//------------------------------// // Old Demons // Story: A Griffin In Distress // by XionFate //------------------------------// Old Demons Rainbow Dash awoke a little uneasy the next morning as Celestias sun exploded through the window and across her face. She had had the weirdest dream the night before, a little night terror about Gilda running away. It was quite an interesting dream to say the least, but Rainbow Dash knew that Gilda cared too much about Manehatten and all those around her to just go and run away. "Heh, probably should not have had that late night Daffodil smoothie last night." Rainbow Dash finally mustered up the energy to climb out of her bed and unsteadily tumbled out of her bedroom door. The walk down stairs was a hassle, Dash somehow forgetting how to put one hoof in front of the other, but after some trouble she made it safely to ground level and trotted into the kitchen. As she entered the small area that Gilda claimed was a kitchen Rainbow Dash noticed a small note laying on the counter. She wearily stepped up to the counter, afraid of what she might find and began to read the small paragraph on the note. Dash, sorry I am not there to tell you this in person but it is better that I am not. I do not know if you have noticed it but ever since you showed up I have been dealing with quite a lot of demons. That day, nearly four months ago now, when you told me to leave it left me broken and confused. See, I always thought that you were the coolest Pegasus that any Griffin could ever meet, and it hurt to see you turn on me that easily. I never truly got over what happened that day, I just tried to push it out of my mind and keep myself from thinking about you. when you showed up though it brought back everything I had worked so hard to push out of my mind and suddenly I was back in that tightly packed room with you and your friends again. You see, to be completely honest with myself, I love you. You are the only person who ever really got me and that is why I can not stay around. You are welcome to stay as long as you like, I am sure where I am going it will not be a problem with me anyway. I love you Rainbow Dash, take care and keep out of trouble for me. ~Gilda By time Rainbow Dash had finished reading Gildas letter it was like her whole world had fallen apart. Tears had gone from stinging her eyes to flowing warmly over her sky blue cheeks and her teeth were slowly grinding against each other. It seemed as if that little nightmare Rainbow Dash believed to be only in her dreams was now a part of her life. "Gilda, left? Why would she do such a thing? She has so much going on for her, so much here that matters. This just does not make any sense." Rainbow Dash felt her head start to pulsate lightly and she knew she would need some caffeine before she could actually think about this. It took just under five minutes for the coffee pot to ding letting Rainbow Dash know that her little cup of caffeine heaven was ready and she took it black. The coffee felt good rolling down the back of her throat, its healing touch slowly revitalizing the worn out and already stressed Pegasus. suddenly a realization came to mind and Rainbow Dash thought back to Gildas letter. "You are welcome to stay as long as you like, I am sure where I am going it will not be a problem with me anyway." the cup dropped out from underneath Rainbow Dashes now fading grip and shattered into several pieces against the wood lined floor below her. Of course Gilda would not have a problem with Rainbow Dash staying as long as she liked because Gilda never planned to come back. "She is going to kill herself!" Rainbows words echoed through the many halls of the empty mansion and then buried themselves in her head. She knew exactly where Gilda would go and exactly what Gilda would do. "I am not going to let you do this Gilda, and that is a promise I intend to keep." Rainbow Dash was off of the ground and out of the door before the mail mare of the day had even finished her runs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey Gilda?" Rainbow Dash was hesitant to approach Gilda, a little nervous about the conversation she was planning to have. "Hey there Dash, what is happening?" Gilda replied in a playful tone as she lightly punched her Pegasus friend. "Oh nothing, just bored is all." Rainbow Dash was staring at the ground as she spoke, hoping to avoid Gilda's caring eye. "Yeah? you do not say. So, ready for the big final flying exam?" Gilda asked excitedly. "Yeah, so excited. When is the exam anyway?" Rainbow Dash sounded uncaring now, as if the current topic was boring her even more. "Oh, it is about four months away now, but you have nothing to worry about." "What makes you say that?" there was a hint of curiosity in Dashes voice and she wanted to know why Gilda believed she had no reason to worry. "Because you are the best flier here at junior speedster camp. Nobody is as good at this as you, you will pass no problem." a grin had exploded across the brown Griffins face and she seemed to be nearly ecstatic at the thought of seeing Rainbow Dash fly again. "Well Gilda, I actually wanted to talk to you about that." "Huh, what is up Dash?" "Well, I do not think I am going to stay here long enough to take the final exam." Rainbow Dashes heart sank just hearing herself say those words and she could only imagine what Gilda could be feeling right now. "What do you mean by that Dash?" Gilda was starting to sound concerned and Rainbow Dash felt tears welling up in the back of her throat. "I mean I think I am going to drop out." the words fell cold and flat as they exited Rainbow Dashes lips and she felt her heart stop. She looked to Gilda in expectance of an answer but no such answer came. "Are you alright Gilda?" "Rainbow Dash, how could you. How could you just go and leave me here alone like that!?" Gilda was furious as she answered Rainbow Dash, words flying like daggers straight into the cyan colored Pegasi's soul. "Wh-What do you mean Gilda?" "After all we have been through together here at camp, all the fun things we've done and challenges we have overcome you are just going to throw it away like that?" Gilda had calmed herself to a dull roar, but the words were still impossible for Rainbow Dash to bear. "i am not abandoning you Gilda, I am just leaving camp is all." "No, I know exactly what you are doing. You can not handle being number one here, being the best, so you are going to run away from it and leave everyone who cares for you behind." Gilda was in tears now; hot, stinging beads of salty water flowing from her eyes and over her cheeks. "No Gilda, th..." Rainbow Dash was cut off before she could finish her sentence by a sharp talon pressing softly against her lips. "I do not want an explanation, it is not going to change anything. If you want to go then go, but do not expect sympathy from me when you realize things are not what they seem on the outside." fire burned in Gildas eyes as she spoke and Rainbow Dash feared that if she did not leave she might end up getting hurt. "But Gilda..." "No buts. Just leave." and with that the angered Griffin threw open her wings and rocketed off of the cloud she was on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As Rainbow Dash approached the old campground where she had started her journey in flying she was hit with a certain sense of nostalgia. To think that this is where it all had started, this is where everything had begun was nauseating and Dash found herself kneeling to the floor of the cloud to regain her composure. "Well Gilda, I figure if you are going to end it all you will probably end up doing it here." it was sort of ironic in a way now that Dash thought about it, and she almost wanted to laugh at it all. Gilda would come back here to the campground and spend a good few hours crying and reliving past memories; then when she had had enough of the trip through her past she would find some creative and insane way to kill herself like only Gilda knew how to do. "Oh Gilda, why did we ever let it come to this?" Rainbow Dash was holding back tears as her eyes scanned the old playground and fond memories played through her head. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gilda tore through the many clouds surrounding Ponyville as she tried vainly to clear her head. Her mind was racing and the depression that she had been suffering from had begun to weigh not only her mind but her entire body down. She was exhausted from the lack of sleep she had had the night before and the lack of her morning coffee was not helping. At this rate she would sooner fall out of the clouds below her than reach her destination in time. "Damn it! I wish I could just wake up from this fucking nightmare already!" Gilda jumped at her own voice. It was early enough so that there were no other ponies around to hear her, but it still felt awkward to use such vivid language. "I guess it really does not matter what I say now though, I am not gonna be here much longer anyway." The thought of suicide still bothered Gilda, but it was not as bad as it had been in the past. She was sure that suicide was the only real way out of this mess, but the question still remained of how to go about it. Gilda wanted to spend time thinking about it but before she could begin she found that she had reached her destination. She was standing just outside the front door of a large, cloud-like mansion and she felt shivers run down her spine at the thought of who owned the mansion. It was none other than Rainbow Dashes mansion; a large, blue cloud home formed many decades ago by the Pegasi that had come before her. It was a true testament to what the Pegasi of Cloudsdale were capable of and every time Gilda saw it it made her jaw drop. "My last day here and how do I decide to spend it? By staying in Rainbow Dashes house all day long." Gilda chuckled at how pitiful she must seem right now, sneaking into her lovers house to pretend to spend the day with her before she killed herself but she did not care. Frankly by this point the only thing Gilda actually did care about was Rainbow Dash, and the realization that things could never work between them had just driven her closer to this fate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ugh, where is that damn Griffin when you need her?" Rainbow Dash had started to grow impatient as the once bright sky began to grow dark and dim. She had been waiting for hours by the old swing set that Gilda and her used to play on and she was to the point to where she could not wait any longer. "Alright, I am tired of waiting on her to show up. Maybe I will have better luck looking somewhere else." as Rainbow Dash got up from her seat beside the small, metal contraption she noticed a brown dot growing larger and larger in the sky in front of her. Rainbow Dash decided to hide behind the old tire that her group used to sit around when they were younger and wait to see what this foreign object in the sky could be. After roughly five minutes of waiting the object landed forcefully in front of Rainbow Dash and she found that it was none other than Gilda, but she was looking a bit different than normal. The first thing Rainbow Dash noticed that was different about Gilda was her face. It was blatantly clear that Gilda had not slept at all the night before and large, purplish bags hung underneath her eyes. The next thing Dash had noticed was off about Gilda was the oddly tied rope around her midsection. The rope binding Gilda at her midsection was a dark brown color and seemed powerful enough to withstand even the hardest tug on it. As Rainbow Dash continued to watch Gilda it seemed as if everything had finally come together. Gilda had tied her wings to her body so that she would not be able to stop herself from hitting the ground when she jumped off of the cloud. Rainbow Dash watched, mouth agape, as Gilda walked solemnly to the edge of the small playground and peered over the edge of the cloud down at the waiting earth below her. Rainbow Dash could watch no longer and she quickly jumped from behind the bushes to stop Gilda from jumping. "Gilda, wait! Do not do what you are about to do!" Rainbow Dashes voice cracked as she yelled. She was surprised that she had been able to move given the massive fear rolling through her, but she did it and it was like a small miracle in itself. :"Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?" Gilda was as much shocked as she was upset but the shock shined through brighter. "Well, I thought about your letter and what you had said. I got stuck on the part where you said I could stay as long as I wanted because it would not matter to you. I put two and two together and that is when I realized that you were going to kill yourself." Rainbow Dash was confident that if she stuck with her endeavor Gilda would realize how stupid she was being and come back with her to the mansion. Once back at the mansion Rainbow Dash hoped to comfort Gilda and talk about things between them and where their relationship would go in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Gildas heart was torn; she wanted so badly to go back, to run back into the open and waiting arms of Rainbow Dash, but she knew that if she did now nothing could ever be the same again. It was a personal hell like none other the poor Griffin had ever experienced and it beat against her very soul. For the first time in Gildas life she was faced with the perfect reality and the harsh perception instead of the other way around and it seemed as if the latter was growing ever more factual in her mind. "Hey Rainbow Dash, do you remember the old speedsters chant we did every morning here at camp?" there were tears in Gildas eyes as she spoke, but she pushed on through it. "Heh, yeah, I sure do." Rainbow Dash was in a full blown sob now, tears flowing like a river to the darkening clouds below them. "Would you, well, like to recite it with me?" Gilda was shaking now, barely able to hold herself upright. "Of course I would Gilda, of course I would." Rainbow Dash took a deep breath as she prepared herself for the hardest chant of her life. Junior speedsters are our life Sky-bound soars and daring dives Junior speedsters it's our quest To some day be the very best Gilda smiled calmly as the duo finished the chant and met Rainbow Dashes eyes once again. "Thank you Rainbow Dash... For everything." and with that Gilda stepped backwards off of the cloud and vanished.