Soarin opened his eyes groggily. Sweet Makers, everything hurt! Well, he thought, I was struck by lightning. He laughed quietly to himself and looked around a bit. He was resting on a comfortable bed inside a strange house. Six mares and a small dragon surrounded him. Odd. He'd never really seen much dragons around here. Well, there was that one time.
"He's waking up!" He heard a partially angelic voice say. Is this heaven? He saw the face of the angel leaning over him, grabbing at his shoulders with her hooves. It was a beautiful cyan-colored mare, with long slender wings. A chromatic mane topped her perfectly round head, and she had deep violet eyes that were filled with compassion.
Oh wait, it was just Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, an angel, they were the same thing to Soarin.
"His eyes are open!" Rainbow cried. "Soarin? Can you hear me?" She was shaking him at this point. Soarin nodded weakly. He didn't try and talk.
"Oh my, what happened?" A white mare approached Soarin. She gently pulled Rainbow's hooves away from him. He coat was white as a marshmallow, and she had a deep purple mane set up in a curly fashion.
Ooh, she's kinda hot! Soarin though to himself. He mentally slapped himself in the face. He had to keep his eyes on the prize! Rainbow was his goal, not this quadrupedal marshmallow.
"What happened?" Soarin groaned, leaning up a bit. "I got struck by freaking lightning, that's what happened!" The seven surrounding him gasped, especially one butter-yellow colored pegasus in the corner, hiding behind a pink mane.
"Struck by lightning?" a lavender mare standing close to the previously mention marshmallow screamed. Oh Celestia, I can SMELL the lavender! "How?"
"Well," Soarin started, rubbing behind his neck, "I was going out to get my dry cleaning." Is that believable?
"Dry cleaning?" he heard Rainbow shout. She grabbed at Soarin and shook him. "Are you insane? In this weather?"
"Yup," he said, a little dizzy from her shaking. His eyes rattled in his head.
"Why weren't you wearing your Wonderbolt suit? Isn't it lightning-proofed?" Rainbow asked, sounding incredibly worried.
"That's what I was getting from my dry cleaners." Ok, that was NOT a lie.
"Oh," Rainbow said, frowning.
"Wait," she talking marshmallow interrupted, "how is the suit lightning-proofed?"
"Rarity, is this the right time for this?" the lavender scented-candle with hooves asked. She seems familiar... All of these mares do...
"No... I guess not," the marshmallow answered, now revealed to be Rarity.
"Its fine," Soarin said, flexing his wings. Mares are attracted to impressive wings, right? Does this impress Rainbow Dash? "We got some unicorn to find a spell that put a weather-proof spell on the suits."
"Twilight, do you have a spell like that?" the marshmallow- excuse me, Rarity- asked the scented candle. Guess her name's Twilight... Wait a minute...
"Why? Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well," Rarity started, "It would be a neat trick to use on some of my dresses. I could, for an extra fee, weather-proof dresses for clients needing them for outdoor events." She smiled. "I'm sure they'd enjoy it, and I could make some extra money."
"I think I might have one of those," Twilight said, looking around. Soarin only now realized he was inside of a massive library. The walls were lined with books. All kinds of books: Nonfiction, fantasy, adventure, history. It was the most impressive collection Soarin had seen outside of the Canterlot library.
"How did I miss that...?" he mumbled.
"Spike," Twilight called to the young dragon, "find me Cloud Sweeper's Guide to Weather-Related Magic, stat!" The dragon nodded enthusiastically and rushed to grab a rolling ladder.
"On it," the dragon, named Spike, apparently, yelled happily. He was climbing up the ladder and scanning the gigantic bookshelf on Soarin's left.
"He's... He's your assistant?" Soarin asked, confused.
"Well, yeah," Twilight said."I've raised him from an egg. Why do you ask?"
Soarin chuckled. "Not every day you see a dragon in a library." He sniffed the air. Besides Twilight's velvety smell, he could also smell apples and... Was that cotton candy? "What smells like apples and cotton candy?" he blurted out, unexpectedly. Why'd I say that?
The entire group laughed, even the butterscotch pegasi in the corner. Spike fell of his ladder. Rainbow, who was still very close to Soarin, wiped a tear of laughter away from her eye. She's rather adorable when she's laughing.
"That'd be us, sugarcube," and orange earth pony wearing a stetson answered. She gestured to an extremely pink, cotton-candy maned fellow earth pony.
"Yepperooni!" the cotton-candy mare shouted. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!" She dashed over to Soarin, pushing past everypony, and shook his hoof rigorously. "It's nice to meet you! You're a Wonderbolt! That's reeeeeaaaalllllly cool! You know Rainbow Dash is a really big fan of you guys? But she talks about you more than most of the other Wonderbolts, did you know that? She says that you're really really really really fast and agile and-"
Soarin cut her off by pulling a hoof out of the hoofshake and stuffing it into her mouth. "That's nice. It's nice to meet you, Miss Pie. I like pie." He thought for a moment. "I'd like some pie right now. Someone get me some damn pie!"
Five figures in the room gasped at his language. One remained silent, and one laughed. Spike was too busy looking for the book, and Rainbow fell down laughing.
"Soarin!" Twilight said. "Language! And Rainbow! Stop acting so immature!"
Soarin shrugged. "I'm an ex-solider. Expect me to talk like one." Rainbow laughed even harder, and Spike chuckled a bit. I'm making Rainbow laugh... A lot! I better keep this up.
The five surprised mares just stared. The butterscotch pegasus looked a shocked, frighted even. "So..." Soarin, breaking the silence. "How 'boat that pie?"
The orange- actually, see was more of a tangerine color- spoke up. "Ah think some apple pie would be nice 'round this time."
Very country, Soarin thought. The mare turned around and went over to what appeared to be Twilight's kitchen. Soarin noticed her cutie mark, a trio of apples that rendered her orange coat ironic. Wait... Apples... Stetson... So familiar. "Pinkie, would ya mind lendin' me a hoof?"
"Absopositalutely!" Pinkie said, zapping over to the cowpony to help her whip up something. They grabbed a sack of apples from what must have been a pantry.
"You two, if you were the same pony and a colt, remind me of a friend I once had," Soarin said, finally making the connection. They had similar attributes to an old college buddy and friend.
"Really?" the cowpony said, glancing over her shoulder.
"Yeah," Soarin said, nodding. "An old friend. I haven't seen him in years, though."
The group stood there for a bit. Quiet awkwardness. Soarin looked around the room, and finally decided to try and get up. He leaned up and stepped slowly onto the floor. "ARGH!" he cried out in pain. He fell over and grimaced.
"Soarin!" Rainbow cried. She rushed to his side and knelt down next to him. "What's wrong? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. I just think I injured one of my legs in the crash," he said, trying to get up a bit. Rainbow helped him up, and he put it injured leg, the front right, around Rainbow Dash to help him stay stable. Rainbow's face turned red, or at least as red as a cyan mare like herself could get.
Twilight nodded. "There was a slight sprain. Nothing too serious. You'll be fine. You just need to rest," she said.
Soarin sighed. "Never been good at resting," he said.
Twilight chuckled a bit. "You can sleep here for the night. There's a room upstairs."
"Found it!" Spike cried, waving a large purple book around. It was bit heavy for him, and he fell off the ladder due to lack of support.
"Oh, Spikey-Wikey!" Rarity cried. She rushed over to the little dragon to see if he was ok.
Spike stood up and knocked on his tough hide. "I'm almost invincible, Rarity," Spike gloated. "I've belly-flopped in to lava pits. I can stand falling of a ladder." He handed the giant marshmallow mare the book, bound in a leather as violet as her mane.
Just looking at the two, Soarin felt some kind of chemistry. He wasn't sure and didn't want to ask, but he could guess that Spike had a crush on Rarity, trying to impress her like that. He looked over to Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be avoiding eye contact. Did I look like that when I was flexing my wings?
Spike laid the book out on the floor and began flipping through pages, and Rarity sat next to him for when he found the weather-proofing spell.
"She's not usually this excited about magic," Rainbow Dash said. "Twilight's usually the egghead about that stuff."
Soarin nodded. "Weather magic is actually pretty cool, though, but I'm not that interested in it."
Rainbow blushed. "I... Um... I'm the Weather Manager here," she said. "I have... I have a Doctorate in Weather Sciences, and I... I have a Master's Degree in Meteorology..." she whispered in Soarin's ear, making sure no one else heard her.
Soarin's eyes widened. That was completely unbelievable. "Really?" he asked, doubting it.
Rainbow nodded. "I don't like to tell anypony though. They don't let just anypony be a Weather Manager, no matter how small the town."
"That's very impressive, Doctor Rainbow Dash," Soarin whispered.
"That's Dr. Rainbow Dash, M.Sc," she said. The two laughed.
"Well," the cowpony said, "the pie's cookin'. It wont be done fer a while, though."
Soarin sighed. "Phooey," she muttered. "I was pretty hungry."
The cowpony shrugged. "Ah can't make it cook any faster than this," she said. "If ya go ta sleep now, ah'm sure it'll be done in the mornin'."
Soarin groaned. "But I want some pie now!"
Everypony laughed, even the butterscotch pegasus in the back.
Soarin rolled his eyes. "So what, I like pie." He looked around the room and looked at all the mares around him. "Anyway, I don't think I've been formally introduced to all of you yet," he said.
"Right, right," Twilight said. "How rude of us. Well, first off, I'm Twilight Sparkle. Librarian and student to Princess Celestia herself."
Soarin looked at her, surprised. "Well," he said, dumbfounded, "it's an honor to meet the Princess's student. I've heard about her-or you, as it would seem-and it's very nice to meet you."
Twilight blushed. "Please, don't flatter me," she said.
Soarin laughed. "I'm not trying to. It's just very nice to meet Celestia's student. I thought I recognized the name Twilight."
"Ok then," Twilight said. "Moving on. You already know Rainbow Dash fairly well, I take it." Soarin nodded. He hoped he wasn't blushing, but his face was hot. "Pinkie introduced herself already, so I'll get to the rest." At the mention of her name, the cotton candy mare hopped up and down and waved. "That's Rarity," she said, pointing a hoof over to the marshmallow, "and the dragon is Spike, my assistant, but you already know that."
Yes, we already covered that, Soarin though to himself.
"Ok, now, this is Applejack," she said, pointing over to the tangerine cowpony.
"Applejack..." Soarin mumbled. "Like, from the Apple Family?"
AJ nodded. "Yup, that's the one," she said. "Ya heard of us?"
Soarin nodded. "You could say that."
"And that one over there," Twilight said, motioning over to the pegasus in the corner, "is Fluttershy. She's, well, shy. She'll talk to you, eventually."
Soarin laughed. "Okay then. Hi, Fluttershy," he said, waving a hoof at her. Doing so, he lost balance, since his second hoof was still around Rainbow Dash, and he fell down, straight on his face. "Ow," he said, muffled by the floor. This earned a laugh from Fluttershy, who peeked out from under her curtain-like pink mane.
"Hi, Soarin," she said back, waving a hoof.
"Ok, here it is," Spike said from the corner. He pointed to an entry from the book. "I think. Soarin, is this the spell they used for your outfit?"
Soarin got up and motioned over to Spike and Rarity, and Rainbow Dash helped him get over there. He took a good look at the entry on the page before opening his mouth. "Yup. That's the one."
Rarity smiled. "Well, I'm not that good at magic, but this is a spell that would be worth learning!"
Twilight leaped with joy. "Yay! I'm so glad you're showing some interest in a more advanced spell!" With a flash and a pop, she teleported over to Rarity. "I'll help you out with learning it, if you want!"
"She can teleport?" Soarin asked. He didn't know too much about magic, but he knew that was a very advanced and difficult spell.
Rainbow nodded. "She can. She doesn't do it often, but she tends to loose control of most of her magical abilities when she's excited."
Soarin gulped. He didn't want to see a mare with that much power to lose total control. Might blow a town like Ponyville off the map.
"No, Twilight, I think I'll be okay," she said, picking the book up telekinetic. "It's not too difficult of a spell. If you loan me the book, I'll be able to teach myself."
Twilight's ears dropped. "Okay then," she said, fairly upset. "But if you need any help, I'm right here!"
Rarity smiled. "Thank you, Twilight. It's nice to know I can count of you for help."
Soarin yawned, fairly loudly.
The group turned and looked at him. "You must be tired," Applejack said. Soarin nodded, groggily.
"Well," Twilight said, "you need to rest up that ankle. Rainbow, help him to my guest bedroom."
Rainbow nodded. "It's upstairs. C'mon, Soarin, we can fly up there to take it easy on you."
"Thank you," Soarin said with another yawn. The two beat their wings slowly and flew up stairs.
"Spike, why don't you look after him?" Twilight asked.
"Phew," Spike said, wiping his forehead. "Thought you'd never asked. At least I have another guy to hang out with." He scurried up the stairs, following the pair of blue pegasi.
The trio stopped in front of the guest bedroom's door, and Rainbow opened it up. Soarin hobbled in, trying not to hurt his ankle, and Spike followed. "Take it easy," Rainbow said.
Soarin yawned again. "I will." He closed the door behind him. Rainbow trotted back downstairs and rejoined her friends.
Inside the room, Spike grinned at Soarin. "I'm not an idiot," he said. "The girls may not see it, but to another guy, it's kinda obvious."
Soarin gulped. "Crap," he said. "I was worried someone would guess." Soarin struggled into the guest bed, and Spike sat down on the floor next to it.
"We need to talk," he said.
Downstairs, Rainbow's friends were giving her the same look.
"Yeah," Rainbow said, gesturing upstairs, "it's him. He's the colt I like."
The group laughed. "Thought so," Rarity said.
"Yeah, we need to talk," Rainbow said, blushing.