Direction

by 206-Ginge

Orientation

The small auditorium was packed with ponies standing in front of what appeared to be a stage. Gilda and Rainbow Dash were only barely able to squeeze in the back, despite the fact that there appeared to be no more than 100 pegasi in attendance. For such a large building, the room was rather small.

It had taken Gilda and Rainbow Dash a bit longer than they anticipated to get down to the room than they anticipated. They’d taken a few wrong turns, misread a few maps, and in general not been terribly efficient about the process. However, eventually they managed to find a large group to follow, and they successfully found the room in which orientation was scheduled to take place.

“I guess that this must be the place,” Rainbow Dash said to Gilda, speaking slightly louder than normal so her voice could stand out from the chatter of the others in the room. She slowly scanned the room to see if she could spot any of her friends from flight school.

“Either that or we’re all lost,” Gilda muttered.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking back at Gilda.

“This room seems awfully small,” Gilda remarked louder, choosing not to repeat herself. “Don’t you think they’d pick another room for the beginning of the camp?”

“Well, maybe. This could be the biggest room in the place.”

“Come on, Dash,” Gilda said, giving Rainbow Dash a disapproving glance. “You and I both saw that huge gymnasium on the way over here. They could’ve easily fit everyone in there.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash trailed off, still looking about the room. She didn’t seem terribly interested in the conversation.

Gilda sighed and occupied herself by looking at the various inspirational posters that hung on the walls of the room. A picture of Spitfire, the Wonderbolt captain, performing a complex stunt with the trademark electric smoke trail hung to her left. Stylistic text of the meaning of determination was about a foot away from that. On the opposite wall, a poster of the trademark silhouettes of the current Wonderbolts show team was captioned with the words “This could be YOU!” On the opposite side of a window, there was a copy of a painting of a pegasus overlooking a colorful sunset.

Gilda looked down at her claws, silently cursing the fact that she was the only griffin here.

Just then, a brown-maned cream pegasus stallion walked out to the center of the stage, to the stomping of the young crowd.

“Good afternoon, Junior Speedsters!” the pegasus shouted over the raucous tapping of hooves on the tiled floor. “Welcome to the first day of camp!”

The crowd cheered, obviously excited something was actually happening. Gilda stood fairly silently, while Rainbow Dash joined in the eagerness.

“I’m honored to have you all here, and I bet this graduating class of Junior Speedsters will be our best yet!” Now the adult pegasus was just reveling in the applause of the younger, overeager students. “My name is High Octane, and I’m the head of admissions here at Junior Speedsters. I’ve read all about each and every one of you, and I can guarantee you that the pegasus to your left or to your right has immense amounts of talent.” Gilda groaned while the ponies all cheered wildly. “It’s my pleasure to introduce you to former Wonderbolts captain, winner of four Canterlot Derbies, and camp director here at Junior Speedsters, Ms. Hurricane Gale!”

The stomps were louder than ever before. A pale red mare with a dark green mane walked from the side of the stage to the center, raising a wing in acknowledgement of the din. She waited for her audience to settle, then began to speak.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, to reiterate what High Octane said, welcome to Junior Speedsters flight camp!” The crowd cheered again, but Hurricane Gale quieted them with a wave of her wing. “Please, while I know you’re excited, we’ve got a packed schedule today, and I think we’d all like to get through the boring stuff as quickly as possible.”

Hurricane Gale shook out her torso in order to relax, then began in a fairly rehearsed voice. “As you all know thanks to my friend Octane’s introduction, I am Hurricane Gale, former captain of the Wonderbolts show team, as well as former racing star. However, this camp is not about me or my accomplishments. It’s about all of you. It’s about helping you become the best flyers you can possibly be, whether that be the fastest or the most skilled, or an awesome mix of both, like myself.” Hurricane Gale stuck a confident pose on the last line, eliciting some giggles from the crowd.

“We’ve got some of the best flyers in Equestria here at this camp to help all of you reach the peak of your potential, and by the end of camp you’ll have worked with several former Wonderbolts, as well as expert flyers who chose other routes in life.” Hurricane Gale glanced at High Octane, who was still standing off to the side of the stage. High Octane gave a sheepish grin in reply.

“In addition to learning from the best of the best, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to show off your skills to your fellow Speedsters, whether in competitive races or in showcases.

“Speaking of showing off, I’d like to remind all of you that the boys and girls dorms are in fact separate from each other in quite distinctive ways, so if you’re caught in the dorm areas of the opposite gender outside of approved free time hours, getting lost is not a valid excuse.” Hurricane Gale cast a fairly intimidating stare into the audience, and a few colts shifted from side to side. Gilda snickered silently, and Rainbow Dash blushed a bit. “Also, every dorm room has its own shower for a reason, and we recommend you make use of it if you plan on talking to anypony without them turning around and flying away screaming.” A few nervous giggles.

Hurricane Gale continued. “Your schedule for the camp will be given to you in a few moments when we break off into small groups. You’ll want to mark off on your maps where you need to be, and you’ll want to keep your maps on your pony for probably the first week at the very least. If you ever get lost, look for a staff member wearing one of these staff badges, and they’ll do their best to help you get where you need to go.”

Hurricane Gale broke from her still position, switching from a straight face to a gentle smile. “Keeping that in mind, I’ll let High Octane instruct you on what we’ll be doing next. Enjoy your time here, Speedsters!”

The crowd stomped loudly, though not quite as loudly as when Hurricane Gale was first introduced. She made her way off the stage to the left, while High Octane once again took center stage.

“Like Hurricane Gale said, we’ll be breaking off into your small group shortly, but before we do so, we have a little song we like to sing here at Junior Speedsters flight camp, and we’d like to teach it to you. Do you want to learn it?”

The floor shook with the stomps of all the young pegasi in the room. Gilda grimaced and put her face in her claw.

“Well, I’m going to need some help with this. Why don’t you help me in welcoming the staff of Junior Speedsters flight camp onto the stage?”

The crowd whooped as fourteen pegasi walked out on stage and stood in an arc with High Octane at the center. Gilda recognized a few of them as former Wonderbolts. They all were smiling incredibly large smiles, and a few of them even slapped wings as they stood waiting for their cue.

“Ready, staff?” A few grunts of approval and several nodding heads.

High Octane began to chant, and the other members of the staff joined in fairly quickly.

Junior Speedsters are our lives!
Skybound soars and daring dives!
Junior Speedsters, it’s our quest
To someday be the very best!

“Now you try!”

The chant repeated, much to the chagrin of Gilda. Rainbow Dash joined in eagerly, while Gilda kicked at the ground with her claw and waited for the whole thing to be over.

“That was great! Do you guys want to learn the dance, too?”

Gilda groaned and buried her face in both claws. The room was soon filled with twirling pegasi bumping into each other, and Gilda almost got poked in the eye by the hoof of a blue colt who immediately apologized while backing away slowly. She followed along half-heartedly, mostly for the sake of not being run into by those who were actually dancing along. She stole a glance over at Dash, who had a mile-wide grin on her face as she joined in the revelry. Gilda rolled her eyes and looked back to the stage just as the chant was finishing up its fifth circuit.

“Okay, while I’m sure we’d all like to keep singing together,” Gilda glanced at the doorway, which was separated from her by only a few feet and one or two pegasi, “we now need to break off into our smaller groups.

“If you’re in dorms one through six, mares or stallions, you’re going with Feather Flight and Eagle Eye to the gymnasium.” One of the pegasi on stage, a brown stallion, waved a wing while the mare next to him smiled brightly at the crowd. A few of the campers shuffled towards the door as the two teachers made their way off the stage.

High Octane continued reading off the list of dorm room and teacher combinations, ending with dorms 20-25 going with Icy Rush and Warm Wind.

Rainbow Dash motioned to Gilda from approximately two ponies away. “We’re in room 24, that’s us,” she shouted over the din of everypony in the room talking about the opening of the camp.

“Got it, thanks,” Gilda said, a tad bit sardonically. She turned to the door and walked towards it as several ponies got out of her way. Nopony wanted to be in front of the big bad griffin. Gilda sighed as she exited the auditorium, waiting for Rainbow Dash to make her way out of the slightly steamy pack of ponies. Once they were reunited, they made their way towards the door to the campus of the camp, where they’d be meeting with their small group leaders.

Rainbow Dash and Gilda looked about the cloud until they saw the two pegasi teachers that corresponded to their room number. They wordlessly made their way over to them, not quite comfortable enough with each other to give their thoughts on the events that just transpired, choosing instead to keep their rants and raves to themselves.

Icy Rush was a light blue stallion with a teal mane that kind of reminded Gilda a bit of the color of the toothpaste she used. He carried himself with a bit of confidence, and Gilda noticed he didn’t smile with his teeth, only wearing a slightly cheesy half-smile throughout the entire dancing snafu. Warm Wind, on the other hand, was a cherry red pegasus with a green mane, a clashing color combination that made her stand out. She was also one of the mares Gilda recognized from her dad’s posters of old Wonderbolts performers, so obviously she made up for her less-than-appealing looks with her flying skills. Gilda also could see some grey hairs mixing in with the green, showing her age.

Icy Rush was the first to speak, addressing the twenty or so campers with a gravelly yet high pitched voice.

“Well, High Octane certainly enjoys pandering to the crowd, doesn’t he?” Gilda gave a slightly too audible “Ha!” at this statement, causing a significant fraction of the group to turn to look at her. She felt her face grow warm as a rosy color appeared on her cheeks, and she looked down at her claws, kicking the cloud beneath her.

Icy Rush continued. “Anyway, as I hope you know, I’m Icy Rush, and I’ll be the co-leader of this group of fine winged animals we got here. Basically, this will be the group you attend workshops with, and perform with, and do everything outside of sleep and, if you so choose, eat with. You may not know it yet, but your best friend could be right next to you as we speak. I should know, I graduated from this camp six years ago, and I made some of the best friends of my life that I promptly stopped writing to three weeks after camp was over.” The young pegasi of the group laughed nervously, while Gilda put a claw over her beak to hide her giggles.

“Before Icy Rush gets too carried away with himself,” Warm Wind broke in, “I’m Warm Wind, former member of the Wonderbolts show team. I’ll be helping Icy Rush lead you guys, but I’m also one of the flight instructors so I will only be checking in with you guys on occasion. Right now, I’ve got a meeting to attend, so I’ll leave you in Icy’s fairly capable hooves.” Warm Wind gave Icy Rush a playful look, to which Icy responded with a raised eyebrow.

“Thank you very much, Warm Wind. I’m sure they’re all waiting for you at the instructor’s meeting.” Warm Wind smiled and took off into the air towards another cloud on the campus. Icy turned to the campers and whispered mischievously, “Now that that stick-in-the-mud is out of the way…” More nervous laughter. “I’m basically here to hand you guys paperwork at this point, so enjoy. Here’s your schedules for the camp, and here’s your free camp hats.” Icy Wind reached into a box and began handing papers and hats to each camper, some more eager than others.

“The other thing I’m obligated to tell you about,” Icy Rush began after the distribution was finished, “is your final performance. While most of your performances at this camp will be in front of the group around you, your final performance will be in front of the entire camp, and will be a showcase of your finest skills. For three minutes, all of the pegasi, and our one griffin,” Icy Rush gave Gilda a look, which Gilda returned with a coldness one would expect from the teacher rather than the student, “will have their attention focused on you. No pressure.

“Even though that’s six weeks off, and you’re just now arriving at camp, I’m sure you all have some small idea of the things you are particularly good at, whether it be speed, agility, grace, or otherwise. Start thinking about the things your routine will include, so that when you have to start preparing your set, you’ll have a jumping-off point. I’d almost recommend writing a few ideas down when you get back to your dorm room later tonight.”

Icy Rush paused, scanning over his group with that confident half-smile. “Now, the fun part,” he muttered. He pointed a hoof at a small, white filly, who was surprised by the sudden attention. “What’s your name, lavender eyes?”

“Surprise, sir!” The filly saluted, apparently brimming with self-confidence, possibly forged by an incredibly playful attitude.

“Surprise, eh? You think you can show your group a few moves?”

“Sure! I always like to show off the dances I make up! There was this one time when I showed this old stallion one of my dances and he liked it so much he wanted me to come to his hut and-“

“No, no, no,” Icy Rush cut in, while several campers laughed at the rapid speech of the bubbly pegasus. “I mean, some flying moves. Let’s see you sprint to the cloud up there,” Icy pointed with his hoof, “and then do something special while you’re up there.”

“Okey-doky-loki!” Surprise answered. The pegasi around her cleared some space, and she unfurled her wings. With a sharp downward flap, she was off, propelling herself through the air. She made it up to the cloud in a fair amount of time, not terribly fast. She then proceeded to tap-dance on the top of the small cloud, to the delight of her group-mates below. After a short dance, she dove back down to the base of the camp, to a reasonable amount of applause and a large amount of laughter. With a big smile, Surprise returned to her spot, the pegasus she was standing next to smiling and praising her for a job well done.

“Great job there, Surprise. You certainly did your best to defy convention.” Surprise giggled. “Let’s see here… you!” Icy Wind pointed his hoof to Rainbow Dash. “State your name!”

“Rainbow Dash!” the blue filly said, wings already unfurled, ready for the challenge.

“Alright, Rainbow, I see you’re ready and willing, give it a shot!” Icy Rush couldn’t finish the sentence before Rainbow was halfway to the same cloud. Rainbow Dash did several tight, speedy loops around the cloud, causing it to form itself into a perfect orb, before hurtling herself back down to the group, landing with a harsh “Poomph!”

“Ten. Seconds. Flat.” The group cheered loudly, obviously approving of Rainbow Dash’s intense speed.

“Wow, very impressive! I’d tempted to say we might have a future Canterlot Derby winner among us!” The group cheered, and Gilda raised a claw for her roommate to bump. They did so, and Rainbow Dash’s smile grew even wider. “Now, who thinks they can follow that up…”

The exercise continued, each pegasus doing their best to impress their new peers. None came close to the speed of Rainbow Dash, although most were slightly faster than Surprise. Gilda watched with anticipation, nervous about when it’d be her turn to show her flying skills to the rest of the group.

“Alright, Cloud Chaser, that was a fantastic backflip! And now, it looks like we’ve only got one griffin left.” Gilda gulped as Icy Rush made eye contact with her, not bothering with pointing his hoof since everypony knew to whom he was referring.

“What’s your name, beak-mouth?”

“I’m Gilda,” she said, cool as she could muster at the time.

“Well, Gilda, show us how they fly over in the Griffin Lands.”

“I’ll try,” Gilda said, twisting her head slightly, planting herself to spring towards the cloud overhead. She pushed off hard, and felt the wind rush through her feathers as she flapped hard to her goal.

It took her longer than Rainbow Dash to get to the cloud, but she was still one of the faster ones in the group. Once at the cloud, however, she had no idea what to do. Hesitating for a moment, she began to circle quickly around the cloud, counterclockwise. Suddenly, she felt her left wing bend just a bit too much, and she lost control of the spin, awkwardly plummeting back to the group. She leveled out just in time to make a soft landing, but everypony watching her could tell she had made a mistake.

“Impressive speed there, Gilda,” Icy Rush said, doing his best to hide Gilda’s mistake, despite the fact that his face didn’t get the memo. “And with that, it’s time to tour the campus…”

As the group began to follow Icy Rush around the camp, Gilda trotted alongside Rainbow Dash, chin down.

“Nice job there, Gilda,” Rainbow Dash said, trying to raise her spirits a bit.

“Are you kidding?” Gilda responded, an edge in her voice. “I was terrible. I was the only one who lost control of their trick halfway through, and it was just an easy circle.”

“Hey, it’s your first day, I’m sure you’ll get better.”

“I’d better,” Gilda muttered. They spent the rest of tour listening to Icy Rush explain the various parts of camp, learning about the place they’d be spending the next six weeks. He pointed out the obstacle course, the show area, the nurse’s station, and the offices, which were on another cloud separate from the dorms and other parts of the camp.

“And to conclude our tour,” Icy Rush said, turning to face the group, “we have the mess hall, where dinner will be served in approximately…” Icy Rush turned to look at a clock, “forty-five minutes. Wash up, find a table, maybe find some friends. Enjoy your meal, I’ll be off!”

Icy Rush opened one of the doors into the mess hall, allowing the campers to enter the empty hall. Gilda and Rainbow Dash brought up the rear, and entered the bathroom to get prepared for the first meal of the camp.