Five years before the release of Nightmare Moon there was a young griffin who lived in Griffinstone whom experienced a very traumatic experience. This Gumdrop and this is her story.
Gumdrop was a young griffin, her colours resembled a pink and grey galah bird, pink feathers all over her body but her wings were grey, she had a yellow beak, claws and aqua coloured eyes. She lived with her parents and siblings, two older twins named Grace and Grain and two younger siblings named Gale and Gabe.
Her family, besides Gabe despised the fact she was pink when they were all of grey, brown or white colours, with either brown or dark green eyes. She did the most chores and many looked down upon her. Each sibling was only three years apart from each other, at the time of the incident Gumdrop was ten, the twins were thirteen, Gabe was eight and Gale was five.
“You can have dinner after you finish sweeping” was commonly ordered along with others.
“Clean my room”.
“Clean this spill”.
“Sew this”.
“Mend that!”.
Gumdrop never complained, she always believed that like in the tale of the girl who had two ‘evil stepsisters’ and an ‘evil stepmother’ she will end up proving them wrong, she always waited for the day her true love would trot her to happily ever after. Gabe was the only one who cared for her feelings most of the time, he was mostly grey but with a white underbelly and green eyes, he had brown stripes on his wings too.
Gumdrop always treasured that moment when he snuck a slice of cake to her after she dropped a cup by mistake and was scolded, slapped and sent to bed early. She was only ten when that incident happened, the one that would burn in her mind forever.
Her parents had to go to work, the twins had to go and take little Gale to the hospital as she wasn’t feeling very well leaving Gumdrop alone with Gabe. Gumdrop promised her parents that nothing bad would happen to Gabe, this was her first time taking care of and being trusted alone with her younger siblings.
“If anything happens you’re in big trouble” Her father warned as he walked out the door.
Gumdrop sat in the middle of the room, their house was quiet small, the staircase only led to the upper floors that had four bedrooms. The lower floor was one whole room, a rectangle table with seven chairs was close to the fireplace where food was cooked. The walls were made of wood and brick with the floor being plain stone.
The buildings in Griffinstone were all badly damaged, the roofs were made of straw, the same as the griffin’s beds, which were always nests. Walls and roofs usually had holes and showed signs of decay, visitors from outside were null.
Back to Gumdrop; she was standing and staring at the door until Gabe gently tugged on her tail, he looked up at her with a smile.
“Can we go to the lake, pwease?” He begged.
Gumdrop started to sweat nervously, her gut started to ache as if it was trying to tell her something.
“As much as I want to say yes... there’s something...” She whispered, “I don’t want to getting hurt”.
Gabe looked at her, not understanding what she said, he was confused because Gumdrop loved the water, she would splash in it whenever possible. Even worse was that Gumdrop promised him that she would take her to the lake bellow Griffinstone’s hill.
“But you promised...” Gabe begged.
Gumdrop continued with her stern expression, she did not want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt.
“No... can’t, I’m scared that something is lurking for us...”.
“But... I heard no one got hurt down there” He explained.
“It’s because you’re too young to know... I read newspapers to read the tragic losses that happened down there lately...” Gumdrop sighed out loud.
“I promise I’ll be really careful” He hugged her and gave cute puppy dog eyes.
Gumdrop looked at them and sighed in defeat knowing she lost.
“Fine... just ten minutes... and if we see anything out of place we go straight home!” Gumdrop sternly stated.
Gabe nodded, “You’re the best big sister”.
Gumdrop opened the door, her stomach still ached and a voice in her head spoke to her.
“Turn back”.
She ignored it, however, and went on towards the lake with Gabe on her back.
~•••~
When they arrived Gabe noticed some land in the distance, he looked in awe, he knew it was Equestria, he wanted to explore it someday. The land amazed him, he only heard it from some gossip he overheard. It’s the land of ponies, where the legendary alicorn that rose the sun lived, he wondered if the strange unicorn mark on the moon had anything to do with her, probably not.
One day Gabe wanted to visit the legendary alicorn, assuming it’s real of course and thank her for raising the sun and give her a big hug, the sun was warm and toasty. He also wanted to ask what it’s like to raise the sun and how does she do it, does she fly into space and jump on the sun to lower and and drag it up to raise it? He had so many questions for her.
It was his dream to travel to Equestria and ask her those many questions, he wondered about the moon too, why was there a unicorn mark on the moon? Was she painting a picture and ran out of space so she painted on the moon and it didn’t wash away?
Maybe there was a unicorn mark on the sun but everyone told him to not stare at the sun, so he didn’t look for a mark on it.
“Let’s stay in the shallow end, okay?” Gumdrop asked.
Gabe didn’t listen, he jumped in just where the water met the land and pointed at a rock offshore.
“I’ll race you to that rock!” He called out as he jumped in.
Being older, therefor, a faster swimmer Gumdrop let him have a head start before she jumped in and started to swim after him. Her stomach ached making her go a bit slower, she decided stop for a moment, her gut was trying to tell her something, she swam slowly not focusing on the race.
“I win! I win!” Called out Gabe as he climbed on the the rock and laughed in victory.
Gumdrop gave a weak chuckle, she seemed to have stopped a bit longer than she realised. She was about to call out and congratulate him but then she saw a giant crocodile tail, she panicked.
“Watch out!” She cried as she started to swim faster.
The crocodile went underwater, Gabe looked down, he was confused at what she was calling out at him for.
“Watch out for what?” He asked.
Gumdrop’s heart raced, her voice shook. Gabe wasn’t able to fly yet, he had his flying lessons next week, however.
“S-stay there, I’ll come over and get you” She felt a chill from her body.
“S-sis, you’re scaring me” Gabe noted.
Gumdrop swam towards the rock, she was shaky making her slow down as she tried her best to reach the rock before the crocodile. What happened next was what no one was expecting or wanted. The vile reptile leaped out of the water and grabbed Gabe in its jaws.
Time seemed to have froze for a second, Gumdrop’s heart was racing, she screamed as loud as she could in distraught. She looked into the water and watched as blood rose to the surface, tears were coming from her eyes as she tried to process what was happening.
“Gabe” She muttered.
All sound was blocked out, Gumdrop’s stomach turned and heart raced as she frantically stayed afloat, claws and legs panicking in the water. At that moment she forgot how to swim, she sunk into the water, she didn’t even try to swim up. Water filled her body slowly, the last things she saw was Gabe’s corpse floating in the water, she closed her eyes and everything went dark and quiet.
~•••~
Gumdrop was sure she was dead but she head some muttering, she slowly opened her eyes to find herself in her own nest at home. She heard her older sister call out but she didn’t hear what it was, everything was muffled and blurred, she started to breath heavily.
The next thing she knew her own family was looking at her angrily, her own mother gave her a huge slap across the face. Gumdrop looked around and heard her brother snarl.
“Looking for this?” He asked.
Gumdrop looked to see him on his hind legs with Gabe’s corpse in his arms.
“Gabe!” Shrieked Gumdrop.
“Yeah, your own brother who you murdered!” Shouted her father.
“Murderer” Snarled her older brother.
“I hate you!” Shouted Gale, it hurt worse that was her first clear sentence.
Gumdrop could only bow her head in shame, she felt her mother pick her up, take her downstairs and throw her outside.
“You don’t belong here anymore”
Without another word her family slammed their door shut, Gumdrop looked around and watched as other Griffins flew away, shut their windows or hid their children.
~•••~
The next five years were full of hiding, begging and stealing just to survive the harsh town of Griffinstone. She would often get beaten up by her former family whenever they crossed paths, she believed she deserved it, Gabe’s death was her own fault.
Sometimes she could cry all night, and sometimes in her dreams she would see a blood stained image of Gabe asking her why she killed him. She would get flashbacks whenever she thought about or even saw deep water, it would make her freeze in fear and cry.
One night she did see a shooting star, she gasped and made a wish.
“I wish for a friend, any friend! Please! Even if they aren’t a griffin I’d be happy!”
