RosaSilvermist- And I really wanna tell you all what their secret is! It's so hard! But their secret will be revealed eventually, it just might not be for a long while.

Sparkling-nexis137- I give you permission to hug Paradise. I can't blame ya; she's adorable!

Luna'snight625- I'm glad I made your day. You made mine by saying that. :D

Authors Note: Wait! What's that on the chapter-selection-thingamabob? A SCROLLER! Never had one of those before! Yes, I realise that I'm getting hyped about a little sliding chapter finder, but I DON'T THINK I'M WEIRD! :D

---

"This is so epic!" Rainbow Dash grinned like a maniac, hopping up and down as if she was on a sugar buzz. "I can't believe I'm at a real Wonderbolt's birthday party!" she looked around the room at the gathered ponies. All the Wonderbolts were there, of course, and a few other ponies that Rainbow Dash was guessing were relatives of Surprise. Either that or they were all just coincidentally as cheerful as her.

Rainbow Dash felt especially proud that she was the only cadet there. When Surprise had asked her if she'd like to go she had said: 'Come on, what's a party without the bestest cadet there?' Rainbow Dash had almost squealed at the Wonderbolt mare as she said that. Then again, it wasn't much of a shocker that Surprise liked her best, everypony liked Rainbow Dash…except a certain somepony who shall remain nameless.

Rainbow's mouth watered as she glanced over at the snack table. She couldn't remember ever seeing so much sugary stuff in one place; not even at Sugarcube Corner! There were candies galore, more cake that you could shake a cake at, and enough ice cream to feed a small herd of buffalo for days! Fire Streak and Lightning Streak were having a contest to see who could eat the most ice cream without getting a brain freeze…it didn't look like it was working out all that well.

The entire house had been decorated with banners and balloons of every colour. There was a small table stacked with gifts all the way at the back and the floor was littered with streamers and confetti, courtesy of Surprise. There was also a group of pegasi playing pin the tail on the pony in one corner of the living room. Rainbow had never thought that Surprise would be the kind of pony to have a house full of expensive stuff, but she had been proven wrong the moment she had stepped through the door. Surprise's house was pretty big compared to the other houses in Cloudsdale, well she was a Wonderbolt, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise (ironic). Every room was decorated with furniture that looked like it belonged to a much more upper-class pony and Rainbow Dash couldn't help but feel a little bit envious that three of Surprise's relatives were already occupying the huge water-filled couch.

"Hey, Dashie, check me out!" Soarin called Rainbow Dash from his spot at the snack table. Rainbow looked over to him and burst out laughing when she saw that he had two breadsticks in his mouth and was pretending to be a walrus. Suddenly, Surprise made her way through the front door, pulling a wagon with what had to be the one of the most delicious looking cakes Rainbow Dash had ever seen!

"Whoa, Surprise, what is that, a cake or a building?" Soarin asked, craning his neck to look up at it since it was almost twice his size. Surprise dropped the wagon's handle to speak.

"That friend of yours, Rainbow, um…Derpy, that's her name I think, just delivered this all the way from Sugarcube Corner. When we were at the Celebration I asked Pinkie Pie if she wouldn't mind baking something for my birthday, so she created this: The Yumiliciously Edible Super Scrumptious Strawberry Surprise Spectacular! Or the YESSSSS for short!"

"It's definitely very…big," Rainbow Dash drooled, eying the entire cake from top to bottom. It had ten layers, each coated entirely with pink icing and rainbow sprinkles scattered all over it. Each of the layers was decorated with a ring of strawberries around it, and if Rainbow Dash flew higher she could see that Pinkie Pie had placed a figurine of Surprise holding a bunch of balloons on top. She wanted to dive in and eat it right now!

"Don't even think about it, Rainbow Dash!" Surprise called up to Rainbow as she hovered above the cake. Had her urges to devour the entire dessert been that obvious? Darn it. "Could you two help me get this on the table?" the white pegasus asked Dash and Soarin. The three of them (with some difficulty) lifted up the huge cake on their back and managed to get it on the table and onto the huge platter in the centre. Soarin wiped some sweat from his brow and exhaled.

"I hope this thing's as delicious as it is heavy," he gave a half-hearted snigger. Rainbow Dash nodded, still staring at the cake with wide eyes.

"I bet it is, if it's anything like the MMMM," she told Soarin, who raised an eyebrow at her.

"Hmm?" he made a humming noise as if to say 'what?'

"The Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness," Rainbow explained. "There was an incident where we had to deliver that cake to Canterlot for a baking contest, and…well, it might have got partially eaten by…someponies who will remain anonymous…" she trailed off, putting on her most innocent face. "…and it turned into this cool mystery! Twilight said it'd make a good novel, but it'd still be nothing compared to Daring Do…and I don't wanna be the villain- wait, no I mean…an extra! I don't wanna be one of those minor characters," she tried to steer her way around the conversation about her eating the cake. She was still pretty embarrassed about that.

"MMMM, YESSSSS?" Soarin asked, sceptical. Rainbow nodded her head.

"Mm, yes," she replied, grateful that Soarin hadn't asked her anymore about the train debacle. Soarin looked back at the cake.

"Why does Pinkie give these cakes such strange names?" he asked, reaching a hoof out to scrape some frosting off only to have it slapped away by Surprise, who gave him an 'I'm watching you' look.

"Because their full names don't fit on the tags," Rainbow Dash explained. Surprise nodded with agreement.

"Yeah, if she tried to fit this cake's entire name onto the tag it'd be this long!" the Wonderbolt mare stretched her arms out to the side to demonstrate. Soarin shrugged and nodded as if to say that she had a fair point.

"Whoa, Nelly, Surprise! Yer gonna have a lot o' leftovers, even with all these ponies here," Braeburn commented, walking over to stand beside the white pegasus. He wasn't wearing his stetson today; he'd told them it was because this party was an important occasion, so he wanted to look presentable.

"Meh, nothing I can't snack on later," Surprise shrugged with a flick of her hoof. Rainbow Dash didn't think that Surprise's stomach would be able to handle all that cake, but then again she had seen Pinkie Pie consume almost the entire dessert after the train fiasco. Maybe they had similar randomness when it came to eating, too.

"So, when can we eat this thing?" Soarin asked, licking his lips and rubbing his forehooves together, while staring at the cake as if he was the hunter and it was his prey.

"Once everypony gets here, of course," Surprise rolled her eyes. She turned to Rainbow Dash and pointed at Soarin as if to say 'idiot'. Rainbow Dash stifled a giggle by covering her mouth with a hoof. She didn't think Soarin was an idiot; a goofball, maybe, but certainly not an idiot.

"Well, how many more ponies have to turn up?" Soarin asked, beginning to look impatient. Surprise looked off into the distance as if trying to remember.

"Can't remember…I'll go check everypony off the list," she replied after a few seconds of silence (which wasn't exactly silent since there was music blasting from the speakers that Surprise had put on either side of the room). Rainbow titled her head.

"What list?" she asked. Surprise reached into her curly mane and pulled out some rolled up paper, shaking it to straighten it out before waving it in Rainbow Dash's face. Trust Surprise to keep her things in such weird places. Though Rainbow supposed that should be used to ponies putting their belongings in crazy places, since she had lost count of how many times Pinkie Pie had put an eye patch in her chimney.

With that, Surprise hopped away to count all her guests and tick them off her list. Rainbow was about to call her back so she could tick their names off the list, but decided against it since it would probably be quicker if Surprise was left to her own devices. The sooner she got this done the sooner they'd be able to eat the YESSSSS!

"Hey, Rainbow, hey Thoarin," Fleetfoot fluttered over to land between Soarin and Rainbow Dash.

"Fleet, whatever you do, don't look at the cake; I think it hypnotises you into wanting to eat it," Soarin told the light blue mare, staring cryptically at the cake. Fleetfoot looked at the table anyway.

"Looks pretty deliciouth," she lisped, slowly nodding her head. Surprise suddenly popped up beside her, making her yelp with (of course) surprise.

"It's got more strawberry stuff in it than dough!" she told Fleetfoot, before checking the senior Wonderbolt's name off her list and bouncing off again, making a springing noise every time her hooves left the ground. Fleetfoot gave Surprise an awkward look before turning back to the table.

"That'th nice and all, but I wathn't looking at the cake," she smirked. Rainbow Dash got an amused look on her face when she followed Fleetfoot's line of vision to Braeburn, who was talking to Rapidfire and Silver Lining at the table. She looked over at Soarin, expecting him to have the same look on his face, though she only saw concern on his. Odd.

"Hi, Brae," Fleetfoot literally pulled Braeburn out of his conversation with the two stallions. The earth pony looked a little bit baffled about Fleetfoot's actions, but didn't say anything about it.

"Hi, Fleetfoot. You look nice today," he said politely. Fleetfoot giggled proudly.

"Thank you. I hoped you'd notice," she half-bragged before trotting off with him at her side. Rainbow Dash noticed something going on near the other end of the table.

"GAAAAAH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" Fire Streak yelled in agony, clutching his head and collapsing to the floor, still screaming. Looks like eating all that ice cream had finally taken its toll on the off-white stallion. Lightning Streak looked pretty pleased that he'd beaten his twin brother in their little contest, and just exploded into laughter instead of trying to help.

"Pfft, those two," Soarin shook his head at the two brothers before turning to face Rainbow Dash. "Oh, yeah, I got you some punch. It's pineapple," Soarin passed her a cup of the stuff. Rainbow gratefully grabbed it and thanked him before taking a huge sip. Pineapple was her favourite flavour.

"To Surprise!" Soarin clinked his cup against Rainbow's. Rainbow nodded and took another swig.

"Yep. To Surprise!"

---

"Oh, I forgot to return the compliment," Fleetfoot said to Braeburn as she sat down beside him on one of Surprise's oddly expensive looking sofa's and folded one of her hind legs over the other. "You look really good, too," she smirked at him.

"Aw, shucks. Thanks, Fleetfoot," Braeburn chuckled. The Wonderbolt mare scooted a little closer to him.

"No, theriously, you could pass for a prince," she gushed. Braeburn turned red with embarrassment, almost the same embarrassment as he had felt when Cadence had talked to him at the Celebration. He was not looking forward to what Applejack was going to say to him at the next Apple Family Reunion, that's for sure.

"Ya think?" he joked around, knowing he could never look like one of those snobbish princes. He recalled Applejack telling him one time about a prince that Rarity used to have a crush on and he'd turned out to be a huge jerk. He certainly wouldn't want to be anything like that. Being a humble earth pony was good enough for him.

"I know!" Fleetfoot replied, nudging his shoulder affectionately. "You're kind and caring and thuper handsome…" she was leaning against him now. "Any mare would be lucky to have you," she added. Braeburn's mind instantly drifted to Spitfire…if anything, he'd be the lucky one.

"Well, Ah wouldn't go that far," he insisted, shifting a little in his seat and looking down at the carpeted floor, turning even redder. Fleetfoot seemed to be sticking to her own opinion, though.

"Oh, I would, Braeburn," she leaned closer and whispered into his ear in the most seductive voice she could muster. "I would."

But Braeburn wasn't paying attention to her anymore because his mind was someplace else right now. He had looked up to see her coming through the door, looking a little out of place. Rainbow and Soarin, who were drinking punch by the door when she came in seemed pretty shocked to see her there, Soarin in particular. Braeburn had never seen her out of uniform before, and now that she wasn't clad with her usual dark blue captain's attire, he could see just how bright her fur was. She had nothing to hide her eyes behind now and even though he knew that he should be used to them by now they still mesmerized him.

She looked beautiful.

"Wow…" Braeburn breathed, hearts practically forming in his eyes.

"Braeburn?"

The earth pony was snapped from his daze by Fleetfoot poking him in the ribs.

"You okay, there? You theemed miles away," she asked him, looking concerned. Braeburn shook the last of the stars from his head and got up from the sofa.

"Yeah, Ah'm fine. Could ya excuse me fer a moment; Ah've gotta talk t' somepony," she told her. Fleetfoot slowly nodded her head, looking vaguely disappointed.

"Thure, go ahead. I'll jutht be waiting here," she dismissed him. Braeburn took a moment to relax before heading over to the door where Spitfire was speaking to Rainbow Dash and Soarin.

"Hey, guys," he said to the three of them, aware that he was sounding a little dopey at the moment. "Ah'm glad ya made it, ma'am," he smiled over at Spitfire, who gave him a friendly look, which was an unusual but pleasant change.

"Thanks," she muttered before talking to Rainbow Dash again. Soarin raised a brow at Braeburn and ushered him a couple of feet away.

"Surprise told me she wasn't coming…" the pegasus stallion suddenly noticed the proud gleam in Braeburn's green eyes. "Did…did you persuade her to come?" he asked, disbelievingly.

"Maybe…" he replied, though his face was saying 'guilty as charged'. Soarin's jaw almost hit the ground.

"Brae, I wouldn't go as far as proud, but I'm definitely impressed," Soarin told him before puffing out his chest. "I guess my advice to you is working," he bragged. Braeburn sighed and rolled his eyes. It was just like Soarin to take this opportunity to be a big show-off.

"Yeah, thanks Soar," Braeburn mumbled, realising that Soarin's advice actually had helped him a little. Soarin gave him a playful (rough) shove.

"You're welcome," he got a look on his face that suggested he had an idea. Oh no. "Ya know, maybe I should get a job as an advice guru!" he said.

"No," Braeburn replied flatly, his expression blank.

"Seriously. Everypony would call me…" he started whispering. "The Love Whisperer."

"Nopony would call ya that!" Braeburn whispered back. Soarin looked a little offended.

"Yes they would, you just wouldn't be able to hear them because they'll be whispering it!" he kept on whispering.

"Let's stop whisperin'!" Braeburn ended the conversation.

"WHOOOOOOOOAAAA!"

Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Braeburn and Spitfire looked towards the pony cheering. Surprise was bouncing up and down at a bazillion miles an hour, as if she was in the middle of a massive sugar rush. She rocketed over to them and skidded to a halt in front of Spitfire so they were almost nose to nose.

"You came! YOU ACTUALLY CAME!" she squealed looking like she was going to burst with joy. She motioned for High Winds to come over. "Quick, I've got my surprise face! Take the picture!" Surprise ordered her friend, who grabbed the camera that was hanging around her neck and snapped a photo of the white Wonderbolt. Surprise jumped round and round in circles before leaping at Spitfire and wrapping her hooves around her neck, giving her a rather ironic surprise.

"This is the bestest surprise ever!" Surprise squeezed her tightly. Spitfire hesitated before hugging her, too.

"Heh…no problem," she replied. Surprise was equally as shocked by the gesture. She pulled back for a moment.

"Hey, you hugged me back!" she smiled even wider before giving the fiery Wonderbolt and even stronger squeeze. "I knew you had a heart somewhere in there."

"I'm flattered…" Spitfire patted the poofy maned mare's back. "...but at the same time, offended, so thank you and get off!" she pushed her friend away, though she was wearing a tiny smirk. Braeburn realised then that that must have been what Spitfire's idea was yesterday. She had planned to surprise Surprise, simply by showing up. Clever.

Surprise giggled and bounced off towards her kitchen. "Enjoy the party! I'm gonna go get out that chocolate cake I told you about. Oh, and don't touch the YESSSSS!" she called as she vanished through the door. Spitfire looked at each of the three ponies with her in turn.

"YESSSSS?" she asked them. Soarin nodded over at the table.

"The cake over there that's big enough for somepony to live in," he explained. Even Spitfire looked a little impressed at the height of the cake. Soarin began to leave, heading over to grab some nachos, no doubt. "Dash and I are gonna get some snacks. You two carry on!" he said, Rainbow Dash following suit. Braeburn reached up to grab his hat to fan himself when he realised that he wasn't wearing it. Darn it. He grabbed whatever confidence he could and clustered it all together before clearing his throat.

"Wanna sit down?" he asked the Wonderbolt captain, remembering that Fleetfoot was still waiting for him to come back. Spitfire nodded and allowed Braeburn to lead her over to the sofa. He noticed that her ears were flat to her head, which was a common thing for ponies to do if they were anxious or scared. Maybe she was a little agoraphobic?

He sat down beside Fleetfoot once again, Spitfire settling herself on his other side, shifting around as if she had forgotten how to sit. Party anxiety, probably.

"Hi, Fleetfoot," Spitfire greeted the light blue mare. Fleetfoot didn't look all that pleased to see her there.

"Hi," she said back to the captain. It sounded like she forced herself to say it. Braeburn was about to ask her if something was wrong when she stood up and trotted away, shooting Spitfire a final glare of annoyance and dislike, though Braeburn couldn't think of a reason why. Spitfire's ears practically snapped to her skull again and her head sunk into her shoulders.

"I don't think I can do this," Braeburn heard her mutter and he could see just how uneasy she was about all this.

"Don't worry," he reassured her. He was about to put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her but thought against it. "You'll be fine, Ah promise. And Ah don't break muh promises," he added. At that moment Surprise bounced over.

"Come on you two, I'm just about to share out the YESSSSS!" she informed them. "You want some, right?"

"Mmmm, yes," Braeburn nodded. Surprise rolled her eyes.

"Yes, the YESSSSS!" she hopped off again. Braeburn and Spitfire joined Rainbow Dash and Soarin at one end of Surprise's huge table.

"It's about time we got to eat this," Soarin commented as he took a large bite of his slice of the YESSSSS. "YUM! This is like eating joy!" he dove in again. Rainbow snorted at his behaviour

"Soarin, I thought you already learnt your lesson about eating too much too fast," Rainbow reminded him of an event that had taken place right near the beginning of the boot camp. Soarin looked a little embarrassed at the memory, and pretended not to hear her.

"Whoa, Surprise, have you eaten your slice already?" Spitfire asked the white Wonderbolt sitting beside her as she swallowed her slice of cake. Surprise's plate was covered in crumbs from the slice of the YESSSSS that had been there about seven seconds ago.

"Yep-a-rooni! I was gonna savour it, but it tasted so good, and…I must have eaten faster than I thought," she chuckled. She reached up into her mane and pulled out a blueberry muffin. "So I'm just gonna eat these muffins Braeburn brought instead. I'd hate to eat the whole cake straight away," she explained, munching on the treat. "I think I've eaten fifteen of these things!" she added and Spitfire suddenly got a look of worry on her face.

"Um…Surprise, I'm not sure that's safe," she told the white Wonderbolt. Surprise finished off her muffin and shrugged.

"Meh, I'll risk a sugar induced coma if it means I can have some more," she said as if it was nothing to worry about. "Oh, and Braeburn, I hope you don't mind but I used one of the muffins to tip the delivery mare," she added before bounding away to get some more muffins, most likely. Braeburn went back to eating his cake, realising that Soarin was almost finished with his. He was right; it did feel like he was eating joy.

"So, what else did you bake?" Spitfire asked him, nearly making him choke on his cake. She was taking an interest in his work. He had to say something. He looked around the table for stuff he'd brought to the party.

"Um…Ah made those fritters…the cherry pie over there and…oh, yeah, and Ah got syphilis," he listed.

Spitfire looked a little horrified at what he'd said.

(Authors Note: Yes, this is an author's note within the chapter. I'll make it quick, don't worry. Do NOT look up what syphilis is, especially if you're the squeamish type. I know where you live! Just a warning. I'll just say that it's a disease. That's all! We now return to our regularly scheduled programme.)

Braeburn couldn't put his hoof on what he'd said to make her react like that. What could he possibly have-GAH!

Braeburn gasped and reached forward, grabbing a bowl of fruit and showing it to her.

"PHYSALIS! PHYSALIS! Exotic fruit!" he shook the contents of the bowl to get his point across. "Ah have NOT got syphilis!" he felt utterly humiliated. Suddenly-

"Pfffft…" Spitfire let out a chuckle before bursting into a massive fit of laughter. She hid her face in her hooves so ponies could hear her but not see her and carried on helplessly laughing.

And for a minute, Braeburn forgot all about his previous embarrassment. He had never heard her laugh before…it was the most incredible sound he'd ever heard.

"That…was…funny!" Spitfire told him between chortles that she just couldn't hold in. Braeburn flushed brightly before thinking about what had happened. It was actually pretty amusing. He found himself laughing with her and soon the two of them were cackling so much their ribs hurt. Finally they pulled themselves together and resumed eating. Braeburn saw that Spitfire was still smiling as she ate and he could feel his heart grow warmer in his chest. She looked different with a smile. The incredibly good kind of different.

He looked to his side and saw Soarin give him an approving nod. The pale blue Wonderbolt gave a quick side glance at Rainbow Dash before stretching his arms high in the air. He slowly lowered them, folding his right one around Rainbow's shoulder. The cyan mare looked up at him, clearly confused.

"Soarin, what're ya doing?" she asked him. Soarin babbled incoherently before coming up with an excuse.

"Reaching for another fork," he lied, faking trying to grope for a fork. Rainbow Dash picked up the fork and passed it to him.

"Next time, just ask," she told him before she continued chowing down on her cake.

"Heh…okay," he plastered a smile onto his face, though he was clearly suppressing a cringe. Braeburn chuckled once again as Soarin ate another bite of cake, cheering up as soon as he'd swallowed.

"So, Cowboy, are ya still enjoying Cloudsdale?" Spitfire suddenly asked him. Braeburn flashed her a grin before beginning a rant about how awesome Cloudsdale was.

Braeburn had no idea how long they talked for, but time seemed to fly by. This was the first time she had actually opened up to him, unlike the one-sided conversation they'd had in her office once, and he discovered that once he started talking to her it became so easy! He asked her about airshow's, if she'd seen any good movies as of late and even what her favourite food was. Of course, she'd answered chocolate.

"So, do you have a favourite colour?" Braeburn asked her after what felt like an eternity of talking. He didn't think he'd ever enjoyed speaking to somepony this much. Spitfire gave him a mock eye roll as if it was a stupid question. Braeburn thought it was, too, but he just wanted to keep this conversation flowing.

"Green," she answered. "What's yours?" she returned the question, which Braeburn thought was fair.

"Orange," he replied, looking into her eyes, which were that exact colour. Only anywhere else, the colour orange wouldn't make butterflies flutter in his stomach. Spitfire returned his gaze for a few seconds before something popped up between the two of them, darn near frightening the fur off of them.

"Hey, guys!" Surprise greeted them. "You okay?" she asked them. Braeburn nodded.

"Eeyup. We're doin' fine, Surprise. This is a great party," he complimented her. Surprise gave the two of them baffled stares.

"Guys, you do know the party's over, right?" she asked them. "Everypony left half an hour ago."

Braeburn looked around the room and was startled to see that Surprise was right. The three of them were the only ponies left in the building.

"Wh-where did the time go?" Braeburn asked, astonished, noticing that Surprise's balloon shaped clock read six-thirty. Whoa!

"I don't know where time goes," Surprise put a hoof to her chin. "I hope it goes someplace nice; I've heard that Baltimare is pretty warm this time of year."

Braeburn chuckled at Surprise and hugged her, wishing her a happy birthday before heading towards the door. He looked over his shoulder to see Spitfire about to give Surprise a hoof bump, only for the yellow maned pegasus to give her another hug. Spitfire eventually managed to escape Surprise's iron grip and then she and Braeburn left. Spitfire said goodbye to him before taking off into the sky and heading home. Braeburn decided he should find Soarin so he could- wait.

Soarin had left without him again!

Ugh! Great, Soarin usually flew him back to his house, now he had to walk. Well, it was a good thing he didn't mind a hike every now and then, even if he did feel a little out of place amongst all the pegasi. Besides, nothing could really put a damper on his day now. Spitfire was beginning to trust him, she'd come to the party because he'd requested it, she'd stuck by him the whole time, and they'd talked for hours!

And best of all, he'd made her laugh.