After the lesson the next day, Gilda stuck around to watch Dash train with Firefly. It proved to be very very dull. As far as Gilda could see this "special training" consisted of Firefly talking to Dash forever ,doing a stunt quickly, taking Dash through the same stunt, followed by talking for another eternity. It went on like that for hours and afterwards Dash was too tired to do anything but talk about how amazing Firefly was.
The next day was one of their free days, but not for Dash anymore. Gilda sat watching as Dash and Firefly went through more of their training as Gilda felt her eyes getting heavier.
Two hours later Gilda woke up to Rainbow Dash gently poking her in the head with her hoof, "Oh, are you done already?" Gilda asked as she quickly stood up bleary eyed and blinking.
Dash screwed up her face apologetically, "Actually, we've still got a lot more to do. So maybe you want to take off and I'll catch up to you as soon as we're done."
Gilda stared at her blinking for a few seconds, trying not to show a shred of her growing irritation. "Well, yeah, of course," she said with a forced laugh. "I got better things to do than hang around here all day. Got my own life and all."
"Well have fun out there," Rainbow said with a smile as took back to the skies. She then called back, "And whatever you do, make it good! I wanna hear all about it later!"
"Yeah, it'll be totally cool," Gilda said with an awkward smile.
Later, Gilda sat under a tree idly scratching her neck and muttering to herself, "It can't be that hard to have some fun. I mean, what did I do for fun before Rainbow Dash?" After a few seconds of thinking her face drooped, "Oh yeah, I hid in my room and hoped for a natural disaster." She then picked herself up and began walking forward with determination, "Well no more of that, I'm not the same lame griffon I was before! I can think of a ton of fun stuff to do!"
A little bit later she was sitting outside the window of a cabin watching a pegasus, who had just recently had the misfortune of getting her head stuck in a bucket, fly about the room, crashing into walls. Gilda watched for a moment and then sighed loudly, "It's just not the same," and she walked off leaving the chaotic scene behind her.
Gilda was lying under that same tree as earlier, she had been drawing out plans for aerial stunts for some time. With a sudden burst of aggravation she smeared everything she had drawn. Scowling she started to look around for something to do and let out a small cry as she found she was face to face with a grey pegasus.
"Hello," the grey pegasus said simply. "I was hoping you'd notice me, but you didn't. I came over to say 'hello', but then I saw you were busy and thought that might be rude. Then I started wondering why that would be rude, I'm just being friendly!" As she talked, her eyes became unfocused on Gilda and she began to walk around her in a circle. Gilda noticed that as she wandered so did her eyes, in opposite directions. "So I just started inching closer, hoping you'd notice me or you'd stop what you were doing so I wouldn't be interrupting and wouldn't be rude. Who do you think makes up the rules about these things like what's rude and what's not? Princess Celestia seems like a likely answer, but..."
Gilda grabbed the muzzle of the pony, silencing her. "Stop. Talking. Now, who are you?" The pony sat there in silence for a few moments before Gilda realized her mistake, "You can talk now," she practically growled.
The grey pony laughed nervously, "Oh yeah, that should have been the first thing I said. Sorry, I've been told that I think too much and then I start talking about what I'm thinking and..." She noticed Gilda's deepening scowl and stopped quickly. "I'm Happy Hooves, it's kind of a weird name and I'm thinking about changing it when I get older. I don't know if you know, but it's pony tradition for family names to have a theme and my family are all named after physical habits. Like how I shuffle around when I'm thinking, I still think it's a dumb name. At least, that's what everyone around here tells me."
As Happy was rambling Gilda was staring at her eyes and watching the one swirl about. Waiting for her to take a breath, Gilda bluntly asked, "So what's with your eye?"
The pony laughed self consciously and put one of her hooves over her eyes, "You noticed that, huh? It's just something that happens when I get too distracted, or too focused, or if I bump my head, or when I sleep too late, or when I don't sleep enough, or when I'm really hungry, or..."
"Hey Gilda," the familiarly harsh voice of Stormy Skies called out, silencing Hooves. He strolled over with his dozen or so friends, but stayed several feet away from Gilda as he talked. "So what's this, your show off friend ditched you to kiss up to Firefly and now you've no one to hang out with but that dweeby remedial student?" Several of his buddies laughed after he was done.
Gilda clawed the ground as she spoke, "Hey Stormy, it looks like you still got a few feathers stuck in your mane. Why don't you let me help you with that?"
Stormy did his best to still look smug as he took several steps back. "Let's ditch these lamers before we get infected by their loser dust." And with that Stormy and his crew were gone.
"Those are the ponies who told me how dumb my name was," Happy said, breaking Gilda from her seething thoughts. "I don't think they like me very much. Or you, I guess. But I don't know why, you're all big and fast and pretty and scary and way cooler than they are. It makes sense with me, I'm not very fast as a flier. And I mess up a lot on stunts. And I crash into them when I fly... and when I walk. Come to think of it, I don't think anyone's stuck around and listened to me for as long you and I was ..." But when Happy finished walking in circles and looked over, Gilda was gone.
That night Gilda stopped by the shed where the dyes and paints were kept and then snuck into one of the neighboring cabins. She quietly crept out an hour later and went to sleep laughing to herself.
In the morning, Happy Hooves awoke and headed out for breakfast. On her way she noticed everyone seemed to be staring at her and she heard whispering and giggling as she passed. This wasn't the first time, but it usually followed her making some mistake. She racked her brain trying to think of what she did this time and suddenly the ponies around her burst out laughing and several started talking excitedly to each other.
"Look! Look! "
"That's so weird!"
Happy stared at the laughing ponies for a moment wondering what joke she was missing, "Um, what's so funny? Is it my mane? I know I don't usually brush it in the morning, but I don't really see the point in it since we're going to be flying around so much and it'll get messed up anyway," as she spoke the nearby ponies just started laughing even harder. She was starting to get angry, "I don't see what's so funny!"
"She can't see so what's funny, derp," an orange boy said almost falling over laughing.
"No big surprise there, " the girl next to him shouted, shrieking with laughter. "Maybe you should go look in a mirror, derp!"
Happy backed away and ran back to cabin and looked into the mirror. Her face had been stenciled all over in black dye. Written on her forehead, 'Watch my eye go!' with an arrow leading to her eye, when she winked it she saw a spiral stenciled over the lid, and beneath her eyes and across her nose, 'Derp, Derp, Derp,' with an arrow leading to her mouth. She suddenly found it very hard to see her reflection in the mirror, but she didn't have to wonder why as the tears started to spill from her eyes.
After her lessons, Gilda quickly said goodbye to Dash and set out around the camp. She didn't have to go far before she saw a crying Happy Hooves being chased by Stormy and his friends all shouting "Derpy" over and again. As soon the whole crew was in earshot Gilda said loudly, "Guess somepony doesn't like her makeover." She didn't even stop walking as she heard group stop in their tracks.
They were quickly running and flying to catch up to her. "Was that you," a red pegasus asked with awe in his voice.
"Maybe," was all she said.
"That is just too rad," a purple boy said jumping up and down. "You are wicked!"
"Hey, if she can't handle a little prank and some name calling, then she has no business being here."
"Gilda, you are the coolest!", a smaller pink girl said full of admiration.
Gilda took a lingering look at Stormy, now standing alone and seething with anger, and smiled warmly. "You bet I am."