Soarin’ was sore, tired, and not in the best of moods ever. He had one of the worst practices he has ever been in and probably one of the most failed Wonderbolt practices he has ever been in. Nothing went right and he is more tired than ever. Yet he was still conscious enough to figure out that his wife was hiding something from him. Whenever Soarin’ tried to bring up the visit to the doctor’s office to Rainbow Dash, she would interrupt him by talking about today’s practice. She was obviously hiding something and Soarin’ was going to find out. …As soon as every movement doesn’t cause him pain.
He got a quick rest of about 20 minutes and then set out to scour the Wonderbolt H.Q to find Rainbow Dash, even though he wasn’t even sure she was still here. She is fast enough to go wherever she wants whenever she wants so she could be taking refuge in Ponyville with her 5 friends. But Soarin’ was hoping that she was somewhere here so that he could confront her before tonight. That is going to be one awkward nighttime talk and Soarin’ would rather hit the hay earlier then later so he’d rather get this over with before tonight.
Soarin’ first went to find Spitfire in her office, because Rainbow Dash did say she was going to see her. But of course as Soarin’ sort of expected, Spitfire was alone in her and Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. Spitfire was in her office using a horseshoe stamp to stamp some posters similar to the ones that are on her walls. She was also once again in her commander outfit with the sunglasses instead of her Wonderbolt outfit. To this day Soarin’ still finds Spitfire’s commander outfit to be intimidating because of memories from his time within the Wonderbolt Academy. It is mostly from the shock of seeing Spitfire in public, and then Spitfire in authority.
“Hey Spitfire,” Soarin’ said, “have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere today?”
“Well she burst in here a few minutes ago to tell me she was back before she suddenly left,” Spitfire said without taking her eyes off her work. “Why?”
“I was just wondering if she happened to tell you anything about her visit to the doctor’s office,” Soarin’ said.
“No not really,” Spitfire said. She finally looked up from her work to Soarin’. “I asked her about it, but as soon as I did she ran out of the room. She hasn’t told you about it either?”
“No she hasn’t and it’s worrying me,” Soarin’ said. “Every single time I mentioned it Rainbow Dash would immediately change the subject to something else.”
“Hmm…that sound odd,” Spitfire said. “If I happen to see her again I’ll ask her about it. And if she tries to hide it I’ll force it out of her.”
“Spitfire!” Soarin’ exclaimed.
“No I’m not going to force it out of her like that,” Spitfire said, “but I am going to make sure that she tells me. Rainbow Dash can’t be keeping any secrets from me if I am going to make sure we do things as best as possible during practices. ”
“Well I’m going to go see her and try and figure out what is wrong with her myself,” Soarin’ said.
“Alright, good luck Soarin’,” Spitfire said returning to her work. As soon as Soarin’ left through the door Spitfire mumbled to herself, “Well this is sounding way to familiar then I’d like it to. I hope I’m wrong on this, but if I’m not then…”
She put down her stamp and went to one of the drawers on the right side of the room. She opened up the door and grabbed out a letter. After reading over that letter a few times Spitfire put it back in her drawer and sat down in her chair again.
“If not then this is way too nostalgic for my tastes,” Spitfire said before going back to her work.
~
Soarin’ left Spitfire’s office and sighed. Well Rainbow Dash at least went to Spitfire, he thought. So she isn’t technically lying. Maybe I’m wrong about her. She could have just been more concerned about me and only interrupted me just to make sure I’m fine. But then why did she suddenly run out? Well, I’ll just keep looking for her and see for myself.
So Soarin’ looked around the headquarters a bit more. He made it through at least half of the headquarters before actually finding her. When she saw her he immediately proceeded to ask her if something is wrong. But as soon as he called for Rainbow Dash she proceeded to non-stealthily head out of the room.
Soarin’ was shocked at that, but he gave her one last benefit of the doubt. There might have been a reason why she suddenly ran out of the room like that. Soarin’ was probably thinking too positive to himself, but he figured after knowing Rainbow Dash all these years there must have been some reason for that.
So after a bit more searching he once again caught up to Rainbow Dash, and this time because he snuck up to her, she didn’t run away. So he actually got to talk to her. “Rainbow Dash, is there something wrong?” Soarin’ asked.
“Uhh…no,” Rainbow Dash said nervously. “Nothing is wrong at all.”
“Rainbow Dash, what are you hiding from me?” Soarin’ asked, trying to be somewhat confrontational.
“I’m not hiding anything,” Rainbow Dash said. “Nothing at all.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes darted everywhere instead of at Soarin’. “Uhh…I got to go Soarin’. I uhh…think somepony is calling for me. See ya later.” Rainbow Dash proceeded to dash out of there once again leaving Soarin’ alone.
Ok so she is avoiding me, Soarin’ thought, coming to the inevitable conclusion. But why is she avoiding me? Is there something I did to cause her to want to avoid me? I did snap at her, but I apologized afterwards. But maybe she took it badly. She might be afraid to tell me about what happened at the doctor’s office. But what could have happened there?
Soarin’ stopped cold at a thought that crossed his mind. Could Rainbow Dash have gotten some illness that prevents her from being in the Wonderbolts. Or something else bad happened at the doctor’s office that she doesn’t want me to know about. Maybe it’s something worse than that. Could she…possibly have gotten some terminal illness and she could be dying sometime soon with no chance of recovering? I don’t know. But maybe Scootaloo heard something. I’ll try asking her about it.
So instead of following Rainbow Dash, Soarin’ decided to look for Scootaloo. It wasn’t really that hard to find her, he just looked for the place where the most noise was coming from. In this case, the mess hall which was living up to its name right now.
Scootaloo somehow managed to cause the destruction of so much dishes and food and was the attention of everypony in the room. She also managed to knock down a few chairs from their place causing them to lie down on random places in the floor. She was covered in several food and condiments making her mane almost look like Rainbow Dash’s probably to her amusement if it weren’t for how much trouble she is in.
“Scootaloo, what the hay…” Soarin’ was just about to ask but then he noticed Scootaloo’s blue scooter next to her and some tire marks on the floor. “You were riding your scooter in the headquarters again weren’t you?”
“Uhh…maybe?” Scootaloo said. Soarin’ just shook his head in unamusement.
One of the Wonderbolt chefs, a white pegasus with a light brown mane, went up to Soarin’ and said “Sir would you mind…?”
“Yeah I’ll help you clean up around here,” Soarin’ said. “Just give me a second to talk to Scootaloo first.”
“If you want to.”
“Hey Scoots,” Soarin’ said to Scootaloo as he walked up to her.
“Listen Soarin’, I’m sorry ok,” Scootaloo said. “Please don’t tell Rainbow Dash about this.”
Soarin’ sighed at Scootaloo being more worried about Rainbow Dash’s opinion on her then his. Because Rainbow Dash won the custody case for Scootaloo and Soarin’ married Rainbow Dash, Soarin’ is technically one of Scootaloo’s legal guardians. But while Scootaloo idolizes Rainbow Dash, she hasn’t really had time to bond with Soarin’. Soarin’ blames himself for the lack of time to bond with her.
“We can talk about this later,” Soarin’ said.
“Ok Soarin’,” Scootaloo said. “Uhh…So did you hear the good news? That pretty great right? Good enough to make you forget about what just happened in the mess hall?”
“Good news?” Soarin’ asked. He could have noticed Scootaloo’s attempt to distract Soarin’ from the mess she just made but he was more interested in the fact that there is apparently good news. Nothing today so far has been good news.
Scootaloo was surprised. “Wait she hasn…I mean, you weren’t told yet?” Scootaloo asked.
“Told what?” Soarin’ asked.
Scootaloo looked down for a few seconds, thinking. Soarin’ heard some mumbling from her mouth, but it wasn’t loud enough for Soarin to make anything from it. After she decided what she was going to say she lifted her head up and started talking.
“Well…uhh…I have to go,” Scootaloo said. She grabbed her scooter from her side. “I have a mess I need to clean up.”
“Wait,” Soarin’ called out to Scootaloo before she left. “Before you go, is anything off with Rainbow Dash today? Has she told you anything? She’s been avoiding me all day. ”
Scootaloo stopped and looked back. “Rainbow Dash has really been avoiding you?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yeah,” Soarin said. “And whenever I ask her about her visit to the doctor’s office she keeps changing the subject to something unrelated. I’m really worried about her right now.”
“Uhh Soarin’ I need to go right now,” Scootaloo said. “I’ll see you later.” Scootaloo then got on her scooter and started scooting away.
Soarin’ watched as Scootaloo went away, more confused than ever now. What is going on around here? First Rainbow Dash starts avoiding me and now Scootaloo knows about something that I don’t. I don’t get it. Well I guess if it’s anything, at least Scootaloo said there is good news. If it’s possible for any news to make this day any better. I’m starting to doubt there is.
Soarin’ sat down in a chair in the mess hall, wondering why today just keeps getting worse and worse. Then he remembered that he promised to help clean up Scootaloo’s mess so he went to do that. He hoped that it would maybe allow him to forget about what is happening today, but that was to no avail. No matter how hard he tried, he still kept deep within his heart exactly how bad that day was.
~
All I saw at that moment was that my family was avoiding me at all costs and trying to keep something from me. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that was one of the worst moments in my life. Flowing through my mind was all of the things that could possibly be wrong with Rainbow Dash and it was making me feel worse and worse at each passing second. I was flat out worried and combined with how sore I was feeling at that time it was not a good day for me.
The funniest thing about that moment is I was probably feeling the most down I have ever felt, and Scootaloo wasn’t wrong. It was very good news that she had for me, but I didn’t know that at the time. If I listened to Scootaloo better I would have made the connection that the ‘good news’ Scootaloo was talking about and whatever happened to Rainbow Dash. But I just let myself stay within my depressed thoughts and didn’t think of that possibility. There was something going on with the mare I loved more than anything else, and there was nothing I could do to figure out what was wrong.