takes place a few hours after S5 E15 (Rarity Investigates!)

hope you’re enjoying the story :)

Soarin could feel himself calm a little once they were outside, flying leisurely in the warm evening air.

“So, what’s up? Just wanted to hang with the Awesome Rainbow Dash?” she teased, looking at him with curious eyes.

Soarin sighed and looked forward, and finally found a cloud big enough for both of them. “Can we sit over there?” he asked, motioning to it.

Dash frowned, confused by his somber attitude. Usually he was very easygoing and upbeat. “Okay...”

They landed and kept standing, Soarin looking at the cloud beneath him.

“Soarin, you okay?” she asked, peering at him.

He blushed under her pink gaze and shook his head. “Not really.” He wasn’t even going to try and act tough.

She tilted her head. “Oh,” she said awkwardly. “Should we... do you wanna... sorry,” she chuckled. “I’m not good at this sort of thing. Do you wanna talk?”

“I’ll talk,” he said simply. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”

He gave her a knowing look and she finally understood. “Oh, that. It’s okay, really. Don’t sweat it.” She gave him a friendly smile.

He shook his head again. “It’s not okay, Rainbow Dash.”

“I said it’s fine~”

“But it isn’t. It isn’t. I doubted you immediately, after all you’ve done for Equestria, your friends, the team... me,” he finished softly. “I’m so sorry. I was worried about Spitfire and I thought it made sense, it kind of did. But I know you. You aren’t just some random fan or reserve. You’re Rainbow Dash. You’ve saved my life, you’ve stood up for me, you’re so damn loyal and I just doubted you.” He looked down, unable to look her in the eye. “Didn’t even try to see if there was another pony that could have been behind it.” Soarin blinked back a couple tears. “Don’t say it’s okay when it isn’t. Don’t lie to my face. I consider you... my friend. Get angry with me. Forget I’m a Wonderbolt. Forget I’m famous. Right now, I’m just Soarin. So talk, say whatever you need to say. Please.”

She too gazed at the ground for a long moment. “Alright. Fine. It wasn’t okay. I thought you guys would have given be some sort of... belief. I don’t know everypony on the team that well, but, I don’t know, I didn’t expect that from Fleetfoot. I didn’t expect that from you.” Her voice cracked, but she tried to play it cool. “I was pissed at you. I was hurt. And I hate talking about feelings, but I am. Truly. You automatically assumed it was me... yelled... I hated it. I was stressing the entire time Rare tried to help me. Celestia, I even thought I was guilty at one point.” Her voice was distant now.

Soarin grimaced and nodded. “I know...”

She tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a fraction of a smile. “But still, I understand. It did make sense and I got that this is your job. To look out for your team, to defend your leader. I get it. I really do, Soarin. I would have done the same thing. So even then, I forgive you.”

He looked at her and she stared back, a brighter smile now on her face. “Why?” he whispered.
You’re amazing.

“Duh,” she laughed. “You’re my friend, right? I respect you. It’s what we do, forgive.” Her nose scrunched up and she shook her head. “God, all Twilight’s talk about friendship just must’ve made it’s way into me. Bleh.” And with that, she plopped down on the cloud.

“So... we’re alright, Dash?”

She grinned. “Totally. Now come on, race me.”

“Say what?” He was going to lose for sure.

She nudged him. “C’mon, Commander. That cloud and back. You owe me this.” She bent down, preparing for take-off.

Soarin chuckled. “Yeah, okay.” He got ready.

“One... two... three!” she shouted and blasted off, flying as fast as she could. Soarin quickly caught up to her and passed just for a second. She noticed and laughed. He thought is sounded like music. She weaved her away around the cloud and dashed back. He was hot on her trail and even though it was a super close call, she finished first and he came behind her a second later.
“Yeah!” she cheered, “I’m awesome.” She nudged him. “Nice try, Soarin.”

He laughed. “Yeah, yeah.”

“No ‘good job’?” she asked, still teasing.

He sat down. “No need to boost your ego more.”

“Aw, it’s not that bad. Besides,” she smirked, “I am awesome.”

You really are, he thought. They shared a comfortable silence looking across the beautiful capital city. Soarin had always preferred quieter towns, but right now, everything was perfect.

“Luna did a pretty good job tonight, didn’t she?” Rainbow said, eyes on the bright moon.

“Yeah,” he responded absently, staring at her. She glowed in the moonlight, it bringing out her smooth cyan coat, her massive, sparkling eyes, and shining prismatic mane. She was absolutely gorgeous.
“So, tell me about yourself,” he prompted. He had wanted to get to know her for an insane amount of time now.

“Whatta you wanna know?” she asked eagerly.

“Everything.”

Her laugh rang in his ears. “Alright. Well... I grew up in Cloudsdale. I live in Ponyville, head of the Weather Patrol, I’m horrible at baking, I’m the element of loyalty, I’m best friends with a princess... I’ve performed a legendary stunt multiple times, and I’m awesome. Oh and one day, I’ll be a Wonderbolt.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?” Obviously.

“Of course! One day, don’t know when.”

Soarin grinned, amused. “I’m sure you will be.”

“No doubt,” she replied. “Anyways... tell me about you. I told you I wanted to know back when the royal wedding happened.”

He smiled. “Let’s see. I grew up in Cloudsdale too, across from Spitfire, she’s my best friend. I’ve been on the team for eight years... I’m second-in-command. I can be really lazy. Oh, you know I love pie. And I hate tomatoes.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with tomatoes?”

He shrugged. “I don’t like them is all. Now tell me, favourite... colour?”

“Rainbow.” She grinned. “Nah, probably red or blue. You?”

“Any shade of blue.”

Dash nodded. “Okay... favourite city in Equestria?”

Soarin tapped his hoof. “Tough one. I like Cloudsdale, obviously. But maybe... The Crystal Empire or Ponyville. It’s nice, calm, peaceful.”

“Really? I like Manehattan. Or Las Pegasus, I suppose. So much to do there, it’s fun and exciting. Besides Ponyville and Cloudsdale, of course. But they get boring sometimes. Not always a lot going on.”

“Yeah but isn’t it nice sometimes?” he questioned.

She shrugged. “For naps. But... I really like adventure. I like it when something happens. Ponyville doesn’t get that too often. Besides, you know, when it’s cause of evil magic.”

“Oh, yeah. Tell me about that.”

“About what?”

“One of your... dangerous encounters. Any one.”

“There’s a lot to choose from,” she replied, smiling. She tapped her chin. “Alright, so this isn’t centred around me, but... a couple years ago, Princess Celestia asks Twilight to come to Canterlot, for some sort of test. Twi gets all prepared with all her notes and quills and ink and blah blah... boring stuff,” she started, rolling her eyes a little. “Turn out once she gets there, it’s not a written thing. She has to find the crystal heart. Cadence’s magic was weak, King Sombra had returned, and the ponies of the empire were all depressed.”

“Oh!” Soarin exclaimed. “Yeah, I heard about that. Didn’t the princess’s dragon end up getting it?”

“All in good time, Soarin. Anyways, we get there and we see Cadence. Twilight tells up that we can try to bring back the old spirit with how they use to love. Twilight suggested the Crystal Fair, an old tradition, and suggested we put that on. I wasn’t very helpful at first... really was pressuring them to buy things. It wasn’t going well at all. I met Twilight, Princess Cadence and Shining Armour on the balcony. Cadence’s magic was fading and she collapsed. Sombra showed up and the shield around the city disappeared. Me and my friends got together, trying to figure out ways to help. Bring back things they used to do. I found about about jousting. Thought it was super cool, so I made Fluttershy come along with me, even though she was more interested in the animals. Totally her thing. So Applejack goes to pick some berries, and Rarity tries to find about more about the fashion while Pinkie was... playing some sort of instrument. Twilight and Spike went into the castle, trying to find the heart. I didn’t get the whole story. Twilight used her magic, brought back what King Sombra’s castle really looked like. Pretty’s dark, you know. Black and grey. But luckily that was the key to finding it. Twilight opened a door and was faced with an illusion, of the princess telling her she failed. Meanwhile, I was jousting with Fluttershy, which, by the way, I was great at,” she said a hint of pride in her voice. She was a rather animated storyteller.

Soarin listened, hung on every word. “Come on, tell me more. You can’t leave me hanging, Dash.”

“Yeah, alright, alright. Okay, so Sombra was taking over, his dark magic slowly spreading throughout. Everypony was noticing, their spirits were down again, it was super bad... they found out the ‘crystal heart’ wasn’t the real one. We all headed up to join Shining Armour on the balcony, there was no use in trying to cheer them up anymore. Applejack and Rarity tried to reassure them, but by the way things were going. All of us were panicking and Cadence just kept getting weaker and weaker. She couldn’t use her spell anymore. Twilight was trapped and all of a sudden, we looked up. Spike was falling through the air, and he had the real heart in his claws!”
Soarin leaned in closer and Rainbow smiled, totally into her storytelling. “Then Cadence flew across the sky and caught him. She talked to the ponies, who used their love to defeat Sombra. He vanquished and we all turned into crystal ponies.”

“Awesome!” Soarin exclaimed.

“Right? Everypony was elated. Shortly after, everything went back to normal and we left to go to Canterlot. God, it was awful waiting to see if Twilight passed... considering she was supposed to get the heart, not Spike.”

“And? Did she?” Soarin asked, on the edge of his hooves.

Rainbow smirked. “I don’t know if I should tell you...”

Soarin stomped his hoof. “I will pester you endlessly until I get my answer, then.”

Rainbow chuckled. “Well in that case, yes. She passed. Celestia was glad that Twi sacrificed her need to do it by herself.”

“I should have guessed. She is a princess now.”

Rainbow smiled. “So, that’s one of the great adventures of Rainbow Dash. There’s some better ones because I’m a bigger part of it, but save the better ones for another time.” She winked. “I would tell you more but there’s too many to count.”

“Very confident I see, Miss Dash,” he replied in a formal tone.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m great!”

“All your encounters are like, on the same level as Daring Do adventures,” he added.

Her eyes lit up at his comment and she let out a small squeal. “You read Daring Do?!”

“Of course!” he nudged her. “A.K. is my favourite author.”

“Heh, same. Favourite book?”

“I really like The Griffin’s Goblet, but my favourite would have to be Daring Do and The Quest~”

“For The Sapphire Stone!” Rainbow exclaimed. “That’s my favourite too. Twilight introduced me to the series.”

They both shared a chuckle at their shared interest. “What’d you read before, then?” he wondered.

Dash shook her head. “I thought reading was something an egghead did. So... I didn’t.”

“I’m offended,” he replied, faking a sigh and grinning. “How’d you get to then? Like reading?”

“I injured my wing flying and was stuck in the hospital. Twilight gave it to me, and after hours of avoiding it, I picked it up and couldn’t put it down. I was embarrassed after being probeswrong, so I hid it from my friends. I went a little crazy after that,” she admitted, looking away.

“What do you mean?”

She looked around. “I was discharged before I finished it. In my great attempt to give it back,” she said sarcastically. “I snuck into the hospital and got it, but they caught me and I tried flying to get away, even though I wasn’t supposed to be. Eventually I gave up and everypony confronted me. I admitted that I liked it and apologized. They all went back to bed, and Twilight gave me it to finish along with the rest of the series. Although since then I’ve collected all of them for myself.” She looked at him and raised a brow when she saw him trying not to laugh.

“Ha! That’s hilarious, Rainbow!” He let out a howl of laughter. “We’re you admitted to a mental hospital?” he asked, trying to be serious.

She rolled her eyes, but a smirk stayed on her muzzle. “Whatever you say, pie boy. Whatever you say.”

Soarin stopped and playfully glared at her. “Not fair.” He fake pouted.

“Is too,” she argued, matching his fake look of anger before brightening. “So, tell me how you got into the Wonderbolts. I heard a little about it, from all the magazines, but I wanna hear from your point of view. So tell me.” She shifted her body to face him and waited patiently.

“I can’t tell it now. All your stories make mine fade in comparison,” he protested.
Compared to you, I’m pretty lame.

“Bullshit. You’re a Wonderbolt, Soarin. Which makes you almost as awesome as me.”

“Well, when you put it that way... alright.” He took a deep breath, prepared to dive right in. “Well, I had been a reserve for almost a year. Spitfire and Fleetfoot had joined about three months before me. I was too nervous to take the best when they did, so I waited and~”

“You knew Fleetfoot before too?” she asked.

Soarin nodded. “Yeah, Spitfire and I met her in flight school and we’ve been friends ever since. We were also acquainted with Rapidfire and Wave Chill.”

“Oh, okay. Continue,” she said, eyes brimming.

“So anyways, I had just filled in for Splint Shear at a show in Vanhoover. She injured three hooves and her left wing in some sort of crash. The next couple days whenever I was around Spit or Fleet, they couldn’t stop looking at me and whispering. I asked them what was going on but they wouldn’t tell me. Later that night, they brought to me to HQ with a blindfold around my eyes. Somepony took it off and we were in Captain Arrow’s office. My friends left and the Captain told me that Splint Shear had retired and was getting tired of Wonderbolt life. He gave the empty position to me. I was so excited. I walked out and there has been a little get together with my parents, my friends, and the rest of the team. That’s my story, not over the top at all.”

He thought she’d be disappointed, but instead her eyes were shining. “Wow, Soarin, that’s amazing! They really care about you, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess they do,” he repeated.

“She got tired of Wonderbolt life?” Dash frowned. “She wasn’t very old, right? She’d only been on the team for just over ten years.”

“I know! I was a little surprised. I actually ended up meeting her and she wanted to teach at the flight school nearby. Her accident had caused some permanent damage to her nerves and muscles, and she wouldn’t have been able to fly the same way again. I get it. If I couldn’t be a Wonderbolt how I was now, I wouldn’t wanna be one at all.”

She bobbed her head in agreement. “Same. Well, you know, it would be hard to be a flyer again knowing I couldn’t be one in the same way I was before...”

Soarin stayed silent, taking in her words. She was definitely someone special. He was growing to be very fond of Rainbow, and he wasn’t sure if he liked or hated the feelings he was starting to have. “So, what’s your favourite...food?”

“Well, it’s not really a food. I love cider though. Like, a lot. I might be addicted,” she admitted sheepishly. “Oh, wait, alright, pasta and potato sandwich on sourdough!” She grinned.

“Oh yeah, cider’s great. Huh, I got some from Sweet Apple Acres once. Best cider I’ve ever had.”

“Right! I used to go super early during cider season, but Pinkie and a bunch of other ponies beat me to it. It’s been a challenge to get some in my hooves.”

“And,” Soarin chuckled. “Didn’t know you were so into carbs, Dash.”

She let out a little giggle. “What can I say?” I wanna hear you laugh all the time.

“You’re not gonna ask me what my favourite food is?”

She smirked and shoved him slightly with her wing. “No point when I already know, Mr. I Love Pie.”
They both laughed at that and fell into a comfortable silence. Minutes passed of the two pegasi staring at the night sky and Rainbow let out a yawn. “I’m beat,” she told him tiredly. “I think I might head back to the castle.”

Soarin ignored the disappointment that rose in his gut and nodded. “Probably a good idea.” He gave her his hoof to help her up and they flew slowly back.

Once they entered the hallway and stopped at her door, she turned to him. “Thanks for tonight. And thank you,” she placed a hoof on his chest. “For really apologizing.”

He tried not stutter at the fact of where she was touching him. “Of course.” A heat lit up his cheeks. “Spitfire wasn’t too happy either, and the rest of the team is sorry too.”

She removed her hoof. Dammit. “I know,” she yawned. “Goodnight, Soar.”

He gave a tender, caring smile for the young mare who captured his attention. “Goodnight, Rainbow.”