Soaring Skies

by Gallifrey

Rainbow's Date With Destiny

"Soarin'?"

"Huh?"

"You alright?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Soarin' had spent the last few seconds staring into the middle distance and gave his head a little shake.
They were sitting at a candlelit table in DeCanter's. The restaurant was dimly lit for a cosy atmosphere; across the room, a grey mare was playing sweet music on a cello. Next to her was an aquamarine unicorn strumming a lyre.

"So," said Rainbow, "where else are you going to on this tour?"

"Well, um, I'm not too sure on the order, but we're going to Appleloosa, Cloudsdale, Manehatten, Fillydelphia, Seaddle, Los Pegasus, Hoofington, Baltimare, and some smaller towns in between I forget the name of."

"Busy times ahead then?"

"Heh, yeah, we'll be going for the next two months. Not that we get a break," he grumbled.

"You get time off when it's over though, right?"

"Barely, you get very little time off when you're a Wonderbolt, you know."

"R-really?" asked Rainbow with slight trepidation, thinking her days of napping would be over if she ever got into the Wonderbolts.

"Yup," said Soarin' with a knowing glint in his eyes. "No more naps for you, Miss Rainbow."

Rainbow shuddered at the prospect. Then she snorted. "Miss Rainbow?"

Soarin' blushed.

"I-it seemed appropriate," he stammered.

Much to her surprise, Rainbow giggled. She put a hoof up to her mouth in shock.

"You alright?" asked Soarin', raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I'm fine, I just haven't done that in a... very long time."

Soarin' looked a little puzzled. He glanced over Rainbow's shoulders and smiled.

"Your food, madam and sir," said a polite unicorn waiter, holding two plates in a magical aura.

"Thank you," said Soarin' gratefully, then, on a whim, beckoned the waiter closer. Leaning conspiratorially into his ear, he whispered something, before slipping a few bits into the waiter's pocket.

"Yes sir," said the unicorn as he departed.

"What did you ask him?"

"You'll see," he replied mysteriously.

As Soarin' began eating his pasta, (on Rainbow's recommendation, for she had the same) the blue mare found her eyes raking over his athletic form. He still had his flight suit on, though he had removed it from his head, giving the impression he was wearing a hoodie. The tight suit certainly left nothing to the imagination, and Rainbow found herself wishing the table had been made of glass so she could have taken a peek at the rather more... exciting aspects of the Wonderbolt's anatomy. Her gaze rose to his face, which had rapidly adopted a thin layer of tomato sauce around his muzzle, up to his mane, which looked a little dishevelled from the show, down to his brilliant green eyes, which looked the most tired of all. He needed a good night's sleep, and, if he was a good boy, he might just get it...

The grey mare and the unicorn approached the table. Soarin' acknowledged their presence.

"Ze vaiter said zat you vish for me to play for you?"

"Yes please," said Soarin', "and thanks."

They nodded and began to play a soft, beautiful melody.

"Rainbow," he said through a mouthful of pasta, waving a hoof in front of her face. "You gonna eat any of that?"

Rainbow blinked.

"Oh- oh yeah!" she said, voice cracking out of embarrassment, looking down at her plate of very appetising pasta. "How is it?"

"It's lovely," said Soarin', exercising one of his pick-up lines, "but nowhere near as lovely as you."

Rainbow stared at him blankly.

"You're so cute when you're cheesy," she said, grinning widely.

The stallion merely sat there, usually lines like that got mares, and the occasional stallion, to swoon for him. But then again, Rainbow Dash was no ordinary pony.

The blue mare suddenly took notice of the duo of musicians next to their table.

"Lyra?" she said.

The minty mare looked up from her work, and merely winked at Rainbow, then she jerked her head to Soarin' and continued playing.

"Is that what you said to the waiter?" asked Rainbow in hushed tones.

"Yup," replied the stallion. "Do you like it?"

"D-do I like it? This is the most romantic thing ever!" she squealed, drawing her hooves up to her face. Then catching herself, she coughed and looked sheepishly over at him. "I mean it's awesome! Yeah, that sounds better," she said, fumbling for her fork as she ate.

------------

Tick tock goes the clock,
I took her out to the show,
Tick tock goes the clock,
And Soarin' fell for Rainbow.
Tick tock goes the clock,
It's raining and it's pouring,
Tick tock goes the clock,
And Rainbow fell for Soarin'.

The crisp parchment that the words had been written on suddenly became speckled with teardrops. Twilight Sparkle set her quill down and spun around in her chair. Princess Luna had been wrong; writing poetry when she was upset didn't help at all.
She sighed deeply and abandoned her writing desk, instead venturing downstairs in search of a good book.
Night had fallen, all baby dragons had been put to bed, and every step the lavender mare took seemed very loud in the silent house. She traced a hoof over many, many books, looking for one that even vaguely piqued her interest, to no avail.
Twilight could tell that things were becoming serious, when even books failed to be her salvation.

You could always ask the Princess for some advice? suggested a small, scared voice deep inside Twilight's brain.

Pah, the Princess has more important things to worry about than the trivial whims of a mare like me, said a much louder, much more cynical part of the unicorn's mind.

Twilight decided to give up the books as a bad job, she settled on making a pot of tea instead. Traipsing into her living room, she levitated her wireless out into the kitchen. Setting it on the table she turned it on and started tuning it as several pieces of crockery began floating out of various cupboards. Twilight was exceptional at multitasking, and was both filling the kettle up, and trying to find Radio Hoof on the wireless at the same time. She twiddled the dials while the water heated up, past Vinyl Scratch at Nine, past the Cloudsdale Weather Forecast, until she found what she was looking for, Royal Hour with Princess Celestia, which was due to start in a few minutes.
The kettle whistled loudly, and Twilight hurriedly moved it lest it wake up Spike, which was unlikely, but the principle stood. The unicorn prepared the tea, listening to the news before the show began, which included a section on the Wonderbolts in Ponyville.

"I swear," she growled through clenched teeth, "if I hear one more thing about the bucking Wonderbolt's, I'll-"

Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself down. It wasn't often she lost her temper, and when she did, that was mainly because Spike wouldn't do as he was told. She sighed and tried, tried so very hard, to put all thoughts of the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash out of her mind as she returned to her living room, wireless, teapot, cups and saucers orbiting around her.
The room was deliciously warm, on account of the fire crackling merrily behind the hearth. Guests often questioned Twilight on the wisdom of having a fireplace, given that she lived in a tree, of all places. To which Twilight would answer, with subtle sardonic undertones, that considering the house was still whole and unburned, she just might have done some magic around the fireplace when she had it installed to prevent such an occurrence.

"Ice Breeze of Trottingham asks if you've decided the general overview for the weather for the coming winter yet?" asked the co-presenter of the radio show.

"What a delightfully appropriate name, said Princess Celestia with a sparkling laugh, "I intend for this winter to have a lot more snow than usual, to make up for last year's rather mild conditions; I will be sending my wishes to Cloudsdale some time in the coming week."

Twilight felt safe and secure when she heard her mentor's soothing voice. Even if she wasn't in the room with her, it still helped Twilight relax. Sipping her tea and gazing at the flames, Twilight felt her whirring brain shift down a gear; from the recesses of her mind, the voice of the Princess rose unbidden, heralding words that were strikingly appropriate at present. Celestia had spoken them to Twilight during one of the deepest conversations the pair ever experienced, where she explained to Twilight the full story regarding her and her sister's banishment. She took the teapot and poured another cup of tea, though not for herself.

Sometimes, it's nice to pretend.

Twilight poured Rainbow Dash some tea, holding on to the smallest, most desperate speck of hope that was floating perilously in the void of harsh reality.
The unicorn pushed the tea across her coffee table, offering it to the cold, empty chair opposite her. She could feel her heartstrings tensing up as the pain hit her full bore at that moment, when she was utterly alone.

Sometimes, it's nice to pretend. Sometimes... it's all we have left.

Twilight Sparkle burst into tears.

----------

Rainbow Dash slurped up the last of her pasta- this was great! Well, it had been great. Soarin’ had become distant in the last ten minutes or so- slipping into almost total silence and staring off in the distance. Rainbow was growing increasingly paranoid, wondering if she’d said something wrong somewhere down the line, but nothing came to mind… Also, he smelled. Pretty bad. The blue mare guessed that he hadn’t showered since the end of his performance, and it showed, or rather, it smelled.

“Soarin’?”

The stallion yawned in response, eyes struggling to stay open as exhaustion swept over him.

“Soarin’.”

“Huh?” he managed, blinking amiably up at her.

“If you don’t wanna be here, you can just say y’know.”

“What? Oh no! I do!”

“Okay,” said Rainbow, slightly unconvinced, but smiling all the same. “Getting Octavia and Lyra to play was really sweet by the way.”

“Do you think? I’m glad you liked it!”

They smiled warmly at each other, but after a few seconds, Soarin’s gaze travelled over Rainbow’s shoulder.
At this point, Rainbow was finding the whole zoning out thing getting old, and her temper, which had a hair trigger, was rising dangerously. She set down her fork louder than was necessary.

"Soarin', seriously, if you're gonna act like this, I may as well-"

"Pie," he said simply.

"What?" she asked irritably.

"Piiiiiiie."

Rainbow jerked her head around, and saw the waiter approaching them with pie and ice cream.

"Oh right, desserts," said Rainbow.

"Pie," Soarin' agreed as it was presented in front of him. The second it hit the table, his muzzle was buried in it.

Rainbow gave the waiter a sheepish grin as he walked off with a mildly concerned expression upon his face.

"Can't you eat that in a more... civilised manner?" Rainbow pleaded as the stallion happily slurped and munched his apple pie by the simple virtue of sticking his face in it.

He reluctantly raised his head, sticky apple syrup running down his face and oozing off his chin. Rainbow looked disgusted and mildly alarmed at the sheer ferocity with which he had eaten the pastry treat: in no more than ten seconds, Soarin' had completely eaten half of it and decimated the rest into an unrecognisable mess.
The stallion looked at the fork next him, and the pie in front of him, his mind in turmoil. Pie never tasted as good from a fork... he tried, he really did, but he couldn't resist the seductive scent wafting into his nose and he plunged his snout back into the delicious mess before him. Other diners were starting to look at them. Rainbow flushed beet red, and she'd had quite enough. She stood up.

"I've had enough of this," she growled dangerously, "now you're starting to embarrass me in front of other ponies. This has gone too far."

Soarin' had only just realised the magnitude of the error he had made eating pie in such a manner in a restaurant of this calibre, and ceased.
Now, even under ordinary circumstances, what went on in Soarin's mind and what came out of his mouth weren't often connected, and his brain couldn't have chosen a worse time to go wrong. Panicking, and trying to remedy the situation, Soarin' blurted the first compliment that came to mind.

"You know, I've never met a girl like you before," he stammered, desperately fumbling over his words. He never did find out why he said something so stupid at that moment.

The next thing he knew, he had been pulled forward violently, a hoof tugging on the front of his flight suit.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" hissed the infuriated mare through clenched teeth, face mere inches from his as she leaned over the table.

"N-n-nothing!" he spluttered, unable to think of a decent reply, and he wouldn't have trusted his mouth to say it even if he did.

"I think this date's over, don't you?" she said shortly. "Th-thanks for the dinner Soarin', I guess I'll see ya around."

And without another word, she turned and stormed out.

------------

Twilight Sparkle sat sobbing miserably in her chair, haunted by images ran through her mind of Rainbow having a great time with Soarin', laughing with Soarin', dancing with Soarin', kissing Soarin'. Her inner demons would not abate, and took malicious joy in poking and prodding her subconscious into throwing up more dark and terrifying thoughts.
The poor unicorn tried wiping her matted cheek fur dry, to no avail, when she heard gentle knocking at her door. She froze. No-one visited her at this hour.

What if it's a burglar? she thought wildly.

"A burglar who knocks?" she said condescendingly to herself.

With quite a lot of effort, Twilight hauled herself up.

"Who is it?" she asked in a weary tone, without opening it.

"Rainbow Dash," came a scratchy voice through the wood, Twilight's heart leapt into her throat in both fear and joy.

Why is she here? Did something go wrong with her date with Soarin'? A blossom of hope burst forth in her chest, before being quickly stamped down by a surge of guilt for hoping such things.

"Soooo, you gonna open the door or what?"

Twilight started and unlocked the door. She was greeted by a rather disgruntled looking pegasus, whose expression immediately softened when she saw the state Twilight was in.

"Hey, Rainb-"

"Twilight? What's up?"

Rainbow stepped into the house and draped a comforting wing over the lavender mare.

"How was your date with Soarin'?" asked Twilight weakly.

"Awful," she said shortly, "but that's not important right now, what's the matter?"

"I- It's fine- I'm okay," Twilight babbled, as Rainbow led her gently back into her living room and sat her down on the sofa, putting a hoof over her shoulders.

"You most definitely are not okay," insisted Rainbow Dash, looking at her tear stained fur and slightly bloodshot eyes. "What in Equestria has got you upset like this... or who? Is it somepony I know?" she said fiercely, punching one hoof into the other, "I'll show them not to mess with you!"

"No," squeaked Twilight, "no, it's nothing like that; it's just me being stupid as usual."

Rainbow looked taken aback.

"I'm sorry, did the smartest pony I know just say, 'being stupid as usual?' Pardon my language Twi, but that's bullshit and you know it!"

Twilight's eyes quavered under Rainbow's determined, but not unfriendly glare.
The pegasus looked around the room for any indication that would help her figure this out. Her eyes fell upon the two cups of tea on the coffee table.

"Are you sure someone hasn't been round who's upset you?" asked Rainbow.

"Yes," sniffed Twilight.

"Then why are there two cups of tea on the table over there?" she asked, pointing.

Twilight was looking everywhere but Rainbow's eyes.

"Like I said: just me being stupid."

"You're being as stubborn as AJ now, seriously, can't you tell me? I might be able to help."

Twilight finally met those beautiful magenta eyes, emanating concern.

You might as well tell her, thought Twilight, it's not like you've got anything to lose.

"Rainbow-" she began awkwardly.

"Yes?" queried the pegasus, eyes darting back and forth between Twilight's own.

"Th-there's something I've been m-meaning to tell you..."

She took a few deep breaths, wondering how to express her feelings in the most effective manner, but the words wouldn't come. There were no words for Twilight to describe.

Rainbow looked expectantly at the unicorn.

"You sure do like keeping me in suspense- mmph!"

Rainbow's sentence never finished, because her lips had just met Twilight's. In a brilliant fit of courage, the unicorn decided to throw her proverbial cards on the table and simply kiss the mare of her dreams and hope for the best. Twilight pulled back, face utterly petrified at what she had just done. Rainbow looked speechless.

"RainbowI'msosorrypleasedon'thatemeforeverIdon'tknowwhatcameovermeandohgoodnesswhathaveIdone mmph!"

Twilight was silenced as Rainbow, in turn, kissed Twilight, running a hoof gently through the purple unicorn's mane.

"All this time?" asked Rainbow quietly.

Twilight nodded.

"Always."

"You should've said!" she exclaimed, "I always thought you were pretty hot, I just assumed you weren't interested."

"R-really?"

"Yuhuh." Rainbow looked over at the cups of tea again. Suddenly, it clicked into place. "That cup," she said slowly.

"Yes," said Twilight simply.

Rainbow smiled, and drew the unicorn close to her, in a warm, fuzzy hug.

---------------

Soarin' looked around the restaurant, tapping his forehooves together nervously, cheeks glowing pink. He was alone at his table, with the majority of the establishment staring at him. He coughed and paid for the meal, leaving a pile of bits next to his plates. Standing up, he ambled his way out, trying to go as fast as he could whilst drawing as little attention as possible, which was very difficult for a Wonderbolt with pie all over his mouth and whose date had just stormed out. Slinking out of the restaurant, he wasted no time in bolting into the sky, back to the hotel where the Wonderbolts were staying tonight.

-------------

Spitfire jerked her neck back, taking another shot of whiskey. She shuddered as she felt it burn her throat, but sighed contentedly as it ran down into her stomach, where it warmed her up nicely. She was alone at the hotel bar, waiting impatiently for Soarin's return.

Oh for buck's sake, will he ever come back? she began wondering. What if Rainbow invited him back to her house? she thought, her eyes widening in fear. What if they, like, do it?

Thoughts of a similar vein had been running through her mind ever since Soarin' left after the show. All her trepidations proved unfounded however, as she looked across the wide hotel lobby for the forty-fifth time that evening, and did a double take. A rather dishevelled looking pegasus had entered, and was running a weary hoof through his mane.
Spitfire hopped down from her stool and walked up to him in a slightly haphazard manner.

"Hey there Spits," he said heavily, "you alright?"

"Depends, how was it with Rainbow?"

Soarin' looked around, ensuring nopony else he knew was in earshot.

"It was a disaster!" he whispered frantically, wings flittering in agitation. "It was going well until near the end, where I think I- Urgh, can we sit down somewhere? I'm so tired."

"Sure thing pony boy, follow me."

She gave him a teasing flick on the snout with her tail and led the way up to her room on the second floor.

"Get in there, and I'll take care of you," she said innocently enough.

Soarin' stumbled in and collapsed on her bed, vaguely aware that the air smelt pleasantly of honey. He looked up to talk, but Spitfire was nowhere to be seen.

"Spits?"

She walked out of the bathroom, a wet flannel in her hooves.

"Look at you, I can't let you out anywhere can I?" She sat down next to him and flopped the flannel on his muzzle, cleaning the sticky pie residue off him. He squirmed, but allowed her to carry out her task. "Not much of a turn on if I'm honest," she said dryly, "is that why it all went wrong?"

"Partly," he said, "I think I kept kinda zoning out as well, I'm so sleepy right now. That and I said some stupid things."

"Like what? If you don't mind my asking."

"I said, 'you know, I've never met a girl like you before,' and she got all up in my face about it!"

"Well," began the yellow mare, rubbing the back of her neck, "perhaps I should've told you about her temper. She doesn't know when to stop."

"Why didn't you tell me before?!" he whined, falling backwards on the bed.

"I didn't want to spoil your evening," she said desperately. "I'm sorry Soarin'."

He looked up at this.

"Sorry? You don't have to be sorry!" he chuckled, "just warn me next time, pony gal."

"Sure," she mumbled, cheeks tinting pink at the term 'pony gal.' She got up to take the flannel back to the bathroom. She briefly examined her reflection, making sure she was looking her best. She returned to find that Soarin' had actually fallen asleep.
"Poor guy," she said in a low voice. She didn't want to wake him up, so her only alternative was to pull the blankets from beneath him and drape them over his body, all the while softly singing a lullaby to ensure he didn't rise from his slumber. Now, a prim and proper mare would have acted this out with appropriate prudence and respect. Spitfire, however, was by no accounts a prim or proper mare in any way, and couldn't help her eyes wandering as she tucked him in. Her gaze fell longingly on his muscular, athletic form: sleek, lithe and powerful, his bulging flight muscles were impossible to resist, the result of years of determination and hard work. She did however, with a struggle, hold back when it came to the more intimate regions of the pegasus, deciding to give him at least some privacy, even if he wasn't aware of it.
Brushing his deep blue mane out of his eyes, her work was done. She was panting slightly, it had been hard work after all.

"Goodnight, Soarin'," she whispered, leaning over him and kissing him on the forehead. "Sweet dreams."

She traced a hoof gently down his face, and he smiled in his sleep. She briefly wondered what he was dreaming about, and whether she featured anywhere.
With a small sigh, she got into bed next to him, wanting nothing more than to reach out, to curl up next to him, and to fall asleep in his hooves. Alas.
With one last glance at his dreamy face, Spitfire closed her eyes, and fell asleep.