It was Thursday. Time to clear away the clouds once again.

Although it had only been a few days, Rainbow Dash and Amber were great friends. They thought nothing could go wrong.

It was all downhill from there.

Rainbow Dash walked along the road to town, keeping an eye out for Amber. She spotted her in town, and increased her pace slightly.

"Hi Amber." she said as she approached her. She slowed her pace to a stop. "Ready to clear away the clouds?"

"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash." she said, yawning and stretching her wings. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Heh, you still tired from Pinkie Pie's party last night?"

"Mm, yeah. She sure does know how to throw a good party."

Rainbow Dash looked at the large cumulus which swirled overhead. "Well, I was going to let you take this shift on your own, but if you're too tired..."

"What? No!" Amber said, springing to life. "I can do this easily!"

"You sure? I don't want to overwork you..."

"What? Me? No way, I'll have this sky cleared in no time!"

Amber also looked up at the clouds, she was fairly confident she could do it with ease. She slowly extended her wings and lifted herself into the air. "How quick did you say you could do this?"

"Ten seconds, why? You gonna try and beat me?" she asked jokingly.

"Hm, we'll see..." Amber said with a slight grin.

"Sure, go ahead. But nopony can clear the sky faster than me!"

"Wanna bet?"

With that, Amber rocketed into the sky and began smashing through the clouds. Rainbow Dash timed her silently in her head, but she was actually pretty impressed; Amber was making great time, five seconds in and already the sky was almost clear.

As Amber flew through the final cloud, Rainbow Dash stopped counting, and was quite worried about the result.

"Eight s- seconds..." she mumbled in shock.

"So..." Amber said, landing with a conceit grin. "How'd I do?"

"Eight seconds..." Rainbow Dash repeated, still in shock.

"See? Told ya."

"But... How'd you do that? I've never met a pony who could do that before..."

"I dunno, it's just normal..."

Amber looked around the street and saw the café where they had lunch the day they had met. "Wanna get a bite to eat?" she asked, completely missing how distraught Rainbow Dash actually was.

"Er, um, s- sure..." she mumbled. One of her boastful aspects had just been lost.

Rainbow Dash groaned as the glare of the dazzling sunlight broke over the distant horizon and onto her eyelids, waking her. She moaned as she lugged herself out of bed and into the living room.

Last night, she did some thinking, and realised how unimportant it was, that Amber could clear the sky faster than her. So what? It didn't matter, and she shouldn't be jealous.

Or should she?

Rainbow Dash quickly pushed these muddled thoughts out of her mind, she had other things to think about at the moment. She had to leave soon for the Wonderbolt's Academy, so at least she could forget about all of that while she was there.

She opened her front door and gazed out over the town. It was quite relaxing, the slight breeze on her coat.

She stood there for another moment, before leaping off the door step and soaring back into the sky, focusing on the day ahead.

"Listen up, rookies!" Spitfire ordered, strict as always. "Today we're going to test you on your speed, I don't want any slacking, is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the cadets all chanted in unison.

"Good." She walked down to the opposite end of the group. "Before we begin, I would like to introduce a new member to the team." She looked over to the other end of the runway, a pegasus was walking towards them.

Once they got close enough, Rainbow Dash took a single look at them, and for a moment she swore it was Amber, but it couldn't be... Could it? There was no way, she was certain.

"Everypony, this is the newest member of your team." Spitfire said. "This is Amber."

As those three final words hit Rainbow Dash's ears, she opened her mouth agape in disbelief. The one mare that she didn't really want to see today, and there she was.

"Uh, p- permission to speak?" Rainbow Dash stuttered as she watched Amber walk to the end of the line.

"What is it, Rainbow Dash?" Spitfire asked with a sigh.

"Why is she joining? It's mid-term, ponies can't join now."

"Well, Rainbow Dash, this is an exception. Deal with it." She glared at Rainbow Dash. "My niece is just what this team needs to pick up their game, you understand?"

"Niece?!"

Rainbow Dash looked down the end at Amber. She orange mare looked back and smiled at her. Rainbow Dash tried her best to force a smile in return, but as soon as she looked away, her face dropped back into a frown.

"Alright, everypony," Spitfire said, raising her whistle up to her mouth. "Three hundred laps, now!"

Almost instantly, Rainbow Dash and Amber took off, and began flying around the academy. As Rainbow Dash had expected, Amber was slowly getting further and further ahead of her. She beat her wings rapidly to try and keep up, but she just couldn't do it.

As she flew, she thought about what Spitfire had said. Rainbow Dash wouldn't have thought that they were related. Maybe that was why Amber was allowed to join halfway through the term. She didn't know.

Although it was a lost cause, Rainbow Dash continued to flap her wings as fast as she could. If she was going to come second, then she wanted to finish as close to Amber as she could, which was becoming more and more difficult to achieve.

Suddenly, the strain Rainbow Dash was putting on her wings began to take it's toll, she felt them begin to cramp up. And before she knew what was happening, she found herself plummeting towards the ground.

Luckily enough, she landed on the grass beside the runway. Actually, it was more crashing than actually landing.

She lay face first in the grass. She didn't want to get up, she just wanted to lie there. But of course, she couldn't.

She lifted her head and looked up, her face covered in dirt, and saw Spitfire, glaring down at her. Although she couldn't see her eyes behind her glasses, Rainbow Dash imagined disappointment or disapproval in them.

"Something the matter, Rainbow Dash?" Spitfire asked.

"Uh, no, ma'am." Rainbow Dash sighed, standing and wiping away some of the dirt on her face. "I'm just not feeling my best right now..."

"Hm, why don't you take five."

"Yeah, I need to rest for a moment..."

Rainbow Dash flew home, alone. She was thinking. She had done a lot of that recently.

Amber was obliviously ruining her, but it wasn't her fault. If anything, it was her own fault for letting it get to her. Yes, it annoyed her, but she was overreacting. It was nothing. A new friend was nothing to be angry or upset about. She should be happy, so why wasn't she?

"Hey, Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow Dash looked back to see who it was (as if she didn't already know), and of course she saw Amber, slowly approaching. "Oh, why won't she leave me alone?" she said to herself.

"Hey, how's it going?" Amber asked when she caught up to her. "You left before I had a chance to talk to you."

"Yeah, I'm fine..." she sighed.

Amber looked at her oddly. "Are you sure?" she asked. "You seem depressed or something."

"Look, I'm fine." She looked up and faked a smile. "I'm okay."

"Hm, alright..." Amber said, slightly suspicious. "Anyway, what're you doing when you get back? Anything interesting?"

"No." Rainbow Dash sighed, but it was true. "I'll probably just go home."

"Yeah, me too... Wanna come to my house?"

Rainbow Dash looked over to Amber, that question infuriated for some reason. "N- No..." Rainbow Dash replied, trying to suppress her anger the best she could. "No thanks..."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you later then." Amber said flying ahead of Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, see ya..." she mumbled in return.

It had been a long week for Rainbow Dash. She had not only made a new friend, but she kind of developed a feeling of jealousy towards her. She hadn't really been jealous before, mainly because she never had much competition in the past.

Today, however, she was hoping to ignore that. She had plans with Twilight to go to the park for a couple of hours. It wasn't much, but at least she had an excuse to get some peace from Amber for a while.

She gently trotted through town, she sky was still sunny as she had left it. She looked around for Twilight, but she also kept an eye out for Amber, she wanted to try and avoid her today.

She quickly spotted Twilight, standing in the middle of the street, and she sped up slightly to reach her quicker.

However, upon seeing Twilight in conversation with a certain orange pegasus, she found herself grinding to a halt. She looked over at the two, her mind filling with anger. "Why does she constantly have to be in my way?!" she thought to herself.

She thought about turning around and leaving, but she couldn't let Twilight down. She continued walking towards, quite slow, an hoped this conversation would be short.

"Hey Twilight." Rainbow Dash said, interrupting them.

"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash." Twilight replied. Amber also said hi, but she ignored her.

"So, ready to go to the park?"

Twilight looked at her confusedly, and Rainbow Dash feared what that expression was for.

"Park?" Twilight said, thinking. "Oh, the park! I completely forgot!" She turned to Amber. "I just agreed to go to Sugarcube Corner with Amber, you don't mind if I go, do you?"

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight, her mouth agape in growing anger, and then she turned to Amber. She looked at her, and she was mad. All of her suppressed anger which had built up over the past week was finally being exerted. Something inside her broke for a moment, something snapped.

"No!" she yelled, everypony in the street turned their heads toward the yelling. She leaned forward, towards the shocked mare and continued yelling. "You're better than me at my job, you show up randomly at the Wonderbolt Academy and become better than me, and now you're stealing my friends!!" she yelled, snarling.

"Rainbow Dash, calm down." Twilight said. "We're just going to the park."

Although Amber was quite shocked and scared at Rainbow Dash's sudden moment of rage, the thing that came next she never saw coming. Rainbow Dash's hoof, colliding with her face.

Rainbow Dash watched as her swing sent Amber backwards, crashing against a wall behind her. Everypony gasped in shock.

Rainbow Dash took a few steps over to where Amber lay helplessly. Once again, she drew her hoof back for anther punch to her face, Amber closed her eyes and tried to cover her face with her forelegs. As she stood there, her breaths quite heavy, Rainbow Dash looked over to her threatening hoof, and suddenly realised what she had just done. Amber opened her eyes and looked back up at her, letting Rainbow Dash saw her bloody nose and slightly black eye.

"Oh no..." she whimpered as she lowered her hoof. "Amber, I'm so sorry!" she cried, trying to help her up.

"Don't touch me!" Amber said, smacking her hoof away. Rainbow Dash wasn't sure if she was rejecting her help because she was scared, or just angry.

Rainbow Dash looked back up to face the crowd. She looked at each and every one of their faces, they all had the same unsure glare in their eyes. The one that hurt her the most were Twilight, and also her other four friends who had just joined the crowd.

"Rainbow Dash..." Twilight said, her eyes showing her disappointment. "What have you done?"

"I- I- I didn't mean to!" Rainbow Dash cried as her friends went to help the injured pegasus. "I couldn't control myself!"

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, even Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy all looked back towards Rainbow Dash in uncertainty. The whole town also stared unsurely at her, she was so ashamed.

Rainbow Dash didn't know what to do. She was scared, she felt like just falling to the ground and sobbing, but their intimidating eyes made it so hard to think.

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, helping Amber up. "I think you should leave, now."

Knowing what was best, Rainbow Dash quickly kicked off the ground and left, tears running from her face.

Rainbow Dash walked around her house, trying not cry. The angry expressions on everypony's faces, she couldn't get it out of her mind. It terrified her.

So after some thinking, she realised what she had to do; leave. Her friends were angry at her, the town looked at her with contempt, and she'll probably even get kicked off the Wonderbolts for punching Spitfire's niece. There was nothing left for her here.

She stood on her doorstep, her saddlebag hanging over her back. She shut the door behind her, and placed a note under it.

"Goodbye, Ponyville." she said as she leapt forward, soaring off, without another word.

Rainbow Dash sighed depressingly as the hot sun continued to beat down onto her sore body. She lowered her head and faced towards the ground. She wanted to cry, but she was so dehydrated, there were no tears to be shed.

As she stared down blankly, she noticed a pony's shadow moving over the ground she was looking at. "Rainbow Dash?" the pony in front of her asked.

Rainbow Dash was surprised, she hadn't heard her name said aloud for a while. If the pony knew her name, then maybe they could help her somehow.

Rainbow Dash slowly raised her head up to the figure, but couldn't tell who it was as the sun glared from behind them.

"Rainbow Dash, what happened to you?" they asked, and although she couldn't directly see her, Rainbow Dash was fairly sure it was a mare.

Rainbow Dash just stared back blankly at the unidentified mare, her breaths quite heavy. "Who... Who are you?" she finally asked.

The mare leaned to the left slightly, out of the path of the sun, and Rainbow Dash immediately knew who it was. "Mind if I sit next to you?"

"Yes, please. I could use a friend right now."