whatever gave you the happies, I'd keep it around.” And with that, she was gone.

Spitfire stood there for minutes on end, the busy corridors of Wonderbolts HQ moving around her, unseen and unnoticed.

Never been happy? That's just stupid. I'm happy plenty. Just because I don't go around grinning like a Cloudshire Cat after a lobotomy doesn't mean I'm not happy.

Eventually, she made her way back to her office, thinking the whole way.

I mean, there was when... no, I guess that was just more satisfied and relieved than anything. But there was the time... there was the moment when... there...

Without really registering what she was doing, she pulled out a bottle of whiskey from her desk's top drawer and poured herself a glass. Come on, there's gotta... this is stupid, of course there's been some time recently when...

She slowly drained the glass as she thought back over the previous few days. Then the previous few weeks. Then months, then years.

This is... the hell's going on? I... I know I've been... As she refilled the glass, Spitfire racked her brain, half desperate and half disbelieving she could be this stumped. Huh?

Comments

[Bicyclette]

Fluttershy shook her head, somehow doing so while taking a sip of her tea and not spilling a drop. “I wish I was – if I could come up with a character like Zephyr, I'd probably be a writer. No, he really was like that.”

yeah that is how anypony would react to Zephyr stories!

I even, well, um... even dropped the... _p-word.

ahaha, augh, that was one of my favorite scenes in the entire show

“No, you don't,” Surprise replied, the blunt, authoritative statement catching Spitfire off-guard. “Oh, you smirk a lot, that's true. You've got an okay patronising or indulgent beam and your sadistic grin's second-to-none. And there's always the old standby, the horrified rictus,” she demonstrated for a moment, drawing a startled gasp from someone far behind Spitfire before continuing, “but an honest-to-goodness, no-muss-no-fuss smile? Nope, that's a new one.”

hehe, love this summary. Pinkie Pie-esque in its thoroughness, very fittingly. this mare Spitfires!

This is... the hell's going on? I... I know I've been... As she refilled the glass, Spitfire racked her brain, half desperate and half disbelieving she could be this stumped. Huh?

oof, too relatable!