Rainbow Dash rinsed her face throughly hoping to cleanse every drop of sweat that rested on her cheeks and forehead. Only a few minutes had passed since her first show WITH her biggest idols, the Wonderbolts and she was still extremely happy. Despite the actual show being over.
As she dried herself with a towel, previous events of the day flowed back into her mind. How one of her biggest heros had framed her to keep a lousy record. How no one except her true friend Rarity believed her. The look of disappointment on his face.
Dash shook the thoughts out of her mind and walked out of her room on the east wing of the castle. She didn't really feel like flying at the moment. Exiting the east wing, she saw her friend Rarity walking towards her with a smile.
"Rainbow, darling, I was just on my way over to your room. The Wonderbolts wanted to invite you to a little get together in the castle gardens", Rarity smiled proudly, as usual.
"Oh...", Dash barely managed to say. All of their interrogations scooted their way into her head again. All their accusations. Yes, she was very pleased that she did end up flying with them, now the more she thought about it, the more it bothered her. Why had she forgiven them so easily? Why had she forgiven him so easily?
"I don't know Rares, I'm actually not feeling too good right now", Rainbow lied nervously and looked aroud a bit. "I think I'm gonna pass on this one".
Rarity looked suspiciously at Rainbow. She had never been one to pass on spending whatever time with her idols. Nonetheless, she simply nodded at her response and bid Dash goodnight.
She kept staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Rainbow couldn't believe she was really still upset about earlier. She was driving herself crazy about something she would usually overlook! Why couldn't she just let it go?! It wasn't like any of them still cared about it!
A sharp knock interrupted her thoughts as she was forced to look up. She wondered who could possibly be knocking at her door at that late of an hour.
"Dash, it's me, Soarin", she heard a rasp voice say. She nearly gasped and froze. She hoped he would think she's asleep or something and go away.
"I know you're not really feeling well but I need to talk to you", the voice said through the door. She, again, remained silent.
"Dash...?".
Rainbow bit her lip. She knew that even if she avoided it today, he would bring it up tomorrow. With slight hesitation she sat up.
"Come in, Soarin". Taking his cue, he turned the knob and opened the the door slowly. The ice blue pegasus popped his head through the door giving Rainbow a reassuring smile.
Rainbow smiled back as she felt her face slightly glow. Soarin walked over to her bed where she was resting and sat down next to her. Once he did, she opened her mouth to say something, but shut it almost immediately after and looked aroud, Soarin joining her soon after.
Silence surrounded the room as neither of the spoke. Soon enough the found themselves staring at each other and looked away awkwardly.
Tempted to disturb the silence, Dash once again had the idea of speaking up. However this time, Soarin beat her to it.
"So how are you feeling?", he asked quietly without looking up. How was she feeling? She was feeling like she wanted to break all the windows into a million pieces after smashing him into the floor. She wanted to beat him and the rest of the jerk team up. She wanted to yell at him until her voice failed. She wanted to hurt him as much as possible without actually hurting him. She just want him to know how much she felt like destroying him, but at the same time, just wanted to get into his shoulders.
"I've been better...", Rainbow said in a flat tone. Not exactly the answer he was looking for. Then again, it wasn't exactly the answer she wanted to give him.
"You missed some great pie back at the garden", Soarin joked, mentally facehoofing. His attempts at lighting up the mood seemed to work though as he earned a soft chuckle from Rainbow, who regretted it. He looked up and smiled at her, which she gladly returned before both their faces turned serious again. He then stared into her deep magenta eyes as she did the same with his enchanting emerald green ones.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash", he whispered only loud enough for her to hear. Dash's eyes widened as she leaned back a bit.
"W-what?", she asked, stuttering.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow", Soarin said more clearly, keeping his eyes directly on hers."You're one of the ponies I should trust the most. After everything you've done for me, I really shouldn't have accused you like that. You probably hate me now, don't you?"
Yes. No.
"Soarin, I...", Dash started and looked away, "I don't know what to think anymore.... You were one of the Wonderbolts I admired the most because you hadn't tricked me or used me or...you get the point. I thought out all of them you would've stuck up for me and believed me but...but you...". A tear escaped her eye as Soarin had never felt worse about himself as he did just then.
Rainbow couldn't control herself anymore and threw herself at him, wrapping her hooves around him. She sobbed as she continued and lay her head on his chest. With no hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
"You yelled at me, you threatened me, you...", Dash cried into his chest. She didn't bother to continue as she realized he was tearing up while holding into her as hard as he could without hurting her. She cleansed on him tighter in attempt to call him, as well as herself, down.
Soarin closed his eyes shut and let his tears flow down his cheeks. Soon, both just lay there holding each other close.
How could he have done this to her? How could he have let down all her expectations of him? The last thing he would've wanted was to hurt her, and that's just what he did. He could have at least helped her, yet he didn't. It was as if he didn't even care. Now all he wanted was to comfort her and hug her as long as he could.
Rainbow's soft snoring forced him to look down to see a sound asleep mare resting on his chest. He smiled to himself seeing how innocent she looked. And how innocent she was.
He lay her down on the bed and covered her with a blanket. Even though he wanted to stay with her, Soarin knew he couldn't sleep next to her. Not willing to leave her, he looked around to try to find a place to sleep on.
He decided to settle down on a plush chair near a corner. He moved it so that he was only a couple of feet away from her and lay down, using an extra blanket to cover himself with.
He looked at her peaceful, innocent face one last time before closing his own eyes and going to sleep.
Soarin woke up at the light and heat of the morning sun beat down on him. He opened his eyes and sat up, not entirely sure where he was for a moment, however upon hearing Dashie's familiar snoring, he knew exactly where he was.
He turned to look over at the sleeping mare to see that she wasn't exactly as he had left her. She had somehow turned herself over, her messy mane draped on her shoulders. She was snoring in a pretty adorable way too, in Soarin's opinion anyway.
Her slender, yet toned body being out lighted by Celestia's Sun, truly a sight worth admiring. Soarin blushed and forced himself to look away as he felt his wings stiffen and begin to rise.
"You don't have to be so obvious about it," a voice behind him said. His blush only got more noticeable.
"Oh, h-hey Dash, how'd ya sleep?" Soarin asked nervously. Dash merely shook her head, smiling to herself. Soarin continued to blush and with him being out of uniform, you could really see it.
"Ya' know, you didn't need to sleep here," Dash said still smiling at him. Soarin raised an eyebrow and turned to look at her.
"Did you not want me to sleep here?" Soarin asked concerned, "because if that's the case, I could just-". He stopped and started getting off the chair.
"NO! WAIT!" Rainbow yelled, freezing him in the process. "Please stay, I want you to stay..."
Soarin again raised an eyebrow at him but decided not to question it and sat back in his place. Rainbow stared him for a while before continuing.
"I...I...Well, I just wanted to thank you for putting up with my emotional outburst yesterday...I just...don't know what came over me," Rainbow said looking down so that she wasn't facing him.
"H-hey, if you ever need someone to cry on, I'm your stallion!" He beamed. He smiled at Dash, even thought she couldn't see it, she knew he was.
"Of course...." Dash replied with a soft smile, which she struggled to hide. He managed to see it though and that was enough.
"Do you still wanna talk about it before breakfast?" Soarin asked. She leaned beck in the bed a bit.
"I'm actually not feeling that hungry," she replied softly. Soarin chuckled.
"That wasn't the point of the question," he teased. Rainbow once again, struggled to hide a smile.
"At the moment, I just feel like a need a hug," Rainbow said quietly. Within seconds, Soarin had left his chair and wrapped his arms around her before she had any chance to protest. Instead of doing so though, she actually snuggled into his chest.
Both lay there in silence, holding each other for a good few minutes. They were enjoying each others company more than should have, but they didn't care. After some time, Rainbow decided to ask a question that had been in the back of her mind for a while.
"Hey Soarin?" Soarin opened his eyes and looked down to her. "Um, w-why did you come apologize to me?"
Soarin simply smiled and pulled her slightly deeper into the hug. "I don't know Dashie, I just didn't feel like letting you fly with us was enough, I guess. You deserve better, and you can do better."
Rainbow blushed at the compliment and then another question popped into her head.
"Well...what's all this for?" She asked. Soarin felt heat rise to his cheeks as he nervously looked for an answer.
"Uhh, well I thought that you needed company. Besides, I've always wanted to hug skittles," he joked. Dash smiled, but it wasn't the answer she was looking for.
"Alright. But seriously, you have to have a better reason to want to yell at me before..." Rainbow stated, recalling how horrible she felt. Soaring frowned for the first time in their recent conversation as he remembered the terrified look on her face. Her warm and innocent face.
"Yes well...I don't know," Soarin lied. Rainbow only held back her disappointment as she snuggled with him a bit more. Soarin smiled and pulled her in even closer than before, if that was even possible.
"Well...actually," Soarin started as Rainbow's eyes lit up. "I was just a bit hurt I guess..."
"Hurt?" Rainbow asked. He only nodded to confirm.
"I've only known you for some time now, and I've already grown to admire and adore every single aspect of you. Your leadership, your determination. Most importantly, I thought I could trust you after everything I've known of you. Then somepony, a legendary athlete nonetheless, tells me you've sent away one of my friends and colleagues to some unknown area only to take her spot in a show, how am I supposed to feel? I felt like I was being stabbed in the back. At the moment everything I thought you were was shattered by Windrider and because I've known him a lot longer, I had no choice but to believe him. I still wanted to give you a chance to prove yourself, though."
"Well then, why didn't you help me?" Rainbow asked him.
"I couldn't, the other Wonderbolts would've assumed I was just covering up for you and then we'd both be in even bigger trouble," Soarin replied.
"Huh, so what about banning me from the Wonderbolts?"
"Oh I'm sorry, it's only LAW that I have to follow, then again you were always one to bend the rules," Soarin teased.
"Whatever gets the job done, right?" Rainbow laughed.
"Definitely," Soarin agreed laughing with her.
"OH LOOK, the blue one's agreeing with me. Makes sense considering how much you admire and adore every aspect of me," Rainbow teased.
"OBJECTION!"
"NO!"
At this point, both had been tackling each other on the bed, laughing and teasing the whole way along.
They both collapsed into the bed, still laughing for their horse play. The more they laughed, the closer they got to each other.
They laughed a bit longer before turning to face each other. Once it died down, they found their muzzles were touching and pulled away nervously.
Rainbow cleared her throat, while Soarin just smiled in the most dorky way possible. They somehow managed to stare at each other for the millionth time and scooted a bit closer.
"Can we do the um...the hugging thing again? I'm....crying internally..." Rainbow lied. Soarin chuckled and embraced her from behind.
"You're adorable, Rainbow Dash," Soarin commented. Her eyes went wide.
"Hey! I am NOT adorable," Rainbow protested as she rested on his lap. She slightly pouted and Soarin cuddled her a bit.
"H-hey Soarin?"
"Hmm?"
"Did you really mean it when you said you admired and adored every aspect of me?" Rainbow asked quietly. "Or when you said I was adorable?"
Soarin smiled, as he had done all morning. He closed his eyes and brought her closer to him.
