A Lightning Storm: Rebooted

Mirage:

“Mirage! Mirage wake up!” Soarin yelled in my ear,

“Why?” I asked, pulling the covers over my head,

“Because we have a show today, did you forget?” he asked,

“No, I didn’t forget” I lied,

“Then why didn’t you set your alarm?” He asked,

“Because I didn’t want to!” I yelled, pulling the covers away from me and looking him in the eye,

He backed away, “What’s your problem?” he asked,

I lay back down, “Nothing, I was sleeping”

“So? Everypony sleeps” he said,

“Not when you have Insomnia” I said, looking at my calendar,

“You have Insomnia?” He asked,

“Yes” I said, “Thanks for waking me up though”

“Sorry” he said,

“I wasn’t being sarcastic, really, thank you” I said, smiling,

He smiled back, then leaned down towards me,

“How’s your head kid?” he asked,

“It’s fine” I said, remembering what had happened,

“You sure you can fly today?” he asked,

“If you didn’t want me to fly, why’d you wake me up?” I asked, grinning at him,

“I’ll see you outside” he said, walking towards the door then stopping, “Could you wake up Spitfire?” he asked, smirking at me,

Oh no, I had to wake up Spitfire, every time I tried to I would end up getting smacked across the face or thrown across the room, Soarin, who was larger than her could just hold her in place when he did, but I was much smaller than her, even if I was the same age,

I looked to the other side of my bed, where Spitfire slept quietly; I hopped up on top of her, pinned her hooves down and spoke slowly,

“Spitfire…” I whispered, making her ears twitch slightly,

“Spitfire” I said a little louder, making her eyes slowly open,

“Spitfi-“

I was cut off by her pushing me off of her, throwing me to the foot of the bed, my body landing with a loud thump! On the floor,

“Who’s there? Where am I?” Spitfire asked looking around,

“It’s just me Spitfire” I said, groaning as I got to my hooves,

She raised an eyebrow, “How’d you get on the floor?” She asked,

“You threw me here” I said with annoyance in my voice,

“Oh my bad” she said, “What’s going on?”

“We have to go train for the show today” I said,

“The show?” She stopped, thinking about it, “Oh right! The show!” she said, making a fake laugh,

“You forgot didn’t you?” I asked, smiling,

“How could I do such a thing?” She asked, “I’d never forget”

I raised an eyebrow at her, “Really?” I asked,

“Yeah, I forgot” she said, hopping out of bed, “But, whatever, I remember now”

Training was grueling, it felt like everypony as staring at me, which they all would be during the real show, I had never been one to crack under pressure, but the slightest mistake in my routine could end up being fatal, I was flying between rings of fire after Spitfire and Soarin,

“You can do it kid!” Soarin cheered,

I inhaled then exhaled deeply, I gave my wings a quick flap for good measure, I took off like a bat out of hell, whizzing between the burning circles, around the last four I really felt the heat of the fire through my suit and began to sweat, after I sped through the last ring I flew to Soarin and Spitfire’s side, ready for the next step,

“Great job!” Spitfire exclaimed, fake punching me in my shoulder,

“If you keep acting like that the show will be a success!” Soarin cheered,

“Yeah, great job” A very sarcastic voice said,

I looked to the left; it was one of the Stallions I showered next to,

“What’s your problem?” Soarin asked, looking towards the Stallion,

“Nothing, I was saying she did well, you got a problem?” he asked,

“Yeah, I do have a problem” Soarin said, butting heads with the Stallion,

“Do something about it” The stallion said,

Soarin raised his hoof to the stallion and I jumped in,

“Cut the shit you two” I said, eying the stallion,

The stallion backed up, never looking away from Soarin,

“You better keep an eye on her” he said, turning around and flying away,

“Bastard…” Soarin mumbled,

“Soarin, it’s fine he won’t do anything” I said, putting a hoof on his back,

Something whizzed past my head, as I looked towards who did it I noticed Spitfire chasing the stallion at breakneck speed,

“Spitfire wait!” I yelled,

She either ignored me or didn’t hear me because she caught up with him and drilled him in the side of his face with her right hoof,

“That had to hurt” I said, Spitfire did have a pretty mean right hook,

Spitfire returned to us with a look of satisfaction on her face,

“You alright?” Soarin asked,

She shot him a look, “Yes Soarin, I am fan-fucking-tastic, somepony just threatened my marefriend”

“Oh” He said, Spitfire had never cursed as much as me,

“Hey, I’m fine” I said smiling warmly,

She smiled back weakly, trying to hide the anger on her face,

“I know, but, if what you’ve said about those two is what they really want…” She stopped, “I promise I won’t let it happen, as a friend, or a marefriend.” She said,

I embraced her, “Thank you” I said, squeezing fairly hard,

She returned the hug, “Your welcome” she said,

We got off of each other and turned back to the team, most of the stallions were staring at us, all of their wings extended and their jaws agape, I frowned from their vulgarity,

“Something wrong?” I asked,

The whole crowd returned to what they were doing almost immediately.

Spitfire went through the flaming death rings from hell without a problem, doing backflips inside of them like it was some kind of game, she was taking her time,

“You okay kid?” Soarin asked from in front of me,

“What? Yeah I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be okay?” I asked rather quickly,

“You look nervous” He said, “Don’t be”

“I’m not nervous Soarin” I said, faking a laugh,

“Yeah you are” He said,

I didn’t reply, I waited for him to take off, which he did after what felt like hours, I started to stare into the crowd, I would usually do this before preforming, trying to find out which pony stood out the most, kind of like a game, this time it was a pink pony that wouldn’t stop bouncing up and down,

It was my turn to go; I flapped my wings and leaned forward, ready to take off, the world seemed to move in slow motion as I flew through the burning rings, I knew I had this one in the bag everypony around me cheered, then it all stopped, a large circular rainbow appeared in the air, it looked like the same kind of thing that happened at the Best Young Flyers competition, I was so engrossed in the large rainbow I lost focus on my job and smashed into one of the rings, creating a large burn mark on my uniform, I hit another, this time with my right wing, I heard a Snap! And felt a sharp pain go up my spine, I hit another, this time burning into the side of my body.

I fell for a long time before connecting with the ground and bouncing right back up, I noticed that one of the lenses for my goggles were smashed out; the crowd stared, as did the cyan pony with the rainbow mane, who had caused the distraction, at first I thought they were going to laugh, then I saw the team rushing towards me, I checked over my body to see what was wrong,

My wing was on fire.