Twilight walked to Golden Oaks carrying a dark blue book with her, she calmly entered the house and put the book on the table "Amara, I'm home!" immediately a warm smell was present, Twilight began to walk towards the kitchen, she found Amara who was washing the dirty dishes, she was wearing an apron and a chef's hat.
"Oh! Hello Twilight! How was it with Pinkie?" she asked.
“Good, luckily she went chasing Rainbow Dash. What are you cooking? It smells amazing! "
“Griffon Scones, I learned or rather bought the recipe on a diplomatic trip with Mom to Griffinstone; I made my own improvements to the recipe to make it more palatable, baking powder, some nuts, chocolate, pretzels, etc. Do you want to try? They're ready." Amara said taking the tray out of the oven and unmolding the scones to put them in a bowl to cool, then handed one to Twilight.
Twilight tried it, it had a slightly crispy crust, but with a soft and fluffy interior, the sweet taste of chocolate mixed with salty nuts and pretzels gave a relaxing massage to the palate "They are delicious!"
"Thank you" Amara said taking one and savoring it delicately.
The two went about their business, Twilight sat down to finish reading her book while having some tea. Amara for her part finished some paperwork and asked Spike to send it in while she went down to the lab to work on something.
Twilight finished reading her book, put it on the table and quickly prepared her science equipment, grabbed a scroll, a pen and some ink. She began to write while observing chemical reactions, but when she turned over the parchment was blank; At that moment she heard the laughter of Rainbow and Pinkie who were watching her through the window, Twilight just ignored them and went to look for a bottle of ink.
Amara was in the lab, she was wearing protective goggles and gloves, she was carefully handling a flask filled with steaming yellowish liquid. Out of nowhere Pinkie jumped off the ceiling wearing a dragon mask; Amara let out a scream of terror and spilled the contents of the vial on her face, immediately Amara threw herself to the ground and began to scream in agony as her face melted revealing a green bloody skull. Rainbow and Pinkie watched paralyzed in horror.
"P-Pinkie, what have you done." was the only thing Rainbow Dash said.
Pinkie cried as she hugged herself "What are we going to do?"
The two of them turned around so they didn't have to see their friend's body. "W-We'll be fine, we need to hide the body o-or we could better leave it here, everypony will think it was an accident." Rainbow Dash said.
At that moment someone touched their back, the two of them slowly turned around. Amara's corpse had got up and was staring at them "Boo!" They both screamed in terror, at that moment Amara took off her skull mask and started laughing uncontrollably "O-Haha-Okay, that was fun" she said wiping her tears of laughter "Now get out of my lab." Amara said in a serious and threatening voice.
The two hurried out of the library, once more calm and having lost the spirit the two agreed to continue with the pranks the next day.
"So Pinkie Pie, are you sure that this friend of Rainbow Dash is really so mean?" asked Twilight as she readed a book.
"Um, yeah. She keeps stealing Rainbow Dash away, she pops my balloons, and she told me to buzz off. I've never met a griffon this mean. Well, actually, I've never met a griffon at all, but I bet if I had, she wouldn't have been as mean and grumpy as Gilda."
"You know what I think, Pinkie Pie."
"Hmm?"
"Well, I think... you're-"
"Absolutely right." Said Amara interrupting her “What Pinkie says is absolutely true, I can feel it. Her story also explains why I have been feeling the presence of a pony or someone in this case, who emanates an incredible amount of negative emotions"
"Wait, really?" Twilight asked.
"Of course! Leave this to me Pinkie, I'll keep an eye on that griffon and if she bothers you again I'll make sure she'll regret it forever. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's bullies."
"Thanks Amy!" Pinkie said giving him a big hug.
“It's a pleasure to help. Now go, get on with your day, I'll take care of the rest "
Pinkie left with plans to go have a milkshake. Amara took some things and went to look for the griffon making sure not to be seen by anypony.
Upon reaching the market street Amara hid behind some bushes, she could see Pinkie drinking a strawberry milkshake across the street, at that moment Gilda and Rainbow Dash landed on the street to Amara's right, the griffon had the colors and the head of an eagle. Amara couldn't hear well, but Rainbow said she would see her later and took off. Gilda looked around and spotted old Granny Smith who was buying some vegetables. She sidled up and played a bad joke on her.
Amara was outraged, annoyed, and even disgusted by her attitude. She could taste her malice, a metallic and spicy taste with hints of bittersweet that was only digestible for the one who felt it. She could also taste the disgusting pride Gilda felt after having made her prank. That taste of a cold dessert that left a cloying bad taste in the mouth.
Then Gilda approached the vegetable stand again and with her tail snatched an apple. Amara was about to come out of hiding and yell 'THIEF!' When she noticed Fluttershy leading a family of ducks.
"All right little ones, this way, this way. Mama duck, you're free and clear." At that moment Fluttershy collided with Gilda.
"Hey!"
"Please excuse me-"
"I'm walkin' here!"
"Oh, um, I'm sorry. I-I-I was just trying to. . ."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Why don't you just watch where you're going, doofus?"
"B-b-b-but I... I..."
Gilda inhaled and roared loudly making Fluttershy burst into tears, then she turned and ran off disappearing into the crowd. Gilda turned and was preparing to leave when suddenly
Amara jumped from her hiding place. "Where do you think you're going thief?! Don't think I didn't see you steal that apple"
Gilda turned around abruptly and looked Amara in the eyes with a threatening look. "Yes, I stole an apple, so what?"
"First: that's a crime, second: ponies work really hard to make those apples" Amara replied.
“Do I look like I care about any of those things? Why don't you stop getting into what doesn't concern you"
“Oh, but it does concern me. That sweet yellow pegasus that you heartlessly made cry is my friend" Amara then took Gilda by the shoulders and jerked her close to see her face to face "And nobody messes with my friends."
Gilda pushed her away "And who the heck do you think you are to talk to me like that?!!"
Amara got up and dusted herself “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Princess Amara of Equestria, inventor, scientist, archaeologist, former captain of the Royal Guard trained in all forms of combat, element of harmony and I'm your worst nightmare"
"Should I be scared?" Gilda asked.
"Oh, you should. Because unlike poor Rainbow Dash I am able to see what you really are, you are a bully, an evil being, you are scum who finds pleasure and pride in hurting others because you think you are superior to them. Even so, you act like a saint in front of Rainbow Dash because she is your only friend and you know it, but you also know that if she knew what you really are she would abandon you without hesitation, but it is not only that, no, you used to be the loser, the one who was at the bottom of the chain of losers, then she defended you, helped you, took care of you under her wing and raised your self-esteem, but instead of learning you became the biggest bully, you misinterpreted her words of motivation and convinced yourself that you were superior. Well, guess what? You are not and you have no right to treat anyone like that, not you, nor anyone else. Now get out of here and don't mess with my friends, I don't want to fight with you, I understand that you suffered a lot, and I did too, but that doesn't excuse your actions. So turn around, go away, and don't come back until you've changed for the better."
Gilda looked at her with fury and pure hatred in her eyes, Amara was unfazed. Gilda finally seemed to calm down and turned to leave, Amara smiled and turned to go home, at that moment Gilda flew at full speed and hit her from the back, and threw her to a wall three blocks away, Amara hit the floor with her face and felt the pain run through her body. At that moment Gilda landed in front of her.
"I don't want to hurt you," Amara said.
"Well, I do, a lot," said Gilda burning with anger. she took her by the neck and lifted her into the air.
"Ok... let's not do things that we may regret later," Amara said.
"You say it like I'm not going to enjoy every second of this" With her other claw Gilda gave Amara a scratch on the face leaving a deep three-claw mark on her chitin.
"O-Okay, that will regenerate." Said Amara
"But the eyes will not." Gilda prepared to launch a direct scratch at her right eye with the intention of ripping it out when the tip of Amara's horn filled with green magic and a bolt of lightning sent Gilda to the ground.
"I'll say it one more time, I don't want to hurt you," Amara said getting up and catching her breath.
Gilda pulled up and quickly took Amara into a crushing hug and flew at full speed towards the nearest building, running through it using Amara as protection for her body. Amara in turn created a shield so as not to receive damage, but the shield disappeared when passing through the first wall and Amara received all the impact when crossing the opposite wall of the building and going outside again. Gilda then kicked her in the air and threw her against a tree. "You're a stupid bug, but I must admit that you have courage" Amara got up slowly, she was disoriented and her legs were shaking with pain, she looked Gilda in the eyes and prepared to fight as a drop of green blood came out of her mouth and it slid down her face. Gilda simply smiled "You don't know how much I'm going to enjoy this." Gilda was about to pounce on Amara when she was blinded by a green glow. Amara had disappeared.
"Gilda, stop this" Amara said behind her. Gilda just turned and pounced on Amara once more, only for her to teleport again "I can do this all day" Gilda pounced again releasing a roar like that of a lion, Amara teleported again, but without warning Gilda jumped out of a tree, launched herself at Amara and punched her hard in the face, wasting no time Gilda took her from one of the holes in her leg and rose above the city.
"I must admit you're making me mad," Gilda said.
"Yes, I already noticed that," Amara said with a small smile, she had one eye half closed due to inflammation, and now more blood was coming out of her mouth, and she was coughing blood between each breath. “I-*cough* I'll give you one last warning *Cough* stop before I decide to hurt you."
Gilda just laughed and tightened her grip, flipped Amara several times in the air, and threw her to the ground. Amara collided with force against Golden Oaks, as soon as she touched the ground she spat green blood, Gilda landed in front of her and slowly began to approach. Amara tried to get up, but her legs gave out and Amara fell unconscious to the ground. At that moment, Twilight came out of Golden Oaks startled.
"What was that?! Amy? Amy! What happened?!" Twilight quickly ran over to Amara and started checking her out.
Amara slowly opened her eyes still confused by the concussion "Twily?"
"Stay away from her conehead, she's mine," Gilda said approaching slowly.
"Gilda. . . " Twilight whispered dumbfounded. She immediately stood between Amara and her, and prepared her magic "No, you stay away from her."
Gilda frowned “I think you didn't understand. Get out of my way."
"No" Twilight readied herself for combat.
"Twilight no!" Amara said still on the ground.
Gilda started running towards Twilight preparing to strike when a bolt of magenta lightning hit her face and threw her backwards, without wasting time she recovered and threw another blow, only to receive another magic attack and fall to the ground. Twilight approached slowly to make sure she was okay, Twilight put her hoof on her shoulder to turn her when suddenly Gilda attacked. Twilight let out a cry of pain and surprise, falling to the ground with blood pouring from the claw marks on her face.
Amara's expression turned furious and threatening. She got up suddenly and jumped on Gilda, throwing her to the ground, without wasting time she began to deal blow after blow with her hooves “Listen to me you stupid fucking pigeon, piece of shit, street whore! You can steal, you can treat everyone like shit, you can attack me. but never, EVER dare touch my friends again!!!" Amara continued to beat her mercilessly and within seconds bloody feathers began to shoot out with each blow. Gilda with effort struck a blow on Amara's face, not that it hurt her, but Amara was already furious, she immediately returned the blow, and a huge fragment of beak shot out.
Gilda's face was filled with fear and a tear formed on her face “Oh no. . . NoNoNoNoNo! NO!" more tears began to run down her face "T-that's not-"
“-not going to grow back” Amara completed with a smile on her face “but fear not, they will give you a nice prosthesis in prison, or maybe they will put it on your corpse in the cemetery. It depends on how much fun I want to have. Now. . . " Amara took Gilda with her magic and raised her "Let's fly!"
Amara launched Gilda upward, lifting her over the city, Amara took off at full speed leaving behind her a low hum, and got into position. Just when Gilda reached the same height as Amara, she pushed her with all her strength back to the ground leaving a huge crater. Amara slowly approached Gilda and leaned close to her face "How about I call this off?" Gilda simply spat in her face. “Okay, we'll do it your way. But first” Amara's horn lit up and golden energy surrounded Gilda, in a flash Gilda felt revitalized, her most serious wounds had disappeared, and even her beak was as good as new. Something that was totally impossible “A healing spell Mom taught me. I am a fair mare and I was not going to fight you under those conditions"
Gilda paid no attention to her and immediately started the fight again. She lunged at Amara and delivered a blow to the face, Amara returned the blow and quickly turned around to give her a strong kick in the stomach, sending her flying several meters and falling next to Twilight. Gilda jerked Twilight off the ground and grabbed her tightly; Amara's expression turned violent and threatening again "Let go of her right now!" Amara ordered her.
Gilda simply smiled and brought a claw to her face "Or else?" Twilight had started crying and sobbing silently out of fear.
"Don't even think of it!"
"Don't even think about what?" Gilda brought her claw closer to touch Twilight's face "This?
"Gilda!" Amara yelled angrily and threateningly.
Gilda slowly dug her claw into Twilight's flesh, leaving a small wound from which blood began to flow; Gilda smirked, but only for a second, because before she could move a muscle Amara had teleported behind her. Amara grabbed her by the neck tightly and Gilda began to suffocate, she let go of Twilight and tried desperately to get Amara off her, at one point she dug her claws into the chitin of the legs around her neck, but this was useless; in a few seconds Gilda was about to lose consciousness when Amara released her and kicked her to the ground; Gilda spun around to get up, but Amara jumped on her just before she could take a breath and began an unimaginably terrible beating; the beating that had broken her beak seemed like a massage compared to this.
Amara beat her mercilessly. On her face an angry smile that showed her fangs bathed in her own blood and a murderous look, her eyes had turned bright green and were bloodshot, the small dark green veins fluttering in her eyes as if trying to reach her small pointed pupils. It was torture to see her directly, there were emotions in that face so strong that anyone would cower and kneel to pray for their life, but Gilda couldn't do it, even if she wanted to, Amara released forceful blow after forceful blow, Gilda didn't have time to breathe or open her eyes between each blow, the bloody feathers flew by dozens, practically half of her beak had been dislodged from her face, and what was left of it hung on tendons and cartilage. Gilda felt what was left of her bones moving through her flesh prickling nerves and tearing vessels; Right now all she wanted was for one of the blows to finally kill her.
But that didn't happen, Amara knew very well what she was doing, each blow had a unique function: to cause the most extreme pain that someone could ever experience without going crazy and without killing her, it was not complicated with her knowledge of biology, but she had ran out of non-lethal areas on her face, she decided to go for her stomach next when she suddenly turned to see the horizon, her eyes settled on a snowy mountain and in seconds her mind plotted the grand finale of the battle.
Amara took Gilda with her hooves and took flight. She headed against the mountain at full speed, moving so fast that she seemed to travel miles between each blink. The friction of the air burned the feathers and skin on Gilda's back, she released the silent and wet sobs of pain that her throat could release while a loud beep covered her ears, she felt her entire skull being crushed by an incomparable force. The mountain was a few meters away, Amara kicked Gilda and she fell against the rocky ground leaving a huge crater. Gilda felt a strong current of pain run through her body and then she felt it begin to fade at the same time that her body went numb, Gilda closed her eyes waiting for death, but she didn't arrive.
"Confused, right?" Amara said “Put this in your head birdseed brain. You are alive because I allow it, there is a force field around your body, you can only suffer the damage that I let into that force field. If you didn't have it you would have died a long time ago, do you have any idea how strong I am? I can kick a tree down, when I was a soldier I was able to go through a 10-centimeter-thick steel door and break the ribs of the pony on the other side with one single movement."
"What do you want from me?" Gilda stammered slowly.
“I wanted to help you! I gave you opportunities, I believed that you had a spark of potential strong enough to give you the possibility of redemption. I didn't want to hurt you because I knew that deep down you were a scared chick, that behind your acid shell there was someone disturbed who needed help, I didn't want to hurt you because you were important to Rainbow Dash. But in the end, you proved to be just one more bully on the heap, No. . . you proved to be the bully on top of the heap!" The anger had disappeared and now her face was full of sadness and frustration “I wanted you to shine. Now I just want you to get away, get away, and don't come back because next time I'll make sure you don't hurt anyone again.” Gilda was once again surrounded by golden magic and her body once again regenerated, except for something, one of her claws was missing and a little piece of her beak as well “That spell can only be used twice, and it has flaws the second time. So remember that if we face each other again and for some reason, I leave you alive there will be no way for you to recover from that fight. Now get out of here." Gilda without saying a word took flight and left without looking back.
Amara got up and returned to Golden Oaks, arrived with Twilight and helped her up, took her inside, cleaned her wounds while crying and apologizing, to which Twilight responded by assuring her that everything was fine, that it wasn't her fault, that she should worry about her own injuries, but Amara wasn't listening. The holes in her body started to secrete a yellowish liquid of a sticky and greasy consistency around her wounds, she would be as good as new in a few hours.
The two of them were cleaning up the mess at the entrance when a rainbow flash passed over them and revealed the cyan pegasus in all its glory. “Hey girls, how's everything going? Did you see all that scandal in the market? I couldn't get a good look at it because it was too far away so I thought you guys could tell me what happened, because it looked super cool-" Rainbow stopped when she saw Amara and Twilight "What the heck happened here?. . ."
Amara and Twilight looked at each other, finally, Amara looked into her eyes “Rainbow Dash. . . We need to talk."
There was silence in Golden Oaks, more than usual. Twilight was in her bed writing on some scrolls while she watched the foals play in the street, Amara was in her dark green cloth armchair writing in her little notebook, she checked from time to time some books and scrolls to make sure everything was correct. When she finished, she closed her notebook and put it aside. Amara saw the amber scabs that had formed around her wounds, she could already see through them that her wounds were about to finish regenerating, she felt weak, the regeneration wasted a lot of energy “Spike! Can you go to the store and get me a pound of sugar and a gallon of water? Spike?" Amara waited for an answer, but only found silence "Twilight where's Spike?"
"He went to one of his childish comic conventions," Twilight said with disdain for those fictional magazines.
“Oh don't be like that, comics aren't that bad, they can be very dark sometimes and other times they are pure expressions of art. Also, let Spike enjoy them. A dragon's childhood is less than a quarter of an eighth of its life, so let's let him enjoy it before he grows into a beast larger than Canterlot Palace."
Twilight was silent thinking about it a bit "I guess you're right. I mean, after all, I'm the mare who goes to conventions about book sagas and I really don't think it's much different."
Amara smiled “That's the spirit! Remind me to ask him to go to the store when he gets back.” Amara got up and walked to the kitchen, looking for a large jar and filling it with sugar and water in the right amount to make syrup, she returned to the living room and stood in front of the window to see the scenery while drinking. 'This should give me enough glucose to finish the process. I'll have to drink more later to recharge' she told herself; her gaze fell on a white feather outside on the grass. The conversation with Rainbow had been hard, it hurt Amara to tell Dash the truth about her friend seeing how slowly a light faded in her eyes and tears and pain flowed from her heart; Amara was about to faint several times in that conversation due to the number of negative emotions she had to digest, she was in such a bad state that it was Twilight who had to comfort the poor pegasus.
Amara just sighed sadly and hoped Rainbow was okay. She turned her gaze to the sky and could see something approaching at full speed "TWILIGHT RUN!"
In a blink Gilda went through the window and knocked her to the floor, then grabbed her by the neck and hung her on the wall. Amara prepared to cast a spell when Gilda placed a piece of metal on her horn using her other claw. “Magic inhibitor. I stole it from a street vendor who tried to sell me a strange amulet with a red gem" Amara began to make guttural sounds as if trying to speak "I'm sorry what did you say?" Gilda asked. Amara immediately spat a sticky green substance in her eyes, blinding her and irritating her eyes, Gilda put her claws to her face as she screamed in pain “Agk! You stupid bitch! you'll pay for that!" Gilda tore the greenish mass out of her eyes and lunged once more at Amara, grabbing her by the ears and head-butting her, leaving her stunned. Gilda grabbed her by the neck once more and hit her against the wall "Goodbye!" Gilda prepared to dig her free claw into the phylogastric sac in Amara's abdomen when she suddenly heard someone scream.
"GILDA NO!" It was Rainbow Dash coming through the broken window.
"Dash?" Gilda asked incredulously.
"Gilda, please don't do this. I know you're not a bad person" said Rainbow with sadness in her eyes.
"B-But. . . " Tears were about to flow from her eyes, but anger came back to her "She ruined me!" Gilda tightened her grip piercing the chitin and crushing Amara against the wall, preparing once more to deliver the killing blow as Rainbow put her hoof on her shoulder.
"Gilda, please. If there's still any of the griffon I grew up with in there, please listen to me. Search in your heart and do the right thing.” Tears ran down her face.
Gilda looked into her eyes, a knot formed in her throat, and tears began to flow slowly, it was a cry without sobs, just pure sadness. Gilda removed the inhibitor and released Amara, to later show her claws stuck by the wrist, on her face a feeling of supplication for her deserved punishment. Amara with regret fulfilled the request and with her magic handcuffed her. “I'll take her to the guards. Don't worry, Don't worry, I'll make sure that the punishment isn't severe. I just hope my mother doesn't find out.” Rainbow just nodded as she bit her lip trying to hold back the tears and sobs. then they heard the sound of a door opening upstairs and Twilight appeared.
"I-Is it safe to go out?" Twilight asked with a spell prepared, just in case.
"Yes. . . " Gilda said with a dull look, she was already disappointed in herself, but seeing the fear she had caused in others was a kick to the face.
"Rainbow, please help Twilight with this mess. Twilight remembers telling Spike to buy the things, I will need them for these new wounds" Amara said touching her neck and feeling the yellowish substance begin to sprout.
Twilight nodded and Amara took flight alongside Gilda holding her up with a chain of green magic.
They landed just outside the mayor's office. Gilda kept her head down, Amara smiled slightly and made the chains disappear, Gilda looked at her surprised and confused. “I'll tell them that you got into a fight with some stranger because of a misunderstanding. They will give you a maximum of a few months in prison, I will make sure that they take you to a rehabilitation prison, you will have all your freedoms, except for some schedules and of course, the confinement."
Gilda was even more incredulous "W-Why are you doing this? You don't owe me anything, I tried to kill you!, you should make sure I end up in a dungeon at the bottom of a well inside another dungeon."
Amara just chuckled "Because you're not truly evil, you just need help"
"I don't understand, why are you so understanding with me?"
"Because that's what you need, just a little empathy. . ."