Skycutters
Spitfire sighed in content as she flew through a cloud, leaving a pony shaped hole in her wake with a contrail forming behind her. There was nothing like being up here with the wind rushing beneath her wings and through her feathers if she wanted a chance to just be herself. It wasn't just a chance to be herself though. It was one to completely and totally unwind without any added stress to mess up her day. And unwind and relieve herself of some stress she did need to do. It'd been a rough week for one of the Co-Captains of the famous and known throughout Celestia's kingdom stunt team the Wonderbolts, with the other Co-Captain being Soaring of course.
Let me give you a bit of rough context, or at least enough of what was going on to give you some idea of Spitfire's frankly rather horrible week. Firstly, Fleetfoot had been playing pranks on everypony all week, and not even Spitfire herself was free from them, having had a bucket full of red paint land on her as she entered a room earning her the nickname of "Vampirefire" which Spitfire had to admit was somewhat cool though she'd deny it to anypony who asked. And that was only the start of her troubles believe you me. Misty Fly had gotten sick with the feather flu, although Spitfire herself would later discover from Surprise that Misty had actually skipped out on training to be with her boyfriend.
"And she thought she could hide it from me forever..." Spitfire grumbled to herself.
"Honestly, it's so hard to keep this team in line at times." The pegasus muttered, almost as a afterthought. "I swear mom, how did you do it?" Spitfire wondered aloud to nopony in particular.
She then smirked to herself.
"Well, I suppose shouting may have had something. I still think Soaring's scared of you, if the way he flinches whenever you come over is any clue." Spitfire laughed to herself.
Spitfire was rather proud to have come from a long line of successful pegasi, with her mom Stormy Flare being the previous captain before her. Spitfire rolled her eyes as she remembered how her mom told her that her family's outcry when they learned Stormy was going to be a Wonderbolt. You see, while her family were always successful pegasi they were always Cloudsdale Weather Factory workers and very traditional and stubborn. The family truly believed that if you didn't work in the weather factory, there was nothing else you could do that was worthwhile. Spitfire and her mother were living proof of how wrong they were.
In any case, now that Spitfire was up here nothing could bother her. She did a barrel roll to let off some steam and then a loop-de-loop to add to it. While this may have looked like she was relaxing herself and you wouldn't be wrong, it also helped to keep her nimble body in shape as well. With a surge of speed, Spitfire burst through another cloud and laughed to herself joyfully. In the air, she had almost no equals despite Fleetfoot's rather constant assertions otherwise.
Spitfire smiled as she saw a couple kissing on a green grassy hill below, and chuckled to herself a idea forming in her mind. She flew in low and rocketed above them shocking the couple into breaking their kiss. The pegasus laughed to herself, at least now that poor couple could tell their friends that they were disturbed by the Captain of the Wonderbolts. She then rocketed upwards back into the sky just a few levels of speed from breaking the sound barrier.
"Whew, better slow down for a minute." Spitfire mumbled as she facehoofed at her own stupidity. "Wouldn't want to wear myself out too quickly now, and then where would I be?"
Spitfire slowed her speed to a more casual flying pace and just took in the vast scenary below. Rooftops stretched from one end of Canterlot to the other, with the Castle overlooking everything from it's clifftop perch. The sun shown brightly, in a almost comforting manner. All in all, it was a great day, and one of those you just felt glad to be alive.
SHA-WHOOM!
Suddenly, a red winged vehicle rocketed right by and Spitfire blinked in shock unable to believe what she'd just seen. In her life, she'd never seen anything made by a pony's own hooves move that fast, or at least nothing since the famous Concorde Jet created by the Trottingham Aircraft Corporation with a little help from the Prench.
Spitfire focused her eyes on the red object, and on closer inspection the jet was revealed to be a A-10 Thunderbolt, also known as the Warthog due to it's slow speed. Okay, now Spitfire was really confused.
A cocky male voice came from out of nowhere making the Pegasus even more confused.
"Like that missy? Trust me, if you want some more I can certainly give that!" The voice challenged, and soon Spitfire figured out it was coming from the plane itself.
"Who are you?" Spitfire demanded. "What, did some unicorn enchant you just for kicks? Did Fleetfoot pay them?" She yelled, the Wonderbolt's temper rising.
The plane did some aerobatics like a few barrel rolls, which Spitfire would later admit to be rather impressive.
"Lady, I don't know who this Fleetfoot is that you're talking about but I can assure you that he or she had no part in my creation." The plane laughed to itself, however that was possible. Spitfire felt a headache coming on.
"However, if you really want to know how I was created just ask Primus. I'm sure he could tell you. By the way, never introduced myself. Name's Powerglide. I'm a Autobot." The now newly named plane said politely.
Spitfire then flew alongside "Powerglide" even as her eyes widened. She'd heard about these talking vehicles, which had rapidly been becoming a talking point ever since the "Blueblood Incident" as it was rapidly being called.
"I've heard about you guys." Spitfire replied before a idea hit her. "Name's Spitfire, Co-Captain of the Wonderbolts. Say, you're pretty fast. But how fast are you?"
"Well, I don't actually know to be honest. Never got a chance to find out, what with the war going on between us and the tin cans that call themselves the Decepticons." Powerglided admitted, with a touch of embarrassment. Spitfire suspected if he could blush, Powerglide would have.
"Well, want to find out? You and me, one on one." Spitfire grinned.
"Well, I don't know..." Powerglide said nervously.
"Unless of course you actually want to skip out on showing me some of those tricks." Spitfire challenged, somewhat annoyed by being out paced by her new flying partner earlier. Powerglide's rather large ego was beyond tempted.
"Well, when you put it that way... Let's do it. And awaa-aa-aay we go!” Powerglide cried before rocketing off into the distance with Spitfire close behind...
Soon, both fliers were outside Canterlot and racing above the hills changing places back and forth all the while doing stunts, each intent on one-upping the other's moves.
Spitfire preformed a barrel roll, which Powerglide mirrored in response before he shot upwards and Spitfire followed him as Powerglide then did a vertical U-turn like move before flying directly down towards the ground. Spitfire blinked, was her opponent crazy? But at the last moment, the Autobot narrowed himself out and flew onwards at a low angle just barely touching the ground.
"You liked that?" Powerglide asked in his usual cocky tone. "Trust me, I've got a million tricks waiting for me to try out."
Spitfire growled and got alongside him. Soon they were climbing high into the sky once more and were among the clouds.
"Anypony ever tell you that you're crazy?" She asked in disbelief, still stunned at the trick her opponent had pulled.
"A few bots, yeah." Powerglide admitted. "But they just don't have the guts to do this stuff that I do. Or the skill. I'm the Autobot's best flier, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise."
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eyes Spitfire spotted something behind them both. Several purple jets, all indentical. To her eyes, the jets looked as if somepony had took a car and replaced it's wheels with wings and jet engines.
"You see that?" Spitfire asked. "We're being followed."
Powerglide growled as he heard the Vehicon's engines, even as far behind as they were.
"Yeah, I hear them. Vehicon drones. Looks like the ole Scrapmaker's trying to take me out! Well, can't say I blame him." Powerglide laughed. "Hey, who wants to see who's the better fighter? That'll be the thing to decide our competition."
"I'm game. Just don't be mad when you lose!"
Spitfire preformed a barrel roll to avoid a Vehicon's energon blast before looping around behind it and sheering off a wing with her own. Spitfire smirked as the drone spiraled out of control and crashed to the ground below with a explosion.
"Don't mess with a Wonderbolt!" Spitfire said confidently.
Another drone came from her side, but Spitfire heard it and kicked out her two rear legs and bucked it towards the ground with swiftly greeted the poor Vehicon in it's welcoming arms.
TSCH-TSCH-TSCHK!
Nearby, Powerglide transformed into his robot mode, with the wings becoming part of his shoulders and his tail becoming his legs. A grey face with a faceplate covering Powerglide's mouth became visible on his underside. He pulled out a small pistol before blasting another two drones out of the sky.
TSCH-TSCH-TSCHK!
Soon, the Autobot was back in plane mode.
"And that's how you do things, Powerglide style." He said with what Spitfire imagined would be a smirk along with it. Now there was only one Vehicon left.
"Care to double-team this one, Spits?" Powerglide asked confidently.
"Nobody calls me that name except Soaring..." Spitfire grumbled. "But yeah, let's show this guy what a stunt flier is made of!" She said and both fliers got alongside the last drone before sheering off it's wings with their own.
The drone dipped downwards and crashed into a group of trees with a big explosion.
TSCH-TSCH-TSCHK!
Powerglide transformed and held out his hand. It took Spitfire a moment, but she soon realized he was asking for his version of a "Hoof-Bump" which Spitfire gladly gave.
"That was awesome, 20% Percent Cooler as I've heard that Rainbow Dash mare say." Spitfire said. "Those drones didn't even know what hit 'em."
"Yeah, you can say that again." Powerglide said proudly. "Y'know, for a little pony you could definitely kick some scrap with the best of us. I dare say the Wreckers would be proud to have you amongst them."
Spitfire didn't know who these Wreckers were, but she assumed this was a compliment which she gladly took.
"So, who won?" Spitfire asked as she hovered in place flapping her wings over and over. "Who won the challenge?"
Powerglide seemed to think about it for a long moment, before he finally answered.
"You know... I think we'll call it a draw. All I'm glad for, was the ability to make a new friend and gain a new flying partner." Powerglide said, and Spitfire smiled back.
"Yeah, me too. Hey, I just thought of something." Spitfire said, and Powerglide would have given her a quizzical look if he could have.
"Yeah? What's that?" He asked, and Spitfire's smile turned into a big grin.
"Soaring's never going to believe this."
For the next few moments, all that could be heard between the twosome was their laughter.
END