Chapter 4: The Griffon Returns!
Gilda vs. Rainbow Dash!


Messing around with his newfound telekinesis ability, Arthur is teasing Spike with a gemstone by hovering it just out of his reach then pulling it up quickly every time he jumps.
“Oh give him the gem Arthur; you’ve proved that you’re decent you’re your telekinesis ability already.” Twilight groans as she tries to stifle her laughter at Spikes attempts to grab the gem.
“Oh alright…and what was that about me being decent at this? I’ve been doing stuff like this for three days.” Artie said as he dropped the gem into Spike’s open maw.
“Yeah and I’ve had YEARS of practice. Now get up lazypony, it’s time for your next telekinesis lesson.” Twilight said in a teacher like tone, Artie groans as usual…
Outside high in the air, Rainbow Dash is busy practicing a new move for her lightning abilities but so far she’s only managed to zap herself a few times. She sits on a cloud and bounces an electric bolt between her hands in a fit.
“Grrr, this is almost as hard as pulling of a Sonic Rainboom. I cannot let Arthur pass me up! I just can’t!” Rainbow then sees someone strikingly familiar fly into Ponyville. In town Fluttershy is walking with Cream from the general store with medicine for many of Fluttershy’s animal friends when Cream bumps into someone. She looks up and sees a brown and white feathered griffon wearing what looks like a leather bomber jacket and blue jeans, she looks down at Cream with a really menacing scowl and rears back her leg and kicks the bag of medicine out of Creams arms, ruining most of the medicine.
“What are you looking at you big eared rat?” she shouted at Cream who then began to cry and hid behind Fluttershy who was as scared as she was. The griffon reeled back her fist and was about to punch out Fluttershy when Arthur grabbed her arm from behind.
“Hey what’s going on here?” he shouted but then he had to duck when the griffon took a swipe at him with her claws, she tried to kick him but he caught her leg and tossed her away. She quickly recovers and lunges at him but before she could get any closer Dash drops in front of Arthur and the griffon stops cold.
“Gilda, what are you doing back here? I thought you said you couldn’t stand my dweeby friends?” Rainbow shouted.
“Uhh…Dash you know this chick?” Arthur asked.
“Heh, I’m surprised to see you’re still hanging out with them Dash. I thought after two years you would’ve moved on by now.” Gilda said with a snide tone in her voice.
“You haven’t been back here in two years Gilda so why now?” Rainbow asked.
“*sigh*…This has been eating at me this whole time…but I wanna be friends again Dash. Remember back in Flight School you were the only one who could actually tolerate me and the attitude. I’d even try my best to…nnng…accept your friends too.” She said with a hint of restraint in her last sentence.
“Hmm…I need to talk with the others first.” Rainbow turned around and everyone huddled together, “Well…what do you all think?”
“Well she is your ex-friend Rainbow, I think you should decide.” Twilight said.
“I don’t know sugarcube, she was mighty mean the last time she was here. What makes ya think it won’t happen again?” Applejack groaned.
“I think she must be trying very hard to keep that temper under control. Remember how mean she was to Fluttershy last time?” Pinkie said.
“I’d rather not bring that memory back up anytime soon. But I think we might have a bigger problem…” Fluttershy whispered.
“Doh, Eggman and Nightmare that’s right. Dash you said she hasn’t been here in two years right so she has no idea any of you all have special powers like your lightning abilities Dash. I think for some of us, namely Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack and you Dash, keep your powers on hold for now and only use them when I say so ok? If Gilda wants to be friends again we have to look like everybody’s equal so she doesn’t blow her lid again.” Arthur said as he stood up.
“Well? Can I have a second chance or not?” Gilda said, tapping her paw on the ground. Rainbow looked at the others before facing Gilda…
“Yeah but on a few conditions: one, you have to keep your cool. No losing your temper or anything got it?” she said.
“Cool.”
“Two, you can’t be calling my friends dweebs alright”
“Cool.”
“Lastly, you have to hang out with everypony. Including Pinkie Pie and not lose your temper got it? You do those things and we can be friends again alright?” Dash said waiting for Gilda’s answer.
“Cool, no sweat. As long as Pinkie over there holds off on the pranks I’ll be good. Promise…” Gilda said with a bit of a cheesy smile on her beak. As the day went on so far Gilda has kept her cool when a pony named Carrot Top accidently bumped into her and caused her to spill her drink onto her jacket, laughed actually when Fluttershy’s pet rabbit Angel climbed up into her jacket and began running around in there, she didn’t immediately tear up a new outfit Rarity had made using her as a model in fact it was a better looking jacket with a symbol of the Flying School she and Dash went to on the back and actually helped prank some ponies with Pinkie Pie like the old snake in a can bit and swapping out ketchup for Tabasco sauce. Flying toward Dash’s cloud house Gilda spots Rainbow and Arthur sparring at the Whitetail Lake and decides to swoop in. She dives in between the two and takes a fighting stance.
“Whoa, Gilda what are you…”
“C’mon, Dash you and me, one on one. I wanna see if you’ve gotten any better since the last time we had it out!” Gilda said as she dashes toward Rainbow. Dash dropped backwards, landed on her hands and kicked upwards against Gilda but she twisted in midair and avoided the kick, Dash jumps up and spins around, landing a kick against Gilda’s forearm. Arthur was amazed how both Rainbow and Gilda matched each other move for move, even matching how the other flew and dove in to attack. After about an hour of sparring both Rainbow and Gilda fell on their backs exhausted but laughing like they had just witnessed Pinkie doing her utter randomness bit.
“Wow…I’m impressed Gilda. Dash here trained a little with my friend Knuckles and still you two were dead even. Get some rest you two; I’ll see ya in the morning.” Artie waved goodbye and headed off back to town. A while later at Rainbow’s cloud home Gilda is settling in as Dash twirls through the air and lands on a cloudbed next to Gilda.
“So Dash, what’s with the new guy?” she asked.
“Huh”
“Y’know, that colt guy you were sparring with before I swooped in and kicked your tail!” Gilda said puffing out her chest.
“Oh you didn’t beat me by a long shot and that colt was me and the girl’s new friend Arthur. He’s cool…” Dash said.
“Soooo….you got the hots for him?” Gilda asked which made Dash stutter and stumble off the cloud bed.
“What?! NO Way! I don’t have the hots for Arthur! He’s more like a…a rival to me…that’s all…” Dash said as she blushed more out of embarrassment of being asked something like that rather than if she actually had a crush on Artie.
“Uh...huh…if you say so Dash. He seems cool…must get red faced a lot being around a bunch of mares like you and your friends.” She said which resulted in Rainbow tossing a wad of clouds into her face which then started a cloud fight.
Hour pass as the night fades into morning, at Twilight’s Library Spike stirs in his little bed as the sunlight creeps into the room but suddenly he jumps out of bed gagging then letting loose a flaming burp. The flames then turned into a scroll with Celestia’s seal on it, Spike unrolls the letter and reads it…before franticly jumping and hollering on top of Twilight to wake up!
“TWILIGHT TWILIGHT WAKE UP ITS IMPORTANT! AN ERGENT LETTER FROM PRINCESS CELESTIA!” he shouted. The moment he said Celestia’s name she immediately shot upright, knocking Spike off the bed and grabbing the letter.
An hour later the entire group gathered at the Library at Twilight’s request.
“Everyone, I just got a letter from the Princess and I believe it has something to do with Dr. Eggman. Listen…”

Dear Twilight and Friends,

Last night four pegasi guards went out to patrol but this morning only one returned. He said that the other three were captured by a metal mare that fits the description of Nightmare Moon and taken to a giant silver dome 5 miles to the north of Canterlot. I think that Eggman and Nightmare are up to something big and since your new friends Arthur, Sonic, Tails and their friends have more experience with this Dr. Eggman I felt it wise to ask for their help in this matter. I have an ominous feeling about this but I’m more worried for the safety of those pegasi guards. Please stop whatever Eggman is planning and bring back those guards safely.

Signed,
Princess Celestia.

“You think Eggman would be bold enough to actually attack Canterlot again?” Twilight asked.
“Last time was Nightmare’s doing so this time that dome thing could be his hidden base. Taking that out will put a major dent in his plans for a while at least.” Arthur said with a hint of caution in his voice.
“I don’t really get what this ‘Eggman’ is…but if it deserves a butt kicking then I’m in.” Gilda said while puffing out her chest, brimming with confidence.
“Ok if you’re gonna come with us on this mission then you’re going to have to listen to my orders. This is Eggman we’re talking about here; he’s not going to be taken by surprise with an approach like this. We have to assume nothing and suspect everything once we get there.” Arthur said.
“Tch, why? We’re just busting into the place and kicking his butt outta there right?” Gilda asks.
“Well for all we know that dome thing could be one of his giant robots of mass destruction or even worse, a massive bomb that could wipe out half of Equestria.” Arthur said as Gilda gulped and ruffled her feathers, “Now first the fastest members of the team will go ahead of us and scout the area, Sonic and Dash, take these earphones and keep in touch.”
“HEY! I can keep up with Dash better than some blue spiny rat!” Gilda growled.
“Can you run faster than the speed of sound in a split second?” Sonic asked as Gilda stammered, “Thought not, Artie knows what he’s doing so just listen to him or else you might get your wings clipped.” Sonic and Dash sped off toward Eggman’s base as Gilda’s anger towards Dash’s new friends began to resurface.
“We’re all going to be riding in my new ATV, the RockHound.” Tails pulls off a cover revealing a big six wheeled car with roll bars and three rows of seats, “This puppy can ride over fallen trees, rocks, broken robots all without beating us up on the way and also…”
“You forgot cupholders…” Artie interrupted.
“What? Cupholders?” Tails asked.
“You can’t have a badass ATV like this without cupholders, it just ruins the whole motif of it.” Artie gripes.
“I’m pretty sure we can get to where we need to go without cupholders Artie, let’s just get going before more ponies go missing.” Twilight said as everybody but Amy and Knuckles climb in.
“You guys aren’t coming?” Artie asked.
“Nah, I’ll stay behind this time and keep an eye on those three fillies to make sure they don’t chase after you all.” Amy said.
“Fighting beside a bunch of girls just doesn’t feel right to me, its not a place where girls should be so count me OUUUCH!!!” Just as Knuckles finished his sentence he was promptly hammered upside the head by a rather enraged Amy.
“AND JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN WOMEN ARENT SUPPOSED TO FIGHT HUH?!”
“Tails better step on it before we get caught in the cross fire!” Tails started the ATV and floored it, squealing out of there as Pinkie stands up and cheers as they speed off towards Eggman’s base.
“They’re coming Eggman…I can sense them.” Nightmare said.
“Ohohhohoho, those pitiful mares won’t be able to defeat my latest greatest creation, the Egg Galleon. Hehehe I can’t wait to see their faces as they witness the destruction of their precious Princess. Gahhahahahahaha!” Eggman cackled.
“WHOA…”
“Artie what is it?” Twilight asked.
“I dunno…I just suddenly got a bad feeling…we better stay on our guard. Dash, Sonic, can you hear me?” Artie called out over the earphones.
“Loud and Clear Artie.” Dash replied.
“Dash…listen…I don’t want you using your lightning powers.” Artie said.
“WHAT? Then how am I gonna fight?” Dash said.
“I can feel Gilda’s anger right now and she’s ticked. We can’t have her lose her cool by you showing you’ve been holding back this whole time. You can try using it subtly but no flashy fancy stuff. We’re getting close now so be ready you two.” Gilda was flying above the ATV and could see the silver dome but then dark clouds began to form in the area.
“I thought the forecast called for sunny days until next week! Oh now my hair’s going to be ruined!” Rarity cried.
“Two things, either we’re in an area where weather is like that in the Everfree or Ditzy Doo got control of the weather again.” Twilight said.
“Huh? Control of the weather?” Arthur asked.
“Yeah, here in our world Pegasus Ponies control the weather. But there is one we’re a might bit worried bout named Ditzy Doo, you can never tell what she’s thinkin and she crashes a lot. But when she’s put in charge of the weather we once ended up with a snowstorm in the middle of summer, she plum near ruined Sweet Apple Acres entire summer harvest!” AJ said.
“But those clouds actually look natural; she might have accidentally released a natural thunderstorm.” Twilight said.
“Is that bad?” Artie asked with worry.
“Well…natural lightning is far more powerful than the lightning that the pegasai ponies make. Plus the lightning they make is made so it rarely strikes anything but you can’t tell with natural lightning…and with something so big made of metal we better be extra careful.” Twilight explained which Dash overheard over the earphone.
A few minutes later of driving over tree roots and rocks the group arrive at the giant dome, sitting at a height of half that of the Empire State Building.
“Sonic, what did you guys find?” Artie asked just as it began to sprinkle.
“Nada, no doors anywhere. It’s like half a big metal ball some giant left behind, I’ve even tried spin dashing into it and its tougher than we thought…” Sonic explained as he rubbed the bump on his head.
“Ohhohohohohoho, hello my inferior friends. I see you’ve found my latest creation.” Eggman’s disembodied voice chortled. Arthur held his hand over the circle in his Harmony Drive and pulled out Twilight Blade, Twilight’s horn began to glow as did Rarity’s, AJ stomped her hooves, Pinkie bounced and growled, Dash and Gilda stayed in the air and took fighting stances while Fluttershy and Tails stayed by the RockHound.
“Here, let me introduce you…” Suddenly the ground began to shake as lines began running up the dome, metallic sounds like gears turning as hundreds of sections began splitting apart, halfway up the dome it split in half and then transformed into the upper torso of a massive robot with three giant cannons on each shoulders and huge arms and the head of something akin to a Gundam head with a yellow glass dome for its forehead where Eggman and Nightmare were, “Say hello to the Egg Galleon and your doom!”

{Kingdom Hearts Music-VS Ansem]

The cannons began to move as they take aim towards Ponyville, they fired with an ear shattering explosion! Six blasts all strike the mountain that Canterlot stands on, slamming against a barrier that Luna had placed around the mountain.
“DASH, GILDA! GET UP THERE AND STOP THOSE GUNS NOW!!!” Arthur screamed as he himself jabbed his twin swords into the metal and climbed upwards, by now the storm was in full swing, lightning crashing and booming here and there, the rain was pouring down like mad as Dash and Gilda soar through it as another round of shots fly toward the mountain.
“DASH! How does he expect us to stop something this huge!?” Gilda shouted over the rain.
“Let’s get as close as we can first!” Dash shouted as she nearly managed to avoid getting grabbed by the Egg Galleon’s massive hand, zooming in around the cannons and flying across the lit up dome in it forehead, Dash signals to Gilda to follow her lead as they fly in and kick off the connectors to the first three left cannons.
“Grrrrr, I won’t let them win!” Eggman took hold of the controls, outside several dozen smaller turrets aimed upward and began indiscriminate fire. Dash and Gilda weaved in and out of the shots as the blasts trashed much of the forest in a large circular shape. Arthur leapt out of the lower half of the Egg Galleon with the three missing guards just as the lower half began lifting up and flipping upside down as panel’s pop open with jet boosters and propelled it forward.
“Dash, Gilda, we can’t do anything with it in the air like that. It’s going for Canterlot, stop that thing at all costs!” Artie shouted over the earphones. Dash and Gilda tear through the rain, Gilda catches up and begins gouging at the glass separating Eggman and Nightmare, she then rears back and then lunges forward, spinning like a drill, trying to carve a hole in the glass but was knocked away by a giant hand. The Galleons forward turrets and right cannons continued firing at the mountain as the barrier begins to show signs of cracking. Dash swoops in like a rainbow streak and slams into the connector cables to the remaining main cannons, shutting them down. The Galleon held its arms out and then spun its entire torso except its head at high speed, kicking up the rain into a midair water spout, knocking back Dash and Gilda. With the main cannons down more power was diverted to the boosters, making the machine fly faster than the two flyers could keep up with.
“Gah I can’t keep my speed up in this rain. It’s slowing us down and that thing is moving like me on a dry day!” Dash growled.
“Hey I can cleave though anything with these claws.” Gilda said smugly.
“Wait you wanna try…”
“Yeah! Let’s do it!” Gilda held her claws out and spun like a drill as Dash flew in right close behind her, holding her hands flat together. Gilda’s claws and spinning kept the rain off Dash as they both flew faster and faster, the sound barrier straining against Gilda, she timed it just right to stop spinning and fly out of the way for Dash to rocket forward and shatter the barrier in a SonicRainboom, like a rainbow bullet she sped through the rain, weaving through the hail of blasts and aimed right for the waist. Remembering what Arthur said she made an unnoticeable electric blade around her left wing and sliced through a power cable to the thrusters, causing it to pitch and crash, grinding along the ground before crashing into the barrier around the mountain, shattering it.
The lightning is growing fiercer, striking the ground every few minutes, Dash flies upward about to slam into the glass bubble control room when she spotted Gilda trying to dodge lightning bolts, suddenly Dash felt a twang in her head and instead of ending Eggman’s machine she avoids destroying the head and streaks toward Gilda, time seems to slow down just as a bolt of lightning comes down on Gilda. In a split second a bright flash blinds Gilda but as her sight returns her eyes go wide as Rainbow let the bolt of lightning strike her, the immense power of the natural lightning surged through her, the blue streak on her Cutie Mark suddenly lit up as her wings became enveloped in pure lightning and turned into larger lightning wings, her entire body crackled with lightning as she looked back to Gilda who was staring in disbelief.
“……Sorry Gilda…” Dash said. Before Gilda could say anything she took off with unimaginable speed, she flew so fast that blue afterimages trailed behind her, Dash held her hands out and then shot her own lightning bolts at Galleon, even though the turrets were firing a massive barrage none of the shots could hit her, she then created a long lightning blade with her arm and sliced clean through the cannons.
“Not yet, I’m taking this place down with Galleon itself if I have to.” Eggman began furiously working the controls making Galleon climb the mountain. Even with this new power that Dash has it wasn’t enough to stop Galleon from climbing, then Dash remembered with she heard Twilight said about natural lightning being far more powerful.
She shot upwards past Galleon and the Castle into the clouds, flying in a circle, effectively creating her own midair lightning generator, gathering millions of volts of lightning into herself, below Arthur could see Galleon’s giant hand grab a plateau at the castle but then suddenly a massive shock of ice froze the rain soaked hand and shattered outwards with tremendous force, knocking it off balance.
Dash saw her chance and created a massive lightning spear and dove downward at maximum speed, she came down like a massive lightning bolt and just as she was about to tear right thought Galleon’s chest she cried out, “GREAT THUNDER CRASH!!” She tore clean through its chest as a massive 50 foot wide lightning bolt left a gaping hole as the remains fall back to the ground. Eggman and Nightmare escape just before the remains of the machine hit the ground.

As the storm passes on Arthur and the rest of the group find Dash swooping down looking like her old triumphant self.
“Whoa Dash since when could you do that?” Artie asked.
“Sorry Artie…I had to save Gilda so…I ended up using my powers in front of her…” Dash said.
“POWERS?! You mean to tell me you all have these new powers?! HUH?” Gilda growled as the ponies nervously shuffle about, “I KNEW IT! You all set me up again huh? Just like last time!”
“No Gilda, we…just didn’t want you to be…” Dash said.
“BE WHAT? HUMILITATED AGAIN!? You better watch yourself this time DASH…I’m sick of you and your retarded dweeby friends always keeping secrets from me! If we should run into each other again one of these days don’t expect any kindness from me cause all you’re gonna get are these claws straight in your gut you HEAR ME!!!!” Gilda roared as she took off.
“Sorry Dash…but you did what you had to do to save a friend…even if she took it the wrong way…” Arthur said.
“Yeah…yeah…win some lose some right…anyway we oughta check on the Princesses while we’re here.” Dash flaps her wings as she takes off to the castle, the others climb into the RockHound but Arthur looks up to where the Galleon had grabbed the plateau…


“Ice…who in the world did that?”

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"After all is said and done we finally head back to Canterlot only to find that Cloudsdale is under robot attack! I can understand Rainbow and Fluttershy's nervousness but still...something doesnt feel right..."

Next time on Sonic X My Little Pony: Attack in the Clouds! Spread your Wings and Fly!