The Wonderbolts are the fastest and best precision flyers in the world, but spinouts can still happen. Lightning Dust never forgot Spitfire telling her and her fellow newcomers to the academy this. She couldn’t deny that she got some pleasure watching it happen to the pony who booted her out of the camp and railroaded her ambitions. It was quite an entertaining view from the sidelines. Spitfire was going so fast, that when she got dizzy and went off course, she flew as far away as the Crystal Castle. Soarin and Fleetfoot tore after her when they saw her go out of control. They didn’t see when the impact happened, but they had plenty of time to catch her when they saw her falling from the tallest tower. She was holding her head and moaning.

“I think she bumped her head,” Soarin said to Fleetfoot. “We better get her to the hospital.”

Training was called off completely for the rest of the day as the Wonderbolts met up at the hospital to be with Spitfire when she was admitted to the infirmary.

“She needs rest,” the doctor said. “She’s muttering in her sleep. I caught a few words. She keeps talking of ice iri and her mother.”

“Ah,” Soarin nodded. “She’s dreaming about the time she thought her mom got pegasitus and she went all the way to the Crystal Mountains to try and find the cure.”

The dream was a lot worse than the memory. Spitfire kept getting blown away by the arctic wind. Unlike her real endeavour, she did spot ice iri every so often. But every time she did, she either got blown away and lost track of it, it would blow out of her hooves and out of sight, or a snowfall would bury it and she would be unable to dig it back up. Sometimes she managed to get her hooves on one, but they always shattered as soon as she grabbed them. At last, she got hold of an ice iris that didn’t break or slip away. But the wind was keeping her from leaving the mountains quickly. Night was falling by the time Spitfire made it to Canterlot with her miraculous find. Soarin, Rainbow Dash, and Wind River met up with her at the castle.

“Your mom was counting on you!”

“She thought you could help her!”

“You’re her daughter and you failed her!”

They left Spitfire on the balcony; left her to collapse and chide herself for her failure. A cruel wind arose and blew the ice iris out of Spitfire’s grasp. She made a leap for it; it seemed like the only achievement she could cling to now. Her wings wouldn’t work. She lost the ability to fly. She plummeted helplessly into one of Canterlot Court’s gardens. The dream began to dissolve into stars. Attractive hexagonal shapes that glittered and twinkled like snow.

It was snow.

“What are you doing?”

When Spitfire opened her eyes for the first time since her spinout, she saw a clear plastic bag full of snow dangling above her face. She turned her head on her pillow to see who was holding it, and a lukewarm cold pack slid off her forehead. It was Lightning Dust who was holding the back above Spitfire’s face, and she was staring at the ceiling as though she was trying to figure something out.

“Hey!”

Lightning jumped, dropping the bag of snow on the bed.

“Oh. You’re awake,” she said quickly. “I was just bringing you a bag of arctic snow for your forehead.”

“You looked like you couldn’t remember where my head was,” Spitfire frowned.

“Oh, I… I just…”

“What?”

“Well, you were mumbling in your sleep,” said Lightning Dust. “You said you did your best to get an ice iris to you mom as fast as you could.”

Spitfire covered herself in her bed sheets.

“Hey, wait a minute,” snapped Lightning Dust. “You made me think of something.”

“What was it?” Spitfire re-emerged from her covers. “Another insult?”

“Hey, I got to watch you spin out today. I’m set,” Lightning Dust smirked.

“Speaking of you spinning out,” she went on in a more serious tone, “what do you remember about that?”

“What do you mean? What made me, the captain of the Wonderbolts, lose control?” Spitfire groaned.

“No. I mean do you remember hitting anything after you flew outta the stadium?” asked Lightning Dust.

“Uh… not really,” said Spitfire. “I did hit the balcony on that castle tower… Oh! I did hit my head. On that door to the staircase. I think I hit it so hard, it opened. So, I guess I…”

“That door,” Lightning interrupted. “Rainbow Dash told me Princess Twilight and Spike had to go through it when they were trying to find the Crystal Heart. And it was cursed with Sombra’s dark magic. It made them think their biggest fears were happening.”

“Their biggest fears?” Spitfire sat up.

“Uh, huh. Twilight thought she’d failed a test Princess Celestia gave her and couldn’t continue learning about friendship magic, and Spike thought Twilight was sending him away,” said Lightning Dust. “And what is it you thought was happening when you bashed that door open?”

“I… I thought I couldn’t cure my mom’s pegasitus,” groaned Spitfire.

“Yeah. I don’t think you had a fevered dream,” said Lighting Dust quietly. “I think you were cursed by Sombra’s door.”

Spitfire scoffed. “Didn’t you hear about where Princess Twilight was when she, Sunset Shimmer and Trixie Lulamoon were when they defeated that dragon invasion? They hid in that spiral staircase, and then they sprang into action on that balcony I fell from.”

“That means Sombra wasn’t around then,” said Lightning Dust quickly. “He probably is now.”

Spitfire chuckled and shook her head.

“Now look. There’s one way to find out,” Lightning Dust pulled the bed sheets away from Spitfire.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I need somepony to watch me while I go through that door,” said Lightning Dust. “If I see what I’m afraid of the most, somepony’s got to snap me out of it.”

Spitfire folded her forelegs.

“Can I rely on you to do that?” asked Lightning Dust.

“Uh… yeah. Yeah, you can rely on me,” Spitfire jumped out of bed.

It was night. Lightning Dust opened the window and beckoned Spitfire to join her as she flew out of it.

“You’re not dizzy, are you?” she asked quietly.

“I’m fine,” replied Spitfire.

She was flying perfectly well, so they made their way to the tallest castle tower.

“What do you think you’ll see if that door curses you?” asks Spitfire.

“Well, to be frank,” frowned Lightning Dust, “I’ll probably think I’ve lost any slim chance I ever had at being admitted into the Wonderbolts.”

“Lightning, you’re living your nightmare,” Spitfire sneered.

“We’ll see,” Lightning Dust groaned.

They reached the balcony.

“See that?” Lightning pointed to the door Spitfire hit, which was still open. “Nopony’s noticed where you hit your head. And if I see what I think I’m gonna see, nopony should know. These crystal ponies are a panicky buncha…”

She turned to the open door and stopped talking. Spitfire gasped as Lightning Dust’s eyes changed to red and green.

“You… you’re not real… I know you’re not real… you’re just… you what…? Did you really…?”

“She was right,” groaned Spitfire. “The door’s cursing ponies. Sombra is around.”

Lightning Dust was still wailing when Spitfire gave her a slap to the face and pulled her away from the door. She closed her eyes and shut the door as Lightning Dust gathered her awareness.

“It happened,” she breathed.

“You were right,” Spitfire nodded. “It made you think something horrible was happening. What did you see? What did you hear?”

“Oh,” Lightning Dust looked away from Spitfire. “Pretty much what I thought I would. Never become a Wonderbolt. That kinda thing.”

Spitfire couldn’t help but grin. “You were blubbering a lot. I heard you say Coco. That’s your friend from Manehattan who designed that outfit we had to wear for the Millennium Rally, isn’t she?”

Lightning Dust screwed up her face. “Sombra’s not just a shadow anymore. He’s here somewhere. We gotta warn the prince and princess.”

She started to fly away, but Spitfire held her back.

“We don’t want to get them all worried,” she said. “Princess Cadance is pregnant. Her baby’s due soon.”

“Oh, I forgot,” said Lightning Dust. “And if Shining Armour casts his force field spell around the Crystal Empire, the crystal ponies will panic or sure.”

“Will they?” asked Spitfire. “I thought they knew Sombra couldn’t come into the empire once they had the Crystal Heart. That was why all their fear went away once Spike and Cadance brought it to them.”

“Don’t you think Sombra’s got a plan to get back into the empire?” asked Lightning Dust. “Hey! I’ll bet you he’s gonna strike during the Air Sprinting. When everypony’s distracted.”

Lightning Dust and Spitfire looked at the east horizon. It was turning a dark shade of orange. Lightning Dust saw that Spitfire was holding her head.

“I’m gonna go get Twilight,” she said.

“But you’re supposed to be our reserve flyer,” said Spitfire. “Are you saying you’ll let Slip Stream take over?”

Lightning Dust nodded. “I’ll have to. If I can get to Ponyville and tell Twilight what’s going on, she and her friends will be able to stop Sombra before he can act.”

Spitfire said she’d return to the hospital before anypony noticed she was gone, and Lightning Dust went to see if Miss Harshwhinny was awake. She had a good excuse for leaving in mind.

“What time do you call this, Miss Dust?” Miss Harshwhinny yawned after Lightning Dust knocked on her accommodation door several times.

“Time for me to go,” she said. “I’m gonna go to Clopley Hill and help them clean the snow out.”

“Are you now?”

“Everyone keeps telling me it’s the worst snowstorm they’ve ever had,” said Lightning Dust.

“Oh, it is,” nodded Harshwhinny. “So much so, they’ve closed the rail lines.”

“Huh. Looks like I’m flying,” shrugged Lightning Dust.

“Good luck with that,” sniffed Harshwhinny. “There’s a thirty knot gale out in the arctic. I don’t suppose anypony has had the good manners to inform you that no pegasi here in the Crystal Empire have been able to go to Clopley Hill due to the storm?”

Lightning Dust didn’t know what to say to this. She was sure it would sound suspicious if she tried to find a way to get to Clopley Hill when there was an opportunity to compete against the Wonderbolts right there in the crystal city.

“Hey! If nopony’s left,” she raised an eyebrow, “where did Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Amber Aldis disappear to?”

“Have you not seen them lately?” asked Miss Harshwhinny.

“Not since two days ago,” replied Lightning Dust. “Last I heard, they went to fill a buncha sandwich bags with arctic snow.”

“Hm. Perhaps the storm started while they were out there and they headed off to Clopley Hill before it got worse,” suggested Harshwhinny. “Well, I dare say you relish the challenge of making it there. If you dearly want to help their weather team clean up their town, then I suppose Slip Stream can go in your place.”

Lightning Dust found she couldn’t put on much speed as she made her way through the corridor away from Miss Harshwhinny’s quarters. An unpleasant thought had occurred to her during that conversation, and it was making her worried about where exactly Sombra was and what he was doing while he waited for the time to attack.

“Psst.”

Lightning Dust stopped and looked at the suit of armour that seemed to have tried to attract her attention. She quickly spotted somepony hiding behind it.

“What are you doing there?” she demanded.

“I told the nurse that I didn’t want to be disturbed while I got my rest, and that I had plenty of bags of snow to keep my head cool,” said Spitfire, stepping out from behind the suit of armour. “I couldn’t let you go out on your own.”

Lightning Dust frowned. “You think I won’t make it by myself?”

“No… I just couldn’t lie around and let you risk your own life,” Spitfire said.

“Oh. Well what about your head?” asked Lightning Dust.

“I’m fine now,” insisted Spitfire. “I had plenty of rest, that’s for sure.”

“Rest? You were having a nightmare fuelled by dark magic.”

“I’m coming with you,” said Spitfire firmly.

“That’s fine. I might need an extra set of hooves,” said Lightning Dust. “I just figured something out after telling Harshwhinny I was going to Clopley Hill. Nopony actually went there from this city. The weather’s too harsh for going by train or hoof.”

“How did the message get here then?” asked Spitfire.

Sunlight trickled into the corridor.

“We gotta go,” said Lightning Dust quickly. “We don’t want anypony to see us leaving.”

So Lightning Dust and Spitfire made their way to a window and checked that no one was looking. It was still too early for the majority of the town to be awake, so they could fly up to the clouds unnoticed.

“Why are we going up there?” asked Spitfire quietly as they made their ascent.

“We’re gonna go above the arctic clouds and run across them,” answered Lightning Dust. “That way we can avoid the storm. And Sombra if he’s out there. And if he is, he’ll probably be distracted.”

“Distracted?”

“Yeah. I just told you no pony’s been able to leave the Crystal Empire. But no one’s seen Rainbow Dash since yesterday morning. Or Scootaloo. Or Amber.”

“They might’ve been taken prisoner by Sombra!” exclaimed Spitfire; luckily they were too high up for anyone to hear her by now.

“Right. He could be holding them hostage so Princess Twilight won’t put up a fight, or… torturing them for information.”

“Let’s hurry, Lightning,” said Spitfire.

“Come on. No one’s ever had to tell me to hurry,” Lightning Dust grinned.

There were enough clouds above the Crystal Empire for it to be considered partly cloudy, but Spitfire knew the weather team was due to clear the sky that morning in preparation for the Air Sprinting. So she and Lightning Dust took it in turns to hop from cloud to cloud towards the arctic clouds, going one at a time so as to reduce their chances of being spotted. The grey void of the natural snow clouds grew closer and closer.

“Let’s run across those clouds when we get to them,” said Spitfire when they were three crystal clouds away from their next checkpoint. “That way we’ll conserve our wing power and won’t be worn out when we fly to Ponyville.”

“Gotcha,” nodded Lightning Dust.

It was easier to make these last few jumps from cloud to cloud, as they were now too far away from the city to be spotted by anyone in the Crystal Empire. At last, their hooves were planted on grey cloud. They began running south right away.

“Hey! What’s that?!” exclaimed Lightning Dust, picking up speed to see the strange silvery shapes far ahead.

“What are you doing, Lightning?! It’s not a race!” shouted Spitfire.

“I’m just checking something out! Don’t order me around!” griped Lightning Dust.

The two pegasi realised they were getting angry over nothing. They slowed down and looked ahead.

“Windigoes!” cried Spitfire.

They would have found the sight attractive if they weren’t feeling so mad about nothing in particular. The silvery creatures stood out in the dark clouds they pranced on and the blue sky above. None of them seemed to have any destination in mind. Whether or not they noticed two pegasi observing them in their own territory was unknown, but their powers were taking effect.

“Sombra planned ahead! The evil rat bag!” growled Lightning Dust, stomping on the grey fluff beneath her.

“How could you not have thought of that?!” groaned Spitfire. “Or you did and just wanted to watch me make a fool of myself! Miss Let’s Risk Everypony’s Lives?!”

Before Lightning Dust could retort, Spitfire turned tail and ran back towards the Crystal Empire.

“Oh you big wimp!” Lightning Dust tore after her. “You call yourself the captain of…?!”

The anger they both felt faded as they ran away from the windigoes, who didn’t acknowledge their presence or departure at all.

Lightning Dust saw that Spitfire was sitting and looking down at the Crystal Empire when she caught up to her at the edge of the arctic clouds.

“You wanna go back to bed, don’t you?” groaned Lightning Dust.

“I can’t deal with dangerous creatures,” Spitfire shook her head. “Never could. It’s not even in the job description. Wonderbolts used to be called on to try and drive away attacking animals, but that was centuries ago. I said that to Blaze, High Winds, and Surprise, but they were so determined.”

“Are you talking about the time Spike went nuts? And giant?” asked Lightning Dust.

Spitfire nodded. “We were in the area and those three insisted on trying to stop him. We’re a performance group. Not pest ponies. What were we supposed to do?”

“They didn’t do much in the end,” said Lightning Dust. “They were outmatched.”

“Yeah… but at least they tried to help,” sighed Spitfire. “And there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop them.”

“Did you give them a telling off after that whole mess was over?” asked Lightning Dust.

“Why would I do that?”

“Uh… going against your orders.”

“I can’t call it mutiny if they were reacting to a crisis,” said Spitfire. “They suffered enough anyway. It was such an embarrassment for them. If anything, I should have gone with them.”

“What good would that do?”

Spitfire faltered, glancing back to where she and Lightning Dust had lost their tempers in the presence of a herd of windigoes.

Indistinct chatter could be heard from the Crystal Empire. Ponies were definitely awake by now.

“If you want to go back to the infirmary,” Lightning Dust said to Spitfire, “you’ll have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I’m not going back,” Spitfire stood up. “I’m not completely useless at everything accept putting on a show in the air. There’s more I can do!”

Lightning Dust looked back to see if some windigoes were advancing on them. They weren’t.

“I’m done sticking to one thing!” Spitfire said vehemently. “I don’t care if I can’t take them on. I’m still giving it a try.”

“Good to hear,” said Lightning Dust. “I was set to do this on my own, but I was a lot happier when you said you’d come with me. And I’m glad it’s gonna stay that way.”

They both stood to face enemy territory again.

“We’re gonna have to flyacross,” said Spitfire as they leaned forward to restart their journey. “We wanna get to the end of these clouds as fast as possible.”

“Right,” said Lightning Dust, unfurling her wings.

“And Lightning,” Spitfire continued, “anything we say to each other while we’re under the windigoes spell… we’ll completely forget about when we get to Clopley Hill.”

“For sure,” nodded Lightning Dust.

Author's Note

Sometimes, you just can't fill a plot hole.