Fetlocks and Feathers

The light shone in through Gilda’s window particularly bright this morning, intensifying her headache.   She fumbled around with her covers and pulled them over her head to give herself some solitude from the harsh sun.  She sealed her eyes shut, trying to sneak in an extra hour of sleep, but her excruciating headache kept her from falling back into the blissful state.

She must have had one hell of a hangover.  Not only did she have a headache, but nearly her entire body was numb.  She couldn’t even feel her talons or wings, and she felt microscopic in her stiff, arid bed.

The must and heat of the covers over her head soon became too much to bear, and her head emerged from the thick blankets.  She opened her eyes slowly.

Something was wrong.

The paint job seemed unfamiliar, as did everything else in the room.  She looked down at her bed to see it was a different bed from hers altogether. She rubbed her eyes with her clenched talons, reassuring herself she was just seeing things. However, when she opened her eyes, not only was the room still there, but her talons had been replaced with two cream colored hooves.

Something was definitely wrong.

Before she had time to process this new information, an orange Earth Pony in a Stetson burst through the door.

“APPLE BLOOM,” the orange pony yelled in her direction, “GET UP! Yer gonna be late fer school!”

Gilda hadn’t realized the pony was talking to her.  She was still staring at her newly acquired hooves.  The pony called to her again and again, and after having no response from Gilda, let out an exasperated groan and picked her up by the scruff of her neck.

The freckled pony plopped Gilda down in front of a mirror and began to frantically brush her mane while rambling about how lazy she could be sometimes.  Sitting in front of a mirror further added to the shock Gilda was experiencing.  She hadn’t just woken up with hooves; she had woken up with an entirely new body.  Her new body was obviously very young, a lot younger than the pony behind her who was still ranting about laziness.  Her entire coat was cream-colored, and her mane and tail were both red.  She didn’t seem to have one of those butt-tattoos that other ponies seemed to have, though.

After the older pony finished with Gilda’s new mane and tail, she planted a big red bow in her mane and shoved her out the door, slamming it behind Gilda.  Two other young, blank flanked ponies came to meet her; a Unicorn and a Pegasus.

“Hey there, Apple Bloom,” the Unicorn exclaimed with a voice crack.

“Ready for another day at school?” added the Pegasus.

Gilda was at a loss for words.  She tried choking out some sort of reply, but all she got was, “…Guh?”

“Whoa, Gilda!  Are you still drunk from last night or something,” a cocky Griffin choked out between snickers.

“Yeah,” his friend joined in, also snickering, “Or did you drink some this morning?”

“That’s the first sign of an alcoholic, you know,” a third Griffin mocked.

Apple Bloom had woken up earlier that morning to find she was no longer a filly, (or a pony at all, for that matter) but a large, threatening Griffin.  Her head was throbbing, and she was adjusting to having talons rather than hooves, as well as having wings.  She spent a few hours in the messy, bottle-ridden apartment she had woken up in trying to figure out what had happened to her, or if it was all a dream. She was interrupted, however, by a group of three other Griffins claiming to be her friends and calling her Gilda, and whisked her away from the unkempt apartment.

This was Apple Bloom’s first time flying, so she was understandably having quite a bit of trouble, swaying from left to right, waving her wings chaotically just to try to stay afloat.

“Heh heh, yeah, I guess,” Apple Bloom stuttered in a much more gravelly voice than she was used to.  She didn’t want to appear crazy to the other three Griffins by telling them she was actually an Earth Pony who woke up in a Griffin’s body, so she decided to play along.  Besides, she didn’t want to ruin this “Gilda’s” relationship with her friends.

After about five minutes of flying, the other Griffins began to descend.  Apple Bloom tried to lower herself down, but ended up stopping altogether and falling on the ground with a loud “THUD!”  The other Griffins laughed once again at Apple Bloom’s dismay without offering a helping hoof.  Or talon.  Or paw.  Or whatever Griffins were supposed to offer.  Apple Bloom shook the thought from her mind and got herself back on her… paws?  She shook her head once again before surveying where they had landed.

It was a small town, similar to Ponyville, but the roads were hastily paved with seemingly random stones.  The buildings lining the street seemed a bit run down, and there were a lot more Griffins than ponies, and what few ponies were there were usually pegasi.  Although, there wasn’t much of anyone on the street to begin with.

Apple Bloom’s observations were interrupted by a nudge to her side.

“Hey,” the Griffin who had done the nudging said, “isn’t that the mule you were messin’ around with the other day?”

Apple Bloom looked to the supposed “mule” he had indicated.  But the mule wasn’t a mule at all; he was a frazzled looking pegasus stallion with a brown coat and dark, almost black mane, and a construction hammer imprinted on his flank.  He looked exhausted and beaten, and most of his feathers seemed to be out of place or missing altogether.

“Yeah, I think I saw him hangin’ round Gerald’s bar last night,” answered another of the Griffins from the group.  “I don’t think he learned his lesson from last time, Geoff!”

“Well then,” the first Griffin from the group, Geoff, as was apparently his name, continued in a dark, sly tone, “we’ll just have to… review our previous lesson.”

The other two Griffins let out a grim laugh while Geoff felt around on the ground for any loose stones in the road.  He was a pudgy little Griffin, much smaller than Apple Bloom in her new body.  In fact, he only came up to just under her beak (when he really tried to stand up tall), though there was something… scary about him.  Threatening, even.

“Yeah, that’s a good one,” he decided, inspecting a stone about the size of Apple Bloom’s talon from the pitifully paved path.

“Hey, why don’t we let Gilda do it,” said one of the other Griffins.  “After all, she’s the one who taught him his lesson before!”

Geoff immediately turned around and gave the Griffin a cold glare.  “What did you say?”  He shrunk back the more Geoff stared.  “Did you just give me, me, of all Griffins, an order?”

“I-I’m sorry, Geoff,” the Griffin said.  “I didn’t mean anything by it, I just-“

Wrong answer.  “Oh, so now you’re going to argue?  Is that how it’s going to be, wise guy?”  Geoff was now right in front of the Griffin.  Although Geoff was only half the size of the other, he seemed to tower over him like an eagle looming its prey.

“N-No, of course not, Geoff, I just thought that since…” he was scrambling for words that would not further anger the small yet terrifying Griffin.

But just as soon as he was provoked, he let out a hearty laugh, slapping the Griffin on the back.  “Oh boy, I had you goin’ there, didn’t I?”

The Griffin wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but decided it was better to laugh along with him rather than get him angry again.  “Ha ha, yeah, great one, Geoff!”

The other two quickly joined in nervous laughter.  Apple Bloom just looked on, not really sure how to react.  Was this really their idea of a joke?  It looked to her like Geoff had really scared the other Griffin.  She just couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a rock getting shoved into her talon.  “You were right, though.  It’s only fittin’ that Gilda be the one who teach him a lesson.”  Apple Bloom gave him a confused look, as if to say, “me?”

Geoff just responded by pushing her out into the road, bridging the gap a little between her and the Pegasus.  “Well, go ahead!  Chuck ‘er at him!”

Apple Bloom looked down at the rock, wrapped in her clenched talon.  Throw it at him?

“What’s the matter, Gils?”  Geoff said.  “Ain’t got the gizzard for it?”

Apple Bloom gave a nervous look back at the three Griffins, who looked on impatiently.  Well, Apple Bloom thought, Ah don’t wanna scare Gilda’s friends off.  Maybe if Ah just throw it near him without hurtin’ him…

Apple Bloom reluctantly chucked the stone at the Pegasus, intentionally missing and going right behind him.  She threw it harder than she meant to, as it kept going and crashed into the house behind him.  Apple Bloom winced, and turned back around nervously to see Geoff wearing a disapproving expression.

“What in the hell was that supposed to be?  Were you aimin’ at the mule or the house?”

“S-sorry.  It must have slipped…”

“Ah, outta my way!”  Geoff impatiently shoved Apple Bloom out of his way, picking up another, much larger rock.

He wound his arm back, grasping the heavy looking rock.  “Ya see Gils, this is how ya do it!”

His arm shot back, heaving the stone towards the innocent Pegasus.  The stone collided hard with his side, causing a thunderous “CRACK!”  The Griffins laughed uncontrollably to the point of tears, but Apple Bloom just stared on in horror.  She watched as the wounded Pegasus struggled fruitlessly to get back on his hooves.  After having given up, he turned his head to inspect his limp wing.  That was when Apple Bloom noticed that his right eye was gone, marked by three long scars going down his face.

“That’ll show ya to show up on our side of town, ya dumb mule!”

Apple Bloom was horrified that the three Griffins found this so amusing.  Well, if that’s how they wanna be, then Ah refuse to stay with ‘em!  Apple Bloom ran over as quickly as she could to the fallen Pegasus, ready to offer a helping… talon.

“Gilda!  What the hell are you doin’?”  Geoff called after her, all previous laughter abruptly subsided.

Apple Bloom ignored him, focusing on helping the hurt pony.  “Are you okay?”

“Gilda, are you crazy?”  One of the other Griffins said.

Apple Bloom had had it with them.  “What is wrong with you Griffins?  Can’t you tell he’s hurt? Even if you don’t have any compassion, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have any, either!”  Gilda stood back up on her four legs.  “It’s just a pony!  He never did anything to you!  Can’t you see that this is all wrong?”

“Gilda, you dumb-“ one of the Griffins began, but he was interrupted by Geoff’s talon thrust in font of his face, silencing him.  “But, Geoff-“

“I don’t wanna hear any of it,” he said, quickly hushing the Griffin.  “She knows the consequences.  She’ll come to her senses.  And if she don’t, then…” Geoff turned to the other Griffins for emphasis, “I pity her.”

The other two Griffins looked down in silence.  “C’mon, let’s go to Gerald’s.  I need a drink.”

The three Griffins were silent as they took off, with Geoff shooting Apple Bloom one last look.  It felt like they held eye contact for an eternity; his intense eyes full of anger and remorse.

After forcing her eyes away from Geoff’s, Apple Bloom turned back to the hurt pegasus.  “Are you okay?”

Wordlessly, he shoved Apple Bloom away with his foreleg.  This time, he stayed standing, however.

Apple Bloom wasn’t sure what to say.  The other Griffins had mentioned Gilda picking on this poor Pegasus before, so it made sense why he was so distrusting of her.

“I’m really sorry about all that,” Apple Bloom said.

The Pegasus made no attempt to respond, yet Apple Bloom kept following the limping Pegasus, determined to make up for the other Griffins’ cruelty.

“I mean, I don’t really know those other Griffins…  They just sort of showed up this morning, saying they were my friends… I’m not supposed to be here… I don’t even know where ‘here’ is!”

The weathered stallion gave no response, but a pained stare.  “Why are you following me?” he asked in a frail, yet stern voice.  “Haven’t you had your fun for today?”

Apple Bloom hesitated.  “Well, I…” She struggled to find the right words.  Certainly he would think her crazy if she told him the truth, right?  “Well…”

The battered Pegasus turned his head back to look in front of him as he limped along slowly.  “All you Griffins, always giving us ponies a hard time, simply because we’re different...”  He paused a moment to let his words sink in.  “Because we’re poor.”

Apple Bloom was running out of options.  “I…”

The pegasus turned to face Apple Bloom, giving her a stern one-eyed glare.  “What?  What do you want?  Are you here for my family now, too?”  He gave Apple Bloom the most terrifying glare she had ever had the displeasure of being on the receiving end of.  “You’ve already taken my money and home and eye, and now my wing!”

Apple Bloom was overwhelmed with fear and guilt.  Sure, she hadn’t actually done any of the things he was talking about, but it was still aimed at her nonetheless.  She felt tears begin to well up in her eagle eyes.

“What will it take to satisfy you greedy Griffins!?  Blood?  I’ve already given plenty of that just to keep you punks out of my hair!”  Apple Bloom could barely hold back the tears in her eyes at this point.  “Just go away!”

That was the last straw.  Apple Bloom could no longer hold it back.  She bawled as the tears flowed heavily from her eyes.  The Pegasus just watched, not quite registering what was happening.

He debated just leaving her there, but there was clearly something different about Gilda this time.  He let out a weary sigh.  “I don’t have time for this...”

Gilda trotted ahead the young pegasus and unicorn, struggling to adjust to the sudden change in size (and species all together).  It was difficult for her, walking on hard, stiff hooves rather than her talons in the front and paws in the back, but she was managing.

After a few minutes of silent walking to who knows where, Gilda finally decided to break the silence.  “So where’re we goin’ anyway?”  Gilda cringed immediately upon hearing the sickeningly hick-ish earth pony accent that had escaped from her mouth.

The Pegasus tweaked her head on its side and furrowed an eyebrow in confusion.  “We’re going to school, like always."

Gilda let out an exasperated sigh.  “Ah know we’re goin’ ta school, feather brain!  Ah meant which way was it?”

The two other ponies shrank back.  “Are you feeling okay, Apple Bloom?” the Unicorn asked with a concerned squeak.

“’Course Ah am,” Gilda said.  “Never felt better!”

The Pegasus and Unicorn began whispering to each other, concerned with their friend’s odd behavior.  Gilda noticed it, but decided it wasn’t worth it to interrupt.  Instead, she opted to inspect the scenery.  They trotted along on a surprisingly clean and relatively flat dirt road, framed by a cluster of trees on the right, and a small, quaint looking town on the left.  Aside from the chirping of the birds and the sound of the three ponies’ hooves clopping against the dirt, not a sound could be heard.  It was all so quiet and peaceful.

Much too quiet and peaceful for Gilda’s tastes.  She wanted so much to take off into the sky at top speed and race around the skies for a few hours before heading off to her favorite bar, but she knew she couldn't.  Trying to fly as an earth pony would only make her look foolish, so she suffered in silence.

Before long, they came up on the school.  Gilda had trouble seeing it at first, since her eyesight had been greatly compromised by her new earth pony body, but after having it pointed out to her by the squeaky voiced unicorn, it came into view.  It was a small school with a playground outside, nothing special or particularly noteworthy.

“Alright, let’s git this over with,” Gilda said.

“Hey, blank flanks!”  Gilda and the other two ponies hadn’t set two hooves on the playground before the snobbish voice called out to them.

“Ugh, it’s Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon,” the pegasus said.

“Just ignore them,” the unicorn added.

Gilda wasn’t one to take insults lying down, but she was in somepony else’s body.  The insults weren’t aimed at her; they were aimed at this Apple Bloom.  I'll let it slide this time, Gilda thought.

The hours passed by in the schoolhouse as the teacher, Miss Cheerilee, lectured about… well, Gilda wasn't paying attention, so she didn’t really know what the lecture was about.  Gilda let out a yawn and tried to make herself sleep through the rest of class, but to no avail.  No matter how many times she shut her eyes and lay her head on her desk, her mind refused to turn off.  With a sigh of defeat, Gilda rested her face on her hoof, willing her long since retired imagination to return and whisk her away from the drabness of class.

Before she had a chance to drift off, the bell for recess rang, and all the ponies sprang to their hooves and dashed out the door to the playground.  Gilda slowly and lazily forced herself out of her seat and up onto her hooves.  She turned towards the door to see the white unicorn and orange pegasus from earlier eagerly waiting for her at the door.  Gilda sighed as she began to trot over to the two fillies.

“So, what are we going to do today to try and earn our cutie marks?” the unicorn asked as they trotted out the door to the playground.

“Well, I was thinking…” It didn’t take long for Gilda to drown the two fillies on either side of her out.

Gilda observed all that was going on on the playground.  Most of the young equines happily played on the swings or slides or other contraptions set up around the playground, with a few bullies hustling some of the smaller fillies and colts.  Gilda scoffed at the whole thing.  Back when she was still in school as a young cub, recess meant getting stomped on by all the bigger Griffins.

“Apple Bloom!”  Hearing her new name pulled Gilda out of her train of thought.  “Are you okay? You seem out of it.”

“Ah’m fine,” Gilda responded curtly to the orange pegasus.

The Unicorn warily cut in.  “So then it’s decided?  After school gets out, we’ll repaint the clubhouse!”

Gilda rolled her eyes.  They couldn’t be serious, could they?  Repainting some lame clubhouse just for fun?  Of all the ponies in the world, she just had to get stuck in the body of the one with the most boring and goody-horse-shoes friends…

“Hey! What are you Blank Flanks doing over here?”  The mocking voice came from Diamond Tiara, the pink pony from earlier.

“Yeah,” her gray, spectacled friend said, “this part of the playground is for us special ponies!”

“We’re special, too,” the unicorn argued.  “We just haven’t found what makes us special!”

“Ugh!  Give me a break!”  Tiara stole the words from Gilda’s mouth.  “There’s nothing special about any of you ponies!”  She turned to Gilda.  “Everything about you three is just so plain, and dull,” she said to Gilda, plucking at the red bow in her hair.

Gilda gave a fierce glare.  “Ah’d watch what Ah was sayin’ if Ah were you.”

“’Ah’d wawch wut Ah wuz sayin’ if Ah wuz yoo,” the pink filly returned.

And that was it.  Although Gilda knew it was actually aimed at the pony whose body she currently resided in, she had heard enough.  Without another thought, she reached back her foreleg and shot it directly into the face of the prissy pink pony, knocking her backwards.  The gray colored one watched in shock as her friend hit the ground, groaning, almost crying, in pain and shock.

“Hey! Nopony treats Diamond Tiara like that!”  Gilda would hear none of it, though.  She was in a fighting mood now, and before she knew it, the gray filly was on the ground with her friend, a crack in her spectacles.

“C’mon! Is that all ya got?”  Gilda shouted at them.

“Apple Bloom, what are you-“ the small unicorn began, but Gilda didn’t give her time to finish.

“If y’all wanna just get pushed around, that’s fine by me, but Ah’m not gonna lay down and take it like a wimp!”  Gilda turned her gaze back to the prissy ponies, struggling to get back on their hooves, and smirked.  “’Sides, someone’s gotta teach these two snot balls a lesson.”

The unicorn opened her mouth to argue, but an orange hoof on her shoulder stopped her.  “Just let her get it out of her system,” the pegasus said calmly, and with one last snort, the two fillies backed off from the fight.

Silver Spoon got back up on her hooves slowly, whining about every little scratch and bruise and her ruined glasses.  Diamond Tiara spit out a tooth gently, regaining her composure.  “Alright, its time we showed this ignorant hick who’s boss!”  She turned to her silver-maned friend.  “Let’s get her, Silver Spoon!”

Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara lunged towards Gilda, who quickly side stepped and swatted at Tiara with her hoof.  She had forgotten that she was a pony now, with hooves, rather than talons.  The attack normally would have done a lot more damage.  But she could tell it still hurt, so it would have to do.  Silver Spoon was quick to turn around and charge once again at Gilda, but she was met with a face-full of hoof.  Maybe these things did have a use, after all.  They may not have dealt the same slashing effect of her talons, but they were still hard and good for boxing.

Gilda turned away for a moment to see that all the ponies on the playground had gathered round and watched the fight attentively.  Some cheered Apple Bloom’s name, while others cheered on for the two stuck up little princesses.  Gilda had looked for too long, and turned back to see the two fillies had gotten back up and tackled her.

They boxed and bit her, and it surprisingly hurt quite a bit.  Gilda tried pushing them off, but her lanky legs lacked the strength to push the fillies off.  She cursed and screamed and kicked, but nothing seemed to force them off.  Stupid scrawny little legs, Gilda thought as the hooves continued to rain down on her.

“Ah said…”  Gilda reared up her hind legs, “GIT OFF!”

She shot her hind legs at the attacking ponies, knocking them back off of her and causing the crowd to cheer especially loud.  Gilda got up slowly and faced the battered fillies again, ready should they decide to get back up and launch another attack.  But that moment never came.

The sound of groaning and tears from the grounded fillies was music to Gilda's ears.  The ponies that had gathered around to spectate the fight cheered Gilda on, who stood up on her hind legs to flex and show off to the crowd.

“APPLE BLOOM!”  All the ponies instantly stopped their cheering, recognizing the voice as Miss Cheerilee’s.  “What is the meaning of this?”

“Meanin’ of what?”  Gilda looked around playfully before stopping at the sobbing piles of pain behind her.  “You mean that?  Oh, we were just playin’ a game!”

The two battered fillies began to cry, and ran to Miss Cheerilee’s side.

“She beat us up, Miss Cheerilee,” Diamond Tiara fibbed.

Silver Spoon joined in.  “We didn’t do anything!  We just wanted to be friends with her!"

“Why, you little lyin…”

“Apple Bloom,” said Cheerilee in a stern voice.  “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Gilda hesitated for a moment before hopping back up on her hind legs, her hooves in front of her in a fighting stance.  “What, you want some, too?  Go ahead!  Ah can do this all- WHOA!”  Gilda quickly lost her balance and fell hard on her plot.  Cheerilee stood over Gilda, looking down on her with a powerful glare.

“Inside the schoolhouse. Now.”