Soaring with the Rainbows Chapter 4

Soarin shook where he stood, his eyes clenched shut. He knew himself. He knew that most of the time he was calm, but when things got out of hand, they really got out of hand. But he hadn't thought he was capable of this. Of frightening, of hurting a friend. He was just dramatic, right? Just a drama king... Not a monster. A monster, a bad pony, somepony who couldn't be trusted to reign in his emotions, to keep control of himself.  Soarin felt as if his mind was hurt, being wounded by conflicting feelings. He hugged himself against the internal onslaught, hunching his shoulders, as if that would help.

Then, as if by a miracle, the emotions went away. Leaving something worse in their wake. Numbness, numbness and misery, that was all that was left behind. He didn't think he would cry anymore. So he opened his eyes, because the outside world couldn't be crueler to him then the inside of his head.

Leaves. Leaves on a willow tree, which swayed in some breeze he couldn't feel. The clearing in which he'd forced them to crash was closer to a small gap in the forest, invisible and secret. Soarin turned his head. Green, more green. And then a cyan pegusus, staring at him. Soarin didn't close his eyes, or flinch away. He deserved what was coming to him. Rainbow Dash walked over, carefully, as if to not spook him.

"Soarin, what wrong? What can I do to help?"

She still wanted to help... Of course. Soarin almost laughed. She was so loyal. Stupid, idiotic, wonderful mare.

"Seriously Soarin, tell me what's up. That wasn't you back there..."

How to explain... How to ask her whether it was her friend who set the dragon on Ponyville... "Say, Rainbow, by chance have you noticed your friends engaging in terrorist activities?". Yeah, that would go down well. After all, he wasn't the only pony she was loyal to.

And on top of that, he was terrified of upsetting her again. He also severely doubted his own ability to ask her the question in his current state of mind. The numbness and misery he felt were threatening to overwhelm him again. He just wanted to lie down, right here in this clearing, and just not feel or do anything. But the concern in Rainbow's eyes keep his gaze steadily upon her. Could she really care that much about him, after what he had done? The thought seemed to bring a little warmth and feeling back into his body. This new found strength gave him just a bit of courage to do what he came to do. So, after sighing deeply, trying to draw any extra courage he could muster, he asked."

"Rainbow... Was it you?"

"What?" She looked confused, and Soarin didn't blame her.

"Was it you... you or your friends... who set the dragon on Ponyville?"

If Rainbow was confused before, she was gob-smacked now. He could almost hear the gears in her head turning, as she followed his reasoning.

"That's why you came here?" She murmured, "To follow up the dragon? But why?!"

Soarin knew that he really shouldn't be telling a suspect this. But he didn't care. "The dragon, it disappeared. The patrol couldn't find it anywhere, but they knew that it didn't fly off. When I saw the photo of the beast, I recognised it. It's that little baby that hangs out with you, right? Except all grown up."

"Wait... Wait a minute, hold up! You think we set a dragon on Ponyville?! Thats our town, Soarin!" She stretched out a hoof tentatively, still afraid. "Trust me. You guys have it all wrong."

"We do? But how-"

"Just trust me."

Soarin sighed. "Fine. I owe you that much, and more." Just thinking about how close he'd come to hurting her badly, just thinking about that fiery, raging anger... It scared him. He hadn't thought that he'd been capable of such fury. And the guilt... it made his heart hurt. Whatever happened, however this turned out, Soarin needed to make this up to Rainbow. To prove to himself, and her, that he could be a good friend.

"Soarin, you're not the only one to ever go crazy. Heck, it's almost a daily occurrence in this weirdo town."

He turned away for Rainbow, not wanting to let go of his sullen guilt. He wasn't going to just let her let him off the hook. He deserved to pay for his mistake. "Bet you haven't." He said sulkily.

The clearing's silence was broken by Rainbow Dash, who had fallen over in laugher. Soarin stared at her, wondering for a brief moment if he was dreaming all of this.

"Me- Sensible!" She managed to choke out, before falling back in hysterics. "Bwah ha ha ha!"

Soarin tried to keep a straight face. Really, he did, but Rainbow's hilarity was infectious. He smiled, just a little bit, but he still couldn't forget what he'd done. That thought twisted the smile, made it a shadow of what it had been.

Rainbow finished up on the ground beneath his head, giggling at him. She stopped, (eventually) and twisted around to face him, obviously curious as to why he wasn't rolling But this needed to be said.

"Rainbow? About how I was earlier. It was so unforgiable, and I am so sorry, so sorry." He felt his breath hitch in his throat.

"Hey, don't sweat it. My friends did way worse when they lost it."

"How can you say that!? I hurt you, I made you cry! I'm supposed to be your friend, to help you! But instead I got angry, and I didn't listen to you and made us crash here..."

Rainbow rolled up and on to her feet. "You're still not listening, stupid. Seriously, don't worry about it. I know that you need to do your job... And I didn't see how upset you were when you first flew in. Kinda my fault too."

The two pegasi sat together for a while, just working through their respective thoughts. Or, more likely, Rainbow was just waiting for him politely, and letting him have some peace. The filly Soarin had known would have been buzzing and quivering with impatience by now, but this older Rainbow didn't seem to have any trouble with the quiet. She'd changed. She'd changed so much.

"So do you wanna head back to Ponyville now?" Rainbow made no attempt to hide her abrupt change of subject. She was definitely not that comfortable with touchy feely stuff.

"Sure." Soarin nodded, and they took off. Angling their flight paths toward the bustle of Ponyville, Soarin idled up to within speaking range of the other pegusus.

"And while we are going back, you can tell me exactly what you friends did when they got mad."

"Sure!" She gave him a friendly shove. "So, you're gonna love this..."

***

Soarin glided into the park, Rainbow beside him. Surely they hadn't been gone that long? All of Rainbow's friends had disappeared, and the park was deserted except for a smallish green rock. No, they really hadn't been gone for more than an hour. Celestia's sun was still high in the sky, and the sky itself was still clear and bright.

"Rainbow? Is it common for your friends to just disappear like this?"

"Nope, not really." But she didn't seem to be concerned. 'Pinkie's probably throwing a surprise party on something."

For some reason, Rainbow was patting the green rock. And attaching part of a helicopter to it. Even for Ponyville, this was strange. Soarin didn't grasp what the rock was 'til its head came out, and it hovered up to his face.

"A flying Tortoise. Way to be unconventional, Rainbow."

"He's not a turtle he's a- wait, what?"

"I know the difference. Turtles have flippers, Tortoises have legs. Pretty obvious, actually."

Suddenly, a pink pony was in front of him. This was one of Rainbows friends. But she hadn't walked up to him, or leapt out of any bush, or even fallen out of the sky. She'd just appeared, out of thin air. Reminded him of the time that the Wonderbolts had been sent up against Discord (and gotten their wings wounded by flying tofu). But she wasn't a unicorn; the pink, fluffy creature was just an earth pony, just normal. What was going on?

"Hi guys! Okie dowie lokie, so you've got to totally come with me to Twi's library, 'cause the end of this chapter's coming, and I totally need to get you to the next scene before the writer begins on it and we need to go now so say goodbye and follow me and why aren't you following me come on!"

As he was dragged away by the earth pony, the white pegusus turned to the blue one. "Is this normal?"

"Completely." Rainbow nodded.