The Truth About Girls (Vol. 3)

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

The Most Stupid (Yet Useful) Bet Ever! (part 3)

This new week of reviews had been different from the last one. Instead of wasting time trying to write down boring flash cards, or worse, of reading them out loud for hours, Rainbow Dash had spent more time than she ever did since her mother’s death, circulating into her house.

The cleaning lady was very surprised to see all these Post-its stuck everywhere possible, but after some time complaining it didn’t help her much to dust things properly, she finally got used to it.

To be honest, Rainbow Dash herself wasn’t convinced that on D-day, Soarin’s peculiar method would actually work. But anyway, she had bet everything on it, aware that the rest didn’t work any better. Twilight even told her that, though she never experienced it herself, this way to do was known as efficient.

All she hoped now was that it really was the case.

Nonetheless, she was rather self-confident this morning, going through the school’s corridor in order to go to her first exam, starting with her favorite topics of all – mathematics. It would be the real test, the one setting the tone of the rest of the two forthcoming days… If she made a success of this one, then what would come next would probably be a walk in the park.

Though their bet happened in the secrecy of the sickroom, it occurred that, in a way none could really grasp, all CHS had slowly got to know about that. Quickly, three clans had shaped: neutrals, those rooting for Rainbow Dash, and those rooting for Gilda, composed, a few exceptions apart, of the most disturbing elements of school.

When the two main clans met in the corridor, each behind their chosen victor, those who didn’t take part in this “competition” were expecting things to go awry. But because she was even more self-confident than Rainbow Dash could be – yes, it existed – Gilda decided not to display her superiority right away, and to act a bit sportsmanlike.

She stopped in front of her rival, and stretched out her hand with a mischievous smirk.

“May the best girl win!” she told her, as if spitting in her face.

“Look no further… It’s going to be me!” Rainbow Dash answered, crushing her phalanxes.

A demonstration of power that Gilda didn’t really appreciate, since she had restrained herself in order to give her at least one chance. She could have reviewed as much as she wanted… She had an encyclopedic knowledge at hand in her pocket of her uniform’s skirt. She couldn’t compete with that.

In order to show her who the real boss was, Gilda pulled the young woman’s arm towards her, her golden eyes suddenly toughened by the insult.

“I’m going to crush you, Rainbow Dash”, she mocked in her ears. “You won’t even understand what’s happening to you!”

Frowning, Rainbow Dash pulled out her hands, unceremoniously and easily. Even her knew working was always more rewarded than laziness. Yet, lazing was one of her favorite pastime.

“We’ll see that.”

She restrained herself from kicking her in the shins, since it wasn’t a very sportsmanship attitude, then went through the rest of the corridor up to her room.

Quickly, “clans” scattered and each and everyone got into their classrooms in order to get prepared for the baptism of fire. It wasn’t by chance if students always had to take mathematics as their first exam. This way, teachers were quickly able to evaluate the students’ level. If this test was a catastrophe, then there were chances the rest wouldn’t get any better.

Papers were distributed and silence was demanded. Anxiety argued with apparent laidback attitudes, but it was easy to guess that no one was really feeling at ease. Except maybe Twilight, and Gilda, of course, who had planned her little trick.

When she discovered the topic, and most importantly when she started to try to remember the formulas she had so much problems remembering, Rainbow Dash was surprised of how easy to was for her to recall them all.

Sciences were on the first floor, and mathematics were in her father’s office. Mentally walking through the room, she could find back anything she wanted. As far as sheer calculations were concerned, on the other hand, she could only rely on her own abilities. But then again, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that, once the formula in mind, it wasn’t as complicated and boring as she always thought.

And it went along the same way during the rest of the day. At the end of each session, she was feeling rather good and felt as if she hadn’t written too many nonsenses. Soarin’s Memory Palace, though she had her doubts at first, happened to really be the learning method that fit her best, and she would never thank enough the circumstances which had led her to ask her boyfriend to spend the night with her.

Things were a little bit more complex for Gilda. Of course, she could find back the formulas easily thanks to her phone, but it was difficult to stay discreet with the teachers going between the rows of tables, which they never did during traditional written tests.

In fact, the more the tests went around; the more her face seemed to be about to crumble down, despite her chin up and her behavior which looked like trying to defy any kind of institutions of power. Some were maybe trapped by her over-the-top self-confidence, but not Rainbow Dash. She knew that she lacked assertiveness under her condescending attitude. She knew it since she also hid behind her huge ego each time she was feeling in difficulty.

Morning of the second day. History test. Second floor of the Memory Palace. Her bathroom. Easy as pie.

Rainbow Dash would never have thought she could feel so at ease during exams. It wasn’t something that she usually liked that much, yet, today just like the previous day, she was feeling good. Especially as she’d always been rather good at essays, although this specialty had surprised a lot of persons, herself included.

Everybody was focused when a background noise resounded from a nearby class. At first it was a bit difficult to identify. It sounded like whispers, but only not whispered… It was a restless discussion, anyway. And soon, this background noise increased, turned into screams, sounds of a creaking chair, of tables being thrown.

Students had all looked up from their essays and looked at each other, puzzled. The gang’s class was no exception.

Supervised by Vice-Principal Luna herself, she ordered them to keep quiet when someone knock on the room’s door, and asked her to come as soon as possible at Room 23.

Of course, it didn’t take long before, as soon as she was behind the door, they all dashed on the threshold in order to have a glimpse at what was going on.

It didn’t take any longer before they heard louder screams, while two of the sports teacher, known for being built like football players, were escorting a restless white-haired teenage girl, berating everyone.

Seeing her pass her by without noticing her, Rainbow Dash couldn’t hide an ironic smirk. She threw a glimpse at Applejack behind her, and her eyes also caught the other’s. They all understood.

It was Gilda, and obviously, she had been caught in the act of cheating, and hadn’t liked much what happened next.

This settled the matter of the bet, won by default. Rainbow Dash’s final grade wouldn’t matter since her rival of the day hadn’t been smart enough to understand how dangerous was the game she played, in the sense that it could ruin her future, or in the least slow down its progresses.

In a way, Rainbow Dash could learn a lesson from that as well. Studies weren’t that different from sports. Everything was a question of strategy. The more thoughtful they were, adapted to the skills of the one practicing it, the better they worked. And lack of sportsmanship, cheating, always led the person giving in to it to its loss, since it would never go unpunished.

--------------------------------------------

This feared period was finally over! Although it was a new leaf from High School years which had been turned, it was restful to think there would be no pressures such as this one until the next semester would begin.

Though the various sports club still had competitions to play…

But as far as their future was concerned, it seemed like things no longer were theirs to decide. From now to soon, they would receive their answers from their chosen universities, and after the exams’ result in a few weeks, their Prom Ball would mark the definite end of their CHS years.

Yet none of them wanted to think about this now. All that mattered to them was that they were done with reviews and tests, and they finally could chill out a bit.

On the whole, things hadn’t been so bad for them. They all had topics in which they were feeling more at ease and confident, and others where they had their weaknesses, which didn’t stop the general impression to be good.

Because Pinkie Pie had to help Mrs. Cake in something like an hour, for the baking of an engagement cake, they had decided not to depart from the rule and to celebrate the end of the exam period at Sugarcube Corner.

Exceptionally, because it was an event in itself, even those who watched what they ate closely let themselves go to a bit more of gluttony.

The ice cream Rainbow Dash had chosen was overflowing with whipped cream, and even both contrite voices of her nutritionist and gastroenterologist couldn’t dissuade her to plunge her spoon into it with delight. No doubt, this was the best thing on Earth! Along with winning a bet.

“Girls… There’s something I need to tell you”, Twilight suddenly claimed, in the middle of conversations about this or that topic, or specific questions about one test in particular.

“Gasp, you’re moving far, far, far, far, far and soon, we’ll never see you AGAIN!! Am I right?” Pinkie Pie immediately yelled.

“Surely it ain’t this, Pinkie”, Applejack went on.

“And why not? That’s the kind of things that happens, like, all the time.”

“Maybe that would be a good idea to let Twilight speak, don’t you think so?” Sunset Shimmer tempered.

Twilight smiled at her, once again glad to have her by her side. When she first met her, she would never think the young woman and her would become so close, or that they had so much in common. It even was incredible for her to think it existed someone on Earth whom she was so in phase with.

Even with Flash Sentry, that she kept on dating from time to time to go to the movies or have a drink, she wasn’t feeling that good, or on the exact same wavelength.

Thanks to her, she didn’t have to try to focus the conversation back on the essential, like it usually was the way once you let her bunch of friends bounce back and forth at each new sentences.

“It’s nothing grave. The opposite. I’ve taken a decision. It’s not dramatic if I’m not number one of the ranking. Neither it is for Trixie to beat me.”

Silent until then, taken into the tasting of her succulent ice cream, Rainbow Dash let her long spoon fall into the bowl, with a shocked face. For someone like her, who liked being the best and winning competitions so much, it wasn’t something easy to hear.

“How can you say such a thing? You’ve always been number one! You’re the smartest person of CHS!”

“Maybe, maybe not”, Twilight answered with a shrug. “I don’t care. I’ve given everything I had inside, I’ve done my very best and I think that’s what’s the most important. If it isn’t enough to get that Royal Scholarship, then too bad! I’ll study Astrophysics at Canterlot University with or without it.”

“We’ll be in the same building”, Fluttershy softly said. “Life and Traditional Sciences are gathered together.”

“No one’ll be with me at the Business and Management Department? I’m gonna feel as lonely as a forgotten apple after apple buckin’ season.”

“I’ve asked to be taken for the Communication Department… That’s what you need to plan parties as a professional.”

“Oh, so you finally made up your mind, Pinkie?”

She nodded enthusiastically. Her decision shocked no one, but the young woman had wavered a lot about her future, since she also really liked baking and had thought about not going to University at all but to do an apprenticeship instead in order to make it her job for good.

The only one who didn’t know yet what course choice to make, though her father harassed her to choose Business and Management, in order to take the head of the Airline Company once he’d retire, was Rainbow Dash. It had not been a month yet since she had started to think beyond the merit scholarship in sports she absolutely wanted to get. She had only postulated to many different specialties. Canterlot University’s administration had specified her she had to choose before the end of the school year.

This choice was difficult to make because she knew it would be definite. And the rest of her life was at stakes. So, between Psychology, Gender Studies, Criminology or even Audiovisual Medias, she couldn’t decide.

“What about you, Dashie? Do you know what to choose, now?”

She shook her head no, before smiling reassuringly to them.

“But don’t worry about me. I’ll come to a decision. It’s something I do a lot, lately… It’s like this bet with Gilda…”

“What a decision, gee!” Applejack claim. “More idiot, there ain’t…”

“This bet was just an excuse, in fact. I’ve realized Mommy would’ve been mad to see I couldn’t envision anything for my future. She’d done everything to reach her goals and she always told me to shoot for the stars. So, I made a promise to myself to think about my future and to do my best to be successful.”

“Why didn’t you tell us anything?” Sunset Shimmer questioned.

“Bah! Because it was way much funnier if you thought I did it all for a stupid reason!”

Arms crossed, Pinkie Pie nodded, and after her, the rest of the group finally burst out laughing. It was just like Rainbow Dash. Too proud to show that her motivations came from the bottom of her heart. Now they all were convinced that she would never change, despite all the efforts she had done in order to show her hidden sensitivity a little more.

And it wasn’t a bad thing, in a way. A lot of changes would happen with the year to come, in University. It was comfortable to know there were always places, attitudes which, despite it all, wouldn’t change, where each of them could nestled during doubts and powerful jolts along their path in life.

Author's Note:

Well, that's all! Maybe that isn't what you expected... I'm sorry

What do you think Dashie should choose?

And... Next arc will be very sports centered!

Comments

[Midday Giggle]

Around 5:40 p.m.

Well, that happened. Remember kids: cheating is bad And as always, Soarin was right and had an awesome idea!

I found somethings amazing in this arc's part two: In Soarin's note for Dash when she wakes up, he told her that if she was a bird, then she was a Phoenix. The thing is, the Phoenix is reborn of it's ashes, glorious and beautiful, just like lotus come out the mud after the rain as one of the loveliest flowers there are. This description fits TTAG Dash very well, because after her mother's death, she broke down and became nothing but ashes. But she eventually reborn too, beautiful and wiser, and managed to, little by little, leave her ashes (the broken girl who tried to kill herself) behind and became a glorious being, exactly like the Phoenix.

Very powerful, Ni. Well done

(As for Dash's career, you know why I say Criminology ).

[Dusk_Writer]

Aha! Gilda getting caught was so satisfying

[Bellwing]

I love your story.

[TheMareWhoSaysNi]

8729603
Thanks