Gilda frowned, “Fluttershy, you should get out of here, now.”
Fluttershy shook her head, “No. Maybe we can talk to them…”
“Do they look like they want to talk? We don’t have time for this, you need to leave. Now.”
“I won’t leave you!” Fluttershy shot back.
Gilda narrowed her eyes. She glanced at the fast approaching crowd. Sighing, she returned her gaze to the yellow Pegasus beside her. Wordlessly, Gilda stepped out onto the center of the street, and faced the oncoming mob. Fluttershy stood by her side.
“Fluttershy?” Gilda asked, staring ahead.
“Y-yes Gilda?”
“Get behind me.”
After a few seconds, Fluttershy disappeared from Gildas peripheral view. Gilda bowed her head, closed her eyes and blew out a long, slow breath.
“My heart is a lonely hunter, that hunts on a lonely hill,” She whispered to herself.
As her eyes flew open, she sprinted forward. Kicking up dirt and stones in her wake, as she sped forward focusing all of her attention on the first pony caught within her sights. Which happened to be a blue stallion Unicorn, carrying a pitchfork within his magical hold.
His eyes widened as the Griffin closed on him with impressive speed, he dug his hooves into the dirt in an attempt to stop, and dive out of her way.
He was too late.
Gilda lowered herself closer to the ground as she approached the pony. Just before they collided, Gilda curled into a ball and threw herself at him, gliding an inch across the ground. She slammed into his chest, pushing him back onto his haunches. Snatching the pitchfork from his grasp, she followed through with the sheer amount of momentum she had accumulated and propelled herself into the air above his head.
Twirling through the air, she unfurled herself and threw her wings out as gravity propelled her towards a light green Pegasus mare, – who dropped the makeshift club from her mouth and fell onto her rear, dumbfounded – a look of horror crossed her face as the Griffin fell towards her; she raised her hoofs in an attempt to protect herself.
The weight of Gildas body colliding with hers, forced the mare onto her back, splaying her arms either side of her body. One short, close-clawed jab to the side of the face knocked the mare out cold.
Steadily standing to her full height, Gilda took the pitchfork in both of her claws, and ripped the most dangerous end from the shaft. Dropping the iron trident to the ground beside her, she flipped the handle around and held it by the splintered end.
“We don’t have to do this, I’m not here to hurt you and I don’t want to fight,” she announced to the wide circle of ponies that surrounded her.
“Horseapples!”
“Kill it, Kill it!”
Furrowing her brow, Gilda rushed forward again. This time, her sights were set on the three ponies in front of her that made up the back of the circle. (From left to right, a brown Earth pony, a light pink Pegasus and a grey Unicorn.) Clasping her off-claw over the pink mares muzzle; she swatted her make-shift club across the back neck of the Earth pony stallion.
The club shattered on impact, sending splinters of wood – and the stallion – flying in the opposite direction. Taking a firm hold of the stub that remained of her weapon, Gilda jabbed the mare in the ribs, causing her to reflexively flinch away. Wasting no time, Gilda swiftly aligned herself alongside the pony; she jumped and curled her hind legs towards her chest, kicking the Pegasus mare into the Unicorn mare and toppling both of them onto the ground.
Landing on her wings with a grunt, she quickly rolled onto her feet and lunged towards her next target. The black Earth pony stallion reared onto his hind legs, jabbing his front legs towards Gilda. Gilda twisted and dodged his blows; slamming her body against his, she linked her talons together across his back, locking herself to him.
Turning and pulling, the pair fell backwards and rolled across the dirt, until Gilda had the pony in her clutches pinned beneath her weight. Glancing up, Gilda spotted a cream Unicorn mare bearing down on her with what looked like a baseball bat. Flapping her powerful wings, she lifted the stallion off the ground and kicked the stallion in her grasp towards the Unicorn mare just as she took a swing at the Griffin.
The bat collided with the stallion, sending him flying to Gilda’s right. Giving her no reprieve, the Griffin rushed forward, striking the cream mare with a right hay-maker, and following through with an uppercut; the mare was thrown backwards onto her side, landing with a dull ‘THUD’ and sliding a few feet to a halt.
The end result had left Gilda standing on her hind legs for a few seconds longer then she anticipated. Pain exploded through her left side as some unseen Unicorn mare bucked her in the ribs. Rolling to a sliding halt, the Griffin sluggishly recovered her footing. Sucking in a shaky and painful breath, she re-focused her attention towards her new attacker.
Standing fully, the Griffins entire side burned as her breaths came in short, shallow bursts. She guessed that she had a broken rib… or three.
Pushing the pain to the back of her mind, she charged forward. The Unicorn fired up her horn, and fumbled around blindly for anything within reach to hurl at the oncoming Griffin.
With a grin, she found something.
Blindly grasping the object, she flung it toward Gilda with all her might. The Griffins eyes widened as the iron pitch fork head flew toward her. Tucking herself into a ball, she was fortunate enough to narrowly avoid catching the trident with her face. She was not, however, fortunate enough to dodge the projectile completely; she howled as it grazed her back, stripping flesh and feathers alike.
Recovering from her dive, Gilda rushed forward, and followed through with an uppercut; knocking the mare onto her back. She gritted her teeth as she pounced forward and pinned the Unicorn to the ground.
She pressed the ‘thumb’ talon of her left claw against the mares throat as she raised her other claw over her head. Her talons made a resounding ‘SHHNK’ as she readied herself for the killing blow.
“STOP!”
Gilda snapped her gaze up. Fluttershy sat before her, a few feet away. Tears spilled from her wide, horror filled and terrified eyes. “P-please, just s-stop…”
Gilda looked down at the mare beneath her. Her face held the same terrified look as tears brimmed at the edge of her eyes.
Gilda glanced back up Fluttershy, her beak fell open as she stared at the purple Pegasus mare sitting before her; her dark green, stylized mane covering the right side of her face.
She shook her head slowly, “I thought you were better than this…”
Gilda quivered.
The purple mare tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, “I thought you were different.”
Gilda stumbled backwards, oblivious to the Unicorn mare as she scurried away.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” she whimpered.
Pain flooded through her jaw as a glass bottle collided with it, throwing her to the ground.
“Now, get it!”
“GILDA, NO!”
Gilda curled into a ball as half a dozen hooves pummel her body. A stray hoof collided with the side of her head, causing her body to fall limp, her vision swirled and faded to nothingness.
The last thing she remembered before her world went black, was the purple Pegasus mare, looking down at her with disdain.