The next few classes seemed to lag on for Rainbow Dash. She tried her best to keep her head up and pay attention to Ms. Moonbeam, but with all of the thoughts of her new friends racing around in her head, she always seemed to zone out and only hear little bits of what the mare was saying.
After what seemed like eternity, Dash finally snapped back to reality just in time to hear Ms. Moonbeam say, "Well fillies, we've been working hard today, haven't we? I think it's about time for recess!"
After those very words, all of the fillies cheered in delight and then proceeded to zoom straight out of the classroom windows, and up into the beautiful blue sky. "If only they were this eager in class." Ms. Moonbeam thought to herself.
"Freedom! Dash thought to herself as she soared through the great open sky. She felt the great sensation that flying always brought her, the wind flowing through her mane, the air underneath her feathered wings, and the warm sun beating down on her entire body. "This is how life is meant to be spent." she thought to herself once more.
She stopped her flying for a moment to look around and notice the rest of the ponies, who were also busy speeding around the skies. All of the fillies were flying around doing barrel rolls, backflips and nose dives, playing tag games and racing, and overall just enjoying themselves.
In the crowds though, she also noticed Gilda and Derpy, who were merely flying in place with worried looks on their faces. She zipped over beside Gilda and said "What's wrong with you two, you guys look worried?"
"It's Fluttershy," Gilda responded, shaking her head, "She's too scared to come out and fly in front of other ponies."
"What? That's ridiculous! Don't worry, I'll talk to her and get her out here in no time!" Dash said confidently.
"Alright, just be gentle with her. She's really shy and we don't want her to have another meltdown like before." Gilda replied cautiously.
"Oh, I'll be gentle alright!" Dash said dangerously as she zoomed off to the window where Fluttershy was looking through.
"This isn't going to end well..." Gilda said to herself, shaking her head once more.
Rainbow zig-zagged around the scattered groups of ponies until she came to the window where a certain yellow pegasus was sitting.
"Hey Fluttershy, come out and fly like the rest of us! The stupid weather ponies haven't made it this nice outside in months!" Dash yelled to Fluttershy.
"Oh, um, no thanks Rainbow Dash. I, um, I.......pulled my leg!" Fluttershy said sheepishly, "Yeah, that's it, uh, ow ow, this hurts a lot. I better stay on the ground for a while and uh, p-protect this window."
"No way, Jose! You're flying whether you like it or not!" Dash immediately jumped out and grabbed Fluttershy, attempting to pull her out of the window.
"NO! RAINBOW DASH, PLEASE STOP! LET GO! I CAN'T FLY WITH EVERYPONY LOOKING AT ME!" Fluttershy screamed, as she tried her hardest to free herself from Dash's grasp.
"This is the first time that I've ever heard Fluttershy raise her voice before," Rainbow thought to herself, "But I can't let her just sit here, she needs to get over this fear.
"Fluttershy (rrrrrrgg)! Nopony (rrrrrrrgg), is going to judge you (rrrrrrgg)! Dash said while continuing to pull on the resisting pegasus.
"Dashie you don't understand! I can't fly in front of other ponies, I simply can't! Not even in front of my own parents!" the yellow filly pleaded, as she could feel the last of her strength draining.
"Well you're going to start, right, NOW!" Dash said. Right then, she managed to yank the frightened pony out of the window. Unfortunately for her though, the yellow filly tightly grasped the cyan pegasus by the waist, and refused to budge.
"Pleaseputmedownpleaseputmedownpleaseputmedownpleaseputmedown!" Fluttershy squeaked, covering her eyes in fear.
"Fluttershy, you need to learn to-" Rainbow Dash began, but stopped when she heard horribly familiar snickering coming from behind her. Dash spun around, still with Fluttershy holding on to her tightly, to see the same three group of colts from before.
"Wow. Just wow. You losers have managed to surprise me with your dorkyness, but this? Now this is just plain pathetic! A pegasus who can't even fly? That's the most sad thing that I've ever seen!" the tall one snickered. Dash remembered Ms. Moonbeam calling him Hoops.
Dash turned her head to Fluttershy, who looked like she was on the verge of another breakdown. She was sniffiling, tears were forming around her eyes, and her bottom lip was trembling dangerously. Rainbow had had just about enough of these bullies.
"Why can't you jerks just leave us alone!" Dash turned back to him and said hotly.
"Why don't you make us?" Hoops replied, flying a bit closer to Rainbow. "If you're so tough, how 'bout you prove it? How about you fight me and show everybody just how tough you really are?" he said a bit louder, still inching forwards closer to Rainbow Dash.
"This is bad," Dash thought to herself, "I'll get my flank hoofed to me if I try to fight him. There has to be a way out of this. Then, Dash suddenly remembered Fluttershy's excuse. "It's worth a shot." Rainbow thought to herself.
"Yeah, well, I would fight you but pulled my kicking leg. It wouldn't be a fair fight, right?" she said sheepishly.
"That's a load of baloney! You're just to chicken to fight me, aren't you?" the colt taunted.
Those words hung in the air for what seemed like hours.
Dash could deal with the teasing, but nopony, NOPONY called her a chicken. Dash was right about to tackle Hoops and clobber him with her hooves, when a brilliant idea popped into her mind.
"How about a race?" Dash said cooly, showing no signs of her previous animosity what so ever.
"A race, eh?" the colt pondered, raising his eyebrow, "Heh, you may be on to something rainbow head. Alright, you're on!" the colt said confidently.
Dash looked up and thought to herself, "Thank Celestia, that was close!"
She looked back up at Hoops and thought, "I'm not out of the woods yet though."