Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Darkness
Complete and utter darkness
Gilda felt herself falling, she didn’t think she ever could, wings, where were her wings? Her eyes were jammed shut; no light was allowed only darkness. She finally risked a peek, jamming her eyes shut at the burning glow of light, but she wouldn’t have to bear it much longer, she could already feel the life slipping from her. She could only crack a slight smile, she had done everything she could and was glad that everything would be alright now. The spikes drove straight through her ribcage, letting her blood seep out through the holes, she sighed as she heard a few last words before letting herself be sucked into darkness.
“when you decide not to be lame anymore, give me a call.”
Gilda woke with a start, tears flowing freely as the scared griffon tried to catch her breath. The air rustled through the trees of the Everfree forest, the moon glowed down on the makeshift nest of the young griffon. The nest was not the best thing in the world, in fact it could be said that it was the worst one ever made in the history of Equestria. Gilda looked over the wreck that was her home at the moment, she had a pile of blankets thrown in the corner for her bed, most of the time she could see through the floor and to the forest below, and it stank of alcohol and body oder. The nightmares had been coming more frequently as of the last few weeks, always ending in the same way. Wiping away the excess tears, the bemoaning griffon frowned at herself. Her once beautiful plumage had been colored to a dirty black with an occasional leaf sticking out of it.
“Crap, this is starting to get old”
She yelped as she felt a stabbing pain go through her wings. Reaching back, Gilda yanked the remains of the Jack Daniels bottle out of her right wing. The nest had become littered intensely of these types of bottles, trotting through you would have to watch where your hooves, or claws landed on the straw. The left side shuddered suddenly and half of it broke away and fell to the ground 10 feet below.
This did nothing but anger the already hung-over Griffon. Letting out a string of curses, she destroyed the left side, earning a couple new gashes. Normally a well-made nest would have held out against such a beating and the owner would have had to only had to go and collect more straw and sticks to rebuild it, however as I have mentioned before this is not a very well made nest. The entire left side fell off, causing Gilda to jump to the right side. At this point, the right side, which had been only been being kept upright by the left side, cracked and disintegrated under her feet. Flapping slightly, Gilda sighed as she watched her home crash to the ground once more.
Flapping down she started setting up a makeshift tent as she came across photo. Picking it up, Gilda fought back tears again as she looked at the photo in front of her. It was the one the day dash and her had graduated from flight school, Dash had always had problems with keeping her hair in presentable fashion but she had managed to make it look great in that shot. Gilda sighed as she thought about her days in Ponyville the year before, after getting pranked nine ways from Sunday, she had fled from Ponyville...
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“Celestia damn it dash!! Why would you pick those lame-o ponies over me?!” Gilda cried as she ran through the streets of Ponyville, the party only an hour ago still fresh in her mind. She suddenly stopped and yelped as she heard a voice behind her.
“Where are you going?”
Turning around, Gilda found herself face to face with the pink pony that had thrown the party for her in the first place.
“What?!”
“I asked where you were going silly Billy! I worked so hard on making that party perfect that you made me rather sad when you left so quickly.”
Gilda slowly regained her thoughts and slowly felt her anger growing in her as she stared at the pony that had probably set everything up at that party.
“YOU!”
“Why of course me, why else wouldn’t I be me, unless I am do-“
Pinkie couldn’t finish the sentence, as she felt Gilda’s fist collide with her cheek, sending an enormous amount of pain to be felt in her cheek, enough to shove the party loving pony to the ground. Pinkie braced for the next hit, but It did not come, instead she felt, water drops? Looking up she saw Gilda standing over her tears falling down her cheeks in a river. Without another word, Gilda took off and flew far from the town.
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The picture gilda held slowly slipped from her talons as her legs gave out and she slumped to the ground and she sobbed her eyes out for what seemed like the ten thousandth time. She continued to cry until she noticed something poking her. Looking up she saw a small rabbit poking her with its paw and holding a small acorn out for her. Gilda raised her paw quickly, making the small bunny cower and slowly back away.
“W- Wait! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you, please come back.”
The Bunny slowly ventured further and stuck out it’s offering once more. Smiling, Gilda finally accepted the small treat and quickly cracked the outer shell splitting the meat inside 50/50 with the small being. Taking a shuddering movement, Gilda sat up slowly, chewing softly on the small treat. The day was slowly starting to hit it’s peak as the young griffon slowly allowed yet another painful memory seep into her mind.
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Gilda looked out from the cover of the Everfree forest, Fluttershy’s Cottage seemed almost too peaceful to the saddened griffon. Fluttershy and Rainbow had just finished a small duet, seemingly about finding a pet, before falling down on top of each other laughing their flanks off. The tears flowed down Gilda’s cheeks, she had grown used to them by then they hardly stopped anymore. She punched the tree next to her, earning a flaming pain to fly throughout her hand as it caused the tree to splinter and puncture her talons a little. With one last look at the happy mares, Gilda slowly trekked back to her pitiful excuse for a home.
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The smile that crept on to her beak surprised her; she didn’t know that could happen still. The sun had reached it’s highest peak in the day causing a grumble to be released from her stomach. Getting off the ground, Gilda slowly trekked through the dark forest in search of some grub. A full hour passed the starving mare’s day and still had given little or no success in the search. Gilda sniffed the air, there was the smell of cooking food coming from a few hundred meters away from the Mare. Following the scent, Gilda’s taste buds slowly picked up the delectable smells of roasting meat. It is a common delicacy in griffon cultures, to cook small rodents in a herb rub, giving the small mammal a delectable smoked flavor, but keeping the meat still tender and juicy. In the clearing there was a small campsite set up, a makeshift tent was set up against a tree, but Gilda focused in on the delicacy in the middle of the clearing. There, there was a set up that Gilda had not seen since she was a chick; there was vole cooked au bran style, with a side of country potatoes cooked in a similar manor. Squealing slightly Gilda dashed forward to the small Banquet. Everything was made up exactly like she remembered; the food could not believe her-
“‘Scuse me miss, but what do you think your doin?” Gilda gulped down the mouthful she had had in her mouth as she felt the blade rest against her neck.