Raining Fire

Written by: Alex A

Chapter 2: The Start of Something New

The dense autumn fog flooded its way through the Wonderbolts arena. Spitfire stood alone in the center of the arena and watched the skies for any signs of life. She looked over to the clock at the far side of the giant oval shaped building and watched as the minute hand worked its way up to a full hour.

After a few moments, a crack of sunlight broke out of the thick morning clouds, letting the world around it heat up as the fog began to clear. The yellow flier caught a flash of rainbow as a pegasus made its way towards the stadium.

Rainbow Dash landed hard onto the cloud surface of the arena. “I am so, so sorry I was late, Spitfire, I-”

The Wonderbolt captain cut her off with the wave of a dismissive hoof. “It's fine Dash, but first, come with me. There is somepony I need you to see,” she said, motioning with a hoof for the sky blue mare to follow. The pair made their way inside the arena where the Wonderbolt headquarters were located.

At the current time of morning, only a few ponies were actually present inside the building. The light yellow hue of the sun shone through the huge open windows that viewed the arena as the two fast flyers wandered through the giant hallways which occupied most of the vast building.

The smell of freshly cleaned floors and other items wafted throughout the building as Dash followed Spitfire until they came up to a cloud door with a golden plaque adorning it. The plate was engraved with the words ‘Silver Skies’.

Spitfire put a hoof up to the door and lightly tapped its surface before standing back and waiting anxiously. Soon, a voice, muffled by the cloud wall, spoke in a very formal yet groggy tone.

“Come in,” the voice spoke.

Spitfire pushed open the door to reveal a dark-blue stallion sitting behind a desk made out of some dark type of wood. It looked expensive, as did the tightly worn blazer that the stallion was proudly wearing. His curly silver locks hung below his nose, which he habitually blew away. Right now, the stallion looked like he was very focused on a certain task involving mountains of paperwork. Both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash headed into the room, taking the opportunity to take the two free seats in front of the desk.

The blue stallion took a moment to look up from his current work. Seeing the two mares currently sitting in his office, he dropped the quill he was holding and put his hooves together. “So, is this the mare you’ve been talking about, Spitfire?” he asked.

The yellow pony nodded. “Yes sir, this is Rainbow Dash. She’s the top flyer in the academy this year,” Spitfire spoke with a smile.

Silver Skies lowered his thinly cut reading glasses as he looked over the mare. He raised an eyebrow at her features. Rainbow blushed slightly from embarrassment; she wasn’t what you would call 'formal.' She was more just a rough runner and didn’t care for things like keeping her mane in check or anything like that. She much more prefered to go with the flow.

Silver Skies finished his quick inspection and went back to signing the papers on his desk. He spoke clearly, clearly no longer interested with the current topic. “She’ll do. Just get her in a suit and teach her your routine before the Gala, otherwise it's all your necks on the line. As well as mine,” he added in an undertone, motioning the two mares in the room to leave.

Spitfire got up, but just before she even had a chance to properly move her legs, the door to the office was opened to reveal a silver coated stallion with a slightly frizzled yellow mane. He was currently holding what seemed like a sore patch on his head with a hoof.

Spitfire turned a concerned look towards her sibling. “Are you alright, Blazing?” she asked, looking over the stallion.

Blazing Fire nodded. “Yeah… feel wonderful,” he said sarcastically before wincing slightly from the pain his head gave off.

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “Where were you last night?” she asked, not remembering anything about her brother's whereabouts after he’d left to go help Soarin with something she could only vaguely remember. Suddenly, an equally wasted looking Soarin made his way into the office.

The sky blue stallion sighed. “After we helped Fleetfoot and Misty get home last night, we found this cool-looking bar down on Cloud Crescent Way and-”

“Okay, I think I get it. As long as the pair of you can fly, that's fine,” she said before trotting out of the room, motioning for Rainbow to follow. This just left Silver Skies and the two Wonderbolt stallions in the office.

Soarin spoke up from the awkward silence, “Sir, should we-”

“Just get out,” Silver Skies finished. The two stallions nodded and scrambled out of the room.

Dash liked the way her new uniform fitted. It didn’t feel any different from the way her trainee uniform hugged her hooves and face like a vacuum. Still, Dash loved the way it looked, and almost gave off a fangirl squeal when she saw herself in a mirror on her walk down towards the arena.

Rainbow trotted through the tunnel, heading out onto the vast cloud arena. She closed her eyes when the flash of the bright autumn sun caught her eye.

Once she regained her vision, Dash saw three ponies centered on the stage. One of them was pacing, trotting back and forth in front of two other ponies as they did a number of wing ups. The trotting pony counted in time to the other pegasi’s movements. Dash could see, once she got closer, that the two unfortunate souls on the ground just so happened to be Soarin and Blazing Fire, and it was Spitfire who shouted the numbers up to a limit that nopony currently knew.

Spitfire turned around and, seeing the cyan mare approaching, she looked back down to the two stallions. “Okay, I think that's enough for now,” she said.
The two stallions let all inhibitions go and fell flat onto the inviting surface below. Spitfire didn’t let them lay idle for long.

Soon, all three ponies stood at attention while Spitfire read out a list on her clipboard for the performance’s moves and other parts of the stunts. Dash was trying to hide her rising eagerness to just get up there and fly, but she knew better, and kept herself grounded for the time being.

After a few moments, Spitfire put down the clipboard and looked at the three ponies in front of her. “So, are we ready?” she asked with a slight grin.

Blazing Fire sighed. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Spitfire shook her head playfully before blowing on her whistle; a whistle that Dash had heard many times before at the academy.

The three pegasi flew up into the air to start the first part of the routine. Soarin and Blazing Fire flew in opposite directions, and Soarin headed upwards. Blazing Fire made his way to the other side of the arena, and Dash waited for Spitfire’s command.

The yellow mare on the ground smirked and nodded, giving Dash the signal. Rainbow nodded in return and shot off towards the other end of the stadium, starting off the first stage of the routine.

Rainbow Dash saw the frame of the silver coated stallion advancing towards her at great speed. She couldn’t see Soarin at the moment, and was too focused on impressing the mare watching on the ground below to care.

The last few seconds of time slowed down for Dash as she got within touching distance of the stallion. It looked as if they were heading for a mid air collision, but Dash started to roll, as did Blazing Fire. When they passed, they not only got clear of each other, but also created a small pocket of space just big enough for Soarin to pass through vertically from the air above the two ponies.

Dash breathed a sigh of relief when she felt time speed back up again. Spitfire’s whistle sounded from below her. Dash and the other two ponies turned around to see their captain adorning a proud smile across her face as they came down to her level.

Spitfire sighed happily. “Okay team, great job so far! Now get up there and give me twenty more!" she said, letting the ponies get up in the air before she blew her whistle. She watched them try the daring trick over and over.

After a while, the training began to slowly progress through the routine and, by the evening, Dash had learned nearly half the moves included in this year’s winter routine.

As the sun began to dip, Spitfire blew her whistle for the last time, letting everypony take a well deserved rest. Blazing Fire barely even managed to keep himself up as his lieutenant helped him towards the locker room.

Blazing Fire smirked. "Thanks for the help, lover boy."

Soarin smirked back. "No problem, honey bunch," he retorted in a humming voice, making the silver stallion look towards his lieutenant with disgust.

Blazing Fire shook his head. "That's a new low, even for you dude," he said as the pair went into the tunnel and out of earshot.

Dash smiled playfully at the two stallions before turning back to Spitfire, who was trotting up to her. Spitfire spoke up once she got close. "Hey, that was great work today, Dash," the Wonderbolt captain said happily.

Dash looked away, blushing slightly at the compliment from her idol. Spitfire found it hard to ask her next question in the awkward silence.
"So... I was wondering, you wanna go get a bite to eat later on? My treat," Spitfire said, trying her best to act casual about the offer.

Dash thought about the offer, and to Spitfire's immense relief, it didn't take long for the cyan mare to nod her head in approval. "Sure, why not? Where do you have in mind?" Rainbow asked curiously.

Spitfire gave a smirk in response. "You'll see," she hummed in a sing-song voice as she trotted off to the locker rooms with the cyan mare following closely behind her.

To be Continued…

Author's Note

Hello again, it's a me Alex...crap!

Anyway hope you all enjoyed the next chapter of the story! In this one I was kinda just setting up the routine of where and how Dash would train for the whole show thing so yeah and some more conflict between Soarin and Blaze but not as much today just sorta turning it Down a little.

Anyways here's a little update for ya

1: Dash is now a Wonderbolt and is Training for the shows in Canterlot.
2: Spitfire has gathered up enough courage to ask Rainbow if she'd like to hang out that evening. (More in the next chap)
3: Yes there shall be more in depth stuff about the flying routines probably more during the shows as I want to center the story on Dash and Spitfire.

~ Alex

I have to think of something to say... I got nothin'

~ Michael