Chapter 1: Faults of a Griffon
"No way, i-it was Pinkie pie! She set up this party to trip me up, to make a fool of me!"
"Me?" Pinkie Pie asked, dismayed. "I threw this party to improve your attitude. I thought a good party might turn that frown upside down!" Pinkie Pie said, imitating her own words with actions.
Rainbow Dash spoke up, unable to stay silent any longer. "And you sure didn't need any help making a fool of yourself!" She took an angry step forward, wings erect, forcing Gilda to take a nervous step backwards. "You know, this is not how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends! If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should find some new cool friends someplace else." Rainbow Dash gave her friend a withering glare.
"Yeah, well y-you... You are such an... uh, flipflop!" stammered the griffon, angrily flaring her wings. "Cool one minute and lame the next! When you decide not to be lame anymore, give me a call..." Gilda slammed the door, then quickly flew off.
They had first met in flight school, two creatures each with high hopes for flying. Even back then, Gilda and Rainbow Dash were top of their class, and naturally, they became good friends. They would spend hours upon hours discussing flying tricks or techniques, or telling each other of the unimportant things in life. As time passed, they grew closer and closer, and it almost seemed as though the two were a perfect match. But there was a key difference between them: The fine line between confidence and cockiness.
Gilda didn't care for the lesser fliers. In her mind, there was either natural potential or none at all. Subconsciously, this grew into her personality. But Rainbow Dash thought differently. Being such a brilliant flier, perhaps she could help others to be better, as well as better herself... And it was this very mentality that helped shape the friendship of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
"Come on, Dash. They'll never be as good as us, why bother?" Gilda asked.
The rainbow maned pegasus laughed, brushing off the griffon's words good naturedly. "I know that part, we're probably the best fliers in all of Equestria! But even if they're not us, they can still get better, right?" Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and pointed at a yellow, pinked maned pegasus who was struggling to get off the ground. "Look at her. She's not hopeless, she just needs a little help with her wing technique. I'll be back in a second... or ten." She quickly took off in the direction of the other pegasus, then suddenly turned back. She called back to her friend teasingly, "Who knows? Someday, she might be better than you, Gilda!"
Gilda started indignantly, "Dash! That's not fun-" then cut herself off as she realized that her friend had already taken off again.
"Whatever you say, Dash..."
But quickly as it came, flight school came to an end. And though she had grown far closer to Fluttershy overtime, Rainbow Dash and Gilda promised each other that they would meet again. And meet again they did...
It was a wonderful afternoon in Ponyville. The sun was shining majestically, the blue skies clear of clouds. The birds were chirping melodiously, everypony seemingly enjoying themselves, and all was calm... Or so it seemed. But deep down in the heart of Ponyville, things were not all right. In a certain Sugarcube Corner there was a party taking place, and it should have been a terrific day for everypony, but there were two things wrong with that. Not everypony likes pranks, and not everypony is actually a pony...
The resounding slam of Sugarcube Corner's door was so jarring that it even took Twilight Sparkle a moment to recall what had just happened. "Rainbow Dash..." Twilight started uncertainly, holding a hoof to her ringing ear.
Rainbow Dash longed to shout at her naive unicorn friend, "Don't even try, Twilight. Not even books can teach you everything..." but in actuality, all she said was, "It's fine, Twilight. I wish things could have worked out better, but it's done now. She's changed." while giving her friends an obviously pained smile. "A-Anyway, I should be going now, I'll see you guys later." Rushing out the door of Sugarcube Corner before her friends could catch the tears running down her face, she took off into the sky.
Gilda was flying, not to any place in particular, just soaring over Ponyville. It was natural instinct to flee when in distress, and although Gilda was a creature of pride, there were things that even she couldn't handle. It wasn't hard to see that the griffon was feeling very emotionally strained. As much as she would have liked to brush the event off, she was hurt and confused by the rejection of her former friend. After all, it wasn't everyday that one of your closest friends deserted you. But even so, Gilda felt a piece of her pride shatter for flying away. After all, to her knowledge, only the weakest of fowls flew from their threats. Why didn't I stay? I could have destroyed Dash!
But during this flight, Gilda had a new feeling to accompany her stress: rage. The emotion limited the griffon to silent fuming, unable to think clearly. Dash... Why!? She spotted what looked to be a deserted area, one where nopony could hear her, nor see her. A haven of her own, shielded from staring eyes. Gilda made her decision then and there; it was the perfect place. Skillfully, Gilda pulled into a glide and flew to the ground. The moment she touched ground, she let out an earsplitting cry, letting all of her repressed emotions flow out in that simple, harsh expression.
Unexpectedly, she felt something wet run down her face. She gently ran a talon over the spot, only to feel another tear follow suit. What is this? This wasn't supposed to happen, only fowls cried, not cool griffons like her... right?
A young orange pegasus stared in awe as she watched the majestic creature descend. It pulled effortlessly into a glide, then took an abrupt dive straight toward the ground. Scootaloo couldn't help but let out a tiny yelp of alarm as she saw the maneuver. No matter how many times Rainbow Dash performed it in front of her very eyes, it always took her by surprise. But unlike Rainbow Dash, this creature didn't seem to care about the rapidly approaching ground, taking the plunge full force. Scootaloo swore she heard the very air itself whistle as the creature drew closer and closer. Finally, flaring its dark wings while fluently pulling upwards into a climb just seconds before impact, it ended the descent flawlessly. It was like nothing Scootaloo had ever seen before, as though somepony had perfected the aerial art of flight, and so effortlessly as well! Fascinated, the filly found herself compelled to get a better look at the winged wonder.
Sneaking closer, Scootaloo took cover behind a small bush and marveled. The rather large creature had the sharp and pointed look of an eagle, undoubtedly female. She possessed a fine beak, with a few feathers hanging over head and massive, powerful wings that not even Rainbow Dash's wings compared to. But Scootaloo felt no envy, for it was not of her nature to be jealous of what was naturally and rightfully given to somepony. Scootaloo felt her head start to spin as she gazed down at the strange creature's legs; she had no hooves, but rather two different pairs of limbs. Her front legs were long, golden and slender with hooked talons, while in contrast, her hind paws were large and tough, like a lion's. Rainbow Dash won't believe it when I tell her!
It was only when she looked more closely that Scootaloo actually noticed the subtle features of the creature; her wings now hung limply by her side, as though completely dismissing them now that they were no longer in use. Her sleek brown feathers were clearly ruffled, a common phenomenon among winged creatures which Scootaloo immediately recognized. She knew from experience that it was a sign of irritation, as her own feathers would sometimes do the same when Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom took their jokes too far, particularly that one about her being a chicken, whatever that was...
Scootaloo was jolted from her trance when a piercing shriek rang out into the calm sky, nearly deafening her. She jumped, causing the bush she was hiding behind to rustle noisily. Scootaloo hastily flattened herself to ground, inwardly scolding herself, You stupid foal!, then quickly raised a wary eye in the direction of the creature, which the shriek obviously belonged to. To her very surprise, the creature seemed to take no notice of her surroundings. Scootaloo watched her shiver lightly and swore that she heard a sob escape the avian. Subsciously drawing even closer, contradicting thoughts flocked the filly's mind.
You don't even know her...
She's crying, how bad could she be?
But she's not even a pony.
Dash would have done it.
This very sentiment, along with Scootaloo's pure hearted nature won over; how could she leave anypony alone to cry, especially when she had the chance to make things better?
Scootaloo started to step out from the bush until suddenly, the creature she had been watching twitched her head, and turned around suspiciously, choking her sobs. Scootaloo was beginning to have seconds thoughts again as she saw the creature's front for the first time. It was now clear that she had in fact, been crying. But as soft and fragile as the sobs may have sounded, the expression on her face was anything but. Scootaloo saw the creature narrow its eyes in her direction, and the sudden blaze of anger in the light brown eyes warned the filly that she was not welcome at the moment. Scootaloo instinctively began to duck back behind her cover, but she had already been spotted.
Scootaloo needed no further encouragement as she saw the avian creature take a swift leap in her direction. Glancing around wildly, the frantic Cutie Mark Crusader began to panic as she soon discovered her scooter was nowhere in sight. Where is it!? she thought to herself.
The powerful beating of wings snapped Scootaloo out of her thoughts, far too late. Even so, Scootaloo attempted a mad dash in a random direction, desperate to escape the experience gone wrong. But the moment she turned around, she found herself staring into the furious eyes of no other than Gilda the Griffon. She shrank back as Gilda drew closer and growled very softly, in such a calm, yet threatening tone that frightened Scootaloo more than anything.
"And what exactly are you doing here?"
