//------------------------------// // Sweet delights // Story: Dead Birds // by Stray Dog Kane //------------------------------// When Gilda figured it was safe to open them, her eyes opened to see a lake before her. A big one she had to strain her eye’s to see the other side of at least. The sky was blue and it was spring again. While she would have been happy to just sit down for a bit longer, somepony called her attention. “Hey, Gilda?” said a voice not far away. “You up?” Looking in the direction of the voice, she found two fillies near by. One of the pair she recognized. “What is it?” Gilda asked with a groan. The pair didn’t seem to note her displeasure though. “Can you give us a ride into town?” asked Diamond Tiara. “Yeah.” asked the gray foal next to her, Silver Spoon. “We’d get there faster with you!” “I’m not going to fly into town with two fillies riding me the whole time, alright?” Gilda refused. “What do I look like? A cool mount or something?” “Kinda,” Diamond said with a smile. “Yep,” Spoon agreed. Gilda grumbled. “This dream sucks…” she said. “Wait, this dream?” Diamond said with a bit of surprise. “This is mine!” This caused Gilda to blink. Now things were really confused. “What?” Gilda and the Silver replied at the same time. This was new. Pinkie pulling something like this seemed reasonable. Diamond Tiara doing the same was not, however. Fluttershy and Discord really needed to tell the griffon what “exactly” means at this point, but she simply groaned again. “Ok, if that’s how it is, what is it then?” Gilda said as she got up from sitting on, what she found was, a nice lounge chair. “Why do you need to get back to town anyway?” “We’re out of snacks, Gilda, so I was hoping you could get us to the sweet shop in town,” Tiara replied to her, playing along without skipping a beat. “Duh,” she added. “Yeah, duh,” Silver agreed again, and Gilda was now quite tired of this. “Get your own snacks,” she answered back to them as she was about to lay back down. “If this is your dream, you can do it.” “Is something wrong, my dear?” said another pony the griffon hadn't noticed. Gilda looked and noticed him, he’d been resting up to this point in another chair by the water. “Nothing daddy, were just out of snacks!” Diamond called back to the other earth pony. “Ah,” The daddy, Filthy Rich replied. “Gilda, dear, could you help? You're faster than I am you know.” “They aren’t riding me!” was Gilda word on that. “Hmmm, I see,” Filthy said with a hoof to his mouth and a funny look. “Can you walk with them at least, dear? I need my rest for now.” He got up onto his hooves, pulling out a saddle purse. “Here. Er, can you get something for me too?” He smiled as he spoke, pleadingly. “Please?” “Oh, whatever,” Gilda sighed as she took the purse, and then looked to Diamond. “We need to talk later,” she told the foal in a low voice. The foal nodded, and while she was about to say something more, Gilda already knew what it was. “You can walk, it’s exercise,” Gilda answered preemptively. Diamond looked annoyed and stomped a hoof in a huff. “Besides, if we flew you’d fall off and….” In a stroke of irony, when she looked in the town’s direction to find it wasn’t much more than a few feet away. Gilda rolled her eyes, this dream was pushing it. Or the fillies next to her saw themselves above a short walk, either way she was annoyed. They walked and trotted there, but the griffon didn’t know this place she was at. Thing’s looked overly fancy for one. Even the old empire didn’t try to look this pretty with it’s architecture. The frilly-ness gave her reason to cringe as they walked by odd dressed ponies with hats. Next that music, oh that music that seemed to play everywhere. There was sickeningly cheerful, and then there was what played in her ears right now. If those birds--no the birds were whistling along to it too. Why? Why is it like this? Right now, the happy picture she was seeing is getting sickening. “Where is this?” Gilda asked with nervous tone, as a pony on a bike rode by and she could see a clown pony juggling. “It’s Prance,” Diamond Tiara replied to her with a happy tone. “Yeah, it’s a center of art and culture,” said Silver Spoon said after, just as cheerful. “Everyone knows that!” “No wonder I never heard of it…” Gilda muttered with some sarcasm. Tiara seemed to hear that and looked at her funny. “I know that name at least. So, that thing the Pieful Tower?” she asked pointing at said tower in the distance. “No,” Said Diamond with a face hoof. “Pieful….why would you think that?” She looked at the griffon with humor, even enjoying a bit of a chuckle. “This place have good eating at least?” Gilda asked with a shrug. After all, the idea of pie did sound like something to her. “Yeah, huh!” the foal pair said in unison. That wasn’t creepy at all, the griffon thought as she looked aside. “Eclairs,” said one. “Mille-feuille,” said the other. “Croissants,” Diamond added. “Chocolate Mousse,” Silver added. “Salmon terrine?” Gilda piped in. “What?” they said in unison and confusion. Gilda rolled her eyes and sighed. “This place better have meat…” she grumbled to herself. “So where we going to? Can you read the language?” she asked, after seeing more than a few signs she couldn't read. “Of course she does!” said Silver with a nod and a haughty smile. “She learned it before the trip, after you and-” “Don’t worry Gilda, it’s not that far away,” Diamond interrupted, pointing a hoof in a direction. The silver foal looked a bit annoyed by being cut off, but still shrugged. Sure enough, there was a store for snacks in that direction. They had cakes, bigger cakes, but no gingerbread. The pair of kids seemed to know a lot more about what these kinds of desserts there, so Gilda just let them pick things out. Chances were, the Mr. money bags pony was able to afford it. It was then the dread came to Gilda of what she had to carry back--before she saw something that caught her eye. “Woah, whipped lemon frosting!” Gilda said, as her mind sidetracked. “Now that’s tasteful!” So she got her share of it too. It was still about 2 cakes worth, with a bunch of smaller cake-bread style things she didn’t feel like knowing the names of. While the foals did carry the small stuff, the griffon still was the carrying of said larger cakes back to the park they started at. “Next time, we get a cart,” Gilda muttered angrily to herself, but then a clerk popped in. “Pardonnez-moi, mademoiselle oiseau,” said the bakery clerk pony, with Gilda unable to understand a word of anything. “Si vous avez besoin, nous avons un panier pour vous aider à réaliser ceux-ci.” “Wha?” was Gilda’s answer as she stared back. “Oui. Oui,” Diamond replied to the clerk, knowing the language. “S'il vous plaît. Elle est très fatiguée en ce moment.” The clerk nodded and pulled out a small cart, which Gilda was quite happy to put the cake load onto. Even if it was tempered by the fact she was likely pulling the thing. She still shrugged, and got to moving the thing. Diamond and Silver at least were carrying their own saddle bags as well. “Vous êtes les bienvenus mon cher!” the clerk said, waving happily. “S'il vous plaît donner mes meilleures salutations à votre mari chanceux.” he added respectfully. “What the heck is he saying?” Gilda asked, annoyed by the clerks cheerfulness. “I wouldn't worry about it,” Diamond Tiara replied, trying to looking innocent. “Let’s just get back to daddy, then we’ll talk? Kay?” ”Hopefully in a way that doesn’t sound crazy…” Gilda muttered to herself with a sigh. The griffon could hear the pair whisper from time to time, but she paid it no mind. Some “totally” this, and “so cool” that, it sounded like those two were talking about accessories instead of actions. Well, except that part about lording over the blank flanks. Time to gloat was still precious it seemed. Meanwhile, Gilda hoped that cake tasted good, and more importantly find out why she ended up in somepony else's dream. Filthy Rich was up when they got back. He was overjoyed, giving them all a hug--and Gilda a hug and a kiss on the cheek. That told her something, and that something wasn’t good. Luckily things mellowed out between them after. They had a bit of a party then, and the cake was had. As Gilda expected, that lemon cake was beyond awesome. Diamond was talking, mostly on those boring things. Pretty gems, fine looks, her plan to help her dad with business stuffs. With Rich being proud of his daughters incentive. Being a griffon, Gilda was more into gold and wishing for some adventure stories. That and looks were boring to her as well. This kind of thing was going to lull her to sleep before too long. At least she would have, if Rich didn’t keep her awake. As she was expecting, he did his best to carry some kind of conversation with her. How she was feeling, her eyes, how he was glad her and Diamond were getting along so well. The griffon wasn’t sure if she was more tired from this or just bothered. When the cake was gone, the party was over. They all walked to a hotel, or Gilda was going to keep telling herself that despite the size of it, where Rich already had a room. She would have been worried a bit on that, but he said he had some work to do before he was going to bed. He happily bid them adieu and left saying he will be back. Now all she had to do was wait for Silver Spoon to tire herself out and then Diamond Tiara has a lot to answer for. Thankfully, that was done for her, Diamond asked Silver to go ready some tea for them, leaving them in the same room alone. “So, Gilda, what do you want to talk about?” Diamond Tiara asked with a smile on her face. “I’m some trophy wife here, aren’t I?” Gilda said with a straight face, and that took the filly’s smile away. “I’ve seen enough ritzy griffons where I was like that.” “Um, is it good?” Diamond asked nervously. “No,” Gilda said stoically through her teeth. “It isn’t!” “Come on!” Diamond said, indigent. “My daddies got everything, and you would be the coolest mother.” “Coolest mother…right.” Gilda repeated, rolling her eyes and holding her head. “And I’m guessing you're the pretty little princess, huh?” “And why not?” Diamond replied without irony. “It’s a cool life.” “Because I’m annoyed enough already by it,” Gilda replied to that as she got ready to go. “W-wait, where are you going?” Tiara looked fearful on that. “I”m not being part of your stupid fantasy, kid,” Gilda said as she opened the window. “But, but…” Diamond whimpered back. “He spoils you, and you are going to expect the same,” Gilda added. “So no. Bye.” She got her wings ready and took off. “NOOOOOOOO!” Diamond Tiara yelled as she came after the griffon. While Gilda knew herself for taking off fast, somehow the kid was on one of her legs. Dangling on her hind paw by her hooves as she flew in the air. “Cut it out!.” Gilda yelled as she flew, annoyed by the baggage. “Are you nuts?” “Don’t leave me!” Diamond cried out, but still holding on. “I’m not your mom, this is a dream and….whoa!” Gilda stopped herself, as she nearly ran into a airship when she wasn’t looking. The name “Notre dame de diamant” read along it’s side. While a quick stop was easy for her, it was enough to cause her little stowaway to lose her grip and the foal fell screaming---at least, until she got to flying herself. Gilda looked in brief confusion at the, now flying, pink pony for the moment it took for the kid to fly into her. Tiara knocked the wind out of the griffon and was clutching her tightly. “How did you….” Gilda tried to ask breathlessly, but Diamond interrupted fast. “Please….” she said, sobbing into the griffon’s chest. “Don’t go…” She kept crying into Gilda for a moment as the griffon kept in the air. “What is your deal?” Gilda asked in some attempt for getting answers, but Diamond just kept sobbing. The griffon sighed, seeing no harm in landing on a cloud nearby. After the landing, she pried the sad filly off of her. “Ok, just….try to explain, alright?” she asked softly. “Ok…” Tiara replied, still moist with tears. “Why am I your mom now?” Gilda asked quietly. “This is waaay past what I do, kid.” “Because,” the, now pegasus, Tiara whimpered. “You gave me that hug, and that other stuff.” Despite her smugness mere moments ago, the kids vocabulary had took as much of a nose dive like her ego did. “Ok,” Gilda said slowly, trying to be impartial. The last thing she needed was the kid screaming again. “Don’t you have those other ponies for that? Your dad, your little friend?” She knew what would be brought up. “I know they are out for now, but they will get better, so lighten up.” The kid nodded but shook her head. “It’s just….” Tiara tried to speak. “What’s wrong with it?” she asked sadly. “Answer me honestly, ok kid?” the kid nodded as Gilda asked. “Do you expect me to be like him? All joyful, and giving you stuff when you ask for it?” The filly nodded again. “I don’t do that.” “Why?” Tiara asked back. “I’m a bird you cannot change,” Gilda said pointing to herself. “I’m not interested in that setting down crud. And besides, why should I care for that kind of stuff anyway?” “But, I thought you did,” Tiara said softly and sadly. Crud, Gilda thought, the waterworks were starting again. Still, instead of annoyance she felt a bit of pity. “Hey, if it’s about that hug that was weird for me too,” Gilda replied nervously as she rubbed her neck. “I mean, with what happened to you and stuff, I felt bad for you. OK?” She then had to figure out the next part as the kid just sat on that cloud expectantly. “What happened to you sucks, but that doesn’t mean I’m someone who wants to stick around doing everything you ask. Ya know?” Diamond nodded. “But, can’t you at least stay?” she asked pleadingly. “Please?” “Maybe I could stay for…” Gilda started to say, looking away and feeling awkward as she spoke it. But it was still enough to have the little foal hugging her without crying. “I know the ponies you have are out of it, and that sucks, but why do you only have just them?” she asked the less sad pony. “I don’t know about my mom anymore, and Silver’s my only real friend.” Diamond replied simply, letting go for a moment to look up at the griffon. “Why is that?” Gilda asked seriously. “And don’t say reasons. It’s kind of getting old.” “Because she was the only other pony that wasn’t just some loser who thought they were cool,” Diamond Tiara answered. Gilda tried not to think about how resembling that sounded. She tried her best, but couldn't. “Maybe...how uncool are the blanks?” Gilda said cautiously. “Totally uncool,” Diamond said simply with a smirk. On a good note, the kid wasn’t a sobbing mess now with her ego back. “Thinking they’re so much cooler than everyone else cuz they got a little group.” “How unlike anyone I know…” Gilda added as an aside. The kid seemed to notice that, giving her an unhappy look. “Don’t worry about it kid, I’m not one to judge.” the griffon replied back with a smirk. Still, there was just one other thing she was meaning to ask. “Why the heck do you have wings now?” Gilda asked the winged, former earth pony. “Hey!” It seemed, only now did Diamond Tiara noticed that. She hopped to another part of the cloud and her smile was wide at the realization. “I do! That’s so…” She was quite delighted as she looked at her wings. “It was how you were flying, yeah.” Gilda continued, nowhere near as excited as the filly. “But how did that happen?” While she would have wanted a quick answer, it didn’t come. The filly simply squealed with glee as she flew circles around the cloud. Diamond Tiara finally got the rest of her usual composure back, though blushing quite a bit. “I guess, if I just thought about it hard enough about it, it comes true,” Diamond said with an embarrassed shrug. “Pretty cool, huh?” “You think that can be done with other stuff?” Gilda asked as she watched the delighted filly. “Maybe...” Diamond answered with a smirk. She then put a hoof to her head, and from her head came a horn. “Great, now you're a double princess!” Gilda added, and even Tiara had a bit of a laugh as well to that. “Guess dreams work like that, huh?” the double princess Diamond Tiara said, gleeful. “You can get anything you want if you try enough.” The kid landed back on the cloud next to the griffon, nowhere near as sad as she had been before. “Yeah, in dreams sure,” Gilda said, looking aside, and trying to think of something to get out of more pink princess prancing. At least, unlike Diamond, she remembered they had to wake up soon. “Hey, in the real world, that one blank earth pony, the apple kid right?” Gilda asked the filly. “The one that offered you a place for Hearth’s Warming?” “She just some lowly farm pony, digging in dirt and…” Princess Diamond replied with haughty humor, but the griffon didn’t let the princesses ego ruin what she was about to advise again. “Take her up on it,” Gilda said seriously. Maybe it was how strange things had gotten, but only vaguely did she notice she was a griffon interrupting an alicorn. “Seriously.” “But why, she’s….” Tiara looked upset on being told this. “Kid, listen,” Gilda stated back, but the little princess didn’t look like she wanted too, even looking defiantly away. So, the griffon caught hold, stopping the little one’s flying. “Listen to your imaginary mom, alright?” Gilda added with a sigh. That’s a strange line, even Diamond Tiara eyed her like that was loopy. “But I don’t like her,” Diamond answered in a low tone, still looking away from the griffon holding her. “I know, and I know why,” Gilda replied as she turned the filly towards her. “Maybe more than you know.” “What do you mean by that?” Tiara asked back. “Let’s just say, we got similar problems on things, okay?” Gilda answered, unsure how she would even start to explain. “Just, kinda older I guess.” “What if they just gloat because I went to their level?” Diamond asked as she looked back. Despite being a pink princess, she looked scared by this. “I’ll pluck out their eyes,” Gilda answered, if jokingly. The fact the kid hugged her tightly for that statement was a bit funny. Or scary, it can be hard to tell sometimes. “I love you mom!” Diamond Tiara said as she hugged the griffon. “Gah!” Gilda yelped as she woke up, off the floor wide awake. She let out a sigh as she held her head for a moment. She did pause to notice her jolt left her blanket on her head now. She could see the blanks were still a snooze. But Diamond Tiara was also up now, looking at her. Both looked more than a bit surprised when they saw each other. “Don’t...get...weird, ok?” Gilda said with a grumble, looking the kid in the eye. Tiara quietly nodded with a nervous look and a nervous giggle. “Stuffs weird enough as is.”