It all started the first day Gilda went to Flight School in Cloudsdale. Everyone knew that the ponies had the best schools in the world, or at least that having a degree from one of their schools opened a lot of doors later in life.

That wasn't something Gilda cared about. What she cared about was that she was stuck somewhere lame, with a bunch of lame ponies, eating lame food, and she couldn't go home until winter break!

“This is the worst,” She groaned, looking around. She was standing in the large rotunda that was the main hall of the Flight School. Everything was bright and pastel, the roof an open framework letting the sunlight and wind inside, along with a few ponies who were brave enough to come in from above. Even if it wasn't full of pegasai keeping the weather away, very few clouds managed to get high enough to attempt to rain down on the school.

“Make a hole!” Somepony screamed. Ponies started diving for cover. Gilda turned around, confused, just in time for a cyan and rainbow blur to slam into her at high speed. She went tumbling to the ground, sliding a dozen paces into a wall and cracking her skull on something firmer than clouds. Her vision filled with stars as she tried to stand and failed, having momentarily forgotten which direction was down.

“What in Tartarus hit me?” She groaned.

“I said to make a hole!” Gilda's chest said. It felt heavy for some reason. She looked at it. A pony was hanging from it. No, wait. Standing on it. She was just upside-down. It explained why she couldn't stand up.

“You ran into me,” Gilda said, shaking her head to clear it. “Why the buck didn't you watch where you were going?!”

“I did! And I yelled for you to get out of the way! It's not my fault you're too slow!” The pony jumped up and down on Gilda's chest, driving the air from her lungs. Gilda grunted and grabbed her front hoof, throwing her across the room.

“Get off me!” Gilda roared, finally getting her paws under her. She still felt like someone was trying to mine for gold in her skull. “Idiot, crashing into things without even looking...”

“Hey! I don't crash!” The pony got up, frowning and walking back up to Gilda, getting up in her face fearlessly. “I'm the best flier here and everypony knows it!”

Gilda felt her feathers ruffle. The pony was half her size and refused to back down. It was the first day of school, and she had to make sure she started out on top. In a griffon school that meant fighting the toughest hen in the bunch. Which, Gilda realized, was probably exactly what this pony was trying to do. She smirked.

“More like the worst,” Gilda said. “I don't see any other ponies who forgot how to land. Maybe we should get you a helmet so you won't hurt yourself!”

The pony growled, her rainbow mane standing on end. “Oh that's it. You're going down!” She jumped at Gilda, punching her in the beak. Gilda reared up, grabbing her and pulling her into a ground match, raking her with her back claws, just hard enough to hurt. Her claws were mostly blunt from disuse anyway, but she didn't want to kill her.

“Ah!” the pony yelled, bucking with both of her back legs, getting Gilda in the gut and knocking her away. The griffon rolled and stood up, facing the pony before pouncing on her, taking a hoof to the eye and slamming the pony into the floor.

There was a blinding light and crash of thunder.

“What is going on here?!” A pony screamed, the light suddenly dark as storm clouds loomed over the rotunda. Gilda looked up to see a teacher glaring down at them.

“Aw buck,” Gilda groaned.

***

Half an hour later, Gilda could barely see out of her right eye because of the swelling, and her ribs were so tender she had to hold her wing away from her side. The pegasus she'd been fighting with was in almost as bad shape, with bandages around her stomach where Gilda had given her shallow cuts and her forehoof splinted from where it had sprained. The principal paced in front of them, giving them glares as she turned to face them.

“In all my years as principal, I have never had two students start a fight like that, and on the very first day of school!” Miss Direction huffed. “I should have both of you expelled. It would be well within my rights.”

“No! You can't!” The cyan pegasus said, suddenly panicked. “If I get kicked out of flight school I'll never join the Wonderbolts!”

“Rainbow Dash, with your record of trouble-making you'll be lucky if they don't have one look at your permanent record and throw your application out the window and into the sun!” Miss Direction snapped. “And as for you, Gilda, an exchange student should be more polite and respectful! You're representing the other griffons and need to be on your best behavior!”

“She started it!” Gilda protested, pointing at Rainbow Dash.

“No, she started it! I was just flying and she wouldn't get out of the way!” Dash yelled, glaring at Gilda.

“Yelling 'make a hole' isn't just flying! You were asking to hurt someone!”

“Ponies know to get out of the way when I'm in a hurry!”

“Well I'm not a-”

“That's it!” Miss Direction snapped. “One more word out of either of you and I will have you expelled after all! Is that understood?!” Gilda and Dash nodded quickly. “Good.” She sighed and went back to her desk. “It's clear what the real issue is here. Both of you learn to get along with others. Since both of you are boarding here, I'm changing your room assignments. You will get to know each other very well by the end of the year, if you don't kill each other.” She started filling out some paperwork. “At least if you're roommates I can keep you from getting others involved.”

***

“This is stupid!” Dash yelled, throwing her bag onto the bed. “Because of you I don't get to room with Flutters anymore!”

“Please,” Gilda rolled her eyes, setting her own bag on the ground. “You're the one who decided to turn it into a fight.”

“What?!” Dash turned on her. “You say that again when I don't have a sprained hoof, and I'll make sure that black eye of yours is part of a matched set!”

“Look, kid, you've got guts starting a fight on the first day of school, but you're lucky I was holding back.” Gilda turned to Rainbow Dash, glaring at her. “If I wanted I could have torn you into giblets.”

“You started the fight. And you should have known to get out of the way!” Dash started unpacking, starting by putting up wall hangings of the Wonderbolts. Gilda rolled her eyes and took a sandwich out of her lunch box, watching the pony.

“Guess you're a big fan, huh?” She asked, looking at the wall hangings. “Aren't some of those show exclusives?”

“You recognize them?” Dash asked, surprised.

“Well duh. Even I know who the Wolderbolts are. They're pretty cool. For ponies, anyway.” Gilda unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite. “I saw a show once when they were in the Kingdom doing an exhibition with the Royal Fliers.”

“Oh man I heard about that one! It was the show where they did the double inverted helix for the first time!” Dash started hopping on her bed.

“What you didn't hear is that they didn't plan on it. You should have seen the looks on their faces after they did it. They were supposed to do a normal helix, but it got messed up and they starting going the wrong way and just went with it!”

“How do you know that?” Dash asked, stopping and frowning suspiciously.

“I could hear them arguing about it. I had a seat right over their bench. I hear they got a new captain this year though.”

“Right over their bench?! But those are always VIP seats!”

“Yeah, Momma Brun paid a bundle for them. Totally worth it though.” Gilda took another bite. Dash sniffed the air.

“What is that? Potato salad?” She hopped off the bed and walked over to look. Gilda snorted and offered the pegasus the other half of the sandwich.

“Chicken,” she said, watching the pony's expression with glee. Most ponies started to freak out around a carnivore. The question would be if Dash ran away in fear or vomited. She'd seen ponies do both at once, and that was the best result of all.

“Huh,” Dash said, taking the sandwich and looking at it. “Isn't meat red?”

“No, birds are usually white and fish are a couple of different colors- what are you doing?!” Gilda watched in horror as Dash took a bite of the sandwich, chewing and thinking.

“That's not bad,” Dash said. She swallowed and took another bite. “I thought it would taste like eggs, but it's just kinda...” She thinks. “Kinda stringy and savory. Is this what griffons eat all the time?”

“It's one of the things we eat, but ponies aren't supposed to have meat!” Gilda tried to take the sandwich away from Dash. The pegasus laughed and hopped away, flapping her wings.

“Why not? This is great!” Dash stuffed her face with the rest of the sandwich so Gilda couldn't get it back, chewing loudly with her mouth open. Gilda groaned.

“I'm gonna get in so much trouble.”

Author's Note

The beginning of a beautiful friendship. This takes place a few years before season 1.

Don't worry, clop starts next chapter.

I'd like to take a moment to thank my dignity and morals. They managed to keep me from writing this story until the bitter end. Their sacrifice has not been in vain.