Chapter 3
"What an amazing start to the brand new series of My Little Pony, even if there were a few things that changed along the way." Pinkie cheerily bobs her head while munching on another fresh bag of popcorn. "I'm sure it would have been really interesting to see just how things may have turned out had everypony been that way from the start, especially with Twilight not being. . . well as Rainbow Dash loved to put it: an 'egghead.' It sure would make some things in this next episode not quite the same, though. . . so maybe we just keep those last two episodes between you all and me, and we won't have to let either Twilight or Rainbow Dash know that things could have been so different!
"Anyways, onto the next lovely trip down memory lane; this time going forwards just a little ways into the future, and still well within the first season. Some of you may guess the episode really quickly, because this one introduced a character a great many brony hath despised with all his heart." Pinkie sighed just a little, putting her popcorn to the side so she could stare directly into a camera to her right, her eyes sparkling with unknowable emotions. "And I won't blame all of you, because Fluttershy has been one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world for such a long time, and we all know that she is just the sweetest, kindest pony to ever grace Ponyville. . .
"Yes, I am talking about the episode that introduced us to the grumpy old version of Gilda the Griffon." A crowd gasps from absolutely nowhere. "Now I know we should all recognize that she's come a long way from then, and even if all the memories we have of meeting her weren't pleasant, some of us did have some amount of fun with her. And we did manage to teach her the value of friendship, and even made Griffonstone a little less resentful and mean in the process."
Pinkie's mane poofed extra curls as she adorned a large smile, her signature happy-go-lucky smile. "So let's all enjoy this look into the past and remember that not everypony starts out the best friend anypony could ask for."
"Hoof-biting action overload! She was like a sun superstar, flying higher and higher, and then Rainbow Dash swooshed down" Pinkie bounced around the path excitedly, mimicking the pegasus to the best of her earth-pony abilities, flailing her limbs like they were trick-performing pegasi themselves. "SWOOSH! and right before she hit the ground: SHOOM! She pulled up!"
The bubbly pink pony exclaimed excitedly, making sounds that Twilight would have been greatly interested in discovering the source of, had the unicorn actually been paying attention. As it was, she was much too busy reading a rather bland book she had taken from the library to occupy her time. It wasn't really that entertaining or interesting, but the more knowledge a mare had, the better. "Uh huh."
Pinkie hopped into the air, still excitedly demonstrating exactly how awesome Rainbow Dash was in her performance, complete with elaborate 'wooshes' and lively flailing in the air. After several acrobatic maneuvers that would forever defy the laws of gravity, Pinkie paused a few feet above the ground, pausing so she could make sure she had Twilight's attention. With a final heave and woosh, the pink mare dropped onto the ground once more, panting at her own exertions. "And she did this amazing WHOOM!"
"Uh huh."
Twilight glanced up as to why Pinkie had ceased her energetic tale, figuring it out quickly as she watched a particularly famous pegasus fly by overhead, who also earned the attention of one of her adoring fans. "Hey, Rainbow Dash!"
The named mare glanced down to see who called her name, only to groan and roll her eyes upon realizing it was Pinkie Pie. She couldn't stop the muttering, not that she wanted to; "Pinkie Pie? Not again."
It was with a sudden burst of speed, the athlete took off, hoping to escape the machinations of her dear, dear friend. Pinkie wasn't having any of that, though, and began bouncing merrily after the pegasus, leaving Twilight to sigh in relief, flipping the page to continue reading in peace.
Rainbow Dash flew faster, knowing that a bouncing Pinkie was hot on her tail. Though she knew that she could easily just hit her top speed and pull some quick maneuvers to escape the mare, she wasn't really in the mood for advanced aerobatics. Pinkie was insistent, however, easily keeping pace with the pegasus, despite showing know apparent effort to do so. "Rainbow Dash!"
"Not now, Pinkie Pie!" She called, picking up her pace in just generally outdistancing the party pony. It did nothing, though, as Pinkie just kept on bouncing right below her.
"But-but, Rainbow Dash-" By now they had gotten close to the outskirts of town.
"I said not now!" Rainbow put as much effort into a burst of speed as she could, hoping to just plain rush away from Pinkie and find somewhere safe to nap. She got a single pump of her wings before a large, brown mountain literally appeared from nowhere, deciding that it really wanted her to take a nap on the ground. The impact was jarring sure, but the worst part was after she slid to it's base, Pinkie nonchalantly bounced up, a cheery tone in her voice.
"I was gonna tell you to look out for that mountain." The delivery more than anything irritated Rainbow, and she wanted to give a hot retort, but smacking her foreface into a mountain like that really hurt.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony, Ahhhh . . . Skip!
Pinkie bounced along the roadside merrily, humming the tune of a song that only she had ever heard. She stopped her happy trek down one of the streets of Ponyville to ask one of it's residents, and in her usually chippy voice, sweetly got the mare's attention. "Hi! I'm looking for Rainbow Dash, have you seen her?"
Unfortunately, the mare only shook her head, though it didn't seem to bother Pinkie; what really did, though? She smiled and started bouncing around town again.
Bouncing along, she found her next friend to ask, none other than the much beloved Derpy Hooves, who was standing at a stand talking to the salespony. "Hi there! Have you seen Rainbow Dash?"
Derpy also had to shake her head, as it seemed that the athletic pegasus just didn't wish to be seen today. Pinkie wasn't going to be fazed, though, so she smiled, thanked the mare and continued along her way. As the bright pink mare made her rounds passed the Mayor's office and Town Hall, she came across Twilight, and if anypony was smart enough to find somepony fast, it was that genius. She called out loudly as she merrily bounced up: "Twilight! Have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?"
Twilight gave the pink party pony a confused look before glancing up at a cloud just above the buildings, where a cyan pegasus lay hiding, ears stuffed with fluffy cloud and her head half-way buried in the stuff. "Isn't she right up there?"
Pinkie gasped as soon as she saw her friend hiding in the cloud.
"Rainbow DA-SH" She called out in a singsong voice, though her call did have the effect of getting the pegasus' attention, it was more that Dash panicked, glancing around for any good hiding spot. Not seeing any, the cyan mare did the only thing she really knew what to do in emergency situations: fly. And fly fast!
She bolted from the cloud, completely obliterating it in the process, hurling herself as far from the pink menace as she could. Pinkie, meanwhile, took her much more sedated and happy bouncing pace, confident that she could catch up without much work.
Rainbow Dash bolted through clouds, leaving awesome speed holes that she totally would have been impressed by had she not been dealing with an emergency. She flew outside of town, and seeing that Sweet Apple Acres was just a mile away, bolted behind the Apple family barn, hoping to hide from Pinkie there. Surely the pink mare wouldn't have seen where Dash had gone, surely.
"Phew." Dash sighed in relief after checking the corner for a second, Pinkie never even had a chance at catching up to her. She turned to find somewhere to nap in peace, trying to get her heart-rate down. "That was close."
"HI!" Pinkie burst out cheerily, popping into existence right behind Dash, startling the pegasus so badly that her mane temporarily transformed into a fish's fin being electrified.
"AH!" Dash took to the skies once again, flying away from the pink mare with every ounce of speed that her super athletic wings could carry her on. As she made her way out of the orchards, her speed cause a breeze that ripped apples off of their branches, cascading the ground in delicious looking red apples. Pinkie, once again, decided to take the calm, effect, and happy pace of a merry bounce.
This continued for several more attempts before Dash finally succumbed to the inevitable and gave up. She dropped to the ground, sighing in defeat. "Aw, forget it!"
"I totally promise it'll be a lot of fun!" Pinkie beamed, waiving her flippers in the air in her typical exaggerated fashion, only inciting Dash to sigh again.
"Okay. . ."
"A little over to the right!" Pinkie called, using her fore-hooves to eyeball the distance the cloud Dash was moving over the entrance to Town Hall. She had to get it perfect for this prank to work. It had taken a little bit of effort to get to this point, but they were already running short on time. "No, no. A little to the left! Oh, wait! Back to the right!"
This had to be perfect, but Pinkie just wasn't happy with it. "Now, a little left-ish, while staying right! Stop!"
She tapped a hoof to her chin, trying to find the perfect spot for that cloud, even though they were almost there! If only Rainbow Dash could move it just a little more: "Maybe a few inches to the south? And now a couple centimeters north! Okay, one more smidgimeter to the-"
"Pinkie Pie!" Dash barked exasperatedly.
"Oh, uh. I meant: perfect! Now, wait for my signal!" Pinkie chuckled, ducking under the overhang and peering inside the window to the town hall, where an unsuspecting purple dragon was busy grabbing a load of sealed scrolls. Spike was busy humming a tune as he exited, much to Pinkie's joy as she waved a hoof excitedly towards Dash.
The pegasus, upon realizing just what was going to happen, swung around the cloud and bucked it as hard as she could. Her pegasus hooves causing the cloud to give off a jolt of lightning and a loud clap of thunder. The resulting boom caused Spike to jump back, startled by the noise, before finishing with the grand finale of a hiccup.
The sound of the baby dragon hiccuping was more than enough to send the two mares into a fit of laughter, and Pinkie couldn't help but comment on the great side effect this prank had. "Rainbow Dash, we scared Spike into getting the hiccups!"
"Good one Pinkie Pie!" Spike called, though his speech was broken by a constant stream of hiccups. "You're always pullin' a fast one on me!"
He reached down and started to pick up the scattered scrolls that Twilight needed, only for all his efforts to be halted when a series of hiccups started causing him to spew blasts of fire out. The green fire was charring the scrolls to crisps, sending them on their magical way. The sudden appearance of the bouts of fire made both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash yelp in surprise, though concern soon replaced the mood. Pinkie trotted over to comfort a friend, though she made sure to keep a safe distance. "You're not hurt, are you?"
"Don't be silly; dragons are fireproof." Spike answered in between his hiccups, persisting in trying to pick up his mess. The two ponies nodded in acknowledgment even as more scrolls vanished from his breath.
"Oh, okay." Pinkie sighed, glancing at Dash. Neither one lasted more than a second before they burst into another fit of laughter. "Good."
Spike started jogging away, picking up each scroll individually, only to have the misfortune of a hiccup coming along just in time to send said scroll to Princess Celestia in a bright burst of sparkly green fire. After three, he had to stop to sigh in disappointment, though he had no choice but to persevere. "I just wish the same thing were true of scrolls."
"Have you seen anything more hilarious?!" Pinkie called out, rolling on her back as she fought back tears. Dash looked down on the rolling pink mar for a moment before she got a dark, wicked idea, though she had to play a cool face until it came true.
"Just one thing. . ." She added quietly, slowly backing up until she was right against the cloud, gently bringing her hind leg forwards. With swift movements, and while Pinkie was distracted humoring herself on the ground, she brought her leg back hard, slamming it against the cloud and sending a loud crack through the sky. The noise was enough to startle Pinkie into a quick yelp, which was appropriately followed by a bout of hiccups. The turn of events brought about the laughs from both ponies even harder, which grew exponentially with each hiccup. "I didn't take you for a prankster, Pinkie."
"Are you kidding?!" Pinkie asked in between hiccups. "I LOVE to pull pranks!It's all in good fun, and Pinkie loves to have fun!"
"You know, Pinkie Pie; you're not nearly as annoying as I thought you were. Say, do you wanna hang out?" Pinkie gasped, her eyes going wide as a happy grin split her face. That grin widened as she bounced around, speaking as she vanished in thin air, only allowing Dash to hear the occasional word from a sentence as she flew by. Dash rolled her eyes as she waited for the best time to stop Pinkie, extending her hoof in front of her. Pinkie attempted one more pass, only to find she slammed right into the pegasus' hoof, stopping her mid-sentence. "Just a simple nod with do."
With her excited nod, the two took off to a general supply store, purchasing a host of goodies that would make their day that much better.
"Do you even think she's home?" Dash asked, the two having taken positions behind a bush as they waited for Rarity to open the front door to her boutique. The pair of pranksters had left a nice little bouquet of flowers at the fashionista's doorstep, complete with a sweet little surprise. Pinkie shrugged at the question.
"I hope so; oh this is gonna be good!" She replied, the pair snickering at the potential of this prank. "Oh look, there she is!"
And sure as daylight, right as Pinkie said those words, the boutique door opened, revealing a curious Rarity glancing around for the ringer. The unicorn's eye was caught by some lovely flowers sitting at her doorstep, and she seemed overwhelmed with curiosity: she leaned down gently and took a hearty sniff.
Immediate regret was the apparent choice of emotion as she snapped back up, a dollop of bright pink powder dusting her muzzle. She gasped, sniffing at the strange powder whilst whimpering lightly. Pinkie and Dash giggled maniacally as Rarity began to sneeze rapidly, before taking off as the unicorn spotted them. As Dash bolted, she dropped a bottle of pony sneeze powder, which unfortunately released a cloud of dust that slapped Pinkie in the face.
Only through the power of Pinkie did Pinkie Pie manage to sneeze and, in a single burst, fly completely out of view.
Twilight studiously scribbled some notes onto her paper regarding the delicate potion she was brewing. Turning back to the mixture, she carefully poured one bottle into a second resting atop a Bunsen burner. As she turned back, she was mortified to find that the notes she had just taken had completely vanished! She looked worriedly around, wondering if she had just misplaced it, until her train of thought was interrupted by the potion behind her exploded.
She frowned as she tried to figure out what as going on, until a pair of ponies startled cackling like mad just outside her window.
Upon further inspection, she found both Pinkie and Dash hiding within the bushes just outside, with the latter holding up a bottle of invisible ink. The evidence proved that she was not mistake, simply the victim of a harmless prank, though it did nothing to alleviate her frustration. Yet, before she could outside and scold the two for interrupting her work, they bolted.
Applejack was just happy to get back to work after a short lunch in the barn, as she had already hitched up the cart and was all warmed up for some sweet apple bucking. She merrily walked out of the barn, pleased by the warm sun radiated her orange coat and the beautiful sight of shining painted apples-
She blinked, caught completely by surprise at the wool-knitted appearance her apples had taken, until the culprits behind this heinous act revealed themselves through malicious laughter. She turned to see both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash sitting beside the well, bearing painting hats and painting palettes. She glared daggers at them for what they had done, grabbing a hoof-ful of those very same bright colored apples and hurling them at the pranksters to leave the farm.
One such apple found itself within the water of the well, the paint thankfully washing off, leaving the farmer with a small sense of humor at the playful event that had happened: it wasn't really unlike Dash to do something like this from time to time.
Fluttershy always loved sitting outside while feeding the lovely aquatic animals. Today was no exception, though that mysterious multicolored animal that had a strange rope tied to it wasn't one of her regulars. Still, animals needed to be cared for, and she wouldn't let any suffer for it, so she happily walked over to the animal, unsuspecting of the prank about to come her way.
"Oh, hello there, friend. I don't think I've seen you around before." She began sweetly, smiling as kindly as possible to this creature. It showed no sign of responding, so she figured she'd try her other approach to frightened animals. She crouched real low and silently inched up to it, looking as harmless as possible. "If you don't mind me asking, just what kind of creature are you?"
Nothing. It seemed she was going to have to try harder, but for any animal's sake, she wouldn't let them down.
She gently reached a hoof out to the creature, which appeared to be some kind of. . . turtle/frog/lizard thing with buttons for eyes. Upon realizing this, she gasped and stepped closer to it, then shrinking as she realized she may have scared the poor creature. "Oh my. Are you okay? I've never seen an animal with button eyes before."
As she worried over this strange creature, she was oblivious to the prank war happening just on the other side of the lake. Though it wasn't until after the two pranksters had left that she finally figured out that this thing was not in fact an animal, but was just some washed up toy. That did make her feel a little better.
The following morning, Pinkie was super duper excited for the pranks she and Dash were going to do; so excited, in fact, that she even got her best game-day pranking outfit ready. Happily trotting over to the pegasus' house, she called excitedly for the day to commence. What she was not expecting was a to peak it's head out over Dash's home, or for Dash to already be up and about, with said Creature.
"Morning, Pinks." Dash greeted with a smile as she also poked her head over the side, then flying down to introduce Pinkie to this strange griffon. "Gilda, this is my gal-pal, Pinkie Pie."
The griffon, apparently by the name of Gilda, dropped down from the cloud house without even opening her wings, simply showing off how awesome she was. Pinkie immediately knew this was a friend of Rainbow Dash. Immediately. Gilda gave Pinkie a once-over before looking away nonchalantly, brushing a claw against her brown chest feathers. "Hey, what's up?"
"Pinkie," Dash got the pink pony's attention. "This is my griffon friend, Gilda."
"Cool. What's a griffon?"
"She's half eagle, and half lion." Dash explained, with Gilda puffing her chest out arrogantly.
"And all awesome." Gilda proclaimed loudly, granting Dash a quick hug before the two parted and did their best-friend hoof/claw shake. Pinkie was totally blindsided by this revelation, though the blows didn't stop there.
"Gilda's my best friend from back in my days at the Junior Speedster flight camp." Dash explained to Pinkie, pulling out a flag from said program before tossing it to the griffon. "Hey, Gilda: remember the chant?"
"Duh. They made us recite it every morning. I'll never get that lame thing out of my head." Gilda responded sarcastically, brushing a talon against her coat while trying to avoid the gleaming pink eyes of her best friend. Unfortunately for the egotistical griffon, Dash was very pumped about reciting the "lame" chant, going so far as to raise her eyebrows and roll a hoof for them to proceed to the chant. It took a second, but Gilda finally realized what was going on, though she was far less enthused by the idea. "Only for you, Dash."
Without any further prompting, the cyan mare launched into the air, chanting with as much spirit as she gives to her workouts: "Junior Speedsters are out lives;-"
Gilda followed along with significantly less enthusiasm after a short delay, and even her "spirited chanting" was lackluster.
"-sky-bound soars and daring dives!" Dash performed a multitude of spins and twirls, which Gilda might have "attempted" to copy, but she wasn't really into the whole thing. "Junior Speedsters, it's our quest, to someday be the very best!"
With a flourish, the pair dived to the ground and landed in poses of awesomeness, though Gilda wore her usual indifference to the act. Pinkie started giggling like mad at the show, while Dash fixed her mane and did her best to look absolutely awesome. Gilda, on the other hoof, or claw, seemed really disappointed with life itself for having to have suffered through this ordeal one last time. "Oh, that was awesome! And it gave me a great idea for a prank!"
Pinkie slammed her face into the dirt, where her previous headgear had dropped, not even bothering to pick it up like a normal pony.
Hey, who says I even have to be a normal pony?! HUH? HUH? My friends like me just the way I am, and everypony in Ponyville is more than happy to have such a wonderful party planner and amazing prankster such as myself in the town!
And we all adore you because of it; even if you have a habit of breaking reality and going on pranking wars with Deadpool across Youtube.
"Hey, Gilda, you game?" Pinkie asked in her bubbly voice. The invite seemed to shake Gilda a little.
"You know, I love a good prank as much as the next griffon, but Dash and I have a bit of a private flying session she promised me, so. . . catch ya next time?" And with that, she took off, leaving the aforementioned mare to defuse the situation, though Dash seemed completely ill-prepared for the task.
"Yeah. . . uh. . ." She began halfheartedly, rubbing her neck with a hoof. "Well. . . Pinkie Pie, you don't mind, do you? Gilda just got here and we were hoping to do some catching up. Maybe we could catch ya later?"
"Oh. . . um. . . sure, no problem! Have fun you guys!" Pinkie answered dejectedly, her ears flopping onto her masked head as she watched her plans fly away with that griffon. They were still in sight, so she figured she'd get in a final word or two before they left. "I'll just catch up with you guys. . . later."
Feeling particularly down that her plans for the day were now ruined, she decided to take a few minutes to think over what she was going to do now. Perhaps a nice cold milkshake was just the thing she needed to conjure up a plan. So with a new approach to her dilemma in mind, she put on a brave face and started trotting back to Ponyville proper, though the beginnings of a new idea were already starting to sprout for her.
Meanwhile Dash and Gilda had busied themselves with a friendly bout of competitive aeronautics and aerial acrobatics, performing daring dives and loops, racing barrel rolls and steep climbs. Eventually, Gilda touched down on a cloud, giving her wings a chance to rest while she searched the skies for her friend.
It was actually Dash who found Gilda first, making her presence known in the form of a blur blur slamming into the very cloud Gilda was resting on, sending tufts of the soft material everywhere. As Dash unrolled from a fuzzy patch, the two began to giggle like mad. "Just like old times, eh Dash?"
"Yeah!" Dash cheerily replied, rolling onto her back and spreading her wings out, giving her a chance to catch her breath. "Only we're so much faster now!"
There was a pause as both regained control of their breathing, then Dash spoke up again: "What now?"
"HI GUYS!" Pinkie burst into view excitedly, poking her head up through the cloud before vanishing below it again. Her voice only came through as she appeared. "It's later. . . and I caught up!"
Dash looked genuinely happy to see her friend, after all: it had been some time since she'd seen Pinkie. Gilda, though, was far from happy to have this little get-together interrupted by the pink menace, made apparent by the daggers she glared towards Pinkie. She looked to the pegasus. "Hey Dash, think you still got enough gas in the tank to beat me to that cloud?"
"A race? You are so on!" Dash replied hotly, flaring her wings and crouching to take off, momentarily forgetting about the pink pony bouncing on a trampoline just below. "ONETWOTHREEGO!"
The two took off like launching like a pair of missile sailing directly for a distant cloud.
The pair gave it their all, pumping their wings to the max to see just who truly was the faster between them, coming to a very close ending as they both exploded through the cloud, leaving little of it remaining. Dash called out victoriously: "I won!"
"As if!" Gilda remarked disdainfully. "I won, dude!"
"No way!" Dash argued, and the two got into a heated debate over the true victor, unaware to the creeping Pinkie floating on pink balloons just behind them.
"Wow guys! That was really cool!" Pinkie proclaimed, flailing around wildly, though she was hardly secure in her spot. "But I think Rainbow Dash beat you by just a teensy-weensy little hair. Or a teeny-weeny itty-bitty feather!"
"Oh yeah!" Dash exclaimed loudly. "Good thing Pinkie Pie was here to keep you honest, huh G?"
Gilda was tired of this pink pony here interfering with her good time, so all she had to do was keep Dash away from her, perhaps by simply going higher? "Alright, you won this one Dash. Tell you what: last one to that cloud way up there is a knobbly dragon egg!"
The two soared up, leaving a cloud in their wake, which dissipated, revealing an upset Gilda waiting in the dust. "I think the high altitude is making you dizzy."
The malice in her voice was sharpened as she began to pop Pinkie's balloons, one by one, until Pinkie began to descend to the ground. Once Gilda was certain that she had dealt with Pinkie, she rocketed up to meet Dash at the cloud, planning to give this to the egotistical mare anyways, sighing in relief as Dash hadn't seemed to suspect a thing.
"Phew, that was close!" That bright, cheerful voice was beginning to really drill Gilda's nerves. She turned to glare at the pony who was now flying some weird sort of contraption up to them. "You guys almost got away from me that time!"
"Hey, Dash? Got any new moves you want to show me?" Gilda asked nicely, finding a way to distract her long enough to deal with Pinkie.
"Pft. What kind of question is that? You want to see something new and awesome? I got new and awesome!" With that, Dash flew off to do some of her favorite stunts for Gilda, who was busy ringing Pinkie into leaving them.
"Can't you just take a hint? Get lost loser! Dash has a cool friend in town now, and I don't need you geeking up our style. Why don't you do us all a favor and just buzz off!" Gilda said grumpily, grabbing Pinkie's machine by its propeller and sending her spinning uncontrollably towards the ground.
Dash landed on the cloud, gloating about her awesomeness before asking where Pinkie went. Gilda just shrugged. "She left, saying something about being as busy as a bee."
"I don't know Pinkie, kind of sounds like Gilda isn't really that bad." Twilight said, flipping through her book in the library. Pinkie huffed, but continued her pacing in the back.
"What?! She has been keeping Rainbow Dash from me! She popped my balloons! She even called me a loser and told me to buzz off!" Pinkie huffed.
"And while it wasn't nice of her to say that, I have to stand by my point that it sounds more like she is just trying to enjoy her time catching up with a friend." Twilight said, putting her book away to look at her friend. "Do you really want me to be honest here?"
Pinkie nodded solemnly, with Twilight sighing at what she knew she had to say. "Pinkie, I think you may just be jealous. Just because Rainbow Dash has another friend doesn't make Gilda a grump, though she may be difficult to get along with."
Pinkie gaped at Twilight, staring as though the unicorn had declared herself the new queen of Equestria. "J-Jealous?!"
Shaking her head and stammering to get her thoughts together, Pinkie stormed out of the library, furious at the implications. Maybe all she needed was some time away from her friends so she could clear her head and find some kind of solution. She trotted through the streets of Ponyville, mind buzzing as she deciphered the situation. Maybe all she needed was yet another milkshake to settle her decisions, a cold path for her to contemplate this issue.
So, an hour later, with both Dash and Gilda soaring overhead, Pinkie settled outside Sugarcube Corner with one such milkshake, glaring at that big meanie griffon. She watched as the two shared some words, then Gilda dropped from the skies and into the market, nearly slamming into Fluttershy, who was distracted with helping a family of ducks move through town.
Gilda never even stopped until she hit the pegasus, knocking Fluttershy onto her flank in the process. "Hey!"
"Oh, um, excuse me." Fluttershy immediately mumbled before she had even turned around, though she was in for a surprise when she did, as Gilda towered over her.
"I'm walking here!" Gilda spat out, leaning in closer as the buttery mare backed up slightly.
"Oh. I'm sorry; I was just trying to-" Fluttershy began, her anxiety was bad enough around nice ponies, but this mean griffon, for she recognized Gilda as such, was more than enough to frighten her out of her mind. Gilda was having none of it.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Gilda began in a mocking tone, towering herself over Fluttershy to be as intimidating as possible. She spat out everything she wanted to say as venomously as she could: "Why don't you just watch where you're going, doofus?! Other creatures are trying to go about their day, and here you are hogging the road! MOVE!"
Fluttershy recoiled as if Gilda had actually hit her, though the words stung much, much worse. She started stammering, hoping to defuse the situation by explaining that the ducks needed to be moved to a new home, but before she could get a proper word out, Gilda inhaled sharply, cutting off any response simply, then following up with a fierce roar, scaring Fluttershy worse than a public appearance. The mare starting crying as she bolted out of the market, flapping her wings meekly as she tried to fly away, though her terror prevented any such movement.
The crowd gathered around her gasped in horror as they watched what had happened, though Gilda didn't care at all, until she tried to take off, complaining the whole while. Before she could leave, Dash stepped out of the crowd. "Gilda, what was that?!"
"What?" Gilda scoffed, as if this was nothing more than an inconvenience. "That pony was in my way, so I told her off, you know; like we used to in school?"
"That pony is my best friend: Fluttershy!" Dash growled, doing her best to control the rage building up under her skin. "And you crashed into her, she was not in your way. Fluttershy is the kindest pony you will ever meet, and you have no right to treat her that way! Also, I never treated anypony like that in school: I stopped ponies from treating others like that!"
"Oh please. Maybe you weren't as cool as I thought you were." Gilda moaned, acting like she was the better creature here.
"If this is your idea of 'cool,' then I want nothing to do with you." Dash said, the rage in her voice dripping off into an icy venom. "Get out of Ponyville, and don't even show a tail-feather here unless you've come to apologize!"
Gilda actually looked shocked for a moment, but then she put on her 'cool' face and scoffed, brushing a talon against her chest before launching herself into the air. "Maybe I didn't want to be here in the first place."
And with that, she took off soaring into the clouds, leaving a distressed Rainbow Dash to attempt to placate a horrified Fluttershy.
"Dearest Princess Celestia, 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."