Authors Note: Whoa! Two chapters in three days? That's an Academy Record!

Yeah, since I had nothing better to do, I wrote this uber-fast!

Sparkling-nexis137- Sour Song! Brilliant! I will find a way to use that *hugs*.

DragonZeus1- I'll get the first aid kit.

---

"Well, Ah suppose Ah should thank ya fer comin' t' get me…three hours after ya got back t' Cloudsdale!" Braeburn scolded his friend from his spot behind the serving counter. Soarin was at the table behind him.

"Don't be such a grumpy-pants," he told his friend. "I could've left you there all night long. Besides, you can consider that payback for making Applejack, Rarity and the princess ask me those questions. You have no idea what it's like to be completely irritated by three mares giving you awkward advice in front of your peers!" he folded his hooves and sneered at his earth pony friend.

"Don't be so certain," Braeburn could only imagine the things Applejack was going to tease him about the next time he saw her.

"Hey, what's this?" Soarin asked him. Braeburn turned around and saw Soarin holding up the thing he had found on the doorstep that morning.

"That's a depot card. The new food supply fer the kitchen was due yesterday but since we were all at the Celebration we missed it. So, now Ah hafta call the delivery company t' get 'em t' bring the stuff round tomorrow," Braeburn explained. "Might as well do it now," He walked over to the other side of the room where the landline was and Soarin followed. Braeburn took the card from Soarin and dialled the number that was on it. After a few seconds of bleeping, a chipper mare's voice spoke from the answering machine.

"Welcome to Cloudsdale Delivery. If you would like to arrange re-delivery, press 1," the machine said. Braeburn pressed the button.

"Please state clearly when you would like your package re-delivered."

Braeburn leaned down and replied into the speaker. "Tuesday."

"Did you say…Monday?" the mare's voice was replaced by a cockney stallion's and Braeburn jumped with surprise at the sudden tone change.

"No, who're you?" he asked, even though the machine couldn't reply. Soarin shared the same look of bewilderment as him. The mare's voice then returned to the machine.

"I'm sorry. We couldn't identify."

Braeburn leaned down to talk into the machine again. "Tuesday," he repeated, trying to sound as clear as possible.

"Did you say...Thursday?" the cockney accented voice returned. Braeburn threw his hooves into the air in disbelief, darn near cursing out loud. Stupid machine! He decided that he'd just have to pronounce it extra carefully.

"Tuuuesday," he drew out the 'u' longer. "Tuuuuesday," he made it even longer before looking up at Soarin. "Ah can't make it any clearer."

Soarin looked like he was enjoying watching his friend suffer with the machine. Braeburn turned back to the phone. "Tuesday," he said in a Canterlot accent.

"You sound too posh, now," Soarin snickered.

"When would you like your package re-delivered?" the mare's voice returned. Finally, Braeburn came up with a legitimate idea.

"Toosday, innit?" he said to the phone in a cockney accent.

"Did you say…Tuesday?"

Victory!

"Yes," Braeburn spoke happily into the machine.

"Please confirm..." Braeburn's face fell and he rolled his eyes as the machine threw another confirmation thingy his way. "Did you say…Tuesday?"

Braeburn grimaced and hissed into the machine. "Yesss!" he practically growled before turning to Soarin with a menacing look on his face. "Ah mean, if it can't understand that WHAT IS THE POINT!?"

"Putting you through to an operator," the voice barked. Braeburn face-hoofed and this time really did curse out loud. Soarin snorted with laughter and Braeburn got one of his (surprisingly frequent) urges to strangle him. A different voice came from the other end of the line, this one overly high and cheery.

"Hello, Cloudsdale Delivery, can I help you?" the new mare asked. Braeburn tried his best to sound polite.

"Yeah, hello, Ah don't know why Ah've been put through 'cause Ah was usin' voice recognition," he replied. The mare's voice returned a second later, still aggravatingly high and happy.

"Yes, that's all fine. Your order will be delivered tomorrow between 8am and 7pm," she informed them. Braeburn let out an annoyed sigh.

"And ya can't specify a time?" he asked, finding it hard not to yell by now. As the too-cheerful-to-be-real mare spoke again, Braeburn began mimicking everything she said.

"I'm afraid we can only provide a time period of 8am to 7pm,"

"Okay, THANK YOU!" Braeburn finally yelled pushing one of the buttons on the phone and exhaling with relief. He sat on one of the chairs beside Soarin. "Do ya think they get trained t' speak like that?" he asked his friend. "Seriously, ya never meet anypony in real life that talks like that."

"Except in spas," Soarin pointed out beginning to mimic the voice. "So, you're here for a day package?"

"Would you like any treatment?" Braeburn joined in before bursting into laughter. "How can ya live with a voice like that?" he wondered out loud. Neither of them were prepared for what happened next.

"Well, my husband doesn't seem to mind," the mare's voice came from the phone. Braeburn and Soarin gasped and quickly turned the phone off. After that fiasco was over, the two stallions leaned against the table, still getting over the shock. Finally after what seemed like hours, Soarin broke the silence.

"Well…I think that went very well."

---

"Surprise, can I talk to ya for a second?" Spitfire asked, sitting down beside Surprise in the mess hall. It wasn't often that she came in here, and whenever she did it was usually a business related reason. The white Wonderbolt was writing stuff down in a notebook and Spitfire suddenly became curious.

"What're you doing?" she asked. Surprise looked up at the captain for a second.

"Just some work," she replied. Spitfire was (ironically) surprised to hear that. Surprise doing work? Had she flown into a parallel universe on her way to work this morning?

"Work, really?" she asked, trying to make sense out of this. Surprise showed Spitfire the paper, which had…a list of decorations? "Okay, this suddenly makes more sense. What's all this stuff for?" Spitfire asked. "And for your sake I'm hoping you're not gonna somehow cram all this in the staffroom."

"Oh, this is for my birthday party," she replied, before scribbling 'mechanical bull' onto the list. Spitfire tapped her on the shoulder.

"But, I thought it was supposed to be a surprise party. Isn't somepony planning it for you?" she asked. Spitfire wasn't much of a party pony, but she did know that another pony was supposed to plan everything for you without you knowing.

"I'm planning it all," Surprise said as if this wasn't weird at all. Maybe Surprise was just getting the wrong idea and needed a brain booster.

"So, you're planning your own 'surprise' party?" the fiery Wonderbolt asked. Surprise nodded and smiled.

"Yep-a-rooni. But I do have a job for you," Surprise gave Spitfire her best puppy dog eyes, trying to persuade her to do whatever she said. Spitfire, unfortunately, was not going to fall for the puppy dog eyes, especially since they freaked her out rather than cuted her out.

"Stop with the eyes, Surprise," she snapped at the poofy maned pegasus. "What's the job? I'm not promising that I'll do it, though," she folded her hooves and raised a brow. Surprise put on her most serious face, which wasn't very serious at all.

"Your job is to surprise me so I have a good reaction for the photo on the night," she told Spitfire her plan. Great. Spitfire wasn't exactly good at the whole 'cheering ponies up' thing, so that could be a problem…a big one.

"I can't do that," the golden mare told Surprise, who made a pouty face.

"Aw, Pweeeeease?" she begged. Spitfire stayed stone-faced and shook her head.

"No way, no how, nu-huh!" she insisted. Surprise clearly wasn't gonna give up that easily.

"Can you at least give it a try"? She asked, making a praying sign with her hooves. Spitfire sighed and rolled her eyes, trying to think of a way to surprise Surprise, which shouldn't even be possible. Aha! She got an idea.

"All your family have been pressed to death by a steamroller and bricked up in a schoolhouse, SURPRISE!" she threw her hooves into the air and gave Surprise her best (fake) smile. Surprise looked completely baffled and gave Spitfire a look that practically yelled 'seriously'.

"That's not a surprise, that's ridiculous!" she told the captain just as Blaze walked past.

"Holy Celestia, Surprise and Spitfire have switched bodies," she teased them, still giggling as she walked off. And even though Spitfire wanted to throw something at the yellow Wonderbolt for saying something that stupid she had to admit that Blaze had a good point.

"Surprise, have you met me? I'm probably not even gonna come to the party," Spitfire told her colleague. Surprise looked aghast and he jaw practically hit the table.

"Wha-really!?" she asked, dumbfounded. "B-b-but I need you there!" Surprise made a face that actually made Spitfire feel guilty for a split second. "You've gotta surprise me," she got a hopeful look on her face. "I got chocolate cake!"

"There's no way you're gonna win me over with sugar, Surprise. Why can't you just ask somepony else to surprise you. I'm sure Blaze or High Winds would do a way better job than me," she insisted. Surprise sighed and got up from her chair, beginning to head to the door.

"Fine, I'll go ask High Winds…and if you don't change your mind about not coming to the party, I'll save you a slice of cake," she called as she left the mess hall.

Spitfire grumbled and rested her head on her forehooves, feeling pretty useless that she couldn't even bring herself to go to Surprise's party because of her stupid antisocial trait. Spitfire and parties just did not get along…at all! Though, she should have been grateful that Surprise's party would mainly be just for the 'Bolts and a few of Surprise's relatives; when she went to the Grand Galloping Gala she would feel much more exposed and, dare she even think it, timid. Usually, Soarin or Surprise would stay by her side at some time or another, though. On any normal day she would full out yell at them for being so protective of her, but at the Gala she would allow them to, purely because the Gala reminded her of certain things.

She especially felt bad for letting Surprise down. There were few ponies in the world that Spitfire would classify as 'friends', but Surprise had somehow hopped, skipped and jumped onto her short list and climbed all the way to the top. Now, Spitfire wouldn't exactly trust Surprise with her life, no, not at all, but she was the pony who had been there for her during several of her life crisis'. Surprise had been her wingpony back at the Academy and ever since then she had made it her goal to cheer Spitfire up whenever she felt down. Unfortunately, no matter how many times Spitfire tried to explain to Surprise that throwing confetti over her would do no good for her mood or her sanity, things just went in one of her ears and out the other.

Suddenly she remembered the whole reason she had been in the mess hall to begin with.

"UGH! Surprise, wait up, I've got thirty seven letters from Pinkie Pie addressed to you!"

---

"Okay, I know I said that after we were done with the playing chicken lesson we could do something fun, but how is pushing a bunch of clouds into a big cluster fun?" Soarin asked Rainbow Dash as she added another small cloud to their now humongous heap.

"It'll be fun once we're done stacking 'em together. I've jumped in leaf piles down in Ponyville and, believe me, that's fun. I thought it'd be even better with clouds," Rainbow Dash explained.

"Oh, well, you could've told me what we were doing before I got bored," Soarin chuckled, deciding that it really did sound like a blast. "But don't you think that this is enough clouds?"

"Soarin, enough is never enough!" Rainbow Dash pushed another cloud into the middle of the huge ball of white fluffiness. "I want this to be the biggest cloud pile known to pony!" she whooshed around the sky collecting every single cloud she saw, even going as far as kicking clumps of cloud off the side of Cloudsdale until Soarin told her to stop. "Just a little more," Rainbow told Soarin as the pile finally grew to half the size of the Dizzitron.

Soarin couldn't help but grin as she kept piling on those clouds. Rainbow Dash was one of those ponies whose mood was contagious. If she was happy, you were too. If she was sad, like she had been that one time she couldn't perform a Blustery Blast, then you would be sad, too.

"Aaaaaaand…done!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, standing on top of the ginormous ball of clouds. Soarin had to admit that he was impressed. Rainbow Dash may have set a new record for largest lump of clouds…oh wait, they were living on a giant lump of clouds…never mind.

"Holy mother of Celestia!" Soarin gazed up at Rainbow Dash's hoof work and whistled. "I didn't even know that there were that many clouds out today."

Rainbow Dash looked pretty proud of herself. "I'm just so awesome I can find 'em no matter where they are," she bragged. "Now, come on Soarin I need your help blasting this thing to smithereens!"

Soarin and Rainbow Dash flew high above the cloud pile, Rainbow Dash trying her best to come up with a dive that would result in the best 'cloudsplosion' as she had called it. For many minutes Soarin hovered in the air and waited for Rainbow Dash to finish planning her dive until finally he couldn't take it anymore.

"Hurry up, Dashie! Are you gonna dive or am I gonna have to drag you down there?" he asked her playfully. Rainbow Dash seemed to plan her dive pretty quickly after that.

"Okay, I've got it!" she declared, rubbing her hooves together. "DIVE!" she didn't even give Soarin a warning before dipping down and thrusting forward at full speed. The blue stallion quickly caught up to her and turned to face her as they plummeted down. Instantly, the two of them burst out laughing and free fell the rest of the way down. When they finally tumbled through the clouds, the world seemed to explode with white and softness. Clouds whirled around them before bursting into nothingness. Once every scrap of cloud had been busted from existence, Soarin and Rainbow Dash flew back down to the ground and collapsed against the Dizzitron, still laughing from the excitement of it all.

"That was so AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash threw her hooves into the air before letting them drop to her sides. She was obviously still high on the adrenaline of the moment and needed a second to cool down. She had certainly been right about how fun it would be.

"Yeah, wasn't that the most EPIC dive ever?" Soarin asked, the thrill of the cloud-jump still pumping through his veins. Rainbow Dash just gave him a smirk and a shrug.

"Meh, I think mine was pretty cool. Yours was at best mediocre," she teased.

"Heeeeey," Soarin wrapped a wing around Rainbow Dash and ruffled her mane. "You can be a real jerk sometimes," he chuckled. Rainbow Dash stood up and took a bow.

"Thank you, that's what I was going for," she joked before sitting back down beside Soarin, still laughing. For a long time after, the two just sat there and talked about anything, really, ranging from Rainbow Dash's adventures to Soarin's days at the Academy. Soarin had been a wingpony in the Academy and was overjoyed by the look on his lead pony's face when he was made a Wonderbolt without him. According to Soarin, that guy had been a huge jerk. Sounds familiar.

"Soarin?" Rainbow Dash asked him after a while.

"Yes?" Soarin turned to face her. Rainbow had nodded up at the pink evening sky.

"Shouldn't you be heading home by now?" she asked him. Soarin suddenly realised that it must be almost seven O'clock, which was when he usually went home. Not to mention he had to fly Braeburn home, too. Oh yeah, Braeburn was temporarily living in the house next to Soarin's. Soarin had paid for it and everything, though he had no idea what he was going to do with an extra house once Braeburn went back to Appaloosa.

"Oh! Yeah, you're right," Soarin stood up and adjusted the tie of his officer's uniform. Rainbow Dash peered closely at his uniform.

"Soarin, have I ever mentioned how cool those uniforms are?" she asked. Soarin thought back to their many conversations.

"Uh…no, I don't think you have," he replied, looking himself over. He remembered that back when he was at the Academy he had loved the look of the officers' uniform, too and now he felt honoured to be wearing one himself.

"Well, I'm saying it now. Those things are one of the coolest uniforms I've ever seen," she told him. Soarin felt himself turn red at her compliment and tugged at his collar.

"Whew, I'm thirsty," he said out of the blue, hoping it would direct Rainbow Dash away from the subject of his pink face, if she was even going to mention it anyway. "Maybe we could grab some colta-cola?" he suggested. Rainbow Dash jumped to her hooves.

"Race ya for it!" she blurted out before zooming away, Soarin's mane being swept to the side as she rocketed past. He quickly stood and spread his own wings.

"Hey!" he called after her. "No fair!"

---

Hi, guys!

First off, I've got a bone to pick with Pinkie Pie. How come you send Surprise a bazillion letters and don't send me a single one? I didn't realise that the two of you hit it off that well? Anyway, Surprise appreciated all your letters, especially the very detailed one about how you first found Gummy.

It feels strange to be back in Cloudsdale, kinda like the first day all over again, only without the unpacking. I miss you guys so much already and I wish you could have come with me (speaking of which, it's a good thing I didn't bring my saddlebags with me 'cause Scootaloo might have jumped in them when I wasn't looking).

Things are back to normal here…well, normal-ish. I've taken to ignoring everything Spring Song says, and boy does she HATE it. I love it when she gets mad. Her face scrunches up like she's been sucking on a lemon and this vein pops out of her forehead. It's hilarious!

Anyway, I'm gonna get some shut-eye. I was out late practising with Soarin and I'm beat.

Write to you tomorrow, and see you soon

Yours outstandingly,

Rainbow Dash

P.S: Pinkie Pie, how much is your postage bill?

"There we go, all done," Rainbow Dash put the letter in her saddlebags, ready to mail in the morning. Lullaby had recently finished telling Rainbow Dash about the Cloudsdale Celebration and how her little brother had tried to fly up into the sky to join the Wonderbolts but his wings had been too tiny.

"I forgot how tiresome babysitting could be," Lullaby flopped down on her bed and let out an exhausted breath. Rainbow Dash recalled having to babysit the Cutie Mark Crusaders once and they had all tried to get their cutie marks by making feather boas. It doesn't take a genius to figure out how that one worked out.

"Well, look on the bright side, we're back now and on the path to becoming Wonderbolt's again," Rainbow sighed, folding her hooves behind her head. Lullaby got up and turned the light out before getting back into bed and turning to face the wall.

"Night, Rainbow," she yawned.

"Night, Lullaby," Rainbow replied before getting under her own covers.

Three hours later, however, the two of them were awoken by frantic knocking on the door. Rainbow Dash leapt out of bed, still half asleep and thrust her hooves around just in case there was a burglar, and Lullaby tumbled out the bed, landing with an 'oof!' on the floor. The purple cadet finally woke up enough to open the door and was met by Paradise, who hurriedly began yapping about something.

"Whoa, whoa, Paradise, slow down, you're not making any sense," Lullaby calmed her down. Paradise took a breath before speaking to Lullaby.

"Spring Song woke up crying again," she hissed to Lullaby, so quiet that Rainbow Dash barely heard her. Lullaby bit her lip and left the room, concern splattered across her face. She turned back to Rainbow Dash.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay?" she said, not even giving Rainbow Dash a chance to reply before she disappeared down the hall with Paradise at her side. That left Rainbow Dash alone in the room with her confusion. She sat up in her bed and read Daring Do and The Griffin's Goblet to pass the time.

Lullaby didn't return for a really long time and Rainbow Dash was considering going to find her when she did come back at last.

"Well, what was that about?" Rainbow Dash asked, snapping her book shut and putting it on the table beside her desk. Lullaby mumbled something inaudible before turning the light out again and clambering back into bed. Rainbow Dash groaned and switched on the lamp on her table. "Hello? I wanna know what's going on!" she snapped. Lullaby babbled some random words before sitting up straight.

"Spring Song just had a nightmare and she needed my special talent to help her out, okay?" Lullaby replied, surprisingly sharply. Rainbow Dash felt suddenly concerned.

"Oh, Spring Song needs a babysitter now, huh? What a big baby," she scoffed. Lullaby folded her hooves and glared angrily at Rainbow Dash. The rainbow maned pegasus had never seen Lullaby mad before, so she was a little shocked. "Oh, I wasn't insulting your talent," Rainbow assured her, holding her hooves up. Lullaby shook her head.

"I know, Rainbow Dash. Just don't make fun of Spring Song for her nightmares, okay?" she turned over to face the wall again, leaving Rainbow Dash stunned. What in the wide wide world of Equestria was going on? Maybe Lullaby was just cranky from being woken up at…two thirty in the morning. Rainbow definitely was.

"Lullaby, what gives, I wanna know what's happening!" she insisted, considering throwing a pillow at her friend to get her to focus. "Is Spring Song sick or something or do bad dreams really freak her out? I'm not making fun of her or anything, it's just that I wanna know really badly!" she practically begged.

"Ugh! Rainbow, have you ever heard the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'?" Lullaby asked, not moving to face her.

"Yes, of course I have, but I'm not a cat, so just tell me, PLEASE!" Rainbow pleaded. It was then that Lullaby whipped round to face her and yelled!

"IT DOESN'T CONCERN YOU!"

Rainbow Dash jumped at her uncharacteristic outburst and shut up. She obviously wasn't going to get Lullaby to tell her anything, so she switched off the light. Whatever it was, it sure sounded serious. Whenever Rainbow Dash had nightmares she would just suck it up and deal with it, she couldn't ever remember crying about them, except maybe when she was a really small filly. Spring Song was an adult, so this was clearly a more severe matter. Maybe she could find out more in the morning. She turned her lamp off and faced the other wall, hoping that Lullaby wasn't angry with her.

"Night, Lullaby," Rainbow Dash whispered.

The only reply was a curt grunt, and then silence.