Go!

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Chapter 2: Little Wing

Chapter 2: Little Wing

Rainbow Dash finally took a good look of her new roommate. She was about the same size as the pegasus filly, just maybe a feather or two higher. However, Dash had never met another than was not a pony. The feathers that covered her where brown all over her body save the white and purple ones that encompassed her head. A bold yellow color painted her beak and the talons on her front limbs.

“You wanna take a picture? It’ll last longer,” Gilda remarked slightly annoyed.

“Oh, sorry. It’s just I’ve never seen a non-pony before,” Rainbow Dash admitted.

Gilda seemed to brush it off, “Eh, I’m used to it. So, yeah, I’m Gilda. Who are you, pint-size?”

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” she spoke, firm in herself.

“Oh, you were one of the others that instructor yelled out during the welcoming ceremony,” the griffin recounted.

“Heh, yeah,” Dash rubbed the back of her neck with one of her hooves, “that’s me.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, I was too,” Gilda took her bag and placed it on the other bed, starting to unpack.

The little filly could not help but stare at the griffin’s body. To her, it was strange and alien, as if a number of different animals were just shoved together into one creature. What Dash took most note of were the wings on Gilda’s back. They seemed very large on the griffin. Dash then looked at her own wings, which were very small on her.

Gilda noticed Rainbow had been staring, “Hey, what’s with you?”

“Huh?” Rainbow stopped looking at her own wings.

“I said what’s up? It’s kinda obvious you were looking at me. If you wanna say something, say it,” she explained.

Dash bit her lip slightly, “Well, it’s just that your wings are really large….for your size that is.”

Gilda looked at her wings, flapped them twice and then replied, “Yeah, they kinda are. They grew really fast. My dad says it runs in our family.”

This remark kind of made Dash a little depressed when she thought about both of her parent’s wing sizes.

“You know wing sizes don’t exactly make or break flyers, right?”

“I know….” Dash mumbled, “I just don’t like mine that much.”

The griffin paused for a moment to think and then replied, “You want to try to become one of them Wonderbolts, right?”

Dash nodded.

“Well, don’t stop trying at it. I mean, just because you have small wings doesn’t mean they won’t grow later or anything like that,” Gilda tried her best to comfort her new roommate.

“I guess you got a point,” Dash smiled slightly, “So what do you want to? Why are you here, Gilda?”

She just finished packing her stuff anyway as she heard the question. “Me? I wanna fly fast and hard,” she explained, hopping up on her bed, “I wanna be the best flyer around. I wanna make pegasus ponies wish they were as good as me. No offense or anything to ya.”

“None taken.”

“But I want to make fillies and colts look at me flying and say ‘check that griffin out’. I wanna push myself harder than I ever had before and reach new speeds,” Gilda raised a claw and imagined it as if it were her flying through the air.

“Wow, that’s some dream,” Dash commented.

“And I’m gonna make it happen. So, I’m going to give it all,” Gilda’s voice was proud and strong.

“Well, let’s make an unstoppable team this week so we both can reach our goal of being awesome!” Rainbow Dash raised her hoof up in the air.

Gilda grabbed the hoof with her talon and gave a determined smile right back to the pegasus, “Totally!”

As the two shared a moment of camaraderie, the moment was interrupted by the growling of their stomachs. The two looked at each other in a moment of awkward silence before they realized it was time for dinner.

“Shall we hit the mess hall?” Gilda was the first to speak.

“Yeah, let’s.”

The two roommates left the dorms and followed the mass exodus of campers to the mess hall for their first meal of camp. It was here that Rainbow Dash saw a few more other non-pegasus ponies present. There were a few other griffins, a couple dragons, and even a manticore, which surprised the filly. Another aspect that Dash noticed was the ages of all of the campers in attendance. While a good number were young fillies and colts, some older ponies were also present, those with and without cutie marks.

“Hey, hurry up, we don’t want to be last in line,” Gilda nudged Dash as they continued inside of the mess hall.

Rainbow and Gilda got in line for their food. The two made small talk as they waited, looking around at the different campers that were present. After getting their food, the two sat down at a table.

“What is this?” Gilda looked at the food on her tray.

Rainbow peered over at her food, “Grass and potatoes. Guess they weren’t expecting too many non-ponies to attend.” Rainbow pointed over to a dragon looking depressed at his tray.

“How do you ponies eat this stuff?” Gilda said in a huff, “What I wouldn’t do for a chocolate milkshake.”

Rainbow Dash ignored the griffin’s sourness and started to eat. This lasted only so long, however, as the pegasus was pestered by a voice she remembered.

“Well, if it isn’t Rainbow Crash!” a voice called out.

Without turning towards the voice and with her mouth full, Dash spoke softly and full of distain, “Oh sweet Celestia, why are they here?”

“Who?” Gilda asked before moving her head up to see two colts moving towards their table.

“Hey, Rainbow Crash, what are you doing here? I thought this camp was for ponies with talent!” the light brown stallion looked over Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Leave me alone and let me eat in peace,” Dash stated, holding in her disgust as best as she could.

“Why? Do you want to eat alone like the loser you are? The same loser who has such small wings?” the stallion with the darker brown coat asked.

“I don’t think so, Dumbbell, she just wants to be alone with her loser friend!” the other replied.

“Hoops, Dumbbell, just go away. I’m not in the mood for your stupidness right now,” Dash finally turned around and spoke to the two face to face.

Hoops chuckled, “I get it, you want to be alone with your friend.”

Dumbbell also snickered, “Figures that you would befriend a griffin, Rainbow Crash. Only they could put up with a loser like you!”

Gilda, who had been silent the entire time, finally lost what little patience she had and lunged at two colts. This caught everypony by surprise as the griffin began to hit the two ponies. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile as she watched Gilda beat up the two bullies she had known for years. Getting excited, Dash joined in to help Gilda, as Hoops and Dumbbell were starting to fight back.

By this time, the entire mess hall was watching the fight before them. Some were shocked to see something as such unfold before them. Some others, however, were cheering them on, wanting to see how far the fight could go.

A few minutes passed before a few counselors stepped in to separate the two girls from the colts they were beating up on. It took five of the camp counselors to separate them along with a chorus of shouts along the lines of “Break it up!”, “Stop it!”, and other phrases in effort to stop the violence. All four of them were breathing heavily as they were pulled away from each other. Each of them had bruises of their body and even some blood from the bloody nose that Hoops received from Gilda smashing her talon into his muzzle.

One of the counselors spoke, “What happened here?”

Dumbbell spoke, “That griffin! She just went crazy on us!”

“And you deserved it, you little punk!” Gilda bit back at the colt, trying to break free from the counselor that was restraining her.

“Yeah!” Dash chimed in.

“Stop it, all of you. I don’t know who started this, but you all were fighting and you all are in trouble,” the counselor spoke, “But let’s just get you to the nurse first.”

The four were led out of the mess hall to the nurse station where they were all patched up for their injuries. The only major issue was the bloody nose on Hoops, but overall the aftermath of the fight was, as the nurse put it, ‘just a schoolyard scuffle’.

Afterwards, the four were sent to the head counselor of the camp. First the colts were sent in, leaving Gilda and Dash sitting outside of the office on the wooden bench. A strong silence was between them as they waited.

“Hey,” Dash broke the silence.

“Yeah?” Gilda replied, turning her head towards the filly, showing the patch on her face.

“No matter what happens in there, I want to say thanks for standing up for me. It’s really the first time anypony has done that for me,” the pegasus smiled warmly.

Gilda couldn’t help but smile back, “Eh, it was nothing. You’d do the same for me, I’m sure.”

“In a heartbeat. You’re an awesome friend, Gilda.”

The griffin paused for a moment before replying, “Thanks, Rainbow Dash. You are, too.”

Dash laughed, “We sure got them good, though!”

“Yeah, we did! Though it did really hurt when that stupid Dumbbuck or whatever his name is bit my wing,” Gilda said, looking at her right wing.

“Pfft….come on, we did far worse to them. And if the injuries aren’t enough, they won’t live down that it was from a couple of girls!” Dash laughed, looking at the bandages around her left limb and around her torso.

Gilda joined in the laughter. Their moment was cut short by the sound of the opening door. Trotting out were two colts. Dumbbell’s wing was wrapped entirely in bandages and so was his back left leg, while Hoops had paper towels in his nose to stop the bleeding and neck brace on. The two left the area quickly and in silence. From inside the office, a voice spoke.

“Gilda and Rainbow Dash, please enter.”

The two did as instructed and trotted in. The office was very plain and dull to the senses. Two chairs were placed before the desk, which had a very disgruntled stallion behind it. His green coat and dark blue mane stood out most in the room.

“Please, have a seat,” he offered. The two sat down and he began to speak, “I’m sure you two are well aware of why you are here. I must say I am disappointed that such an incident has happened, particularly when it is not even the first day of camp. Do you have anything to say for yourself in your defense?”

“It wasn’t our fault! Those two idiot colts start it all when they started bothering us!” Rainbow Dash was very vocal with her statement.

“I am aware,” he replied, “They admitted that they were in the wrong, however this does not mean you are completely innocent here.”

“Huh?” Dash was puzzled.

The head counselor continued, “Just because you did not start these chain of events does not make you entirely blameless. Particularly you, Gilda. If I am correct, you are the one who jumped at the colts at the colts first, correct?”

The griffin was silent.

“Miss Gilda?”

“Yes, yes, I did,” she finally spoke.

“That’s all I need to hear from you. I will be lenient with the two of you jut as I was with the colts. You won’t be kicked out of camp, but I don’t want to see anymore mischief from any of you, understand?” the head counselor’s displeasing glare pierced through the two girls sitting before him.

“Yes, sir,” Dash was quick to reply.

Gilda, however, took more time with her response, “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”

The look on the counselor face grew softer and then had a small smile appear, “Good. I hope I don’t have to see you two in my office again. I wish you the best in your activities this week. You are dismissed.”

With that, the two roommates exited the office and returned to the dorms. Despite the very rocky start her Junior Speedster Flight Camp experience, Rainbow Dash was ready to take on the first day of camp.

Comments

[Namara]

Awww yeah!

[L4]

can't wait for more

[NinjaMidget]

Chapter 2 Review
One typo.."Rainbow Dash finally took a good look of her new roommate." Typo ...look at her new roommate.

Great story progression in this chapter. Now on to chapter 3