Wing-ponies.
“Alright Soarin’, one more go! I’ve got a good feeling about this one!”
“Uh… that’s great! I don’t though,” Soarin’ answered, hoping he was heard clearly from the opposite end of the Wonderbolts’ runway.
Despite being one of Equestria’s premier professional fliers, Soarin’ was barely able to keep himself afloat over the tarmac. He was nearly out of breath. His wings, as well as several parts of his body, were bruised and battered. In addition, his flight suit had sustained noticeable damage. This was all for good reason, of course, as Soarin’ was just put through a rigorous training session meant to prepare him for the upcoming air show he and his fellow Wonderbolts were to perform at.
Having listened to overwhelming fan feedback, the Bolts decided to incorporate a few more death-defying stunts into their routine, something which the team was more than accustomed to already. They were all professionals, after all. Soarin’s only problem though: he didn’t think his assigned partner, who was probably more of an accomplished flier than he was, would actually live up to her callsign now of all times.
“Rainbow… Can we, like, take a break or something?” Soarin’ rubbed a hoof over his side and was rewarded with a twinge of sharp pain. “We’ve crashed so many times now that… that things I didn’t know I had are starting to ache.”
Rainbow (who appeared just as worse for wear as Soarin’ did) blinked, then tilted her head to the side before bringing a hoof behind her ear. “What was that? ‘Figure eight’? I’ll admit, that sounds pretty awesome, but we’ll probably end up crashing a lot more than we already have if we try that!”
Dismayed, Soarin’ immediately waved his hooves. “N-no, that’s not what I--”
“C’mon, keep your head in the game, Clipper!” Rainbow interrupted. “Remember: our stunt’s big finish needs us to head towards each other in what’ll look to be a near head-on collision, only for us to pull away at the last second! We can do the rest just fine, but it’s that last part that still needs work!”
Soarin’ rolled his eyes. “I know that! It’s just that… well, for some reason, we can’t seem to...“ He paused, then shook his head. “Eh, nevermind. Hey, how about we pick this up tomorrow? We’ve still got some time to get ready for it anyway.”
Ears shooting up, Rainbow Dash raised her head. “Oh, you’re ready? Well okay, no screw ups this time, you got it.”
“What!? No, I didn’t say I was ready, I--” It was too late. Rainbow had already flown further away from him, her trademark contrail extending further behind her as she gained the altitude and distance necessary for them to attempt the stunt again.
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Soarin’ thought that she had to be messing with him, as there was no other explanation. Regardless, Rainbow was already setting up, so he may as well do the same.
“Let’s hope we get it down this time…” he muttered before taking off himself.
Moments later, once Soarin’ believed he had made it a good way’s away, he stopped in midair and turned back. From that distance, the runway looked like one of the many Wonderbolt playsets currently sold in stores. Off in the distance, he could barely make out a tiny figure that he believed to be Rainbow Dash.
His assumption was later confirmed when the object then suddenly bolted towards the academy at mach speed, a rainbow streak closely tailing it. Not wanting to miss his cue, Soarin’ propelled himself forward and did the same.
Soarin’s mane billowed back in the whipping air as he grew steadily closer and closer to the runway. His eyes remained locked on his ever-nearing partner. Moments later, the two--with well timed precision--reached their respective ends of the course nearly at the exact same time. After keeping themselves leveled a few feet just above the asphalt, both wonderbolts then drifted to the side, soon darting over a long specially-designed patch of cloud meant to catch them and prevent serious injury should their newest attempt result in another failure.
With that safety precaution taken care of, Soarin’ resteeled his unblinking gaze on the swiftly approaching Rainbow Dash as he tried to tune everything out save for her. The closer their proximity before the break, the better the awe from the audience, so their timing had to be perfect. Do it too soon, and the crowd will think they’re playing it on the safe side; too late, and they’ll either crash into each other or plummet into a tailspin. In the case of a few of their earlier tries, both could happen.
Regardless, they had been giving that particular part of the routine their all. Despite the fact, no success had been made. As far as Soarin’ could tell, Rainbow had been exceptional the entire time, so the problem had to lie within himself. Perhaps his timing wasn’t as great as he thought it was, or maybe he’d been slacking off in his training.
Whatever the cause was, Soarin’ hoped he could pull the trick off with Rainbow at least once. Preferably at that moment, seeing as he could now make out the whites in Rainbow’s eyes, which was a good indicator if any to make his move.
Rushing towards each other at great speed, both pegasi fully extended their wings, then rotated themselves horizontally. The point of the trick was for both fliers to seamlessly pass each other, belly almost scraping against belly. Unfortunately, what instead happened was…
“Oof!”
Soarin’ didn’t know who uttered that, himself or Rainbow Dash. All he knew was that the wind was knocked out of him at the same time his previous inertia suddenly ceased and now he found himself tumbling downwards in a tangled mess of hooves and wings. If he had any solace, it was that their fall was short and the landing soft thanks to the clouds.
Moments later, Soarin’ recovered from his disorientation. He found himself on his back with a very fresh, very painful bruise surely formed across his chest. If that wasn’t enough, a familiar weight lay atop him.
“Ugh…” groaned Rainbow, her hoof holding her head as she rolled off of Soarin’. “Did we… did we get it this time?”
After spitting out a puff of feathers (of which he was unsure as to who they belonged to), Soarin’ rose onto his hooves as well and spoke. “Doubt it… Pretty sure my organs wouldn’t have been rearranged as much if we did.”
“Drat!” cursed Rainbow, clopping her hooves. “We were so close--I could almost taste it that time!”
“Pretty sure the only thing I taste right now is blood,” said Soarin’.
“We… we have to try that again.” With that said, Rainbow extended her wings and hopped into the air, much to the blue stallion’s chagrin.
“Whoa there Crash,” Soarin’ said, his teeth clenching onto Rainbow’s tail hairs before she could fully take off. Soarin’s hooves skidded against the cloud mat for a brief moment before Rainbow thankfully came to a stop.
Looking to Soarin’ in an incredulous manner, Rainbow lowered herself onto the cloud, prompting the stallion to spit out her tail.
“Look,” he started, “as much as I would love nothing more than to keep trying, how about we call it a day, huh? I can pick it up tomorrow. I mean, after a little healing and some rest, I’ll come back refreshed and with a clearer head so I won’t mess up as much.”
Rainbow’s ears perked, her head tilting as she stared at Soarin’ curiously. “What, you think you’ve been messing up?” she asked.
Nonchalantly, Soarin’ shrugged. “I have to be. If it’s not me, then it’s you. And it’s definitely not you.” He unfolded a wing, his face contorting slightly in pain as he rotated its joint. “I don’t know… maybe I’ve been slacking off or something.”
“Well that just proves that we have to practice more!” Rainbow blurted.
After refolding his wing back to his side, Soarin’ smiled gently at Rainbow’s enthusiasm.
“Well, even if I was up for a little extra punishment,” he said, “the rest of the wonderbolts need to practice their stunts, too, and we’ve been hogging the cloud mat for hours now. Don’t want to get chewed out by Spitfire again, do you?”
“Hmm, I guess not,” said Rainbow, rubbing her chin in thought as she rested her flanks. “I mean, I think we’re almost off the clock anyway, and it’s not like we can just use my old cloud mat back at my place.”
After a spell of silence, Rainbow suddenly looked up to Soarin’, a large, excited smile present on her face.
“Hey! Why don’t we use the old cloud mat back at my place!?”
His head pulled back in confusion, Soarin’ stared back down at Rainbow, then blinked. “Eh, what?”
“Cloud mat. My house,” Rainbow reiterated, her hoof pawing at the cloud they were standing on. “I’ve got one back home that’s just like this; used it every now and then back when I was training to be a Wonderbolt. After we’re done here at the academy, we can just go back to my house. You know, continue practicing the stunt there.”
“Uh… I, eh… I…” For the first time in quite a while, Soarin’ found himself tongue twisted. Despite practically being a celebrity, Soarin’ had never been invited to a mare’s house, let alone Rainbow’s. Some small part of him thought that she was inviting him over for something else, but the rest of him quickly rationalized that he was thinking too deeply into it.
Having noticed his hesitation, Rainbow’s ears bent back slightly. “Um… or, uh, you don’t have to come over just for practice. We can hang out there, too, if you’re up for it. We can talk, or play a few board games, and uh...” She rubbed nervously at her shoulder, a small blush slowly spreading over her cheeks. “If… if you’re feeling hungry later on, my friend Pinkie, she… heh, she sometimes leaves me the best pies you’ve ever tasted.”
Soarin’s ears pointed on ends at that, his undivided attention focused solely on Rainbow, who had just uttered his one weakness. “Pie?”
Rainbow smirked, her disposition suddenly seeming more confident. “Oh yeah, got plenty of that baked goodness back at my place. Don’t really eat them that often myself, so you’re more than welcome to help yourself to what’s in the fridge. Of course, I expect you to work your butt off practicing with me before I can reward you with so much as a crumb.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Soarin’ said excitedly, his wings lifting him off the ground. “Let’s hit the showers, clock out, then head over to your place already!”
“Then pie?” Rainbow asked, her brow raised in amusement.
“Well of course,” said Soarin’.
“Alright,” Rainbow replied, stifling a chortle. “Last one to the locker room’s a--”
“Hey, Crash!” called Fleetfoot from a little ways away. “Think you can take a look at my zipper real quick? It feels like it’s gotten loose in that last loop I did!”
“Uh, sure!” answered Rainbow. With a contained smile, she turned back to Soarin’ and spoke. “Alright, I’ll just meet you there in a bit.”
Soarin’ nodded. “Gotcha.”
With that said, both ponies flew in seperate directions. As he made his way over the locker room, however, Soarin’ was then stopped by Captain Spitfire.
“Good hustle out there, Clipper,” she said, not taking her eyes off the clipboard held in her wing. “You uh, holding up alright there? Looking a little banged up.”
Rolling his eyes in amusement, Soarin’ scoffed. “It hurts way more than it looks. Though what do you expect to happen when you assign both Rainbow and I to possibly the hardest two-pony stunt in the show?”
Spitfire blinked, then finally looked up from her clipboard. “Assigned to both of you?” she questioned. “I assigned that stunt to Rainbow Dash, and I gave her total freedom to choose whoever did it with her.”
This time, it was Soarin’s turn to blink. “What? Then… why did she have us crash into each other all day when she could have chosen anyone else?”
“Don’t know,” Spitfire said, giving a small shug. “It’s kind of funny, also, how she kept crashing into you. I mean, both Fleetfoot and I practiced that maneuver with Rainbow, and we both managed to get it right after two or three tries with her. You’re a great flier, so I thought you two would have it down by five tries at the very least.”
After jotting down a few items onto her clipboard, Spitfire pinned it under her folded wing.
“Anyway, I gotta see how those new recruits are doing. Later Clipper,” she said before walking away, leaving a stunned and bewildered Soarin’ behind.
A moment later, Rainbow landed beside him.
“Huh, what’s the hold up? Thought you’d be inside by now,” she said.
Soarin’ didn’t reply. Instead, he stared at the empty space above Rainbow’s head, his mind hard at work processing everything that had transpired.
After waving her hoof in front of Soarin’s face, and getting no visible reaction, Rainbow shrugged, then continued to walk past him as she made for the door leading to the locker room. Before she could get very far, however, Rainbow stopped when she felt something snag her tail. She turned back, only to learn that it was Soarin’s tail that caught her, the stallion himself staring back with a patient smile on his face.
“Rainbow,” he said, almost cautiously. “Uh, this is gonna sound a bit crazy, but, um... Have you… been purposely crashing into me, all so you could get me to your house so we can ‘hang’?”
The corner of Rainbow’s mouth twitched upward, and Soarin’ got his answer.
“Oh, after I'd helped myself to that pie," he said, "you, missy, are looking at a little extra punishment heading your way."
After pulling her tail free from Soarin’s, Rainbow used hers to smack him across the flanks, then ran for the locker rooms.
“That’s what I’m counting on!”