ANOTHER NEW COVER!

This one was made by the incredible Captain Alaska, who has inspired me in more ways than you could possibly imagine. Thanks, man, you're the best!

Spiralwish- Whoa, I had no idea that other people would accept my crazy headcanons. Thanks for that!

Litestardt- And it's about time their relationship got somewhere, too… even though they aren't actually in one yet. And the bet thing actually sounds like a good idea; who knows, I might actually make it happen.

RosaSilvermist- *cue Rihanna's 'Diamonds'* I'm sure if Soarin was here he'd be blushing right now. It's true, he is a huge softie. And in response to your review on Let The Rainbow Remind You, it's still going, and I write it on the side of this. In fact, chapter four is almost ready, so more Key Six stuff coming soon! :D

Dj Storm- Thanks! I wonder if I can make something even fluffier… okay, that's my new personal challenge.

Hudsoda- Welcome to the Dashing and Soaring bandwagon! Maybe I'll upload this to FimFiction, but let's just see how things go on here first.

Luna'snight65- Glad I wrote something that made it onto your favourites list. I confess that this was my first time writing fluff, so I must have done a pretty good job. ^^

Guest- Thanks. Ya know, I think I got diabetes writing it.

Tycser- I promise that you won't have to wait much longer for the two of them to actually get serious. It's better later than never, right? And yes, that quote is from Wreck-it Ralph, my all-time favourite film! :D

Sparkling-nexis137- This is some pretty good advice, Nexis. I've never heard of the 'wants and needs' thing, but I like it and it's definitely given me a new way of looking at things. I do find that Rainbow Dash is the hardest for me to write, which I think is quite strange since she's the main protagonist, but just so you know, I do have a plan for her, and I think it's gonna be pretty cool, so just hang in there. Your reviews are always a pleasure to read and have indeed inspired me on more than one occasion. Keep up the good work. *cyberhugs*

---

"Alright, we have good reason to believe that you were the one who is responsible for the whole horseshoe debacle," Spitfire told the suspect as she strode in front of her desk in the dark office. Surprise, who had somehow dyed her mane and fur grey, spun round in Spitfire's spinny chair, clapping her hooves together softly, making the scene even more grim looking.

"Yeah, so you'd better tell us everything you know, or we'll be forced to use…" she looked off to the side for dramatic effect. "…The electric chair."

Spitfire groaned and rolled her eyes. "No, Surprise, there is no electric chair," she sighed. Surprise looked disappointed, but didn't say another word on the subject. Spitfire pushed her shades up her muzzle and circled around the suspect.

"So, tell us your motives or we may have to use brute force," she hissed down at the pegasus in the chair. Surprise jumped on top of Spitfire's desk and shone a lamp down into the pony's face.

"So talk!" she ordered.

Paradise looked up at Surprise as if she had gone completely insane. "I-I-I didn't do it," she finally spluttered out. "And is that light and the dark room really necessary?"

"Hold on a second," Spitfire interrupted. "Surprise, why are you all grey?" she asked, flicking Surprise's tail. The white (now grey) pegasus looked herself up and down.

"Oh, I just dyed my everything grey so I'd look like a character from one of those old black and white detective movies," she revealed, pulling a pipe out from her uniforms pocket and puffing on it, making bubbles float out of the other end. Spitfire briefly wondered how it had got to the point where all of this was normal for her (and how Surprise passed the psyche exam) before turning to face Paradise again.

"Please ignore my colleague-"

"Assistant," Surprise barged in, much to the Wonderbolt captain's irritation.

"Assistant," she corrected herself, complete with another eye roll. "Now, please tell us why you did it," she asked Paradise once again. The green mare sat up in the chair she was in.

"But I didn't!" she insisted. Spitfire admitted that she sounded serious about this, so either she was innocent or a really good liar. After the events of the party she had noticed how super dumb Paradise was. Kinda like whoever wrote that tip, right?

"How can you prove it?" the golden Wonderbolt looked over her sunglasses at Paradise, giving her the coldest glare she could manage. Paradise folded her hooves and crossed on hind hoof over the other.

"How can you prove I did it? Do you have any actual evidence?" she asked back. Spitfire paused to think. She had just assumed judging by Paradise's estimated IQ of 8 and the level of brain power that the pony who wrote the note had that they'd be the same pony.

"What kind of proof do you want to see?" Spitfire asked, leaning against her desk and raising a brow, inviting Paradise to speak.

"Photographs, DNA samples, witnesses, anything that shows that an actual investigation took place," the green mare listed. Spitfire and Surprise glanced at eachother, the mirrored expression on the faces suggesting that they were both wondering how Paradise suddenly got better at this mystery solving business than them. It was actually pretty humiliating

"Okay, well we don't have… any of those," Spitfire admitted, feeling a little awkward. "But we're working on it. Anyway, before you start question my crime solving skills any further would you be so kind as to tell me what you were doing when the tempest cloud incident took place," she put on her professional face again and Paradise looked down at the floor.

"Um… oh, I remember!" she exclaimed, jolting up in her chair. "Okay, before Rainbow Dash told me to guard our stash, I headed over to Spring Song and asked if I could help her out. She said I could help her look before I remembered that we were on different teams, so then I flew back to the mountain me and the rest of the gold team were meeting at and that's when Rainbow Dash let me guard the stash," she began to explain. Spitfire changed her mind back to the 'Paradise being a huge idiot' decision.

"Okay, then I was sitting by the shrub humming 'Ten Green Bottles' when Spring Song flew past. She said that she was gonna check on Lullaby and Cinder and I started bragging that we were doing really well. Then she started telling me that her team was gonna win and that our stash was probably somewhere totally lame. So I told her it was somewhere she'd never find it and she flew away."

Spitfire yawned, wondering if this was actually going to go anywhere. She wasn't exactly a detective, but she was sure that there was nothing here that she could use as evidence.

"Lullaby came past a few minutes later and I said hi. I remember back then she wasn't all that nice around me because I was friends with Spring Song, but she acted pretty nice then; probably because Spring Song wasn't there. After she left I just sat there singing 'No mare no cry' until Cinder came past; sounded like she was crying but I didn't hear her very well. I was gonna fly after her to see what was wrong but I couldn't leave my post 'cause someone might have stolen the stash, so I stayed there doing nothing. It was so boring!" she flopped over the back of her chair to demonstrate.

'Kinda like this story,' Spitfire thought, stifling another yawn. Holy Celestia, when would this actually get somewhere?

"Oh, and then Sugar Swoop came to the stash with a whole bunch of horseshoes that the silver team was hiding. He put them under the stash and then flew off again 'cause Bumble, Lullaby and Butternut were chasing after him. They didn't catch him and when they came back past I heard them arguing about places to look. I only really heard them arguing about going in the Storm Cloud Cluster. Butternut was rambling about how they should check it out, and Lullaby was disagreeing, saying that you had to be a pea-brain to go in there and then they just flew out of earshot," Paradise continued.

"So, those three were talking about the Cloud Cluster… what next?" Spitfire was beginning to get interested in Paradise's story.

"Um… then Rainbow Dash came to check on the stash. I showed her it and then that's when I told her that she did the right thing, not sending anypony in the cluster. I didn't actually think she'd go in there, though… I'm not in trouble am I?" she looked up at Spitfire with huge eyes. The Wonderbolt captain was practically immune to puppy dog eyes, so took no notice of them. Well, Paradise certainly wasn't the culprit if she hadn't been the one to put the horseshoe there. She had only given Rainbow Dash the idea of going into the cluster, and hadn't actually inflicted any harm on her. She definitely didn't mean for any of this to happen, she could see it in the green mare's freakishly huge eyes.

"No, you're in the clear, cadet," Spitfire watched as Paradise's face lit up like a torch in a dark room… wait a minute, they were still in a dark room. "Surprise, turn the lights on, for Celestia's sake," she commanded the excitable Wonderbolt. Surprise did as she was told and flicked the light switch, bathing the room with brightness. Spitfire sat back down at her desk and looked over at Paradise.

"You can leave now. This doesn't mean you're off the hook though, you need to go and help your pals with the cleaning," Spitfire felt a stirring in her chest as Paradise frowned miserably.

'Don't feel guilty, she deserves it!' Spitfire's conscience snapped at her. Spitfire gave in to the voice in her head and dismissed Paradise from her office with a flick of her forehoof without a second glance at her.

"Well, that's that done," Surprise started rubbing some of the grey stuff she was wearing off her face. However, Spitfire didn't feel like they'd accomplished anything. Sure, they knew which ponies had been talking about the tempest clouds first, and how certain ponies had behaved around that time, so that gave them some more potential suspects, but she just wanted to know who done it so she could act. There was a guilty pony around here somewhere and it got on Spitfire's nerves like nopony would believe.

"Yeah, it is," the golden mare replied to Surprise. "Now, we just need to figure out how Spring Song's gonna be punished. She was the ringleader of that fiasco, so she deserves something more than just cleaning the toilets," she decided, looking over to Surprise for suggestions.

"Um… ooh, we could make her walk the plank!" Surprise decided. Spitfire threw her hooves in the air and spun in her chair to face away from Surprise.

"I honestly don't know why I try with you, Surprise!"

---

Rainbow Dash stretched out her legs as she finished mopping the floor outside the Mess Hall. She was aching from the day's work and still couldn't stop because of the Wonderbolts watching her and the others like hawks with uniforms. Since she was at the party yesterday, she had to be punished just like everypony else, and she took her punishment like a mare! She did kinda deserve it; it was against the rules and- oh, Celestia she was beginning to think like Lullaby!

She found herself thinking of the things that had happened that morning. She had woken up beside Soarin on the cloud and was greeted by the warm sunlight and a clear blue sky; one of the nicest days there had been that year. She remembered showing up to drills that morning and had been surrounded by the other cadets immediately.

"Oh my gosh, Rainbow Dash, are you okay?" Beau had put a hoof on her shoulder, looking concerned. Bumble brushed her tail along Rainbow's flank affectionately.

"We went down to your room after the party to see if you were alright," she'd revealed, looking guiltily down at her hooves.

"But you weren't there," Sugar Swoop added, looking equally as ashamed. Free Fall moved to stand beside Sugar Swoop, the look on his face suggesting that he felt pretty disappointed in himself, too.

"We really didn't mean to laugh at you like that… and we had no idea you'd get so upset," he'd confessed, scuffing the cloud covered ground with one front hoof. Rainbow Dash scoffed.

"What? I'm not upset, guys. Seriously, I'm fine so don't worry about it," she insisted, looking as cool as she could manage, blowing her multi-coloured mane out of her eyes for extra measure.

Then after drills she and the others had to grasp the day with all four hooves… and a mop.

Wiping her brow, she folded one wing around her mop and began dragging it down the oddly miserable looking hall, past a few of the other cadets, who were sullenly doing their chores. She still hadn't seen Lullaby since the party incident, since she was in their dorm room, probably smiling about the whole thing. She and Cinder had been the only ponies not to go to the party, so they didn't have to do any of these cruddy chores. They didn't know just how lucky they were.

"Hard work, Dashie?" the voice of Soarin made her jump. Rainbow stumbled and slipped on the freshly polished floor, skidding across it a few feet before bumping into the stallion. Soarin helped her to her hooves and she became aware of a burning sensation in her cheeks.

"Hey, yeah it's hard work. All this mopping and shining is really boring, too," she groaned, though she was still smiling in spite of this. Soarin looked a little sorry for her, not that she blamed him. She'd feel sorry for her, too; she was way too awesome to be doing all this dumb work.

"Ya know, I think the coffee table in the staff room needs dusting; you can head down there with me if you want," Soarin offered. Rainbow Dash thought it over; it seemed like a good idea, and who knows, maybe she'd get some free coffee while she was there.

"Sure, why not?" she shrugged casually, walking beside the Wonderbolt stallion as they headed to the staff room, Rainbow not realising that she'd just left her mop lying around. She couldn't quite understand it, but she'd found that over time she'd been wanting to spend more and more time with Soarin, and she'd been enjoying it more, too. She felt particularly happy when she was around him, and smiled a lot when she was with him, as well. It's probably the ever growing excitement of hanging around with one of your heroes, right?

Rainbow Dash and Soarin pushed the door to the staff room open to be met with a rather peculiar sight. Rapidfire and Wave Chill were sitting on the couch on the left side of the room while Feather Duster sat in the middle of the room, balancing a broom on the end of her nose. Wave Chill looked up as Soarin and Rainbow came in.

"Guys, you've gotta check this out. Feather Duster's been balancing that on her nose for three whole minutes! She's broke her record!" he told them, bouncing up and down in his seat. Rainbow didn't know Wave Chill all that well apart from he was a very dedicated Wonderbolt who followed orders without a second thought. However, off duty he could be a little excitable.

"Not giving up yet," Feather Duster squinted as she struggled to keep the broom straight. Rainbow didn't know that much about Feather Duster either, other than she got the janitor job by accident after crashing through a window a couple of months ago. She had been given the job to pay for a new window, which was still smashed in one of the hallways while we're at it, and preferred to eke as much fun as she could out of her chores. Rainbow had also noticed that she had underdeveloped wings, so they were much smaller than most pegasi. Then again, Feather Duster was smaller than most pegasi, anyway, and Rainbow Dash had also seen that when Feather Duster flew or hovered, her wings fluttered like a hummingbirds. Maybe she could teach that to Scootaloo? When Rainbow Dash had seen her for the first time she had mentioned to Soarin that she didn't seem like janitor material. Soarin had replied that she really wasn't and told her about how Rapidfire had hit on her on her first day, saying that she should get a job as a model. The result was a bucket over his head. Man, Rainbow Dash wished she could have seen that!

"Four minutes," Rapidfire announced, looking up at the clock. Feather Duster let out a silent cheer, never taking her eyes off the broom. She didn't even flinch when Lightning Streak burst through the door.

"SURPRISE ATTACK!" he yelled. Everypony in the room looked at him bluntly. Soarin rolled his eyes and nudged Rainbow Dash.

"He does this all the time; it used to freak us out, but now it's just plain dumb," he explained. Rainbow Dash nodded in understanding. Lightning Streak wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer…

"What's going on?" Lightning Streak asked the others. Wave Chill explained what Feather Duster was doing once again and Lightning Streak nodded along.

"Will you guys keep it down; I'm trying to focus," Feather Duster quietened everypony else. "Only a few more seconds and then-"

"Hey, what's happening?" Fire Streak came through the door after his older twin brother. Feather Duster snapped round to face him.

"Fire Str-YOW!" she yelped as her broom poked her in the eye before clattering over her head and knocking her down to the floor. Rainbow Dash and Soarin shared an amused look as Feather Duster got back to her hooves.

"You okay?" Fire Streak asked, looking concerned. Feather Duster casually leaned against the coffee table.

"Yeah, I'm good," she chuckled, grabbing a mug and going to take a sip before discovering there was nothing in it. "Heh… I'm gonna go to Starbucks," she excused herself, leaving the room hastily. Wave Chill called after her.

"Ya know you could just use the coffee machine. It isn't broken or anything!" he yelled, though Feather Duster didn't turn back. Rainbow then remembered that she was supposed to be dusting the coffee table and got to work. It didn't take long for her to finish up and she did help herself to some coffee in the end after all, though Feather Duster was probably drinking all the good stuff at Starbucks by now.

"Welp, who wants dinner?" Soarin spoke up after a while. As if on cue, Rainbow Dash's tummy gurgled. This may have just been because she was exhausted, but it almost sounded like her tummy said: 'I do'.

Everypony left the room after that and made their way down to the Mess Hall. Lightning Streak had some fun on the way down by kicking the door to Silver Lining's office and running. Unfortunately for Lightning Streak he tripped over a mop that somepony had left lying in the middle of the hall and crashed into the floor, but it amused Rainbow Dash a lot.

When they arrived at the Mess Hall it was still fairly empty, aside from a few cadets trailing in, looking every bit as fed up and tired as Rainbow Dash. The cyan mare noticed a purple pegasus sitting on one side of the room with Cinder. She cleared her throat to get Soarin's attention.

"Hey, Soarin, mind if I go over there; I need to allow somepony to call me as many names for 'doofus' as possible," she grinned at Soarin's baffled expression.

"Um… okay?" he was unsure of how to answer, which was expected of course. Rainbow nodded her thanks and went over to sit in the seat next to the purple mare. She tapped her on the shoulder and Lullaby shot her an irritated glare. Rainbow fumbled to find the right words to say.

"Lullaby, I admit it: you were right. I was dumb okay, and I'm a huge idiot," she confessed, rubbing the back of her neck. Wow, saying bad things about herself sure was hard.

"And?" Lullaby asked her, looking up at her bluntly. Rainbow sighed and stared down at the table.

"And a real numbskull," she mumbled. Lullaby scooted a little closer to her, beginning to sound playful.

"And?" she repeated.

"A selfish diaper baby," Rainbow Dash put her head in her hoof, smirking back at her (admittedly smarter) friend.

"And?" Lullaby chirped.

"And…" Rainbow snickered a little. "A featherbrain," she was suddenly pulled into a hug by her purple furred roommate, who agreed affectionately.

"The most feather filled brain ever."

---

"Nougat!" Surprise finished telling her joke. Soarin didn't really understand it himself, but the word 'nougat' was funny, so he laughed anyway.

"That made no sense," Spitfire, who was sitting in between Soarin and Surprise, murmured. Surprise put a hoof around the golden mare's shoulder.

"Spit, what fun is there in making sense?" the white pegasus asked. Spitfire swatted her hoof away.

"For the love of Luna, don't call me Spit! And don't steal Discord's lines either, it's annoying enough when he says it," she snapped. Soarin suddenly became aware of presence beside him.

"Um, Thpitfire?" Fleetfoot knocked on the table with a hoof. "What're you doing here?" she asked. Soarin had been a little shocked himself when Spitfire had decided to sit with the other Wonderbolts. Surprise, of course, had been thrilled and had hugged the captain for a full minute and a half before releasing her.

"What do you mean?" Spitfire asked, taking off her shades and letting them hang around her neck. Fleetfoot put an elbow on Soarin's shoulder to prop herself up.

"We've been athking you to eat with uth forever and today you finally do it. Mind if I athk why?" she raised a brow. Spitfire shrugged and folded her hooves in front of her.

"I dunno; I just felt like it, I guess," she tugged absentmindedly at her tie. Fleetfoot made a small 'uh-huh' noise.

"Right… well, anyway, you're in my theat," she lisped, nodding down at the chair Spitfire was sitting in. The captain looked puzzled.

"Your seat? You don't own the seat," she countered. Fleetfoot just stood there and glared at her, her face blank. Spitfire rolled her eyes and went to stand up before Surprise pushed her back down.

"C'mon, Fleet, let her sit there just for today?" the yellow maned Wonderbolt put on her best puppy dog eyes. Fleetfoot sneered down at Spitfire with immense hostility.

"Yeesh, what won't you take that ithn't yours?" she slunk off to sit someplace else. Spitfire looked like she was about to say something but Fleetfoot had already gone. Soarin had a suspicion that Fleetfoot 'knew'; and if she knew, then things could get a little tricky.

"Soarin!"

Speaking of being in the know…

"What is it, Brae?" Soarin asked as Braeburn glared down at him. The earth pony slugged him on the shoulder.

"Two words: Cherry. Pie!" he seethed. Soarin knew exactly what was happening, but chose to play dumb.

"Hey, you've learned to count," he joked. Unfortunately, Braeburn didn't seem to find it very funny.

"Soarin, Ah know you ate 'em all," the light gold stallion didn't look very pleased… at all… maybe he should run, just to be on the safe side.

"What? Soarin, you've been eating all the food?" Spitfire spoke up from his other side. Braeburn hadn't noticed she was there until then, and seemed pretty embarrassed to have been seen so mad in front of her.

"Oh, um… evenin', ma'am. Didn't expect t' see ya here," he smiled over at her, and Soarin was pleased to see her smile back at him. Maybe if Braeburn could stay distracted for a little while longer…

"So, Soarin, aren't ya gonna do somethin'?" Braeburn returned his attention to the pale blue pegasus. Darn it!

"Like what? Do you want me to puke 'em back up or something? Apart from that I see no way of resolving this situation," he shrugged his shoulders. Braeburn seemed to cringe a little at that image.

"At least apologize," the earth pony rolled his eyes. Soarin scoffed.

"Why? If it makes ya feel better, they tasted fantastic!" he complimented him, drooling a little at the thought of eating those cherry pies.

"Soarin, just say you're sorry, won't ya?" Spitfire poked his shoulder. Soarin's jaw went slack at this. She was actually siding with Braeburn against her own teammate. He didn't know whether to feel happy for his friend or betrayed.

"Make me," he folded his hooves across his chest and poked his tongue out. He looked from side to side at the two ponies giving him death glares, realising that they both had pretty good evil stares. He sighed and gave in, mostly because it gave the two of them another thing in common: control over him. "Fine, okay, I'm sorry. Done," Soarin gave in. Then, smirking slightly, he danced his gaze between the two of them. "You're not gonna punish me are you, mom and dad," he teased them. He could only sit and watch while withholding his chuckles as the two ponies glanced at eachother, then looked back at him, each of them turning a shade pinker.

"Right, Ah'm just gonna go make some more pies, no thanks t' you," Braeburn snapped at Soarin. He addressed Spitfire before he left. "It was good t' see ya, ma'am," he shyly said to her. "See ya 'round," he left after that. Spitfire gave him a tiny smile as he retreated.

"Yeah, see ya," she called after him before looking back down at the table. Soarin heard Surprise let out a 'hmmmm' noise as if she was thinking… and if Surprise was thinking then it was the end of the world! Okay… maybe it wasn't that drastic. The white pegasus twisted Spitfire round to face her and then stared deeply into her eyes, leaning forward so their noses were pressed together. Just when Soarin was wondering if Surprise could get any stranger, she opened her eyes as wide as they would go, to maximise the freakiness of all this. Spitfire's eyes flicked around, and she was clearly wondering what in Tartarus Surprise was up to.

"Surpr-"

She was cut off by Surprise gasping and jumping several feet into the air before landing on top of the table, hopping from hoof to hoof and making happy little squeaks and giggles.

"What's happening?" Spitfire faced Soarin. "What's happening?" she repeated. Soarin chuckled up at Surprise.

"You look like you're doing riverdance," he commented. Once Surprise had stopped dancing and springing on the table (which had just been wiped, so that was a waste of time) and had taken a moment to catch her breath, she leaned down to look Spitfire in the eyes again. Only less creepy this time.

"You like Braeburn!" she exclaimed. Spitfire made the exact same face that a pony would have made if they had just been slapped.

"What?! No I don't!" she argued. Soarin curiously watched the two mares, interested to find out Spitfire's view on all of this. Surprise seemed to be ignoring what the golden pegasus was saying.

"You do!" she squealed, bouncing up and down on the table. Spitfire looked over at Soarin as if saying 'Is she for real?', but Soarin didn't meet her gaze. She was on her own this time. "My Surprise Sense never lies," the white Wonderbolt told Spitfire. Soarin piped up from his spot next to the slightly flushed looking Wonderbolt captain.

"Surprise Sense?" he questioned. Surprise sat still long enough to explain.

"My Surprise Sense allows me to fathom what emotions a pony is having. And I got an itchy knee, which means that Spitfire's got a crush!" she started hopping up and down again while Spitfire grumbled and buried her face in her hooves.

"Whoa, Surprise, you didn't eat jumping beans again, did ya?" High Winds trotted up to the table with Blaze at her side. Spitfire quickly spoke up.

"Whatever she says is a lie!" she blurted out as quickly as she could before Surprise butted in.

"Spitfire likes Braeburn!" the poofy maned Wonderbolt told them, earning gasps from the two mares.

"She does?!" they chorused. Spitfire face hoofed.

"Did you not just hear me?" she almost yelled. Blaze and High Winds sat down at the table next to Surprise.

"When did this happen?" asked High Winds.

"Do ya think he's hot?" asked Blaze.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" asked Surprise.

"Shut up!" Spitfire barked at them all. "I don't like him, okay, so let's not say one more word on the subject," of course, that just went in one ear and out the other.

"So, are you gonna tell him?" High Winds asked almost immediately afterwards. Spitfire rolled her orange eyes.

"Unbelievable," she groaned.

"It is unbelievable," Blaze agreed, putting her chin on her folded hooves. "You and him; never would have seen that coming."

Spitfire was surprisingly calm. "I fail to see how you three can't understand the simple thing I'm trying to tell you: I. Don't. Like. Him!" she drew out each word nice and long. Surprise, just flicked a hoof in dismissal of her words.

"Denial is the biggest giveaway that you like somepony," she told the captain, whose left eye began twitching.

"That makes no sense!" she slammed a balled hoof on the table. Soarin snorted with laughter. This was just too hilarious! Surprise sat beside Blaze, who was stroking High Winds' mane and rocked back and forth in her chair.

"Spitfire and Braeburn… they'll call you SpitBurn!" she decided, raising her hooves in the air as if she were worshipping the new name or something. She then gasped and clapped her hooves to the side of her face. "Oooh, I've gotta go print that on a bunch of T-Shirts!" she decided. Spitfire quickly stopped her.

"NO!" she yelled, making a few of the other ponies in the room look over at them. Spitfire waited until they'd turned their attention away before speaking to Surprise again. "You're not printing anything on any T-shirts, because I don't like him!" she repeated.

"She's lying," Surprise said to the smirking Blaze and High Winds, who nodded to show they agreed with Surprise. Spitfire slitted her eyes at her annoying white furred friend.

"If the liar says I'm lying then I'm not lying," she riddled. Surprise got a challenging glint in her eyes.

"Unless you're a liar," she shot back.

"I know you are, but what am I?" Spitfire seemed pretty sure Surprise couldn't beat that. But she could!"

"Liar says what."

"What?" Spitfire cocked an eyebrow.

"HA!" Surprise booped the Wonderbolt captain's nose. Soarin wished he had a camera so he could record this and show it to Rainbow Dash. What she wouldn't give to see something like this?

"That doesn't prove anything! That's just stupid!" Spitfire fumed. Soarin was surprised that steam wasn't coming out of her ears. Surprise snorted and rapped her hooves on the table to get rid of some of her bottled up excitement.

"It proves everything! This is the bestest thing ever, right guys?" she looked over at High Winds and Blaze, who simultaneously said 'yep'. Then Surprise said something completely unexpected.

"So when's the wedding?" she smiled widely, and Spitfire's eyes almost popped out of her skull.

"What?!" she gasped.

"Can we be the bridesmaids?" High Winds asked, making her best begging face.

"What?!" Spitfire exclaimed once again.

"I wonder which one of you will wear the pants in the family," Blaze scoffed.

"WHAT?!"the golden mare spluttered. Then Surprise went ahead and wrapped her arms around herself, smiling like the biggest loon ever.

"I can't wait to hug your little foals!" she squeed.

"WHOA! Okay, that's enough of that!" Spitfire gave Surprise a sharp slap on the shoulder that would most likely leave a bruise. Surprise rubbed her shoulder, making a pouty face.

"Ouchie…" she whimpered. Surprise seemed to shut up pretty sharpish after that. Still grumbling, Spitfire glanced over at Soarin.

"And you wonder why I never hang out with you guys," she sourly said to him before looking straight down at the table. Soarin just shook his head and turned his head in time to see Rapidfire approaching with a plate of cookies in his mouth. He put them down on the table and started to say something when Blaze reached forward.

"Hey, thanks man, I'm starving," she said before Rapidfire slapped her hoof away.

"Hooves off, these are mine," he told her, earning a huffy glare from her. He sat down opposite High Winds. "So what was all the arguing about earlier?" he asked. Spitfire was about to answer when High Winds did it for her.

"Spitfire likes Braeburn. And I mean 'likes him', likes him," she smirked. Spitfire sat up straight and glared embers at the ponies around her.

"How many times? I don't!" she then turned to speak specifically to Rapidfire. "I don't!"

"MMMMMM!" Surprise suddenly grabbed everyone's attention. She was happily munching on one of Rapidfire's cookies. "Excuse me," she begged the others' pardon. "But these cookies are out of this world," she took another big bite. Rapidfire looked pretty annoyed.

"What- who said you could eat my cookies?" he pulled the plate away from her. Soarin decided there and then that he loved eating with everypony around. This was just too amusing to miss. "Anyway, why would you think that?" he asked High Winds, Blaze and Surprise, who was wiping cookie crumbs from around her mouth.

"Because I saw the two of them with my own eyes," Surprise said after swallowing the last of the sugary snack.

"Doing what?" Rapidfire asked with interest.

"Telling Soarin off," Spitfire sighed, but Surprise of course had a much different view of things.

"All kinds of things! If you'd seen the way Spitfire was looking at him you'd believe me! She practically glowed for Celestia's sake," she exaggerated. Spitfire gave Surprise a small shove.

"Rapidfire, are you really gonna take Surprise's opinion over mine? This is the same mare who once thought that bank cards actually had money inside them!" she looked angrily at the white Wonderbolt, who raised her hooves in defence.

"Are you ever gonna let that go? You got a new one!" she scooted away from the captain a little, just to be safe. Rapidfire shrugged and nodded.

"Okay, maybe Surprise isn't the most reliable of sources-"

"MMMMMM, these cookies!" Surprise blissfully exclaimed. Soarin noticed that she had grabbed another of the cookies from Rapidfire's plate. "I have got to get the recipe!" she said to Rapidfire, who then stood up and put both forehooves on the table.

"Put that cookie down!" he ordered her. "NOW!" he added, raising his voice a little higher than he should have. Sure enough, everypony in the room fixed their eyes on him, while he stood there, looking as awkward as he felt. He sunk back down in his chair and everypony at Soarin's table was silent until the other ponies in the room had returned to their business.

"Anyway, I have a short list of things that proves that Spitfire likes Braeburn. For starters, she smiles at him without being told to," she began.

"It's called having manners," Spitfire defended herself and Surprise snorted with laughter.

"When have you cared about being friendly to ponies? That's also point number two."

"HA!" Soarin burst out laughing. When he saw how everypony was staring at him he slowly stopped giggling and told them what was so funny. "Number two," was all he said, letting out one last snigger. Surprise rolled her purple eyes at him.

"And, point number three: she didn't react when Soarin called her and Braeburn his 'mom and dad'," she finished. Spitfire looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up.

"So? It was a joke; why should I have reacted?" she asked. She meant it rhetorically, but Surprise answered anyway.

"Spitfire, you take everything seriously, and you just let this one slide. That's not like you," she explained. Soarin had to admit that even though Surprise wasn't exactly what you'd call a smart pony, she did come up with some pretty legit things when she wanted to.

"Holy mother of Nightmare Moon, what does it take for me to get it into your thick skulls that I don't like Cowboy?" she sounded pretty exasperated by now. High Winds giggled.

"And you have a pet name for him, too!" she squealed. Spitfire let out a distressed groan before face-planting the table.

"It's just a nickname!" she insisted, folding her hooves over her head. Rapidfire looked from Surprise, to High Winds, to Blaze.

"Um… I think she's being serious," he told them. Blaze just smiled smugly and gazed over the table at the rather flustered Wonderbolt captain.

"I think she's seriously in L-O-V-E," she playfully teased her. Soarin actually felt a little sorry for his captain as the three mares next to her started giggling together. He would have hugged her to cheer her up… but he didn't want to die, so he decided against it. Well, even though Spitfire was humiliated, Rapidfire had embarrassed himself in front of everypony in the room and he never got to try one of those cookies, he decided that eating in here was great.

There was never anything this funny on TV!

---

Hi guys,

I know I didn't come to the Academy to deal with a bunch of friendship lessons and stuff like that, but I learnt something over the past couple of days that I thought would make a great letter.

Over a month ago, Spring Song and I had our falling out, and she refused to be friends with me again because she wouldn't let my victory over her go. Since then things have been getting worse between us and I was beginning to worry about friendships never rekindling. That's why I was so worried about Soarin getting mad at me for… something. Well, he was really cool about everything and even though what I did was wrong and he could have acted like Spring Song, not making up with me and hating me, he forgave me straight away. He's such an awesome pony!

And my friend Lullaby tried to talk me out of this situation (which really isn't important) and got pretty ticked with me for not following her advice. And, like Soarin, she forgave me, too; she didn't even seem all that mad. Though this might have been because I let her call me names… actually, she made me call myself names but that's not important right now.

And that taught me something. Friends forgive eachother! No matter how dire what you did was true friends always come through for you in the end. Spring Song never accepted my friendship after the race situation, so I guess she was never really my friend in the first place. Soarin and Lullaby are real friends; only friends like them would have wanted to stay buddies with me after this incident in which I did things they wouldn't have approved of. Now that is loyalty!

I'll see you guys soon, and tell Scoots I miss her.

Yours loyally,

Rainbow Dash.