Equestrian Epona

by Shritistrang


Sages at the Hayburger's

Gilda and Daring Do were sitting together at a table at the Hayburger's, Daring in her disguise as A.K. Yearling. Still, she got a lot of unwanted attention from fans like this… Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle weren't the only Daring Do fans in Ponyville. She offered the owner of the Hayburger's a nice amount of bits so they could sit in a nice, secluded spot, but that didn't stop the fans from peering through the window and taking pictures. However, while this was pretty annoying for both of them, they had bigger problems to worry about at the moment.

Gilda fidgeted around nervously on her seat, took a bite from her burger (she had been pretty disappointed when she found out they didn't serve real meat in their burgers) and glanced down towards the spot where Daring's cutie mark was obstructed from view by the dress she was wearing.

Daring coughed awkwardly. "So…"

"Yeah…"

Daring took a glance at Gilda's all-new cutie mark as well. "We're sages now, huh?"

"Looks like it, dude…"

"And… are you okay with it?"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Gilda sighed. "I mean, it was surprising enough finding out that Dash has supposedly this huge destiny of carrying a magic piece of girly jewelry… I wonder why she didn't tell me about it the last time I was here… but now I'm supposed to be part of this world-saving shtick?" She gritted her beak. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this."

"Is that what's bothering you?" Daring asked. "Having to help save the world, having to do something that you never wanted to do in the first place?"

"Hey, up until now, I didn't even believe in this destiny bullshit," Gilda shouted. "I can make my own decisions in life, thank you very much. I don't need any sparkly butterfly gemstones on my butt to know that!" She looked back at her own flank with a groan, where the Element of Kindness was still clearly visible for everypony to see. "And why did it have to be Flutters' cutie mark? Dash's is way cooler." She looked at Daring. "You don't suppose we could swap, do you?"

Daring shook her head with a sigh. "I don't think that's how it works," she said. "So, you know Rainbow Dash pretty well?"

"Yeah, we were best buds after we met in flight camp," Gilda said. "I always hated having to go to a pegasus camp – no offense – but I guess that happens when you're a griffon living in Equestria." She shrugged. "Well, most of the other ponies were always scared when they looked at me. It bothered me to no end, they didn't even try to get to know me. All they saw was a huge, scary griffon and ran. Of course I got mad and started picking on them. But Dash was different. She's cool and she doesn't care what I look like. She's also tough and one of the best flyers I've ever seen."

"That sounds like her, all right," Daring chuckled. "I don't know her very long, but after she helped me against Ahuizotl, I realized she lived for the thrill of the adventure… kind of like me. At first, I thought she'd be like all the other annoying fan girls that gush over me wherever I go, guise or no guise."

Gilda laughed. "Dash had a fan girl moment when she saw you? That would have been hilarious to watch. She always tries her best to keep calm and cool, but you should see her whenever somepony mentions the Wonderbolts."

"So I understand that you're best friends with Rainbow… but what about Fluttershy? Isn't she your friend, too?"

"Yeah… well… sorta…" Gilda scratched the back of her head. "Listen, I usually don't like talking about this, okay? I'll tell you only because we're kinda in the same boat here. So, um… don't tell anypony about this, okay?"

"Hey, if anypony can keep a secret, it's me," Daring smiled.

"Thanks. Okay, well… Flutters is… how should I put this? She's everything Dash isn't. She's quiet, she's slow, she's shy and doesn't exactly aim high with her goals in life. But she's perfectly fine with it. She also went to flight camp with Dash and me… I still don't know what she was doing there, anyways. Maybe her parents made her go. Anyways, seeing her always bothered me to no end. Not because I hated her or anything. But I thought to myself: How could anypony live like this? Don't you have any ambitions? Don't you have any dreams? Don't you wanna make something out of you? Sure, I'm always the big bully and prankster, but I still wanna be respected. Fluttershy? She doesn't care what others think of her as long as they don't bother her. It was so irritating."

"So did you pick on her as well?" Daring asked.

"I would have, but Dash always kept me from it. She made it sound like Flutters wasn't worth the trouble, but now I know she really cared about her. After Fluttershy started living on the ground, I barely ever saw her again until I came to Ponyville to visit Dash. And when I saw her, guiding those small animals across the street, all of the frustrations came back to the surface and I let it all out on her." Gilda sighed. "Nowadays I feel like a jerk when I think back to it. But back then, it felt satisfying."

"Was it really satisfying?" Daring asked.

"Well… no, it wasn't. But I kept telling myself it was. I didn't want to lose my cool, my tough attitude. I mean, I'm a strong griffon. Why should I care about wimpy ponies? Again, no offense. That's just what I kept telling myself."

"I understand," Daring said. "What happened next?"

Gilda grimaced. "I made a giant fool out of myself at the party Rainbow's friend Pinkie Pie threw for me. In my efforts to stay cool and tough all the time, I really thought she'd set this party up to play a trick on me, to make a fool out of me. So I lost my temper again and threw a fit in front of everypony, Rainbow Dash included. That's when she said something to me… she said that if I was unable to accept her new friends, I should try find some new friends, somewhere else."

"That must have been hard," Daring said.

"Yeah… I mean, this was the one pony that had always sided with me. The toughest of the tough, the coolest of the cool. The one pony who always accepted me as I am. And suddenly she tells me to stay away from her and her friends… it felt like a betrayal to me. And so, I did the next stupid thing: Instead of apologizing and telling her I didn't want this, I lashed out again… this time, against HER! I slammed the door behind me, took off and never looked back." The griffon put her head on the table. "I was such a big idiot…"

"Hey, stupid things happen," Daring tried to comfort her. "I mean, I'm not the most sociable pony either. For the longest time, I thought others would only slow me down and be a risk. A risk for both me and them. What I'm trying to say, doing the right thing is not always easy. At least you calmed down enough to come back and try to patch things up, didn't you?"

"I wanted to," Gilda grumbled. "But every time I approached Dash's house, I got cold feet and backpedaled. I wanted to make things right again, I even wanted to apologize, if I had to, but every time I thought that Dash might say the same thing again… might reject me again… so I always fled." In her frustration, Gilda punched the table a couple of times. "Some tough griffon I can if I can't even face my friend… But then, one time when I flew away from Dash's house again, Fluttershy saw me. She could tell I wasn't feeling so well and asked me what was wrong. At first, I wanted to shout at her again and tell her to mind her own business. But shouting didn't help me a lot the last time I was here, huh? So I calmed myself and told her everything, even though I was certain she'd laugh at me once I was finished. But what did she do? She didn't laugh at me. She pitied me, which was still annoying. But more importantly, she invited me to join a group she has formed, for creatures who have trouble opening up and speaking with others about their problems. I told her I didn't want to join yet another club full of nothing but ponies, but she told me that many of the group members aren't really ponies at all. In the end, I figured I had nothing to lose and decided to give it a try. And you know what? It helped. Not enough to overcome my anxiousness of talking to Dash, but it still helped. So Fluttershy turned from one of the ponies that bothered me the most to a close friend. But now? Now she's gone. And I couldn't even help her." Another frustrated punch against the table.

"But after all of this… shouldn't you be glad to be her sage?" Daring wondered.

"It's not that," Gilda said. "It came as a big surprise, but I really don't mind helping Flutters, Dash and their friends with whatever they are doing. Maybe that'll help them forgive me for what I did. So no, it's not about being a sage. It's about this stupid cutie mark!"

"What's wrong with it?"

"First of all, I'm not even a pony! I shouldn't have a cutie mark in the first place. Everyone is going to look at me and treat me like a freak. I mean, just look at it! A pink crystal butterfly necklace… so uncool and girly…"

"If that's all you're worried about, you can calm down," Daring said. "You can make the sage mark disappear anytime." She pulled her dress away and showed her cutie mark to Gilda, making sure she was the only one to see it. The cutie mark then switched back and forth between being a lightning bolt necklace and her regular compass cutie mark, each time accompanied by a shimmer of light. "See? The sage marks aren't there forever. It would be pretty devastating for a pony to have her own cutie mark removed or replaced. But as you can see, my own is still there. I just got a second one in addition. I bet you can make yours go away just as easily."

"I… I can?" Gilda asked. She looked back at her own flank and willed the sage mark of kindness to disappear. And certain enough, it worked. "It worked!" Gilda shouted excitedly. "It worked! Take that, girly mark!"

Daring snickered. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Well, at least a lot more relieved," Gilda said. She then looked down again. "But I'm still angry at myself for not being able to help Fluttershy…"

Suddenly, Rainbow came running in. "Hey, you two! Twilight got some reinforcements from the princesses, as well as a hint where Fluttershy might be. So stop moping and get moving!"

"Looks like you got another chance," Daring told Gilda with a wink. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready for more action." She ran past Dash and outside.

Gilda nodded, but instead of following her, she turned around to face Rainbow. "Hey, Dash… about what happened between us…"

"No need to say anything, G," Rainbow said. "Fluttershy needs our help, and if you're willing to go save her, that's enough for me to see that you've changed." She raised her right wing and looked at her old friend with a smirk.

If there had been any doubt within Gilda, it disappeared as soon as she heard those words. So she returned the smirk, accepted the wing high five and shout: "All right, G and Dash are back together to save their friend, so you better look out, world!"

"That's the Gilda I remember!" Rainbow grinned. "Come on, last one to Twilight's library is a rotten dragon's egg!" And she took off, dashing through the door.

"Hey, no fair, dude!" Gilda shouted laughing. "Come back here!"


Applejack, Pinkie and Darunia were just arriving at town square, when they saw Apple Bloom and Saria running past them. "Whoa, hold it there, shrimps," Darunia chuckled. "Where are you two off to in such a hurry?"

"Oh, hello, Darunia," Saria stopped and greeted her fellow sage. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. We were just at Zecora's and she gave us this brew that might help us."

Applejack frowned at her sister. "Young filly, what did I tell you about going into the Everfree without supervision?"

"But I had supervision!" Apple Bloom protested. "Saria was with me all along, right?"

"You don't need to worry, Applejack," Saria said. "I've been here for only a short time, but I already know my way around these woods."

"What's this potion you got?" Pinkie asked as she looked at the brew inside the bottle the Kokiri was carrying. "Looks pretty pink and bubbly… reminds me of something, or maybe somepony. Hmmm…" She scratched her head.

"Celestia knows who that might be," Applejack smirked as she looked at her pink, bubbly friend. "But seriously, what kind of zebra mumbo-jumbo did Zecora put in this here bottle?"

"It's a sedative potion, helpful to calm Fluttershy down when she's in her feral state of mind," Saria explained. "Apple Bloom told me how you calmed her down last time with those mirrors, but that only worked because you were able to set them up in Sweet Apple Acres. I doubt you'll be able to carry several big mirrors along with you where we're going. So all we need to do is somehow make her ingest this potion, and Twilight will be able to do her spell to turn her back to normal."

"That sounds like a good plan," Darunia said.

"What do you mean, where we're going?" Applejack asked. "Do you know where Fluttershy is?"

"Oh, you don't know yet?" Saria asked. "Twilight told us all to come to the library because she has a new lead. We're on our way there now."

"We?" Applejack looked at Apple Bloom. "The only way you're going is right back home, missy!"

"But Applejack, I can help," Apple Bloom said. "The other crusaders and I helped in the desert, didn't we? And Mom said we could come and help."

"Well, Mom's not here at the moment, so I'm in charge. And I think that somepony should stay home with Big Mac and Granny Smith while Mom and I are both gone."

"Fine…" the filly muttered reluctantly. "But you owe me ice cream once you come back."

"One big sundae, just for yerself, it's a promise," Applejack grinned. "Now run along."

Apple Bloom nodded and ran home, while the other four made their way to the library, which was a bit more crowded than usual. Even though Link, Epona and Zelda had still not returned from Hyrule, there were still Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Daring Do, Rarity, Ruto, Impa and to Applejack's surprise, also a small group of bat ponies.

"What's the deal, purplesmart?" Gilda asked impatiently. "Got any new lead on where Flutters is?"

Both Impa and the bat ponies frowned upon hearing the griffon's nickname for the princess, but Twilight herself didn't seem to be bothered by it. "According to these helpful Nocturnals, she and the demon lord, Ghirahim, are in the Diamond Mountains."

"Diamond Mountains?" Rarity gasped. "But that's diamond dog territory. Whatever would sweet, darling Fluttershy be doing there?"

"You have to remember that this isn't sweet, darling Fluttershy anymore," Ruto said. "She turned into a beast… a quite vicious one, as I learned the hard way."

"Our scouts reported an increase in the local diamond dog mining and digging activities," Night Glide said. "And they are accompanied by monsters we have never seen before in our lives,,, obviously creatures from Hyrule, brought here by Ghirahim. And they seem to be working hand in hand. They are building something… something big."

"And you're sure Fluttershy is there?" Spike asked.

"Excuse me, but who are you anyway?" Applejack asked.

"This is Commander Night Glide," Twilight explained. "Leader of the Nocturnal forces that Princess Luna assigned to work with me… also, she is Fluttershy's mother."

"Say WHAT?" Rainbow Dash gasped. She wasn't the only one. All around, her friends looked at Twilight and the bat pony commander with shock and awe. "Fluttershy's mom is a bat pony Night Guard COMMANDER? Why didn't she ever tell me about this?"

"My daughter doesn't like to talk about her family," Night Glide said. "But this is not what we're here to discuss. Yes, we are sure my daughter is there, because my scouts watched her and Ghirahim fly towards the mountains. Also, we have someone who can confirm it." She turned towards the door and shouted: "Lieutenant, bring in the prisoner!"

One of the other bat ponies came in, pushing a diamond dog into the room. A diamond dog whose arms were tied behind his back, and whose face seemed awfully familiar to two of them.

"Rover!" both Ruto and Gilda shouted.

"What happened? What did they do to you?" Ruto asked.

"You better let him go right now, fang face, or I'll smack you one!" Gilda snarled.

"Whoa there, G! Heel!" Rainbow shouted.

"We managed to capture this diamond dog at the edge of their territory," Night Glide said. "Since his kind was seen helping the enemy, he was captured for interrogation."

"Please ponies, Rover not your enemy," the diamond dog whined. "Diamond dogs not enemies, diamond dogs friends!"

"Friends? Yeah, right," Spike huffed. "You guys kidnapped Rarity so she would bury up gemstones for you."

"Yes, but Rover wanted to change," Rover said. "Winged yellow pony says stealing is bad, so Rover and friends don't steal anymore. But then bad demon pony came and hurt diamond dogs… says diamond dogs need to work if they want to live. Diamond dogs now work as slaves… please help us!"

"And why should we believe you, runt?" Night Glide glowered.

"Please, I know this diamond dog," Ruto said. "He is one of Fluttershy's friends and would never do anything to hurt her. I think he's telling the truth… please let him go."

Night Glide narrowed her eyes. "If you think I'll just let a prisoner of war escape like that…"

"Are you doubting the word of a Sage of Hyrule?" Impa asked.

Night Glide took a closer look at Ruto. "You are a Sage of Hyrule?"

"Yes, I am," Ruto nodded. "I am Princess Ruto of the Zoras, and the Sage of Water. And I swear to you on my honor as a sage and a princess, that this dog is not your enemy."

"Yes, please listen to fish-pony," Rover pleaded. "Rover good, Rover friend!"

Night Glide thought about it. "Well… my daughter has the strange habit of making friends with all kinds of unusual creatures… very well. Lieutenant… untie him!"

"Oh thank you, thank you!" Rover shouted as his bonds were untied.

"Not bad, fish sticks," Gilda said, visibly impressed with Ruto.

"Now, can you tell everything that happened, Rover?" Twilight asked. "What did they do with Fluttershy?"

Rover whimpered. "Bad demon pony made her his… pet."


The Flutterbat hissed in appreciation as her master threw her another rat. She quickly sucked out all of the rodent's blood, stilling her hunger for now.

Ghirahim laughed as he was sitting on his seat made out of diamonds. "Very good, my pet. Feed! I need you to be strong to be my loyal bodyguard. Your silly little friends wouldn't dare lift a hoof against you."

He then stood up and looked over the construction site in front of him. On top of the highest peak in the mountain range, the diamond dogs were digging and building. A huge, black tower was constructed here, a palace of magnificence that would be Equestria's new seat of power as soon as Ghirahim's master was unleashed upon this world. "Work faster, you mangy mongrels!" Ghirahim shouted. "Servants, show these worthless slaves what happens to those who defy orders by slacking off!"

The goblin-like creatures that guarded the working diamond dogs screeched at their master's command and started poking their slaves with spears or hitting them with whips. A huge, bulky creature that looked more like an ogre pushed one small diamond dog that had dared to take a break into the dirt with a growl. All over the construction side, the Bokoblins and Moblins made sure that the work continued.

"Pitiful creatures," Ghirahim muttered. "Like any of the weak races inhabiting this world. The only real concern I have are its rulers. If they attack us now… Ah, but why am I worrying? I have my master's powers at my side, and even the princesses wouldn't dare to hurt one of their precious little ponies." He laughed as he looked back at the Flutterbat, who was still busy sucking blood.

While the feral beast was happy to finally be able to feed, in the farthest corner of her mind, Fluttershy could only grieve over what she was doing to the little rat's lifeless body in her grasp. She knew all too well that nature was not always as kind as she was and that a lot of her animals friends fed on other woodland critters… but even though she had long ago accepted that, she would have never harmed a living being on her own. Even back when the changelings attacked, she was reluctant to fight them.

'I have done things I am ashamed of,' she thought to herself. 'I lost control of my temper, even insulted my friends on multiple occasions. I've always been afraid of becoming a monster. But now… I truly am a monster.' If she was in control of her body, she would have wept. 'I am so sorry, little one… the only thing I can do is to make sure that each and every single death of you and your friends will be as quick and painless as possible…'