Authors Note: Just a quick one to say PREPARE FOR THE PRANKS!

Also, I know this took forever to upload, but the length of this chapter should do the explaining for me. I was going to split it into two parts but couldn't find the right place to halve it, so instead you've got a jumbo chapter to feed your souls.

Special thanks to Captain Alaska who helped me come up with some of the jokes! :D

---

"C'mon Lullaby, where are you?" Rainbow Dash muttered to herself as she waited in her hiding spot in a closet. She was in the shower room waiting for her roommate. Drills had just ended for the day so the cadets could do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day.

"Rainbow Dash, where are you?" the familiar voice of the purple pegasus echoed through the room. Rainbow opened the door a crack and motioned for Lullaby to come over. Lullaby enthusiastically jumped in and Rainbow Dash closed the door, shining her flashlight at Lullaby so she could see her better.

"Did you do it?" Rainbow asked. Lullaby smirked and nodded.

"Yep, it's all set and ready to go," she snickered. The two mares shushed each other as they heard the shower room door open. Rainbow Dash peered through the keyhole and sure enough Spring Song was there with her shower stuff. Rainbow turned away while she jumped in the shower; even though most ponies almost never wear clothes, it was still embarrassing and…wrong to see them getting into a shower. It was Lullaby's turn to look through the keyhole once they were sure that the door to the shower was closed.

"What's happening?" Rainbow Dash whispered, wishing that there was some other way she could see. Lullaby squinted and stuck her tongue out to focus.

"Nothing yet, she's just soaping herself down," she reported. Rainbow groaned. Twilight and Rarity had it easy since they could just use their magic to hold things, so the two of them have no idea how hard it is to hold a bar of soap with hooves! After several minutes, Rainbow began to cramp up from being stuck in the closet for so long.

"What now?" Rainbow Dash cricked her neck from side to side and stretched out her hooves as much as she could since they were beginning to go completely numb. Lullaby gasped.

"I think she's gonna use it!" she exclaimed. Rainbow shoved Lullaby to the side and observed their plan in motion. Lullaby was right. Spring Song was about to use the 'shampoo' they had sneaked into her bag. Lullaby pushed Rainbow Dash away.

"My turn," she grinned. Rainbow Dash had wanted to be the one to see Spring Song's reaction, but she had to make do with just listening. She pressed an ear to the door and strained to hear what was happening.

"What's taking so long?" Rainbow Dash grumbled. Lullaby frowned up at her.

"She dropped it; she's picking it up now," she replied. Rainbow cursed. Stupid hooves! "Here it comes," Lullaby silently squealed. It was completely quiet except for the hissing of the shower until…

"AAAARGGH! WHAT IN TARTARUS?!"

"C'mon, Dash, run!" Lullaby whisper-shouted whilst laughing like a maniac. The two mares shot out of the closet and zoomed out of the washroom faster than a scared Fluttershy. They weaved through the hallways until they reached the mess hall, where the cadets and a couple of Wonderbolts were talking and eating. Rainbow Dash and Lullaby quickly joined the table with Sugar Swoop, Tempest and Free Fall.

"What's up, you two?" Sugar Swoop asked before taking a bite of an apple.

"Oh…nothing," Rainbow Dash and Lullaby said together before breaking into a fit of giggles.

"What did you do?" Tempest leaned over to them. Rainbow exchanged looks with Lullaby.

"Should we tell 'em?" Lullaby asked, eying the three stallions warily. Rainbow thought for a second before shrugging and nodding. Lullaby opened her mouth to explain when-

"Who did this!?"

The cadets looked over at the door and their eyes bulged at the sight they were met with. They burst out laughing and Stains even fell of her chair, clutching her sides.

Spring Song was standing in the doorway, mayonnaise dripping through her mane and down her face before falling into a white puddle at her hooves.

And boy was she ticked!

"Who did this?" she snarled like a crazed animal. Paradise bounded over to Spring Song and sniffed her mane.

"Mmmm! Spring Song, you smell exactly like a sandwich!" the ditzy green mare smiled, licking her lips.

"Suits you," Lullaby joked, snickering. Spring Song looked over at the purple cadet with disgust.

"Well, I bet it looks better on me than it would on you," Spring Song boasted, still pretending to be better than everypony else even when she's covered in mayo. "What was this for anyway?" she asked. Rainbow Dash was about to say that it was because she was a complete jerk when Tempest broke her off.

"Don't you know what day it is?" he asked Spring Song incredulously. Spring Song shrugged her shoulders.

"Just tell me what today is before this stuff dries," she snapped as some mayo dripped off the edge of her nose, sending Lullaby into another laughing fit.

"It's the first day of April. So that means it's…" Tempest waited for Spring Song to finish his sentence.

"The start of another cruddy month," the blonde mare rolled her eyes. Tempest face hoofed.

"No! It's Prank Day!" he announced. Spring Song's eyes widened with realisation.

"Oh yeah, how could I have forgotten?" she asked herself, putting a hoof to her chin.

"Probably because all that mayo is clogging up your brain," Rainbow Dash scoffed, earning a hoof bump from Lullaby.

"Ha ha ha!" Spring Song laughed sarcastically. "Shut up Rainbow Trash, I already know it was you who switched my shampoo," Spring Song folded her hooves. Rainbow Dash put on her most innocent face and Lullaby copied her.

"Why would we do that, Spring Song?" she asked sweetly, doing her best impression of Rarity. Spring Song smirked slyly.

"Because nopony else could pull such an amateur prank," she insulted. Rainbow gave a little gasp. What was Spring Song talking about? She was the best prankster in Ponyville, besides Pinkie Pie. She and her pink livewire of a friend would often go out tricking anypony they happened across in the craziest of ways. The day before she left for the boot camp, she and Pinkie Pie had sawed off an inch of Granny Smith's Zimmer frame to make her believe she was getting taller. It worked!

"Well, I bet you couldn't pull a prank half as good as that," Rainbow Dash shot back at her nemesis. Spring Song's eyes narrowed and she grinned maliciously.

"Is that a challenge?" she asked. Rainbow Dash stood up and gave her an equally menacing stare.

"What if it is?" she raised herself to her full height, pleased to be a little taller than the pink mare. Spring Song got a competitive look on her face.

"What do ya say to a Prank-Off?" she proposed. Rainbow Dash smiled. This had to be the first thing Spring Song had said since the whole Ray incident that she'd actually liked.

"You're so on!" she agreed. She looked over at Lullaby, who was already getting to her hooves. "Lullaby and me versus you."

"-and Paradise," Spring Song put a mayo covered hoof on her friend, who happily licked some of the stuff off her, much to Spring Song's disgust. Ray got up from his seat and trotted over to Rainbow Dash.

"Can I help?" he asked her. Rainbow Dash was about to agree when Spring Song cut her off.

"No, Ray, you're gonna help me and Paradise because we're your friends," she insisted, looking to Paradise for support.

"Yeah, friends help friends," Paradise hugged Spring Song, not seeming to care in the slightest that she was soggy and covered in sauce. Ray looked back at Rainbow Dash, and then at Spring Song and Paradise, who were guilt tripping him big-time.

"Rainbow's my friend, too," he pointed out. Spring Song gave Rainbow Dash a glower of so much dislike that it made the cyan pegasus' blood turn to ice.

"Well, we're your best friends, right? We're the ones who went to all your races and stuck by your side like guard dogs," Spring Song listed. "If it weren't for us, you might not be here."

Ray turned a little pale at that and shuddered. Rainbow Dash wanted to ask him what Spring Song (Rainbow Dash couldn't think of a mean nickname for her) was talking about, but Ray was already striding across the room to join them. Spring Song smiled up and him and he stood on her other side and reached up to nuzzle his cheek, making him shift uncomfortably and scoot away from her a little. Rainbow groaned. They were outnumbered three to two and from the looks of things nopony else was gonna join them. She gave the other cadets a look that said 'For Celestia's sake, somepony help us', but either they didn't understand her or they just didn't want a part of it.

"Okay then, let the pranking begin," Lullaby announced before heading out into the hallway. She caught a whiff of Spring Song and slammed a hoof over her nose. "Erk- Spring Song, you smell terrible, you should really have a shower," she said that last part with a teasing voice and Spring Song looked like she wanted to strangle Rainbow Dash's new partner in crime (pranking). Spring Song groaned and stomped into the hallway, hopefully heading back to the shower. The room was left in silence for several seconds before Bumble spoke.

"Well…that escalated quickly."

---

Braeburn grumbled as he removed the bucket form the top of his door. He'd spent the entire morning searching the kitchen for booby traps and tricks because today was Soarin's favourite day aside from his birthday and Hearths Warming:

Prank Day.

Every year in high school, Soarin pulled a bunch of tricks of the earth pony. But the problem was that Soarin always used the same jokes every year, so most of the time Braeburn could easily avoid a whoophie cushion or a fake sandwich. He picked up the milk spill on one of the counters (it was dried glue) and tossed it in the trash. That should be the last one. He sighed in relief and looked around at his prank-free kitchen. Searching for tripwires and fake vomit sure could tire a guy out. He trotted over to the fridge to get a drink out. When he opened the fridge he gasped at what he saw.

Everything in the fridge had a pair of googly eyes on it.

"What the hay?" Braeburn picked up an egg with a pair of eyes taped to it and groaned. It seemed that Soarin had learnt a few new tricks. Great…it looked like the stallion would have a harder time avoiding traps and tricks this year. He grabbed a carton of milk, laughing a little at the giant pair of eyes glued to it, and poured some of the creamy white stuff into a glass that was on the counter. He went to pick up the glass but was surprised to find that he couldn't lift it. Raising a brow he tried again, and again, and again. Until-

"GAH!" With one final tug, the glass came loose from the table with such force that the contents splashed all over Braeburn.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!"

Milk dripping down his face, Braeburn stomped over to his supply closet, which was where that laughing was coming from. He opened the door and-

"HAPPY PRANK DAY!"

Soarin thrust a bag of flour in his face, the white stuff sticking to his face and forming dough. Soarin snickered at his friend for a few moments before he burst out cackling and collapsed to the ground, banging a hoof on the ground as he laughed. Braeburn sighed and wiped some dough from his eyes.

"Seriously, Soar? Aren't ya a li'l old fer this?" he asked. Soarin wiped the tears that were leaking from his eyes and sat on his haunches.

"No way! If it's Prank Day, Soarin must play! Pulling jokes is what I do best,"

"So is making rather obvious rhymes, apparently," Braeburn muttered sarcastically. Soarin stood up and flicked a clump of dough from his friends shoulder.

"Lighten up, old timer. It's Prank Day, so you should have some fun. Help me trick the other Wonderbolts. Pwease!" Soarin made some (bad) puppy dog eyes. Braeburn grabbed a cloth and started wiping the dough from his face.

"Soarin, Ah'm not gonna help ya. Do Ah look like a pony who's good at pulling pranks?" he asked. Soarin squinted, looking Braeburn up and down.

"Good point," he finally said, putting a hoof to his chin. "Well, see ya later, Brae. I'm gonna go to the staff room to switch the salt and the sugar," with that, Soarin pranced out the room, whistling as he closed the kitchen door behind him. Braeburn looked around at the milk and flour covered floor.

"Ya know the least ya could do is help me clean up!" he called after his friend. Soarin opened the door and stuck his head through, blowing a raspberry with his tongue before leaving again. Braeburn put his face in a hoof.

This was gonna be a long day.

---

Soarin leaned against the arm of the sofa as almost all the Wonderbolts (and Feather Duster, the janitor) bustled about the room. Lightning Streak had a 'kick me' sign taped to his flank and was taken by surprise when, well, Surprise bucked him softly but sharply on that spot.

Soarin loved Prank Day. Ever since he was a foal, he'd planted pranks everywhere he went, elementary school, middle school, high school, the Wonderbolt's Academy, and even now he was one of the best pranksters in Cloudsdale.

He was still waiting for somepony to make a cup of coffee with sugar when Spitfire came in, looking flustered.

"Alright, every- oh, boy, this place is vile," she plugged her nose. Soarin giggled. He knew that Spitfire thought that the staff room smelt strongly of old coffee and farts ('Guilty," he thought). The room turned silent at her complaint and everypony turned to face her. "Anyway, that aside, we need to be prepared!" she announced.

"For what, Captain?" Misty Fly asked from her spot next to Soarin on the couch. Spitfire took off her shades, like she always did when she was about to say something important.

"Today we have a visit from Inspector Windstar Wingsworth," she revealed. Instantly, panicked chattering bounced around the room. Even Soarin gulped with terror. Inspector Wingsworth was one of the strictest inspectors in the business, and every once in a while she would visit the Wonderbolts Academy to see how things ran around there. Most of the time they would get a good report, but other times they would barely get an okay report. Everyone always freaked out when she came and that sometimes made things go a little... haywire.

"Stop talking!" Spitfire tried to get them to shut their chew-holes, to no avail. "I CAN STILL HEAR TALKING!" she bellowed, finally getting their attention back. Blaze scoffed.

"It's like being at the Academy, again," she commented. Spitfire slitted her eyes at the yellow mare.

"You are at the Academy," she reminded her. "Anyway, stop panicking! As you may have heard, Wingsworth seems to get her kicks from closing down academies and schools, so we all have to be in top form," Spitfire continued her pep-talk. Rapidfire raised a hoof.

"With all due respect, Captain, can I just say to everypony that good Wonderbolts have nothing to fear from an inspection," he said, earning nods of approval from several pegasi.

"True," Fleetfoot spoke to Rapidfire from her spot beside to coffee machine. "Which is why I think you thould take the day off sick," she smirked at him. Rapidfire looked like he wanted to decapitate the mouthy mare. Silver Lining interrupted the two Wonderbolts' stare-fight.

"We're right behind you, Captain. If the cadets misbehave we'll just lock 'em in a closet," he suggested. Soarin didn't know if the eldest Wonderbolt was joking or not. Spitfire dipped her head to the floor and screwed her eyes shut.

"Oh, Celestia help us!" she prayed. She looked up after a few seconds of silent mumbling. "Do any of you have questions?"

None of the Wonderbolts had questions, so Spitfire began to leave, starting to sweat a little. "Then, good luck all of you. I'm gonna go brush my desk and polish my mane," on that jumbled up note, she left. Soarin stared straight ahead out the window as he tried to calm himself down. He didn't really do much in the Academy besides substitute for drills from time to time, so he had nothing to worry about. But-

GAH!

He did have stuff to worry about! He'd planted pranks all around the Academy. If Wingsworth was to trigger one then-

"URGH! GROSS!" Wave Chill spluttered as he took a swig of coffee. Soarin began to sweat fiercely.

He was in deep doo doo!

---

Spitfire sprayed the air freshener around her office, in full panic-mode. She was normally a calm and collected pony, but when the situation called for it, she could be the most panicky pegasus in the Academy. She sat at her desk, allowing herself a minute to breathe and tugged at her collar as she became aware of the sweat rolling down her cheeks.

All morning she'd been busy, rushing here and there to make sure the Academy was in tip-top shape. She'd reserved Inspector Wingsworth's seat in the mess hall, dusted the trophies, since Feather Duster had arrived late, replaced the toilet paper in the mare's bathroom, etc. Apart from the Wonderbolt's cracking under the pressure, she couldn't see anything that could go wrong.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY PRANK DAY!" Surprise yelled as she burst though Spitfire's door, throwing confetti all over her. Spitfire didn't budge; she was used to this happening. Surprise liked to throw confetti over the other 'Bolts, especially her for some reason.

"Surprise, do ya know what would really surprise me?" Spitfire asked, folding her hoofs. Surprise beamed.

"What?" she asked enthusiastically. Spitfire pulled some confetti out of her spiked mane.

"If you didn't do that!"

Surprise looked confused, but shrugged it off. "So, when is Miss Wingsworth gonna get here?"

Spitfire looked up at the clock on the wall behind her and tried not to start sweating again. "In about ten minutes," she put her hooves over her head and placed her chin on the desk, looking exasperated. Surprise hopped over to the captain and put a hoof around her shoulders, shaking her.

"Cheer up, Cap. I know what'll turn that frown upside down," Surprise reached into her curly mane and pulled out a small glass vial that was filled halfway with some greenish yellow liquid. Spitfire leaned away from Surprise, feeling suddenly cautious.

"I really hope that's not what it looks like," Spitfire noticed that the stuff looked a lot like…well, ya know.

"No, it's not what you think. This is a stink bomb. If you smash the glass it can stink out an entire room," Surprise blabbered.

"How's that supposed to cheer me up?" Spitfire asked her colleague.

"Let's go throw it in the mess hall and freak out the cadets," she invited, beginning to spring towards the door. "C'mon!" Surprise began to sing:

Do you wanna throw a stinkbomb?

Come on let's go and-

Spitfire quickly put a hoof to Surprise's mouth to get her to shut up.

"Surprise, it's a nice thought, but I'm not going to stink out the room the inspector will be eating in," Spitfire disagreed with the white mare. Surprise groaned and put the stink bomb on Spitfire's desk. Suddenly, the door burst open and Soarin charged in.

"Spitfire, we have a huge problem!" he puffed. Spitfire stood to attention, wondering what could have gone wrong. Fire? Explosion? Death?

"Well, don't leave me in suspense, what's wrong?" the captain ordered Soarin to speak.

"I've put pranks all around the Academy and I was trying to find 'em, but I couldn't remember where all of them were and-"

"You. Did. WHAT!?" Spitfire shouted, making Soarin freeze. She felt her blood begin to boil. Soarin had done a lot of stupid things, but this was a new Academy Record. She clenched her hooves and began taking over the top deep breaths that she'd learnt in her anger management classes.

"I swear, I wouldn't have pulled all these pranks if I'd known the inspector was coming," Soarin defended himself. Spitfire rubbed her temples, panic alarms sounding off in her brain. This was very bad! If the inspector found out about all the pranks, or worse triggered one, the Academy could get closed down for good.

"Well, you have to do something about it! You made this mess so you have to sort it out," Spitfire gave her co-captain his orders. Soarin gave a shaky salute before backing out the door and rushing down the hall. About two seconds later a crash and a squelch was heard and Soarin could be heard speaking.

"Oh, that's where I hung that pie!"

Spitfire squeezed the sides of her head and mumbled. "The fate of the Academy rests on Soarin…"

Just then, as if two visits weren't enough, Fire Streak stood in the doorway. "Captain, inspector Wingsworth is here!"

Spitfire took one last breath and tried to reassure herself that everything would be fine. She turned to Surprise. "You, go and meet the inspector. Give her a guided tour. Paint a glowing picture of the Academy. And I don't mean that literally," she added that last part as Surprise reached into her mane and pulled out a paintbrush and some glow-in-the-dark paint. Surprise saluted and left. Spitfire leaned back in her chair, trying not to freak out. It was prank day, Soarin had left tricks lying around, and she was on edge.

Things didn't look good.

---

Rainbow Dash and Lullaby hovered above the door to the mess hall, snickering. Rainbow Dash was holding a bucket of glue and Lullaby had a bag of white feathers in her hooves. They were waiting for Spring Song and her entourage to come out the door and then- BOOM!

"My arms are getting tired," Rainbow complained, clutching the glue to her chest so she could shake the feeling back into one of her hooves. Lullaby gave her an encouraging smile.

"Just think, all this will be worth it to see the three stooges covered in this stuff," she said optimistically. Rainbow sneered playfully.

"Easy for you to say; you're holding feathers and I'm holding this heavy thing," she clutched the bucket tighter as it began slipping from her sweaty hooves. They suddenly head voices coming for inside.

"You look ridiculous," that was Ray's voice.

"I think it looks pretty," Paradise countered.

"All I care about is that it makes me smell better. I'd wear a mangled animal carcass if it would make me smell better," Spring Song explained.

"Well animal carcasses wouldn't-"

"I know that, Paradise, it was just an example!"

"Well, you could have used a different example, like a garland of roses or-"

"Paradise just shut up!"

"Okay…"

"Where are they?" That was Ray again.

"Probably hiding from us. I knew they'd chicken out," Spring Song replied. Finally, the three ponies came out the door, Spring Song wearing a pine scented car freshener around her neck. Rainbow Dash tipped the glue upside down and it splattered all over the trio of cadets, making them shriek in surprise. Lullaby shook the bag of feathers, making the contents tumbled down through the air and stick to their glue covered fur.

"Happy Prank Day!" Rainbow Dash and Lullaby chorused.

"Who are the chickens now?" Rainbow snickered, looking down at the sticky, feathery pegasi. It was kinda ironic since she and Lullaby were talking about turning Spring Song into a chicken the previous night.

"Point one to us!" Lullaby cheered.

"GUYS!"

"Whoa!" Rainbow Dash jumped as Soarin suddenly appeared flapping beside her and she accidentally dropped the now empty bucket. It only made her laugh harder when the bucket landed on Spring Song's head. The now sticky pink mare lifted the bucket and thrust it angrily to the ground.

"What's your problem?" she yelled up at Soarin. Soarin wrung his hooves in both embarrassment and fear.

"My problem is that there's an inspector arriving at any minute and I wanted to give you the heads up," the Wonderbolt replied.

"What's that got to do with us?" Spring Song asked. Soarin started sweating.

"Well, if you guys aren't on your best behaviour the Academy is doomed. So, no pranking, no making any messes and whatever you do, don't go to the medical closet," he explained.

"No pranking? Soarin that's not fair!" Rainbow Dash protested. "We're in the middle of a prank-off, as you can plainly see. And why do we have to stay away from the medical closet?"

Soarin grimaced. "Well, I kinda put in a rope snare to try and prank the nurse and I tied it up with an impossible knot. Hence the name, I can't untie an impossible knot, so unless somepony steps in the snare, there's nothing I can do to disarm it. Rainbow Dash face hoofed.

"Soarin, even you should be smart enough to tie a knot that isn't impossible," she scolded him. Just then, Surprise hurtled out of the mess hall at full speed.

"Outta the way, the inspector's here!" she took a sharp right turn. Soarin squealed.

"Just stay out of trouble, all of you!" he ordered them before flying away. Rainbow Dash looked back down at Spring Song and her companions, who were trying to shake the glue from their fur.

"Looks like you'll have to have another shower," Lullaby taunted the blond pegasus. "Again," she added. Spring Song growled and stormed back into the mess hall, Ray and Paradise following suit.

---

Soarin was pacing around outside by the Academy gates, trying his best to remember where he had hidden his remaining tricks. The janitor, Feather Duster was there, too, sweeping the path to the front door. Soarin sat on his haunches and tapped his forehead. Where could he have hidden them and why did he have to rig so many?

"Excuse me?"

Soarin and Feather Duster looked up from what they were doing to see her standing there. The tall white pegasus mare with the short copper mane and tail. She had some beige saddlebags over her back and was wearing a tweed uniform and tie. Her cutie mark, a white star within a black circle confirmed who she was.

Inspector Wingsworth.

"Good morning," Feather Duster greeted cheerily. Soarin gave her a half-hearted smile.

"Could you take me to Captain Spitfire's office?" Wingsworth asked them. Feather Duster leaned her broom against the wall and motioned for Wingsworth to follow her. The small grey janitor led them through the door, followed by the inspector, with Soarin bringing up the rear, racking his brain to try and figure out the location of his traps.

"The place is clean right?" Feather Duster asked the inspector, who nodded. "Yeah, we've been trying to get this place spic and span. We're getting a visit from that Wingsworth moron."

BUZZZZZ BUZZZZZ BUZZZZZ

Those were the alarm bells going off in Soarin's head. Feather Duster didn't know that this was the inspector. Wingsworth looked clearly insulted. Soarin was about to tell Feather Duster who this was when Surprise whizzed past again.

"Sorry, can't stop!" she panicked. The white Wonderbolt got halfway down the hall before halting. "Dang it!" she cursed before backing up, walking beside the others. "So, what do you think of the Academy so far?" she asked as if she had been there the whole time. Wingsworth cast a stern sideways glance at the hyper mare.

"I've only been here a minute but from what I've seen it seems fine," she replied. Surprise gave Soarin a relieved smile. At that moment, a pair of cadets that Soarin recognized as two of the pegasi that Rainbow Dash and Lullaby had pranked earlier walked past.

"C'mon, Ray, we need to get this paint to Spring Song as soon as possible," the green mare said to the stallion behind her, who was carrying two cans of paint on his back.

"What are you two doing?" Soarin asked them. The green mare pulled Soarin to the side and whispered to him.

"We're preparing our prank to get back at Rainbow Dash and Lullaby," she revealed. Soarin gave her a desperate look.

"I thought I said no jokes. If the inspector finds out about any of our pranks we're toast!" he hissed. The green cadet pouted.

"Ugh. Fine, we'll forget the paint thing. Ray, we're dropping the paint idea!"

The stallion cadet groaned as he sat on his rear, looking relieved to not be carrying the paint anymore.

Wait!

The cans of paint toppled off his back and cracked open on the floor, splattering the ground with black and white. "I didn't mean that literally!" the green one snapped.

"What's going on?" Surprise called to the three pegasi.

"Nothing!" all three of them sung, standing in from of the puddle of paint to block it from view.

"You guys go on ahead; I'll go and check on dinner!" Soarin excused himself as the others carried on walking. Once they were out of earshot he turned to the two cadets. "You need to clean this up, okay. I'll disarm any more pranks I can find. Between the three of us, we should be able to make sure the inspection goes according to plan," Soarin started to leave before he turned back to the others. "And please, don't freak out!"

"What? I'm not freaking out," the green cadet insisted. "This is a no freak-out zone. Nope. No freaking out here. Freak, c'est chic!" she smirked, her right eye twitching. Soarin nodded at her.

"That screams that you're freaking out!" he told her. The two cadets rushed off to the cleaning closet after that, leaving Soarin to set out on his 'quest' again.

---

Spitfire heard the voices coming from down the hall and sat down at her desk, folding her hooves and trying to look professional.

"This is her office," she heard Feather Duster's voice announce. Sure enough, a second later the door swung open. Spitfire smiled when she saw Inspector Wingsworth with Surprise and the janitor.

"Welcome to the Wonderbolts Academy. Always nice to get a visit from you, Inspector," she greeted. As she said that, Feather Duster's face fell.

"Inspector?" she gaped. She looked up at the white mare and frowned. "Dammit…" she quickly left after that. Spitfire knew that this wasn't the time to ask about the cleaner's behaviour, so she just ignored her and nodded at the chair on the other side of her desk, inviting Wingsworth to sit down. The copper maned mare placed her saddlebags at the side of the captain's desk and sat down. Surprise stood at the side of Spitfire

"So, here's our fact file of the Academy," Spitfire grabbed a thin book on the side of her desk and passed it to Wingsworth. "We're all very proud of the cadets."

Suddenly, Spitfire noticed something on her desk where the fact file had been seconds before:

Surprise's stink bomb!

Spitfire looked frantically from Surprise to the bomb as the inspector read. If the inspector noticed a stink bomb (or, if she didn't know what it was, a vial of p- ya know) she'd suspect that she was either pranking somepony or being gross. She had to find a way to solve this problem.

"Um…as you can see on page 3, the Academy has a pretty famous flower garden by the gates that is currently growing with the aid of fertilizer," she began to explain, leading up to her hint. "We need to get rid of the smell," she looked up at Surprise.

"Ooh, can I water the flowers, Captain?" the white mare asked. Spitfire mentally swore and tried again.

"You can but first, we desperately need to remove the smell!" Spitfire's eyes flicked from Surprise to the stink bomb a couple of times before Surprise finally realised what was going on and silently gasped. The Wonderbolt reached forward with a hoof and brushed the stink bomb off the desk…

…and began to panic when it landed in Wingsworth's saddlebags!

Surprise tapped Spitfire's shoulder sharply. The captain shifted her eyes to the side to look up at her fellow flyer. "What?" she asked out of the corner of her mouth. Surprise mouthed something that Spitfire couldn't understand. Spitfire raised an eyebrow.

"It's in her bags," she hissed, using her hoof to mime the bomb falling off the desk. Spitfire gritted her teeth.

"Oh, for Celestia's sake!" she muttered. Inspector Wingsworth looked up from the book.

"Is something the matter?" she asked. Spitfire and Surprise shook their heads no. Wingsworth stood up from the seat and gave the book back to Spitfire. "I really must be getting on with this inspection," she announced, adjusting her tie. Spitfire bit her lip, trying to come up with a plan.

"Er…feel free to leave any bags here if you want?" she improvised. Wingsworth picked up the bags anyway.

"I think I'll take mine, thank you Captain," she nodded at the flame maned mare. "Do the other Wonderbolts and cadets know I'm here?"

"Oh, well…I may have said it to one of two of my most trusted colleagues, but don't worry," Spitfire answered, trying not to break into a sweat. "What you're about to see here is a perfectly normal day here at the Academy."

---

Braeburn hurried to the oven, pulling out another batch of apple fritters, almost forgetting the towel he used when pulling them out. The last thing he needed right now was another tongue blister! He wanted to make sure the inspector had every possible thing to eat. On an occasion like this, he wanted to make a good impression. When Soarin had come down to tell him about the inspection he was thrilled. It was kinda like going on the Great Equestrian Bake Off to show off his baked goods. So he was bustling about making fritters, pies, cookies, cake, you name it. He'd even made some ice cream for the occasion.

He put the new fritters on top of the previous stash on the serving counter and allowed himself a minute to catch his breath. Now that his mind wasn't focused on measuring flour, a startling thought entered his head. What if the inspector didn't approve of an earth pony serving pegasi? No, she wouldn't be that stereotypical. Right?

"Mmmm! Those smell good!"

Braeburn looked over at the counter to see one of the cadets, a small blue one with black and purple pigtails. She looked alarmed that he'd turned to look at her and looked away. "Sorry…just thinking out loud," she mumbled. Braeburn smiled at her shyness and trotted over to her, putting his fore hooves on the counter to get a better view of her. She was short for a pony of her age and her cutie mark was an eagle hatchling, still partly in its egg shell.

"Thanks, kid," Braeburn looked down at her. The cadet seemed pleased that he'd responded and smiled cheerfully back up at him.

"No problem," she shrugged, looking back at the apple fritters. "You're a really good cook."

"Heh…Ah try mah best. Ya can have one if ya want," he pushed the bowl towards her. The cadet instantly took one, having to stand on the tips of her hooves to reach the bowl and greedily munched on it.

"Thanks," she chirped with her mouth full, making Braeburn laugh again. She was a pretty sweet kid.

"So, what's yer name?" he asked her, feeling like he had to ask since she'd been so nice to him about his baking.

"Cinder," she replied after swallowing her fritter and licking the crumbs from around her mouth.

"Hmm…Ah wonder if anypony calls ya Cindy?" he asked her. She shook her head, though she looked like she didn't mind it. "Well, it's nice t' meet ya, Cinder," he held out his hoof for her and she instantly shook it. Suddenly, Soarin burst through the mess hall door, pushing a wheelbarrow.

"Outta the way, everypony, pits won't fill themselves!" he declared, bursting through the double doors to the training grounds. As the doors closed once again, the mess hall was filled with awkward silence. At this time of day, the cadets were almost always in here, hanging with their separate groups, talking about this and that, so it was uncomfortable to hear it so silent. The quiet was shattered when Rapidfire and the Streak twins burst through the doors.

"The inspector's coming, everypony act casual!" Rapidfire ordered the cadets. The cadets slouched down in their seats while the trio of Wonderbolt stallions leaned against the wall. "No, more natural," they all shifted their poses slightly to look less bored and more cool. Sure enough, no more than three seconds later the inspector entered the hall, looking blank. Rapidfire slammed a hoof on the ground.

"Cadets, stand to attention!" he ordered. The cadets all looked at one another unsure whether they should stand or not, since this had never happened before. Rapidfire gulped. "I said STAND!" he snapped. With that the cadets stood up straight and Braeburn could see Cinder shaking a little.

"What's happening?" Braeburn whispered to Cinder, shuddering at how loud he sounded in the muteness of the room. The cadet just shrugged and stared straight ahead at Rapidfire.

"It's surprise drill time, so all of you get your flanks outside to the track and give me three hundred laps!" he ordered. The cadets hurried out of the room, their looks of confusion mirroring Braeburn's. Rapidfire turned to Wingsworth and grinned. "We do this a lot, to show them that Wonderbolts could be called into action at any time," he lied. Just then, Surprise appeared in the doorway.

"Where's- oh, hello," she gave the inspector a tiny wave. She examined the empty mess hall. "Huh…where is everypony?" she asked. Lightning Streak replied.

"Just out doing their surprise drills," he said, winking at her to show her that this was all part of the act. Surprise didn't understand.

"What are surprise drills?" she tilted her head, making her curly mane bob a little. Braeburn face hoofed. He didn't like where this was going. He made a slicing motion over his throat to tell the white mare to zip it, but she just mistook it for a wave.

"Ya know, sometimes we randomly tell the cadets to get outside and do a certain number of wing ups or somethin'…" Lightning Streak ground his teeth with annoyance. Surprise scoffed.

"Well, I've never heard of those. Besides, doesn't it seems a little pointless if nopony's there to watch them?" she replied. Rapidfire, Lightning Streak and Fire Streak all looked at eachother.

"Er…you go, Lightning, it is your turn," Rapidfire insisted, patting his fellow Wonderbolt on the shoulder. Lightning Streak immediately turned to his brother.

"No, I think Fire Streak should go and watch the cadets. Top Bolt's on TV right now and I don't want to miss my favourite part," the light blue stallion excused. Fire Streak wrinkled his muzzle angrily at his twin.

"No, Rapidfire should watch 'em, I was gonna go get a snack," Fire Streak argued. Rapidfire gave the flame maned stallion a shove.

"You can get a snack any time. Just go out there and watch the cadets!" he ordered. The whole time they were arguing, Wingsworth wrote stuff down on the pad of paper she'd produced from her saddlebags. Braeburn buried his face in his hooves. At least he couldn't see things getting worse.

"ROUGE WHEELBARROW! ROUGE WHEELBARROW!"

Soarin warned the others as he rocketed through the doors, clutching onto the wheelbarrow, which was now filled with dirt, for dear life. It was completely out of control and Soarin's hind hooves were scraping the ground as he tried to get it to stop.

"Where are the brakes on this thing?!" he squealed as he zoomed past the group of ponies by the door. They all gritted their teeth and flinched as Soarin and the Wheelbarrow of Death collided with the wall, sending dirt, feathers, and a wheel flying through the air. Braeburn rushed over, helping Soarin to his hooves. The pale blue Wonderbolt groaned as he tried to stand straight.

"Ugh…why is everything spinning?" he asked, as he stared up at the ceiling. Rapidfire shoved his way between the two friends and poked Soarin hard in the chest.

"What in the name of General Firefly are you doing?" he asked the co-captain. Soarin's eyes crossed as he looked back at the senior 'Bolt.

"Oh, I'd love to tell…one of you…" he looked a little woozy. Braeburn stepped forward and raised his hoof pointedly.

"Maybe we should question 'im once he's been t' the nurse?" he suggested. Rapidfire looked irritated that the earth pony had stopped him from knocking Soarin into next week, but rolled his eyes and nodded anyway.

"Er…we're not usually like this, Miss Wingsworth," Fire Streak said to the inspector as Braeburn led Soarin out the door. Braeburn would have face hoofed if he wasn't leading Soarin along with one. Hopefully everypony could clean up their act (and the mess hall) before they did something that could cost them the Academy.

---

"Are you sure this'll work?" Lullaby asked Rainbow Dash as she finished squirting the last of the oil onto the floor. They were standing at the end of the hallway that had the cadets rooms lined down it. Rainbow Dash examined their trail of slippery slime and grinned a little evilly.

"Yep! When Spring Song, Paradise and Ray head down this hall, they'll slip on this oil, skid down the trail and crash into the wall here that I've layered with some super-duper-glue. Then they'll be trapped; trapped like pegasi on a wall in a hallway full of oil. Hey, that rhymed!"

"Actually, wall and oil doesn't rhyme," Lullaby corrected her friend. Rainbow shot her a bitter look.

"You're being a killjoy, Lullaby," she said blankly. Lullaby looked up at Rainbow as she realised a flaw in the plan.

"Er…Dash? How can we be certain that Spring Song and the others will come down here, first?" she asked. Rainbow opened her mouth to reply before realising that Lullaby actually had a good point. She put a hoof to her chin and though deeply for a minute before shrugging.

"I guess we'll just have to roll with it," she said coolly, before putting a hoof against the wall to support her as she leaned back. Lullaby's pupils shrank to the size of pins.

"Um…Rainbow…you kinda just put your hoof on the glue," she told the cyan mare, who looked at the wall in shock. Sure enough, her hoof was glued to the wall by the sticky stuff. She gasped and tried to heave her hoof off the wall.

"I can't get it off!" she exclaimed, pulling harder. Lullaby grabbed Rainbow by her shoulders and tugged as hard as she could, to no avail. She put a hind hoof against the wall to strengthen her pull. She tried a few more times before stopping to pant.

"Sorry, Dash, I just can't get you off…" she trailed off as she looked down at her back leg. "…I'm also sorry that I put my hoof on the wall, 'cause now it's stuck!" she grimaced, trying to pull off her hoof.

"Great, now we're trapped; trapped like an awesome blue mare and her sidekick on a wall in a hallway full of oil!" Rainbow snarled. Lullaby looked a little irritated.

"Wha- sidekick?" she exclaimed. "I never agreed to be your sidekick. Actually, why can't you be my sidekick?"

"Because I'm older!"

"Only by three months!"

"I'm a better flyer!"

"Well, I'm a better fighter!"

"Rapidfire disagrees!"

"Don't bring him into this!"

"Hi guys!" a new voice interrupted their argument. The two bickering mares looked behind them to see Paradise hovering above them. "Watcha doin'?"

"Oh, we're just playing some golf," Lullaby smiled. Rainbow looked at her friend as if she had just spoken in a foreign language. Lullaby snickered and looked at Dash. "It's funny because we're not," she giggled. Rainbow didn't look convinced at all.

"Is it?" she asked sourly before looking at Paradise, who was holding a scorecard. "Where did you get that?" Rainbow asked the green cadet, who looked at Rainbow Dash like she had just said the lamest thing ever.

"You're saying that you don't carry scorecards with you wherever you go?" scoffed, shaking her head. Rainbow looked from Paradise, to Lullaby, who looked equally as confused, then back to Paradise.

"Of course I don't! Can we all just shut up about golf, already? We need to get off this wall!" she gestured to her stuck hoof. Paradise rubbed her hooves together before grabbing Rainbow Dash's other hoof and pulling as hard as possible. Rainbow felt a horrible pain in her hoof as she came free, leaving some clumps of blue fur behind. Paradise pulled her off with such force that Rainbow Dash rocketed forward and landed…right on the trail of oil. She hurtled down the hallway, slipping and sliding every time she tried to stop. She panicked when she saw a familiar mohawked stallion come round the corner.

"Paradise, where-"

"LOOK OUT!" Rainbow Dash warned as she sped towards him.

"WHOA!" Ray yelped as he turned to try and retreat. But-

CRASH!

Rainbow Dash slammed right into him, toppling the two of them to the ground. Rainbow was seeing stars and felt like she'd just been hit by a bus, but she opened her eyes to find everything blurred and spinning.

"Urr…why is the floor furry?" she asked, raising her neck so she could look at where she had landed…

…and looked straight down at Ray, who was staring up at her with equal shock. She gulped as she realised the situation.

She was on top of Ray.

Why was she on top of Ray?

Holy mother of Celestia, if Spring Song were here-

"What. The. BUCK!?"

Rainbow Dash jumped off of Ray as fast as she possibly could, Ray scrambling to his hooves at a speed that could rival a Wonderbolt's flying speed. The entire room seemed to drop to -100 degrees and a shiver went down Rainbow's spine as she saw Spring Song standing right by the corner, looking at Rainbow Dash and Ray like they had just grown extra wings.

"It's not-"

"We weren't-"

"It was my fault, Spring Song," Paradise suddenly appeared beside Rainbow Dash, freaking the life out of her. "I pulled Rainbow Dash off that wall and she crashed into Ray. That was all, I swear on my cutie mark!"

"I'm still stuck on here, by the way!" Lullaby called from the other end of the hall. Spring Song looked at each of the three ponies before her with an unreadable expression on her face. Rainbow Dash expected Spring Song to start yelling at her till the cows came home, but instead she said something completely different.

"Why were you stuck on a wall?"

Rainbow hadn't been expecting that; not at all. She clopped her front hooves together nervously, wincing as she realised that the base of her right one had been almost completely stripped of fur. Ouch. "Well…that was our next prank…" she didn't really have any reason to not explain the plan, now. "You were meant to slide down the oil and get stuck on the wall. Pretty clever right?"

"Yeah, real clever; look where your idea got us," Lullaby reminded Dash, looking down at her stuck hoof. Ignoring her, Rainbow Dash finished her explanation of the plan.

"Then you'd be trapped; trapped like pegasi on a wall in a ha-"

"I get it! We all get it! You don't have to say that again!" Lullaby told Rainbow Dash, attempting once again to free herself. Spring Song smirked smugly (say that five times fast) and took a step towards Dash.

"That's the best you can do? When you see what we've got planned for you, your stupid oil prank will look like a foal's idea. Ray, Paradise, where's the paint?" she asked her two friends. Ray and Paradise looked at eachother, looking pretty afraid.

"Well…about that…" Paradise rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. Spring Song groaned and rubbed her forehead.

"What did you do?" she asked as if she wasn't surprised at all. Paradise chuckled nervously and spilled the beans.

"Well…we kinda dropped the paint and then Soarin made us clean it all up. So, the paint thing's down the drain. Literally, we had to rinse the mop we used to clean the paint in the sink," the green pegasus told Spring Song.

"Pfft. What were you gonna do with the paint, anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked. Spring Song huffed and gave Paradise an irritated glower.

"We were gonna paint you two to look like zebra's. That way, everyone would make fun of your stripes," Spring Song revealed. Rainbow Dash snorted with laughter. There were so many things wrong with that prank she didn't know where to start.

"Ha! First off, that's a little racist don't ya think. Second, we could have just washed the paint off. And third, how were you gonna paint us? Did you think we'd just stand there while you tipped paint all over us?" Rainbow listed the flaws of the plan.

"Well…we were gonna gag you and tie you up…ugh! Paradise, this is the last time I let you come up with the plans!" Spring Song accused her comrade. Paradise looked apologetically at Rainbow Dash.

"Believe me. If you knew what plan B was, you'd be thanking us," she put a hoof to her chin. "Where did I put that sledgehammer?" she asked herself and Rainbow's eyes bulged with fear. Spring Song shook her head to dismiss the conversation.

"C'mon, guys, let's go back to my room to plan our next prank," she shot a warning look at Rainbow Dash. Paradise dipped her head.

"I thought it was our room," she murmured, looking neglected. She suddenly straightened up and her face lit with realization. "Spring Song, Soarin told us that we couldn't do any more pranks with the inspector here," she told her friend. Spring Song laughed as if Paradise had just told the most hilarious joke ever.

"Soarin? Seriously, Paradise, why would you listen to a nimrod like him?" she sneered. Rainbow felt her blood boil.

"Hey, don't talk about Soarin like that. He's not a nimrod, and he only wants to do what's best," she insisted, slamming a hoof down in a temper. Spring Song only laughed harder.

"Like teacher like pupil," she teased. Paradise looked down at the trail of oil on the floor.

"Don't you think we should clean this all up?" she asked and Ray nodded in agreement. Spring Song looked over at Rainbow Dash.

"Why? This was their mess, so they should be the ones to clean it," the pink demon pony replied. Even Rainbow Dash had to admit that this was fair, no matter how much she wanted to shove Spring Song in a cleaners outfit and make her dust the whole Academy.

"Oh…okay. But we really should stop all the pranks. If the inspector sees all this, the Academy could get closed down," Paradise ran a hoof through the oil, almost slipping. Spring Song motioned for Paradise to come closer, which the obedient mare did immediately. Spring Song put on her most serious face and then whispered loudly.

"Then let's not let the inspector see!" she tapped Paradise on her noggin, as if trying to hammer the idea into her head. Paradise for once stood her ground.

"Sorry, Spring Song, but it's too risky. I don't wanna be a part of this anymore," she spoke shakily, though her face stayed determined. She must not be used to arguing with Spring Song. The pink cadet looked completely baffled at Paradise's disagreement.

"Listen to her," Ray stood beside Paradise, putting a supportive hoof on her back. Spring Song's eyes darn near popped out of her skull.

"B-b-b-but…" she must have never dealt with a rebellious pair of friends before, either. She began trotting off in a rage. "Fine, then. As a lazy tailor would say: Suit yourself!" she fumed as she turned the corner. Ray and Paradise tutted and turned to Rainbow Dash.

"Let's clean this up," Ray looked down at the floor. Somepony cleared their throat behind the trio and they turned around to see Lullaby looking at them impatiently.

"Oh, hi, remember me? The pony you left stuck on the wall like a fly in a web?" she said sarcastically. Paradise flapped over the oil to help pull Lullaby off with her iron pony strength and Rainbow smirked.

"Sorry about leaving you, Lullaby," she grinned. "I completely forgot that you were trapped; trapped like a pegasus on a wall in a-"

"SHUT UP, DASH!"

---

"This is a disaster!" Spitfire paced back and forth in front of her desk, staring straight down at the carpet, which now had a small groove in it since she had been pacing for so long. Sweat dripped down the captain's face before splattering onto the yellow and maroon rug below her hooves. She hadn't been this panicky for a long time! Surprise sat in Spitfire's spinny chair, twirling it round and round and round, which would have driven Spitfire crazy on a regular day. But this was no time to focus on Surprise's crazy antics. "If Wingsworth finds that stink bomb we're finished!"

For a few seconds the room was silent, save for the creaking of Spitfire's chair and the soft sound of the golden mare's hooves as she trotted back and forth, trying desperately to think of a way to resolve their situation. Spitfire jumped as Surprise slammed her hooves down on her desk. "I've got it!" she exclaimed. Spitfire dashed to her desk, looking it over.

"Watch it, that's mahogany!" the Wonderbolt checked her desk for dents. She then realised that Surprise had said something of interest. "Wait, did you just say you had a plan?" she briefly forgot who she was talking to.

"Sure as sugar I did!" Surprise balled one of her hooves and slammed it into the other one. She then shut up, leaving Spitfire standing there waiting for a response that didn't come.

"So…" Spitfire prompted Surprise, who made a humming sound as if to say 'what?' "What's your plan?" the fiery maned mare snapped. Surprise sat up in the chair.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot that part. Here's the plan!" she put on her most serious face. "We can corner her when she's alone and then you can attack her. Then while you two are busy beatin' the stuffing out of eachother, I'll grab the bags!" she threw her hooves into the air as she finished, wearing what had to be the cheesiest smile ever. Spitfire stood still and blinked in disbelief. What in the name of the princesses was she hearing? She folded her hooves in front of her on the desk and gave Surprise a flat stare.

"It seems impossible, Surprise, but you've actually come up with a plan that would make matters worse!" Spitfire's features hardened, forming an expression that could make King Sombra quake with fear. Surprise didn't seem to care though; in fact she smiled even wider.

"Why, thank you!" she glowed with pride. Spitfire slammed a hoof on her desk, forgetting to check it for dents this time.

"It wasn't a compliment!" she yelled, making Surprise reel back in alarm at her sudden outburst. Desperation crept into Spitfire's voice. "We've got to think of something!"

---

Soarin was leaning against the wall in the kitchen, having just finished disarming one of the traps he had hidden in the mess hall. He had deposited an exploding orange inside the bowl of regular ones. A single tap could set the thing off. So Soarin had grabbed the entire bowl and thrown it outside, weight practically lifting off his shoulders as it blew up. Braeburn was busy hurrying from oven to oven, putting stuff in and pulling stuff out.

"Don't you think you've made enough food?" Soarin asked him. Braeburn paused in the centre of the room whilst running to pull out some cookies and quickly replied like he had no time at all.

"Ah need t' make as much food as possible to really wow the inspector!" with that, he pulled the cookies out of the oven and placed them on the side to cool off. Soarin was sweating just watching his friend run around faster than a bullet.

"Dude, I think there's enough food here to feed a small group of dragons for days!" Soarin commented, walking over to the many trays of food on the serving counter. Braeburn pulled out the last tray of food and set it down before promptly falling onto his haunches.

"Look, Ah don't need you t' tell me how to do mah job," he panted, taking off his stetson and fanning himself with it. Soarin was a little offended at that and folded his front hooves.

"Well, I cook too, ya know?" he sneered at Braeburn, who return his stare with a blanker one.

"Is that so? Name one thing that you can make yerself," he awaited Soarin's answer. The Wonderbolt answered almost immediately.

"Pizza," he smiled proudly.

"Ordering takeout doesn't count!" Braeburn snapped, though he was suppressing a laugh at Soarin's ditziness. Soarin looked like Braeburn had just told him pie didn't exist.

"Yes it does! I tell them what I want on my pizza and then they make it for me. I decide all the toppings and what kind of cheese I'd like then they do the hard part. So I can technically make my own food," he explained. Braeburn looked to the heavens in despair and mumbled something inaudible.

"Shouldn't you be findin' all yer hidden pranks?" Braeburn stood up and began sorting the food into different bowls. Soarin was immediately put on edge again. So far, nopony had set off any of his traps, except him when he stumbled over a tripwire on his way to the bathroom. All he had to do was get rid of the few remaining jokes and then he could unwind for the rest of the day.

"You're right, Brae. Here's a thought: why don't you help me? You could use a break," Soarin suggested. Braeburn shook his head.

"No! Just no! Ah'm not gonna get involved with anythin' that could result in me gettin' fired!" he refused. Soarin gave Braeburn a look that would make anypony feel guilty.

"Pfft. Some friend you are. Friends help friends, ya know," he looked away. "This shouldn't take long," he thought, beginning to count down the seconds "5…4...3…2…1…"

"Ugh! Soarin, ya know Ah'm one o' yer best friends, so don't gimme that kinda treatment. If this wasn't a really important job, Ah'd help ya, seriously, but there's no way Ah'm gonna risk losin' this job," he looked apologetically at Soarin. But Soarin was still ticked.

"Okay, fine! I'll go find the pranks on my own! I'd help you if you were in my situation," he fumed, beginning to head for the door. Braeburn started to follow him out.

"Well, Ah wouldn't be stupid enough t' get myself into this mess!" he argued. Soarin marched through the door with Braeburn on his tail.

"Are you calling me stupid?" Soarin asked, looking over his shoulder at the flustered looking earth pony.

"Maybe Ah am!"

"You're stupid!"

"Says the guy who went t' the Canterlot harvest festival dressed as a tomato!"

"Ya know we almost went three years without mentioning that!"

"Mah point is, Ah don't trust yer judgement,"

"And yours is reliable?"

"What's mah judgement gotta do with any o' this?"

"I don't know!"

"Just get outta here!"

"I was just leaving!"

"Idiot!"

"Jerk!"

"Imbecile!"

"Meany!"

"Goofball!"

"FLIGHT SUIT!"

Braeburn froze.

---

Spitfire was trotting down the hallway to the mess hall, with set mind and a plan. She and Surprise had been planning a way to get hold of Inspector Wingsworth's bags so they could get the stink bomb out of it. She had no idea what would happen if the inspector found the stink bomb, but it probably wouldn't be anything good. She reached the mess hall doors and peered through them; sure enough, Wingsworth was sitting at a table right near the door, scribbling something in her notepad. Perfect. If this plan was to work, she'd need to get as little distance between her and the door as possible. She let her gaze flick from Wingsworth to the saddlebags on the floor beside the table. This was her chance. She strode confidently into the room and walked up to the inspector, looking as casual as it was possible for her to get.

"Afternoon, inspector," she greeted. Wingsworth never looked up from the paper as she replied.

"Can I help you with something, Captain Spitfire?" she asked (actually she kinda snapped it). Trying not to be irritated by the inspector's rudeness, the Wonderbolt decided to find a way to distract her instead.

"Oh, I just wanted to see how the inspection was going," she lied, working her way over to the serving counter, which was totally loaded with snacks.

"I'll show you my report at the end of the day," Wingsworth answered flatly, writing something else on her pad. Spitfire cursed under her breath and scrabbled to find some other form of conversation. She noticed that she was standing right beside a stack of cookies and picked a couple up.

"Say, Inspector, d'ya want a cookie?" she asked, hoping that she could carry out the plan while Wingsworth was eating. The copper maned mare tapped the spot beside her on the desk.

"Put it there," was all she said. Spitfire was a little irked that she hadn't even said 'thank you', but did as she was asked. Wingsworth didn't even eat it, so to conceal her frustration with the mare, Spitfire began chewing her own cookie, surprised at how brilliant it tasted. She had to eat mess hall food more often.

"Ya know there's something you can put in the report. We have the best cook in Cloudsdale," she decided to push the inspector to write something positive. Her ears pricked up as she heard a distant squeeing sound coming from the kitchen. She shook it off; there must be a mouse in there or something.

"I will decide what I put in the report or not, Miss Spitfire," the inspector rejected the idea. Spitfire walked behind the inspector, briefly making strangling motions with her hooves when she was sure she wouldn't be able to see her.

"Well, I can't wait to read it," Spitfire lied through her teeth, trying to sound as polite as she could, even though she was imagining Wingsworth getting beaten with a baseball bat.

"I can't wait for you to read it, either," Wingsworth replied. Spitfire halted. Did she mean that in a good way or a bad way? With the inspector's emotionless voice, it was practically impossible to decipher whether or not she was being rude or nice. She decided to just carry on as usual. If anything had gone wrong, one of the other Wonderbolts would have told her…right?

"Well, I'll just be on my way. Lots of paperwork to do," the captain dismissed herself, though Wingsworth didn't even acknowledge she was leaving. Spitfire made it to the saddlebags on the floor and hooked her right hind hoof under the strap that went over a pony's back. She began walking as fast as she could towards the door, not daring to breathe as she heard the bags dragging on the floor behind her. She was almost at the door…

"Captain?"

Spitfire cringed and turned around. Wingsworth had finally looked up from her pad. She forced a smile onto her face as the inspector completely botched up the plan.

"You seem to have your hoof caught on my bags," she shifted her eyes down to the golden mare's hooves. Spitfire looked down, too, pretending that she hadn't noticed.

"Oh, really? Heh…whoops," she picked the bags up in her teeth, feeling insanely annoyed that the stink bomb was right there in front of her nose and she could do nothing to solve the problem. She put the bags down gently on the ground and began to head to the door again; aching to get back to the office where Surprise was waiting so she could vent to the white Wonderbolt about how much she hated Inspector Wingsworth. Speak of the devil; the white coated inspector said a final sentence as Spitfire headed out the door.

"I'm watching you, Captain," she said cryptically. Spitfire let out a silent but angry breath and rounded the corner, but not before making a rude sign with her middle wingtip once the inspector's back was turned.

---

Rainbow Dash paced back and forth across her room, while Lullaby lounged on her bed, playing with a cup and ball, trying and failing to catch the little ball in the attached cup.

Once they had got Lullaby off the wall and cleaned up their mess, all four of the cadets had gone their separate ways. Rainbow and Lullaby had gone to their room to just chill, but Rainbow Dash was super alert. Ray and Paradise may have quit the pranking thing, but Spring Song was still in the game. The pink mare hadn't done anything yet, but Rainbow Dash could feel it coming, like somepony sneaking up on you from behind.

Rap Rap Rap!

Rainbow looked over at the window, where a familiar light blue pegasus mare was knocking on it. Rainbow and Lullaby headed over and opened the window.

"Bumble, what's goin' on?" Lullaby asked, her hooves dangling out the window. Bumble pointed excitedly over to the training grounds.

"High Winds has called everypony over to the Dizzitron. No exceptions for you two," she replied. Rainbow Dash and Lullaby swapped confused looks with eachother, obviously thinking the same thing. What was going on? This had never happened before. Lullaby dropped out the window, Rainbow Dash following close behind and let Bumble lead them to the Dizzitron. This was all very strange; this inspection was making everypony go overboard with drills and exercises. First, Rapidfire had made all the cadets fly laps (in the end nopony went to watch them) and now they were being called hours after drills ended to head to the Dizzitron. High Winds had better have a good explanation.

KRACKA-BOOM!

Rainbow Dash yelped with fear and jumped onto Lullaby's back, squeezing the breath out of her, as a lightning bolt crashed into the ground mere inches beside her. Memories flashed through her mind and it seemed like it was happening all over again. She was hurting, bleeding, falling…

"Rainbow Dash, what's gotten into you?" Bumble's voice pulled her out of her panic. Rainbow realised that she was clinging to Lullaby the same way a foal would hold onto her mother. She became aware of a choking Lullaby, a baffled looking Bumble and a cackling Tempest sitting on a thunder cloud.

…

…?

A cackling Tempest sitting on a thunder cloud?!

Rainbow Dash looked up at the orange stallion, who was laughing so hard that Dash was surprised he hadn't wet himself.

"What's your problem, Tempest? Rainbow yelled up at the guffawing cadet, who wiped an amused tear from his eye.

"Excuse me?"

Rainbow Dash looked down to see Lullaby, now blue faced, gasping out her words.

"I c-can't b-b-breathe!" she choked. Rainbow Dash quickly released Lullaby and the purple mare sucked in as much air as she could before falling to the floor. The stuff Lullaby had to put up with. Bumble went to assist Lullaby, allowing Rainbow Dash time to chew out Tempest.

"So? Could ya give me an explanation?" Rainbow finally got the attention of the mischievous pegasus, who lay on his tummy on the cloud, looking at Dash like he'd done nothing wrong.

"Lighten up, Dash. I need some Prank Day fun, too, and you seemed like the perfect target," he shrugged. Rainbow flapped her wings and flew up to him so she could look him in the eye, staring him down.

"Well, you should know that I'd be freaked out by lightning! Why would you even do such a cruel thing, especially so soon after…ya know," Rainbow Dash's voice softened as she spoke, shaking as she remembered how scared she had been when she was falling. If there's one thing a pegasus never expects to do, it's fall! Tempest began to look a little guilty

"Oh…yeah…sorry, Dash. I didn't mean to scare ya," he apologized, blowing his green mane out of his eyes. Rainbow caught sight of his cutie mark: three storm clouds in a triangle formation. Rainbow Dash's curiosity got the better of her.

"Hey, Tempest, how did you get your cutie mark?" she asked him. Tempest looked proudly at his flank.

"I was the first in my class to get my cutie mark! My dad works at the Weather Factory, in the storm cloud department, so he often took me there with him. When I was seven he finally let me give cloud making a shot and I'm guessing by the way that he and his co-workers were looking at me, I was pretty darn good at it. Then these awesome clouds appeared on my flank and confirmed it. I was destined to be a tempest cloud expert!" he explained, never taking his eyes off his cutie mark. Rainbow was impressed, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that Tempest wanted to use his cool storm cloud abilities in the 'Bolts.

"Hey!" Lullaby called up to the pair of pegasi. "High Winds is waiting, remember!"

Rainbow Dash and Tempest flew down to the ground and joined Bumble and Lullaby on the way to the Dizzitron. When they made it, all of the other cadets were there, being addressed by High Winds, who looked mildly irritated at the four new arrivals. High winds had a sphere shaped bag at her hooves. They soon discovered why they were all there when Inspector Wingsworth trotted over with her notepad. She looked super strict, that was for sure.

"Okay, everypony, stand straight!" High Winds barked. Rainbow had never seen High Winds act like this before. Usually she was easy going and sweet, and a little bit of a bragger, but now she looked like she was doing her best drill sergeant voice to impress the inspector. "So, tell me what we've been doing in evening drills!" she ordered.

"Evening drills? What the hay?" Rainbow Dash thought.

"Cloud busting?" Tempest suggested.

"Flag hunts?" Smart Set guessed.

"Sleep?" Stains asked. The clumsy mare looked like she'd just been woken up from a nap. High Winds looked at all three of them with a distraught look on her face. She shook her head and looked down at the bag on the ground beside her.

"No! We've been playing…" High Winds unzipped the bag. "…Stormball," she held up a rounded diamond shaped ball. Rainbow Dash was an expert on Stormball. When she was a filly she loved to watch Stormball matches with her dad, so she knew all the positions and all the rules by heart. "I'm pretty good at it, myself," she complimented herself, spinning the ball on her hoof only to have it fall off a half-second later. Wingsworth rolled her eyes and wrote something down. High Winds took that as an opportunity to get the cadets into their teams.

Rainbow Dash was with Lullaby, Bumble, Stains, Beau, Paradise, Smart Set and Tempest, while High Winds joined the team with Spring Song, Ray, Sugar Swoop, Stargazer, Free Fall, Butternut and Cinder, who stated that she had a phobia of balls. High Winds sculpted two goals out of clouds and then began the game.

Rainbow Dash didn't know all that much about High Winds, but this game of Stormball revealed that she was a pretty big cheater. She hardly ever passed the ball to anypony and whenever she did, she usually threw it way out of reach and then blamed them when they missed it. Very seldom did Rainbow's team get the ball and even when they did, High Winds would just shove them to make them drop the ball. Rainbow had been shoved by the Wonderbolt three times, leaving bruises on her shoulders, and the cyan mare made a mental note never to get on High Wind's bad side.

Halfway into the game the score was 12 points to Team High Winds, while Rainbow's team had 2 points. Rainbow could practically see Wingsworth scribbling down how terrible a role model High Winds was.

In the second half of the game, Rainbow scored five more goals, Stains scored one when the ball bounced off her head and into the goal and Tempest scored four by skilfully weaving his way through the other teams players. Well, that equals 12 goals altogether and that would have been a great score…

…if High Wind's team didn't have 21points!

And with three minutes left the odds were so not in their favour. By the time the other team had reached 30 points Rainbow Dash had pretty much given up on winning. No matter how many times the cadets told High winds that she wasn't playing fair, the Wonderbolt would carry on as if they had said nothing at all.

Rainbow Dash discovered just how competitive High Winds was when she barged into a member of her own team to get the ball for herself. If there was somepony coaching them, High winds would have been kicked out of the match about fifty times!

Finally, after much shoving, throwing and bruising, High Winds told the cadets that the Stormball game was over. The pegasi flapped gratefully to the ground and while High Winds cheered for her victory, the cadets nursed their bumps and bruises. Rainbow was in the middle of cringing at a purple bruise on her shoulder when Lullaby suddenly burst into an angry rant.

"Can you believe that?! I mean, in what universe would that foul playing be considered Stormball!? If High Winds had any sense at all she would follow the Celestia damn rules! They were invented for a reason!" she raved, stomping her hooves on the ground. Rainbow Dash groaned as she realised that there were two competitive pegasi in the flock.

"Lullaby, I think you should calm down a second!" the rainbow maned pegasus tried to get Lullaby to relax.

"I AM CALM!" Lullaby roared, looking a little savage by now. Rainbow Dash knew better than to say anything right now, so she kept her mouth firmly shut. "If Wingsworth wasn't here I would so give High winds a stern talking to. Actually, better, I'd strap her to a chair and explain the rules of Stormball to her. TWICE!"

"Er…Lullaby?" Rainbow Dash tried to get the purple mare to stop yelling as a white mare began to trot her way.

"Then I'd make her watch all the Stormball videos ever and then I'd…I'd…oh, I don't know what I'd do next!" she continued.

"Lullaby!" Rainbow tried to warn her.

"I have no idea what I'd do next but I would make her SUFFER!" with that last word, Lullaby threw her hooves out to the side…

…and hit Wingsworth right in the face!

Rainbow saw every single pair of eyes land on Lullaby as Wingsworth clutched her nose. Lullaby gasped and backed up.

"Oh. My. Gosh! I'm so, so, SO sorry, Miss Wingsworth," she tried to help the inspector to her hooves, only for the uniform clad mare to shove her away and give her a dirty look before getting to her hooves herself and striding off in a huff. Lullaby put her hooves over her mouth and sunk to the ground, looking close to tears. Rainbow Dash didn't blame her either. Hitting an inspector was probably the worst thing a cadet could possibly do, and Lullaby had done just that. This was the pony who held the fate of the Academy in her hooves, so imagining what could happen to Lullaby was painful. She could get banished from Equestria! Or thrown in a dungeon! Or banished and then thrown in a dungeon in the place she was banished to! Well, granted none of those things would happen.

But she could get kicked out of the Academy!

---

Rainbow Dash trotted beside Lullaby as they headed towards the fillies bathroom. The purple mare had been in tears because of the earlier events and so Rainbow Dash had offered to help her clean up. Lullaby's eyes had lost some of their redness, though she was still sniffling.

"Come on, Lullaby, you'll be fine. The inspector knows that it was an accident," Rainbow tried to comfort her friend. All Lullaby did was nod. Rainbow could tell that she wasn't going to get through to her friend, so they just walked the rest of the way in silence.

And guess who else was in the bathroom washing her hooves as they walked in. Rainbow Dash pulled Lullaby away from the door.

"Are you sure you wanna go in there? Rainbow asked Lullaby, who just looked confused.

"What? I didn't see who was in there," she replied, turning to look through the door, when Rainbow Dash held her back.

"Wingsworth is in there!" she hissed at Lullaby, who suddenly lit up. "Why are you smiling?" Rainbow asked her roommate, who pushed Rainbow Dash off her.

"This is my chance to explain what really happened. That way, there's no way she can punish me!" she plotted, determination sparkling in her eyes. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, didn't know if she should be thrilled or terrified with the plan.

"But what if-" before Rainbow Dash could finish her sentence, Lullaby went through the door, leaving her talking to the air. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and sent a prayer to Celestia as she peeked 'round the corner to watch her friend, not noticing the white hoof reaching out from under the toilet cubicle closet to Wingsworth. Lullaby nonchalantly alerted the inspector of her presence.

"Oh…hello, Inspector," she smiled sweetly. Wingsworth looked over her shoulder at the grinning purple mare, face unchanged.

"Oh, it's you," was all she said. Rainbow Dash could practically hear Lullaby's confidence drop to the floor, but the eager cadet soldiered on.

"Yes, it's me," she echoed, shuffling her hooves. "So, what happened earlier in…evening drills wasn't supposed to happen," she began to explain. Wingsworth started to walk past Lullaby.

"Please get out of my way," she snapped. Lullaby quickly sidestepped to block Wingsworth's path and reached into the pocket of her cadet's uniform.

"Wait. I would just like to make a donation to your business," Lullaby pulled out fifteen bits. Rainbow had always wondered what she kept in her pocket. Wingsworth looked from the money in Lullaby's hoof to the purple cadet's hopeful eyes.

"What? Is this a bribe?" the inspector asked, and Rainbow could hear warning sirens ringing in her ears telling her that this was going to go very wrong!

"No!" Lullaby defended herself. "It's a donation," she gave the bits to Wingsworth. "And you can choose to use it to improve your business or keep it for yourself!" Lullaby whispered that last part. Rainbow Dash looked down at the ground, feeling more and more worried for Lullaby with each second that passed.

"Do you think you can corrupt me with bits?" Wingsworth asked in disbelief. Her cadet's uniform hid it a little, but Lullaby was most certainly sweating.

"N-n-no!" she lied. For a few seconds, the two mares just stared eachother down until Lullaby reached into her pocket again. "Here. Have ten more," she gave Wingsworth another hoof full of bits and Rainbow Dash grimaced. Why could nothing ever go right?

"Captain?"

The three mares heard a voice coming from one of the toilet cubicles. While Rainbow observed from round the corner, Wingsworth and Lullaby trotted up to the cubicle to listen.

"No, I haven't got it yet," came the voice from inside it. Lullaby and Wingsworth mirrored each other's confused expression as the voice continued. "I'm just hiding in the toilet."

Whoa, for somepony trying to hide, this mare was doing a terrible job.

"She hasn't seen me."

Wingsworth pushed the (unlocked) cubicle door open to reveal Surprise sitting on top of the toilet, whispering into a walkie talkie. For several seconds, Wingsworth and Lullaby stared at Surprise, while she stared back, the silence only being broken by the faint sound of Surprise's name being called from the other end of the walkie. Surprise finally turned back to the walkie.

"She's seen me!" the yellow maned Wonderbolt whisper-shouted before smiling nervously at the inspector.

---

"Hey?" Spring Song tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder from her spot behind her in the lunch queue. Rainbow turned to glare at her, bracing herself in case she blew an air horn in her face or something. Luckily, none of that happened and Spring Song just pointed at Lullaby, who was alone at a table, softly weeping. "What's Lullaby blubbing about?"

Rainbow Dash told Spring Song to just mind her own business before scooping some mashed potato onto her tray. The counter was overloaded with snacks, so many snacks that Rainbow Dash felt a little nauseous just looking at them all. When Rainbow and Spring Song had finished getting their food, they both headed over to the table with Lullaby and sat opposite her. At the same time, Rainbow Dash and Spring Song began talking, asking about how she was, mixed with frequent jokes poked at her by Spring Song.

"Will you both just shut up? Can't you see that I'm upset?" Lullaby snapped at the two of them. The two of them ceased speaking and Rainbow Dash reached forward to pat the purple cadet on the shoulder.

"Sorry, Lullaby. I'm actually here to help," the rainbow maned pegasus assured her roommate. Spring Song propped herself up on one elbow.

"So, what's wrong?" she asked. Lullaby wiped her eyes and looked over at the blonde mare.

"I made a terrible mistake," she replied, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a tissue before blowing her nose into it. Spring Song reached over and patted her other shoulder.

"Well, carry on," she tried to pat her faster to rival Rainbow Dash so the blue mare picked up her patting pace, too. After a while, Lullaby just shoved their hooves away.

"Will you both just stop tapping me and listen. This is about me!" she scowled. Rainbow Dash looked accusingly at the mare beside her.

"Yeah, Spring Song," she said sourly. Lullaby resumed her explanation to Spring Song.

"I did something awful after the Stormball game. When I went into the bathroom-"

"Number one's or number two's?" Spring Song asked, smirking slighting. Lullaby's eyes popped out of her head.

"Neither!" she replied hurriedly. Spring Song carried on leading the conversation off to who-knows-where.

"Then what were you doing in there?" she asked.

"If you just listened you would know," Lullaby answered, sounding more and more irritated with each interruption.

"Spring Song, will you just zip it?" Rainbow Dash slugged her nemesis on the shoulder and Spring Song slapped her back, resulting in a hit-fight between the two pegasi.

"UGH! Can you both stop?" Lullaby slammed a hoof down on the table. Rainbow Dash and Spring Song folded their hooves on the table, still looking ticked with one another.

"She started it," Spring Song nodded at Rainbow Dash.

"Did not!" Rainbow Dash argued.

"Did, too!

"Can we just get back to me?" Lullaby broke the two apart. "Well, I went into the toilets and I…accidentally…bribed Miss Wingsworth," Lullaby buried her face in her hooves and Spring Song looked at Lullaby like she had just admitted to a bank robbery.

"Well, that's a career ender," the devil-mare commented. Lullaby looked up, tears beginning to flow again.

"Don't say that!" she gasped. Rainbow Dash was about to shove a hoof full of lettuce down Spring Song's throat, but the pink mare wouldn't stop talking.

"Well, I'm not saying it will lead to a prison sentence or anything, but it's hard to imagine you being accepted into the Academy anymore," she continued. Lullaby's tears were now flowing freely and she put her face flat down on the table. Rainbow Dash gave Spring Song a quick shove before lifting Lullaby's head up.

"Hey, don't worry 'bout, it Lullaby. I'll help you out," she volunteered. Lullaby didn't look all that convinced that it would do any good.

"I'll do something. I'd hate it if a cadet got kicked out," Spring Song offered. Lullaby looked absolutely mortified.

"Oh no, Spring Song, don't! You'll just make it worse," she declined, waving her hoof to dismiss the idea.

"Well, would you like me to do something?" Rainbow Dash asked again. Lullaby looked to the side, thinking before returning her gaze to her roommate.

"Well, that probably wouldn't be as bad…" she pondered the idea.

"Thank you," Rainbow Dash looked competitively at Spring Song.

"But I still don't think that's a good plan," Lullaby concluded and Rainbow's face fell.

"Oh, okay, we get it," Spring Song nudged Rainbow Dash and the blue mare turned to look at her. "She doesn't want us to do anything," she raised her eyebrows, as if trying to get Rainbow to understand a hint. Rainbow didn't understand what Spring Song was getting at. Lullaby rapped a hoof on the table to get the others' attention.

"Just to be clear, I really don't want you to do anything," she repeated. Spring Song nodded.

"Yes, we understand," she insisted before turning back to Rainbow Dash. "She doesn't want us to do anything," she winked. "Do you get what I mean?"

"No, I don't," Rainbow Dash looked over at Lullaby, who shrugged. Spring Song groaned and repeated it one last time.

"She doesn't want us…" she paused and blinked a couple of times. "…To get involved!"

"Oh!" Rainbow Dash gasped, finally understanding. Lullaby whistled to catch their attention again.

"No, seriously, I don't want you to do anything," she said for the third time. Spring Song and Rainbow Dash both nodded, sharing a knowing look.

"We read you loud and clear, Lullaby," Spring Song smirked.

---

Rainbow Dash and Spring Song made their way through the maze of hallways, looking for the mare who had Lullaby's destiny written on a pad of paper. They'd been searching for ten minutes and hadn't found her yet and were beginning to worry. The day was almost over and soon Inspector Wingsworth would be showing Spitfire the Academy's report. Everypony had clearly had an off day and Rainbow and Spring Song were determined to make things right again!

"She's in here!" Rainbow Dash alerted Spring Song, as she peered through the door to the staff room, which was completely empty apart from the scribbling inspector. Spring Song joined Dash by the door and began explaining the plan one last time.

"Okay, once we're in there, just let me do the talking. I've planned everything in my head, got it," she told Rainbow Dash, who eagerly nodded. Spring Song pushed the door open and burst in. "Hey, Miss!" she barked and Wingsworth looked up from her writing, looking appalled.

"Excuse me?" she asked, surprised a cadet would snap at an inspector. Spring Song's face seemed to lose all the courage it had borne moments ago. She opened her mouth to say something, but the only think that came out was a strangled squeak. All this time, Wingsworth just stood there, emotionless as Spring Song spluttered out syllable after stupid syllable. Finally Spring Song turned to Rainbow Dash and pulled her forward.

"My friend here wants to talk to you," she hid behind Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash turned away so she could talk to Spring Song.

"What are you doing, I thought said you'd do all the talking!" she hissed at the pink she-devil.

"Well, I started the talking," Spring Song argued.

"So, you finish it!" Rainbow Dash snapped.

"I will finish it; you just do the middle bit!"

Rainbow Dash resisted her urges to strangle Spring Song and turned back to Wingsworth, who didn't look like she'd moved at all. Rainbow cleared her throat and began explaining in the best possible way she could.

"Well…we just want to discuss the issue of Lullaby's 'behaviour'," Rainbow Dash made quotation marks with her wings on that last word. Wingsworth slitted her eyes and looked the two cadet's over.

"Go on," she nodded for them to continue. Rainbow Dash was feeling the pressure squeezing the courage out of her, so she pushed Spring Song forward.

"Your turn," she stepped behind Spring Song. Gosh, Wingsworth's stern eyes were extremely scary to look at. Spring Song began babbling again before finally saying something that made sense.

"Ya see, the money that she gave to you in the toilets…that…that was an accident because it-it fell out in her hoof," she looked at Rainbow Dash desperately. Rainbow couldn't think straight right now with Wingsworth's icy eyes staring into her very soul, so she just shrugged and nodded. "Well, that's that," Spring Song began heading back to the door.

"Bribing an inspector is an incredibly severe matter," Wingsworth said just before Spring Song could grab the door handle. The pink mare turned around to stand beside Rainbow Dash again and nodded.

"Yeah, we know that, of course…" Spring Song looked away before lighting up. "Say, how much did she give you?" she asked.

"25 bits," Wingsworth replied. Spring Song turned around and motioned for Rainbow Dash to do the same. Rainbow watched in both horror and hope as Spring Song produced five more bits from her pocket.

"What if we gave you five more bits?" she offered.

"You're just making this worse," Wingsworth sneered at Dash and Spring Song. The two mares turned back around and both pulled out all the bits they had.

"Eight more bits?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking down at the pathetic number of bits in her hoof. Wingsworth picked up her notepad and gave the two of them a dirty look.

"Right, I'm going to have to add this to the report. What are your names?" she looked at the two mares with blue eyes of hate. Rainbow was a little peeved that the inspector didn't know who she was, but decided to give her a fake name anyway.

"Danger Dash," Rainbow Dash used her fake middle name as her first name at the same time Spring Song said-

"Paradise."

---

Rainbow Dash, Soarin and Braeburn looked round a corner to see Surprise with her ear pressed up against Spitfire's door. The white mare looked over at the three friends and motioned with a hoof for them to come over. Rainbow led the way as they joined Surprise in eavesdropping.

"Well, I hope you had a great day at the Academy," Spitfire's voice was heard through the door. Rainbow Dash was surprised at how thin the door was. Rainbow shifted into a more comfortable position as Soarin crushed her against Surprise.

"Here's my report," the sound of crinkling paper suggested that Wingsworth was passing the report to Spitfire. "The results from the inspection are shocking."

There was silence for a moment before Spitfire started reading the report.

"Complete negligence of rules, cadets without supervision, insults, bribery, intimidation, roughness…" Spitfire's voice grew shrill and confused. "Serious misuse of a wheelbarrow!?"

"Oops," Soarin whispered, making Rainbow Dash roll her eyes.

"…satisfactory amount of bins and the food was delicious," Spitfire read, sounding slightly happier. "See, that's something we can be proud of. I told you the cook was good," she sounded a little smug. Rainbow Dash suddenly heard a loud thud and she, Soarin and Surprise looked right to see that Braeburn had collapsed to the ground, wearing a dopey grin. Rainbow had no time to ponder the earth pony's unconsciousness because Wingsworth had spoken once again.

"I'm recommending that the Academy be closed down immediately!"

"What's going on?"

Rainbow turned to see Cinder, Bumble and Tempest behind her. Rainbow put a hoof to her lips and motioned to the door. The three pegasi joined in the eavesdropping.

"B-b-but what about the staff and the other Wonderbolts? They work so hard!" Spitfire gasped, the sound of hooves slamming on the desk almost blurred out the ending of the sentence. "And what do I tell the cadets? They love the Academy!"

"I don't care what you tell them," Wingsworth replied, the sound of a bag zipping closed was heard. "If I had my way, this whole place would be burnt to the ground," she snapped. For a few seconds there was silence and Rainbow Dash turned around, shocked to see that practically every cadet and Wonderbolt had joined in their eavesdrop.

"Well…thank you for coming. Always nice to have a visit from you, Miss Wingsworth," Spitfire got up from her chair. Rainbow Dash was confused to hear that she sounded pretty chipper for somepony who had just been told that her Academy was being closed down. Hoofsteps got louder as the two mares inside approached the door. Quickly, everypony (including Braeburn, who had just been revived) scattered and leaned up against walls, talked, or just sat down, pretending that they hadn't been listening. Wingsworth and Spitfire emerged from the office, shocked at the number of ponies outside. Wingsworth was about to leave when Spitfire stopped her suddenly.

"Hold on, Inspector," the captain held up the report in her hoof. "You've forgotten to sign the report."

Rainbow Dash's jaw almost hit the floor. If Wingsworth hadn't signed the report then it couldn't be used to shut down the Academy. What was Spitfire doing? It was then that Rainbow Dash noticed a cunning look on the Wonderbolt's face as Wingsworth unzipped her saddlebags to grab a pen. Spitfire suddenly gasped as Wingsworth opened the bags.

"Hey, what's that in your bags?" she asked, looking inside it. Wingsworth tilted her head.

"What's what?" she looked down at the captain with pure dislike. Spitfire squinted and pointed out what she was talking about.

"That!" she told the inspector, who grabbed the whatever-it-was in her hoof. She pulled the thingy out for everypony to see:

A stink bomb!

"Wha-what's this doing here?" Wingsworth stared at the stink bomb with confusion and terror. Spitfire glowered up at the inspector.

"Inspector Wingsworth, why would you have a stink bomb in your bag? Pranking is strictly forbidden on Academy grounds," she recited a rule.

"I know that," Wingsworth insisted. Spitfire looked at the stink bomb in her hoof with what Rainbow Dash decided was fake confusion.

"Then why do you have that?"

"Captain, I assure you that I have no idea how this got into my bag," she stomped a hoof on the ground. Spitfire obviously knew more than she was letting on.

"Don't deny it," Soarin snapped at the inspector. "Do you have any proof that it's not your stink bomb?"

"Well…" Wingsworth's eyes shot all around the hall, as if she were trying to work out an escape plan.

"She's guilty!" Surprise scowled at Wingsworth. The inspector turned back to Spitfire.

"Captain, if you think that this changes anything-"

"It changes everything," Spitfire took of her shades, staring Wingsworth down, even though the mare was an entire foot taller than her. "Obviously a pony like you, a pony who would bring a stink bomb into an Academy, has no right to inspect academies at all! Face it, you're way to immature to be trusted with writing a report, and on a day like Prank Day, it would be the perfect opportunity for you to write a joke report. Am I right, or am I right?" she poked Wingsworth in the chest, not caring about being polite anymore.

"You're wrong!" Wingsworth snapped. Spitfire smirked slyly.

"Well, once again we must ask for evidence of your innocence," she didn't even give Wingsworth a chance to say anything. She held out her hoof. "I present to you Exhibit A!"

"What are you holding out?" the inspector looked down at Spitfire's empty hoof.

"Nothing! I'm holding out nothing because there isn't any evidence!" the golden pegasus put her hoof back down to the ground. Rainbow Dash finally saw an emotion on Wingsworth's face: defeat. She knew that there was no way out of this and with all these pegasi on Spitfire's side, there was no way she would be able to win this battle. Spitfire smiled menacingly the whole time as she slowly ripped the report up before Wingsworth's eyes. Surprise took the stink bomb out of the inspectors hoof.

"And that is confiscated!" she stood beside Spitfire. The captain looked over to the back of the crowd.

"Feather Duster!" she called out the janitor's name. The grey mare flapped her wings so she could meet the eyes of her boss.

"Yes, captain?" she asked. Spitfire gave Wingsworth a shove.

"Would you please escort Miss Wingsworth from the Academy," she gave the small janitor her orders. With a salute, Feather Duster zipped over and gave Wingsworth a push to get her moving. Once everypony was sure that Wingsworth was gone for good, they all turned to Spitfire and gave her a round of applause. The beaming captain turned to the white mare at her side.

"Surprise?" she asked, smirking again. Surprise raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, Spitfire?" she asked, standing straight, as a cadet would in drills. Spitfire looked at the stink bomb in the poofy maned Wonderbolt's hoof.

"Do you wanna throw a stink bomb?"

Surprise squealed and jumped for joy. "Yes-a-rooni!" she cheered before the two mares began heading down the hall to cause havoc. Soarin appeared beside Rainbow Dash and put a hoof on her back.

"Thanks for not burning the place down," he teased her, and Rainbow gave him a playful punch on his arm. "Say, you wanna go practise now?"

"Yeah, I'd love to," she agreed, before looking over at a certain pink mare. "But there's something I've gotta do first," she added. Soarin shrugged and smiled.

"That's okay. I'd better head to the training grounds before Braeburn finds out what I wrote on his flank when he passed out," he snickered. Rainbow laughed, too. What was that about anyway?

"Soarin!"

"Oh no," Soarin snorted as an angry looking Braeburn stormed over. He nodded down at his flank.

"Can ya explain this?" he snapped. Soarin looked at his flank and burst into a fit of giggles again. Rainbow Dash couldn't see what it said at this angle, but Soarin could see that it said 'Property of Spitfire'.

"I…can't…breathe!" Soarin cackled, almost falling to the ground. Braeburn scuffed a hoof on the ground.

"Ya won't be able t' breathe period when Ah'm done with ya!" he threatened. Soarin quickly made a run for it, laughing all the way down the hall and round the corner as Braeburn chased after him like a crazed bull. Rainbow trotted over to Spring Song.

"Hey," she greeted. Spring Song looked over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash and turned around.

"Hey," Rainbow's rival echoed.

"Listen, I just wanted to say thanks for tryin' to help me save Lullaby earlier. It was real good of you," Rainbow held out her hoof for Spring Song to shake. Spring Song looked down at her hoof and smirked.

"No problem, Dash," she grabbed hold of her outstretched hoof.

ZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPP!

"YOWZA!" Rainbow Dash felt a volt of electricity shoot through her bones, making her entire body quake and shake. When everything stopped stinging, Rainbow Dash noticed that she was now pretty singed and Spring Song was laughing and pointing at her, an electric buzzer strapped to her hoof. Rainbow Dash growled and shook off the pain.

It was so on!

Spring Song saw the danger and took off, speeding down the hallway with Rainbow Dash close behind. They flew down halls, in and out of doors and around bends until finally Spring Song flew into the medical closet.

Rainbow Dash landed in the doorframe and looked around the small room. Where did Spring Song go? Stumbling around, the blue mare looked up and down for her enemy.

Suddenly she felt something tighten around her hind hoof and suddenly she was swept off the ground. She felt the blood rush to her head as she found herself upside down with a rope wrapped around her leg. Finally Spring Song revealed herself, laughing like a nut.

"I knew you'd forget about Soarin's impossible knot snare," she said between bursts of laughter. She began walking causally to the door, still sniggering at the upside down Rainbow Dash.

"Spring Song, get me down from here!" Rainbow wriggled around, trying to free herself. Spring Song put a hoof to her chin, thinking.

"Hmm…nah, I don't think I will," she shrugged. "Here's an idea, Rainbow Trash: I'll go and grab a camera and you just wait here and hang around!" she joked before striding out of the room. Rainbow Dash tried one more time to free herself before letting herself hang limp. Folding her hooves she scowled at the door that Spring Song's tail had just disappeared through.

"Well played, Spring Song. Well played."