Dashing Dreams

Cloudisseum, 2:07 P.M., October 24th, 2012

As everypony left the stadium, Midnight had moved his way back from the crowd to find the entrance to the back stage. If Rainbow Dash didn’t know what to do, he had his own ideas. Soon, he spotted the entrance in the back of the Cloudisseum, but as to be expected, it wasn’t left open for just anypony to wander inside. Two security ponies were standing guard, flanking the single door leading inside. “Shit, this isn’t gonna be easy. I could always try talking my way in.” Even from this distance, the guards didn’t look particularly interested in talking to anypony. Still, he didn’t want to waste the chance. “Well, it’s worth a shot.” He rounded the corner from the outer walkway and trotted straight up to the security guards who quickly stepped in front of the doorway. He put on his best diplomatic face. “Excuse me sirs. I need to talk to The Wonderbolts right away.”

“No one sees The Wonderbolts without a backstage pass.”

“I really need to talk to them. It’s very important to a friend of mine.”

“No one sees The Wonderbolts without a backstage pass.”

“I have money. How much is it gonna be to get back there?”

“No one sees The Wonderbolts without a backstage pass.”

“Grrr. Fine. Have it your way.”

He was about to resign himself to a more forceful course of action when a bright yellow pony opened the door behind the two security guards. “What seems to be the problem here?” Midnight had recognized her instantly. She was out of uniform but he could tell that she was a Wonderbolt. Her hair was swept back in their signature style, but beyond that, she looked vaguely familiar, he was almost sure he’d seen her before today.

The guards maintained their stoic demeanor even as they spoke to her. “This pony is trying to get backstage without a pass.”

The pony looked over Midnight as the guard pointed at him. Midnight gave her the most sincere smile he could muster, still not very. “It’s okay, Let him through.”

That was a little strange, but he wasn’t going to pass up this golden opportunity to help Rainbow Dash.

“Whatever you say, Spitfire.” Both guards stepped from the doorway, letting him pass.

Midnight walked through the backstage door and up to join the pony who let him through. “Thanks. I really needed to talk to you Wonderbolts. It’s about a friend of mine.”

“No problem. If you didn’t catch it before, my name’s Spitfire.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Spitfire. My name’s Midnight Flare. Everypony just calls me Midnight for short.” He put his hoof out for her to shake it. Spitfire stared at his hoof for a second uncertainly, and let out a small giggle before reaching out to return the gesture, albeit a bit unsteadily. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, perfect. Come on, Midnight. Let me introduce you to the rest of the team.” The ponies walked farther into the substructure of The Cloudisseum. These back rooms were every bit as beautiful as the public section of the floating amphitheatre. Passing showers and several training rooms, they eventually came up to 5 ponies, still in uniform. “Midnight, this is the rest of the team. Meet Soarin, Blizzard, Misty, Lightning Streak, and Captain.” The ponies all smiled to him in turn as Spitfire introduced them. “Everyone, this is Midnight. He came here with something to talk about.”

“Well first off, I have a question for all of you. Do any of you remember a pony named Rainbow Dash?”

“Well of course we do.” Soarin said happily, “She saved my, Spitfire’s, and Blizzard’s lives at the best young fliers competition about a year ago. Why? Do you know her?”

“Well yes. She’s actually the reason I’m here. Look, she really looks up to you ponies. She and I have watched every show of yours we could. Ever since the first time we watched you perform, she’s wanted to be a Wonderbolt. She’s spent most of her free time perfecting her moves to join or trying to get your attention. Today as we watched you perform, she realized that she was no where near to where she thought she was to making it in. Well, she went home after the show and I decided to come straight here to talk to all of you to see if there is anything you could do.”

Spitfire eyed Midnight up from top to bottom. “I think we can work something out.” Something in her tone caught him a bit off guard, but the rest of The Wonderbolts didn’t seem to notice. Maybe he just didn’t know her well enough. “Come on, Midnight, I’ll show you around. See you later, guys.” She waved offhoofedly to the rest of her team as she led Midnight back out of the room. He followed Spitfire as she walked in front of him, heading back down the corridor they took on the way in. Spitfire continued to lead the way, and occasionally looked back at him with a slight smile on her face.

“Where are we going, Spitfire?”

“Almost there, just a bit farther.” she said, vaguely.

A short distance down the hall, she made a right into one of the rooms that opened up to the passage. She nudged the door open and stood half inside waiting for him to catch up. Midnight trotted up and stopped outside the door.

“Well, come on in.”

He started to follow her inside but paused when he realized what the room was: one of the showers. His face grew hot immediately.

“Well come on, we don’t have all day you know.”

“Um... it’s just..”

“Oh, it’s fine, we’re a team, we always shower together, you understand, right?”

It made sense, but he still felt a bit uncomfortable following the mare into the shower room alone like this. She trotted across the room and turned on one of the shower-heads, immediately filling the room with a hot steam. Midnight stood across the room, a bit awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what to do. Spitfire felt the stream of hot water with a hoof, checking the temperature was to her liking before stepping under it. The streams ran over her face and down her mane, which soaked down onto her back. The water continued down her legs before spilling onto the floor. Midnight was stone still. She hadn’t been wearing a uniform when she welcomed him inside, and ponies didn’t even normally wear clothes, but this was different. Something else entirely. Spitfire stayed under the shower for several minutes, much to Midnight’s dismay. He still wasn’t sure he should be there with her, or why she had brought him along for that matter. Spitfire finally turned the shower handle, stopping the flow of water and cantered across the room, still dripping wet, directly toward him. She stopped just feet away. “Midnight?”

He was burning up at this point. “Um...”

“Could you hand me a towel? They’re behind you.”

Midnight felt cool relief wash over him, turning around and taking one of the towels off of the rack. When he turned back, Spitfire was mere inches from his face. She pulled herself in before he could react and pressed her lips to his. Whatever misgivings he had about this were gone, replaced with disbelief. Spitfire pushed herself into him, still soaked, her dripping hoof over his shoulder. He didn’t know what to do, but Spitfire knew exactly what she wanted. She pushed him back into the wall and kissed him harder. She wasn’t letting up. Suddenly she broke off. A moment later, Midnight felt her hot breath on his ear.

“Lie down.”

With those words, Midnight’s senses came flooding back to him. He was alone in a shower with a mare he had never met before. He couldn’t do this to Rainbow Dash. Spitfire brushed up against him, encouraging him to do as she asked. She waited a moment in anticipation, but Midnight couldn’t bring himself to cooperate. He gently pushed her off of him and started walking toward the door.

“Now where are you off to in such a rush?”

“Spitfire, I need to... I can’t.”

“A little shy? I don’t mind...” she trailed off, giving him a sly wink before she joined him at the door. “Come on, I think we should talk to the rest of the team about your friend.”

They walked down the hall in silence. Spitfire kept looking at Midnight along the way.

“This girl just won’t give it up, will she?” he thought as he quickened his pace. She was still keeping up, despite being a head shorter than him. And in a few short minutes, they were back, and joined the rest of The Wonderbolts, who hadn’t moved since they left. Upon seeing them, Captain stepped forward, clearing his throat.

“Well, Midnight Flare, we have come to a decision, I think we can help you, and by extension, your friend, with this problem.” He glanced over to Spitfire, who nodded.

“I agree.”