How the Tables Turn

“Ready? GO!” Cloudy Skies flew off into the clouds, immediately being pelted by hail and wind. He felt the air currents shifting rapidly, but, with much effort, kept himself on course as his wings cut through the clouds, clearing them away. There was no telling how large the storm was, but chances were they would have multiple injuries to take care of by the time they were finished. He didn’t expect anything major, just cuts and bruises.

Somewhere in the storm, lightning forked through the sky. Cloudy Skies found himself hoping beyond hope that nopony had been struck by it as he continued his forward flight. Hail beat at his face. He felt the stings of multiple scratches on his cheeks. What he wouldn’t give for a pair of flight goggles right now!

Happily, he didn’t have to take much more, because he arrived at the other side along with the rest of the weather team.

“Everypony here?” Everypony gathered around him for a quick headcount. “Ahhh shit. We’re missing Spitfire.”

“Spitfire? I thought she of all ponies would be able to handle this! She’s a Wonderbolt, for Celestia’s sake! She leaves behind storm contrails!”

“Now is really not the time. Who wants to go look for her while the rest of us keep breaking up the storm? Comet, you’ll do fine.” Comet nodded stiffly before streaking off below the storm to the forest to see if she had fallen.

“Let’s go. We need to break this storm up before it reaches Ponyville. We can worry about Spitfire later.”

Spitfire laid on the grass. She had never been so dazed in her life, and she had had many concussions from flight practice. She looked at her left wing and immediately regretted it. It was burned and bleeding profusely. The lightning had really done a number on it. She turned and looked at the dark forest around her. She was almost completely obscured by the canopy above her. She thought back to the fall. She remembered a flash of light, and then she drew a blank. She had no idea how long she had been out. Her vision blurred out of focus for a moment. She weakly turned her head to the side before her stomach lurched, and crimson bile poured from her throat. Just how much damage did the lightning do to her?

She relaxed as best she could in her position. She began to fade off, unconsciousness slowly claiming her. She feared that if she drifted off, she would die, but she couldn’t help it. She just felt so tired. Her vision blurred more and more out of focus, the green of the trees filling more and more of her sight. Everything was so quiet… So quiet…

“SPITFIRE!!!!”

Clarity returned as if it had been slammed into her skull with a hammer. It was distant, sure, but it was something. She went to move onto her side-

“AAAAHH!”

It was as if she had been struck by lightning a second time. Pain shot through her body in waves, intensifying a hundredfold each time she moved. She held still for a minute, and although the sharp pain was still present, it subsided quickly. She couldn’t help that she was twitching weakly as the pain continued to eat away at her.

“SPITFIRE!”

“I’m here.” She called it out as loud as she could, which wasn’t saying much given the circumstances. Her vision began to blur again. She saw a speck move above her through a hole in the canopy, no doubt where she felt. The speck stopped right at the clear space, not moving for a moment, no doubt searching for a moment. It seemed to find her as it called out.

“Spitfire! There you are!”

Her vision blurred out to the edges of her vision. She coughed weakly, and she felt something warm dribbling from the corner of her mouth.

“Oh my gosh. Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. MEDIIIIIC!!!” After a brief moment, another Pegasus joined the first, whom she judged to be Comet by the sound of her voice. Spitfire’s vision continued to fade away. Her mind became foggy.

“Awww, damn. Screw this, I’m getting Flight for Life out here. No doubt they’d come this far for Captain of the Wonderbolts. Especially in a state like this. That’s a lot of blood.” That was the last thing she heard before slipping into unconsciousness.