I laughed with Soarin as we slowly ambled down a hallway and he told me stories about his past year as a Wonderbolt. "So after I caught FireStreak spoon-feeding his cat chocolate pudding in the broom closet." Soarin explained with a bright and goofy smile on his face. "He turns to me and asks me if I want to try any of the pudding. I couldn't believe it; I just turned and ran from the room."

"Really." I ask with a bit of scepticism in my voice.

"No, well I ran from the room, but he didn't offer me any pudding, he just begged me not to tell anypony about the incident, and I haven't. Well, except for you." Soarin said, as we continued through the maze of marble hallways. "Please don't tell anypony, Fire Streak would know it was me that told you and might come after me, or maybe even set his spoon fed cat after me" Soarin said with a slight chuckle.

I laughed good-naturedly with Soarin, and pondered the request. "Only if you do me a favor." My voice clearly brimmed with delight, so much that Soarin turned to me, his face covered in skepticism. "Nothing crazy." I added quickly. "It's just, I have this friend, and she really likes the Wonderbolts, and she would love to meet you." I finished the statement softly afraid of Soarin's reaction; I didn't want him to think I was going to ambush him with fans.

Soarin came to a thoughtful stop; his face took on questioning look. "This better not be a trap, but sure, how bad can one fan be." He said as he started walking again. I sincerely hoped he didn't regret saying that.

We were heading toward the infirmary, where I hoped my wing would be freed from its cotton bindings. My hoofs clacked against the floor and I took in the views of the ever-present marble walling, looking up I noticed the elegant walls joined together in a soft arch. There was a bit of space above our heads, presumably for Wonderbolts that were reluctant to walk and wished to stay airborne.

We arrived at the infirmary with a bit of time left in the day. Soarin and I pushed through the doors, and let them swing shut behind us. The same very nice earth pony from when I had first injured my wing yesterday walked up to us with a smile on her face. "I'm guessing you want me to check your wing?" She asked with a cheery tone in her voice. I took in her appearance, she had a red smoothed down mane, and a tail to match, and her coat was a pale pink that I had seen on a dress of Rarity's once. She was of slight build, but had an aura of authority, and one of friendliness around her.

I nodded. "I can't wait to get back into the sky." I stated wistfully. The nurse pony led me over to the corner of the room where a neat line of cold cots sat waiting to cradle injured ponies. Soarin followed behind me several paces; I hopped up on the first cot in the line, and held my bandaged wing out for inspection. The Earth pony, whose name tag read, FireRing, proceeded to poke and prod at my wing joints, and feel at my muscles. Seemingly pleased with what the prodding told her, FireRing started to undo the cotton bandage.

I felt my shoulders relax as the air hit my deprived wing, I sighed and FireRing chortled. "Well, Rainbow your wing is looking fine. It's healed remarkably fast, faster than I've ever seen. You should be able to take to the skies now, but wait at least until tomorrow for long trips, or overly strenuous flight patterns." I nodded excitedly as I stretched out my cramped wing.

"Now get out of here." FireRing shooed Soarin and me out of the Infirmary with mock urgency. "You're going to need some rest to get that wing back to tip top shape." She informed me with a kind smile, we returned the quick smile over our shoulders, and not wanting to waste any more of her time Soarin and I, strode out of the swinging doors.

"So, do you want to test out that wing?" Soarin suggested with a wink as we proceeded along the hallway.

"I'd certainly be up to some awesomeness." I remarked ambiguously, hoping that Soarin would propose a race. I hadn't had a good race in far too long, and if anyone could pose a slight threat to my speed it maybe Soarin.

"Hmm, awesomeness, eh? Maybe we should start your wing with something slightly sub awesome. You wouldn't want to be grounded again, would you?" Soarin explained with a cheeky smile.

I put on a pout, and agreed, but not without giving Soarin a light punch to the shoulder, which he returned, while laughing at my face, as I struggled to keep the frown in place. Then without any warning he took off down the marble hallway galloping at a light pace. "Follow me!" He commanded not bothering to look back at me and check if I was actually following him.

I wasted no time taking off after Soarin, my hooves clacked against the marble floors in an increasingly familiar way, I started to stretch out my wings, hoping to gain a bit of speed by flying overhead. We abruptly rounded a corner and both of us slammed into a large pony; we were thrown back and on the floor due to the sudden stop. As I scrambled to untangle myself from Soarin, and get off of the floor and back on my hooves I noticed that we had raced directly into WaveChill who was a well know Wonderbolt.

I started to sputter out apologizes at the older, and quite intimidating Wonderbolt. Soarin stood next to be, with a blush creeping across his face as he stammered apologizes alongside me. WaveChill surveyed both of us with a forbidding look set upon his face. I in turn took in his appearance; he was built massively, with chunky shoulders, and overly defined muscles, almost off-putting so. His mane was somewhat like Soarin's, but it seemed harsher, unlike the tousled windblown look of Soarin's mane.

WaveChills face suddenly softened a bit, for no overly apparent reason. He then he let out a booming laugh, and turned to my accomplice. "Soarin." He said. "Are you really sneaking a filly into base?" I felt a blush sneak across my face at the question, and its implications. "Wait, you're RainbowDash, the newbie right?" He said facing me now. I nodded. "Well, please to meet you, I've been told alot about you. Soarin has actually been a fan of yours since you saved his pie a few years ago at the gala."

"Hey" Soarin whined, turning redder and redder by the second.

"Actually, Soarin, I do seem to remember you saying that she had the best mane you have ever seen." WaveChill teased Soarin, and turned back to me and held out a hoof. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, I hope we can become good friends during our Wonderbolts career." I took WaveChills hoof and shook it.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you, I hope we get to fly together soon." I said, hoping to salvage the first impression I had made by crashing into him. WaveChill continued to chuckle softly to himself and then winked at Soarin and me, and continued to stroll down the corridor we had come from.

I immediately swung around to face Soarin. "Best hair you've ever seen? Why thank you, I am quite flattered." I swooned mockingly batting my eyelashes.

"Ha, very funny Rainbow." Soarin said pushing my lightly with his shoulder, then apparently without a second thought he shot down the hallway shouting behind him. "Follow me… again!" I smiled to myself and rocketed after him without a moment of hesitation.

We dashed though hallways, and slid around corners, I was right beside him the entire time, I was sure I could have galloped faster than him if I really needed to, but I didn't know where we were going. I had, in fact, lost all sense of where I was within the first five turns, so I let Soarin lead me. I took the time to study Soarin, his muscles could be seen flexing repeatedly along his back, hard lines would form with each flex, defining long smooth arches and curves, but then melted away into his pale blue coat, his shoulders moved through his fur smoothly back and forth, and his mane flickered in a thousand directions, like a magnificent blue fire.

I saw Soarin's body brace for a sudden stop and did the same; sure enough we both skidded to a halt in a hallway, I realized I recognized the hallway; it was the hallway that housed my sleeping quarters. I turned to Soarin's flushed face and realized just how out of breath I was, we must have gone faster than I realized. "Wow, Rainbow, that was fast, and your endurance, that must have been at least an hour-long race, how?" Soarin asked dumbfounded.

"That was a race?" I asked, joking with him. He rolled his eyes and walked over to an exquisitely carved door that resembled the door to my quarters.

"Care to come in a check out my stallionpad?" Soarin said with a raised eyebrow, I nodded swiftly. Soarin pulled the door open and I jaunted though the door way, my magenta eyes took in his so-called Stallionpad, he had the same bed as me, and some furniture tucked into the corners, and pushed up against the walls of the room. Our rugs matched and the door to the adjoining washroom looked the same as mine. "So, tomorrow is Friday, that means after your assessment you get to go home for the weekend." Soarin said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I can't wait; my friends must be getting restless. No doubt that Pinkie, will throw a huge party when I get back, that pony does like her parties a bit" I rambled on about Pinkie, and her partying, and then remembered. "Hey, Soarin, would you like to come back to PonyVille with me for the weekend." I asked already knowing the answer.

"Oh, well this is so sudden, I guess I can make time for you." Soarin joked and threw a smile in my direction. He walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge, and the motioned to a soft chair perched at an ideal angle for conversation. I strode over and plunked down on to the cushy chair.

"I must warn you, my friends are rather, interesting people." I spoke carefully hoping Soarin wouldn't back out; the last thing I wanted to do was scare away my first Wonderbolt friend.

"It's fine. You seem nice, and I'm sure your friends are too."

"I'll remind you that you said that." I said ominously. I comfortable silence settled into the room. Soarin leaned back across his bed, and I sunk into his ridiculously comfortable chair. I looked at the dresser that sat next to the chair I had dubbed, Throne of Cushy Awesomeness. Sprawled out along the dresser top were several knickknacks. A tiny, and magnificently, crafted, and carved, box, and next to it sat a pair of custom Wonderbolt flight goggles. The only other thing sitting on the dresser was a neatly framed picture of two Pegasus; a mare and a stallion; the mare had kind eyes and Soarin's mare, color. The stallion had intelligent eyes with a twinkle that had somehow been captured in photograph, he also had Soarin's powder blue coat, on his head sat a swirling mane, full of thousands of vibrant shades of greens. "Are they your parents" I asked, turning to Soarin and gesturing at the framed photo.

Soarin's head whipped up off of the bed, and he nodded. "They are…" The answered softly trailing off clearly holding back. I cocked my head to the side and shot him a look that encouraged him to finish his thought. "Well, there was an accident, when I was five." Soarin explained, and I quickly regretted my prompting, I didn't handle emotions well, and I got the distinct feeling that this story would be full of them. "My Mum and Dad worked together on the Canterlot weather team, during a rainy day a tornado rolled in, and a schoolhouse was unable to be fully evacuated before the storm got really bad. My Mum went in to save the foals that had been stranded, she didn't come out and my Dad went in after her, he came out a while later with three foals on his back. He dropped them off with the rest of his team and then went back in to help my Mum, as soon as he went back in the building collapsed…" Soarin took a deep breath and continued. "I was told that their bodies were recovered together and that they died hugging each other…" After telling the story Soarin leaned back down on his bed and stared unblinking at the ceiling.

I felt horrible for making him explain something as traumatic as that, I stood up from my chair and sat next to Soarin on his bed. I didn't have anything to tell him, no words to whisper softy, no philosophical thoughts to share, all I could offer him was a warm hug, which he accepted misty eyed. We sat on his bed for a while and I heard him let out one strangled sob. Eventually he slowly relaxed and pulled away from my embrace. He nodded, evidently embarrassed by his near meltdown. I flashed him a tender smile to let him know I wouldn't think anything of it.

We made casual small talk until the wee hours of the morning. Eventually I remembered that I would have more intense assessments, and training activities tomorrow, I thus decided to turn in. I said a quick goodnight to Soarin and quickly stepped out of his room. Once I had closed Soarin's door behind me I looked all along the hallway and was relived to find that the door to my room was directly across from Soarin's. I swung my door open and quickly set my alarm and slipped into the king-sized bed, it took next to no time for me to drift off into sleep as the day's events caught up with me.