“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is bad, real bad!” Rainbow Dash sifted through the stack of files again as she sat behind her desk, trying not to panic. She had run out of time, unable to find two suitable candidates for Wonderbolt tryouts after two of her selected prospects had called out with cases of the Ponypox, knocking them out of running. Dash had spent all the morning trying to find substitutes to bring with her.
“There’s nopony left to ask! I’ve looked through the entire student body and all of Ponyville and still can’t find anypony else to go.” Dash felt the panic growing inside her, worried how she was going to look in front of her fellow Wonderbolt recruiters as well as Commander Spitfire. She had only an hour or so before she was supposed to depart for Cloudsdale with her recruits and be at the training grounds for a first inspection.
“What am I going to do now? There’s no time left and I’m going to look like such an idiot for not being ready!” Blap! Rainbow Dash planted her face onto her desktop with a thud. “Oh, this is going to be the worst day of my life! Commander Spitfire is going to have my butt in a sling for letting the team down like this, and I’m supposed to be the one setting the example! This was all my idea.” She groaned aloud. “I’m doomed. I’ll never get another chance like this.” Dash was just about to admit defeat when a knock sounded at her office door.
“Come in.” Dash didn’t bother looking up. She was so depressed at failing to do what her commanding officer had requested that her face was still buried in the pile of paperwork on her desk.
In stepped two students of Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship.
“Excuse us, Professor Dash, are we interrupting you?” Dash looked up to see Silverstream the hippogriff and Gallus the griffon standing in her office, looking at her a bit bemusedly.
Dash sighed as she looked up from her misery. “No, just resting my head for a moment. What can I help you two with?”
Gallus was first to speak up. “Well, word around the school is that you needed to bring some contenders to the Wonderbolt tryouts this week, so Silverstream and I thought we could help out.”
Rainbow Dash was not sure where they were going with this. “How did you know I was looking for flyers around the school?”
“Professor Fluttershy told us this morning in class that you were in need of two ponies to bring to the tryouts, so Gallus and I thought we could go in place of the two who called out sick.” Silverstream was holding a book from the school’s library in her talons; a historical volume about the origins of the Wonderbolts. She had been reading a great deal about them and had asked Professor Dash many questions this semester about the Wonderbolts. Silverstream had been keen to read more about them, especially now that she was spending more and more of her time as a hippogriff and less as a seapony. Dash looked rather questioningly at them.
“I’m not sure this is the time for an excursion to Cloudsdale. Tryouts are a pretty intense time to be at Wonderbolt H.Q. and I’m going to be assisting in running the tryouts with the other team members. I won’t have time to show you around the city or much of anything else.”
“We understand, Professor. This is a big part of who you are and stuff, but we thought it could be like Headmare Twilight’s idea of having a cultural exchange between griffons, hippogriffs and pegasus ponies. We could go as students of the school and observe how pegasus ponies get in to the academy through the tryouts. Maybe we could even get to meet some cadets and ask questions about what it’s like to be a part of tryouts week.” Silverstream was very eager to know more about this. Reading about it and seeing pictures only conveyed half of the story.
“Besides,” Gallus added flatly, “it’s spring break and I really wasn’t considering going back home to Griffonstone. I was just going to stay here at the school in the meantime so visiting Cloudsdale seemed like a good alternative.”
“So, what do you say, Professor Dash? Can me and Gallus go with you?” Silverstream anxiously clutched the book a bit tighter to her chest. Suddenly, Dash had an epiphany. Silverstream and Gallus’ idea might just be what she needed. True, it would be bad for Rainbow Dash to show up without her three recruits but how much better would it look if she came with exchange students who wanted to learn about the Wonderbolts? They were flyers, too, after all. It was a longshot at best, but she was out of time and had to try anything. Dash’s expression brightened a bit.
“You two really sure you want to go? You’re not going to be bored by it?” Dash wanted to make sure before she got her hopes up too high. Silverstream nodded enthusiastically.
“Oh, absolutely! I would love the chance to see it for myself! So many flying ponies in one place at one time; how awesome is that!” She was practically falling all over her wings with eagerness. Dash turned to look at Gallus, trying to gauge his reasoning for going.
“Meh, given the choice between going back home and dealing with my family, staying here at the school and waiting for classes to start again, or visiting Cloudsdale to watch the Wonderbolt tryouts, it’s a no-brainer. Seeing Cloudsdale for the first time is way cooler!” Gallus stated most definitely. Dash felt her hopes rise yet a little more.
“Okay, then the two of you come with me.” Dash had the two of them follow her to Headmare Twilight’s office just down the hallway. The door was ajar and Dash could hear Twilight and Spike talking inside. She faced the students once more. “Wait here,” she instructed. Dash turned back to the door and gently knocked. Twilight’s welcoming voice came from the opposite side.
“Come in.”
Taking a deep breath, Dash stepped into Twilight’s office. Awaiting her were the various neat stacks of papers and forms placed on every flat surface available to use, awaiting Twilight’s magic touch for collating them into order. Twilight looked up from her work, seeing her friend looking rather nervously about the room with a rather sheepish expression on her face.
“What’s up, Dash? Something I can help you with?” Twilight smiled pleasantly as she waited for Dash to speak.
“Yeah, uh, there’s something I, uh, wanted to ask you.” Dash couldn’t hide her nervousness; everything depended on Twilight saying ‘yes’ to her idea.
“Okay, what is it?” Twilight didn’t understand Dash’s hemming and hawing, she was usually the most outspoken and upfront teacher in the school. Finally, Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“I was thinking this morning that maybe this spring break I could, you know, maybe take Silverstream and Gallus along with me to the Wonderbolt tryouts. I mean, not to try out or anything but to see for themselves what it’s like to go through the tryouts and learn more about it.” Nervously, Dash rubbed the back of her head with a forehoof and bit her lower lip, waiting for Twilight’s answer. But Twilight was no fool, she knew what Dash was up to.
“Rainbow Dash,” Headmare Twilight sighed a little in exasperation, slipping into her flat, explanatory ‘headmare’s voice’. “You know perfectly well that I am in no position to simply ‘loan out’ students from the school to a teacher, even if she is a Wonderbolt. I’m aware of what Commander Spitfire assigned you to do at your meeting with her during Winter Wrap-Up. You were supposed to have a number of potential recruits ready for the tryouts this spring, remember? I did proofread your proposal, you know.”
“I didn’t have time to, Twilight! Two of my recruits called out sick the day before yesterday and I was busy with all that extra teaching stuff this semester. It ate up all my free time.” Dash tried to make excuses but Twilight wasn’t having it.
“Well, maybe you would’ve had more time if you weren’t so busy competing against Apple Jack to win the Teacher of the Month award by doing all that ‘extra teaching stuff'.” Twilight continued with her paperwork unabated. Dash tried a different approach to solving her quandary.
“It’s not like you’d be ‘loaning’ them out. This could be the thing you were asking me and Rarity and the rest of us about; attempting a cultural exchange between species of Equestria. You were telling us how even Princess Celestia thought it was a good idea. Why wouldn’t this be a good time?” Dash tried appealing to Twilight’s logical side, showing her friend there here was the opportunity she had been waiting for. Didn’t this count as such an opportunity? Twilight was quick to counter Dash’s stance.
“That’s not my point. There are rules to field trips abroad for students; getting permission slips signed, getting approval from the Equestrian Educational Administration on the trip itself and to where, assigning chaperones for the trip…” Twilight went on and on about the rules and regulations that they, as teachers, had to follow. Dash didn’t have any more time for rules, regulations and doing things ‘by the book’. She had an emergency right now. This was all just noise in her ears.
Dash groaned in mounting frustration and desperation. “Oh-h-h-h! Twil-i-i-i-ight! Why are you being such an egghead about it? C’mon! Help me out here. Please? Do you want to see me down on my knees, begging for help?” Twilight didn’t look up from her desk, returning to stamping each page with the rubber stamp that bore her insignia. Dash grew more desperate, the precious seconds slipping away as zero-hour approached.
“Look, I’ll even swear by the ‘Pinkie Pie Promise’ that I won’t let anything happen to either of them while under my watch, okay? I wasn’t going to make Silverstream or Gallus participate in the tryouts; I just don’t want to show up with fewer recruits than the other team members.” Dash’s confession did help her case a little as Twilight’s heart did go out to her friend. No pony wanted to look bad in front of their friends or their commanding officer. Twilight looked up once more and paused from her work to shoot Rainbow Dash a wary eye.
“You promise to make sure nothing happens to either of them?” Twilight knew this was a big deal for the two students to visit the historic home of pegasi and a first time solo chaperone duty for Dash. But this was an awful lot of responsibility for one teacher. Dash’s attention was going to be split between her duties as a teacher and that as a member of the Wonderbolts. Twilight worried how Dash was ever going to be able to do that successfully.
Rainbow Dash recited the promise earnestly. “Cross my heart, never to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.” She made the motions of crossing her heart and covering one eye with a forehoof.
Twilight gave in with a sigh in the face of Dash’s utter desperation. “Alright Rainbow Dash, I guess I can make an exception this one time.” The Headmare rolled her eyes, wondering to herself if this was such a good idea. But Rainbow Dash was one of her chosen teachers here at the School of Friendship and she felt it was her duty to support such an endeavor. “To be sure, I want to ask both Silverstream and Gallus if they really do want to go or if you’ve somehow tricked them into going with you.” Instantly, Dash’s expression brightened.
The two students were waiting out in the hall when the Headmare came out of her office and walked right over to them.
“Silverstream, Gallus, Professor Dash tells me you both wish to visit Cloudsdale and see the Wonderbolt tryouts during spring break with her. Is this true?”
“Oh absolutely Headmare Twilight! I’ve done so much reading about the Wonderbolts and their history! I can’t imagine what a whole city of pegasus ponies floating in an enormous cloud looks like up close! It’s going to be so amazing!” Silverstream gushed, proudly displaying her book.
“Meh, I’m not in the mood to deal with being back in Griffonstone. Cloudsdale sounds like a much cooler way to spend the break.” The griffon seemed rather nonchalant about it, but certainly wasn’t objecting to going. Rainbow Dash’s cheesy grin grew, hearing them say exactly what was needed to convince Twilight.
Twilight glanced between the two of them, unable to discern any trace of coaxing or trickery on Dash’s part. “Well, if you want to go and to give it at least some semblance of a ‘school trip’, instead of you two having to do the reading assignment I had in mind for the students over break, I would like both of you to write a report about your experiences visiting Cloudsdale.”
“Wow! Another personal assignment from Headmare Twilight! Could this break get any better?” Silverstream seemed over the moon at this request.
“Yeah, great. A longer, more involved homework assignment to do.” Gallus groused a little, but his eye-roll was clearly more habitual then displeased.
Twilight turned to face Rainbow Dash, the pegasus pony now just as cool and collected as she had been hysterical before. “Alright Professor Dash, you’re in charge. I hope you know what you’re doing.” The warning came through loud and clear.
“I got this, Headmare Twilight. These two are in good hooves with me!” Dash was so relieved, she could almost scream. She whipped her head around, looking at her new flying companions for this trip. “How fast can you two get packed up to go?”
“Uh, how much time do we have?” Gallus was not sure what and how much to bring with him. Having never been to the famed floating city he wasn’t sure what attire would be appropriate. Dash darted in and out of Twilight’s office to take a quick look at the clock on her bookcase.
“You got twenty minutes before we absolutely have to get flying if we intend to get there in time.” Not a very big window of time, but enough to pack up some essentials and get back if they hurried.
“We’ll be back in ten!” Silverstream grabbed Gallus by his foreleg and took off into the air, practically pulling Gallus’ limb out its socket in the process of trying to get back to their dorm room as quickly as possible.
“Hey, what the-? Ow! Take it easy, Silverstream!” Gallus yelped as he was being pulled along behind the hippogriff.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you! You are so unbelievably awesome! I won’t let you down! I promise!” Dash delivered a bone-crushing hug of thanks to Twilight before she took off in a flash to collect a few things. Twilight barely had enough time to catch her breath from the hug and turn to face her office door when Rainbow Dash went flying back past her at blazing speed.
“Bye, Twilight! Thanks again! You won’t be sorry!” And with that, Rainbow Dash was out the door and heading back off to her cloudminium to pack. Twilight couldn’t shake that little nagging feeling in the back of her mind about agreeing to this. This wasn’t some friendship lesson daytrip where they’d be back at the school before sundown. They would be gone several days. This was a lot of responsibility for her friend to take on. Twilight tried to quiet the fear.
“I hope not, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight spoke into the empty air.