Rainbow Dash opened her eyes groggily and flopped over on her right side.

She wanted to go back to sleep, but the sun had other plans for her this morning.

.

The Pegasus gave in and sat up in bed, mane tussled and droopy eyed and looked to her left where she kept her magic sun dial, although she could have guessed at the time. Same time every morning, 7:45 AM sharp.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes briefly then somnolently flopped back onto her pillows.

“What to do today.... What to do...”

She thought of yesterday, of the gala, the Lighting Rainboom...

And of Soarin. His emerald green eyes, his light blue coat... The scent of his mane as he carried her home... As well as his invitation to her before he departed.

Rainbow Dash sat up once more, exited at the prospect of being able to hang out with her idols. They had a big show coming up, so she might be able to watch them practice, IF she was lucky.

But her mind quickly wandered back to the one Wonderbolt that captivated her... That showed her something Amazing.

Letting her mind continue down the path of memories of last night, she pondered Soarin's parting words.

“Wouldn’t want that pretty face getting scarred now!”

Rainbow Dash felt a strange sense of warmth invade her chest... A  feeling almost completely foreign to her.

The flight home may have been brief, but it was spectacular. She remembered burying her muzzle into Soarin's flowing dark blue mane.

Once she opened her eyes, she found she was hugging her cloud pillow tightly against her face.

Immediately, Rainbow Dash flung the pillow at the wall, impacting with a soft thud.

“What in Equestria am I doing?” she said, annoyed at her own foolishness.

She rolled off her bed, landing on all four of her hooves simultaneously, and made her way over to her bedroom doorway.

“Acting like one of those mushy-gushy mares... Ridiculous!” Rainbow Dash huffed as she walked down the stairs, forcing her own thoughts out of her mind.

As she descended the staircase, she looked at her home...

It was a beautiful house by any standards, but despite all it’s glorious furnishings and decor, the place somehow felt... Empty. Much like the sky felt when she was flying home from the Gala, until Soarin caught up with her at least.

Rainbow Dash didn’t want to stay couped up all day is such a melancholic setting, so she decided to take Soarin up on his offer to join him at the Wonderbolt HQ.

Rainbow Dash trotted over to her front door, and nudged it with her nose, opening noiselessly.

The blue Pegasus stepped outside with her wings above her forehead, shielding her eyes from direct sunlight.

The blue Pegusi slowly opened her eyes, forcing herself to adjust to the harsh sunlight, and once she was mostly accustomed to the brightness, she lowered her wing from her forehead, accidentally pulling her bangs in front of her eyes.

She examined the frazzled strands of hair for a moment, flipped them back into place, and returned her gaze to the sky in front of her.   Out in the distance, miles and miles away, she spotted some violent looking thunderheads. She briefly debated whether or not to risk trying to get to the Wonderbolt HQ and back or not.

As she was contemplating, the young Pegasus let out a small yawn and walked towards the edge of her cloud, bouncing a bit to stretch out some of her leg muscles.

Rainbow looked over the edge expecting to see the green earth and town of Ponyville below, but instead found herself standing above something completely different.

Only 20 feet down, a sea of thick alto-stratus clouds were rolling past at a startling speed.

“I don’t remember seeing any of this in the weather report at the weather factory...” she said to herself.

“Unless....”

Rainbow Dash brought a hoof to her face, just above her eyes with an audible “clop” sound as she realized the reason for the unexpected weather occurrence.

“They put Ditzy Doo* in charge today...”

She sighed, removed her hoof from her face, and looked over once more.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and simply walked off the edge and aimed herself toward the dark river of fog below her, wings tucked close to her body to gain velocity.

She ploughed through the fog and within seconds emerged on the other side, drenched and spreading her wings to slow her already slow fall. Once she came to a mid-air stop, she shot back up into the dense cloud. The cold water served as a makeshift shower and also served to jolt her awake.

She shot out of the cloud once again, creating a plume of vapor behind her as she skyrocketed past her home and into the open sky. After several meters, Rainbow Dash slowed herself and hovered

As the sun beamed down upon her, the water in her mane and tail refracted brilliantly, creating a spectacular rainbow glow around her entire body. She looked over her shoulder in the direction where she saw the rainclouds, then turned back to the direction where the Wonderbolt’s Headquarters were and smirked to herself.

“I’m the best flyer ever born! No dumb rainclouds can stop me!”

Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at the thunderheads as if taunting them and bolted off towards Cloudsdale, a spectacular rainbow flowing behind her.

********************************************************************************************************

The Wonderbolt’s Main HQ was absolutely massive. Rainbow Dash had always admired it whenever she flew by, but standing directly before it, about to enter felt surreal

As Rainbow Dash stood in front of the coliseum sized building, she took time to study the huge Doric style columns stretched up almost out of sight, and the expert cloud craftsmanship on the door frame.

She took a deep breath, trying to quell her nervousness in her chest as she clip-clopped her way up the steps. She was actually going to hang out with her idols at last!

When she got to the door, there was a large button beneath a speaker to the right, and nothing else. Seeing no other course of action, and for her own curiosity’s sake, she pushed the button. Rainbow Dash released pressure on the button and stepped back. Moments later the speaker crackled to life.

“Hello?” A deep male voice said.

“Uh, yeah, Hi. I’m here to see Soarin, I’m on the VIP list.”

Rainbow Dash gave herself a mental buck.

“To see Soarin? What the hay is wrong with you, girl?!”

“Name?”

She shook herself out of her daze.

“Rainbow Dash”

There was a brief moment of silence over the intercom as the colt presumably checked the VIP list.

“Alright, come on in.”

The door to the left of the box began to open...

Rainbow Dash walked down a long gray cloud hallway, stepping ever closer to a white light at the end of the corridor. She was just visiting, but she still felt exhilarated nonetheless. She was going to spend the day with the Wonderbolts, every Pegasus’s dream! Maybe she’d even get to watch them practice, if she was lucky.

Rainbow Dash squinted as she emerged from the dark tunnel into bright sunlight, allowing for her eyes to adjust to the brightness. When she was able to open her eyes fully, she saw a large, oval shaped racing track with stadium seating, and right in the middle, the Wonderbolts were standing around a water trough chatting. She saw Soarin doing various wing stretches a few feet away from the group. She lifted off the ground and glided towards them.

A Wonderbolt with an ice blue mane noticed her approaching and stopped his conversation with the other female member of the group and turned to Rainbow Dash.  

“Helloooo cutie! How you doin’? I’m Glacier Breeze... And you are?”

Rainbow Dash was surprised at the forwardness of the stallion; she had heard that he was a fillyizer, but hadn't expected him to hit on HER.

"Thanks, but I'm here to--" She didn't get to finish her sentence.

Glacier Breeze's face went from suave stallion to terrified school colt instantly.

"Oh Celestia, not another one... I can't keep paying these Foal Support checks!"

Rainbow Dash didn't know what to say, didn't know how to respond... She began to slowly back away from the now crying Wonderbolt, but bumped into someone standing directly behind her.  

"Don't worry... He's always like that. All those wild parties after shows catch up with him about eleven months later (2)." Soarin's chuckled from behind.

Rainbow spun around to face her friend and apologized for bumping into him.

"Heh, sorry about that..."

Soarin waved a dismissive hoof.

"Don't mention it. Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the gang!"

He began walking down the strip of cloud where the Wonderbolts were, introducing them one by one as the two Pegusi walked.

Rainbow shook hooves with each and every member of the Wonderbolts, all the while trying not to squeal from pure fan-mare excitement.

"And last, but not least, Spitfire! You remember her from the Gala, right?"

Spitfire extended a hoof out and Rainbow took it.

"Heya Rainbow! How ya been?"

Rainbow Dash wanted to jump up and down in joy and scream at the top of her lungs how happy she was to meet all of her idols, but simply shook the hoof and returned the shake.

"Say, RD. We were about to practice for a show, you wanna-"

"Watch? That’d be awesome!"

Spitfire chuckled and shook her head.

"No Rainbow, I was wondering if you wanted to fly with us. Maybe a friendly race or two?"

Rainbow Dash froze. Spitfire actually wanted her to practice with the Wonderbolts... To fly with the Wonderbolts. The reality of this stuck her like a ton of bricks... This was her chance to show them that she was worthy of becoming one of them... A chance she’d been waiting for for years and years. A chance she gladly took.

A sudden spark of passion flickered in Rainbow Dash’s eyes, but a looming feeling of nervousness crept inside of her. This could be her big shot.... She would prove herself to the Wonderbolts... But would she prove that she was inadequate at flying, or skilled enough to ascend to their ranks?

Rainbow Dash looked Spitfire in the eyes, and accepted the invitation with a resounding “Hay. Yes.”  

********************************************************************************************************

Rainbow Dash was struggling to control her breathing; she wanted to gasp for precious oxygen, but she knew keeping a steady breathing rate was vital to top tier performance.

Her practice with the Wonderbolts was much harder than she imagined it to be, in fact, several of them had already landed, and were resting on the sidelines. Out of the original eight Wonderbolts, only Soarin and Spitfire were left.

Her heart skipped a beat in disbelief as she realized... This wasn’t some practice or friendly flying session.

“...This is an examination... There’s now way we’d be flying THIS long and hard if it wasn’t.”

She said to herself out loud; or so she thought.

“That’s right.” a voice said behind her, making her skip yet another beat.

Dash turned to see Spitfire hover a few feet away, drenched with perspiration and breathing heavily.

“I’m surprised you didn’t catch on sooner.”

Rainbow Dash said nothing, her sweat was getting into the open cut on her face. she had forgotten to take proper care of it as Soarin suggested, and didn’t notice it until now. the salt in her sweat made her wince as it made contact with the small yet painful wound.

Then Spitfire folder her wings and let herself fall a short distance, then unfurled her wings and glided over to Soarin who was already making his way over to the pair.

“She’s all yours.” she said.

Soarin’ only nodded, looked up at Rainbow Dash, and took off vertically. She had earned a break, she flew hard today.

The pair climbed higher and higher, breaking through layer and layer of thick, curling cloud, higher than either of them usually go. The two emerged from the final cloud drenched in condensation and beheld the gorgeous sight before them.

Up here, far above Cloudsdale, the turbulent clouds melded into a flowing silver sea, reflecting the glorious sunlight shining down from above, tantalizing their eyes to look on into eternity. Up here, the two were mere spots of color between a crushing universe of gray, and a blinding world of light.

Soarin raised his flight goggles from his eyes, and looked at his companion, gleaming in a rainbow hue her mane and tail naturally emitted in the sunlight.

Rainbow Dash looked over, and their tired eyes met.

At that moment, everything fell away; clouds didn’t exist, the sun grew dim, and fatigue was nonexistent.  

Up here, it was just Soarin and Rainbow Dash, adrift in their own reality, far away from any distractions.

Soarin needed not say a word, but simply fly, and Rainbow Dash would follow. Throughout his aerial tricks, he could feel her matching his every move. They became one in flight. They were no longer two different Pegusi, but flowed as if they were one entity.

This was the feeling Rainbow Dash had been longing for. She hadn't just wanted someone to share the sky with, she needed someone to be one with her in the sky.

The two slowed their speed and glided into a backwards arc, aiming themselves at the plateau of silver flowing infront of them. The two ploughed through the clouds, leaving two pony sized holes where they exited. The holes slowly filled back up, and the silence one again flooded the now vacant expanse of sky.  

The two plummeted down for what seemed like minutes before they finally broke through the ever-thickening clouds, and the two pegusi eventually landed on the coliseum floor.

Most of the other Wonderbolts were nowhere to be found, but Rainbow Dash spotted Spitfire at the entrance to the stadium and trotted over to her, Soarin right behind.

“Impressive flying out there, Dash.” Spitfire said as the trio made their way down the long hallway Rainbow Dash had entered just a few hours earlier.

“Thanks.” was all she could muster, she was so exhausted.

The three Pegasus ponies stepped outside, and all were taken aback by the drastic change in temperature.

The skies had grown cold and desolate, no longer the beautiful ocean of cloud it was earlier. Swirling thunderheads threatened to strike with all their might, and long ominous cirrus clouds foretold a violent storm in the near future.  

“I gotta get myself home.”  a shivering Rainbow Dash said. “Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys today. It was awesome!”

She forced herself to say those words with as much enthusiasm as possible, but her energy levels were so sapped it came across exactly so: Drained.

“No problem, Dash!” and equally tired Spitfire replied.

“We’ll be in touch.”

Rainbow smiled and gave a quick nod, then turned and arduously walked down the steps she had so eagerly leapt up a few hours prior.

Soarin appeared to her left, spreading his wings.

“Here, let me fly with ya’. I wanted to talk with you about something, anyway.”

********************************************************************************************************

The two Pegusi landed rather sloppily on the cloud where Rainbow Dash's mansion rested.

"Gah, all this water is messin' with my balance!" Soarin said, sloppily fighting to retract his wings in the vicious wind.

“Same here! We should get inside, where it'll at least be dry!"

She stumbled over over to her door, pushed it open, and then turned to motion Soarin to step inside.

Soarin hesitated to follow.

“I don’t wanna impose or anythin--”

Without warning, a blinding flash of light illuminated the pair of Pegusi, accompanied by an immense sound of nearby thunder, causing Soarin to jump a bit in surprise.

He looked up to the turbulent gray skies. He couldn't possibly get home in this. He knew it, and he bet an experienced flyer like Dash knew it as well.

Soarin then turned his gaze to the rainbow maned pony, standing in the doorway with an amused smile on her face.

"Come on" she said. "Just 'till this storm lets up."

Rainbow Dash turned and walked into her dark home, swishing her tail playfully as she went.

Soarin half trotted and half stumbled over and followed her up the steps, and inside.

Once he was inside, he took notice of the lavish interior... Much nicer than your average weather pony could afford. He figured that her parents mush have paid for the house.

Soarin let out a short whistle.

"Some place you got here, Dash."

Rainbow Dash was over in her kitchen, which consisted of a large cooking area and a large pull-out box of cool, dark clouds serving as an ice chest. The contents though, were meager. She wasn't much for cooking, as she preferred delivery.

"Yeah, sure is...” she said, a tinge of sadness haunted her words, remnants of unpleasant memories. She cleared her throat and continued with her typical tone.

“Feel free to make yourself at home."

The cyan pony shook out her mane and tail once more, then stooped to open aforementioned ice chest. She looked at the few items of food she had. Not much, but there was enough to whip up something in a snap.

"You hungry?" she asked.

"Starved!"

Soarin's reply sounded like it was coming from another room in the house, but she couldn’t tell where...

"Say... You wouldn't happen to have any apple pie, would ya?"

"No, Soarin, I don't have any apple pie" Dash chuckled. “ I do have some apples, though, if you want.”

"Sweet, thanks.”

His voice came from just over the low counter top wall separating the kitchenette from the main living quarters. Rainbow Dash stood back up and was about to reply when she saw Soarin, not in uniform.

"I hope you don't mind, I hung up my suit in the bathroom. Don't want to catch a cold the day before a big show."

Without his suit, Soarin looked completely different. The first thing she noticed was his coat. It was almost the same color as her own, possibly a few shades lighter. Even though she saw his wings and tip of his nose through the holes in the uniform, it was very different than seeing the entire image.  His cutie mark was that of an apple pie being struck by a large yellow lightning bolt.

“How fitting” she thought.

Soarin’s face was incredibly handsome and smooth. Rainbow Dash was taken aback by the stunning colt standing in front of her.

“What? Do I have something on my face?”

Rainbow Dash, suddenly realizing she had been staring at him and felt heat make it’s way to her face in embarrassment.

“I can’t let him know I was just staring at him....”

She decided to roll with it, and motioned for Soarin to wipe his face with her own hooves, a prank tactic Pinkie Pie had taught her just recently.

Soarin was wiping both sides of his face with one hoof, trying to brush off any imaginary crumbs that may have been on his muzzle.

“Yeah, you got em!” she said, still snickering at herself.

“Sweet! Oh, and by the way...”

Soarin bent down, out of her sight and returned a second later with a First Aid kit in his teeth.

“Leph tak car uf det cuu!” He said, still holding the box of medical supplies.

Rainbow Dash didn’t even try to stifle her laughter now.

“What are you trying to say?” she managed to squeak out in between fits of giggles.

“I said ‘let’s take care of that cut’!” he said once more, but this time he wasn’t muffled.

Soarin looked down at the open box of simple medical supplies and realized what let him speak with so much clarity, causing his face to turn a dull red.

"Aww horseapples..."

Rainbow Dash brought a hoof up to her mouth in some attempt to hide her laughter, but it was no use.

"Yeah yeah, now are we gunna take care of that cut or not?" Soarin said, slightly annoyed.

"Oh fine. I still think it's not that big of a big deal, though..."

She sat up on the ground, placing her front hooves on the floor between her back legs to support her as she leaned foreword.

Soarin walked around the low wall and sat on Rainbow Dash's left side where he would easily be able to treat her wound.

"Alrighty then, I'll be just a minute. Just relax and I'll be done any minute."

Rainbow Dash did as she was told and sat still, allowing Soarin to clean and disinfect the wound on her cheek, all the while admiring the gentle care he took as to not cause any pain.

But as he took care of the small wound, she couldn't help but back to yesterday yet again.

“Don't want that pretty face getting scarred now!"

Soarin’s words rang out in her head.

Rainbow Dash felt a nervous lump rise up in her throat, and she swallowed it immediately.

"H-Hey Soarin?"

"Eyaah?" came the muffled reply. Soarin was removing the sterile wrapper of a bandage for the wound he just dressed.

"I uh... I've been wondering about something you said yesterday..."

Soarin brought his wings around and took the bandage between the tips of his wings and moved to place it on his friend's cut, but said nothing.

"About my... 'pretty face' getting scarred.."

Soarin's wings were close to her face and stopped briefly but he continued, ignoring the brief hitch and began to gingerly smoothed the bandage over her cut.

"W-What did you wanna know?"

Rainbow Dash shifted her large magenta eyes to look at a nervous Soarin.

"Well.. I was wondering if you... Uh... T-thought I was... P... Pretty..."

Rainbow Dash didn't know why she was asking, but she felt like she needed to know...

No. She knew why. It was the reason she kept denying to herself over and over again. Something so obvious to her, and something she shouldn’t be afraid of.

She liked Soarin.

Soarin looked into her prodding magenta eyes his wings no longer holding a bandage, but now gently running along the soft contours of her face.

"I... Think that... Y-you're...

Her heart was beating at what felt like a million beats per second and it was increasingly difficult to keep her breathing from intensifying.

Soarin moved his left wing tip to the right side of her face and gently turned her towards him.

He drew nearer and nearer until he was only scant inches away from her face, as if he was asking permission for what was about to come.

Rainbow Dash finally gave in to what her heart had been telling her, and let go of any inhibition she had about liking Soarin. She leaned in and her lips met his in the dim room.

The two pegusi embraced for several moments, but something felt off.... Soarin was holding back.

The two slowly broke the rendezvous and returned to where they were moments before, both not quite sure what had really just happened. Soarin had a look of regret on his face, causing Rainbow Dash to jump to the conclusion that she somehow had caused this.

“L-look, Soarin, I didn’t mean to make you do anything you di--”

“No Rainbow, it’s not that... It’s all my fault...”

A look of regret melded into a look of self condemnation.

He looked into her eyes. They looked... Worried about him, but at the same time hurt. He couldn’t continue with the burden he had been carrying any longer.

He let out a heavy sigh and explained everything.

“The Wonderbolts have been observing you for quite some time now, and I’m sure you noticed today was no ordinary flying session.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, unsure of where he was going with this.

Soarin continued in a hushed tone comparable to a whisper, as if someone were listening in on their conversation.

“Well... I’m not supposed to tell you this yet, but... We want you to become a Wonderbolt.”

“What?”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had she really reached her lifelong goal just like that? The one thing she wanted most in her life, achieved?

“Yep. We want you you to join us, but the thing is...”

Any fatigue or weariness or strange, foreign emotion immediately disappeared from Rainbow Dash’s body, and she leapt off the kitchen floor and shot all around her spacious living quarters. She had forgotten about the kiss, the conversation they just had, the grim tone Soarin painted with his words, and was simply overjoyed at the invitation to join her dream team. Her idols.

“OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!!!!”

Soarin looked up at the ecstatic mare, jolting around with an expression of pure joy plastered on her adorable face. But that made what came next even harder.

“Rainbow Dash, that’s not all....”

At hearing her name, she immediately landed in front of Soarin and gave him a huge, two “armed” hug, standing on her back hooves to compensate for the slight difference in height.

“THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUU!!” she squealed, still not hearing what Soarin was saying.

“Rainbow!”

Rainbow Dash brought her joyous face in front of his, with her forelegs still crossed across his neck.

“Yeah?”

Soarin closed his eyes and drew in a large breath and let out what he was trying to tell her in one, rushed sentence.

“WonderboltsAren’tAllowedToBeRomanticallyInvolvedWithTheOtherWonderboltsOrElseThey’reKickedOut!”

He paused after saying these words, desperately hoping this situation would all go away and he wouldn’t have to hurt Rainbow Dash. Hoping that Rainbow Dash didn’t like him, for her sake... But it was not so.

He opened one eye slowly, praying that Rainbow Dash wasn’t sad, but again, things seemed to be working against him.

He was inches away from Rainbow, so he could see every detail of her disappointed face.  The quivering lip, the teary eyes, and the sound of her upset breathing, despite her best efforts to hide it.

Rainbow Dash released Soarin from the hug and stepped back.

“Well, it’s not the end of the world. We’re just friends... Right?” He said, desperately trying to smooth over the situation.

“Yeah... Just friends”.

Rainbow’s reply was heavy with disappointment and sadness, and Soarin realized his best efforts didn’t help this hurt any less for her, in fact, they only seemed to make it worse...

The silence that hung between them was so crushing Soarin felt as if he were in the deepest part of the deepest ocean in Equestria. Rainbow Dash needed to be alone to thing stuff through, but he knew he still couldn’t fly home.

“I-I should go... It looks like you need to think about some stuff.”

He said said as he opened the door and stepped out into the gale.

No reply came from Rainbow Dash, only a brief nod as she turned and began to slowly walk towards the stairs.

Soarin’s heart sank as he watched her shuffle off. Without another word, he shut the door and stepped out onto the cloud.

“It’s all my fault... Every time I let my guard down, I get hurt...”

These were the thoughts than filled Rainbow Dash's mind as she ascended the stairs to her room, just as she did the night before. But instead of contentment, all she could feel was regret at her own actions. Soarin was right. She needed to just think...

Soarin sat on the edge of the cloud, dejected and angry at himself.

He caused a mare he was beginning to genuinely like to hurt. Now he felt he’d be lucky if she ever spoke to him again. He may have only gotten to really know her two days ago, but it felt like they were old friends. The way they flew together was unlike anything he had ever experienced before in his life....

He looked up at the bleak skies pouring frigid rain down upon him.

Warm invisible tears flowed down his cheeks and melded with the stream of rain water flowing down his body, and disappeared into the darkening white cloud below his hooves.

There he would sit for several more hours, waiting until the clouds blew away and it was safe to make the long, lonely return to Cloudsdale.

All the while he muttered the same words over and over again.

“I’m sorry... I’m so sorry...” Next Chapter: Part 3 Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes