takes place during S8 E19, (Road to Friendship.)

i’m sorry if it seems a little rushed.

“Soarin! Spitfire! What do you think of~”

“Commander, over here! Are you with anypony right now?”

“When do you expect~”

The loud pegasus paparazzi kept throwing questions at the ‘Bolts as they flew back towards the Crystal Empire castle. Ponies from all over had come to watch the famous team perform in the splendour that was the empire, as it wasn’t that often they performed here. They had actually come for a belated birthday show to Princess Flurry Heart, who had just turned two years old. Dash had asked Twilight to ask Cadence and Shining Armour if they could stay in the castle, and of course, the couple said yes.

The team picked up their pace as various snapshots were taken, but they didn’t fly as fast as they possibly could— not wanting to seem rude.

Finally, the tower came into view and the princess was waving to them on the balcony, motioning them to come that way. Soarin touched down right after Fleetfoot and lifted his goggles up.

“We’re sorry,” Cadence told them apologetically. “Flurry started fussing so we rushed back here early. Otherwise we would have had you come with us.” She smiled warmly.

Spitfire waved a hoof. “Don’t worry about it, Princess. It’s kind enough of you two to let us stay here.”

The Wonderbolts nodded in agreement.

“Still,” a male’s voice called, “We feel bad. Cadence and I would love to have you join us for dinner.” The male had a longer blue mane, and a white coat and a very handsome smile. Most ponies knew him as Princess Twilight’s brother, Princess Cadence’s husband, Princess Flurry Heart’s father, and former Captain of The Royal Guard of Canterlot, Shining Armour.

All the ‘Bolts looked towards Spitfire, who smiled and shrugged. “If you’ll have us, then we’d be honoured,” she answered.

Soarin knew Spitfire was kind and polite, but it was still weird to see her like this, all calm and smiley instead of worked up, anxious, or laughing and teasing incessantly.

“Wonderful. Rainbow Dash, do you mind showing them the wing where you and your friends stay when you visit?” Cadence asked. “I’d do it, but Flurry needs to be changed and that can be two-pony job.”

“Sure!” Dash replied, smiling and tossed her head back. “Follow the leader, everypony!” she commanded jokingly, leading them down the hall.

“Last time I checked Crash, I was the leader,” Spitfire called, following the rainbow mare down a hallway.

“Not of this you aren’t,” Dash responded cheekily and slowed down when they passed a non crystal orange guard with a blue mane and blue eyes. “Hey,” Dash said, eyeing the guard up and down. “Are you Flash Sentry? The guard who kept bumping into Twilight?”

Soarin watched as the guard maintained a straight face and cleared his throat. “Yes, the princess and I had a few chance meetings, Miss Rainbow Dash,” Flash confirmed.

“Huh, alright.” Dash shrugged and kept flying down the hall and opened a door, which led to another smaller high way, lined with about sixteen dark blue doors. “Each room has it’s own bathroom and bed space,” Dash told them and landed in front of the fourth door on the left.

Spitfire nodded. “Alright guys, let’s go shower. We don’t need to smell like sweat in front of royalty. That would be embarrassing.”

“You do know they’re just ponies too, right?” Dash raised a hoof.

“Yeah.” Fleetfoot nodded, light purple eyes wide.

Their captain just shrugged. “Still, I’m not best friends with their family.” She looked at Dash with a smile. “Now come on.” And with that, she disappeared into the room.

“Soarin! Come on, we’re going to be late!” Fleetfoot yelled, knocking on his door.

Soarin rubbed his eyes, just awakening from a supremely good nap and leisurely made his towards the door and opened it, greeted with an anxious yet excited Fleetfoot.

“Come on, Clipper, I’m starving.”

“Okay, okay,” he grumbled and moved beside her, just catching Rainbow Dash, Surprise, and Misty Fly talking as they flew towards the dining room. He couldn’t help but watch her with longing eyes as she faded from view and let out a quiet sigh.

Unfortunately, his turquoise friend noticed and instead looked at him with sympathetic eyes. “Wow... you really love her, don’t you?”

Soarin started to fly side by side with her, and just shrugged, not into denying it anymore. She was one of his best friends, and his thing for Dash was all too obvious anyways. “Yeah, I do.”

“You guys were so close for a long time, what happened?” The tone in Fleetfoot’s voice showed she was genuinely curious, and wasn’t about to make fun of Soarin.

“We were close,” he admitted. “So close... that we had a friends with benefits thing.”

Fleet’s jaw dropped as they flew into the dining hall, all their friends in conversation. “Tell me later,” she murmured.

He nodded as he took a chair in between Thunderlane and Rapid, smiling at Princess Cadence. “Thank you for dinner, Princess.”

“Oh, it’s our pleasure,” Cadence responded sweetly. “We’re such big fans of yours and we can’t say no to any of Twilight’s friends.”

“Twily wouldn’t stand for it at all,” Shining Armour chuckled. “Come on, Flurry sweetie, take a bite.”

“No!” the little princess wailed and slapped it away, causing broccoli to splatter all over her dad’s face.

Cadence hid a smile and used her magic to grab a napkin and wipe Shining Armour’s face with it. “I guess we should give up on the pursuit of broccoli, honey.”

The white stallion deflated. “But it was my favourite as a colt! How could my own daughter not share the same taste in vegetables as me?”

The ‘Bolts all chuckled a little. “Well, nopony really likes broccoli when they’re young, sir,” Wave Chill pointed out.

“Exactly, maybe she’ll like it later. I’ll ask the chef to make some soup or something,” Cadence said, getting up from the table.

The main course arrived five minutes later, and contained more broccoli, some carrots, a parmesan chicken, and some scalloped and boiled potatoes, freshly picked from the gardens.

Soarin licked his lips and took a bite, trying not to slurp or make any other rude gestures.

“This is great. We should really have more shows here,” Lightning commented, taking another bite of his chicken.

Surprise nodded enthusiastically. “Totally!” She took a huge bite and swallowed the rest of her potatoes.

“Slowpoke, are you sure you wanna be doing that when we’re in Princess Cadence’s company?” High Winds pointed out, trying not to smile.

Soarin chewed thoughtfully. “Yeah, I mean, we don’t want them to think we’re total slobs.”

All eyes turned to him, but Soarin only saw the magenta that still managed to pierce his soul.

“Um, Clipper, have you seen yourself eat a pie?” Blaze questioned seriously, hiding a grin.

Dash and Spitfire both snickered while the other ‘Bolts let out loud laughs.

Soarin just rolled his eyes. “Not like all of you have the best table manners,” he pointed out. “Surprise eats at lightning speed, Fleetfoot always talks with her mouth full, you two,” he pointed to Lightning and Winds, “always have your elbows on the table, and Rainbow Dash, Misty Fly and Thunderlane basically never use a napkin.”

Satisfied at their embarrassed looks, Soarin promptly went back to his meal, and everypony else followed suit.

Two hours later, the team had turned in for the night, tired by today’s practice and performance, but something had kept Soarin up. Usually he fell asleep pretty easily, but ever since the ‘break up’ with him and Rainbow had happened, he had a harder time drifting off. Knowing that she was, or at least had been in love with him made his heartstrings tug. How could the pony who complimented him so well possibly not be the one meant for him? He remembered her own insecurities about starting a relationship when she had told him she had had one relationship, in school, and they had broken up because apparently she was too busy, too focused on trying to be a Wonderbolt.
For Dash and Soarin, it was simply a matter of finding enough time for one another, because even when they had had a thing, they had both been wanting more time together then they already had. But their jobs and other things had kept that from happening.

“I just... I liked the guy, believe it or not. And now I really like you. But I don’t know how to be a marefriend, Soar, or how to be a good one. So... I want to, to be with you but also... I don’t.”

He took her words in, nodding slowly. “So you don’t know what you want.”

“I like what we have,” she sighed. “And we don’t spend as much time together as we would like, we’re busy a lot. You have such a high rank in this job, and I’m not holding that against you, I’m proud, and I’m with my friends a lot, or we’re training or I’m helping with the weather when I can or, or~”

“Saving the world.”

She smirked. “Yeah, saving the world and all your sorry flanks,” she chuckled and glanced up at him. “So we’re okay? For things to stay the way they are?”

Not really. But Soarin knew he couldn’t say that. What if this was the best they could ever do? Forced to put up a front of being friends with casual hangouts, only to pounce on one another as soon as they were out of sight from everypony.

So he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, daring her to back up against the wall. “We are more than okay,” he whispered, lifting her body up.

Dash kissed him back, and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Good.”

While he had dated before during his career, his hesitation towards dating Dash at first had come from his heart. She deserved the best, and if he couldn’t give that to her, then they shouldn’t be together was his thought process. Although that had changed when he wanted to give it a try, and that ended up not working out either.
Tossing the blankets off his body, Soarin flew out of bed and opened his door, walking to the very end of the hallway and opening another huge set of doors, which led to a balcony, encased with a golden rail. He landed quietly and went to the very edge, looking out. The empire was gorgeous at night. Luna’s bright moon, the twinkling stars in the midnight blue sky, and the faint shine of the homes below. He smiled at the peacefulness. He had only been to the Crystal Empire a number of times, but it’s beauty still struck him every time. He could only think of one thing, well, pony, that was more beautiful then the sight before him.

“Soarin?”

Her. She was the most beautiful thing in Equestria. “Yeah?” he asked absentmindedly.

Dash came closer. “Seems we both had the same idea, huh?”

“I guess.” Calm, polite, professional, he listed. Just teammates.

She walked up beside him while still maintaining a respectable amount of distance between them. Placing a hoof on the rail, she spoke, “Good job on the show today.”

“Thanks. You too.” He smiled a little. “Your rainboom was flawless.”

“Heh, yeah, I...” She cleared her throat and coughed awkwardly. “I mean, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied, trying not to look at her. He was succeeding so far.

She stayed silent, and together they stared out at the city.

“It’s so beautiful tonight,” he murmured.

At that, he felt her gaze on him, and he not so reluctantly did the same. The look she was giving him took him by surprise— she had not looked at him in that way for a while, and now she was doing it right in front of him. That piercing, soulful gaze. Sparkling pink eyes that held a gentle longing and affectionate look. The look she used to give him before, when it was just the two of them in bed, lying and facing one another, not a care in the world.

“Dash,” Soarin said, trying not to blush.

She inched her way closer. “Yeah?”

They were so close, he could feel the heat radiating off of her. His mouth went dry at her sweet scent. “I... We’re teammates...”

They were officially the worst teammates ever. Neither one of them could keep their distance for longer then a week. Pathetic, really. Why’d they even try to be?

“I know,” she whispered. “We’re kind of awful at it though, aren’t we?”

He nodded. One hundred percent.

She moved in, asking if it was alright with her eyes. He didn’t say no, didn’t want to say no, and she brushed her hot lips against his in a sweet kiss, filled with tenderness. Accepting it, Soarin kissed her again, still softly, but with a bit more pressure, telling her with actions that he still cared, that underneath all this hurt and longing, he still wanted her. As soon as this kiss was over, things would return to how they should be. He was going to get control of himself. That was a promise. Calm, polite, professional, his mind echoed. Teammates.

And then he had to pull away, because they were just teammates now, and teammates did not kiss on balconies and share longing stares with each other.

Soarin shook his head. “Rainbow, no, I mean, not anymore... Teammates, remember?” he whispered urgently. She need to leave, leave right now before he surrendered, but he would not take advantage of her wishes, no matter how much he wanted to. Their conversation the other day had been pure facts.

Her white teeth bit her lip and she nodded slowly, backing away, although all he wanted was her body pressed against his. Her blue cheeks went pink and she nodded, almost horrified at what she had done. “Right, uh, sorry,” she murmured. “Teammates from now on. Let’s forget this ever happened.”

I don’t want to forget. “Forgotten.” He gave her a friendly smile.

“Thanks, you’re the~” She stopped short and offered a tiny smile. “Goodnight, Soarin. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Rainbow Dash.”

As he headed back to his room, the balcony only another reminder of her, Soarin felt a wave of frustration and a breaking heart. He wanted to be with her more than anything. But he knew he couldn’t keep thinking like that, that he needed to get over her because he had finally figured out what he wanted and she had not. Because he couldn’t pine over a girl when they were never even officially a couple. Because if he did, he would never be alright again.

Fleetfoot was at the door to his room. “I saw what happened on the balcony... just cause I came to talk to you and you guys were already out there,” she clarified. “You alright?” she asked, concern lacing her voice.

Not having the energy to talk, Soarin nodded solemnly. “I’m fine.”

I will be fine, he promised himself.