Soarin felt the air rush through his mane as he fell ever faster towards the ground. His eyes were shut, he knew the exact two things he needed to do. He felt the ground looming towards him at an incredible rate. Just meters before he hit the ground, he swiftly opened his wings, turning his fall into a steep dive, and flew inches off the ground.

He zipped almost blindingly through the town ponies, skimming a granny's bag as he turned side on to squeeze between two of the citizens. He received a few grunts of annoyance from various ponies, but he casually ignored them as he continued his ground-skimming flight path. A few minutes later after completing about 3 laps of the town, he lifted a good few meters above the ground and slowed down considerably.

He looked around to try and spot the ginger bread house of a building that was sugar-cube corner, it was easy to see amongst the other structures. He raced towards it at breakneck speed and slowing down before the door, he peered inside, checking for familiar faces, particularly Pinkie Pie. He deemed the area to be free of fanfillies and slowly walked in, remembering to slip on the cloak, just in case. He walked up to the counter and was greeted by a mare with a pink, double shaded mane, unlike Pinkie's
because hers was just one color. "Why hello dear" she said, giving him a warm smile. "What can I get you?"

"Uhh" Soarin began, he knew if he worded this wrong, it would be odd to say the least. "Is Pinkie Pie around?" he asked simplistically.

"Hmm" she thought to herself for a moment "I'll check" she said, walking up the flight of stairs he had gone up last time. "She might be in the fields" she added. Soarin heard a muffled banging noise of a door knock, followed by the mare's voice, also muffled. "Pinkie?" she asked, barely audible to Soarin since he was downstairs. He heard the door swing open and a light switch turn on, minutes later the mare returned and gave him an answer. "I think she's in the fields" she concluded. Soarin quickly left after, fear of discovery of course.

The first problem he had was he had no clue where the fields were, you'd think a pegasus who came from Cloudsdale would obviously see it, wouldn't they? Either way, Soarin knew he'd need some help, he was so engulfed in his thoughts that he didn't notice a purple alicorn bump into him. WAIT! ALICORN!? Soarin's eyes immediately widened as she let out a startled grunt. "Sorry!" she said, putting on a creepily large smile as she scrambled to pick up some books from the dusty ground. Once she had picked up her possessions, she looked back to Soarin, who just sat there, staring. "Whats wrong?" she asked him, tilting her head and giving him an inquisitive look. "Oh, these" she answered her own question, opening her wings slightly to look at them. "Don't worry, you don't need to address me as princess" she said, beaming at him. Soarin looked at her confused, he knew royalty had to be properly introduced, didn't they?

"Ok." Soarin said slowly, allowing his mind to process what had happened. "Well my name is-" he was cutoff as the princess finished his sentence.

"Soarin the wonderbolt?" she almost knew the answer before he even said it. "Second in command?"

"No need to call me second in command." he said, gaining more confidence around the royal figure. "The commander, admiral, second in command titles and so on were abolished decades ago" he informed her, trying to stay calm.

"Oh right, I'm just used to addressing wonderbolts that way" she said, Soarin just looked at her strangely.

"Wait, you've met part of our team?" Soarin asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who were they?"

"Hmm..." She put a hoof to her chin and looked slightly into the sky "I think it was Spitfire, Blaze and Silver Lining" she responded, trying to recall an event.

"Oh, ok." he said, pointing a hoof at her subtly. "You wouldn't happen to know a mare named 'Pinkie Pie' would you?" he asked, attempting to see if she knew, she was a princess was she not?

"Pinkie? I saw her in the fields a little earlier today with Fluttershy" she responded, Soarin gave her another confused look. "Oh, of course, you don't even know where the fields are." she figured. "Don't worry, I'll show you!"

"Thank you so much princess!" he responded quickly. "It's an honor"

"Uhh, just call me Twilight" she responded as they started walking. "And I don't really like being up on a pedestal if that's ok." she finished, putting on a more relaxed smile then before.

"Ok, Lets go!" Soarin said, eager to see Pinkie for some help.

Rainbow Dash soared down towards the village, leaving a more opaque rainbow trail than before. She flew high above the town to see if she could spot him, obviously he was rather difficult to spot amongst the various other ponies, a navy blue mane doesn't really stick out like a sore hoof and neither does a blue tinted, white coat. She decided to fly closer to the ground to make him easier to spot, once again not seeing him.

Maybe he had actually killed himself, this thought scared Dash. To check if he had actually bitten the dust, she flew back to her cloud house to examine the ground for blood or his corpse. if he had killed himself, the corpse would be there wouldn't it? Wanting to check to be sure, she flew eagerly back to where her house had been about 20 minutes ago, she was scared immensely now. She didn't want to find one of her idols dead, and worse, having the blood on her hooves!

When she got to where her house had been, she breathed a long sigh of relief to discover no blood or corpse, looked as thought he was going to someone who could help him. She flew back to ponyville to keep searching, to no avail once more. She groaned in frustration as her hoof met her face, she then had an idea. What if he's at AJ's farm or the fields or hell, even the Everfree Forest? She then sped off to AJ's farm, as she figured he would go there considering his fixation on pie. She decided to kill to birds with one stone and also clean up the sky a bit. She never did weather duty, so she decided to do her shift because she had time. Quickly blasting some clouds and clearing the sky. She gently wiped a drip of sweat off her forehead as she continued on her quest to find the wonderbolt stallion.

As she left the area, the inferno grew bigger...

Author's Note

Oh the cliffhangers!

So, another chapter out. I've started to to think that this story is going to be quite long, considering I haven't even introduced the main conflict yet!

I don't really have a lot to say, so I'll see you awesome people next Sunday!

Lava Blaze Out