takes place after S7 E19, (It Isn’t The Mane Thing About You.)

obviously her convo with Spits and Fleet was a flashback, that’s why it’s in italic !

Dash leaned back into the warm water, savouring the feeling of her muscles loosening and relaxing as she rotated them under the stream of the shower. She let out a small sigh as it rinsed her face, washing away her worries for a couple minutes. Lazily applying the soap and shampoo to her hair and body, enjoying the faint scent of vanilla and soap. Dash remembered all the times she would see Soarin casually walking around after taking one, mane wet and falling in his eyes, the slight drips of leftover water on the ground. He was gorgeous, strong, and totally—

Dash laid her eyes on him speaking to Lightning Streak and Rapidfire and instantly remembered. He was absolutely infuriating.

She stayed in the shadows of the dimly lit hall, waiting until Soarin left to go for a fly. If it was any other time, Dash would have gladly joined him, but since they weren’t on speaking terms, Dash tucked away her wanting for a fly, not even wanting to possibly encounter him in the sky. It was just too awkward, almost painful with the professional way he would look at her, as if after he yelled at her, nothing had ever happened. They hadn’t fought, hadn’t spoken, hadn’t been friends. Like she was just a new cadet whom Soarin hadn’t met before. Like she was anypony else. Despite her anger, she wouldn’t deny that she still wanted to be someone to him, even if it wasn’t a romantic interest. After checking the area, she stepped out of the hall and into the room, smiling at Rapid and Lightning as she entered.

“Hey guys.”

They turned to face her, playful orange and yellow eyes greeting her. “Hey Crash,” Lightning greeted. “How are ya?”

“Great, thanks,” she lied, making her way to her locker. “You?” She opened it and shoved her bag inside.

Rapid stepped forward. “We’re good... What were you doing in the hall for so long?”

“Were you watching us or something?” Lightning added, only curiosity coating his voice.

Dash fought to keep the blush of embarrassment off her face. “No, of course not. That’s so not cool.” She chuckled.

The two best friends exchanged a confused glance, but were quick to shove it off. “Okay…” Rapid said, smirking a little. “We’ll leave in a minute, Light and I just had a question, actually.”

She raised her brows in an attempt to not seem overly interested. “Shoot.”

His orange eyes darted around, clearing his throat awkwardly. “We heard a little bit already, but we wondering if…” He looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

Annoyance sparked Dash, but she kept quiet. She had a pretty good feeling about what they wanted to ask. “Spit it out,” she encouraged, eager to get this over with. While normally she would walk away, Dash respected the Wonderbolts on a different level, despite already being teammates.

Lightning took the reins. “What happened between you and Soarin? We know you two had a fight, but it couldn’t have been that serious…” He glanced up hesitantly.

Dash’s wall around her heart and head hardened, blocking out the memories of what went down between them. Thank god Soarin made it brief, she could thank him for that, even if she wasn’t quite willing to forgive. Right here and now, she had to make her refusal to answer mostly polite. They were friends and teammates of hers after all. “No offense, but I’d like that to stay between me and him,” she replied.

Rapid tilted his head. “It was serious, huh?”

She couldn’t help herself. “What makes you say that?”

Lightning cleared his throat. “Your tone, body language... Besides, you tend to be less secretive when if comes to life experiences.”

Rainbow Dash glared. “Just because I don’t keep secrets all the time doesn’t mean I entertain myself by telling ponies all my personal business,” she said shortly.

Lightning Streak gulped. “I— that’s not what we meant, Crash, we were just curious...”

All her frustration calmed a little. “I know. Look you guys, nothing happened. Nothing important anyways.”

Rapidfire tilted his head. “You... sure? You can talk to us.”

“You’re closer to Soarin than me.”

“So?”

She scoffed a little. “So? I’m not going to taint his image just because we had a bit of a fight.” It was true, that while she was mad, she found it hard to talk truly bad about Soarin, as a teammate, her boss, her crush, and most importantly, her friend. Or possibly former friend.

Rapidfire and Light smiled a little. “Loyal to a fault, huh?”

Not sure exactly how to feel, Dash shrugged.

Lightning smiled teasingly. “Guys always like that.”

“Not really why I do it,” she joked back, though she meant it.

“Come on Streak, let’s get Wave and see your brother,” Rapid prompted.

“My annoying twin? No thanks.”

Dash flapped her wings, rising into the air as she tilted her head. “Didn’t you keep going on all week about how you were excited to see him?”

Rapidfire chuckled as Lightning smiled shyly. The Streak twins had an interesting reputation, opposites, but not quite. Both had the same caring heart and felt passionately when something mattered to them, be it friends, Equestria, or romances, though they had a different way of showing it. Lightning was more laid back, open and friendly, while Fire Streak kept things professional, but made it clear that he cared about his former teammates just as much as his brother did. They were also best friends.

“Yeah yeah, get going, Crash,” he mumbled.

She grinned and slapped him on the back. “That’s the spirit! Say hi for me!”

“Will do!” Rapidfire called back.

It had been happening the entire week. Starting with Rapid and Lightning, Rainbow had been approached by one or two different Wonderbolts each day, all having one question in common. A rather popular one, considering how obvious it was that something wrong had happened between Dahs and Soarin. Truth be told, she wasn’t even sure how she felt about it anymore. She wasn’t angry, but she couldn’t say that she had forgiven him and let it go. The words he had spat in her face were deep and they had cut. Equivalent to being scarred with a knife, herself raw and open and exposed, all without her wanting to be. The interrogation had lead to Thunderlane, High and Misty, Blaze and Surprise, Wave Chill, and Silver Zoom. She had revealed nothing to very little, assuring them that what happened wasn’t a big deal, and they were able to carry on as teammates without any harm coming their way. Even the press didn’t seem to be aware, the distance between Dash and Soarin mentioned once, quickly resolved with the conclusion of their busy schedules, which was partially true. She prayed she would be left alone as she unpacked her things and placed them in her locker, not bothering to fold the uniform. It was skin tight anyways, and wouldn’t leave any noticeable wrinkles.

Having nothing else to do, Dash wandered away from the lockers and into the shared room with all their beds, settling on one. It was Sunday, and each week, they all got to choose a new bed, considering the sheets and blankets and whole room really, had been washed. She settled down on the far end of the room, in between Lightning and Misty. Hey, maybe the former would flirt with her, maybe Soarin would see, maybe she would make him jealous. That was, if behind his frustration, he liked her too.

“Rainbow Dash, hey!”

Dash turned around, yawning and blinking rapidly. “Oh, hey Cap. Flatfoot,” she greeted.

Fleetfoot grinned. “Tired as usual?”

Dash shrugged, smiling a little. “Isn’t that joke a little old?”

“Yes and no,” Spitfire responded. “Wanna take a fly with us?”

“Sure.” She has nothing else to do, and maybe a fly with them would help get her mind off a certain somepony. Maybe. She wasn’t sure if that was possible.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she muttered, landing on a cloud. The fact that it was pouring down rain didn’t matter, in fact, it perfectly suited Dash’s mood. Of course Spitfire and Fleetfoot wanted to talk about what happened between her and Soarin, that’s all any of the ‘Bolts wanted to do. Of course, seeing as they were fairly close with Dash, it had seemed rather innocent at first, but it became clear near the end that it had been their intention all along. She might have expected it from Fleetfoot, but Spitfire? No. And to ask her, why? Because Soarin wouldn’t answer? She wasn’t their backup, or their second pony. Her being popular has nothing to do with being attached to a male’s name, and never would be.

“How was Ponyville?” Fleetfoot asked.

Dash smiled thoughtfully. “It was good. I, uh, mostly just hung out with Pinkie and Tank.” And told my friends about me and Soarin’s stupid fight, she added in her head.

“Anything else?” Spitfire pressed.

Dash, unaware, simply shrugged. “Not really. It was only for two days, and I had to help out the weather team for part of that, so...” Her voice trailed off and she gave them a weak smile. In the past few weeks, it was becoming clearer that it was very possible she and Soarin would not make up, and due to her and his sour pride, they seemed to be incapable of apologizing.

“Makes sense. We didn’t do much over here either,” Fleet yawned. “Just kept working out…”

Dash smiled a little. While she usually preferred spending her time off in Ponyville, she liked spending the occasional free day at the base too. There was usually something interesting going on, and even when there wasn’t, somepony always made it entertaining. “Any new routines?” she asked. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to help Spitfire out on this one.

Spitfire nodded. “I’m going to start working on it tomorrow, give the team another day to chill.”

“A night performance to appreciate Princess Luna,” Fleet added. “That means we get to use a bunch of cool glowy stuff!” She giggled like a filly.

Dash grinned. “Cool. Are we gonna use those fireworks you said no to last time?”

Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Maybe… I guess I should so you two and Soarin will shut up about it,” she muttered.

Dash’s stomach recoiled in disappointment. Despite everything, she missed him. She missed their friendship. The little contests and deep talks and banter. Oh, and looking at him. He was really nice to look at.

“Oh... sorry Dash,” Fleet said all of a sudden.

Dash turned to her friends. “What?”

Spitfire shrugged, taking the reins. “We just... didn’t mean to bring up Soarin. We know you two aren’t... getting along,” she murmured.

The awkwardness in the air became almost unbearable. She wasn’t sure why Spitfire and Fleetfoot weren’t mad at her too. Soarin was their best friend, and Dash was pretty sure they knew she had kicked their best friend out of her house. “Oh… Right,” she chuckled awkwardly.

“What happened with you guys anyway?” Fleetfoot blurted out.

Dash stopped moving, wings beating steadily. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying to come up with an answer. A short, polite one. Fleet had a tendency to overstep sometimes… maybe this was one of those times. “He didn’t tell you?”

The other two stayed silent, their eyes conflictive and eerie. Finally, Spitfire cleared her throat. “He wasn’t overly specific, to be honest.”

Dash exhaled, internally relieved. She didn’t need anypony to know exactly what was said, and she was glad Soarin kept it that way. “We had a bad fight,” she admitted. “Said some things. Now we don’t talk. I don’t know if we’ll be friends again. But, you know… it’ll be fine.” She shrugged, as if it was okay that they would never be the same.

“It isn’t really,” Spitfire replied, lowering her head. “He adored you, Crash.”

Cyan ears perked up, a hot blush lighting het entire body, and Dash prayed to the sun and moons and stars that she had not turned purple. “I… Well, that probably wasn’t the case.”

Fleetfoot let out a loud snort, nudging her with her wing. “Something’s definitely wrong if you’re being modest. Come on, let’s go.”

But Dash was no longer in the mood. She was done with answering everyone’s questions. Done with the whole argument thing. They just wouldn’t let her forget, would they? She was Rainbow Dash! She was more interesting, had more to say, then just talking about some fight she had with a boy. “No,” she muttered, moving out of wing’s length from them. “I’m just gonna go over there for a bit.” She pointed in a random direction and took off, lost in thoughts and the sound of slowly steadying raindrops tune out Fleetfoot and Spitfire’s apologies.