//------------------------------// // Winter - Part 2 // Story: The Seasons // by Scootareader //------------------------------// All right, she admitted, he is pretty cool. Gilda was sitting on a flattened piece of cardboard in a nondescript alleyway not far from 314 Hoofer Avenue. She hadn't directly approached Alkaline Grey for several days, but she'd seen him coming to and departing from his home several times a day. He seemed quite a busy stallion. Adding to Gilda's interest was a small filly that would occasionally leave Grey's home and return with him each time. It was the filly who had originally answered the door, but the griffon had forgotten about her until she saw Grey leave with the small, excitable foal in tow. She wanted to work up the courage to go up and apologize, but a part of her always halted just before she could set a single talon or paw toward the building that she found so fascinating. There was just something so distinctly lame about apologizing, she'd rather be caught dead than do that. She let out an involuntary shiver. His home looked warm, and he seemed like a nice enough stallion. Perhaps it was worth losing some face for a warm home and a kind, cool pony... she'd lost enough by living on the streets as it was. "Cold?" She jumped onto her feet, snapping to look at the pegasus behind her. He stood nearly as tall as Gilda and was very well-built. He stood in a suggestive stance and glared hungrily at her. "Don't scare me like that, doofus! What do you want?" "Oh, not much... just you." The stallion took an aggressive step forward. "Griffons are too rare for me to pass up an opportunity." "W-w-what? No, get outta here dude! I ain't that kinda griffon!" She turned her nose up at the offending creature, dismissing him as inconsequential. The pegasus leapt, his wings spreading as he swooped down on top of Gilda. Gilda attempted to flap her wings, but they were near-frozen and weak. She hadn't flown in weeks, and the muscle was atrophied throughout, not to mention her being weak from lack of proper food. She couldn't get any lift. The pegasus knocked Gilda to the ground, the strong gryphon attempting to roll her attacker off her, but he seemed practiced with this kind of move. He deftly slipped around her feeble attempts to stop him, slipping between her forelegs and positioning himself on top of her. "Whoa, what the hay! Get off me, NOW!" She let out a loud screech in a vain attempt to bring any passersby to her aid, but heard no reply. She was in this alone. She whipped her tail around, grabbing his tail and tugging on it as she swung one of her clawed feet around. The pegasus was immediately distracted by the tugging behind him, then he turned around to feel several large talons swipe him across the cheek. Her assailant howling in pain, Gilda scrambled across the icy floor, trying to find grip and run away. She tried again to flap her pathetic wings, but the cold hostility of winter had bitten them to the bone. She was a flightless griffon. Too quickly, the pegasus wiped the blood from his face and attacked Gilda again. She was more prepared this time, her powerful forelegs lashing out to catch him in the stomach, but the pony was prepared, giving one powerful beat of his wings and landing on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. "Oh, you're feisty, huh? Guess I'll just kill you first!" The mad pegasus cackled as he wrapped his hooves around Gilda's head, the griffon gasping for breath as he slammed her skull against the ground. She was dazed now, and he bashed her head into the ground again, disorienting her and causing her world to spin. CRACK! Suddenly, Gilda didn't have anything on top of her anymore. She laid there, gasping for breath, as her world continued to spin. As soon as she had the werewithal to do so, she checked the back of her head for damage. It was going to have a sizeable bump, but nothing really injured, miraculously. Blinking, the griffon sat up. She looked deeper into the alleyway, where the pegasus who'd been attacking her was also standing upon his hooves. He glared angrily past Gilda at something behind her. Still trying to clear the cobwebs from her head, she slowly turned around to look toward the entrance. Standing there was Alkaline Grey, a small filly just behind him, his horn giving off a menacing crackling sound in addition to its glow. "Shouldn't get involved, filthy unicorn! This griffon's mine." Alkaline Grey barked a laugh. "Try to take her and find out what happens." The pegasus gave a single powerful beat of his wings, rising in the air toward Gilda. CRACK! Lightning arced from Grey's horn, catching the would-be harasser in the wing and sending him flying backward. He sailed into a wall, his head snapping backward and striking the hard cobble. The defeated pony slumped as he fell unconscious, sliding down the wall and coming to rest on the floor. "Posie." The tiny filly at Grey's side looked up at him. "Go find a policepony. I'll stay here and keep Gilda company." Posie nodded and dashed off to follow his order. Gilda stood there for a few moments, looking around in bewilderment at the scene in front of her. Her muddied brain put together that Alkaline Grey had just saved her. She needed to thank him. Gilda opened her mouth and said "Th—" before her brain forgot how to form the rest of the word. She looked at him, confused. "He hit your head against the floor. You may have a concussion." Grey watched her in calculated amusement. "We'll get you to the hospital for a check-up as soon as the policeponies come to apprehend this criminal." He nodded toward the slumped pegasus. Gilda stared at him for a few seconds, uncomprehending, then nodded dumbly. A few seconds later, Posie came dashing back with three policemen in tow. The three of them skidded to a stop at the alleyway entrance, looking at the scene. Within was a dark brown unicorn with white markings standing calmly, a griffon looking around in a daze, and a red pegasus slumped against the wall of the alley with two large black marks on his body. They looked questioningly at the calm unicorn, who explained, "The pegasus—our very own infamous Flap the Clipper, if I'm not mistaken—was attempting to claim our griffon friend here as his next victim. I believe she has a concussion. I helped the victim fend off her attacker, hence the black marks on his person, and stayed here in case he stirred." One of the policeponies, a star on his hat, nodded and said, "We'll still need you to come back to the station and give a full report. We'll take care of things from here." Two of the policeponies trotted forward, dragging the pegasus onto his legs and placing hoofcuffs on him. The third pony dashed off to call an ambulance to transport both the injured pony and the injured griffon to the nearest hospital. Grey stood patiently, waiting for all necessities to be taken care of before one of the idle law enforcement stallions escorted him to their nearby policecart. Several hours later, Gilda was lying in a bed in Manehattan General Hospital District 4, with Alkaline Grey and the small pegasus filly Posie sitting next to her. They had just entered and situated themselves in their seats, remaining quiet until she deemed herself ready to speak and listen. The griffon cleared her throat. "Thanks for helping me." She gave a small smile, the cheeks on both sides of her beak upturning slightly. Alkaline Grey looked at her seriously. "I didn't do so for no reason, Gilda." Gilda let out a groan. "What do you want from me, dude? You seem pretty obsessed with me." Grey's face was impassive. "You're going to come live with Posie and myself." Gilda snorted. "Yeah, thanks but no thanks! I'm glad you helped me with that jerk pegasus and all, but I don't owe you that much." "He was a repeat offender, Gilda. You're not the first creature—pony or otherwise—that he's taken advantage of. Thank Luna I arrived just in time to save you, and that you only got the small injury you did. You don't want to know what his other victims looked like after he was through with them." Gilda looked beseechingly at Posie, but the little pegasus seemed to be looking at her in a mixture of anger and shock. Maybe I'm being too harsh.... "All right, fine. Maybe I do owe ya one. We'll give it a few days and see how things go." Posie's face immediately brightened at the declaration of the griffon. "Hear that, Uncle Grey? We gonna have a new family member!" Gilda realized belatedly that Posie was missing one of her front teeth as she watched the filly talk. Grey nodded sagely, allowing himself the tiniest of smirks. "It would appear so." Around the same time the next day, Gilda departed the hospital, Grey and Posie still in tow. During her time in the hospital, the griffon and the filly were officially introduced. Posie's full name was Posie Rose, but almost nopony called her that, preferring her shorter first name. She was apparently an orphan whom Grey had adopted about 2 years ago, having no recollection of her parents or anything prior to arriving at the orphanage. Gilda had seen Grey departing by himself in doing door-to-door sales of his battery-operated products; the unicorn had no problem manufacturing the batteries, but none of the shops would carry his product, and the average Equestrian citizen wanted the convenience of a general store for everything they would need, so, while he often was asked to provide demonstrations with some help from Posie, he very rarely sold anything. Gilda had been considering this as it was all explained to her. She didn't have much respect for salesponies knocking on her door. Grey had just lost about 30 coolness points in her book. Add the little filly that he was commissioning for free labor, and that put him awfully close to being most decidedly uncool. Still, he was offering for her to stay at his place for free, so he seemed okay enough. He had to pay the bills somehow, and it wasn't necessarily her place to tell him what he could and couldn't do based on coolness factor. Door-to-door sales just seemed so below him, though... and now she was living with this borderline lame unicorn. She was absorbed in her thoughts for the entire walk home. Grey and Posie had been holding a soft conversation in front of her that she hadn't been paying any attention to, the both of them noticing that Gilda was deep in thought about something and not wishing to disturb her. Now that they were home, however, their attention turned back to her. “Welcome to your temporary home, Gilda.” Grey gave an exaggerated bow as a ghost of a smile crept across his face. “Yeah, well... don't get too comfortable with it! As soon as I get back on my paws, I'm splitting.” She couldn't let this pony see how much she desperately needed help. That would just be so uncool. She looked up at the lightly falling snow. In all likelihood, this would probably be her home for the next several months at the least. She may as well get used to it.