“I really don’t think this is going to work.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, leaning against the side of the cloud gym.

“Oh shut it.” Lightning Dust grumbled around the turquoise feather between her teeth, trying to fit it into the door’s lock. “Of course it’s going to work. I’ve done this a dozen times.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow snorted. “A dozen times this evening.”

Lightning Dust spit out the feather and took a step away from the door, snapping at her rival. “Well, I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas.”

Rainbow stepped away from the wall, stretching her wings and her back and cracking her front hooves before walking up to the door. She cleared her throat, gave the door a stern glare, then smirked and pushed the handle, causing the door to swing open.

Lightning Dust opened her mouth, pointing and silently mouthing words for a few seconds before she finally decided on throwing her forelegs up with an exasperated shout. “What?!”

“It’s a cloud building.” Rainbow pranced into the gym with a smug look, flicking her tail against Lightning’s muzzle. “If they lock it up, ponies are just going to go in through the walls and fixing up the holes is even more of a hassle. So they just leave the door unlocked on a ‘leave it like you found it’ policy. It’s all in the book about the Academy.”

Lightning stared after her for a moment, then stomped in after her, grumbling and muttering to herself about “Freakin’ fanfillies…”

~~~~~

“Release!”

Lightning Dust pulled the lever, causing her training partner to be flung from the Dizzitron and spin through the air. Rainbow Dash flapped wildly, almost skimming the cloud roof before she managed to turn herself towards the ground.

She skidded across the floor, stumbling a little before she caught herself, panting from exertion. “I think… I think I’m actually starting to get a little… tired now.” She took a deep gulp of air, looking up and staggering over to the bulky control panel of the machine.

“Snrk… Wha? I-I’m awake! I’m panca- I mean, I’m awake.” Lightning jolted, flailing as she tipped forward and catching herself on the machine’s lever. There was a clunk and the Dizzitron spun to life again.

“F-falling asleep already?” Rainbow smiled weakly, swaying a bit until she managed to sit down and lean herself against the side of the control panel. She blinked sleepily, her eyes moving towards the spinning Dizzitron. “I could still… go for hours…”

“Y-yeah? So could… so could I…” Lightning Dust sat down as well, leaning against the other side of the control panel and drooling slightly as she watched the Dizzitron.

Rainbow watched the spinning machine, the spiral on it slowly reflecting in her eyes.

Lightning Dust watched the spinning machine, the spiral on it slowly reflecting in her eyes.

“Welp, they’re out. Who had the 2:15 bet?”

~~~~~

Dr. Crescent Moon turned around to the group of Wonderbolts gathered behind him, a fob watch in his hoof. “Welp, they’re out. Who had the 2:15 bet?”

There was some assorted huffing, groaning and frustrated hoofstomping until one figure stepped forward. Spitfire adjusted her purple shades, her mouth twitching with the trace of a smirk. “That would be me, then.”

The groaning got louder. Soarin threw his forelegs up, flailing. “I call shenanigans!”

“Did somepony say… shenanigans?”

A few of the ponies gasped quietly and the crowd parted to let a white pegasus through, carrying a large tome on her back.

“Do you really think Captain Maxima Spitfire, of all ponies, would cheat? Especially considering the consequences?” Surprise Party walked up next to her superior and turned around to look at the crowd, opening the book and pulling a single loose sheet of paper from it.

Spitfire glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow. “You think my first name is ‘Maxima’?”

“It’s a reference. If you knew her you’d be flattered.”

“…is that why all my shades had been replaced with slimmer, purple ones this morning?”

“Eh-heh-herm!” Surprise loudly cleared her throat, ignoring Spitfire. “I will be reading the whole ruleset for our betting pool, for the sake of The Audience.”

Soarin and the other pegasi gave her a blank stare. “…what?”

“Rousing ‘The’ Audience. He wanted to join and I haven’t been able to fill him in yet.” Surprise pointed at a stallion at the side of the group, who gave a small wave. Then she cleared her throat again. “Aaaaanyway…

Rules of the Dizzitron Hypno Betting Pool (not to be confused with the Dizzitron Speed Betting Pool, the Dizzitron Toss-Up Betting Pool, or the Dizzitron Malfunction Betting Pool)

1.) This is not a betting pool. We are instructors and role models, so betting and gambling are generally frowned upon. This is based strictly on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, under the mutual agreement that the one who got closest was first.
2.) This betting pool does not involve cadets in any way. It takes place in the gyms after 10 PM; as no cadets are allowed in the gym after that time, the betting pool which doesn’t exist does not involve cadets in any way, by default.
3.) Cheating at the bets (which don’t exist), in any way, is not allowed. If anypony is caught and proving to be cheating, they will have to join the cadets (which are not involved) for the day.
4.) Bets can be placed until 9 PM. They can be placed on times in fifteen-minute intervals.
5.) There’s a bird on the roof.
Yes, a bird on the roof.
There’s a bird on the roof.
That’s so cute.
6.) For the record: Rule 5.) still needs revising.
7.) The winner gets the spoils, from the time of their win until 8 PM of the next day.

“Any questions?” Surprise raised a hoof, holding a hoofpuppet and speaking in a squeaky voice from the side of her mouth. “But why are you doing all this?”

She quickly put the hoof puppet away again, continuing. “Good question. You see, those two have been getting into the gym every night now to train, and it always ends the same. They train until they’re dizzy and tired, end up hypnotizing themselves staring at the Dizzitron and we have to get them back to their bunks. Well, this being the third time in a row now and everypony getting kinda annoyed with having to haul them back every night, we’ve made a betting pool out of it. The one who comes closest to the time they hypnotize themselves gets to have fun with two hypnotized cadets and give them whatever suggestion they want for the next day, as long as they still manage to participate in their training. But really, with those two they could do their minimum training in an hour if they wanted to. Any other questions?”

The other ponies stared at her, one of them coughing quietly. Surprise pulled a swab of loose curly hair out of her mane and threw it to the side, watching as it slowly drifted past and out into the night. “Oki doki loki then. Rules, check. Background info, check. Serendipitous tumbleweed, check. Time to hit the bed everypony.” She waved and turned to skip off, humming.

Soarin blinked, then called after her. “H-hey now, wait a moment! What about the two cadets?”

Surprise stopped in mid-skip, her wings flipping her over and keeping her hovering hooves over head. “Oh, those? Spitfire took them with her five minutes ago already while I was doing the whole exposition thing. Ooooh, I should go as a demonic duck of some sort next Nightmare Night.” She flipped around again and continued her skipping, leaving a group of bewildered ponies to try and make sense of her.

Author's Note

This prologue is a representation of my mind, this story's intermission chapters and most likely some of the actual chapters as well.

I regret nothing (yet).

Also, 100 geek points to whoever can tell me who or what the name Maxima is referencing.
Hint: they're webcomic geek points.