Chapter 14: The Best Night of My Life.
Soarin groaned as he came to a landing.
He could feel the sweat gathered under his Wonderbolt uniform and he was very much looking forward to a long dip in the jacuzzi to soak his aching wings.
"Great Celestia I don't think that I can flap my wings one more moment!" Soarin groaned, dramatically flopping on the change bench next to Misty Fly, who just rolled her eyes and continued brushing her mane.
Suddenly there was a snap! And Soarin yelped as pain shot through his rump.
"Hah ha ha! What's the matter? Not seeing your little sweet heart knocked the endurance out of ya?" laughed Shot Gun as he began to reload his wet towel.
Soarin felt himself color while Misty and the rest of the unit stuck their heads out from around corners and behind locker doors eagerly.
"Well, well!" Misty crooned leaning over him, pinning him against a corner, a disturbing air about his fellows that wafted "juicy rumor, spill now" about them, "our glorious and talented Soarin, the Soarin that is one of the most talented Wonderbolt to grace a cloudfield, the self-proclaimed bachelor pony that is saving himself for that special somepony, has found that special pony," Misty purred, the unit leaned closer, drooling, with eager eyes, "and you didn't think to tell your loyal, honorable second family? The unit that has your back? "
A spot light came out of nowhere as she struck a pose, "why it's simply criminal! We all shared so much over the years!" a hoof pressed against a chest, "Our deepest, darkest shameful secrets!" a violin began to play, a few ponies sobbed dramatically, "why it's absolutely unforgivable to leave your precious comrades out in the cold!" a hoof over her eyes.
"Listen guys," Soarin stuttered, sweating, "it's nothing really…"
"That's not how it sounded in your sleep!" Shot Gun supplied not so helpfully from the sudden inexplicable shadows, "Oh Dusk! You're so beautiful! I can hold you forever!-Muah, muah!- just let me…umf!" Shotguns' pantomiming was halted by the eye goggles that Soarin, who was blushing furiously, was trying to stuff down his throat.
The unit leaned forward eagerly, ready for more dish when the sudden banging of the changing room doors being slammed open froze them all on place.
"What is going on in here?!" demanded the fiery colored pegasus and leader of the Wondebolts.
As if by magic, suddenly everypony was back at their lockers as if nothing had happened, a violin hastily sat upon casually.
Huffing Spitfire ignored Shotgun, who was finishing hacking up the goggles, and barked out.
"Soarin! Up front!" Soarin hastily shucked the last of his uniform and rushed to stand at attention in front of her.
She nodded, whirling around. It didn't need to be said that he should follow.
She took a seat at her desk while Soarin stood at attention in front of her in her private office.
"Soarin," she began, "it is no secret, or at least an open secret anyway, that you are the strongest candidate to replace me as captain of the Wonderbolts when I retire from active touring to teach at the academy."
She pulled out a file with her teeth and laid it on the desk, opening it with a hoof.
"Your record speaks of your genius with both planning and succeeding in flight maneuvers, and certainly a nothing to sneeze at number of flight plans that was even invented and used by yourself and your unit during many of our tours. You personally are well liked by the others, you have had no outstanding demerits, unlike some of your fellows" her nose twitched, "all things considered, you're almost perfect for the part."
Soarin blinked, yes, he had heard it, "Almost sir?" he asked carefully.
She nodded, turning his file around.
"Other than the competition in Cloudsdale, which a few of us ended up being able to attend to anyway as the prize for the civilian winner, including both yourself and I, due to hospitalization, personal appearances at social functions representing the Wonderbolts, and volunteering within the pony community, particularly the ground based communities, are slim to nil."
Soarin rubbed the back of his mane, "well, I'm…uh…" he really had nothing to say on that. Truth of the matter was he wasn't all that fond of the pomp of social functions (i.e High class parties), and he was often busy working on another routine to really have time to do some sort of community volunteer work.
"You need to attend at least one high profile social function and do something, preferably landside, to make you acceptable to the Pegasi council, Princess Celestia, and Myself as well rounded enough to handle the pressures and responsibilities that come with being the face of the most important aerial organization in all of Equestria."
Soarin mentally groaned, but nodded, his wings sagging unhappily.
"Now," she said briskly, pulling out two scrolls, "I have managed to work out an opportunity for you to fulfill the necessary requirements."
Soarin took the scrolls, opening one, startled to find a familiar looking golden ticket inside.
"The Grand Galloping Gala?" Soarin groaned, "Sir, please! I'll do anything else! Please!"
"There is no debating this," she barked, "you will go to Luscious Lock's Boutique in Canterlot, I already booked an appointment for you the morning of the day of the gala to get yourself properly groomed, then you will wear the suit provided for you from Hoity Toity's own personal boutique and you will wear it!" Soarin moaned in despair. He hated suits and groomovers.
"After that, you will arrive at the castle, on time! And join me in representing the Wonderbolts to the best of your abilities, understood?"
Soarin nodded gloomily. He hated upper-class parties more then he hated the previously mentioned items.
"Now onto the second scroll," she huffed, smoothing her twitching eyebrow, 'honestly, you would think I was sending him on a one way trip to Tartarus!' she mentally grumbled, 'it's just a party for Celestia's sake!'
Soarin was already opening the scroll with a weary look on his face.
"This scroll contains what will fulfill the necessary volunteer work, and I know that a month may seem a bit long, but…"
"…are you kidding?!" Soarin exclaimed, startling Spitfire, "this…this is far too short a time!"
"Wh..what? But…" she spluttered.
"You said that I need to get in touch with land ponies right? Well, I think that a month is too short a time to for that, in fact, I would be willing to spend an entire season…no a year! To do just that!" Soarin declared, holding the scroll tightly to him.
"Er..well!" she managed to gather her composure, "I am actually set to teach at the Academy within a year, and there is still your present tour to finish first, but if you feel that strongly about it I can put it off an extra six months…"
"Thank you sir!" he said, cutting her off again, and with a quick salute, practically zoomed out of her office.
When Shotgun and the rest of the unit saw Soarin return, many of them with a minor bet going if he was either receiving a reward or getting reamed out for some infraction or other, neither of them would know for sure however when their ecstatic friend descended like some whirlwind of electric blue and navy, gathering everything from his locker and left in the same manner just as quickly.
"And here he was complaining that he could barely lift his wings," Misty commented befuddled to a neighbor who nodded.
Ooo ooo ooo
Back in Ponyville…
Dusk was just strolling past Rarity's boutique when he was hailed by Pinky Pie who was jumping up and down excitedly, though this time on a trampoline.
Dusk, well used to these sights by now came up and greeted her affability and was spotted by Twilight Sparkle who seemed to be yet again reading some book.
"Hey Dusk, not running the shop today?" Twilight asked.
He shook his head, "no, Derpy and Cherry Drop are refurbishing the dining room so I decided to not argue and just spend a quiet evening out on the town and let the ladies work. They claim I have no sense of style or something," he rolled his eyes.
Twilight tactfully chose not to comment, after all this was the pony that personified the word practicality over glamour. She often wondered how he and Rarity ever got along to have their weekly chats.
"So what are you reading? Another spell book for your studies I suppose?"
Twilight perked and turned the book towards him slightly as he settled down next to her, letting him examine the passage interestingly.
"That's an ambitious spell, it reminds me a bit of that spell you and Spike were working on in the park sometime back, except this one appears to appropriate qualities of a pre-existing object and apply them into a new state. I hope I can be around to see the results."
"You're in luck, I'll be using it for the Grand Galloping Gala this evening," she supplied, "you can observe if you want."
"Thanks!" he grinned and the two returned to the book.
By the time that the rest of the Mane 6 had arrived Twilight was ready to cast her spell.
He took a few steps away, unnoticed by the others, who had greeted him as well earlier, he fixed a focused, un-blinking glazed stare on the purple unicorn who was busy transforming an apple into an extravagant carriage and four mice into, he was amused to note, horses, who ran away when Opal attacked them.
Dusk kept the disturbing similarity to a certain human fairy tale to himself.
When the excitement was over and a couple of the Bronco Brothers, who were neighbors of Rarity, offered to pull the carriage for her, the motor for the transportation was solved. It was no secret that the family of five brothers and one sister of Earth Ponies had a crush on Rarity. It was always amusing to see the six of them scrapping it out over her from time to time; he'd even had to hose them down a time or two outside his shop when she had visited him for tea and the latest talk from the capital.
The ladies were about to disappear into Rarity's shop to prepare for the evening, when he remembered why he had been stopping by.
"Rarity!" he called, before she close the door.
"Yes darling?" she asked him distractedly.
"I know it's a bit last minute, but it honestly slipped my mind, and I was wondering if you could think of anyone who needs one of these." Dusk pulled out a familiar golden ticket from his saddlebag.
"Good gracious!" she gasped, pulling the ticket out of his hoof staring at it to see if her eyes were deceiving her; "this is a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala!" she gasped.
"Yeah," he rubbed the back of his mane, "I got one in the mail just after that parasprite incident, but with everything, I forgot about it and Derpy actually was the one to find it in the kitchen in my junk mail basket."
"Junk Mail!" and with that screech, she fainted dead away.
He blinked then sighed, taking his ticket back before it could join the unicorn on the ground.
"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked as the other girls trotted up to see what all the fuss was about.
"Oh good!" he said relieved, "maybe you can help me, you see I'm looking to see if any of you know of anypony who would want to go. I already asked Derpy, Cherry Drop and Mac, but they all have plans for the evening, though Cherry Drop looked like she was going to cry for some reason."
The girls took one look at the ticket and nearly joined Rarity on the floor.
Rarity suddenly shot upright, a rather terrifying expression on her face, and he expected the theme music from some cheesy horror movie to break out any minute.
Dusk took a few weary steps back, but was halted by unicorn magic and dragged into the shop, the door closing and locking behind him
Ooo ooo ooo
3 hours later…
"It's your own fault you know," Spike commented from the outside driver's seat holding the Bronco Brothers reins as he talked to the figure behind him, "its Rarity, and the most important night ever, did you really think you can escape?"
"It's just some swanky party," grumbled Dusk, "I hate parties."
"Correction," Spike stuck up a talon, "it's thee swanky party. You had no hope my friend; you want another drink of water?"
Dusk sighed and nodded, taking a sip from the offered straw before he griped, "I can see now that it matters a lot to her, but did she really have to hogtie me to the roof?"
"I've never seen Applejack lasso a pony out of a tree before." Spike mused, "But I wouldn't worry about it, just hang around with me and the others and you'll have a blast! I'll show you all the best spots in Canterlot…oh wait, you're from Canterlot already," he rubbed his head and blushed at Dusk's bland look, "well…I'm sure you'll have fun anyway."
Dusk just grumbled, sticking his nose deeper into the folds of the hood of the cloak that Rarity had provided for the trip, and he had refused to let anypony see him after Rarity had struggled for over an hour with his enchanted shawl and had instead worked around it. There was no way he was letting anypony see him in fancy getup. As much as her fashions were beautiful, there was a reason she designed for the Mare market.
She hadn't been too pleased with his struggles but that was just tough hooves, he was going to find the closest closet and hide until this was all over.
Ooo ooo ooo
When they arrived at the castle and one of the amused and sympathetic Bronco brothers managed to untie him from the roof and herded him gently to stand with the girls, pulling the carriage away to join with the others, Dusk wished fervently that he could join them. He bet they would be enjoying good food and lots of poker, the lucky bastards.
He had to admit that the ladies looked quite beautiful in their dresses; he just wished that it was just them that was all decked out.
"Goodness Dusk darling! Haven't you removed the silly old thing yet?" Rarity sighed in exasperation as they joined a procession of other finely dressed stallions and mares going into the main reception hall.
He shook his head stubbornly.
"Come on Dusk, I'm sure that you look plum fine under that there robe or yours, it's Rarity after all," Applejack reassured.
"Exactly," Dusk grumbled under his breath.
"Besides!" chimed in Pinky, putting a hoof around his shoulders, "you'll be seen by the elite of the elite of Equestria who will be watching your every move and judging you with extreme prejudice, you want to take off that cloak so that everyone can see you properly!"
With that little reassurance, the male pony in their midst, if possible, held the cloak closer around him and still some how managed to remain on his hooves.
"Pinky!" Twilight scolded as Pinky giggled and skipped ahead a bit. Twilight leaned forward, "I'm sure it won't be as bad as all that, besides you're a very attractive pony, and reasonably able to hold an intelligent conversation, I'm sure that you'll be fine…"
Dusk relaxed a tad at that, then Twilight finished off with, "…and if your still nervous, you can join me with Princess Celestia, she seemed interested in getting to know you the last time you met."
Dusk tensed again, even unhappier then before.
"Oh for pony's sake! Are you a stallion or a mouse?" Rainbow Dash barked and strolled over in all her finery and with a decisive grab and flourish, yanked the cloak off of the startled pony, "it's just a party and…whoa…"
The cloak dropped from her teeth as the others stared at Dusk who was standing awkwardly before them, unable to hide himself now. In fact, many nearby ponies halted in conversations to stare at him.
"He looks even more fabulous in the castle lights then I imagined, "Rarity gushed into the stunned silence, breaking it as she pranced around him.
Those who were in ear and eye shot were all likely thinking the same thing.
"My gosh," one affluent unicorn whispered to her friend, "who is that gorgeous creature?!"
"I don't know," said friend replied, "but I'm going to find out!"
Suddenly Dusk was surrounded on all sides by Upper crust ponies eyeing him hungrily.
"Wow," Twilight marveled, cheeks actually blushing a bit, much as the other girls and even Spike was, "Rarity, you really should branch out into stallions, you've outdid yourself."
"Haven't I though?" she tossed her head proudly, admiring her work as Dusk tensed, eyes wide and looking for an escape route.
"I'll say," Applejack added, "don't think I've ever seen the fella at the center of so much attention at a function before…ooo there he goes!"
"Gee, I never knew he could jump so high before," Rainbow Dash marveled as she handed the robe to a passing servant pony to be hung up in the cloak room.
"Or run so fast," Fluttershy added, as their friend disappeared in the distance, a stampede of finely dressed ponies chasing after him with metaphorical hearts in their eyes.
"Well then, we should take a page from Dusk and get to spending the best night of our lives!" Twilight said, and with that, all the ponies separated.
Ooo ooo ooo
A few hours later, the leaves of a golden tree in a secluded garden parted to reveal two large green eyes as they stared back and forth at the ground below carefully.
It had taken him the better part of the night for Dusk to shake the admiring crowds, though there had been a few very determined mares and one or two stallions that had been particularly hard to shake.
Looking around again, the coast appearing to be clear, he slid down the trunk and slunk his way in the general direction of where he assumed the exit to be.
Just as he expected, this night was the worst night of his pony life.
He froze when he heard the hunting cry of a finely dressed unicorn, "there he is!"
He groaned and pushed his aching legs, feeling his wings twitch under his finery with the need to fly away.
He was so busy on keeping track of the closing gap between him and his admirers, that he didn't see the pony who had stepped in his path, looking bored.
They both gave surprised shouts as they slammed into each other and upended, tails over hooves into a fountain directly behind them with a tremendous splash.
Ooo ooo ooo
Soarin was bored.
True there had been some brief interesting moments, such as that apple pie; bumping into that pony…Rainbow Dash was it? That had rescued him at Cloudsdale some time back; he had wanted to ask her how she had done that amazing Sonic Rainboom of hers, but his duties as representative kept him from being able to ask her as he was wrangled into photo after photo, and talk after talk with important sponsors and other personages. By the time he had been able to free himself, she was gone, and so was that awesome apple cart.
Then the party took a turn for hilarity when a group of ponies completely, and by accident to be fair, trashed the ballroom.
The party had returned to normal after they had fled, and he soon grew bored again.
He had decided to take a breather from all the snobs and suck ups by taking a walk in the back gardens, when something suddenly slammed into him and sent them into a water fountain.
Soarin spluttered, blinking water out of his eyes.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" the crasher said.
Soarin though could not say anything as he took one look at the stunning being standing over him in awe, the curse words dying on his lips.
The stallion was dressed in some sort of full body translucent fitted netting that blended invisibly with his silver pelt, small diamonds strung throughout along his body tapering off at hooves capped in tight booted stockings of silvered silk and diamond beads.
The black mane was worn down and while it was slightly damp with water, looked like some sort of starlit sky with even more diamond beads strong throughout his mane and tail. Princess Luna herself could have not done better in his opinion.
The look was finished with a silver circlet at the base of his horn with a round cut emerald that didn't do his familiar eyes justice.
"Dusk!?" he gasped, as the unicorn helped the stunned and sodden pegasus to his hooves.
"Soarin!" the unicorn exclaimed relieved and threw himself at Soarin happily, who was not displeased at the sudden turn of events.
Then Soarin saw the eager faces of the crowd that suddenly surrounded them, stallions and mares in fancy garments looking like they were about to dive in after them.
Soarin narrowed his eyes, breaking out of his stunned stupor, and wrapped a wet wing around the smaller male possessively, who didn't seem to mind (or didn't notice the possessive air) and the others, noting his proprietary stance looked disappointed and trudged off, some shooting him jealous looks, though thankfully, Dusk seemed blissfully ignorant of the preceding byplay.
"Thank goodness!" the unicorn groaned, head popping out from under his feathers, "you have no idea what I have been through tonight! Come on! Before they change their minds and decided they don't mind me soaked to the hooves after all."
Dusk determinedly pulled the two of them towards the nearest wall and levitated them on top.
"Whoa!" Soarin yelped, flaring his wings in time to balance them and grabbing Dusk when he spotted the steep drop below.
"I hope you don't mind, can you give me lift into the city proper? I can hoof it from there and then you can return to the gala…"
"Are you kidding?" Soarin interrupted, a smile splitting his muzzle, "the night had been a total bust! I've done my bit for the captain, let's get out of here!"
With that, he gathered Dusk to him and jumped off the wall.
Dusk laughed and cheered, as the two did loop-de-loops with Soarin wearing a ridiculously pleased look on his face.
Soon though, as all good things must, it came to an end, and the two landed in the train station.
"Listen, I just want you to know that…well, um," Soarin silently cursed his nervous tongue, and sighed instead asking, "are you going to be alright? Being at the train station on your own?"
"I should be fine, after all I took it to move to Ponyville," Dusk chuckled.
Soarin felt himself blush in embarrassment, mentally calling himself an idiot.
"What I mean to say, is…do you mind if I keep you…er, I mean, keep you company until the train arrives?"
Dusk nodded and the two of them settled onto a bench, Dusk shivered slightly when a gust of wind hit him and Soarin casually put a wing back round Dusk again, who snuggled close and sighed contentedly in the offered warmth.
The two of them shared their stories of the past day and evening, both commiserating on being forced by the strong females in their life to attend the gala against their wills and laughing at Soarin's version of the evening.
"You know," Soarin mused after a moment of content silence, "I thought that this was going to be just some boring shindig, but…you know what? I think this was the best night of my life."
Dusk didn't hear him though, as he had fallen asleep.