Chapter 2
Pegasus Stadium.
That was where the Wonderbolts were all at currently as they were going over their daily exercises and routines for future shows. Thunderlane was, of course, practicing with Fire Streak, Silverlining, and Fleetfoot. He had been teamed up with them, as their Captain, Spitfire had instructed that they would come up with tricks and stunts that required four members to pull off successfully more easily than it would with just two or three.
As they finished up with their exercises, Thunderlane dove down quickly towards the ground below before jerking his hindquarters forward in a sudden sharp halt just before collision would've happened. Touching his hooves to the ground, he sighed softly as he folded her wings slightly at his sides; glad that the training was over for the time being. After all, his wings had started to ache a bit from all those speed runs, sharp dips and turns, and then the Multi Twister Burst move...
That move was enough to make your head spin and feel like you were gonna lose a few feathers more often than not...
As he took the time to enjoy the ground beneath his hooves, he was quite nearly collided into by a cyan and rainbow blur as it zipped passed him. It was only at the startled yelp from his teammate, Soarin, that he actually chuckled lightly; knowing exactly what it was that had happened. Turning around halfway to see the scene before him, Thunderlane had to struggle with himself not to fall over in a fit of laughter, as just a few yards away was a collapsed Soarin with Rainbow Dash pinning him there with her front hooves as she hovered over him with an excited look in her rose colored eyes. "Hey, Dash. What's with the greeting? I mean, yeah, Soarin's your coltfriend, but I don't think that's any reason to practically pile drive him into next week whenever you want, haha."
Lifting her head up to look over at the dark grey stallion, she gave him a look that told him to be quiet, but then it quickly vanished as she got off of the older light blue stallion and helped him back up onto his hooves. Once he was standing again, Rainbow Dash pretty much began to jump around him in excitement. It was almost like seeing her reacting in the manner she had back when she had first Officially met the Wonderbolts up close; before she had managed to become one of them.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Soarin, you'll never believe what has happened! I mean, I'm still having trouble believing it; it's that amazing!"
"More amazing than when you met the Wonderbolts or even when you got recruited to become one? Come on, Dashie." Soarin chuckled softly at how his marefriend was acting. He couldn't help but to find it to be adorable and also find her amount of energy to be rather infectious.
"No, of course not! But it's still pretty close! I mean,-"
"What my ball of energy of a cousin means is that I'm back in the area for a while."
Soarin and the other Wonderbolts glanced in the direction of the new voice, only to have their gazes land on the ice blue mare that was casually walking towards them. While most of the 'bolts held looks of confusion or curiosity in their gazes, Thunderlane's own gold eyes lit up slightly and ran over to the new arrival. "Blizzy, you really came by!"
Blizzard Rush rolled her bright teal eyes slightly in a playful manner before smirking slightly. "Of course I did. Ya invited me to do so, after all and plus, Dash wanted to stop by even on her day off to see her coltfriend and show me around where she usually trains with you guys. She honestly wouldn' shut up about this one certain colt the whole flight out here." She then drifted her gaze over towards the stallion that stood at her still grinning cousin's side before giving him a look over despite the fact that the whole team had their uniforms on. "So you're Soarin, eh? Not bad...You're a pretty cute stallion, actually. Dash certainly knows how to pick 'em." The mare then finally flashed a playful wink towards the two, causing them both to blush. "I totally approve, cuz."
As the two pegasi continued to blush and then exchanged glances with each other, the young couple finally smiled as if they had been approved of by their own parents. Soarin then returned his gaze onto Blizzard Rush and trotted over to her to properly greet the mare with Rainbow Dash close behind. Holding out his hoof to shake her's, he grinned in a slightly goofy manner when she took his greeting and shook before letting go.
"So you and Dashie are cousins? Where are you from and how long are you playing on staying?" The light blue stallion then took note that their newest recruit seemed to know the new mare and was actually curious about that considering how excited he had seemed to be about seeing her. "And how do you know Thunderlane here?"
"Wow, a field of questions already, huh?" Chuckling softly to herself, the ice blue mare decided to answer it all the best she could in order. "Lets see...Yeah, I'm her cousin. We're actually the same age, but I'm older by only like a month; name's Blizzard Rush, but ya can just call me Rush. I'm from Los Pegasus and actually, I'm not sure how long I'll be stayin' yet. It's kinda up in the air right now since I'm on leave from work. My big bro's handlin' things back home for me." Tilting her head to the side slightly in thought, she then shook her head, causing her multi-color streaked mane to shift a bit with the movement. "I'll be here a while though, I think. I only arrived in Ponyville yesterday and I kinda ran into Dash this mornin' durin' one of her runs to clear away the clouds from her duty as a weather pony." Drifting her gaze back onto the dark grey stallion in question towards the last part, she casted him a small smile. "Met this stallion yesterday in the clouds. Guess ya could say I popped in on him, heh."
Blushing faintly at this, Thunderlane lifted a hoof and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he chuckled. "I was sorta, maybe...spying...on her a little bit when I saw her. After she caught me in the act though, we became fast friends and hung out the rest of the day together."
After all the questions seemed to get answered, Rainbow Dash glanced up at the pegasus next to her. "Hey, Soarin, I'm gonna go show her around, ok? I'll see ya later though." With that, the rainbow maned pegasus leaned up and gave the older stallion a kiss on the cheek before trotting off with her cousin as they immediately began to chat back and forth and laugh as they caught up with each other on everything.
Watching the two mares leave with a smile on his face, Soarin drifted his gaze to the side as he spied something within his new recruit's own gaze. It was a look he had actually seen before, but not in Thunderlane's nor anypony else's. Thinking he would talk to the stallion about it, he tabbed his shoulder to get his attention before jerking his head slightly to the side. "Come on. Lets go for a bit of a walk and get us some pie." Walking off, he didn't need to glance back to know that Thunderlane had trotted off after him and was now walking along side of him. When they arrived in the cafeteria that the stadium provided and ordered up two pies for the both of them, Soarin grabbed his own pie between his teeth like his companion did and walked over to a nearby table. "So...What's on your mind, Thunder? You were looking at that new mare long enough to where you coulda burned a hole right into her flank."
"Huh?" Thunderlane's dark gold eyes widened slightly in surprise at the question and jolted somewhat as if he had been caught with his hoof in the cookie jar. "I uh...I don't know what you're talking about."
Soaring rolled his emerald eyes slightly at the horrible act that the other stallion was putting on before smirking towards him. "Oh, please. I'm not as dense as some ponies think I am. Rush and Dashie might not have noticed, but I certainly did. You were giving her the same look I sometimes gave Dashie whenever I saw her before I finally gathered up the courage to confess that I liked her."
At being told this, and even worse, caught, Thunderlane's eyes only seemed to widen a bit more if that were actually possible and a fierce blush began to creep up onto his face and neck.
"Now...Mind telling me what exactly is up, Thunder?"
Sighing lightly in defeat of this now, Thunderlane lowered his head as he seemed to act almost ashamed now. "I kinda...maybe...like Blizzy a little..." It was then that he groaned in even more defeat after a moment and dropped his head onto the table with a thump, somehow managing to avoid landing in his pie. "Ok, make that a lot."
Feeling pity for his fellow teammate, Soarin walked around the table and lifted a hoof as he patted the stallion comfortingly on the back. "Wanna talk about it?"
Lifting his head up, Thunderlane gave Soarin a look, but then sighed once more as he began talking. "It's just, have you ever looked at a filly just once and then instantly feel something in the back of your mind click?"
Soarin arched a brow at this and thought for a moment on what he meant by that. "You talking about that 'love at first sight' kinda thing?"
The dark grey pegasus nodded his head. "At first, I was just curious, but when she popped up and startled me, the moment I got a really good look at her up close for the first time, all I could think about was how beautiful she looked. Something in the back of my mind just clicked in that instant and I had to know who she was and anything else I could about her. All I keep thinking about when I see Blizzy is how much I wanna be with her." He then finally threw his hooves above his head in frustration before dropping his head back onto the table with his forelegs outstretched in front of him. "Ugh! She has no clue what she's done to me and on top of that, she friendzoned me without even having the faintest idea that I'm crazy about her already after just one day with her! I mean, what kinda mare has that effect on a stallion?!"
Watching as his friend began to ramble on in a slightly muffled tone about his situation and how he felt about Blizzard Rush, he couldn't help but to chuckle lightly in amusement. "Actually, I know what you're going through a bit more than you might think. Dashie had a similar effect on me. I'm beginning to think it might run in the family."
Shifting his head slightly at hearing this, Thunderlane side glanced up at his companion. "...Really...?"
Laughing fully now, he nodded his head. "Yup. She made quite the impression on me when we first met the day she saved me and the others from our falls and even succeeded in doing the Sonic Rainboom in the process. I was instantly impressed and in the back of my mind, I knew I liked her, but it wasn't till the Grand Galloping Gala when she made a dive just to save my pie did I actually realize just how much I liked her." Smiling lightly at the memory that sprouted forth within his mind, Soarin chuckled softly once more in amusement. "I mean, who really does that? Other than me of course. I doubt any other filly would've sprung into action like that just to save a pie from utter disaster for anypony. From that night on though, I made it my mission to spend as much of my free time with her as I could when she wasn't busy, herself and well,...you know the rest on how it ended up."
Nodding lightly in understanding as he did know how it ended up and exactly how they finally got together, but he still couldn't help but feel like he might not have a chance with Blizzard Rush. After all, for all he knew, she might've already had a coltfriend back in Los Pegasus waiting for her. "Lemme ask you something, Soarin, and I want you to be totally truthful here...You think I might have a chance with Blizzy?"
Soarin was silent for a moment as he was asked this. He wasn't really sure how to answer that sort of question since he really hadn't seen how the two of them really interacted around each other enough to actually come up with at least a good guess. He didn't wanna hurt his friend, but then again, he also didn't wanna get his hopes up either, and Thunderlane had even told him to be honest with him... "I think...if you really put your mind to it, that anything's possible. I can't say if you have a good shot with her or not, but I think it might be a possibility if you're determined enough..."
Thunderlane didn't say anything towards the advice as he simply thought hard on the words spoken to him. After a moment, a slight smile found its way onto his face as he nodded his head once. "Thanks, Soarin. You're a good friend." With that, he drifted his gaze over towards the clock and creased his brows slightly at the time. The cousins had been gone for a while now and he hoped nothing had happened. He knew that he shouldn't worry, but he had been hoping that they'd have returned to them by now. "Wonder what Blizzy and Dash are up to..."
"Returning back ta you guys before ya decide to come find and spy on us, that's what."
Turning his head to glance behind himself and Soarin, he saw the two younger mares step into the cafeteria and walk over to them. "Where'd you two go anyways? You were gone for a while and I doubt it takes that long to show a pony around the stadium."
Rainbow Dash rolled her rose colored eyes at this before sticking her tongue out at the two stallions playfully and spoke up again. "Wouldn' you guys like ta know."
Blizzard Rush rolled her own eyes as well at this, but it had been more towards the way her cousin acted than towards the stallions' nosy curiosity. "We only went for a walk around the stadium and caught up on what we've been up to. She also introduced me to the other members. That satisfy ya enough?"
Thunderlane seemed hesitant on that. He actually wanted to know just what all they 'caught up' with, and when he casted an instant long side glance towards Soarin out of the corners of his molten gold eyes, he knew that the other stallion was just as curious; most likely wondering if his marefriend had talked about him at all. When he locked his gaze with the two mares before them once again, he saw the slight impatience within rose colored depths and expectancy in the bright teal ones. Sighing softly in defeat, Thunderlane nodded his head lightly. "Yeah, ok. Good enough, I guess."
"Good! Cause we weren't gonna tell ya anymore anyways even if ya begged." Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed in a playful manner as a matching smirk played onto her features as she said this. She was actually liking that the curiosity seemed to be eating away at them. As she drifted her gaze over to the clock though, she noticed the time and panicked slightly. "Ohmygosh! I'm late meeting with my friends!" The cyan mare then quickly closed the gap and planted a kiss to Soarin's lips before just as quickly, if not more so, into the air as she whipped around in a 180 and bolted out the door in a manner that would make you think a swarm of angry bees were hot on her rainbow colored tail.
Rolling her eyes at her cousin's antics again, Blizzard Rush locked her gaze onto the two in front of her before nodded her head once. "I best get goin' myself. Gotta get my things moved outta the hotel I was stayin' at last night and into the spare bedroom that's at Dash's cloud home. See ya around guys." With a kind little wave of her hoof to them, the ice blue mare turned around and trotted off leisurely. Apparently, unlike her cousin, she was not one to feel the need to rush.
Thunderlane watched as the younger flier left; a look of slight longing in his gaze. It was only when Soarin nudged him in the shoulder and motioned silently with his head in a manner that told him to go after her, that he did just that. Quickly shooting his superior a thankful look, the dark grey stallion quickly galloped off out of the cafeteria after her.
Once the new recruit was gone, Soarin shook his head and laughed softly to himself as he headed off as well to get cleaned up in the showers from the training earlier. "That Thunder. Makes me surprised that I acted just like how he is now only a few months ago before I finally got the courage up to confess to Dashie..." Finding it honestly amusing to see the usually 'charming' stallion practically tripping over himself for once over a mare, he couldn't help but hope that his new friend and teammate would be able to sweep that pretty little mare off her hooves.