Phantom
Rainbow Dash and Soarin’ walked side by side in awkward silence for a few minutes. Soarin seemed to be heading somewhere, so Rainbow was just staying by his side. For some unknown reason, he wanted to talk to her. Rainbow assumed that it was about the fair preparations. She was only half right.
“I wanted to apologize,” Soarin said. Dash raised an eyebrow.
“For what?” she responded. “You haven’t done anything wrong."
“No, I have, and you know it. For one, I’m sorry that I forgot your name, especially after everything you’ve done for me, and the Wonderbolts."
"Hmmhm, and?"
"And... I'm sorry that I've been flying around you. I didn't realize it at the time, but it probably made you a little jealous."
"It's fine. I probably would have been flying too... if my wing wasn't broken..."
"And that's exactly why I'm sorry. I saw the look in your face. You resented me for doing what you couldn't. I've even seen how you look at your alicorn friend. Believe me, I've broken my wings plenty of times, and each time I've stared at other pegasi with envy. And it's the subtle reminders, too. Seeing a bird fly by, a cloud overhead. You can't block out those feelings."
"No... you can't..." Rainbow Dash's head began to droop again.
"Which is why, whenever I'm around you, I'm going to keep my hooves on the ground."
Rainbow Dash stopped in her place.
"You... don't have to do that, Soarin. It's perfectly fine if you fly."
"It's not fine, though! That's what I'm trying to tell you."
"Hmmhm. What about Spitfire? Or the rest of the Wonderbolts when they get here?"
"You let me worry about Spit. She'll see it my way. Now, you're supposed to be helping us with the preparations, right? So, I figure best I can do is make you happy."
"Thanks. I guess?"
Soarin' chuckled to himself. "Anytime. Where do you propose we begin?"
"Well, we'll need some high impact clouds shipped in from Cloudsdale."
"Already on the way."
"Then we'll probably need to inspect the arena to see what we can set-- ow!" A forest green pegasus colt with a white mane zipped between Soarin’ and Rainbow Dash. As he did, he clipped Dash's injured wing, simultaneously shoving her to the ground.
"Watch it, buddy!" Soarin' yelled at the colt. But the colt seemed to ignored him, continuing towards the train station. Soarin looked down at the cripled cyan pegasus with pitiful eyes. But he felt another emotion, one he couldn't put a name to. Rainbow Dash sighed, and started pawing the dirt in front of her. "You okay?" Soarin’ asked sincerely.
"...Yeah. I'm fine."
"Well then, c'mon! We've got an arena to inspect." Soarin extended his hoof to Rainbow Dash, offering her help up.
She accepted it. They locked hooves and Soarin pulled her back up. "Okay, but how do you sugge-- whoa!" Instead of bringing her to her hooves, Soarin kept pulling until Rainbow was launched into the air, landing perfectly on his back. Her forelegs rested around his neck, and her hind legs relaxed between Soarin's hind legs and wings. "Uhh, Soarin. What are you doing?!"
"Hang on, Dash!" Soarin's wings flared open.
"Soarin..." He assumed a takeoff stance. "Soarin..."
"Hold tight!"
"Soarin'!"
The stallion sprinted forward before jumping as hard as he could whilst flapping his wings. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and hugged Soarin's neck as tightly as she could. The ride suddenly became smooth. Dash could feel that they had left the ground and were moving in an upward direction, with a slight curve to the right. Even though she could no longer feel the ground, even though she could feel the wind in her mane, she didn't feel like she was flying.
"Open your eyes!" Soarin yelled over the wind.
"I can't!" Dash responded, shaking her head, her eyes locked shut.
"Now, why can't one of the greatest flyers in Equestria simply ride through the air?"
"I... I don't have control. This doesn't feel like flying."
"Just, open your eyes, I've got you. Trust me."
"But—"
"Open. Your. Eyes."
Rainbow Dash did as instructed, hesitantly at that. What she saw first was Soarin’ giving her a reassuring look, complete with cocky grin. She looked around. Soarin’ had flown the pair between Ponyville and the clouds, and was slowly circling around the park; the area that was to become the fair grounds. Construction ponies muddled about, doing their part to hastily throw everything together. All was coming along nicely. Food and souvenir stands were already up. Entertainment areas had been completed. Most of the other attractions had also been complete, but a few remained; the arena on the edge of the park and the stage in the center were still under construction, but would be completed by nightfall.
Soarin’ angled the pair towards the arena, where he began a short, slow circuit around it.
"What are those ponies up to?" Rainbow Dash asked, indicating with a hoof towards the north end of the arena where a group of construction ponies were lining up small crates.
"Dunno." Soarin' responded. "Let's ask 'em."
Soarin’ expertly glided towards the group of ponies, slowing his speed without losing altitude. The pair couldn't hear what the ponies were talking about from that height, but Rainbow Dash could tell something was amiss. A few of the ponies were stirring nervously about the crates. A new pony, this one wearing a white helmet, ran up to the group, holding a clipboard in his magic. He started yelling something at the others, that much Dash could hear, but she was still too high up to be able to clearly understand him.
Suddenly, each pony fled in terror. One of the crates was on fire.
The now fiery crate exploded, sending fire and smouldering debris up in a large mushroom cloud. Soarin panicked and flew straight up, Rainbow Dash struggled to hang on. Rockets flew up after them, leaving dark smoke trails in their wake. The rockets exploded around the pegasi. Soarin was forced to take evasive action to avoid being burnt by the hot embers, but as a consequence, Rainbow Dash was unable to hold on. Soarin's only indication that she had fallen was that he could breathe again, the explosions from the fireworks had muffled her screams. He put the brakes on, skidding to a stop mid air. Turning around, he only caught a glimpse of her rainbow tail disappearing into the expanding mushroom cloud.
"Rainbow!" he yelled, beginning his pursuit after the cyan pegasus.
Rainbow Dash lost sight of Soarin through the cloud. She tried to breathe so she could scream some more, but was choked up by the smoke. A hundred feet from the ground, Rainbow emerged through the bottom of the upward portion of the cloud, and fell parallel to the smoke stem. She continued to cough to clear her lungs of the smoke, unable to call for help as the ground rose towards her. I'm going to die from a fall. She thought. This isn't how the greatest flyer is supposed to die. Embracing what was to come, Rainbow closed her eyes, and waited. Waited for an inevitability that never came to fruition.
When she should have impacted with the ground, she instead found herself moving horizontally. Upon opening her eyes, she saw that she was in the forearms of a pegasus stallion she hadn't seen before in her life. Not bothering to take in the details of his looks, Dash instead focused on hanging on tightly around his neck so as to not fall again. However she had nothing to worry about. The pair were a few feet above the ground. Seconds later, the stallion landed on his hind legs, still flapping his wings to keep his balance with the rainbow-maned mare in his forelegs.
"You can let go, ma'am." He spoke in a mild, clear voice.
Dash slowly opened her eyes, making sure it was safe. Seeing she was now at a safe height, and that the new stallion was straining to keep her up, she sheepishly let go, and landed on all four hooves.
"Hehehe." Rainbow Dash lowered her head in embarrassment while backing away. "Sorry... you would be—"
"Phantom," he told her. Being a few feet away, Rainbow had the chance to look at the colt better. His base coat was a deep, midnight blue. The tip of his muzzle and hooves were jet black, like he had run through oil but the oil hadn't come off, and that he tried to take a drink of water before realizing that that too was oil. The tips of his feathers on his wings were also jet black, along with his mane, though, their were fiery streaks of midnight blue running through it. For reasons unknown to Rainbow Dash, her cheeks were burning up.
She hadn't realized she hadn’t stop backing up until she came to a sudden halt, running into somepony. Dash leapt into the air, simultaneously turning around to see a familiar stallion, though one she didn't expect to see.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash," Shining Armor greeted her. Beside him was Twilight, who was levitating quill and parchment in her magic. "I see you met Phantom."
"Uhh..." She scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, I guess I did."
The colt known as Phantom trotted up beside her. "What exactly were you doing hundreds of feet in the air, with a broken wing?"
"Soarin’ was showing me around the arena since I'm helping him with the Wonderbolts' preparations. Then the crate exploded and I fell off. Nice catch, by the way."
"It was," Shining Armor cut in. "We were by the stage when we heard the explosion, so we took off to investigate. Phantom here is one of my fastest flyers. It looks like that came in handy."
Rainbow looked at Phantom again, nodding her head in thanks when she noticed something suspicious. “So... why isn’t he in uniform?”
“Special assignment. My true reason for being here mustn't be known by the general population."
Rainbow started paying more attention, and noticed something else missing in the process.
"Hey, why don't you have a cutie mark?" she interrogated him.
"Look closely," Phantom instructed.
Rainbow Dash eased her way to his left side and took a closer look. It took her a few seconds to realize that there actually was a cutie mark. It was very faint, barely a shade lighter than his coat. It appeared to be several wisps of wind.
"So... your special talent is..."
"Uh, being fast and sneaky..." Phantom seemed to retreat a few feet back, somewhat ashamed of what he had said.
"I... don't get it..."
Shining Armor stepped up to speak for Phantom. "What he's trying to say is that he's a very quick and quiet flyer. Actually, now that I think about it, he barely makes any noise whatsoever. Which is the main reason he's my personal intelligence officer. Wherever I go, he goes too."
"So, why is he here then?"
"Twilight is a princess," Phantom explained. "This fair is being held for her, and ponies from all over the region will be attending, so there's a need for security. I'm here to foil any plots against Twilight, or any other pony of nobility or royalty that may be attending the event, including celebrities. Speaking of which, have you seen any suspicious activity today? Other than the unexpected fireworks display?"
Rainbow Dash thought for a moment. "Well, somepony ran by me and Soarin' and knocked me down without apologizing. He seemed to be in a rush."
"Can you describe him?"
"Green, white mane, a pegasus. I couldn't see a cutie mark under his saddlebags."
"Oh!" Twilight gasped in sudden realization. "Cloud Maker!" The others stared at her hesitantly as she lit up with joy like she had just won a guessing game. Seeing the looks the ponies around her wore, her excitedness faded. "Sorry. I ran into him by the train station, literally. He was nice enough to apologize and help me up. When I asked him where he was going, he told me that he was in charge of all of the cloud shipments from Cloudsdale for the fair, and that they were falling behind in production."
"Cloud Maker's a good pony. I spoke with him earlier, under false pretenses, of course." Phantom said, turning his attention to the cyan pegasus. "You said Soarin' was with you... where exactly would he be?"
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak before realizing that she didn't actually know. She scanned the skies above her. For the most part, they were clear other than the dispersing smoke cloud and rescue ponies heading towards the scene; they were setting up an aid station by the town hall when the explosion occurred. No Soarin'. "He was right there, chasing after me! Where'd he go?"
"Well, when you see him, have him see Shining Armor. We need to work out the security arrangements for the Wonderbolts."
"Okay. What's Twilight's role in all of this?"
"I'm helping Shining." Twilight explained. "Somepony's got to organize everything."
"And she's doing a very good job," Shining Armor complemented his sister, giving her a pat on the head. "Phantom?"
"Sir?" He responded in an official manner, bringing himself to attention.
"Twilight has informed me that Rainbow Dash is the liaison for the Wonderbolts and is helping them with the preparations. I want the two of you to go around and check up on their preparations."
"Yes sir. Miss Dash, if you'll follow me."
Phantom turned to leave, heading towards the arena exit. Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight, then hesitantly went after him. Once the two pegasi were out of sight, Shining Armor turned his attention back to Twilight.
Twilight spoke before he could, "I think somepony has a crush." She giggled to herself like a little filly.
"I don't have—"
"Not you! You're married! That'd be... weird... Anyway, I was talking about Rainbow Dash. I think she might have a crush on Phantom. Did you see how much she was blusjing when Phantom let go of her?"
"She was probably embarrassed, considering her reputation."
"Noooooohohoho. She blushed like that around Soarin' when she first talked to him. And I know she has a crush on Soarin'. And now I think she might have one on Phantom. "
"Well, that'll make things more interesting. Phantom is going to be Rainbow Dash's body guard, so those two will be around each other a lot more."
"He he he, yeah. Wait... what!? Body guard!? What does Rainbow Dash need a body guard for!?"
"Twiley... you're a princess now. Like it or not, you have enemies. Chrysalis has already tried to get Rainbow Dash, and nearly succeeded. Now, the crate of fireworks explodes while Soarin' and her were flying overhead? It's pretty suspicious if you ask me, but the investigation will tell more."
"So you think somepony is after my friends?"
"I'm saying somepony might be after you through your friends. Even before you were a princess, you had enemies that were out to stop you. Now that you're a princess, you’ll have more. And with this fair going on, they could be anywhere. I've got guards trailing your friends, and guards stationed at strategic points and on patrol paths. You'll be safe. Trust me."
Twilight sighed. "I do. It's just... never mind. You're right. They'll be safe." Shinning Armor could see in her eye's what her true feelings were.
"So how did you break your wing? Twilight was vague on the details." Phantom asked Rainbow Dash.
"My birthday was yesterday, and I got a card from Queen Chrysalis. It was a picture of my parents locked in a cage. I didn't know they were Changelings, so I took off to rescue them. My friends tried to stop me but I ignored them, and fell into Chrysalis' trap. My friends and Princess Celestia showed up to help and there was a fight. Chrysalis was going to use her magic on Twilight but I stopped her, causing the cave to collapse. A boulder was going to land on Twilight so I pushed her out of the way, not fast enough, though..." She glanced at the bandage around her wing.
"It sounds like you were very brave. Braver than most ponies I know, even those in the Royal Guard."
"I guess you could say I'm just awesome, but I'll take that too." Her self compliment was accompanied by a cheeky smile.
In the distance, Rainbow could see a train arrive at the station. It wasn't primarily composed of cargo containers like the others were, but instead was made up of passenger cars. Nopony attempted to board. However, a near army of ponies exited; all had white coats covered with golden armor. Guards. Royal Guards.
"Hey... Phantom?" Rainbow called for his attention.
"Yes, Miss Dash?"
"Why is there an army of Royal Guards coming here?"
"It's hardly an army... and they're here for security."
"Security?"
"For the fair. Since there will be many ponies of both nobility and royalty, the Princess has asked for extra security. Guards will be put on patrols, they'll stand in strategic locations overlooking important areas, and will be following V.I.P.'s, making sure nothing bad happens."
"V.I.P.'s?"
"Very Important Ponies. Ponies like Princess Celestia, Princess Sparkle and her friends, etcetera."
"Twilight? She doesn't need her own guards, especially when she's got me!" Rainbow held a hoof across her chest like she was pledging an oath.
"It's not my orders. It's Princess Celestia's. And part of those orders include protecting the Elements of Harmony. Which is why Shinning Armor wants you to show me around. Miss Dash, I'm your personal body guard."
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I like where this is going
9/10 for this chapter
So, is this SoarinDash or PhantomDash
? (Personally, I would like PhantomDash more 
)
I have completed the cover. Tell me what ya guys think! Personally, I'm satisfied with it, but improvement idea's would be excellent!
Ooohh I don't know if I like the Phantom shipping more, or the Soarin... hmmm
This just got interesting...