“And… sixteen seconds flat!” Spitfire announced with a smirk, clicking her stopwatch as soon as she saw the pegasus cross the finish line. “That’s a new personal best Crash, I’m impressed!”
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed, pumping a sweat-soaked hoof into the air, although she did wince slightly at the mention of her nickname. Spitfire gripped a stick of chalk in her teeth and filled in the last empty box on the board standing by the track, showing everypony’s four hundred meter sprint times for the day. With the final trial done, she turned to face the other Wonderbolts sitting on the bleachers, a few of which looked like they would pass out if they were left in the sun any longer.
Having let a slight smile onto her face, she regained her composure and steeled her expression. She stomped her hoof on the ground, alerting the few whose attention was beginning to falter, and startling a few nearby birds into flight.
“Dismissed!” The shout shook Soarin out of his stupor. He had been staring at Rainbow for Celestia knows how long, and even as he flapped his wings and gently floated from the bleachers to the ground he couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes away from her. His eyes drifted up to her face, where she was boasting to Fleetfoot about her time, and a gentle smile graced his face.
However, as Rainbow ended her conversation and everypony began to trot towards the changing rooms, Soarin’s pleasant thoughts were interrupted by Spitfire obnoxiously clearing her throat. “Have your eyes on somepony?” she teased, batting her eyelids. The action was so not Spitfire he couldn’t help but laugh.
“N-no!” Soarin chuckled sheepishly, his cheeks subtly colouring. His reply came far too quickly however, and Spitfire saw straight through his façade.
“You sure you don’t have a crush on Crash?” she toyed, her hoarse voice drawing out the last word playfully.
“Is it that obvious?” he defeatedly sighed as he sat down and looked at his hooves. Spitfire giggled, and nodded smugly. “I really like her, Spitfire, and I have for a while now,” he admitted. “But I don’t know the first thing about mares; where do I even start?” He looked up hopefully at her.
“Listen Soarin, I’ve never been much for romance, but my advice is to take her to do something she likes. Maybe go see a movie?”
Soarin chuckled gently. “Rainbow hates movies: something like she can’t sit still through them.” Spitfire put a contemplative hoof on her chin.
“Well… she said she was really bummed out because she couldn’t get tickets to see Flank-182 this weekend, she’d probably make out with you there and then if you told her you had a pair,” she said, snickering at the last part.
“Flank-182… what’s that?” he asked, choosing to ignore the last comment.
“Man you can be such a dork sometimes,” she laughed. “They’re like the biggest pega-punk band in Equestria. I think their music is kinda alright but Crash is crazy about them.”
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” he said, rubbing his hooves together. It was time to call in a few favours.
With the sunset behind him, Soarin was going through his lines, down by the lake just beneath Rainbow’s house. “Hey Crash, I happened to pick up some tickets,” he muttered, putting on a goofy grin, “To Flank-182!” he announced cheesily and then facehoofed. “No, that’s stupid…” He looked at his reflection in the mirror-smooth water and gazed lazily into his own eyes.
Soarin was not a bad looking pony by any means, and although it obviously wasn’t why he chose to become a Wonderbolt his position should have made him a desirable pony at the very least. So why had all his past attempts with mares failed? Was he trying too hard? Not hard enough? Was it his breath?
He let out a deep sigh, and as he stared at his own eyes he considered just throwing the tickets away. But then the thought of being with Rainbow Dash graced his mind. He had never liked a mare as much as he liked her. Her perfect magenta eyes, her slim figure, her beautiful mane and tail; she was perfect. He couldn’t throw away an opportunity like this. He steeled himself, and took off on a beeline for her front door.
The soft cloud beneath him cushioned his landing, and before he could talk himself out of it he quickly trotted up and knocked firmly on the front door, trying his best to ignore the butterflies in his stomach. After a short delay, the door opened. With no pony at eye level, Soarin lowered his gaze to find an orange pegasus filly.
“Oh, hi there. You must be Scootaloo.” The filly nodded, but still looked slightly apprehensive, which was not helping his nerves in the slightest. “Is Rainbow Dash home?” he asked hopefully.
“Yeah, she’s just on the toilet,” Scootaloo giggled, dispelling the tension.
“Too much information Scoots,” Rainbow groaned as she rounded a corner and started walking towards the door, although there was a smile on her face nonetheless. “Hiya Soarin, sorry about her: we were just having a sleepover. What can I do for ya?” she casually leaned against the doorframe, while Scootaloo quickly scurried out of sight. Soarin tensed up slightly.
“Oh, I just heard you wanted to go to the Flank-182 concert tomorrow and I happened across a pair of tickets, if you want to come,” he said through a look of forced indifference, not really sounding like himself at all.
“WHAT?!” Scootaloo quickly ran back into the corridor, looking up at Soarin. “Did– did you just say you had a pair of tickets to Flank-182? Please can we go Rainbow?” she practically begged, putting on her best puppy dog eyes as her excited gaze flitted between the two of them. Soarin didn’t really know what to say, and shot a pleading look at Rainbow, who looked reassuringly at him. Rainbow turned to face Scootaloo, taking a knee so she could look at her at eye level.
“Sorry Scoots, but I think Soarin meant one of the tickets was for him. But I promise squirt, next time they’re in this part of Equestria I’ll get us tickets,” She said softly. Scootaloo’s expression soured, but lightened up just a bit at the end.
“Fine…” she grumbled as she trudged out of sight.
“Sorry about that, you know how fillies are,” Rainbow chuckled, putting a slight smile on Soarin’s face. He loved her laugh.
“So…” he paused, looking at her. She seemed completely lost in the conversation. “Can you come?” he eventually blurted out.
“Oh right, yeah I’ll come!” she spun around gleefully, dancing like a filly.
“Awesome, do you want to meet at the Cloudsdale Arena tomorrow, a half hour before it starts then?” he suggested, suppressing his smile.
“Umm… dude, have you ever been to the Arena?” she asked. “It’s massive: there’s no way we would be able to find each other if it was empty, let alone with a giant crowd of ponies surrounding it.” Soarin began to sweat, but regained his composure.
“How about we meet at my place; it’s pretty near the arena.” He tried to continue to look confident, but his sweat and wavering voice were betraying him.
“Sure, that would be sweet!” she said excitedly, cooling his nerves a bit.
“Awesome,” he said, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I’ll write down my address for you.” Rainbow quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a pen for him.
“I can’t wait, this is going to be so awesome!” she practically squealed as he finished writing down the last part of his address.
“Yeah, I can’t wait either,” he said coolly. He quickly took off, and with a few powerful pumps of his wings he was already in flight. “See you there!” he shouted behind him with a genuine smile on his face as he dove beneath the cloud cover and out of sight.
Rainbow held his address and the ticket she had been given close to her chest, dancing on the spot and letting out another foolish squeal before closing the door and trotting back to the sofa where Scootaloo was sitting under the blanket. Scootaloo was grumbling under her breath, and Rainbow tried to calm herself down before sitting back down next to her.
Scootaloo lightened up a bit upon seeing her sister, but then remembered why she was grumpy in the first place and started pouting again.
“Aww squirt don’t be like that!” Rainbow said playfully, jostling Scootaloo in an attempt to lighten her mood, who still sat with a face like thunder.
“You get to go to Flank-182 just ‘cause Soarin has the hots for you...” she muttered, shrugging Rainbow’s hoof from between her wings
“He doesn’t have the hots for me!” Rainbow laughed dismissively, her azure cheeks burning red.
“Oh yeah?” Scootaloo spoke up, a mischievous smile appearing on her face. “Then how come he asked you on a date!” Rainbow blushed even harder.
“It’s not a date!” she said, although even Scootaloo could tell she was unsure.
“You like him too!” Scootaloo said victoriously, a giant grin on her face as she picked up a pillow and started pretending to make out with it. “Ooo Soarin! Oh I love you so much!” she said in a high pitched voice between kisses, before holding a goof to her mouth and pretending to throw up.
“Time to teach you a lesson squirt” Rainbow growled, as she got off the sofa with a pretend predatory expression and started stalking towards Scootaloo, whose laughter had stopped and whose face had changed to one of confusion.
“Rainbow what are you doing?” Scootaloo said, backing up with a nervous chuckle. Rainbow snarled, before she suddenly dove into the air and swiftly pinned Scootaloo to the ground, digging her hoof into Scootaloo’s exposed belly. The filly burst out into laughter. “Quit it!” she cried out between laughs, but Rainbow didn’t listen, continuing to grin play-menacingly, pushing her hoof deeper into the squirming orange belly. “I’m sorry!” Scootaloo desperately shrieked, until Rainbow finally let up and gave the filly some air.
“Hehe, sorry about that squirt” she chuckled, lying down on the floor next to her sister. Both of them continued to giggle for a good while, but Rainbow’s mind was elsewhere. She had been so gobsmacked by the idea of finally going to see her favourite band that she hadn’t really thought about the fact that she had been asked on a date.
Soarin could be a bit dorky sometimes, but he had become one of her closest friends since joining the Wonderbolts. He was sensitive and gentle in a way the other Wonderbolts weren’t, and he especially really helped her feel more comfortable and get over her homesickness when she first joined. She had been afraid to bring it up, since the other Wonderbolts could have easily made fun of her, and she didn’t want a repeat of the Rainbow Crash incident, but Soarin could tell something was up and approached her in private about it.
In her mind she saw him and her going to the concert, and while one of their slower songs were playing, him put his wing around her back, gently swaying in time to the music. Rainbow smiled at the thought, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks.
“Rainbow? Raaaiiiinbooow?” Scootaloo’s shouting burst Rainbow’s thought bubble, and back in reality she saw Scootaloo looking at her, waving to pull at her attention. “You alright Dash?” she asked with concerned eyes.
“Yeah, sorry about that Scoots, just zoned out for a little there,” Rainbow chuckled half-heartedly. “Now where was I…” she said as her gaze narrowed, before diving back on top of Scootaloo and STARTING another tickle war.
Soarin was pacing the floor of his house in Cloudsdale. The soft cloud against his feet gave him comfort, it always did, but he had agreed to meet Rainbow a few minutes ago and she still hadn’t shown up. He kept reassuring himself that she was almost always late, chuckling slightly as he recalled all the times she had done so, but there was a feeling nagging in the back of his mind that she wasn’t turning up.
There was a knock at his door and he rushed towards it, putting his hoof on the handle before pausing and taking a deep breath, allowing the coolness of the metal to calm his nerves. He swang the door open
Rainbow was standing there, alternating which hooves she was standing on, far too pumped up to stand still. "Hiya!" She said energetically with a wide smile. “Man, I’m soooo excited!”. He struggled to find the words to respond, instead just shifting awkwardly and trying his best not to smile at the mare in front of him. Keep it coal Soar’...
“Yeah, it's gonna be alright I think” he finally got out, again trying to sound as casual as possible. Rainbow slowed down, a slight look of concern falling upon her face. Soarin was always one of the energetic ones, even among the Wonderbolts. Maybe he was ill?
“Umm… are you feeling alright dude? You seem a little flat… you don’t look like a pony who’s about to see the best pega-punk band of all time!” she said, nearly turning into a squeal towards the end. Soarin tensed up, his hooves getting clammy. After an awkward silence, he let out a sigh.
“Yeah, I’m just really excited,” he breathed half-heartedly.
“Okay…” Rainbow trailed off, her expression remaining concerned. Well I guess this is a date… I know what will cheer him up! As her grin reappeared on her face, she suddenly grabbed his hoof and exploded into flight. “Come on Soar’, let’s go!” Soarin wobbled a bit and had to exert himself to keep up. He looked at the mare flying in front of him, letting the air rushing through his mane and between his ears cool his nerves, and grinned giddily.
Soarin got lost for a while in her prismatic mane and tail, captivated way it caught the evening sun’s light behind it. He transitioned his gaze towards her powerful, athletic figure, before settling on what little he could see of her face, smiling. He looked towards the ground, watching the cloud houses and scenery pass by below.
He began to think about the times the two had shared together, how despite her short tenure so far in the Wonderbolts, she had already become one of his best friends. Now that he thought about it, whenever they went to the bar as a group, she would always sit next to him. Maybe she likes me too?
Some of the colour finally returned to his face as he relaxed into the flight. As with Rainbow, flying had always just made sense to him; it always managed to relax him and help clear his thoughts.
She looked back at him, who’s gaze had now shifted to the ground below them. She caught sight of his grin, and breathed a sigh of relief, mirroring his expression. She turned her head back around, they were almost there. As the arena came into view, the pair, now flying much more coherently, began to descend towards it. Having now slowed down, Soarin saw the massive queue outside the arena and gasped, his jaw dropping.
Rainbow heard the gasp and turned around to look at him, chuckling once she saw his expression. “Chill out Soarin; the queue goes quicker than you’d think. They just gotta check our tickets before they let us in,” she reassured, but she had to admit she hated queueing herself, especially at events like these.
Eventually they found their way to the back of what seemed like the shortest queue and landed. “I reckon we’ve got a good twenty minutes before we get in,” she groaned, peering over the ponies in front to get a better view. She turned around to face him. “So, how long have you liked Flank-182?
“U-um… I only really got into it a few weeks ago, but when I saw they were touring I had to get these tickets,” he stammered. It was actually mere hours since he had started listening to their music, and he had to admit he didn’t like it at all.
“Nice, I’ve loved them for ages. I mean there basically the greatest band of all time, right?” she looked up at him expectantly.
“Oh, right!” he replied sheepishly. The queue was definitely moving forward, and they were already a good chunk of the way in, although that meant they were now surrounded quite tightly on all sides by other ponies. He noticed Rainbow’s breathing begin to quicken as their personal space evaporated.
“Hey, what's wrong?” he said softly, leaning towards her concernedly.
“Oh don’t worry about it, its nothing,” a blushing Rainbow laughed dismissively, starting to sweat.
“I promise you can tell me; what’s up?” Soarin pressed, moving forwards to be by her side.
“You promise you won’t laugh?” she looked away.
“Hey,” he beckoned, drawing her gaze back to his. “I promise,” he said sternly, smiling slightly.
“Okay… I really, really hate being in tight spaces, I think Twilight called it claustrophobia?” she shut her eyes tightly, waiting for laughter.
“Go on,” he motioned softly.
“I know it sounds foalish, but I just get really uncomfortable and anxious when I’ll cramped like this…” she said, her voice wavering towards the end. “Sorry, I’m kind of being a bit of a buzzkill, aren't I?” she chuckled weakly. Soarin draped his wing over her back, gently rubbing her side. She didn’t push it away, and Soarin felt her noticeably relax. Neither of them said anything, not wanting to ruin the moment.
“Hey beautiful, how you doin?” Came an obnoxious shout from somewhere behind the two of them.
“Jerk…” Rainbow said through gritted teeth, leaning her head into Soarin, who visibly blushed; as the queue moved forwards. Soarin began to turn to face the pony, but Rainbow quickly nudged him. “Don’t bother man, they ain’t worth it.” Soarin sighed, but listened to her and turned back around, giving her a comforting squeeze with his wing.
“Come on love, don’t be like that,” the pony shouted again, with a slight slur. Soarin wheeled around, coming face to face with a dark yellow earth pony with a brown mane who must have easily weighed two or three times as much as him, and who was wearing a small cloud walking talisman around his neck.
“Hey man, just leave her alone alright?” Soarin said to his face, almost shaking, before quickly turning back around and putting his wing back around Rainbow.
“Oi bird, why don’t you ditch this loser and let me show you how a real stallion treats his mare,” he spat, a large glob of spit landing on Soarin’s flank.
“I’d rather not…” muttered Rainbow as she glanced back at the aggressor. Soarin used his free wing to wipe the spit away, cringing slightly as he felt it in his feathers, but still looking away from the stallion.
“Is my spit not good enough for you pretty boy?!” the stallion yelled, before raising his hoof and delivering a powerful punch to right where the spit had landed on Soarin. Soarin tumbled over, landing on the soft cloud floor and looking back at the smirking pony. A significant gap in the queue had now opened up, forming a perfect arena. Soarin climbed to his feet, ignoring the searing pain in his behind, and trudged up to face the pony before quickly grabbing hold of his necklace with a hoof. The earth pony’s brown eyes quickly shrunk to pinpricks
“Feel the ground beneath your feet?” Soarin asked slowly. The larger pony, trembling, nodded quickly, not saying a word. “Why don’t you tell me what its made of.”
“C-cloud?” the shaking pony got out, understanding the gravity of the situation.
“It's a long fall back down isn’t it?” The pony nodded again vigorously. Soarin tugged at the necklace, testing the strength of the flimsy chain holding it together. “Wouldn’t it be awful if something happened to your talisman?” Soarin toyed, looking the stallion dead in the eye. “Then it’s nothing but vapour between you and the ground.” The stallion looked back at him pleadingly, desperately. Soarin looked at Rainbow behind him, who had a smile on her face, and looked back at the stallion.
After what seemed like an eternity, without a word, Soarin let go of the talisman and rejoined Rainbow. The stallion collapsed onto the floor behind him, shaking and breathing heavily. After a few short seconds, the queue quickly reformed between the two of them, and the tension that had accrued began to die down.
Soarin let out a breath he had been holding, tried to relax, although he was also visibly trembling from the encounter, but not nearly as much as the other pony. It was now Rainbow’s turn to put her wing over her body and give him an affectionate squeeze.
“Thanks Soarin, that was awesome,” she affirmed, resting her head back into his side, the back of her neck just barely tickled by his soft feathers. He began to calm down, although he still had a troubled expression. The queue carried on moving, and he could see that they still had a few minutes before they reached the front.
“Hey, you know I would have never actually made him fall right?” He felt her nodding. “And if something happened, I would have caught him.” She nodded again, chuckling.
“Don’t worry Soar’; you’re too dorky to hurt anyone,” she giggled. He looked back at her, a slightly pained look to his face. She looked back up at him, and smiled. “I like dorky,” she said contently. His cheeks burned, and he grinned as they stepped forwards again. They were almost at the front of the line now, and he got their tickets ready.
The ticket checkers, looking bored out of their minds snatched the tickets out of Soarin’s mouth and pointed the two towards the entrance. “Rude,” he muttered once out of earshot.
“Hey, come on dude; don’t pretend you wouldn’t be like that with the gazillionth pony who’s ticket you had to check,” Rainbow chuckled, her mood having already lightened since leaving the queue. As they entered the tunnel into the stadium, He eyed the sign hanging from the ceiling that read ‘Flying for emergencies only’. Made sense to him, loads of pegasi flying in close proximity would be bound to wreak havoc.
The stadium was already half full, and upon reaching the end of the tunnel into the stadium they were met with the deafening roar of the fans. The band hadn’t even appeared yet and Soarin could hardly hear himself think.
He felt his right forehoof get snatched for the second time that day, and looked forward to see Rainbow making her way into the crowd, dragging him behind her. “Hey Soarin I think I found the moshpit!” she giddily shouted back at him. The colour quickly drained from his face: whatever a moshpit was it didn’t sound good. As they pushed their way between countless other ponies, the two of them heard the crowd erupt and as they looked to the stage, they saw the four band members making their way onto the stage.
With no introduction, the band quickly launched into their first song, starting with a fast paced and upbeat guitar riff. “We won’t wanna miss this one in the pit!” Rainbow shouted back, before quickening her pace and darting rapidly between the ponies in her way. Soarin, being quite a bit larger and less nimble, bumped into a lot of said ponies, garnering a few angry faces.
Finally, as they had almost reached the stage, he saw that the crowd in front of him was rapidly thinning, and was soon yanked into a clearing by Rainbow. He followed her into the middle of the clearing, looking around. The few ponies that stood in the clearing stood low, dancing eratically. The ponies stood on the edge where slowly backing up, gradually widening the perimeter with wild, determined smiles on their faces.
As the verse stopped, and the pre-chorus was playing, the ponies around the rim stood still in anticipation. “You ready for this Soar’?” Rainbow shouted over the noise.
“One, Two, Three, FOUR!” the lead singer shouted as the band energetically began the chorus, the crowd around the edge exploding towards the two pegasi. Soarin took a deep breath, and was bombarded from all sides by ponies colliding with him. He saw Rainbow jumping up and down, a wide smile on her face as she jostled with anyone brave enough to take her on.
The whole moshpit began to rotate, all of the ponies now jumping and jostling in the same direction. Not quite having got the hang of it, and frankly not enjoying it at all, Soarin stumbled after being bumped into from behind and began to wobble. He outstretched one of his wings in an attempt to regain his balance, but a particularly large, fast pegasus painfully collided with him, crushing his outstretched wing against his body.
“Ow!” he yelped, clutching his wing as he toppled over. He covered his face and braced himself, but to his surprise a small void of ponies had opened up around him. He looked up, seeing a few sneering faces and hearing a few snickers, painfully audible now that the band had finished their first song. The moshpit had seemed to have drifted away, and at the gap in the music more and more ponies began to turn and look his way.
Soarin’s face turned a deep red, and as he tried to get up off the floor he let out another pained cry as he accidentally moved his throbbing wing. He heard some muttering and looked in the direction, seeing the crowd move slightly as a blue pegasus made her way towards him.
“Sorry I lost you Soar’, I didn’t see what happened,” she said as she made her way between the last few ponies before offering a hoof. He gladly accepted, letting her pull him back to his hooves.
“Are you okay?” she asked as she looked him up and down, her purple eyes full of concern. He was about to reply, but winced as he tried to move his wing.
“Yeah I think I’m alright, but my wing is killing me,” he eventually got out, letting go of it so she could have a look. She clutched it delicately, inspecting the length of it and noticing one section was already looking red and a bit puffy. She noticed a few ponies were still snickering and muttering. She sighed, looking at Soarin’s shameful expression.
“I don’t think it’s broken, but gee that must hurt!” she said with a chuckle, letting the wing return to his side, before shooting the others a death stare each and ushering him away. “Don’t worry about them dude, there are always a few…” she asserted,.
“Thanks Rainbow,” he chuckled, but his cheeks still glowed. A whole song passed as the pair continued making their way between dancing ponies, although it was one neither of them particularly liked. Soon they reached the outer edge of the crowd. “Umm Rainbow?” he yelled over the music. “Why are going so far out?” He looked at her: her face instantly flushed. She leant up close to his ear, obviously not wanting to say this too loud.
“In the moshpit there’s a bit more space, but the crowd is way to cramped for me,” she said, looking back up at him shamefully. Soarin cursed himself for being such an idiot. “Sorry dude, feel like I’m ruining this a bit, aren’t I…” she trailed off again, not finding the courage to meet his gaze. His heart almost snapped, and he quickly put a comforting wing around her.
“It’s totally fine Rainbow, I get it. I don’t like it in the middle either, to tell you the truth,” he chuckled, gently rubbing her with his wing. That last part wasn’t strictly true, but he knew that her sense of loyalty would make her feel awful if she thought she was putting herself before her friends.
The band announced they were playing one of their slower songs, which perked up Soarin. This was probably one of the only songs he liked, and the two wordlessly rocked side to side along to the beat. He glanced down at Rainbow’s face, and although from this angle it was hard to read her he could see a content smile on her face.
She slid her wing over his back, quite a stretch considering his significantly larger figure, but she just about managed. Soarin gasped and squirmed slightly, as she managed to accidently tickle a weak spot between his wings with her feathers.
“I’ll have to remember that one,” she giggled, before moving her wing slightly backwards, much to his relief. The two pegasi stood there, gently swaying to the beat for the next few songs. She seemed lost in the music, but he was focusing on the moment; the feeling of her soft wing draped across his back, the faint scent of the shampoo she always used, and her cute giggle.
He couldn’t help but feel giddy, and as the song came to an end he gave her a comforting squeeze under his wing. Rainbow forced herself to keep looking forwards at the band, not daring to turn around, but her burning cheeks and widening smile betrayed her.
As the band had been constantly making noise to smoothly transition between their songs, it seemed painfully quiet when they put down their instruments and the lead singer took to the microphone.
“Sorry everypony, but that's it for tonight,” she said solemnly, looking around at her bandmates as they feigned sadness, before slowly walking towards the end of the stage
“What!” Soarin exclaimed, looking at Rainbow incredulously. “They haven’t even played Flying Higher yet!” It was their most popular song, and his favourite, being one of the few to which he knew the lyrics. She looked back at him, giggling at his face.
“Dude, you really haven’t been to one of these concerts before have you?” she chuckled. He was about to ask what she meant, but he noticed the lead singer return to the mic.
“How about we make a deal with you ponies?” she said, a confident smirk on her face. “You give us all of your energy, and we’ll perform one last song for you. Sound good?” She smiled, putting her hoof towards her ear as she leaned towards the crowd.
“Yeah!” Soarin shouted, a hopeful smile on his face as he eagerly shifted, trying to get a better view of the singer. Rainbow giggled again, smiling at his adorable expression.
“That doesn’t really sound like all of your energy; I guess we won’t be able to play another one after all…” The lead singer trailed off, looking around at her bandmates and shaking her head. “I guess we can give it one more go though…” She grabbed the microphone. “Does that sound good!?” she shouted.
“Yeah!” Soarin shouted again, looking down at Rainbow and nudging her. “Come on Rainbow, do you want them to play another?” he asked, sweating nervously.
“Are you sure!?” the singer shouted once more.
“Yeah!” Soarin shouted at the top of his lungs. Rainbow also joined in weakly, mainly because she was so busy trying to hold back her laughter. He’s so adorable!
“Alright we want you all singing for this one... it’s Flying Higher!” she shouted, before the band launched into an aggressive, upbeat riff. Soarin shouted in celebration, nudging Rainbow.
“We did it, they’re playing it!” he said with the widest smile she had ever seen on his face.
“Yeah, we really did!” She smiled back at him, choosing to let him live in his naivete for a little while longer. As the singer began the first verse, the two joined in on the singing. Soarin sounded terrible singing as loud as he could, but he was drowned out by the equally terrible singing from the rest of the crowd. Rainbow wasn’t trying to hard to sound good, just joining in with the rest of them.
As the song reached its final chorus, the two faced each other and sung the lyrics to each others faces, both grinning widely as the song came to a close. As the final chords rang out, and slowly began to ebb in intensity, he looked at her and knew what he had to do.
He lunged towards her, wrapping his forehooves around her neck before passionately kissing her. Her eyes went wide, for a moment, and although Soarin’s eyes were closed his heart sank as he felt her tense up. You’re ruining it Soar’! After a short moment however, she relaxed into the kiss and returned it with just as much passion.
As the last lingering notes of the chords diminished, the two reluctantly separated, looking into eachothers eyes.
“That was… awesome!” Rainbow breathed, struggling to catch her breath. Similarly breathless, all he could manage to do was nod back. She eyed the crowd moving towards the exit behind him, and nudged him. “We should… probably get going… don’t wanna… get swept away.” she said, still not quite having got her breath back.
“Yeah, sounds like a good idea,” Soarin nodded in agreement, and quickly the two made their way to the exit. After a few short minutes they had made their way out of the stadium. She turned around and gave the stage one last look through the wide entrance, pausing there for a moment.
“Thanks for the night Soar’, I think I can say that was the best concert I’ve ever been to.” She smiled, her eyes wide as she imagined the band still on the stage.
“Yeah, it was pretty cool wasn’t it?” he replied, similarly looking back through the arch. He had enjoyed it more than he’d expected, and although he didn’t really like the band anymore than he had before, he could definitely see himself doing that again. The two shared one last look at the stage, before turning away and heading down the half-lit road from the arena.
Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t hide the beaming smile on his face. He’d had an amazing night with the mare of his dreams, and kissed her. What more was there to ask for? He glanced over at Rainbow as the two walked, expecting a similar expression on her face. But her mood seemed to have fallen, and her face seemed much more pensieve than anything else. Soarin nudged her gently.
“Are you feeling alright?” he half-chuckled, trying to keep the mood light, although the concern in his voice was apparent. She looked up at him, and sighed deeply.
“Why did you lie about liking them Soar’?” she asked, looking quite hurt.
“I guess my secret’s out isn’t it…” he trailed off, struggling to meet her gaze. “What gave it away?”
“Oh I don’t know, the fact you didn’t know most of the lyrics, your moshing…” she giggled at the memory him in the pit, her mood seeming to lighten. “You should never, ever extend you’re wing to balance yourself, they have like three songs about it!” she exclaimed jovially. “And the fact that you had no idea what an encore was…” she couldn’t hold it in any longer, and burst out laughing.
Once her laughter subsided though, a pained expression returned to her face. “So why did you lie? Did you think I wouldn’t like you if you didn’t like them or something? Do you really think im that shallow?” She continued, anger beginning to creep its way into her voice.
“I just wanted to do something with you that you liked…” he mumbled, gazing into the ground. “I know you don’t like movies, and Spitfire suggested this…” he finally managed to meet her gaze.
“You asked Spitfire about this?” Rainbow groaned, she would never live this down.
“Well… she guessed I had a crush on you,” he said, his cheeks flushing. “I just wanted this night to be good for you, that was all.” He trailed off, his eyes going back towards the ground. “And I didn’t ‘happen upon’ the tickets either… I managed to buy them pretty last minute,” he admitted sheepishly. She giggled.
“Don’t get me wrong Soar’, I’m still kinda upset that you lied, and I don’t want anypony lying to me to get me to like them,” she said sternly, and he looked down shamefully. “But really I didn’t care whether you liked them or not.” Soarin’s ears perked up. “When you comforted me in the queue? That was amazing. The way you defended me from that jerk? Awesome. Most stallions wouldn’t have done that, and most would have just stayed at the front of the concert when I needed some air…” She trailed off, her cheeks burning.
“You were amazing tonight Soar’, and that was the best date I’ve ever had!” she concluded, as he looked back up at her with wide, hopeful eyes. The two stopped just as they reached Soarin’s house.
“So…” he stammered, his heart rate accelerating. “Does that mean you want to have a second date?” He asked cluelessly.
“Yes, I want a second date!” Rainbow laughed. He’s so dorky… “But how about this time we do something that we both like?” she asked, wrapping her wing around his back.
“It’s a deal!” Soarin beamed, before joining her in the embrace, as the two slowly leaned into each other. They looked into each other’s eyes, ecstatic smiles on both faces, before wordlessly leaning in further, and sharing another long, passionate kiss.
