Cloudsdale, the Untold Story

Cloudsdale Junior Speedster Flight School, 7:55 A.M., Monday, August 20th, 2001, 10 years ago

“Good luck on your first day honey. Don’t get yourself into any trouble. Always listen to what the teachers say.”

“Mom, calm down. It’s not like I’m leaving Cloudsdale forever.” Rainbow looked up at the sign on the top of the building. “I’m finally here. I’m gonna be the greatest flier to come out of Cloudsdale!”

She walked up to the front door and began slowly opening it. Peering her head inside, looking in awe at the new adventure that lied before her. Rainbow Dash only took a few steps into the building until she saw three male ponies walking directly towards her. One of them was a dark brown pony with a dumbbell for a cutie mark. Another was a large gray pony with a black mane and three footballs for a cutie mark. The third, who seemed to be leading the pack, had a light-brown coat with a brunette mane. The one in the middle walked up to Rainbow Dash, standing over her. “You must be one of the freshies this year. What’s your name?” The three ponies stood over her, staring at her, but Rainbow dash wasn’t bothered by it.

“The name’s Rainbow Dash, and I’m gonna be the greatest flier to come outta Cloudsdale.” She said happily while pointing her nose in the air with confidence.

The three ponies laughed at her, hysterically. “You? Best flier outta Cloudsdale? No way, you’re just a girl.” The three began laughing at her again.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Rainbow screamed at the three bullies before her.

“It means that because you’re a girl, you will never be a great flier. Because boys are obviously better fliers then girls.” said the large gray pony.

“Oh yeah?! Why don’t I prove that I’m a better flier than you?!”

“A race, after school, the three of us against you. Don’t be late.”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll be early! I’ll be the first one there! I’ll bring an audience, just so they can see you all lose!”

The three ponies walked away laughing at Rainbow dash. “What is wrong with those boys?” she wondered, angrilly, “I’ll show them. They’ll get what they deserve!”

Rainbow stood in the hall for a while, staring at the ground. When suddenly, *RRIIINNGG* “Oh my gosh! I need to get to class!” She scurried down the hall into a small classroom. Every desk was taken but one in the corner. Sitting next to that desk was a pony with a familiar face to Rainbow Dash. “It’s that yellow filly from before!” she thought, in surprise.

The teacher walked up to Rainbow, “Hello, welcome to Physics of Aerodynamics. I’m guessing you’re Rainbow Dash. Please have a seat over there by Fluttershy in the corner so we can get class started.”

Rainbow Dash walked over to the empty seat. She looked over at Fluttershy, who was looking at Rainbow Dash, but Fluttershy quickly looked away when she made eye contact with Rainbow.

“Alright class, welcome to your first day of Physics of Aerodynamics. Now ,for our first lesson of the day I need all of you to find a partner.”

Everypony in the room started scattering around the room trying to get with their friends, but nopony went towards Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash. “This is my chance to make a friend here.” Rainbow thought to herself. She tried moving her desk towards Fluttershy, but the desk wouldn’t budge. Rainbow fell out of the desk with a loud thump.

Fluttershy looked down at her. “Are you okay?” She asked

“I’m fine.” Rainbow said while getting up.

“Did you not see the desks are bolted to floor?”

“No, but how did you know that?

“Sometimes you just gotta stop to see the small things.”

“Okay everypony, for our first activity we will need to step outside. Everypony get with their partners.” The teacher led the class through a pair of double doors out to an elevated platform with a seesaw next to it. “Alright, this exercise is all about picking up speed based on the way you fly. One pony will jump off the top of the platform and land on the seesaw, which will launch their partner into the air. Once you get to the height that of the platform, start flapping your wings. If you do it right you should get the highest possible speed from this exercise. You and your partner will each take a turn to do both parts. Who wants to go first?”

Rainbow Dash stood and started jumping up and down ecstatically. “Oh, we do! Me and Fluttershy do!”

“Good, now one of you get to the top and get ready to jump off.”

“I’ll be the first to jump off.” Rainbow said “Fluttershy, you go get yourself on the see-saw.” The two ponies readied themselves on the platform and seesaw. “Tell me when you’re ready Fluttershy!”

“Um, I’m ready. I mean, if that’s okay with you.” Rainbow Dash jumped off and landed on the other end of the seesaw, launching Fluttershy into the air. Fluttershy flapped her wings as hard as she could, but only managed to land on the platform.”

“It’s okay!” Yelled the teacher, “Not every pony can do it on their first try.”

Rainbow Dash worked her way from one end of the seesaw to the other. “Ready when you are, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy looked down at the platform, squeaked, took a few steps back, and started shaking.

"Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy looked down at Rainbow. “This is really high up...”

“Come on Fluttershy, just jump. Trust me, if you jump off you will be safe.”

Fluttershy stood on top of the platform, shaking for a few seconds. Then she squeaked again, closed her eyes, and jumped off. She landed on the seesaw and launched Rainbow off of her end. Rainbow Dash flew into the air, sped up, and started doing flips and barrel rolls, then landed down on the ground next to Fluttershy. “See, I told you you’d be fine. Come on, let’s go watch the rest of the class.”

“What class do you have next?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, um, I’m in formation flying next.”

“Oh, well, I’m in tricks class next. So I guess I will see you in 1st hour every day.”

“Okay class,” the teacher spoke up, “it looks like that’s all the time we have today.”

“Okay, well, see yah later Fluttershy.” Rainbow walked out of the classroom and pulled her school schedule out of her bag. “Let’s see, my next class is tricks class, which is in room 115. Alright lets get going.” She walked down the hall until she saw a large pair of double doors with the number 115 next to it. Stepping through the door, she walked into a large room with an obstacle course, a cloud ring course, and a sprinting course. Rainbow Dash looked around the room, looking at what she found to be the most amazing training course she had ever seen. And standing at the beginning of the sprint course, was none other then the flaming maned, dark-grey alicorn colt. He was racing one of the three bullies.

“I hope you run faster then you can fly with those tiny wings of yours.” He taunted the large gray bully.

“Shut up and run!”

“Y’all ready?” The ref. asked.

“Ready!” both ponies yelled out, with their hooves ready to run, and their eyes staring at the finish line.

“On yer marks, get set, GO!”

Both ponies sprinted past the starting line; the flaming maned pony was quickly pulling ahead. The gray pony desperately tried catching up, but he started slowing down, and collapsed just a few feet from the finish line. The alicorn walked up to the gray bully, watching him gasp for breath.

The dark-grey alicorn looking down at the other pony in pity, “See, you’re all bark and no bite. If you’re going to pick on such an innocent little pony like Fluttershy, you at least should have the skills to back it up.” He scowled at the pony on the ground, and walked away.

Rainbow Dash quickly flew up and caught up to him. “Wow, that was awesome! You showed that pony!”

“He was picking on another innocent pony named Fluttershy this morning. The poor little thing was scared out of her mind.”

“Yeah, I know Fluttershy. We met last hour and became good friends. I helped her out when she got scared doing our group exercise.”

The dark-grey pony took a closer look at Rainbow, “Hey, I remember you. You’re that pony that helped me find this place. Never expected to see such a little pony like you here.”

“Hey! What is that supposed to mean?!”

“Nah, I’m kidding. You seem like a much better pony than most of the other ponies here. Hey, what’s your name?”

“My name is Rainbow Dash, and I wanna be the best flier to come outta Cloudsdale!”

“Name’s Midnight Flare, but you can just call me Midnight for short. Sorry if I made you mad, I didn’t think you would take that seriously.”

“Sorry, one of those bullies said the same exact thing to me before school today.”

“Those guys? Don’t worry about them. They’re just full of themselves. If you ask me, you should just ignore them.”

“Yeah, I might be racing the three of them after school today.”

“Do you want me to handle them?”

“I can’t let you do that! I wanna be able to prove myself. If I backed down and let someone else handle this for me, they would never let me live that down.”

“Alright, just don’t let them try anything funny. Why don’t I come

and cheer you on after school?”

“That would be great. Can’t wait to see you there.”

“I think we’re gonna be good friends, Rainbow.”

“Me too Midnight. Hey, let’s have a hoof race! Loser pays for

lunch.”

“Good idea. Get ready to pay for lunch, Dash.”