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// Chapter 5: Gilda 
// Story: Dash 
// by Everythingpossible 
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Junior Speedsters are our lives,
Sky-bound soars and daring dives
Junior Speedsters, it's our quest,
To some day be the very best!

In some ways, life at her new school was exactly as Rainbow Dash had expected it, and in a lot of ways, it wasn’t. She certainly didn’t expect having a griffon as a roommate. Prior to that day, she had never even seen one, outside of the occasional  picture in the Cloudsdale Herald. Relations between griffons and ponies weren’t exactly cordial, so not many lived in Equestria. Gilda was the only one of her kind at the school. Rainbow Dash could definitely empathize with her. Another thing she didn’t expect was the work. She had figured that at a place like this, the academic load would be lighter as they put a focus on flying. She was wrong. Her classes here were much harder than they had been at public school. Not only was she expected to take the normal classes like she did before, she also now had Flight Theory, Early Equestrian History, and Meteorology. 
“Now then.....” Professor Nimbus had a voice that was like frozen molasses. “If everypony will get out their copy of Classifying Clouds,” the class gave a group sigh as they heaved the tremendous tome from their bags, “can anypony tell me what the average altitude of a stratoculumus cloud is?” He stared around the room with a dumbstruck expression. The class looked around awkwardly. Rainbow Dash adjusted the violet scarf around her neck. “Well,” he said, as if everypony in the room was hanging on the edge of their seats, “As the renowned unicorn meteorologist Windvale the Wise calculated, the average altitude of a stratocumulus cloud is about...” Rainbow Dash’s head slowly lolled to the side until she was looking straight out the window. The fourth-years were practicing flight manoeuvres. What she wouldn’t give to be out there. Professor Nimbus’ lecture sounded like the most unpleasant sound a bagpipe could make. He was now writing the names of several terribly disinteresting cloud types on the blackboard. She sighed. Several ponies drooled over their notes. She looked around the room again. An off-white stallion with a blazing orange mane was looking at her, giving a suggestive smile. She blushed, and turned back around. A paper airplane had landed on Rainbow’s desk. She looked around. A pearl-headed griffon was winking at her from across the room. Gilda was a year ahead of Rainbow Dash, but she had failed the class last year. The teacher was still babbling on about precipitation. She unfolded it. 

Who’s the handsome colt?

She looked back to the pegasus. He had temporarily switched focus to his notes, but gave her a wink with one saffron eye when he saw her. She quickly grabbed a quill with her mouth, and scribbled as best she could:

I don’t know. 

Her writing wasn’t as good as Gilda’s neat cursive, but it was excusable due to her lack of opposable thumbs. She balanced the plane in her hoof, aimed, and....

"I hope I’m not interfering with your playtime, Rainbow Dash."

She turned around, terror in her eyes. Professor Nimbus was giving her the eye through his thick spectacles. The ponies in the rows in front of her had turned around in curiosity. She blushed. “I would like you to stay after class.” He turned around and continued to drone on about humidity at high altitudes.
When the rest of the class had left, Gilda walked out the door, trying to avoid eye contact with Rainbow Dash. The colt, however, gave her another wink. Professor Nimbus strolled slowly to her desk. She tried to disappear below her desk. It didn’t work. 
“Just because you’ve been sent here by the Princess doesn’t mean that you can slack off in all of your classes, Rainbow Dash.” He adjusted his glasses. “I expect to see a five hundred page essay on this chapter on my desk, at the beginning of class tomorrow. Am I understood?” Rainbow Dash gave a sullen nod. “Good. You’re smart enough to succeed, you just need to put in the effort.” 
As she slammed the door behind her with an audible sigh, Gilda was waiting in the hallway. 
“Got some extra homework, did ya, ya little punk? That’ll teach you for passing notes in class” she said in a heavily facetious voice. She laughed. Rainbow angrily blew a thicket of scarlet-and-tangerine hair out of her eyes. 
“Let’s just get to our next class, OK?” She said, head held low. 
“Hey, relax kid. Professor Nimrod’s given me lots of extra homework over the years. You’ll be fine.” 
Rainbow Dash’s mood improved greatly upon learning that her next class was Flight Training. She and Gilda walked down the hall, talking about their classes, music, and whether the Fillydelphia Falcons would have a chance at beating the Baltimare Manticores in hoofball on saturday. Before they could even discuss the Manticores’ new lineup, though, Gilda turned to go to her Equestrian Literature class. Rainbow continued on, until the enchanted doors opened in front of her and she was bathed in warm, creamy midday sunlight. She took a second to breathe. Cool, thin air rushed into her lungs, and a contented smile escaped across her face. She spread her cerulean wings, and pushed off of the clouds and into the sky. She could’ve walked, but she’d been cooped up inside all day, and she was running a bit late. By the time she planted her hooves in front of the training ground, the rest of the class was already there. 
“Tardy again, little princess?” Coach Greywing had adopted this nickname for her since she started halfway through the year. Rainbow Dash didn’t care. As long as she could fly, she was happy. The assistant coach beside Greywing wrote on a small clipboard with a quill held in his mouth. “Well then” she said. “Now that her majesty is here, we’ll start off with some basic flight manoeuvres. Everypony, get in formation.” The pegasi dashed onto the ground, getting into a loose formation on the soft clouds. Rainbow Dash was near the centre. The white stallion that was looking at her in Meteorology was near the edge. A loud tweeeeeeeeet issued from the coach’s whistle, and they all pushed up into the sky. They started off with the basics, doing a few laps around the school, and the pack began to spread out. Rainbow Dash was in the front, and when she looked over to her left, the stallion was there, flying almost as fast as her. 
“Think you can keep up?” she said, wind rushing past her face. He said nothing, but gave a nod and rushed ahead of her. Grinning, Rainbow Dash accepted his challenge and bolted ahead in a spectrum of colour. The sensation was euphoric, the wind in her mane, the sensation of pure speed; she caught up with the white pegasus, overtook him, still accelerating....
Tweeeeeeeet!
Before she knew it, class ended. She landed just outside the track, kicking up a billow of water vapour, trying to catch her breath. The white colt was walking up to her, huffing and puffing. 
“Man....heh..... you....heh..... really know your stuff” he said, nearly wheezing. “
You.....huh..... too. Name’s Rainbow Dash” she said, also out of breath. 
“Funny, I thought it was ‘little princess’” she blushed. “I’m Fire Streak. Maybe we could, um, hang out later?” She blushed again. 
“Oh, uh, okay. Whenever, I guess. I- uh, gotta get to my next class, but I’ll see ya ‘round, okay?” 
“Yeah, that’s cool. See ya.”
Later that evening, the door to room 289 slammed with a solid THUNK. The walls of the room were completely covered, one half with Wonderbolts posters, the other, with posters of heavy metal bands such as Neighvana, Maretallica, and Judas Pony. The head of an eagle peered over the top half of the bunk bed to investigate the interruption. 
“Hey. Did’ja meet your special somepony?” Rainbow Dash looked up at her with a grievous frown, but then cracked a smile. 
“Ha, no. Like I’d ever fall for that romantic crap.” Gilda looked slightly disappointed. She turned her attention back to the electric bass in her ill-postured lap. Rainbow Dash pitched herself into the bottom bunk, and immediately fell asleep.
She and Fire Streak did eventually hang out. They got along well, sharing most of their classes, a general apathy for the rules, and a desire to become one of the few pegasi to join the glamourous ranks of the Wonderbolts. They practiced together, studied together, well, pretended to study together while they talked about flying, and even ate lunch together, much to the dismay of Gilda, who now refused to believe anything but Rainbow Dash and Fire Streak being marefriend and coltfriend, sneaking out behind the school between classes to make out. 
She continued at Junior Speedsters for three years, scraping by in academics, exceeding every expectation in flying, hanging out with Fire Streak, until it was finally the beginning of her last year. 
She walked into the main hall, retrieved the standard welcome packet, went to her dorm, which she would be sharing with a pony named Blossomforth, who had not yet arrived. She thrust her duffel bag onto the top bunk, when she heard the rustling of paper. Flying up to see what was amiss, she saw a letter on her bed.

It was from the Wonderbolts.