Chapter 2- I Kiss Soarin'
Forcing my eyes open, I find that I have only been blacked out for a few seconds at the most. The wind is pushing against my body as I fall through the air, reaching my terminal velocity. A blur of blue is shooting towards my falling body as I urgently try to throw my wings out and catch myself, but it’s no use, they’re stuck with fear.
Still, it’s a good place to end it all. I’m with Soarin’; I found out that he actually likes me back. We got out of that blasted cave. This is the happiest I’ve ever been so maybe I’m ready to die. Although, when I think about the future I could have with him, all the laughs and tears. I want to experience love. I never thought I would say that, and it is sad that I have only realised how important love could be for me moments before my death. Better late than never, I suppose.
Then I realise what the blur of blue actually is, it’s Soarin’. The ground is beginning to grow as we draw nearer to it, but the Wonderbolt is flying almost at Rainboom speed. His face is set with determination as he has his forelegs stretched out, ready to catch me. Learning from Rarity’s mistakes at the Best Young Fliers competition, I hold my body still, despite my ever growing fear. A cone is beginning to form around Soarin’ and I gasp in shock, he’s almost going to do a Sonic Rainboom, the only thing wrong is his hind legs aren’t in the right position.
We are only about 10 meters from the ground now, and my heart is beginning to pound. I squeeze my eyes shut tightly as I prepare for the impact; however, I somehow fall into the strong grip of a Pegasi’s forearms. Soarin’ did it, he saved me.
I steal a peak at the ground below us and find that it was close, one more second and I would be splattered across the ground. Soarin’ lands and falls to the floor shakily with me still in his hooves. His grip around me tightens as he holds me close, wrapping his wings around me too.
“Oh sweet Celestia, Dashie. What the hay happened?” Soarin’ asks, on the verge of tears.
I try to speak, but I am too shaken for words to actually form. Instead, I just cling onto Soarin’ as tightly as I can. Why couldn’t I fly? Why was I so afraid?
Soarin’ doesn’t say anything; he just strokes my mane gently as he rocks me back and forth. Tears roll down my cheeks without me realising, I am just in pure shock about what happened, and my wings have never locked up like that before.
“Soar, I-I’m sorry,” I whisper and rest my head on his shoulder as he continues to rock back and forth.
Soarin’ presses his soft lips against my forehead before looking into my rose eyes with his emerald ones. “What happened, Dashie?”
“My wings locked up, I thought about what happened at the show the other night and my wings locked up. That’s all,” I hide my face in embarrassment.
The Pegasus tightens his grip around me as he flaps his wings and flies back towards home. I know that he has been having nightmares too, but like me, he is too proud to admit it. Gosh, we are perfect for each other.
The flight home is pretty silent since both of us are pretty shell shocked from the incident we just experienced. Nonetheless, having Soarin’ hold me like this is making me feel a whole lot better. I never thought I’d love to be in a stallions hooves before. All of this is so new to me.
Once we reach the threshold of my house, I slide out of Soarin’s arms and turn to face him. I gaze into his eyes longingly as I analyse every part of his face in case he disappears on me- I do hope he doesn’t though.
“Thank you for saving me, Soar,” I whisper as I gently brush my lips over his. “You’re the first pony to ever save me from falling to my death and you’re one of the few ponies to ever save me.”
Soarin’ smiles at me, his eyes warm and loving. “Well, I don’t know what I’d do if I saw you die,” he whispers, repeating the words that I had spoken only a day ago.
My face flushes the same colour of my eyes as I look towards the kitchen table. “You deserve the most pie, considering that you saved me.”
Soarin’s eyes light up as he bounces towards the table like a little foal. My heart melts as I watch him happily sit at the table and help himself to the pie. I follow slowly behind him and only take a quarter of the pie, leaving the rest to the Pie Lover sitting next to me. He happily gobbles away at the pie, not embarrassed of the fact that he’s practically smearing his face into the pudding.
I watch in amusement as Soarin’ eats the pie like there is no tomorrow. He looks up to find me watching, and a blush forms across his cheeks.
“Sorry,” he mumbles apologetically. “I just love pie so much!”
I smile at Soarin’ and eat my pie the same way he does, just so that he will feel more comfortable. I glance up to find the Pegasus staring at me with his jaw hanging wide open in surprise. Raising an eyebrow at him, I go back to eating the delicious pie. I never thought he’d be a good cook; he always seems to find a way to surprise me.
“You never cease to surprise me, Rainbow Dash,” Soarin’ whispers as if he’s reading my thoughts. “You’ve broken the sound barrier multiple times, you’ve saved my life multiple times, you’re the Element of Loyalty, you eat pie like a slob- which I find really attractive, by the way- and you’re also a sappy mare at heart. You’re different, Dash, a good different.”
Soarin’s words touch my heart, causing tears to fill my eyes, but I blink them back before I raise my head to look at him. I cannot believe he thinks that I’m different to every other mare; I know that I’m 20% cooler than every other mare, but nonetheless, it takes a lot of skill to see past all my armour. Soarin’ is the only pony who has called me attractive. Soarin’ is the only pony that has seen my real emotions. He’s different too.
Slowly, I get up and quietly float over to him. The light blue Pegasus gazes up at me with a warm smile across his face. He cautiously wraps his hooves around me and pulls me close. I lean against him for a few moments, taking in his warmth, breathing in his scent, remembering the feel of his fur against mine. As long as I remember all of that, the nightmares will not come. Well, that’s what I’ve told myself at least.
After a few moments, I pull away from Soarin’ and look into his eyes sadly. “I should get some sleep.”
“Yes, you should. Tomorrow we can watch that movie, like we planned out!” Soarin’ beams and his eyes glisten with happiness.
“I can’t wait,” I whisper and gaze into his beautiful, emerald eyes.
I lean forward and press my lips against his gently. Electricity passes through our bodies the moments our lips meet, causing my whole body to melt in his arms. We wrap our hooves around each other’s necks as we attempt to press our bodies as close together as they can go. All we want to do is take in as much as we can from this moment in time. I just want it to freeze right now, and never move on. However, every moment in time has to move on and end.
My body shivers involuntarily as I reluctantly pull away from Soarin’. I look into his eyes sadly, before slowly walking back.
As I walk away, I give him a warm smile. The smile which I only give to some pony who is really important to me. It’s a smile that I rarely ever give at all. It is one of the few genuine smiles that ever leave my lips. Soarin’ watches me, his face a mixture of joy and pain as I step away from him. I turn away slowly and begin to walk out of the kitchen.
Stopping when I get to the door, I glance back to find that Soarin’ is still watching me. “Goodnight, Soar, don’t forget your pie.”
Blinking, he glances over at his unfinished pie in shock. “Oh, right,” he mumbles before looking back at me. “Goodnight, Dashie! Sweet dreams, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Soarin’ goes back to happily munching away at his pie and I smile as I walk out slowly, listening to him for as long as I can. The sounds he makes surprisingly comfort me and help me temporarily forget about the nightmares which are now swiftly creeping up on me.
If these nightmares are effect my flying, then they are definitely going to come to me during my slumber. Plus, I have a very bad feeling that they'll come ten times worse once I'm asleep.
Once I reach my room, however, my heart begins to pound and I begin to feel faint. The moment I shut my eyes, the nightmares will be here. They are inevitable. I haven’t felt this afraid in years. Me, the awesome Rainbow Dash, afraid? As if. But now, it seems that I am not so awesome since I am more scared than Fluttershy would be if she was forced to stand in front of all of Equestria and do a bit of public speaking. Now, that’s saying something.
Sliding into my bed, I try and get comfortable for the long night which I know is ahead of me. I close my eyes and imagine myself in Soarin’s arms as I slowly drift off into the darkness of sleep.