Go!

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Chapter 9: Speedway

Chapter 9: Speedway

The final day dawned. With all of the campers waking up, they had to pack up their items from their dorms before breakfast. In Gilda and Rainbow Dash’s room, the griffin was randomly throwing her items in her bag with no organization whatsoever. She quickly zipped it up and placed it on her bed.

“Hurry up, Dash, I want to get something in my gut before we have our time trial,” Gilda spoke.

Rainbow as carefully folding her clothing as she placed it from her dresser to her bag, “Go on ahead, I’ll be done soon.”

“Suit yourself, pint-size,” the griffin moved out the door, leaving the pegasus in the room.

Looking around to make sure she was gone, Dash reached back into the dresser to pull out the last piece of clothing. Pulling it out, a piece of parchment fell from it. Picking it up, Dash looked at the words written on it. It was the note her father wrote to her before she left for camp. She took a sigh of relief, happy to have found it.

Quickly folding the last piece of clothing and packing it away, she grabbed the note and the picture frame of her family that still rested on the top of the dresser. Looking down at them both, she smiled. The three ponies in the snapshot smiled right back at her. Turning her attention to the note, she read it one last time.

‘Do your best and have fun at flight camp, Rainbow Dash! We’re proud of you!’

“Don’t worry,” the filly spoke softly, “you will be plenty proud of me, just you wait.”

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

Out on the bleachers, the campers sat, waiting for instruction for their final day of camp. Gilda and Dash sat next to each other, chatting about what they thought it would be.

“What do you think will happen later on? I think we’ll have some sort of awards thing after the time trial today,” Gilda stated, “where, you know, they’ll say I’m the most awesome flyer in the camp.”

Dash replied with a snicker, “I think you’re right, up until that last part where you are the most awesome flyer.”

“Oh, come on, I’m totally the best around,” the griffin stated.

Rainbow Dash grabbed the nearest of Gilda’s wing and examined it, “Huh, strange….”

This puzzled the griffin, “Huh? What?”

“I just don’t know how your wings can fly with both you and your big ego attached,” the blue pegasus joked.

“Laugh it up, shorty, but we’ll see who wins this!”

Just as Gilda finished speaking, the camp counselors appeared in front of the masses of ponies and other creatures. One of the older counselors began speaking, “Settle down, campers. I want to congratulate you all for making it to your final day of Junior Speedster Flight Camp. We have seen excellence amongst you campers, and we are proud to have helped you hone your skills here. Now, for the moment most of you have been waiting for all week: The Speed Time Trial. Rules are very simple: cross the line in the quickest time possible. It will be similar to the individual speed test we did the other day, however, the goal is improve from your previous time. The map layout is same as last time. Best of luck to you all. And, without further adieu, line up!”

With those words, the entire mass of campers left the bleachers and eagerly moved to the starting line. On the line, Gilda and Rainbow Dash stood next to each other. They readied themselves by crouching down and opening their wings. From here, they also started trash talking.

“Ready to eat my dust?” Dash asked with an evil smirk.

“Ha. Please, you’ll be enjoying mine,” Gilda spoke.

“What’s that? I can’t understand you. I don’t speak second place,” the blue filly mocked.

“We’ll see who speaks second place!”

The head counselor’s voice was loud, “Racers, take your marks!” Every flyer was on edge, waiting for the word. He finally shouted it, “Go!”

The entire group of flyers took off and began their race. Unlike the first time, where Gilda and Rainbow Dash had relative ease claiming the lead of the pack, the two had some challenges reaching the front. Gilda found it easier for her to soar above most of the other racers while Dash was quick as she zigged and zagged between all of those who surrounded her.

The massive group moved down the runway in unison. Gilda quickly moved downward and claimed her spot near the front of the crowd. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, was having trouble with her maneuvering between the others. She, however, found a window of opportunity and took it. With a burst of speed and energy, Rainbow rocketed herself away from the large group and reached the front of the pack, near Gilda.

As they reached the first turn at the fenced border, the top five racers, that included Rainbow Dash, Gilda, a red stallion, a white mare, and a green dragon, were trading off their ranks. Out of nowhere, it seemed, Gilda gained a burst of speed and moved into the lead, passing the others. Not to be out done, Dash followed suit and attempted to catch up. The stallion seemed that he didn’t want to be left out as he did the same.

Passing through the courtyard and the mess hall, the racers came up to the dorm field, where they had their sharp turns. The three continued their exchanging of placement, often coming close to hitting each other whether it be on purpose or accidental. The three began their turns. Gilda was careless with her turns, losing almost no speed with each and every turn. The stallion’s slowing down cost him his placement with the girls. Dash, surprisingly to herself, was keeping up with the griffin with each twist and turn.

Exiting the twisting maze of cones, Gilda and Rainbow Dash were neck and neck with each other. Both the griffin and pony looked extremely exhausted as they continued on. Each of their wings were beginning to hurt badly for them. Both made painful sounds as they pushed themselves for the lead.

As they neared the starting line, one of them fell back as the other took the lead. It was Gilda who won.

Coming to a screeching halt, the two finishers looked at each other, drained of energy. With sweat falling down her face, Dash breathed heavily as she glared at Gilda, knowing that the griffin had beaten her again. Suddenly, her expression changed to a smile, “That was another close one, Gilda,” she said, trying to catch her breath.

Gilda smiled back, also gasping for air, “Yeah, you really didn’t want me to win without a fight.”

“Of course not,” the filly laughed slightly, “I’m not just going to give it to you!”

The two roommates laughed as they went to look at their times. Both improved from the previous race, but only by a few seconds. The two seemed very happy by their results.

“I’ll be right back, I’m going to get some water,” Gilda said as she flew away from Dash.

“Alright,” Dash replied. It was then she turned to see Windy Skies coming up to her, “Hey, Skies.”

“Hi Rainbow Dash, great work out there,” the stallion congratulated the blue filly.

“Heh,” she started, “yeah, well, apparently I’m built for speed.” She looked up to Skies and smiled, “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done it without ya.”

Skies chuckled, “No need to thank me or anything.”

Rainbow Dash insisted, “Come on, you reminded me why I loved to fly to begin with. And you gave me more of a reason to do better. In my book, you’re an alright pegasus. You know, for a stupid stallion.”

“Well, if you’re going to keep up with that attitude, I guess I don’t have to say that I’m looking forward to you coming back next year,” Skies teased.

“Next year?” Rainbow’s eyes grew wide.

“Yup! I expect to see great things from you next year, Rainbow Dash,” he stated, “Think you can live up to those expectations?”

“Totally!”

END

Comments

[dashybrony2012]

Aaaaaaawwwwh that ending was so cute Skies was such a sweet character too great job on an amazing story as well you area very talented writer

[Closer-To-The-Sun]

4471955 Glad you liked. It's one of those stories I wrote and kinda forgot about, so when you commented and faved, I was kinda surprised.

[NinjaMidget]

Chapter 9 Review

Loved the ending. One typo: "The two seemed very happy by their results." happy with their results.

Overall, I enjoyed this story very much. I think you have the same problem the I have (and probably a lot of other writers as well); You want to get to the heart of the story telling, so the beginning is kind of rushed could be fleshed out a little bit more. Dash was true to her character, and getting a little more insight into Gilda was great. The addition of Skies as Dash's mentor worked well in the story and I liked that character.

Your general story telling, wording, description of actions etc is very good, imho. This is a definite fave for me.

[Closer-To-The-Sun]

4599057 Thank you so very much for reading this story and going over it thoroughly. I really never got a chance to get back to it as I had hoped (real life and all). I'm really glad that you liked it. If I can be a bit honest about it, I wrote this all with no real ending in mind and just spur of the moment typing and I felt it could have been a whole lot better. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. To me, that's the most important part of writing: sharing a bit of my writing and a touch of my soul with the readers. Thanks for checking it out!

[Diamond *swag* Tiara]

Do your demons, do they ever let you go? fav'd just for the god of metal, I'll edit this after I read it :)