//------------------------------// // 4: Confronting the Pegasus // Story: Benefits of Being a Hippogriff // by Appleody //------------------------------// Chapter 4 The journey was a blur to poor Gilda. One moment, she was trying to get some last-minute sleep in, the next, she had propelled herself to somewhere she would never be welcome. That being the cloud home of her once good friend, Rainbow Dash. Despite her misgivings, she came in for a gentle landing on the ominous house’s porch, not eliciting any sound as her hooves met the soft surface. Staring straight ahead at the front door, Gilda flinched back as her brain started to flood with memories of the previous day. Why would I ever come here? Seeing no counter argument, she did a 180 before leaping to safety from the wronged pegasus. A sigh of relief escaped her beak, as she glanced up at the steadily shrinking home. Thank the emperor she never saw me. At least I can save a little face. With her escape almost assured, the lone griffon started to feel a little sadness at throwing away her last opportunity to save her friendship. Shaking her head clear of that stinging realization, she extended her wings with the intent on riding a nice thermal towards the train station. The moment she took this thermal however, her wings pivoted almost unnoticeably. This small change had a large effect, causing the bird to instead rapidly circle back towards the scene of her crime. This time, she landed only a paw step from the door, narrowly missing hitting it with her beak. It took all her might not to caw in panic at her almost complete failure. How the flying feather did this happen? Okay, it’s fine, I can still get away. The moment the panicking griffon began to repeat her previous actions, a strange development occurred. Rather than completing her 180, she found her blue hooves almost welded to the cloud. What was more, she couldn’t even twitch her rear legs in the slightest to help free them. “What gives? I can’t have cramp this bad.” With no further option to escape, the strange idea to bite herself came to mind. That would gain some cooperation from her body… somehow. So, Gilda the griffon spun her beaked head around and bit down upon one of her blue furred forelegs. The slightest squeak escaped her as a tiny jolt of pain rang through the limb. As she didn’t let go, the limb in question lightly shook itself, easily freeing from Gilda’s maw. “Why would I think that was a good idea?” Gilda complained as she reached a claw back rub the bite mark… or lack thereof one. Somehow, her perfectly groomed pony limbs didn’t even have a scratch. Huh, that’s weird. Either my beak needs a sharpen or my furs gotten a bit thicker. As she debated her predicament, the unmistakable feeling of cloud against her rear filled her world. “Oh, come on, give me a break,” she pleaded to her now seated rear, that somehow seemed to be defiantly waiting for her next move. What would that even be? How could she escape when suffering such severe muscle cramp? The idle thought to spend more spare time working out crossed her mind, before the door to her friend became the focus of her vision once more. It was still right there, so close she could touch it. Maybe, it’s like fate or something? That’s a thing that happens in the pony lands, right? With that in mind, she raised one of her talons and held it in front of the door. She could so easily knock, then she’d see Dash again. That was still the problem, but it was also a solution, in a way. With a vast amount of will, Gilda balled her talon into a fist and moved it forward. The moment it made contact, she immediately flinched back putting a talon over her beak in the hopes to hide her terror. The terror soon receded when no pony came to the door to answer. “Hey what gives?” she complained, before the sound of a bell filled her ears. Looking to the origin, she noticed her wing subtly retracting from what was clearly a doorbell. “Oh yeah, cloud door,” she said with a hint of amusement, as she set about pressing the button a few more times. A distant familiar voice ended her small spell of amusement. “Yeah, yeah, I heard ya the first time.” The clear irritation in Dash’s voice was obvious, causing a slight burst of panic to take hold. It was then she started to undertake a strange breathing exercise, one that seemed to steadily calm her nerves. “We can do this, We must only persevere,” she calmly said in the hopes of calming herself. “Yeah, Rainbow can learn to love this Griffon again,” she then continued with a little false confidence. Her reassurance seemed to work and not work at the same time. Internally, she felt as ready as she ever would to face judgement, but externally, her eyes bugged out for a moment. Her head then immediately turned to her cleaner than normal hooves. Part of her actually felt a little pride at the way they shone. Dash might actually think she’d put a little effort in for once. Despite this thought, she began looking around the house’s doorway and found a loose cloud. Wasting no time, she pulled the cloud down to her waist, obscuring it from the doors point of view. That would rather disappointingly hide some of her best features, but maybe showing off wasn’t the best way. Don’t want Dash to be put off by my all-powerful hooves. Her awful internal joke did its job of reducing the tension, right up until the door started to open. “So, why on Equestria is anypony bothering me this… early.” The last word escaped the Rainbow maned pegasus, right as she set her eyes upon the intruding bird. As her friend’s face shifted from that of surprise, to more of a scowl, Gilda could only think to say one thing, “sup duffus.” A nervous smile followed her attempt at banter. “What do you want?” came the expected joyless reply. Opening her beak a few times, Gilda only let out a few strange mumbles that couldn’t quite be classed as any known language. In truth, she really had no idea of how to approach a situation like this. It’s not really one any griffon would willingly enter. After the third clack of her beak and a nervous cough, some real words finally escaped. “We have come to beg for thy forgiveness of Our previous transgressions.” The strangeness of Gilda’s reply seemed to confuse the element of loyalty. It was pretty obvious thanks to the look of bewilderment she gained as well as her next statement. “Say what now?” It seemed to be so confusing, that Rainbow had even forgotten to tint her words with hatred. With a start made, Gilda decided to continue her apology, in a slightly more broken fashion, “Erm, I mean that, erm. You know, we’ve been friends so long and erm…” An eye roll from Rainbow and the get on with it rotation of her friend’s hoof motivated the griffon to take a moment to think. She closed her eyes, while licking her beaks edge before more confidently saying, “look, I didn’t want things to end between us like they did. Sooo… I’m… sorry for what I said about you.” After freeing the words, Gilda couldn’t help the small smile from appearing on her face. It really felt like a victory, however small. Even if she doesn’t forgive me, this was worth it. An, “and,” from Rainbow, gave a moments pause to her hopefully partially forgiven bird friend. The word was puzzling, but clearly implied the pegasus wanted a little more. It should have been obvious what she’d been after. With the moment of realization dawning on her, Gilda sighed before saying, “and, I’m sorry for what I did to your friends. It’s just, that pink pony. She really knew how to get on my nerves, she made me want to…” Before she could start digging a deeper hole to jump into, Gilda’s beak seemed to violently snap shut, surprising the pair. She then shook her head with the slightest look of disappointment, “nay, We are here to make a sincere apology to thou.” “Ahem, I know,” she seemed to answer herself sarcastically, before returning to the matter at claw. “At least… she seemed like she was trying to be friendly… in her stupid way. Maybe… one day we could hang out, the three of us.” Weirdly, she actually meant every word. That pink pony can’t be all bad if Rainbow tolerates her, can she? With the desired message delivered, the two individuals sat quietly once again. Gilda, sweating bullets, while Rainbow appeared to be studying her friends face. The silence ended, when the pegasus let out a light laugh, causing Gilda to sigh in relief. “Wow, what an apology, you must really want this,” Rainbow said with a small smile. She then scratched the back of her head before continuing, “look, it’s okay and if you’re going to do it, then so should I.” “B-but why? You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re all cool with me,” Gilda all but fumbled out. Her own wrongs being the only thing she could think of in the heat of the moment. A small wince came from the spectrum bound pegasus as she admitted, “that isn’t true, I did pull all those pranks.” “Yeah... you did. They were really, interesting,” Gilda said as she tried to crush down the hint of bitterness that started to arise. “Oh, nice save,” came the dead pan response, before she lightened up once more. “Anyway, those pranks weren’t all meant for you, but it probably wasn’t the best to have everypony laughing at your expense like that. It wasn’t really the best example of loyalty I’ve ever shown.” Those final words seemed to pull on Gilda’s heartstrings a little stronger than usual. So much so, that she leaned forward to put a comforting talon on Dash’s shoulder. “Rainbow, thy loyalty to thy friends is beyond compare. Without thine efforts, many a pony would be in dire straits.” As she spoke, Gilda spread her wings in an attempt to make her words more grandiose. Her words did get Rainbow to perk up again, almost causing her to laugh at the strangeness. She was then even more surprised, when her usually prideful friend asked, “would thou wish for a hug from thy loving friend?” Before she could respond, the griffon easily pulled her in close and folded her wings around her, trapping Rainbow in amongst her feathers. “Wow, never thought you were a hugger,” she said while awkwardly returning the gesture. “I’m really not. I’m… just glad you don’t hate me,” Gilda responded. It was strange that griffons didn’t really hug each other. It felt so natural to the bird as the friendly action was taking place. More hugs would have to happen in future, when no one was looking of course. As the hug was going on a little too long for her coolness to bare, Rainbow used a modicum of effort to push the griffon off. “By the way, could you stop with the weird dorky speech prank. It was funny at first, but now it’s getting weird.” Taking a moment to look behind herself, Gilda conceded, “I honestly have no idea where that’s coming from. It sorta picked up this morning.” The brief look back caused Rainbow to follow her gaze, which immediately landed on the suspicious cloud covering her friends back. As a quizzical look formed and the potential for a question arose, Gilda decided to remind herself of something important. “Well We, ahem, I have a train to catch. In future I shall hopefully meet thou on sweeter terms.” Her friend's continuing peculiar accent caused Rainbow to laugh lightly again before she agreed, “You bet.” With a light bow of respect, the Griffon took a couple steps backward, causing her to quickly fall from view. A moment later, Rainbow could see her rocketing off in the direction of the train station. She appeared to squint for a moment before saying, “huh, did she dye her fur blue? Wow, she must really have missed me. Wrong shade but meh.” After observing the blue dot for a few more seconds she shrugged, before heading back inside to gain a bit more sleep.