Griffon of Canterlot
Chapter 24 – Learn to Write
Gilda slept blissfully on the bed with one hind leg hanging out of the bed sheets to the side of the bed, her head resting sidewards on a pillow with her talons around another hugging it close to herself. The blissful sleep soon can to a end when the feeling of being watched came to her, groaning with one eye opening.
“Okay who's in the house and looking over me?” Gilda groggily spoke out with a big yawn sitting up with the sheets falling off her body, wings opening and closing as she flex the muscles slightly.
“Gilda!” Came the happily chippy sound of Gale.
Gilda turn to the end of the bed. “Gale wha-” She begins with a irritable voice but soon cut herself off by what she saw. He hovering at the end of the bed with a food tray.
On it was a streaming pile of pancakes with whip-cream on it with a cherry on top, beside it was two buttered toast and a hot cup of tea with a jug of milk, syrup and bowl of sugar. Including cuttery and a spoon. “Okay I must be dreaming...”
Gilda rubbed her eyes and open them again to see Gale still hover before her with a big warm smile still present. “You seriously came all the way to give me breakfast?”
“Indeed he did.” Sergeant Blue Star spoke walking into view. “I see you turned the bed around, Twilight Sparkle had it with her head closer to the windows.”
Gilda rolled her eyes. “What Purple had in this place is not my concern, if this is going to be home from home than I will do whatever I like okay?”
He shrugged. “Doesn't bother me ma'am. Just saying how I remember seeing this place when coming here to bring her to Princess Celestia at times.”
Blue Star look up at the ceiling. “There a study desk upstairs for you to eat at.”
Gilda lifted her forelegs up stretching them. “Since you two did bring me breakfast I won't give you guys the kick for breaking in.”
Gale tilted his head and look to the entrance. “I do not know your aware, but you've kinda left the door wide open.” Blue Star stated.
Gilda groans. “Alright you win pony. Let's go upstairs and I'll chow down.” He salutes and wave Gale to follow.
Upstairs Gale sat by the massive hourglass reading a book he picked up about the Elements of Harmony and the Mare in the Moon, ever so often looking out the window to Canterlot Castle. Gilda sat at the study table cutting into the pancakes, she took a bite out of it and eating with amazing look on her face she swallowed.
A explosive of flavour she tasted from the pancakes. “Sweet Grover these are amazing!”
“Princess Celestia made them.” Blue Star informed Gilda.
“She did?” He nods. “Another surprise on the Celestia list.” Gilda look to the next piece and put it into her beak happily eating it.
“Mum!” Gale said happily.
Gilda looked over to him and her mind decided to replay the night before.
Gilda, Gale, Luna and Flash Sentry walk into the throne room, Celestia, Cadance and Shining Armor waiting for them at the bottom of the throne steps. “I gather things went while in the city?”
“Pretty much, got to have a good time surprisingly, met a cat that works for ya and married to a unicorn that turned himself in a griffon that we helped got him home and fixed up. So it pretty much fine.” Gilda shrugged without a care.
“Hello Gilda, I am Cadance it finally nice to meet you.” Cadance walked up to her.
Gilda gave her a raised eye. “So your the crazy Alicorn that got that file of cute little ol' me?”
“Indeed, I am happy that you are just as I thought be right for the job to help my cousin Gale out.”
“No biggy, Candy.” Gilda smirked. “Also got him to say another word now.”
“Candy? And you did?” Cadance seem confused by the nickname given by Gilda but questioned it and the second word.
Gilda turn to Gale. “Go to Sunshine Gale and surprise her.”
Celestia raise an eye as she watched Gale step up to her and look up. “Mum!” He squawked happily.
Celestia eyes widen with tears falling. “Y-Yo-”
“Mum!” He squawked out again with a big smile.
Shining Armor and Cadance stared in disbelief but Celestia grabbed Gale with her wings and wrap her forelegs around him nuzzling the teenager with tears falling still. “Oh my Gale! You called me mum! I am so happy!”
Gilda blinked a few times and shook her head before going back to eating her pancakes and drinking her tea. “Stupid brain making me see that sappy stuff again.” She muttered in her thoughts.
After finishing her meal Gilda walked over to the two bags pulling out a A4 size pad of lined paper with quills, pencils, rubbers and ink wells. Gale lower the book down he was reading and watched Gilda with an curious gaze at all the stuff she was pulling out.
Blue Star using his magic picked up the breakfast tray. “I'll take this to the maids. Private Cherry Delight is just outside. I be back shortly.” Blue Star walks off down the steps and out of the house.
Gilda rolled her eyes as she put the gear down on the study desk. “Ponies and their really weird cheesy names.”
Gale put the book down on the stand he found it walking over to the study desk. “Gilda?”
“Asking about what all this stuff for right?” Gale nods. “I'm going to teach you to write.”
Gale eyes showed a spark of delight. “Hehe thought that spark your attention. Now for today I am going to show you the lower case and cap letters, each one you will watch me write and you will repeat each of them keeping inside the lines.” Gilda open the note book up pointing to it with her talon.
“Got it?” He nods.
“Good.” Gilda open up a ink well dipping the quill tip in it. “See how I hold the quill?” He watched intently. “Now watch how I write with it.” He continues to obverse as Gilda writes down each letter in the alphabet. “A... B... C...”
Suddenly something clicked with Gale as Gilda continue to write each letter down in both cases, he KNEW these letters, the Ponies writing with a form of wavy lines that he even understood. Gale quickly reach into his side bag to pull out the plush and look at the tag.
But what he saw at the tag wasn't those letters he seen clearly before but now a strange set of symbols, somehow he knew exactly what those symbols said but he knew they won't like that before. Closing his eyes thinking hard he pictured the tag before seeing the symbols again, opening his eyes the young griffon was very confused.
“Hey!” He snapped out of it turning to Gilda. “How about you pay attention to the Griffish lettering!” Gale rubbed the back of his cooing in confusion. Gilda rolled her eyes. “You want me to write this gibberish on the page too?”
Gale tilt his head pointing to it and point away. “What exactly are you trying to tell me cub?”He groans, pointing to her and showed one finger afterwards. “Are you asking me about this tag I saw in Ponyville?”
He nods. “Gale it doesn't change into words you like it to become, it doesn't work like that.” Gilda explained and that summed up a surprise to Gale, the letters to her was always these symbols. “Here let me have your Plush and write the tag symbols down okay?”
Gale nods giving it to her, Gilda wrote it down between them lines. “This will be here on this page so you can look at it anytime you like and try to write this stuff okay?” He nods again. “Happy?” She finished and he happily nod even he was still confused how they wasn't the Griffish lettering.
“Now can we continue?” Gale got his plush back and he hummed happily with an third nod in a row. “Good now watch and you do afterwards with a pencil.”
Gale intently watched once more still in passive thought about how words both were understandable, right and wrong. The big confusing question was how can all three be correct?
Gilda put the quill down. “You watched how I held the quill and wrote it down between the lines?” Gale nods. “Go and pick up the pencil and show me, cub.”
Gale took hold the pencil holding it between two claws and the thumb pressing on it the other side. “That good now below my letters write exactly as I showed ya.”
Gale's talon shook as the tip of the pencil tip to the paper, feeling very anxious. Gilda saw this placing her own talon over his, he look to her's pressing gentle over his. “Don't need to freak out Gale, you won't get this right off the mark.” Gilda let go of his talon.
“Now give it a try.” Gale gulped in response to Gilda's words but taking a deep breath and blowing out he press the pencil tip down on the paper to attempt the letter A.
Gilda watched him attempt it. “Messy and shaky but a good first time.” As Gilda watched another thought of night before came to mind.
“Seriously Blue Hooves, if I at this moment not even bothered where I be staying at. I would just not even bother with this place.” Gilda looked back at the spiral staircase she and Shining Armor just tracked up.
Shining looked down the stairs himself holding up the key with his magic. “At least you can fly up and down them. I got to walk back down.”
“How many more flights of stairs we got to climb?”
“About another two full turns.”
Gilda growled. “Oh for pony feathers sack! We going by air!”
Shining Armor quickly turn in alarm. “No I-Ah!”
Gilda grabbed him by the waist locking her talons together with a few strong flaps Shining Armor was lifted up in the sky. After a few seconds of flight time Gilda place him down by the door, she proudly landing beside him. “Now we here.”
“Y-yes gah...” Shining Armor's white fur around his face showed a sickly tint of green as he put a hoof to his snout trying not to throw up.
Gilda quickly step to the side as he open the door with the key rushing inside for the toilet. “Captain of the guard and he can't handle a few seconds of flight? What a light weight...” Gilda shook her head walking inside to get a good look around.
“Geeky but a place a place to crash at, right Blue Hooves?”
Shining Armor step out of the door with the toilet flushing. “Urg... I really hate flying.” He whizzed.
Gilda rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say dweeb.” Gilda yawned. “So this Purple's home?”
“Yep it is.”
“I can really see how.” Gilda chuckled. “Well if you don't mind. I like to have a shower or even a bath than crash out.”
Shining Armor nods. “Fair enough, I'll leave the key here by the bed stand. Also leave the door open so the guard can drop off your stuff.”
Gilda waved dismissively. “Sure thing Blue Hooves and night.”
“Goodnight.” Shining saluted, he turn and leaves the house still feeling quizzy.
Gilda looked at the bed. “First thing I am going to do is move that bed around...”
A squawk snapped her out of her thoughts of last night. “Just zoned out, cub. Don't need to worry.” Gilda stated. “Now let see what you done.” Gilda looked at the attempts. “Keep it up Gale.”
Gale went back to attempting to write and keep between the lines like Gilda did, but it kept going over with it being very shaky and messy. For the next few hours that past Gale tried to match Gilda's writing but always coming up being a shaky large lettering mess.
Gale put the pencil down rubbing his eyes, followed up twisting the wrist around a few times flexing his right talon. “Gets to ya, doesn't it cub?” Gale look down at his right talon feeling the strain in the muscles under the scales.
“Let's take a break.” Gilda walked up to the large window looking out to the castle. “Quite the view Purple had here.”
Gale looked over to Gilda and the view, he hummed slightly. Gale thought back to the name of the dog and turning a page he wrote large, messy and shaky the name.
Gilda noticed Gale coming over with the note book., she took it from him. “Guess you really wanted me to know that dog's name didn't ya.” Gale nods.
“Lee-la... Leela... Is that what you wrote?” Gale squawks in reply with a big smile on his beak.
Gilda stared at the letters on the paper, they suddenly shimmered with a blue white light. “What the heck was that?” She rubbed her free talon over it feeling nothing out the norm. “Must of been the li-” Gilda rose her head.
She shrieked with eyes shirking to pinpricks quickly flapping her wings to push back till Gilda had her back to the glass, before her own eyes was the dog but transparent with a bluish white light around the edges and phasing through it.
Gilda shakily points at it. “Gale look to your right!” Gale turn to his right to see nothing, he look back at her with a confused tilt of his head. “You can't see that ghost dog!?”
Gale rubbed his head in confusion.
Gilda eyes still pinpricks with her feathered face paled in colour watched the black dog bark happily wagging her tail before getting up on all fours walking to the study table. She lean down sniffing under it before turning back to Gilda barking a few more times.
Gilda had hold of the book still and threw it at the ghost dog, it faded out of existence before the book hit where it was. Landing on the ground. Gale picked it up still unsure why Gilda was acting so strangely.
Gilda slid to sitting on her flank breathing heavily with a talon on her chest. “Wh-what the blazes was that!?”
Gale looking around the place very confused by Gilda's freak out. “You seriously didn't see your dog Leela as a ghost!?” He tilted his head unsure what this ghost was or the word. “You don't know what a ghost is do you?” Gale chipped with a scratch to the side of his face.
Gilda still very freaked out what she saw got up on all fours. “You saw nothing?” He nods. “I can't believe that I was the only one to see that!” Gilda raised her voice. “That thing was too real to be just my imagination!”
Blue Star walked up the stairs. “I'm back! How things?”
Gilda squawked in alarm, Blue Star raise an eye. “Oh hi Blue Star I just saw a ghost dog! Oh that would put me in a crazy slammer faster than I can say dweeb and dork twenty times!” Gilda's thoughts raced.
Gilda had to act fast to recover.
“Things good! Just dandy!” Gilda quickly said realising that speaking about what she only witnessed would make her look like a mad griffon. “I just erm...” Gilda looked around quickly.
Blue Star suspiciously looked at the half panicking griffon.
She recalled the dog looking under the study table. “I lost something under the desk that all!” Gilda went to the study table leaning down to look under it to find a book. “Oh you got to be bucking me...” Gilda hissed under her breath reaching out to it and grabbing the book.
Gale blinked a few times. “Gilda?” He whispered with a puzzled look.
Opening it she saw a library stamp card on the inside of the hard back copy of the book. “It look like Twilight Sparkle had borrowed this from the library.” Blue Star looked over Gilda's shoulder.
Blue Star decided to let drop what he saw, to him Gilda might be embarrassed to be seen teaching Gale to write in front of others.
Gale ears perked up at the sound of the library, he bouncing up and down before flying around close to the high ceiling. Gilda watched him flying around with excitement. “I'll deal with whatever that was later...” Gilda muttered.
“Ma'am you said something?” Blue Star turn his head from watching Gale to looking at Gilda.
Gilda closed the book up. “We going to the library.”
Gale squawked happily and dived down to give Gilda a hug showing his thanks.
Gilda look down growling at the teenager. “I... Don't... Do... Hugs!”
Gale looked up shaking his head and kept hugging her. “Urg... Your a pain you know that?” Gale nods letting go of Gilda hovering by her.
Gilda rolled her eyes placing the book in the empty bag followed by the pencils, quills, ink wells and the note book. Gilda paused for a second opening it to the messy written name, she closed it up and put it in the bag.
Blue Star walked down the stairs and Gale flew down them, Gilda took the key off the table placing it under her wing.
She stared at the spot last saw the transparent Leela. “Why did I see her and he didn't?” Gilda shivered. “I seriously need to talk to Princess Celestia about this...”
“Gilda?”
Gilda decided to deal with it later. “I'm coming you impatient dweeb!”