“Soarin’, that was amazing!” Twilight said in awe after they’d run all the way to Pony Joe’s. “I don’t think you should do it inside ever again, but still!”
Pinkie galloped around their table. “Yeah! You were like whoosh bam! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything move that fast.”
Applejack was the most calm. “Do ya think you could do it again?”
Soarin’ tore into one doughnut after the next. He was starving and exhausted, and to top it off he couldn’t stand because his forelegs were killing him. Probably he’d have to stay off them. He hovered as best he could next to the table. “No. It wasn’t a choice. I had to get to the other side of the room, so I did. I don’t remember the details at all. But,” Soarin’s eyes gleamed, “now I know it’s possible. If only I could figure out how.”
Twilight: “Well, I can think of one pony who might know how.”
Soarin’ winced. He was sure he’d broken Rainbow Dash’s wing, and there wasn’t a chance in Tartarus he was going to seek out the Wonderbolts after doing that. Best to just wait it out and hope they forgot he even existed.
---
Surprise appeared. The white Wonderbolt and her bouncy yellow mane had been nowhere in sight at the gala, but the second Soarin’ disappeared she showed up like she’d been there the whole time. “Dashie. Dashie. Snap out of it,” she was saying.
Dash came back to reality and red hot scissors tore through her left wing. Her face contorted in pain and a stream of expletives poured from her mouth. The gala's hard castle floor added insult to injury.
Surprise was relieved. “She’s okay! Barely even a scratch,” she announced to the onlookers. Some of them covered their ears and turned red at the things Rainbow Dash was saying.
Surprise whipped a wingtip over the injured Wonderbolt’s mouth to muffle her angry agony. “Come on, this way,” she coaxed Rainbow Dash.”You broke your wing the second week you were a Wonderbolt, remember? No big deal.”
Surprise led Dash out of the castle, brushing squirrels and bunnies out of the way with her wings like she did this every day. The other ‘Bolts followed behind as everypony ran for the exit.
Dash clenched her teeth and marched out of the chaos. As soon as she could fly again… “Surprise, can you get the address of one of the ponies who entered the Best Young Flier Competition? Name’s Soarin’. I have a letter to send.”
Surprise frowned. “Right now? How can you write a letter with a broken wing?”
“I don’t use my wings to write! Who do you know that writes with their wings? Ah, never mind.”
“Alright, Dashie, I’ll find Soarin’s address. Let’s get your wing fixed first.”
---
The first thing Dash noticed when she woke up was the rain. Droplets of cold water pelted her coat. She lurched away from the soggy sheets and fell out of bed. Some sort of pink raincloud was pouring brown rain over where she had been sleeping. The murky water dripped over her muzzle and she tasted it on accident. It was chocolate milk.
“What the hay, Blaze” Dash said. She ignored the mess and stumbled to the practice field to chew out Blaze for pranking her. Blaze started this; she could clean up the pink cloud.
The wet bandage around Dash's wing slogged off in pieces. Great. Now the medics needed to put a fresh one on. She stepped outside only to see more weird clouds overshadowing the team meeting. Some of the Wonderbolts were missing.
“Where’s Rapidfire?” Surprise asked, a piece of chewy pink cloud in her mouth. The Wonderbolt blew a bubble and it popped over her face. She ignored the mess, turned her head, and bit a new chunk off the bubblegum cloud stuck to her side.
Dash looked through the present team members and Rapidfire’s curly salt and pepper mane was nowhere to be seen.
“Dunno,” Spitfire said. “He was so grumpy this morning you’d think he woke up with his wings on backwards.”
Thanks to the stupid weather the team was having a hard time concentrating. Lightning Streak’s thick accent speared the air every time he grappled with a cloud that kept getting stuck on his shiny mane and tail. “Aye, Wave Chill! Get over here and help me, mate.”
“Sorry bro.” Wave Chill sat under a rain of rainbow sprinkles. They bounced off his puffy blue mane. “Got my own issues over here.”
Spitfire snorted, kicking a cloud that tried to creep up behind her. “Forget it,” she said. “This is ridiculous. I’m canceling outdoor training for the day. Dash, you and High Winds search the base. I’m going to take a look around. Shout at Rapids if you see him.” The captain spread her feathers. With a powerful wing stroke she lifted into the sky.
“Man,” Dash complained. “Why do we get ground duty?”
Surprise burst another bubble over her face and then gave orders for the others to search the areas Spitfire wasn’t covering. Dash looked at High Winds and shrugged. Despite the morning’s events, the windy mare’s white coat was still clean. Her blue mane was always tousled, so it looked no different than usual.
High Winds spoke while they walked and assessed the damages. “Does it hurt?”
“No. It’s just annoying.”
“I was not speaking of your wing.”
Dash mulled this over. It was hard to get a straight answer out of High Winds, who had a penchant for wordplay. If her friend wasn’t talking about her injured wing, then what? Pride, maybe.
Dash frowned. “No rookie ever pulls something like that off without severe injuries. If he really is that good, why isn’t he a Wonderbolt already?”
“Someone must invite him to the Academy first. There are many with talents who pass under the radar unnoticed. Imagine if Princess Celestia had missed that one moment that led her to take on a future Element of Harmony as her student. Our days would be dark if not for that coincidence.”
“I didn’t know Princess Celestia had a student.”
Gusts of hot snow pelted the pillars surrounding Wonderbolt HQ. There was no sign of what was causing the chaos.
---
Soarin’ stared into the opening of the maze. “I don’t like this wager, and I don’t trust you,” he told Discord.
“Oh don’t be so glum. In you go, and remember, no wings.” The strange creature disappeared piece by piece with popping sounds, like popcorn.
Twilight led the way. “It’s fine. Just stick together and we’ll find the Elements of Harmony.” No sooner had she said that than hedges sprung up around the group, separating them all.
Soarin’ resolved to stick to the left side of the maze wall. He walked for a while and started to wonder if he was going in circles. The silence bothered him, and the lack of wings made him feel sick. “Guys? Any of you out there?” No response. Soarin’ picked up his pace.
A sudden opening in the wall brought him to a clearing where Discord lounged on a cloud hammock.
“What did you do?” Soarin’ demanded. “Where are my friends?”
“Soarin’, always quick to come to the rescue. But, as it turns out, your friends didn’t need you after all.”
The Element of Loyalty raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
Discord grasped the stallion’s head with his sharp talons. “Imagine this,” the draconequus purred. “All of those times you stepped in to save the day? You weren’t needed. The animals Fluttershy loves so much would have come to save her that time at flight school. The Wonderbolts didn’t need you to jump in to rescue Rarity – oh, which you failed to do.” Discord’s form looped into a coil in the sky. “No pony needs you. You’re the loyal third wheel. Unnecessary…” the trickster let go of Soarin’s head, “and unwanted.”
Soarin’s eyes glazed over. Discord was right.
The draconequus peered over the hedge. “Your friends are already at the maze exit. They’ll find the Elements of Harmony faster without you, and you don’t really fit in with them anyway, do you? Yes, it’d be better for everyone if you just went home. I’m sure there’s some other pony that would find you useful. The Wonderbolts, maybe?” Discord snapped his claws and Soarin’s wings reappeared. “Fly home now. Off you go.”
Soarin’ fled for the skies.
---
“Hey Soarin,” Applejack shouted from her spot at the top of the hot air balloon. “Come here for a sec.”
“Go away!” Soarin’ yelled back. His ex-friends ignored him and brought the balloon closer. He snorted. “Fine, whatever. Come on Rainbow Dash, we’re leaving.” Soarin’ started pushing Dash in the opposite direction.
Rarity watched the stallion move an entire cloud out from under the rainbow waterfall, getting himself covered by the stuff in the process. “How on earth can he think that rainbow pool is a Wonderbolt?”
Applejack said, “Same way you thought that big rock was a bonafide diamond. Pass me my rope, Twi.”
In a single toss Applejack looped the rope perfectly around Soarin’s neck. He neighed in surprise and bolted, pulling the balloon after him.
“Whoa Nelly!”
Soarin’ raged through the sky like a demon possessed. It was all Applejack could do to keep her grip on the rope, and it was slipping. The balloon tore in circles, flipping upside down for a split second.
“Whee!” Pinkie Pie cheered. Fluttershy couldn’t take it and jumped out of the balloon basket.
“Hold on,” Applejack roared. “He’s gonna tire out and then I’ll rope him again. If I can get around his wings we’ve got him.”
Twilight clung to the edge of the basket and tried to keep her lunch down. Pinkie was unaffected. She passed Applejack another rope. When Soarin’s erratic flight pattern leveled out, the rodeo star bit down on the hoop in her teeth and then hurled it to the sky so it spun in a circle. She kept the lasso whirling with smooth motions of her head and then launched the rope toward the blue blur. It snagged on the shape and tangled.
Soarin’ fell out of the air, wings caught up in the lasso. He hung underneath the balloon basket and struggled to free himself. The stallion kicked and spun and chewed on the rope like a wild animal.
“Bring ‘er down Twi. Hurry afore he gets out and we have to round him up again.”
Twilight lowered the balloon basket straight down so Soarin’ wouldn’t get dragged in the dirt. It was impossible to get anywhere near him with all his thrashing, so Applejack had to lasso each of his legs and pull them out from under him to hold him still, suspended in the air like a bear rug. Twilight wasted no time in touching her horn to Soarin’s forehead and casting the memory spell on the enraged pegasus.
The stallion snorted, hot air puffing from his nostrils. “Let me go. I don’t belong with you guys. I never did.”
Applejack clenched down hard on her end of the tether and growled through her teeth. “What are you doing Twilight? Hurry up.”
“I’m trying!” Flashing pink light enveloped Twilight’s horn and she touched Soarin’s forehead again.
He twisted his neck away and put his strength into pulling one of his back legs free, loosening the bond. Rarity couldn’t keep her hold on the rope anymore. “T-Twilight!”
“It’s not working! Something’s wrong… my spell isn’t doing anything!”
At that moment, Soarin’ kicked his leg so hard the rope tore free from Rarity’s grasp. He flew straight up and slipped free of the bonds. “What is wrong with you guys? Can’t you see I want to be alone? I love being alone!”
The only other pegasus in the group didn’t even try to follow him he took off so fast. “What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight slumped in the grass and buried her head in her hooves. “I don’t know.”
Night fell, and Soarin' didn't return.
---
A dark mist broke through the pink barrier protecting the Equestria’s capital city. It materialized before the foot of the Equestrian throne. “Sister.”
“Luna.”
“Why do you sit here and do nothing! It has been two days since you sent those letters to Twilight, and the chaotic magic has only gotten worse! I cannot fight this on my own any longer. We must recover the elements and intervene.”
“No—”
“—Sister!”
Celestia raised a hoof to call for quiet. “No, my place is here. Even if I wanted to help you stop Discord, I cannot. My connection with the elements is completely severed.”
Luna stepped back in shock. “What?”
“But you, Luna, you may still have a chance. Go. Find Twilight and her friends. I fear something has gone horribly wrong, and I’m not ready to lose another student. I’m never ready…”
---
The ponies inside the oak library in Ponyville panicked at the sight of her. Repeated attempts to soothe them did nothing.
“ENOUGH,” Luna roared.
The five Elements of Harmony froze.
“But,” Rarity protested, sniffling. “He took my tail. My beautiful tail.”
Spike had been trying to push Rarity to safety, but he kept slipping in the pool of tears she sat in. Applejack maintained a fighting stance. Fluttershy huddled in a corner where she’d attempted to dig a nest under some books to hide from the dark alicorn. The only two unaffected were Twilight and Pinkie.
The entire group had stayed inside Twilight’s upside-down treehouse ever since their second failed encounter with Discord. That fiasco only proved that sticking the Element of Loyalty on Spike did not make up for Soarin’.
Pinkie Pie bounced up. “Hey, look what I can do!” The earth pony hovered in the air.
Now that most of her subjects were still, Luna was able to count them. “Twilight Sparkle, where is the Element of Loyalty?”
She hung her head. “I don’t know. I tried to save him, but…”
“We see.” Luna’s voice echoed in the hollows of the tree. “He has been turned. As a stallion, there is but one way to break Discord's spell.”
Twilight’s interest piqued. Apparently her memory spell did nothing because Discord’s mind games affected ponies in different ways. “How can we get the real Soarin’ back?”
Luna threw out a hoof and stood proud while she proclaimed, “With love’s true kiss.”
“…”
“…”
Everyone stared.
The princess frowned. “Our sister told us jokes were a way to bond with our subjects, but it is perhaps we that have been fooled. Are not jokes the source of laughter?”
Pinkie Pie hesitated. “Yes?”
Twilight pleaded, “Princess Luna, isn’t there something we can do? We can’t defeat Discord without Soarin’.”
Luna prepared to leave. “We shall see what ails your friend. Let this be a lesson to you, Twilight Sparkle. The matters of the heart run deep. Often magic alone cannot cure them.”
---
The trouble with colorless pegasus ponies was how well they camouflaged against clouds. Fortunately, Cloudsdale had been replaced by a mass of colorful, writhing snakes. They slithered and hissed around the sky in large clusters. The only citizens who stayed in Cloudsdale now were the ones who didn’t mind snakes so much.
Every gray pony looked the same to Luna. She began to wonder if her recollection of who she was looking for was wrong, and perhaps she had already passed Soarin’ in Ponyville.
Eventually she did find him. He was the only pony careless enough to sit on one of the snake clouds. The knot of color inched its way across the sky, carrying the pegasus to no destination in particular. If the snakes would only coordinate their efforts instead of getting tied up with each other, they might actually get somewhere, but at this rate it was going to be a long haul.
Princess Luna’s eyes flashed white. The sky went dark with a clap of lightning and thunder and she appeared in front of Soarin’, beating her wings and hovering just above the surface of the cloud. Her magic returned it to normal.
Soarin’ got to his feet. “Princess Luna, you can’t force me to be friends with them. Just take my Element. I give up.”
“Coward,” Luna’s voice boomed. “You are offered friendship, and this is how you repay them: with betrayal.”
Soarin’s eyes locked onto the blank white glow where the princess’ eyes should have been. “That’s not true! I don’t belong with them, so I left.”
“Left Equestria to be consumed by chaos. If you are not Loyalty, then where do you belong?”
“I should’ve been a Wonderbolt by now!” Soarin’ shouted. “It’s my destiny. It’s printed right here for all to see!”
Luna’s frightening appearance flashed with the light of the storm she conjured. “Fool! How dare thee assume thyself good enough to abandon thy duties and thy friends!"
The great alicorn rose higher and higher into the air. "Night after night you wonder why another gets the recognition, the attention, the love you believe you deserve. Do you not realize there are ponies who need you? What becomes of them if you leave? What becomes of Equestria if you leave?” Luna moved aside and revealed the destroyed land behind her.
“So what will you do, Loyalty? Will you let your jealousy and doubts consume you until you turn against the ones you once cherished?”
“I’m not...”
"Louder!”
“I’m not where I should be.” Color leached up Soarin’s feet. “Yet.” Blue spread out over the tips of his ears, over his mane. “Not yet. But I will be a Wonderbolt.” Gold lit up the lightning bolt on his flank. “And I don’t need to abandon my friends to do it.”
After that Discord didn’t stand a chance. Luna carried the stone statue all the way back to Canterlot.
---
Rainbow Dash was especially irritated her broken wing left her stranded on the ground, missing out on all the Discord action, but at least the Elements of Harmony had stepped in. It would've been annoying to fly out to Ponyville to kick Discord's butt in order to get rid of all the random junk cluttering the sky space the Wonderbolts needed for practice.
She flexed her wing. After rehabilitation exercises, it was as good as ever. She’d completed that morning’s routine without any trouble. Today was the day.
Spitfire noticed Dash lingering on the practice field. “I know that face all too well Rainbow Dash. What are you scheming?”
The truth was, Dash lied when she told Surprise she was going to mail a letter to Soarin’. She'd deliver it herself.