//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: When Love Took Flight 
// Story: Always There 
// by LuigiBoy781 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 6: When Love Took Flight


Rainbow Dash's party had lasted until the moon made itself visible in the midst of night, leaving everypony weary as they all said their farewells. Drinking cider before they departed made it even harder for them to walk straight, especially for Aden. Rainbow had dared him to chug three whole glasses of Applejack's so called hardcore cider in less than a minute.

Of course he was going to refuse to such an oblivious challenge, but how could he say no to those adorable eye's?

And so he did, making Rainbow become extremely happy as she congratulated him. Aden felt glad when he pleased her, his reward was just a single hoof bump, but he couldn't have been any happier.

Well, that was until the effects of the cider kicked in. Having to walk through town with the effects of dizziness, and an unbearable headache wasn't an easy task. Apparently, Rainbow Dash and the others decided to spend the night at Twilights house, whilst the others returned to the safety of their homes.

And that's where Aden was headed. He walked down the silent streets of Ponyville, the lights from a nearby window lit up the streets with a soft glow of gold. 

He continued his struggle to get home, his eyesight blurred, and his legs begging him to stop and rest. But he had to get home before he could do that. But Aden didn't notice the sound of a door opening nearby, causing him to gaze into the blinding light until a figure emerged from it.

"Aden, is that you?" It was Thunderlane, and apparently he noticed him from his bedside window. So he came 

"Oh, hey Thunderlane," Aden said as his hooves wobbled beneath him, not able to support his weight anymore. Thunderlane noticed this and decided to help him in this time of need.

"You look tired, wanna come in?" He asked. Aden nodded groggily in response, attempting to hide his weakness as he limped through the doorway. They casually entered through the front door, and as they entered Aden noticed other ponies sitting down on the furniture.

"Who are they?" He pointed to the three ponies who were sitting idly.

"These are a couple of friends of mine from the Weather team, and they're spending the night here at my place," Thunderlane said as Aden and him took a seat. 

"This is Blue Bolt, Jet Stream, and Sky Crasher," Thunderlane gestured to his three friends, receiving a small wave from the three.

"Well, nice to meet you guys, I'm Aden."

Thunderlane slowly leaned inward toward his four friends. "Okay, since now that we got introductions out of the way," Thunderlane paused, setting his gaze on Aden. "We were just about to play Truth or Dare, wanna join us?" His friends awaited for Aden to give his response.

Aden pondered on the thought for a moment, but quickly came up with a simple answer. "Sure, why not?"

The five began to play Truth or Dare. Each one of Thunderlane's friends and himself were dared to do indescribable  dares that put their sanity on the line. Time passed quickly as they laughed at each others misery, but each of them got their share of humiliation, and now It was Aden's turn again to choose either truth or dare. Each dare seemed to become even more cruel and harsh every time they chose, so not wanting to end up like one of them, Aden went with his only other option.

"I choose truth." 

Thunderlane thought of a question to ask Aden, and after a minute or so, he finally thought of one. A small, evil grin became evident on his face. This made Aden worry a little, but he just ignored it and waited for the inevitable.

I shouldn't worry about this, it's just one question. How bad can it be? Aden thought as Thunderlane spoke up.

"How did you fall in love with Rainbow Dash?"

Oh...that bad.

Aden put a hoof up to his chin, trying to think of some easy way to tell him without making a fool of himself. 

"Well, when I came here, I met Rainbow Dash and the others. Then, she became my teacher," Aden stated. "And I guess over time I started to like her more and more, and eventually I fell head over hooves for her."

Thunderlane looked over to the others, their faces clearly indicating that they were eager to know more of Aden's tale. "I remember that one day, you said that you were going to practice flying with Rainbow. So I know that something happened between you two somewhere along the line, because what ever happened to you made you talk about her nonstop the very next day." 

"Yeah, I guess I did do that," Aden sheepishly stated. But before he could even reply, he noticed the clock hanging above, and it was almost midnight.

Man, I've been here a while. I should really get home! Aden said to himself.        

"Sorry guys, but it's getting late, I gotta get home to get some rest," Aden replied. "Maybe next time I'll tell you."

So Aden left as the four waved goodbye to him, leaving them with a new topic to talk about. And that short rest at Thunderlane's place helped Aden recover his strength, but still he was tired overall. After walking through Ponyville in the midst of the night, he found himself at his front door. He gave the door a gentle push the door to his cloud home, the soft fluffy clouds underneath his hooves as he walked towards his room.

Approaching his bed, he plopped down, the soft mattress cushioning his landing. To his right, there stood a picture of both him and Rainbow, making him reminisce about the old days. The memories slowly replaying in his mind as he drifted off into the sweet embrace of sleep.


***


Aden walked through the bustling crowd of ponies, moving his hooves in a steady rhythm as he passed each one of them. Beyond, he reached a small park-like glade right on the town’s edge filled with a few tall trees and some artfully placed bushes. He slowly approached an open field where he practiced his flight skills, but no student ever practices without some sort of teacher. In this situation, that pony was, one of his best friends and his flight tutor.

Aden was excited, this was the day he looked forward to every week. He loved to practice his skills ever since he started, training almost every day before this day came around. He would take this day as a challenge, to see if he had improved or not. And not to mention he would spend time with one of his best friends. He couldn't ask for anything better, right? But he didn't realize that there was more to this friendship than he thought. Every time he was near her, he would barely pay attention to her and would be at a loss for words when she said something to him, making himself look like a complete idiot. Although, Rainbow Dash never really told him that she found that little feature about him somewhat cute. But still, he couldn't describe the torrent of emotions that bugged him endlessly, it was like his heart was trying to tell him something that he couldn't comprehend.

The answer seemed clear that he may harbor some feelings for her, but he would usually toss them aside and continue on with his day, not wanting to ruin the friendship that he and Rainbow shared. So with those thoughts still lingering in depths of mind as he approached her. Rainbow lifted her head, giving Aden a warm smile before she trotted over to him with a playful grin.

"Hey Aden, looks like I beat you here...again," Rainbow said boastfully.

"Good morning to you too, Rainbow Dash," he replied, rolling his eyes as he did so. "So, what are we doing today?"

"The usual, so you know what to do," Rainbow replied as she walked off to a distant cloud and laid down on it, leaving Aden on his own.

Sure, go sleep on a cloud and leave me to do one-hundred wing ups, and ten laps around Ponyville, Aden sighed before he put on a confident grin. Well, I better get started

So Aden began by doing his wing ups, but even though Aden was in the midst of training, his mind wandered else where. He thought of what happened over the past few years, thinking back to the very first day he set foot (or hoof) into Equestria. He remembered how confused he and his siblings were when they arrived, but then they were soon greeted by Celestia herself who told them all about what had happened to them. And once they all understood what was happening, Celestia decided to introduce Aden and the others to Ponyville to help them get use to their world.

That is where Aden first met Rainbow Dash and the others.  While Aden and his three siblings stayed in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash and Aden discovered that they had many similarities and became the best of friends. Over time, Rainbow learned that Aden still didn't know how to fly, so that was when she decided to teach him herself. 

Then months later, here they are again, doing the same thing that they've done every day. He smiled as the memories played in his mind as he counted his final wing up. 

"Now I just have to do ten laps," Aden said as he stretched his wings before he took to the sky. His surroundings whisked pass him as he shot across the open air. His thoughts kept him busy as he raced around Ponyville over and over again as the time went by. But then, something captivated his attention, making his eyes widen and threw his mind into a state of confusion. It was Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, What are you doing here? I thought you were sleeping."

"Well, I was sleeping until I got bored, so I decided to wake myself up by flying, and I eventually met up with you here," she said simply, not showing any sign of weariness from awakening minutes ago.

Rainbow and Aden slowly crossed the sky as everything became quiet, giving Rainbow Dash to think of something to break the silence, but then something rather interesting idea came to mind.

"Hey, Aden!" Rainbow said, causing Aden to flinch as his thoughts were once again thrown out of proportion. "Since you're on your last lap, I thought we should see how much you've improved from last time. So let's see who can make it back first to where we met up."

Aden nodded in agreement, so the two of them stopped in the air and prepped themselves, ready to take off into the open blue.

"All right, in 3..2..1...," Rainbow paused for a short while, causing Aden to look over in her direction to see if something happened. But by the time that Aden glanced over, she was gone. Aden looked back to what was in front of him and saw that she had got a late start.

"Very funny Rainbow Dash," Aden said with a grin before he shot towards his friend at an alarming speed, desperately trying to catch up. Rainbow noticed that Aden had found out about her little ruse. So she started flapping her wings harder, trying to gain some distance between herself and Aden. But eventually they were neck and neck, trying to overtake one another as they sailed through the sky like streams of light.

No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't outmatch each other. It seemed like that they were evenly skilled, but there was one thing that Aden forgot.

A noticeable cone started to appear around Rainbow as she closed her eyes in pure concentration. He took action, falling a little behind as he used this position to gain more speed. The cone grew more narrow with every second, while Aden slowly came up to her side, as he too became engulfed in the cone.

The two were to busy concentrating to notice the cone around them at her side. The sound barrier shattered as it left behind the sound of thunder. Aden desperately hung on for his life as they both zoomed cross their makeshift finish line, slowly coming to a stop as they landed safely onto the silklike .  

They looked back behind them to see a multicolored wave of light spreading across the setting sky. Both of them took their time to gaze at it's the explosion of colors as it soon disappeared into nothing. Looking back to Rainbow, Aden struggled to breathe as his head was spinning, moving at such a high speed was a new experience to him. But although he couldn't really focus, he managed to speak without falling over.

"So, who won?"

Rainbow turned to him, in a rather calm manner. "That doesn't really matter, but you were actually pretty good out there, I've never really had a draw before. It's actually nice to have somepony who can go as fast as me."

"But I thought Rainbow Dash was supposed to be unbeatable and have no equals," Aden teased.

"That is true," Rainbow paused. "But...you're the exception."

Aden started to chuckled and Rainbow soon joined him. A short while after, the laughter died and it became quiet, both of them silently thought of what to say next. Then Aden looked up to Rainbow Dash, making him lose all focus. He stared at her as the sun set behind her, the way that the sun reflected off of her made it seem like she was some sort of goddess who descended from the heavens.

"Wow, you look beautiful!" Aden blurted, regretting it soon afterwards. Why did I say that!

Almost instantly, Rainbow's cheeks flamed from within. "Thanks, but I'm not as pretty as Rarity or the others," she said, trying to conceal her distress as she put on a fake smile. 

Aden took immediate action and spoke his mind to his friend who stood in front of him. "What do mean? You're just as beautiful as Rarity or any other pony I've met," he declared.

"Thanks Aden, nopony has really ever said that to me before," Rainbow said, and shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't care about what others had to say about her appearance. But on the inside, it did bother her a bit.

"Wait, nopony has ever told you that? What about Soarin?" Aden asked.

Aden could've sworn he saw Rainbow flinch when he said those words. She turned away from him and stood quietly. The only thing that they could hear was the gentle summer breeze as it peacefully moved the clouds above them. 

Then, she finally broke the silence as she spoke up. "He used to tell me that every time we were together... but he hasn't said anything like that to me in a long time. You see, Soarin and I don't talk much anymore because of him being a Wonderbolt, and whenever I talk with him, he seems... different. It feels like I'm losing him, and I don't know what to do, Aden." 

Um, what do I say, what do I say? Aden bit his lip, trying come up with something to comfort his friend. "This is just something that eveypony goes through when they're in a relationship, so just know that deep inside, Soarin loves you with all of his heart and that will never change. Well, if he didn't love you, then he would have called it off with you a long time ago, right?" Aden said, throwing a hoof around her shoulder. Rainbow felt more secure with Aden by her side, she felt a weird tingly sensation that she couldn't describe as he held her.

Aden took his arm off of Rainbow, startling her in the process. "I bet a good flight will cheer you up, come on, let's go!"

He ascended into the night sky, signaling her to come join him with his hoof. Rainbow was about to join him, but suddenly stopped and thought to herself for a brief moment, making notice of the darkness that surrounded them.

"Aden, you do know that its pitch black out here, right?" Rainbow gestured to the darkened sky around them. 

Aden only smiled at Rainbow's statement. "You're always looking around, but you never bother to look up." Rainbow didn't know what he meant, but when she shifted her attention skyward, she couldn't believe what she saw.

There were bright little lights scattered across the moonlit sky, causing a soft glow of light that illuminated the area around her. As Rainbow stared into the sky with her mouth agape, Aden slowly crept up behind her, not wanting to give away his position. Then as he finally made his way behind her, he gently tapped her on the shoulder. Rainbow broke free from her thoughts as she felt the tap, and turned to face him.

"Tag, you're it," Aden said, whilst Rainbow became confused. Aden rolled his eyes in annoyance before he spoke again.  "Are you going to chase me, or just stand there?"

"Well, I always accept a challenge," she stated looking directly into his eyes.

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Before Rainbow could react, Aden leaped into the air, speeding away to the shimmering skies above. Rainbow thought to herself for a moment as she stood firmly on the cloud. Well, if you can't beat em , join em.

So with new determination and a confident grin on her face, Rainbow Dash propelled herself and chased after Aden. They playfully laughed together as they swiftly maneuvered past the clouds, moving at a rather calm and steady speed. The moons radiant light reflecting off the wide lakes below made this whole situation all the more serene. Aden did his very best to avoid contact with the electric blue pegasus, whether it be hiding behind a cloud or trying to fake her out. Even though Aden was in the heat of competition, he seemed to enjoyed this as much as she did. So they continued to soar through the sky in what seemed like perfect unison.

From their vantage point, the entire land stretched out before them, a collection of lights and lakes that all waved under a canopy of brilliant stars. The shining jewel of the event, though, was not the radiating stars nor the breathtaking scenery around them, but this one single moment that Aden and Rainbow shared. Smiling happily and giggling with each other, signs of joy and peace and love that abounded that night. All of it was accompanied by the constant sound of the world around them. This seemed like a moment reserved for fairy tales, because everything seemed absolutely perfect.

After a tedious continuation flying, Aden began to lose focus as he began to tire out, running out of breathe as Rainbow continued to approached. But as Rainbow sped towards him, she lost track of her speed and rammed straight into him, causing them both to hurdle into a nearby cloud. 

They rolled onto the cloud, and unexpectedly, both Aden and Rainbow coincidentally landed right next to each other. They laughed away as they laid on their backs, and as time passed, their laughter died down. They both took their time to observe the stars as they twinkled brightly. Both of them felt a sudden spark of emotion that  neither of then understood, but whatever it was, it made them feel at peace. Aden continued to gaze upon the stars above before Rainbow decided to speak.

"These stars kinda remind me of the Starlight Dance back at flight academy, it's a really fun event when everypony would take somepony else to go with them and they would dance together under the stars."

Without thinking, Aden just said the first thing that came to mind. "Who took you to the dance?"

Rainbow Dash froze, immediately turning her face away from him. “I-I... I um,” she stumbled over her words, her voice breaking at every pause. "I didn't really have anyone to take me to the dance, so I just went by myself."

"If I was there, I would've taken you," he said in an attempt to lift her spirits and apparently, it worked. Rainbow gave him a warm smile, a sheer redness appearing on her face as she did so. 

"Thanks," she said, putting a hoof up to her mouth as she yawned.

And once again, there was another silence, both of them still laid across the soft, velvety cloud. He too also felt the effects of drowsiness take over him as he felt his eyelids go heavy. Man, I'm getting tired. Maybe its time to turn in, Aden told himself before turning his head towards rainbow's direction.

"Hey, shouldn't we go-" he stopped as he saw that Rainbow was fast asleep. Her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. 

"And... you're asleep." Aden stared at her as she slept away before he got up on his hooves and picked her up with his two front hooves as if she were a baby. He carried her all the way across the sleeping town of Ponyville with a snoring Rainbow Dash in tow. Aden made his way through the town, Luna's moon illuminating the streets as he continued to carry her. Rainbow would occasionally squirm around in Aden's hooves to get in a more comfortable position, all Aden could do was smile ear to ear at the cute display. After walking through the darkness of the night, Aden finally reached Rainbow Dash's air-borne home.

He slowly pushed open the front door to avoid waking Rainbow Dash from her slumber. He soon found himself in her room, where he gently placed her down on her bed and quietly tucked her inside the covers. Aden watched her as she rested, asking himself what he should do next. Then, he noticed picture that was placed by her bedside, it was a picture of him and Rainbow Dash. He smiled at the picture before turning his attention back to Rainbow.

"Goodnight Rainbow Dash, sweet dreams." And before he did anything else, he gave Rainbow Dash a light kiss on her forehead. Rainbow snuggled deeper into the covers, smiling softly before she said something that made Aden speechless.

"I love you too."

Aden stood still as questions started to rush in his mind. Was she awake? Was she sleeping? Is this some kind of joke? Or... did she really mean to say that? HIs mind raced back and forth as he tried to regain his composure.

If she really does love me, and if there's a chance of us being together, then there's only one question that matters, Aden thought as he stood right out of Rainbow's bedroom. He looked back to her one last time before he asked himself, Do I love her?

He seemed to space out for a brief moment, staring blankly at Rainbow Dash. But just as he began to think, Rainbow moved in her sleep, causing Aden to snap back into reality. So with one thing in mind, he left the cloud home to return to his own. The flight home only seemed like mere seconds to Aden as his house came into view. Aden entered his home, and went straight to bed. He looked to where the pictures of his family and friends stood, but out of them all, there was that had new meaning to him. It was the same picture that Rainbow Dash had near her bedside. He laid in the covers of his bed as he thought deeply about how he felt about Rainbow, and after looking back to the picture of them together, Aden finally found the answer he was searching for.

I can't deny the fact that I love her, and I can't tell her that I do when she's happy with somepony else. But If anything goes wrong, and if she ever needs me, I'll always be there for her. So with newfound emotions, Aden thought of Rainbow Dash one last time before he fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.