The Magic of Belonging

by Angelpony723

Nostalgia and Pain

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I was busy in the world of education and will only get busier from here on out, so bare with me please when I try to update this some more. Anyways enjoy!

Chapter 4: Nostalgia and Pain

It was a silent night in Ponyville as Austin was sound asleep. It was kind of Rarity to let him stay in a luxurious guest room that regrettably provided a large red sofa. The comfort calmed the green pegasus as he shuffled lightly unlike the tossing and turning he had done the night before. The room he was in was mostly empty and the moonlight from a nearby window shined its dim light onto his face.

Without any sign of nightmares haunting Austin this night, his thoughts shifted towards the mysterious tears he had shed from the sight of a possible snowflake. He didn’t pay much attention to what the current season was during the trip around Ponyville. Thoughts of the name Austin whispered out from his mind became a new weight within his emotions.

During the dreamless sleep, Austin could only think about four notions. One of the thoughts reflected Rainbow Dash, she had given him strange feelings of nostalgia he could not piece together a reason. Other thoughts included the nightmares he knew too well, the mysterious name he kept to himself, and the desire to fly. The unexplainable desire to fly became an unexplainable personal priority to him for the time being.

Austin had piece of mind knowing he will take a crash course with high class pegasi and his new friend Rainbow Dash. Knowing this, he decided to push down his other thoughts, and slept peacefully for the rest of the night. He was personally thankful for that, but it didn’t come without an emotional price.

Dawn started to break slowly over the horizon of Ponyville as typical morning sounds such as birds chirping and wind that blew against the window. Austin did not snore as he was entirely tucked under the blanket welcoming the peaceful sleep he was currently in. He hoped it would last for quite a while, but based on what was coming up, he knew it wouldn’t last that long. In the back of his mind, he pretended it didn’t occur for quite a while.

After the sun started to rise higher to introduce the morning, Austin started to feel something poke him from outside the blanket. He wasn’t sure what it was as he shuffled lazily trying to ignore it. The dreamless sleep felt very refreshing to him that he only wanted just a little more of it.

Suddenly there was a scream yelling, “STAMPEDE!!!”

Austin’s eyes shot open, and his body retaliating as it flailed about under the sheets. There was a thud as he fell off the sofa onto the ground hard. “Oh my gosh!” Austin shouted trying to collect himself being introduced by the morning sun directly in his face.

The room was brightly lit as Austin noticed there was a pegasus in the room with him. The bright light made it impossible to tell who it was right away. But based on the raw cyan color of the pegasus, he could only muster a single thought as he tried to wipe his eyes. “What the hay?...Is that you Fro-“

“Bahahahaha!” then laughed the pegasus which Austin soon realized was Rainbow Dash now rolling on the floor laughing.

Austin then facehoofed himself as he yawned loudly. “Really Rainbow Dash? Really…?” he said bluntly while trying to fix his mane.

After Rainbow Dash snickered a little more, she got up prodding Austin with a hoof on the shoulder. “See? I told you that I would make sure you wouldn’t be late.” she said with a huge grin on her face.

Trying to figure out how Rainbow Dash came in, Austin found that the window was wide open. He realized that he would have to keep note that there could be the possibility of random ponies flying into windows. Despite of this, it seemed like another sunny day was arising, possibly perfect for the time he will spend with pegasus flying skills.

“Well I certainly didn’t see that coming Dash.” Austin admitted looking straight at her.

“Yeah well with that aside, we should go right now Austin! Spitfire and Soarin should be arriving soon!” Dash said with profuse excitement in her voice.

She gave the same look in her eyes from the night before as Rainbow Dash lifted Austin up off the ground, flapping her wings crazily. She took him right out the window without a second thought setting him down on the ground outside of Carousel Boutique. “Whoa hey!” Austin barked unable to fathom he was inside the guest room one moment, then outside of Rarity’s shop.

“No time! Let’s not keep the Wonderbolts waiting!” Rainbow Dash responded in a rushed tone as she went flying off towards the direction of her home.

Austin shrugged after shaking himself off trying to be wide awake. He sighed as there was no way around it when he personally enjoyed the peaceful sleep he had. It was about time that he had to go towards an experience he may not soon forget as the desire to fly began to burn through his mind. “Alright, let’s do this…for our sake.” Austin thought as he then galloped after Rainbow Dash.

Meanwhile back in Carousel Boutique, Rarity burst into the room where Austin was. Her mane was completely messed up looking scruffier than Austin did before. “Stampede?! Where?! Oh please somepony save my clothes!” she stressed overdramatically.

She suddenly found that Austin was not there and before she could worry some more, she saw Rainbow Dash barely out of the window. Noticing Austin not far behind, she started to scowl to realize she was pulled into a prank that wasn’t meant for her. “Oh one of these days I will get you back Rainbow Dash!” she sneered before going back to her room to renew herself.

Austin galloped onward across the streets of Ponyville for a few minutes trying to catch up to Rainbow Dash that had flown off ahead. She was still in view overhead however she was so far ahead that she often yelled at him to pick up the pace. The enthusiasm from Dash defined her desire to fly with the Wonderbolts. Austin however had his own reasons to go along with this plan to learn how to fly. “I need to know how it feels again…at least once.” he thought while staring forward noticing he was exiting Ponyville.

Austin noticed the trees he passed by along the way had only a few orange leaves remaining on their branches. He assumed it was late in the fall season since it would explain why he occasionally felt cold air across his mane from time to time. Watching the leaves fall as he ran down the rough path, he knew deep down that winter was not far off now. “How fitting…and I really need to get used to running like this.” he thought breaking a sweat.

Rainbow Dash waited occasionally on a small cloud seeing Austin trudge along the road. It eventually spanned towards a large plain with a few steep mountains around it where a few clouds lingered in the sky overhead. “Come on Austin, we’re almost there!” she hollered to him as she sped off towards a peculiarly shaped cloud close by.

The cloud turned out to be shaped like a home that Austin had never seen before as they arrived. It had tall pillars that supported what looked like the balcony and a liquid rainbow that flowed around the outside. For someone like Rainbow Dash, he never would have guessed she would have quite a living space above ground. Furthermore, seeing a pegasus like her able to stand on clouds made him wonder if he could do the same.

“Wow that’s a real nice home you got here Rainbow.” Austin commented after staring at the spectacle of a cloud home.

“Thanks, it certainly has a dash of me on it, and I have a super comfy bed!” Dash replied smugly while standing on her balcony.

Letting the words sink in, Austin shook his head as he remembered a weird thought from before. “Quite…so where is Spitfire? She doesn’t seem to be here yet.” he called seeing nopony else.

Rainbow Dash pondered as she looked around the area. “Hmm, well she said they would be here, but it’s unlike them to be late.” she said confused.

Suddenly, Dash’s ears perked and her eyes went wide as she heard a familiar sound. Both of them heard a roaring sound that boomed in the air as two figures emerged through a cluster of clouds behind them. With a stream of electrified black smoke behind both of them, Rainbow Dash’s excitement returned to her in a flash knowing who it was.

Both of the pegasi in the same uniform Austin saw before zoomed in closely towards them. They whizzed overhead showing off several quick loop da loops with much precision and synchronization. Rainbow Dash’s expression showed the equivalent to a little filly in a candy store as she watched her two favourite idols soaring about. Austin stood quietly, fascinated as he could see the beauty of flying from their dignified display. “Wow, they sure do know how to fly, just like…” he stopped in mid thought examining the two Wonderbolts above them.

It was obvious that Spitfire was one of them as Austin could see her fiery mane flowing profusely. She landed a distance behind the cloud home along with her companion beside her. “Hey Dash, Austin, how’s it going?” Spitfire called to them.

Rainbow Dash wasted no time zooming to their position proudly. “Amazing with you two around!” she replied while waiting for Austin.

He watched the two Wonderbolt members lift their flight goggles and he got a closer look at the pegasus beside Spitfire. Upon seeing the grinning light cyan pegasus beside her, Austin assumed it was Soarin, the other Wonderbolt she mentioned before. He had a coat colour similar to Rainbow Dash’s, a shadowy blue mane and long tail in a style that would prove to possibly be attractive to many mares.

Soarin gave Austin an odd impression of feeling small as his own mane and tail weren’t half as impressive looking as his. “I presume your Soarin, correct?” he asked standing in front of them as he started to look serious.

“Like a pegasi would fly while eating some pie!” Soarin joked with a silly grin. Spitfire couldn’t help but facehoof followed by a groan of disbelief.

Rainbow Dash laughed while Austin could only collect the three rhymes and snickered. “Quaint...” he thought.

“Well then, it’s really nice to meet you Soarin, and nice to see you again Spitfire.” Austin started as he carefully gathered his thoughts. “If what Rainbow Dash says is true, then it’s an honor to remem- I mean train with the Wonderbolts in a crash course flying lesson.”

Spitfire nodded and was a little curious why he got cut-off in the middle of his sentence, but decided to ignore it for now. Soarin paid no heed while Rainbow Dash was excited as ever rarely able to form words. Austin started to think he should be careful what he says even if something peculiar comes up in an instance. “I need to be more casual so they won’t get suspicious of me, ugh…I don’t know.”

Without further time to waste, Spitfire spoke up, “Alright shall we get started? I wanted to ask first if your wings are healed.”

Austin checked back behind him as he let his green frilly wings stretch out above carefully and felt no further irritation from them. The bruises were gone to his surprise, and he then turned back to Spitfire, raising a hoof. “I think they’re good to go Spitfire!”

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash suddenly flew up from the approval. She stared down at them eager to start, “Common, let’s go, we got a whole lot of awesome flying to do!”

Soarin stood by patiently while Spitfire pondered over the first lesson to bestow. “Ok, see if you can float above ground for starters.” she said.

Austin nodded slowly as he suddenly felt nervous unsure if he could really remember how to fly again. He started to flap his wings profusely up and down while he closed his eyes, delving into his subconscious. “How…will it feel?” he asked himself, realizing now wasn’t the time to think.

Upon opening his eyes, he saw he were several feet off the ground while feeling the air under his wings vigorously from the effort. He could hardly believe it as mixtures of feelings rushed in, “Whoa!”

“Good! Now settle back down for a second.” Spitfire told Austin.

Without hesitation, Austin slowly settled back down, still stuck in the loop of being in the air once again. He stood there silently while Rainbow Dash zipped to a nearby cloud standing proudly on it to witness his progress. “Aww yeah, you’re gonna be off the ground in twenty seconds flat!” she called.

“Ok, now Soarin will demonstrate a great way of applying enough muscle to really get you off the ground.” She started placing a hoof on his shoulder. “It felt inspiring when I started doing the same to improve my own flying skills to become who I am today. Take it away buddy.” she announced letting Soarin step towards him spreading his own wings.

Rainbow Dash’s interests piqued as she never heard of this before, but continued to watch where this was going. Usually she would always seem fascinated and stoked to just watch the Wonderbolts fly, but never considered why, or even how they do it. It may seem there’s more to the Wonderbolts than just raw skill.

“Ok, the trick here dude, is you have to first imagine yourself on top of a veeeeeeeeeery high place.” Soarin started explaining as he crouched himself a little. “Even if you aren’t exactly there, just imagine yourself above a tall cloud, a high building, or even in a frozen mountaintop why the hay not.”

Austin gasped lightly as he heard the last words, as he knew full well what that meant to him. The pupils in his eyes grew bigger in anticipation, as well as a mixture of other feelings imbued upon remembering images of tall cold mountains that snowed relentlessly. The familiarity of such places brought back some distorted memories he would wish to relate to later. Some senses of nostalgia took him as all other words were silenced and his wings stiffened.

Soarin went on mentioning a couple irrelevant details as he then jumped high into the air, soaring fast towards a small cloud. He showed off a few twists and spins with precision before landing on it softly and turned back to stare proudly at the three below. “And it’s as simple as that!” he hollered.

“Wow that’s an awesome way to think before I start flying, for the speed, the wind across my mane that I liked…a lot!” Rainbow Dash mused taking mental notes.

Spitfire put a hoof over her flight goggles to confirm Soarins’ signal from above, “That Soarin…and with that let’s see yo- huh?!” and just then when Spitfire turned back to Austin soon noticing something was unusual.

The ground started to give off some dust from a few long flaps of Austin’s wings that had determined power within them. There were noticeable sounds of him breathing deeply as the air seemed denser around him while his eyes were mostly closed like in an unexplainable trance. He stood up on his hind legs and stretched his front hooves side by side as if ready to jump off or in this case upward when the time was right.

Rainbow Dash stood up roughly confused of the unexpected scene, “Hey what gives?” she wondered. Spitfire kept silent as she stepped back a little having a small hunch.

Then suddenly as soon as Austin’s wings and hooves both pushed the opposing forces of the ground, he launched himself intensely causing a crushing sonic boom. The force of the boom sent Spitfire aback in surprise and Rainbow Dash was tossed from her cloud. From the instantaneous acceleration Austin pulled out of nowhere, even Dash’s cloud home was pushed a fair distance in one direction. She never anticipated this in any rate from a flyer she thought honestly was weak. “Whoa did he just seriously just do that?!” Dash gasped witnessing Austin pass by Soarin’s altitude.

Rainbow Dash decided to zoom up there followed by Spitfire to get a closer look at Austin who soared through the air faster and higher than the others. He was slowly spinning in a calm fashion with outstretched hooves up front, feeling the chilled air rush across his coat and wing tips. The feeling was exhilarating above the clouds at super speeds he felt so familiar with before.

Coming back to his senses as Austin’s eyes opened up, he slowed down to witness he was hovering quite a distance off the ground, seeing a bird’s eye view of Ponyville. The view was almost breathtaking seeing the small town from such a perspective as well as the vastness of the world he got himself into. There were forests that spanned as far as the eyes can see, and other mountainous regions he could only get a glimpse of. He looked to the other side he noticed a castle far off in the distance on the side of another mountain. This only meant that he was currently in some sort of kingdom, for ponies of strength, flying, and magic. The question of why he found himself in Equestria like this felt more confusing than ever, but adored he was able to see it all in a perspective he longed for.

The flapping of his wings felt no further signs of struggle and felt like they were meant for this kind of flying. Even as a pegasus for his physique, it was the first time he felt this kind of thrill to fly high and fast once again, leaving another feeling of nostalgia within his mind.

“So that’s how it feels huh…” he whispered as he took another look at his wings onto his hooves.

The ground seemed non-existent as Austin saw how far he was above, noticing some small clouds near him to try to see if he can land on one. He slowly floated onto one successfully, feeling the soft, bouncy cloud under his hooves. It became clear that this is part of what it means to be a pegasus; a citizen of the sky, but he was no citizen, nor was even sure what he was anymore.

“Hey Austin!” someone called as Austin’s ears perked to turn himself around figuring out who it was. Rainbow Dash, Spitfire and Soarin zoomed right up to his position landing on separate clouds while Dash was floating over them.

“Well, that saves us plenty of steps…” Spitfire bleakly said unsure what to think of this development.

Austin dipped his head in response, “I’m sorry…It’s the first time I was able to truly get a feel of what being a pegasus really feels like.”

The other three pegasi then stared at one another wondering why Austin would say such a thing. “Are you kidding?! That was awesome! I never saw anyone start off flight with that amount of speed before! We should race sometime!” Rainbow said almost impressed that another pegasus might have a chance to keep up with her.

Dash highly regarded her own speed personally, but she saw Austin had potential from the first few seconds of true flight. Austin blushed as they took into account that they were starting to take interest even more away from their underestimations. “Honest, I don’t know what came over me…” he responded although he knew deep inside of him, he was telling half the truth.

Soarin rubbed his head with a hoof confused yet was surprised thinking his words got through to Austin more than he expected. “Wow, I guess that might have been quite the inspiration dude. We should see you do more!”

“Yes, I’m not sure why I haven’t met you before! Umm did we?” Rainbow asked as her thoughts raced with curious questions.

“No Dash…” Austin replied with a sigh looking down from the cloud seeing the ground so far away. “And how come it feels strange when I see you Rainbow…” he wondered.

“A-anyways,” Spitfire cut in trying to lighten the conversation, “Let’s see you fly around with Rainbow Dash while we follow and we’ll go from there.” she said unsure how to respond to that unexpected display. She was pondering some things in her mind as she wanted to observe further.

It was then that Rainbow Dash prodding a hoof on one of Austin’s stiff wings, “So how about it, why not Race me around the skies so the Wonderbolts witness our awesomeness!” she grinned excitedly.

Austin stared into Dash’s eyes for a moment, only to find feelings he couldn’t explain since morning. He didn’t mind some competition, but he was unsure if she truly considered him a friend or just someone to increase her popularity. Neither reason mattered as he wanted answers on what he was going to do in Equestria now that he was here. Remembering to fly was the first step and it would help give him the time he needed to ponder on some things deep within him.

Austin then nodded saying, “Oh it’s on!” and with a soft smile before he decided to jump off the cloud straight down hard to gather momentum.

Rainbow Dash followed behind in a flash to catch up with Austin. She flapped her wings hard zooming towards his decent. Austin closed his eyes again and waited while air rushed by his face giving him a hard time to see clearly. He wouldn’t of minded a pair of flight goggles right about now but he didn’t want to for now. “They don’t call me Rainbow, and Dash, for nothin!” Dash called as she accelerated faster, closing in fast to his position. The air around her slowly started to form a cone about to perform a trick of her own.

The ground was much closer and Austin felt Rainbow’s presence close by as he waited for the right moment again. Then with a burst of strength, he flapped his own wings down hard as he pulled up at a sharp angle, producing another sonic boom causing him to suddenly accelerate much faster. The small shockwave of the boom sent Rainbow Dash aback to a sudden stop. “Yikes! Ugh I’ll need to get used to when he does that.” Dash stressed before rushing back upward behind Austin.

The Wonderbolts then decided to follow from a distance examining both their techniques. So far so good they thought while they blazed behind them. They occasionally called to Austin saying to keep their bodies aerodynamic and head straight. Spitfire and Soarin were also fascinated once again from the display Austin performed. “Wow, he even denied Rainbow Dash of her signature move that would ensure her victory.” Soarin proclaimed.

Spitfire was rather skeptic the further they followed the two, noticing Austin had no cutie mark. It made little sense of how a heroic pegasus with plenty of possible flying potential not have one. As cool as Spitfire would normally act as a Wonderbolt, she did have an inquisitive side to her that she could hardly believe she didn’t notice before at the party. She refused in her mind to be nosy for now and observe further.

High up in the skies near some mountaintops, Austin opened his eyes once again to find he was successfully flying without further problems and he noticed Rainbow Dash behind. He saw the determination and a certain joy in her eyes to be racing alongside him. In addition, he also noticed her rainbow mane and tail streaming in the air and it made her look quite adorable in his opinion. Lastly, he wasn’t sure what words to say to her at all since Dash was only calling out how awesome this felt.

Austin faced the front as he zoomed around some of the small mountains with Rainbow Dash while observing their steep rocky terrain. He was disappointed they had no snow on them, thinking back to when he thought he saw a snowflake before sleeping last night. Soaring through doing some instinctive twists in flight, the thinner air from such height made him breathe heavier trying to relax.

After that, they made it out of the small cluster of mountains near Rainbow’s cloud home; back to the vast field bellow them. Austin closed his eyes again as he started to think about Rainbow and her friends. To him, they seemed like quite an interesting bunch of ponies, but they all seemed so different not just by appearance. Despite of this, he started to feel grateful for their current hospitality and wanted to repay each of them somehow. “Hmm, Rainbow Dash, what makes you and your friends so Special?...” he began to wonder. “Even during my short time in Equestria, I feel that there’s something about each of them that piques my curiosity. I suppose for a next step I won’t impose any longer and maybe visit each of them, not to only offer possible assistance, but I can’t help but some part of my memories resonates with them through what they shown me so far. Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle huh…what a colourful bunch. I also hope I could see Spitfire again after today, but odd she hasn’t said anything…weird. And lastly, Rainbow Dash…Dash, why does your presence make my heart race, not just in speed but in spirit.”

Before Austin could think further, he passed through a cluster of clouds near another tall mountain by Rainbow Dash’s home. He was a fair distance from the others, and as he blindly punctured a hole through the clouds, his coat then had a cold and wet sensation. Not only that, his body suddenly stopped as he hit something more solid than the cloud. Still flapping his wings, he felt a bit dizzy he heard a loud bird-like call like an eagle of some sort.

Just before Austin could see where the noise came from, his face felt a sharp, painful feeling. It was as if he was clawed from where he floated. The second the claw strike impacted, he barely saw a particular griffon-like creature. However suddenly at the same time, the image of the griffon turned into a very dark place, with a shadowing figure that had the same crimson eyes as those of Austin’s previous nightmare. The flash image burned into his mind as he heard a familiar voice scream out his name before his senses felt more than just physical pain.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!” Austin shrilled as he spun out of control onto the nearby cloud’s surface.

The pain Austin was experiencing was excruciating, not just by the scratch, but his head felt like it was set on fire trying to eat his brain out from the horrific image. “Watch where you’re going loser!” shouted the young griffon character that sounded like a brat.

Austin laid there covering most of his eyes with his hooves and a few drops of his blood were spilt. They seeped through the hole in the cloud he exited from, and Rainbow Dash not far behind witnessed this and gasped in shock, then growled with anger knowing who Austin flew into by accident. “Gilda!!!” she yelled as if she couldn’t handle seeing her new friend who got assaulted.

Rainbow Dash zoomed leaving a long rainbow blur behind her as she passed Austin. She then rammed into Gilda, punching her in the face hard once sending her tumbling on the large cloud. Dash landed in front of Austin standing firm, wings stiffened, and pointed a hoof furiously towards the griffon over what transpired. “What are you doing here!? What the hay is wrong with you Gilda?! You should know better than to leave my friends alone!”

Ugh! I could ask the same questions Rainbow Crash!” Gilda responded as she composed herself, wobbling still from Dash’s punch as it left a large bruise near one of her eyes.

Both Spitfire and Soarin flew up through the cloud behind Austin and landed to aid him. Soarin kept him steady while Spitfire tried to take a look at the damage. The scratch was large enough to spill minimal blood from the wound near one of his eyes, but due to his screaming, there had to have been more to it. She moved one of Austin’s hooves and gasped noticing something unusual, “What in Celestia’s name?...” she wondered.

Austin’s pupils in his crimson eyes were thinned out and acted like he was not in full control of himself. Staring at Rainbow Dash as she was now, and Gilda kept on bringing flashes of vague images projecting from his mind unable to make any sense from it, as it all rooted back to a monstrous scene from his nightmare. Spitfire could see the pupils of his eyes jiggled slightly in place and the iris moved around. His body was shaking and his heart raced again, unable to fathom how he was feeling so much pain small drops of blood still streamed on his face slightly. An emotion of true fear was taking Austin, and Spitfire observed this before facing towards Rainbow Dash and Gilda.

“I was having an awesome time with my new friend and the Wonderbolts until you decided to cross the line over an accident! Not cool!” Dash stressed looking crossed at Gilda.

The griffon scoffed, fluttering up near Dash pointing a claw at her. “Look, first of all Rainbow Crash, I was minding my own business flying back home until this loser flew into me. Second, ever since you made a fool out of me with your pranks at the one party a while back, I’ve been beginning to despise you more and more. Lastly, even if we’re old friends, now I feel ashamed to have known someone as Pathetic as you.”

Rainbow Dash snorted kneeling down as if ready to pounce on Gilda again. “What did you say?!” she yelled. The uproar from Austin’s painful cries was what drove Dash to act more extreme than usual.

Austin was breathing heavily as he tried to calm down out of the mysterious state he was in. His body shivered as he was soaked by the cold water, but also quivering in fear from the images that flashed from his mind. The pain also came back at times from some of the words spoken from both Rainbow Dash and Gilda, sending his thoughts into a tailspin.

Gilda scoffed some more simply unwilling to look Rainbow Dash in the eyes. “Hmph, I heard all about your arrogance that almost ended of your life, and all it took was this sorry idiot with a blank flank to save your sorry hide. Honestly, how much more uncool could you be Rainbow Crash?”

“Oh that’s it! You haven’t changed at all Gilda, ever since you gave Pinkie Pie trouble, and now this! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have you leave with more than just a few feathers torn off you?!” Rainbow Dash snorted again. As embarrassing Gilda’s words hit her ears, she couldn’t help but defend herself and Austin’s honor no matter what.

“As much as that is a really harsh thing to say, let’s not overdo it Rainbow Dash.” Soarin stated as he kept Austin steady.

Rainbow Dash sighed feeling reluctant of letting Gilda go, but she didn’t want to make a bad impression towards the Wonderbolts any further. Dash stood her ground in front of Austin staring into the eyes of the bratty griffon. “Fine…Just leave Gilda, before I change my mind. But I’m warning you, if I ever catch you near Austin again, in the name of Celestia, you won’t be able to fly for a week!”

Gilda grunted as she started to fly off rudely. “Tch, typical Rainbow, always believing in your so called friends and defending them as usual…It's going to get you hurt someday.” She stated gruffly before zooming out of sight towards the southeast of Ponyville.

When Gilda was gone, Rainbow Dash took deep breaths before she turned towards the others, seeing Austin distressed. The concern in her eyes weighed heavily as she almost never saw somepony get hurt like that. She calmed down mostly while placing a hoof on his forehead softly, “Are you alright Austin?” she asked.

Upon hearing Rainbow Dash’s voice, Austin started to come back to his senses as his eyes turned back to normal, to meet her eyes. His vision cleared as he looked into Dash’s face. It was a face that felt most welcoming and pleasant as it showed care and concern behind it.

Austin halted all other thoughts for the time being, he slowly got up on his hooves. Soarin and Spitfire helped as he took deep breaths for a moment. He slowly wiped his face from the bloodstain on it and his entire coat felt a bit soggy from the cloud's water. “I’ll be fine…Thanks Rainbow Dash, I…I don’t know what happened there, but I’m sorry since I heard Gilda was an old friend of yours.”

“Oh, don’t sweat it, Gilda proved to be officially uncool by doing that to you.” Dash said with most of her composure back. “I never leave my friends hanging, and that includes you too.” she continued with some bravado in her voice.

“Th-thanks. I really appreciate it Rainbow Dash…” Austin blushed as a loose feeling of uncertain nostalgia returned. “Who was she anyway?” he asked randomly from curiosity.

“It’s a long story, but best let it go after what just happened. Ugh I still can’t believe it.” Rainbow Dash stressed.

“Agreed…” Austin answered facing down the hole in the cloud.

“Well I’m glad that’s over with.” Soarin added while adjusting his flight goggles.

Austin was at a loss at the moment from the painful experience he just had. His mind completely felt like a train wreck at this point, and he felt like he needed quite some time to put all of this together. Staring at Rainbow Dash herself filled him with so much unexplainable feelings as flying with somepony like her concluded this notion.

Thoughts from before about Dash’s friends returned and Austin desired to move on, and let some additional flying calm his nerves down. “Anyways, after some more flying, I was thinking of visiting some of your friends around Ponyville if it’s alright with you?” Austin asked.

“Sure! My friends are awesome, that would be a great idea, but after we spend some quality time with the Wonderbolts first.” Dash said as excitement grew in her voice again.

“Alright, you ok with this Spitfire?” Austin asked noticing her with her eyes closed.

“Oh! Umm yes, we should continue on with the flight lesson, I’m sure we can spend a bit more time with you two.” Spitfire responded barely.

Austin nodded, “Ok then, I’ll go on ahead.” he replied. After that, Austin launched himself off of the cloud downward back towards the vast field.

“Right behind you! Or ahead of you!” Rainbow Dash added determined to race Austin again.

However, before Rainbow could take off, she was interrupted by Spitfire immediately, “Wait Rainbow, I want to ask you something.”

“Huh? Well…ok. Did you want a request for any awesome moves for either of us to perform?” Rainbow asked with a grin.

“No Dash, this is different. It’s about Austin.” Spitfire replied with a serious look on her face. Something about that look sent a chill up Dash’s spine as it was very unsettling.

As the feeling of free air rushing by Austin’s body returned him to some of the lingering thoughts from within. He only wished now to find out where all of this was going as future events unfold while he wanted to visit each of Rainbow Dash’s friends. A feeling of depression took him from the ordeal that came from one memory of the nightmare. It sticks in his mind, making Austin feel like he was scared of his own shadow.

“Maybe these ponies will help me see something clearer…and maybe answer why I have these feelings for Rainbow Dash. Se….no, I hope to never see you again for what you done to...to her.” Austin thought on before letting the calming freedom of flight take hold once again.

Rainbow Dash back up at the clouds wondered what Spitfire was even thinking. “Listen Dash, we’ve both never seen a pegasus without a cutie mark like that before am I right?” she began.

“Well…now that you mention it, I more or less didn’t give it much thought nor cared since he did save me. Why? You don’t trust him?!” Dash said giving Spitfire a sore scowl.

“No, because while you were upset at Gilda, I noticed something unusual in his eyes that reminds me of something similar I experience before I became a Wonderbolt.” Spitfire continued speaking with speculation.

“Really…” Dash’s interest piqued, but not in a good way. “And what is that exactly?”

Spitfire took a deep breath, “Fear Rainbow Dash, I saw true fear in his eyes.” She finally answered, as silence followed to the three concerned pegasi.