Bonding with the Royals pt.2

I got up this morning and for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about Gilda. Something was bugging her when I asked her about her past and she tried to kill me for it. Whatever she did to Dash and whatever happened to her life must be pretty dark. I needed to bond with the royals more, so I thought that I'd make them breakfast. I walked into the kitchen and pulled out some bread, a carton of eggs, some bacon, some cheese, and milk. I would make everyone omelets. As I was cooking my mind slowly drifted back to the gryphon. She needed help and I wasn't going to give up on her. I was glad I noticed smoke over the oven before I set the house on fire.

"Geez, that would've been bad." I stated as I looked at burnt toast.

"Any further you would've burned the house down egghead." I heard a brash voice behind me to find Rainbow Dash up and ready. I saw Rarity, Celestia, Gleaming, Luna, and Cadence with bloodshot eyes come down the stairs and I didn't have to think twice about the coffee since I mixed some in the coffee maker. I took out some mugs from the cupboards for each of them and poured some coffee. Ah coffee; it has the power to make 'go away or die' turn into 'good morning honey'.

"Mmm. Thank you darling."

"We didn't even have to ask you and yet you made all of us coffee." Gleaming enquired that he knew what to do.

"Well with you're eyes looking the way they did, I figured you had a rough sleep." I joked. But that was when I heard a crash coming from the bathroom and what sounded like Diamond Tiara screaming.

"Oh dang it, what now?" I growled as I ran up the bathroom to find Babs and Diamond Tiara go at it again. It was starting to get old. Since day one all they did was fight and bicker between each other. I'm glad Silver Spoon toned it down a notch.

"Alright you two, break it up. Now what's going on?"

"She started by smacking my flank with a wet towel" Diamond Tiara shouted.

"I didn't start anything. You started it by saying how my family didn't want me." Babs stated with a comeback.

"Like it isn't the truth. They obviously didn't want you anymore after they sent you here with all those fights you started back in ManeHatten." Unfortunately Diamond Tiara pushed too far on one of Babs's buttons causing her to tackle the bully to the ground and have her in a headlock. Babs was close to crushing Diamond Tiara's head, if Diamond Tiara hadn't countered by biting down on her right arm when it was around her neck. She got off and they started fighting. I was getting really tired of this, so I did the simple thing and bashed the both if their heads together. They grimaced at the sudden pain and turned to look at me. I had my trademark glare out scaring the both of them. It started to hurt after five seconds so I stopped and looked at them calmly.

"Look, I thought I told you all that there won't be any infighting between any of you since you're all stuck here for now. Now get dressed and get downstairs for breakfast already." I yelled as I walked out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen.

"What was that all about sugarcube?" AppleJack asked as she noticed some scuff on my cheek.

"Diamond Tiara started something again so I had to break it up again." I growled having to deal with this almost everyday.

"Again?" I heard Twilight ask.

"Yeah. What is it with her? I know Silver Spoon and the others have some fight, but not this often."

"I'm not really sure about her behavior." I heard Celestia say.

"I get it. Anyway; I gotta get going." I enquired as I grabbed my gym bag by the door.

"Where are you going?" Cadence asked obviously curious.

"They opened up this new gym across town. That's where I'm going." I stated as I was about to head only for Gleaming and Cadence to block my way out.

"What?"

"Could we go with you?" She asked to which I just froze. It's not that I didn't want them to go, its just that if any guy saw their curves in sports clothes they would either faint or get a nosebleed like the few times I did. Not only that, but AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, AppleBloom, Babs and Scootaloo wanted to come.

"Mind if we join ya sugarcube? Sittin' around all day had been giving me cramps."

"Yeah, plus I really need to stretch my limbs." Rainbow Dash added.

"Y'all coming too Sweetie Bell?" AppleBloom asked.

"I don't know." Out of all the girls Sweetie Bell was a little scared of me for some reason. Whenever I try to make eye contact with her she'd turn away pretty fast.

"Come on Sweetie Bell; We always do everything together." Scootaloo stated. As the CMC were talking, a thought crossed my mind involving the hot headed gryphon Gilda. On one hand, this was my chance to help bond with her, but on the other hand she might try to kill me. All I know is this is my chance. I saw her sitting by herself so I came right out and said what I had too.

"Hey Gilda do you want to come?" That one question caused everypony to turn my way. Some had scared, confused, and angry looks.

"Why do you want her to come?" Dash enquired obviously not happy.

"Hey, I thought it'd be better if she took her anger out on a punching bag rather than me."

"Fine, but you better not try anything funny." She threatened as she got her sports gear in the other room.

"Gleaming, do you and Cadence know the spell to change your forms?"

"Yeah, all unicorn mares have to know this spell." She states as she used the spell To change AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, herself, Cadence, Gilda, and the CMC into humans.

"Alright. We'll be back in a few hours." I stated as we all walked the door.

-General POV-

"Is he crazy inviting Gilda with him?" Twilight said aloud.

"I see his logic behind it Twilight." Celestia enquired.

"What do you mean Princess Celestia?"

"You do know that we're equals now Twilight? You don't have to keep calling me princess."

"Sorry, old habits. But why would he want her to come after what she did to him yesterday? Not to mention what she did to friends awhile back."

"Maybe he sees something inside of her that none of us do."

"Whatever do you mean princess?" Rarity enquired.

"Well, I'm not sure if I'm suppose to tell you all this but, I actually heard her crying last night when we went to sleep." That caused the girls to gasp.

"She was crying?" FlutterShy asked to which Celestia Just nodded.

"She was. So I think that Lloyd thinks she needs a friend. He invited her on purpose to try and bond with her." That just left the girls speechless. Gilda was normally a jerk, but they never seen or heard her cry before. Pinkie's Hair deflated as she and FlutterShy started to cry.

"Maybe we should let Lloyd continue to do what he is doing for now. Maybe he can be able to help her."

"But why go through all that trouble?" Diamond Tiara stated having a point.

"Maybe he knows what it's like to feel alone."

-Downtown-

Since the girls were traveling with me, I had to hook the RV with my truck in order to take them with me. I didn't hear them say one word to each other. I just hope my plan works with Gilda to stop the arguing with them.

-RV-

Everything was silent. The girls didn't even bother to look at Gilda. When they did look it was one quick glance and back to whatever they were doing. This only seem to aggravate Gilda even more. After about ten minutes;

"Enough with the silent treatment already!" Gilda shouted as this was getting awkward.

"You're lucky Lloyd is nice to you despite the Tartarus you put him in." Gleaming shouted.

"Hey, all he did was invite me that was it." Gilda shouted with a comeback, but in sense she did wonder why he invited her.

"If you do anything to harm him, I'll buck you into next week."

"Whatever cow mare." Gilda taunted unphased by AppleJack's threat. After that, none of them spoke.

-Gym-

I stopped the truck in a good spot and waited for the girls to get out once I unlocked the door, and I was right about the sport clothing. What they wore was pretty skin tight, outlining their curves perfectly. I had to turn cause if I stared any further I would've ended up with either a nosebleed again, or a black eye and broken nose from either Gilda or Gleaming.

"Okay is everyone ready?" I received a lot of straight forward answers since I wanted to try out this new place. This place was really packed; I mean I heard about it in the adds before but this was amazing. The girls scattered again as I was once again left alone. Gilda didn't leave this time. She stuck by me for some reason. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Despite her rude nature and scary looks, she still looked very beautiful. I turned away at the last second when she turned her head.

Looking around, I already saw where everyone had gone and noticed that everyone had their own partners. Applejack and Rainbow dash were racing on treadmills against each other, Sweetie Belle was holding onto a large sandbag while Apple Bloom kicked it, Scootaloo and Babs were racing on exercise bikes, Cadence and Glimmer Shield join a couple’s yoga class in the back of the room, and off to the side, away from everyone else, was Gilda. She was just leaning against the wall, alone, staring at the two men fighting in the middle of a boxing ring.

Looks like I found my Gym partner. As I grabbed my gear and mouth piece I went and tossed Gilda a couple of boxing gloves with another mouth piece. She looked at me confused until I pointed for her to come up.

"You comin' " I asked her.

"You're challenging me to a boxing match? Do you want to die?" She threatened.

"Won't be that easy. I actually have a few tricks up my sleeve." I stated not trying to scare her. Then again, how can I scare her beside my glare.

"You sure got guts for taking me on. Alright then set em up." said Gilda as she put on the gloves and enters the ring. Around that time some guys notice Lloyd and knew that Gilda picked the wrong fight with the wrong person.

"Hey, do you guys see who I see?" said the tall male.

"Yeah that's Lightning Lash Lloyd" The fat one whispered.

"I bet 25$ he'll knock that new kid right out the ring flat."

"I'll take a piece of that action." said one of his friends. I overheard then since I wasn't into beating Gilda right now. I just needed to find out what was going between her and the girls. Because of the bet a crowd started to form.

-My alone time with Gilda-

I never knew Gilda was this good. She was throwing heavy blows my way and I was lucky to dodge of block them. I was able to tell how strong she was with each blow she made, and we were at this for like five minutes. Seeing as I had an opportunity, now was my chance.

"So Gilda, I was thinking since we got this time to ourselves, maybe we should talk." I said as I ducked another one of her punches.

"I ain't got nothing to say to you, Dweeb." She growls dead serious.

"Oh? What about what happened between you and Dash?" I somehow hit a nail on her head as she made a wide swing.

"That's none of your plucking business!"

'Okay did she just say plucking?" I asked in my head getting off topic as I had to duck again from one of her punches.

"How about how scared you are of letting others get close to you?"

"I'm not scared of anything!"

"I've seen that look in your eyes before, you know."

"What look?"

"The look of someone who was betrayed. Betrayed by someone dear to their heart." I ended up hitting another nail on her head.

"You don't know anything!"

"You won't let others close because you're afraid. Afraid they'll hurt you the same way."

"Shut up!" She screamed causing a crowd to come around, and to cause most of the girls to stop what they were doing.

"Rainbow Dash is the most loyal person I've ever met. If you two really were friends once, than I'm sure she would never do anything to hurt you. It's your fault, isn't it? Your fault that you're all alone?" I think that last one sent her over the edge.

"Stop it!"

"Not until you tell me what's going on."

"I said shut up!" She started crying a little. That was enough to prove that she'll break down soon.

"It's all true, isn't it? What did you do!?" She was screaming at me to shut up and along the way her blows she dealt started to soften up.

" 'sniffling' Why do you care? What do you know about me?" She cried as she slumped to the floor.

"That what I'm trying to find out Gilda, and I care since I want to help you change." I said as I help her up. "You gotta stop bottling up your emotions Gilda. It's not healthy."

"Look I messed up that day and I couldn't even forgive myself for it. I know Dash doesn't as she and her friends still hate me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I miss Dash and all the good times we had. But I felt threatened when Pinkie showed up and she was such good friends with her. I felt as if she was going to take her away from me."

"Well you might want to tell her that." I gestured as she turned around to see our friends all together.

"Did you really feel threatened that day?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes okay? I still feel bad for it but every time I see her or any of your friends for that matter I make things worse." she finished. AppleJack walked up and looked her dead in the eyes for any signs of betrayal. To her surprise there wasn't any."

"I can't believe she's telling the truth."

"Man no wonder you were upset that day. Ya know Gilda if you didn't see all my friends as threats rather than actual friends, you would've gain new ones that day."

"Well after you told me you pulled those pranks on my, I figured I lost you anyways." she finished with self loathing.

"Geez and you never said anything?"

"You were mad at me that day so I figured you didn't want to see me anymore okay?"

"Gilda, down here, no matter how sucky life gets, It's never too late to correct a mistake." Lloyd brought up to help her out.

"All right feather brain I forgive you, but you gotta apologize to my friends when we get back to the his place." Rainbow Dash.

"Okay I promise." Looks like my work here was done. I fixed an old friendship and now Gilda will have new friends to work with.

"Hey Gilda, shouldn't we be getting back to what we were doing?" I asked as I got back in the ring.

"What do you mean?"

"Hey even though I helped you out doesn't mean we all can't get back to what we were doing?" Gilda knew were I was getting at as she wanted to finish the fight earlier.

"Okay then, but don't think you can beat me tough guy." She boasted as she gets back in the ring.

-Lloyd's House-

Gilda regained consciousness after the events from the gym as she wakes up with a splitting headache. Her senses become more aware as she looks around the room and sees that it's Lloyd's room. Lloyd was asleep in his chair as he took a light snooze. She tries to get up but her headache kept her down.

"Ouch" That was enough to wake up Lloyd.

"Oh good you're up. Sorry about earlier."

"What are you talking about?"

"I actually hit you to hard and well you unconscious so the girls and I had to stop what we were doing and call our gym day short. Everyone else is currently downstairs and Rainbow Dash filled everyone in on what happened up their. So you should have good friends now."

"Okay, I guess. So how did I lose to you? You're kinda scrawny compared to us."

"Yeah, I've never told you or any of the girls this, but I come from a long line of heavy weight champion boxers. Their nicknames were Lightning Lash. The Lightning Lashes are the fastest fists in the ring. My father, Lightning Lash Larry, and my grandfather, Lightning Lash Leonard, were both heavyweight boxing champions. Boxing is in my blood, so I'm a natural born warrior." Gilda just sat there surprised not only that I was able to beat her, but that I had a fighting history.

"Wow, just wow."

"Yeah the girls were surprised about that to. Gleaming also has a newfound respect for me since I beat you." Gilda and I exchanged laughs until she winced and grabbed her head in pain.

"Oh man I almost forgot; one of the guys up their working out was a doctor, and he says it's only a mild concussion. Says you gotta stay in bed for the next few days."

"So i'll be in your room for right now?"

"Pretty much till ya feel better. I'll be back to check on you in a bit. I'll also bring you dinner." I said to comfort her. As I was about to walk out she says something that completely throws me off guard.

"Oh, before you go I have something that you need to hear."

"What is it?"

"You beat me in a fair fight, so according to Griffin tradition, I'm yours."

"What?" I didn't get what she meant but the last part she says gets to me.

"I lost, so now, I'm your mate."

"..."

"Lloyd?"

"..." My brain just stops functioning and I end up passing out.

"Lloyd!" She shouts but clutches her head again as the grim reminder of what I was capable of.

Author's Note

Took awhile but the new chapter is out. Credit to Voltrasin for most of the chapter. Something I forgot to add for emphasis.