//------------------------------// // Pegasus Field Ploughing // Story: On a wing and a rainbow // by Killbles //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Pegasus Field Ploughing Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. 'Oh no! I'm blind!' she thought. All she could see was blackness. "Oh wait...' She pulled her head out of the ground. Her crash had ploughed a long straight channel through an empty field. Shaking her head, she looked around so she could find out where she was. A large barn house in the distance confirmed her suspicious she had crashed in one of the empty fields at Sweet Apple Acres. Looking around more, she saw a large rock jutting out of the ground a few meters in front of her. 'Lucky me...' she thought. It was then that she remembered that she had been carrying Soarin on her back before she had ploughed into the field. She couldn't feel the stallion on her; he must been sent flying in the crash. She groggily tried to stand but fell over in a heap. Grimacing in pain, she stood again and managed to keep her balance. Looking around she quickly spotted the blue stallion lying in a ditch a few meters in front of her. Much to Rainbow's joy, he was still breathing. She made her way over to Soarin and prodded him gently. "Hey lazy" She croaked, "Wake up!" "Ergh... Five more minutes!" he muttered back, Rainbow was momentarily taken aback by his comment. Either he was totally unaware of his predicament or more of a joker than she realised. "Knock it off" she grumbled. She prodded him again harder this time. He opened an eye "Why so serious? He grinned widely. Rainbow rolled her eyes and sighed. "Are you alright?" she asked "That was quite a hard landing." "Yeah I'm fine. Well at least I feel fine..." He shook his head "You don't look to good..." "I've had worse!" Rainbow boasted proudly "I don't doubt that" Soarin winked knowingly Rainbow felt her cheeks redden slightly. She suddenly felt very light headed and dizzy. A wave of nausea passed over her and she swayed from side to side, as if she had drunk too much. She saw an orange and red streak galloping across the field towards them. As they approached, Rainbow made them out to be Applejack and her older brother, Big Macintosh. "What in tarnation happened?" Applejack said as she drew up to her friend "I saw one of them rainbooms in the sky and came runnin' when I saw you and yer friend come crashin' down." She looked Rainbow Dash over with a worried look on her face. "Y'all right sugercube?" "Never better!" Rainbow announced brightly. Then she fainted again. "Hey! I think she's coming around!" said a voice excitedly. For reasons unknown, everything sounded slurred and fuzzy. Rainbow opened her eyes and was greeted by a white plastered roof. A pink ball of hair and fur suddenly obstructed her view of the ceiling. "HEY! SHE'S AWAKE EVERYPONY!" Pinkie yelled in an unnecessarily loud voice. Rainbow placed her hooves over her ears. "No need to yell Pinkie." "Sure there is! I wanted everyponies attention and I got it" she grinned impossibly wide. Rainbow groaned, being around Pinkie Pie for too long without anyone else to control her usually ended up with her head hurting. Since her head was already throbbing, she didn't relish the possibility. Her vision was suddenly filled by four other ponies. Rainbow let out an inaudible sigh of relief. "What happened? How did you and... That Wonderbolt, crash?" asked Twilight "Ok, firstly his name is Soarin. Secondly..." she looked around the room quickly before dropping her voice as if they were discussing a conspiracy. "Secondly, that crash wasn't accidental. Spitfire knocked Soarin out when I was doing the tryouts." Everypony recoiled in shock. They looked at Dash, as if waiting for her to reveal more. She stared back at them. "What? That's all I know. Soarin was knocked out the sky, I saved him. Big deal. But now that I think of it, Spitfire did look kinda surprised to see Soarin falling..." she trailed off into thought. "Urh, excuse me, but who the hay is Spitfire?" asked Applejack. Rainbow facehoofed. While she knew her friends didn't keep up with the Wonderbolts, she was surprised at Applejack's ignorance. "She was the captain of the Wonderbolts, she recently stepped down from captaincy and Soarin took over." Rainbow stopped for a moment before continuing. "She also plays a large role in the recruitment process; see took me through most of the trails." There was a brief moment of silence "But why would Spitfire have anything against Soarin? I mean he could have died. Why would she do that to him?" Rainbow dash let the question hang in the air for a moment. Her friends exchanged worried looks with each other. "What actually happened before she kicked him?" Asked Twilight, pulling a quill and paper out of nowhere. As always, Twilight would be determined to get the bottom of this. "Well if I remember correctly, me and Soarin had just switched positions in the formation. It was just after that that she kicked him." Replied Rainbow Twilight wrote this down "Did you see anything else strange before you were flying?" Rainbow tried to think "Well before we took off for the formation flying, she and Soarin were arguing about something, I don't know what. Come to think of it, she didn't seem to be too happy about me being there. I mean she's been nice enough in the past... but today she seemed... a bit like she had something against me." Another long silence settled over the group as everypony digested the information. "From what you are saying... She might not have meant to kick Soarin... As bad as this sounds, she may have been after you" Twilight said. Rainbow Dash's eyes opened wide with horror. She gabbled incoherently for a moment before regaining her composure "No way! Why would Spitfire do something like that? Why would she want to hurt me?" Everypony shrugged, no one could think of a reasonable explanation for the Wonderbolts behaviour. Rainbow looked around with a worried look on her face. "Where's Soarin? Is he alright?" "I'm fine" came a voice from behind the group. Nervous as ever, Fluttershy let out a quiet 'eep!' and hid behind Pinkie. Ignoring the shy Pegasus, Soarin trotted over to the bed Rainbow was lying in. Rainbow looked at his bandaged body. "You're fine?" "Just a few cracked ribs," He replied with a small grin. "I've had worse." "I don't doubt that." she remarked dryly. Soarin turned his attention to the small gaggle of mares surrounding Rainbow. "If you lovely ladies wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a word to Rainbow Dash. In private" he added when they didn't move. The five ponies left the room looking at each other in confusion. An awkward silence filled the room. Soarin returned his attention to the cyan mare. "Ok. I need you to tell me everything that happened. I heard some of your conversation with your friends but I'd like to hear it all for myself again." Rainbow rapidly recounted the discussion she had just been having with her friends. Soarin's face remained impassive throughout most of the story but a low growl escaped him when Dash told him Twilight's theory about Spitfire. "I don't know why Spitfire would ever try to hurt either of us. But from what you are saying, this was no accident" Soarin looked disturbed. "I trust you, but I find it hard to believe that Spitfire would try to kill you. Or me for that matter." Soarin paced across the room deep in thought. A question occurred to Dash. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be... You know... Doing Wonderbolts stuff?" She asked Soarin grinned again. "I had to make sure you recovered fine. That's the second time you've saved my life. Can't just not say thanks now can I?" "Maybe you should make it less of a habit to get knocked out while you are flying." Rainbow joked Soarin laughed loudly. It was a nice laugh. It briefly occurred to Rainbow Dash that she had never heard the Wonderbolt laugh before. Soarin suddenly became serious. "You raise a valid point though. This requires an investigation. I'm going to have Spitfire grounded and questioned. This is a serious issue. We could have lost Equestria's best flier after all." He cast an appraising eye over Rainbow Dash who was blushing furiously now. "Hey… stop it." she said timidly he usual ego vanishing under Soarin's gaze "Never." Rainbow let out a little squee in delight. "I probably should go; I need to get things moving right away." He walked over to Rainbow "When you get better, come by the HQ and we'll get the next stage of your induction sorted out, ok?" Rainbow's mouth dropped open in surprise. Soarin raised an eyebrow in amusement. "What? Did you seriously think you wouldn't get in after that flying?" he said in a deadpan voice. He cocked his head to the side in mock confusion. Rainbow shoved a hoof in her mouth so she wouldn't start gushing. "You took that well" Soarin remarked. The excited rainbow mare just nodded in a blur. She suddenly leapt out of the hospital bed and wrapped her arms around Soarin, constricting him tightly in a bone crushing hug. "Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou" Rainbow babbled incoherently. "Spoke too soon..." Soarin managed "Would you mind getting of me? Bit hard... to... breathe." She suddenly realised what she was doing and leapt back in surprise. "Uh… sorry… don't know what came over me." She looked at the ground awkwardly. Soarin grinned. He took a step forward and gave Rainbow a much gentler hug. "No… Thank you, for saving me, again." He added. He pulled back and trotted out of the room noting with amusement that the cyan mare was blushing furiously and looking anywhere but at him. Rainbow's friends came back into the room after Soarin had left and were surprised to see Rainbow standing in the middle of the room with a blush and dumbstruck look across her face. Applejack waved a hoof in front of her face but got no response. "Equestria to Rainbow dash, you there?" asked the Orange earth pony. Suddenly Rainbow Dash's face split into a grin that made Pinkie's smiles look sane. A quiet squee escaped her mouth. "BEST. DAY. EVER!" She yelled out.