//------------------------------// // There was a door // Story: Dead Birds // by Stray Dog Kane //------------------------------// While Fluttershy would have been a welcome return to some form of sanity, Gilda had found the pegasus was already gone. Good news: the note on the kitchen table said the pony was going to be back for dinner. Bad news: the griffon saw that rabbit was eying her from the table. “What?” Gilda said with her claws out, annoyed. “She’s coming back, so what are you getting so ticked about?” The rabbit huffed, pointing to a dish, an empty one. “She’s-coming-back.” She groaned slowly, but the bunny answered by picking up the dish and shoving it into her claws. “Hey, if can wait you can too fluffy,” she added. Angel just tapped his foot, not moving from it’s position. Eventually, the griffon rolled her eyes and let out another groan. “Fine…” Gilda said, and looked into Fluttershy’s fridge. She grabbed some random carrots, tossed them in the dish, and put it down in front of Angel. “There, eat,” she muttered grimly. “Now quit bugging me.” But Angel didn’t, instead he just pointed at other things in the fridge. “Don’t-push-me!” Gilda growled back as she shut said fridge. The bunny rabbit looked upset by that, but she paid him no mind, deciding to go back upstairs---well until the dish hit the griffon’s back with uneaten carrots flying everywhere. That little bunny woke the wrong griffon, that’s for sure. “That’s it!” Gilda’s roar made that clear, and Angel just realized who and what he just angered. He quickly ran as fast as he could. “Come back here you little furball!” she yelled after him. After a delightful chase, with Gilda knocking over the kitchen table and Angel dodging his own dish, the rabbit's luck finally ran. The griffon had him by the ears with a sadistic grin. “I gotcha now…!” she playfully growled at the terrified bunny. But the sound of the door opening cut her off with a loud creak. “Whoa, uh, Shy, he just….oh...” As Gilda stammered, she noticed that there was indeed a pegasus in the doorway, it’s just the wrong one as her voice died in her throat. She still dropped the rabbit anyway and gulped seeing as her blood went cold by the pony now in the house. “What the heck are you doing back here?” Rainbow Dash said coldly. She wasn’t shouting it, but that anger was clear enough. Gilda could feel it. “Uh, hey…” was the most she could come up with, as well as a nervous smile to her most hateful looking old friend. It wasn’t able to keep herself calm, and Dash’s eyes only got more narrow. “I’m just here for, uh, therapy. Huh?” But Gilda’s cud eating grin fell off as the pony drew near. “It doesn’t look like it to me,” Dash dismissed as she came closer, never letting her eyes waver. “You’re still doing the same thing I called you out on, aren’t you?” “It’s was that stupid rabbit!” was Gilda’s quick defense. “He started it.” “Really?” Dash was still not wavering, trotting closer and still angry. “Next you’ll go around blaming other people when you get mad, just like last time. You just never take any responsibility for what you do.” “Says you!” Gilda shouted back, finally back to standing her ground with her own outrage. “You think I’m enjoying this?” “I do!” Dash replied and gave the griffon a shove, pushing her back. “You keep wanting to be “cool”, and when things don’t go your way you just cause problems for everypony.” She looked even more angry at Gilda. “I don’t even know why we were friends.” Another shove came. “My friends are more ‘cool’ than you’ll ever be and you can’t take that!” Gilda didn’t have much to defend herself with there. Her idea of reason did not exist here, and the cyan pegasus wasn’t giving an inch. Dash wasn’t getting any less angry, still coldly staring her down and uninterested in any argument the Gilda had. Right now, Gilda was angry, even more so than Dash. Her teeth and beak grit tightly as she glared back at her old friend. Now neither side was giving any more ground. “Bite me you flip flop!” Gilda roared back her old friend, even blowing the pegasus’s mane with force. “Like you’re even much of a friend to me anyway!” But despite that, the pony didn’t flinch. “You can’t take that and you just want to blame others for how you are,” Dash said as she looked on with intensity. The anger and rage were clear. Gilda would have stormed out, but right now she felt something new. Something just seems to arc through her now, something that made her strong. Her claw clenched fast. “Get back...” Gilda’s voice was now low enough to sound like death, but Dash was not moved. “Make me!” was Dash’s own growl back to her. What happened next was fast that even Rainbow Dash’s look of surprise was registered as she flew backwards after Gilda delivered a quick punch. The pegasus flew right through the front door, splintering it on impact, and landing herself in the snow outside hard enough to bounce once or twice. With enough left to roll the rest of the way. Gilda looked at her own claw with some shock. That was quite a punch! she thought. That felt awesome! Without missing a beat, she lept to the doorway, snapping some bits of door from the bent hinges. “I said get back, floppy!” Gilda said with a bit of smugness. Despite the cold winds outside she felt good. “Now who’s cool, Rainbow Crash?” She even let out a laugh. “It ain’t you, that’s for sure!” Dash got up with a strained groan, but still gave another sharp look. The wind was kicking up faster, blowing the snow around her. But despite that, the pony didn’t even blink. “I-don’t-forgive-you!” Dash coldly shouted back, holding her side with a wince. “This is all your fault, and you’ll never admit to it! Now go disappoint someone else!” She trotted off limply, unaware she hit a new nerve in the griffon’s mind, with Gilda crushing her claw on the bit of wood she was holding. Her rage was there, still running cool in her veins. But despite it, she felt good for herself herself. Or at least she did until that nerve was hit, now it was just bitter anger and feeling sad again. “Fine!” Gilda yelled after, now trembling. “Blame me for being some stupid jerk! It’s not like you’re so squeaky clean either, Dash!” The pony didn’t turn. She just kept going, not looking back to her. Gilda, despite herself, simply shrugged limply and went back inside. Even if she really did want to just tackle the pony down and bash her face in with her claws, it wouldn't help how empty it all felt. She already knew that feeling: that desire to sulk at how pointless things had gotten. But some things couldn't be ignored anymore. Angel was pointing at those facts in shock and awe, his eyes saying it all. “Look what you did!” The bunny could have said. “I can’t believe what you did!” The griffon did a double take, seeing the full weight of her handy work. On the bright side, it got her out of her sad mood. If only to go into a panic. Fluttershy’s door was busted and now snow was getting into the house from the storm outside. Gilda face was now more wide eyed as her teeth clenched with a pinch of panic. “Aw snap!” Gilda uttered loudly. “Shy’s gonna kill me! I’m so dead!” she stated in terror. She then looked to the rabbit, still staring at her. “You got any ideas, little buddy?” she asked, and Angel took that moment to point to itself with a look of confusion. “Just something to plug up that hole. Flat like, wide. Maybe a big table? Anything?” He tilted his head for a moment, with the griffon feeling more and more silly as she was asking for help from this rabbity thing that couldn't talk. “We need to keep the wind out so…” as Gilda continued, the bunny was off again. He only stopped once to wave it’s paw for her to follow. They hopped downstairs, and there Angel pointed out his solution. “She’d kill us both then…” was Gilda’s dry joke on the matter with a worried look. “...Least it’s something, I guess.” “You got any better idea’s, birdy?” Angel could have said, at least with the look he was giving her. The griffon sighed, her worry became a bit of determination as she got to her task. Dr. Shy’s desk was big, heavy, and hard to take up stairs, but it worked! It covered the door so they wouldn't freeze to death, nor ruin more of the pony’s home. Aside from some small bits of snow Gilda could clear out in her sleep. For that moment, the griffon let herself smile. “That’s settled, great!” Gilda said with a sigh of relief, looking at their handy work proudly. “So---who’s telling her what happened?” At this, she heard the sound of Angel zip past his food dish, fast enough to make it spin with a resounding clatter. He was now taking refuge in a hidey hole, far from his owners eventual wrath. “Yeah, you go---do that...” Gilda said with her head low. She could have sighed, but simply moaned. “I better get my story in order...” She headed back upstairs and twiddled her claws, even humming a bit. She was waiting for her end with a form of grim humor. “The rock cried out, I can’t hide you…” she mumbled, trying to get her mind off the situation. But old songs weren't going to get her mind off how dead she was going to be now. With that beat down of Rainbow Dash she did, Fluttershy was going to roast her alive. At least she didn’t put much investment into this plan, Gilda thought, for what that was worth anyway. At least that is what she tried to tell herself, but it didn’t work. Before long, Gilda wasn’t humming and was back to pacing like a trapped lion in a cage, unaware of it’s fate. While she did get her story straight, it never stopped looking flimsy in the thin ice situation she was in. No matter how she told the story of “Dash pushed the right buttons” it all ended the same way in her head. The empty, unhappy return to the asylum with ponies more than likely to gloat about it. She growled at that thought every time it went to that thought. Ponies seemed to make a point to laugh at how sucky things had gotten for her, and were more than happy to say she deserved it. She should have listened to her dad and greeted Dash the same way any “good” pony should have been, by telling the cyan pegasus to get bent. As she thought and thought, she noticed the chill in the air. The griffon would have checked the window if she wasn’t so wrapped up her her grim memories. It was Dash’s fault again, as usual, and the griffon was taking the fall for it again. Her best friend was a bigger flip flop than she could even imagine, her own life in miserable shambles---and with a new best friend with a hand on her back. The cool sensation was sudden, causing her to jerk forward and away from whatever that was. And with a quick turn, she found herself alone again breathing heavily. “I outta tear her...:” Gilda muttered, but that is when she heard a door slam downstairs, ending that thought. Maybe it was to distance herself from the murder intent, but her next thought was simple. “She had a back door or something?” It was quiet for a moment until hoofsteps were heard on the stairs. Then there was another pause, which the griffon took to catch her breath as she attempted to get her head on right. “Gilda...” It was Fluttershy outside her door. “Open this door---now!” And she sounded upset. The tone was firm, like the door itself would have bowed and opened itself if it could. Also worrying, as Shy sounded like she was trying not to get any angrier herself. Which by Gilda’s experience wasn’t going to end well anyway. Still, she opened the door to face the music. “Hey...” was Gilda’s answer to a stone faced pegasus with a cud eating grin, injecting some horrible humor into this. Might as well fail in style, she thought. “How much do you already know?” Oh, the yellow pegasus’s eye twitched. Who’d have thought? “Dash is in the hospital, and my front door is my desk,” Shy said tensely. The anger became more clear, as she pushed her head forward into the griffon’s. “Why?” The look she was giving the griffon look mental, crazy even. The fact those eyes were only a few inches away didn’t help. While smarter creatures would have plead for mercy, or said sorry more than 50 times, Gilda didn’t feel like being that smart. After all, what would that do for her anyway? “She hit the right switches,” she replied, her grin now replaced with a look frustration. “She got in my face and didn’t listen when I told her to back off.” Even so, the pegasus wasn’t budging and she could feel her feathers stand on end like something ran through them. “What?” she added. “So it’s ok to keep siding with her cause I’m the bad guy?” After a pause, with the pony not speaking, Gilda shrugged. “What?” she continued with the Fluttershy still eying her. “I hit her once.” Shy’s eyes were still narrow. “She ticked me off, ok? Would you be happy if she hit me or what?” Gilda ended, scratching her neck feeling more and more unsettled. For whatever reason, the pony was starting to back down. “Why don’t you go yell at her?” Gilda sighed, looking away. Shy’s face relaxed, only after she let out a long sigh. “I know you’re angry at her, but that’s still not excusable,” Fluttershy said slowly. She still looked upset though, but not as angry. “Oh, so it’s excusable if she pushes me around then?” Gilda grumbled back, shaking her head. “I told her so---oh just buzz off then!” She was about to close the door, but a hoof got in the way of it. “My door,” Shy said plainly, looking through the door crack at the griffon. “You are helping me get a new door.” The tone told the Gilda that Fluttershy was willing to drag her by her tail on this, kicking and screaming if she had too. So why not? It’s better than the alternative. “Whatever.” Gilda answered, pushing the door back open with a claw on her head. “Let’s get this over with then.” While the pony still looked stoic, she gestured for the griffon to follow.