Love Will Travel As Long As You Let It
Clouds shrouded the Friday afternoon sun with a dull gray that made Gilda’s left eyebrow twitch. It had been forecasted that another high chance of rain was to fall in the Griffonstone territory, and it bugged Gilda, knowing that the rain could cause a possible low visibility if it came down in buckets. That wasn’t going to be a huge issue for Gilda. Even if it was raining, she would still be stuck in the line that went outside the good old Griffonstone post office. She would still be fiddling with her talons, and every-so-often glancing at the letter she wrote last night just to be sure it was free of error. After sighing for the umpteenth time, Gilda would look further down the line, craning her head around the many who were before her, to see only three griffons taking care of patrons.
Gilda groaned softly to herself. Griffonstone was known for having one of the slowest operating post offices in all of Equestria. The bird brains here had no idea how to even run one, since the downfall of their government had put a hard strain on anything relatively close to said body of the state. For Gilda, that meant sending letters was an impossibility, meaning that the outside world would have had to wait for Griffonstone to come back to life. Fortunately for Gilda and the rest of Griffonstone, the post office recovered, but the wait times went up drastically. It had been quite a while though since this recovery had happened, and the post office still hasn’t sped up their services.
As Gilda stood in the stalled line, twiddling with her the letter in her talons, she felt a sudden breeze whisk past her feathers. It rustled them, nearly plucking two off her wings. She shuddered, which probably made the bird behind her feel a bit awkward, but she couldn’t care. All she cared about was this new itch that she had in her wings, and sending this letter into the Post. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t do either of those things. Preening in public was also seen as demeaning to griffons, while being stuck in line was the meaning of her life.
Gilda looked skyward. Maybe the clouds would just break up just for her. All she had to do was take a peek and—
Gilda frowned. Nope. Those clouds that drifted around Griffonstone were looking worse by the second. Dull gray turned to darkness. A gentle rumble of thunder made some griffons squawk behind her.
Just another day in Griffonstone, Gilda told herself.
Her eyes darted down the street, where a row of houses greeted her vision. Most of the general population lived down at the base level of Griffonstone. Some of them were loungers that were too lazy to fly up to the better lodgings, while others simply couldn’t afford them. Upper folk called these griffons ‘fledglings’, as the new slang word dictated them to be.
Gilda, thankfully, wasn’t in that category. Her new place was a bit higher up. She was thankful for her new job, otherwise she’d still be down at the base level, where every griffon would’ve bothered her constantly. Still, she might see if she could get more bits to build an even bigger nest for herself. A nest that she could lay with someone else.
Someone like Rainbow Dash—
Gilda shook her head, while a blush tinted her cheeks. Nope. That was not going to happen. Not now, not ever. Besides, Rainbow Dash had Hoedown to deal with. There was no way Rainbow would ever look at her that way.
Yet.
That gentle breeze whisked past Gilda’s spine again, making her shiver. It was, as if, that wind was now portraying Gilda’s feelings about everything. She was anxious for Rainbow Dash to be coming over to her place, while also feeling nervous about what she was going to say to her. All that Gilda knew was that she was angry. Hoedown had a lot of nerve for tossing Rainbow Dash to the wayside like that. So what the heck did Skittles say that would cause Hoedown to toss her out?
Gilda gasped as she heard the sound of paper crumpling in her ears. She looked down, and noticed her letter was way more scrunched up than before, but it was still there in her grasp.
She sighed, and growled to herself. She needed to calm down before she tore the letter into pieces and had to lose her spot in line. She also needed to suppress that anger of hers before anything else happened, and those old feelings too. Gilda thought she was over those, but here she was, thinking about Rainbow Dash in that way.
Just you being here is enough for me.
That heat from before tickled at her cheeks. Gilda nearly squawked at the feeling, but she knew if she let that escape from her, she would earn a few death glares and snarky comments from griffons around her.
Can’t believe how much softer you’ve made me, Skittles. Gilda thought, her gaze catching another glimpse of the sky. Gray clouds drifted ever-so-thoughtlessly above her, while another distant rumble of thunder made Gilda jolt back to looking at the slowly moving line in front of her.
Gilda smirked. She’s like those clouds. Just like ’em.
The thought made Gilda laugh on the inside. Rainbow Dash was as soft as a cloud, but as dangerous as one too. It was like, at any moment, she would just fly on down and give someone a stern talking to, while also apologizing for bumping into him or her due to having too much speed to land. How could simple clouds drifting overhead describe Rainbow Dash so well?
Gilda shrugged as she tightened her grip on the letter in her talons. Hopefully Skittles didn’t muck this whole relationship of hers up to the point that even Gilda couldn’t fix it. It would tear her apart knowing that Skittles would be in pain. It reminded Gilda of way back when: how Skittles crashed a lot, how she cried a lot, and how she—
“Gilda? Is that you?”
Suddenly, the air around her felt lighter. The breeze wasn’t as bone-chilling as it was before. Instead, it sent shockwaves of pleasure down her body. She had to resist the temptation of showing any surprise, even if it meant that her legs were shaking as she turned to face Rainbow Dash.
Before her was that pegasus that plagued her mind. She was looking at her with a head tilt and an eyebrow raised. The mare fluttered before her, unknowingly flapping her wings to the beat of Gilda’s heart.
“Gilda?”
“Uh… hey, Skittles,” Gilda breathed out.
The pegasus landed gracefully before the griffon, and folded up her wings. Gilda noticed that a saddlebag was strapped carefully to the mare’s back, while a small basket was fastened on top of it, which was being held together by several strings that looped around her barrel.
“Wow, G. Didn’t think I’d ever catch you off-guard like that,” Rainbow Dash said, smirking.
Gilda blinked. Then she closed her beak with her free talon. “It’s been a crazy week here. I’ve been out of sorts.”
Rainbow Dash kept her brow raised. “Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?”
Gilda nodded. “Yeah, but you’re not the one in my position. Imagine someone who you used to hang out with all the time when you were younger suddenly message you out of nowhere asking for you to handle their relationship issues. Trust me, I bet you you’d be like me right now, Skittles.”
Then, Gilda smacked both of her talons over her beak. The letter that she had in her grasp smacked against the grains of Griffonstone in a wrinkled mess.
Rainbow Dash frowned.
“Sorry about that, by the way,” Rainbow Dash said, her gaze looking elsewhere. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like this. You’re the only one I could think of that could help me and I just kinda unloaded on you. I’ve been imagining a life without AJ around and it’s got me all messed up.”
Gilda sighed. “I know. Still, it’s kinda weird that you picked me out of everyone you could’ve talked to.”
Rainbow Dash snapped to Gilda’s face. “Why’s that?”
“Come on, Skittles. Really?” Gilda questioned. She shook her head. “You decided to talk to a griffon who tried to separate you from your friends and ended up leaving because of a few pranks?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yep, but you’re also the griffon who cared about me both before and after that time, G. I don’t know why you don’t notice that.”
“I don’t know,” Gilda lamely replied. “Mostly because I flew off and never talked to you about it and—”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and walked closer to her friend. “Gilda, trust me. It’s all water under the bridge. You don’t need to worry about it anymore.”
Gilda felt her heart surge at those words. The fact that Rainbow Dash was totally fine with moving past all that made her feel like it had gotten a bit hotter outside. No longer did the breeze phase her. Only Rainbow Dash did.
“Hey, Gilda?”
Gilda blinked and looked beside her, only to discover Rainbow Dash had craned her neck down to pick up the letter Gilda had dropped.
The mare turned and presented the letter to Gilda, who promptly snatched it out of her muzzle. “Do I need to know what was written in that?”
Gilda shook her head. “It was just the letter I was going to send you, but you’re here anyway, so it’s pretty much pointless.” As the words flittered out of Gilda’s mouth, the griffon’s eyes widened. “Wait, why are you here a day early?”
Rainbow Dash smirked. “I was really wanting to get here to see you. Being all alone in my house has been driving me crazy!”
“If I was in your position, I’d probably get stir crazy too,’ Gilda said, rolling her eyes. She walked up to the mare and quickly threw an arm around her withers. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
A giggle and a quick shake of her head was all it took for Rainbow Dash to follow in suit. The two skipped the line and walked down the road, huddled close together.
Rainbow Dash ducked her head and looked up at Gilda. “Hey, G?”
Gilda looked down at her friend. “Yeah, Skittles?”
“Where’s your new place at?”
Gilda smirked. “It’s a bit higher up from where we’re at.”
“Really?” Rainbow Dash said with a smile.
“What, did you think I was still a fledgling?”
“Nah,” Rainbow Dash replied. Gilda thought she heard a chuckle, but she chose to ignore it. “Just imagine my surprise when that scented candle maker sent me a brochure instead of your letter.”
“Welcome to Griffonstone,” Gilda began as she stopped near the edge of the road, pulling Rainbow Dash into her side. “Where griffons don’t care about helping you, they just try to sell you something.”
Rainbow Dash giggled to herself. “That’s so uncool.”
“Yeah, it is. But it’s home all the same,” Gilda said, her eyes cast out at the frontier beside them. “You up for a short flight?”
Another bit of laughter escaped Rainbow’s muzzle. “You know who you’re talking to, right, G?”
“Just making sure you weren’t tired from flying all the way from Ponyville,” Gilda said while letting her arm return to her side.
Instead of a rebuttal Gilda thought Rainbow Dash was going to give, the mare blushed and dipped her head. “Hehe, I’m glad you care, but I’m good for a short flight.”
Gilda smirked. “Alright. Make sure you fly close to me. Wouldn’t want you to get fillynapped by some fledgling.”
“You really don’t have any faith in me,” Rainbow Dash said with a huff, and unfurled her wings. She began hovering beside her friend, her forehooves crossed.
“It’s not that, Skittles,” Gilda replied. She looked around to make sure no one was behind her before she unfurled her wings. “I’m just excited to show you my new place! I finally get to show you how a true griffon makes a nest.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled behind her foreleg. “If that’s the case, then I’ll make sure I stay close to you. Lead the way, G!”
“Gladly.”
With that, the two took flight against the dreary backdrop of Griffonstone.
After a bit of weaving in and around Griffonstone’s many airways, the two had finally landed at the front door of Gilda’s place. The griffon proudly let the mare inside before shutting the door behind them.
Inside her home was what Gilda considered perfection. She had bought this place back when it looked like a complete pigsty. There were a couple broken windows, a bed with a mess of broken twigs from the previous nestmaker, a mattress that looked like a few maggots were living in it, and one of her least favorite things she wanted to be reminded of: an entire wall that had been ripped apart due to a bad wind storm.
After she had funneled quite a few bags full of bits into her new home, Gilda had a home she could be proud of. She had replaced all the old windows, rebuilt the wall from scratch with a bit of help from her neighbors and replaced that old mattress with a brand new one. The place was spotless, save for the stool she broke last week. She totally didn’t break it because of Rainbow Dash. Nope, not one bit. Gilda had been clumsy one night, and had stumbled over it in a sleepy daze, something that her friend didn’t need to know.
Other than the broken stool that was tucked away in the corner of the room, this was Gilda’s complete home makeover project, one that she hoped Rainbow Dash could appreciate.
Gilda sighed as she walked over to Rainbow Dash, who was looking around like a stunned filly. Her heart surged once again as Gilda watched her friend take in this new nest of hers. She was a tad anxious because if Skittles noticed the stool in the corner, she’d have to tell Rainbow Dash all about how she tripped over it. She wasn’t in the mood to be embarrassed by her longtime friend. So long as Skittles didn’t notice the wreckage, then she would be perfectly fine. Fine as she could be—
“Hey, G?”
“Hmm?” Gilda asked, looking down at Rainbow Dash. “What’s up?”
A cyan hoof pointed at the object that plagued her mind. “What did you do to that stool over there?”
“Uh,” Gilda began, her eyes wide as saucers. “One of my heavier trophies from way back when fell on top of it, shattering it into pieces?”
“Nope.”
“I had a friend over and we threw a wild party that was so wild that he slammed his beak into the side of it, breaking it in two?”
“Nada.”
“Not even a bit of a ruffling of feathers and pinning another chick right next to it with my tal—”
“Not buying it. From what it sounded like in your letters, you’ve probably been working your tail off, so I can confidently bet that there’s not another griffon in your life.”
Gilda felt all her confidence in her nest shatter into little pieces. Guess she had to confess.
“Well, I guess you have gotten a bit less of a dweeb since we last spoke.”
Rainbow Dash smirked. “Learned from the best.” She let out a chuckle before glowering at Gilda, who took a step back from the mare. “Now, spill.”
“Okay, I broke it!” Gilda exclaimed with a huff. “There. Are you happy?”
Rainbow Dash let out a hum. “Kind of. Just… why?”
Gilda looked away from Dash, as a distinct heat grew on her face. She couldn’t believe she was going to say this. She cleared her throat. “It ticked me off that you were being treated the way you were and I just… punched it.”
“A few too many times?”
Gilda growled. “It was either the stool, or one of the dining room chairs. Besides, the stool was pretty old anyway. I’ll just replace it when my next paycheck comes in.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and nuzzled the griffon’s side. “And this is why I appreciate you more than most griffons I know.”
Gilda raised a brow. “That can’t be true. What about Gabby?”
“She’s nice, but we’re not super close.”
“Gallus?”
“I taught him you featherbrain. Even though he knows how to handle friendships now doesn’t mean I want him to handle my friendship problems. Besides, being friends with your former students just feels all sorts of wrong to me.”
Gilda blinked. “Well, I’m glad that you care about me more than any other griffon you know.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow Dash said, grinning from ear-to-ear. She set her saddlebags and her basket on the ground. “So, now that we’re here, do we want to talk about things first and then eat, or should we chow down and then talk?”
Gilda smiled and picked up the basket. “Mind if we eat first? Ever since you said you got us sandwiches, my stomach has been screaming at me.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Good, because I’m starving as well.” She watched as Gilda set the basket on the table. “All this flying around and anxiety for the possible end of my relationship has made me hungry for more than just a sandwich.”
“Glad that you packed more than one for each of us!” Gilda said with a laugh. She reached into the basket to pull out a couple of sandwiches, which were wrapped nicely together in some paper. Gilda could feel her tongue being submerged in water, something that made her instinctively lick her beak. Carefully, she handed one to Dash, before taking one for herself.
They had taken their places at the table, both sitting across from one another. Gilda was about to open her sandwich, when she spied Rainbow Dash fiddling with hers.
“Hey, Skittles.”
Rainbow Dash looked up at Gilda. “Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
Rainbow Dash smiled at her. “No problem. It’s the least I could do! Now come on, let’s dig in!”
The two shared a brief smile before they started to tear their sandwiches apart. Gilda tore into hers with a bit of finesse, her beak ripping the salmon quite literally out of the sandwich. She took a couple bites before licking her beak.
Gilda hummed happily at the taste of the salmon. She hadn’t salmon like this in ages, since the rivers near Griffonstone had nearly dried up. The only river that had salmon, let alone any fish, was always being harbored by griffons who made it their living. Gilda didn’t want to deal with that noise, so she kept to her scones and other substitutes. That didn’t mean that these salmon sandwiches weren’t welcome.
No, they were more than welcome, as Gilda let out a moan.
“Dash, these are so good!”
Rainbow Dash looked up from her sandwich in mid-chew and gave her a smile. “Glad you like them. I had Fluttershy help me.”
Gilda stopped and tilted her head. “Wait, you had Fluttershy help you?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said flatly, her voice trailing off. “She wasn’t as mad at me as the others, so she was willing to help me as long as I promised her I’d make up to AJ.”
Gilda felt a familiar heat blister inside her. Was this her anger? Or was it frustration? She couldn’t tell, only that she knew it was brewing slowly inside her, making her squirm in her seat.
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Don’t worry, I’ll explain all about what I did after—”
“I know,” Gilda said with a snarl. “I know.”
The mare hung her head low. She scooted back a bit in her chair and twiddled with her forehooves.
Meanwhile, Gilda was battling with her emotions, choosing to stay silent while her sandwich, nearly devoid of any salmon, stayed put. The sound of Gilda’s clock chirping each waking second was to be heard.
Then, Rainbow Dash took a deep breath.
“Hey, G?”
Gilda paused and brought her gaze to Rainbow Dash. “What’s up, Skittles?”
Rainbow Dash’s smile slowly faltered. “I hope I wasn’t pushing any buttons when we talked about the stool.”
Gilda waved her off. “Nah, you didn’t push any.”
“Really?” Rainbow Dash said. “I kinda pressed you about it, though.”
“Yeah, but pressing about a stool being broken is different from being pressed about something like what you’re dealing with, Skittles.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, her ears splayed against her head. She grabbed her sandwich and took a quick bite of it. “I’m glad that you’re not mad about me pressing you. At least I have that going for me.”
Gilda huffed. “Yeah, but you shouldn’t have to feel that way. You and I used to do this all the time, remember?
Rainbow Dash’s smile returned with giddy, one that Gilda mirrored as best as she could. Beaks couldn’t imitate ear-to-ear grins all too well. But that didn’t matter all that much. What mattered to Gilda was her friend that she wanted to help out immensely, and the sandwich that her friend had given her to eat.
With her anger slowly dissipating, Gilda took a generous helping of what remained. She couldn’t believe that Rainbow Dash actually made salmon sandwiches like they used to have. And the fact that this tasted better than she could’ve expected from a pony made Gilda all the more happy. Gilda knew that pegasi ate fish. However, it was sparingly. They mostly ate fish on important holidays and celebrations. So it meant a lot to Gilda that Rainbow Dash was willing to make these sandwiches for the both of them.
It made Gilda’s heart swell just thinking about it.
“Hey, G? Are you okay?”
Gilda shook her head. “Huh? What’s up?”
Rainbow Dash giggled. “You were staring off into space for a second with your beak wide open.”
Gilda groaned. “Sorry.”
That made Rainbow Dash nearly choke on her food. She sputtered out some bits of bread between laughs.
Gilda looked over at the pegasus on the floor and growled. “Not a word.”
The mare soon fell back into normality, her laughs no longer covering the noise of the chirping clock. She hopped back on her seat and grinned at her friend.
“Thanks, Gilda. I needed that.”
“Glad to be your source of comedy, Skittles,” Gilda replied with an eye roll. She shoved the rest of her sandwich into her beak before reaching for the basket. “You want another one?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said as she too shoved the rest of hers into her muzzle before she reached out with her forehooves. “Gimme.”
Gilda gladly did, distributing the remaining sandwiches respectively, before taking her seat.
The rest of the dinner went silent, mostly them just eating to the sounds of that stupid clock chirping above Gilda’s head. Gilda made a mental note to get one that didn’t sound like a griffon squawking during a mating dance, but she couldn’t help that the clockmakers in town were more gutterbrained than most griffons. When after all this was over, maybe she could ask Rainbow Dash to find someone who could make or sell her a clock that wouldn’t go cuckoo every second.
Sighing, she set her empty plate aside and looked over at Rainbow Dash. The mare was almost done with her food, only having one small piece of her sandwich remaining. She was cleaning off her hooves with a napkin. Once she did that, Rainbow Dash stuffed the last remaining bit of her second sandwich into her muzzle, chewing with a smile on her face while her tail swished behind her.
To say it was sending Gilda’s heart into heart attack levels was an understatement. Her heart was beating fast, and she wondered if Rainbow Dash’s cuteness was weaponized.
Gilda blinked and turned away from Rainbow Dash. She walked over to the window sill and sighed.
How was she supposed to help fix whatever was making Rainbow Dash feel like this? Was there any hope in this situation? And why did those feelings of Gilda’s resurface when thinking about her friend?
Her heart twinged, making the griffon wince as she cast her gaze out the window. She knew the reason, and she never wanted to admit it. Not when Rainbow Dash was still trying to get with Hoedown. She would never forgive herself if things went even more south because she wanted to be selfish and make a nest with Rainbow Dash.
Gilda’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. Where did she put that bottle of bleach at?
As Gilda turned around, she saw a mixture of cyan and the other colors of the rainbow staring at her, those pinkish eyes giving her a look over that Gilda was not all too pleased about.
“Hey, G?”
Gilda gulped before she spoke, “What’s up, Skittles?”
Rainbow Dash hung her head low and walked beside her friend. “Are you ready to talk about this?”
“Yeah,” Gilda began. She took a deep breath. “Just trying to get myself sorted too. Not really sure how this is going to go.”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “The fact that you’re freaking out as much as me kinda makes me happy, G.”
Gilda rolled her eyes and sat on the ground. “Trying to prepare myself for whatever you’re going to say about you and Hoedown.”
“I know,” Rainbow replied. She sat down across from Gilda, before she looked up at Gilda. “It’s going to be a bit hard for me to talk about all this, so bear with me, okay?”
Gilda nodded. “Sure thing, Skittles.”
Rainbow Dash kept that smile up before she took a deep breath. “All this started way before what I said in the letter.”
“Oh, really?” Gilda said with a raised brow. “Why’s that?”
“We had been arguing about really stupid stuff about… two weeks before all this went down,” Rainbow Dash began. She shook her head before she continued, “It got to the point that she was mad at me for drinking a lot more cider than I was used to, while I was mad at her for overworking herself.”
Gilda’s mind wrapped itself around Rainbow’s words. So there had been more tension before all this just blew up in their faces? Gilda needed to know more. “Did you two make up afterwards?”
Rainbow Dash surprisingly bobbed her head. “We did. I stopped drinking for a few days, while I helped her out with more of the work around the farm. She needed me and I needed her, so to speak.”
“So, you two were able to get over a pretty crazy argument like that. What made this one so different?”
“That’s just it, G. I don’t know. The night this all happened, we had just done a lot of work outside and had come in to relax and talk about the past. We even had talked about how we all defeated Nightmare Moon before AJ decided to bring up our past,” Rainbow Dash said, gesturing with a hoof between the two of them. “I don’t know why she decided to just jump to us as friends, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“Weird,” Gilda muttered, tapping a talon underneath her chin. She walked closer to Rainbow Dash, before she looped an arm around the mare, pulling her close. “So what did you tell her about us?”
Rainbow Dash sighed and leaned into Gilda’s embrace. “We talked about the Speedsters, and how you and I were in school, we’d get into so much trouble.”
Gilda laughed. “I am not going to deny that whatsoever. To be fair, I was the one bringing you along, while Fluttershy just watched.
“Yeah, Flutters wasn’t too huge on joining in. Said she wasn’t like us,” Rainbow Dash said giggling into Gilda’s fur.
“She wasn’t wrong!” Gilda exclaimed, making the whole room erupt into giggles and laughter. They laughed so hard that their lungs couldn’t take the strain. They had both fallen to the floor in a heap of feathers, surrounded by the nest that Gilda had built for herself. Although her bed was situated on the opposite side of the room, Gilda couldn’t help but build a nest. It was part of what made a griffon a griffon.
Gilda looked over at Dash, who was blissfully looking up at the ceiling. Even in the light that peered from the window above them, she appeared radiant. Gilda couldn’t think of a better word to describe her friend. Her cyan coat was glowing, and her mane was full of color. It made Gilda appreciate Rainbow Dash more, while also tempting the griffon to reach out and sink those talons into that mane.
However, Gilda knew that was going too far. They were still friends, and besides, she couldn’t go down that route. She had already tried once before to steal Rainbow Dash away, so if she decided to press the boundaries, wouldn’t that mean she hadn’t learned a single thing?
Gilda frowned. Her heart was racing, and her mind was waging war with herself. Why couldn’t those feelings of her have died long ago?
Gilda gulped and let her arms fall to the wayside, keeping itself close to her frame. She cleared her throat. “So, was that all you said about us?”
Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “Basically. I mean, we talked about some other things, like how you and I dyed that poor teacher’s mane red and how we clogged up the toilets for a whole week—”
Gilda felt her beak become slacked. “Skittles, there’s no way you told her those stories!”
“Of course I did!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her ears perking up as she spoke, “Those were some great stories, G!”
“Yeah…” Gilda said, her voice trailing off. Something still was wrong here, Gilda thought. There’s something she’s not telling me.
“Are you sure there’s nothing else?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I’m sure…”
Gilda smirked. That little melancholy in her voice. It was so unlike what Gilda remembered Rainbow Dash sounding like. The only time she’d talk like that was when she messed up and she knew it.
“Skittles…”
“What?”
“That’s clearly not all,” Gilda began, poking at her friend lightly in the shoulder. “You sound like you know more, but you’re afraid of saying it.”
“No I’m not!” Rainbow Dash belted out, turning away from Gilda’s embrace to glare at the griffon. She growled a throaty one, before she continued, “I just don’t know how to put what I messed up on into words!”
“That’s not what you told me in your letters, though,” Gilda said bluntly. “You said you knew that you messed up, but you didn’t know why.”
Gilda watched as Rainbow Dash’s mind took in what she said. The mare’s cheeks blossomed forth a red tinge, while her eyes began to widen, only for her to find something else worth looking at. She eventually settled on looking out the window, her eyes glistening in the light.
Meanwhile, Gilda was confused. Why was Rainbow Dash lying to her? Was there something so horrible here that Rainbow Dash was afraid to say it to her?
Gilda sighed and brought herself close to her friend. She slowly looped her arm around her friend’s withers again and waited for Rainbow Dash to respond.
Eventually, she did, turning back towards Gilda with a slight smile. She nestled back into the griffon’s form, nuzzling happily into the crook of her neck. “You really like doing this, don’t you, G?”
“Do what?” Gilda asked.
“Holding me,” Rainbow Dash replied, smiling.
“Pfft, you wish,” Gilda said with a smirk. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t go running off without telling me the truth. You know why you’re here, Dash.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself. “I can’t deny that. I really want to bolt out the door right now, but you’re here, and I know that if I try skipping out on this, I’ll never be able to figure out how to get back with AJ by myself. Besides, I don’t think I’d be able to leave. You’d knock me into a coma before I could even take five steps out of your front door.” Rainbow Dash looked sidelong, her ears splaying against her head. “I wanted to talk to AJ about other things, y’know? Comment about how well we did the harvest this time around and how good things were finally being.”
Gilda nodded. “So why didn’t you?”
“Because… I kinda knew that I was in too deep when AJ was glaring at me, waiting for me to say more about us.”
“How could you tell?” Gilda asked with a head tilt.
Rainbow Dash’s expression fell, her gaze cast down to the floor. “She had left the room to go get something for us to drink. When she came back, she didn’t have any drinks with her, only a copy of one of my letters to you.”
Gilda’s eyes widened. “Dash…”
“It… really sucked knowing that she knew that I was talking to you, but the one letter in particular wasn’t one of the ones I sent you. It was a draft.”
“A draft?” Gilda asked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied, returning her gaze to the window once again. “It’s the stuff you write that you don’t exactly use. Then you just use them as a guide to rewrite what you wrote, or whatever.”
“Right, so why did you have a draft just laying around?”
Rainbow Dash winced. “I forgot to tear them up after I finally wrote the one I needed to send to you. I had probably used about thirty pieces of paper by the time I wrote the one I needed to send to you, but… each one of those had stuff in them that I took out because I didn’t need you to know how I was really feeling.”
Gilda felt a resurgence in something familiar, something that made her blood begin to brew. She let it stew and fester as she spoke, “And what were you really feeling?”
Rainbow Dash gulped. “Uh… promise me you won’t hate me after this?”
The griffon forced out what anxiousness remained within her. “As long as you don’t tell me that you dragged me into this.”
“I didn’t mean to, G-Gilda,” Rainbow Dash said, stuttering on her friend’s name. “It just happened, because the draft she had was one of the few that I forgot to rip up and—”
Gilda growled and pulled the mare close again. “What did you say in the letter, Dash?”
“That I had a crush on you b-back then.”
Gilda’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Y-Yeah, and that I still feel like I do. It’s something I couldn’t have written down, because part of me didn’t want to come between—eep!”
Gilda tightened her hold on the mare, before she brought her other talon to cup Rainbow Dash’s cheek. She gave that mare that made her heart race a nice smile before she said those words back to her. “I liked you too.”
“Y-You did?” Rainbow Dash said, the heat on her cheeks on full display.
Gilda felt hers were on fire too, but she didn’t care. She wanted to make sure Rainbow Dash knew too. “Yeah, but I’m not going to jump in-between you and Hoedown. It’s not my place. Just know that the feeling’s… mutual.”
Rainbow Dash blinked as Gilda released her cheek and loosened her grip on their embrace. With a quick shake of her head, Rainbow Dash looked up and asked, “Why? Why do you like me?”
Gilda tilted her head. “Why not?”
“I had to rely on you all the time back then. I wasn’t exactly as cool as you and—”
“Skittles, stop. You were cool! We were the best in our class way back when! The teachers knew it too! That’s why they didn’t separate us, because they knew if they tried to, we’d get into more trouble. Don’t you know the saying? Birds of the same feathers—”
“—flock together. Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash said with an eye roll. “I still didn’t feel like I matched up to you, yet I couldn’t imagine not being your friend. You made me feel ten times cooler, and our dynamic was… something else.”
Gilda grinned. “Glad you feel the same…” Her voice trailed off, and that grin slowly morphed into a blank, clean slate. “Our dynamic was weird though. I was a bully that was without anyone to talk to while you were…”
Once again, the words died in her throat. She didn’t want to say them, since now they felt like they stung in her beak. It was a weird feeling. She had been so used to saying things like this around Rainbow Dash back then, that saying it now felt wrong, especially during this troubling time.
“...a dweeb?”
Thankfully, Dash could censor her a bit better than herself.
Gilda nodded. “Yeah, a dweeb. A bit less of one than Fluttershy, but still a dweeb nonetheless. One that I… happened to like.”
“Were you okay with wanting to like me?”
That question drew a huge eyebrow raise from Gilda. “Of course. I mean, my family wasn’t as huge on it. They said I should be focused on passing flying school before I even thought about a relationship,” Gilda said with a sigh. She looked at the Rainbow Dash’s face and smiled. “I liked you and I knew it when you and I were in that clearing that one day.”
“The one when Score told me I was worthless?”
Gilda hesitantly nodded. “Yeah… I came after school to talk to you about it, and we decided to go to that secluded spot by the track and—”
“—you held me, just like you did a little bit ago.”
Gilda felt that heat blossom on her face once more. “Hehe,” she said, scratching the back of her neck with a talon. “I guess I do have a habit of doing that.”
Rainbow Dash giggled at Gilda’s words. “You do, but I’m not complaining.”
The two shared a brief smile before Gilda cleared her throat.
“So… besides you admitting that you had a crush on me, what else did you say?”
Rainbow Dash’s gaze became downcast once again. “I had written something in there that I wasn’t so sure about. I mean, when I wrote that I had a crush on you a couple drafts before, I also felt that I still liked you. It was hard for me to come to grips with that, so imagine my surprise when a couple drafts later, I decided to write out my feelings about AJ, and how I...”
“How you, what, Dash?”
Rainbow Dash gulped down what Gilda suggested was another bit of anxiousness that she must be feeling.
“I… wrote that I wasn’t in love with her anymore, G.”
Gilda’s eyes widened. “Sorry, what?”
“I know I should’ve tore the letter up since I know how I feel now, but I needed to rework the letters and I eventually was able to write out what I needed to you and—ack!”
Gilda had shoved the mare away from her, quietly walking away to the big table they had eaten at, wondering if it was a good idea to smash this to bits as well. She knew if Rainbow Dash would follow her, she’d do more to the mare than push her away.
Yet she heard Rainbow Dash clip-clop those hooves behind her, probably hanging her head low.
“G-Gilda?”
“Skittles. You really bucked yourself into next week with this one.”
“I know. I know, but what else should I have done? Told her that I was just trying to figure everything out? She’s the one that shoved me away and told me to pack up my things and find the nearest cloud to cry on and—agh!”
The anger that had been festering inside Gilda suddenly erupted into hot lava as she smacked Rainbow Dash’s face with her talon. The sharp pointy ends scraped some fur off Rainbow Dash’s cheeks, causing the mare to hiss out in pain.
“Shut up, Dash.”
The mare whimpered and gave the griffon some space. “I’m sorry… it’s my fault, like I said.”
“It is. You couldn’t have talked to her about all this before you wrote to me?”
Rainbow Dash sighed, holding her hoof against her face. “I didn’t know how to say it to her and—”
“Bullshit,” Gilda squawked, snapping to Rainbow Dash’s face. “You could’ve said something to her, but you chose not to, because, once again, you were afraid.”
“H-How do you know!? You don’t know everything about me, just like I don’t know everything about you!” Rainbow Dash said, pointing her free forehoof at Gilda.
“Because… that’s how I felt when I admitted that I liked you. Even though it came out so easily, I knew that if I said it, I’d be coming in-between you and Hoedown. That’s not how I should be handling your relationship issues but—”
Rainbow Dash winced as she interrupted her friend, “I don’t mind, G. I returned your feelings, didn’t I? I’m the worst pony here. It’s all my fault, not yours.”
Gilda frowned. She looked at Rainbow Dash’s face, the red streaks mixing with a few tears grazing down her cheek. She sighed and walked over to the kitchen sink. Gilda searched through the cabinets before stumbling upon a bundle of towels. She grabbed a couple, and set them aside. She took one towel and gently dipped it in the cold water bucket before she turned around.
“Here,” Gilda said, tossing them her way. “Use them for your face.”
Rainbow Dash caught them with her wing and gently put the wet one on her cheek. “Thanks. G.”
“No problem. I was the one who did that to you anyway.”
“Yeah, but I deserve it and—”
“Skittles, I’m not going to argue with you about that. Heck, I think you deserve me smashing your head on the side of Griffonstone about twenty times, but I think giving you a good scratch to the face and a stern talking to will be enough.”
Gilda felt the venom finally surge out of her. She could look at Rainbow Dash and not feel that anger anymore. It had dissipated into thin air, no longer ailing her. Instead, she felt like she needed to fix this more than ever, or she’d regret it for the rest of her life.
“I do deserve that too,” Rainbow Dash muttered, bringing Gilda out of her stupor. “But if you think this is what I deserve, then I’m fine with this too.”
“Great, because I’m not wanting to hurt you. You’re here because you want me to help you fix your relationship with Hoedown.”
Gilda watched as Rainbow’s muzzle scrunched up as best as it could, considering Gilda had slashed her friend’s cheek.Then, after the mare winced, she sucked in a deep breath through her nostrils and spoke, “How do I fix it, G? I’ve tried to talk to AJ, but she gives me the cold shoulder whenever I try to get her attention!”
Gilda let out a brief hum before she responded, “Are you sure she heard you?”
“Yeah! She looks over at me for a brief second before turning her attention back to the farm. It’s even gotten to the point that she’s asked her brother to watch out for me.”
“And has he said anything to you?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Y-Yeah. Big Mac told me that I need to not show my face around the farm anymore. Said I need to leave his sister alone.”
Gilda whistled and stretched her wings. “Yeah, there’s no way you’ll be able to talk to her brother about anything if he’s saying that to you.”
“So what choices do I have left?” Rainbow Dash said, her ears teetering.
And when Gilda shook her head, those ears splayed against that mare’s head.
“Not much, I’m afraid. I mean, you could keep being persistent until she breaks, but I think that’ll be a fifty-fifty chance of you either getting back with her, or getting a restraining order and divorce papers thrown your way.” Gilda looked over at her friend. “If Hoedown’s anything like you tell me, she prefers honesty and integrity over all else, so maybe keep being persistent and bank on that fifty-fifty chance? I don’t know, this is a tough situation you got yourself into and—Skittles?”
Gilda saw the matted fur, heard those quiet whimpers, and watched those forehooves reaching up to try and clear away the debris from her eyes.
Rainbow Dash was crying.
Gilda rolled her eyes. This was why she wasn’t too fond of making friends. To have someone in your life come into your nest and carry all these emotions and thoughts that are focused on one singular pony or griffon was rough. This was why the only real friendship Gilda had in her life was with Rainbow Dash, that is, unless Gilda counted all the new ones she’s made because of Rainbow Dash. Still, she didn’t need too many friends. Griffons weren’t that social of creatures. Most of the time they just dealt with each other. It’s how their culture worked. The problem was that Gilda has had experience with pony culture, and they relied way more on being social than griffons. These ponies dealt with all the drama, all the distractions, and all of the aching feelings that came with friendship. Gilda didn’t need that many issues on her plate. She didn’t want to feel like Rainbow Dash, who had so many friends that she turned into a ball full of anxiety that was finally releasing its pressure after holding it in for so long.
Gilda scooched over and brought Rainbow Dash close, her arm looping around the mare once again.
“G-Gilda?”
“Take your time, Skittles.”
And that she did. She cried, and cried, and cried. She cried until Gilda thought Rainbow Dash was completely dried up. At that point, there were no more tears to be shed. Only a few sobs were to be heard in the room, while remnants of tears had soaked both Rainbow’s and Gilda’s fur alike. It was difficult to watch someone deal with all the pain, grief, and heartbreak, especially someone like Rainbow Dash. It was also hard to deal with, since Gilda knew that Hoedown didn’t want to see Rainbow Dash at the moment. That alone made the avenue of comforting her friend all that much harder.
After a few more sobs and a quick nuzzle from Gilda, Rainbow Dash sniffled and nuzzled her friend back. “Thanks, G. I needed that.”
Gilda shrugged. “No skin off my bones. You looked like you were about to cry your eyes out there.”
Rainbow Dash looked around and used her hind legs to grab the other non-bloodstained towel from earlier. “Glad I have a towel to wipe the tears off, hehe.”
Gilda looked at Rainbow Dash’s slashed cheek, and sighed. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Like I said, I deserved it and to be honest, it’ll be a pretty cool battle scar after all this blows over.”
Gilda smirked. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said with a giggle. “I’ll just tell my friends I got in a bar fight with another griffon or something. They’ll probably believe it.”
“Sure, just like you believed in my trophy dropping on my stool bit.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Gilda, that was a pretty obvious lie. You don’t even have a shelf above that stool!” Rainbow Dash looked around. “Actually, you don’t really have many shelves above anything. Where do you store all your stuff?”
“There’s an upstairs for a reason, y’know?”
“Really? Why don’t we go check it out?”
Gilda felt a sudden urge to block the stairwell with crates. “Uh… let’s just say that I have a lot of my stuff up there, and it’s not really ready for anyone to navigate.”
Rainbow Dash’s lips formed into an ‘o’. “Are you saying that you have a lot of stuff?”
“You know Griffon culture, Dash?”
“Yeah what’s that got to do with—oh wait, nevermind.”
Gilda facepalmed immediately. “Can’t believe that selfish part of our culture went over your head.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Well, do you want me to come up some time and help you clean it out? You could use it for something instead of using it for storing stuff.”
That’s not a bad idea, Gilda thought. She’s wanted to actually use the upstairs part of her place for quite some time now, mostly because having a nest and a bed near where you eat is a bit atypical for a lot of griffons. Yet, she couldn’t think of what to do with all the stuff she had collected over the years. She wanted to keep the memories too.
Just like the ones of her cuddling with Rainbow Dash behind the race track in that clearing—
Gilda shook her head. There was no reason to be thinking like that at the moment. “I’ll let you know once you patch things up with Hoedown,” Gilda replied, turning the topic back on Rainbow. “So, what do you think you should do?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s hard to just think of something on the fly, y’know?”
“I get you,” Gilda said. “You still have to decide on something, but it doesn’t need to be right now. Is there… anything else you wanted to talk about?”
“Like, about my relationship?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yeah, anything else?”
“Not really. All I know is that I’m going to be seeing a lot of begging in my future. Right now, though, I have to ask you something.”
“Oh? What’s biting you, Skittles?”
“It’s been a long time coming, and now since I know you like me like that, I think it’d be wise to ask this.”
Gilda felt her cheeks burn at that comment. She didn’t mean for that confession, but she was tired of holding it in. “O-Okay, shoot.”
“Why did you leave Cloudsdale?”
Gilda blinked. That wasn’t what she was expecting Rainbow Dash to ask. She thought it was going to go down a different route, one involving something she might’ve dreamt about a long time ago, but yet again, her dreams were always somewhat odd.
Gilda tilted her head. “Why do you want to know that?”
“Because you just left without saying a word. Not even a goodbye. And by the time you left, I wasn’t able to… say what I wanted to say,” Rainbow Dash said weakly.
“Were you—”
“Going to confess?” Rainbow Dash asked. The griffon’s eyes being as wide as saucers told her all she needed to know. “Kind of. I knew I wanted to say something, but I hadn’t even talked to my parents about it and, well, you know how everything went.”
“Right,” Gilda said, her beak running before she could think of what to say. “To be fair, Rainbow Dash, if you’re thinking it’s because of you, you’re wrong.”
“Really?”
“Well, if we had to go by percentages, you’d be about ninety percent wrong, but who’s using percentages,” Gilda said lamely. “It’s a long story. You up for it?”
Rainbow Dash suddenly yawned and looked towards the window. She chuckled. “Well, it’s getting late, and that storm outside isn’t going to let me fly so might as well.”
Gilda looked over to the window and noticed the slight pitter patter against it. “Huh, guess you’re right. Rain's starting to come down and soon there will be thun—”
PANG!
“—der,” Gilda finished as the house shook in place.
Rainbow Dash buried herself into Gilda’s chest. “Uhmmph,” she said.
Gilda chuckled. “Sorry, what did you just say?”
Rainbow Dash pulled herself free from Gilda’s chest. “Sorry, was trying to say ‘told you so’, but I kinda jumped right into your chest and—”
Gilda rolled her eyes and wrapped her in her wings. “Don’t apologize. It’s fine.”
Rainbow Dash rapidly blinked at that, before smiling. She nuzzled happily into the crook of Gilda’s neck and sighed. “Are you okay with this?”
“I mean, not really,” Gilda said lamely. She let out a snort. “But what am I going to say? We used to do this all the time back in the day, and then that one time…”
“Yeah, still, I can stop and,” Rainbow Dash began, only for Gilda to move a talon over her maw. “Uhh, G?”
Gilda shushed her. “Nope. Let me be selfish this one time.”
“Pfft,” Rainbow Dash said, before giggling to herself. “You griffons and being selfish. You said you didn’t want to do this but you’re doing it anyway.”
“Hey, I don’t ask for much. I promise I won’t go any further than this.”
“If you say so,” Rainbow Dash replied, before folding back into Gilda’s embrace. “So, why did you leave Cloudsdale?”
Gilda took a deep breath. “It’s… pretty messed up. You’re going to probably never want to meet my parents after this, not that you can. Anyway, it kinda starts as to why I came to Cloudsdale. My parents were a bit more friendlier than other griffons were. They knew that the school system in Griffonstone was terrible, so they looked elsewhere. They decided that Cloudsdale was a perfect choice, since the Junior Speedsters focused on flying and stuff. And we both know how that went.” Gilda shared a smile with Rainbow Dash before she continued. “That’s why we lived in Cloudsdale for a while. Anything was better than a griffon education at the time.”
“Okay, so why would they leave—”
Gilda’s face fell. “Because my parents were doing it out of necessity. We eventually moved back because they wanted me to keep my griffon values. They only wanted me to get ‘a taste of pony culture’, whatever that meant.”
Rainbow Dash growled. “So you’re saying you moved because your parents didn’t like ponies?”
“Eh, they said it was because I had gotten enough out of the school system in Equestria, but I have a feeling there was something else involved,” Gilda said with a shrug. “I don’t know for certain, though. They knew that I liked you, but if it was because of that, they would’ve pulled me out immediately. It’s irritated me ever since we moved back to Griffonstone, but I’ll never know for sure. They’re out of my life now, and Grampa Gruff doesn’t know where they went.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “That sucks, G. I wish they didn’t pull you out of the camp. We could’ve done so much more together!”
Gilda squeezed Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “Of course, but it wouldn’t have changed much. I still would’ve had to go back to Griffonstone, whether I wanted to or not.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rainbow Dash asked with a head tilt.
“I’m sure,” Gilda replied with a smile. She nuzzled her friend’s cheek carefully. “Besides, do you regret how I am now?”
Rainbow Dash smiled and gently nuzzled back. “Nah, you’re a great griffon, Gilda. I just wish we…”
“We…?” Gilda said, ducking her head low to see Rainbow Dash’s face.
“If you hadn't moved and your parents decided to stay in Cloudsdale, I wonder if we would’ve been a couple or something, since, y’know…”
Gilda felt the room’s temperature skyrocket. “Right...” She cleared her throat. “Dash, I’m happy how things have turned out. Well, except for you not being with Hoedown, but between you and me, we’re as steady as it’s going to get right now, and I wouldn’t want to change that.”
“Even if I decided tomorrow that I wanted to be with you?”
Gilda frowned. “To be honest, I’d be more pissed at you if you did that. Like I said, I wouldn’t want to come between you and Hoedown.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Right, just wanted to see how you’d react. I’m going to make sure I fix this, Gilda. I’m not going to lose AJ.”
“You sure about that?” Gilda asked with a raised brow.
“Yeah… I know that I still love her, G. I know that now. Even if things aren’t going right for me, I know I have to at least try to get her back.”
With a sigh, Gilda looked out the window. Another distinct rumble shook the house, leaving Rainbow Dash, once again, to curl into Gilda’s embrace. The griffon chuckled, and let a talon of hers slowly drift down Rainbow’s neck. She stopped near the joints of her wings, and pulled back up to her friend’s mane.
“G-Gilda?”
“Just trying to calm you down. Even though you work with the weather, you’re not used to ones you can’t control.”
“Y-Yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied. “If this keeps going on, I’m going to have trouble sleeping tonight.”
Gilda’s eyes widened. Why hadn’t Gilda thought about this green-lighting this whole chat? “Uh… I didn’t think about putting a spare out for you.”
“A spare?” Rainbow Dash asked, earning a slow nod from Gilda. She chuckled. “You don’t need to worry about that. Why don’t we just sleep in your nest?”
“Skittles, uh… are you forgetting the ‘we like each other’ heart-to-heart we had earlier?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No. Gilda, I didn't forget. I’m not going to do anything to you, and neither you’re not going to do anything to me.”
“Why are you so confident in that?” Gilda asked. She yelped and quickly clamped her beak with her talons.
Rainbow Dash, however, was amused by that. The mare smirked. “Oh? Are you saying you want to do something?”
“N-No,” Gilda let out with a stutter. “It’s just, the implications—”
“There are none, G. We’re just two friends talking about mare problems while maybe confessing to each other for the first time. There’s nothing other than that that would be ‘implying’ something could happen. Besides, I trust you, G. Do you trust me?”
Gilda nodded. “I’d trust you enough to give you my wings, if you needed them.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. Gilda could see Dash’s wings slightly unfurl from that, and that ear twitch was certainly telling. “Uh, wow, I didn’t know you were that far into your feelings about me, Gilda.”
“Like I said before. I liked you, and I still do. It’s just… I might be a bit further ahead than you with the sappiness,” Gilda admitted bluntly. She sighed. “I told you you’ve made me turn soft, and I meant it.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled and nuzzled her friend’s cheek. “Hey, I don’t mind. Still, since we’re both trusting of each other, then there’s nothing to worry about!” Quickly, Rainbow Dash scampered out of Gilda’s grasp and laid herself in Gilda’s nest. She nestled herself among the twigs and dirt she had mixed together. The mare looked over to Gilda, eyes half-lidded, a smirk still pleasantly shining on her face. “You coming over?”
“Yeah,” Gilda said. She looked over at the candle, whose flame pirouetted in the darkness surrounding it, and gently flicked her wing towards it, making its dance finally stop. The room grew dark, and now she could barely see Rainbow Dash’s body. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, the mare’s form was evident. The outline, and her legs being up in the air, curling—it made Gilda mimic her friend, although without staring directly at her, vying to make friends with the ceiling instead.
She did right on that, as she felt the presence of Rainbow Dash’s muzzle rub gently against Gilda’ side. “Thanks for this, G.”
Gilda’s eyes were wide as her heartbeat surged forth, firing to the sounds of the seconds slipping away. She closed her eyes.
“You’re welcome.”
The words just loosely slipped out. Like she was trying to land on ice, clawing for some sturdy, common ground. All she felt was slipping towards the edge of the nest, hoping that it’d keep her inside or else she’d fall down an endless—
“Not just this… G. Thank you for not freaking out too much over me being next to you.”
Gilda blinked. “S-Skittles?”
“Just wanted to say that. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” I need—” A yawn interrupted Rainbow Dash’s thought “—I need you to help me figure things out. G’night, Gilda.”
“Good night, Rainbow Dash.”
The soft snores welcomed Gilda’s ears, as the mare embraced the night, her body nestled flush with Gilda’s.
Meanwhile, Gilda felt wide awake. She never would’ve thought her feelings about Rainbow Dash would’ve been returned. However, they were just as she thought: at a distance. She kept Gilda close, but said they were still friends—she had Hoedown after all. There was no need to think she deserved Rainbow Dash.
Gilda sighed. The afternoon had been hectic, compared to the orders that came in for scones that morning. Now it was nighttime, and she had Rainbow Dash in her nest.
They were sleeping next to each other. No sex included. Just sleeping.
Gilda closed her eyes.
Maybe if she tried to make an effort to relax, then maybe she’d be able to sleep.
If only minds worked like that.
Light flooded through the window, peering down at the two curled up, intertwined. The soft snores gently caressed Gilda’s ear, before she woke herself up, her talons holding the pony who she sought to help. Her eyes nearly popped out at the sight, wondering if she was trying to imagine this in front of her. Her heart leaped at the feeling, at the warmth Rainbow Dash’s body exuded, but she kept its rhythm steady, and kept that beak shut.
Gilda blinked. What was she going to do? Wait until Rainbow Dash woke up, or try to move her way out of this embrace, hoping that Rainbow Dash doesn’t wake up in the process? She tried vying for the second option, gently moving her arm to see if she had any feeling in it. It barely moved, only her talons were willing to cooperate. The rest of her was numb, which made Gilda sigh as she only had one option remaining.
Wait for Rainbow Dash to wake up.
She could probably speed up the progress. Maybe she could tickle her awake or something, although that would seem a bit out of bounds, especially with everything going on. What else was she going to do?
Contemplate on what’s actually happened?
Gilda kept herself steady, vying to find a way to look away from the embrace she ensnared herself in. She settled on letting her arm remain a hostage, while she was able to entangle her legs from Rainbow Dash’s tail. With her back resting against the floor, Gilda looked up at the ceiling, and sighed.
She couldn’t believe that she was laying next to one of her best friends. The one she had a crush on way back when they were just a fledgling and a filly trying to learn how to fly. They only flew down different paths. Now they were back on the same path, in the sense that they were back to talking again, hanging out in Gilda’s nest.
If hanging out meant snuggling near each other.
Gilda’s ears twitched at the sound of Rainbow Dash’s moaning in her sleep. She nearly flicked her gaze over, but when she felt the mare nuzzle into her side and let out a brief blow, Gilda knew Rainbow Dash wasn’t awake yet.
If Hoedown knew how good she had it, Gilda thought.
Gilda looked back on how badly Rainbow Dash had messed up her relationship with her marefriend. Writing out ‘I don’t love Applejack anymore’ while writing to a griffon that she ‘wanted to chat with’ might be the worst thing Rainbow Dash has ever done to someone mentally. If the roles were switched, Gilda probably would’ve decked Rainbow Dash before telling her to leave, but that’s if she genuinely meant it and was wanting to argue about it.
Hoedown didn’t give Rainbow Dash the time of day. Why? Why did she just tell her to leave? Were all those arguments before just a catalyst for all this? Gilda couldn’t wrap her mind around Hoedown’s logic, and sometimes love does that, not that she would know. She just knew based on Griffon culture. Some scatterbrained fledglings would just give a possible suitor everything she desired. Even the extremely wealthy would too, saying it was love. Little did they know that if one of them trounced up to Gilda with a few million bits in their pockets, she’d tap that just to take the money and dip.
Grinning to herself, she looked over at Rainbow Dash. The only pony that would easily subvert that reality. Gilda didn’t need money from someone like her. She genuinely cared about this pony. Even if they couldn’t be together because neither of them wanted to step over the dotted line, Gilda wanted to be there for Rainbow Dash, through thick and thin. It made Gilda’s heart lurch at this feeling that tickled her feathers and her face.
She swatted at her face with her freed talon, only for her eyes to cross.
The bird shook her head and looked over to see two pools of pink staring at her.
Wait, what?
“R-Rainbow Dash?”
“Good morning, G,” Rainbow Dash replied, smirking. She nuzzled her friend’s cheek. “Thanks for last night.”
“U-Uh, yeah, you’re welcome,” Gilda breathed out as Rainbow Dash freed her arm from its imprisonment. She tried moving it, but it was still numb, falling limp to her side.
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Sorry about that. Your arm was a really good pillow.”
“I see,’ Gilda replied lamely. She couldn’t help but smile at all this. “You slept well?”
“Yep. Not a single bad dream like I’ve had for the past… few weeks.”
Gilda tilted her head. “Were they all about—”
“AJ?” Rainbow Dash interrupted. Gilda nodded, which caused Rainbow Dash to snort. “Yeah. Either about her or about me getting kicked out of the farm. I’ve been living through my own worst nightmare, and I really have been losing it.”
Gilda wiped her smile off her face, and brought her not-numb arm over the mare’s withers. “Hey, you have me to help you get back on track.”
“Yep,” Rainbow Dash replied, melting into Gilda’s side. “Your fur is nice.”
Gilda rolled her eyes. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“What, you don’t like compliments?”
“Considering that we still have to confront your worst nightmare and somehow fix it, I’d keep compliments like that under wraps.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and ducked away from Gilda’s arm. “Then I guess we’ll have to socially distance ourselves.”
“Or you could just, y’know, not say things like that,” Gilda said. She shook her head and walked over to the table, which still sat the remains of their dinner. With a few seconds of honed focus and two working arms, Gilda had cleared the table, leaving Rainbow Dash’s basket alone on it.
“Hey, G?”
Gilda turned around. “Yeah?”
“You really think I’m going to be able to get back with AJ?”
Gilda huffed. “You two were inseparable before this, weren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. She took a deep breath and stretched her wings. “We used to be like that. Like how couples always were. However, we did things differently. We kept all the sappiness in private and focused on being happy for the longest time.”
“And then what happened?”
“Then… we just turned out to be bitter towards each other. I don’t know how it happened. We just stopped being—” Rainbow Dash interrupted herself by rolling her wing, flexing it enough for a kink to finally pop, making her moan happily. The mare blushed. “Sorry about that. What was I saying?”
“That you stopped being—”
“Ah! Thanks, G,” Rainbow Dash said. Gilda felt that heat begin to manifest on her cheeks. The mare continued, “Yeah, we stopped being what we were before. Spent less time together, and quite frankly, we stopped being so close. We only slept near each other, and rarely made any effort to do things together.”
“Well, there’s your problem,” Gilda said, snapping her talons. “When you go back, just ask her to go out on a date again or something.”
Rainbow Dash’s wing twitched at that suggestion. “Yeah, when she actually will let me talk to her. Heck, I can’t even get a word in edgewise. She just walks away from me.”
“Then just wait at the farm until she does talk to you,” Gilda said.
“What?”
The blinking, the scrunched up muzzle, and the ears perking up made Gilda chuckle to herself, much to the chagrin of the blinking, scrunched-muzzle, ear-raised pony.
“What’s so funny, Gilda?”
“Just the fact that you’re pouting like that,” Gilda replied, her chuckles devolving into full blown laughter. “S-Still, just stick ‘round the farm until she decides to talk to you.”
“Like, camp out there? Isn’t that illegal?”
“I don’t know how you ponies handle relationships, but if a griffon is having problems with a suitor, they just wait until the other isn’t mad anymore.”
“Really?”
Gilda nodded. “Sometimes, a griffon or a pony may need some space. Hoedown had enough time to herself from what it sounds like.”
Rainbow Dash just shrugged. “I don’t know. If you think so, then should I just wait right near the gate or?”
“Just make sure you don’t make a move on their property, then you’d be trespassing or whatever your ponies say,” Gilda said with a punctuated eyeroll. “You just want her to notice you again, not have her asking for a restraining order.”
The mare stretched her other wing and sighed. “And if this doesn’t work G? What do I do then?”
Gilda frowned. “It depends on how much you love her, Skittles. If you love her a lot, then you’ll wait until she caves in.”
“And if I don’t?”
Gilda’s eyes widened. “What?”
Rainbow Dash breathed. “If I decide that I don’t love her anymore, that she gave up on us—” She paused, letting out a cough. She looked up Gilda, her eyebrows glowering. “If I fall out of love, what do I do then?”
Gilda felt her whole body go numb. She stayed still, frozen by Rainbow Dash’s words.
What could she do?
Gilda blinked. “I guess you just move on. Find someone new to love. Do whatever it takes to make you happy, Skittles. That’s all that matters in the end.”
The mare in front of her repeated the words softly to herself. Then, she gave Gilda a great big grin. “Thanks, G. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d probably be six feet under ground, knowing how you were sounding in the letters,” Gilda replied, only to smack her talons against her beak. Her eyes were wide, while Rainbow Dash just looked away, walking over to the window. She peered out, the light casting her in a frame that Gilda had never seen before.
Her heart raced as the words tumbled into her mind.
She looks beautiful.
Then Gilda promptly smacked herself upside the head for thinking that.
“Hey, G?”
Gilda walked beside the mare, choosing to keep herself an arm’s length away. “Yeah, Skittles?”
“When everything blows over, do you wanna come to Ponyville and hang out with my friends?”
“I wouldn’t mind. Hopefully your friends will be okay with it.”
Rainbow Dash turned away from the window to look at her friend. “Are you serious? Of course they’ll be okay with it! I’ll make sure they are.”
“Be careful. Fluttershy may still not be huge on me.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “She’ll be fine with you once I tell her about how you helped me out. Don’t worry, I’ll leave out the more… sensitive details.”
Gilda smiled. “Don’t brag about me too much.”
“Pfft, you wish, G. You wish,” Rainbow Dash riposted, smiling all the same.
The mare brought her forehoof up, and left it there.
Gilda knew what this was.
The two shared a hoof bump, their smiles both morphing into smirks.
“Are you heading out?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied. She put her hoof back down on the floor and turned around. “If I’m wanting to fix this, I gotta make the effort right?”
“That you do,” Gilda replied, watching Rainbow Dash walk up to the table. “Need help with that basket?”
“Pfft. You can keep it. I bought it literally for this trip. Besides, knowing you, you’ll actually use it to store some of that stuff upstairs, right?”
Gilda laughed as she walked beside her. “Yeah, I’ll make good use of it.”
Rainbow Dash slid her saddlebags onto her barrel. She fastened herself in, before she spoke, “You better! Next time I’m over here, you’ll have to show me what you did to it.”
“Pfft, I’ll make sure I get it ready for your approval.”
“Hay, yeah! I’ll make sure to have Twilight make me a stamp just so you have it in print that I approve of it!”
Gilda rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so full of yourself.” She bent down and hugged her friend. “See you around, Skittles.”
Rainbow Dash mirrored Gilda’s gesture, only she nuzzled into it, smiling all the while. “Definitely. I’m not letting us be apart for that long again!”
“I’m glad,” Gilda lamely replied, holding onto her for longer than even griffons felt acceptable.
“Hey, G?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you…”
Gilda squawked as she let go of the mare. “Right, sorry.”
The two stared at each other, before laughing their flanks off, nearly keeling on the ground.
Gilda recovered first, opening the door with her talon, while kicking it the remainder of the way with her paw. “Now get out of here. You’re making me feel like a dweeb with all these feelings.”
“Pfft, buck your feelings,” Rainbow Dash said, smirking. “They’re mine too, remember?”
“The feeling’s mutual…”
Gilda blinked as Rainbow Dash slid past her. “Uhh…”
“Later, G!”
With that, Rainbow Dash raced out as she flapped her wings in the sky. Gilda walked further out to get a good look at the mare’s departure, only for her not to see a single speck of the rainbow-maned mare in the sky.
Gilda shook her head. It was always the same with Rainbow Dash. She was a quick thinker, but never one to just return the favor. Even in school she rarely did, unless she was confidently able to. It bothered Gilda just a tad, but not enough to be mad. She could never bring herself to be mad at Rainbow Dash. She—
“Hey, Gilda!”
“Rainbow Dash? Why did you come back? Did you forget something—”
That’s all Gilda could get out when she felt a bit of moisture grace her cheek. Was that a raindrop or?
Then, her eyes widened, as she noticed Rainbow Dash licking her lips. That mare was flapping her wings right in front of her, and her smirk was glaring at her.
Gilda blinked. “Did you just…?”
Rainbow Dash smirked. “That’s for you to decide, G!” Then, she flew off, leaving Gilda gobsmacked on her doorstep.
“She just licked me on the cheek! What the heck?”
Gilda heard the laughter of a certain pegasus in the distance, one that made her feel both happy and embarrassed at the same time.
The griffon smiled. “You’re such a dweeb, Skittles. Such a dweeb...”
Gilda kept her eyes glued to the sky as a rainbow shined brightly for all to see.
Author's Note
First off, thank you for reading. I love all the support and criticism, so don't hesitate to leave some comments.
Secondly, since the credits in the long description are way too long, here are some additional credits:
Gilda's characterization inspired by I-A-M's Featherfall. It's rated M, so viewer discretion is advised there's some sex in it. Please check that one out after reading this (or add it on your read later since it's a long story).
Story was written to a bunch of songs this time around, but the one that helped me finish this story was Hollow Front's Serendipity. :)
Thank you all once again for reading, and I hope you are enjoying your day/night (whenever you're reading this). Stay safe out there!
