Part 17 - Broken Wing, Broken Heart
Griffon the Heave-ho
by CrowMagnon
"Are you crazy? Are you stupid?"
"G..."
"Is this some kind of sick joke to you, Dash?!"
Gilda clenched her talons into fists and smashed them down into the ice littering the ground around her, cracking it where she struck while every pony, griffon and minotaur surrounding them simply watched, dumbstruck by her reaction.
"It's no joke, G. If I have to choose between you and them," Dash replied, pointing her hoof at her pony friends, "then I'm sticking with you."
"Rainbow Dash... what are you saying?" Rarity asked, frowning as she reached up with one hoof to tug worriedly at her braid.
Fluttershy flitted over to the other pegasus and pouted at her with wide, watery eyes. "You'd really leave us? After all the good times we've had?"
"I thought our friendship was worth more than that," Applejack said, scuffing the dirt with little regard for her hooficure.
"And what about the Elements of Harmony?" Twilight asked worriedly. "It's not like we can just replace you, Rainbow... you're too important to us. To Equestria itself!"
"What about what Gilda wants?" Pinkamena asked, tilting her head toward the fuming griffoness. "Even she doesn't like the idea."
"You're bucking right I don't like that idea!" Snapping her head from one pony to the next, Gilda harshly demanded, "What the flaming tornados is wrong with you dweebs?! Why are you being so mopey when you should be getting mad?!"
Gilda looked about ready to rip her headfeathers out as she ranted at the ponies with an increasingly wild and desperate glint in her eye. She got right up in their faces and shrieked at them, "Don't just stand around, you grass-chewing geeks! Don't you get it? I'm the bad guy here! I'm the enemy! All I do is make everyone suffer, even when I'm not trying to!" Everypony she faced reflexively shrank back, except for Twilight, who took the rigid stance of the Royal Guard instead as Gilda only grew more unraveled.
Iron Will attempted to push himself into the middle of it when Fluttershy was rocked back by Gilda shrieking in her face, only to be held back when Gertrude stretched a snow-white wing out to block his path. "Wait..." she whispered, narrowing her soft pink eyes as she focused her sight on Gilda. "Do you see that...?"
Seeing the mares back away from her seemed to only break Gilda down further. She continued to rant, but the strength was slipping from her form as angry tears welled up in her eyes. "For buck's sake, I don't even want to take Rainbow Dash away from you, and you lame-os are getting ready to break up anyway! Doesn't that make you mad? Dash is the most awesome mare I ever met, and you aren't gonna fight for her?! For buck's sake, why won't any of you fight me?! Hit me! Hit me! Banish me from your stupid little town! Make it so she doesn't ever have to even think about me again!"
This opened the floodgates, and tears began streaming down Gilda's face. Most of the ponies were now staring at her open-mouthed, too shocked by her ranting to notice the thin coat of frost that had started to form at the tips of her feathers all over her body. Gilda herself didn't pay it any mind as she wiped her face with the back of her talons and blubbered, "You're all just stupid... l-lame... weak little ponies! D-don't you get it? I crippled your friend! Why... why don't any of you want to hurt me...?"
The griffoness felt a hoof place itself gently on her shoulder. Even though it didn't touch her anywhere near her wings, she flinched and turned away. Despite that, she heard Rainbow Dash's voice say, "You're already hurting, G. Come on... turn around and look at me."
Gilda clenched her eyes shut, tears dripping down her beak onto the grass below. She stubbornly kept her head turned the other way for several seconds, but Rainbow's hoof lingered and soothingly rubbed small circles over her friend's fur. Slowly, reluctantly, Gilda turned her head to look at Dash and opened her bleary eyes.
The instant she did, Rainbow's other hoof slammed into her face hard enough to rock the griffoness back. Rubbing a talon over her beak, she let out a bird-like squawk. "Wha-?!"
"Did that feel like a punch from a crippled mare?" Rainbow asked, dropping back down to all fours. Her rose-colored eyes were focused on Gilda in a challenging glare.
Gilda didn't feel anything broken, so she shook it off and snapped, "You... No, I'm not gonna fight you, Dash! I can't! Your wing..." Her gaze slipped toward the twisted and mangled wing on Dash's back, only for the mare to take advantage of her reluctance and launch herself forward and cuff Gilda on the side of the head with just enough force to return her focus to Dash's cocky smirk.
"What about it? You can't use yours either, so it's totally fair," Rainbow taunted. She then brought her good wing up and tickled Gilda's sides with her feathers. "Actually, I've still got one I can use, so I think you're just scared you'll lose!"
Despite herself, Gilda started laughing as Dash hit a ticklish spot. Her face reddened with embarassment when she realized she was being taunted and made a fool of in front of everyone, and not even on her own terms. "St-stop that Dash," she protested while fighting the giggles. "I-I'm not... I'm not..."
The pegasus smirked as she kept up her assault. "What was that, G? You look stricken. I see your beak move, but all I hear's the clucking of a big, overgrown chicken."
This made Gilda clench her teeth, and gave her the focus needed to plant her talons against Rainbow's chest and shove her old friend away. "I'm not messing around, here! You really want to do this?! Fine!" With a ferocious roar, Gilda's leonine hind legs launched her like a coiled spring toward Rainbow Dash.
All the while, Rainbow's friends found themselves incapable of doing anything but staring in shock at what was going on. While Rainbow and Gilda started trading blows with more enthusiasm, knocking a faint, misty puff of frost from Gilda's body every time she took a hit.
Eventually, it fell upon Iron Will to say, "Okay, since nopony's asking, what the buck is going on here?"
Without turning to look away from the fight, Grigori asked, "Did Rainbow Dash ever tell you about why she rushed off to live in seclusion after she earned her cutie mark?"
"Zecora saved her life," Twilight replied, her tone and gaze distant. "Rainbow wanted to repay her kindness."
Grigori smiled faintly and removed his glasses as he replied, "I don't doubt that. But that is not, in fact, the complete story."
-----
"Hey, Dash! Wake up!"
Rainbow Dash groaned, rolling over onto her back as Gilda's voice pierced her drowsy mind. "Uuugh... what?"
It had been a lazy day at flight camp up to that point. About half of the counselors were in bed with food poisoning, thanks to some veggies from their personal stock going bad. Rainbow Dash would never name names, but she did recall Gilda stumbling around back when they were gathering the apples for her wager, and the puncture marks in the sealed bags imported from down-below had been about the same size as Gilda's talons.
As a result, the remaining counselors were spread thin, which meant a lot of young pegasi were pretty much left to do whatever they wanted. Dash had spent some time keeping tabs on the Moron Trio to see if they'd start something that would give her an excuse to intervene. Aside from a little petty heckling, though, none of them went over the line of picking on somepony who couldn't give as good as they got. Ever since Dash and Gilda had teamed up and joined forces, the three bullies found that there was a growing shortage of easy targets.
Instead of feeling proud of herself, though, Rainbow Dash had mostly just been bored out of her young skull. She'd burned off some energy earlier practicing her flying, then settled onto a nice fluffy cloud for a nap. Then, after it felt like she had just closed her eyes a moment ago, she found her griffon friend shaking her awake.
"Check it out. The weather team over there's making a wicked thunderstorm," Gilda said, pointing her talon over toward a dark mass of cloud off in the distance. It was far enough away that Dash had to squint to see clearly, but when she did, she gasped in recognition.
"That's no weather team! That's the Everfree," she exclaimed.
"The what?"
Dash looked at the griffoness, stunned by her friend's ignorance. "The Everfree Forest," she replied, carefully enunciating every syllable. Seeing an abject lack of recognition on Gilda's face, she explained, "It's the most dangerous place in Equestria! It's full of ghosts and pony-eating monsters! They say it's always as dark as night in there, even in the middle of the day! The forest even makes its own weather that nopony can control!"
Gilda blinked, her eyes widening at Dash's description. "Woah, seriously? Wow... that sounds... bucking awesome!" A wide, almost manic grin spread across her face as she flapped her wings and launched herself off of the cloud.
Quickly righting herself, Dash got to her hooves and shouted, "Hey, where're you going?"
"Isn't it obvious? I've gotta see this," Gilda replied with a laugh. She turned around and kept flying backwards toward the distant clouds while she tauntingly shouted back, "Come on, you wanna check it out too, right? Unless you really are just like the rest of the chickens around here!"
Rainbow Dash gulped nervously, her eyes darting back and forth between Gilda and the distant storm. She took a glance over her shoulder, almost hoping for an adult to be around who could stop them from flying too far away, but there were none in sight.
"Fine," Gilda called out in a mocking tone. "Guess I was wrong about how cool you were. You can chill out there with the rest of the dweebs, but don't expect me to hang out with a coward when I get back!"
Looking back, Gilda could see Dash flinch as if the words physically hit her. The young filly, obviously still nervous, nevertheless swallowed her fear and retorted, "I'm just giving you a head start! Last one there's a smelly griffon!"
-----
"We'll be right outside," Gilda's father told her as she stared blankly at the hospital door. "Gilda? Gilda, it's okay. We'll be right out here if you need anything."
Gilda didn't respond. She didn't even show any sign that she really heard him as she slowly reached out to push the door open. She didn't even blink at the brightness of the sun shining directly in through the window as she slowly marched toward the other end of the room. As she moved through the harsh glare, there wasn't any movement on her face whatsoever until her eyes locked on to the one source of color in the otherwise sterile white room.
"G? Hey, what took you so long?" Rainbow Dash asked with a tired smirk.
She had always been small compared to Gilda, but as she just stared at her pegasus friend, Gilda thought that Dash looked smaller and more delicate than she ever had before. The hospital bed looked large enough to simply swallow her up. Bandages covered up various parts of Dash's body, particuarly wrapping around her barrel and holding one of her wings pinned against her side.
"So... yeah..." Dash murmured while Gilda just stared at her. "You're... kinda creeping me out, G. Come on, it's not like you're the one who crashed." When Gilda still failed to say anything, Dash's eyes started to well up, her voice slowly becoming more frail. Frail and scared. "G, please... I need you... Come on, just... just talk to me."
Gilda's beak opened slightly, but all that came out was a whispered, "Dash..."
Rainbow Dash grinned weakly as tears started dripping down her cheeks. She found herself stammering through her words as she spoke, her throat catching and hiccuping. "Heh... there you are. Thought you might've turned into a zombie or somethin'. See? I'm okay. You're okay... I'm okay... it was a st-stupid... stupid mistake, but... but we're both... okay... And those doctors are full of horseapples, alright?"
Rainbow Dash reached a hoof around to her bandaged wing and winced. "They... they don't know what they're talking about. I'm gonna get better... I'm... I'm gonna be out of here and... and fl-flying again... before you..." She trailed off, trying to say the words. Trying to let the lie out in the vain hope that it might come true. Instead, it died in her throat and lodged there, choking her. Her body practically convulsed as any attempt to speak on her part was drowned out by loud, wracking sobs, and she threw herself forward to wrap her hooves around her dearest friend.
Even then, Gilda barely moved. When she did, it was to slowly, mechanically raise her talon. She very gingerly brought her talon closer, wanting to embrace Dash, but fearful of breaking what was left of her friend. She almost... almost managed to hold her friend, pull her close, and promise the filly that no matter what, she would always be there for her.
But then she looked down. She saw how, even under the bandages, Rainbow Dash's wing was unnaturally bent and twisted. And beyond that was something that had never been there before.
Rainbow Dash had gotten her cutie mark. Though not a pony herself, Gilda had sat through Dash ranting about how amazing her mark was going to be when it finally came. That it was a sign of a pony's destiny and defined a pony's entire life, so an awesome mare like she was going to be would need an equally awesome cutie mark.
What Gilda saw on Dash's flank was the symbol that would be with the pegasus for the rest of her life; a broken rainbow, barely held together with bandages.
When she saw that, Gilda lowered her talons and whispered two words:
"Kill me..."
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Good chapter.
Oh, crud.
Yikes.
....*puts down popcorn* I'm not hungry anymore. Can, can we get Dr. Wolf in here? Cuase I really think Gilda needs some serious therapy.
5221521
5221944
Yep, this development is what the RD/Gilda side of the story has been building up to this whole time. I certainly hope your reactions are indicative of surprise, and not of a dip in the quality of the story itself.
5224427
Well, she doesn't have a license, but that's what Rainbow is trying to give her right now. PERCUSSIVE THERAPY.
5224636 A little bit of both if I'm going to be completely honest. The second comment was surprise, but the first, ehh. A Rainbow Dash, even an AU non-Loyalty bearing Dash, who would choose an abusive friend over her fellow Element Bearers? That's just a little hard to buy, even with the history between the two we're being shown.
5224686
Totally understandable. That's pretty much the reason why I wanted to post these two chapters back-to-back, because if I just left that one where it was for a week or two, I wouldn't be at all surprised if anyone felt like ragequitting the story before finding out what's actually going on in Dash's head.
5224792 Well, you have faked us out in the past, such as with Rarity and the windigo magic in Snowblind, so even with a gap in time I probably wouldn't be going anywhere.
5225311 An icon-rebus, huh? Okay, I think I've got it...
Open-faced ham sandwich... with avacados... and a side of sweet potato fries!
5225451
Nothing to really say to the latest chapters, so I'm just letting the faces say it for me. Confusion, shock, sadness. Especially at that very last line.
5224636
I get that Gilda is actually "Guilt-a" because she knows that her stupidity "ruined" RD's life. Now comes beating in the fact that somepony has moved on from the past she's stuck in.
Oh... Oh, Gilda...
Oh... Oh, Gilda..
Maybe her mark represents Survival, no matter by how little?
And, wow, you have quite the talent for sympathetic antagonists!
Wow... Even though I figured Gilda had a talon in weensy happened to Dash, this is... Wow. The amount of guilt and self-hatred she's bottling up would probably be enough to feed a whole solar system of densely pecked Windigos.
Cya
Raziel-chan