Authors Note: Hope you all had happy holidays!

Litestardt- Whoa there, Lightning! I love you too, but I have a pet cat already. ^^

Luna'snight625- Yeah he is, but that's why I love him! 3

Amellia Rose- Glad you enjoyed! ;)

Snow Hurricane Blue- That was my favourite part too. Soarin would be a good game show host in my opinion.

MidnightBlaze16- You can never have enough fluff! :D

RosaSilvermist- Yeah, I bet that's exactly how she'd act; being the epic little showpony we know and love. And I've been itching to have some more Soarin and Scootaloo interactions for months now so YIPPEE!

YoungBlood23- Well I'm pleased that no offense was taken and that you really enjoy this story that much. You reviewed just in time for me to reply 'cause I'm almost done proofreading as I write this, so lucky you! ALSO! You're the 333rd reviewer, and I call that an achievement! Nice going dude! ;D

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is set before the Cutie Mark Crusaders get their Cutie Marks so that's why they're still blank flanks in this. Just wanted to make that extra clear.

---

Rainbow looked up at the clock, then back at the door. Then the clock. Then the door.

Clock.

Door.

Clock.

Door.

Clock-

"Hi Rainbow Dash!"

"GAH!" Dash tipped back in her seat and landed on the floor with a loud thud, getting a lot of laughter from the few pegasi that were in the mess hall. It was still fairly early (very early if you were a pegasus named Rainbow Dash who had gotten out of bed at five thirty so she wouldn't miss her friends arriving), and even after forty minutes of sitting at the table closest to the training grounds' door her friends hadn't shown up… and it was getting a little frustrating. Dash had hoped they'd get here before training started.

"Um… sorry." Lullaby rubbed the back of her head sheepishly and flushed a little pink, shifting her eyes from side to side, relieved when the other ponies' all looked away.

"Need some help?" The cadet Smart Set asked, coming over to lend his assistance. Rainbow just rolled onto her front and stood up.

"I got it." She grunted as she shook her feathers out. She returned to her seat and stared intently at the door, barely blinking at all. After a long few moments of observing, Lullaby sat on Rainbow's left, and Smart Set sat on her right, both remaining totally silent as they ogled the cyan mare's peculiar behaviour.

They must have stared for about three whole minutes before Lullaby moved, mimicking Rainbow's position, hunched over the table on the left of the blue mare. She focused on the door and tried to figure out what was so interesting about it. Smart Set hesitated before forming the position as well on Rainbow Dash's right side, perplexed as to how Rainbow Dash could do this for such a long time.

So there they sat for at least five more minutes, all gazing at the door in odd silence, not even moving when Fire Streak trotted past, slowing down as he reached trio of cadets and eying them the whole way past, looking more terrified than puzzled to say the least. He then moved on, walking a little faster than he had been before.

Smart Set finally lifted his ears and looked to the side at Rainbow Dash, whispering out the corner of his mouth for some reason. "Is there a reason you're doing this?" He asked.

"I'm waiting for my friends to show up." Rainbow replied, her head bobbing up and down as she spoke since her chin was resting against the surface of the table.

"Oh." Smart Set replied simply, letting his ears drop to the side of his head again and looking straight ahead with his slightly shifty eyes. Lullaby wasn't surprised since she had heard the news before, but she had no ideas that Rainbow Dash was capable of actually resorting to slouching on the table like a… slouchy… thing? She was also pretty confused as to why Smart Set was here. Smart Set was the youngest cadet at eighteen (though rumors were going around that he was really seventeen and had just lied) and his parents had forced the Wonderbolts to let him into the Academy by threatening to sue them. How this was possible neither Rainbow Dash nor Lullaby knew, but it probably involved a bunch of stupid, boring political stuff that nopony gave a horseapple about. He was a pretty jumpy stallion as well, not as matured as the rest of the cadets, though when it came to flying and tricks he was actually pretty good. He flew in a very precise manner that matched him just right- practically everything about Smart Set was perfectly even and symmetrical, and Dash wasn't sure how she felt about that; envious that he could look so error-free with such ease, or sympathetic since he looked like a total dweeb all the time.

"So when were your friends supposed to be here?" Lullaby asked, finally breaking the silence that had been disturbing the ponies at the table behind them.

"Six thirty." Dash replied, still not tearing her eyes from the door. Lullaby glanced at the clock behind them, catching a glimpse of some ponies giving her and her two companions weird looks before flushing and turning back around.

"Rainbow, that's not for another ten minutes ya know?"

"They could get here early." Rainbow shrugged it off.

"Or late." Smart Set added unhelpfully, and Lullaby shot him an annoyed look, which got him to look away pretty swiftly.

"They'll be here any second now." Rainbow Dash insisted, waving a dismissive hoof at her fellow cadets. Lullaby knew that there was no chance of getting Rainbow Dash away from that table, so she just stood up and went to see what was for breakfast.

When she returned and sat down with some apple brioche, Rainbow Dash was still sitting at the table, and Smart Set looked like he was dozing off. This was actually a pretty good thing because the skittish young stallion always seemed so tense; the pressure of being a rich pony, Rainbow reckoned.

"Chew quieter." The rainbow maned pony hissed out the corner of her mouth to Lullaby, who looked pretty insulted. She swallowed her mouthful of breakfast and glowered down at her blue roommate.

"Why?"

"I'm trying to stay focused on waiting."

Lullaby blinked a couple of times and folded her arms.

"What about everypony else; they're being loud!" She huffed. Rainbow finally looked to the side.

"They aren't right next to me."

Lullaby finally just stood up and began to walk around the table, when she suddenly noticed something on the other side of the room. After a little gesturing and stifled giggling, Lullaby tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder, smirking.

"What do you want?" Rainbow half-groaned, lifting her head for the first time in what felt like… well Dash didn't know what it felt like because she kinda had a bad sense of time and the clock was right behind her and she didn't really feel like turning around to look at it.

"It must suck to be you right now." Lullaby scoffed, doing her best to sound serious but failing miserably, barely refraining from looking at the entrance door. Rainbow sat straight up then, unamused and just plainly not in the mood for any kind of sass.

"What are you talking about? It's awesome to be me!" Rainbow insisted, tossing her mane in a boastful fashion. Lullaby folded her front hooves on the end of the table and gave Dash a lopsided grin, one corner of her mouth almost reaching her eye while the other side stayed straight.

"Well, you've been waiting here for your friends since dawn and they don't have the common courtesy to show up early and surprise you." She tutted and sighed, shrugging her shoulders in an overdramatic manner. "Oh well."

Rainbow Dash stood up with a scowl on her face, not liking to hear about her friends being jerks (no, not jerks. Just late, Rainbow Dash told herself, forgetting that the time they had said they'd be here hadn't even came to pass yet.).

"Did ya have an extra helping of 'annoying' in your breakfast?" She asked in a threatening way. She would have added a sarcastic comment onto the end of that question, but it was still early and her brain was kicking in to gear. Unable to hold it in anymore (and aware that her attempts to had been feeble) Lullaby pointed behind Dash; just as another pony tapped the rainbow maned pony on the shoulder. Rainbow grunted and turned around.

"What is it Smart Set?" Rainbow asked, suddenly finding herself nose to nose with another mare, and staring into wide blue eyes.

"Hi!" The pink pony chirped.

"PINKIE PIE!" Rainbow tackled Pinkie to the ground, giving her a big hug. The two of them howled with laughter, which predictably earned them the attention of the entire mess hall. Lullaby rolled her eyes and sat next to Smart Set, who was pointing to the other ponies (and dragon) behind Rainbow and Pinkie.

"Is that… is that Princess Twilight Sparkle?" He asked, looking a little starstruck."

"Yes." Lullaby replied simply."

"Oh my gosh!" Smart Set ran a hoof through his perfect mane to make sure he looked presentable for a princess. "D-do I look alright?" Smart Set asked Lullaby who just semi-replied.

"You look fabulous, now lemme go say hi to Fluttershy. The purple cadet headed over to Rainbow's butter yellow friend.

Rainbow Dash looked up at Pinkie, who had pinned her to the ground and, with some difficulty, pushed her off. She then jumped up to her hooves... and to everypony's shock, she looked mad.

"YOU'RE LATE!" She barked. Twilight sighed and pointed up to the clock on the wall, her expression flat.

"Actually we're right on time." She told the cyan pegasus, who followed Twilight's gesture to the clock. It was precisely six-thirty.

"Oh..." Rainbow turned pink and dipped her head a little, trying to play it cool for all of the onlookers.

"Ugh! For the love of cake, can't we all just have a huge group hug now?" Pinkie asked, tapping her hoof on the ground impatiently. Without wasting a second the rest of the ponies swarmed Rainbow Dash, all of them chattering their greetings at once and forming a rather inelegant pony-pile in the middle of the mess hall. Some of the Wonderbolts seemed a little uncomfortable at the massive display of affection that had just paraded in through the door, while others were smiling and letting the friends have their moment.

Pretty much everyone in that room at that point knew that it was going to be a rather eventful day.

---

"And that's why Captain Equestria is the best superhero." Soarin finished explaining to Surprise as they began walking down the hallway to the mess hall. Surprise mumbled under her breath and rolled her eyes, looking annoyed after being proved wrong; Soarin almost snorted with laughter as he recalled the happy grin on her face after she stated that Iron Mare was the best. What a dork.

"Holy Luna's mane!" Surprise suddenly froze solid, making Soarin twist round in shock to face her. The white mare's pupils were dilating and then shrinking again at a rapid pace, and… it actually made Soarin feel quite nauseous. Nopony's eyes should work like that- it's just not natural at all! But Surprise was doing it, and if anything to wide cheesy smile she had on her face only added to the insane amount of terror that the expression gave Soarin. He was sure that he would be seeing it in his dreams for days. Oh boy, he had to stop giving himself all of these unpleasant thoughts.

Finally Surprise's eyes stopped being ludicrously weird and the puffy maned mare galloped the rest of the way down the hall and took a sharp left turn into the mess hall. From his spot in the hallway Soarin could hear a loud exclamation of 'TWINZIE', followed by several screams, cheers, crashes, squees, breaking noises, and groans of agony. Biting his lower lip, Soarin cautiously approached the mess hall and peered inside. Normally he would find a situation like this absolutely priceless, but looking at the ponies and tables scattered all over the place, surrounding two embracing mares in the middle of the room, he was more concerned for the state of the place and the price that the Academy would have to pay to get everything repaired than how good this would be in a comedy show. Soarin wondered for a moment whether or not he should write a book about all of the weird stuff that went on in the Academy, but banished the thought after realizing that nobody in the world would want to read a story like that. Right?

Soarin walked into the room, which seemed to be emptying out as some of the cadets and Wonderbolts, including Lullaby and Smart Set, scrambled to get away from the scene so they wouldn't be involved in cleaning up the big mess the guests had made. Soarin wasn't surprised; Rainbow Dash had warned him that things always got excitable when everyone was there together. Well, Soarin knew that the best way to make messes was with your friends.

The first pony Soarin noticed was the little orange filly sitting on Rainbow Dash's back.

Deciding to have a little fun, Soarin began to creep up behind them. Everypony seemed fixated on Twilight Sparkle, who was angrily ranting to Pinkie about respecting other ponies' property, and something about paying for damage, not that either Pinkie or Surprise were listening. Finally coming to a stop behind Rainbow Dash, Soarin raised his hoof and lightly tapped Scootaloo on the shoulder. Jumping a little, Scootaloo whipped her head round to meet the eyes of her 'attacker'. However, after seeing it was Soarin, a big smile graced the filly's face, and she jumped down from her sister's back, beaming up at him with practically sparkling eyes.

"Soarin!" She gasped with glee. "I've missed you! Rainbow Dash keeps talking about what you're teaching her and you're so awesome and-" she gasped and spun around all of a sudden, tapping the two other fillies on their shoulders. Soarin recognized the yellow one with the red mane as Apple Bloom from some of the photos of her Braeburn had showed him. He had seen the white unicorn filly at the Spring Celebration but didn't remember her name.

"Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo bounced from one of her friends to the other, getting giggles out of both of them. "Soarin's right there! Ya know Soarin right?"

Apple Bloom giggled and rolled her eyes, moving away from the group of older ponies with Sweetie Belle by her side. "Ya only talk about 'im at least three times a day. Ah just can't imagine how we're able t' remember him." She said sarcastically. Sweetie Belle covered her mouth with one front hoof and let out a cute little laugh into it.

"You really talk about me that much?" Soarin asked, smiling widely and feeling pride welling in his chest. He was used to being complimented and told he was awesome, but coming from Scootaloo this somehow made him feel way, way better. He had never had a favourite fan before Scootaloo showed up, and now that he did he felt pretty important because of it.

"She's pretty much obsessed with you." Sweetie Belle said, a little shyly since she was in the presence of a celebrity. Soarin couldn't help but note just how adorable the white filly was, and assumed by her color palette and race that this was Rarity's little sister.

"Nah, she's more obsessed with Rainbow Dash." Apple Bloom disagreed with a shake of her head that made the large bow on her head whip from side to side. Scootaloo was blushing pretty hard now, though she was trying her best to keep her face stern.

"I am not 'obsessed' with anypony!" She insisted. Sweetie Belle patted her orange friend on the shoulder, looking behind her at Apple Bloom as she did so.

"Suuuuure." She held in her giggles, but Apple Bloom couldn't help herself from releasing a few chuckles. Scootaloo pouted and glared at her fellow Crusaders.

"You two are embarrassing me." She admitted, placing a hoof against one of her burning pink cheeks and groaning. Soarin snickered and ruffled Scootaloo's mane, which got her to gasp cutely and sit up straight. This made Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom laugh once again, but Soarin made sure that the little pegasus didn't feel humiliated this time.

"Just ignore em, kid. I don't see their hair getting messed up by a famous pegasus." He deliberately glanced off to the side when he said the end of that sentence, and when he looked back at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle they did indeed look pretty envious of their friend. Scootaloo was poking her tongue out at them, and Soarin decided to stop ruffling her cerise mane before it got out of hoof.

"Look out!"

Soarin and the Crusaders ducked down as one of the tables, enveloped in pink magic, floated over their heads. Twilight Sparkle made eye contact with Soarin and pointed over to the side of the room.

"Did you not hear me when I told everypony to move out of the way so I could rearrange the tables before someone came and found out that Pinkie trashed the place?" The alicorn asked. As Soarin and the fillies walked towards the others, who were all huddled near the door to the training grounds, Pinkie Pie put her hooves on her hips and sneered at Twilight.

"Hey! I didn't trash the place," the pink earth pony wrapped an arm over Surprise's shoulders and hugged her lightly. "It was me and Surprise!"

Surprise leaned her head against Pinkie's shoulder and gave Twilight a cheesy grin. "Yeah, she's right." She agreed. Twilight rolled her eyes and set all the tables back down.

"Well, now that that's over…" the purple alicorn looked around to make sure that everything was in the right place before looking in the direction of their rainbow colored friend and smiling. "I believe Rainbow Dash was going to give us a tour."

Rainbow Dash's face fell. "Oh, um… I've gotta do drills first." She said weakly. Twilight shrugged her shoulders.

"That's okay. We'd all love to see you train right?" She spoke for her friends. All the others agreed, and Rainbow Dash grinned, excited that the greatest ponies in the world would finally get to see her show off her stuff. Surprise bounced up and down with excitement.

"What's best is that I'm the one doing drills today so it's gonna be super-duper amazatastic!" Pinkie Pie then kicked open the door to the training grounds and pointed outside.

"Then let's go!" Pinkie's tail started spinning round and round until she was lifted off the ground, hovering like a helicopter. Surprise seemed a little awestruck. "C'mon, I'll race ya!" Pinkie was out the door a second later, with Surprise chasing after her yelling 'last one there's a rotten banana slug!'

Rainbow Dash smiled fondly at her crazy pink friend's antics before walking to the door and holding it open. "We'd better get out there then. Actually there's no rush, it's not like we're gonna get in trouble now."

Twilight looked curious but just shook it off. "I am pretty curious to see your methods of training. If you're going to be a Wonderbolt you'll need all the correct cardiovascular exercises and at least ten minutes of…" Twilight kept on talking as she walked out of the room.

"Well I suppose we should go and withstand the rest of her lecture." Rarity tried to fake a smile at Twilight's enthusiasm for perfection. Just as the others were about to leave, Soarin called out.

"Hey wait a second, I need to, um… borrow Applejack." He said to the remainder of the group of friends. They seemed a little confused at first, but Applejack shrugged and moved to stand next to Soarin anyway.

"What's wrong?" She asked. Soarin was confused as to how the orange mare knew that something was wrong. Maybe something good had happened… oh who was he kidding, what kind of declaration of good news started with a hesitant request to 'borrow' a pony? Yeah, it was a little obvious that something wasn't going well.

"I just thought you'd wanna say a quick 'hi' to Braeburn." He said. He wasn't exactly lying. She could say hi to her cousin before he got to the point. Applejack pursed her lips and nodded.

"Yeah, Ah could swing by an' say hello." She decided. Apple Bloom jumped up onto her sister's back and put her front hooves on the older pony's head.

"Ah wanna see cousin Braeburn too!" She said enthusiastically.

"Me too!" Sweetie Belle said. Whoa, Soarin had no idea that kids actually liked Braeburn. Maybe there was a story that he didn't know about that had something to do with that. Oh well, that was going onto his list of 'Things He Needed to Pester Braeburn About.'

"Alright then," Applejack chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Tell Twilight Ah'll be out soon." The orange pony said to her friends. Rainbow Dash shrugged and began walking out the door.

"Okay, see ya in a little while." The cyan mare called as her tail vanished outside. Rarity, Scootaloo and Fluttershy followed their friend out, with Fluttershy muttering about how she hoped the training wasn't too dangerous. Soarin was about to turn towards Applejack when he felt a tug on his right wing. Looking down, he saw a little purple dragon with big green eyes gazing up at him.

"Um… hi." The dragon laughed nervously, shuffling his feet on the floor. "I… I just wanna know if you'd- um- sign my tail?" He held up his tail awkwardly in one claw. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom giggled from their spot with Applejack behind Soarin.

"Spike, you're such a goober." Sweetie Belle snickered. Spike blushed pink and made some incoherent mumbling noises as she stood with one arm behind his back and his legs locked tightly together, still holding his tail up as if he could not lower his arm. Soarin thought that the little dragon was adorable as heck, and knew that there was no way he couldn't sign his stubby little tail… a picture or poster was more suitable for this of course, but it didn't seem as if either of them had one of those, so Soarin would just have to work with what he was given. Pulling one of his useful pens out from his shirt pocket, Soarin took it between his teeth and started scrawling his name along the dragon's tail. As he wrote he could hear the shallow, yet clearly rapid breathing of the dragon. When he was done, Soarin stepped back to admire his handiwork. He had written his name along with a quick drawing of a pair of sunglasses (because in all honesty that was the only thing he could draw all that well). Spike gasped and you could practically see the stars in his eyes.

"Aaaaweeeesoooome!" He took his tail in his arms and hugged it in a rather sweet way, getting giggles from all four of the other ponies this time. Spike then skipped out the door, singing 'thank you, thank you, thank you!' over and over again between his happy laughs. Soarin shook his head and smiled, always loving it when he saw a fan of his go on their way happily. He turned to Applejack and the two fillies accompanying them.

"Alright let's head that way," Soarin pointed to the door that lead to the kitchen. "Braeburn's in there, and…" he looked from Apple Bloom to Sweetie Belle. "Is… is there any chance of these two not being there when we talk?"

"Nope!" The two fillies said simultaneously, flashing him identical cheeky little smiles, almost as if they wanted to interfere with this. Kids, eh? Applejack looked sudden worried.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, her brows raising up to her hairline. Soarin considered giving her a sarcastic reply but decided against it for the sake of not wasting time.

"Kinda sorta yeah, okay. Now let's just get this over with, alright?" He asked. Applejack still looked a little skeptical of the situation, but followed Soarin to the kitchen door anyway.

"If ya really think Ah can help then Ah'm happy t' lend a hoof." She shrugged, giving Soarin a smile despite her wariness around him.

"Us too!" Apple Bloom threw her hooves in the air. She hopped down from Applejack's back and landed next to Sweetie Belle. Soarin decided to ask before he forgot.

"Hey, kids… how come you're so fond of Braeburn?" He asked.

"He babysat us one time." Sweetie Belle revealed.

"And he acted real goofy 'cause his leg was hurt." Apple Bloom added, chuckling at the memory.

"And he was supposed to keep an eye on us while Applejack practiced for the Appleoosa rodeo." said Sweetie Belle.

"But he fell asleep!" laughed Apple Bloom.

"And then we snuck out to find a criminal!" Sweetie Belle raised her chest proudly.

"But he wasn't really-"

"Hey, how about you tell the rest of the story later?" Soarin suggested, trying not to ruin the kids' fun, but trying to move things along as swiftly as possible. Thankfully the two fillies just shrugged.

"Okay," they agreed.

"Right." Soarin put his hoof on the door to open it, but suddenly thought of something, looking over his shoulder at Applejack.

"Just making sure, but these children are safe around Brae with you here, right?" He smirked.

---

Endnote: Yes, I know it's rather short but I have once again been the victim of writer's block (and insomnia... and the flu). So the next chapter's gonna focus on the Mane Six as they go around the Academy with Rainbow Dash, Soarin and the others, and yes you can except some humor, and some much-needed plot progression. I actually believe that we're in the final stretch of this story… it feels weird writing that. Ah well, it's not all certain yet after all. Though I do expect (hope with all my soul) that this story will be completed sometime this year. I have other projects I want to start after all.

See ya next time. ;)