//------------------------------//
// The Wind Under Your Wings 
// Story: The Wind Under Your Wings 
// by Wanderer D 
//------------------------------//

Schrödinger's cafe was relatively new in Ponyville, and somewhat of a tourist trap, according to Applejack, who didn't like the new look it brought to the honest and hardworking rustic image that previous restaurant had. She liked things straight, traditional, and goshdarnit, simple. Which meant that it was the one place she'd never set hoof in the company of the others. 

Rarity thought it was drab, with its labyrinthian design or something, Pinkie got a funny feeling out of it, and Twilight simply bought her coffee to go, which was why Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could sit down on the balcony to enjoy a warm drink without interruptions in the middle of winter. It was a pegasus thing. Everypony else preferred to stay inside.

Fluttershy tapped her hooves against each other. "I think you should go find her and talk to her."

Rainbow Dash gave her a look. It was the type of look that told a story. The type of story that had meandered past logic and incredulity. It was the type of look that spoke of an absolute shattering of belief. The type of look that said: No way in Tartarus did you just utter what you just did.

"Fluttershy," Rainbow's voice was exasperated. "Don't you remember what she did? She threatened you, could've hurt Pinkie—"

"Yes," Fluttershy said. "But she's your friend."

"Was my friend," Rainbow Dash scoffed. "No real friend of mine treats my other friends like that!"

"Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy leaned forward, taking her friend's head in her hooves and holding her steady. "I think Gilda is going through more than she let on. She's not all bad, or you wouldn't have been friends with her before, right?"

"Uh…"

"Right?"

"Well, yeah, I-I guess?" Rainbow Dash rubbed her foreleg awkwardly. "I guess we had some good times…"

Fluttershy nodded. "Right. So why don't you find out why she really did all of that?"

That gave Rainbow Dash pause. Ponies were setting up all the decorations for Hearths Warming, and her role of bringing in snow so far had been fulfilled.

Hearth's Warming was all about burying the hatchet as it were. Still, she couldn't get over how nasty and dismissive Gilda had been of her friends. Friends with whom she had saved the world with and risked everything for. Was it really that simple to let it go? She scoffed. 

"You really think she had other reasons than being a jerk?"

Fluttershy nodded, the same weird intensity as before shining behind her eyes. Ever since Gilda had threatened her, she had been very reluctantly encouraging Rainbow Dash to try and save that old friendship, and now, for whatever reason, it seemed that Shy's inner dragon had awoken over a cup of cocoa.

Rainbow Dash carefully leaned in and sniffed the mug.

"Pinkie Pie did not spike the drinks."

Dash chuckled, leaning back. "Heh-heh. Yeah. It's still weird, you know? To hear you being so insistent about Gilda? Where did that even come from?"

Fluttershy shifted in her seat, looking down and away. "I um. I mean… I see how you sometimes look at your old trophies and pictures when I'm visiting. I remember that Gilda was there for most of that."

Rainbow Dash groaned and leaned back. She took her mug in her hooves and and loudly sipped on it, frowning and thinking, until she put it down with a grimace. "Fine. I'll leave in the morning. But I don't think it's going to really make much of a difference."

Fluttershy reached over the table to hold her hoof in her own. "Thank you for trying."