ஜ۩۞۩ஜ Flying High ஜ۩۞۩ஜ
The sky was awash with a reddish-orange glow that signaled the coming end of another day. A black speck could be seen cruising among the clouds as it made its way through the air. If one looked closely, they would notice that this speck wasn't just a random bird. It was a gryphon. A proud and majestic creature formed of lion and eagle. This particular gryphon had white feathers lining its head, which were tipped with a royal shade of purple at the crown. The feathers stopped at chest level, where brown fur took hold across its body. Its large wings flapped and its tail, reminiscent of a lion, swayed behind as the creature flew towards the town of Ponyville. As it made the approach towards the edge of town, it opened its beak and said a few short words.
"I can't believe I'm doing this."
The gryphon's name was Gilda.
She had visited Ponyville a few months ago to see her friend from flight school. The friend that had piqued her interest in flying. The only friend she had. And now, because of her temper, she didn't even have that one friend anymore.
Gilda had always been boastful and brimming with pride, a trait she shared with Rainbow Dash, but to a fault. This didn't exactly paint Gilda in the same positive light as her pony friend. Whereas most pegasi would approach Rainbow Dash with praise and respect, Gilda was met with scorn and snide remarks. Eventually, Rainbow Dash's recklessness got her kicked out of flight school, leaving Gilda alone without a friend to see her through.
Gilda shook her head to clear her thoughts of past memories as she glided into the center of Ponyville. She wondered where to head first, and decided on going by the library to ask that nerd unicorn for help.
The sunlight had waned, leaving behind trails of red and yellow that snaked out into starlit darkness as Twilight sparkle finished another round of spell practice with her number one assistant.
"Alrighty then, I think we've done enough for today. That was a lot of hard work, but we managed to do quite well. And you were a great help as always, Spike."
The young drake beamed at the praise and puffed out his chest. "Nothing less from the number one."
"Oh settle down, you!" the lavender unicorn snickered as she began helping Spike replace their used books back on the shelves. Twilight was happy to have Spike assisting her in the library, and he was always there for her to provide help for any problem she might come across, but he did sometimes let it go to his head.
A few minutes later, the library was organized once again. As Twilight and Spike began to wind down for the night, a series of knocks were heard at the door.
"Spike, could you get that?" Twilight asked as she looked over the library one more time to make sure nothing was amiss.
"Sure, but I wonder who'd be coming around this late?" Spike answered as he walked over to the door. He opened it and looked up. Before him stood the full moon in all of its splendor. Before that stood a gryphon. This was the same one from Pinkie's party, Spike was sure. Her yellow eyes seemed to mimic the sun, as the little dragon could almost feel the heat from her gaze.
Gilda had taken a moment to steel herself as she arrived at the Ponyville library, but her thoughts from earlier were still casting a shadow over her mood. When the door opened, Gilda expected the unicorn to be the one answering, but instead found herself looking down at a baby dragon. Gilda had never seen a dragon up close, much less one as young as Spike. She thought he was kind of cute with his large, green, friendly eyes that contrasted sibilant draconic nature, but still wasn't in any kind of mood to dwell on it, as she had business to attend to.
Spike had remembered the gryphon as Rainbow Dash's friend but didn't really give her any thought, as he was too busy tunneling his way through a delicious cake. As Spike was Gilda's first dragon, she was his first gryphon. He took note of her eagle-esque head and lion-like body. Her powerful wings that accented her toned musculature. The front claws and back paws. The twitchy tail. He was still in the midst of giving her the look over when she suddenly spoke.
"Hey squirt, I need to talk to your unicorn friend. The purple one. She lives here, right?" Gilda asked, her tone quick and to the point.
Spike heard the edge in her voice, and he decided to save the questions for later. "Sure, come in," Spike said, slightly nervous as he backed up to let her past before closing the door after her. "Hey Twilight! You've got a visitor!" Spike yelled to the mare upstairs, who was still giving everything the once over.
"Give me two more minutes!" Twilight called down. The unicorn had a habit of trying to make sure everything was perfect, as she thought that Princess Celestia certainly wouldn't approve of anything less. This left Spike alone with Gilda for a bit while Twilight continued her antics upstairs. Gilda had taken it upon herself to get situated on the couch as Spike followed suit. While Spike looked with disinterest around the room, he'd occasionally steal a glance at the gryphon curled up beside him. She had her eyes closed for the moment, and Spike took the opportunity to look her over once more, noticing the purple tips of her head feathers and how she smelled like strawberries. He decided to break the silence.
"So, what do you need with Twilight?"
Gilda opened her eyes and shot a sidelong glance at the dragon and barked "Mind your business, runt!"
"Geez, ok, sorry!"
The little dragling was almost startled off of the side of the couch with her response. Gilda saw his reaction to her outburst and gave herself a mental kick. She'd been impulsive and rude plenty of times before, and what had it gotten her? Nothing good, that's what. "Look, my bad alright? I'm just really tired and stressed right now, and I just need Twilight's help."
Spike noticed the difference in her voice between her outburst and her calm apology and decided that he liked her voice. He was still curious as to what Gilda wanted, so he decided to chance another inquiry.
"So what do you need help with?"
"Personal Stuff," Gilda replied, her voice carrying no emotion except a hint of weariness.
A short while later, Twilight made her way downstairs to greet her guest. "Well now, what can I do for-" Twilight trailed off as she saw the gryphon sitting next to Spike. She remembered Gilda from her last visit. How she managed to make a complete ass of herself, thanks in part to the myriad of pranks that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had pulled on her, which lead to her tantrum and subsequent ousting by Rainbow Dash. Twilight always wondered if Gilda would return to make amends, and here she was, but that didn't leave Twilight any less surprised.
"You're friends with Dash right?" Gilda asked, wanting to get this out of the way as soon as possible.
"Yes I am. And you're her friend Gilda, right?" Twilight asked, wanting be 100% sure that this was in fact the same gryphon.
"Yeah, the one and only. I need to ask you a favor, one that you won't tell Dash about, alright?"
Twilight didn't answer Gilda's question. Instead giddily bounce on her hooves in excitement.
"Oh Gilda, this is wonderful! It's just like this story I read where two lovers are torn apart by jealousy, and then one comes rushing back to beg for forgiveness and they both make up! It'll be just like that with you and Rainbow!” Twilight finished with a squeal. “ Except that, well, I’m sure that you two aren’t lovers, just good friends, but it’ll be similar nonetheless.“
A fire that Gilda tried to quell earlier re-ignited in her chest as she heard the unicorn finish speaking.
Beg? Who the hell does she think I am?
Gilda was too proud to do any of that, and wanted this dork to know it.
"And just who is begging!?" Gilda snapped, her anger making itself apparent.
"Figuratively, not literally, you know?" Twilight said as she shrank back.
Gilda had hopped off of the couch at this point, her ire rising from Twilight's remark. "I don't need to beg or grovel for anything! If that flip-flop doesn't want to be friends again then screw her!” Gilda yelled.
Spike saw that the situation was going downhill, and tried to calm Gilda down. "Come on Gilda, it's not Twilight's fault. Don't blow up at her," Spike said gingerly as he tried to cool down the irate gryphon.
"Stay out of it!" Gilda bellowed as she focused her attention on Spike, who put his arms up in defense.
"Please!" he continued. "Getting mad won't help anything. It didn't help with Dash, and it won't help now."
At this, Gilda stiffened. She remembered why she was here in the first place: to ask for help in apologizing to her former friend. She realized that Spike was right, that getting pissed off would just make things worse. She hung her head and took a deep breath. Slowly exhaling, she looked up at the purple pony and braced herself.
"Look, I'm sorry," Gilda managed. She hated apologizing, but knew that in order to get Dash back, she needed to change her attitude. "I flew off the handle when I shouldn't have, and I want to fix that. I need your help on how to change that so I can make up with Dash."
Twilight and Spike hadn't expected Gilda to calm down so quickly, but once Twilight regained her bearings she offered her help to the gryphon who seemed earnestly repentant. "Of course we'll help you, after all, any friend of Rainbow Dash is a friend of mine. You can stay here with us as long as you need, and i'm sure I can get the others to help as well."
Gilda felt a weight rise off of her chest as she realized that she really wouldn't need to do any begging. She yawned, which didn't go unnoticed by Twilight or Spike. "We were about to get ready for bed, so let's head upstairs. “We have a spare bed for you to use.”
"Thanks," Gilda mumbled. She briefly perked up when she remembered that neither of her tenants promised to keep her secret.
"Listen, both of you have to keep quiet about this. I don't want Dash knowing that I’m here alright? If your other friends are going to help, make them promise too. Dash can't know that i'm here yet," Gilda half-demanded, half-pleaded.
"Of course. Rainbow will never know you're staying with us," Spike chimed in.
At this point, Twilight ushered them both to the bedroom upstairs for some needed rest. Twilight used her magic to pull a bed out of the closet, the same model as her own. Spike's jaw hung open as he watched Twilight set up the bed for their new guest.
"Wait-what! how come I don't get to use that bed?" Spike whined.
"Spike, we have to accommodate our guests. Your basket is fine,” Twilight admonished.
Spike grumbled a little while climbing into his basket for some rest, while Gilda was silent as she climbed into the guest bed.
"Good night Gilda," Twilight said as she pulled up her covers and closed her eyes.
"Sleep tight," Spike said before he drifted off into slumber.
Gilda lay awake for a few more minutes thinking about what she had gotten herself into.
