Uncharted Territory

by Cosy Purity

Rising Tide

Friendship or something more.
That question had been on Rainbow Dash's mind an unreasonable amount of time since her confession with Fluttershy.
It was especially on her mind as developments continued to change within the Academy. As the upcoming show in Canterlot drew ever closer to its due date, Wonderbolt practices had ensued to greater intensity - more time with Soarin. While this went on, Rainbow and the other 'Bolts had inevitably become obligated to stay overnights at the Academy. This usually happened before a big show - you'd basically live at the Academy working hard all day until you actually preformed. This was so that each of the Wonderbolts could show off their highest quality of skill.
This was also something you trained for at the Academy. If you weren't ready for the grind, forget it - nopony signed up for comfort when they got here.

Rainbow Dash, obviously, was all for pushing herself to the limit. There was only one problem - it was Hearth's Warming in a week. Traditionally, if an overnight practice towards a huge performance skated over a holiday, every Wonderbolt would remain at the Academy and celebrate together. Depending on the holiday, each celebration would last longer or shorter than the others.

Rainbow would be at the Academy every night, within proximity to Soarin, for an entire week.

Perhaps this in and of itself was not an issue, but, while she wasn't the first to admit it, Rainbow could hold up the white flag on the fact that she, despite her lack of intentionality to think, would overanalyze things, and so she'd be thinking about this one issue for the whole of the week: friend, or more?

Rainbow Dash was tucked inside her mildly overly cold dorm, her navy - nearly dull - blue blanket tucked in all round her, her head pressed to the small pillow against the rough bed. While she would have loved the cushiness of her own room and huge comforter and several pillows, she admitted that, considering her previous dilemma, having something soft wouldn't help her think through things this time, and so she might as well be resigned to no preference in this case.

One thing she did miss was Tank. Her faithful friend was with her through everything, and she felt like he might as well be the Element of Loyalty in her place. It's not as though she was all that good at representing it herself.

That thought made Rainbow freeze in her bed. Had she just.... been humble?

No, no. That was false humility.

Rainbow let herself relax and looked at the clock inside the cold white cloud (probably) walls in her dorm. Yup, it was definitely past midnight, and of course she couldn't sleep.

After a minute of casual wrestling over what she wanted to do about this, she quickly decided to go for a nightly lap around the Academy track. It wasn't illegal or anything - she just resolved that she probably shouldn't get caught doing it.

Rainbow Dash quietly creeped out of her dorm and closed the door silently behind her, then plodded through the echoey chamber of the hallway, the ground - despite its nature - making a soft echo with each hoofstep. Even though Rainbow would rather not wake anypony, she really didn't care if she was heard.

There was a rather aesthetic line of large windowpanes on the right side of the hallway, (the right having more dorms), and Rainbow took a moment to take in the deep blackish indigo of the night sky which held in it a near transparent clump of clouds surrounding the moon like a mist that was attracted to the light.

The moon at the centre seemed to take up the whole of the sky, like all revolved around it, and despite the unusual circle of clouds round the moon, there were a few bits of stars that dotted the black.

The pale light of the moon reflected through the windows and cast a silky light onto the cold floor that defied explanation with its hard surface, and climbed up the walls on the left like a figure approaching, daring, challenging the dimness within the Academy.

After a moment the cyan mare continued outside and immediately felt the burst of the wind in her face, underneath her fur, through her hair, over and under her wings, and there was an irreplaceable rush of pleasure at it that pushed her heart to ignite her stroll-by-air with an eagerness that only came from a pure passion.

She unraveled her feathers and leapt into the air, catching her wings in the grip of the current of the breeze, and exploded into a tunnel of encompassing zephyr, disappearing into the flight itself, and then there was only this.

She closed her eyes, which might've been against her better judgement, but she couldn't resist completely soaking this in.

Suddenly she heard a voice from somewhere off - she was so wrapped in her transport that she couldn't determine the distance.

"Rainbow Dash."

It was tinted with a gentleness she hadn't caught before in this specific pony.

Of course Soarin would find me out here, thought Rainbow, except somehow she wasn't upset or frustrated or contemplating whether or not this was cliche.

Instead she was relieved.

She turned over in the wind so that the downiness of her feathers was the only thing keeping her afloat, and she relished the way they gently ruffled against the air.

"Hey,"

She said, cocking an eyebrow.

"What are you doing out here?" said Soarin as he caught up, but he didn't seem concerned or curious, really - he was just smiling.

"Why?" Rainbow Dash said, gripping more wind within one wing so that she could playfully bat him with the other, "are you so intent on one-upping me that you gotta follow me around or something this late?"

"Nah," Soarin replied in a vocal wave-off, "I was actually thinking the same thing as you, I guess - needed to get out."

The cyan mare nodded, letting her expression inch a quarter more towards serious.

While they liked to joke around a lot, their friendship had become something much deeper and authentic, and she wanted to make him feel heard.

"Hey," Soarin nudged her suddenly, "look up."

Curious, Rainbow Dash followed his gaze only to see the moon wrapped in the milky clouds. She saw he was pointing in the corner of one of the clouds, where one star was glimmering more brightly than the others.

"That's a planet," he said.

"What?" Rainbow Dash let her voice go full-creaky in her incredulousness, and squinted one eye as she smiled, "a planet? You know those are just old mares tales."

"Yeah, and next you'll tell me Equestria is flat," Soarin replied, laughing.

"Well," Rainbow drew out the word like she were pouring water slowly.

Soarin laughed again and then beckoned her to fly with him. She did so, paying attention to every little detail in the sky below her, above her, around her. Right now, with Soarin, everything was apparent, like she was seeing everything new, and now everything was important.

"Looking forward to Hearth's Warming?" Rainbow muttered, her voice becoming more hushed, but in a way that wasn't concerned - it was a sort of trusting quiet, a tone one only took with their closest friends.

"Yeah, 'guess," replied Soarin, "I'm gonna be missing my family though. I think that's like the only problem with this whole set up - you don't get to spend important time with those important to you."

Rainbow Dash nodded understandingly, furrowing her brows. Then she caught his gaze with bright violet eyes and said half-jokingly so that he wouldn't take it too serious,

"Hey, 'least you got me as family."

"Yeah," Soarin replied with a genuine smile.

It was then that Rainbow Dash's question was answered. The question wasn't friend-or-more. She would always be Soarin's friend, and Soarin's family. If they ever became something more, that piece didn't go away - it only became stronger.

There was no such thing as 'just friends' or 'more than friends'. If they came to like each other, it would be like they were going for a flight and they got caught in a strong current leading them elsewhere - but the fact remained that they were flying.

Now Rainbow only asked, how fast could this be taken? Her only problem now - because she always had to have one, apparently - was that she didn't know whether it was time to glide, or create a sonic rainboom.

Author's Note:

Eyyy it's off hiatus now ahaha
I needed to write something and I had a vague idea for how I wanted to like, just, begin the chapter, and only that. But woo I made a whole chapter
If it's good, that's good. If it's bad, that's cool.
Hopefully you enjoyed this next piece of the journey.

Feedback would be cool

Comments

[EverfreePony]

It took me a while to get back to this story, but anyway, I'm glad to see a new chapter is out! A short and simple one, but very thoughtful and almost electrifying at the end

[superfun]

Will this story ever be continued?

[Cosy Purity]

9792106
Yes of course!! I really love this story and want to explore it. I feel the same for all of my stories. However I have been experiencing a lot of writers block due to mental illness and such, so as I take the time to recover I’m sure I will draw inspiration from that (as it has already happened!) and be able to keep adding on to my stories!
I’m glad you have enjoyed this one! c:

[superfun]

9802333
Alright

[Cosy Purity]

9298288
Thank you!