Raining Fire

Written by: Alex A

Chapter 17: Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

Spitfire landed on the cold hard ground at the entrance to the stadium. She looked up to see her reflection in the door of the building. She sighed and pushed it open before trotting into the arena.

After a few moments Spitfire was trotting down one of the long hallways in the stadium, the only sound being the echo’s of her hooves hitting the tiled floor of the corridor. She found the sound slightly haunting, but she continued onwards towards Silver's office. The nerves in her chest still rising with every step.

It felt like forever to Spitfire when she finally stopped outside Silver’s door, she hesitantly lifted a hoof and knocked the wooden surface until she heard the voice of the stallion, but instead of hearing a voice, the door opened to reveal Silver Skies. His face was darkened slightly by the lack of light between the door and the sun.

“Come in,” he said flatly, leaving the door slightly ajar as he trotted back into the office. Spitfire quietly pushed the door open, she spotted a stack of newspapers on Silver’s desk, she gulped hard knowing what was about to happen.

Silver didn’t sit down, his posture was very stern, but his face was blank only making Spitfire more worried than she already was before. After a few moments of tense silence the dark blue stallion spoke, “Okay Spitfire, I think you already know why I’ve asked you to come here,” Silver said in a very dark tone.

Spitfire nodded nervously, the fear of losing her dream job setting in around her mind. The stallion kept a forehoof on the stack of papers, he then proceeded to pick up a quarter of the stack before throwing them on the floor in front of the Wonderbolt captain. The three newspapers held the same photo with different headlines. They were all big newspapers one of which was Manehatten Daily itself.

The three headlines included ‘Firey Wonderbolt saves Marefriend’,’Wonderbolt Fillyfooler?’ and the most horrifying ‘Spitfire ruins Wonderbolt reputation over fillyfooling.’

Spitfire couldn’t hold her jaw from dropping at the sight, she was utterly shocked by what she saw, before she could open her mouth to respond though Silver cut her off.

“Spitfire...what did I tell you on the first day we arrived here in Manehatten?” he asked plainly, raising an eyebrow.

Spitfire rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, “you told us not to get on the front pages for something like this sir,” she replied trying to be as formal as possible in front of the manager.

Silver nodded. “That is correct captain and what did you do?” he asked his voice getting slightly more firm.

Spitfire lowered her head ever so slightly, “disobeyed the order sir,” she said solemnly. bracing herself for what was to come.

Silver sighed heavily. “Spitfire... I’m not going to fire you over this, but then again that all depends on how the public react to it, and judging by the headlines I wouldn’t hold out much hope,” he stated.

Spitfire nodded. “Okay sir, I understand,” she replied feeling the full impact of the punishment. If the public didn’t like how the image of the Wonderbolts was changing...she could be out of her dream job. Suddenly without warning, Spitfire was thrown from her mind back into reality.

“How do you intend to fix this captain?” Silver asked.

Spitfire blinked a few times before answering, “I-I...guess we’ll just have to put on a great performance for the rest of the tour, show ponies we haven't changed,” she said with a slight glimmer of hope.

Silver Skies nodded. “Well I hope for your sake it works, for now though I think you should go home...tell Rainbow too... she deserves to know about this,” Silver said in a surprisingly calm tone. Spitfire nodded before slowly trotting out of the office.

Spitfire closed the door to Silver’s office, she sighed heavily before turning to trot away down the hallway, but when she did a certain silver stallion was standing in front of her.

“Blazing, what are you doing here?” she asked curiously.

The stallion didn’t reply and simply wrapped her up in an embrace, Spitfire didn’t hold back as she hugged her sibling. After a few moments of peaceful silence Blazing spoke, “I heard about what happened...and I want you to know we can get through on this together, I’m willing to be the bigger brother if you want me too,” he said anxiously waiting to see what his younger sibling would say.

Spitfire felt her spirits rise at her brothers words, but there was still something bugging her mind, she looked up at Blazing and raised an eyebrow, “why do you want to help me now? you’ve been very weird lately Blazing, what's going on?” she asked getting very concerned with her brothers actions.

Blazing simply smiled as he held his sister close, “well...a couple of days ago I had a talk with Rainbow…I want to be the big brother I’m supposed to be now because you're going to be under a lot soon and I want to be there when it happens not be drunk in some bar.”

Spitfire smiled back, “that’s good to hear Blazing...I needed that,” she said happily.

Blazing released the hug and ruffled Spitfire’s mane, “Glad to hear it, so what's the plan then...more training,” he asked hesitantly.

Spitfire muffled her laughter as she shook her head playfully, “I’m afraid that's inevitable Blazing, but I think all we can do is give em a good show and see what happens,” she said shrugging her shoulders.

Blazing nodded. “Well sounds like a plan, if you need anything you know where I am at the hotel,” he said getting ready to take flight.

Spitfire chuckled. “What are you just going to go home and play some more poker with yourself?” she asked amusingly.

Blazing stopped in his tracks and turned back to face the golden mare, he smirked. “Of course not, unless you want to join me?” he asked.

Spitfire shook her head. “na I’m going out with Rainbow today,” she said coming up to her brothers side.

Blazing was a little puzzled by this, “but what about the city, they’ll all know about what happened last night,” he pointed out.

Spitfire smirked mischievously. “Well if they read the article then they’ll know that nopony touches my Rainbow,” she said proudly.

Blazing put a forehoof to his chin as he pondered, “hmm touche,” he said as the two let out another giggle.

Spitfire sighed. “Well I best get going...race ya?” she asked flaring her wings ready for a competition.

Blazing nodded confidently. “Sure thing sis...3...2...-”

“1 go!” Spitfire finished before darting off into the sky. Blazing rolled his eyes before shooting off after the mare…happy to be close to his sibling once again, but the real test was still to come...

To be Continued...

Author's Note

Right...okay....again I'm really sorry for the short chapter, it's just things are changing a lot in terms of Act II and I've kinda changed it slightly, to do this I've had to make this chapter which is quite small, now given another 2 days I probably could have put this chapter and the future chapter together...but I didn't want to hold you guys over the weekend without an update so here you go, hope you liked it.

Well on the chapter as a whole it turned out the way I wanted it too, Blazing is changing but the real test will come when they go back to Cloudsdale.

for Act II I have just 2 more chapters, the next will be 2 thousand or more I promise and then the show chapter will be something like 5k words since I'll be putting what was origanally 2 chaps into one so yeah.

Anyways onto summary time...

1: Spitfire has kept her job FOR NOW, if the public react badly to this then Spitfire will be out of the job
2: I intend for Blazing to keep changing, I kinda want him to say what he said to Spitfire to the whole team but I'm still working on it
3: Yeah sorry Mike is practically dead
4: Silver didn't go off the handle. I felt it was too out of character for him

sorry for the short chap...again ~Alex