//------------------------------// // The Past // Story: Old Paths, New Directions // by An-Twan Star //------------------------------// The sun was already nearing the horizon when Gilda and Lightning Dust rolled around the northern slope of Mount Equus. Below them, the outskirts of Canterlot panned outward – with the buildings and properties getting smaller and more congested the further south they flew. The castle, Gilda's destination, overlooked the city from its lofty perch on the mountain. Lightning pointed down towards the suburbs below. “That's where I'm from,” she stated. “Boring, I know.” “Uh-huh,” Gilda grunted. “Well, I'll just let you be. Unless you need my help finding the castle, of course.” “I can handle myself, Da- I mean Dust.” “Cool.” Lightning turned away but veered back a second later. “Oh yeah, if we're flying like this next week, you're telling the sob story.” “Oh har har,” Gilda emitted a sarcastic laugh. “Very funny. Don't expect an epic like your academy tale, though.” “Fair enough.” Lightning turned away for the final time. “See you next week!” Once Lightning Dust peeled off towards wherever her home was, Gilda made the final hop to the castle gates. She touched down in the designated landing zone and quickly padded over to the open portcullis to await Sunlit Pen, the bubbly, caramel-colored unicorn scribe that was her normal drop-off for diplomatic cables. Pen was usually quite punctual and it was a bit odd she wasn’t there to greet the griffon, but not wholly unprecedented either. Court could be an unpredictable thing at times. The guards she knew in passing at least and were given a nod as she took a seat just under the entrance archway to get out of the late-afternoon sun. She took off her glasses and put them away, hoping that Pen wouldn’t be much longer. Her day was long enough already without this kind of unexpected delay. She looked over at the clop of approaching hooves, but instead of Sunlit Pen’s arrival, it was a unicorn guard in full armored regalia. He stopped just before her. “The Princess has requested your presence,” the guard said in a formal tone. Gilda froze on the spot. “Come again?” “The Princess has requested your presence,” he repeated. The question of why hung on her open beak, only to be silenced by the pair of thumps from the other side of the archway. Two pegasus guards had just dropped from the sky and were standing placidly in the middle of the passage’s exit to Canterlot, cutting off any hope of retreat. Gilda could feel her blood run cold. “Which Princess?” she cheeped. “Princess Celestia.” Gilda didn’t know whether to be relieved at that or not. A good part of her was screaming for not. While the solar diarch was generally considered more fair and compassionate than her sister, she was also well known for doing anything required to protect her kingdom and her ponies. “Did she say why?” “No ma'am, just that you were requested for an audience with her highness. Now please follow me.” Gilda contemplated ripping off her satchel, throwing it at the unicorn as a distraction, and bolting past him into the palace grounds. Grypus naturally had an embassy in the pony capital and it wasn’t far from the castle. While she wasn’t as fast as she used to be, if she could get into the sky and make it into their air space, then find a consolute officer to spill her guts to about what happened the night before… And to do that, all I need to do is get past the combat-magic wielding unicorn and outfly a pair of pegasi – a pair of the Princess’ own elite guards – all after I’ve already been in the air for almost twelve hours today. She was fast, but not that fast. Letting out a defeated sigh, Gilda pushed herself upright and turned to the unicorn, studiously ignoring the pair behind her. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” The guard nodded and turned, leading her onto the palace grounds proper. As they trotted through the grounds – well, they trotted, she strode – Gilda couldn’t help the feeling of deja vu that came over her. It had been years, many, many years since she’d last walked those paths and castle hallways. It had been just after she had entered into the Young Ambassador’s program and was first meeting all of her compatriots at a formal diplomatic function in the palace. In all honesty, she had been too pissed at the whole situation to really appreciate much of that visit. She did remember enough to realize some of the large stained glass windows were new, though. Gilda squeezed her beak shut in a grimace and studiously focused on the floor just behind her escort, averting her gaze from the panes of recent Equestrian history that featured Rainbow Dash and all her new friends. Her talons were making clicking noises on the marble flooring and she tried to relax them. The part of her that had screamed to cut and run in the entryway was still making its shrill presence known, urging her to find a way out and throw herself upon the mercies of the Gryphus embassy officials. She had dual-citizenship and knew that officially it would be difficult for Equestria to prosecute her for any major crime, no matter how trumped up it may be. Unofficially, she was standing in the center of the home of the supreme ruler of the entire kingdom and felt that such things as citizenship and legal protections would be trivial matters if the solar Princess deemed the griffon’s knowledge of her sister’s actions a threat to Equestria. Worse yet, no one outside of her escort and the Princess herself knew she was even there. “Here we are.” Gilda pulled out of her reverie to see an unassuming pair of doors before her. They were certainly not the doors to the main courtroom she recalled from years past. Is this… her private study? “Is there anything special I have to do?” Gilda asked the only question that came to her frazzled mind. “Do I have to bow?” Please don't tell me I have to bow! The royal guard dropped the stoic demeanor and allowed a thin smile to grace his lips – one that spoke of years of experience as a herald. “Don’t worry. You can just be casual on this visit.” I can be casual... alright, now I'm scared. The guard gave a light rap on the door before opening. Gilda followed the armored stallion inside to see Princess Celestia hunched over a too-small desk, working on her daily business as Equestria's ruler. The two pegasi guards took up regular positions flanking the doors. “Ah, Gilda,” she welcomed the griffon in her usual comforting tone. “I’ll just be a few moments here. You can hand the cables to your escort.” Gilda opened her satchel and pulled out the heavy binders, which the guard grabbed in his telekinesis. He sorted through the documents before pulling out an envelope and placing it on the desk. Celestia waved a hoof and dismissed him. Without lifting her eyes from the scroll she was writing on, she addressed the nervous griffon standing in the center of the room. “I hope you can forgive the delay, as I understand you’ve just finished a long flight and must be eager to return home and start your weekend. This arrived after I requested that you be brought in to see me and requires my immediate attention.” With a quiet thud, the stallion closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with the great white alicorn. Gilda’s mouth had gone dry and she couldn’t so much as chirp in acknowledgment. As Celestia continued to scratch at the document, Gilda’s eyes wandered the room. Besides the palace door, the only other way out was through a pair of large glass doors to an outside balcony, a sprint she might be able to make were it not for the ability of Celestia’s magic to literally stop her in her tracks. Giving up all hopes of a last-minute dash to safety, she instead chose to focus on the contents of the room itself. It held a level of opulence befitting a princess, no question about that, but there was a lived-in feeling to the clutter and piles of scrolls and books scattered throughout. It had a very real feel to it, and a small part of her wondered how many audiences had actually seen this room and not the court itself or one of the more formal meeting rooms. As she fidgeted in place, the only thing that truly caught her attention was the other avian sharing the room. Celestia's pet phoenix stirred on her perch, cawing softly at the griffon that had invaded her space. Finally unable to stand the silence any longer, Gilda spoke up. “I didn’t tell them about your sister. The… officials at the embassy,” she fumbled when Celestia looked up. “I never told them. They don’t know what happened.” “For that, you have my thanks,” Celestia told her before returning to her documents. She finished a few final lines and dashed off what was probably a signature before depositing her quill in its inkwell. The scroll was wrapped in a golden aura and vanished in a puff of magic. “Luna had informed me at breakfast this morning of that little indiscretion and I’ve been worried about what might come of it. I’m glad to know it can be kept private. Still, it is not the reason I called you here today.” Of all of today’s revelations, that was the most startling. “So what was your sister doing in my head then? Why am I here at all, if not for that?” Celestia cleared the desk of documents, stacking them neatly on the side before looking up and directly addressing her audience once more. “My sister, bless her heart,” she began, “can be rather obstinate and set in her ways. After her cleansing by the Elements, Luna has had difficulty adjusting to modern society. Some things carry over quite easily through the centuries, but many things… are lost in translation. That she does not have full, irreproachable control of the dreamlands is something she seems unwilling to accept.” Celestia got to her hooves and went to retrieve something from a filing cabinet. “Her dream-walking ability can be used for good or ill. But sadly, time has only remembered her for one of those traits. She is doing her best to change that now, but at times she still oversteps her boundaries.” “Look princess,” Gilda replied, “it’s not something I'm gonna lose sleep over – I mean! I'm not bothered too much by it.” The cocky grin she tried only half worked. “Again, you have my gratitude for your discretion. But, let’s put that matter behind us now. As I’ve said, it’s not the reason I summoned you here today.” “So why did you summon me?” Celestia sat back down at the desk with a stack of yellowed scrolls hovering beside her. “To talk about you.” Gilda unconsciously backed up a step, one foreleg crooked defensively before her. “Wha... m-me? You must have the wrong griffon.” “I'm sure I have the right griffon.” “And what about me do you want to know?” Celestia sighed. “What happened?” “What do you mean what happened?” “One of these might be able to clarify.” Celestia began to rifle through the stack of papers. “I have a student in Ponyville,” she said as she worked. “She's a good pony, but a bit of a shutin. I actually had to make it a formal assignment that she go out and make friends. Over the course of that assignment, I’ve had her and – more recently – her friends send correspondence whenever they discover something profound about friendship.” Celestia pretended to not notice Gilda's eye roll. “Here.” Celestia handed Gilda a paper. “Read.” What is this, a love letter? “Dearest Princess Celestia. Today, I learned that it’s hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice...” Gilda trailed off, her expression hardening the further down she read. Once done, she slammed the parchment down on the desk with a paw, her talons scoring small holes through it. She felt righteous indignation burn inside her chest, then disappear as quickly as it came, leaving naught but an empty void behind. “A false friend, huh? Is that all I am to you, Dash?” she croaked Celestia spoke softly. “That may or may not be true. But this is only the opinion expressed by my student. If that is truly what Rainbow Dash thinks of you, we may never know.” Gilda’s face curled up in a snarl again. “Well, Princess. Maybe what happened is that I went there to visit my best friend – who I hadn't seen in ages – because the week before, Gryphus formally announced they were closing the Cloudsdale Embassy and I didn’t know if I’d ever even see her again! I just wanted to hang out and have fun like we always did, because it could very well have been our last chance to do so. Instead, Dash decided it would be fun to throw this ridiculous prank party for me. Or maybe it was Pinkie Pie unable to take a hint! Maybe it’s the fact that it’s damned near impossible for me to make any other friends around here! I couldn't even keep a job at the damned weather factory because I didn't have a godsdamned cutie mark!” Gilda's fiery voice dropped to a whisper. “Or maybe it's because I was left to fend for myself by my parents, my friends, and my whole society.” Fire returned to Gilda's voice as she focused on Celestia again. “Why am I telling you this! You don't care!” “Oh really?” Celestia reached into the pile of letters once again, pulling out a piece of college-ruled notebook paper. “This might change your opinion.” Gilda grabbed the letter and began to read, slow realization creeping onto her features. Memories came flooding back; flight camp, enrollment in the exchange program, a barely in her teens Gilda writing a letter to Princess Celestia detailing how she was in Equestria against her will, and throwing out the response – her angry, short-sighted mind unwilling to accept such banal and unhelpful counsel as the words of a Princess. Her beak began to quiver when she reached the end. “Y-you actually read this?” Gilda asked, shock and disbelief evident in her voice. “Of course.” “B-but, the… the response? That was yours?” “It was. And do you remember what I said in that letter?” Gilda racked her brain, trying to remember Celestia's reply. All she could really recall of it was that it hadn’t offered the help that she wanted and tried to impart advice that seemed more than useless at the time. She literally had skimmed it once, then spitefully threw it over the edge of Cloudsdale – never to be seen again. “Not offhand no.” Celestia nodded. “I see. Well, Gilda, it comes back to why I asked you here today. Do you think you could please tell me what happened to the griffon that wrote that second letter, how she became the griffon in the first?” Gilda took a glance around the room, her cheeks burning beneath her feathers. Personal feelings aside, with a living goddess asking for her personal story, it would be foolish not to answer. She coiled her tail around her legs and tried to compose her thoughts. “I could try. I should start at the beginning though, tell you how I really got here.” She sat down and folded her forepaws in front of herself. “When I was a cub, I used to be a big fan of ponies. I knew all sorts of crazy pony facts, I was even friends with a group of colts and fillies at my school. Until she came.” Gilda stopped for a long, morose sigh. Celestia's questioning gaze promoted her to continue. “Grizelda was a perfect griffon; prideful, brash, rude... hated ponies – and that made her very popular very fast. One day, she found out that I was friends with the 'herd' and gave me two choices. Either I stick with the ponies and be ostracized alongside them, or I join her little clique.” Celestia frowned, seeing full well where this story was going. “After that day, all the ponies looked at me like I was the enemy, like I was the bad griffon. I had to side with Grizelda, I didn’t have a choice! “A few years later it was finals, and the clique decided to intentionally fail the Equestrian Society test. Now, this was fairly common; students would get good grades in other fields so they wouldn't get held back. Except I had been falling behind in several classes. And in order to not flunk, I needed an incredibly good grade on the test. I got an A-plus with extra credit! But this... did not go over well with Grizelda. After that, my parents sent me to flight camp in Equestria for the summer. Before I left, Grizelda came at me with all these weird allegations, said I was a disgrace to all of Gryphus, said they wouldn't let me back in for what I had done. “When I arrived at the camp, I quickly realized that I was the only griffon there. The first several days were rough – I-I wasn't allowed to eat meat. I had to have these disgusting protein shakes to supplement my suddenly changed diet. Then the rumors started flying; some ponies thought I was some kind of freaky orphan, others thought my family had committed some terrible crime and had been exiled to Equestria as a punishment. Either way, I was reminded of these, and other vile opinions, every day.” “But there must have been somepony decent there?” Celestia guessed. “There was!” Gilda’s beak twitched in a nostalgic grin. “We first met when she quite literally almost ran into me.” Gilda looked up just in time to see a blue rainbow blur on a beeline with her face. Her feline reflexes kicked in and launched the griffon safely aside. The little pegasus wasn't so lucky, hitting the cloud layer at an angle and carving a trench for a few feet before stopping. Gilda stalked over to the downed pony, preparing to chew her out for nearly creaming her and causing her tail to puff brilliantly, only for the heckling from above to bring her up short. “Nice flying, Rainbow Crash!” The griffon turned her head around backwards to see the gaggle of colts on the higher cloud layer. Gilda recognized the trio as the ones that bullied any newbie that was unable to fly. So far, nopony had the guts to openly bully the griffon, but of all the little cliques she’d seen, this one was the worst. “Hey, Crash!” one of the colts jeered. “Look out! The freak's about to eat you!” Gilda had put up with the stares and rumors in order to keep her cool image, but this was the breaking point. Her beak dropping low to match the growl in her throat, she tensed her leg muscles in preparation of pouncing the colts and teaching them a lesson they wouldn't soon forget. She would have, too, if not for the two pairs of hooves suddenly landing on her back. The rainbow pegasus was standing on her! Gilda was too stunned by this to do anything besides try and keep upright under the sudden, unexpected extra weight. “One of these days, Hoops!” the filly shouted from her unwilling soapbox. “One of these days, I’m gonna make you put your money where your mouth is!” “Not if you keep crashing all the time, you won't!” The bullies devolved into self-serving laughter. But despite this, the rainbow pegasus stood firm. After settling down, the colts decided to find another hapless victim, but not without some parting words. “See you later, Crash.” “Bye, freak!” one of the others chimed in. As the bullies faded away, the pegasus sighed. “It's 'griffon', plothole.” “Yeah, it is!” Gilda squirmed, finding her voice once more. “And do you mind getting the hay off?!” “Oh!” The rainbow maned pegasus hopped back down onto the cloud layer. She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry.” Gilda turned and fluffed her wings to resettle them, her beak once more set in a hard snarl as she turned to properly size up the reckless blue pony beside her. Part of her wanted to send the mare packing and not get involved, but the other part recognized that of all the newbies she’d seen get picked on by those bullies, this was the only one to stand up and fight back. While Gilda hadn’t personally come into their line of fire, she was sure that it was only a matter of time before that happened. As a griffon she could more than handle herself against a pegasus or two; more would be a problem. Laying her wings back and smoothing her feathers, Gilda put on a smile and did the most logical thing. “Say, you're not all lame like the other ponies. Wanna hang out?” “Maybe, but I gotta lay down some ground rules,” the pegasus replied, squinting as she appraised the griffon across from her. “First thing. That,” she raised a hoof at her crash site, “never happened. And second,” she was now in Gilda's face, “never diss me, or my friends. Got that?” “So that... never happened?” The pony was so close that Gilda could feel her breath on her beak. “It NEVER happened!” “And.. never diss you –?” “OR my friends!” “Or your friends.” Gilda squinted back, her gold eyes never breaking from the pony’s rose-colored ones. “Yeah. I think I can handle that.” The pegasus broke into a grin, finally backing off and holding out a hoof. “If you’re game, then I’m game. Name’s Rainbow Dash.” The griffon looked around and reached out her talon for a shake, but stopped short. She’d spent so many years hating ponies, just in an effort to save her own feathers. Gilda let her talons curl into a ball, remembering those times when she used to fly with the herd. “Gilda.” In a complete surprise to Rainbow, the griffon knocked her first against the offered hoof. “Wow! You can hoof-bump!” Gilda waved an uncaring talon in the air. “Yeah, I’m just full of surprises.” “I mean, I just can't – I can't believe I found a real griffon!” Rainbow Dash squealed while dancing in place, the hoof-bump having shattered the pegasus’ brash exterior like ice on the first day of winter. Wanting to be spared of any embarrassment, Gilda bodily grabbed the ecstatic pony. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm it down.” “Eheh,” she nervously laughed “Sorry 'bout that. I just never thought I’d find one! I thought they were the coolest when we learned about them in school, but none of them lived around us, and then when I first saw you here I was so excited and nervous and –!” “Ugh, if you can calm your inner fangirl, then I'm game to hang. Cool?” “Cool!” Rainbow agreed. “No promises, though.” “That's how I met Rainbow Dash. After that, things changed. Since I was her friend, I had to contend with the bullies now, too.” A smile tugged at the corners of Gilda’s beak. “We had each other’s flank, though. Sure, the haters came at us like flies at times, but we dealt with them. Some days it felt like it was us against that whole damned camp. But we struggled and clawed our way to the top and we never let them forget it. Despite all the hate, the taunting, the… discrimination, it was me and her through it all. I thought we could do anything. “I didn't want it to end. How dumb a notion was that?” After two months, the last morning of Junior Speedsters finally rolled around. All the campers were casually assembled on the clouds, awaiting their parents or guardians to pick them up. Colts and fillies alike were hanging out for the last time, others were exchanging credentials, with promises to keep in touch. Standing slightly apart from the group, Gilda and Rainbow Dash were doing just that. “So how long until I hear from you?” Gilda shrugged. “Well, Gryphus mail is pretty quick, so a few weeks, give or take.” “Say, don't you have anypony coming to pick you up?” Rainbow asked with a hint of concern. “Uuhh...” Gilda began, “Well, I kinda made my own way here.” Then the two friends noticed that things had gone quiet around them. They looked to their peers to see all eyes cast toward the sky. A small shadow formed above Gilda and with a muffled thud, a large griffon dropped onto the cloud. Everypony, including Rainbow Dash, instinctively backed up, finally seeing the size of what they believed was Gilda's parent. The only one who didn't shy away was Gilda herself. “Gilda Goldtalon?” he addressed her with an uncultured accent honed from years spent in the sky. Feeling a creeping dread, Gilda dumbly nodded. This was not her parent and she wasn’t expecting an escort. Judging by the black jacket and brown satchel this griffon was one of Gryphus' legendary royal messengers. The messenger handed her an envelope. Then, as quickly as he came, the mysterious stranger launched back into the sky. The envelope had a distinct bulge and weight of something metallic inside. Using a sharp talon to open it, the griffon pulled out the enclosed letter and scanned through. The further she read, the more detached from reality she felt. Rainbow was hovering behind, asking what the letter said and trying to read it for herself – getting nowhere due to letter being solely in Griffish. Gilda’s world was spinning. This couldn't be happening! “Gilda? What's it say? Gilda? Gilda!?”