//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Feathers 
// by Triscy 
//------------------------------//

	A feather. White, pure, and alone, it cradled itself in an abandoned nest, perched deep in the Everfree forest. No matter how much the wind reached for it, the feather remained still in the empty home. It was as if it taunted the wind, laughing at its lame attempts to remove it.
The darkened skies began to glimmer by Celestia's rising sun as the hours passed, that one feather standing its ground, only to be jostled out of place by the sudden shake of the nest. Down the feather fell, parachuting itself as much as possible as if begging not to hit the ground right before the wind, which it had mocked so much before, picked it right back up. It seemed as if it were stuck in an eternal limbo, flying up and falling down, when the wind attempted its final assault with a grand gust. Much to the disdain of the moving air, the feather found not the gift of flight but, rather, the quick grasp of sharpened talons.
The white barbs seemed to bow repeatedly in the wind, as if in thanks, as the talons held it in place. Its time spent in gratitude was cut short, though, as the claw retracted itself back into the nest, gliding across the air with swift and precise motions into a pool of black ink. The ink dripped itself off of the white quill as the claws brought it over a small piece of parchment.
"Why?"
The short question froze the claws, and as if in pity for its master, the feather bent. A drop of what felt like rain landed upon the quill, flowing down to its tip and, after a moment of hanging in the frozen air, fell upon the undried ink. The one question that the claw had asked now stained the parchment, incomprehensible.
A second claw grasped the parchment, crumpling it up and, with a single motion, wiped the rest of the ink dry off the white quill, now with a dark, stained tip. The feather's head raised itself, as if looking up into the face of its master, before it found its point driven hard into the nest, sticking it in place. The wind, stubborn as always, began its onslaught again at the poor white soul, but cursed as the master curled around it.
The nest was spacious, with a simple design built out of sturdy materials. The home's owner, curled in a ball, only occupied a sixth of the open space. The rest of the space found itself housing parchment. Letters covered in many colors of ink, many text sizes, swapping back and forth between a very rough cursive and a careful print. The wind, as it had done to the feather, batted against the letters, hoping to pry them from the nest's grasp, but the edges of the nest were too high for the wind to pry them out, and many of the papers were stuck to the nest by many sticks pierced through them.



"Another day." Choked the voice of the teared up homeowner, squeezing herself into a tighter ball. Water fell between the branches in the nest, dropping down the long way to the ground. Not a cloud hung in the sky, leaving the only source to be the drops of the clawed one's sorrow.
"Why'd I have to be so stupid?" she muttered, surrounding the quill that pitied her with her claw once again. With a quick grip, the bladed talons diced the feather, leaving it a small pile of white fluff in the nest. Grasping the remains of her feather friend, she relented to the breeze as she tossed the scraps to the wind. Happy that it now finally claimed its prey, the dead white soul flew away. As if content with its prize, the breeze died down, nearly disappearing, letting the depressed sobs of the quill murderer fill the air.
Gilda. Her name was Gilda, a griffon now living alone out in the forest way beyond Ponyville, a town settled by ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. Ponyville had outcast her, and looking back she couldn't blame them. She had possibly been the biggest jerk to fly through town, originally planning only to visit one particular pegasus.
She had once been a Junior Speedster, spending her days flying in Cloudsdale. The whole time, she always had one good friend; a pegasus named Rainbow Dash. The same pegasus who she visited in ponyville, and the same one who she had called a flip-flop, claiming her to go from cool to dweeb. Her temper had been her strongest point back then, preventing her from accepting Rainbow Dash's new friends. Over a year after her last visit to ponyville, alone in her nest, she had time to think about what she had done. What had started as a feeling of betrayal, anger, and disgust, turned to loneliness, sorrow, and regret.
So few people lived in the Everfree Forest, and the only reason Gilda had moved here was due to an unbearable feeling she had when she stayed in Cloudsdale. It felt... wrong there. She couldn't describe it, no matter how hard she tried. It just felt unnatural.
From various gathered berries around the forest, Gilda learned how to make a pasty ink to start writing letters. First the letters were mean, nasty, and filled with her bottled up rage, but slowly turned into pleading, cries for help, sorrow, and regret. Not a single one left her nest, though, and every time she tried to gather the courage, her will collapsed, leaving her stranded another night alone in the dark woods.
Sobs flew from her mouth, cracked and pained, and descended like bricks to the ground below. The wildlife had learned to accept this as natural, and after various failed attempts to comfort the griffon, left her alone.
But this morning, the wildlife wasn't her only audience.
"I... is someone crying?"
Gilda jumped at the voice, the sound unnatural after living so long in isolation. Her jump shook the nest, causing a few loose sticks to fall off. Gilda ignored them, instead leaning her head briefly over the edge before retracting it near instantly.
A yellow pony stood far below the nest, a saddlebag on her back and her pink mane pushed out of the way to let her look straight up. Gilda curled up again, realizing who it was. Fluttershy. It was the same pony she had made cry back when she visited Ponyville, the shy, nature-friendly pegasi she bumped into by Sugarcube Corner. Gilda didn't like this situation; even if she wasn't a great flyer, Fluttershy could still make it up to her nest with no problem.
"Are you okay?" The voice was closer, much closer. Gilda turned, looking behind her, and saw Fluttershy slowly making her way up onto the branch leading to her nest. The pegasus seemed to be moving in slow motion, but Gilda had never expected her to climb the tree so quickly.
"G..Gilda?" Fluttershy said, fear filling her voice.
Gilda backed away, pondering whether to face her or retreat. She might screw up even worse if she talked to the pegasus, but if she left then she couldn't really come back. She wouldn't be able to stay in the forest, as more likely than not Fluttershy would tell Rainbow Dash where she lived and she would come out to find her. Gilda didn't want to move again; it had taken so long to build this nest already, but...
Gilda ducked and covered her head, confused with questions of what to do blasting off the sides of her skull.The pegasus pony had somehow found her out of nowhere, and she couldn't decide how to react. In the end, her response came more on instinct.
"Wh... what do you want, dweeb?" said the griffon, tears choking her voice. The tone of what she said held no menace, but rather a dull, dry pleading.
Fluttershy took a step back. The sorrowful tone was a surprise, but the familiarity of the favored insult kept her cautious.
"I..." started the pegasus, turning her head a little bit. Sucking in air and letting out a sigh, she brought together as much courage as she could. "I... I'd like to k...know what's wrong..."
Gilda's talons spread out, now revealing her watered eyes staring out at the pink-maned pegasus. She had expected no words in response; she was planning on the sound of flapping wings followed by silence and the return of the forest's lonely grasp, but the pegasus stood her ground. She was trying to comprehend this; only a year ago the shy pony fled at her towering form, but now it seemed like they had swapped positions.
"Why do you care...?" Gilda asked, turning away. Her voice, still cracked, started to calm down.
Fluttershy looked at Gilda with sorrow. She stood in silence for what seemed like hours, looking at the brokenhearted griffon. The silence grew eerie, but was cut short with a whisper. "S... sorry. I'll leave you alone."
Fluttershy turned, her wings unfolding as she prepared to descend, when she felt the cold feeling of desparate claws gripping her hoof. They didn't hold her hard, they didn't cut her flesh, they just wrapped about her like a child desparate for attention. Fluttershy was stunned, but didn't remove her hoof.
"Don't go..." whimpered the griffon's voice, "I'm sorry..."
With a small tug, the yellow leg was freed from the talons, and a tear slid down Gilda's cheek. That was it. She was alone again. Once again the forest would envelop her; she'd be insignificant. Only the sounds of fleeing wildlife, birds chirping far, far away, her own footsteps, the flapping of only her wings. She was...
Being hugged?
Gilda opened her eyes, blinking twice to try and get the tears out, and looked up to see pink hair in front of her. She felt warm hooves wrapped around her, and for some odd reason she felt... calm.
"I forgive you."
Those three words pierced her like the strangest spear. She didn't bleed, she didn't feel any pain, it just... stuck her in place. Like those sticks she had used on her letters, she felt pinned down, and she didn't understand why she... liked the feeling.
"It's not fun to be alone."
Gilda couldn't see anymore. The tears were too thick; her cheeks were soaked with her streaming emotions. Why? Why had she been forgiven? This didn't make sense; nothing did. Panic sunk into her feathers as she felt the hooves remove themselves. She shrunk herself, coiled herself, and tears streamed faster than before.
"The sunrise is pretty, but the trees make it so hard to see." came the pony's voice. Gilda raised her head ever so slightly, rubbing her eyes with her claws, and opened them fully for the first time that morning.
"I never watched the sunrise before..." Gilda said, looking up at the glowing colors surrounding the trees.
"You can see it so much better back at my cottage." Fluttershy stated, standing up and walking out of the nest and onto the branch. "You could come watch it with me, if you want."
Gilda replied in silence, her comprehension thrown off by everything that surrounded her. She couldn't discern the birds waking up from the squirrels lower in the tree. She just couldn't understand anything.
"Why?"
Fluttershy turned, looking at Gilda, sitting with her head hanging down and her talons clenched on the nest below her.
"Why what?" Fluttershy asked in return.
"Why can you just forgive me like that? Like nothing happened?" Gilda's sobs could be easily heard through her words.
Fluttershy sat on the branch, a small smile on her lips. "I always apologize to everyone else. I don't want to hurt anybody, and if they forgive me like they do, then it isn't right for me to deny somepony who really needs my own forgiveness."
The concept seemed so foreign yet... so familiar to her. Her mind attempted to wander into another questioning section, but her attention immediately shifted back to reality as she saw Fluttershy jump down, using her wings to parachute her descent to the ground.
"Wait!" Gilda said, stretching her wings and, near instinctively, soaring down to the ground to land beside Fluttershy. Gilda stood at the bottom of the tree and only started walking after Fluttershy had moved a good five meters ahead. For the first time since she came to live here, the creatures of the forest openly greeted Gilda.
She just hoped that was a sign that she wouldn't be lonely ever again.