Gilda was impressed, this small towns food was pretty good. She had only ordered some fish and chips but whoever made them had her respect. Her and Spikes conversation hadn't included a lot, they were honestly just trying to eat. The snacks given out on the train hadn't really hit the spot for either of them. Spike paid naturally, even though she said she had it, who was she to say no to saving some bits. She couldn't believe where she was in life, she was essentially married to a dragon prince. She had done something she hadn't done for a while. She told her mother through letters about it, and they had not yet been answered. Then again, her mother hadn't so much as even sent her a letter since she was 14 and went to flight school. Gilda was 31 now and she still hadn't heard anything about her mother. Besides, with a dragon as her mate she could expect to long outlive anyone she knew. She tried not to think about it as the train came into sight.

"Hey, you two!" Storm bellowed. He had a few empty bags with him, heading their way. "The locals told me where a mineral rich area was, gonna see if I can find some gems. Wanna come with?"

"Its up to the lady. I'm good, that fish burger they served was really good." Spike spoke.

"Yea, but, I do wanna go Spike doesn't let me near his hoard of gems he keeps in.." Spike was quick to cover her beak, he could feel her laughing under his palm.

"Anyways why don't you two get going, I need to talk to Twilight anyways." Moving his hand from Gildas beak, he looked at her and said, "Hush you. Other than that yo guys have fun." With that he entered the back in the train.

"Let's get going, don't really get to spend time with you anyways." Smiling he walked with her in tow. After a few minutes of silence, they had left the west side city limit towards a clearing near a mountain and cave where he asked, "So, Gilda, what are your parents like? I haven't met them yet."

"Well, we weren't exactly close I'll say. When I entered the flying academy, well we didn't write each other much." Shes answered, her eyes drifting a bit to the ground.

"Were they abusive?" Gilda looked at him bewildered. "S..sorry if I sounded rude, felt like I needed to ask." scratching the back of his head.

"it was nothing like that! We were just, distant, not at first, I would say. My dad was nice enough, he made these scones that were out of this world!" Smiling, a warm familiar feeling in her chest."Mom and him owner a store, one my dads family owned for generations. I would help out a lot after school, also I got to get some free stuff all the time." As she continued, the warm feeling started to fall. "Dad, got sick when I was 9, some disease I can't pronounce. Mom was wreck, but she kept the store up, I helped whenever I could, but being that young I couldn't do much. We still got by though, but, the landlord was a sleezeball, pervert, asshole. How he got my mom to go on a date with him I will never know. Th..then...then." She hated to cry, but a tear came out no matter how much she resisted.

Storm looked to her and interrupted, "You don't need to continue, but if you do I won't stop you. It's good to get it off your chest. Plus, I'm all ears." He stopped in the clearing and stopped to sit on a rock.

"Geno, the landlord, he got her hooked on snapdragon makes us griffons feel all fuzzy and happy and cuddly. When she started, she hit it hard and got hooked even harder to the point where she would forget about the store. Geno only made it worst since he would supply it to her, we had to move into his place when I was 11. The store is still there, just owned by someone else. He had a decent place, I just hated the way he would treated mom when we did, made her a little toy for him and his friends. Used the snapdragon addiction as a way to get her to do whatever. I tried to get her to stop so many times, until I saw that it just wasn't worth it. I had made some friends in the school I was at, this is before flight school, which is basically high school now that I think about it, and Dash.

"Was living my own life for the first time and I was loving it. Darling, Price Tag, and Minty, 2 ponies and a griffon, was gonna be my new family. Darling and Price Tag were dating, was my first time seeing a griffon/pony couple, and they were both flight school dropouts. Minty was, uhh, my first girlfriend and a true street rat been held back like 3 or 4 different times and didn't give a damn. She was 16 or 17 I know that and I was 13, I learned about them through her and we all just clicked. The things we would do, I sometimes would be home for days at a time. I remember one time we had gotten into the teaches lounge and made it so when someone opened a cabinet it shot out glitter. Mr. Ocean had that stuff on em for weeks." She started giggling as she continued, "Then, you saw snapdragon everywhere and the streets got rough, and so did we. That little prank on Mr. Ocean turned into us breaking into houses over the summer before my 8th grade year."

With a sigh she looked to Storm who was eager to listen. "I haven't told anybody this before, not even Spike or Rainbow Dash, feels good to get it off my chest. There is more if you still wanna listen, I also kinda just want to let it out."

"Oh I am listening. Now you said the streets got tougher, how?" He was engrossed with her story.

"Well the imaginable happened and I was held up by the police for stealing from a store. I hadn't been home in like a month, basically living with Misty, and going to school. When the got my parents it was like the world just fell on me. Geno was pissed, mom was out of her mind high and pregnant by Faust knows who. Then, when we got home they had the audacity to call me a low life, and I just snapped.

Flashback

"Do you have any idea what you just did?!!" Geno spoke, he was an older griffon, age and snapdragon addiction clear in his face. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED YOUR MOTHER WAS FOR YOU!?!?!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Kicking the chair next to him knocking off the piles of clothes and trash. "You fucking low life."

A 14 year old Gilda sat just looking in his general direction, the dirty wall seeming to be more interesting than the enraged older griffon in front of her. Whatever he said just seemed to go in one ear and out the other, she just wanted to leave. She wanted to go back to Misty and her folks, they were more of a family than this ever will be. She stood up in the middle of his ranting and walked toward the kitchen, his voice not even registering anymore. Then suddenly she turned on him and swung.

SMACK

Geno was knocked to the wall, his eyes hazy, head hurting, and beak most likely cracked. "Y...you little bitch!!!" He tried to swing at her but she had dodged. He would try to swing again and get knocked into the table, beer bottles from the night before crashing to the ground. She ran to him, tackling him through the table, where he reached up grabbing her beak and headbutted her in the eye. She screamed out and fell off of him, holder her eye she got back up and was rocked by a punch to her jaw making her stagger. He tried to rush at her, but she had dodged, and with her back foot turned and kicked him in the side with all she had. She had felt one of his ribs break from the impact as he let out a scream and fell to the floor.

She was still mad, she didn't wanna stop so she pushed him to the ground and climbed on top of him. "Y..you ruined my life you asshole!!" She started punching him over and over, not caring about her mother running in next to her.

"Gilda!! Please stop!!!" She ran to her daughter and pulled her off. " Gilda, please calm down!"

Pushing her mother away she yelled out, "ME CALM DOWN?!! ME CALM DOWN!!??" Pacing in a small circle holding her now black eye. "I'll calm down when you can answer a few questions. Who is that babies father?" It made her mad when her mother couldn't even look her in the eye. "Matter of fact, when was the last time you were sober for more than 12 hours?"

Looking to her mother who was now shaking eyes watering looking to the ground. "I..I..ca.." she couldn't speak as Gilda continued.

"Oh, here's a good one." Gilda continued. "I bet you didn't even know my 8th grade graduation is next week, did you?" Tired of not having not a word from her mother she made her mother look at her, she didn't care if she was making her mother cry. "How many people have fucked you just in this last week? Huh? You don't even know that this is my first time being in this house in over a month, do you?" That's when she did something she never thought she would do in her life, she slapped her mother. "Fucking answer me you junkie slut." Still nothing, so Gilda let go of her face.

Her mother couldn't respond, she couldn't move, only cry

"I got accepted into the Cloudsdale Flight Academy by the way. I bet you didn't know that either huh?" Face moving from anger to sadness quickly. "Dad would be ashamed of you, and I never want to see you again." She walked to the door and opened it, the warm sun on her wings, as she took off leaving her mother in shambles.

"I kept my word too, I haven't seen her since and its been 16 years now I think? Anyways, I heard I have 2 sisters and a brother now though, so I guess that means something." she giggled.

"I think you should go see your mother, Gilda." Storm spoke. "I can understand if you don't want to but I think you should. I will accompany you if you if you want but I think it will be good for your conscious." With that he stood, picking his bag back up. "Also, good job on kicking a fully grown griffins ass at 14. I have to ask though, what happened to your friends? Misty, Price, and, Darling?"

"Oh, Darling and Price broke up, she is in Manehatten dating some mare named Coco Pommel. Misty, she is actually in the Crystal Empire, moved there a few years ago. Price, I have no idea. Looking to the ground, "I found him behind some chick in some alley a year ago when me and dash went to Cloudsdale. Of course I didn't wanna talk to him so no idea as of now."

"Well alright then, hope I'm around when or if you meet Misty. Now Lets get digging." Ruffling her head feathers much to her ire.

Two hours had passed for the duo, and their gem hunt had been a small win. They had found a few rubies, peridot, and surprisingly a few bismuth in the cave, not so much in the clearing. Gilda was taking a break from the digging, sitting near a tree, thoughts on nothing, muscles a little worn out, and just staring into the sky. How long ad she been out here? She said she would would take like 20 minutes to rest, yet she lost track of time, she was also emotionally exhausted. Standing with a grunt, she was suddenly hit with a glare of light in her eye. Covering her eye she looked to see a red gem, lying next to a tree just open to the elements, just maybe 15 feet away.

'How did we miss that?' She thought as she moved to the gem. As she picked it up she felt it was cold, given it was 45 degrees outside she didn't think much of it. Looking at its red tint she thought it another ruby. She was gonna turn and tell Storm about it, but her natural curiosity began to wander to when she asked Spike if she could try to eat one of his gems. Spike wasn't very enthusiastic about it. She gave it a test sniff and smelled nothing wrong with it. She popped it into her beak, and with a crunch, began eating it. "This, tastes like water. Am I just eating ice?" She said, mouth full, before an after taste grew in her mouth as she swallowed, 'I..Is that blood?!'. Soon after the thought, her head began to hurt, not some mere migraine but a searing pain that shook her very core. Her already worn out muscles began to feel as if they pulsated, and her wings, stiff as if she was electrocuted. She stumbled and fell against the tree she rested under, she tried to scream out for Storm, Spike, or just anybody. Her talon flexing, ripping bark off the tree, she was falling to the ground, and when she hit the earth she was unconscious. Though, as she was falling, she heard a deep baritone voice in her head speak.

"Hello little griffon, nice to meet you."

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay, my laptop was having some problems and I had to replace it so I had to save up. Lets go over what this fic is

1. No this fic isn't dead, I'm making it my personal project, which means it is not gonna get updated as much and I am using it to improve my writing style.

2. It does have a story, and it does have an end but for now I am using it as not only a long adventure fic, but a tool in my writing process, and a vent for myself.

3. I will try to have a better upload schedule, though no promises.

4. The sequel of 3A.M. at the Crystal Palace is in the works. I should have had at least the first 3 chapters out already and for that I apologize.

5. Whats gonna happen next chapter, is not a Jojo reference, but a Mortal Kombat one.

Tell me what you think, and as always, thank you for your support and reading.