Soaring with the Rainbows Chapter 11

Soarin landed hard, knocking the breath from his lungs with an audible thump. A short distance away, a yellow and orange mare had also landed roughly. All three Pegasi struggled to their feet. Rainbow looking a little less worse for wear than the other winged ponies, since Soarin had been her landing pad. For a moment, the three childhood friends just stared at each other, all of them looking lost.

Soarin looked over to Spitfire. Now that she was within range, he thought that trying calm her down was worth a shot. "Spit?" Soarin said, using her old pet name. "You… you okay?"

Spitfire showed a flash of emotions at the nickname. First shock, then anger, guilt, and finally hopelessness took their turn flashing across her features. She seemed about to say something, but then choked on the words. To Soarin's astonishment, the mare looked like she was desperately trying to hold back tears. The element of loyalty, for her part, seemed to be just as interested in the exchange, and straightened out of her battle-ready pose.

"I… I can't stop it. Nothing I've done has." Instead of her usual even tone, Spitfire spoke in a hiccup. The flame maned mare rubbed at her nose furiously, and the stallion could see her mask crumbling. "She's going to come, and, and you're going to help her and you don't need me anymore and, and, and-" She choked, still trying to hold her emotions in.

Rainbow jumped forward, wincing as her bruised body reported its concern. Magenta eyes widened with uncertainty and nerves as the mare approached. Loyalty shifted from side to side, fretfully watching Spitfire as she ducked her head, eyes screwed up as if in pain. Tentatively, Rainbow stretched out a hoof, laying it on the other mare's shoulder.

Spitfire registered the touch of the hoof and exploded. "BUCK OFF! GET AWAY FROM ME!! LEAVE, leave… Why won't you just leave?!" She gasped, tears leaking from her eyes against her will.

The Wonderbolts captain spread her wings and Rainbow Dash jumped back, shocked. Soarin started forward, but Spitfire's purpose had changed from fight to flight, and she leapt into the air with her battered wings and fled. For a split second, the two other Pegasi stood still. Then, their brains reasserted themselves and they too leapt into the air. Only to find that that action was a painful one. Very painful. Their bodies reported that they'd just had a fall and their wings were bruised, so what in  Equestria did they think they were doing?

Soarin landed on his feet, which started up their own chorus of complaints. He ignored them. "Spitfire?! SPITFIRE!!" Soarin shouted at the retreating figure in the distance. Another flier was airborne going after her, but from the yellow mare's speed, she'd never be able to catch the captain.

Soarin slumped down to the ground, disbelieving. What had gone wrong? What had he done? The way that the she had looked at him, so betrayed and hurt, he must have done something to cause that. Her madness must have been caused by something… Soarin's mind flinched, trying to shy away from the thought, but he couldn't deny it. Was it his fault? This disaster, this chaos, could he have stopped it? His mind started replaying every gesture, every barbed comment that the co-captain and captain had flung at each other in the past weeks. He hadn't, by any measure, been a good friend. However his mind rationalized that she hadn't been playing nice either. Spitfire had almost ruined Rainbow's chances of getting into the Wonderbolts, she'd been unfair, biased, and vicious. But all that was to do with Rainbow, not him, another part of his brain pointed out. But he was Rainbow's friend. And he was Spitfire's friend. The 'buts' and 'ands' and 'howevers' were swirling in his head, and Soarin was getting nowhere. He just didn't understand. He really didn't.

"What… why did she… Oh horseapples, Soarin, what did I do to her? Why does she hate me so much? I thought we could be friends again… like when we were kids." Rainbow whispered, her voice shaking Soarin out of his internal chaos. Apparently the cyan mare was asking herself the same questions as he was, trying to make the pieces fit together into anything that vaguely made any sense. Loyalty's own emotions were beginning to spill over, and her ruby eyes glimmered with more than sunlight.

Soarin walked over and hugged her with one wing, ignoring his body's objection to movement of any kind. He stood in front of her and looked into her eyes, holding a hoof up to stop her from looking away. "Rainbow, you have been nothing but kind and forgiving to that mare. I don't know what Spitfire's problem is, but it isn't your fault." He stressed. "You've done everything you possibly could to mend things, you could replace Fluttershy as Kindness by now." He let his hoof fall awkwardly, and she looked away.

"HEY! Hey!! Guys, what in Tartarus happened?!"

The shout heralded the arrival of those who would be better comforters than him. Applejack led the group as they galloped toward the two battered Pegasi, the others streaming out behind her in a worried, frayed line. They pounced on Rainbow and Soarin in a swirling, multicoloured mass of hugging and shouts, encompassing them in a shield from the outside world. Soarin savored the feeling for a moment before disentangling himself, letting the elements and their dragon friend focus on Rainbow.

"The… I think." Rainbow sniffed, and hugged the nearest friend. "I-I don't know what happened, guys. I really don't! She hates m-me so much and I don't know why!" Soarin gave a half smile as Rainbow was buried underneath her friends. It made his heart hurt to see her sad, but the cure was here. Her friends would take care of her. Of that, there was no doubt.

His vision was suddenly blocked by purple. "Alright. What. The hay. Happened, Soarin?" The unicorn said, her tone calm, even, and dangerous.

"Twilight… I really, really don't have any idea. Please believe me when I say, if I could have avoided this, or stopped it somehow, I would have." Soarin said, his tone weary and worn down.

The magician's expression softened, and she gave the stallion a quick hug. "F-fine. I just… was worried. Ponies don't do that!"

"I'm still scared." Soarin admitted. "Spitfire's out there crying with nopony to help her, or surround her in a Elements-of-Harmony hug group. And I still don't know why, or what caused this!" His temper died down as quickly as it had flared. He was probably going into shock, Soarin realized. Hmm... Fantastic.

"Well… Um, she's not entirely alone. Or, at least, she won't be, once Fluttershy catches up to her." Twilight muttered.

"She… what?" Soarin remembered the yellow flier following Spitfire. "Is… Will she be okay?"

"Soarin. I know this isn't really anything you're dealt with before, but this is Fluttershy we're talking about. Element of Kindness, pony who out-stared an adult dragon? She'll be fine." Twilight reassured him.

"Okay… okay." He nodded. Soarin just wanted to put his head in his hooves, or curl up in a corner and sleep, or even join in with the Elements, who had gotten Rainbow to laugh by now and were in the process of trying to get her to stop laughing and crying at the same time. But, outside the lovely sphere of influence and reputation the elements had, the other Wonderbolts waited.

Their captain was gone, and their newest member had just been given a spontaneous aerial combat test as an introduction to their team. Soarin's brain was falling back on its default setting of 'make fun at everything to deal with your emotions', for which he was glad. He couldn't deal with everything now. Later, later. Soon. Maybe... Wearily, the stallion lifted his head and walked over to his teammates. Time for the co-captain to try and explain just what the buck was going on. 'Try' being the operative word in that sentence.

***

Somewhere deep inside him, Soarin was glad that the meeting was over and done with. That grateful feeling was buried under countless layers of emotional exhaustion and irritation, but the white Pegasus trusted that it was there. Soarin totted outside, onto the blissfully pony-free balcony, and lay his head onto the white marble. He was currently in one of the few showy buildings on base. The snowy marble admin building was where visitors were welcomed, so it had to look good. It's other main duty was to house the mountains of paperwork needed for the stunt team; hence its name. Every Wonderbolt dreaded its blank depths, because with them came the promise of filling out forms, a trick flier's worst nightmare.

Soarin thought about the impromptu meeting that he'd just attended. The trainers, understandably, were not just as confused as a bat in daylight like everypony else, they were furious. Spitfire had given Rainbow Dash an introduction to the squad by imprinting her hoof on the cyan pony's cheek. That was not what they wanted out of a Captain. Further more, the elements of harmony were the most powerful force known to ponykind, able to strip even an alicorn of her powers. While they weren't ever going to admit it, the staff was terrified of some sort of retribution. Soarin had told them that the image of Twilight leading a military assault on the Wonderbolts base, shooting rainbow beams in all directions was ridiculous, but they didn't listen, instead focusing on how they could make amends.

Surprisingly enough, the Elements had not attacked the base with Pinkie Pie's party cannon. Instead, they'd accompanied Rainbow to one of the base's many first aid rooms. Soarin, by that time, had been pulled away to the admin building, but he'd read the report that came in. Rainbow was fine. Apparently, Spitfire's method of fighting was to flail about wildly, and while impressive, it didn't do much harm. The pony in question was still missing, along with Fluttershy. The trainers thought that she'd probably come back to the base eventually, and hadn't called the Royal Guards in. Yet.

The co-captain of the Wonderbolts savored the touch of the cool stone against his forehead. He'd stopped feeling anything a long time ago. Any emotion had been pushed aside as he tried to get some semblance of order back into his… Workplace. He really couldn't call it a home anymore, as nice as it was.

Spitfire's punishment hadn't been decided yet. But there was going to be punishment. Something like this was virtually unknown in Equestria, and wouldn't be forgotten easily. Soarin would have to excuse himself from that meeting, when the time came. He couldn't help decide his old friend's fate. He was not capable of being impartial on this. Well, that had been what he'd told the trainers. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't being entirely truthful, either. What he really wanted, needed to do, was talk to Spitfire. She obviously had a reason for what she did, even if it was lost inside all the insanity.

"You okay, sugarcube?"

"Lets see, I can barely fly, one of my best friends is apparently homicidal, and my other best friend is the intended murder victim. Oh, don't worry AJ, I'm perfect." Soarin laughed, his voice bitter and broken.

An orange hoof lay itself on Soarin's shoulder, and he winced. The hoof retreated. "Sorry… Guess ya'll are still feeling tender after that big fall, huh?"

"A unicorn would be dead. An earth pony would probably be maimed for life or something. I'm a Pegasus, I'll be fine." Soarin muttered. "How is she?"

"Which she?"

"Unless someone else has had to fight for their life today, you know exactly which she, Applejack."

"Rainbow's doing fine. She's the one that asked me to come find you, see how you were doing. Ta' be honest, I'm rightly ashamed I didn't search you out sooner. You're not doing too well."

"I'll be fine." Soarin snapped automatically.

"After all 'o this? No ya won't. But we're here if ya'll need us, Soarin, all of us. Talk to me, okay?"

"About what?"

"'Bout anything. Just helps to have somepony who listens, I reckon."

Soarin stayed silent, but the cowpony didn't push him. Eventually, he sighed. "I did always like you best. Apart from Rainbow, I mean. I don't have much in common with the others, although they're great." The stallion said, still not looking up from where he leaned his head against the railing. "If she was here, Twilight would be researching crazed maniacs in a book by now, Rarity would be trying to give me a stupid embroidered piece of cloth, Fluttershy would have me wailing on the ground, Spike would be standing around awkwardly, and Pinkie Pie… Well, I don't want to laugh right now."

Applejack stayed quiet, urging him on.

"You… You're more like Rainbow and I. Your down to earth and you don't care about how pretty your mane looks or the precise scientific data on something. And you know how to take pride in the skills you have, which is something that I can understand."

"Soarin, ya'll are being really nice and all, but I didn't come here ta' talk about myself. If you don't start talking 'bout you, I'll start askin' questions."

"Pah. What could you want to know about me?" Soarin asked, taking the time to actually look at his friend this time. She looked… Worried, concerned for him.

"Well… How 'bout your cutie mark story?" She questioned. Applejack sat down on the stone balcony floor and patted the space beside her expectantly. When Soarin didn't immediately jump to sit beside her, her eyes narrowed.

Soarin knew a dangerous mare when he saw one. "Fine." He muttered, slumping over to sit beside her. "You get your story then. I'm not sure how talking about my flank is supposed to make me feel better, but sure. Since you asked."