The sound of overturned table and the clattering of pots can be heard from the inside of a mountain cave near the Everfree Forest. The shrieks of an eagle and the roar of a lion echoed in the walls of the cave. Inside it was a disheveled form a gryphon lying in the middle of the cave floor, crying.
“I hate you, Dash.” The gryphon said with a raspy voice. Her eyes were bloodshot from constant crying and her coat looked messy. In her claws was a framed photo of Rainbow Dash and herself, smiling. It was her and Rainbow Dash from flightcamp when they were little. There was something written at the bottom of the photo that says “Best friends together forever. –Gilda and Dash.”
Her eyes began to water as she read what was written on it and she clutched the photo close to her chest. A loud crack of thunder roared as the might of a thousand gryphons and a heavy rain poured from the Everfree forest sky. But even the sound of the heavy rain cannot distract Gilda from the sound of her broken heart.
She sniffed for the last time and gently put the framed photo down to her side. She sat on her haunches and closed her eyes. She took deep breathes to calm her aching heart down and tried to think away to fix things up with Rainbow Dash. She opened her eyes and looked around her cave. It was empty except for a table top, her nest bed, a few cooking utensils and the framed photo.
Her cave was empty and desolate as her current heart. She ran away from home on her teen age when she had a big fight with her parents. Although she had returned once to apologize, her father still seems a bit distant after the exchanged of hurtful words.
Her eyes gazed outside of her cave and saw the drops of rainwater as it reflected the flash of the lightning. The distant thunder grumbles echoed throughout the sky. Then, her eyes fell to the general direction of Ponyville, home of Rainbow Dash. In her mind and heart, she needs to apologize to Rainbow Dash for being a total jerk to her and her new friends back then. She wanted to tell her that she had a bad day at that time and just wanted to hang out with her.
Her total anger at the incident was unintentional. At that time she was hurting inside because that day was the day of her big fight with her parents. As she recounted the things of what happened in Ponyville on the last time she visited makes her very angry. She was very angry… at herself. She knew she had to keep her cool, she knew the Pink pony only wanted to be her friend but… it was all her fault that everypony was hurting. If only she kept her head straight.
Her will became resilient as she planned to apologize with Rainbow Dash and then to her friends. She walked to the mouth of her cave and spread her wings. She looked over her shoulder and turned to look at the photo. A small smile of resolution spread on her beak. “I’ll be back, buddy.” She whispered. She crouched and took off into the air.
The cold raindrops wet her coat and feathers as she flew through the raging Everfree storm. The winds were merciless to the aerial expert as she was literally thrown in the middle of her flight like a ragdoll as a furious gush of wind blew passed her. Even the treacherous storm will not crush her will to do what is right. She hovered for a second to correct her direction towards Ponyville until a lightning strike hit her and her muscle instantaneously shut down. Her wings stopped and she fell. At her fall, she was panicking and frantically tried to flap her wings but they would not respond.
Tears began to stream from her eyes at the thought of dying without a proper goodbye to her only friend. She opened her eyes and saw the dark cloud above grumbled and drops of rain tried to match her falling speed. She closed her eyes and whispered, “Goodbye… my friend.” She could feel the sting of tree branches struck her from behind and with a thud, her world darkens.
She could hear the sound of animals nearby. She could hear the flapping of the birds’ wings and their cheery chirps. She could smell a strong scent of lavender wafted in the air. Then, she could feel that she was lying on her back but the ground felt suspiciously soft and her wings were being wrapped in something. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a wooden ceiling above of her. She turned to look at her side and saw she was in someone’s bedroom.
She snapped her head to the left as she heard hoofsteps walking up a staircase nearby. “Am I in a pony’s house?” She muttered silently to herself. A pony with a flowing pink mane and yellow coat appeared from the stairs, carrying a bowl of soup. They pony was a Pegasus and she quickly squeaked, causing the bowl of soup to drop and spilled onto the floor.
Gilda tried to remember who she was but no name seemed to appear in her head. But she did remember what she had done to her, she… made her cry. A pang of guilt struck her in the heart as she remembered it quickly. Then, she noticed the Pegasus pony was slowly tearing up and backing away from her.
She hold up and claw to stop her but the Pegasus squeaked and hid behind her mane. She tried to speak in her indoor voice. “I-I’m sorry.” Gilda said, looking clearly apologetic. “For yelling at you.” She continued.
The Pegasus pony slowly standing up again and meekly replied, “It’s okay. I forgive you, Gilda.”
Her eyes wide open as she heard her name. How did she know her name? “How did you know my name?” she asked, clearly surprised.
The pony slightly hid behind her mane. “It’s… easy to remember your name since you were the only gryphon that visited Ponyville.” She softly answered, slightly cringing.
“I see.” Gilda replied. Her eyes casted to the pony and said, “You’re Rainbow Dash’s friends right?”
“Y-yes.” She replied, slowly stepping closer.
“How is she recently?” Gilda asked her, wanting to know an update to her old friend.
“She’s fine. Had an accident while she was practicing her trick but she’s okay now.” The pony answered, now cleaning the mess on the floor.
The news of her friend being in an accident made her heart skipped a beat until the pony assured her that Rainbow Dash recovered quickly. “I see. I guess she’s the time of her life.” She said with a sad tone in her voice and gripped the bed sheet tightly. Not with anger, but with regret.
The pony now stood next to Gilda and extended her hoof with a gentle smile. “My name is Fluttershy.” The pony introduced herself. Gilda gently took the pony’s hoof and shook it.
“Nice to meet you.” She said as she let go her hoof. She tried to stretch her wings then suddenly a sharp bolt of pain shot through her back as she now noticed her wings were wrapped in bandages.
“Stop!” Fluttershy softly exclaimed. “You’re in a bad condition. Your wings were broken in several places from a fall and you should move it for a few days.” She explained to her as she gently pushed Gilda back down to rest.
Gilda’s mind suddenly remembered back the night of the storm, the night of her fall. She knew that she had fallen in the middle of the forest and never ever expected to somepony to rescue her. This led Gilda to ask Fluttershy a question. “How did you found me?”
Fluttershy tucked Gilda in and answered demurely. “Well, I was told by some of the squirrels that a big bird had fallen from the sky and crashed near Froggy Bottom Bog. I wanted to investigate if it was true, and to my surprise, it was. I saw you didn’t moved when I called you from far away and noticed that you were badly injured and was unconscious. So, I carried you back to my cottage for treatment.”
“I see…” she said, looking at the kind pony with tears welling in her eyes. She wanted to hug Fluttershy for saving her but she knew it would make the Pegasus scared at the sudden reaction. Instead, gently put her claw onto Fluttershy’s shoulders. “Thank you.” She said, her voice croaked and a lone tear fell from her eyes.
Fluttershy smiled with tears also welling in her eyes. She gently touched Gilda’s claws. “You’re welcome… friend.” She softly said.
Gilda let her go and smile softly. “Thank you.” Was the only thing she could only say at that moment as her heart felt a tiny warmth of kindness burning inside of it.
Fluttershy picked up the empty bowl and turned to look at Gilda. “How about some soup?” She asked her with a smile.
“That would be awesome.” Gilda answered, returning the smile. With that, the pony turned trotted back down stairs to bring up another bowl of hot soup.
Gilda’s day at Fluttershy’s cottage went without a hitch from that point. They shared many stories about animals and nature but Gilda’s story of methods on hunting small creature made the animal loving pony uncomfortable. Instead, Gilda changed the subject about her reason of her returning to Ponyville and Fluttershy thought it is a good thing for her to seek apology instead of revenge.
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The next day, Gilda tried to use her wings just to see how much damage had been done to them. Although Fluttershy tried to convince her to not to do it, Gilda kindly assured her that she knew the risks. Fluttershy hesitantly agree and Gilda took it as a ‘yes’.
She untied the bandages with the help of Fluttershy and flapped her wings a couple of times. She grimaced at the pain but tried to keep a strong figure to assure the concern pony that she could handle it. Fluttershy clearly against it but to protect Gilda’s ego, she kept her silence and only to give a few advices.
Gilda took those advices and tried to handle the constant buzzing of her wing muscles since it was still hurting. “Hey, thanks for the treatment and all. I should head out to Rainbow Dash’s place to apologize to the things I had done.” She said, smiling warmly at the Pegasus.
“Of course.” Fluttershy replied, nodding. “But, I must advice you to not strain your wings.” She said with concern tone and expression.
“You got it.” Gilda replied with a thumb up. She walked closer to the pony and hugged her tightly. Fluttershy squeaked a little as it was a surprise to her and then she gently returned the hug. She could hear Gilda whispered into her ears. “Thank you.”
Fluttershy smiled and whispered back. “You’re welcome.” They hugged for a while longer until both of them heard another voice called from afar. “Let her go!” The voice exclaimed. They broke the embrace to see whom the voice belonged to.
Suddenly a rainbow colored trail flashed in front of them and she felt a buck was landed on her side. Gilda quickly side stepped on the cause of the pain. Then she looked in front of her and saw Rainbow Dash taking a defensive stance in front of Fluttershy.
“Hey, Da-“ Gilda was cut off.
“Go away, Gilda.” Rainbow Dash hissed. “You shouldn’t be here.” She continued.
“But Rainbow Da-“ now Fluttershy was cut off as Rainbow Dash gave her a glare. Fluttershy shrunk because of it and hid behind her mane. Then Rainbow Dash turned back to look at Gilda.
“Why are you here?” Rainbow Dash asked with a low and dangerous tone.
“I-I-I’m here to apologize.” Gilda stammered, moving a little closer.
“What a bunch of horseapples.” Rainbow Dash retorted which made Gilda stopped at her tracks. She knew Rainbow Dash was mad at her but THIS mad?
“It’s true, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy softly spoke behind her mane.
“Don’t you trust her, Fluttershy. She’s nothing but trouble. I should have known all along.” She said as she scowled at Gilda.
Gilda felt pain physically and emotionally at that point but she tried to keep her will strong. She swallowed a lump in her throat and began to speak. “Look, Dash. I really wanted to apologize for being a total jerk to you and your friends. I wanted us to be like we used to. Best buddies.” She explained as tears flowing out from her eyes and with her voice became raspy.
Fluttershy was silently tearing up behind her mane as she felt Gilda’s intentions to make things right but Rainbow Dash did not took it for one bit. “Prove it.” Rainbow Dash challenged Gilda.
Gilda wiped the tears away from her eyes and composed herself. “What challenge?” She asked.
Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof at Ghastly Gorge. “We have a race to prove that you are the Gilda that I used to know.” She extended her hoof at Gilda.
Gilda mentally winced at the pain that was caused by the buck from Rainbow Dash. It made her wings even sore but she stood tall and a proud look at her face for getting a change to make the right thing. She shook Rainbow Dash’s hoof as she agreed to the challenge.
Now, Rainbow Dash and Gilda were standing at the starting line of the race. Fluttershy was waiting at the finish line to judge the first person cross the finish line. Rainbow Dash was doing pushups as she explained. “If you could get to the finish line before me, I will accept you apology.” Gilda nodded to the condition and stretched her neck. “Right.” Rainbow Dash begin as she stepped to the started line with Gilda next to her. “Get set.” Their wings spread. “Go!” and both of them shot into the air.
Even though Gilda was injured and struggling to fight through the pain, she did made a decent job on keeping up with her rainbow Pegasus friend. But Rainbow Dash was a bit ahead of her. She looked back at Gilda with a smirk grin. “What’s up? I thought you’d better than this.” Then she quickened her pace.
Gilda bit her tongue to prevent her from screaming in pain and matched the speed of Rainbow Dash. As both of them entered a tunnel, a gush of wind blew against them and Rainbow Dash cleared the obstacle without a hitch. Gilda in the other hand, almost blacked out by the shock pain as her wings worked hard to move through it. She was now a little bit away but she managed to catch up later on.
The next obstacle was a maze of spiky vines and as usual, Rainbow Dash passed through it with agile and grace due to her small size. Gilda struggled a bit to find her way through since she was bigger than her multi-hued friend. Even few of her feathers were plucked out as some of them stuck to the spikes of the vines. She was now almost side by side with Rainbow Dash but now she was now at her limit. She was now tearing up, not from the wind blowing at her eyes but to the pain of her wings. She felt like her wings were slowly breaking apart from all of the exertion.
The last obstacle of the Ghastly Gorge is the Quarry eels’ nest. Rainbow Dash dodged every hit as she knew where the heads of the eels will popped out. Gilda tried to use her instincts to help her predict the next attack of the eels might be and it helped her a lot. She weaved through the eels as graceful as Rainbow Dash until one of the eels head butted her side with a crushing force. She let out a loud eagle shriek and fell onto the ground.
Rainbow Dash quickly stopped midflight and looked back. She saw Gilda was unconscious on the ground with her wings injured. Then she noticed, the eels slowly slithered out from their holes and closing in to their meal. Rainbow Dash took quick action and flew a mind-blowing speed and scooped up Gilda and flew away from the eels. For the first time of the day, she felt scared for Gilda’s well-being. She flew to the finished line and saw a shocked expression on Fluttershy’s face.
“We need her to take to the hospital!” Fluttershy exclaimed worriedly. Rainbow Dash nodded and then both of them flew towards Ponyville Hospital with Gilda on their hooves. At that time, Gilda heard Rainbow Dash’s silent muttering before drifting into unconsciousness. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
Gilda heard a beeping sound that beeps with to the beating her heart. She opened her eyes slowly as she saw a bright fluorescent lamp on the white ceiling. “Hey, Gilda.” She turned her head towards the voice and saw Rainbow Dash with baggy eyes. She had been crying for a while now.
“Hey, Dash.” Gilda greeted back, with a raspy voice.
“Um…” Rainbow Dash started. “Fluttershy told me everything.” She confessed, looking apologetic. “I want to say… I’m sorry.”
Gilda smiled warmly and put her claw gently on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “No, I’m supposed to be sorry for being a jerk.”
“No!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, she was crying openly. “I should the one be sorry. If I listen to Fluttershy that you were injured, I shouldn’t challenge you to race me. I was scared, you know? Scared! I’m afraid to lose you again.” She looked away.
Gilda, at this point was also crying. “You did not lose me, Rainbow Dash. I lose myself to anger that day. After that day, I regretted every second that I left you. That’s why I want you to forgive me.” She explained with her raspy voice.
Rainbow Dash smiled through her tears and hugged Gilda from the bedside. “I forgive you, if you forgive me too.” She whispered, sobbing quietly.
“I forgive you too, Dash.” Gilda whispered back, tears streaming wildly.
Rainbow Dash broke the embrace and wiped the tears away from her eyes. She rummaged through her saddlebags that she was wearing at the time and pulled out a framed photo and set onto the tabletop next to Gilda.
She was surprised and asked Rainbow Dash. “How did you get this?”
“Well…” she began, rubbing the back of her neck. “Fluttershy asked me if I could find anything that would let me contact your parents in your cave but… I didn’t find any. Instead, I found this. I can’t believe you still kept this.” She said, as she looked at the photo.
Gilda sniffed and smiled. “Of course, I keep it. It’s my most precious memory and you are my best friend.”
Rainbow Dash looked at Gilda and smiled as well. “You are also my best friend.” She said as she sat on her haunches, smiling warmly at her childhood friend. “Do you want to read you a story?” She asked her, grinning widely.
“Sure, Dash.” Gilda said as she sat up, trying to get comfortable while Rainbow Dash rummaged her saddlebags.
“Aha!” Her victorious exclamation muffled by the saddlebag and pulled out a novel. Gilda had a read the title that says “Daring Doo and the quest for the Sapphire Stone.” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat and began the story, “Ahem… As Daring Doo tread through the tropical jungle….” Gilda couldn’t do but smile at her friend. She took a look at the framed photo and muttered silently. “Best friend forever.”
