Go!

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Chapter 3: Cyclone

Chapter 3: Cyclone

The brightness of Celestia’s sun woke up the training camp in Cloudsdale at an early hour. Throughout the dorms, pegasus ponies, griffins, dragons, and the rest of campers slowly moved themselves from their warm beds and rooms out into the chilly morning and to the mess hall. Among them, Rainbow Dash was with the masses, near the end of the mass of campers. She was not a morning filly. In fact, it was a miracle she managed to get up and out of her bed on her own will. With a yawn, she trotted along to follow the large group for breakfast.

Inside the mess hall, Dash got in line for her food and quickly sat down at a table. Her entire body seemed to be moving without input from her brain, as if it was just responding to the environment around her. Her eyes were half open as she looked down at her tray yawned again.

“Oatmeal and apples….” she mumbled to herself. Dash repeatedly tried to keep her head up, but ultimately failed as her head fell right into her bowl of oatmeal. She had fallen right back to sleep.

A few moments later, Gilda arrived at the mess hall and quickly got her food from the counter. The griffin arrived to the table with the sleeping Rainbow Dash. Gilda sat down and hit the table with her talon to startle the blue pegasus awake.

“I wasn’t sleeping, I swear!” Rainbow Dash blurted out of habit. She quickly looked around to realize she was not where she thought she was, “Oh, right, not at school….”

“Rise and shine, Dash,” Gilda spoke as she began to eat her oatmeal.

Dash took a sigh of relief, “Oh, it’s just you. For a sec, I though I was sleeping in class again.”

“Nope, just me.”

Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes and got a better look at her roommate, “How can you not be tired? What’s got you so bright eyed and bushy tailed?”

Gilda raised the talon that did not have a spoon in it and spoke, “One, my tail isn’t bushy, and two, how can you not be? We’re starting our Junior Speedster Flight Camp today.”

“Yeah, I’m stoked and all,” Dash replied with a yawn, “But why does it have to be at the crack of dawn. Can’t we just wait until, you know, noon or something?”

“Taking a wild guess that you’re not a morning pony?”

“What gave it away?” Dash finally began to eat her breakfast.

The griffin shook her head, “I just thought you might be as stoked for this as I am. I mean, I already did a few laps of the air field this morning.”

“Well, that answers my question of where you were when I woke up.”

“By the way,” Gilda spoke with her mouth full, “you know what we are doing today?”

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment to remember the schedule, “I think we have a speed race this morning and then a class for the afternoon.”

Gilda simply nodded as the two friends continued to eat their breakfast.

The campers were led out from the mess hall to the air field. It was there that most of them began to start stretching on their own. Rainbow Dash, in particular, was finally starting to wake up to her normal self. With one last yawn, the blue pegasus stretched out her limbs and wings. She then looked at her little wings, a bit crestfallen. However, she then began to flap them at a very fast speed, warming them up for the day. This changed her attitude and caused a big smile to appear on Dash’s face.

“Listen up!” a stallion counselor began to speak over the chatter amongst the crowd, “As you are aware, we will be doing a speed race this morning. Nothing to extravagant, just a base time trial to see where you all stand on speed.”

“Speed? That’s one thing I got!” Dash proudly boasted in a hushed tone.

“You will be working with your partner to try and get the lowest combined time,” he continued, “Remember, this is not a race. It’s a time for you to improve upon later in the week. The course is simply the air strip we are on.”

“You ready to blow these chumps out of the water, Dash?” Gilda gave a confident smile to her partner.

“Totally!”

“Pair up and wait for your names to be called!” the counselor finished as other counselors helped him gather the campers together and to one end of the airfield.

The first pair to test their speed were a pair of pegasi. Following them was a pair that included a dragon and a peagsus. As time went on, all the campers were able to see how fast each of them were. Rainbow Dash and Gilda were sitting on the sides, watching each and every creature fly down the runway. They would make notes of the speedy flyers and often mock those who were slow, mainly the flyers who could not keep up with their partner.

“Next up: Rainbow Dash and Gilda!” the counselor called out their names.

Dash stood up on her hooves, “Alright, let’s show these slowpokes what it means to be fast!”

The two got to the starting position and knelt down. In both of their eyes, there was a strong determination to speed of.

“Ready, go!”

The instant the word left the counselor’s lips, Gilda and Dash were already off the starting line. In fact, the combined starting speed of both of them caused a very small cyclone behind them that caused the papers on the counselor’s clipboard to fly off.

As for Dash and Gilda, the two were speeding off at the same pace down the runway. The air whizzed past their ears as they kept going faster. As for who was in the lead, it was almost impossible to tell. One moment Rainbow would be in the lead by the tip of her nose, and the next moment Gilda would be ahead by the tip of her yellow beak.

The spectators could only stare in awe at the fast speed the two were going. Many of the campers had their mouths open in shock of the speed the small filly could go with others were amazed to see Gilda live up to the words she spoke just the day before.

At the end of the runway, Rainbow Dash and Gilda crossed the finish line in a blur of speed. The counselor, however, admitted he could not make out a clear winner between the two. He scribbled down on his clipboard as he shook of the surprise from his face and prepared for the next pair to go down.

Rainbow and Gilda, however, were unable to slow down fast enough and ran into a cloud. Two camp counselors rushed over to check on the two. Inside the cloud, they heard laughter from both Dash and Gilda, who had a soft landing, but ran into each other within the cloud and were starting to wrestle each other.

The rest of the time trials went off uneventful compared to the two speed demons that were Rainbow Dash and Gilda. With the break for lunch, the times were posted for the campers to see. Campers gathered around the board and looked to see their times. Written at the top spot, Dash and Gilda’s names were there with their combined time of being the best by far. A special note was written next to it, reading “unable to determine fastest of the two”.

Comments

[NinjaMidget]

Chapter 3 Review

Good expansion of the comradery beteeen Dash and Gilda. Couple more notes..

*****
"In fact, it was a miracle she managed to get up and out of her bed on her own will." Maybe a rewording? "on her own will" feels awkward.

"The spectators could only stare in awe at the fast speed the two were going." Another one that feels awkward

"Many of the campers had their mouths open in shock of the speed the small filly could go with others were amazed to see Gilda live up to the words she spoke just the day before." Very long sentence that can be broken down and reworded a little better.

"He scribbled down on his clipboard as he shook of the surprise from his face and prepared for the next pair to go down." Typo of=off