//------------------------------//
// Old Friends, Pooping on Park Benches Like Bookends 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	Gilda sighed, calmly flying up the length of the crystalline super-tree.  Her wings aimed for a platform looming halfway up the southwest face.  After zipping past several criss-crossing figures, she heard a voice cracking from behind her.

"I could really use some help!  Like... super awesome help!" Rainbow Dash stammered.  "I mean it, Gilda.  I wouldn't have come all the way here unless it was something that scored... like... an eleven on the 'serious' scale!"

Gilda's feathers ruffled as she frowned.  "Y'know..."  She hissed without looking back.  "Isn't it funny how we just conveniently decide when things are serious and when they're not!"

"Huh?!"  Rainbow Dash blinked, floundering briefly in midair.  "What's that even mean?!"

"Unnngh..." Gilda growled and flapped her wings harder.  "Get lost, Rainbow Dash."

"No, come on!  Level with me!"  Rainbow's wings blurred as she caught up with the griffon.  "What are you even going on about?"

"I don't know what's lamer," Gilda mumbled.  "The fact that you don't remember or the fact that you're even stooping to ask."

"Dude, don't play coy with me!  You know that doesn't work!"

"Rainbow, you don't know anything.  There hasn't been anything to know in... I dunno... months!"

"Look, just don't sandbag me, alright?"  Rainbow put on a lopsided smile.  "You and I go way back!"

"Way back, huh...?"

"Yeah!  Y'know... old friends and all that jazz!"

"Is that a fact?!"  Gilda finally turned back to look at her, and she did so with the mother of all sneers:  "Cuz I distinctly remember you saying that maybe I 'should find some new cool friends somewhere else!'"

Rainbow Dash blinked.  "... ... ...wow, good memory."

"Ugh!"  Gilda soared skyward.  "I am so done with you."

"Hey, Gilda!  Come onnnn..."  Rainbow Dash shrugged, lagging behind.  "That's ancient history!  I'm talking... like... sixty fight scenes ago at least!"

"I dunno what you're talking about and I don't care..."

"Where you off to in such a hurry, anyways?"

"Some of us have work to do!"  Gilda reached the edge of the platform, touched down, and glared behind her shoulder.  "Unlike ponies, griffons can't be stupid slackers twenty-four seven!"

"Hey!  I've got a job!"  Rainbow frowned.  "Heck, I've got—like—three of them!"

"Three jobs," Gilda droned.

"Okay.  Two and a half.  But one of them involves lots of explosions!"  Rainbow smiled crookedly.  "You and I used to like explosions, r-right?"

"Last warning, dweebster," Gilda grumbled.  She shuffled off onto the main platform with a flick of her lion's tail.  "Take a hike.  I don't need you cramping my style when I'm home of all places."

"Just one small favor and I'm out of your feathers!"  Rainbow squinted.  "...Gilda?!"

There was no response.  The griffon was gone.

Lancie stuck his head out of Rainbow's satchel.  "This was your Plan B?"

"Dang it, Lancie, just... j-just give me a moment to think," Rainbow grumbled, shuffling in place.

"Might as well bury Princess Frecklestasia's sister at this point," the statue rambled.  "Put a big feather on her tombstone above the words 'Could Have Lived a Healthy Life, But Buck That, Birdcats, Mothe—'"

"I said will you hush?!"  Rainbow Dash tapped her chin, fuming.  At last, she banged her colorful skull a few times, then blinked—eyes bright.

"...did you just think of something or was that your Desi Arneighs impression?"

"I've got an idea, alright."

"Does it involve everypony's favorite grumbling barn owl who dipped her beak in strawberry shebert?"

"Shhhh... nopony knows Gilda as well as I do."

"I'd say they're better off."

"Just watch and learn," Rainbow said, alighting the platform after her past friend.