//------------------------------// // Soarin // Story: Ghosts of Skeleton's Past // by Valorousspectre //------------------------------// Chapter six: Soarin Soarin. A household name throughout Equestria, Soarin joined the esteemed Wonderbolts when he was just twelve years old. He was fast friends with all of the crew, but most notably with Firestreak, his partner in crime, Fleetfoot, his wing-mare and long time rival on the race track, and Spitfire, captain and lovable party animal of the Wonderbolts. Soarin was a simple soul really, enjoying flight, the feeling of wind between his feathers, ice cream and a good, piping hot apple pie. He loved his family with all of his heart and couldn’t bear to see them unhappy. Sure, he argued with his wife now and again, but he always apologised as soon as he’d calmed down, normally with treats. It was very rare now. Most of his time was spent with the Wonderbolts, training and practicing for the next show or race but he often tried to finish early, or get permission from Skeleton to take Clear Skies out of school to hang out with his teammates and himself. Today however… Today was special. Today he left Cloudsdale altogether. Using the excuse of going somewhere with the team, Soarin left Cloudsdale with Firestreak, Spitfire and Fleetfoot in tow. The team captain had told him he couldn’t simply lie to his spouse, regardless the reason and had demanded to be taken along. Faced with no other choice, Soarin had agreed and now had to put up with the oppressive silence between Firestreak and Spitfire. This silence was caused by their breakup which had been several years back now. They still refused to talk to each other. They’d claimed again and again that the breakup was mutual, and for once Soarin was inclined to scoff at them and ask why they never spoke anymore. But his sense of propriety, rare that it was to kick in, stopped him from doing so. It took him a moment to realise Fleetfoot had asked him something. “What? I didn’t hear you!” He looked over at the blue mare as she repeated her question. “Do you even know where you’re going?” Soarin shrugged. “Not really! But Skeleton said north, close to the mountains! And I don’t plan on letting her down!” Fleetfoot seemed satisfied with the answer and fell silent again, leaving Soarin alone to his thoughts. Sometimes he wished somepony would talk, just to distract him. The nightmarish quality to the tale his wife had sprung upon him repeated themselves in his mind, images and envisioned thoughts so vivid they might have been memories showed, played and replayed in his head over and over again. The doctor that had meant to kill her, to harvest her genetic material in his mind had no face, but still managed to laugh like a mad pony. If he had to be honest with himself, the tale terrified him. He hadn’t wanted to say anything about his fears. He’d brought up the problem Ghost was having and Skeleton had smiled wanly and told him not to worry, that it was making her feel better having it off her chest. Soarin had tried to argue with her, but to no avail. She put down everything he said and had eventually sent him off to work. The idea that somepony had actually willingly tried to kill his supposedly harmless wife chilled him. The fact that she’d killed him in turn was even worse. He felt as though he had a box in his mind labelled ‘SKELETON GRIN’, with everything he knew about her, only to have it tipped upside down and be infested with hidden spiders, venomous, dangerous and powerful. He had no idea what he’d do about that yet. But he tried to push all of it aside to focus on what he was doing. It was mid afternoon when the quartet hit a small town at the foot of the Godsreach mountains. It was a dreary town, with stately ponies going about in a stately manner no doubt for stately sort of business. Soarin and his friends landed on the outskirts of the town and Soarin eyed it warily. “Alright, this looks like the place. Few things I need to tell you before we go in though.” Turning to face the other three Wonderbolts out of uniform, like himself, he gave them a basic run down of what happened to Skeleton when she was here. The grim looks at the end told him all he needed to know and he nodded. “Let’s go then. We’ll find her parents and talk to them.” ~*~ It took the four pegasi almost an hour to locate the ponies they were after. A white Unicorn stallion with tired, haunted blue eyes and a sickly cast to his face sporting a grey mane reminiscent to Skeleton’s and a Pegasus mare who was meticulously clean and tidy with a grey cast to her also white coat and a rich mauve mane. Her eyes shared the haunted look to them the stallion’s did. They sat now outside the pair’s house, a shambled, decrepit old thing that looked to be on its last legs. There were streaks of silvery white through the stallion’s mane. Soarin smiled at the pair. “Uh, Good afternoon.” The stallion’s smile seemed a little forced, and it probably was, but his wife’s smile was genuine. “Hello dears” She said warmly in response, “How can we help you today?” Soarin found himself liking this mare immediately, and by the relaxing of the stony looks from his companions, he could tell they did too. “I’m here to ask after somepony. I have it on good authority you’d know about them.” The stallion spoke this time, his voice tired and stressed. “We’ll help how we can. Uh, if you don’t mind my asking, who are you?” Soarin started. He was so used to being instantly recognised he’d forgotten he didn’t have his uniform on. “Oh! Of course. My name is Soarin.” He gestured to the others in turn. “This is Spitfire, Fleetfoot and Firestreak.” The old stallion’s eyes widened. “As in, Wonderbolt Soarin, Fleetfoot, Spitfire and..?” Soarin nodded. “The very same.” The stallion looked to be in awe and his wife giggled softly. “He’s a big fan you know. It’s a pleasure meeting you all. I’m Mirror Image. My awestruck lover here is Beat Heart.” The stallion nodded dumbly, then finally found his voice. “I… It’s an honour to meet you and all but… Why are four of the Wonderbolts here?” Soarin grinned. “Well, it has to do with us asking after somepony.” “I… don’t know how much help we’ll be, but we can try.” “Oh, I have it on good authority you know of them.” Mirror and Beat actually looked concerned for a moment before smiling hesitantly. “Uh, okay… Who is it?” Soarin looked over to Firestreak who procured an old newspaper out of a bag across his back and gave it to Soarin, who then put it face up on the ground before the couple. It was a copy of the Cloudsdale Times newspaper and, on the front page, was a colour image of Skeleton Grin veiled in a wedding gown of purest white. “This mare. Skeleton Grin. Are you her parents?” The pair stared at the image for a long while. Her father made a strangled sound when he saw the text blanked out. “My daughter… How… She got married?” Soarin nodded, unseen by either of the gobsmacked ponies. “Yes sir, she did.” “To who?” Asked Mirror, who looked close to tears. Soarin sat down and took the paper away from them. The pair stared at him and he smiled hesitantly. “It’s not just marriage. You’ve been made grandparents as well. Three young fillies, in fact.” That did it for Mirror, who broke down into tears, hanging off of her partner. Beat stared at Soarin. “Grand… parents…” Soarin nodded, the hesitant smile on his face becoming even more so. “And… well, I guess I’m not perfect but…” Beat looked at the Wonderbolt sharply and Soarin flinched. “I’m certainly hoping I can impress you… father.” Both of the older ponies froze, staring at Soarin in utter disbelief. Mirror Image was the first to speak, eyes wide. “Y… My little girl married…” Soarin nodded. “A Wonderbolt, yeah. I’d have visited earlier but… well, she didn’t talk about her past much.” The silence grew. The sheer length of time that it was silent was intimidating. It was almost as though he’d said something wrong. Then all at once, Mirror Image flew forwards and hugged him tightly, surprising Soarin and Beat. She buried her crying eyes into his chest as Beat came forward and, rather tentatively, hugged him too. Soarin, now being hugged by two ponies he never thought he’d meet, rather hesitantly hugged the pair back as best he could whilst Spitfire and Fleetfoot were near brought to tears in the background and Firestreak feigned ignorance. This was turning out to be a half decent day. ~*~ As it turned out, Beat Heart was a surgeon. His parents were more musically inclined, but they had no problem with their son going into medicine. His cutie mark, a scalpel and a stethoscope, was very boring really. But his talk of business, much to his amusement, sent the four Wonderbolts scurrying in favour of anything at all to do. Even washing a toilet with a toothbrush would be easier than trying not to keel over in a dead faint at his casual way of discussing things that no living pony should really know about. He had a matter of fact tone to his voice and didn’t like beating around the bush. However it was clear also that he was very excited that he had Wonderbolts in his home, if one knew where to look. His eyes had lost the haunted look from before and instead glittered with excitement and mirth at the fleeing Wonderbolts as he laughed. His wife, Mirror Image, seemed to enjoy cooking. Her customary place in the house generally ended up being the kitchen as she cooked something or other, even if only for the joy of doing so. She didn’t have a job, saying that Beat made enough money for the both of them to live comfortably off of. She was an excellent cook and Soarin was very partial to her cookies, of which she had many. She was very motherly and had a tendency to coddle all of the Wonderbolts, who loved her immediately. It was soon after the introduction all of the ponies sat in the small, dilapidated living room. Soarin coughed once to gain everypony’s attention before addressing the pair. “Mirror, Beat. Thank you for your hospitality, it’s been wonderful. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask you something.” “Of course dear” responded Mirror Image almost automatically, “Anything we can do to help.” He smiled warmly at her. “Thank you. I’d like you to come to Cloudsdale.” The pair stopped in their tracks and looked at each other. “Well… You see Soarin…” “Please!” interjected the blue stallion before they could continue, “Skeleton needs to see you two. Let her know you’re still here. It’d mean the world to me. To us. And you’ll get to see our daughters. Please, it’d mean the world to us.” The couple looked at each other for a little longer before sighing and looking at Soarin. ~*~ “Honey! Set the table for two more, we have guests.” Skeleton sighed at the sound of his voice and looked at the large salad bowl in the middle of the table. Her and the foals had just sat down when his voice came through the house. She smiled at the fillies. “Wait here okay? I need to have a word with your father.” She got up and walked purposefully towards the front door, talking as she did so. “Soarin, you need to start giving me warning before you simply go ahead and bring ponies over! I can’t always accommodate more than…” Her words petered out and she stared, wide eyed, at the ponies before her. Two ponies she never thought she’d ever see again. “M…Mother? F…Father?” ~*~ Skeleton had never felt s surprised as she did that night. Despite her surprise however, she politely asked her parents to go meet the fillies and stay with them at the table before turning to Soarin, waiting for the pair to leave the room and yelling at him. Loudly. She yelled at him about a lot of things. Lying to her was predominant. He coolly countered that with the fact that Spitfire, Firestreak and Fleetfoot had gone with him. Still she yelled. She ranted at him, raved and at one point almost started hitting him. Then she stopped, breathing heavily and turned her back on him. Smiling, he enfolded her in a hug from behind. “Now you’re not really angry with me are you?” “I’m trying to be…” She grumbled in reply. “But you’re not are you?” He said back softly, nuzzling her ear gently. She sighed heavily. “No, I guess not… But you could have told me. I could have at least looked presentable.” Soarin laughed. “Darling, you’re always presentable.” She giggled softly and a sly little smile crossed her face. “I’ll remember that next time you decide to drag me out of bed in the morning.” He coughed uncomfortably and was thankful she couldn’t see him blush. ~*~ They spoke long into the night. Skeleton, Soarin, Mirror and Beat. They spoke about many things. Mostly, Mirror gushed about how happy she was her little filly grew up so beautiful and married a Wonderbolt. Beat was equally proud of her, but he didn’t gush nearly so much about it. Then, all of a sudden, it was the fillies’ bed time and Skeleton excused herself to give them the next part of the tale, this time one that wasn’t so nightmare inducing. They seemed to be holding up, probably mostly because of the amount of horror tales their mother had told them, but she was still worried. Soon after, Mirror Image, Soarin and Beat Heart followed her and stood in the doorway to hear the tale. “I’ve decided tonight that, instead of telling you something that might give you nightmares, I’d tell you how I got this scar.” She portrayed her leg to them, the long white scar from thigh to hoof clearly visible even against her coat. “It was mostly due to my own stupidity really. I was running from a place that I’d been thought of as a ghost at because of my appearance. They’d thrown things at me but, since it WAS Nightmare Night, although I hadn’t realised it before, they were only throwing candy. I actually did manage to pick some up. That’s where I learned of my love for the holiday see. Everypony wants to be scared on Nightmare Night, so I was right at home.” “My wings were taking me somewhere, I didn’t know where. Wherever the wind would take me is what I used to think. I suppose I kept hoping they’d take me someplace safe, but they rarely did. I was going through a forest. It was dark and had a lot of weird noises in it. Not much came near me to be honest. I think it might have been because I really do look like a ghost in moonlight. An advantage, perhaps. Anyhow, I heard a roar and it scared me, so I bolted. Now if there’s one thing you never do in a forest, it’s blindly run. I found out the hard way. Falling off a cliff is not fun, especially when you don’t have the manoeuvrability needed to pull off a sharp turn, like me. I’m a silent flier, not an agile one. As a result, whilst I got my wings open enough to glide down, I did end up hitting quite a few trees on my way down. One of them in particular did this.” “It sliced my leg open very badly. I couldn’t walk on it. For almost a week, I wandered in that forest and the cut became infected. I was about to give up when I wandered upon a strange house in the forest. I knocked desperately, waiting for an answer, but none came. I passed out when I tried to move again. It hurt a lot. When I came to, my leg was bandaged and I was inside the little house. Standing by was a zebra who only spoke in rhyme. It was possibly the most musical thing I’ve ever heard that wasn’t classified as music. I never got her name and she never asked for mine. Two days later, she helped me up onto my hooves and unwrapped the bandage. The infection was gone, so she sewed me up. She was remarkably skilled with her hooves, and the stitches were quite small, so all you see is this line now. It was quite marvellous.” Skeleton smiled at her fillies, who were drowsing, trying to stay awake. “She bandaged me up and sent me on my way again. It was quite an important learning experience, I must say. That’s about the time I found my little cloud cottage, which was falling apart, and started watching Soarin in his training. I could push the little cottage around. I followed him everywhere he went, unless he left Equestria. Then I would await his return.” The little fillies, by this time, were asleep. Skeleton smiled softly and looked over pointedly at the three pony audience. “Bed time Soarin. Now.” “Yes Ma’am.” He said meekly, but a small smile crossed his face as he left.