//------------------------------//
// Chapter 16: A Lesson in Loyalty 
// Story: "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!" 
// by Fluttercheer 
//------------------------------//

	Sharp Pitch did not leave any of the foals out of his sight as they approached them. Which was mutual, the foals did not leave him out of their sight either, as he noticed with a frown.
At the far end of the line, the one that was the nearest to them, a pegasus filly with a pearly-white coat waved at them, a grin adorning her face and an excited, eager expression in her eyes. Her coat had such a perfect white color that Sharp Pitch had problems to recognize her teeth. He immediately knew who this filly was. Magnolia Sunshine, it was impossible to not know her if one lived in the Crystal Empire.
Instinctively, he headed for her, the only pegasus foal in the crowd that reacted friendly to them. As they were at her side, she approached Flurry Heart and did not hesitate to wrap her hooves around her, a hyperactive happiness radiating from her that would, if she wouldn't be a filly, let Sharp Pitch guess that she had one or two drinks too much or smoked something illegal prior to Flight Class. Cheerily, Magnolia rested her hooves on Flurry Heart's big wings, gently stroking over them while she and Flurry were still hugging each other, with Flurry's hug a bit less intense than Magnolia's.
Sharp Pitch raised an eyebrow as he saw this. “As much as I am loyal to the royal family, but Flurry Heart has a really strange friend here. Or are they.....?”
Before he could continue this thought process, loud cheers from the other foals to their right interrupted him. Sharp Pitch looked at them, then followed their eyes that were all fixated on the sky now. His face lit up in realization as he saw who they were looking at. The dark-blue Wonderbolts uniform with the yellow lightning on it was impossible to overlook and if that wouldn't make clear who the pegasus that approached them was, the colorful trail the winged pony left in its wake definitely did. It was like fire in the sky.
“Finally she's here!” it sounded into his left ear, then the cheers grew deafening. Magnolia was looking with as much admiration at the incomer as the rest of the foals. And so did Flurry Heart at her side. Both fillies watched in awe as the mare in the uniform did a few daring loopings, then prepared herself to land and flew towards the gathered foals.
Sharp Pitch huffed. “What a show-off..... Nothing has changed in the last three years, it seems.”
The mare landed, slid over the ground and came to a stop in front of the foals, exactly in the middle of their row. She folded in her wings and removed the goggles from her eyes, then turned around to the foals sharply, her rainbow mane swaying slightly. The flight teacher did not waste any time.
“Cadets!” she yelled at them in her raspy voice, loud enough that even a pony hiding at the farthest end of the schoolyard could have heard it. “Stand to attention!”
The foals obeyed, their faces turning strict and focused as all of them took an upright position in front of their teacher.
With the stern rigor of a drill instructor, Rainbow Dash let her eyes wander over the pegasus foals, both checking if everypony was here and if all of them were prepared and ready for her lesson. Her gaze only softened slightly as she had reached Flurry Heart at the end of the row. Like in all of her lessons, she only did a short introduction, then came right to the point.
“Cadets!” she yelled again. “What are you here for today?”
“To become a skilled flyer worthy of the Wonderbolts!” the foals replied in unison, their voices loud and determined.
“And you think you have what it takes for this?” Rainbow Dash continued.
“Yes, ma'am!”
“How do we reach this goal?” she yelled, now more energy in her voice than before.
“By training hard, never giving up and pushing ourselves to our limits!” the foals replied simultaneously.
Rainbow Dash smiled satisfiedly, fierce in her eyes. It was the cool look the foals admired her for, aside from her flying skills, of course. The broad, white scar under her left eye only added to her aura of coolness. Yet, the foals kept standing upright, keeping their desires to gush over their idol under control.
In a slightly lower voice, but still with audible drill, Rainbow Dash proceeded to explain the lesson for today.
“Okay, cadets, here are your instructions! First, you will get together in teams of two flyers each. Once I have formed the teams, you will head to the other end of the schoolyard for new instructions!”
As Rainbow Dash had finished her command, the foals suddenly began to stir, their upright positions faltering in front of her. Many of them had uneasy expressions on their faces. For a while, nopony dared to say something, until a colt with a mane of such a dark blue that it could almost be considered as black raised his hoof, a very grim expression in his face.
Rainbow Dash noticed it. “Do you have any question, cadet?” she bellowed at him, her voice suddenly sounding a good amount stricter.
“Yes, ma'am!” he replied, his voice sounding brash, but still with respect ringing in it. “Does this mean one of us even has to team up with Flurry Heart?”
The drilling teacher narrowed her eyes at the colt, glaring at him with an expression that let him gulp and break out in sweat. “Obviously! Do you have a problem with this, cadet?”
The young colt opened his mouth once more, but his voice died right at the beginning of his answer. “No, ma'am.....” he said defeatedly between bared teeth after a few attempts to speak out his intended answer failed.
“Fine. Any more interruptions like this and all of you will fly a hundred laps around the schoolgrounds! Is this clear?” she yelled then, addressing all the foals.
The harsh answer let them return to their upright position. “Yes, very clear, ma'am!” they replied. Yet despite the intimidation, the foals now started to whisper, their quiet voices merging together in one, worried murmur.
Rainbow Dash began to trot up and down in front of her students, ignoring the whispering. Carefully, she let her eyes go over all the foals numerous times, figuring out the right constellations for the teams. It only took about a minute, yet felt endlessly to the foals. Nervously, they began to paw the ground with their hooves, their upright positions faltering once more. Their wings twitched occasionally.
As Rainbow Dash had finally finished her inspection, she pointed to one of the foals in the row. It was the colt with the dark-blue mane who had asked the cocky question earlier.
“Lightning Twist, you will form a team with Flurry Heart!” she commanded. The colt groaned in annoyance, rolling his eyes over his teacher's choice, a reaction that Rainbow Dash ignored. “She will be your wing pony that assists you in the exercise!”
She detracted her eyes from him and looked over the other foals again. “The rest of you can choose their partners!”
Lightning Twist's expression broke as he heard this and from one moment to another, his face was full with unfiltered anger. He flared his wings and glared at his teacher with an amount of hatred radiating from his face that anypony else would have shuddered at the sight. Rainbow Dash, though, only shot him a stern glance. Her tail flicked violently and her eyes felt to him like she was piercing right through his own eyeballs. He opened his mouth only once, then immediately closed it again and looked resignated to the ground, biting his lip.
Rainbow Dash flared her own wings, getting ready for flight. “Now head to the other end of the schoolyard, cadets!” she yelled again, then took flight before the foals could move, all of them looking surprised after her before they did as told.
More murmurs sounded throughout the crowd, relieved ones this time, each of the students happy that they didn't have to choose Flurry Heart. Except for Lightning Twist, of course. He trotted with Flurry Heart, Sharp Pitch and Sunny Spirit at the end of the group. When he looked at Flurry Heart, his eyes were full with fear and hatred at once. Only the presence of Sharp Pitch kept him from any harsh reactions.
As the students had reached the position Rainbow Dash had told them, they looked up into the sky, their eyes searching for their flight teacher. They found her far away, flying above the castle.
Rainbow Dash was zipping around in the sky, her popular trail full of colors following her and a pile of clouds, that was constantly growing, in front of her. In a speed that made the students gasp from admiration and astonishment, she flew from cloud to cloud, picking them up in the process and adding them to her pile.
As the sky was almost free of clouds, she did a careful dive down on the schoolyard and landed in front of the foals. All of them stared at her with open mouths, their pupils shrunk from disbelief over the speed of the Wonderbolts commander. With the clouds now on the ground, Rainbow Dash dumped them, then began to fly circles around them, occasionaly touching the cloud mass.
Her students' disbelief grew even stronger as the clouds suddenly began to change, slowly taking on the shape of a massive and thick wall. As Rainbow Dash had finished, the wall towered over their heads, making all of them feel small than they already were.
The flight teacher landed in front of the cloud wall. A scrutinizing look in her eyes, she moved a hoof over it, then knocked against the wall. A hollow sound emerged from the spot where her hoof hit the surface, akin to somepony knocking on a massive wall of wood. Rainbow Dash nodded satisfiedly, then she turned to her students, who kept eyeing her still. A slight smirk flashed over Rainbow Dash's face, then she continued her instructions.
“Today, your reactions will be tested, cadets!” As the word “reactions” washed over the fillies and colts, the shock of surprise over Rainbow Dash's abilities left them instantly and their faces returned to normal. It was replaced by feelings of dread, excitement and a bit of fear; a combination of feelings that coursed through their bodies all at the same time.
Two filles in the same team looked at each other, their teeth exposed as their faces were distorted in worry. “THE reaction test?” one of them asked in horror, then both of them gulped.
The words of the filly caused another murmur going through the gathered students. Snippets like “too early” or “I'm not ready for this” could be heard among them. All of the young foals were distracted now, causing Rainbow Dash to yell another command.
“Cadets, focus!” her loud voice was entering their ears. “This is a dangerous exercise and none of you can afford to be inattentive!”
The foals twitched in fear and stopped their whispering, returning back to their stiff positions, but not without nervousness in their eyes and sweat running over their faces.
The reactions of her students showed Rainbow Dash that all of them already knew what was coming towards them, so, instead of giving them another explanation, she dediced to demonstrate what she wanted from them and took flight again. The rainbow-maned pegasus soared over the group until she had reached a significant distance from it, then stopped and turned around. For a moment, she hovered on the spot, then she flapped her wings harder and darted forward, flying at the wall at full speed. There were only inches between her and the hardened cloud surface as she pulled up, causing her to fly over it in just the last moment. Behind the wall, she lowered her tempo, flew a curve and returned to the foals.
“Lead ponies, you will repeat what I just did, but you won't pull up!” she commanded. The lead ponies of all the groups gulped together, the ones with lesser confidence even producing some tears in the corners of their eyes. “Wing ponies, you will take position at the side of the wall, so that you can use your wings to give your lead pony a boost! Make sure to aim precisely and to flap your wings in the right moment, if you don't, your partner will get hurt!” Now the wing ponies began to shudder, almost breaking from the responsibility suddenly put on them.
Rainbow Dash directed her eyes to Flurry Heart. The young alicorn filly was shaking more than the others, fear of failure in her eyes. “Flurry Heart, take care to not flap your wings too strong. You know your power and we don't want Lightning Twist to be blown into space.” There was satisfaction in Rainbow Dash's eyes as she noticed that fear flashed up in Lightning Twist's face.
Flurry Heart quietly nodded. She tried to compose herself now, her eyes stern and her mind focused on the task.
Rainbow Dash extended her attention to the whole group again. “Okay, cadets, we start!” She shot a hoof at one of the teams, the two fillies that were so horrified over the announcement of the reaction test earlier.
Understanding the command, they hesitantly left the group and trotted to the wall together, their legs trembling so much that they could barely prevent themselves from cracking under the pressure. Exchanging a look of fear, the two fillies separated; the one who was asking the question after Rainbow Dash's announcement, her coat of a turquoise color, took flight, her friend with a yellow coat positioning herself at the left side of the wall, where she folded out her wings, ready to give the boost demanded from her.
The turquoise filly flew as far back as her teacher did before, her body constantly shaking and quiet whimpers leaving her throat. As she had turned around and faced the wall in the distance, she took a breath, then focused, trying to cease her shaking. She flapped her wings and flew towards the wall, slowly first, then ever faster. Her tempo increased steadily, until she was as fast as it was needed for the exercise.
Her friend focused too. She watched her lead pony attentively, following each of her movements as she came closer and closer to the wall. Finally, as the other filly had almost reached it, she flapped her wings, producing a breeze, and aimed it at her friend. Just a moment before the breeze hit her friend, though, the pupils of the lead pony shrunk. In fear, she reared up her forelegs, throwing herself out of balance. In shock, she stopped moving her wings and fell to the crystallized ground, a painful wailing escaping the young filly and the gust of wind uselessly waving over her.
Seeing that she didn't move, her wing pony galloped up to her, face full of empathy and worry, but her leader was getting up before she could reach her, rubbing her chin that was hurting from the impact. Carefully, her friend put a wing around her and they motioned back towards the other foals.
Rainbow Dash looked after them. Stern disapproval and a frown in her face, she shook her head and sighed. “Next one!” she yelled then and randomly pointed at the crowd, her hoof landing on Fiery Breeze and Magnolia Sunshine this time.
More confident than their predecessors, but still nervous, the two made their way to the wall. Both of them knew that they weren't exactly the best team; the lead pony being a brash and, sometimes, aggressive hothead, the wing pony a noble and refined, young aristocrat, but all of the other foals rather wanted somepony else as their partner. Before they knew what happened, they were the only ones left.
Unlike the filly before, Fiery Breeze did not waste any time as they had arrived at the wall. Quickly, she started hovering and darted at her start position. Magnolia waited a moment to calm herself. She closed her eyes and held her left hoof to her chest. The white filly breathed in deeply, then out, and stretched her hoof away from her body. Then she opened her eyes again, her heartbeat moderate now. Magnolia turned to Fiery Breeze and gave her a signal with her hoof.
Fiery Breeze nodded, then her wings started to beat and she took off for the wall.
Magnolia was highly focused. She was biting her lip, wings standing upright, ready to boost her partner. Fiery Breeze was approaching her much faster than the lead pony of the first team approached her wing pony, and especially faster than Magnolia had expected from the other pegasus. She squinted her eyes as her lead pony came shooting over the crowd. Gulping and her face in sweat now, she sent her boost as Fiery was close to the wall. Magnolia held her breath, then released it as her partner was hit by the gust. Akin to a catapult, she shot higher, now in a position to surpass the wall without crashing into it. Magnolia's boost was only a little too weak.
Fiery Breeze continued her speed and shot over the wall, scrunching her face a bit as her right backhoof hit the upper edge of the wall. Like Rainbow Dash before, she flew an elegant curve, then landed in front of the wall.
Magnolia looked over to Rainbow Dash, her eyes signaling a desire for approval.
“Good,” Rainbow Dash said taut. “Better than the first team, but there's nothing wrong about making your breeze stronger the next time.”
Magnolia flashed a smile to her teacher, then she closed her eyes and did a proud, deep bow, her right hoof being held in front of her body to accentuate the movement.
Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled her eyes. “And they used to call me a show-off.....” she whispered. She addressed Magnolia again. “Don't think of your move as perfect! You still need to learn a lot about concentration and timing!” she scolded her harshly.
Magnolia nodded at her, still with a smile in her face, but her eyes showing understanding at the same time. She went at Fiery's side and together, they returned to the other foals. Fiery was limping, but nothing in her face gave reason to suspect that she had just hurt her hoof and probably felt a not so insignificant amount of pain right now.
Rainbow Dash proceeded with calling teams to the front as the two different fillies had joined the rest of the class again. One team after another stepped up to the task, with varying results. Some did unexpectedly well, the respective wing pony giving a boost just in the right moment, causing its partner to fly over the wall safely and without injury. Some other lead ponies backed out in the last moment, crashing on the ground like the filly of the first team or simply flying away out of fear before their wing pony could boost them. One team even completely refused to do the task, both of them visibly anxious, as they told their teacher they didn't feel ready for such a brutal exercise.
It were those two colts Flurry Heart watched now, while they flew laps around the schoolground, their tongues hanging out of their mouths and both of them gasping for air, as Rainbow Dash called her and Lightning Twist for the exercise. Only a few teams were left now.
Flurry Heart shuddered, especially as Lightning Twist gave her the deepest look of aversion she had ever seen in the face of a schoolmate. She looked at Rainbow Dash, every muscle contributing to an expression that showed how she really didn't want to do this exercise. But Rainbow Dash was insistent. Her face strict, she beckoned Flurry over with one hoof. The young princess sighed, then she moved forward together with Lightning Twist, who was not any less hesitant than she was.
Though, the colt took off before they had even reached the wall. Everypony that was on the schoolyard could clearly see that he wanted to spend as short of a time as possible at the side of the alicorn filly. Flurry Heart did reach the wall in the meantime and both foals were on their positions at the same time.
Unlike with the teams before, Rainbow Dash gave a start command this time. She checked the face of Flurry Heart, who looked nervous, but ready enough to succeed, then looked at Lightning Twist.
“Start flying!” she yelled into his direction, her voice making clear that he would find himself with the other two colts flying laps around the school if he shouldn't obey.
Lightning Twist clenched his teeth, but he listened to his teacher and started moving towards the wall in fast speed. He did feel fear coursing through his body, though, and the closer he came to the wall, the faster his heart was beating. Lightning Twist fixated his eyes on Flurry Heart.
“How completely reckless.....” he thought. “She forces me to do such a dangerous exercise with a filly who can't control her power and could probably kill me in an instant. I won't allow her to touch me with her breeze..... I'm a good flyer, I can get past this wall on my own and without help!”
He averted his gaze from Flurry Heart and concentrated on the wall as he approached it more and more. He was almost there. Lightning Twist licked over his lips. “Now!” he gave himself a command in his mind, then started his maneuver. In the corner of his eyes, he could see Flurry Heart flapping her wings, releasing a moderately strong breeze that was swiftly coming towards him. He pulled up. Under him, Flurry Heart's breeze was hitting space. Triumphantly, he recognized how he was now in just the right position to fly over the wall without the help of the powerful alicorn, yet what he didn't notice was that he was not high enough to avoid the breeze completely.
A small portion of Flurry Heart's breeze was hitting his hindlegs, strong enough to press him to the side and he was thrown into a spin. He spun around his own axis a few times, his spead increased, then he hit the wall face forward. The dull sound of the impact echoed over the foals and Rainbow Dash, followed by a shriek of pain coming from Lightning Twist just a split-second later. Many of the foals held their hooves in front of their faces and gasped, others just stood there, their eyes wide from shock.
Lightning Twist recoiled from the wall and fell to the ground, where he landed on his back. Scarred by his own shock after the impact, he sat up quickly like nothing happened, just feeling embarrassment for his mistake. Only as he realized a very strong pain coming from his head, he shrieked again and started to cry in an alarmingly loud way. Tormented by the pain, he lied down on his back again. He pressed his hooves on the cut on his forehead, soaking them in the blood that was now running over his face, while his cries sounded over the whole schoolyard.
Rainbow Dash planted a hoof in her face. Then she hurried at the injured colt's side. With the necessary force, she removed his hooves from the wound to check it. The blood that was constantly flowing out of it made it hard to determine how deep the cut was, but judging by the incessant crying of Lightning Twist, the volume of his voice and the fact that the skin under the thin hairs on his forehead started to turn bluish quickly, Rainbow Dash could tell that a real emergency was at hoof.
Meanwhile, Flurry Heart had become frozen in shock. Her senses told her to gallop away right now, to flee, before the inevitable fallout for this accident would descend on her . Yet she couldn't move. All she could do was fixating her eyes on the colt who was writhing in agony in front of her, blaming herself for the pain he had to endure now. A few tears ran out of her eyes. Sunny was suddenly at her side, comfortingly putting a hoof around her friend, which was the only reason why Flurry Heart didn't collapse on the spot.
Like at command, the other flight students started to whisper, which soon turned into a murmur, then into loud and angry talking. A few of them reached for their scrolls, fear in their eyes. It caused Sharp Pitch, who had not left Flurry Heart's side during the whole exercise, to ignite his horn, just in case.
Rainbow Dash rose back to her hooves, her strict, loud voice silencing the foals immediately. “QUIET, CADETS!” As Lightning Twist's crying was the only sound on the schoolyard again, she continued. “I will go into the schoolhouse to get a medic for Lightning Twist. All of you will stay here until I'm back and if I see any bad surprises at my return, I will let you fly until you stop breathing! IS THIS CLEAR?”
“Yes, ma'am!” the foals answered obeyingly, yet with fear over the last statement being apparent in their voices.
Innerly, Rainbow Dash cursed herself for losing control for a moment, but the outcome of the situation, although expected, made her furious. Finding no signs of opposition, she took off and flew to the entrance of the school.
A few minutes later, she returned with two crystal ponies carrying a stretcher, the white caps with the golden caduceus on their heads indicating their profession. With care, the two medics lifted up the still crying Lightning Twist and placed him on the stretcher, then went back with him into the school building to take care of him. Rainbow Dash looked after them for a few moments, her face dark. As they were out of sight, she turned around to her class.
“And this, cadets, is what can happen if you don't focus and if you don't care about your timing!” she yelled into their direction.
Now the foals stirred, unrest spreading among them again. Some of them looked angry over this statement, but only one of them dared to speak up.
“But Lightning Twist did focus and he paid attention to his timing, ma'am. I-It's unfair to say this about him, ma'am. It was Flurry Heart who caused the accident, she is a witch who can't control her power and it only happened because she was casting a spell on her breeze to make Lightning Twist lose his balance on purpose. She wanted to hurt him, ma'am!”
To his left and right, the other foals nodded in agreement. Flurry Heart, who was still frozen at her spot, choked over this statement. Sunny stroke a hoof over Flurry's mane, whispering some words into her ears, which calmed the pink filly somewhat and her choking stopped.
Rainbow Dash was the opposite of calm, though. A quick movement later, she stood in front of the colt who had just accused Flurry Heart, her glaring eyes looking down at him. “What did you just say, cadet?”
The colt gulped and started to sweat. “I-I was j-just saying that it was n-not Lightning Twist's fault, ma'am.”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes more, but instead of yelling at the colt in her usual fashion, she turned around and stepped back from him. He gasped in surprise and relief.
Rainbow Dash continued her trot. As she crossed Flurry Heart, Sharp Pitch and Sunny Spirit, she gestured Flurry Heart to return to the crowd, then turned around to the gathering of foals, all of which were still visibly distraught over what just happened. As soon as Flurry Heart had returned to her spot assisted by her best friend and her guardian, Rainbow Dash started to address her class with a speech.
“Flurry Heart has done nothing wrong during this exercise,” she began, causing more murmurs. “Her breeze was just strong enough to bring Lightning Twist on a high enough position to pass the wall without getting hurt. It was Lightning Twist himself who caused the accident by not accepting Flurry Heart's breeze. He tried to avoid it and the breeze hit him the wrong way, which let him lose control of his flight.”
Rainbow Dash's words finally brought Flurry Heart out of her paralyzed state and she gasped in surprise. She looked at Sharp Pitch and Sunny Spirit, who gave her encouraging nods. Relief spread over her face as she realized that it had not been her fault. The faces of the other foals, though, were adorned with disbelief.
“Do you want to question my observation, cadets?” Rainbow Dash yelled at them as she noticed the expression.
“No, ma'am!” the foals answered quickly.
Rainbow Dash inspected their faces suspiciously. All of them looked completely honest. They were all believing her words, she noticed satisfiedly.
“This accident,” she began again, “could only happen because Lightning Twist did not trust Flurry Heart to give him a proper boost. At the Wonderbolts,–“ She stopped for a moment, letting this word wash over her students to ensure that she had their fullest attention. “–trusting each other is the most important principle! If the flyers of the Wonderbolts would not trust each other during all of their maneuvers, this is what would happen!” She pointed at the ground to her left, where there was still a puddle of blood.
The foals gasped loudly as they followed her hoof with their eyes.
“Do you know how the Wonderbolts can always trust each other so much?” she asked her class.
None of them answered, the eyes of the young foals fixated on the blood from Lightning Twist's accident, shock and beginning epiphany in their faces.
“Because of loyalty!” Rainbow Dash continued as nopony answered her question. “A Wonderbolt always stays loyal to his team and his unit and no Wonderbolt would ever betray another. This loyalty is it what gives the Wonderbolts their strength and creates the strong bond of trust between them!”
Once more, Rainbow Dash paused to let the effect of her words do its job. The pegasi students gulped, then looked at Rainbow Dash, their mouths opened widely.
“Trust and Loyalty,” Rainbow Dash continued after a few seconds. “Those are the foundations of the Wonderbolts, the principles that keep the Wonderbolts together. If the Wonderbolts would give up their loyalty, they would allow their enemies to grow stronger and destroy themselves from the inside!” Another pause before she continued.
“This is why it is important to always stay loyal to those who are a part of your team, even during hard times! Do you understand this, cadets?”
“Yes, ma'am.....” The answer of the foals was a quiet one this time.
“I can't hear you!”
“Yes, ma'am!” they answered with increased volume.
“I still can't hear you! LOUDER!” their teacher commanded.
“YES, MA'AM!” they shouted back another answer, following Rainbow Dash's command.
“GOOD!” Rainbow Dash did a last glance over her students, seeing some expressions of sadness, some of insecurity and some of regret. All of them, though, had in common that they were deeply buried in thoughts.
The flight teacher smirked. “Okay, cadets, lesson's over for this week! Now go back to your classrooms and stay there until recess!” she commanded them.
“MOVE!” she added as they didn't react.
The foals flinched and, their heads hanging low and their tails tucked between their hindlegs, the finally sat themselves into motion. They grabbed their scrolls while trotting, some of them did so with great hesitation now, though. Rainbow Dash watched them as they went inside, satisfied with the impact she had left on them. Only one of the foals stayed behind, having a scroll in its possession as well, but carrying it carelessly on the back. Magnolia joined Flurry Heart, Sharp Pitch and Sunny Spirit, who had stayed on the schoolyard as well, with Flurry Heart looking at Rainbow Dash in admiration and with gratitude.
As the rest of foals had disappeared between the trees, Rainbow Dash turned towards Flurry Heart and trotted into her direction. The filly continued to give her admiring and thankful looks, while Sharp Pitch frowned over the pegasus' presence and Magnolia's eyes were glowing from admiration as she saw the fast pegasus coming over to them, although for a different reason than the young alicorn.
As Rainbow Dash stood in front of Flurry Heart, she enfolded her right wing and ruffled with it through her mane, a gentle smile on her lips that didn't seem to fit into her torn and strict face at all, yet still radiated a kind of sympathy able to put Flurry Heart at ease.
“Hey, I heard you're having some trouble lately,” she said as lovingly as she could in her raspy and usually so strict voice.
Flurry Heart ducked her head a little as the wing touched her and smiled. A giggle left her throat.
“Don't let it get to you, okay?” Rainbow Dash continued. “We all face hard times sooner or later, but they make us stronger.”
Flurry Heart nodded, her eyes wide from all the admiration for the cool mare. She did a step closer to Rainbow Dash and began hugging her, her tiny arms barely able to reach the neck of the adult pegasus.
Rainbow Dash lifted her left hoof and pulled Flurry Heart a little closer, then looked over at the guard to her right.
“Sharp Pitch,” she acknowledged him with a nod. “I hope you're doing fine too.” Her tone was respectful, yet there was something else in it, something that neither Flurry, nor Sunny, nor Magnolia could explain.
Sharp Pitch's reaction was a hard to distinct mixture between huffing and laughing.
“Rainbow Dash.....” he said in a dry voice. “I never reckoned that I would have to meet you again one day.” The tone in his voice was hard to interpret too; it was not aggressive, but not exactly friendly either.
“Surprises can happen in life,” she answered calmly, then left it at this reply and turned her head to the left, looking at Magnolia.
Magnolia's heart started to bump a little faster as she noticed that the pegasus looked at her directly. Rainbow Dash's expression was a bit stricter now.
“Magnolia, you're here too..... You could really use a special lesson about loyalty from me.” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at the rich filly.
Magnolia didn't like the emphasis Rainbow Dash had put on “special lesson”. She gulped.
“Why are you here?” Rainbow Dash asked Magnolia suspiciously. “Busy with giving her a hard time again, huh?”
Magnolia gulped a second time, now shaking. “N-No, not at all! Not anymore! Flurry and me are, uh, b-best pals now, I-I p-promise!” Demonstratively, she reached out with her left hoof and dragged Flurry Heart away from Rainbow Dash, something that Flurry only let happen under protest, then pulling her at her side. She placed her hoof around Flurry's neck. “See?” she asked nervously.
“And this is true, huh?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, then gave Flurry a doubting glance.
Flurry Heart nodded. “It's true. I'm still surprised myself.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Guess my own words come back at me now!”
She looked at Magnolia again. “You better stay loyal like this, do you hear?” she said sternly again.
Magnolia gulped once more, then just nodded quietly, her eyes showing great respect for Rainbow Dash.
The mare in the Wonderbolts uniform did a look at the sun, then sighed. “I guess it's already time for me to leave again. The duties never rest at the Wonderbolts, especially not in these times.” She looked over to Sharp Pitch and Sunny Spirit. “You two take good care of Flurry, okay?”
Sharp Pitch huffed, but Sunny Spirit smiled and nodded. “I always will! I won't allow that somepony hurts my best friend!” Some bitter irony was ringing in her voice, but if Rainbow Dash noticed, she decided to ignore it.
Rainbow Dash ruffled through Sunny's mane shortly, then returned her attention to Flurry Heart. She pulled her into another hug, then wrapped one wing around her. “I need to leave now. You keep your head up, okay?”
At her chest, Flurry Heart nodded, a muffled “Mhm” coming from her.
The mare and the filly retracted from each other. “Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She ruffled Flurry's mane with her wing again, then started to hover. “I'll be back with another flying lesson next week! Stay safe until then!”
Flurry Heart shot her a smile. “I will, don't worry!” she answered confidently.
Rainbow Dash waved at her, gave Sharp Pitch a farewell nod, then she took off into the sky.
Flurry Heart looked after her until she couldn't see her anymore, then turned around to her friends and Sharp Pitch. “Let's go inside!” she said, her voice unexpectedly cheerful considering her current situation. A round of nods followed her suggestion. Together, the four ponies trotted towards the school building, Sharp Pitch attentively at Flurry Heart's side again.
In her thoughts, Flurry Heart was already at the next lesson, another unbeloved math lesson with her favourite teacher, and she cringed at this thought. But there was also a new kind of confidence spreading inside her now, which gave her reason to smile. And she still had recess to look forward to, which would hopefully be a quiet time, spent between the trees with her friends, while Sharp Pitch was shielding them from any nastyness that might occur.
“Maybe everything will turn out okay,” Flurry thought as she entered the school building.