Uh, about that... {RD & Gilda}

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Gilda still thought what she was doing with Fleetfoot was way cooler than any silly old race. Who even needed to do foot races? Everyone knew Fleet was fastest in the air! That would be like trying to race Spitfire...in swimming. No point to it right? She would have to work out a way to tell Dash what was going on with Fleet, after letting the blue mare finish talking about all the stuff she got done.

The first half of stuff was...not that impressive, sure she met Wonderbolts and even Gilda liked the Daring Do series a bit, but a tortise?!? "You've got a pet....turtle?" Gilda could barely believe that. It even made her remember when she had said Dash wasn't cool at the party. She felt a little less bad for that comment now. The second half of stuff the mare had did made her feel worse though. That was some cool stuff. Gilda even felt unaccomplished. Who wouldn't?! Rainbow had saved Equestria...like, twice AND had gotten near the top of the weather pony totem pole.

As Dash finished Gilda took a deep breath and smiled. Even after all of that awesome stuff Dash did, she still idolized the bolts just as much as Gilda did. The griffon had a hunch that Dash might flip at the next bit of news, "Well...more sonic rainbooms? Guess it got quite a bit easier than it was back when me and you were gettin' picked on for you saying you could do it then choking." Gilda had to get that bit of teasing out of the way, she had taken punches 'cuz of that trick hard ones. "And..." Gilda looked around to make sure no one would hear, "You gotta keep this a secret...I think, anyways. When I was meeting Fleet at the academy, it was night and I proooobably shouldn't have been there."

Gilda was clearly into this story. She was hoping for a big reaction from Dash once she got to the important part, "She took a pretty big crash right when I got there though and I got to help patch her up and stay the night...but when we were talking, before bed..." So. Awesome, she sorta... Dash would just have to love this, made me her student." Gilda had to use all her self control to keep her voice down. She wondered if Dash could do the same.

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Rainbow Dash flashed with a look of surprise, with her entire body. She leaned forwards, blinking. Gilda, was Fleetfoot's student?! The fastest pegasi ever, was teaching Gilda?! "W-W... I... Wow... That's... Unbelievable..." Even for all of her achievements, this almost crushed everything she had accomplished. In all of five seconds, all of her progress with the Wonderbolts was trumped in one swoop of a griffon.

"I can't even... I can't make words! Bleh!" Suddenly, Dash began laughing, leaning back in her chair. "Dear Celestia, you must feel like the luckiest griffon ever! I mean, gah, Fleetfoot's student! Congrats, G! That's awesome!" Even as much as it crushed her, she couldn't help but feel happy for Gilda. But... "Y'know, that doesn't mean you're better than me now. I've still got a lot of progress, and that little thing called the Sonic Rainboom~. So, y'know, don't go getting a bigger head than ya got!" She couldn't let Gilda go without reminding her of RD's greatest achievement.

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"Yeah, it is isn't it?" Gilda said, absorbing all the awe she could. This didn't happen too often so she was making sure to enjoy it. Usually Dash had been the one breaking records. Gilda had been the one breaking the records Dash had just broke, if at all. That's why this moment was so unbelievably awesome!

"I do feel awesome, better than I have in a long time." she said with a smile....then she frowned, "How many times did I tell you not to give me a nickname in Flight school again?" she was only half joking. Usually nicknames irked her but it was more acceptable from Dash.

"And I'll get right on that Sonic Rainboom. I'll just have to come up with something cooler, shouldn't be too hard." she said with a smile, obviously joking, "I'll probably just do a few barrel rolls. That oughta do, right?~" Gilda paused "Just kidding. I will figure something out eventually though and I will do it on my own. No help from Fleetfoot and finally get a win on you,"

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Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. She knew that Gilda would try her hardest to create a trick as impressive as the sonic rainboom, but she probably never would. It never occurred to Rainbow that it might be possible. But, whatever. They were boasting at the moment. Which caused her to start thinking about what they were originally supposed to talk about in Cloudsdale.

"So... About the party... And my friends... We gotta talk about it..." She fiddled with her mane, not feeling as good as she was a second ago. But... It had to be talked about.

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No, No we don't, Gilda thought. They were doing fine! Everything was cool again, this was just like old times. This was the most fun Gilda had had in ages! Not to mention she just felt...good. She didn't feel as heavy as she had only minutes ago. She had been dreading talking about what had happened but this part had just been...awesome. She had her friend back! Her first friend. Practically her only friend for several years.

She desperately wanted to stay off of that topic. "Okay...I gue-Ah!" As she started to reply to Dash she spread her wings, "Heh, guess I did cut that corner a bit tight. Not tight enough though." she showed the scratch she had on her side, it had only bled as much as a deep paper cut, nothing bad. It might be enough to change the subject, for a little bit at least. Gilda liked to think that she was pretty clever and she knew that if Dash cared about anything, it was her friends. So this had to be enough to distract her for at least a minute right? Though due to that same trait Gilda was pretty sure she'd bring those dweebs back up again. "You think they've got something I could borrow to clean my feathers off or something?"

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Rainbow Dash knew Gilda had cut the turn a bit too tight. But, that also meant she had already known it was there... Which meant Gilda really didn't want to talk about this. Sorry, G. But we can't just pretend that I'm here in the Crystal Empire without my friends. I can't just pretend they don't exist. "I dunno if they have anything for that. Maybe somepony from Ponyville might have some bandages or something... But, we have to talk about what happened in Ponyville..."

She knew that Gilda wasn't the going to be the one to tackle this issue, so she'd have to. "You've been my friend for as long as I can remember... But, I've been friends with these ponies for a long time too. You can't just expect to be able to hang out with me whenever you want, like nothing happened, and not apologize to my friends! You made Fluttershy cry! You insulted all of them, and expected me to just brush them off! I... You know I can't just let you go without something..."

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Dash didn't even miss a single step. She was really serious about this. That sucked. It meant that she wasn't going to let go of this. Gilda fully realized that she wouldn't be able to change the subject. Dash really wanted to go in to this. Fine. Gilda still felt at least a bit justified in what had happened. She hadn't asked to meet Dash's friends and she really didn't ask to have her time with Dash interrupted by that pink menace. This was all that insane pony's fault to begin with!!!

"Without something what? I didn't want to meet them. It's not like I insulted them because they were your friend. They were just...I was angry," she averted her eyes from Dash after this. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea...but she had to go with it no, "I just wanted to spend One. Day. with an old friend, alright?" She had refolded her wings by now. The cut wasn't important at all. She would be fine...physically.

On the inside, she had quite the storm going on. She was sorry, but she wasn't sorry because of what she had done. She was sorry that she had upset Dash, she could care less about whoever Fluttershy was, same for the rest of those ponies that had been laughing at her. "And that party....ugh." she was trying, slightly unsuccessfully, to look like she was completely stable at the moment, "I just...I didn't mean to make what happened happen...it just did."

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Dash stared at her hooves, until looking up at Gilda. "... I can't. I can't do this. I need you to say something. I don't want bravado, or what happened, or anything like that! I want to know you're willing to at least try to get along with my friends for my sake! I don't want to lose you as a friend! But I can't keep you as one without something to show me you're sorry for what happened! You may have wanted to spend one day with me, but I wanted to have Gilda the Griffon back in my life! Because you were my best friend! And then, that all happened, and it sucked! It sucked so bucking bad! I just... Ugh!" Rainbow Dash smacked her hoof on the table, huffing out angrily. "I need something..."

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Dash...was asking a lot, especially for Gilda. The griffon was a proud soul who did not like to admit when she was in the wrong, even when she knew it. To make this even more difficult, Gilda didn't think she was completely in the wrong. She hadn't wanted to meet all of those ponies and she certainly hadn't wanted to look like a total idiot in front of them. "I...well" Gilda sighed and plastered her eyes on the floor. Sure she didn't really want to apologize, but she did want Dash back.

She looked up with a weak smile, "Only for you, Dash."

She gritted her teeth for a moment before saying, "I can get along with your friends." she paused, letting that sink in, "But I'm not promising to be friends with any of them. I don't really want any more friends and...besides, already have a bad first impression." Gilda was pretty sure that wasn't something debatable. Not to mention she didn't even want to see Pinkie Pie again. "and...I'm sorry I lost it, you know how I get when I'm being laughed at, and after that pink mare had been trying to get between us the whole day...I snapped, my bad."

There. It was done, as close to an apology as she was getting. Now to see if Dash accepted that as enough.

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"That's all I want..." Dash listened to Gilda make the somewhat apology. For G, that was actually amazing. She got an apology out of Gilda the Griffon. "Thanks, G." Alright, first step complete. Now, came the hard part...

"After all this mess with the Crystal Empire is over, I want you to come back to Ponyville. I'm not saying you have to stay, just maybe for like an hour. I want to hang out with you, like old times, but I have to do it there."

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It worked! Gilda smiled, then quickly wiped it off of her face...without really knowing why. It just sorta felt...silly or something. She had no idea how or why, maybe it just felt like she was giving Dash too much of a victory. Maybe she didn't want Dash to know she wanted to be friends again just as much as she did. Then Dash said something that just...almost, ruined everything.

"Ponyville? the griffon said flatly, "Really?...it's fine, but I show up and there's some party or something planned I am so out of there." She sighed. "You know I don't get along with too many ponies...or griffons for that matter. Just don't push it, please."

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"I-I won't. I'll make sure Pinkie has absolutely no parties planned, and there won't be too many ponies. I just need it to be there, because that's where my house is, my job is, my pet is, and where the other Elements are." That, and while they were there she was hoping that maybe she could get Gilda to talk to at least one of her friends, and maybe start patching things up as much as possible.

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"...Awesome!" Gilda said happily, with a large smile. A much larger one than anything she had done in Ponyville with all those strange ponies around. Here she wasn't quite as self conscious as she had been there. No one here was in the shape to make fun of anyone else, they were all as active as sloths in the first place. She had even gone out of her way not to be mean to them...they were just so sad, it was pitiful.

"So...uh...what now Dash?" she said.

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"Uh, now?" Rainbow Dash glanced around, tapping her chin. There wasn't much. They had already raced, and they weren't exactly in a prime social environment, especially with all these mopey crystal ponies."Uh, well, I guess we just help out. That's what I'm here for. Celestia's always got us on some crisis, so might as well get started."

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Well...that was anti-climactic. But she supposed that was what she got for coming all this way...at least Fleetfoot was here, hopefully that would be more interesting and less Ponyville related. "So I guess we'll just have a bite to eat and then go see what's going on?" Gilda wasn't exactly sure what she could do, but she was sure there would be something to do at the castle. Besides, she needed some time away from Dash to think about what she had just agreed to.

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