She reminisced on what went through during the day as she stretched and got ready for the group running, not much changed, except for the fact that for whatever reason the time spent in the pool just felt that much longer.
What normally felt like hours, now felt like an unending eternity of torment and pain!
Her mind could barely withstand the strain of the perceived time it took to complete the swimming portion of the practice normally but now… now it felt like her mind would break any second.
Every time that she came close to breaking that barrier that separated the sanctity of her mind, free and full of dreams that were being weaved, and the mortal realm, that which was chaos, pain and unending torment.
Every moment her dreams came closer and closer to being broken, every moment that she was forced to pull herself through the accursed liquid, that dulled her senses and weakened her spirit.
In other words she now spent even more time being comforted by McQueen in the locker room before they had to go and, for her at least, learn how to dance.
The other members of her team who were all experienced racers, with the sole exception of Gold Ship of course, all knew how to dance and sing at the same time.
To say that she enjoyed dance class was an understatement, it felt nice to do all the moves, the movements came to her rather easily, oddly enough, the only gripe she had with it was that she also had to learn how to do the dances for the backup dancer position.
In truth, it didn't quite make sense to her why she even had to learn how to do extra dances, if she wasn't going to lose anyway.
…
"Hey, Hope-chan…"
"Hmm, yes Teio-senpai?"
Her senior looked at her for a moment her face scrunched up in confusion as if she was contemplating something, "Why do you put so little effort into any dance that isn't the victors?"
Why did she put so little effort?
It was rather obvious no?
"Well, Teio-senpai, it's because why should I practice them in the first place."
Her senior looked at her as if she had grown a second head, utterly confused by what she had just said.
"Excuse me? Hope-chan, you can't win forever, don't get me wrong you're increasingly strong, I don't doubt that you could win G1 races, honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you could win some of the classic races. But… even the strongest umamusume lose eventually. I didn't even remain as a consistent podium finisher mind you, I got fifth in my first race with McQueen, and even then there was another two times where I wasn't even on the board. Even pres lost some races!"
She pondered on who this 'Pres' was, Teio had mentioned her multiple times, each time with an almost worship like reverence, but that was neither here nor there, after all, "But all I have to do is run? It doesn't matter how fast they can accelerate if they can't catch up in the first place. All I have to do to win, is just run."
Teio looked at her in shock before sighing and letting a small smile grace her features, for what reason, she didn't know, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to know to be honest, something told her the reason would just irritate her.
…
She still couldn't quite understand Teio's whole view on the subject but who was she to judge, if anything she was just happy that dancing wasn't as hard as she feared.
That.
That was the true godsend.
And now, now was the time for her redemption, she had only lost last time because she had lost focus and was… reminded… of some… rather painful memories… but it would be fine this time! After all she had gotten better at dealing with the nightmares, at least that's what she told herself at night, she was rather confident that she could run an entire mile race with no complications, she was sure of it!
The only problem was that the groupe running exercise would be happening on a 2000 meter track… that was an extra 400 meters that she wasn't sure she what was going to happen.
But… well that was a problem for future Hope for Tomorrow!
Let her more experienced and wiser self deal with the problem!
With a sigh she went to enter the gate and get ready for the beginning of the mock race, before she was called by her trainer, where she was succinctly informed that she had to go to the student council office…
There was a student council office?
Well, now that she thought of it, it did make sense, Teio did talk about a 'pres' which could only be the student council president.
And so she made her way to the office room.
…
She knocked on the door and waited and waited for a few seconds before suddenly.
"Come in."
She did as was instructed and opened the door, the room was of average size, it was smaller than the classrooms but about the same size as a living room would be in a house.
There was five desks, only three of which had documents on them and looked to actually have been used rather recently at least compared to the other two which had nothing on them and seemed to be more… mementos than anything?
She looked at the desk with the largest pile of documents on them and there was the person who called out to her.
She had a majority of brown hair, which transitioned into a darker almost black with a streak of white hair as well, which seemed to be in the shape of a crescent moon.
The person opened their mouth and spoke once more, "It's a pleasure to meet you Hope for Tomorrow, I had hoped that our meeting could have arrived the day after you had enrolled but I had important business to conduct, my name is Symboli Rudolf, I am the student council president."
"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you Rudolf-senpai, is there a reason in particular why you wanted to see me?"
"Well, if you must know I wanted to see the child who an old friend of mine raised, that and ask you of your dreams, and whether or not you will be participating in the classics. If anything I apologize, after all this meeting is in a sense merely a byproduct of this emperors divine will."
"Ah, well, that makes sense, if you're wondering on whether or not I'll be participating in the classics, I plan on taking part in and winning the Triaple Tiara."
The president blinked before huffing and looking at her with a sly smile, "Would you believe me if I told you that you are the second person to outright state that they will win all three crowns?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean that the last person to have said that me all but stated that they will win the Triple Crown, and here you are, all but stating that you will win the Triple Tiara. So I will say the same thing I said to her to you. Do not underestimate your foes, for pride will make you lose sight and understanding of your foes strength. In other words…"
The Presidents eyes darkened, her aura becoming heavier and heavier.
"Do not underestimate Central."
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Author notes
I hope you all had a Sunday as marvelous as mine, I celebrated greek Easter (it was a blast).
My week off is now, all but officially over which sucks, but I managed to beat KCD1, can't play the seconds as it can't run on a Xbox 1, which is very depressing, but hey, c'est la vie.
The only real downside is that I have to speak French again.
Which sucks, but hey, at least I got into the cegep I wanted.
Either way, that is all,
This is GreekAntrielos, signing off.