The Trouble With Time Travel

by Mike the Red

5. Getting Even With Gilda

Several more days had passed in Ponyville and Amethyst's friendships were starting to blossom quite well. Only a few of the townsponies would still whisper about the dark purple unicorn behind her back. Twilight accompanied her housemate on the way to the boutique, as Amethyst was going to be helping Rarity this week. The librarian chose to read a book in the park about halfway there. The purple mare continued on her way to the boutique as Pinkie Pie started explaining something to the lavender librarian, who was trying to ignore her as she continued to read her book. The pink party pony had fallen on her back in her attempt to impress the librarian with her story and then spotted a cyan pegasus flying overhead. Pinkie decided to give chase, leaving Twilight to read on in peace.

"Rainbow Dash!" the pink pony shouted at the pegasus.

"Not now, Pinkie! I'm in the middle of something!" Rainbow called to her friend, watching the pink pony chase her but not where she was headed. She ended up flying into a cliff and slid down.

"I was going to tell you to watch out for that mountain," Pinkie said as she leaned forward.

The pegasus flew off and landed on a cloud in an attempt to get in a quick nap as the pink party pony bounded her way through town, humming a happy tune as she bounced along. Rainbow stuffed a couple of hoof-fulls of cloud in her ears to try to drown out Pinkie's humming, but her attempt was a futile one as the pink pony inquired as to the whereabouts of the pegasus. Twilight directed her attention upward to a cloud where Rainbow had attempted to hide from Pinkie.

Upon hearing her name called, the pegasus flew off swiftly, attempting to elude the baker. She came to a stop behind the barn at Sweet Apple Acres and heaved a sigh of relief, only to be shocked by the sudden appearance of the pink pony. Rainbow then flew off again, stopping to catch her breath in the upper branches of Twilight's tree. Thinking that she had given the pink pony the slip, she was surprised when said pony called her name from right under her, as she had alighted upon the pink pony's head. The pegasus flew away again, eventually coming to a stop by her favorite lake, though the baker rose from the water in snorkeling gear and asked a favor of her. The pegasus finally relented and helped move a cloud in front of the town hall, though Pinkie had a tough time figuring out the exact location for the cloud, annoying Rainbow Dash, who shouted the baker's name in exasperation.

Spike was inside, gathering scrolls to be sent to the Princess. As he exited, Pinkie gave a signal to Rainbow, who bucked the cloud into releasing a lightning bolt, the resulting clap of thunder startling the dragon into fits of hiccups as he dropped all the scrolls he was carrying. The resulting hiccups caused Pinkie and Rainbow to giggle and inform Spike of their presence. He laughed it off, but his attempts to gather the scrolls met with disaster as each time he grabbed one, he hiccuped and belched dragon flame, which reduced each scroll to ashes and sent them to the Solar Princess, who was shocked to be the recipient of an avalanche of scrolls. Pinkie and Rainbow laughed heartily at the sight.

"Have you ever seen anything so hilarious?" asked Pinkie as she rolled on the ground laughing.

"I can think of one thing ..." Rainbow said, smiling mishcievously as she kicked the cloud into releasing another lightning bolt, the thunderclap startling the pink party pony into a fit of hiccups herself. "I never figured you for a prankster, Pinkie."

"I love to pull pranks, it's lots of fun, and I just love to have fun!" the pink pony said through repeated hiccups.

"You're not as annoying as I thought, Pinkie. You wanna hang out?"

The baker was trying to say, "I'd love to," but her hiccups had her flying about until she landed in front of the pegasus who extended a foreleg to stop her friend's momentum. Pinkie got a hoof in her mouth for her effort.

"A simple nod will do," Rainbow stated flatly, whereupon the pink pony nodded eagerly. The two of them bought some flowers and headed to Rarity's boutique.

Inside the boutique, Amethyst was modeling some designs for the fashionista and discussed the matter of a griffon who was coming to visit.

"Rarity, what's a griffon doing visiting Ponyville?" the purple mare asked in great surprise. She had met a few griffons in the past, but their visits were few and very far between. "The only one I know too much about is Rainbow's friend, Gilda."

"She told me she was expecting a visit," the fashionista mused. "I had no idea it would be today." Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it, darling," she stated as she trotted to the door and opened it. "That's odd -- I thought there was somepony there," she mused.

"Oh, great, it's 'Ding Dong Ditch' again," the purple mare groaned.

"What do you mean by that, Amethyst? I've never heard of that before," Rarity mused.

"It's when somepony rings your doorbell and leaves before you get a chance to see who did it."

"Wait, there's some flowers here," the alabaster mare stated. She leaned forward to smell them, then sneezed uncontrollably a few times. She looked off in the distance a short way and saw a pink pony giggle like mad, then accidentally spill some sneezing powder on her nose and sneezed so hard she flew back several yards.

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity shouted in anger.

"Um, Rares, there's something on your nose," the purple mare stated softly. She made a brushing motion with her right fore-hoof across the bridge of her muzzle to illustrate to the fashionista where it would be. Mortified, the alabaster mare wiped her muzzle with her left fore-hoof, but not before sneezing once again.

"Ammy, darling, would you be kind enough to help me get a little revenge on her some time in the future?" Rarity asked as a mischievous grin crept across her face. The purple mare returned the grin and agreed to help her as she continued to assist the fashionista with some more tasks.

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Twilight had returned to the library and was conducting an experiment and wrote some notes on a sheet of parchment. After writing a few notes down, she returned her attention to the experiment, the ink she had used disappearing from the parchment as soon as her head was turned. She turned around to see a blank sheet of parchment greeting her, causing her to wonder what had happened to the notes she had just written down. The distraction caused her experiment to explode behind her, but her attention was grabbed by a pair of ponies who laughed uproariously at her misfortune, her gaze landing upon a jar of disappearing ink the pegasus had held up for display.

The two pranksters then painted a substantial number of apples on some of the trees around the orchard with various colors, angering Applejack, who resorted to throwing the painted apples at them. One apple landed in a water barrel, the paint washing off in the water, causing the farmer to chuckle softly at the prank.

Fluttershy was standing by a lake, her gentle demeanor attracting a few animals to approach her, including a rubber turtle, connected by a very long string to a pump Pinkie was holding in her mouth. The cyan pegasus was looking through a telescope to see what was going on. Pinkie asked who they were going to pull a prank on and when Rainbow informed her that it was Fluttershy, the pink party pony emphatically told the pegasus that they couldn't possibly pull a prank on the yellow pegasus as even the most harmless of pranks would hurt her feelings. When Rainbow had pulled away from the telescope, she asked who the next victim was.

"I can think of someone -- the toughest around!" the pink party pony exclaimed, trotting over to the water to gaze her her reflection. Rainbow trotted over to look at her reflection and saw an ink ring around her right eye.

"Good one, Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow chuckled, holding out her forehoof to hoofbump the baker, but pulling it back before Pinkie could succeed in the hoofbump a couple of times.

"That just leaves Ammy, that new pony -- what do you think we should do to pull a prank on her?" the pegasus asked.

"She told me she loves to eat -- how about we lace some food with lots of hot sauce?" the baker asked.

"Ooh, I love that idea!" Rainbow chuckled.

The two of them went to Sugarcube Corner and got a few cupcakes, lacing them with hot sauce, then proceeded to the library. Pinkie knocked on the door and Spike answered it.

"What are you two pranksters up to now?" Spike asked, almost indignantly.

"I have a gift for your purple housemate, Ammy!" the pink party pony exclaimed excitedly.

"Hey, Pinkie, what's up?" the purple mare asked, smiling.

"I gotcha some cupcakes, want one?"

"Sure, I love cupcakes!" Amethyst smiled, taking one with her telekinesis. She took a big healthy bite, then her face turned bright red. She spat out the cupcake, flames coming out of her mouth in a comedic fashion. "Water! Somepony get me some water! NOW!" she screeched as she ran for the kitchen.

"Ooh, ya got her good, Pinkie!" Rainbow laughed.

"Pinkie! Next time you give me a hot sauce cupcake, you're gonna get it!" the purple mare shouted angrily from the kitchen. The pink party pony giggled and left, but not before gobbling up the other cupcakes on the tray she brought with her. The two pranksters bid each other a short good-bye and made their way back to their respective homes for the evening.

"Ammy, what are you gonna do about that?" Twilight asked her.

"I'll think of something," the purple mare mused. "I can't make it too harmful, but I'll have to make sure they remember not to do something like that again." She went to bed for the night and slept in the guest room. Twilight had to conduct her earlier experiment again, this time making sure she did not use the disappearing ink, then returned to her room for the night a couple of hours later.

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Pinkie Pie had woken early today, eagerly looking forward to doing some more pranks with Rainbow Dash. She was bounding along her way to the pegasus' house, wearing a funny disguise. Presently, she arrived at the cloud mansion Rainbow called her home.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, rise and shine! It's a brand new day and we got lots of pranking to do --" Pinkie began but cut herself off mid-sentence when a griffon peered down at her from the foundation of the pegasus' house.

"Morning, Pinks! Gilda, this is my galpal, Pinkie Pie. Pinkie, this is my griffon friend, Gilda," the pegasus grinned.

"Hey, what's up," Gilda said in mild bemusement.

"Uh, what's a griffon?" the baker asked.

"She's half eagle, half lion, and ALL awesome!" the pegasus exclaimed. The griffon and the pegasus exchanged a friendly hoof and talon bump. "Gilda's my best friend from junior speedster flight camp!" She turned her attention to the griffon. "Remember the chant?"

"Sh-huh, they made us recite it every morning," Gilda stated with contempt, practically groaning as she spoke. "I'll never get that lame thing out of my head."

"Sooooo," Rainbow suggested, sidling against the griffon, "you wouldn't mind reciting it?"

Gilda groaned audibly and sighed. "Only for you, Dash."

The two of them recited the junior speedster chant, the pegasus with great enthusiasm, the griffon in utter disgust and contempt. Upon finishing, Pinkie giggled and said that it gave her a great idea for a prank. The pink party pony wanted to join Rainbow and Gilda, but the griffon stated that the pegasus had promised her a flying session. Rainbow apologized to Pinkie and offered to catch up with her later. The pink party pony agreed, but seemed to deflate as the pegasus and the griffon flew off into the clouds, dashing through the sky, barely above some houses in Ponyville, and racing each other, and having a good time while doing so. The two rested on a cloud, congratulating each other, reminiscing about old times.

"So what next?" asked Rainbow.

Before the griffon could answer, a pink pony's head popped up through the cloud they were resting on. "Hi, guys!" she said, before she disappeared below the cloud. Apparently, she had placed a trampoline under the cloud and was bouncing high enough to talk to the the two.

"It's later," she said as she bounced up again. "And I caught up," she added on her next bounce. She continued to bounce and smiled at the pegasus.

"Pinkie Pie, you are so random!" Rainbow chuckled. The griffon was considerably less than amused, and challenged the pegasus to race to the next cloud up, considerably higher than the pink party pony could bounce on a trampoline. The two dashed as fast as they could to the cloud the griffon had pointed to, each declaring themselves the winner. As they argued about who had won, a certain pink earth pony was floating up to meet them, having tied a large number of helium filled balloons to assist her in her attempt to meet up with her friend.

Pinkie stated that she believed Rainbow had beaten Gilda by a couple of feathers, which angered the griffon. Rainbow was then challenged to race to another cloud, but Gilda stayed behind to poke a few balloons to cause the pink pony to slowly descend. When Gilda reached the cloud a few seconds after Rainbow had, Pinkie returned to meet them, this time using her strength to pedal a gyrocopter.

"Whew, you guys almost got away from me that time," she giggled.

Gilda was incensed and distracted Rainbow long enough to tell Pinkie to get lost, and for good measure sent her gyrocopter spinning out of control. Rainbow returned shortly after that, but expressed surprise at Pinkie's absence.

"Oh, she had to leave -- said something about being as busy as a bee," the griffon mused.

Amethyst happened to meet up with Pinkie at this point, who had crashed to the ground and looked quite disheveled.

"Um, Pinkie, you okay? What happened?" the purple mare asked.

"Gimme a second, Ammy. Rainbow Dash has a new friend -- a griffon -- but she's a big meanie! She sent me spinning out of control!" the pink pony exclaimed almost angrily as she dusted herself off.

"Hmm. I remember that friend of Dash's from my previous timeline. Yeah, she's a menace, which is why I would try to avoid her."

"So how well did you two get along?" Pinkie asked.

"The problem I had with Gilda is that she's a really good friend of Rainbow's, and trying to interfere with that friendship got me into a bit of trouble with the Princess the last time around. I'm going to to my best to stay out of the situation, as I don't want to get on Rainbow's bad side -- unless Gilda does something truly reprehensible," the purple mare replied.

"Like what?"

"That depends. I remember being told about what happened to Fluttershy --"

"What? Gilda did something to Flutters? Was it really mean?"

"Yeah, it was. But that was before I got to town. What happened in my case was that Gilda had returned one time and chased after EJ. My son had been practicing his magic and one of his spells went astray, accidentally hitting the griffon. It was relatively harmless, but the net effect made Gilda look rather foolish. In her anger, she chased after my son, scaring the daylights out of him. I was so angered by this that I tracked Gilda down and used some magic of my own against her, causing a slight injury -- okay, I broke one of her wings -- but when word got back to Princess Celestia about this, I was punished by having to do chores around the Castle for two weeks as penitence for my actions," Amethyst stated flatly. "It took quite a long time for Rainbow to forgive me for attacking her friend, which is why I have to be really careful this time."

"So what should I do?"

"You might want to bring the matter up with Twilight, but considering how busy she is, she might not be much help. I understand you want to spend time with Rainbow, but you're going to have to let her have her fun with Gilda. You can't expect to have your friends hang with you all the time. I would suggest you keep an eye on Gilda -- she can be trouble."

"Okie dokie lokie," the pink party pony said and bounded on her way back to town. Amethyst trotted towards Carousel Boutique to help Rarity again, but stopped by a cafe to get a sweet roll and orange juice for breakfast. Pinkie Pie decided to join her and watched as Gilda used her tail to scare Granny Smith into thinking it was a rattlesnake, then used her tail to steal an apple.

Fluttershy was walking backwards, escorting a mama duck and her ducklings, unaware she was in Gilda's path. The yellow pegasus bumped into the griffon's chest, and meekly excused herself. Gilda exclaimed, "I'm walking here!" in disgust, then mocked the timid pegasus' apology. Fluttershy continued to back away from the griffon, who decided to let loose her loudest roar, right in the yellow pegasus' face. Fluttershy ran away, sobbing, then took to the air to return to her cottage as quickly as she could.

"GILDA!!" the purple mare bellowed. Everypony turned their attention to Amethyst, who had just called out the griffon. Pinkie gave a worried look to the purple mare.

"What do YOU want, dweeb?" the griffon asked in a very annoyed tone of voice. "Don't tell me you're mad at me for roaring at that lame pegasus. She was in my way."

The purple mare cracked her neck and glowered at the griffon, narrowing her eyes to slits. "Don't you DARE do that again! Fluttershy is one of MY friends, and you have no right to terrify her like that! I know you happen to be Rainbow Dash's best friend, but THAT doesn't give you the right to do what you just did!"

"As if I care," the griffon said dismissively. "You're a dweeb because you stuck up for her. Stay outta my way, purple, if ya know what's good for ya. And anyway, how do you know my name? Oh, I see Pinkie there with you. So she's told you about me, huh? I gotta bolt, bye, dweebs!" she chuckled and flew off.

"Now I see why you broke one of her wings," Pinkie mused. "Maybe you should teach her a lesson!"

"Pinkie, I exercised great restraint there. Trust me, I would love nothing more than to use my strongest magic attacks against her, but I have to keep in mind that I'm only here as a blessing from Princess Celestia -- I cannot afford to make her any angrier with me than she already is," Amethyst stated flatly.

"Why is she so angry with you?"

"Because I used a time travel spell to get here, though I had not intended to do so, at least not deliberately. Unfortunately, I left my foals behind and haven't gotten any closer to finding a way back to my original timeline," the purple mare replied sullenly.

"I know what will cheer you up -- and I can use this opportunity to get even with Gilda! I'll throw a special welcome party for her, but I have some special surprises for that Meanie McMeaniepants!" the pink party pony chuckled.

"Oh, cool, Pinkie -- I love your parties, and I can't wait to see what you unleash on Gilda!" the purple mare giggled.

The two of them went to Sugarcube Corner, but Pinkie insisted that Amethyst round up everypony for the party. The purple mare teleported around town to invite everypony, Gilda included, to the party. Applejack asked Rarity about Gilda, the fashionista explaining that Gilda was an old friend of Rainbow's, a griffon at that. Twilight asked Fluttershy about Gilda, but the pegasus stated that she would tell the librarian about the griffon later. Fluttershy then asked Pinkie if inviting the griffon was such a good idea, but the baker profusely explained that she had everything under control. The pegasus wasn't exactly thrilled by this response, but decided to go along with it, even though she was visibly upset about it. Amethyst tried to reassure the yellow pegasus that Pinkie had a plan to avenge her, to which Fluttershy gave a mischievous smirk.

Eventually, Gilda made it to the party and was heartily greeted by Pinkie Pie, who extended a forehoof to the griffon. Upon meeting the open hoof with her talon, Gilda received a vicious shock from a hoofbuzzer Pinkie had attached to her hoof. It took a moment for the griffon to regain some composure, even chuckling a little at the joke, but as soon as she was close enough to talk to the pink party pony without too many others overhearing their conversation, she made a thinly veiled threat to the baker, letting her know she had her eye on her, a sentiment Pinkie returned cheerfully. Amethyst had chuckled at Gilda's reaction to being shocked, but also glared at the griffon when she threatened Pinkie.

Pinkie then introduced Gilda to rest of the partygoers, calling for cheers. Rainbow arrived at the party just in time to see Gilda fall for the hoofshake buzzer and when the griffon was introduced as an old dear friend of the aviatrix, the two friends smiled, though Gilda's smile faltered a little. The griffon spotted a bowl of vanilla lemon drops, and helped herself to one, only to find out that the candies were extremely hot and burned her tongue and mouth. She dashed to get some water, only to have the liquid fall on her chest, as the glass she had used was a dribble cup. She dashed to another table and cooled her throat with liquid in a regular glass. Everypony chuckled at the griffon's misfortune, but then her attention was drawn to a table of presents in a pile. Gilda took one at random, opening it with her beak, only to be rewarded by a bunch of rubber snakes that sprang out of the can and startled her.

"Spittin' snakes! Somepony pulled that prank on me last month," Applejack grinned.

"I'll bet I know just who," Gilda grumbled.

"Who?" Pinkie asked, giving her best innocent look. She then wheeled a cake to the center of the room, complete with lit candles. "Who wants to blow out the candles?" the pink party pony asked.

"How about me?" Spike asked.

"Why not let Gilda blow them out, since she's the guest of honor," Twilight said, giving a sly grin to her dragon assistant. Amethyst grinned mischievously as she knew what was about to happen, but then glowered at the griffon, who dashed to the cake and knocked Spike away from it. Gilda took a deep breath and blew out the candles, only to have them relight a second after she blew them out. Everypony laughed at her as she repeatedly tried to blow out the candles and stand in stunned silence as they consistently relit after every try she made. Spike burrowed his way into the cake, consuming quite a bit of it as he popped out of the top, encouraging the other ponies to try some. Amethyst helped herself to a slice, commenting that it was indeed quite tasty.

"Looks like you've helped yourself to quite a bit of cake in the past," Gilda chuckled at the purple mare.

"So I like to eat -- so what. At least I'm not rude to my friends, the way you are," came her retort. The griffon grabbed the pink pony by the neck and growled at her, letting her know she was watching her like a hawk.

"Shouldn't you be watching me like a griffon?" Pinkie asked, grinning.

"Hey, y'all, it's pin the tail on the pony! Let's play!" Applejack exclaimed with some enthusiasm.

"Oh, my favorite! May I go first?" asked Rarity. "May I have the purple tail?"

The griffon barged her way into the midst of the game, snatching the purple tail before anypony could act.

"I'll go first, since I'm the guest of honor, and I have the purple tail!" Gilda chuckled.

"Okay, you go first -- let's get you blindfolded," Pinkie stated. Once blindfolded, the griffon was spun around so fast she was made quite dizzy. Pinkie escorted her to the poster with the pony on it, but Gilda stated she wasn't going to fall for another prank and chose to walk in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, she slipped on some cake which had fallen on the floor and slid out the door. She reappeared with the tail draped across her beak, an expression of surprise on her face.

"Uh, Gilda, you pinned the tail on the wrong end," Pinkie said as everypony laughed at the griffon yet again.

"This is your idea of a good time?!" Gilda asked as she went into an apoplectic rage. "I've never met a more pathetic bunch of dweebs in all my life! Rainbow Dash and I have ten times the cool as the rest of you combined! And YOU, Pinkie Pie! You're Queen Lame-O with your pathetic little party pranks! Come on, Rainbow Dash! We're leaving!"

The cyan pegasus stood her ground, choosing to remain by her new friends. "You know, Gilda, I was the one who set up all those pranks at this party -- I guess that makes ME Queen Lame-O, doesn't it?"

"Come on, Dash! You've gotta be kidding me, right? You wouldn't do something like that to me, would you?" the griffon asked incredulously.

"I didn't mean all those pranks for you, Gilda, it's just that you had bad luck and tripped them all," Rainbow explained.

"No way! It was Pinkie Pie! She set this party up with all those pranks so she could make a fool of me!" the griffon shouted.

"Me? I set this party up to try to turn your frown upside-down, to try to improve your attitude!" the baker said indignantly.

"And you didn't need any help making a fool of yourself," the aviatrix added. "I never expected my old friends to treat my new friends this way. If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should make some cool friends somewhere else."

Gilda was completely flustered by this turn from the pegasus she thought was her friend, accusing her of being a flip-flop. "When you decide to be cool, give me a call," the griffon stated contemptibly as she left the bakery, slamming the door behind her.

"Not cool," Rainbow muttered. The other ponies started mumbling and tut-tutting amongst themselves.

"Talk about a party pooper," Spike stated with some exasperation.

"I told you she was bad news," Amethyst offered. "Sorry about that, Rainbow. Maybe she'll learn her lesson and be nice in the future."

"Tell me something, Ammy -- you came from the future, so what's she like there?" the cyan pegasus asked.

"Hate to say it, RD, but she's no better in the future than she is here -- but perhaps you might be able to talk some sense into her -- maybe."

"I'm sorry, everypony -- I had no idea Gilda would be so rude to all of you. And Pinkie Pie, I'm really sorry she ruined this awesome party you set up for her."

"Hey, if you wanna hang out with party poopers, that's up to you," the pink pony giggled.

"I'd rather hang out with you, Pinkie -- no hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings," Pinkie stated as she extended a hoof to the pegasus, who returned the gesture. As both hooves met, both ponies received a jolt of electricity as both were wearing hoof-shake buzzers and giggled as each of them showed the other their buzzer, causing everypony to giggle as well.

"Hey, Ammy, thanks for keeping your cool," Pinkie addressed the purple mare.

"I learned something today," Amethyst stated. "I learned that controlling your emotions and keeping calm can have much more positive results than engaging in hostility as a result of being brought to anger. I witnessed Pinkie crash to the ground in her gyrocopter as a result of Gilda's meanness and I also witnessed Fluttershy get terrified when Gilda roared at her. Seeing this made me very angry, but with Pinkie's help, I was able to keep my emotions in check. I believe I should inform Princess Celestia of my findings."

"That sounds like a good idea, Amethyst," Twilight mused. "Spike, take a letter."

"Right on it, Twilight," he said cheerfully. Twilight dictated a friendship letter to the Sun Goddess, but also enclosed a jar of disappearing ink along with it.

"Come on, everypony! There's still a lot of party left to enjoy!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly as everypony cheered and resumed partying.

Comments

[Renodil]

This story confuses me some. Amethyst was a Brony back in his word so he should know about all these episodes and yet there are a lot of times when it seems like his memory fails him.
For example:

"Rarity, what's a griffon doing visiting Ponyville?" the purple mare asked in great surprise. She had met a few griffons in the past, but their visits were few and very far between. "The only one I know too much about is Rainbow's friend, Gilda."

He should've known full well why a Griffon was visiting Ponyville. Is he just playing dumb to lessen the chance of revealing foreknowledge?