Blaze of Glory:Broken Shadows

Chapter 2

As Dash flew home with the wind whipping her spectrum-like mane all around her face, thoughts of Blaze and his unique mannerisms flew from the pegasus's mind as she fully embraced the euphoria of flying.

After doing a few intricate spins and twirls with relative ease she found her rhythm, dispelling all of the days frustrations through flight but as her cloud home came closer into view Rainbow started to slow down.

As she decelerated Dash began to think about Blaze again. Why was he such a jerk? Dash wondered as she entered her cloud home.

The living room was a mess because Dash spent most of her time in the upstairs bedroom. Not to mention the fact that she couldn't be bothered to clean a room that was hardly ever used.

When she proceeded upstairs to her room and opened the door she couldn't help but take a moment to admire her sweet pad, which had a LOT of posters of the Wonderbolts on the walls and quite a few rock and techno cds stacked here and there, with about 2 dozen or so trophies on bookshelves of differing size.

Newspapers with articles about the Wonderbolts were scattered all over the floor but then she saw the coup De grace, Dash's bed was made of the softest clouds she could find and as such was extremely comfortable with a rainbow colored blanket and a white and red pillow. As she flew into her bed and settled in Rainbow found herself wishing for the briefest of moments that she had somepony to share it with, but soon sleep overtook her and she knew no more.

******

Blaze stumbled into his house barely conscious and shut the door behind him.

“Why must she *hic* be so annoyingly persistent, I don't see why she *hic* cares so damn much.” Blaze said out loud with great difficulty as he stumbled into the bathroom, his body rejecting all the cider he drank and began emptying his guts into the toilet.

As Blaze sat there retching, his mind wandered back to a past he would rather forget but knew he couldn't escape.

******

It was a cold day in the slums of Manehattan, and foal Blaze was wrapped up as best he could along with his mother Silver Spark and his father Nova Blitz.

It was 20 below freezing in their simple brick apartment, and with no heater and nothing more than a few blankets to keep them warm, twas a sad sight indeed.

Though none of them knew it, their lives were about to change forever.

“I'm finally getting a good check this week!” Proclaimed Nova nearly ecstatic with joy.

“Really?! Honey that's wonderful news!” Said Silver as a gleam of hope appeared in her eyes for the first time in a long while.

“Yeah, my boss at the weather factory said that I did good this month, and that he would give me a bonus on top of my already extraordinary check if I worked the late shift for a little while on top of my usual work hours!” said Nova overjoyed that things were finally starting to work out for him and his loving family.

“So does this mean that we'll finally be able to send Blaze back to school?” Asked Silver.

“Eventually, but it will be a long while before we can.” Said Nova, deep in thought.

“Mom? Dad? I don't understand whats happening, I feel weird.” Said Blaze, before he suddenly collapsed.

“BLAZE!” Yelled Silver and Nova, noticing him faint.

They checked his temperature and their hearts sank.

Blaze was taken to the hospital where the doctor said he had hypothermia, and that it would cost them most of Nova's check to save his life.

Nova agreed in a heartbeat completely forgetting that rent would be due soon, his only concern being his sons health.

Blaze slowly awoke to a room he had never been in before, with white walls and strange ponies that he didn't know all gathered around him talking and writing on clipboards while going in and out of the room.

As he became more and more aware of his surroundings, Blaze began to be overcome with fear and thoughts started to race in his mind, thoughts like Where am I? And How did I get here? But only one of these thoughts got voiced.

“Wh-Where's my mom and dad?!” Blaze asked beginning to freak out surrounded by all these unfamiliar faces, and wanting more than ever to be with his mother and father.

“Oh Blaze thank Celestia you're okay!” He heard as he saw Silver come up to him with tears in her eyes and Nova not too far behind with tears in his eyes as well, apparently speechless with a wide smile on his face at seeing his son okay.

“Mom! Dad! What happened, where are we?” Blaze asked as his mother gave him a hug and dispelled his paranoia for the moment.

“Blaze dear, you came down with hypothermia and we had to get you to the hospital immediately where we are currently”. Silver explained, a new bout of tears welling up at the memory.

“Oh well I'm fine now right?” Blaze asked, fear creeping back into his mind once more.

“You're okay now but-.” Nova said finally contributing to the conversation.

He was about to continue when one of the strange ponies came up to Nova and they began to talk out of ear shot of Silver and Blaze.

“Oh I'm so glad you're okay honey”. Said Silver, sitting there with Blaze.

“Me too” Said Blaze, never taking his eyes off his father but slowly turning to look at his grief stricken mother, and what he saw would stay with him for years.

His mother seemed like she had been to Hell and back, her hair was frazzled, she had bags under her eyes, her make-up was running from the constant crying, and her face was sullen.

Young Blaze had never seen his mother like this and the sight scared him.

“Mom? Are you okay?” He asked worry and fear evident in his voice.

“Yes dear I am fine.” Silver said assuring her son, while inwardly cursing herself for letting her impressionable son see her in such a state.

“Well.” Nova said back from his conversation with the doctor. “Blaze is going to have to stay here for a few more days while he recovers and as much as I want to stay, someones got to keep us alive and fed so I'm going back to work tomorrow.”

“But for today I am here with the two people who mean the most to me, and that is all that matters.” Said Nova smiling once again as he prepared to have some fun with his family.

As they all sat there talking and laughing, Blaze noticed his father seemed distant but dismissed it and enjoyed the time he was spending with his parents.

After they all spent a little while enjoying the company of one another, Blaze drifted off to sleep and his mind wandered to what would happen to him and his parents in the future.

******

The feeling of the wind whipping through her hair as Dash flew with her friends and teammates in the Wonderbolts was unmatched and as she flew she remembered earlier in the day when Spitfire came up to her and asked if they could talk as friends later, Dash agreed and they had eventually decided to talk after practice.

After practice the entire team took off their flightsuits and stepped in the showers.

After everyone was done taking a shower, Spitfire approached Dash.

“Hey yo, Dash!” The Wonderbolt captain said as she caught up to her cyan coated friend.

“Sup Spits?” Dash asked turning around to face her friend.

“Remember the conversation from earlier?”

“Yeah I do, so where are we going anyway?”

“Lets go to my place since its close to here. Not to mention we'll have privacy there. So anything said there remains between us, sound good?

“Hay yeah lets do it!”

“Good, then follow me.” Spitfire said as she took off into the afternoon sky.

“Awesome!” Rainbow said, taking off after her captain.

As they flew through the sky Rainbow noticed how cool Spitfire looked without her flightsuit on. Spitfire's yellow coat was accentuated perfectly with her orange flame like mane that was her namesake flowing in the wind looking as if it truly were on fire and her finely toned muscles showing no exertion as they flew at speeds that most ponies could only dream of reaching.

The city bustled below them as the two Wonderbolts tore through the sky.

Soon they approached their destination, and both of them decelerated approaching the home of one of Equestria's most important ponies.

When she arrived at Spitfires house, Rainbow was amazed at what she saw. The house was painted yellow with jagged black spikes painted over the yellow and as she approached the door Rainbow was completely enamored with the house.

Spitfire looked back, noticed Rainbow and chuckled.

“You like it?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

“Its awesome!” Rainbow said.

“Well wait till you see the inside.” Spitfire said with another chuckle at how much like a kid Rainbow truly was.

As soon as they entered the house Rainbow would have sworn that her jaw hit the floor because in the middle of the living room was a 50 inch plasma TV, a PonyStation 3, and a massive collection of games. The couch looked ridiculously comfortable and the coffee table in between the couch and the TV had about 20 cans of either energy drinks or soda on it.

Spitfire closed the door and flew over to the kitchen while telling Rainbow she could hop on the couch if she wanted to, which she promptly did.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” Spitfire asked while Dash settled in.

“Got any Dr Pepper?” Asked Dash from the living room.

“Hay yeah, DP is the bomb!” Said Spitfire enthusiastically from the kitchen.

Spitfire came back with two liters of Dr Pepper and two cups with ice.

“So Rainbow.” She said while pouring herself a drink.

“'Sup?” Dash asked as she did the same.

“Has something happened in your life recently?” The sun yellow pegasus asked, now letting her concern for her friend and teammate show.

Its a good thing Dash hadn't started drinking yet or she would have been choking.

“What the hay Spitfire? That's kinda random, what brought this on?” She asked completely caught off guard by the question.

“Well Dash, the thing is me and some of the other Bolts have been noticing you acting pretty weird over the past few days, and I decided to see what was up in case you needed help.” Spitfire explained looking right at Dash as she did so.

“So whats up with you?” She asked.

“Nothing, I've just been preoccupied with practice recently.” Rainbow lied.

“Really Dash? You think I cant see through that? I know you better than that so stop trying to BS me and tell me whats really going on.” Spitfire said still staring straight at her.

"Come on Dash, I've heard that excuse from myself far too many times for it to fool me."

“Ugh fine Spits you win. Its apparent I cant get anything past you, plus I'm a terrible liar.” Rainbow said in resignation.

“So here goes, a few days ago while I was on my trip to Ponyville, you remember the one I make every 2-3 months?” She asked.

“Yeah I remember.”

“Well while I was there I met this new colt who moved into town Blaze and he got under my skin to a good degree.”

“Go on.”

So Rainbow Dash told her about what happened the night of the party and what happened after the party when he got mad at her and she flew away.

“And ever since then I cant stop thinking about finding that jerk and making him apologize for being so rude when all I wanted to do was be his friend!” Rainbow said now huffing in anger as she recalled in vivid detail the events of that night.

“Hmm, well why don't you go find him and do that?”

“I don't know where he lives.” Dash said sheepishly, more than a little embarrassed.

“Why not find out?”

“Good idea, I'll find out tomorrow.” Dash said pouring herself another drink of Dr Pepper.

“I'll hold you to that Dash.” Spitfire said, satisfied for the moment with Dash's answer.

“Now enough with the mushy stuff lets kill some zombies, Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil? Its your call Dash.” She said booting up her PonyStation 3.

“Resident Evil sounds like fun!” Rainbow Dash said as she was handed her controller.

“Well alright then Resident Evil it is.” Spitfire said, glad to see her friend back to her old self.

“Yo Spits?” Rainbow asked.

“'Sup Dash?”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

After about five and a half hours of gaming, Spitfire turned to Rainbow Dash.

“I don't know about you but I'm tired, so I'm gonna go to bed.“ Said Spitfire as she got up and headed towards the stairs.

“Yeah same here, good night Spits.” Dash said as she lay her head on the couch

“Night Dash.” Spitfire said before disappearing from sight.

Today was awesome Dash thought and tomorrow I'll get my apology from that bastard.

End Chapter 2