The afterlife looked an awful lot like a hospital.
Oh.
As doctors always seem to do, this one showed up right after Soarin’ opened his eyes. The caramel colored unicorn was the same as Soarin’ remembered, except his mouth was drawn in a thin line – the kind of face you’d expect of someone under a lot of pressure.
Soarin’ sat up, feeling rested for the first time since he could remember. Immediately questions poured from his mouth. What happened? Was the gargoyle still on the lose? Where were the others? Was everypony okay? Was Rainbow Dash okay?
“I can tell from here that you’re feeling better. Thankfully no pony has a life threatening injury, but I have a lot of other patients to see. I think your friend can fill you in on the details.” Rapidfire happened to be sitting in a chair to the right of Soarin’s bed. A book was propped underneath his hoof.
The doctor continued, “Don’t even think about leaving that bed. You’d pushed yourself into a state of extreme exhaustion when Nurse Redheart brought you here.” He stepped out of the room and a nurse, this one a long-legged blue stallion, took his place.
Soarin’ expected to hear the bad news about his injuries after the nurse finished wheeling a cart with a tray of food to his bedside. Instead the pony in charge told him to eat everything on the plate and looked him over. “Your wounds aren’t deep, but this one might scar.” The nurse held Soarin’s left wing out and he noticed gauze covering the sensitive area where it was attached to his body. It wouldn’t be the only scar he had, but unless a pony went perusing through his coat it was hard to tell.
The nurse went about changing Soarin’s bandages. “You should have seen the stir you caused earlier. Do you know how difficult it is to wash an unconscious pony? It took several of the nurses to get the job done. At first we were panicked thinking all of the blood was yours, but after we saw how shallow your wounds were and Nurse Redheart realized you were just sleeping, they hoisted you over to the showers and gave you quite the scrubbing. You didn’t even flip an ear. The phrase ‘sleep like the dead’ comes to mind.”
He replaced Soarin’s last bandage and turned serious. “You need to rest. One of the other nurses says you’re physically and emotionally exhausted. Your worst injuries are on the inside, here.” The stallion tapped his own chest to demonstrate. “I’ve got good reasons to trust that judgement. It’s something to think about.” The nurse told Soarin’ he’d check on him from time to time, but the main reason they were keeping him in the hospital was because the doctor didn’t trust pegasi (especially Wonderbolts) to rest unless they were forced to. If anypony needed it, Soarin’ did.
Now that he knew he wasn’t dead or dying, Soarin’ slid under the covers and rolled onto his side to talk with Rapidfire. “So Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt now,” he said.
“Yes. There wasn’t time to officially induct her, obviously, but she is a Wonderbolt.”
“Where is she?”
Rapidfire hesitated. “She, ah. She thinks you’re dead.”
Soarin’ was speechless.
“You had us fooled for a while too, until Spitfire went looking for you after the battle and learned the Ponyville medical team hospitalized you. Fleetfoot demanded to know why Rainbow Dash hadn’t been told about this. The doctor said not to let her in here until you woke up because she’d cause a big racket, disturb everypony in the hospital, and interrupt the sleep you desperately needed. Can’t imagine why he said that,” Rapidfire deadpanned.
“We reached the conclusion that the only way to keep Rainbow Dash out was to not tell her. That pony is unstoppable.” Rapidfire shook his head. “To top it off, we can’t figure out where she is.”
Soarin’s eyes were green ice. “Rapidfire, if you don’t bring Rainbow Dash here within the next three hours, so help me Celestia I will get out of this bed and find her myself.”
Rapidfire cracked a best friend grin and did better than that. An hour later, Rainbow Dash showed an amazing respect for hospital property by not breaking the window to Soarin’s room. He heard a door slam on the first floor, ponies in the waiting room and along the hallways gasping and exclaiming phrases that included the word Wonderbolt, something that sounded like a wheeled cart spinning from the force of wind that caught it, and finally the windows on his floor rattling one by one until they reached his room. The door banged open. In flew Rainbow Dash, still wearing her tattered blue and gold suit. The curtains separating Soarin’ from the other patients stirred in her trail.
“You idiot, I thought I’d lost you.”
Rainbow Dash was going to be just fine.
“Shh, Dash, keep your voice down. This is a hospital. I don’t know how badly injured the ponies in this room are.”
“Not as bad as you’re going to be when I’m finished with you,” she said, but the words didn’t have an edge. She let her feet touch the floor and draped her neck over him. Never had Soarin’ thought Rainbow Dash was capable of something as gentle and caring as that simple gesture, but there it was.
“How did you survive?” she whispered without moving. “There was so much blood, and I saw…” He felt the muscles in her neck tense. “Is it really you?”
“Thunderbow, it’s really me,” he said. She relaxed. “I didn’t think I would live, but the blood wasn’t mine after all. I passed out from pushing way past my limit.”
Rainbow Dash sighed into his blanket and stayed with him. Soarin’ regained the piece of himself that went missing after they fought. “I thought you’d left me,” he breathed.
Loyalty lifted her head. “That’s what you thought after all that jazz about the Elements of Harmony?” Her eyes sparkled with certainty. “I’d never abandon my friends, let alone you.”
She was completely irresistible in that moment and also completely unsuspecting. Soarin’ stole a kiss on her cheek. He cursed the design of the Wonderbolt flight suit after. “I’ve been meaning to do that for a long time.” He would’ve done more, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to control himself.
Rainbow Dash gave him a devilish Dash look to die for. “So that’s how it is, huh?” She leaned in close and whispered into his ear so only they would hear. “I can definitely top that, but I’m not the one who got myself stuck in a hospital bed, now, am I?”
He was determined to make this the speediest recovery Ponyville Hospital had ever known.
The rainbow Wonderbolt pulled up the chair by the window and took a seat at his bedside. Her tone changed to conversational. “What are you gonna do now that they’ve probably said to stay here ‘a few days minimum.’” She quoted the air with her hooves.
“Oh I’m not planning to stay here that long,” he said, finally taking an interest in the food on the tray. It looked awful and at the same time like a gourmet meal. This was the unfortunate side effect of not eating all day. “If you don’t mind staying with me for a while, I want to hear your story, about Nightmare Moon and Discord, and the battle I slept through, and how you became a Wonderbolt. Nopony’s told me about the Wonder Trial yet.” He hauled the food tray onto his bed and snapped up the jello. It was amazing.
Rainbow Dash sat back and started with the gargoyle. Soarin’ was amazed that one unicorn managed to teleport herself, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash directly from the Summer Sun Celebration to the outskirts of Ponyville. There the trio found Applejack rallying ponies willing to make a stand while Fluttershy helped evacuate the others. One cloud of smoke later, Pinkie Pie appeared alongside a pony called Trixie, who complained, “Why did I get stuck with you?”
“Because I was all by myself Trixie dixie! Who else was going to come get me?”
Everypony was ready to go by the time the foreboding purple miasma enveloped Ponyville. They arrived on the scene right as the Wonderbolts made it. That was when Rainbow Dash found him.
She paused. “Soarin’, I… I rarely lose my cool, but after that I completely lost it. Let’s not do this ever again.”
He reached out and grasped her hoof. “You’re a Wonderbolt now. You know neither of us can make a promise like that. But if you ask me, we’re due for at least a year of peace in Equestria after all this.”
“At least,” Rainbow Dash emphasized. His hoof stayed in hers. “And I plan to use it. All this battling stuff is messing up my practice time.”
She told him how Twilight said her powers wouldn’t work on the gargoyle and tested a magic beam to be sure. It reflected off the gargoyle’s surface straight back at them. Twilight’s magic shield blocked the rebound.
Pinkie Pie took the stage again. All the big rock needed was a big sheet of paper. Trixie surprised herself by conjuring an enormous sheet of paper that draped over the gargoyle. The paper got wrinkled before it popped and disappeared.
“Huh, usually that works,” Pinkie Pie said.
Meanwhile the Wonderbolts noticed the wounds Soarin’ inflicted. They started shearing off the most dangerous bits of the gargoyle one by one. The battle tipped in their favor. Twilight helped calculate Rainbow Dash’s targets and the Wonderbolt swept off the gargoyle’s second horn. She couldn’t get a bead on the tail, though, so only pegasi could go within range without expecting to get hit.
Rainbow Dash told Soarin’ how she saw High Winds get taken down by the tail. Ponyville residents organized by Twilight rescued her from the battle and took her to the medical team on wait.
After Rainbow Dash said this it suddenly hit her how many ponies got injured. Soarin’ had to reassure her that the doctor said no patients were on the verge of death. She went to check on the others anyway. He felt himself drifting off in her absence.
When she returned she described how the tail was in her way one moment and gone the next. Vines pulled it to the ground. A herd of earth ponies cheered and Applejack threw her hat into the air. “That’ll teach ya ta mess with us.”
The Wonderbolts clipped the tail for good measure and punched holes in the gargoyle’s wings. Rainbow Dash lost track of time. It seemed like there were new spikes in places she’d passed over before, but it didn’t matter to her. All that was left was cold calculation of what part to take off next. Finally Twilight called her back. The gargoyle was regenerating.
She noticed all of the ponies wearing the most beautiful bandages ever seen in Equestria. Rarity conjured fabric out of thin air and wrapped up beaten legs and wings with help from healing ponies. “Dressing” a wound took on a whole new meaning.
A cracking noise split the air and the gargoyle’s tail came free. It swept aside some of the ponies trying to rope the monster’s legs. Humming chains of dark electricity were all that kept the tail attached to the body. Blood flew everywhere. They lost Lightning Streak, Wave Chill, and Blaze. Ponyville went to work saving the lives of fallen comrades and taking the injured far from the action.
They were going to lose. Twilight couldn’t think of what to do next. The unicorn who always knew what to do cried out that this ancient magic catastrophe was all her fault. They were going to lose, and Rainbow Dash didn’t care. She stopped checking in on Twilight and resorted to pure instinct, tearing apart the gargoyle with the remaining Wonderbolts. Claws slashed by her face. The razor rock blades froze, completely motionless.
Princess Luna’s glowing eyes were impossible to miss in the dark skies clouded with her own presence and that of the gargoyle’s smoke. Her horn was plunged directly into its forehead. Energy lit up the runes all over the stone terror’s body and drew itself into the Princess while two night guards ushered ponies away from the terrible, awe-inducing spectacle. When the Dark Alicorn withdrew her horn like a sword from the stone, all the darkness in the gargoyle vanished and it crumbled in an avalanche over the places ponies had been standing.
~~~
“Rapidfire found me in the Everfree Forest by the place we got lost before, the one with the bridge by the castle ruins. Remember?”
Soarin’ didn’t answer; he was sleeping peacefully. “Guess I’ll save the Wonder Trial for tomorrow. Looks like you need a nap.” She flicked his nose with one of her feathers. He rumpled his muzzle and rolled over. Somehow Soarin’ had escaped with only flesh wounds. “Triumph in the face of adversity. If it’d been me, I would have at least broken a wing.”
Hoofsteps through the doorway announced Spitfire and Rapidfire. “Hey Rainbow Dash,” Spiftire said. “Sorry it took so long for us to get back to you. We had to check on the others first. How’s he doing?”
“He fell asleep. I guess the nurses wouldn’t be too happy if I drew on him again.”
Rapidfire shook his head. “Soarin’ does not know when to quit. He went through a lot to stay in form and train you every week.”
Spitfire eased the party of three towards the window where they could talk without disturbing the other patients. “That’s what we’re really here for. Rapids and I are supposed to show you the ropes and get you settled in. Normally we’d induct you first, but because half the team’s in the hospital right now we’ll wait. So first thing’s first, I’ll let you know you have a suite at headquarters now. You don’t have to live on base – a couple of us don’t – but I suggest sticking around for the first few weeks. The practice schedule is hell to get used to.”
Rapidfire nodded once. “I am able to show you around headquarters now if you are willing.”
Rainbow Dash looked from her new teammates to Soarin’ and thought about it. “I need a week to wrap up at the weather patrol. How about the day after tomorrow I’ll move some of my things into the base and you can show me my room.” If Spitfire said getting used to the Wonderbolt routine was intense, then it was intense.
They made plans for either Spitfire or Rapidfire to meet Rainbow Dash at Wonderbolt HQ in two days.
In one week she’d begin her new life as a Wonderbolt. Training would start with observation of daily practice alongside coaching from Spitfire and Rapidfire on the team’s flight patterns. After that she would get on the practice field for real. Pretty soon she’d be soaring through her first air show, racing her first derby, getting dispatched on her first mission… Pinkie Pie would probably want to hold a party before she left.
Everything was happening very fast. For a pony with little patience and a lot of speed, it felt good.
Rainbow Dash remembered a critically important question she had to ask. “Uh, Spitfire, one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Can I have a winged lightning bolt on my next uniform? It’s way cooler.”
~~~
In the morning Soarin’s nurse told him if he kept recovering at this rate, they’d discharge him from the hospital tomorrow. The nurse asked what his secret was, to which Soarin replied that there were some things worth not waiting for. Also, it was very boring to lay in bed all day waiting for your friends to visit you.
Fortunately he had Rainbow Dash’s adventure stories to pass the time.
“Hey Dash, you ever thought of writing these down?”
“No way! I’m not some egghead like Twilight. Besides, I’m too busy to sit around and scribble, and the last time I had a ghostwriter he kept messing up what I was saying.”
Soarin’ laughed. “Better get used to that. I know you’ve had some experience with the press.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. Anyway, did anypony tell you about the Wonder Trial when I was away?”
Soarin’ said no and Rainbow Dash launched into a tale of near misses with sea cliffs and meeting the other potential Wonderbolts. He knew when she told him about pulling together two of the other competitors to take on an enchanted bouncy ball together that she had listened to his lessons after all.
It sounded like his friends designed a test to push against the one thing they were most concerned with: finding a Wonderbolt who knew life wasn’t only about them all the time. Somepony who could deal with unexpected situations, who was resilient and wouldn’t give up, who knew what camaraderie was. He’d known this pony was Rainbow Dash for a while now. In Equestria there were many pegasi with superb flight skills and unique techniques. Only a few possessed that and, how should he say it, spirit. A dash of loyalty.
After all, Rainbow Dash stated, Fleetfoot never said you had to catch the ball to win.
~~~
Pinkie Pie would have thrown a party even if every royal pony in Equestria asked her not to.
Rainbow Dash kept pushing her friends off of her. “Aw come on guys, I’m like, two hours away. And that’s on a slow day. You know I only have two speeds, and slow isn’t one of them.”
“Of course,” Rarity said. “I’m just quite surprised. To think that you would move to Canterlot before I opened up another boutique there.”
“I’m not getting rid of my house. Hay, I’ll probably be around here on weekends and if we’ve got a performance near Ponyville.”
Fluttershy sipped her punch, not noticing that the hole in the glass caused it all to dribble onto the floor and none of it made it to her mouth. “Was it really that easy to pass the Wonder Trial?”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “My entire life’s worth of training. Yeah, easy.”
Twilight took the opportunity to spout some sage wisdom Princess Celestia would like to hear, something about the test not being the important part but instead the journey to get there. A single test wasn’t a good way to evaluate a lifetime of training, skill, and talent. Might as well give a pony a single parchment and tell them to paint a life-size picture of the sky.
Every pony in town wanted to meet the newest Wonderbolt. Rainbow Dash signed pictures and posters so fast she almost scorched them. Scootaloo nearly had a fan seizure and she had to prop the little pegasus back up. Word was the orange filly was able to fly now. Rainbow Dash wondered if some day she would be a Wonderbolt too, or if her talent and dreams lay elsewhere. Scootaloo still had to find her cutie mark after all.
Later Fluttershy helped Rainbow Dash pack her favorite belongings into an airborne cart. Her friend put Tank’s food dishes on top of the stack of entertainment equipment. “Will he be okay? Is there enough to eat there and space to run around in?”
Tank took his time lifting up a foot while Rainbow Dash spoke. “They have gardens around headquarters. I think he’ll like it. The staff will probably spoil him too, if the team doesn’t. It takes a special kind of pet to keep up with a Wonderbolt.” Rainbow Dash winked and knocked hooves with Tank. He was the last to get into the cart.
Fluttershy looked down. “So. Um. I guess this is goodbye.”
“Oh come on Fluttershy, goodbye for a few hours maybe. I’m still on weather patrol for the next few days. After that it’ll be a lot less sunny around here.”
The fluttering shy pony didn’t take the bait and kept being quiet. Rainbow Dash huffed and gave her a hug. “You know I’ll always be near. It’s me you’re talking about, remember? There isn’t any place in Equestria that is far away for me. I’ll tell you about all the different animals I see when I travel for performances.”
“Okay.” Fluttershy brightened up. This was how Fluttershy should be. Now Rainbow Dash could go get that tour of headquarters and pretend like she hadn’t set foot there before.
- - -
The Wonderbolts base was as she remembered it, situated in the mountains off of Canterlot where visitors were not likely to travel on foot. Her second home was majestic cloud architecture rising out of green gardens and all the fresh air a pegasus could ever want.
There were a few ponies who helped keep the compound clean and the gardens growing. During the tour Rainbow Dash noticed plush cloud shoes on an earth pony watering a rose bush. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen the shoes here.
“Hey Rapidfire, what are those anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked now that she had the chance.
“Cloud slippers. If ponies can’t enchant their own feet the slippers let them walk off the cloud marble without trouble. The magic wears off, but it’s easy for a unicorn to recharge. If it were not necessary to fly to reach clouds in the first place, the invention would be more popular.” The Wonderbolt base was a cloud merged with the ground, so ponies could walk up to it if they had the magic to do so.
By the time they reached the practice field they had a small cohort of followers. Every one of the Wonderbolts there wanted to tell her something special about this room and that photo and the unfixed crack in the wall over there.
Rapidfire ignored his chatty friends. “Starting Monday expect to meet me here 0830 hours sharp. Practice starts at 0900, but when you come early I can explain how training works. You’ll get one hour to observe and then Spitfire will take you out for basic training. When you’re ready the three of us will practice together, and then you’ll join regular flight training. There are other training components, of course, including combat practice, free flight, and magic study.”
Rainbow Dash groaned inwardly at the thought of studying magic like Twilight.
“Performance planning, talent scouting, public face-time, requests from Canterlot – it’s all a part of life around here. There’s a lot to take in. I wrote out a schedule for you and left it on the table in your room.”
The stallion allowed himself a smile. “Try not to get too overwhelmed. If you’re feeling stressed you can ask any of us how we survived our first few weeks.” A chorus of agreement followed Rapidfire’s remark.
Rainbow Dash was aware that Soarin’ joined their little herd. Rapidfire led them across the field and under an archway and turned left into another hall. This was the first time she’d seen this part of HQ. Pony portraits covered one side of the hallway, each lined up square with the next row after row after row. The opposite side of the hallway only had a few images, one for each of the current Wonderbolts. She wasn’t there yet.
“Welcome to the hall of fame,” Rapidfire said. “In our case, the current team scoreboard. You’ll learn how it works as you go. The rules are always changing.”
This was the point in the tour where everypony in back stopped listening and started their own conversation. The group following Rainbow Dash and Rapidfire had become very lively. Soarin’ pushed past Surprise and Wave Chill. “What Rapidfire means to say,” Soarin’ said, sweeping Rainbow Dash away from her mentor with his wing and pulling her along with him. “Is that there is a first place and a last place. First is right here.” He stopped at the end of the current team portraits.
Of everypony there, Soarin’ had first place.
Lightning Streak hollered over Blaze’s head. “Oh yeah right Soarin’, oi think she’s callin yer bluff mate.”
Soarin’ stamped his hoof. “Darn it Lightning Streak. Thanks a lot.”
Correction: Soarin’ was in last place. She raised an eyebrow and he shrugged. He really had pushed himself too hard to train her, hadn’t he?
“Ahem,” Rapidfire picked up where he’d been interrupted. “That concludes the tour for now. I’ll leave the rest of it for you to explore yourself. Tomorrow evening we’ll do the official welcome ceremony and survive the mess of introducing you to Equestria. Other than that you have no duties until next week.”
Spitfire brought a picture of Rainbow Dash to the wall and hung it on a new peg next to Soarin’s. All Wonderbolts present stamped their hooves and cheered. Surprise elbowed Soarin’. “How’s it feel to not be last anymore?”
“Ah shut it Surprise,” Soarin’ bumped her back playfully. “The first thing Rainbow Dash is gonna have to do is get past me, so it’ll be like this for a while.”
Rainbow Dash knew a challenge when she heard one. “You’re on Soarin’.”
- - -
They showered her with diamonds.
It felt… actually, it hurt! What was she thinking when she looked forward to this? “Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.” She cringed while the brilliant gems pelted her from above, bouncing off her soft pelt and musically clattering on the floor.
After the traditional Wonderbolt induction ceremony was over, strangers came up to her and congratulated her. They wanted to know more about her, where she was from, if she could fly past lightning, if she was the pony at the Grand Galloping Gala, if she was the pegasus who did the Sonic Rainboom. She loved hearing from her fans. Her pride swelled until she could barely stay on her feet to shake hooves and sign photos. Camera flashes peppered the evening and reflected off the gold on her Wonderbolt gear. Reporters pulled her to the side for interviews. Throngs of ponies followed her every move but parted before her when she crossed the room. It was like walking down an infinite red carpet.
Rarity basked in the camera light and Fluttershy shied away, but all of her friends came to support her. It was hard to talk to them when she was constantly being corralled into photo shoots. Now she knew how Soarin’ and Spitfire must have felt at the Grand Galloping Gala when she tried to get their attention. “Sorry!” she shouted to Applejack, feeling bad that again somepony grabbed her and pulled her away mid-conversation. Hopefully her strong-willed friend could forgive her.
The reception went on and on and on into the night.
- - -
Rainbow Dash threw herself onto her bed. “Soarin’ that was the worst thing ever.”
He stood at the bedside and laughed. “I warned you a long time ago, but you didn’t believe me.”
“I like attention, but it was way too much. I have no idea how many times I repeated the same thing. I should’ve shoved all the media into one room and talked to them all at once. Get it done and get on with the party. I think I’m losing my voice.” It felt gritty now and was going to be raw in the morning for sure. “Ugh.” Her wings collapsed next to her.
“You’ll get used to it.”
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and found Soarin’ looking into them. She couldn’t read his expression. Suddenly she didn’t feel so tired anymore.
“Dash, I want to show you something.” The stallion stepped back and waited to see if she would follow. She drew herself out of the comfortable bed.
He took her down the hallway in the dead of the summer night. Soft light glowed from sconces along the ceiling, guiding their path. The hall ended and Soarin’ turned, bringing them along the outer corridor open to the world. Luna’s moon and stars were the only lights outside. A grand garden basked in the blue-white glow, but Soarin’ didn’t lead her onto the garden path. They came to a door and he paused to open it.
She’d noticed this room before from the other side. An open doorway across the room connected to one of the halls. The main feature of the space was a large round table in the center. On one wall was a map of the entire world. A select few coats of arms and decorations hung on the other walls.
Soarin’ brought her in front of the decorations. Each was different. The one that caught her eye was a flat golden wreath of wings from pegasi, griffins, dragons, and other flight-gifted races. Soarin’ tipped his head to the strange artwork. “These are trophies from a global flight competition that happens every four years. The Wonderbolts haven’t competed in a while and I’ve never seen it myself. Equestria hasn’t won in a long time.”
She looked from one award to the next and stopped at the empty space where the next one would go. “Hadn’t. Hadn’t won.”
She meant what she’d just said. They were going to win. Already the possibilities were beginning to unfold in her mind.
Soarin’ turned around and their eyes locked. He was standing right in front of her. All she had to do was reach. His voice was soft because they were so close. “Remember what I told you that day we raced to the top of the Canterlot mountains? When you were worried there wouldn’t be anything to strive for after you became a Wonderbolt?”
“Yeah. ’There’s always more.’” For some reason the phrase stuck in her mind. She searched the green depths of his eyes and saw the same desire she had at the dance, only this time there was nothing to hold them back.
The space separating them grew smaller and smaller. Soarin’ whispered, “So I had this crazy idea.”
“Win against the best fliers the world,” she finished. The two Wonderbolts closed their eyes.
“That, and…” Soarin’s barely audible words brushed her lips. “…us.”
Just
~~~
do it.
Both pegasi leaned forward, meeting each other gently in the middle.
It was their first kiss, it wasn’t going to be their best kiss, and it certainly wouldn’t be their last kiss, so who gives a flying feather what it felt like?
Which was, in a word, awesome. Because if you took a word and turned it into a pony, that word would be awesome and the pony would be Rainbow Dash and he was kissing her.
All around Equestria there was a collective sigh as a sudden epiphany struck two sets of fans. Each sensed that the pony they pined for was taken, that their unrealistic fantasy was exactly that. Then, as if the fog lifted from their thoughts, they realized they did indeed love somepony, somepony who’d been under their noses the whole time, somepony who was waiting to be noticed.
It was that kind of kiss. That kiss, and the kiss after that, and the kiss after that. Warmth filled Soarin’s body from his hooves to his heart. Her face felt so soft against his own. He wanted it closer; she had to be closer. When he reached for her, her wingtips were already there stretching to wrap around him. Smooth feathers slid between his and their wings twined together. Sweet kisses started to turn fiery and passionate.
Rainbow Dash pushed him into the wall and he mmm’ed his surprise.
“Shh! Someone’s coming,” she whispered with laughter in her voice.
Soarin’ voiced a silent “oh” and broke his cloud magic. He sank into the wall. There was only so much cloud between the open room and the solid inner part he couldn’t go through. Rainbow Dash tried to hide herself next to him. The best she could do was pull her flashy mane and tail inside and flip her wings straight up. Hopefully nopony was going to do a close inspection of the room and notice the strange pony-shaped lumps in the wall. Now they’d really look suspicious if caught.
Hoofsteps approached the garden side door he’d left open. More than one pony, it sounded like. Soarin’ recognized Surprise’s voice. “Wave Chill is busy looking behind in the middle of the flight pattern. One second he’s talking to Lightning Streak and the next he has an angry gull flapping around in his mane. So he’s racing around like a punch drunk pegasus with this bird in his hair while we avoid the rest of the flock. Finally the gull gets free and Wave Chill apologizes, but it just slaps him upside the head and caws.”
The two ponies in the wall waited until the hoofsteps were gone.
Rainbow Dash tried to choke back a snicker, but it was useless. They ended up falling over each other in a fit of merriment. Any passerby would definitely notice the two laughing bundles of feathers tangled together on the floor.
When they stopped Soarin’ was sprawled on his stomach with Rainbow Dash draped over his back. She was warm like a heavy blanket. He would’ve loved to fall asleep then and there like that, but she got up.
“C’mon Soarin’, we better get some sleep.”
They went to his room on the other side of the circle first. Despite the long day, the Wonderbolts were still out and about. They passed Blaze in the hallway, probably on her way for a late night snack in the kitchen. Wave Chill was engrossed in the glowing TV screen in the common area. Surprise and High Winds were on a night flight in the practice field.
Rainbow Dash wished him goodnight in front of his door. She kissed him again. It was all he could do not to kick the door behind him open with a back hoof and coax her inside. This was probably the last time he’d have her to himself before Spitfire and Rapidfire redirected all of her time and energy into basic training.
Even though he went to bed alone, Soarin’ was very, very happy.