The small auditorium was packed with ponies standing in front of what appeared to be a stage. Gilda and Rainbow Dash were only barely able to squeeze in the back, despite the fact that there appeared to be no more than 100 pegasi in attendance. For such a large building, the room was rather small.
It had taken Gilda and Rainbow Dash a bit longer than they anticipated to get down to the room than they anticipated. They’d taken a few wrong turns, misread a few maps, and in general not been terribly efficient about the process. However, eventually they managed to find a large group to follow, and they successfully found the room in which orientation was scheduled to take place.
“I guess that this must be the place,” Rainbow Dash said to Gilda, speaking slightly louder than normal so her voice could stand out from the chatter of the others in the room. She slowly scanned the room to see if she could spot any of her friends from flight school.
“Either that or we’re all lost,” Gilda muttered.
“What was that?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking back at Gilda.
“This room seems awfully small,” Gilda remarked louder, choosing not to repeat herself. “Don’t you think they’d pick another room for the beginning of the camp?”
“Well, maybe. This could be the biggest room in the place.”
“Come on, Dash,” Gilda said, giving Rainbow Dash a disapproving glance. “You and I both saw that huge gymnasium on the way over here. They could’ve easily fit everyone in there.”
“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash trailed off, still looking about the room. She didn’t seem terribly interested in the conversation.
Gilda sighed and occupied herself by looking at the various inspirational posters that hung on the walls of the room. A picture of Spitfire, the Wonderbolt captain, performing a complex stunt with the trademark electric smoke trail hung to her left. Stylistic text of the meaning of determination was about a foot away from that. On the opposite wall, a poster of the trademark silhouettes of the current Wonderbolts show team was captioned with the words “This could be YOU!” On the opposite side of a window, there was a copy of a painting of a pegasus overlooking a colorful sunset.
Gilda looked down at her claws, silently cursing the fact that she was the only griffin here.
Just then, a brown-maned cream pegasus stallion walked out to the center of the stage, to the stomping of the young crowd.
“Good afternoon, Junior Speedsters!” the pegasus shouted over the raucous tapping of hooves on the tiled floor. “Welcome to the first day of camp!”
The crowd cheered, obviously excited something was actually happening. Gilda stood fairly silently, while Rainbow Dash joined in the eagerness.
“I’m honored to have you all here, and I bet this graduating class of Junior Speedsters will be our best yet!” Now the adult pegasus was just reveling in the applause of the younger, overeager students. “My name is High Octane, and I’m the head of admissions here at Junior Speedsters. I’ve read all about each and every one of you, and I can guarantee you that the pegasus to your left or to your right has immense amounts of talent.” Gilda groaned while the ponies all cheered wildly. “It’s my pleasure to introduce you to former Wonderbolts captain, winner of four Canterlot Derbies, and camp director here at Junior Speedsters, Ms. Hurricane Gale!”
The stomps were louder than ever before. A pale red mare with a dark green mane walked from the side of the stage to the center, raising a wing in acknowledgement of the din. She waited for her audience to settle, then began to speak.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, to reiterate what High Octane said, welcome to Junior Speedsters flight camp!” The crowd cheered again, but Hurricane Gale quieted them with a wave of her wing. “Please, while I know you’re excited, we’ve got a packed schedule today, and I think we’d all like to get through the boring stuff as quickly as possible.”
Hurricane Gale shook out her torso in order to relax, then began in a fairly rehearsed voice. “As you all know thanks to my friend Octane’s introduction, I am Hurricane Gale, former captain of the Wonderbolts show team, as well as former racing star. However, this camp is not about me or my accomplishments. It’s about all of you. It’s about helping you become the best flyers you can possibly be, whether that be the fastest or the most skilled, or an awesome mix of both, like myself.” Hurricane Gale stuck a confident pose on the last line, eliciting some giggles from the crowd.
“We’ve got some of the best flyers in Equestria here at this camp to help all of you reach the peak of your potential, and by the end of camp you’ll have worked with several former Wonderbolts, as well as expert flyers who chose other routes in life.” Hurricane Gale glanced at High Octane, who was still standing off to the side of the stage. High Octane gave a sheepish grin in reply.
“In addition to learning from the best of the best, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to show off your skills to your fellow Speedsters, whether in competitive races or in showcases.
“Speaking of showing off, I’d like to remind all of you that the boys and girls dorms are in fact separate from each other in quite distinctive ways, so if you’re caught in the dorm areas of the opposite gender outside of approved free time hours, getting lost is not a valid excuse.” Hurricane Gale cast a fairly intimidating stare into the audience, and a few colts shifted from side to side. Gilda snickered silently, and Rainbow Dash blushed a bit. “Also, every dorm room has its own shower for a reason, and we recommend you make use of it if you plan on talking to anypony without them turning around and flying away screaming.” A few nervous giggles.
Hurricane Gale continued. “Your schedule for the camp will be given to you in a few moments when we break off into small groups. You’ll want to mark off on your maps where you need to be, and you’ll want to keep your maps on your pony for probably the first week at the very least. If you ever get lost, look for a staff member wearing one of these staff badges, and they’ll do their best to help you get where you need to go.”
Hurricane Gale broke from her still position, switching from a straight face to a gentle smile. “Keeping that in mind, I’ll let High Octane instruct you on what we’ll be doing next. Enjoy your time here, Speedsters!”
The crowd stomped loudly, though not quite as loudly as when Hurricane Gale was first introduced. She made her way off the stage to the left, while High Octane once again took center stage.
“Like Hurricane Gale said, we’ll be breaking off into your small group shortly, but before we do so, we have a little song we like to sing here at Junior Speedsters flight camp, and we’d like to teach it to you. Do you want to learn it?”
The floor shook with the stomps of all the young pegasi in the room. Gilda grimaced and put her face in her claw.
“Well, I’m going to need some help with this. Why don’t you help me in welcoming the staff of Junior Speedsters flight camp onto the stage?”
The crowd whooped as fourteen pegasi walked out on stage and stood in an arc with High Octane at the center. Gilda recognized a few of them as former Wonderbolts. They all were smiling incredibly large smiles, and a few of them even slapped wings as they stood waiting for their cue.
“Ready, staff?” A few grunts of approval and several nodding heads.
High Octane began to chant, and the other members of the staff joined in fairly quickly.
Junior Speedsters are our lives!
Skybound soars and daring dives!
Junior Speedsters, it’s our quest
To someday be the very best!
“Now you try!”
The chant repeated, much to the chagrin of Gilda. Rainbow Dash joined in eagerly, while Gilda kicked at the ground with her claw and waited for the whole thing to be over.
“That was great! Do you guys want to learn the dance, too?”
Gilda groaned and buried her face in both claws. The room was soon filled with twirling pegasi bumping into each other, and Gilda almost got poked in the eye by the hoof of a blue colt who immediately apologized while backing away slowly. She followed along half-heartedly, mostly for the sake of not being run into by those who were actually dancing along. She stole a glance over at Dash, who had a mile-wide grin on her face as she joined in the revelry. Gilda rolled her eyes and looked back to the stage just as the chant was finishing up its fifth circuit.
“Okay, while I’m sure we’d all like to keep singing together,” Gilda glanced at the doorway, which was separated from her by only a few feet and one or two pegasi, “we now need to break off into our smaller groups.
“If you’re in dorms one through six, mares or stallions, you’re going with Feather Flight and Eagle Eye to the gymnasium.” One of the pegasi on stage, a brown stallion, waved a wing while the mare next to him smiled brightly at the crowd. A few of the campers shuffled towards the door as the two teachers made their way off the stage.
High Octane continued reading off the list of dorm room and teacher combinations, ending with dorms 20-25 going with Icy Rush and Warm Wind.
Rainbow Dash motioned to Gilda from approximately two ponies away. “We’re in room 24, that’s us,” she shouted over the din of everypony in the room talking about the opening of the camp.
“Got it, thanks,” Gilda said, a tad bit sardonically. She turned to the door and walked towards it as several ponies got out of her way. Nopony wanted to be in front of the big bad griffin. Gilda sighed as she exited the auditorium, waiting for Rainbow Dash to make her way out of the slightly steamy pack of ponies. Once they were reunited, they made their way towards the door to the campus of the camp, where they’d be meeting with their small group leaders.
Rainbow Dash and Gilda looked about the cloud until they saw the two pegasi teachers that corresponded to their room number. They wordlessly made their way over to them, not quite comfortable enough with each other to give their thoughts on the events that just transpired, choosing instead to keep their rants and raves to themselves.
Icy Rush was a light blue stallion with a teal mane that kind of reminded Gilda a bit of the color of the toothpaste she used. He carried himself with a bit of confidence, and Gilda noticed he didn’t smile with his teeth, only wearing a slightly cheesy half-smile throughout the entire dancing snafu. Warm Wind, on the other hand, was a cherry red pegasus with a green mane, a clashing color combination that made her stand out. She was also one of the mares Gilda recognized from her dad’s posters of old Wonderbolts performers, so obviously she made up for her less-than-appealing looks with her flying skills. Gilda also could see some grey hairs mixing in with the green, showing her age.
Icy Rush was the first to speak, addressing the twenty or so campers with a gravelly yet high pitched voice.
“Well, High Octane certainly enjoys pandering to the crowd, doesn’t he?” Gilda gave a slightly too audible “Ha!” at this statement, causing a significant fraction of the group to turn to look at her. She felt her face grow warm as a rosy color appeared on her cheeks, and she looked down at her claws, kicking the cloud beneath her.
Icy Rush continued. “Anyway, as I hope you know, I’m Icy Rush, and I’ll be the co-leader of this group of fine winged animals we got here. Basically, this will be the group you attend workshops with, and perform with, and do everything outside of sleep and, if you so choose, eat with. You may not know it yet, but your best friend could be right next to you as we speak. I should know, I graduated from this camp six years ago, and I made some of the best friends of my life that I promptly stopped writing to three weeks after camp was over.” The young pegasi of the group laughed nervously, while Gilda put a claw over her beak to hide her giggles.
“Before Icy Rush gets too carried away with himself,” Warm Wind broke in, “I’m Warm Wind, former member of the Wonderbolts show team. I’ll be helping Icy Rush lead you guys, but I’m also one of the flight instructors so I will only be checking in with you guys on occasion. Right now, I’ve got a meeting to attend, so I’ll leave you in Icy’s fairly capable hooves.” Warm Wind gave Icy Rush a playful look, to which Icy responded with a raised eyebrow.
“Thank you very much, Warm Wind. I’m sure they’re all waiting for you at the instructor’s meeting.” Warm Wind smiled and took off into the air towards another cloud on the campus. Icy turned to the campers and whispered mischievously, “Now that that stick-in-the-mud is out of the way…” More nervous laughter. “I’m basically here to hand you guys paperwork at this point, so enjoy. Here’s your schedules for the camp, and here’s your free camp hats.” Icy Wind reached into a box and began handing papers and hats to each camper, some more eager than others.
“The other thing I’m obligated to tell you about,” Icy Rush began after the distribution was finished, “is your final performance. While most of your performances at this camp will be in front of the group around you, your final performance will be in front of the entire camp, and will be a showcase of your finest skills. For three minutes, all of the pegasi, and our one griffin,” Icy Rush gave Gilda a look, which Gilda returned with a coldness one would expect from the teacher rather than the student, “will have their attention focused on you. No pressure.
“Even though that’s six weeks off, and you’re just now arriving at camp, I’m sure you all have some small idea of the things you are particularly good at, whether it be speed, agility, grace, or otherwise. Start thinking about the things your routine will include, so that when you have to start preparing your set, you’ll have a jumping-off point. I’d almost recommend writing a few ideas down when you get back to your dorm room later tonight.”
Icy Rush paused, scanning over his group with that confident half-smile. “Now, the fun part,” he muttered. He pointed a hoof at a small, white filly, who was surprised by the sudden attention. “What’s your name, lavender eyes?”
“Surprise, sir!” The filly saluted, apparently brimming with self-confidence, possibly forged by an incredibly playful attitude.
“Surprise, eh? You think you can show your group a few moves?”
“Sure! I always like to show off the dances I make up! There was this one time when I showed this old stallion one of my dances and he liked it so much he wanted me to come to his hut and-“
“No, no, no,” Icy Rush cut in, while several campers laughed at the rapid speech of the bubbly pegasus. “I mean, some flying moves. Let’s see you sprint to the cloud up there,” Icy pointed with his hoof, “and then do something special while you’re up there.”
“Okey-doky-loki!” Surprise answered. The pegasi around her cleared some space, and she unfurled her wings. With a sharp downward flap, she was off, propelling herself through the air. She made it up to the cloud in a fair amount of time, not terribly fast. She then proceeded to tap-dance on the top of the small cloud, to the delight of her group-mates below. After a short dance, she dove back down to the base of the camp, to a reasonable amount of applause and a large amount of laughter. With a big smile, Surprise returned to her spot, the pegasus she was standing next to smiling and praising her for a job well done.
“Great job there, Surprise. You certainly did your best to defy convention.” Surprise giggled. “Let’s see here… you!” Icy Wind pointed his hoof to Rainbow Dash. “State your name!”
“Rainbow Dash!” the blue filly said, wings already unfurled, ready for the challenge.
“Alright, Rainbow, I see you’re ready and willing, give it a shot!” Icy Rush couldn’t finish the sentence before Rainbow was halfway to the same cloud. Rainbow Dash did several tight, speedy loops around the cloud, causing it to form itself into a perfect orb, before hurtling herself back down to the group, landing with a harsh “Poomph!”
“Ten. Seconds. Flat.” The group cheered loudly, obviously approving of Rainbow Dash’s intense speed.
“Wow, very impressive! I’d tempted to say we might have a future Canterlot Derby winner among us!” The group cheered, and Gilda raised a claw for her roommate to bump. They did so, and Rainbow Dash’s smile grew even wider. “Now, who thinks they can follow that up…”
The exercise continued, each pegasus doing their best to impress their new peers. None came close to the speed of Rainbow Dash, although most were slightly faster than Surprise. Gilda watched with anticipation, nervous about when it’d be her turn to show her flying skills to the rest of the group.
“Alright, Cloud Chaser, that was a fantastic backflip! And now, it looks like we’ve only got one griffin left.” Gilda gulped as Icy Rush made eye contact with her, not bothering with pointing his hoof since everypony knew to whom he was referring.
“What’s your name, beak-mouth?”
“I’m Gilda,” she said, cool as she could muster at the time.
“Well, Gilda, show us how they fly over in the Griffin Lands.”
“I’ll try,” Gilda said, twisting her head slightly, planting herself to spring towards the cloud overhead. She pushed off hard, and felt the wind rush through her feathers as she flapped hard to her goal.
It took her longer than Rainbow Dash to get to the cloud, but she was still one of the faster ones in the group. Once at the cloud, however, she had no idea what to do. Hesitating for a moment, she began to circle quickly around the cloud, counterclockwise. Suddenly, she felt her left wing bend just a bit too much, and she lost control of the spin, awkwardly plummeting back to the group. She leveled out just in time to make a soft landing, but everypony watching her could tell she had made a mistake.
“Impressive speed there, Gilda,” Icy Rush said, doing his best to hide Gilda’s mistake, despite the fact that his face didn’t get the memo. “And with that, it’s time to tour the campus…”
As the group began to follow Icy Rush around the camp, Gilda trotted alongside Rainbow Dash, chin down.
“Nice job there, Gilda,” Rainbow Dash said, trying to raise her spirits a bit.
“Are you kidding?” Gilda responded, an edge in her voice. “I was terrible. I was the only one who lost control of their trick halfway through, and it was just an easy circle.”
“Hey, it’s your first day, I’m sure you’ll get better.”
“I’d better,” Gilda muttered. They spent the rest of tour listening to Icy Rush explain the various parts of camp, learning about the place they’d be spending the next six weeks. He pointed out the obstacle course, the show area, the nurse’s station, and the offices, which were on another cloud separate from the dorms and other parts of the camp.
“And to conclude our tour,” Icy Rush said, turning to face the group, “we have the mess hall, where dinner will be served in approximately…” Icy Rush turned to look at a clock, “forty-five minutes. Wash up, find a table, maybe find some friends. Enjoy your meal, I’ll be off!”
Icy Rush opened one of the doors into the mess hall, allowing the campers to enter the empty hall. Gilda and Rainbow Dash brought up the rear, and entered the bathroom to get prepared for the first meal of the camp.
Moving was hard enough in its own right. Uprooting your home and attempting to transfer it into a strange place that never could quite be the same was not only physically exhausting, but also emotionally distressing. No matter how many framed pictures you put on the wall, no matter how many posters you put in your bedroom, no matter how much more space you have in your new home compared to your old one, you still cannot convince your brain that it’s right. You can’t tell yourself that you’re not just going to go back home when all of this is done. Your brain can’t quite force itself to believe that this is your home now. Even your old mattress feels strange, that Wonderbolts poster looks slightly different, and everything that once made your house a home seems off in the strange new space.
It probably didn’t help Gilda that she not only was moving from one house to another, but she was also moving away from her family, her entire species, really, to stay with the pegasi of Cloudsdale, cramped in a dorm building by herself for the first time in her twelve years of existence.
Her parents had been saving up for the expensive camp. It was a six-month extended stay flight school. Her dad dreamed of Gilda becoming the first griffin member of the Wonderbolts, although everyone, including Gilda, knew that such a dream was as farfetched as Celestia refusing to raise the sun. That didn’t stop him from convincing his wife to send off their only child for the longest amount of time either of them could conceive.
Gilda would be spending her birthday in Cloudsdale, with her only method of communication with her parents being letters sent every week from both their home in the Griffin Lands and Gilda’s dorm at Junior Speedsters Flight School. In other words, little to no communication at all. Gilda had never been the talkative type, not with her parents nor with her schoolmates. That was part of the reason her parents thought she would benefit from the camp. She’d be forced to learn social skills, forced to get along with the pegasi around her.
While Gilda likely could have crossed the ocean separating the griffin lands from Equestria with her wings alone, her many bags forced her to ride a boat. After several teary goodbyes from her mom, a few hugs that she returned physically but not emotionally, and a blow of the ship’s whistle, she was gone, watching the shoreline become smaller and smaller as she distanced herself from what was to be her old life.
Gilda sighed and sunk into a seat on the deck of the boat. She was one of about fifty passengers on the ferry between Beakland and Baltimare. Most of the passengers were griffins, though there were a few earth ponies and unicorns scattered about. The pegasi who had to travel between the Griffin Lands and Equestria were probably too proud of their flying abilities to use the ferry, although it would probably be quite less strenuous on their wings. It was a solid six-hour flight, with no places to rest, between Fillydelphia and Pawsburgh, the two cities located at the points the ocean was the smallest. The ferry only took about three hours, and didn’t force you to fly the entire distance.
Gilda shook herself out of her train of thought and got out her packet from Junior Speedsters again. She was going to be sharing a room with a pony, a filly by the name of “Rainbow Dash”. She also knew she was going to be the only griffin at the camp. Her dad had to jump through a few very expensive hoops to make this happen. She appreciated all the consideration, but it was all a little much for her. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d fit in at all with the pegasi at the camp, and she certainly didn’t know if she’d be able to enjoy sharing a room with one of them. It didn’t strike her as appealing, that’s for sure.
Gilda slid the packet under her seat and closed her eyes. She had to get up early to make her way to the ferry dock, and she was exhausted. A three-hour nap sounded excellent to her ears. The last thing she thought of before drifting off to sleep was the menu at the camp. If she was stuck eating lame-o pony food for six months, she might just have to leave before the camp ended.
The door creaked open and Gilda bolted to an upright sitting position on her bed. She’d arrived before her roommate and was taking advantage of the fairly comfortable cot, but now it seemed she’d avoided meeting the other camp attendees for as long as she could.
Gilda spotted the filly as she poked her head out around the corner of the small hallway from the front door to the sleeping area of the dorm room. The filly visibly jumped at the sight of Gilda on the bed, and her hooves instinctively dug into the grey carpet in an effort to force her conscious mind into retreating. However, the filly was quickly able to get over her nerves and spoke her first words to her new roommate:
“Oh, um, hi there,” the pony started. “Didn’t think you’d get here before I did.”
“Hey,” Gilda mumbled in response. She stretched her wings out and scrunched up her face, in an attempt to help her mind become alert again after her short nap.
“Um…” the pony searched for something to say, eyes darting around the room, teeth biting down on her lower lip. “I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“I know,” Gilda said with a small smile. “I’ve read all about you.” She motioned to her packet, which was sitting on the nightstand next to her bed. She had, in fact, seen Rainbow Dash’s picture before, so the rainbow mane didn’t throw her off. The thunderbolt cutie mark wasn’t in the photo Gilda received from the camp, but it wasn’t terribly remarkable, either.
“Oh, right, the packets…” Rainbow Dash trailed off as she craned her neck to look in her saddlebags for her own packet. Grabbing it with her wing, she opened it. “You’re…” her eyes scanned the documents, wing turning pages until she found was she was looking for. “Gilda, right?”
“The one and only,” Gilda said with a plastic smile.
“Sorry, I’ve been too excited about the camp to read too much about my roommate, I guess.” Dash ran a nervous hoof through her mane, eyes darting to the side.
Gilda had to admit she was slightly disappointed that Rainbow Dash wasn’t quick to know her name, but she could understand getting lost in the swarm of various other papers and schedules. “It’s cool, I only really remember yours because… well…”
“Right, they told me about, um, well, you.” A nervous smile found its way onto Rainbow Dash’s face, and she hastily put the packet back into her saddlebag. “It’s cool that you got into Junior Speedsters as a griffin, you must be a really good flyer.” Her voice was still quite shaky, despite the fact that she’d been conversing for a while now with her new roommate. Gilda internally snickered at how nervous the filly was. It wasn’t like she was going to jump off the bed and eat her if she said something wrong.
“Nah, just got rich parents,” she said, leaning back into a reclined position on the bed. Despite the fact that she found Rainbow Dash’s behavior amusing, it did help her relax a bit, since it let her know she wasn’t the only one with “new species” issues. “Sorry if that disappoints you.”
“I… I guess it’s understandable…” Rainbow Dash kicked a hoof at the ground. “I mean, I’m here on scholarship myself, but-“
“You gonna unpack or what?” Gilda interrupted, leaning forward slightly. “You don’t have to just stand in the hallway all day, you know. Plus, orientation is in, like, half an hour.”
“Oh, right, yeah, my dad’s probably wondering why I’m not coming back to tell him where my room is so he can help me move in.” Rainbow Dash backed up slowly as she mumbled her reply. “I, I guess I’ll be right back…”
“Want me to help with anything?” Gilda offered, craning her head to see around the corner as Rainbow Dash opened the door to exit.
“No, no, it’ll be fine, my dad and I will take care of it, I only have a few bags anyway.” Rainbow Dash closed the door with a flourish, and Gilda was just about to lean over to look at the schedule for the first day when she heard it open again.
“Right, so that’s the door to the bathroom, got it,” Rainbow Dash remarked, attempting to trick her mind into having some confidence but failing miserably. “So, then… I’ll see you in a bit, Gilda.”
“See ya,” Gilda said as the door closed.
Alone again, Gilda stared at the first day’s schedule, the only complete schedule she was given in the camp packet. She noted the start of orientation at 2, the 11:00 lights-off time, the dinner at 5:30, the after-dinner free time…
Her thoughts drifted to her new roommate. She was here on a scholarship. She was probably very, very athletic. Gilda wasn’t here to be competitive, per se, but she certainly didn’t want to feel like the weakest flyer. While one pony turned out to be perfectly pleasant, or at least not intimidating, she could only imagine if she turned out to be the weakest flyer at camp, as the camp’s only griffin. Ridicule would come hard and fast, and empathy would be at a premium.
She shivered slightly and put the packet back on the nightstand, opting instead to organize her unpacked supplies. The camp had provided two small dressers, one on either end of the fairly cramped room. Gilda had sort of just tossed everything into whatever drawer she pleased, but now she went back and separated her toiletries from her sunhats.
She’d gotten through a good chunk of organizing when the door burst open with a loud bang, followed by what sounded like a stack of papers being dropped on the floor.
“Oh, no,” the voice of Rainbow Dash gasped with pathetically unbelievable amounts of over-dramatization. “My books! They’re ruined! They’ll be all wrinkly and impossible to read now!”
“Yeah, yeah, tell that to the trees that were chopped down to make those,” a male voiced countered. “They’re fine. Pick ‘em up and dust ‘em off. You’d better read at least a little bit, or else your mother’s going to have a few words to say.”
“Fine, Dad,” Rainbow Dash sighed back. The sound of rustling paper filled the dorm room, and soon Rainbow Dash rounded the hallway corner again, this time with a box in hand.
“Oh! Right! Dad!” Rainbow Dash began as she noticed Gilda. “Come meet my roommate!”
“The griffin? Is she here?” A darker-blue rainbow-maned stallion came out of the hallway and turned to look at Gilda, immediately extending a hoof. “I’m Rainbow Dive, pleasure to meet you.” He was carrying a box with his two wings, an impressive feat.
“My name’s Gilda,” Gilda said, a plastic smile on her face. She was a lot less comfortable with the aggressive stallion than she was with Rainbow, probably because she was now outnumbered by ponies.
“I just want to say, I think it’s great the camp let you in. I always thought any species with wings should be given opportunities like this, so I’m quite happy that you’ll be able to take advantage of the camp.” Rainbow Dive said all this while still shaking claws, or rather, hoof and claw with Gilda.
“Um, well, thank you,” Gilda stuttered back, an uncomfortable frown on her face.
“Well, I gotta drop Dashie’s stuff off and get going, I’m working the night shift,” the stallion announced as he finally broke grip with Gilda, turning to “Dashie” instead. “C’mere, kiddo.”
“Dad, not in front of my new roommate, plea-“ Rainbow Dash was cut off by Rainbow Dive’s vice grip hug, which nearly choked the air out of Rainbow Dash’s throat.
“I’m gonna miss you, Dash,” he said softly, holding Rainbow Dash’s muzzle in his hoof, a few tears welling in his eyes. “You’d better write every week, and kick flank out there.”
“I’ll definitely do both, Dad,” Rainbow Dash said softly, stealing a quick glance at Gilda to see if she was being judged for her dad’s tearful goodbye. “You know me. I’m the fastest flyer in Equestria! I’m the only one who’s ever done a sonic rainboom!”
“I know you are, kid, but listen to me.” Dive held Dash’s muzzle slightly closer to his own. “Don’t let your trademark arrogance get you caught napping while somepony else outperforms you. You really are the best, but only if you do your best.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Rainbow sighed, blushing slightly.
“Hey, Rainbow pride, eh?” Dive took a step back and held a hoof up.
“Rainbow pride,” Dash agreed, and bumped his hoof with her own.
Dive trotted to the door and looked over his shoulder as he opened it. “Bye, Dashie.”
“Bye,” Rainbow Dash said with a wave of her wing. The door shut and Dash collapsed on her bed with a groan. “Sorry about that. He’s a little-“
“No, no, it’s fine,” Gilda cut Dash off. “My dad was the same way when I got on the boat here.”
“You took a boat?”
“Well, yeah,” Gilda said, a bit defensive. “I had to get from the Griffin Lands to Cloudsdale before two o’clock, I wasn’t exactly going to fly. Especially not with my bags.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s a good point,” Rainbow Dash said, turning to lay on her side, facing Gilda. “I guess parents are just a bit clingy. I mean, I’m 15, I’m not exactly a filly anymore.”
Gilda gave Rainbow Dash a raised eyebrow. “You’re still living with your parents, as far as I’m concerned, that makes you a filly.”
“Whatever,” Rainbow Dash shrugged off Gilda’s statement and turned back to lay on her stomach. “I’m still more mature than they give me credit for. I could take care of myself if I had to.”
“I hear you, ‘Dashie’,” Gilda said with a smirk.
“Shut up!” Dash playfully threw her pillow at Gilda’s stomach and got up to unpack. Gilda just snickered and went back to her own unpacking projects. She had to hurry, since orientation was in fifteen minutes and she wasn’t entirely sure where she had to go.
After a bit of unpacking, Rainbow Dash looked at the clock on her nightstand. “Oh, shoot,” she said, “Orientation starts in five minutes.”
“Crap,” Gilda mumbled, dropping the last of her makeup into a drawer. “We should get going.”
“Yeah, do you know where we’re supposed to go?” Rainbow asked, grabbing Gilda’s packet from off the nightstand.
“Well, I don’t know where it s or how to get there,” Gilda admitted.
“I guess we’ll just have to find out together,” Dash said with a smile, and they both headed for the door.
