Chapter 17: Griffon Brushoff
It was a few days after everything that had happened with Spyro and his friends, dealing with Marluxia and his dark roses, as well as the Princess and her decision of allowing Spyro a herd of his own and he was still not very pleased about it. He was out in the fields after having finished the chores he was assigned, after which he flew into the clouds to get some peace and quiet and to think about all that happened, still upset that the princesses decision, but having to live with it as her mind seemed made up. A moment later, something ran into him and knocked him off the cloud he was on and into another, looking to see it was Rainbow Dash who ran into him, again.
"Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?" He asked, getting up. "You already that desperate for my attention?"
"Don't tell Pinkie I'm here!" She said, pulling her off the edge of the cloud. "She's been following me all day."
Spyro looked over the edge of the cloud and sure enough, there she was hopping up the trail humming to herself, not a care in the world until she looked up and waved to him.
"Hey there Spyro!" She shouted. "I'm looking for Rainbow Dash. Have you seen her?"
He looked over to the rainbow pegasus and she shook her head, asking him not to say she was there, but didn't want to tell a lie to his friend, but then again he was still a little peeved that Pinkie shot him with her Party Cannon, so he looked back over the edge to look at Pinkie.
"She ran into me not too long ago!" He shouted. "I didn't see where she was going though as I got knocked off the cloud I was on into this one!"
"Okay!" She replied. Thank's anyway!"
She then hopped away, still following the last know direction Rainbow Dash was going, following the dirt trail hoping to catch up with the lightning fast mare. Rainbow Dash looked back over the edge to make sure Pinkie was gone before breathing in relief, looking to the hybrid and smiling.
"Thanks Spyro, I owe you one." Rainbow Dash said.
"Don't mention it." Spyro replied. "Plus, I'm still a little sore at Pinkie for shooting me with a cannon. But why are you running from Pinkie in the first place?"
"Because she's been following me all day long!" Rainbow Dash said, frustration in her voice. "I've been trying to get some peace and quiet and relax on my day off, but she's been following me everywhere."
"Didn't it occur to you she might need your help with something?" Spyro asked, raising an eyebrow at the mare.
"This is Pinkie Pie we are talking about here." Rainbow Dash said. "She's the most random pony there is in Ponyville. Whatever it is, it's probably something just as random."
Spyro watched as the rainbow pony flew off back to Ponyville, leaving Spyro alone, but he was a little disappointed that she would just run from her friend without even hearing what she needed from her. Deciding to make things right, he flew after Pinkie, catching up with her and landing in front of her.
"I just saw Rainbow Dash." Spyro said. "She's heading back into Ponyville."
"Oh really?" Pinkie asked, turning around. "Thanks Spyro."
"But if I may ask, what do you need her for anyway?" Spyro asked, walking with Pinkie.
"Oh, I need to ask her a favor." Pinkie replied. "I know she's going to love it!"
She then hopped off back towards Ponyville, leaving him wondering what she needed Rainbow Dash for anyway, but deciding to leave it as Pinkie being Pinkie and headed back to the orchard. He went into his Gummi garage to perform some routine maintenance on the vessel as it had been in combat for the first time and wanted to see the charts on how it did and any problems that came up after battle. But as soon as he pressed the first button, a hidden door opened up on the console and he got hit with a pie to the face, covering him in a sweet and delicious treat, but wondering how that got there in the first place. He got his answer when he heard laughter outside of the garage, finding Pinkie and Rainbow Dash with some tools at their hooves.
"That's what you get for ratting on me!" Rainbow Dash said, the pair running off laughing.
"Oh a couple of wise guys." Spyro said, licking the pie off his face. "As the old saying goes, 'If thou prank a prankster, be prepared to be pranked back.'"
A little while later, he spotted them coming out of a joke shop with a bunch of gags and planking supplies, watching them as they ran somewhere in Ponyville to get started, but he had already anticipated their route, flying ahead and setting up a molasses trap with feathers at the end. He waited for the girls to run by and breathed ice on the ground, watching as they slide on it and into the trap he set. When they came out, they looked like four legged chickens.
"That's something to cluck about there." Spyro said, laughing as he walked up to them.
"Good one Spyro." Rainbow Dash said, both the girls laughing. "I didn't take you for being a prankster."
"You kidding?" Spyro asked. "Back when I was training at Master Yen Sids tower, Sora and I would get into a prank off with Riku everytime we got the chance."
"Hey, wanna join us in pranking everypony?" Pinkie asked, hopping up and down. "It'll be so much fun!"
"Why not?" Spyro replied. "I'm up for a little pranking and fun."
The whole day the trio went around pranking everyone of their friends, starting with Rarity with a bouquet that had sneezing powder in it, watching as she took a sniff, but started sneezing, making the trio laugh. Their next victim was Twilight as she was in the middle of an experiment, preparing to write about a chemical reaction, but what she didn't know was Spyro had snuck in using his spell to make himself transparent, sneaking in and switching her ink with the invisible ink they had gotten from the joke store. When she started her experiment, she wrote down what she did first, but the words disappeared as she had her back to the parchment, making the paper blank when she looked back, confusing her. When she heard their laughter, she looked out the window and smiled at the three of them for the prank, walking away to get her actual ink. But at Sweet Apple Acres, they really stirred the hornets nest when they painted the apples and when Applejack came out and saw the apples, she was livid when she saw the three of them snickering and threw apples at them, driving the three off when she saw it could be washed off.
"Man, we got AJ good!" Pinkie said. "Who should we prank next?"
"Well, it's going to be someone else you know, but I can't join you for the next one." Spyro said, disappointing his friends. "I promised Fluttershy I'd help her out this afternoon. Catch ya later."
He arrived at the local river, where Fluttershy was busy feeding the animals in the lake when he walked up, being careful not to spook the mare as he walked next to her.
"Seems like the lake critters are happy today." Spyro said.
"Oh yes, they are always happy to see me when I bring food." Fluttershy said, but immediately got nervous and looked away from him. "I-I'm sorry about what happened during that night. I-"
"Fluttershy, it's ok." Spyro said, wrapping his wing around her. "You don't need to keep apologizing for it. You couldn't have predicted that would happen. Stop beating yourself up about it."
She smiled and leaner her head onto his neck, feeling safe around him when they both heard something squeaky coming from their right, finding a funny looking turtle at the edge of the lake. Spyro walked towards the turtle, trying to get a better look at the river critter when he got hit in the face with a stream of water, looking annoyed as he knew exactly the two ponies who would pull a stunt like this. And his suspicions were correct when he saw the two of them laughing on the other side of the river, running as soon as he saw them.
"Prank me once, that's on me." Spyro said, shaking the water off. "But prank me twice, herd or no herd, I'm going to get even." As he took a few steps back to Ponyville, he fell into a pit trap where he got covered in molasses and feathers like he did with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, climbing up to look like a chicken, making Fluttershy snicker. "Prank me three times, ya'll just started a prank war!"
He took off after the two pranksters and for the rest of the day, the three of them put their all into the pranks they had, exchanging pranks with each other as the day went by. One prank, Spyro had asked Rarity if she had any hair dye she had and was glad to give it to him when she found out what he had planned, waiting for Rainbow Dash to take her afternoon nap before dying her mane pink, being careful not to wake her before moving to Pinkie, finding her napping too. He then got to work with her mane and coat, dying her mane cyan while also adding itching powder to it so when the two meet, they'd both be itching. In retaliation when they found out what he did, they got some sweets and put a special powder in it that makes whoever eats it pucker up to make a duck face, making it difficult for him to say or eat anything until it wore off.
As the day was coming to an end, the three of them had exhausted all their ideas for pranks as they leered at each other, Spyro covered in paint from their latest gag while they still had their dyed manes, but were itching like crazy and were covered in icing and cake, all three of them laughing when it was all over.
"That was so much fun!" Pinkie said, hopping. "We really got each other good."
"You said it Pinkie." Rainbow Dash said, scratching her back. "But I think the itching powder was a bit much."
"Maybe." Spyro replied, calling a rain loud to wash himself off. "A good shower should help you get cleaned up."
"Yeah, but what about our manes?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Are we stuck with our manes like this?"
"Nah, I ain't that mean." Spyro replied. "I asked Rarity if she had any that would wash off when you shower. Luckily for me, she did."
"Well that's a relief." Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her back on a nearby tree. "No offense to you Pinkie, but I didn't want to be stuck with a pink mane for however long dye usually lasts."
"None taken." Pinkie said, scratching her mane. "But we should really prank some more ponies! We all love pranking and we'd do a lot more funny pranks working together."
"Hey I can get behind that." Spyro said, wrapping his forelegs around the back of their necks, bringing them into a hug. "We can call ourselves the Three Prankateers. We can go around and prank whoever we like, whenever we like." But as soon as he realized what he did, he started itching, regretting his decision. "Holy moly that stuff is itchy!"
The two mare laughed at their friend, enjoying karma catching up with them before they went home. The next he got up and went down to see Applejack rummaging through the fridge, pulling out some of the fruity dessert they brought back from Twilight Town, completely forgetting that they had that.
"Morning AJ." Spyro said, walking to the fridge.
"Morning Spyro." She said, taking a bite out of the dessert. "Ah gotta say, you and those other two goofballs got me good yesterday. Ah thought ya'll ruined a perfect harvest with that paint ya used."
"What can I say, I never turn down an opportunity to have some fun." Spyro said, getting som apple juice as he toasted some bread. "What's on the agenda for today AJ?"
"Well, there isn't a whole lot to do around the orchard really." Applejack replied. "Other than havin' to replant some trees that were destroyed due to that Heartless and watering some of them, there isn't a whole bunch to do around the orchard really."
"Then how about a picnic this afternoon?" Spyro asked. "Just because I have a herd now doesn't mean I can't take each of you out on individual outings."
"Ah'd love that." Applejack said, walking out the door after finishing her food.
When they got out side, Spyro found that there were a few trees that had been destroyed, broken in half and some were uprooted, wasting good apples that could have been harvested for sale. Spyro immediately started picking up the trees and taking them to Big Mac, who seemed busy cutting them up for firewood while Applejack got busy planting new apple tree saplings where the old ones use to be. Thankfully there weren't very many that were damaged as only four to five of the trees were beyond saving as Spyro had delivered the last one before heading to a nearby pond to get some water. On his way, he noticed Rainbow Dash flying with someone else, racing against them as they were heading to the pond that he was going to, so he thought he'd fly by and see how everything was going.
As he got closer to where they were, he could tell that whoever Rainbow Dash was racing against was not a pegasus as they didn't have the form of one, but was instead a griffon. She had a brown coat for her lion body and white feathers on her head with a sort of purple tinge at the end of her feathers to give her a bit of a fringe.
"Hey Spyro, good morning!" Rainbow Dash called out as he landed.
"Morning Rainbow Dash." Spyro said, looking to the griffon as he saw a shocked expression on her face. "Who's this? She new to Ponyville?"
"No, shes my oldest and bestest friend from flight camp, Gilda." Rainbow Dash replied. "Gilda, this is Spyro."
"No way, you weren't kidding!" Gilda said, looking at Rainbow Dash. "You really are friends with a pony/dragon hybrid? This is wicked!"
"Uh... ok." Spyro said, back in up a bit. "This is the first time I've met a griffon before. How did you two come to meet?"
Before they could answer, something pink popped up from below the clouds and went back down, startling everyone until they could see it was only Pinkie.
"Hi Spyro!" Pinkie said, disappearing, and then reappearing a second later. "Hey guys!" She disappeared below the clouds and reappeared again, confusing the trio as they didn't understand how she was doing that. "It's later!"
Everyone looked over the edge to see how she was doing that and saw that she was jumping on a trampoline that something had the spring in it to get her head above the clouds.
"Pinkie Pie, you are so random!" Rainbow Dash said, laughing at what she was seeing.
Spyro couldn't help but smile at the randomness that Pinkie is able to do, but sensed something dark close, changing his mood as he thought it was Heartless, but it was coming from Gilda as she seemed jealous.
"Hey Dash, still got some speed left in ya to race to that cloud?" Gilda asked, pointing at a far away cloud.
"A race?" Rain Bow Dash asked. "You are so on! Hey Spyro, wanna join in?"
"Sorry Rainbow, I can't." Spyro replied. "I gotta finish getting water for the trees at Sweet Apple Acres before I can do anything. The I have a lunch date with Applejack this afternoon."
"Oh?" Rainbow Dash said, grinning as she raised an eyebrow. "Already taking lead of your new herd?"
"Herd?" Gilda and Pinkie Pie asked at the same time.
"Ha ha, very funny Rainbow." Spyro replied. "Just remember you and Pinkie are also part of it thanks to the Princess."
"Hey no sweat." Rainbow Dash replied. "Just messing with ya. And Gilda, on your mark, get set, go!"
The two of them then launched into the air, flying as fast as they could to the cloud while he stood on the one he was on, waiting for Pinkie to pop back up, but a moment later, she was flying in the air using a bunch of balloons she tied around her barrel.
"Pinkie, how do you find the time to do this?" Spyro asked, trying to figure out the pink earth pony.
"No time! Gotta hang out with new friend!" Pinkie said, getting higher and higher.
Spyro shook his head, not even going to try and figure her out and turned to the pond, finding it filled with a lot of water, so he summoned two more clouds and with the force, lifted a large amount of fresh water into the air and into the clouds, watching as they turned into rain clouds he can use to water the trees at the orchard. He grew curious about the race and looked over to see Pinkie had just caught up with them as another race was starting, but when they took off, Gilda remained on the cloud and seemed to be talking with Pinkie, popping her balloons to make her descend. This act gave Spyro a bad feeling about the Griffon and waved his forelegs, sending the clouds to Sweet Apple Acres while made himself invincible and flew off to see what Gilda's problem with Pinkie was.
As they landed on another cloud, Spyro flew up high enough to hear everything while making sure he was far enough to where they won't feel the moving air coming from his wings. A moment later, Pinkie appeared again, but this time in some kind of flying contraption that he had no idea how she even put it together that quickly.
"Wow, you two are fast!" Pinkie said. "Good thing I caught up with you guys!"
Gilda didn't look very happy as she seemed to be getting annoyed by Pinkie's random antics and Spyro could feel how aggravated she was getting because of it.
"Yeah... good thing." She said, trying not to loose her temper. "Hey Dash, got any new moves since flight camp or are you still old news?"
"Are you kidding G?" Rainbow Dash said. "Watch and be amazed!"
As soon as she left, Gilda glared at Pinkie and grabbed the shaft of her machined propeller, giving her an evil glare as she did.
"Don't you have any idea what 'get lost' even means!?" She asked, her true colors finally revealed. "Now that I'm here, Dash doesn't need loosers like you and that dumb hybrid dweeb hanging around her!"
"How is Spyro dumb?" Pinkie asked. "And how is he a deep? He's actually really cool, strong, smart, and he's a-"
"I don't care what he is!" Gilda snapped. "If the princess made him the head of a herd and Rainbow Dash is a part of it, that's fine. But having you in it? You're just going to dweeb her up. So why don't you make like a bee and BUZZ OFF!"
She then grabbed the propeller of the flying machine and the body of the machine started to spin out of control as it went flying in all directions before heading to the ground. Spyro flew just behind her and stopped the machine from spinning, but the propeller was busted as it couldn't fly again, so he grabbed Pinkie and shielded glided down to the ground as the crazy contraption crash landed, breaking into multiple pieces, landing just next to it.
"Thanks Spyro, you're a life saver." Pinkie said, looking at her machine. "I can't believe how mean Gilda is."
"I can." Spyro said, walking up next to her. "I heard and saw everything going down. You could have been killed if I hadn't been there. She needs a lesson in how to treat everyone around her."
"I agree." Pinkie said. "And we'll teach her a lesson, Pinkie Pie style"
"Pinkie Pie style?" Spyro asked. "What are you planning Pinkie?"
"Don't you worry your royal little head Spyro!" Pinkie said, patting his head. "Just leave this to you Auntie Pinkie Pie."
"Um, you realize I'm a year older than you right?" Spyro asked as she just ran off to the town.
Back at Sweet Apple Acres, everyone was finishing up their tasks when the rain clouds had finished up, the pegasus taking them as they had excess water they could use in dryer locations around the town. Spyro and Applejack were a bit late on finishing everything around the farm finished and decided to have their picnic during sunset. The two of them were walking to town when they noticed that there was a lot of ponies going into Sugarcube Corner as there were balloons and streamers hanging everywhere.
"Is Pinkie throwing a party?" Spyro asked.
"Sure is sugarcube." Applejack replied. "She sent out invitations to let everypony know the party is for a griffon named Gilda."
"So that's what she meant by Pinkie Pie style." Spyro whispered to himself.
"What did ya say Sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
"Oh nothing AJ." Spyro replied. "Talking to myself that's all."
The pair walked up to the cafe where Gilda and Rainbow Dash were already among the guests when they showed up. Gilda looked over and gave a blank stare at the two of them as they walked in, but when they did, a group of guests saw them and bowed instinctively to Spyro as he walked past. Gilda saw this and was confused to why they would bow to a dweeb like his, so she went looking for Rainbow Dash and found her near the snack table.
"Yo Dash, what's with them?" Gilda asked, pointing to the ponies as she grabbed a lemon drop.
"Oh, don't pay any attention to that." Rainbow Dash replied. "They're just bowing to Spyro. I mean, he is a prince after all."
Gilda was about to eat the lemon drop, but froze, her eyes wide in surprise at what her friend said and looked back to Spyro, who was talking with Pinkie Pie at the moment.
"No way!" Gilda exclaimed. "He's a prince!?"
"Yes he is." Rainbow Dash said, picking up a cupcake and taking a bite. "The princess announced him as the Prince of Light and Darkness some time ago. We were all surprised to learn this as we didn't expect it one bit."
She then watched as he walked over and immediately felt nervous as she didn't expect her friend and herd leader to be a literal prince.
"Hey Rainbow, Gilda." Spyro said, approaching the two of them. "Enjoying the party so far?"
"Sure are." Rainbow Dash said. "Pinkie got Gilda with a Hoof Shake Buzzer! It was hilarious!"
"Yeah, funny." Gilda said sarcastically, eating the lemon drop, but shot fire out of her mouth as she ran for something to drink. "HOT!"
"G, the punch!" Rainbow Dash yelled, snickering as she did.
As soon as Gilda got a glass of punch to drink, the contents of the glass fell short as it dribbled out of a small hole in it.
"Oooooh, pepper in the lemon drops and the old dribble cup gag." Pinkie said, everyone laughing at the harmless pranks. "That's hilarious!"
Gilda finally managed to get something to drink, downing the whole glass as she gasped for air.
"Yeah... hilarious." She said, annoyed by the double prank.
"Hey G, come and open your presents." Rainbow Dash said, drawing the Griffon over to the table full of gifts.
Gilda was excited to hear there were presents for her and forgot all about the double prank, running over to open her gifts. As soon as she took the first one and untied the ribbon, fake snakes shot out of it, frazzling Gildas feathers and putting her into a daze, but snapped out of it, frustrated to be pranked again.
"Spittin' snakes!" Applejack said laughing. "Somepony did that to me last month."
" Ha, ha." Gilda laughed sarcastically. "I got an idea of who that was!"
She then glared at Pinkie Pie, suspicious of the pink party pony as being the one who was pranking her. The party went on as everyone was having a good time, reminiscing with each other, having some of the party snacks and playing some of the games. Spyro walked around to the snack table to get something to eat, being careful not to get the lemon drops when he noticed Rainbow Dash was sneaking into the kitchen, a small box in her mouth as she made sure no one was looking. Curious, Spyro walked into the kitchen after her to see what she was doing only to see her removing the candles on the cake, replacing them with new ones.
"You?" Spyro asked, startling the rainbow pegasus. "You're the prankster who is targeting Gilda? I kinda thought it was Pinkie."
"Of course it ain't Pinkie." Rainbow Dash said, removing another candle. "She wouldn't pull such pranks at her own party. Well, except for the buzzer, that one I'll admit I didn't see coming, but no way she'd sabotage items at a party she'd host."
She then kept on replacing the candles with what she had as Spyro looked out to make sure no one would notice, but saw as Pinkie was walking to the kitchen. He turned back and used the force to remove the candles Rainbow Dash hadn't gotten to yet, thankfully they were different colors so it was easy to tell which ones were which, and put the remainder on top of the cake, the both of them getting out of the kitchen quickly as Pinkie came in, rejoining the guests.
"It's time for the cake everypony!" Pinkie announced, everyone coming to see the delicious sweet. "And as the guest of honor, Gilda gets to blow out the candles."
Gilda run up to the cake and took a deep breath, blowing out the candles and half expected them to relight themselves, but with the Force, Spyro prevented that until she was happy, until he allowed them to light themselves again. Gilda was surprised to see them light again and blew them out again, but they light back up again and again everytime she tried to blow them out until she was out of breath, everyone laughing again.
"Relighting Birthday Candles!" Spike said, still laughing. "I love that prank."
"Huh, I don't remember putting them on the cake." Pinkie said, curious about candles.
"You didn't, huh?" Gilda said, looking over to Spyro.
As everyone got their slice of cake, Gilda walked up to Spyro and pulled him behind the nearby table of gifts, furious about the pranking.
"I'm watching you." She said, glaring at him. "Watching you like a hawk."
"Why like a hawk?" Spyro said, smirking. "Shouldn't you be watching me like a griffon?" He could sense her blood was boiling and knew she was about to flip her lid, but he just broke free from her grip and looked her dead in the eyes. "Look Gilda, I'm not the one who's setting up these pranks, but I do know who is and you're going to be surprised who it was."
"Hey everypony, let's play Pin the tail on the pony!" Pinkie said, everyone cheering as the game was called. "Who'd like to go first?"
"Oh, I would." Rarity said, reaching for the tail, but Gilda snatched it away before she could pick it up.
"Well I'm the guest on honor, so I should go first." Gilda said, her true colors started to show.
Spyro shook his head at how rude she was, but was glad that her true self was showing as now Rainbow Dash could see the kind of griffon her friend truly was. Tying the blindfold over her eyes, Spyro and Pinkie spun the griffon around quickly, disorientating her and pointed her towards the game poster with the pony on it.
"Alright Gilda, the pony is right in front of you." Spyro said. "Just walk straight ahead and pin the tail."
"Just walk straight ahead and pin the tail!" Gilda mockingly repeated. "Nice try. I'm not falling for another one of your pranks. I think I'll go this way instead.
"Gilda wait, that's the wrong-" Spyro didn't get to finish as she slipped on some icing that someone had spilled, making her slip into the kitchen. "Way."
Gilda came out of the kitchen, flour flying everywhere as she was covered in icing and in flour, the tail on her beak looking like a fake mustache, making everyone laugh at her again.
"Um, Gilda, you pinned the tail at the wrong end." Pinkie said, making everyone laugh even harder.
That was the final straw for Gilda as finally snapped, roaring like a lion as the icing and flour flew off, scarring everyone and making Spyro get in front of Fluttershy and Rarity as they weren't good at defending themselves.
"Is this your idea of a good time!?" She shouted, glaring at everyone in the room. "I have never, in my life, met a bunch of dweebs, lame-o ponies, and loosers!" She then set her sight as on Pinkie and got up in her face as her eyes shrunk as she glared. "And you, Pinkie Pie! You set up this lame party just so you can set up these lame pranks to make me loose my cool!?"
"But, I didn't set these pranks up." Pinkie said, innocently as she tried to back up.
"Don't you lie to me you pink menace to society!" Gilda shouted.
"Hey, back off!" Spyro shouted, pushing Gilda away to get in front of Pinkie. "She's innocent of pulling these pranks. I know who the real prankster is."
"Oh yeah, well whoever it was is an even bigger lame-o than all of you!" She snapped, turning to Rainbow Dash. "Besides, I'm done with this stupid town and all these stupid ponies! Dash, let's leave this dumb party! She has more cooler friends than all you dorks combined! Come on, we're leaving!" As she was leaving, Rainbow Dash stood next to Spyro, refusing to follow Gilda, which she seemed to notice and turned to look at her. "I said, we're leaving!"
"You know Gilda, Spyro is right." Rainbow Dash said, angry at her old friend. "It wasn't Pinkie who set up these 'lame' pranks. I did it." Gilda was at a loss for words when she heard that her friend Rainbow Dash set the pranks up, looking between Pinkie Pie and then to Rainbow Dash and then to Spyro, both her friend and the prince angry at her. "So I guess I'm the bigger lame-o, right?"
"Come on Dash, you're joshing me." She said, getting nervous until she set her eyes on Spyro.
"Oh, I should have known." Pinkie said. "That dribble cup had Rainbow Dash written all over it."
"And all those pranks weren't meant for you." Rainbow Dash said. "It was dumb luck that you set them off in the first place. The candles was the prank meant for you."
"No, it was Pinkie Pie!" Gilda said, trying hard not to believe it was her best friend. "She set this party up to trick me and to make me look like a fool in front of everyone!"
"Me? I threw this party to improve your attitude and to help you have a good time!" Pinkie said, twisting her neck to make her head upside down, freaking Spyro out. "I just wanted to turn that frown upside down!"
"And you didn't need any help to look like a fool!" Rainbow Dash said, getting into Gilda's space. "You know, this isn't;t how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends. And it certainly isn't how I thought she'd treat the newest prince in Equestria and the leader of the herd I'm a part of!"
"Exactly." Spyro said, walking next to Rainbow Dash. "You mess with one member of my herd, one of my friends or anypony else, you are messing with me."
"And if being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find yourself some more cool friends somewhere else." Rainbow Dash said, her wings fully erect to make herself look bigger.
Gilda looked emotionally hurt as she tried to fight back the tears, sensing that what her friend just said to her really hurt her feelings as she wanted to remain with her. However, she just turned around and walked out the front door, but stopped and turned around to say something.
"...W-well... Y-you're a flip-flop!" She said, looking angry, yet upset. "Cool one minute, lame the next! When you decide to not hang out with these dweebs, which I can guess is probably never, you know where to find me!"
She then turned around and ran away, flying off somewhere else, out of sight and out of mind, leaving everyone silent from what went down. Rainbow Dash was staring at the door where her former friend use to be, sighing dejectedly at what went down and wishing it went another way. Spyro could feel how hurt she was on the inside, sensing all the pain she had after loosing her oldest friend, leaving the bakery and going somewhere else.
"Rainbow Dash?" Spyro said, his words falling on deaf ears as she ran out.
"Let her be sugarcube." Applejack said, understanding what she is going through. "She just needs to be alone."
"No." Spyro said, walking to the door. "She needs a friend."
Without saying another word, he took off into the air, sensing through the Force to find where his friend went, just to feel depression and sadness coming from the outskirts of Ponyville close by. He followed what he felt until he came to a cloud house that looked like something from Olympus with rainbows coming out of it, taking a guess as to whose house it was, he landed on the front door and knocked, hearing hoof steps as Rainbow Dash opened the door, looking down in the dumps.
"Hey Rainbow Dash, you ok?" Spyro asked, feeling all the pain she was in.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Rainbow Dash said, putting on a brave face that could fool anyone else, but Spyro knew all too well she wasn't ok.
"Rainbow, you know I can sense your emotions through the Force right?" Spyro asked, not convinced by her act. "You are hurting. You lost a friend. It's never easy when it happens."
She didn't try to hide her pain from him when she heard that, coming outside and sitting on the steps of her home, watching as the sun was setting. Spyro sat down next to her, sensing she was trying to stay strong and wanted to put on a brave face for him after loosing her friend, but he knew it was all an act.
"I just can't believe Gilda was like that." Rainbow Dash said, looking to the sky as it was getting dark. "She was my best friend since Junior Speedstar's Flight camp. We use to do everything together. She was just as fast as me, the only one who could compete with me..." She then looked down at the ground, drawing random lines into the clouds. "But, then I lost her. She insulted my new friends, and from what I heard, almost harmed Pinkie... Made herself look like the biggest jerk in all of Equestria... Why would she do that?"
"Who knows." Spyro responded, looking to Rainbow Dash. "Friends will always have fights and disagreements on something or another. Maybe she felt jealous that you were spending time with your new friends, thought you were forgetting her? Maybe she just wanted to be your only friend in your life? Maybe she just felt insecure about her own life and looked to you for support as you were the only pony she ever made friends with and lashed out of fear of loosing you?" He then wrapped his wing around her to comfort her, but she tried to break free, not being the sappy type, but could tell she felt better that he did that. "I have a lot of friends where I'm from. We get into fights and we say we are no loner friends, say mean things we don't mean because of the heat of the moment, but in the end, we always make amends and we remain friends."
"What are you getting at?" Rainbow Dash asked, leaning into Spyro.
"What I'm saying is that, maybe someday you and Gilda will be friends again." Spyro replied, smiling his warmest smile. "She may someday realize that what she did was wrong and might come back, apologize for what she did, and you can go back to being friends."
"Yeah right." She replied, looking down to the ground. "With how she acted today, towards my friends, I don't think we'll be friends again." She then looked back to Spyro, still smiling his goofy, yet warm smile and felt something hit her chest, a sudden bang that came out of no where. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Spyro asked, wondering what she was talking about.
"N-nothing." Rainbow Dash said, looking away. "Anyway, it's getting late. You should head back to the farm. I'm sure AJ's wondering where you are."
Nodding his head, he got up and removed his wing from Rainbow Dash and took off, leaving Rainbow Dash alone as she thought about what he said, wondering if she could actually become friends with Gilda like he said. Now wanting to dwell on it, she got up and went back into her house to sleep off the excitement of the day.
Back at the farm, Spyro was flying back, knowing that he was going to have to make up the picnic date with Applejack sometime later as he did stood her up to help comfort a friend after loosing their best from their child hood. He was about to land when he saw a picnic blanket with a candle light in the open field, Applejack waiting for him, so he flew down and landed on the area just outside the blanket, opposite of where Applejack was laying down.
"Sorry for being late." Spyro said. "Couldn't let one of my friends feel depressed and alone."
"It's ok sugarcube." Applejack said, smiling at him. ":Ya'll have a good heart. You are always ready to help a friend. Ya don't have to explain to me."
Happy that Applejack wasn't upset with him, he walked over and laid on his stomach, crossing his forelegs as he looked up, seeing all the stars out tonight. They ate their meal in silence, looking to the beautiful night sky and reminiscing about the events of the day with Gilda and the pranks.
"So, how's Rainbow Dash holding up?" Applejack asked.
"She's better now." Spyro replied. "She said she was ok, but I knew better as she was hurting on the inside. Made me want to try and bring her into a hug, which I did try to, but she just pulled away. Guess she's not much of a hugger."
"She just tried to act tough hun." Applejack said, their eyes locking onto each other. "She tried to not get emotional and tried not to be all, 'Sappy' as she likes to call it, but deep down, shes just a soft little teddy bear."
They then looked back into the sky, watching as stars shot across the sky, their hooves overlapping each other as they watched the marvel. As the night was passing, they packed up the picnic blanket and returned to the farm house to go to bed.
"Ya know, Ah got an idea." Applejack said. "Since she's apart of the herd, maybe ya'll should take her out sometime. Ah'm sure it'll lift her spirits."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Spyro asked. "I'm still a little against this whole herd idea and I don't know if having six mares to date is even ok."
"Spyro, our species is polygamous." Applejack said. "The females choose the males. Rarity, Fluttershy, and ah chose ya as you are strong, sincere, kind, and ready to help and protect your friends. Just give it a chance. Ah'm sure it'll work out just fine."
She gave him a peck on the cheek before going inside, leaving him with his thoughts as he contemplates what Applejack said, wondering if it might work out or if it will turn to chaos if something goes wrong. Not wishing to dwell on it any further, he went inside and went to his room, placing his head on the pillow as he drifted off to sleep.