Dear Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack,
I'm really sorry that I haven't written back to you for a month or so. Things have been amazing. They say my first show is going to be the Wonderbolts Derby in the spring. I'm so excited! Hopefully you guys will be able to come out to watch.
I am making amazing progress. I also have something special to tell you: I have a coltfriend. Soarin, that's right, the Soarin of the Wonderbolts. He is the one responsible for training me. We have spent every day together and we have grown closer and closer as the time went on. The day I received your letter was one of the best days of my life. Soarin took me to a special place that only he knew about. He named it Violet Hill after the flowers that grew there. That's where we kissed for the first time. It was so magical. It may be too early to say, but I really think he's the one.
My room is starting to look like home. I've furnished it completely, with the exception of a dinner table because I either eat on the couch or in the main dining room. You guys can visit at any time if you want. This place is huge! I keep finding more and more rooms the more I explore. You guys should come and eat it the main dining room and we can play games. Just make sure you use Twilight's spell so that you can walk on clouds, though. I don't want to have to save you again!
I hope all is well.
Lots of love,
Rainbow Dash
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Two weeks after Soarin showed Rainbow Dash Violet Hill, she finished writing her letter back to her friends in Ponyville. Rainbow was becoming a natural at any ability needed to become a successful Wonderbolt. She had a number of dates that went very well. Soarin had taken her to see Neighagara Falls, as well as treated her to dinner a number of nights. He also took her to Canterlot to see a Hoofball match at Canterlot Stadium, which had Real Canterlot face Trottingham Forest. Real Canterlot was historically the best hoofball team in Equestria, having the most trophies out of any team. Every pony who was a hoofball fan would want to visit Canterlot Stadium one day. Rainbow Dash loved it, and she showed Soarin a much more passionate side to her, especially when she sang along with the crowd and heckled the players. Even though both of them cheered for Cloudsdale, it was good to see a neutral match.
In the last few weeks Soarin proved himself to be a very capable coltfriend. He was caring, respectful, and also a good teacher.
After giving the letter a quick read to make sure there were no mistakes, she folded it up, licked the envelope, gagged in disgust, and put the letter in so she can send it off to her friends back in Ponyville. She went towards Spitfire's room so that she could give it to her. Spitfire, as captain of the Wonderbolts, had many responsibilities, with handling the mail being one of them.
Rainbow went up to Spitfire's office. She was about to knock on the door, but she heard a commotion coming from inside. It sounded like two ponies were having an argument. Rainbow leaned in and held her ear against the door to listen to what was being said inside. She recognised the two ponies arguing to be Spitfire and Soarin.
"I don't understand why you're annoyed by this, Spitfire," Soarin said.
"Soarin, you know how seriously I take this job. We are supposed to be role models. We are supposed to always be on our game. How could you be on your game when you're hooking up with another member of the team?" Spitfire replied.
"Rainbow has made massive improvements in everything and I'm still a capable teacher," Soarin said in defence. "Can you please explain to me how us being in a relationship is negative for the team?"
Rainbow leaned back from the door in surprise, feeling a shot of nerves about the whole situation. It didn't sound too good. She leaned in to listen more, hoping to hear some better news.
"Well, at least give us a chance to show you that it won't affect our performance," Soarin pleaded to Spitfire.
"It better not," Spitfire replied sternly. "Otherwise I will assign Rainbow to a new teacher and you two will never be allowed to be partnered up ever again. I'm only doing this for the team, Soarin. I am the captain and I have to remain professional at all times. I also need to make sure all of you are too. I take this job seriously and that is why I am in this position now. If I had stayed emotionally attached to you I wouldn't have made it this far."
Just then Rainbow Dash let out a gasp and stepped away from the door. "Spitfire was Soarin's love? Great. I'm nothing compared to her." she asked herself quietly.
Soarin came out of from Spitfire's office with a frown on his face. He was obviously not pleased with how Spitfire had just treated him. He looked down to his left to see Rainbow looking at him. "How could you not tell me that Spitfire was your love?" she asked him with watery eyes.
Soarin looked back at the hurt mare and said, "Dashie, I'm really sorry you heard that. I didn't know you were listening. I'll explain everything over dinner if you want."
Rainbow Dash looked down, put her two front hooves together, and then stared at Soarin with the biggest puppy-dog eyes she could muster up. "Can we go to Cloud Ten tonight?" she asked him in the sweetest and most innocent voice she could put on.
"Sweetheart, Cloud Ten is the most expensive restaurant in Cloudsdale. Is that really what you want?" Soarin asked her. Rainbow just looked back him and nodded her head with her innocent face still intact. Her mane waved as she nodded. Soarin let out a sigh and said, "Fine, we'll go to Cloud Ten tonight, but only because you're so darn cute!"
Rainbow shouted out, "Alright!" She jumped in the air and pumped her hoof towards the ceiling with a huge grin. Soarin could not help but smile at the joy coming from the mare. But she then remembered her letter to her friends in Ponyville. She asked, "Oh, I almost forgot, the only reason why I overheard you guys was because I need to send a letter to my friends back home. Can you give me a minute?"
Soarin agreed to wait. Rainbow went into Spitfire's office. "Spitfire?" she asked while approaching the desk. Spitfire was busy signing autographs by dipping her hoof in ink and placing it on pictures.
"Yes, Rainbow Dash? I'm very busy, so make this quick," she responded harshly while still looking down at the papers.
"I just want to know if you can send this letter to my friends back in Ponyville," Rainbow said.
"Sure, just leave it on the pile," Spitfire said while continuing her work. Neither made mention of Dash's relationship to Soarin. Rainbow left the letter in the pile and left, closing the door behind her.
"Wow, she can be such a jerk when she's into her job," Rainbow said to Soarin after joining him in the hallway.
"Tell me about it," Soarin replied. "She was the rude one, yet she dumped me. I'll tell you more about it when we get to the restaurant. It needs to be said in a better setting." The two of them went down the hallway and out the front door of the headquarters side by side. They turned their bodies towards the restaurant. "It's just a few clouds over there," Soarin pointed out. They spread their wings and took flight. The day was beautiful in Cloudsdale, even though it was still wintertime. There were no clouds in the sky and the temperature was about ten degrees above freezing point, which was very pleasant for flying at this time of the year.
At the restaurant, the server pony sat Soarin and Rainbow Dash at their seats. They sat out on the outside deck, which had a beautiful view of the sunset in the distance. Soarin opened the menu. The look in his eyes showed the shock that he had. "Fifty bits for salad? Seventy-five bits for vegetables and soup? Dashie, I don't know about this." Soarin put down his menu and looked at Rainbow, who was giving him an interesting stare while resting her chin on her hoof. "What?" he asked her in both confusion and intrigue.
Rainbow gave him the same look for a few more seconds, and then said, "I asked you to come here because you didn't tell me everything. This is your punishment. You really should have told me that you were in love with Spitfire!"
Soarin now understood why Rainbow asked to go here, and she was right. This was her way of punishing him. He really should have told her that he had dated a pony they were acquaintances with. He tried to make it up to her by saying, "Dashie, I'm really sorry I never told you. But the reason why I didn't tell you is important: I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable here. If you knew that I dated Spitfire you might not feel at home here, or at least that's what I thought. I wanted you to feel safe here. I wanted you to know that you're the only mare for me. And at that time, the time I told you the story at our special place, it was perfect. I wanted nothing to ruin the moment."
"I guess you're right," Rainbow replied. "You didn't tell me because you didn't want me to feel bad about myself. You knew that I would think that I'm nothing compared to Spitfire."
"Dashie, that's not true and you know it," Soarin said. "Spitfire is totally two faced sometimes. When we started dating she was everything I ever wanted. Then she started to get proud thoughts of herself. The captain of the Wonderbolts at that time was getting old and Spitfire wanted to do everything to get promoted to be the new captain. All I did was point out to her that she was getting too into her job and she needed to care more about our relationship. I reminded her that she was the best Wonderbolt out of all of us, and she could get that promotion without even trying. That's when she dumped me. She said that she had no time or patience to let anypony else bring her down, and she would do anything it takes to get that promotion."
He looked over to the mare in front of him. He saw the beautiful smile that she had on. She was clearly very interested in what he was telling her. He smiled back to her and continued, "I was crushed. I felt played. I didn't know what Spitfire was the true Spitfire. I felt so stupid for falling for somepony who was totally fake. Don't get me wrong, Dashie, she can be really nice when she wants to be, but that's not the kind of mare I want. I want somepony who is what she is. She must be real. You're real, Dashie, and I love you for it. I am so glad that things never worked out between me and Spitfire. You're not nothing compared to Spitfire; Spitfire is nothing compared to you."
Rainbow had nothing to say about the matter. She just looked at him and looked back at her empty plate, since they still hadn't ordered yet. After a few minutes she finally found a few words to say. "Thank you, Soarin. I love you too, and I am so happy that I have somepony who cares for me so dearly. I guess I shouldn't have felt bad in the first place. I just felt jealous of Spitfire."
Soarin reassured her with another smile, "Don't ever feel jealous of anypony else ever again, you got that?"
"All right," she replied with a nod. She then suggested to her coltfriend, who at this point was probably still wondering how he would pay for the meal, "Hey, you wanna leave? It's too expensive here. I'm not mad at you anymore so I don't want you to spend too much. Let's go back home to get some noodles and we can watch TV at my place."
"Thank goodness. That sounds like a great idea," Soarin replied. They looked around to see if any workers were looking at them. When the coast was clear they spread their wings and flew away so as to avoid the embarrassment of leaving the restaurant in front of the workers.
They got back to Rainbow's room with two cups of cooked noodles and three bags of potato chips. Not knowing what to watch, Soarin gave an idea, "We can watch Mares Gone Wild!" Rainbow gave Soarin a glare that basically said 'you're not serious.' "Yeah, that was a joke," Soarin replied, when it really was just a half-hearted yet hopeful suggestion. He obviously had a different night planned than Rainbow did. She just wanted some time to spend together. The two of them chuckled anyway. They decided to have a quiet night of watching Equestria's Funniest Videos. It wasn't much, but any time spent together was special for this mare and stallion. They didn't need much to be happy. All they needed was each other.
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"Spike, can you please get me the History of Equestria book from the second shelf on your left?" Twilight asked her dragon assistant back in Ponyville.
"Sure thing Twilight," Spike responded quickly. He got on his tiptoes to reach the second shelf. "Okay, here it is," he said while handing the book to the purple unicorn. Spike then suddenly leaned forward and let out a loud belch. He spit out a letter from his mouth. The letter floated gently into the open hooves of Twilight.
Twilight read the first few words of the letter quietly. The letter was Rainbow's reply to the previous letter sent by Pinkie. "I think everypony should be here for me to read the whole letter," Twilight said. Her and Spike went out, gathered the others, and returned back to the library.
"Darling, this must be good. I am very busy designing a new clothing line that I will have in my shop," Rarity said.
"Yeah, what's up sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
Twilight responded to the group, "Don't worry everypony, it's important. We received a letter back from Rainbow Dash and I wanted us to all read it together."
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in place. "Eeeee! This is so exciting! Finally Dashie got back to us."
"This is very exciting, please read it Twilight. That is, if you want to," Fluttershy said.
Twilight Sparkle smiled at the yellow pegasus and said, "Of course I want to read it! This is very exciting for me too. I can't wait to see what she has been up to."
Twilight read the letter aloud to all of her pony friends. "Oh my," was Fluttershy's first reaction to it. "That is so nice to hear that she is doing so well."
"So Rainbow Dash got her very own coltfriend," Applejack said. "I never thought I'd see the day."
"Well I always knew that she would be successful one day," Rarity bragged.
"Ooh ooh, can we go to see Rainbow in the Wonderbolts Derby?" Pinkie asked excitedly.
Twilight answered, "I don't see why not! She seems to be really happy, so we should all support her as she lives her dream. That's what friends do."
The five of them made their plans to visit Rainbow Dash at her first show, which was going to happen in just less than two months’ time.