To be Crowned Queen
Celestia’s shining sun hung high in the sky. It’s on days like this that Rainbow Dash loves to just rest on the clouds, read a Daring Do book and take a nap. She loved sleeping under the sun while on top of a cloud for two reasons; one was that the warmth of the sunlight made her sleepy and she could fall asleep faster, the second was the clouds. Clouds are used for many building and construction purposes in Pegasus populated towns but Rainbow always loved them for the bits of moisture that seep out when you lay on them that gives a cold chill down her back or chest. Mix this with a warm sun and you have a happy Rainbow Dash.
Now that Tank is in hibernation Rainbow Dash found herself doing this more often. It was understandable; she misses her dear pet and often wishes that Luna will put her in Tank’s dreams so the two can play in the land of dreams. But Luna hasn’t granted this wish so Rainbow comforts herself with a good book and a blissful nap.
Rainbow lay down on her cloud ready to let Luna take her to the land of dreams. Her body was curled like a resting cat and wings were folded close to her sides. As Rainbow’s eyelids closed with the weight of drowsiness pressing down, she hears a yell but her sleepiness prevented her from hearing what was being yelled. With each passing second Rainbow falls deeper into sleep but the yelling also gets louder.
“Rainbow!” Funny, that sounded like somepony calling me. Rainbow thought as she fell deeper into the void of sleep. “Rainbow!” Rainbow’s mind started losing sleep’s grasp as the voice grew louder. Damm it somepony is calling me! "Rainbow Dash!” The gears in Rainbow’s head start spinning as her drowsy mind tries to put a name and face to the voice. Whose voice is that? Come on think! Wait I got it, it’s…
Rainbow’s thought was halted by the sudden force throwing itself against her and her cloud. They spun around with a dizzying force that ended with Rainbow seeing stars in the daylight. With a shake of her head Rainbow’s vision cleared and she saw that the force that slammed into her had brown wings, an eagle like head and claws, and a bird's beak. “Gilda!?”
The griffon in question shook her own head in an attempt to regain proper vision. When she stopped Rainbow took notice of an excess of sweat all over her body and Gilda’s heavy breath. “Dash!... I… need… help!”
“Wait, did you fly here all the way from Griffonstone?!”
“Yes!” Gilda replied, exhaustion finally taking over as she collapsed on the cloud. Rainbow was taken back at this. True she and Gilda are talented fliers and they both can fly long distances but a flight from Griffonstone all the way to Ponyville is impossible, even for the both of them.
“Why would you do that!?” Rainbow shouted at her reformed friend.
Gilda snatched a piece of cloud and squeezed it, drinking every drop of water the cloud puff had. “I… need... a place to lay low, like forever.” She finally said with some blush on her face.
“Wha? But you’re good now! Weren’t you spreading the importance of friendship to the griffons?!”
“I was, and they took to it well, we were even rebuilding the town to look like new again.”
“Then why are you trying to hide!?”
“Cause they want to make me their queen!”
Rainbow sat in an impregnable silence, no thoughts were going through her mind cause it was filling with errors trying to process what Gilda had said. Error, error, 404 error. “They want what now?”
“They want be to be their new queen Dash, didn’t you hear me?!”
“Yeah its just I’m having a difficult time processing that.” 404 error.
“Take your time processing but I need a place to hide.”
“Why? They want to make you their ruler, that’s awesome!”
“No it’s not! I’m no leader; I’m a baker, like Pinkie only minus the logic defying powers.”
Rainbow nodded in agreement. Ever since they first left Griffonstone, Pinkie and Gilda have been sending each other letters and pastry recipes. Gilda even gave Pinkie her family Griffon scone recipe, and Pinkie gave her the recipe for Granny Pie’s triple-chocolate-fifty layer-marshalling recipe.
“Well why do they want to make you queen?”
“Well like I said, we were rebuilding the town and I was on the team fixing up the library. While sorting a bunch of torn up pages I found one telling about a secret passage that supposedly leads all the way down to the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss. I got curious so took some of my new friends down there with me to investigate and it turned out to be true.
“After half an hour of exploring I spot something in the corner of my eye and it was the Idol of Boreas! A few extra dents in it from the fall but there it was plain as day, I grab the thing and when the others see it, they drag me back into town. Once the townsfolk saw they started saying I was the new queen. At first I thought they were just joking but the next day rather than waking up in my bed I wake up in the fixed up part of the castle, a crown on my head and a big stained glass window showing me finding the idol. Oh and like four griffons waiting for me to give them orders!”
Rainbow took in all the info, clearly griffon pride will keep the towns folk from taking Gilda’s no for an answer. The same goes for Gilda refusing their declaration of her being queen.
“Well you can’t hide forever, I mean Griffonstone is your home and…”
Gilda gets down to Rainbow’s hooves. “Please Rainbow I’m begging you hide me! I’ve been gone for a couple days now trying to get here and yesterday a search party almost found me! Please hide me!”
Rainbow’s never seen Gilda do this before, beg. Even when she was still the shy griffon back at their academy, she never begged for anything. A ping of guilt struck Rainbow’s heart seeing one of her oldest friend this way. Griffonstone is her home, she can’t hide her, and she said there was a search party after her so they’ll find her sooner or later and she’ll have to run again. Think Rainbow think! Maybe…
“Look Gilda I can’t hide you, but I can have you talk with somepony who's been through pretty much what you’re going through.”
“Twilight?” Gilda said with a sniffle.
“At a girl, now come before that search party finds you.”
Gilda and Dash flew off the cloud and made quick pace for Twilight’s castle. But not before Rainbow Dash gave a quick glance at the cloud before it fell out of sight. I’ll be back cloud, just you wait.
* * *
The flight to Twilight’s could have gone a lot faster in Dash’s opinion. Gilda spent most of it zipping through tree tops to keep hidden. After an hour on what should have been a seven minute flight the two arrived at the front door of Twilight’s castle.
Gilda was taken back by the beauty of the castle, she knew the griffons back home would fix up the castle to be better than how it was now, but it would be nothing compared to the beauty Twilight’s castle radiated.
“Wow, and Pinkie said this thing came out of a box!?”
“Yeah, a magical box from the tree of harmony. Thing just floated from the tree in the Everfree and planted itself here and this thing grew out of the ground, literally.” Rainbow said with a hint of amazement in her tone of voice, to this day she still can’t believe it either and she was there.
“I’ll never understand magic.”
“You’re preaching to the choir.” Rainbow gave a heavy knock on the door. “Twilight we got a problem! No offence Gilda.”
“Now you’re preaching to the choir.”
Within seconds the doors are opened by a purple magical aura that completely covers them. Once the doors open enough for someone to enter Gilda runs in, followed by Dash who is mentally face-hoofing.
“Hang on.” Twilight echoes from the staircase in the center of the room, the purple alicorn trotting down the steps levitating several books up to her face. “You kinda came at a bad time but what’s the… Gilda?” Twilight says after finally taking notice of her guests and dropping her levitation on the books. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, it’s…”
Rainbow places a hoof in front of Gilda and takes over. “Long story short Gilda found the Idol of Boreas and now the griffons made her queen.”
Twilight stares back and forth between Rainbow and Gilda, after an uncomfortable eight minutes she speaks. “Spike, pick up these books, I’ve got some problems to deal with!”
Without consultation Twilight levitates both Gilda and Rainbow into the throne room, closing the doors behind her.
“Now then,” Twilight says. “Where did you find it, what does it look like, is it really made of sunlight!” Twilight blabs out towards Gilda.
“It, I… uhh. The bottom of the Abysmal Abyss, really banged up and dirty from the fall, and I have no Idea if that part’s even true. Look Rainbow said you could give me advice or something. Can you help me out or not?”
Twilight sits and ponders for a while, thinking about what to say. “Well I can relate, I was made a princess without any warning what-so-ever. Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Well, while fixing up the library I found a page telling about a secret passage to the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss, I took some friends down with me and we explored for a while and then I found the idol half buried by a small boulder. I pulled it out and when the others saw they dragged me to town and everyone started calling me queen. I thought they were just joking but I realized it wasn’t a joke when I fell asleep in my house and woke up in the rebuilt part of the castle with a crown on my head and four griffons waiting for commands.”
“Well did they explain any reason why they made you queen?”
“They said between me restoring peace to griffons, helping rebuild the town, and now finding the lost Idol they said it was a sign from the gods.”
“Well I don’t think gods had anything to do with it, it just seems like Rainbow and Pinkie’s favor to you and coincidence.”
“Say’s the pony who was made an alicorn princess by Celestia, the Sun Goddess.” Rainbow said, earning a muffled laugh from Gilda and a hateful gaze from Twilight.
“Besides the point,” Twilight said through grinding teeth. “I can understand your fear, when I first became a princess I was extremely nervous and unsure of my ability to be a leader, I was really put to the test when the princesses disappeared and I was instantly made temporary leader of Equestria. In the end it all worked out, we found the princesses and Equestria didn’t fall out of control under my temporary rule; Celestia was so proud of me for facing my fears and taking charge.”
“Well at least you have a role model to follow, the griffons haven’t had a ruler since the idol was stolen, I’m all alone in this.”
“No you’re not Gilds,” Rainbow said, wrapping her wing around Gilda. “the griffons may not have had a proper leader for a super long time but if you are gonna be queen then Twilight can help, heck maybe even the other princesses could give you some advice!”
“You’d do that Twilight?”
“Of course!” Twilight said with a gentle smile. “And I’m pretty sure I can get Celestia and Luna to visit to help you out. Heck I could possibly get Cadence here to join in.”
“But I still don’t want to be a queen, I’m just a baker.”
“Actually I said something similar to Celestia once. I said ‘Why? Why me? I am your student and I enjoy being a librarian.’ I always thought when my studies were done I’d be made the Royal Canterlot Librarian, not a princess.’”
“What did Celestia say?” Rainbow and Gilda spoke in unison.
A smile came across Twilight’s face. “She said, ‘Twilight I know, you’ve talked about the topic for a long time but I made you an alicorn and a princess because I knew you were right for the task. When I first saw your incident from the academy entrance exam I’d only ever seen that same level of power from my sister and I. I know that now it may seem like a lot to take in, I had a hard time adjusting when the ponies of Equestria made me princess. But believe me when I tell you that you have a great destiny ahead of you, you and your friends.’”
“Did you ever figure it out?” Gilda asked
“Yes, I was destined to become the princess of friendship.” Twilight deadpanned.
‘Oh, right.”
“The point is, she had faith in me and now, so do the ponies of Equestria. And if Griffons are putting faith in you to be the new ruler then maybe you were always destined to be queen.”
Gilda gave a heavy sigh at that. It was true, every griffon back in Griffonstone had to have put faith in her to make her queen, she face-palmed. “Then I can’t believe I ran away.”
“You were caught way off guard by this Gilda, besides they did take you out of your house and put you into the castle.” Rainbow said.
“Yeah, guess when I get back I’d better start over, but right this time.”
The three gave a small group hug before Spike's voice came from behind the throne room door. “Uh, Twilight you’ve got visitors.”
Visitors? Twilight thought. I wasn’t expecting any…
“Release our queen this instant or this will be a declaration of war!” A loud voice boomed from behind the door.
“Silver I wasn’t kidnapped!” Gilda yelled back in reply.
“My queen, wait, you weren’t... Oh… my bad, can we come in?” With a purple aura the doors opened revealing three griffons, one male, two female. One Rainbow recognized as Greta, the others were unknown to her, but the male she assumed was Silver. “Gilda why did you run?”
“You had us worried sick!” Greta barked.
“Well what did you expect!? I go to sleep in my house in my bed thinking that queen stuff was a joke, then wake up the next morning in the castle with a bunch of griffons waiting for orders! I was freaked!”
“But you could have told us something!” The other female griffon places a claw on Greta’s back and she calms down. “Sorry Fire, I was just nervous and worried.”
“And you think I’m not sorry?” Gilda says. “I was scared and didn’t think, I just wanted to get away.”
“Yeah we got that when you took seven hours in the bathroom.” Silver deadpanned
Gilda gave Silver a stare that could kill, but it was reduced to comical from her blush. “Yeah, not my best moment.”
Fire nods while Silver and Greta agree in unison.
“One question though.” Gilda started. “How have you guy’s been able to track me? I get griffons are hunters, but still.”
“Well for one, with all that stress you were experiencing, your feathers were falling off, and when we got to Ponyville we just asked around. After a few minutes one pony said he saw you and your friend Rainbow Dash enter this castle.”
“Oh, that’s why I started feeling more wind hit my skin.” Gilda said. “Well I guess if you guys are gonna be by my side then being queen might not be so bad.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna be your personal guard.” Greta said.
“I planned on being an advisor.” Silver said.
Fire stared at the others with a blank expression for several seconds. “… Royal librarian…” Fire said without any touch of emotion in her voice, reminding Twilight and Rainbow of Pinkie’s sister Maud.
“You like books!?” Twilight said, excitement written across her face.
“… Yes… I even write…”
“Oh, what about?”
“… Comedies…”
Yeah this is definitely the griffon Maud Pie. Rainbow thought.
“One condition though. Before I go back.” Gilda said holding her index claw out. “I get a personal, secret kitchen so I can bake in my free time.”
Everyone, except fire chuckled.
“Typical Gilda, alright. Shouldn’t be too hard, darn castle has more hidden rooms than you’d think, should be easy to turn one into a kitchen.” Greta said before the air left her lungs due to Gilda’s rib crushing hug.
“Thanks.”
“No problem, but please let go. I think I can see my grandpa pulling me into the light.” Gilda let go, letting Greta inhale a massive amount of air. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Gilda turned to Rainbow and Twilight. “Well guess I’m gonna be queen. You’re still gonna visit, right?”
“Just try and stop me.” Rainbow said with an assuring smile. Gilda gave her long time friend one final hug before departing with Silver, Greta, and Fire.
Rainbow left soon after, leaving Twilight to her duties. Alright then cloud I’m coming back!