"Does everyone have their permission slips? Make sure to turn them in before you get onto the airship, please."
The whole class gave some sort of noise for agreement as they all stood around the docks to the airship, with Dash's being more of a groan than anything actually excited.
This was the most pointless field trip ever in the history of field trips. She already knew the castle left right and sideways at this point, and worst yet, they wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere actually interesting. Yeah, they would see the High Princess afterward, but she also saw her every other day anyway, and Twilight, even if she wasn't being kept out of the eye of the public after the "incident" a month ago, would be doing her own studies and stuff.
Heck, the only reason she even signed up for the stupid thing was to get out of class. Anything, even wandering the boring parts of the castle, was better than listening to the history of the mighty cloud condenser. At least at the castle she'll get to move around and not do tests or some junk.
"Alright, everypony in, and give your slips to Mr. Rockslate."
The crowd of ponies did as they were told, even Dash, and they slowly wandered into the airship. Her entire class was talking like a bunch of little fillies and colts, all excited to see the wonders and sights of the castle. All the halls and the thrones and the paintings. But as pretty as the castle was, none of it was Twilight.
Erm, not like that.
Eh, didn't matter anymore. Maybe like that. So, Dash moved blandly forward, and chose a seat near the back. Hopefully she'd be able to sit in silence and be bored in peace.
“Oh, um... do you mind if I... sit with you?”
Figured. She couldn't even be grumpy in the back seat without someone giving her crap. Dash looked over and- Oh, it was just Fluttershy. Dash looked the girl over, as well as for remaining seats, but it seemed that they all were taken. Well, at least she could still sit in silence.
“Oh, hey Shy. Yeah, sure.”
Dash scooted over toward the window to let her classmate sit, and Fluttershy did a Fluttershy and sat down like she was trying to disarm a land mine with her butt. But after a moment of watching the shy one squirm and shuffle, Dash returned to being bored, and just looked back out the window.
No Twilight, no cool parts of the castle, no adventure. She was calling it now; total snooze-fest.
"So, uh... you've been to the castle before, right?"
Dash just nodded again, barely even listening to Fluttershy's question. Yeah yeah, she went to the castle tons of times. No, she wasn't a liar, and no, she wasn't crazy. Yeah, she really was Twilight's best friend, no, she wasn't a huge attention hog that made up stuff to make herself sound cooler. She was cool enough as it was; she didn't need to lie about Twilight to make herself cooler.
"Um... Is it... scary?"
It took a bit for Dash to really understand the words. Huh, that wasn't the normal question. But, then again, this was Fluttershy. The girl had about as much backbone as the the bugs she was kinda/sorta named after.
"Uh, not really. I mean, yeah, some of the guards can be a bit grumpy I guess, but it's not a really scary place."
Except maybe for the Princess, but that might just be her. She was Twilight's best friend, after all; she got that fun privilege of getting the Princess of overprotectiveness on her flank.
"Oh. That's a relief."
Dash bet it was. Poor girl was probably gonna have a heart attack one of these days with how terrifying everything was to her.
"So... um... do they have any cute animals in the gardens?"
Dash paused a bit at the question. Animals, huh? Dash never really thought about it, but the castle did have massive gardens. And there were some animals, many of which Dash and Twilight had... tangled with in the past.
More Twilight than Dash. The Alicorn had no danger sense.
"Oh yeah. There's some rabbits and squirrels, they really don't like it when you steal their nuts, especially when you don't even eat them. And then, there's some song birds. They're kinda cool, I guess, and they sing really pretty- They're nighten-whatits. There's also some ducks and gooses-"
"Geese."
"Yeah yeah, Geese, whatever. And there's a couple of... those weird tall two legged birds... Ostriches? And A flamingo."
She hated that Flamingo. Everypony hated that Flamingo, and that Flamingo hated everypony. It only seemed to like Cadence, and Dash suspected it was because she was just as pink as the bird was.
"There's also some mice and other tiny things, and a whole family of raccoons, but I think they're not actually supposed to be there. Oh! There are also some possums, a bear, and a cave full of bats. Like... lots of bats. Don't go into the batcave, Shy."
At her words, Fluttershy seemed to get a bit excited, and stopped looking like she was about to pass out from being a total wimp.
"There's a ton more, but I don't actually know what most of them are called."
"I hope we get to see the gardens. That sounds wonderful."
It kinda did, actually. Sure, maybe she wouldn't be able to see Twilight, but even with that, maybe this field trip wouldn't be so bad.
"Aw, come on Trash, what are you filling poor flutterbutter's head with?"
Or maybe not. At the voice, Dash sighed and looked to the seat ahead of her, meeting the eyes of what had to be the world's biggest pain in the flank as he leaned on the back of his seat and tried his hardest to look smooth and crap. Heck, a couple of his friends were looking back too, all acting like a bunch of hype-ponies.
"Oh, shut up Thunder. Go stick your head in a cumulonimbus."
Thunder-flight just rolled his eyes with all the sleaze a pony like him could muster and a couple of the groupies or whatever they were called did the same. It was a surprise the guy could even sit in a chair without sliding out, with how slimy the guy was.
"Yeah yeah. Everyone knows you're all talk, Dash. You're just a little filly afraid of not being the coolest."
Thunder flight, who was a punch-able pony normally, looked especially punch-able today. But, even if he was the most punch-able pony in Equestria, she wasn't gonna take the bait. He was just a whiny baby who would tattle the second that he got into a fight anyway. All words and no fight, even when he had six ponies at his back.
"There's no way in Equestria that you're friends with the Princess."
He doesn't matter. Really, he doesn't. She totally wasn't gonna punch his lights out and she definitely wasn't gonna get it banned from the castle again or get in trouble at school. The idiot was all talk, anyway. So, she just continued staring at the huge jerk, waiting for him to say more, or maybe finally be the one to throw a punch so she could hit him back without getting in extra trouble.
She really hoped he tried to hit her. She really wanted to punch him so much.
But no, he just stared for a couple of seconds before finally wussing out.
"Pssh, I figured you were a wimp."
And with that, the Punch-able one looked back forward and the hype ponies stopped paying attention, and Dash let out a sigh. Thank the moon; she was just about to punch him in the snoot.
"Um... I believe you, Dash."
Dash smiled a little at that. Yeah, Shy probably did.
"Alright, single file, everyone off the airship. We have a lot to see and not much time, so we have to hurry!"
The crowd slowly kinda pushed and shoved their way out of the airship, the teachers keeping everypony in a line as they left, and Dash found herself looking at a very familiar sight; the front gates of the castle.
How many times had she gone through them? How many times had she been shoved out of them? How many times had she tried, unsuccessfully, to sneak Twilight through them?
Way too many times to bother even trying to count. Dozens, maybe even hundreds.
But anyway, it was a nice sight. It looked like home.
"Alright, everypony gather up! The guide will be here any second, and we have to make sure that everyone is here and accounted for!"
Dash followed the instructions begrudgingly, gathering into the pile of ponies and standing beside Fluttershy on the outskirts as the teachers went through and made a head count to make sure that everyone had made it out of the airship and that no one didn't randomly fly off. But there was nothing nearly that interesting, as after a minute, everyone was accounted for and the tour guide arrived.
He looked very familiar. Too familiar.
Oh Luna, why?
"Hello, everypony. I am Mr. Le' Snoot, and I will be your tour guide for the day. Please, follow me."