Secrets

Spitfire was not having a good day.

The Wonderbolts’ captain had woken up with the worst case of the feather flu she'd had in years and would now be grounded for something like a week. But that wasn't the reason why Spitfire had locked herself into her Canterlot apartment and barricaded the door. No, the reason for that was a secret she intended to keep from everyone she knew, for who would want to be associated with a freak like her if they knew?

Just like he did when he found out…

She'd managed to hide it from the doctor who'd given her the medicine she required, but only barely. Keeping herself from sneezing had been absolute torture but she'd somehow managed to do it.

Ahh… CHOO!

A bright orange flame shot forth from her muzzle and briefly lit up the room, small wisps of smoke rising to the ceiling and adding themselves to the layer of smoke already present there.

Hiding her fangs had been relatively easy throughout her life. They never had grown out to any severe length, and her cravings could be satisfied by eating fish. Canterlot and Cloudsdale both had a few shops that sold various forms of sea creatures. The second way she'd been able to get meat was whenever the 'Bolts were invited to some noble's party, they always seemed to have an assortment of meats.

The rest of the 'Bolts always questioned how in the world she could stomach the amount of food she always ate at those parties, something that earned her the nickname 'Carnivore' amongst others.

If only they knew how close to the truth they are.

Ahh… CHOO!

"Dammit mom, why did you have to have such weird tastes in boyfriends," Spitfire complained, but in her heart, she loved both her parents. How could they have known that having unprotected sex would end in a pregnancy. It was quite literally a biological impossibility according to every bit of science known to ponies.

Spitfire sighed as she wrapped herself in the blanket she'd gotten from her bed, careful not to put it in the way of her muzzle since it wasn't exactly fireproof.

Knock knock knock!

Spitfire's heart skipped a beat as she heard three hard knocks on her hard wooden door. This was not a time at which she wanted to have any visitors. If anyone found out about her secret, it would soon be spread all around Equestria. Spitfire could already see the headlines: "Wonderbolts lead by freak?" or ”Captain unfit for duty. When will she be relieved?”

"Hey, Captain! Everything alright in there?"

Rainbow Dash?! What's the rookie doing here? No matter. Better to pretend to not be here in the first place.

"Captain, can you hear me?! There's smoke coming from your apartment!" Dash shouted as she continued banging on the door. Spitfire cursed quietly as she hadn't taken into account that the smoke could escape through small cracks in the building. Now there was no way for her to stay silent.

"I'm all right, Dash. Just a little accident in the kitchen!" she shouted back at the door with her raspy voice, hoping the rainbow maned mare would leave again.

"Wow, you sound terrible," Dash commented as she heard the raspy voice. "Anyway, Soarin sent me to come check up on you. He wanted me to help you out so that you could get plenty of bed rest."

Of all the times that massive goofball had to send help, this was the one time I'd have appreciated if he hadn't done so.

"I'm alright, private! You can return to HQ and tell the lieutenant that I'm good and that I'll be back in about a week!" Spitfire shouted back at her, but she had the creeping feeling that it wouldn't be enough to dissuade the Element of Loyalty, a creeping feeling that turned out to be quite accurate.

"Sorry ma'am, Lieutenant Soarin was quite adamant that I'd stay here to help. He even went so far as to say that I should kick down your door if you refused to let me in," Dash called back. Spitfire cursed under her breath as she was pretty much out of options other than letting Dash enter. Her mind quickly went over a couple of other alternatives, but running wasn't one in her current condition…

"Captain, please open up. I'm prepared to follow through with Soarin's orders if you don't open the door!" Dash shouted as a last warning. Spitfire, not wanting to have to replace her door, removed the plank that was keeping her door closed shut and undid the locks before opening it. A cloud of smoke came out of the apartment and hit Rainbow squarely in the face, causing her to cough violently. "Sweet Celestia, Spitfire, how can you even breathe in there!"

I could breathe inside a volcanic ash cloud if I wanted to.

"It's not that bad…" the captain meekly defended, but it didn't matter as Dash pushed past her into the apartment.

"Not bad my plot! Seriously Captain, what were you thinking?!" Dash exclaimed as she started opening every window she could, allowing the smoke to escape from the room. Spitfire coughed a couple of times which caused more smoke to escape from her muzzle.

NO! I can't be spitting fire when she's around!

Rainbow turned around to see the Captain cough up smoke and gasped, "Ma'am you're coughing up smoke! This is far from alright! I want you to go lay in bed while I get you something hot."

Spitfire wanted to object but was simply feeling too weak to do so. She looked at Dash's swinging flank as the other athletic mare walked to her small kitchen.

She does have a nice flank, and I know she's a trustworthy… NO! Stop it, Spitfire. Don't let those feelings rule you! It'll only hurt you if she finds out what you really are and rejects you!

Ahh… CHOO!

Another bright flame lit the room along with the formation of an appropriate amount of smoke. Not wanting to be caught flat hoofed in the hallway, Spitfire shot into her bedroom with her blanket and lay down on the soft mattress. She briefly closed her eyes as she waited for Dash to finish making whatever she was making.

"Hey, Captain, I know the others call you the carnivore, but is it really necessary to have a small supply of fish in your fridge?" Spitfire's eyes shot wide open as she heard Dash call out the question. She hadn't even thought about the fact that Dash would be rummaging through her provisions, but right now that didn't matter as she needed to quickly think up an excuse for having it in her fridge.

"It's uhm… an acquired taste!" she said back to the confused mare in her kitchen who remained silent, a cold sweat formed on Spitfire's coat as she waited for the response.

"…Alright, that's cool I guess," Dash said, her tone indicating that she was unsure if she was okay with it. Spitfire on the other hoof felt as if she'd just dodged a lightning bolt.

For the next few minutes, Spitfire waited in anxious anticipation as she listened to Rainbow working in the kitchen. The captain slowly hid further under her bed sheets as time sluggishly ticked on and more paranoid thoughts entered her mind.

"I'm glad you had honey stored away, Captain. It would have probably tasted much worse if you hadn't," Dash said as she came walking into the bedroom with a tray that held a plate with a sandwich and a cup of tea. That tea presumably had the honey in it that Rainbow had mentioned.

Though before Rainbow set down the tray she looked at Spitfire who almost seemed terrified of the other mare in the room. This was the point Dash really started to get concerned about the Wonderbolts’ captain. The pony she knew was confident and wouldn't let herself be pushed around, while the pony in front of her looked like a scared little filly.

Carefully putting the tray on the bed, Dash took a step back and allowed Spitfire to grab the items there. The angsty pegasus gently picked up the cup of tea and let the steaming hot beverage flow down her throat, the honey soothing her soreness.

"Captain, be careful with that! I just boiled that water!" Dash said in a slightly panicked voice as Spitfire downed the scathing hot water without any problems. Spitfire immediately stopped drinking as she realized that she'd made a pretty critical mistake and shrunk into the blanket wrapped around her. Rainbow only got more confused as she saw this move, it just went against everything she knew about the mare in front of her.

"I'm sorry about that. I'm used to drinking and eating things when they're still pretty hot," Spitfire excused as she fearfully looked at Dash.

While Dash started at Spitfire and tried thinking of something to say, the fiery haired mare felt her nose begin to itch.

N-nononono, NOT NOW! I can't sneeze with her in the room.

Ahh…

"Dash, can you get me some tissues?" Spitfire meekly asked as she tried stopping the sneeze. To the captain's horror Dash rummaged through the saddlebag that hung around her hip and pulled a small packet of tissues from it, placing it on the bed.

Ahh…

Spitfire couldn't keep her sneeze contained any longer. She already felt the fire forming in her throat, and it was clear she couldn't get Dash out of the room.

CHOO!

A massive jet of flames was released from Spitfire's maw along with the sneeze. Rainbow yelped and jumped back, away from the blazing inferno in front of her.

Spitfire's pupils shrunk, and she immediately jumped off the bed, backing herself into a corner. There was no way to keep her secret now, so the orange pegasus bared her teeth, putting the small but very sharp canines clearly on display, and let out a low growl.

Dash looked at the display in fear but then did something Spitfire hadn't anticipated happening. She'd hoped that her aggressive stance would have scared off the rookie but that's not what it had done. Dash was slowly and as non-threatening as possible trying to approach her. Spitfire hissed and lowered herself into a fighting stance. She knew that she was in no shape to fight, and if Dash decided to attack, she'd go down for sure. The flu was sapping too much of her body's strength.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Spitfire. I just want to help," Dash said as she got within half a pony length away from the other mare. Spitfire was completely backed against the wall and couldn’t move any further away from the mare in front of her. She really didn't want to hurt Dash, but her instincts were starting to take over and telling her to attack the potential threat in front of her.

Spitfire's entire body tensed up as she felt Dash suddenly wrap around her.

As the captain looked down she couldn't believe her eyes. The sky blue pegasus that was attached to her didn't have any malicious intentions at all. She was just giving a hug.

Seeing this brought tears to Spitfire's eyes and her lips started quivering. All the times in her youth when she'd been shunned for her special condition had lead her to isolate herself as best as she could, yet here was another pegasus who had seen exactly what she was and still wanted to put in the effort to be her friend.

It was simply too much for Spitfire as she broke down sobbing. Rainbow wrapped the distraught pegasus in her wings as she softly hummed a tune that allowed Spitfire to slowly drift away into a peaceful sleep.

Spitfire let out a wide yawn as she woke up from her deep slumber. Rays of light passing through the window fell on her face and made sleeping in any longer an impossibility. After slowly rubbing her eyes Spitfire sat up in bed. Her entire body ached, and her throat was still sore due to the flu.

SNORE!

Spitfire’s head swung around to where the sound had come from, finding a certain rainbow maned pegasus curled up on a chair next to the bed. All the events of the previous day returned in force as she was reminded of the fact that Rainbow knew her secret.

Why hasn’t she run off to the Guard? Or the other ‘Bolts for that matter?

Spitfire was still paranoid of what the pony beside her had done while she was asleep, but curiosity was quickly winning ground on that paranoia. Why had Rainbow acted the way she did? Was she not scared of her? Did she not think of her as an abomination?

Dozens of questions went through Spitfire’s mind as she stared at Dash’s stirring form. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t even notice Rainbow opening her eyes.

“Good morning. Sleep well?” Dash asked as she popped her spine. Spitfire let out a high pitched yelp and jumped into a ready stance as her attention was pulled back to reality. “Whoa there! Calm down.”

Spitfire slowly relaxed her body and slowly settled back down onto the bed, but she never took her eyes off of Dash as she followed every single move the cyan pegasus made.

Dash awkwardly sat on the chair, not knowing if Spitfire would jump her if she made a wrong move. They sat there for another few silent minutes until a low rumbling came from Spitfire’s stomach. “Uhm, should I go make some food?”

Spitfire slowly nodded and allowed Dash to leave the room. Over the next ten minutes she listened to the pegasus rummaging through her kitchen again and start cooking something on her stove. Eventually the smell of whatever Dash was making reached her nose…

Fish?! She’s cooking fish?!

The captain simply couldn’t wrap her head around what was happening. Dash seemingly wasn’t scared of her, and now she was cooking fish for her. Everything the other mare was doing was going against every preconceived notion she had of other ponies.

Not long after, Dash came walking back into the bedroom with a tray that held two plates of food. Both held a sandwich, but only one was made with the cooked fish that Spitfire smelled. Spitfire looked down at the plate as if it was the most precious thing she’d ever seen while Dash chomped down on her own breakfast.

“You’re allowed to eat it, you know?” Dash commented as she noticed the other pegasus staring at her own food. Spitfire slowly started taking little bites from the fish sandwich, which turned into larger bites, and by the end she was wolfing down the entire thing as quickly as she could.

This is so good! How in Equestria does she know how to make something like this?!

“Why are you doing this? Aren’t you scared of me?” Spitfire asked as she saw Rainbow looking at her with amusement.

“Why wouldn’t I do it for you? Leaving your friends hanging is so not cool,” Rainbow simply answered. “And as for why I’m not scared, I know you. Why should I be afraid of a pony I trust and respect pretty much with my life?”

“That’s not me. That’s just the Captain,” Spitfire said dejectedly, but Dash didn’t seem to care.

“Then tell me, who is Spitfire the pony?” This was a question that caught the fiery maned pegasus off guard as she herself wasn’t sure what the answer to that question was.

“I-I don’t know. I’ve been hiding it for so long I really haven’t thought about it,” she admitted.

“Well, we’d better change that, shouldn’t we?” Dash said, making herself comfortable at the foot of the bed. “I ask you one question and then you ask me one. So, what’s your favorite color?”

“Orange?” Spitfire said, unsure if she was going to enjoy the game.

“Ok, cool. Your turn,” Dash said as she waited for Spitfire to ask her question.

“Where did you learn to make fish like this?” She asked without hesitation while pointing at her empty plate. “It’s not really normal for a pony to know how to do such a thing.”

Dash chuckled. “I had a relationship with a griffin for a while. I taught myself how to cook some dishes she liked. In the end it didn’t work out between the two of us. We had a bit of a falling out a while back, but we made up again, so we’re still friends.”

Spitfire stared blankly at her fellow 'Bolt. “Wow…”

“Yup! It’s my turn now by the way. To keep on topic, what’s your favourite food?” Dash asked merrily.

“Whatever you just made is probably the best thing I’ve ever had,” Spitfire said while a slight blush formed on her face.

“Really?! You’re not saying that to flatter me, are you?”

“NO! I mean, most shops sell this terrible fried fish and the noble’s parties have these small one bite snacks that are usually way to bitter or salty. The fish you made was absolutely perfect!” Spitfire exclaimed, her cheeks burning even redder as she realized that she’d just admitted liking meat.

“Got to admit that wasn’t what I expected. Your turn,” Dash calmly answered as if she wasn’t even phased.

Spitfire thought for a moment about her next question. “Wait, you said she when you mentioned the griffin. Do you like mares?”

“Honestly doesn’t really matter to me. I’m fine with either mares or stallions,” Rainbow shrugged.

So she wouldn’t mind going out with me?

“My turn. How is it that you can breathe fire?” Dash continued.

“My father’s a dragon,” Spitfire answered only to quickly cover her mouth with her hooves. That was something she did not want to let slip. She looked at Dash to see what her reaction was, finding that Rainbow was staring at her slack jawed.

“That’s…”

Here we go, wait for the condemnation…

“…Awesome!”

WHAT?!

“It also explains the fangs and how you were able to drink the tea while it was still practically boiling,” Dash reasoned while Spitfire bit her lip as she fought back tears. Every time a pony figured out that she was a half breed before they’d shunned her, but here was Rainbow accepting her just like she was. It wasn’t something she’d experienced outside of her parents before. Spitfire tried to reply but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a choked sob as she broke down crying.

Dash grimaced as she hoped that she hadn’t pushed the captain too far. “Hey Spitfire? Are you okay?” Dash climbed onto the large bed and approached the crying pegasus, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

What happened next happened simply too fast for Dash to respond to as one moment she was sitting over the other pegasus, and the next she was on her back while Spitfire was standing over and kissing her.

At first Rainbow’s eyes were wide open from shock, but as the kiss went on she slowly closed them and leaned in to it. It felt like an eternity before Spitfire finally released the kiss, both mares panting slightly.

It didn’t take long for Spitfire’s pupils to shrink to pinpricks as she realized what she’d just done. “I-I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that. I…”

Dash pulled the other pegasus in for another kiss, this one much shorter than the previous one. “I’m pretty sure that I’m going to come down with the feather flu in the next few days as well now,” she chuckled.

“You’re not angry?”

“Nah. Though I’ve never had something like this happen to me. It’s usually me who goes after the tail,” Dash answered as she allowed Spitfire to lay down on her chest. “Though I have to ask you, why me?”

“I’ve never met anyone who simply didn’t care about the fact that I’m half dragon. They always got scared and either ran or attacked,” Spitfire said as she snuggled into Dash’s chest fluff.

“Wow you must have some terrible luck then. I know that most inhabitants of Ponyville would just write it off as another Tuesday, and a whole bunch of my friends in Cloudsdale wouldn’t care either,” Dash said as she stroked Spitfire’s hair gently.

“Guess I’ve been running with the wrong- Ahh…” Spitfire quickly turned her head away from Dash. CHOO!

A bright flame once again lit up the room along with the sneeze.

“Uhm, I think it’s best if we postpone the snuggling until there’s no accidental chance of you burning me,” Rainbow said meekly as she separated herself from the other pegasus.

“Yes, that might be a good idea,” Spitfire meekly admitted and allowed Dash to get off the bed.

“Well, I should get back to HQ. I was supposed to report back yesterday, but you really didn’t want to let go of me after you fell asleep. By the time I managed to pry myself loose it was already pretty late, so I chose to stay,” Dash said with a smirk, a massive blush forming on Spitfire’s face.

“Hey Dash, you’re not going to tell the others about my… condition, are you?” Spitfire asked, looking really scared of the prospect of more ponies knowing about her secret.

“I won’t, but it might be best if you tell them at some point,” Dash said as she opened the apartment’s door. “I’ll be coming back after I’ve reported to Soarin. You should really get some rest now if you want to get better.”

“Hey, Dash?” Spitfire asked, giving the other 'Bolt an appreciative smile.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you…”

“Think nothing of it. See you in a bit.” With that, Dash walked off into the hallway and disappeared from view.

I’ve got no clue how this is going to turn out, but I really hope this’ll go somewhere.

Wonderbolts

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"Hey Cap, glad to see you up and kicking again," Soarin said as Spitfire walked into the Wonderbolts’ headquarters. The lieutenant wore his trademark goofy smile on his face. "How's Dash doing by the way?"

Spitfire smiled and shook her head as her thoughts were immediately drawn to the prismatically maned mare who’d been on her mind almost non-stop ever since the “incident”. The astonishment of Dash’s acceptance of her had driven her to move way too quickly, a decision that had doubt gnawing away at her. Had she made the right choice in opening up to her fellow ‘Bolt?

"Pretty much back on her hooves. She’ll probably be here in the afternoon," the captain answered as the two of them headed for her office. "You should have known that she'd pick up that flu from me when you sent her over."

Soarin just shrugged, “From what I heard it was very much justified. Dash told me you nearly burned down your apartment in some misguided attempt at cooking. Nice of you to take some time off to look after her though. That was honestly not something I had expected you to do.”

“Well, like you said. I owed her after she’d helped me out, so it was only fair that I’d return the favor,” Spitfire answered, acting as if nothing major had happened. Dash had initially refused the offer to stay in her home and have the Captain look after her, citing that she had a much more important job than she had, but Spitfire wouldn’t have any of it.

She did accept me for what I am after all, but there’s no reason to give her the opportunity to accidentally say anything about my condition to anypony. Better to be safe and take care of her myself.

“Hey, I’m not judging. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you’ve actually taken a liking to that mare,” Soarin quipped while suppressing a grin. Spitfire stumbled over her hooves for a moment and a massive blush formed on her face. A quick glance to Soarin revealed that he most definitely picked up on the cue.

“Not a word to any of the other ‘Bolts,” Spitfire warned threateningly, but the stallion wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily.

“You know how hard it is to keep secrets on an empty stomach? And the food at the cafeteria just isn’t going to cut it,” he said deviously.

“I’ll get you a pie, you extortionist.”

Soarin tapped his hoof against his chin, pretending to mull over Spitfire’s offer. “Usually that’d fill my stomach pretty well, but I’m afraid that I’m absolutely famished right now.”

The captain groaned in frustration as she had to raise her offer. “Two pies, and I’ll find that apple baker you got that pie from at the Grand Galloping Gala to make them for you.”

If I remember correctly, that baker was one of Dash’s friends.

Drool nearly escaped from Soarin’s mouth as the two of them reached Spitfire’s office. “I think that’ll do it. Thanks Cap, you’re a lifesaver!”

“Yeah, yeah. Now get your flank out of here and go back to work,” Spitfire said as she walked into her office. There were various trophies she’d earned in a display case along with some other memorabilia. On the walls hung a couple of Wonderbolt posters, and on her desk there stood a small statue of a ‘Bolt in Flight’. Notably, the pile of documents on her desk was much smaller than she’d have expected it to be.

Guess I’ll have to thank that goofball for covering for me again. It would have been a pain to work through all the built-up paperwork if he hadn’t done some of that for me.

Sitting down in her chair, Spitfire picked up the first file of the stack in front of her. It was a resume of a pegasus who had applied to the academy. The Captain had to hoof pick all the candidates sent to her as only the best would be able to make it through, and there were only a few spots available.

Going into an autopilot of sorts, she worked through the entire pile of dossiers as quickly as possible. Two weeks of almost complete inactivity had not been good for her physical condition, and getting some exercise in the gym would be very welcome.

At about the half-way point, Spitfire opened one of her desk’s drawers and rummaged through its contents, pulling out a small hoofful of amethysts and popping them into her mouth. She savored the taste of the gemstones as they shattered between her teeth. She tried explaining to Dash how they tasted, but they’d quickly found that explaining something as abstract as taste was nigh impossible. For example, try explaining how an apple tastes to somepony who’s never tasted an apple, there's just no way to do it.

With the little snack in her mouth, she finished the final files and signed the invitations of the pegasi who she’d determined to be able to make the cut. After putting away the files in their appropriate categories, Spitfire made her way out of the office and headed towards the gym.

A glance at Soarin’s office revealed the stallion to be hard at work with his own paperwork, a pile much larger than the one she had worked through.

Did he really work through most of my paperwork before his own? Now I really owe him those pies, not just to keep him quiet.

Deciding to leave the stallion to his work, Spitfire made her way through the facility's hallways to the locker room. After quickly undressing and grabbing a towel, she entered the adjoining gym. Music blasting from the speakers that hung from the walls assaulted her ears. Turning the volume down a bit to a more tolerable level gained the attention of two of her fellow female Wonderbolts, Fleetfoot and Misty Fly. The decrease in music volume immediately alerted them that a new pony had entered the gym, and they recognised their captain entering the room.

“Hey Cap, finally back on your hooves?” Fleetfoot called out as she was lifting weights with her wings.

“Definitely. I’ve been lazy for long enough now,” Spitfire answered as she got on a treadmill to warm up her body for the workout.

“How’s Crash doing by the way? I thought that I overheard Soarin say that you took a couple of days off to take care of her,” Misty asked, mixing herself into the conversation.

“I’m doing just fine, thank you very much,” a fourth, new voice answered as Dash came trotting into the gym as well. Something that surprised Spitfire as she hadn’t expected Rainbow to arrive for a few hours yet.

“Hey Crash, welcome back!” Fleetfoot exclaimed as she gently placed the weights back in the appropriate place on the rack. “We’ve missed that beautiful flank of yours around here!” she added with a smirk. Spitfire inconspicuously looked away to not draw attention to the massive blush on her face at the mention of Rainbow’s flank.

Come on Spitfire, keep it together. We agreed to keep it under wraps for a bit. No need to stupidly give yourself away.

Dash let out a laugh as she replied. “Careful there Fleets, Blaze might get jealous if you start hitting on other mares!”

“Who says Blaze isn't up for a threesome?” Fleetfoot shot back, a blush immediately formed on Dash's face as she tried to sputter a reply. Misty nearly rolled over from laughter at her fellow ‘Bolt’s flustered reply. Spitfire couldn’t help but smirk either as she galloped along on the treadmill.

“And how about you, Cap? Care to join as well?” Fleetfoot asked, continuing her streak.

Spitfire bit the inside of her cheek lightly to stop a blush from forming. If they saw her crack now, they'd surely ask questions until they found out about herself and Dash.

“Why stop with just me? I think Soarin and the other 'Bolts would love for some relaxation time.” Spitfire smirked. “I should make a mandatory training session out of it, file it as a 'team building exercise'.”

A round of chuckles went through the gym before everyone settled back in to their workout routine. Energetic music in the background helping to keep everyone going while they purposefully made their muscles burn.

It didn't take long for Misty and Fleetfoot to finish their workouts and leave the gym to do other tasks, leaving the large room filled with sports implements to Rainbow and Spitfire alone as they turned off the music at the captain's request.

“Sooo… you're okay with a foursome with Blaze and Fleets?” Dash said, barely containing a smirk. Spitfire did not show the same restraint as her face turned beet red.

“I should have fried you in my apartment,” Spitfire groaned, hiding her face by looking away.

“Definitely, though I heard from a griffin friend that baked pegasus is much tastier,” Dash said with a smirk, thoroughly enjoying the captain's embarrassed reaction. “In all seriousness though, how long are we going to play this thing cool? The other 'Bolts are going to catch on really quickly if you keep blushing like that.”

Just as Dash said, Spitfire's cheeks lit up slightly and a sheepish smile formed on her face. “I can't help it! Every time I think of you I just can't keep a lid on it! And I really don't want to tell the others yet, it's just… I…”

Dash momentarily stopped with her exercises and put a comforting hoof on Spitfire's shoulder. “You're afraid the other 'Bolts will find out about your secret via me, aren't you?”

Spitfire tried stuttering a reply to that but was silenced by Rainbow's soft hoof on her lips. “I'm not a complete idiot, Spits. You don't have to worry about me giving away something that big. That would be so not cool.”

“I'm sorry,” Spitfire softly said, a tear rolling down her cheek as Dash removed her hoof from the captain's mouth. “I should trust you more. After you've first accepted me, then not just shooting me down for asking you to be my marefriend, and to top it off keeping my secret safe… You deserve better than me…”

Dash leaned forward, bringing her muzzle close to Spitfire's and looking her straight in the eyes and placing a hoof on the captain's chest. “There is no one more awesome than you, Spits.”

More tears welled up in Spitfire's eyes and a lump formed in her throat as Rainbow continued staying loyal to a fault.

I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from the Element of Loyalty.

Shooting forward, Spitfire wrapped Dash in a bone crushing hug… literally. Dash gasped for air as she tapped Spitfire on the back to hopefully make her realize the captain was choking her out.

“Air!” Dash managed to croak out, quickly being dropped to the ground by Spitfire who looked terrified of the prospect of having hurt Dash.

“Oh my gosh! I'm so… I didn't mean to… Are you-”

“I'm fine Spits, you're just a lot stronger than anycreature I know,” Dash cut her off, taking a couple of deep breaths to compensate for the previous lack of oxygen.

“Half dragon,” Spitfire responded, still looking guiltily at Rainbow.

“I guess I should have expected that one. Even with you having been out of it for two weeks,” Dash chuckled, before getting back on track with the conversation. “But that still doesn't change that hiding your secret isn't good for you.”

Spitfire shuffled back a bit as a cold sweat formed all over her coat. “D-Do you think that's really a good idea? W-what if they reject me, or chase me away!? I can't… n-no… must not…”

Spitfire was full on hyperventilating as she went through all the horrible scenarios she'd thought up over the years, prompting Dash to take her turn giving out a hug. Rainbow gently stroked Spitfire's hair while the quivering captain was snugly laying against Dash's chest fluff.

“Shhh, calm down Spits. We don't have to tell the other 'Bolts first. We can start with some pony else. My Ponyville friends for example. They've seen a whole bunch of crazy things, and I'd be surprised if anyone in Ponyville wouldn't be cool with it for that matter,” Dash explained, Spitfire calming down as she could hear Dash's heart beat in the fellow athlete's chest.

Are there really more ponies that'd accept me, and what if they don't? Will they run Dash out of town too? What if I destroy Rainbow’s friendships?!...

No, she's right. I'm just giving pathetic excuse. Maybe I should try it with one other person.

“A-Alright, but only to one other pony. No more,” Spitfire stammered as she broke the hug and wiped away any tears that were still present.

“Awesome! I know just who to talk to!” she exclaimed. “So, when should we go?”

Spitfire thought for a moment, finding that the autumn break coming up in a week was the most logical time. “We should use the pre-winter break. The bolts really don't have anything to do while the weather factory is busy distributing snow clouds around Equestria.”

Dash's face lit up with a large grin. “I'll hold you to that! Now I think I'll be off. I'm not really in the mood for exercise anymore anyway.”

“Guess I'll see you tomorrow then.” Spitfire's reply was tinged with a bit of sadness as she looked away from her fellow 'Bolt.

“Yeah, and Spits?” Dash waited for the captain to look at her again. “The door to my cloudhome is always open to you.”

With that Dash disappeared into the locker room, leaving Spitfire alone in the silent gym. Just like Dash, she too wasn't in the mood for exercise any longer.

You'll be fine Spitfire, Dash wouldn't introduce me to someone if she wasn't sure they wouldn't kick me out… I guess it's going to become very quiet in my house again with Dash gone… Maybe it won't be so bad telling Rainbow's friend about myself, and even if it doesn't work out I'll still get to stay at Dash's place.

The last thought made her heart beat a little faster and the corner of her lips turn up a bit. The future didn't seem as dark as it had before.

Ponyville

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This was a horrible idea! What was I thinking when I agreed to come to Ponyville?!

Spitfire couldn't help but feel dread as she began to see the small earth pony town in the distance, where rows of apple trees that had already shed their leaves and foggy empty fields were lit up by the morning sun. Its inhabitants slowly started their days, farmers doing their final preparations before the onset of winter while fillies went off to their final days of school. The calm atmosphere sharply contrasted with the internal turmoil of the Wonderbolts' captain. Dash's house should be somewhere on the outskirts, something about spotting the rainbow…

The captain kept her distance from the town as she scanned the air for Dash’s house, something that turned out to be incredibly easy as she noticed a good-sized cloud home further on. Rainbows ran between some of the cloud-structure’s clouds and a fall of rainbow fluid spilled out of a pool downwards, dissipating before ever reaching the ground. How in Celestia's sweet name did she pay for all of that!? Slowly coming to a halt in front of the structure, Spitfire took in more details of the house. Beautifully crafted cloud pillars with windowed walls in-between them and a large front entrance sporting two doors. I guess I'll just have to ask her when I find her.

Landing on the cumulus that made up the ground in front of Dash's door, Spitfire knocked. “Hey Dash, you home!?” The captain waited for a good few minutes, not a sound coming from the inside, before pushing on the door and finding it to be open.

I shouldn't, but… Pushing the door open further, Spitfire took a peek into the house. It looked relatively clean. There were some things strewn about, but it looked as if Dash had at least made an effort to clean. The inside of the house was just as beautiful as the outside, walls and floors smoothed to perfection and the doorways shaped into the same style of arches as outside. With her interest piqued, Spitfire continued deeper into the house, looking at various rooms as she passed them and entering the last room which turned out to be the kitchen.

Hmm, this isn’t too bad. I wonder… Spitfire walked up to the refrigerator and opened it. Huh, I guess I should have expected that since she also knew how to cook at my place. That stereotype of her eating junk food can be thrown right ou- The captain’s eyes fell on something at the bottom of the fridge. Is that fish?! How did she get a hold of that in a rural earth pony town?!

“I see a tour of the house won't be necessary anymore.”

Spitfire yelped in surprise and jumped around on the spot, landing in a slightly crouched stance, ready to defend herself. Her eyes went wide and a blush spread over her muzzle as she recognized Dash standing in the doorway with a mischievous smirk on her face.

“I-I uhm…” Spitfire’s voice got stuck in her throat as Dash slowly trotted past her, brushing her wing against the captain’s side, and pulled a couple of things from the refrigerator.

“Relax Cap, I did tell you my door was always open for you, right?,” Dash placed a couple of apples on her kitchen table and took a seat. “Hungry?” Spitfire nodded and quietly sat down across from Dash, still a blushy mess and too embarrassed to look her subordinate in the eyes. “You do know you’re not on trial?”

“Y-yes, I’m just not used to being in other people’s houses unless it’s for official wonderbolt business.” Spitfire took a bite from her apple… and then devoured the entire thing. These are so incredibly good! That reminds me, I need to get those pies for that big marshmallow.
“Hey Dash, wasn’t that apple friend of yours the one that was selling apple-related products at the gala?”

Rainbow was momentarily surprised as she hadn’t thought that Spitfire would remember that… but quickly realised that that disaster might have left a lasting impression. “Yeah, Applejack. I was actually hoping to go introduce you to her. Why do you ask?”

“I owe Soarin some pies and promised to find the baker from the Gala,” Spitfire explained as Dash passed her the second apple that she’d been eyeing.

“That’s good, ‘cause we can actually go to her right now. She was done with her winter preparations a couple of days ago.” Dash looked over at Spitfire who was still wearing her saddlebags, only a couple of items inside of them. “We should drop your stuff upstairs before we go.” Spitfire gave her a nod and allowed Dash to lead her to the second floor of her house. Rainbow stopped at the top of the stairs and looked between two of the doors indecisively. “Uhm, you know… I-I have a guest room, but if you want?…”

Spitfire’s face went beet red. Even when she’d treated Rainbow in her own home they hadn’t slept in the same bed. “T-The guestroom is fine, thank you.” Dash pointed at one of the doors, her slightly sad face sending a small pang of regret through Spitfire. Oh no, did I hurt her with that?

Quickly throwing all her stuff on the bed, Spitfire followed Dash back through the front door of the house. “Come on. Let’s go hit up AJ!” Without warning Dash shot up into the open sky, laughing as she flew through the frisky morning air with her scarf flapping behind her.

“Hey! Wait!” Spitfire immediately shot after Dash and caught up with her. “Shouldn't you have locked your front door?!”

“This is Ponyville,” Dash shot back, “No-one's going to break into there. Everyone looks after each other!” She banked to the right to put herself on a path straight towards the distant red barn standing in the middle of the vast apple orchard they had just started flying over.

Wow, these ponies must trust each other a lot. “If you say so… Hey Dash, how is it that you can afford a house like yours?” Spitfire asked as she got comfortable with their current airspeed – a normal pegasus might have described the speed as grueling.

“Built it myself of course,” Dash casually replied. Spitfire's mouth dropping wide open earned her a grin from Rainbow. “What? I was Ponyville's main weather manager for years, and you don't get to be that in the town that gets to deal with Everfree storms if you don't know how to expertly manipulate clouds. And yes, I might have slept through the theoretical classes but not the practical ones.”

“Wow, that's so cool!” Spitfire responded in utter awe. “Didn’t the mayor have issues with you building your own house in the sky?”

Dash shrugged as she lowered her airspeed and led the final approach to Sweet Apple Acres. “She was just glad to finally get a weather manager with a lightning certificate. Hiring the airspace costs me a few bits, but its not nearly as bad as renting an apartment in Cloudsdale.”

“Guess that's cool, but aren't there other pegasi living in Ponyville? I remember there being enough of them to lift water for winter up to Cloudsdale last year,” Spitfire recalled, also remembering how awfully close to not getting enough wing power that tornado had been.

“Most of those pegasi came from the surrounding area and most of them have families on the ground. I know only a couple who have their own cloud homes around here,” Dash flared her wings and came to a gentle stop on the ground in front of the Apple's house. “Anyway, they should be up already, so we might have to search for her.”

“All good with me.” Spitfire ruffled her wings as she followed Rainbow to the front door of the large, red, farmhouse. Outside, an ancient green earth pony sat in a rocking chair, knitting some wool as she looked at the two approaching pegasi.

“Morning Granny, is AJ still inside?” Dash greeted her, setting the venerable mare to chuckling.

“Darn tootin', Ah told her ta sleep in fer once. That mare was gonna worry herself inta 'n early grave.” Spitfire smiled at the slightly mischievous tone in Granny's voice. There was more behind it than the old mare was letting on. “Ya’ll gonna find her in the kitchen.”

“Thanks Granny!” Dash said and pushed through the door into the home. Warm reds adorned the wooden walls of the hallway and patterns of apples were carved into the woodwork. As they approached the kitchen the smell of cinnamon and apples floated in the air. Dash motioned for Spitfire to quiet down as she snuck into the kitchen, stepping softly until she was practically touching the groggy mare therein. “GOOOOD MORNING AJ!”

A scream of surprise came from Applejack as Dash greeted her friend. “Gosh darn it, sugarcube! Ya can be a mighty quiet sneaker if y’all wanna be.” Spitfire poked her head around the corner to see what was going on. Applejack was sitting on her haunches next to the kitchen counter working on some apple flapjacks, and the hair that was poking from under her stetson hat was looking messy at best. “Whatcha doin’ here?” Applejack asked Dash, “Shouldn’t ya be workin’ on the first snowfall?”

“Nah, as long as Cloud Chaser keeps Derpy on rogue cloud-busting duty they’ll be fine. The first batch of winter clouds from Cloudsdale are always pretty easy to handle,” Dash explained casually as she took a seat, waving at Spitfire to join her at the kitchen table.

Applejack’s eyes widened ever so slightly as she recognized the wonderbolt captain from all the times Dash had shoved memorabilia in her face. “Good mornin’ ma’am. Ah’m sorry Ah didn’t see ya there.”

Spitfire chuckled and sat down next to Dash, eyeing the small stack of fritters that the earth pony had already made. “Don’t worry about it,” Spitfire waved off.

“You two hungry? Ah can make a few more of these if ya want?” Applejack asked, giving the two a knowing smile. Both Spitfire and Rainbow simultaneously nodded sheepishly. Behind them they could hear someone walking down the stairs, the light sound of the hoofsteps betraying that it was a filly who was descending.

“Mornin’ sis,” the little filly said sleepily before spotting Dash and Spitfire as well. “Hey Dash, Ma’am.” Sitting down on the opposite side of the table to Spitfire, she held out her hoof to the captain. “Ah’m Apple Bloom, but call me AB.”

“Hi there, AB. I’m Spitfire,” the fiery maned pegasus chuckled as Applejack placed plates, a bottle of caramel syrup, and the stack of flapjacks in the middle of the table. Dash immediately snatched one for both herself and Spitfire, showering her own with the syrup.

“Ain’t you that Wonderbolt captain?” Apple Bloom asked with a bite of flapjack in her mouth, Spitfire carefully nodded. “Huh, neat,” Apple Bloom said, with little more interest shown as she dug into the rest of her first flapjack. “Ah’m goin’ to be hangin’ out with Sweetie and Scoots after school today.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow as both Dash and Applejack both briefly looked concerned for some reason.

“Well, have fun with yer friends then, sugarcube. Try not ta break anythin’,” Applejack nervously said as Bloom quickly stuffed a second fritter in her mouth, picked up her saddlebag with school books, and ran out of the house. Rainbow and AJ looked at each other, wordlessly sharing a conversation that Spitfire had no way of following. “Ya goin’ to give the town a heads up just in case or should ah go do that?” Applejack asked dead seriously as their unspoken conversation ended.

“Yeah, I’ll give the weather crew a shout before school’s out,” Dash confirmed before starting on her third flapjack. “So AJ, wanna hang out with me and Spits today?”

The expression on Applejack’s face turned into one of surprise at the request. “Ain’t the two of ya plannin’ to go flying or somethin’ like that?”

Dash just waved off Applejack’s surprise with a hoof, “Come on AJ, we fly together with the ‘Bolts constantly. We wouldn’t have had to come here if we only wanted to go fly around.”

“Ah guess that’s fair. Just so ya know Ah still need to go do a couple of repairs on the south-east border fence, if the two of ya gave me a hoof we’d be able to fix that fence in a jiffy.” Rainbow looked at Spitfire to see what her reaction to that was, the captain only giving a shrug and a nod.

“Yeah, of course we can do that!” Dash almost scooped up the final flapjack but her hoof was swatted away by Applejack who pointed at Spitfire. Dash sheepishly looked at her companion and offered her the last fritter who graciously took it.

“Great, yer help is much appreciated,” Applejack said happily as she cleared the table of plates and put them in the sink, filling it to quickly do the dishes.

“Miss Applejack, could I ask you a question?” Spitfire asked as she reminded herself to ask for the pies. Can’t have Soarin go around spilling juicy gossip now.

“Jus’ call me AJ. Ain’t no need for that miss stuff. And Ah’m always open to questions,” Applejack chuckled, Spitfire smiling warmly at the light attitude of the earth pony mare. It wasn’t often she could just talk with somepony without being treated like a celebrity.

“I was wondering if you could bake me two of those pies you had at the Grand Galloping Gala,” Spitfire asked, getting a knowing grin from Rainbow as it didn’t take the pegasus long to put two and two together, mouthing ‘Soarin’ at the captain. “I have bits back at Dash’s place!” she quickly added.

“Don’t worry ‘bout bits. If y’all help me out with the fence, ah’ll give them to ya fer free.” Applejack placed the cleaned plates back into the cupboard they’d come from and dried her hooves. “Follow me, and we’ll go load some planks onto the cart in the barn.”

Applejack took the lead as she walked out of the kitchen’s back door, trotting over the worn dirt path that ran beside the side of the house towards the barn. Inside, she pointed at a small stack of wood and a medium-sized cart. “If the two of ya can load seven of them long planks onto the cart, then ah’m going to look for a hammer and a hoofful of nails.”

“We’ve got it AJ,” Dash said with certainty and walked over to the pile of wood, Spitfire following her while Applejack went back outside to fetch her tools from somewhere. Waiting until the earth pony was surely out of earshot, Dash turned to her companion who was helping her to put the first plank on the cart. “So what do you think, Spits?”

Spitfire only gave Rainbow a confused look, “What do you mean?” The words had barely left the captain’s mouth before she realized exactly what Dash had meant. “Y-you want me to tell her?!” She nearly dropped the second plank.

“Yeah. Trust me, if there’s anyone you can trust it’s her,” Rainbow said sure of herself. “I’ve pretty much known her from the moment I first got to town.” They picked up the fourth and the fifth plank simultaneously and pushed them onto the cart as well. “If you want to talk to her some more that’s fine with me.” Just as Dash finished talking Applejack came trotting back into the barn.

“Ah got mah hammer and we should have enough nails to replace all them broken ones.” Spitfire and Dash put the last planks on the cart. Applejack strapped into the harness and, without too much effort, pulled the cart out of the barn. The two pegasi took to the air to follow the earth pony as she tracked towards the eastern border of Sweet Apple Acres.

“Say, aren’t we getting closer to the Everfree forest?” Spitfire asked, her voice betraying a slight tinge of nervousness.

“Eeyup. Ah want to repair the fence in some places cause it’ll help keep some of the critters from there from roamin’ onto the farm.” Applejack took the cart down one of the lanes of trees, a fence becoming visible in the distance.

“Isn’t it dangerous to go that close to the edge of that forest?” Applejack chuckled and Dash laughed, Spitfire looking slightly surprised at the two's reactions.

“Nah Sugarcube, the forest ain’t that dangerous if ya don’t head in too deep. Jus’ have ta watch out fer poison joke and timber wolves,” Applejack explained as she continued to chuckle. Spitfire’s reaction simply being that her mouth dropped open in awe. Not that dangerous because you ‘only’ have to watch out for bucking timberwolves?! Is she completely out of her mind?!

“You’re not afraid of being attacked by timberwolves?!” I might be part dragon, but even I know better than to go tussle with those things! Applejack stopped chuckling and looked at the baffled pegasus.

“Ah know it sounds kinda reckless, but we’ve ran into a whole lot worse over the last two years. Everythin’ from monsters to a corrupted alicorn.” The explanation did make some sense to Spitfire as she had read some of the reports of the things the elements had run into. If they could overcome those, timberwolves might not be the scariest thing to them… I might not be the scariest thing to them…

“Hey, I think I just saw the weather crew starting to push snow clouds towards the farm. Mind if I go drop in on them? We’ll meet back up at the fence!” Without waiting, Dash shot off into the open air towards where she’d spotted her colleagues. Wait what?! I-Is she leaving me alone? Is she coming back?! Did I do something wrong?!

“Ah don’t worry ‘bout ‘er, she’ll be back soon,” Applejack said as she happily continued to trot towards the approaching fence, one of the boards having been split in half. “Can ya hoof me one of them planks?” Spitfire nodded absentmindedly and picked one of the long wooden boards off the cart, flying it over to where Applejack was taking off the old, broken one.

I think Dash may be right on this. Should I wait for her to return or… The captain glanced at the hardworking earth pony as she pulled off the last pieces of plank from the post along with the nails. Come on, Spitfire, you're the captain of the bucking Wonderbolts. You shouldn't need anyone holding your hoof!

“Say Applejack, there's something Dash and me have been talking about…” Spitfire's voice was trembling as her nerves flared up regardless. Applejack stopped her work to look at Spitfire, prompting her to shrink down under the earth pony's gaze.

“Did that featherbrain tell ya she loves ya? Ah know she's inta mares. 't made our first few meetings mighty awkward.” Spitfire's face went beet red at AJ's assumption.

“N-No!… Well yes, b-but that wasn't I meant!” she sputtered. Applejack couldn't help but laugh at the Wonderbolt’s awkwardness as she put a hoof on Spitfire's shoulder.

“Calm down there. Ah ain't judgin'. Any friend of Dash is a friend ah mine. If there's anythin' ya want off yer chest, ah'll listen.” With those words a whole lot of tension within Spitfire was released.

“I’m not a normal pegasus,” she blurted out, Applejack raising an eyebrow. A little bit of sweat forming on her fur. “I’m p-part dragon.” Applejack just stared at her with an expression Spitfire had trouble deciphering, only adding to the swiftly returning feeling of anxiety.

Oh no, she’s going to be afraid and get mad, isn’t she? And then she’s going to get angry at Dash-

“That all?” Spitfire’s mind came to a screeching halt as she processed those words. Applejack wasn’t angry or mad. She didn’t even find it strange! The Wonderbolt’s legs started trembling as she felt their strength waning, tears forming in the corner of her eyes and a lump forming in her throat. “Hey, you okay there partner?”

“No…” Spitfire shot forward and pulled applejack into a hug, crying onto her shoulder. Applejack awkwardly petting her hair.

“It’s all right sugarcube, let it all out…”

Thundersnow

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“Can ya hoof me them sliced apples please?” Putting the last of the cut up apples in a bowl, Spitfire passed it along over the table, a bright smile plastered on her face as she did so. Back at the fence Applejack had kept comforting her while she poured her heart out until Dash had returned. Happiness like this was something the captain had sorely missed since… well, forever.

Rainbow, meanwhile, was taking a nap on the living room's couch, her marefriend showing off her uncanny ability to fall asleep anywhere. Applejack quickly finished the last of the two pies with the apple slices and placed them into the oven. “There, them pies should be done by the afternoon.”

“Thanks, you're a lifesaver. Soarin is going to really love these!” Spitfire said, smiling brightly as Applejack cleaned off the kitchen counter and chuckled.

“The way ya make it sound ya'd have me think Ah'm gonna have another regular.” Spitfire snorted at the retort.

“I can guarantee that,” she chuckled, helping with the cleaning efforts. The two headed into the living room where Dash was loudly snoring. A smile made it onto her face as she gently brushed her fellow Bolts' cheek with a wingtip.

“Ah'd let her sleep. She can get mighty grumpy if she's woken up,” Applejack whispered, moving over to the window to look at the first flakes of snow falling down onto her property. “Wanna help me with another little errand til she gets up?”

Thinking for a moment, Spitfire, while keeping her gaze locked on the sky blue pegasus, gave a nod. “Can you get me some paper to write her a note?”

Applejack nodded quickly getting a pencil and paper and the two were on their way into Ponyville minutes later. While walking, Spitfire noticed the sky rapidly darkening further and the snowfall increasing accordingly, a frown forming on her face as she studied the clouds above.

“Somethin' wrong?” Applejack asked as she saw the concern etched onto Spitfire's face. The captain didn't answer and looked back in the direction of the farm and by extension the Everfree forest. A curse escaped her mouth as she noticed the cloudbanks rolling out of the forest and mixing with the Cloudsdale-made snow clouds.

“The rogue weather is mixing with its controlled counterpart which is making them-”

KABOOM!

“-unstable…” Spitfire winced as the snowfall increased dramatically and lighting shot through the sky. “GET RAINBOW! TELL HER IT'S A WEATHER CODE RED!” Without waiting for an answer the pegasus shot off, flying into the cloud cover in an attempt to break through. Snow and ice immediately built up on her wings as she ascended into the sky, making it harder to push higher every second she remained in the cloud. Lighting flashed around her again as she struggled to find a solution.

Can't give up. Need to get above the clouds!

She opened her mouth and a jet of flames shot out of it, the intense heat generating an updraft and removing the ice from her wings. Using her firebreath, Spitfire eventually managed to break through the upper clouds, the sun's rays illuminating the dark clouds from above while lightning lit them up from below. Around her she could see pegasi frantically trying to bust the clouds but the Everfree ones had already started a chain reaction of destabilization.

After identifying the lead pegasus, she was soaring towards her at breakneck speed and came to a stop only a pony length away from her, the leader missing a wingbeat in surprise at the Wonderbolt's arrival.

“Sitrep!” Spitfire immediately demanded, pulling the other pegasus out her stupor.

“T-The rogue weather came in too rapidly. We couldn't stop it from mixing with the snow clouds,” she stammered. Spitfire looked around to see the other pegasi flying in and out of the clouds in an attempt to get them under control.

They're obviously experienced with breaking these up, but this is way too big a mess for a small team like this…

The captain had to admit that the Ponyville weatherponies were acting admirably, rotating the few pegasi in groups so that one group had rest while the others were busting clouds. There simply weren't enough of them to make a serious dent.

Horseapples, how does Dash avoid these situations with this few ponies?!

“You're the leader here. Where do you need me?” Spitfire asked scanning the clouds for herself as well.

“Northeast of here, one click. I only have three pegasi there to keep the clouds back, they need all the help they can get!” the leader said and pointed in the direction.

“Understood! I sent Applejack to wake up Dash in Sweet Apple Acres, so she should be here soon as well!” Spitfire said before flying off towards the northeast, scanning the clouds to find the three pegasi that were assigned to this section. She eventually spotted a resting pony on a small cloud above the storm. “You! I'm part of this rotation now, where are the others?!”

As if summoned a pegasus shot up from the clouds below and landed on the little cloud platform. Completely out of breath, she looked between her colleague and the captain. “What are you doing here ma'am?” she managed to say, gasping for air.

“I'm your backup. Pass that word to the other who's still in there!” Spitfire turned to the pony who had been resting on the cloud when she'd arrived. “We're up! I'll stay in the cloud longer and take the rotation behind you!”

The pegasus saluted sloppily which gave Spitfire the excuse to drop down into the clouds and start busting. Lightning flashed around her as she tore into the destabilized mess of cumulous. Icy winds tore at her wings, hailstones doing their very best to take her down and let her drop to the cold hard ground below…

Spitfire wasn't having any of it.

She was the captain of the Wonderbolts, and no little storm would beat her! “IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, STUPID CLOUDS?!” She smashed through a line of black clouds dissipating them into fine mist. The static that had built up in them buzzed over her feathers, but the captain didn't care. Clouds turned to mist every pass she made but would just as swiftly be replaced by new ones that were eager to fill the gaps. Panting heavily Spitfire shot up out of the clouds, looking around to see where the little resting cloud was located.

“Captain!” Spitfire turned to where the shout had come from. One of the two pegasi who'd been on the cloud, looking much more ragged than before, flew at her. “We're losing pegasi in other sectors and…”

KABOOM!

A rainbow coloured trail shot up through the clouds and into the air where Spitfire reckoned Sweet Apple acres should be located, and a massive ring of colour swept through the black clouds, annihilating them. Spitfire only appreciated the sight for mere moments before turning back to the other pegasus. “Line up the casualties later! That list will only get longer if we don't get a handle on this!” Having had enough rest, Spitfire dove back into the cloud, redoubling her efforts to take apart the storm, and with Dash-

BANG!

Spitfire's world turned a bright white as pain erupted through her body, her ears ringing, the smell of ozone filling her nostrils, and her sense of direction completely disrupted. The captain didn't scream in agony… She roared. A jet of flame escaped her mouth as she tumbled from the air, smoke trailing from her wings as she broke through the bottom of the clouds.

Buck! Pull yourself together Spitfire or you're going to be a bloodstain on the ground!

Pain stung at her wings as she opened them, flaring in an attempt at reducing her airspeed. Years of training and precision flying told her that these efforts would definitely not be enough for a graceful landing. Steering herself to an empty street, the captain kept bleeding off speed right up to the point where she'd smash into the ground. There she pulled in her wings to avoid having them twisted in awkward angles. The ground came hard as Spitfire smashed into it, the layer of snow that had already formed doing nothing to reduce the impact. A small gulch had formed behind her by the time she came to a halt. She groaned in agony as she slowly moved her legs one by one, checking if they were broken.

Thank Celestia for being part dragon.

She pushed herself onto her legs and looked up at the sky. Rainbow trails could be seen everywhere as Dash expertly utilized her sonic rainboom to break up the clouds into easy-to-bust sections. The other weather pegasi gladly did the work for their weather captain. A warm smile formed on Spitfire's face as she appreciated her marefriend's work, though this feeling of elation didn’t last as her nose picked something up.

Smoke… horseapples, the lightning must have struck!

The captain pushed through the pain and moved through the street trying to pick up where the smoke was coming from, not having to search for long. A set of houses in the residential area were ablaze and with the snowstorm dying down, ponies were exiting their houses to prevent the fire from spreading.

“Pass that bucket!…”

“Somepony signal the weatherponies!…”

“A friend of ours is trapped in the house!…”

Spitfire's heart skipped a beat as she heard the last shout from the little white unicorn who'd shouted the plea for help. Next to her stood a yellow earth pony, Apple Bloom if she remembered correctly from the morning. Help was needed, but a good look at the fire made it very clear that any regular pony going in there would never be getting out.

This is going to hurt some more, isn't it? Not like I was going to get out of this without some scars anyway.

Gritting her teeth Spitfire went into a gallop, charging at the door of the burning building that was being pointed at by the unicorn filly. Some ponies shouted at her to stop as they noticed her trajectory, but by that point they were already too late, not that the fiery maned pegasus cared to stop. With a crash her aching body smashed the door open, smoke immediately forcing itself into her lungs. A regular pony might have had trouble breathing, but to Spitfire the air was only slightly crispy.

“IF YOU HEAR ME THEN SHOUT!” Spitfire roared, falling silent to the sound of the fire eating away at the building. No reply came. Cursing, the captain started moving through the building and looking through rooms. Her fur singed and burned in patches, only being fire resistant to a point, revealing scales below them. The smoke was becoming thicker and thicker while she was looking through the rooms. Though not an issue with breathing, it was an issue for her sight. Spitfire had to spend increasingly more time investigating rooms as she couldn't see further than a pony length ahead of her. Above, the captain could hear wood crack, reminding her that she had a very limited time window to find the filly.

“H-help!” Spitfire's ears swiveled in the direction of the little raspy voice, moving into the room from which it came. A small orange pegasus with a purple mane was curled up in the corner of the room clutching a scooter. Spitfire sighed a breath of relief as she quickly ran over to the filly.

“Hey kid, I'd talk more but we need to get out of here.” The filly looked up at the captain, her face going from surprise at an answer to her plea and then terror at the soot and blood covered pegasus with burning hair. Spitfire noticed none of this as she scooped up the filly, scooter and all, and looked for an exit as going back the way she came was not an option. The little pegasus wouldn't survive it.

CRACK!

One of the support beams that held up the roof broke right through the middle, falling down and grazing Spitfire's side. The captain felt it piercing her scaly skin and blood started pouring from the wound. After having been hit by lightning, crashing into the ground, and running into a burning building, this was the final straw to break the camel's back. In a furious roar she sent a fireball at the outer wall and blew it away in a spectacular explosion. Not waiting for the fire to return after her fireball briefly blew it out with its shockwave, Spitfire jumped through the hole and into the snow outside which sizzled as her burning hot body touched it. The little filly still protectively wrapped within her legs. Behind her the building cracked and collapsed, the hole she'd made destroying it's integrity.

Several ponies that had seen them jump out of the burning house carefully approached the smoking pile of pony, afraid of what they'd find. Not that Spitfire was focused on that, she was more concerned with the coughing filly she was cradling. “You okay, kid?”

The little pegasus trembled as she looked at her saviour again, nodding only to cough up some smoke. “Y-You're all burned and stuff. D-Doesn't that h-hurt?”

“I'll be fine. I can handle stuff like this. You on the other hoof should be taken to a doctor.” As if to punctuate this point, the filly went into a coughing fit, some smoke forcing itself from her lungs. The two got up onto their hooves, both a little wobbly. This was the first time Spitfire really looked at the small crowd that had formed around her, a cold sweat breaking out across her body as she realised she was completely exposed.

They heard me roar, can see my scales, s-see that I'm not normal… They're going to brand me a freak! Chase me from the village and tell everypony!

Spitfire took a fearful step back as she eyed the bystanders, hearing the murmurs in the crowd.

“Spitfire!” Dash landed in front of the battered captain and looked at the filly. “Scootaloo?”

Spitfire meanwhile was in a full panic, her breathing ragged and rapid, eyes darting around to keep an eye on everyone.

“Spits, look at me,” Dash instructed, her eyes locking with those of her marefriend. “Take a deep breath and listen to them.” Following the instruction Spitfire calmed her breath and listened to the crowd. No angry and terrified shouts coming fourth but… cheers?

Spitfire just looked at the crowd as some of them were cheering her on. Her legs began to wobble again as emotions overtook her.

No! I'm walking out of here with my own hooves and head held high!

“Dash, the filly needs a doctor.” Spitfire croaked, her voice cracking as she held back tears.

“She's not the only one, Cap.” Dash picked the shivering Scootaloo off of the snowy floor and placed her on her back. “There's a Canterlot emergency contingent that's taken over weather patrols for the time being, got to thank Twilight for that at some point, so don't worry about things going bad again.” Spitfire nodded and took a shaky step forward… followed by another… and another, until she reached the crowd of ponies and was allowed through by them. The few cheers having turned into a cacophony of praises and stomping hooves. All the while Spitfire held her head high.

They're cheering… They're actually cheering and just don't care about my condition!

A smile tugged at the corners of her cheeks and turned into a full smile, her little fangs on full display to everyone, but nothing seemed to dissuade the crowd's enthusiasm.

These ponies… I think I'll fit right in this village.

Friends

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“The bandages really aren't necessary Rainbow…” Spitfire grumbled as she tugged at the white dressing covering the spots where her fur had been burned away.

“I don't care. You're hurt, and those were enchanted by Twilight to improve your healing rate,” Dash simply but pointedly stated, slapping Spitfire's hoof with a wing to stop her from screwing up the bandages. The captain grunted but didn't retort. Dash continued her work in the kitchen, a fish sizzling on a frying pan and drowning in butter. Spitfire had absolutely refused to stay at the hospital the previous day. Even after the village had a non-negative reaction to seeing her dragon hide under her half burnt fur, she had no interest in being closely examined by some doctors. In the end Dash had at least got her to allow Twilight to bandage her. Spitfire sighed as she gazed outside over the town. Despite the damage the storm still had its intended consequence and coated the village in a blanket of white.

It only took three pegasi being put into critical condition and the burning of two houses.

“By the way, is it ok if Twilight comes by in the afternoon?” Dash asked, breaking Spitfire's dour train of thought. “Since she saw your scales, she's probably been itching to talk to you.”

Spitfire sighed. It was only a matter of time before everyone knew, and it might be handy to pre-empt any rumors before they could spring up. “We could also go visit her home? We could go by your other friends as well. Would have been a matter of time before you introduced them anyway.”

Dash's face lit up at the suggestion. “That's a great idea! I just hope Twilight won't hog up the entire day in that case,” she grinned, letting the fish slide onto a plate and bringing it over to her marefriend who immediately grabbed the plate and devoured the fish. “Hungry much?”

“Best cooking ever,” Spitfire managed to say with her full mouth.

“Of course! I'm an awesome cook after all!” Dash puffed her chest fluff forward in her boast making the other pegasus chuckle.

“Braggart.”

“Flatterer.”

The two stared into each others eyes for a moment, the expression on their faces as hard as steel in their little staring contest. It didn't take long for Dash to start cracking as she couldn't stop herself from smiling, something that soon infected the captain as well, and they both burst out into laughter. “I totally won that by the way,” Spitfire grinned.

“Shush you,” Dash simply replied, pulling Spitfire in and placing her lips on her’s. The captain's eyes went wide with shock as she hadn't seen that move coming. Leaning into the kiss she allowed her tongue to dance with the rainbow maned mare's. The kiss felt like it went on for an eternity only for Dash to break it…

“You taste like cooked fish.”

WHAT?!

Spitfire's cheek went beet red, striking out to swat Dash's head with a wing but Rainbow had anticipated the move and ducked below it before bolting. “Come back here!” the captain shouted as she sprinted after the other laughing pegasus. The two briefly chased each other through the cloud home, but Dash was tackled to the ground just as she reached her own bedroom. “Gotcha!”

Dash struggled for a bit but it was very clear that Spitfire, though battered, was not going to give in. “And what is my strong half-dragon going to do now?” Rainbow asked with a smirk.

Spitfire smirked as well, her fangs somehow seeming much larger than usual which made Dash's confident smirk falter. “Well…” Spitfire dove in and started tickling Dash in all the right spots, the pinned pegasus squirming and laughing at the assault. “Surrender or be subjected to my eternal wrath!”

“Never!” Dash blurted out, only making Spitfire redouble her efforts. Rainbow managed to hold out a little longer but eventually started to crack. “Please! I surrender!” she managed to choke out through the laughs, Spitfire dropped onto her chest and chuckled at the defeated pegasus.

“That was a very short never,” Spitfire grinned at the panting pony below her. “We will discuss the terms of your surrender later. Now we should be getting on our way towards Twilight Sparkle's house.” Spitfire nuzzled Rainbow's neck and allowed her to get back up, the two finishing their morning routine before taking off from Dash's home. Spitfire had some trouble keeping her speed up, a few too many feathers having been destroyed the day before. Not that the bruises and cut on her flank helped either.

“Just giving you a heads up, Twilight can be a bit excitable,” Dash warned as they approached the large castle on the edge of town, Spitfire rolled her eyes at the warning.

“I get it, Rainbow. You've told me plenty of times.” The two of them landed in front of the castle, the few ponies up and around already looking over and whispering to each other. Spitfire, not in the mood to be exposed too much, swiftly followed Dash into the large crystal building. There was a large hall with a large stairway leading up to the higher rooms and passageways running to the left and right.

“Hi Spike, do you know where Twilight is?” Dash asked, pulling the captain's attention towards the little purple and green dragon that had appeared out of nowhere.

“Sure thing, Dash. She's been in the basement all night, so she might be a little kooky,” he warned before leading them to a downward spiralling staircase. Spitfire meanwhile just stared at Spike with her mouth slightly ajar. She knew about the little dragon of course, but reading about him and meeting him are two separate things entirely. There was also the fact that she knew the nobles could only tolerate him because he was close to Princess Celestia's personal pupil. Seeing him wander around without any worries was slightly jarring.

The two went down into the basement, spotting various forms of equipment neither pegasus was able to identify. In the middle of the room was a large desk with various open books and stacks of paper and a purple alicorn softly snoring between them.

“It's not too late to run away yet,” Dash whispered, getting another eye roll from the captain who stepped forward… and hesitated. Twilight might be a friend of Dash's, but she was a princess as well. Waking her just felt wrong. Dash on the other hoof had no such reservations and upon seeing the hesitation stepped forward herself to wake Twilight.

“Hey egghead, wake up. You've got a visitor!” The alicorn shot up from the desk, her hair an absolute mess and an ink stain on her cheek.

“I didn't eat the cake!” Twilight shouted looking around in paranoia, then spotting the two pegasi standing beside her with puzzled looks. “Uhm, hello Rainbow what are you… Oh! Spitfire!”

“Ma'am.”

Twilight's horn lit up and a pot of hot coffee and a cup floated over, the alicorn downing the scalding hot liquid as if it was nothing. “I did some research last night and well… uhm… I might have fallen asleep?” Twilight said guiltily.

Spitfire still wasn't exactly sure how to respond to Twilight, her mind eventually falling back onto her basic Wonderbolt training. “Don't worry, ma'am. I wouldn't want to trouble you too much.”

“Trouble? This is one of the most intriguing things I've ever seen!” Twilight shouted in excitement, old parchments and books floating up from the table which showed various drawings of fire-breathing ponies. “If you dig deep enough, then there's an entire swathe of legends about heroes and foes that were able to breathe fire like dragons!”

“Really?” Spitfire's curiosity quickly won over her apprehension and she stepped, although still uncomfortably, forward to look at all the documents lined out on the desk. More drawings and texts in old ponish were lined out on there while Twilight excitedly teleported some more documents to the desk.

How in the world did she manage to get all of these together in a single afternoon and night while she only had rumors and Dash's short explanation to work with!?

“These have always been dismissed as fictions to make certain ponies stand out in history, but if you really are part dragon then that would mean major revisions will need to be done. Let alone the advancements that could be made in several other fields of science!” Twilight nearly bounced in place from excitement. Spitfire meanwhile just felt more uncomfortable than she already was.

“Maybe you should explain what the tests are you wanted to do, Twi,” Dash interjected, feeling her marefriend's uncomfortableness at the princess' excitement.

“Oh right! I've been itching to get some tissue, blood and saliva samples to do an analysis on. I also want to know all the things that set you apart, like the scaly skin and fangs, maybe even fire-breathing? Can you do that?” In response to Twilight's ramble Spitfire blew out a wisp of flame, earning an excited squee from the alicorn. “Alright, let's get some samples!” A set of tools and syringes appeared next to Twilight. Spitfire nervously took a step back from the princess, eyeing the tools with suspicion.

“U-uhm, princess? W-what are you doing?” Spitfire felt a cold sweat starting to cover her coat as Twilight carelessly approached. Rainbow proceeded to step in between the captain and the princess as she had no problem sensing the growing panic in Spitfire.

“Say Twi, you don’t really need all of those things, now do you?” Rainbow said, pushing away some of the implements, and giving the princess a stern look silently telling her to drop them or back off.

“O-oh right, of course not!” Twilight teleported a good amount of the tools away again, leaving her with only a single syringe and a couple of vials to store samples. Rainbow stepped aside to, with Spitfire’s permission, allow the alicorn to take some samples, constantly under the pegasus’ watchful eye.

“So, if you don't mind me asking, what are you going to do now, Spitfire? I understand from Rainbow you avoid talking about being a hybrid like the plague—I'd love to know why by the way—but all of the commotion won't help. Sooner or later a reporter will come down here to check what happened and find out you were involved, and it won't be long after that the hard questions will be asked.”

Spitfire swallowed nervously as Twilight bluntly stated the reality of the situation. The captain really hadn't thought about it. Ponyville might seem to be an accepting place, but the Canterlot tabloid press would not be so forgiving. “I'm not sure, and the reason I hid is… personal… maybe if I'm ready at some point.”

“Take all the time you need, Spits. Just know that you'll always have friends here.” Dash said, covering Spitfire's back with a wing and bringing a smile to the captains' face as she placed a quick peck on her lips.

“Thanks babe,” she said with a smile, only for stuttering to break up their moment. Twilight stood there with her mouth open in astonishment while stuttering, her brain trying to process this new information.

“Sooo… Keep us posted on your progress, we've got other ponies to visit today too, bye!” Rainbow swiftly pulled her fellow pegasus along before the alicorn regained her senses and would bombard them with questions.

“Uhm, Dash? Should we have left her like that?” Spitfire asked questioningly, looking back at the castle while flying after her marefriend.

“She'll be fine. Spike can handle it… probably.” This did nothing to reassure the captain in the slightest. Shaking off the concern for later, Spitfire focussed on where they were going next.

Actually, where are we going?

“Hey Rainbow, who are we visiting next?”

“Rarity is closest, and her sister will probably want to see you too after you saved Scoots. The two of them are good friends along with Apple Bloom,” Dash replied and banked to the left, setting down in front of a store called Carousel Boutique.

“Oh,” was the only thing Spitfire replied with. She most definitely remembered the little unicorn who'd shouted that her friend was still in the burning building.

A friend that apparently also was Rainbow's honorary little sister…

A little bell rang as they entered through the front door into the boutique. There were many dresses on display all through the main room, varying from a simple yet elegant dress to gowns that were covered with gems and everything in between. Something else Spitfire immediately noticed was that no one dress was the same as another. All of the creations were unique to some degree.

“Please give me a moment, I’ll be right down!” a melodic voice called out from upstairs. The time they had to wait was spent by Spitfire inspecting some of the dresses designed for pegasi.

Hmmm… I might commision her to make a dress for me at some point.

“Oh hello darling, I wasn't expecting to see you today…” Spitfire peeked past the mannequin to catch a glimpse of Rarity, immediately recognizing her from the Grand Galloping Gala and the great young flyers competition. “…shouldn't you be at the hospital with Scootaloo or other members of the weather pegasi?”

Rainbow sighed, “I'm going to visit them sometime today as well, but right now I was showing somepony around town.” Spitfire took this moment to step into view and clear her throat. Rarity gasped in surprise.

“Oh my, Captain Spitfire, it's a pleasure to meet you again,” the unicorn exclaimed, getting a chuckle from Spitfire.

“A pleasure to meet you while I'm conscious as well, ma'am,” she replied teasingly, Rarity's cheeks turning beet red while Rainbow snickered from the sideline.

“Please, just Rarity. And my deepest apologies for what happened that day,” the unicorn said, deeply embarrassed over having knocked out all three 'Bolts that had tried coming to her rescue. “Now, do you two have to go or shall I get you something to drink?”

Spitfire chuckled heartily. “I'd love something. We should have enough time left to visit the rest of your friends, right Dash?”

“Definitely!” Rainbow replied and led Spitfire after Rarity into the boutique's kitchen where they took places at the table while Rarity made coffee.

“Sooo… There have been rumors floating around Ponyville about you, Captain.” Rarity blinked her eyebrows suggestively as she leaned forward to get some new gossip. Rainbow groaned in response while Spitfire just sighed. She should have expected the question.

“I don't know what the rumors floating around are, but I guess the cat's out of the bag now.” Spitfire opened her mouth to show her canines, Rarity gasping in surprise. “I'm part dragon. That's why I could run into that burning building and come out relatively unscaved.”

“Well I'm glad for it. We'd have had a much greater tragedy if you hadn't been here,” Rarity said without any hesitation.

“Just doing my duty, ma'am” Spitfire replied, downing the coffee in one go. Dash cringed as she imagined doing the same with the hot liquid.

“You went far beyond what was expected of you, darling. If you ever are in need of a dress, then don't be shy about dropping by. I'll gladly give you a hoof.” Rarity, who had added milk to her own coffee finished her much less hot drink as well. “But you have to excuse me now. I have commissions to finish and that work isn't going to get done by sitting here.”

“No worries, Rares. We'll be out of your mane,” Dash said, getting up from the table and heading for the door with her marefriend. “See you around!”

With that the two stood outside in the snow again, the sun now standing high in the sky. “So, who's next on your list?”

“That'd be…” Rainbow didn't finish her sentence as a pink coated and maned pony bounced over the street, the moment she spotted the couple she gasped and shot off out of view into town. “… Pinkie Pie.”

“What was that about?” Spitfire asked, baffled by what had just happened.

Did I just scare the first Ponyville local?

“Well… I think we'll skip Pinkie for now. I'm pretty sure you're going to be introduced very soon anyway,” Dash said cryptically, a devious grin on her muzzle as she turned and headed into the opposite direction the pink pony had disappeared in.

“If you say so…” the captain said with a raised eyebrow. “I take it our destination changed then?”

“Yeah, we’re skipping AJ since we visited her yesterday... which means that I’ve got a final friend living on her own near the Everfree.” A frown formed on her face as she stopped to look at Spitfire. “I left her for last because she’s deathly afraid of dragons, so don’t take it personally if you scare her.”

That’s great, just fantastic…

“Thanks for the heads up. I’ll try to bring it up carefully,” Spitfire sighed as Dash nuzzled her cheek comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she won’t have an issue after yesterday.” Rainbow took off and soared over the white-covered roofs of Ponyville towards the eastern edge of town where Dash’s last friend lived. As they arrived, Spitfire took a good look at the cottage that seemed to be part tree with the amount of snow-covered shrubbery around it. Another notable thing were all the small birdhouses and animal pens all around the house.

“Hey Flutters, are you home?” Dash asked as she knocked on the wooden door. Sounds of something dropping to the ground came from the inside along with hooves hitting the floor before the door flung open and the rainbow-maned mare was tackled to the ground.

“Dash! I was so worried after yesterday and… oh, uhm, hello?” The yellow pegasus standing over Rainbow shrank back at seeing the third pegasus looking at her with a baffled expression.

“Fluttershy, can we come in? It’s kind of cold down here,” Dash said sarcastically from her position down in the snow.

“Oh yes, sorry, please make yourselves comfortable. Want anything to drink?” Fluttershy asked as she led the two other pegasi into her house, guiding them to her couch.

“No thanks. We just had some at Rarity’s place,” Spitfire politely declined, leaning against Dash on the couch.

“Oh, okay…” Fluttershy took a seat on her own armchair and nervously played with her hair. “So, is everyone in Ponyville okay? I saw smoke coming from the village, but I haven’t been out to check up yet.”

Rainbow sighed and shook her head, “Flitter and Icy Rain are still in the hospital. They’re not in a good condition, and two houses burned down, but thanks to Spits here nopony got seriously hurt by that.” Dash extended a wing around Spitfire and nuzzled the fiery-maned half-pegasus again. Fluttershy’s face went slightly red at the display of affection between the two pegasi on her couch.

“Oh my… uhm, did you save somepony, Miss Spitfire?” Shy asked meekly.

“Save someone? She ran into a burning building and pulled Scoots out of there!” Dash exclaimed excitedly, making it Spitfire’s turn to blush.

“You saved Scootaloo?!” Fluttershy suddenly livened up, her eyes wide in shock and standing on her seat instead of sitting.

“It was nothing ma’am, just doing the right thing,” Spitfire answered slightly embarrassed at the praise from Rainbow and Fluttershy’s response.

“You saved my best friend’s little sister, that's not ‘nothing’ Miss Spitfire.” Shy suddenly had a lot of confidence in her voice. “I guess that’s why you’ve got those dressings then?” The yellow pegasus pointed at the white linen wrapped around the parts where Spitfire had been hurt from the fire.

“Yeah sort of…” Spitfire answered, Fluttershy looking at her with a bit of confusion. “I wasn’t in as much danger as a regular pony would have been running into that building…” The comforting wing around her back gave Spitfire the confidence she needed to reveal her secret. “…I’m not exactly fully a pony.”

“You’re not?” Fluttershy questioned but her eyes shrunk as Spitfire opened her mouth and revealed her sharp teeth sticking out quite far. The captain felt her heart pound in her chest as she saw the fear in the fellow pegasus’ eyes, it looked as if she could run off at any second… But she didn’t. “S-so that’s why you n-needed those f-fish, Rainbow?”

“Yeah it was, Shy,” Dash confirmed. Fluttershy swallowed nervously, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. Her posture relaxed as she performed a quick breathing exercise before opening her eyes again.

“My apologies. Rainbow must have notified you of my phobia…” Spitfire gave a confirming nod. “…I’m not going to be afraid of you after you went and saved a pony.”

“Thanks… and please drop the miss. It makes me feel old,” Spitfire said, smiling at the pegasus.

“Of course, Spitfire. Now if you don’t mind me asking, are you two… you know… together?” Shy’s voice progressively lost volume as she meekly smiled at the couple. Dash smirked and pulled Spitfire close and placed her lips on her marefriend’s, Spitfire squeaking in surprise but swiftly leaning into the kiss. “Oh my…” The yellow pegasus’ cheeks went completely red at the display.

“We’ve been together for a couple weeks now,” Dash said with a smile, resting her head against Spitfire’s. Fluttershy let out a soft squee and shot over to the pair for a hug.

“That’s so nice. I’m so happy for you two!” she said, happily embracing the couple.

Rainbow smiled at this. “Thanks Shy, you’re an awesome friend.”

“Don’t mention it. So would you two like to stay for some sandwiches or do you two have anything planned for lunch?” Fluttershy asked, letting go and trotting over to her kitchen. Rainbow looked over at Spitfire who gave her a quick nod.

“We’d love to.”

Welcome to Ponyville

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Spitfire dried herself with a towel. Her hair had lost all of its stiffness in the shower. After lunch at Fluttershy’s she and Dash had just run around the village having fun, starting a couple of snowball fights along the way. By the time they were done goofing around the sun was already lowering to the horizon and Dash had made a cryptic comment about getting ready for the evening.

Ponyfeathers, stupid hair get out of my face… Rainbow must have something for that around here somewhere… Aha!

Pushing the hair out of her face, Spitfire rummaged through the cupboard in Dash’s bathroom until she found a hairband to tie her hair back into a ponytail. The little bit of hair creating a bang was much less annoying than all of her hair falling in front of her face and obscuring her view.

“Are you done, Spits?” Dash had already taken her shower and had been relatively patient in waiting on the captain to finish her turn in the bathroom so they could go out again.

“Yeah, nearly done. I’ll be right there!” she shouted back at her marefriend, drying off the rest of her fur and hanging her towel on the drying rack. Instead of going through the annoying motion of re-bandaging the bare spots on her back, the captain pulled out one of Rainbow's Wonderbolt merch hoodies and put it on. Dash was sitting in the hallway, leaning against the wall as she left the bathroom, immediately getting up as she noticed Spitfire.

“Alright! Let’s go… whoa.” Rainbow’s wings shot open and her face turned a shade of red, Spitfire following suit with a blush. “U-uhm, nice hairstyle.”

“T-thanks. It’s nice to put it up so every now and then, glad you like it,” Spitfire stammered back, the two looking at each other with their blushes and snickering, Rainbow giving her a nuzzle.

“You should wear it like that more often. It suits you,” Rainbow complimented. “Now let’s go, we shouldn’t be late!”

And with that Rainbow was off while Spitfire was none the wiser about what exactly they were going to do. Deciding that she was going to find out soon enough, Spitfire sighed and followed Dash out of the house and into the air over Ponyville. “So when are you going to tell me what we’re going to do?” Spitfire asked as Rainbow banked in the direction of Twilight’s castle.

“If I tell it won’t be a surprise,” Rainbow cryptically responded as she had done every time before when asked.

“Fine, keep your secrets then,” Spitfire relented as they landed at the front porch of the castle. Dash opening and holding the door of the castle.

“Ladies first,” she said, bowing slightly while smirking. Spitfire returned a smirk of her own as she entered through the opening.

“That rules you out,” the captain shot back, sticking out her tongue at Rainbow.

Dash snorted amusedly. “Why’d I want to be a lady? I wouldn’t survive a day acting all proper.”

“Touche,” Spitfire smirked, looking into the darkness of the castle’s main hall. “So what are we doing he-”

“Surprise!”

Spitfire jumped and flew a good two pony-lengths into the air as the lights turned on and about half the town shouted ‘surprise’ simultaneously.

“Were you surprised? Were you?” The pink pony who had gasped and ran in the morning was now bouncing on a trampoline to reach her height.

“What?” Spitfire asked completely baffled, her brain still catching up with the events around her while everyone in attendance watched her with smiles on their faces.

“Your welcome to Ponyville and thanks for saving a pony from a burning house party, that’s what silly,” the pink pony said joyfully. “When I first saw you I was like, ‘Gasp’ a new pony but I already knew you so not completely a new pony and also that’s Rainbow’s bestest idol!”

“Calm down, Pinkie. Let her breathe,” Dash chuckled, pulling Spitfire back down to the ground as she stammered at the display. In the background music had started playing, but there were still some guests waiting to speak to the captain before going to party themselves.

“This… is all for me?” the captain still couldn’t fully wrap her head around the fact that all of this was organized for her.

“Yup, that’s Pinkie Pie for you.” Dash laughed. “Now come on, have some fun. It’s your party after all!” Rainbow gave her a quick nuzzle and walked into the crowd. Spitfire walked after her into the same crowd, getting various ponies stopping her to give their thanks, slowing her way down. Eventually, Spitfire spotted Princess Twilight sitting at a table along with Spike, Rainbow, and a bowl of punch.

“You look a lot better than this morning, ma’am,” Spitfire commented as Twilight didn’t look like the relatively sleep-deprived wreck she’d been in the morning.

“I took a nap to get my energy back up,” Twilight answered as Spitfire took a seat at the table and got a glass of the drink. The alicorn looked between the two and bit her lower lip. “Sooo… The two of you?”

Rainbow smirked and wrapped a wing around the captain, pulling her close and giving her a quick kiss. “For a couple of weeks now,” Dash confirmed for Twilight.

“Wow, never thought I'd see you of all ponies act that mushy, Dash,” Spike snickered, getting a wing to the back of the head from Twilight.

“Don't be rude, Spike. I'm happy you two fell for each other.”

“Thank you ma'am,” Spitfire smiled and looked over to the small dragon. “We really didn't speak a lot this morning, I'm glad to meet you.”

Spike chuckled. “Nice to meet you too… So what Twilight has been researching. Is it really true that you're part dragon?” the little dragon asked with amazement.

“Yup, my dad was a dragon, but sadly I never met him. I don't think my mom, or anyone for that matter, thought somepony like me was possible,” Spitfire chuckled but Spike seemed to sink into thought. “Anything wrong?”

“I think he has somepony on his mind, don't you now Spike?” Twilight asked teasingly, the dragon's cheeks turning red.

“N-NO! I w-was just… uhm, I'm going to get some cupcakes!” Spike bolted away from the table, the three ponies snickering in amusement. Spitfire eventually noticed a filly standing a little away, hesitant to step forward. It didn't take longer than a second for Spitfire to recognize her. “Hi there. Scootaloo was your name, right?” The purple maned, orange pegasus filly nodded her head. Looking very nervously at the Wonderbolt.

“Hey Scoots, what's wrong? You're never this shy.” Dash leaned forward to look at her honorary little sister who now dared to take a step closer. The little pegasus had some bandages wrapped around her barrel from the day before.

“I-I just w-wanted to thank C-Captain Spitfire for saving me,” Scootaloo stammered, tears in her eyes as she trembled. Spitfire opened the wing that wasn't pressed against Dash and pulled the filly close into a hug.

“I'm just glad that I got to you in time.” Scootaloo broke down crying in the captain's hoody as Spitfire couldn't help but try and comfort the little kid. “Hey calm down, you're safe.”

“I-I was s-so scared, and then y-you came in and looked all like this m-monster out of the fire, but you were there t-to help,” Scootaloo cried her eyes out while Spitfire gently stroked her hair. “D-didn't you get hurt trying to s-save me?” Scootaloo asked with tearful eyes.

“Shall I tell you something only a couple of ponies know about yet?” the captain asked, Scootaloo giving a weak nod. “The reason I was able to walk through that fire is because I'm not fully a pony. I'm part dragon.” Scootaloo's eyes widened in awe and her mouth fell slightly open. “Cool isn't it?”

“Y-Yeah! That's awesome!” the filly exclaimed, smiling again as she released her grip on the captain and wiped away her tears.

“Heh, thanks. Now I'm sure those two friends of yours are around here somewhere. You should go party with them. I've already seen there's plenty of sweets around that you can try out,” Spitfire smirked down at the filly as she ruffled her hair.

“Definitely! See you around, ma'am!” With that Scootaloo shot into the crowd, looking for her two best friends. Spitfire's attention was drawn to something else as Dash pulled her close and placed a passionate kiss on her lips.

“What was that for?” she asked, definitely not complaining though.

“For making my biggest fan and little sister happy,” Rainbow simply stated, stealing another quick kiss before standing up and going. “Don't mind me. I'm going to look for the cupcakes before Pinkie eats them all.”

Spitfire chuckled as she looked at her marefriend walk into the crowd, Twilight excusing herself soon after as well, and she went into a bit of a daydream while observing the dancing and laughing crowd. Her eyes passed over Fluttershy and the two connected for a moment, the shy pegasus jumping behind another pony to hide.

I guess her being here is admirable enough… I should be glad that I found this place. Everypony is just so loose and nice, even though I'm sure that none of them will have missed the rumours about me…

The door of the castle opened as a latecomer to the party entered, a stallion Spitfire would recognise even without his Wonderbolt uniform. It didn't take long then for Soarin to pick her out of the crowd as she waved at him.

“Thank Celestia you're alright! I heard what had happened here and rushed over as soon as possible.” The stallion took a seat across from Spitfire, and looked at the party around him. “So what’s this all about?”

“It’s my ‘welcome to Ponyville and thanks for saving a pony from a burning house’ party,” Spitfire chuckled, taking a sip of the punch. “I’ve had a bit of a crazy two days.”

“You’re telling me. I got a code red passed onto my desk saying Ponyville was hit by an Everfree rogue, scared the life out of me… Also, did you run into a burning house to save somepony?!” Soarin exclaimed, his expression between a smile and disbelief.

“Also got hit by lightning and crashed before even getting that far,” the captain casually added with a cocky grin.

Soarin stared at her for a good ten seconds, “How are you still alive?!”

Spitfire’s smile dropped and she looked around. She’d told a couple of ponies about herself, but admitting the truth to a fellow ‘Bolt seemed daunting. “Follow me. We should go somewhere more private.” Standing up from the table Spitfire headed for the stairs with the lieutenant trailing behind her in some confusion. The music from the party fell away as they stepped onto one of the main balconies, the full moon and stars shining down at them.

“What’s this about, Cap? You know I’m always there to give you a listening ear, right?” Soarin said, joining Spitfire at the railing of the balcony looking out over the village.

“I’ve been keeping a secret Soarin. One I’m no longer able to nor want to keep.” Spitfire sighed and trembled slightly, and the lieutenant put a wing over her back to calm her down. “I’m not fully a pegasus, Soarin,” the captain said, glancing at the lieutenant who raised an eyebrow beckoning her to continue. Spitfire took a deep breath and looked at the open air…

Groawwwwr!

A jet of flame along with a thundering roar shot into the night sky, brightly lighting up the balcony and warming up from the dragonfire. Soarin yelped and jumped back, gawking at the display. With a huff, Spitfire forced some smoke from her nostrils and looked back over to her lieutenant and flumped onto her butt. “I’m tired of hiding, Soarin, tired of hiding my draconic parts.”

“What…?” The lieutenant stood frozen in place with a slackened jaw.

“Spitfire!?” A slightly panicked looking Dash flew out onto the balcony, spotting her marefriend and tackled her into a hug. “What’s wrong? Oh…” Rainbow noticed the other baffled Wonderbolt. “Hello, Soarin.”

The stallion shook his head, getting out of his daze, “Breathing fire…” The gears in his head churned along as he categorized this new information. “You’re part dragon. Wow, that’s one hell of an admission…”

“Is that a problem?” Rainbow asked, glaring at the stallion and protectively surrounding the captain with her wings.

“Of course that’s not a problem! Communitate valemus, girls. We’re Wonderbolts. We have each other’s back when it’s needed,” Soaring smiled, his eyes getting a devious glint in them. “Also, I didn’t take you for the mushy type, Rainbow.”

“Oh, she’s a total softy once you get through the outer shell,” Spitfire found herself smirking, glad that the stallion was taking it as well as he had, quickly stealing a kiss from Dash.

“Come on! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Dash grumbled as Spitfire stood up, the rainbow maned mare clinging and lazilly riding on her back. Spitfire laughed and carried her back down towards the party, laughing alongside with Soarin at the pouting mare on her back.

“Sooo, about those Pies…”

Spitfire yawned as she woke up in the soft cloud bed. Beside her splayed out on the bed was Rainbow softly snoring while the morning sun cast its first rays into the bedroom. She'd switched bedrooms to allow Soarin to sleep in the guestroom. They weren't going to force him to fly back to Cloudsdale in the middle of the night. Letting out another yawn, Spitfire rolled out of the bed and stretched. Deciding that she’d let the other mare sleep a bit longer, the captain silently left the room and went downstairs to get some breakfast ready. Getting three plates Spitfire proceeded to make a couple of different sandwiches.

“Mornin’ Cap.” Soarin came trudging into the room, still looking very tired from the party he’d joined the previous night, slumping down on one of the kitchen chairs. Spitfire pushed a plate with one of the sandwiches under his nose.

“Morning to you too,” Spitfire greeted, biting down on her own meal.

“The fangs are going to take some getting used to…” Soarin muttered, earning a confused stare from Spitfire. Swallowing the piece of sandwich in her mouth she ran her tongue past her fangs, finding that they were indeed much bigger than she remembered.

“You two are really up early…” Rainbow came walking into the kitchen with the worst case of morning hair, even by her standards, making a beeline for the coffee machine.

“Or you’re just slow to rise,” Spitfire noted, Rainbow huffing in reply as she turned on the machine to start making coffee for the three of them.

“Be right back, I’m going to check the mail,” Dash grunted. Spitfire meanwhile returned to her conundrum about her fangs.

They really shouldn’t be this big… They couldn’t have grown over night, could they? Ugh, I’ll deal with it later.

“Guys, we might have an issue…” Rainbow came running back into the kitchen, holding a couple of newspapers and other mail under her wing which she threw to the side, only taking a single tabloid to the table.

“Why do you have a subscription to the Gawking Unicorn. It’s literally the worst of low rags. They post lies and scandalous material to then claim they are 'helping' their target.” Soarin commented in disgust on seeing the tabloid.

“Gift from a friend for my birthday. Don’t ask,” Rainbow growled and then pointed at the big headline dead center of the paper, “Look at that.”

Spitfire’s eyes widened and pupils shrank as she read the large headline with the low quality image of Spitfire standing on Twilight’s castle’s balcony, breathing a plume of fire into the sky.

BREAKING: Captain Spitfire a Changeling?!
Read about our reporter’s findings on page 3!

Spitfire held the tabloid in her hooves, looking at it for a bit before slowly starting to bare her teeth and growling at the paper, blood boiling off in her veins as she flipped to page three and read some of the article. Rainbow sat down beside her and pulled her close.

Why did you EVER think it was a good idea to breathe fire like that, you stupid half lizard.

“We need to inform the other ‘Bolts Cap. We need to get our stories straight because there’s just enough here for things to blow up in our faces,” Soarin said very seriously as he scanned the content of the paper as well.

“Agreed. We should get to Cloudsdale ASAP.” Spitfire stood up and stashed the rest of the sandwich into her mouth, swallowing it before pouring the bit of coffee already in Dash’s pot into a cup and downing it.

Stupid, rotten, tabloids…

Exposed

View Online

The sun was shining down on the Wonderbolt headquarters in Cloudsdale as Spitfire, Rainbow, and Soarin arrived at the complex. Circling like vultures outside of the perimeter were press ponies who dove onto them in an attempt to get an interview. All of their shouted questions were ignored by the captain as she barged inside. The hallways of the headquarters were completely empty as they made their way through the building, something that rarely happened.

“Where is everypony? There should be at least some staff members walking around…” Spitfire muttered as they checked a few offices.

“I think I can hear ponies in the cafeteria, Cap,” Soarin called out from up ahead. Rainbow remained close to her marefriend as they headed for the cafeteria. As they approached the definite sound of ponies talking to each other reached their ears, and they entered to find everypony with various papers in their hooves, all huddled up around two of the cafeteria’s tables arguing with each other.

Great, just how many papers have this on their front page?

A wing was placed on her back as Dash stepped beside her. “Don’t worry Spits. I’m sure they just want answers.”

Spitfire sighed and nuzzled Rainbow. “Yeah, I guess so…” The captain stepped forward and sat down on a bench at one of the empty tables, resting her forelegs on the metal surface while observing the other ponies and listening to them. Some of them were arguing that the picture with the headlines were fake while others disputed the claims made within the articles themselves. In a bid to gain attention Spitfire cleared her throat, but nopony seemed to hear the captain.

Oh for the love of Celestia…

Clang!

The metal table dented inwards as Spitfire smashed her hoof into it, the loud noise abruptly stopping all of the chatter. Everyone stared at the captain who returned to calmly sitting at the table, though internally she was having a fierce battle to keep that facade up.

“Hey, Cap, this stuff about being a changeling… It’s a hoax right?” Misty Fly stepped forward and threw a copy of the Gawking Unicorn in front of Spitfire. “I mean, that picture is obviously doctored.”

The captain glanced to the side where Rainbow was silently trying to give her encouragement to continue before looking back at Misty. “No, I’m not a changeling…” A murmur went through the attending staff, some of the ponies looking relieved while others still looked skeptical. “…Nor is the image doctored.” The murmurs stopped as abruptly as they had started.

“Then what in Celestia’s name is going on? If it’s real, where did the fire come from then?!” Fleetfoot exclaimed as she stepped forward. Spitfire’s heart was beating in her throat as she prepared to spill the beans of her secret to the ponies she’d worked with for years.

They deserve to know. I’ve worked closely with all of these ponies and trust some of them with my life… I should have told them a long time ago, shouldn’t I?

“The fire is mine, Fleetfoot. I breathed it out. I’m not a changeling but part dragon.” Spitfire watched as her fellow bolt rapidly went through a set of emotions and tried stuttering a reply. She eventually settled with an indignant huff and barged to the exit, Rainbow tried stopping her to talk but was shoved out of the way.

“I’m not sure if I should hear you out further or follow her.” Misty pointed at the still swinging door Fleetfoot had left through. “Seriously, how could you? Everything we’ve been through over the years, and you didn’t give a peep… Why?”

Spitfire’s eyes teared a bit, her calm composure cracking under Misty’s accusing glare. “Because I was afraid.”

A tear fell onto the metal surface of the table followed by another one as they rolled into the hoof-shaped dent. Rainbow couldn’t bear to see Spitfire on the verge of breaking down and slid onto the bench next to the captain, pulling her close.

“I-I’m sorry, Cap. I need some time by myself to wrap my head around this,” Misty said. Her tone had softened, but it was clear that she needed the space as she exited the room the same way Fleetfoot had left.

“Alright everypony, back to work! We won’t have heard the end of this for a good while yet, and sitting here isn’t going to help in any way,” Soarin exclaimed as he broke up the gathering of pegasi who slowly trickled out of the cafeteria. The lieutenant took a seat across from the two mares and sighed. “I’m going to figure out how many newspapers have this as their headline. I’ve got a bad feeling that we can’t ignore this one and are going to have to do a press release.”

“Yeah, thanks Soarin,” Spitfire sniffed, wiping away her tears. “I-I need to de-stress.” The captain broke away from Rainbow and made her way through the hallways in the direction of the gym section of the HQ, entering the dojo in particular. The room had a ring in the center for sparring fights and was surrounded by punching bags. Dash followed her into the room, taking a seat in a corner where she was out of the way while observing the captain putting on some protective padding. “Don’t you have better things to do than watch me, Dash?”

“Not really,” Rainbow casually answered. “I’m pretty sure I’m right where I’m supposed to be actually.” Spitfire huffed but didn’t argue against the other pegasus being there as she started her warmup. Not that it took long for Rainbow to start fidgeting out of boredom anyway, so the mare decided that if she was going to be here, she might as well join in. Putting on some padding herself she joined Spitfire in the warmup. The two eventually started a sparring exercise.

“Fleetfoot didn’t take it well, and Blaze will probably follow her in that opinion,” Spitfire sniffed, hitting Dash on her padding as swiftly as possible after the rainbow pegasus had presented an opening.

“I’m sure they’ll come around, Spits. We both know how those two are,” Dash responded, dancing around the ring to keep the captain on the tips of her hooves.

“Yeah, two complete hardheads that have minds that are really hard to change,” Spitfire sarcastically answered, the impact of her next punch pushed Dash back as the captain fueled it with some of her underlying rage and pain.

“Not everypony was going to just accept and move on. We knew that from the start.” The sparring fight slowly but surely turned into sets of fast punches, and Rainbow was no longer just defending but also actively seeking opportunities herself. The two ponies were constantly changing stances, going from all fours to standing on hindlegs only to fall back down to fours again.

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt!” Spitfire shouted, tears now flowing as the fight continued, the intensity of the hits increasing ever so slightly.

“No, it doesn’t! But are you just going to mope about it here or are we going to do something about it!?” Rainbow Spotted an opening in the defense of the captain as she shouted back at her, her hoof colliding with the side of Spitfire’s head hard. The firey maned pegasus was knocked dazed to the ground, shaking her head as she focussed on the opponent standing on the edge of the ring. A low growl escaped her maw as she charged and tackled the other pegasus out of the ring and pinned her to the ground.

“I TRIED DOING SOMETHING AND HE STILL REJECTED ME!” Spitfire roared into Dash’s face, fangs fully bared and breathing heavily as tears flowed out of her eyes. Rainbow lay completely still under the iron grip her marefriend had over her, Spitfire’s hot breath flowing over her face along with tears dropping from her eyes.

“Is that why you have such a hard time telling ponies?” Dash asked as calmly as she could under the dragon hybrid, but couldn’t escape the tremble in her voice. Spitfire immediately looked afraid again as memories long buried came crashing back. “Spits, what happened?”

A lump formed in the captain’s throat as she saw the event’s flash in front of her eyes, her legs trembling and collapsing as she broke down crying onto Dash’s chest. “W-We used to b-be best friends. N-Nothing could tear u-us apart… until he f-found out.”

Rainbow gently brushed her marefriend’s hair as she sobbed. “Shhh, let it out Spits. Some ponies will be like that, nothing you can do about it, but there will be many more that will want to be your friends… or even lovers.”

A smile formed in Spitfire’s face as she shot forward and pressed her lips against Rainbow’s, locking her into a passionate kiss.

“Hey, Cap I-” Soarin stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the position his fellow ‘Bolts were in. “Uhm… Okay, I guess this is a thing.” Both Spitfire and Rainbow sheepishly looked over at the Lieutenant. “Yeah, cool. Anyway, I got my hooves on all the newspapers I could and it’s not good… We’re going to have to make a statement.” Soarin threw a stack of newspapers and tabloids onto the floor where the captain could read them, and they all had the same image with different attention-grabbing headlines. Spitfire wiped away the tears from her eyes and allowed Dash to get off of the ground as well.

“Horseapples, that’s not good… There’s something else?” The look on the stallion’s face gave away that that wasn’t all.

“The Royal Guard is here, Captain… Princess Celestia as well.” The color drained from Spitfire’s face as she heard that news, but before she could panic Dash intervened.

“Don’t. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not true,” the rainbow maned pegasus stated resolutely. “I’ve seen Twilight freak so many times about not pleasing the Princess only to find her to be completely relaxed about the situation. The only time she was really pissed was that incident with that doll a year ago… I’ll tell you about it later. We should get going if the princess is here.”

Spitfire nodded in agreement, turning to Soarin. “Where is she waiting? I want to get dressed first. She is the commander in chief after all.”

“Mission briefing room. I’ll make sure she knows you’re coming,” Soarin said before heading out of the dojo.

“I’ll join you. The princess knows me in a non-professional way as well, and it's good for you to have a friendly face with you,” Dash said before the two of them split up to get don proper dress and meet back up at the briefing room in ten minutes. Spitfire for one rushed over to her office where she had her dress suit stored, swiftly putting on the set of clothes and checking if everything was in perfect order.

Trust Rainbow, Spits. She’s probably right about the princess.

Spitfire made her way towards the briefing room where the princess was seated. Rainbow met up with her at exactly the ten-minute mark. Spitfire swiftly straightened the tie on the other mare’s suit. “Ready?” Dash asked, getting a nervous chuckle from Spitfire.

“No, but it’s not like I’m going to get out of this anyway.”

Two royal guards were stationed at the entrance to the room and only stepped aside when Dash and Spitfire made their way for the door. The briefing room was a relatively small chamber compared to other rooms, it had a table in the center with seats around it and maps hanging on the surrounding walls. Though what drew her eyes was the solar princess regally sitting at the head of the table with a pot of what looked to be tea. The captain snapped to attention, Rainbow doing the same next to her.

“Captain Spitfire, your Highness.”

“Senior Airpony Dash, your Highness.”

“At ease, Wonderbolts, please take a seat,” Princess Celestia told them, very calmly taking a sip from her cup. “Do either of you two want a cup of tea?” Celestia levitated two additional cups up as she offered.

“Y-Yes please, your Highness,” Spitfire politely accepted, followed by Rainbow’s decline.

“Don’t worry, Captain, you are not in trouble. The first thing that I got after reading the newspaper this morning was a scroll sent by Princess Twilight vouching for your character,” Celestia chuckled as it wasn’t hard to sense that Spitfire was tense, a cup of tea levitated into place in front of her. “Not that it was required of course, but it gave me some insights on what happened last night.”

Rainbow shot Spitfire a look of ‘I told you so’ as some of the tension left the captain’s body. “Could you elaborate on that please, Princess?” Spitfire asked Celestia.

“I’ve been around for a good while, Captain. You’re not the first pony I’ve met who’s had draconic traits. It’s rare to find one for obvious reasons, but usually it happens about every century or so,” Celestia smiled as Spitfire’s eyes widened in shock. “But one of the defining things about each and every one of them is that they were all extraordinary in their own right.” The princess turned to Rainbow while the captain let this information sink in. “So why are you accompanying the captain, Rainbow Dash?”

“Well, you know,” Rainbow scratched the back of her head, “Spits was a bit nervous, and I thought it best to go with her.”

Celestia grinned and leaned forward, “Was that a pet name there, Rainbow? Be careful with that around Cadance or she’s going to interrogate you for hours.” Spitfire immediately choked on a sip of tea, her eyes going wide. Celestia took this as confirmation of her hunch. “I must say that I hadn’t expected this when I came here, Captain.”

“She’s a total softy once you get through the outer shell.” Rainbow had a massive grin plastered on her face as she shot back the line Spitfire had used on her with Soarin the previous night. “And yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have our hooves full with Rarity and Pinkie already,” Dash snickered, Spitfire meanwhile had her face go completely red with a furious blush.

“Oh definitely. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re immediately going to claim the right to organize the wedding and design the dresses respectively,” the princess smirked, looking over at the captain who was desperately trying to destroy the integrity of the clouds that made up the floor so that she could sink into them.

“Don’t forget AJ with the catering!” Dash exclaimed, holding back laughter at the sight of her embarrassed marefriend. “Oh come on Spitty, can’t handle some banter with the Princess? Me and the girls spent an entire night exchanging gossip with her at Donut Joe’s after that botched Grand Galloping Gala.” The captain tried sputtering a reply, but her entire train of thought derailed and came screeching to a halt.

Donut Joe… They what!?

“I think we broke the dear captain, Rainbow,” the Princess snickered. “We should return to the matter at hoof before we derail further anyway, leave the gossip for the next time I find the time to visit my fellow princess in Ponyville.”

“Yes ma‘am!” Rainbow snapped a quick salute to the princess.

“Good. Now captain, concerning the press outside, the crown will support you, but I cannot guarantee that for the noble houses. When I get back I’ll be meeting with Fancy, Fleur, and Blueblood to discuss our strategy,” Celestia explained. Spitfire straightened up a bit and tried to wipe the red from her face. “Just know that I personally cannot control the press while some noble houses can.”

“So the smears aren’t going away any time soon… great,” Spitfire grumbled. She was used to the press trying to get dirt on her or any of the other bolts but never something as targeted as this.

“I’m afraid not, but you’ll get through this. I have to go again captain. I’m sure we’ll meet again, but both of us will be plenty busy over the next couple of days.” The princess stood up from the table, lighting her horn which made the tea set disappear, and headed for the door where she and her guard left for Canterlot again. Soarin, who was waiting outside while the princess was still there, came trotting in.

“You look like you’ve got more bad news,” Rainbow commented as she saw the pale look on the stallion’s face.

“Captain, your mom is here.”

Family

View Online

“Come on Spits, why are you acting like this? It’s just your mom!” Rainbow asked as she hurried after Spitfire who was checking every corner in a bout of paranoia as she moved through the headquarters.

“Just my mother?!” Spitfire exclaimed, immediately putting her hooves over her muzzle and looking around to check if she was heard. “You’ve got no idea how she’s like when agitated.”

“Spits, we’re going to see your mom,” Rainbow deadpanned. “It was bound to happen at some point, and we might as well get it out of the way now.” Not waiting for a reply, Dash barged past Spitfire to go look for the pony the captain was trying to avoid. Not really seeing another option the fiery maned pegasus followed Rainbow down the hallways towards Spitfire’s office where her mom was supposedly waiting.

“So anything I should know about her?” Dash asked as they came within sight of the office.

“She’s viciously territorial with everything concerning me and probably really pissed off at all the tabloids?” Spitfire offered with a raised eyebrow, bringing a hoof to her chin. “Oh, and she has a strange taste for partners, you know, like a fling with a dragon,” she sarcastically added.

“Sounds like my kind of mare,” Rainbow smirked back. “With similar dating preferences and such.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

Rainbow choked back a laugh as she pushed the door into the office open, immediately being pushed over by a pony rushing past her.

“My little baby! Did the mean reporters hurt you?! Do I need to go out there and give their flanks a tanning?” the older mare, that just looked like Spitfire only older, had her daughter in a protective hug as she ranted off at her. Rainbow shook her head to shake off a bit of disorientation and turned to look at the two, Spitfire silently mouthing ‘help me’ at Dash.

Rainbow shook her head some more and smirked, coughing to get the attention of the elder pegasus. “Uhm, hello ma’am?”

Spitfire’s mom looked up from her child at Dash, “Oh, hello there. Your name is Rainbow Dash, wasn’t it? One of the rookies around here?”

“Yeah, fastest flier in Equestria!” Rainbow boasted proudly, shrinking down at the look that was shot her way by the elder.

“Oh really?” she said questioningly with a raised eyebrow. “Well, I’m Stormy Flare, mother to the captain of Equestria’s most accomplished flight team.”

“Cut her some slack, mom. She’s had my back since before this mess started,” Spitfire defended Dash, pulling the attention of her mother back to herself.

“You told her that much about yourself?!” Stormy asked in shock, looking over Spitfire who couldn’t help but allow a goofy smile sneak onto her face while blushing slightly. Her mom followed suit as she turned back to Rainbow with a grin. “Oh I see what’s going on here, my little flame has found a special somepony.” Rainbow scratched the back of her head as Stormy walked up and circled her, pulling on her wings and inspecting them.

“Uhm, miss? What are you-”

“She looks strong, good stock,” Stormy suddenly said, looking satisfied.

“Hey!-”

“Seriously, mom?” Spitfire groaned as she got up and placed a wing over Dash who stood lost for words.

“What? I can at least make sure you’ve picked a good mare, can’t I? I mean, she’s a nice piece of flank if I do say so myself,” Stormy smirked before taking a seat back at Spitfire’s desk, her face turning more serious as she pulled a newspaper out. “Now tell me, why did I wake up this morning with reporters at my door holding this in my face?”

Spitfire sighed as she walked over to her chair, “My fault, I got sloppy… and I’m tired of this.” Stormy gave her a look that practically begged for her to continue, Spitfire rolling her eyes. “The hiding mom.”

“And you’d throw away everything you’ve worked for? And what if it’s worse than that?” Stormy suddenly looked very afraid. “What if they send the guard after you? Or maybe even worse!”

“Mom, stop. They’re not going to do that,” Spitfire tried calming her mother, looking at Rainbow in hope for support. Dash walked up next to Stormy and placed a wing on the back of the mother.

“They’re not. We’ve talked to Princess Celestia, and she’s on our side. Princess Twilight as well,” Rainbow tried comforting the mare.

“B-but what if s-she just said that to keep you calm while she gathers the guard or something like the Elements of Harmony?!” Stormy breathed heavily as her voice wavered.

“She won’t. The princess made clear that she’s seen ponies like Spitfire before and Twilight found proof of others like her in her books,” Rainbow informed Stormy, Spitfire coming beside her mother from the other side. “And the Elements won’t be used, I can assure you of that.”

“It’s going to be okay mom. Both the Princesses have cleared up some things, and I’m completely positive they want to help,” Spitfire added onto the point as she hugged her mother.

“I-I just don’t want to lose you,” Stormy returned her daughter’s embrace, holding her as tight as possible.

“You’re not mom. You’re not,” Spitfire smiled, squeezing her mother tightly before letting go. “I’ll talk to you some more later mom. I have some business to take care of first.”

Stormy smiled back, “Yes, of course. I’ll be at home if you need me. I’d love to get to know Rainbow here better.”

“Thanks mom, and we will,” Spitfire said, leading her mother out of the office. The captain let out a sigh as she closed the door again, Rainbow shooting her a self-satisfied smirk. “What?”

“Say it. How bad was that again?”

Spitfire murmured something under her breath.

“Louder,” Rainbow ordered Spitfire who repeated what she said with a bit more volume but she still barely raised her voice above a whisper.

“Louder!”

“You were right!” Spitfire exclaimed. “It wasn’t that bad… Happy now?”

Rainbow put a wing over Spitfire’s back, nuzzling the captain’s neck. “Eeyup! Now what’s up next?”

“We should go find Misty, Fleets, and Blaze… maybe the rest of the core team as well. I want them to get to ask questions before the press does. They’d lose trust completely if they heard more from the press than from me.”

Rainbow nodded in understanding. “You get those three, I’ll go get Soarin and the others. Let’s say… mission briefing room in forty-five?”

“Yeah, sounds good. See you there.”

Spitfire walked up to the door of Fleetfoot’s private room on the base, having found Misty’s and Blaze’s rooms to be empty, but the sounds coming through the door made it clear the three ponies were together in the last room.

Well, I guess that at least that means I’ll only have to do this once…

Spitfire raised her hoof and gave three good firm knocks on the door, the voices inside falling silent as Spitfire waited for her knocks to be answered. Her heart rate increased slightly as she heard hooves coming up to the door before it swung open, Fleetfoot standing in the opening.

“Oh, it’s you.”

The door slammed in her face.

“Oh come on, Fleetfoot. I’m just here to talk,” Spitfire said as she knocked again, the door opening once more.

“Fine. Go ahead.” Fleetfoot remained in the door opening and glared at Spitfire.

“Can I come inside?” Spitfire asked, hoping she could explain herself with the others.

“Let her in Fleets,” Blaze called out from behind the grey mare standing in the doorway who grunted but stepped aside. Fleetfoot’s room was pretty spartan compared to some of the other rooms, though Spitfire knew that was because she practically lived in Blaze’s room. “Is it true, Captain?”

Spitfire gave Blaze a nod as she sat down between her and Misty. “By that I assume you mean if I’m a hybrid?”

Blaze nodded back in turn as Fleetfoot silently sat down as well, Misty sighing as no-one else knew what to say to break the silence. “Cap, why didn’t you tell us earlier? The current team’s been through so much with you from Saddle Arabia to the Frozen North and those definitely weren’t always just performances. We’ve faced plenty of monsters and wildlife in our duties over the years.”

“I-I lost someone who was very close to me because of it…” Spitfire quietly replied, not meeting Misty’s eyes. “The mere knowledge of my heritage chased him off.”

The room returned to silence again as that information was processed by the three other pegasi in the room. Fleetfoot was the next to ask something. “Did you know that pony for long?”

“Yes. For years he was my only friend.” Spitfire tried her best to swallow the lump in her throat as she pulled up the memories again so soon after she’d unloaded on Rainbow. “My mom’s also always been deathly afraid the condition would turn me into an outcast.”

Fleetfoot sighed as she looked over to Blaze who was shaking her head, extending her wing to give Spitfire a nudge in the side. “Fleets, I can’t be angry at her. We all have our things, some a little bigger than others, but in the end you’re all family to me.”

Spitfire looked up in surprise at the uncharacteristically mild response from her fellow bolt. Misty tapped the floor in agreement. “Indeed. You’re still the same pony, right? Just because we learned something new about you doesn’t mean things should change for some reason. I’ve got your back Captain.”

Everyone looked over to Fleetfoot who had yet to say anything, the pegasus grunting and sighing. “Ah Tartarus, you girls and the guys are the best family I ever had. I may have overreacted a bit back in the cafeteria. You can count on me too, Cap.”

Spitfire couldn’t help but smile as she pulled the three ponies into a crushing hug.

“Spitfire, air!”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” Spitfire said sheepishly, loosening up the grip.

“Guess we now know where your stupid stength comes from now,” Misty chuckled, the others soon joining in before all four burst out into laughter.

“Thanks girls, I needed that,” Spitfire laughed as she wiped away some tears from her eyes. “Dash and Soarin are getting the other flight team members to the mission briefing room so you all can have the opportunity to ask some questions before the press release.”

Misty nodded and stood up. “Sounds good to me, let’s go hook up with the rest.”

Twenty minutes later all of the members of the flight teams were assembled in the mission briefing room along with a small hoof full of administrative staff, all of them looking at Spitfire as she sat next to Dash. Most of her anxiety had fallen away as none of the present ponies looked angry or scared, mostly just curious as Spitfire assumed plenty of word had gotten around by now about everything that had already happened in the morning.

“Thank you for coming, everyone. I wanted to get at least the core members of our organization to get some questions in before going to the press, since I assume no one here would appreciate it if they had to find things out about me via the media,” Spitfire started off, a murmur of agreement going through the bolts. “To give a little context to the things I assume you’ve already heard, yes I am part dragon. My father was a dragon to be exact, though sadly I never met him.”

“So, what’s different about you then? We saw the newspaper so I assume the fire breathing is part of it?” Surprise asked as the first ‘Bolt to speak up.

In response Spitfire blew a little flame from her nostrils. “It’s one of the things, yes. I also have increased strength, extreme fire resistance, fangs-”

“You have fangs? I take our little running joke about you being a carnivore wasn’t that far off?” Wave Chill interrupted, leaning forward with interest.

“Not entirely, I eat vegetables like any normal pony but get cravings for things like meat and gems at points. Boring parties with the noble’s are just a good excuse to indulge.” Spitfire shrugged, baring her teeth and showing the fangs. The teeth sliding out as she did so, showing their full size instead of the barely noticeable sharpened tips.

“Huh, that’s new,” Dash said blankly, not having seen that happen before.

“You’re telling me…” Spitfire replied in surprise, playing around with her teeth’s position. “Guess I don’t know everything about myself either.”

“So how is it that the rookie here seems to know what’s been going on behind the scenes,” Misty leaned forward with a suggestive smirk on her face.

“A near miss from a jet of flame did the trick neatly,” Rainbow chuckled in response. “Remember the Cap being out with a case of feather flu a while back? That’s when I found out.”

“So that’s why you insisted on staying and making sure she was good…” Misty pondered though she wasn’t done with fishing for more information just yet, “…But was that all that happened in that time?”

Oh what do I have to lose here anyway?

“Well-” Dash was cut off as Spitfire pulled her in and placed a kiss on Rainbow’s lips, a wave of surprise and laughter going through the present ponies as the Captain flipped off Misty with a wing while smirking.

“Ah, dangit,” Wave chill grumbled as he passed a couple of bits to Misty, a few other ‘Bolts trading coins as well. Dash couldn’t help but snort at the sight.

“You’re all the worst,” Rainbow deadpanned though still smiling, getting another round of laughter from the assembled ‘Bolts.

“Hey, I didn’t place any bets!” Soarin complained, getting a glare from Spitfire.

“No, you only got me to get you two pies to buy off your silence.”

Soarin shrugged, “They were delicious though.”

The room devolved into laughter as Spitfire groaned and everypony broke out into conversation for a bit, a couple more questions being shot at both Dash and Spitfire who answered as best they could before the room quieted down again.

“Thank you all for hearing me out. You have no idea the relief that brings to me,” Spitfire told the group with a smile.

“No problem Captain, we’ve got your back,” Fleetfoot said with confidence. “Don’t we Wonderbolts?” A loud aye came from each member of the flight team.

“Thank you all. Let’s get back to our jobs then since I still have the press to deal with,”

“Yeah, good luck with those vultures,” Fleetfoot said, giving the captain a nudge against her shoulder. The ponies all filed out of the room leaving only Spitfire, Soarin, and Rainbow behind.

“That went excellently, if I must say so myself,” Soarin said, self-satisfied.

“Could have definitely gone worse,” Rainbow agreed, wrapping a wing around Spitfire and pulling her close. “So does that mean no more secrets?”

“Just don’t think I’ll go easier on you now everyone knows,” Spitfire smirked, pecking Dash on the lips. “We should probably inform your parents and friends too before it leaks further.”

“Maybe fix the current piece of gossip first you two,” Soarin cut in. “The press is still out there and trust me, that crowd outside the perimeter has only grown.”

Spitfire nodded in agreement. “Alright, can you get the visitors stand ready for a press announcement?”

“Yes ma’am,” Soarin said, saluting Spitfire and getting on his way to get the preparations made.

“I’ll leave you to it to get yourself ready for the press,” Dash said, giving a kiss on Spitfire’s cheek.

“Thanks babe, see you outside.”

Press

View Online

Spitfire checked her dress suit again after having polished all the buttons on there, finding not even a single flaw left in her attire as picked up a clipboard with a few newspapers and notes clamped on. The hallways had few ponies walking through them as most of the workers were either busy or getting ready to listen in on the press briefing.

After making her way outside Spitfire headed over to the visitors stand, the other 'Bolts were standing motionlessly to the left and right of a little podium with their own dress suits on. None of them moved as they stared straight ahead with iron discipline, even Rainbow didn't move a muscle. The press on the other hoof had no such restraint as they tried their hardest to ask their questions while Spitfire hadn't even reached the podium yet.

“What is the Wonderbolts' position on the latest developments!...”
“Are you really a changeling!...”
“Does this mean you'll be stepping down as Captain!...”

Spitfire ignored them all as she put the clipboard on the stand in front of her, tapping the amplification crystal to see if it was charged enough. After finding the taps being amplified Spitfire cleared her throat to quiet down the crowd.

None of the reporters really did.

Sighing the captain simply started with her address. “I'm sure everyone has their questions but just as any other press conference I will first give a statement and will then answer questions in an orderly manner.” Spitfire punctuated the word orderly to make it clear she would not tolerate the press conference turning into a shouting match. The reporters too finally got the point too and shut their mouths for the moment, all ready to write down every word she would say and describe every gesture. Pulling out one of the newspapers, Spitfire briefly showed it to all the press-ponies. “As I'm sure you all are aware, this morning several papers published speculative pieces about me based on-”

“So you deny being a changeling?” one of the reporters on the stand heckled.

“No, I am not a changeling,” Spitfire said, her temper flaring but she luckily managed to get a handle on it before she could snap at the reporter. “None of these libelous pieces even took the diligence to contact me personally for comment they may have found out the truth-”

“And what would that truth be?” the same reporter shouted at Spitfire who felt her fangs sliding out and stinging her lower lip while her chest started feeling warm from her internal furnace.

“That in fact I am a hybrid,” Spitfire growled.

“A hybrid? You don't exactly look like a pegasi mule to me. Do you really think we're that stu-”

“ENOUGH!” The Captain roared, the entire stand rearing back from the sheer volume of Spitfire's voice. “If you wish to interrupt me every sentence then leave my base. My father was not a donkey, I am not a mule, but he was a dragon,” Spitfire hissed, her fangs bared while smoke came from her nostrils. “I may have never met him but I assure you I have definitely picked up some draconic traits from him, notably a short fuse.”

The ponies in the stand had fallen into complete silence for the first time since Spitfire had arrived, a couple of them quickly taking pictures and racing off into the air. Spitfire quickly realised her mistake, straightening herself up and checking if her tie was still in place.

“Y-You'll hear more from this!” the reporter shouted before taking off and rapidly flying away.

Ahh, crap. That's going to bite me in the flank, isn't it?

Not being able to do anything about what just happened anyway Spitfire sighed and pointed at one of the reporters that had behaved relatively well. “You had a question?”

“W-well, yes. The other Wonderbolts are all here now, can we assume they are supporting you?”

“Soarin?” Spitfire looked at the pegasus beside her and let him get up on the stand to use the amplification crystal.

“The answer to that question is yes, all of us stand behind our captain. She’s pulled us through enough hard times that we support her one hundred percent,” Soarin answered, getting out of the way again for Spitfire who turned to another reporter.

“Captain Spitfire, what has Canterlot’s response been to this news and will you resign over this controversy?”

“I had a good conversation with Princess Celestia this morning and I do not see any reason to resign at this time,” Spitfire answered, a murmur going through the crowd at that little tidbit of information as she pointed at another reporter.

“From the Cloudsdale herald, since you say you are part dragon are there any differences physically other than the fangs we can clearly see?”

Spitfire swallowed nervously but pushed her anxiety down as the question was going to be asked by somepony at some point anyway. “ Like you pointed out the fangs are the most obvious feature, but other than that I’m stronger than a regular pegasus, have a tougher bone structure, can breathe fire, and am fire resistant to a degree.”

“To a degree?” the reporter asked, trying to dig deeper.

“Enough to run into burning buildings,” Spitfire answered, pointing at the next reporter in the stand.

“Thank you, I just wanted to ask about your diet. Since you claim to be part dragon do you share their more… exotic dietary choices?”

“First I want to point out that for dragons it is not so much a dietary choice, they either consume gems or meat because otherwise they die,” the captain bluntly pointed out to the crowd. “But to answer your question, I require both vegetables and a supplement of either of the two options I just pointed out. No I do not, nor will I ever, eat something sapient. That’s disgusting.” Spitfire clamped all her notes and newspapers back onto her clipboard. “Thank you for your attention, have a nice further day.”

The press corps exploded into more questions but they were ignored as Spitfire walked back to the headquarters’ entrance. The other bolts filed in behind her in lockstep while staff held back some journalists and lead them off of the premises. Once inside Spitfire let out a heavy sigh and sat down against a wall, Rainbow taking a seat next to her and wrapped a wing around her marefriend. The other ‘Bolts went by to leave the two alone for a bit, only Soarin hanging around.

“You should go underground for a couple of days, I’ll deal with any further press while they stew on that bit of information. See what they write and give an interview to a hopefully friendly but credible reporter,” Soarin told them, probably best to sneak out and shake the press along the way.

“And what about my work? Who's going to do that?” Spitfire asked as she lay her head on Dash's shoulder.

“I can handle it Spitfire, this isn't like a few weeks back where we had stacks of potential trainees to deal with,” Soarin dismissed. “Now get out of here, I suggest flying in a random direction to throw off any pursuers before heading to a quiet place to lay low.”

“And you have one of those? My places will definitely be watched and there's probably a small number of paparazzi around Ponyville as well,” Spitfire grumbled.

“We could just ask AJ if we can stay at Sweet Apple Acres, that's decently out of the way of most traffic. I'm sure she won't mind us staying a couple of days,” Dash proposed.

“See? Problem fixed, now sit back and let things play out for a few days. Go relax and stuff, maybe get somewhat… closer acquainted with each other,” Soarin smirked playfully, Spitfire's cheeks going red from a blush while Dash didn't immediately catch on. “Now go, I don't want to see you here for at least three days.”

“Fine, if you need me you’ll know where to find me,” Spitfire sighed, breaking away from Dash and quickly kissing her cheek. “I’ll fly off alone so the press won’t have a lead on where I could possibly be.”

“You know the way, I’ll head over to AJ’s to get us a place to sleep for a couple of nights.”

“You’re the best, Rainbow.”

“Well, duh. I’m awesome didn’t you know?” Rainbow smirked as she puffed her chest out.

“Braggart.”

“Flatterer.”

The two ponies kept their eyes locked with each other in a staring contest but Spitfire quickly cracked, starting to snicker and pulled Dash in for a swift kiss. “I won that one, which evens our scores by the way.”

“We’re counting now?”

“I’m always counting,” Dash smirked, swatting Spitfire on the flank with a wing as she made her way back to the door. “See you in Ponyville babe.”

Spitfire blushed furiously. “I’m so getting back at you for that.”

“Rawr,” Rainbow simply replied, Spitfire shook her head and flew off to hide her embarrassment while Soarin burst out laughing.

“You’re actually the worst, Rainbow,” he snickered, “Give it thirty minutes before leaving to give the press some time to run after Spitfire.”

“Aye, aye, LT.”

Rainbow came to a gliding halt at Sweet Apple Acres, the sun was heading down towards the horizon already. Spitfire wasn’t anywhere to be seen yet but the captain would have had to take a detour anyway so she wasn’t too worried about Spitfire not arriving. Rainbow knocked on the house’s door, waiting for somepony to open up. Apple Bloom eventually being the one to answer the door.

“Hi Rainbow, Ah take ya want ta talk ta mah sis?”

“Yep, mind getting her for me?” Rainbow asked to which Apple Bloom nodded, turned around, and cleared her throat.

“APPLEJACK, RAINBOW’S HERE!” she shouted into the house at an impressive volume considering her size. Applejack was upon her in seconds.

“How many times do Ah have ta tell ya ta not scream in the house!” She admonished while Apple Bloom just sat there with a look innocent as an angel.

“Hey Dash… Why are ya dressed all fancy like?”

Rainbow looked down at her dress suit momentarily, noticing the tie wasn’t completely straight and swiftly fixed it. “Just came over from Wonderbolt HQ, we had a bit of a media issue… actually, how haven’t you heard about that yet? It was plastered over pretty much every newspaper’s headline.”

“Hey, Ah didn’t visit town, haven’t seen the news today,” Applejack shrugged, Rainbow pulling out a newspaper and showing it to the earthpony. “That’s horseshit,” she bluntly stated after reading the headline.

“Pretty much,” Rainbow replied. “We already did a press conference and we’re looking for a place to lay low for a bit, mind if the two of us stay at the farm for a few days?”

“Of course, you two can stay as long as ya like,” Applejack immediately offered. “Is yer marefriend here?”

“On her way. We took off at different times to shake the press,” Rainbow answered as Applejack let her into the house and lead her up to the guest room.

“Ah’ve got some more things ta do, if Ah see Spitfire Ah’ll bring her up too,” Applejack promised, leaving Rainbow alone to get settled. Dash took the time to get out of uniform, placing the dress into the room’s closet. She could hear the door downstairs open up minutes later, Applejack coming up into the room with Spitfire in tow. The captain was completely drenched in sweat from exertion, and still slightly panting.

“There’s a bathroom at the end of the hallway ya can use, sugarcube,” Applejack told her, nodding to Rainbow before heading back down to continue with her last chores of the day.

“You seem like you flew quite a way to get here,” Rainbow smirked, Spitfire immediately trying to get out of her sweat-soaked clothes.

“Yeah, those reporters were in way better shape than the usual ones, they were quite persistent on trying to catch me. I’m pretty sure I got rid of all of them though so we should be fine.”

“That’s good… also, AJ was right. You really need a bath.” Rainbow recoiled slightly from the smell.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll get on it,” Spitfire rolled her eyes as she hung her clothes out over a chair, they had to be washed sometime soon too.

“You know, maybe I should take a shower too...” Rainbow said suggestively, rubbing up against Spitfire. “Flying all the way to Cloudsdale and back to Ponyville in one day is not something most pegasi could do you know.”

“Hmm, you think the shower is big enough for two ponies at once?” Spitfire smirked, leaning back against Rainbow.

“Why don’t we find out?” Rainbow swished her hips suggestively as she made her way out of the room and towards the bathroom, Spitfire hot on her tail.

The two quickly got two sets of towels ready and turned on the shower, stepping in and sharing the stream of water. Rainbow got a sponge and some soap to clean off Spitfire’s coat, the captain let her marefriend rub the soap in and the water wash it off, enjoying every bit of it.

“There, much better,” Dash said as she finished soaping up Spitfire and washed it all back out of her fur.

“Well, thank you, my dear lady. Now let me return the favour,” Spitfire smirked, taking the sponge from Rainbow and giving her the same treatment that Dash had given to her.

“Hmm, yeahhh. That hit the right spot,” Rainbow purred as Spitfire worked on her back.

“Is that so? I might know another spot.” Spitfire said playfully, pushing Dash onto her flank into the corner of the shower and exposing her chest fluff. Their muzzles hovered inches apart as Spitfire rubbed the sponge through Rainbow’s chest fluff, Dash couldn’t help but melt at the sensation. “Like it? Or is this too mushy for you?”

“Shut up and continue rubbing,” Dash muttered in response.

“Is that right? Why would I do that then? I remember somepony swatting my flank right in view of my lieutenant,” Spitfire said with a devious smirk while keeping Rainbow pinned down in the corner.

Dash’s eyes went wide and started stuttering. “W-well… uhm… please?”

“You’re going to have to do a bit better than that,” Spitfire smirked, leaning forward to whisper into Dash’s ear. “So tell me, what will you offer for a good belly rub?”

“I-I could take care of washing your clothes?” Rainbow offered, Spitfire didn’t look convinced yet though as she glanced out of the shower towards the window to see darkness falling on the outside world.

“Hmm, that would be a good start, but I was thinking more along the lines of Soarin’s suggestion and get closer acquainted with each other.”

“Y-You know there are more ponies in the house, right?” Rainbow replied with an increasingly better-defined blush.

“Guess you’ll just have to keep any squeaks to a minimum then,” Spitfire smirked, kissing Dash on the lips before she stepped out of the shower and started to dry herself off. Rainbow, quickly washed the rest of the soap out of her coat and shut off the shower. Spitfire by that point was already done and hung up her towel to dry, looking back over her shoulder at Rainbow as she stood in the doorway.

“See you in the bedroom, don’t let me wait for too long.”

Filly

View Online

Spitfire yawned as the first rays of sunlight seeped through the curtains. Soft snoring came from a certain blue pegasus beside her that, in her sleep, had practically attached herself to the captain. Spitfire smiled and blushed simultaneously as memories of the previous night came rushing back.

I hope we didn’t wake any of the others last night...

Rainbow mumbled something incoherent in her sleep as she buried her face deeper into Spitfire’s chest, sighing contently as she got comfortable there.

I wonder what I did to deserve somepony like Rainbow taking me in...

Spitfire brushed a hoof through Rainbow’s hair, the fellow pegasus stirring and yawning as she woke as well.

“Morning beautiful.”

“Good morning,” Rainbow replied with a doubly raspy morning voice, yet to fully wake as she found comfort against Spitfire’s warm body.

A knock on the door did get both their attention though. “Are y’all awake yet?” they could faintly hear through the door.

“Yeah, we’re up Apple Bloom,” Dash responded, untangling herself from her marefriend and stretching on the bed.

“Okay! Breakfast will be ready in a couple of minutes!” the filly called out from the other side of the door, the sound of hooves going down the stairs indicating that she was gone again.

“Well, I guess we should go check out what they have in store for us then,” Spitfire smiled as she too rolled out of bed and did a few stretches.

“Probably something apple-related. Not complaining though, AJ, granny, and Big Mac all can cook up some wicked food with their apples,” Rainbow said, praising the apple family’s skill in making food with their namesake fruit.

“I’ll take your word for it... and that of Soarin’s too, considering his praise for those pies,” Spitfire chuckled in response, pecking Rainbow on the cheek.

“I can get used to waking like this,” Rainbow smirked as she followed Spitfire out of the room and down towards the kitchen. The smell of freshly baked pancakes entering their nostrils.

“Morning AJ,” Dash called out to the farmpony as she loaded the last of the pancakes she was making onto a plate.

“Good mornin’, ya two. Had fun last night?” Applejack responded with a cheeky smile, passing a plate of pancakes to the pegasi. Dash’s cheeks went red with a blush as she tried to hide behind her stack of pancakes while Spitfire maintained a steely poker face.

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dash stuttered, stuffing a pancake in her mouth after having drowned it in syrup.

“No point lyin’ ta me ‘bout somethin’ Ah could hear pretty clearly. Ah sleep next ta the guest room, remember?” Applejack said as she sat down at the table too.

“What are y’all takin’ about?” Apple Bloom questioned with a mouthful of pancake herself.

“Nothin’ a little filly like herself need worry ‘bout,” Applejack chuckled, then made eye contact with both Spitfire and Rainbow. “Don’t ya two agree with me?” the farmpony added. Her voice as cold as the snow outside made even Spitfire shrink down.

“Yeah, of course!” Rainbow answered, making Apple Bloom huff as she obviously wasn’t getting an answer. The four ponies quietly continued to eat the stacks pancakes on their plates until Applejack spoke up again.

“So what are y’all plannin’ to do today?” the farmpony asked, Apple Bloom spoke up first.

“Gonna hang out with Sweetie, maybe Scoots too... if she shows up that is.”

“Anything wrong with the squirt?” Rainbow asked with concern, Apple Bloom shrugged in reply.

“She was actin’ strange yesterday, said she might not be there today. Wouldn’t be the first time either. Usually pops back up after a day, maybe two... or three,” Bloom said, stuffing the final pancake into her mouth. Applejack glanced between her little sister and Rainbow in concern, the blue pegasus scowling at that bit of information.

“Well, that settles what we’re going to do today,” Spitfire spoke up, pouring some more syrup over her remaining pancake. “If she isn’t with you, where would we find her?”

Apple Bloom swallowed her pancake as she nervously shrugged. “Dunno...”

“Bloom,” Applejack sternly said, “Ah can see ya know a smidgen more than that.”

Cringing back, Apple Bloom sighed. “Sweetie and Ah followed her once... found her spot at the edge of the Everfree. Someplace between the cow barn and Fluttershy’s, other end of the river though.”

“That’s... concerning. Thank you Apple Bloom, that will help to massively,” Spitfire said, nudging Rainbow in the side. “Up for a little search?”

“Always!” Rainbow smirked confidently, though she wasn’t able to mask her concern completely.

“Jus’... don’t tell her Ah told ya where ta look, last time she got really upset with Sweetie and mahself.”

“Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Spitfire looked on as Rainbow made some weird motions with her hooves and said the hymn. Apple Bloom immediately accepted the gesture though so she wasn’t going to bring it up now.

I’ll have to ask the significance of that while we search for that filly.

“Well, Ah’ll be ‘round the farm if ya need me. Try not ta get into too much trouble you tw- three.” Applejack got up and placed her plate in the sink, leaving the kitchen through the back door to do her business. Apple Bloom got her stuff and waited for the two older pegasi to finish up too, they were going to check at Rarity’s place first to see if Scootaloo had actually gone there to avoid needless searching.

On the road into town Rainbow tried prying some more information out of the earthpony filly but it quickly became apparent that she really didn’t know anything else about what Scootaloo had been doing at the edge of the Everfree. After exchanging pleasantries with Rarity at her boutique and confirming that the little pegasus hadn’t arrived there, Spitfire and Rainbow set off to search. The two of them flew in very close formation, something that took a well-trained discipline to do for a pegasus as it required them to override their crash avert instincts, to make talking at higher flight speed easier.

“So, what was that riddle with that cupcake all about?” Spitfire asked as she scanned the ground for any signs or orange.

“Hmm? Oh, the Pinkie Promise? It’s something Pinkie Pie does, it’s a promise you can’t break or you’ll lose your friends-”

”Forever!”

Spitfire missed a wingbeat, forcing Dash to quickly adjust her own flight. “Wait, what? What the hay?! How-”

“It’s Pinkie,” Rainbow flatly stated. “Don’t bother with trying to understand.”

“Right...” Spitfire muttered as she returned to scanning the ground, noticing a spot of orange in the white blanket of snow that covered the ground. “Dash, near that large patch of trees.”

“I see her,” Dash confirmed as the two lowered their altitude and went in for a landing a bit away from the patch of trees. “You know, we could watch her for a bit to see what she’s doing?”

“Would you appreciate somepony studying you from a distance?” Spitfire asked bluntly, Rainbow shaking her head. “Guess we know what we’re going to do then.” With that said, Spitfire took the lead Rainbow quickly coming up beside her as they stepped into the patch of trees.

“Squirt, you in here?” Rainbow called out, the only reply from a few birds that startled and flew away. “We saw you from above!”

That got more of a response as leaves rustled, Scootaloo’s head poking out of a brush. Snow and ice clung to her hair and coat as she revealed more of herself. “H-Hey Rainbow... Captain Spitfire?”

“Just hanging out with my marefriend,” Spitfire said as she closed the gap with the filly, sitting down in the snow with her. Rainbow took a seat on the other side of the filly.

“So what were you doing here, Scoots?” Rainbow asked as she looked out towards the edge of the Everfree The thickly packed trees looking more haunted now they were without leaves and covered in a thick layer of snow. This time of year the rogue weather would turn the normally dangerous place into a completely untraversable snowy mess. How Zecora was able to tolerate the place, knowing she came from a place that had no snow, was beyond Dash.

“Well... You know, It’s a good place to think. Quiet and usually nopony gets on this side of the river with it being this close to the Everfree.” The tone Scootaloo’s voice made it clear that she wasn’t happy about being disturbed but she’d play ball for the moment.

“You mind us staying here for a while?” Spitfire asked, Scootaloo shrugged noncommittally. Silence fell over the three ponies as they just sat in the snow, Rainbow doing her very best not to fidget as she quickly got bored of the silence.

“Who told you where to find me? It was Apple Bloom, wasn’t it?” Scootaloo asked out of nowhere. “Sweetie can at least lie, Bloom not so much.”

“They’re concerned, and to be honest, when we heard you disappear so every now and then we were too,” Spitfire spoke up before Rainbow could say anything, reaching out with a wing to nudge Scootaloo’s side. She immediately scowled as she felt how cold the filly was. “You’re really cold.”

Spitfire stood up and cleared some of the snow, got a few branches laying about, and blasted them with a fireball. The fire wasn’t that large but it didn’t have to be as the dragonfire burned way hotter than any regular fire. Scootaloo immediately went a little closer to the fire to heat herself up.

“Scoots, how long have you been out here?” Rainbow asked, wrapping a wing around the filly to help her warm. Scootaloo’s body feeling so cold that it might as well have been a block of ice.

“Well, I...” The filly muttered something after that but neither Rainbow nor Spitfire picked up what.

“Look, you’re going to get sick like this. We need to get you inside somewhere to heat up properly,” Spitfire assessed. “Where do you live? I’m sure your parents-”

“I DON’T HAVE A HOUSE ANYMORE!” Scootaloo snapped, tears springing into her eyes and her voice cracking. “A-And I don’t have parents either.” Tears rolled over her cheeks as she trembled, floodgates now opened. “I-I can’t e-even fly yet... I-I’m just a f-failure of a pegasus... T-that scooter is a-all I have left...”

That house I pulled her from... why didn’t I make that connection sooner?

Spitfire swallowed a lump in her throat as the filly completely broke down crying against Rainbow who desperately looked at the captain for support. Sliding in closer Spitfire wrapped both Dash and Scootaloo in a hug, letting the filly cry into their coats while also getting warmed by them.

“I’m sorry,” Spitfire apologized as the crying lessened. “Rainbow, do you have a place where she can stay?”

“We can go over to Twilight’s. She’s always wining how she’s got too much space anyway.” Rainbow wrapped Scootaloo in her forelegs and went into a hover. “Can you take the scooter, Spits?”

“Got it,” Spitfire said as she picked up the one bit of property Scootaloo still had, following Rainbow as she took flight towards the castle on the other end of town.

“Hey Spits, if you want to stay out of sight you should loop around the north just in case,” Rainbow spoke up as they came up on the edge of the village but Spitfire shook her head in response.

“Look, this is more important than the off chance that a reporter just happens to be looking up,” the captain countered as she followed Dash over the houses, the speed at which they were flying rapidly bringing them to the large crystal castle. Without knocking Rainbow pushed through the door, Spike jumped in surprise as he happened to be in the main hall at that moment.

“Hey Rainbow... Captain spitfire? Aren’t you supposed to be in Cloudsdale or Canterlot or something? Oh, hey Scoots, You okay?” Spike added as he noticed the filly standing between Rainbow’s legs.

“We were in Cloudsdale, did what we could for the moment and Soarin said he could handle the rest for a while.” Rainbow stepped forward, leaving Scootaloo next to Spitfire. “Is Twilight around?”

“Down in the basement. She’s going through more stuff on half-dragons like Spitfire.”

“Thanks... Hey Spike, weird request but do you mind bringing Spitfire and Scoots to a bathroom for a warm bath?”

“Uhhh sure?” the dragon answered, not quite sure what to make of it but it didn’t seem like too hard of a request to fulfil.

“Thanks, I’ll go down to see Twilight then to talk to her about some things.” Rainbow looked over to Spitfire who gave her a nod before heading down towards the basement.

“Sooo... Bathroom is this way, follow me.” Spike lead them up the stairs towards one of the hallways, pointing them into a fairly large bathroom with both a bath and a shower. “Everything should be stocked up in here, You can use a towel from the drying rack there. If you need me, I’ll be in the library.”

The little dragon left the two behind, Scootaloo and Spitfire looking awkwardly at each other for a moment. “Shower or bath?”

“Shower I guess...” Scootaloo answered, waiting for Spitfire to get everything set up, being surprised as the Wonderbolt stepped into the running shower with her.

“Extend your wings,” Spitfire ordered as the hot water melted away all the ice out of the two feathery appendages. “Now tell me, what were you doing at that particular spot?”

“Just thinking,” Scootaloo murmured, looking down at her hooves while the water warmed her back up.

“There are more opportune places not so near to arguably the most dangerous location in Equestria,” Spitfire pointed out, continuing on with washing Scootaloo’s hair. “You sure that’s the entire reason?”

Scootaloo tried to sink away further but Spitfire didn’t allow her to do so. “Just trying to help kid, you know that.”

“I-It’s where... timberwolves...” Scootaloo’s voice was barely a croak, just loud enough to be heard, sniffing as she tightly squeezed her eyes shut.

Timberwolves? but- Oh no... not having parents... Alone at home... kid not able to fly...

A couple of the puzzle pieces in suddenly snapped in Spitfire mental puzzle as she pulled Scootaloo close, feeling tears well up in her eyes too. “You lost your parents there.”

Scootaloo nodded as she pressed herself against the captain. “T-They moved down here f-for me so I-I could learn to fly safely...”

“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t run off that day...”

“What if’s... maybe... could have... Hindsight is twenty-twenty Scootaloo. You couldn’t have known what would happen,” Spitfire told her, her own gut twisting in ways she wasn’t aware it could at the misfortune Scootaloo had endured. “Just how many times have you gone back there and had nothing happen?”

“Dunno. A lot?”

“And that one first time the freak accident happened.” Spitfire turned Scootaloo around and raised her chin up with a hoof so she could look the filly straight in the eyes. Her entire body was screaming at her to comfort her, tell her it wasn’t her fault, it was almost... maternal?

Why do I feel like this? She’s not my kid... yet still...

“Spitfire?”

“Sorry, it’s just... Have you been living alone all this time?” Spitfire asked the filly, who nodded in the affirmative.

“M-my aunt used to live here too she just... couldn’t live being reminded of her sister every day...” Scootaloo sniffed as she wiped away her tears, “She sends a monthly allowance and goes to school to check up with miss Cheeriliee but that’s about it... and now without the house...”

Spitfire had to swallow back some fire, her temper flaring.

She dared to leave a filly alone in town?!

“Don’t worry about the house kid, you’re not sleeping outside on my watch,” Spitfire nearly growled, turning off the shower. “Did Rainbow know?”

Scootaloo shook her head. “No... I don’t think anyone really remembers, we were new and Dash didn’t even live here back then... Pinkie is the only one who does know something I think.”

I think I’m going to ask her some questions then.

“hmm... Hey kid?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“You’re sticking with me from now on.”

Snowballs

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Spitfire walked down the stairs in the main hall with Scootaloo laying on her back, heading for the door that she knew lead into the library. Rainbow hadn't come up to join them so Spitfire assumed she was still down with Twilight for some reason. Taking the stairs down she found Rainbow and Twilight sitting with a file of documents in front of them, the two ponies looking at her... no Scootaloo, with pity in their eyes.

"Missed you up in the shower Rainbow, didn't run off with Princess Twilight here while I was upstairs now, did you?" Spitfire smirked to take the attention off Scootaloo as she felt the filly shrink away on her back.

"Well, yes- I mean, no! I Uhh, not like that! we just..." Rainbow blushed and stammered, Twilight levitating the file of paper in front of her.

"What Dash means to say is that after she explained some things I teleported her to the town hall so we could find some files," Twilight explained, pulling out a newspaper from the file. "Though I've made it clear to Ponyvillians that I want to be treated normally, they still very happily help their local princess plough through bureaucracy to get what she needs."

Reading the headline of the local newspaper made Spitfire swallow a lump that instantly grew in her throat. It was about Scootaloo's parents and how they had come to die.

"That no-one took a better look at Scootaloo's situation here... I don't even have the words," Twilight said. "I'm going to have to contact autho-"

"And then what?" Spitfire snapped, cutting off Twilight mid sentence. "They're just going to take her away aren't they?" Spitfire took half a step back and her knees bent a little as she got ready to either pounce or run if anything were to go in a way she didn't like, fangs poking out over her lips and ears flat against her head.

"Uh, Spits, what's wrong?" Rainbow asked with concern as she took a step forward, Spitfire turned slightly to shield Scootaloo who was still on her back.

"What's wrong? You're going to get Canterlot child services involved and they're going to take Scootaloo away!" Spitfire snarled, her focus squarely on Twilight. Fangs fully beared as she shuffled back towards the exit up to the main hall.

"Captain Spitfire, please stand down. Don't make me-" Twilight tried to get the captain to settle but Spitfire only got more agitated.

"Make you do what?!"

A magic bolt nearly as bright as the sun flew past Rainbow's head at a hoof's distance and impacted Spitfire on the side of her face, her body immediately falling limp. Dash jumped around in shock that Twilight would do such a thing.

"TWI! WHAT THE BUCK?!" she exclaimed in astonishment, looking back over to her marefriend who, along with Scootaloo, was being held in a levitation field so they wouldn't smack into the ground.

"Rainbow, listen to me, Spitfire was no longer acting logically. I can explain," Twilight said, levitating Scootaloo, who still didn't quite understand what in the world was going on, over to Rainbow.

"Well, get to explaining then!" Rainbow said loudly as she held Scootaloo close and shielded her from Twilight while the alicorn floated Spitfire over to a makeshift bed set up in the basement.

"You know Spitfire is part dragon and dragon instinct dictates to them that they have to create a hoard. You remember Spike, right?" Twilight started, Rainbow's glare telling her to continue. "But of course there's a pony part of her too and our kind puts emphasis on herding, the occasional book-pony exception of course, but that's the trend. We put heavy emphasis on grouping up and caring for each other."

"So what? What does that have to do with you KNOCKING OUT MY MAREFRIEND?!" Rainbow fumed, making Twilight cringe back a bit.

"Combine the need to create a hoard with a need to stay close to other ponies and you might start to understand," Twilight simply replied, laying down Spitfire as comfortable as possible. "It's something I found out in my research. I know she considers you part of that 'hoard' but I think we just saw her add Scootaloo to that list too. No doubt the Wonderbolts are also part of it to some degree."

Rainbow's stance softened a bit as she started to understand what just happened. "So do you think she'd..."

"Have either ran or jumped me? Absolutely. I was being a threat to her hoard in her eyes," Twilight answered confidently, Looking down at Scootaloo who was just staring at the unconscious captain with wide eyes. "Are you okay with that, Scootaloo?"

"I-I uhh..." the filly's voice was barely a croak. "Don't know..."

"Don't worry squirt, we'll talk about this after Spitfre wakes up again," Rainbow said, shooting another glare at Twilight. Spitfire stirred again by then, surprising the alicorn.

"How is she already... doesn't matter. Rainbow can you make sure she's calm while she wakes?" Twilight stepped away from the bed and let Rainbow approach.

"As you command, your Royal Highness," Rainbow said mockingly as she jumped up on the bed and took Spitfire's head on her lap, brushing her hair with a hoof.

"Rainbow..."

"Drop it Twilight, not in the mood right now," Rainbow told her as Spitfire groaned and opened her eyes. She looked around in confusion for a bit until she felt Scootaloo nuzzle up to her. Her eyes immediately focussed onto Twilight as she sluggishly grabbed a hold of Scootaloo and held her close.

"You-"

"Captain, you need to listen to me," Twilight stopped her, Spitfire wanted to rebuff the Princess but stopped as she felt Rainbow place a hoof on her shoulder.

"Give her a chance to explain, Spits."

"Fine," Spitfire huffed.

"Thank you. Now to repeat what I told Rainbow, you just had an encounter with your own instincts. Ones I assume you never really fully felt until now." Twilight sighed, pulling a few parchments out to show to the captain. "Previous hybrids of your kind have shown an extreme tendency for protecting their own, something I identified you were showing too when you thought I was taking Scootaloo away. Faced with the prospect of your mood swinging and attacking me... well, I decided knocking you out was preferable to burns."

Spitfire found enough strength to sit back up, keeping both Rainbow and Scootaloo pulled close, though she paled ever so slightly. "I think I get it... My deepest apologies Princess, I did not mean-"

"You did, but I don't fault you for not clearly not knowing your own instincts," Twilight cut her off. "But that brings us back to the matter of Scootaloo. Something has to be done on that front, that's not a debatable matter, but I'm sure we could make some arrangements you find agreeable."

"I'm... thank you, Princess."

"It's just Twilight for my friends, Spitfire. Now, take your time getting back up because that stun you just shrugged off should have knocked you out for hours," She said sheepishly. "Now I have a lot of ponies to write and some stinging questions to ask them, I know you're sleeping at AJ's but if she doesn't have the space to keep the three of you then feel free to drop in on the castle and take one of my redundant sleeping quarters."

"Of course Pri- Twilight."

"Yeah, thanks I guess. Hope you don't mind if we head up and into town for a bit because that's what we're going to do," Rainbow told her as she helped Spitfire onto her legs. "Come on Scoots, anywhere you want to go?"

"Sugarcube corner?" Scootaloo innocently suggested.

"You've got it squirt," Rainbow chuckled. "Hey Twi, mind if we take one of your scarves for Scoots here?"

"No, go ahead. Feel free to take one yourself too, you can return them later," Twilight smiled. Rainbow nodded and helped Spitfire up the stairs and got a couple of scarves from a closet at the main entrance, giving one to each of them before heading out back into the snow.

"So we don't care if we run into media anymore now?" Rainbow asked as they got onto the main road into town, Spitfire shrugged in reply.

"They can kiss my plot," she said casually, a devious glint in Rainbow's eye as a smirk grew in her lips.

"I thought that was my job."

Whack!

"Not with the kid around!" Spitfire blushed furiously as she hit Rainbow over the back of her head with a wing, Scootaloo meanwhile snickered at the adult's their antics.

“I'm sure she won't taddle off about our little conversations.” Rainbow stuck out her tongue at Spitfire. “Will you Scoots?”

"Nope," Scootaloo happily squeaked.

"That's not... You're the worst, Rainbow," Spitfire grumbled.

"Yet you still love me," Rainbow rubbed her side against the captain and nuzzled her neck.

"Shut up you silly mare." Spitfire pressed her lips against Rainbow's to silence her. The sound of gagging behind them pulled the two from their moment, Scootaloo acting as if she was about to throw up. "Don't you start little filly, remember who's paying for the sweets around here."

Scootaloo immediately straightened up and gave her best innocent smile. Spitfire opened her mouth to say something only for a snowball to impact the side of her head, swirling around she found Rainbow already making a second but getting hit squarely in the face before she could throw that one too.

"Score!" Scootaloo giggled as she dove behind Spitfire for cover, the captain receiving the snowball meant for the filly making the score 2-0 for Rainbow.

"Oh, you're so on!" Spitfire laughed as she scooped up snow with her wing and flung it towards Rainbow. The three mares continued to exchange fire with each other while running on towards Sugarcube corner, completely covered in snow and laughing as they arrived there.

"I totally won that!" Rainbow laughed as she pushed the door open.

"You sure about that Dash? Scootaloo here got you pretty good a few times," Spitfire laughed back, looking around as a few ponies looked up from their tables at the newcomers.

"Hey Dashie! Whacha doing here?" Pinkie rushed over from the counter.

"Just getting something for the two foals here, mind getting us all hot cocoa with cream Pinks?" Dash asked the pink mare.

"Okiedokie! Take a seat and I'll be right with you!" In a flash she was gone again, disappearing into the kitchen. Rainbow leading them to a table where they sat down and caught their breaths. Pinkie swiftly came back with a tray of drinks and accompanying cupcakes. "Enjoy!"

Without saying anything else the pink pony returned to her post at the counter. Spitfire had half the mind to ask if Pinkie knew about Scootaloo's situation right there but left it to do at another time, preferring to just enjoy the sweets they'd gotten. In the corner of her vision Spitfire noticed a pegasus constantly glancing at her, scribbling things on a notepad constantly while trying to appear as if she wasn't watching them.

Guess that does it for staying out of the eye of the press

Ignoring the pony sitting further down the row Spitfire just peacefully drank her hot drink. Eventually, a grey pegasus foal shyly came walking towards the table.

"Hey Chipcutter, what's up?" Scootaloo smiled as she noticed the colt approach.

"H-Hey Scoots," He swallowed nervously, stammering. "I, uhh, w-wanted to ask if Captain Spitfire could sign m-my journal."

Spitfire smiled down at him and ruffled his hair, getting his journal. "Of course kid, got a pencil for me?"

Chipcutter's eyes went wide as he realized he hadn't. "Oh, uhm, I..."

The captain chuckled and pointed at the reporter sitting further up. "Don't worry, just ask that reporter over there. She has a pencil which she surely won't object lending to you."

The reporter looked as if she'd just been caught with her hoof in a cookie jar as the attention of the entire table she was observing fell upon her. Chipcutter walked over to the pony and asked her for the pencil which she gave him, the filly passing it along to Spitfire to sign his journal for him. After Chipcutter happily ran off with his journal Spitfire held up the pencil for the journalist to come retrieve. The mare approaching the group with red cheeks taking the pencil back.

"Who do you write for?" Spitfire asked after hoofing over the implement.

"The Baltimare Sun," She replied as Spitfire pointed at a chair for her to get and sit down with them. Rainbow just looked on as she let Spitfire do her thing while Scootaloo chomped down on one of the cupcakes.

"Hmm, interesting... and you are?"

"I, uh, am Icy Quill. A pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"If it's my pleasure is yet to be determined," Spitfire replied, taking a gulp from her cocoa. "Anything interesting on that notepad of yours?"

"Well... nothing important really. I wasn't exactly expecting to run into you here, the just sent me out to ask around to see if anypony around here would say something interesting... there were a few things I would love to talk to you about those," she sheepishly said.

"What about?" Spitfire asked with mild curiosity.

“At first it was about that code red storm, but after that Gawking Unicorn reporter took that picture of you in the castle's balcony... Well, I tried talking to the locals but they don't really seem to want to talk to me after that happened."

That's another point for Ponyville... This town is really trying to make me like them.

"And what exactly did you find out about the storm?" Rainbow asked, leaning forward a bit.

"For one I know you two were both there, I also heard there was a fire where somepony rushed in and saved a filly. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" Icy held her pencil at the ready to write down the response from either Rainbow or Spitfire.

"That was me," Scootaloo spoke up instead.

"Excuse me?"

"That filly in the burning building was me," Scootaloo elaborated, finishing her cupcake. The pencil dropped from Icy's mouth as it fell open. "And the pony that got me out was Spitfire."

"I... give me a moment," Icy swiftly picked up the pencil again and started scribbling down things at lightning speed, maybe even rivalling Twilight for speed. "Captain, can you describe how the events running up to that day played out?"

This sounds like her article might turn out very positive for me... Guess I'll chance it and hope for the best.

Spitfire sighed and started regaling her side of the story, Rainbow and Scootaloo jumped in to add on their parts of the story. Scootaloo had some issues with her part and slid up to Spitfire, hiding under her wing as she recalled the terrifying moment. In the end, their interview turned more into a cordial conversation where Spitfire even explained some of her hybrid features. After talking for a good hour Icy decided she had enough, thanking Spitfire for answering questions and leaving the three alone again.

"I don't think I've ever seen a reporter that genuinely happy," Rainbow said after the pegasus in question had left.

"Yeah, we'll see where that goes but I'm carefully positive," Spitfire agreed, standing up from the table. "Say, Scootaloo, shall we go find your other two friends and see if we can pepper them with snowballs?"

Scootaloo brightened up and nodded, Rainbow smirking as well as the three got up. They paid Pinkie and were off to Carrousel Boutique as that was where Rainbow and Spitfire had split off from Apple Bloom. Rarity helpfully pointed them to Ponyville's park from there after which Scootaloo knew where to point them. After arriving there they found a large group of fillies already engaged in a snowball fight with a smaller one and beating them.

"Oh boy... Bloom and Sweetie might need some help here instead," Scootaloo observed as she noticed her two friends hiding behind a small pile of snow.

"You go ahead, Scoots, hold them off until we come into play with a little air support," Spitfire grinned, looking at Rainbow. Scootaloo threw a salute and ran off to help the losing group while the adults stepped back and made a small pile of snowballs which they could carry and drop from above.

"Strategy?" Rainbow asked as they finished their piles quickly.

"Close formation low altitude approach with a last moment pull up to create the maximum amount of scatter, then disengage and take cover with our allies," Spitfire couldn't help but laugh as she grabbed all the snowballs in her hooves and took off. Rainbow was close on her tail as they approached the group of fillies, the moment they got over the large group they pulled up so the snowballs wouldn't all drop in the same place but drift apart before blanketing a larger area. The look on the children's faces as the two adults loosened their payload was priceless.

Spitfire and Rainbow laughed as they landed behind the opposing team's barricades and formed new snowballs. With the other team slowly getting out of their stupor, and an added taste for revenge, they redoubled their efforts. After a long drawn out snowball fight it eventually died down a bit, only for the factions to come together and pepper the adults in a final barrage.

"We surrender!" Spitfire exclaimed by the end as both she and Dash were completely covered in snow, a cheer going through the crowd of fillies. Slowly the crowd broke up again as they each presumably went home to warm up again, some coming by to say hi to the Wonderbolt. Eventually, The only ones left were Spitfire, Rainbow, Scootaloo, Bloom, and Sweetie.

"Thanks fer the help there, we were really strugglin' before ya came along," Apple Bloom chuckled, Sweetie agreeing with her.

"The original idea was to pepper you two but joining the underdog was too good an opportunity," Spitfire smirked back.

"Maybe next time then," Sweetie giggled. "I should get back to Rarity's, see you girls tomorrow?"

"Sound good ta me," Apple Bloom agreed. Scootaloo looked up at Spitfire to see what she'd say.

"Hey, don't look at me. If you want to go then I'm not stopping you," Spitfire smiled, nudging the filly with a wing.

"See you two tomorrow then!"

Magic

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Spitfire read through the article of her interview she'd given two days prior in the Baltimare Sun. Soarin had been kind enough to send someone with the paper over as the didn't have it in Ponyville. Along with it, the Lieutenant also sent a letter that remained unopened on the table as she read the newspaper first.

The headline that stated 'Captain Spitfire, a hero?' had worried her greatly but after reading the article itself she found the answer it gave to be a resounding yes. The tale of the storm and the house fire she'd ran into being regaled by the journalist in almost the same way as she'd been told days prior.

I'll have to look into getting her a Wonderbolt press pass, that should raise her profile and help out her career.

Spitfire folded up the paper as the door to the dining hall opened and both Spike and Scootaloo entered. “Good morning you two,” she greeted. She and Rainbow had decided to take up Twilight on her offer to house them, since Scootaloo couldn't fly Rainbow's house was out of the question. Another bonus of staying at the castle had been that she stayed in the loop with Twilight.

“Morning,” Scootaloo groggily replied sitting down at the table while Spike continued to the kitchen.

“Did you sleep well?” Spitfire continued, ruffling the filly's hair with a wing.

“Good enough I guess,” she giggled, squirming from under the wing. The two fell silent for a bit as Scootaloo shuffled closer to the captain and leaned against her.

“H-hey Spitfire, can I ask you something?” Scootaloo eventually sputtered.

“Always,” Spitfire replied.

“Well, Twilight explained a bit how half-dragons like you make hoards and stuff and with how you're doing all that boring paperwork... What are we?”

Spitfire looked down at Scootaloo who was looking straight up into her eyes, letting the question sink in.

That's a very good question...

“I... don't know,” she admitted. “Rainbow is my marefriend, the other 'Bolts are like family, and you...” Spitfire didn't know just where exactly she'd place Scootaloo.

The filly nervously ruffled her wings. “Do you really want me as your filly?” Scootaloo bluntly asked, trembling slightly. Spitfire opened her mouth to reply but the words got stuck in her throat for a bit, only one answer coming to mind.

“Yes.”

Scootaloo wrapped her legs around Spitfire's barrel as far as she could, hugging her tightly as she cried into older mare's coat.

My filly... Wow...

Spitfire opened her wing and used it to rub over Scootaloo's back, holding her close.

“Thank you.” Scootaloo smiled brightly as she wiped away her final tears, Spike coming back with sandwiches for them.

“Whoa, did I miss something?” he asked as he noticed the wet streaks on Scootaloo's cheeks.

“Just something personal with Spitfire here,” Scootaloo replied, picking out one of the sandwiches.

“Alright, I see. Is Rainbow coming down soon?” Spike asked as he got his own sandwich and chomped down on it.

“She was sleeping like a brick when I got out of bed, she is probably still there,” Spitfire smirked. "I'll go get her after finishing this delightful sandwich."

“Actually, I'll go get her. Twilight wanted to see you downstairs and talk about some draconic spell.”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow at that comment from Spike. A spell, really? How would I, a half pegasus half-dragon, be able to cast a spell?!

Spike with but a single glance was able to guess the exact train of thought Spitfire was having. “I'm not the expert but I'm going to gamble on her trying to teach you how to send dragon mail.”

“Awesome...” Scootaloo silently said.

“Then I shouldn't keep her waiting,” Spitfire said with a smile, swiftly cramming the rest of her sandwich into her mouth. After ruffling Scootaloo's hair she made her way into the Princess' underground lab. It was fairly well cleaned up this morning as she noticed Twilight studying a chalkboard with equations.

“Princ- Twilight? Spike said you had something to teach me?” The raspy voice pulled Twilight from her thoughts towards Spitfire, a smile immediately forming on her lips as she walked around with a small stack of parchments.

“Good morning! I got up a bit earlier to set up some stuff, it's not that often that I indulge in this kind of magic.”

“I assume you're talking about dragon mail?” Spitfire asked, taking a seat across from Twilight at the desk the Princess had taken a seat.

“That is correct, how did- Oh, of course, Spike probably figured out what I was doing.” Twilight sheepishly smiled, making Spitfire chuckle. "But yes, he's right. You have at least some draconic magic in there and I want to test if it's enough for something more complicated than breathing fire."

"Well, it sounds immensely useful. So what do I have to do?"

Levitating over the chalkboard Twilight set it down next to them, wiping away at least half the equations on there. "Let's not jump too far ahead, first you need to find out how exactly you breathe your flames."

Giving Twilight a confused stare Spitfire blew out a small plume of fire. "You know... by just doing it?"

"Hmm, so it's completely intuitive to you..." Twilight muttered, writing down a note for later. "In that case, I want to put a spell on you so you can feel what I mean. Dragonfire isn't like real fire as you might have noticed at some time in your life, it is magical in nature. Spike has a very good grasp on his own but I'll admit that might be because of the particular company he's found himself in."

"A slightly mad scholar?" Spitfire immediately clamped her hooves over her muzzle in shock. You did not just say that directly to the Princess' face!

To her relief Twilight let out a laugh. "That's one way of putting it," she chuckled. "Now about that spell, it will give you an increased sense of the flow of your magic and if you're anything like spike you should notice most changes happen in your chest when breathing fire."

"A-Alright," Spitfire stuttered with a sheepish smile, glad Twilight didn't make more of that comment. The alicorn activated her horn, letting magic wrap around the half-dragon and giving her a tingly feeling.

Whoa, is this how unicorns see the world?

She could feel the ordered tendrils of magic surrounding her, the intricate patterns being so complex that they were far beyond understanding to her. The ambient magical pressure of the room was also noticeable to her but what really stood out was Princess Twilight herself, the sheer amount of magic contained in her made Spitfire feel really small.

"I can see from your reaction, the spell is working correctly?" Twilight asked as she cut off her own magic flow, and watched Spitfire look around in wonder.

"It's working alright," the captain breathed out in astonishment. "How long will this last?"

"About an hour, but that's plenty of time for us to practise," Twilight smiled, bringing about her parchment with notes. "Now remember, you need to focus on what is happening in your chest where the fire originates."

Nodding, Spitfire closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt the magic inside of her contract all to the same place, form some kind of shape, and then be expelled through her mouth as fire, all in the matter of a second. Looking up at Twilight with a smile she could almost jump from the chair she was seated on. "I saw something! A pattern of sorts!"

"Perfect! Do it a few more times and try to remember how it looks!" Twilight beamed, scribbling something on her chalkboard while Spitfire continued blowing plumes of fire from her mouth. The pattern became clearer and clearer as she repeated the move over and over, the lines were a bit crude but there was definitely something there.

What if I straighten out the lines a bit, make the pattern clearer...

trying it a final time spitfire took some extra time trying to gather the magic in her, making sure the pattern wasn't just there but immaculate as well.

It showed.

The last ball of fire wasn't just larger but hotter as well, making both herself and Twilight jump back in surprise. "I'm sorry Princess, I-"

"Whoa, calm down there Spitfire," Twilight chuckled yet looking impressed. "You got a handle on that way faster than I had imagined." Showing the chalkboard made Spitfire's eyes widen.

"That's the pattern I'm making when using my fire breath!"

"Well, that's good because this one is Spike's," Twilight smiled. "Now what I want to teach you is how to make this." Twilight took the pattern and removed a section of it, replacing it with another, more complex, section.

"That looks hard," Spitfire admitted, studying the pattern with the same vigour she'd study their flight patterns with.

Wait... just like flight patterns!

Taking another good glance at the pattern she translated every one of the lines to a flight move, from loops to barrel rolls.

"Well, I don't expect you to get it immediately. That's why we're practising after all," Twilight smiled, giving Spitfire one of the empty parchments from her stack. "Spike took a good couple of weeks before he-"

Spitfire gathered her magic and lit the paper on fire, a trail of smoke shooting up and out of the basement.

"-did it absolutely perfectly," Twilight stared at where the parchment's smoke trail had disappeared off to. "How did you..."

"Uhm... I have a talent for it maybe?" Spitfire sheepishly smiled. "My cutie mark is a plume of fire after all."

"That was amazing!" Twilight exclaimed, furiously writing down notes at lightning speed. "I wonder though, to whom did you send that message?"

"What do you mean?" Spitfire asked in confusion, Twilight lowered her parchment and stopped writing. "I just kinda sent it, just like that pattern you showed."

"I..." Twilight's eyes dilated a bit as she studied the lines some more. "Oh no. Stupid, stupid, stupid- Why didn't you take this into account?!"

"Twilight, I'm kind of in the dark here. Mind filling me in?" Spitfire asked as Twilight got off her chair and paced through the basement lab.

"You see, that's the exact same base spell Spike uses to send his messages but if you didn't specify the location which to send it to it might have gone to..." Twilight hesitated, making Spitfire roll her eyes in annoyance.

"Spit it out, Twi-" A hiccup interrupted Spitfire, a plume of fire being forced from her belly as a new, neatly rolled up, scroll appeared in the air. The Captain's eyes went as wide as the could in shock as she recognized the distinct royal seal of the Solar Court.

"...Princess Celestia," Twilight sheepishly finished. "Uhm, congratulations?"

Spitfire meanwhile simply grimaced as she picked up the scroll and saw it was addressed to her.

"Don't worry, I've been sending scrolls to the Princess for the longest of times. She'll understand."

With that re-assurance Spitfire broke the seal and rolled open the parchment, reading the contents. As she read through the letter the grimace slowly turned into a smile. "The princess congratulates me on performing dragonfire magic and invites us both up to Canterlot to learn more about how spell matrixes for this particular kind of magic work exactly."

"Well, I can hardly decline an invitation like that now, can I?" Twilight beamed, levitation all sorts of tomes towards a set of saddlebags while simultaneously writing a letter and sealing it with her own seal. "Now I'll just have Spike- actually, why don't you sent this letter of acceptance to the princess."

"Don't blame me if it turns into a pile of ash," Spitfire warned before repeating the fire breathing technique and sending the letter off successfully.

"Just like you said: a natural," Twilight smirked. "Now, if you could get your stuff and Rainbow then we should be off to Canterlot. We have an appointment with the Princess this afternoon."

With Scootaloo on her back Spitfire, Rainbow, and Twilight made their way over to Canterlot castle. Rainbow still looked groggy in some miraculous way even after having slept on the train ride to the capital. Scootaloo on the other hoof was looking around in wonder at all the buildings while drinking through a straw from a cup of soda Spitfire had gotten her. Twilight had buried herself in a book as she lead the way.

Spitfire though wasn't exactly comfortable with being in the city, being this close to the nobles would normally be enough for her to want to get out but now she was front and centre in their sights she felt like looking over her shoulder at nearly every corner. It didn't help either that a lot of ponies recognized her and the Princess, whispering to each other as they passed.

Dangit Spitfire, you should be used to some gossip by now.

The Royal Guards at one of the side gates of the castle stepped aside after confirming their identities, letting them walk through the gardens towards the main palace. "So, you're going to learn some actual magic now?" Scootaloo asked Spitfire.

"I guess so, but let's not get our hopes up. First I should find a way how to not send letters directly to Princess Celestia," Spitfire smirked, glancing over to Twilight who blushed in response. Scootloo snickered as Twilight tried hiding in her book.

"It's going to be awesome! Maybe we can even incorporate some of the things we learn here in our flight routines!" Rainbow smirked, rubbing up against her marefriend.

"That sounds like a good idea but again, let's start with the basics." Spitfire placed a kiss on Rainbow's cheek as they entered the palace itself. Scootaloo's wonder only went up as they walked through the hallways of the castle, Twilight eventually pushing through a grandiose door guarded by two members of the Solar Guard into a study with all sorts of books lined up in bookcases. "Just asking, but what is this place?"

"Oh, it's just Princess Celestia's private study," Twilight casually said, unloading her books on the central table. Spitfire stopped dead in her tracks, paling as she looked around at all the display cases that had artefacts stored in them.

"Spits, you really need to relax more when the Princesses are mentioned," Rainbow chuckled, nudging her side. "Princess Celestia isn't going to send you to magic kindergarten or something... well now I say that..."

Twilight groaned and tried hiding a blush again as Rainbow shot her a knowing look. "That was only a few times..." she muttered in response.

"I know, old habits," Spitfire sighed, taking a seat at the large central table.

"If you want you can explore around here, Scootaloo. Just don't try to touch the objects in the display cases, most of those are magical," Twilight told the filly who squealed happily and ran off between one of the rows of bookcases.

"So when do you think the Princess is arriving," Rainbow asked Twilight.

"Right about now, Rainbow Dash." The attention of the table turned to the Princess who came walking into the room without the company of her personal guard, Spitfire immediately jumped up and saluted her. "Relax Captain, this is not a professional visit. It's been a while since I got to teach this magic to one who can actually use it, I had thought the next person I would do it for to be Spike."

Scootaloo poked out her head from the bookshelves as well, looking at the Princess in awe.

"Hello there, I see Spitfire and Rainbow decided to take you along," Celestia smiled, glancing over to Rainbow as well. " Say, Rainbow Dash, if my memory doesn't betray me then I think I have Commander Hurricane's personal spear and armour somewhere in this room. Maybe you and Scootaloo would like to try and find it while I talk to Twilight and Spitfire here?"

Rainbow's pupils grew ever so slightly before getting off her pillow and scooping up Scootaloo. "Eeyup, don't mind us!"

Celestia chuckled as the two pegasi were off to find the particular artefact, turning back to the other two ponies at the table. "I have to admit I was quite surprised when a blank parchment arrived that was not sent by Spike."

"My mistake, I'm guessing the delivery target is an inherent part of the matrix itself as opposed to having to feed a target from outside of it?" Twilight speculated.

"That is correct Twilight, and I'll explain to you exactly how to change that configuration around. But first-" Celestia levitated a very heavy tome from a shelf and placed it in front of her, "-a history lesson."

Longma

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"Your kind has popped up briefly across the millennia, though never in large numbers for obvious reasons. Last time I remember hearing about a longma popping up was centuries ago," Celestia explained, going through the opening section of the book. Various artworks of ponies that had dragon parts, all different as some had leathery wings and others horns sprouting from their skull.

"Wait, longma?" Spitfire asked as she studied all the various ponies coming by as the Princess flipped pages.

"It's the original name the eastern ponies gave your kind, their cities lay on the same island the dragonlands are on after all so most of the rare times a pony-dragon hybrid sprung up it was there. They have a few very interesting myths surrounding the hybrids there," The princess explained. "Here in Equestria, they were mostly misidentified as a kirin since some would have similarities with them."

"I was about to ask, why does Spitfire not show more of these draconic traits, Princess?" Twilight asked, noting the clear absence as things like spines on the seemingly normal pegasus.

"I don't know," Celestia answered simply. "It might depend on the traits of the father or it's completely random what traits will pass on. There haven't been exactly a lot of cases to study."

"Right... well, I'm not complaining about it," Spitfire spoke up. "I'm perfectly happy looking just like a pegasus."

"Of course. Now, as I alluded to back when we saw each other, you are not the first of your kind I have crossed paths with. Only it has been a terribly long time since that was last the case," Celestia smiled.

"I wanted to ask about that... Official history does not mention any dragon-pony hybrids directly, but the amount of information on them shouldn't be this extremely scarce."

"The last one seen here in Equestria was Almost five centuries ago, I attempt to keep knowledge alive but even I have my limits," Celestia admitted to her two little ponies. "There are many facts lost to time and my memory isn't flawless either. That and there have been many times in the last millennia where forces have actively tried suppressing information for their own gain."

"The nobility?" Spitfire guessed, Celestia gave her a nod to confirm the Captain's suspicion. "Sounds about right for them," she growled.

"I'd defend my ponies but can't deny some of them let themselves fall to very low points at times," the Princess grimaced, shaking her head and flipping the page. "But let us not think about the troubles with nobility, for now, that can come later. This book mostly consists of old biographies from the earlier longma's but it also contains some more advanced magical spells exclusive to your kind."

Twilight beamed at that, leaning forward a bit to see what kind of annotations there were in the book. Spitfire too got mighty curious, spells were for unicorns of course but ever since sending that message the previous day she'd warmed up to the idea of being able to do more 'active' magic.

"But first, let us fix that message spell so Spitfire here can send messages to other ponies than me," Celestia chuckled. "Twilight, did you take the matrix you taught Spitfire?"

"It's the exact same one Spike uses, I thought she'd have trouble with it but she did it literally in a single try," Twilight replied with a slight grumble, making Celestia chuckle.

"Do I hear a little envy there, my student?" Celestia smirked as she levitated a chalkboard over and reconstructed the matrix as Twilight had done the previous day.

"N-No! Of course not!" Twilight stuttered in response, amusing both Spitfire and Princess Celestia. "Maybe just a little..." she grumbled after.

Shaking her head, Princess Celestia showed the matrix she'd drawn. "This is the pattern you learned, correct?"

"Exactly the one," Spitfire confirmed as she looked over the pattern once again and matched it to the one she knew.

"Good. Now I cannot explain the exact workings of the entirety of the matrix in a single day." The princess wiped out a section of the message matrix and started drawing an expanded section to it. "But I can show you the true message spell, not the smaller condensed version Spike uses to send messages to me." The Princess kept on drawing, the matrix expanding to well over double it's previous size.

"That's... uhm, quite the thing to remember," Spitfire said with widened eyes, what was in front of her now was way more complex than the initial matrix. Twilight was silently making notes and copying the drawing the older Princess had made.

"Of course, it is not a simple thing that can only send a message to one recipient. Though it's not nearly as complicated as the three-dimensional matrixes needed for advanced fire magic like teleportation."

"TELEPORTATION?!" Both Spitfire and Twilight exclaimed simultaneously.

"Well, yes. Dragons are old beings, their magics have been developed for millennia. Just because the current generations of them have no interest in the arcane arts does not mean they were not able to do magnificent things in ages past," Celestia told them with a glint in her eyes from old memories returning. "Now, Spitfire, do you think you can replicate this?"

"This... might take me a few tries," The captain admitted as she studied the pattern, trying to divide it up into portions and correlate them with flight moves as she'd done the first time as well. Twilight went over to the book and skimmed its magic section, trying to take in as much of it as possible while Spitfire attempted to do the spell.

"Can spike do these as well?" Twilight asked with a lowered voice to avoid disturbing Spitfire while she looked at the various pages.

"Given enough time," Celestia replied in an equally hushed tone. "Though, I do not think with as much ease as the Captain here. I think she might have just found the true talent her cutie mark provides her with."

The two alicorns watched the dragon hybrid staring at the patterns with a studious intensity, Twilight could see herself in how serious Spitfire was in trying to memorise the matrix. Thinking she had it memorized, Spitfire grasped for one of the parchments and lit it aflame. The first try ended in failure, the parchment simply disintegrating as the fire licked across it. The second was better as although the paper shred itself into confetti before disintegrating, it did create smoke similar to the first message. Letting out a curse, Spitfire grabbed a third Parchment and sighed. "Third time's the charm, right?"

"That's the saying but no pressure if you need more attempts," Celestia smiled. Spitfire took a deep breath, summoning her fire and reconstructing the matrix and willing the message away. Fire engulfed the empty parchment and turned it into smoke.

"Yes!" Spitfire cheered, less than a second later a yelp and the clatter of metal came from deeper in the study, grabbing the attention of the three ponies at the table. "Was that Rainbow Dash?"

"I think that it was," Celestia answered, trying to hold back a laugh as she stood up and walked towards where the surprised yelp had come from. They found Rainbow fully suited up in Commander Hurricane's battle armour holding an empty piece of parchment while Scootaloo was holding an oversized shield for her and a spear. "I see you two have found the armour then." The white Princess said with barely contained mirth.

"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed as she saw her friend dressed in the ancient artefacts.

"W-We can explain!" Rainbow immediately said, blushing heavily.

"Y-Yeah!" Scootaloo agreed, her face equally as red as Rainbow's.

"You see, Scootallo and I were wondering-"

"-If Rainbow could fit in the armour-"

"-So at first we only took the helmet-"

"-But that wouldn't answer the question if the armour really fit!" Scootaloo finished with an innocent smile. Spitfire just watched on in unbelief.

"Calm down Twilight, I've enchanted these artefacts personally to preserve them. If Rainbow and Scootaloo had the ability to break them I wouldn't have sent them off to go look for them," Celestia snickered at the sight.

"You expected them to try and wear it?" Spitfire asked, a little shocked.

"I've seen enough of Twilight's friendship reports and met her on enough occasions to know it was at least a possibility she'd try..." the princess hid her smile behind a hoof. "...And it isn't like it is the first time she's had it on."

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked, looking less like a kitten that was just caught doing something it wasn't supposed to.

Twilight suddenly had a flash of remembrance. "The Hearts Warming play! You gave us the real artefacts?!"

"Well, your acting was so very good at the rehearsal that I decided to make the play just a little more realistic. It was one of the most true to life re-enactments I saw in a long time," Celestia snickered.

"So the crown you gave to Rarity?" Rainbow asked, now very curious.

"The real one, yes," the Princess confirmed.

"Rarity is so going to freak when she finds that out," Rainbow laughed, joining in with the Princess.

"Do inform me of her reaction if you will."

"Something along the lines of 'Oh my' followed by fainting on her couch," Rainbow laughed, getting Scootaloo to laugh as well. Twilight still was trying to wrap her head around the fact they had played in the play with the actual artefacts. "Anyway, I'm going to guess Spits got that message spell thing down in record time?" Rainbow held up the empty scroll.

"Give me a couple more times and I'll probably have it down to a T," Spitfire smirked confidently.

"I'm sure you would, Captain, but there are some pressing things that we need to discuss considering the Wonderbolts." Celestia had stopped laughing and became more serious. "Rainbow, if you would return that armour to its proper place and join me and Spitfire?"

"Of course, Princess," Dash responded, starting to get out of the metal suit with the help of Twilight and Scootaloo.

"What is this about?" Spitfire asked as she followed Celestia back to the main table of the study.

"Has lieutenant Soarin not informed you yet?" the princess asked. Spitfire's mind immediately went to the unopened letter from Soarin, grabbing it from her saddlebags and opening it up. Quickly skimming the contents she looked back at Celestia.

"The nobility is trying to take away the 'Bolts' funding?" she said incredulously.

"Remember how I said some of my ponies would fall to low points sometimes?" Celestia sighed. "This is one of those times."

"Can we do anything to stop it?" Spitfire grumbled, her fangs fully on display. Rainbow joined them at the table.

"Yes. My support will have already stopped some from daring to vote in favour of this proposal," Celestia explained, "The few nobles that are pegasi will obviously object, the unicorns are the majority in favour, so the true wildcards will be the earthponies."

"So how do we convince them?" Spitfire questioned, leaning in.

"Reassurance you're the right pony for the job will go very far," Celestia told her them. "There's a hearing in the house of lords and ladies in an hour, I can get you in there but I have no right to speak or vote in that chamber unless directly asked."

"So Spitfire will be on her own?" Rainbow asked, wrapping a wing around her marefriend.

"I am afraid so. I cannot let you enter either, I can make sure Blueblood allows the Captain in but no more than that."

"We'll handle it Rainbow, I'm not going to just let them take the Wonderbolts down." Spitfire smiled at Rainbow, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "So Princess, mind if I get dressed for the occasion?"

"Of course not, I will head to Blueblood to get this arranged very swiftly. I expect you to be ready at the entrance of the chamber in forty-five minutes."

Spitfire gave her a salute with her wing. "Yes, ma'am."

Spitfire straightened her uniform, a last check before waiting at the entrance to the chamber. Since Rainbow couldn't join, she had taken Scootaloo into the city to take both their minds of what was happening with Spitfire.

"Captain Spitfire?" she turned around at hearing her name being called, Blueblood strode towards her with his head held high. "Auntie has informed me of her plan, if you would follow me I shall point you to your seat." Spitfire didn't speak up further, she'd heard about the prince's reputation, and on occasion witnessed it, but none of that seemed to bleed through now.

I wonder if this is what he's really like...

Blueblood stopped for a moment at the closed door, straightening his bowtie. "There's a chair to the right after entering, go sit there and just wait to be announced." The moment his hoof touched the door Spitfire could feel his demeanour change, tossing his hair back with an annoyed look on his face he made a beeline straight to his seat in the chamber. Spitfire took place at the seat she was pointed to. The chamber was already filled to the brim with lords and ladies from various places around Equestria. Some whispered to each other as the noticed Spitfire, others were a bit louder.

"What's the meaning of this, Blueblood? That you are late we are used to but taking visitors?" A fatter grey unicorn asked, Spitfire felt like she'd seen this pony before but couldn't place where. "She is not of a noble house, she has no place in this chamber!"

"Oh calm down, I just found her in the palace, Lord Bristle," Blueblood responded, sounding positively bored. "I thought that since we're talking about her anyway I might as well invite her along. That's a motion of course, lord speaker."

"We are not talking about her, we are discussing funding for this wasteful guard branch."

"Tomato, Tomato," Blueblood said, rolling his eyes.

"A motion to allow Captain Spitfire in this chamber has been filed," the speaker called out, cutting the argument short.

"Seconded." Spitfire could see various pegasi in the room had stood up to second the motion but were beaten by another unicorn to the punch, Fleur de Lis if Spitfire remembered correctly.

"Motion to allow Captain Spitfire to speak tabled. All aye's raise hooves." The pegasi all raised their hooves in unison, as did most of the earthponies, but the unicorns only had a few ayes. The same procedure was repeated with the nay's, though there were considerably less of those. It at least seemed there was a willingness to hear her out. "Motion has passed. Captain spitfire, you are allowed to stay. Please take a seat at the stand."

A separate seat was placed in the middle of the room where Spitfire took place. She could see the disapproval and approval clearly on some of the lords and ladies' faces, though others were hard to place. She locked eyes with Fleur de Lis for a fraction of a second who gave her a small nod.

"Now, to the subject tabled for discussion," The speaker announced, levitating a parchment in front of him. "Tabled is the budgetary motion to strip the Guard's special aeronautical team, better known as the Wonderbolts, of funding. Lord Bristle, as this is your motion you have the floor."

“Thank you, honourable lord speaker,” Lord Bristle said, standing up to take the attention of the room. “As the honourable Lord Speaker just announced, today I present to the lords and ladies of this house a motion to withdraw funding from the flight team known to us as the Wonderbolts. This is an action this body should have taken a generation ago against this wasteful part of the Guard.”

Spitfire mentally went over the revenue numbers in her head from the previous season, very positive ones to be correct. Whatever this stallion had seen she did not know but she was pretty sure that he was talking out of his plot-hole. Zoning back in, Spitfire caught the tail end of his plea.

“I, therefore, propose relieving this frivolous unit of its funding and disbanding it, integrating its members into the proper guard or relieving them of duty.”

“I would like to hear Captain Spitfire's mind on the subject, Lord Speaker.” one of the pegasi, seemingly the oldest of the ones in the room, asked as he stood up.

“Captain Spitfire, what is your opinion on this proposal?” the speaker asked, turning to look at Spitfire.

The dragon hybrid took a deep breath and stood up. “I wish to make it known Lord Bristle does not have the most recent revenue numbers but-”

“Are you accusing me of lying, captain?” Lord Bristle interrupted.

I know this pony, I just can't remember from where!

“Order! It is not your turn to talk, Lord Bristle!” The speaker pointedly said, smacking his hoof on his desk. "Proceed, captain."

“Perhaps you just have the wrong numbers, lord, but I want to focus on the part where you called my unit frivolous. I would like to point towards our activities outside of flight demonstrations where we act as a rapid response unit to be the first on the scene in emergencies to provide aid and relief to any local guard and police forces or help with weather emergencies."

"Like how the guard here in Canterlot had to intervene in Ponyville?" another unicorn interjected sarcastically, making Spitfire smirk as this lady probably hadn't seen the article in the Baltimare Sun yet describing her involvement in that.

"Exactly. After senior air pony Dash and myself got control of that rogue Everfree storm the guard arrived to take over general management. We are rapid response after all, we can't be bogged down in places if we are to keep that task," Spitfire answered, she could practically hear Lord Bristle's teeth gnashing as he shot a glare at the fellow unicorn.

"I think I've heard enough. I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here Lord Bristle but trying to cripple a functional part of the guard is low even for you," the elder pegasus said, giving the unicorn a glare. "One would almost think this was personal."

Something then suddenly snapped into place in Spitfire's mind, knowing where she knew this pony from. "You're Crescent's friend after I..."

"After you showed him your vile colours, yes," Lord Bristle growled.

"My vile colours?!" Spitfire's fangs slid out to their full length and a low guttural growl came from her chest. The chamber exploded into talk and shouts from various places

"I WILL HAVE ORDER IN THIS CHAMBER!" the speaker roared, pounding his hoof on the desk. It was probably for the best that he did so as Spitfire was on the verge of jumping the unicorn as he did.

"Lord Speaker, I put forward a motion to dismiss this ridiculous proposal," the older pegasus said as the shouts died down a bit.

"Seconded," came a call from the earthpony side.

"Motion for dismissal has been filed, all ayes raise their hooves." Spitfire took quick stock of all the votes. She could see the earthponies overwhelmingly support the dismissal, even some of the unicorns that had voted nay on her being present voted with the dismissal of the proposal. After finishing the procedure Spitfire was escorted out of the chamber, not that she protested about it as she was pretty sure if she'd had to stay with Lord Bristle in the chamber she'd have lit him on fire.

I... need to get someplace quiet where I can think.

Old Friend

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Spitfire had flown up to what was nearly the top of the Canterhorn, the view from up there giving a fantastic sight of the capital city. She'd retrieved the book on her kind first before heading up this high, browsing through it as she mulled over her thoughts.

He was there... He knew... And he kept my friend from me.

She barely was able to keep herself from breathing a plume of fire and roaring out of rage, the only thing stopping her was that she didn't want to disintegrate the book on her lap. Flipping over to the section that covered magic she started to read the introduction section, trying to make as much of the knowledge her own as possible. The initial sections explained the basic workings of what each part of a matrix was supposed to do, all of it with references deeper down to go further into the depths later on.

Huh, this doesn't seem too hard. A small matrix was drawn in the book that would allow her to hold a flame in her mouth like a torch the same way a unicorn could do with their magic on their horn. Going through the motions Spitfire blew out a flame and as she'd hoped it stayed in her mouth without much effort on her part nor did it seem all to warm to her in any way. Swallowing the fire, she skipped a few sections to see what other kind of pre-made matrixes were drawn into the book.

"What did the Princess say, teleportation right?" Flipping up to the advanced section Spitfire found the start of three-dimensional matrixes that would allow for that particular feat and started reading the processes involved with it. So to do so you shoot a fireball and then fly into it which portals you to where you wanted to come out...

"Spitfire!?" The captain looked up to see Rainbow soaring up to the mountain's top, calling out her name and trying to find her.

"I'm here Rainbow!" she called back, Dash immediately turning and flying up to her.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" she said as she landed next to the captain. "What happened in that chamber?"

"You haven't heard?" Spitfire asked surprised, she imagined that Blueblood would have informed the princess of what had transpired in the chamber as soon as he got the chance.

"No, after I heard you'd flown off I went to look for you immediately. Dropped Scootaloo off with Twilight." Rainbow wrapped her wing around Spitfire's back and pulled her close, the captain resting her head against her marefriend. "Wanna fill me in?"

"I needed some space..." Spitfire swallowed as she repressed a wave of grief and rage. "There w-was this noble... He was there."

"Where?" rainbow questioned.

"Manehattan... he was the bastard that kept me away from my friend!" her rage boiled over for a moment, a jet of blazing hot fire shooting out into the air, her body shaking from the brief adrenaline boost.

"Well... buck. What are you going to do now?" Rainbow had to lean away slightly to not have her coat set on fire.

"I..." That was something the captain hadn't completely thought through yet but the answer wasn't that hard to get to in the end. "I'm going to need to visit Manehattan, Dash."

"Well, what are you skulking about here then?" Smirking, dash stood up. "What are we waiting for? Manehattan is quite a way away from here!"

"I need to do this alone Rainbow, I need to be able to look him in the eyes and finish this chapter of my life... and besides, you need to make sure Scootaloo's fine."

Rainbow snorted. "No way in Tartarus I'm going to leave you alone Spits, even if you're gonna talk to that guy alone I'll be there in case it doesn't turn out well. I'm sure Twilight won't mind Scootaloo being around at her place for a couple of days."

Spitfire sighed and nuzzled Rainbow. "Thanks."

"No problem babe, now let's go tell Twilight and Scootaloo so we can get on our way." Rainbow kissed Spitfire's cheek and jumped into the air. "Race you down, slowpoke!"

"Oh, you're going down!"

With a small amount of stuff packed Spitfire and Rainbow were soaring through the air towards the City on Equestria's eastern coast, they had taken a break in a hotel on the way and continued after first light in the morning.

"Any idea where to look?" Rainbow asked, "Manehattan isn't exactly the smallest place around you know."

"We'll try the place where I know he lived first, see if his parents still live there. If not we'll see if we can find anything at the town hall," Spitfire answered.

"Sounds great but you forget that you're still kind of a hot topic," Rainbow said, fishing something out of her saddlebag as they landed at the edge of one of the city's suburbs in the snow, producing a beanie and a cloak for the both of them.

"really?"

"Hey, I didn't have a lot of time to get stuff before we left Canterlot!" Rainbow defended herself as she passed the items on to her marefriend.

"fine, fine, guess I'll have to thank you later for thinking ahead again," Spitfire sighed as she looked at the item and pulled the beany over her hair.

"I can think up a few good rewards," Dash smirked in reply, pulling on her own two pieces of clothing.

"You're the worst," Spitfire smiled, taking the lead as they walked into the suburbs. In a place like Ponyville wearing pieces of clothing might have been out of the norm and noticeable, here in Manehattan it was not as uncommon to see ponies of all sorts wear whatever they wanted. Spitfire became increasingly uncomfortable as she started to recognize the area in which she grew up. Various mansions were dotted the close by area, one of which probably owned by that snob.

"So this is it?" Dash asked as the two of them landed in the right street.

"Yes, it's over there... do you mind me doing this alone?"

Rainbow shook her head. "I'll be right out here if you need me."

"Thanks." Walking down the street Spitfire looked for the right house, coming to a halt in front of its door as she found it. They probably don't even live here anymore. Though I might be able to find out where

She knocked on the door three times.

"I'll get it!" Spitfire heard from the other end before somepony ran to the door, a pegasus filly standing in the opening.

"Hi! Who are yo- gasp EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The door slammed in her face as she heard the excited scream go back into the house.

"Paisley!" another voice came from behind the door as it opened up again, revealing an older pegasus. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what-"

"Hello ma'am, I was looking to see if an old acquaintance of mine still lived here but I see that's not the case." Spitfire had taken off the beanie and was sheepishly smiling as the filly came running back with a poser and a marker, jumping in the same place excitedly.

"You're looking for Crescent," the mare stated, Spitfire immediately tensed up as she heard the name of her old friend.

"Yes," she croaked, the filly's excitement dying down as she too noticed the tension in the air.

"Why?"

"I..."

"What's going on mom? Why are you looking for dad," the filly asked, now slightly concerned.

Her dad... these are his family! "I used to be friends with your dad," Spitfire told the filly who brightened up a little at hearing that. "But we had a falling out, something I was hoping to set straight." The other mare studied the captain for a bit, trying to see if she was being deceived.

"Anypony else with you?" She finally asked.

"My marefriend is waiting further down the street," Spitfire answered.

"Paisley, go get that mare," the mare told her filly.

"But mooommmm..." she whined but the mare wasn't going to budge.

"I'm sure captain Spitfire will sign your poster in a bit, but first you should go get the mare standing outside in the snow," she told the filly who sighed, placed the poster to the side, and shot past Spitfire to get Rainbow Dash. "Come on in."

"Thank you miss...?"

"Sweet Breeze. I'm Crescent's wife." The mare turned around and walked deeper into her house, Spitfire following her in and taking a seat on the couch as they got to the living room. "He told me about you once... again when the news hit this week."

"What does he think about me?" Spitfire carefully asked, hoping to get some more information on how Crescent's opinion of her was at the moment.

"He's... well... I think it'll be good for him."

Rainbow was led in by the jumping filly who was absolutely having the best day of her life, first having the Captain of the Wonderbolts knock on her front door and then having to pick up another 'Bolt from outside her home. "Yeah, of course I'll sign it!" Rainbow laughed as she followed the filly.

"He should be home soon, do you want anything to drink?" Sweet Breeze asked, standing up to get something for the pair.

"No, thank you," Spitfire politely declined, Sweet Breeze looking over to Rainbow if she wanted anything.

"I'll take any juice you have," Dash answered her, sitting down next to Spitfire and wrapping a wing around the captain's back. Paisley looked like she was about to explode looking at the two of them like that. "Go on kid, ask away," Rainbow smirked.

"Areyouacouple?!" She blabbed out without pause. Spitfire some of her worries melt away due to the excitement of the filly and smiled.

"For a while, but don't go spreading that rumour just yet," the captain winked at her, Paisley squealing and running in circles after that.

"So what's your favourite colour, Rainbow?" Paisley continued after having her initial fangirl moment. "Red? mine is red. Is it Red?"

"I don't play favourites, kid, all of these are equally awesome!" Rainbow exclaimed, running a hoof through her mane.

"Yours?" She asked, Spitfire smirked and looked over to Rainbow.

"I don't know, the colours of the rainbow all seem very attractive to me."

"That's so sweet!" Paisley smiled while Dash cringed slightly from the cheese dripping from that line. "All those stupid newspapers were wrong, you two awesome!"

And with that, the awkwardness returned for Spitfire.

"Well, about that..."

"Here's the juice," Sweet Breeze interrupted, coming back from the kitchen and presenting the cup to Rainbow who took it. She herself took a seat with a cup of steaming tea, placing another cup that had coffee on the table. "Paisley, can you go upstairs so papa and mama can have a talk with Rainbow Dash and the Captain in private."

"Mooommmmm..." the filly whined again, grumbling as her mother gave a look and skulking up the stairs.

"I can keep her busy while you talk?" Rainbow offered, Sweet Breeze nodded after a moment of deliberation.

"The door is hard to miss." Rainbow smirked a little, knowing what that meant, and headed up to entertain the filly. Sweet Breeze looked at the clock and sighed. "He should be here in the next few minutes."

"O-Okay." Spitfire felt her nerves return with an absolute vengeance, thinking over every possible way Crescent would be able to respond. Does he still think I'm a monster? He did allow his kid to have a Wonderbolt poster so that might be good... But what if-

The front door opened and closed.

"I'm home sweetie!" a masculine voice called out, it was much deeper than what Spitfire remembered from childhood.

"I'm in the living room, we've got visitors Crescent!" Sweet Breeze called back, the rather broad, dark blue, unicorn stallion walking into the living room.

"Who do we have the plea-" He froze in place, his blue face going pale from shock, and his body trembling. "S-Spitfire," he whispered.

"H-Hey Crescent," Spitfire replied, having an equal reaction to the stallion and had to work not to break down further. The two of them were frozen in place, neither sure how to proceed.

"Crescent, dear, please take a seat," Sweet Breeze eventually broke the silence and pointed at the cup of coffee for her husband to take. "It should still be quite warm."

The stallion took the cup with shaky magic, sweat dripping from his brow as he refused to take his eyes off of Spitfire. The fear in his eyes made the captain's stomach shrink and churn. "Crescent..."

"D-Don't take them! P-please, leave my g-girl and wife alone! T-They didn't do anything to you!" He exclaimed suddenly, dropping to his knees with the cup of coffee dropping onto the ground and shattering as it slipped from his magical grip. "T-Take me but don't hurt them!"

Spitfire's mouth fell open a little out of astonishment, revealing her fangs a little which did nothing to reassure either the stallion or Sweet Breeze. The latter of those two tensed up as Spitfire got off the couch and walked up to her old friend, fearful of having made a mistake in letting the dragon-pegasus hybrid into her house. Spitfire though just leaned down and hugged the whimpering stallion tightly, starting to cry into his shoulder.

"I'm not here to hurt or take any of you Crescent," she sobbed, tightly squeezing him in an attempt to re-assure him.

"Y-you... wha-" Crescent paused as his teary gaze went and stared off into nothingness, turning to his wife as he got his thoughts together. The mare who'd breathed a sigh of relief gave him a smile and a nod. "He lied..." Crescent whispered.

"He did," Spitfire croaked, letting go of the stallion to look at him. Crescent expression going from the former frightened to one of absolute rage.

"HE LIED!" The stallion roared, looking over towards the hallway with the front door. Though before he could do anything Spitfire had stuck out a hoof to block him, her inherent strength that came from the dragonic side of her more than a match to anything he could do to get past her.

"It's not worth it Crescent... and besides, he's probably still in Canterlot," She told him which took away some of the fire in him.

"H-He stoped me from going back... told everypony you were a d-dangerous lunatic. B-By the time I got the c-courage to check on you you'd already moved out," he managed to say through his sniffing.

"Mom was scared more ponies would find out and that I'd be taken away," Spitfire provided to him, wiping away her tears. "We moved to Cloudsdale where I was picked up by some scouts due to my extraordinary strength in flying at school."

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, I don't think either of us ended up too badly in the end," Spitfire smiled, giving him a nudge on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess not," Crescent smiled, sitting back on his seat and looking at his wife who gave the two of them a smile too. "You know, when my daughter brought back a Wonderbolt poster with you on it it scared the life out of me."

"She was very excited to see the Captain when she showed up at the front door," Sweet Breeze chuckled.

"Of course she was," Crescent chuckled along with his wife. "I contemplated seeking you out after that you know. I just... couldn't find the courage. Hoped you'd forgotten about me so I could live in peace."

"I never forgot about you, Crescent, and after what I found out about Lord Bristle two days ago... well, I just can't be angry at you," Spitfire sighed.

He nodded and looked at the coffee on the ground. "I should clean this up, I'm sure Paisley is dying to get down here with one of her heroes in her living room."

"Rainbow Dash went up to keep her occupied," Spitfire smirked in reply.

"The mare that can do those sonic rainbooms? I think you just made her year, Spitfire," he smiled, walking over to the kitchen and levitating over a few towels to clean up the coffee. Using one to clean off the tears from his eyes and offering another to Spitfire to do the same.

"I'll go give the two of them a heads up that it's safe to come down," Sweet Breeze said, walking up the stairs to get her daughter and the other Wonderbolt.

"So what are we going to do after today?" Crescent asked, levitating all the shards up and depositing them in a bin.

Spitfire shrugged. "Keep in contact, meet up so every now and then to hang out. You know, regular friend stuff."

"I'd like that... and I'm sure Paisley wouldn't be against it either," He smiled as the sound of hooves rapidly coming downstairs came from the hallway, the little filly bursting into the living room.

"You really can breathe fire?!" she immediately exclaimed, Rainbow entered after her with a grin. Spitfire breathed in and performed the new trick of keeping a flame in her mouth as a torch.

"It's useful for when you want to make s'mores," Rainbow smirked, making Crescent burst out in laughter.

"Haha, Rainbow," Spitfire rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smile. "Now. You had a poster that needed signing."

Cutie Mark

View Online

2 Decades earlier

"It's not fair," Spitfire huffed to no one in particular as she sat at the edge of the playground. In the middle of the playground, a large group of fillies and colts were huddled around one of their schoolmates. "Why does he have to get his cutie mark first..."

"Hey Spitfire!" the small pegasus looked over her shoulder at the approaching colt, she immediately brightened a bit as she recognised him.

"Hi Crescent!" Spitfire called back as he skidded to a halt in front of her.

"Hey what's going on over there?" Crescent asked as he pointed at the large group of fillies and colts.

"That stupid noble colt got his cutie mark," Spitfire grumbled, looking down at her own empty flank.

"Oh come on, Spits, you'll get your cutie mark soon too and that colt isn't too bad." Crescent defended, giving Spitfire a friendly nudge on her shoulder. The school bell rang soon after and the entire mass of children pushed its way inside and into their appropriate classes. Most of the day was fairly uneventful, just boring classes to keep her busy as Spitfire dreamed about what her cutiemark might be.

I hope it's one for flying, that would be so cool... Dreaming away about what kind of practice she'd do next Spitfire rubbed a few sore spots she'd gotten from crashes while doing that flight training. Nothing she couldn't handle of course, she'd always been tougher than everypony else around.

The day went by in a flash and by the early afternoon they ran out of the school she'd meet up with Crescent at the local park. She'd quickly dropped off her school items and ran off to the park, more ponies having had that idea on that particular day. "Over here, Spitfire!"

Running up to Crescent it was Spitfire's turn to come to a skidding halt. "You ready?"

"Yep! I even took some weights to practice my levitation while you go flying again!" He exclaimed, showing his backpack that had individual weights in it.

"Cool! Today we'll get out cutie marks for sure!" Spitfire smiled, jumping into the air and hovering there. "I can just feel it!"

"Well, let's get started!" Crescent exclaimed, starting to levitate the lightest weight up and down. Spitfire took that time to fly higher up into the sky. Spitfire ascended nearly straight up, showing off her remarkable wing strength for her age, coming to a hover a considerable height above the park's trees.

Hmm... maybe to warm up I should do a few loopings and corkscrews. Going into a dive, Spitfire picked up some tremendous speed, levelling out well before she'd get close to the ground and performed a corkscrew. "Whooooo yeah!"

Wind tore at her mane, forcing it backwards, as she made quick turns and twists in the air above the field. Crescent would shout the occasional encouragement at Spitfire as she soared by, getting more daring each passing and pushing herself closer to her edge. Now for another looping!

Spitfire adjusted her wings to perform the stunt but about three-quarters of the way through she figured out that she'd terribly misjudged how much height she needed. Oh ponyfeathers.

She desperately beat her wings to slow down from her nearly vertical descent though she could already see that she wasn't going to slow down in time.

"Oof!" Still going at a fairly significant speed Spitfire slammed into the ground, tumbling along as she rapidly bled off speed.

"Spitfire!" The filly shook her head to get rid of the disorientation from the crash as Crescent ran towards her.

"I'm good!" She called back to her friend, moving her aching legs around to see if there was more significant damage than the bruises that were going to form for sure.

"Wait what? There's no way you didn't break anything!" Cresent exclaimed as he helped Spitfire back on her hooves. A few other ponies were watching the pair in equal astonishment as they too had seen the crash.

"It wasn't that bad of a crash" Spitfire nonchalantly said, brushing some grass from her hair and flapping her wings to get stuff out of there too.

"You bounced off the ground!"

"I did?" Spitfire replied to the astonished shout, looking back to the place where she'd landed. "Didn't feel that bad."

"You... you... madpony!" He shouted but couldn't really stay angry, barking out an infectious laugh made the two of them roll over out of mirth.

"Soo... mind if I try again?"

The sun was reaching down to the horizon by the time the two little fillies were heading back home for dinner, cutting through the upper district where all the suburb's mansions were located to cut down the time needed to get home. Spitfire, even with her aching wings, could have flown back home relatively quickly but always stuck with Crescent who was ground-bound. As they passed one of the small roads running between mansions Spitfire came to a halt, seeing something move in the shadows down the road.

"What's wrong?" Crescent asked, seeing that his friend wasn't following her. Spitfire peered deeper in, her exceptional eyesight seeing two unicorn colts sitting there in the shadows and smoking something.

"Hey, what are you two doing?" Spitfire called out, walking towards them. Crescent followed her down the street as she went to confront the two of them. Both the colts immediately levitated the cigarettes from their mouths and hid them until they saw it wasn't an adult that was coming towards them.

"What is it to you, pegasus?" one of them snapped towards her, making Spitfire halt. She opened her mouth but no words came out, the two colts both taking a drag from their cigarettes.

"Spitfire come on, Let's just go home," Crescent urged, getting very uncomfortable.

"Wait, you're that noble's kid," Spitfire recognised him finally from school. "What was your name again?"

"Buzz off you two, this is none of your business," The other unicorn said, giving Crescent a push as Spitfire's friend was the closer of the two to him.

"Hey!... Oof," Crescent called out as he fell onto his haunches, Spitfire who wasn't having any of it and gave the colt a shove back, sending him back a significant way as she put her back into the push.

"Stay away from my-" Spitfire barely saw the aura encased object flying towards her, the bottle smashing down on the back of her head. Now she'd had that one serious crash in the afternoon but the one hit knocked her down, her head also hitting the ground hard after the object had struck home.

It was as if a furnace had lit inside her chest, a feeling of rage she hadn't ever felt before overwhelming her. Her sight suddenly became very sharp and the deep growl she let out was a sound a filly like her should not have been able to make.

"What the b-"

A roar interrupted the unicorn who'd struck her, a yellow blur tackled him to the ground. Spitfire's hot breath washing over his face. His friend got up and wanted to approach but was very convincingly halted by a plume of fire coming forth from Spitfire's mouth.

"S-Spitfire?" The pegasus' head snapped back towards the one who'd called her name, her expression still a mean snarl as her mind was still a haze. Crescent looked at her with utter dread, the fear on his face piercing even Spitfire's clouded mind and burning into her memory...

Whack.

The sound of breaking glass rang out as Spitfire was hit on the head for a second time and a liquid spilt over her, a foul odour coming from the stuff. The colt she'd been holding down got out of her grip and ran, calling out to the other two unicorns present.

"She's a demon from Tartarus! Run!" He called out, his buddy also pulling Crescent along to run off. Spitfire watched them go, the headache made it hard to think but with the anger dissipating a cold dread fell over her.

I'm not a demon, am I?

Then she remembered clearly what she'd done.

I breathed fire... FIRE!

She tried it again, a plume of flame shooting out again. Spitfire was completely in shock, no pegasus should be able to do this... There was something terribly wrong with her.

Her breathing had sped up significantly as she tried to find an answer to all the questions going through her mind panic taking over her reasoning as she shot up into the sky. Spitfire could see the look of sheer terror in Crescent's face as she'd looked back at him constantly going through her mind.

I'm not a monster... I am not a monster... Am I a monster?

Spitfire almost crashed through the back door of her house, physically flying up the stairs and into the bathroom to wash off the liquid that had covered her... the stream of water also masking her crying.

“Everything okay, sweetheart?” her mother called out from the other end of the door, having heard her daughter storm by her.

"Yeah, I'm okay! Just really dirty!" Spitfire called out, her voice surprisingly steady for the distress she was in. Stormy remained silent for a bit before calling out to her daughter again.

"Alright, but make it quick. Dinner's almost ready," she said, silence beside the sound of flowing water returned and Spitfire assumed she'd gone back to check up on the food. The little filly continued her crying until no more tears would come out of her face. Eventually, no more of the stinking liquid was present in her coat as she'd doused herself with soap.

Wait... no... NO! Nononononono this can't be real!

Panic gripped Spitfire once again as she was scrubbing her flank, a cutiemark in the form of a plume of fire emblazoned on her flank. She had to put her hooves over her mouth to stop the scream from escaping it. Shutting off the shower immediately, Spitfire got out and started drying herself.

Mom will see! I.. I... Bathrobe!

Opening the cupboard that held dry towels and a set of bathrobes for both her and her mother and wrapped it around her, tying it in place tightly.

It's just a bad dream... just a bad dream... you'll go eat, sleep and by tomorrow it'll be gone...

She knew that wouldn't be true.

Having dried herself sufficiently, Spitfire went down to the dinner table where her food was already served for her. Not that she was very hungry but she forced down the food not to be too suspicious.

"Are you alright, Sweetie?" Stormy asked as she noticed her daughter not being all well.

"I... crashed," Spitfire said, not really lying but only increasing her mother's concern.

"You're hurt? Do you want me to take a look?"

Spitfire quickly shook her head. "Just my pride..." the filly lied, though it seemed like her mom believed her.

"I'm sure you'll get it right next time, sweetie," she smiled comfortingly. "You seem tired, I'll clean the table so you can go to bed early."

She yawned. "Thanks, mom."

Spitfire had barely been able to sleep all night, the fear on Crescent's face haunting her every time she closed her eyes. Calm down Spitfire, we'll talk it out at school... She twisted and turned inside her bed right up to the point where her alarm went off in the morning. Her mom had already gone out for work, leaving Spitfire to make her own lunch and to lock up as she went to school.

It'll all be okay... Calm down, it'll be fine... Spitfire didn't dare look at the cutie mark on her flanks as she tried to calm herself.

The school became visible near the end of the street, Spitfire's anxiety growing as she came closer to the building. More fillies and colts were walking towards the school, the few of them that were from her class she evaded like the plague. As she arrived at the gate to the playground Spitfire halted, freezing in place as she spotted Crescent further in with the two colts from the previous day standing next to him.

One of the two had spotted her the moment she'd come to a halt at the playground's gate, getting the attention of the other two colts to her presence. The same look of cold horror she'd seen from Crescent the previous day returned to his face.

Every bit of resolve to try and talk Spitfire had shattered right then and there, the pegasus turning on the spot and flying off back home at high speed. Oh Celestia, I am a monster!

As she got there she dropped herself onto the couch and started crying. The mental exhaustion of the previous day and the actual exhaustion of trying to stay awake catching up with her quickly as her eyes closed and fell into a tumultuous sleep...

"Spitfire?"

The filly jumped from the couch with a scream, breathing heavily as she saw her mom standing over her. The sun's rays were nearly gone as the ball of fire had almost sunk below the horizon.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Stormy pulled her daughter close as Spitfire burst out crying again.

"W-Why am I-I a monster, m-mom?" She sniffed through her cries.

"A monster?" Stormy questioned as she tried pulling Spitfire closer but the filly pushed herself away with her remarkable strength.

"I breathed fire, mom! Fire!" Spitfire shouted. "What kind of pony can do that?!"

Stormy opened her mouth to reply but held back what she wanted to say. She wrapped her wings around her daughter and attempted to pull her close again, this time Spitfire didn't resist. "You're right, you're not a normal filly. I think I always knew that but didn't want to admit it."

"W-what?" Spitfire stammered, not really expecting her mom to do anything other than comfort her.

"It's time that I told you about your dad."

Daughter

View Online

Spitfire was as light as a feather as she bounded through the air. They'd stayed in Manehattan for merely a day, spending the evening with Cresent's family and generally having a good time. The Two old friends making up and promising to see each other so every now and then, something his little daughter had no objections to.

Rainbow was close on her tail as they made their way into the country, getting close to Ponyville once again. "You know, seeing that kid made me think of something."

"And what's that?" Spitfire asked as she pulled in close to the other pegasus.

"Well with Scoots and all... Where are you going to live?" Rainbow questioned. "All her friends live in Ponyville and she's way behind on her flying which means my house isn't exactly an option."

It was a good question, one Spitfire had yet to put enough thought into. She couldn't rightly take the filly to Cloudsdale, away from all she had left, it wouldn't be at all that fair to her. "I'm... not sure yet."

"You know, I'm sure there'd be a house available in Ponyville. The town would welcome you without a doubt," Rainbow told her, it was certainly a serious option to consider.

It is a very nice town, the flight to Cloudsdale is a bit far but manageable...

"No need to decide right now, Spits," Rainbow chuckled as she could see her marefriend thinking. "...though it might be a good idea to get your mind made up with the speed things are going."

The snowed over town was calm as they arrived overhead, the market being the only place truly busy as ponies got their shopping done. The two pegasi banked and headed for Twilight's castle, hoping that they'd find the alicorn there. As they suspected, they found Twilight in the library where she was reading two books simultaneously. She was so focused that she didn't even notice the two pegasi entering the library behind her.

"Dash to egghead, are you there?" Rainbow asked as she poked Twilight from behind, making her jump.

"Rainbow! Spitfire! Sorry, I was doing some light reading," She sheepishly said as she recognised her two friends. "If you're looking for Scootaloo, she is staying over at Applejack's. The crusaders are probably about doing their things... Though I'd appreciate it if you stuck around for a bit to help with some paperwork."

"Of course!" Spitfire immediately agreed, looking to her side at Rainbow who lacked her enthusiasm and snickered. "Yes, you can go."

"Thanksbye!" Rainbow shot off and away, fleeing as fast as she could from what was definitely going to be something boring.

"I'll never get why ponies don't like paperwork," Twilight grumbled as she put away the books and teleported a significant stack of paper onto the table instead.

"Yeah, strange," Spitfire said with a nervous chuckle, regretting that she hadn't followed Rainbow. Don't be silly Spitfire, you know what this paperwork is probably about and that's definitely worth it. "So what do you need me to sign?"

"Well... I wish it were so simple," Twilight sighed, dividing up the stack into much more manageable sections. "Scootaloo's aunt technically still has custody of her."

"Can't you just revoke that?" Spitfire questioned.

"You know that I am bound by the rule of law, Captain, I can only do so much by decree," Twilight shook her head. "I already set the judicial process in motion back in Canterlot, an emergency hearing to release Scoots from her aunt's custody and give her a place to stay. There'll be an emergency hearing before the end of the week."

"Do I need to be there?" Spitfire asked, getting a sealed letter from Twilight stamped with the insignia Equestrian government's judicial branch.

"Your presence to testify is indeed being requested. Rainbow too since it was the two of you that picked her up after the house was burned down," Twilight provided as Spitfire read through the summons. "Normally a filly would be placed in the custody of another family member but Scootaloo doesn't seem to have anyone else than her aunt around. The usual procedure would be to place her into the foster system but I can have her placed into Ponyville castle after the judgement."

"Alright, so what are the rest of those documents for?" Spitfire asked, stashing away the letter and taking interest in the other paperwork.

Twilight divided up the stack into smaller bits. "This first part is the requirements for even being eligible for adoption. That's everything from housing to income and everything in between. "

Spitfire scanned the papers, she'd read them in detail in just a bit. "And the rest of them?"

"The application papers. I'd like to go over all of these right now and get them ready to send in." Twilight levitated over the rest of the papers.

"Alright then, let's get started."

Spitfire was once again back in Canterlot as Ponyville fell within the Capital's judicial zone. She along with Rainbow had been waiting outside the courtroom for an hour before being led in and taking their seats behind the witness stand. A lawyer representing both Scootaloo's aunt and the Equestrian government which was the entity bringing the charges. The older pony in question who was supposed to be the guardian of Scootaloo was present too, she was staring down at her hooves. Spitfire wanted to be angry at her but she couldn't, she was utterly revulsed but the pony that sat on the other end of the room was only worth her contempt.

The judge tapped her hoof on the desk twice. "This emergency hearing has been opened. Mister fine print, as the defence lawyer you have the opening statement. Come forth to the stand."

The stallion, a unicorn in his case, stepped forth and lined out his papers. "Your honour, this case is built off of a misunderstanding. My client loves her niece very much and resents the accusation she abandoned her, I hope to show this by the end of this hearing."

The procedures continued as they were supposed to, the prosecution making their opening statements after which the hearing started in earnest. Rainbow fidgeted around on her chair pretty much the entire time, keeping only half an ear on the proceedings as she tried her very best to not go mad having to sit still. Spitfire on the other hoof was like a rock, staring daggers at the mare that was supposed to keep Scootaloo safe but had utterly failed.

You dare to make the argument that you didn't do anything wrong... you should be deeply ashamed of yourself

"Captain Spitfire? please step forth," the judge called out, the captain finally breaking her glare. Spitfire stepped up to the podium, straightened her suit and tie, and cleared her throat.

"Your honour, my part in this story starts when Ponyville was hit by a rogue Everfree storm. One of the houses struck and lit on fire was Scootaloo's, I intervened and pulled her out of that fire. After hoofing her off to the hospital I initially had not thought of who was taking care of her, but when I and Rainbow Dash found her near the edge of the Everfree forest we found out that there was no one to take care of her after the fire," Spitfire laid out, keeping her tone levelled as she remembered how devastated the filly had looked when they'd found her.

"How can you be so sure my client was not in Ponyville?" the lawyer representing Scootaloo's aunt asked.

“If she was I was not aware of it. But if she was even Scootaloo did not seem to know that she was present and after we brought her to Princess Twilight Sparkle's castle we never got word that your client was searching for her niece,” Spitfire snidely shot him down, barely managing to keep her sharp teeth retracted.

The lawyer's face hardened a little as he flipped. Through his notes. “Of course you'd say that because you have filled out paperwork indicating that you wish to adopt my client's niece. You'd blacken her name to snatch her away right from under her nose!”

Spitfire felt the low blow right in her stomach. How in the world did he get access to that?!

“I... Yes, I wish to adopt Scootaloo. She's a good kid and after I found her freezing in the snow and I got time to bond with her I wanted... no, want to make sure that she has someone to take care of her, not just leave her alone and give her a monthly allowance to survive off of,” Spitfire growled at him, he didn't ask her any more questions. The judge allowed Rainbow to come and tell her story, the Pegasus repeating the story Spitfire had told from her perspective.

After their testimonies the lawyer for the prosecution provided a letter written, signed, and sealed with Twilight's royal stamp, explained what she had uncovered in the time she'd been looking into Scootaloo's situation. Then when the closing statements were done the judge called a short recess to deliberate.

“The absolute bastard!” Spitfire growled as the door to the waiting room closed behind her. “He tried to make it look like I was just doing this out of selfishness!” A little flame escaped from her throat as she raged.

“The judge will see through that horsecrap, Spits, you'll see.” Rainbow pulled Spitfire into a hug as the captain looked like she was about to punch a hole in the wall.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine... I'm just worried.”

“Well yeah, you care for the squirt. Of course you'd be worried, hell I am too!” Rainbow said brushing a hoof through Spitfire's hair.

The captain chuckled after letting out a deep sigh. “Since when did you get so wise?”

Rainbow snorted. “A burned down courthouse isn't going to help either of us.”

“So little faith in my self-restraint?” Spitfire replied, her anger simmering down and making way for some mirth.

“The way you looked at that mare I'm surprised you didn't set her on fire with your glare alone,” Dash shot back with a smirk, Spitfire pulled loose of her and gave her a fanged grin.

"Me? I wouldn't hurt a fly!" Spitfire innocently said, holding up her hooves defensively. Rainbow giving her a raised eyebrow as a response. "...I may have considered lighting her tail on fire."

Rainbow snorted and shook her head but before she could retort the door to the room opened again and one of the members of the courthouse's staff came in.

"The judge will be rendering her verdict, your presence in the room is requested," He told the two of them, the pair glancing at each other before following the staff member back to the courtroom where they took seats in the stands. The judge tapped her hammer on the table in front of her desk to reopen the hearing and cleared her throat.

"I shall not keep everypony here in suspense. From the evidence presented, from testimony to the Princess' letter documenting her findings I have found sufficient evidence to support the injunction to have Scootaloo placed under the protection of the crown until a suitable place is found for her." He returned all the documents strewn about his desk to the folder he'd gotten them from and closed it. "Additionally the crown brings charges of abuse to the defendant for which a court date will be provided later. That closes this session."

The judge got up, grabbed his file and left the courtroom, Spitfire grabbed Rainbow and pulled her into a tight hug. "See, told ya!" Rainbow smirked as she received a kiss on the cheek from her marefriend. "Now let's go sign out and get the buck out of here!"

Spitfire laughed as she followed rainbow out of the courthouse, flying after her fellow Wonderbolt as she took off. The two of them probably breaking a few of Canterlots flight regulations as they relieved some of the stress from the hearing. "We should get back to Ponyville to deliver the good news!" Spitfire laughed as they flew over the outskirts of the city.

"Well, it isn't too late yet, we could fly back to Ponyville," Rainbow proposed. "It'd be some good endurance training."

"Sure, lets go!"

The next week was a rollercoaster of changes as Spitfire finished all the paperwork and even bought a house in Ponyville's outskirts. Scootaloo, though technically placed in Twilight's care for the moment, had pretty much moved in with her. Rainbow was also moving some of the things from her house to the one Spitfire shared with Scoots but didn't completely want to abandon the cloud house she'd worked so hard on.

The press had been settling down quite a bit so they could go about town in relative peace, getting to know the neighbours and such. Spitfire had also been using the free time to practise her magic pretty much every day, getting the books Twilight had available on the subject. All around it had been a fairly relaxing few days compared to the stress of what had come before.

Though all good things end at some point and leaving Soarin' to run the Wonderbolts all on his own wasn't exactly fair either. Besides, school was starting up again so Scootaloo would be in class through the day, allowing her to go back to HQ. That the trip between Cloudsdale and Ponyville would be becoming a daily journey but Spitfire didn't care much, if Rainbow could manage it before, she could handle it now.

Getting back to work is going to be great, I wonder if I could start integrating some of my fire magic in our flight routines... The penultimate move to use would be the teleportation spells, of course, and I think I could pull off the basic ones soon. The principle isn't too different to the scroll spell, only for the caster itself...

Unlike unicorn teleportation spells that could go horrifically wrong, dragonfire ones would just turn into normal fire if performed wrong. That meant Spitfire could practice all she wanted and the only thing she'd have to be concerned about was lighting her environment on fire. "You ready to go, Rainbow, Scootaloo?"

Dash yawned as she strapped on her bags and helped Scootaloo with her own. "Yeh, we're good."

"Are you going to be okay walking to school on your own?" Spitfire asked, making Scootaloo roll her eyes.

"I've been doing that since forever, I'll be fine," Scootalo said, nuzzling her adopted mom. "See you two tonight!"

The filly shot out of the door, leaving Rainbow and Spitfire to close after themselves. Spitfire would need to work on her schedule a bit so she could spend more time with Scootaloo but for now they'd figure things out as they went. "Hey Dash, tomorrow morning you're drinking coffee."

"Yeah, yeah, if you just figure out to create some kind of portal to HQ I won't have to get up so early," Dash groaned as she rubbed her eyes.

"That's... actually not a bad idea," Spitfire admitted. "But that's a long time off." Giving Dash a kiss on the nose, Spitfire took to the air. "Come on, we've got work to do!"

Parents

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Spitfire shaped her magic as she got ready to cast her dragonfire spell. The matrix was the largest she’d attempted in the last five weeks, having worked on getting sections of it right up to now. The creation of the matrix only took a fraction of a second as Spitfire called forth her fire and shot the concentrated ball of fire in front of her. The section of the academy’s training area she’d been using had been cleared so she could practise safely without fear of harming ponies.

The small concentrated ball of fire halted mid-air and expanded, the flames turning white and remaining stable at its current location in front of the captain. Spitfire’s barked out a laugh as she couldn’t believe she actually managed to get the spell she’d been working on, well, working.

At least, it looks like it’s working... Well, there’s one way to test it!

Taking a specifically coloured rock, Spitfire flung it at the ring of white fire and saw it collapse around the rock. She waited in suspense as she’d specifically made the spell delayed, a few seconds later another white fireball appeared quite a distance further in the direction she’d fired the initial bolt and spewed out the rock at the same speed it had entered.

“Hah! Oh yeah!” She cheered, trying the entire procedure two more times and getting the same results for them too. That only left one more test for her to perform.

There were a few staff members and Wonderbolts who’d taken interest and were observing from a distance, having gotten used to the practice but their captain had clearly made a breakthrough. Spitfire took to the air, gaining both some altitude and speed before calling on her magic once again, adjusting the ‘values’ of the matrix a little for her new test. Firing out a bolt, the spherical portal of fire formed right in her flight path and Spitfire tucked her wings as she entered it. The world around her turned to darkness briefly as she entered the void between locations, as energies of immense magnitude moved around her calmly like a gentle sea. It didn’t last though as the second part of the spell kicked in and spewed her out a hundred pony lengths ahead of where she’d entered.

“Oh yeah!” Spitfire cheered as she caught herself and continued on her flight path, seeing the ponies who’d been watching cheer her on. Flying a couple more rounds, she eventually landed in the place the Wonderbolts that had gathered to watch, Soarin’ and Rainbow standing at the lead of that group.

“So that’s what you were working on?!” Soarin’ exclaimed as I’d kept them out of the loop as to what I was working on, only Rainbow knew what I’d been attempting. “Teleportation?!”

“What? Once you have the matrix down it becomes easy to start tinkering with it,” Spitfire smirked, though got more serious as she knew she wasn’t there yet. “I need to work on making the fire less hot, maybe even heatless, and I want to see if I can pick the colour myself.”

“So you can pop around the place?” Soarin’ asked with a smirk.

“You know, like Twilight?” Dash asked with a similarly large smile. “Oh boy, that’ll be fun.”

Sptifire shook her head. “That’s much easier with unicorn magic. Dragonfire has certain constraints where unicorn magic has freedom and vica versa,” she explained. “This was the simplest version of teleportation dragonfire allows. I need to get a large gemstone, like the ones you find under Canterlot, to make a marker of sorts that I can use as an anchor for more complicated gates.”

“You could just ask the princess for one?” Rainbow stated as we walked back to the headquarters, having gotten enough practice in for today.

“Oh yeah, because sending the princess letters is so easy,” Soarin stated wit an eyeroll. “Personal messages aren’t meant for the chain of command and sending her one normally is going to take months if she gets it at all.”

“We have our ways,” Dash smirked as we entered the accademy’s administration building.

“Of course you do,” Soarin’ groaned. “You know, stuff was so much easier when you were just our workaholic of a captain.”

“Hey, I’ve got a kid now!” Spitfire stated, giving the lieutenant a shove with a wing. “And just because I’ve made some interesting friends doesn’t mean I don’t do the majority off all paperwork!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, mom,” Soarin’ teased, receiving a wack against the back of his head from Rainbow’s wing.

“Careful there, dufus, you’re outnumbered.”

“And outclassed,” Spitfire added as the stallion was squeezed between the two mares.

“Oh my, threatening the poor, poor, stallion now?” Soarin’ chuckled, placing his wings on the backs of both Rainbow and Spitfire. The two mares glanced at each other and nodded with a smirk.

“Uh-oh.”

Rainbow dropped to her stomach right at the same time Spitfire gave a shove to the side. With a surprised cry, Soarin toppled over, finding himself quickly under a tickling assault from both mares.

“I surrender! I surrender!” He cried as his squirms prove futile.

“So what will our terms be?” Rainbow snickered as she and Spitfire kept holding down their colleague.

“How about I give him my paperwork so I can go pick up my girl from school?” Spitfire proposed with a smirk.

“You mean that stuff about overhauling the training facilities?” Soarin’ asked knowingly, Spitfire raising an eyebrow and nodding. “Did that already, just need you to sign a few of the things.”

“Wait, you did?” Spitfire said, surprised.

“Cap, we all see how happy you are with that kid, and as you stated, you do most the paperwork,” He gave Spitfire a nudge as he was let up by his assailants. “Go be her mom, cap.”

“You’re the best, Soarin’,” Spitfire smiled, Dash clearing her throat and smirking.

“Oh shush you. Come on, let’s go see our girl. See you on Monday, lieutenant.” After getting their saddlebags the two of them were off, soaring through the clouds in the direction of their shared home. Usually, this took about an hour of decently paced flying but this time it was different.

Not more than a few minutes into their flight Spitfire burped out a scroll, having set up a method of sending her messages from a few magically infused candles. One of these fires had been given to the Guard’s intelligence branch in case they needed the captain to muster her ponies for a quick response. This message though made a shiver go up her spine. A dragon had been spotted heading straight for Ponyville... and by the dating on the document, it probably wasn’t long before he’d arrive.

Spitfire immediately sent the intel through to Soarin as she didn’t want to turn around and lose the time flying back to where she’d just come from and blasted off. Any idea of holding back was gone, her wings burning as she increased her speed to start getting close to the sound barrier. Dash was right on her six, and though her top speed was higher, going supersonic would mean veering off to avoid knocking Spitfire out of the sky. Fifteen minutes into the flight at the immense velocity Spitfire came into view and noticed another spot, much closer, approaching the village...

NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU!

Spitfire let out a ferocious roar, calling on all her magic and pouring it into the portal spell she’d just managed to get the hang off, extending its range far enough that she’d pop out somewhere near the dragon. Dash had the good sense to get the absolute buck away from Spitfire as the bright ball of flame formed in her mouth, if that blew up in their face she would not be reaching Ponyville at all.

Not that it did, the portal opened a little more violently than when she’d practiced at low power but not catastrophically so. Spitfire disappeared from the world and was spewed back out a fraction of a second later right in front of the dragon’s flight path, having guessed the distance perfectly. The pale orange dragon flared immediately, coming to a stop and stared at the newcomer in surprise. He was barely larger than Princess Celestia but Spitfire knew size didn’t mean its firebreath couldn’t cause massive damage. Not about to let the opportunity go to waste, she quickly overcharged a fire blast and shot it out at the larger creature. The explosion didn’t harm the dragon directly through its scales but it did make him lose a good bit of altitude.

“You will not go further,” Spitfire stated coldly, adding a fanged growl. The dragon stared at her, looking utterly confused, but it didn’t take long for a smirk to form on his face and for him to slowly fly closer. “I said, don’t come- Aah!”

The captain had severely underestimated how fast the dragon could accelerate and found herself tightly locked within the dragon’s grasp. “You’re feisty! I like that!” He laughed as Spitfire struggled to get loose, she only managed to do so when a rainbow coloured projectile impacted the dragon from the side.

“Let go of my marefriend!” Dash roared as she drove the dragon against the ground and stood on its chest.

“Good choice in mates too,” the dragon smirked, letting Rainbow stand on his chest and remained down. Dash glanced over at Spitfire to see if she knew what the dragon was going on about.

“Who in Tartarus are you and what are you here for?” Spitfire asked as she too was getting confused now.

His smirked turned into a more serious expression as he sat up, forcing Dash to go into a hover. “My name, is Firefang, and I’m here because the dragonlord got a message from Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was looking for a dragon that had a fling with a pony over two decades ago... Apparently, I’ve had a daughter for a long time now without knowing.”

Spitfire had to land as she took that in, a storm of emotions hitting her as she realized she was face to face with the father she’d never met. Her mother had never blamed him for not sticking around, but Spitfire had had the occasional moments of resentment towards the dragon. “Y-You...”

“Seeing you breathe fire... I’m your father and I don’t even know your name,” He said, sounding rather saddened.

“Spitfire,” the captain whispered, her eyes filled with tears.

“That’s a beautiful name, kiddo, your mom chose well,” Firefang said, smiling down on Spitfire. “Is your mom here too, or is she...” Spitfire stepped forward and hugged the dragon, starting to laugh while tears rolled down her cheeks.

“No, she’s in Cloudsdale,” Spitfire said after getting a grip on herself. “I’ll send her a message the moment I get my hooves on some parchment.”

“Sounds good to me. So where do you live, kiddo?” Firefang asked as he was released by his daughter.

“Same village you were flying to, actually,” Spitfire smiled, “We should drop by Princess Twilight’s place first to see if she can empty out a room for you to stay in the castle. She did sort of inadvertently invite you after all.”

Firefang barked a laugh. “That she did. Go on then, I’ll follow your lead.”

Now with the dragon following both Dash and Spitfire took back off for the last bit to Ponyville. “Hey, Spits, I can lead your dad to Twilight’s so you can pick up Scoots?”

“Good idea, it’ll be interesting to see how she’ll react to her grandpa,” Spitfire chuckled, slowing down to tell Firefang what she was going to do before breaking off and flying to the schoolhouse instead. The school was suspiciously quiet as she landed, though since the school was supposed to be in session that might be because the kids were working on some task or another. As she entered though, she was immediately pulled in and had the door slammed shut behind her.

“Didn’t you see the dragon fly over town, miss Spitfire?” Cheerilee hissed, glancing out of of the window fearfully.

“Well yeah, I was escorting him,” Spitfire deadpanned, looking into the classroom to see all the fillies and colts sheltering below their tables. “Hey Scoots, you coming?”

“Mom?” the filly in question said before shooting out from under her table and jumping into the bigger pony’s grasp. “What’s going on? Why is there a dragon here?”

“Well... I was just going to pick you up to introduce you to your grandfather,” Spitfire smiled, lowering herself to allow Scootaloo to hop on. “Your students are safe miss Cheerilee, Firefang is here on the invitation of Princess Twilight.”

“O-Of course, thank you for telling me... Wait, Scootaloo’s grandfather?”

Spitfire’s smile grew even further. “Of course, that dragon is my dad. I’ll see you later, miss Cheerilee!”

Spitfire immediately took off from the schoolhouse, heading straight back to the castle where a small crowd had gathered. The town slowly coming back to life as they realised the dragon wasn’t there to start fires. “...so you’re all safe, just a friendly visitor!” Dash called out, the crowd starting to disperse slowly.

“I didn’t think my arrival here would be this controversial,” Firefang grumbled as he noticed his daughter approach.

“It’s just their initial reaction, now they know you’re not here to harm them they’ll smile and wave you like they’d anyone else,” Spitfire shrugged.

“So who’s the small one?” he asked, leaning forward and sniffing. “Doesn’t smell like yours though she smells like you.”

“I adopted her, she’s my kid,” Spitfire shot at her father, narrowing her eyes.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo called out as she got over her astonishment, having stood up onto Spitfire’s back and looking at the dragon defiantly. “She’s my mom and no bird-brained lizard is going to tell me otherwise!”

Firefang burst out laughing, “Ha! I’m happy to call anyone with that kind of spunk my family! So what’s your name, kid?”

“Scootaloo!” the filly chirped as she hopped off of Spitfire’s back.

“Well met Scootaloo, my name is Firefang.”

The attention of the three ponies and dragon was redirected as somepony cleared her throat from the direction of the castle. Twilight standing at the top of the stairs leading to the main entrance, her crown on her head and wings spread slightly.

“Ahh, Princess Twilight, the dragonlord sends her regards,” Firefang stated as he lowered his head a little. “I wish your kind no ill will, I just want to spend some time with my new family here.”

“Of course, I had not expected that Ember would find you this fast,” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ll make a room available for you as I don’t think you’ll fit into the captain’s house.”

“Captain huh?” Firefang asked as he looked back at Spitfire.

“Hey, I’ve got a life too,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

“Of course... We should send that message to your mother, I would like to see Stormy after all this time,” he stated.

“We’ll get on that in just a bit. If you could join me inside,” Twilight stated, opening the doors to her castle.

Firefang nodded. “We’d love to.”

Soarin’ along with Fleetfoot and Misty had shown up not ten minutes later, not having received any updates on the situation, expecting to have to draw a dragon away from town only to be pleasantly surprised as they were invited in to meet Firefang. Spitfire quickly sent messages around to inform Guard intelligence to her mother of the situation, the latter of the two arriving at Ponyville one and a half hours later.

“Where is he!” Stormy demanded as she barged in through the front door of the castle, Firefang peaking his head out from the dining hall where everypony had gathered. A fanged smile formed on Firefang’s face as he saw the mare he’d had a fling with so many years prior.

“Stormy Flare!” He roared with a laugh, scooping the pegasus uf the ground and pulling her into a hug. “The one pegasus crazy enough to pick up a horny dragon for a night!”

“Hey, it sounded like a fairly safe way to have some fun,” she stated, kissing the dragon on his cheek. “I didn’t know that eight months later I’d get my baby out of it.”

Firefang’s smile dropped and was replaced by a sad frown. “I’m sorry I was not there for that.”

“You didn’t know. Hay, I didn’t know,” Stormy stated, poking at Firefang’s chest. “But I managed. Maybe not perfectly, but in the end she turned into one good kid.” Spitfire, meanwhile, was doing her best to hide her face as the two of them talked, hoping her mother wouldn’t start telling some of the more embarrasing youth stories.

“Say, mister Firefang, we’ve been talking for a bit now so I have to say you do not strike me as the normal type of dragons we encounter,” Soarin’ stated.

“My hoarding instinct has never been as strong as most of my peers,” Firefang shrugged, “That might contribute to me being a bit of a weirdo.”

“So how long do you even intend to stay?” Spitfire asked. “It’s going to be hard to show you everything in just one day.”

“Well that magic that you’ve been using with your dragonbeath is rather amazing, I would love to get to know how to do the stuff you do with it,” Firefang stated, looking over at Twilight. “If you are okay with that, Princess? I am certain the Dragonlord would be interested in me studying this art.”

“I... Uhh, will have to ask Princess Celestia,” Twilight said sheepishly, summoning a scroll and a quill.

“I have some time,” Firefang chuckled before looking back over at Spitfire, Scootaloo, Rainbow, and Stormy. “Right now I want to get to know my family a little better anyhow.”

“Mom, can we introduce him to the crusaders?” Scootaloo asked, giving Spitfire the biggest puppy eyes she could.

“No need for extortion this time, Scootaloo,” Spitfire chuckled. “You know how to contact me Princess, we’ll be around town.”

Magic

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"A little lower!" Spitfire called out to her father as he slowly lowered a large block of granite into place, finishing the base of the outer perimeter wall. Within said perimeter stood an almost completely finished house, a few construction pegasi were working on portions of the roof but mostly it was done. Calling it a house wasn't completely fair either as, due to it specifically being designed to be able to house a few medium-sized dragons, it was a massive mansion. The designs, which Twilight had helped to dig up, made the structure resemble an old bastion, something that would be needed if bigger dragons would be using it. "It's in place!"

Firefang dropped the rope he'd been using to carry the block and landed next to it, untying the knot and pulling it from under the rock. “Now to fix it in place...”

Father and daughter both blew flames on the edges with the other rocks next to it and fused them together. "What do you say, shall we grab a bite inside?" Spitfire proposed, wiping away some sweat from her brow.

"Sounds good to me, you had some gems in storage, right?" Firefang asked as he slowly lumbered to the mansion's main entrance.

"Some rubies. I need to ask the Princess for a resupply soon," Spitfire replied as she flew backwards along with her father.

"Dragonlord Ember should start shipping some here too sometime soon, she did promise to support the school project," Firefang replied with a chuckle.

"Princess Twilight too, something I'm all too grateful for," Spitfire said as she landed and walked into the mansion. "The foundations of her section of the compound are coming along very well too. If that building goes up as fast as ours then, she'll probably be ready to receive students in a month, maybe two."

"That'll make this place real lively, I hear she's already inviting creatures from all around the world," Firefang replied as Spitfire got a batch of rubies from the storage closet.

"And how would you know that?" Spitfire asked as she got a hold of the right bag.

"Because she is going to be sending us two new students by the end of the week?" He replied giving her a questioning look. "Did you not get informed?"

"No, I did not. Mind filling me in now?" Spitfire asked as she divided the rubies and the two of them took place at a table in the central room.

"Not at all," Firefang replied, popping a ruby into his mouth and coming down on it. "The first of the pair is called Fireball, I know him a little and he's probably being forced to go. He doesn't like to be disturbed but he's incredibly smart as far as dragons go, young enough that he's not an avid follower of the previous dragon lord's mindset too."

"That mindset being?"

"Armed isolation," Firefang shrugged before continuing. "The second is called Smolder, I actually know her very well. She tries to pretend that she's like other dragons but she's definitely not, I can see a little of myself in her. She'll also be enrolled in Princess Twilight's school when that's running and I can see her fitting in there just fine."

"Huh, alright then. I'll make sure we got a set of rooms prepared then, we should be getting stuff for that,” Spitfire said. “If you could check on the forepony to see how far they are with the roof then I'll go do that.”

“Will do. I'll probably take a nap afterwards so I'll see you again in the evening.” Firefang said as he yawned, Spitfire rolled her eyes and smirked.

“You're almost as bad as Rainbow is.”

“Hey, I can't help your marefriend has a good understanding of the importance of a good nap,” Firefang grinned back. “I'm going to check on that pony, see you tonight my little puff of flame.” He ruffled Spitfire's hair as he did so.

“Dad!” she protested but he'd already flown off laughing. Spitfire shook her head and finished her last ruby. After leaving the site Spitfire didn't take long to put in an express order for the furniture she'd need for the two guests they were getting. After getting that down Spitfire decided to drop by Sugarcube Corner to pick up some snacks before going by the school Twilight was building and looking for the alicorn.

"What do you mean we're behind?" She heard the alicorn say as she came in for a landing at the site. "School is going to start up in a few weeks and I can't teach if all the students don't have housing!"

A worker pony looked at the princess apologetically as she seemed to be stressing out. "We simply don't have the work ponies, princess."

"What's going on?" Spitfire asked as she walked up to Twilight, the alicorn jumping around to face Spitfire.

"Work on the school is behind," she sighed, her shoulders sagging and her ears drooping. "As it looks now they won't be done until two weeks after the start of the year... I won't have any place to house my students."

"That's not good. How did it get behind?" Spitfire asked as she and Twilight sat down next to the small lake that would be in front of the school that was sitting half finished in the cliffside further back.

"The quarrying away of the rock took longer than expected and with the work on your Bastion they didn't have the workponies to make up for the lost time," Twilight sighed as she looked at the pegasi flying around the place that were still busily continuing construction work.

"Are there sections that are finished?" Spitfire asked as she wanted to see if she could cheer up the Princess.

"The classrooms are good to go, it is mainly the sleeping quarters that are not going to be finished."

"I mean... The bastion has a load of unused space?" Spitfire suggested, Twilight's ears perking up at that suggestion.

"But what about your students?" Twilight asked but there was a sparkle in her eyes.

Spitfire rolled her own eyes in response. "Twilight, I didn't invite half the world for my first year of studying. Draconic magic, despite the book I got from Princess Celestia, is still a frontier field of magic. Maybe in some distant past the magic was more advanced but as it stands I'm literally creating new spells by combining spells I've found in that book. I'll have my dad, myself, and two other dragons there to study and experiment with the spells. There will be plenty of space for your students while their quarters are finished."

"And you're totally fine with that?" Twilight beamed as she looked like a filly in a candy store.

"So long as they're staying at a distance when we're playing with fire," Spitfire stated. "Not everycreature is as fireproof as me and Firefang."

"Yes, that does sound like a good idea," Twilight chuckled as she smiled. "I can arrange for the temporary bedding to be delivered by the end of the week?"

"That would work just fine. My two dragon students will arrive by then so they can give a claw putting the stuff into place."

"You really are a lifesaver, you know?" Twilight smiled as she gave Spitfire a quick hug. "I'll drop by your place tonight to check it out."

“No problem, Twilight, I'll see you tonight then!” Spitfire said as she was back off again, flying back to her mansion and landing in front of her massive gate. They had installed a pony-sized door in the gate itself so opening it wouldn't be too big an issue for anyone that wasn't a fire-breathing, flying, lizard. Spitfire's hooves echoed through the halls as she made her way to their experiment rooms. With Dash out at the Academy, Firefang napping, and Scootaloo still at school she had some time to burn.

"Hmm... I wonder if I can get that anchor set up," Spitfire approached a large gemstone that sat at the center of the room. In between the construction project and work with Wonderbolts Spitfire and her father had been carving the gemstone to exact geometry, something they knew to do partially from manuscripts sent down by Canterlot and partially from the trial and error of trying to imbue smaller gems with matrixes. They had been working on this specific Black Opal for a month already, having gotten it to the exact size they wanted to get it and now only needed to cast the spell they wanted onto it.

"Here goes nothing," Spitfire said after a last glance at the notes they had hung all over the walls and started blowing a flame over the gemstone. Opal wasn't the only material that could be enchanted with dragonfire, but the gemstone was able to hold parts of the anchor spell reasonably well so they had decided it'd be their material of choice for generating their teleportation anchor.

Spitfire guided her magic throughout the entire stone, magically etching the lines of the matrix she needed to create the magical artefact. Sweat started rolling down her brow as she engrossed herself in the process, magic draining from her core as she used a vast quantity of it to imbue it into the gemstone.

Almost there... Yes!

Spitfire cut off her fire, taking a deep breath as she looked at the now glowing gemstone. once having caught her breath she immediately went ahead and verified the magical lines, finding no flaw in its structures.

"HA!" Spitfire cried as she held the gem, jumping up and rushing back outside, landing in the garden where a stone altar of sorts had already been built in anticipation of the creation of the anchor. Placing it in its slot, Spitfire flew up again, getting some distance before spinning up some more dragon fire and casting a teleportation portal. Instead of just going in a straight line like the portal she'd been practising with, this one deposited her right in front of the pedestal with her newly enchanted gemstone. "Yes!"

Spitfire immediately took off again, glancing at Ponyville's clock tower to see if she could make it to the academy before Scootaloo's school was out before racing off for the Cloudsdale Academy. Getting up to altitude fast, Spitfire abused a few shorter-ranged teleports to gain some distance and make her way over to the Wonderbolt facility faster. It took her about an hour of flying when she reached the airstrip and slowed down, coming to a running halt on it.

"I thought you had the day off!" Soarin called out as he'd seen her land, the stallion clearly partially through a workout. "Usually ponies that are free don't go to work!"

"Hey, I still needed my fix for the day, Lieutenant!" Spitfire called back with a smirk. "Where's Dash?"

"Probably in the locker room getting ready to head home to you," Soarin replied, shaking his head as he went and started doing stretches. "That desperate to get your bit of tail?"

Spitfire rolled her eyes and shook her head as she walked past the stallion and into the building, walking down the corridor and into the locker room where Dash was indeed about to fly off.

"Spits!" she said, immediately going in for a kiss. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be picking up Scoots from school?"

"Can't I come pick up my marefriend too?" Spitfire teased after they broke the kiss and walked off together.

Dash laughed as they made it outside. "I guess we'll have to apologise to Squirt when we get back then."

"Do we? I actually made a breakthrough while at home," Spitfire shot back with a devious smirk. "Watch!"

Calling on her magic again, Spitfire made a connection with the teleportation anchor she'd placed at her home and cast the portal spell, augmented with a cold-fire matrix that would allow Dash to step through.

"Wait, you got that teleportation thing working?!" Dash exclaimed as she approached the fire, noticing the lack of heat.

"Eeeyup!" Spitfire said. "Shall we?"

"Buck yeah!" Dash exclaimed as they stepped through the gate, feeling the rush of magic as they were transported all the way back over to Ponyville. Rainbow stumbled a moment as she had to get re-oriented after the short trip. "Whoa, that's way trippier than when Twi does it."

"I see you finally got that matrix working," Firefang chuckled as he walked up to the site. "I wondered where you'd gone."

"You're awake early," Spitfire chuckled as she looked back at the Opal. "And yeah, I decided we'd done enough prep work for the attempt. We'll of course have to make more of them later."

"Naturally," he replied, looking over his shoulder. "But I think you have a filly to attend to now."

Spitfire looked past Firefang at Scootaloo, who was standing at the front gate with her pair of flight goggles.

"Yeah, you're right." Spitfire looked over to Rainbow. "Ready to do some more flying?"

Dash gave her a quick nuzzle and smiled.

"Always."

Spits Fire

by CommanderApplejack

Secrets

Wonderbolts

Ponyville

Thundersnow

Friends

Welcome to Ponyville

Exposed

Family

Press

Filly

Snowballs

Magic

Longma

Old Friend

Cutie Mark

2 Decades earlier

Daughter

Parents

Magic