Gryphon A Second Chance

by RedSavant

Memories and Candlelight

It occurs to me that I should finish this story before S2 starts up and there's a chance, however slight, of Gilda making a reappearance and messing with my continuity.

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"You've got to be joking. Tell me you're joking."

Fluttershy shook her head gently, being careful not to pull at the bandages. She looped the somewhat grubby bolt of cloth around one more time, then set the small roll that had accumulated in her mouth down to reply. "No, that's how it happened," she replied. "Extend your wing, please. Be careful, okay?"

It was raining again; the windows had been shut firmly against the wind and the rain, and the warm curtains drawn fast against the storm-dark summer twilight. Inside, pools of candlelight cast shadows around the room. Fluttershy's candle rested on the floor next to her; its light mixed with that of the candle on Gilda's bedside table, softening the edges of the world into shadow beyond the little puddle of brightness. Sitting nearby, Gilda nodded, pulling the last of the sling bandage from her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." Gilda extended the bandaged limb gingerly, as if she expected any second for it to be shocked by a bolt of static electricity; but the only thing she felt was a sore, stale ache, and she rolled her shoulder irritably. "Damn, I'm stiff. So, yeah – you're saying you got knocked out of Cloudsdale, landed in a pile of bugs, and that was enough to get you your whatever mark?" She snorted. "Wow. That's so pathetic I almost feel sorry for you. That's pathetic on an entirely different level than walking around with pictures on your ass in the first place. It's, like, super pathetic." She twitched as Fluttershy finished another pass around her wing. "Hey, watch it."

Nice Gilda had lasted until about nightfall; her walls of sarcasm and scorn had gone back up as the sun went down. Something about the gryphon had softened, though; her barbs didn't sting as much as they had before, and Fluttershy didn't think it was just because she was starting to get used to the gryphon's abrasive manner.

"That wasn't what gave me my cutie mark, Gilda," Fluttershy said mildly, standing for a moment to stretch out her legs. The pile of bandages on the rug was almost up to her fetlocks; the heavier burn bandages alone were left on Gilda's wing, and she had their replacements right at hoof. "It was comforting the animals after Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom."

Gilda looked for a moment like she was going to let go with another sarcastic comment, but she paused. "Oh, right," she said, her eyes growing slightly softer for a moment. Fluttershy wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been watching for it, but she had been, and she smiled very softly as she picked up the new bandages. "Wish I'd been able to see that. Was probably… a year or so before I got to Cloudsdale," Gilda mused, thinking back. "I – ow!" Gilda hissed as Fluttershy removed the last of the bandages, but she managed to keep her wing outstretched. "Warn me next time, you dipstick!" She twisted her neck to glare at the yellow pegasus, and in doing so she got her first good look at her injury.

Her first thought was, Ow. Somehow, looking at it made it start to burn again; whatever Fluttershy had done for her apparently wouldn't stand up to some idiot looking straight at it and going Well now, that really should be more painful than it is. Like Fluttershy had said, she'd lost her second and third primaries at about the halfway point; the down below was blackened, either from burning or from the smoke of her other feathers. She thought she might be able to glide if she had to, but flying was straight out. Her whole wing felt hot and tender, and looking at it reminded her just how close of a call she'd had. Suppressing a shudder, she looked away.

She tensed again as Fluttershy laid the new bandages on; there was a cool sort of paste on them that smelled slightly minty when she got a whiff of it. Whatever it was, it soothed the slowly intensifying burn, and Gilda settled her hackles back down as Fluttershy got to rewrapping her wing. "…You're not bad at this," she said finally, occupying herself tracing doodles and obscene words into the weave of the rug with a talon. "Get a lot of practice?"

Fluttershy tied off the wing wrapping with a professional nip and tug, then nodded. "I help a lot of birds," she said quietly, tossing her head to throw the roll of bandages across Gilda's broad shoulders. "This close to the E-Everfree Forest, there's really no one else to look after them when they get hurt…" The thought of the alternative visibly upset her, and she only seemed to remember what she was doing after a few moments.

"And you've been doing this since then? On your own?" Gilda asked, frowning. Fluttershy walked around her and retrieved the roll, working on remaking the sling she had woken up in. Gilda bit back a sigh at her poking around, and soon Fluttershy answered her.

"Oh, I'm not alone. I have Angel bunny and all my other friends – and Twilight, Rarity, Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack, too," she said, smiling as she pulled the sling taut with a gentle tug. "There, all better."

"Hardly," Gilda sniffed, but a bemused smirk tugged at the corner of her beak. Fluttershy was so damn straightforward, it was almost ridiculous. As Fluttershy set to cleaning up the discarded bandages, scooping them up with her hooves and depositing them in the trash, Gilda stood and stretched, still not quite used to having her wing confined. "But you taught yourself all this medical crap, right?"

"Um, mostly," Fluttershy agreed. "About setting bones and treating injuries and things like that, yes… and surgery, too... Sometimes I find bodies in the forest, and… well, it's important to know certain things, to help others… I always try my best to be respectful…" Ignorant of Gilda's suddenly raised eyebrows, she looked down at her feet, obviously slightly uncomfortable with the subject. "Um… you said you came to Cloudsdale about a year after the Sonic Rainboom, right…? …Where did you live, um, before that…?"

"No," Gilda replied firmly, accepting the awkward change in subject if not the destination. Fluttershy looked up, confused, and Gilda shook her head. "This is not Happy Share Time," she said, clambering up into bed. "You wanna babble about your past, go right ahead. But I'm not gonna play You Show Me Yours with you."

"Oh. Okay," Fluttershy replied, looking slightly downcast. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry." Gilda grunted, half-and-half an acknowledgement and a dismissal, and stretched out over the covers. Fluttershy bent down and picked up her candleholder, teeth clamped firmly on the worn wooden handle, and turned to leave.

"Hey," Gilda said quietly. Fluttershy stopped, surprised, and turned to look back at her. Gilda didn't return her gaze; she had her eyes closed, and looked for all the world like she was dozing, or asleep. Her voice, though, had held an edge of tension that belied her appearance. Fluttershy set the candle down, but didn't speak, and after a minute Gilda continued. Her voice was very low; Fluttershy almost had to strain to hear her next words. "It was… everything she always said it was, wasn't it?"

Fluttershy nodded, knowing immediately what the gryphon meant. "It was amazing," she said, her voice just as low as Gilda's. It was a little hard to bring the vibrant colors, the sweeping wind and the palpable sense of power into the little sphere of candlelight, but she closed her eyes and tried her best. "I've never seen anything so magnificent aside from the Princess. And she saved Rarity's life, and the Wonderbolts', too…"

"Yeah," Gilda replied, nodding slightly. "Yeah, that's how it should've been. Even in Flight School, she… well, yeah. You know how she is. She was always the coolest."

Fluttershy blinked at the gryphon. "You were in Flight School with Rainbow Dash?"

Gilda cracked an eye and looked at the pegasus, frowning slightly. "Yeah, we were in the same class. What about it?"

"If you were in the same class…" Fluttershy smiled gently, unable to stop herself. "That means I'm a year older than you."

Gilda blinked, taken aback. "No," she said finally, shaking her head. "Nope. Not possible." Her tone was one of such absolute disbelief that Fluttershy almost questioned her own math for a minute, but she rebounded.

"It's true," she said. "I'm older than most of my friends." She looked down at her hooves, suddenly uncertain again. "Because… I was never very good at flying… and I'm very shy. I didn't have anyone to help me when I had trouble… until I met Rainbow Dash."

Fluttershy took a deep breath. "She was always helping me, and standing up for me, even though I was… well… the way I am." She smiled, weakly but genuinely, and looked up at Gilda. "She's a very good person."

Gilda swallowed hard. "Yeah, she is." You changed, Gilda. "Better than me, that's for damn sure…" she muttered, turning away from Fluttershy. She reached out and pinched her candle's wick, snuffing the flame out; the remaining light from Fluttershy's candle behind her cast tall shadows on the far wall, dark against dark, and Gilda closed her eyes, suddenly eager to get to sleep and end the conversation.

"Are you sure you don't want visitors?" Fluttershy asked, very quietly. Gilda stiffened, but didn't turn around.

"Yeah," she said firmly. "Last time I saw her…" You changed. I didn't think I'd see you again, after what you said about my friends. She shrugged, affecting a casualness she didn't feel at all. "Things didn't go that smooth."

"I'm sorry," Fluttershy said, and she sounded so damn earnest, like she actually meant it.

Gilda's hackles stood up, and she glared at the pegasus. "You really think apologizing will make me feel better? More like, what the hell do you have to apologize for? It wasn't your fault," she growled. She drew a deep breath and laced her claws together, talons scraping across her tough, horny skin. "Look, I'm smart enough to know when I screw myself over," she said finally, not sounding happy about it. "What Dash said was…" The fucking flip-flop threw you out. You drew a line and she picked her side. It had to happen someday! Just a matter of time. Gilda swallowed. "…she was right. About all of it. I did every damn thing to myself." She shrugged again, this time not caring about the pull at her side.

"Whatever. That's it. End of the story." She laid down again, closing her eyes. "There isn't a damn thing I can do now that'll make it up to her." As she said it she knew it was true, and she swallowed the bitter lump in her throat.

"That's not true," Fluttershy said suddenly, almost knocking her candle over. "It's just not!" Gilda didn't even bother opening her eyes. Fluttershy trembled a little, but she continued. "I-If you're talking about what happened at the party… or… I mean, with the ducklings…" After a moment more of trembling, she pushed forward: "I was scared of you at first... and, um, I've been scared of you since then, really… but I'm not scared of you anymore," she said, from beside the bed. "I forgive you, Gilda." She laid her head on Gilda's shoulder, being careful of her wing. "And I'm sure the others will too."

Gilda's entire body felt electrified, every hair and feather standing on end. "What the hell are you doing?" she hissed, looking back at Fluttershy.

The yellow pegasus looked somewhat abashed, but didn't stop nuzzling her. Gilda growled at her, but little by little she felt her hackles go back down; within a few minutes, the unpleasant alert feeling – too much like the charge in the air just before the lightning had struck – had vanished, to be replaced by comfortable warmth. Fluttershy sat down by the bed, her head resting comfortably on the mattress by Gilda's forearm; Gilda could feel the warmth from her cheek.

"Why are you doing all this for me?" she asked finally, looking down at the pegasus. "Really, I mean."

Fluttershy let out a contented sigh, and didn't reply right away. When she did, she spoke quietly, hard for Gilda to hear even so close by. "Because we're friends, right?"

Gilda nearly pulled away at that, but Fluttershy's quiet breathing had deepened, and her eyes had slipped closed. "Go sleep somewhere else," Gilda muttered, but she was careful not to disturb the sleeping pony as she stretched out. "Friends, huh?" she sniffed. "Yeah, whatever…" But she still felt the yellow pony's warmth. As she closed her eyes, she heard Fluttershy's voice again: I forgive you. And I'm sure the others will too.

A faint smile touched Gilda's beak as she finally drifted off, the seeds of an idea growing slowly but surely in her mind. It was a stupid plan – nothing she'd ever have considered even three days ago – but somehow, she felt confident it would work… with a little help from a friend.

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Next chapter should have Applejack in it, unless something goes terribly wrong while I'm writing.

Thanks as always for reading, folks, and I hope you continue to enjoy the fic as things progress.

Comments

[wlyteth]

Loving this story so far. One of the first fanfics I've read in a while that nails everyone's personality perfectly.
You've done a great job of showing Fluttershy's strong side along with her usual shy side. Gilda's slow realization of how she's
to blame for alienating Rainbow Dash was very well done. Can't wait to read more :D

[Rocket]

What a magnificent piece of work! It's well-written in general, and you have the characters down perfectly. I hope you'll finish it.

[Chip Unicorn]

I appreciate the care you took in characterization. Gilda IS growing. And Fluttershy is as strong as she's ever been.

Well done!

[KnightMysterio]

You have my attention. *tracks the story*

[Fernin]

*munching popcorn*

Definitely good so far; looking forward to more.

[Mother3Forever]

I've been bored as heck so ths story is a welcome change to the ritualistic schedule I've got. I almost want to hound you for more. And with that, I end on a Timelord-y note of

ALLONS-Y!!!!

[ForlanceAbice]

This reminds me of The Barbarian and Druid....
Speaking of which, I can't find the story. Link anyone?