The Pegasus & The Pegasister

“Can we stop already?” asked Soarin. “My legs are getting sore from being carried.”

Ashleigh laughed at his question. “Oh boo hoo, your legs are sore. Well your legs haven’t been on the ground walking for hours on end. How about you do some walking before you criticize me?”

That got Soarin to quiet down, embarrassed that the girl had just destroyed his argument.

“You must be pretty athletic.” Soarin remarked, hoping that his small complement would cool her temper. “I would have passed out by now if I was carrying you. But that still doesn’t make it right that you dragged me-” his lecture was cut off when a branch slapped him in the face, prompting a chuckle out of Ashleigh.

“I’m athletic all right, I’m in three different exercise programs. It totally was worth it.” she said the last part sarcastically, the talk about her long talk making her pay attention to the throbbing and sore parts of her ankles and thighs, and making her wish she could stop. Unfortunately, she could not find a good area to rest, where they were trekking through was a stony area with a few pine trees here and there. Finally, as the sun began to set, she found a small overhang that had a bottom covered in spongy moss. It wasn’t perfect, but compared to the abomination they had to sleep at the previous night, it was an improvement. Ashleigh let Soarin down before sitting down and rubbing her sore legs.

“At least I’ll be ready for the 5K.” she joked to herself, as she stretched her ankles out and pulled off her boots, followed by her socks, trying to rub her feet against the moss in hope of making the soreness go away.

She secretly wondered if she would ever get home. She knew how she got in, but she wasn’t sure how to get back, that was the problem. There weren’t any computers in Equestria, at least not that she had seen while watching MLP. Ashleigh suddenly heard Soarin let out a yelp, and saw his wing come unfurled. She let out a sigh and walked over to him, seeing that his wing had lost the hair tie that was keeping it still. Ashleigh let out a sigh.

“This again?” she asked, glaring at him.

Soarin let out a sigh, and looked at his hooves.

Ashleigh, letting out another sigh, pulled her hair tie out of her hair, letting her wavy blond hair fall down onto her shoulders and back.

She shook her head, letting her bangs fly out of her face and looked up to Soarin with the hair tie. Before she could even say anything, she was suprised to see his mouth agape, and his cheeks with a slight pink blush on them. For a second, the two looked at each other in mutual confusion.

“What is it?” Ashleigh asked.

Soarin turned his head away. “N-nothing!” he responded, glancing away.

Ashleigh grinned. “Do you like it when my hair is down?”

Soarin let out an embarrassed snort. “N-no, I just was surprised by how much hair you have. Can you just bandage my wing?”

Ashleigh grinned and gently shook her hair again, causing Soarin to jerk his head away and pretend to not care.

“Just bandage my wing already!”

Ashleigh bit her lip to stop herself from bursting into laughter and pulled her hair tie around Soarin’s wing.

“Better?”

“Yes, much better.” he said, avoiding looking the teen girl in the eyes.

Ashleigh laughed and moved back to where she had been sitting. She laid on her back and looked up at the dusk sky.

“I wonder how I’m supposed to get home.” she murmured, crossing her legs.

Soarin just let out a sigh. “I just want a pie.” he remarked sadly.

“Honestly at this point I’d eat almost anything.” Ashleigh replied, laying on one side. Suddenly, she felt something in her jacket pocket. She slipped her hand inside, and found a granola bar, something she must have forgotten to eat the morning before she had gotten sent here. Soarin must have seen it, because he suddenly sat up intently.

“Is that food?”

She nodded, and opened the wrapper. She was about to take a bite, when she nervously shot a glance at Soarin. Soarin was laying down, and although his wonderbolts costume was on, she could see the outlines of ribs, and he in general looked like he hadn’t eaten in awhile.

Ashleigh tried to ignore the self-guilt welling up inside of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to let him go hungry.

“Hey Soarin, do you want my granola bar?”

Soarin looked up. “Really? The whole thing?”

“Yeah. You look like you need it.”

Soarin nodded and walked over to take it.

“Thanks.” he said, genuine kindness in his voice as he took the bar and walked back over to where he was sitting.

Although there was nothing in her stomach, Ashleigh felt better about the fact that she had shared something. And she had even gotten a thanks.

Awesome. I made peace with my enemy. She thought to herself as she laid back down. However, suddenly she heard hoofsteps. Soarin walked back over to her.

“Something wrong?” she asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Soarin looked a little nervous, but continued. “Here you go.” he said, handing her the granola bar, which was half-eaten. “You gave some to me, but you haven’t eaten since you got here, so I thought you might need some.”

Ashleigh looked at the half-eaten bar. “You’re kidding, right? Just eat it.”

Soarin shook his head. “No no, I want you to have it. You look hungry. I ate some of it, I want you to have the rest.”

Ashleigh looked thoughtful. “Okay, fine. Thanks.”

Soarin nodded and quickly walked back over to where he had been, and nervously turned away from her quizzical gaze.

Ashleigh was kind of glad that he had given some back, because she was indeed starved. She took a bite, shuddering a little in disgust at the texture, which had Soarin’s saliva on it. But she ignored it and took another bite, which wasn’t as saliva-ridden. At least it’s food. Ashleigh told herself as she forced down the last bite, thankful for something in her stomach.

“Thank you Soarin.” she said, smiling at Soarin. Soarin nodded and turned his head away, for some reason still refusing to meet her gaze.

Ashleigh, confused as to why he was refusing to look at her when she was talking, began trying to make eye contact, however, after a few unsuccessful minutes, Soarin arched his back into a yawn and closed his eyes.

Whatever.

~

Meanwhile, things were quite the uproar back at the wonderbolts training facility. Spitfire was quite concerned over the disappearance of Soarin.

“This isn’t like him.” she told Fleetfoot. “I know he can disappear for errands sometimes, but he’s never disappeared for an entire day. He loves work. And he’d certainly never miss weekly pie day.” she remarked, beckoning to all the tables set up with different pies, some of which were Soarin’s favorites.

Spitfire was so concerned she had even sent ponies to talk to Celestia, but Celestia’s  only advice was to keep on looking, since she and her sister were busy at the time.

Spitfire and the others were quite upset over the issue. They might not have been have been Soarin’s family, but they were the best friends they had. And to loose him was both saddening and alarming. After the second day, Spitfire had halted all wonderbolt activities to find him.

“He’s an important part of our team, he’s like a brother to all of us. We’re going to find out what happened, and if somepony was involved, we need to bring them to heel!” she shouted, causing an uproar of cheer in the Wonderbolt’s academy when she was asked about the issue. And what she said was true, she had plans indeed to make whoever was involved pay, and her plan could about to be put to the test on someone out there not even a pony…