Authors Note: So, who's enjoying season 5 so far? I know I am!

And who loved Tanks for the Memories? I think I'm gonna give our favourite little tortoise a shout out at the end.

Dj Storm- I'M GONNA WRECK IT! :D

YoungBlood23- Pleased I made your day, man. I think that's one of the scenes I'm most proud of overall. A lot of thought went into that.

Spiralwish- I love Fleetfoot, too! I mean for one thing, her mane and tail are so FLUFFY! And she seems like a huggable pony; can't you just imagine hugging a super soft Fleetfoot?

The Super Saiyan 3- Thanks for reading, as always, and I can't begin to tell ya how happy I am that the 'Surprise Sense Scene'- as I have dubbed it- was funny for you.

MidnightBlaze16- Awesome review is awesome! And yeah, it was meant to be a nod to Big Hero 6; at least I read it in Hiro's voice, anyway. HA! Now I'm imagining a robot Surprise! "Your neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are experiencing philo, common in ponies of both gender. Diagnosis- SPITBURN!

RosaSilvermist- I'm super glad you like that story! I'd say it's about 80% done by now and there's a preview on my profile. ^^ Also, Surprise made me want a SpitBurn T-shirt. I wonder if she'll actually make some…

Sparkling-nexis137- I guess it would be great to tease Spitfire… and dangerous. I'm glad you think it's funny 'cause (I'm not exaggerating) I've been scripting that for like three months. And I feel sorry for Rapidfire, too. COOKIES ARE AWESOME!

The Ghost Writer- Wowzers! Ya know, I just recently had a conversation about how there is such a huge lack of slow-paced stories, so this is both cool and ironic. I think the main thing I see with SoarinDash fics these days is that the writer uses the many, many things they have in common to initiate something intimate within a matter of minutes, and I personally don't like it when that happens. And Braeburn and Soarin's friendship is actually inspired by the official IDW pony comics, since it is shown on a variant cover of issue 11 that they did in fact go to the same high school. So that fact is canon, it's just their friendship that's not. As for the S.S. SpitBurn, I guess you could say… this ship has sailed! *I get shot in the foot*.

Litestardt- Glad ya liked it! Surprise is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters to write, ya know, and Soarin calling Spitfire and Braeburn his parents came to me at the last second, and I'm so happy that I put it in. ^^

Luna'snight625- *cyberhugs back* That review made me so freakin' happy! :D

Tycser- Yeah, I do find that sometimes I need a little more character development here and there, so the chapter usually turns out a little pointless; but, hey, I do tend to find that the chapters where not much happens are the most fun to write.

Guest- Aww, thank you! I'm thrilled you think my story's funny. *cyberhugs*

And now we move on to another of those chapters where nothing much happens besides some silliness and Paradise… so, mainly just silliness.

---

"So, how's it going with Sea Monkey?" Soarin asked Rainbow Dash as they walked down the hall after a particularly exhausting training session. The stallion had been teaching Rainbow Dash how to time turns just right; Rainbow had found it rather boring since she wanted to learn some more awesome tricks, leading Soarin to explain to her the importance of finely timed turns. One moment out of sync during an air show and the whole performance could get botched up. That had made the rainbow maned mare pay attention.

"Hehe," Rainbow giggled. Soarin had taken to calling Spring Song 'Sea Monkey' now since he thought she looked just like one. Actually, Rainbow Dash had to admit that if you looked at her a certain way then she did look like a sea monkey… boy, she'd have to try hard not to call her that in front of her. "Same old, same old, her trying to make my life miserable, and me imagining her as a chicken," she explained. Soarin gave her a perplexed look. Rainbow smirked and shook her head, as if remembering something. "Ask Lullaby," was all she said.

Soarin thought about the purple pegasus that was friends with Rainbow Dash. She seemed like a really nice mare, tending to be Rainbow's voice of reason. Lullaby was probably one of the most level-headed pegasi Soarin had ever met and wouldn't mind being friends with her himself. Rainbow definitely had a good taste when it came to friends.

"Ya know what? We should expose what a jerk she is to everypony in Equestria, get her kicked out of the Academy and everyone would hate her. What do ya say?" Soarin offered. He was only kidding but Rainbow Dash took it pretty seriously.

"No!" she exclaimed, her wings opening out to the side. "Soarin, I'm not gonna be a tattletale," she stood her ground stiffly and stone-faced. Soarin was pretty surprised at her stubbornness.

"Dashie, there's a difference between being a tattletale and standing up for yourself," he told her. He expected her to say something about how he wasn't as much of an idiot as she thought, like she usually did, but no joke came.

"Soarin," she had absolutely no positive emotions in her voice. "Just let me handle her myself, please," the word 'please' kinda came out as a hysterical plea. Soarin thought it over for a little while.

"Fine," he very reluctantly agreed, sighing a little. He swore to Celestia that if Spring Song did one more thing to Rainbow Dash he'd personally strap her to a firework and shoot her into the stratosphere.

"So, are cadets usually allowed in the staff room?" Rainbow asked as they turned another corner. Soarin shook his head, feeling a little cautious.

"No… don't tell your friends, I don't want 'em getting jealous. Only you can get the star treatment," he smiled down at her and the cyan pegasus beamed proudly. Holy Luna's stars, he loved it when she smiled; it was the perfect mix of happy and cocky.

"I won't. I mean it wouldn't be much of a staff room if every single cadet was in there," she chuckled at the thought. Soarin shrugged.

"Yeah, can't see why they'd want to go in there anyway," he said as they walked through the door. "It's always boring in there anyway," that turned out to be proved wrong about half a second later.

Rapidfire and Lightning Streak were at the coffee table staring down at a piece of paper with horror filled eyes while Braeburn stood nearby, looking a little awkward. Soarin and Rainbow Dash approached them warily, wondering what had got them so frazzled.

"Um, hi guys, Whatcha doin'?" Soarin chirped. Lightning Streak looked at the out of the corner of his eye.

"Just reading Braeburn's mail," he replied before resuming his letter reading. Soarin looked over at his earth pony friend, who instantly looked away. Leaving Rainbow Dash to ponder the other two stallions' behaviour, Soarin trotted over to the light gold pony.

"Care to explain exactly what's going on?" he asked. Braeburn sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Well, Derpy stopped by this morning with some mail and Ah got a letter back from muh parents. Muh pa kinda wrote some… stuff in there, and Ah got a little mad, came down here to rant about it, Lightning Streak and Rapidfire asked t' read it and-" he gestured over to the coffee table. "-this happened."

Soarin went over to the two Wonderbolts. "Um, what's shaken you two up so bad?" he asked nervously. Rapidfire looked up from the letter, his eyes wild.

"Heh… whoa, Braeburn's dad sure has a way with words," he gulped. "I hope he doesn't talk like this in public," he added, reading another sentence. Okay, if Rapidfire was concerned about this then it must be bad.

"Let me see then," Soarin stood next to Lightning Streak and Rainbow Dash joined him a second later. The first part of the letter was nice and polite- most likely Braeburn's mother, since she was one of the sweetest ponies Soarin had ever met- but when they got about halfway through things started to get a little pegasus-offensive.

"Yeesh!" Rainbow Dash and Soarin chorused, leaning back from the letter and gritting their teeth. Rainbow looked over at Braeburn with an incredulous look on her face.

"Are you sure this guy isn't from Manehattan?" she asked. Soarin nodded in agreement; usually ponies from thereabouts had language problems, and not the spelling, punctuation and grammar kind…

"Wow, how can a guy get so worked up over ponies with wings?" Lightning Streak unfolded his feathery wings and looked them over. Soarin rolled his eyes, remembering many times from his teen years where Braeburn's dad had treated him like a ten day old mouldy hayburger because of the wings on his back. Racism wasn't usually a problem for the three races of pony (four if you included alicorns), but there were some ponies that liked to discriminate the other types of ponies. Unicorns liked to boast about their powerful magic, pegasi sometimes liked to tease the others with their ability to fly and control the weather, and earth ponies, like Braeburn's dad, loved to hate the pegasi and unicorns for their abilities. If only harmony amongst ponies could be understood by everyone.

"Ya know, on that note, Lullaby wanted me to help her out with some wing exercises. I'll catch you guys later," Rainbow Dash left the room, looking a little distraught at the language in the letter. Soarin honestly couldn't blame her; he'd never get those terrible sentences out of his head.

"Um… so, how about we talk about something else?" Soarin suggested, trying to shake himself back to sense, or whatever it was Soarin felt in reality. He tried to think of something. "So, Lightning, how's Fire?" he asked Lightning Streak, who instantly got an angry look on his face.

"He's just chilling in his fancy schmancy office, lounging around in his spinny leather seat with the cup holder. A cup holder, man! I mean, how come he gets an office?" he sat down on the sofa and slouched down into the cushions, scrunching up his muzzle with annoyance. Maybe Soarin should have picked a different topic. Lightning Streak did tend to get a little mad whenever somepony mentioned the success of his senior Wonderbolt brother.

"Because he's smarter than you, better at his job, and knows what bipartisan means," Rapidfire listed things. Lightning Streak looked a little awkward at the memory, and so did Soarin because he had been there when Fire had tried to explain to Lightning what the word meant with some difficulty. He probably listed Lightning Streak as the second dumbest Wonderbolt, the most dumb being Surprise, of course.

"Ouch," Lightning Streak sounded pretty hurt at the older Wonderbolts words. "For your information I happen to have a very high intelligence level," he argued. Rapidfire smirked.

"Well, what is it?" he asked. Lightning Streak raised his head proudly and folded puffed out his chest.

"One hundred and seven! Triple digits, baby!" he cheered. Rapidfire snorted at Lightning Streak, mostly out of pity.

"Dude, that's stupid," he told the light blue Wonderbolt, who didn't look like he believed him.

"You're stupid," he told Rapidfire, who rolled his eyes at him.

"Worst comeback ever, man," he teased Lightning, who got up from the sofa and stood nose to nose with his older friend.

"Well, it's not like you could come up with anything clever either," he challenged. Still annoyed, Lightning Streak slammed a hoof on the table, shaking one of the mugs and splashing a little coffee on the table just as Feather Duster came through the door. She looked at Lightning Streak as he left the room then pointed at the coffee spillage.

"I'm not cleaning that up," she told the others, making Soarin tut at her.

"Oh, there's a shock," he said sarcastically as Rapidfire moved to stand in the doorway.

"I'd better find Lightning before he does something stupid," he told the others. "I'll be back!" he declared before heading after his colleague. Feather Duster shook her head at the two stallions and hovered over to curl up on one of the couches. That was one of the perks of being a rather diminutive pony; you could comfortably fit on a small cushion and still have room to spread your wings out. Soarin moved over to her and cleared his throat.

"What?" Feather Duster looked up at him. The blue pegasus glowered down at her sternly. Even though he loved to have fun he was still the co-captain, which meant that he had to ensure that everypony was doing what they were supposed to do.

"Don't you have work to attend to?" he asked her. Feather Duster shook her head and curled into a tighter ball.

"Nah, Spitfire's making Spring Song do all the work for me today. She's scraping gum off the bottom of the tables," she took a second to laugh. "Boy, it's good to see somepony else suffer for a change," she sighed. Soarin shook his head and stared down at the dust coloured mare. And ponies thought that he was a slacker… well, they weren't wrong, but still.

"So yer just gonna sit there all day?" Braeburn piped up, moving to stand next to Soarin. Feather Duster rolled onto her back.

"No, of course not, I've been busy all day and thought I'd take a nap. I do have a life outside of this job, ya know?" she replied. Soarin folded his hooves on the arm of the couch.

"Busy doing what?" he asked, not believing that the small pegasus had actually been doing anything vaguely productive. Feather Duster slitted her eyes at the much taller stallion.

"Is there a reason you want to know my personal business? I don't go 'round asking you what you do in your free time; I already know. All you ever do is eat," she told him, sitting up and resting her back against the other arm of the chair. Soarin's jaw dropped and he made it clear that he was offended by this.

"Excuse me, Little Miss Oompa Loompa," he mocked her, prodding her in the tummy. "I do way more than just eat!"

"Well, what else do you do then?" Feather Duster raised a brow and waited for his response. Soarin opened his mouth but nothing came out… oh great. He tried to think of something he did outside of work.

"I… sleep?" he shrugged. "I… Brae, help me out here," he whispered to his earth pony friend. Braeburn rolled his eyes and sighed.

"He does have some hobbies," he told Feather Duster, who suddenly looked interested.

"Like what?" she asked. Soarin wondered what Braeburn was about to say to help him out.

"Um… well, last week he called me over t' his place so Ah could help cut him out of a wet suit 'cause he was pretendin' t' be a dolphin," he looked over at Soarin with a slightly worried expression. The blue pegasus, however, looked absolutely horrified. Braeburn had promised him that he wouldn't tell anypony about that!

"Really?" Feather Duster put her hooves over her mouth and cackled into them. Soarin gave Braeburn a shove.

"What was that for?" he hissed. Braeburn shrugged his shoulders and his green eyes darted around.

"Ah was tryin' t' help!" he insisted. "Ah dunno what ya do in yer free time. She's right; all ya do is eat and mess around with wet suits!"

"I do other stuff; I just don't want anypony to know about them!" Soarin argued before thinking of an example. "I mean, do I really want everyone knowing that sometimes I dress up as Princess Celestia, and I record a speech, and then I play it back to see what it would be like if I was the Princess?" he asked. Braeburn took a step away from him.

"D'ya actually do that?" he asked.

"No…" Soarin replied, casting a wary glance to the side, before going back to the original conversation. "Goin back to the topic on hoof, what did you do today that wasn't lounging around and imagining an arrow through everypony's head?" he asked Feather Duster. The small pegasus grumbled and threw her hooves up in the air.

"Soarin, don't be ridiculous, I stopped imagining arrows through your heads like a month ago… now I imagine axes," she added, smirking and slowly rubbing her hooves together. Okay, Soarin didn't like the look on her face.

"So, are you gonna tell us what you did do or not?" he asked, hoping to draw her attention away from the imaginary axe slicing through his frontal lobe- ACK! Feather Duster looked off to the side, trying to remember what she did.

"Well, I got to work early- which is kinda unlike me, I know- so I hung around and waited for breakfast time outside Fire Streak's office… and then… I got something to eat, then after I took a walk past Fire Streak's office. After that… I went to watch Spring Song do my job, purely because I wanted to see how somepony else liked it, then I went past Fire Streak's office to-"

"Hold on. Why do you keep hanging around Fire Streak's office?" Soarin butted in. Feather Duster shrugged.

"I'm not," she lied. Then Soarin noticed her cheeks turning redder. Okay, after the past month and a half, he recognized that look loud and clear.

"No way!" he leaned down and used his best tease-voice. "You have a thing for Fire Streak," he nickered. Feather Duster's brown eyes went wide and she made a bad poker face.

Whaaaaat? Fire Streak? That's crazy, uh, why would I- stop looking at me like that!" she snapped, standing on all fours and swiping a hoof at Soarin's face, narrowly missing him.

"That explains a lot, like how you get crazily awkward whenever he comes into a room," Soarin told her.

"I do not do that," Feather Duster refused, shaking her head.

"Or that time you accidentally 'spilled' orange juice over him and mopped him up," Soarin realized, remembering how thorough Feather Duster had been with her cleaning that particular time.

"I was just being clumsy," the small mare argued.

"And the day you fell asleep on the couch and leaned against him," Soarin added. Feather Duster looked off awkwardly.

"Actually, that one was an accident. I had to stay at work the last night until I'd cleaned the whole staff room," she then got a mortified look on her face. "Did you know that dust can get under furniture? This job is impossible!" she flopped back on the couch.

"So, ya do like Fire?" Braeburn sat on the floor in front of the couch. Feather Duster sighed and shrugged.

"Okay, maybe I like him a little, but it's just a crush, right? I mean it's not like it could ever happen," she turned her head to the side to look Braeburn in the eye, suddenly looking distressed. "I mean you have absolutely no idea what it's like to be so desperately smitten with a Wonderbolt and know that there's an almost 0% chance of them liking you back," she rambled. Braeburn got a blunt look on his face.

"Wanna bet?" he asked. Feather Duster looked confused.

"What do ya mean by that?" she asked. Braeburn stood up and headed over to the coffee table.

"Not important," he called over his shoulder as he moved across to the other side of the room to sit on the long green sofa, pulling out an issue of Pick Your Pegasus and reading it upside down. Feather Duster seemed to shake it off after that.

"Anyway, it's no biggie, so just forget about it, okay?" she didn't give him a chance to reply and hastily left the room. Soarin exhaled sharply and looked over at Braeburn.

"Since when did the Academy turn into a huge drama-house?" he asked his friend, who shrugged.

"Ah'm used t' it by now," he replied, and Soarin had to agree.

---

"So, she's really scraping gum off the tables?" Rainbow Dash whispered to Lullaby as they crept down to the mess hall to see for themselves. As soon as Rainbow had heard she had begged Lullaby to go and find out with her.

"Well, Sugar Swoop doesn't lie," the purple pegasus replied, smirking as they neared the mess hall. "If he says Spring Song is on gum duty, then she probably is."

"Pfft. Gum doody," Rainbow snickered, earning an eye roll from Lullaby. Rainbow tried again. "Lullaby- gum doody!" she repeated. Lullaby shook her head and looked away from Rainbow Dash.

Still determined to make someone laugh, Rainbow Dash breaks the fourth wall and turns to look up at you through your screen. "Gum doody!" she chuckles again, waiting a few seconds for your response. "Nothing here either," she shakes her head before re-entering the story.

"Here we are," Lullaby announced as she peered into the mess hall. Rainbow Dash joined her friend's observation and almost lost control of her laughter as she laid eyes on Spring Song lying on her back under the table with a scraper in her hoof. She had a bucket beside her, probably full of the old gum and the look on her face was brilliant! She was gagging and softly whimpering as she scraped off some more of the old, chewed up stuff. It must have sucked to be Spring Song right then.

Paradise sat at one of the tables a few metres away, staring, unblinking, at her pink furred friend. Actually, now that Rainbow Dash was properly looking at Paradise the way she was looking at Spring Song was freaking her out… it was just plain creepy with a capital C.

"Do you want some help, now?" Paradise asked her friend, still not blinking. Spring Song grunted as some more gum came off onto the scraper.

"No, I can do this by myself. If you help, Spitfire will probably give me some other dumb job," she replied. "Who does she think she is, giving me these crummy chores? She's a complete ASS!" Spring Song sat up straight at that last word, whacking her head on the table as she did so. She fell onto her back again, probably seeing stars. Rainbow Dash didn't even feel the slightest bit sorry for her; it served her right for insulting the Wonderbolt captain like that. Paradise got up and walked over to Spring Song.

"Do you need help, now?" she asked once again. Spring Song raised a hoof in the air, the other one rubbing her sore forehead.

"No, I'm still fine. Just leave me alone for a minute," she grumbled, wincing a little at the pain in her skull. Paradise sat back at her table and resumed staring at Spring Song. After a few seconds, the green mare spoke again.

"How about now?"

"NO!" Spring Song drew out the word longer than it should have been before returning to her scraping, shrieking with disgust as some gum landed on her face when it fell off the table. That was when Rainbow Dash and Lullaby forgot all about holding in their giggles and burst into a fit of chuckles, snorts, you name it. Spring Song and Paradise looked over at them, eyes wide as they hadn't known they were being watched. Spring Song put on that same bitter frown she always got when Rainbow Dash was in her line of vision.

"What do you want, Rainbow Trash?" she then smiled sweetly. "Can I just say that your fur doesn't look nearly as messed up as usual," she added in a high, nicey-nice voice that made Rainbow want to puke. She decided to come back at her somehow.

"And, Spring Song, you don't smell as much as you usually do. Most of the time I can tell when you're gonna show up by scent," she teased the pink mare. Rainbow felt pride welling in her chest as Spring Song's jaw dropped. Yeah, who's smiling now, Stink Song?

"Ugh," Spring Song went back to scraping. "Look, unless you two have some reason to be here, just go. I have an important job to do," she boasted. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe she was bragging about gum duty… yeah it didn't sound as funny now. Lullaby flapped over one of the tables and landed next to Spring Song.

"I'm just gonna sit here and watch you do your 'important job' then, if you don't mind," the purple mare sat on her haunches and smirked down at Spring Song as she worked. The devil-pony angled her green eyes so she could look Lullaby in the face.

"I actually do mind," she told Lullaby, who just shrugged.

"All the more reason for me to watch," she put her head in her hooves and stared at Spring Song as if she were a TV screen. Rainbow sat next to Paradise and watched, too. Spring Song dealt with the three other ponies staring at her for an impressive amount of time (half a minute- which is good for Spring Song anyway) before groaning and snapping at all of them.

"Will you stop staring at me? What am I, some kind of zoo animal!?"

"Do you really want us to answer that?" Rainbow Dash sniggered, and Spring Song let out an over the top breath, before stubbornly scraping some more gum. Rainbow Dash caught sight of a cunning glint in Spring Song's eyes… that couldn't be good. Rainbow didn't have time to warn Lullaby as she flicked some gum right at the purple mare's face. She yelped as it stuck to her left ear and even Spring Song visibly cringed. Lullaby shook her head to get the gum off and stood on all fours.

"You b-" Lullaby then got a little bad-mouthed. Rainbow didn't often see Lullaby mad, but when she did it was wise to just give her some space… but for some reason she didn't feel like giving the pink she-demon the heads up. From then on, Spring Song argued back. They yelled louder and louder until Spring Song and Lullaby were standing nose to nose spitting insults at eachother.

"Whoa," Paradise said beside Rainbow Dash.

"I know, right," Rainbow Dash briefly glanced at the green mare in the seat next to hers. "How long do ya think they'll be arguing?" she wondered out loud. So she and Paradise sat there, hooves folded on the table in front of them, while Lullaby and Spring Song bickered, their words a blur of random syllables as they chattered back and forth, not even stopping to breathe.

"What's going on?" Cinder suddenly emerged from the kitchen, her ears flat to her head as if she were frightened. Well, Cinder was a pretty timid pony and all the yelling must have unnerved her quite a bit.

"Stay out of this, Shrimp!" Spring Song quickly looked over her shoulder and snapped at the tiny blue pegasus, who quickly scampered over to Rainbow Dash and Paradise, who hadn't even looked up from watching her two fellow cadets argue.

"But seriously, what's happening?" Cinder grunted as she tried clamber onto the chair next to Rainbow Dash, her front legs on the seat while her back legs flailed in mid-air as she tried to haul herself up. Rainbow lent Cinder a wing to hoist her up and the little mare gave her a grateful smile.

"Spring Song's on gum duty-"

"Pfffft! Gum doody!" Cinder giggled, covering her mouth with her small hooves. Rainbow Dash raised her voice so Lullaby could hear her.

"See?! She thinks it's funny!" she patted Cinder on the head; though Lullaby was far too occupied with her Spring Song issue to pay attention to Rainbow's boasting. The two of them were now circling eachother like a pair of lions about to attack eachother.

"Yikes," said Rainbow Dash, biting her lip as Lullaby threw a rather harsh insult at Spring Song, who gasped loudly and gave Lullaby a small punch on the shoulder.

"Oh boy," Cinder covered her eyes with her hooves for a few seconds before removing one just enough so she could see the conflict between the two rivals a little.

"Spring Song looks cute when she's mad," Paradise murmured. The green mare was completely unaware as Rainbow Dash and Cinder slowly twisted their heads to the side to look at her. They must have stared at her for at least a minute before Rainbow Dash spoke a single word.

"…what?"

Paradise looked over at her. "What do ya mean, 'what'?" she asked. Rainbow Dash and Cinder wondered how Paradise could be this unaware as to what they were getting at.

"You… you think she's cute?" Cinder nodded over at Spring Song, who was hovering a few feet in the air now, yelling down at Lullaby with vigour and fury. Paradise nodded, staring back at the pink pegasus.

"Yeah… I mean, she's just so smart, pretty and talented," she listed Spring Song's positives… wait a sec.

"Are we talking about the same pony?" Rainbow looked over at the devil-pegasus who was yelling up a storm. She was surprised that none of the Wonderbolts had come down to complain. Paradise naïvely nodded, sighing quietly, gazing at her with starry eyes, her voice silky as she spoke of the mare she fancied.

"Look at her; even in the heat of battle she is so elegant, regal. She is Ajax, mighty Greek warrior," Paradise slurred. Rainbow Dash hadn't known Paradise to be so poetic before now, not even when… hold on.

"Wait a minute, I thought you were obsessed with Fire Streak," Rainbow recalled the time during combat training when Paradise had practically swooned over him before chasing him. Paradise shrugged and fiddled with her forehooves.

"Well… he doesn't like me," Paradise finally saw the light. "And I guess I acted a little wacky around him, right?" she waited for Cinder and Rainbow to finish nodding at her. "But… I guess I've always had some kind of thing for Spring Song, ever since I first met her… but I didn't know about it until the party when she… ya know. Before that, all I knew was that I really cared for her and would do anything for her. Sure, she can be a jerk but nopony knows her like I do. Somewhere in there there's a kind, caring pony, she just doesn't know how to show herself."

Wow… Rainbow Dash hadn't heard Paradise talk about something so meaningful before. But that wasn't the only thing on her mind.

"Paradise?" she asked a little embarrassed. Paradise made a humming noise, signalling for Rainbow Dash to talk. "Do you… love Spring Song?" she rubbed the back of her head. She felt really dumb right now. Paradise shrugged her shoulder again.

"I don't know. Maybe?" was all she said. "I don't have anything to compare this to, so I can't be sure," she admitted. Though tomboys like herself didn't much care for stuff like this, Rainbow Dash was curious about these sorts of emotions. She'd tried not to think about it for quite some time, but after the party incident and the time she'd spent with Soarin on the cloud, she'd been noticing more and more that when she was around the stallion she felt… better. Rainbow Dash hadn't really been concerned with stallions before, but for the past few weeks she'd become aware of crazy things going on with her. When she hung out with Soarin she never wanted it to end, whenever he praised her or called her awesome she'd grow warmer, mostly around her facial area and ears, and on more than one occasion she had got the weird desire to hug him… she was just so confused.

"Still, when you're around her what does it feel like?" Rainbow wanted to barf all over herself for asking such a stupid question. She was Rainbow 'Danger' Dash and she wasn't meant to ask questions like that. It wasn't in her nature!

"Well, it's kinda like… I want to spend every second of every day with her, and I feel like I'd do anything to make her like me," Paradise explained. Rainbow wasn't so sure if this was the same thing she felt for Soarin. Cinder piped up from next to the cyan mare.

"Paradise, I recall you once saying that ponies were like socks," she reminded the green pegasus. Rainbow Dash obviously hadn't been around for this, but she listened in anyway. "If you lose one in the drier you just go and find another one that's been left lying around," she explained. Paradise folded her arms close to her body and looked down at the table.

"I know. There's just something different about this sock. I just wanna hug it and kiss it and-"

"Are we still talking about a sock?" Rainbow Dash butted in. As much as she hated to admit it, Paradise's objection to the 'Sock Theory' was actually quite accurate. She did feel that kind of compulsion whenever she was around Soarin, though she never paid it any attention. She'd been training with the guy for almost two months now and over time she'd grown fonder and fonder of him. She thought back to the beginning of the boot camp when they had trained together for the first time, thinking how excited she had been to train with a Wonderbolt! She compared that to her feelings now. She hadn't been so foggy headed and blushy around him before, that was certain… so when had all this started?

"Rainbow Dash!"

The rainbow maned cadet suddenly felt somepony rapping on her shoulder, breaking her out of her thoughts. Lullaby started tugging her by a forehoof.

"Come on, we're leaving before somepony does something she'll regret," she was talking to Rainbow but didn't take her eyes off Spring Song.

"Well, I bet you're gonna say something you'll regret first!" the pink pegasus snapped back. Lullaby pushed Rainbow Dash towards the door, so rough that she tripped over her hooves a couple of times.

"No, I bet it'll be you who says something you'll regret first!" Lullaby yelled back at her. Paradise flapped into the air and landed next to Spring Song, flaring out her wings to make her look a little tougher.

"I'm not saying anything!" Spring Song stood at her full height, her ears folded back to show she meant business.

"Neither am I!" Lullaby snarled.

"Now get out of here!" Spring Song pointed a hoof at the double doors.

"We were just leaving!" Lullaby pushed Rainbow Dash the remainder of the way to the door and then strode briskly down the hall. Rainbow looked back into the mess hall one last time. Cinder was still sitting at the table, looking very awkward, Paradise was looking hesitantly out the window as if she was ashamed of choosing sides and Spring Song glared at Rainbow Dash with all the hatred of a herd of Windigo's. Rainbow felt her blood chill before she followed after Lullaby, leaving 'Sea Monkey' to resume her gum duty.

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Hi everyone,

Do you guys have any idea how satisfying it is when you see somepony finally get what they deserve? Well, Spring Song was given what has to be the second grossest job next to poop-shovelling- (no offense, Applejack)- gum duty! I can tell Pinkie Pie is laughing!

I don't exactly have a friendship report today other than I learned that when Lullaby is angry she yells a lot… and that can give you a mild earache. So my lesson of the day is 'don't make Lullaby mad'. Is that a valid enough lesson, Twilight?

Other than that nothing else happened today. Nope. Nothing weird at all. Certainly no wild discoveries were made and I definitely didn't get help from an idiot (I pray to Celestia that Paradise never finds this letter and discovers that I called her an idiot) and everything is 120% totally normal.

I'll see you guys soon, and feel free to come and visit. I'd love for you to hang out with me and meet Lullaby, Cinder and some of my other friends here. And Pinkie Pie, I give you my full permission to party cannon Spring Song right in the face. Boy, I'd pay any amount of bits for something like that. And the best part about that? We could have a party to celebrate Spring Song being humiliated and we wouldn't even have to bother with the decorating!

Yours awesomely,

Rainbow Dash

P.S: Fluttershy, I hope you're not having any trouble taking care of Tank for me. The little guy hasn't broken anything right?

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Endnote: Paradise has a terrible taste in mares… that's all I have to say.