Forest Fire

Spitfire stared at the ceiling of her room. Her front half was on the floor while her back end pointed up in the air as it pressed against the side of the bed. Her body ached and her head throbbed, made worse by the light stabbing at her eyes.

We must have celebrated too hard last night.

The made her stop. What would they have been celebrating last night? Were they celebrating? Normally she would go out with the team after they did what seemed like a great performance during one of their stunt shows. She did not recall doing a show recently. The last thing she remembered was... was...

"You okay?" a feminine voice asked. At the doorway stood a white pegasus mare with a blond mane and tail.

"I'm fine," Spitfire responded as she moved to get up. "What's up?"

"I was actually coming to wake you. There's a meeting in one hour. All team members are expected to be in the main conference room in their flight suits." The white pegasus grinned, pulling her goggles down over her eyes.

"Alright," Spitfire gave a nod. "Thank you, Surprise. I'll be down shortly." As Surprise gave a nod of acknowledgement and left, Spitfire walked toward the bathroom. She stepped through the doorway and into the meeting room in her Wonderbolt flight suit. Several teammates were already sitting around and waiting for the meeting to start. Others would be showing up shortly.

"Thank you all for coming," Princess Luna stated. "I have called you all here for a very important reason."

Spitfire? Can you hear me, Spitfire?

Spitfire blinked in confusion and looked around. She could have sworn that she just heard Luna call her name, but the pegasus had been watching the princess, and her lips had not moved. Had somepony else called her name?

Up front, Luna's horn glowed as she pulled down a projection screen. As the lights went down, a projector came on. On the screen appeared an image of a black alicorn with an ethereal blue mane and tail. On her flank was a crescent moon surrounded by a night sky, and she wore dark blue armor.

"Nightmare Moon has returned," the princess stated. "More accurately, the entity that is Nightmare Moon has found a new vessel." The image changed to a black dragon breathing purple flame. "Somehow it has taken a hold of a dragon."

Where are you?

Spitfire lost track of what was being said as she heard what sounded like Luna again. This time it could not have been the princess at the front because the other voice had spoken over her.

I can sense that you are asleep, but I can't seem to find you.

"Spitfire."

The sound of her name being called made the pegasus jump in her seat.

"You, Soarin, and Surprise shall report to Ponyville," the Luna up front stated. "There you shall assist Pinkie Pie in covering the giant waffles with whipped cream, cherries, and sprinkles. Everypony understand their missions?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" All the assembled ponies, Spitfire included, shouted with a salute.

"Dismissed!"

Flanked by Soarin and Surprise, Spitfire flew straight up out of the meeting room and into the sky. The three continued to fly straight up until they were flying down toward Ponyville. Below, they could see what looked to be a waffle close to twenty-five feet in diameter. Several ponies stood around it.

As soon as they landed, Surprise stripped off her flight suit. She then reached up to the base of her mane, and pulled down. The white pegasus peeled away to reveal a pink earth pony.

"Hi," Pink Surprise (?) said with a wide grin. "Thank you so-so much for coming to help. We really need to get this pie a la mode before-"

"PIE!" Soarin shouted. Before any of the ponies could do anything, the pegasus stallion dove head first into the giant pie, bits of crust and cherry filling spraying out. Quickly, he began to swim through the large baked good, eating a path through the crust as he went.

"SOARIN!" Spitfire shouted. "Get out of there. We are supposed to be getting ready to face Nightmare Dragon!"

"Oh you don't have to worry about that," the pink pony that had been Surprise said. "It's never going to reach us before you wake up." With that, she hopped away.

"Great," Spitfire said before something else sank in. "Wait. What do you mean by that?"

Before she could get an answer, the ground beneath her hooves began to shake. The giant pie tin went flying as the earth beneath it surged up, taking the pie loving pegasus with it.

The ground burst open, rocks and dirt flying through the air. From the hole, a giant canine claw emerged. It was soon followed by another. Slowly from the ground emerged a twenty five foot tall Diamond Dog. Except...

It looked like a poodle. Not only did it have the curly white hair coat, but even had the popular poodle cut.

The gigantic Diamond Poodle climbed out of the opening and stood at its full height. The scorpion tail flicked behind it as it straightened up. It spread the dragon wings wide and let out a massive roar.

"Oh no!" a voice shouted. "It's the Diamond Dog Deity. Run for your lives." This was followed by screams as ponies began to do just that.

The creature watched the ponies as they ran before turning toward Spitfire. Looking down, it let out a snarl. It reared back its head and took a deep breath. The creature then thrust forward, opening its mouth wide.

A rainbow colored bubble blew out from the monster's mouth and encompassed the pegasus. Before she realized it, she began to float up into the air and drift away.

Spitfire looked around as she began to float up, wondering what was going on. Reaching out with a hoof, she poked at the wall of the bubble. It resisted the pressure, not popping on contact. Made sense since it was actually able to support her weight. Not seeing much other choice, she stood there and watched the ground float by.

It was actually kind of relaxing. She never had the opportunity to float through the air without having it be under her own power. It was something that she would have to do more often. Maybe they could create glass bottomed hot air balloons. Would not quite be the same, but would be as close as they could get from what she could figure. She watched The Everfree Forest come into view beneath her.

The bubble burst.

Spitfire heard a small pop from around her and felt something sticky coat her wings. Their was a moment was weightlessness and freedom before she felt the pull of gravity. Her breath caught in her throat as she began to fall toward the ground, getting faster and faster until reaching a speed she knew would break her neck.