Where I Belong

If there was one thing the locker room at the Wonderbolts Aerodome in Canterlot didn’t lack after a big show, it was exuberance. Voices rang in playful teasing and bantering throughout the room, audible even over the roar of thunderous applause still going from the stands. Water hissed from showers in the next room as the team washed the sweat off their tired bodies.

All except for one.

A sky-blue pegasus mare sat in front of her locker, massaging a sore neck with a towel. She’d only made it as far as lowering the hood of her full-body spandex flight suit before she found she just didn’t have the energy to stand to remove the rest of it yet. Even if it was sticky with sweat and clung to her body uncomfortably, it just felt too good to sit down.

She opened her locker and tossed the used towel down onto the bench next to her. Pulling her goggles off from around her neck, she hung them up on their hook.

Her eyes fell upon a collection of decorations taped to the inside of the locker door. There was a newspaper article with a picture of her face announcing her as the newest member of the Wonderbolts performance team. Another picture showed her between the team’s Captain and Vice-Captain, each with a foreleg around her shoulders. A third showed her parents; her mother wearing her own Wonderbolts Instructor’s uniform. They had both been so proud when she’d given them the news. Their daughter fulfilling her dreams.

A sigh escaped her lips as she stood. Reaching behind her, wincing as she stretched the stiff flight muscles around her wings, she pulled down the zipper of her flight suit and began peeling it off. All around her, the cheers of her adoring fans and the raucous laughter of her teammates celebrating echoed off the concrete walls and tiled floor.

As she dumped the suit onto the floor of her locker for the staff to clean later, a glimmer of light reflected from the back. The edge of a metal something poked out from behind a thick jacket she had hanging up. Glancing around to see that she was still alone, she pulled it out.

It was a picture frame, a little taller than her hoof and about twice as wide, made of silver with magnets on the back to hold it up. An orange pegsus filly right on the cusp of adulthood smiled up at her, carefree and happy as could be in the arms of their mutual friend. He was an odd-looking fellow; tall on his two legs and lacking the fur coats of ponies. Instead he had only very thin patches of fine, short brown hair on his chest and limbs. His brown mane was short and there was stubble along his angular cheeks and chin from where he shaved.

She never understood why he did that. He swore that it made him look better, but she wasn’t convinced. Though she guessed it did make him look a little more rugged.

Feeling like a thousand pounds had dropped squarely onto her shoulders, she reluctantly put the picture away.

Somepony cleared their throat behind her and she turned to see a bright yellow pegasus mare with a mane like liquid fire. Captain Spitfire had already ditched her flight suit and showered, as her bangs, too short to reach the haphazard ponytail she’d fashioned with a pair of chopsticks, were still damp and dripping onto her face. She was carrying a stack of folders as she looked over the rim of her slim reading glasses. She quickly pulled them off with the tip of her wing, looking concerned.

“What are you doing out here, Dash?” she asked. “With how well you did tonight, I’d have thought you’d be in there basking in the praise and adulation of your teammates!” She had said it mockingly, but Rainbow Dash had known her long enough to hear the faint trace of worry creeping into her tone. Though she’d never say it out loud, Rainbow thought Spitfire could be quite the mother hen when she thought something was amiss with her team.

That didn’t mean she didn’t try to wriggle her way out of it. “Just a little tired after the show,” she said, trying to laugh it off. “I think pulling a double Filly Flash after three corkscrew dives might have been a little too much, even for me!”

“It was pretty impressive,” Spitfire said thoughtfully as she looked Rainbow up and down. Finally she clicked her tongue. “Well, if you’re too tired to shower, want some help preening? I know I could use some. I’ll do you if you do me?” She wiggled her eyebrows comically and Rainbow smirked.

“Sounds fine to me,” she said before grinning salaciously. “Sit down and spread ‘em.”

Spitfire chuckled in return as she dropped her folders and turned to straddle the bench in front of Rainbow. Fanning her wings wide, she drawled, “I’ve heard that one before.”

“I bet you have,” Rainbow said. She leaned forward to bite one of the primaries of Spitfire’s right wing and gave an experimental tug. It held firm, so she straightened it out and used her lips to scrape it clean. After wiping her mouth on her hoof, she moved on to the next.

“So Dash, not to change the subject or anything, but can I ask you how you’re really doing?” Spitfire asked over her shoulder. “’Cuz I’ve seen you when you’re tired. I’ve seen you so tired after practice you couldn’t stand without help, and even that didn’t stop you bragging about how great you’d done.”

In frustration, Rainbow accidentally pulled harder than she meant to on one of Spitfire’s secondary feathers, plucking it out.

“Ow!” Spitfire barked, jerking her wing away. She inspected the damage only to find it minimal. “Careful, Dash! I’m just worried about you; no need to rip my feathers out.”

Rainbow hung her head. “Sorry. You okay?”

Spitfire’s expression softened and she grinned even as she shook the pain out of her wing. “Yeah, I’m fine. That was nothing compared to the first time Soarin’ tried to preen me. He was trembling so much at the idea of touching a filly I thought he was going to have a panic attack! Dick ended up breaking one of my blood feathers! Bled everywhere. He nearly did pass out then.” She laughed at the memory. “Anyway, look, if you don’t want to talk to me then that’s fine. I just wanted to remind you that I’m here, okay? And I’d like to help if I can.”

“Always looking out for your team, eh Captain?” Rainbow asked, trying to sound accusatory. Even to her ears it just sounded hollow.

“I’d prefer to think I’m looking out for my friends.”

The angry dismissal that Rainbow intended to throw Spitfire’s way died in her throat. She’d seen what bottling things up could lead do. In her head, the image of that photograph in her locker was clear as day. Two smiling faces filled her with guilt.

Before she knew it, she was speaking.

“This was the first show here in Canterlot they didn’t make it to.”

Spitfire shifted to turn around and face her. “’They?’” Her eyes followed Rainbow’s as they flicked towards her locker. “Ahhh. The two in that picture, huh?”

Rainbow jumped in her seat. She’d always kept it hidden when others were around; there was no way Spitfire had seen it! “W-what picture?! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Spitfire raised one eyebrow in deadpan amusement. “Don’t con a con, Dash. I know everything that goes on in this locker room. I know about your secret picture just like I know Soarin’ keeps one of his son’s baby blankets in his gym bag just like I know about the time Surprise snuck a pair of fans in here when she thought nopony was around to catch her. Word of advice, don’t sit on the bench in front of Rapidfire’s locker.”

Rainbow warily eyed the bench a few spaces down like it was a reeking cesspit.

Which was normally how she looked at anything Rapidfire’s haunches had been on, but still.

“Point is, Dash: you can’t fool me, so you might as well show me,” Spitfire concluded.

Reluctantly, Rainbow pulled her locker open and fished around at the back. Once she found the frame, she passed it to Spitfire, who looked it over.

“Aww, that’s your little sister, Scootaloo, right? How’s she doing? She graduated Primary a while back, didn’t she?”

“Yeah. Just a couple months after I started here. She’s doin’ pretty good. Started working at the post office back in Ponyville and moved in with her coltfriend.” Rainbow gave a mirthless laugh. “They grow up faster and faster, huh?”

“Like we can talk!” Spitfire chuckled, slugging Rainbow’s shoulder. “I bolted from my parent’s place soon as I got out of school, too. Soarin’ and I shared a shithole apartment while we waited to get our chance to try out for the ‘Bolts. We had some good times back then.” She took another look over the photo before passing it back. “So, of all your friends and family, it’s these two you keep a picture of? Your sister and your boytoy from another world?”

“He’s not my boytoy!” Rainbow groused.

You wish he was, a treacherous voice whispered in the back of her head. She rolled her eyes at the stupidity of the notion, only realizing afterwards that she’d rolled her eyes at herself. She had an imminent need to facehoof but resisted the temptation.

“We’re just friends…” she said quietly.

“Just friends, huh? Why does that sound remarkably like ‘It’s Complicated?’”

“Because it is complicated,” Rainbow said taking the picture back as Spitfire passed it over and replaced it in her locker. “Or it was. We worked things out a while back, but… Well anyway, I guess I’m just kinda bummed they couldn’t make it up. Not quite in the mood for entertaining everypony else tonight.”

“Then why don’t you go see them?” Spitfire suggested. “We’ve got two weeks before our next show and I was thinking about giving the team next week off anyway. You’ve all been doing great lately and deserve a break. So go spend the week back home so you can come back at one-hundred percent!”

Rainbow flashed her a look of mock disbelief. “You’re giving us time off?! Who are you and what have you done with the real Spitfire?”

In return, Spitfire shoved her so hard she nearly fell off the bench and had to flutter her wings to keep her balance. Rainbow winced as her sore muscles shouted in protest.

But a whole week off? She couldn’t deny the thought of getting to actually spend time with all her friends again was appealing. She hadn’t been home for an entire week since before she started touring with the Wonderbolts. Weekends and scattered days here and there weren’t the same. Hay, maybe Pinkie would even throw a party while she was home!

And maybe afterwards she, Scoots and Will could hang out. Stay up all night drinking ciders and watching crappy movies. Hopefully they wouldn’t spend the whole time making out. They were pretty good about keeping the touchy-feely to a minimum while she was around, but the goo-goo eyes they made at each other still made her fur crawl when it caught her off-guard.

“You know what? I think I will head home for a bit. I hate to say it, but I could use the chance to rest my wings for a bit.”

Oh yeah, like going home has nothing to do with seeing him again. Right.

She shook the thoughts out of her head as Spitfire clapped a hoof on her back. “Hahaha! We all need time to rest our wings every now and then, Dash! Speaking of, why don’t we finish preening and then we can get out of here. What say you and me head back to my place and have ourselves a little celebration of our own?” she asked with a suggestive wink. “I have a whole bottle of jack with our names on it!”

If her wink wasn’t enough to make her intentions obvious, Spitfire’s tail entwining with her own was loud and clear. A last minute fling before a week-long vacation?

Exactly what the doctor ordered!

“What’re you waiting for?!” Rainbow asked. “Get your tail around here so I can reach your other wing!”