Rebuilding a Rainbow

"Higher!" Rainbow shouted as she slipped her goggles over her eyes.

"I can't get my voice as high as yours, i'm not a mare!" Soarin shouted back, sitting on Rainbow's couch beside a Daring Doo book.

"I know that," Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes as she turned from the mirror she was looking into, making sure her goggles were on straight. "I'm just trying to not make you stick out during the whole song thing," she added with a shrug, turning away from the mirror and walking over to the door.

"Stallions don't sing that high, i won't stick out," he reassured himself softly, pulling his goggles over his head and onto his eyes.

Rainbow shrugged and said, "if the stallions in Ponyville can do it, so can you," obviously catching Soarin's words to himself as she threw Rarity's saddle bags over her back and waited impatiently by the door for Soarin.

"They aren't stallions if they sing that high, their geldings," Soarin explained with a smirk as he walked over to the mirror Dash had just been looking in to straighten his goggles and check his mane.

"They're not geldings," Rainbow said as she waved her hoof dismissingly and opened the door. "Now would you stop playing with your mane and leave, so that we make it to Rarity's before Winter Wrap-up starts," she added, holding the door open, irritated that he wasn't ready to leave already.

"I wasn't playing with my mane, i was fixing it," he corrected as he walked from the mirror and over to where Rainbow was holding the door open.

"Whatever, Ms. Skies," Rainbow taunted. ( Sounds like a classic Mlp name, right? Soarin Skies, no? Okay, lets just pretend then ;) )

He smirked as she taunted him and then walked out the door she was holding. "Thanks for holding the door Mr. Dash,"  he said once he had gotten outside.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and walked out, closing and locking the door behind her. She started to fly to the Carousal Boutique, not bothering to wait for Soarin who didn't know the way there. He caught up with her quickly though, chuckling at how upset she got at his joke.

Rainbow arrived at the boutique a couple seconds before Soarin did and trotted up to the door. "Rare i'm here," she called as she tapped a hoof against the door.

Soarin landed and spotted her by the door then walked over to her, waiting to be let in as well.

"Oh, coming Rainbow!" Rarity called as she left the mirror she was looking into and started walking over to the door. Suddenly, her hooves had slipped from beneath her and she looked over at Opal frustratingly. "Opal, dear please put your tail away, it tripped mommy," Rarity said, regaining her smile as she got to her hooves and opened the door. Opal did not do as told.

"Oh, you've brought a friend. I wasn't expecting this, i would have gotten up and dressed faster if i knew he was going to be tagging along," Rarity said embarrassed as she opened the door and noticed the presence of not one pony, like she has been expecting, but two. She began to fumble with her mane a bit more, attempting to fix it as it usually was, since it still looked like her bed mane.

"I would have, if i knew he was going to show up at my house last night and demand to spend the night so he could 'check out' Winter Wrap Up," Rainbow grumbled as she glared at Soarin and then looked back at Rarity. She didn't appreciate getting woken from her slumber last night to let the fool in and escort him to the couch, since Winter Wrap Up started early in the morning and she needed all the rest she could get. The fact that she had gotten caught up with a mental debate on whether or not she should go practice her moves in the sky before bed really didn't help the mare get all that much sleep either. "Oh, and i have your saddle bags too," Rainbow added turning to show Rarity the bags she was carrying.

Rarity chuckled at her friend's words and then let the two inside. She watched as Rainbow took off, walking faster than everypony else into the house, clearly upset about having lost some of her precious sleep time the night before. She then glanced over at Soarin who seemed to be confused in more ways than one and so she helped him out by guiding him through the boutique and informing him about how grumpy Rainbow got when she was running on little sleep before dropping her saddle bags off in their usual location.

"Hey, stupid your marefriend is right there! Wipe that stupid smile off your face." Soarin's mind commanded as he sat by the two mares. One of which was sitting in a purple chair and another who was cutting down the other's long Rainbow hair. "She is kinda hot though," his mind added, which didn't help wipe that stupid smile off his face. "No! Stop that you have a marefriend!" His mind command and he followed the orders by wiping the smile off his face and making a funny face at Rainbow.

Rainbow chuckled at his face and got in trouble for doing so by Rarity because she wasn't sitting still as she was instructed to do earlier. "Sorry," she apologized and still looking back at Soarin and making a funny face back at him, trying to keep her head as still as possible while she did so, but she still got in trouble.

Soarin chuckled back at her face and they continued their little pattern of making faces at each other and aggravating the poor marshmallow colored mare who was trying to cut Rainbow's mane.

"Soarin, what do you think of the new manecut?" Rarity asked as she examined her work, not quite sure if she liked how it had come out. She was now calmed down a bit, since she no longer needed Rainbow to sit still. She had learned very early in her relationship with Rainbow that the mare couldn't stay still even if you paid her, but still she got upset and just learned to get over it quickly.

Soarin looked over Rainbow's mane and shrugged. "Looks just like it used to, i like it. Not as much as before, but it's good," he said with a smile and then glanced over to Rarity.

"I told ya Rare, it looks great! Just like before, thanks," Rainbow said as she glanced other to Rarity as well, a smile spread across her face.

"I too favor the longer mane, but our stubborn friend here doesn't agree," Rarity huffed as she glanced to Soarin and then walked over to a closet door, which she began digging through it.

Rainbow chuckled at Rarity's words and then got off the chair to help her dig out two blue vests for Soarin and her to ware at the event. "Here put this on," she commanded as she walked over to Soarin and dropped a blue vest on his lap.

"Okay?" He said, slipping the vest on, though he clearly didn't know why he was wearing it. He hoped it would be explained to him, but it seemed he wasn't getting an answer out of Rainbow who slipped hers on and went over to check it out in a mirror. He glanced to the other mare, hoping to get an explanation from her, but she was also too busy to notice his confusion as she slipped a brown vest on and then started fumbling with her mane again. "Oh well," he thought, waiting for Dash to leave the mirror so that he could steal a glance at himself and then leave with her.

"So, why is everyone wearing different colored vests?" Soarin asked as he walked beside Rainbow on there way to where they were going to start their work.

"It's how we split up the groups," Rainbow responded, glancing over at him. "Blue is for the weather team, green for the plant team and brown for the animal team," she explained with a smile.

Soarin nodded once she had finished speaking and noticed that she seemed to cheer up now that she had been awake for longer. "Somepony isn't a morning person," his mind noted as they came to a stop in front of a large group of ponies, all sporting the same blue vest he was.

"Soarin! I didn't know you were going to be here! Rainbow never told me! Silly Rainbow Dash! You know why she's called Rainbow Dash? No, well because she's fast and she has a rainbow mane! I don't know how her parents knew she was going to be fast, but they did! Like how did my parents know i was going to like pie?!? You like pie too! Oh!!!! Let's have some pie! Apple Jack! Apple Jack! Oh, yeah she's with the planting group! HAHAHA, Silly me for forgetting..." Pinkie began to rant as she stood in front of Soarin, a smile plastered on her face and using her hooves to act out her words. All while Soarin stared back at her, clearly lost in all her rambling.

Rainbow was also lost, trying to keep up with Pinkie's words, but once she figured she was way to lost by now she shook her head and shoved her right hoof into Pinkie's mouth. "Yeah Pinkie, he's here," she said with a chuckle as she glanced to Soarin and then back at the pink pony before her. "And we need to get to work, so have fun ice skating!" She added with a smile as she reclaimed her hoof and Pinkie dashed off, a pair of skated hanging from her neck.

"Ugh, my head hurts," Soarin complained as he glanced over from Dash, being pulled out of his confused state. "I'll just smile and agree like i do with Surprise from now on," he added, rubbing his right hoof over his head.

Rainbow chuckled and pulled his hoof off his head with her own. "Come on we've got work to do," she said with a chuckle and walked off into the group with the rest of the ponies who were wearing blue vest, beginning to break them up and explain what they would be doing.

Soarin chuckled and followed her into the group, standing aside while she instructed the others, waiting to see what he was going to do. He waited a long time, actually he waited until everypony else was separated into smaller groups and there he stood, by Dash, still not sure where he belonged here.

"Alright cloud group, Soarin will be helping you out while i take the other group to bring the birds back, got it?" Rainbow announced and then listened as everypony agreed and took to the skies. "Good luck," she whispered with a smile, tapping Soarin with a hoof before taking off in the air, a group of pegasi following behind her.

Soarin looked over his group, over at where Rainbow had just been and then back at his group with a sigh. "Great, she leaves me in charge of a group and i have no bucking idea what i'm supposed to do with them. Oh, wait i do! She explained this to to everypony just a minute ago, duh," he thought chuckling softly to himself, which earned him a few confused stares from his group. He noticed this, smiled embarrassedly at them and then took to his wings, calling, "Alright everypony lets move these clouds," behind him.

"No not there Grey Thunder!" Soarin groaned, hitting himself in the face with his right hoof and letting it slide down slowly.

"My name is Thunderlane," the pony corrected and then looked over at the cloud with a shrug, he still wasn't sure about where Soarin wanted it. He also didn't want to get yelled at again so he shyed away from the cloud.

The two had been working on moving this one cloud for quite some time now, Soarin commanded and Thunderlane did the moving, but he hadn't seemed to move it to the right position yet, which aggravated Soarin. Somehow he managed to clam himself down, smile and apologize to Thunderlane. "Can you just buck the cloud? Give it a good, hard bucking," Soarin commanded and Thunderlane did as told very easily, which knocked the cloud out of existence. "Good, how about you just buck the clouds and leave the arranging of them to the other ponies?" Soarin suggested and Thunderlane smiled at him then dashed off to buck some more clouds.

"You handled him better than i thought you would," a more feminine voice called with a slight chuckle from behind Soarin.

Soarin turned to see who the voice belonged to and took in Rainbow's appearance. He smiled at her words and then said, "Yeah, he's a hoof full."

Rainbow nodded in agreement and said, "Yeah, but he's really agile and strong," with a shrug.

"The way you say it makes you sound like you like him," Soarin commented with a chuckle, but soon noticed that Rainbow wasn't laughing back. "Wait, you like him?"

"Used to," she replied with a shrug.

"Aw, so that's why you keep him around how cute!" Soarin taunted, laughing at himself as he did so.

"Yeah, must be why i keep you around too because these clouds are all arranged wrong," she said pointing her right hoof up at the sky and laughing at her own words. "And just so you know, i keep him around because he knows how to stop unscheduled thunderstorms before they happen," she corrected with a smirk as she took off, starting to fix Soarin's horrible cloud arrangements that wouldn't allow enough sunlight in for the plants below to grow.

Soarin chuckled and shot off after her.

A Couple Hours Later...

Soarin had been hearing what sounded like mumbling in the distance for quite awhile, but it wasn't effecting him or his group and so he ignored it. Well, until the mumbling grew to a whisper then to talking and lastly to full blown singing, coming from the mouths of the ponies he was working with, even Rainbow Dash who was still working beside him. He sighed, cleared his throat and then started in, knowing the lyrics thanks to Dash's last minute coaching.

He was singing softly at first, so that if he had forgotten a few of the words he wouldn't look too stupid in front of everypony else. But, once the chorus of the song came and went he decided to give it his all and sing as loud as everypony else was.

Rainbow heard the beginning of his deep, out of tune singing and chuckled then shoved her right hoof into his mouth, shutting him up before anypony else heard the horrible singing and started laughing as well. Too bad the rest of the weather team had already heard him and were no longer working because they were all too busy laughing.

Rainbow kept her hoof in his mouth for a couple seconds, while the laughter around them picked up, but once it got too loud to ignore she shifted into protector mode. "Hey, put a hoof in it! He's doesn't even live in Ponyville, but he took time out of his busy schedule to come help us and your gonna thank him by making fun of him?! You know he was supposed to be doing a practice for a show tonight, but instead he came here and lent a hoof for us!" Rainbow called over their laughing and quickly shushed them all. "Yeah, now get back to work, the sun is already setting and we aren't done with all these clouds!" She commanded and the ponies continued their work, quietly. She sighed, satisfied by their actions and looked back to Soarin, projecting a comforting smile. "You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, i'm fine, thanks" Soarin said with a smile, glancing away from the ponies who were just laughing at him and back to the pony who shut them all up. "Wow, Fluttershy was lucky to have you around, your good at that," he said with a smile, which made her smile grow bugger and prouder as her right hoof waved dismissively in the air.

"It's no big deal, i'm most of these ponies' boss anyway, they're used to listening to my orders," she said, her smile still on her face.

Soarin laughed and said, "It's still cool how fast they shut up when you told them though."

Rainbow shrugged and said, "I guess so, but it's over, let's just get back to work so we can go home."

"Which home?"

"My home."

"Are you inviting me over?"

"Yes."

"Then let's get to work," Soarin responded with a smile as he grabbed ahold of a cloud with his forelegs. "So, where do you want it boss?" He asked with a smirk.

"To the left, cadet," Rainbow said with a chuckle as she looked at him and then how the sky was already arranged.

"Hey, Thunder can you stop that thundercloud up there before you leave?" Rainbow asked as she floated by where Thunderlane was standing on the ground.

"No problem, Dash, see ya tomorrow," he said with a smile and jumped off the ground, letting his wings carry him to the cloud that he zipped through and some how managed to stop from inside. In it's place sat a normal cloud that he quickly bucked away and then re landed to start his walk home.

"Bye, Thunder," she called after him and then glanced over at Soarin who was watching him walk off.

"How'd he even do that?" Soarin asked, having no idea how that pony could have turned the thundercloud into a normal one in just seconds.

Rainbow shrugged and said, "I have no idea, but it sure is handy."

"I noticed," he said with a smile. "Now are we going home?"

"You mean to my house?"

"Yeah, home."

"That's not your home."

"It might as well be,"

"That's true, let's go," she said with a chuckle and started flying off in her house's direction, Soarin flying happily beside her. She was too tired to argue another pointless argument with him, even if she did enjoy doing so.

"I'm going to take a shower, do what you want," Rainbow said with a yawn as she tossed her keys onto the couch, walking through the front door.

Soarin followed in after her and watched her take off up the stairs as he sat on the couch. "Wait, mind if i join you?" He asked, a question that had been trying to break out of his mouth since she announced what she was going to do, but he'd held back until she had walked through the living room and up to the last stair.

"Soarin," she said with a sigh, glancing back down the stairs and over to him and his sweet smile.

"Rainbow," he replied, the smile still sitting on his face.

"How about, i take a shower by myself, then you take one and you don't have to sleep on the couch tonight?" She offered, forcing a smile back at him.

"So, i can sleep in bed with you?" He asked, his smile still on his face.

Rainbow nodded and the asked, "Deal?"

"Deal."

"Alright, then i'm going to take my shower," she said, no longer able to keep the forced smile on her face. She sighed and turned, walking to the bathroom.

"Why do we always do that?" Rainbow's mind questioned as she turned the shower on. "Why can't we be like normal ponies who just smile, chuckle and play with their hair?" It questioned on as Rainbow's magenta eyes found her mirror image and stared into it. "Why do we have to be the weird pony? Why aren't we confident in ourself anymore? Why does it hurt us to think about this? Why can't we just act like a mare and love him back? Why are we crying?" Her mind continued as tears rolled down her cheeks, her eyes still staring into her mirror image. "Why are we still afraid of him? Why does he want anything to do with us? Why don't we want anything to do with ourself? Why does our appearance never satisfy us anymore, even when we look at it a million times? Why do we want our mane cut short? Why do we pretend we are okay when we really aren't? Why can we answer all these questions with the same answer?" Now she was sobbing, the warm water from the shower only beginning to fog up her appearance in the mirror, letting her still stare at it and question herself. She sniffled and attempted to look away from herself, but she couldn't, her mind wouldn't let her, it was too busy interrogating her some more.

"Why did we trust him with those secrets? Why did we let our walls down around him? Why can't we just chase him away like everpony else? Why do we feel safe with him? Why do we love him? Why does he love us? Why can't we show him that we love him too?" Her mind questioned as she sobbed on, but this time she sobbed for a different reason. Just seconds before she was crying because of the kidnapper, but now she was crying because she couldn't repay Soarin for all that he did for her by loving him like he wanted her to. It made her sad that he did so much to make sure she felt okay and waited for her to finally be a real marefriend to him, to give him even the smallest bit of affection.

The more she thought, the deeper the questions got and the more she sobbed. She tried to stop it, but failed over and over again. She was finally breaking down after all the months of pretending she didn't think like this and that she was happy again. She hadn't done this since the first time the kidnapper assaulted her and left her sobbing on the uncomfortable bed he had provided. She remembered sobbing for what felt like hours and knew that this time wouldn't be any different, but Soarin had other plans.

"Hey, Rainbow you okay?" He called from the other side of the door. She knew he must have followed up after her, waiting to take his shower and get into bed, until he heard her sobbing.

She finally was able to glance away from her reflection and to the door, where she stared as she sobbed, giving the stallion no response.

"You okay Dash?" Soarin asked on, gripping the doorknob with a hoof, concerned about the sobbing mare on the other side of the door, but still there was no response. He sighed and opened the door to find Rainbow staring back at him, looking like a complete emotional mess. "Oh, Rainbow, he sighed wrapped his hooves around her, petting her back gently with his right hoof. She just continued to sob and cling to him, mumbling sorry over and over again. "No, shh, don't be sorry. Everypony cries," he said, attempting to calm her down.

"N-no. S-s-sorry i'm n-not a g-g-good maref-friend," she stuttered, pulling her head off of his shoulder where it had been rested to look at him.

"Rainbow, you are a good marefriend," he corrected. "Your the best marefriend I've had," he added, forcing a smile on his face.

"Y-your lying," she stuttered on, still staring back at him.

"No i'm not. Y-your the best marefriend I've had. All the other ones lied to me and cheated, a-and u-used me, b-but you don't do that. Y-your better than a-all of t-them," He corrected, breaking down in tears himself as he thought about his past relationships which had all ended badly and stared at the broken mare before him, who had been used as well.

"D-don't cry S-Soarin," she said, reaching a hoof up to wipe his face.

"D-dont c-cry Rainbow," he said back with a smile, which she mirrored before pushing her muzzle into his.

The kiss lasted for a couple seconds and then they sat, crying and staring back at each other quietly.

Soarin finally broke the silence by stuttering, "Y-you kissed me,"

Rainbow nodded and asked, "W-what about our s-showers?"

"Tomorrow," he said and pulled her into him again as his tears started to dry up,  but hers kept coming. They dripped from her eyes, down her face and then down his back, but he didn't mind. Instead he tried to comfort her convulsing body and stop her tears.