My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Griffon the Brush Off
A/N: Here's the final chapter, folks. So, since I have a morning shift at work tomorrow, I'm posting this today, but next week I'll be posting on Thursday, which my normal day.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from My Little Pony: Magic is Friendship. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
CHAPTER FOUR: PARTY MAYHEM!
The next day, Pinkie Pie was welcoming the ponies to the party she was throwing at Sugarcube Corner for Gilda, and Sunrise Blossom was setting up the remaining refreshments while a number of ponies were wondering who Gilda was since most had never seen a griffon before.
"Who's this Gilda I've heard nothing about?" Applejack wondered.
"I hear she's an old friend of Rainbow Dash," Rarity replied. "A griffon, so rare."
Twilight Sparkle was looking forward to meeting her first ever griffon and she approached Fluttershy, who was still a bit twitchy from her encounter with said griffon yesterday and had to be convinced by Sunrise Blossom to come to the party. "You've met Gilda, right?" she asked interested. "What's she like?"
"Oh, um, well, I'll tell you later, Twilight," Fluttershy promised before heading over to Pinkie Pie, who was still welcoming the still-arriving ponies. "Um, Pinkie Pie, about this party for Gilda," she said hesitantly. "Umm… Do you really think it's a good idea? I mean-"
"Don't worry your pretty little head about mean old Gilda," Pinkie Pie promised her shy friend, nooging her. "Your auntie Pinkie Pie's got it all taken care of." And she trotted back to the door to finish greeting her guests.
"I'm a year older than you," Fluttershy grumbled before walking away.
Pinkie Pie's smile widened when the griffon arrived. "Gilda!" she exclaimed. "I'm so honored to throw you one of my signature Pinkie Pie parties, and I really, truly, sincerely, hope you feel welcome here amongst all us pony folk." She then held out her hoof and when Gilda shook it, she caught a shock that left her feathers standing on end as she dropped to floor, and the pink pony laughed, revealing the buzzer on her hoof.
Rainbow Dash was also laughing as she joined them. "Oh Pinkie Pie, the old hoof-shake buzzer," she praised while the griffon picked herself up and smoothed down her feathers. "You are a scream."
"Yeah," Gilda agreed, chuckling nervously, "uh, good one, Pinkie Pie."
Still laughing, Rainbow Dash trotted off. "Come on G, I'll introduce you to some of my other friends."
"Right behind you Dash," said Gilda before glowering at the smiling pink pony. "I know what you're up to."
"Great," said Pinkie Pie, not letting the griffon's anger get to her.
Gilda growled. "Rrrh. I know what you're planning."
Pinkie Pie giggled. "Well, I hope so. This wasn't supposed to be a surprise party."
The griffon stepped closer and fixed her with a hard look. "I mean, I've got my eye on you."
"And I got my eye on you," Pinkie Pie agreed cheerfully before turning to the crowded room. "Everyone, I'd like you all to meet Gilda, a long-time, dear friend of Rainbow Dash. Let's honor her and welcome her to Ponyville." And the ponies all cheered. She then went to one of the tables covered with refreshments, and she gestured to it. "Please help yourself."
Gilda went over to the table and her face brightened when she saw the selection. "Vanilla lemon drops. Don't mind if I do." She selected a yellow candy from one of the bowls, and she popped it into her mouth. The moment she began sucking on it, she suddenly overwhelmed with a burning sensation and steams shot out of her ears while she screamed, letting out a blast of fire, which Pinkie Pie used to roast a marshmallow. "HOT!"
"G, the punch," Rainbow Dash called out.
Gilda, gasping from the pain, raced over to the table, snatched up one of the cups, and began downing the punch. However, when she felt wetness on her feathers, she saw that the liquid wasn't going down her throat, but through a small hole instead. "Huh?" And the ponies all laughed.
"Well, whaddya know," said Pinkie Pie with a laugh, "pepper in the vanilla lemon drops, and the punch served in a dribble glass."
Rainbow Dash laughed and nearly fell over. "Ha. Priceless. Priceless."
Gilda dashed to a different table, where she accepted a cup of punch from Sunrise Blossom, and she gulped it down until the burning sensation stopped. "Yeah," she gasped, "hilarious."
Rainbow Dash flew over to a table that was covered with wrapped presents. "Hey G, look, presents."
Gilda zipped over to the table with a happy expression. Selecting a tube-like present, she opened it – and she yelped when fake hissing snakes popped out, scaring her to the point that the feathers around her head puffed out, and the ponies burst out laughing.
"Spittin' snakes," Applejack remarked, laughing. "Hah, somepony pulled that prank on me last month."
"Ha ha," said Gilda sarcastically, her eyes narrowing a little. "I bet I know who that was."
"You do?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently.
As the party continued, Fluttershy had her bird friends come in to sing, and everypony was enjoying the singing while chattering with each other when Pinkie Pie rolled out a cart with a large pink cake with six candles on top.
"Cake time everypony!" she announced and they all gathered around.
"Hey, can I blow out the candles?" Spike asked eagerly.
"Why don't we let Gilda blow out the candles, Spike?" Twilight Sparkle suggested. "She is the guest of honor after all."
Gilda zipped up, knocking the baby dragon aside, startling Twilight Sparkle. "Exactly," she agreed, took a deep breath, and she blew the candles out – only to have them relit themselves. Blinking, she tried several more times to blow out the candles, much to the amusement of the ponies, and she was winded with the candles still lit.
Spike, who'd picked himself up and brushed himself off, came back over and he was also laughing. "Re-lighting birthday candles, I love that prank," he praised. "What a classic."
"Now, I wonder who could've done that?" Pinkie Pie wondered with a big smile.
"Yeah, I wonder," Gilda muttered, convinced that it was the pink pony.
Spike, however, began tunneling through the cake, eating up. "Mmm, who cares," he said, his head popping out of the top. "This cake is amazing."
"Spike," Twilight Sparkle and Sunrise Blossom both scolded.
"What? It's great, try some," the baby dragon offered, and the twins rolled their eyes, exasperated with him.
Rainbow Dash trotted over to the griffon, who quickly hid the fact that she was angry."Hey G, you're not upset about some silly candles, are you?"
"No way, Dash," Gilda assured her. "Like I said, I'm down with a good prank."
The blue pegasus was thrilled to hear that, and went to get some of the second cake that Sunrise Blossom had brought out to replace the one that Spike was still eating, and none of the ponies wanted to eat that particular cake. "Come on then, let's have some cake."
Pinkie Pie was taking a bite of the dragon-infected cake when Gilda grabbed her by her throat and pulled her behind the cake. "Hey, I'm watching you," she hissed. "Like a hawk."
"Why?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Can't you watch me like a griffon?"
"Hey y'all," Applejack called out and they both came out from behind the cake like nothing was wrong, "it's pin the tail on the pony. Let's play."
"Oh, my favorite game," said Rarity with a delighted expression. "Can I go first? Can I have the purple tail?" And she bent down to pick up the fake purple tail.
Gilda, however, snatched up the purple tail first. "Well, I am the guest of honor, and I'll have the purple tail," she announced, holding it in her claws.
"Yeah, Gilda should definitely go first," Pinkie Pie agreed. "Let's get you blindfolded."
Before Gilda could protest, Spike hopped onto her back and tied a blue blindfold around her eyes. "Hey what- ugh- what are you doing? Rrrah," she groaned, frustrated since she couldn't see, and he hopped right back off.
Pinkie Pie up and quickly spun her in a fast circle to make her dizzy. "We're spinning you around and around and then you can pin the tail on the pony," she said cheerfully, guiding her to the poster. "Now just walk straight ahead and pin the tail."
"Now just walk straight ahead and pin the tail," Gilda said mockingly, pulling her foreleg free. "Hmph, yeah, right. This is another prank, isn't it? I'm going this way." And she began walking the opposite way.
"Wait," Pinkie Pie called after her, alarmed. "The poster is this-"
Just then, Gilda slipped on some frosting and went sliding across the room and out the front door with a resounding crash. "Whoa whaa waah waah waaaaah!" Groaning, she staggered back into the room with the fake tail resting on her beck like a mustache.
"Uh, Gilda?" said Pinkie Pie, giggling. "You pinned the tail on the wrong end." And the ponies all laughed.
However, this was clearly the last straw for Gilda, who let out a really loud roar, and she stalked past the startled ponies and toward Pinkie Pie. "This is your idea of a good time?" she demanded angrily. "I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life. And Pinkie Pie, you! You are queen lame-o with your weak little party pranks. Did you really think you could make me lose my cool?" She then went over to Rainbow Dash, who was frowning at the griffon. "Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together. Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene." She went to the door and looked back, surprised that the blue pegasus wasn't following her. "Come on, Rainbow Dash. I said, we're leaving."
Frowning, Rainbow Dash moved in front of Pinkie Pie. "You know Gilda, I was the one who set up all those weak pranks at this party," she announced.
Gilda gasped, staring at her. "What?"
"Ooh," said Pinkie Pie, having not seen that coming.
Rainbow Dash nodded grimly. "So I guess I'm queen lame-o."
"Come on, Dash," said Gilda, refusing to believe that, "you're joshing me."
"They weren't all meant for you specifically," Rainbow Dash explained, "it was just dumb luck that you set them all off."
"I shoulda known, that dribble cup had Rainbow Dash written all over it," Pinkie Pie remarked.
Gilda shook her head. "No way," she protested. "It was Pinkie Pie. She set up this party to trip me up, to make a fool of me."
"Me?" Pinkie Pie repeated, surprised. "I threw this party to improve your attitude. I thought a good party might turn that frown upside down."
"Yeah, especially after you were rude to Fluttershy yesterday," Sunrise Blossom added, moving next to her friends, frowning at the griffon. "I don't know what things are like where you're from, but bullying other ponies is uncalled for."
"And you sure didn't need any help making a fool of yourself," Rainbow Dash added, disappointed that the griffon was acting like this toward her friends. "You know, this is not how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends. If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find some new cool friends someplace else."
Gilda looked around at the ponies, who were all disappointed with her and she growled. "Rrgh. Yeah? Well you, you, you are such a, a flip-flop: cool one minute and lame the next," she spat. "When you decide not to be lame anymore, gimme a call." And she stormed out of the shop, slamming the door behind her.
Rainbow Dash shoo her head, disappointed. "Not cool."
"Wow, talk about a party pooper," Spike remarked.
"Wow, what was that about?" Twilight Sparkle wondered and many of the other ponies agreed with her question.
"Twi, you remember that filly that tried to isolate me from you and our friends so that I would be her only friend?" Sunrise Blossom asked her twin, who nodded. "I think Gilda was trying to keep Rainbow Dash to herself so that she didn't have any other friends."
"Oh," said Twilight Sparkle since that made sense.
Rainbow Dash turned to her friends. "I'm sorry everypony, for bringing Gilda here," she apologized. "I didn't know how rude she was. And Pinkie Pie, I'm really sorry she ruined that awesome party you put on for her."
"Hey, if you want to hang out with party poopers, that's your business," Pinkie Pie replied with one of her trademark smiles.
"I'd rather hang out with you," Rainbow Dash admitted. "No hard feelings?"
Pinkie Pie beamed. No hard feelings." And when they went to shake hooves, they ended up shocking each other, and, despite their fried expressions, burst out laughing and the rest of the ponies joined in.
Twilight Sparkle walked over to Pinkie Pie, who was shaking her mane back to normal. "Hey Pinkie. Sorry I accused you of misjudging Gilda," she apologized. "Looks like I'm the one who misjudged you."
"It's okay Twilight, even you can't be a super smart smarty smart-pants all the time," Pinkie Pie responded and then went bouncing around the room. "Come on everypony, there's still a whole lotta party to finish." And the ponies all cheered.
Twilight Sparkle smiled and wrote a quick note for Princess Celestia, adding a little surprise as she tied it up and gave it to Spike to deliver.
In her study, which had been cleaned up after the flood of scrolls, Princess Celestia looked up as the scroll magically appeared, and she opened it to read it, raising an eyebrow when a blue pot of ink popped out. "Dearest Princess Celestia," she read. "Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice. Though it's impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior. Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and one who's true will surely come to light. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
'A good lesson indeed,' Princess Celestia thought as she magically brought over parchment, a quill, and opened the ink pot so that she could write a response. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, My most faithful student…"she began and then blinked when the words she wrote disappeared. She looked at the pot and removed the label to reveal the correct "disappearing ink" label. "Oh! Heh, wrong ink."
Amused by the prank, Princess Celestia retrieved her standard gold inkwell, and she began writing the letter for her student. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, My most faithful student…"
A/N: When I first watched this episode and saw how Twilight Sparkle was brushing off Pinkie Pie's concerns about Gilda and not taking her seriously, it reminded me a bit of how some of the teachers in elementary school wouldn't take it seriously when I was being bullied. Too often they would tell my parents that the bullies were just being kids and playing around, that they would grow out of it, and the worst was when they would say that I was too sensitive. However, after one bully physically harmed me by shoving me down, they change their tunes, and took the bullying problem more seriously. R&R everyone!