//------------------------------// // There we go // Story: Retired to Equestria // by Yet Another Mask //------------------------------// “Damn damn damn damn DAMN!” Damein shouted as he shot down the street, wings beating furiously. “How the gates did you even manage to blow up the entire cart of lemons?!” “I don’t know!” Sweetie Belle moaned from where she was tucked securely under one forelimb. “That was awesome!” Scootaloo shouted form her position atop Damien’s back. “Fly higher! Fly higher!” “Yes, because Zest isn’t going to notice the only damn griffon in the sky and think it’s us!” Damien growled at her. “We need to stay low to the ground and make as many turns as we can.” “Uh-huh. What else?” Applebloom asked from under Damien’s other forelimb. “Then we-” He glanced down at her, surprised at her sudden acquisition of pencil and paper. “Are you writing this down?” “Yep! Gonna need it when we try bein’ Cutie Mark Crusader Escapers!” She paused for a moment. “Or the next time we accidently set somethin’ on fire.” “Or blow it up,” Sweetie Belled added mournfully. “Oh, okay then.” He looked down at Applebloom again. “First thing you need to do is keep your advantages in mind. You three are small and have a lot of energy. Make them chase you for a long time through small openings, tunnels, and the like.” “Tree!” Scootaloo yelled. Damien didn’t bother to look up as he banked sharply and nearly threw the small pegasus off his back. “Second is that you want to try and stick around areas where you can blend in. It’s easier to hide a filly on playground than in a library.” Applebloom nodded seriously and scribbled down more notes. “Lastly you need to let them think they know what you’re doing and fool them at the last second. Run into an alleyway that’s known to be a dead-end, but just happens to have a crack just big enough to fit a filly. They’ll think they have you and then bam! You’re gone.” “Rock!” Sweetie Belle shouted. Damien swept up higher into the sky. Causing Sweetie Belle and Applebloom to miss the rock by inches. “You get all that?” “Yep!” “Excellent! Just make sure you keep all that in mind and know the lay of the land and you’ll be able to escape from anyone!” he said happily to the beaming Applebloom. “We should probably lay low for a little while. Give Zest some time to cool off. You three know of anywhere we could hide for a few hours?” “We could go to Zecora’s,” Applebloom said as the pencil and paper vanished to wherever ponies put their things. Damien never had really figured that one out. “Zecora?” Damien narrowed his eyes in concentration. “The zebra right?” “Yeah! She’s awesome at making potions and stuff!” Scootaloo said. “Alright then! Just point the way and we’ll be there before you know it!” <-[XXXXX]-> Gilda poked at her plate non-committedly as she cast a furtive glace around the table. Dash and all her friends seemed to be just as unsure of what to do as she was. All except Pinkie Pie of course, she was busy figuring out how high she could stack the various condiment jars. Apparently each of them had figured out what Dash’s real reason for getting them all together was and they weren’t exactly thrilled about it. Eventually Applejack spoke up. “How’d you and Dash end up meetin’ anyway? Not many griffons round here." Gilda’s eyes snapped to the orange earth pony across from her. Finally! Something to break the awkwardness. “Dash and I met at flight camp. Most of the ponies there weren’t very welcoming to anyone who was too different or unique… You can’t get much more different than being a griffon in a camp full of ponies or being the only one with a natural rainbow mane.” She smiled sardonically. “We were pretty much forced together when everyone else decided they didn’t want anything to do with us.” Dash nodded slowly. “The only one there that didn’t make fun of us was Fluttershy.” She smiled. “Of course she usually spent her time looking at birds or bandaging up whoever had managed to crash into something.” Gilda grinned. “Dash and I were her best patients. Probably ended up being helped by her every other day. At least.” That conversation topic managed to keep things going for a good hour as Dash and Gilda regaled the others with tales from flight school, with the occasional anecdote from Fluttershy of course. Gilda was ecstatic, she hadn’t felt this good since she and Dash had parted after flight school. Even if they weren’t really doing anything that was actually cool hanging with Dash’s friends was turning out to be not that bad. It didn’t help that they all expressed interest in the various tricks and stunts that she and Dash kept talking about. Eventually though there was a lull in the conversation, a lull that was soon exploited by Rarity. “I’ve heard you’re rooming with Damien.” Gilda groaned and turned to face her. “Yes I am renting a room in the freak’s house.” Neither of them noticed Twilight stiffen at the mention of Damien. “Hey! You shouldn’t call your friend a freak!” Pinkie Pie scolded “I’m only sayin’ it because it’s true. I don’t know what he is but he is not a griffon. “He looked like a griffon to me,” Dash supplied. Gilda turned to her. “I’ve seen him use magic.” Dash nodded. “Okay, yeah. Definitely not a griffon then.” She looked around at the questioning looks of her friends. “Normal griffons don’t use magic. Only Manes can do that and he’s definitely not a Mane.” She looked back and forth. “What? I know things!” “Yeah, that and he doesn’t even bother hiding it.” Gilda shrugged. “Not really sure why he’s pretending to be a griffon and I don’t care.” “Then what is he?” Twilight asked apprehensively. “Like I said, I don’t care.” She looked over at Twilight. “If you really want to know then you should ask him. He doesn’t really seem to care about hiding anything and would probably tell you way more than you need to know if you just ask.” “So you don’t know anything about him at all?” “Not much. Why?” “Yes darling, why so interested in Damien?” Rarity asked with a smile. Twilight blushed as Rarity’s insinuation. “No! It’s… I…” She shook her head stubbornly, there was no way she was going to mention the letter right now. “I’m just curious why he can use magic if he’s not a Mane.” Rarity smiled quietly as she turned back to Gilda. “So there’s nothing between you two?” “No,” Gilda replied with a scowl. A sly look suddenly crossed her face. “Are you interested in him?” Rarity looked pensive for a moment before replying. “No. He’s a tad over the top and dramatic when the moment strikes him. It’s a little strange.” She looked around at her friends, all of which were staring at her incredulously. “What?” <-[XXXXX]-> Zecora was engaged in her daily meditations when she felt it. There was a darkness in the forest, a darkness that seemed to be coming towards her. She breathed deep as she tasted the air around her. Whatever it was it wasn’t malevolent, but it was very dangerous and moving very quickly. The only time she had felt anything like this was when the crusaders had come by to try and get alchemy cutie marks. She smiled at the memory. It was a good one, even if she was still finding shards of her old cauldron scattered in the forest. She opened her eyes and looked around her small hut. Her various powders and potions were all within easy reach in case her incoming visitor was more hostile than it seemed to be. With a sigh she leaned forward and let herself topple from the staff she had sat on for the last two hours. She waited for several minutes before she heard the telltale signs of large wings ripping through the air come to a halt outside her hut. Despite herself she felt a small trill of trepidation run down her spine. The moment of truth had arrived. All this dramatic tension was completely ignored by her visitor as it knocked politely on her door. A wry smile crept across Zecora’s muzzle as she heard voices arguing outside her door. Three of which she recognized quite easily. “What are you doing here my crusading friends, perhaps for last time you wish to make amends?” she asked as she opened the door to the sight of Damien and the three crusaders caught in the middle of what seemed to be a whispered argument. Damien’s eyes widened slightly at Zecora’s greeting, a small smile appeared as he felt out the rhythmic rhyming patterns of Zecora’s speech. “Hey Zecora! We thought we’d introduce ya to Damien!” “Or perhaps you desired instead to hide, and brought him along for the ride?” Zecora asked the crusaders, not trusting their innocent gazes for a second. She turned to regard Damien cautiously. “I suppose you have been caught up in their latest folly, or perhaps joined in in hope of times quite jolly?” “Indeed my fine mare it is so, I am not surprised that you know,” he said, a competitive smile on his beak. “To respond with to me with rhymes in kind, quite a hard task you will soon find,” she said with a smirk. The three fillies stopped attempting a facade of innocence and instead began arguing quietly about how long Damien would manage to last against Zecora. “I task I hope to conquer soon, my skill with words is quite a boon.” “You play well my griffon foe, but the end to this I already know. But please now do come in, for I feel I have a game to win.” She bowed slightly as she gestured to the interior of her hut. Damien returned the bow with a small nod as he padded into the small hut, the crusaders close on his heels. “I thank you sincerly for housing us, I hope these fillies will cause no ruckus.” As Damien and Zecora continued their verbal sparring the three fillies in question were looking around the hut with the usual fascination a trip to Zecora’s usually engendered. It didn’t take them long to find that not only had Zecora gotten her hooves on another cauldron but she had expanded her stores of herbs and powders. The three fillies turned back to see just how preoccupied Damien and Zecora were with each other before returning their gaze to the cauldron before them with an eager gleam in their eyes. “From a world far away I came, to relax, be lazy, and more of the same.” “And you come in peace and not in war? Better than many would have feared for.” “Indeed their fear to me was plain, though dispelling it was not a pain. But now I am here with fillies in tow, perhaps I could learn some of what you know.” Damien waved at the various herbs that festooned the walls. Zecora’s eyes followed his talon and stopped as they fell upon the three fillies in question, about to add several items to a simmering cauldron. A panicked look shot across her face as she shouted at them, “do not add those to the brew! You know not what it will do!” Startled by the sudden shout Scootaloo dropped the strange spikey leaf she had been holding into the pot. As soon as the herb was submerged the concoction began to bubble dangerously and hissed menacingly. Damien and Zecora both shot forward as the cauldron began to froth and overflow with a sickly green goop. With a practiced ease Zecora scooped each filly under a forelimb and threw them bodily from the hut. Damien instead tore deep cuts into both his palms and slammed them near the cauldrons red hot base. He grimaced as the hot metal seared his hands and began to chant quickly. With each word a sigil flared into existence around him. Every sharp edged sigil seemed to burn a hole into reality and suck in the surrounding light greedily. Within seconds the air was filled with these sigils as Zecora looked on cautiously and the crusaders peeked back into the hut with wide eyes. Damien grimaced as a sheet of ice began to from over the cauldron, undaunted by the fire. The ice quickly moved up over the lip of the cauldron and began to freeze the bubbling brew within. Zecora relaxed considerably as the potion was turned into little more than an inert block of ice. “That was awesome!” Scootaloo shouted as she burst back into the cabin. “I didn’t know griffons could use magic like that,” Sweetie Belle added in awe. “Normally a griffon can cast no spell, a fact all too few know well,” Zecora said as she looked at Damien warily. His boasts had been one thing but to see his magic at work was another entirely. From in front of the cauldron Damien suddenly spoke up. “A little help here? My hands are kinda frozen to this thing.” Silence reigned in the hut for several moments as Damien’s statement floated through the air. “Ah pit. That didn’t rhyme,” he grumbled as the giggling crusaders raced over to him, right past a smugly smiling Zecora. <-[XXXXX]-> Gilda felt strangely at peace as Dash’s friends, her friends now too? All left the diner, each one having to head out to meet prior engagements. She had thought she would be able to fake getting along with each of them if it meant patching things up with Dash but she hadn’t expected to actually enjoy hanging out with them all. “Wow, that went way better than I thought it would,” Dash suddenly said from behind her. “Thinking never was your strong suite,” Gilda replied quickly as she turned back to her old friend. She smiled as she realized that she just might have really done it. She just might have managed to get Dash back. “I’m serious featherhead. I expected you to snap or something, not join in with the conversation so much.” “Yeah well, I had fun. Those friends of yours aren’t that bad.” “Ha! So you admit you were wrong about them being dweebs?” Gilda chuckled. “They’re still dweebs, but they’re cool dweebs.” Dash shook her head in wonder but it was as close as she was probably going to get to an apology from Gilda. She smiled, another thing the two had in common. “Whatever you say.” She looked back at her, her eyes gleaming. “Race ya to the Everfree.” “You’re on,” Gilda responded with a grin. <-[XXXXX]-> The two speedsters collapsed in a heap just outside the forest, out of breath and ecstatic. Dash had forgotten just how much Gilda could push her when it came to a race. No one in Ponyville came even close to her in terms of speed or love of trick flying. Her friends might make a good audience but not even Fluttershy was able to really appreciate everything that went into a good flight. With Gilda she could really go all out and know that someone actually understood what that meant. “Man I haven’t flown like that since the last time you came to visit,” Dash said breathlessly. “Same here. I was worried I might actually have gotten a bit out of shape for a few seconds. Either I’m still as sharp or you’ve been slowing down.” “Hey! I never slow down!” Dash replied indignantly as she punched her friend’s shoulder with a laugh. Soon Gilda was laughing as well, simply enjoying being able to relax like this. They stared up at the sky in silence after their laughs slowly ceased, happy to have reconnected. “Hey Dash.” Rainbow Dash rolled onto her side to face Gilda. “Yeah?” “About what happened last time.” “You still on about that? Everypony’s happy with you and we’re back to hangin’ out. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.” Gilda shot her an annoyed glance. “Not that. The other thing that happened last time.” Dash’s face fell. “Oh, that.” “Yeah.” Gilda sighed and turned back to the sky, looking for the words she had to say but didn’t want to. “Gilda-” Dash began before Gilda clamped her talon down on the pegasus’s mouth. “Not now Dash. It’s my turn to talk.” She sighed again. “I understand okay. I’ve thought about it and I get it. I don’t want to but I can’t change that. No one can.” She looked over at Dash sadly. “I just needed to say that for me. I don’t think we’d have lasted without clearing that up right?” Dash nodded slowly. “Like I said I’m sorry but-” “Shut it dweeb,” Gilda grumbled as she stood back up and shook herself off. She flexed her wings experimentally and turned back to Dash. “Race ya back to town.” Dash grinned in response and got to her hooves. “You’re on. If you ask nicely I might even give you a ten second head start.” “Ha! You should be asking me for that handicap Dash,” Gilda shot back. The two fliers stared each other down for several more seconds before they both burst into movement, rocketing towards the unsuspecting town. The past had been painful, the future uncertain, but for now they had a race to win. <-[XXXXX]-> Twilight slowly made her way back to the library from the diner, Gilda’s words racing through her mind. Should she just confront Damien about the letter? No. That couldn’t possibly end well. If the letter was right Damien certainly wouldn’t take it well. If the letter was wrong she would be ostracizing him. Twilight groaned as she tried to work her way through everything she knew about the strange griffon. Her groan redoubled when she realized she knew next to nothing about him. Maybe she really should just ask him about everything. Gilda had seemed confident that he would answer. But don’t bring up the letter! She had to find another way to try and bring up her questions. Maybe there was a book on interrogating griffons in the library, or one with instructions on how to covertly dig for information. Or maybe… A light bulb flicked on in her mind. A book! Not just a book the book on griffons! All she had to do was ask him about griffon culture! Say that she had started researching it after meeting him and some things didn’t add up! He wouldn’t know about the letter and she would be able to confirm or deny what it was saying! A perfect plan! Her head held high and a jolly tune in her heart she trotted down the street to the library. She had a checklist to make if she was going to do this right.