Friends Change...
By: Sniper125
For Angellove and Alana
"A friendship once thought to last, was ended much too fast... You arrived with the thoughts that she was the same, but little did you know you were brought to shame..."
Dust turned up in the air as a pair of clawed feet slammed into the ground. Each time the foot rose a series of cracks spread out from the middle.
"Who needs that poor excuse of a flier! If she doesn't want to be my friend anymore then fine!" Gilda sighed and hung her head as the shade of a near by willow met her own shadow.
A tear of frustration formed in the corner of her eye despite Gilda's efforts to not cry. She fell down to the ground so that she was sitting against the trunk, the sun broke through the thin branches and peppered her body with rays of light from the cloudless sky.
This day would have been perfect if it wasn't for the event that transpired not an hour earlier...
Sugarcube Corner...
One Hour Ago...
"You know, this is not how I thought my old friend would treat my new friends. If "being cool" is all you care about, then maybe you should find some "new cool friends" someplace else!" Rainbow Dash shouted while pointing firmly at the door with her hoof. Anger filled her violet colored eyes that seemed to pierce Gilda's heart to the core.
"W-well fine! I never should have come back if you were going to do this to me!" Gilda stomped out of the building, leaving the party with an aura of confusion.
Everypony stared as the griffin's form disappeared over the horizon...
Gilda sighed once more and was about to close her eyes when a fallen branch could be heard snapping from around the tree.
"Look I'm not in the mood to mess with any little ponies right now so just scram!" Gilda yelled without caring who had foolishly decided to disturb her.
"I can imagine, but I didn't follow you just to leave again!" Gilda flinched as an all too familiar rainbow colored mane fell into her face. The multicolored hairs led up to a slightly smiling face of Rainbow Dash.
"Why the hay are you here? You're the one who kicked me out of the party!" The mentioned pony hopped over Gilda and looked her in the eye, her smile vanished from her face.
"In my defense you were wanting to leave anyways and you yelled at my friends!"
"Did you come here just to yell at me because if so you should just scram now!" Gilda glared at her while remaining seated.
"No, I just wanted to talk about this. I don't want you to leave but you've changed! What happened to you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about..." Rainbow Dash took a step closer to her.
"Oh come on, I know we did plenty of pranks when we were little but nothing like what you've done since you came back!" Gilda shrugged and banged her head lightly against the tree.
"Look I get it alright? I guess I've changed but it was only because you left!"
"Why would you be this way just because I moved away?" Rainbow gave her a confused glance.
"Because you chose me over that little yellow thing who was afraid to even fly! When that little filly decided to ditch us for little butterflies and bunnies, you ran right after her! Did you even think about how I felt? It hurt!" Rainbow flinched when Gilda gave her a death stare. But it wasn't the anger that startled her, it was the pain underneath.
"Look Gilda, I'm sorry I didn't think about how you'd feel when I left. But I still missed you! I always wanted to see you again but... Fluttershy needed me! She wouldn't have lasted a day in Ponyville on her own. She needed me to protect her from all the jackasses roaming the streets!"
"Well she seems fine to me." Gilda grunted and blew some stray feathers out of her eyes.
"Well of course when she finally learned to be independent I figured I could come visit you actually. But then some other things happened."
"I heard, Nightmare Moon showed up and you had to make friends with complete strangers to bring her down." Rainbow huffed at how Gilda summed up her actions to just being friendly.
"Now hold on, just because I haven't known them as long as I've known you doesn't mean they aren't my friends. I've gotten to know them and they are really nice! I bet you could make friends out of them if you tried."
"I didn't come here to meet new friends, I came here to see you; to remind you of the times you seem to have forgotten!"
"I haven't forgotten Gilda, I would never forget the moments we spent together as kids. I especially remember the time we met..."
Cloudsdale Academy for Gifted Aviators...
Rainbow Dash cringed as the back of her head made contact with one of the school buildings many walls. Despite their appearance the clouds used to construct Cloudsdale's towering complexes are much denser to the point of simulating stone.
A small trickle of blood flowed down from the point of impact as she slid down to the ground.
"We have a fighter here boys! Come on new girl, just give us your lunch money and we'll be on our way." A group of three snickering colts began to surround the spot where she sat. Their shadows created a glare from the sun.
Rainbow spat out blood that landed near the hooves of her abusers.
"Kiss my flank you poor excuse for pegasi! I can take you all on by myself!"
The apparent leader glared at her right before bucking her in the chin. The other two joined in as soon as she hit the ground; hitting every visible spot of her body. She attempted to resist but with every swing she threw it was returned with at least three more.
Blood began to flow once more, but from her mouth and nose. The drops fell and stained the white cloud a shade of pink. Eventually Rainbow collapsed under her own weight. After a few more kicks the leader told his cronies to back off. He picked her up off the ground and held her face close to his.
"I gotta hand it to ya, you definitely have guts. But this school is like a game that I always win." He lifted his hoof for another strike when a loud yelp came from behind.
The Rainbow quickly looked over his shoulder before the leader turned himself to find one of his partners flailing in the air as a large monster held him in her grasp.
"Just what is going on? I thought I told you three to stop picking on the new kids!" The beast threw the whining colt and hit Rainbow's captor in the side.
She fell to the ground and looked around in a daze before eventually watching the three colts running away in fear. The leader seemed to be bleeding from the nose as he ran.
Rainbow tried to stand up on her own but collapsed just as her hopeful rescuer came up from behind.
"Hold it, you're really beat up. We need to get you to the nurse or something!" Rainbow shook her head and tried to stand once more.
She was able to take a few steps before her vision went to black...
The Infirmary...
Rainbow awoke slowly on a small bed surrounded by dark blue curtains. She blinked hard and tried to sit but a deep throbbing in her head kept her where she was.
"It's about time you woke up. The nurse was freaking out about how you might have a concussion or something."
Rainbow turned her head towards the voice. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
"Who are you? I've never seen anything like you before." She looked the creature over from head to toe as she spoke.
"My name's Gilda. I'm a griffon and my family's from the Smokey Mountains area."
"A griffon? That's so cool! Thanks for helping me by the way. It was so awesome how you took on all three of those colts." Gilda laughed as Rainbow couldn't hold back a large grin.
"No problem, I couldn't just watch them pick on a little kid like that."
"Hey! I'm a little kid!" Rainbow huffed and was able to sit up straight.
Gilda only laughed again and got out of her seat.
"Well if you think you're up to it we can have a little race so you can prove it! Unless you're little headache hurts too much?"
"You're on Gilda!" Rainbow shot out of the bed as if she was never hurt and zoomed out a nearby window with Gilda close behind...
"I remember that time too. It was the only race where I actually tied with you." Gilda chuckled a little along with Rainbow.
"I never understood why you looked up to me since I lost every race but I have to admit I liked having a little fangirl zooming around me wherever I walked."
"Yeah, I guess I did kinda revolve around you when we were little. You were just made my eyes sparkle with how tall and strong you were. Whenever somepony messed with me you would help me fight them off. Though you really couldn't beat me in a race!"
"Yeah yeah you were always the fastest. But I still saw you as my little fangirl with the way you followed me everywhere." Gilda snickered as well.
"Though as we grew up how I thought of you slowly began to change. You change from a little filly into a full grown pegasus. Your general cuteness turned into something I couldn't understand and I'm not sure if I fully get it now either."
Rainbow took a seat in front of her. Her eyes burrowed into the griffon's.
"What are you trying to say Gilda?"
"I'm trying to say... I might have developed feelings for you." The pegasus's already large eyes grew as she attempted to process what she had just heard.
"Excuse me? I don't think I understand."
"I didn't expect you too. I probably don't understand either. But I for some reason our time together had a new meaning to it and when you left I died a little inside... I think that's why I became such a jerk to everypony."
The pegasus's mind was still spinning spinning from the sudden revelation. What was she supposed say? Sure she always looked up to Gilda but love?
"I'm gonna be honest, I don't know what to say. I'm happy you feel that way, but I haven't really thought of anypony that way so to have my best friend come to me like this... It's kinda strange!" She laughed nervously which made Gilda let out a small smile.
"How do you think I feel? You're the one with the rainbow colored mane after all." Both broke out into near especially Rainbow when she finally understood what was Gilda meant.
Once the laughter died down Gilda cleared her throat to regain Rainbow's attention.
"Anyways, I am serious about what I said RD. It makes sense that you would be confused but I just want a chance to make things the way they were."
"Well, I wouldn't mind seeing you more often but, I can't just leave everything behind. It wouldn't be fair to my friends."
"You don't have to come back! I wasn't thinking right when I wanted you to come back just for me. I could move to Ponyville if you wanted. There's not much left for me in Cloudsdale without you anyways."
"Well I... It's all so sudden though. You can do what you want but my minds just so swamped from everything that's gone down. I can't promise my feelings will change but, I will always be your friend."
"That's all I needed to hear..." Gilda sighed and looked at the now setting sun.
Almost everything either had known had changed in a matter of hours. Though there were still things to work out and obstacles to overcome; Gilda knew she could tackle them now that she knew where she stood in Rainbow's heart. Sure it wasn't as high as she'd like it to be but now she knew how much work was left in front of her and that was fine.
...and it all starts with a rekindled friendship...
The End