At The Gala
Chapter One: At The Gala
This was it. Everything she had ever dreamed of.
Tonight, at the Grand Galloping Gala, Rainbow Dash was hanging out with the Wonderbolts!
The high pitched squeal she let escape as she followed Spitfire to the VIP Party almost exploded into a full blown shout of joy.
“So you born and bred in Cloudsdale Dash?” Soarin trotted up to Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, large chunks of apple pie still stuck to his face.
Rainbow Dash had to contain another squeal. Soarin had just called her Dash!
“Yeah, right up to junior flight camp. After that I moved to Ponyville.”
“Seems like a quiet town for such a speedster like yourself.” Spitfire grabbed two drinks from a passing waiter and handed one to Rainbow Dash.
Dash’s heart was pounding in her chest. Not only were they talking to her, but they were complimenting her too! She somehow managed to maintain composure in her voice and smiled.
“Yeah its quiet but some great ponys live there, plus there’s almost no air traffic so I have the skies pretty much to myself. Gives me loads of space to practice my moves.” Dash spun in place, nearly losing her footing. She forgot how hard it was to move in her dress.
“Sounds pretty good actually.” Soarin took a sip of Spitfires drink, much to her annoyance. “Speaking of moves, that Sonic Rainboom was something else!”
“Oh that, I …it was nothing.” Dash blushed, rubbing the back of her head.
“It wasn’t nothing!” Spitfire practically spat up her drink. “You singlehandedly disproved eveypony who ever said it was impossible! That move only comes around once in a lifetime, and from what I’ve heard you’ve done it twice.” She winked. “You’re one of a kind Dash.”
Rainbow Dash was on the verge of passing out. She was redder than an apple and starting to get light headed, and it must have shown because Soarin pushed her drink, which she was close to spilling, up to her mouth.
“Take a drink.” He laughed “You look like you need it.”
Rainbow nodded and took a long, hard sip of the cold drink. It helped, but she was still light headed.
“I’m sorry, its just… you guys are my heroes and you’re talking about me like I’m cool.” She laughed nervously. “It makes me feel really weird.”
“You are cool Dash, you saved our lives.” Spitfire beamed. “Look I saw a couple of people I need to say hi to. If you wanna hang out with Soarin for a bit, I’ll be back.” With a nod to the two, she trotted off into the crowd.
“I’m getting hungry, want to see if we can find the buffet?” Soarin said, beginning to search the air for the scent of food.
“Hungry? Again? You just ate a whole pie!” Dash figured only Pinkie Pie could eat like that.
“Yeah but that was like ten minutes ago, and besides that pie just made me hungrier.” She laughed as Soarin licked his lips.
“Come on, I think its over here.” She waved him over and walked into the crowd with Soarin in tow.
As they wound their way around the various party going ponies, Soarin found himself focused on Rainbow Dash’s dress so he didn’t lose her in the crowd. But as he followed her, he noticed he was also staring at her butt. Soarin shook his head and pushed on.
Soon the two emerged on the other side of the room, right in front of the fully loaded buffet table. Soarin’s eyes widened and massive grin spread across his face. Dash giggled as he snatched a plate and began loading it with practically everything.
“And this, and this, and this, and one of those, and two of those, and some of these, I don’t even know what that is but whatever, two of that…” Soarin chattered away to himself as he piled his plate high. Soon he and Dash were sitting at the other end of the table, Soarin having loaded four plates full of food.
“You sure you can eat all that?” Rainbow Dash laughed as Soarin drooled over his haul.
“Yeah, why?” He pulled his eyes away from his food for a moment to notice that she had not taken anything. “Aren’t you eating?”
“Oh, uh no. It looks good and all but …” She started.
“But nothing!” Soarin interrupted. “The Gala is always catered by the best chefs in Equestria. This is the only time of the year you get to eat this stuff without paying through the nose. You have to try it!” Soarin sped back to the buffet table and grabbed an empty plate. He then returned to the table and started filling it.
“I..uh…okay if you insist.” Dash was a little confused by Soarin’s obsession, but he seemed to know what he was doing as he handed her a plate with a few hors d'oeuvres.
“I do! Here try these; they’re some of my favourites.” Soarin beamed.
“Oh, are you sure? I don’t want to eat your favourite ones.”
“Are you kidding? I took like twenty of each of those. You enjoy ‘em.” He said digging in to his plates.
Dash eyed the small vegetable pasty in front of her before popping it in her mouth. The flavour hit her like a ton of bricks. The flakey pastry melted in her mouth and the vegetables accented it perfectly.
“Oh. My gosh.”
“Good eh?” Soarin smiled.
“Good, GOOD? Good doesn’t even describe it! It was the single most amazing flavour I have ever tasted in my LIFE!” She nearly screamed.
Soarin fell to the floor laughing for a moment. When he pulled himself up, Rainbow Dash was stuffing her face with the little pastries on her plate.
“Glad you like them.” Soarin wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. “Cause they just keep getting better from here.”
For the next hour Rainbow Dash sat with Soarin as he pushed more food at her, and everything was just as good, if not better than that first bite.
Spitfire, who had greeted the ponies she had spoken about earlier, was searching through the crowd for the two she had left. Not finding them near the entrance where they had been before, she made her way to the buffet table, knowing Soarin’s obsession well.
As she stepped from the crowd, she spotted them down near the end of the table, talking. Soarin was laughing as Rainbow Dash stuffed her face with a cupcake. Some chocolate icing smudged on her face and Soarin wiped it off before feeding her small cookie. Dash blushed as Soarin wiped her face, then munched the cookie down with a smile.
Spitfire glowered. Was she getting cozy with Soarin? She snorted and walked over to the table.
“Having fun?” She smiled
“Oh Spitfire!” Soarin grinned, his mouth full of food. “You’re just in time, Dash was just about to tell me about her first Sonic Rainboom. Did you know she did it by accident just trying to defend her friend’s honor? Now that’s heroic and awesome!”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full Soarin.” Spitfire shook her head. “I hope he hasn’t tried to shove food down your throat the whole time.”
“Nope, actually…” Dash realized her mouth was full too. She swallowed her food and continued. “Actually, I kinda started stuffing my own face after he got me to try the food. Have you tried this stuff? Its amazing!” She crammed a spinach puff in her mouth.
“Nah, I’m not much of a fancy food person. Have to watch the figure you know, being a flier.” Spitfire eyed Soarin who simply grinned again and kept chowing down. “Unlike this…thing, who’s stomach seems to be a terrifying pit of emptiness.” Dash laughed, spitting food onto both Spitfire and Soarin. He laughed, nearly choking on his food. Spifire didn’t. Dash caught the look on her face and swallowed hard.
“S..sorry.” She grabbed a napkin and wiped some of the food off.
“That’s okay Dash. Im just gonna go to the bathroom.” Spitfire smiled, gritting her teeth, and walked off.
“Did I make her mad?” Dash whispered to Soarin
“Nah, shes just real fussy sometimes, and the whole Gala thing just puts her on edge a bit. She’ll be fine.” Soarin said, wiping his face with a napkin. “Hey do you dance?”
“Do I whaaaaaaa?!” Dash didn’t have time to reply as he grabbed her hoof and pulled her onto the floor.
Soarin immediately began flailing about in a vain attempt to form some kind of dance moves. ‘As coordinated as he is in the air, he isn’t much of a dancer.’ Dash thought, but he didn’t seem to care if anyone was judging him, and so she joined him. The two of them bounced and shook, laughing the whole while. After a few songs a slow song began playing and Soarin made for the table.
“Hey wait!” Dash called to him. ‘Its now or never’ She thought. Soarin came trotting back.
“Whats up?”
“Will you dance to this one with me?” She whispered.
“Huh?” Soarin craned his neck.
“Will you dance with me?!” She yelled, a bit louder that she’d meant to. She covered her mouth and turned bright red.
Soarin burst out laughing.
“Of course I will!” He yelled back, and he took her back out.
Dash began to feel light headed again as she danced close to Soarin. She let a little sigh escape that he clearly heard.
“You know you’re pretty cute when you go all fan girl.” He said to her. Dash’s eyes shot wide open.
“C..cute?” She stammered
“Yeah, that’s what I said. Something wrong?”
“N.n..no, I just…I…just.” Dash took a deep breath. “Nopony calls me cute, not really. Im usually the brave one, or the cool one, or the …brash …one, whatever that means. My friend Rarity calls me that a lot.” She jumped as Soarin put his neck around hers. “Nopony calls me cute.” She whispered.
“That’s hard to believe. I mean you’re all those things, but you’re still cute.”
Dash couldn’t take it anymore. The Gala, the Wonderbolts, hanging out with Soarin and Spitfire, and now Soarin, one of her heroes was telling her she was cute. Her heart was beating so hard she could feel it in her hooves. A black fog edged her vision and quickly she slipped out from under Soarin’s neck and hit the ground with a thud.
The next thing Rainbow Dash remembered was two wide green eyes staring down at her.
“I think shes coming around.” The voice almost made her faint again.
“Rainbow Dash!” A collection of familiar voices called.
Slowly she sat up and saw her friends looking over her worriedly.
“I…uh, I think I’m fine.” She turned her head to see where she was, and felt a sharp pain in her temple. “Gaaahhhaaa!” She closed her eyes and tipped over.
Soarin grabbed her as she nearly fell to the ground again.
“Careful there Dash, you took a pretty sweet spill on the floor there. Hit your head on that polished dance floor pretty hard.” He was smiling down at her as she opened her eyes.
“Soarin brought you out here when you fell, and called a doctor and they came and got us.” Twilight stepped forward. “You’ve got a bump on the head but it doesn’t look serious.” She smiled. “You probably didn’t need us anyway. Looks like you’ve got a pretty good pony looking out for you already.”
Dash suddenly realized the scene she was dead center of. She was on her back, with Soarin holding her up, and everypony she knew staring at her.
Panic hit her fast. She squirmed out of Soarins arms and stood as best she could, her head still splitting.
“Uh, nothing, yeah, nothing at all. Its …just uh, nope, I’m not, I mean I wasn’t…” She stuttered as her friends laughed.
“Its okay darling.” Rarity said, beaming at her friend who was staring at the floor. “We can see you want to be alone. Come along girls.” She winked at Rainbow Dash and trotted out of the room with the other ponies in tow. Fluttershy lagged behind at the door and turned back to Rainbow Dash.
“Are, uh, are you sure you’re okay Rainbow Dash.” Flutterhy’s gentle voice barely carried across the room.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine okay?” Dash didn’t look up from the floor.
“Oh, okay…” Disheartened, Fluttershy slipped out of the room.
“Well… that was…” Soarin started.
“Soooo embarrassing!” Dash ran to a nearby balcony and threw her hooves over it, sighing.
“Really? Am I that embarrassing to be around?” Soarin smiled.
“No! That’s not what I…” She groaned angrily. “Its not you. Its just, now they’re gonna start teasing me, asking me about you and me. What am I gonna say?”
“What are you going to say?” Soarin strode up beside her and looked out over the balcony.
To Dash, it must have seemed like fate was working overtime that night because at that moment, the moon shone through a passing cloud, casting a beautiful haloed glow around Soarin. She caught herself staring, her mouth hanging wide open, and Soarin staring right back at her.
The wind caught Rainbow Dash’s hair and it fluttered gently in the breeze. She was almost two years younger than him but she was more beautiful than anypony he had ever laid eyes on.
With that he put his hoof under her chin and pulled her face to meet his between them. Dash jumped and almost pushed him as hard as she could before she realized what was happening. His lips were hot against hers as he pressed a bit more forcefully. She returned his force and met it tenfold by slipping her tongue between their lips and probing his. He wasn’t expecting it but Soarin was pleasantly surprised by Dash. He met her tongue by sliding his along it. Dash moaned happily and put her hooves around his neck.
“What the fuck?!” Came a very irritated voice from the balcony door. Dash and Soarin broke their kiss to see Spitfire standing in the doorway. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Spitfire stormed up to Rainbow Dash and yanked her away, throwing her against a wall.
“Whoa Spitfire, you cant just toss her around like that. She hit her head tonight.” Soarin ran to Rainbow Dash’s side. “Are you alright?”
“She seems okay enough to be making out.” Spitfire snorted.
“Hey back off!” Dash got to her feet and got right up in Spitfires face. “Who do you think YOU are?”
“Both of you cool it!” Soarin pulled Dash away and turned to Spitfire. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I..I’m just… You cant be with her.” Spitfire was blushing
“Why, what business is it of yours?” Soarin’s gaze was piercing,
“B..because..I.” Spitfire didn’t finish. Soarin nodded.
“Right. Dash come on, shes just being difficult.” Soarin took Dash and stalked inside.
“I love you…” Spitfire whispered, but the sound was carried away on the wind.
Inside, Rainbow Dash stopped behind Soarin who continued a few paces before noticing she had stopped.
“T..that kiss…” She began slowly.
“Yes?” Soarin walked back to her.
“Was it real?”
“Yes.”
“Did you mean it?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“How do you want me to say it? You saved my life, you kick ass at flying, you like good foods, you dance like nopony is watching, and as a kicker you’re cuter than anypony I’ve ever seen. Its like it was fate.”
Rainbow Dash was almost in tears. Nopony, NOPONY, had ever called her cute before Soarin, but even more than that, nopony had ever said all those things about her the way he had.
“But just like that? We met tonight…well sort of, we met when I saved you I guess but… This is the first time I met you when you’ve been conscious.”
Soarin cracked up.
“And you’re a laugh riot to be around.” He said stepping close to her. He kissed her again, gently and quick.
“I believe you.” She said as he pulled away.
“HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY, RAINBOW DASH!” Pinkie Pie bounded up the steps towards the two, completely destroying the moment.
“Yes Pinkie Pie?” Dash facehooved.
“Didja hear!? Didja hear!? Didja hear!? Didja hear!?” Pinkie did not stop bouncing as she spoke.
“No I did not hear I was outside, what is it?”
“I…it ..you…its important, you should probably hear it yourself! Go! The main hall! Now!” Pinkie managed to blurt out before taking off.
“Is she always like that?” Soarin laughed.
“Yes,” Dash sighed with a smile. “Anyway, race ya?”
“What?”
“To the main hall. Race?”
“You think you got what it takes?”
“Hey, you’re looking at the only know pony who can pull a Sonic Rainboom. And I sure as heck was faster than you at the young flyers competition.”
“I was unconscious! That doesn’t count!”
“Details, details. We racin or what?”
Soarin shook his head and laughed.
“You’re on little filly.”
In the main hall, a side door burst open and the two pegusi sped through neck and neck. They both came to a grinding halt at the base of the grand staircase where Princess Celestia stood above the crowd.
“Ah good, you’re here.” Celestia cocked an eyebrow and smiled as the two out of breath ponies bowed. “Twilight tells me you took fall tonight miss Rainbow Dash.”
“I’m alright princess. Soarin here was with me.”
“That’s good to hear, and Soarin, thank you for being a gentlecolt and looking after the lady.”
“Just doing my duty, princess.” Soarin smiled.
“Well now that you’re both here, I have some wonderful news. Specifically for you miss Rainbow Dash.”
“Me?”
“Yes, I have decided that, due to your valiant efforts in saving their lives, and the life of your friend, and with a few recommendations from the members themselves…”
No. Thought Dash
“I would like to royally inaugurate you..”
Oh my gosh no. Her heart was pounding like a jackhammer.
“Into the Wonderbolts.”
The black edged around Rainbow Dash’s vision again and fell to the floor with the biggest grin on her face ever.