Tycser- I totally agree with you! You can't get any better than Dashie and Soarin. I don't think I've ever heard of an MLP couple that matches as well as they do.

RosaSilvermist- Well, we all know how much of a ladies stallion Soarin is…

Litestardt- Soarin forgot the same pony twice…that's an Academy Record. And I'm sure Surprise wouldn't mind giving you some leftover cake. ^^

YoungBlood23- A fan for life? I've always wanted one of those! *hugs*

---

Soarin pushed the door to the kitchen open. He always liked to see his high school buddy immediately after changing into his officer's uniform, mostly to see if he'd baked any pie.

"What's up, Brae?" he asked the earth pony, who was pulling a tray of apple brown betty's out of the oven.

"Doof," was all he said after he'd put the tray down beside the oven and spat the towel he had used to retrieve it out of his mouth. Soarin blinked a couple of times, putting a blank look on his face and folding his hooves.

"Well, hello to you, too," he said sarcastically. "What did I do to deserve that, pray tell?" he asked. Braeburn closed the door to the open before replying.

"Yesterday, that move ya made on Rainbow Dash. How should I put this without soundin' rude?" he paused for a second to think. "Ya know what, Ah'm just gonna say it. It was stupid!"

Soarin felt pretty appalled that somepony was telling him his advances on Rainbow Dash were lame. And that somepony was Braeburn! This guy new next to nothing about this topic…well, neither did Soarin.

"The classic arm-around-shoulder move. It was a good plan!" Soarin insisted. Braeburn threw a hoof into the air.

"It's the oldest trick in the book!" he argued. "And it never, ever, EVER works!"

Soarin once again felt offended. He thought it had been a good idea, and he'd just made a mistake at some point. He scoffed at Braeburn and gave him a smug stare. "Well, I've seen it in the movies a bunch of times. Are ya telling me that it doesn't work on TV?"

Braeburn was silent for a moment. "YES! That's exactly what Ah'm tellin' ya! It's a sure-fire way of beginnin' yer route down the bumpy road to a broken heart," the earth pony explained. Soarin was left speechless. Who was this guy and what did he do with Braeburn, the stallion who knew more about the sewage system than relationships?

"How in Equestria do you know all this stuff?" Soarin asked him. Braeburn reached under his hat and threw that massive book of his (100 things to know about crushes that you were afraid to ask) in Soarin's direction, hitting him in the gut. He let out a wheeze of pain before glowering down at the book.

"Will you just get rid of this thing!? It's done nothing good so far. All it's done is tell you that you shouldn't give a mare a boat or a goat! And it's given me a huge bruise on my tummy!" Soarin almost yelled.

"Well, it's done some good then," Braeburn had the nerve to laugh at Soarin's pain. The Wonderbolt stallion turned tail on him and stormed out of the room.

"I'm not talking to you for the rest of the day!" he whined like a foal. He slammed the door. Everything was silent for a minute before Soarin popped up on the other side of the serving counter.

"Except to say two things: What kind of pie did you make and did you pick up my dry cleaning?"

Braeburn rolled his eyes. "Blueberry…" he vanished into the closet and came back out with Soarin's Wonderbolt uniform, freshly cleaned. "And here!" he roughly passed it to Soarin.

"Thank you!" Soarin snapped before leaving.

---

"One minute left!" Fast Clip yelled up at the cadets as they soared overhead through the almost cloudless sky in groups of three, in the middle of formation drills. At the moment they were practicing a simple triangle formation, Rainbow Dash's group made up of her, Lullaby and Sugar Swoop putting on a pretty cool performance. Spring Song, Paradise and Ray were flying not too far off, the pink mare at the head of the group shooting Rainbow Dash's team irritated glares (which Paradise instinctively copied) as if she was saying 'can't you be a little less good at this?'

Not likely, sister!

"Watch out!" somepony alerted them.

Rainbow's team quickly flapped their wings harder so they could glide over another group made up of Cinder, Stargazer and Smart Set. The three of them were flying in a rather ungraceful style, since Cinder had been elected to lead their formation. The little blue mare teetered through the air, trying to figure out which of her wings to flap harder. Rainbow felt a stab of pity for the cadet since she knew how timid she got when she was under a lot of pressure.

"OH NO!" Cinder yelled as she completely tumbled off course with a clumsy cartwheel and rocketed down through the air…

…right into Whiplash.

All fourteen of the other cadets cringed as the two collided and crumpled with a loud thudding noise to the ground. Needless to say, the drill was called to a close after that and all the pegasi gathered down along the side of the landing strip whilst Fast Clip helped Whiplash deal with his concussion. Spitfire paced down the line of cadets.

"Okay, some of you should feel pretty proud of yourselves…" she looked at Rainbow Dash and Spring Song's teams in particular. "…others of you…" she paused in front of a certain shaking blue mare. "…owe a member of staff a letter of apology," she gave Cinder a glare, making the already petrified pegasus give out a small squeak of fear. Thankfully Spitfire didn't scold her any more.

"Cinder looks terrified," Lullaby whispered to Rainbow Dash. "If we weren't meant to be standing straight and rigid like this, I'd go over there and give her a hug. Poor thing," she added, frowning. Just like Lullaby to put the comfort of other ponies before anything else.

"Alright, ladies, nice work out there…*cough cough* mostly *cough*," Spitfire fake coughed.

'Way to be subtle, ma'am,' Rainbow Dash thought, suppressing a chuckle at the captains actions.

"So, you just go inside, frolic to your heart's content and all that. As long as you don't burn the Academy down I couldn't give a flying feather what you do," she dismissed them. The fifteen cadets headed to the Mess Hall and started enthusiastically talking about the drills. Cinder, looking a little dejected, headed into the kitchen, making Rainbow Dash a little suspicious. The cyan pegasus was about to follow Cinder when somepony stood on one of the tables and cleared their throat.

"Oh, this is not gonna be good," Rainbow muttered to herself, rubbing her forehead with a hoof as her old friend 'Ping Pong' fluffed her mane before addressing the cadets.

"Guys, this Saturday night the Wonderbolt's are gonna be at an airshow. So I got to thinking…" Spring Song told them all. Rainbow Dash nudged Lullaby, who was standing next to her.

"That's dangerous," she whispered, earning a giggle from her purple friend. Although, almost every single pony became excited as Spring Song told them all what she was planning.

"…and I got a pretty good idea. So, that's why there's gonna be a party in the Main Hall this Saturday night courtesy of yours truly," she examined a forehoof as if it were nothing at all. Instantly, the Mess Hall was engulfed with cheers and ponies chattering wildly to eachother. Rainbow's jaw dropped and he mind whirred round and round like a Ferris wheel in fast forward. A party? Here? Saturday?

Was Spring Song completely insane!?

…Yes, yes she was.

Rainbow Dash eavesdropped on Stargazer and Smart Set talking to Free Fall. "Spring Song throws the coolest parties, man," Stargazer said to the cream coated stallion.

"I went to one of her parties about a month before the boot camp. Her house is HUGE! Not quite as large as mine, but still!" Smart Set added. Rainbow Dash's eyes flicked to the stallion's cutie mark: a pile of bits. Clearly, he was a pretty upper class pony.

"You're gonna come right?"

Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder to see Paradise and Lullaby staring at her as if waiting for a reply. Rainbow thought it over in her head, remembering the rules that were set out on their first day of training: 'No staying in bed till noon, no goofing around, no huge parties'. This was against the rules and everypony obviously knew it, so why were they all so hyped up about this?

"Paradise, don't you think that the Wonderbolt's would be mad if we threw a freakin' party while they were out? Besides, there are always security ponies wandering around after dark, so we'd be caught anyway. This is a stupid idea!" Rainbow could see so many things wrong with all of this. Paradise twiddled her hooves.

"Well, I did say to Spring Song that this was a bad idea, but she just told me that If my head wasn't so empty I'd agree with her…so, I went along because Spring Song's always right," the green mare replied. Rainbow found herself baffled at Paradise for what felt like the millionth time since she'd met her. What was she; a robot? Was she simply programmed to do everything Spring Song said no matter how unbelievably dumb it was? It just didn't make sense!

"Lullaby, you agree with me, right?" Rainbow Dash knew that if anypony would see sense around here it was Lullaby, since she was probably the most level-headed cadet in the Academy. The purple pegasus nodded and sidestepped so she could stand next to her friend.

"She's right, Paradise. There are so many ways that this party could cause trouble that I don't even know where to start. The chances of you getting caught and punished are really high, I mean, what if this got you kicked out of the Academy?" Lullaby practically called Paradise's bluff. The green mare stroked the back of her blue mane and stuttered a little before raising her head up to glare into Lullaby's dark blue eyes with her brown ones.

"B-b-but Spring Song said-"

"Spring Song said this, Spring Song said that," Rainbow Dash mimicked. "What's the big deal Paradise, do you have to go along with everything Spring Song does? I don't get why you'd even want to be friends with her."

Paradise looked a little hurt but tried her best to keep a straight face. "Well, I can explain how we became friends, I guess, but it's a pretty long story," she said. Rainbow looked over at Lullaby who simply shrugged before facing Paradise again.

"We've got time," she shrugged. Paradise looked a little surprised that the two mares would want to listen to her, probably because Spring Song hardly paid her any attention, but began her story anyway.

"I met Spring Song about two months before the boot camp began. She'd just moved to Cloudsdale from Las Pegasus because of some…personal stuff and I thought she was pretty cool," she started. Rainbow Dash took a moment to ponder what things about Spring Song were cool…maybe…no…meh, she couldn't think of anything.

"Spring Song seemed a little out of place in Cloudsdale, not that I blame her. If I'd spent my whole life in one place and then had to suddenly move someplace else, I'd be pretty freaked out, too," Paradise continued. "She wouldn't talk to anypony and whenever somepony so much as said hi, she'd just walk away…"

"Hold up, how do you know all this is she wouldn't talk to anypony?" Lullaby butted in. Paradise looked down at the floor innocently.

"…I certainly didn't stalk her or anything…no, not at all," she said unconvincingly. For somepony trying to tell a lie, she certainly wasn't doing a good job at all.

"So, what next?" Rainbow prompted Paradise to keep talking, ignoring her sudden wariness towards her. The green mare jolted as if she had forgotten all about it and carried on.

"Anyway, she didn't do much during her first week or two in Cloudsdale. She'd just wander around town, not stopping to look in the stores or talk, she'd just keep walking all day and then she'd go home. It just went on a continuous loop like that. Then finally, I went up to her one day when she was sitting by the edge of Cloudsdale, just looking down over it…probably thinking of Las Pegasus. I told her my name and asked for hers, but she wouldn't tell me. She just told me that she wanted to be on her own so I left," Paradise told her tale.

"Interesting…" Rainbow Dash murmured. This certainly wasn't like the Spring Song that everypony was currently praising in the middle of the Mess Hall. Spring Song was pretty lucky that there were no Wonderbolts around to hear her talking about the party.

"I talked to her again the next day and all she said was that her name was Spring Song. Took me six tries (I did count) to get her to answer me. After that she just left. It went on like that for a bit, I'd find her, talk to her; she'd say a little more every time and then she'd just get outta there. I knew just by looking at her that she wasn't shy; she just didn't want to talk. Ya know what I mean?" Paradise asked the two listening mares.

Lullaby shrugged and nodded, but Rainbow Dash shook her head. She couldn't recall meeting anypony like that before. She wondered if Paradise was even talking about the same pony. The Spring Song she knew couldn't shut her trap to save her life and the Spring Song Paradise was telling them about seemed the exact opposite. This was really messed up.

"So how did you become friends?" Lullaby asked the question that was scrambling around in Rainbow Dash's brain. Paradise resumed telling her tale.

"Well, I found her outside her house, looking more sullen that usual, so I went over and talked to her. That's when she told me about Las Pegasus and how much she missed it. After that she said that she'd hang out with me and she started talking a little more. Time passed, she became pretty confident, got enthusiastic about the Wonderbolts and we became best friends. Then we became friends with Ray, found out about the boot camp, and…here we are now," Paradise finished.

"…odd..." was all Rainbow Dash said after that. Was Spring Song just a bitch because she was mad about leaving Las Pegasus…nah, there had to be more to it than that. "Well, Spring Song's crazy backstory aside, why would she even want me at her party? Last time I checked, she hated my guts," Rainbow Dash tried to jolt Paradise's memory.

"Oh Rainbow Dash…" a sweet voice came from her other side, scaring the feathers off of Dash. Spring Song stood there, smiling up at her. Holy Celestia, she needed to get a bell and hang it around Spring Song's neck to keep track of where she was. "You know I was just kidding about all that, right?"

Paradise, of course, stood by her friend's words. "Yeah, it was only a joke," she agreed. They both gave her slightly creepy grins…this was getting a little uncomfortable now.

"Well, I think I need to explain the concept of a joke to you guys," Rainbow told them sourly, knowing that they meant the exact opposite of what they were saying. Spring Song was like some kind of crazy puzzle that Rainbow Dash just couldn't figure out. One second she was acting like Rainbow was a pile of dirt and the next she was inviting her to a party. It was like Spring Song's mind flipped from being sickeningly sweet to a total moron. Maybe she was bipolar.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Spring Song. I'm not gonna come to your party. Why? Because it's a stupid plan! I'd bet any amount of bits that you'd get busted before you have time to open the buffet," Rainbow told the pink devil-mare.

"Ooh, a buffet sounds good. Paradise, write that down," Spring Song told her green companion, who pulled a notebook from who-knows-where and jotted it down, mouthing the word 'buffet' as she did so.

"So, somehow you're going to smuggle in a bunch of food, play loud music, get everypony into the Main Hall and party all night whilst not getting caught, huh? You're never gonna be able to pull it off," Lullaby folded her hooves, being the voice of reason as usual. Spring Song smirked and let out a lightly evil chuckle.

"I never said that I didn't have a plan," Spring Song cleared her throat and told them all her idea.

"Once everypony has made their way to the Main Hall by going through the hallways (if they get caught it's not my fault), I'll make sure that nopony outside can hear the music by covering up the bottom of the doors and shoving putty in the key holes. No one will be able to hear the music unless they're really close to the doors. Still, in case of an emergency, Paradise will be posted outside the Hall disguised as a potted plant-"

"A plant?" Lullaby asked, skeptical. Suddenly somepony tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump with surprise and form a karate pose, making Rainbow Dash and Spring Song chortle a little. "Who did that?" the purple mare looked around, seeing nopony there except a cactus plant. Wait a second…that definitely hadn't been there before.

"I did!" the plant chirped and Lullaby stepped back with caution, not that Rainbow Dash blamed her; if a plant talked to her she'd be pretty freaked out, too. Lullaby's eyes darn near popped out of her skull when Paradise suddenly lifted up the cactus revealing that she had somehow squished herself into the vase

"B-b-but, how d-did you get in there?" Lullaby stuttered. Paradise just shrugged.

"I'm just really flexible," she replied. "Wanna see me tie myself into a pretzel?" she asked enthusiastically. The reply from Lullaby was a resounding 'no!'

"Anyhoo," Spring Song carried on. "Tomorrow we'll get all the food and sneak it inside the Hall, so we don't have to worry about it on the night; we'll just pull it all out of that closet where the Wonderbolt's keep those sparkly party lights…ooh, we'll use those too. Paradise?"

"Way ahead of ya!" the green cadet held up her notepad after pulling her last leg out of the cactus (there's a sentence) to show Spring Song that she was writing down their latest idea for the party. "Oh, Spring Song, is there gonna be cake?" she asked, licking her lips. Spring Song rolled her eyes.

"Of course there's gonna be a cake; my aunt Sunny Money-"

"Pfft! Sunny Money?" Rainbow Dash snorted with laughter at the name.

"What's the big deal, Rainbow Trash?" Spring Song asked, looking a little offended. Rainbow knew that it was rude, but she couldn't help herself.

"Sunny Money. It sounds really funny," Rainbow snickered. "Hey, that rhymed!" Rainbow laughed even more, having to sit down on one of the chairs to keep herself from falling to the floor. Spring Song harrumphed and ignored her.

"Anyway, my aunt knows one of our neighbours, who knows a mare that works at the salon that knows an accountant who knows a chef that works at the bakery, so we can get a cake dirt cheap," Spring Song listed. Rainbow Dash looked over at Lullaby, who wore the same perplexed expression as her. What the hay did Spring Song just say? (Rhymed again!)

"Say what?" Rainbow Dash asked blankly. Spring Song looked at Rainbow Dash like she was the biggest numbskull in Equestria and tutted.

"All I'm saying is that you don't have to worry your little head about a thing, Dash. Just show up to the party and let the professionals handle the organisation part," the blonde mare cut it all short.

"Professionals?" Lullaby smirked. "I didn't know that you knew any professionals," she teased her. Spring Song sneered at Lullaby.

"Of course I know professionals. Those professionals are me and Paradise, and we, as a matter of fact, are the best when it comes to party planning. So there will be no problems whatsoever," she insisted.

"Hey, Spring Song!" Paradise called her friends attention. The green cadet was stretching her tongue up towards her muzzle. "I can't see! Is my tongue touching my nose yet?" she asked before losing her balance and toppling over. Spring Song turned red with embarrassment and looked like she wanted to dig a hole in the floor, crawl into it and die.

"Yeah…no problems at all," Lullaby said sarcastically, with an over-the-top eye roll to finish it off. Spring Song looked like she was trying not to shove her hoof down Lullaby's throat to shut her up, but kept her cool and took a deep breath.

"So, now that you know the plan, are you gonna come to the party or not?" Spring Song asked Rainbow and Lullaby, looking impatient. Lullaby shook her head and held up a hoof as if to say 'I'm not changing my mind'.

"No, Spring Song. I don't care how cool your party is; I'm not gonna risk getting kicked out of the Academy, so just leave me out of it," she looked over at Rainbow Dash.

"I'm with Lullaby, you guys are taking a huge risk by throwing this party, and…no offense, Spring Song, but I don't think any of your plans have a faint chance of working out," the rainbow maned pegasus agreed. Spring Song suddenly shoved her face in Rainbow Dash's so that they were practically nose to nose.

"What's wrong Rainbow Trash? Are you afraid of getting caught? You afraid of a little party? Are you…" she leaned in a little more so that her nose was pressing against Rainbow's. "…chicken?"

Rainbow Dash hated Spring Song so much then. She was not a chicken, no way, no how, nu-huh! She was Rainbow Danger Dash, and she laughed in the face of evil. She had fought changelings and all powerful Masters of Chaos; a little party was nothing.

So why was she so freaked out about all this? She could handle battling evil villains any time, so getting in and out of a party unnoticed was nothing compared to that. Rainbow stretched up a little so she could stare Spring Song down.

"Fine! I will go to the party!" she declared, earning a gasp from Lullaby behind her. "I'll show you chicken, Stink Song!" she hissed at the pink mare, who just looked pleased that she was coming…not the happy and smiley kind of pleased, more like the, 'so you really aren't a wuss' kind of pleased.

"See you there, then," Spring Song gave her a final ever-so-slightly evil smirk before trotting out of the Mess Hall door with Paradise following close behind, her tongue hanging out of her mouth because she had strained it too much whilst trying to touch her nose with it. Rainbow turned around and was met with the irritated face of Lullaby.

"Rainbow, have you completely lost it?" she asked, giving Rainbow a gentle slap round the face that the cyan cadet barely felt. "You said that you'd go to the party just because she called you a chicken? That's kinda pathetic," Lullaby looked genuinely worried for Rainbow.

"What's the big deal, Lullaby? Spring Song's plan does sound pretty…okay," Rainbow Dash wasn't all that good with words, so she just used the first one that popped into her head. "Besides, what's a little party gonna do to us? It's not like we'd be kicked out of the Academy for something like that? It's nothing compared to the lightning bolt thing," Rainbow shuddered at the memory. Lullaby sighed and tried to reason with her friend.

"But, it's still against the rules. Don't you think that this could damage your reputation with the Wonderbolts?" Lullaby asked her. Rainbow thought it through. No matter what happened, Soarin would back her up. She knew him enough to know that he would stay loyal to her till the very end.

"Lullaby, I don't wanna talk about this anymore, 'kay? Let's just go back to our room so I can write my letter," Rainbow Dash ended the conversation. Lullaby let out a groan of defeat; knowing fully well that once Rainbow Dash's mind was made up there was no changing it. Who knows, maybe Spring Song would leave her alone if she just went to the party?

"I wish Spring Song got struck instead of you…" Rainbow heard Lullaby mutter as they walked through the door.

---

Endnote: I do apologize if that chapter was a little boring. I promise the next one will be a little livelier. Now if you'll excuse me; I'm gonna go and play Fallout 3.

;)