//------------------------------// // Part 3 - Gilda's Morning // Story: Griffon the Heave-ho // by CrowMagnon //------------------------------// Griffon the Heave-ho by CrowMagnon Rainbow Dash's appearance had caused Twilight to let down her guard, so she wasn't prepared to stop Gilda when the griffon suddenly lunged. Gilda let out a feral shriek as she tackled Rainbow Dash... ... Who started laughing as the two of them rolled around in the street. Playful blows were exchanged until Gilda caught Rainbow Dash in a headlock and started grinding the knuckles of her talons against the top of Dash's colorful head. "What were you doing, leaving me behind with all the dweebs? Do you have any idea how bored I was?" Twilight frowned and started to charge up a spell to separate the two. Before she could discharge it, Rainbow Dash reached up to start tickling Gilda under her beak, causing the griffon to visibly flinch as she struggled not to laugh, giving Dash an opening to slip out. Once she had her head free, she slipped underneath Gilda's larger body and leveraged her good wing. "Sorry, G. You sound kinda blue. If I'd known I was taking all the awesomeness with me, I'd have left some for you," she taunted as she pushed. Despite Gilda's greater mass, Dash put everything she had into a quick, powerful shove upward that lifted Gilda's left side off the ground, causing her to overbalance. Gilda was quick to make a cat-like twist before she could hit the ground, though, and landed on all fours. With a smirk, she retorted, "Shyeah, more like without you hanging around and being almost as cool as me, those lame-o's just realized they could never even come close." She lifted up her talons and balled them up into a fist. Rainbow Dash lifted up a hoof, and they held out their forelegs to bump them together. Finally finding her voice again, Twilight raised an eyebrow and stepped toward the two. "So... is this normal for you two? Because if you're planning on terrifying half the ponies in town whenever you want to catch up on old times..." Gilda scoffed. "Pull the stick out, officer. I bet it hasn't seen the sun in a while," she snarked, getting a look of wide-eyed, sputtering indignation from Twilight. It also drew a snort of laughter out of Rainbow Dash, who failed badly to stifle it before getting a scandalized glare from her friend. Gilda ignored this as she threw a foreleg over Rainbow Dash's shoulder and said, "It's not like I had a lot of time to make you ponies stop being such sissies. I'm on a job, here!" "Yeah? That have something to do with why you're wearing this?" Dash asked, tapping her hoof against Gilda's thundersteel armor. The impact caused a small spark of lightning to shoot off from the metal, where it traveled up the pegasus's hoof and made her mane stand on end. "Still plan on joining the Stormriders?" "No, I plan on running the Stormriders," Gilda boasted. "But you know how it is. Can't join the best flying team in the Empire without putting in a few years of military service, first. It's so lame." She paused a moment to look pointedly at Dash's bent and mangled wing. "But if only one of us gets to live the dream, I've gotta give it everything I've got, right? Still, they've got me doing stupid stuff like flying ahead of the main group just to announce we're coming to your princess, even though she's already known for days!" "Wait, wait..." Twlight interjected. "'We're' coming? Who's 'we?'" As she asked, a shadow crept across the sky overhead. Given that the weather schedule had promised clear skies all day, Twilight and all the rest of the ponies in the market square looked upward. What they saw was a pride consisting of dozens of griffons, each of them armored and flying in formation around a blocky thundersteel carriage held aloft atop a small, but dense lightning cloud which was in turn being pulled by four soldiers. Craning her head up to watch the other griffons flying overhead, Gilda swore, "Ahhh, hailstorms. Must've wasted more time on that other uptight dweeb than I thought. I gotta fly." Gilda gave Rainbow Dash another noogie to further mess up her electro-shocked mane before letting go. "Don't get too used to me not being around. I'm gonna be coming back real soon," Gilda vowed, sparing Rainbow Dash a glance over her shoulder before flapping her large wings and pushing off in order to fly out in front of the pride. ----- Meanwhile, just outside Rainbow Dash's cottage, a white bunny grit his teeth as he tried to drag the unconscious Daisy inside. He had managed to get her about halfway there--which was an impressive feat for a lone bunny--but trying to drag an adult mare's worth of dead weight was slow-going, and there were still two more to go once he finished with her. He almost got her to Rainbow Dash's mailbox when he heard her mumble and felt her start to stir again. The bunny let out a sigh of relief, figuring that he would be able to get her to wake the others, or at least drag them inside. Then he'd get the promised reward without having to do all the work of lugging them around himself. The bunny tapped his foot against the ground impatiently as she slowly roused herself back to consciousness and rubbed her head. "Ohhh... oh, the horror... the horror," she whimpered, causing him to roll his eyes while she looked around. "Oh, thank Celestia, we're still alive," she said to herself while making her way toward the other two. "Hey, girls, wake up." The bunny grinned, hopping along beside her. It was just a matter of inviting them inside the cottage where he could wait for Rainbow Dash to return. They wouldn't want to go back into town with the 'murderous griffon' about, and they certainly wouldn't want to run off into the dark, scary forest, so all he needed to do was point them toward the open front door and... and why was the sky getting dark? He and Daisy both looked up at the sky, and the earth pony's body and mane became completely drained of all color due to sheer fright at the sight of the 'invading' pride of griffons. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she flopped down alongside her fellow florists in a dead faint once more while the griffons simply passed by with barely a glance downward. The bunny watched the armored pride fly overhead, then looked down at the ghostly-white mare who was once again laying beside her friends. Right back where he had started. Rendering the last fifteen minutes of heavy exertion completely moot. ----- One of the griffon soldiers looked to his wingmate and asked, "You hear something down there?" "Yeah, sounded like an angry rat or somethin'. Why? You hungry?" "If I want rat, I'll eat your mom's cooking," the first soldier retorted, and the two shared a laugh before noticing a young griffoness hurriedly flapping her wings to catch up. "Hey, Gilda! You know your job was to fly ahead of us, right? Guess you spent too long eating hay and knitting sweaters for all the cute widdle forest critters at that pony 'flight camp' to actually learn how to fly!" The two snickered to each other while Gilda snapped, "Shut up! You slugs were just going so slow, I had the time to take in the sights. Had a nice stroll around the market. I'd have gotten you something you could really use, but they didn't have any diapers in your size!" Both males laughed uproariously and started complimenting Gilda on her burn until both realized that she hadn't specified which one she was talking to. She put on a burst of speed and flew on ahead of them while they started arguing with each other over which one the insult had been meant for, leaving them behind as her smirk turned downward into a frown. "So... that's one of your new friends, huh Dash? Well..." Her golden eyes narrowed dangerously as she clenched her teeth. "... We'll just see how hard you hold onto your friendships," she muttered to herself as she pushed ahead of the rest of the pride and flew off like a streak toward Canterlot.