Why did everybody have to be such lame-os? Gilda wondered sadly. Why am I always alone? Tears rolled down her glistening beak as Gilda lie shivering in her nest. The craggy outcrop on Mount Everfree that she called home, was exposed to the frigid winds that tore through the sky at this altitude. She wanted desperately to take to the sky, to find Jethro and tear him apart. She knew, however, that leaving her nest would condemn the tiny speckled egg she stood vigil for, to an icy death before her chick could even see the sunlight. Jethro had lied. He said he loved her, that she was beautiful, then left. He joined the Eagleland Air Force, found a skinnier battlefield nurse, and never looked back. All Gilda could do was pray that her little one didn't look like that heartless dweeb.
Fluffing up her feathers against the bone-numbing chill, Gilda wished more than ever, that she lived in a snug little cottage in Ponyville, the way Dash did. She knew that it was her fault that Ponyville wasn't an option anymore, but that didn't stop her from wishing. She wished that her chick would get to go to school like the pony foals did, she wished that he or she would get to see all of the lights up close at Hearths Warming, she wished more than anything else that her little one would have a father.
Gilda had considered going to Ponyville and apologizing, but she couldn't bring herself to try. Nobody would forgive her, and all she would succeed at would be wounding her fragile, yet precious, pride. If only she could fly back to Eagleland and be with her family again. She had bucked that up too. In a rampage of fury and grief she had attacked Jethro's little harlot. A harlot who, working for the Royal Air Force, was under the protection of the Eagleland Throne. She could still hear Prime Minister Magpie announcing her sentence.
"Gilda Goldwing in the name of King and Country, I hereby banish you permanently from the Eagleland Empire. Should you return you will be considered a threat to the land, and will be dealt with like such." With two sentences and 37 words Gilda's life was over. She had visited Rainbow Dash in the hopes of settling down in Ponyville. She never expected that Dash would be hanging with a dweeb like Pinkie Pie. Gilda couldn't tell Dash her story with Pinkie listening in, it was way too humiliating. This was all Pinkie's fault. What a lame-o. No, Gilda corrected herself, it was all her own.
As the sun began to rise, and the tiny specks she knew to be Ponyville ponies on the distant horizon, began their perfect little days. Gilda realized that it wasn't the cold that really bothered her. It was the loneliness. She wished her egg would hatch soon, so that she could have some one to talk to, to hug, to share her sad existence with. Bitterly, she thought that the merciful thing to do would be to smash the egg, to protect the tiny innocent soul inside from the brutal world that waited outside of its egg. Gilda loathed herself for even considering such a thing.
"CRAAAACK!!!" The sound was quite soft, but in the silence of the still morning air, it sounded like a firecracker popping. Torn away from her mental pity party, Equestria's newest mother felt all of her worries melt away. A tiny feathered face, as white as snow, poked its beak out of the now fragmented egg that had been its home for half of a moon.
Gilda the Gleeful Griffon watched as her baby struggled to be free of her egg for the majority of an hour. Finally, a shivering little ball of fur and feathers blinked up at her. It was a beautiful little girl with fur as pale grey as the eggshell she had emerged from. Swooping her up into her claws Gilda soared towards Ponyville as quickly as she could. Gwynneth, for that is what she had chosen to name her daughter, was worth a dent in her pride. Gilda would never be alone again.
Rainbow Dash preparing the weather for the day, as was her morning routine, when she noticed an all too familiar figure gliding towards her.
" This ought to be interesting." She mumbled to herself as Gilda slowed to a stop, landing on the nearest cloud.
"Ummm...uh..Hi Dash.. How are you?" Gilda was more nervous than she had anticipated, but she tried to be as friendly as possible.
"What are you doing here." Rainbow was stunned. Why in Equestria would Gilda come back after everything that went down at Pinkie's party.
"Well... uh... I wanted to.. er.. Make amends. I-I'm sorry Dash. I'm so sorry." Gilda was weeping now.
"G oh my gosh what happened. Don't cry it's-it's O.K.! Come with me." Rainbow's ire melted away, after all the spirit of loyalty was a forgiving pony when it came down to it. She flew towards her house in Cloudsdale, and when she looked back to make sure Gilda followed her, she noticed for the first time the bundle she held to her chest.
"Umm G what's that, and why are you whispering to it?" Dash's eyes widened when a small yawn erupted from the tiniest beak she had ever seen.
"This is Gwynneth.... My hatchling." Gilda stared warmly into the forest green eyes of the sleepy baby.
"I came to Ponyville the first time to see if I could settle here, and raise my baby in a real home, instead of a drafty nest. I was mean to Pinkie Pie because I was so embarrassed. I didn't want to say this in front of her. My special some one left me, I was going to lay an egg, and I had been banished from Eagleland. Dash I'm so so so sorry that I treated your friends so rudely. Please say something." Gilda looked up at her one and only friend pleadingly, tears flowing unbidden down her face.
"Oh Gilda, I wish you'd have just told me from the beginning, but I don't blame you. I'm so sorry for everything that you have been through, but it's over now. You and Gwynneth can stay at my place until I can gather a team to help shape a cloud home for you. In the mean time welcome to Ponyville." Rainbow Dash embraced her oldest friend warmly. Gilda could not hide the surprise on her face as she was reunited with the pony she had thought that she would never see again. She was home.
