Fueling the Fire

Spitfire lays in her bed, sprawled out across her sheets and blankets. A young mare, working hard everyday to be the best flier she can be. It leaves her exhausted at night, and she usually sleeps in rather late. A restless sleeper, but a heavy one too. An alarm clock has been buzzing for the past hour or so, and a white mare walks up the steps and into her room, decorated with Wonderbolt posters and logos. The white mare is a unicorn, with magenta colored eyes, and sharp mane-style, her blue hairs all parted to one side. Streaks of a lighter blue run across her mane and tail. The unicorn slams her hoof on the off button of the alarm clock and nudges Spitfire's side

"Spitfire... come on girl, wake up. Let's go..." Spitfire rolls over, away from her.

"Ugggh... I dun wanna." she muttered under her breath. The unicorn nudges harder than pulls of the covers with her magic, "mmmm.... fiiiine," She says defiantly,

"What are you gonna do tomorrow when that acceptance letter comes in..." After sitting up, Spitfire raises and eyebrow and rubs her head.

"Vinyl, I think if I needed to wake up, I could." Spitfire climbs out of bed and smiles at Vinyl, "Now did you need something." She shakes her head.

"No... I just got tired of your clock." Spitfire grins sheepishly.

"Oh sorry about that." Vinyl nods, "Hey... who said I'd get accepted anyways?" Vinyl almost loses her breath.

"You! Not get accepted, come on..." Vinyl taps her hoof in thought, "You've got.... stuff." Spitfire turns red and chuckles.

"Don't you mean talent?"

"Yeah! You're gonna be a great... uh..." Spitfire smiles at her friend, and finishes her sentence for her.

"Wonderbolt."

"Right! Hey don't you have a morning warm up you're going to do, you know? that thing you do every early afternoon?" Spitfire nods despite the minor remark to her sleep habits.

"Yes I do." Spitfire heads her way to the door of her home, which was obviously shared with Vinyl, it was originally her house, but she didn't hold that against Spitfire. Spitfire has grown into a very precise and fast flyer, she isn't lacking a good head on her shoulders either. She wears her mane differently now too, it stands up, the way the wind keeps it, along with a cutie mark adorned on her flank, a flank which has become full and mature. She takes off into the sky and flies over the wall of Canterlot. she makes her way onto the path outside the city, without a moments notice, in a burst of speed she heads straight up into the sky. Spitfire has performed this routine every day after she wakes up ever since she moved out of her parents place. She flies straight up as far as her wings will take her, the faster she goes the higher. she doesn't stop until she rises above the clouds, and then she let's herself dramatically fall back down and pick up speed, each time seeing how much closer she can get to the ground before pulling up. Eventually she got really good at this, and can pull up very quickly and as close to the ground that she deemed safe, so she added another part to her routine, if the day is not too cloudy that the entire sky is covered but, not clear either, Spitfire busts every cloud, she is Canterlot's cloud buster after all. Doing barrel rolls, swerving and all other kinds of tricks, it took her a while to get this down, and she still doesn't always perform this feat perfectly. Today was different though, today is the day before she goes off to her month at the academy, each cadet has a choice, to either partake in a week after every three months, or to take the full month and by the end, either way, you become a Wonderbolt. It's tough training for the month, to be worked that hard constantly, only those more confident of what they've learned, chose that, even then, some of the best fliers didn't make that choice, friends and family keep them tied. Spitfire made this choice because, she knows somepony else made the full month choice cause he couldn't wait any longer to be a Wonderbolt and was for sure to be there, they were both now eligible age, and she really hopes he'll be there.

Spitfire reaches that point high up above the clouds, as far as her wings will take. She fall back into the clouds and twirls so her belly faces Canterlot, she learned she needed to do this when she almost crashed into the princess herself on the balcony of her castle. She spins and crashes through the clouds, moving at a speed  so high, that she barely hears anything. She squints as her eyes begin to water, approaching the ground she pulls up hard, she wooshes over the ground, the roar of her speed can be heard by any pony close by, an orange streak in the shape of a "U" close to the ground. Spitfire Stops, and performs a small loop in her excitement, "Yes! Not a single cloud." Spitfire then shoots back into her home town for something to eat. After saying hi to Vinyl again, and telling her she busted all the clouds, she left with her bits and went off to the rest of her day. On her way to her favorite place to eat, she thought again about that friend she had hoped to meet again, and wondered where he is.

A colt in a blue mail uniform delivers a package to a an old mare, and a young mare and colt. He's at Sweet Apple Acres, a long running apple farm known to belong to the Apple family. "Here's the package you ordered ma'am." The green mare responded cheerfully.

"Welllll... urn't you ah quick one. Thank ya kindly, youngin'."

"Got other delivery's to make," He took off with howling speed. Making his way with his mail bag to the last address, one last letter for the day, he reads and rolls his eyes and laughs. "Pffft! what am I doing? this is to me!" he reads it.

Dear Soarin'

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the Wonderbolt academy,

your month of training starts, Saturday of.....

"Saturday! That's tomorrow!" Soarin' rushed back to Cloudsdale, he passes over Canterlot and flies straight home, it doesn't take him long at all, nor does it take him long to throw off his delivery uniform and take of his hat, which he hates, "stupid hat..." his mane is wind blown like Spitfire's, but shorter, a general trend among future cadets. He rushes to tell everyone he knows that his constant practice at flying has finally paid off, flying to everypony's house he knew, but he was sad to realize, that was his mom, his dad, and a friend he barely talked too. She congratulates him but, it would have been more satisfying if they were closer. Where did all of his time go? he let out a sigh, still glad to have received the letter that would lead him to the future he's always dreamed, but somehow, he feels down about it. He raises his full, and firm flank, looking back at his cutie mark. Soarin' tightened his expression and went home to prepare for his next day, he decides that when he got to the academy, he's gonna try and make new friends. He's already renowned as the best flier in Cloudsdale, and even the winner of the Best Young Fliers Competition, The Wonderbolts that live at Cloudsdale often compliment him about his skills. How has he forgotten to be social, he was so worked up after getting his cutie mark. Soarin' went out to be friendly for the rest of his day and say goodbye to his town, even if they didn't all know who he was. Soarin', to his surprise, however, sees  how word gets around, the first place he goes too, the factories in the sky, he's greeted by pegasai who know his name, they ask him questions, like, "hey, did you get your acceptance letter, soarin'?" and "So you gonna be a Wonderbolt?" He even talks to a mare in a cafe while saying goodbye, she overhears him say he's leaving tomorrow.

"oh... soarin' you're leaving tomorrow?" She seemed bummed out about this and soarin' can easily tell that there's a degree of admiration for him.

"yeaaah... but, hey!... This is Cloudsdale, a lot of Wonderbolts make residency here, and they perform a lot of show's here, I'll be back." she smiles at his reassuring words.

"Well good luck to you. I really hope you become a make it." he waves goodbye, a little more reassured that he has an affect on his home town. Soarin' makes his way back to his house, it isn't big, but it's his. He thinks about it, at his front door, all the good times he has had in Cloudsdale and was sure that it'd always be his home. Soarin' rests there for the rest of the evening, until he finally makes his way to bed.

Spitfire sees a pegasus high in the sky while practicing some new tricks, looking up at what she sees, she feels that pony is going fast, very fast. "Hmmm... I wonderrrr..." She shakes her head out, "No way..." She looks at the sky and can tell it's almost time to get back to Vinyl, she's off work soon and Spitfire feels like she should greet her home. She was far from the gate, she had to go in that way, since she made an agreement with the guard, she can leave the city on her wings, but not enter it. She liked the captain of the guard, he's very reasonable, and they struck a conversation once, she was asking about his part in electing The Wonderbolt Captain. He was very helpful, he said how the captain of the guard has the authority to remove The Wonderbolt Captain of his or her title, and even dismiss them from duty. That was quite the power over things, as she trots back and the guard greets her, she realizes their captain looks a lot like Vinyl Scratch, except he's a Colt. Speaking of Vinyl Scatch, Spitfire sees her carrying a cart close to home on the road, she her meets up with Vinyl right at their doorstep, Vinyl notices her and hooves her something, she's pulling the cart with her magic, it has speakers and a turn table on it.

"Hey... the mail pony caught me on the way back and gave me this." she handed her a letter, with a pegasus seal on it. in her head she knew what it was, but still the suspense was killing her, then she tells her some other news "Great news, I got a job DJ-ing."

"That's great, I'm so happy for you!" Spitfire exclaims.

"Pretty sure that's you're acceptance letter too, the colt who gave to me was a pegasus, cute one too." Spitfire rolls her eyes. "Don't give me that, when you're gone, I want you too put yourself out there a little. any pony would be damn lucky to have you." Spitfire's face turns red.

"you really think so?" She nods at Spitfire

"I know so, you're damn sexy." even more red in the face from Vinyl's, to the point, mannerisms, she smiles at the compliment.

"Thanks Vinyl."

"Hey no prob."

Vinyl and Spitfire both go inside, Vinyl to her room and Spitfire to her's, She opens the letter gently, and reads. Eyes scanning the paragraph as a smile grows bigger and bigger.

"AWW YEAH!" she rushes over to Vinyl's room and struts into her doorway.

"Looks like they're taking you, I'm gonna miss you y'know." Spitfire stops.

"Whaddya mean?" Vinyl pauses for a second.

"Wellll, I'm moving someone else into your room. I got someone else who also likes bass that's looking" She slows down because she is about to rhyme, " for... a... place."

"Oh... well that's alright...I'll just stay at the academy like a lot of Wonderbolts." Spitfire looks away,

"Alright cool..." Vinyl gets up from her bed, and hugs spitfire tightly. surprised, not expecting something like this from Vinyl, Spitfire smiles and hugs her back.

"you've got stuff vinyl, I know you'll be a good DJ." Vinyl giggles in the embrace.

"don't you mean talent?" they let go of their hug and laugh. "I've seen you out there too, you're gonna knock them off their hoofs." She yawns, "but for right now, I need some Z's mare."

"that's a good idea, I do too." as Spitfire is leaving the room. She thought of a less emotional reaction from Vinyl, and she realizes that she's gonna miss her. She decided that once she's a Wonderbolt, she'd stay in touch with her, and meet this new roommare of hers. Spitfire pulls out a carrying bag, to prepare for tomorrow. She lays in her bed and falls asleep.

Her clock goes off. and so does Vinyl Scratch.

"wake up SP-! MMMPH!" her mouth is covered by spitfire's hoof. Spitfire sits up and smiles,

"I'm up, told you I could if I needed too." Spitfire get's her stuff ready and heads out the door, she gives Vinyl another hug, and sets off into the sky, meanwhile, another pegasus of Cloudsdale is bound for the same place, two fillyhood friends who will meet again soon.