Every Cloud has a Red Lining

Griffon the Brush-off

///

     A week passed since Crimson and Myst went to Canterlot and everything was basically the same, everypony stayed on their own schedule. Twi was heading to a bookstore, Applejack was in the orchard, Rarity at her boutique, Rainbow Dash was lounging on a cloud, and Pinkie was hopping around town with her usual happy-go-lucky look, humming a cheery tune.

     She then yelled, "Rainbow Dash!" in a melodic tone. She was hopping still looking around the town for the cyan pegasus.

      Hearing her however, Dash rapidly dug into a cloud to hide herself from the pink mare.

      Pinkie, not seeing her, went to Twilight before she went to the door and asked, "Hey Twilight. Have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?"

      "Isn't that her up there?" she said pointing up toward the cloud Dash had buried her head.

Pinkie looked up and called out in a sing-song way, "Rainbow Dash!" And like that Rainbow flew away, with Pinkie hopping behind her at a much slower pace. Dash made it to Sweet Apple Acres when she stopped to see if she lost Pinkie.

      "Whew, that was close," she said as she started to walk steps

      She just walked several steps when she heard, "Hey Dash." Then she sped off again back toward town. This time she had hidden herself inside of the leaves of Twilight's library. Then, as she let down her guard, she realized that Pinkie was next and again she flew away as quickly as possible, with Pinkie still hopping behind her. The process went on for an hour or so ,and ended when Rainbow Dash realizing that it was useless to try to avoid Pinkie.

      ///

     Pinkie didn't explain what she was doing all she said was if Dash could do a favor for her.

     "Okay now a little to the left," she said as Rainbow moved it, "Now a little to the right." Dash complied and did so. "Now a couple millimeters to the left," by this point Dash had started to lose her patience but did so, "Now a few inches to the North."

      "Pinkie Pie!" Dash yelled impatiently.

      "I mean perfect," she said a little nervous, "Now, wait for my signal." Then she she looked to see Spike gathering scrolls for Twilight. When he left Pinkie signal Dash, who struck the cloud causing lightning and thunder. The prank worked as Spike screamed and dropped the scrolls. Then the two started laughing at the dragon, who now was hiccuping. Then as he picked up a scroll he hiccupped a green flame that sent the scroll to Celestia.

     Worried about him now Pinkie asked, "Are you okay Spike? We didn't hurt you didn't we?"

      He reassured them by saying that dragons are fireproof and when he finished he hiccupped again sending a handful of scrolls. Then Pinkie and Dash went off to the towns joke store.

/?/

         It was night, and he was walking away when he looked back to see a castle in the distance, he had just escaped from there. Away from the strangers that said they knew him. How could they, he had only appeared yesterday. Here he had no friends here. The two alicorns and a pegasus who claimed to know him, he asked who they were but they only wondered what he was doing, calling him by some other name. The actions of the previous day were still replaying in the pegasus' mind.

       "What are you doing, you need to calm down," the white alicorn said.

        "Calm down, you can't calm down me down. Insanity's the game, but you know my name," the stallion said laughing hysterically.

        Then a darker alicorn, shorter than the white one, had said, "Sister, what's wrong with his eyes?" then she looked at the taller one and asked, "Shall I call the guards Celestia? He may be a threat in this state."

        "Might as well. Go get them now Luna." Celestia said, and when she said it there was a sullen look on all of the their faces, but the pegasus had a greater look of pain than the others. The pegasus ran out of the room when several guards came in the room and grabbed him.

         "I wouldn't do that," the stallion said as he was being dragged away, "you won't be able to hold me long, give it 5 days or less you'll see what I mean." He laughed as he was put in his cell, stone brick wall barred doors and windows. The only thing he need to do was find the softest area of the wall. This would take several days with sleeping, but the one thing he didn't want was to stay here. He had continued humming the same song over and over to help him concentrate.

          It took 2 days to find the weakest part of the room. He found a multitude of crevices within the wall parallel to the door. The only thing they didn't expect him having as much strength as several earth ponies, and he punched through the wall with ease. He was different from the rest of the ponies, he was created to be  unpredictable, with attributes of all of each race. He had the strength of the earth ponies, speed of the pegasi, which improved his flying, and the intelligence of a unicorn. But, there was this song that kept playing through his mind over and over again.

          Now he looked forward to his next destination. The place that the two alicorns called Ponyville. There he may find the answers he needed. The last thing he needed was to hurt anypony else, like the pegasus that was with the two alicorns. They knew he wasn't normal because of his mental state and mannerisms.

         'Get ready Ponyville here I come,' he thought, and laughed to himself as he continued toward the path to the unsuspecting town.

///

         After yesterday Pinkie wanted to pull more pranks with Dash. When she got to Dash's house she said, "Rise and shine Rainbow Dash we got a-," she trailed off as a bird's head appeared instead of Dash, "Oooh." Then Dash flew down with the creature following behind her.

         When they landed Dash introduce her friend, "Pinkie I'd like you to meet my old friend Gilda. Gilda meet Pinkie."

           Pinkie looked at Gilda and asked, "What are you exactly?"

           "She's a griffon," Dash explained, "she's half lion, half eagle."

           "And 100% awesome," Gilda finished.

           "We met at the junior speedsters camp that I was enrolled in when I was a filly." she explained, then she turned to Gilda and asked, "Hey, you remember the chant right."

           "Of course I do we were told to do it every morning, how can I get it out of my head." Gilda said

           "Can we do it for old time sake?" Dash asked

           "Fine, but only for you Dash," she said then they started singing the song the camps song. Dash may have had more fond memories than Gilda because she was a little more enthusiastic about the song than Gilda. When they finished the chant Pinkie laughed with delight at the song.

           "That was great," she said walking to the two, "It even gave me the for a new prank!"

           "Sorry Pinkie, but Dash and I were going to fly around town." Gilda said before she took off.

            "That's okay," Pinkie replied, "we'll do it next time."

             "Yeah Pinkie, we'll prank the others later," Dash said to her as she followed Gilda, "see ya later."

            "Yeah, see you later, I'll catch up" Pinkie said a little disappointed at the current predicament. Then, she got an idea.

             Dash and Gilda had seen the entire town in just several minutes so they decided to take a break. So Dash raced Gilda to the nearest cloud with Gilda winning the race.

             "Just like old times," Gilda said when Rainbow Dash landed

             "Yeah, but faster." Dash replied after landing and gave Gilda a hoofbump

             "Hey there," Pinkie said after her head no poked through the clouds then fell back down. The two soon looked at each other then her head came through again.

             "It's later, and I caught up," Pinkie said between her head disappearing and reappearing again. When they looked down they saw that Pinkie was bouncing on a trampoline.

            Dash found this amusing chuckled and said, "Pinkie you are so random." Gilda, however, didn't find it amusing she just found Pinkie annoying. So the only way to get away from her was to get higher.

             "Hey Dash race ya to that cloud," she said.

             "You're on," then the two sped off and left Pinkie behind. When they both landed Gilda said, "I won Dash!"

             "No, I beat you." Dash proclaimed.

             Pinkie was rising by the use of dozens of balloons when she reached them she said, "It was a close one, but Dash beat you by an itty-bitty teeny-tiny hair, or should I say feather." She laughed at the end of the sentence. Gilda showed annoyance at her, which Pinkie and Dash thought was because she lost the race. Then she thought of another way to lose Pinkie Pie.

             "Hey Dash last one to that cloud is a gnarly  dragon egg." She said and then sped off with Dash after she accepted her challenge, but Gilda had really stayed behind. She said to the floating pony in a menacing tone, "I think the high altitude is making you dizzy," then popped several of the balloons helping Pinkie stay airborne, when Gilda stopped she slowly descended toward the ground. Gilda then quickly rejoined Dash, when Pinkie appeared moments later with some flying machine powered by two sets of pedals.the

             Before Pinkie had a chance to speak Gilda quickly asked Dash, "So Dash make any new moves or are you still going old school?"

             Dash who immediately wanted to show off replied to her, "Are you kidding, hold on this may take awhile." The she took off to show Gilda what been doing.

             Gilda then turned to Pinkie and asked, "Pinkie could you come here?" Pinkie did so and when she was in arms length she grabbed her machine and growled, "Don't you know the meaning get lost? Dash doesn't need toned hanging out with dweeb like you, now get like a bee and buzz off!" With that she grabbed the blades of the vehicle and Pinkie went spinning. Then when Gilda let go of Pinkie's machine Pinkie was spinning towards the earth away.

/?/

             When he was several miles away when it was dawn and he realize he might be seen by the guards in Ponyville. With what he had found in the caves near the route he'd taken he found several gemstones. With those he bought a heavy black cloak, the only one that covered his face and cutie mark. The clerk said it seemed like it wasn't the kind of weather for something that heavy, but the way he went was in the woods near the roads but far enough so the stayed in the cool shadows away from sight. He paid for the cloak, put it on and went back on his way.

            When he got to the hill outside of town he decided it take a nap on one of the clouds so he wouldn't be disturbed, he hadn't slept in three days and he wasn't going to not take a nap. If those soldiers got him so what he could easily lose them in the Everfree Forest. Then he lost consciousness and fell asleep. When he woke up the sun was still up, now with the rest he won't be as quick to anger as he was. He flew to the ground and went towards Ponyville. When he got to the market he saw an assortment of stands, mainly fruit or vegetable, and a griffon that seemed to stand out amongst the town of ponies. Another thing that stood out was a yellow pegasus leading a family of ducks she had her face toward them so she was walking backwards toward the griffon. When she ran into the griffon it was going to get ugly.

             "Hey!" The griffon said angrily at the pegasus

             "Excuse me I'm-"

             "I'm walking here." The griffon interrupted

            "Oh.. U-um I'm sorry I'm just-"

             'Fight!' a voice his head screamed, 'stand with Fluttershy! Fight with her!'

             'Shut it I will! And if you know the pegasus who's the griffon?' He thought

             'Now's not the time, show that griffon who's boss,' the voice said, 'Go now!' And with that he went to the griffon as she was inhaling to roar and gave her an uppercut that caught her by surprise.

             He turned to Fluttershy smiled and said, "You should probably leave. Its not going to be pretty." She just nodded, walked away a couple steps, and trying to recognize the familiarity to his voice. Then everypony who was there felt a faint uneasy pressure of a bloodlust, which emanated from the stranger.

             When Gilda got up she rubbed her jaw and yelled, "If you wanna fight, let's fight!" Then she ran toward him,jumped and slashed at his face. He barely had time to get out of the way and throw his cloak. Then he looked, with a crazed smile, as his cloak was being torn to shreds.

///

             Pinkie saw the whole ordeal. Gilda yelling at Fluttershy and the cloaked pony hitting Gilda right in the face, and then him accepting to fight the griffon. When his cloak was thrown off it showed his red hair, and the face of Crimson. Though something was off he held himself higher than usual, and his eyes weren't red they were brown. Another thing was that there was a pressure of insanity coming from him. The only thing she thought to do was tell Twilight. So, she ran to the library to get Twi.

             When she got there she yelled at Twilight, "Twilight, Crimson is back and he's fighting Gilda!" Then she saw that Twilight wasn't alone, Myst was there and she looked like she'd been crying.

             "That's impossible Pinkie, Crimson is still in Canterlot, he was taken to a cell for dangerous behavior."

             Then Myst wiping her eyes said to the purple mare, "Actually Twilight, Red broke through the cell's wall and escaped three days ago. And whoever's fighting Gilda is not the Crimson I love!" She signalled Twilight and Pinkie to follow her and show her what she meant. When they got to the market they knew what she meant his eyes were brown just as Myst had told Twilight, and he had a crazed smile of bloodlust on his face. Twilight and Pinkie couldn't believe the state their friend was in, scratches along his body and a missing piece from his left ear. Gilda didn't look as good either, as a small trail of blood went down from her mouth and bruises all over her body.

             "This isn't Crimson this is the personality is calling himself Viceman," she explained, "the princesses don't know how he came to be, but considered about what he can do he is dangerous and highly unpredictable. And that's not it, he's patient, highly intelligent, and fast."

             "I don't see the last part," Twilight cut in, "but it takes speed to beat a griffon in a race or fight, and Red's not that fast."

             "Look Twilight," Myst said pointing at Gilda, "he already landed several blows on her, and that may not be as fast as he can go. He's toying with her, just look at his expression."

             Twilight hated to admit it, but Myst was right his smile was uncomforting, and he didn't look the slightest bit exhausted. "So, what should I do. If we know Crimson is in there, I don't want to hurt him."

             Myst turned to her and said, "Knock him out. There's a spell to do that, right? That way he won't get hurt and we could try to get him back to normal." Her voice cracked as she said it but she was serious about it.

             Twilight did as Myst asked and readied to cast a spell to knock Viceman unconscious. When she released toward him, Viceman dodged it and the spell hit Gilda, who lunged to his spot.

              He turned to the trio and said "Thanks, but let me tell you, if you got me first she would've killed me," he then spotted Myst and then said to her, "Oh, I remember you from the castle. I already know what you're thinking, yes your boyfriend still exists, I'm the insanity and rage of the original personality before I came here. In other words I'm half of  the first personality, but I have my memories." Viceman said still with the sadistic grin. "Red, is the lamer half with all the predictability and sanity. So go ahead knock me out, I'm already out of energy so-" he never got to finish the sentence because he passed out and fell asleep there on the ground.

             Twilight cast a levitation spell to lift the pegasus and said to Pinkie and Myst, "Get Gilda to Rainbow's house, she'll take care of her until she wakes up." So, Pinkie and Myst carried Gilda to Dash's house and when she saw Gilda she was worried about her and furious at who did it to her.

             "Oh my gosh Gilda what happened to you," Dash             said to the still unconscious griffon.

             "Crimson beat her up," Pinkie said bluntly, she had completely forgot what Myst and Viceman said.

             "Pinkie! Please, let me expl-" Myst tried to say, but was cut off when Rainbow Dash flew off to find her former friend. "Well let Twilight explain it. I'm going to put Gilda inside and go see Red. See ya Pinkie."

              "Okay Myst, will I see you at the party I'm throwing for Gilda?" Pinkie asked

              "It all depends if Red will be okay," Myst replied flying toward the library. She was too worried about Crimson to ask why she was throwing the party in the first place.

///

             Twilight had just finished bandaging Crimson's wounds, when she applied medicine he just mumbled in his sleep but didn't wake up. She placed the sleeping pegasus on his bed and looked at the bandages.

             'There'll be no scarring, thank Celestia,' then she looked at the torn piece of ear, winced and thought, 'but that's never growing back.' Then she left him to rest, but as she was closing his door she was pushed out of the way by Rainbow Dash.

             "Crimson I know you're here," she yelled before entering his room and seeing him in his current state, "explain why you- Oh my gosh." That's all she could say when she saw him. She sorta felt sorry for him, even though he did fight Gilda.

              "I know you're angry Rainbow Dash, but he needs to rest!"

             "Not until he tells me why he fought Gilda," then she shook him and said, "Wake up dumbass! Time to talk!" Then the pressure Twilight felt from the market started getting more prominent and stronger every second he was shaken.

             "Rainbow stop this!" Twilight yelled at her. Rainbow, still angry, did so and backed away from the stallion but he didn't fall back down. Crimson just slowly opened his eyes, and to Twilight's fears the eyes were brown.

             "Well," Viceman said and turned to the mares, "Who woke me up? Whoever did interrupted the conversation between Red and me. Will you deprive him of that?"

             The two just shook their heads. The pressure grew fainter when he closed his eyes and when they opened again the red eyes of their friend. They relaxed when they saw his eyes.

             "Please don't wake me again I have to do this." He said, "When this is over I will be completed. Viceman and I are two sides of the same coin, we were made from one personality, I just got the calm collected half of the original."

             "Well, if you have to do this I won't stop you Red." Twilight and Dash moved and Crimson saw Myst, "Just promise me you'll be the same when you wake up again."

             "Sure thing Azure." Crimson said, before kissing

her cheek, "I promise you I'll be the same."

             "I feel the same way," Twilight said, "please just be the Red we know and love."

             "Me too," Rainbow Dash said, "but I want a race you, for beating Gilda."

             "Fine, when I'm healthy and well, I'll take you up your offer," Crimson said, "Now go, you need to take care of your friend Gilda." With that he laid back down and fell asleep. Myst ended up crying after he fell back asleep.

             "Don't worry Myst, he be fine this is all he needs." Twilight reassured the crying mare.

             "I know Twi," Myst said between tears, "but I'm afraid that he won't be able to keep his promise. If that happens I don't know what I'll do." Then Myst leaned over Twilight's shoulder and cried even harder.

            Rainbow Dash just scoffed and said, "He still tell me why he fought Gilda."

///

             Pinkie waited a day for Gilda to recover to throw her the party. Everypony was there except for Myst who, Twilight said, was waiting for Crimson to wake up. She invited the entire town, but only twenty or so showed up due to having free time or a day off. When Rainbow Dash arrived Gilda followed close behind, and Red sure did a number on her. She was covered in bandages, and she walked with a slight limp, which she tried to hide.

             Then Pinkie went to Gilda and introduced her, "Hey everypony this is Gilda, a long time friend of Rainbow Dash." Gilda just smiled and waved awkwardly at the crowd. Then Pinkie held her hoof out to Gilda as a symbol of friendship, but when she grabbed it she was met with a shocking surprise, literally. Pinkie just laughed and flipped her hoof to reveal a hoof buzzer.

            Rainbow Dash laughed with her and said, "The hoof buzzer classic. Hey G you're not mad a little prank are you?"

            Gilda looked at her and said, "Naw, I'm always up for a good prank."

            "Feel free to help yourself to anything at the snack table." Pinkie said walking toward the table covered with bowls with different assortments of candies.

            "Ooh, vanilla lemon drops don't mind if I do," Gilda said picking up one of the candies. When she ate it she got a flash of sour followed by a large wave of heat. Her face felt like it was on fire while she looked back and forth for something to drink.

            "G, the punch," Dash said pointing to several cups of punch. Gilda rushed to one grabbed and drank out of it. It took a few seconds, but she realized there was no punch coming from the cup and that the cup was a dribble glass. Pinkie pie laughed at Gilda along with everypony else. Until she got a normal glass.

            "Ha, punch in a dribble glass I wonder who did

that," Pinkie said in a suspicious tone.

            "Yeah I wonder," Gilda said annoyed at the joke. Then Dash called out to her at another covered by gifts of all shapes and sizes. When she got to the table she grabbed a gift in the shape of the cylinder. Upon opening it there were several paper snakes that sprang out of the can, followed by more laughs from the crowd.

            Applejack, seeing the can laughed and said, "Spittin' Snakes, somepony pulled that prank on me last month!"

            Gilda staring at Pinkie  said, "Yeah, I wonder who that was." Several minutes passed of Gilda talking to Rainbow Dash. When everything had calmed a little Pinkie brought out a giant cake that had several candles lit at the top.

            Spike was amazed at the sight, " Can I blow out the candles?" he asked Twilight

            "We should let Gilda blow out the candles, she  is the guest of honor." Twilight answered

            As if on cue, Gilda shoved the dragon out of the way and said, "Yeah I'm the guest of honor." With that said she inhaled deeply and blew out every candle with a proud look on her face. But that pride was short lived as the candles relit themselves. Her surprise caused another uproar of laughter among the crowd. She then tried to no avail as they started themselves up each time.

            "Relighting candles, I love that prank what a

classic," Spike said with amusement at the harmless joke.

            "Gee, I wonder who pulled that prank," Pinkie said with the same suspicious tone and look on her face. Not paying to Spike he dug a tunnel through the cake and ended up at the top of the cake.

            "Spike!" Twilight said annoyed at the rude behavior.

            "What, it's good," was the only thing he could say to her.

            Dash then asked Gilda, who was showing slight annoyance, "Hey you're not getting upset over a couple candles are you?"

            "What? No. Like I said I'm down for a good prank," she said, no longer showing annoyance.

            "Great! Now let's get some cake!" Dash said as she went to the cake. As Pinkie took a bite Gilda grabbed her neck, not choke her but get her attention.

            "Hey," she whispered menacingly, "And I'm watching you like a hawk."

            "Why? Can't you watch me like a griffon?" She asked jokingly.

            In the background they both heard Applejack yell, "Hey everyone it's time for 'Pin the Tail on the Pony'"

            Rarity, excited about the game asked, "Oh, can I go first, can I have the purple tail?"

            Gilda quickly swiped the tail just as Rarity was about to pick it up.and proclaimed, "Well I'm the guest of honor and I have the purple tail."

            "Alrighty then, let's put on the blindfold!" Pinkie said as Spike walked to her and put on the blindfold.

            "Hey what are you doing?" Gilda asked

            "Well we put the blindfold on and we spin you round and 'round," Pinkie said as she spun the griffon around and when she stopped she continued, leading her to the wall with the poster on it, "Then you try to place the the tail on the poster in front of you."

            "‘Just stick the tail on the pony’," she mocked Pinkie, thinking it was another prank, "This is another prank is it? Well, I'm going this way!" she finished walking the opposite direction from the poster.

            "B-but the poster's that way," Pinkie tried to get her to turn around, but she had slipped on icing on the floor and ended up crashing into the kitchen. When she was covered in cake batter and icing with the tail on the top of her beak.

            "Gilda you put it in the wrong end." Pinkie said to her, which caused another fit of giggling among the guests and caused Gilda to lose it. She released all her rage in one loud roar.

            "Is this your idea of a good time?" She yelled, "I have never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life, and you Pinkie Pie are queen lame-o with all of your weak party pranks. Did you really think you could lose my cool? Well Dash and I have ten times as much cool than all of you put together, come on Dash let's go," then she started walk towards the door she turned to Rainbow Dash, who wasn't following and growled, "Come on Rainbow Dash I said we're leaving!"

            Dash just looked at her and said, "You know Gilda, I'm the one who set up those weak pranks."

            "What you're joshing me Dash, it was Pinkie Pie, she set this up to make a fool of me."

            Pinkie said to the enraged griffon, "I only threw this party to improve your attitude, I wanted to turn that frown upside down."

             "And you sure didn't need help making a fool of yourself, and didn't think this is how my old friend would treat my new friends." Rainbow Dash said angrily, "If being cool is all that matters to you maybe you shouldn't be here."

            Gilda just stood there a moment and replied, "Yeah well you're such a flip flop, cool one minute lame the next, if you don't want to be lame anymore call me." With that she left, slamming the door behind her.

            "Not cool," Dash said as Gilda left. Then after several seconds of murmuring about the events that had occurred, after that Dash said to everyone, "I'm sorry about bringing Gilda here I didn't realize how rude she was. And I'm also sorry about her ruining your awesome party Pinkie."

            "If you wanna hang out with a party pooper that's your business," Pinkie said to Dash, "and who said this party was ruined, it's still fine by me." Then they continued with their party with Twilight writing her lesson on friendship and telling where Red is and what's happened to him recently.