Author's Note: YAY 70 FOLLOWERS!

Also-

CHAPTER 50!? Holy mother of Cadence, I never would have believed I would write a story this long EVER! If each chapter was a year then this would be half a century long! And what's more? After this chapter we enter the FINAL MONTH! The last month of the boot camp is upon us! And it's actually going to have a plot! More cadet stuff, more conflict with Spring Song, more SoarinDash, more SpitBurn, maybe even some other pairings! I don't know! Yeah… this is the part of the story I'm having some trouble with. In that I'm not sure how I want it to go. I know how I want the story the end, but it's getting there that's going to be hard. You may have to bear with me here because this part of the story seems to constantly change for me. In a sense, this is the most important quarter, because this is where everything comes together. Mysteries will be solved, friendships will be made, lessons will be learned… and it's going to be difficult to keep track of it all. I think the reason it's taken me forever to get the previous arc done (this arc is eight chapters long... my brain is in agony) is because of all the storylines running at the same time. I'm going to try my best, but just keep in mind that this is my first serious story and I'm still learning.

I realize I've been rambling for a while already, but I just want to bring some stuff to your attention. This is so that in the future, you can look back at this paragraph and make endless fun of me for being such a bad judge of things. I have a document that contains a list of future chapters. The number of chapters it says I have left is… 15. It says I have fifteen chapters left to write. That's such a small number to me now! It feels bittersweet typing that ya know… writing this story has changed my life. I know it sounds dumb but it's true, it has! Haha! What am I doing? I'm gonna save this speech for the final chapter. The point is, when we reach chapter frigging 94 or whatever you can remind me of this paragraph, and by extension what a bloody idiot I am!

Oh! And I wanted to ask something. Once this story is complete, do you think I should change the title? You know how I want this story to be called Staying Gold… well, should I change it or not? I mean, this is Dashing and Soaring, the story with the generic title a SoarinDash story could have. But… that is what it is. So to give my conflicted mind a rest, what do you guys think? Keep it the same to avoid confusion, or change it so it doesn't sound plain? I'm not doing a poll for this because I've still got the dumb 'butterscotch or cinnamon' one going.

What else…? Nope nothing. That's everything, so let's move on to the replies! (also, only a few reviews needed for 400! Who's gonna make it?!)

Litestardt- Hehe… yeah even I was pissed off at myself for that move. I wish I could write these blasted chapters faster so I could get to certain scenes quicker. But unfortunately I'm a procrastinating veteran with A.D.D!

Captain Alaska- Yeah, them not kissing was definitely the best move to make, but it sure annoys me that I can't read other SpitBurn shipfics to satisfy myself! I literally will have to wait forever for them to actually get somewhere! Being the Empress of Weird Ships is great and all, but it's kind like torture on occasion! And yeah, with how bad The Big Bang Theory continues to get I needed a call-back to when it was good. (The last episode made me weep with how awful it was…)

Amellia Rose- Aww thanks! I'll try to keep up with the fluff, because fluff is the best!

Too Lazy- I feel you. Sometimes even typing is exhausting. *wipes brow*

Luna'snight625- Honestly, I think your review is the best response to my trolling I've ever got! xD

Midnight Star- Unfortunately I do not have Skype. I have the same problem with Skype that you do with this website. Using FanFiction is simple once you're used to it. You make an account, click the top right corner of the page where your username is written in orange, click it, then 'Private Messaging', and the inbox is where you can read your messages. To send someone a message you need to go onto their user page, click 'PM' above their avatar if they have one- it's the little picture of the letter. You can then send them a message. I hope that's straightforward enough to understand.

Okay, let's get started. This is another short one so there's really no excuse for this taking so long, except for the fact that I published another chapter of My Little Bloopers between the last chapter and this one. Actually, what am I saying? That's my excuse! I write two stories and I wrote something for the other one for a change. Sometimes you need to switch things up! Okay, let's just catch up with Rainbow Dash before I start ranting again.

Technically the last arc has ended so this is just an extended ending. An extending, if you will… wait. That's already what it is. Damn, I was hoping to come up with a new word. ^u^

This chapter… it, uh... ya know what I'll explain at the end. This is dragging on long enough.

---

Rainbow wrapped her arms around Twilight Sparkle and squeezed her in a tight hug. She couldn't begin to describe how annoyed she was with this day. She'd just wanted to spend time with her friends, but instead she'd gotten roped into a bunch of other random stuff with Soarin and Scootaloo. Damn, she wanted to murder Feather Duster. She'd roughed up her little sister and made her feel sad, and that was an excuse enough to rip her small intestine out through her throat and her large intestine out through her butt and use her as a Luna-damned skipping rope!

"Rainbow Dash!" a strained voice wormed its way into Dash's thoughts. "You're choking me!"

"Aw geez, sorry Twilight!" Rainbow released her grip on Twilight, who gasped for breath and tried to locate her pulse. Yeah, this was why Rainbow Dash should never think about the creative ways to kill a pony while hugging somepony… not that she'd done that before. Okay, there was one time where she was hugging her dad and thinking about cutting off one of Dumb-Bells's hooves and slapping him round the face with it. Her grip was pretty much a lethal weapon if she didn't control it.

Twilight rubbed her neck and addressed Rainbow Dash sadly. "Are you upset because we didn't get to spend as much time together as we'd hoped?" she questioned. Dash sighed and nodded, glancing over at the hot air balloon her friends were travelling back home in, where Rarity was playing with Sweetie Belle's hair and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were standing with their hooves hanging over the edge of the basket, deep in another conversation with Lullaby. Spike sat talking to Apple Bloom, who was laughing about something, Applejack was standing with Braeburn and Soarin, and she appeared to be pretty pleased about whatever they were talking about. Braeburn stood between his cousin and best friend, wearing a small smile, and Soarin was patting him on the back (and had an issue of Pie Digest tucked under his wing.. you just knew a magazine was awful when it had a pun as its title). Hmm… maybe Braeburn had finally perfected his apple crumble recipe and they were congratulating him for it? Oh well, Rainbow Dash didn't particularly care. The crumble was good anyway. Feather Duster had come along to see Scootaloo off, and the orange filly was cheerfully chatting to the brown mare, who was listening to everything Scootaloo said with an immense amount of interest. Rainbow wasn't sure how to react to that… Feather Duster was an "evil" bitch who might be figuring out how to lure Scootaloo over to the "dark side". Then again Feathers might genuinely be interested in the story Scootaloo was telling and she was showing no sign of the "diabolical" side of her. Then again, was she really "evil" if her traits had to be contained in speech marks all the time out of Dash's scepticism?

"Yeah… we all ended up splitting apart somehow, and I've wanted to spend time with you guys since the Celebration." Rainbow sighed, her wings drooping a little. "Mostly I'm just sorry that I left you, Rarity and Spike in my room for so long." She admitted.

"Rainbow I don't mind. We had fun anyway… even if you weren't there… I should probably stop talking," the purple alicorn rubbed the back of her head and blushed, aware that her choice of words could potentially be a little hurtful to her pegasus friend.

"No, you don't get it. Lullaby and I are cooped up in there a lot, and sometimes other ponies come over. One time we even found Wave Chill tied up in our closest (still don't know how the poor guy wound up in there). So it probably smells in there… ya know, it could smell of breath or far- let's just leave it at breath..." Rainbow stopped rambling.

Twilight rolled her eyes and gazed off to the side, catching sight of Fluttershy, who had hopped out of the hot air balloon's basket so she could hug Lullaby. It hadn't occurred to the alicorn just how many ponies in Cloudsdale were friends with her fellow Elements of Harmony. Fluttershy spoke very fondly of Lullaby a lot, Pinkie Pie and Surprise were always sending each other letters, Applejack had Braeburn living here for the time being, and of course all of them missed Rainbow Dash terribly (especially Scootaloo… and Pinkie Pie).

Feeling a wave of sadness wash over her, Twilight pulled Rainbow Dash into another hug, trying not to think that this was the last one she would have with the cyan mare for quite a while now. Well, not exactly…

"Hey, the camp is almost over now, Rainbow," Twilight stepped away and gave her friend a reassuring smile, "and you're coming down to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, right? So you'll get to see us all in a few weeks." She reminded the cadet. Rainbow lit up a little at that. Yeah, on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration everypony was allowed to stay off work and school to spend time with their friends and families to celebrate the longest day of the year.

"That's right!" Dash felt a lot better about things now. She'd have plenty of time to spend with her friends since nopony else would be around to distract her from them. She seemed to have forgotten about something though… oh yeah. "So where's the Summer Sun Celebration being held this year?" she had a terrible habit of forgetting the details of things that she didn't much care about.

"It's going to be held in Trottingham this year, so it's going to be a pretty long train ride to get there." Twilight admitted. Rainbow quickly mapped out a plan in her head.

"Okay, so the day before the Celebration I'll finish drills and fly to my house in Ponyville. That way we'll get to hang out for a little while the day before the trip as well. I'm warning ya though, if it's gonna be a long train ride then I'll need to catch a whole lotta Z's. Trains are kinda boring ya know?" Rainbow was already dreading the ear-piercing whistle and the repetitive chugging of the wheels on the tracks that could drive a pony crazy if exposed to it for a long period of time. It must suck to me a train conductor. Or those poor ponies in some places that had to drag the train along the tracks themselves. Dash had never been entirely sure how it was possible for ponies to pull an entire train at full speed down a track for hours at a time and not get run over. She'd narrowed it down to either the train being ridiculously light or the stallions being literal Gods.

"Then it's settled," Twilight nodded, getting that look of triumph on her face she got whenever a plan came together. It must be nice in Twilight's head, where every little success was like tearing open a tiny package of happiness and sprinkling it in her mane like glitter. Rainbow had absolutely no idea where she had been going with that simile…

"Hey now Apple Bloom," Applejack made her way over to her little sister and stroked her cheek with one hoof, "Hang on a l'il longer; we'll be at home soon, okay." The little yellow filly was swaying on her hooves, and her eyes were drooping with fatigue. It had been a pretty big day for her and the other Crusaders and they likely needed to get some rest from all of the excitement, especially Scootaloo… who was too caught up in talking to Feather Duster to appear tired in the slightest; even her injured wing didn't seem to be bothering her now. Sweetie Belle was sitting next to her older sister, leaning against her shoulder while Rarity continued to twist small strands of the filly's mane into plaits.

"I'm feeling rather exhausted myself," the fashion designer looked over at Twilight, letting out a conveniently-timed yawn. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"How? You me and Spike barely did anything today." She realised what she said and straightened out, wanting to slap herself for being a careless idiot. "And that's nopony's fault!" she looked anywhere but at Rainbow Dash. Stupid. Stupid!

"Give it a break Twilight, it's not a big deal," Rainbow slung a hoof over the purple Princess's shoulders, and Twilight let her ears droop knowing that she had a bad habit of overreacting to problems that didn't even really exist. But she'd promised Princess Celestia that she would never have a repeat of her Want-It-Need-It spell episode ever again. Keeping that promise had thus far been... okay; but she'd told Spike that if she did ever crack again he had permission to lock her in her room for as long as necessary to keep the town safe from her insanity. That's not an exaggeration; she made Spike sign a contract in blood and everything.

"Right, I know…" Twilight felt like she needed to leave before she made an even bigger fool of herself. Such is the life of a mentally disturbed nerdicorn who spends her days lounging around within the crystalline interior of her ridiculously tacky castle.

Twilight Sparkle shook her head to banish the mysterious insults hovering around in it and checked to see if everypony had gathered round. ("And for the record, I am not mentally disturbed Miss Voice in My Head! Go away!")

"Everypony in the balloon!" the alicorn commanded, growing increasingly worried about how dark it was getting as well. Though she supposed that if it did get too dark she could light things up with her magic. Fluttershy said one last goodbye to Lullaby and boarded the balloon again, and Scootaloo nuzzled Feather Duster's shoulder affectionately before scampering away, bidding her farewell, sitting between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

"Okay… Twilight did a quick headcount, mumbling the names of the ponies under her breath as they crowded into the basket of the balloon.

"WAIT!"

"What now, Pinkie?" Twilight sighed. Pinkie then shot out of the basket like a bullet and tackled Rainbow Dash to the ground, burying her face in the blue mare's neck. "I'm gonna miss you so MUUUUCH!" she squeezed Dashie as hard as she could in a manner reminiscent of the suffocating hug the rainbow maned pegasus mare had received before she had gone to the Academy for the first time. If anything it was even more excruciating the second time around.

"Pinkie…" Dash tried to push the pink pony off her. But t'was not to be; Dash's suffering had only just begun. The smothering fluffy pink thing atop her was the tip of the iceberg, because soon the iceberg would melt and flood all over her like a mass of giggling mares, and perhaps even a scaly mythological reptile to throw a little variety into the bundle of hooves and fuzz.

"Oh my Celestia!" Rainbow felt the life oozing out of her thoroughly pancake-ified body as eight ponies and a dragon formed a pony pile on top of their cadet friend. Soarin, Braeburn, Lullaby and Feather Duster stood around them, all trying to hold in their chuckles as Rainbow's eyes bugged out when Scootaloo's hind hoof pushed against her right cheek… okay that's a complete lie, Soarin and Lullaby found the entire thing hilarious and could not contain their laughter while Braeburn smiled to himself, finding Rainbow's predicament amusing. Feather Duster tried not to throw up from the amount of sweetness wafting through the air. She could slice through this sweetness with a freakin' katana if she had hers with her right now. She'd also need to schedule an appointment with a doctor to see if she needed insulin after this whirling storm of cute.

"Guys!" Rainbow croaked, trying her hardest to be heard over the deafening giggling going on atop her.

"You are getting AAAALLLLL the hugs Rainbow Dash!" Sweetie Belle giggled, her voice taking on that squeaky tone it often did when she was excited. Pinkie nodded and spoke into Rainbow's neck, her voice slightly muffled, but since she was right next to Dash's face the pegasus had no trouble distinguishing what the pink earth pony was saying to her.

"We need to make up for all the hugs we haven't given you over the past couple months. We're gonna be here for a while yet."

"Nooooope!" Twilight suddenly stood up from the pony-pile and speed walked towards the balloon again in swift, fluid movements. Fluttershy stood up next, looking at the sky and letting out a cute little squeak, fleeing to the balloon with Twilight. Yeah, it was no secret that Fluttershy had a mild fear of the dark…

Applejack sighed and pushed herself onto her hooves, looking down at the pile and letting out a snort. "Twilight's right y'all. We need t' get goin' and put the kids to sleep."

"Hugs fill me with energy," Sweetie Belle thought back to how she had lost all fatigue at the idea of making a gigantic pony-pile with the others. Now all of a sudden she felt drowsy again. It's funny when that happens; when you get pumped up for something exciting but once it's over you could sleep on a bed of thorns because you've just unknowingly tired yourself out even more. And by "funny" Sweetie Belle meant absolutely Luna-damned awful!

Finally everypony got into the balloon and Applejack began examining the hot-air-flame-blowy-thingy or whatever it's called. She squinted and stood on her hind legs, trying to suss out how she could get this mysterious contraption to work.

"How am Ah meant t' turn the hot air on?" she asked nopony in particular. What is this thing called anyway? Oh well, none of the ponies could spare the time to deal with these semantics. Much to everypony's surprise, Fluttershy reached over and fiddled around with something beneath the air-tube-puffy-doodads, and hot air began lifting the balloon into the air again. Twilight thanked Celestia that they hadn't taken so long to get into the basket that the balloon had deflated. That would have been a huge waste of time… much like this entire situation come to think of it.

"Okay, we're up. Rainbow, could you untie us?" Twilight gestured down to the lamppost they had tied the balloon to upon their arrival this morning. The alicorn wasn't sure whether that was even legal or not, but even if it wasn't, there were no "balloon parking tickets" anywhere in sight. And she might get off the hook if she showed the cops she was royalty. That's how it always worked in the books anyway.

"Got it!" Rainbow Dash was about to flap on over to the rope when suddenly something landed on her back. She looked over her shoulder to see Scootaloo hugging her neck, her tiny hooves wrapping around it.

"Last hug," the filly grinned, rubbing her cheek on the back of Dash's neck. Rainbow reached up and rubbed Scootaloo's back with one hoof, smiling softly.

"I'll see you in a couple of weeks, Squirt," the cyan pony nuzzled the top of the filly's head and fluttered into the air, allowing Scootaloo to leap back into the hot air balloon on Applejack's back. She then landed on the clouds and untied the rope, and Twilight began piloting the balloon, somewhat clumsily since she didn't have license but she'd mustered up the brain power to get her and her friends up to Cloudsdale earlier, so that must mean that she would be even better at this on the way back to Ponyville.

"Bye guys!" Rainbow Dash took off and flew around the hot air balloon a couple of times, waving to her friends before returning to the clouds to stand next to Soarin, Braeburn, Feather Duster and Lullaby, who all waved to the friends they had made today. They kept waving until the balloon was out of sight and the Ponyville ponies' farewells could no longer be heard. After that they stood there in silence for a little while.

It was a few minutes before anypony said anything.

"Welp, that was something. Now I'm gonna go home and do something productive," she began trotting away, "and by that I mean I'm gonna sleep. Ciao!"

Lullaby looked over at Rainbow. "Today was pretty cool. We should be getting back to our dorms though."

Rainbow nodded and sighed, already feeling the emptiness she'd experienced without her friends for the past couple of months settle within her again. The purple pegasus patted Rainbow Dash sympathetically on the shoulder and comfortingly nuzzled her ear.

"We need to be gettin' home too, Soarin. We're gonna be late for the finale of Pony of Interest." Braeburn began trotting away. Soarin sighed and allowed his ears to droop.

"Who cares, it's gonna be depressing and we both know it. Just like it's been for the last couple of episodes." The Wonderbolt co-captain complained. Braeburn raised a brow.

"It wasn't that depressing." He rolled his eyes. Soarin gave his best friend a deadpan expression.

"Blaze watched it and she had to take the day off because she couldn't stop crying."

"Wow, really?" Braeburn's jaw dropped.

"Ugh! You two and your TV shows," Rainbow chuckled. She knew that her coltfriend and Braeburn were obsessed with a bunch of TV shows. They talked and argued about them a lot, and sometimes it could be pretty entertaining… other times it could be excruciatingly stupid and their nerd sides showed. Meh, nerds were cool. It sometimes seemed like they got interested in a new show every week however, and they frequently complained about how Sherclop "only gets three episodes made every hundred years". Gotta love Soarin's exaggeration, right?

"If you came to watch one with us then you'd see how awesome they are!"

Rainbow decided to stop this before somepony went off on another tangent. After a whole day of non-stop worrying and wandering around the Academy, Rainbow wanted nothing more than to hit the hay. If there was one thing Rainbow Dash loved most in the world it was sleep.

"Can we just leave? It's been a long day," Rainbow ran a hoof through her multi-coloured mane and let out a yawn, yearning for the softness of her mattress below her, the warmth of the sheets atop her and the fluffiness of her comfy pillow.

"Dash is right, Soar. Let's go," Braeburn said a little impatiently. He and Lullaby walked ahead while Soarin and Rainbow Dash trotted behind them. As they approached the town, Rainbow looked up at her coltfriend.

"Thanks for keeping the secret," she smiled gratefully, "I know you weren't so cool with doing it at the beginning."

Soarin shrugged and wrapped a wing over Dash's shoulders. "Whatever. It's over now." He said optimistically. Dash once again felt grateful she'd got a stallion like him. She had to wonder if any other guy would keep a secret like that for his marefriend. Lullaby took off into the sky, and Rainbow Dash figured she could fly back to the Academy with her now.

"I'm gonna get flyin'." She spread her wings and halted, judging the winds direction to plan her take-off. "Wish me a good sleep," she was about to fly off when Soarin leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the lips, sending her face into a state of instantaneous flush. He grinned and chuckled.

"Maybe, if chance smiles upon us, we could meet in a dream and be the unfortunate couple separated by the bounds of our own subconscious." He said in the smartest voice he could manage. Rainbow's jaw dropped and she rolled her eyes.

"Why is it that whenever we have a moment you have to get all poetic and stuff?" she asked, recalling he poem he'd recited before their first kiss. Soarin shrugged and smirked.

"Just call me Soarin Poetic Skies."

Rainbow sighed and rolled her eyes, quickly kissing Soarin on the cheek one more time before taking off after Lullaby, calling her friend's name through the dark purple sky, which would soon bid farewell to the spring and give birth to the first morning of a brand new golden summer.

---

So yes, this chapter is pretty much a glorified Author's note with a pretty boring and pointless chapter attached to it for good measure. I'm not even sure if this should count as a chapter because nothing happens in it! But oh well, here we are and I wanted to get something out for you guys.

Anyway, see you next time when things get back to normal! Or… at least as normal as they can be at least.