//------------------------------//
// Surprise! 
// Story: Friends have benefits 
// by Killbles 
//------------------------------//

Friends have Benefits
Chapter Six: Surprise!


“Hey, wake up!”
The voice cut through Soarin’s mind like a rusty knife through mildly warm butter. To say, that is, it went in clean but made one hell of a mess coming out.
Soarin groaned and rolled over.
“Come on you lazy arse, get up.” The voice said again this time following up with a prod to his side.
Soarin cracked an eye open and was greeted by the sight of an irate yellow Pegasus.
“Spitfire?” he hazarded “What are you doing here?”
The mare cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “I work here.” She said flatly. “Are you alright?”
Soarin shook his head side to side. “There was an explosion…” he said trailing off.
“Soarin, you’ve been sleeping there for the last four hours; if there was an explosion I’m fairly sure we would have heard it.”
“What…? We…?”
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Spitfire asked; a look of concern on her face.
“What about Rainbow Dash, is she alright?”
Spitfire’s face furrowed into a frown. “What’s happened to her?”
“She was next to me when the explosion happened.” Soarin gushed. “Is she alright?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about Soarin.” Spitfire said slowly She trotted next to him and stared into his eyes. “You sure you’re alright?”
“I don’t know!” Soarin yelled. “I was in a weather factory with her and I pressed a button and everything explo-“
“Soarin, calm down.” Spitfire cut in. “Take a deep breath and calm down. Now look at me. I need you to do something ok?”
Soarin took a deep breath. “Okay…”
“I need you to wake up.”
“What?”
“Wake up!” 
 
 Soarin blearily opened his eyes. It was dark. The soft light of the moon shone in through several windows, bathing the entire room an ethereal glow. Soarin craned his neck around and was surprised to find a pony-sized cyan ball curled up the base of his bed. Soarin let out a strangled sound of disapproval and hurled one of his pillows at the sleeping pony.
“MPHMAGH!” The ball cried out in surprise. It slowly unravelled itself into the form of Rainbow Dash, her rainbow mane somewhat dull in the pale moonlight.
“What was that for?” She grumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“What? This?” Soarin said, hurling another pillow at her.
Dash caught the pillow and threw it back.
“Thanks.” She growled.
“Sorry.” Soarin muttered insincerely “What are you doing here at this hour?”
“Can’t sleep properly. I’ve been cooped up in this damn hospital for the last couple of days and they won’t let me fly so I’m positively bursting with energy.” She explained.
“Swell...” Soarin deadpanned. “Wait days?”
“Yes, days. You’ve been napping.” She added with a smirk.
Soarin yawned quietly. “And what’ve you been doing then? Sleeping on my bed the whole time?”
“Well, no... I- Shut up.” She said abashedly.
Soarin decided not to press her for information and let his eyes drift further around the hospital room. They came to rest on a small collection of ‘Get well soon’ cards propped up against a modest bouquet of orange and yellow flowers.
“Who are they from?” Soarin asked pointing at flowers. The colours seemed vaguely familiar.
Dash’s mouth fell open and her face turned a deep shade of red. Her expression looked like that of a bunny caught in the headlights of a speeding yoghurt truck.
“Urh… Um… Me…” She squeaked, her usual bravado vanishing in a flash.
Soarin was silent for a moment.
“I didn’t imagine flowers to be your style.” He said finally.
Dash smiled weakly. “Yeah… Not really.”
Soarin contemplated this for a moment longer, slightly enjoying the embarrassment that he seemed to be causing.
“Then why did you get me flowers?”
The cyan mare’s jaw moved up and down but no sound came out.
“I… I… I don’t know. They’re nice apparently?” She managed.
Soarin watched as she fiddled with her hooves nervously. Her ear twitched nervously.
“Soarin…” She started.
“Yes Dashie?” Soarin teased, enjoying the scowl he received from using her pet name.
“I just… Just want to tell you something… “
Soarin’s body tensed up instinctively.
Her eyes flashed up at him for a moment before falling down to the bed sheet.
“Thanks.” She said throwing herself into a rough but friendly hug.
Soarin blinked, the genuinely friendly gesture surprising him.
“That’s not what I expected.” He said slowly, patting Rainbow on the back as a sign that she should stop crushing his ribcage.
“You saved my life. Twice. I’m pretty sure that deserves a thank-you at least.” She said eyeing him fondly.
“When you put it that way… I guess it does.” Soarin said with a half-hearted smile. “You owe me.”
“Suppose so.” She said, retreating from the famous flier with a grin.
An oddly companionable silence filled the room.
“So…  What have I missed?” Soarin asked, trying to fill the sudden gap.
Rainbow shrugged. “Not much really, I got a letter about that job that never happened and a visit from my friends. They’re all too busy doing something or other to visit me much though. The weather team is flat out trying to make do without us two so don’t expect any of them to come calling either. Almost forget, Doc dropped this in for you…” She leapt off the end of the bed and scrounged around underneath it for a moment before pulling out several metal film cases.
“What are these?” Soarin asked, flipping one over in his hooves.
“More film about you or something. He said you’d know what he meant.”
“Neat.” Soarin remarked, tucking the casing back under the bed. “Now I can watch myself crash even more.”
Rainbow Dash laughed loudly.
“Keep it down, you’ll wake somepony up if you laugh like that.” Soarin admonished.
She waved a hoof dismissively.
“Unlikely, you’ve got a room to yourself and the nearest nurse station is another eleven rooms away.”
“Where are you then?” Soarin asked. He had simply assumed that she would have been in the same ward as him.
“I’m on the other side of the hospital.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Didn’t you hear the bit about my friends being busy?”
“It’s a bit late for visiting hours.”
“I wanted to see if you’d woken up yet.”
“Again, this early in the morning?” Soarin asked.
“I…I… I ju- I was worried and, well Soarin, I l-.” She stammered. 
“Just spit it out.” He cried out exasperatedly.
She shook her head. “Nothing, not important.” She said definitively.  
Soarin grunted but decided not to push the matter further.
“So how much longer are we here for?” He asked, changing the topic to something she might  talk about.
“Another week maybe. That’s what one of the doctors said.”
“A week with you? Boy, that’ll be fun.” Soarin muttered, sarcasm dripping from his words..
“Yeah… Fun…” Dash said, averting her eyes.
Another gap of deafening silence followed.
“So… Care to fill me in on what happened? All I remember there was an explosion.” Soarin asked, wiggling around to prop himself up against the bedhead.
Rainbow let out a long drawn out sigh.
“That useless piece of crap they call a weather machine exploded. Something to do with overpressure and metal fatigue or something boring like that.” She shrugged half-heartedly. “Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser found us. They brought us here. That’s about it.”
“Doc and Flitter are fine?”
“Besides the fact that Doc had to almost carry her out, they’re fine.” Rainbow said, yawning widely and stretching her legs out with a dull pop. “Hey you wouldn’t be up for a game of Battleclouds would you?”
“At this hour? I’m still half asleep. Go back to bed.”
Rainbow Dash groaned and threw herself across the bed.
“What am I supposed to do then?”
“Sleep like a normal pony?” Soarin hazarded, wishing she would get off his bed and leave him alone to sleep. The possibility of that fizzled into nothing as she rolled over and gave him a playful look.
“Sleep is for the weak.”
“Bloody hell you’re a hypocrite. Look, just leave me alone and come back at a reasonable hour if you’re so desperate for company.”
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“You’re not supposed to have any visitors. At least not yet.”
“Why?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Hell if I know.”
“So let me get this straight, you’ve snuck in her in the middle of the night even though I’m not supposed to have visitors.”
Dash nodded.
“And you’ve gone to all this effort for me… why?”
“Because I’m your friend and that’s what friends do.”
Soarin scoffed. “Friends? I thought you were just in it for the sex. Last time I checked, I wasn’t your friend and you sure as hell weren’t mine.”
Her face adopted a hurt expression.
“What if I wanted to change that.”
“Well I don’t! You know what, I’ve had quite enough of you. First you wreck my house, nearly get me attacked by an insane pink pony then very well nearly get me killed. Twice. I’ve had quite enough of you and your pathetic fangirl attitude. Now just piss off!” Soarin said, his pent up anger from the last week boiling over.
Rainbow looked at him in mute shock.
“Dash, I didn-.”
“Why do I even bother?” She said, voice breaking and a small shiny smear appearing under her eyes. She darted off the bed and was out the door before Soarin could blink.
“Wait, Dash! Come back! I didn’t mean that” Soarin called after her, regretting that he had raised his voice at her.
Nothing.
“Damn it.” He growled, flopping back into his pillow.
‘She was just trying to be nice.’ A tiny voice said in his head.
“Shut the hell up.” Soarin grumbled, burying his head in the small stack of pillows.
‘You really are a huge dickhead. Can't even go ten minutes without hurting somepony.’
“Stop it.” Soarin complained, trying to hide from his own thoughts.
‘No.’
Soarin banished the conflicting thoughts from his mind with a shake of his head and knocked his propped up pillow down with a somewhat unnecessarily rough swipe.
“”Mares.” He muttered, feeling that the single word wrapped up his thoughts.
 
Soarin woke to a brown face peering intently at him.
“NGEYHA!” He yelped, his bed sheet flying off from his surprised motion.
“Sorry I startled you, I’m just running some routine checks.” The pony said sincerely, hastily levitating a clipboard away from Soarin’s flailing limbs before it could be turned into a projectile.
“Oh…right.” Soarin said embarrassedly.
The doctor muttered something under his breath as a knock came from the door. He tucked the clipboard away at the end of the bed and marched to the door, his head snapping around to look at an unseen pony.
“Ma’am I’m going to have to ask you to leave, he’s not fit for visitors.”
“Pish-posh, he’s had worse. Haven’t you Soarin?” A white head asked, appearing around the doorframe. A bouncy yellow mane caught up its owner’s head a moment later. Despite the doctor’s protests the mare slipped past him in a manner similar  to a cockroach fitting under a door and bounced next to Soarin.
“Surprise, what are you doing here?” Soarin asked, amazed to see his former teammate.
“I was visiting a cousin in Ponyville and heard that you, as usual, had an accident and were in the hospital. Couldn’t just leave you to rot now could I?”
Soarin cocked his head in confusion. “You have a cousin?” He waved the doctor away and motioned for Surprise to take a seat.
“Yeah, like first cousins or something like that.” She said, waving a hoof around in a vague manner. “She’s pretty rad though, you met her yet?”
Soarin ran a list of ponies through his head that Surprise would consider ‘Rad’ and came to an unsurprising conclusion.
“I hope not.” He replied snarkily.
“Hey! Pinkie is a great pony.”
“Oh Celestia.” Soarin moaned, slamming his head into his fore hooves.
 
“So Soarin, what’s up my good chap?”
“Chap?” Soarin asked quietly.
Surprise nodded, pulling her chair up and listening attentively.
“You know the drill, new job, new home, new bullshit to put up with. Reminds me of basic training.” Soarin said sourly.
“Perk up, It’ll get better chum.”
“Chum?” Soarin whispered.
Surprise ignored him. “Just give it time, you’ve been here, what, a week?”
“Surprise, I’ve spent almost as much time unconscious as I have spent awake.”
“”Yikes.” The white flier said flatly.
“Yeah. Doesn’t help I’ve got a ton of other… stuff that keeps coming up.” He said, thinking back to that morning.
Surprise adopted a knowing look. “Oh I’d know that look anyway, who’s the lucky mare? Or stallion, if that’s what you’re into these days… Speaking of that, there was that stupidly sexy stallion out west. What was his name? Ah yes Braeburn” She shivered in delight at his name. “I bet everypo-.”
“Ahem.” Soarin said, cutting her off with a look.
“Oh right.” She muttered, her eyes going unfocused as she conjured mental images of the stallion. Those deep green eyes, the flowing mane…
“Surprise.”
 His charming voice…
 “Surprise...” Soarin said again, giving her a rough shake.
“Mm.. What?”
“Stop drooling.”
She let out a startled noise and wiped the thin strand of saliva hanging from her mouth away.
“Right, where was I?” She said, dumbly staring off into space for a moment. “Oh yeah, so who is she slash he?” she said, suddenly inquisitive.
“Gosh, I wasn’t expecting some sort of Spanish inquisition.” Soarin snapped. 
"Tell me." Surprise whined.
“Look, I’m not saying anything. I can keep my own secrets thank you very much.”
Surprise tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Ponies… Ponies… Who could it be… Well there was Blaze from the café, Windy from that nice theatre down in Canterlot, Wendy from accounting…” Surprise continued listing off every mare Soarin had ever even talked too, much to his horror. How she could pull off such a feat was best left unthought of, lest one (i.e. Soarin) go insane.
“… What about Marker from the dorm across the hall? He was a nice chap…”
“That was just a phase!” Soarin said suddenly flustered.
“…Bloomer from the market stall…” Surprise continued, oblivious to Soarin’s protests.
“…Storm Chaser from the auxiliary team, that flank, if I may say so…”
Soarin flushed red as Surprise continued the extensive list.
“…Scarlet from that neat little bar with the cloud shaped cocktail umbrellas… What about Rainbow Dash from the Grand Galloping Gala? Just saying, I’d rainbow all over her dash if you know what I mean.” She said noticing the change in Soarin’s posture as she mentioned her name.
“And… we… have a winner!” She said, putting two and two together to come up with something not quite, but fairly close to four.
“You can’t prove anything.” Soarin said defensively.
“Woohoo, what did you two get up to?”
Soarin remained silent.
“Boy that was fast.” Surprise said, getting everything she needed from Soarin’s unresponsive behaviour. “Looks like Spitfire owes me 20 bits when I get back to base.”
Soarin shot her a look that could have been refined and weaponised.
“Oh wow, the old ‘I hate your guts. You despoiled my fiancé, murdered my mother and burnt my house down. You also owe me money’  look. I’m so scared.” Surprise said holding her fore hooves up in mock fear.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“I never said anything about her being your girlfriend.” Surprise said with a mischievous grin. 
Soarin swore under his breath.
“You like her though, don’t you?”
“Not at all.” Soarin snapped. “I find her egocentric, brash and frankly, up herself.”
“That doesn’t like the Soarin I know, you were practically fawning over her at the royal wedding.”
“Well… Things changed.” Soarin said grumpily.
Surprise sighed and drew her chair slightly closer.
“What did you do now?”
Soarin bristled at her comment.
“Why do assume it was me?”
“My mother taught me to stereotype, makes things easier.”
“That’s sexist.”
“It works.” Surprise said with a shrug. “Cut to the chase, what did you do?”
“Nothing!”
“Do I need to go grab Pinkie?”
Soarin’s eyes bulged out of their sockets.
“Okay, Okay! I’ll talk! Just don’t get her please!”
“Then get that big flappy thing of yours working and spill the beans, chum.”
Soarin glared at her once more for the blatant use of blackmail.
“Since I recovered my accident and met Dash y-.”
“Again.” Surprise interjected.
He gave her another withering look.
As I was saying, you could describe our relationship as frosty at best.” He hesitated for a moment, unsure of how much detail he should go into. “We kind of started off with an alcohol fuelled… fling.”
The white mare raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Twice.”
Her eyebrows briefly became the highest organic matter in Equestria.
“She seemed somewhat determined to be friends with me despite the fact I kept pushing her away. Anyway, she invited me over for dinner one night and well… We ended up… You know.” He gestured theatrically.  
“Oh boy, this gets juicier by the second.”
“It was different though, she proposed friends with benefits and that’s what she got. Well, I wouldn’t consider her my friend though.”
“Uh-huh. And this is a bad thing? If I was you I wouldn’t be complaining.”
“I’m getting there.” Soarin said gruffly. “Anyway, next day I get literally dragged to one of your cousins’ parties and she dances with me. I’ll admit that I actually enjoyed it. I have to say, that for the first time since I’ve met her, I actually enjoyed being with her. Anyway, we do this thing I can’t tell you about and she nearly gets herself killed. Twice.”
“She loves doing things in pairs.”
Soarin pushed away the particularly disturbing mental image that surfaced in his mind.
“Whatever, I end up saving her both times and then we end up here.”
“I still don’t see what the bad thing is.” Surprise said.
“Hold your hippogriffs, nearly there. So at stupidly early hour this morning, I wake up and see her sleeping in a ball at the end of my bed.”
“Damn that’s cute.” Surprise said, her eyes narrowing.
“Anyway, I wake her up and she thanks me for saving her, gives me a hug which nearly crushes my rib cage while she’s at it as well. Long story short, she tries to be friendly and I get mad, act like a complete dickhead and kick her out.”
“You didn’t yell at her did you?” Surprise asked mouth agape.
“Yeah… I may have.”
“Wow, you went full dickhead mode. Never go full dickhead mode.”
“You’re not helping.”
Surprise clicked her tongue several times. “I’m guessing you feel rubbish about it?”
Soarin flinched. “Yeah, a bit.”
“Go apologise to her then. I’m sure two smart ponies like you can figure something out.”
“I guess.” Soarin grumbled reluctantly.
“After all, you wouldn’t want to break up with your girlfriend now would you?” Surprise said with a giggle.
“She’s NOT my girlfriend!”
 
After receiving clearance from the doctor to leave his room (No small part due to more blackmail from Surprise which involved a certain pink pony, gas masks and the hospital’s supply of Nitrous Oxide), Soarin moved as quickly as he could through the hospital, limping slightly from his injuries. According to his file, one of the metal spars in his forelegs had melted slightly from the lightning strikes, giving him some very impressive burns. Gritting his teeth, Soarin limped through the corridors towards the ward where a nice nurse had told him Rainbow Dash was lodged.
Knocking politely on the door, Soarin sincerely wished he had been banished to the moon rather than having to apologise to the irate Pegasus. 
Pushing the door open, he noticed Rainbow Dash sprawled belly-down across her bed a book shoved close to her nose and a veritable mountain of books sat on a trolley next to her bed. She looked up at the sound of the door opening. Soarin noticed her eyes were slightly red and puffy.
“Hey.” He said sheepishly.
“What the hell do you want?” She snapped, chucking her book away in a manner which would have had all of Equestria's librarians attacking her with blunt instruments whilst crying for blood.
“I wanted to say-.”
“I don’t want to hear it.” She snapped, standing upright. “I’m through with your.. your… arrogant, dickheaded… stuff.” She fumed, the words she needed not quite seeming to manifest.
“I want to apologise.” Soarin said quickly.
“Oh, you think that’ll just make it better? ‘I’m sorry.’ Well buck up boy, it won’t.  It won’t change the fact that you’re a fucking has-been, living on the high from his glory days he can’t even remember. You think that gives you the right to tread on and look down on other ponies? Well you’re wrong.” She spat, prodding Soarin in the chest for emphasis. “I’ve had enough of your shit, got it?”
“Dash, calm down.” Soarin said, trying to keep his voice level.
“Piss off!” She said, echoing Soarin’s tone from earlier that morning.
“Da-.”
Shut up! You don’t know what it’s like!” She yelled, her eyes starting to water.
“What, to be a professional flier and not some adrenaline seeking wanna-be?” Soarin jeered, his diplomacy dike starting to crack. “Actually having a measure of self control? I sure know what that’s like. Maybe you could learn a thing or two.”
Dash pounced and floored him in a heartbeat. She tried to land several heavy blows on his face but was blocked by Soarin.
“You bastard! What happened to you?!” She roared. The flurry of hoof strikes she had been raining on him slowed and stopped like a tap being slowly turned off. 
“You used to nice, you used to be cool. I liked the old Soarin, I want him back.” She growled, pushing his chest into the floor.
“Well you’re stuck with me sweetheart.” Soarin grunted, trying to get her off of him.
Dash glared at him for a moment longer, her gaze full of sadness and anger.
“I wish I’d never met you.” She growled, roughly shoving him out the door. “Now piss off.”
“Yeah, well. I wish I’d never met you either.” Soarin yelled as she slammed the door in his face. 
Waving away a few concerned staff members, Soarin attempted to nurse his wounded ego as he limped away.
‘Don’t need her anyway, good riddance to bad rubbish.’ He thought bitterly. 
He wished he was being honest when he thought that, but the dull pang in his chest told him otherwise.
 
 “Well, that went well.” Surprise said, chomping down on a pastry of some description. After being kicked out by Rainbow Dash, Soarin had plodded back to his room where Surprise had jumped on him and demanded answers. The white mare, deciding she was hungry, had then led Soarin to a cafeteria so he could tell her all about what had transpired.
Soarin mumbled and lay his head flat on the table. The quiet murmur of conversation from a few other tables reached his ears but nothing was interesting enough to listen to. 
“Cheer up sad sack.” Surprise said, shoving a small pastry under his nose.
Soarin sniffed it experimentally and shook his head. He didn’t feel hungry.
Surprise looked at him with concern.
Soarin never refused pasty.
Ever.
“Alright,your girlfriend hates you and beat you to a pulp, I can see why you’re down.”
Soarin couldn’t be bothered to complain so he just nodded his head.
Surprise shrugged. “It could be worse...”
“I don’t care. She’s nopony special.” Soarin muttered.
“If this is you not caring, I’d love to see you when you do.” Surprise said through a mouthful of pastry. 
Soarin snorted in disgust, pushed his tray of uneaten food away and stood up from the table.
“Hey, you going to finish that?!” Surprise yelled after him.
At this point in his life, Soarin wished he had fingers.

Shuffling out of the small cafeteria, Soarin found himself wandering the hospital aimlessly.
Either by cruel coincidence or his own mindless walking, Soarin found himself in the ward where Rainbow Dash was. He narrowed his eyes as he trotted silently past the door to her room.
“So... what do you think Dash?” a muffled voice said, catching Soarin by surprise. 
Realising that the voice had come Rainbow Dash’s room, Soarin, deciding to be nosy, softly pressed an ear against the door.
“I don’t know... I’ll think about it okay?” A slightly more feminine voice said.”Thanks for telling me though, it’s more than somepony else I know could do...”
“You mean Soarin?”
Soarin raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Whoever Dash was talking to sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“Yeah.”
“Oh... So you like him?”
Soarin pressed his ear harder against the door.
“Yeah.. I don’t know how much of it was me me being a fangirl and how much of it was genuine feelings for him though. It's really hard to act on something like that y'know? I mean, I was never sure if he would just brush it off as fan love or if he'd take me seriously. Guess I know now.”
“Oh...” The voice said disappointedly.
“Was. It’s not like that anymore, I... I’ve moved on. He’s changed too much.”
Soarin frowned. ‘There she goes again, I don’t know what she means though... I haven’t changed at all. Least not that I know of.’ 
“Oh... Ok... I’ll see you around then?” The painfully familiar voice said.
“Yeah. I guess."
Soarin suddenly remembered he was conspicuously standing in the middle of the empty hallway, ear pressed against the door. He bolted for cover behind a covered trolley as hoof steps approached the door. He heard the door swing open and shut again. Soarin peeked around the trolley and saw the tip of a short cut tail vanish around the corner. 
‘Blast...’ he thought, pounding his hoof against the covered trolley.
*CLANG*
Frowning, Soarin lifted the cover and was surprised to find a video projector. A series of thoughts ran through his head. The idea fresh in his mind, Soarin tugged the trolley towards his ward.

‘Neat’ Soarin thought as he watched himself plough into the ground again. The picture faded to white as the film ran out of the projector. Soarin muttered a few choice swear words to himself and pulled another roll of film off the stack, this one helpfully labelled ‘The best worst night ever.’
“Boy, this sounds like a real barrel of laughs.” Soarin said to himself, grinning at his blatant use of sarcasm. 
Fiddling around with the projector for a moment, Soarin slotted the short film reel into the holder and flicked the switch, setting the projector into motion again.
Soarin watched with lazy interest as the camera panned over a royal hall decked with excessive decorations and filled to the brim with upper class snobs. He easily spotted himself in the crowd, his blue skin-tight flight suit standing out against the gaudy dresses and expensive suits.
He watched as he walked through the crowd, ignoring other ponies where he could and what looked like trying to hold back spewing polite profanities at ones he couldn’t.
“Hey... She looks familiar.” Soarin muttered, squinting at the projection. The orange mare he had met in the market was there selling baked goods from a stall. ‘What was her name? Jappleack? Applebuck? Applejack?’ he thought, trying to remember. His curiosity vanished as he noticed somepony else in the crowd.
“Rainbow Dash? What’s she doing there?” Soarin asked aloud. He watched in interest as she moments later, dived out of the crowd and saved an apple pie he had just bought. The two ponies talked for a moment and much to Soarin’s surprise, their conversation seemed friendly. He scowled as the image froze for a moment before fading to white again.
“Grand Galloping Gala... huh. Didn’t see that coming. What was she doing there though?” Soarin muttered to himself as he switched over the tape again, this one labelled ‘Wedding’.
Soarin again watched boredly as the film rolled but suddenly gawked when he noticed Rainbow Dash acting as a bridesmaid.
“She’s everywhere.” Soarin said dumbly as he watched the final ceremony unfold. He searched through the crowd for himself and eventually found him in the mass of ponies filling the great hall.
He noticed that during the recording, his older self couldn’t stop looking at the rainbow-maned  mare. As the wedding concluded, he watched as he trotted up to the mare and started casually talking with her.
“No, Soarin. What are you doing?! Soarin, stop! She’s a bitch!” He said, trying to deter himself from talking to her.
“Wait... what?” He muttered as they continued talking. She laughed as he said something obviously funny. 
“I’ve seen this before... We danced, didn’t we?” Soarin muttered, remembering the photo he had seen in Rainbow Dash’s house.
This was different though.
Soarin could see with his own eyes that they were enjoying each others company, he could see the genuine looks of friendship on their faces. He watched on dumbly as the night rolled on and the two grew closer. Projection Dash whispered something in his ear and a few minutes later the pair departed the party together.
Soarin numbly probed around and flicked the projector off.
“What were we? Friends... Lovers maybe?” Soarin guessed, surprised by the possibility. He flopped back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Something had changed though. Had he changed from the wedding? Was she really the bitch he knew her as? Was he actually just a massive dickhead aggravating her?” His head throbbed slowly as it occurred to him that he may of completely misjudged her character.
The thought scared him, he was suddenly aware how much of life he knew nothing about.
“Well this is... unexpected.” Soarin muttered, his heart beating quickly.
“What is?”
Soarin nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Surprise, stop doing that.” He murmured, casting a disapproving look at the sudden appearance of the snow white pegasus.
“That’s my name.” She said with mock cheer. He voice dropped back to a normal level. “So what’s unexpected?”
Soarin looked at her, a look of horror on his face.
“I think I like Rainbow Dash.”