Rainbow was humming to herself, in the kitchen. The winter break had come and gone, Rainbow had dove into her cooking with a passion over that time. She had Home Economics this morning and was rather eager to get started.

Rainbow entered the Home Economics room with a smile on her face, large tables were scattered around the room. Solid steel benches with draws full of cooking utensils with baking ingredients on them were next to each table. The Home Economics teacher Chocolate Delight was a tall woman with light blue skin and bright crimson red hair “Rainbow Dash, you seem unusually eager today.”

Rainbow laughed “I have no need to carry that tough girl image any longer, I am the cook at home so I’m sure I can make something decent.”

Chocolate Delight smiled “Well I’m eager to see what you could be do when you actual put serious effort in.” As soon as Rainbow took a seat next to the smiling Pinkie Pie Chocolate Delight smiled “Today will be a simply baking challenge, to see what you can come up with. You may start now.”

Rainbow checked the large oven and smiled, Pinkie was slightly stunned as Rainbow was measuring out flour with absolute precision. Every move she made was one with pinpoint accuracy, bowls of cake batter were carefully formulated and soon each cake layer was put in the oven at the exact right temperature, Rainbow began carefully pouring icing into piping bags. By the end of the session everyone was looking in awe at the tremendous multi-layered cake covered in various types of icing.

Chocolate Delight took a photo and Rainbow was soon blushing as the entire Home Economics class was crying with joy at the food they had been served.

Sunset in the cafeteria eating her food when Rainbow was getting strange looks from everyone, Rainbow sat down at the table “Everyone is looking at me weird since Home Ec, does anyone know why?”

Pinkie shouted “Are you kidding me, everyone in Home Ec has been talking about you. I thought I was the Queen of Baking but wow, you are truly gifted. You are the Queen of Baking now.”

Rainbow frowned “I can do a lot more than bake you know.” She then closed her eyes “I think I know what I want to do in the future, I have missed the smell of food that I cooked myself. I want to open a restaurant after school, something small to start with but hopefully with time it will grow.”

Gilda grinned “I never thought I’d see the day you would ever be something other than an athlete.”

Fluttershy slapped Gilda on the back of the head before smiling at Rainbow “We’re all happy for you. Finding one’s path in life is quite difficult, you have our support all the way.”

Adagio smirked “You have a talent that only emerges once every millennia or so, in fact it’s something I find attractive. It’s rare I meet someone like you.”

Rainbow blushed “Um, thank you.”

Aria groaned “Enough, your are clearly making her feel uncomfortable.” She then looked at the group “you have all changed a lot from what you used to be like. Everyone in the school has commented about how you have all changed, Sunset is much kinder person and Cozy is a lot happier. Fluttershy and Wallflower are much braver, Applejack and Rainbow are not as competitive, Rarity is much less dramatic, Pinkie is a lot more serious and Gilda is less prone to anger.”

Rainbow frowned “We had problems deep within ourselves and that cost us all a lot, I lost my friends because I was too proud.”

Applejack grimaced “It was a similar case for me as well, Ah didn’t listen to my friends.”

Rarity sighed “I should have said something but it was so easy just to blame everyone.”

Pinkie grimaced “I was too busy trying to make others happy I didn’t see the real underlying problems.”

Fluttershy grimaced “I was too timid, too afraid of everything and that meant I was unable to stand up for my friends when the moment came.”

Wallflower grimaced “I was just bad with people, shortly after Sunset’s reformation she held out a hand to me offering to see my garden.” She then smiled “She cared about what I liked and showed me kindness, even offering to help me. She was my first friend.”

Gilda frowned “I was alone after Rainbow Dash and I fell out, I always had a bad temper and it only got worse over time. I became increasingly alone until one day…”

Two Years Back

A younger Gilda was standing there on a stool, a rope around her neck. She looked at the graves sadly “It looks like I’ll be joining you.” She kicked the stool from underneath her legs and began gasping for air as the rope tightened around her neck.

Suddenly a knife flew through the air cutting the rope, an orange skinned girl with fiery hair stood there and glared at Gilda “What were you doing?!”

Gilda growled “Leaving, no-one in this world cares for me. I am an angry bitch who has nothing left!”

The girl laughed darkly “At least you have a choice, your anger is your own. I am forced to suffer with someone foisting all their emotions onto me, every bad experience in their life get to feel all of it. Your anger is your own, master and control it.” She then pointed to the rope “That is never the right choice, it may sometimes seem like a good idea but it never is. I’ve seen that way too many times.”

Present Day

Gilda turned to Sunset “Even back then there was good in you but at the same time there was so much hatred and anger that had nowhere to safely dissipate. You are not a bad person.”

Sunset was about to reply when she was called up to Principal’s office, Sunset sighed “We’ll continue this conversation later. This is probably important and likely involves magic.” Her friends frowned as Sunset left the cafeteria.

Author's Note

I do have some plans for the upcoming Friendship Games.