Dashing and Soaring
Chapter 31: Confrontation: Soarin
Previous Chapter Next ChapterDj Storm- You bet you are! This is a predictable but unpredictable chapter… did that make sense? No? GOOD! Because what fun is there in making sense?
YoungBlood23- Well, stories with long pacing tend to be my favourites, and you're supposed to write what you like, so that's why it's taking 30+ chapters for something to happen. But then again, I know from experience that you appreciate things better when you wait longer for them, and hopefully it'll be the same with the SoarinDash in this tale.
RosaSilvermist- I bet it is! I also know of a certain earth pony stallion who'd love to see your shrine and give you a HUGE hug!
Surprise: I'm thinking along the lines of… um… The Crazy Crew! Though that depends… are you crazy enough?
Captain Alaska- At least Jeff's gonna be an analyst now! WOOHOO! And yes, I do imagine that Rainbow Dash is the pony Spitfire respects most of all. I'm also beginning to think that Soarin is even more random than Pinkie Pie… okay, no, that's just plain impossible!
Litestardt- Yeah, there's a 48% chance that Surprise is secretly an evil mastermind planning to take over Equestria with an army of balloon minions… but you didn't hear that from me!
Luna'snight65- Only time (and reading) will tell.
Authors Note: Just to let you guys know there's a little alcohol in this chapter but nothing major… also, I really need to count how many times I've made Soarin sing in this story.
And, once again, a special thank you to Captain Alaska for coming up with a lot of Soarin jokes for this chapter; the songs were all his idea, people, so give him some thanks, too.
Now let's get this show on the road! Prepare for a lot of nuttiness, fluff, and duck sauce. Yes, you read that right: Duck sauce.
I AM INSANE! (') (,)
"GOODNESS GRACIOUS GREAT BALLS OF FIIIRRRREEE!"
"Holy Celestia, what the hay is that?" Spitfire cringed as she and her two companions touched down on the street that Soarin's house was in. Braeburn got down from Surprise's back and covered his ears.
"That's Soarin's singin'. He wakes me up by singin' every mornin' an' it's almost as bad as this," he replied. Spitfire instantly felt sorry for the gold earth pony; no living thing should have to hear this awful racket.
"It's like somepony's strangling a cat!" she commented, making her way down the street to Soarin's house (which was quite a way down, so Soarin's singing had probably caused most ponies to evacuate by now) with the others in tow.
"That's an insult to strangled cats everywhere," Surprise said, flattening her ears to her skull to drown some of the noise out. "Poor kitties."
Once they had reached Soarin's place, Spitfire knocked on the door as hard as she could to make sure the pegasus stallion inside could hear her over the sound of his obnoxious 'melody'. Thankfully, the singing stopped and the golden pegasus breathed a sigh of relief; she wasn't sure she'd ever recover from hearing something like that. The door opened and Soarin peered out. It only took him a second to examine the three ponies at his doorstep before he slammed the door on them so hard that it shook on its hinges. Rolling her eyes, Spitfire knocked on the door again, and once again, Soarin opened the door and peeked out at them.
"Hey Soarin, we were just wondering if you were doing okay?" Spitfire said to him.
*SLAM*
Spitfire slumped her shoulders and groaned loudly. Yeah, this was gonna be way more difficult than it had to be. A little angrier this time, she banged on the door harder. Soarin opened it another time, his green eyes the only thing visible through the tiny gap he had made between the door and the wall of the house.
"Soarin, don't you dare slam the door on my face!"
*SLAM*
"Okay…" Spitfire looked from Surprise to Braeburn. "Looks like we're gonna have to do this the hard way. Surprise, initiate Plan B," she smirked at the white pegasus.
"Gotcha," Surprise reached into her mane and pulled out a stick of dynamite. Fishing into her mane again she grabbed a matchstick and struck it against the doorstep before preparing to light it.
"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, STOP!" Spitfire slapped the dynamite out of Surprise's hoof. "That's 'Plan Boom'! The Plan B I'm talking about here is 'Plan Break-in'!" she explained. Surprise dropped the matchstick and dynamite to the ground and put her hooves on her hips.
"Well, you could have made it a little clearer!" she argued. Spitfire made strangling motions with her front hooves before letting them drop promptly back down to the ground.
"I didn't think I'd have to tell you not to blow up Soarin's house!" she snapped. Surprise tutted and flapped into the air.
"Yeesh, calm down won't ya. I'll go in through the window," she flew up to the second storey of Soarin's house and pushed the window, making it open with a squeaking noise. "Well, that was easier than I thought," she muttered before clambering through, closing the window after her. For a few seconds it was quiet.
"Um… how do ya think she's…?" Braeburn stared up at the space Surprise went through, not finishing his sentence.
"Oh, yeah… fine…" Spitfire replied, staring up, too. Okay, things were getting too silent for her liking… awkwardly silent, she found.
"So… what do ya think's takin' so long?" Braeburn scuffed his front hooves on the clouds below. Spitfire shrugged, still avoiding eye contact.
"Well, either she's got lost or… maybe Soarin caught her and… shoved her in the freezer?" she came up with a possible solution. She had definitely smelt the distinct aroma of alcohol on Soarin when he opened the door, so maybe he was loopy enough to do something like that? Braeburn looked a little freaked out at the idea and looked down at the floor. Great, she'd made things even more uncomfortable.
'So?' Spitfire's conscience told her that she shouldn't care.
"Um…" she tugged at her tie. "So, if she does get stuck in there, would you like to be the one to tell her family about it?" she asked. Braeburn glanced over at her, looking terrified at the proposal.
'Ta-da! Another terrible idea from Captain Kook!'
"Or not…" she looked away from him, wishing that Surprise would hurry up and open the door for them.
"No, Ah'll tell 'em she's dead if it'll make ya happy," Braeburn got her attention back. Okay, Spitfire had no idea how a sentence as messed up as that could make her blush!
"Of course it wouldn't make me happy, my friend would be dead!" she replied. Braeburn sheepishly looked away again.
'Hurry up, Surprise!'
"If she dies…" Braeburn looked back up at the window. "…how're we gonna get 'er outta there?"
Good question.
"Well, I'll probably hire a team of armed pegasi to get her corpse out," Spitfire replied. Wait a sec…
'Oh for Luna's sake, everypony's craziness is rubbing off on you! Stop talking!'
"Surprise!" Spitfire called out, wanting to stop this madness before it got out of control. "If you're alive, say something!" she immediately face-hoofed at what she said.
"Okay…" Braeburn stood up when there was no response and yelled up to the window. "Surprise, if yer alive, don't say anythin'!" he frowned at what he said, sitting back down. "Yeah, that ain't gonna work."
"Hehe," Spitfire giggled at him.
Wait…
'You… giggled? You giggled! And now you're blushing. Snap outta it! SURPRISE!'
"SQUEEEEEEEE!" a loud squealing came from inside Soarin's house.
"Surprise?" Spitfire put her ear to the door. "You're finally down! Open the door!" she commanded.
"Why?" Surprise asked. Spitfire could imagine her pouting.
"Because I said so!" the captain kicked the door. "Wait… how long have you been there?" she asked suspiciously.
"Um… five minutes," Surprise replied. Spitfire felt a bomb ticking in her head, about to go boom!
"And you didn't think to let us in?!" she bellowed, infuriated.
"Well, I was hoping if I waited long enough-"
The bomb went off.
"OPEN THE DOOR, DAMMIT!" Spitfire bucked the door with her back hooves hard enough to get her point across but not so hard that she busted the door down. Besides, she already knew what Surprise was going to say and she didn't like it! With a click, the door swung open and Surprise grumpily stood aside to let the two ponies in.
"Meanie-Pants," the white mare muttered as Spitfire walked past. The golden Wonderbolt gave Surprise a quick death glare before noticing Soarin on his couch, tossing an empty cider bottle up into the air and catching it again.
"Soarin?" she asked, wrinkling her nose at the strong smell of alcohol. "You okay there?" Obviously the answer was no, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. Soarin made a groggy grumbling noise.
"Yeah…" he slurred. The silence that followed was darn near unbearable, only broken by the sound of the door closing as Braeburn walked in. Suddenly, the level of weirdness was cranked up a notch.
"Did you guys know that duck sauce has nothing to do with duck?" Soarin randomly asked his three visitors . Spitfire shifted her eyes from side to side, the awkwardness so thick that it was almost suffocating.
"W-what?" Spitfire backed away a little. Soarin fiddled with the bottle in his hooves.
"It's true. Duck sauce doesn't require an actual duck." The stallion told the others. Unfortunately, Surprise had to go ahead and get involved.
"Then why is it called duck sauce?" she asked. Spitfire looked over at Surprise and mouthed 'shut up', but either the white mare didn't see it or she was just too stupid to understand.
"The Chineighse used to serve the sauce with Peking Duck and that's why the name stuck." Soarin replied. Spitfire rolled her eyes and decided to just sit down on Soarin's other couch and wait this little scene out. She was still trying to get over the fact that Soarin was smarter when he was drunk.
"So, does the Peking Duck have anything to do with a duck?" Surprise asked, sitting on the arm of the chair Soarin was lounged on and looking down at him with interested eyes.
'So she can pay attention to this but she can't listen when I tell her not to leave her JoyBoy on the floor?' Spitfire thought to herself.
"Yes, apparently." Soarin replied, holding the bottle of cider upside down to see if there were any drops left.
"So either way the poor little ducky dies?" Surprise folded her hooves, looking sorry for the poor animal. Ponies in Chineigh were omnivores due to poor harvests. Their diets had adapted hundreds of years ago to get used to meat and things had stayed that way ever since. Still, the thought of eating meat disgusted most ponies.
"Yes." Soarin answered. After that they finally shut up. Just as Spitfire was about to make another attempt to get Soarin off his chair, but the pale blue stallion cut her off. "Why don't they use chicken instead of duck to make Peking Duck?" he asked.
"Soarin, please stop." Braeburn sighed, leaning against the wall.
"Because then it would be Peking Chicken, and that wouldn't be good for the chicken." Surprise stuck out her bottom lip, clearly sorry for the bird.
"But it would be good for the duck." Soarin threw his bottle of cider into the trash can on the other side of the room (with a worrying amount of skill).
"What does it matter if it's a chicken or a duck?" Surprise folded one hind hoof over the other and put her front hooves behind her head, leaning her back against the wall.
"It makes a lot of difference to the chicken or the duck. You're selfish, Surprise! You only think about yourself!" Soarin suddenly started yelling. Spitfire glanced over at the door. Should she escape?
"Why can't they make Peking Tofu?" Surprise then decided to say. "Then it would save the chicken and the duck."
"I don't like tofu!" was Soarin's response. "I would not pay any amount of money for tofu!"
"What is the tofu was free?" Surprise suggested.
"I still wouldn't eat it." Soarin reached over to the coffee table in the middle of the room and grabbed another bottle of cider; pulling the cork out with his teeth and spitting it into the trash can (again- way too skilfully to be considered normal).
"Why?" Surprise asked, clearly confused- but not as confused as the sober ponies.
"Because I don't like the name," Soarin flicked his bottle up, spraying some cider across the room, narrowly missing Braeburn.
"Soarin, Ah will lasso you if ya don't shut up!" the earth pony threatened as he side-stepped out of the way to avoid getting splashed.
"What does the name have to do with how it tastes?" Surprise was so immersed in this ridiculous conversation that she didn't notice Spitfire doing the 'I'm pretending my hoof is your head so I can punch it' thing. Soarin folded his arms and scrunched his face up.
"As Welshiam Shakesmare said: "Call a tofu by any name and it is still a tofu."
"Shakesmare never said that." Surprise looked off to the side, as if she were trying to confirm whether or not the famous playwright ever said something that deranged.
"Chineighse Shakesmare did!" Soarin argued, taking another gulp of cider.
"I didn't know there was a Shakesmare in Chineigh!" Surprise looked bewildered at the revelation.
"There wasn't," Spitfire sighed, though she was just ignored.
"Chineigh can replicate anything, so they can replicate Shakesmare." Soarin insisted. Surprise put a hoof to her chin.
"So does this mean that Chineigh can replicate ducks, too?" she asked.
"Um… yeah," Soarin replied.
"So why can't we eat duck? If they can clone a duck then one can be spared for us." Surprise came to (what was hopefully) a conclusion.
"Yes we can, but if we do the poor duck is dead." Soarin countered. (Nope, not a conclusion).
"I got your point," Surprise told Soarin. "But if they can clone a duck then technically it's not dead."
"Yes, but ducks have feelings, too!" Soarin quarrelled.
"Okay fine, ducks have feelings, so I won't eat them," Surprise nodded. Spitfire sighed, thinking that this was finally over. Of course, it wasn't.
"But you can eat duck sauce because it doesn't have feelings." Soarin added.
"Why doesn't it have feelings?" Surprise snapped down at Soarin.
"Because it doesn't have any duck in it!" Soarin rolled his eyes.
"Are you sure?" Surprise asked.
"Yeah, duck sauce has nothing to do with duck." Soarin said to the white Wonderbolt, who looked down at Soarin with interest.
"Then why is it called duck sauce?"
"OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH!" Spitfire got up and clamped a hoof over Surprise's mouth. "You two have been going on and on about duck sauce for the past 964 words, so cut it out for Celestia's sake!"
Surprise pushed Spitfire hoof away and squealed. "Oh my gosh, I've witnessed Spitfire's first fourth wall break!" she buzzed in her seat. The captain cleared her throat to get Surprise's attention back.
"May I remind you that we aren't here to talk about Chineighse sauces; we're here to discuss why Soarin has been making a drunk ass of himself for the past week instead of showing up for work," she moved her glower from Surprise to Soarin as she spoke. Soarin blinked a couple of times, his groggy mind processing what was happening. Finally he spoke… actually he sang.
"I'm a little teacup short and stout!"
"Soarin, get a grip!" Braeburn grabbed his friend by his shoulders and shook him so hard that the pegasus pony's head flopped back and forth.
"Get your paws off me, Easter Bunny!" Soarin shoved Braeburn away, holding up his clenched hooves, ready for a fight.
"Soarin, we need to talk to you!" Surprise jumped off the arm of the couch and stood next to Spitfire. Soarin stood up straight and started speaking in a stereotypical Canterlot accent.
"No I shan't march in the pudding parade!" he announced, raising his cider bottle in the air. Braeburn quickly grabbed the bottle and dropped it in the trash, giving Soarin the most intimidating glare he could muster.
"Soarin, yer gonna sit yer sorry rump down an' let us talk t' you or so help me Ah will take a mop an' Ah will shove it so far down yer throat that ya choke on it! SO SIT DOWN NOW!" he ordered. Soarin, looking a little scared, immediately sat down on the couch again, curling his tail around his hooves, shaking.
'Wow…' Spitfire thought as Braeburn continued staring Soarin down.
"Focus!" she snapped at herself out loud by accident. Surprise looked over at her, confused.
"We are focusing!" She gestured to Soarin. Still partially wishing that she would just disappear, Spitfire shook everything off and spoke to Soarin.
"Soarin, I told you that if you didn't sort out this issue with Rainbow Dash there would be consequences; but instead of resolving the problem you just made things worse. I literally don't think that matters could get any worse than they are right now," she ranted. Surprise gripped one of her shoulders and gasped.
"Don't jinx it!" she hissed. Spitfire usually wouldn't believe in the concept of jinxing… but with everything that had been happening recently she might just change her views.
"I'm sorry…" was all Soarin said, curling up on the couch and burying his face in his hooves. Surprise sat next to him and started stroking his back to comfort him, which must have succeeded a little bit because he lifted his head and placed it on the white mare's lap in a manner similar to the way a cat would sit on its owner. Spitfire didn't have time to sympathise Soarin… well, she did but… oh, who was she kidding? She moved to sit on Soarin's other side, patting him on the shoulder to show her own form of support.
"Soarin, I don't wanna sound cruel or anything, but just saying sorry isn't gonna fix things with Rainbow Dash. There's no point in being ashamed of this or anything since everypony knows that you… like her," Spitfire had been noticing Soarin's particular affection for the cyan mare for quite some time but had never really cared much about it. She hadn't been at all surprised when Misty Fly had told her about Soarin's outburst in the Mess Hall; probably a little sorry for him to say the least because she could imagine the embarrassment he had been feeling. "But sitting around here and drinking yourself senseless is going to do exactly zero help, and I bet that you'll be making a complete fool of yourself within a day or two if somepony doesn't intercede, so we're gonna make you go over to the Academy and make things right with Dash no matter what you do to try and convince us otherwise. Now get up, and go!" Spitfire pointed towards the door with a hoof. Soarin just glanced up at her and shook his head before nuzzling into Surprise's lap a little more. Surprise stroked Soarin's head and gave Spitfire a look that said 'We need a new plan.'
"Dashie…" the pale stallion mumbled, before bursting into another song.
"She's my cherry pie,
Cool drink of water such a sweet surprise,
Tastes so good, makes a stallion cry,
Sweet Cherry Pie!"
He then proceeded to flop his face back down on Surprise's lap, knocking the breath out of her. From the look on her face you would have thought that somepony had dropped a bowling ball on her lap.
"I can't fix things…" Soarin grumbled. Braeburn sat on the last remaining seat on the couch and folded his hooves.
"Why can't ya?" he asked. Soarin finally got up and slumped over to the door. For a moment Spitfire thought that he might actually be leaving to go to the Academy… but instead he just placed his forehead against the door and let out a long, low groan.
"Because I can't leave my house without being ridiculed," he replied. Spitfire had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
"What do you mean 'you can't leave your house'?" she asked him. Soarin looked over at the three ponies on the couch before opening the door and stepping out. Once he was out of view, somepony could be heard yelling.
"Hey, look, it's the idiot from the magazine!"
Soarin then came back inside with an expressionless look on his face and closed the door, moving over to the coffee table and flopping across it, knocking over a dozen or so cider bottles in the process. Surprise was the first to speak.
"What magazine?" she asked. Soarin let one hoof hang over the coffee table and he fumbled around for something on the floor. He then lifted up an issue of Bridle Gossip magazine and tossed it to Surprise. The three sober ponies checked out the cover. Soarin was on the front page in his flight suit, grinning like a goofball as usual, with some text at the bottom of the page.
WONDERBOLT CO-CAPTAIN IS A FOOL FOR RAINBOW DASH
And we all thought this stallion only had an eye for pie
"Wait, this doesn't make any sense…" Surprise put a hoof to her chin and looked off to the side. Spitfire nodded.
"Yeah, who the in the hay sent this story in?" she pondered. "The only ponies who saw what was happening were the cadets and most of the Wonderbolts, so…"
"No, I meant that it doesn't make sense that somepony would still be in this street after hearing Soarin's terrible singing," Surprise cut her off. Spitfire rolled the magazine up and bonked Surprise over the head with it before finishing her sentence.
"As I was saying- whoever sent the story in is at the Academy… great," she rolled her eyes. "First somepony puts a horseshoe in the storm cloud cluster and now we've got a pony sending in stupid gossip, too. There are too many mysteries going on; nowhere in my job description does it say 'Private Investigator'!"
"Surely you can get over this magazine issue fer the sake o' Rainbow Dash?" Braeburn prompted the pegasus stallion, who didn't move an inch from the slumped position he was in on the coffee table. Braeburn bent down to look Soarin in the eye. "Soarin, get up!" he snapped. Soarin jolted with shock and sat up straight.
"For the love of apple pie, Brae!" he gasped. "You just popped up two inches from my face and I am drunk!" Soarin slurred. Spitfire rolled her eyes, refraining from making a 'you don't say' comment. "I had about three different emotions just then, and my brain hasn't even caught up to what they are yet!"
"Probably fear, 'cause Ah could've given ya a heart attack," Braeburn replied. "Excitement- because Ah'm here t' help an' ya clearly look up t' me," the earth pony was obviously trying to play with Soarin's groggy brain. "An' Ah don't know the third one…" he trailed off.
"Maybe nausea?" Surprise suggested. Spitfire was about to point out to her puffy maned friend that nausea wasn't exactly an emotion when Soarin spoke instead.
"Well isn't that just a delusion of grandeur," Soarin placed his chin back on the table, having to roll his eyes all the way up to be able to maintain eye contact with his earth pony friend. Hold on… did Soarin seriously understand bigger words when he was drunk? "I don't look up to you at all! You are a sad bag of poop, Brae!" he shook a clenched hoof at the light gold stallion in front of him.
"Ouch," Braeburn replied bluntly.
"Wow… he really is super drunk," Surprise rubbed her forehead.
"Actually, Ah can't be sure if he's, like, really drunk. He treats me like this when he's sober, too," the earth pony rolled his eyes. Surprise let out a sympathetic 'awwww' and moved to hug the stallion.
"Shame on you, Soarin," she looked down at the pegasus on the table. She then moved back to the couch and leaned over to whisper to Spitfire. "So, do you think he's drunk enough that he'd forget this conversation happened within an hour?" she asked. Spitfire shrugged.
"I dunno. Soarin practically gets drunk on living, judging by the way he acts at work. Slacker," she mumbled. "I think he's sober enough that he'd understand what we're trying to say. He seems to get that ponies think he's an idiot and that he has a painful inability to get on good terms with Rainbow Dash again, so he has all the basics covered."
"Well let's be careful about what we say. I think he might be drunk enough that he could take something the wrong way and destroy the whole city," Surprise argued.
"What the hay have you been watching on TV?" Spitfire asked dryly while slitting her eyes at the white Wonderbolt.
"Focus!" Surprise booped the captain's nose, much to her annoyance. "I think we can rule out Soarin being sober!"
"And I think we should rule out the possibility of there not being something neurologically wrong with you," Spitfire remarked sarcastically. "Besides, you shouldn't just throw the possibility of Soarin being sober enough out the window- remember that time I didn't think you had a stomach ache and then you threw up all over the floor?"
"That was different," Surprise told the golden pegasus. "I told you I had a tummy ache and you said that I was wrong! You told me to suck it up, but I just puked instead!"
"I was so mad at you," Spitfire sneered at Surprise. "If you were sick you should have said so!"
"But that's exactly what I did!" Surprise threw her hooves in the air. Spitfire shook her head.
"No, you were whinging to get out of work!"
"Except I wasn't, because I was really sick!"
"Um… ladies?" Braeburn interrupted them formally. "Ah hate t' break this up, but… Soarin, remember?" he nodded at the stallion, who was puffing his cheeks out and then releasing the air in a manner that it made a fart sound. Spitfire sighed and gave Surprise a glare for distracting her before placing her head in one hoof and speaking to Soarin again.
"Soarin, Cowboy's right, ya know. Could you just bust outta your state for a second and listen?" she asked. Soarin hesitantly looked over at her. "What you don't understand is that Rainbow Dash is in the same boat as you right now; she won't leave her room and it's gonna stay that way until something changes. Now you have two choices, soldier, you can either sit around here all day drowning your sorrows in alcoholic apple juice, or you can fly over to the Academy and help get Dash out of her slump. And trust me, all of us- me, Surprise, Cowboy, all the other 'Bolts, and the cadets, would appreciate it if you chose the latter option. So what's your decision? If you're not gonna do it for yourself, then do it for Rainbow Dash. She kinda needs you right now."
Soarin sighed and let his ears droop, looking as if he were considering the possible solutions. After what felt like ten long, agonizing minutes (probably because it was actually ten long, agonizing minutes) Soarin grumbled and got up from the table. He ran a hoof through his mane and shook out his wings since they were pretty ruffled and looked over at the captain, still not all that enthusiastic.
"Fine…" he sighed.
"YAY!" Surprise hopped over to Soarin and hugged him tightly, gripping him around his neck and ruffling his mane. "I knew you'd come through in the end you knucklehead, you!" Surprise squealed.
"Wow… if we ever need t' strangle somepony we could just make Surprise do it," Braeburn suggested to Spitfire, who shook her head.
"She sure does have an iron grip, but she's harmless," she replied. Braeburn pointed a hoof towards Soarin and Surprise.
"Then why isn't Soarin breathin'?" he asked. Spitfire took a closer look at the pale blue Wonderbolt and realised that he had seized up and was turning a little purple. Oh…
"Surprise, release!" Spitfire ordered, and the white mare obeyed in an instant. Soarin took a huge gulp of air and fumbled to stay balanced as the word slowly grew less fuzzy around him.
"Now can we go?" Surprise hopped from hoof to hoof. Spitfire didn't even get to finish her word-
"Yea-"
"WOOHOO!" Surprise burst out the door and into the sky, racing towards the Academy, doing a few flips in the air to celebrate whilst whooping at the top of her lungs. Soarin walked out after her, looking a little more confident that he had been a few seconds previously.
Suddenly-
"Look! It's the magazine dude again!" that same pony from before laughed. Soarin came back inside the house and stared down at the floor for a few seconds.
"Ya know…" he looked up at the two remaining ponies. "Maybe I should wear a disguise just to be on the safe side."
Endnote: Okay, Soarin's been persuaded to fix things. Now PurpleSmart (Lullaby) and BlueShy (Cinder) need to do the same with CyanFast (Do I even need to put a name in here?)