Soarin and Rainbow Dash have met several times before, but alas have yet to fall in love. When they both try to change this in very different ways, things get funny.
Soarin and Rainbow Dash have met several times before, but that's where the relationship ends. When the two ponies try to change that, each in very different ways, things don't exactly go as planned.
Story takes place right after season 4 Other tag due to the five character tag limit
“Wait! No it’s not! Stupid!” exclaimed a light blue Pegasus who was staring at himself in the mirror. Soarin the Wonderbolt, a celebrity among ponies was so infatuated that he couldn’t even remember his own name.
“Soarin Dash…” He muttered again. “It just sounds so right!” He was currently practicing introducing himself. It was stupid, he knew, but he just couldn’t mess this up. Soarin could make any mare swoon just by blinking, why was he freaking out about something as trivial as saying his own name, which he kept messing up by the way.
A mare. That was what he was freaking out about. Specifically a mare named Rainbow Dash, hence the whole “Soarin Dash” debacle. They had met a couple of times before. There was the Grand Galloping Gala (where she saved his pie), the best young flyers competition (where she saved his life), and the Equestria Games tryout (where she saved his life AGAIN). Despite what other ponies believed, Soarin was not just a clumsy oaf who always needed rescuing, if he were how would he be a Wonderbolt? The reason he always seemed to need rescuing whenever Dash was around was because he couldn’t concentrate on anything but her when she was near.
Anyways, the reason he was practicing introducing himself (which he had done countless times, being a celebrity) was because the annual Grand Galloping Gala was coming up, and he was praying that a certain rainbow maned mare was going to be there. Soarin had contrived a plan to make Rainbow Dash fall in love with him. Or at least notice him. The plan consisted of 5 foolproof steps: Step 1. Go to Gala Step 2. See Rainbow Dash Step 3. Pretend not to see her. Play hard to get. But not too hard to get. Step 4. When you finally notice her, hit her with a smooth “The name’s Soarin. Soarin Dash Skies" Step 5. Wait for her to fall in love, get married and live happily ever after.
It was quite genius if Soarin did say so himself. Now all he had to do was get this introduction right. It’s not like she didn’t know his name, he knew Dash was a huge Wonderbolts fan, and they had met a few times before, but Soarin figured if he pretended not to know her, it would drive her wild, and make her want his attention. At least he hoped. There was 6 days until the next Grand Galloping Gala, 6 days to get this right. 6 days until Soarin would attempt the impossible- try to get Rainbow Dash to think he was cool. Even though he was an amazing athlete and a superstar, Soarin was quite timid around mares. Especially pretty, rainbow ones. While he concentrated on perfecting his opening line, he failed to realise something quite important. If Rainbow was there, and he did actually manage to go talk to her, he couldn’t just say his name and leave. He actually had to hold a conversation with her.
“C’mon guys, seriously?” A rainbow maned cyan Pegasus complained. “After what happened last year, we were still invited to the Grand Galloping Gala?” Rainbow Dash had been relaxing on a cloud, neglecting her weather team duties as usual, when her friends had shown up holding six golden tickets. No, not to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, if that’s what you were thinking. That would be totally awesome. No, they were tickets to some dumb, fancy high-class party which would involve getting dressed up in dumb, fancy, high-class dresses.
“I have to admit,” Twilight Sparkle looked up at Rainbow from the ground, “I was surprised when Princess Celestia invited us this year, after the disaster last year. You remember, Pinkie ruining the music, Rarity throwing cake at royalty, Fluttershy causing a stampede, Rainbow Dash nearly killing everypony when she dropped that statue-”
“Ok, ok we get it!” Dash interrupted, her voice cracking, “And you are totally exaggerating, I did not almost kill everypony!”
“Actually Dashie-” Pinkie Pie started before Dash glared at her. “Never mind, I forgot!”
Dash had been having a great day. Relaxing up in the clouds, with not a care in the world. That is, until she had been reminded of the Gala, where she had completely and utterly embarrassed herself in front of her idols, the Wonderbolts. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a sophisticated Canterlot accent from below her.
“Well, if I recall, Celestia did say we made the night very memorable!” Rarity said.
“Sugercube, I think she may have just said that so we didn`t feel bad `bout ruining the night.” Spoke a voice with a southern twang. Rarity glared at Applejack.
“Well, maybe you ponies ruined the night, but I certainly did NOT!” The white unicorn said indignantly. She faltered when she noticed the eyes of her five friends on her.
“Ummm, yeah you did Rarity!” Pinkies cheerful voice called. “Remember Prince Bluebottom?”
“Blueblood,” Rarity scoffed, “how could I forget him… Well, we’ve been invited back despite your, er, OUR… Boo boo’s, shall we say. So we mustn’t be rude and turn down the invitation!”
“But Rarity…” Dash groaned, still perched on the cloud. “I don’t WANT to go.”
“Rainbow Dash,” the purple maned unicorn scolded, “I don’t care if you want to, it’s rude to turn down the Princess!” “Um, Dash, I think, maybe, if we, umm,” Fluttershy mumbled quietly.
“What.” Was all that came from Dash. It was more of a statement then a question.
“If we go, and none of us does anything, um, crazy, we might have a good time?” Fluttershy seemed to ask.
Rainbow internally groaned. When was the last time they had gone somewhere and not had anything crazy happen? Never. That had never happened. Rainbow knew there was no getting out of this. She would have to suck it up, and go to a lame, stuffy party.
“Just think Rainbow,” Pinkie bounced with each word, “The Wonderbolts will probably be there!” When she looked up at the cloud, she realised it was empty. Dash had fallen out of her cloud and was now sprawled at Pinkies hooves.
“C’mon Soarin! How am I ready before you…?” a slightly raspy voice groaned from behind Soarin’s door. It was the day of the gala, and the Wonderbolts were at the compound getting ready.
“Fleet, just WAIT a second!” Soarin hollered back to the voice. Fleetfoot had knocked on his door six times in the past two minutes, all paired with her voiced complaints at how slow Soarin was. He couldn't help it though; he had to make sure he looked good. Actually, scratch that. He had to make sure he looked DAMN good, not just regular good.
“I’m tired of waiting! And Spitty said to tell you that we’re leaving in five minutes!” Fleetfoot replied.
“WHAT? Five minutes?” Soarin gasped.
“Actually, she said that about five minutes ago… I guess we’re leaving now!” Fleetfoot said cheerfully. Soarin knew better then to keep Spitfire -the captain of the Wonderbolts and one of his best friends- waiting. Unlike Fleet, she was serious and professional, and quite hot-tempered if she was kept waiting. Soarin flung his door open, revealing Fleetfoot in the hallway that held all of the Wonderbolt dorm rooms. She was wearing her Wonderbolt flight suit and goggles, with her white mane sticking up like usual. It was required that the Wonderbolts all wear their uniforms when doing publicity events.
“Well…. How do I look?” Soarin asked her. He was wearing his flight suit and goggles as well, with his mane in its usual wind-blown style.
“The same as usual, now let’s g-” Fleets voice cracked as she was cut off.
“What?! I can't look the same as usual; I have to look DAMN good!” Soarin bellowed into her ear.
“If I hadn't just gone deaf from an IDIOT yelling in my ear,” Fleetfoot began, “I would reply with, the point is to look the same as usual. It’s a publicity stunt, not a fashion show! And why do you, of all ponies care about what you look like?” It was a fair question. Soarin usually didn't care about his appearance, nor did he care about what other ponies thought of him, and he had proved this to the Wonderbolts time and time again, with his messy habits and mannerisms. But this was before Rainbow Dash entered the hypothetical picture. Before Soarin could come up with an answer for Fleetfoot, they heard stomping approaching them.
“Fleetfoot! Soarin! Get your tails down here!” Spitfire yelled from down the hallway. For a pony on the small side, she sure was LOUD.
“I told him to hurry, but he just wouldn't listen to me! He said that he didn't even have to listen to me because-” Fleetfoot began making up an excuse to get Soarin into trouble. It was a game that Fleet and Soarin had made up during Spitfire’s first year of being Captain. Each time they were busted by her for doing something dumb (which was quite often), they would each try to bullshit their way out, blaming the other. Whoever got out of it without receiving any punishment from Spitfire won. Right now, their score was 0 for Fleet and 19 for Soarin.
Fleet's excuses usually sucked.
“Fleet, this hallway isn't very long. I could hear your entire conversation from where we were standing.” Spitfire cut Fleetfoot off flatly. Soarin glanced past the two mares easily, as they were both at least a head shorter than him, and saw she was right. The rest of the Wonderbolts were standing at the end of the hallway, about 20 feet away.
“Oh. W-” Fleetfoot tried to make an excuse for why she chose to annoy Soarin by knocking on his door and whining instead of just relaying Spitfire’s message to him.
“Save it Fleet, we're already running late…” Spitfire sighed at the two of them. There was rarely an instance where she could take Soarin AND Fleetfoot out without them getting into a load of trouble. Alone, they weren't too bad, at least Soarin wasn't, but together… that was a whole different story.
"Alright girls! Almost finished!" Rarity's voice trilled from behind the makeshift changing wall set up in the Carousel boutique. She and Rainbow Dash had been behind there for a good half an hour, while the other four waited in the lobby of the boutique. Rarity had taken it upon herself to give her friends all makeovers for the gala. Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy had all been easy. A few alterations to their dresses from the last gala, some make-up, and a new mane-do and they were set to go. Rarity had purposely saved doing Rainbow for last- she knew from experience that it would be a MAJOR struggle to get her to sit still long enough for Rarity to make her look FABULOUS! All of the girls sitting in the lobby winced as they heard yet another growl from behind the wall.
"RAINBOW DASH! YOU SIT STILL RIGHT NOW OR-"
"OW! Rarity, you pulled my mane AGAIN!"
"IF YOU KEEP MOVING I'LL DO MORE THAN JUST PULL YOUR MANE!"
Silence. Even if Rainbow wasn't to concerned about what she looked like most of the time, she definitely did NOT want to be bald. After all, Rarity always told her how lucky she was to have such a nice mane. Then she usually lectured Dash about proper mane care and styling types, which Dash didn't listen to in the slightest.
"Wait. Rarity, you always tell me how nice my mane is, why are you pulling it so hard? I'm gonna go bald!" Dash vocalized her thoughts.
"Who said anything about pulling your mane out darling? Wherever did you get such a silly thought?" Rarity asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.
"...What? You just did, did you forget, you dumm-" Rainbow was cut off by Rarity.
"I simply do NOT know what you are talking about, Rainbow dear. Are you feeling alright?" she asked, while raising an eyebrow.
"What?! Rarity, I'm fine! OUCH! At least I was before you started pulling out my mane!" Rainbow flinched as Rarity began working on her mane again.
"And... DONE!" Rarity cried as she spun Rainbow's salon style chair around happily. "Let's go show the girls!"
The pair walked out from behind the wall and stopped when they heard gasps.
"Wow! Nice work Rarity!"
"You look great Sugarcube!"
"You look super duper fantastic Dashie!" Pinkie hollered. Rarity batted her eyelashes and smiled.
"Why thank you gir- WAIT, DASHIE?" Rarity had clearly thought that all of the praise was directed at her.
"You look great to Rarity," a small voiced squeaked. "But I've just never seen Dash look so... Wow." Fluttershy stated. Rarity turned to look at Rainbow again. She really had outdone herself. Rainbows usual mess of a mane was straight and shiny, falling down longer than usual. There was a braid wrapping around the back of her head in the place of the golden laurels worn last year. She wore the same dress and shoes as last year, but Rarity had sprinkled her wings with gold sparkles, making them shine in the light. She DID look quite stunning, and Rarity instantly felt bad about making her look... well, better than all of the other girls.
"Well, Rainbow Dash did need more... um, cleaning up then the rest of you," Rarity explained.
"HEY! What's that supposed to mean?" Dash asked indignantly. She then thought about all of her messy habits, and how she usually just brushed her mane a couple times a week, at most. "Actually, you do have a point..." She giggled. This was one of the reasons why Dash was so fun to be around. She was always up for some light hearted teasing, and could never stay mad at her friends. She was the element of loyalty after all.
"And thanks Rarity, you made me look DAMN good! Not that I didn't before..." Dash trailed off, snickering.
"It was my pleasure Rainbow. I simply had to make sure you could dazzle the Wonderbolts!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Heh, maybe one in particular," Dash muttered, still giggling slightly.
"Soarin... Didn't you eat before we got here?" Spitfire groaned when she heard the roaring growl come from Soarin's stomach.
"Why would I eat at home when there's perfectly good food here at the gala?" Soarin replied. "Besides, it was a long flight here from the compound."
"It was literally 5 minutes. I can almost see the compound from here." Spitfire said, rolling her eyes. "And you were supposed to eat before we got here, we don't want another pie incident like last year..."
The Wonderbolts were standing in front of Canterlot Castle, where the Gala was being held. They were about to go in when the tremendous growl erupted from Soarin’s stomach.
"Oops?" He shrugged.
"Spitty, I listened and ate before we came! I'm not a big dummy like Soarin!" Fleetfoot grinned. Suddenly, an enormous growl sounded from her stomach. "Wasn't me!" She said quickly. Spitfire just groaned and shook her head.
"Seriously, what am I gonna do with you two?" She sighed.
"Twilight, you just yelled about Pinkie yelling in your ear right into my ear!"
"Pinkie! Twilight! Dash! SHUT UP!"
"Okay, sheesh Applejack, you seem stressed..." Dash muttered.
"Sugarcube, I've been trapped in a rolling sardine box with four extremely loud ponies... and Fluttershy." Applejack exclaimed loudly. The carriage driver outside just shook his head. The carriage that the mane six had rented to take them to the Gala had pulled up to Canterlot castle five minutes ago, and all the driver could hear was five ponies yelling.
"That's odd, I swear six of them got in..." He muttered under his breath.
"Girls, we've been stopped for a while, I think we're here!" The carriage driver heard from inside. He rolled his eyes, and based on what he had heard from the car, he could guess what was going to come next. He braced himself, plugging his ears.
"YAY! WE'RE HERE!" A pink pony with a bouncy mane jumped out of the carriage screaming. "LET’S GO DASHIE!" A blue Pegasus hopped out beside her.
"RIGHT BEHIND, ER, BESIDE YOU PINKS!" She bellowed.
"Pinkie Pie! Rainbow Dash! I'm only going to say this one more time. SHUT UP!" A blond earth pony shouted just as loud.
"Applejack, hush. You’re simply being much too loud." A white unicorn with a Canterlot accent gracefully stepped out of the carriage.
"ME? What about those two clowns over there?" Applejack asked incredulously.
"Ok, everypony just settle down," A purple unicorn glanced around at the situation, with a yellow Pegasus following closely behind her. When none of the ponies around her settled down, Twilight sighed. "What am I going to do with all of you? Seriously."
She rolled her eyes as the others glanced her way and shouted "Love and tolerate us!"
"The Wonderbolts are in the building!" Fleetfoot exclaimed, as soon as the team stepped foot into the castle. "What the hell?” There was a large group of ponies gathered around the buffet table. “Why isn`t anyone falling down at our feet and worshipping the ground we walk on?"
“Fleet, we`re at a high class event, these ponies aren`t necessarily Wonderbolt fans." Spitfire said reasonably. Soaring stretched out his wings and sighed.
“It will be nice to have a night where we don`t have to constantly sign autographs and take pictures for hours on end...” He trailed off, unaware that Rainbow Dash and her friends were walking in right behind them.
The mane six finally got inside, after Twilight Sparkle convinced them to calm down and stop yelling. They were just inside the door, and Twilight thought she could finally stop worrying about them causing any disasters when she heard rapid whispering coming from beside her.
“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh...” Dash began muttering under her breath, her wings twitching at her sides.
“What is it Rainbo- oh.... I see it...” Twilight cut herself off, noticing who was walking ahead of them. The Wonderbolts were easily recognizable, with their yellow and blue flight suits and large goggles. “Calm down Rainbow, I`m sure they just want to be treated like regular ponies."
“Regular Ponies?! They are anything but regular. Did you just call the Wonderbolts basic? How could you? How COULD you Twilight?! I should probably go fall down at their feet and worship the ground their walking on!" Dash began freaking out again, slowly getting louder and louder.
“Dashie! You want the Wonderbolts to think your cool don't you? If they turn around and see you freaking out, their just gonna think you're weird! And that’s coming from me!" Pinkie chirped.
“Of course I want them to think I'm cool! They're the WONDERBOLTS!" Rainbow exclaimed, quieting down a bit. “I've gotta go calm down. They CANNOT see me like this! I can’t have a repeat of last time!" She trotted back out the door.
“Seriously Rainbow? Their just ponies like you and I!" Twilight called behind her, trying to get her more than 5 feet in the door.
“They are WAY cooler than you!" She called back, already outside. “And me, which is saying something because I’m awesome!"
Twilight just sighed and walked inside with the rest. “Maybe Rainbow won’t even makes it inside. Then I won’t have to worry about her being reckless and causing damage like last year...”
“Ugh… This is sooo boring!” Soarin moaned as he and the other Wonderbolts mingled with the crowds of Canterlot elite.
“Like I've told you the past seventeen times you've complained… We only have to do this one time a year! You can suck it up for a couple more hours, you overgrown baby.” Spitfire scolded him.
“OH! Burn!” Fleetfoot was standing behind them and replied the way she had the past seventeen times Soarin whined.
“Shut up Fleet.”
“But Spitty, I wasn't complai-“
“You’re not any better than Soarin. You may not be complaining as much, but you’re shamelessly flirting with every stallion that comes within your sight.” Spitfire said pointedly.
“Am not!” Fleetfoot tried to argue while turning her head to wink at a light brown stallion that had just passed.
“I seriously hope she’s here…” Soarin muttered, completely missing the two mares bickering next to him.
“Ooo, I sense some gossip!” Fleet’s cheek was suddenly pressed up against Soarin’s face. “Who do you hope is here? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”
“Um, what? Nopony, nopony at all, I don’t even know who you’re talking about, hehe” Soarin hadn't even realized he had spoken aloud. He always got nervous talking about mares, even if it was to his best friends. He, Fleetfoot and Spitfire had known each other for so long, that Soarin didn't even consider them mares anymore. They more like his… bros. Except Fleetfoot kept winking and smirking at every stallion who passed, which was totally not a bro-thing to do.
“Fleet! Stop it, you’re such a tease! And Soarin, you know you can't lie to us, you shouldn't even try.” Spitfire smirked. It was true, every time Soarin tried to hide something or keep a secret, he always ended up just blurting it out. Hearth’s warming was always a tough time for him, trying to keep his gifts a secret from the recipients. Birthdays were also rough. As was any other event that required him to keep his mouth shut.
“What, psh, I don’t even know what you’re talking about! It’s defiantly not a mare I want to impress, no sir!” Soarin spluttered.
“Aww, Soarin likes a girl! Soarin likes a girl! Soa-“ Fleetfoot was cut off by Soarin’s wing batting her in the face.
“Shut up Fleet! I do not! Even if I did, it would most certainly not be Rainbow Dash!” Soarin hissed.
“Whaaaat? Rainbow Dash!? NO WAY!” Fleet started squealing. Spitfire just smirked at him.
“You’re hopeless Soarin. You couldn’t keep a secret if your life depended on it!” Soarin blinked at her.
“I totally could!”
“Nope. And really, Rainbow Dash?”
“Um, maybe?”
“Soarin and Rainbow, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G…” Fleet started to sing, while flipping her mane into a stallions face, stunning him while she smirked.
“Fleet, you’re being really creepy! Again! Do we have to take you back to that social behavior therapist?” Spitfire shook her head at the giggling mare in front of her, and then back onto the still blushing Soarin. “Sheesh, I should have just left you two at headquarters. It would have been less stress for me…”
Rainbow Dash stepped back into the cool night air, a light breeze ruffling her brightly coloured mane.
“Ugh! Why did the Wonderbolts have to be right in front of us? I need time to think about what I’m going to say!” She berated herself, unaware of the figure approaching her from behind.
“Darling, why are you getting so worked up about this? You were so eager to see them last time!” Rarity had followed her back outside, wondering what was going on with her cyan friend.
“Rarity! I didn’t see you there! What are you even talking about, I’m not worked up! I mean, sure the Wonderbolts are amazing and all, but so am I, I think… Yeah, they’re the best flyers in Equestria, but I’m the best flyer in Equestria so then we’re all the bes-“ Rainbow started rambling.
“Rainbow, dear, I know you’re going to hate hearing this, but face it. You’re nervous! The only time I’ve seen you this shaken up was the Best Young Flyers Competition! Which the Wonderbolts were at,” Rarity spoke slowly, thinking hard. “The only explanation is love! Well, maybe not quite yet, but defiantly like!”
“What the hell Rare? Like? Like who?” Rainbow spoke quickly, turning away from her friend.
“Ooo, I was right! You do like somepony… A Wonderbolt to be specific…” Rarity wracked her brain, trying to remember some of the Wonderbolt names that Rainbow always talked about.
“What? I just said I didn’t!” Rainbow turned back to look at her, blushing heavily.
“Body language Rainbow, dear. The way you spoke and acted, the reason you were so excited to get here, even though you were dreading it earlier. I just know it. So, who’s the lucky stallion?” She seemed very excited.
“Um. I do NOT like anypony!” Rainbow turned to trot away, trying to avoid Rarity’s gaze.
“You most certainly do. You’ve always been dreadful at lying, I’m surprised you’re not the element of honesty.” It was true. Rainbow had always been terrible at keeping secrets and lying. She always ended up blurting out whatever she wanted to keep to herself.
“Um…” Dash trailed off, still not looking at Rarity.
“So who is it? Fleetfoot? Spitfire? Wait, those are both mares. Hmm… Oh! What about Surprise? Nope, that’s another mare. Oh, I know! Soarin! Yes, he is most defiantly a stallion…” Rarity trailed off. By the look on Rainbows face, she knew she was right, which was lucky because honestly, those were all of the Wonderbolt names Rarity knew. She was not the… biggest fan of the Wonderbolts.
“Heh, whaaat? No…” Rainbow laughed weakly, knowing that she was found out.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Go get him!” Rarity squealed, causing Dash to wince.
“Um, yeah. Ok. Just go in there and sweep him off his feet. Like that’s gonna work. He’s never gonna be impressed by an ordinary pony like me!” She sighed, looking dejected.
“Ordinary? You’re Rainbow Dash, the number 1 flier in Equestria! The only pony who can pull off a Sonic Rainboom! And not to mention, you’ve got your very own fan club back in Ponyville.” Rarity said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “If anypony is going to impress him, it’s going to be you, darling. Now, I’m going to go back and join the others, and I’ll see you later.” Rarity winked and smiled at Rainbow before turning back to go inside.
“Yeah, see you later Rare, and thanks…” Rainbow trailed off. Rarity was already gone, joining in the festivities going on inside.
“Well Soarin. I believe we need to talk.” Fleetfoot said seriously. Wait, Fleetfoot being serious? That can’t be right. “About how you’re totally gonna embarrass yourself in front of a certain rainbow hottie without my help!” That sounded more like her. Fleet was rarely ever serious about anything.
“Um, what do you mean I’m going to embarrass myself?” Soarin asked, looking offended.
“Do I have to remind you about the time we were at that club and you tried to impress that DJ?” Fleet smirked as Soarin winced at the memory.
“How was I supposed to know that was DJ PON3, the most famous DJ in Equestria?” He tried to defend himself.
“Duh! Everypony knows her, and everypony also knows that she is dating that other famous guy, you know, MC WISH. Who you also tried to hit on.” She shook her head.
“Well, in my defense, it was dark in there, and he looked like a mare.”
“Yeah… That’s not much of a defense.” Fleetfoot grabbed Soarin’s shoulder with her hoof. “Walk with me kid. Auntie Fleet is going to teach you something.”
“Um, I’m a year older than yo-“ Soarin began.
“Age is but a number,” Fleetfoot interrupted. “Now. Rule number one. Well, actually it’s the only rule but whatever. Are you listening? I’m only going to say it once.”
“Yes, I’m listening.” Soarin said, not really listening. He was busy scanning the crowds for a rainbow mane. Two light blue hooves grabbed his face and turned it towards their owner.
“Fake. It. Till. You. Make. It.” Fleet slowly spoke, pausing between each word.
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mea-“ Soarin was cut off again.
“Only saying it once!”
“But I don’t get wha-“
“ONLY ONCE.”
“Sheesh, okay Fleet. I didn’t really want your advice anyway-” Soarin was cut off AGAIN.
“Ok, fine. If you insist. I’ll say it one more time. Fake it till you make it. You know, just act confident and cool, and eventually, you will just… become confident and cool. Like magic.”
“Really? Just like that?”
“Yup. When have I ever been wrong?”
“Well, there were all those times whe-“
“Never. You are correct young grasshopper. Now go, be free. Go get yourself a smoking hot mare. I believe in you. By the power vested in me, by the ‘Bolts, I now pronounce you prepared to not be a fool.” Fleet spoke while slowly drifting away.
“Wait. Did she just call me a grasshopper? Like the bug? I really don’t understand most of what that pony says…” A couple of fancy dressed ponies glances Soarin’s way as he muttered to himself. “Fake it till I make it. Yeah, this is so going to work! Now… Where IS Rainbow Dash? You’d think her mane would stand out in a crowd…”
Soarin trotted around the ballroom for about 10 minutes before he ran into Spitfire again.
“Sheesh, you only lasted 10 minutes? Damn, I bet Fleet you would at least make it 15 minutes without saying something stupid and running away.” She began looking around for Fleetfoot. “Eh, she still owes me for the past 4 bets we’ve made on you, I’m not gonna bother paying her.”
“Um, I haven’t even found Rainbow yet, so NO I did not say anything stupid! And more importantly, what have you guys been betting on me? How did I not notice this before now?” Soarin asked indignantly.
“Oh, nothing… Don’t worry about it…” Spitfire snickered. “And I’m pretty sure I saw somepony with rainbow hair head outside, except she looked… Fancy. Rainbow Dash is the last pony I would expect to dress up, but who else has a mane like that? Soarin? Hey Soarin, where’d you go?” Spitfire caught a glance of the back of a Wonderbolt uniform trotting towards the door. “Wow, way to look desperate. Nice job buddy.” She chortled. Soarin was too far away, nearly at the door now, and was completely oblivious to his captain/best friend making fun of him.
Rainbow had made her way to one of the ornate benches decorating the outside of the castle, and was perched on the edge, careful not to get her dress dirty or wrinkled. Rarity had spent the majority of the carriage ride from Ponyville threatening Rainbow on what she would do to her if she ruined her dress. Some of these threats were truly… Horrifying, and Dash didn’t want to see if Rarity was exaggerating. For such a prim pony, she’s kinda scary Dash thought to herself, shuddering. She glanced up at the sky, which was packed full of sparkling stars and a large full moon.
“Luna really outdid herself tonight, didn’t she?” A voice behind her made her jump. Dash whipped her head around, her prismatic mane following in a rainbow blur. She drew in her breath and her eyes widened as she caught sight of the iconic yellow and blue uniform.
“Soarin?” She asked, a faint blush appearing on her face.
“The name’s Soarin. Soarin… Skies.” Soarin smoothly said, thankful that he got his name right.
“I know your name already, I just said it?” She seemed to ask.
“Oh. I didn’t hear you.” Soarin replied lamely. “Stupid!” he berated himself.
“Um, what?” Dash asked, scrunching her face up in confusion.
“Um, not you, me stupid, I mean you’re not stupid, I am. Stupid that is, not you. I am not you…” he trailed off, groaning internally. “What I meant to say was, the sky is pretty. Just like rainbows.”
“Yeah, it is… and I like rainbows to?” Rainbow was confused. Was Soarin trying to compliment her, because she was Rainbow Dash, and had a rainbow mane? Or was he just stating that he liked what appeared in the sky when the sun shone after it rained?
“Yeah, cool.” Soarin replied, trying to sound confident. Why does she look so confused? He thought frantically. “And by rainbows, I mean your tail. Because it’s rainbow.” He finished, winking. There, now she’s gonna think I’m cool. I bet she didn’t even notice when I messed up my awesome opening! Fake it till you make it really does work! I have to thank Fleetfoot later… His thoughts were broken off by Rainbow’s expression becoming even more confused. Why is she so confused? What I said made perfect sense.
“Um, thanks?” Dash seemed to ask. “I… like your tail to?”
“Thanks Raindow Bash.” He pranced over to her and sat down on the bench next to her. Nice Soarin! Mess up on her name, she’ll think I don’t remember her and want to get my attention. Wow, this is going super well! “That is, if that’s even your name.”
“Um, actually it’s Rainbow Dash?” She still looked confused. What the hell? We were literally just talking about rainbows! And who would be named Raindow Bash? Is he for real? It’s not even the first time we’ve met! She thought to herself.
“Oh, right. Sorry Rainbow Dash. I just meet so many hot mares every day, it’s hard to remember all these names.” Soarin was concerned now. Why is she so confused looking? I’m pretending to forget her name, acting cool to make her jealous, why isn't she, like, in love with me yet? And why does she keep answering in questions, it`s kinda annoying...
“Well Soarin. It was nice seeing you again, but I have to get going…” Rainbow stood up, still confused. Soarin seemed SO cool all of the other times I met him, why did he seem like such an idiot now? He had seriously sounded so stupid during our entire conversation. I've gotta go find Rarity and tell her that he seemed… kind of dumb.
“Oh, yeah, same here babe. Maybe I’ll see you in there.” Soarin winked, still feeling concerned. Why does Dash seem… kinda dumb?
“Yeah, maybe…” Rainbow trotted off, wondering to herself, what was wrong with Soarin’s eye? It had kept twitching. Was he trying to wink? Soarin glanced at her as she trotted away. Maybe she isn’t as great as I thought she was…
Dash re-entered the Gala, thinking still. Maybe he isn’t as awesome as I thought he was…
“What do you mean he was stupid darling?” Rarity looked utterly confused.
“I mean exactly that. He was stupid! He kept saying he liked Rainbows, but then called me Raindow. With a D. That's not a name! And he's met me before! It's hard to forget my name. I'm like a fricken bag of skittles!” Rainbow was frustrated. After her talk with Rarity, she was prepared to dazzle an amazing stallion. Instead she got one that was... Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
“Well, maybe he was just nervous. Why don't you go find him and try again?” Rarity suggested
“Ugh. No thank you. And why would he be nervous? He's a Wonderbolt!” They don't get nervous! Dash exclaimed.
“Why Rainbow darling, I'm sure they do, but if you don’t want to see him again, why don't we go and join our friends?” Rarity pointed to where the other four were gathered.
Yeah, sure. Rainbow started trotting towards them, still disappointed that her attempt to wow Soarin was a bust. Not because of her of course, but because he was dumb as a doorknob.
“Hey Dashie! Hey Rarity! Where'd you sillies go? Pinkie chirped at them as they neared.
“Well-” Rainbow was cut off.
“You were outside when you ran into a certain Wonderbolt by the name of Soarin who you were interested in but then he turned out to be a big dumb dummy and now you don't like him anymore and never want to see him again to avoid awkwardness!” Pinkie spoke in one long breath.
“Wha? How the hell did you know that?” Dash knew this was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, but that was amazing.
“Eh, just a hunch!” Pinkie bounced off towards the dance floor.
“I will never understand that pony.” Applejack shook her head at the bouncing pink form that was now on the dance floor doing her signature dance move, 'the Gummy shake'. It consisted of shaking on the floor, and yes, her pet alligator Gummy had inspired it. “So sugarcube, Soarin eh?”
“Nope. Not anymore at least...” Rainbow started to tell her story to her friends who gathered around. "Man, that stallion is DUMB!”
“Wow Soarin, you only lasted seven minutes? That's gotta be a new record!” Fleet giggled upon seeing Soarin returning from outside. “I totally won me and Spitty’s bet! And even though I haven't paid her for the past four I'm sure she's gonna pay me!”
“Think again Fleet.” Soarin replied. “She's not gonna pay up until you do. And before you ask, yes I know you two bet on me.”
“Oh, smarter then you look Soar!” Fleet teased him. “Well, you didn't listen to my advice, did you now... Otherwise you wouldn't have failed so quickly.”
“I did! And it worked great! I was charming, suave, the whole bit! It was Rainbow Dash who was the problem...” Soarin trailed off.
“What? How was SHE the probl-”
“She DUMB man!” Soarin interrupted.
“Huh?” Fleetfoot blinked at him.
“Literally every single time I spoke she got really confused! How am I supposed to like a mare who can't even keep up with a simple conversation?” Soarin plopped down on the floor in front of his friend.
“Well, maybe she was just nervous. You are a world famous Wonderbolt after all.” Fleet reasoned.
“Hah! Why would she be nervous? One of the best friends of a princess, only pony who can do a sonic rainboom, not to mention really, really cute... I should have been the nervous one! And maybe I would have been, if she wasn't so dull!”
“Uh, ok?” Fleet widened her eyes as Soarin rambled.
“And that! She answered everything with a question! Ugh, so irritating...” Soarin sighed.
“Well, I'm guessing you don't want to find her again... Why don't we go find spitfire?” Fleet pulled him onto his hooves with a grunt. “Ugh, you’ve been eating too many pies.”
“Yeah sure. But I also pretty much promised Rainbow Dash a dance later! Knowing her she's gonna come find me. Bleh.” Soarin stuck his tongue out as he trotted after Fleetfoot- who was still flirting with every stallion they passed- to go find their missing friend.
“Yeah, the thing is you don't really know her! Maybe she's actually great! From what I've seen, Rainbow’s a pretty talented flyer, potentially a future Wonderbolt!” Fleet reasoned while brushing her tail across a random stallions face, leaving him staring.
“Uh, no thank you! If she becomes a Wonderbolt with us...” Soarin trailed off, spotting Spitfire straight ahead of them.
“There you guys are!” She called as they came into earshot. “So Soarin, how'd it go with Rainbow Dash?”
“Would you care to dance m'lady?” A grey earth pony had walked up to where Rainbow and her friends where gathered after she had finished her Soarin story.
“Oh, no thank you sir. My hooves are much too sore-“ Rarity was cut off by the stallion.
"Um, I was talking to her." He pointed to Rainbow Dash.
“Oh. Ah, I knew that of course, heh, I was just-“ Rarity spluttered before turning and quickly trotting away.
“Me?” Rainbow couldn't help but snicker at Rarity’s reaction.
“Why of course m'lady. Is that a yes?” He held out a hoof.
“Heh, I guess so...” She took his hoof and followed him onto the dance floor. Maybe this will get my mind of a certain dumb Wonderbolt...
“My name is Storm Flash.” The stallion spoke over the classical music coming from the live band.
“I'm Rainbow Dash.” She replied, shaking her mane out of her face.
“Ah, a beautiful name for a beautiful mare.” He began to lead her in a slow dance. Rainbow couldn't hold her snickers in. Was he for real? So cheesy... She was too busy laughing at Storm Flash's cheesiness that she completely missed what he said next.
“Huh? I mean, pardon?“ Dash asked, leaning her ear in so she could hear him better. I should probably be polite. He is a Canterlot elite….
“I said, do you want to get outta here? I'm staying in a hotel just down the street. We could go... Have some fun.” He wiggled his eyebrows. Rainbow quickly recoiled and stared at him.
“Excuse me?“ She scrunched her eyes, still not sure if she was hearing him right.
“We could go grab a couple of your friends, if that's what you’re into.” He leaned in towards Dash's face again.
“Um, no.” She replied flatly, leaning away again. “You can get your creepy ass outta here by yourself!” She began trotting away, weaving through the ponies on the dance floor.
“Aw come on Dashie!” He followed.
“Don't call me that.” She turned towards him again, eyes flashing. The only pony she allowed to call her Dashie was Pinkie, and that was because she couldn't convince her not to.
“Oh, feisty.” Storm flash commented, wiggling his eyebrows again.
“Aw gross! Leave before I go all sonic rainboom on your ass!” She replied, her temper starting to flare up.
“Sonic rainboom? Sounds good.“ He sauntered closer. Rainbow looked around for her friends, and instead spotted a large sculpture by the buffet table. One that looked familiar. It was the same statue that she had caught last year, and ended up causing a lot of damage with. An idea popped into her head. Sure, it was a stupid idea but eh, it was all she had. She began to trot towards it, Storm Flash following behind, still being a creep.
“Where are you going Dashie?” He smirked, seeing that they had reached the buffet table. Rainbow shuffled her body towards the statue.
“Hmm, Twilight is so going to kill me.“ She muttered.
“What was that? Changed your mind yet?” Storm heard her muttering. “Who's Twilight?”
“Um, yeah sure. I changed my mind. Just stay there for a second.” Rainbow internally gagged. This dude was so nasty!
“Oh, sure. You want to get a good look at the Storm, don't you.” He grinned and bounced his eyebrows.
“Yeah… totally.” Rainbow shuddered. Ew! She shuffled so she was slightly behind the statue.
Storm flash started to pose, flexing his muscles and smirking. “Yeah girl, get a good look.”
“Uh, yep!” She glanced around, her front right hoof directly behind the statue now. Ugh, Twilight is definitely gonna make me reshelf her library or organize her reports or some other egghead thing… She pushed against the statue and it began to tip… Storm stood completely oblivious, still trying to show off his muscles.
CRASH!
All heads turned to Rainbow Dash’s direction, Storm flash’s tail now pinned under the statue.
“Oops...” Rainbow smiled weakly at the crowd that was now forming around the fallen statue. I am so dead. She very slowly began to inch away from the crowd, hoping she wouldn`t see any of her friends.
“RAINBOW DASH!” bellowed a voice from the other side of the ballroom.
“SORRY TWILIGHT, GOTTA GO! BYE!” Rainbow hollered back, before turning and flying out as fast as she could. Only when she got outside did she allow herself to burst out laughing, remembering the stupid expression on Storm Flash’s creepy face, his ass stuck under a huge statue. “He was asking for it,” She chuckled to herself. “But I’m gonna be in deep crap when Twilight finds me…” she started heading towards Donut Joes, because it was one of the few places in Canterlot that she knew of. “Might as well get a donut out of this night.”
“What was that?” Soarin asked, after a huge crash had shaken the entire ballroom.
“I have no idea…” Spitfire shrugged.
“RAINBOW DASH!” A very angry sounding voice yelled out.
“That was definitely Princess Twilight,” Fleet commented, cocking one ear up.
“SORRY TWILIGHT, GOTTA GO! BYE!” another voice shouted.
“And that… was Rainbow Dash.” Soarin muttered, as he and the other ‘Bolts watched a cyan and rainbow blur fly into the night.
“Well, you’ve gotta admit,” Fleet spoke, noticing Soarin’s flat expression. “Whenever she’s at an event, it certainly gets… lively.”
“Ha! You can say that again! First, the gala last year, then the whole “Oh no, falling to our deaths” thing at the Best Young Flyers competition, a Changeling attack at the Royal wedding, the “Trying to get her on our team instead of Soarin” at the Equestria Games… Sorry about that bud.” Spitfire glanced over at Soarin.
“Well, now that she left, this party is dead. Can we leave?” Fleet hopped up and down, antsy to go spread her wings.
“Well, we did make an appearance… the paparazzi got some pictures of us here…” Spitfire mused, her wingmates eagerly waiting for her decision. “I guess we can go now.”
“YES! THOSE ARE THE WORDS I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL NIGHT!” Fleet shrieked, already heading towards the door.
“You seemed to be having too much fun with those poor stallions to leave before,” Spitfire snickered as she and Soarin followed her outside. As they stepped out into the cool night air, they stopped.
“Well, back to headquarters?” Soarin asked, stretching his wings.
“Nooo, not yet! Please can we go get donuts?” Fleet whined, making a pouty face at Spitfire.
“We have personal chefs back at HQ, they can make you some donuts Fleet.” Spitfire patted her friends face with her wing.
“But there not the same as Donut Joe's donuts!” Fleet fell to the ground dramatically. “Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with a donut on top?”
“Fine. But you’re paying.” Spitfire smirked as she took to the air.
“No I am not! But YAY!”
Soarin smiled at his two friends as they headed towards their destination. Might as well get a donut out of this night…
Rainbow Dash touched down in front of Donut Joe’s donut shop. Ahh, this is gonna be the best part of my night so far. As she pushed open the doors, she instantly spotted a familiar electric blue mane. “Huh? Is that who I think it is?” she stepped into the shop, and confirmed who the pony was. “Scratch.”
The white unicorn looked towards the door and spotted her. “Dash.”
Rainbow stepped closer to the booth the mare was sitting in. “Long time, no see. Apparently you’re famous now?”
“Yeah, and you’re not. How’s becoming a Wonderbolt going?” The unicorn flipped her sunglasses up, revealing magenta eyes, which were narrowed at her.
“Bitch, please. I am so much better than the Wonderbolts.” Dash stepped closer, smirking.
“Who you calling a bitch?” The unicorn rose from her seat, approaching Dash.
“You.” Rainbow snickered. “You deaf or something? All that loud music can’t be good for your ears.”
“Hmm, you think your funny, don’t you…” the unicorn and Dash were now an arm’s length apart. Donut Joe was standing behind the counter, watching them with wide eyes. He looked like he was prepared to intervene if a fight broke out.
“Aw, I’ve missed you Scratchy!” Rainbow grinned, pulling the mare into a rough hug. Joe looked very confused now.
“I’ve missed you too Dash! It really has been too long!” Vinyl Scratch AKA DJ PON3 replied, messing up Rainbow’s formerly tidy mane. “What’s got you lookin' so fancy?”
“Eh, I was at the Grand Galloping Gala but had to… step out early.” Rainbow straightened her dress. “Rarity gave me a makeover.” She rolled her eyes.
“Um, Vinyl? What’s happening right now?” A voice came from the direction of Vinyl’s booth. Rainbow turned and looked, spying a light blue unicorn stallion with a spiky mane.
“Oh, Neon! This is Rainbow Dash! We grew up together in Ponyville!” Vinyl led Dash over to him.
“Hey, nice to meet ya!” Rainbow smiled. Hmm, this guy looks familiar…
“Hey, I’m Neon. Neon Lights.” He introduced himself.
“You may know him as MC WISH. Or my coltfriend.” Vinyl added.
“Oh, that’s where I know you from! You guys toured together, right? And coltfriend Vinyl? Neon, blink twice if she`s holding you hostage.” Dash snickered. Vinyl had been one of her best friends when Rainbow had first moved to Ponyville, before she became a successful DJ and began touring all of Equestria. She had always been adamant about not dating as it would `interfere with her sick music-making abilities.’
“Yeah! He does lights, I do music.” Vinyl explained, completely ignoring Dash and Neon`s laughing about the coltfriend comment. “So, how’s life been treatin’ ya?”
“Decent. I’m still in Ponyville, Captain of the weather team, nothing too exciting.” Dash decided not to tell them about being an Element of Harmony. Celestia didn’t broadcast it out to the world, so Dash decided not to either.
“Nothing too exciting?” Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “Winner of the Best Young Flyer Competition? Winning a medal in the Equestria Games? I’ve been keeping tabs on you girl, you’re a fricken hell of an athlete.” Rainbow snickered.
“Yeah, I guess I am pretty cool.”
Vinyl rolled her eyes. “And clearly you haven’t changed. Still a cocky little shit, aren’t you?” She smirked. Dash remembered all of the trouble she used to get in for being over-confident.
“Why would I change, I’m already the most awesome mare in all of Equestria.” She stated, smiling smugly. Vinyl squinted at her.
“Oh yeah?” She leaned towards her.
“Yeah.” Dash leaned in to, still grinning.
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Ok. Then I challenge the self-proclaimed ‘most awesome mare in all of Equestria' to a… WUBS BATTLE!”
“How did I know that was coming?” Rainbow commented. The two mares were nose to nose now, glaring at each other. They were lucky that apart from Joe, they were the only ones in the shop. They were sending some pretty weird vibes at the moment.
“PPFT!” Vinyl busted out laughing, Rainbow joining her. They had always been getting into stupid little competitions when they were younger. Rainbow glanced over at Neon who was sitting there with an extremely puzzled look on his face.
“You two are weird.” was all he said. The two mares kept laughing, Rainbow not caring what happened to her dress at this point. Twilight's already gonna kill me, might as well get Rarity in on it to.
“Ahh Dash, you really haven’t changed.” Vinyl sat up, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Neither have you Scratchy, neither have you.” Rainbow sniggered, looking up when she heard the door open. “Oh shit.” Vinyl and Neon followed her gaze and spotted three ponies walking in. They were dressed in yellow and blue flight suits, and had large goggles hanging around their necks. “Holy shit. Crap. Bloody hell.” Rainbow began to mutter as she hid behind her hooves.
“Um, Dash? Everything ok?” Vinyl stared at her, bewildered.
“Uh-huh…” Rainbow scooted in further to the wall. “Why me?” She groaned.
“Kay, this is weird, and that’s coming from me… I’ve seen some crazy shit before. Aren’t those Wonderbolts?” Vinyl questioned, confused on why her friend was hiding from ponies she idolised.
“Uh-huh.”
“That didn’t clear anything up.” Vinyl glanced back over to the Wonderbolts. “That’s the lead squad isn’t it? Spitfire, Fleetfoot and Soa-" Rainbow reached across the table and put a hoof over the DJ’s mouth.
“Shh! I don’t want them to see me!” She whisper-shouted.
“Aw gross man! I don’t know where that hoof has been!” Vinyl slapped Dash’s hoof away from her face. “What’s going on? I thought you were like, in love with them or something.”
“It’s a long story. Part of the reason I’m here actually…” Dash tried to scoot even closer to the wall.
“Well, we’ve got time! And also Vinyl, remember when that Soarin dude hit on you at that club? That was hilarious!” Neon piped up from where he was sitting.
“I know right! He was so desperate! It got really funny after he tried to hit on YOU though!” Vinyl and Neon burst out laughing, leaving a very confused Dash trying to hide behind her hooves again. The loud laughter alerted the Wonderbolts of their presence and Soarin glanced over. His eyes widened as he saw who was sitting there. Rainbow cringed, knowing she had been spotted. Her mane was a dead giveaway.
“Curse my awesome hair…” She grumbled as Vinyl and Neon calmed down.
“So, ready to tell us this story now?” Vinyl looked curiously at Dash.
“Ugh. Fine.” Rainbow began telling her story for the third time that night.
“Soarin, why do you look like a little filly that just wet herself?” Fleet asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Um, no reason. That's just my regular face.” He quickly looked away from the booth that Dash was in. He was a little too late though, and his friends followed his gaze.
“Oooh shit!” Fleet began laughing upon seeing who he was looking at. Soarin grabbed her by the wing and dragged her over to the booth in the corner, Spitfire following.
“Soarin, it’s no big deal that Rainbow Dash is here. You’re both full grown ponies, you can handle this responsibly.” She rolled her eyes as Soarin just sat there dumbly. “Ok, fine. Just act like a big baby and never speak to her or acknowledge her presence again.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll go with that plan.” Soarin stated, completely missing the sarcasm. “But the fact that she’s here isn’t even the worst part! Did you see who she’s sitting with?”
Fleetfoot craned her neck to see who was accompanying Dash. “HAH!” She collapsed in a fit of giggles again. “It-Its BAAHAH” she tried to speak but couldn’t through all the laughing. Spitfire looked as well and saw the iconic electric blue mane.
“Damn! Not only is she here with DJ PON3, the very mare you tried to hook up with, but MC WISH is also here! The very stallion you tried to hook up with!” Spitfire couldn’t contain her giggles. She collapsed next to Fleet, leaving a mortified Soarin sitting right in the eyeshot of Rainbow.
“I hate you guys.” He said flatly as Rainbow Dash’s eyes met his. Why is she looking at me? Well, I guess I am pretty much straight in front of her. But she’s so dumb! Why doesn’t she just look away?
“This has been such a great night.” Fleetfoot sat up, regaining her speaking abilities. “I mean, I met a bunch of smoking hot stallions, Soarin completely embarrassed himself, and- oh right! Soarin runs into not only the mare he embarrassed himself in front of, but also the two celebrities he tried to get with! One of them being a dude!” She cracked up again, falling back onto the booth seat. Soarin still sat looking straight ahead, having a sort of extremely awkward staring contest with Dash.
“I actually cannot look away.” He tried but his eyes seemed glued to hers. “What the hell is wrong with my neck, it’s like, paralyzed.” He tried to break eye contact but he physically could not. Little did he know, Vinyl was sitting in the other booth, using her unicorn magic to freeze his and Dash’s necks so they couldn’t look away. Back at the Wonderbolts booth Fleet reached over and punched him. Right in the face. That seemed to loosen his neck up.
“There! Did that help?” she asked brightly.
“AUGH! Fleet, that hurt! Why do you always have to be so mean to me?” Soarin shook his head a few times, hiding the tears caused by the punch. “But man that was weird! It was like I was frozen!”
“Dude! Did I just make you cry?!” Fleet guffawed as she saw Soarin’s watery eyes.
“You punch hard. And you’re a bitch.” He rubbed his eyes. “And I’m not crying. This is just pain leaking from my eyes.”
“I made you cry, I made you cry…” Fleet began singing.
Back at Dash’s booth, Vinyl started snickering. “Dude! She totally just made him cry!”
“Vinyl, I kinda hate you.” Dash was miffed about her spell-use. “I literally thought my eyes were gonna melt his face or something. I do not like that guy!”
“Clearly, based on the story you just told us!” Neon remarked. “But honestly, it didn’t sound that bad. Maybe a bit awkward, but no reason to hate the guy!”
Dash glanced over at him. “Yeah, I don’t like you much either.” He blinked at her.
“Hurtful. But I'm just saying, aren't you overreacting a bit?”
“Nope.”
“IS ANYPONY IN HERE ACTUALLY GONNA ORDER A DONUT?” Joe bellowed from behind the counter. “IF NOT, READ THE SIGN ON THE DOOR. NO LOITERING.” Dash looked around. Out of the six customers in the shop, not one of them had actually bought anything.
“Eh, I just realised I’m flat broke anyways. I think I’m just gonna head home. Maybe I can make it back to my house without Twilight seeing me…” Dash stood up, and glanced down at her dress. It was now very wrinkly and had crumbs on it from the sticky booth. “Or Rarity for that matter.”
“Well, it was cool seeing you again RD, I’ll swing by Ponyville soon.” Vinyl reached out and tousled Dash’s mane.
“Nice meeting you. See ya around.” Neon waved a hoof.
“Yeah! See you guys!” Dash trotted towards the door, avoiding the Wonderbolts booth. As she pushed open the door, she came face to face with a familiar group of ponies (and a dragon). “Huh?” Her friends all stood looking at her with confused expressions. They must have finished up at the Gala and felt like a snack!
“Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?” Spike asked.
“Uh….” She glanced over at Twilight who was staring at her with narrowed eyes.
“Yeah Rainbow. What are you doing here?” She asked, eyes flashing.
“And what did you do to your dress!?” Rarity gasped.
“Sorryguysgottarun!” Rainbow said in one breath, and shot into the air, in the direction of Ponyville. “Heh, lucky I left when I did!” She continued her flight back home, pausing to rest on a cloud. This has been a weird night. We really can’t go anywhere without something… eventful happening. Better get my ass up and flying if I wanna get home before Twilight and the others. The flight from Canterlot to Ponyville wasn’t very long, half an hour if Rainbow was going at a slow pace. Which she never goes at.
About fifteen minutes later Rainbow could see her cloud mansion, hovering near Twilight’s new tree-castle thing. She soared towards it and leaned against the base, pushing it. That was the good thing about living in a cloud. If she ever pissed anypony off, she could relocate her house to be far away from theirs quite easily. Dash pushed her house until it was near Sweet Apple Acres. There, Applejack won’t kill me for ruining the Gala! At least, I don’t think she will! Dash pushed open her front door, letting the clouds close together behind her.
“Ahhh, home sweet home.” Rainbow sighed as she pulled off her dress, throwing it in a crumpled pile. “A few more wrinkles won’t hurt that thing.” She trotted through her large living room, past the kitchen, and down the hall. “Why did I make this house so damn big?” When her parents decided to move back to Cloudsdale, and Dash remained in Ponyville she had drawn a plan for a house thinking “bigger is better”. But when the house had actually been constructed, she had realised it was stupid for one Pegasus to be living in a mansion all by herself. It got a little lonely, with all of the empty space. Sure, Tank was there to keep her company, but he just wasn't the same as another pony. She bounced up the cloud stairs, humming a song to herself.
“Been dreaming, I’ve been waiting
To fly with those great ponies… except Soarin because he’s stupid…
The Wonderbolts, their daring tricks…”
She giggled at her improvised song lyrics. “Wow, I am just hilarious. Too bad I live alone and nopony can hear my unbelievable wit.” She hopped into her bedroom and flopped onto her bed. “Ah… better get a good night’s sleep if I’m gonna spend all day tomorrow slacking off weather duties and avoiding Twilight’s wrath….” She drifted off to sleep, thoughts of the odd night still swirling in her mind.
"Hey Soar, rough night?” a voice spoke to Soarin’s left. He was currently sitting in the cafeteria at the Wonderbolt HQ’s and was picking at his breakfast.
“Oh, hey Lightning.” Soarin looked up and saw one of his teammates, a pale blue stallion by the name of Lightning Streak.
“Rough night?” He repeated, looking over Soarin’s appearance. “You’re a mess. And by that, I mean more than usual.”
“Heh, you can say that again.” The bags under Soarin’s eyes were very prominent, his mane was a complete mess, and he had a large bruise on his cheek where Fleetfoot punched him.
“Care to elaborate?” Lightning set his tray down and sat across from Soarin. “Remember, Captain Spitfire gave us the day off today, we can go hit the gym or something!”
“Not especially,” Soarin replied to Lightning’s first question. “And yeah, sounds cool. Lemme finish breakfast first.”
“Hey dude! How’s your cheek feeling today?” Fleetfoot trotted towards their table, balancing a breakfast tray on an outstretched wing. “Hey Lightning!”
Soarin glanced at her. “How does it look?” he turned to show her the bruise.
“Oh! I really got you good, didn’t I?” she started giggling. Lightning reached out and grabbed her tray off her wing, already knowing what was going to happen. Fleet’s giggling got louder and louder, and eventually she tipped over, rolling on the floor.
“Every time.” Lightning placed her tray next to his. “Wait, did she give you that?” he pointed at Soarin’s bruise.
“Yeah. She’s kind of a bitch.” Soarin shot a look at his friend, who was still laughing on the ground.
“Wow, she sure can punch…” Lightning shook his blond mane out of his eyes, looking impressed. “She must be stronger than she looks!”
“Hell yeah I am!” she called from the ground. “Did you doubt me?”
“Of course not Fleet, I just meant you are delicate looking, a very beautiful mare.” He smirked.
“I am NOT delicate!” she jumped on him, tackling him to the floor.
“Whoa! I didn’t mean! Wait, Fleet! NO!” They started wrestling, rolling around and knocking over chairs.
“Ooo! Pony pile!” a high pitched voice called out. A white mare started bouncing towards them, her curly yellow mane bouncing behind her.
“Surprise!” Lightning called out. “No, help me get her off!” he tried to get out of Fleetfoot’s grasp, but failed.
“No can do!” Surprise squeaked. “SURPRISE!” she jumped in, joining the impromptu cage match.
Soarin stood up at this point. This was not the first time this had happened, and Spitfire was NOT going to be happy. They had stayed late at Donut Joe’s the night before, having a break from training to just catch up as friends, but Spitfire got REAL grumpy if she didn’t get enough sleep. “I’ve gotta get outta here before she gets here!” Soarin muttered to himself, trotting towards the doors. “Spit’s gonna be so pissed!”
“I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS SHIT TODAY!” a voice roared from behind him. He turned around, seeing Fleetfoot, Lightning and Surprise lying on the floor, looking up at an angry Spitfire. “Lightning! Surprise! Go do something productive!” she barked, causing the two mentioned ponies to get to their hooves and scurry away, giggling. “Fleetfoot! Go find Soarin, I want both your asses in my office in five minutes!” she trotted away, back in the direction of her office.
Fleetfoot hovered over to Soarin, kicking him as she passed. “Hey you! Captain Spitty McGrumpy Pants wants us in her office!”
“I heard.” Soarin said flatly, glancing up at her. “What are we in trouble for this time?”
“Who knows…” Fleet giggled as the two made their way to Spitfire’s office.
When they got there, Soarin reached towards Fleet’s face and grabbed her cheeks with his hooves. He pulled her towards the door, and using her head, knocked on the door lightly.
“Ow, ow, ow!” she complained. A voice sounded from inside of the office.
“Come in! And you better not be using Fleetfoot’s head to knock again Soarin! She doesn’t need any more brain dam- I mean, come in!”
“Uh, what was that Spitty?” Fleet asked, raising an eyebrow Spitfire as they entered the office.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The yellow mare replied flatly, looking over the brim of her sunglasses. “Sit down, I’ve got an idea I want to run past you…”
“Huh?!” Rainbow sat up in bed. “What’s that noise?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“The hell?” Rainbow groggily stood up, having just been woken up. “Tank, if that’s you running yourself into the fridge again… that’s not you open it!” she shook her head, trying to stay alert.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Oh, it’s the door!” Dash left her room and trotted down the stairs. “Ugh, it better not be Derpy hoof-delivering mail again… I have a mail-box for a reason!” she continued down the hallway, through the living room and past the kitchen.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Hold on, I’m coming!” Dash was almost at the door when an odd thought popped into her head. “Whoa, my door is made of cloud, how does it make sound when ponies knock?”
“When somepony knocks, the sound is reverberated around the cloud until it is released as sound. It’s almost like small claps of thunder.” A matter of fact voice sounded through the door.
“Oh, thanks! That’s interes- Oh… hey Twi…” Dash pulled open the door, spotting who was behind it. “Y’know what’s funny? I totally forgot you could fly…” Rainbow chuckled nervously, backing into her house.
“Yeah, well I didn’t.” Twilight marched forward. “And I want answers young lady!”
“Ok, yeah, I totally get that. But I’m actually 2 months older than you so-” Rainbow was cut off, now fully backed into her wall.
“Why did you ruin the gala AGAIN, almost severely injure somepony, and then run away?” Twilight began questioning her sharply.
“Well-” Dash was cut off again.
“Not to mention embarrass me in front of Princess Celestia?!”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But-”
“And the rest of the Canterlot elite?!”
“Ok, sure, but-”
“And then go get a donut? Seriously Rainbow Dash?”
“Well, I didn’t actually BUY a donut because I’m broke but-”
“Well? I’m waiting for an answer!” Twilight snapped.
“Kay, well if you would stop interrupting me maybe I could answer!” Dash retorted.
“I didn’t interrupt you!” the lavender alicorn stared at her.
“Yeah. You did. But whatever. Well, it was a rough night… Some pervy guy was trying to get all up on this rainbow, and I did not appreciate that, so I was like “Hey, awesome idea Dash, drop a huge ass statue on him, then he’ll leave you alone!” so I did that, and then I was all “Oh crap, that was probably a shitty idea” so I left. And I was hungry and the only food place I know in Canterlot was Donut Joe’s and I love donuts y’know? So I went there and ran into Vinyl and Neon, who I’m pretty sure you don’t know but that’s ok. So we were chillin’ and then BAM! In walked the Wonderbolts! Whom I embarrassed myself in front of AGAIN, plus Soarin’s dumb and Vinyl was being a bitch and magic-ed us so we were having a staring contest and then Fleetfoot punched him in the face! It was awesome. And then I realised I had no money, so I went to go home but then I saw you guys and I was all like “Whoa, my friends! Who probably hate me at the moment!” So I left again. And then I was tired so I went home and went to sleep. And then in the morning, you knocked on my door and started freaking out, so then I started explaining what happened and here we are.” Dash explained, all in one breath.
“Wow. Ok. First, I have no idea how you just said all that without breathing, I’m impressed. Second, that was a pretty bad idea… But you’re also the mare who thought kicking a dragon in the face was smart so I’m not surprised. Third, I missed most of what you said after that.” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“What I meant to say was… I’m sorry that I wrecked the Gala again, and that I embarrassed you in front of all of those fancy ponies.” Rainbow looked at the cloud ground, shuffling her hooves.
“Rainbow… I’ve literally never heard you apologise to anypony! I’m touched…” Twilight put a hoof on her friends shoulder. “I can’t stay mad at you!”
“Thanks Twi, and I really am sorry. I was stupid and reckless.”
“What else is new?” Twilight snickered.
“Excuse me egghead? Was that you trying to make a joke?” Rainbow glanced over at her, unable to contain her laughter. “You are NOT funny!”
“Why are you laughing then?” Twilight grinned. “Wanna go get brunch with the rest of the girls? Their at Pinkie’s place right now.”
“Yeah, sounds awesome! Race you to Sugercube Corner!” She shot through her door, which they had left open.
“Rainbow, you know you’re going to win! Ugh, why does she insist on racing me…?” Twilight sighed at her friend, following the rainbow trail through the air.
“Ponyville? Where the hell is that?” Fleetfoot scrunched her face at Spitfire.
“It’s a small town just south of here. About a half hour flight.” The captain explained.
“Ok, let me get this straight. You want us to take a vacation?” Soarin asked, bewildered.
“Yes. We three are the lead squad of the Wonderbolts. I don’t want us to get overworked, and not be able to perform to our best ability. We’re going to take a week off, and just… relax.” She explained.
“You’ve never given us a vacation before… won’t the other Wonderbolts be pissed?” Fleet was still confused.
“We’re going to leave early tomorrow morning, they won’t even realise we’re gone until it’s too late.” Spitfire smirked. “The lead squad works the hardest, we deserve a break.”
“That sounds… AWESOME!” Soarin whooped.
“The best part is Mayor Mare of Ponyville let me know that she’ll set up residence for us in a local home, so we don’t draw too much attention.” Spitfire smiled.
“Rest and relaxation, here we come!” Fleet exclaimed, bouncing up and down in her seat.
“Ponyville… Why do I feel like I know somepony from there?” Soarin wracked his brain, trying to remember why that town sounded so familiar. “Hmm…”
“Hey party ponies!” Rainbow touched down in front of the open door of Sugercube Corner. She trotted towards the table her friends were seated at.
“Hey Dashie!”
“Sugercube.”
“Darling, glad you could join us!”
“Hi…”
She was welcomed by her friends various greetings.
“Hey, where’s Twilight?” Pinkie noticed their friend’s absence.
“Hah! She’s eating my dust, that’s where she is!” Dash boasted, plopping into a seat next to Fluttershy.
“Another race? Really RD, you know you’re gonna beat her every time.” Applejack chuckled.
“Eh, that’s part of the fun!” Rainbow leaned her chair back, fluttering her wings to stay balanced. At that moment, Mayor Mare trotted in.
“Rainbow Dash! I’ve been looking all over town for you!” she cantered over.
“Uh, am I in trouble?” Rainbow gulped. Maybe she noticed that I’ve been crapping out on weather duties...
“No! Not at all! In fact, I’ve got good news for you! You have a rather large home, don’t you?” she tilted her head, already knowing the answer.
“Yeah…” Dash had no idea where this was going.
“Well, Ponyville has some rather exciting celebrities coming in for a week-long vacation. I figured since you have plenty of room, you could take them in!” She looked excitedly at Rainbow.
“Um, yeah, I guess so?! Who exactly are these ‘exciting celebrities’? Dash asked. “And when are they coming?”
“The Wonderbolts, and tomorrow morning!” Mayor Mare turned towards the door. “Thanks Rainbow Dash, I knew I could count on you! Now I must be leaving, goodbye girls!” she trotted out the door.
“The Wonderbolts…. Are going to be staying at my house?!?!” Rainbow’s jaw dropped. “Did I hear her right?”
“You sure did Sugercube, but doesn’t that include Soarin?” Applejack turned to her friend.
“The Wonderbolts, at my house….” Dash blinked, not hearing Applejack. “Shit, Soarin at my house. The Wonderbolts and Soarin, yes, he is a Wonderbolt. Who’s staying at my house.” She began to ramble, swaying slightly.
“Darling, are you alright?” Rarity asked, looking worriedly around. At that moment Twilight appeared at the door.
“I’m… Sorry… I’m late…” Twilight gasped, tired from her ‘speedy’ flight. “Why… did… Rainbow just pass out?”
The other girls glanced over, gasping as they saw the cyan Pegasus sprawled on the floor. “I’m seriously concerned about that mare’s mental well-being.” Twilight shook her head, taking a seat.
“We all are darling. Did you find out why she dropped that statue on that poor stallion last night?” Rarity looked towards Twilight.
“Well… nope.” She rolled her eyes, remembering Rainbow’s explanation from earlier that morning. “Something about a… DJ I think?”
“Oh, I totally get it!” Pinkie cried. “That makes sense!”
Everypony else just looked at her, more confused than ever.
"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!” Fleetfoot bounced up and down. “Hurry up!”
“Ok, ok! Calm down!” Spitfire glanced over at the ticket booth. “Good, there’s not much of a line.”
“I don’t get why we’re taking the train anyways.” Soarin complained. “It would be way faster to fly to Ponyville!”
“Yeah, but Mayor Mare reserved tickets and a carriage for us on the train, I didn’t want to be rude and turn it down!” Spitfire argued. “Stop whining and wait here while I go pick up our tickets.”
“Fine…” Soarin huffed as she trotted off. “Hey Fleet? Where’d you go?” he looked around, spotting a familiar white mane over by the coffee stand. “Ugh, she should defiantly not be having caffeine right now…. She’s hyper enough as it is!”
“Too late!” Fleetfoot sang as she trotted back, a cup of coffee balancing on her wing.
“Wha? How’d you get here so fast? You were just over there in line!” Soarin whipped his head around, looking at from the coffee stand to his friend, then back again. Fleetfoot shrugged, taking a sip of her drink.
“Mmm, this is good! Just like the stallion who made it… Talk about an attractive guy!” she grinned, winking at Soarin.
“Uh, no thanks.” He wrinkled his nose. “Good, here comes Spit with the tickets.” He and Fleetfoot began making their way over to where Spitfire was waiting beside the train doors.
“C’mon! Trains leaving soon!” she called, beckoning them over. “Here are you’re tickets, don’t lose them. Their for the ride back home as well, so put them in a safe spot.” She handed them each a ticket, and they boarded the train.
“Phew, I’m glad we didn’t wear our uniforms!” Soarin sighed as they made their way to their reserved train car. Fans didn’t usually recognise Wonderbolts without their iconic flight suits and Spitfire, Fleetfoot and Soarin had left them at Headquarters. “This is going to be so relaxing!”
“Yeah, if all goes smoothly it should be quite nice. Next car is ours I believe…” Spitfire glanced down at her ticket again. “Number 14.”
“Here it is!” Soarin pushed open the doors, revealing a sitting-room type area. “Ooo, this is nice!” he threw himself onto one of the couches lining the room.
“And it has a coffee machine! Score!” Fleetfoot hopped over, refilling her cup.
“Fleet! What did I say about limiting your caffeine intake?” Spitfire scolded. “Remember what happened last time?”
“Sorry mom!” Fleet grinned cheekily at her friends, now visibly vibrating.
“This is gonna be a long train ride…” Soarin sighed, covering his eyes with his wings. They had experienced Fleetfoot on a sugar high before, and it had not been pretty.
“This is gonna be a fun train ride!” Fleetfoot called out, even louder than usual.
“Fluttershy? Twilight?” Rainbow Dash bellowed from her cloud balcony. “I NEED you guys! Or at least one of you!”
“You called?” Twilight appeared as she flew up to Rainbow’s balcony. “You know, you could come and, I don’t know, knock on my door if you needed me instead of just yelling?” she raised an eyebrow.
“This is way easier.” Dash replied, beckoning Twilight into her home. “I needed a friend with wings.”
“Okay, what for?” Twilight followed her into her house.
“Well, I have the Wonderbolts coming to stay at MY house for a week. My house! The Wonderbolts! Can you believe it?” Dash made wild arm gestures, almost hitting the alicorn multiple times.
“Yes Rainbow, it’s all you’ve been talking about since you found out.” Twilight replied patiently. “Why do you need me then?”
`“Well…” Dash’s squinted at Twilight. “Um, I kind of have a lot- and I mean a LOT- of Wonderbolt merchandise… I don’t want them to think I’m a total fangirl! I need you to help me put it all away.” She explained.
“Okay, but couldn’t you have just done this yourself?” Twilight tipped her head, glancing at Rainbow.
“No. this is a two pony job. I have a lot of Wonderbolt stuff. Like, an insane amount. Just go around the house and dump it all in my room.”
“Ok... Sure.” Twilight thought that Rainbow was exaggerating, but as the two got started on their task, she realised she wasn’t. There was everything from posters to pencils! Twilight rummaged through the cupboards in the kitchen, finding six Wonderbolt mugs.
“Sheesh, talk about an obsession…” she brought the mugs into Rainbow's room and added them to the growing pile of various blue and yellow paraphernalia. “Okay Rainbow, I think that’s everything!”
“Ok, good because they should be here soon!” Dash trotted in and tossed a Wonderbolt hat onto the pile. “I’ll just put all this stuff…” she glanced around, looking for a hiding spot. “Under here!” she began shoving everything under her bed.
“I don’t think it’s all going to fit…” Twilight watched as the pile got smaller and smaller.
“And… There!” Rainbow stood up triumphantly, having successfully crammed everything underneath her bed.
“Okay then. I’m not sure how you got that all to fit, but is that all you needed?” Twilight turned towards the bedroom door.
“Yeah, thanks Twi.” Dash followed her into the hallway, down the stairs and to the front door. “Hey, you and the girls wanna get lunch tomorrow? We could go to Clover’s.”
“Yeah, I’ll let the others know.” Twilight opened the front door. “Will the Wonderbolts be joining us?”
Rainbow shrugged. “If they want to I guess. I really have no idea what they wanna do while their here.”
Twilight glanced through the open door. “Well, the train is arriving now, so you’ll find out soon! See you tomorrow.” And with that she was gone, soaring down to her castle.
“Eep! Tank, they’re in Ponyville! They’ll be here soon!” she closed the door and went to check on the guest rooms she had prepared. “Maybe there are some perks to living in a mansion all by yourself. And who knows, maybe I can just avoid Soarin the whole time…”
“Alright, town hall. Where is town hall?” Spitfire muttered. The three Wonderbolts had just left the train station and were headed to go find Mayor Mare.
“There! At least that’s what the huge sign on the building says.” Soarin snickered.
“Yay! I love town halls!” Fleetfoot bounced alongside them. “Wait, no I don’t! There boring!”
"Remind me to hide all caffienne from you." Spitfire sighed. Fleet had nearly driven them insane on the train, with all of the bouncing and yelling.
The three ponies pushed open the doors to the building and trotted inside. “Excuse me, we’re here to meet Mayor Mare.” Spitfire explained to the recepsionist.
“Ah, Captain Spitfire! Soarin, Fleetfoot! So nice to meet you! I’m Mayor Mare.” A tan pony with a gray mane trotted towards them. “You’re here to find out where you will be staying?”
“Yes. Thank you for reserving our train tickets for us Mayor!” Spitfire shook the mayor’s hoof.
“Oh, it was my pleasure.” She smiled warmly. “I arranged for you to stay at our very own champion flyer’s home! She’s a fan of the Wonderbolts, I think you’ll enjoy staying there.”
The Wonderbolts glanced at each other. “Always nice to meet a fellow athlete!” Spitfire smiled.
“Her house is right above Princess Twilight’s castle. It’s rather large, you can’t miss it.” And with that the mayor trotted away.
“Ok...that was quick. Let’s go!” Spitfire led them back through the doors.
“I’m guessing that’s Princess Twilight’s castle?” Soarin spotted the large castle. “It looks like a… tree made of crystals.”
“And that’s the house we’re staying at?” Fleetfoot looked above the castle, seeing the cloud mansion, rainbow waterfalls dancing in the sun. “Holy crap.”
Spitfire followed Fleet’s eyes and whistled when she saw the house for herself. “Wow, that is one fancy mansion!”
“What the hell, it’s nicer than the Princess’s castle!” Soarin gasped.
“Well, I guess we should go meet who lives there, eh?” Spitfire hovered in the air, and the other two followed her lead.
Rainbow glanced out of her window and gasped. “Their almost here! Their heading straight towards me!” She trotted to her front door and sat down in front of it, waiting for her guests to arrive.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi.” Dash whispered to herself. I don’t want to look too eager.
She trotted in place for a couple of seconds, masking the fact that she had been sitting, waiting for them.
“I hear somepony coming.” Came a voice from outside. Rainbow opened the door, and saw the three Wonderbolts waiting outside. “Hey!”
“Huh?! Hey, Rainbow Dash, right? I remember you!” Spitfire raised her eyebrows when she saw who had opened the door.
“Yeah, come on in!” she stood back, allowing them to enter.
“Nice place you got.” Fleetfoot commented as she passed.
“Thanks!” Dash closed the door behind Soarin, who said nothing. “Here, I’ll show you where the guest rooms are.” She led them through the living room, past the kitchen and up the stairs. “This one, this one and this one are for you guys.” She opened the doors to three bedrooms. “You can fight it out on who goes where. I’ll give you some time to get settled in and then I can show you around Ponyville?”
“Sounds good. Thanks!” Spitfire smiled at her as she trotted back down the stairs.
“Ugh. Of course.” Soarin groaned when she was gone. “It just HAD to be her we’re staying with. Bleh.”
“Stop complaining, she seems like a sweet mare. And it is very nice of her to take us in.” Spitfire scolded.
“Plus she’s got an awesome house!” Fleet exclaimed. “Look at these guest rooms!” the others glanced around the rooms. They were almost identical, spacious but cozy. “Sweet, they’ve all got their own bathrooms!” she trotted into the first one and leapt onto the bed. “Woo! Bouncy!”
“I think she’s claimed that one.” Spitfire chuckled, trotting into the one next to Fleet’s.
“And that leaves this one.” Soarin entered the one on the opposite side of the hall. “Even if I don’t like Rainbow Dash much, she does have good taste in decoration.”
“Hey guys, wanna go see the rest of Ponyville now? I feel pretty settled in.” Fleet hopped off her bed. “Come on, let’s go!”
“Ugh, fine.” Soarin grumbled.
They trotted downstairs to find Rainbow Dash playing with something.
“Is that a turtle?” Spitfire asked her, scrunching her eyebrows.
“Tortoise. His name is Tank.” Dash turned around, spotting the three Wonderbolts looking at her. “It’s a long story…. Ready to go?”
“And this is Sugercube Corner. My friend Pinkie Pie works here.” Dash led the Wonderbolts past the pink building. They had seen the spa, the market, and the park so far. “Speaking of Pinkie, here she is!”
“Hello! You must be the Wonderbolts!” a pink mare bounced through the front door. “I’m Pinkie Pie but you can call me Pinkie! I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve lost Pound and Pumpkin and I’ve gotta find them!” She bounced away.
“She reminds me of Surprise. If she was white with a yellow mane, they could be twins!” Spitfire commented.
“She seems…” Fleet bagan.
“Interesting.” Soarin finished.
“I was gonna say fun, but that works to!”
“Eh, you get used to her. Eventually.” Dash continued to lead them around the town.
“This is the Carousal Boutique. My friend Rarity owns it, she designs dresses.” They walked up to a large, ornate building.
“SWEETIE BELLE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FABRIC?” roared a voice from inside.
“She’s, um… she seems busy right now, let’s move on.” Rainbow trotted faster, not wanting to face Rarity’s wrath. “That used to be where Golden Oaks library was, but it… kind of got burnt down.” She pointed at an empty space to the right. “Now Twilight lives in her castle, which I’m sure you noticed before.”
“Yeah, we noticed.” Giggled Fleetfoot. “Where to next?”
“Wanna go see Sweet Apple Acres?” the cyan Pegasus asked.
“I have no idea what that is, but sure!” they began following Rainbow up a long, winding trail. After about a five minute walk, they stopped.
“And here we are, Sweet Apple Acres!” Rainbow exclaimed. “They grow the best apples in Equestria.”
“Hey Rainbow!” a southern sounding voice called. “Whatcha up to?”
“Hey AJ! Just showing the Wonderbolts around the town!” she called back. A pony wearing a Stetson trotted towards them.
“Hey y’all! I’m Applejack!” she grinned at them. “You must be Spitfire, Fleetfoot and Soarin!” she nodded before looking back at Rainbow. “Twi told me ‘bout lunch tomorrow. Clover’s place, right?”
“Yeah!” Dash nodded. "I feel like I haven't seen you and the others in ages!"
“Are y’all gonna be joining us?” Applejack looked questioningly at the Wonderbolts.
“Huh? Come to what?” Fleet asked.
“Dash, me and the other gals are gonna meet up at Clover’s tomorrow for a spot of lunch!” AJ explained.
“Yeah, you’re welcome to join us! If you want, that is.” Dash added.
“Sure, sounds fun! I’m interested in meeting your other friends!” Spitfire smiled.
“Seriously?” Soarin whispered once Applejack and Rainbow were engaged in another conversation. “Haven’t you noticed how awkward it is to be around her?”
“No. She seems pretty cool and I wanna hang out with her. Now quit your whining.” She hissed back.
“Ponyville seems like a pretty great town!” Fleetfoot exclaimed as she and Rainbow flew in front of the other two. They had finished their tour of Ponyville, and were now heading back to the house.
“Yeah! I grew up in Cloudsdale but when I moved here I instantly loved it.” Rainbow replied smiling.
“Hey! Where in Cloudsdale did you grow up?” Fleetfoot asked. She, Spitfire and Soarin had grown up as neighbours on Cloudlane Avenue, and had been friends ever since.
“My family lived on Cloudlane Avenue.” Rainbow recalled.
“No way! That’s where we lived! Did you go to Cloudsdale Elementary school?”
“Yeah! This is so weird!”
“Wait, how old are you?”
“21.”
“Oh, I’m 24, so are Spitfire and Soarin. We were a couple grades above you. But what a coincidence!”
“See, she’s a completely normal mare! And grew up near us too! I wonder why we never met?” Spitfire murmured to Soarin behind the two chatting mares.
“Okay, well I’m still not a fan.” Soarin replied stubbornly.
“Just try to get to know her!” Spitfire nudged his side. “You may be glad you did.”
“But I don’t wanna!” he complained.
“Quit being a baby! Just try, okay? She’s making an effort to get to know us, you can to.” Spitfire sped up to join the other two mares.
“I thought this vacation was supposed to be fun.” Soarin huffed, staying behind by himself.
When they arrived back at Rainbow’s house he lagged behind, thinking to himself. Maybe Spitfires right. Maybe she’s not so bad! Or maybe she is. This is a lot of maybe’s floating around...
“Hey! You coming in?” Rainbow interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and saw she was waiting for him, holding the door open. “Or I can close the door and just leave you out here…”
“No, I’m coming. Sorry.” He rushed past her. She seems to be making an effort to be nice...
“Hey Dash, you got any food?” Fleetfoot’s voice called from the kitchen.
“Yeah, look in the fridge and cupboards! Make yourself at home guys.” She trotted to join the others in the kitchen. “Dishes are in the drawer Fleet!”
Hmm, they seem to be getting quite friendly… using nicknames and everything. Soarin knew that Spitfire was usually quite reserved and professional, yet she was opening up to Rainbow Dash. Fleet on the other hand was friendly to everypony.
“You coming Soar?” Spitfire poked her head around the corner, looking at Soarin.
“Nah, I think I’m just gonna head upstairs. Kinda tired, been a long day.” He began heading upstairs to his room.
Back in the kitchen Dash glanced at Spitfire.
“Ok, Soarin probably told you guys about our encounter at the Gala… my first impression of him wasn’t great, and I’m pretty sure his wasn’t either.” She looked between the two Wonderbolts.
“Yeah, we heard about that…” Fleet winced.
“It was awkward, sure, and at first I was mortified! But then I thought it over and it wasn’t really THAT big of a deal! Ok, this is weird, I’m actually thinking rationally for once.” Dash giggled.
“I like this one. She’s funny.” Fleet laughed, glancing at Spitfire.
“But I decided to put that behind us, y’know, move on and act like mature, responsible adults. Ok, I’m freaking myself out a bit… if only Twilight was here to hear me…” Rainbow continued. “But I don’t think he wants to get to know me… he seems really distant.”
“Well, if there’s one thing you should know about Soarin, he is very stubborn. Once he has an idea, it takes a lot of convincing to change his mind. But hey, I can talk to him if you want!” Spitfire had known Soarin for years and ever since he was a young colt he had always been stubborn. She seemed to be the only one who could change his mind about anything, and it usually involved a lot of yelling on her part and... minor crying on his part.
"Sure! If you don’t mind that it.... Holy crap, now I sound like Fluttershy. Back to the point, if he wants he can just keep ignoring me but that’s bound to get old pretty fast. Just trying to avoid future awkwardness. For when I myself am a Wonderbolt.” She flashed a grin at Spitfire, who rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out.
Fleet stuck her head in the fridge, distracting the other two mares from their conversation. “Hey girl, I've got a serious question for you. Got any sandwiches?”
Soarin trotted to his room and flopped on his bed. It had been a long day and he was tired, but that wasn’t the main reason he had gone upstairs. Maybe I'm kinda sorta jealous that Spitfire and Fleetfoot made friends with Rainbow so easily. I mean, I thought she was great! Until I met her that is… but maybe I judged her too harshly…
“Rainbow Dash! Hey Rainbow Dash!” a voice called in the distance.
“Huh?” Soarin got up, sure that he had heard something.
“Rainbow Dash! Is anypony home?” the voice called again. Soarin trotted to the window and looked outside.
“Hey Rai- oh. You’re not Dash.” The voice called up at him. He glanced toward the ground and saw a small orange filly holding a scooter.
“Um, no, I’m not. Do you want me to go grab her for you or something?” he looked around. The filly seemed to be alone, just standing there staring up at him.
“Who are you? Why are you in Dash’s house? Does she know you’re in there? Do you have a cutie mark? Wait, what’s your name again? Oh wait… you haven’t told me yet!” she looked back up at him, buzzing her small wings by her side.
“My name is Soarin. My friends and I are staying with Rainbow Dash for a little bit, so yes she knows I’m here. And yes, I do have a cutie mark.” He answered all of the filly’s questions. Nailed it! Soarin… damn good flyer, damn good with kids.
“Oh. Neat!” she hopped up and down. “So she is home then? Is she busy?”
“I’m not sure, why don’t you come up here and ask her?” Soarin looked at her wings. She was a Pegasus, why didn’t she just fly up here?
“Um, I can’t exactly fly. Yet! But soon, I just know it! I wanted Dash to come out and help me with some moves! Maybe she would even let ME help HER!” she grinned. Soarin blinked. The filly seemed quite awestruck with Dash.
“Uh, I can just go get her if you want…” Soarin offered. “Hey, what’s your name?”
“Scootaloo. And it’s ok, if I yell loud enough she’ll hear me.” Scootaloo beamed up at him.
“Ok squirt, if you’re sure.” He pulled his head back through the window and sat on his bed. Well, Rainbows got herself a little fan already. Scootaloo seems like a good kid. Hmm, I wonder… He stuck his head back through the window.
“Say, Scootaloo, you’ve heard of the Wonderbolts, haven’t you?” he asked the filly who was still standing outside.
“Oh! You’re back!” she looked back up at him. “The Wonderbolts? Duh! Who hasn’t? And Dash talks about them ALL the time! She’s gonna make a great Wonderbolt one day!”
“Well,” Soarin hopped through the window and started to float down towards her. “Did you know I am a Wonderbolt?” Scootaloo’s eyes widened.
“No. Way. Does Dash know about this? She’s gonna freak!” she started hopping up and down again.
“Yes, she knows. But you’ve gotta keep this quiet ok? Me and my Wonderbolt friends don’t want to spend our whole trip running away from fans!” Soarin landed next to her and crouched down to her eye level. Scootaloo nodded her head.
“Deal! I can’t believe Rainbow is really friends with you! A real Wonderbolt!” she buzzed her wings excitedly.
“Yeah, we’re… friends.” Soarin scrunched his eyebrow. Not really, but I don’t wanna crush this kid’s dreams or anything…
“Wow! She really IS the coolest pony ever!” Scootaloo gushed. “Well, I’m sure you’re pretty cool to Mr Soarin.”
“You can just call me Soarin. No Mister required.” He looked into the little filly’s purple eyes. “You said earlier you wanted some help with your flying?”
“Yup! Dash has helped me a couple of times before, but she’s always busy. You know, being awesome and saving Equestria and all!” She beamed up at him.
Saving Equestria? Shes gotta be exaggerating... “Um, right! Well, I was just wondering if you wanted me to help you! A Wonderbolt could probably teach you a lot!”
“NO. WAY! You would help me?” she squeaked, nearly falling over. Soarin laughed.
“I’ll take that as a yes?”
Back in the house Dash trotted to the window. “Huh, I thought I just heard Scoots out there… Guess not.” She went to join the others back in the kitchen, unaware that Scootaloo was heading off to flight lessons with Soarin. Fleet looked over at her.
“Huh? What the hell’s a Scoots?”
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders (AKA Ponyville's most destructive fillies)"
“Hey! How did you meet Rainbow Dash?” Do you think she’s awesome? Cause she is! Have you ever seen her do a sonic rainboom? Have you heard the story of how she got her cutie mark? How’d you get your cutie mark? How do you think I’ll get mine? Have you ever met my friends, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle? Ooo, what about my teacher, Miss Cheerilee? What about-” Scootaloo had been talking nonstop ever since she and Soarin had left Dash’s house.
“Whoa, slow down there squirt!” Soarin struggled to recall all of the questions. “Ok, I met her at the Grand Galloping Gala one year, I have seen her do a sonic rainboom a few times, I haven’t heard the story of her cutie mark, I got my cutie mark when I first discovered I wanted to be a Wonderbolt.” He paused to take a breath before continuing. “I have no idea how you’ll get your cutie mark, sorry Scootaloo, I haven’t met your friends Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, and I have not met your teacher either.” He was feeling quite proud of himself until he glanced down at Scootaloo trotting beside him, raising an eyebrow.
“Impressive. But you missed one!” she grinned cheekily up at Soarin. “Do you think Dash is awesome?”
“Uh, sure?” Soarin winced at his lame answer. Smooth move asshole! This is the little filly’s idol you’re talking about!
“Good. Cause if you didn’t then we couldn’t be friends. I only know one pony who doesn’t think she’s the coolest pony in Ponyville. Well, actually I’ve never asked her, but she sucks anyways!” Scootaloo grimaced. “Her name is Diamond Tiara. Ugh, don’t even get me started on her!” Soarin chuckled.
“So Scootaloo, where do you usually go for flight practice?” he asked her questioningly.
“Oh! We go to Sweet Apple Acres! There’s loads of room there and sometimes Dash flies up and steals apples for us! Don’t tell any of the Apples though, or else we would be in deep trouble. I mean the ponies, not the fruit. But don’t tell the fruit that we might steal them either I guess….” Scootaloo rambled as they turned onto the path leading to the apple farm. “Do you think fruit has feelings?” She asked, looking concerned all of a sudden.
“What?” Soarin wrinkled his brow. “Um, I don’t… think so.”
“Ok, good.” Scootaloo looked relieved as the farmhouse came into sight. “Wanna go to the west field? That’s where the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse is!”
“The Cutie Mark what now?” Soarin trotted behind the small filly as she lead him to the west field.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders. It’s only the most awesome club in all of Ponyville! Well, except the Rainbow Dash fanclub that I started. That’s pretty awesome to.” She explained. Soarin was impressed. Rainbow Dash has a fanclub? With more than just Scootaloo in it? As he followed the orange Pegasus she explained all about the CMC’s- how their club started, what their meetings consisted of, and what they had tried to get cutie marks in.
“Wow, sounds… interesting!” Soarin remarked upon hearing about a failed attempt at getting tree climbing cutie marks.
“Yeah! Sweetie was stuck in that tree so long that Applebloom and I just went home!” Scootaloo exclaimed, the pair reaching their destination.
“So squirt, ready to fly?” Soarin asked as they stopped amongst the apple trees in the west field.
“Yup!” she cried, hopping up and down.
“Alright. Show me what you’ve got.”
“So Dash, what do you do for fun around here?” Fleetfoot asked, leaning on the kitchen counter. The three mares had been segregated in Rainbow’s kitchen, Fleet spending most of the time creating a sandwich that she called “a culinary masterpiece”, and the rest of the time devouring said sandwich.
“Well,” Rainbow began, thinking of how she usually spent her days. “Sometimes I prank other ponies, usually with Pinkie, who you met earlier. Other days I find neat places to fly, and just hang there. Sugar Cube Corner is also fun! Sometimes I head down to Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack and continue our “Most Daring Pony” competition. Our friends made us stop after an… event involving pies that were set on fire…. Apparently that’s dangerous, so now AJ and I have to sneak around.” She winced upon hearing herself, thinking wow, I just made my life sound super lame! She was surprised at the Wonderbolt’s reactions.
“That sounds fun! Let’s do it all!” Fleetfoot exclaimed! “I wanna prank and fly and be daring! Pies on fire sounds fun!”
“Well, usually I would spend the day in the gym, but we’re on vacation so what the hell!” Spitfire grinned.
“Aright!” Dash beamed. She was glad that her idols thought that she was fun. I knew I would get along with these two… Soarin on the other hoof…
“Can we leave Soarin here? He was being a big grouch today.” Fleet huffed, looking at Spitfire.
“Sure, wouldn’t want him spoiling all of your fun Fleet.” Spitfire rolled her eyes at her friend, Dash snickering beside her.
“Yay!” Fleet hopped up and down, completely missing, or choosing to ignore Spitfires sarcasm. “Where to first?”
“Hmm… I know! Twilights place!” Rainbow grinned as the two mares stared at her.
“What?! You wanna go prank THE Princess Twilight?” Spitfire’s eyes widened, while Fleet cackled behind her.
“Yep.” Dash replied snickering. “More like Princess Egghead.” Fleet laughed.
“I knew we would get along Dash! Pranking a princess… hilarious!”
Twilight Sparkle was in her library, reshelving her books for the third time that week. Spike was helping her very grumpily.
“Seriously Twi? You woke me up to reshelf AGAIN? We did this two days ago!” Spike complained as Twilight used her magic to organise the books into piles.
“Spike, I think I’ve got it this time! The perfect shelving system! I’ll organise the books by putting sixteen on each shelf, organised by genre, author, title and THEN colour! I was putting colour before title last time, no wonder it didn’t work out!” The alicorn cried triumphantly.
“Mhmm, six books on each shelf, blah blah blah….” Spike grumbled, still sleepy from his nap he had been woken from.
“Sixteen! I have recorded the number of books that I own and if my calculations are correct, which they are, this will work perfectly!” Twilight began levitating books onto shelves at an alarming speed.
“Whoa!” Spike dove out of the way as he was nearly knocked over by a current of hard-covers heading his way.
“And…. There! The perfect shelving system!” Twilight beamed as she inspected her work. “Wait! Spike! That book over there doesn’t have a spot!” She pointed at a lone book lying on the floor. “NO! That’s impossible! My caculations! I can’t believe this is happening!” she began panicking, checking and rechecking that all of the shelves contained sixteen books each. “Whose book is this? It is NOT mine, it can’t be!” she used her magic to dump all of the books back onto the ground. “SPIKE! Recount these and make sure that my math was right!”
“But Twilight! Can’t you just put an extra book on one of the shelves?” He cried as the books all fell on top of him. “Ouch.”
“No!” Twilight grabbed the book and galloped out the door. “I’ve got to see who this belongs to! I can’t be wrong! There is no way that this book is mine! Did I steal it from somepony? Oh no, that’s illegal! I can’t go back to jail!” her voice faded as she ran through the castle heading out to find the owner of the book.
“Pft!” Rainbow tried but failed to hold in a snicker. Twilight had failed to notice that the extra book was a copy of Daring Do... She, Spitfire and Fleetfoot had been perched on top of one of Twilight’s very high book shelves, out of sight. “I was not expecting that! Sure, maybe yell at Spike, cry a little, I dunno, write a letter to Princess Celestia or something stupid like that… but that was fricken hilarious! I don't even care if I don't get my book back!” she nearly fell off the book shelf as she began laughing.
“Rainbow Dash? Is that you up there?” came a muffled voice from under the sea of books.
“Ah! Spike! Come on, let’s get outta here!” Dash, Spitfire, and Fleetfoot shot through the doors, still giggling uncontrollably. They flew through the halls and out the door before Rainbow stopped in her tracks.
“Wait. Did Twilight say “Go back to jail?”
“Ugh! Almost… there… whoa!” Scootaloo buzzed her wings as hard as she could, making it a couple of inches of the ground, realising she was sort of flying, then dropping to the ground out of pure excitement. “Did you SEE that?!” she exclaimed. “I was flying!”
“Nice effort kid,” Soarin had been analysing the way Scootaloo had been trying to fly and was impressed by the amount of effort she was putting in. “However you’re making one especially bad mistake.” Scootaloo’s face fell instantly.
“Aw man!”
“Hey, it’s nothing you can’t fix! Scootaloo, I want you to watch how I lift off the ground.” He began slowly flapping his large wings, the bursts of air allowing him to take to the air. “Did you see?”
“Yeah, but I still don’t get it.” She blinked up at him.
“Well, the way that you’re trying to fly is small, quick flaps, correct?” he landed on the ground beside her.
“Uh, I guess so.” She raised an eyebrow, still confused.
“Try again, but this time spread you’re wings out as far as you can, and try going slower.” He extended his wings again, demonstrating what he meant.
“You make it sound easy.” Scootaloo complained, looking back at her wings. “One of your wings is like, bigger than my whole body. Mine are tiny!” It was true, her wings were smaller than the average Pegasus foal, but Soarin believed that she could do it.
“Just try squirt. It may not be easy at first, but with practice, you’ll be flying high in no time!” Soarin smiled at her. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he had a connection with Scootaloo. I’ve never really hung out with kids before… This is actually kinda fun!
Scootaloo squared her shoulders, spread her little wings as far as she could and began to flap them.
“Alright! Good job squirt! Go slower… a little slower…” he coached as Scootaloo began to rise into the air. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was rising at a steady pace now. She kept flapping, 10 feet from the ground, now 15, 20…. Her eyes popped open and she began screaming.
“HOLY HAY! I’M FLYING!” she glanced at the ground, spotting Soarin cheering for her. “Whoa!” Scootaloo’s excitement had caused her wings to start buzzing again, and she began bobbing through the air. “Whoa! How do I control these things?!” she weaved through the air, eventually landing on the branches of an apple tree.
“Scootaloo! You did it! You flew!” Soarin called up at her from the ground. “That was great!”
“It felt awesome!” she beamed down at the Wonderbolt. “But it tired me out. I think I’m stuck up here in this dumb apple tree.” Soarin chuckled as he flew up to help her down. As they touched down Scootaloo looked up at him. “Thanks Soarin. You’re a great friend.”
Soarin didn’t know what to say, so he just smiled at the little filly by his side. I’m her friend? He knew it was odd, only knowing this pony for a short time, but he felt as though they had a connection. He felt like… a big brother.
“Wanna go get milkshakes at Sugercube Corner to celebrate my success?” Scootaloo grinned.
“Sounds good kid.”
“But you’re paying… I don’t have any bits and last time Mrs. Cake told me that smiles weren't a valid form of payment…” she pouted.
“Yeah... Welcome to the real world Scoots.”
“I’m hungry.” Fleetfoot whined as she, Spitfire and Rainbow touched down on the ground. After their speedy flight from Twilight’s castle, Fleet had announced that she was hungry seven times.
“Okay Fleet, we get it. You’re hungry.” Spitfire rolled her eyes.
“Well, we’re pretty close to Sugarcube Corner, wanna head there?” Dash looked around, noticing they were only a couple of minutes away from the bakery.
“Sounds good!” Fleet began to trot, leaving the others behind.
“Uh, you’re going the wrong way.” Dash snickered at the light blue Wonderbolt. “It’s actually over there.”
“Um, yeah! I totally knew that!” Fleet changed course and began in the right direction.
“C’mon RD, we don’t want her to get lost… Who knows what she would do…” Spitfire sighed as they followed behind.
As they arrived at Sugarcube Corner and pushed open the doors, they were met by an odd sight. Soarin was sitting at a table, sipping a milkshake and chatting with three small fillies.
“What the hell is he doing?” Spitfire squinted at him.
“I see he’s met the Cutie Mark Crusaders… Otherwise known as Ponyville’s most destructive fillies…” Dash raised an eyebrow. “I wonder what their up to now…”
“I don’t give a damn about what their up to, I just care about getting some food!” Fleet marched up to the counter and began ordering a large amount of food. Dash and Spitfire sat in a booth across from the CMC’s and Soarin, who hadn’t noticed them. They seemed to be in the middle of a very interesting conversation- Scootaloo was waving her arms about, Sweetie was giggling uncontrollably, Applebloom was banging her hooves on the table excitably, and Soarin was sitting with his arms crossed, eyebrows raised at the three fillies.
The conversation going on at the other table was indeed interesting. Scootaloo crossed her arms and smirked at Soarin.
“It’s alright Soarin. We’re friends now so you can tell me.” She glanced at Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. “Right crusaders?”
“Yup!” Applebloom agreed, also crossing her arms in front of her. Sweetie Belle followed suit.
“Scoots, what are you talking about?” Soarin was perplexed. The pair had arrived at Sugarcube Corner after their flight lesson, where Applebloom and Sweetie Belle happened to be. Scootaloo insisted that he met them, and the three fillies had spent a good ten minutes interrogating him about his history. They were nosy little things, wanting to know all about his past, how he became a Wonderbolt, the whole story.
“I’m talking about,” Scootaloo raised her eyebrows and stared at him intently. “You know…”
“No, I really don’t.” he was very curious as to what the CMC’s were talking about.
“Ugh! Do we really have to spell this out for you?” Sweetie exclaimed, nearly knocking over her milkshake.
“Whoa, nopony said anything about spelling!” Scootaloo looked at Sweetie. “What are you, a dictionary?”
“Shut it.” The white unicorn squeaked. “Chicken-”
“Girls, it’s clear that he doesn’t know that we know.” Applebloom intervened before an argument could begin. Soarin was now concerned. What did they know?
“Ok, I’m still not following.” He glanced between the three of them. “What do you know?”
“We know…” Sweetie giggled. “That you’re-”
“Rainbow’s coltfriend!” Scootaloo interrupted, nearly falling off her stool.
“What?!” Soarin’s jaw dropped. “Where did you get that idea?”
“Duh! You’re staying at her house. She’s never- and I mean never- let any stallion into her house before. And trust me, I know like, the entire history of Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo snickered.
“It’s true! She does!” Sweetie piped up.
“And don’t think we didn’t see you two at the royal wedding!” Applebloom grinned. “Just because we weren’t invited doesn’t mean we weren’t there!” she clapped her hooves over her mouth. “I mean, we saw the picture. Of course we wouldn’t sneak away to Canterlot to go to a royal event without telling anypony…” she laughed nervously.
“And at the Equestria Games!” Scootaloo waved her hoof in the air. “Which we actually were invited to! You were totally trying to let her win when you competed against her! Not that you needed to ‘cause she’s awesome!”
“Ok, you have the wrong idea. Actually, you couldn’t be MORE wrong!” Soarin began. “Me and Rainbow aren’t even friends! I’m staying at her house, but so are two of my teammates, and it’s because we’re on vacation! Sure, I danced with her at the wedding, but I danced with pretty much everypony! And I was NOT trying to let her win at the Equestria Games.”
”Sure. ” Applebloom raised her eyebrows. ”We totally believe ya.”
”No we don’t!” Sweetie scrunched her face. ”We definatly don’t!”
”It’s called sarcasm. Look it up.” Scootaloo blinked at Sweetie.
”Whos the dictionary now” Sweetie shot back.
”You take that back!”
Soarin sighed. Yeah, a nice relaxing vacation to Ponyville. Bullshit.
“So Soar.” Fleetfoot looked across the room. “What’s new?”
“Uh, not much. You?” Soarin raised an eyebrow.
“Not much.” Fleet raised an eyebrow. “I do have a question for you though.” The three Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash were seated around Dash’s living room, Soarin having just entered.
“Yeah?” he stared back at her. “What is it?”
“Why were you at Sugarcube Corner with three fillies? You looked like a creep, just saying.” Fleet’s other eyebrow met the already raised one.
“Oh… I was hanging out with the orange one, Scootaloo, and we went to get milkshakes. Her friends happened to be there at the same time.” He explained.
“Uh-huh. Ok, new question. Why were you hanging out with a filly that you don’t know? Just for fun?” the mares all looked slightly confused.
“Oh, well,” he began to tell them how he met Scootaloo. “When I was upstairs I heard her yelling from the ground so I went to see what was up. She wanted Rainbow Dash to come give her a flight lesson, but I figured she was busy so I went.” He glanced over at Rainbow, who had a puzzled look on her face.
“Ok. That makes sense now.” Fleet seemed content with his answer. “Sort of.”
“Well,” Rainbow piped up, not looking at Soarin. “How was your flight lesson?”
“Great! She flew for real!” Soarin smiled, remembering the filly’s face when she realized she had been flying.
“No way!” Dash glanced at him, trying to tell if he was kidding. “I’ve been working with her for weeks and she never once got it before!”
“Yeah! She really got the hang of it!” Soarin looked at Rainbow. “She really looks up to you y’know.” Dash didn’t reply for a moment. She had been feeling a little hurt that Scootaloo would ditch her for flight lessons with a Wonderbolt, but when he said that her bitterness dissolved.
“I think this is the first time you’ve actually talked to me since the Gala.” She averted her eyes. “I’ve been meaning to apologise for that.” When she said this, Spitfire dragged Fleet into the kitchen by the tail, leaving them alone in the living room.
Soarin shuffled his hooves. "Yeah, I guess it is." He looked into Dash's magenta eyes. "But you shouldn't be apologizing, I should. I've been acting like a huge dick this whole time... I'm sorry Rainbow, I really am."
"You know what? Why don't we just, I dunno, start over?" The cyan pegasus was surprised at how responsible she was being.
"That would be great."
Dash stretched her hoof out. "Hey. My name's Rainbow Dash."
Soarin shook her outstretched hoof. "Hi. I'm Soarin."
"Soarin? I've heard that name before... Do you happen to be a Wonderbolt?" Dash snickered.
"As a matter of fact I am!" Soarin laughed. "Are you a fan?"
"Yeah! Is it true a super cool, totally awesome Pegasus saved your life twice?" She smirked.
"Yeah, that is true! In my defence, the first time was because I was unconscious..." Soarin was grateful for Rainbow's easygoing attitude. She could of easily continued ignoring him, but instead she acted like the bigger pony and instated a conversation.
"And I heard that the same pony also saved your pie one time?" The cyan Pegasus flipped her rainbow mane over her shoulder.
"For that I will be forever grateful." Soarin attempted to imitate Rainbows's hair flip but failed. Back in the kitchen Fleetfoot and Spitfire peeked around the corner, spying on their friends.
"I've got a good feeling about this." Fleet grinned at Spitfire.
"About what?" Her captain glanced at her quizzically.
"Well, just look at them. Wouldn't they be the cutest couple ever?!" Fleet squished her cheeks with her hooves.
"I don't really think that's going to happen. I mean, we're only staying here for a week, and this is the first time they've had a real conversation..." Spitfire raised her eyebrow, always being the voice of reason.
"Wow, way to rain on my parade." Fleet pouted at her, lip quivering dramatically.
"Oh, shut up."
"Applejack! Applejack! Where are you?" A voice yelled. Applejack had been busy in the kitchen in the family's farmhouse when she heard her little sister's voice calling to her.
"Applebloom? What in tarnation is going on?" She trotted to the porch and saw Applebloom running towards her as fast as her little legs would go. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah! I just came back from Sugarcube Corner where I saw Sweetie and Scootaloo and guess what!?" The filly was talking a mile a minute, eyes open wide.
"What?" Applejack knew better then to try and guess, based on the fact that it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders in question.
"Well, Scoots came in with Soarin the Wonderbolt!" Applebloom exclaimed.
"Oh yeah! Rainbow brought them Wonderbolt's round here earlier and introduced us!" The farmpony smiled at her little sister. "Pretty excitin' eh?"
"Oh, that's not the exciting part!" Applebloom smiled even wider. "Soarin. The Wonderbolt." She paused. "Is Rainbow Dash's coltfriend!"
"What?!" Applejack stared at her sister, before starting to laugh. She laughed so hard that she nearly tipped over. "Wh-who gave you that idea?"
"It's not funny! He basically admitted it himself!" The smallest of the Apple family stood triumphantly. "Just ask Scoots or Sweetie, they'll tell you!"
Applejack stopped laughing and thought this over. "Hmm, I guess Rainbow did act a little odd with him earlier... But her... With a coltfriend? Bizarre... And it was strange how she acted with him at the Gala..."
"Well it's totally true!" Applebloom left her sister standing on the porch pondering.
"Well I'll be. Rainbow and Soarin. I guess they do have a lot in common... And hey! Why wouldn't she tell me?! I'm the girl's best friend!"
"Sweetie Belle? Is that you?" Rarity had been in the back room of her boutique, sketching some designs when she heard the front door bang open. "Be gentle with the door! We don't want it broken... Again!"
"Rarity! Rarity! Guess what?!" Sweetie Belle appeared at the door, having just come in. "Actually don't guess, because you're never going to get it!"
"What it is darling?" Rarity didn't even look up from her work as she replied to her little sister.
"The Wonderbolt's are in town!" Sweetie gasped, apparently having run home.
"Oh yes, I heard from Rainbow that they were staying at her house! Did you get a chance to meet them?" Rarity hadn't been aware that Sweetie liked the Wonderbolts. Maybe it's just because they're celebrities...
"But did you hear that Rainbow Dash is going out with Soarin?!" the filly burst out, pleased that she knew some gossip her sister didn't for once. Rarity dropped the pen she had been sketching with and turned her head slowly to face Sweetie. Her eyes were wide and twitchy and her mouth was hanging open.
"E-Excuse me?" she was starting to scare Sweetie, who had backed up to the wall. "Heh, it sounded like you said..." she began giggling in a frightening way. Sweetie had only seen her sister like this once before, and she did not want to repeat that experience.
"Um, I'm just gonna let that sink in for a bit," she trotted to the door. "I'll be at Applebloom's if you need me, bye!" Rarity was left by herself, her right eye still twitching uncontrollably.
"Now, where ever did she hear that? I know all of the gossip in this town, how did I not know about this?! HOW?"
"I'm wiped." Spitfire yawned as Fleetfoot nodded off on her shoulder. The Wonderbolts and Rainbow were seated around the living room, Rainbow having just finished explaining all she said they needed to know about her friends for tomorrow.
"We've only been here for one day." Fleet mumbled sleepily. "I never knew doing nothing was so tiring."
"Well, I'm beat. I think I'm gonna head up now." Soarin stood and bid the others good night before heading to his room. As he walked, he ran through the list of Rainbow's friends in his mind. Okay, so first there's Twilight Sparkle. Princess of Friendship, lives in a big-ass castle, super magical, blah blah blah. Doesn't like to be treated any different just because she's royalty. Then there's Pinkie Pie. Crazy, loud, likes to party. Sounds fun. And then Fluttershy. Shy. Like's animals, that's about it. Next is Rarity. Fancy, fashionista, very prim and proper. And next is Applejack. Farmer, likes apples and her family.
He entered his room and flopped onto his bed. And then there's Rainbow Dash herself. What do I really know about her? I thought I was in love with her, turns out I was not. Thought she was stupid, turns out it was me being stupid. Seemed pretty responsible today, but I get the feeling that she was just trying to impress us. The more Soarin thought about it, the more he realized that he now knew more about Dash's friends (even though he had only met two of them briefly) then he knew about her. This bothered him for some reason. Muffled hoofsteps came from outside, and he heard Spitfire and Fleetfoot say their goodnights before each entering their room. Soarin's mind went back to his encounter with the Cutie Mark Crusaders earlier that day. They had accused him of being Dash's coltfriend and no matter how much he denied it, they were already convinced. He hoped that the three fillies wouldn't do anything to hinder his relaxing vacation. Their just three tiny ponies, how much damage could they do?
Soarin buried his face in his pillow. It had been a while since he had retired to his room, but as tired as his body was his mind refused to let him go to sleep. He tried again to find a comfortable position, but somehow ended up tangled in the sheets. After wrestling with the sheets for a couple of minutes, he finally got free and rolled onto the ground.
"Ugh! This is hopeless..." he stood and trotted to his door, hoping a glass of water would help him fall asleep. As he descended the stairs, a voice came into earshot.
"But-"
"Sorry Rainbow, it's an emergency."
"Thunderlane! Can't you find somepony else?"
"Nope." the sound of the door shutting rang through the quiet house. Soarin could hear Rainbow Dash cursing quietly under her breath.
"Damn! I get that I'm the captain of the weather team and all, but he could've found somepony else. He just likes bothering me."
Soarin reached the bottom of the staircase and leaned around the corner. He spotted Dash flopped over the couch, grumbling. "Hey, is everything ok?" She jumped upon hearing his voice.
"Wha? Oh, hey. I didn't know you were still awake..." she sat up, making room on the couch.
"So, who was that guy at the door?" As he said that, Soarin felt a twinge of... something. Must have been something I ate earlier...
"Hm? Oh, that was Thunderlane, one of the weather team members. He dropped by to tell me an impromptu storm has been scheduled for tomorrow morning, and it's gonna last all day." She pouted. "I have to go and supervise. Celestia only knows why, it's not that hard of a job..."
"All day?" Soarin trotted over and sank into the cloud couch beside her, feeling relieved for some reason upon hearing who Thunderlane was. "So, I guess that means lunch with your friends is off?"
"Go ahead without me if you want. They won't mind." Dash laid her head back and turned so she could still see Soarin.
"Well, they do sound pretty interesting...." the Wonderbolt shifted so he was in an identical position to the cyan pegasus. "I'll see what Fleet and Spit wanna do in the morning."
"Speaking of, I'm probably gonna be gone by the time you wake up. Feel free to use the kitchen and anything in it, and if you decide to meet the girls just tell them where I am." Dash leaned forward again. "So, why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Dunno, I just couldn't fall asleep. I guess I had a lot on my mind." Rainbow didn't ask him to elaborate, which he was grateful for. She stood up and turned to face him.
"Hey, wanna go for a quick fly? That always clears my mind when I've got a lot going on." Soarin stood up and streched his wings.
"That sounds perfect right now."
"Last one to Sweet Apple Acres is a rotten egg!" Dash hopped into the air, gave her wings a quick pump, and shot through the window.
"Hey, no fair! I can't even remember where that is!" Soarin laughed and followed behind her. Once he got outside, he spotted a rainbow blur through the darkness. "Damn, she's fast!" With a burst of his strong wings, he shot forward, following behind Rainbow. She zipped through the air, whooping and laughing the whole way. It was clear that this is what she loved to do. Flying truly was her passion, and nopony could take that away.
"Coming slowpoke?" Dash called through the still night, the two ponies arriving over Sweet Apple Acres. She spotted the growing figure coming through the air and dropped onto a nearby cloud. Soarin landed next to her, lost his balance and tipped over.
"Oof!" Dash grunted as he landed on her. "Easy now!"
"Sorry Dash," Soarin apologised, quickly standing back up. They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before Rainbow started to giggle. Soon, she was on her back, laughing loudly. Soarin joined in, the two of them laying side by side, filling the cool night with their laughter.
Applejack awoke, her sleep interrupted by the sound of laughing. "What in tarnation?" She groggily got out of bed and trotted towards her open window. "Now who's awake at this hour?" She stuck her head out and glanced towards the sound of the laughter. There was a cloud floating above the orchard, and perched on the cloud were two ponies. "Who is that?" she squinted, and by the light of the moon made out a rainbow coloured mane. "Rainbow Dash? What's she doin' out here? And who's she with?" A dark mane came into view, and Applejack instantly recognised it as Soarin the Wonderbolt. "Good heavens, here I was thinkin' Applebloom was jus' making stories up... But now I see it with ma own two eyes!" She pulled her head back through the window and shut it. "But still, Rainbow? With a coltfriend? Jus' weird..." She climbed back into bed, still pondering the strange thought. "And WHY are they out here in the middle o' the night?!"
"You know Dash, I still don't really know you..." Soarin glanced over at the pony by his side. He and Rainbow were lying on the cloud, looking up at the stars, their laughter subdued.
"Well, what do ya wanna know?" She asked, resting her head on her arms.
"Hmm, favorite colour?"
"Rainbow."
"Favorite food?"
"Apple cider. Which is a drink, but whatever."
"Favorite flying stunt?"
"Sonic Rainboom."
"Umm..."
"Is that all you've got?" Dash snickered.
"Hold on, I'm thinking... Oh! How did you get your cutie mark?"
"Well, back when I was in flight school, I was bullied a lot. I know, hard to believe, me being so awesome now, right?" She smirked. "Well anyways, it was the typical name-calling, mane pulling type of deal. I was super competitive, and used to get in a lot of fights."
"With the other fillies?" Soarin asked. Dash was rather short now, she must've been tiny when she was young! How would she win in any fights?
"And colts." She said matter-of-factly. "Well anyways, one day my friend Fluttershy was being teased, and I had just had enough. I challenged the idiot who was being mean to a race, and was so set on winning, you know, defending 'Shy's honour and all, that I managed to pull of the Sonic Rainboom. It was awesome. That's when I knew what I wanted to do, flying was my passion." She finished her story. "Anything else you wanna know?"
Soarin thought for a moment. "Mm, later." He rolled his head to the side and looked at her. "You know, that might be the coolest cutie mark story I've ever heard."
"Yeah?" Dash raised her eyebrow. "Well, did you expect anything but cool from me?" She laughed.
"Haha, very funny, little miss 'I'm so awesome'" He pulled himself to his hooves.
"Thanks, I'm glad you think that to!" She snickered, standing up as well. "Ready to head back?"
"Yeah." And with that, they were off again, flying back to the cloud mansion. Once they had gone back through the window, Dash turned and grinned at him.
"Since you did the asking tonight, it's my turn tomorrow." She shook her mane over her shoulder and shuffled her hooves. "I'm glad we did this... Getting to know each other and stuff..."
"Me to. Once we put all of the Gala stuff behind us, you're actually pretty cool." Soarin smiled at her.
"Same to you. Speaking of the gala, when I met you there... No offense, but I thought you were super stupid." Dash laughed, looking to see what Soarin's reaction would be.
"Seriously? Because I thought the same about you..." He raised his eyebrows. "Like, really dumb."
Rainbow burst out laughing again, and between giggles lifted her hoof up. "Well, to new beginnings." Soarin tapped her hoof with his own.
"To new beginnings."
And with that, they bid each other goodnight, each having absolutely no trouble falling asleep.
Soarin blinked in the morning sun streaming from his window. He sat up in bed, stretching and yawning widely.
"THE SUN IS SHINING!"
"Fleet!"
He sighed upon hearing Fleetfoot's loud voice. Well, somepony seems chipper this morning...
"IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE ALIVE!"
"Shut the hell up!"
Spitfire on the other hoof.... Not a morning pony...
"WILL DO! SORRY ABOUT ALL THE YELLING PONYVILLE!"
Soarin pulled himself to his hooves and trotted downstairs. He found his two friends on the balcony, Fleetfoot grinning, apparently having woken up the entire town.
"Top o' the morning to you Soarin!" She greeted him happily.
"Morning Soar." Spitfire came inside, nodding at him before yawning. "Coffee. Where is it?"
"Try the kitchen?" Soarin snickered. Usually Spitfire was all business at the Wonderbolt compound, but that was only after she had coffee in her system. Fleet, on the other hoof was pretty much always energetic.
"So, where's Rainbow on this fine morning?" Fleet trotted in from the balcony and shut the doors. "Still sleeping?"
"Uh, no, she had to go in to help with a storm or something? I dunno, she said it would take all day." Soarin followed Spitfire to the kitchen, Fleetfoot trailing behind him.
"Oh. Well, she doesn't seem to be doing a very good job, judging from the weather today..." Soarin looked outside and saw that Fleet was right. The sun was shining brightly, not a single cloud in the sky.
"Maybe their just behind schedule?" He swiped the cup of coffee Spitfire had just made and took a sip.
"Bitch." Spitfire kicked him as he passed, spilling the coffee on the cloud floor. She turned and began making a fresh cup for herself. "I'm letting you have that one so I don't get your cooties." Soarin stuck his tongue out at her, laughing.
"So, Dash said we should still go meet her friends, what do you guys think?" He set the coffee cup down on the counter, glancing at the two mares.
"Sure, not like we have any other plans for today, right? I mean, we really only know Rainbow in this town and she's busy... with something." Spitfire yawned again, eyes getting heavy. Fleetfoot drifted by, giving her tail a sharp tug. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Eh, thought it would wake you up." she reached down and grabbed the mug of coffee that Spitfire had just finished making. "Thanks!"
"I hate you guys." the fiery maned captain grumbled, starting on making a third drink.
"Don't lie, you know you secretly love us!" Fleetfoot grabbed Soarin's face and squished their cheeks together. "I mean, look at us. We're adorable!" Spitfire just rolled her eyes at the two silly ponies.
"I wish Dash was here, at least she wouldn't steal my coffee." she turned and stuck her tongue out at her friends.
"I'm pretty sure she would." Fleet snickered before raising the cup, ready to take a sip of her drink.
"Hey Spit," Soarin glanced between the two mares. "Didn't you say to not let her have caffeine ever again?" After the events on the train after Fleet's little coffee binge, neither Soarin or Spitfire wanted that to happen again...
Spitfire's eyes widened, seeming to just notice what the light blue Wonderbolt was holding in her hoof. She narrowed her eyes and pawed the ground. "Fleet, drop the cup."
"No! Never!" Fleetfoot took to the air, still clutching the cup.
The other two locked eyes. On three. Soarin mouthed. One.... Two...
"Get her!" Spitfire began chasing Fleetfoot around the kitchen, Soaring watching from below.
"Three..." He finished his countdown before joining in the chase.
"This is so lame." Rainbow banged her head against the table she was sitting at. The weather team was in a meeting room, discussing the storm they were supposed to be making.
"Well, this is what the weather team does before every storm, you usually don't show up." Thunderlane nudged her, snickering.
"I'm the captain! I don't need to come to egghead meetings!" Dash argued. "Why can't I just get out there and start while you wrap it up in here?"
"We can't start, the storm isn't fully planned yet. We need to organise beforehoof, otherwise it could get too big, or not be in the right location." The dark coloured pony turned back to Raindrops, who was standing at the front of the room.
"Since when?! I've never been to one of these!" Rainbow argued.
"Since always. We usually just tell you where to go and what to do, since we know you don't like meetings. Which, now that I think about it, is weird because you're our captain. You should be telling us what to do, not the other way around..." He explained to the frustrated pony beside him. "Now that you're actually here, you should listen."
"So, if Rainbow alternates in between these three stations, we should be able to get this storm made even faster than before! Her speed is an advantage we can use." she finished. Raindrops was the main weather organiser, a position that Dash had unknowingly given her a couple of months prior. "We just need our captain to approve, and then we can get started!"
The team all looked toward Dash, who had been attempting to tip her chair back while staying balanced, using her wings to stop her from falling. When she noticed everypony looking at her, she allowed her stool to fall back onto all four legs with a loud bang. "Uh, yeah! I approve! Let's get this show on the road." With that, the team took to the air and flew outside, all going to their designated stations. There were pegasi in charge of making clouds, others who transported the clouds to where they needed to be, and still more who packed them together, creating a massive stormcloud.
"Ok Dash, why don't you start at the cloud-making station?" Raindrops called as she flew past. Dash joined the rest of the ponies making clouds and began to follow suit. She was used to working alone, and found this odd.
"So, what's new?" She looked over to Cloudkicker, who was working next to her.
"Um, not much." Cloudkicker replied shortly, drifting away from Dash.
"Ok then. Nice chat." Rainbow rolled her eyes and turned to Flitter who was on the other side of her.
"Hey Flitter! What's up?" She asked cheerfully.
"Nothing." Flitter rose a couple of feet into the air.
"Yeah, cool." Dash sighed. It was clear these ponies weren't interested in small talk- they were there to work, so that's what they would do. She was in for a long, quiet day.
"What's this place called again?" Spitfire hovered next to Fleetfoot, searching for their lunch destination. After successfully prying the coffee from Fleet's hooves earlier, the Wonderbolts released it was nearly time to meet Dash's friends. Only problem was, they had no idea how to get there.
"Clover's. I think." Soarin touched to the ground and looked around. "I have no idea where to go from here." The other two landed next to him and glanced at their surroundings. They were standing in the middle of the empty market place.
"Well, the park was over there... or maybe over there?" Fleet shook her head, trying to recall where the park was. "And the spa was in that direction... maybe."
"Helpful." Spitfire snorted. "Why don't we just ask somepony?"
"Uh, if you haven't noticed, there's nopony here." Soarin pointed out. Hmm, when we were here yesterday it was packed! Where is everypony? The two mares looked around and realised he was right.
"Aw shit. Now what?" Fleet bounced on the tips of her hooves, squinting.
"Wait! There's somepony!" Soarin spotted a pale yellow figure exiting the market place. He took to the air, and with a flap of his powerful wings, shot over to the pony. "Hey!"
"Ah!" The mare cowered behind her long pink mane. "Oh, um... Sorry."
"Huh? No, I was just wondering where everypony was. It's dead in here!" He smiled warmly, trying to show this obviously terrified mare that he wasn't scary.
"Oh, um... Well, a big storm is scheduled today... Everypony is probably inside...." The mare whispered. Soarin strained his ears, but managed to catch what she was saying.
"But it's still sunny out!" He peered at the sky, which was still bright blue.
"Well, the storms can start pretty quickly..." The mare hid behind her mane again.
"Ok, that makes sense I guess!" Soarin glanced back at his friends. "Well, we were also wondering where Clover's was. My friends and I are supposed to meet some ponies there."
"Um, it's over there." She pointed. "I'm heading there, you can come... if you don't mind, that is..."
"Sure, thanks! Hey Fleet, Spit! This mare's gonna show us the way!" He called over his shoulder. The Wonderbolts trotted towards him.
"Hey! I'm Fleetfoot!" Fleet introduced herself to the yellow pony. "That's Spitfire, and he's Soarin."
"Oh, um... hi." The mare got even quieter, if that was possible. "I'm Fluttershy."
"What?" Fleet leaned in closer, unable to hear.
"Fluttershy..."
"One more time."
"Fluttershy..."
"Flutterpie? I love pie!"
"No dumbass! She said FLUTTERSHY." Spitfire rolled her eyes at her wingmates. Fluttershy shook her mane over her face, shrinking away from them.
"Um, are you the Wonderbolts?" She mumbled quietly. "If you don't mind me asking..."
"Yeah! And you're Rainbow's friend! We're actually supposed to be meeting you at Clover's!" Fleet exclaimed brightly. Fluttershy looked terrified as the light blue mare spoke to her.
"W-where is Rainbow?" She whimpered, still glancing at Fleetfoot.
"She had to go do weather team stuff." Spitfire explained as the four ponies started walking to their destination.
"Oh. Ok." Fluttershy nervously looked at Fleet again before leading the way to Clover's.
"I think she's afraid of me!" Fleet hissed to Spitfire. "I'm not scary, am I?"
"I think she's afraid of everypony..."
Fluttershy lead the Wonderbolts to a small restaurant, glancing nervously at them the whole way. Soarin reached around her and pushed open the doors, worried that the mare wouldn't be able to due to her shaking. "H-here we are." She slipped through the door, the others following. As soon as they stepped through the doors it started to pour.
"Whoa, you weren't kidding when you said the storms start suddenly!" Fleet commented to Fluttershy, who replied with a quiet squeak.
"Howdy Flutters!" A voice called to the right. Four ponies were seated around a table, the voice coming from a blonde mare wearing a stetson. "And howdy Wonderbolts!"
"Hello girls." Fluttershy gave a small smile. The rest greeted them as they sat at the table.
"Why hello, I am Rarity. You must be Soarin, Spitfire and Fleetfoot?" A pale unicorn batted her eyelashes, and took a dainty sip of her drink. Wow, she sounds way different than when I heard her yesterday! Soarin thought, recalling the roaring voice he heard from the boutique.
"I see you've already met Fluttershy," The alicorn commented. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."
"Princess Twilight Sparkle." Rarity added. "She's a princess."
"Rarity!" Twilight shot her a look. "Just Twilight is fine..."
"And I'm Pinkie Pie! But you already knew that!" A pink earth pony bounced in her seat.
"How could anypony forget about you Pinkie?" The blonde mare rolled her eyes. "I'm Applejack, we met yesterday."
"Hey everypony!" Spitfire smiled at the mares seated around the table.
"Say, where's RD?" Applejack looked questioningly at Soarin.
"Uh, she had weather duties." He replied, confused on why she would ask him directly.
"Speaking of Rainbow..." Rarity joined in, drawing everypony's attention. "She really is quite lovely, isn't she Soarin?"
"Er... yeah?" He raised his eyebrow. "She's been a wonderful host so far."
"I bet she has...." Applejack winked at him, smirking slightly. Soarin glanced at his wingmates, who looked equally puzzled.
"Glad to hear things are going well with you two!" Rarity smiled brightly at the Wonderbolt. "Rainbow has never been good at expressing her emotions, so it was ever such a surprise to hear about this!"
"Huh?" Soarin jerked up in surprise. What was this crazy mare talking about?
"Rarity, what are you talking about?" Twilight tilted her head, peering at her fellow unicorn. The rest of the ponies around the table all murmured in agreement, wondering what the farmpony and the fashionista were talking about.
"Didn't you know?" Rarity beamed, obviously pleased to be the bearer of gossip. "Rainbow and Soarin are a couple!" Soarin's eyes shot open.
"What?!" He spluttered, turning bright red. "Where in Equestria did you hear that?" Fleetfoot burst into a fit of giggles, and Spitfire nearly knocked over Pinkie's drink. The rest of the girls just stared at Rarity, expect for Applejack.
"Hm? Oh, Sweetie told me, she said she heard it from you directly!" Rarity turned to Soarin, still smiling. Applejack nodded in agreement.
"An' Applebloom told me!"
"What the hell?!" Soarin couldn't believe his ears. "Ok, first of all, I TOLD them that was a ridiculous idea, and second, why would you believe them?" He stared at Rarity and Applejack, his eyes still popping out of his head.
"Well..." Rarity began looking uncomfortable. "It is true, isn't it?" Soarin waved his arms around.
"Of course not! I barely know her, really!"
"Now that I think about it," The unicorn chuckled awkwardly. "It may have been a tad bit... silly of me to believe Sweetie about something like this..."
"I suppose it was right dumb of us..." Applejack shuffled her hooves, hiding her eyes under her hat. "An' you're sure it's not true?"
"YES!"
"I'm right sorry, Soarin..." Applejack looked up, grimacing. "I shouldn't have assumed anything..."
"I apologize as well. That was extremely rude of me, and I hope you can forgive me." Rarity pouted slightly as she turned to Soarin. "And Fleetfoot, darling, are you alright?" Fleet was still rolling around in her seat, tears running down her face.
"The... thought of... Rainbow and Soarin.... HA!" She managed to get out in between laughs, attempting to calm down.
"Just ignore her." Spitfire pushed Fleetfoot's chair further away from herself with one hoof.
"And Rarity, Applejack," Twilight began. "If Rainbow was really in a relationship, wouldn't you think she would tell us in person?"
"Nope!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"S-she's probably right." Fluttershy spoke quietly. "D-dash isn't very good with displaying emotions..." The rest nodded in agreement, Soarin still trying to wrap his mind around the conversation they were having. I've come to the conclusion that all mares are insane.
"Phew! Done" Dash breathed in relief. She looked behind her and saw the rest of the weather team staring at her. "What did I tell ya Thunderlane? Ten. Seconds. Flat."
"That was insane!" The dark coloured pegasis exclaimed, gliding up to meet her. "I didn't think you would be able to pull that off!" The weather team had been working on maintaining the storm for a couple of hours, before Dash had claimed she could finish it in ten seconds. Obviously, Thunderlane thought she was bluffing, but she had actually done it! She had been no more than a rainbow blur, ricocheting from the clouds until all of the water was gone.
"Ha! Did you just say you doubted me?" Dash flipped her mane over her shoulder and grinned at the gawking weather ponies still surrounding her.
"I just hope nopony was outside when you did that..." Raindrops joined them. "That was a crazy amount of water you released!"
"Well, because of my pure awesome-ness, I guess the teams free to go!" Rainbow beamed at her teammates. "Go on, get outta here you guys!" The crew of pegasi began chatting excitedly, all flying in different directions.
"Nice job Dash." Raindrops clapped a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "I don't know why we don't put you on storm duty more often!" She turned and soared away.
"Yeah, that was really cool." Thunderlane patted her on the back. "Well, I'm gonna split, see ya later!" He left Dash on her own, hovering in the now clear blue sky.
Well, I guess I can meet the girls for lunch now! They should be used to me being late by now anyways....
The large sign that read "Clover's Cafe" came into sight as Rainbow Dash flew through the clear sky. She had been glad to finish her weather duties early, now she could go meet her friends for lunch.
"Hey party ponies!" Rainbow pushed open the doors of Clover's Cafe and trotted over to greet her friends. "Did ya miss me?"
"Huh?" Soarin glanced up and saw her approaching them. The others noticed her as well, Fleetfoot breaking out into giggles once again.
"H-hey Dash!" She sputtered, turning bright red from the laughing. Spitfire elbowed her in the side as Fluttershy watched her nervously.
"Oh, um, hi Rainbow." The pale yellow pegasus scooted her chair over to make room for the newcomer. The others called out various greetings as Dash plopped into the chair Twilight conjured for her.
"Howdy RD, we didn't know you were comin'!" Applejack attempted to hide a smile at the sight of Soarin's shocked face.
"Well, because of ME," Dash puffed out her chest, flipping her mane over her shoulder. "The weather team finished the storm in record timing! I got us all the rest of the day off."
"An' I'm sure the others didn't help at all." Applejack rolled her eyes.
"Maybe a little. But I did most of it!" Rainbow completely missed her friend's sarcasm. "So, what did I miss?"
"Well, OW!" Applejack was cut off right before she could describe their prior conversation by Soarin kicking her from underneath the table. She looked over at him and saw his wide eyes. "I mean nothing!"
"Nothing at all darling!" Rarity joined in, laughing awkwardly.
"Okaaay, you guys are being weirder than usual..." Rainbow raised her eyebrow at her friends. Applejack was wincing, rubbing her leg, Rarity was forcing a smile, with her eye slightly twitching, and the others were just glancing between them. "What's goin' on?"
"Oh, um... Spitfire just told everypony that she cried herself to sleep last night!" Fleetfoot burst out. All eyes turned towards the captain.
"What? Fleet-" Spitfire's confused protest was cut off.
"Yeah! She forgot her blankey at the Wonderbolt Headquarters, and she had a rough night without it... Poor girl..." Soarin added on, ignoring the glare coming from the fiery maned mare.
"Yup! That's what happened!" Pinkie joined in, beginning to laugh.
"She almost started crying while she was telling us!" Fleetfoot began to giggle again, dodging the elbow shoved at her by Spitfire. The others nodded in agreement, collectively deciding not to tell Rainbow what they had really been talking about.
"It was heartbreaking..." Rarity brought her hoof to her heart dramatically. "Spitfire, I would be glad to make you a new blanket if that would make you feel better."
"What the hell? I don't need a blank-" Spitfire began protesting, but was unable to continue with when Fleetfoot's wing smacked her in the back of the head, causing it to make a painful impact with the table.
"That would be very kind Rarity, thank you." The light blue Wonderbolt smiled at Rarity, before bringing her head down to Spitfire's, which was still stuck to the table. "Spitty, wouldn't that be kind?" Spitfire picked her head up from the table, rubbing the sore spot.
"Dammit Fleet, why'd you do that?" She swatted her wing out, hitting Fleetfoot in the face with it.
"Ow, my eye! Soarin, she hit me right in the eye! On purpose!" The mare whined. "And she knew that smashing her head on table was an accident!"
"Shut up, both of you." Soarin rolled his eyes. He and his teammates were like family, and he loved them, but even family acted stupid sometimes. Fleetfoot pouted and crossed her arms, sticking her tongue out at Spitfire. Dash raised her eyebrows at them.
"Ok then. I'm... sorry to hear about your blanket?" She glanced over at the captain, who was busy rubbing her forehead again.
"It's fine." She replied flatly, glaring at Fleetfoot. "I don't really need it."
"Spits, Dash is our friend. You can be honest with her." Soarin tried to hide his smirk as he patted Spitfire on the shoulder. She kicked him, not answering.
"To answer your question Rainbow," Twilight rolled her eyes. "No, you haven't missed anything." The rainbow maned mare decided to just accept this answer.
"Er, are you ready to order...? Or do you want me to come back..." A voice came from in front of the table. An Earth Pony was standing there with a notepad and pen, apparently having heard the entire conversation.
"Huh? Oh, howdy Clover!" Applejack waved at the stallion who smiled back.
"Sounded like quite the conversation you ponies were having. I've been standing here for five minutes but nopony noticed me!" Clover chuckled.
"Well, you're grey, and so is the wallpaper." Fleetfoot looked Clover up and down. "It wouldn't be hard to not notice you."
"Yeah, if you're an idiot!" Soarin poked Fleet's cheek.
"Hey! Who're you calling an idiot, dumbass!" She swatted his hoof away.
"Clover, darling, I think we will just have our usual orders." Rarity spoke over the noise the bickering Wonderbolts were making. Spitfire smiled apologetically at the waiter.
"And we'll just have... Um, I haven't even looked at a menu yet..." She laughed awkwardly while kicking her teammates under the table.
"Just give them what I'm having." Dash smirked at Spitfire's attempts to make Soarin and Fleetfoot behave. Clover nodded and trotted away, muttering about how there was always something interesting going on in this town.
"Ok you two, I know we're on vacation and all, but once the food gets here, you have to act like adults and not be stupid." She narrowed her eyes at Fleet, who was crossing her arms.
"Says the one who poked me right in the eye!"
"I didn't mean to!"
"You did to!"
"Hey Flutters, why don't you go switch spots with Spitfire? I have a feeling we should separate the three of them if we don't want food flying everywhere..." Rainbow muttered to her friend.
"Oh... Um, g-good idea." Fluttershy stood up and began shuffling around the table.
"Spits, come sit over here!" Dash patted the now empty seat. Spitfire removed her hoof from Fleet's face and marched over to the chair. She plopped down and glanced at Fleetfoot, who had her eyes crossed. Fluttershy nervously sat down on the edge of her new seat, shying away from the silly pony next to her.
"Hiya Fluttershy!" Fleet grinned at the timid mare, still with her eyes crossed. Fluttershy murmured something and shrank away. Rainbow tried to hide her smile as she watched her shy friend. She seemed to be afraid of Fleetfoot for some reason.
"Hey Soarin," Dash turned to the lone stallion. "I was thinking, if you and I were to both help Scootaloo with her flying, we could probably really help her! You could show me how you got her to improve before, so I can continue when your vacations done." She had been pondering this idea ever since Soarin had informed her of the impromptu flying lesson he had conducted with the filly. "You know, combine my awesomeness with your Wonderboltness!"
"Yeah, that sounds cool!" Soarin nodded, agreeing with the idea. "Just let me know when you see her again."
"Will do!" Dash beamed, not noticing the smirks coming from her friends.
"I can see why you thought they may have been an item." Twilight muttered to Rarity. "The way they interact with each other... Not what I was expecting after the Gala..."
"I know!" Rarity hissed back. "I mean, I've hardly ever seen Rainbow look at a stallion before, but with him she's just so comfortable!"
"Well, know we know it was just a rumour." Twilight glanced back at her rainbow maned friend. Rarity pouted beside her.
"Unfortunately. They would have been absolutely adorable together! It's going to break little Sweetie Belle's heart when I tell her it wasn't true."
"Sweetie Belle?"
"Here."
"Applebloom?
"Here."
"Scootaloo? Here." Scootaloo finished taking role call and the Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting began.
"So girls," Applebloom sat heavily on the floor. "What are we gonna crusade for today?"
"Well, Rainbow Dash and Soarin got me thinking..." Sweetie began. Scootaloo groaned. "Hey, you haven't even heard my idea yet!"
"Yeah, but your ideas are usually dumb." Scootaloo blew her mane out of her eyes and slumped down next to Applebloom.
"Scootaloo!" The littlest apple scolded her. "Her ideas may be pretty stupid, but you're not suppose' ta tell her that!" She turned to look at Sweetie Belle. "No offence." Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about. My ideas are delightful." The other crusaders glanced at each other.
"Uh, do we have to remind you about your idea to breed fish in the towns water supply? We nearly got Twilight put in jail again!" Applebloom raised her eyebrow.
"Well, sorry for trying to be creative!" Sweetie pouted. "And this idea is actually good!" Scootaloo sighed.
"Lets hear it then..."
"We." The unicorn paused for dramatic effect. Applebloom muttered something about "acting more like Rarity every day", which Sweetie ignored. "Are going to get coltfriends!"
"Ok, I take it back Scoots." Applebloom crossed her hooves. "Go ahead an' tell her that it's a dumb idea."
"That is a very dumb idea!" Scootaloo rolled her eyes further back than Applebloom thought was even possible.
"Wow," She commented. "Maybe you could get an eye rolling cutie mark!"
"You think? I've been practicing!" Scootaloo demonstrated again.
"You two are mean." Sweetie glared at her friends. "You're the dumb ones, not me! What would an eye rolling cutie mark even look like?"
"Duh! Like this!" The pegasus pointed at her face as she continued to show off her skill.
"Why would you want a picture of a chicken rolling their eyes on your flank?" Sweetie flipped her mane over her shoulder.
"That joke is so old! Just let it go!" Scootaloo stomped her hoof on the ground. "Yeah, I can do a killer chicken call, but that doesn't make me a chicken!"
"What are you bawking about over there?" Applebloom smirked.
"Oh, not you to!" She shot a glare at the earth pony. "What about Sweetie Belle being a dictionary?! Huh? That's way more funny!"!
"Eh, I'm over that." Sweetie commented passively. "Being called a dictionary just means that I have an expansive vocabulary, which means I'm smart." Scootaloo glanced at Applebloom.
"A what vocabulary?" She muttered. Applebloom shrugged.
"Big!" Sweetie called over to them. "A big vocabulary! And Scootaloo, you might want to learn how to whisper, I could still hear you."
"Whatever." Scootaloo rolled her eyes again. "Wait. How did this conversation even start?"
"Cause of Sweetie's dumb idea!" Applebloom pitched in.
"Oh, right. Sweetie, your idea was stupid!"
"Well, your eye rolling is stupid!" Sweetie Belle fired back. Scootaloo gasped.
"Excuse me?!" She held a hoof dramatically to her heart.
"Girls, lets just all agree that you two are equally as dumb." Applebloom attempted to mediate between them.
"...Fine. Sweetie, I'm just as dumb as you are. Sorry." Scootaloo hung her head.
"It's okay Scootaloo. I'm dumb to." The unicorn leaned over and hugged her friend. A thought that went along the lines of this has gotta be one of the weirdest meetings we've ever had ran through Applebloom's mind as she watched her friends. "And so is Applebloom." Scootaloo's muffled voice came from Sweetie's mane. The earth pony just shrugged and joined the hug.
"Ugh! I'm stuffed!" Fleetfoot leaned back in her chair and groaned. Clover had returned cheerfully, laden with heaping plates. The group of ponies had enjoyed their meals, especially Fleet. She had finished her food first, and ate Fluttershys when the timid mare was done with it.
"Well girls. And Soarin." Rarity glanced around the table. "The boutique is quite bogged down with orders at the moment, I really must go." She stood up and turned to the Wonderbolts. "It was absolutely lovely meeting you three, I'm sure we will see eachother again before you leave." The rest bid her goodbye, and with that she was gone.
"I'm 'fraid I've gotta run to. It's almost the cider time again, an' Mac needs help taking inventory." Applejack adjusted her stetson and stood.
"Yes! Cider time!" Dash cheered. Applejack rolled her eyes at her friends enthusiasm.
"I'll see you gals- and guy- later." She waved before following Rarity outside.
"So, you three got anything else you wanna do today?" Rainbow addressed the Wonderbolts.
"Not really. Got anything in mind?" Spitfire answered for all of them.
"Eh," Dash thought for a moment before her face lit up. "I know! We can go down to Ghastly Gorge!"
"Ghastly Gorge? What the hell is that?" Fleetfoot cocked her head. Twilight cleared her throat.
"It's one of the most dangerous valleys in Equestria. There's quarry eels, treacherous wind, rockslides..." The alicorn trailed off.
"Basically, it's my favorite spot to fly!" Dash grinned.
"Sounds awesome!" Fleetfoot bounced in her seat. Pinkie blinked at her and began bouncing as well. The Wonderbolt scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, bouncing higher. Pinkie raised her eyebrows in reply.
"Is this what I think it is?" The party pony looked around. "A BOUNCE OFF?"
"Oh, you definitely don't want to start one of those with her." Rainbow advised, grabbing one of Fleetfoot's hooves. "C'mon guys!" She took to the air, dragging Fleet with her, and waved goodbye to her friends, the Wonderbolts following suit. Pinkie's loud "Aw man!" could be heard clearly as they flew through the door.
"I like your friends." Spitfire commented as they burst into the bright sun.
"Yeah! They're fun!" Fleetfoot added, Soarin nodding in agreement.
"Hey Dash!" A voice called from behind them. The four ponies turned around to see who it was, spotting a dark pegasus stallion.
"Oh, hey Thunderlane! What's up?" The prismatic mare waved to him. Soarin recognised the name from the previous night, this being the stallion that had told Dash about the storm.
"Eh, not much." He glided over towards them. "Thanks again for getting the rest of the day off!" Dash smirked upon hearing this.
"That storm was nothing." She flipped her mane proudly over her shoulder. "Oh, by the way," She beckoned the others over, the two mares drifting closer. "Thunderlane, meet Spitfire and Fleetfoot."
"Nice to meet you." Spitfire greeted.
"Hey hot stuff." Fleetfoot winked, causing Thunderlane to turn bright red. Dash looked behind her, seeing Soarin floating by himself.
"Get over here!" She waved him over. "And this is Soarin."
"Hey man." The Wonderbolt nodded at the other stallion, his stomach twisting into a knot. Huh? That's weird... he thought to himself. This dude really bothers me for some reason... "Well Dash, I'm eager to see this gorge you were talking about." Soarin brought Rainbow's attention back onto him.
"Oh, right! Well, I'll see you around Thunderlane!" She turned to leave, Spitfire following. Fleetfoot winked again, smirking, before her captain grabbed her tail and began pulling her after them.
"Ow! Hey, watch it Spitty!" Fleet complained loudly. "You're handling precious cargo!" Soarin rolled his eyes at his wingmates before pulling up beside Dash.
"So..." He began. "That Thunderlane seems... Cool."
"Yeah, I guess so." Rainbow squinted in the bright sun. "I just know him from the weather team."
"You two... Never hang out together?" Soarin didn't look at Dash as he asked.
"No, not really. Why?" She glided on her side so she could see him.
"No reason." The knot in Soarin's stomach untwisted. He felt relieved, but had no idea why.
"Oh! Look straight ahead!" Dash pointed with one hoof in the direction they were headed. "See that valley?" Soarin looked where she was pointing, seeing a dark crevice.
"Yeah. I'm guessing that's Ghastly Gorge?" He widened his eyes. It looked pretty creepy, even from this distance. Spitfire and Fleetfoot pulled up on either side of him.
"Damn!" Fleet commented, spotting the gorge. "Looks like we've got a daredevil on our hooves!" She glanced at Dash, who was grinning widely.
"Race you there!" Rainbow, Soarin, and Fleet shouted in unison before shooting off. Spitfire squinted at them before following.
"Ghastly?" Rainbow Dash snickered at Soarin's shocked expression. They, along with Spitfire and Fleetfoot were hovering at the entrance of Ghastly Gorge, the Wonderbolts all looking surprised. "Well, when I think it's cool, then you know it is!" Dash grinned smugly.
"Who in their right mind would think "Hey! I'm gonna fly through here!"?" Spitfire glanced sideways as Rainbow, already knowing the answer.
"I would!" Her hoof shot into the air. "I was the one who named this place! Cause it's, y'know... Ghastly."
"Creative." Fleet commented from where she was floating. "So, we gonna race or not?"
"Oh, you know we are!" Dash shot over to her, pressing her nose against Fleet's. "Unless you're... Chicken." It was at those words that the two mares rocketed off, swerving around rock formations. The remaining Wonderbolts looked at each other, Spitfire rolling her eyes at Soarin's excited expression. They pumped their wings instantaneously, following their friend's lead.
"So Fleet." Dash called out to the light blue blur next to her. "Ready for a real challenge?" They were approaching the stretch of rocks that contained the quarry eels- giant, red, terrifying, pony-eating eels. Fleetfoot's reply was stolen by the wind, but her confident expression was answer enough. Rainbow pulled ahead in a burst of speed, her prismatic tail whipping by Fleet's nose. She entered the tunnel-like expanse of stone cliffs, dodging the huge snakes with ease while shouting playful taunts at the pony following behind her. Fleet's yelps echoed off of the cavern walls, the sounds of many narrow escapes. Spitfire and Soarin had caught up and judging from their curses, they were having trouble with the eels as well. Dash broke into the open valley unscathed, turning to look behind her. Fleet's pale mane could be seen rapidly approaching her, a fiery orange one following. Rainbow squinted, but didn't see a sign of Soarin anywhere.
"Hey Fleet!" She shouted to the mare as she approached her. "Where's Soarin?" Fleetfoot stopped as she met Dash and looked at her incredulously.
"What the damn hell Dash! How'd you do that so fast? And you made it look so easy!" She gaped, ruffling her feathers. Dash paid no mind to the compliments, which was very uncharacteristic of her, and continued her hunt for the stallion.
"Yeah, yeah." She waved Fleet's awe off as Spitfire reached them, breathing heavily. "Spits, you seen Soarin?" The captain glanced back the way she came.
"He was right behind me a second ago..." Dash's stomach dropped as she heard this.
"Aw man, this is bad..." She hesitated for a moment before shooting back into the tunnel. If he went and got himself hurt... The knot in her stomach got tighter as she dodged an eel. No, if I went and got him hurt... She continued weaving through the huge snake-like heads that continued slamming into the rock face. Dash dropped to the ground after a narrow escape, and landed roughly on her hooves.
"Soarin?" Rainbow shouted, straining her ears for a reply. She knew how dangerous the quarry eels were, if Soarin had gotten injured... Not only a famous Wonderbolt, but her friend...
"Rainbow?" A faint reply sounded from the middle of the tunnel. "Hey Dash, is that you?" Rainbow's ears perked up and she began galloping towards the voice.
"I'm coming, hang on Soarin!" She began running faster and faster until her face collided with something. "Oof!" She ricocheted off of the side of an eel, which had shot forward just as she had been about to pass. Dash bounced a couple of times until skidding to a stop on the ground.
"Rainbow!?" Soarin's concerned voice came from the other side of the massive eel. "Are you alright?" Dash sat up, dazed, and gingerly brought a hoof to her nose, which had suffered the hardest blow. She winced as she came in contact.
"Yeah, that's definitely broken..." Dash wiped the blood away from her face as gently as she could and dragged herself to her hooves.
"Did you say broken?" Soarin called from the other side of the slippery barrier separating them. "I hope you mean broken as in you broke the eel with your face, not the other way around..." Rainbow snickered, but instantly regretted it as her nose throbbed.
"Eh, not quite..." She flapped her wings and hopped over the eel's body, greeted by a familiar sight. Soarin was flopped on his belly, a large boulder pinning his wing down. He smiled sheepishly at her before noticing her bloody face.
"Sweet Celestia Dash, your face!" The Wonderbolt gasped upon seeing her nose.
"I'm fine." Rainbow waved of his concern, marching over and inspecting his pinned wing. "You know, I've been in this exact same position before... Of course, it was a tortoise that saved me, but I'll do my best." Soarin wrinkled his brow at that.
"A tortoise saved you?" He asked blankly, somehow not feeling surprised. Dash seemed to be full of surprises, and Soarin would bet that a tortoise saving her from a boulder was not the strangest thing to happen.
"Yeah, it was awesome." Dash wiped her nose again, wincing.
"Rainbow, you're hurt." Soarin reached out, trying to stop her as she began trying to push the boulder. "Leave me here, and go get Spitfire and Fleet." Rainbow looked back at him, almost amused looking.
"Leave you here? No way. I never leave my friends hanging." She stubbornly wiped her nose again, shoving the rock with all her might.
"Seriously, I'll be fine." The stallion repeated.
"And so will I." Dash looked down at him. "How did this even happen anyways?"
"An eel hit the rock face really hard, causing a piece to fall off right onto me." Soarin grumbled from his position on the ground. Dash smiled slightly.
"Ok, I'm gonna try something AJ showed me. Watch out." She turned around, planting her front hooves on the ground. Soarin raised his eyebrow.
"So I take it you're not going to go get help?"
Dash replied by shooting her back legs out and bucking the boulder as hard as she could. The rock teetered slightly, and slowly rolled forward. She turned back around wincing as her back hooves touched the ground. "Ow. That's a lot easier with trees." Although the boulder hadn't moved much, it had rolled forward just enough for Soarin to slip his wing out.
"Oh, thank Celestia!" He cried, springing to his hooves. "Actually, no. Thank you Dash." He turned gratefully to the mare beside him.
"No problem!" She smiled, wiping her bleeding nose again.
"No, really. You are insane."
"Ok, I'm pretty sure that's not a compliment." She limped forwards, treading carefully on her stinging back hooves.
"What I mean is, you could have just left me there. But you decided to stay, and to help me." Soarin looked earnestly at her. "Which is more than my wingmates did." Dash looked around, seeming to notice for the first time that Spitfire and Fleetfoot were nowhere in sight.
"Well," She began sheepishly. "I did kind of fly away without any explanation... They're probably still hovering there, confused."
"Like I said, you're insane." The larger pegasis grinned down at the smaller one. "But in a good way."
"What just happened?" Spitfire glanced at Fleetfoot, who was bobbing in the air next to her.
"No idea." Fleet shook her head.
"Dash said something about Soarin, then flew away. Right?" The captain tilted her head, a look of confusion on her face.
"No idea."
"Are you going to be any help at all?"
"... No idea."
"C'mon featherbrain..." Spitfire rolled her eyes at her wingmate before grabbing Fleet's arm and dragging her upwards. "If we fly above the trench with the eels, maybe we can see where those two went."
"Those eels were scary." The pale blue Pegasus commented as she was pulled along. "I still don't get how Dash flew through them so easily!"
"She's damn talented." Spitfire replied as they hovered over the eel-infested valley. "But we knew that already."
"Yeah, we knew she could fly fast, but I've got a feeling there's more to her than that." Fleetfoot squinted as she stared below her. "Hey! Over there!" Spitfire looked at where she was pointing and could make out a rainbow mane.
"Come on, let's go see what happened." The two mares soared towards the ponies on the ground, dodging the occasional eel as they went. They touched down a few yards away from their friends.
"Dash! Soarin!" Fleet called, trotting forward to meet them. "What happen-" She cut herself off as Rainbow turned around. "What the hell did Soarin do to you?!"
"Hey guys! And my nose? Aw, it's no big deal." Dash wiped her nose, grinning as she spotted them. Soarin smiled sheepishly as he saw the sharp glare being directed at him.
"Soarin, if you messed up Rainbow's face- which by the way, is way cuter than yours-" Fleet was cut off by Spitfire.
"Why don't you just let them explain?"
"Ugh! Why do you have to be so rational?!" The mare shook her pale mane out of her eyes and sat down heavily. Rainbow snickered at her friend's antics before explaining.
"Well, I know these eels can be pretty dangerous, and when I noticed Soarin hadn't come out, I assumed the worst." She snickered. "Turns out the idiot just wasn't fast enough to outfly a rock!"
"Hey!" Soarin huffed at her. "Didn't you say the same thing happened to you?"
"Shush." Rainbow continued. "I kind of flew face-first into an eel, which is why I look like this." She pointed at her face.
"But how come he's not still trapped under a rock like a little foal?" Fleet pointed at the stallion.
"Um, excuse me-" Soarin was cut off once again by Dash.
"I kicked it." She said matter-of-factly. "No big deal." The other two mares blinked at her.
"You kicked a boulder, and it moved?" Spitfire raised her eyebrow. "How big was it?" Soarin pointed to their left at the large rock.
"What the damn hell?!" Fleet nearly tipped over. "How did you not break both your legs?"
"A trick Applejack showed me." Dash smiled smugly. "But it works better on trees." The two Wonderbolts glanced at each other.
"So not only is she super fast and agile, she's also really strong!" Spitfire nodded at an impressed Fleetfoot. Soarin grumbled at them.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a huge boulder on top of me, no big deal. Thanks for asking." Dash snickered at him as the others raved about her. She decided not to tell them about her aching back hooves- she didn't want to look weak in front of her idols after all. Soarin rolled his eyes and stretched his wings, ready to take to the air. He flapped them once before falling, landing right on top of Rainbow.
"Oof!" Rainbow's smaller frame was pinned to the ground as Soarin flailed around, trying to get up. He winced as he got to his hooves, looking at his right wing- the one that had been caught by the rock. Dash climbed to her hooves, wiping her still bleeding nose as she stood. She raised her eyebrow at the grimacing stallion. "Are you sure you're fine?" Soarin stretched his wing out again, and gave a tentative flap.
"Maybe... Not." He sat down heavily, looking like he was going to cry. Fleetfoot approached, looking concerned.
"Dude, you are so not fine." She poked his wing, causing Soarin to grunt in pain. Spitfire swatted Fleet's hoof away before looking down at Soarin.
"Soar, before you start freaking out, why don't we go get your wing looked at?" She pulled him to his hooves and gestured for the other two to join her. "He can't fly, and we don't want to walk through the gorge." Fleetfoot groaned.
"Ugh. We're gonna have to carry him, aren't we..." She trailed off as Spitfire nodded. Dash hooked her hooves under one arm, Spitfire under the other. Fleetfoot sprang into flight as the mares lifted Soarin into the air. He looked at his friends sheepishly.
"Sorry about this." He attempted flapping with his good wing to help out.
"You're such a dumbass." Fleet commented from ahead, doing nothing to help.
"Shut it." Soarin called back. Spitfire rolled her eyes, adjusting her grip on Soarin's arm.
"Stop squirming, or we'll drop you." Soarin instantly froze as Spitfire said this. They were still over the valley, and he had no desire to be the quarry eel's dinner. Spitfire glanced over at Dash, who was trying to wipe blood from her nose while holding onto Soarin at the same time. "Where's Ponyville's hospital? I don't think you showed us."
"Yeah, I didn't think we would be needing to go there this soon in your visit..." Rainbow snickered as Soarin turned bright red. "It's kinda near Twi's castle. Can't miss it."
"Hey Rumble!" A high pitched voice reached the ears of a young colt. The pale pegasus whipped his head around, looking for who called his name. A filly had just entered the arcade and was waving at him from the door.
"Oh, hey Sweetie Belle!" He greeted the unicorn who was making her way over. "What's up?" Sweetie placed herself in front of the machine Rumble was playing on.
"Oh, not much..." She smiled at him. "I was just wondering what you're planning on doing tomorrow?" Rumble paused his arcade game and scratched his head.
"Uh, I don't have any plans... Why?" He raised an eyebrow at the filly.
"Well, I know Scootaloo was looking for somepony to have a lovely picnic with, and you would be perfect for the job!" Sweetie exclaimed.
"A picnic? That doesn't sound like something Scoots would be into..." Rumble looked quizzically around. "And even if it was, why wouldn't she ask me herself? It's not like she's shy or anything." Sweetie remained quiet for a moment, thinking.
"Uh, she couldn't ask you herself because..." She wrinkled her brow. "Because... She fell in a big hole in the ground!"
"What?" The colt looked alarmed. "Scootaloo fell in a hole? Is she okay?" Sweetie Belle waved her hoof.
"Oh, she's fine. The fireponies are there, they'll get her out. So does this mean you can have a picnic with her?" She blinked expectantly at him.
"Um-" Rumble leaned away from the unicorn as she cut him off.
"Of course you will! This is perfect!" Sweetie clapped her hooves together, squealing slightly. "Meet her at 12 o'clock in the park!" And with that, she galloped back through the door, leaving behind a confused colt.
"Oy mate." A voice called through a thick Trottingham accent. "What was that all about?" Rumble leaned around his arcade machine, meeting the eyes of Pip Squeak from across the aisle. The spotted colt was seated at another machine, and had paused his game to talk to his friend.
"I... don't really know." Rumble shook his head. "Apparently I'm having a picnic with Scootaloo, who fell in a hole?" As soon as he finished speaking, the door burst open again. Sweetie Belle stuck her head in and waved wildly at Pip.
"Hey Pip! You're coming to!" She shouted. Pip began to say something, but Sweetie spoke over his voice. "Applebloom will be waiting!" Her head disappeared, and the two colts warily met each others eyes.
"She kind of scares me..." Rumble muttered to his friend. As if on cue, Sweetie reappeared.
"And Button Mash, I'll be expecting you as well!" She hollered before disappearing. An earth pony looked around wildly as his game was interuptted.
"Huh? Did I hear my name?" Button Mash asked, the propeller on his hat spinning slightly. Nopony answered. "No, seriously. I paused my game for this, it had better be something important." Rumble sighed.
"Just meet us at the park tomorrow Button. 12 o'clock sharp." He turned back to his game, the other two following suit.
"Applebloom?"
"Here."
"Sweetie Belle?"
"Here."
"Scootaloo? Here." Scootaloo checked off names on the Cutie Mark Crusader attendance sheet, the others seated around her. "Alright, let's get this meeting started."
"First order of business-" Applebloom began, as Sweetie interuppted her.
"Please don't be mad!" She cried, covering her face with her hooves. Scootaloo and Applebloom met each other's eyes before slowly turning to the unicorn.
"Sweetie... What did you do..." The littlest Apple sighed. Sweetie looked sheepishly at them.
"Well, earlier today... I was walking past the arcade..." She began.
"And?" Scootaloo prodded her.
"And I saw Rumble, Pip, and Button Mash in there."
"And?" Applebloom winced, preparing for the worst.
"And, I thought it would be fun for us to hang out with them!" Sweetie tentatively looked at her fellow Crusaders.
"Ok." Scootaloo shrugged. "We already see them at school."
"Yeah, but..." Sweetie bit her lip. "I may have asked them to go to a romantic picnic with us tomorrow..."
"Sweetie!" The orange pegasus groaned. "We told you getting coltfriends was a stupid idea!"
"But you and Rumble would look SO cute together!" Sweetie cried. "And Applebloom and Pip! I just couldn't help myself!" Scootaloo rolled her eyes as far as they would go.
"Fine, but you know I'm only saying this because of Soarin and Rainbow. Don't tell her, but I think coltfriends are totally lame."
"And I'll only go because of Pip's accent." Applebloom stated, crossing her hooves. Her face turned red as the other two stared at her. "What? It's excotic..." Scootaloo stuck her tongue out as Sweetie Belle began to coo.
"That is ADORABLE! Also, Scootaloo, I may have told Rumble you fell into a hole and the fireponies had to save you."
"Good afternoon, please take a number and have a seat- oh. Hello Miss Dash." A voice rang out as Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Fleetfoot and Spitfire burst through the Ponyville Hospital doors. Nurse Redheart looked up from behind the front desk and shook her head. "Well done, you almost lasted a month without coming to visit me this time!" Dash chuckled sheepishly.
"Hey Nurse Redheart... I was doing pretty well, wasn't I?" She led the others to a row of stiff plastic chairs and sat down. Soarin raised an eyebrow at his brightly coloured companion.
"So I take it you come here often?" Rainbow blushed.
"Well... Yes." She wiped her nose. "What can I say, I'm a loyal patient."
"Too loyal if you ask me." Nurse Redheart snickered from her seat behind the desk, turning to look at the Wonderbolts. "There was one week, when Rainbow Dash came in every day! For such a great athlete, you get hurt a lot." Dash sank lower in her seat.
"In my defense, I was trying to perfect my Sonic Rainboom... In Sweet Apple Acres. Surrounded by trees to crash into." She grimaced. "Maybe not my best idea..."
"Don't worry girl, one time Soarin over here was trying to show us some stupid move he came up with," Fleet jerked her head at the stallion next to her, who groaned. "He ran face first into the ground and knocked himself unconscious!" She began laughing hysterically, nearly falling out of her chair. Soarin moaned, covering his face with his hooves.
"And don't forget when he got too close to Blaze when she was doing her fire-spinning routine!" Spitfire nudged Soarin. "How long did it take your fur to grow back?"
"Well-" He spluttered. "Ha, remember Dash's story? Little-miss-rainboom crashed into trees?!"
"Sorry dude." Rainbow shrugged at him, smirking. "Your stories are better."
"I was beginning to think you had left town Miss Dash!" A friendly voice broke through the laughter. The four ponies looked up, spotting a unicorn stallion standing in front of them. "What have you broken this time? Yourself, or a building?"
"Oh, hey Doc Stable!" Dash waved at the doctor. "But I'm not hurt this time! He is." She pointed at Soarin, who smiled weakly. The doctor raised his eyebrow at her.
"Your nose is telling a different story." He turned around and trotted back down the long hallway he had come from. "Follow me." Soarin stood up and began trotting behind him. "Both of you." Doctor Stable called. Dash groaned loudly, before standing up and following the two stallions down the hallway. He led them into an examining room and instructed Soarin to sit on the table.
"So, what seems to be the issue, Mister..." Doctor Stable pushed the glasses back up his nose, trailing off.
"Soarin."
"Heh. Soarin. Like Sore in. As in hurt." The doctor laughed heartily, wiping his eyes. "Ah, doctor jokes. They get me every time..." Soarin widened his eyes at Dash, who scrunched hers in return.
"Right..." The Wonderbolt brought Doctor Stable's attention back onto him. "I had a bit of an... accident earlier, and I think something happened to my wing." He stretched his right wing out, grimacing. The doctor jotted some notes onto a notepad and pressed a button on the wall.
"Well Mister Soarin, I'm going to get Nurse Redheart to take you for an x-ray. That way we can see what's going on in there." He poked Soarin's wing. Nurse Redheart stuck her head in the room, smirking when she saw Dash, who was still sitting with her face scrunched up, smudged with blood.
"You called?" She turned her attention to her superior, who was still poking Soarin's wing.
"Ah, yes! Could you please take Mister Soarin to get his wing x-rayed?" He passed her the notebook and turned his attention to Rainbow. Nurse Redheart nodded and gestured for Soarin to follow her. As they left, Rainbow stood up.
"Hey Doc, I'm actually fine. I was just here for him!" She beckoned to where Soarin had been seconds earlier. Her convincing tone did nothing however.
"Have a seat on the table." Doctor Stable pulled a new notebook out of a drawer and set it on the counter.
"But-"
"On the table."
"Bu-"
"Table. Now." The unicorn looked sternly at the pegasus on front of him. With a sigh, Rainbow hopped onto the table.
"There. Happy now?" She grumbled, crossing her hooves.
"Yes, but you won't be." Doctor Stable examined her nose closely before nodding. "You're nose is broken, so I'm going to have to set it."
"Nah, you don't have to. I'm fine." Dash leaned back from the hooves reaching towards her face.
"On the count of three." The doctor placed a hoof on either side of Rainbow's nose. "One." Dash gulped.
"Wait, is this gonna hurt?"
"Two."
"Is it?!" As soon as the words left her mouth, a white-hot pain shot through her nose. "Holy crap dammit!"
"Finished!" Doctor Stable cheerfully let go of her face, before turning to a first-aid kit. Dash generally brought a hoof to her nose, sighing.
"Ok, I have to admit, it feels better now." She pouted at the unicorn bustling around in front of her. "But you said on three! Not two. But when did you go? Not on three, that's for damn sure!" He shrugged at her.
"My bad. Now, let's get you cleaned up." He wiped the blood off of Dash's face before rolling up a tissue and shoving it up her nose. "There! See, it wasn't so bad, was it?" Dash hopped off of the table onto the floor.
"I guess not..." She winced as her still-tender back hooved hit the ground. Doctor Stable raised an eyebrow at her.
"Something else bothering you?" He asked.
"Nope! Alright, it's been fun catching up but I've really gotta run-" Dash turned towards the door, ready to make a break for it, but the unicorn behind her telekinetically shut the door.
"Get back here." He ordered, using his magic to levitate Rainbow up onto the table. "There we go. Now, let me see your back hooves."
"Why? There's nothing wrong with them, just regular old hooves..." Dash chuckled nervously.
"Let me see."
"Why?"
"Because I'm a trained medical professional." Doctor Stable reached towards her hooves. "Also, because I said so." His hooves got closer and closer to their target. Dash squeezed her eyes shut, biting her lip. Almost there... The doctor's hooves were now inches away...
"No! I can't do it!" The pegasus shot into the air, waving her arms wildly. "I just don't like ponies touching my hooves..." The unicorn furrowed his brows.
"Okay then... What if I give you a..." He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on a small basket by the door. The contents were usually reserved for small foals, but he could make an exception. "Oh! How about I give you a nice sticker? Then could I look?"
"No."
"A lollipop?"
"...No."
"A yo-yo?"
"I'm not really into yo-yos."
"What about a..." Doctor Stable scanned the basket of goodies, his eyes landing on the only thing he hadn't offered. "How about a bouncy ball?"
"..."
"An extra-bouncy one." The doctor prodded.
"Fine." Dash dropped out of the air, landing back on the table. "But give the ball to me first." The unicorn levitated a red bouncy ball over to the stubborn Pegasus, who snatched it out of the air. He then reached for her left hoof, moving slowly and cautiously. Once he had successfully obtained his target, Doctor Stable let out the breath he had been holding. He had been half-expecting to be kicked in the face, but the bouncy ball seemed to be distracting Rainbow Dash.
"Well, Miss Dash..." He looked up at the mare on the table. "From my observations, you appear to have badly bruised both of your back hooves. Do you have any idea why this may be?" She examined the small red ball that was in her hooves.
"Well... I may have kicked a rock earlier..." She chuckled weakly. "A boulder to be precise..."
"Why..." Doctor Stable shook his head. "Why would you do that? Actually, I don't think I even want to know..." Rainbow shrugged. "What I do know however," The doctor continued. "Is that I want you to rest your hooves for at least a day."
"Well, that won't be a problem!" Rainbow pointed at her wings. "I've got these babies, I don't even need hooves!"
"Actually." The tan stallion hesitated. "I'm going to check you in to stay here."
"What?! I don't need to stay in the hospital!" Dash flipped her mane over her shoulder. "I'm good to go! Ready to roll! Another saying that means get outta here, that I can't think of right now!"
"It's only for one night!"
"Yeah, one night that I could be doing something awesome! Now I'm gonna be cooped up in a boring old hospital..." The cyan mare moaned. "This is totally lame."
It's just a precaution! I want to make sure you're hooves don't get any more inflamed, and no offense, but I don't trust you not to hurt yourself again!" The doctor sighed as his impatient patient whined. "The amount of times you come here, all with different injuries... It's just better if you stay here."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Rainbow crossed her hooves in front of her chest, frowning at the pony before her.
"Well... What if I give you another bouncy ball?" Doctor Stable rolled his eyes, already knowing what the answer would be.
"Hmm... I'm listening..."
"Well, what have we got here?" Nurse Redheart squinted at the screen Soarin was seated behind. She had run an x-ray, and was now checking the results, the Wonderbolt waiting with baited breath.
"Please don't be too bad, please don't be too bad, please..." He muttered under his breath. Being a professional athlete, he knew his career could end with an serious injury.
"Doesn't look too bad." The nurse informed him. Soarin let out the breath he had been holding, sighing in relief. "However, you probably won't be thrilled about it either. I mean, I've seen worse, but I've also seen better. You're lucky, but also unlucky-"
"Luna's underpants!" Soarin cut her off. "Would you just tell me already!?"
"Fine! Geeze, some ponies..." Nurse Redheart huffed, swiveling the screen around for Soarin to see. "It appears that your wing joint has suffered some multi-layer bruising, and the Deltoid Major," She gestured towards a tendon in the lower wing. "may have been slightly strained. You should be fine in a couple of weeks."
"That's great!" Soarin grinned. He had been preparing for the worst, dreading what he was going to hear.
"Providing that you don't use your wing at all for at least two weeks." The nurse finished.
"What?!" Soarin's jaw dropped. "But I live on a freakin' cloud! What am I supposed to do?" Nurse Redheart shrugged.
"You're gonna have to stay here for one, maybe two nights. After that, you're on your own." She pushed the door open, waiting for the stallion to exit the examining room. "Sorry buckaroo, it looks like you're gonna be grounded for a while."
"This blows." He followed her into the hallway and back to the lobby. "I'm barely even hurt, why do I have to stay here?"
"Because." Nurse Redheart led him to the front desk and pushed a stack of papers towards him. "Fill those out, and I'll show you to your room."
"Hey Soar, what's going on?" Spitfire's voice called from the waiting area. She and Fleetfoot were still sitting there, looking at him expectantly. Soarin glanced between them
"Well, the good news is I'm just bruised." He began. "The bad news is... I'm grounded for two weeks."
"What?!" Fleet hopped into the air and darted towards him. "But Rainbow lives in a cloud! In the air! And we live in a cloud, that's also in the air!"
"I know." Soarin sighed heavily. "I have to stay here for at least one night, and after that... I have no idea." He turned to the paperwork and began filling it out sadly.
"Aw, don't worry too much." Spitfire stood and patted him on the back. "Just focus on healing, and you'll be good as new in no time." Fleetfoot wrinkled her nose at the captain.
"Why are you being so nice and supportive? When I hurt my wing, all you did was yell at me!" She huffed, crossing her arms. Spitfire rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, because his injury was an accident. You got hurt because you were being a dumb-ass, and decided getting drunk and picking a fight with the toughest stallion in the bar was a good idea!"
"Well, in my defense I was super hammered..." Fleet shrugged.
"Not much of a defense." Soarin snickered as he finished the paperwork. Nurse Redheart slid the documents behind the desk and beckoned for him to follow her.
"I'll show you too your room. Your friends are welcome to come to." The three Wonderbolts trotted after her, through a winding corridor. The nurse stopped abruptly in front of a door, Soarin nearly crashing into her. "Here we are, I believe your roommate is already in there."
"Roommate?" The stallion glanced at the closed door.
"Yes, he came in about half an hour ago. I think he crashed into a tree... Or a barn..." Nurse Redheart rubbed her face with one hoof. "Oh, I don't know. He crashed into something and has been out cold ever since." She pushed the door open, allowing the other three ponies to enter the room. Soarin looked around, spotting an empty bed by the door. He trotted towards it and flopped down, taking note of the curtain obstructing half of the room. That's where the other guy must be sleeping... He thought to himself, before his vision was suddenly filled with blue. "Huh?"
"That's your hospital gown, please put it on." Nurse Redheart's voice called towards him. "I'll let you know when visiting hours are over." The sound of her hooves clicking against the floor faded, signalling that she had left. Soarin pulled the pale blue fabric off of his face, revealing a very ugly hospital gown.
"Aw, do I have to wear this?!" He held it up for the others to see.
"This is not a fashion show, just put it on." Spitfire rolled her eyes as Fleetfoot glanced curiously at the curtain.
"Hmm, the nurse said he was passed out, right?" She began strolling towards the curtain, snickering madly.
"Yeah, but just leave the poor guy alone! Sounds like he had a rough day!" Soarin tried to reason with his wingmate, but gave up when he saw the mischievous grin on her face.
"I just want to see what he looks like!" Fleet tried to look innocent, but her giggling ruined the image. "And if he's sleeping, he'll never even know!" She crept closer to the curtain, grabbing it with a hoof. She pulled her hoof back, revealing a bed identical to the one Soarin was seated upon. The stallion craned his neck, trying to see past Fleetfoot.
"Well, know you've got me curious." He grumbled, hopping off the bed and joining her on the other side of the room.
"Awe yeah!" Fleet cheered, turning around and prancing away as she saw who Soarin's roommate was. "This is awesome! I love this guy!" Soarin leaned past her flailing hooves, and glanced at the bed. As soon as he saw the stallion, his stomach dropped.
"You have got to be kidding me." Soarin's roommate, out of all the ponies in Ponyville, was none other than Thunderlane.
"Oh, I just wanted to let you know Miss Dash is staying in the room across the hall!" Soarin barely noticed as Nurse Redheart popped her head into the room, too busy staring at the stallion before him.
"Whoa dude, I know he's good looking and all, but you're catching flies." Fleetfoot's hoof reached over and shut her wingmate's mouth, which had been hanging open.
"Thanks." Spitfire was the only one who acknowledged the nurse, who was now raising her eyebrow at them. She nodded once before shutting the door again.
"Guys?" The captain called, trying to get Soarin and Fleetfoot's attention. "Did you even hear what the nurse said?" When she got no reply, she sighed. "Well, I'm going to go see how Rainbow Dash, our friend who is in the hospital, is doing. Have fun with.. whatever you're doing..." And with that she was gone, leaving the other two still staring at the unconscious Thunderlane.
Fleetfoot shook her head, shutting her eyes before looking at Soarin. "Wait, was she talking to us?"
"Dash?" A voice called from the small hospital rooms door. The pony sitting on the bed looked up, spotting the fiery orange mane peering from around the door.
"Oh, hey Spitfire." Rainbow Dash sighed, smiling sheepishly. "Looks like I'm stuck in here for now." She gestured around the plain room, rolling her eyes. "How's Soarin?" Spitfire shrugged.
"He's stuck here to. Right across the hall actually." She pointed through the open door at the shut one across the hall. "He's going to be fine." Spitfire smiled as she saw the look of relief pass over Dash's face as she flopped into a laying position on her mattress. "Aw, was Rainbow worried for wittle Soarin?"
"Shut it." The cyan mare's face was tinted pink as she crossed her hooves. "I just don't want to be responsible for injuring a Wonderbolt, that's all." Spitfire snickered.
"Ok, calm down. I'm just teasing." The captain perched on the edge of Rainbow's bed, looking down at her friend. "So, from what the doctor said earlier, it sounds like you come here often."
"Well... I guess more often than most other ponies do..." Dash sat up. "But I can't help it! I wanna learn all of these awesome tricks, and sometimes I get carried away..." She trailed off.
"Before we became Wonderbolts Fleetfoot was like that." Spitfire chuckled. "She was always hurting herself, trying to do all of these crazy moves. Didn't stop her though, and it doesn't seem to be stopping you."
"So you guys grew up together, right?" Rainbow brushed her mane out of her face, being wary around her nose. "You, Fleet and Soarin."
"Yeah. We've known each other since we were little. Soarin was always at my house, since his parents..." She cut herself off, glancing down at the cyan mare next to her. "His parents weren't the greatest." Dash tipped her head, a curious look on her face.
"Not the greatest?" She questioned.
"Always going away for work, and when they were home they basically ignored him. He ended up spending most nights my house, he's pretty much part of the family now." Spitfire explained. "But it's their loss, because they missed out on raising an amazing pony." She stared down at the ground.
"I..." Dash trailed off. "That just... sucks. I had no idea about his parents."
"Yeah, he doesn't really like advertising it." The yellow mare glanced at the door across the hall. "And, maybe don't tell him that I told you. He's kind of sensitive about it." Rainbow nodded her head. Spitfire laughed softly. "You know, I'm really glad we came to Ponyville. Life was getting a bit too... Routine at the compound."
"What? Life as a Wonderbolt would never be boring!" Dash exclaimed. Spitfire shook her head.
"Not boring, just routine. I think this is going to be good for us, especially Soarin. I worry about him sometimes, being all cooped up at the compound." Dash stayed silent. "I think this is going to be good for him." The Wonderbolt captain stood up and turned around. "I think you're going to be good for him. He needs a little adventure in his life." And with that, she trotted back across the hall and through the door, leaving Rainbow Dash alone in her room, pondering over what she just said.
Thud.
Soarin's peaceful slumber was interrupted by what sounded like a pony bashing their head against the wall.
Thud.
"The hell is that...?" He sleepily sat up in his bed, looking around. After Spitfire had returned from Rainbow's room, she and Fleetfoot had been told to leave as visiting hours were over. Soarin had been left alone, save for an unconscious Thunderlane, and had gotten bored rather quickly. He tried to cross the hall and visit Dash, but had been stopped by Nurse Redheart because he "needed his rest".
Thud.
Soarin was now fully awake, and getting more curious by the minute. He climbed out of bed, being careful of his wing, and pushed the door open. The stallion peered up and down the hallway, seeing that the coast was clear of any hospital staff.
Thud.
The sound seemed to be coming from the room across the hall. Soarin trotted to the door and nudged it open slightly. There, sitting atop the bed, was Rainbow Dash.
Thud.
The source of the noise was discovered. Dash bounced a red rubber ball against the wall and caught it as it rebounded.
Thud.
She caught it again, humming slightly under her breath. Soarin pushed the door open a little further, clearing his throat.
"Hey." He stepped slightly into the room, distracting Dash, who missed the bouncy ball. It rolled across the floor, bumping into Soarin's hoof.
"Oh, hey." The prismatic mare ceased her humming and waved slightly at the stallion in her doorway.
"You've got a nice voice." Soarin took another step forward, scooping the red ball up as he went. Dash blushed slightly.
"Heh, thanks..." She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. She noticed the pegasus inching through the door and snickered. "Care to come in?"
"The nurse busted me earlier for trying to leave my room." He explained, trotting towards her. "I don't want them to see me." Rainbow moved to one side of the bed, making room for Soarin to sit down.
"Well, now that you're here," She smirked. "I believe it's my turn to ask you some questions." Soarin sat next to her, remembering the night before, when he and Dash had gone out for a midnight flight.
"Go for it." He grinned.
"Favorite food."
"Apple pie. But you could have guessed that." Dash giggled at Soarin's answer.
"Favorite flight trick."
"Thunder Works." He replied without hesitating. Thunder Works involved using electric storm clouds, something Dash hadn't been able to master.
"Favorite colour."
"Blue."
Dash glanced sideways at the stallion next to her. She felt compelled to ask about Soarin's family, but remembered what Spitfire had said earlier and restrained herself. "Cutie mark story."
"Well, it's not that exciting..." Soarin shuffled his hooves.
"Well, I don't care. I wanna hear it."
Soarin looked down at his cutie mark. A lighting bolt, with golden wings. The symbol of the Wonderbolts. "Well, when I was little, I didn't really know much about the Wonderbolts." He began. "Spitfire and Fleetfoot talked about them all the time, but I wasn't very interested. Well, until I learned to fly, that is." He paused. "I was a late bloomer, sort of like Scootaloo. Spitfire and Fleet were both naturals in the air, and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the hang of flying. One day, Spit's family invited Fleet and I to go see a Wonderbolts show with them. Even though I didn't know much about them I decided to go, and it ended up being one of the greatest decisions of my life. I still remember watching the lead squad burst into the stadium, all dressed in their blue and yellow uniforms. That show was one of the best I've ever seen, and it inspired me to work even harder on learning how to fly. The looks on the ponies faces, you could see that they had found their passion in life, they were living their dream, and I wanted that." Soarin looked at Dash. "Do you remember Air Streak?"
"Yeah." She nodded. Air Streak had been the co-captain of the Wonderbolts when she was young.
"Well, Spitfire's dad was buddies with one of the Wonderbolt's security guards. He landed us a meeting with Air Streak, and even though I didn't really know who he was, I was beyond excited. The guard let us backstage, and there he was. Spitfire and Fleetfoot got a couple photos and autographs, but I hung back. Air Streak approached me, and bent down to my level. He asked if I wanted an autograph, but I said no." Soarin chuckled at the memory. "You should have seen the guy's face, getting turned down by a kid. But I didn't really want an autograph. Instead, I told him I wanted to be able to fly, and live my dream just like he did. I realised I wanted to be a Wonderbolt at that moment. I'll always remember what he said next. He leaned in really close, and said "Kid, I've been where you are before. I was the last foal in my class to learn how to fly, I crashed and burned countless times, and I was told that I could never be a Wonderbolt. But I didn't listen to them, and look where I am now. Life is going to knock you down, and you're going to want to give up sometimes. But you're going to get back up and keep trying, and you're going to succeed." Soarin looked down at his hooves before continuing. "Then he gave me his co-captain badge. I still have it, back at the compound. When it was time for us to go, he winked at me and said congratulations. I didn't understand what he meant until we got outside, and Fleetfoot pointed out my new cutie mark. I'm not sure if it came during the show, or when Air Streak talked to me, but it was clear what I was meant to do." Dash sat quietly for a couple moments.
"I think that's the greatest cutie mark story I've ever heard." She crossed her hooves over her chest. "And I thought mine was cool..." Soarin grinned.
"Well, you asked for it. Any other questions?"
"Mm, later." She decided. "Do you wanna go to the roof?"
"The roof?" Soarin asked. "Can you even get up there without flying?" He looked back at his injured wing.
"Yep. Ever heard of an elevator?" Rainbow sprang into the air, pulling him to his hooves. "C'mon!" She pushed open the door, looking both ways. When no hospital staff were spotted, she turned and beckoned Soarin through. "Follow me!"
"Hold on!" He whisper-yelled as she darted through the corridor. She was much faster than him, being able to use her wings, and within seconds she was gone. Soarin quickly trotted the direction she went, trying to be as quiet as possible. He turned the corner, just to see a set of elevator doors sliding shut, a cyan face plastered with a cheeky grin disappearing behind them. The stallion rolled his eyes, trying to contain a grin at the silly mare's antics, and poked the UP button with his hoof.
"Doctor!" A giggling voice reached Soarin's ears. "Stop it!" The Wonderbolt froze, holding his breath. The voice was coming from around the corner.
"But Nurse Redheart," A second voice joined the first. "I just can't resist..." Soarin recognised the voice as Doctor Stable. More giggling, presumably from Nurse Redheart.
"Well, if you insist..." She laughed. Soarin furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't know what was going on around the corner, but he knew that he definitely did not want to be caught by the pair. He strained his ears, trying to decipher if they were coming closer, but heard no more voices. He decided to not think about what might be going on. Thankfully, the elevator doors slid open with a swish, revealing the empty capsule. Soarin rushed in, jamming his hoof against the button labeled "ROOF".
"Wait, did you hear something?" Came the slightly muffled voice of Doctor Stable.
"No."
"Ok."
The doors slid closed, and began carrying the stallion to the very top level of the building. Cheerful music played from speakers attached to the ceiling. Soarin waited, tapping his hoof to the music. He briefly wondered what Spitfire and Fleet were up to, but as the elevator doors opened, all thoughts vanished from his head. The roof wasn't that exciting, lacking in decoration except for a couple of benches to sit on. The real view was the sky.
"Luna really outdid herself tonight." A voice spoke out of the darkness. Rainbow was perched on a bench near the edge of the roof, gazing towards the sky above. The deep expanse was full of glittering stars, accompanied by a crescent moon. Soarin approached the bench and sat down next to her.
"Yeah. She really did." He gazed at the colourful mare. Her large magenta eyes reflected the sparkling stars, making them seem infinite. Dash pointed one hoof at a constellation in the sky.
"See that?" She asked. Soarin tore his eyes away from her own and looked skywards. "Ursa Minor. Much prettier in the sky than in real life."
"Have you seen one in real life?" The stallion raised an eyebrow. He had been under the impression that Ursa Minor's were just an old legend. Dash didn't answer for a moment.
"...No." She wasn't sure why, but she felt hesitant about telling the Soarin and the Wonderbolts about the Elements of Harmony. Not many ponies outside of Ponyville knew, and she was sure that Celestia wanted to keep it that way.
"Oh." Soarin laughed. "You're an odd mare, Rainbow Dash. And I mean that as a compliment."
"Well, that's good. I would've taken it as a compliment anyways." Dash flapped her wings, raising slightly into the air. "You're a pretty weird dude yourself."
Soarin bowed and tipped an invisible hat."Why thank you." The pair sat in silence for a couple of moments before either spoke again. Dash broke the silence with a quiet yawn.
"Tired?" The large pegasus asked the smaller one.
"A bit." She admitted. "It's been sort of a long day." Soarin nodded. It was hard to believe that he and the other two 'Bolts had only been in Ponyville for two days.
"Got any big plans for tomorrow?" He stifled his own yawn with a hoof.
"Get out of the hospital, hopefully. Usually they only make me stay one night at the most, but you're a first-timer. You might have to stay another night." Dash glanced sympathetically at him.
"Awesome." He stuck out his tongue. "Don't do anything too fun without me... While I'm stuck here, in the hospital... All by myself..." Dash snorted, elbowing him in the side.
"What, you don't think we would come visit you? Listen Featherbrain, I'm not one to leave my friends hanging." Soarin rubbed his side, sniffling over-dramatically.
"W-what kind of friend elbows someone when they're already in the hospital?" He rubbed his eyes, trying to hide his smirk.
"An awesome friend." Dash poked him in the side again.
"Is that so, little-miss-I'm-so-awesome?" Soarin quirked an eyebrow. Dash nodded, trying to hide another yawn. "Well, should we call it a night?"
"I guess so." The mare slowly pumped her wings, hovering a couple of inches in the air. Soarin stood from the bench, and the two of them walked to the elevator. The "DOWN" button was pressed, and the doors slide open. Dash was about to step inside but froze.
"Hello Miss Dash."
"Uh, hello." She tried to smile innocently at the nurse in the elevator.
"Care to explain why you and Mister Soarin are out of your beds, when I specifically told you to stay put?"
"Well, you see-" She was cut off by Nurse Redheart.
"And on the roof?"
"Oh," Dash glanced around, faking a look of surprise. "Is this the roof? I guess we got lost... Looking for the bathroom?" She grinned nervously. Nurse Redheart rolled her eyes.
"Like you could get lost here, you practically live here!"
"Do not!" Rainbow pouted. "We'll just wait for the next elevator." The nurse glanced at Soarin, who hadn't said a word.
"Nope, you can ride with me." She stepped to one side of the car, making room for the pegasi. Dash stepped in, hiding her smirk from the nurse. Soarin followed behind.
"Ah, can you hit floor three?" Rainbow asked Nurse Redheart, who was closest to the panel of buttons.
"But you both are on floor two." She reminded them.
"Can you hit floor two?" Soarin snickered. The mare rolled her eyes before jabbing the button with her hoof. Dash bit her lip, trying to contain the oncoming fit of giggles. The silence in the elevator was incredibly awkward, with Nurse Redheart rolling her eyes at her patients, Rainbow looking like she was about to burst, and Soarin being reminded of the conversation he had heard between the nurse and Doctor Stable. He made the mistake of making eye contact with the cyan mare next to him. Dash puffed out her cheeks and crossed her eyes, causing Soarin to start to laugh, which made her break into a bout of giggles. Nurse Redheart looked at the two ponies and shook her head. The doors slid open, revealing a long hallway. Nopony stepped out of the elevator car.
"Uh, aren't you two gonna get off?" Nurse Redheart scrunched her eyebrows.
"Huh?" Dash laughed. "Isn't this floor three?"
"No, it's floor two!" Soarin nudged her in the side.
"Are you sure?" More snickering. Nurse Redheart was worried her eyes were going to get stuck if she kept rolling them this much.
"I think so."
"Oh my Celestia, just get off!" She pushed the giggling heaps of ponies out of the elevator doors before they could close. Once she was back inside, she jammed her hoof on the "Door close" button. The mechanical sheets of metal slid together, the nurses exasperated face disappearing from view.
"Sassy." Dash commented as she stood up.
"Says you." Soarin commented as he trotted down the hall. Dash quickly followed.
"Hey! You callin' me sassy?"
"Maybe." He smirked. The pair turned the corner into the long corridor that held their rooms. They were quiet for a moment, the only sound being Soarin's hooves against the tile floor.
"I like it here." He broke the silence.
"In the hospital?" Dash looked concerned. "Because I'm not sure that's a good thing."
"No." Soarin shook his head. "No, I mean Ponyville." He glanced at the pegasus floating overhead. "With you. It's fun." He stopped walking, unaware of the faint blush now covering Rainbow's face.
"Yeah. It is." She slowly dropped to the floor. They were standing outside of their rooms now, but each seemed hesitant to be the first to leave.
"Well, we should probably get some rest." Soarin shuffled his hoof on the ground.
"Yeah." Rainbow stared at her hooves.
"Good night Rainbow Dash."
"Good night Soarin." She replied, smiling. "See you in the morning." And with that, the two ponies went their separate ways, if being in rooms less than ten feet away from each other could be considered separate.
Rainbow shifted slightly in her sleep, burrowing further into the blankets. A loud bang echoed through the room, causing her eyes to shoot open.
"Huh? I'm awake!" She whipped her head around wildly, looking for the source of the noise that had interrupted her snooze. It wasn't very hard to find. Blocking the door frame was a grumpy looking purple alicorn. "Uh, Twi? What are you doing here?" Rainbow peered around her friend, and saw the rest of the girls standing behind her. "Wait, what time is it?"
"I could ask you the same thing?" Twilight strode into the room, apparently waiting for Rainbow's answer. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack followed, knowing it was better to keep quiet than to interfere with a cranky Twilight. "And it's 9 AM." She added as an afterthought.
"Heh, it's sort of a long story." Dash grinned sheepishly. "You go first." Twilight raised an eyebrow in reply. "Or I will..." The five visitors gathered closer around her bed, with varying expressions of exasperation and worry. "Well, it all started in Ghastly Gorge."
"Oh Rainbow, I thought you decided that place was too dangerous after you got hurt in that rock slide!" Fluttershy's soft voice was full of concern.
"Well Fluttershy, don't forget that danger is my middle name."
"And my middle name is Diane!" Pinkie Pie chirped from her spot on the floor.
"Get to the point." Twilight grumbled. "You know, the reason that you didn't mention the fact that you were in the hospital to any one of us, even though we could have helped you? Because we're your friends, and obviously you wouldn't want to worry us in anyway?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Right." Rainbow snickered at Pinkie before continuing. "Well, anyways, me and the Wonderbolts decided to race through, which I totally won by the way." She paused, smirking. "But Soarin didn't come out through the other end. I went back to look for him, ran face-first into an eel, and kicked a boulder. You know how it goes." Dash glanced around at her friends. "Hey, I guess the story's not as long as I thought!"
"Huh?" Twilight's annoyed expression morphed into one of confusion.
"I'm afraid we didn't quite catch that, darling." Rarity glanced at Applejack, who shrugged.
"Rainbow, you're a lousy storyteller." A giggling voice came from the door. Fleetfoot trotted in, followed by Spitfire. "Hey gang!" The pale pegasis waved cheerfully before sitting right next to Fluttershy, who looked nervous. The other girls greeted the Wonderbolts as they made themselves comfortable.
"Hey!" Dash waved cheerfully before crossing her arms. "And hey! I'm an awesome storyteller!"
"Nope." Applejack turned to Fleetfoot and Spitfire. "Y'all care to tell us what happened?"
"Sure!" Fleet rested her arm on Fluttershy's shoulder, making the shy mare's eyes widen. "Well, it all started in Ghastly Gorge..."
Sunlight streamed through the window in Soarin's hospital room, shining directly across his bed. He dozed peacefully, blissfully unaware of his surroundings until a high-pitched yelp woke him up.
"Huh?" His groggy eyes fluttered open, squinting through the bright sunlight.
"Ow!" Another whine reached his ears. Soarin yawned widely before pushing himself into a sitting position and locating the small alarm clock on his bedside table. It was 10 AM, which was later than Soarin usually slept, but he had stayed up with Dash the night before. He smiled at the memory.
"Good morning Mister Soarin." Nurse Redheart glanced over at him from the other side of the room. She was currently standing next to the second bed in the room, trying to wrap a certain somepony's head in a white bandage.
"Morning." Soarin wasn't sure if she heard him, as she seemed quite focused on wrapping the fabric as tight as she could.
"No, you're gonna wreck my mane!" The pony pouted as his mohawk was flattened by the bandage. "I'm fine, I don't need this thing!" Nurse Redheart smacked his hoof that had been attempting to undo her work away.
"Thunderlane." She adjusted the wrapping, looking at him sternly. "You crashed pretty hard, and knocked yourself unconscious. You have several cuts that I'm trying to wrap up, now let me do my job." Soarin watched from his bed, trying to hide the smirk on his face. Nurse Redheart swatted Thunderlane's hoof away again. "Stop that!"
The dark pegasus grumbled under his breath as the rest of his mane got buried underneath the thick bandage. He glanced over at the other side of the room and spotted Soarin looking at him.
"Hey." He grimaced as Nurse Redheart yanked on the fabric again, tying the two ends together.
"Hey." Soarin fought the urge to snicker at the miserable look on his roommate's face.
"There! I'm finished." The nurse gave a final tug, nodding happily. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"My mane doesn't agree with you." Thunderlane winced. "Can I leave now?"
"No, we want to monitor you for at least twenty four hours." Nurse Redheart trotted to the door, rolling her eyes. "Wouldn't want you to suffer anymore brain damage." She left the room, leaving the two stallions staring at each other awkwardly.
"So, Thunderlane, was it?" Soarin broke the silence.
"Yup. And you're Dash's friend. Soarin."
"Yup." Silence settled back over them until Thunderlane spoke again.
"She's a pretty cool mare, that Rainbow Dash. We're on the weather team together."
"...So I've heard." Soarin tried to keep his tone light and friendly, still unsure of why this pony irritated him so much. He seemed like a nice enough guy after all...
"So, how do you know her?" Thunderlane trained his golden-brown eyes on his roommate.
"We, er..." Soarin wracked his brain for an answer. "We grew up down the street from each other in Cloudsdale. I'm staying with her while I'm in Ponyville." It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. He just wanted his story to be better than Thunderlane's.
"Oh, nice!" The dark coloured stallion nodded and smiled. Soarin was about to reply when his door burst open.
"Hey! Get your lazy ass up!" Fleetfoot's voice hollered from the doorway. She was standing beside Doctor Stable, who shushed her.
"This is a hospital, not a bar. Please keep your voice down." He trotted in, greeting the two stallions. "Good morning fellows, I hope you both slept well."
"Didn't really have a choice, did I...." Thunderlane joked. "I was unconscious whether I wanted to be or not." Fleetfoot giggled loudly, earning another look from the doctor.
"Well Soarin," Doctor Stable glanced at a clipboard he had been levitating in his unicorn magic. "I'm just going to check your wing, it should only take a few minutes."
"Wait, why did I even come in here?" Fleetfoot glanced around, her gaze landing on Thunderlane. "Oh, right. Soarin, Dash got cleared to go home, so we'll be back later, kay?" She didn't look away from the weatherpony the entire time she spoke.
"Sounds good." Soarin leaned forward in his sitting position, allowing more room for Doctor Stable to inspect his wing.
"Well, see you later!" The mare backed all the way up to the door, still looking at Thunderlane. She smirked at him before winking and darting out of the room. When Soarin peered at his Thunderlane, his mouth was hanging slightly open and he was staring at the door. The Wonderbolt had to stifle his snicker. Fleet often had that effect on ponies.
"I'm finally free!" Rainbow burst through the hospitals double doors, breathing in the fresh air.
"You were only here for a night." Spitfire followed behind her, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, but it feels nice." Dash darted into the air and did a loop-de-loop. "I told them I was fine!"
"But Dash, what if you weren't fine? You really need to start being more careful!" Twilight's voice was stern.
"Yes Mom." The cyan mare landed in front of the alicorn and stuck her tongue out. Twilight just shook her head, knowing that Rainbow would never change her ways.
"Y'know, she's right." Applejack peered at Dash from underneath her stetson. "How many times have you gotten hurt in the past month?" Rainbow hesitated.
"Er... I don't know the exact number..."
"Yeah Dash, don't be such a klutz." Fleetfoot piped up, attempting to keep a straight face. Obviously she failed, and busted out laughing at Rainbow's expression. "Aw, I'm just kidding! I was the same way before the 'Bolts accepted me."
"I'm not trying to baby you, Dash." Twilight wrapped a hoof around her friend's shoulder. "I just want you to be safe."
"I know Twi." Rainbow returned the hug. "I'll try to be more careful. Emphasis on the word try."
“I still think this is stupid.”
“Shh! They’re going to be here soon!” Sweetie Belle slapped a hoof over Scootaloo’s mouth, silencing her.
“Bleh!” The orange Pegasus swatted the hoof away and stuck out her tongue. “I don’t know where those hooves have been!” Sweetie elbowed her side, shushing her again.
“Stop it, you two.” Applebloom nudged Scootaloo to the side, making room for her to see what was going on. The three fillies were sat directly in the center of Ponyville Park, waiting. They had been waiting for twenty minutes already, and there was still no sign of Pipsqueak, Rumble or Button Mash.
“You dragged us all the way over here for some silly picnic, and now those featherbrains aren’t even gonna show up!” Scootaloo folded her hooves over her chest and pouted. She had been quite literally dragged by Sweetie Belle all the way up the hill, grumbling the whole time.
“They’re not that late!” The unicorn protested, her voice cracking slightly. “I’m sure they just got lost or something.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
“Yeah. Because the park- the ONLY park in Ponyville- is really hard to find.”
“Well-” Sweetie began to protest before Applebloom tapped her lightly.
“Shut it, both of you.” The earth pony pointed to the entrance of the park, where three colts could be seen entering. “Now let’s jus’ get this over with…”
“Hey Applebloom! Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle!” Pipsqueak called as he spotted them. “Sorry for being late.”
“This one,” Rumble nodded at Button Mash. “Was too busy playing his JoyBoy to pay attention to where he was going.”
“He ended up walking halfway across town before he realised. We had to go find him, otherwise he would have been completely lost.” Pip finished for him. Button had only moved to Ponyville about a year ago, and based on his attitude, didn't get out much.
“Die MasterPony, DIE!” Button Mash shouted at a small handheld video game device he clutched in his hoof. He didn't look up until Rumble elbowed him in the side. “Huh? Oh. Hey Appleblossom, Scootalong, Sweetie Bloom. How’s it going…” His voice died as his gaze was drawn back into his game. Rumble rolled his eyes.
“Ignore him.” He and Pip trotted forwards, sitting next to the girls. Button dragged his hooves slowly, trying to maneuver around the seated ponies and play his game at the same time.
“Ow! Watch it!” Applebloom pulled her hoof that Button had just stepped on towards her, rubbing it.
“Sorry Scootaloot…” He absentmindedly plopped down onto the ground next to Sweetie Belle, who beamed. The orange Pegasus raised an eyebrow before turning towards Rumble.
“Ok then…”
“He’s like this every time he gets a new game...” The pale colt shook his head. “Well, anyways, what’s up?”
“Aw, not much.” Scootaloo smirked. “Except for guess who I met yesterday?!”
“Hm…” Rumble wrinkled his forehead. “Princess Celestia?”
“Psh, I've already met her loads of times! That’s no big deal!” She waved a hoof passively through the air. “Try again.”
“Uh… DJ PON3?”
“Wrong again! Somepony way cooler!” Scootaloo’s wings buzzed with excitement.
“Oh, I know! That stallion who’s in the commercial’s for the HayBurger!” Rumble grinned.
“No! Think more… Athletic. One of the best flyers in Equestria!” The orange Pegasus’s smile grew.
“Fluttershy? But I thought you already knew her.” Rumble frowned, apparently confused.
“What? No, you doofus!” Scootaloo got to her hooves and trotted past Pip and Applebloom, who were immersed in their own conversation. “I met Soarin! The Wonderbolt!”
“No way! You met a real Wonderbolt?!” Rumble got up and followed her. “That’s awesome!”
“And he bought me a milkshake!” Scootaloo beamed.
“I… am so jealous!” The colt fake-pouted, causing the filly to laugh.
“Well, maybe… Just maybe… I could introduce you to him.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Rumble began quivering with excitement. He and Scootaloo often talked about the Wonderbolts at school, so it was clear to her that he was a fan.
“Holy Hay! That would be amazing!” He glanced around, looking for his friend, but not seeing her anywhere. It was like she had disappeared into thin air. “Scoots?”
“Up here!” Her voice called from above his head. Her magenta mane was visible, poking out from the branches of a tree. Rumble shot into the air to meet her, eyes wide.
“Since when could you fly!?” He waved his hooves around as he spoke.
“Since I met Soarin. Flight lessons from a real Wonderbolt, pretty awesome, huh?” She hopped off her perch and flapped her wings, hovering shakily beside the colt. "I'm not that steady yet, but he gave me some really neat tips."
“That. Is. Beyond. Awesome!” Rumble’s jaw was dropped so far, Scootaloo was afraid it was going to fall off. “Tell me everything.” He gently dropped back to the earth and sat down eagerly. Scootaloo giggled, joining him on the ground.
“Well, it all started with Rainbow Dash…”
A few feet over, Applebloom and Pip Squeak were enthralled in their own conversation.
“So what’s Trottingham like?” Applebloom asked, resting her chin on her hoof.
“It’s nice,” Pip replied in his thick accent. “Quite different from Ponyville though. Bigger, and busier.”
“Ain't it boring here for you then? All farms and stuff?” The farmpony asked, laying down on the soft grass.
“Boring?” Pip lay down next to her, staring up at the clear blue sky. “The town may be small, but it could never be boring here. There’s something interesting everywhere I look.” Applebloom seemed to ponder that for a moment.
“I like that way of thinkin’.”
“Hey, there’s something interesting! That cloud looks like a duck!" He pointed at one of the small clouds floating by.
"Oh yeah! And that one over there looks sorta like a flower!" They continued to look for shapes in the clouds, oblivious to the third conversation going on.
"So..." Sweetie Belle gazed at the colt sitting next to her. "Whatcha playing?"
"Game." Button grunted, eyes still glued to the screen of his JoyBoy.
"What kind of game?"
"...Yup." The propeller on Button's hat twirled slowly in the breeze. He was clearly not listening at all.
"Ok..." The little unicorn looked around at her friends, all whom seemed to be having fun. She then glanced at the pony beside her, who had barely said a word since he got there. He however, was much too focused on his JoyBoy to notice the frown on Sweetie's face.
"No, no! No!" His hooves jabbed buttons furiously, the expression on his face getting more and more panicked. "Nooo!" He dropped the video game and threw his hooves over his head. "I was so close!"
"Did you lose your game?" Sweetie asked in a less than sympathetic tone of voice. Button nodded his head, pouting for a moment. His expression brightened as he glanced over at Sweetie.
"Hey!" He picked up his JoyBoy again and looked between it and the unicorn beside him. "Did you wanna try?"
"Really?" Sweetie tilted her head, feeling rather flattered. "Are you sure?"
"Yup!" He passed the game to her and showed her how the controls worked. From their spot on the grass, Applebloom and Pip watched the scene unfold.
"Well, there's another interesting thing." Pip's eyebrows raised. "He's never let me play his game before!"
"Yeah, cause you're not a cute filly!" Applebloom snickered at the colt next to her who fake pouted.
"Mm, good point." Pip rolled back onto his back and stared back up at the sky.
"Hey!" Scootaloo called over to them, causing them to look up. "Me an' Rumble are hungry! Did anypony actually bring food to this picnic?" The other four glanced around before Sweetie awkwardly cleared her throat.
"Er, no?" She smiled sheepishly as the JoyBoy in her hoof signalled she had lost her game. The two pegasi groaned.
"But we're hungry!" Rumble moaned and flopped over dramatically. "What are we gonna do?" Scootaloo joined him on the ground.
"Aw, quit your whining." Applebloom stood up, shaking out her mane. "Why don't we head down to Sugarcube Corner?" Rumble scrambled to his hooves, pulling Scootaloo with him.
"Yeah! C'mon Scoots! If we take your scooter, we can get there even faster!" The filly nodded and grabbed her scooter, which had been leaning against a tree. She stuck on her helmet and stepped on her scooter, beckoning for Rumble to join behind her.
"Race you down there!" Scootaloo waved at her friends before pushing hard off the ground and speeding into town, Rumble holding on tight.
"She just has to turn everything into a competition, doesn't she..." Applebloom shook her head at the dust trail the pegasi had left.
"Rumble's the same way." Pip rolled his eyes. "They've got a lot in common, I guess." He swiped Button's JoyBoy from the spot Sweetie had placed it before the other colt could attach himself to it again, and stuck it in his saddlebag. "Come on you two, we don't want them to be waiting for us too long."
"Aw, come on Rainbow Dash!" Rarity batted her thick eyelashes as best she could at the cyan mare next to her. "It will be ever so fun!"
"I wouldn't mind going." Fluttershy softly spoke up, but clamped her mouth shut when she saw Fleetfoot grinning at her.
"Actually Dash, that sounds pretty good right now." Spitfire smirked at the shocked expression on Rainbow's face.
"You like going there?" She scrunched her face up, looking rather confused. Spitfire shrugged.
"Well, we're here to relax, and what better place?"
"Yeah!" Fleetfoot nodded. "It'll be fun! C'mon Dash!" Pinkie bounced over to the Wonderbolt and both started giving the most ridiculous puppy dog eyes.
"I put Spike in charge of the library today, so I'm not in any rush to get back." Twilight glanced at Applejack, who nodded.
"An' Mac and me finished up all our chores early, so I've got all day."
"Ugh, fine!" Dash batted her wing at Fleet and Pinkie, who stopped making the ridiculous faces and burst into cheers. "Let's go... to the spa..."
