• Published 26th Apr 2015
  • 4,556 Views, 283 Comments

Wonderbolt Trials and Tribulations - White Comet



Rainbow Dash finally gets the opportunity of a lifetime; a chance to join the Wonderbolts and fulfill her lifelong dream. She presumes that from this point on, it'll be smooth sailing. She was wrong...

  • ...
5
 283
 4,556

Chapter 19

Rainbow Dash splashed some water over her face in the bathroom, freshening herself up a bit after her day of training. She wasn’t going for a full shower, as she intended to go to the gym in a little while. But she wanted to at least make her face feel a little better. She took a look at herself in the mirror. She was still a little bruised from her fight with Thunder Flash, but they seemed to be healing alright. Better than Thunder Flash was doing for sure.

She thought deeper about the incident as she left the bathroom into her room, her flight suit over her shoulders. She looked around at everypony else in her room. There wasn’t much conversation, nor was anypony else looking at her. Looks like it would be a quiet evening.

She threw her suit over her bed, intending to wash it later. She sat on the end of her bed and sighed. It had been three days since her fight with Thunder Flash. She was yet to take action on Spitfire’s words of advice. She had been mulling over what to do in her head, but she decided that she would do it when an opportunity presented itself rather than try and force it. But she was running out of time…

Her thoughts were interrupted as she started hearing hoofsteps walking up from outside the door. The hoofsteps were enough to make everypony freeze in place, as they knew what it meant. The Wonderbolts has introduced a new tactic to breaking bad news to anypony to receive it. Instead of passively leaving a note, they knocked on the doors and told ponies that they were out. And the hoofsteps passing up the door always made everypony on edge as they echoed throughout the room. It was almost as if they were deliberately thumping the ground to make their hoofsteps echo. And the two empty beds at the front of the room only made it more terrifying.

“Rain Frost...pack your bags, you’re out!” A voice bellowed from down the hall. A voice that was easily identifiable now as Rapidfire’s. He sure loved using that voice of his. Ponies weren’t even sure if that rasp was natural or if his voice was just strained from shouting all the time. Or if he was even aware he was only addressing a single room, not the entire hallway...

The hoofsteps continued, the clink noise slowly getting louder and louder as they made their way up. Everypony remained frozen on the spot as they approached the front of their door...and then relaxed as they walked past.

Dash flopped down on her bed as she heard somepony else further along the corridor than them receive the bad news. As much as she felt sorry for that pony, it was better them than her…

Now that that was over and done with, Dash could finally head to the gym. She slowly left out the door without saying a word to anypony and headed there. Normally she would ask if anypony wanted to join her, but she didn’t this time around in case she decided to...alter her course on her way back.

As she entered the gym, she briefly scanned her eyes around her. There was less than half a dozen ponies in there, and the lights had been flicked on since the sun was going down. She smiled, knowing that she more or less had the place to herself. Or maybe it was because there was just less ponies here in general than before…

She stopped in place as she noticed somepony in particular on one of the treadmills. Thunder Flash. Dash was even shocked to see her here. She’d barely been scraping through in practice. She was pretty sure she was getting sympathy points for the beating she took from Torque though. She was on a treadmill, on a very low setting, cringing with every step she took. Dash couldn’t be certain, but it was almost as if she wanted to give off the appearance that she was fine.

Dash looked around. Spitfire’s words were coming back to her again. She wanted to act, but she just seemed to be putting it off. Dash could tell that it was going to be a sore subject. Most of the reason she was avoiding it. On the other hoof, she was obviously in no state to fight back. Maybe this could work out better for her. Nevertheless, she had to do it sometime. And now seemed a good a time as any.

Dash sighed again and slowly trotted over to Thunder, trying to deliberately approach in a way that wouldn’t look like she was sneaking up on her. She came in from the side, stopping outside of a hoof throws distance from her. “Hey,” She started nonchalantly.

Thunder simply rolled her eyes and looked away. Not the reaction Dash was expecting, but better than what she had in mine nonetheless. Although that didn’t mean it was gonna be easy.

“Listen Thunder...we’ve gotta talk,” She began, “I don’t know what your problem with me is, but I want it to stop. I’ve never known you, so I guess I’m just curious what I did to make you like this.”

Once again, she got no response. Dash furrowed her brow as her next move jumped into her head. She had to progress this conversation one way or another.

She stepped forward and quickly jabbed the stop button on the treadmill.

“Hey, I was using that!” Thunder blurted at her, her pace slowly dying down with the treadmill.

“You don’t need to keep hurting yourself like that just to prove you’re invincible. It’s plain your hurting, everypony can see you cringing with a tear in your eyes every time you pick up the pace.”

As the treadmill came to a stop, Thunder realised that she had no way out of this one. “What do you want?” She spat.

“I want us to stop fighting. Just tell me what you want from me and I’ll see what I can do to help,” Dash explained.

Thunder stepped backwards off the treadmill, “You think you can suddenly make things right just by saying a few words?” She turned around, “You’re even more deluded than I thought. For starters, you’re not even a Wonderbolt yet. Your words hold no bearing on anything. Second of all--eep.”

Thunder suddenly took a step back, eyes wide and whimpering. Dash looked over her shoulder to see Torque approaching, and smiled as she realised the extent of Thunder’s reaction. She held her hoof up for Torque to hoofbump as he approached, but he ignored her. Not even making eye contact with her.

He appeared to be walking somewhere else, but stopped in his tracks next to Thunder, turning his head to look at her. He remained silent for a few seconds before suddenly lurching his head forward and growling loudly. Thunder jumped backwards and let out a loud yelp. Torque simply continued walking, going back to whatever he was doing.

Dash’s cheeks puffed out as she tried her best to hold back a laugh. Torque had her cowering and whimpering like a puppy being scolded by its owner. The role reversal was absolute comedy gold. But she could laugh about it later. She had important things to discuss with Thunder, and she may be less willing if she humiliated her further.

“You were saying?” Dash spoke up to restart the conversation.

Thunder cleared her throat and stood back up. She looked like she was about to retort with something snarky, but when her mouth opened, no words came out. She held her mouth open for a few seconds before she let out a frustrated sigh and banged one of her hind hooves on the floor. “Fine. You win.” She snapped and sat down in place. “Interrogate away.”

“W-what?” Dash wasn’t expecting her to suddenly submit like that, “O-okay...how about telling me what I did to you to make you so mad at me?”

“You didn’t do anything to me...but you ruined the life of someone very dear to me..." She began explaining, “All my sister ever wanted was to be a Wonderbolt. She worked and trained so hard to get her chance, ever since she was a little filly. She had a dream. A dream that burned brightly. And when she finally got her chance, YOU took it away from her!” She pointed her hoof at Dash. “She was simply being the best she could be. Doing nothing wrong. But you twisted the system to turn it against her to get her removed from the Wonderbolts Academy. It’s your fault, Rainbow Dash.”

As Thunder spoke the words, the memories started piecing themselves together in Dash’s mind. “Wait, so your sister is--”

“Lightning Dust.” Thunder finished her sentence.

Dash was beginning to understand Thunder’s bitterness towards her. But it didn’t explain why she practically wanted her dead. “What did she say to you?”

“When I found her, she told me everything. Everything about you and the way you turned the Wonderbolts against her.” Thunder explained.

“Oh come on, it was nothing like tha--...Wait, what do you mean found her?” Dash asked, her thoughts catching up with her brain. Past experiences, reading sessions with Twilight, and some of the challenges here all combined to teach her the importance of looking for specific words.

“That day, whatever day it was, when she was kicked from the Wonderbolts Academy...she never came home.”

That explanation hit Dash deep. She knew that Lightning Dust was obviously upset at the decision, but she never know it would cause her to essentially run away and vanish into thin air. But it did beg the question…

“It wasn’t until I started getting my letters to her sent back to me in the mail telling us that she was no longer at the Wonderbolt Academy. Me and Mom gave it a while before realising that she wasn’t coming back anytime soon. We tried to get the police to help us search, but they wouldn’t do anything. One of them even told Mom ‘She’s a big girl now, I’m sure she can look after herself’.” She said whilst mimicking the voice of the pony.

Dash felt her face cringing as Thunder told her the story. She had no idea that she caused this much heartbreak. It was being made worse by the fact that she was actively beginning to feel guilty about it, despite the incident being way behind her.

“It wasn’t until I found her one day, in Las Pegasus. Sleeping rough. She didn’t even want to see me. She was too ashamed of what she’d become. But she eventually spilled the beans and told me everything you did to her. And then she told me to go away. She wanted to be left alone. She felt humiliated just talking to me. Her own sister. And it’s ALL. YOUR. FAULT.” She pointed her hoof at Dash, waving it back at her each time on her final three words.

Dash was completely lost for words. As much as she wanted to clarify a few things with the version of events Lightning Dust had told Thunder from her point of view, she could tell that being such a sensitive topic, it wouldn’t go down well. She needed to work with Thunder on this, not against her. “T-Thunder...I…” Although that didn’t help her pick out words.

“I came along because I thought I could win this competition and become a Wonderbolt myself. Then I could use my rank to give Lightning another chance to get back in. But when I saw you, I knew that it would be a tougher task than I first thought. I tried to do whatever I could do to see if I could get you kicked out. But that’s not gone very well…”

Dash remained silent for a moment, letting all the talk settle in before she formulated a response. Although she was still speechless from what she was hearing. But she had to say something… “Listen...I’m sorry I put your family and Lightning Dust through that--”

“Gee thanks,” Thunder interrupted sarcastically, crossing her arms.

Dash continued unhindered, “And I know you’re gonna struggle to believe me right now, but for the record, I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t use any underhoof tricks or bending of rules to get her kicked out. The ‘Bolts did that on their own. I played no part of it.” She explained, partially lying, but she believed it was the only way to get Thunder listening to her. “I want to make this right. Whether I end up becoming a Wonderbolt or not, I’ll help you find Lighting Dust and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to her. But until then, neither of us will be Wonderbolts if we continue the way we’re going now. Spitfire put me on my final warning. We can’t keep fighting over the same goal. We’re on the same side Thunder Flash. And you have my word as the Element of Loyalty that I won’t try and pull any funny tricks like you think I played on your sister on you. That same word goes for me helping you to help your sister.”

Dash held her hoof out to Thunder Flash, hoping that she would accept it.

Thunder thought for several moments, looking away from Dash. “It’s true...you are the Element of Loyalty.” She looked up at Dash, “And Spitfire put me on my final warning as well. Guess we’re both in the same boat...Alright, I agree with you. I’ll be..cordial until we both get out. But if we both lose, you’re all game, Dash.” As she finished her last sentence, she bought her hoof up to meet Dash’s and gave it a firm shake.

Once they finished shaking hooves, Dash let out a relieved sigh. “I still feel terrible, but I’m glad we got that squared away.”

“Yeah, it’s one thing off your plate at least. Your ass is grass if you’re caught smooching your boyfriend though.” Thunder replied.

Dash froze and her eyes flopped down as she heard Thunder mention that word. “Wh-what? H-how did you--”

“You slide under the nose of everypony else Dash, but not me. But I guess now we’re on even terms for the time being, I can stop stalking you now.” Thunder shrugged as she spoke her last sentence.

Dash felt her face turning red as she spoke, “S-shut up!” She blurted back at her.

“Relax, I won’t tell anypony. Besides, those bed springs squeak so much I won’t have to anyway.” Thunder teased.

“H-Hey, we weren’t doing that!” Dash retorted, not expecting the conversation to swing this way at all.

“Sure, whatever you say,” Thunder replied, rolling her eyes. “Like I said, so long as you keep up your end of the deal, I ain’t telling anypony. And now I got nothing to prove, I’m going to rest.” She walked past Dash, not saying anything more. But she could feel Dash’s eyes glaring at her from behind. She paused and looked behind her. “But I still want to make one thing clear. My sister is living as if she’s in exile, and I still blame you Rainbow Dash. You better hold up your end of the deal, otherwise we’re gonna fight again. And next time, you won’t have your personal bodyguard to come to the rescue.” She said her final words then continued walking.

Dash sighed and looked straight ahead again. “That would be a mistake…” She whispered to herself. She looked up at the gym equipment, the primary reason she came here. But after all that, she didn’t feel like exercising at all. She felt so tense, so on edge. All she wanted to do was relax. And considering she wasn’t far from the hot tubs in the pool area, it suddenly seemed like a very attractive idea.

Her hooves slowly started trotting towards the door on their own accord without much input from her brain, and before she knew it, she was walking through the door to the pool room. Her eyes scanning over the area, she quickly realised that she was the only pony in there. Much better for her.

She made her way over to one of the hot tubs sectioned off away from the pool. She pulled a lever and it started whirring into life. The gentle hum of a machine buried deep under the floor somewhere and the sound of flowing water met her ears.

She gently lowered her hooves in, sighing as the warm water that was only getting warmer made contact with her fur as she lowered herself further in. Eventually, she was up to her neck and closed her eyes. Putting herself in the perfect relaxed space for her to think things over.

Was this agreement she made with Thunder Flash add more weight on her shoulders to alleviate the load? At least it meant that there would hopefully be no more spats between the two of them. But she had effectively signed herself to making up with Lightning Dust. She hadn’t seen her since that fateful day, but it sounded like they weren’t going to simply shake hooves and make amends. Had she just sealed her own fate? And even if she were to become a Wonderbolt, would she even be able to use her rank to pull any favours for Lightning Dust, considering what she did?

Dash gritted her teeth, realising she may not be able to keep certain promises she made. Nevertheless, she was put in a tough spot, and this was the only way out of it. And breaking promises wouldn’t exactly hold her true to her Element of Loyalty title. It seemed like regardless of the outcome, she was gonna be in for a tough time either way…

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard hoofsteps coming towards her. She didn’t even hear the door open, her mind must have been really far away from the rest of the world. She opened her eyes to see who had come to see her, and she was pleasantly surprised. “Soarin?”

“Fancy seeing you here,” Soarin replied, in his usual tone. Dash couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic, or whether their meeting genuinely was coincidental.

Soarin slowly slid into the water alongside Dash, but unexpectedly, he didn’t get any feedback from her. She didn’t even look at him. “Dash?”

“Hm, what?” Dash quickly snapped back to reality after noticing that his voice was much closer than it was a second ago.

Soarin chucked, “In another world there Dashie?”

Dash shook her head, “It’s nothing, I was just...thinking...about something…”

Soarin waited, expecting her to expand on her answer. But she once again just went silent. “Nothing I can help with is it?” He asked.

Dash sighed, “I dunno. I’ve just been talking to Thunder Flash. She finally revealed everything...Her sister is Lightning Dust, the pony that caused all the damage when I was in the Wonderbolts Academy.”

“Oh, you finally worked that one out?” Soarin picked up.

“Yeah I--Wait,” Dash finally looked over at Soarin, “You know about it all along?”

“Yeah, I did. But I wasn’t allowed to say anything. My hooves were tied,” Soarin replied, shrugging. But noticed Dash’s eyes narrowing at him. “But you did a pretty good job in figuring it out without my help anyway it seems.”

“Yeah, but it would’ve been useful to know BEFOREhoof. So I could’ve handled it better,” Dash clarified, sounding a little angry at Soarin.

“Hey, when you join the ‘Bolts, beforehoof is a word from a different language to some ponies. You’ll get better at managing it over time.”

“...I guess…” Dash thought for a moment before she responded, then sighed and let herself submerge down to her chin in the water.

“Besides,” Soarin smirked, “Don’t try and use it as an excuse for losing the fight against her--OW!” He was surprised how much an underwater jab could hurt.

“Jerk,” Dash semi-sarcastically replied.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Soarin teased, splashing water in her face. To his surprise, she didn’t show any further reaction. “Seriously though, what’s up Dashie? I thought you had it all figured out.”

“I did,” Dash replied, “But then I stupidly put myself in an unwinnable situation,” She replied with a groan, slowly sinking her head into the water until her groaning was replaced by bubbles rising to the surface.

Soarin raised an eyebrow, then slipped a wing behind her and pulled her closer to him, letting her rest on his body. Her head reappeared on the surface as he did this, her mane now dropping down over her eyes. “Unwinnable scenarios? I’m pretty good at those. Tell me about it.” He requested, resting a hoof on her head.

Dash thought about the best way to explain it for a moment before she began talking. “I finally got Thunder Flash to tell me why she's been trying to practically kill me all the time. As you already knew, she’s the sister to Lightning Dust. She blames me for Lightning Dust never coming home and basically exiling herself into homelessness.”

“That would make sense I guess. Did Lightning Dust really take it that hard? I thought we handled it pretty well when we dismissed her.” Soarin questioned.

“Yeah. So as a compromise to stop Thunder interfering with me during the tests, I promised to help her find Lightning Dust and set things right, regardless of whether I become a Wonderbolt or not. Problem is...I don’t think I can do that.” She admitted.

“Do what? Find Lightning Dust?” Soarin asked.

“Nah, finding her is the easy part. The setting things right bit is the hard part. I doubt she’ll just drop everything and forgive me. Plus I could only influence…” She noticed the rubbing pattern on her head had been repeating itself for quite some time. “Are you...petting me?” She asked, glaring up at up.

“What? Nooooo, nonono...okay, maybe a little.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his head with his other hoof as Dash huffed and started to blush. “You were sad and pouty. It was too cute an opportunity to pass up.” He continued, moving his hoof off her mane and down to his side.

Dash sighed and picked herself up, resting her head on his shoulder as she continued the story. “Anyway, I would only have an influence if I managed to become a Wonderbolt. Maybe I could have a say if we wanted to give her another shot. But that’s only if I get one of the spots. If I don’t, I’m basically just going to find her and apologise. But something tells me she won’t accept my apology. And unless I can do something, Thunder will probably never let me live it down…”

Soarin took a moment to think over her explanation. “...Huh. That is a tough one. What were your exact words to her when you made this agreement?” He asked.

“I said ‘Whether I end up becoming a Wonderbolt or not, I’ll help you find Lighting Dust and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to her.’” Dash recalled.

“Damn, you kinda worded that poorly,” Soarin analysed, “ ‘Whatever it takes’ could be anything. Especially if she's as uncooperative as you think she’ll be…”

“I know. That’s the problem,” Dash added.

“Buuuut...I do kinda have an idea…” Soarin began, causing Dash’s ears to perk up. “And it’s not really a good one, but it’s an idea.”

“I’ll take anything right now,” Dash replied.

“Alright, well...My thought was that at the end of the day, you can’t directly force her to apologise. You can try, and I’m sure you’ll try hard, but you can’t simply force her to change her thoughts and feelings. All three of you are ponies with your own emotions, and I’m sure even Thunder will understand that. She won’t be expecting you to suddenly bow down and hang on Lightning Dust’s every word. As long as you try, that’s all you can do. And you can walk away having held up your part of the deal. I know it isn’t exactly how you want it to end, but...that’s the only thing I can think of.”

Dash thought over Soarin’s idea. He was right, it would leave a bitter taste in everypony’s mouth. Thunder Flash had compromised on something with her in anticipation of results at the end. If Dash couldn’t deliver, it didn’t reflect well on her. But Soarin was right. There was only so much she could do. If Lightning Dust was going to be stubborn, then she wasn’t exactly a miracle worker…

“I guess you have a point...but that’s more of a backup plan than an idea.” Dash commented on his ‘idea’.

“Well I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas,” Soarin replied in a semi-snarky tone.

Dash looked up and pouted at him, then smirked. “Brave words for somepony with his hoof on my flank.”

“No it isn’t,” Soarin quickly responded.

Dash noticed that before he’d even finished responding, she felt the thing touching her flank suddenly stop. She shook her head whilst still looking at him, “Yes it was.”

“No it wasn’t.”

“Yes it was.”

“No it wasn’t.”

“Yes it was.”

“No it wasn’t.”

Dash suddenly backed away from him and stood up in the tub. She looked over at the entrance to make sure there was nopony around and the door was still closed. After confirming that, she looked back at Soarin with the same smirk, a slight blush forming over her face as she thought over her idea. “Yes it was.”

“No it--”

Dash placed a hoof on his lips, stopping him mid-sentence. She lowered herself back into the water, letting her body hover over the top of Soarin. “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t mind…”

This time it was Soarin’s turn to blush. Dash giggled as she watched his face turn red. She looked up at the door again just to confirm that they were definitely still alone, then slowly moved her face towards Soarin’s until their lips touched.

She closed her eyes and savoured the moment, feeling Soarin’s forelegs around her back embracing her. She had been waiting for a moment like this for a while, and considering everything that just happened, his embrace was nothing short of therapeutic for her. She finished the kiss by resting her head on his shoulder and rubbing the side of her head against his.

Soarin chuckled, “You weigh nothing suspended in water,” He commented and followed up by letting himself slip off the seat and glide into the middle of the tub on his back. Dash laid on top of him, but he let go of her, letting her float naturally on the top of him. But he wasn’t quite buoyant enough to float the weight of both of them, and his head dipped underwater. He quickly moved himself upright, placing both of them upright.

Dash brushed her mane out of the way as the water was making it droop over her eyes. “I would’ve thought I weighed nothing to begin with,” She replied, sticking her tongue out at him.

“I’m serious. Try and lift me,” He suggested, raising his forelegs to give her something to grab.

Dash shrugged and simply placed her forehooves on his side and gently tried to raise him a few inches. To her surprise, he was right. She could still feel some weight, but it was as if something was helping her lift him. “Woah. Never noticed that,” She agreed.

“Cool huh?” Soarin replied as she put him down. He looked over at the door again before looking back at her. “But we should probably get going soon. Don’t want anypony finding us like this.”

As much as she wanted to stay a little longer, Dash was forced to agree with him. “Yeah, good idea…” As she thought about it, she realised that she had forgotten something rather important. “Uh...did you bring a towel? Because I didn’t…”

Soarin pointed with his wing over towards the wall, where a towel was lying on the floor. Dash presumed he dropped it off over there before he snuck up on her. “And yes, you can borrow it,” He confirmed before she even had to ask.

Dash sighed and she stepped out of the water. “I’ll try not to make it too wet,” She said, walking towards it.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll be fine,” Soarin replied, following her and pulling the lever to turn the machine off as he stepped out.

She looked over her shoulder back at him, “But how will you--”

He answered her question before she even had to ask, shaking the water off himself and splashing Dash a bit in the process. Dash couldn’t help herself to giggle a little as his mane spiked up slightly from the action.

“Yeah it can do that,” Soarin commented, flattening it down with his hoof.

“You should wear it like that sometime,” Dash joked, picking up the towel and wrapping it around her shoulders.

“I do sometimes, although not intentionally,” Soarin joked back, laughing. He noticed that Dash had just finished drying her mane and was straightening it out with her hooves. “And yours looks...no different. If anything a little neater,” he continued to jest.

“Wow, rude,” Dash replied, knowing that he was joking. Causing them both to chuckle a little. She started drying her body, but noticed Soarin was still staring at her. “Uh, Soarin, would you mind maybe...turning around?” She asked politely. For a moment, she was convinced that she sounded like Fluttershy.

Soarin raised an eyebrow, “What?”

“You’re making me feel nervous drying off in front of you…” She admitted, blushing.

“Don’t you do it all the time in the locker rooms?” Soarin continued to question.

“Yeah, but...it’s all mares in there…” She replied.

“...Oh I get it, you think I’m gonna start eyeing you up as you rub the towel over your body. Gee, you could’ve just said,” Soarin rolled his eyes and spun around on his hooves to face the exact opposite direction. “Is this okay?”

“Perfect,” Dash replied, feeling a lot more comfortable now and continued drying herself off.

“It’s not like you haven’t seen me doing it before,” Soarin teased her, whilst keeping an eye on the door.

“Yeah but you’re a stallion, it’s different,” Dash replied.

“But it’s the same concept, we’re still just as exposed. Speaking of which, we don’t exactly wear clothes all the time like some elite moneybag living in Canterlot, so it’s not like you’ve got anything to hide,” He explained.

Annoyingly, his logic was overcoming Dash’s current thinking speed, as her mind was still preoccupied with thoughts about what to do with Thunder Flash. After she finished drying, she simply chucked the towel in Soarin’s direction, making it land on his back. “I guess you’re right…” She reluctantly agreed.

“Of course I am. I mean, come on, can you honestly say you don’t enjoy the view from time to time?” He asked, bending his body from side to side and lifting one of his forelegs up so he could flex his muscles.

Dash’s cheeks burned bright red and her ears flattened as she...watched...she remained silent, trying to formulate an answer. But it was hard to find one. Because if she was being honest...she didn’t mind… “I-I guess...maybe?” She tired to remain as neutral as she could, but the sight in front of her was a bit...distracting…

“See, you can’t deny it,” Soarin said with a chuckle, walking next to her and hugging her with his wing.

“I guess I can’t,” Dash reluctantly admitted with a smile as they walked towards the door together. “Thanks for being here Soarin. I really needed somepony to talk to about what to do.”

“No problem Dash, you know I’m always here for you. And it’s been a while since we’ve gotten some decent...alone time…” Soarin responded.

“It has...but hopefully we can do it more often soon. Seeing as I’m gonna be a Wonderbolt before you know it,” She said confidently, looking up at him.

“That’s the spirit,” Soarin replied, “Now you better get going. We shouldn’t leave together, it’ll look suspicious. You go on, I’ll leave a little while later,” He suggested.

“Good idea,” Dash agreed, “Guess I’ll see you another time.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Soarin replied. “I love you, Dashie.”

“Love you too, Soarin,” Dash replied with a smile. Sharing those words together always made her feel warmer inside. She raised her head and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before pushing the door open.

She made sure it swung closed before she started walking away back to her room, with a lot to think about as she was walking. At least she now had a contingency plan in place if she couldn’t figure anything else out, but at least it was something. But it didn’t exactly leave a good taste in her mouth. Nor did it hold true to her title of Element of Loyalty. It sounded like she would have to do some more digging on his another time...

Author's Note:

Well...now we know.

Dash is in a tough spot. Luckily Soarin is always there to provide suggestions.

I wonder what other mysteries will be revealed in due course... :duck:

Thanks for reading! :twilightsmile: