Chapter One: Night Flight
Twilight’s Castle was full of laughter and light, a stark contrast to the cold,dark night which hung around the structure like a blanket. Lit up with a bright glow, the towering building was a welcoming, bright beacon that stood out from the winter locked environment around it. Clumps of snow had gathered in the upper towers and hung around on the rails of the balconies like unwanted guests at a dinner party, but through the frost crusted windows, a warm fire burnt, candles were lit and good company was a given.
It was quite uncommon for Twilight Sparkle to host parties in her home, on account of the noise and mess they usually created, but even the young alicorn had given in to the almost infectious cheer which seemed to hang in the air despite the cold and had invited her friends for dinner.
“It’s hard to believe it’s almost Hearth’s Warming.” Rarity sighed cheerfully, levitating a delicate slice of some vegetable into her mouth before chewing thoughtfully. “The year has simply flown past.”
“I can’t believe it either. It just felt like last week I was studying one of Starswirl the Bearded’s journals, and that was for the Midsummer Festival!” Twilight agreed.
“Well, the be fair Twilight, you did study that book for like a week straight.” Rainbow Dash interjected.
“Without sleep.” Spike piped up from the other end of the table they sat around, clearing the plates of the other guests efficiently.
“Without sleep. And you probably were reading it last week as well.” Rainbow finished, prompting a few quiet chuckles from the mares that shared the table.
Twilight smiled sheepishly and hid her muzzle behind a hoof. Her embarrassment lasted a moment longer before she cleared her throat quietly.
“Speaking of Hearth’s Warming, I was wondering if you girls had anything planned?”
The five other mares around the table looked at her intently.
“Why, you got something in mind?” Applejack asked.
“Well I was planning on hosting a party of sorts. I think it would be nice to spend Hearth's Warming together this year.”
“A party? You know I’m always down for a party, maybe I could help you plan it all, there ain’t another like Pinkie for parties!” Pinkie interrupted, bouncing off her chair like a coiled spring. Fluttershy let out a squeak of surprise as the pink earth pony bounded over her like an errant firework.
“Pinkie, settle down.” Twilight said firmly before softening her voice again as Pinkie flipped her rump back onto her chair. “Thank you for the offer though.” She added graciously.
Rarity made an overly dramatic gesture. “I was going to have one of my associates join me, but I assume this is a bit of a smaller gathering dear?”
“Oh, who is it?” Twilight asked, shifting aside slightly so Spike could clear her plate away.
“Coco Pommel, you all remember her I assume?”
The other ponies all nodded their heads. “Of course. She is most welcome to join us, i’d be nice to see her again.” Twilight offered.
Rarity smiled. “I’m sure she will be happy to be my plus one.”
Twilight seemed to consider Rarity’s words for a moment. “That’s actually a nice idea Rarity. You can all have a ‘plus one’, call it a way to diversify our social group a little.”
“Wait wait wait, are you talkin’ like a date?” Rainbow Dash asked quizzically.
Twilight shrugged. “Not exactly. Somepony special though would be nice I guess.” She explained. “Whoever you want really. Why, do you have special somepony in mind?” Twilight teased.
“What?! No!” Rainbow protested. “Come on Twilight, this is me you’re talking about.”
“Of course, what was I thinking?” Twilight said through a thin smile.
“Do we really have to bring somepony?” Rainbow objected.
Twilight laughed. “Rainbow, I‘m not forcing you to bring somepony, it’d be nice if you did though.”
“Alright, alright.” Rainbow muttered.
“You seem a bit worried about it Rainbow.” Rarity pointed out.
“I’m not worried, I got heaps of ponies I could invite.” Rainbow lied, feigning a yawn. “Now, this is all a very interesting conversation, but I gotta get up at the crack of dawn to seed a few snow clouds so I better head off. Thanks for dinner.”
“Don’t mention it!” Spike called out from the next room, a loud slurp following his voice out of the kitchen.
“Was that..?” Applejack started, a look of confusion on her face.
Twilight grinned sheepishly. “Spike has a very, uh, interesting… way of doing the dishes.” She explained, letting the mares around the table figure the rest out for themselves.
“Ew.” Rainbow grimaced, her wings shuddering.
“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly clean, I’ve tested it many times.” Twilight reassured the pegasus, oblivious to the queasy looks the rest of her friends were giving her. .
“Whatever you say Twi, and on that gross note, I’m out. Night girls!!” Rainbow Dash announced, open the door and zipping out into the night before anypony could stop her.
***
A week later, Rainbow Dash was still worrying over the issue. It had been fairly easy to ignore or simply skirt around for the first few days, but as the party dragged closer she had to consciously stop the nagging question from dominating her thoughts.
No matter how hard she tried though, Rainbow couldn’t quite get rid of the nagging, gnawing feeling at the back of her mind. Even as she busted clouds or shifted new ones out of their holding patterns, she subconsciously started to wondered who she would bring to the party.
‘Stupid Twilight making me bring a stupid plus one, stupid Rarity for bringing it up.’ she thought grouchily, kicking a loaded cloud so hard that it exploded in a flurry of freezing ice and snow. Rainbow was a bit more careful after that, but her foul mood remained until she finished her work around midday. With nothing much else to do, she flew out towards Sweet Apple Acres. While Applejack wouldn’t be out in the fields thanks to the banks of thick snow over the ground, she would probably be in the barn, packing or crushing apples. Maybe, just maybe, her friend would come up with some grand idea she could use or lend her some advice. At the least, a conversation would be a welcome distraction. She swooped in low over the farmhouse and landed in front of the barn, the frozen earth crunching as her hooves impacted the ground. She brushed a few flakes of snow out of her mane and trotted over to the half-open barn door.
“Howdy.” Aj welcomed her, looking up at the noise. The farmer was sorting apples out of a pile, either tossing them into a massive wooden bucket nearly higher than Rainbow Dash or into a few other smaller buckets which held the bad part of the crop. Rainbow knew from experience that the Apples would spend the next days crushing and preserving the apples to use for cider, baked into pies and to sell in spiced bottles.
“Hey AJ.” Rainbow replied, trotting over to the table her friend was behind and sat down across from her.
“You look peachy.” Applejack noted wryly.
Rainbow made an annoyed sound, resting her chin on the thick wooden table. “I’ve spent all morning getting the weather ready for Hearth's Warming, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about Twilight’s party.”
Applejack chuckled softly. “Oh yeah, it’s gonna be a good party. I’ve got a barrel of our best cider set aside and Granny’s been talking about doing some baking.”
“Have you got somepony you’re bringing to the party.” Rainbow asked, hoping Applejack would say ‘No.’
“Since you mention it, I did invite Caramel along.”
“You’re inviting Caramel?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously, stifling a laugh with a hoof. Caramel was something of a buttmonkey and a ditz, it wasn’t uncommon for Applejack or Big Mac to give their occasional farmhand a verbal lashing on account of something stupid he’d done. Rainbow had wondered many times why the Apples continued to hire him.
Applejack seemed to squirm uncomfortably. “He’s had a rough last few months and he wasn’t doin’ anything for Hearth's Warming. I took pity on the poor thing.”
“Not anything else to do with it is there?” Rainbow teased, wiggling an eyebrow at the farmer.
Applejack shook her head, an unimpressed look on her face. “That boy couldn’t tell a hayseed from an appleseed.”
“Well that explains a lot.” Rainbow remarked, looking around at the overstocked hay bales which packed the barn.
Somehow, Applejack managed to look even less impressed. She shot a look at Rainbow which would have made a flower wither. “What about you? You got somepony to bring along?” Applejack shot back, her irritation turning into a small smirk.
Rainbow shrunk back slightly. “Uh, still working on that one… actually.” She admitted sheepishly, looking away from Applejack ashamedly and running a hoof through her mane. “I mean,” She started with as much self assuredness that she could manage, “Not that I need the help, but I don’t suppose you could think of anypony I could bring?”
Applejack let out a quiet snort, picking a few bad apples out of the pile and tossing them into a large bucket. “Well, since you’re so on top of it, I’m sure you’ve considered taking any friends you have.” She drawled. “Ones that ain’t already going at least.” The earth pony added with a long drawl.
“What about Scootaloo?” Rainbow asked, perking up slightly at the idea. She liked the mostly flightless pegasus and had often chaperoned the filly at many events on her own accord.
“She already has an invitation, along with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. Twilight certainly didn’t skimp on them invitations for what was supposed to be a ‘small’ party.” Applejack said, tossing a few good apples into the massive pulper..
“What about your brother?”
Applejack eyed her cautiously. “He’s already going.”
Rainbow Dash’s face hardened slightly before she resumed her former expression of stoicism. “Alright then, since you’re happily shooting everything of mine down, have you got any ideas?”
“You could always ask Discord.” Applejack suggested with a barely suppressed laugh. “I’m sure he’d really liven up the night.”
Rainbow buried her face in her hoof. “Applejack! Be serious for a moment! Please?”
“Alright, alright Ah was just messing with ya. What about Mr. Mohawk?” Applejack suggested vaguely.
“Thunderlane?” Rainbow grimaced slightly. “No way, he’d take it the wrong way. Besides, the only thing that we have in common is both work with the weather, if you can call what he does working.”
“That’s pretty rich coming from you.” Applejack chortled.
“You’re not helping.” Rainbow Dash fumed.
“That spikey maned mare on the weather team?”
“Just kill me now.” Rainbow groaned.
“Okay, what about Carrot Top?”
“She nearly knocked me out with a bag of avocados last time we talked.” Rainbow Dash remarked, rubbing her temple absently. “Can’t quite recall what I did to annoy her.”
Applejack snorted with amusement as she vaguely remembered the incident. “Hm, maybe her broken stall had something to do with it. Stargazer?”
“Who?”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Nevermind. Ms Yearling?”
“As much as I’d to, she’s on the other side of the world.” Rainbow sighed wistfully. “Probably.”
“Alright, what about one of them Wonderbolts you love so much.” The farmer suggested.
Rainbow raised an annoyed eyebrow. “Yeah, good luck. I know, what, three of them personally and I doubt they’d jump to spend Hearth’s Warming with a fan.”
“Princess Celestia.” Applejack suggested, her composure slowly cracking.
Rainbow Dash scowled. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”
“No more than you, you could take a whole ton of ponies but apparently they just ain’t good enough.”
“Applejack, please?
“Well sorry, Ah’m out of ideas.” Applejack said apologetically, crushing another apple like a twig.
“That’s it?” The pegasus asked incredulously. “That’s all you can think of?”
“Rainbow, most of the ponies Ah know in town are doing things for Hearth’s Warming or have gone to see their family in the big city. Not a lot of pony-folk left around now if you’re gonna be picky.”
Rainbow sighed explosively, slamming her hoof down on the table and turning an errant apple into pulp.
“Mind warning me next time you do that?” Applejack remarked in a deadpan voice, wiping half an apple off her face.
“Sorry.” Rainbow muttered, placing her face against the surface of the table..
“You know Rainbow, if this whole ‘Plus one’ thing is buggin’ you so much why don’t you just not invite somepony. Twilight said you didn’t need to.”
“Which means I need to. Come on Applejack, everypony else will have somepony there but me, even you managed to get somepony to tag along!”
Applejack threw her another sour look.
“No offence.” Rainbow added quickly. “Point is, if I don’t, I’ll look like an idiot and Twilight will be disappointed with me, I know it.”
Applejack let out a frustrated whinney. “Ah just think you’re just blowing hot air about, but if you wanna make some big problem outta this, fine, suit yourself.” Applejack said adamantly, giving Rainbow Dash a stern, almost motherly look. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Ah actually have some work to do, this ain’t gonna do itself. So unless you’re gonna give me a hoof and stop complaining about some made-up problem, you should probably leave me to it.”
“Yeah I suppose…” Rainbow muttered, sliding off the bench and sulking over to the barn door. “Thanks anyway AJ.”
“Happy to help sugarcube, just don’t stress yourself over it. It ain’t the end of the world.”
Rainbow Dash gave her a half-smile before flapping out of the barn, not feeling any more at ease than when she’d entered.
***
As a chilly night swept in over Ponyville, driving many of its residents inside to escape the cold. Rainbow Dash though, flew away, abandoning the village and heading up towards the city of Cloudsdale. She needed some time alone, doing something she enjoyed. Flying Fast and flying hard. Though having to fight her way through a few cold, blustery snowstorms to reach her objective, she enjoyed the short flight up to the cloud-city. She’d arrived late enough that even the bustling city was starting to wind down. The weather factory was switching over to the graveyard shift and most of the city’s pegasi would be home, enjoying time with their families, friends and loved ones. Her thoughts momentarily drifted to her parents, did they even still live in Cloudsdale she wondered. She hadn’t seen either in well over a decade and she didn’t really want to, she had run away from home for a good reason. It had been the best decision for everypony... hadn't it?
She banished the uncomfortable thought and old regrets from the forefront of her mind, drifting down to one of the city’s lower levels to one of the many public racetracks which the city hosted. Unlike the massive cloudesium, which would have guards to keep strays away, many of the smaller tracks were unattended at night. She touched down behind one of the small stands near the tracks’ finish/start line so she could stealthily observe the track.
Of the smaller courses the city had, this one was by far her favorite. Running the track always seemed to clear her mind and help her focus. The course was several kilometres long, had over a dozen obstacles, was changed on a fortnightly basis and best of all, was almost always deserted at this time of night. While officially, the area was closed off during the night hours, nopony seemed to really care if somepony flew the course after hours. What it did achieve though, was get thin out the tryhards, curb the number of annoying colts and fillies that infested the place during the day and keep unwanted distractions to a minimum.
That all seemed to be holding true for tonight, aside for a few wisps of clouds, the course was still and silent.
Rainbow grinned slightly and spread her wings again, angling for the first hoop hovering about two hundred metres in the air. She rocketed towards the bronze ring, slowing down slightly so she could make the sharp turn she knew would come immediately after it. Rainbow stuck her tongue out slightly, tasting the fresh night air as she twisted her body down towards the ground again, her hind legs clearing the edge of the obstacle by mere centimetres.
Next came a nap of the earth sprint, a row of small circles aligned with their top edges barely a metre and a half off the ‘ground’, a floor of rough and uneven clouds.. While the course constantly changed, Rainbow had learned the hard way that the designers invariable included a ring a few metres above and to the left or right of the others to test the participants agility and perception. Many just skipped the ring and went for flat-out speed, but Rainbow always found the bonus score granted by passing through it paid off.
‘There’s nopony else here!’ She thought with a silent scoff of amusement, ‘Nopony to keep score..’
Nevertheless, she still made a conscious effort to slip through the off-centre ring when it flashed past her, pulling an impressively tight roll to get back into the middle of the course. She caught a quick flicker of movement in the corner of her eye as she passed through the last ring and pulled up to gain altitude, but another quick look revealed it as a stray cloud; she was alone up here.
Next came the Dizzy Twister, a particularly infamous part of the course which had virtually remained the same since Rainbow had started years ago. Two rings hovered in mid air, one perfectly aligned above the other. The participant was meant to rocket through the bottom ring, start spinning and then pass through the top ring almost five hundred metres above. Then, they had to navigate back down through the lower ring before continuing, all the while recovering from their corkscrew and dealing with a dizzy head. It was a particularly dangerous part of the course and Rainbow Dash had injured herself more times than she could count, occasionally clipping her wing on the lower ring on the way down or corkscrewing face-first into the top ring.
Tonight she had no such intentions though, passing through the bottom ring dead-centre and putting herself into a vicious corkscrew. She slowly counted off the seconds until she saw a flash of bronze whip past her and quickly reversed her course, ignoring the crazy headspin she was experiencing as best she could and rocketing back down through the lower ring.
“Yeah! Haha!” She cheered, doing a lazy flip before settling back into a stable flight pattern. She weaved between two more rings and set her sights on the next section of the course. She closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the sensation of the wind rushing through her feathers and her mane. She took a deep breath, savouring the sharp, biting feeling of the icy cold air in her lungs and the fiery fingers of adrenalin which pumped through her body. For a while, all of her worries washed away and the troubles which had plagued her mind since Twilight had announced her ‘plus one’ plan was all but forgotten.
“Yeah, this is the life…” She thought aloud.
“Yeah its pretty good isn’t it?”
Rainbow Dash nearly fell out of the sky in surprise, her wings immediately locking up with shock. She tore her eyes open, horrified at the fact that somepony had managed to sneak up her so easily. She looked from side to side in alarm but found no trace of another pegasus, nor was their anypony below her. That only left…
“Yoohoo…” The voice said again.
Rainbow Dash looked up, her eyes immediately locking on a bemused stallion. He was flying upside down with no an apparent care in the world. His bottle green eyes shimmered mischievously in the moonlight and a wide grin split his face. A pair of heavy bags hung under his eyes, giving him the appearance of a chronic insomniac.
“Soarin!?” Rainbow spluttered, managing to snap out of her surprised stupor long enough to avoid a ring which approached with alarming speed.
“Howdy.” The stallion replied cheerfully, his eyes locked on her and not paying attention to the course in the slightest. Without looking he pulled off a quick roll and passed through a ring Rainbow Dash hadn’t even noticed before smartly returning to his previous position.
“What the hay are you doing here?”
“Flying! What about you, eh? This area is supposed to be off-limits.” He said sternly, as if she had stolen a cookie.
“Then why are you here?” Rainbow asked, tearing her eyes off the stallion long enough to dodge a errant cloudbank.
“Eh, never much one to follow the rules I guess. Want a peanut?” He asked, yawning silently and pulling a small bag of the nuts from a pocket on the light flightsuit he wore . Rainbow noted that he hardly seemed to putting any effort in, simply cruising above her as she rocketed along the course.
“No, thanks.” She muttered as the stallion started munching cheerfully. “How long were you there for?”
He shrugged. “A minute or two maybe, couldn’t really follow you through the Dizzy Twister though. Did good there, by the way, even remembered to pull up.” He shook his head slightly. “You’d be amazed how many ponies forget to do that, pretty simple right? I mean, just pulling up…”
Rainbow sighed internally. Most of the times she’d talked with Soarin he’d been a little… weird. He reminded her of a incredibly mild version of Pinkie although laced with tantalisingly rare moments of wisdom and intelligence. He wasn’t dumb, but he certainly seemed to enjoy putting a goofball act most of the time.
“Hey, sport, pull up.” Soarin whistled.
Rainbow yelped with surprise as her hooves kissed the inner edge of a ring, she must have drifted a little.
“Soarin!” Rainbow complained.
“Hey, I just saved your bacon, you really gonna complain about that?” Soarin asked with faux trace of indignance.
“No…” Rainbow muttered, adjusting course for the next ring. “What are you doing here?” She demanded.
“I dunno, enjoying myself?” The Wonderbolt guessed.
Rainbow grunted with annoyance.
“Tell you what, you race me to the end and if you win, I’ll tell you all about it.” Soarin offered.
Rainbow eyed him suspiciously. “And if you win?”
“I’ll tell you anyway. Come on, do I really look like a guy who needs something right now? I got a bag of peanuts, I’m happy.” He said, munching on another nut contentedly.
Rainbow stared at the Wonderbolt curiously. Was this really happening?
“See something you like?” Soarin jeered, shaking the bag of peanuts at her again.
Rainbow looked away embarrassedly before regaining her composure. “Alright bucko, you’re on. See you at the finish line!” She yelled, putting on a sudden burst of speed and drawing ahead of him. Rainbow threw a quick look back at Soarin, there was probably only a kilometre to the finish and she’d already opened up a considerable lead. She grinned as she slalomed through a set of rings and turned onto the final straight. She was barely two hundred metres from the finish when a earsplitting boom rocketed past her.
“No way!” She yelled, her voice being lost in the echoing shock wave that washed over her. She could only watch as Soarin roared past and crossed the line. He maintained the insane speed for a moment longer before ploughing into a cloud with a wet smack.
“Aw, jeez.” Rainbow muttered half tempted to leave the Wonderbolt where he’d crashed. She let out a quiet sigh and flapped over, an irritated look on her face. She had expected a nice, quiet night of flying and now she had… this, to deal with. Whatever this was.
“Moron.” She fired off as she approached earshot. Soarin was still lying half buried in the reinforced cloud barrier, looking very unconcerned with his position. .
“You know me.” Soarin replied without concern, wiping a few drops of water out of his eyes and smacking his lips contently. He yawned again, pulling the bag of peanuts out again and munching away like he was relaxing on a beach somewhere.
“Hey, what happened to ‘Pull up’?” She remarked wryly.
“Again, you know me.” Soarin replied in the same tone, shaking his mane down and covering Rainbow in a fine spray of water.
“Hey!” She complained hotly.
“Whoops.” Soarin remarked dryly, giving her a disarmingly friendly smile.
“You cheated.” Rainbow accused, trying to ignore the heavy drop of water which now hung off the end of her muzzle stubbornly.
“What, because I won? Didn’t say I couldn’t break the sound barrier.” Soarin stated matter of factly, taking another peanut out and chomping in it. “Come on, I’m a Wonderbolt, I’ve gotta have some tricks up my sleeve so I can still beat raw rookies like you.”
“Thanks.” Rainbow muttered sarcastically, wondering if he’d follow her if she left.
A sympathetic look appeared over Soarin’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. You’re good, very good. Maybe better than me even.” He considered his words for a moment. “Okay, maybe not quite that good but you’ve got a lot of promise. Peanut?” He offered again.
“If I take a stupid peanut will you stop offering them to me?” Rainbow asked, covering up a smile with an irritated huff.
Soarin tilted his head to the side slightly. “Yeah, because you’ve have one then. Duh.”
Rainbow took one out of the bag, giving Soarin a dirty look as she munched. The stallion had good taste at least, the nuts were perfectly salted and had a delightful sort of crunch to them.
“They’re good, right?” Soarin inquired, stashing the bag away and pulling himself out of the cloud with a few sharp kicks. He dropped to the surface of the track and stretched his legs out, letting out a content sigh as he did so. He pulled out the bag of peanuts again, unzipping his fluitsuit part way down as he practically waltzed past Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow averted her eyes.
Soarin let out an amused snort, trotting around to one of the stands and pulling out a sports bag he had hidden there. He grabbed the bag in his mouth and motioned Rainbow Dash to follow him. She followed wordlessly, ascending up through the sky a few hundred metres before coming to a rest on a long, wispy cirrus cloud.
“Towel?” Soarin offered.
“Thanks.” Rainbow muttered. It was quite cold up high and the icy cold water Soarin had drenched her in certainly wasn’t helping.
“Cold?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” Rainbow Dash replied, wrapping the towel around her.
“Good, cause I ain’t exactly in a snuggling mood tonight.” Soarin chuckled. “Peanut?” He added casually.
Rainbow Dash let out a confused squeak, her cheeks turning a faint red
Soarin let out a loud laugh, clearly enjoying how uncomfortable Rainbow suddenly looked. “Relax, Dash, I’m just messing with you.”
“Figures.” Rainbow muttered crossly, trying to cover her blush up with the towel Soarin had given her. “So, what are you doing up here anyway?”
“Nothing much. I like to come up here, fly around a bit. Get away from it all y’know?” The stallion sighed, looking up at the relatively clear night sky.
“I know the feeling. Guess you probably have it a bit worse than me though.” Rainbow admitted.
“Yeah, probably. Guess it comes with the lifestyle though.” Soarin shrugged, taking a peanut out of the bag, flipping it into the air and then catching it in his mouth.
Rainbow watched him silently for a few seconds. Despite the fact he had come here to be alone, Soarin seemed completely at ease with her. He could’ve easily avoided her on the course and she would’ve been none the wiser, but he had instead gone to the effort of saying ‘hi’.
She smiled slightly, swelling with pride. It seemed a slight honour that somepony as highly esteemed as Soarin would would want to spend time with her.
“There was an accident on the base today.” Soarin said, his voice cutting her thoughts off. “New cadet, fresh faced out of school with high hopes and big dreams. She had a lot of promise, a bit rough around the edges maybe, like you, but a solid flyer overall.”
He hesitated, the corners of his mouth twitching as his jaw worked up and down slightly. Rainbow could tell that whatever Soarin was trying to say wasn’t particularly easy.
“I had her out on a close order drill in a course like this. One minute she’s doing fine and the next, she pulls out a turn a little too sharp and hits the barrier. We’re going about about Mach point-6 so of course she bounces straight off like a rubber ball, misses me by about three centimetres and wraps herself around one of the rings.”
“Oh my gosh.” Rainbow breathed, her eyes going wide with horror. “Is she okay?”
Soarin shrugged noncommittally. “Dunno.”
Rainbow bit her lip. “Are you okay?”
Soarin grabbed another peanut, looking away and munching nervously. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He answered eventually. “It’s part of the job. Not a pleasant part, but it happens. Ponies make mistakes, ponies get hurt.”
Rainbow was tempted to give him a pat on the back but resisted, respecting the stallion’s personal space. He grabbed another peanut, his jaw working up and down furiously as if would relieve him of some burden.
“It’s not your fault, Soarin.” Rainbow Dash said in a comforting tone as she could manage.
“I know.” Soarin replied, his voice remarkably level. He regained a little of his former cheer, seemingly putting the ugly memory behind him. He flashed her a weak smile. “Wanna do another lap?”
“Sure thing!” Rainbow squeaked, slightly off-guard by how quickly the subject had changed. Soarin seemed happy enough to put the incident out of mind though, so she jumped to her hooves and gave Soarin a pointed look. “And this time, I’m going to win.”
The stallion shrugged. “If you say so.” He muttered. folding his wings into his side and dropping off the cloud like a rock. Rainbow followed half a second later, following Soarin as he rocketed towards the start. He didn’t wait up for her, sailing over the start line and immediately flipping around towards the first obstacle. Rainbow followed close behind, keeping up as best she could. Her wings started to burn, her heart pounded in her chest and her mane billowed out behind her as she furiously moved from one form to the next. Soarin was always one wingbeat ahead, his dark tail constantly flashing a few metres ahead. His technique was a little unorthodox but almost perfect in its own unique way. He flipped over onto his back, looking back at Rainbow with a cheeky grin.
‘You little son of a…’ She thought as he blew a raspberry at her before rocketing off into the Dizzy Twister. She had barely entered the first of the two rings when Soarin rocketed downwards past her, a flash of pale blue against the night sky. By the time she had pulled out of her dive, he was already halfway to the finish. It was incredibly humbling display of flight prowess that showed how much further she had to go before she could compete in the big kid’s league.
She skidded over the finished line, panting slightly from her efforts. For what it seemed, Soarin at least seemed to have actually put in a good deal of effort this time around. She loped over to Soarin, wordlessly accepting a bottle of water he offered her.
“That was crazy!” She gasped, gulping down the water thirstily. “You’re good!”
“Thank you, I’m the best for a reason.” Soarin replied graciously.
Rainbow usually wouldn’t have let such a statement stand, but her ego had been blunted twice already tonight, no need to take a piledriver to it as well. She contented herself by poking her tongue at him childishly.
Soarin returned the gesture, taking his now empty water bottle back and tossing it back into his bag. It occurred to Rainbow Dash that he didn’t have one for himself.
A moment of spontaneous foolishness swept over her and before she knew what had happened, her mouth was open, words drifting out. “Hey, I know this is gonna sound stupid, but you wouldn’t be doing for Hearth’s Warming would you?” Rainbow asked before realising what she had said and suddenly becoming incredibly interested in the small curls that floated off the cloud when she shuffled her hooves awkwardly.
“Well I was going to die.” Soarin remarked casually after a moment.
Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat. “What?!” She screeched.
“Spitfire invited some of the ‘Bolts for dinner. Her cooking is to die for.” Soarin added, starting to gag and choke before falling over onto his back, grabbing his throat and twitching a few times.
Rainbow Dash took a calming breath, Soarin was evidently just messing around again.
“I’ll take anything over that nightmare.” Soarin chuckled, sitting back up like nothing had happened at all. “So, what did you have in mind?”
Rainbow Dash stammered, her tongue suddenly tied up behind her teeth. Not even in the wildest verges of her imagination had she actually expected Soarin to be receptive to her invitation. “Well, uh, my friend Twilight is having this party and she was, uh, she was hoping my friends would all be able to uh… bring somepony along.”
“You mean like a date?” Soarin asked lamely.
“No! No!” Rainbow yelped quickly, hoping her embarrassment wasn’t showing. She cursed silently, she was acting like a complete foal. She took a deep breath and steadied herself, there was no need for her to go off into the deep end, asking one of her idols to be her plus one to a friend’s party should have been a cakewalk.
Right?
No, Soarin was different. Rainbow Dash would rather die than admit it, but she liked Soarin more than she had any right to. Despite his celebrity status and position in the Wonderbolts, he had always treated Rainbow as if she were a peer and on the few occasions that they had spent any amount of time together, she had almost always enjoyed herself. Sure, he was a bit of a goof sometimes but she didn’t mind it all that much. His laid back demeanor seemed to clash a little with her hot-headedness but more often than not, Rainbow found it helped reign her in a little.
Rainbow had never actively seeked a relationship, it was never something that had particularly appealed to her after all, but Soarin’s question had almost sounded… hopeful.
‘No’. She quickly decided, a relationship with the Wonderbolt was at best a fanciful dream and at worst, a hooffull of trouble. She was happy being friends with Soarin and she dared not risk what bond they shared on a stupid whim.
“Right, right. Just a friendly thing..” Soarin said slowly, his face adopting an almost suspicious look.
She felt a slow heat build behind her cheeks as Soarin nodded slowly, almost as if he could read her mind. “Yeah, just a friendly thing.” She affirmed. “I- I didn’t actually have anypony else to ask.” Rainbow admitted sheepishly.
“Well, you got me.” Soarin smiled, his face becoming friendly again. “I’d love to come along, I don’t believe I’ve had the chance to meet any of your friends properly. How exciting.” He added with a shiver that didn’t seem to be entirely from the cold.
“So that’s a yes then?”
“That’s a yes.” Soarin affirmed.
Rainbow resisted the urge to do a backflip, her tongue seemed intent to do one as her words came out as a sort of gibbering, excited mess that not even she properly understood. She quickly regained her composure. “What I meant to say is that It’ll be great to have you along.”
“Of course it will. What time should I meet you?”
“Uh, Seven would be great. Ponyville town square.”
“I thought you lived in Cloudsdale.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Oh, and you need to bring a present. Twilight’s organising this gift exchange thing Kringle something, I think. I’ll let her know you’re coming and she’ll get in contact with you. Somehow.”
“Fun.” Soarin chuckled, zipping up his bag and putting it over his back. “So, see you around seven then?”
Rainbow nodded.
Soarin smiled, giving her a wink. “I gotta dash.” He said cheekily, giving her a wave before taking off. “Nice flying with you!”
Rainbow watched him go, waiting until he’d vanished behind the next layer of the city before falling over onto her back, kicking her hooves in the air with a girlish squeal. Never in a thousand years did she honestly expect anything like this. A Wonderbolt, a real Wonderbolt being her own guest! She calmed herself down, trying to maintain a little decency. She couldn’t help herself though, laughing to herself in an almost giddy fashion. She took a few calming breaths, looking up at the spiralling curves of Cloudsdale and the few twinkling stars she could make out beyond. Things just couldn’t get any better!
***
Rainbow Dash patrolled Ponyville’s town square, a edge of nervousness and irritation seeping into her step. She kept turning her gaze upwards, scanning the skies for another pegasus. She let out a quiet huff, checking the time again.
Soarin was late.
As much as she wanted to blame simple tardiness, some part of her mind couldn’t help but think that the stallion was going to stand her up, leaving her to go to Twilight’s party all on her own. It had only been a few days, he couldn’t have forgotten, could he?
She scowled, shivering slightly from the cold. It was probably one of the coldest nights they’d had in a few years, snow and ice covered the village, only kept clear of the roads by the tireless work of a few unicorns and earth ponies armed with shovels and the occasional burst of magic. Rainbow paid them no mind, instead completely focused on her late companion. She had even gone to the effort of dressing up slightly, spending a few painful hours with Rarity that afternoon getting her mane washed, combed and done up into a ponytail.
She shuddered, that had been almost unbearable. Rarity had obviously heard from somepony that she was bringing Soarin and had been quite insistent that Rainbow had to look the part.
In short, if Soarin didn’t show up after the amount of mental pain and discomfort Rainbow had gone through, she would endeavour to make his life very uncomfortable. Or go cry into a bucket of ice cream, vengeance was a hard thing to do after all.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to resort to either as a small blue shape winging through the air towards the town square caught her eye. the shape quickly resolved itself into a pegasus and a few moments later Soarin touched down a metre away, sending up a small flurry of snow as he touched down on the cobblestone.
Like her, he carried a very badly wrapped gift in his mouth. A set of exquisitely made flight goggles sat over his eyes, thin layers of snow and frost built up around the edges of the golden lenses.
“Evening.” He said through a mouthful of wrapping paper and tape. He gave her a look over, noting that she’d done her mane up. “You look nice.”
“Uh, thanks.” Rainbow said back with a small smile, infinitely relieved he hadn’t said ‘cute’. She looked him over, noting the flakes of snow buried in his wings and lines of frost running up and down his mane. “You look cold.” She replied, too pleased to see him to also point out he was also late.
“Flew through a nice big snowstorm on the way in. I think my goggles are frozen to my face.” Soarin shivered, jumping up and down a little to get the blood flowing.
“Huh, should we get going then?”
“I think I’d rather just freeze here.” Soarin joked, looking around slightly stiffly. “Nice spot to kick the bucket at least.” He added, giving the town square an appreciative glance.
Rainbow gave the stallion a flat look and set off towards the library. Despite the weather, quite a few ponies were out on the streets and her companion got more than a few looks. Thankfully the onlookers were either too preoccupied or too polite to barge in on the Wonderbolt, most giving him a smile or a wave before returning to their own business.
“The ponies are so nice here.” Soarin remarked offhandedly as a scrawny colt bounded up alongside him, took a photo and then bounced away again just as quickly.
“We have our busybodies, trust me.” Rainbow replied, giving the retreating foal a scalding look. While she couldn’t recall his name, she knew he occasionally worked as a photographer for the town’s paper. No doubt the picture of her and Soarin would be a feature of the morning paper.
“Certainly not as bad as Cloudsdale though.” Soarin remarked, ruffling his wings and sending a small storm of snowflakes into the air.
“No.” Rainbow admitted quietly, coming to a stop outside Twilight’s castle. The lights in the windows were burning bright, gleaming off the crystal exterior in gaudy colours that Twilight had probably enchanted in. From inside she could already make out the overzealous sounds of Pinkie Pie.chatting the ear off some unfortunate.
“Wow, a real crystal castle.” Soarin asked, the light reflecting off his goggles. It occurred to Rainbow that the Wonderbolt may not have been lying when he said they were indeed frozen on.
“You probably live in a cloud, don’t judge.” Rainbow remarked wryly, staring at the shimmering surface of the castle’s turrets.
Soarin shrugged in a carefree manner. “Suppose so.” He said, conceding the point to her. “Look, not that I don’t like freezing my tail off out here but could we go in? I’m hungry.”
“Are you ever not?” Rainbow asked, knocking on the solid door.
The wonderbolt shrugged silently again.
A purple aura flashed around the frame, the heavy door swinging open a moment later, allowing a rush of warm air and light to spill outside. Silhouetted in the warm orange light was Twilight, an immensely pleased look plastered over the Alicorn’s face.
“Rainbow Dash! I’m so glad you made it.” Twilight practically sang. She gave her friend a quick hug before standing aside. Although the night was still young, it was evident from the warm glow on Twilight’s cheeks and her slightly off-centred look that she’d been tucking into some of Applejack’s cider a little early. Her gaze drifted behind Rainbow Dash and landed on Soarin, her eyes going slightly wide at the sight of the Wonderbolt.
“And Soarin! Such a pleasure!” She continued in a bubbly tone. “I must admit when Rainbow told me she’d roped you in as her guest I was a little unsure if she was joking or not.”
“Well I can assure you I am 100 percent A-grade me, ma’am.”
Twilight let out a quiet guffaw. “Of course you are, come on in you two.” She said, inviting the pair in and quickly closing the door behind them. She led them down one of the wide corridors, skipping past the map room and entering the massive west wing of her home.
The castle looked much the same as it did a few weeks ago, though a few more decorations had gone up in Rainbow Dash’s absence. Rows of coloured lights criss-crossed the high arching ceiling and small baubles hung from the walls on small pieces of golden string. A massive candy cane shaped cake which Pinkie had baked dominated the centre of the room.
Rainbow quickly took a headcount. Pinkie was midway through telling a joke to her sister, Maud next to her towering masterpiece. Applejack was, of all things, talking quite loudly with Rarity and Coco Pommel, the three mares had evidently found some common ground. Caramel and Big Macintosh sat by the food table, talking quietly with each other over their food. A few other ponies who she recognised from around town were also present. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were somewhere; Rainbow could hear them, but couldn’t quite make out their exact location. That question was quickly answered as the three fillies slid out from under a table, leaping out in front of Rainbow Dash and Soarin like a three headed jack in the box.
“Oh my gosh! A Wonderbolt, a real Wonderbolt!” Scootaloo bubbled, practically jumping up and down on Soarin’s back.
The other two fillies piled on the stallion with similar gusto, interrogating him without waiting for answers.
“How fast can you fly?” Scootaloo demanded.
“Are you Rainbow Dash’s special somepony?” Sweetie Belle swooned.
Applebloom poked a small scar on his hindleg. “Where did you get that scar? Did you fight a dragon?”
Scootaloo jumped on the bandwagon before Soarin could get a word in edgewise. “You fought a dragon? Did you die?”
“Girls!” Rainbow Dash growled, pulling them away from the terrified Wonderbolt before they could do any lasting mental harm. She flashed a stern look at the Crusaders, their excited yammering immediately stopping. “Give the poor stallion a break would ya?”
“Sorry.” The three fillies answered in unison, their eyes downcast.
“Good, now get going before you break Soarin. He’ll be around for a while so you can gush over him later. Nicely.” She added sternly as the three fillies trotted off, muttering quietly amongst themselves.
“Sorry about them.” Rainbow Dash said quickly.
“I think I’d rather risk frostbite than that again.” Soarin muttered fearfully.
“Oh they’re alright once the novelty wears off for them. The just have a tendency to get a bit too excited.” She chuckled, pulling Soarin over to where Twilight had put her Hearth's Warming tree up. The two pegasi dropped their presents off and looked around the fiercely decorated room.
“It’s a library.” soarin realised, looking past the decorations and seeing the shelves underneath. His eyes glimmered with approval under his goggles.
“Pretty cool, right?” Rainbow
“Definitely.” He said wistfully, running a hoof over the shelve behind them. “‘The Complete History of Equestria, Part I.’ Gee, I could be here for weeks.”
“I’ve read the whole series.” Twilight butted in, seemingly jumping out at the two pegasi out of thin air. She had three mugs drifting above her head which she quickly passed out to the two new arrivals. “Absolutely fascinating. They’re all first editions, by the way.” she said proudly.
“Must have taken a while to collect.” Soarin muttered.
“You have no idea.” Twilight giggled. “Do you read much, Soarin?”
“Not as much as I’d like.” He admitted. “I have a small holiday house over near Whitetail woods which is packed full of books though. I have the entire Tallguard Knight’s Saga, first edition and signed by M. Chaucer.”
Twilight seemed to swoon slightly, her eyes lighting up like a Hearth's Warming tree
Rainbow was tempted to tell her to calm down but her attention was immediately stolen away as Fluttershy arrived, sneaking in through the front door of the Library with her companion.
“Oh no…” Rainbow muttered, her eyes going wide.
“Hello, everypony!” Discord announced, sauntering in behind Fluttershy with none of the discretion that the pegasus was displaying. The already slightly off-centre Twilight looked like he eyes were about to explode.
“Uh…” Soarin began.
‘Twilight goes into crisis mode in three, two… one.’ Rainbow thought, accurately guessing the break in her friend’s composure down to the second. Twilight Immediately scampered off, her wings flared with concern.
“What is..?” Soarin stammered, watching wide eyed as the draconequus summoned up a miniature snowstorm which rained massive flakes of snow over his head.
“It’s a long story.” Rainbow assured him. “I’ll tell you some other time.”
“Please do.” The stallion muttered absently. He seemed to remember he had a mug of cider now and helped himself, finding some solace in the drink. Rainbow followed suite, downing the bubbly drink as modestly as she could. As usual, Applejack’s cider seemed to be better than it had been last year, an impressive feat as improving what Rainbow Dash considered almost perfection was rather incredible.
She placed her mug down, only to find it had refilled itself. She picked it up again, staring suspiciously at the cider inside.
‘Magic...’ She thought, shaking her head in amazement. What was next, a refilling buffet table?
A sudden thought struck her. “Hey, Soarin, I wanna show you something.”
The stallion was eyeing off the food table, particularly the end laden down in the baked creations of Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “But I’m hungry…” He complained.
“It can wait, gutso.” Rainbow jeered.
“Not even a piece of pie?” Soarin pleaded.
Rainbow Dash let out a quiet huff, speeding over to the table, grabbing a piece of apple pie and a napkin for the stallion before returning in the space of a few seconds.
“Happy?” She asked.
Soarin made a noise though his snack which could’ve been interpreted as ‘Thanks’, cheerfully chewing his way through the pie just as messily as Rainbow remembered. She led him back out into the hall and down towards the map room. She pushed the door open, letting Soarin go in first.
“Wow.”
“Yeah, pretty cool.” She said proudly, floating up to the top of the room. The map room was even higher than the hall they’d left, the thick arches of crystal casting a dizzying patterns of reflected light across the floor. She hovered over to her throne, dropping into it sideways, leaning her back up against one of the side rests and draping one of her hindlegs over the other side. “I have a throne.” She boasted, flicking a bit of her mane out of her eyes.
Soarin settled into Rarity’s throne directly across the map from her. He stared at her for a few seconds, seemingly unable to quite find the words to voice his feelings. Rainbow felt a low heat rise in her cheeks as his gaze didn’t shift away.
“What this?” Soarin asked, finally breaking eye contact and pointing to the shimmering map with a hoof.
Rainbow leapt upright, jumping up onto the shimmering image. The map shimmered like water under the hoofsteps and a faint electric buzz tingled her hooves. “It’s a map of Equestria and beyond. I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to do, but it’s pretty cool.”
“Very cool. I wish I had one of these.” Soarin said enviously, jumping up onto the map next to her and staring down at the ripples that spread across the image. “How’d you get all this stuff?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Magic, I guess.”
“Magic.” Soarin sighed, partly out of wonder, partly out of frustration. “I want one.” He added, his face turning mischievous. He leapt up, crushing Canterlot with a hoof as he crossed the map before jumping off and walking over a small side table Twilight had laden with quills and other writing supplies.
Rainbow’s eyes widened with disbelief, understanding his meaning as he started scribbling. “You wouldn’t!” She laughed.
“I would.” Soarin grinned though a quill, drawing a very crude image of his cutie mark on one of the pieces of paper before waltzing back and pinning it over Rarity’s cutiemark with a bit of tape he’d found. “Much better.” He proclaimed.
“What are the element of? Pies?” Rainbow laughed. If Rarity had been here she would’ve been quite cross.
“Element of Good Food, I think.” Soarin replied with a chuckle. “You know what, I think I need another one.”
“Soarin!” Rainbow laughed as the stallion rushed back to the table, drawing another picture of his cutie mark, this time with the words ‘Soarin, Purveyor of Pie.’ scrawled underneath. His writing was about as neat as a Rainbow’s, which was to say it was barely legible. He taped this over Pinkie’s throne, grinning triumphantly.
“Still not enough me.” He said, running back and drawing up another crude picture and taping it over Applejack’s throne. This one read ‘Soarin, Patron Saint of Apples.’
“What have I done?” Rainbow asked, dropping to her haunches and laughing into her forehooves.
“Given me a nasty case of Egoitis, I heard it’s very infectious.” Soarin grinned stupidly. “You know what, you haven’t lived until you’ve deposed a real princess.” He reckoned aloud, drawing up another cutie mark and taping it over Twilight’s throne, this one bearing a small and very badly drawn crown. He drew up one last cutie mark, covering up Fluttershy’s throne as well for good measure.
“My friends are going to kill you.” Rainbow chuckled.
“They’d have to catch me first.” He said, suddenly looking rather thoughtful, “Actually…” He stared at Rainbows throne evilly.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Rainbow protested.
“Why not? I beat you twice the other night, may as well just not have your throne if you can’t even beat a slob like me.” Soarin pointed out.
“No, don’t you even think about it.” Rainbow growled, pawing her throne defensively.
“I am and you can’t stop me.” Soarin replied cheekily, jumping off Fluttershy’s throne and stepping over the map again towards the drawing table. Rainbow was too fast though, tackling him across the map with a playful growl.
“No! That’s my throne!” She barked as they collided.
They tumbled across the map, crushing several cities to dust and flattening the Macintosh Range to the ground. Their laughter echoed around the chamber as each vied for control. Soarin was stronger but Rainbow was a bit faster. Neither seemed to be able gain the upperhand over each other as they rolled and tumbled all across Equestria in a destructive whirlwind of curses, feathers and hooves. Eventually, Rainbow Dash prevailed, pinning Soarin’s back down across the middle of the map. She sat on his chest, using a hoof to pin his head against the magical projection of Cloudsdale. The map had whited out in some places in protest of their rough and tumble grapple, the colour only starting to slowly fade back in.
“My throne.” Rainbow growled into his ear.
“Your throne.” Soarin agreed. He let out a groan, his wings lying limply against the map’s surface like a massive sheet. “But only because I said so.”
“You let me win.” Rainbow observed, her eyes narrowing. She resisted the urge to poke Soarin’s muzzle with a hoof.
“Maybe.” Soarin panted, his chest rising and falling quickly. His bottle green eyes were gleaming mischievously, the usual fatigue completely missing. They stayed there for nearly a minute, Rainbow sitting astride his warm fuzzy chest, her rose eyes locked with his.
“We should probably head back now, somepony will notice us missing soon.” Rainbow said.
“Yeah.” Soarin agreed, though his expression said otherwise. He seemed perfectly happy to stick around the map room and keep mucking around, a sentiment she shared. The events that had transpired over the last few minutes suddenly came crashing down around Rainbow. It was a little too much to take in, she and Soarin were messing about at complete ease with each other and now she was sitting down on him, pressing him against the map and he seemed to be having fun. She had never imagined anything like this, nothing so spontaneous, so intimate with the stallion. Her muzzle seems to subconsciously crawl forward, a few inches of air all that separated her nose from bumping Soarin’s. It would have been trivially easy to do something stupid now…
The thought was enough to get her moving and she slid off him, letting the Wonderbolt sit up. He threw her a disarmingly friendly smile. “Maybe we’ll have have another round sometime, maybe I’ll actually try next time.” He said, getting out a crick in his neck.with a loud pop. If he seemed at all fazed by their close contact, he didn’t show it.
“What’s that? It sounds like you’re saying that you’re better than me.” Rainbow jeered, nearly butting heads with him again.
“Better? Nah, more like infinitely superior.” Soarin replied, placing a hoof on his chest smugly.
“Oh, big words.” Rainbow scoffed. “Come on, let’s get back and join the others, flyboy.”
Soarin bounced cheerfully over to door, hauling at open and waving Rainbow through, tipping an imaginary hat. “M’are.” He said completely straight-faced.
“Dork.” Rainbow hissed back, swishing her tail at him as she passed.
Soarin didn’t reply, hauling the door closed behind him and bouncing along behind Rainbow Dash cheerfully. He was talking about something or other but Rainbow really wasn’t paying attention, instead she was berating herself mentally for chickening out. It had seemed so natural but she’d somehow screwed it up. Classic.
‘No’ It was a good thing she’d backed out, an overt show of affection probably just would’ve either freaked him out or annoyed him. Soarin was probably involved with somepony anyway. She pushed the nagging thought out of her mind, rejoining the party as discreetly as possible. Luckily, everypony was distracted by one of Discord’s tricks, a few flying and dancing books from the looks of things, to notice she and Soarin reenter. Or so she thought.
A Pink blob seemingly jumped out from behind a pot plant at Rainbow. “Hi guys! Where’ve you been, huh?”
“Pinkie…” Rainbow said by way of greeting, her head slumping a little. “Soarin, this is Pinkie Pie, my elastically enthusiastic friend. Pinkie, I’m sure you already know who this is.”
Pinkie nodded happily, jumping over Rainbow Dash and putting a hoof around Soarin’s neck before he could escape. “Tell me,” Pinkie asked, glaring at Sorin suspiciously. “How did you win that pie-throwing contest? I’m the best pie-thrower around these parts and don’t let anypony tell you different.”
Soarin seemed slightly taken aback. “I… threw the pies?”
“As I suspected.” Pinkie hissed before brightening up. “You’re cool.”
Evidently seeing the potential sanity slippage that might occur if he stuck around, Soarin made a small gesture over to the food table. “Uh, if you two would excuse me a moment, there’s some food I need to acquaint myself with.” He said before breaking away to the long table covered in food.
“Typical pegasus.” Pinkie sighed as he scampered away. “Can only think about one of two things, both of which start with ‘F’.”
Rainbow threw her a sidewards glance, unsure of what she implying.
“I meant flying, Dashie.” Pinkie said, lending a rare moment of clarity to her thoughts. “Jeez, Freud was right!”
“Who?” Rainbow asked.
Pinkie shook her head slightly, seemingly disappointed. “Not important.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes slightly. As much as she loved Pinkie, she confused her more often than not. At least she seemed to have forgotten about interrogating Rainbow on where she’d been, her short attention span was as much of a blessing as it was a curse sometimes.
“So where’d you two sneak off to before?” Pinkie asked as if she’d just read Rainbow’s thoughts.
Rainbow cursed Pinkie’s apparent omniscience. She made a faint bleating noise, caught slightly flat-footed. “I showed Soarin the map.” She eventually said.
This seemed to satisfy Pinkie. “Hm, fair enough. Did I hear sounds of animals fighting before?”
“I’m sure it was just your imagination.”
Pinkie shrugged, her gaze wandering over to Soarin as he helped himself to the food table. Rainbow couldn’t help but stare either, as if Pinkie were somehow directing her gaze.
“He’s cute.” Pinkie sighed wistfully “And just a little dorky.”
‘Definitely.’ Rainbow thought silently.
“You two would make cute kids.” Pinkie said aimlessly..
Rainbow’s jaw dropped with shock, her face instantly burning hot red in embarrassment. Words couldn’t describe how thankful she was that Soarin had left to get food and hadn’t heard her friend’s comment. “Pinkie-.”
“Duh, Of course! You guys have to get married first. Lots of parties for me to plan and put together. Maybe you could do something with clouds, clouds are nice and fluffy and you can make so many cute things with them.”
“Pinkie.”
“But what am I saying,” She continued oblivious to Rainbow’s embarrassment, “You have to go on a few dates first, maybe I should something for you together back at Sugarcube Corner, Soarin really likes pie doesn’t he, maybe I can make a special one for him, how exciting! What’s his favourite filling, apple? Pear? Apple and-.” Pinkie’s ramble was cut off as Rainbow forcible forced her mouth shut.
“Not another word.” She hissed, too embarrassed to be cross.
Soarin trotted back over, bringing a massive platter stacked high with food with him. He eyed Pinkie and Rainbow curiously. Rainbow could only hope that she wasn’t blushing as furiously as her cheeks were burning.
“Do I wanna know?” He asked slowly.
“No,” Rainbow asid simply, shaking Pinkie’s head in unison with hers. She released Pinkie’s motor mouth cautiously.
“Oh, we were just talking about you-.” Her rambling was thankfully cut off midway as Twilight, having dealt with her small book crisis, jumped up onto a table and called the room to order.
“Everypony!” She called slightly pissedly. “I think it’s time for the thing where we give stuff to each other.”
Rainbow stifled a chortle, she’d never seen Twilight drunk before. There were a few cheers and the guests starting drifting over to the large tree which dominated the room. The three cutie-mark crusaders were already there, sorting through the presents in their usual enthusiastic attitude. Everypony in attendance had been given somepony else to get a gift for, along with some gift ideas, giving the result that everypony got one present from somepony else. Rainbow had been given Pinkie Pie as her giftee and she’d gotten the pink party pony a new beanie, a two-toned blue thing with massive flaps on the sides, a small bobble on top and Pinkie’s cutie mark embroidered on the front.
Twilight went on, drawing names out of a hat and levitating the gifts towards their recipients. Rarity got a set of diamond encrusted fabric scissors from Fluttershy, Twilight, very thoughtfully, got a stack of pre-discordian history books from Discord himself and Scootaloo got a few fancy gadgets for her scooter from Pinkie, of all ponies.
“I half expected a rubber chicken.” Soarin chuckled in her ear. He himself had gotten another set of night-tinted flight goggles, something which seemed a little pointless to Rainbow, but Soarin seemed to enjoy them all the same. Maybe he was a collector or something.
“Knowing Pinkie…” Rainbow muttered, throwing a look at the pony. she was jumping up and down in place next to Rarity, talking with the fashionista in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. The long tabs on the side of her new beanie flapping up and down with her jumps like they were trying to fly away.
“Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow looked around at the sudden sound, her eyes widening a little as a present threw through the air and landed squarely across her muzzle. She went crosseyed looking at it, the purple and blue striped wrapping paper looked rather familiar. She pulled the gift off her face, it felt soft and was light, like a pair of socks or a scarf. She recognised the wrapping as Soarin's work, she’d noticed the messy lines of tape and rough folds when he’d first landed. A knot of apprehension rose up in her throat, everypony was looking at her now, even Discord had stopped showing off the pair of ‘chaosified’ reading glasses that Sweetie Belle had thoughtfully gotten for him. She gave Soarin a sidewards glance before tearing the wrapping paper off, revealing a long, flowing scarf.
“It’s a D-Team scarf, only issued to members of the Wonderbolts flight demonstration squadron ” Soarin explained. “There’s probably only a hundred of those at most out in the public. a real collector’s item.”
The scarf was a striking royal blue a few shades darker than the Wonderbolt’s signature flight suits, broken by several thick bands of pale yellow. The flight squadron’s motto, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!’, was printed in delicate yellow script along one end of the scarf with their insignia, a winged lightningbolt, above it. At the other end, Soarin’s name was printed in small block letters.
“This is yours!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Yours now,” Soarin said cheerfully. “Don’t worry, they gave me another one with mt rank on it when I got promoted.”
Rainbow wrapped the scarf around her neck. It was very soft and comfortable, nothing like any scarf she’d worn before. It felt like something that’d be warm and wouldn’t slow her down. “Thanks, Soarin… I love it.”
She dared to give him a quick wing-hug, awkwardly draping her wing over his back in a motion somewhere between a hug and a slap on the back.
“No worries.” Soarin beamed, his eyes flickering to something overhead. A vague look of surprise crossed his features, his mouth sort of curling up into a half-smile. “Huh…”
“Wh-.” Rainbow started before looking up herself. A bundle of mistletoe was hovering above her, suspended in the air by the telltale glow of a unicorn’s levitation. She stared at it for a few seconds, a knot tying itself in her stomach. No way somepony was that immature.
She finally found her voice, turning on the unicorn in question. “Rarity!” Rainbow squealed indignantly. The icy blue shimmer around the mistletoe was more than enough for her to figure out who had shifted it above her and Soarin.
Rarity feigned ignorance, silently proclaiming her innocence in a rather over the top fashion. A few heckling calls and whistles from some of her other friends forced her onto the backhoof and she shrunk back in embarrassment. Soarin seemed remarkably unconcerned with the development, simply staring at the floating bundle of leaves like they were simply another piece of food. Besides the obnoxiously cute sort of smile he wore, his face betrayed how he felt.
While she was initially taken aback by his non-response, It swiftly occurred to Rainbow that this was probably fairly normal stuff for Soarin; fans going gaga over him was probably a regular occurrence. His apparent indifference stung her pride, while she wasn’t afraid to admit she was a ‘fan’, she had hoped that Soarin saw her as more than that; as a friend. The way he had acted around her and the way he seemed so at ease had obviously given her the wrong idea.
‘What are you stupid, the guy likes you.’ She thought, ‘Quit being such a scaredy-cat.’
After another brief moment of hesitation she moved in, giving the stallion a delicate kiss on the cheek before retreating, a furious blush building across her face. Her gut felt like it had just a backflip in excitement, despite the embarrassment, it had been totally worth it.
“Enjoying yourself?” Soarin asked wryly, finally saying something.
“I just did that so everypony else would be quiet, it’s not like I like you or anything.” She said, trying to sound unperturbed but instead managing an awkward mumble. Her words were thankfully being drowned out by several of her friends spontaneously cheering. She scowled at everypony, feeling slightly cheated out of what should’ve been an exciting moment. Thankfully their attention didn’t last, Twilight continued on passing out presents and one by one, the party continued on as before. Soarin didn’t move away, wearing a stupid little half-smile that made Rainbow want to give him a solid thump in the ribs.
Not wanting to draw further attention to herself she resisted the urge, settling for a soft scowl instead. She made a commitment to bring it up with Soarin’s, one way or another, sometime later if the opportunity presented itself when they were alone again. In the meantime, she had a party to enjoy.
***
The opportunity Rainbow Dash was looking for didn’t come up until the party had wound down. Rainbow Dash and Soarin were one of the last groups to the leave the party. Discord had vanished back into his chaotic realms, Applejack, Big Mac and the Crusaders had left for the farm and it was well past midnight before the two pegasi left Twilight’s castle, leaving the slightly drunk alicorn in the good care of Spike. It really hadn’t seemed like all long a time, Rainbow had spent the rest of the evening mostly talking with Twilight and Applejack, giving Pinkie and Rarity dirty looks whenever they passed by. While she didn’t directly talk to Soarin much, she listened on many of his conversations, listening on in wonder as he told some ridiculous story from his time serving with the Wonderbolts. They danced, Soarin displaying a complete lack of talent like he had when they’d danced at Shining Armour’s wedding. Rainbow Dash was a little tired and enjoying the buzz , an almost ticklish sensation in her hooves, wings and across her face, from one too many of Applejack’s ciders. As they stepped back outside, the cold air knocking the breath from Rainbow’s lungs like hammer, she couldn’t help but smile. She must of looked particularly stupid as Soarin couldn’t help but stare bemusedly.
“What?” Rainbow asked, trying to stifle a laugh at the innocent expression Soarin adopted.
“What?” Soarin replied, cracking a thin smile at her expense.
“I asked first.”
Soarin shrugged his head slightly. “Well you just looked so darn pleased with yourself…” He pulled what Rainbow felt was a poor imitation of her expression.
“I do not look like that!” Rainbow squealed with protest, trying not to break down laughing at Soarin’s scrunched up face. Soarin looked absolutely ridiculous, like a clown at a circus.
“Should I go back to Twilight and get a mirror?” Soarin asked , pausing for a moment and motioning back towards Twilight’s castle.
Rainbow let out a chortle, unable to keep her mirth bottled up.
“See, you’re doing it right now!” Soarin pointed out cheekily. He looked like he was more alive than normal, the normally tired, almost sleepy look he usually held nowhere to be seen.
Rainbow poked her tongue out at him, ungraciously bumping her flank against his. Rainbow felt so at ease with him that she had even forgotten to maintain her reserved attitude. It took her a moment to realise that her left wing was slightly unfolded, the tip trailing along the stallion’s cutiemark idly. She quickly withdrew it, thankful that Soarin didn’t comment on the rather overt and intimate show of affection. They reached the town square without further incident, Soarin trotting silently alongside alongside Rainbow Dash. He looked rather chipper despite the late hour and the few ciders he’d drunk, an almost mischievous look in his eye. Neither pegasi seemed to want to start, the silence stretched on for so long that Rainbow wondered if they’d still be in the square when the sun rose.
“This was…” Rainbow Dash finally started, rolling the sentence around uncertainly.
“...Fun.” Soarin finished, coming to a halt roughly in the centre of the town square. It was late enough that only the most stubborn or thick-skinned of ponies were out in the streets, enjoying the now surprisingly clear and crisp night. Outside of the warm glow of the magical lanterns, several centimeters of soft snow had fallen, giving the landscape a white and blue sheen. Overhead, thousands of stars turned slowly in the sky, the moon a faint sliver near the western horizon.
If it wasn’t so cold that Rainbow’s wings were shivering against her sides it might have been a bit more enjoyable. Even with Soarin’s scarf wrapped around her neck it was almost annoyingly cold.
Soarin seemed to take the cold with the same sort of phlegmatic attitude he seemed to adopt when he encountered something troublesome, brushing it off as easily as he would a few snowflakes off his snout. He, at least, seemed to be enjoying the view.
“You don’t get this in Cloudsdale that much. Too many lights.” He said, staring up at the sky absently.
“Huh.” Rainbow muttered, mindlessly following his gaze. The cold seemed quite forgotten as the pair stood in the middle of the square, staring up at the stars for several more minutes in silence.
“Thanks for inviting me Rainbow, I really enjoyed myself.” Soarin said suddenly, licking his lips nervously. “Just…”
Rainbow tensed up involuntarily, her fur pricking up from something that wasn’t the cold. “What?” She asked mockingly when it became obvious Soarin was a little stuck. She’d made the assumption he always had words for whatever situation he might be in, Rainbow found it a little amusing to see Soarin tripping over himself.
‘Just get on with it you goof.’ She thought, impatiently. The aura of uncertainty hanging around Soarin was almost palpable. Rainbow finally let out a quiet huff, saving Soarin the trouble of talking by leaning in and kissing him on the mouth. His wings reflexively shot out in surprise, his eyes dilating to small pricks. He recovered quickly though, pushing back against her slightly with a content sound. Rainbow broke the contact after a few moments, infinitely relieved that Soarin was smiling.
“Well... I guess that works as well.” He smirked. “You know, you could’ve saved yourself the embarrassment by kissing me earlier.”
“I knew it!” Rainbow yelled at him, flicking a bunch of snow at him with a sweep of her wing. “You jerk! Why didn’t you say something?” She growled “Or do something?”
“Why didn’t you do something. Jeez?” Soarin asked sarcastically, flicking snow back at Rainbow Dash with a wing.
“I was waiting for you, you goof!” Rainbow yelped, ducking under the sheet of snow and throwing more back at him.
The flinging escalated to a full on fight, Rainbow Dash and Soarin soon throwing snow at snow at each other with wide sweeps of their wings and loud laughter. Unable to force him into submission with mere snow, Rainbow pounced on Soarin mid-sweep, sending the two tumbling into a deep drift. A brief tussle ensured, loose snow flying in every direction as the two pegasi rolled and brawled, burying themselves deeper into the bank
“You even trying this time?” Soarin asked, quickly pinning Dash beneath his greater weight. Now it was his turn to proudly pin her to the ground.
“You’re fat.” Rainbow complained, struggling to free herself to no avail. Soarin had her trapped good and proper, his forelegs holding hers down while he straddled her waist. She squirmed again, prompting another laugh from the stallion.
“Do I win?” He asked.
“You win.” Rainbow hissed grudgingly. “Just get your fat rump off of me.”
Soarin didn’t move, instead booping her on the nose with a hoof..”So, you busy next Saturday night?” He asked nonchalantly.
“No.” Rainbow grumped, wishing Soarin would get off her. Surely he’d made his point by now.
“Good, it’s a date then. I’ll come by your place then and we’ll go somewhere nice. You don’t mind flying a bit do you?”
Rainbow gave him a flat look, wondering why she’d ever liked the dork sitting on top of her in the first place. Maybe if he was a few kilos lighter she’d have been able to unseat him, but Soarin was just a little too heavy to budge.
“Soarin!” She complained. “Please!”
“Oh, sure, you only had to say please.” He grinned, sliding off her and lying in the snow beside her. He hummed idly for a moment and then started making shapes in the snow, wiggling his legs and wings to shift the fine powder around.
Rainbow scowled at him, her pride stinging. “Next time, I’m going to win.” She growled. “And when I do, I’m going to truss you up, cover you in honey and let my turtle eat it off you.”
“I always loved sensual thrillers.” Soarin drawled, shaking a few clumps of snow out of his mane.He sat up, shaking his whole body like a dog and sending snow in every direction and eliciting another cry of protest from Rainbow. Soarin glanced down at her, his bottle-green eyes shimmering cheerfully. He looked the least tired Rainbow had ever seen him. “So, next Saturday then?”
“Yeah.” Rainbow agreed crossly. Truthfully, she couldn’t be more excited, but there was no use in letting the stallion think he was off the hook just yet.
He didn’t seem to care, seeing through her cranky mood easily enough. “Where do you live anyway?” Soarin asked.
“Around.” Rainbow answered vaguely.
“Well if your house is as subtle as you are, I’ll have no trouble finding it.” Soarin replied, poking his tongue out cheekily.
Rainbow couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Suppose not.”
“Hehe! You smiled, I’m off the hook!” Soarin giggled in a surprisingly girly fashion, darting a few metres into the air and out of easy reach.
“Since when?”
“Since then, that’s when.” Soarin answered cheekily. He gave her a faux salute and turned to leave, flipping his flight goggles back down over his eyes. “See you next Saturday!” He shouted down to her before zipping off like a bolt of lightning.
Rainbow watched him go for a moment before she collapsed back into the snowbank at the edge of the square tiredly, she was too excited too care about the cold slushy snow beneath her or the occasional gust of freezing wind which swept over the square. The whole evening seemed a little too surreal. An actual opportunity to spend time with Soarin was a bit beyond her initial expectations, never mind managing to steal some affection from the stallion. Quickly checking that nopony else was lurking about the edges of the square that could eavesdrop on on her, she let out a squeal of excitement, her wings flapping against the snow and her legs kicking the air joyfully.
Undoubtedly, this had been the best night ever.