Walking in, Soarin looked around. It's just as impressive on the inside as it was on the outside. A large house with a big kitchen that's so clean you could swear it has that it hadn't been used. A large banister surrounded the kitchen with two openings and a bar that connects to the living room.
There was a large empty space that had a closet and a glass sliding door that lead out to a balcony. Next to the front door was a hallway that led to the left and had two doors on each side, one led to a closet beneath the stairs and the other to a small bathroom. The living room had a large cloud couch set in the corner that curved with it and formed an ‘L’ shape, three stools set at the bar and two cloud chairs sat across from the couch.
“Very cool” Soarin said in awe, wondering how Dash could possibly afford the place.
Looking around Rainbow takes in the sight of her own home. Taking a deep breathe she inhales the familiar scent and walks into the living room. Practically flopping into the curve of the couch she gestures with a broad wave of her hoof for Soarin to take a seat anywhere.
Choosing the chair across from her he sits down and looks at the impressive construction of the cloud home.
“So whats new with the Wonderbolts?” Rainbow asks breaking the silence.
“Well we’re on a break right now so nothing much really, Blaze is still injured.” He says referring to the fiery coated Wonderbolt.
“Really? When did that happen?” Rainbow asks a bit astonished.
“About a week ago. We were in the middle of practice and she was taking a speed run through the rings when she clipped her wing on one of the rings and sent her spirraling into the bleachers. Shes at home resting up. Messed up her wing a bit but she should be back to flying within two to three months, and within five or six she should be performing again” Soarin finishes his story with a quick nod.
Looking at him Rainbow is surprised that she hadn’t found out yet. She usually knows everything thats going on in the Wonderbolts, but then she remembers her past week.
She had been really busy and hadn't hardly had time to do anything let alone look at a newspaper to see what’s going on with the Wonderbolts.
“Anything broken?” She asks trying to get more info on the matter.
Soarin replies after a moment. “Cracked on of the bones in her right wing” Shakes his head gently. “She tries to act like it doesn’t hurt,but everypony that has felt something like that knows it's almost unbearable.”
~~
As they continued to talk, they almost lost complete track of time, until Rainbow looks at the clock realising how long they'd been talking for. “Shoot it's time to get to work.” She gets up quickly. “It's actually past time by about ten minutes so I got to get going”
Soarin gets up and looks at her as she trots towards the door. “Want some help?”
Rainbow Dash stops and turns back at him. “Sure, I could use the help.” Soarin trots after her with a happy expression on his face.
“I got the north side and you can get the south, the rest of the team can deal with the east and west. Meet me back here when you’re done, okay?” Soarin nods and looks out and waits for the count down. “Okay, in three...two...one...GO!” They both take off into the sky at break neck speed heading towards their respective sides of town.
Soarin heads towards the south and begins bursting through clouds and taking them out. More and more clouds disappear and the sky slowly begins to clear up revealing a bright shade of blue.
Doing three barrel rolls Soarin turns in the direction of Rainbow Dash's cloud home he begins flying back. Waiting for him on the front porch is a rather smug looking Rainbow Dash.
“Ha, I won” She says with a confident smile. “Was there ever any doubt?”
While landing next to her, Soarin simply rolls his eyes with a smile. “Yeah, you won.” Chuckling to himself he pats her on the back. “Good job.”
Rainbow Dash smiles contently. “Thanks Soarin.” She was calm on the outside but on the inside Dash was jumping up and down in excitement of having actually beat a Wonderbolt in a race.
Soarin looks out to the sky. “It's still light outside, you wanna...you know... fly around for a bit?” A light blush forming on his cheeks as he looks out and thinks about the prospect of being with Rainbow Dash alone in the sky, and maybe seeing the sunset. That would be so romantic and the perfect time to ask her out on a date.
“Sure ,sounds good. We can head out towards the lake at the edge of town. It's really peaceful this time of day so it's perfect for getting a workout.” She shakes out her wings and gets ready to take off.
Soarin unfolds his wings and readies himself to take off. “Ready?”
“Ready.” Rainbow answers back before they both take off into the air heading towards the edge of town. Flapping her wings hard she feels the strain, but fights through it to get ahead. Pushing himself he flaps his wings hard and fast. Regretting not taking Fleetfoot up on her offer for some speed training he begins to lose ground.
Realising that she is taking the lead Rainbow Dash smiles and pushes even harder. Quickly approaching the edge of town, they both push as hard as they can to the finish. They fly past the lake but neither is willing to give in.
They keep going all the way out of town and towards Canterlot. Flapping her wing furiously Rainbow Dash keeps a steady lead but soon begins to realise something. Rainbow begins to realises that even though she is fast on the initial start. After a while her endurance does run out and thats what was happening now. She may have speed at the start but Soarin has the endurance factor and he's proving it.
Still flapping at full strength Soarin begins to gain ground, or rather sky, on the cyan pegasus. Even though he knows he can win, he doesn’t want to upset the Rainbow maned mare, so he decides to call it quits. Throwing his wings open they catch the wind and Soarin begins to stop.
Looking back Rainbow does the same and after slowing down enough she makes a loop back to Soarin. “What's *pant* wrong Soarin?”
Panting, Soarin looks at her. “Wasn’t that the lake back there?” He looks back and sees the lake in the distance.
“Yeah it is, guess we got carried away.” She rubs the back of her neck with her hoof. “Come on, lets head back.” Soarin nods as they head back towards the lake that they past a while back.
Taking their time, they fly lower and closer to the ground. Soarin looks at Rainbow Dash and admires her quietly, her bold muscles beneath her cyan coat and the way she looks with sweat rolling down her flank. She was magnifi-- *smack* Soarin halts suddenly and smack into a tree only to fall down on the ground on his rump.
Rainbow looks at him, trying to suppress a laugh rising in her voice. “You ok there Soarin?” Having to come down to earth to help him up and take a few deep breathes she manages to tucks the laugh away entirely. “What happened?” She asks with a snicker returning to her voice.
Soarin brushes himself off and shakes the leaves from his mane. “I got distracted.” He says, trying to hide his blush.
“Again?” She says with a chuckle.
“Yeah.” He rubs the back of his neck with a hoof and smiles. “I guess I'm just easily distracted today”
“I guess so. But never mind that, we’re here!” She runs past him and looks out onto the lake before her. A calm lake turned blue by the skies reflection. Walking over to stand beside her, Soarin looks out on the water with a smile.
“I wonder what it looks like during the sunset, probably awesome.” Soarin says trying to wait it out till the perfect moment.
“Don’t know, never seen it. But you're probably right. It must look awesome.” Rainbow Dash turns to Soarin. “Let's wait here till sunset, I want to see what it looks like. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Soarin smiles. “Sure. we can just sit here and wait till then.” Soarin sits down but quickly realises he's the only one sitting. “Uh.. Dash? Aren’t you gonna sit down?”
Rainbow looks up at two nearby passing clouds. “Might as well get comfortable right?” She quickly flies up and grabs one of the clouds and lays on it. “Come on you can have the other, unless you like sitting on the ground opposed to a cloud.”
Soarin didn’t need to be told twice. Jumping up he flaps his still sore wings up to the second cloud and flops face first onto it. “Awww, I love clouds.”
Rainbow Dash chuckles at his cuteness and lays her head down on the soft clouds as well. Deciding to take a nap, she closes her eyes.
“Wake up. Hey, Wake up Dash!” Soarin shakes Dash while not taking his eyes off the lake. While Rainbow Dash slept Soarin decided to take the time to think about how he was going to ask her on a date.
“Huh, What!?” Rainbow Dash wakes up and looks around. “What’s wrong Soa--” Her gaze fall upon the lake now a light with the beauty of the setting sun. Rainbow simply stares as she comes down from her cloud and onto the ground. They both just sit there at the edge of the water looking out. The sunset had caught on the lakes surface just right and illuminated it a brilliant yellow orange color.
Looking on in awe, Rainbow simply stares. Taking a deep breathe Soarin breaks the gaze of the lake and looks to Rainbow Dash. The sunset beginning to end the beauty show, slowly fades till it's gone entirely but Rainbow Dash is still locked in a trance like state. Shaking his hoof in front of her face Soarin breaks her out of it. “Huh, what?” Dash looks around then her eyes look to Soarin in front of her with a smile on his face.
Taking a deep breathe Soarin moves in front of her and onto the muddy bank. Looking into her eyes. “I have a question that i need to ask you.” His nerve rising, he blushes and shakes very lightly but Rainbow Dash doesn’t notice either of these things.
Rainbow Dash looks to him with a slightly confused look on her face. “Uh... Sure. What is it?”
“Will you... go out on a date--” Suddenly Soarin slips and falls face first into mud before slipping more and into the water. This is just too much for the rainbow maned mare to take as she bursts into a fit of laughter and falls onto the bank holding her stomach in pain and laughter.
Soarin is internally screaming at himself but simply sighs. After a while of this he stands in the water and looks at her with a slightly annoyed expression. “I'm sorry Soar.” She says wiping a tear from her eye. “But that was hilarious.”
Soarin sits there for a moment as Rainbow Dash continues laugh but soon he gets an evil grin. Reaching out, he grabs hold of her and pulls her into the water with him. Gasping and flailing in the water at first she quickly looks at Soarin who is now laughing but he manages to remain standing, that is until Rainbow pushes him over. Now both sitting neck deep in water they both start laughing.
“Come on Soarin, you can crash at my place for the night, let just get home though.” Rainbow says trying stop laughing. Soarin nods to busy taking in what all just happened to realise that he had just been invited to stay the night at Rainbow Dash’s house.
On the fly home it finally hits home and he is internally screaming for joy but manages to keep a calm demeanor. Once they are inside they dry off and he turns to her hopeful. “So, what do you say Dash?”
“To what?” Rainbow looks at him confused.
“About my question?”
“I dont even remember what it was to be honest but hey, you can ask me in the morning cause I’m beat. You can crash on the couch.” Rainbow goes to a closet and brings out a blanket and pillow.
Feeling rather struck down by this, he takes the blanket and pillow and sets them on the couch then turns back to Rainbow. “You really don’t remember what I asked?”
“No, why...was it important?”
Soarin sighs. “No... it was nothing important.” Putting on a fake smile. “Good night.” Rainbow Dash nods. Turning she heads up stairs then Soarin's smile and his head drop. He turns off the lights then lays down on the couch and whispers to himself “It was nothing at all.”