Stoner couldn’t believe it, but the trail left of rainbow and turquoise blue was impossible to deny, the coverings of Luna and Celestia were shattered, Nightmare Moon was obliterated, the sky was torn open and the spin Soarin had taken Rainbow Dash through, gave the vortex a twist, so the Princesses even appeared to circle each other before embracing, placing their heads on each other’s shoulders.
Stoner’s jaw dropped; Rainbow Dash was the fastest pegasi in the world, everyone knew that, but now Soarin was even faster, and the crowd loved it. After a moment of shock, the applause began, and then the judges posted their scores, it was even louder. The Wonderbolts had won by half a point, Soarin had given them the victory.
Stoner knew he should be worried that his best friend in the world was being corrupted by dark magic, but seriously; Soarin had just won the Canterlot freakin Cup! This was a moment the two of them had dreamed of for years and yet… Stoner looked up, scanning the box that was set aside for the Wonderbolt’s close friends and family. Two empty seats stared back at him.
Mom and dad weren’t there.
Stoner felt his little heart inside his chest sag in disappointment. Spitfire’s parents were there; and her cousins. Misty, Blaze, Fire Streak all had their families there; even High Wind’s dad was there, in a wheelchair and oxygen mask with a doctor sitting beside him to make sure he didn’t die. Rainbow Dash had the whole front row reserved for her two parents, five friends from Ponyville, four foals, a baby dragon, and a flying turtle. The only people who didn’t have at least one parent there was Fleetfoot, who was an orphan but had her big sister there to support her… and Soarin.
Soarin had even reserved a third seat in case his parents didn’t want to sit together.
Stoner felt an invisible tear slide down his left cheek. Soarin could only remember as a young foal, times when mom and dad had been happy together. Stoner couldn’t remember those times at all because he was too young, but Soarin said that they’d only started fighting after Stoner came to live with them, but assured Stoner that it wasn’t his fault.
Stoner had spent most of his childhood with Soarin trying to think of ways to make mom and dad stop fighting all the time, but they kept on screwing up because they were big screw-ups back them. After Soarin became a Wonderbolt, he and Stoner felt like they could do anything, and so tried again at the biggest thing they both wanted; and so when Soarin got his first big figure paycheck, the first thing he did was send his parents on vacation.
Separate vacations.
Soarin and Stoner knew their parents were always fighting about getting in each other’s way and leaving junk around the house. They thought that maybe if they were just separated for a few weeks, they would actually start to miss each other and would be happy to see each other again. Then Soarin could buy them a bigger house so they wouldn’t be getting in each other’s way all the time.
The plan had seemed foolproof, except for the two fools who’d planned it.
When dad got on the cruise liner, some celebrity journalist recognized him as the father of the newest Wonderbolt and started stalking him with his camera. That by itself wouldn’t have been so bad, but then dad had too much to drink at the bar and fell prey to the whims of a hooker.
By the time mom and dad got home, the tryst was already in the celebrity magazines. Mom was furious, dad was defensive, and both of them were angry at Soarin. Mom was acting like Soarin had given his dad that spending money, knowing how he was going to spend it; and dad was mad at Soarin since none of the magazines would have cared about the hooker if Soarin hadn’t been a Wonderbolt. They got divorced, and that was one of the last times they ever spoke to each other… or Soarin.
He… never meant to break them apart; all Soarin had wanted was for them to have a nice holiday and then…
Soarin was upset for a long time, but Stoner helped him through it, just like he always had. He gathered together a band of other rocks and together they explained to Soarin why his parents were mad at him, but that was OK, because with them there, Soarin would never have to be alone.
Stoner waited; Soarin should be back any minute now to share this moment with Stoner, but he was still at the top of the stadium with Rainbow Dash. …Stoner waited… and waited… Soarin would be back any moment now… wouldn’t he? Wave Chill, who'd sat out the show thanks to his sprained wing, had still been able to limp out to join his team for the celebrations. He made one lap around the stadium, then stopped when he noticed Stoner, all alone on his pedestal. He was friends with Soarin; he knew how much he meant to him. After a moment picked him up; grinning goofily to himself like he was doing something silly, “Soarin’s gonna want to see you man; I’ll bring you to him.”
“Wave Chill, thank goodness you’re here; Soarin got jipped Thursday night; that hot fangirl he went home with knocked him out and stole his uniforms. Bluey helped us steal them back but then Soarin put on an amulet, and since then he’s been acting crazy!”
“Soarin really was fast” murmured Wave Chill almost to himself, “He must have really been working out in his spare time, eh?”
“Dude, please listen! Soarin’s being controlled by dark magic, that’s what’s giving him his speed, but it’s also made him turn evil; he intentionally pulled out some of Spitfire's feathers so he could take her place in the finale, he even peed in the pool for crying out loud! We need to get that amulet off of him before he does something he can’t undo. You have to help me!”
“And the way he grabbed Dash at the end” mused Wave Chill, “It’s like they’re a pair now. What about it Stoner, has Soarin been scoring the captain on the down low?”
“What? No dude, are you even listening to me!?”
Stoner tried again, but it was like Wave Chill couldn’t hear a single word he was saying. Then again the crowd was cheering really loud, Stoner guessed that they were drowning out his voice. Wave Chill punched through the cloud roof and hovered there for a moment, Rainbow Dash and Soarin were sitting together rather closely at the far end of the bank. Wave Chill began gliding towards them at a leisurely pace he wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying, but Stoner had always been a really good lip reader and could see both their mouths moving.
Rainbow Dash looked like she was trying to be furious at Soarin for breaking rank, but was too excited to be doing a very good job, “You- you can do a sonicrainboom.” She panted,
Soarin leaned back, cool as a cucumber, brushing some of the cloud into a backrest, “Well I prefer to think of it as a Soarbang.”
“Right” nodded Rainbow Dash, still panting hard through that enormous grin, “Soarbang.”