Rebuilding a Rainbow

Rainbow shuffled slightly, beginning to wake from her slumber. She resisted it at first, trying to fall back asleep, but she soon realized that her body wasn't cooperating and gave up, opening her sleepy eyes for the first time that day. She blinked them a few times as they adjusted to the new light and then sat up to stretch her stiff arms out a bit. It was then that she noticed where she had actually woken up.

She was sitting up on her bed, which would have been a normal place for her to wake up every other day, but not today. She knew she hadn't fallen asleep here because the last thing she remembered was her hooves around Soarin while she cried in the bathroom, not her bedroom. So, why was she here? And speaking of Soarin, where was he? Definitely, not beside her or in the bathroom because the door was open and there was no sign of him anywhere in there. She shrugged it off and got off the bed to stretch the rest of her body out before heading downstairs for breakfast.

She reached the kitchen and noticed an empty pie container sitting in the middle of her kitchen table. "Soarin," she mumbled as she approached it to throw it out, but before she did she noticed a note sitting in the middle of it. She looked at it for a moment and then picked it up in her mouth to put aside while she threw the pic container out. Once she had done that she brought her attention back to it and started to read it.

The note

Hey Rainbow, i see you remembered our little deal and got some pie, thanks! Oh, and sorry for the mess, but i had to be sure you found this note because by the time you wake i'll be long gone. I had to get up early for the show today, so i left way earlier than your reading this, lazy flank. Anyway, just thought i'd let you know so you didn't think i just dashed off, so um good morning and goodbye! Oh wait, i should probably say good afternoon because that's probably when you got up, so good afternoon and goodbye! Oh and your welcome for moving you to the bed because that bathroom floor sucks to wake up on!

Rainbow chuckled as she finished reading the note and glanced to the clock to see if Soarin's prediction was correct or not. "Eleven thirty, already?" She thought, surprised that she had slept that late without being disturbed by somepony as she usually was. But, she quickly got over that because it meant that Soarin wasn't right and that she wasn't as lazy as he predicted. She then got up to look for something to give herself for breakfast when a knock came from her front door. "Thought too soon," she mumbled as she turned and headed towards the door to let whoever it was in.

She opened the door and was greeted by Twilight, smiling over at her, books levitating beside her. "Hi Rainbow," she greeted with a smile.

"Hey Twi." Rainbow replied, flashing her a smile and then shifting her gaze back to the books levitating in a purple aura beside her. She recognized those books from her days at Flight School, they were the health class books. The ones that taught you everything you didn't want to learn about your wings with other ponies around, the ones everypony avoided as best they could. "Why do you have those?" She blurted out, glancing back to Twilight after fully examining the books.

"Why do i have what?" Twilight asked, before following Rainbow's gaze to the to books that her magic seemed to be levitating. Her face flushed red as she stuffed them into her saddle bags with her magic, and chuckled nervously. "Oh, those book? I was just um," she began, but stopped to regain her composure. "They're the only book i have left to read on wings and I've been pushing them off. So, i was going to read them, but then got myself out of it by coming to your house.  I must have forgotten to put them down before i teleported here," she explained quickly, still looking pretty embarrassed about the whole situation.

The cyan mare chuckled and said, "Well i didn't see them, so their's nothing to worry about."

"But, you..." Twilight began, but Rainbow stopped her before she could continue anymore by placing a hoof over her muzzle.

"I didn't see them, Twilight," she said with a wink, which the alicorn caught onto and nodded in response to. "Alright, now come in," she added, returning her hoof to the clouds that were below her other ones and walking into the house. Twilight trailed behind her.

Rainbow walked right into the kitchen to continue her search for something to eat. Twilight followed her, noticed what she was doing and sat at the table quietly. "So, can i help you with anything?" Rainbow asked as she searched through the cupboards, but she didn't get an response from her friend. So, she looked away from the cupboards a tulip hanging from her mouth to see why she wasn't getting a response. What she saw was made her drop that tulip fast and dash over to try and pull a note that Twilight was using her magic to hold in place while she read, too bad magic was much stronger than the rattled pegasus was without even trying.

"Rainbow, what are you doing?" Twilight asked, pulling her eyes from the note and to her friend who was tugging said note with all her might. "You do realize that no pony can touch an object that is currently being controlled by magic, right?" She asked, not waiting to receive and answer to her first question because she had figured that one out on her own.

"No," Rainbow mumbled as she sat on the table, by the floating note in defeat.

Her friend nodded understandingly, not expecting Rainbow to know that having gone to a school made just for pegasi education, which taught nothing about unicorns and their magic. ( So, like how private school teaches you the religion way of how humans and the earth was created oppose to the science way public school teaches. If that helps any of you understand it. ) She then glanced back to the note she was scanning over when a certain cyan mare scooted her body into the way. "Rainbow, would you mind scooting back over? I am trying to analyze this letter," she said. Said mare just shook her head and remained where she was, so Twilight simply let go of her magical grasp on the note and said, "Fine, i will just analyze it off of memory," with an annoyed expression.

Rainbow tilted her head at her friend as her hooves scrambled to grab the note. "What do you need to analyze, Twi?" She asked, once she had the note safely crumbled between her two hooves.

"To figure out who wrote the letter because the only pony i know who would mention pie in a letter is Pinky, but that isn't her writing because hers is far more sloppy than that one is. So, i was analyzing the writing to try and match it with any that I've seen before. I know I've seen it somewhere, but i just can't put a face on it," she explained, glancing over to Rainbow as she spoke. "And it's really difficult going off memory here, but you seem to be really protective over the letter, hm definitely a colt," the alicorn noted out loud and then turned to analyzing the words instead of the writing. "The colt mentions a show of some sort and the only type of show you are ever interested in is a Wonderbolts show, so if he is performing in it then he has to be on the team, which adds up with the fact that he has writes very well becuase they have to sign things for their fans all the time.The team consists of many colts, but the first one that comes to mind is Soarin because you two seem to have a more friendly relationship than a professional one and that letter is definitely friendly, since he called you a lazy flank and in a professional relationship those words would never be mentioned or in this case written. So, I hypothesise that the author of this note is none other than Soarin Skies," She said, speaking her thoughts out loud, so that she wouldn't have to later explain to her friend how she came up with the answer she did. "Am i correct?" She asked.

Rainbow stared at Twilight for a moment after she asked the question, amazed that the mare was able to figure all that out from a very basic letter. But, she soon snapped out of it and got herself ready to lie, which is when she realized she better not because Twilight would figure it out quickly and pry for a real answer. So, she said, "Yes, you're right," dropping the letter from her hooves, no longer needing to hold it hostage.

Twilight nodded and smiled, proud of her how well she figured that one out. "Why did he stay the night this time?" She asked.

"We left Winter Wrap-Up late, so i let him stay," Rainbow replied with a shrug as she got up to retrieve the tulip she had dropped and a few more things to call her breakfast.

"You two are spending an awful lot of time together, even more time then you spend with us," Twilight said with a sigh as she followed the pegasus' figure.

Rainbow finished collecting her meal and sat with it next to Twilight. "Well i work with him," she replied as she bit into the start of her food.

"Yeah, but we're your friends."

"He's my friend too," Rainbow replied, glancing away from her food and over to Twilight, confused as to why she cared who she chose to spend her time with.

"Yeah, but...what i'm trying to say is, i miss hanging out with you," Twilight said, flashing her friend a smile.

At that moment Rainbow understood. She no longer pondered why Twilight decided to pay her two visits when she usually avoided visiting anything above the ground and also, why she was so concerned about how much time she spent with Soarin, she missed her. She and Twilight hadn't always been so close, but when they realized they both shared the same love for reading and Twilight received her wings they had become inseparable. If Rainbow wasn't at Twilight's library discussing the Daring Doo series or what funny thing happened with Twilight's new wings earlier they were out, practicing each of their flight skills, everypony knew that. But, Rainbow hadn't really hung out with or talked with Twilight in awhile, which hurt Twilight and now was hurting Dash. "I'm sorry, Twi," she said, ignoring her breakfast to just focus on their conversation now, figuring she had been a bad enough friend already and didn't want to worsen it by not fully concentrating on the first conversation they had in almost a year now.

"No, it's okay. You must be really busy with the weather team and the academy and your other friends," Twilight said with a sigh as she propped her head up on her hooves.

"Oh, come on Twi. I always have time for you, who else do i have to talk about Daring Doo with and share funny stories about my wings with?" Rainbow asked as she nudged Twilight with her right hoof. "We can hang out today, after i plan the weekly weather with the weather team," she offered with a smile.

"That's be nice," Twilight said with a smile.

"Alright, i'll go do the weather schedule and we can hang out again after that," she said with a smile.

"Okay," Twilight said, lifting her head and placing her hooves back down on the chair before hopping off it. "I'll meet you here at six, bye" Rainbow then waved and the Alicorn let herself out.

"Um, Rainbow. I don't think having a rainfall on this day is very smart," Thunderlane said as he looked over the schedule Rainbow had just finished putting together. " You have rain already three times before this and it's going to make the crops die from being over watered," he explained.

Rainbow glanced over the schedule once more and nodded in agreement. "Your right Thunder, i was just trying to make up for the lack of rain last week, but that isn't going to do anything, but flood the fields. I'll just make Wednesday a heavy rainfall and have the rest of the week be sunny and cloudy or whatever," she said, then fixed the schedule with a pencil.

"Yeah, but not too many cloudy days or the crops won't have enough sun to grow," Thunderlane reminded her as she made the adjustments.

"It's Spring Thunderlane, it's supposed to be rainy and cloudy, that's how it goes," she said, dropping her pencil to correct him. "That'll be on one of your test in school, so remember that or you'll fail the test, i did," she said with a shrug and then went back to fixing the schedule.

"Okay," Thunderlane said with a smile as he sat down, tired of standing the whole time. The rest of the team simply watched the two, not saying anything because they knew nothing about planning weather, they just kinda did what the schedule said. They would have to take a class in Cloudsdale to learn about this and none of them had done that except Rainbow who had already taken and passed it and Thunderlane who was currently taking it.

"Look good to you Thunder?" She asked, dropping her pencil and moving, so that he could glimpse over it.

"Looks good to me," he said with a smile.

Okay, good," she said, smiling back at him and holding her right wing up for him to hit with his own, the pegasi version of a high five. She then glanced at the rest of the team and said, "We're done, you can go home now."

They all quickly left, except for Thunderlane who stayed behind to help Rainbow pick up and put the schedule up.

"It's neat how you got Soarin to help us yesterday," Thunderlane said as he held the schedule up while Rainbow put magnets on it to hold it up.

"Yeah, i guess so. I mean i see him everyday, so it's nothing, but it's probably really neat to you," she said, flashing him a small smile and then refocusing on her work.

He nodded in agreement and then looked to his hooves for a minute. "So, um...i see you got your mane cut again," he said, trying to keep their conversation going.

She nodded and said, "Yup, your the only one on the team who noticed." She then went to slide a magnet over the paper and cut her hoof. "Ugh, papercut," she mumbled, pulling both her hooves back so that she wouldn't bleed on the schedule.

"I've got it," he said, letting go of the schedule to go grab a band-aid. He then returned a couple minutes later and wrapped her hoof for her. "Good?" he asked with a smile, the rest of the roll sitting on the floor by the fallen schedule.

"Yeah, thanks." Rainbow said as she turned her hoof a bit and then put it back on the ground.

"No problem," he said, which is when Rainbow noticed the piece of wrap stuck to his lip.

She reached a hoof out and took the wrap off his face with a giggle. "Don't think you'll be needing this," she said as she stuck it to the the roll.

"No, i won't," he said with a nervous blush as they went back to their work. "So, i was wondering if your, um busy tomorrow," he said, staring at the schedule instead of Rainbow.

"No, well i don't think i am, why? You want to go over your papers with me again?" She asked, glancing over to him once she had put another magnet down.

"Yeah, wait i mean no!" He said, biting down on his lip afterwards. "I was thinking more like a date or something," he said, glancing over at her for a second and then away again.

"Oh, uh," she began, still looking over at him and waiting for him to look back at her. He did so and this time kept his eyes there with a slight smile while Rainbow thought his offer over. "You can't!" Her mind yelled at her. "Don't forget Soarin! He's not here right now, but he's still your coltfriend, wait! We didn't even agree to that, maybe we can do this...wait...no we didn't agree to it, but we've kinda just accepted it by now, right? We can't say yes, shoot him down." She sighed as she finished thinking it over and then began to talk to him. "Look, Thunder, i'm sorry, but..." She began, but he interrupted her by lifting a hoof and putting it to her muzzle.

"No, i'm sorry. I got it, you don't have to say anything else," he said with a forced smile before looking back to his work and putting his hoof on it again.

She sighed and frowned as he took his hoof back and looked away. "No, Thunder, it's not that i don't like you, it's just i'm busy tomorrow, i just remembered something!" She said, still looking at him, not being able to shot down such a sweet colt. "What are we doing! No! Just pretend we're not talking to the colt version of Fluttershy and shoot him down!" Her mind shouted as he glanced back to her.

"Oh, okay, then when aren't you busy?" He asked, his expression cheered up a bit.

She sighed as he asked the question and knew now she couldn't dance around it, she really had to shoot him down.. "Thunder, i, we can't, i have a coltfriend," She said.

"Oh, sorry!" He apologized again. "I didn't know or i would have never asked you," he began to explain.

"It's fine, Thunder. Let's just get this up and pretend it never happened, okay?" She asked and he nodded. Then they both turned back to their work, finished, said goodbye and took off back home.

"We feel bad," her mind reminded her, which made her roll her eyes, as if she didn't already know that. "You know what we should do! Hook him up with Flutters, they're like the same!" Her mind plotted, which made her chuckle a bit. Could you imagine that relationship? It wouldn't even get past the first kiss because they'd be far too busy apologizing to each other. "Maybe later," she thought as she arrived at her home and found Twilight sitting outside, "Right now, we've got to apologize," she thought as she walked up to her.

Meanwhile...

The Wonderbolts were about halfway to their show and night had fallen. So, they all agreed on taking the night off and split up to get something to eat before heading to a hotel to rest. Spitfire and Surprise had taken off to eat with Fleetfoot, while Soarin had taken off with Wave Chill and Fire Streak. So, now he sat at the bar in some restaurant with his 'friends' at his sides.

"It feels weird having you around again Soar," Wave Chill said as he nudged Soarin with his hoof, knocking the pie in his hooves to the floor, "Oh, sorry about that," He said with a smirk.

"It's fine, i didn't really want it anyway," Soarin said with a sigh as he looked away from the fallen pie and over at Wave Chill. "Good," his mind said, satisfied with his response, even though his body disapproved of it. All of these stallions had been Wonderbolts during his foalhood, so they became the ponies he admired and he wouldn't dare do anything to upset them even if they did make him loose out on a perfectly good pie.

"You don't need it anyway, you've put on too many pounds from those things already," Fire Streak added with a chuckle as he nudged Soarin on the other side with his hoof.

Soarin glanced down at his stomach and frowned. He saw no difference in his body size, but if Fire Streak saw it then it had to be true, his idol would never lie to him right?

"Oh, don't feel too bad kid, it's probably just a result of spending all your time with whiny Rainbow instead of us," Wave Chill said with a chuckle. "I mean the mare's always complaining to you about something!"

"Yeah she is! She's always like, my wings hurt, i'm sore, Spitfire hates me..." Fire Streak added, both of them chuckling, forgetting the sticks of celery that sat before them on the table.

Soarin didn't like them talking about Rainbow like that, but he chose to say nothing and instead began munching on one of his own celery sticks, now that his precious pie was all over the floor. "Well, she is going through the academy and that's tough on the wings, plus Spitfire's a hard trainer," he said, taking a break from his food to try and get the ponies to lay off on Rainbow.

"Spitfire isn't tough! She's just hot!" Wave Chill said, waving a hoof dissmissingly in the air.

"Yeah she is!" Fire Streak chimed in.

Soarin soon found both their eyes on him, waiting for him to chime in with them as well. "Well, i trained with her and got accepted with her a-and i'm really good friends with her, but  I've never though of her that way," he said with a slight smile before a couple hard apple ciders were placed in front of each of them. "Closest thing we're getting to an apple pie tonight, dig in," his mind instructed and he did as told, quietly.

"Soarin, really? You haven't ever.." Wave Chill began.

"Nope!" Soarin interrupted, putting his drink down for a moment.

"Well, how about Surprise? She's hot too," Fire Streak said, glancing from the cup of cider he was drinking and over to Soarin.

"No, she's just my friend too," Soarin said with a shrug.

"Fleetfoot?" Wave chill asked, but just got a head shake from Soarin as a response.

"Do you even like mares or just filly foolers?!" Fire Streak said with a chuckle that Wave Chill chimed into.

"Oh geez we better drink our brains out tonight," Soarin's mind commented as he finished his first drink and looked to the bartender for another.

"That was a good one Fire!" Wave Chill shouted as he bro hoofed Fire Streak.

Fire Streak continued to chuckle and glanced to Soarin, who didn't seem to get the joke. "Oh come on, you don't get it?!" He asked through his chuckles. "I said or just Filly Foolers because, well look at Rainbow! Sure she's pretty hot, but she's got Filly Fooler written all over her mane, tail and face!" He yelled and then he and Wave Chill started to laugh harder.

Soarin mumbled some things to himself and then chugged the mug of cider he had just received. He made a weird face as the last of it slid down his throat and then glared back at the two stallions he was seated with. They were still laughing and making jokes about Rainbow, so he rolled his eyes and looked to the bartender. "I'll have another," he said, flashing her a small smile before glancing back to his 'friends' and disappeared.

Spitfire glared at her teammates from the booth she, Surprise and Fleetfoot were seated in. "You know those two are real douche bags," she grumbled as she got ready to stand up and march right over there.

"Whoa nelly!" Surprise said with a chuckle as she grabbed ahold of her left hoof, pulling Spitfire back down to the booth. "Remember last time you wen't over there? I don't know what you said, but all three of them avoided you for a week!" She added.

"Yeah, and all three of them deserved every word of it!" She argued, ripping her hoof out of Surprise's grip.

"Soarin didn't deserve it," Fleetfoot said, glancing up fro her meal and over at Spitfire.

"Yes he did! Sure, he just sits there like a lump on a log and doesn't join in with them, but he could at least try and get them to stop," Spitfire said, glancing back over to Fleetfoot.

Fleetfoot shrugged and said, "Look i want to pound them as bad as you do, but all that's gonna happen is a headline with us beating the two of them up and we'll get a letter from headquarters about it. If you want to keep your job, sit." She then glanced away from Spitfire and back at her food.

Spitfire glanced at them once more and sighed. "Fine," she said, looking back to her food.

Surprise smiled as she looked over her two friends. Spitfire was playing lazily with her food, obviously trying to take her mind off the conversation going on a short distance away from them. Then there was Fleetfoot who was brutally eating her hay fries. "Oh cheer up you guys! They called us hot!" Surprise said with a chuckle as she nudged both of them on a forearm.

"Surprise, they called Rainbow a filly fooler! Our friend, Rainbow!" Spitfire said madly as she glanced at the laughing white pegasus beside her.

"Oh in that case, " she began with a chuckle with quickly turned into an evil laughter as she continued. "I hope they take a mare back to their room tonight and wake up with itchy parts!!!"

"Surprise!" Both Spitfire and Fleetfoot said on unison as they looked away from what they were doing and back at her.

Surprise just shrugged and said, "What? You two wanted to beat them up!"

"I bet she isn't even that great!" Wave Chill said, still chuckling.

"Yeah, but she's probably fast!" Fire Streak added, chuckling himself. "Get it? Get it? Because she's the fastest in Equestria!!" He added, nudging Soarin who seemed to be more interested in the mug of cider he was nursing than what they had to say.

"Okay we're drinking and we STILL CAN'T STAND IT!!!" Soarin's mind screamed as he took a sip from the mug. "OPEN OUR MOUTH!!!" It screamed on and he took one more sip then slammed his hooves on the bar.

"Whoa Soar, calm down," Fire Streak said, his chuckling now stopping.

"No i will not calm down!" He yelled, slamming his hooves down some more, angrily.

"Sh! Your gonna attract the paparazzi! Get down!" Wave Chill warned, glancing up at Soarin who glared right back at him.

"Good! Then they'll have a nice long story about how much of douchebags both of you are!" He huffed moving his glare to Fire Streak and then back at Wave Chill. "To think i used to look up to you two!" He added with a roll of his eyes. "Never again, never after you talked about Rainbow like that! She is my marefriend and you two need to respect! But, you won't, you know why?! Because you two think nothing of mares! And you ought a start because you two are hitting retirement age soon and when being a Wonderbolt is done and over with you can kiss mares goodbye! So, have fun dying alone while i hang out with my marefriend!" He shouted, taking turns glaring at both of the stallions seated at the table with him. It was then that he noticed the paparazzi snapping pictures at the whole scene and flashed a big ol' smile for them. "Can't wait to see that on the news, huh? Looks like this kid's making his first headline!" He added, then asked the bartender for his check, paid it and glanced over at the two stallions he was just sitting with. He huffed and started walking off only to be stopped by three hooves.

"Whoa nelly!" Surprise repeated as Soarin stopped, her hoof being one of three that grabbed him.

Soain glanced over at her, then the owners of the two other hooves holding his forearm, Spitfire and Fleetfoot. "What?" He asked as they reclaimed their hooves.

"First of all that little speech you did was perfect," Fleetfoot began with a smile.

"Oh, thanks," he said a smile creeping on his face again.

"And second of all you look really really hungry!" Surprise continued in her normal energetic voice.

"So, sit with us before you go to the hotel. There's a pie over there with your name on it," Spitfire added with a small smile, which looked like nothing compared to the smile that took over Soarin's face after she spoke.

"Okay, you've got me," he said with a chuckle and slid into the booth beside Fleetfoot.

"The best part was when she swooped down and grabbed the golden monkey before the temple fell!" Rainbow said with a chuckle. She was seated on her couch, Twilight to her left and they were in the middle of discussing one of the Daring Doo books.

"I'm going to have to disagree on that one Rainbow," Twilight began, glancing over at her friend, chuckling slightly at her enthusiasm. "I believe that the best part is when she used the clues in the temple to find the golden monkey, since the map got destroyed in a earlier booby trap," she finished with a smile.

"That was okay, but i think the part i was talking about was so much better," she argued, not an upset type of arguing, but a friendly type.

Twilight shrugged and said, "To each his own."

"I guess so, except we're mares," Rainbow said, still chuckling.

"Actually it's just a saying, but i guess we could say, to each her own," Twilight said, chuckling back at Rainbow. She then noticed the clock and said, "Wow, it got late quick, Spike probably thought i was coming home tonight and locked up the library without me already."

Rainbow glanced back at the clock and shrugged. "I guess it's late for you," she began. "It's definitely past an egghead's bedtime," she continued, turning back to Twilight with a taunting smirk on her face.

"Well, i can't argue with that one," Twilight replied with a chuckle as she got off the couch. "Bye Rainbow," she said and then walked out the door to go home.

Rainbow said goodbye as well and then stretched out on the couch to finish the Daring Doo book she'd been reading lately.