Guilty Greed

by PonyPixel

Rating: everyone
Tags: Gabby, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Rainbow Dash, Gilda
Length: 6329

The Idol Of Boreas has been found, but whoever holds it seems to become entitled to it and various other items.

Gilda looks to be down in the dumps, who could blame her. She lives in Griffonstone, which is one of the most miserable places in Equestria. Luckily, Gabby is one of the happiest griffons there ever was. But even her happy demeanor struggles to raise her friend’s spirit.

Then one day, the Idol Of Boreas has been found by a few ponies. They don’t quite know what it is, so they decide to hold onto it. However, one wants to hold onto it for a little while longer. Which is a bit weird, until they pass onto another creature.

Published 2020-01-30 05:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-01-30 05:40:01 UTC

Idol of my Eye

Gabby was flying back to Griffonstone to make some deliveries. Once she was landed she was met with a typical griffon response, telling her to shoo, buzz off, or even something foul. Still, Gabby didn’t let them get her down, she did her best and delivered all the letters. The last one for Gilda, which made the mail griffon happy as Gilda was one of the few nice ones.

She found Gilda baking some scones and selling them to a couple of the townsfolk. “Sup, Gabby?” Gilda said.

“Hi, Gilda,” Gabby said, “I’ve got a letter for you.”

“Okay.” The delivery griffon handed her and read what it said.

Dear Gilda,

It’s been a while since we’ve met up. I was wondering if you wanted to come and visit me in Ponyville tomorrow. I doubt Granpa Gruff would want to check on how Gallus or the other griffon students were doing. Plus, I think you could help me make an awesome lesson for the flyers.

Sincerilly,
Dash.

Gilda took a minute to think. “I can probably take a break from here,” she said. “You wanna tag along?”

“Sure,” Gabby replied cheerfully. “I’m just going to pick up a few more letters.” The delivery flew off as Gilda sold a few more scones.

Meanwhile, in Manehattan, Copper was just getting out of school and started walking home. “Where are you going?” asked a voice. The filly looked and saw her brother, Gold Digger walking up to her.

“Hey, bro,” she said.

“Good news,” Digger replied, “I got off early, and we can spend the whole day together.”

“Really? Awesome!” The filly jumped in joy.

“Okay, let’s get home first and drop off your things.” Copper raced ahead and her brother tried to keep up.

After dropping their items off at home, they walked around the city until they got to the sea. “Wanna try skipping stones?” The filly nodded and joined her brother in tossing stones. On one of the tosses surprised them by making loud “CLUNK.”

“Huh?” Copper questioned. Digger used his magic to use a net to see if he could pick up whatever they hit. After pulling the net back, he found it was a golden figure that was surrounding a red ord. The base looked like a talon while the top part had a spiral with the end looking like a wing of some kind. Not to mention it was fairly rusted.

“Weird,” Digger commented. “I wonder who made this.”

“Is that real gold?”

“I don’t know. It could be. Maybe if we have somepony look at this we can find out what it is. We should go home.”

“But we just got here.”

“Sis, I’m pretty sure somepony’s going to steal this from us. I don’t want to be in that scenario.” The two siblings headed home with the unicorn holding the statue close to him. The orb in the middle of the stature glowed, as did Digger’s eyes.

When the sun rose up the day, Gilda got up and stretched. She looked over her home, sad to see that nothing had changed. Griffons still acted like them old selves, refusing to even look at each other. However, there was at least one more griffon who acted nice.

“Morning, Gilda,” Gabby said. Gilda saw that the cheerful delivery griffon had flown up beside her.

“Morning,” Gilda groaned. “So, you all ready to head to Ponyville?”

“Well, I’ve got my mail. Did you eat anything?”

“I’ll get something from Ponyville. Let’s go.” With that, the two griffons took off. Ponyville was pretty far from Griffonstone, so the journey would take a while.

After ages of flying, they finally got to the school of friendship. Classes were already in session, so the teachers were all busy. Luckily for Gabby, Sunburst was walking down the hall as they walked in.

“Oh, good morning, Gabby,” the vice-principal said.

“Morning,” the mail griffon replied. “I came back with a few letters from the parents of the griffon students. Grampa Gruff wouldn’t stop ordering for information.”

“I could imagine. Who’s your friend?”

“I’m Gilda,” the other griffon answered. “I got a letter from Dash asking me if I wanted to help with one of her lessons. Where is she?”

“Follow me.” The unicorn led the visiting griffons down the hall to the gym. Inside, the rainbow maned pegasus was practicing pushups with the students.

Dash looked over to the door and was happy to see her old friend. “Gilda, you made it,” she said.

“Hey, Dash,” the griffon said nervously. “So you really are an egghead.” The pegasus just chuckled as walked over and hugged her with her wing.

“It’s nice to see you again.”

“It is. You said you wanted me to help with a lesson.”

“Oh, yeah. We were going to do a relay race. Each student does one lap around the before passing a baton to their teammate.”

“Interesting. This class is doing this?”

“Not really. I didn’t know when you would show up.”

“Ah. I’ll just wait until I’m needed.”

“If you say so.” As the class carried on and Gilda waited on the sidelines, Gabby decided to take care of the mail.

“Did anything out of the ordinary happen here?” the griffon asked Sunburst.

“Well... There were a few hiccups,” he said. “Aside from that, every creature is fine.”

“Good. I’ll get any mail the students want to send and I’ll be on my way.”

“Well, Gallus and Silverstream were wanting to send a letter to their friends in Manehattan. You think you can stop by there on your way home?”

“Sure thing. Just show me where they are and I’ll take care of it.” Sunburst nodded and showed the griffon where the letters were. With that, Gabby took of take care of her other deliverers.

Dash’s next class soon walked outside onto the field. “Why couldn’t this class be inside?” Ocellus questioned. “It’s getting colder everyday here.” She shivered as Yona went to hug her.

“Friend feel better?” the yak asked.

“A little. Thanks Yona.” The students looked towards their teacher, who had Gilda by her side.

“Alright, we’re doing a team race,” the mare explained. “You’ll all be racing around the school passing a baton to your team mate. The first team to bring their baton back to the starting line, wins.”

“So, who’s working with who?” Geena asked.

“I already made a list.” Gilda chuckled silently as Dash pulled out a list of her students. As she explained who was pared with who, Gilda helped the students into place.

“It’s nice to talk to you,” Sandbar said to Gilda. “It’s nice to know not all griffon were selfish jerks before the school opened. No offence.”

“None taken,” the griffon replied. Once the students were in place, Gilda circled the school to double check before land back where dash was. “Ever creature’s set.”

“Alright,” Dash responded. She blew her whistle and the race was one. She and Gilda flew after the students to watch the show and make sure no creature was cheating or injured. When they got to where Geena and Silverstream were, the young griffon looked like she was going to pounce at any second. The hippogriff was given her baton first and flew off.

When the griffon was given the baton from her teammate, she flew off like a bolt of lighting, promptly taking the lead. Silverstream was struggling to get ahead, especially with Geena blocking her path. With the finish line in sight, Dash flew ahead to get photo finish. Silverstream was just catching up but Geena wasn’t wanting to loose. She knocked the baton out of the hippogriff’s claws, leaving her with nothing to cross the line with.

Rainbow was far from please. “Explain what you just did,” the teacher ordered.

“I didn’t want my team to lose,” Geena stated.

“That doesn’t mean you can sabotage the other team. For that, your team is disqualified.”

“Disqualified?! You can’t.”

“Then maybe you should’ve taken the loss,” Gilda said. “It would at least wouldn’t be your fault.” Geena hung her head in shame as she went to go inside.

“Did we win?” Gallus asked. He and the other students walked up to see only Silverstream, Gilda, and their teacher were waiting in the field.

“Where Geena go?” Yona asked.

“She knocked my baton out of my paws,” Silverstream answered.

“She knew she couldn’t get away with that,” Ocellus said.

“Geena isn’t one who really accepts losing,” Gallus reminded. Gilda looked to see where the loser had walked inside. She decided to find her and flew indoors.

“Hey, Geena,” the griffon said. “You wanna talk?” Gilda looked around, but couldn’t find the student. “Where did she go? Geena! Grandpa Gruff isn’t going to be happy knowing you’re skipping class.” She stopped and landed to look around. Gilda let out a sigh as she started to remember something.

“Gilda?” asked a voice. The griffon looked up to see that Geena was standing beside her. “I just went to the bathroom.”

“Right. You’re wanted outside.” The student nodded before flying back to the playing field. Gilda took a deep breath and sighed as she followed closely behind.

Meanwhile, Gabby was pretty tired when she got to Manehattan. She had seen this city from the air while she passed by, but she never really stopped by to get a closer look. She flew down to the post office just in time to see a young brown filly walked in just in front of her.

“Oop, excuse me,” Gabby said. “I’m here to make a few deliveries.”

“Oh, sorry,” the filly said. She let the griffon go first so she could drop off a letter.

“Yeah, this is for Gold Digger.”

“Gold Digger? That’s my brother.”

“He is? Well, I’ll just give this to you.” She handed the filly the letter, Copper immediately opened.

”Dear Digger and Copper,

We’re hoping that you two are having a good time. School’s been pretty interesting now that creatures from the different kingdom are here now. Most of the griffons and the dragons are a little against this idea. Some of them aren’t bad like Flare and Grace.

There are also hippogriffs, changelings, and yaks. A lot of them are fun, like Dotta, Frida, and Silkfoam. There are so many of them.

The filly giggled as she could tell who wrote this part of the letter. “Aren’t you suppose to be in school?” Gabby asked.

“That’s something strange,” Copper replied. “My brother told me not to go there. I didn’t understand but... He sounded pretty serious.”

“Is he normally like that?”

“No. He just started acting weird after he picked up some sort of statue.”

“What statue?”

“We found in the ocean. It was gold there was a red ball in the center of it.”

Gabby’s eyes widened. “Did it have a base that looked like a talon and the top of the spiral looking like a wing?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you show me where you have it?” Copper nodded and led the griffon to her home. Walking into her apartment, Copper could see her brother sitting at the table with the idol sitting in front of him.

Gabby gasped. “That’s the Idol Of Boreas.”

“The what?”

“King Guto of Griffonstone lost it years ago. It was meant to help make sure griffons are at peace with each other. When it was lost, the kingdom fell into ruins. Some say if the idol would return the kingdom would return to normal.”

“Really. Digger, I think she...”

“She’s not getting it!” Digger cried. This surprised the filly and griffon.

“Digger, what’s wrong?”

“It’s mine. I found it.”

“But the griffons need it.”

“Yeah,” Gabby agreed.

“No,” Digger snarled. Copper slowly stepped forward to get the idol but her brother swiped it away. “Back off!”

“...What’s wrong with you?”

“No pony else deserve this. It’s mine!”

“Would you keep it down in there!?” called a voice from the neighboring apartment. While her brother was distracted from the neighbor, Copper pounced to take the idol away from him. The two fought and the idol fell out of the open window. Gabby looked down to see where it land, in a cart loaded with crates that took off.

“Come back!” the griffon cried. She flew out of the window to catch the cart as Gold Digger rubbed his head.

“What just happened?” he asked. “Weren’t we at the dock? Copper, why aren’t you in school?”

“You told me not to go?” the filly replied.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Copper didn’t answer and ran out into the hallway to keep up with Gabby. “Come back here! I need answers!” And Digger ran after her.

The pony pulling the cart of cargo was already making haste and Gabby was still tired from flying so far. She struggled to keep up with pony and eventually collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. After trying to catch her breath, Copper and Digger caught up with her.

“Are you okay?” the filly asked.

“Just... Need some... Air,” the griffon panted.

“Who is this?” Digger questioned.

“I’m... Gabby.”

“I tried to introduce her to you,” Copper reminded. “Why don’t you remember?”

“I don’t know. I wish I did.”

“I need... To get that idol back,” Gabby said. She took off again and took the skies. She looked around until she could see the pony that pulling the cart at the station. He was helping some workers load the crates onto the train. Since Gabby was still out of energy, she wasn’t fast enough to get to the station before the train left. “No, wait!”

“Is something wrong?” the cart pulling asked.

“There was something very important. Did you see anything that looked like gold?”

“I think there was a little statue. I thought it just fell out of one of the crates.”

“Well, where is that train going?”

“I think it was heading to Ponyville.”

“Thanks.” Gabby took off once again, this time at a much slower pace. She didn’t make it very far, and she had to stop and take a rest.

Back at the school, Rainbow Dash was showing Gilda to the teacher’s lounge for lunch. In there, the other teachers were there. A pink one was surprised to see their guest. “Gilda,” Pinkie Pie cheered. “What are you doing here?”

“I came here after Dash sent me a letter,” the griffon replied. “I’m helping her with a couple of classes.”

“She’s doing a good job at it,” Dash added. “Thanks for finding Geena.”

“No problem,” Gilda replied. She didn’t say anything else as she went to have her lunch.

“She seems to be a lot more upset the last time we met her,” Pinkie whispered to Dash.

“Yeah, I’m not sure what’s up with her,” Rainbow replied. “I tried to bring up old times, but it doesn’t seem it’s working.”

“Maybe it’s the food. The food in Griffonstone didn’t seem that good.”

“I think she enjoys eating meat. ...Let’s not tell Fluttershy about that.”

“About what?”

“Exactly.” They looked over to the glum griffon. “How about you try. You’re great at making creatures smile.” The pink pony nodded and walked over to the griffon.

“So, Gilda, anything new?”

“Nope,” the griffon replied. “Same old run-down kingdom as it was for who knows how long.”

“Uh-huh. You wanna help me out in my baking class?”

“I’m only good at baking scones.”

“Oh. Then maybe you could...”

“I’m good. Could you give me some space?”

“Sure.” Pinkie slipped away from Gilda to leave the griffon to her meal.

A little while later, a train arrived at Ponyville to deliver cargo. Big Macintosh was there with Filthy Rich. “Thanks for the help, Mac,” Filthy said. “My normal delivery pony had to call in sick.”

“No problem,” the farm stallion replied. Mac and the ponies started unloading the train until one of the workers heard something rattle around in one of the crates.

“What the...” The crate was completely sealed so it was pretty easy to open up. “What is this?”

“What did you find?” Filthy Rich asked.

“It’s some sort of statue.” The pony picked up the idol to get a better look at it. “I wonder if this is real gold.”

“Let me see.” The business stallion tried to grab the idol, but the pony moved away. “I just...”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re not getting it.”

“Did I just miss something?” The stallion just ran off before anything else could be said. “Mac, could you go get him and see what’s wrong?”

“Yep,” the farm pony replied. He ran off to try and catch the pony who just ran off. The pony carrying the idol suddenly tripped and dropped it. When Mac caught up, he stood up confused.

“Wait,” he said, “Wasn’t I at the station?” Mac didn’t say anything and just pointed back to the station. The worker walked back there as the farm pony went to pick up the idol. A raccoon beat him to it and ran off. Mac knew he’d be wasting his time if he started another chase and decided just to get back to work.

When he got back to the station, he and the workers were surprised to see Gabby slowly flying up to them. She flopped on the platform. Sweat poured down her face. “Can we help you?” Filthy Rich asked.

“Some water... Would be nice,” Gabby panted.

Gilda was watching Dash’s class. She was impressed by the students' athleticism. “So, you just help keep these guys in shape?” the griffon asked.

“Yep,” Dash confirmed. “Some or more gifted than others.”

“I’ll say. Those yaks are like walking boulders.”

“I know. I’ve had a few incidences with them. I got better though.”

“Good for you.” Gilda’s face fell again.

“Okay, G, what’s up? I thought you’d be happy to visit me and the girls.”

“It’s nothing important.”

“I’m a friend’s feelings are important to me.”

Gilda looked at some of the griffons that were having fun Dash’s class. She then looked at some of the students that struggling a bit. After that, Gilda turned to her old friends and sighed. “You know about the Idol of Boreas falling down that cliff?”

“Yeah. You help mine and Pinkie’s lives.”

“Well, I said I’d help spread friendship across Griffonstone.” Gilda sighed again. “I didn’t do it. I tried but I just couldn’t do it. All the griffons are still acting selfish and look out for only themselves. Now I had to rely on Gallus to help get this school off the ground.”

Dash felt sorry for her friend. “Look, I’m sure you tried your hardest. You’re just one griffon. It probably takes more than just one of you to just change your species. These guys are a lot younger than the other most of the griffons you tried to change, especially Grandpa Gruff.”

“I guess you’re right. You should really hear about what he says. He just says ‘Get me some information about them.’ And ‘I’m sick and tired of those conferences.’ You know, typical old griffon stuff. I don’t know why he was the ambassador of Griffonstone.”

“I know. You would make a way better one.” Their conversation was stopped when a raccoon scurried past them. Normally they would’ve just ignored it, if not for what it was carrying. “Is that...?”

“The Idol of Boreas. I thought that thing fell down a cliff.” Dash tried to fly over and pick the idol up, but the raccoon hissed and scared at her.

“OW! You little...” She tried to grab the critter, but it slipped through her hooves and ran inside the school. Dash and Gilda flew after it.

In Fluttershy’s class, the students were helping her clean up. The teacher opened the door and was surprised to see the raccoon run inside. Many of the students were confused about what it was carrying.

“What kind of statue is that?” a pony asked.

“Where would he get that?” a changeling questioned.

“No way. I thought that thing was just a myth,” a griffon gasped.

“Hey, little guy,” Fluttershy said. “How...” The raccoon just hissed at the pegasus, making her jump back.

“There you are,” Gilda growled. She tried to pounce at the critter but it slipped past her again and tried to get out of the door. Dash managed to close the door, leaving the raccoon nowhere to go.

“Rainbow Dash, what happened to this little one?” Fluttershy questioned.

“Wish I knew,” the rainbow maned pony replied. “All I know is he has something we want back.” The raccoon tried to escape through the window. He kept scraping at the window until Fluttershy picked him up.

“Now mister, this doesn’t belong to you.” She took the idol away from the critter and opened the window to let him out.

“Thanks, Flutters.”

“Where’s Gabby?”

“She left to Griffonstone a while ago,” Gilda explained.

“Then maybe I should hold onto it until she gets back.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Dash said. “I think she only came to pick up information about the students.” The bell rang, signaling for the students it was time to leave.

“You lost it before so... I’ll hold onto it to keep it safe.”

The griffon and rainbow pegasus looked at each other. “Wouldn’t it just be easier for Gilda to have it?” Fluttershy just looked at the idol and backed away. “Fluttershy...”

“You lost it before so it only makes sense if you had someone you trust.”

“I can keep it safe in a bag,” Gilda said.

“No, you’ll just drop it again.”

“Fluttershy, just give us the idol,” Dash said. She tried to take it back, but her friend moved back.

“Stay away!”

“Fluttershy, what’s wrong with you?”

“You failed to get this thing back, so I’m trusting someone else.”

“What are you talking about?” Gilda questioned.

“You made this thing fall down a pit. You can’t keep it safe, only I can.” Fluttershy opened the window and flew away. Dash and Gilda quickly gave chase.

“What’s going on?” Dash questioned.

“Don’t ask me,” Gilda replied, “She’s your friend.”

“If I knew what was wrong with her I wouldn’t be asking you.” Because of their speed, Fluttershy was caught up with and was trying to have the idol taken away from her. They weren’t able to grab it, and the idol fell out of the pegasus’s hooves.

Fluttershy shooked her head as she returned to reality. “How did I get here?” she questioned.

“Don’t try and play that,” Gilda groaned.

“Fluttershy, are you feeling okay?” Dash asked.

“I don’t know,” the worried mare replied. “Weren’t we at the school?” Dash began to think for a minute, but her griffon friend had to remind her of something.

“Dash, the idol!” Gilda cried.

“Oh, right.” The two flew down as Fluttershy decided to just head back to the school.

When they got to the ground, the idol was nowhere to be seen. “Where did it go now?”

“Maybe some pony picked it up.” They looked around for a little bit until they heard some arguing. Looking around the corner they could see two mares fighting over the idol.

“It’s mine,” the earth pony cried.

“No, it’s mine,” the unicorn stated.

“Found it,” Gilda said. She was about to snag the idol from the fighting ponies, however, her friend stopped her.

“Gilda, you’ll start acting like them,” Dash stated.

“What are you talking about?”

“Those ponies are acting like Fluttershy and that raccoon. I think any creature that touches that thing just starts acting greedy and wants it all to themselves.”

“Then... What do we do? We gave to get it away from them.”

“But at the same time, we can’t touch that thing.”

“What are you talking about?” the unicorn asked. She levitated the earth pony away and tried running off but the griffon and pegasus blocked her path. That didn’t stop the unicorn from using her magic to throw them to the side and running off.

As they stood up, Gabby flew up to them. “Girls, you’re not going to believe what I found.”

“The Idol of Boreas?” Gilda guessed.

“How did you know?”

“It made it’s way to here,” Dash replied.

“We have to get it,” Gilda cried. She took off with the others following behind.

“Hold on,” Gabby panted. “I’m still tired from getting back.” Dash held Gabby’s claws to help her keep up with Gilda.

The griffon in question was hot on the tail of the greedy unicorn. “Give that back!” Gilda ordered.

“Make me you oversize chicken,” the unicorn replied. The griffon growled as she grabbed the pony by its tail. She managed to trip it up and made it drop the Idol. After standing up, the unicorn rubbed her eyes in confusion. “How did I get here?”

“I would just leave.” The unicorn took the griffon’s advice and left just as Dash and Gabby flew up.

“Thank goodness,” Gabby sighed.

“We have to figure out how to get rid of that thing without getting greedy,” Dash said.

“What?”

“There’s some sort of curse on this thing. The only emotion any creature can feel when holding it is greed.”

“Why?”

“Wish we knew,” Gilda sighed. She looked at the idol that was just lying on the ground.

“Levitation is out of the question,” Dash commented. “You saw that mare still wanted it to herself.”

“What about a net?” Gabby suggested.

“Maybe. Gilda, what do you think?” The pegasus’s friend didn’t reply and just stared at the small statue.

“I thought this was gone,” the griffon said to herself. “Could... Bring it back to Griffonstone. I mean... Students are learning about friendship. Maybe the older ones need a little push.”

“Gilda?” The griffon heard her friends this time and turned around.

“...I didn’t touch it. I was just thinking.” The three stood around the idol trying to think of how to move it.

Eventually, Pinkie Pie came bouncing up to them confused about what they were doing. “Are you girls okay?” the pink pony asked.

“Pinkie,” Dash said surprised. “We’re kind of in a predicament.”

“With what?” She then saw the idol and gasped. “No way. Where did that come from?”

“I found it in Manehattan,” Gabby answered. “Something strange is happening to it though.”

“I don’t see a problem.” Without warning, Pinkie picked up the idol, much the pegasus and griffons’ shock.

“Pinkie no!” Dash cried. Too late, Pinkie had already got a new feeling inside of her.

“Sorry, but... I’ve got to get going.” She took off much to Gilda’s annoyance.

“Come on,” she groaned. They gave chase again. This time they were surprised at the pony making a u-turn by jumping right over them. “How is she this athletic?”

“That’s not the weirdest things she’s done,” Dash stated. They turned around to keep up with the pink pony. The split up to catch her. Gilda was in a panic at this point and didn’t know what to think. She was fully focusing and accidentally rammed into Pinkie. This caused her to drop the idol and snap back to reality.

“Ow,” Pinkie groaned. “What happened?”

Gilda recovered and explained. “That’s the curse we were talking about?”

“Are you okay Pinkie?” Dash asked. She and Gabby landed nearby and looked at the idol. “We’re going to need some help with this.”

A little while later, a crowd had formed around the idol. They were all curious about what was going on. “What’s the problem here?” a stallion asked.

“Is this seriously over a statue?” a mare questioned.

Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy met up with Dash and Pinkie, who explained what was going on. “How can a statue cause all of this?” Rarity questioned.

“I wish I knew,” Fluttershy said. “I think I was under its effects.”

“Me too,” Pinkie said. “A curse is the last thing we want.”

“Agreed,” Applejack said. “We took care of those three who should not be named. We don’t need any more trouble.”

“Indeed we don’t,” said a voice. The ponies, griffons, and other creatures that showed up look to see Twilight Sparkle walking up to them.

“Do you think Twilight will be call in?” Fluttershy asked.

“Okay, I can’t pick that thing up,” she said quietly. “Why is it even doing this? Maybe... Hopefully, I could just bring it back to Griffonstone. It’ll probably get griffons to act better. But I could still be infected with greed.”

“Ooh, what do we do?” Gabby questioned.

“I don’t know. ...Do you think this will affect a griffon’s mind?”

“Why would you guess that?”

“Maybe. I mean, that thing was made to keep piece across Griffonstone. Maybe they won’t be affected.” Taking a deep breath, Gilda stepped up to the idol.

Dash saw what her friend was doing. “Gilda, no!” she cried. She flew forward to stop her friend but she accidentally fell onto the idol. A rush of greed flooded through the rainbow maned pony’s mind. She looked around at the surrounding ponies and felt hatred towards them. Weirdly, she thought she heard some voice giving her orders.

”They’re the reason it’s gone. Keep it. You’re very loyal.”

“D... Dashie...” Pinkie said a little nervous. She stepped towards her friend only to get bucked away. Once she sent her friend flying, the greedy pegasus took to the skies. Worrying about her mistake, Gilda flew after her. Gabby was still tired from flying so much, and she wasn’t as fast as Gilda or Dash.

“Hey, Gabby,” Gallus called. The blue griffon flew over to mail griffon. “I heard from our teachers what’s going on. I think I have something that might help. Follow me.” They flew to the school to find something to fix the problem.

Gilda was struggling to keep up with her friend. “Dash, slow down,” she begged.

“No way,” the mare replied. She picked up speed making her friend struggle some more.

“Come on, I gave that thing up to save your life. Just drop it and it won’t hurt any one else.” The mare looked back at her friend and then started slowing down. Seeing this as her chance, Gilda charged towards her friend and tried to take the idol away from her.

“Stop that.”

“Dash, I know you’re in there. Give me the stupid statue.” The fight caused the two crash land as the fight continued. The mare headbutted the griffon who struggled to stand her ground.

“How can I be sure you wouldn’t lose this again?”

“Because I’m trying to make up for my mistakes. I made promise to spread friendship and I failed. Griffonstone is a wreck. Half of the buildings are in pieces, barely any griffon wants to be around each other, and they do anything for gold. They’re all keeping to themselves just for some shiny rocks.”

“You mean... Like... This idol.” The two stood until some ringing was heard.

“Are those wind chimes?” They looked into the distance and could see Gabby flying around until she spotted them.

“Hey, girls,” she called. “Gallus gave me these, though I’m not sure why?” As Gabby flew up to them, the chimes chimbed and Rainbow Dash began to feel pain. As she held her head, she dropped the idol, which rolled towards a tree’s shade. The pegasus started feeling better as she and the griffons could here some groaning.

“Stop that racket!” cried a male voice. The voice seemed to be coming from the idol and a transparent figure started to phase into existence. A tall brown male griffon appeared into shade with a golden crown on his head.

“King Grover,” the three gasped.

“...You can see me?” the king questioned.

“How is this possible?” Gilda questioned.

“...Are you a ghost?” Gabby asked.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Grover answered. “I am indeed a spirit. I’ve seen the current stated of my kingdom. I haven’t felt so sick at something I saw. There was some figure... I don’t remember what he looked like, but he towered over me. He said that he could give me the power to get the idol back to Griffonstone.”

“So you’re the reason any creature who touched this wanted it to themselves,” Dash cried.

“I have to admit, this new power is confusing to me as well. All I know is that I could only make this idol make creatures think that they deserve it. I was able to get a better hand on this, but... I’ve started to doubt myself.”

“What for?” Gilda asked.

“I was able to see you trying to spread friendship without the idol. I’m sure you tried your hardest and I thought that bringing it back would help but then... Why would they try and value friendship?”

“...I think I know what you mean,” Dash said. “My friends and I used to use the elements of harmony. They were gems shaped like our cutie marks. When they were destroyed, we found out we didn’t need them.”

“That’s what I wanted to know,” Gilda admitted. She and the king looked at each other.

Dash placed her hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “You don’t need a piece of metal or a few rocks to represent something. The Element of Harmony and the Idol of Boreas have a lot in common.”

The living and ghost griffons looked at the idol and then at each other. “Your friend is right,” Grover sighed. “I’ve been quite a fool. I’m sorry about any trouble I’ve caused.”

“Since we were going through the same problem, I understand,” Gilda said.

“But what about the idol?” Gabby asked.

Gover looked at it and sighed. “Hide it,” he ordered. “I think my effects on it will dissipate, but I’m sure it’s safe not to risk it.”

“You sure?” Gilda asked. The king didn’t look so confident as he faded away. The three remaining creatures looked at each other before Gilda slowly stepped up to the statue and picked it up. She felt a shiver down her spine, but she still felt like herself.

She, Gabby and Dash dug a hole and buried the idol so no other creature would find it. “This was certainly an interesting meetup,” Dash commented.

“You’re telling me,” Gilda agreed. “It was cool to see King Gover.”

“Spooky too,” Gabby added.

“Doubt anyone’s going to believe you saw him,” Dash said.

“Probably not,” Gilda said. “Hopefully we’ll see you again.”

“Yeah, see you around G.” Dash and Gilda fist-bumped before they both flew to their respective homes. The rainbow pegasus decided she’d make a quick detour before heading home so she could check on something.

When Gilda and Gabby got back to Griffonstone, not much had changed. Griffons were still ignoring each other and some were arguing. “Home sweet... Home,” Gabby said with a lack of confidence.

Gilda sighed. She walked back to her bakery to find Greta working on it. “Gilda, you’re back,” she cried.

“Hey, Greta,” Gilda said. “I didn’t think you would watch the bakery while I was gone.”

“Some griffon had to do it. I managed to sell a couple of scones.” She showed Gilda the number of bits she gained.

“Good job.”

“Can I have a few,” Gabby asked. “I think I skipped lunch.” Greta nodded and tossed a scone to the mail griffon who started munching on it.

“Gabby,” wheezed a voice. Grandpa Gruff walked over to the girls with a cranky look on his face. “What took you so long on those students?”

“We... Had a setback.”

“Do you have them?” Gabby nodded and handed the letters to the old grump. He grumbled away as Gilda thought to herself.

“Something on your mind?” Greta asked.

“It’s just... I feel like I fail at something,” Gilda replied.

“You need to get over it,” Gabby said. “Remember what your friend said.” Gilda managed to put a smile on her face as Greta saw something.

“Look!” she gasped. Up in the air, Princess Twilight flew down to the griffons.

“Hello, Gilda,” the alicorn said.

“Princess Twilight?” Gilda questioned. “What are you doing here?”

“I was given some advice from a certain friend of yours,” Twilight explained. “Rainbow Dash said you would make a much better ambassador than Grandpa Gruff.”

“What are you saying?” the old grumpy griff questioned. He walked over to the alicorn.

“She’s saying that Gilda could be replacing you as our ambassador,” Greta repeated.

“Well, good. I’m tired of those meetings.” He tossed the letters at the alicorn and griffons before walking off.

“...That was easier than I expected,” Twilight commented. She turned back to Gilda. “So, what do you say?”

The griffon held her claw out so she could shake the alicorn’s hoof. “I say ‘yes’,” Gilda confirmed.

“Excellent. I’ll get everything sorted and you’ll be good to go. If you need help with anything, just let me know.”

“Okay.” Gilda looked at the oven and a what looked like a building’s remains. “Maybe a few building materials for... A bakery.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Twilight flew away back to Canterlot leaving Greta to say something to the soon to be ambassador.

“You sure about a bakery?” Greta asked.

“Gotta start somewhere,” Gilda replied.

“Yeah, rebuilding Griffonstone is a great idea,” Gabby commented.

Greta looked around at the kingdom. “Kind of wonder where this place would be with the Idol of Boreas,” she said.

Gilda and Gabby looked at each other, then the ambassador spoke up. “I don’t think we’d be here if it wasn’t for friendship,” she said. “I remember and egghead telling me about the idol, it’s just a piece of metal.”

“...I guess your right.” The three griffons smiled. Gabby went to her home to rest as the other continued cooking. Unbeknownst to any of them, a ghostly king was watching them. Though Griffonstone wasn’t what it used to be, it certainly looked to be shaping up.