Epilogue.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Gilda shouted and stumbled from the bedroom. She had been woken up by constant knocking on the apartment door. She stretched but was mindful of her bandages.
Grumbling the Gryphon wondered who it could possibly be at this time, ignoring the fact that outside it was quite clearly day time. She opened the door and peered outside, it took her a minute to recognize the light blue and rainbow maned Pegasus standing there.
“Hey Gilda,” Rainbow Dash greeted her.
“Dash? What are you doing here?” Gilda grunted and debated for a second if she should let the pony inside.
“Look I know we can’t say we are bosom buds anymore, but hey you helped out down in Ponyville, finding where your cousin was and all,” the Pegasus started and rubbed the back of her head. “And you kind of left in a hurry after that. Figured I should come around and thank you and all that jazz.”
“Eh, I was just making sure Paul stopped being stupid,” Gilda grunted.
“Yeah sure,” Dash nodded though she didn’t quite believe the female Gryphon. She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to her.
“What is this?” Gilda eyed the paper questionably.
“Check from Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara’s father. He gave rewards to everyone who was involved in rescuing her daughter, I offered to bring yours to you,” the Pegasus explained but now started to twitch a bit. She was not sure how to tell the next bit of news.
“Wow, Filthy Rich is a right name for the dude,” Gilda eyed the check. “I could buy a new apartment for this.”
“Yeah… uh can I come inside, I got some more news,” Rainbow Dash looked back to make sure nobody else was around.
Gilda stepped aside without a word, still working her brain round the amount of money on the check. She closed the door once the pony was inside and walked to the sitting area, Dash followed silently trying to come up with a way to gently say the next part.
“Man, Paul must be stewing; I bet this is more than his employer was going to pay him,” the Gryphon snickered and grinned wide when she looked back at the pony. It dropped when seeing the solemn face Rainbow Dash was sporting.
“Uh Gilda… about your cousin,” the Pegasus sighed and shifted a bit on her legs.
“Yeah?” Gilda frowned, she half expected to hear that Paul had escaped imprisonment and was on the loose.
“He’s dead.” Dash could not think of any other way to say it. Best just be blunt and take whatever reaction her old friend would show.
“Oh…” the Gryphon wasn’t really prepared for that and unsure how to really respond. She sat down and just stared at Dash for a moment before looking down at the floor.
“How?” she asked quietly.
“Silver Axe killed him… turned out he’s a complete wackjob who uh, kept recreating the accident that killed his daughter using other fillies as substitutes. Neither Paul nor this Snow Heart who hired them knew anything about it,” the Pegasus told her.
Gilda didn’t respond, just stared at the floor. Rainbow Dash started to walk over but the Gryphon turned away. Her talons were digging into the floorboard and the tail twitched. But so far she remained silent.
“I’m sorry Gilda.” Dash could obviously see that her old friend had cared about her cousin, despite his rather idiotic criminal behavior. “If there is anything I can…”
“Just go… I want to be alone,” Gilda tried to growl but as she was already trying to suppress most of her emotion it came more out as a raspy sob.
“Your family still lives in Cloudsdale right? Want me to contact them?” Rainbow Dash asked, she was not going to leave just like that unless she could at least make sure the Gryphon was alright.
“Whatever!” Gilda rose up and hurriedly walked into the bedroom slamming the door shut.
Rainbow Dash let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. The mare hadn’t expected this to go well and this almost matched how Pegasus had pictured things going. She glanced at check that had fallen to the floor. Dash picked it up and placed it on top of the coffee table before heading for the front door.
“Gilda, I’m going. I’m sorry what happened, I’ll contact your family in Cloudsdale,” Rainbow Dash called. There was no response so all she could do was leave the apartment and her old friend behind.
“How is your leg?” Apple Bloom asked and slurped on her milkshake.
“Better, I can walk now without it hurting too much,” Sweetie Belle responded munching on a cookie.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were in Sugarcube Corner, seated by a round table. All three fillies had a milkshake each and several cookies and muffin to snack on. Another weekend was approaching and hopefully with less excitement than the last one.
“I bought new roller skates with my reward money, what did you girls use it for?” Scootaloo wondered.
“Oooh, I got lots of new toys, mom helped me mail order them from Fillydelphia since our toy store here in Ponyville didn’t carry what the catalogue showed,” Sweetie Belle beamed.
“Right, then next on our agenda is invading Sweetie Belle’s room to hog her toys,” Apple Bloom jested. Her friends giggled though the Unicorn added blowing a raspberry towards the Earth Filly.
“As for me Ah haven’t really decided yet what to buy, Applejack suggested Ah save it for something special,” she then responded to the reward question.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded. The fillies were quite content right now and hacked away their sweets and drunk their shakes. Apple Bloom looked over to the door when it opened and saw Twilight Sparkle enter. The purple Unicorn went straight to the counter and struck up a conversation with Pinkie Pie who was manning it.
“It’s been wonderfully quiet week since Mr. Rich took Diamond Tiara on a trip,” Scootaloo commented, she lazily spun the straw in her milkshake. Both her friends nodded in agreement.
“You think she and Silver Spoon will act nicer now after what happened to them?” Sweetie Belle wondered.
For a moment the crusaders fell silent as this thought sunk in. But it didn’t take them long to burst into giggles. Scootaloo almost snorted out a mouthful blend of both milkshake and cookies.
“As if, I have a feeling all we bought from them is a temporary truce,” the orange Pegasus rolled her eyes.
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom nodded in agreement.
“Hey girls,” Twilight had arrived at their table, on her back balanced a box filled with goodies she had just bought. The fillies all greeted cheerfully. “How are you three doing?”
“Good!” they responded in unison.
“Twilight, is it true what they said about that Silver Axe character?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Well…” the librarian cringed slightly, it was no secret. Ponies everywhere were talking about this shocking twist in the foalnapping case and it was in all the papers.
“Yes it is true I’m afraid. Don’t worry about it, he’s far away now and locked in,” she said.
“Twilight, what about Snow Heart and Tango?” Scootaloo questioned and frowned slightly.
“They are going to jail as well. They will be there for a while I imagine,” Twilight explained with a nod.
“But can you believe it? Tango involved as well?” Sweetie Belle asked with an audible gasp.
“Yeah, he always looked so prim and proper,” Apple Bloom nodded.
“It was quite a revelation yes, we did find out that they have been keeping correspondence with each other ever since the time Snow Heart first ran off. Mulberry found so many letters we are still going through most of them,” Twilight told them and looked at Scootaloo.
“Incidentally, Scootaloo, how is your mother?” she wondered.
“Oh, she’s fine I guess,” the orange filly shrugged.
“Still think she is a bit sad over what happened,” she then added. Twilight nodded in understanding.
“Well I better get going, you three enjoy your weekend. No trying to find foalnappers this time around,” the purple Unicorn winked at them.
“We promise!” All three crusaders grinned innocently.
Twilight chuckled and left the fillies to their munching and waved Pinkie bye before leaving the bakery. The librarian entered the busy Ponyville street with ponies either selling things on stands or just walking around attending to their private businesses.
Up in the clouds above the town Rainbow Dash took her afternoon nap, though the rainbow mane mare still felt a bit uneasy and worried about her old Gryphon friend. She could only hope Gilda’s family could help her, they had been more than ready to head to Las Pegasus after she contacted them.
Inside the bakery the crusaders continued their little feast, planning their next cutie mark acquiring plans for the weekend. This time keeping it safe like bungee jumping or juggling bowling pins while balancing on a beach ball. So life in Ponyville returned mostly back to normal.
Until next time.
The End.