As the sun began to set on Ponyville, many ponies could be seen flocking to Sugarcube Corner. Among them were Lorio and Rainbow Dash, slowly making their way to the location. Lorio was fully engrossed Rainbow Dash's unraveling of her dream, enjoying her company as ponies steadily passed them by.
"Your foalhood friend?" Lorio questioned.
"Yea we grew up together." she casually answered.
"What about her?" continuing his interrogation.
"He was my best friend." she emphasized, giggling a bit at Lorio's assumption of him being female.
"Was...?" he thought to himself, immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion "Well, what about him?" he asked, nervous as to what the answer might be.
"In the dream we were foals, racing like we always did when whenever we had free time, except this time I was in the lead." she explained.
He raised an eyebrow in confusion as he tried to process the thought of the Rainbow Dash being second to anypony in a race.
"Everything was awesome and I was in top form, he wasn't even in my sight!" she continued explaining, getting a bit excited as she did. "But then..." the tone in her voice became gloomy as she moved her face towards the ground.
"Then...?" he questioned as horrible scenarios filled his mind.
"When I crossed the finish line...he wasn't there..."
"Wha-What happened to him?" he asked, his heart pounding under the suspense.
"Nothing happened after that, I woke up. I think it had something to do with him moving away." her casual demeanor returning to her once again.
"Oh..." he sighed in relief. "He meant a lot to you didn't he?"
"You bet your flank he did!" she exploded with excitement catching Lorio a bit off guard. "I looked up to Mach almost as much as the Wonderbolts!"
"Mach?"
"Yea his name was Mach Speed." she quickly answered before returning to her exciting accounts of her past friend. "He was fearless and loved a challenge! There was nothing he didn't dare to do even when it came to the most extreme stunts, he pulled them off without breaking a sweat! To top it all off, he was the only pegasus in Cloudsdale I couldn't beat in a race, he was my goal! We even made a pact to join the Wonderbolts together one day." her face was beaming with nostalgia and good memories. "But...then he left..." her gloomy tone returning a bit.
Starting to feel a bit of jealousy fester inside of him, Lorio hung his head. "W-Where'd he leave to?" he asked halfheartedly.
"I'm not sure, he just sorta up and left without saying anything." she turned head upwards and began to stare off into the clouds.
"Doesn't sound like a very good friend if he would just leave without even saying anything." his words carried a hint of an attitude. "Or maybe...he's more than a friend." he suggested.
A light pink came over Rainbow's sky blue cheeks "Wha-What's that supposed to mean?! Y-You don't know what you're talking about!" she stumbled, becoming a bit flustered.
"Excuse me, may I pass?" A brown stallion standing behind the two politely asked.
They both looked over their shoulders to see they were now standing at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner which was now packed with ponies, all having a good time dancing and laughing.
"Rainbow over here!" a voice called out.
Rainbow, just entering the building alongside Lorio, looked around the room tracing the voice back to Twilight, smiling and waving at her, surrounded by her other four friends.
"I'll catch ya later Lorio, it was nice talking to ya!" she dashed off to greet her friends before he could reply.
"W-Wait!" he started in her direction only to be stopped by a hoof coming around his neck puling him farther away from Rainbow.
"Dude, you have to come meet these two mares I've been talking to. They are smokin'." a familar voice suggested as he continued to be dragged away.
"Rito?!" he called out.
"I swear mares like these only come around once in a lifetime." he continued, ignoring his friend.
"Dude! Where were you?!" he questioned as he struggled to force his way out of Rito's grip. "How could you leave me in a situation like that?!" finally managing to break free. "And what was with that advice?! Swag?! She literally fell over laughing at me! Not cool man, not cool."
"Aww don't be like that! I mean, think about how I would've felt being the third wheel and all. Besides, the way I see it, I gave you the perfect chance to spill your guts to her..." he slid next to Lorio giving him two soft jabs in the side with his elbow. "So how'd it go?" he asked nosily adding a devious smile and winking.
Lorio stood in silence for a moment reviewing their conversation in his head. He swiftly smacked his hoof against his face in realization. "I didn't get to tell her..." he moaned, his face still buried in his hoof.
"Are you kidding me? You couldn't have asked for a better opportunity! It was you and her, together, strolling along with the sunset in the distance..." he motioned his hoof across the entire room aimlessly as if to change the room into the scene he was describing. "...and you just forgot?" he ended his romantic scene description, shaking his head.
"I didn't forget!" Lorio snapped. "We started talking about her foalhood friend. His name was Mach Speed."
Rito raised an eyebrow and brought a hoof over his muzzle, rubbing it in a sideways manner as he started to go into deep thought "I know I've heard that name before..." the words echoed in his mind.
"She said she had a dream about them as foals. They were racing and when she crossed the finish line he wasn't there which was because he moved away..." he started explaining to his friend.
Rito, however, was still deep in thought, eyes closed lightly tapping the side of his head repeatedly "Mach Speed...Mach Speed..." he repeated, trying not to lose his train of thought.
"Then she started going on about how much she looked up to him and how awesome he was and got really excited. I got a bit jealous..." he continued.
"Oh I remember!" Rito excitedly yelled as he finally managed to recall the origin of the familiar name.
"Are you even listening?!" Lorio angrily glared at him.
"You say something?" Rito turned to him honestly confused as he had not been paying attention.
Just then the lights went out and the music stopped and one spotlight shone down in the center of the room. There, in the middle of the spotlight stood Pinkie Pie, most ponies surrounded the outside of the light with their attention on her as she began to speak as others were still scattered about the room.
"First, I would like to thank everypony for coming out for tonight's welcoming party!!" she jumped around as she said.
Whispers and looks of confusion came about the room as most ponies didn't even know it was a welcoming party.
Pinkie continued her speech "Now let's give a big Ponyville welcome to tonight's guest of honor...um...uh..."
"Mach" a smooth, deep voice answered for her.
Lorio was in the middle of fussing at Rito for not paying attention to him while he was talking, and Rainbow Dash was drinking an entire bowl of punch that she had lifted to her face, but they both immediately paused what they were doing and steadily turned their attention to the crowd of ponies surrounding the spotlight still unsure if what they had just heard was true.
A tall pegasus with a white coat that rivaled even Rarity's, and a long, flowing light blue mane and tail entered into the spotlight, revealing himself.
"My name is Mach Speed."