While Gilda’s original plan was that the Snark was going to be in her claws when she arrived, she found that he wasn’t. That little wrinkle had her looking frantically in the crowd she was now in.
While she wasn’t sure what Hearth’s Warming Eve looked like outside of flight camp, the mixture of a large party with carnival rides, games, and much more was likely more than the usual. By a lot.
Now that’s a stack effect! She thought.
“Yo, Gilda!” The griffon turned to see a cheerful Rainbow Dash. “Come on, you don’t want to miss this.” Not far from her was Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, they were waving to her.
The other three pony squad members were ahead of her, joining in the festival. Beyond that, a sea of ponies of all shapes and colors enjoyed themselves. She couldn't recognize much of any of them, names and faces were hard to remember.
“This is new,” Gilda muttered to herself, still looking through the crowd. With all the shapes and color on display, even she had doubts she could find a white pony with spots of red.
“Hey, hey Gilda! Pinkie chimed in, bouncing up to her “Why ya just standing there?” The other two, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, had trotted to her when she wasn’t looking. “Weren't cha looking forward to this? There’s candy, and rides, and all kinds of neat stuff!” her smile widened as she spoke, holding a balloon up. “And balloon too.”
“I take it they float?” Gilda remarked, still trying to look.
“Ohhhh yes, they float Gilda!” Pinky replied with a low voice. “They float.” The low tone was either creepy or perverse. Can it be both?
“It’s just that I’m looking for something and-” Gilda stated and was still trying to look as Fluttershy cut her off.
“Who are you looking for Gilda?” Shy asked. “Can we help?”
“White pony, kinda dark mane, lots of red on his muzzle.” Gilda described. “Blue eyes.”
“That’s a weird clown!” Pinkie replied at the description.
“Judging by the happy world land feel, I guess he’s nowhere near here.” Gilda muttered as she saw her plans were floundering again.
“Why would a clown not be here?” Pinkie asked wit her head tilted. “Is he a sad clown G?”
“Angry clown,” Gilda answered stoically. “A really angry clown and I gotta go find him.” She readied for takeoff.
“Wait, what about the festival?” Dash asked in a pleading voice, looking her in the eye. “Don’t you want to come with?”
The griffon stopped for a moment. Even if she knew what was going on, it felt hard to do now. Dash and the others really wanted her to enjoy this festival, she could feel it. It felt painful to say no, or even good bye.
But still, she walked to Rainbow Dash and gave her a hug.
“I’m sorry Dash,” Gilda said softly. “I can see this is important and all, but I got to save your life right now.” The griffon let go of the now shocked looking pony and flew off as fast she could, not looking back.
Gilda could hear the cyan pegasus shouting after her, she reminded herself it was still a dream. The real Dash was just as likely bitter towards her still anyway.
Still, how would she find the Snark?
“Dawwww, you’re going to make widdle Dash cwy,” he said, ending her search. “I hear you were looking for me?”
In some snowy plain, away from the merriment and warm weather, the Snark sat on a icy chair. With a icy table and icy tea to drink.
“Party too happy for you?” Gilda joked as she landed.
“I could ask you the same,” the Snark counted as he drank from his cup. “If your grand plan was for me the land in the middle of it, you are dumber than that dog you knew.”
“How bout I pummel you down, and drag you there?” Gilda added, cracking her claws. The Snark was unafraid, even looking glad. “How’s that for a day of it?”
“So you won’t change your ways, huh Gilda?!” Gilda paused at that voice, that wasn’t the Snark. She looked to her left and found Dash was there, and she looked pretty angry. “If you can’t lord over it, you just beat it up until you can!” she growled.
“Hey, he’s the bad guy here!” Gilda counted as she pointed to the cloud pony.
“Says you!” Rainbow Dash shouted back, trotting up to the griffon. “You're the reason he exists! And now you think it makes everything good if you can stop him, huh?!” Gilda wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Well it doesn’t! You messed with my friends, ruined Ponyville, I bet you didn’t learn a thing! Why would you, if it didn’t “magically” make us friends again!” she added with hoof quotes.
Gilda tried hard not to let this get to her, this wasn’t real after all. It was “The Snark” getting to her using Dash’s voice. Still, this Dash was getting in her face, not even giving the her a break.
“What have you got to say for yourself, ‘bird you cannot change’?” Dash said coldly at the griffon, prompting her to back away, faltering even further. “I can’t believe we….”
“Dude, what!” said another Rainbow Dash. Dash looked about as surprised as Dash was.
Apparently, the pegasus had followed Gilda from the celebration, and the Snark’s Dash was standing in shock for a bit as well. But that shock ended, replaced with another smile from the creature.
“Oh, we’re in for some fun now kiddies!” the Snark said with a gleeful laugh, clapping his hooves.
“Why are you bullying Gilda?” Dash demanded from her reflection. “Do you realize how much of a jerk you are being?”
“ME?” Angry Dash shouted back at her other. “Are you even aware of how bad this griffon is for a best friend?” she jabbed her doppelganger chest at she stated it. “You did yourself a favor when you got rid of her!”
“That doesn’t mean you can be just keep blaming her!” Dream Dash defended, pushing the hoof away. “Unlike the Gilda you are talking about, this Gilda was able to talk to my friends.” Each of Dashes were now staring the other down, only inches away from each other. “And if she a good friend to my friends, what Gilda griffon are you talking about?”
“If you weren't me, I’d hit you right in the muzzle!” Angry Dash said with grit teeth.
“Don’t let that stop ya, poser!” Dream Dash replied, raising her hooves.
The Snark was laughing now, causing both Dashes to give him an angry glare for a moment. Gilda felt equal parts awkward and nervous. She could try stopping this, but she wasn’t sure how.
“Heck, old G here just wants the glory of taking that creep down,” Angry Dash said as she pointed a hoof at the griffon. “Probably thinks that make things good, win back that trust she lost.”
“That’s not….” Gilda was about to say.
“So what?” Dream Dash dismissed as looked to the griffon. “The way I see it, she doesn’t need to win it back.” Gilda stood in shock now. “She got over herself.”
“Say’s you!” Angry Dash cut in. “If she’s so over herself, why is she so scared of REALITY?” Angry Dash’s body began to give, losing its solid nature. “You’re just an illusion, making her feel better about herself.” Her voice changed to the Snarks tone of voice. “Then she can dread being awake and hearing the real you. The one that doesn’t forgive or forget!”
Dream Dash looked with wide eyes as Angry Dash was reduced to a cloud. She continued to stare in confusion as the cloud formed of leg that promptly kicked her away into the distance.
“Board now!” the Snark said as the dream Dash became a speck in the sky. “Didn’t feel like letting this slip into more “nice/jerk” banter. I got things to do, you know!” He shrugged as Gilda gave him an angry look as she cracked her claws again. As she walked up to him his smile only widened. “Even they get sick of it you-”
His own banter was cut off as Gilda lifted him by his neck and hit him with a clenched claw.
He laughed, so she hit him again, and again. “You really…” Pow! “...Think this makes…” Socko! “...A difference?” The griffon paused for a moment, letting him talk. “I mean, I could be making a cloud kicked her joke right now!” He hit back with a gale of wind, blowing her back. But with a few wing flaps, Gilda managed to stand her ground.
“Shut up,” she said in a low tone, before loudly rushing into him like a bolt and slamming him up with a uppercut. She didn’t wait for him to land before delivering a more focused punch and sending him up several feet. “That all you got?” Gilda shouted after. “I’m just getting warmed up!”
“How bout this?” the Snark declared, closer than she thought.
Somehow, she was pounced on from behind. Her wings flapped in a panic as she tried to get that weight off of her. After getting a grip on one arm, she threw her attacker off. Then, she saw something that caused her pause as panic drove into her.
“Surprised?” said the saber tiger in front of her. It was the Snark again, hitting another button. “Remember the real reason you didn’t take to tiger hunting?” Gilda grit her teeth in fear. Then the Snark screamed at her with a toothy, fanged maw. “EH, GILDA?!” The griffon scrambled back. “Remember those tales about the Saber Tigers, little bird?”
He had the form of one of the few creatures that griffons truly feared. Even an adult griffon can vanish into a forest, only to be found the next day as tiger chow. She backed away, trying to fight back that terrified feeling.
“Maybe we can have that conversation now?” the Snark said with a fanged smile. “Or do you just want to keep fighting? It won’t matter, but you can choose.”
“Argh!!!!” Gilda roared as she charged at him, only for him to dodge aside and raked his claws across her side. He’d have done more if Gilda didn’t ignore the pain and did a dodge to avoid his heavy swings of his paws.
“That’s the reason, you just keep running into things,” the Snark said, knowing what was going on in her head. “Then mister tiger, waiting in the brush can just get mister, or miss to be fair, griffon while his, or her again, flank is exposed.” He looked on at Gilda as she caught her breath. “And that’s why you need things like me.”
“We ain’t friends,” Gilda replied as she held her cuts. “It’s not real…” she muttered, trying to will away her injuries. She just had to remember they weren’t real.
“Like that’s going to help,” the Snark added, he wasn’t shutting up so she flew at him again.
He feinted, so she countered by blinding him with a heavy wing blow. Now, having been swatted in his face and being knocked off balance, she lay into him. A left, a right, another left, another uppercut.
She struck him in the air, flew up after him, struck him higher, and then gave a powerful blow with her beak, sending him hurtling down fast. She flew above her handiwork as it crash landed into a crater deep crater.
What do you know? Will is a powerful thing! She thought.
“Oh, that smarted me, eh hehehe,” the Snark said as he pulled himself back up, then began hopping up after, not even able to get up that high. “No fairs,” he whined. “You flying like that, I wish tigers could fly too…” Then he grinned. “...hey, they can!” And he flew up, claws out, baring his fangs. Gilda descended to meet him in the middle.
They traded blows, punches, and scratches in mid air. It ended with another beak blow to the Snark’s grinning face and Gilda charging him into the ground with a crash. The Snark seemed unfazed still, seeing as he responded by putting a claw to the griffon’s gut.
Now that hurt, she had tears from that. Gilda lept back, hoping it would heal too as she stared defiantly at the tiger.
“I won’t let you…” she said, still struggling. “...I gonna….”
“What?” the Snark said, sounding offended. “Feed me more?” He pointed his paw to the sky. Look what you’ve done! A fine play, I’d say.” Gilda turned her head and looked.
Where once there was clear weather, there was now an ice storm above them. Even with some flying chunks of ice spinning in the air like jagged stones!
“What was your plan here little bird?” he asked, curious. “I figured you, of all people, remembered this isn’t a good play.’
“Keep you distracted,” Gilda said simply as she felt the wound in her gut go away. “Nothing major.” The tiger blinked. “That army you got still gonna need you, or they’ll just tune out.”
The Snark look surprised for one moment. “Oh!” he said, knocking at his head with his paw. “Guess that bird brain was made for something, huh? Let’s look at the score!”
From the sky, Gilda could see what was happening. Images appeared in the clouds, and she could see the first waves were hitting ponyville. They still looked like they weren't gaining ground though, Discord was holding them at bay.
“Got to say, having some old one on their side is a bit cheating, sure,” the Snark said calmly as he pointed to the vision, even like it was a compliment. A mocking one at least. “But they haven’t even seen the tip yet, and there’s more when that came from.” He looked back to Gilda. I’m afraid you played your hand too early little bird,” he said, waving a paw at her at her.
“I can still knock you into next week to stop this!” Gilda said with defiance. She pointed back to the festive grounds some distance away. “And the parties still on, and you’re invited creep.”
“No, you can’t,” the Snark corrected. “Let me tell you, what you wanted to tell good old Dash.” He had a wry smile again. “You under bid that lawn gnome. You knew he’d never reduce himself to what I offered him, and you just didn’t want to be miserable anymore.”
“That….” Gilda was about to say something, but her thoughts were more “Uh oh”.
“So, why lie to ourselves?” he continued. “You're just letting that self misery, that uncertainty pull you into being some silly martyr.” The Snark’s claw pointed at her. “You already want to give up on acceptance, so scary that change is to you. So just accept it! You don’t want what they have.”
“I don’t want what you got either,” was the best retort the Gilda had, pointing back. “Even if it kills me, I’m not going to let you make me a monster.”
“You could die, yes,” the Snark replied slowly. “Let me show you...” His fanged jaw opened, warping into a larger maw, pulling the storm they made together into himself.
In the meantime, the griffon dug her claws into the ground as the pull threatened to drag her in as well. When the force abated, she saw how bad it was going to be.
Before her now saw a writhing ball of black ice. Ice normally wouldn't do that, nor breath either. Waves rolled across the solid frozen surface like skin, as large icy claws and spikes emerged from it’s sides. No, not ice, solid snow and wind! The mist itself were now claws and if it weren’t for the ice cold cloud claw digging up the ground below, she could have scoffed about that razor wind crud.
Then the bad part came: Gilda could see forms emerging from the solid ice. Heads, hooves, and claws appeared across it as if the dark ice was a tar pit with bodies trying to claw their way out. The faces were frenzied, hateful and blank. The limbs were either trying to escape or dragging others back under.
She could hear them in her mind, growling and snarling like blind beasts as part of her looked at it like a mass of the suffering and pain. All of them unable to escape all that anger that had trapped them as they pulled each other back down.
The fact she recognized at least two griffon heads, claws swiping in the same fervor as the rest, ate what little hope she had. Her dad, and her own reflection.
“I am the face of hate!” the Snark yelled from within the ice. “I am that which cannot, and will never be accepted. We are those who have no place in this world, the dreaded other! The creature we all wanted to feel better about ourselves in rejection!”
“Nuts,” Gilda said to herself in tears. Looking up at the monster before her, eyes wide with terror. “Just nuts!” she said as her legs gave out from under her.
“Worry not, little bird,” the Snark said the low distorted tone. “We still have time for us.” he said it gently with a voice like scratching nails. His normal enough cloud pony form came forth, drifting to her now collapsed body.
“It’s doesn’t make sense!” Gilda cried out. “Why does it…?” she whimpered at the sight, looking away.
“Oh, but it does,” the Snark replied as he lifted Gilda’s teary face to meet his. “You have no idea how far this game has been, do you?”
The griffon didn’t even mutter a word, but he went on.
“After tasting the divine hate of that mare so long ago, I started wondering,” he said as he tapped his fang. “Then, I just found these birds flying about, all under siege by those bad ol’ puddy tats called the saber tigers.” He tussled her head feathers. “All scared for their lives and all that. You know the feeling, right?”
“That…!” Gilda nearly spoke.
“I didn’t need to do anything to the tigers, that hated you griffons enough already, and everything else for that matter!” the Snark continued with humor. “Fun guys, but what if I helped the griffons with a nudge every now and then? Feed on that conflict? Give them hope and power in battle, but still save some of it for something bigger?”
“You’re...no!” Gilda knew who he was now, and the Snark only made it clearer when he changed his shape again.
It was the form of an eagle, with wings bending the storm around it and manipulating it’s rage to blow at its enemies. He was all white, from beak to legs, just like the visions found in old tomes had told.
Emblems of that shape and color could be found on old pieces of armor. Griffon soldiers prayed to him, that their rage would help them endure even the worst Dragons and tigers could throw at them. That every threat to griffon kind was crushed without mercy.
Gilda knew all of this, what with her dad was trying to bring the worship of the old god back. Plus, the fact she found this once god of wrath to be the only cool one to believe in. The Snark’s tale went back, way back.
“The storm eagle, yes!” he laughed with joy. “The reason your little empire grew as big as it did!” Gilda trembled as The Snark gently rubbed her face.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” he whispered. “That hate for others kept you safe and strong when you had foes to fight, right?” He rubbed a cloud claw down his face, soft and cold. “But what do you do when the enemies aren’t at the gate anymore? Well, you find new ones!” he laughed.
“It doesn’t have to work that way!” Gilda yelled back.
“But it does, don’t you see?” the Snark answered with annoyance. “That hate kept you secure! And after you beat back the hoard of tigers, and dragons too, you needed something! But…” His eyes lit up with some sadness. “You didn’t have it, and were lost without purpose,” he said as he looked sorrowfully at her.
“A whole breed of dead birds with nothing worth fighting for beyond wealth and personal pride, with petty myths of days gone by keeping you breathing,” he said. “Nothing to focus that hate to with no great threats left, you find what other you can...and if not that….” He grinned at Gilda. “You begin to hate themselves, see a pattern yet?”
“S-so what.” Gilda weakly countered. “I’ll never join you freak! Now get out of my head!”
“Like I said, I will never leave, nor desert you,” the Snark replied to her. “I am the thing you always wanted after all! You only knew a taste of that power, but take a look at the main course!”
With that came a sound. It didn’t echo, nor screech, or burn. It didn’t even rupture Gilda’s ears or hurt her head. It was different entirely to what she expected.
It...felt...good, and a razor smile came back to her beak.
It was peace at last! She didn’t need to fear anyone anymore, the others had to fear her now.