//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Out of the Blue // by LightSpectrum //------------------------------// Out of the Blue Chapter 10 "I'M JUST SOOOO EXCITED!!!!" Pinkie Pie could not restrain herself from jumping and bouncing up and down. Her friends all looked at her peculiarly. "Why again?" Twilight wanted to know. "Why? Why?! WHY?! Because! Dashie's coming home! Duh!!" Pinkie's innocence was so simple as she reveled in the joy of seeing her best friend again. Well, one of them anyways. A faint zooming sound could be heard as they pricked their ears towards the front door of Rainbow's house. They were throwing her a big surprise welcome back party, at Pinkie Pie's insistence. Even Fluttershy could barely hold back her excitement. "yay... I'm so happy!" She murmured. Applejack grinned. "Alright now y'all, everything ready?" She flicked off the lights at the nods of her friends, and they all ducked behind various furniture. Well, Pinkie Pie managed to lodge herself onto the ceiling light. The cloud door creaked open. "SURPRISE!!!!!!" Four ponies and one dragon popped out from couches, coffee tables, and potted flowers, shouting at the top of their lungs. "Surprise!!!" Pinkie Pie shrieked, hanging upside-down from the ceiling fan's chain. The weight of the pink pony pulled it down, turning the fan on and causing Pinkie to fall off of the rapidly spinning blades with an unexplainable puff of confetti. "Pinkie Pie, you are so random!" Laughed Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was all smiles as she was provided a party hat and a cup of punch. Once they were seated and had access to snacks, Rainbow suddenly found herself being stared at by her six friends. She cleared her throat. "Well... They want me to be a sort-of Wonderbolt! I won't be a full-fledged member until I've gone through some more training, but still... I GOT ACCEPTED!" Five ponies and one dragon stared at her wide eyed for a moment. Then, the chromatic pegasus mare was showered with hugs, praise, and excited shouting. Her eyes watered up. She was finally achieving her dream, but... Although this moment was what she had strived for her whole entire life, she was realizing what it meant. She wasn't going to be in Ponyville with her friends twenty-four/seven anymore. She wasn't going to be the captain of the Weather Patrol anymore. She couldn't help but heave a heavy sigh. This did not go unnoticed by her friends. "Darling, are you alright? Whatever is the matter?" She knew it wasn't wise to not bring it up with her friends. "Well, I've been striving for this ever since my father first took me to a Wonderbolt performance. But back then, all that mattered to me was my parents, flight school, and being loyal to myself. I didn't even have any friends yet... Not until I met Fluttershy a few years later. And now that I've finally achieved my greatest goal and won the thing that's most important to me... I have to leave the ponies that I love so much, it gives my dream a run for its money!" Rainbow couldn't help herself. She burst into tears. Twilight was the first by her side. "I know how you feel, Dash. I was there once too. I was so scared what would happen to you guys if we couldn't stop Nightmare Moon, when I realized that I loved you all so much. My only real friend ever had been Spike." Slowly, all of the ponies crowed around her to offer support. She smiled even as her eyes were silent faucets. Suddenly, a claw tapped her on the shoulder. She chuckled at Spike's attempt to cheer her up. "Here! I, uh, made you a chocolate chip pancake," the small drake said. She accepted the pancake with a wavering smile. Her friends all reassured her that she should do it, and they would see every one of her shows and cheer her on and they'd keep her home in order and take care of Tank, but she felt uneasy even as she agreed to go. She had wiped up the last of her tears, when there was a knock on her door. "Who could that be? All seven of us are here," Twilight Sparkle wondered. Before anyone could answer it, the mystery guest let himself in. "Hello ladies. Hello, Dashie." Soarin floated through her door, aiming a wink in Rainbow's direction. Her cheeks instantly flushed bright red. "H-hey, Soarin." Blushing even redder, the blue pegasus rushed to greet him at the door. She aimed for a kiss on the cheek, but the pale stallion, anticipating this, moved his head so that her kiss landed on his lips. Her friends had varied reactions. Fluttershy smiled softly, uttering the tiniest of yays. Rarity let out a soft 'awwww'. Twilight and Applejack teasingly went "oooooooooooh". Pinkie shrieked and started jumping up and down. Spike fell over. "Hey, sweetie?" Soarin addressed the still-blushing mare. She appeared to be incapable of forming words, so she just met his eyes to indicate that she was listening. "I'd hate to pull you away from your lovely friends here, but I wanted to invite you out to a bar with me and a few of the other team members! I want to congratulate you, and I thought it'd be good for you to get to know a few of the ponies that you'll be working with." "I'd love to, but..." Rainbow glanced back at her friends, who all nodded at her. "Okay, I'll go with you." -------------------------- After Rainbow had gotten ready, Soarin had flown her to a small bar where the rest of the gang was waiting outside. Inside the bar, they were shown to a booth, and Rainbow was introduced to Hurricane, Fleetfoot, Misty Fly, and Surprise. Spitfire was there too, but seemed rather detached from the group. Soarin practically kept a wing protectively around Rainbow the entire night, and she felt extremely happy. "So, Rainbow Dash, tell us about you!" Surprise exclaimed. Hurricane, Fleetfoot, and Misty all nodded in agreement, so Rainbow began to tell stories of her days with her friends. "So, once, my friend Twilight Sparkle got her hooves on a pair of tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, and all of Ponyville went crazy trying to bribe her for them... and then she got so pissed, she started yelling, and then Pinkie Pie kept talking, and she said 'Oatmeal? Are you CRAAZY?!' And man it was so awkward!" The ponies burst out laughing. Once they'd recovered, another round of drinks was ordered. "...hehehe, and then her tail twitches, and this huge anvil falls on Twilight's head!" Round three. "And then the music stops, and there's this totally fuckin' awkward silence, and then I say to her, 'it needs to be about twenty percent cooler'!" Round five. "And... *hic* then she left angrily, so we *hic*... Um... So we started throwing cake at each other and man... You should have seen Twilight dancing." They decided that it was best to stop at five and before things got too crazy, and Soarin, who'd had significantly less to drink than his fillyfriend, began to escort Rainbow towards the door. He successfully got her outside, but was stopped by the bartender. Apparently, Soarin had left his wallet, so after making sure Rainbow would be fun for a few minutes while he retrieved it, he went back inside. The drunk pegasus aimlessly wandered around, giggling at random thoughts she thought of. "Rainbow Dash." A voice growled. "Huh? Oh. *hic* Hey Spitfire," Rainbow said pleasantly, even though she slurred a lot of her words. The angry glare of the golden mare pierced the hazy moonlight. "Spitfire?" "You... You... You BITCH!" One moment, Rainbow was grinning innocently at her biggest idol as she drunkenly stumbled about. Next thing she knew, she was in the middle of a full-fledged hoof-fight. "Grrrrrah!!! I... I jusht can't believe you! *hic* Shtealing him away from me!" Rainbow was the type of pony who got goofy and flimsy and drowsy when having drunk a decent amount of alcohol. She was in no state to defend herself from the other mare, who seemed to be the type who raged when drunk. "Spitfire... What do you-" she was cut off by a hard whack to the snout. "No. You don't get to talk. You don't desherve to shpeak. Shoarin ish mine!" Rainbow's eyes filled with tears as she was pummeled by the words and hooves of her angry idol. She managed to land a punch on the yellow mare's cheek, but this only made her angrier. Spitfire knocked the sky blue mare onto the ground and held her down. Rainbow struggled, pleading for somepony to help her. But it seemed that nopony heard her. "Help me," she whimpered drunkenly. "Soarin..." She tried to prop herself up on her arms, but that didn't work as well as she would've hoped. "Don't shpeak his name!!!" Spitfire pushed down hard on her body. A sickening crack could be heard. Rainbow's head spun as somepony let out a strangled and strangely quiet scream. Maybe it was her. Trembling, she put a hoof to her wings and pulled it back, examining it. Her hoof came back bloody. Spitfire backed up, some part of her drunken brain realizing what she'd done. Rainbow passed out cold. Spitfire sunk to the floor, overcome with guilt. "Oh shit..." Soarin jauntily exited the bar with his wallet safely in his pockets. Soarin's jaw hit the floor. "Okay, Spitfire. Just what the fuck is going on here?!"