Bright and (Almost) Early (Spitfire)

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The bright, shining rays of Celestia's sun were the first thing that finally roused High Winds from her slumber. At first Windy only peeked an eye open, glancing out the window as she tried to ignore the beam of light that seemed to be intent on focusing directly on her, but after a few minutes she finally opened one eye all the way, followed by the other. After yawning, the Pegasus Pony finally forced herself out of bed, shook her head a couple times to clear her mind of any lingering drowsiness, and proceed to do a couple backwards wing-stretches to make sure her body didn't get any stiff joints, which could be a problem especially in her profession. That last thing she needed was a wing or a leg suddenly getting overly sore while in the middle of a flight.

She found that wasn't overly hungry for the moment, so she figured that she could wait for something for breakfast until she made her way to the Wonderbolts Academy and rummaged for something that was in the mess hall. Since that wasn't an immediate worry, she looked for a nearby chair where her things were and grabbed them, pulling her uniform and gear on. Once she was fully suited up she stepped outside, spreading her wings out as she got ready to take off right into the air. Once Windy was certain just how calm the current was, she she lifted herself up into the air and began flying towards her destination.

As she flew above Cloudsdale, she noted that she was getting close to the town center. She  glanced down below her to see all the several doing their own things and going about their daily business, though a few ponies happened to look up and notice her overhead; a few even waved, and she couldn't help but smile and wave back. All and all, not a bad way for the day to be starting out. She then resumed her gaze up in front of her. Based on how calm the air and winds were right now, especially on a nice day like this, it wouldn't take too long for Windy to make it to the academy. She wondered if any other members of the team were already there.

[Spitfire]

Spitfire jogged through the park in the middle of the forum, letting her legs get a little blood flowing to them. She wasn't in her Wonderbolts uniform currently, wearing just her favorite grey sweater. She turned, pausing and jogging in place as she passed a small stand with some beverages set up. She held out her water bottle, which was nearing empty, and placed a few bits down on the counter as the pony filled it with rainwater from a small cloud. It was a little known secret that Spitfires workout routine had her drinking only Rainwater, and no other water.

She thanked the pony, took a long, happy drink from the bottle and continued jogging, until she saw High Winds. A Smile spread across her face as the pony passed by. Spitfire knew Windy hadn't seen her and she flared her wings, shifting the water bottle to sit in the pocket on her sweater as she took off after the other Bolt.

She swayed back and forth in the air slowly, just a lazy drifting until she 'accidentally' bumped High Winds rear hooves. "Oh no, a Sudden spin out! What are you going to do~!?" Spitfire asked playfully. She wasn't sure if Wind would react like this were a training drill, or if she'd realize Spitfire was just being her usual, playful self. _{Which was /much/ different than her Academy face... Which surprised a lot of newer bolts.}

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As High Winds flew on, the Wonderbolt felt herself being lightly struck on the back of her rear hooves. While that alone wouldn't normally be enough to get her to lose control of herself, what followed it up did, as a loud voice yelling about a spinout caused her to break her concentration. "GAAAAH! What was that?" The sudden confusion made her turn her neck, hoping to see who or what was behind her, but as she was still in the motion of flying forward she couldn't see what was in her path, ultimately leading her to crash right into a cloud that just so happened to drift in her way.

It took Windy a moment to clear her head before realizing that her entire top half was stuck in the thing. She wiggled her hind legs for a couple minutes as she tried to get out of the fluffy, white thing trapping her. Eventually, she finally managed to get a hoofhold on it, planting both hind hooves on it as she did put every ounce of power into pulling herself free. After a two minutes she was starting to worry if she was stuck, but it quickly turned to relief as she felt herself starting to loosen from the cloud Another minute, and the pegasus finally freed herself, shaking her head to knock off any little bits of the cloud still left on her.

As she finally turned to get a good look at the one who ambushed her, and was surprised to see that it was her very own commander. "Oh! Captain!", she exclaimed, confused why it seemed like her version of the head Wonderbolt was foggy. Windy quickly realized that bits of cloud must have gotten into her goggles, so she pulled them off her head and started dusting the remaining bits off of the lenses. As she did, she glanced back up at Spitfire, noticing the exercise clothes on her for the first time. "I... didn't expect you to be jogging around here ma'am," she confessed, nervously smiling.

[Spitfire]

Spitfire couldn't help but laugh as Winds became stuck in the cloud. The Captain knew the 'bolt had it in her to wriggle her way out, so she wasn't too worried. Spitfire took a seat on the cloud and watched the Cloud Colored Pegasus slowly achieve victory. "I woulda thought you could get out faster than that~" She teased, obviously not judging High Winds. She stretched her hooves as she sat, making sure the muscles didn't cool down too fast.

"I usually don't. Usually I'll take laps around the track at the Academy. Since I have the place to myself more often than not. But today I decided to change things up. If you run in the same place too much, you get used to the hooffalls there, so when you find yourself in a new place, your body wants to keep the same actions as your usual spot, and it throws everything off." She said with a nod. "That's why I urge you all to fly in new places as often as possible. That way you can keep your mind sharp."

She took a long, slow drink from her water bottle, then let out a satisfied 'ahhh'. "The water here is amazing, too." She said with a smile, holding the bottle out to offer High Winds some. She idly wondered if the other Pegasus knew that she worked out with Rain Water... Or if High Winds herself drank a specific kind of water when she worked out. But for now, she was going to see how surprised the pegasus was by the pure clarity of the water she was offered.

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High Winds looked down at the cloud she'd previously been trapped in moments ago, and couldn't help but let out a laugh herself. "I think that's the first time I've ever even been stuck in a cloud, honestly. I've ran into one once or twice in the past when I made a wrong turn, but I was going at a fast enough speed that I'd just plow right through it instead." After another minute of cleaning the lenses of her goggles she was certain that she'd gotten all the remaining bits of cloud out. Once she had made sure, she placed them back on top of her head, then joined her captain on top of what had formerly been her fluffy white prison.

She nodded as Spitfire explained just why she'd been jogging around town at this time. "That's true. I've noticed I've started getting too familiar with my surroundings..." Which may have helped contributed to her failure during a certain incident with a giant dragon, among other things... "Using some other places to train myself would definitely help with that." For that matter, a few times the entire team was staying out of town for the night getting ready for another performance, she had noted a few spots that would be good for some exercise, but hadn't acted on it yet. She made a mental note to start taking the initiative about that when the opportunity came up again, stretching her wings out a bit as she did.

She planned on asking Spitfire what their duties were for the day, but quieted for a moment as the golden pegasus mare offered some of her water. Windy accepted, taking a light sip, and stared at the bottle in astonishment. "Wow..." While she'd had water before, but never anything that fresh! She stared at it another second before mentally reminding herself to ask Spitfire about her plans for the day. "That reminds me... were you expecting to heading to HQ today, ma'am? Is there anything expected going on?" If there wasn't, then maybe she would cut her time short for the day and do some of that solo exercise after all.

[Spitfire]

Spitfire nodded. It was another little known fact that Spitfire herself had run into clouds from time to time. Usually when she wasn't paying attention, or flying with her eyes closed and daydreaming. She let out a little chuckle remembering the last time, when she imagined she was flying side by side with another Wonderbolt, but on vacation. The cloud interrupted her right before the two had ki.....

She turned to High Winds and shook her head. "Nope, nothing going on today. Not that I know of at least. No shows to prep for, I don't have any paperwork that can't wait... Gilda and I are going to be taking a trip to Ponyville... eventually." She pondered for a few moments. "But probably not today..."

After a few more moments of thinking she looked over to High Winds. "So, what could a couple of Bolts do to stir up trouble on a lazy day?" She asked, lazily squeezing another stream of water into her mouth. The Wonderbolts under Spitfire quickly found that her attitude during the Academy is a lot different than her attitude outside of it. During the Academy, she drills them as hard as she can, to get them ready to follow orders when they need to. Outside of the Academy, They're all friends. Though, more than a few Cadets avoid her for quite some time before finally realizing she was sincere.

[Deleted]

High Wind's wings rustled a bit, surprised that there really wasn't any activity. Which means barring any sudden disturbances in Equestria everypony on the team had the day off. While she'd hoped that she would be able to get a little time to herself for the day, she wasn't expecting the entirety of it. Still, there was no way she wouldn't take advantage of this opportunity. While she did like her exercises to make sure her skills never went rusty, some time off wouldn't hurt either. If one didn't properly rest themselves and instead overtrained they'd be a mess, and the last thing she'd ever want to be was the team's load.

Not only that, but the day to hang out with Spitfire was a nice change of pace; she'd rarely gotten the chance to do so with her captain when it was just the two of them. "Sounds like a plan," she replied, leaning back on the cloud the two of them were resting on. "I don't have the first idea of where to head to, though. Any place you had in mind?"

Spitfire's mention of Ponyville jogged Windy's memory from a few months ago, remembering the cafe she'd stopped at.  She made a mental note to herself to tell Spitty about it. As she started to raise a hoof up at her captain, she noticed the golden lightning bolt around her currently blue-covered hoof, reminding her that she was still in uniform right now. "Before we do anything else though, first I think I need make a quick stop back home." While she didn't mind wearing it, it was a little much just for casually hanging around.

[Spitfire]

Spitfire slooowwwwllly turned toward High Wind, as if High Wind not only insulted Spitfire, but as if she also insulted every Wonderbolt Captain before her AND their families. Her mouth slowly dropped agape. "High Wind... I'm shocked and apalled you would ask me such a thing. Asking if I know where we might head to for the day like I live in this town or something?" She shook her head disappointedly.

Then she laughed.

Of course Spitfire lived in this town. In fact, they were right near her domicile now.

She glanced over toward the building she called her own, then back to High Winds. "A quick stop home may be good. I gotta get out of these jogging clothes. Meet you back here in 10?" Spitfire offered. That would give both of them plenty of time to get ready to paint the town red! Though, you can't really paint Clouds too well.

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True, Windy herself knew from personal experience that painting clouds was pretty near impossible, but it admittedly wasn’t due to a lack of trying.

10 minutes sounded like more than enough time for High Winds to change, clean herself up and meet back up with Spitfire. "Sure! See you in a little bit!,” Windy remarked, giving her captain-slash-teammate-slash-friend a salute, before racing back to her house. Going at just half her top flying speed allowed her to make it back home within two minutes. Once inside she removed the goggles and slipped out of the uniform, tossing both pieces of gear to her bed. Once that was over she began cleaning up her coat, mane and tail, making sure that the latter two had their usual curled style. While her mane and tail were naturally curly, changing in and out of her flight suit constantly left them a little messy. Oddly enough, they never really got that bad whenever she flew at top speeds…

After grooming herself up so she now looked less like a Wonderbolt and much more like any average Pegasus mare you’d see trotting the streets or flying up on the clouds, she looked herself over in the mirror. “Looking good!” With that settled, Windy turned to make her way for the door, catching a glimpse of her bed again and noticing the uniform tossed over it. She hesitated, wondering if she should still bring it with her. Maybe she was just being overly paranoid that something could happen during her and Spitfire’s off day. True, emergencies and crises didn’t happen every single day in Equestria, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t strike without warning. There was that time when some pegasi over in Maneami accidentally caused an out of control storm that the team had been called in to help. And another to help against a series of parasites that had invaded a nearby town... and after that…

After about a minute passed, Windy shook her head, reminding herself that she still needed to rendezvous with Spitfire and that was supposed to be within a minute or two. Sighing, she grabbed one of her bits from a nearby table and flipped it up: heads, she’d take her uniform in a bag hopefully on the very 1000000 to 1 slim chance that something could happen; tails, she’d leave it and just not worry about it for the rest of the day. As soon as the coin landed, she checked to see which side it’d be. Heads. She quickly grabbed her uniform, shoved it in a nearby saddlebag and strapped it around her. Once that was done, she quickly left her house, returning to where she and Spitfire were to meet up.

Thankfully, she was a couple seconds early to their meeting point, though the fact that she’d been flying at a faster speed to make up for lost time had something to do with it. “Spitfire? Are you there?” She couldn’t see if her fellow ‘bolt was in the area, though she wouldn’t put it past her to wait and see if Windy would arrive first before revealing herself.

[Spitfire]

Spitfire drifted lazily back to her apartment, not really in too big of a hurry for much of anything. She set her hoodie aside to be cleaned later, and set her bottle somewhere that she could assure herself she'd be looking for it for 20 minutes next time she wanted to work out. She gave a nod to the locations and ran a brush through her mane.

Not that it did much. Just put a few hairs back into place that had shifted during the jog. Her mane was always swept back, and she liked it like that. She looked to old pictures of herself when she was younger, and a more stylized mane. She chuckled a little, it would be interesting to hear the reactions if she showed up at a show like that.

Lazily, she drifted back to the spot her and High Winds were meeting up. As she saw the white pegasus looking for her, Spitfire grinned. She glided over, landing next to Winds. "Oh yeah. That's what your cutie mark looks like. I completely forgot~" Spitfire said, in a joking tone, playing on the fact the Bolts hardly hang out outside of uniform.

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High Winds giggled as noticed the tornado on her flank. While Spitfire was kidding, she did have a point at how at meetings and friendly gatherings the 'Bolts still kept their flight suits on more often than not. While the team all did have dress shirts and ties for special occasions as opposed their usual uniforms, Windy preferred her regular flight suit over it; in all honesty she found the tie a bit itchy for her neck and usually had to put as much concentration to not rub it as she would were she on assignment, as opposed to the tight yet comfortable blue and gold outfit she was more commonly clad in.

"So we have the whole day to chill!," she cheered, hugging Spitfire. The sight of the off-duty Wonderbolt hugging her captain like this would probably take new recruits aback were they to glimpse of the two of them. Fortunately Windy knew from experience that Spitfire wouldn't mind her doing something casual like this. "Did you have anywhere you wanted to head to first or should I get first pick?" She personally wouldn't mind Fillydelphia, or Manehattan, though Ponyville wouldn't be too bad a place to hang out either. Since it was still early on in the morning - not even afternoon right now - they'd have more than enough time to check out more than one.

[Spitfire]

Spitfire pondered for a while, thinking about where to go. "Hmm, I think I'll let you have first crack at making this a day to remember. Wherever we go, we should hit Canterlots club scene at some point! I hear that they actually have some pretty rad places there. And not just stuffy music halls." She said with a nod.

She stretched her wings wide, getting them warmed up for a flight. "I know Fire Streak and Soarin both met this Bat Pony they seemed to like partying with. Owns a club in Hightown. Maybe we'll hit that place up?" Spitfire suggested. "So... I have a feeling you're gonna want a far flight. Probably somewhere oceanside?" Spitfire guessed, looking to High Winds with a little smile.

[Deleted]

Windy's ears perked up as Spitfire brought up the club, remembering meeting Melanite from a few days prior. "Bat pony? Oh, Melanite! I met her a couple days ago too. She was pretty nice!" She'd almost forgotten that she'd brought up meeting some of her other teammates. Mentioning the club reminded her of the bat-mare's invitation as well. "That would be a great place to head to. She said we could come by anytime." Maybe if they were lucky she’d even be hanging around there, although that would probably be a longshot.

She started to spread her wings, ready for takeoff. After a few seconds she started flapping her wings, and before long she was in the air, waiting until Spitfire was up with her to take off rather than race ahead. "When did Soarin' and Fire Streak tell you about her, anyway?" She knew that Melanite had been in Equestria for a while, but she was a little curious when the bat-pony had met the others on the team - and for some reason it had never crossed her mind to ask her back when they'd met face to face