Gilda chapter update · 5:12pm Oct 29th, 2020
As seems to be the case so often for my writings, the new bonus chapter I'm attempting to do has expanded beyond the bounds of a single chapter, and may end up being as many as three before all is said and done. It's not possible for me to finish it all by the weekend, but since a release was promised on Halloween, you'll still get it in the form of a 5k word chapter that will serve as the intro to the Gilda action, 3rd person but told from her perspective.
I also promised a teaser, so here's a brief one:
“Barbird! Gimmie another round of rum!” Gilda called out to the snow-leopard spotted and mottle-feathered male griffon behind the bar, motioning to her empty wooden bowl.
“The good stuff or the cheap stuff?” he asked with a smirk, already knowing the answer. After just three days in the coastal fishing town of Hawkifax, Nova Ocelota, Gilda was still trying to find steady employment and learn her way around.
“Just fill it…” she growled at him, wanting to throw the bowl at him but not wanting to incur another run-in with the local constabulary. She was finally getting used to the constant fish odor that wafted in off the docks, and she’d found the local watering holes quickly enough as well as determined which had the best liquor, which she planned to spend most of her spare time and money on once she found a regular job.
He did so out of a clay jug. “This is horse piss…” Gilda grimaced at the smell as she raised the bowl to her beak, but drank it anyway, knowing she couldn’t afford the better stuff yet. Turned down when she applied to the local courier office—word of her indiscretion with the Griffon Express had even spread there, she quickly found out—and lacking any maritime experience, which tended to be more for the larger and heavier earth griffons than the sleeker sky griffons like her anyway, she’d settled for being a simple laborer, which she quickly realized meant only sporadic work loading fishing vessel supplies and offloading their fish afterwards.
“Is that a flavor you’re familiar with?” the rough-edged barbird with the scarred cheek, eyepatch and weather-worn talons asked with a smirk, daring her to try something after she’d already had to repay a hefty repair bill from the last bar brawl she’d started. She’d already made a few enemies by throwing a pegasus stallion who tried to hit on her through a table, and earned a few bruises in return when she tried it with an earth pony mare only to find herself soaked in cheap ale when she had her head slammed through a barrel that didn’t exactly contain the best vintage.
Gilda growled but didn't answer. Having spent the night washing dishes to make up for the damage she'd caused, she’d shown up the next day anyway out of stubbornness and the hopes of getting into another fight. It was the only form of gratification she’d been able to get since Rainbow dumped her, as she’d now fled as far as she could from her failures and bad memories short of crossing the Antlertic Ocean back to Griffon Kingdom’s home continent of Aresia itself.
She’d in fact had no partners, pony or griffon since Rainbow, though not for lack of interest from others.
“Crows take your offer!” she snarled at the latest mare to proposition her, earning an angry hiss from the jilted bat-pony in return—the town had a small colony of them for night work, and having not known any before, Gilda had been surprised to learn they were meat-eaters as well; they even took part in griffon hunting parties searching for game in the interior wilds to sell at the markets or restaurants.
“What? I ain’t good enough for you?” ” the dark-furred thestral mare flared her bat wings in anger and indignation, showing off their large size.
Unimpressed by the display, Gilda snarled again and grabbed the front of her work shirt in her eagle foretalons, hefting her up with just one set of them—an easy feat given her strength and the fact that she’d quickly learned that bat-ponies were in fact lighter than pegasi for the same size. “No, filly, you ain’t—there was only one mare ever good enough for me and she dumped me! Told me to get lost and never come back!”
“Oh yeah? Who was she? Guess she’d have to be one hay of a boss mare to put up with you!” The thestral female sneered.
“None of your bucking business!” she shook the membraned-winged mare hard. “But by my ancestors, if she appeared right here in front of me, I swear I’d—” there was a sudden surge of magic around her followed by a loud ripping sound that seemed to come from the very air itself. All conversation ceased as a sharp linear glow of dark violent energy suddenly appeared before them in the center of the room, causing everyone to scramble back. It then opened into a rough-edged gash like a tear in the very air to reveal…
If you recall the story, I think you'll be able to guess quite easily what--and who--gets revealed. 
Needless to say, Gilda's about to get her wish, if not quite in the way she imagined!
Bonus chapter will release this Saturday, on Halloween. The rest will follow as I complete it in the weeks ahead. There may also be some retcons to the story proper to support the new chapters and more closely mesh Midnight Rising with Nightmare Night. Hell, I may as well take the time to give it a full editing pass, too.
Good old limited third perspective!
I found it very hard to write in until I got used to it.
Good stuff for the most part, but the transition from the bar to the bat feels very strange. Is the thestral in the bar, or was there a scene change I missed?
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She's in the bar with Gilda. I'll clarify the chapter draft.
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I'm still not. I'm going to have to make a pass on this thing to make sure the perspective is truly limited, among other things.