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// Soarin' High 
// Story: Friends in High Places 
// by BeanPole 
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Chapter 3 – Soarin’ High

Rainbow Dash was in her home on the last day of winter, she was busy packing her things up to finally go back to her friends with the Wonderbolts. She was incredibly excited to get back to what she loved to do. Ever since her revelations about her status with her friends at home she had been next to miserable in Ponyville. She put her flight suit on the top of the stack of things in her travel bags and closed it up. She was running a little later than scheduled so she just grabbed her bag and without a word to the others, she left. She flew towards Manehattan where it was prearranged for her to meet Soarin and Thunderwing before they went for the first training camp together.
It was a rather dull flight, but she made good time, reaching Manehattan in less than two hours of flight time. They had arranged to meet in a small café near where Soarin lived. Since Dash had arrived earlier than she had planned she sat down and ordered a drink.


“Hey guys!” Pinkie was in her usual bouncy mood.”You guys seen Rainbow Dash?”
“No Pinkie, I haven’t seen her.” Twilight was trying to remember the last time she saw Dash. 
“Ah haven’t seen her either sugarcube.” Applejack looked around as if she was trying to spot the Pegasus. “Iddn’t she supposed to leave back for training today?”
“Yeah, that’s why I was looking for her, I wanted to say bye.”
Twilight thought this was odd, “She wasn’t at her house?”
“No she wasn’t, I hope that she didn’t just leave.” Pinkie started to tear up and her mane was slowly uncurling. The rest of the afternoon was spent looking around Ponyville for Dash.The search was given up around six in the evening and the five friends met in Sugarcube Corner with sorrow in their hearts. 
“I-I can’t believe that she j-just left us.” Pinkie’s hair was completely straight by now and she was openly crying.
“Ah don’t know what got into her sugarcube.” Applejack was half furious at Dash and half worried for her. “Ah wonder why she left in such hurry though.” 
“Well we will worry with that later for now winter wrap up is tomorrow and we have planning to do.” Twilight was trying hard to pull her friends minds off the subject of Dash. She hoped that Dash was ok.”


Dash awoke with a splitting headache and the taste of alcoholon her lips and she was in a bed, she didn’t remember a bed. The last thing she remembered was drinking at the café. She had drunk a little too much and she was heavily intoxicated when Soarin had walked into the room… then… Soarin had taken Dash back to his place and… Dash looked to her side and saw Soarin laying next to her with a hoof wrapped over her body. Dash’s first reaction was shock with herself, how could she have slept with Soarin? The hours earlier started to come back to her slowly. She faintly remembered that, she had kissed Soarin first. She had insisted that they go back to his place. But she came to realize that she actually liked Soarin, she didn't think that it was just an irrational decision based on alcohol. She rolled over on top of Soarin and kissed him firmly on the lips. When he opened his eyes she was staring into them. 
“Hey, Dash.” Soarin said calmly.
“Hey,” Dash rolled off of him and got out of the bed and stretched before looking at the time. “The camp starts in an hour!”
“Don’t worry Rainbow we got plenty of time.” He seemed to have absolutely no concern in his voice whatsoever. A quizical glance at the clock changed his carefree attitude. He rolled out of his bed and grabbed his bag which, like Dash’s was already packed. “Although, we wouldn’t wanna be late.” The two of them left Soarin’s home without a word. The silence between them was very awkward, considering what they had just done. Dash finally struck up a conversation with Thunderwing when they finally met up at the transport station. The three Pegasus flew up to Cloudsdale to get ready for the camp. The three of them arrived just as the rest of the team was readying to head out to the field. When Dash and Soarin walked into the lounge together the strange looks from the rest of the team caused Soarin to start laughing. Dash shot him a look that said ‘what’s so funny?’ 
Soarin leaned in and whispered to Dash “Its your mane babe.” He continued laughing and he walked away to go get ready for the practice session. Dash ran to a mirror and looked at her mane, it was still frizzed and messy from sleeping with Soarin the night before.
“So, how was it?” Dash turned around to see Spitfire standing behind her.
“How was what?”
“Oh don’t play dumb, every one of us in that room knows you slept with Soarin.” Spitfire smirked, “that and he’s bragging about it in there.”
“Oh, well that’s embarrassing,” Dash blushed and shied away from Spitfire.
“Look Dash, were all grown up, there is no need to be embarrassed about it, it really isn’t a big deal.” Spitfire just smiled at Dash. “So how was it?”
“Well to be perfectly honest I don’t remember much of it.” She felt a little ashamed when she said it, “I was really drunk when it happened.”
\	“Oh I see, well Soarin seem to have a way with mares.” She chuckled as if she was remembering something. “But I happen to know that he really likes you. He might actually settle down for you.”
“Well I hadn’t thought much of a full blown relationship with him.” She unwillingly put stress on the word. It had been so long since she had had a relationship. She hardly knew what a relationship was, most of her experience had been in meaningless one night stands. But, she did feel differently about Soarin. “But I guess I’ll give him a shot.” The two mares laughed for a while.
“Well come on Dash we need to get our training started.” Dash followed her out of the room and into the main lounge where everypony else was waiting for Spitfire to start the training. “Ok guys, lets go! First today is going to be some simple endurance exercises.”
A week went by and one Saturday morning Spitfire announced that they were getting a few days off for rest. After only a week Dash had grown into a full blown relationship with Soarin. They had even started sharing the same room after practice every day. The rest of the team took it well, as long as the relationship didn’t mess with their training then they didn’t care and Dash was truly happy for the first time in four months.