//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Fabulous Wonderbolts Part 1 // by Primary213 //------------------------------// The next couple of days were the same. Meet up with spitfire, we'd do practice and warm ups, then we would go off and do our individual performances. By the end of the week, I had the bolts heart out nearly perfected and spitfire knew it. She was still wanting me to work out the details by the time it was a day before the gala, this time we did it with a crowd and I still was pulling it off precise. Spitfire insisted that I continue and we do it again even though I was doing it to the best of my ability so far. I still listened to her though because I knew we had a job to preform and I had to be sure I wasn't going to mess up at the actual gala. "Soarin your doing it pretty well, but just make sure your doing it perfect." She said. I was pretty sure I was, but she wanted me to try better, so I did. "Yes captain. I'll try harder captain." I told her. She just nodded and we went at it again. I quickly followed and we tried it another fifteen times that day, making it a total of seventeen tries that whole day. It was tiring and I went to my home and called it a night. That night I was thinking about Rainbow Dash and what she was going to wear at the gala, or even if she was gunna go. I really had hoped she would because I would hate to do a big performance and then not have her there to be happy with me. That would be bad, but I had a feeling she would be there to have fun with me at the gala. -----------------------next day We were all trying to rush in last minute practice time because the bolts had to be at the gala one and a half hour earlier than the rest. We had about two hours before that time and the six of us who were going and performing were still trying to practice a little more. We had our flight suits on and the goggles. The only thing that was going to be different was that there would be an announcer, and you know the princess would be watching us preform but we didn't let that effect our diligent training. "Alright ponies! You have twenty minutes to get ready for the gala meet up here after that and we take off to Canterlot." Said spitfire. I decided to go and pack my lieutenant shirt and tie, also my two lieutenant pins that go on the collar for after the performance. Everypony was doing there own thing to get ready. I was tempted to go see if Rainbow Dash was getting ready, but I knew I wouldn't have the to do that. I just had a snack and waited outside with spitfire. Her and I got a chance to speak and she said Wonderbolts that preform at the gala get a medal that you can put on the shirt. Spitfire already had three. "Alright times up! Is everypony here that is going?" Spitfire yelled out. "Yes ma'am we are ready for departure!" We all said in unison. We then followed spitfire up in the air and flew to Canterlot. It wasn't too far away from the base, just in case they needed us for an emergency, we would be right there on call. We flew for a good fifteen minutes and then we went under the could layer and saw Canterlot Castle. It was absolutely amazing seeing it from up in the sky. As we got closer, you could see the ponies rushing around everywhere, hurrying to fix up the Castle to look nice and prepare for the ceremony. When we came down, we arrived at the center carpet where everypony would arrive and walk down. The announcer there ran us by the procedure. "We wait until there are a good enough amount of ponies there, we then wait for the announcer to say his introduction and just as he says our name, we zoom over the crowd and do our moves that signal the start of the gala!" Spitfire said. We all looked at each other and knew we would get it down easy. We then started setting up our stuff and got ready as the night progressed. Some ponies were already arriving. I was looking for Rainbow Dash while also getting ready for the performance. I was keeping a steady eye on which ponies were here and if she had arrived yet. She had not arrived yet when spitfire called us in for a talk. "Alright Wonderbolts! This is it! This is the night we preform our best for Celestia. Where we show the crowd what it's like to be a true flyer of Equestria! Where our admirers look at the sky and see those infamous blue and yellow suits and yell and scream for us to do what we do best. All that training and all that hard work will pay off now! Instead of being down there with the rest of the ponies, your up here and each and every one of you is going to fly your hearts out in this performance and everypony will cheer our names and forever remember this night. So lets give them something to remember! Come on pegusai we can do this!" She said. While she said this, we were all huddled together. We were all pumped up and we could hear the announcer. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, it is with great pride and honor that I present to you, the opening act to the Grand Galloping Gala! Coming straight from Cloudsdale, The Fabulous Wonderbolts!" At that instant I had a flashback as me as a child watching on my fathers back the ponies fly over my head and now, I was the pony flying over head, I was going to be someponys hero to look at in the sky and will forever remember. At the same time the announcer finished his announcement, we all did the fly by and we could all hear everypony's scream and yell. We flew over them all and we all stayed looking forward then I looked over at spitfire and she nodded at me and the other bolts and we broke off and I continued with spitfire forward. We then sharply turned up and started the bolts heart out. We could hear all the ponies below us screaming and yelling, and to be honest I loved the attention. After flying fast upward, we reached the altitude we needed to be and at that instant I heard spitfire yell go and we both backflip end over in view of the moon and our lightning trails created a perfect heart! Just as we stopped the heart, fireworks shot up and filled it with red explosions. I looked back at it and was amazed I could do something like that. We all then flew one by one in front of the front doors of the Castle and, while everypony was going inside, we were there to give them autographs and stuff like that. "Wow can you believe all this publicity?" I said out loud as we were rushed by a bunch of ponies to get autographs and things like that. I had my goggles down around my neck and was signing things for all these ponies. I was having so much fun! The gala was open but, we were all far too busy with the fans. I was trying to look around for Rainbow Dash but I couldn't find her at all. I was starting to think she didn't show up. "Hey spitfire, can I go out into the gala now?" I asked her. "Huh? Oh yeah go for it kid. You've earned it!" She replied. She was full of nothing but fans all around her and so was I, so I signed some more stuff while trying to look for Rainbow. She was no where in sight, so I finally decided to look around. I went into a restroom and changed into my lieutenant shirt and tie and went out into the gala looking like that. When I passed the Wonderbolts again I didn't think any of the ponies would notice me. "Hey Soarin here take this! You earned it!" Said spitfire. She went over to a small table behind the Wonderbolts and threw me a medal and pin, along with blue aviator sunglasses I put on the sunglasses and put the pin and medal on my shirt. I felt proud now and I coaxed my head up while walking through the neatly decorated halls of the Castle. I kept on my search for Rainbow Dash but I couldn't quite find her. I looked in the garden, in the ball room, near the VIP section, and in the front of the Castle. Nothing. I finally just decided to go out in the garden and sit there. I had my head on a table and just kept signing. "I meant for that performance to be seen by her, what's the point If Dash didn't see it? She isn't coming Soarin so just give up." I sad to myself. I just signed again and looked at the table. I really did feel sad because I wanted her to see me perform and me flying my best. I just sat there, alone and when I looked around, all the other ponies had another pony to share this night with, but not I. "Hey Soarin! It's me!" When I looked up to the sound of the voice, there she was. She looked more beautiful then ever before. Her dress was a rainbow of colors, literally. She looked absolutely amazing! That's all I could say about her. She ran up to me at that table. "Hey, wow you look very beautiful!" I told her. She blushed and looked away for a couple of seconds, then looked back up at me. "Sorry I am late, one of my friends was taking a while so I had to wait up until she was ready. You look really good yourself too." She replied. I just looked at her in amazement on how good she looked. "It's ok as long as you are here now. So I'm assuming you didn't see our performance?" I said. She looked down and just shook her head in sadness. I put my hoof on her chin and raised her face up so we were looking at each other again. "I really don't mind if you didn't see the performance, as long as your here, then I am happy and this night just got a whole lot better with you here." I told her. She smiled and her and I got something to eat. While we were eating, I was telling her about the performance and how well we did. She just listened and laughed when I said a joke or two. "Hey you wanna go inside in the ball room?" She asked. I looked at her and nodded. We both went into the ball room and we slow danced to two songs. Then I told her I wanted to go outside. We both went back out to the gardin and were talking to each other. "The show was amazing, I wish you were there to see it Rainbow." I told her. She looked at me in amazement when I told her about the tricks we did. "Wow sounds like you guys really had fun! Too bad I didn't see it." She said. I reached and softly took her hoof with mine. "Look Rainbow, the thing that kept me going in the academy and all throughout practice was the hope that you would see the performance and even though you didn't, I was still happy to see your beautiful self here today with me. I was really happy when I saw you run toward me. Before that, I felt sad and I thought you weren't going to come after all." I told her. I was starting to get closer to her. "Well soarin, to be honest, I was telling my friends to hurry up so I could leave and see you guys perform, but we didn't get here on time. But when I saw you sitting there on that chair, I was overwhelmed with happiness and ran toward you." She said. She was getting closer to me too. We were both getting closer to each other. I was starting to get nervous. "In all this time, I had to think about it and well...I had to know what was causing this sense of relief when I am around you. It's like-" "We both feel safe around each other and are sad when we are apart." We both said together. We looked up into each others eyes, "Rainbow Dash, I-I love you." I said to her in a soft tone. "Soarin, I love you too, ever since I first met you, I knew I would." She said softly as well. She was getting closer to me and we both looked at each other and slowly, our heads got closer and we both closed our eyes and kissed. For both of us, it was and truly still is to me, a night I will never forget.