Put on leave (open)

[Deleted]

"I'm....what?" Gilda said, stunned. "You'll still be on the pay roll Gilda. You're one of our fastest and you always get the address rig-" Gilda put a claw to his lips and growled. She didn't exactly love her job and think it was the best thing ever, but it got her around and gave her the time to practice flying, there were plenty of jobs that couldn't say the same thing.
"Why? Why am I being...whatever this is even called?!" at that her boss seemed to cringe. He also averted his eyes "Well, Grize-Gilda, you see" he switched names as Gilda stared daggers at the pegasus "You simply... aren't looking your best, you've been working much too hard for much too long and its taking it's toll"

Gilda's jaw dropped. Had he just said she was looking bad? She preened daily at least! Usually much more! There had to be some other reason, he just wasn't telling her. "Fine, whatever. You're lucky I like it here...or...or, I'd do something!"

Her boss then straightened up, when on all fours he was just barely taller than her. The pony looked at her sternly "Gilda, you're gonna take a break whether you want to or not. The only difference is that this will be temporary. Get it?" Gilda sputtered then glared at him. "F-fine." she said, resigned from the argument. She never could beat him anyways, he did control her job. "Come back in a few weeks and everything will be back to normal. Besides, you're still being paid. Think of it like a holiday."

She looked at him with fury in her eyes but simply walked out, but once she got outside she took off like a rocket, disappearing from view quickly. Friggen flip flops every where these day! She was faster than anypony else on the team, more impressive, smarter, better at flying, better all around!!

That was a few hours ago. Now she was lying on her side in front of the rainbow falls. Depressed, maybe just a bit. She knew she tended to stress preen, but was too proud to admit it. She also knew that her wings had been sore for the past few months, but no pain no gain right? She was just doing what needed to be done to beat Rainbow Dash and get on the Wonderbolts. Nothing more, nothing less, well maybe a bit more. She had been pushing herself to the limits for....a long time, more than a few months, less than a few years, whenever Rainbow pulled off that Sonic Rainboom.


Gilda just needed to be...faster. She was just having a hard time of it. No matter what she did the going was just so slow and now? Recently she had started to go slower and no matter how much she trained, how much she pushed, it kept happening. So she was in a slump, so what? She could get out of this, practice makes perfect after all.

This was, typically her favorite place in Cloudsdale to go, she didn't tell anybody, but she actually liked the taste of the rainbow's here, at least when it was combined with something else. She usually came here after hunting. Today however, she was just lying there. "This....sucks." she laid there for a few seconds, then roared, loud as she could. It made her feel...not even a bit better. Stupid mail ponies....flip flops. Cool one minute, lame the next.

[Deleted]

Once again, Blessing was back in Cloudsdale. It felt like it had been ages since her last visit, but really it had only been a few months. She had meant to visit earlier, but perhaps the stars just didn't align. But that didn't matter now, Blessing was here, and her mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts about what to go see first. After all, she only had a day before she was to return to Ponyville.

The Cloudosseum, the town square, the Weather Factory, Rainbow Falls.. everything sounded amazing to her. How was she ever to decide how to spend her day? At this rate she wouldn't, so Blessing simply shook her head and decided to head to the nearest park, Rainbow Falls. Even the name sounded wonderful to her. She hadn't gotten the chance to see the falls last time she visited, so Blessing had nearly forgotten the beautiful sight.

She walked in silence, once again enjoying the soft, fluffy clouds under her hooves. That was something Blessing would never grow tired off. Perhaps the Earth ponies and unicorns preferred solid ground, but Blessing liked the clouds of Cloudsdale much better. It was a shame that it would be such a burden to live here, due to her spending most of her time in Ponyville. She hardly knew anyone in Cloudsdale anyway, which always made her feel just a bit lonely when she came to visit.

All of Blessing's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud, terrible noise that made her jump. It sounded like... the roar of a lion? But there were obviously no lions in Cloudsdale. She stood frozen for what seemed like an eternity, until she glanced in the direction of her destination. That seemed to be where the noise came from. As much as she wanted to stay away from where the roar had come from, the curious part of Blessing wanted to know what in Equestria had caused it.

Despite her bad feeling about approaching the source of the roar, Blessing found the strength to start walking again. Rainbow Falls was now visible, and as Blessing grew nearer she noticed a lump of fur and feathers. With no idea what it could be, Blessing quietly walked toward it, until about ten feet away she discovered that the creature was a gryphon. She had seen gryphons before, but only when they flew over Ponyville every once in a blue moon. But this one seemed different to her.. she was clearly bothered, anypony would have noticed that, for she was laying on her side and was no doubt the source of the roar that Blessing had heard earlier.

Blessing knew that she could not simply just walk away, despite how.. intimidating this large gryphon seemed to her. She tried to speak, but the words seem stuck in her throat as she gazed upon this stranger. What if the gryphon would be angry with her for disturbing her? With a small shake of her head, Blessing banished the thought from her mind. Finally she managed to call out in a small voice, "Are you alright? You look a little down.."

[Deleted]

Gilda was startled by the voice. After that roar she had been pretty confident that no one would dare to just walk up to her. A lot of the ponies around sorta just assumed she was violent...it was probably the claws, not to mention she was sorta violent. It was probably mostly the claws though, or the razor sharp beak and at the moment her patchy feathers. On the leading edge of her wings you could almost see the skin in a couple of places.

The griffon rolled up from her side and turned her head to look at the mare, pegasus of course; they were in Cloudsdale after all. What would any other species be doing here? Gilda's eyes narrowed at the pegasus, quickly taking her in. The odd colors, not as weird as Dash's mane but still, and her cutiemark...sorta, like almost every pegasus it was half covered by her wings.

Gilda took a deep breath then laid back onto her side, letting her, not laid on, wing hang loosely. She kept a single eye on the mare"Yeah, I'm a bit down? So what?" she snapped back, then let her head drop again, staring into the rainbow falls. They...didn't really make any sense, after crashing several hundred feet the colors still didn't mix, but thats what made them cool.

What made them lame? Well, they also reminded her of a certain Rainbow haired flip-flop of a friend who, ironically had the name of 'element of loyalty', what a joke. Loyalty to wh- darn, she was back to this again. She supposed talking to this dweeb was better than the whole self pity act. She rolled up, again, and looked at the mare as her tail flicked from side to side.

"Alright, what'd you want?" she said. Still, quite obviously, not in the best of moods. She was already pissed off by past events and her job. So the annoyance on top of that wasn't very welcome. But on the other hand it also wasn't really noticed. Right now Gilda was seeing more of a potential target for yelling if this didn't go well. She looked meek enough, it was more the colors than the pony. She even looked, just a tiny bit, like Dash. That just made her an even better target for anger though. But even Gilda would wait for a reason before yelling some poor pony's ears off...even if it was just a little reason.

[kale]

It had been a couple days since Kale had left Manehattan. He still couldn't believe it; he'd spent two decades in that city, and now he was on his way to live elsewhere. Not Cloudsdale, though--he was fairly certain that a pegasus with his level of flight ability wouldn't exactly fit into a city built of clouds. Just getting here the first time had been an ordeal in itself; it was rare that Kale flew for a long time at all, never mind getting so high up.

But for a brief vacation, he had to admit, Cloudsdale was great. It was--literally--totally unlike any city Kale had ever visited, as every place he'd been was earthbound. The city wasn't even in one cohesive piece, but set on dozens, if not hundreds, of large clouds, all built in the traditional pegasus style. Combined with the inherent brightness of white clouds and blue sky, the whole environment was completely antithetical to his hometown, where boxy gray and brown buildings all rose from a flat plane.

Also, Manehattan was rarely struck by a random roar.

The sound so startled Kale that he actually jumped, wings flapping nervously for a few moments before he settled and landed back on the grou--the cloud. Adjusting his glasses, the stallion furrowed his brow and trotted off in search of the noise's source. It seemed to have come from the top of the nearby Rainbow Falls, so, taking a moment to suppress his anxiety, he spread his wings and flew off in that direction.

Kale landed behind a large tuft of cloud, peering nervously around it at the scene. Some mare was talking to a griffon, of all things; he supposed that had to be where the roar came from (not necessarily because he assumed Gilda was a beast, but no pony could have made that noise). That knowledge did make it rather frightening to come any closer, but at this point, to simply turn tail and run would be fairly silly.

So, slowly, Kale came out of cover. He realized that he was interrupting an actual conversation, so nerves immediately took over again; ears fell back against his head as he self-consciously rubbed one foreleg with the other. "Uh, s-sorry...what sucks?"

[Deleted]

When the griffon rolled up from laying on her side, Blessing took a small step back. She didn't really mean to, but the sight of this large griffon moving to look at her was a bit scary. Blessing wasn't really one to judge a book by its cover, but considering she had never seen a griffon up close she was feeling quite nervous. She also had a tendency to be shy, and even intimidated, by creatures larger than herself.

Blessing stood silent as the griffon examined her, hoping that she wasn't angry about being disturbed. She began to wonder what caused her to approach this griffon.. she seemed bothered, sure, but Blessing could have simply ignored the roar. But that wasn't the type of pony she was, to leave someone alone that she believed needed help, even if they were scary. Finally, Blessing relaxed a bit when the griffon laid back down onto her side.

Suddenly, another voice caught Blessing's attention. She turned immediately to its source, caught off guard by the newcomer, but relaxed again after realizing that it was a pegasus. Blessing was quite happy to see another pony now, considering she was afraid of what she had gotten herself into by approaching this griffon. He seemed nervous, but who wouldn't be? They were standing right next to a beast, and an angry looking one at that.

"Oh, hello." Blessing greeted the pony, before she turned back to the griffon. She knew he had asked a question, but she was more focused on what the griffon had asked her. She had decided that she better answer, otherwise the griffon might get impatient. "I was just wondering why you seem sad.. I didn't think anyone could feel down in a place so beautiful as this. And, I thought.. maybe I could help, if you want."

Blessing silently scolded herself. What help could she possibly offer to this griffon? She couldn't even fly. She didn't know what was wrong, so who was she to randomly offer to help someone she only met a minute ago? Still.. she wouldn't mind helping if she could. And she did feel a bit more confident to know that the other pegasus was here. Blessing cast a quick glance at the stallion, but then soon looked away again, back toward the griffon.

[Deleted]

Well, they wanted to help the big, bad scary griffon? Wasn't that sweet? Suppose they'd want to take her on a purpose revealing mission across Equestria next, oh and maybe stop for tea along the way with Rainbow Dash?! Yep that all sounded fine and dandy. Of course that wasn't exactly what was going through their mind was it? No, they were scared of her, they probably should've been if she wasn't feeling so down. Usually she would have just blown them off in some overly done way, maybe have even had a prank at the ready.

Her head snapped to the new pony as he showed himself. Reflex she supposed, darn predator instinct. She found the glasses a bit...weird to be honest. She briefly wondered how the heck he kept them on while flying before remembering that most pegasi didn't fly like she did. Not everybody went to junior speedsters after all.

Gilda turned back to the splotchy mare and let out a deep breath, "Yeah well. I can feel down here and I'm not sad I'm just...um...er...ponyfeathers" Well, horse apples, she had lost her train of thought, not only that but she had lost it while riding it. What had she been about to say?? She wasn't sad she was...well she was a bit sad. Not that she'd ever admit that to anybody, much less some weird looking ponies she had just met a few moments ago.

"Anyways, what sucks is that I'm on leave from my job, delivery, apparently I'm not looking to good." as much as she denied it didn't make it a false statement. she had been preening to much recently, pulling too many feathers and making the ones not plucked a bit thinner than they should be. Her fur also looked a bit...mangey and matter, over all she looked just a bit unhealthy.

"Besides, neither of you scaredy ponies wants to help. You wanna run, I have that effect on ponies most the time." she examined her talons for a moment before finally standing and turning to the two ponies, slightly brushing Blessing with her long, lion like tail. "So you dweebs gonna skedaddle or what?" Yep she said skedaddle, and yeah, she said it in a condescending way. So what if she had said she wasn't going to make fun of them yet? She was still grumpy alright?

[kale]

"Oh, hello."

It was a simple, yet unexpectedly kind gesture; frankly, Kale assumed that he'd be immediately reprimanded for even approaching the pair. After all, as they resumed their conversation without any real delay, it was apparent to him that he was intruding, and worse, doing so without any real right or reason. Sure, the roar had been alarming, but this mare had already come to deal with it. And if there was anything Kale did not have here, it was the responsibility or authority to intervene. He was no police pony, royal guard, doctor, or anything of the sort, and somehow, the ability to cook a port wine reduction didn't seem to carry the same weight here.

"Anyways, what sucks is that I'm on leave from my job, delivery, apparently I'm not looking too good."

Kale took a moment to realize that Gilda had shifted her conversational focus back to him. Thus, halfway through her sentence, the stallion made a visible snap to attention, managing to look every bit as flighty as he felt. Though he wouldn't mention it for fear of being punched in the face, he had to agree that the griffon must have seen better days; her fur and feathers seemed rather unkempt, as though she'd been caught in a particularly bad windstorm and lost a fair amount of both. If it seemed hypocritical to think that when his own mane was generally the definition of 'what will be, will be,' well...it was that bad.

"Besides, neither of you scaredy ponies wants to help. You wanna run, I have that effect on ponies most the time."

Though the sudden insult was a little jarring and hurtful to Kale, Gilda was going to have to try a lot harder to drive him away than that. 'Scaredy pony' was hardly old news to him; it was basically his nickname.

"So you dweebs gonna skedaddle or what?"

Kale frowned. Time to be brave.

"If I was going to run, I'd have done it already." It wasn't much, but it was the best Kale could think of. He supposed that if you didn't stop to think about that very long, were very drunk, or distracted by a nearby explosion, it could conceivably come off as brave. As it was, the pegasus had to hope that a stubborn frown (which itself might easily be mistaken for indigestion) from behind a pair of glasses would support his point well enough.

If not, he just had to outrun Blessing, right?

[Deleted]

Since Gilda had mentioned that she was not looking so good, Blessing took a short moment to examine her once again. It was true, she had never seen feathers in such a condition, even Blessing's were better taken care of. And the griffon's fur looked no better than her feathers. Was all this simply because she was put on leave? Surely there must have been some other reason, or perhaps this job meant a lot to Gilda. She didn't dare ask though, out of fear that she might get yelled at, even though she had a feeling that would happen anyway.

Scaredy pony? Those words angered Blessing, but she hardly let it show. That was likely what this griffon wanted to see, she wanted Blessing to run off and leave her alone. That wasn't going to happen now. She already approached Gilda, and she was going to help if she could.

How was she supposed to help, anyway? Blessing knew now that Gilda had been put on leave.. so there wasn't really anything she could do about that except talk. And this griffon didn't seem like the chatty type. If Gilda turned out to be violent, though... that was a different story. She didn't appear to be violent, but the roar from earlier still echoed in her mind. If this griffon did decide to attack her for whatever reason, Blessing was definitely in trouble.

Blessing flinched when Gilda brushed her with her long lion tail. So much for trying to act brave. Her mind was racing as she thought of something to say, but her thoughts were interrupted when the other pegasus spoke. Somehow, he sounded calm whereas Blessing had to be careful, otherwise the next time she spoke her voice might sound a bit shaky. She took a deep, silent breath, before she finally spoke again in a calm but quiet voice.

"I'm not sure I can help with your problem, but if it would help to have someone to talk to I'm willing to listen." It was all she could offer, really. Blessing was a very nice listener, but that wouldn't be of any help if this griffon simply insisted on being alone. Blessing was stubborn, though. She wasn't about to leave unless she felt as if she were in danger. And as long as Kale were here too, she wouldn't have to face Gilda alone. At least, she hoped she wouldn't.

[Deleted]

Gilda wasn't appreciating being checked out, even if she had mentioned not looking so good. She didn't want the judgement, not from these two dweebs. She didn't need their approval for anything and she didn't want to hear about how they thought she looked, they should keep their eyes on her face.

A low growl vibrated in her chest, barely audible, but still there. It actually wasn't on purpose, even if it did scare them. This just really wasn't her day and her temper was showing it. Her breaths were coming slow and deep. Her talons dug themselves into the cloud as she brought the growl down to nothing and instead simply glared at the two ponies with as much contempt as she could manage, which surprisingly, wasn't all that much. She was, mostly mind you, feeling bad.

She wasn't feeling all that mad. Maybe she just really wanted to be mad, it did always seem to solve her problems. Then again, these ponies hadn't really reacted to her intimidation.

She stood silently for a while, a long while for a conversation, about a whole minute. After that minute however, her expression softened, not to something more forgiving or even more relaxed. Her face was more....defeated. They obviously weren't going to be scared away, and she couldn't just hit them. She also didn't really feel up for another roar.

Maybe talking wouldn't be so bad, she was a bit to proud to whine about her problems usually though. Gilda flopped back down onto the cloud and looked up at them, forcing a stern look into her face, though her eyes were obviously just tired. "Fine, I guess that works. Just remember you asked for it alright...and you can't tell anyone. Not ever."

She couldn't stress that enough. "Seriously, if you two ever say anything about this I will have to hunt you down and make sure you don't tell anybody else. If there's anything I'm good at," she paused and blew on her talons "It's hunting." She was confident that what she just said would scare them enough to keep anything embarrassing from getting out.

"Alright, so...I'm sorta on break from my job because of not lookin' good or whatever, decreased performance over the past year. So they decided I needed a break. Me?! Idiots." she was bitter about the whole thing and making it painfully obvious that she was blaming pretty much every except herself.

"I mean, I've been preening a lot lately but not that much." she sighed. she only half believed that. Not that her stubbornness or pride would ever have her even allude to the idea that it was anything but the absolute and full truth.

"And...other than that, I dunno, I have this stupid dream of getting on the Wonderbolts, but I just can't get any faster lately." she paused. "So, I was in delivery and I used that air time to practice, without the job...I guess I'm just not sure where to go or how to practice." She inhaled shakily, "Well, happy now?" she said, lifting one of her talons in a questioning way. "Like I said...don't tell anyone...."

She was slowly growing a bit less stone cold, in fact, she hadn't been planning on those few sentences before the last one. They were too...sappy for her tastes. Revealing and junk. She didn't want to have these ponies really knowing all too much about her. She never planned on seeing them again actually.

"So, you going to leave now?" she said, nervous now. She felt a bit vulnerable after saying one of the real reasons why she was so down and hated that feeling. She had a strong urge to fly off right now, but she also felt a strong urge to just lay there forever, made her feel a bit sick, the laying urge was definitely winning.