Gilda watched quietly as the sun slowly sunk below the horizon. The view from her cloud was breathtaking; everything for miles was bathed in the golden evening glow of the suns parting rays. However, the scenery was lost on Gilda at the moment, for she was lost deep in thought.
“You sure didn’t need help making a fool of yourself.” Gilda flinched as though she were struck by an unseen hoof as the words crept through her mind.
“If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find some new cool friends someplace else.”
“It’s ok. I can do this. It’s been two weeks since then. She can’t really still be mad can she?” Gilda reassured herself quietly. “I’ll just go to Rainbow’s house, apologize, and work things out from there. She’s still my friend right? There’s no way she could still be mad right?”
Gilda sighed and blinked, the beauty of her surroundings finally registering. While they were sparse, the clouds floating around her looked almost painted onto the sky. The purple and pink splotches against the bright orange of the sunset transformed the western skies into a radiant pastel painting.
“The views were always best from the skies.” Gilda thought morosely. “Though it’d be nicer if Dash were here with me.”
Gilda sighed. “I’m letting all of this drama with Rainbow get to me too much.” Gilda quickly shook it off with a callous chuckle. “At least it’s better than the ground where the non-fliers get dumped to!”
Gilda smirked to herself while absentmindedly rolling up a talonful of cloud into a blob.
“Pff. Earth ponies. Why does Dash even hang out with them?” Gilda looked proudly back at her large pair of muscular wings, stretching them wide into the sky.”
They can’t fly or control the weather. What’s any place like Ponyville supposed to have when compared to a place like Cloudsdale?”
The end of her sharp talon carved into the pillowy soft surface of the cloud blob, giving it a crude muzzle and eyes. The cloud now had a small awkward pony face attached to it.
“Heck, I’d bet that I’ve got the strength of at least 2, no 3 earth ponies! With wings and talons to boot! I’m a way better friend for Dash than any earth pony.”
“But she still chose them over you.”
An all too familiar voice rang out in the back of her mind. That burning nagging fact still remained stuck fast like a thorn in the back of Gilda’s mind.
“You acted like a total jerk to Rainbow and her friends. Then she royally told you off in front of an entire room of ponies! And you just took it!”
Gilda snarled and balled up her talon into a fist. Gilda yearned for a moments peace of mind but it was no use. The voice had plagued her for the last two weeks. No matter what she did, said, or thought, the fact and it’s persistent lecturer remained.
“And then what did you do? You called her a flip-flop! How lame of a comeback could you possibly have come up with? Who’s queen lame-o now!? Huh queen lame-o!?”
“rrrrRRAAAGH!”
With eyes burning with rage, Gilda flung open her talons and slashed them across her cloud pony, instantly rendering it into vapor.
“I get it! I messed up and made an idiot out of myself in front of an entire room of namby pamby ponies! In front of her friends…”
Gilda sank to her back legs and stared at the surface of the cloud she sat on. Three straight claw marks were neatly etched deep into the surface of the cloud. Gilda sighed at the melancholy realization that her anger had caused yet another scar in her world.
“In front of my friend…”
She turned her view again to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash’s house was floating far off on the outskirts of town, still bathed in the golden beams of the setting sun. Growing shadows began to loom across the earthbound structures of Ponyville below her.
“What am I even going to say to her..?” Gilda carefully tried to mold the cloud over the claw marks that she had left in it, yearning to fix at least something she hurt, even if it was as insignificant as a cloud. “I spent so much time working myself up to even try to apologize that I forgot to think of an apology! What can I even say..?”
Gilda sighed again and rolled onto her back, staring up at the darkening yet colorful dusk sky. A few of the brighter stars were already visible as faint twinkling beads of light lost in an endless ocean of color.
“Well, I’m sorry. So thats something. But how can I tell her? There’s no way that she’d just instantly believe that I want to make up unless I show her! Maybe a present?”
Gilda gently rubbed at her eyes in immediate rejection of her own thought.
“Me and Dash are way better than that... I can’t just buy our friendship back.”
“Maybe if I tried to apologize to… to..! Grr!”
It was no use. The very thought of her name caused a surge of rage to jolt through her mind like a bolt of lightning. Gilda sat up as her venomous emotions began to form into words.
“Pinkie Pie. If that lame-o would have just kept to herself all of this wouldn’t have even happened in the first place!”
Gilda stood and paced around the small surface of the cloud she was standing on. The golden landscapes and clear orange skies around her spiraled as she continued her tirade.
“She literally had to do nothing! Nothing! And everything would have worked out fine, but no!”
Gilda stretched a talon far up to the sky. “She had to spend the whoooole day stalking us, and then threw that stupid party!”
Gilda balled her talon into a fist and slammed it down into the abused cloud’s surface, leaving a tiny crater in it’s wake.
“ I wouldn’t be surprised if Rainbow was working with Pinkie the whole time. Everything at that party was practically made to be sabotaged! Then if Rainbow would have just minded her own dumb business and kept her moronic pranks to herself then I… I mean she…”
“You can try to blame others all you want. You know whose fault it really is.”
Gilda dug her talons deep into the sides of her feathered head, crushing them against her ears in a futile attempt to block the voice out.
“Do you even realize that you just tried to blame Rainbow for being mad at you?”
“Yeah, well it’s her fault! She set up the pranks, humilialted me at that lame party in front of everypony and-”
“So much for your apology to Rainbow Dash.”
Gilda reared up on her back legs and a thunderous roar exploded forth from her beak, faintly echoing as it rolled across the golden hued landscape below. Gilda panted before looking down at the battered fluffy swirls of the cloud she was sitting on. Her head slowly sank in defeat.
“It’s no use. I can’t do it. I just can’t even think about apologizing without blowing up.”
Gilda turned away from Ponyville, from Rainbow Dash, from any hope of being reunited with her best friend. The air around her grew suddenly silent; not even the voice of her doubts dared speak through it. In her silence she could hear the soft whoosh of a small draft blew below her, almost encouragingly nudging her away from Ponyville. It was as good as anything else to talk to Gilda thought.
“I just wish that I could tell you that I’m sorry.”
The scars across the surface of the cloud were more vivid than ever as she ignored a dull achy burn beginning in the back of her throat.
“ I wasn’t planning on attacking anypony when I came to see you. I’m just a hot headed idiot that pushed away one of her oldest friends. I’d do anything to make it up to you somehow, or try to start all over again.”
The burn in her throat soon spread to the corners of her eyes. She balled up her claw into a fist and dug her sharp talons into her palm. The brief distraction of physical pain helped numb the emotional pain tearing at her heart and the watery sensation of her eyes. Not even in solitude would Gilda dare allow herself to cry.
Gilda narrowed her eyes and stared out at the forests and mountains that lay before her with grim determination. She ignored the shakiness of her voice and continued, determined to at least say what she needed to say, even if the only thing to hear it would be a cloud.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. Maybe we’ll meet again someday… take care of yourself Rainbow. I’ll try to do the same.”
Gilda unfurled her wings and gave them a couple of quick flaps to warm up before flying away into the cool evening air.
“...Sorry for being such a lame friend.”
Gilda crouched down on all fours to spring off of the cloud when it suddenly exploded out from under her! Gilda let out an involuntary squawk as she plummeted head over heels to the ground below. As she threw out her wings in a clumsy attempt to regain her arial stability she could hear uproarious laughter from above.
In Gilda’s eyes the golden hued landscape quickly turned red. All of her thoughts and emotions were focused on one simple thought;
“Whatever idiot thought it would be a good idea to kick me off of a cloud is going to pay!”
Gilda’s powerful wings tore through the air and sent her shooting straight up faster than an arrow. She couldn’t make out her target yet but flew in the direction of the laughter.
“You’d better start flapping dweeb, because when I catch you I’m going to-”
Gilda gasped and threw her wings out, bracing herself for the wall of air she would immediately hit. As she slowed herself enough to hover midair, she blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Rainbow dash was hovering just overhead, wiping an eye with her hoof. Gilda was ecstatic to see her, but she couldn’t show that to Rainbow, not yet at least.
“Dash! What’s the big idea!? I was sitting there!”
Dash brought her hooves around the sides of her mouth and called out in a loud yet lighthearted mocking tone.
“Thats for almost bailing out on me without even apologizing ya big dweeb!”
Rainbow stuck out her tongue at Gilda and flew backwards with a powerful whoosh of air pushed away by her wings. Gilda blinked once in shock, then shook it off and immediately tailed after her.
“Dash wait! I just want to talk to you!”
“You’ll have to catch me first!” Rainbow rocketed away towards Ponyville, leaving Gilda trailing behind. Gilda narrowed her eyes and put her powerful wings into motion, staying hot on Rainbow’s tail.
The chase went on for minutes as the pair raced high and low with twisting dive bombs, loops and hairpin turns between buildings trees and clouds. Ponies watched from below as the pair darted to and fro through the dimming sky. The strain of flight was beginning to wear on both of them as Rainbow rose up high above Ponyville and turned on her back, flying with her hooves behind her head as though she were lounging on her bed.
“Getting tired yet?” Rainbow called out as Gilda did her best to keep up, wings starting to falter between heavy breaths of thin air. Gilda’s eye’s widened and she reached futilely at Rainbow. She weakly called out to her, but Gilda’s efforts were cut short by a cough.
“Can’t hear you G, gonna have to speak up!”
“CLOUD!”
“Huh..?” Rainbow turned around a second too late; she went careening straight through another lone cloud. A Rainbow Dash shaped hole was blasted neatly and clearly straight through it’s center. Rainbow went tumbling head over hooves in a burst of cloud and vapor, just like Gilda had done minutes prior. Before she could straighten herself out, a pair of talons hoisted her up by her hooves to a gentle bobbing hover.
“H-heh… alright, I’ll admit that was pretty funny to watch.”
“At least I didn’t squawk like a chicken!” Rainbow quipped back.
Gilda glared at Rainbow and opened her beak to speak before deciding it wasn’t worth it and chuckled. Her laugh was quite contagious and before either of them knew it they were both laughing hysterically while gliding gently down to Rainbow’s house.
The pair landed on the soft clouded ‘ground’ in front of Rainbow’s house.
“Rainbow, where’d you come from? How’d you find me?”
“I was on cloud duty when suddenly one of them started roaring like a lion. So I flew over to check it out and you’d never guess who I ran into!” Rainbow made a goofy face for a moment, as if to feign laugher at her own joke.
Gilda chuckled nervously at her joke before glancing sheepishly to Rainbow. Gilda gulped and forced herself to utter the question she had been silently dreading for the last 10 minutes.
“So uh… How long were you listening under that cloud?”
Rainbow sighed happily before answering Gilda. “Just long enough to know that you needed a buck in the rump from a friend.”
“Dash listen, I’m sorry! I’m not good at apologies but I realize that I was horrible to you and your friends and I just… I’m sorry ok!?”
“Gilda, what was wrong with you then? I mean yeah you’ve always been the toughest and coolest Gryphon I’ve ever known, but not even in flight camp were you that bad!”
“I… when I think back on it I guess I was just.. juls.” Gilda turned her head and barely spat out the word through a half clenched beak.
“You were what?” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow and listened carefully.
“I said I was… y-you know, jeal-cough” Gilda lightly pounded her chest with a balled up talon. “Hoo boy, that flight sure did take a lot out of me! You know, what with the uh, Ponyville air and stuff.”
Rainbow stared at her friend flatly, clearly unimpressed with her excuses.
“Well if that’s it then I guess I’ll just be going inside. Have a safe flight home, see you later maybe.”
Rainbow Dash turned and took a step towards her house.
“Dash wait! I.. I was jealous alright!? Are you happy now!?”
Rainbow turned back to Gilda, with a smug grin and a hoof on the side of her ear. “Sorry, one more time? Hard to hear with this ‘Ponyville air and stuff.’”
“I was jealous ok? I wasn’t expecting..” Gilda swallowed dryly and continued as though her friendship depended on it. “Pinkie Pie to show up and want to hang out with you all day. I hadn’t seen you in so long, I’d just wanted the day to be you and me! So when she showed up I got mad and... when I got mad everything started spiraling out of control.”
“Like when you bullied Fluttershy until she cried!? Pinkie Pie saw that and told me what happened.” Rainbow was staring daggers at Gilda, waiting for the excuses to come.
Gilda growled and sunk her talons into Rainbow Dash’s cloud foundation. Gilda thought to herself quickly before responding. “I forgot about her! How does Pinkie Pie always manage to get me? She’s not even here!”
“That was totally different, she bumped into me! It’s not my fault she can’t watch where she’s going!”
“She was escorting a family of ducks across a busy road! Besides, it doesn’t even matter! You made her cry!”
Gilda mashed a talon to her forehead in frustration. “I guess… I overreacted to her because I was already upset. I’m sorry for that too allright?”
Gilda cast an accusing look at Rainbow Dash. “Speaking of being upset, those party pranks didn’t help things either!”
Rainbow chuckled nervously and scratched at the back of her head. “Eh heh heh.. Well you know how pranks are Gil. Ya win some ya lose some.”
Gilda sighed and continued. “I know, and I don’t care now. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. Like… really sorry.”
Gilda looked somberly at Rainbow who stood steadfast before her with a stern look.
“Can you forgive me?”
Rainbow held her stony gaze for a few seconds later before letting out a deep sigh and extending her hooves out to her. “Come here…”
Gilda hesitated, almost in disbelief that Rainbow was willing to forgive her that quickly. She stepped forward and returned the hug, lightly at first but soon both were holding each other tightly, each feeling the warmth and heartbeat of the other as the night stars began to peek out one by one from the darkness.
Rainbow suddenly pushed Gilda back and held her at hoof’s length. “If I’m going to forgive you though, you’re going to have to learn how to get along with my friends, and you owe both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy a huge apology too! Got it?”
Gilda rolled her eyes and smirked. “Only for you Dash.”
“Good! Now let’s go inside, It’s late and it’s getting cold out.”
