Chapter 1
Ever since the whole Breezies incident, I learned that Twilight can do transformation spells, and ever since then, I’ve been bugging her to transform me into a griffon, or a dragon, or something else cool! I mean being a pegasus is cool and all, but imagine me, but a giant fire breathing dragon! But believe it or not, I’m actually more interested in becoming a griffon; not just for the sake of being a griffon, there’s more to it than just that. I used to have a friend, her name was Gilda, we meet at Junior Speedsters Camp, and we became fast friends. Eventually, time drifted us apart, and it was a couple of years until we met up again when she came to Ponyville. Unfortunately though, a lot changed about her, she became…easily irritated, to put it lightly. I’m not stupid, I saw her steal those apples and I heard how she talked to Pinkie Pie when they first met. I just decided not to do anything because I thought that maybe if I’d let it slide, and then there might have been a chance that I could make Pinkie and Gilda friends again. Well, that turned out to be a great idea! It only ended up leaving me with one less friend. I don’t know what happened between the time that we spent apart, maybe nothing happened at all! I’ve read in a book that over time, griffons have a tendency to become the way Gilda was growing up. (And I better not hear anypony calling me a bookworm or an egghead after this!) Was Gilda solely responsible for how she was, or was there something more to this mystery? I’m gonna find out, and lucky for me, I know the perfect way to convince Twilight to make me a griffon!
I’ve been at this for about an hour now; it seems that any minute now, Twilight would crack.
“Pleeeeease! It’ll only just be for a day!”
“I’m not sure Rainbow, I barely managed to change all of us to Breezies the last time, I’m not sure if the spell will go smoothly this time around!”
“Think about it though, you changed six ponies last time, it’ll just be me this time! That’s gotta account for something right?”
“Well, you have been at this for an hour, so you have to be determined, still though, why do you want to be a griffon so badly Rainbow? Give me the real reason!”
“Fine…remember Gilda? The griffin that kinda went all out on Pinkie? Well, I been thinking for a while now, maybe things looked different from her view, but how do I know for sure?”
“Well for starters you could just ASK!”
“You know just as well as I do that Gilda’s probably not coming back anytime soon Twilight, this could be my only chance to figure this all out. Deep down you know I’m right.”
With that it seemed that I finally managed to get Twilight to cave in. She gave me the whole, “be careful what you’re doing” lecture, so I had to remind her that my middle name was Responsibility. Although I think that didn’t make her feel any better about this for some reason.
With a sigh, Twilight began casting her spell; a light appeared from her horn, it was small at first, but it got bigger as time went by. Eventually her magic connected to me, lifting up off the ground. You know, its one thing to fly by yourself, another by magic; it kinda makes you want to lose your lunch, but let’s not get into details. The last thing I remember was a big flash of light, and then I passed out.
My eyes feel heavy as I get back up. Twilight was in all out panic mode, blurting things out so fast that can’t hear what she’s saying. One thing I notice immediately is that I’m taller, defiantly something I can deal with, and then I realize that the library feels a little hotter than usual. Then I remembered, I’m a griffon now! I look at myself, and surprisingly, it seems that not a lot has changed; I was expecting to be brown, like Gilda, but it seems that I’m still blue, not that I’m complaining! A definite bonus was my new talons, they were awesome! I get snapped back into reality when Twilight shouts, “Are you even listening to me!”
I quickly respond with, “Umm…yeah! Of course I was Twi!”
“Yeah, sure you were, I was just going ov-
“Wait, how long have I been out!”
“About twenty minutes…Why?”
“Oh no! I’m late!”
Looking back at it, leaving Twilight just like that probably wasn’t the best idea, but hey, when you promise Fluttershy that you’d help her out with various things, you gotta go, and I am the element of Loyalty after all! Bursting through the door, I spread out my wings and take off. I hear a few gasps and shrieks from below, but that doesn’t really bother me much, I was in the air, away from it all. Once again I’m surprised, I found myself easily able to control my new body, and here I was expecting a challenge! In no time I find myself at Fluttershy’s cottage. I take a look around, calling her name, she should have been here, then I notice a ruffle in a bush nearby. Curious, I go up to it, and using my new talons, I pull the bush apart to find none other than Fluttershy, curled up into a little ball, apparently trying to hide from me. Chuckling, I say in the best calm voice I can, “Fluttershy, it’s alright, it’s just me, Rainbow Dash. Just a little more…griffioney!” That seemed to do the trick, as she emerged from the bush. She said with a shaky tone, “Sorry Rainbow, it’s just that the last time I met a griffon…” She trailed off, and I don’t blame her, Gilda didn’t really make that good of an impression the first time she met Fluttershy.
She started talking again, “So, how did you become a griffon?”
“Twilight did it for me!”
“I wonder what you did that convinced her this time, seeing as your first try didn’t go so well” Was it me, or did I hear the slightest hint or sarcasm when she said that, I thought to myself. I decide to save that thought for later, so I just simply replied, “I have my ways. Never mind that, what do you need me to help you with Fluttershy?”
She explained to me that recently, some ducks and beavers were getting into an argument, something about them not wanting to share a pond, so she had to go and help them reach an agreement. So of course she gave me the, and I quote, “not so hard” task of feeding Angel. Before I could object though, she’s already off. Grumbling to myself, I start heading toward the cottage, knowing that this would be anything but “not so hard.”
***
Could that bunny be any more annoying! I thought to myself finally done with my task. For a bunny, Angel has a lot of nerve; sure I was patient with him, like Fluttershy told me to be, but it seemed like he was the complete opposite! Angel wanted this…thing, which I guess Fluttershy makes for him, and that was the only thing he was willing to accept, and he wanted it perfect. I must have tried like six times before he was happy, and when he wasn’t, let’s just say that there was carrots and lettuce flying everywhere! And it didn’t help that I was a griffon either, I clumsily used my talons, taking longer than it would have normally been to do things with my hooves, like picking up things. But then there was something else that I felt…something strange. When Angel knocked over his food for the third time, I was really mad, up to the point where I wanted to hurt the little guy, something that, despite everything he was doing, was something that I would have never thought of. I’m just glad that I didn’t do anything, who knows how Fluttershy would have reacted! I was thinking about all of this midflight, so I wasn’t really paying attention so I crashed into somepony. When we crashed into the ground I heard a familiar voice, “What do you think you’re doing dweeb! You do realize you caused tha-“
Gilda’s voice trailed off when she made eye contact with me. I broke the silence by saying, “Um…Gilda? Are you okay?”
“R-Rainbow Dash? But…but you’re a griffon! How did this happen?!”
“Well when you’re friends with an alicorn, there’s a whole lot of things you can do!” I say, soon after laughing at Gilda’s face, it was priceless! I went on, “So what brings you back to Ponyville?”
“I think the more important question is why are you a GRIFFON!”
I decided to tell her everything, the book, Twilight’s spell, even up to the point with the near-incident with Angel, and then I gave her a lecture, Twilight Sparkle style. “So yeah, it turned out the book was right, to a point. Sure, I had an urge to teach Angel a lesson not to mess with me, but I chose not to. I knew that if I did, Fluttershy would never forgive me, and I’d lose a friend forever. Did that ever cross your mind when you were mean to my friends? You think I’d just stand there and let yo-”
“I know” Gilda said, with a tone I never heard her use before: regret. “I’ve had a long time to think about everything I did, and you know what, you’re right, about everything. I had no right to treat your friends like that. It’s just that…well; I felt that because you had all of your friends, I thought that you replaced me.”
“Gilda,” I said trying to cheer her up, “remember how we became friends at Junior Speedsters camp?”
“How could I forget, I was the only griffon there, and nopony else wanted to be near me, no one except you Rainbow.”
“You think after all that I’d just forget about you, of course not! You’re a griffon! Part lion, part eagle! I’m friends with the Gilda I met at Junior Speedsters camp, not Gilda the jerk! Can I have that Gilda back?”
“Yeah…yeah I can do that! But, what about your other friends? I don’t think they’ll be as forgiving as you are Dash.”
“Gilda please, if we can manage to forgive Discord for everything he did to us, I’m sure that my friends can do the same for you. Now, the sun’s starting to come down, If I don’t get back to Twilight soon, I’ll never hear the end of it! How about we race back to Ponyville, since I’m a griffon now, we can have a fair contest to see who’s the fastest once and for all!”
“You are so on, just, don't tell anyone about this okay? We Griffions kinda have a reputation to maintain." Gilda says, extending her wings, “Oh, one more thing Rainbow.”
“What is it Gilda?”
“You’re the best.”
“I know!”