The atmosphere of the party changed dramatically since Lightning's confrontation with Spitfire. Ponies from all the corners were whispering their opinions about what transpired minutes ago.
Lightning Dust couldn't care less of what they thought of her. She was still trying to cope with the overwhelming thoughts that caused her to snap without any regards for those who would be listening.
She wished she just could fly away and hide in her room and cry her angst for the rest of the night. That if she had any house of her own or even a room. Suddenly the perspective of spending her nights at Rainbow's house disgusted her to no end.
Thunderlane was currently at her side, his face grew stern while listening the whispers around him. It was obvious that none of it sounded good judging from his reaction. The stallion took great interest on listening Gilda and Rainbow Dash arguing with Twilight.
"We told you this could happen, but it's not like you ever listen to what I say!" Gilda pointed out while glaring daggers at the rainbow mare. Rainbow let out an irritated huff.
"You know it's not my fault! I didn't invite Spitfire! And how can you say that me joining the Wonderbolts would be lame?! It's MY dream! This is what I've been wanting and waiting for my whole life!" Rainbow protested indignantly. "I have the right to choose whatever!"
"Rainbow, Gilda. I don-
Twilight tried to intervene but they just ignored her.
"You helped to put this team togheter! All of your friends are here! Most of your weather team is throwing away their times and putting themselves in risk for Ponyville!" Gilda's voice raised loud enough for all the whispers to die out. All the attention solely focused on the griffon and the cyan mare. Twilight, who's face had a visible shade of red, was trying her best to avoid the staring while desperately trying to think on something to quiet down both mare and griffon. "Are you telling me you gonna turn your back to them when they most need you? And for what?! A stunt team of snobbish pegasus?!"
Rainbow Dash backed away in shock as if the griffon had just clawed her face. It hurted deeply to hear something she valued so much since fillyhood to be regarded as a silly air show. Rainbow's pride prohibited her from crying in front of so many ponies, not only because of the insult towards the Wonderbolts, also because Gilda clearly didn't care about her dreams nor her feelings.
Gilda, after few seconds of awkward silence, finally started to realize she may have pushed a bit too far. Her anger and frustration quickly faded away once she took in the hurtful expression that Rainbow had on her face for everypony to witness.
"I always wanted to be a Wonderbolt...." Rainbow said slowly while looking into Gilda's eyes with the utmost disappointment. "...I told you that since Flight Camp over and over.....you never wanted me to fulfill my dream?...."
Gilda was taken aback by her words. Not because of the surprising sadness that was carried into them, but how close from the truth they actually were. Gilda would rather have a sleepover with Pinkie Pie than tell Rainbow Dash that she never wanted to see Rainbow as a Wonderbolt. Gilda's reasons for it were selfish and she knew it, but she never said anything about it to avoid hurting Dash. Now it seems it was all in vain.
"I....I don't know what to think of you anymore Dash. " Gilda said tiredly. "D-Do you whatever you want if....that makes you happy." The griffon couldn't help the bitterness in her voice. She wanted to see Rainbow Dash happy, but not like that. "I just gonna let ya know....if you fly to Cloudsdale....don't you ever talk to me again."
Lightning Dust observed quietly the whole affair with mildly amazement. She heard that Gilda and Rainbow had their own friendship problems but never she imagined it would be this serious.
"Gilda, that's not fair with Rainbow." Thunderlane said, breaking the solid wall of silence he's been up to for minutes. "You can't force her to choose."
The griffon glanced at the stallion venemously, but her anger died out as soon she saw Lightning standing next to him. It was then when the griffon finally understood what this meant for Rainbow Dash.
Lightning Dust was an absolute wreck when they found her, despite all this time she was still moody and distrustful towards everypony around her, all because she failed at becoming a Wonderbolt. Was denying Rainbow of her dream going to make her miserable just as Lightning Dust? Was she going to fall into depression and lock herself away from the world? Would she loose the will to do anything?
Gilda exploded away her insecurities and fears in the only way she knew.
Like a griffon.
"FINE!Go ahead and be whatever dweeb! I don't know why I bothered to come back here! I knew this was a mistake and I was such an idiot to believe you ever cared!" Gilda knocked aside one of the tables in her way outside, the ponies in her path quickly cleared away in fear of being targeted by her fury.
Rainbow Dash stood perplexed, hurt and confused as to why Gilda was reacting like that, it's not like the cyan mare wanted to leave her friends. She slowly turned her head around as she felt a hoof gently pressing at her side.
"Maybe we should talk later," Lightning said as she tried to come up with something that could distress Rainbow even if for just a bit. "I'll go talk with her. It's least I can do."
"I wonder what I'm supposed to do..." Rainbow muttered back. The mare was aggravated enough dealing with so much stress because of the tournament. She knew that getting reacquainted with Gilda and Lightning would be hard, even so she hoped to solve those before the first week of training but things just kept getting worse.
"Wanna me to come with you?" Thunderlane asked, his voice carrying an indistinct tone of worry. Lightning raised an eyebrow at him, she wondered why would he be offering after he had done so much for her already. "It's not like I don't think you can't do it on your own. I just think Gilda could use some extra advice." The stallion added once he took notice of Lightning's suspicion.
"Are you always this nice?" Lightning asked surprised at his kindness. Thunderlane couldn't help but smile smugly at her question.
"Always with the beautiful mares around." He said sounding full of himself. Lightning chuckled while Rainbow rolled her eyes at him.
"Yeah, ain't you such a flirt? I'm amazed you haven't found an special somepony yet." The cyan mare said somewhat grumpily.
"Your sarcasm is much appreciated Dash. " Thunderlane replied with an ever bigger smile. "We better go after Gilda before we loose her LD." The stallion said with a bit of urgency. Rainbow's eyes widened at the way Thunderlane adressed Lightning.
"LD? Since when you started calling her that?"
"The moment I decided to be a better teammate." Thunderlane replied smoothly. Lightning shook her head in amusement.
"Hurry up slow poke, we need to find Gilda." Dust eyed the cyan mare briefly before addressing her.
"You're alright?" LD asked as she pondered over the ammount of problems that she's been causing to Rainbow ever since they came back to Ponyville. "I know Gilda was rough but she really didn't mean those words. I'm sure she's just worried for you."
Twilight, who has been standing stiff like a solid wall, being ignored by everypony else, made a hum of approval at LD's support.
Being the Princess of Friendship didn't make her an expert from night to day when dealing with such conflicts of tremendous intensity. She could remember moments in which other ponies suffered because of her social flaws, especially regarding Moon Dancer, but Rainbow, Gilda and Lightning were an entire new level of social conflict that Twilight had no experiences with before.
"You two better go ahead and find Gilda. I'll stay with Rainbow to sort things out with the others. Good luck." Twilight said before grasping one of her wings over Rainbow to drag the mare towards the rest of the Mane Six members that were gathered not to far away.
With a quick nod to each other LD and Thunderlane made a quick jump to the air and pushed their wings with extreme agility rocketing themselves to the outside, such actions scared many ponies nearby.
"Gah!My drink!" Berry Punch exclaimed as she let a huge bottle of cider fall to the floor and smash to pieces. "I'm gonna charge you for this Thunderlane!"
"Berry, your 'drink' was a whole bottle?" Sweetie Drops asked in disbelief.
"Hey! I'm a grow up mare, I can swallow more than you think!" Berry Punch exclaimed in protest. Cloud Kicker, who was at a table nearby, chocked on her drink as she heard this.
"Sure thing Berry, just save some for us. I want to share some with Lyra before the party is over. Celestia knowns she needs to unwind a bit." Drops replied with a heavy sigh. Cloud Kicker, who barely recovered from her first fit of laughter, chocked again on her drink and fell on the floor gasping for air.
"I hear you," Amethyst Star said joining the mares from nowhere. "I could get a sweet time myself. I've been drying out doing chores everywhere this week."
"Oh my Celestia..." Kicker moaned sounding quite pleased. "...I'm so getting a bumpkin session tonight."
************************************************************************************************************
"So, how was it?" Blaze asked while sitting on of the locker room's benches. The mare was the last one left from the exhaustive training routine of the day. While Blaze, that wanted nothing more than having a bath and leaving as soon as possible, felt it would be appropriate to wait for Spitfire to return from her quick drop by at Ponyville.
Once the Wonderbolt Captain entered the room Blaze could easily guess things didn't went that great if only by judging Spitfire's facial expression.
"She was there." Spitfire said sounding oddly casual while undressing from her Wonderbolt uniform. "And so was Lightning Dust." Blaze's eyes widened for a second once she heard the familiar name.
"That mare you mentioned about in the first week of try-outs in Rainbow's formature?" Spitfire nodded while stuffing her suit inside the locker. "The same one you kept saying was better than Rainbow Dash?" Blaze added with a hint of amusement.
At this Spitfire slammed the locker's door with a resembling sound effect. Blaze knew better than to push her Captain once she realized she was trending on a sore spot.
"The one I thought it knew better than to do the things she did! Also.....*sigh*....one of my greatest regrets..."
"Why didn't you ask Soarin to take her under his wing? You know he's great at the social and relationship stuff. He could have instructed her about the way she acts. It's really a shame we wasted such potential."
Spitfire abruptly turned herself around to glare at her flying partner.
"You think I don't know that?! You think I don't think about this every single day of my life?! You think I don't look at every single one of those recruits and wonder which one of them will have their life ruined because I bucked up?! You think I wanted Soarin to leave because I couldn't bring myself to care about what he felt?!"
Blaze stood silent while staring at her captain breathing hard to recover from the outburst. The emotional deal that Spitfire has been locking inside of her was too great for her to maintain if somepony kept remembering her from past mistakes.
She admitted, she regretted what she did, and seeing Lightning Dust again busting into tears and begging for an explanation shook her a bit. That familiar moment hit too close from home for comfort.
"Is....Rainbow Dash coming?" Blaze asked hesitantly, being unsure if it was safe to talk again. Spitfire shook her head.
"I doubt of it, and I wouldn't blame her. She's probably dissapointed at me for what happened with Dust. I can't force her to choose. She'll know what do. She has a nice group though, they might be able to compete on the heads if they organize themselves. "
"I wouldn't expect any less from Ponyville. Their batch of pegasus was the best I've seen in years aside ours." Blaze said while being glad they changed the subject.
"I couldn't think different either. They must have a really talented weather team at disposal. Maybe managing the weather near the Everfree does take a lot more than it looks." Spitfire responded in agreement. "I'll take a shower real quick and catch up with ya in few minutes."
"Sure thing. Surprise and Fire Streak are still at the dorms waiting for us before leaving. I heard Fire Strike wants to retire, is that true?" Blaze asked with evident curiosity.
"It is. He wants to become an instructor for the academy. I don't really mind much, we could use more experienced pegasus to handle the newbies." Spitfire said as she made her way inside of one of the showers.
"I hear you. Next batch will be coming in two months. That's pretty much right after the event. If wasn't for Fire Streak I would volunteer myself to instructor, I would hate to see you exhausting yourself so much." Blaze said with a smirk that Spitfire couldn't see.
"Pfff, the only thing you could teach them is how to keep their fashioned manes intact despite the intense flying." Spitfire retorted mockingly.
"Har Har." Blaze responded unamused.
Spitfire merely shook her head as she carefully twisted the shower's adapted lever to allow the heated water to flow.
Even the warmth of the pure water splashing constantly on her face wasn't enough to alleviate the stress and guilt that plagued her mind and heart.
Could she live with this guilt for the rest of her life? Could she take part in the event and put her shame away every time she would look at Lightning flying or trotting nearby? Could she keep remaining passive about the truth?
Could she tell Soarin the truth?
Spitfire didn't have an answer to any of those questions, but one thing was certain.
Things would only get much worse.