Authors Note: My (apparently) inspirational writing has been spread to FiMFiction by a reader! All I did was search for my profile page because I couldn't be bothered to do the whole, homepage, click, click, clickety stuff and I discovered a story on FiMFiction that gave a shout out to me! Naturally, I bounced up and down like I was on a sugar buzz for about fifteen minutes before regaining my sanity (at least whatever I have left of it, anyway). So, if you're reading this:

MOXIEE STARR, YOU'RE AWESOME!

AND I've got another special shout of here for Ripstickmario! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my friend; you can consider this chapter (and the next, if you want) my gift to you, as late as it may be. YOU ROCK!

Now, onto the replies!

Captain Alaska- Me AND Surprise both think that Plan Boom could reeeeeaaally be put to good use if Brae is ever- *Spitfire holds a frying pan above my head* I mean… it would come in handy if the Wonderbolts ever want to epically walk away from an explosion… heh…

Dj Storm- Probably the second cutest thing next to baby Applejack. ^^

RosaSilvermist- Then go and hug him, he really wants to show his appreciation. WHOA- *Braeburn launches himself at you and hugs you*

Surprise: Easy there, girl! Now, I've been taking notes on your craziness. *Shows you her notepad* Look! I drew a picture of me skiing down a mountain that's made entirely out of cake! Oh, and you're SO in the Crazy Crew now!

YoungBlood23- That is exactly what I said, too! There were originally a whole lot more drunk Soarin jokes but I cut them out to stay focused. I think he was funny enough without 'em anyway. xD

Litestardt: First, I just did that for fun and no other reason. Second, getting a hug from Surprise is probably not the way to go if you want to live your whole life with a properly functioning ribcage. And third, I have never known someone get hurt so much from reading my story. I'll have a word with Spitz about that later but she didn't take her stress meds today so she's being a jerk.

The Super Saiyan 3- Soarin just doesn't seem like the aggressive sort of drunk. That's all. Besides, I've never been drunk so I have no idea what it's meant to be like, and I don't really want to find out. And I'm so pleased that this story means so much to you. Damn, I wanna hug you through the screen!

Luna'snight625- Yep… veeeeeerrrrrryyyy slooooowwwwlllly. God, I'm starting to annoy myself with my slow pacing. And combining Rainbow Dash's situation with my writing… expect weirdness and humor. ^^

PinkUnicornLover190- I'm so ecstatic that you like my story… and I'm incredibly flattered by your compliments. And there's no harm in saying that chapter 29 is my favourite too; not to toot my own horn but that's the funniest thing I've ever written. And I think you'll know what chapter the little SoarinDash confession will be in by its title *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* as for Spitz and Brae… well, you'll just have to wait. *trollface*

Okay, get ready for some Cinder and Lullaby silliness. I'm in a super good mood because Fallout 4 was finally announced, so we'd better fix up our favourite cyan pegasus so she feels happy again, too. Now let's see how she's doing…

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"UrrrrUUurrrUurrrggh…" Rainbow Dash groaned something that certainly wasn't a part of any language into the bed sheets. For the past few hours she had been doing the exact same stuff she'd been doing all week. Her routine consisted of laying on her front on the bed, waiting a half hour or so before flipping onto her back. Then when she got restless she would take a circular walk around the room to get her legs to wake up, then she'd stare out of the window for a little while at the clouds, trying to make shapes out of them just like she used to do when she was a little filly, then she'd submerge herself in a Daring Do book, hanging onto every word as if her sanity depended on it; then she would close her novel when she found a suitable place to take a break (i.e. the end of a chapter), and then she'd lay on her front on the bed and repeat the routine.

The navy blue bed sheets remained fairly in proportion on the mattress, maybe a little crinkled in certain places from where the cyan pegasus had rolled over a few times, one pillow was half-hanging over the edge of the bed, and it would certainly fall off in Rainbow Dash lifted her head, not that she would care anyway. The mattress itself was a little crooked, one corner of it partially jutting over the side of the bed- in short, the perfect place for a distressed, emotionally confused mare to wallow in… whatever it is that ponies wallow in.

But now she was buried so deep in the mattress that it seemed she was almost part of it! She wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a Rainbow Dash shaped dent in the mattress when she finally found the strength to change the sheets. As uncomfortable as it was to sleep in a bed littered with fur and feathers that had fallen off her, she would prefer it to exposing herself to the public.

She took another moment (and by 'another' I mean the millionth) to reflect on her current situation. She was certainly too embarrassed to leave the room because of her ego possibly being damaged. She looked at the pros and cons of the issue. The bad part was that she could possibly be humiliated because of Soarin's outburst at her… surely nopony would want to be told that somepony fancied them in front of everyone in a room- especially if the pony in question was yelling it at the top of their lungs for that matter. But, then again, she might gain some major coolness points for having a Wonderbolt crushing on her… now, that was a thought that perked Rainbow Dash up- though she did feel a little guilty for thinking that immediately after. She liked Soarin too, but not for his fame.

Her deep thoughts were interrupted by somepony banging on the door.

"Dash, are you still in there?" Lullaby called. Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"Lullaby, I've been in here all week; why would I suddenly decide to get off my rump in the few hours you've been gone?" Rainbow realised that the sentence had sounded a lot more natural in her head; out loud it just sounded retarded.

"I think those bed sheets might have finally got tangled up in your brain," Lullaby commented, giving Rainbow an unpleasant image of that actually happening. Ouch. "We're here to get you out of there… captains orders," she added after a while. Rainbow knew that sooner or later it would come to this. Dignity… academic results… dang, this was like choosing between becoming Daring Do's personal sidekick and getting knighted by Celestia. Brain-achingly difficult.

"Not listening," Rainbow Dash buried her face in the mattress again, humming to herself to try and tune out Lullaby's lecturing. A loud groan from the other side of the door signalled that the purple cadet had given up her attempts to pry Rainbow out of the room.

"Please, Rainbow Dash!" a different voice spoke this time. Wait… what was Cinder doing here? Had Lullaby seriously dragged poor, innocent, little Cinder into the midst of this? "You need to come out of there. Drills aren't the same without you, and Soarin won't come into work!"

Huh? Rainbow Dash hadn't really taken the time (despite the fact that she had plenty of that now- time, that is) to consider what had happened to Soarin after he'd left the Mess Hall. She supposed that she had just assumed that he had got over it and carried on as usual- but Rainbow Dash wasn't much of a thinker, so she just let the details go over her head.

"Well…" she tried to think of something to say. "Why are you telling me this? I-I don't- I mean, why should I care? I don't care. What did you have for lunch today?" she desperately tried to change the subject. Of course, that plan went down in flames.

"Rainbow, I know as well as you that you do care. There's no reason to be ashamed of this, ya hear?" Lullaby argued. Oh dear, sweet Celestia, Lullaby had that tone of voice she usually got when she was about to break into a long lecture. "I understand that you're probably confused, a little embarrassed, frightened, nervous, and probably a whole bunch of other emotions that I can't get in tact with since they're all part of the bizarre Depressed-Dash-Land you are currently residing in…" Lullaby stopped to giggle a little at that, and Rainbow heard Cinder join in, her high pitched laugh clashing with Lullaby's and making the noise sound a little like a band with one instrument that had gone completely out of tune.

"…But sitting around and being sad isn't going to change your situation. I don't actually know what it is that you plan to accomplish by lounging on that bed for the rest of your days, refusing to come out, and acting like a big baby, but I tell you now that whatever it is, it will not work.

"I'd ask you what the real problem is, but knowing you you'll probably just say something completely obnoxious and make me want to shove your head into a wall. So, to save you from that fate, I'll just tell you what's wrong with you myself since that's what you've obviously wanted from the start: somepony to tell you what's going on in your head.

"You're experiencing baffling emotions that naturally get anypony's mind whirring with a bunch of horseapples, be they positive or negative. Dash, it doesn't take a genius to know that you have a thing for Soarin, and the two parts of you: the hotshot athlete with enough charisma to oppose Whinnyston Churchill, and the emotion-conscious pony who sees a stallion as more than just a friend, are at war with eachother and screwing up your mind.

"So will you please, please, please with a cherry on top let us in so we can properly talk this out mare to mare… to mare," she remembered that Cinder was here to help and quickly corrected her mistake so as not to upset the quiet little pegasus. Rainbow Dash, who had sat up during Lullaby's speech, sighed and hung her head, her back still facing the door; it sure would be nice to talk this over with somepony who had a bigger brain than her. She had no idea if Lullaby had any experience with this, but she was better than nopony. Preferably, Rarity would be the one to go to with these sort of issues, but that unicorn couldn't keep any gossip to herself if her life depended on it, and before long Fluttershy would know, then Applejack, then Twilight, then Pinkie, and then the pink earth pony would go yapping it to everypony in town since the only time she could keep her mouth closed was when there was a large cupcake in it (sometimes not even then). Yeah, this was the wisest decision. Heck, maybe Cinder knew a thing or two on the subject as well. Rainbow Dash half rolled, half crawled, half fell off the bed and gave herself a vigorous shake.

"Coming," she grunted, slowly shuffling over to the door and stopping near it to prepare herself for the questions and advice she was about to be bombarded with. Would it ever end? Trying not to think too much about it for fear that it might make her change her mind; she pulled the door open quickly and allowed Lullaby and Cinder to come in. Cinder looked up at Rainbow Dash and her eyes bulged at the sight of how frazzled she looked. Like she would look any better if she'd been sulking for a week. Nopony could look better than Rainbow Dash after being a messed up wreck!

"So what are ya gonna do?" Rainbow Dash asked, closing the door as soon as Cinder's tail wasn't in danger of being shut into it. "Make me lie down while you take down notes on a pad of paper?" the idea of Lullaby being a psychiatrist was surprisingly easy to imagine. She definitely had the patience for it, and the knowledge; if she wasn't so caught up in becoming a Wonderbolt then being a therapist was probably something she should consider. Rainbow decided that she would recommend it to Lullaby sometime.

"Yes… minus the pad of paper," Lullaby replied, looking over at Rainbow and then gesturing toward the bed. Oh well, the cyan pegasus wasn't about to decline an excuse to get back into her bed. She had grown so used to having the soft mattress underneath her that standing felt strangely… alien. Okay, that wasn't healthy; she had to do more walking! Or better- flying! Rainbow Dash flapped into the air and then touched back down on the bed, tucking all four of her legs underneath her and wrapping her tail around her like a rainbow coloured blanket.

"Let's just get this over with," she sighed, already beginning to wonder whether letting these two into the room had been a good idea after all. Then again, she would have had to face Lullaby at some point of the day since she had to sleep in the bed opposite hers, so it was better now than never.

"Okay, Rainbow Dash, I want you to explain to me in as much detail as you can manage how you feel about Soarin," Lullaby commanded. Rainbow Dash was tempted to just say no and kick them out of the room… but she was also desperate to get help, so… aw heck, just do it, Dash!

"Well, I guess I like hanging out with him…" she started to explain before pausing. She looked over at Lullaby, hoping to get a follow up on what she had said. Instead, Lullaby just motioned for her to go on, much to Rainbow's agony. "And... he's fun and nice…" she couldn't think of anything else to say after that.

"Yes, but how does he make you feel?" Cinder hopped up on the bed, having to flail her hind legs a little to hoist herself all the way up, and sat beside Rainbow Dash. The cyan mare thought it over. She couldn't really think of how to word it all…

"Like…" she suddenly got an idea and lit up as if a light bulb had suddenly appeared over her head. "Like I can do a million Sonic Rainbooms in a row, and still have enough energy to do a triple front flip and a Buccaneer Blaze!" she stood up and bounced off the bed to demonstrate. Lullaby gave her a nod of approval.

"Keep talking," the purple cadet egged her roommate on. Rainbow Dash happily did so, getting totally caught up in her athletic explanation.

"Like I can overtake all the Wonderbolts in a derby… TWICE!" she exaggerated, waving her hooves in the air, forgetting all about her discomfort as she rambled on and on.

"Yes, yes, yes?" Cinder hovered into the air with anticipation as Rainbow Dash became livelier than she had been in days. Rainbow flapped her wings and did a loop-the-loop.

"Like I'm on a crazy rollercoaster! It's exciting, scary and dizzy, and in the end you just wanna throw up!" she finished by landing on Lullaby's bed and spreading her wings out to her sides. She was met with a slightly negative response from Lullaby.

"Wow… you've really never liked a stallion before," she shook her head at Rainbow Dash and ran a hoof through her orange and blue mane. Rainbow shrugged and sheepishly gave her head a single shake.

"No…" she replied, but perked up a second later, grinning widely. "But I have thrown up a lot!"

"That's… charming?" Cinder rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, looking a little disgruntled at the notion. Rainbow admitted that it probably wasn't the best way of putting it to the ponies who had more experience than her at this.

"Oh, Cinder, it's perfectly normal for Dash to be confused. There's nothing like that first crush after all," Lullaby told the little dark blue mare. Cinder looked up at Lullaby with questioning brown eyes.

"Have you ever had a crush, Lullaby?" she asked curiously. The purple pegasus turned a fierce red colour and put a hoof to one of her cheeks to see how warm she had become.

"Well… yeah. I guess you could say I have," she admitted. "I… didn't get to act on it though. The situation just didn't work out."

"Aw…" Cinder reached up and wrapped her arms around Lullaby's neck, giving her a comforting nuzzle. "Sorry about that, Lullaby," the blue cadet commiserated. Lullaby just shook it off casually.

"Aw, never mind that. This is about Rainbow Dash, not me," she returned all the attention to the rainbow maned pegasus. Seeing as the cyan cadet practically thrived on attention, this didn't bother her in the slightest.

"Yeah… I think I feel better about all this now," Rainbow admitted, both to her friends, and to herself. Now that she'd thought about it, the opinions of other ponies shouldn't matter as long as she was happy. And the thing that would make her happy right now was if she could fix all of this stuff with Soarin and possibly… start something with him. Gosh, that thought had been bouncing around in her skull like Pinkie Pie in the midst of a major sugar buzz for days, and all of a sudden it was as if a thick fog had been swept away and now everything was clear. She had asked herself over and over again how she would feel about becoming more than just the Wonderbolt co-captain's friend and student, and now she knew the answer. Her answer was so obvious in her mind that she wanted to jump up and down, raising her hoof and waving it around like an excited filly in a classroom, eager to shout her answer out.

Yes!

She did like Soarin like that,

She did want to get out of the friend zone with him,

And she did want to tell him how she felt!

Rainbow stood in between her two friends and put an arm around Lullaby's shoulder. "Well, I promise you here and now, that your most awesome buddy Rainbow Dash will go where you couldn't, and do something about her crush!" she declared, putting on a determined face, pretty similar to the one she always had when she was about to compete in a race.

Lullaby laughed softly. "That's great to hear, Dash," she sounded a little relieved, truthfully. Cinder gave out a shrill squeal and hopped onto Rainbow Dash's back. The cyan mare was honestly quite surprised to feel how light she was.

"This is so great! When you two get together I'll be the happiest pony here… besides, you two of course," she added after a few seconds. Rainbow admitted that she would be very happy- probably as happy as Soarin, if not even more… maybe? She didn't actually know how long he'd liked her or how much, so she couldn't be one-hundred percent sure. Oh well, that just added to her list of stuff to find out… actually, it started her list of things she needed to find out because the list hadn't existed four seconds ago.

"Well I'm gonna make sure it happens, Cinder, and then you can smile away," Rainbow bent down and let Cinder hop off her back before playfully tugging on one of the tiny mare's pigtails. Now that she was looking at Cinder properly, Rainbow Dash noticed that she really wasn't that much bigger than Scootaloo… wow. Rainbow wondered how many passers-by mistook her for a young filly; it must be pretty embarrassing to be a twenty year old mare that looked like she was aged twelve.

"Well can you do it sooner rather than later?" Cinder asked bashfully. "I mean, you can take your time if you want, but the sooner you two start dating-"

"-The more relieved I'll be," Lullaby interrupted the blue mare. Rainbow rolled her eyes, expecting another ALR (code for Annoying Lullaby Rant); and that's exactly what she got. "With you acting so obnoxious around Soarin for the past few weeks it's been driving me out of my mind; so seeing you two finally get somewhere with all of this madness will be like a huge weight lifting from my shoulders. Seriously, I might even be more pleased than you two when all of this is over and done with."

"Well, Lullaby, I don't know if you've considered this, but the longer you talk the longer it will take for me to actually see him and do my thing," Rainbow tapped Lullaby's noggin, at which the purple pegasus shoved her away gently. She looked a little sheepish at the fact that Rainbow Dash actually had a point, and looked off to the side.

"Fair enough," she rolled her eyes. "Don't let me keep you; let's light this… pop stand, or whatever that saying is," she sighed and tipped her head back so that she was looking straight up at the blue painted ceiling. "I must be getting old, or at least losing my brain cells, if I can't understand 'youth speak'," she muttered. Rainbow flicked Lullaby's nose to get her attention.

"Hello? Can you stop complaining about becoming an old grey mare for a minute so we can go find Soarin?" Rainbow reminded her. Lullaby face hoofed; obviously appalled that she had been side-tracked twice in the past minute. She grabbed Cinder, who was about to walk out the door, by her tail, making the small cadet trip over and land on her front. Rainbow's roommate locked gazes with her.

"Isn't this something you should do by yourself?" Lullaby asked. "Cinder and I don't wanna get in the way of anything."

"Actually I-"

Lullaby sharply slapped Cinder's right hind leg with her tail.

"-OUCH!" Cinder yelped, raising her back leg and examining it, giving Lullaby an irritated glower. Lullaby just shifted her gaze to the side and innocently hummed to avoid an argument with the small cadet. Rainbow chuckled softly at her friends' behaviour and thought it over for a second.

"Yeah, you're right; this is something I should do by myself," she agreed. Lullaby pushed Rainbow Dash the remainder of the way out the door.

"Now for the love of Celestia, Dash, go get your stallion!" Lullaby declared, raising a hoof. Cinder, not knowing what else to do, copied the pose. With determination sparking in her magenta eyes, Rainbow Dash gave the two mares a salute before taking off down the hall, leaving her usual rainbow trail behind her.

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SQUEEE! Be patient guys, the next chapter is the one you've been waiting for!

Yes- THAT chapter! You may now commence the excitement.

So, I apologize for the long wait, especially since this is only a short chapter, but I've had so many distractions over the last few days (including family health problems, other work, and various other things that if I put down this list would keep going on and on and on until your eyes would bleed from all the boring. So, I'm gonna try and get the next chapter out as soon as I can so you won't have to wait long for… well, I'm hoping that you all know.

Now, as Porky Pig would say:

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!