Wonderbolts Headquarters
1.37 am
Thursday

Great. Now I can't sleep.

Soarin sighed for the umpteenth time at his sorry attempt to fall asleep. He knew it was unlikely he would get a wink of sleep tonight no matter how much he tried, but he also promised a certain pony that he wouldn't have his eyebags anymore and tire himself out.

Looks like I won't be able to keep my word this time.

Not like she can see me right now.

...

Oh for the love of Celest-Twilight-Whatever! I don't care anymore.

He stood up from his bed with a huff as his hoof brushed back his mane. He was all sweaty from the humid sleeping quarters and his mane kept sticking to his forehead. After sitting on his bed for a few seconds and blankly staring down at his blanket with a frown, he decided it would be better to just ditch the idea of sleeping.

Carefully tiptoeing on the cloud surface as to not wake up the others, the navy maned pony opened the door with a silent prayer as to not make too much noise and with a small creak. When he was all the way out of the sleeping quarters, his left wing closed the door gently behind him and Soarin let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

That made me feel like I was doing something illegal or something.

He shook his head to the silent voice in his mind reminding him of his broken promise being the cause of his uneasiness, tight lipped he instead focusing on the fact that he abandoned sleep to focus on something else than, well, this.

On his way to the door at the end of the short hallway that opened outside to the training grounds, Soarin was still walking with the same dejected expression he had when he learned of the contents of the letter earlier that day.

•••

When Soarin went out to have a nice night flight, he wasn't expecting anything.

Just like how he wasn't expecting to see Blaze sitting on the benches overseeing the training grounds.

"Blaze?" he called out to her as he approached Blaze, then grimacing after seeing the younger pony flinch out of her daze upon hearing her name and go into a stupor.

That was NOT the right move.

He cleared his throat and waved a hoof, with an obvious apology in his voice, "To your right Blaze, sorry for frightening you, that wasn't my intention." he called out to her.

She turned to her right as commanded and gave a lazy salute to the co-captain. "Didn't expect to see you here commander, couldn't sleep as well?"

Soarin scoffed more at himself for being too obvious as he sat on the bench next to hers. "You could say that." he said, but then he scolded himself again for how little his voice came out.

Blaze didn't look like she noticed any of his mind beatings and turmoils though, as she looked at the ground and nodded her head. "Yeah, same here. I probably shouldn't be awake now though huh..."

"You will be properly scolded when I've had my morning coffee later today."

"Yes, yes, whatever you say commander."

When Blaze turned towards Soarin to see his reaction and saw the slight crinkle of his eyebrows she wasted no time to stand up and start her way towards the sleeping quarters once again. Before she left, Blaze turned towards Soarin once again.

" I will be on my way then, but just to at least remind you, if you want to talk about anything I'm here for you. We all are actually. You know that, right Soarin?"

He didn't know he was frowning till she said that and he gave her a small smile that didn't reach his eyes.

" I know Blaze, same to you as well. If you ever need someone to lend you an ear, I'll always be here. "

The fiery maned mane smiled at Soarin's comforting words. "Do you plan on having a leisure flight? Want me to join you?"

No.

The answer came to him naturally and without missing a beat, but he had to word it out nicely still.

"I'm good Blaze, I just came out for a breather. You should head back now, don't want you tired for the shows or Twilight forbid, Spitfire will come for our heads."

Blaze cringed at his words, he didn't know if it was because she also couldn't get used to the name of their ruler being changed or the idea of Spitfire doing her name justice was too terrifying for her to imagine.

She gave him a nod and turned her back to the benches, a few seconds later and Soarin finally found himself alone.

I couldn't possibly fly with her, or anypony for that matter.

I can't break the tradition now.

Even if she's gone.

...

Ugh, I'm dreading the upcoming friday night.

...

Wonderbolts Headquarters
7.30 am
Thursday

The groans of the newly woken up ponies and the rustling of the sheets were all around the sleeping quarters as everypony tried their best to adjust to the rays of sunlight winking at their poor faces. Fleetfoot in particular was struggling the most with the fact that she was supposed to wake up. As she tried to open her eyes she noticed how Blaze was still sound asleep even after Spitfire's ceremonial morning announcement.

"Huh, did somepony hit Blaze with a rock or something? Poor filly is out cold." she walked towards Blaze to check if she had a "pulse" by poking her cheek with her hoof as the latter just grumbled and covered herself with her blanket more.

The white maned pony wasn't going to stop poking her poor teammate had it not been for Surprise's glare on her that she caught. Surprise, after confirming her thoughts went across when she saw Fleetfoot withdrewing her hoof, turned back to the mirror above the bathroom sink and sighed as she went back to trying to manage her deflated mane.

"Well, I suggest everypony starts waking up before 8 am at least so we can start the practice for the upcoming show on time." Mistyfly added as she walked towards the sleeping quarters' door and held the knob. Before turning it, she glanced at the sleeping Blaze one last time and collided with something-somepony after stepping out.

"Oh, well aren't you up early today Soarin?" Thunderlane called out upon seeing him enter the quarters and cringed when he realised Mistyfly almost fell down after the impact.

"Huh? Oh yeah... Good morning." Soarin stretched his wings and offered his hoof to Mistyfly to check if she was okay, only for her to wave her hoof dismissively saying that she was fine. When she composed herself and took a look at his face her eyes widened in shock.

"Soarin, not to sound mean or anything but um... Did you even sleep? At all?"

The pony in question huffed and rubbed his left eye with his wing, he muttered a "I'm fine." and walked towards the chest that stood at the foot of his bed to get his towel but Lightning Streak cut his way.

"Yeah dude, you look a mess. No offence."

Well isn't this a moment of deja vu?

"Thanks Lightning, I'm aware."

"If you were really 'aware' like you claimed then you wouldn't be looking like this right now Soarin."

"Well, I myself can't comprehend how everypony here managed to sleep at all but go on, get all up on my face Fleetfoot."

When Soarin realised his voice was much higher and his words were much harsher than he intended it was too late, Fleetfoot looked at him with wide eyes and thin lips and the others' gazes were fixated on him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that even the sleeping Blaze was slowly coming back to reality and trying to understand what was going on.

Ugh, for the love of stars. Why do I keep messing up?

Soarin ruffled his mane in exasperation as he once again sighed. He turned to Fleetfoot, his apology at the tip of his lips when she turned her head away and broke eye contact, making her way to the door opening outside.

"You are right, I guess I really am all up on you guys' faces too much these days."

"Wait Fleet-"

Surprise followed after Fleetfoot but not before giving Soarin a comforting smile and a thumbs up with her wing.

"Don't worry guys I will talk to her, I know you didn't mean it Soarin. Go get some rest, it's obvious you didn't get any."

"I will tell Captain in case you run late sir, which I think should be the case if you are planning on getting a proper rest, so please don't worry about anything."

Fire Streak gave him a salute with his wing and followed after Surprise to go to the cafeteria, his brother on his tail muttering a "Diligent as ever." to mock Fire like usual as a meek attempt to keep the mood lighter and doing his best to not look at Soarin in fear of getting on his wrong side like his teammate just now.

Soarin didn't look at any of his teammates while they left, he kept his head down even when Blaze stared at him one last time before rushing after the others. Just when he thought everypony left, he felt a hoof on his shoulder and looked up to see Thunderlane.

"It's okay dude, you're worried for all the right reasons."

Soarin sighed for the third time since he came to the dormitory as his teammate gave him a light pat on his shoulder before leaving as well.

...

"I mean, it's not everyday you send your friends over to a land you don't have the best diplomatic relations to."

Surprise took a bite out of her apple before continuing, a better looking Fleetfoot seated next to her absentmindedly played with her salad as the others were listening to her much or less in the same manner.

"Saying 'not having the best diplomatic relations' would be putting it lightly, they hate our guts."

Lightning added his own bit as he scoffed at the mere mention of the ponies Wave Chill and Dash were unfortunately dealing with at the other side of the continent.

"They are so stuck up-And I know saying stuff like this may make me sound stuck up myself but that's the truth. Heck! They even take pride in about being stuck up!"

"Claiming to be the only kin that appreciates the beauty of flying is ridiculous, every pony with the gift of flying knows how priceless it is."

"I know! Yet they still go on and on about how Equestrians are bunch of show offs that have no manners whatsoever nor the sensitivity to understand beauty-I mean come on! They just speak fancy that's all, doesn't mean they're superior than us."

"Honestly the only ponies worse than the ones in the capital are the Hépíng dís."

"Ugh, please don't even use that word, 'peace makers' my hoof, not our fault that Equestria has so much to be envious of that every villain attacks us!"

At that Surprise stabbed her salad with her fork and deepened her frown.

"They make us out to be some warmongers who enjoy chaos, bunch of bandits and uncultured ponies that know nothing but act like a know it all."

The whole table was so heated up just from the mention of the land and it's ponies that they didn't realise when Spitfire sat next to a unfocused Blaze and started drinking her coffee. She waited for some time to see if they would notice her but to no avail. Surprise was still angrily munching her salad and Fleetfoot was agreeing with everything she was saying with a nod, Lightning was also adding fuel to Surprise's fire and his brother was unsuccessfully trying to calm him down but occasionally adding his own comments no matter how much he tried to remain composed while Mistyfly just sat there while rubbing her temple though she did no attempt to stop them from talking.

"It's nice to see you all start the day energised but it's always for the wrong reasons, what a shame."

With just one word from her the whole cafeteria itself fell silent, Surprise whipped her head towards where Spitfire was right away and the others followed her suit, meanwhile poor Blaze was trying to get back to her seat after jumping from Spitfire's voice and almost falling from her chair.

"You know that I am right though, Spitfire."

"I never claimed you were not, Surprise."

She took another sip of her coffee.

"Where is Soarin?" she added the second she set her mug down.

The whole table fell silent once again, from the corner of her eye she saw Fleet's eyes turn somber and Blaze lower her head but she didn't question them, for now.

"I was going to inform you after lunch Captain, Co-Captain Soarin was in no shape to train today. It was obvious the news from yesterday left him restless so we suggested he took a rest until he had a proper sleep at least. That is, if you see fit to it as well. "

Spitfire waved her hoof, one of her brows raised as she stared Fire Streak.

"What do you take me for? I never let anypony overwork themselves. If I did, we wouldn't be the best team out there in Equestria."

"In the 'world', you mean."

Seeing Surprise still agitated from her previous conversation Spitfire let out a chuckle and agreed with her to entertain her, but also because she whole heartedly thought the same as Surprise.

After everypony finished their breakfast and slowly made their way towards the training grounds, Spitfire made a mental note to check on her co-captain who was probably out cold on his bed or still staring at the ceiling drowning in his thoughts.

It was the latter until Soarin couldn't manage to escape from the clutches of exhaustion and succumbed to a deep sleep.

~~~

~} 2371 words