In the days following Elphaba's death, Glinda had managed to overthrow the "wonderful" Wizard of Oz and take his throne. Now she was busy trying to fix all the problems he'd started in his decades-long-reign. She was doing pretty well, but she still had an awfully long way to go. What was probably taking the most amount of time and effort was probably all the Animal Bans. Although Glinda had lifted them all, she was quick to learn that it was far easier to change a law than to change a heart. It was one thing to remove a policy, but removing discrimination from the mind of the public was a whole other beast entirely. Hatred was easy to plant into the mind of society, and next to impossible to weed back out.
The proof of this wasn't just in the subtle discrimination against Animals either. Instead, outright attacks and abuses against Animals still took place every single day, and Glinda sometimes had the misfortune of witnessing them.
"What in Oz are you doing?!" Glinda shrieked as she caught sight of a man beating a dog with a stick. The man jumped up in surprise, having not expected the Queen of Oz, of all people, to be the one to catch him red-handed.
"Your majesty! Uh! This mangy beast stole my papers!" the man tried to act as though his blatant abuse was justified. Glinda wasn't having it.
"That gives you no right to physically harm or attack it!" Glinda snarled at him. And the man, sensing that he was not going to be forgiven so easily, quickly dropped the stick and ran. He didn't get more than 10 feet away before Glinda managed to hex him, freezing him in place. It was a snap, bringing him to justice after that. But Glinda left his sentencing to her newly reformed police force. She had eyes only for the poor dog that the man had been brutalizing.
"Hey there!" Glinda said sweetly, approaching the dog with the utmost respect and gentleness. Glinda was surprised to see how defiant and intelligent it looked. For a creature that had just endured a horrible beating, it didn't look frightened at all.
"Are you an Animal?' Glinda asked nervously, hoping her cooing wouldn't be misread as an insult to the dog's intelligence if, in fact, it turned out that this dog was actually a Dog. But it didn't take Glinda long to realize that she was mistaken. Although she thought that she had seen some sort of other-worldly intelligence in the mutt's eyes, all it took was one silly little bark for Glinda to understand. This was only a dog. But even so, no creature, animal or Animal, deserved to be brutalized or attacked like that.
Glinda extended a hand to the dog and it loped over to her happily, tail wagging now that it knew it was safe. It licked Glinda's hand and nuzzled her when she knelt down to embrace it. Giggling, Glinda made the decision to adopt the poor thing right then and there. It was as thin as a pole, so clearly it wasn't someone's pet.
"How about you come home with me, huh?" she suggested playfully. The dog barked again and Glinda gave another laugh. "I'll take that as a yes!" she said, then she got to her feet again and gestured for the dog to follow her home. It did so with another happy bark, and a beautiful friendship was struck up from that very instance.
A week later, the dog had become a permanent establishment within the Emerald City Palace, the Royal Pet, so to speak. Although Glinda was still not sure what exact breed the dog was, she was assuming that it was some sort of hound. The dog was lithe, muscled, thin, and very fast. It had very short black fur and rich brown eyes. And as Glinda found out next, the dog was female.
"Poor girl," Glinda told the dog on her very first night at the palace. "I know how you feel. I lost the last of my family about a year ago now..." the dog whined in response, tilting her head as though she were asking Glinda what this meant.
"It was my best friend," Glinda explained, sniffling as she said this. "And her name was Elphaba. Elphaba Thropp. And I loved her..." Glinda broke off, body starting to tremble with the sobs that she could feeling rising up in her chest. The dog whined again, but this time, it was from sympathy and not curiosity. She nuzzled her way into Glinda's arms and licked her tears away.
"Oh, you are so sweet," Glinda sniffled, laughing wetly as the dog continued to nuzzle her and try to cheer her up.
A few minutes later, Glinda gave another weak laugh as she continued to pet her dog's fur.
"You almost remind me of her," the blond confessed. "I know it sounds silly, but you're kind, just like her. And you're spirited, and strong, and brave. You really are quite a lot like her..." then Glinda took in a deep breath. "Do you think, that is, would you mind if I... if I... named you after her?" she asked the dog. "I don't think I'd call you Elphaba or Elphie, exactly, but I remember her saying that one of her old nicknames was Fabala. Do you think...?" Glinda was hesitant to ask, but the moment the dog barked and wagged her tail, Glinda knew she'd received the dog's blessing.
"So!" she decided. "Fabala it is!"
As the years rolled by, Glinda and Fabala grew closer and closer every day, creating one of the strangest and truest friendships in all of Oz. Although a lot of Ozians found it amusing that their new queen was constantly parading around with the royal pet, none of them dared question it because it seemed that, dog or not, Fabala was one of a kind. She and Glinda really were a dream-team. How many times had Fabala managed to save Glinda from an assassination attempt, whether it be from sniffing out trouble to outright attacking the assassin even at the risk of losing her own life? And how many times had Glinda mercilessly ripped into anyone who dared speak a word against her precious pet? And there were several attempts on Fabala's life as well. Though she was only a dog, because she was such a symbol in the eyes of the public, she became a target. Glinda never took a single attempt on her royal pet's life lying down. Instead, she protected Fabala just as fiercely as Fabala protected her.
The only "complaint" Glinda had with Fabala was simply that she was a dog and not a Dog, though this wasn't anyone's fault.
"Hey, Fabala," Glinda said one night. Fabala raised her head and pricked up her ears. "Are you sure you aren't able to speak?" it was a silly question, but a small part of Glinda still hoped that Fabala would prove her wrong and turn out to be a Dog after all. Fabala seemed too smart to be a regular dog, but when all Glinda got in reply was a bark, Glinda knew that she was still wrong.
"Oh well, that's ok," she sighed. "I guess some animals just weren't meant to talk..." she didn't blame Fabala for being a dog, but she did have to admit that it would've been nice to have a Dog instead. But oh well, Fabala had proven herself many times over already. Glinda couldn't have been any happier with her four-legged friend if she had tried.
Glinda fell asleep about 20 minutes later, Fabala still curled up by her side. Once Glinda's breathing settled into its heavy sleeping rhythm, however, that bright spark of intelligence returned to Fabala's eyes.
"Oh, my sweet, beloved Glinda, I am so proud of you, and I love you so, so much..." then she nuzzled Glinda's golden curls lovingly. "I haven't forgotten you or your good deeds, or how far we've both come... together. I'm sorry I have to remain in hiding, but I promise I'll never leave your side again..." then Fabala licked her mistress' hand once before closing her own eyes and falling away into sleep as well.
AN: Yeah, random little fic where Elphaba somehow turns into a Dog to reunite with Glinda but, for both of their sakes, she pretends that she is only a dog. Also, Fabla is one of Elphaba's many nicknames in the book, just in case anyone wanted to know. This is the only one I think Glinda would know that wasn't also "Elphie" or "Fae" (which I'm not using because that's a Fiyeraba nickname and there is NO Fiyeraba in this house!) No offense to Fiyeraba shippers.