• Published 27th May 2012
  • 7,439 Views, 175 Comments

Griffin Over the Line - Emeral Bookwise



A Lunaverse fic, where Raindrops must contend with the antics of Rainbow Dash and Gilda.

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Chapter 5: "The Hidden Jerk" (epilogue)

Rainbow Dash walked into the weather patrol station, nodding polite greetings to her fellow Pegasi. Hanging with Gilda for the past four days had been a blast, well except for that last part, but Rainbow didn't like to be the type of pony that dwelled on the past. Nope, she preferred to live for the moment.

Too bad that right now the moment likely included catching up on four days of paperwork. Dash hated paperwork, but like it or not, she had a whole town depending on her, and she could hardly consider herself the most amazing pegasus in all Equestria if she didn't at least try to live up to that responsibility.

As she flew up to the terrace outside her office, a rather frazzled Cloudkicker, who looked like she hadn't combed her mane since the last time Dash saw her, hovered down to greet her. "Rainbow Dash, am I ever glad to see you. You would not believe what the past four days have been like. First the delivery from Fillydelphia was late; then-there-was-that-heat-wave-coming-off-of-the-Everfree; thenThunderlanehadtoleadateamdowntoHoofingtontohelpthemdealwith —"

Dash stuck a single hoof into the babbling mare's mouth to cut off her gibberish attempt to convey every crisis of the past four days in a single breath. It wouldn't do to have Cloudkicker passing out from lack of air, and Rainbow was in no mood to have to resuscitate her assistant manager, mouth-to-mouth, again. "Okay, I get it! I'll read the reports and get back to you in the hour." Dash then pulled her hoof back and tried to offer up a reassuring smile, "Uh, good job holding down the fort. With you around, Kickster, I ... um ... I always know what to expect around here."

If Cloudkicker noticed any lack of sincerity or backhoofedness from her captain's praise, it didn't show. She beamed with pride, as all the tension seemed to melt out of her; even her mane seemed to relax into its more natural style. Then there was a shout of commotion from one of the overhead station perches. Cloudkicker gave a single glance to Dash for leave and then she was off to deal with the situation.

Rainbow shook her head with a sigh, That girl has real talent, if only she learned to manage her stress better. Then again, not every pony can be as chill as me. Dash shrugged and turned to open her office door.

As she stepped though, she heard a peculiar whirring sound. Rainbow looked to her left and saw a small tray attached to a vertical conveyor ratchet its way up the wall. At the top of its ascent the tray tipped over allowing the cup affixed to it to dispense a ball into a half pipe.

Dash watched in curious confusion as the ball wound its way along the track, striking a stick which lowered a small bag to the shelf bellow. As it landed the loose sting tying the bag shut came open revealing a small pile of sunflower seeds which caused a nearby hamster in a caged wheel to begin franticly running. The wheel was attached to a crank that swiveled a small cannon into place. Finally, with a click, a dart was launched and struck an unseen target above the doorframe. Dash looked up just in time to get a face full of water as a bucket came crashing down over her head.

The pegasus stood there for a moment in her unintended new head gear, trying to process just what had happened. Finally her brain caught up to it all, she turned her head and leaned back out the doorway, bucket helmet still covering her eyes, "Alright! Whoever's bright idea this was had better be in my office in fifteen or else it's double shifts for EVERYPONY!" then she retreated back into the office, slamming the door shut behind her with one swift kick from a back hoof.

Dash trudged over to the corner of the office where she kept towels for after rain duty, tracking water along the way. Tossing the bucket off to another corner, she took a towel and began to dry herself. Because it was already a tie-dyed swirl of colors though, she didn't notice as the not-quite-water took with it all the hues of her mane, leaving the hair atop her head and down her neck white as a fluffy cloud.

────────────────────────────────

The outer offices of the weather station was abuzz with whispers, as pegasi chatted amongst themselves, each trying to figure out what exactly had just happened. Without warning a stallion stumbled, knocking over a stack of forms on a desk corner. "Hey! Watch where you..." he turned to yell at the fool who had bumped into him, then trailed off as he saw only empty air, not a single soul nearby. He reached up to scratch his head.

The Great & Powerful Trixie smirked, not that anypony could see it, or the face that it was attached to, or any of the rest of her. She'd been a bit careless in her retreat as she'd been unable to take her eyes off the weather captain's door, visions of the no longer polychromatic mare discovering her true humiliation dancing through Trixies imagination. She hadn't meant to make that poor stallion look the clumsy fool, but ... well, every war had its peripheral casualties, and most importantly nopony seemed to suspect it might have been the result of a lurking invisible intruder.

As she continued her way out of the patrol station, now vigilant to avoid bumping into any more ponies, Trixie briefly considered whether Rainbow Dash could actually double everypony's shifts, though just as quickly she shrugged away that concern. At least Raindrops had the day off and so shouldn't have to suffer any unintended ramifications. Besides, with the Everfree right next door, Ponyville could always use the extra labor.

As the unseen unicorn turned a corner to take the rarely used stairs, Cloudkicker fluttered down to Rainbow Dash's office and knocked on the door.

On the streets outside the weather patrol station, Trixie started looking for a good spot to decloak without being noticed, then she heard it, that sweetest of sounds: a moaning wail of shocked despair that surely must have echoed halfway to Canterlot.

Comments ( 68 )

I am quite amused. Defeat Means Friendship is one of my favorite tropes, and you use it well.

And you all thought it was over, that you could just get up in the middle of the credits and walk out of the theater? Well, get back in those seats cause here's one last little stinger.

HA! Brilliant. Overly complicated, too. Very Trixie. Kind of surprised that Dash just stood there and let it happen, but then I suppose she was basically a deer caught in the headlights, and didn't expect anything bad to happen to her.

hahahahahaahahahahahahahaha that was ritch:pinkiecrazy:

I agree. A very Trixie, and very funny, thing to do.

780079
Basically. Call it whatever you like; naive ignorance, distracted curiosity, or just rule of funny (that last one guarantees that even if she had stepped aside it would only be to put her in the real line of fire).

780178
Do remember that M!Gilda pulled close to the same stunt on Pinkie's copter'ma'baba'wa'hoo'zit.

Okay, I'll admit that was pretty funny, and brightened my mood from the last chapter! The rube-goldberg device was very, very Trixie-esque, too. :rainbowlaugh:

(Even if I think the target is misaimed.)

780205
Well Gilda got away, so Trixie will just have to wait to pay her back. In the mean time she still owed dash for rainbowifing her hat and cape. De-rainbowifing the pegasus's mane seems an apt turn about.

780188 :applejackunsure: True, I guess, but...

780223 Oh; I forgot about that. Derp. :pinkiehappy:

VENGEANCE! Best served ironically.

780125

I'm pretty sure Dash was watching all of this and thinking something synonymous with 'WTF?' :rainbowhuh:

We've all had those moments where we see something so unexpected and bizarre that, unless we're in immediate physical danger, we have to stand there for a few moments while it plays out and our brain reboots.

In this case, the whole rube-golbergian aspect is part of the prank in that it distracts the target from the fact that they are in immediate danger. :trixieshiftright:

768118 780079 780205 780571
I'm really glad Rube-Goldberg prank has gone over so well. I almost skipped it thinking, nah that's just to silly, even for Trixie, but I stuck with it and took a gamble. Looks like I one this round.

As for being an intentional distraction. I think Trixie would agree that was exactly her plan the whole time. After all she's hardly the type of mare to get carried away and go overboard in a fit of poorly thought out passion. :trixieshiftleft::trixieshiftright:

Trixie, you set that up brilliantly. Emeral, are brilliant. Four hooves up!

Nice end. Dash looks kinda cool like Storm from X-Men, but I doubt she'll see it that way.

it was good ,but as a few flaws , the part with trixie and gilda in the carpet needs some work something like it was at very near the ground and the trixie wouldnt be injured by the fall or gilda catchingher at last moment . also i didint see a lot of raindrops i was hoping more of her character. i would have liked a few more scenes about her rainbow trixie and gilda steal a lot of her spotligth .
i liked this fic but it felt more like the first chapters of a greater fanfic than a story on its own

pd: i am glad that you didint choose the other ending trixie and raindrops trying to destroy a friendship would be like superman stealing banks .

781858
You're not wrong. Trixie, really did start steeling the spotlight there, but then again that's kind her thing, so it works on a meta level. As pointed out, that's not how I planned things originally the story just sorta mutated on me. I did changed up the type of show Trixie put on just to make sure Raindrops didn't completely disappear for half the chapter, and I like to think it gave her just enough of a wow factor even if it was mostly off-screen.

I could almost consider a Gilda catches Trixie twist for a later revision, but I don't know? Doing anything to lessen Gilda's 'reckless jerk' qualities would only cast Raindrops' 'vengeful jerk' qualities more harshly. Think I'll stand behind the excuse that it's a cartoon, and that M!Gilda did more or less the same to Pinkie.

:rainbowderp:

Rainbow didn't see it coming :rainbowlaugh: that was a nice little stinger hahaha.

Trixie went at it way too complicated, if she wanted to prove she could fly she just had to put on an illusion to make Raindrops appear as her! Then she could just hide with invisibility and throw her voice. At least she had the carpet and didn't just make an illusion of her flying appear, that would have been easy.

This was fun! Raindrops is dangerous :pinkiehappy:

Nice illustration of Raindrops' anger problem! Especially the way she obviously knows that what she's doing is wrong, but she's just too furious to stop. It all wrapped up nicely in the end, too, so well done! Great story.

I don't know why people leave during the credits. I stay. I loved the stinger, and the moment the contraption started up, I could hear the Breakfast Machine music playing.

Also, thanks for putting my name in the credits. Your story was a joy to read, so of course I tracked it.

786567
No, thank you for having been among those who, large or small, helped support me and gave me the drive to actually finish this.

Hahaha! :rainbowlaugh: That was a great way to end the story, which in general was a lot of fun to read :pinkiehappy: I can't wait for your next story!
And thanks for putting me in the credits. :twilightsmile:

787166
Again, it's you people I should be thanking. Left only to my own devices I'd have probably given up when Ch4 started taking too long.

As for the next story? Approval finally came through and it's in the queue. Should be live in about another 2 hours or so by estimate. Hope you enjoy it.

Great ending! The last prank was very karma-rific.

Well, the idiot had it coming. The odd thing is that Gilda is slightly more sympathetic than the screaming maniac with the bleached-white mane.

793211
Heh, honestly I thought it was that way in the real show too. I agreed her pranks WERE lame and childish and seemed like she got them all from the back pages of a children's comic book. :rainbowwild:
Then there was the hackneyed "Oh they were really meant for everyone you just somehow set them off" explanation...yeah I just didn't buy it at all. I'm surprised so many didn't agree with gilda, but then Fluttershy is the fandom woobie and all :fluttercry:
Me, I woulda taken the opportunity of seeing a pegasus like Fluttershy as a gift from the pranking gods myself, and gone all Haunt the House on her. I know she's sturdier than she looks, she faced down a manticore! And a cockatrice!
If anything RBD is holding her back with her overprotectiveness!

1076417
I meant a return appearance in the series, not this fic in particular.

1222903
*sigh*

Yes I have heard that before, and have tried my best to address it. I'm not sure what you really expect though. The worst thing Gilda did that Rainbow wasn't also complicit in was pulling the carpet out from under Trixie in midair (which is really not that much worse than what she did to Pinkie's helicopter-contraption in the actually show). I guess the language I used to describe Trixie's panicked reactions, sorta makes it look like a more serious issue, but the truth is she was falling from a MUCH lower altitude than Pinkie. And really, I find it perfectly within Dash's character to in light of Trixie using magic to break the fall take a no-harm-no-foul approach to the incident because she's just a tad inconsiderate like that, and more importantly she doesn't like Trixie.

I also thought I did a fair job of showing that Rainbow wasn't exactly in total support of Gilda. That was a lot of what Ch3 was supposed to be about with stuff like Dash declaring the town pranked out and preferring to focus on racing & stunts for fun, and then again in Ch4 when she attempts to get Gilda to stop fighting by trying to remind her that she had promised not to start that kind trouble. Beyond that what more should I have done? It's not like I could have realistically had her tag-team with Raindrops to beat Gilda down, not when Dash had largely been just as much of an antagonist in this fic. Besides, Rainbow is still supposed to be loyal to her friends (which in this fic is just Gilda). In the show she tells Gilda off for being nasty to Pinkie Pie and insulting her other friends as well, but here the only pony Gilda was blatantly nasty too was Trixie, and as I already said Rainbow doesn't like Trixie.

I'm not trying to brush off your problems and say they don't matter, but at the same time I still have difficulty understanding how some readers take such issue with Gilda supposedly getting away scott-free when most of what she did seemed to me about equal to the show, and she still ends up on the wrong side of a Ragedrops beat down.

Help me out here if you will; what exactly do you think needed to happen to properly resolve this story? I can't guarantee it will change anything in this fic, but the setup was always intended for her to make return visit in some future story, so maybe you'll yet get to see something of what you fell she deserves come to pass.

1510158
Possibly... though in the Hearts and Hooves day song from the show the term "girlfriend" is used; also, Gilda is a griffin, so she might not have her pony terminology down in the first place.

1510338
Hmm.. fair enough.

Silly inconsistent show :trixieshiftleft:

xD This is amazing i need more haha

1552936
Well I might have a Chapter ZERO in the works, but that might be more setup and character development than comedy. A friend of mine might be working on a full on sequel though.

Still, if you liked my so-called sense of humor here, you could try giving some of my other fics a shot.

1552978 Heh ill probily do that thanks :twilightsheepish: ...though this is the 20th story ive gone through today from start to finish i may need to take a break xD :twilightoops:

1553370
Okay but I'm planning on deleting this account in the next 24 hours so don't take too long.

...

Nah, I'm kidding. I intend to stick around for a long time to come, so take all the time you need. :scootangel:

Also 20 stories in one day! :rainbowderp:

If I could read like that I wouldn't have 96 of the buggers sitting in my get to it later box. :twilightblush:

1613928 lol, ok something more.

The last chapters prank was fantastic. Loved every bit of it.

Obviously just got finished reading the whole thing and I loved it! Raindrops is awesome and I liked how you could just feel the rage building up inside her. It was great!

Still got some work ahead of me, but I'll catch up with this Lunaverse. Love it too much I tellz ya :heart:

Sorry I missed this earlier.

The pegasus stood there for a moment in her unintended new head gear, trying to process just what had happened. Finally her brain caught up to just what happened and...

This section is a bit repetitive.

1691119
Not really seeing it, and I'm thinking any repetition that is there is intentional to convey just how much difficulty Rainbow is having making sense of what just happened. She's used to being the pranker, but not so much the prankee.

1691455

The pegasus stood there for a moment in her unintended new head gear, trying to process just what had happened. Finally her brain caught up to just what happened and...

1691490
Ah yes, that could use some minor rephrasing.

Oh how I loved that ending. No pony bests the Great and Powerful Trixie! :rainbowlaugh:

Comment posted by Emeral Bookwise deleted Mar 30th, 2013

I thought she told trixie that she was "all natural" was that a lie or is this not cannon????
also, what exactly would be the message of this story?? People shouldn't take pranks so seriously????

2392536
Not a lie; Rainbow Dash is true to her name, so far as I'm concerned.

I guess I didn't make it entirely clear, but the revenge prank against Rainbow Dash uses the same enchanted color stripping bleach that Trixie was using to fix her own hat and cape, just in a much stronger dose. The magic also specifically keyed to only bleach out multi-colored things, so it has no affect on Rainbow Dash's mono-colored coat.

I find myself liking Raindrops more and more.

I particularly identify with someone who has temper issues, especially as it relates to protecting people. I had to deal with severe temper problems growing up, and I, too, had to learn to control my emotions to cope. Seeing that conveyed in someone else is very touching to me.

That and she's fun :twilightsmile:

What a great story :eeyup:

First time Raindrops has ever gotten a centric story of her own, if I'm correct, and it's great seeing her getting this much attention, especially with Trixie of all people -- Raindrops is such a wonderful gentle giant, and it's great seeing her trying to, continuously, come to terms with her anger, and it's something that goes throughout the entire Lunaverse. More then that, it was wonderful seeing her together with Trixie, and their relationship which is still budding but going just fine: the dichotomy of these two, has always been interesting because Raindrops almost plays the part of the big sister, making sure that Trixie doesn't go in over her head with her bombast, lying, and overall acerbic attitude...because she knows she's much more then that.

I suppose there are times when I feel it goes too far, and it's almost like Raindrops is overbearing, but she is always well-meaning and is never deliberately trying to get at Trixie's throat: she just knows that Trixie is ever-ready to overreach herself and, in that sense, almost plays the part of a watchful parent or conscious, in making sure she doesn't do anything dumb. In exactly the same vein, all her friends know she is not a caricature and is more then just a boiling volcano...all of them are: they are more then just their gimmicks, as much as we, the readers, may love them for that. Raindrops and Trixie may seem like opposites, but they have more then a few similarities: their bluntness and loyalty for one: I loved the former's rush of desperation when the latter was falling...and I can so imagine Trixie with a turban and magic carpet :rainbowlaugh:

But getting to this story, I love how play around with this episode -- for one, in not trying to separate Gilda and RD which always was a sore-thumb for me with regards to that whole episode...not that it was necessarily Pinkie's intention, but that Dash was willing to drop an old friendship just like 'that': I can understand Dash's loyalty to her new friends, and I don't want to stray too much into the subjective in rationalizing Gilda's behavior, but I could never look at that episode without feeling a bit iffy.

At the same time, I almost wonder if perhaps, Rainbow and Gilda remaining friends in the Lunaverse, could be because Rainbow actually is more like Gilda because, like the rest of the Mane 6 in this universe, she is more antagonistic and unpopular because of the differences....if you were to argue that Dash, to her own surprise, was far more different then Gilda then she realized and Gilda was not who she thought she was...then one could make the argument that remaining friends in this world is because they actually are similar -- that Dash is more of a egotistical bully here for the sake of being ostensibly "cool". She still has a few good qualities, like her care taking of Fluttershy.....but the irony is, like the background characters getting fleshed out and not being caricatures like I just went into with Raindrops (being that they are the main characters now), the Mane 6 are now more like the caricatures they would be if things didn't go as planned: if Rainbow Dash, for example, was "all you see is what you get" like all the others, and was an aggressive "cool" bully without the depth we know she has in the Maneverse, because she never had the growth because things went into a different direction here :rainbowderp:. Rarity as well, as was briefly touched upon during her prank, is arguably almost deserving of Dash's prank because she is much more pretentious and snobby in this world.

Speaking of which, everyone's pranks were actually funny, and I love how Ditzy just wisely takes everything in stride. In the same vein as Gilda losing her patience, Raindrops eventually explodes....it leaves with an ending that is almost a bit abrupt and sad, that she has given in to her anger once again :unsuresweetie:.

It was definitely a enjoyable episode, and I loved all the twists done from the original

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