Rainbow Dash stood at the main gate of the school, and read the sign overhead which read, Cloudsdale Junior Flight Academy in big bold letters. She had never been this nervous before in her entire life. In fact, she was trembling in fear. She wasn't usually a shy pony, but with the thought of going off to a new school with ponies that she didn't know scared her stiff.
"You'll be fine Dashie. Everyone will love you!" A navy blue Pegasus said to his filly daughter as he ruffled her mane with his hoof. Dash's father was a tall pegasus with bright red eyes and a mane consisting of red, orange, and yellow hues. He had a bright smile on his face as he met his daughters worryful eyes with a look of compassion and encouragement.
Dash looked back at her father and smiled, all worry being deminished by her fathers words of encouragement. "Thanks Dad!" she spoke up, and with that she ran through those gates and into the large building, ready to take on whatever school would throw at her. Her dad simply sighed as he saw his daughter avidly enter the doors of the school. "They grow up so fast..." he said quietly to himself.
Rainbow kept repeating the words her father had told her, You'll be fine!" She hoped so.
She walked through the long hallways of the school and passed by a number of other young fillies. Some looked older than her, some looked no older than her baby sister, Spectra. She continued to wander until she finally came across room 121.
This is it.., she thought to herself, You can do this Rainbow Dash, just be yourself. She took a deep breath, and slowly walked into the classroom.
She walked in to find four rows of desks lined up in groups of five. Fillies and colts were all scattered around the desks, some sitting quietly and reading to themselves, and others talking amongst each other. In the back though she noticed a lone creature, but not of the pony ilk. Sitting in isolation in the upper left hand corner of the desks sat a young Griffin. Dash had never actually seen a Griffin before, but she had heard of them from her father and older sisters. She decided to try to talk to the little griffin, maybe she was friendly.
As she moved closer to the other fillies though, one of them took notice of Rainbow Dash, and exclaimed, "Hey, look at this pony! Why is her mane so many colors?" The filly had a jasmine coat and a mint green mane. Dash would later learn her name to be Raindrops. Once Raindrops had drawn everypony's attention to her, all of their eyes locked in on Rainbow Dash, and their chatter stopped. Rainbow, unsure how to handle this just stood there and said nothing.
After a few seconds of silence, all of the fillies burst out laughing.
"Wow, what a weirdo!" One said.
"Whose bright idea was it to pour a rainbow on this poor kid?" said another.
"I love your mane! Where did you get it, the gay pride parade?" another one of them jeered.
The laughing continued as Dash blushed and hung her head in embarrassment. She shamefully walked over to the desk next to the griffin.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Rainbow said the the griffin, her face still red with embarrassment.
"I don't mind at all," the griffin replied in a low tone. "My name's Gilda, what about you?" she said.
The other ponies had gone back to their conversations, leaving Rainbow alone with Gilda. After a few minutes of silence together, Gilda asked Rainbow Dash,
"So, do you have any siblings?"
Rainbow responded eagerly, "Yeah, I have three! My two big sisters Flasher and Supernova, and my baby sister Spectra. She's really little, and can't even fly yet. She's so young she even sucks her hoof!" Rainbow said getting a bit carried away. "What about you?"
"Naw, I'm an only griffin. I've always wanted a sibling though." Gilda said longingly.
"They're not THAT great. In fact, they can be really mean sometimes. Like this one time, when we were at the zoo, I wanted to get a closer look at the turtles, and Flasher pushed me into the pool right when they got close to us. It was really scary cuz I couldn't swim and I thought I was gonna drown the whole time! My dad had to dive in and pull me out, and it was really embarrassing because I was crying and all wet and I couldn't even fly back then. It was worth it though 'cuz Flasher got in SOOO much trouble." Rainbow said reminiscing on her past memory.
"That sounded scary!" Gilda said, impressed by the story.
"Yeah, it was. Looking back though I wish I hadn't been such a wuss about it." Dash said regretfully.
"I don't think you're a wuss. I think you're really brave! Not a lot of people could be able to go through something like that and still be able to talk about it to a friend." Gilda responded encouragingly.
Dash paused for a moment. Did she just say friend? She thought to herself.
Dash smiled and so did Gilda. She hadn't felt this happy in a long time. She had just made a friend.
It was then that they heard a voice rise above the rest. "Alright everypony, settle down, settle down!" said a happy, clear voice. The conversations of the little fillies quickly ended as the class waited attentively to finally meet their teacher. Just as this happened though, one last small pegasus walked through the door and sat in the last avaliable seat to the right of Rainbow Dash. Dash turned to get a closer look at the filly, and was shocked by what she saw.
"Hi, I'm Ditzy Doo! What's your name?" the filly said, noticing Rainbow staring at her.
Dash paused for a moment, still taken aback by the filly's appearance. She had a normal gray coat and vivid yellow mane, but her eyes...
"Hello? Equestria to Rainbow Dash, come in, please!" said Gilda, making her best attempt at a spacepony.
Dash snapped out of her small trance. "Oh, um, hey there....I'm Rainbow Dash!" Dash replied hesitantly.
"Yeah, and I'm Gil-" Gilda chimed in, but stopped suddenly when she saw the filly's eyes. The eyes of the gray pegasus seemed to be looking in multiple directions at once, but neither of them were focused on Gilda or Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, what's wrong with your-" Gilda started, but she was abruptly poked by Dash who signaled upwards to her. Standing over them was a mare with a snow white coat, a yellow mane, and deep blue eyes, looking a bit flustered.
"Ahem," she spoke sternly, "Are you three about finished yet?"
The other students snickered in the background as Gilda meagerly replied, "Sorry." "That's quite alright, I just need to get started with the class is all." The white mare said, smiling. "My name is Ms. Moonbeam and I'll be your teacher for this year. I love teaching young fillies and colts like you all, and it always brings a smile to my face when I see a student learn something for the first time!" she said addressing the entire class now. "Why don't we go around the room and hear everypony's name and their favorite activity? Let's start with you." she said, pointing at one of the fillies in the front.
"Um.....me? the filly responded nervously, trembling a bit. She had a light pink mane, and a coat the shade of butter.
"Yes you, silly filly!" Ms. Moonbeam said to her softly.
"I....um.....I..I'm...I'm...Fl-Fluttershy.." the little filly whispered, almost in a squeak.
"What was that? None of us can hear you, make sure you speak up." the teacher said to Fluttershy. Everypony was staring, eyes locked in on her refusing to move.
"My n-name is... Fluttersh-shy." she said once more, voice shaking and tears swelling in her eyes from all of the sudden attention.
"What?" The white coated mare said again, "All we want is your name sweetie, just give us your name."
After another failed attempt to speak, the yellow filly burst out crying and ran out of the classroom.
"Oh no." Ms. Moonbeam said to herself, exasperated. "Fillies, just stay in your seats for a little while longer, I'll be back in a second. You all can talk quietly to your neighbors." With that, the teacher went out to find Fluttershy, leaving the classroom unsupervised with a classroom of young, rambunctious fillies....
It didn't take long for the conversations to heat up again. It also didn't take long for the rest of the filly's to notice that Gilda, Rainbow, and Ditzy Doo were all sitting close together in the back of the room. Their chatter quieted down, and they began to whisper to one another, stealing glances at the group of fillies every now and again. After a few minutes, a small crowd of them wandered over to the two pegasi and griffin. The three of them were deep in conversation, and each of them seemed to forget about each others differences. They were just happy to have friends.
Their talking quickly ceased however, when they noticed the small group of colts that had formed around them. The group consisted of a pegasus with a dark brown coat and light gray mane, one with a gray coat and a black mane, and finally, the ringleader of the group, a tall Pegasus filly with a light brown coat and a dark brown mane.
The tall one took notice of Ditzy, and exclaimed, "Whoa! What's wrong with you eyes you freak?!"
This exclimation set off the same chain reaction that it did before with Rainbow Dash, as all of the other fillies in the room pricked up their ears and looked towards the source all the commotion. Rainbow sat their, knowing how awful it felt to be in her position.
"Heh heh, and I thought that Rainbow freak was weird! You sure this is the flight academy, or the Cloudsdale center for misfits and losers?" said the gray one.
This was met with an eruption of laughter from the other ponies.
"Misfits." Dash thought to herself. "That hurts.."
She looked back over to Ditzy Doo and noticed tears swelling up in her googely eyes. She looked over at Gilda who was frowning in response. She saw through the look of sternness in her eyes though, and realized that she was hurt by these comments as well, but she just didn't want to show it.
It was strange how Rainbow already felt so close to her.
"No." she thought to herself once more, "I'm not just going to stand here And watch these jerks harass her!"
"Hey, feather-brains!" Dash spoke aloud addressing the three colts.
They were jolted by this sudden exclimation, but they quickly turned around and faced the little cyan filly.
"What did you just call us, pipsqueak?" the taller one said aggressively, pressing his face right up to Dash's.
Dash examined him once more. He looked even bigger up close. A pang of fear ran through her as she realized what she had just said.
"No!" she thought to herself once more, "I'm not going to give in! You mess with my friends, you mess with me too!"
"You heard what I said! You guys are nothing but a bunch of stupid jerks! Just 'cuz we look different from the rest of you doesn't mean that you get to treat us like garbage!" Dash said angerly. By this time the rest of the fillies were all standing around, watching intently as to how this encounter would pan out.
Right then, the stallion grabbed Rainbow by her chest area with one hoof, and held her up in the air. "Nobody talks like that to me!" the stallion retorted, his pride clearly bruised by the sudden retaliation. "You think you're tough? I'll show you tough!" he said, raising his hoof to strike Rainbow.
Gilda and Ditzy looked up at him in horror, paralyzed with fear.
Gilda prayed to Celestia inside her head, Somepony, something, save her!!!"
Right as the colt was ready to slam his hoof into Dash's face though, he heard the sound of the classroom door opening. At that moment, everything stopped. He instantly dropped Dash to the floor and quickly scurried over to his seat, as did the rest of the ponies that had gathered around the scene.
Right as the last pony had dived into her seat, Ms. Moonbeam had walked into the classroom with Fluttershy underneath her wing.
"It's okay, we're all nice and kind here," she said, trying to console the yellow filly who was still wiping tears from her eyes, "Isn't that right everypony?" she said, addressing the whole class.
They all nodded tentatively, with big cheesy smiles on their faces.
"That's what I love to see! You're all such wonderful students! I have a feeling that we're going to have a great year together!" she said brightly, oblivious to the obvious guilt that was practically oozing out of each and every one of them.
But then she suddenly noticed Rainbow Dash, still lying on the floor where the colt had left her.
"You silly filly! It's not naptime yet! You'll have to wait like everypony else, now get back to your seat so that we can start class." she said, her voice still full of cheer.
"But I-" Rainbow Dash began. "No buts. Back to you're seat young mare." she spoke, this time a bit more sternly.
Giving up, Rainbow trotted back to her seat next to Gilda and Ditzy. But a new filly joined the in their row. The small yellow pegasus that had ran out of the room before had just sat down to the right of Ditzy Doo.
"We're growing, slowly but surely." Rainbow thought to herself. She reclined in her seat and looked longingly out of the window as Miss Moonbeam resumed her activities with the othe fillies.
Dash lazily daydreamed through her first class, only taking time between her thoughts to conspicuously pass notes with her new friends. Aerodynamics was never really interesting to her anyways. She didn't care how it happened, all she cared about was going fast. Going fast and winning that is.
After aerodynamics, they were given a five minute break before their next class with Ms. Moonbeam. In that time, Rainbow and her new friends learned a lot about each other.
Turns out, Gilda was really into racing too, and hated losing almost as much as Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah, I'm a big-time flier, ya know? I love feelin' the wind against my wings and the rush you get when you leave all of your opponents in the dust. The looks on their faces are always priceless!" she told Rainbow.
"Yeah, that moment when the wind breezes right through your mane, and once you finally stop, it looks like you just rolled out of bed. I live for that kind of speed." Dash said enthusiastically in response.
"Heh, yeah I can see that by your perfect looking mane." Gilda said sarcastically.
Dash too a moment to look at her reflection in the window. Her mane was all spiked and messy as usual. She blushed and looked back at Gilda.
"Yeah, I don't comb it much. Ahem" Dash cleared her throat, "I don't like to waste my time with girly-girl stuff like that." she said, with a bit more pride.
Gilda just chuckled. "Suuure Ms. Feminine, whatever floats your boat. Anyway, if you ever wanna fly I'll be more than happy to race you."
Dash sprang up in excitement, "Whenever, wherever! I'm the fastest flyer in all Equestria, you probably couldn't even keep up with these babies!" she boasted, flexing her little wings, just to have them weakly fell back down.
"I meant to do that.." she said sheepishly.
Everypony shared a laugh at that while Dash blushed hotly again.
"Whatever you say," Gilda said, chuckling to herself once more, "And we'll see just how fast the Fastest Flyer In All of Equestria, really is after school today." Gilda added, doing her best Rainbow Dash impersination.
"Ha, you're on!" Dash said grinning, "And you won't be laughing when your eating my dust either!"
They went back and forth for a while, but after a few more witty remarks from Gilda and weak comeback attempts from Dash, Rainbow finally pouted and gave up, leaving a huge grin on Gilda's face. After that the conversation got a lot less one sided and began to lean over to the other to fillies in the group.
Fluttershy timidly showed the other fillies her amazing connection with animals by calling a large flock of nearby birds to the window simply by humming a soft tune to them.
"How'd you do that?" Rainbow said dumbfounded. "Oh, its nothing really. A-All you have to do is take a deep breath, and sing something.... um... nice," Fluttershy replied softly, "but be gentle, and don't make it too loud." she quickly added.
Dash approached the window, took the deepest breath she could muster, and began to make an attempt at singing. What came out of her mouth was possibly the most horrendous noise ever heard by pony ears. Everypony who was still in the room, even Ms. Moonbeam, cringed at the awful sound.
Dash stopped in her tracks when she noticed her friends' reaction.
After a few seconds of silence, Fluttershy spoke up gently, "Well....that was um....uh.... a good start."
Rainbow looked over to the other two to notice Ditzy barely holding back laughter, and Gilda rolling on the floor, practically crying.
Gilda then burst out, "HAHAHAHA! Wow Dashie, you never told us about your simply marvelous singing voice! BWAAHAHAHAAHA!" she continued, hysterically.
For the third time today, Rainbow blushed hard in embarrassment. "I-" she began weakly.
"No, no, no, let me stop you there. I don't waste my time with girly-girl stuff like that! Let's just hope you can fly better than you can sing!" Gilda interrupted, still giggling.
"Save it for the race Gilda! Like I said, you won't be laughing when I'm flying circles around your head!" Dash replied hotly, her pride clearly shattered.
They went at it again, still with Gilda poking fun at Dash, and Rainbow furiously defending her pride. Once again, their argument settled down, and Gilda and Dashie regained their composer and started to talk to the other two pegasi.
Now they were on to Ditzy Doo. Ditzy had some sort of strange obsession with muffins, and said something about bubbles as well, but to the disappointment of the other fillies, she revealed nothing about her eyes.
As she went into more details regarding bubbles, Dash noticed something new about Ditzy that she hadn't noticed before. In the middle of her right flank, Ditzy had a cutie mark of seven bubbles. When dash noticed this, her jaw dropped and she spoke in surprise, "Whoa, cool! Ditzy already has her cutie mark!"
Once she said this, the classroom was instantly thrown into chaos as all of the little pegasi in the room emediatly shot up from their seats and ran to get a closer look at Ditzy. As they gathered around her, everypony started shouting.
"WHOA, THAT'S SO COOL!!!!" Raindrops said.
"HOW'D YOU GET YOURS? THAT'S NOT FAIR, I'VE BEEN TRYING FOREVER TO GET MINE!" said a black coated pegasus who they would later find out to be called Thunderlane.
"YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!" randomly shouted a rather muscular white pegasus.
Gilda quickly turned to Rainbow, "Is that guy even in our class?"
Right then a full grown stallion walked through the classroom door and dragged the white pegasus back.
"How many times do I have to tell you that you're in the 5th grade..." he said as he closed the door behind him.
After the brief pause, the fillies quickly brought their attention back to Ditzy and returned to their gawking.
Ms. Moonbeam simply sighed, "It always has to be right before I start a lesson, doesn't it?"she said to herself.
Ms. Moonbeam walked over to the crowd of young fillies. "What's all of the commotion about my little ponies?" "The pony with the funny eyes already has her cutie mark, Ms. Moonbeam!" said Cloudchaser, a filly with with a messy light blue mane.
Ditzy winced at the "funny eyes" remark but cheered up when Ms. Moonbeam spoke, "How great! What's your special talent dear?" she said tenderly.
"Bubbles!" Ditzy exclaimed excitedly.
There was a short pause until one of the three colts that had bullied her before spoke out, "That's lame!"
The other fillies laughed and all spoke out in agreement.
"Dumb-bell! That's not nice at all! apologize this instant!" Ms. Moonbeam said angrily.
"Sorry...uh... I don't know her name." the gray colt said flatly.
The other fillies snickered as the mare spoke, "Her name is Ditzy. Now apologize." Ms. Moonbeam responded sternly.
"Sorry Ditzy..." he spoke again.
"More like Derpy with those eyes." the tall colt said to the two others, who who snickered in response.
"Hoops, did you say something?" Ms. Moonbeam said, shooting a menacing look at the pegasus.
"No, Ms. Moonbeam." he replied quickly.
"Good. Now Ditzy, are you okay?" she said gingerly, addressing Ditzy this time.
"Yeah, I'm fine..." Ditzy replied glumly with her head down.
"No need to feel bad dear, blowing bubbles is a great talent! Its very..... um, fun!" she said for lack of a better word.
"Yeah, its really cool that you even have a cutie mark! I know I wish I had mine..." Rainbow said encouragingly, with a hint of jealousy in her voice.
Ditzy looked up and smiled at Dash. Then, she suddenly raised up her head and hugged her. "Thanks Dashie!" she spoke, smiling radiantly.
Dash smiled too and hugged he back.
"Dashie," she thought to herself, "I think I like that name."
The next few classes seemed to lag on for Rainbow Dash. She tried her best to keep her head up and pay attention to Ms. Moonbeam, but with all of the thoughts of her new friends racing around in her head, she always seemed to zone out and only hear little bits of what the mare was saying.
After what seemed like eternity, Dash finally snapped back to reality just in time to hear Ms. Moonbeam say, "Well fillies, we've been working hard today, haven't we? I think it's about time for recess!"
After those very words, all of the fillies cheered in delight and then proceeded to zoom straight out of the classroom windows, and up into the beautiful blue sky. "If only they were this eager in class." Ms. Moonbeam thought to herself.
"Freedom! Dash thought to herself as she soared through the great open sky. She felt the great sensation that flying always brought her, the wind flowing through her mane, the air underneath her feathered wings, and the warm sun beating down on her entire body. "This is how life is meant to be spent." she thought to herself once more.
She stopped her flying for a moment to look around and notice the rest of the ponies, who were also busy speeding around the skies. All of the fillies were flying around doing barrel rolls, backflips and nose dives, playing tag games and racing, and overall just enjoying themselves.
In the crowds though, she also noticed Gilda and Derpy, who were merely flying in place with worried looks on their faces. She zipped over beside Gilda and said "What's wrong with you two, you guys look worried?"
"It's Fluttershy," Gilda responded, shaking her head, "She's too scared to come out and fly in front of other ponies."
"What? That's ridiculous! Don't worry, I'll talk to her and get her out here in no time!" Dash said confidently.
"Alright, just be gentle with her. She's really shy and we don't want her to have another meltdown like before." Gilda replied cautiously.
"Oh, I'll be gentle alright!" Dash said dangerously as she zoomed off to the window where Fluttershy was looking through.
"This isn't going to end well..." Gilda said to herself, shaking her head once more.
Rainbow zig-zagged around the scattered groups of ponies until she came to the window where a certain yellow pegasus was sitting.
"Hey Fluttershy, come out and fly like the rest of us! The stupid weather ponies haven't made it this nice outside in months!" Dash yelled to Fluttershy.
"Oh, um, no thanks Rainbow Dash. I, um, I.......pulled my leg!" Fluttershy said sheepishly, "Yeah, that's it, uh, ow ow, this hurts a lot. I better stay on the ground for a while and uh, p-protect this window."
"No way, Jose! You're flying whether you like it or not!" Dash immediately jumped out and grabbed Fluttershy, attempting to pull her out of the window.
"NO! RAINBOW DASH, PLEASE STOP! LET GO! I CAN'T FLY WITH EVERYPONY LOOKING AT ME!" Fluttershy screamed, as she tried her hardest to free herself from Dash's grasp.
"This is the first time that I've ever heard Fluttershy raise her voice before," Rainbow thought to herself, "But I can't let her just sit here, she needs to get over this fear.
"Fluttershy (rrrrrrgg)! Nopony (rrrrrrrgg), is going to judge you (rrrrrrgg)! Dash said while continuing to pull on the resisting pegasus.
"Dashie you don't understand! I can't fly in front of other ponies, I simply can't! Not even in front of my own parents!" the yellow filly pleaded, as she could feel the last of her strength draining.
"Well you're going to start, right, NOW!" Dash said. Right then, she managed to yank the frightened pony out of the window. Unfortunately for her though, the yellow filly tightly grasped the cyan pegasus by the waist, and refused to budge.
"Pleaseputmedownpleaseputmedownpleaseputmedownpleaseputmedown!" Fluttershy squeaked, covering her eyes in fear.
"Fluttershy, you need to learn to-" Rainbow Dash began, but stopped when she heard horribly familiar snickering coming from behind her. Dash spun around, still with Fluttershy holding on to her tightly, to see the same three group of colts from before.
"Wow. Just wow. You losers have managed to surprise me with your dorkyness, but this? Now this is just plain pathetic! A pegasus who can't even fly? That's the most sad thing that I've ever seen!" the tall one snickered. Dash remembered Ms. Moonbeam calling him Hoops.
Dash turned her head to Fluttershy, who looked like she was on the verge of another breakdown. She was sniffiling, tears were forming around her eyes, and her bottom lip was trembling dangerously. Rainbow had had just about enough of these bullies.
"Why can't you jerks just leave us alone!" Dash turned back to him and said hotly.
"Why don't you make us?" Hoops replied, flying a bit closer to Rainbow. "If you're so tough, how 'bout you prove it? How about you fight me and show everybody just how tough you really are?" he said a bit louder, still inching forwards closer to Rainbow Dash.
"This is bad," Dash thought to herself, "I'll get my flank hoofed to me if I try to fight him. There has to be a way out of this. Then, Dash suddenly remembered Fluttershy's excuse. "It's worth a shot." Rainbow thought to herself.
"Yeah, well, I would fight you but pulled my kicking leg. It wouldn't be a fair fight, right?" she said sheepishly.
"That's a load of baloney! You're just to chicken to fight me, aren't you?" the colt taunted.
Those words hung in the air for what seemed like hours.
Dash could deal with the teasing, but nopony, NOPONY called her a chicken. Dash was right about to tackle Hoops and clobber him with her hooves, when a brilliant idea popped into her mind.
"How about a race?" Dash said cooly, showing no signs of her previous animosity what so ever.
"A race, eh?" the colt pondered, raising his eyebrow, "Heh, you may be on to something rainbow head. Alright, you're on!" the colt said confidently.
Dash looked up and thought to herself, "Thank Celestia, that was close!"
She looked back up at Hoops and thought, "I'm not out of the woods yet though."
Rainbow and Hoops stood, knees bent, and eyes locked forward in eager anticipation of the race. They both stood on the highest cloud outside of the school, miles above they ground The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Fillies, big and small had all come around to see what all of the commotion was about. They whispered to one another, some were even trying to make bets on the winner.the little ones were all really excited to see an actual race, and they all eagerly chatted and giggled with each other. The older ones seemed to be a bit more nonchalant about the whole thing, but stayed to see it none the less for lack of something better to do. "Alright everypony, settle down, settle down!" the filly Thunderlane spoke, "It's about time we got this show in the road." Everypony began to quiet down and listen as the little pegasus began to explain the race in detail. "The race will be from this starting cloud, to the school and back. We're about two miles away from it now, so you two better be ready to flap your wings like crazy. Are you guys ready?" Thunderlane asked. They both nodded. "Alright then. On your mark...." Rainbow dig her hooves into the cloud, breathing slowly and incredibly focused. ".....Get set....." Rainbow could feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She was ready and she knew it. "You can do this." she thought to herself, "It's now or never." But right then, something caught her eye. A colt, with a black mane and a beautiful blue coat. Her eyes locked with his. For just a brief moment, time stopped. Rainbow had never felt like this before, a strange, unwarranted feeling went through her. Butterflies started forming in her stomach, and she felt a sudden rush of blood in her head. "GO!!!!!!!!" the little Pegasus yelled. Hoops immidiatley launched himself forward, stretching out his wings and zoomed forward towards the school. Dash was startled out of her trance, and gasped when she saw that Hoops had taken the leed. Rainbow sprang forward off the cloud and zoomed towards the school as well to try to catch up with Hoops. She flew as fast as her little wings could carry her, zipping by the clouds with facile ease. This was her time, these were the moments that she lived for. She was in the zone. The longer she flew, the faster she got, gaining on Hoops with every second. They were almost at the school now, and Rainbow could almost touch Hoops's tail. Dash flew faster and faster until she was flying at the same level as the young colt. Right when the rainbow headed filly was about to ever take the cocky little pegasus though, it happened again. The image of the colt just appeared in Dash's head in a flash. That beautiful blue coat, that soft, dazzling mane, and those absolutely breath-taking green eyes. He was mesmirizing. *CRASH!!!!* Rainbow was once again aroused from her fantasy and was brought back to reality, this time a lot less pleasantly. While she had been absent-mindedly flying, she forgot that she had been quickly approaching the school building. Very quickly in fact, and before she could stop herself, she crashed face first into the concrete of the building, and right on impact she blacked out and began to fall. She woke up a few minutes later to find herself lying on her stomach on a cloud underneath the school building. "Oh......What happened........ I don't even...." she began, but stopped when she noticed a large group of fillies above her. "Rainbow, are you okay?" Gilda said, rushing out of the crowd with a concerned look on her face. "Oh Celestia! You have a huge bruise on your head!" she said, still very worried. She wasn't listening to her. Rainbow didn't care about the bruise on her head, but the one on her pride. That would take a lot longer to heal. "I lost, didn't I." Rainbow muttered, looking straight down and not wanting to meet Gilda's eyes. Gilda looked down too, "At least you tried. When you guys got to the school, you almost passed him!" she tried to say encouragingly. "It doesn't matter what I almost did, I lost. I failed." Dash responded, voice trembling and tears swelling in her eyes. Gilda was about to respond, but was quickly interrupted by the mocking voice of a colt, "HA, HA, HA! Nice going Rainbow CRASH! Maybe you should wear a helmet next time," Hoops mocked, "or maybe you shouldn't mess with ponies out of your league! How about you learn to fly before actin' all tough and tryin' to race ponies." That was it. Hoops might as well have taken a hammer and demolished the scraps of pride that Rainbow Dash had left. After hearing those words, Dashie couldn't contain herself anymore. She put her face in her hooves and began to bawl worse than Fluttershy, breaking out in I controllable sobs. "Oh, is the little foal gonna cry now? Boohoohoo! I guess you're a cry-foal AND a pathetic flier! You're a discrace to Cloudsdale, loser!" Hoops continued to mock. Gilda couldn't, and WOULDN'T just stand there and let the friend that she had tried so hard to make today, be antagonized by some feather brained jerk. She marched strait over to Hoops and screamed, "HEY! THAT'S MY FRIEND YOU'RE TALKING TO! YOU'VE BEEN THE BIGGEST JERK EVER THIS WHOLE DAY, SO HOW ABOUT YOU JUST BUCK OFF AND LEAVE US ALONE!!!!!" Hoops was stunned. Rainbow was stunned. The entire crowd of fillies were stunned. There was silence for a while, with the only interruptions being the sniffles from Rainbow Dash as she wiped her eyes and nose. Hoops quickly stammered, "Stupid Giffon loser, I'm sick of being disrespected!" Hoops grabbed Gilda shoved her face into the clouds. He was a out to strike her across the face with his hoof until a voice made him stop on his tracks. "Hoops, don't even think about it." The voice said calmly. There was nothing threatening about it, but it had a certain tone to it. One that seemed to take the attention of Hoops at least. Hoops sighed, "Fine, Spitfire." He released Gilda and flew back over to his other two cronies. Gilda and Dash both looked for the source of the voice that had likely saved them both, when she stepped out towards them. She had a glistening golden coat, and fiery red mane, and a light smile in her face. "Hi, I'm Spitfire." she spoke smoothly. She looked older than Rainbow by about four years. She was tall, and had her mane straight and tidy. (A first, I know) "I'm Gilda, thanks for the save, you really saved my flank there." Gilda said a bit embarrassed. "Any day, especially for a Griffon as brave as yourself. It takes a lot of guts to stand up for you friends and be willing to put yourself on the line for them." Spitfire said smiling. She turned to Rainbow, "What about you? Are you okay? That was quite the crash you had there." "I'm fine, I just didn't look where I was going, that was all." Rainbow said weakly. "Well I'm glad to hear that, but I wasn't talking about that, I meant if you're okay, you know, emotionally. By the way, what's your name?" Spitfire inquired. "Rainbow Dash, and yeah I'm okay." Rainbow said, trying not to sound like a total wuss in front of Spitfire. "Fitting name." Spitfire chuckled. She put on a more serious face though when she turned to Hoops and his gang. "I don't want to see you three messing with her again, or there will be consequences." Spitfire said in that same voice she had used to command them before, "Do I make myself clear?" "Yeah, yeah." Hoops responded for the three of them. "Good, now let's get back to class, we're all almost late." Spitfire spoke to everypony. With that, the crowd had dispersed and went back to the classrooms.
Rainbow Dash and Gilda trotted down the halls of the large school building towards the nurse's office. Dash had lied to the teacher and said that she bumped her head while trying to do a trick, as not to have to bring back anymore of the humiliating event. Ms. Moonbeam didn't object and sent her off to the nurse in a hurry, and at the last second, Gilda slipped out with her.
They walked in silence for a majority of the time, but when they got to the door of the nurse's office, Gilda spoke up, "You're really a good flier." she said, trying to sound upbeat.
Rainbow Dash stared back at her skeptically.
"No, I'm serious! Up until the um, you know..... accident, you had one of the best flying forms I've seen!" Gilda replied sincerely.
"Yeah, suuuuure. You don't have to pity me Gilda, I'm just another wannabee," she said sullenly, the under her breath she muttered, "I'll never get into the Wonderbolts."
Gilda stopped and looked right at Rainbow, "You're not a wannabee. You're a great flier who got bad luck. I'm sure you'd beat that stupid Hoops colt's flank any day!" she said confidently.
Rainbow lifted her head and smiled weakly, "You really mean it?"
"Of course I do!" Gilda half shouted, "You may not be as good as me, but fliers as good as myself are pretty hard to come by." she went on arrogantly.
Rainbow regained her confidence and a bit of her pride to boost, "Yeah right! I could take you with one wing tied behind my back!"
"You're full of baloney! I said you're good but not me good." Gilda replied with a cocky smile.
"And just how good is you good?" Rainbow asked sarcastically.
"Better than you, that's for sure!" Gilda laughed.
"Oh yeah, well I-" Dash started hotly, but abruptly stopped as she pressed her hoof to the bruise on her head and groaned.
"Don't get to worked up there, hotshot. You may need that head someday." Gilda joked.
Rainbow recollected herself, "Ha,ha,ha. That was so funny I forgot to laugh. When I get my head right, the first thing that I'm doing is leaving you in my dust in a race." she said to Gilda.
"You beating me? That's better than anything I could ever come up with. Congrats, you win the comedy prize!" Gilda replied smugly, continuing to poke fun at Rainbow Dash.
"Whatever, let's just get this over with." Dash said beaten as they had finally reached the nurse's office.
They opened the door to see a small room, containing nothing but a desk, a few chairs, two small beds, and a pink coated unicorn. "A unicorn? Dash thought to herself, "That's strange." Regardless, the two friends continued through the door and towards the pink mare. Her mane was vanilla white and her eyes were a rather soft shade of orange. Once the two had reached her desk, she spoke out gingerly and smiling, "Can I help you two?"
Gilda spoke up first, "My friend hit her head against a wall, and now she has a big bruise on her head. We were just wondering if we could have some ice."
"Well of course you can. But please, come over here and have me take a look at it first, okay?" she asked softly.
Rainbow obeyed and walked around the desk to let the nurse examine her bruise. "Oh my!" the nurse exclaimed, "How in Equestria did this happen to you?" she asked concerned.
Rainbow emidiatley felt her face turn red as she painfully thought back to the race, or more specifically the crash. While these bad thoughts began to reappear in her head, one thing did pop back into her mind though. That colt with the beep blue coat and the black mane. When she thought of his face, she got this wired feeling. Her knees would start to shake and she would blush uncontrolably. Suddenly, her wings shot straight out and remained stiff. She snapped back to reality and blushed hard when she noticed both Gilda and the nurse struggling to stifle their laughter. She immediately tried to push her wings back down with her hooves, but to no avail. This only added to embarrassment of the situation.
"No worries dear, it's just natural, nothing to be embarrassed about!" the nurse said as she smiled meekly, "But I would like to know how that bruise appeared on you head."
"I was just trying to do a trick outside and I didn't look where I was flying. No big deal really." Rainbow said as cool as she could with a stiff pair of wings.
"Well it is a big deal, or a big bruise really. You'll need a bit more than Ice to fix yourself up. Here, let me put a bandage over it." the nurse said sweetly.
"Oh great," Dash thought to herself, "A big band aid on my head, now I'll look tough for sure."
As the pink unicorn went into a closet to get a bandage for Rainbow, Gilda walked over to Dashie and snickered. "Wow, nice stiffy Rainbow!" she whispered rather loudly, "I didn't think you were into mares !" she laughed.
"Shut up!" Dash said hotly as she nudged Gilda in the side with her hoof, "and I'm not into mares, I was just thinking of someone." Dash said.
Immediately she wished she could have taken those words back as Gilda's eyes widened and her grin got even bigger.
"Really? Who is he? What does he look like? Does he have a nice flank?" she began to inquire. Rainbow faced hoofed.
"Why the hay did I say that out loud."
"Becuase you want me to help you get with whoever it is." Gilda said, trying to coax Rainbow.
"No way! If anything you would just try to embarrass me in front of him!" Dash protested.
"Exactly, now help me help you help me." Gilda said grinning even wider at the newest way to torture Rainbow.
"Yes..., I mean no, I mean..... dear Celestia, I don't even know his name!" Dash exclaimed in exasperation.
"Know whose name?" the nurse's sweet voice chimed as she came back to the two little ones.
"Rainbow Dash's crubilifrbrgshir," Gilda tried to spit out, but Rainbow was too quick and instantly wrapped her hooves around Gilda's beak.
"Nobody!" Dash blurted out quickly, and added an awkward, unconvincing smile.
"I'll never understand fillies your age," the unicorn chuckled to herself, "Alright, let me see that bump again.
Rainbow slowly let go of Gilda and began to stare her down menacingly. She then moved her hoof to her lips and made a zipping motion, telling Gilda to keep her mouth shut. Gilda simply smirked and nodded her head in compliance.
After that small turn of events, Rainbow walked back towards the nurse, and had her forehead wrapped up in bandages. The nurse gave her an ice pack to put on the bruise as well, and Rainbow quickly scooped it into her hooves and placed it carefully on her welt, quickly relieving her pain.
Rainbow turned back to Gilda, "How do I look?" she asked.
"Like you just flew through the rough part of Manehattan with a 'kick me' sign on your back." Gilda joked again.
"And more comedic gold from Glilda the Griffin!" Rainbow retaliated, rolling her eyes.
"I'll be here all week!" Gilda responded, taking a bow as both of the fillies laughed.
"I can see you two having multiple visits to my office this year," the nurse finally spoke up as she raised her eyebrow, "If you two ever need a little fixing up, I'm always in my office. My name is Miss Sugarcrest by the way, what about you two?"
"I'm Rainbow Dash, and this is Gilda." Rainbow said exuberantly, speaking for both of them.
"Rainbow Dash and Gilda, what nice names! I'm sure that I'll have no problem remembering you two. Anyway, let's try to keep the visits here at a minimum, not that I wouldn't love your company, but another bump like that and you'd be in pretty bad shape. Well, have a nice day you two!" Miss Sugarcrest said as she gave each of them a lollipop and sent them back on their way to class.
"Wow, thanks Miss Sugarcrest!" the fillies said in unison as they took the lollipops and left back into the hallways.
The two walked for a bit, up the stairs to the 3rd floor where there class was.
When they made it to the 3rd floor, Gilda asked Rainbow in between licks of her lollipop, "Okay seriously, who is it? This has been bugging me for the past five minutes, just tell me!"
"I already said I don't know his name," Dash said exasperated.
"Then just tell me what he looks like! Come on, first day and you're already getting wing boners for some colt you've never even met before? He must look good." Gilda begged, trying to extract as much information from Rainbow Dash as she possibly could.
Rainbows face went red at "wing boners."
"I don't really wanna talk about him now, it's been a long day and I-" Rainbow began, until Gilda suddenly interrupted, "Is it Hoops?"
"OH HAY NO!!!! WHY WOULD I EVER- " Dash started in an uproar.
"Kidding." Gilda said snickering.
Rainbow returned the joke with a piercing, unamused glare at Gilda.
"But if you don't tell me who it really is," Gilda continued, "I can never be sure."
Dash had her back against the wall on this one. She was beat and she knew it.
"Fine," she began, "He looks like, well...um.... he has a black mane." Rainbow stuttered, and looked up at Gilda, who had an unsatisfied look on her face.
"Well that sure is helpful," Gilda spoke sarcastically, "Just point him out when we get to class."
"Well, I don't think he's in our class." Rainbow said to Gilda, scratching the back of her head with her hoof and offering a weak smile.
Gilda grinned and her eyes lit up once more, "Someone older? Ooh, I'll keep my eye out for an older colt with a black mane." Gilda spoke, then muttered under her breath, "Like there aren't a million of those."
Rainbow just brushed off her comments, then she and Gilda opened the door and walked back into the class room, both of their little heads filled with an array of thoughts.
