//------------------------------// // Alone Time... or not: Pt. 1 // Story: Dashed Hopes and Reformed Dreams // by ChaoticHarmony //------------------------------// Chapter 17: Alone Time... or not: Pt. 1 Her hooves landed on the cloud with a soft poof, sending up a tuft of cloud that was instantly obliterated by the frustrated Rainbow Dash. “Soarin!” Her mane fluttered through the air as she whipped her head back and forth, searching for the Wonderbolt who was more than likely about to do something stupid. “Soarin, where are you?” Her shouts merely brought her the confused stares of the few pegasus that occupied the streets, which she simply ignored as she leapt into the air again to go to another part of the city. She had flown to the stadium after casting off her banages and after she made sure that Wind Cutter and Spitfire wouldn’t follow her, concerned most for the pony that had saved her life. When she arrived at the ring of clouds, she found them deserted without a pony in sight. Apparently the word had gotten out as to what had sent Rainbow into the hospital, for nopony even flew above the arena. After spending a few minutes there shouting out for the stallion that she was chasing, something she thought she never thought she’d be doing, she took to the skies above the city to continue her search. Now, a good thirty minutes later, she was the object of many eyes as she darted between the small spaces between the clouds and sometimes making her own spaces, not to mention her shouting his name over. She landed on rooftops, streets, and sometimes other ponies as she frantically searched the many streets of Cloudsdale. The white clouds whipped past her as she flapped her wings furiously, the densely-packed puffs of white rushing up to greet her when she pulled into a dive. “Soarin? Buck it all! Where are you?” After being granted a brief glimpse around the small market square she had landed in, she tensed her legs and leapt into the air once more, or at least she tried to. “Woah there, Rainbow Crash.” A voice, gruff and muffled by her tail, stopped the employment of her methods to escape. “That’a girl.” “Speedy?” Her voice cracked with both excitement and fear. “No way it could be you.” The stallion she was looking towards straightened himself and posed dramatically, a large smile plastered on his face. “Yup, sure is, my little Crashy.” He reached over and ruffled her mane, which she simply flicked back with a hoof to give it its normal shape. “How’s my favorite campee doing?” “I’m doing fine Speedy and” she jabbed a hoof into his side good naturedly, “I hate that nickname.” “Ow, fine then. I’ll stop saying it… in a million years!” Flapping his wings once, he leapt into the air and landed on the other side of her with a grace that didn’t suit his size. “Because we both know who’ll catch who.” She returned his smirk before swiping at him, which prompted him to dart out of her reaching distance. “Come and get me, Rainbow Crash” “Oh, you are so going to get it.” Flaring up her wings, she chased him into the sky. After a few minutes’ flight, which ended when she plowed into him midair, they were both situated back on the clouds and breathing heavily. “That was… good… Looks like… I haven’t lost… my edge.” He smiled proudly at her. “Nor have you… Rainbow. I’m… proud.” They walked over to a water-cloud and drank from the pool of water that it held, wiping away the excess when they finally pulled away. “Now,” Speed Wing sat down on the cloud and arranged his face into a serious expression, “since you’re not all crazy anymore, what’s got you riled up, Dash?” After a few moments, the impact of what he just said smacked her across the head. “Soarin!” Her frantic flight was cut short by another jerk of her tail. “Let me go, I have to find him!” She kicked back wildly but in her panic she couldn’t hit the broad side of Applejack’s barn. “Not until you tell me what’s wrong!” Her old camp counselor pulled her back down to the ground and pinned once of her wings there with a hoof. “Now tell me!” She glared daggers into him as well as she could from where she lay before telling her tale. When she was done, he pulled his hoof away and nodded grimly. “Soarin, eh? I remember when he was just a colt in my flight class.” Now that Rainbow had a few moments to look at the pegasus, she did indeed notice that he had a lot more grey in his hair than all those years ago. “Well, if he hasn’t changed, then you’ll find him in a small cloud underneath the old Fireball stadium on the other side of the city.” He nudged her with a hoof. “Go get him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” She nodded. “I will, don’t worry. See ya around, Speedy.” Her rainbow trail followed her into the sky above the city of clouds, leaving the old pegasus to watch her go. “Yeah, kiddo. See ya around.” 000 Soarin, the second-in-command of the best flying team of Equestria and personal friend of Spitfire, the most sought-after mare in the land, was sitting in a dark patch of cloud underneath a defunct part of Cloudsdale. More specifically, he was underneath the Fireballs’ stadium. He remembered how much he had held them in awe when he was a colt, only to be crushed when they disbanded. He remembered the flames that had appeared in Spitfire’s eyes when she read the news from the paper and how she had thrown it into the fire. “I’m gonna form my own team!” She had always told him. “I didn’t want to join them anyway!” “And you sure did, Spitfire.” He let out yet another sigh as he flicked a puff of cloud over the edge, sending the unfortunate moisture to slowly plummet to the ground far below. “And I was that foolish stallion who couldn’t let go of a crush that would follow you anywhere.” Shaking his head sadly, he sent yet another ball of dirty-white into the air. “And that she has somepony else, it’s biting me in the flank. Ugh, why did I get so angry?” Standing up, he prepared to do another circuit around the broken clouds in an attempt to cheer himself up. He flapped his wings hard, working himself to greater and greater speeds, working to get that high that other pegasi got from flying, but it just wouldn’t come. He landed on the cloud feeling just as bad as before. Sitting back on the gritty cumulous, he allowed himself to fall into the past, revisiting the memory that had often plagued his dreams. ”Hey you, pretty little mare. What’s a pony like you doin’ out here all alone?” The greasy voice, followed by raucous laughter, drifted up to him from one of the alleyways that were in the city below him. “I-I-I’m going home, that’s what.” Spitfire’s voice held a hint of fear bordering on the edge of outright terror. “An-and you three are going t-to let me d-do that.” The sound of a hoof colliding with a face, followed by a blood-curdling scream, urged him to go faster. “I don’t think so, little mare. See, me and my friends here haven’t had any flank for a long time.” Twin sounds of acquiescence came from his right, their voices leading him to his friend. “And you, little pony, have some ni—“ Whatever vulgar words that were going to be said by the greasy-voiced pony were instantly cut off as Soarin’s hoof smashed into his face with a bone-shattering impact. “Soarin!” “Stay back, Spits.” He flared out his wings in an intimidating manner, advancing slowly towards the two remaining thugs. “Let’s go.” He released the tension in his muscles, which had been like tightly coiled springs ready to explode, and leapt at the two escaping ponies. Again and again his hooves collided into their bodies, bringing at first grunts of pain that escalated into shouts of agony. “You. Deserve. To. Rot. In. Tartarus!” He accented each of his words with another blow. “Soarin, stop!” He ignored the frantic tugging on his tail as he continued his assault, his mind strangely blanked except for the white-hot anger that coursed through his entire body. Something warm began to pepper his face as he punched out again and again. He didn’t care what it was, only focused on hurting the two below him as much as possible. “Soarin, stop it! Please stop! You’re killing them! Help! Somepony help!” His blank mind suddenly vanished, awareness rushing back into his body like water into a hole. His entire face was peppered in warm and he realized with a shock that he was crying, as was Spitfire, who held onto his tail with her teeth and jerked with the sobs that wracked her body. “Soarin…” She said his name weakly. “Soarin.” Somehow, her voice grew coarser and stronger. “Soarin!” She was shouting at him now, her voice filling his entire world as she yelled it. “Soarin, where are you?” His eyes snapped open and he leapt into the sky, a rather bad idea considering he was hidden underneath the clouds. “Soarin?” He mentally cursed himself for not being able to stop his yelp of pain and surprise. “There you are!” He noted the flood of relief in the cyan pegasus’ voice when she poked her head under the layer of white and saw him. He turned away from her, looking out into the empty sky . “Rainbow Dash.” He stated, keeping his voice sullen despite the strange, warm sensation that filled his heart. “What do you want?” Silence greeted his question, prompting him to turn around and receive a face full of cyan hoof. He rubbed at where she had hit him, returning her glare in kind. “What was that for?” Upon seeing her flare up, he instantly regretted his words. “I fly all over Cloudsdale looking for you, and that’s how you greet me?” She looked ready to punch him again but instead stomped a hoof into the cloud. He turned away again. “I never asked you to come look for me. Why aren’t you with your coltfriend?” His voice turned to acid as he directed a stabbing glare at her from the corner of his eye. Suddenly his vision was filled with stars as another hoof smashed into the back of his head. He reared up and whipped around, ready to attack the pony behind him regardless if she was a mare or not. He was met with a pair of cyan lips that were as soft as the newest cloud from the Cloudsdale factory. Seconds turned into eternity as he looked into her smoldering eyes. When she pulled away from him, he felt as if half of his world was suddenly gone and the other half was left in shambles. “Because he’s not my coltfriend.” The two ponies met together once more atop the small cloud, outlined in the red-orange of the setting sun with the vast expanse of sky below.