> Out of the Blue
>  by LightSpectrum
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue

Chapter 1

Rainbow Dash grumbled and turned over in her rapidly fading slumber. She lazily opened her eyelids, which felt as if they had lead weights attached. She groaned, and glanced at the Wonderbolts calendar on the cumulus walls. It was a Monday. 

Fantastic She thought to herself. Mondays are always great- not. 

Rainbow tried without success to get up. After trying (and failing) many times, she stayed on her bed and just sat. That is, until her doorbell rang. She figured it was just Derpy the mailmare- no need to brush her hopelessly knotted mane. She was quite wrong though, for when she opened the door, who was standing there but Soarin. Soarin the Wonderbolt. In Ponyville. At her house. She couldnt believe it. She could have fainted, but that was something only Rarity would do. Instead, she hyperventilated silently. He either didn't notice or was too kind to act like he did. Rainbow was fine either way. 

"Hey, Dash." 

She sputtered and nodded her head frantically, trying not to look uncool.

"Um, hi?" 

He smiled. 

"So, it turns out I needed to be here in Ponyville for a while, but I don't really know anypony here well enough to be considered friends. That is, besides you. So anyways, I was wondering if I could hang with you for a while. I don't have to report to Town Hall till 3:00 this afternoon." 

Rainbow Dash was shocked, and all of a sudden shrieked with a voice to rival Pinkie Pie's. 

"YES!!!!" 

She caught herself. 

"I mean, um, yeah, sure, I'd be cool with that. You know, 'cause you're, um, cool and stuff!" 

He looked at her a bit strangely but otherwise didn't react. 

"So, you wanna show me around town, Dash?" 

She nodded. Smoothly this time, with no shrieking. She was proud of herself. But under her breath, when she wasnt speaking to him, she constantly muttered ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.

<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

"-and that's the infamous Sugarcube Corner! Best pastries in town!" 

Soarin's eyes lit up. 

"Pastries? Do they have... Pie?" 

Rainbow Dash flew ahead, grabbing his tail and pulling him with her. 

"Hell to the yes, dude. Best apple pies made from the best apples, from Ponyville's own Sweet Apple Acres." 

His tail was yanked from her mouth, and soon he was nowhere to be seen. She found him in the bakery, scarfing a pie in his usual messy fashion. As soon as he was done, Rainbow dragged him away again. 

"Come ON, Pie-Face, more to see!" 

He rubbed the remaining pie crumbs off of his face. Then they both heard the clock bells, striking 3:00. He rushed off. 

"OkthanksbyeDashiegottagoseeyooulater!" 

She waved in his general direction, slightly disappointed that he had to leave. 

Wait... What the fuck?
 Rainbow Dash thought to herself. Did he just call me... Dashie?

~~~~~~

That night, the sunset was very beautiful. She was sitting on a rather large cloud, gazing at the red tinged sky as the stars of white emerged like little pinpricks. All of a sudden, another figure landed and lay down beside her. It was Soarin! 

"Hey Dash, I didn't get much time to tell you earlier, but we really should do this again. Like, soon!" 

She smiled giddily at the thought. She let a tiny giggle escape, but she kept her cool and asked her question. "Like, how soon?" 

He smiled back at her- not quite so maniacally though. 

"This sunset's not over yet." 

And ever so gently, he pressed his back against her own. As the two pegasi sat on the cloud together, neither we're really aware that they were leaning into each other. By the time the last golden rays if the sun had sunk below the horizon, leaving the whole scene tinged dark purple, they were completely together. As the lovely sunset ended, Soarin and Dash became aware that, quite randomly, they were very close. Soarin wavered for a minute, his wing twitching like he wanted to move it but didn't know if it was a good idea. Gently, he extended his wing over her back. The next two minutes appeared to last forever. But then they had to part ways, each to go their own direction, and do their own things. Rainbow waved a hoof at him happily, keeping up a rather convincing fake smile as she flew away. As soon as he had left, a confused expression formed on her face. What just happened there? She thought. They were just sitting together and then... They had leaned into each other. And he had stretched his wing around her in a hug. But not like a friend-hug. Pegasus wings are sensitive. He had to have meant... 

Her heart began to race as she contemplated the night. She was flying pretty fast, not bothering to look where she was going. As a result, she slammed right into a tree. She easily got to her hooves. She felt as if she could take on the world all by herself, which was one of the greatest feelings to have. But... The racing heart wasn't so great. And the confusing thoughts running around in her head. She reached her cloud home and went inside, her body exhausted but her mind wide awake. She plopped her flank down on the sofa, and curled up. She found herself thinking about Soarin. The blown-back style of his navy blue mane, the lively sparkle always present in his emerald eyes, the smooth pale blue fur of his coat. And how did she know that his coat was smooth? She had been pressed into it. That's why. This thought alone made her heart thump faster and a grin spread across her face. 

And then, she caught herself. 

What the buck is happening to me?! She thought. Since when am I the type of pony to swoon over cute stallions? I'm a daredevil. The day I have mushy, romantic thoughts is the day I turn in my daredevil license! And I certainly don't want that to happen. 

She shuddered, gathered her self control and willpower, and tried to make the "mushy" feelings go away. They didn't. She tried several more times, all to no avail. Tired and frustrated, she retreated to her fluffy cloud bed. Before the tendrils of sleep settled into her brain like a hazy, misty fog, she thought to herself. 

This is all Soarin's fault. For being so fucking handsome.

> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue

Chapter 2

She could not stop thinking about it. Rainbow Dash was quick, athletic, awesome, radical, and above all, cool! She was pretty sure that she was 20% cooler than every other non-celebrity pony. Her friends were cool though, but they were technically celebrities. The six of them had saved the whole of Equestria about two or maybe even three times. But with all that coolness, Dash did not want to lower herself by being all mushy and lovey-dovey. Personally, she thought it was gross. But then, why was she so happy that she got to spend the day with Soarin? Where and when did all these strange thoughts and feelings come out of the blue and smack her in the nose?

At the very thought of him, she perked up. Her mind drifted, thinking about him and his appearance and his personality. Then she caught herself. 

Whatevr you do, self, don't think mushy thoughts. Do. Not. Think. Mushy. Thoughts. EVER. 

Her brain betrayed her and wanted to keep thinking about the well-muscled, green-eyed Wonderbolt. She facehoofed. 

Ugh... BAD BRAIN! She scolded herself. 

It worked, because one thing that could distract her from... That... Right now was the questions. She thought over them but had no answers. Then she had a somewhat brilliant idea. 

I only know of one pony who always has all the answers... If Twilight Sparkle doesn't, then nopony will.

Rainbow Dash stepped outside and into a pouring rain. She sighed and sped towards the library. Moments later, she arrived there, wet and shivering. She rapped with a hoof on the door, waiting for her purple friend to answer. 

"Hello, Rainbow, what brings you here? Is it... Daring Do? Are you already ready for the next one? Or um... Is it because its raining? Do you need to come inside and dry off and warm up? Or-" 

Rainbow stuck a hoof in her friend's mouth. 

"Actually, it's none of the above. Although I wouldn't mind drying off and warming up." 

The unicorn inviting her inside and gave her a cup of hot cocoa and a blanket. 

"So what's wrong? If anything is wrong." 

Rainbow brought the offered beverage to her muzzle and drank deeply, savoring the chocolaty taste. 

"Well, you see, yesterday morning..."

"...And then he extended his wing over my back and now I'm really confused." 

Twilight, who had listened to Rainbow's story, tilted her head to the side. 

"Well, to tell you the truth, I've never had any romantic experience before. I wish I knew what to tell you, but I've just never had those feelings before. I'm sorry that I can't help." 

Rainbow drooped visibly, then pretended to perk up a bit. 

"Well... Do you know anypony who has? I might try asking them." 

Twilight put on a pondering face, and shrugged. 

"You might try asking any other friend. But I am not sure, we are far too busy saving Equestria to talk about stallions and our love lives!" 

Rainbow smiled faintly at her lavender friend's attempt at a joke. She thanked Twilight for her time and flew out the door.

She looked around the misty rain that had replaced the streaming torrents and wondered who to ask next. Perhaps Fluttershy would. She was such a sweet mare. Somepony had to have tried to be with her. She sped to her fillyhood friend's cottage, hoping that she might be able to offer some advice. When she arrived at Fluttershy's cottage, she knocked and waited. A few seconds later, the door opened and a timid yellow head popped out. 

"Oh, um, hello Dashie! What brings you out to my cottage? Please, come inside!" 

The cyan pegasus stepped inside and told Fluttershy about her issues. Fluttershy mulled it over and finally offered her own personal opinion.

"Well, Dashie, I'm no expert, but I think that maybe you should open up to the possibility of love." 

The blue pegasus snorted. "Love, schmove! I don't want love!" 

Fluttershy smiled sadly at her friend. 

"I think that you like him. Um, that is, um, if you, uh, don't mind me, um, saying so." 

She had struck out again! She walked out of her friend's cottage, wondering who to go to now.

Pinkie and Applejack didn't know either. That left only one friend- Rarity. At this thought, Rainbow Dash facehoofed, feeling supremely stupid. 

Of course, Rarity. She is practically a love expert! She has to be since she can never shut up about it. She thought.

With renewed hope, the pegasus headed to her friend's lovely boutique. With a flounce of her perfect violet curls, Rarity opened the door with her magic. When Rainbow entered, the alabaster unicorn's back was toward her as she absentmindedly said what she always said to her customers. 

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique! Where everything is chic, unique, and mangifique! Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. May I help you?" 

Rainbow scuffed a hoof on the ground. 

"Well... Um, yesterday, this weird thing happened..."

She told the story like she had told all of hear friends, only she clarified the confusion. 

"...And then he draped his wing across my back and now I'm really really confused. Like, what did he mean by that? And what about the sunset? Does he like me? Do I like him back? Every time I think about it my heart races and I feel happy! What is that supposed to mean? What am I supposed to do with all these sudden feelings? It's like, I was having a normal life, and then Soarin appears out of the blue and now... I don't know what to do!" 

Rainbow finished miserably, slumping on the velvet couch. She waited for Rarity's response. It came in the form of a soft chuckle. 

"Oh, Rainbow! Didn't you know? You are  in love." 

Her ears perked up straight and her wings flared out in surprise. She came up with the most intelligent response ever. 

"Whaaaa-huh?!" 

She smiled, levitating a pair of polished scissors to her side as she sliced fabric. 

"In love, darling. Oh, by the by, would you pretty please come over here and hold this still for me?" 

Rainbow reluctantly obliged, and helped while her friend explained the situation further. 

"You say that when you think about him, your heart races? And that he draped his wing around you? That, I believe, is the sign of affection between pegasi. I can explain what love is in a basic sense but the only way to truly sort this out is to summon some courage, sort out your feelings, and go talk to him. Tell him how you really feel. Only then will your problem truly be solved. Good luck, I must be going now!" 

The unicorn trotted out of the room, leaving a flustered and only slightly less confused pegasus. 

She flew through the window, trying to figure out what to do next. 

Come on, featherbrain! Think! Rarity said you should go talk to him. Go talk to him! Don't be such a cowardly load of horseapples and ponyfeathers! 

After giving herself a small pep talk, she flew to her cloud house and collapsed on the couch. She was exhausted from shuttling around Ponyville all day long, trying to get help. She had just gotten comfy when the doorbell rang. 

"Of course it's right when I get comfy, damnit." She swore. 

She got up anyways, though, and answered it. A golden eyed, grey pegasus was there! The odd-eyed mailmare gave her a clumsy hug. 

"Rainbow Dash! I have your mail!" She handed Dash a pristine white letter sealed with none other than... Soarin's cutie mark. It had to have been sent from the Wonderbolts Center where they all lived and worked mostly. Her eyes lit up, and she hugged Derpy happily. 

"Thanks SOOO much!" 

As the mailmare flew off, Rainbow Dash gleefully tore apart the envelope. The letter read as follows:

Dear Rainbow Dash,

Or should I call you Dashie? Well, anyways, I'll be back in town tomorrow night. Want to grab some dinner together?

Love,
Soarin

Rainbow Dash squealed happily. He had signed it, love. Not from or sincerely or kindest regards, but LOVE. She grabbed a quill and some paper and proceeded to reply a multitude of YESSES. She flew it down to the post office and came back. She settled in her cloud bed, excited but exhausted. As she sank peacefully into sleep, she decided that she would submit to a Rarity-style makeover. She wanted to look her very best. She almost scolded herself for the mushy thoughts, but decided that it was okay. 

I can worry about my bucking reputation later. I'm in love. I can do whatever the buck I want. With a satisfied smile, the cyan pony fell deep asleep.
















> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue

Chapter 3

"Ouch! Watch it! That hurt!" 

Rainbow Dash complained for what had to be the umpteenth time that day. Rarity sniffed daintily as she pulled a mother-of-pearl handled brush through Rainbow's mane. 

"Rainbow Dash," The alabaster unicorn scolded. The pegasus rolled her eyes. "You are going to go on a date, and you need to look nice. I may not be able to make you wear a dress, but at least let me finish your mane! And besides, darling, it wouldn't be such a pain in the plot to wash your mane if you took care of it every day. Your mane is a horrendously tangled, matted, lumpy, prismatic MESS and I'M GOING TO FIX IT!" 

Rainbow grumbled under her breath for a while. None of the things she said were compliments about Rarity. 

"And anyways," the unicorn continued. "If I were to stop right now, you wouldn't want to go to your date with a half tangled and half silky mane, it'd look worse than a fully tangled head! And what is the point of that?" 

Rainbow Dash sighed.

"I don't know, but I'm only complaining that it hurts." 

Rarity sighed dramatically and continued her work. A few minutes later- it felt like forever to Rainbow- Rarity finished her work on Rainbow's mane. Rainbow wouldn't admit it aloud to save her life, but her head felt about 3 pounds lighter. And she looked a lot better. Rarity left the room and returned wih a dress encased in an opaque white plastic bag.

"Darling, are you certain that you don't want to wear a dress?" 

Rainbow was about to reply that she was sure, but her voice stopped dead in its tracks when she saw the dress. It was sleek, rippley, and reminiscent of Greek fashions- and not at all poofy or frilly, which she absolutely hated. Rarity had braided golden ribbons into her mane, and now Rainbow saw why. The shimmery gold matched that of the entire inside lining of the dress- Rarity's homemade silk. Gold ribbons like those in her hair line the bottom of the dress and the neckline, which looked like it would settle comfortably in the middle of her withers. Rarity looked extremely smug. 

"You like?" 

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "...maybe." 

The unicorn, keeping her proud smile, but toning it down a notch, levitated a necklace over. 

"This pendant matches." 

It was a simple, sturdy, thin plated necklace with a ruby the shape and color of the Element of Loyalty. Rainbow secretly thought it was awesome, but still had her doubts. 

"I like it, I guess, but- I mean, what if he doesn't like it? Or he thinks it's overkill?" 

Rarity scoffed at the nervous complaints of the inexperienced pegasus. 

"Oh, he's just the same as any stallion. He'll love it." 

Rainbow nodded, but she still looked unconvinced.

One hour later, a nervous Rainbow Dash paced back and forth at the door of the restaurant. She was afraid he would have forgot, that he didn't like her, that he wouldn't like her dress. She waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, a voice made itself heard right next to her perked ear. 

"Hey," it said. 

Rainbow jumped about three feet in the air, fluttering her wings with surprise. She settled back down when she saw it was only Soarin. 

"...oh. Hey." 

He laughed when he noticed she was startled. Rainbow looked him up and down, and although not completely casual, he also wasn't totally decked out in fancy stuff. Just a simple custom Wonderbolts jacket with the gold lightning bolts and his name on the back, above his number on the squad- although the jacket looked recently dry-cleaned and pressed. He had slightly shined and definitely cleaned off his goggles. She actually felt slightly awkward, because he looked and was acting very smooth and casual, and here she was dressed up all nice and pretty. Rainbow wasn't even sure it was going to be a date in the first place; she had only taken Rarity's word for it. But, being as awesome as she obviously was, she just grinned and acted all nonchalant, and allowed him to gently guide her inside with the tip of his wings.

"You look nice, Rainbow." 

...

"Rainbow?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I kind of zoned out." 

Rainbow sheepishly grinned. Soarin returned her smile easily. 

"I said you looked nice tonight." 

She turned her head away a bit and tilted it, so her bangs flopped into her face and effectively hid her blush. She turned back to him, trying not to be too obviously bashful. 

"So... You really like it?" 

He turned his head thoughtfully. 

"It's really pretty. I can tell it was skillfully made and it looks very nice on you. Though, now that I think about it, it doesn't really seem like something you would typically wear. You don't have to worry about being fancy, I think you look just fine without all of that fancy stuff."

Rainbow tried to figure out the correct the response to that. She ended up shrugging and trying to keep up a pleasant air. 

"Yeah, my friend Rarity kind of insisted that I dress up. That mare can be very stubborn." 

Soarin mischievously grinned. 

"Even more stubborn than the amazing Rainbow Dash?" 

Rainbow Dash puffed up her chest and tossed her silky mane over her shoulder. 

"Hey! Nopony is more stubborn than the amazing Rainbow D- wait... HEY!!" 

She shrieked. She tried to maintain a displeased demeanor, but apparently Soarin found the entire situation to be entirely too hilarious. She playfully whacked his head with her hoof, and he playfully pretended to fall down and get back up, making a big show of dusting himself off with his wings.

By the time their meal had been payed for, the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, turning the sky a bright and fluid mix of peachy-coral pink and butter yellow. Soarin walked her outside, and both pegasi were extremely reluctant to say their goodbyes. Soarin rubbed the back of his head with his hoof. 

"So... Do you want to go for a flight?" 

Rainbow looked around her, and then back at him. 

"Um, sure!" 

The two pegasi lifted off and set towards Rainbow's house at a moderately slow speed. Well, until Rainbow got going a tiny bit faster and got ahead of Soarin. And then he got in front of her, until the two were full on racing. Rainbow speeded ahead of him, squealing and laughing. "LAST ONE THERE IS A ROTTEN LOAD OF HORSEAPPLES AND PONYFEATHERS!"

The two pegasi landed on Rainbow's doorstep in a sweaty, quivering heap of feathers and torn fabric. 

"I think I won," Rainbow added, breathlessly. 

"We'll, maybe I was just a teensy bit ahead of you." Soarin countered. 

"Was not." 

"Was too." 

"Was NOT!" 

"Was TOO!" 

And so on and so forth, until they wrestled and landed in another sweaty heap. Rainbow got up and dusted herself off. 

"Whew, that was the most fun I've had in a long time, but I really need to go inside and take off this dress." 

Soarin didn't reply. Rainbow awkwardly pushed the door open, and started to head inside. 

"Do you wanna... Um, come in?" 

She awkwardly offered. He looked pained. 

"I'd love to, but I have a show tomorrow. I really need to rest up." 

She put on a fake smile and nodded her head a bit too enthusiastically. 

"Oh, ok. I understand, it's fine. I'm fine, I'm okay, you go and rest." 

Her grin faltered a little. As he flew off, she kept up her rapidly fading fake smile.

"See ya!" He called, looking behind him and waving at her.

She waved back.

She went inside her house, and plopped her flank on the couch, much like she had the day before. Except this time, she was none too happy. 

What the hell? She thought to herself. I'm glad I got to spend some time with him, but... I thought... When he draped his wing around me... I must have interpreted it wrong. It was only a friend hug.

She collapsed onto her bed, sighing. 

I guess he didn't like me like that after all. Never mind the fact that he signed that letter with love and asked me out on a sort of date and said I looked nice, he didn't mean any of it.

Her final sigh was heavy enough to crush seven elephants in one blow.

She rolled over and planted her face into her pillow, and let the tears fall silently.

It was not a very good night.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 4

Rainbow Dash awoke to a bright light, a sore body, and a wet pillow. 

The sun's buttery golden beams coursed through her open window, casting orangey yellow light onto her sleepy face. She stretched luxuriously, remembering the events of last night. Her wings were sore because she had hung out with Soarin and they'd flown to her house together. At the thought of his name, her heart momentarily swelled with joy, only to be quickly replaced with a sense of disappointment. She smacked her lips as she stretched again. She tasted salt on her cheeks and lips. 

Rainbow looked down at the soaked pillow on her bed. Then she remembered inviting Soarin inside, after their sort of date. He had rejected her offer. Rainbow sighed, looking around her. Her eyes fell on the shredded remains or Rarity's dress. Rainbow cringed. 

"Damnit, Rarity is going to be so pissed off at me." 

Rainbow bundled the dress up in some old newspapers. Slightly scared about what the unicorn's reaction would inevitably be, she trudged out the door and flew to the boutique. 

<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

Rainbow Dash was about to dive through the window. She decided against it, however, and knocked on Rarity's door.

"Hello and welcome to- oh, Rainbow! You're back! How did your little date go?"

Rainbow chuckled, trying to act positive.

"Well, it was good, I guess."

Rarity's eyes drifted to the newspaper bundle. 

"And whatever would be in that bundle, darling?" 

Rainbow chuckled again, this time nervously. She slowly unwrapped I to reveal the ruined dress. She slumped, crouching down a bit to protect herself from the verbal and physical onslaught that was sure to come. 

Rarity laughed lightly, clearly amused by her ensemble's sorry state.  

"Oh, I see. So, Rainbow. Tell me all about your first." 

The unicorn continued to giggle as Rainbow's face portrayed a wide range of emotions. First she was confused, then she was bewildered, and then she was surprised, and then she realized what the fashionista meant.

"What? WHAT?! No, I didn't..." She paused awkwardly. Her face blushed a bright pinkish red as her wings stiffened and puffed outwards. "I didn't- um, sleep with Soarin! No!!!"

Rarity collapsed on the floor, laughing her head off at her miserably embarrassed friend. After about ten minutes, she finally composed herself.

"I do apologize, Rainbow, darling. It's unladylike to laugh at the misfortune of others. But it was rather amusing, if I do say so myself." 

Rainbow did not find it as funny, considering her face was still cherry red and her wings were still as stiff as hell. Rarity levitated a handkerchief to her face and 'coughed', concealing a few more chuckles. She used it to wipe the tears from her eyes, from laughing so hard. When she had considerably settled down, and Rainbow's wings had mostly returned to normal (she was still blushing), she asked a different question. 

"How was your date?"

Rainbow perched on the back of a chair.

"It... It- it was- it was fine," she stammered out nervously. "Just fine." 

Rarity raised an eyebrow at the blue pegasus. 

"Haha, how was it really?"

Rainbow Dash slumped into the chair. 

"It sucked," she said, her voice quivering. "It was awful."

Rarity looked concerned for her sad friend. 

"Oh my, what happened?"

Rainbow's eyes filled with tears as she told the alabaster unicorn the story, and they eventually spilled over. The fashionista was shocked. She had never witnessed the brave weatherpony cry before, but now she sobbed freely as she spit out the rest of her story.

"-and then he totally rejected my offer and acted like there were many other places he wanted to be at the time!" Rainbow finished miserably.

"Oh, oh dear," was all Rarity could say. "Oh."

She offered the handkerchief to the teary-eyed pegasus, who blew her nose loudly. Rarity tried to be comforting, but Rainbow wasn't exactly being responsive. 

Rarity comforted her friend for as long as she would listen, but Rainbow Dash got tired of the unicorn's neverending supply of optimistic phrases. She tried to be kind; Rarity had done so much for her already.

"Thanks, Rares, but I really think I need to be alone now."

She slowly flew out the door, hovering sadly to her cloud house. Once home, she locked the door and blew out all the candles. She didn't feel like talking to anypony right now. 

<~><~><~><~><~>Some time later that week<~><~<~><~><~><~><~><~><~

Fluttershy stopped by Rainbow's intricate cloud home for about the fifteenth time in three days. The lights were still out and the door locked, and still, nopony would answer the door. Heaving a deep and delicate sigh, the butter yellow pegasus flew away from her sad friend's home and to Carousel Boutique.

"Rarity, I went to check on Rainbow again," she reported to the unicorn. "She still won't talk to me." 

Rarity shook her head, tossing her violet curls as she did so.

"I do feel terrible for the poor mare, but honestly, this has gone on long enough. One of us ought to go check and see if she hasn't committed suicide or anything ridiculous like that."

Fluttershy nodded her head solemnly in agreement.

"Oooh! Oooooooh! OOOOOOOH! OOH! Pick me! Pick me! PICK ME!!!"

Rarity squealed indignantly at the bouncing and vibrant ball of pink energy. 

"Why, hello, Pinkie Pie, it was rather unexpected of you to, er, drop in." 

The gazes of the unicorn and the earth pony drifted upwards. The party pony had literally crashed through the boutique's ceiling. 

"Hehehe, whoops! Anyways, where was I? Oh, yeah! PICK ME!!!" 

The vibrant pink mane of the earth pony bounced up and down as she sprung into the air gleefully. 

"Pleaaaaseeee?" She begged. 

Rarity heaved a dramatic sigh. 

"I suppose." 

"WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! Oh wait, now I gotta go get the balloon from Twilight! Hopefully I don't get caught in a strong gust of wind and drift away to Oz and the Emerald City! That would be so fun and green is such a pretty color although pink is prettier and I really like blue, and oh purple is nice too, and then I could only throw GREEN color themed parties, and that would be SOOOO boring! Because then we could only eat green foods like green grapes and green apples and Brussels Sprouts and broccoli and spinach, which is gross and NO GOOD WITH ICING AND SPRINKLES ON CUPCAKES!!!" Pinkie Pie finished her rant triumphantly and with a dramatic hoof pointing to the air. She relaxed and looked at her friends.

Rarity blinked. Fluttershy squeaked softly from her hiding place under Rarity's  sewing table. Rarity didn't seem to be able to do much other than blink. 

Pinkie didn't wait for a response; only bounced out of the boutique.

Rarity blinked once more.

"I suppose that takes care of that problem... Now, Fluttershy, we must figure out what's next; I believe Rainbow's morale is going to be quite the issue."

Fluttershy meekly agreed, still hiding under the unicorn's table.

<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

Pinkie Pie floated up to the colorful cloud mass stealthily to a awesome backtrack of old-fashioned spy music. 

"Time to check on Dashie," she said, sporting a mischievous grin.

She floated up to the door, knocking cheerfully upon it. 

"DASHIE!!! DASHIE, COMEOUTCOMEOUT!!! COMEOUTCOMEOUTCOMEOUTCOMEOUTCOMEOUT!!!" She yelled.

No answer.

She blew up another balloon and attached it to herself, floating her way up to the window of Rainbow's bedroom. She found it open, and she ducked into the room. She expected to find a sleepy sad pegasus curled all up in her blankets and crying. 

"Dashiiieeeee?" She asked, hesitantly.

No answer. 

She popped a balloon, drifting downward and further into the room. She looked down at the bed. She looked around, just to be sure.

Pinkie Pie blew up her last balloon, drifting upward again and dramatically gasping. 

Rainbow Dash wasn't there.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 5

Rainbow Dash flew through some clouds, enjoying the cool and refreshing mist brush across her face and cover her mane. The water mingled with the leftover tears on her face. She was still confused and sad, but spending some time out in the open air alone was helping her clear her head and organize her thoughts.

She didn't know what to do. It didn't go right. She should have hung out with him, and he should have been instantly attracted to her sexy awesomeness, and then they'd kiss and start going out, because that's what an awesome pony as herself deserved. 

But no, she wasn't even sure he liked her. But he'd romantically hugged her and said she looked nice and took her out on a date. The resteraunt wasn't too shabby, either; not everypony could've afforded that meal. He wouldn't waste time and money on that stuff for just a friend. But on the other hoof, he was a Wonderbolt. And besides, he hadn't asked her to be his fillyfriend yet, and so... And she could ask, but now she had lost her chance for that. She didn't even know where he was.

Bored, she sat on a cloud, curled up, and propelled it with her wings, using her tail to steer it around the sky. Not sure where she was going, she aimlessly floated around, and quickly became bored again. Rainbow wished she was home; she missed her friends and her awesome cloud home. She also missed Soarin, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She wasn't sure she could talk to him if he suddenly appeared, although she wished he would. 

She brought her cloud to a halt, and curled up into a ball. Her eyelids drooped, and, tired from exerting herself in speeding around on the cloud, she fell asleep.

However, the prismatic maned pegasus was awoken by a floating pink ball of pure energy and adrenaline. 

"DASHIE!!!!! I'M SOOOOOO GLAD I FOUND YOU!!!!! I was looking everywhere and it was so hard to get around on these balloons and so I was going really really really really really really really slow because I couldn't find my balloon and then I realized that Twilight had it and then I asked her but she said Zecora borrowed it for something or other but when I went to ask Zecora if she had it she wasn't home and so I just blew up a bunch of balloons so I could get up to your house and then you weren't answering your door and then I peeked in your window but you weren't home and so I talked to Rarity and she said you were extra super duper sad because your date with that Wonderbolt guy was not extra super duper awesome and fun like you wanted, and then I floated around trying to find you, and then I found you trying to sleep but I didn't know you were actually sleeping and so I tried to surprise hug you but you were asleep and so it didn't quite work and once I figured that out I tried to just fall on top of you because you're such a heavy sleeper and that didn't work either so I just floated in front of you and said your name really really really really really really really loudly!!!"

Rainbow was pretty annoyed at the vibrant pink pony, but not the least bit surprised.

"Hi to you too, Pinks, but can I please breathe now?" She asked her friend, who was squeezing her very tightly.

"Sure!" Letting go, the pink party mare grinned at her friend. "So can we pleeeeeeease go back to Ponyville now?" 

Rainbow yawned, and too tired to do anything else, agreed, letting Pinkie attach the balloons to her cloud and pull her away.

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Rainbow Dash woke up in a bed that was not her own. The walls were colorful and bright, much like the floor and furniture. There was another bed across the room from her, occupied by a lightly snoring Pinkie Pie. Rainbow looked around again, and decided she was definitely in Sugarcube Corner. Before she could even wonder how she got there, Pinkie woke up. 

"Hey there, Dashie!!!"

Rainbow rubbed her eyes blearily. 

"Hey, Pinks." 

For a pony that just woke up, this one had too much energy.

"So, Dashie, ready to go back home yet?"

Rainbow blinked once. 

"Actually, I kind of wanted to talk to Rarity. I guess I owe her an apology."

Rainbow awaited any response from her energetic pink friend, but was met with silence.

"Pinks?"

She looked around. Pinkie had vanished without a trace. 

"Typical."

The still-tired pegasus mare trotted downstairs and out the door, headed for Carousel Boutique. She knocked once on the door before poking her head through. Rarity was sitting down on her plush couch, pouring tea and rolling her eyes at Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing up and down.

"It was SOOOO crazy and then she woke up and I woke up and I talked to her and then she... Wait for it.. Said she OWED YOU AN APOLOGY!!!! Isn't that nuts?"

Rarity's jaw fell open slightly.

Rainbow snorted. "It's not THAT surprising, guys. I have a heart too. Just don't tell anypony I said that."

Rarity smirked slightly.

Pinkie did her ritual promise.

Rainbow rolled her eyes at her friends.

"Anywaaaays, sorry about Monday, Rares, I guess I was just emotional, even though that's pretty silly. I never even was dating him in the first place."

Rarity shook her head solemnly, tossing her purple curls over her shoulder.

"Darling, that may be true, but it doesn't have to be over with. It never started, but you still have a chance." 

Rainbow nodded, getting what her friend was saying. "Yeah, I should go talk to him, but I don't know where he lives or anything."

Rarity took a ladylike sip of her tea and sighed. "That may pose a problem. However, he's famous. It won't take much looking to find him."

Rainbow nodded. "Thanks, I'll ask around a bit after I have a nap." With that, the blue pegasus was out the door and far away.

Rarity sighed. "He'll come around. She will too. They always do, the ones like that." 

Pinkie, still bouncing and observing, nodded. "Uh-huh."

> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 6


At the Wonderbolts headquarters, the captain is the boss. She can give you breaks or make you stay longer and it all really depends on her mood. And if you were on her good side or her bad side.

Soarin was certainly on her good side.

The captain, Spitfire, was in the mess hall at the officer's table, with her second-in-command, Soarin, at her side. 

Spitfire downed her morning coffee. "So, Soarin, what did you do on your holiday last week? I've been meaning to ask ya." 

Soarin winced a bit but complied with the question.

"So, I had to be down in Ponyville anyways, and I mean, I don't really know anypony down there, but I headed to their Town Hall to check the population records. Then I saw a name there, one I recognized."

Spitfire leaned it, interested in his story. "Oh yeah? And who would that be?"

"Rainbow Dash," Soarin responded. "It was Rainbow Dash, the mare that saved our flanks at the Best Young Fliers Competition."

Spitfire froze. "Yeah, I remember." 

Soarin grinned and launched right back into his story. "We'll, anyways, I found her address and paid her a visit. Lemme tell ya, she totally flipped out. I thought that we'd seen big fans before her, but she is... I mean, she idolizes you. So, since she's the only friend I've got there, I asked her to show me around. So she remembers my love for pie and takes me to Sugarcube Corner. Best pie EVER."

Spitfire smirked. "I bet you enjoyed that." 

Soarin nodded. "Sure did, I mean, damn, it was as good as the pie I had at the Gala last year! Ya know, it was probably made by that same pony."

Spitfire mock-disapprovingly glared at her fellow officer. "Now, be careful. You need to watch your weight. We can't have ya be too fat to fly as part of the team, now, do we?"

Soarin played along, pretending to be offended. "Hey... I'm not fat!!" 

"I was just razzing ya. Anyways, continue on with your story. It was just getting... Juicy," she snickered. 

Soarin laughed too, knowing she meant it as a joke about the pie.

"So anyways, before she could show me anything else. It was three and I had to leave her suddenly in order not to be late. After the meeting, which P.S. went well, I think I represented our humble organization pretty damn good. So I was flying around, and I kinda got lost, and the sun was going down, and I found her. Rainbow Dash, I mean. I found her chilling on a cloud and watching the sunset. And-" he paused. "Um, Spitfire? Are ya... Okay?" His golden pegasus friend had stiffly frozen, and was raising her eyebrow at him. 

She raised it higher, and relaxed a bit, but her gaze focused on her plate and half-eaten doughnut rather than her friend. 

"Yeah, and so then she was all nonchalant like me, and I just sat down beside her, and we watched the sunset together. It was nice, and then she just kind of started leaning into me, and then she was all pressed up against me, and it just felt right. It was perfect. And I stretched my wing over her, and we stayed like that until it was over. The sunset. And it was amazing." He finished his story with a goofy smile and a contented sigh. 

Spitfire snorted indifferently, but her eyes, normally a warm orange and so bright, had hardened and were now steely cold. 

"Pffffft. Is that so? Well, Soarin, looks like you've landed yourself a filly. Quite the catch too, huh..." It wasn't a question, but rather a statement.

Soarin gazed into space, thinking about Rainbow Dash. Her sleek blue fur, her shiny, prismatic mane, and her beautiful cerise eyes that always shone with determination no matter what she did. The same eyes that gleamed with wonder when she saw him flying with his stunt team, and that glowed with surprise and pure fanfilly excitement when he spoke to her like a friend. 

He blinked, and saw a buttery-golden hoof impatiently waving in front of his face.

"SOARIN! GET YER HEAD OUT OF THE CIRRUS CLOUDS AND BACK ONTO THE CUMULUS WHERE IT BELONGS!" 

"Hehehe, sorry."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well. It happens. Now if you'll ex-CUSE me, I have some letters to answer." She stormed out of the mess hall, slamming the door behind her. The loud noise jarred the pegasus stallion out of his thoughts. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and moved over to the table with his buddies, and sat down to chat.

"Holy shit, dude, did ya see the stunt I pulled at the last showcase?"

"No kidding, Hurricane, that was fuckin' awesome!"

"Yeah, thanks, Fleetfoot, I noticed." 

"Yeah! What'd ya think, Soarin?"

"Yeah, let's get his opinion."

"Soarin?"

"SOOOAAAARIN?"

"Damnit."

Soarin started. "Huh?"

Fleetfoot smirked. "Damn, dude. What's gotten into you lately?"

Hurricane nodded. "Yeah, you're zoning out waaaaaay more than usual."

Fleetfoot prodded her team member, and smirked again. "I bet I know. He's distracted cuz he landed himself a filly."

Soarin sat up. "No," he vigorously protested. "No fuckin' way!"

Hurricane clapped his hooves in malicious glee. "Yep. He's got himself a fillyfriend." 

Soarin groaned. "Not really. I haven't asked her yet. I want to, but I've been busy and I haven't had the chance to yet."

Fleetfoot whapped him on the back. "Awwwww, ya damn coward."

Soarin glared. "Hey, the last time I talked to her was kinda almost a first date! I didn't wanna push it. That doesn't make me a coward!"

"Woah, take it easy, I'm just teasing you. You must really like her, huh?"

He nodded. "I really, really do. She's quite the tomboy, but she's beautiful. Her eyes would melt snow off the highest roofs of Canterlot in mid-January."

Hurricane laughed at his friend's oh-so-poetic speech. "Well, then, lover-boy, looks like ya thought this through."

Soarin took another opportunity to glare.

Hurricane and Fleetfoot took the opportunity to laugh their heads off.

None of the trio noticed Spitfire, quietly observing their conversation form another nearby table. She crushed her empty soda can in her hooves and threw it away as she turned her back on the conversation. She remembered the speech about melting Canterlot snow in January. The pale blue stallion had once said something similar about her, back in their flight camp days. She had loved him with all of her heart. He loved her back, or at least she thought so back then. And now, it was Rainbow Dash this and Rainbow Dash that. 

She huffed and walked away, back to her quarters. She wanted the stallion to say those wonderful things about her, not this Rainbow Dash. Seething furiously, the Wonderbolt Captain sat at her desk and began her work.

Somewhere, in the back of her head, a small voice made itself heard over the grinding of teeth and growling. Maybe this petty crush isn't worth it, you want him to be happy, right?

She paused.

But I want me to be happy, too.

She put down the quill and headed to her room. 

I'm talking to myself now. As in having a legit conversation. I really need more rest.


> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue 
Chapter 7


Rainbow Dash sat at her desk, a quill in her hoof and a letter with only the words "Dear Soarin" written on it.

She had been sitting for an hour and a half, trying to make it sound right.

She thought about it.

She thought about him.

She figured he probably wouldn't care if the letter wasn't poetic as long  it was from her.

She put the quill to the paper and scribbled her message down. 


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Soarin woke up to a knock on his room's door.

He groaned. 

"Ugh. The mail, the stupid annoying mail." 

He opened it. 

A grayish blue mare with a blonde mane and golden eyes going different directions stood there, smiling.

"Hello, Mister Soarin!"

"...hello. And you are?" He responded, slightly grumpily.

"Derpy Hooves. I'm a mailmare. They let me in at the front desk, and I have a personal delivery for you from somepony in Ponyville." She grinned and reached into her saddlebag with her wing, drawing out a pale blue envelope with a familiar cutie mark as the seal. A tricolor lightning bolt coming from a curly cloud.

He grinned back, his grumpy frown disappearing. "I- wow. Thanks so much, Ms. Hooves. I- this mare- I miss her a lot. But I didn't remember her address. Thank you!"

Her eyes switched directions by means of rolling. "Please, Derpy is fine, and it's no problem. Anything for a friend of a friend!" And she trotted away. 

Soarin grinned a huge grin and gently tore the envelope open. He set the envelope aside and onto his desk, and opened the neatly folded letter. 

In a scribbly but pleasant handwriting, the note said:

Dear Soarin,

I miss you. The address is on the envelope. Come visit me, you lazy ass. We need to talk.

Love, 'Dashie' :)

He blinked.

"She wants me to come visit her!" He exclaimed. He checked the clock. 7:30.

Practice wasn't until 5:00 in the evening. He could conceivably go visit her.

"I love the mail." He said.

He put on his jacket and flew out the door. 

Hurricane was practicing outside. He spotted his pale blue friend, racing past at an incredibly fast speed. 

He sped to catch up. 

"Hey buddy! Where are ya going?"

Soarin looked over his shoulder. 

"I'm going to see her! I'm going to see Rainbow Dash!"

Hurricane stopped. "Good luck!"

Hurricane heard one last thing before Soarin was out of shouting range.

"Won't need it!"

He shook his head and sighed.

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Rainbow Dash was pacing back and forth. She had sent the letter two days ago, but since Cloudsdale was rather far away and you couldn't get there by train, it would take a while for the mail service to get her letter. And if he was coming, it needed to be today, because by this time tomorrow, she would be on the Friendship Express, headed to Canterlot, to support Twilight Sparkle during her exam. 

What if he doesn't come today? She thought. He might think I'm standing him up! And then he'll hate me!

The cyan pegasus felt herself start to hyperventilate.

Reigning her sanity back in, she took deep breaths.

And heard a knock at her door.

She opened it.

"OH MY GODDESS!!!!" She screeched.

Soarin, who was standing at the door, felt himself be hugged with the force of the magic of friendship itself. He was knocked to the floor, with a squealing blue pegasus wrapped around him with an iron grip. 

Soarin chuckled. "Missed you too, Dashie."

She let go and awkwardly cleared her throat. "Sorry." 

She couldn't contain her grin. He couldn't either.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked her. 

She froze, her grin faltering slightly.

"I kind of wanted to talk about us. I mean, with the hug when we were watching the sunset, and the sort of date we had, and the race, and-" Her voice was cut off by a pale blue hoof at her muzzle. 

"Sshhhh. I get the point. I just- I wanted to ask you, but-"

Rainbow wriggled free of his grip.

"But I wasn't worth it?"

He started. "What?! No!! You're totally worth it."

She glared. "You're just saying that. I'm the one who asked you to come over here. You could have just come by of your own accord, and visited me, but you didn't because I wasn't cool enough for you. It's been THREE WEEKS SINCE OUR DATE!"

He began to get angry. "Hey! I couldn't come by because Spitfire had me as busy as hell! I wanted to so bad but I'm the second in command to the captain! I have important duties, you know. I don't get rich by sitting and doing nothing at all. And she wouldn't let me use my free time to go see you either. She gave me extra tasks. And this is my first chunk of free time I've had, and to I use it for alone time or a trip to the spa? No, I come and visit you!"

Rainbow's wings flared out in fury, and she shook, tears running down her face and falling onto the cloud carpet. "Because I ASKED you to! Why didn't you just reject me instead of leading me on like this?" 

Soarin's eye twitched. "Because-" 

Rainbow cut him off. "Because you're a jerk, that's why." 

He scowled. "IT'S BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!" 

Rainbow had a nasty response planned, but all that came out of her mouth was "wha-HUH?"

He nodded. "Yes, I do. I can't stop thinking about you. I had so much fun that night, but I was too much of a coward to ask you to be my fillyfriend. And I didn't reject you that night, I honestly had to leave because I needed sleep. I had to wake up at stupid'o'clock in the morning the next day!"

She smiled a little. 

He approached her cautiously, still afraid she might punch him in the face if he got to close. 

"Rainbow- uh, what's your middle name?" He asked rather sheepishly.

"Miriam."

"Okay. Rainbow Miriam Dash, will you be my fillyfriend?"

She smiled and hugged him. "Yes, I was waiting for you to ask."

He hugged her back, and suddenly feeling bold, pulled away. 

"Hey, what was that for? I wasn't done hugging you!"

"I know." He said, and leaned forward, planting a gentle kiss on her lips. Her eyes lit up, and she nuzzled him. He dared to kiss her again, and this time held it for a long time. She finally pulled away, in order to breathe.

"That was nice, but I'm still pissed about you making me feel all angry like that, so once I get back, you owe me a legitimate date. For now, wanna stay for a while?" 

He checked the clock on the wall. 11:00 AM. He was good on time. 

"Why not?" He said.

The two pegasi ate lunch together, played games, raced, and just hung out. By about 4'o'clock, they were exhausted. 

Rainbow yawned. "Wanna watch some TV?" He nodded affirmative. 

They curled up on the couch together, Soarin sitting somewhat normally and Rainbow sitting very close, leaning her head on his shoulders. He leaned his cheek against the top of her head, and they submitted their brains to a comedy show. 

The two pegasi startled awake at the doorbell ringing over and over again, as if somepony was angrily banging on it. 

Rainbow got up first. "My house, I'll get it." She answered the door.

A very extremely livid Spitfire hovered in front of it. The yellow mare toned it down a bit. 

"Hello, Ms. Dash, is Soarin here?" She asked somewhat pleasantly.

Rainbow gaped. "Spitfire? You remember my name?" 

Rainbow Dash fell over twitching and shaking. In doing this, she revealed a groggy Soarin just getting up off the couch. 

Spitfire growled.

Soarin grinned sheepishly, and checked the clock. 7:30 PM. No wonder Spitfire was pissed off.

"Hehehe, sorry Dashie. Gotta go." He leaned down to give his twitching fillyfriend a gentle kiss on the nose.

If looks could kill, Soarin would have been teleported into a basement, skinned alive, boiled, and baked into a cupcake.

Spitfire was not a happy mare. Soarin followed his captain away from Ponyville and back to Cloudsdale.

"What was that all about?" She demanded once they were far enough away.

"I just lost track of time. I'm sorry, I'm trying to get better on my time management skills." He said apologetically.

She frowned, making her angry look even more menacing.

"Okay, very well. But why were you all romantic with her?"

Soarin couldn't keep the goofy grin off of his face. It happened every time he thought of her.

"I finally asked her. I asked her to be my fillyfriend. She accpeted."

Spitfire managed to look even angrier, but Soarin didn't notice. He was completely oblivious to her obvious jealousy.

Soarin turned to look at his friend. "Now I have a question. How did you know where I was? And how did you find her house?"

Spitfire sighed dramatically. "I asked your teammates if they had seen you. Hurricane said you'd gone to see- her. Then I went to your quarters to see if you'd come back and I found this." She pulled the envelope with Dash's address on it out of her pocket. He snatched back, putting it in his own pocket. 

"Ok, Spitfire, just take my shit without permission."

"I'm your damn captain. I can do whatever the fuck I want."

The rest of the flight was had in silence.

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Rainbow was so happy. 

I've just GOT to tell Rarity, and Pinkie, and oh hell. I'll just tell all of my friends.

Somewhat later, Rainbow had gathered four out of five of them at the library. Twilight had her nose in a book as usual, Fluttershy was meekly talking to Applejack, who was playing with her hat, and Rarity was combing her elegant purple mane and styling it, using a bejeweled hand mirror. 

Rainbow was sitting on a pile of pillows, nervously poking one with her hoof. "Where's Pinkie Pie?" She inquired. 

The rest of her friends shrugged. The door burst open, revealing a wildly shaking pink party pony. 

"H-h-e-e-y!!!" She said, pinning herself against the floor so she could talk somewhat normally. "H-hey! M-m-my P-pinkie Sensse I-is g-going c-crazy-w-wAaazy!" 

Twilight looked up from her book. "Uh oh," she said, noticing Pinkie vibrating and shaking all over the place. "That's the one that means there is going to be a doozy!"

Rainbow wasted no more time. "Well, now that we're all here, I have a little announcement to make." 

Twilight's book, Rarity's beauty supplies, and Pinkie's cupcake fell to the ground in anticipation.

"I- wait a second, Pinkie. How'd you get that cupcake?" 

Pinkie smiled her huge smile, and pulled a whole tray of them out of her poofy pink mane. "Duh! Anypony want one?"

Crickets. Crickets.

"No? Okay then!" 

Rainbow brought her jaw back up to where it belonged in order to continue speaking. "I wanted to tell you guys that I have a coltfriend."

Rarity positively beamed. "That's wonderful, darling!"

Pinkie stopped vibrating and resumed bouncing. "Yeah, who's the lucky stallion?"

Rainbow grinned like a madmare. "Soarin."

Her friends clapped for her. 

Fluttershy took a huge breath in, and "yaaay"ed very softly. 

The rest of her friends were exclaiming very loudly.

Rainbow grinned even more.

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly. "OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!!! This means I get to throw... A PARTYYYY!!!!"

Rainbow only rolled her eyes slightly. "When we get back from our trip. For now, I'm tired." 

She and the four other ponies who don't live at the library left to go home. They had a big day ahead.

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Soarin sat in Spitfire's office, getting his ears pummeled out my Spitfire's voice. 

He sat and took it. Objecting to her raging rant could leave him jobless with a black eye.

When she was finally done, Soarin had to ask. 

"I don't really think you're pissed off because I missed practice. Why are you really angry?"

She snarled. "Because of that... That Rainbow Dash! She- she's stealing you away from me."

This thoroughly enraged the pale pegasus stallion. 

"I'm not yours! Wait... Are you... Jealous?" 

She glared at him, then looked away, attempting to set the desk on fire with her eyes. 

"Spitfire... I know we had a thing back in our flight camp years, but that's over now. You had your chance, hell, you're the one that ended it!" And he walked away. 

Soarin had no idea she still had a thing for him. He had a gut feeling that things were going to get awkward.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 8


Rainbow Dash bolted out of her comfy cloud bed.  Now, normally, this wasnt something the blue pegasus would do, but today was a special day. A few days previously, she had filled out and sent an application to the Wonderbolts training camp, the Wonderbolts Academy. She would go to that camp and train there, and they would pick the best of the best fliers from there, meaning her, to train further and be made a Wonderbolt. She dashed around her room, packing a light saddlebag with just a few necessary items for hygiene. She would need to look her best, and she wanted to smell decent too. For the Wonderbolts would take only the best, and she had to make a good first impression. She took one glance at her bookshelf and ended up taking a few Daring Do books. She hid them under the towels and blankets she was bringing. An egghead wouldn't make the best impression on the world most famous athletes and racers.

She was excited, to say the least. Her friends were happy because she was, and Pinkie Pie hosted an honorary picnic at Ponyville park. The pink party pony in question brought a plethora of random treats and party supplies, and all of her friends will there, and they waited for the letter. 

Because Ponyville was such a small town where nearly everypony knew eachother, the mailponies would usually seek out the pony if they weren't at home. However, today's mailpony didn't need to, for one could hear Pinkie Pie's nervous exclamations from all the way in Town Square.

"Ooooh! I wish the mailpony would just come already! I can't wait another minute to find out if Rainbow Dash got in or not!"

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes a little bit. "Pinkie Pie, you're more nervous than Rainbow Dash." She pointed out to the pink pony.

"And I'm not nervous at all." Rainbow boasted pridefully. "When I get in to the Wonderbolts Academy..."

Pinkie jumped up to begin yelling in her friend's face. "IF you get in! If you get in! Don't jinx it!"

Rainbow extended a hoof, gently shoving her energetic friend away. "I'm telling you, it's in the bag."

"Don't jinx it!!!" Pinkie fretted frantically.

Applejack jumped in, trying to reassure the spasming party pony that it was reasonably okay. "She is the best flier in Ponyville."

Rainbow didn't see the intentions of Applejack, instead taking the comment as an insult. "Hey! In Ponyville? I'm probably the best flier in all of Equestria!" She took the obvious opportunity to show off. "I wouldn't be surprised if they made me a Wonderbolt on the first day!" She ended her ego-boosting speech with a dramatic barrel roll on the ground- and rolled straight into the mailpony. 

"Letter here for Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow looked up at him, hope and excitement written all over her face. She happily snatched the letter, leading the mailpony to trot away. She slowly opened it, stretching out the suspense, and seeing the looks on the faces of her friends, she just had to screw around a little. She put on her best shocked-and-at-the-same-time-sad-and-disappointed face.

"I... Didn't get in."

Pinkie gasped a loud and sad gasp.

Rainbow cracked up, and showed them the green ribbon and seal of approval. 

"Gotcha! Ha, you guys are so gullible." The looks on their faces now ranged from annoyance to shock to relief. "Like I wasn't gonna get in," she added with a smirk. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't, because she was having the life squeezed out of her by a certain pink pony. 

"I'm just SOOOOOOOOOOO happy for you!!!!!!!" She all but screamed into Rainbow's ear.

Rainbow spoke the best she could as she was being hugged to death. "Um, thanks? Pinkie Pie? I kinda need to get going." 

Pinkie nodded so rapidly her head was a blur, and disentangled herself from her friend. "Okay! I'm done!" 

Rainbow gleefully grinned. "The sooner I get there, the sooner I get to show my stuff! See you guys in a week!" With that the blue pegasus began to fly away. 

"Good luck!" Applejack called to her departing friend.

"Won't need it!" She called back.

"DON'T FORGET TO WRITE!!!!!!!" Pinkie Pie shouted after Rainbow Dash at the top of her lungs. The loud scream echoed throughout the park. She turned to her friends. "Do you think she heard me?" 

Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight laughed. "No, I don't think she did!" They all giggled some more, but it was Rarity who noticed that Fluttershy was not expressing joy or excitement for her friend. 

"Fluttershy, darling, what's wrong?"

The yellow pegasus sighed, tears forming in her large real eyes. "I'm just worried, I guess. About losing her. I mean, we know we'll see her again after a week, this time. But our Dashie really is a great flyer. And they will probably want to make her into one of them, and then she'll be touring all over Equestria, and it's not often they do a show here in Ponyville. When will we see her?"

Applejack sat down next to Fluttershy, putting a hoof on her shoulders. "Now, sugarcube,  Rainbow is one of our best friends, and she'll always have time for us. Ah'm positive that if she's made a Wonderbolt she'll come and visit us here."

"Yeah, she is the Element of Loyalty. She won't just abandon us." Twilight chimed in.

"And anyways darling, it's best not to be meddling in the future or the past when we have the present to think about. What's important now is that Rainbow Dash is happy and we should be too, because we are all the best of friends." Rarity concluded. 

Pinkie Pie nodded, and whipped a cupcake out of nowhere to cheer up her sad friend. "Yeah! And it's super-duper-extra-ultra-extreme-awesome-amazing that Dashie gets to pursue the dream she's had since she was a filly!"

Fluttershy accepted the treat and took a dainty bite, allowing herself a small smile. "Thanks everypony, it's just, I've been friends with Dashie since the first day of Flight School. I don't really even remember much before that."

They settled in for a comforting group hug, well, minus one pony anyways.


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Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash raced through the sky, having chosen to fly to Cloudsdale. Taking the train would have been slower and she could clear the sky in ten seconds flat. So it would have been pointless.

And besides, she was filled with adrenaline.

She was so excited.

She could meet other ponies like her there, with an ambition to achieve the same dream. She could inspire them with her awesomeness by making it through and encouraging them to do it too... After her, of course.

Even in this excited and egotistical state, the blue pegasus mare knew she had room for improvement. But she also thought she was so close to the top that it was just a little bit of wiggle room. But it was still there. And the best way to fill that up was to learn from the best. And the Wonderbolts were the best. And this was their training camp! 

Rainbow took a deep breath, and squealed happily. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

She looked around nervously, clearing her throat. "Ahem, er..." She trailed off. 

A few random pegasi were flying around the sky giving her an odd look. She blushed, grinning sheepishly, and resorted to her usual expression of happiness. 

"OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" She muttered repeatedly under her breath as she took off at great speeds.

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When the cyan mare finally reached her destination, she had calmed down considerably. She needed to keep her cool in front of her idols- and her instructors. 

She read the signs, and they directed her towards the front desk.

A hired receptionist pony was there, greeting the trainees. Her mane was a light peachy orange, and her coat was a dark pink. Her eyes were a light bluish color with a foggy grey tint, and her cutie mark was that of a sunrise over a beach, with a foggy cloud obscuring it partly.

"Hello! Welcome to Wonderbolts Academy, where they train the best to be the best. I presume you're here to sign in, may I please have your name?"

Rainbow Dash proudly puffed out her chest a bit, and smiled cockily. "The name's Rainbow Dash."

The receptionist wrote it down on her notepad, and put on that smile again. "Pleasure to have you here, Miss Rainbow Dash. I am Sunrise Mist, but call me Sunny." She handed Rainbow a key. "This is your room key. I suggest you pay a visit to the dorms and set your bags down. They look heavy."

Rainbow snorted. "Meh, it's nothing I can't handle."

Sunny smiled again. "Great. I'll be seeing you around, Miss Rainbow Dash. Remember, if you need something, pay me a visit and I'll be happy to help you."

Rainbow nodded. Sunny seemed nice but she really wanted to get a move on. "Thanks, Misty." And with a wave, she was out the door. 

Following the signs again, Rainbow found her way to the dorms. She also easily found her room. Her training group, A, would be on the seventh floor, seeing as the first was reserved for recreation and food. And her room number was also 7, which was her lucky number. "This is going to be so AWESOME!!!!" She said, squeezing her cheeks in with her hooves and puckering up her lips. Without a further hesitation, she leaped into the elevator and pressed the button for floor six. 

Upon arriving at her room, she noticed that there were two beds there. Maybe she'd have a roommate, which would be cool. She wouldn't find out till later though. Right now, it didn't seem like her prospective roommate had gotten here yet, so she picked a side and plunked down on her new bed for the week. Sinking into it, she decided it really wasn't that bad, so she spread her blanket from home onto it. It was adorned with her cutie mark. 

She remembered receiving it. Her mother Firefly had made it for her. It was a Hearth's Warming gift the same year that Firefly and Rainbow's father Rainbolt had gotten divorced. Her father had died in April the next year. Her mother went missing soon after Rainbow moved out for college in Cloudsdale. Rainbow had always presumed that Firefly had abandoned her and ran off with some stallion. She shook her head, waking herself up from the bad memories. She glanced in the mirror, and saw a lone tear running down her cheek. She hastily wiped it away and put on a brave face. She wouldn't let the past bring her down, she had training to get to.

She put her bag on the dresser and her past behind her, and then opened the closet. Inside there were a bit more than a week's worth of Wonderbolt-inspired training outfits. She grinned, closed it, and looked around. She saw a clock on the wall, and suddenly remembered her schedule. She needed to be in the small auditorium on the first floor at 2:30. It was 2:15. 

"Yikes," Rainbow remarked aloud, "better get moving."

She put on one of the uniforms, and locked the door behind her, putting the key safely in her pocket when she was done. 

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The pegasus easily found her way to the room she was supposed to be in. Then she had to listen as Sunny gave a welcoming speech to the trainees. She nearly fell asleep. But the thing that stopped her was Spitfire, trotting up to the microphone and beginning her speech. 

"Alrighty recruits. Are you here to train for the Wonderbolts?"

A mostly half-hearted yeah came from the crowd. Rainbow Dash noticed that only herself and two other ponies yelled enthusiastically. 

"What was that again? I can't hear ya!" Spitfire all but screamed into the microphone. 

This time the crowd roared out the desired word.

"YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Spitfire smirked. "Great! Are ya gonna work hard?"

"YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"Are ya gonna do your best?"

"YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"Are you gonna respect your instructors?"

"YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"Are you really ready for the challenge?"

"YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"Good. Now, there will be six trainers here working with ya. Let's have them introduce themselves in reverse order."

She leaped off the podium, and settled herself on the side of the stage.

A light orangey yellow mare with an orange mane stepped up. Rainbow knew her, she knew all of them. Her cutie mark was a ball of flames.

"Attention recruits! My name is Blaze! I will be working with Training Group F! I have been a proud member of the Wonderbolts for six years, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to work here with all of you!"

The auditorium erupted with applause.

An extremely pale yellow mare with an electric blue mane and purple eyes took her place.

"I'm Misty Fly! I will be working with Training Group E this week! I'm proud to have been in the Wonderbolts for three years, and I'm proud to be here to work with y'all."

More thunderous applause.

A dark gray stallion with a crazy and curly silver mane so shiny it indeed looked like metal took Misty Fly's place. His cutie mark was a silver cloud, and his eyes were, OMG, what a surprise, silvery gray.

"My name is Silver Lining. I'm gonna work with Training Group D this week. I joined the Wonderbolts a year ago, and I'm happy to be here now as a result."

Cue enthusiastic applause.

Rainbow applauded as enthusiastically as the rest of the ponies, but she was slightly distracted because A) she was bored because the speeches were all pretty much the same, and B) Spitfire was making direct eye contact with her. She was also scowling at her. She didn't know what to make of it.

She got back into focus as Fleetfoot stepped off of the podium. I'm guessing she's with Group C, Rainbow reasoned.

Then her heart skipped about ten beats. 

"Hey, recruits. I'm Soarin! I've been a Wonderbolts member for seven years and I've been Lieutenant Captain for three of those years."

Rainbow crossed two of her feathers. 

Please say Group A, please please say Group A, please pleeeaaase PLEEEEAAAASE say Group A! Rainbow would have been overjoyed to get to work with him for a week.

"I'll be working with Group B this week." And he stepped off. 

Rainbow sighed inwardly.

Her sigh got stuck in her throat as Spitfire herself got up there. 

"I'm sure everypony here knows me. So I'll spare ya the introductions. I'll be with Group A."

It was all Rainbow could do not to either faint or start screaming. Luckily she did neither.

"Now, remember to treat these ponies here with respect. The remaining Wonderbolts are either setting things up out in the training field, or in the dorms. Since your counselors could not be here, I'll quickly rattle off their names and which group they're with, and then we'll get started.

"High Winds, with F. Fire Streak, with E. Wave Chill, with D. Lightning Streak, with C. Rapidfire, with B. And last but not least, Surprise, with A. Now, you should know where to go next if you can read and you actually looked at the letter. So scram, and I'll see ya in five!"

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Rainbow Dash was lined up with her fellow trainees. "Oh, yeah! This is gonna be sweeeet!" She muttered to herself.

Spitfire landed heavily infront of them, not hesitating to get right into it.

"Well lookie what we got here. Betcha'll think you're Wonderbolt material, don't ya?"

All the pegasi in Group A responded firmly. "Yes ma'am!"

"Think you got what it takes to be an elite flyer?"

"Yes ma'am!"

Spitfire smirked, narrowing her eyes. "Well then. Let me be the first to tell you... You don't! If you had what it took to be an elite flyer, you'd already be a Wonderbolt!"

She shook her head, pointing a hoof at Cloudchaser. "Still think you're something special?"

Cloudchaser trembled slightly, but kept up her confidence as she spoke. "N-no ma'am."

Spitfire moved on to Snowflake. "Ya think you're hot stuff?" He shook his head emphatically, sweat already dripping down his muzzle, too astonished to speak.

She trotted over to Rainbow Dash, pointing a hoof at her and narrowing her eyes. "You look like you're the worst flyer in the whole academy! You'll probably quit after the first day!" 

Rainbow kept her confident and determined stare level with Spitfire's eyes. "No, ma'am! I'd never quit, ma'am!"

Spitfire turned her gaze over to the pony besides Rainbow Dash. Rainbow didn't know her from anywhere, she wasn't from Ponyville. She was a greenish turquoise color with a golden mane. Her eyes were the same color as her mane as well as her cutie mark, two little lightning bolts striking some golden sparkles.

"Ha. What about you? Bet you couldn't fly past the first flagpole without getting winded."

The teal pony's response shocked Rainbow thoroughly.

"Try me, ma'am!"

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

The teal pony remained undaunted. "Let me show you what I've got, ma'am."

Spitfire smirked again. "Ah. Ya want a chance to prove yourself, huh?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Well then, now's your chance. Give me five hundred laps! All of you!"

A collective groan sounded out from the crowd.

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Rainbow Dash was doing very well. 

Spitfire had a whistle and a timer, and was shouting out the lap numbers.

"Lap four-hundred-and-ninety-nine..."

"Only one lap left..." Said the teal pony. 

Rainbow had to accept. "You're on!"

Finally, the whistle sounded. The teal pony and Rainbow touched down at the same time, and slapped their wings together. 

"Lap five-hundred! Not bad, for a couple of noobs." 

The teal pony chose to ignore the insult, instead extending her hoof in greeting. "Name's Lightning Dust."

"I'm Rainbow Dash!"

They shook hooves.

Lightning Dust's cocky grin compared only to the identical one on Rainbow's face.

"Wanna grab some grub in the mess hall?" Lightning Dust asked.

Rainbow nodded. "Definitely.

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Rainbow scarfed down her dinner, as did Lightning Dust. After swallowing her last mouthful of veggie casserole, she turned to her newfound friend, who'd been done for some time. "So, Lightning Dust, what room are you in?"

Lightning frowned for a second, pulling out her key. "Oh, 7.07. When I checked in around 1:00 there was somepony's stuff there already."

Rainbow's eyes lit up. "No way, that was my stuff! We're roomies!" 

A hoof-bump was exchanged.

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Later that night, Rainbow Dash was actually putting her stuff away when she came upon the paper she'd brought for writing letters. Lightning Dust was just taking the first turn in the shower, so Rainbow took the opportunity to write one.

Dear friends,

It's only been one day and I already miss you guys. But otherwise, it's awesome here! I met a pony named Lightning Dust. She's just like me, just not quite as awesome as me. Or as you guys. She's my roommate, which is cool. It's nice to have some company, and she shares my lifelong dream. I mean, no offense, but you guys don't care about the Wonderbolts as much as I do. But I can talk to her about them and she is just as enthusiastic as me! I love it here, but I can't wait to see you guys again.

Love from your ever-loyal, awesome, and 20% Cooler friend,

Rainbow Dash

P.S. Applejack and Rarity, could one of you guys please tell your sisters to tell Scootaloo that I miss her and am looking forward to hanging with her once I get back? Thanks in advance!

She put the letter in an envelope and licked it. Tonight, after her shower and before bed, she would go ask Sunny about getting it mailed to Twilight at the library. She sighed and settled onto her bed to wait for her turn in the shower, grabbing a book to pass the time. 

She got halfway through Daring Do and the Griffon's Goblet before Lightning was done. 

"Oh wow, Dash. Is that a book?" She snickered rudely.

"Yeah. It's my favorite series to read, the only one at that. I don't read anything else. There's not a problem, is there?" Rainbow replied, casting a withering glare in Lightning's general direction. 

"Oh no, not at all, it's just, you seemed waaaay too cool for that, Dash." 

Rainbow turned the glare up to 11 as she got up to grab a towel and some soap. Lightning Dust shut up. 

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Soarin sat with Spitfire in an unused conference room, but this time it was Soarin who was angry. 

"Are you intentionally keeping me away from her?!" He demanded to know.

Spitfire rolled her eyes at him. "Duh, I can't have you distracting her. As much as I hate her, she's one of the best flyers at this camp. Her and that Lightning Dust girl are extremely skilled. Especially Rainbow Dash. She's done, what, like, three sonic rainbooms?"

Soarin sighed angrily. "But I'm not even allowed to see her or talk to her outside of training hours?"

Spitfire shook her head no and left without saying anything else.

Soarin made his mind up to visit her anyways. He returned to his quarters and grabbed a notepad. He quickly scribbled a note down, signed it, and went into the hall, seeking out Surprise. 

He easily found her room, knocked on the door, and waited.

"Heya, Soarin! What brings you here?" The ever-bubbly mare responded. 

He held up the note.

"You're on counselor duty this week right?"

"Yeppers!"

"Is there a 'Rainbow Dash' in your group?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Can you deliver this to her for me?"

"Sure thing!"

"Thanks."

The pale blue stallion retreated back to his own room, eager to get some sleep before the next grueling day.










> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 9



It was a beautiful and bright Wednesday morning. Celestia's sun shone extra radiant, the weather ponies had strewn clouds artfully across the sky, and the birds felt ling singing their joys to the sky. All of Ponyville's citizens happily went about their business, exchanging bright and cheerful greetings as they passed one another, and all was peaceful and pleasant. Well, except for one pony. A certain pink party pony that did not exactly feel like interacting with anypony- which was quite the rare and unusual happenstance. Her hair was extra frizzy - frizzier than usual-, and she was developing rather disturbing bags beneath her eyes. 

Creeeeeeeeaaaaaaak. 

"Still nothing..." Pinkie Pie mumbled quietly to herself as she slammed the mailbox down again. She took no notice whatsoever of her friends approaching her, instead preferring to continue her mailbox antics.

"She's still at it," Rarity remarked.

"I just wish we could help her..." Fluttershy timidly sighed.

Pinkie Pie blearily looked up as her mailbox creaked open again. "Help me? The only thing that could possibly help me right now is a letter from Rainbow Dash! It's been three days already. By now, she probably doesn't even know our names anymore! She probably can't remember our faces!"

She paused to slam her mailbox door down again. She took a dramatic gasp of air. "Pinkie Pie? I never heard of a Pinkie Pie. Who is Pinkie Pie?"

Twilight Sparkle facehooved before glancing worriedly at her friend. "Well, if you're so worried, then why don't you send her a letter first?"

Pinkie visibly brightened. "Of course! That's a great idea!"

Her friends sighed in relief. 

Pinkie's hair poofed out of its extremely frizzy and disheveled state to its normal bouncy and messy curls. She grinned. "Oh wait! I got an even better idea! How about we send Rainbow Dash a care package? You know, before she forgets all about us? Although, come on, let's face it. It's probably too late for that. But, uh, maybe it'll jog her memory somehow." Her face fell slightly but maintained a spark of hope.

Twilight sighed and put a hoof on Pinkie's back. "Pinkie Pie, I'm sure Rainbow Dash still remembers our faces and who we are. But I think sending her a care package is a great idea."

Pinkie clapped her hooves together. "A care package it is! We'll send it through the mail! WAIT!" She froze and scratched her chin thoughtfully before randomly shrieking. "AAH! That won't work at all!" 

"Why not?" Applejack inquired. 

The pink party pony began to pace back and forth. "Because what if the package gets lost in the mail? What if somepony else gets the package by accident and then she remembers us instead of Rainbow Dash and then she becomes our new friend? And then the real Rainbow Dash won't ever know that she used to have friends and she forgot them!!!" She was practically hyperventilating. 

Applejack shook her head in an attempt to grasp the concept. "Is anypony else followin' this?"

Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy shook their heads.

Pinkie continued mumbling to herself as she paced. Suddenly, she stopped, reached a hoof into her poofy mane, and pulled out a lightbulb. 

"I'VE GOT IT! We'll just deliver the care package to Rainbow Dash ourselves!"

Rarity twirled her violet curls around her hoof thoughtfully. "I wouldn't mind a little trip," she decided. 

"I'll go too." Twilight said. 

"Count me in," Applejack added. 

"Me too." Fluttershy timidly stepped forward to join her friends. 

"Me five!" Pinkie Pie launched herself into her friends. "But don't be upset if she doesn't recognize you at first. It may take a while for her to get her memory back."

Twilight sighed once again. "Okay, Pinkie. If we want to get there in time to see her today, we'd better get going. The academy is a long ways away for those of us who can't exactly fly with wings. We can take my hot air balloon." 

The aforementioned balloon appeared with a popping sound and an expulsion of magenta sparks. 

"Sounds like a plan, man!" Pinkie exclaimed. 

The five mares piled into said balloon and were off to see their friend.


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Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was lined up outside a menacing looking structure of tubes, pipes, and clouds. Of course, she wasn't afraid. And if she was, she wouldn't have noticed, for at that moment, Spitfire flew in, flanked by a pair of security guards. 

"Today we'll be doing our famous air obstacle course." Spitfire announced, glancing back at the pipes in front. 

Right on cue, the tubes spouted out more clouds with a loud hissing noise. Spitfire continued her speech without missing a beat. 

"The object of this exercise is to work on your precision flying under extreme circumstances."

Rainbow and her partner Lightning Dust exchanged a determined glance. Spitfire noticed the cheeky smirks and grins the two were wearing upon their faces right away. 

"And don't worry about winning. It's not a race. Now everypony, get on your marks!"

Unfortunately for them, as all the trainees lined up in pairs, from the way they had all been in a single file line, they ended up the last pair in line. 

Spitfire blew loudly upon her silver whistle and her security guards lifted the barrier. 

As much as Rainbow and Lightning Dust wanted to take off, they were stuck behind the others, who were pretty much just cruising right along. 

They tolerated it for a bit, but eventually, Lightning Dust began to lose her patience. 

"Ugh. Can't they go any faster? It's no good. I can't get around them!" 

Rainbow wanted so badly to agree, but she knew it wasn't quite right- it wasn't everyone else's fault that she was cooler. If she just so happened to be 20% cooler than everypony else, it wasn't really anypony's fault. It just worked out like that. 

"Doesn't matter. We can still fly completely in sync and blow Spitfire's mind with our moves."

"I guess..." Lightning Dust sounded less enthusiastic. 

They flapped their wings in rhythm, skillfully soaring around pillars and through clouds of steam. 



The pipes began to spout out puffs of swirling, angry black clouds, crackling with power and electricity. As rain started sprinkling and then pouring out of the clouds, the ponies all slowed down, which pissed Lightning Dust off greatly.

"What are they, a couple of snails?! It's just a bit of weather!!"

From one of the miniature storm clouds, a bolt of lightning flashed out and struck near the pair of trainees in front of Rainbow and Lightning. The two mares looked at each other- Rainbow with doubt and Lightning with certainty. 

"Come on, Dash! Now's our chance to pass these slowpokes!"

One by one, they passed over all of the fumbling pairs and easily rocketed to the finish, landing at the exact same time in front of a seemingly impressed Spitfire.

"Not bad! And in record time, too! Definitely made the right decision making you two a team." 

She glanced backwards at the obstacle course, only to find that the other pairs were stuck and tangled up in the storm clouds.

"The others seem to have had a little trouble with the precision part of the exercise. I'd better go help sort them out. Why don't you two go hit the mess hall early?"

Lightning Dust gave a playful but sharp salute. "Yes ma'am!" 

She began flying off at a leisurely pace, sure that their fellow trainees were soooo behind that no matter how fast or slow she got to the mess hall, she and Dash would be first in line. 

Rainbow seemed less excited, but still wanted to go eat. It was rather obvious that she was feeling uncertain about something. Not that her leadpony Lightning Dust noticed. "Thank you, ma'am."

She flew over to fly next to her friend on the way to the mess hall. She opened her mouth a few times as if to speak, and finally got over her nerves- which she wasn't even sure why she had. "Um, Lightning Dust?"

"Dash?" 

"Maybe next time we don't cut the other teams off like that, okay?"

Lightning Dust waved a hoof in the air indifferently. "Meh." 
She took a look at her wingpony and finally picked up on her feelings. Was Dash feeling... Guilty? Lightning was a bit surprised, but wasn't about to treat her very own wingpony like trash. She tried to reassure her- well, sort of, but in her own brash and selfcentered way.

"Hey, you snooze, you lose! Besides, Wonderbolts are supposed to be able to recover from a spin-out. You saw them on the Dizzitron! They could use the practice. I mean, it's not our fault we're so much better than those other guys! Not every pony is destined to become a Wonderbolt. Only the best of the best, right?"

Dash sighed and looked up at her leadpony. "Yeah, I-I guess... I guess you're right."

Lighting grinned. "'Course I'm right. Now, let's go fuel up, Dash. I'm starving- kicking all that tail made me hungry." She tugged impatiently on her partner's hoof, only to notice that Rainbow Dash had stopped completely.

Rainbow was looking the opposite direction, her gaze resting intensely on the cobbled cloud pathway that led to the dorms.

I could have sworn I heard a familiar voice, she thought to herself. Unaware of the fact that she'd stopped flying, she perked her ears towards the area where she thought she heard the voice. 

"...yeah...and then she said that I wasn't respons...yeah. And then I... Uh-huh...she was worried...in my group...off-limits because...saved my...but pie!" The voices continued, but Rainbow had heard enough of the conversation to know. 

She returned to reality. Lightning Dust was giving her an odd look. A tinge of pink colored her cheeks lightly as she cleared her throat. 

"Ahem. Well I guess lets go eat."

The two mares trotted towards the mess hall, an awkward silence piercing the space around them.

When they were inside, Lightning Dust broke the silence to ask Rainbow a question.

"...so what was that all about, Dash?"

Rainbow's cheeks colored again. 

"Nothing... I'd rather not talk about it."

Lightning gave her a very skeptical glance but dropped the subject. 

Rainbow sighed. I know that he works here, plus it just saw him. Who else would be complaining about a lack of pie anyways? She thought to herself as she wondered if she'd see him again before the week was over. She mulled things over, wondering if it was safe to seek him out sometime in person. Spitfire might bite her head off. Her grimacing was interrupted by Lightning Dust, who sounded bored. 

"Why the weird face, Dash? Is it the salad or something?" 

Rainbow hesitated to tell her. Who knows what the impulsive and cocky pegasus might do?

"Nothing. I was just wondering how my friends are doing back in Ponyville."

"...ok. Hey, I'm gonna use the little filly's room. Take my tray for me?" 

Rainbow obliged, although with a less than generous attitude and quite a few grumbles. As she sat back down, she felt something shift in her pocket. It had been in her pocket for two days now, and she'd practically forgotten it was there. After checking to see if Lightning Dust had gotten back yet (she hadn't) or if the other trainees, who were just starting to file in, were paying attention (they weren't), she pulled out the small slip of paper and unfolded it. 

Dear Dashie~

I'm happy to see that you're here. I wish I could spend more time with you but Spitfire is keeping the both of us so busy. Just wanted to let you know that a) I've seen you training and keep up the awesome work, and b) I'm thinking about you! 

Love from Soarin

P.S. You should buy me another pie sometime, yeah?

She smiled and sighed. Her ears inadvertently twitched. She replaced the note in her pocket just in time, took for Lightning Dust was quickly approaching their table. The two mares sat and chatted while they waited for their next task.


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At the sound of a whistle, all the trainees blasted into the air to clear the extra-tough clouds- some more enthusiastic than others. Rainbow flew directly behind her lead pony, feeling squirmish and fidgety. Her impulses were acting up again. Their task was to clear the sky of these super-clouds- she still could have done it in ten seconds flat, but alas, she was stuck waiting for her lead pony to make a desicion. She'd already gone and complained to Spitfire about the placing, but her idol and sargaent had coldly dismissed her, saying that Lightning Dust pushed herself a teensy bit harder. Rainbow was then kicked out in favor of the Wonderbolts fan letters being autographed. 

Lighting motioned a hoof toward a particularly tough looking blob of cumulus clouds, and the two mares dived towards it. A pair of flying kicks caused the cloud to cease existing. 

"Psssst. Dash, I have an idea about how we can literally blow away the competition."

Dash slowed a bit, looking around as a couple of pulls stretched apart a cloud, dispersing it into nothingness. 

"But we're already way ahead!" She protested. Lightning shot her a look.

"Are you in or not?" 

Rainbow's ears flattened against her skull as Spitfire's words echoed in her head. 

Ears still flat, she heaved a sigh and pretended to perk up. 

"...I'm in." 

"Then follow my lead."

The two mares began manipulating the winds. Rainbow was not having any trouble at all- she did this all the time back home. However, Lightning Dust didn't seem to have experience with tornadoes. Through the rapidly increasing vortex, Rainbow Dash could see her turquoise lead pony slipping and sliding in the air currents. 

"...can't...it!"

"Huh?" 

Rainbow wasn't sure if Lightning had spoken, but that wasn't important. She kept the focus on the twister as it sucked up clouds. She was so focused she didn't even realize what the problem was.

And then it hit her across the face. Literally. For apparently the problem had a name, four legs, wings, and a golden mane. Rainbow cleared her head just in time to see the mini-tornado go flying through the air towards a random but rapidly approaching pinkish-purple speck. 

Wait a second...

Rainbow scratched her head in confusion. What in Equestria was Twilight Sparkle's balloon doing here all by itself?! Inconceivable!!

By the time she realized the only logical explanation, it was nearly too late. She shook her head to clear the smack-induced cobwebs and took off as fast as she could. 

It wasn't fast enough, though, and the twister got there first. 

"No!!!" She shrieked. It was a stereotypical nightmare- but it was no dream. The four piercing mortal screams of terror (and one bout of high-pitched maniacal adrenaline filled cackling) filled her brain, reverberating as her friends plunged to their deaths. Even Fluttershy was falling too fast to use her wings- and she was probably too scared to anyways. 

Rainbow smacked herself across the face.

"Think fast! You gotta save them," she told herself. 

She wasted no time in diving down and started flying in circles around a bunch of low lying clouds that had survived the bout with the swirling vortex of doom, which was what the silly bit in the back of Rainbow Dash's head decided to call the tornado. She flew tighter and tighter circles, until by some freak of nature they condensed into a thick cushion of vapor. All Rainbow could do now was fly up with it and hope it would work.

Much to her relief, it was wound tight enough that they landed somewhat safely. She let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding as the emergency squad arrived. They split off into pairs and helped to hold up the frazzled non-pegasi. Rainbow chose to ignore the tears streaming down her face. 

Or maybe she should wipe them off. She did so, glancing upwards. Much to her disdain, Lightning Dust was still hovering. She seemed to still be in shock. Rainbow felt an inexplicable tug at her bowels and tingling in her chest. She didn't even notice she was trembling with the anger, but right then, Dash decided she had had enough of that pony's horseapples.

She saw that her friends had a safe lift up, then sped ahead. 

"What the hell was that?!" She shrieked, pointing an accusatory hoof at her lead pony.

Lighting came back to reality. She looked around, taking in the vast blue of the now extremely cloudless sky. 

"The twister?"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes in a dangerous glare.

"That... Was AWESOME!" 

Perfect timing, for the rescue squad was not quite there yet with the other element-bearers. Otherwise the egotistical mare would have been subject to a brilliant and colorful dose of love and tolerance. Or maybe just colorful language.

"Awesome? My friends could have been smashed to pieces!" Rainbow snarled.

"Yeah, but they weren't, right? Can't say the same for the clouds. We totally wiped them out with that tornado. The other cadets will have to be up there for days to bust as many as we did." Lightning held up a hoof, all the while grinning mischievously.

Rainbow could not believe the cockiness of this mare. What she really wanted to do was punch her across the face until you couldn't tell her face was turquoise, nut instead she settled for yelling. 


<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>


Twilight Sparkle caught her breath as she hung in the arms of a pegasus officer. She focused her inner spirit, allowing herself to calm down. She reached out with her magic and cast a cloud walking spell on herself and her friends that lacked wings. She explained to the squad that they would be fine, and the pegasi flew them up and set them down. 

Just in time, too- things were getting ugly.

"A hoof bump? Seriously? You made me clip my wing. You sent half of our class into serious tailspins on the obstacle course. You unleashed a tornado that nearly demolished my friends!" Rainbow Dash all but shrieked at Lightning Dust. 

The mare seemed indifferent. "Yeah, and?"

"And I get that you want to be the best. So do I! But you're going about it in the wrong way." Rainbow's eyes were glistening, large and fragile like a sheet and ice, but with depth and strength as she defied this pony for the sake of her friends. 

Before she could get any further, Lightning cut her off with a snarky retort. 

"The Wonderbolts don't seem to think so. After all, Spitfire did make me the leader and you the wingpony."

Ouch.

"You're right, she did..." Rainbow Dash sighed in defeat before flying off to who knows where.

"Pfffffft. What a loser. And here I thought she was cool." Lightning Dust scoffed and turned around, probably to go kick some puppies or something. 

"gggrrraaaah!!" 

A tiny little growl sounded. Immediately, Applejack and Pinkie Pie leaped onto Fluttershy, restraining her from chasing after the rude pegasus mare or something. 

"Woah there Sugarcube. What's got y'all so worked up all of a sudden?" Applejack grunted as the held back the livid pegasus mare. 

"Nopony talks to my Dashie like that. NOPONY." 

Even Pinkie had to agree that she seemed like a 'RudeMeanieMean McJerkyStuckUpPants the Eighth, twice removed' or something along those lines. 


<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>


Soarin stretched his forelegs as he hovered out of the mess hall. 

"Hmmmm. Not as good as apple pie from that place in Ponyville, but it'll do. Pie is pie after all." 

And then, his normal day ended.

For he was greeted by four non-pegasi standing on the clouds (WUT) as well as a very timid looking pegasus, who managed to look both shy and demure and yet royally pissed, being held back by the aforementioned unicorns and earth ponies. (Dafuq.) 

And then he was barreled over by a turquoise and yellow blur with wings, and then again by a pair of security guards following her tail, which prevented him from getting up.

When he did, he saw a rainbow streak headed for the main offices/headquarters. 

He'd know that streak everywhere. He opened his mouth to call out her name, but then remembered that he was forbidden from seeing her. 

So obviously the next best option was to secretly stalk her. Duh. 

He didn't have to look much further after entering the building. He could hear her distraught and outraged cries from all the way down the hallway. 

"...nearly took out my friends!! No disrespect, ma'am, but there's a big difference between pushing yourself as hard as you can and just being reckless. And if being reckless is what gets rewarded around here, if that's what it means to be a Wonderbolt, then I don't want any part of it."

Soarin silently made his way behind a pillar near Spitfire's office. Peeking through the window, he saw that she was barely paying any attention before, but now she set down the stamp and crossed her forelegs over her desk.

"What are you saying, newbie?"

Rainbow angrily tore off the goggles and threw them down. She then proceeded to rip off the silver pin that indicated her rank. 

He could see her eyes glisten, but she didn't let her voice waiver.

"I quit." She declared.

Spitfire was so shocked, her classy shades fell off of her face. Rainbow marched out of the office with a mix of righteous indignation and humility. All Spitfire managed to do was sit there and gape while making sounds like a dying fish. He snickered a little, but quickly turned his attention back to the blue mare, only to see her tail rapidly disappearing around a corner. He quietly flew after her, but decided to leave it, she probably wanted to talk to her friends. He sat down sadly on his haunches and watched the mare of his dreams walk away from everything she'd ever wanted. He could only listen to the fading sound of erratic hoofsteps and wrenching sobs. 

Wait.

This was backwards. He let her go, but it's not like he couldn't help.

"What was that all about?" He casually walked into his captain's office. She cleared her throat and tried to put her shades back on, although she wasn't successful. 

"Rainbow Dash just quit the academy." She tried again this time succeeding.

"Oh, I know. I heard that part." He waved a hoof dismissively.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Cue glare over top of shades.

Soarin batted his eyelashes. "Who, me? 'Course not! You two were so loud I could hear everything as soon as I stepped into the hallway. But that's not the point. The point is, Rainbow Dash had a point back there, and you couldn't see that because you're being selfish. Her friends nearly died, it seems like. Couldn't you see that she was terribly shaken up?" 

Spitfire was rather speechless.

"Well if you had any brains you'd march your flaming pegasus butt over to that ex-trainee and get over your stupid selfishness, and then you'd see. You're wrong. She knew it, I know it. You know it. I'd say you have five minutes before she convinces her friends that it's fine to just leave."

Spitfire hung her head at his sharp tone. 

"...fine. I'll do it, you're both right here and I see that."

"And furthermore, she...!"

Spitfire rolled her eyes and stuck a hoof into his mouth. 

"Numbskull, I said I'd go."

He grinned, and handed her the discarded goggles and the silver pin.

"You'll need these."

"Thanks." She slowly flew through the hallway. 

She could see her faults here, but that wasn't going to stop Spitfire from hating that little blue pegasus from the depths of her soul. 

Okay, maybe that was extreme, and she could admit that to herself. But she couldn't help but be jealous of her. More raw talent, more base fame, and more Soarin. 

She shook her head. 

"Whatever. Let's get this over with. RAINBOW DASH! HOW DARE YOU STORM OUT OF MY OFFICE WITHOUT GIVING ME A CHANCE TO RESPOND!"

Soarin watched this all go down from his own office window overlooking the street. He grinned to himself as he watched his filly gleefully have the silver pin replaced for the gold one, signifying leadership. The other ponies really look up to her, he thought as they all gave her a clumsy salute. He chuckled. From below, he saw Spitfire wave at them as they hovered away in a group. He saw that she was glaring up at Rainbow Dash with contempt. 

He'd seen that look on her face before... That one time in a bar with the... Never mind that, but it hadn't ended well. 

"Uh oh..."


























> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 10


"I'M JUST SOOOO EXCITED!!!!"

Pinkie Pie could not restrain herself from jumping and bouncing up and down. Her friends all looked at her peculiarly.

"Why again?" Twilight wanted to know.

"Why? Why?! WHY?! Because! Dashie's coming home! Duh!!" 

Pinkie's innocence was so simple as she reveled in the joy of seeing her best friend again. Well, one of them anyways.

A faint zooming sound could be heard as they pricked their ears towards the front door of Rainbow's house. They were throwing her a big surprise welcome back party, at Pinkie Pie's insistence. 

Even Fluttershy could barely hold back her excitement.

"yay... I'm so happy!" She murmured.

Applejack grinned. 

"Alright now y'all, everything ready?"

She flicked off the lights at the nods of her friends, and they all ducked behind various furniture. Well, Pinkie Pie managed to lodge herself onto the ceiling light.

The cloud door creaked open.

"SURPRISE!!!!!!" Four ponies and one dragon popped out from couches, coffee tables, and potted flowers, shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Surprise!!!" Pinkie Pie shrieked, hanging upside-down from the ceiling fan's chain.

The weight of the pink pony pulled it down, turning the fan on and causing Pinkie to fall off of the rapidly spinning blades with an unexplainable puff of confetti. 

"Pinkie Pie, you are so random!" Laughed Rainbow Dash. 

Rainbow was all smiles as she was provided a party hat and a cup of punch. Once they were seated and had access to snacks, Rainbow suddenly found herself being stared at by her six friends.

She cleared her throat. 

"Well... They want me to be a sort-of Wonderbolt! I won't be a full-fledged member until I've gone through some more training, but still... I GOT ACCEPTED!"

Five ponies and one dragon stared at her wide eyed for a moment. Then, the chromatic pegasus mare was showered with hugs, praise, and excited shouting. Her eyes watered up. She was finally achieving her dream, but... Although this moment was what she had strived for her whole entire life, she was realizing what it meant. She wasn't going to be in Ponyville with her friends twenty-four/seven anymore. She wasn't going to be the captain of the Weather Patrol anymore.

She couldn't help but heave a heavy sigh.

This did not go unnoticed by her friends. 

"Darling, are you alright? Whatever is the matter?"

She knew it wasn't wise to not bring it up with her friends. 

"Well, I've been striving for this ever since my father first took me to a Wonderbolt performance. But back then, all that mattered to me was my parents, flight school, and being loyal to myself. I didn't even have any friends yet... Not until I met Fluttershy a few years later. And now that I've finally achieved my greatest goal and won the thing that's most important to me... I have to leave the ponies that I love so much, it gives my dream a run for its money!"

Rainbow couldn't help herself. She burst into tears.

Twilight was the first by her side.

"I know how you feel, Dash. I was there once too. I was so scared what would happen to you guys if we couldn't stop Nightmare Moon, when I realized that I loved you all so much. My only real friend ever had been Spike."

Slowly, all of the ponies crowed around her to offer support. She smiled even as her eyes were silent faucets. Suddenly, a claw tapped her on the shoulder. She chuckled at Spike's attempt to cheer her up. 

"Here! I, uh, made you a chocolate chip pancake," the small drake said.

She accepted the pancake with a wavering smile.

Her friends all reassured her that she should do it, and they would see every one of her shows and cheer her on and they'd keep her home in order and take care of Tank, but she felt uneasy even as she agreed to go.

She had wiped up the last of her tears, when there was a knock on her door.

"Who could that be? All seven of us are here," Twilight Sparkle wondered.

Before anyone could answer it, the mystery guest let himself in.

"Hello ladies. Hello, Dashie."

Soarin floated through her door, aiming a wink in Rainbow's direction.

Her cheeks instantly flushed bright red. 

"H-hey, Soarin." 

Blushing even redder, the blue pegasus rushed to greet him at the door. She aimed for a kiss on the cheek, but the pale stallion, anticipating this, moved his head so that her kiss landed on his lips. 

Her friends had varied reactions. Fluttershy smiled softly, uttering the tiniest of yays. Rarity let out a soft 'awwww'. Twilight and Applejack teasingly went "oooooooooooh". Pinkie shrieked and started jumping up and down. Spike fell over.  

"Hey, sweetie?" Soarin addressed the still-blushing mare. 

She appeared to be incapable of forming words, so she just met his eyes to indicate that she was listening. 

"I'd hate to pull you away from your lovely friends here, but I wanted to invite you out to a bar with me and a few of the other team members! I want to congratulate you, and I thought it'd be good for you to get to know a few of the ponies that you'll be working with."

"I'd love to, but..." Rainbow glanced back at her friends, who all nodded at her. 

"Okay, I'll go with you."

--------------------------

After Rainbow had gotten ready, Soarin had flown her to a small bar where the rest of the gang was waiting outside. 

Inside the bar, they were shown to a booth, and Rainbow was introduced to Hurricane, Fleetfoot, Misty Fly, and Surprise. Spitfire was there too, but seemed rather detached from the group.

Soarin practically kept a wing protectively around Rainbow the entire night, and she felt extremely happy. 

"So, Rainbow Dash, tell us about you!" Surprise exclaimed. 

Hurricane, Fleetfoot, and Misty all nodded in agreement, so Rainbow began to tell stories of her days with her friends. 

"So, once, my friend Twilight Sparkle got her hooves on a pair of tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, and all of Ponyville went crazy trying to bribe her for them... and then she got so pissed, she started yelling, and then Pinkie Pie kept talking, and she said 'Oatmeal? Are you CRAAZY?!' And man it was so awkward!"

The ponies burst out laughing. Once they'd recovered, another round of drinks was ordered. 

"...hehehe, and then her tail twitches, and this huge anvil falls on Twilight's head!"

Round three.

"And then the music stops, and there's this totally fuckin' awkward silence, and then I say to her, 'it needs to be about twenty percent cooler'!"

Round five.

"And... *hic* then she left angrily, so we *hic*... Um... So we started throwing cake at each other and man... You should have seen Twilight dancing."

They decided that it was best to stop at five and before things got too crazy, and Soarin, who'd had significantly less to drink than his fillyfriend, began to escort Rainbow towards the door. He successfully got her outside, but was stopped by the bartender. 

Apparently, Soarin had left his wallet, so after making sure Rainbow would be fun for a few minutes while he retrieved it, he went back inside. The drunk pegasus aimlessly wandered around, giggling at random thoughts she thought of. 

"Rainbow Dash." A voice growled. 

"Huh? Oh. *hic* Hey Spitfire," Rainbow said pleasantly, even though she slurred a lot of her words. 

The angry glare of the golden mare pierced the hazy moonlight.

"Spitfire?"

"You... You... You BITCH!"

One moment, Rainbow was grinning innocently at her biggest idol as she drunkenly stumbled about. Next thing she knew, she was in the middle of a full-fledged hoof-fight.

"Grrrrrah!!! I... I jusht can't believe you! *hic* Shtealing him away from me!"

Rainbow was the type of pony who got goofy and flimsy and drowsy when having drunk a decent amount of alcohol. She was in no state to defend herself from the other mare, who seemed to be the type who raged when drunk.

"Spitfire... What do you-" she was cut off by a hard whack to the snout.

"No. You don't get to talk. You don't desherve to shpeak. Shoarin ish mine!"

Rainbow's eyes filled with tears as she was pummeled by the words and hooves of her angry idol. She managed to land a punch on the yellow mare's cheek, but this only made her angrier. Spitfire knocked the sky blue mare onto the ground and held her down. 

Rainbow struggled, pleading for somepony to help her. But it seemed that nopony heard her. 

"Help me," she whimpered drunkenly. "Soarin..." She tried to prop herself up on her arms, but that didn't work as well as she would've hoped.

"Don't shpeak his name!!!" Spitfire pushed down hard on her body.

A sickening crack could be heard. Rainbow's head spun as somepony let out a strangled and strangely quiet scream. Maybe it was her. Trembling, she put a hoof to her wings and pulled it back, examining it. Her hoof came back bloody.

Spitfire backed up, some part of her drunken brain realizing what she'd done.

Rainbow passed out cold.

Spitfire sunk to the floor, overcome with guilt. 

"Oh shit..."

Soarin jauntily exited the bar with his wallet safely in his pockets.

Soarin's jaw hit the floor.

"Okay, Spitfire. Just what the fuck is going on here?!"










> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 11


Five mares, three fillies, and one dragon sat in the Ponyville Hospital waiting room, anxiously awaiting the doctor's report on their friend. Each had brought some source of entertainment or comfort, but the tension in the room was so thick you could almost feel it. 

"Twilight, do be a dear and stop that horn of yours from flashing. I'm trying to knit something here so do stop. Honestly, darling, every time you summon a new book from that inter-dimensional pocket of yours, I drop a stitch."

Twilight was reading up on magical healing spell for broken bones, but she couldn't find any good spells that suited her purpose and were not too powerful for even her. She was too focused to acknowledge that the frazzled white unicorn had just been rather rude. 

"I'm fine. If you need a book, Spike can get it off the shelf for you with his ladder, and you can write down your library identification number for him to enter into the database."

Rarity sighed. Fluttershy, who had been playing with her pet bunny Angel's tail, noticed this and slid over on the couches to attempt to comfort her. 

"Um, excuse me, Rarity?"

Rarity grumbled something unintelligible. Spike, who was sitting next to the unicorn and attempting to shield her eyes from Twilight's spell, relayed what she had said to the timid mare.

"She said 'do be a dear and let me finish this row', or something like that." He told her.

"Um, okay." 

Rarity finished up the row she was working on and turned to the pegasus with a nasty remark at the ready. However, upon realizing whom had approached her, she swallowed it and tried to be pleasant. 

"Whatever do you need, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy scuffed a hoof on the smooth marble floors.

"I wanted to tell you, I really do like your scarf project. I know how to sow but not how to knit. You see, when I was a just little filly, my mother Posey was always doing crafts. She showed me how to work the sewing machine and I was fine because it meant I never had to touch a needle, but I was far more frightened of the knitting needles because they seemed so big, and then..."

Rarity gaped as the usually taciturn pegasus began babbling nonsense. That was a behavior more typical of Pinkie Pie. She gently placed a hoof on her mouth, and then she realized why she wasn't quite herself. Although the shy yellow pony was usually a bit of a crybaby... Her eyes were extra shiny and glazed over.

"Fluttershy, sweetness, are you alright?"

The yellow mare began shivering with quiet and demure little tremors and sobs.

"It's- I just- I don't wanna lose my oldest friend... A-a-and... And I don't want her to lose her dream either and now... Now- now she's all hurt!" 

Rarity held her friend close and allowed her to cry into her chest. 

"THAT'S IT!! IF THAT COWARDLY MEANIE-MEAN WONDERBOLT MCGRUMPYPANTS BITCH SHOWS HER FACE AGAIN I'M GONNA RIP HER APART!!!" 

Everypony present gaped at the unlikely source of the outburst- Pinkie Pie.

"Now now sugarcube, y'all take it easy now, alright? It's okay..." Applejack simultaneously restrained and tightly hugged the furiously struggling party mare.

"No!! That Spitfire is such an awful pony! Look what she's done to my friends! Dashie is hurt and has to put her dream on delay, and that makes Flutters even more internally conflicted than she already was about her FILLYHOOD FRIEND either giving everything she EVER dreamed for up for the sake of her friends because having her dream job since... Since how long again? A LONG TIME, THAT'S HOW LONG!!!"

Pinkie's mane and tail fell flat as she too began to cry. 

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had remained in their own little world, huddled together wordlessly up until that point... But now they were scared. If this situation made Pinkie Pie cry, then it was definitely not to be taken lightly. 

"Ugh, I'm never gonna get drunk... Never ever..." Scootaloo muttered, feeling a bit nauseous. She didn't acknowledge the tears that fell from her face, nor did her friends.

Sweetie Belle shuddered. 

"Yeah... It's only a drink, but it can make a pony want to attack others."

Apple Bloom remained silent.

Suddenly, all waiting room mayhem ceased at the creak of a door opening. A red coated stallion with a white mane poked his head out of the door, and the ponies and dragon eagerly waited to hear the status of their loyal pegasus friend.

"Hello, I am Dr. Crimson Breeze. I'm the local expert on wing anatomy and treatment and I have been assisting Doctor Stables with the recovery of Miss Dash. Oh my- is everypony quite alright? You all look unwell. Is there anything I can help with?"

The stallion had barely finished speaking when three fillies scrambled up to him, speaking at the same time.

"Is Rainbow gonna be A-OK, Mister Doctor Guy?" Apple Bloom wanted to know.

"Yeah mister, is Rainbow Dash gonna die?" Sweetie Belle asked with wide eyes.

"No, dummy, she's just a little banged up. Not even Spitfire could take Dash down. She's the coolest pony EVAR!!" The pegasus filly chirped.

"Why am I the dummy? You don't sound worried about her, Scoots!"

"Enough you two, quit ridiculin' an' fightin' each other an' stuff, it won't get us nowhere!" Apple Bloom snapped tiredly.

"We aren't ridiculing each other!" Sweetie and Scootaloo both responded simultaneously.

"Yeah, we were only having a friendly debate. In which insults are thrown." The spunky pegasus filly added for good measure.

Apple Bloom facehooved. "Sometimes, Ah swear y'all are hopeless. Ridiculin' means teasing or makin' fun of somepony."

"What are you, a dictionary?!" Scootaloo yelled, causing Sweetie to giggle.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo glared at her, and she took off running, closely followed by her fellow crusaders in a chase around the waiting room.

Twilight took a good look at the scene that had unfolded and resisted the urge to burst into laughter.

"Um, is she alright?" She inquired.

"Yeah, and can we see her?" Spike followed up.

The stallion was a bit dumbfounded at the fillies' behavior, but after all, professionalism is important, so he opted to speak to the purple unicorn.

"Your friend Rainbow Dash is quite alright, she'll awaken soon- from her anesthesia- she required a couple of stitches. Her stallion is in there with her already, so we can only allow one other visitor at a time- seeing as he won't even let go of her hoof, let alone leave her bedside."

The worried mares and dragon exchanged glances with each other. One by one, everyone's gazes fell on Fluttershy, who couldn't help feeling nervous from the stares. 

Rarity gestured towards the timid pegasus. "Fluttershy, you go in first. You've known Rainbow longest, after all."

"Oh, somepony else can go before me... I really really don't mind at all." She said.

Applejack shook her head, her tail flicking impatiently. "Sugarcube, y'all go first. Y'all two've known each other since before y'all were even in your first year of flight school!"

"Oh, well, um, if you insist... But I don't want to claim dibs just because I've known her the longest, it's not fair. Can't we just all squeeze in?" 

Fluttershy then began to create the saddest face anypony had ever seen in the history of Equestria. One of her ears drooped down in pure disappointment while the other remained slightly more perked in a hopeful and pleading matter. Her lower lip curled out and began to tremble ever so slightly, and her eyes were so sad. 

Dr. Breeze managed to mostly maintain his professionalism, but then the three fillies caught on and stopped their chase, imitating the shy pegasus mare. 

"Oh, alright, but be quiet and don't over-excite the poor dear." The stallion said, surrendering to the request.


When they all solemnly filed into the boring hospital room, they found Rainbow Dash lying in the bed, unconcious, and with a troubled look on her face. She squirmed constantly in her artificially induced sleep, muttering under her breath and whimpering. 

Soarin was sitting on his haunches at her bedside, clutching her hoof firmly in one of his own. His face was obscured by the shadow from his hair, but tears glimmered on his cheeks as a token of the pain he felt from having been betrayed by one of his closest friends.

He came to his senses at the creak of the door. Hastily, he used his free hoof to wipe his cheeks.

"Oh, uh, hey ladies."

Spike grumbled to himself.

"Oh, and Spike also, sorry dude. Um, I think she'll be awake soon."

Almost as soon as he said this, she fidgeted a little bit, and opened the eye that wasn't awfully swollen.

"H-hey guys," she said, grinning.

Everypony broke into smiles at the sight of the happy pegasus mare. The friends all visited with her until Dr. Stables and Dr. Breeze told them they had to go home, as visiting hours were over.

They said their farewells, promising they'd come back tomorrow. Only Soarin stayed behind, preferring sleeping in the other cot in the room to going home. He glanced at her, and wondered why she seemed apprehensive.

"Hey, you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?" He asked her.

"N-not really, I'm just... I've been having odd dreams lately. I relive my parents' splitting up, my father's death later that year, and then there are the nightmares where I keep reliving my fight with Spitfire and I- I just feel so bad that I caused her pain... I stole you a-and that's not right, but what she did wasn't either and-" 

He silently climbed onto the hospital bed with her, trying not to disturb the IV tube that kept her hydrated while she was out. He held the trembling mare close to him, in his arms, and he gently stroked her hair, talking in a soothing voice into her ear. 

"Dashie, you can go to sleep now. I'm here and I won't let you have nightmares. You've relived enough of the past and you deserve some peace, so I'll stay here with you." 

She snuggled up close to him, and drifted off into a finally-peaceful slumber.

-----------

The next morning, the two pegasi were barely rubbing the sleep out of their eyes when there was a knock on the door. 

"Come in," Rainbow Dash said sleepily, hardly understandable through a thick yawn.

A nurse timidly pushed the door open. 

"Rainbow, you've got a visitor, but I wanted to ask if you were alright with that since it's so early..."

She glanced at Soarin.

"I guess it's fine, I mean, the damage is done. We're awake." She said to the nurse.

"Alright, I'll go let her know." With that, she left to retrieve the mysterious guest.

A few minutes later, there was another knock. 

"Come in." Rainbow said.

The door slowly creaked open to reveal a golden-yellow pegasus mare with tearful orange eyes, a mane like fire, and a fireball cutie mark.

Rainbow gasped and began shaking, afraid the fierce Wonderbolt was back for more. But the golden pony didn't seem like that was what she came here for. She brushed a stray clump of flame hair out of her eyes, and, bowing her head slightly, she tried to speak.

She never got the chance to.

"Spitfire." It was Soarin, livid beyond belief.

"I-"

"Why did you come here?!"

She lowered her head even further. "I- I only wanted to tell Rainbow Dash that-"

"You don't get to say her name. You don't even get to talk to her after what you did. You shouldn't even be allowed in the same room!" He yelled furiously.

Rainbow tried to stop him, but he was on a roll. 

"You broke her wing and beat her up because you were so pettily jealous of her that you went and had too much to drink. I'd thought you'd changed at the academy, but you betrayed my trust. What do you have to say for yourself?!"

Spitfire fell onto her haunches, hanging her head miserably. Her shoulders shook with sobs as she felt like the guilt had pierced her chest and now his interpretation was salt being drizzled slowly into the wound. 

"I- I was just- I felt so bad that I let you go! I was just another stupid teenaged filly, scared to be the one losing... So I built up some fake problem to make our breakup your fault, but I would be the heroic filly who was to be pitied because she was mistreated by 'that jerk', but... I realized my mistake, and now I've lost you."

Soarin felt his anger drain away. She had made some bad choices, but after all, Spitfire was his oldest friend. He was still disappointed, and felt that she needed to feel the pain for her actions. He made no move to comfort the sobbing mare.

"I- I'm so sorry! I'm so really very sorry!!" She sobbed uncontrollably.

When it finally died down a little bit, she felt somepony's hoof on her back. Glancing up, the tear-soaked mare's eyes widened. Rainbow Dash had pulled out her IV tube, gotten out of her bed, and limped over.

----------meanwhile somewhere in Equestria------------

Pinkie Pie cheerfully woke up as the bright rays of Celestia's sun beamed through her window, filling her room with golden light.

"Woooohoooo! After I'm done watching the twins and covering my shift, I get to go see Dashie!!" She chirped as she bounced happily down the stairs. 

The pink party mare had just sat down at a table with a basket of scones, muffins, and danishes when she began trembling and shaking uncontrollably.

"W-w-o-OOO--ooa-ah! N-n-n-o-t th-i-i-ss agaaaaaain!!!" 

----------meanwhile back at the ranch... I mean hospital------------

"I forgive you."

The yellow pegasus was astonished, as was Soarin.

"Huh?" She gaped.

"I said, I forgive you." Rainbow repeated.

"But... But I hurt you so badly because I felt jealous over such a petty thing and I drank too much and let myself lose control!"

"Doesn't matter. I hurt you too, even if I didn't do it intentionally."

Spitfire was moved to tears. "Thank you, Rainbow Dash- thank you so much for your forgiveness..."

Rainbow wrapped her hooves around the crying mare as a gesture of comfort. 

--------beep beep beep (Pinkie Pie radar)------------


Pinkie Pie was trying her very super duper hardest to get to the hospital without spilling the basket of goodies she was bringing Rainbow Dash.

Slowly but surely, she worked her way there.

"F-f-i-i-i-n-a-l-l-l-yyyyyyyy!!" She said brightly as she opened the door.

She froze mid-spasm and came crashing to the floor.

Rainbow looked at the source of the noise. 

Soarin and Rainbow exchanged looks. 

Soarin raised an eyebrow. Why the fuck is Pinkie Pie paralysed on the floor of the hospital room?! 

Rainbow's mouth formed a curious frown. Beats me, it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie I suppose. 

They shrugged, and Rainbow turned back to Spitfire.

"I need to get back to the HQ, so I'll be off in a sec," Spitfire told her.

They reached in for one more friendly hug, and then she took off out the window. 

Cuz, ya know, why not?


---------later that same day------------


Soarin helped his fillyfriend exit the hospital, relieved she had been released.

As soon as the pair stepped out the door, a whirlwind of confetti blew by and caught the surprised pegasi, who quickly became dizzy.

By the time they were functional again, it was long over. 

"I'd bet my flank that was Pinkie." Rainbow grumbled to her coltfriend.

Rainbow hung her head a bit in exasperation, and as she did so, something fell off of her head. It was a neon pink envelope with sparkly balloon stickers. Soarin felt on his head too, and sure enough, there was one for him as well. 

Upon opening his, he found a simple written invitation inviting him to a party at Golden Oaks Library, then asking him not to tell 'Dashie' what his card said should he read his first.

She opened hers.

"SURPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!!!!!!!" Pinkie popped her head out of the pink invitation envelope. "Hiya Dashie!"

Rainbow shrieked loudly. "EEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!! PINKIE PIE?!"

Rainbow dropped the envelope on the ground and jumped up into the air.

"Ouuuuch! That hurt, why didja have to drop me?" She began wriggling her way out of the envelope until it finally burst in a puff of sparkles and confetti.

"Wheeeee! That was fun! So were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? Huh huh HUH?" She bounced up and down excitedly.

Rainbow was frozen in midair, unable to do anything but flail her limbs everywhere make choking and gurgling noises. 

Soarin nudged the bouncing party mare.

"Um... Pinkie? I think you just broke Rainbow Dash."

"Yep!" 


---------even later that same day------------

The party was great, as any Pinkie-party will be. The decorations were beautiful... Well, there was the giant banner that read "Welcome to the Dashie-got-out-of-the-hospital-because-she's-20%-cooler-and-heals-super-duper-fast-and-managed-to-make-up-with-and-befriend-the-pony-who-beat-her-to-a-pulp-the-other-day-at-a-bar Party", courtesy of Pinkie Pie. 

The guests had mostly left, and now only Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy remained. They lay on a rug in front of the fireplace, chatting the night away... Except for a certain blue mare who found her mind wandering towards the earlier events of the day.

"Rainbow, dear, you seem awfully... Subdued." Rarity said nonchalantly, though clearly she was begging for the latest gossip.

Rainbow tried to deny it, but eventually told her friends what had happened.

"-and then I just felt... So sympathetic all of a sudden. I went right from hating her guts for breaking my wing and accusing me of stealing him when she gave him up to feeling so bad for her. Something snapped and I actually hugged her, and we're friends now, so... Yeah." She lamely finished. 

She was awaiting a response for a while, seeing as this shocked most of her friends into silence. 

"You actually forgave that mare? Pardon me, darling, but that seems ridiculous after what she did to you." Rarity was the first to voice her opinion. 

Rainbow Dash was hesitant to defend her new friend, mostly because she wasn't sure she had done the right thing.

"Well... I dunno, there were some misunderstandings, and although this by no means makes her actions okay, it certainly changes things. I normally hold grudges for way longer than I ought to, but suddenly I knew where she was coming from. And I realized that despite the fact that bad ponies can make bad choices, bad choices don't have to make bad ponies, so I gave her a helping hoof. Something to be happy about in her darkest time."

Twilight nodded, smirking at the pegasus as she scribbled something on a scrap of paper, then duplicated it with her magic. She found some plastic wrap and wrapped two cupcakes- one with white and yellow swirled frosting and one with blue and purple, and packaged them up with one of the notes she wrote. Spike sent the box along.

"Yaaaaay! Now the princesses can party too!!!" Pinkie got up and jumped up and down on the pillows.

Everypony laughed at her silly antics. Twilight leaned over to Rainbow and hoofed over the copy of the note, whispering a quiet "thanks" and remarking that it'd been quite a long time since she'd sent a friendship letter to her mentor.

She hugged her friend in response.


When the party was truly over, and everypony split ways, Rainbow Dash found herself in quite a pickle. 

They were walking down the front path to the library when all of a sudden, Rainbow exclaimed quite loudly. "SHIT!"

Soarin quickly looked her over. "Ohmygod Dashie! Are you okay?!" 

She waved his concerns off with her hoof. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine, but I literally just remembered."

He looked at her curiously. 

"I just realized, that we're pegasi, and-"

"Well no shit, Sherlock." Soarin snarked.

"And we live in the sky."

Her coltfriend facehooved.

"And furthermore," Rainbow continued, "I can't fly."

"Oh... Right. Yeah..."

Rainbow glanced at her special somepony. A quick assessment proved that he wasn't in any condition to be flying. He'd barely slept while she was in the hospital, and judging from the permanent coloring of his cheeks and his slightly different than usual attitude, he'd had more than his fair share of the punch.

He'll offer to carry me, which would be sweet, but unlike the last time, he's the drunk one. He might not even make it home by himself at this rate. Yep-we are sooooo totally fucked. With that in mind, I'd better find us a place to crash at.






















> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of the Blue
Chapter 12

——

Rainbow Dash collapsed onto the bed, glad to finally be able to rest. After her Dashie-got-out-of-the-hospital-something-or-other Party, in which there was many cupcakes and more than a few cups of “Magical Mystery Punch”, as Pinkie Pie called it. And considering the way that Soarin was acting afterwards, Rainbow had figured out at least one of the mystery ingredients. 

“Thanks for letting us crash here, AJ. I really appreciate it, since my wing is out of commission and all,” Rainbow said to her temporary host. 

“No problem at all. Alright, y’all get some sleep now, ya hear? Oh, and Rainbow, sugarcube?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t you and Soarin be gettin’ up to any… ‘funny business’ while you’re in mah home,” Applejack said flirtatiously, adding a wink for good measure. “Apple Bloom’s room is right next door and Ah don’t need her askin’ any questions.” 

“Whaaaat? No! Nononono!!! We don’t- I mean, we haven’t, um, done, uh… stuff.” Rainbow instantly turned redder than the red streak in her mane. 

Applejack laughed as she closed the door. “Goodnight, y’all.” 

Rainbow pulled the covers up around her, attempting (without success) to stop the blushing.

“I wonder why everypony always teases me about that. I’m a virgin, still… N-not that it’s a bad thing. I mean, surely I’m not the last of my friends to-“

She shook her head. 

“I’m much to awesome to think like that, right?” When she turned to Soarin, looking for affirmation, she was met by a vaguely pony-shaped lump in the covers and a faint snore.

“You’re hopeless,” Rainbow decided, closing her eyes for the night.

---The next morning----

Rainbow stretched, her mouth open in a huge yawn, before turning over in the bed to give her coltfriend a kiss on the nose. 

He opened his eyes sleepily for a second before squeezing them shut and pulling the covers over his head. 

"G'morning, Soarin."

"Make the sun go away," he moaned.

She laughed at his misery, before getting up and pulling the covers off of the bed. 

"Come on, you big lug, you need to get some food in you. And then we'll go visit Twilight, down at the library. She knows a spell to get rid of hangovers." 

The stallion reluctantly followed her through the door and down the hall into the dining room, where the rest of the Apple family was already mid-meal. 

"Ah, good mornin' y'all! There's already plates at the table for ya, iff'n y'all are hungry for some pancakes." Applejack waved to us from the table.

"Thanks, AJ. That sounds great!" Rainbow grinned, her mouth watering as she sat down to fluffy pancakes with zap-apple spread.

Soarin looked less enthused, but she glared at him. Eat the damn pancakes or I'm not taking you to Twilight's.

Soarin quickly shoved a bite into his mouth while Rainbow smirked. Using looks to convey intentions always seems to work with us, she thought, before turning her attention to her food.

Once they were done, they made sure to thank the Apple family profusely before leaving.

"No, really, y'all, it's not a burden at all! We have more than enough room here, and there's no overstayin' any kind'a welcome or anythin' like that."

Rainbow gave the farmer a friendly hug. "I appreciate it a ton, AJ, but we'll be fine until my wing heals."

"Alright, iff'n y'all say so then Ah guess Ah'll see y'all later!" 

Rainbow grinned as she walked out the door.

"Okay, now let's go fix that hangover of yours."

----Later that same day----

After going to see Twilight about Soarin's hangover, Soarin had taken Rainbow out to dinner, where both of them had partaken in enough wine to create a pleasant buzz.

Rainbow looked up at the sky, noticing that it was getting darker.

"Wow, it's already evening," Soarin remarked, voicing her thoughts exactly.

"I know. I guess you could say, time flies!" She smirked to herself over her joke.

"Ouch. That has got to be the lamest pun ever, Dashie."

She stuck her tongue out in response.

"So, do you think you could, you know, help me up to my house?" She asked, figuring he wouldn't mind.

"Nope."

She stopped dead in her tracks. 

"What?"

"Nope. You're coming with me." 

"Wait, what??" 

"Just come on." 

Despite Rainbow's protests, Soarin scooped her up and placed her on his back. "Hold on tight, or I might drop you!"

Rainbow latched her hooves around his neck and he took off into the sky. By the time they arrived at his place, the sky was almost completely dark, and Soarin was more than a little out of breath.

"Wow, you're super out of shape for a Wonderbolt," Rainbow teased.

"H-hey now, it's not like it's show season right now, so I just don't work out... as much!" Soarin protested defensively.

"I'm just teasing."

He opened the door for her like a true gentlecolt, and together they went inside. Once the door was closed, Rainbow couldn't see anything, since it was pitch black. She relied solely on Soarin's wing on her back to guide her through the large house and into the bedroom.

Rainbow yawned.

"I'm pretty tired, so I guess lets get some sleep- mmmph!" Her words were cut off by a sudden kiss. She melted into it, kissing back as much as she could.

Rainbow didn't cut off the kiss until she was absolutely certain that she'd pass out if she didn't breathe.

"Woah," she said breathlessly. "That... was awesome."

"Still tired?" He asked her.

"Nah," was her reply as she bopped him on the nose.

"Good."

The way he said that sent shivers down her spine. 

She pulled him into another kiss, and without letting go of each other, they found the bed and collapsed onto it, where they continued to kiss with increasing passion.

---The next morning ;O-----

The sun's morning rays apparently decided that they were going to fall precisely on Rainbow's eyes, so she found herself awake a lot earlier than she'd intended. She tried to stretch, but found herself unable to move. Confused, she struggled at first before realizing that it was just Soarin, and she opted to cuddle with him rather than get up.

This is really nice... I wish it could be like this all the time, kissing until we both fall asleep. He's so awesome and sweet, Rainbow thought, sighing contentedly as she snuggled against his chest. 

As she lay in his arms, Rainbow figured that everything was right in her world. She had her five amazing friends, her flying pet tortoise (turtle) Tank, and most of all, her awesome coltfriend. 

When you have that much, nothing can go wrong, right?

Wrong.

And Rainbow was about to find out.