Luna'snight625- Thanks! Have some leftover *cyber birthday cake* :D

Litestardt- *Bows* Glad you like the story so much!

Authors Note: CHAPTER 20! Everybody do the happy dance! *puts on 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang*

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"GAH!" Rainbow Dash and Lullaby exclaimed as they left the Mess Hall, darn near running straight into Paradise. The green mare had been following them all day long and it was starting to get a little creepy.

"Paradise would you give it a rest already?" Rainbow Dash snapped at her. Ever since she and Lullaby had got up that morning she hadn't left them alone. She had been eavesdropping outside their door for who knows how much of the night, she'd insisted on being partners with Rainbow Dash during drills; she had eaten with them during breakfast, lunch and dinner, and had even waited for Rainbow Dash outside the bathroom. It had gone too far!

"Yeah, you've been so clingy today!" Lullaby agreed. Paradise shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "What's gotten into you? Did Spring Song put you up to this?"

"I refuse to say," Paradise stuck her nose in the air, determined not to spill the beans.

"I'll give you a candy bar if you tell us," Lullaby sighed. Instantly, Paradise spewed out answers like a furry, winged volcano.

"Okay! Yeah, Spring Song told me to do this so that you don't give away the you-know-what," Paradise said to Lullaby. Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled her eyes. Lullaby had insisted that she couldn't tell Rainbow Dash what Spring Song had dreamt about last night…and had apologized for yelling at her…nine times that day. Rainbow had completely lost interest in Spring Song's dream by now anyway. She couldn't care less about what went on in the devil-mare's head…and didn't really want to find out.

"UGH! Paradise, you can just stop! I Para-Promised that I wouldn't tell anypony and I meant it!" Lullaby stamped a hoof on the ground. Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and cleared her throat, catching her two fellow cadets' attention.

"What's a Para-Promise?" she asked. Lullaby gave Paradise a cautious glance before explaining.

"It's Paradise's special oath…um…how does it go?" the purple pegasus asked Paradise. The green cadet stood up straight and cleared her throat, reciting the Para-Promise.

"I solemnly swear

That I wouldn't dare

To betray another mare

Or I'd better beware."

"Well…it makes the Pinkie Promise sound normal for a change," Rainbow Dash said to nopony in particular. Paradise looked confused at the mention of a Pinkie Promise (well, more confused than usual, anyway), but didn't say anything about it.

"Paradise, just trust me on this, okay? I'm not going to say a word on the subject," Lullaby insisted in the most serious voice that she could manage.

"And frankly my dear Paradise, I don't give a damn," Rainbow Dash added. She'd heard that line in a movie once. Paradise didn't look convinced, but slowly backed away.

"Okay, but you have been warned," Paradise backed all the way down the hallway and rounded the corner extra slowly, to show the two mares that she meant what she was saying. About four seconds later Paradise sauntered back round the corner again and walked briskly down the hall in the other direction. "…the dorms are the other way," she grumbled as she passed Rainbow Dash and Lullaby. "You have been warned!" she repeated less seriously as she vanished round the other corner. For a moment there was silence until Rainbow Dash muttered something to herself as well as Lullaby.

"When did it get to the stage of my life where that isn't a strange thing to be seeing?" she shrugged. Lullaby shrugged before heading down towards the dorms, too. She looked over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash when she reached the end of the hallway.

"Are you coming?" she asked. Rainbow Dash shook her head.

"Nah, I'm gonna head to the kitchen. Soarin was gonna teach me how to pull up at the last second," the rainbow maned cadet replied.

"Oh, sounds like fun," Lullaby commented. "But it sounds a little dangerous."

"It is," Rainbow affirmed. "If you misjudge it by even a millisecond you'll crush every bone in your body," she added as if it were absolutely nothing to worry about. Lullaby looked completely baffled.

"…okay…" was all she said before trotting round the corner. Rainbow Dash turned and headed to the kitchen, ready to show off her stuff once again.

---

"Well, that's the last o' the food," Braeburn sighed with relief as he came out of the storage closet and locked the door behind him. The kitchen's delivery had finally arrived that afternoon and Braeburn had been sorting it into the right spaces with Soarin's 'help'.

"Thank Celestia for that," the pegasus stallion commented, sipping some apple juice. "That was exhausting," he added, throwing his hooves up into the air to add extra emphasis. Braeburn slitted his eyes at his friend.

"What d'ya mean 'exhausting'? You've been sittin' there the whole time while Ah did all the work!" he scolded the Wonderbolt, who looked pretty insulted.

"Of course I helped. Which one of us carried in the carrots, huh?" Soarin asked, folding his hooves. Braeburn rubbed his forehead with a hoof.

"You ate most o' them!" he almost yelled. Soarin was one of his best friends in the whole world, but he could certainly be the most annoying pony in Equestria when he put his mind to it. Though, Braeburn knew that he should be used to it by now. Soarin had acted like that since the day he had first met him, and most definitely before that, too. Sometimes Braeburn wondered what Soarin was better at: flying or slacking off.

"Well, look on the bright side, Brae, that's one less type of vegetable for the cadets to eat!" Soarin tried to look at things optimistically. "You should be thanking me."

"Ah'm not gonna thank ya, Soar. Ya get 'thank you's' when you do somethin' helpful. Sittin' on yer rump snackin' while Ah haul in all the stuff is not helpful…at all!" Braeburn sat down beside an oven and fanned himself with his hat.

"Fine then, Mr Grumpy Pants, suit yourself. But next time I won't be so eager to help out," Soarin blew a raspberry at the earth pony and Braeburn started wringing his hat in his hooves, knowing that if he didn't he'd twist Soarin's throat instead.

"Getting a little angry, are we?" Soarin snickered. Braeburn hoped that this wasn't one of Soarin's attempts to cheer him up, because if it was it was going to do no good here.

"Lost yer tie…have we?" Braeburn asked, messing the 'are-we's' up. Soarin pointed a hoof at Braeburn and let out a teasing 'HA!'

"Getting the 'are-we' wrong and saying 'have we?' instead of 'are we?' are we?" he asked before looking down at his uniform. "…oh, I really have lost my tie," he chuckled nervously. That made Braeburn laugh too. That was one good thing about Soarin; he always knew how to lighten the tension between them.

"Soarin, you in there?" Rainbow Dash flapped over the serving counter and landed on the floor in front of the Wonderbolt co-captain. Braeburn quickly checked to make sure that none of her feathers fell out when she flew over the counter, which he had grown a habit of doing over time.

"Hey, Dashie, how was drills?" Soarin asked, sipping some more of his apple juice. Rainbow Dash leaned against the counter beside him and recalled the morning's events.

"Yeah, it was okay. We all had to measure our wing power with one of those fancy anemometers," Rainbow reported. Soarin nodded with interest.

"So, what's your wing power?" he asked her. Rainbow beamed with pride.

"17.3 wing power. The best out of everypony. Spring Song got second best with 17.1 and you should've seen the look on her face when she heard my score. That vein popped out of her head again!" Rainbow ranted. Soarin gave her his congratulations and ruffled her mane, which was another of his habits.

"So, you ready to head out?" Soarin asked, downing the last of his apple juice. Rainbow Dash nodded enthusiastically and began to follow Soarin outside. Just as they were about to head through the door, another pony came through. Soarin was so surprised that he screamed.

"GAH!" he shrieked!

"WHAT!?" Braeburn yelled.

"WHA!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"GAAAH!" Soarin screamed again. "STOP!" he raised a hoof. "We're in a scream loop. Stop!"

"Would you keep it down," Spitfire slugged Soarin on the shoulder, making him yelp. Braeburn got down from his chair, but couldn't manage to move any more. Well, on the bright side he was freezing less when he was around Spitfire…wait…never mind. Braeburn seized up at the captain's appearance in his kitchen and looked over at Soarin, his eyes screaming 'help me out!'

Soarin raised a brow at the golden mare. "What are you doin' here, Spit?" he asked her. Spitfire walked over to one of the drawers and took out a cleaver. "And why do you have a massive knife?" he added, beginning to look a little worried. Braeburn made a mental note to give Soarin a lesson on kitchen equipment after he had finished hanging out with Rainbow Dash…he would have unfroze by then.

"First off, the only ponies allowed to call me Spit are the ones with a death wish," she started, giving him a threatening glare. "And second, I'm trying to prove to Surprise that I can surprise her. She's on her way here now," Spitfire looked through the kitchen door, awaiting the arrival of the poofy maned Wonderbolt.

"So, why do you need a cleaver for that?" Rainbow Dash asked. Braeburn was relieved to see that somepony knew what a cleaver looked like. Spitfire shushed them all when somepony came through the Mess Hall doors.

"Will you just be quiet?" she hissed. "This will surprise her," she added to herself. Braeburn wondered what she was planning.

"Hey, is anypony-" Surprise began to say.

Spitfire suddenly launched herself over the serving counter with the cleaver in her mouth and Braeburn could see that Surprise looked absolutely terrified. The white Wonderbolt screamed and fell backwards onto her haunches. When she saw that it was just Spitfire she stopped screeching and began hyperventilating, trying to calm herself down. Spitfire put the cleaver on a table.

"Surprise~!" she exclaimed. Surprise pointed at her face.

"How…is this…a surprise face!?" she asked between puffs, her eyes still wide with fear. "This is a face of terror from a sudden attack!" she slowly got back to her hooves, still a little shaken up. Spitfire rolled her eyes and walked back into the kitchen with Surprise following. The fiery captain sat at one of the counters, mumbling to herself, propping her head up with an elbow. Braeburn was considering whether or not he should say something to her when Surprise spoke up.

"Anyway, I was just coming down to ask Braeburn if he wouldn't mind making some food for my party tomorrow," she looked over at the earth pony with pleading eyes. Braeburn nodded his head.

"Sure, Ah'll bake some stuff, no charge," he agreed.

"Great! This is gonna be the bestest party ever!" Surprise gave him a 'thank you' before springing out of the room, seeming to have gotten over nearly having a heart attack. Rainbow Dash prodded Soarin in the ribs.

"Soarin, what are we still doing here? I thought you were gonna teach me how to pull up at the last moment?" Rainbow reminded him. Soarin jolted up as if he were being electrocuted with the reminder and headed out the door.

"Oh yeah, of course. Last one to the training grounds is a rotten apple!" Soarin zoomed off with Rainbow Dash following, yelling after him that he had an unfair head start.

That's when Braeburn noticed that he was alone…with Spitfire…in the kitchen.

"What should Ah do? What should Ah do?" he thought frantically to himself, his heart pounding in his head. Well, first he needed to move! Braeburn finally got a grip and began walking. He was too shy to walk over to her, so he made his way over to the sink instead. He knew that there was a dishwasher right next to the sink, but his mind wasn't exactly working correctly at that moment, so he began wiping a mug with a damp cloth.

"So…" he tried to think of something to say. "Are you gonna go to Surprise's party?" he asked. Yeah, that was a good conversation starter, he was sure of it. Spitfire didn't even look up as she replied.

"No."

That was it.

"Oh…" he felt pretty disappointed. "How come?" he asked. The captain finally looked up from staring at the counter.

"Because I'm just not a party pony," she told him before looking away again. Braeburn really wanted her to be there.

"Well, um…ya never know. Ya could enjoy yerself if ya gave it a chance," he tried to sway her decision. Braeburn wasn't exactly known for changing ponies' minds, though.

"Sorry, Cowboy, I just…can't," Spitfire sounded like she was trying to come up with a good enough excuse. Braeburn knew that she and Surprise were pretty close, so he couldn't understand why she wouldn't want to go to her party, but nevertheless, he told himself that he shouldn't be forceful with her, even though he wanted her to go really badly.

"Okay then…" he knew that his disappointment was evident in his voice. "Ah was really hopin' you'd go…but Ah won't push ya t' do anythin' ya don't want to," he turned back to the sink, putting the mug he had been cleaning to the side of it, feeling pretty disheartened. His head drooped so much that his hat fell over his eyes. He pushed it back up and tried to think of something else that he could say.

"Will you be there?"

Braeburn's ears pricked straight up and his eyes darn near bulged. Did he just imagine that?

"W-what?" he asked in disbelief, looking over his shoulder at Spitfire and smiling hopefully at her. She finally turned to face him and looked him right in the eye.

"You heard me, Cowboy," she used her nickname for him, which of course made Braeburn flush a little…okay, a lot. Spitfire was clearly trying to be serious about this, but he could see that her cheeks were turning red, too. "Are you gonna be there or not?"

"Um…" Braeburn's mind was currently doing a series of flips and somersaults. She…she actually wanted him there. HIM! "Yes, ma'am, Ah'm gonna be there," he managed to reply. She was quiet for a few seconds, looking down at the floor. Finally she spoke up.

"Fine, I'll go," she sighed. Braeburn smiled one of the biggest smiles ever and even gave a little jump of glee.

"Ah promise you'll have a great time, ma'am," he told her, feeling the happiest he had been all day.

"Just don't tell Surprise I'm going," she told him in a serious tone as if she were giving a cadet an order. Braeburn gave her a confused look.

"Huh? Why?" he asked her. She then got a cunning look on her face.

"I've just got an idea. That's all."

---

"Whoa, what the-!" Soarin exclaimed as he opened the double doors to the Mess Hall and Paradise fell through them. She had obviously been leaning against them. The green cadet landed face first on the cloudy ground and let out a yelp of pain.

"Are you okay, Paradise!?" Rainbow exclaimed, helping her to her hooves.

"Yeah, it's just pain," she replied, rubbing the side of her head. Soarin was completely bewildered. Who was this mare anyway? Hmm… oh yeah, she was one of those cadets who'd spilt the paint on Prank Day.

"What're you doing, anyway?" he asked her, gesturing to the doors. Paradise let out a nervous giggle and faced Rainbow Dash.

"Well, Spring Song kinda yelled at me when I told her that I'd leave you and Lullaby alone, so…she threatened to make me sleep in the janitor's closet if I didn't start following you again," she explained. Soarin was instantly suspicious.

"Wait a second, why are you spying on Dashie?" he asked Paradise. Paradise 'zipped' her mouth shut and shook her head, clearly telling Soarin that she wasn't going to tell him anything.

"Ugh!" Rainbow Dash groaned. "Spring Song, Lullaby and Paradise know something that I don't and they don't want me finding out what it is," she explained. Paradise shrugged and nodded before making weird mumbling noises.

"What?" Soarin asked, once her inaudible sounds got on his nerves. Paradise 'unzipped' her mouth, making Rainbow Dash face hoof, and said something that Soarin could actually understand.

"That's right. It's my duty to Spring Song to make sure that this secret stays a secret," she put her hoof to her heart as if she was reciting a speech (which, knowing Paradise, she probably was).

"First off I'm gonna ignore the fact that you just said 'duty'," Soarin snickered, finding the whole duty/doody thing absolutely hilarious, per the norm. "And I'm gonna go straight ahead with your punishment," Soarin used his best take-charge voice. He didn't use it very often because he was a pretty laid-back guy, but as far as he knew spying on ponies was again Academy regulations.

"Punishment!?" Paradise exclaimed, her jaw dropping open. "B-b-but I need to get back to Spring Song and-"

"That can wait," Soarin insisted, putting on his most stern face. "Give me 50 laps, now!" he didn't yell, but he still sounded pretty harsh. Paradise looked like she was about to say something to defend herself, but she just groaned instead and slunk away. Soarin glanced at Rainbow Dash and saw that she looked pretty impressed.

"Whoa, Soarin, I've never seen you order somepony around like that before," the cyan cadet stated, giving him an approving nod. Soarin just shrugged casually and acted like it was nothing.

"What's the point of being co-captain if you can't act like the cadets' superior every once in a while?" he asked rhetorically. He headed through the doors with Rainbow Dash beside him and sat at the table closest to the huge window, which stretched all the way from the floor to the ceiling, giving everypony the perfect view of the training grounds no matter where in the room they sat.

From here the two of them could see Paradise as she zoomed around the track. Paradise wasn't the fastest of ponies, but Soarin had seen some of her tricks when he watched the cadets training through this window during drills and figured that they were her biggest strength.

"So, Dashie, I'm guessing the whole Stink Song think isn't improving," he said. Rainbow Dash burst out laughing at the mention of 'Stink Song' and shook her head through her giggles.

"Nah, she's still the biggest moron in Cloudsdale, but I'm just ignoring her," Rainbow replied, folding her arms behind her head and leaning back just as Paradise reached her fifteenth lap. Soarin decided to lighten the mood by saying something completely random.

"If you want my personal opinion, I think that Spring Song looks a little like a sea monkey," Rainbow Dash's cheeks puffed up before she erupted into a fit of cackling laughter, most likely imagining Spring Song swimming around in a tank with fins and a three second attention span. It actually wasn't that hard to picture. Rainbow Dash wiped her eyes and exhaled the last of her giggles out.

"Nice one, Soarin. I'm gonna have to tell Lullaby that later. She'll love it!" Rainbow was wearing a huge smile now, and Soarin felt pleased that he had been the one to make her grin. Everypony looked much better with a smile to him.

"Does Paradise usually struggle like this?" Soarin nodded out the window at the green cadet, who had reached her fortieth lap by then and was so exhausted that her hooves were dragging on the ground as she fluttered along the track. Rainbow Dash nodded.

"Yeah, Paradise is one of those ponies who's really fast at the start of her flight and then gets worn out really easily. Her wing power's 12.5 according to that anemometer," Rainbow Dash explained. Paradise only had six more laps left and she was practically hovering along with sweat dripping down her face, leaving a trail of the stinky stuff on the track.

"Should I feel sorry for her?" Soarin asked Rainbow Dash, unsure of her view on Paradise. Rainbow Dash nodded.

"Yeah, it's kinda hard not to feel sorry for Paradise," Rainbow replied. Soarin was suddenly a little curious.

"What do ya mean?" he asked. Rainbow Dash stared out the window as Paradise made it to her second to last lap.

"Paradise is actually a pretty nice pony, but Spring Song's kind of her…overlord," she explained. "Paradise will literally do anything for her. She'll blow dry her wings, let her use her as a hoofstool, carry her…well, actually I haven't seen Paradise carry Spring Song, but I'm sure that if somepony gave her the idea she'd make her do it. Spring Song's basically a poisonous reptile trapped in the body of a mare trapped in the body of a demon, trapped in the body of a slimmer mare trapped in the body of a jerk-," Rainbow Dash began ranting.

Soarin was about to get her to stop talking when the doors to the training grounds opened. Paradise literally dragged herself through, soaked with sweat and red faced. Her tongue lolled out her mouth and her mane was ruffled. She was an absolute mess.

"I'm…done!" she announced before letting her head drop down. The double doors then closed, shutting her tail in the door. Soarin thought it looked both hilarious and pitiful at the same time.

"What the- Paradise!"

Soarin and Rainbow Dash looked over to the door, where a familiar pink pegasus was poking her head through. Paradise slowly lifted her head and smiled weakly when she saw Spring Song.

"Hello!" she greeted in a half-hearted sing-song voice. Spring Song made her way over to Paradise and helped her to her hooves again, tugging her tail out of the door and letting her lean on her shoulder. Of course, that only lasted a second before Spring Song caught a whiff of Paradise's sweaty…everything and pulled away, letting Paradise stumble a little before managing to stand straight.

"What in Equestria happened to you?" Spring Song asked, wiping her shoulder with a hoof as if trying to slap the sweat away. Paradise sat down on one of the chairs at the end of a table and explained.

"I just had to fly 50 laps," she replied honestly. Spring Song, instead of asking her whether Paradise needed some water…or immediate treatment, just rolled her eyes and tutted.

"50 laps, Paradise, you look like you've just flown around the whole of Equestria in ten minutes," she commented.

"Seriously, Spring Song, I did 50 laps, honest," Paradise was so naïve that she didn't notice that she was making herself sound pretty pathetic. Spring Song still didn't seem convinced. Soarin could definitely see that Spring Song liked to set her friends' standards pretty high; it was like she could only be friends with the serious athlete.

"Did you fly the laps in a lake?" she looked Paradise up and down. She certainly looked like it. Paradise stood up and wiped her brow with a forehoof.

"Nah, I just sweat when I'm tired…we all do," she shrugged before shaking her fur out like a dog. Spring Song shrieked and leapt back in alarm as if the droplets of sweat were toxic. Soarin and Rainbow Dash did, however, get a little grossed out when they were splattered with some of the stuff.

"Eww, Paradise, that's disgusting," Spring Song gagged, her face scrunched up with disgust. Paradise dipped her head so that sweat trickled down her nosed and dripped onto the floor.

"Sorry, Spring Song," she muttered. "I'm so exhausted. I think I'm gonna go take a nap," the green mare decided, wringing some of her drenched blue mane so that what seemed like a galleon of sweat pooled on the ground. Spring Song let out another series of gags before hurriedly heading out the door.

"Maybe you could take a nap in the shower!" she cringed before turning the corner and vanishing. Soarin began to feel a little guilty.

"Heh…sorry, Paradise," he rubbed the back of his head. Paradise peered up at him and shrugged.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have been spying on Rainbow Dash. Believe me, I'll never do that again. Para-Promise!" she gave him a salute and crossed her heart before following after Spring Song. Rainbow Dash shook her head as Paradise left (though the smell didn't).

"You're right. I feel reeeeeaaally sorry for Paradise," she agreed with Soarin's earlier statement once again. Soarin snorted with laughter.

"I feel sorrier for Feather Duster," he chuckled, looking down at the sweat littered floor. "She's the one who has to mop up all this sweat!