Bubbles

Who says Derpy can't be a teacher? :D

Partially inspired by this. Stupid me not realizing the text bubble's tail is supposed to go OUTSIDE the frame. I'm afraid I cannot find the original source. D:

On a completely unrelated note, I found Carmen Sandiego. And th- Oh. IDEA!

Fluttershy

I guess it's not that bad.

Today was the first day of Junior Speedsters camp.

I can't exactly remember how I got myself into this mess. This camp was for fillies, and I remember coming here with Rainbow before we had our cutie marks, years ago. Rainbow said I'd do well here as a counselor or something.

Now, my flying skills are... terrible, so I asked her why she thought I'd be so good for the job. She didn't say anything, she just dragged me on over here.

Of course, she became a flight instructor, but I figured since I was here already, I might as well try something... and by that I meant being a nurse at the sickbay.

I was making my way over to the infirmary to look around when Dash flew up to me.

"Hey 'Shy, where ya goin'?"

"Oh, I um, wanted to see what the sickbay looks like... I'm going to be working there for six months, so um, I figured I should get settled."

"You can do that anytime. Right now, they got a party for everypony who signed up. C'mon! Get to know your fellow workers... it'll be fun. We can talk about life, have a blast... drink some beer..."

"Um, I think I'll pass..."

"Okay, so maybe not that last part, but still. It'll be great!" Her grin was gigantic.

"...I guess I'll try..."

"Great! Follow me."

She led me to a restaurant. A banner was hung up reading 'Welcome Junior Speedsters instructors!'

Through the cut windows I could see just flashes of colored light. I didn't really like these kinds of parties...

"Um, Rainbow, maybe this isn't the best ide-"

"Don't worry, it'll be fine! Trust me! Don't worry, I'll always be there for you."

"O-okay..."

We went in. Rainbow bumped hooves with a few ponies as we passed by. I just smiled weakly and followed behind her. We came down to a table. Eventually a light orange colt came over to us. "Hey Dash. Who's your friend?"

"Oh, um, I'm Fluttershy..." I said quietly.

"Nice to meet you Fluttershy." He extended a hoof, which I shook feebly. "I'm the director here. You're the nurse, right?"

I nodded.

"If you got any problems, just tell me. I hope this camp goes well. Whelp, see you soon!"

He ran off.

I looked around. More pegasi. More pegasi... more pegasi...

Eventually somepony else came in. She was... different, however. She was a griffon. I'd heard about there being griffons far up north, but I'd never actually seen one.

She regarded all of us with a cold steely stare. The air seemed to drop a few degrees. Everypony stopped what they were doing and turned.

It was pure silence. She walked down and sat by us. I shrank back a bit.

"What are you all looking at!" She said, looking around. "Get going!"

Everypony just slowly turned around and gradually began to talk again.

"Sup dweebs." She said, corners of her beak turned up into a smile. "Name's Gilda. Came down here, family ain't that great. Need money, figured this was a great place to start. Say, wanna race?"

"Ha!" Rainbow said. "You don't stand a chance."

"Oh yeah? Let's go!"

They stood up and looked towards the door. "You comin' too, Pinks?"

"Oh um, I'll pass..."

"Hmph. What a wussy little bitch."

"Hey!" Rainbow said, turning. "Did you just-"

"Wait, you know this dweeb?" She scowled. "I knew something was off."

She walked away and flew off into the night.

"I oughta-"

"Dash, its fine."

"How can you be fine with this?!"

"I... We... Let's just say there's been a lot more than that in the past. But its fine Rainbow, you wouldn't want to get in a fight on the first day."

I managed to calm her down. Somehow.

It wasn't long until she got back to enjoying the party. She's just like her mane, never settling on any one color. I wonder if her parents were like that. She never really cared to talk about them. Me either.

I don't know how long it was until another pony came to sit at our table.

She had a gray coat and a blonde mane, and a cutie mark of bubbles. She smiled and pulled out a chair, same one that Gilda was in. I was still a bit shaken up by that.

"'Sup." Rainbow said. "I'm Rainbow Dash, flight instructor."

"Oh, um, I'm Fluttershy, nurse..."

"Ah. Nice to meet you two," she said in a bubbly, happy voice. "I'm Ditzy."

"What's your job here?" I asked.

"I um, am the teacher here for those who want to learn a bit more about how to fly faster..."

"Really." Dash said in wonder. "Wow. So you um, do that thing with the f..."

Ditzy was incredulous. "What..."

"You know, ponies needed it long ago, they couldn't survive without it, but it was like, really misunderstood and they didn't really figure out its sheer importance until much later..."

Ditzy was just blushing and looking out the window now.

"Fire?" I suggested.

"No..."

We were all thinking totally different things.

"Oh! I got it!" Rainbow stood up in triumph. "Physics!" she shouted.

Everypony turned around and looked at her.

She sat back down.

"What?" Ditzy was snapping out of something. "Oh, yeah. I teach physics."

"Great. You better help me sometimes, I need to know how to fly better. Never understood a single one of those classes, not like I tried to. You seem cool though."

"Hm? Yeah, I can help you sometime."

"Well, I don't know about you two but I'm feeling a bit tired..."

"Me too," Dash said. "Whelp, we best be getting back to the dorms. Bye Ditzy."

"Bye!" she waved.

The dorms were part of this. The camp was far away from civilization, so they assumed if you were coming here, you'd want a place to stay.

Lucky for Rainbow Dash, however, it was still all in the air. I don't know what she hates about the ground so much. "My hooves are sensitive! Aaah!".

When we arrived to the dorm, we pulled out the slips we were given. My room was on the second floor, room 2.

"Hmm, I'm next to you," Dash said. "2-3."

We went up. Second floor. Wow... its not exactly a dorm, more of a hotel. Each room has its own bathroom and shower, and... even a balcony!

I walked out. Apparently everypony else had the same idea. They were all talking across them. Every room had one, which was a bit odd. My balcony was facing the C building.

"Sup Rainbow! Hello Fluttershy!" I heard somepony yell from above.

"Oh, hey there Ditzy," Rainbow yelled from my left. I assume her room is 3-2 then. "Fancy seeing you here."

"I know, right? There's like, 3 dorms, each with three floors and six rooms each." Whole lot of counselors...

"Mmm." From the big B painted on the side of the building in front of us, I figured that behind us was building C.

"I dunno about you guys, but I'm uh, going to turn in for the night," I said.

"Sure, see you tomorrow!

"UP AND AT EM!" A bellowing voice echoed through the walls. I heard many shouts and groans. The voice was then followed by a trumpet.

I quickly got up and headed down to the HQ.

There was a colt in a military uniform yelling at us to line up by floors. None of his regalia looked legitimate, but I did what he said anyways. Loud... noises... they're scary...

A teleprompter flashed up behind the weird soldier dude.

"READ IT OR WEEP CUPCAKES! YOU HAVE TO SET A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR THE FOALS! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT FOALS CAN HEAR FAILURES!"

We stuttered out something apprehensively. "J-junior Speedsters... are our lives... Sky-bound soars-" this is gonna take a while...

When we finished the chant, we went off to our stations. The military colt went to eat a bagel... apparently that's his only job, saying the thing... He's good... he's loud...

First day. I went over to the sickbay to see a cream colored colt clasping his calf. Somepony's gotten hurt already? What are they doing out there?!

I told him to take his hoof off his knee. It was just a minor scrape. I put a bandage on it. Simple.

How many more of these am I gonna get... Well, I guess Rainbow is right. It does make me happy knowing I can help, even if it be so slight...

I waited. Ponies always tell me I'm very patient... I suppose...

More time passed. It was lunch, and nopony else had come in. Maybe not.

I went over to the cafeteria. Rainbow had reserved a seat for me.

"Sup Fluttershy. How's your job been treating ya?"

"Umm, I guess it's easy. I've only gotten one colt, and he just had a knee scrape..."

"Hmm. Still better than me. My job sucked."

"Oh? I thought you'd like being a flight instructor."

"Yes, and I will. But what I was doing wasn't that. I was trying to teach them the two most basic moves: the Aileron and the barrel roll. But they can't figure out the damn difference!"

"Don't worry Rainbow, they're just foals-"

"But you see, this is a matter of great importance! What if they are future Wonderbolts?! They'll crash into everypony! We'll have half a scissors and-"

"Rainbow, its fine... I'm pretty sure it won't ma-"

"Won't matter?! What if we go to war! The aileron is useless in war, unless you do it really fast, which none of them will be able to do until they learn what it is first! The barrel roll is for overtaking enemies, or getting them off your tail! Ever since the bow was invented, the barrel roll has become increasingly important to-"

I put a hoof on her shoulder. "Ssh... don't get so worked up..."

She calmed down. "Still though, its unnerving to know that the future generations won't know the difference... heck, half of our generation doesn't either."

"Hey, is it fine if I sit with you guys?" A third voice asked.

"Sure."

Ditzy sat down. "I hope your first day of work went a lot better than mine," Rainbow grumbled.

"Oh, it was awesome!"

"Hmm. At least one of us is enjoying themselves."

"Today, we covered parabolas! Cannons, and more."

Rainbow's mouth hung agape. "Y- you get to use cannons?!"

"Yeah! High pressure water beams, harmless cloud projectiles, and repeating dart crossbows."

"Damn. How is this related to flight?"

"Umm, so if you are at war, and the enemy pegasi are doing ailerons because they didn't listen in flight class, you can calculate how to exactly knock them out of the air. Also, this can be used for takeoff speed, the tactical egg, air-to-air combat, and more."

"All I heard was speed. Still sounds cool though. Can we look at that after classes?"

"Sure."

"Sweet!"

After lunch was less boring. A filly came in saying that her head hurt. I told her it was the altitude coupled with dehydration. Most of these problems could be solved by anypony... right?

It was almost time to close up and head home to the dorms when I heard a knock on the door.

"Um, come in..."

The door was swung open, revealing Gilda. She stood before me, full height. "Oh... my... um, what brings you here at this hour?"

"Ah, hey, there's something you got to see outside..."

"What, did somepony get injured?"

"Yeah, something like that. But hurry!"

I ran outside as fast as I could... to see nothing. I turned around. "Um, Gilda what am I supposed to be looking a-"

SPLASH!

She held a bucket innocently. "Oops. Surprise!"

I forced a weak smile. I guess that prank was okay...

I left for the dorm.