That evening, Gilda and Rainbow Dash met up as usual. Dash spent the first hour or so talking about the various stunts and tricks that Firefly taught her and helping Gilda come up with her own variations.
"So what about you Gilda, I didn't get to see you last night. Tell me, were you able to entertain yourself without the great Rainbow Dash by your side?" Dash asked with a sly smile.
"I managed," Gilda said with an exaggerated yawn and stretch. It had the desired effect, Rainbow immediately sat up in attention. "There was this really annoying pony that just would not leave me alone, so I gave her a bit of the old business. Just a little razzling. I guess some of the others thought it was pretty funny because now I got a whole crew following me around."
"I guess making friends is just another thing you're great at."
"You're darn right," Gilda said as she reached out to rustle Dash's mane.
The next couple of weeks saw Gilda busier than she'd ever been in her life. She had the regular lessons and then spent all her evenings and nights with Dash. But it was during the rest of the day that she was truly active. She would roam the camp grounds with her crew messing with anyone she thought would give them all a laugh. She quickly exhausted those who had given her trouble in the early days of camp and moved on the unpopular and disliked. Every so often she'd see Stormy Skis sitting alone, but she felt no need to mess with him further. She'd just smile as she and his former crew passed, he'd already been beaten in every way. Well, short of her punching him in the nose.
Whenever there wasn't anyone around worth fooling with, she'd show off the latest stunts she and Dash had perfected. She never really talked with any of the members of her crew except to expound on her own accomplishments. She didn't really mind not knowing much about them, they didn't seem like the most interesting ponies to her. Her gang didn't seem to mind either, they were too awed by her, except for the occasional moment when she couldn't be bothered to remember half of their names. But Gilda was happy; she was having fun, she wasn't messed with, and she was never alone.
Then came the most fateful of days. The daily practice had ended and Gilda had said her goodbye to Rainbow Dash for the day, but then Dash had come chasing after her moments later.
"Gilda, wait," Dash flew after Gilda with a puzzled look on her face. "Firefly wants to talk to you. She says it's important." She paused for a moment before continuing. "She says she wants to talk to you alone. Do you have any idea what it's about?"
Gilda shook her head left Dash behind as she flew over to her instructor. Gilda searched her face as she approached trying to look for some hint as to what she wanted, but Firefly just had that same stern expression she always had for Gilda.
"We need to talk, Gilda," Firefly said as soon as Gilda landed in front of her. She looked troubled as she spoke. "I've been putting this off for too long. Fly with me."
Without waiting for a response, Firefly took the air and Gilda followed. As they flew Gilda looked down to see Dash watching them go. Gilda had a sudden sense of being backed into a corner.
"You know, Gilda, this camp has a competitive air about it," Firefly began after they burst through the clouds. "It's even in our motto, 'It's our quest to someday be the very best,' this implies that we have to try to be better than others."
"So it happens sometimes that this competitiveness creates some hostility amongst the campers," Gilda's eyes narrowed as Firefly continued. "This is usually not worse than a little name calling or certain groups excluding some of the weaker fliers. Lately though, things seem to have escalated around here."
"Or maybe some of your campers are just whiners," Gilda spat without being able to stop herself. "You just said this kind of thing was normal and you certainly didn't care when it was happening to me."
Firefly continued after a few seconds pause, "I'm just saying general policy. I personally believe such behavior is damaging to the purpose of this camp. And as I said this is more than what is considered normal. Now, no one is naming names, but to be blunt, you leave an impression."
Gilda increased speed so that she could look Firefly in the eye, "You just said no one is naming any names and even then no major rules are being broken!"
Firefly kept her eyes looking ahead of her, "Harassing campers, stealing or vandalizing camper's property, and the storage shed has been broken into."
Gilda decreased speed and said defiantly, "No one's been hurt and you can't pin it on me or else you'd have kicked me out already."
"Okay, so how about a different topic," Firefly suddenly whipped around to face Gilda. "Why are you flying so slow?"
Gilda was stunned both by the sudden move and the question and could think of no response except to flap there. Firefly flew closer as she spoke, "In the early testing you finished at the top of the class by a wide margin, but your performance since then has been consistently weaker. If you want to be specific, you always do just slightly worse than Rainbow Dash. Even when she makes a mistake you are always careful to do no better than her."
Gilda liked this line of discussion even less, "What's your point?"
"Are you afraid of Rainbow Dash," Firefly asked sharply. "Do you think she wont be your friend anymore if she found out you're faster than her?" Gilda said nothing. "Should we bring her up here and ask her?"
"You don't want me to hold back anymore," Gilda couldn't bring herself to care that she was yelling in her instructors face. "Fine! Try to keep up!"
Gilda beat her wings furiously as she tore through the top of the clouds. Gilda glanced back to see that Firefly was barely a full body length behind her. Not only that, but Gilda was frustrated to see that Firefly didn't seem to even be struggling to keep up.
"That's a bit more like it," Firefly said as she pulled alongside her. "But it's to be expected with your larger wing span. Is that really all you got?"
Gilda glared at Firefly and went into a steep dive. At first she only wanted to get away, but then a thought came to her when she saw Firefly following. She found herself thinking about how Rainbow had crashed trying to break a steep dive on the first day, this dive was much steeper. She found herself smiling at the thought of her teacher eating a little dirt.
Even though she was much younger, Gilda's wings were much more powerful and sturdy than a pegasus. At the last possible moment Gilda flared out her wings which broke her momentum as sure as a parachute. She got a small surprise when she felt one of her wings slap into her instructors face, but it didn't hamper her own descent.
Gilda was disappointed to see that Firefly wasn't tumbling through the air like Dash, but had instead suddenly changed direction. That disappointment turned to shock when she saw that Firefly was heading directly towards a near by tree. Gilda noticed several of her own feathers whipping from her instructor's face, Firefly couldn't see.
Before Gilda could even call out, Firefly had already crashed through the branches and was tumbling to the ground. By the time Gilda had touched ground, Rainbow Dash was at their teacher's side.
"Get the nurse," was what Rainbow said as Gilda got close, she was crying. "Tell her there's been an accident and that Firefly," She couldn't finish but gestured pitifully at the tangled feathery mess of her wings.
Gilda nodded and ran towards the medical cabin, struggling to see through her bleary eyes. She couldn't think about how bad Firefly's wings had looked or the sound of her teacher's sharp gasping breath. The only thought in Gilda's mind was a looping sentence, 'It was an accident. It was an accident. It was an accident.'