The first couple of days they were instructed on the basics of flying. This proved frustrating for nearly all the campers. For the ponies, it was because they'd been over all of it before with their parents and friends. But for Gilda, it was a feather pulling aggravation since a lot of the most basic fundamentals just didn't work for her as a griffon and Firefly had to adapt nearly every instruction to suit her. These many early failures did nothing to endear her with her fellow campers or her instructor.
Anything to do with bucking was particularly irritating since she just wasn't built for it. After several dozen attempts, Firefly lead her away from the group, leading to much giggling and whispering from some of the other ponies. "Gilda, I know you're trying," Firefly began patiently. "But as a griffon there are certain things you will not be able to do. Just consider yourself excused from any practice involving bucking. Instead, take that time to use for free form practice."
"I understand," said Gilda without looking her teacher in the eye. As Firefly took again to the skies, Gilda looked up. She quickly spotted that blue pegasus with the rainbow mane, flying higher and faster than the others, and that Firefly was heading for her to tell Dash once more tell her to stick with the group.
Gilda and Dash hadn't spoken since that first day, but Gilda always was looking for some reason to bump into her. She had even caught herself hoping, that when Rainbow would attempt another stunt, that she would mess up, and end up crashing into her just so that they could speak again.
It was at the end of the second week when things took a major change for Gilda. But the day began as all others had, with the official camp chant.
Junior Speedsters are our lives,
Skybound soars and daring dives!
Junior Speedsters, it's our quest,
To someday be the very best!

The first several times Gilda had to perform she was just trying to follow all the moves that went along with the chant. After a couple of days she started wondering what she should do with her claws. She had eventually decided just to ball them up into fists as to make them more like hooves. But after having to sit out of hours of practice sessions she had decided if all she couldn't be like the others, then she'd at least have some fun with being different. Each day she added more little touches with her claws and more mobile tail. Today she choose to end with a particular flourish to cheer herself up.
On the way to the training fields, Gilda felt a hoof poke her in the hind quarters. She turned to see a dark grey boy, Stormy Skies, with a snide look on his face. "What's up with all those flouncing little moves you do during the chant?" Gilda just turned away and said nothing, hoping he'd get bored and leave her alone. "Don't tell me you actually enjoy that stupid thing? Wow, so you're a monster AND a dork!"
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash was next to Gilda and in Stormy's face. "Listen lamer, we HAVE to do that every day and if you're too dull to think of ways to have fun with it, then that's your damage!" Stormy backed off down the line muttering and Dash stayed walking with Gilda. "I'm thinking about adding a tornado whirl towards the end, you think that would look cool?"
Gilda, was too stunned to talk for a moment and quickly nodded. "Yeah, of course it would! It would add a little colour to," Gilda paused trying to think of the right words. "To those stiff and lame moves they have everyone doing."
"You are so right! We all look like a bunch of wind up toys out there every morning." Rainbow Dash's demeanor turned serious when she next spoke, "I've noticed that you've been having to sit out on parts of our lesson and I was thinking..."
Just then, Firefly swooped into the field and immediately called out, "Alright class, that's enough talking. Line up everypony, we have a lot to do today."
Dash was rushing to her place in line without another word and Gilda felt a sudden strong resentment for her instructor.
Firefly did her usual trot down the line up, inspecting each camper as she spoke. "For the next week, I need to see what each of you are capable of. I figure a little competition will encourage you to push yourselves a bit harder, so you'll be grouped up in teams of two."
Gilda crossed her fingers as Firefly began assigning groups. Her hopes soared when Rainbow Dash hadn't been assigned a partner by the time she got to Gilda, which meant they had that much farther to fall when her partner was announced to be Stormy Skies.
Her beak was still hanging open as Stormy came over. "Well, on the bright side," he began. "You'll definitely make me look better."
Firefly addressed them all after assigning the last pair. "Now before we begin our regular lessons, I want to see your fastest on the ground run."
For the next few minutes they all watched each pair sprint from one end of the field to the other. And then it came Gilda and Stormy's turn.
As the two got in their starting positions, Stormy whispered to Gilda, "Don't look so worried. I'm sure they'll be cheering for me too loudly for you to hear them laughing at you." Gilda felt her claws digging into the soft ground.
When the signal to start came, Gilda shut her eyes and ran. As she ran she just thought of the all the campers and their prodding questions and mockery, she thought of Firefly and her constant disappointed looks at her, and she imagined she was running away from all of that forever. And then another thought entered her mind, a pegasus with a rainbow mane smiling at her and she imagined she was standing at the end of the field.
When Gilda opened her eyes she saw was at the end of the field and she slid on the grass into a stop and looked behind her. To her amazement, Stormy was still only a three fourths across the field and the stretch that Gilda ran across was ripped up from her claws.
She looked around at all the other campers with their mouths hanging open, even Firefly. For several long seconds the only sound was Stormy's desperate hoof falls as he came to the finish line. And then a voice erupted from the line, "THAT WAS SO AWESOME!"
It was, of course, Rainbow Dash.
The rest of the lesson passed in a daze for Gilda. Stormy only looked at her once, when they came to the cloud bucking session, with his usual smug smile. But when Gilda looked from Stormy to Dash, she received an entirely different smile and she found she couldn't care about Stormy at all.
After their lessons ended for the day, Gilda was running to speak with Rainbow on their way to their bunks. Just as she caught up with her, Stormy flew in shouting.
"Don't be so proud about today, Gil-duh!" He was instantly in Gilda's face and the other campers quickly made themselves scarce leaving the three of them alone. "I don't know what your parents threatened to get you in here, but MONSTERS don't belong here! So why don't you just do everyone a favor," he turned around and Gilda saw his body tense up. "And GET LOST!"
The last word was punctuated with him bucking out as hard as he could. But Gilda had dropped down and sprang at his underside as he kicked out. Next thing she knew, she was standing tall and Stormy was in a daze on the ground over a dozen feet away. Gilda smiled proudly and turned to Dash.
Gilda's heart turned to ice when she saw the look on Dash's face, it was full of shock and horror. Gilda quickly looked at the ground as her mind raced, 'She saw me lose my temper, now she'll think I'm a monster too.'
"How could you?" Dash's voice seethed and Gilda's eyes began to sting as the tears welled up. "I knew you were a jerk, Stormy, but I didn't think you were so petty as to attack Gilda just for doing better than you at a race!"
Gilda's head snapped up to see Rainbow Dash yelling at the downed pegasus who couldn't face her in his shame. Dash then turned to Gilda and asked if she was okay to which Gilda nodded.
Stormy rolled over to stand on his hooves and shouted feebly at Gilda, with disgraced tears pouring down his face, "I'm gonna tell Firefly on you!"
Without looking back, Dash laughed, "Tell her what, Stormy CRIES? That you tried to kick Gilda and then tripped over your own hooves, because that's what I'll say I saw. Now go wash that dirt off you face." And with that she kicked a nice clump of earth which nailed him right in the nose.
"Come on Gilda, I want to tell you what I was thinking about this morning. You've actually just given me a great idea..." With that the pegasus and griffon walked off, but not to their separate bunks. The two girls talked and planned well into the night.
The next day, when it came to cloud bucking practice, rather than go off to practice on her own, Gilda stayed with the line. Firefly looked confused at first and then fascinated as Gilda showed off what she and Dash had worked out last night. That day Gilda invented a new weather control technique, Cloud Pouncing.