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Chapter 13,922 words
Chapter 2 part 12,507 words
Chapter 2 part 22,453 words
Chapter 35,179 words
Chapter 4 part 1 : Welcome Home2,621 words
Chapter 4 Part 2 : Dad?2,408 words
Chapter 53,260 words
Bonus Chapter3,680 words
Chapter 63,248 words
Chapter Soarin': Life's a Journey, not a Destination2,853 words
Blue Skies: Final1,368 words

Chapter Soarin': Life's a Journey, not a Destination

Soarin' sighed as he had his head propped up, hoof to muzzle as he lazily looked down at the floor from the front desk. When he got this job, he had hoped that it kept him busy- you know, joke around with the boss a bit, maybe do some stallionly heavy lifting to get him toned for his soon-to-be-wife Twilight. But nothing, just sat at the front desk because Davenport rarely restocked and almost always made him be the front-desk. He looked up and around the store, it wasn't too big, you could probably walk from the front and touch the back wall in about a minute. The only thing stopping ponies from doing so was neatly lined sofas that were out in display and facing all who entered.

He shuffled his hooves a bit as he grew tired of standing, he was only allowed to go lay down on the couches when it was his break time in contrast to Davenport, who could lay down whenever he pleased. In fact, Soarin' could see him now, snoozing the day away around the middle section, enjoying the comfort of one of their most expensive couches.

"Guess nobody needs a couch or quills today." He mumbled to himself as he sunk down behind the desk to rest his legs for a moment. He looked down at the plain white stock carpet as he wished something- no, anything to happen, he almost didn’t care what it was- but he was almost to the point of banging his head on the counter for fun.

Unfortunately, his wish was fulfilled when he heard the front door open, the little bell up top near the frame jingled after being opened by the door. He let out an excited gasp, hoping at even the most probable boring event and shot back up to greet the walk-in.

"Welcome t-" He said as he popped back up with his salesman smile, but saw nothing over the counter. "Shoot." He felt a little betrayed by the possible gust of wind that had opened the door.

"Oh my goth, ith true!" An excited filly voice came from below.

"Eh?" Soarin' tilted his head down to see the source, a little filly had walked in and was now propped up against the counter, as if trying to look over it and barely able to. "Hello there." He smiled at the filly, now noticing that she had purple glasses with messy red hair.

"I didn't belieff them buth ith true!" She squee’d as she looked up at the very familiar stallion, "Thorin' the Wonderbolth!" A smile wide as could be on her face.

"Heh..." He took a moment to enjoy that he still had a fan, "Yep, that's me... or I used to be, now I'm Soarin' of Daven...port's Quills and Sofas..." His boost of confidence already ran out as his old title was no longer in effect.

"Oh I don't care abouth who you are now." The filly grinned eagerly, "You'll alwayth be Thorin' the Wonderbolth to me- I wasth your biggesth fan you know."

"Oh really I ap-"

"I have all your posthers and your lunthbox..." She started naming off with her heavy lisp starting to show no signs of ceasing.

After a few minutes of her naming stuff off with Soarin' slowly seeping back into boredom, she finally stopped, "And I have all of your acthion figurines." She smiled, "See? I am your biggesth fan."

"Uh... oh! Y-yeah I guess you are- hey, if you have any of the stuff on you I can sign it if you want." He thought it would be a nice offer, although he didn't like offering something like that, he wasn't that full of himself.

At that moment, the filly's eyes grew wide at the moon and her mouth fell agape. She froze in time with a bit of drool starting to emulate from her mouth, it was her dream finally coming true. In her mind she was having a million thoughts, the main one being 'Oh my goth, he's going to sthign my sthuff- soon we'll be beth friends and we'll be friends forever and ever!'

Soarin's face looked as if he had seen some shit in his life as he looked down at the filly. 'I hope she didn't have a seizure or something.'

"H-hey kid..." He waved a hoof in front of her, intending to try and snap her out of her trance- still under small belief that she had something terribly wrong with her.

As his hoof grew near, she suddenly broke out of her statue of her demeanor and sucked in what looked like a gallon of air before releasing it suddenly in a soul shattering shriek of banshee-like nature with enough strength to crack the glass quill display.

'What the fuck is wrong with this kid?!' was the first thing that came to Soarin's mind as he tried to block the noise with his hooves over his ears, as his eyes grew wide in shock- it looked as if everything was in vibrate as her very voice penetrated into his skull, or quite possibly the screech was shaking the whole store.

Davenport’s eyes shot open as he had awoken from the deathly horrible noise. He fell off the couch and started to lazily scramble to his feet, "The milk-runners are coming!" He began to freak out and tried to run away, "Get to the bunkers!" he screamed as he had his minor flashback in his life-grasping flee. He had been so caught up in his flash back that he face planted the wall after just a short run. His face seemed glued to the wall before it began to slowly slide down, leaving a thin trail of slobber before he finally settled on the floor- back into a deep sleep.

Soarin' had curled up into a ball on the floor behind the counter, rocking silently as his eyes grew misty as he only wished the noise would end soon among the other optional end.

After her, what seemed to be endless, shriek that had only really lasted for a good ten seconds ended she was hopping in place, "I'll go geth my things!" She turned and galloped off, almost bashing through the door, causing the bell to ring senselessly.

Soarin' was close to tears, but heard the bell and weakly lifted his head above the counter, 'She... she's gone.' he sighed out in relief, 'Jeez... what the blueberry fuck was that.'

He looked over to see if Davenport had heard the filly, but saw that there was a bit of struggle as the couches had broken their neat line. He traced the minor path of destruction until his eyes met his boss, who was on the ground and sucking on his hoof like an adorable little foal.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Soarin' asked as his work shift was over, and he was about to make his leave to go back home. He longed to just lie down in bed and nuzzle with the love of his life in the comfort of home and silence, oh sweet beautiful silence. The filly hadn't returned after she initially left, but the shriek of death that would frighten even Gorthay The Cruel remained locked in his memory. He shivered at the thought of it ever happening again.

"Yesh I'll be fine." Davenport said as he had an ice pack held up to his cheek. "You go home, an if you see that filly again- tell her to never come here again please." He said in a passive aggressive tone, not meaning too but what had happened left him a bit sour.

Soarin' sighed and nodded, actually agreeing but he would doubt he would say that to the filly- not wanting to hurt her feelings. He left the shop, wondering just where the excitable filly could have even gone. After getting so worked up she wouldn't just disappear like that.

He shrugged and began his walk home peacefully, enjoying the soft setting sun out onto the town. As he walked he felt relaxed and loose as he walked, actually starting to feel really good for some unknown reason, but enjoyed it. He began to wonder if it was a brief feeling of freedom after being suppressed in that store for so long today. He felt good enough that he had thoughts that he would even try to fly, but luckily he still had a hoof on the earth while his thoughts were still in the clouds. The thought of flying again came with the shadow of doubt and longing as he began to look up at the sky. The weather team had cleared it completely, leaving only a long sea of seemingly emptiness. His heart sank as he tried to look into the sky, his ears had fallen flat and he was now beginning to fill with supreme longing, so vividly avid, and his happy feel-good mood costively descended into a cavity of self-spite at his lack of flying. Soarin’ loved flying so much, and it was paining that he had to bear with his inability.

"Gah!" He shook his head quickly, trying to shake off the shackles of regret that bound him. “I need to stop thinking about that stuff… I have a new life now; I don’t need to fly these days…” He took a deep breath and tried to continue on his way home. ‘I probably just really need to see Twilight right now.’ He told himself.

"Thorin'!" A voice came behind him, along with the creak of little wheels.

He stopped and turned his head to see the happy filly, pulling a wagon filled with collectibles and merchandise of all sorts. 'Ah geez...' his ears fell flat as he saw the tiny mountain of stuff.

"Thorin', I wenth and goth all my thuff." Her hooves tip toed constantly in place in excitement. She reached back and pulled out a thin marker for him to sign with, "Make it outh to 'My greatheth and cooltheth besthesth fan ever, Love Thorin', pleasth." She squeed as she gave him the marker, which he ghastly took, and hooked off her tiny wagon. She trotted behind it and pushed it a bit forward to her idol.

'Ah fuck... I can't sign all of this like that...' He knew she would feel bad if he told her that he wouldn't sign it all. 'Dammit... Uh... What did Spitfire say... ?’ He thought back to some advice that she had given him while he was admitted into the special performer section of the Wonderbolts with her. It hit him as he remembered, putting on a friendly smile and putting his ears back upright, "Hey Kid, what’s your name?"

"Twisth sir." She was shaking with excitement to get all of her things autographed.

He took a moment to think of her name, as her lisp made it a little difficult, "Twist huh... that's a really awesome name you know." He tried to give her his best show grin, "Y'know... I 'could' sign all this stuff... or..." He thought quickly, finding something to do alternatively instead of spending hours to sign all her stuff.

Her heart started beating intensely from the compliment, but managed to respond weakly, "...O-or?"

"I can give you my super-secret special signature I give to all of my top-tier fans." 'Nailed it' he felt satisfied that she would accept it. "But I can only sign three things with it, and then it would be our little secret- okay?"

"S...sthecret... sthignature?" She looked as if she was about to faint, growing weak enough that she lost balance for a moment before snapping back to normality, "Yeth yeth yeth pleasth!" She squee’d out in delight as she began to grow starry-eyed at the golden opportunity to get something only his top tier fans would get.

"Pick out three things you want me to sign the most, alrighty?" He uncapped the maker and placed it in his mouth, ready to sign what she brought forth. He did feel a little mean about his trick, so he really would make it feel premium. Whenever he did signatures in the past, he had to do it quickly, this time he would take his time and make it neat.

"Leth see..." She sat down in front of her pile, "The Soarin' number two buthon might be a good one... buth what about my vinthage Wonderbolth marble, or my collethible Thorin' single posther." She bit her lip as she scanned through her items, unsure of what to pick.

Thirty minutes had passed; Soarin' had fallen asleep as he stood up. He was lightly rocking back and forth with the marker barely keeping trapped in his teeth. He was snoring peacefully and the sun was down.

The filly had pulled out a flashlight and was still scanning and debating at her options, "I goth it!" She exclaimed out loudly.

"Bah… what?" Soarin' awoke, his eyes looking exhausted. He looked down at the filly and hazily remembered where he was, "Oh- great." He grinned, readying himself to sign her stuff.

She pulled forth a poster of the entire wonderbolt team, a photo book of the Wonderbolts, and an old familiar tiny parcel.

"What’s the envelope?" He pointed at it with a hoof; he could have sworn he had seen it before. It was in the very back of his memory, but the envelope was a little crumpled and had the seal he used to send back letters that he got sometimes.

"Oh! Ith the firth letter I senth you, and you senth it back." She smiled, "Do you remember getting it?"

"Uh... which one is it?" He looked down on at it; he had no idea why he remembers this specific one.

"Ith the one where I loth my temper a bit and senth you a letter telling you that you sthould have sthayed professional at a performanth I saw from you." She looked down at the letter, she had to punch her teddy bear to rid herself of most of the anger that day, "I didn'th like sending it after it wath already in the mailboxth, but becausth you sent it back- I hadth to keep it."

He began to glare at the letter, he remembered it now- it was one of the few pieces of hate mail he had ever gotten, in fact it was one of the first too. He could recall its exact words as he read it almost a year ago when he first took Twilight to meet Spitfire on the fourth day of that fateful festival. He didn't want to sign it, but he didn't want to hurt the filly's feelings by making her change her mind, she did say she was sorry though.

"Alrighty- let's get these things signed." He smiled as he bent down to slowly write, on each thing he tried his best to write 'Aim as high as you can, and work as hard as you can and you'll never fall behind- Soarin'. He wrote his name in cursive, something he never did in his life other than when he was forced to learn it in grade school. It was the best he could think of, but it seemed to do justice as the filly eagerly took her things back.

"Thank you mither Soarin'." She nodded and reached forward to hug his leg, "I needth to get home now." She put all her things back in her wagon that she 'borrowed' from Silver Spoon's little brother and went on her way, "Bye!" She called back behind her.

“Bye!” He replied back before he let out a hefty sigh, his legs hurt from him sleep-standing a few moments ago paired with all the standing he did today. Soarin’ had grown his smile back after making the filly happy. 'Time to get home now... finally...' He had a light smile on his face as he headed home; it felt as if he hadn't been home in ages. But now he was finally returning, both tired of the wait he's had to do, and excited for whatever comes in store for the future of his life here in Ponyville.

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