Thinking of You

by Thunderous

Rating: everyone
Tags: Spitfire, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Soarin, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash, Romance, Mystery, Fleetfoot, Slice of Life
Length: 4216

Rainbow Dash takes a short trip down memory lane.

Rainbow Dash, now the co-captain of the Wonderbolts, had everything she had wished to achieve in her life: Fame, fans and being in the Wonderbolts. But, she misses her dear friend Thunder Clash everyday and remembers him by looking at a picture with him and the rest of her old gang back when they were foals. One day, her squad accidentally barges in her room during the time she was reminiscing on the picture...

Takes place in the Thunderverse, a prequel to Thunder Zaps: A New Beginning.

Pre-read by TheBlueEM2, edited by TheMajorTechie.

A one-shot story! My very first one!

Made popular on 31/12/2019 :rainbowderp:

Published 2019-12-31 15:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-12-31 15:20:01 UTC

I Always Do

"Sweet Celestia, did we HAVE to do all that training, Spitfire!? We could've gone for a more mediocre training instead of what we went through just now..."

Fleetfoot grumbled in annoyance, her Wonderbolt mask slung over between her wings as she followed both Spitfire and Soarin from behind through the quiet halls of the Wonderbolts Compound. Both Soarin and Spitfire simply rolled their eyes in amusement at Fleetfoot. The group had passed by several other Wonderbolt teams just finishing up with their training sessions, briefly nodding their heads to one another as a way to say hello.

The three of them were huffing in breathless exhaustion, slumping their way in the general direction of their rooms. The reason for them being completely exhausted is because they had just finished up their training with their most recent addition of a training setup to the Wonderbolts Academy: The Dizzitron. The way it worked was pretty simple: You strap a pony to the device, and somepony else will switch it on, causing it to spin around really fast before launching the pony into the air. Then, the pony tries to land as fast and as perfect as possible.

Of course, some ponies might scoff and think of this as an easy challenge. Well, it's not.

"Hmm... By the way, do you know where Crash had gone off to?" Fleetfoot scrunched her muzzle, looking around for the fourth member of their squad. "One second, she was standing by the Dizzitron. And the next, just gone. Like, what's so important that she disappears from our training every time?"

"Hey, Flatfoot? Just let Crash do her thing. As long as she does her training and keeps up with us, then it won't be a problem." Spitfire spoke up with an annoyed tone, not even bothered to give a glance at Fleetfoot. Fleetfoot, now annoyed at Spitfire, simply glared sharply into the back of Spitfire's head with a shake from her head, quickly walking between the gap of the other two Wonderbolts.

"Uggh, but aren't you guys at least a little curious about what she's doing?" Fleetfoot nudged both of them "Maybe she's doing some super-secret stuff that's super illegal in the Wonderbolts! Or, maybe, she went AWOL and flew off to Ponyville to sleep at her house! Or MAYBE-"

"Fleetfoot! Can you stop it with Rainbow Dash!?" Soarin grumbled, moving away from the mare. "I mean, sheesh! It's already getting on my nerves..."

Fleetfoot's ears flopped down from Soarin's anger, saddened by it. "Aww, come on, guys..." Though, if you've known Fleetfoot, she doesn't stay that way that long. Her demeanour quickly returned to her normal bubbly self and went back to nudging both Spitfire and Soarin's sides again. "Ooh, actually, why don't we go check on her room right now?"

Of course, that was the last line for Spitfire, who had done her best to remain quiet until now. "FREAKING- UGGH! Fleet, if we bring you over to Rainbow Dash's room and check if she's there or not, will you promise to stay quiet for the rest of the day!?"

Fleetfoot nodded, her head cocked slightly and her smile remained unchanged. "Yes."

If looks could kill, Fleetfoot would be a pancake by now. One of Spitfire's eyes twitched as she turned towards the east hallway, already making her way down the hallway without waiting for the other two. "Alright then! Now let's get on with this thing before I regret doing this in the first place..."

Soarin and Fleetfoot stared at Spitfire for a couple of seconds, before turning instead to each other. Soarin immediately glanced back at Spitfire, calling her over and pointing a hoof at the west hallway, chuckling. "...You know, Rainbow's room is in the other direction, Spitfire."

All Spitfire could do was groan in annoyance before making her way back to the duo and trotting down the other hallway with them.

=======================================================

"Alright, there's her room. Now go see if she's in there or not, then we're out of here. Besides, what we're doing here is basically invading somepony else's privacy if she is in there, y'know..."

The three Wonderbolts peeked over the corner of the hallway leading to Rainbow Dash's room - the bright cyan coloured door just a few feet away from where they were spying from.

"Sheesh, I know what I'm doing, you guys. It's not like this is the first time I'm doing this kind of stuff." Rolling her eyes, Fleetfoot stepped out from her hiding spot and sneaked over to the right side of the hallway, slowly stepping over to Rainbow Dash's door as both Soarin and Spitfire stared at the blue pegasus in confusion.

Soarin frowned. "...I'm sorry, what did she just say?"

They continued to stare at their teammate. Fleetfoot tilted her head in confusion, peeking into Rainbow Dash's room. "What the...? Oh my holy stupid hay! Guys, come over here for a sec!" She signalled them over with a wave of her hooves.

Soarin and Spitfire glanced at each other before shrugging, slowly approaching the door.

"Why? She isn't there, I'm assuming?" Soarin asked, confused.

"What? No, no, no! She's in there, alright!" Fleetfoot fiercely whispered. "But she's... looking at a picture... or something."

Curious, Soarin silently crept up towards the door and peeked through the gap. Like Fleetfoot had said, Rainbow Dash sat behind her office table, looking fondly down at some picture in her hooves.

Fleetfoot barely managed to squeeze below Soarin, looking up at him. "Told you guys..."

"Huh? Let me see this..."

Suddenly, Soarin felt a sudden shift of weight above his back, causing him to stumble for a second He looked up, vision now filled by Spitfire's coat.

"Hey! Stop pushing against me up there, you two!" Fleetfoot whispered, barely able to hold both of Spitfire and Soarin's weigh behind her back.

"Yeah, Spitfire! You're gonna make us fa- ARGH!" Soarin blurted out before Fleetfoot fell forward towards the door, causing the pony-pile to topple down against the door with a loud bang.

All was silent except the grunts of pain from the pony-pile. Rainbow Dash stared back at them, her face now growing flushed with anger.

"...WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS DOING IN HERE!?"

"Umm... Rainbow Dash, we can explain-" Spitfire muttered. Though, she was quickly cut off by Fleetfoot.

"Why do you keep sneaking off during our training?" Fleetfoot blurted, freeing herself from the pile. "What have you been doing?"

"Fleet!" Soarin scolded in anger. "Can you please keep quiet!? You're not helping!" He dusted himself off, making his way over to Fleetfoot and giving her a nudge in the back. She grunted, firing back a glare in return.

"Wait, hold on, were you guys spying on me?" Rainbow gasped. "I thought we were friends!"

"Of course we're friends, Rainbow Dash!" Soarin burst.

"Then how come you guys were spying on me? Cause, friends don't do that towards their friends." Rainbow Dash quickly countered, her glare forcefully stabbing into each of them with her rage.

"Uggh..." Spitfire groaned. "Look, Rainbow? We're really sorry that we tried to spy on your... uhh, personal activities. Even though this is mostly Fleetfoot's fault for forcing us to go check on you..."

"HEY!"

"...But, it's also my fault for letting her do so in the first place. That wasn't a nice thing to do. So, I should be the one who should be apologizing."

Soarin stepped up next, standing right beside Spitfire. "Spitfire, you're not the only one at fault. I was there too. Maybe I could've spoken up or something. Maybe, I could've advised you guys against doing so. But, I didn't. So count me as a bad friend as well. I'm sorry about that."

"Yep..." Fleetfoot rolled her eyes. "There you go again. You guys are at fault for agreeing with me..."

"Fleetfoot..."

Fleetfoot ignored Spitfire, continuing her ramble. "Uhhh... but, I guess I also should be apologizing for butting into your privacy in the first place. I was just... you know, curious, that's all. You keep disappearing off to wherever during our training sessions. I figured we could go and see for ourselves. "

Rainbow made a face before she sighed, shaking her head.. "Fine, I forgive you guys. And you do have a point there, Fleet. I go disappearing on you guys when we were all training like, every day."

"And why would you be doing that, hmm?" Fleetfoot nudged Rainbow Dash. "Is there something you're hiding?"

"Sheesh, I'm getting there! Anyways, it's nothing too crazy or anything. I was just... taking some time to look at an old friend of ours."

"An old friend? Which one? I had a couple back when I was a filly..."

"I'm not talking about your old friends, Fleet." Rainbow gestured at the two other Wonderbolts with a wing. "I meant ours. As in my, Soarin and Spits' friends."

Soarin's eyes lit up. "Oh my gosh. Are... are you talking about-"

"-Thunder Clash?" Spitfire cut in, her eyes similarly lighting up as well, "Cause, if there was anypony that we all knew at the time, it was him."

Fleetfoot looked between the three, frowning. "I'm sorry, who now?"

"You didn't ever meet him, Fleet," Soarin shrugged, "We were all best friends back then, and we stumbled upon Thunder while he was running away from his first playdate with Dash here."

"Yeah, he was terrified at having a playdate with a filly," Spitfire laughed. "So, we ran off to the Wonderbolts Compound back then and hung around here until his father found us with the help of Rainbow Dash's family."

"Pfft. I still remember your faces when we caught you red-hoofed with Thunder," A smirk surfaced on Rainbow's face. "Thankfully, my parents and his dad went easy on everypony afterwards, even though you two were great troublemakers back then. Heck, I even got to hang out with you two even more."

Fleetfoot tilted her head. "So... what happened to him?"

"Well, we all wanted to become Wonderbolts, first of all. I mean, heck, it was our dream to become Wonderbolts someday - together - and be on the main squad as well. But..." Spitfire trailed off, looking to the floor.

"But? What is it? What happened? C'mon, keep going!"

"You know about Dash's very first Sonic Rainboom, right?" Soarin asked, though, somewhat reluctantly. "Cause if you ask me, that's just about when everything happened."

"Uhh... I think so? Pretty sure I was in Cloudsdale back then, and I do remember seeing some rainbow-y lights in the sky. I don't know how to explain how it looked, it just looked pretty weird and cool at the same time. What does your Sonic Rainboom have to do with what happened?"

Rainbow ruffled her feathers, pawing at the floor. "Well... For some reason, ever since then, Thunder hasn't been able to fly."

"WHAT!?" Fleetfoot shouted out in shock, her jaw unhinged and her eyes widen in confusion. "Why? W-What happened to him?"

"We're not sure ourselves," Soarin shook his head. "One moment, he was hovering with the rest of us, cheering Rainbow Dash on. The next, he started screaming out in pain and fell out of the sky. It was like the Sonic Rainboom had hurt him or something."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah. Thankfully, I noticed and chased after him." A smirk grew across her face briefly, quickly replaced by a release of a sigh. "And, with the burst of speed from my Sonic Rainboom, I managed to catch him before he hit the ground."

"Sweet Celestia! W-What happened next?"

"Well, all three of us dropped him by Cloudsdale's nearest hospital to see what had gone wrong," Spitfire chimed in, looking over towards Rainbow. "Somepony called his parents in too, and they arrived about an hour later. We checked with the doctor, and they said that there weren't any physical injuries found from Thunder. So... we were - are - all in the dark. We eventually had to leave without any help for Thunder's wings."

Rainbow nodded. "Mm-hmm. We visited him a couple of times in Ponyville for a while, but after we graduated from flight school, we didn't have much free time anymore to go visit him. So... Thunder kind of separated from our group after he went flightless."

"...So, what?" Fleetfoot raised a brow, looking around at the group. "You guys just left him in the curbs?"

"We didn't want to leave him!" Soarin burst, stomping his hooves. "We just... didn't have the time, that's all... Yeah, I know, we're bad friends..."

"I guess that makes sense... But, where does he live now?"

"Mmm, I'm just guessing," Spitfire hummed, "but I think he still lives with his family back in Ponyville. Though, I do wonder what he does nowadays for a living. I mean, a pegasus who's flightless? That's definitely gonna take a hard toll on his job resume."

Soarin rolled his eyes. "Not helping."

"Sorry. Force of habit."

Fleetfoot shifted slightly from the awkward remark Spitfire did, glancing over towards the cyan mare. "So. Rainbow Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"If you and Thunder were best friends, back then... then what was your best memory you had with him?"

"Oh. Umm... jeez, which one do I even pick? There's just too many..." Rainbow Dash glanced down at the floor, scratching her rainbow mane.

"Just pick one of the last memories you had with him before you guys split away from one another."

"Can... can I have some time to think?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Rainbow Dash turned away from her friends. As she made her way back to her office table, a song began to play in the background. She picked up the picture she'd been looking at, staring down at it before a memory struck her. "Hmm... Ooh, I've got one. I think it was..."

"...End of March or early May,
This picture-perfect evening we shared.
Walk the winding dirt path road,
Grab some ice cream from À La Mode,
And then we're there."

She slumped into her seat, still staring at the picture. Closing her eyes, Rainbow's memories began to replay in her mind. She and Thunder Clash were foals; they were walking down a dirt road, ice cream cones held tight in her wings. The trail around them took them past countless towering trees, which anchored themselves into the banks of the calm river trickling past.

"An open field that's sported with trees,
We found a spot and enjoyed the breeze,
Like... some friends do."

The two foals stepped into an open area of grass. Trees towered in the distance, nearly touching the bottoms of the clouds above them. The two took a deep breath as they sat down in the grass, looking at each other, Rainbow Dash approached them from behind, still smiling.

"Hummed some songs by our favourite bands,
Told some jokes nopony understands,
Except us two.
And we talk and bask in the light.."

The foals laughed, jokingly nudging one another before looking up into the sky. The sun shone brightly on their faces, Rainbow also remembered that same warmth.

"All we see is sky for forever,
We watched the clouds pass by for forever...
Feels like we could shine bright for forever, this way...
Two foals on a perfect day."

She looked back to the foals; the two had since stood up, and had started walking up the grassy field with the occasional flap of their wings, Rainbow Dash followed close behind.

"We trot a while and talked about,
The stuff we'd do when we graduate from school.
Trot the Appalachian trails, or,
Read some books or ride the rails.
Wouldn't that be cool?"

Rainbow Dash chuckled a little at the suggestions Thunder made back then they were still foals. Her filly self playfully nudged him in the shoulder, earning herself an annoyed glare in response before they both bursts in laughter.

"There's nothing that we can't talk about,
Like ponies we wished had noticed us but never did...
He looked around and said to me,
'There's nopony else I'd rather be with',
And I squealed, 'me too!'
And we talk and bask in the light.
We just talk and bask in the light..."

Rainbow watched as her younger self joined Thunder at the top of a grassy hillside. They laid down, still laughing with glee.

"All we see is sky for forever~
We watch the clouds pass by for forever~
Feels like we could shine bright for forever this way, this way~!"

"Look!" Thunder Clash pointed to the sky, "That one looks like something is chasing a bunch of foals!"

Rainbow's filly self chuckled at the remark.

"All we see is light for forever~!
'Cause the light shines on us for forever~!
Like we'll still be fine for forever this way~!
Two foals on a perfect day~!"

The two foals sat up again as a beam of sunlight hit their faces, blinding them for a moment before they brought their hooves up to their faces. They gazed into the orange, cloud-dotted sky.

"And there he goes,
Flying towards the tallest tree!
From far across the greenish meadow I heard him shouting, "get over here"!
And, there I go, imagining how the view might look from up so high~"

Thunder Clash stood up, flying towards one of the nearby trees. He turned around, calling for the filly. Rainbow Dash watched her past self gleefully fly to the colt as well, joining him at the tree with a wide smile.

"One hoof after the other~!
One branch then to another~!
We climbed higher and higher!
We climbed 'til the bright sunlight,
shined on our face~!!!"

Rainbow Dash followed the two up the tree, watching as the two raced to the top. Panting, they hollered at their achievement once they did, cheering and celebrating among the branches. That is, until...

"And I suddenly hear my branch give way..."

Rainbow Dash watched herself reach for her friend's hooves, panic spreading across her face as she began to fall back into the branches. Sticks and twigs crackled and snapped as she plummeted through them, unable to open her wings in the thick greenery. A loud thud shook the tree upon her impact with the ground. A loud wail followed the noise.

"I'm lying on the ground...
My wings goes numb...
I glanced around.
And I watched him come down to get me...
He came to get me...
And everything's alright."

Thunder Clash slowly glided down to the ground, panicked eyes set on the wincing filly. He helped her up, lifting her to her hooves. She tried to rejoin her friend in the air, unfurling her wings with another wince. Without another word, Thunder scooped up his friend - carrying her to the exit of the grassy fields. Rainbow Dash watched them leave with a sad smile.

"All we see is sky, for forever.
We... watch the clouds pass by for forever...
Thunder, you and I for forever this way, this way~!"

A bead of moisture welled in Rainbow's eyes, opening her eyes to be greeted with the rest of her friends looking back at her with tears also in their eyes.

"All we see is light~!!!
'Cause the light shines bright!!!
We could shine so bright for forever this way~!"

Rainbow Dash looked out her window, wiping away her tears. She focused on the picture - mostly on the little colt she loved to play with back in the day. She turned around, placing the frame back down on the table, glancing to her teammates with a sad smile.

"Two foals...
True pals.
On a perfect day~!"

Spitfire and Soarin glanced at Rainbow Dash with sad smiles, thinking back to their old friend, Thunder Clash. All the time they'd spent with him - the fun they had, the memories they made... Though, after a couple of moments, Fleetfoot had other plans on her mind.

"So, you fell and broke your wings on purpose?"

Rainbow's face grew red.

"H-HEY! It was an accident! Besides, didn't you see my flashback? There were a ton of branches that hit me when I was falling. It was impossible to focus on catching myself!"

"Sure."

Rainbow heard the rest of her friends, Spitfire and Soarin, trying to hold back their laughter.

Soarin wiped away a tear, still chuckling a little. "To be fair, by now, it does sound like you purposely fell so Thunder could save you like a gentlecolt."

Rainbow Dash hid her face in her hooves, shrinking back in embarrassment. "Shut up, you guys."

The office grew deathly quiet after a while.

Fleetfoot then coughed, breaking the silence. "So... what are you guys planning to do then?"

"Huh?" Spitfire scratched her head. "What're you talking about? What we're planning to do?"

"I mean, he's a good friend to the three of you, right?" She asked, looking around at the group, "And, it's been, like, years since you've met up with one another. So, what're you guys gonna do about it?"

"We... actually don't know." Rainbow shook her head. "I mean, what can we do? It's been months since I've last seen him, and a few years for the two of them..."

"Well, here's what I suggest: Go to Ponyville and get back together. Like, have a reunion party with him... or something like that. That'll work, won't it?"

Soarin rubbed his chin. "That... could work. But, when would be a good time to do so? It's not like we have much time nowadays anyways. Not with all our Wonderbolt shows, fan-meetings and whatnot."

"Hold on," Spitfire gasped, causing all of them to glance over towards her, "Isn't the Summer Sun Celebration coming up soon?"

Rainbow nodded, glancing over to Spitfire with curiosity, "Yeah, by the end of this week. Why'd you bring that up all of a sudden?"

"Isn't this year's Summer Sun Celebration going to be held at Ponyville?"

Soarin also piped in, glancing over to Spitfire. "Yeah, so?"

"So, what if we made a special appearance there? Y'know, as Wonderbolts? That way, we wouldn't be ditching our jobs, but we'd also have some time to hang out with Thunder!"

"That's... actually a great idea!"

"Yeah, it might actually work!" Fleetfoot paused. "Unless, of course, we get swept away by our fans."

Rainbow pawed at the ground. "So... you guys really think this could work? Can we actually go see Thunder again?"

Spitfire shrugged. "I don't see what could go wrong."

"Yeah!" Soarin cheered. "I mean, it's foolproof! Nopony could stop our gang from meeting up once again!"

Rainbow Dash smiled with awe, bringing her hoof towards her chest at the lengths her friend would do to reunite with Thunder. "Thanks, guys."

Spitfire lifted off the floor, turning towards the door. "Well, it's official then. So let's get back to our rooms and start packing our stuff for the trip. Come on, guys."

Soarin followed soon after. "See you later, Crash! I can't wait to meet up with Zaps again!"

Rainbow Dash watched him leave, closing the door behind him. Only Fleetfoot remained, now pawing at the floor before looking up at Rainbow.

"So... what is he like?"

"Huh?"

Fleetfoot cocked her head."What is this Thunder Clash stallion like?"

"Oh... Well, he's kind, witty and... kind of shy too, I guess." Rainbow chuckled, picking up the frame again. "He loves to help other ponies out, even though many ponies back at Ponyville try to avoid him. But, he's a good friend in my books."

"I guess you can't wait now for the Summer Sun Celebration to come, huh?"

Rainbow nodded, placing the picture back on her desk. "...Yeah. I miss him very much. I hope he still remembers me, though. We haven't talked for a while, and... I really hope he doesn't change much from how he was the last time we met."

"...Okay. Uhh, I'll get going now. Sorry for taking up your free time, Dash. I'll see you tomorrow morning at training. 'Kay?"

"Yeah," Rainbow mumbled as Fleetfoot finally steps out of the room. Her eyes wandered back down to the photo, then to the view from her window, a small smile present on her face.

"I'm coming home, Thunder."

Author's Note

Hello, everybody! Hah, didn't expect this one-shot story, now, didn't you!? :rainbowwild: Well, here's the thing! I've already hinted this story before! You guys remember that one shitpost blog I posted before? Too Obvious, Yup? :rainbowderp:

Well~ In the blogpost, there was actually a secret hidden in it! If you took out all the capital letters in the contents of the blog post itself, it'll actually spell out the title of this story: THINKING OF YOU. Even the blog title itself is a short form for the story's title! Too Obvious, Yup <===> Thinking Of You. Welp, it was fun to create that blog. And to create this story as well, as a sneak peek to what you'll be expecting for Thunder Zaps: A New Beginning!

By the way, this is the original song that I used in this story! 'For Forever', from the Broadway Musical 'Dear Evan Hansen'!

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed reading my very first one-shot story! See you all later! :twilightsmile:
-Thunder Clash

Also, uhh... crap. Sorry for the additional delay. My bad. :twilightsheepish: