It wouldn't have been the first time that I had been tackled to the floor like that. I mean, by her at least. I think the number would have been closer to, say, 20?

You would think that I would see it coming at this point, that I'd be able to keep myself from getting ambushed by her. Then again, it had been a while since I'd seen her, so I'd like to think I was at least a little excused.

From my position on the grass, I could see the griffin on top of me curl her beak into a smile. A familiar chuckle filled my ears as her rather tomboyish voice piped up.

"Yeah, I know. I'd probably think that it's good to see me too." She said, responding to my prior statement with over-dramatized pride. She puffed her chest outwards and her smile grew even larger at her newly stated self-importance.

It was good to see that she'd kept her infamous sense of modesty, in a way. It at least let me know that not much about her had changed.

I managed to pry my arms free from her grip before promptly crossing them with one another. It wasn't hard to do so whatsoever, despite what you may think. Whenever she would do this, she'd always at least have enough sense to be careful and for the most part 'gentle' about it. She always made sure to watch her talons, keep her beak at a safe enough position, and so forth. Good thing too, considering I wasn't exactly at my physical best at the moment.

"Uh-huh. Sure. Because you've done so much to make me think so." I said sarcastically, quickly ripping away her boasting persona from her as she let out a cheerful laugh.

"Good one. Though, it's not like I haven't been busy." She rolled her wrist at the air behind her. "It's weird, but you would think that you'd be easier to find, what with you being the only thing that walks on two legs for miles."

"Besides minotaurs, you mean?" She waved me off.

"Fine, fine, the only thing on two legs that looked like a naked monkey."

"I wear more clothes than most minotaur do too..."

"Psh. Potato, tomato."

I shook my head at her oh-so-apt and informative inclusion to our usual spree of jabber. It was pretty normal for us to have these kinds of back and forths. It was kind of like me and Chrysalis, only there was a lot more general teasing and prodding in our conversations than there were verbal death matches. We were pretty casual with one another, all things considered.

"Right. Anyways, what brings you looking for 'the naked monkey'?" I inquired.

"What? Can't a griffoness drop in on her friend every now and then?" She replied, a clearly false and comical tone of hurt in her voice. She was a poor actor for these kinds of dramatics, and we were both aware. Just made it part of the fun.

"And besides..." she quickly added, her eyes momentarily looking over and scanning every part of my body that she could see from her position; she ended up focusing on the layer of bandaging that was still wrapped around most of my torso. "It looks like you've been... 'occupied'."

"It's been a long few months." Yet again, she gave a chuckle.

"No foolin'." She replied simply enough, a roll of her eyes adorning the statement and a talon lightly tapping the bandaging I wore as added emphasis. "I mean, honestly, I thought this was just for show."

As you might be able to guess, she had always been a well-meaning - though often obnoxious and insensitive - griffon with a hankering for sarcasm and conflict. I mean that all in the nicest way possible, if that even makes sense.

Look, let me just try and put it this way: To use my previous comparison, she was like the slightly nicer and much more good-spirited version of Chrysalis. A funny bone or two of hers had been added in to further the difference, as could be seen by some of the pranks and jokes she'd have pulled some time ago. Though she didn't particularly enjoy being on the other end of the prank.

Speaking of Chrysalis, it was just about at that moment that I remembered and realized that Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, Halfy, and Zecora could probably see all this going on. From where I was though, I couldn't get a look at the house they were watching me from, so I could only imagine how they were reacting.

Still, in for a penny, as they say.

"So," I started once more, attempting to further prolong the conversation and give myself some time to think over the situation I found myself in as a whole, "how the hell did you find me?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The amount of magic that I had to pull up from the love that I still held within me, as well as the sheer willpower to keep myself from simply releasing it and letting the current target of my hold go, was astounding to say the least.

Even now, I was still holding back the alicorn, blocking her magic with my own and keeping her hooves firmly planted on the ground below her to make sure she wouldn't try to intervene.

I admit, when that thing had first crashed into Jeremy, I myself was absolutely livid.

Surprised. Oh good, you corrected it yourself that time.

However, at the same time, the emotions that he displayed just before and during everything had clued me in that he wasn't really being attacked at the moment. Even after he had been pinned by this apparent griffon, I saw no negative emotions coming from either of the two.

No hostility, or fear. Instead, there were two senses of friendliness and joy. As if to add onto that, once the zebra had caught sight of the griffon, she immediately lost her previous sense of fearful concern. Though, she did retain a sense of annoyance.

Halfy, in the meanwhile, was far too shocked and unsure of what to do to react.

Nightmare Moon, being the only one who lacked my sight of one's emotions, Zecora's 'familiarity' to the griffon, and Halfy's timidity, had simply narrowed her eyes the moment Jeremy had been brought down.

Having predicted what she would likely try to do despite the risks that came with revealing our presences here, I had, and still had been keeping her held back as a result.

"Release us, now- mmpph!" Empresses, there was always something with her.

Focusing some of the magic that I gripped her in towards her muzzle, I shut her mouth before she could make anymore noise.

For the entire split second that she was unable to vocally communicate, I felt nothing but the utmost bliss, wondering why I had never done this before. However, just because I had closed her mouth, that didn't mean that I had stopped her from using the mental link that she still held over Jeremy and I.

"What is the meaning of this!?" I heard her practically boom against the inner walls of my skull, momentarily sending a jarring and painful ringing through my head.

I gave her a glare, just as she gave one to me, while I continued to restrain her.

"Would you just hold still and think for a second?!" I mentally shouted back at her at a comparable volume, I made sure that my annoyance and anger were easily audible. "If she wanted to hurt him, she would have done it already. On top of that, there isn't a single emotion that she's showing that can possibly make her hostile! Even Jeremy seems to be fine with this!"

With an even stronger pull against her, the glow of my horn grew slightly as I reigned her back by a fraction of an inch. If she was angry after this, then so be it! I couldn't care less if it'd keep us from the dungeons.

"We need to stay hidden! Jeremy can take care of this on his own, he and Zecora seems to know this griffon. If you rush into the situation like some sort of foal, however, it'll all be for nothing!"

Much to a great part of my mind's relief, alongside my still rather limited supply of magic, the force behind her attempted escape gave a notable slack. I let out a breath as I used the oppurtunity to relax my hold slightly.

"... Be that as it may," another short, though much weaker tug could be felt as she said this, "we cannot yet be sure that this being is yet trustworthy." It was like a verbal game of chess really; I had to continually counter every move she made. Unfortunately for her, it was the equivalent of fighting a novice when I had years of experience.

Add to that the fact that I had plenty of practice with a certain human?

"Oh? Then you don't trust Jeremy's judgement? Even after how he proved you–," I paused for a moment, holding back a snarl at what I was about to add, "us wrong about Halfy?" And that was checkmate.

As I had predicted, what little struggle that the alicorn had left came to an end, leaving her standing plainly in one spot. A blurred menagerie of jumbled emotions peered through her mental barrier before just as quickly being hidden away once more.

I could see her attempt to open her mouth several times, as if ready to say something despite the invisible muzzle I had placed over her. It might have been an insult or some random comment, but I wasn't about to bother to check unless she gave me the answer I wanted.

Finally, with several muffled grunts and one last scowl in my direction, she gave out a reluctant breath.

"... Very well then." She said, finally seeming to calm down completely. "We will, again, trust Sir Jeremy's judgement."

For another moment or two, I continued to hold her in my magical grasp, a part of me still skeptical as to if she would really stop trying to gore the griffon in front of us with her horn. After a few seconds though, I released her, relieving myself of the heavy concentration I had needed in order to restrain her. A strong throb echoed through my head, likely the precursor of an oncoming headache from the magical strain I had just given myself.

Rubbing a forehoof at my head's temple, I gave out a silent groan before looking back at the scene before me. It was only now that I noticed that Zecora and Halfy were looking at the two of us, likely having watched the entire silent - from their point of view, at least - display put on by Nightmare Moon and I.

I didn't need them to be looking at me like that, thank you very much.

I gave the two glares, practically snarling, which prompted them to turn their gazes away from us and towards the door of the house. They used the small crack in the door in order to keep an eye on Jeremy and the apparent griffon.

'Gilda', I think I had overheard her name to be. Not an odd name for griffons, but certainly not normal for ponies and the like.

In my distraction from these thoughts, I barely gave notice to the fact that Nightmare Moon had joined the other two in gazing through the crack in the door, watching and listening from afar. It was amusing, actually, watching as she dwarfed the two with ease. While they simply struggled to give one another clear views without limiting their own, the alicorn was able to easily stand, or even sit, in a single spot while still having ample room to watch the goings-on of the outside.

There was no way I was going to even allow myself to get close to doing that again. Last time I had, I had nearly been trampled by the alicorn as she tried to rush outside to aid Jeremy. Besides, I had a relatively clear view of my own, what with the two emotional entities I could sense through the walls. As for hearing, they weren't exactly speaking quietly. Especially that griffin, who may as well have been shouting.

"Oh, what, can't a griffoness check on her friend every now and then?" It was odd, but she was lying and telling the truth at the same time with this statement of hers.

I rose a brow at the fact, making a mental note of it for later alongside the momentary surge of emotion that went through her with it.

Nonetheless, like Nightmare Moon, Halfy, and Zecora, I listened on as the two continued to converse. I didn't really hear or see anything of particular interest until a few moments later.

"So, how the hell did you find me?" As I heard Jeremy ask this question, I felt an ear twitch and my brows furrow.

'How did you find me'? He was really going for that?

We already knew how she found us. She obviously followed that zebra here, that much was obvious.

At this point, I prayed that he was just trying to stall for time and that he wasn't actually that clueless.

"Pfft. Duh! I just followed Zecora here!" And there it was.

"Oh. Heh, I guess I probably should've figured." I'd give it to him, he was a relatively good liar. On occasion, that is. He had quite a bit left to learn though. For instance, he shouldn't have chuckled like a nitwit at the beginning of a sentence.

Despite this blatant error on his part though, the griffon didn't seem to notice. She seemed more pre-occupied busying herself with a growing sense of self-appointed pride.

"No foolin'. Gotta say though, it wasn't easy. I had to go two nights without any sleep just to see where she was going." As she said this, I was beginning to take note of a sudden sense of surprise in the room, followed shortly thereafter by irritation.

"Really?" Jeremy asked curiously. "Didn't she, you know, notice that you weren't asleep?" The griffon scoffed.

"As if. All I had to do was close my eyes and pretend I had a really bad snore and she left me alone. Times like those that I'm glad I take so many naps." The irritation from before? It had escalated into a white-hot fury.

Before I knew it, Zecora, who had been the source of these emotions, gave out a breath through her nose, every obvious intent of doing harm to the griffon clear in her emotions as she took a step to the door and partially pushed it open.

As much as I liked her enthusiasm to get rid of this griffon, we still couldn't afford letting her see us just yet.

The door barely gave so much as a creak before Zecora was surrounded by a magical field. She was held firmly in place despite her dragging hooves and snarling anger. I, however, wasn't the one doing it this time.

It wasn't particularly hard to notice the dark blue aura of magic that surrounded Zecora, as well as Nightmare Moon's horn.

Its almost poetic, isn't it? I held back Nightmare Moon to keep her from interrupting, and she ended up doing the same for Zecora. Though, it was obvious that she did not struggle as much to hold the Zebra as as I did her. She barely batted an eye as she managed to drag Zecora away from the door and forced her to sit down next to her.

"Miss Zecora," she said simply and silently, "we must await for Sir Jeremy if we are to take action." I rolled my eyes at this.

"Sure. Now you think that." I mentally grumbled, though I felt a bit of amusement tinge at the back of my mind as Zecora began to give several angered grumbles. Believing the situation had been more or less dealt with, I soon turned my head back to the griffon and Jeremy, both of whom had thankfully not seemed to notice us quite yet.

"Killjoy." I heard the griffon suddenly say with a short laugh, my brow raising in confusion.

"To be fair, you brought that on yourself." Hearing these words, the griffon gave a sigh and I barely suppressed an annoyed groan as I realized that I had missed a part of their conversation in my distraction. Even Halfy had seemingly missed what had occurred, likely distracted by the fact that Zecora had brushed past her to open the door.

Neither of the other two seemed the wiser either, so it was very obvious we all had missed something.

That was especially apparent to me when I noticed there were a few fading emotional remnants of what looked like lustful amusement and embarrassed humor.

Now I was really interested in what they had said, mentally cursing the zebra for her interference.

I figured I'd just have to get it out of him later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"As if. All I had to do was close my eyes and pretend I had a really bad snore and she left me alone. Times like those that I'm glad I take so many naps."

Cards on the table, I was fully expecting Zecora to walk out here and have Gilda fishing her own wings out of her beak.

Not many ponies knew it, but there were two things that annoyed Zecora more than anything: Messing with her potions – though I had avoided her fury that day as a result of the instantaneous comeuppance I was given at the time; to this day there's still remnants of an uncomfortable craving for minty things in my systems – and being tricked.

And considering the fact that she had basically just admitted to tricking her, while she was watching... Yeah, I couldn't help but to mentally commend Zecora for her control... Then again, it was probably more realistic to assume she was being held back.

"Hello? Equestria to J'. You there?" Ah. I had nearly forgotten about that nickname she had given me.

Shaking my head and giving her a smile, I let out an awkward chuckle as I realized that I had gotten distracted in my own thoughts. "Sorry about that." I apologized. "By the way, you do know that Zecora is probably gonna kick your butt for tricking her once she finds out, right?" I could already feel the glare that Zecora would soon be giving me in her attempts to get to Gilda.

Not pleasant.

"Meh. Yeah, probably..." She glanced around us for a moment or two, a smile slowly coming to her face. One that, unfortunately, I was rather familiar with.

"... Um... You know," I began to say, looking her over, "you can get off now."

"Hm... Not a bad idea." She responded. She shifted herself slightly atop of me, seeming to make herself more comfortable as her tail gave a quick yet lazy wag behind her.

"... Gilda..." I called warily, squirming slightly underneath her.

"Hmm?" She hummed in return, her eyes now starting to lid themselves halfway.

"You're doing it again." She shrugged her shoulders at my warning, acting as if she had no idea what I was talking about.

"Doing what again?"

... Yeahhhh. See, there's one more trait about Gilda that I had, um... left out. She liked to flirt... A lot. At least with me.

I didn't know why she did it - that's a lie, I knew exactly why, I just don't want to talk about it yet - she just did. I couldn't tell whether she'd be joking or if she was serious sometimes though, and honestly that's what worries me the most about it. Worse still, she seemed to know that.

"Gilda, we've been over this before." I looked to her with a firm gaze. She seemed unfazed by this though, looking away momentarily and shaking her head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, big guy." Obviously, she very much did.

Also, random detail, but I was only about a few inches taller than her when she was on all fours. She was taller than me whenever she would be on her hind legs though. So, 'big guy' didnt seem like an appropriate nickname she gave. Course, I was well aware of where she had actually gotten the idea to call me that, much to my chagrin, but that's a story for another time.

"I'm serious, Gilda. It's time for you to get off." She smirked at this, leaning herself down to be a few mere inches from me. Whatever intimidation or factor of seriousness I had about me practically disintegrated as she did this, now replaced by splatters of nervousness and anxiety.

"Like I said," she repeated huskily, "not a bad idea." I was suddenly growing very distinctly aware of the knowledge I had that Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Halfy, and Zecora were watching this all occur.

I blinked as I also realized that her tail had moved out of my sight, shifting with slow precision particularly close to a... certain region. I quickly felt my face heat itself up to a degree that it might as well have been on fire.

With practiced speed – though it's not like I purposely wanted to practice this sort of thing, so much as I was forced to do so on these kinds of instances – I reached around Gilda and firmly grabbed hold of her tail, moving it away from its previous placement and instead putting it in front of me. I made sure that Gilda had a clear view of my grasp on it.

A shiver momentarily went through her before she noticed what I held, her eyes turning to pinpricks and her entire body seeming to freeze. I smirked at her reaction as she then moved her gaze to me.

"... You wouldn't..." She uttered, almost challengingly. Without saying another word, I gave her tail a quick squeeze.

Her reaction was instant. Her back stiffened until she now sat straight up, permitting an even greater distance from her face to mine. Along with that, a shock seemed to go through her. Layers of fur and feathers ruffled and stood on end in their journey upwards to her head, ended with an odd face that, in short, made it look like she had just been electrocuted.

I chuckled, her tail still in my grip, and gave her my own challenging look.

Fun fact, and not very well known actually: A griffon's tail is extremely sensitive if treated wrong. I mean, sure, it can take its fair amount of abuse, but if it's so much as squeezed or pulled the wrong way, it can bring a lot of discomfort to its owner. I had found this out by accident, actually, during one of the many other times she had gotten me in this position. Since then, that's pretty much been my defense against her. Rather useful I'd say, considering I never really had any advantage over her before this whole mess had even gotten started anyhow.

After another moment or so, her posture softened once more before she gave herself a quick shake in an attempt to return her displaced feathers and fur to their original place. Once this was done, a comical shudder escaped her as she looked to me again.

"Really?" She asked angrily, myself only smiling and nodding in return. For a bit, she just glared at me while I carefully kept a grip on her tail, ignoring what little wriggling it was doing in an effort to escape me. Soon enough though, the corners of her beak tugged themselves into a smile. She gave a chuckle, slowly shaking her head at her own defeat.

"Killjoy." With another short chortle, she began to make her way off of me. I let go of her tail in order to let her get up comfortably before I began to stand myself up as well. It's weird, but though she had often told me she didn't like losing, she'd always be a relatively good sport whenever I would beat her. Then again, this wasn't the kind of thing I would prefer to have to beat her at.

It was at that moment that I felt a light smack against my back, looking to Gilda just in time to notice her tail returning to its place behind her and an 'innocent' look on her face.

"To be fair, you brought that on yourself." I brushed off what little dirt and filth had accumulated on my back and front from the earlier tumble, even finding another one of Gilda's feather's stuck in between my jacket and bandages before nonchalantly tossing it away with a laugh.

"Heh. Whatever you say, J." I rolled my eyes at her obvious sarcasm, the warmth in my face from a few moments ago finally beginning to fade. "So then, mind telling me what you've been up to?"

I blinked again.

Would you believe I had somehow forgotten about all that?

"Oh, um... I want to say 'nothing much', but..." I looked to her and gestured to myself. "As you can tell, that'd be a pretty obvious lie." She gave a nod in my direction, her face in a deadpan that just screamed 'you don't say'?

"So," I clapped my hands together, "with that out, I guess I'll go for our usual arrangement?" She raised a brow at this.

"You mean the 'you go first and I'll owe you one later' agreement, or the 'don't bother Zecora this time and I'll buy you some fish' one." I gave her a deadpan of my own. "Alright, alright, I'm joking. Yeesh. Sure, I'll take you up on that." The smirk she put on at the end of that sentence worried me again, but not by too much.

That agreement of ours was a little one-sided, I admit. The only reason I came up with it was because, when I knew her, Gilda was basically just like my sister in the regards that she would drag me along for everything. I saved myself a lot of work and effort by asking her to do whatever over-the-top thing she wanted me to try first, ergo having her deal with the worse of the events and leaving the easier for me.

It was partially worth it. As for that 'IOU' I would often need to repay her with... Well, I put some pretty strict ground rules on it and made sure she was aware. Other than that though, anything went.

The memory of the time she made me sit in a pile of garbage for over three hours just because I had reminded her of an embarrassing moment of hers rang a bell.

"Great... I think..." I was already regretting this. A short and devious laugh escaped her as Gilda put a talon to her beak, tapping it in thought as she seemed to recall what she had done in her more recent days.

"Lets see... I went back to the griffon kingdom for a few days; checked out this awesome dragon cave – and yeah, it was empty when I found it, which was a bummer; pretty much dived into every lake I could find, mostly because I got bored after doing nothing but flying for a few days; found some Diamond Dogs and kicked their butts after I noticed them staring at the somewhere other than my face; then I-" Despite my attempts to listen to her quite impressive summary of her trip, I ended up involuntarily drowning it out as I heard somepony else speak up. Not physically though. Rather, mentally.

"...Sir Jeremy, are ye certain of this?" Like I said, I had been getting much better at not flinching at either her or Chrysalis' sudden intrusion. Which is good, because that would have ended awkwardly had Gilda noticed. Still, before I could even question what she had meant, she seemed to have already known the answer. "We are aware that you hold trust in this Griffon, and we do not mean to question your judgement... However..."

I couldn't hold back a mental or physical smile as she said this. "You know, I actually find it kind of funny. If this is how you're reacting, I can only imagine how Chrysalis is doing." Already I could hear Chrysalis telling me off for this, scolding and shouting at me for telling someone else about what was happening.

"We apologi-"

"Don't worry Nightmare Moon, it's fine." I assured, not wanting for her to start beating herself up for nothing. In the back of my mind though, I could still feel her prominent sense of worry.

I can't say I was happy about that, but I understood where she was coming from. It hadn't been the first time that she had trouble trusting someone.

Gilda really wasn't a bad griffon though. A little obnoxious, maybe, but nothing intolerable. Honestly, I just wished I could show her that she was a good person.

A wish that I recalled could very easily be granted in current company.

As I came to that realization, I began to devise a plan in the back of my head. One that would, hopefully, lighten Nightmare Moon's worry. And if I was lucky, it would also minimize the amount of chastising Chrysalis would give me. The latter of the two seemed unlikely to me though.

"Tell you what, if you like, we can have Halfy meet her first." I could quickly sense the confusion from her. "Think about it. Halfy's able to see the good in other beings, right? Well, having her meet Gilda should show you two that she's trustworthy as well."

In theory, it was pretty sound. But it was a double-edged sword. If Halfy even showed the slightest hint that she sees the opposite of what I was hoping for...

Whatever thoughts I may have had of that happening, I pushed them away at the time. I trusted Gilda.

Anyways, as for Nightmare Moon's reaction to this idea? She was skeptical at first. After a few prolonged moments of relative silenve however, she spoke up again. "... Very well, Sir Jeremy. We shall relay this to Chrysalis and the others." I sent her a mental nod of my head before tuning back into Gilda's story to make sure I still had some time to talk – by the way, I had no idea she could drink that much cider without passing out – before asking Nightmare Moon one last question.

One last... awkward question.

"Oh, uh, by the way, how much of that earlier conversation did you happen to overhear?" Yeah... I had to make sure they hadn't gotten a full helping of Gilda's flirting with me.

"What... is it that you mea-"

"Nevermind! Nothing happened! Bye!" And with that, I sealed off my own mind to the best of my ability, hoping to end that subject then and there.

Nightmare Moon had seemingly missed that part of when Gilda was on me... I think. If the universe had decided to give me even more luck though, Chrysalis and the others would have done the same.

I begged that that would have been the case as I completely returned my focus to Gilda and her story.

"-And I ended up having to outrun an Ursa Minor before deciding to come back for a visit... You're up, J." Pushing aside what she had said as being 'just Gilda', I shrugged.

"... Alright. Lets see, I've..." I hesitated for a moment at the memories, but with a deep breath, I started to let them all out. "been arrested by Canterlot guards for a crime I don't know that I committed; stuck in a small dark jail cell with two others for a few months; staged an escape, in which I didn't make it; got starved, dehydrated, and tortured practically everyday for a couple more months; developed a phobia from it; managed to stage another escape, this time rescued by the two from earlier; ended up in the Everfree; met up with Zecora, where I got these bandages; got chased by Timber Wolves; ended up meeting another pony and staying here with her and my cellmates; annnnd... the rest are smaller details, really. "

Talk about turning a long story short, huh?

As for Gilda's reaction? Well, she was surprised at first.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Like I said, at first. "Ha! Whoo! That's a good one! Bu- hehe- but seriously though, what happened? Heh." Yeah, I should've figured as much. I pursed my lips as I momentarily looked away from her and scratched at my cheek.

"Weird, Zecora had the same reaction." Gilda rose a brow at this but continued her chortling nonetheless.

"Alright then. Since I don't particularly want to go through the trouble of trying to convince you, I'll just skip that step and move on to this one." Turning myself to the house, I gestured for her to follow me. "C'mon, lets go introduce you to the others."

And again, I hoped for the best.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I-I don't know about this, Princess." Halfy confessed to the shadow alicorn, her nerves already beginning to get the best of her despite Gilda having not yet arrived.

As she nervously drew circles into the ground below her, averting her gaze from Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis gave out a withdrawn sigh, muttering silently at how much she disagreed with this ploy of Jeremy's.

"Our friend, we are aware that we are indeed asking a great plenty of you, but we also cannot deny that your abilities are significant in our following actions." Halfy pursed her lips at this, her body seeming to tense even more at the realization of the importance of her role. Chrysalis didn't even need her abilities to see that Halfy was only getting more nervous by the second.

"You're not quite the one to get a pep-talk from, are you Princess?" Chrysalis chided. Nightmare Moon turned to look at her with a glare, but was openly ignored as the changeling put her attention to Halfy. "And if you're so nervous about doing things this way, then why didn't you just check to see if she had 'good' within her while she was outside?" Chrysalis questioned, gesturing and rolling her hole-filled foreleg as she did so, along with her eyes.

"I-it's not that simple. I have to be close to a pony, or anything else, before I can actually see them like that. Otherwise, they just look the same to me as anypony else might see them." She explained, flinching at the look that Chrysalis gave her shortly after.

"Tch. Of course..." Hearing the sound of someone clearing their throats, Chrsyalis gave a mental groan as she looked to the source. There, near the furthest corner of the room, was Zecora. She stood upright and had a look of calm on her face.

"To be fair, changeling queen, you neither are as perfect as you mean." Chrysalis scoffed, pushing aside Zecora's own two bits to the situation as if they hadn't even been given. Nightmare Moon, as she did this, barely withheld another sigh of frustration before she looked back towards Halfy once more. The mare seemed to notice her gaze with ease, timidly placing herself to look eye-to-eye with her towering form once more.

"There is no need to be nervous, our friend. We will be near and prepared to assist should anything take a turn for the worst. Of this, we give you our word." Though her nerves were neither steeled nor calmed by Nightmare Moon's words, Halfy was at least able to manage a small smile in the direction of her friend.

"...O-okay..." As a smile now made its way to Nightmare Moon's features as well and she opened her mouth in order to express her gratefulness, there was a knock at the door, paired with the sound of Jeremy's voice.

"Hello? Girls? We're coming in."

" 'Girls'? Wow big guy, you've been busier than I thought."

"... Damn it, Gilda."

At the sound of the two's voices, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Zecora looked towards one another one last time before quickly taking action.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"... Damn it, Gilda." I replied curtly to Gilda as I gave the doorknob a quick pair of turns – if only to subconsciously extend the time the girls had to react – and opened the door with a push.

As the door creaked open, allowing the dim night's light to flood in inch by inch, I could feel Gilda's gaze circle around me in an attempt to gain a better view. The view to the living room was clear, yet, incredibly, the only one I could see was Halfy.

Just Halfy. Nobody else. She sat near the middle of the room, her overall posture showing unease.

That really threw me for a loop. I mean, obviously the idea was to have Gilda meet Halfy first to and show Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon that she was trustworthy, but I couldn't help but to wonder... How?! How in the hell did an alicorn and a changeling queen, both of which being taller than me by at least two heads, just magically disappear?

... Magically... That's how... You would have thought I'd have gotten this by now.

In my distraction, I failed to notice Gilda make her way past me. She reached the center of the main room of the house and took a look around, not quite acknowledging Halfy's presence yet. The mare in question didn't seem to mind though. In fact, Halfy seemed partially relieved by the fact that she had been ignored.

"... So, this proves that story of yours, how?" Unsurprisingly, she had the expression she would put on whenever she had suspected me of playing a trick on her. Word of note, by the way, she had given me that face a lot when I had first met her. She couldn't really help it, I suppose, but still. "I mean, maybe I can believe that whole 'other pony' bit that you gave me near the end, and that one about Zecora helping you out, but in case you haven't noticed, there's only one pony here." As she said this, she pointed a talon behind her, this gesture alone seeming to cause Halfy to flinch. In fact, now that I was looking at her, I could see that Halfy looked nervous. I sincerely hoped that this was just because of her timidity with new ponies, rather than...

"That's because they're... waiting?" I answered dumbly, showing off what was clearly my many years of acting practice.

Suffice to say, Gilda couldn't have possibly been any more doubtful.

"Look, you'll meet them in a bit. Until then, why not greet the mare who is here." She and I both put our attention to Halfy, who only seemed to grow even more timid under our gazes.

Hoping to calm her down, I aimed a gentle smile in her direction, making my way over to her side and giving her a slight encouraging nudge towards Gilda. "Halfy, this is Gilda. Gilda, this is Halfy."

Upon my rather rushed intro of the two, Gilda and Halfy just looked at one another for a bit. For a moment, Halfy seemed rather intimidated by Gilda.

Then again, a Griffon stands quite easily over a pony. Most, according to Gilda, were actually around my height on all fours like Gilda. Add to that the fact that Halfy only reached chest height in comparison with me, plus the fact that Gilda was made up of much more – with no offense of course – fearsome features... Yeah...

"...'Halfy'?" Gilda echoed, raising a brow while curiously narrowing her other. "So... this is who 'helped you'?" Well, nice to see she was still skeptical about that.

At the question, Halfy gave a meek nod of confirmation before then just as quickly stiffening herself once again.

For a moment, as the two continued to look at one another, I grew nervous. Halfy hadn't shown any sort of greeting, or loss of timidity, or anything like that yet. In fact, so far, it seemed as though she actually had managed to see Gilda for who she was and just wasn't fond of what she saw.

I bit on the inside of my cheek at the possible arrival of an issue, if not between Gilda and I, but between her and the others. If they took notice of, and they probably were at the moment as well, Gilda's apparent untrustworthiness... What would that mean for her?

After several long, agonizing seconds of silence, I managed to finally notice something. For a moment – a short, almost imperceivable moment - Halfy's eye seemed to widen, and her jaw loosened slightly. This seemed to have been the initial domino for a wide range of changes.

All of a sudden, many more of Halfy's features lost their tense and withdrawn details. Her shoulders lowered, her nose unwrinkled, the small shivers she gave practically dissipated to nothing, and, slowly but surely the previously uncertain expression she held was replaced by a friendly – albeit still timid – smile.

"H-hello," she greeted, a sigh escaping me involuntarily at her having given her first words towards Gilda, "it's nice to m-meet you."

A much more friendly air about her, she rose a hoof of hers up towards Gilda for the pony-griffon equivalent to a handshake.

Gilda was in the clear, and I was practically elated that I wasn't wrong about her after all.

Speaking of, she looked at Halfy's extended hoof, then back to her, then her hoof again, before she returned the greeting. A friendly smile of her own reflected her willingness to accept the gesture.

"Heh. Cool to meet you too." Rather than shake her extended hoof, Gilda instead pulled the talons of one of her appendages together, making a sort-of fist, and lightly butted it against the smooth underside of Halfy's hoof.

Halfy seemed a little thrown off by this at first, but with a short laugh she quickly shrugged it off.

Heaving out a breath that I had not even been aware he had been holding - and mentally scolding myself for doubting my friend in the first place - I gave out a smile at the scene before me.

"Glad to see that worked." I said, Halfy looking towards me with an equally satisfied smile while Gilda raised a confused brow in my direction.

"I'll... explain later." I told her, scratching at the sudden itch at the back of my head. "For now though," I looked around the room vaguely, "you girls satisfied now?"

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Within an instant of him asking his question, the room seemed to momentarily still itself of all motion and sound. Noticing this odd change, Glida glanced around the room as the fur near the back of her neck began to tingle.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the many shadowed area in the room seem to move, giving an odd life-like squirm. Before she could react to this, however, the shadow suddenly sprang to life, hurrying itself to a stationary position by Jeremy's right side.

The other shadows in the room started to react similarly to the first, squirming before gathering themselves into a single mass by Jeremy's side.

Little by little, the mass of shadows began to take shape in another form, even beginning to raise from its two-dimensional prison on the floor and take a more physical form.

Features began to form from the unstable mass, including four long and slender legs ending with four hooves to match as well as a lighter-shaded flowing trail of wisps flowing behind what seemed to be the head and neck of a mare. Piercing white eyes finished the indeterminate mass.

Gilda's eyes widened and the lower half of her beak dropped as the conglomeration of shadows began to fade back into the ground, leaving the materialization of color and several other once unseen features, such as a long horn, a midnight blue mane with what seemed like starry nights imbued within, large and graceful wings, and a pleasantly green-tinted pair of irises with black slits to adorn them.

As the last of the shadows left Nightmare Moon's form and began to return to their original places, Gilda speechlessly and motionlessly watching the scene before her, Jeremy looked towards the alicorn with some semblance of surprise to himself as well.

"Huh... So she can turn into shadows at will? Didn't know that." He mused to himself. A small smile on her features, Nightmare Moon turned her head to face Jeremy.

"So it seems that your judge of being continues to hold its unprecedented status, Sir Jeremy. Prithee, mayhaps you can accept our apologies for directing to you such doubt?" Jeremy gave a faint laugh at her words, waving her off and giving his head a slight shake.

"Again, it's fine Nightmare Moon." He assured her, before then turning his attention to the currently still Glida. "Oh, and that was a good entrance and all, but... I think you may have broken her." Looking to her newly met acquaintance with a raised brow, Halfy took a small step closer to her, tilting her head as she waved a hoof in front of her in an effort to gain her attention.

As she did this, the sound of laughter quickly filled the room, followed shortly thereafter by the a dim glow. "Heh. She certainly has a value of entertainment to her so far." Chrysalis voice seemed to echo with her laughter as the glow began to take the form of a green impressive flame, this time to Jeremy's left.

Fortunately for Jeremy, the light from the flames was relatively muted, allowing for Jeremy to keep from even flinching from its low brightness as he watched the flames slowly take form in a way similar to that of Nightmare Moon's sudden appearance. Shortly after, the flames put themselves out, revealing her hole-filled legs, smooth and black exoskeleton, her calm yet sickly shaded version of a mane, and a darker green pair of irises, slits within their holds just as well.

"Uh... I get how Nightmare Moon was able to hide, but how did-"

"Invisibility spell." She stated simply, preempting his unfinished question. "Foal's play, honestly."

Jeremy looked to her with a raised brow, momentarily glancing back to Nightmare Moon in doing so. "... Remind me to ask you two some more about what you can do later."

He again returned his gaze to the still frozen, if not even more so, Gilda. "Either of you two mind snapping her out of this?"

Within seconds, both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis' horns began to glow as two near-identical - save for the magical glow that surrounded them - glasses of ice water appeared above the griffon's head. Halfy was barely able to step back in time, giving a small squeak as she did so, before Gilda was soaking wet.

Shivering and sputtering, Gilda suddenly seemed to come back to life. Her feathers were drenched and her fur became heavy and matted from the ice cold water. A shudder went through her body while Jeremy, his face now deadpan, didn't even glance back at the two. He didn't even need to turn around to sense the amused grins on their faces.

"Really?" He asked, of course not expecting any answer in return though he still heard a pair of withheld laughs. "... Alright, so Gilda, what do you think?"

Wiping off some of the excess water from her face and beak before then giving herself a quick shake, she moved her gaze to her friend, Jeremy, her expression showing a deadly amount of seriousness to it before quickly sprouting a grin.

"... Awesome." This genuinely surprised the four, Halfy included, as they had at least expected for her to show some sort of panic, fear, or at least concern.

"You're completely fine with this?" Gilda scoffed at this.

"Dude, did you not hear when I told you 'I outran an Ursa Minor'?" Both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis rose a brow at this. "It's gonna take a lot more than this to scare me. Besides, I'd say this puts you up to an 11 on my scale."

This time, Jeremy was the one to raise a brow. "Uh... What scale?" He asked, instantly regretting it as he realized that she had gained that same familiar, devious grin on her face.

"Oh, I think you know which one." With a quick wink in his direction, Jeremy, who knew of her meaning from experience, felt his cheeks heat themselves while Chrysalis, who could easily read the emotions of the griffon, was barely able to hold back a laugh at the newly received 'ammunition' she could use against Jeremy. This also assisted her in getting a general idea of what they had missed from the conversation the two had while they were outside.

Jeremy quickly made to change the subject. "Yeah, so, um, it's good to see that you don't really seem to mind their... being here. Plus, now you know that I wasn't joking about what happened back in Canterlo-... Wait..." Jeremy paused, suddenly taking notice of the fact that something was missing from the scene.

"Where's Zecora?" At the mention of this oversight of his, Gilda's eyes suddenly widened again. Chrysalis could easily see a sudden aura of concern surround her.

"Did you just say Zecora's here? Like... here, here?" Jeremy blinked.

"Well, not technically, but-"

"If it is truly me that you fear, then you should know that I am indeed right here." Gilda's fur lost a tone or two of color as a shiver passed through her and her eyes went to pinpricks.

A yelp escaped her as she turned and recoiled back towards Jeremy and the others. Halfy also gave a slight squeak from Zecora's sudden appearance, but comparatively unfazed, similar to the other three in the room.

"Wha- Where did- How did you-" With a single clear of Zecora's throat, Gilda quickly quieted herself, earning a chortle from Jeremy.

"Ironic," Jeremy thought to himself and the other members of his mental link, "she isn't afraid of anything. Anything at all. Zecora, though, seems to be a very real exception." The three shared a mental laugh at the thought. Gilda, however, was currently too occupied with her current situation to notice whatever they may have been doing.

"Now, what was this trick you mentioned of purposeful snores? Explain quickly, or certainly I will make you sore." Her eyes narrowed into a glare while Gilda let out a nervous chuckle.

"Heh. C'mon Zecora, it's not like I did that just to trick you." Zecora's glare intensified, the bags under her eyes from her sleepless nights suddenly seeming more pronounced. "... mostly."

With an irritated growl, Zecora began to make her way over to Gilda, the griffon taking a half-step backwards, though inevitably ending up with her standing no more than a foot away from her nonetheless. She craned her neck up and back, attempting to gain even more distance in any way possible.

Despite her proximity, Gilda retained her skittish smile.

"... You, uh... aren't mad, are ya?" Curiously enough, contrary to Jeremy's thoughts of that having been the last sentence she would give before she would have to start running, Zecora's expression softened. Her glare turned to a face of calm and a chuckle escaped her.

"Oh, I do not get mad, in this you can believe in." Raising a brow in surprise, Gilda scanned Zecora for any signs of falsehood, before – having seen nothing – warily turning her head to Jeremy. He gave a shrug in response to her wordless question.

"... Well... Okay then- AGH!" A loud stomp filled the room as, with a short-lived shudder, Gilda once again stiffened herself like a statue. This time though, it was much more rigorous and pained.

All at once, everyone, including Chrysalis, could not help but to at least flinch as they caught sight of Zecora a satisfied smile while one of her sat hooves firmly planted atop of Gilda's tail, pinning and flattening it directly to the ground.

"...I get even." Adding to her unfinished rhyme, Zecora then gave the frozen griffon a light push on her side, throwing off what little balance she had and causing her to fall to the floor. She turned to a crumpled mess with a series of groans and higher pitched whimpers.

"... Uh..." Jeremy flinched again as Zecora finally removed her hoof from Gilda's tail. "We may need a couple more glasses of water." He glanced over to her swelling and twitching tail. "... And an ice pack."

Okay. I have a checklist here, so, let me just... *clicks pen*

Alright... Number one...

600 likes! Whoooooooooooo!

Now, number twoooo.

As you may or may not be able to tell, Gilda's going to signify some significant change, as I have stated before. (And yes, I am making her the flirt of the group. Why? It just felt right. :D)

Finally, Number Three.

Recently, I've been getting a few requests from readers for a visual on Halfy. So, despite my amateur skills in that sort of thing, I decided to give it a try... In comic!

Not only did i give a representation of Halfy here, but I also decided to play out the scene where she meets Gilda, with Zecora, Nightmare Moon, and Chrysalis watching from their hidden positions. Hope you enjoy.