EoH Evolution: Season 5

by Bahamut0

Episode 8: Eternal Loyalty

Rainbow Dash couldn't contain her excitement when the Friendship Map had summoned her and Pinkie Pie for a mission. According to the map, they were being summoned to Griffonstone. And Rainbow Dash's excitement took a noticeable nosedive upon hearing the location of their friendship mission. Pinkie, on the other hand, was her usual excited self and couldn't wait to go to a new place.

"Oh! I can also test out my wings!" Pinkie Pie chirped as she fluttered her wings excitedly as the exited Twilight's castle! "Sure, I could teleport there now, but it's not nearly as fun as going 'woosh' through the air!"

"Yeah. Can't wait to feel the wind in my face." Rainbow Dash said glumly before letting out a sigh and spreading her wings. "Griffonstone, here we come."

"Hold up Dashie." Pinkie Pie said with a stern look on her face. "Tell me what's wrong."

"What?!" Rainbow Dash was shocked at Pinkie Pie's request! "Pinkie. . . *sigh* I guess my tone of voice kinda gave it a way, huh?"

"Yup. Leave it to the goddess of laughter to know when someone's down. ESPECIALLY one of her best friends!" Pinkie Pie nodded. "So what's got you gloomy, Dashie? We're headed to Griffonstone on a friendship mission! You get to show how cool you are, I get to try a new pastry recipe, and we just might make a few new griffon friends!"

"Pinkie, that's exactly the reason I'm not all that hyped to be going to Griffonstone." Rainbow Dash sighed. "Because there's a good chance we could run into Gilda once we're there."

"That meanie-pants that popped my hot air balloon?" Pinkie Pie asked. "It's not like she tried to kill me, Dashie."

"She threatened to physically harm you and was a complete jerk to you, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash argued. "Even if she was one of my first friends, that doesn't excuse her acting the way she did. Especially since she flipped out at you when you were throwing a party to make her feel more welcome, and she walked into all of those pranks."

"Well, don't worry Dashie!" Pinkie Pie chirped as she put an arm around Rainbow Dash. "It's not like she's going to be the first griffon we meet! Plus, how serious could Griffonstone's problem be?" The pair of friends soon found out the second they landed at Griffonstone. All the buildings were in a state of disrepair, and everyone just looked miserable. "Woooow. I was completely wrong! This place is gonna be a doozy to fix up!"

"No kidding." Rainbow Dash murmured as she surveyed the trashed town. "Just what the heck happened here anyway? I thought that griffons were supposed to be full of pride. Where's the king to snap these people out of this?"

"We don't have a king anymore." A familiar voice called out. The source of the voice was revealed as Gilda glided down from a derelict building which was presumably her house. "Not ever since the Idol of Boreas got stolen." She then froze in her tracks when she noticed Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. "Oh. . . hi you two."

"Huh." Pinkie Pie scratched her head in confusion. "I kinda thought you'd be a bit grumpier to see us."

"Well, the threat of having my head cut off kinda made me think about my behavior." Gilda said with a sigh. "Still, I guess my home now looks as bad as I feel?"

"Doesn't anyone care about anything other than themselves?" Rainbow Dash asked as she saw a pair of griffons squabbling over what was literal junk. "Or enough to realize they're fighting over actually worthless trash?"

"Nope." Gilda said with a shrug. "Not ever since we lost the idol. But who cares about some stupid idol anyway?"

"Don't you dare badmouth the Idol of Boreas!" An old griffon screeched as he stumbled his way out of the wrecked house!

"Great. You woke up Uncle Gruff from his nap." Gilda groaned. "And knowing him, he'll probably give us a history lesson on the Idol of Boreas."

And true to Gilda's word, Gruff went into great detail about when the Idol of Boreas was discovered, it filled the griffons with an immense sense of pride. All for the price of one coin. According to the history lesson, some monster broke into the royal palace and stole the idol. And because of the loss of the Idol of Boreas, all the griffons basically just gave up on life and let Griffonstone fall apart.

"Well, that's a lousy ending." Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. "I'll try scoping out the Endless Abyss where the monster was last seen. Pinkie, do you think you could try and get along with Gilda better than last time?"

"Sure thing Dashie!" Pinkie Pie chirped as she gave a mock salute before getting up in Gilda's face. "So. I heard that scones from around here are pretty famous."

"Y-yeah." Gilda said nervously. "So what're you gonna-"

"TO THE KITCHEN!" Pinkie hollered at the top of her lungs before grabbing Gilda by her lion tail and zipping off to the nearest kitchen!

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had flown out to the Endless Abyss. True to the location's name, all that greeted her below was a pitch black abyss between the nearby mountains and the edge of the city that seemingly went on without any noticeable bottom. Rainbow Dash soon had to land due to the unpredictable winds that blew through this region, and used the nearby ledge as a vantage point to scope things out. And then, she saw it. The Idol of Boreas in the clutches of what seemed to be the remains of the monster that had stolen it. All that remained of the monster were its bones, and its skull seemed to be still gazing at the idol.

"Oh man! I've gotta tell Gilda about this! This could be what we need to fix Griffonstone's problems!" And with that, Rainbow Dash bolted back to the city! Much to her delight, Pinkie and Gilda were getting along pretty well.

"Huh. These are pretty good." Gilda said as she took a bite out of a scone. "Thanks for helping me dig up that old recipe. I never really baked anything before, so I would've been pretty clueless in the kitchen. Oh, and. . . I'm really sorry about being a jerk a while back."

"Eh. It's no problem." Pinkie Pie said with a shrug. "I think I can kind of understand why you were trying to keep Dashie to yourself while you were in town. She was kind of your first friend. And it's pretty easy to get carried away when you see someone like that after a long time. Heck, I got a bit gloomy when I couldn't be with all of my friends at once and made a whole slew of mirror pool clones that nearly messed up Unityville!"

"Well, if that was supposed to make me feel better, it kinda worked."

"Hey! You two!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she burst through the door! "I found the idol! It's on an outcropping on the other side of the Endless Abyss! We're gonna need some rope and helmets!" It was then only mere minutes before the three of them collected the necessary equipment and set out to where Rainbow Dash had sighted the idol.

Using the ropes as tethers to the edge of Griffonstone, Gilda and Rainbow Dash rappelled down to the level of the outcropping, and swung themselves over to it. The pair grinning as they saw the Idol of Boreas sitting near the monster's remains.

"Maybe Grandpa'll be a lot less grumpy once we get this back." Gilda thought out loud as she reached out to grab the idol. But the instant she removed it from the surrounding bones, a the monster's skeleton sprang to life! A single yellow slit of light forming in the eye socket of its skull! "WHAT THE HECK?!"

"Hang on girls!" Pinkie Pie called out as she powered up her magic! Unleashing a bright pink blast in their direction! Unfortunately, it only hit the mountainside. "Sorry! I need to work on my aiming!"

"Hang back Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash said as she summoned her boomerang! "I can take this bonehead!" Rainbow Dash hurled her boomerang at the skeleton, and managed to break off one of its arms! Unfortunately, the dismembered arm just reattached itself an instant later! "Great! We've got to take out whatever's animating this thing!"

"Wait! The eye!" Gilda said as her vision locked onto the undead skeleton's head! "The skeleton didn't start moving until that weird eye thing started glowing! If we take that out, maybe it'll go back to being a pile of bones!" Gilda spread her wings, and launched herself at the creature's skull! Her nails sharpening into talons as she tried clawing at the beast's eye! "Get the idol back to Griffonstone!"

"No!" Rainbow Dash protested as she hurled her boomerang at the monster to distract it! "Not without you!"

"Dash, just leave me!" Gilda snapped! "I don't know what reason you've got to stay and help me fight this thing, but it doesn't matter! I was a horrible friend when I last saw you! Your loyalty is something that's irreplaceable, and it's something that's not easily won back! Maybe doing this can't completely make up for how I've acted, but at least-"

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow Dash cried out as she flew around the skeleton monster to disorient it! "You're my friend Gilda! That's all the reason I need to stay here! And I'm not gonna let something like this happen! Not again!" Rainbow Dash's mind flashed back to when Steel Edge had held off the Chaos Kin during Discord's return. When she thought that he'd died, she was devastated. All because she had been tricked by the lord of chaos into deserting her friends. "I almost lost someone I care about because I decided to abandon them! I'm not making that same mistake again! Not here, not now!"

With her declaration, Rainbow Dash stabbed the "eye" of the skeleton with her boomerang! The beast howling in pain and flailing wildly in an effort to pry off the source of its agony! Rainbow Dash saw that Gilda had managed to get back to the other side with the idol safely in her hands, and removed her boomerang from the monster's eye! Unfortunately, the monster's eye was slowly regenerating. And it too saw the idol in Gilda's hands! Rainbow Dash saw what the monster was trying to do, and ultimately decided there was only one way to make sure it didn't get the Idol of Boreas. Rainbow Dash flew right into the monster, and hit it with as much strength as she could as the two fell into the abyss!

Both Pinkie Pie and Gilda reached out their hands in vain as they lost sight of them as they fell. Pinkie Pie fell to her knees while Gilda looked at the Idol of Boreas. Her hands trembling as she held it over the edge.

"If my entire home went to the pits because of you, if getting you back meant losing one of my friends," Gilda growled as her grip on the idol tightened! "THEN YOU WEREN'T WORTH ANY OF THIS!" And she tossed the idol into the Endless Abyss. "Good riddance." Gilda's gaze saddened as she peered down into the seemingly infinite abyss. But then, she caught sight of something odd. A small speck of light that seemed to be getting closer, and closer. Gilda stumbled back as a rainbow-colored blur shot right past her! The blur then stopped as soon as the sunlight hit it, and spread out its massive wings! Gilda was awestruck as she saw Rainbow Dash descend towards her and Pinkie.

"You said it was pretty hard to win back my loyalty, G." Rainbow Dash said with a cocky grin. "Well, now you've got it for life. Especially since I don't need to worry about dying now."

"Dash. . . you jerk!" Gilda said as she playfully punched Rainbow Dash's arm. "Don't pull something like that!" All the while, she was crying tears of joy. Happy that her now goddess-level friend.

"What happened with the idol?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's just a piece of metal." Gilda answered as she wiped her tears. "It's not that great if we needed it to have pride in ourselves. Me? I'm proud to have a good friend like you."

"Aww~!" Pinkie Pie cooed! "GROUP HUG!" And hug they did. With no protests from Gilda. Yup. She was that happy.

Author's Note:

As you might've guessed, the idea of the skeleton coming to life is based off of the "stall" monsters from Legend of Zelda.

Comments

[ArcticAce01]

Wonderful chapter as always I so enjoy it

[Sudrian Engineer]

AVATAR DASH

[MasterPhoenix93]

AVATAR FORM...GAINED

Great chapter