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// Are You Listening? 
// Story: Just A Minute 
// by Midday Giggle 
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The group of pegasi's powerful wings flapped in sync while they flew upwards. Over their different coat colors and manes, the sun shone in a way that brought out every unique detail, so clear that the moisture in their brows, coming through the material of their suit's masks, was as bright as the very sun.

Guided by their Captain, the group flew to the highest point, their figures backlighting against the sun, halting and, right after letting themselves fall backwards with their wings, angled in a way that made them speed up. One by one, from the outside to the inside of their formation, all thirteen broke away from the group, leaving traces behind when they went through clouds and then they made a spiral turn and went back to the land.

When the Captain was left alone, she made a sharp turn and flew horizontally, quickly leaving behind the spiral clouds and shaping an inverted triangle in them. The other twelve pegasi took off at the same time, joining their Captain in the center and separating like a firework.

This brought the routine to a close, and all the pegasi soared to the ground, landing with a bird's grace.

"Okay, Wonderbolts! That's all for the day!" yelled Spitfire.

The moment these words escaped her lips, the Wonderbolts sighed with relief. With a tired groan, Fleetfoot and Misty Fly let themselves fall to the ground, while Surprise took a fan out of thin air and fanned herself with it.

"Yowza, Spitty!" exclaimed the golden-maned mare. "You seem lively today!"

Spitfire ignored the fact that she was being called 'Spitty,’ since she knew trying to make her stop was impossible, and instead raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"The show in the Canterlot Royal Gardens is very important."

"Yeah, we know." said Lightning Streak, taking his mask off and shaking out his mane. "You have been repeating that over and over to us the whole month. Kinda hard to forget."

"Well, I'm glad you have it in mind. The visit of Equestria's Ambassadors is very important, and Princess Celestia wants everything to go smoothly."

Fleetfoot whined from the floor.

"We already got it perfect, why do you keep pushing us?"

"Stop whining," ordered Spitfire, giving Fleetfoot a soft kick in the side to gesture her to get up. "All of you, or else I'll make you fly laps around the compound until your wings fall off!"

All the Wonderbolts flinched, and Fleetfoot and Misty Fly jumped to their hooves like springs. They knew that when Spitfire said something like that, she was talking seriously, and none of them wanted to test their luck with the Captain.

As if they were being guided by a mysterious force, they all began moving right towards the locker room. Behind the others, Rainbow Dash took off her mask and shook her head, letting her mane arrange itself. She breathed out and followed the rest of the team, without noticing at all that one of the Wonderbolts had stopped in his tracks to look at her just for a moment.



After a shower and making sure she was totally dry, Dash left the shower room and walked toward the locker room. The good thing was that the showers were categorized by mares and stallions, but the bad thing was that the locker room wasn't, so, sometimes, funny stuff happened in there.

Like that day.

"LIGHTNING STREAK!" yelled Sun Chaser, dashing towards the stallion. "GIVE IT TO ME!"

Lightning Streak smirked.

"Whenever you want."

The room filled with laughter as Sun Chaser hit the stallion in the back of the head.

“You idiot! I'm talking about the soap! Give it back!"

Lightning Streak snickered and took the mare’s body wash bottle out of his locker, but before Sun Chaser could take it from his hooves, he raised it in the air, making use of his height to keep it out of her reach.

"Only if you ask nicely."

Sun Chaser flapped her wings, rose in the air and took the body wash.

"You are an idiot. Don't touch my stuff."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and went towards her locker, dodging a flying wet towel in the way.

"There can't be a normal day here, don't you think?"

Dash looked at Soarin, his towel around his neck, looking at the rest of the team, while Lightning and Sun Chaser bickered despite being at opposite sides of the room.

"No. Before joining, I thought you all were more..."

"Serious?"

"Exactly. But, right now I'm questioning your sanity and fearing for mine."

Soarin snickered, grabbing his towel and hanging it in his locker's open door.

“You'll get used to it, give it time. We all did."

"How is it that Spitfire hasn't had a collapse by now?"

Fleetfoot, who had been listening in on the last part of the conversation, put an elbow on Dash's shoulder, her chin in her hoof.

"It remains a mystery!"

"Maybe it has to do with the fact that not all of us are insane." said Soarin, putting his googles in his locker. Fleetfoot smirked.

"You are right."

Soarin mimicked her smirk.

"I was talking about Silver, Dash and me."

Fleetfoot put on a blank face expression and stuck out her tongue towards him in a childish way, then leaving Dash and making her way towards her own locker. Dash laughed and raised an eyebrow towards Soarin.

"Feeling like a prankster today?"

Soarin smiled.

"She had it coming, after all the things she's done to me, all these years.”

"Like what?" asked Dash as she put on her jacket, the one with her nickname.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..."

"Ha!" Dash laughed "If I told you all the stuff Pinkie did to me, you wouldn't believe me!"

They both laughed as, slowly, everyone left the locker room, leaving them both alone after a few minutes. Soarin closed his locker and put on his own jacket, while Dash put her mane over her shoulder.

"You leaving?" he asked her. Dash nodded.

"I'll meet my friend at Twilight’s castle for dinner in an hour." She put on her saddlebags and started walking towards the door. "See you tomorrow, Clipper."

Soarin ignored the nickname and opened one of his large wings in order to stop her. Dash took a step back, startled.

"Wait," said Soarin.

Dash looked at him, but he wasn't looking at her.

“Do you have a minute? I'd like to talk to you."

The seriousness in Soarin's voice was scaring her. Soarin had always been very kind with her since she joined the Wonderbolts and it hadn’t taken long for the both of them to become friends. He only used that voice when he meant business, or needed to say something extremely important. Other than that, he was very kind—sometimes shy, even.

Dash looked at him, surprised.

"Something wrong?"

Soarin shook his head.

“Nothing's wrong, but I need to talk to you. Do you have time?"

Dash tried to calculate how much time she had left, since there was no clock in the locker room.

"I don't know, I-"

"Just a minute?" Soarin interrupted her. Dash cocked her mouth.

"Okay," she said, sitting on the wooden seat in the middle of the locker room. "What do you want to talk about?"

Soarin took a seat next to her and inhaled, but said nothing. Dash guessed he was trying to organize his thoughts. She wasn't sure if this reassured or scared her.

"I wanted to thank you," he said in the end. Dash tilted her head, but didn't interrupt him.

Soarin exhaled.

"For...saving my life so many times, for helping me so many times and..." - he puffed out his cheeks - "For saving my pie."

Dash looked at him a second, and then burst out laughing. Soarin looked at her with a raised eyebrow, while she doubled over laughing, her body shaking with every laugh. She straightened up and cleared a tear from her eye.

"Dear Celestia, Soarin. You scared me!" she laughed a little bit more and then looked at Soarin with a smile. "No need of thanking me. It was a pleasure saving your life, and helping you, and saving your pie."

Soarin smiled while she snickered at the pie part. Knowing he made her laugh was amazing. He loved making ponies laugh.

Dash crossed her mane from one shoulder to the other.

“Is that all?"

Soarin shrunk a little.

"Actually...no. There's something else.”

Dash glanced at him.

"What's up?"

Soarin opened his mouth to talk many times, but no words came out. Suddenly, he started sweating a little and his cheeks turned a reddish hue.

"I…" he stammered. “Eh..."

Dash raised an eyebrow.

“Are you going to talk or...?”

"I wanted to know if you wanted to go out for a drink...one of these days."

The room filled with silence when the both of them hushed. Dash stared at him while her brain registered this very, very slowly. As seconds went by, Soarin sweated more, and the mare's face lit up with realization.

"Eh..."

Soarin puffed out his cheeks again.

"F-Forget it. I said nothing, it was..."

Dash pressed a hoof to his mouth to shut him up and snickered. Then, she looked at him in the eyes, her hoof still on his mouth.

"Sure. I'd love to.”

Actually, she'd been debating with herself for a while now. She had noticed that, with Soarin, it didn't feel like with her friends. It was something that went deeper and that she couldn't figure out. But, she guessed that he was as tangled as her with this.

When she finally, took her hoof off, Soarin was smiling, his cheeks red, and he scratched the back of his head.

"Great...eh...see you tomorrow."

Dash nodded, feeling her cheeks hot, and stood up, walking towards the exit while Soarin remained in the seat. When she reached the door, she stopped, doubted, blushed even more, and breathed in deeply.

"Soarin?"

The stallion looked at her, though she didn't turn around.

“Yes?"

Dash's cheeks were burning.

"Is it a date?"

A few choking minutes passed by before she heard Soarin's reply.

"Yes. At least, I hope so."

She smiled.

"Awesome."

She left and walked down the hallway, blushing even when she abandoned the compound, already on her way towards Ponyville.



Soarin waited until he no longer could hear Rainbow Dash's steps to lift both hooves and smile like a dumbass.

"YES!" he celebrated. He stood up and started hopping in his place, too excited to care.

When he stopped, he turned around, and almost had a heart attack when he saw both Spitfire and Fleetfoot standing there, behind him. They were smirking, arms crossed, and Soarin blushed out of embarrassment.

"How long have you two been there?"

Spitfire lifted her brow.

"Long enough."

Fleetfoot squealed in delight, starry-eyed.

"You two are adorable! I can't wait to see what you are capable of on a date!"

Spitfire raised an eyebrow in the turquoise mare's direction.

"You know it's just a drink, right?"

Fleetfoot grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

"IT COULD BE SO MUCH MORE!"

Soarin was red. His usual pale blue complexion had changed to a red that would make the apples jealous. Spitfire looked at him.

"Finally got the guts? I swear you two had the entire team at the tip of our hooves."

Soarin shrunk a little "It was that obvious?"

"Rainbow and Soarin, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" sang Fleetfoot, a little ways behind, making Soarin blush even more, if that was even possible.

Spitfire nodded.

“It was pretty obvious."