//------------------------------// // Chapter 11. // Story: Equestria Girls and The Golden Bell // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// On the eastern horizon, the sky slowly turns from the deep indigo of night to the bright blue of the approaching sunrise, as the sun rises slowly, it illuminates the tower room that the girls are using at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rainbow Dash is having a peaceful morning. Sprawled out on her bed, her thick duvet has made its way to the floor sometime during the night. She’s lying on her back, a colts t-shirt covers her muscular frame, along with a pair of boxers. She turns her head slightly and her mouth flops open, and she emits a loud SNERK. She inhales easily and emits another loud snore. Applejack looks over and kicks her bed, getting her to turn onto her side, where the snores are muted. Applejack shakes her head as she goes back to her book. Rainbow snorts as Pinkie Pie’s voice rings out, “Goooood morning Fluttershy!” She opens a single eye to look at Pinkie holding tightly onto Fluttershy, who is hugging back. She’s got some more time, she flops her head back and closes her eye. Just five more minutes, she’s got plenty of experience ignoring Pinkie’s insanity first thing in the morning. “First you see me riding on a sonic boom, got my guitar shreddin' up the latest tune” Rainbow twitches in response to the music right next to her head. She reaches around her pillow, feeling frantically, finally she huffs and pulls out the tennis ball sized device, it continues, “There is nothin' you can do to beat me, I'm so good that you can't defeat me Yeah!” She grumbles as she glances over at Sunset, who had enchanted her alarm clock so it would work even with all the magic around here. Her arm flashes back and then she heaves it. The ball bounces off the wall, shutting down the music, it bounces on the floor then lands in Rarity’s bed. Rarity jerks to a sitting position, with a loud scream of, “NO!” She takes a moment to take off her sleep mask. She looks around, her face red as she mumbles to herself. Rainbow Dash turns her head to look at Applejack, who smiles at her over her book, “Is it morning, already?” She grumbles. Applejack nods as Rainbow Dash scrubs her hands over her eyes. Morning always comes way too quickly. She heaves her feet over the edge of the bed and recoils as her feet touch the floor. She shivers as she sits cross legged. She glances over at the wardrobe next to her bed, she slowly extends a foot and uses her toes to grab her duvet, which she slides over so she can stand on it. She grabs her clothes and turns to the bathroom with a yawn, scratching her hip over her sleep boxers as she enters. She looks at herself in the mirror and opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out, "Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Man, I'd kill for some American food right now. I swear this British stuff is putting fur on my tongue. And seriously, bangers and mash, pigs in a blanket, can't they just call the food what it is?" Striping down, she throws her sleepwear out of the bathroom before she steps into the shower and scrubs herself quickly. Using one of the thick towels, she dries herself off in a matter of moments, though leaving her hair wet as she hastily pulls her uniform on. She looks at her silver trimmed robes, fingering the MACUSA patch on the breast of the robe then the stylized rainbow lightning bolt and cloud that's sewn on the inner pocket against her hip. Rarity's work obviously. She pulls on her robe and walks back into the bedroom. Rarity takes one look at her and yelps, “Oh, Rainbow Dash, that just won’t do. We are here to represent our country and our school. You can’t go around all slovenly like that.” Rainbow glances down at herself, she’s got most of the buttons of her blouse done, and her slacks are clean. She furrows her brow at Rarity as she comes forward, Rarity reaches and fastens the top button and tightens the tie, she adjusts Rainbow’s collar and smooths the blouse over her hips. She grabs the robes and adjusts them as well, then she smiles at Rainbow, “Now, that’s so much better, isn’t it?” Rainbow huffs and runs a finger along her collar, “It’s a little tight.” Rarity snickers, “A lady must at times be uncomfortable to look presentable.” She taps Rainbow’s flat stomach, “try to have some pride in yourself Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow pulls away from Rarity, “I’ve got plenty of pride in myself,” she loosens her tie and undoes the top button. She then tightens the tie a little bit and smiles at her friend, “but I don’t really care about all this fancy clothes and uniforms and dress up stuff. Running shoes, shorts, and a sports shirt is fine.” "Not here darling, here we must abide by their rules, and that includes their fashion choices. I can make adjustments of course, but even then, they must conform to the rules. Pity that, I could see a whole fashion line of robes, with far more interesting colors then just grey." Rarity huffs. Rainbow grins as she heads towards the door. Sunset leads them down the stairs, and Rainbow shambles down the stairs with her friends. She giggles when Pinkie plays with the various paintings as she passes by. Rainbow looks up as they enter the grand hall, the enchanted ceiling shows a bright blue sky and a rising sun, only a few wispy clouds show that today is going to be a beautiful day. She growls a little bit, she’s got three classes today, and she’d much rather spend more time outside on a day like today. She looks around and finally joins her friends at a table. Before long, the food shows up, and Rainbow smiles, of the food they have here, the breakfast is the most edible. Toast, scones, muffins with jam, banana oatmeal, porridge, berry pancakes with extra maple syrup. She finds a big bowl full of Greek yogurt. She fills her bowl, dumping oats and bran and mixing it. Smiling brightly, Fluttershy looks over at her, “Are you sure it’s enough there, Rainbow?” Rainbow grins back, “Nope, but it’s a start.” She points, “Could you pass the scones? And oh, oh, gotta have some shaved almonds.” Fluttershy rolls her eyes as she passes the plate and the small bowl over to her friend. Rainbow then dumps several spoonfulls of berries on the top. Another plate gets a thick stack of pancakes with butter, which she drenches in maple syrup. She fills her goblet with the pumpkin juice, and as she downs a glass, she sincerely wishes that she could get that back at home, it’s truly amazing. She keeps an eye on Fluttershy as she’s eating, that girl has a ferret in the hood of her robes. Rainbow has to giggle as Fluttershy gives it little morsels to eat. Though the food is done quickly, the post comes in, and many owls vie for her friend’s attention. Rainbow reaches over towards one that is hopping up and down in front of Fluttershy. And gets nipped for her trouble. She recoils and glares at the owl, which fluffs its wings at her and turns back to Fluttershy. “Jerk.” She mumbles to herself as she takes a swig of her pumpkin juice. The owl fluffs out its wings and squawks back at Dash. With a grumble, Dash looks back at the owl, "You heard me just fine, I called you a jerk, there was no reason to..." Blinking Dash looks at the owl for a moment. "Great, now I'm arguing with owls. God, I miss caffeine." With a look back to the pumpkin juice she huffs, she likes it, a lot. But what she wouldn’t do for a nice Coke. It seems the mages here haven’t heard of newer drinks. She hasn’t seen a sports drink, or protein shakes since she’s come to this school. It’s not too long, though, before the food disappears and the big gong sounds. It’s time for class. She sighs as she trudges up the stairs with Fluttershy. The first class of the day, she finds out, is weather control. It’s not that it’s totally boring, it just lacks any form of action or excitement. It also contains more than a few books to read and reference. Why couldn't they just fly and learn that way by being in the storm? Reaching out, she sighs and grabs a piece of the cloud and fluffs it a few times. Feeling its texture, she half smiles and shapes it into a stylized pegasus pony, lost in her own world. A few shapes here, a few tweaks there, and its ready, now if only she could turn it blue. With a flick of her finger she sends it floating on its way towards Fluttershy before she grabs a larger chunk of cloud. Rubbing her cheek against it she smiles before she fluffs it into the shape of a pillow and lays her head down on it..."Mmmmm so soft...so fluffy. So....nap timey..." The bell ringing wakes her from her nap. She wipes an arm across her mouth, “Huh, what now?” She mumbles. “Dash, you’ve got a free period, I’ve got my next class, have fun.” Fluttershy says softly as she puts her bag over her shoulder to walk out. The ferret pokes its head up out of her robe’s hood and chitters at Rainbow. Rainbow sighs as she grabs her own bag. A free period, well, maybe she can work out outside. It’s a quick walk to their tower where she drops her bag on the bed, she takes a moment to look at her brand new broom sitting next to her wardrobe. With a grin, she grabs it and heads down stairs. Might be able to make use of the broom. She heads out of the main gate at the castle and looks around. There’s a group of students on the expansive field, some of them are fiddling around with small posts. To Rainbow’s amazement, the posts grow into three large rings a good fifty feet off the ground. Two students then walk slowly, pacing out measurements another set of posts floating behind them. “‘sup?” Rainbow asks of the tall boy who is floating a large crate that is suspiciously vibrating. He stops and looks at her, “You’re one of the American girls, right?” She nods and offers a hand, “I’m Rainbow Dash.” He smiles and shakes her hand gently, “What a name, I’m Seamus.” That gets Rainbow’s eyebrows to rise, “Seamus is an odd name too.” He rolls his eyes, “Well, they are using the quidditch pitch for the Tri-wizard cup, so we are making an unofficial pitch, so we can play anyway.” That gets a grin, “Can I play?” He cocks his head to the side, “Do you know the rules of Quidditch?” She shakes her head, “But I’m a fast learner, especially when it comes to sports!” He looks at her, then at the other students as they are stripping off their robes and grabbing brooms, he sighs, “Well, we are one light.” He stops for a moment, “Aren’t you the girl that did a sonic boom over the castle the other day?” Rainbow nods, “None faster.” “Know what a seeker does?” She shakes her head and he continues, “Well, the seeker’s job is to find the snitch.” He drops the case and opens it. He opens a small compartment in the lid and brings out a small golden ball, two feathery metal wings snap out and it tries to fly away, “This little devil, it’s stupid fast, and maneuverable like nothing else. You have to be fast to get it.” He looks at her over the snitch, “Think you can do it?” “Oh come on, all I have to do is catch that little thing?” She crows, “Not a problem.” He chuckles, “Yeah. Just remember you are going to have to be avoiding the bludgers as well. So, it’s not all that easy.” He points at the two balls that are chained down. Even under restraint the two balls are trying to escape, causing the entire chest to shift. He pulls out four clubs and hands them over to four of the students. Rainbow looks at them lined up, okay, two beaters for each team. She glances warily at the iron balls continuing to fight their restraints. Then there’s three more standing there, the chasers, she finds out. And the goal keep, and the seeker. She looks at the other teams seeker. He’s powerfully built, though thin, with short hair and a fine goatee. She marches up to him and offers a hand, “I’m Rainbow Dash.” He reaches out and takes her hand in a firm grip, which she returns, “Viktor Krum.” He says in an accented voice. She cocks her head to the side, “You don’t sound like everyone else.” “I’m not a student of this school, but of Durmstrang Institute.” One of Dash’s teammates comes over and leans close, “Rainbow, he was Bulgaria’s seeker in the Quidditch World Cup this year.” He stage whispers, “He caught the snitch.” That gets a smile from Dash, “So, I’m up against the best.” He smiles, “You are one of the American’s, da?” She nods, he chuckles, “I will go easy on you, I know how slow Americans can be.” Rainbow grins, “You are so on.” The players hop on their brooms, one team doffs their robes, Rainbow tosses her robe next to the chest and mounts her broom. Kicking off the ground she joins the other students racing around the makeshift pitch. Taking easy turns, and changing her altitude to get a good feeling of her broom. She glances around, noting that she already knows where the other players are before she even looks. One of the other students flies up, holding the ball called the quaffle. She glances down, they are about to release the balls that can fly on their own. Rainbow grins savagely, it’s go time. A kick to the box has three objects flying into the air. For the moment, she ignores the bludgers, they aren’t after her as of yet. The student with the quaffle tosses it into the air to signal the start of the game. Rainbow narrows her eyes and shoots off like she was launched from a catapult. Crouched low on her broom her hair flapping back in the wind, it’s almost like she leaves a rainbow contrail as she moves. Rolling inverted she passes another player by mere inches, broom to broom as she reaches out. “Gotcha!” She crows as her hand closes on the snitch. “What the hell?” Comes from one of the beaters on the other team. The iron balls are recalled quickly and all the players head to the ground. Seamus comes towards her, “That was fast!” Rainbow giggles, “No, I got it in ten seconds flat. I think I can do faster next time.” He shakes his head as she hands the snitch over to him. He puts it in its place in the chest. After securing the walnut sized ball, he stands up and looks at Rainbow severely, “It’s good to get the snitch fast, the game isn’t over until the snitch is caught.” He looks around at the other players, “But let your team mates play too.” Rainbow giggles as Victor comes up to her, "You are not the typical American. You take to the broom like you were born on one." She puts the bristles of the broom down and leans on it, “None faster.” His eyebrows rise, “I’m beginning to believe it.” He holds out a hand, “Again?” Rainbow looks at her team mates, then back at Viktor, “Yeah.” Once again, they get into the air, Rainbow focuses on the chest as the other players ready themselves. Again, the chest is kicked and all three balls fly into the air. Rainbow keeps her focus on the small golden snitch. Madame Hooch is on the broom this time, playing referee. She blows her whistle and tosses the quaffle into the air. Like a spring, Rainbow flashes forward, she dodges Viktor with a half barrel roll as he crosses in front of her, though she can feel him turning to follow her. She grins as she leans forward on her broom, getting even more speed out of it. Her pony ears emerge and lay back as her mane grows, she rolls onto her back going inverted again and pulls the nose of the broom down in a half split s, diving towards the ground. The snitch seems to be having a mind of its own this time, is zig zagging around, evading. From the corner of her eye she notes the bludger heading for her, almost instinctually she pulls up and over in a coffin's corner turn to keep her speed up but reposition herself on the the snitch in one graceful maneuver that even Spitfire would have been proud of. As she finishes her last bit of the turn she reaches out and wraps her hand around the golden ball again. Pulling up, she goes vertical laughing out as she loops up high then speeds back down to the ground dusting it with her broom as she touches down with a loud smack. She holds up the snitch high and jumps, screaming out, "Oh YEAH!" The other team mates land, and the looks on their faces end her happy dancing. She looks around, then puts a hand behind her head, rubbing the back of her neck, “Oh.” She chuckles awkwardly, “Sorry.” Seamus stalks towards her and holds out a hand, which she places the snitch into gingerly, “Well, we won, right?” He shakes his head, “Yeah, we won, but the only one doing anything is you.” Viktor comes up, “She has plenty of skill here, but I think she’d be better suited for a different position.” He gestures at Seamus as he draws Rainbow away from the rest of her team. He grabs both of her shoulders, “You have situational awareness like I’ve never seen.” He reaches up and flicks a blue ear and touches her extended wing protruding over her shoulder, “Though I don’t think transfiguration is allowed in Quidditch.” She fingers her ear for a moment before looking over her back and flexing her wings, “Umm sorry. It’s not actually transfiguration, we call it ponying up.” At his confused look, she taps a finger on his cheek, “Something I’ve done at my school. It’s different than what you mages do.” He shakes his head and looks over at Seamus, “I think she’d be best as a beater, with situational awareness like that, she’d be a terror, but she wouldn’t end the game in less than a minute.” Seamus looks at her for a long time, finally he looks around the pitch, nearly every student with a free period has made their way to the makeshift pitch, over a hundred students are watching, finally he looks back at Rainbow, “Okay, one more game, but you are going to be a beater, like Viktor said.” Rainbow grins, “I can do it, just keep them off ya, right?” Seamus nods, handing her a club, “And send them towards the other team.” She reaches out her hand and her broom flies up into it. She looks over at the bludgers, that are once again attempting to escape being chained down, then at Seamus, “I can do that.” Once again, they all power into the air, only the seeker is allowed to get the snitch, so she watches the two bludgers intently as they circle the field once again. Seamus and Alicia Spinnet square up together in the middle. It’s time to really fly. With a kick, the balls are once again released and the quaffle is tossed into the air. Rainbow doesn’t really worry about the snitch anymore, only the bludgers are her concern. She flashes forward, her club primed and ready, Seamus has the quaffle and is diving towards the ground, a glance tells her that one of the bludgers has bounced off the ground and is heading towards him. She grins as she streaks towards the young Gryffindor, she turns on her side as she passes him with inches to spare as she slams her club into the heavy ball, the impact reverberating through her arm as she sends the bludger at one of the opposing chasers. She glances back at Seamus as he does a quick spiral to get up to the level of the ring. Her ear flicks as she notes another bludger heading towards the girl that replaced her as seeker. The girl is up high and motionless, keeping an eye out for the snitch. Rainbow glances around and spots the small golden ball then she lifts the nose of her broom and flashes straight up, it’s going to be close. “Awww yeah!” She crows as she sends the bludger on it’s way, directly at Viktor, who is diving for the ground, forcing him to change course. He gives her a dirty look as he evades, and Rainbow responds with a raspberry as she streaks past him. Rainbow glances down, the first bludger is after one of the other beaters, so she looks up and watches as another bludger heads towards one of the opposing chasers, another beater hot on the ball’s trail. She grins as she streaks forward, she taps her seeker’s shoulder as she flashes past, getting the girl to pay attention to her, the girl looks at Rainbow in confusion, and Rainbow points at where the snitch is. The girl looks in the direction, a look of confusion on her face. Then Rainbow groans, Viktor is diving towards the snitch. Thinking fast, Rainbow turns hard and intercepts a bludger that had just come off the club of her teams other beater. She slams the heavy ball downward. Her aim is true and the bludger misses Viktor by inches, but also causes him to abort his run for the Snitch. Rainbow sighs as the golden ball repositions itself. Neither of the teams seekers seem to be aware of its position now. But Rainbow can’t tell her own seeker that, because then Viktor would know. Rainbow fends off both bludgers, that have been sent towards her by the opposing beaters, her smile evident as she sends one right back at the other beater, and the other straight up. She’s intent on one of the bludgers that’s been targeting Seamus for most of the game, she is just getting ready to slam that bludger once again when she has to check herself, she rolls her broom to avoid Viktor as he crosses right in front of her, sticking out his tongue at her as he does so. Seamus goes vertical and misses a pass because of that, and the other team gets the quaffle and score rapidly. In frustration she darts to the side and smacks the bludger after the seeker. He avoids it easily and turns. Rainbow glances at the small score board, two fifty to one hundred, in her team’s favor. That gets a grin out of her. Her ear flicks as she looks up, Viktor has leaned forward and dived his broom. That gets a confused look from Dash, the Snitch is orbiting the opposing team’s goalpost up high at the moment. She groans when her teams seeker dashes after Viktor. He’s messing with her. Rainbow’s shout is lost in the noise of the crowd of students and the players as her seeker streaks past Viktor, who pulls up savagely on his broom. That’s lost on her teams seeker as she finally realizes her mistake, she pulls up on her own broom, but not enough, as she slams into the ground and rolls. “Damn it!” Rainbow moans as she watches Viktor leisurely bank around her teams goal post, then he leans forward on his broom, flashing towards the opposite goalpost. Did he know the snitch was there? Rainbow casually slaps a bludger that was aimed at her head towards the ground as she watches the opposing seeker chase after the miniscule ball. A quick glance at the score board shows that the score is unchanged. Why is he going after it? The best he can do at this point is tie the game. Rainbow notices the other bludger has bounced off the ground and is heading towards the opposing chaser that has the quaffle tucked in the crook of her arm. Seamus and the other two chasers for her team are hot on the girl’s tail. Rainbow glances at Viktor, who is chasing the snitch towards the ground. Does he think he can get it right after she scores? Rainbow streaks to the side and closes on one of the bludgers, she’s going to fix that. She puts her all into the smack, breaking her club as she sends the bludger towards the chaser with the quaffle, it smacks into her broom, sending her for the ground. One of the ground referees catch her in his magic as Viktor’s hand finally closes on the snitch. All the players head towards the ground, Seamus comes up and claps her on the shoulder as her wings and ears finally disappear, “You stopped them from winning. Good job.” Rainbow huffs, “I don’t like ties, I’d rather trounce them.” She walks over to Viktor as he hands the snitch over to Madame Hooch, “Why did you do that?” He grins sheepishly, “She should have gotten the goal. I was timing it right.” Rainbow frowns, “I disrupted her score. Why didn’t you just abort until you guys scored.” He huffs, “I’m usually better with the timing.” He looks back at the castle as the gong sounds, “It’s lunch time.” He says as the students start shuffling towards the school. Rainbow mounts her broom, he looks at her, “Not hungry?” She shakes her head, “I had a big carb load this morning. I’m good.” He grins and mounts his own, “So am I.” He floats off the ground, “You may be fast, but I can still fly circles around you.” She kicks off the ground, “In your dreams.” “Prove it!” Viktor says as he kicks off the ground as well, pulling down his goggle. Dash streaks off and goes vertical, her hair forming a rainbow trail behind her with Viktor hard on her heels. She glances back and smiles as she leans tighter on her broom, accelerating. He’s right with her. She pulls up and sheds her speed, at the apex of her Immelmann, she streaks towards a big cloud, shattering it with her wake as she banks to head towards another. She spirals around this second cloud, drawing the vapor with her, shaping the cloud. She glances back and howls in delight. Once again, her wings and ears come into existence. This is her. This is what makes her Rainbow Dash, the pure delight of flight, the speed, the thrill. She glances back, Viktor is hot on her trail, so she leans forward and speeds up further, howling her joy, she’s flown with the wings before when ponying up, but that had its limitations, she’s still trying to understand them. Here though, there’s just something special about flying on a broom as responsive as this one, it was like it was a part of her. Narrowing her eyes, she dives heading for the Whomping Willow, she rolls and dodges the branches, cutting an inside turn just inches from the tree trunk. Viktor cuts a wider path turning on the outside of the trunk as a few branches lash out towards him as well. Their speed is high enough, though, that they are out of its range before they can get hit. Glancing back Dash sees Viktor point to the bridge. With nod, she dives low and starts a slalom course, flying under the deck, through the pylons. The narrow space between pylons forces her to slow down a little as she rocks side to side, zipping past. Viktor had missed the first pylon, so the two pop out on opposite sides of the bridge at the same time. As she approaches the cliff face she accelerates, waiting to the last possible moment before pulling up as hard as she can. She again goes for height, spiraling up through the air. To her surprise, Viktor joins her in the spiral, so they end up in a corkscrew as they rise through the atmosphere. She reaches the apex and levels off. Viktor levels off beside her as they orbit a central point looking at each other. Slowly they both narrow the radius of the circle and slow down till they are just a few feet apart. “Dash…” Viktor says softly. Shaking her head, Dash smiles, “Oh my gosh, a fluffy!” “Fluffy?” Victor responds and blinks as he watches Dash zip over and hop off her broom onto a cloud tuft left over from the cloud busting. Bouncing on the cloud tuft a bit she smiles. “I don’t know why, I just call small cloud tufts like this, fluffies.” Viktor hovers above the cloud, looking at her bouncing gently up and down on the cloud. “Cloud walking?” She looks back at Viktor and grins, “Yeah.” She flops down onto her back, feeling the firm support of the cloud. Viktor moves closer and kicks at the cloud material, and his foot passes right through it. Getting a giggle from Rainbow Dash. He frowns for a moment, then his face brightens, he brings out his wand and brings the tip of it to touch his chest. His body glows briefly and dark gray wings extend from his body, his human ears disappear and gray furred pony ears come from the top of his head, his hair changes color to a red gray, with lighter gray streaks, he smiles and steps off his broom onto the cloud, he flops down next to her. “If anyone asks, you are helping me train for the next task.” She raises an eyebrow at him, then reaches up to stroke an ear, “Oh those look good on you, you should definitely keep them.” Dash says with a laugh before going on, “You are pretty fast yourself, what was that earlier?” He cocks his head to the side, his ears flicking back and forth. “Where you acted as though you were going for the snitch. It was on the other side of the pitch.” “You could see where it was from up there?” He chuckles, “It’s called a Wronski feint. If it works, you can at least delay the other seeker for you to get it.” She sighs, “She crashed pretty hard. You are lucky nothing was broken.” He huffs, “It’s a part of Quidditch. More than one player has had to spend a day or three in the infirmary bed while their bones are mended.” “Three days in a bed? I’d go nuts.” She nods, “So it really can get rough and tumble?” He nods and she rolls back onto her back, the softness of the cloud lures her, her eyes slowly close as the comfort of the fluffy cloud lulls her gently towards a nice nap. Though, Viktor rises up on an elbow, looking at Rainbow, his voice brings her back to the present, “So, Rainbow.” She snorts, opening one eye to look at him, “I was just about to fall asleep, ya know that, right?” He shakes his head, “Sorry, but you know the Yule Ball in a few weeks?” She turns her head to look at him, “Ball? As in a dance thingy? No, sorry.” She scratches the back of her head gently, “I’m pretty sure I was told about it, but I was probably thinking about something else at the time.” That gets a laugh from Viktor, “It happens.” She nods, “So, I’m guessing you are going to go?” He nods, “Yeah, as a champion for my school, I’ve got to go. It’s kinda required. But the problem is, I need a date for it.” Rainbow whistles softly, “Oh ouch, yeah, that sucks. All that primp and protocol junk.” She narrows her eyes, “There’s got to be some girl here that can handle that. They have to be pretty, good with magic, and able to at least act partly respectable.” She taps her chin for a moment, then she brightens, “Oh, how about that Granger girl?” He recoils, “Hermione? Hermione Granger? The Gryffindor girl, who’s friends with the other champion, Harry?” Rainbow nods, “She’s perfect, she’s scary good with spells, and she has an actual personality.” He cocks his head to the side, “As opposed to?” That gets a giggle from Rainbow, “As opposed to most of the Slytherin girls.” That gets a laugh from him, “I guess I’ll have to think about it.” Rainbow glances at her watch and stands up, she flexes her wings, slightly surprised that they are still there. She taps him on the hip with a shoe as she walks by, “Well, while you work up your nerve to ask her, I’ve got class coming up.” “Uh, Rainbow.” He says as she walks to the edge of the cloud, she turns around and looks at him. He points at her broom lying next to him, she reaches out her hand and the broom flies to her, getting his eyebrows to rise as the broom smacks into her hand. She giggles and waves as she falls backwards off the cloud. As she falls, she keeps her wings tight to her sides. She’s got over three thousand feet to fall before flying is actually necessary. Flipping to where she can see the ground, she grins as finally she extends her wings, the magic within her at her beck and call. She draws on the magic as the wings finally take her weight, that gets a howl from her as she flies quickly towards the old castle. Lunch is almost over and she has a class down in the dungeon coming up. Landing in the courtyard, she rushes inside, she’s huffing and puffing as she drops her broom and grabs her bag in their room. She slings the bag over her shoulder as she dashes down the stairs into the basement. She slides into the dungeon classroom just as the teacher uses his magic to close the door. He looks at her severely as she slinks to sit next to Twilight Sparkle. For the next hour and a half, she finds it hard to stay awake, potions are incredibly boring, though she keeps an eye on Pinkie Pie as she ignores the teacher and uses the liquid nitrogen. Though pretty soon she’s got her second potion ready to go. Her super sugar mixture gets Rainbow to grin, she’s had Pinkie’s cookies with that mixture. That’s yummy. Rainbow looks at her own attempt to make the super saturation and sighs. Baking has never been her strong suit. She glances at Twilight, who is bent over her work, it looks almost as good as Pinkie Pie’s. Twilight helped her getting her own version of the Polyjuice potion started as well. Though it probably isn’t up to snuff, she sighs as she continues her own work. Potions class is finally behind her. She can’t wait for the school day to be over. Just one more class, and she knows it’s going to be a snoozer. It’s so boring that the teacher is a ghost, and from what she’s been told, he died in the staff room while taking a nap, and showed up the next day as a ghost and continued his class as though nothing had happened. She walks into the classroom and looks around with a smile. She’s the first one here, early but she is the fastest around. As she moves over to her seat, the specter floats into the room, nodding to the first student there. Rainbow looks into her bag, flipping through her texts, before pulling out the book for this class. She smiles as she draws it out, then she blinks, tilting her head as she looks at the cover. An ivory inlayed pony or horse head, with flowing and curled mane, with a Greek pillar column on either side of it. She runs her finger over it and she shakes her head and grabs her notebook. The students here prefer a quill and dipping it into the ink. She can’t stand that. She pulls out one of the ball point pens that Twilight gave her. She has a roll of parchment ready as the other students file into the classroom. Sunset and Twilight would be so proud of her. *** Rainbow bounces out of the castle, she had caught up with some of her friends, Pinkie Pie had found a room for them to practice in, and she promised she’d join them later. But first, it’s time to be outside, the sun will be setting soon, need to enjoy what time she’s got. The makeshift Quidditch pitch is still up, and there are more students out there on their brooms, playing impromptu games together. She turns and heads down the hill a bit, she saw there was a lot space within the grounds for other sports, and… she skids to a stop with a big smile on the face. This is still Europe, and soccer rules. Well, she knows they call it football, but to her, it will always be soccer. Several students are running around the pitch. As she gets closer, she notices a familiar form sitting on a bench and tying his shoes. She tosses her bag onto the ground and grins, “Ready to have your behind wiped across the field?” She unclasps her robe and throws it on top of her bag. “Dash, wow.” Viktor says with a soft whistle. She looks down, frowning, “What?” He comes forward, “Not wearing very much, are you?” That deepens her frown, “I’m playing soccer, I’m wearing shorts.” He chuckles, “I’m not talking about your shorts.” She looks down at her form fitting crop top with Wondercolts emblazoned on the front, “What’s wrong with my shirt?” Viktor just shakes his head as she kneels down to tighten the laces on her running shoes. She looks up at him as she finishes, “You ready?” He nods as she grabs a ball and they work their way to the middle of the pitch. She places the ball in the ring and squares off with Viktor, she grins, “Ya ready?” He squares himself off, ready to do, “Yeah.” She places her foot on top of the ball, pulling it behind her, and she flips it up onto her heel, “Gotta be quick, Viktor!” She bounces the ball up and flips, her hands planted firmly on the ground as she kicks the ball over his head. She laughs as she completes the flip and races off after the ball. Viktor is pretty quick himself as he scampers off after the ball, beating Dash to the ball by a hairsbreadth, his kick sending it back the other direction. He can feel Dash on his heels as he heads towards the ball, as he rears back a leg to kick the ball again, Dash’s foot flashes out and reverses its direction. He overbalances as he tries to check his kick and ends up on his back, her exhilarated laugh in his ears as he turns and watches her dribble the ball as she heads towards the goal. He growls as he gets to his feet and races after her. She puts on more steam as he starts to close in. She screams as she lines up her kick, it hits the back of the net dead center. She prances around, her arms up in the air, “GOAL!” She crows as Viktor retrieves the ball. He chuckles as he sets it down again, smiling at her. He gets the ball first this time and he streaks down the pitch, controlling the ball firmly. She comes up on his side as he runs, she slams her shoulder into his, stealing the ball, and he skids as he turns to catch up with her, they jostle against each other all the way down the field, neither getting a good advantage against the other. Getting close to the goal, she stops the ball and breaks hard to the left, Viktor runs past then skids to a stop as she lines up her kick. He leaps at the ball as it streaks past him and into the upper left side of the goal. He groans as she shouts once again. Viktor finally picks himself up off the ground and goes to retrieve the ball, he tosses it to her, “Again?” *** Viktor’s arm blurs as he brings it forward, he releases the missile and it arcs through the air, landing in the water with a loud splash. A moment after the splash reaches their ears, Rainbow’s own arm blurs as she releases her own rock. It arcs through the air, and lands in the middle of the splash his own rock had made. He raises an eyebrow as he lets loose another rock, it lands nearly dead center of the splash from Rainbow’s own rock. That gets a giggle from her. He reaches down and finds another rock, this one flat and about half the size of his hand. He throws this one sideways and watches as it skips over the water. He watches at it skips and finally stops, “Six times!” “Oh, I can do better than that.” Rainbow says, grabbing another rock. She skips her own rock across the surface of the water, bouncing on her toes as the rock skips. When it finally sinks, she looks over at Viktor, “Beat seven.” Viktor searches around the shoreline and finally finds another suitable rock. Again, his arm blurs as he tosses the rock. As it finally comes to rest a green form heaves out of the water. “Holy Moly!” Rainbow shouts as more of the form becomes visible. Gray skin on a vaguely human like though quite fish shaped face, bright yellow eyes with green hair. The creature speaks in a very odd pitched language as it waves a webbed arm at them, after a moment, it’s apparently scolding done, it vanishes under the water. Rainbow turns to Viktor, “What the heck was that?” He grins, “There are merpeople in the lake, we saw them when we were coming in.” Her eyebrows rise, “That ship is yours?” “It’s the school’s, yeah.” She looks at the disturbed water, “I’m guessing they aren’t liking us throwing rocks into their home.” He thinks for a moment, “Would you?” She shakes her head, “Okay,” she glances at the castle in the distance, “Race ya!” She takes off. *** The sun slowly sets in the west as Rainbow Dash and Viktor lie on the ground outside. Both are breathing heavily, long wooden staffs are on the ground next to each of them. Rainbow takes a moment to feel her side and wince. He got a couple of really good smacks on her. Viktor is nursing a couple of nasty bruises himself, one of his eyes is swelled nearly closed. He looks over at her with his good eye, “You are savage.” She nods, “If you are going to do it, do your best.” He nods, gasping a bit as he works to control his breathing, he pulls out his wand and mutters softly, two water bottles fly from his bag into his hands. He slowly heaves himself into a sitting position and untwists the top to drink deeply. He offers the other bottle to Rainbow Dash, who accepts gratefully. She fights to control her own breathing as she levers herself up, “You are quite intense yourself.” He nods, “It takes a lot of training to be a champion.” She nods, “I know.” She slowly gets to her feet, “My friends are expecting me in the castle, I’ll see ya tomorrow, right?” He nods, “Definitely.” She grabs her robe and throws it over her arm as she grabs her bag and slings it over her shoulder, as she walks back past him, she taps him gently with a foot, “It’s good that I found someone who can keep up with me.” She looks at him, “On the ground, and in the air.” He nods, “You are a rare one, Rainbow Dash.” She nods as she heads into the castle, “You know it.”