I sat up right in a cold hospital bed, I had bandages wrapped all along my wing, turns out my wing wasn't damaged to seriously, only a minor dislocation and some overexertion, but it still really hurt, but I wasn't going to seem frail in front of my new teammate. Either way, despite my extreme discontent I was grounded for three days. "Aw, cheer up RainbowDash, being grounded sucks, but at least you're grounded at the coolest place ever." Soarin said with a smile as he attempted to cheer me up, I continued to sulk.
"Oh, please how many times have you been grounded?" I questioned him with gloominess and frustration.
My question was met with a snort. "More times than I can count, however it's not that bad when you have some awesome amenities at your disposal, such as, pools, training rooms, running tracks, and a sweet chef, that makes some great pie!"
Feeling slightly less detected I jokingly suggested Soarin take me to get some of this epic pie sometime. "Sure, why not now, you're all bandaged up, so no need to stay here and I would love to get to know my new team-mate." I nodded and slipped of the hospital bed and on to the hard marble floor. I adjusted my bandages and strolled out of the infirmary with my first Wonderbolt friend.
As we strode down the wide marble hallways of the Wonderbolt base I noticed pictures lining the walls, twelve in total, one for each current Wonderbolt. I turned to Soarin. "So, how long does it take to settle in, and are there any Bolts that I might want to stay away from."
He thought for a moment and then said. "You settle in pretty fast, and no, no one is to mean, or angry, Fleetfoot gives off an aggressive vibe, but she's actually very nice, and you don't want to get in Manerick's way, he's not going to seek you out, but if you mess with him, he will mess you up." He paused and then added. "Also Surprise might try to pull a few pranks, it's some sort of stupid initiation thing."
"Um, what kind of pranks?" I asked mystified.
"It's different for every newbie." Soarin said cryptically.
"Ok," I said warily. "What about Spitfire is she a good captain?" I was mainly just curious about how the Wonderbolts were run, and curious as to whether I should prepare for unexplained yelling.
"She's a fair captain, she won't go easy on you, but she won't be mean for no reason." He said monotonously.
"Also, is this entire place made of marble?" I asked as my hoofs clacked against the smooth floor.
"Eeyup, the entire place is completely made of marble. Well, everyplace other than the sleeping quarters. Everypony gets a private sleeping quarter, and the walls are marble, but the floors are wooden, I guess the builders ran out of marble." He said with a shrug. "The massive columns aren't overly friendly and homey, but they eventually start to grow on you."
"Oh, trust me I feel right at home, I'm somewhat of a cloud architect, and I love to use pillars, tastefully of course. My house floats above Ponyville; it's a pretty cool place to live. You should swing by sometime. It's an amazing place, lots of amazing ponies, and some awesome flying space." With the thought of Ponyville I launched into a description of my friends. "Twilight it Princess Celestia's student, AppleJack runs Sweet Apple acres with her family, oh and Fluttershy, she takes care of woodland creatures, and she's a pegasus and scared of heights, and Pinkie Pie, she is the pony that tried to start-up real dancing at the gala, and then there is Rarity; you might have heard of her, she's an up and coming designer; she hangs out with Fancypants a lot."
"They all sound amazing, I don't have many friends. I've never been an overly social pony." Soarin said looking down slightly. "I'll defiantly take you up on the offer to visit Ponyville. All Wonderbolts get weekends off, so maybe we could hang out this one, err, can I crash at your place. I don't really know where else I could stay at Ponyville? " I nodded slowly, trying to remember just how messy my guest bedroom was.
We rounded a corner and I saw swinging double doors with a cursive sign above that read "Kitchen." Soaring pushed the door open and let me through. "Hullo, Patrick, can we have one of your finest blueberry pies please." Soarin said to the earth pony tinkering with the controls on a stove.
"Heyyyyyy, Hullo Soarin, I see you brought a filly with you today, are you finally settling down with a special somepony?" The chef, Patrick said with a knowing smile as he put down the tools and washed his hoofs in a sink tucked into the corner of the room.
I blushed furiously as Soarin corrected him. "She's just a friend, the new Wonderbolt actually, and I've brought her here to let her taste the best pie in all of Equestria." I could see Patrick's eyes light up. He was clearly very proud of his pie.
"Oh, you flatter me so, you cheeky devil." Patrick said, clearly not disappointed at all with the claim Soarin had made, he then strolled into what I assumed was a back room full of pies for Soarin, and called behind him. "It will be about 10 minutes for that pie."
We sat at one of the flimsy folding tables set up around the room. I glanced around the room and saw a clock tucked neatly on a shelf and was shocked to find that it was seven in the afternoon that storm must have really slowed me down. All my friends had expected me back about an hour ago. "Soarin, is their anyway I can contact my friends they are expecting me back today." I asked despite the fact that I already knew the answer.
"I'm afraid not, everyone has been grounded by the storm, and the last unicorn left yesterday, so it's just a few earth ponies and us Wonderbolts." He answered apologetically. Although I was happy the he referred to me as a Wonderbolt "I'm sure you friends have enough sense to realize that the storm will slow you down."
Before I could respond in any way Patrick pushed open the door and brought out a steaming blueberry pie upon a single plate. I saw Soarin's gaze fix on it as it was placed on the table top. "Looks amazing Patrick." Soarin gushed.
"Only the best for you Soarin, you kids enjoy, I'll be in the back trying out new recipes." Patrick explained. "Just give a shout if you need me." We nodded as Patrick trotted back through the door into the backroom.
We both looked at the pie and looked at each other. "Ok." Soarin said. "I didn't really think the 'sharing a pie' thing through."
I laughed. "It didn't occur to me either." I looked around a spotted some plastic cutlery sitting in a dispenser. I jaunted over to the dispenser and grabbed a knife. I carefully paired the pie in to two pieces, and pushed them both to separate sides of the plate, Soarin flashed me a nervous grin.
"Sorry, I've never actually shared a pie with anyone before." He explained blushing, I laughed at him and dug into my half of the pie, it was amazing, and I would never tell AppleJack, but it might even be better than her Apple Pies. We ate in silence; and once both pie half's had been finished Soarin let out a huge burp, and then looked sheepishly at the ground. "Sorry about that." He apologized profusely.
I laughed at him. "It's completely fine, I have a tendency to do that as well." With that I let out a burp as well, it wasn't as loud, but a burp nonetheless. We both burst out into fits of giggles and putt the plate in the sink and left the kitchen with a quick good-bye to Patrick.
Soarin escorted me through the maze of hallways to my designated room and told me that I should set my alarm clock to 8:00 am, Spitfire would start my orientation at 8:30pm exactly, she wanted to let me sleep in, because I got in late, and had to fly in a storm, but it still seemed pretty early to me.
"I look forward to flying with you Rainbow." Soarin said with a nod.
"likewise." I returned the nod, and I stepped into my room through a single wooden door. My new room was large yet felt very homey, the room had a window and through the window I could see the still raging storm, there was a soft red area rug on the ground and a simple door on the wall to my right, with a little investigation a discovered the door led to a private washroom. I strolled to the alarm clock and set it for 8:00, then I walked up to the then large king-sized bed placed in the exact center of the room and slipped into the silky soft sheets of my bed and instantly sunk into a deep sleep.