> Feathers and Ruffles
>  by Autobot Lancewing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> First Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Feathers and Ruffles
First Day

A nine year-old griffon who was wearing a black jacket, a green collared shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes looked at the intimidating structure before her: Cloudsdale Elementary School. She had been to several schools, and always had a hard time fitting in with the other kids in her class. She took a deep breath and slowly walked in. As she walked through the hall, she saw lots and lots of ponies, but they were only pegasi. She had never seen ponies before, but they didn’t seem as bad as some people made them out to be.  
She moved quietly over to the locker her mom said was hers and opened the door. She placed a few of the things from her backpack in there before closing the door and walking toward her classroom. She looked for a desk in the room her mom said had her name in it.
When she found it, she sat down and placed her backpack under her desk. Eventually, a girl sat down on her left. She was a light blue mare with a rainbow mane. She wore tennis shoes, jeans, a pink shirt, and a dark blue jacket. Her pink eyes met with the griffon’s own. The griffon looked away from the pony, not wanting to socialize just yet-
-But the pony had other plans, “Hey there,” She greeted.
“Uh...hey…” 
“What’s your name?”
“Gilda…”
“Oh...nice name. I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“Nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash…”
“I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new?”
“Yes…”
“Oh… Do you know anyone here?”
“No…”
“Well, you do now.” The rainbow haired girl smiled.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
******
The bell had rung signalling everypony, and griffon, that it was time for lunch. Rainbow looked toward Gilda, “Do you need me to show you where the cafeteria is?”
“I think so…”
“Okay, just follow me.”
Gilda nodded and followed Rainbow to the cafeteria.
When the two girls came to the double doors leading to the cafeteria, Rainbow stopped, “You can go first.”
Gilda walked through. The first thing she noticed was that the huge room was filled with ponies. If she were to get an aerial view, it would look as if she were looking at candy. She looked around even more and noticed that it was designed to look like a gym, likely because the room doubled as a gymnasium for physical education. Even if it weren’t already common knowledge to eat off of the floor, it would especially be a bad idea to do it here. She noticed the line forming towards the right wall, so she moved towards there with Rainbow behind her.
She grabbed a tray, bowl, and spoon before she was given her share of… vegetable soup? “Well, it’s better than the slop I got at my old school.”
Gilda waited at the end of line for Rainbow to catch up. "Can I sit with you?"
“Sure.”
Rainbow led the way towards one of the tables, but she trips and spills most of her soup!
"Uh oh!" A boy's voice called out, "Rainbow Crash strikes again!" He and two other boys burst into laughter.
Gilda looked at the trio, then helped Rainbow up. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just something I get a lot.”
"Can't you tell a teacher or something?"
“I did, several hundred times.”
“Doesn’t seem like they’re doing a good job.”
"One of them has a rich dad, and another's mom is the vice principal."
“Ah. That explains it.”
"Yeah... My parents said that if it continues, I'll be transferred."
“Definitely not news for me. I’ve been transferred…” Gilda stops to mentally count the number of times she has been transferred before, “Six times.”
Rainbow's eyes widened, "And you're MY age?!"
“Yeah… My parents move a lot.”
“Why?”
“Work.”
"What the heck do they do?"
“They’re ambassadors.”
Now Rainbow’s eyes widened. "Did you just say a bad word?"
“No… Why?”
"Oh...just sounded like one..."
“I thought you did.”
“Well, an ambassador is a person who represents a specific country. In this case, Griffopolis.”
"Oh...sounds boring."
“Tell me about it. When I grow up, I want to be something more awesome than that.”
"Me too, I wanna be a Wonderbolt."
“A what?”
"You've never heard of the Wonderbolts?!"
“I’m not even from here. Like I said, I’m from Griffopolis.”
"Oh yeah... Well, the Wonderbolts are this super amazing flying team! They do all these tricks and stunts and stuff! And I wanna be one, too!"
“Oh, like the Flareagles, right?”
“Who?”
Gilda was silent for a minute. “Nevermind. Let’s just eat before something happens.” Gilda pours some of her soup into Rainbow’s bowl. “Here you go.”
Rainbow didn’t know what to say. No one had ever done anything like that for her.
“Are we gonna eat or what?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Both girls went to the table and sat down before preparing to eat. Gilda took a bite, but couldn’t get around the fact that there was no meat. “How do you stand this?”
“Stand what?”
“There’s no meat in this soup.”
“Oh, ponies don’t eat meat.”
Gilda gave Rainbow a queer look. “Why?”
“Why do you eat meat?”
“Cuz it tastes good…”
“Well, here it’s illegal.”
Gilda didn’t say anything, but took another sip of her soup. 'I'll just have to get used to it.'

> Dash to the Finish
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dash to the Finish

It was the final period, and for Rainbow and Gilda, it meant returning to the cafeteria, or rather what used to be the cafeteria. By the time they got there, the tables were folded and put away, and in their place was lots of gym equipment.
The two girls, now wearing gym clothes, lined up with the rest of their classmates in front of the teacher. He was jet black with a yellow mane and wore a red jacket, red shirt, blue pants, and tennis shoes.
"Alright ladies, here's the deal," he said addressing all of the students, "we're gonna start with our normal warm-ups before we go outside and run ten laps around the track."
Gilda followed Rainbow over to a spot where the latter began doing push ups. Gilda got on all fours and began to mimic Rainbow's actions.
“You,” the coach said as he was pointing to Gilda, “Do you call that a pushup?”
Gilda stopped. “Um…I don't know.”
The coach helped Gilda into the correct form before… “Now try that again.”
Gilda tried the push ups again, but  this time there was more of a burn.
"Good..." the coach commented.
“Thanks…” Gilda continued her stride of push ups.
They did a few other exercises before everyone finally headed outside to do their laps. 
"Ready to lose Rainbow Crash?" One of the boys from earlier taunted.
“Are you sure you aren’t ready to eat my dust,” Rainbow taunted back.
"Dawww...she's trying to make a comeback!"
Now it was Gilda’s turn. “Ready to add mine to the menu?”
"Oh, so the new girl's gonna try something?"
“Try? I’m gonna do it!”
"We'll see about that!"
"Yeah, you'll see our tails at the finish line."
When the coach blew the whistle, everyone began running their laps.
After only a few moments Rainbow, Gilda, and the boys began pulling ahead of the others. They remained neck and neck for a number of laps, but on the eighth, the boys and Rainbow began to slow, while Gilda remained at a steady pace. Everyone could only watch as Gilda ended up being the first one to finish her laps, with Rainbow following for second place. 
Rainbow went onto the cloud and collapsed while Gilda ran up to her. "Good job," Gilda smiled.
“Thanks,” Rainbow said breathing heavily. She felt tired, but at the same time, she didn’t want to stop. She didn’t know how to explain it, but it felt… amazing. "Think they'd be up for another round?"
“I don’t know, but they might.”
"Alright everyone, hit the showers and gather your things. Your parents will be here soon." The coach announced.
Everyone began walking into the locker rooms. Gilda kept thinking back on the race. The thrill of defeating her rival was… incredible! She had never felt something that...amazing! Once that one moment was planted into her mind, there was going to be no turning back.
******
Rainbow Dash and Gilda were waiting for their parents to pick them up. Thankfully, the bullies have already left, so maybe they could talk a little more.
"So the Flareagles are stunt flyers like the Wonderbolts, huh?" Dash asked.
“The only difference is that they are griffons.”
“Huh… So I take it you have something different for Power Ponies too, huh?”
"Power what? Are they like the Griffengers?"
“If they’re superheroes, then yeah.”
“Well, let’s just say that they are superheroes with a giant robot.”
“Wow…”
“Yeah. So where are your-”
Firefly, a pink pegasus with a blue mane walked into the school. She had a blue mane and was wearing black athletic pants, a red T-shirt, and blue jacket. The style of her mane was very much similar to Rainbow’s.
Gilda asked in a surprised tone, “That’s your mom?”
“Yep,” Rainbow said, “Now you see where my awesomeness came from.”
“Oh yes…”
“Anyway, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I guess so. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Rainbow walked away from Gilda and toward Firefly, leaving Gilda in the gym with no one to talk to. She was used to it though, she could never really make friends and her parents practically ignored her existence. She just hoped her friendship with Rainbow would remain.
About half an hour later, another griffon appeared. As she figured, it was the butler. "Are you ready, Ms. Gilda?"
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Then let us depart.”
The two walked out of the school before they embarked on their flight home.

> Alone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Alone

Gilda sat in her room alone. It felt like a whole day had gone by since she got home. She couldn’t talk to anyone, and even if her parents were there, they’d just shun her like they always did. They were way to busy with their jobs to even care about their own daughter. Truth was that they didn’t even mean to have a child, and the only reason they kept her around was so they wouldn’t raise any controversy. Still, she felt like she should have never been born, or at least be born to a different family.
But then there was Rainbow Dash… She was the first pony that opened up to her. Never would she have imagined that something would happen. Not even her own kind treated her so well. For the first time in her young life, Gilda felt that she had a friend. If only she were here now right now…
******
Rainbow Dash was just finishing her homework. It wasn’t the most exciting thing she could be doing, but her mother would kill her if her she didn’t, so there she was. Almost at that same time, Firefly walked in. “How are you doing,” she asked.
“Bored… Do you really need to know this stuff?”
Firefly looked her daughter in the eye and smiled. “Yes, we do.”
“Okay… Do you know what we’re having for supper?”
“Stir-fried vegetables.”
“Sounds good.”
“Oh, and who was that griffon who was with you?”
“Oh her?” Rainbow switched to a nonchalant tone. “Nobody… Just a new student…”
“Uh-huh… Is she nice?”
“She is.”
“That’s good. Does she have a name?”
“Maybe… Gilda I think it was…”
“I see… Were you nice to her?”
“I was.” Rainbow finally decided to drop the tone. “Also, she has been to six schools.”
Firefly raised an eyebrow, “Six schools? Are you sure that’s what she said?”
“Yep. Turns out her parents are ambassadors.”
“Oh… Wow, she seems like a neat girl.”
“She is.”
“Do you think her parents would mind if we invited her over?”
Rainbow widened her eyes, “Really? She could come over?”
“Well, not today, I’m sure her family already has plans, but maybe you could ask her tomorrow. Plus I don’t have her phone number.”
“Oh. Probably should have asked. Oh well.”
“Yeah, you can ask tomorrow for her number...and if she has any plans on Saturday…”
“Hm… Good point.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Firefly walked over to the door and answered it. This pony looked very similar to Rainbow Dash, except he was a male and had a darker shade of blue. “So how are my favorite girls in the whole world doin’?”
Firefly put her arms around Rainbow Strike’s neck and pressed her lips to his in a kiss.
“Ew! That’s just gross you guys,” Rainbow frowned.
Rainbow Strike looked at Dash. “You think it’s gross now, but someday you’ll be doing it too…”
“Me? No way! I’ll be too busy rocking Wonderbolts shows and being awesome to kiss 
boys.” Dash shivered, “besides, boys have cooties.”
Both parents laughed.
Strike embraced his daughter in a hug, “So does that mean you and your mom will be my girls for a while?”
“Yep.”
“Yes,” Strike exclaimed, excitedly.
Both girls looked at him, amused by his reaction.
“Well, Firefly, I think we’d better let Miss Dash get back to her school work.”
“She already finished,” Firefly replied.
“Wow, already? Well, guess that means I'll have more fun with BOTH of you." Strike grinned.
“And she made a new friend today.”
"You did?"
“Yep. Her name's Gilda, and...she's a griffon..."
"A griffon? Wow, I haven't even met a griffon,” Strike said, “Is she nice?"
“Very.”
"Yeah. Dashie can tell us all about her over dinner."
"Sounds good to me. Smells good, too."
"Well then, let's eat."
*****
Gilda sat at the dinner table alone, like almost every day. Even if her parents were here, there would still be silence in addition to the awkward stares. Gilda took another small nibble of her fish. At least the food was good. It’s not that the vegetable soup was bad, but she just preferred to have a little meat. But she'd take eating the soup and having Rainbow over over the loneliness and fish any day.
When she had finished her meal, she put her plate in the dishwasher and headed to her room. She turned on the television and started flipping through the channels. Finally, she came across the show Griffengers. She sat on her bed and watched the television show.
She didn’t know what it was about the show that she liked. It was a bunch of griffons wearing different colors of spandex and fighting different monsters every week, not to mention the fact that they fight with a giant robot after the monster grows. It seems like a silly idea, yet the storytelling managed to reel her in. Now she even has the toys for it.
She watched the show until it was her bedtime. She turned the TV off and started getting dressed for bed. When she had finished dressing, she got into the bed and draped the covers over herself before drifting off to sleep.
******
Dash had just slipped into her pajamas. She was just about to get into bed when she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," she called.
The door opened to reveal Firefly. "Hey, Dashie, just wanted to tell you 'good night’.”
"Okay, good night."
"I love you."
"Love you, too."
Firefly smiled, gave her daughter a kiss on her forehead, and left.
Rainbow Dash got into the bed and closed her eyes.
> The Third Wing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Third Wing

It was yet another school day. Gilda and Rainbow were eating their lunch; a vegetable taco. Gilda had to accept the lack of any beef, fish, or chicken. She had been considering taking some meat from home and putting it on the food, but she didn’t want to get in trouble or offend her only friend, so she continued nibbling on the taco (if you could call it that).
Rainbow looked over to Gilda. “Hey, Gilda?”
Gilda looked to Dash, swallowing a bite of her taco, "Yeah?"
“Are you doing anything Saturday?”
“No...why?”
Well...my parents told me that you could come over Saturday.”
Gilda’s eyes widened. "You want me to come to your house?!”
"Yep. I told my mom about you and she seemed pretty excited."
“Wow… She’s excited to see me?”
"She is."
Gilda blushed. “N-no one’s ever wanted to see me…”
“Well...my parents do.” Rainbow smiled.
"Okay. When should I come over?"
“Uh...I don’t know. I’ll ask my parents. I can call you when I find out.”
“Okay… Do you want my phone number?”
“Sure, and I’ll give you mine.”
Suddenly, the bell rang.
“But when we’re waiting for our parents…” Rainbow sighed.
“Oh well, it’s okay. I’ll give you mine after school, too.”
"Okay."
Both girls stood up, picked up their trays, and put their food in the trash before leaving for class. Before they could get to their classroom, however, a pink pony with a purple mane and tail walks up to them. She was wearing a khaki skirt that reached her knees, a blue collared shirt, and tennis shoes. "Um...hello..." she greeted shyly.
Both girls looked at her. "Hello..." Dash greeted back.
“I-I just wanted to say that was really amazing what y-you did back there yesterday.”
Gilda and Dash looked at each other, then back at the girl. “What thing was that exactly?”
“That time when you smoked Dumb Bell and Hoops yesterday in PE.”
"Oh that? Well, Gilda was just trying to win. Nothing personal."
Gilda looked at Rainbow. "I dunno bout you, but it was personal for me after they tripped you."
“Your modesty is overwhelming.”
The girl giggled. 
Gilda rolled her eyes. "Well, they deserved it."
"So...what's your name?" Rainbow asked.
“Oh. Um… My names Skywishes.”
"Oh. Well my name's Rainbow Dash, and that's Gilda." Rainbow indicated to Gilda.
"Yeah, I know your names, it was all over school. You guys are practically famous!"
“Really?”
"Yeah! The entire school heard about you guys!"
“Wow! Gilda, this is huge!”
“Yeah, but what if they’re out for blood after that?” Gilda asked, “I mean, it’s not like they’re gonna feel warm and fuzzy knowing that they’ve been beaten by a girl.”
"But you're a griffon, Gilda!" Skywishes pointed out. "You're bigger AND stronger than them!"
“But do I know how to defend myself?”
"Just...hit them really hard?" Rainbow suggested.
“Dash, my parents are ambassadors. They barely pay attention to me as it is; how do you think they’ll react if they learn that I hit someone?”
Rainbow sighed. "How'd they react if they found out you were beaten up?"
“They would probably care less. Either way, it’s lose-lose for me.”
Rainbow sighed. "Well...that really stinks... My parents would be ticked, too, but if I got beat up they might transfer me."
“Yeah, I just wish they’d understand.”
"Have you told them about how you feel?" Skywishes asked.
“More than you know…”
******
That conversation Gilda had haunted her throughout the rest of the day. She was constantly on the look out for Hoops and Dumb Bell. Needless to say, it was pure torture. 

Another thing was on Gilda's mind: Skywishes. She and Rainbow were talking a LOT. They barely even talked to Gilda. It could be that they just met, but what if it’s more than that? What if it’s because she’s a griffon that they aren’t really talking to her? She had had a similar experience in Eagland. Someone had befriended her one day, then the next day he called her an "Abomination." To add insult to injury, her parents did nothing to defend her. It was the horrible cycle which was her life.
“Gilda?”
Gilda looked up at Rainbow Dash. She had a rather concerned look on her face.
“Are you okay?”
Gilda shrugged and looked away, trying to avoid eye contact and hide the tears that were beginning to form.
Rainbow moved closer to Gilda. "Gilda? What's wrong?"
Gilda remained silent.
“You know you can tell me.”
Gilda shook her head.
"Why not?"
Nothing.
"Are you scared?"
She wanted so much to say yes, but what if it made her look weak? Then it'd get out and she'd be bullied, teased, and no one would care about her.
“Listen, I know I haven’t been talking with you much after we met Skywishes, but you are still my friend. I promise you that I won’t be leaving you any time soon.”
Gilda looked at Dash, but barely making eye contact with her.
Rainbow saw the tears in Gilda's eyes
She pulls Gilda’s chin up to help Gilda’s eyes face her. “If you want to talk about it in private, we can after school, but just know that I’m here for you.”
Gilda saw the care in her friend's eyes. It was something she had never really seen, much less felt. 
Finally, Gilda said. "I'll call you after school. Would that be okay?"
“That’ll be perfect.” Rainbow smiled.
Before Gilda could respond, the teacher entered the gym.
"Alright everyone, I want you to give me twenty pushups and then head out onto the track. We are going to jump some hurdles.”
Both Rainbow and Gilda went to a spot, far from Dumb Bell and Hoops, and began their push ups.
*****
The students emerged from the gym minutes later and raced toward the track. Gilda and Rainbow made sure they were the first ones out, so as not to be seen by their nemesi. Rainbow looked to Gilda and asked “Think they saw us?”
Gilda turned around and looked for Hoops and Dumb Bell. They were standing over a young cowering girl… A young cowering girl that looked a lot like Skywishes. “I think they found someone else,” Gilda answered.
“What do you mean?”
She pointed toward the scene of intimidation that was taking place.
Rainbow frowned, a friend of hers was getting bullied! She couldn’t sit back and let that happen! She marched over to the boys with Gilda close behind. Rainbow got right behind Hoops and yelled. “Hey!”
Hoops turned around and was knocked to the ground by Rainbow’s fist. Dumb Bell whirled around and saw Gilda glaring at him, which promptly made him run away.
“Rainbow Dash! Gilda!” The coach angrily ordered.
Both girls grew pale. They looked at each other and said they exact same thing: “Uh-oh.”
The coach walked over to them. “You two are coming with me. You have some explaining to do.”
The two girls said nothing as they began their long, embarrassing trek to the principal’s office.
******
The two girls sat in the office quietly while awkwardly staring at the principal. It grew especially awkward while he was calling their parents. Though Gilda, for once in her life, hoped her parents weren’t home. 
Finally, the principle hung up and looked at both girls. “Your mother is on her way, Ms. Dash.” He turned to Gilda. “I tried calling your parents but only a Mr. ‘George’ spoke and said he’d pass the message on to your parents.”
“Figured that much,” Gilda mumbled.
“I hope you girls know what you did was wrong and you will be severely punished.”
“If you call helping a friend doing something ‘wrong,’ then I probably will,” Dash sighed.
“Is punching a fellow student the way to do it?”
“With all due respect, talking to him doesn’t help a bit. If it did, this whole thing would have been over a long time ago.”
“But why not tell a teacher? Or me?”
“It still doesn’t get rid of them. They get off the hook without a scratch. My mom even pointed that out several times.”
“Ms. Dash, your mother isn’t the most… levelheaded in Cloudsdale.”
“Are you saying she doesn’t know the difference between justice and favoritism?”
“I’m not saying that, but she can be rather hot-headed, stubborn, and can jump to conclusions.”
“So was what I did jumping to conclusions, because a lot of ponies will agree when I say that you have bullies in your school.”
“That is enough Ms. Dash! I will not listen to anymore of your bad attitude.”
“If you would just do something about them, maybe you won’t have to.”
“You are dangerously close to being expelled.”
“My mom was thinking about pulling me out anyway if this keeps on.”
Gilda gasped, she didn’t want to be trapped in this school with Dumb Bell and Hoops without Rainbow.
Just then, the secretary peeked in and said, “I have Rainbow Dash’s mom outside.”
The principle sighed. “Send her in…”
Firefly entered the office and went straight to Rainbow and looked her in the eye. “Alright young lady, just what the heck were you thinking?”
Rainbow looked at her mom, suddenly losing the fire she had earlier. “Well...Y-you see-”
“She was just trying to help a friend,” Gilda said.
Firefly looked over to Gilda. “I’m guessing you’re Gilda?”
Gilda started to raise an eyebrow, but remembered that Firefly was informed. “Yes, I am.”	
“I see… Were you the one my daughter was helping?”
“No, I was helping her help her friend. The friend was the one who was being bullied.”
Firefly looked back to Rainbow. “Is that true? Were you trying to stop a bully?”
“Two,” Rainbow said.
Firefly sighed, “Same ones?”
“Yup.”
Firefly turned around and looked at the principal. “Why haven’t you fixed this yet? I’ve warned you about this for almost a year, yet nothing was done.”
“We’ve tried to look into the problem, but this is a large school. And we can’t just watch every student that walks through the door.”
“And is it a coincidence that school officials happen to be related to them?”
The principle swallowed. “I don’t see what that has to do with YOUR DAUGHTER PUNCHING another student, do you want her doing that in the real world?”
“Well...not like that. But she wasn’t completely in the wrong.”
“Why would you say that?”
“While it wasn’t self defense, it was done to protect someone who, by the way, would not have been in that situation had you handled those two properly.”
“That’s NOT the issue!”
“It is entirely the issue!” Firefly took a moment to breath and said, “I am going to contact the Board of Education and see if they can fix this. If not, then I am pulling my daughter out.”
“Wait…” The principle sighed, “I’ll...talk to the parents of the students…”
Firefly raised an eyebrow. “Ya gonna do something this time?”
The principle gave Firefly a look, before grabbing his phone and dialing a number. After a few moments. “Hi honey… Listen...we need to talk about Dumb Bell…”
Gilda’s eyes widened before she looked at Dash. She mouthed, “That’s one of the guys’ father?”
Dash nodded.