By: Jakeichan
It was a beautiful day in Ponyville, the sun was shining brightly with all the clouds cleared from the sky’s; save for one witch Rainbow Dash was napping on. The wind blew softly through her main and over her coat as she lay sprawled out on the cloud. She snored loudly as she fidgeted and made strange motions, acting out what it was she was dreaming about. She was suddenly woke by a voice calling her name.
“rainbow dash… Rainbow Dash… RAINBOW DASH WAKE UP!” she was startled as she shook herself awake, she looked down below the cloud she was sleeping on to see Twilight. She was levitating a newspaper next to her as she looked up at Rainbow Dash
“What is it Twilight, can’t you see I’m napping” Rainbow Dash said annoyed.
“There’s something I need you to see” Twilight said opening the newspaper and holding it up toward the still drowsy pegasus. Rainbow Dash just huffed at her,
“The newspaper?” Rainbow Dash said now mad that Twilight couldn’t wait until she was finished with her nap to show her something in the news that she more than likely didn’t care about. “What’s so important about the paper that it can’t wait until I’m done napping?” she retorted angrily.
“Just come down here!” Twilight snapped back in anger as well, “it’s very important!” Rainbow Dash sighed heavily and rolled her eyes, but complied with the unicorn. She floated down in front of Twilight, and Twilight opened the newspaper in front of Rainbow Dash as she stood next to her over her shoulder. “It’s right here” Twilight directed her attention to one of the articles with two pictures next to it. Rainbow Dash let out another sigh as she rubbed her sleepy eyes and focused on the words in the newspaper. She began to read the article, she glanced at the picture of what appeared to be the scenery of the base of a cliff, and the other was that of a familiar face.
“Gilda?” she said, recognizing her name and the picture of her old friend. Now intrigued she started reading nervously. After she reached a certain part of the article, she gasped…
**********
PRIDE VS. WRATH
Gilda was grounded, her arrogant recklessness had come back to haunt her as she attempted to fly through a very heavy storm. Gilda was naturally a very tough Griffin and she knew it, ‘what’s the worst that could happen’ she thought to herself, ‘I’ve already been betrayed by my best friend who would rather be held down by those losers she calls friends.’ She wasn’t paying much attention as she was flying since she was seething about Rainbow Dash and those other pony’s that made her look like a fool. The rain was coming down hard and the lightning struck down furiously, but it didn’t faze her. She just kept flying faster and faster, wanting to take back even visiting Rainbow Dash that day. Suddenly a lightning bolt struck down only a couple feet away from her, the force sending her staggering and heading straight for the trees. She fell through the leaves and branches very roughly and fell out through the tree straight down to the ground. She landed on her back; her head hit a large smooth bolder jutting out a little out of the ground, she was immediately out cold.
She awoke several hours later in a daze, lying in the same spot under the same tree. She slowly looked at her surroundings confused.
“What the heck” she muttered to herself as she slowly climbed to her feet. “OW!” A jolt of pain shot through her wing, she was then hit by fear and anger as she gritted her teeth and tried to flex her wing again. “AAA” she grunted heavily as the pain grew from her trying to flex her wing through the pain, but it didn’t help. “No no no this can’t be happening” she said in anger and desperation. She tried once more, flexing through the pain as hard as she possibly could “nnnnrrrrrrraaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH NOOOOO!” she shouted at the top of her lungs furiously, “NO NO NO NO NO, THIS ISN’T HAPPENING, I CAN’T BE GROUNDED, NOT ME!” There was nothing she could do; not only was she grounded, but she was lost… in the Everfree Forest. The rain was still pouring down pretty harshly as Gilda sat there under that tree, cold, wet, broken, and bitter. She was huffing and puffing in anger, wondering what she would do or where she would go now. On top of that her pride was torn to shreds; she grimaced at the last thing Rainbow Dash said to her.
“If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find some new cool friends someplace else”
Rainbow Dashes words burned in the back of her skull. She considered Rainbow Dash to be the coolest pegasus around, and she though that Rainbow Dash was the only one that understood her and had her back. Rainbow Dashes words repeated in her head over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and-
“YOU BIIIIIITCH!” she finally screamed furiously, sadness took over her shout as it came to an end. Tears began to well up in the griffins raging eyes as she gnashed her teeth harder as the tears began to fall down her feathery face. She huffed heavily as she thought about that pink mare, Pinkie Pie. “You bitch” she repeated furiously to herself again. She images of Rainbow Dash’s other friends flashed through her head, the purple unicorn with the pink highlight in her mane, the snotty white unicorn with the purple mane, the wimpy yellow pony with a light pink mane that calls herself a pegasus, “pathetic” she hissed out loud. Then there was the orange pony with the graceful blonde hair… She didn’t think much of her; she was just another earth pony. She stared into space thinking to herself for a long while, about Rainbow Dash, her friends, and that party. She had a great time visiting Rainbow Dash over the week, racing, doing tricks, and playing pranks. But for it to end like this… Rainbow Dash’s last words towards her repeated themselves in her head again.
“Them?” she said to herself with a blank look on her face, “you chose them over me… why?” she continued to stare at nothing… a whole 20 minutes passed before she decided to stand up and pick a direction. She started to walk back toward Ponyville, she didn’t know why, or even if it was a good idea… she didn’t care… all she knew is she couldn’t stay there in the Everfree Forest, in the dark, injured as she was. The thoughts that infuriated her earlier, Rainbow Dashes last words toward her, her pathetic excuse for friends, that party, and that Pinkie Pie, she reacted only with the blank dull look of disappointment. No matter how many times the thoughts ran through her mind, her reaction was still the same as she kept walking. They ran through her head again, and again, and again, until she started to remember little details about the things she was thinking about. She started to remember facial expression, the mood of the ponies around her at the party, the smile on everypony’s face when she wasn’t near them, how Rainbow Dash interacted with the rest of the ponies at the party, the way Pinkie Pie acted toward her. She then started to remember prior to that when she was walking around town as Rainbow Dash was dealing with some weather jobs, the reactions of the old pony she had startled, the satisfaction she felt when she stool one of the apples at the market, and the intimidation that yellow pegasus felt when she ignorantly criticized her and roared in her face. It was then she remembered Rainbow Dashes smile.
Her face turned from blank to a look of saddening realization. The pondered what Rainbow Dash told her once more… she stopped walking and stared at the ground. Everything started to make sense to her now, it wasn’t everypony else that had problems, it was her. She was the only one who was acting arrogant and rude to everypony she knew, she worked hard to be swift and strong. When she was a young griffin, she was picked on by the other foals because she was the only griffin. But then after she met Rainbow Dash, she started working harder than ever to be tough, and she stood up for herself, she let nopony push her around anymore. But it was now that she realized she had taken it too far, she had been cruel to ponies weaker than her and she found it amusing to play hurtful pranks on the weakest ponies. She didn’t have to be so cruel to get the point across that she wasn’t a push over. Tears welled up in her eyes again as she gently bit her bottom beak. She had been so cruel, and at what cost? Her friendship with Rainbow Dash? When she thought of Rainbow Dash’s bright smile again, she sat down on her haunches and began to cry.
“It’s my fault” she muttered to herself through her tears, “I’m the Queen Lamo.” She sank her head, lightly gritting her teeth and staring at the ground. “You stood up for your friends like you stood up for me all those years ago, and I repaid you by acting like those cruel foals.” Tears streamed heavily down her cheeks, “some friend I was” she managed to say before she covered her face with her claws and broke into a sob. She grunted in agony as the stream of tears continued to pour out, sobbing heavily as even more generated in her eyes. When she thought about Rainbow Dash’s smile again it made her weep even more. She hadn’t cried like this sense she was very young, that though even made her weep more. It got to the point that she was crying so hard, it started to feel good, and she wanted to cry even more. But she slowly calmed down instead; she wiped the tears from her feathery cheeks and eyes. She stood up on all fours and looked up at the sky, the rain had stopped and the clouds had cleared, revealing the stars in the night sky as well as the bright round moon. She stared for a while be for she decided to start walking again. She thought about what she would say to Rainbow Dash when she saw her, she sighed “she doesn’t wanna talk to me, she probably doesn’t even care about me anymore” she said to herself in defeat. But even with that in mind, she continued onward “I’ve gotta at least try, I’ve gotta make this right… For Rainbow Dash” she said now with a stoic look on her face she continued quickening her pace briefly before she was halted by the pain in her right wing. “Oh c’mon” she grunted to herself, she quickly shook the pain off and continued to walk as fast as her broken wing would let her.
Suddenly she heard rustling in the trees, she abruptly stopped to allow herself to hear what was rustling. “Is someone there” she called out, she was answered only by more rustling. “Please I need help, I broke my wing and I don’t know where I-“ she suddenly heard strange jittery noises, like that of a mentally unstable pony. She began to quake in fear, as the only thing she knew that made that maniacal jittery sound was-… it leaped out of the tree and on a large bolder, she gasped loudly as she beheld what was before her. It was known only as a Grimpgin, it was a creature that had the resemblance of a gorilla in physic and a lemur with its tail and agility. There were two kinds of behavioral patterns of this creature, either it was calm and peaceful and ate only fish and berries, or, unfortunately in Gilda’s case, it was a savage beast that devoured whatever living thing it could choke the life out of and sink its teeth into… and it favored Griffins… it let out a bone chilling scream like its tail had just been cut off, that was all Gilda needed to hear before she turned tail and ran as fast as she could. The pain in her wing didn’t exist to her anymore, she was so frightened for her life she could only focus on running. She could hear it jumping through the trees, chasing after her. She thought she would try to fly again, but the pain shot her wing like an arrow when she tried to flex it, all she could do was run for it. She had run faster than she ever had before, but it slowly kept gaining and gaining. It was now over her head in the trees, after a couple seconds of measuring distance and trajectory, it leaped straight out of the trees and onto Gilda. The both of them briefly rolled over each other before the grimpgin regained its balance over her. It had her pinned on the ground, Gilda didn’t even struggle as she look up at the insane creature, its eyes were black, with bright red pupils it jittered crazily as it stared into her very soul. It screamed maniacally in her face as it pushed its large right hand into her head, pushing it to his left. He switches hands with his left hand on her head keeping her head facing the same way while his right hand grabbed her right claw. With those in his hands, he began to pull her right arm opposite the way her head was facing, twisting her neck a little. She grunted in pain as the beast continued to pull harder and harder, tears ran down her face again, she was terrified, she didn’t wanna die. But it looked like it was the end for her here, and she knew it. With that in mind, the fear slowly started to lift from her heart. She imagined her harmful pranks, the pony’s she had bullied around that day, and Rainbow Dash’s final words to her once more. ‘maybe it’s better this way’ she thought to herself. She remembered one time when she had beat a pony senseless, one cause she stood up to her like Rainbow Dash did, and two for her own amusement and to make an example of her to anypony else that though they had the guts. She now saw that the tables had finally been turned on her, and she would pay the ultimate price now. ‘Guess I had it coming’ a mixture of regret and content now filled her heart, she felt eternally horrible for the pain and suffering she caused others in her life, but now felt relief and content that she was finally getting what she deserved. She imagined Rainbow Dash’s smile again. A gentle smile graced her face under the weight and force of the senseless rage of the grimpgin. “Goodbye Rainbow Dash, and I’m sAA-*snap*” her neck snapped as the creature pulled her arm all the way across her body and it was done, her life faded in an instant, she was dead. The grimpgin then let go of her arm and brought his hand off of her head; she lay limp. He examined her to make sure she was really dead by half scooping her head a little trying to make sure she would wake up if she was still alive… no reaction… He turned her over and noticed one of her wings was limp. He grabbed it and waved it, mimicking the mechanics of the flying creature. He then grabbed her wing from the base and plucked it out like a weed, he looked at the bloody plucked end and then back at her… no movement… now convinced she was 100% dead, he stomped his foot on her chest, cracking some of the ribs, and screamed furiously in victory as he achieved his goal of slaughtering a griffin, and now he was gifted with a great meal. He soon dragged her ragged and lifeless body of to a nearby cave where he would feast on her corpse.
There stood Rainbow Dash with the rest of her friends at Gilda’s grave. All six of them wore black cloaks that Rarity made personally for each of them for their visit. Twilight Sparkle laid down a bouquet of flowers in front of the headstone, Rarity did the same. Fluttershy placed a small basket of wild flowers on the side of the headstone, careful not to get in the way of Twilight and Rarity’s bouquets. Apple Jack placed a small plate of caramel apples in front of the two bouquets, Pinkie pie placed a small plate with a piece of cake with a lit candle stuck in the center of it in the space Apple Jack left in front of the bouquets. The rest of the ponies stepped back and stared in sadness at the gifts they left in front of the headstone. Pinkie Pie began to whimper a little; Apple Jack noticed her sadness as she sat next to her and put her hoof around her pink friend in a sympathetic embrace. When Pinkie Pie felt Apple Jack’s hoof around her, she turned her head and rested it into Apple Jack’s shoulder. All eyes turned to Rainbow Dash; the Blue pegasus stepped closer to the headstone surrounded by gifts. She pulled something out of the single saddle bag she was wearing and placed it in front of the rest of the gifts. A Picture of Her and Gilda when they were still young. Rainbow Dash sat and stared as tears welled up in her eyes, she thought about all the fun times her and Gilda shared, all the racing and pranking and showing off tricks to each other. Twilight walked up and sat next to her, Rainbow Dash looked into her eyes and she saw tears welling up in Twilight’s eyes as well. Rainbow Dash immediately berried her face in Twilights chest and began sobbing, the tears streamed from Twilight’s eyes as she tried to comfort the sad pegasus, stroking her rainbow mane and holding her tight. “shhh” she sloshed lightly as she embraced her saddened friend
“That it Rainbow Dash” she whispered, “it’s ok; you go ahead and let yourself cry as much as you need to.”
“I should have been more sensitive,” Rainbow Dash said through her sobs “I shouldn't have told her to go find some new friends, its all my fault!" Rainbow Dash was wailing now ever regretful of the way she treated her old friend. Twilight gently placed her right hoof on Rainbow Dash's cheek, gently directing her head to face her's.
"There's only so much you can do for a friend Rainbow Dash, if they don't wanna change for the sake of your friendship, that doesn't mean its your fault." Twilight wiped the tears from Rainbow Dash's face and her own, "just know that even though shes gone, she not only can't feel angry anymore, but she cant feel pain anymore either." Twilight looked into Rainbow Dash's eyes with a delicate smile gracing her face, Rainbow Dash smiled back in bittersweet happiness.
"Your right" Rainbow Dash said as her head sunk for a moment thinking about Gilda's smile, she could imagine Gilda saying 'goodbye Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry'. It filled her heart with bittersweet joy from thinking about it. "Thank you Twilight" Rainbow Dash said as she hugged her unicorn friend again in a friendly embrace.
"Of course, that's what friends are for" Twilight said hugging her friend back. "We can stay as long as you like" Twilight added as she broke the embrace looking her friend in the eye again.
"Its ok Twilight" Rainbow Dash said "Im ready to go when you guys are." With that they walked away, back into town; leaving the griffin's Grave surrounded by gifts from rainbow dash and her friends. The two bouquets lay facing opposite directions, the basket of wild flowers hugging the side of the headstone they were placed on, the caramel apples and the slice of cake with the candle still lit, and the picture of her friend in a frame standing proudly in front of all the other gifts. A gust of wind flew by and put out the flickering flame on the candle, looking as if Gilda herself had blown it out...
