"Before we reach Cloudsdale there's something I wanna talk with you about."
Those were Gilda's words while both her and Rainbown Dash were flying their way to Cloudsdale.
Cloudsdale is the mobile cloud city located in the skies northwest of Canterlot and Ponyville and the hometown of Rainbow Dash. It also carries facilities such as the large Cloudeseum, where the Best Young Flyer competition is normally held, and a weather factory where rainbows, snowflakes, and clouds are manufactured and distributed to Equestria.
"What would that be?" Dash replied while keeping an steady trajectory nearby the griffon. They had to slown down a bit to be able to hear eachother.
"Look Dash, I know your friends and I do not get along. If I have to stay in Ponyville don't expect me to go around socializing. You made a team and they'll be the far as I can bother to relate to someone." She said sounding extremely serious. "Besides I hope you know if there's a place I can stay, I prefer to avoid the ponies if I can."
Rainbow frowned slightly. Of course it was much to expect for Gilda to get along with the townsfolk, but she was making herself clear she wouldn't even try.
"Come on G, they're not that bad y-
"Don't call me G, you lost the right to call me that a long time ago." The griffon interrupted after letting out a light growl. Rainbow sighed tiredly.
"Fine! Look, you can stay at my house if you don't want to talk with the others. Just make sure you don't growl at anyone again. I'm still mad at you for what you did with Flutters."
"What?!"
Gilda's shocked scream surprised Dash, she turned her head around to see that the griffon halted her flight and was now hovering at the air while looking at the pegasus, her face expressing total disbelief. Rainbow turned around to reach back at her.
"What do you mean with that?!" Gilda asked sounding angry and hurt at the same time. "I told you it was an accident, I never wanted to yell at her!Besides I apologized and you forgave me!"
Rainbow stared confused at the griffon for a second while trying to figure out at what she was referring to. It then came to her an old memory from Juniors Speedsters Camp, little Fluttershy crying with a very young Gilda next to her seemingly distressed.
"That?! Not what happened at the camp. I'm talking about you scaring her away at Ponyville!"
Gilda seemed surprised by this accusation, she was trying to remember the exact events of her short time at Ponyville many months ago.
"Wait...." Gilda's voice stammering lightly. "...that yellow pony was....Fluttershy?"
Rainbow nodded. The griffon seemed somewhat horrified and then somewhat ashamed while hovering on the air, her eyes staring at anything but the pegasus in front of her.
"H-how....I mean....you never....I thought she lived at Cloudsdale...." Rainbow stared doubtfully at her old friend, a feeling of hope growing inside of her slowly.
"Gilda, you really didn't know that pony was Fluttershy?"
Gilda shook her head, her expression of regret gave Rainbow Dash all the answer she needed.
"Gez, how I messed up so bad?" The griffon was clearly conflicted with herself. "Did....did I really change that much?" She asked more to herself than anything.
"If you changed it was not your fault." Rainbow said assuredly. She wanted so bad to believe that Gilda wasn't just another griffon. "What happened after you left the camp?"
Gilda's mournful response made Rainbow wince. Perhaps it was bad thing to remember.
"I prefer not to talk about it. It isn't....something you ponies usually handle in your happy world." She said looking away from the pegasus.
"Gilda...."
Whatever it was it clearly still hurts the griffon when reminded of such. Dash didn't know what to do, she never saw Gilda hurting because of anything.
"When I went to Ponyville, more than anything I wanted to forget. It was supposed to be just you and me, like old times. Best friends....when we were happy and ignorant to the world around us..."
The sadness in her voice was becoming unbearable. Rainbow was internally pleading for her to stop, to not make the pegasus feel more guilty than she already felt.
"...then I came for you, the only friend I had...it helped me forget, the yelling, the fights, the hate....because deep down, despite never bothering to visit....never sending a letter....despite all the other friends you had....I still believed you cared."
"SHUT UP!"
Rainbow's pierced scream brought the griffon to a halt. Before she could look at the pegasus a blur of colors came crashing into her. Gilda let out a gasp of shock.
It took her few seconds to realize that Rainbow was hugging her firmly, while keeping her wings flapping to make sure the extra weight wouldn't drag both of them to the ground. The pegasus head buried into her feathery chest, the sudden wetness she felt at the area shocked the griffon more than anything. She almost forgot to flap her own wings while staring down at the crying mare on her chest.
"Dash...." Gilda said unsuredly. Rainbow never cried, at least not that she ever showed it. Both of them always saw crying as something weak and uncool. To see her old friend into tears like this broke Gilda's resolve at keeping cool. The griffon hated herself as she felt her own eyes tearing up.
This sudden torrent of overwhelming emotions was dangerous enought to break their concentration and force them into falling to the ground. With the little focus she still had Gilda led both fliers to the nearest cloud and landed with extreme carefulness.
Rainbow's muffled cries while hugging the griffon gave Gilda enough reason to grant the pegasus another chance, she knew herself she has to make better impressions if she wanted to avoid incidents such as the Pinkie party.
While somewhat happy to have Dash by her side again it still made her feel terrible to think she made Rainbow cry. It was one thing to make Flutters cry, and a totally different one to shatter Rainbow's spirit.
Unsuredly Gilda ran one of the talons across Rainbow's mane in an attempt of comfort, hopefully to make Rainbow's chokes to calm down a bit. Her own tears dripping from her beak over the pegasus head, such tears resulting from the ammount of bottled up emotions they kept regarding eachother for such a long time.
It was clear now how much the separation hurt both, as time progressed the bitterness at the event only increased the feelings of it. For both it was finally a much needed release of their pain, one that only became apparent after regarding the mistakes and disregards they had for eachother, how unfair both of them were in their judgments.
**********************************************************************
Few minutes went followed by a gentle breeze of the wind. The calmness and silence of nature around helped to calm down their emotions. Rainbow slowly brought herself out of the hug to stare directly at the griffon. Both their eyes still watery.
"I-I'm sorry Gilds." Rainbow said after a deep breath.
"I'm sorry too, Rainbow." Gilda said while unconsciously petting her mane. "I...think I own Flutters an apology too." She added nervously.
"Yeah....gez....we look so lame." Rainbow said with a chuckle. Gilda rolled her eyes but she was smiling anyways.
"Who cares? It's just us here anyway. Save your embarrassment for the crowds." Gilda replied humorously.
It was good they were getting to joke with eachother, dissipating the dreadful atmosphere of moments ago.
The griffon took a breath of relief, despite the odds she felt much lighter than she has been in months, not referring to her lost weight obviously. It felt good to be on nice terms with Dash again and she didn't want to risk their relationship again.
"Well, look at the good side, at least there are no broken hearts left to fix." Gilda joked while pushing Dash's wing gently.
Rainbow's eyes widened considerably. She laughed nervously while looking away. The griffon was surprised at this reaction.
"Dash, what's wrong?" She asked already getting worried again. Rainbow closed her eyes wondering about what to say to her griffon friend.
"I....might have been unfair with someone else..." Rainbow said timidly which was a bit out of character of her. Gilda noticed this but gave the pegasus space to cool off, none of the two could manage to be themselves after such intense moments.
The griffon pondered over what she heard. Probably there was another pony, or whatever, that was hurting because some misunderstanding with Rainbow. Gilda was a bit suspicious that whatever it was probably had their friends involved. It was unheard off of somepony not getting along with Rainbow, considering if it's just Rainbow who's involved. That much Gilda could guess.
"She lives at Cloudsdale. " Rainbow continued somewhat meekly. "I want to go there to make things right. I may have....ruined her dream or something. " The pegasus was poking the cloud sheepishly with her hoof while staring intently at her own action.
Gilda narrowed her eyes at the pegasus, she wondered how bad could have Rainbow went far with her arrogance to the point of taking others out of the way. Of course Rainbow would never hurt anypony intentionally, but she had a bad habit of making things without thinking about it for a second.
It seems it was a matter of time before she had another round of tears.
'Dash, why you have to be so difficult? I knew this whole attitude of yours would cause trouble, just as it did with me.'
"Listen, we better get to Cloudsdale. The sooner we get there the better will be. Moping around on this cloud will do nothing other than make whoever is down there to think it's raining. I tell you what, I'll help you with your problem so it can be easier to handle, you don't have to do this alone Dash."
Gilda placed her talon under Dash's head and raised it so she could make eye contact.
"That's what friends are for, right?" Gilda asked with a confident smug. Rainbow chuckled.
"Yeah, best friends!" Rainbow said back finally regaining her true self. Both performed their brohoof, or in Gilda's case just clenching her talons into a fist.
"Now that's more like it. So, what's the name of the pegasus we're meeting?" Gilda asked as both of them finally retook their flight towards Cloudsdale. Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know is a pegasus?" Rainbow asked amazed. Gilda stared oddly at Rainbow.
"Seriously? Uh, hello? Cloudsdale? Cloud city and all?" Gilda hinted at as if it was obvious.
"Oh, yeah! He he, I forgot that detail..." Rainbow replied embarrassed. "Uhhh, her name's Lightning Dust, she was a cadet few months back at the Wonderbolt Academy. She-
"Ended up kicked somehow because of you?" Gilda guessed without much of a doubt. Rainbow blinked.
"Yeah, ...how do you know?" Rainbow Dash asked suspiciously. Gilda merely laughed at her expense.
"Because I know you too well Dash, I wouldn't be surprised if she got kicked because she was somehow good as you, or got the lead on you somehow. If there's something you can't handle is being second best."
Gilda's absurdly precise description hit Dash like a magic beam. She stood quiet for a minute while absorbing what she just heard. Gilda was being honest, that much she could tell, but also it made her upset that she was so easy to read back then. Even so the Dash she was months ago was nothing like who she is now, she has changed.
Right?
"So this means this Lightning Dust must be the heck of a flier. I'm definitely curious now. Well, sucks for the Wonderbolts to waste such talent."
Rainbow wasn't sure of what to respond to this. Normally she would've went into the Wonderbolts defense at the blink of an eye, but now she wasn't sure of who to really blame for Lightning's misfortune.
*********************************************************************
The rest of the flight went quickly without any more exchanged words. After few minutes they finally managed to reach their destination.
Cloudsdale air traffic was particularly intense at this time of the day, Gilda and Dash swooped throught easily thanks to their great experience at flying. Once they managed to land at a clearing, Dash took a quick look at the adress Twilight had provided beforehoof.
"Okay, this way." Rainbow said after checking the name of the alley. Gilda followed her closely dragging many curious stares from the pegasus around. It was quite the rarity to see griffons at Cloudsdale.
Gilda and Rainbow followed the cloudy road until they reached the spot where a lonely house was standing. It was clear giving it's appearance , if compared with the others, that this house was lacking some decent care.
"Here, huh? It does look the house of someone without a job." Rainbow glared at the griffon. "Sorry, but it's still way better than any house back at Griffinstone. "
Rainbow sighed before slowly making her way to the front door. Gilda stood nearby her hoping things wouldn't get ugly in a second. The cyan mare knocked at the door few times and waited.
Few seconds went by without anything happening, but then the sound of muffled hoofsteps suddenly became audible as their approached the entrance.
With a soft click the door slowly opened revealing it's owner behind it.
A pegasus with brilliant gamboge eyes and mane, with stripes of gold, and a light turquoise coat stood at the door.
A dreadful silence fell over the three of them. Their stares petrified into one another for several seconds.
"Rainbow....Dash...." Lightning Dust said as if she just realized who was at her door. Her stare slowly went over to the griffon nearby. Gilda stood visibly unconcerned about the meeting. The griffon was busy studying Lightning's features, getting a quick look at her cutie mark. A lightning bolt with three stars around the pount of impact.
"Hi, Light-
Before Rainbow could finish Lightning smacked the door on her face. The cyan mare stood quiet while Gilda couldn't help but laugh.
"Now that's something I haven't seem yet. It's quite the change when somepony hates you, isn't it?"
Rainbow groaned annoyed, it was obvious this would happen, what was she expecting?
"Are ya gonna make fun of me or help instead?" Rainbow complained while trying to think on something else to do. Gilda shrugged.
"Sometimes you gotta be harsh." She said before placing herself in front of the door with her rear towards it.
"Gilda, what are y-
Before Rainbow could finish the griffon took impulse and slammed her legs brutally against the door. The poor thing wasn't match for Gilda's strength and ended falling away a couple of meters.
A shocked gasp came from Lightning as she stood frozen staring at the fallen door. Rainbow was beyond mad.
"ARE YOU CRAZY? WHY THE HAY DID YOU DO THAT?"
"Because you're in no condition of leading this through." The griffon said while entering the house.
Lightning's ears flattened as she saw the very dangerous griffon invading her house.
"What do you want from me?!" She asked worriedly as Gilda approached slowly. Rainbow carefully made her way inside, groaning audibly at the very undesirable development.
"Me?Nothing, really. You and Dash kinda have things to talk about." Gilda replied seriously. Lightning seemed affronted.
"Why would I want to have anything to do with a backstabber like her?!" Dust replied angrily.
Before Gilda could reply a hoof was placed at her shoulder. The griffon glanced at Rainbow at her side requesting for her turn to talk.
Lightning was giving nothing but pure venom while looking at Rainbow Dash. The cyan mare took notice of Lightning's weakened physic and the dark bags under her eyes. Her coat and feathers lost their bright, being replaced by a gloomy appearence.
"Lightning..." Rainbow Dash said after a deep breath. "....I came here to apologize."