Chapter 1

We sat together as we watched the sun set over the Ponyville sky, stroking her feathers softly and repeatedly. I sighed a content puff of air and let my eyes relax. Never in my life would I have ever expected to be in such a weird state of bliss and peace. Jeez, what was it, a week ago? I could hardly remember how long it was since popped up in Equestria, but I can easily say that it was the best thing to ever happen to me.

About a week ago...

I laid my head down to rest after a long day at work. Generally, working at the zoo is fun, but field trip days... My god. The day before hand, the break room is like a group of soldiers before they are deployed to Gallipoli. We sit in dead silence, praying to whatever might be listening to not have to look after the tour group.

Of course, i'm the luckiest idiot at the harvest moon ball, and I got picked today. What made it worse is that all the kids wanted to do was see the birds. I don't mean that they wanted to see the birds more than the other animals, I mean that they ONLY wanted to see the birds. They would whine and complain when we started to leave and the teacher insisted that we stay there longer to get her kids to shut up.

Not sure if I mentioned, but I hate birds. I fucking hate birds. I fucking HATE birds. They're smelly, loud, ugly, and that's just just scraping the top. I could go on for ages about how much I absolutely fucking hate birds, but I'll save you the time and leave it at "I fucking hate birds.".

I flicked on the T.V and zoned out watching some horrible RomCom, the kind that they show at 8:30 when there's nothing else to show. My eyes began to flutter and I yawned. I contemplated getting up and going to bed, but I was just so tired and comfortable enough where I was that I didn't bother. As my eyes began to get heavy, I managed to flick the T.V off just before they shut for good.

My dream that night was weird. I was standing atop a cloud, and looking down at the forest below. I turned away from the edge and was suddenly back in my room, except something was different. I had bird cages everywhere, filled with cats. Cat's? Why cat's? I don't even really like cat's. One of the cats started to claw at it's cage and howl. As I approached it, it began to change, it's face becoming much more like a bird and much less like a cat. I reached out to touch it when it's mouth suddenly gaped open and swallowed me whole, waking me up.

I woke up to the sound of wind rushing by my ears, almost like somebody was blowing an industrial strength fan in my face. I opened my eyes and shat my pants. Holy fuck, I was falling!

"Aaaaaaah!"

All I could do was scream as I plummeted downwards. Most of my brain was filled with fear at this point, but part of it saw what I was falling towards and recognized as the forest from the dream. What the hell?

Suddenly, my fall was slowed as something grabbed me by the waist and knocked all of the air of me. I tried to look at what was grabbing me, but from that position, all I could see was a bunch of brown feathers. What the hell was this thing?

As much as it was slowed, my descent to the ground was fast, just considerably more horizontal than before. I heard the thing carrying me groan and try to pull up just as my feet started brushing against the trees below.

Shit! My foot caught on a branch, wrenching me backwards as the weird bird thing tried to keep it's grip and fell with me.

I screamed again as we both fell about 5 meters from the top of this tree into a clearing filled half with blue flowers and half with dead leaves and grass. As I thudded to the ground, I thanked the great spaghetti monster that I landed on some leaves and not the rock right next to my head. I heard a second thud a few seconds later and looked over to where I heard it come from.

Holy shit.

What the hell was that? It looked like something halfway between a cartoon and real life. It slowly pulled itself up and shook the leaves from it's wings, which looked pretty mangled and banged up from the fall.

It groaned and swore before looking at me with a scowl on it's face.

"What, no "Thanks for saving my life"? What the hell were you even doing up there!" The creature said.

I stared back at it and blinked silently.

"No?" It scoffed. "Great... And I fucked up my wings saving your ungrateful ass too."

Suddenly, my words found me. "S-Sorry, i'm just a little... Shocked. Thanks for saving me. What... Are you?"

"Me? You're telling me that you've never seen a Griffon before?"

A Griffon? Those are from storybooks, right?

"I thought... I thought Griffon were just legends."

"Where the hell do you come from? Griffons are almost as common as ponies."

"You've lost me. And I think that i'm lost myself. Where the hell are we?"

"The glorious land of Equestria!" The Griffon said sarcastically while throwing one of her... Legs? Claws? Whatever, up into the air. "And welcome to my least favourite place in this shithole, the Everfree forest."

I looked around and examined the forest around us. It certainly looked anything but welcoming, sharp branches devoid of leaves jutted out everywhere, dead plants lay in abundance around. In fact, the only thing that didn't look dead in this area was the blue flowers I was standing in.

The Griffon seemed to notice them at the same time that I did.

"Oh shit, get out of those flowers!"

"What? Why? The-" I was cut off by her wrenching me by the wrist out of the patch of flowers.

"You didn't breath any in, did you?"

"Uh, I dunno. Maybe. I-Is it poison?" I stuttered and check my shirt for any traces of the flowers.

"You could call it that. It does some... Weird shit to you. Trust me, if you're poisoned by it, you'll know."

"Shit."

"Anyway, who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Anon."

"Gilda. Nice to meet you." She held out a claw which I tentatively shook.

"Where you from, monkey man?"

"Uh, Perth."

A blank stare.

"Australia."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Earth?"

"You've lost me. Where the hell is that?"

"I think it's... Pretty far from here. Different planet from this one, definitely."

"Shit dude. Harsh. Well, we should get moving. It's not safe around here." She looked around at the surrounding tree line, almost expecting something to pop out and eat us right there and then. If what she said is true, something might very well do that.

"Yeah..." I muttered, also looking at the tree line. "Let's get going. Where are we heading?"

"Well, the closest town is Ponyville." Was that... A pony pun? "It's a few days away on foot, and I'd rather not go back there any time soon, but... I'd say that we're in a pretty bad position. just a shame I can't fly." She said sadly and looked back at her broken wings.

"Sounds like a good idea, let's go."

As of yet, the walk had been mostly quiet. I spent the time of silence I had contemplating what had happened so far. I had that weird dream thing, then suddenly popped up here falling from sky, met a fucking Griffon, possibly got poisoned, and was now on my way towards a town called Ponyville. This was a lot to take in and a lot to think about. I hadn't even thought about how I was going to get home after this. What if I was stuck here forever?

My thoughts were cut short by Gilda yawning loudly and beginning to slow down.

"Hey Anon, it's getting dark. We should probably set up camp."

I nodded and started looking for sticks to make a fire. After a while, I had gathered enough sticks and reached into my pocket. Luckily, my lighter came with me when I came to Equestria, so I piled the sticks up and flicked on the lighter. After a few seconds, the fire caught and I sat back down next to a stunned looking Gilda.

"What was that? That thing you just did, was that magic?"

"Magic? No, it's just a lighter." I brought up the lighter and flicked it on once more to show Gilda. "Most people in my world use it to support their terrible life threatening habit. Me included."

"I dunno about life threatening, but I know all about terrible habits..."

"Hm?"

"Which is... Mostly the reason why I don't want to go back to Ponyville."

"If you don't mind... Might I ask what happened?"

"Well, I had a great friend who I hadn't talked to for ages. Emphasis on the 'had'. I turn up there and... She's got other friends. At first, I think "Oh hey, that's cool, I got no problem with this.", but after a while, I just... wanted to spend time with her. Alone. But she just wanted to spend time around her other friends! I was... In love with her. But, she didn't love me back. To her, I was just a friend. I got mad. I drove her away. Her friends, too. I fucked up again..."

I put my hand on her shoulder and she looked up at me with a tear in her eye.

"I keep doing this, Anon." She continued. "It happened at flight school too. I act all antagonistic and mean to others, thinking it will get me respect, but... It never works. And I never learn."

"You haven't driven me away."

"Yeah, but you're just..."

She sobbed silently and I wrapped my arms around her tentatively to try and calm her down. After a while she stopped crying and smiled up at me.

"Thanks, Anon. I've never... I've never cried in front of anyone else before."

"Seems like you needed it."

"Yeah, I think you're right too. We should get some sleep."

"Good idea. You feeling better?"

"Thanks to you, yep." She lay down on the floor.

I rested my head on the log next to me and closed my eyes to try and get some sleep.

After a few hours, I woke again to my arms itching insatiably. I scratched them, but that seemed to only make the itching worse. Oh crap, this was getting pretty bad. I continued to scratch to no avail and eventually felt something weird happen. The hairs on my arm were getting longer and longer as I scratched.

"What the... Gilda? Are you awake?"

Gilda rolled over and yawned, blinking tiredly.

"This better be worth waking me up over."

"Uh, I think something's wrong." I said, looking at my still growing arm hairs.

"That's... What?"

My feet started to feel weird and bloated, so I tore them off to see them growing hair rapidly and changing shape.

"What the fuck!?"

My feet continued to wrap and change while the changes travelled up my legs and started to change the shape. My heart was racing and I was frantically grabbing at my shirt and pants, trying to remove them as the changes started to change my hips and chest.

The weird black hairs looked like they had spread pretty much all the way over my body and started to widen and split apart, turning into what looked like... Feathers! Holy shit, this couldn't be happening...

"Anon, I think you're turning into a..."

My hands started to change shape and colour, becoming orange and scaly while my finger nails grew out to a point. I looked down at my feet to see that they had completely changed into lion like paws.

"Into a Griffon."

"What is this! Why is this happening!"

"I think it might be the poison joke."

"The what?"

"Those poisonous flowers you fell in."

"What kind of fucking joke is this! This isn't what I was expecting when you said weird shit happens!"

My lips began to harden weirdly and extend from my face. I groaned at the strange sensation in my face which was soon finished and overshadowed by the new feeling I was getting in my crotch. I ripped off my pants as fast as possible and managed to get a glance just as my balls completely disappeared inside me.

"Oh god. Is that normal? Do Griffon dudes look like this?"

"Uhh..."

Her silence answered my question and I glanced downwards again. My dick was shrinking rapidly and I clenched at it to stop it from disappearing completely.

"Nonononono! Please not that~!" At the end of my plea, my voice suddenly jumped up an octave, further confirming what was happening to me.

I was turning into a Griffon. A female Griffon.

My back began to hurt as two nubs appeared near my spin which quickly burst out and extended into large wings, almost as big as Gilda's, yet noticeably lither.

I looked over at Gilda who was standing up now with a huge blush on her face, somehow showing up through her feathers. The same feathers that I could feel growing all over my head. I could do nothing but sit there and groan as the rest of the changes swept over my body. After a short while, they stopped and I was left panting and panicking, my heart still racing.

"I'm a... Fucking..." I said with my now extremely feminine sounding voice. "I'm a FUCKING GIRL."

Gilda stared at me and started to walk slowly towards me.

"Yeah... You are..."

"Gilda, what are you..."

I could see her eyes, filled with wonder and... Something else, as she approached me.

"And you're beautiful." She said as she got close and lunged forward, planting her beak firmly on mine.

I almost jumped back and pushed her away, but I suddenly felt a warmth sweep over me. I melted at her touch and sunk downwards into the kiss, letting her tongue explore my mouth and her fore claws caress my body. I slowly moved my claws up as well and began feeling her waist, stroking her up and down. It began hard to breath after a bit, so I pushed Gilda away.

"Gilda, I... This is so fast."

"Anon..." She panted, her eyes full of lust and longing. Oh god, what was wrong with me? I lunged forward and pulled her face towards mine again, locking her beak with mine and probing her mouth with my tongue. We continued to kiss and caress each other until I felt something weird going on in my groin. I pulled away and looked downwards, seeing that my thighs were now soaked in a clear, smooth liquid.

"I-is that..."

"Yeah." Gilda said and stroked my cheek.

"Are you OK with-" I cut her off with a short kiss.

"More than anything." I smiled and brought my claw down to her crotch, which I began to rub. She brought hers down too and returned the favour, immediately causing me to gasp out in pleasure as I felt her claw plunge a few centimetres into my new Griffon pussy. I moaned and tried to finger her as well as I experienced the new-found pleasure of having a cunt, but could hardly keep up as she speedily, yet lovingly pleasured me.

After a while, I gave up on helping Gilda, but she didn't seem to care. In fact, she seemed to finger fuck me with increased vigour and I moaned into her mouth and kissed her intensely.

I felt a strange pressure begin to build up inside of my pussy and I moaned effeminately, my mouth separating from hers to catch my breath. She used this opportunity to descend to my crotch, licking my stomach all the way down until her beak was planted softly on my dripping womanhood.

I expected it to feel weird because of her sharp beak, yet somehow, just like my mouth, it caused me no pain at all, just immense pleasure. She flicked my clit with her prehensile tongue and then stuck it deep inside of me, savouring my taste and causing me to clench my legs around her head.

After a while, she brought herself back up to face me and smiled at me, mouth open and dripping with both saliva and what I could only assume was something I had produced.

"Want a taste?" She said and began to make out with me, pushing my pussy juice out of her mouth and into mine. I moaned as I got a taste of the salty, sweet and delicious taste of my own juices.

She separated her lips from mine once more and pulled her hips close to mine, our pussies almost touching.

"Are you ready?"

"A-As ready as I'll ever be." I replied, and Gilda thrust her crotch forward, gasping out as her cunt rubbed up against mine. I began to move my hips up and down, bringing both her and myself closer and closer to orgasm. Was it gonna feel different? So far, this experience had been completely different from sex as a man. Not like I'd gotten to experience it much, but it was still substantially different.

"Anon... I'm g-getting pretty close."

"Ah! I think I am too! Mmmph."

I continued to scissor her until I felt something change, and my brain exploded with pleasure. My new pussy began to clench and spasm as I came with a pleasure that I had never ever felt before. I hardly even noticed as Gilda also came, squirting her girl cum up the inside of my leg and mixing with mine. Still riding my orgasm, I pulled her in close and kissed her sloppily and hastily.

After what seemed like an entire lifetime, I collapsed backwards and blacked out for a few seconds before regaining consciousness. I panted and tried to get my breath back as I lay on the ground, my cheeks burning red and my crotch still tingling with pleasure.

"G... Gilda. That was... Amazing... I... Love you."

"R-Really?" Gilda said, also panting and lying on the floor.

"Yeah. I don't know what the fuck just happened, but... I loved every bit of it. And I love you as well."

I groaned as I picked myself up and walked awkwardly on all fours to her before collapsing and hugging her close. I could feel my eyes becoming heavy again.

"Thank you for tonight, Gilda. We'll figure all this out in the morning."

"G'night Anon." She said yawning and closing her eyes. "I... Love you too."

Chapter 2

I awoke to the soft chirps of birds and slowly opened my eyes, only to be staring straight at a matted bunch of fluff.

"What the..." I murmured, my feminine voice now reminding me of last night. I sat up slowly and looked to at the still sleeping Gilda, her eyes closed and her chest slowly rising up and down. Damn, she looked attractive. Like, weirdly attractive. I hadn't been anywhere near as attracted to her before I changed, if at all.

I continued to look around our makeshift camp with tired eyes, taking in the beautiful forest enveloped in morning mist. If it weren't for my back hurting so much from sleeping on the hard ground, I'd want to sleep out under the stars more often.

I looked down at my claws and feathers, finally fully taking it what exactly had happened to me. It's not everyday you get transformed into a griffin. I examined my sleek black feathers and orange birdlike claws, flexing the powerful muscles, utterly in awe by how beautiful they were. I spread my wings out and shook the morning dew that had settled on them to the ground. I chuckled to myself, imagining the droplets falling in slow motion with light glinting off of them, my hair flowing in the breeze... Wait a sec, I don't have hair any more. What do I have up there?

I reached my hand up to my head and felt through it. It felt kind of like I had hair, just made out of extremely soft, long and flexible feathers. Weird. I glanced to my side and spotted a small pool of water. Curious about my appearance, I wandered over to it, tripping a little as I went, still not used to having four legs.

I eventually got to the pool and was extremely surprised by what stared back.

I was... Pretty. Like, girly pretty. Like, young innocent girl pretty. My face was slender and thin, a lot more smooth than Gilda's. My beak was small, but shapely and came to a rounded point at the end. From the neck up, my fur became much more feather like and turned white and bluey grey, the bluey grey bits spattered a little, almost making me look like I had light freckles under my eyes. Speaking of my eyes, they were large, round, pretty cartoonish and were the most beautiful soft blue colour I had ever seen. My god... I was pretty.

Something about this made my chest flutter. I was pretty. I was cute. I was... The object of desire. For my entire life, I’d always seemed so ignored by the general populous, but now, looking at me in my transformed state, I was finally wanted by someone.

And not just anyone either, I was wanted by a beautiful Griffin. I walked back to her and nudged her awake. She grumbled a little, something about "fish" and rolled over to look at me. As soon as her eyes came to rest on me, she smiled and reached her claw out, which I took hold of.

"Hey, Anon, how you doing?" She said, smiling and attempting to lift herself up. I helped her too her feet and she began to stretch and yawn.

"I'm feeling great. I... Really enjoyed last night."

"I did too. Sorry about jumping your bones so fast, I realise that I could have... Creeped you out just a little. Probably wasn't the greatest idea."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I admit, I was a little shocked by how forward you were, especially right after I had gone through something that others might describe as "traumatic", but-"

"Oh jeez, I fucked up." She held a claw to her face and looked away from me.

"No you didn't, don't worry! It's like I said, don't worry about it." She lowered her claw and smiled nervously at me.

"Yes it was a little forward, but I’m over it. It was amazing, you're amazing, and if I’m honest, having a pussy? Also kinda amazing." Gilda blushed at that and raised an eyebrow.

"You're a beautiful Griffin, Gilda. I think that I’d be willing to see where a relationship takes us."

"Really? Are you serious? But I’m... I'm not nice, Anon. The way I act around you... It took a lot of effort not to try and push you away the moment I met you."

"But you saved my life, Gilda, and you said that you'd help me get to Ponyville. I'd be dead if it weren't for you. If you weren't nice deep down, would you have stuck with me after we fell?"

"Well, maybe... I dunno."

"You are nice. You just need to accept it and start changing yourself. You mentioned Rainbow Dash? A friend you had in Ponyville?"

"Yeah, but she wouldn't want to see me after what I did to her and her friends."

"Well, we're going to Ponyville anyway, and I think that you should apologize to her. Accept her friends as well and she will accept you."

"Are you sure? What if she still hates me?"

"Then it's her problem, not yours. If you're expressing your interest in making up with her and she rejects you, then who's the better Griffin? Pony. Thing."

She chuckled and smiled at me, wiping a mixture of light tears and sleep from her eyes. "You're smart, Anon."

"Thanks."

Suddenly, a long and loud growl emitted from my stomach and I looked up at Gilda nervously. She laughed and stepped forward to kiss me on the cheek.

"Sounds like you need some food in you. I'll go swipe some fish from the river."

"I should come with you. Don't want anything to happen while your wings are out of commission."

"Oh crap, I almost forgot about that." She said glumly and examined her damaged wing.

"Hmm, wait a sec." I looked back at the remainders of my clothes and an idea popped into my head.

"Wait here, I'll be right back."

I rushed around and picked up some clothes which I proceeded to tear apart. I then collected a long straight stick and flew back to Gilda. I began strapping the stick to the hurt wing with the stick using the shredded clothes and ended it with a quick knot.

"There we go, all better. That should help the healing process and stop you from damaging it more from general use."

"Wow, thanks Anon. That's really sweet of you."

"No problem, I learnt it all at the z-" I quickly re-thought that sentence, letting her know that I worked at a place that kept animals as a tourist attraction might make her think differently of me. "At the place I used to work before I came here."

Gosh, it seemed so long ago. I'd only been here for a day and a bit and my old self seemed so far away. What was I gonna do once we reached Ponyville? Would I stay with Gilda? Or would I try and find a way home?

"Hey A-Anon..?"

I snapped out of my stupor and smiled at her.

"What is it?"

"Do you think... When we get to Ponyville... That you'll cure yourself?"

"Cure myself?"

"Of the poison joke. The blue flowers that made you like this." She motioned to your new body.

"I didn't even really think about it. I mean, I got a look at myself in a puddle earlier, and damn... I can see why you're so attracted to me."

She blushed again. Who knew that someone so boisterous could be so sheepish when I came to sex talk?

"And to be honest, my old life wasn't that special anyway. I was an only child and both my parents had passed away before I moved out of home, so I don't exactly have too much to go back to. In my eyes, this feels like a fresh start, an excuse and a reason to start anew! And with a rockin' hot girl by my side to boot." I put a claw around Gilda and nuzzled her neck. She seemed a little surprised at first, but soon nuzzled back.

"Are you sure, Anon? I mean, you might not have had much where you used to live, but home is still home."

"I am sure. I was in fuck tonnes of debt too."

"Aww, you're so cute when you swear."

Shit, now I was blushing.

"Shut up, no I’m not."

"Yes, you are. Anyway, I'm gonna go get some food now. You should stay here and set up a fire with that magical "Lighter" thing."

"Sure thing, see you soon!"

I smiled and waved as she walked off.

After breakfast was done and in our stomachs, we decided to continue walking towards Ponyville. As we were walking, we chatted idly about my old world and hers. I told her about computers and the internet and she told me about magic and the princesses. Apparently, this world has two gods that watch over all of the Pony's and help out with the griffin nations too.

We started to get into a thicker part of the woods as the path became thinner and the sun started to get blocked out by the ever growing mass of trees and an ominous fog that covered the forest floor. The sooner we were out of there woods the better.

"Anon, stay close. This is giving me the creeps."

I began walking a lot closer to her, our sides almost touching as the mist encroached on us. I shivered, not at the cold, but at the unsettling nature of this entire place. Suddenly, Gilda spoke.

"Don't say that, Anon."

"What?" I asked. "I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did, you just-" She pursed her lips tightly. "Never mind, let's keep going. This fog has to end soon enough."

Almost as soon as she finished saying that, a loud bang rang out from the forest and small creatures scuttled from the direction of the noise. I ducked down and covered my head with my claws, letting out a small eep as I did. After a few seconds, I looked back up to see that Gilda had gone.

"Gilda?" I called out to the forest.

"Gilda!? Are you there?" I began to panic, my eyes darting all around, trying to find any trace of her.

"She's gone, you know." A raspy female voice came from behind me.

A chill went up my spine as I felt the breath of the thing that spoke against my neck. I was frozen in fear, unable to move, yet unable to look around and see who it was.

The voice chuckled and sighed.

"By that, I mean that she's run away. Like the little scaredy bird she is. She ran from me, just as she ran from you."

I spun around as quick as I could to see a bright blue, rainbow maned Pony flying on the spot.

Could this be...? "Rainbow Dash?"

"So she told me about you, did she? That bitch. I can just tell what shit she's told you. About how she's "Changing", about how she wants to improve herself... Lies. All of them"

"No! You're... You're the one who's lying!"

"Oh, am I? If I was lying, then why did she leave you? She said she wanted to be nicer to Ponies and yet she abandons you at the slightest notion of danger."

"Y-You're lying! She wouldn't do that!"

Rainbow Dash chuckled again and raised an eyebrow as she floated on her back and put her hooves behind her head.

"Gilda! Oh, Gilda!" The pony shouted out sarcastically. "See that? No response. Tell me I'm lying again."

"No! No, no, no! No..." I collapsed to the floor, tears flowing from my eyes. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

"Hmm." Rainbow dash put her hoof to her jaw. "Revenge? No, that's not it. Spite? Again, no... That's too simple, hm? Ahh, yes, Fun. That's it." She grinned widely and floated closer to me.

"GILDA!" I screamed out.

"Oh, quit your whining! You're giving me a headache. She's not coming!"

"GILDA, PLEASE! COME BACK!" I screamed, tears flowing from my eyes onto the leaves below.

" "Oh, Gilda, my knight it shit coloured feathers! Come save me from the big bad meany pants pony!". Pathetic."

"Anon? Is that you?" My heart skipped a beat as I heard Gilda's voice come from the trees nearby.

"Gilda!"

"Oh look. Seems like she's actually come to save your sorry ass. Enjoy the two seconds of happiness she'll bring you before she breaks your heart." Rainbow Dash said before she evaporated into a puff of fog which floated to the floor. Was she... An illusion?

"Anon! Oh by the nine, I was so worried!" She ran toward me and wrapped her claws around me, hugging me as tight as possible.

"I-I Thought that you l-left me, Gilda."

"No. No, never. I'm right here." She said as she brought her claw up to clear away the tears from my feathers.

"There was a... Pony... And she... She said, that you left me, and that you abandoned me and-"

"It wasn't really, anon. It wasn't real, I saw the same thing."

"R-Really?"

"Yes. Except for me, it was... Never mind."

"Oh thank god... Thank god. I love you Gilda."

"I love you too, Anon. Let's get the fuck out of here before we see more... Stuff, OK?"

"O-Ok." I nodded and we both began to run.

It wasn't long before the fog began to clear and the much more normal seeming forest area replaced it. We ran for a little bit longer before collapsing to the floor to catch our breath.

"What was that place?"

"I dunno. But it seems like it brought out our fears."

"I saw... Rainbow Dash."

"Wait what?"

"She was telling me that you were going to abandon me as soon as we got out of the forest. She said... That you didn't really want to be nice."

"Oh... Well, for what it's worth, she was wrong. I've only know you for a short while, and so far, you've been the sweetest, kindest griffin I’ve ever met. Uh, I mean monkey thing. What were you?"

"A human."

"Yeah, that. You're more accepting of me than anyone else, OK? I wouldn't give someone like you up for the world."

"Thanks a lot. What, if you don't mind me asking, did you see?"

"It was... My dad. He said a lot of mean stuff. Stuff that isn't true, but also, some that was true."

"Like what?"

She sighed deeply and smiled at me. "I might as well tell you the whole story." She said while scooting over to where I was sitting.

"My dad is very traditional. It was always his way, or no way at all. As you can expect, he was strict with who I hung out with, who I talked to, and especially who I dated. I never got to ask someone out, it was always "Gilda, this here is my business associates son. Marrying him will bring wealth and honour to our clan. Did I also mention he has magic jizz that will make your children strong and powerful?" That kinda shit."

"Wow. My parents were strict, but not that strict."

"Yeah, that's not even the half of it. Having children is... A big thing among Griffins, especially ones like my father. If you don't get a mate and have children by age 18, you're considered a failure. By the time I was of breeding age, I started to realise that I wasn't exactly the same as other females. All of my friends were out fucking their fathers recommendations, and I was only interested in... Women."

"Oh."

"Obviously, lesbian relationships can't bring about children, and to my father? That was a crime. He tried so hard to get me to like men, but it just... Didn't work, y'know? I mean, you were straight before you were a Griffin, right? Being with a girl sounds like it isn't that much of a deal to you, but to me, I thought that there was something wrong with me. I only truly understood that the way I was wasn't bad by the time I was going to flight school, where I met Dash."

"Rainbow Dash?" I knew that the illusion was fake, but something about here still irked me about her.

"That's the one. Rainbow Dash was also a lesbian, and kinda my first lover. We didn't really get into a serious relationship, but after, she helped me become comfortable with myself and helped me find my first proper partner, Blazing Glory. Unfortunately, that didn't last long, and not long after, I ran away from flight school. I couldn’t go back to my father after what I had become at flight school, he would never even accept me back into his home. I wandered for a bit, joined a freelance flight stunt team for a while, a few weather jobs here and there, and then eventually, went back to Ponyville to see Dash. You know the rest from then."

"Oh Gilda, I love you."

She smiled and me and I kissed her cheek.

"Thanks, Anon. I love you too."

We sat in silence and just enjoyed being together for a while before I thought of something to say.

"Ugh, I need a new name."

"Why? What's wrong with Anon?"

"It's not exactly a girls name. I need something a little more feminine, something softer."

"Cloud Rush?"

"That's... a bit of a weird name."

"Hmm... Sonic Boom?"

"If you don't mind me saying, that name's a little too autistic for my liking."

"How about something simple. Sky."

"Sky. I like it."

"It's settled. From now on, I’ll call you Sky."

"I love you Gilda."

"I love you too, Sky."

Author's Notes:

Hey guys, this is my first ever fic posted on this site, and I'd love it if you gave me some criticism on what you did and didn't like about the story.
I've already received criticism about Gilda and Anon rushing into their relationship a little fast, and hopefully i will improve with time.
Thanks all!

Chapter 3

Author's Notes:

Hey everyone, thanks so much for waiting for so long. I've finally finished this chapter and as a reward for your patience, I have a very special extra chapter for you all.

“Yeah, I know it's hard, but preening is important! If you don't do it, not only will your flight suck, but you can get all types of wing diseases!” Gilda scowled slightly as I attempted to straighten some feathers that she told me were called “Primaries”.

“I know, it's just really weird, OK? I've never even seen anyone do it before and it’s really weird!” I said, mouth tasting vaguely of feathers. I yelped in pain a bit as I pulled one a little too hard.

“No, don't just pull, twist and pull! You don't want to pull it out if it's not broken!” She groaned, clearly getting a little impatient.

“This is my first time, gimme a break. It's not as easy as it looks. Well, I guess it is for you, but it's not as easy for me. I'm not even completely used to this weird beak thingy-”

“It's just called a beak.”

“I wasn't born with one! I… could you help me? Please?”

Gilda rolled her eyes and then smiled softly at me. She was making a good effort to not let small things like this get to her. I could tell that acting brash and angry was how she used to treat others a lot, so seeing this change in her really did mean a lot to me. It was even better that she was doing this in part for me. She leant forward and began working on my wing with her beak, clutching feathers lightly and then both twisting and sliding along the feather until it was flush straight with my wing again. She gripped on a small feather that looked quite ragged and pulled quickly, plucking it free before spitting it out. She had told me previously the importance of getting rid of damaged feathers and I knew that it was necessary, even if it hurt a bit. Luckily, it was a kind of satisfying pain, sort of like removing an old bandage or popping a pimple, so I didn't mind her doing it. Gilda pulled at another that was much more sensitive than the other and I yelped in pain.

“Ah, quit your complaining, it'll be over in a minute.”

“Sorry.”

“You wanna know something, Sky?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Preening someone else isn't something we usually do in Griffon culture.”

“O-oh, sorry, I-”

“You didn't let me finish. It's not something we usually do, unless… You're intimate with that Griffon.”

“Oh.” I smiled nervously and turned away so that Gilda couldn't see my cheeks turn bright red.

She chuckled and continued to work away at my wings. It took quite a while to finish it, but after about an hour of combined work on my wings, it was finally finished. I spread my wings out and flapped them a couple of times, smiling at how pristine they looked. I'd never seen wings like this before! I glanced over at Gilda and saw her smiling slightly, but I also saw a little bit of sadness in her eyes.

“Is everything ok?” I asked, closing my wings and walking closer to her.

“Yeah, it's… Just…” She trailed off, looking for what to say before settling on just holding out her clearly damaged wing and wincing in pain a bit.

“Oh gosh, I'm so sorry.”

“Heh, no worries. I'm just glad to help, especially when you have no idea what you're doing.” She grinned, but I could tell this was affecting her more than she let on. I walked closer to her, her smile fading as I got closer.

“Wh-what?” She stammered.

“You know what, Gilda. I can tell that something's wrong.”

“I… I'm sorry, Sky. Flying is just… very important to me, ya know? It's a huge part of my life and if I wasn't a Griffon, I would have joined Dash with her dream of joining the wonderbolts, the greatest flying team in all Equestria!”

“Well from what I've heard, Dash doesn't deserve someone as awesome as you as a friend.”

“You know that isn't true, Sky. I treated Dash terribly. She was a great friend and I treated both her and her other friends like crap all because I was jealous. She didn't deserve me as a friend, it wasn't the other way around.”

“That's not true. You just need to show her that you've changed for the better, OK? It's been such a short time, but you have changed! You've admitted that you need to change and from what I've seen, that change has already started! If it hadn't started, then you wouldn't have been this nice to me, a total stranger!”

“I know… You're right. It doesn't stop me from being pissed off at myself though.”

“I know, being angry at yourself is fine, just please don't let that control your decisions. You've got… Me now. You can talk to me about your worries and stop bottling up your anger. I know from personal experience that bottling up your problems and never talking to anyone about it can only hurt you more.” I walked towards her and put a claw on her shoulder.

“Thanks, ya big dork.” Gilda said, wiping her eyes and smiling at me. She leant forward and placed a kiss on my cheek.

“You know, I'm really glad you dropped out of that tree. And I'm really glad that you look this hot as a Griffon. I'm just really… ” She bit her lip, trying to figure out what to say next.

“What's wrong? Remember what I said before about bottling it up?”

“Yeah… Ok, fine. I'm scared, alright? I'm scared of losing you. I'm scared you'll want to go back to being human, and I'm scared you'll want to be a guy again. I mean, you're totally hot like this, but it's not just that. I can't force myself to be attracted to guys, and if you went back to normal, I'd lose you.”

“Gilda, we've been through this! I don't have anything to go back to! My old life sucked!”

“What about your old friends? What about your old job? What about your old gender?”

“I hated my old job! I hardly had any friends and I'm not attached to my old gender. My life was monotony of “get up, eat, go to work, go home, eat, sleep” over and over and over. I don't want that life! If I can make myself a life here with you, then I'll be happy. If I can stay with the first person to treat me with any respect at all, then I don't need my old friends. I was always looking for an excuse to drop my old life and move on, and now I've got that chance. I'm not giving that up!”

I looked up at Gilda and saw that her eyes were watering and her lip trembling slightly. What I had said had clearly done something to her and I walked over to comfort the almost crying Griffon. I put an arm around her and hugged her close as she finally let out all the tears that she had been holding in. She sobbed quietly as I held her close, letting the tears soak into the feathers on my neck.

“It's OK, I'm sorry if I said something wrong, Gilda. I didn't mean to.”

“N-no, you did nothing wrong, S-Sky. I just… I feel so selfish, like I'm forcing you into staying by saying things like “I love you” and stuff like that. I dunno.”

“You're not forcing me. I was just as bitter and alone as you before I came here, and honestly, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Not only have I got a new start here, but I've also got someone amazing to stick by my side. I'm not letting go of such an amazing chance that easily.”

Gilda sniffed and raised her face to mine.

“Do you mean that?”

“Of course I do. I'm gonna confess something to you, Gilda.”

“What?”

“Before I came here… I kinda hated birds.”

“It's a good thing I'm not a bird then, right?”

“Well, I hated more than just birds. I hated most animals that weren't human.”

“Wait, does that mean you hated me?”

“No, not exactly. I was definitely surprised to see a creature that I had only thought of as a myth standing before me, but I kinda forgot about all my dislikes of animals when I changed. I started being… attracted to you.”

“Just like that?”

“That's how it seems. It's just some sought of weird irony that I spent my whole life disliking animals only to find myself indescribably attracted to one. I never properly thanked you for saving my life before, but I really am grateful. If you hadn't saved me, I never would have met you, I never would have turned into a Griffon and I never would have fallen… In love.”

She sniffed again and placed another light kiss on my cheek. I smiled back at her and returned the kiss before reluctantly letting Gilda pull away.

“Thanks, Sky. We'd best get a move on. I wanna make a little bit of ground before night time and we've already used up quite a bit of time preening your wings. Speaking of wings, did you wanna try flying any time soon?”

I looked up at the sky with a minor sense of dread, remembering my plummet from a few days back.

“Maybe when you get your flight back, I don't really want to fly up there all alone.”

“Fair enough. Now let's get a move on! I wanna get to Ponyville before I'm seventy!” Gilda turned and grinned at me before beginning to walk forward towards our goal with me following not far behind

It took us a total of four whole days since we originally set off, but we're finally here! We walked over the edge of one last hill and saw the expanse of cottage style houses beneath us. Gilda stopped at the top of the ridge and looked out over the town that we had spent so long trying to reach.

“Hey Gilda… You know you don't have to apologize to Dash, right?”

She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, breathing in the air of the countryside. When she opened them again, I saw that tears had formed.

“I have to prove it to her. I have to prove it to myself that I've changed. I'm not the cruel loner that left a few days ago.”

“I'll be with you the whole time, okay? You don't have to do it alone.”

“Thanks, Sky. For real. I don't think I would have realized my mistakes had you not dropped into my life out of nowhere.”

I smiled warmly and kissed her on the cheek, earning me a blush and a kiss back.

“Alright.” She breathed in before continuing. “Let's do this.”

As we walked through the town, we started getting all these weird looks. I couldn't tell if it was because these ponies had never seen a Griffon before or that they knew who Gilda was and were surprised she had the balls to come back. If word had spread all the way around town about what Gilda had done, then it was no surprise that these ponies would be apprehensive about two Griffons walking around. I looked to my side at Gilda who was wearing a blank face but I could tell that she was holding back a scowl. After a short walk through the town, we reached a clearing with no houses around for a few hundred meters. I looked over at Gilda, confused.

“Uhh, Gilda? Where's the house?”

She pursed her lips and looked upwards. I followed her eyes to a huge floating mansion with rainbow colored waterfalls pouring down the side.

“Holy shit! What is she, a millionaire? That house is incredible!”

“Nah, it's made out of cloud. Pegasus ponies can move clouds and stuff, so she probably made that herself.”

“Woah… Still, that is incredible. I've never seen anything like I before!”

“Yeah, well it's a problem for us.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I can't fly and you don't know how. There's no way for us to get up there.”

“Oh… crap.”

Gilda sighed and turned around.

“C’mon, there's more than one pony I gotta apologize to, and this one actually lives on the ground.”

We approached this massive store with candy themed decorations all over it. I gaped in awe at the extravagance that these ponies went into when designing their buildings, and this one was absolutely insane! A smell of baked treats wafted from the building, even through closed doors and I breathed in heavily, savoring the incredible smell.

“C’mon, stop gawking.” Gilda said from the entrance to the building and I rushed to catch up with her.

She pushed open the door and a bell tinkled as we went inside. Surprisingly, the store was empty, save a singular pink pony behind the register. As soon as we walked in, the pony gasped loudly and in a split second, was two centimeters away from my face.

“Hi!” She squeaked loudly. “My name’s Pinkie Pie and I've never met you before, so you must be a new friend! I love meeting new friends! I can't wait to throw you a “welcome to ponyville” party with cake and streamers and lollipops and-”

“Pinkie!” A voice shouted from behind us. “Get away from them!”

I turned around to see a purple pony with a glowing horn on her head. I opened my voice to speak only to be lifted up into the air and pushed out the doors of the store. I glanced over to see that Gilda was in the same predicament as me and was struggling against the force that held us.

“Twilight, wait!” She shouted, attempting to grasp the ponies attention.

“I don't want to hear it, Gilda! I'm not letting you hurt Pinkie any more!”

“Please, let me explain! I'm sorry!” As soon as those words left her mouth, we stopped and the purple pony who I could only assume was Twilight turned toward us.

“Wh-what?” She stammered with a dumbfounded look on her face.

“I came back to apologize! The Griffon you met a few days ago… That's not the real me! I'm better than that and I let my petty jealousy get the better of me. Please let us down, Twilight.”

The glow on Twilight’s horn lessened and we slowly dropped to the ground. Gilda groaned as she landed, the land clearly doing something to her hurt wings.

“Thank you.” Gilda said, brushing down her coat.

“I'm giving you the benefit of of the doubt here, Gilda. You better explain yourself. Who is this other Griffon with you?” She motioned toward me with a hoof.

“She's… A friend. Her name’s Sky. In fact, she's the biggest reason why I had the confidence to come back and apologize.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow and glanced to Gilda’s wing.

“What happened to your wing?”

“Well, I kinda… damaged it saving Sky. I caught her when she was falling and we smashed into the ground really fast.”

“But she has wings too, couldn't she have stopped herself from falling?”

“It's… Kind of a long story, but that's not the reason why I'm here! I truly am sorry and I know the way I acted was horrible and mean. I should have accepted that I wasn't Dash’s only friend anymore and used that as an opportunity to make new friends instead of try to take Dash away! I'm sorry!” Gilda shouted, out of breath after her mini rant.

Suddenly, a pink blur and then Gilda was almost knocked over in a hug from behind.

“I forgive you!” The pink pony who had Gilda in a vice like hug shouted.

“P - pinkie!” Twilight lifted her off of Gilda with her magic. “Gilda’s damaged her wings, the last thing she needs is a hug from you making it worse!”

“I'm sorry!” She said, struggling mid air like we had done not 30 seconds before. “I'm also sorry for being so silly before! I should have known that you'd just want to spend time with Dash after not seeing her for so long!”

“It's okay, Pinkie, I'm sorry too for being so cruel to you all. I just… I really need to apologize to Dash.”

“I'll go get her. Be right back.” Twilight lowered Pinkie Pie before her horn lit up up and she teleported away. Gilda had told me that this world was full of magical beings, and I'd already experienced quite a bit of it myself, but It still shocked me a bit to see teleportation in person.

As soon as she was gone, Pinkie appeared in front of me again.

“Hey! So what's your name? I told you mine before, my names Pinkie Pie, but I didn't get yours.” She blurted out without breathing once and grinned widely when she was done.

“Um, Sky.”

“Hi Um Sky! I can't wait to throw you one of my super duper Pinkie Pie Parties! (Patent pending). Oooh, and Gilda too! I gotta throw her a “Welcome Back to Ponyville” party! This is gonna be so great!”

I looked over at Gilda who just shrugged in response. I glanced up to the sky and saw a small dot flying towards us. I squinted to try and see what it was, but the glare from the sun wasn't helping at all. I tapped Gilda on the shoulder who turned, looked surprised and then sullen.

“That must be Dash.” She put glumly. “Here we go.”

After a few more seconds, the rainbow maned pegasus slammed down onto the ground with an angry scowl on her face and stomped toward Gilda. She stopped right in front of her with her nostrils flaring. Not two seconds after she arrived, there was a flash of purple light and twilight teleported in a few meters behind us.

“I'm sorry Gilda, I tried to stop her but-”

“You!” Rainbow shouted right in Gilda’s face. “Come to shout at my friends again, huh?”

Gilda returned the angry look and butted heads with the pony.

“You're one to talk about “shouting at friends.”. Or do you not think of me as a friend anymore? I'm back in Ponyville for two seconds and-”

“GILDA STOP!” I screamed over the two bickering girls.

“Gilda! You didn't come all this way back to antagonize Dash again, remember? And Dash, give Gilda the benefit of the doubt and listen to what she has to say, okay?” I was angry and panting, shooting a glare at both of them, who looked back, surprised that such a voice could come from someone like me.

Gilda rubbed the back of her neck and looked down guiltily, Dash doing the same after realizing her folly.

“Dash… I… I really did want to apologize. I realize now how selfish and jealous I was being and I definitely shouldn't have taken that anger out on your friends. They were just trying to be welcoming and friendly and all I did was throw that back in their faces. I'm sorry, Dash, will you forgive me?” Gilda looked up at Dash with what I could only describe was her version of puppy dog eyes.

“I accept your apology, Gil. I'm… really sorry stuff ended the way it did and… I'm sorry too. I should have known that you would want to spend a lot of time around me after not seeing me for so long and I should have asked Pinkie not to bother us.”

“Thanks, Dash. I still have to apologize to Fluttershy too. She didn't deserve to get shouted at either. I owe all of your friends an apology.”

“Fluttershy’s out of town at the moment, but she should be back in a few days.” Twilight answered for us, walking forward and joining us, clearly relieved that things were looking up.

“So…” Dash said awkwardly, eager to change the subject. “Who's hot stuff over here.” Dash “whispered” and motioned towards me. I blushed at the notion but stood silent.

“Oh, that's Sky. Long story short, I saved her from plummeting to her death and now we're… Together.”

“Ooh, you always were one to work quickly. Or is she a floozy?”

“Hey!” My cheeks must have been flush red by now. “I am not a floozy! I just happen to appreciate having my life saved, thank you very much.”

“Speaking of that, why didn't you just fly to safety?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Um…” I trailed off, thinking about how to word my response. “I'm not really from around here and when Gilda saved me, I wasn't exactly the same I am now. I was more like some sort of bipedal ape thingy called a human and I came from what I can only assume is an entirely different world from this one. When Gilda caught me, I landed In a patch of these blue leaves that Gilda called-”

“Poison Joke.” Twilight interrupted. “I had a feeling it had something to do with that plant.”

“Yeah, that stuff. I don't think Gilda was affected, cos she landed just outside the patch, but as you can see, it turned me into a Griffon. And a girl. Did I mention I wasn't a girl before?”

“No you didn't.” Twilight said with with a curious hint to her voice. “Hmm… Interesting. Well, I can go get Zecora to whip up some of the poison joke cure and we'll get you back to normal in-”

“No!” I exclaimed as shocked Twilight into stopping her sentence.

“Oh. Why not?” Twilight inquired.

“Because… Gilda isn't attracted to guys. I didn't have anything going for me in my old world and meeting Gilda has given me a new start. I wasn't overly attached to my dick, so that doesn't bother me either.”

“Well that's perfectly reasonable.” Twilight put bluntly and smiled. “I would still like to run some tests to see if I can confirm this whole “other world” theory of yours and that might involve curing you of the poison joke’s affects. Temporarily, of course!”

“Well, as long as it's only temporary. I've gotten pretty attached to this new body and I'd rather keep it and Gilda.”

“Me too.” Gilda stepped beside me and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

“Never took you for the smoochy, lovey dovey type, Gil.” Dash “whispered” again and nudged Gilda, earning her a less than careful punch back.

After our meeting with Dash and the others, Gilda went off with Dash to have her wing checked out before going out for drinks while I went with Twilight to do some tests.

“So, Gil.” Dash said after a long drink of her milkshake. “What have you been up to since you dropped out of flight school? We didn't actually get a lot of time to catch up last time we talked, what with all that other stuff going on.”

Gilda chuckled and took a sip from her drink before answering.

“Well, I took a couple of weather jobs here and there, had a few other partners that didn't really last long. Honestly, I was just with them for the sake of being with someone.”

“Any other Griffons?”

“Nah, just ponies. Half of them were fascinated in my “exotic” body rather than actually attracted to me too. Unfortunately, finding other Griffons who are attracted to girls is kinda hard, seeing as it's not exactly accepted.”

“Yeah, I think you told me about that before. It's a good thing Sky wasn't originally a Griffon or she might have been raised on the same ideals as other Griffons.”

“Yeah…”

“Gil, I… I'm really glad you came back. I felt horrid for days after you left and kept thinking “What if I stood up for her?”, ya know? I feel like the worst friend ever for saying all those things to you and pulling all those pranks on you even though I could tell you were in a shitty mood.”

“No, Dash, you didn't do anything wrong. I was just jealous of the fact that you had friends that weren't me. If I wasn't being so rash and mean, then I probably wouldn't have reacted the way I did. That's all on me, not you at all.”

“It's not all on you. Both of us are hardly perfect and we’re both as hard headed. I'm just glad you came back. Thanks for giving me another chance.”

“No problem, Dash. I'm still totally gonna whoop your ass in a race when my wing is healed though.”

“You're on, Bird Brain.”

Meanwhile, over at Twilight’s library/home/study, I was sitting in a pool of this quite pleasant smelling mixture. I would have tried to enjoy it had I not known that soon it would be stripping me of the body I had only really just gotten used to in a few minutes.

“So how long does this usually take?” I asked from my seat in the cramped bath.

“Hmm, well when me and my friends were affected, it only took a few minutes, but your bodies response to the cure will either confirm or deny a particular theory I have about your kind.”

“And what is that theory?”

“The theory is, put simply, that humans are more susceptible to magic than other beings from this world. Having never been in contact with any magic before, it would be reasonable to guess that your body is affected more by magic, which explains why you were more greatly affected by the poison joke than other ponies and why the cure might take longer to work.”

Twilight pulled out a stopwatch with her magic and pressed a button on it.

“So the cure worked at about this time into our bath for the rest of us when we were affected, and if your changes start to revert any time soon, that would deny that theory. Another point to consider is the level of changes that happened to you. With my friends and I, the changes were much more simple, like Dash’s upside down wings and Fluttershy’s deeper voice. Your change, a complete and total species change, is much more drastic than what happened to us. This supports the “weaker to magic” theory even more.”

I nodded, having understood what Twilight was trying to describe.

“I want to thank you, by the way. It's not every day that you get the chance to inspect a being from a different world.”

“No problem, but don't get too attached. As soon as we're done here, I'm changing back.” I said and scratched an itch on the back of my neck.

“That's reasonable.” Twilight smiled and looked at her stopwatch again. “Hmm… three minutes in and no changes documented yet. Do you feel any different?”

“Not really.” I shrugged.

“Well, if you don't mind me asking a few questions about your world while we wait, that would be appreciated. Feel free to interrupt me if changes start, I can always ask you questions later.”

“Uh, sure. Not sure how much I can tell you, I wasn't exactly what you'd regard as “smart” in my world.”

“No problem, any information is great. So, number one, sentient beings. Any others besides humans?”

“Nope. Ponies on my world are nothing more than farm animals really.”

“Wow. OK, so what about Griffons?”

“Griffons are a myth on my world, someone probably found a bunch of jumbled bones and thought they were from a magical bird-lion thing. Probably don't exist at all.”

“Interesting. So what did you do for a living.”

“Uh, this might sound weird, but I worked at a place called a “zoo” where people came to see rare and exotic animals. It's kinda cruel, but I needed the cash and a friend set me up with that job.”

“We have zoo’s here too, just no sentient creatures are on display. They're more of an endangered animal reserve, with the tourism part there to raise money for taking care of the animals.”

“Yeah, I'd like to think that's how the zoo I worked at was, but unfortunately not.”

“Ah. I see. So what about romantic partners?”

“What about them?”

“Do you keep them for life? Do you have marriage ceremonies?”

“Uh, yeah. Or at least that's what I'd like to think. A lot of unfaithful people out there who sleep around.” I said just as an intense itch spread up my neck. I scratched at it in a futile attempt to relieve the itch, but it didn't do anything to help.

“What's wrong? Have the changes begun?”

“I think so… Maybe? I can't see my neck.”

Twilight stepped behind me and clicked the button on her stopwatch, confirming my fears.

“They definitely have started, and it took eight more minutes to start than it did for my friends and I.” She pulled out a notepad and quill before writing down something hastily.

“Try your best to describe your changes.”

“Uh, it's kinda ITCHY- Oh god.” I choked as my voice suddenly deepened.

“Continue.”

“Um, I can feel my hands starting to soften now, and the fur on my paws is… Oh god its going back inside me. Eww.”

Twilight circled me, marking down the changes as they turned up. After a short while, my hands and feet were back to normal and the fur was almost completely gone. My wings shrunk speedily until they were completely gone and my back was smooth again.

“Oh god this is freaky. I'm really glad I only have to do this one more time.”

Twilight nodded but didn't distract herself from her note taking.

“I can feel something happening to my groin now. It's almost like a bloating feeling, like reverse suction or something.”

I looked down at my groin and winced as my balls plopped out again and my clit grew out into a penis again. This whole experience was made even weirder by the fact that Twilight had her face uncomfortably close to my changing genitals. The feeling was so strange that I hadn't even noticed my face start to change back to be much more like a humans.

It took a while, but the changes were finally over. I looked myself up and down, kind of nonplussed by my returned form. It didn't feel weird per se, but it did remind me that Gilda wouldn't like to see me again like this, so neither did I.

“This is incredible!” Twilight exclaimed, writing away on her notepad. “I've never seen such advanced anatomy besides Ponies before! Opposable thumbs, mostly hairless besides head and pubic regions, sophisticated ears… I must say, your race is interesting to no end! Now I'm going to run a magical scan on you. That will tell me if there's any trace of dark magic, chaos magic or even possibly regular magic on you.”

As she finished, a purple glow engulfed both me and her horn, pulses of light flowing over me every few seconds. After a few minutes, the glow cut of and Twilight wrote something down with a frustrated look on her face.

“What's wrong?”

“Well it seems my fears have been confirmed. Besides the nature magic from the poison joke, there is no magic residue left on you, which means one of two things. The first being the magic residue has worn out, which is incredibly unlikely, or… You came here through a non magical random temporal rift, meaning a wormhole opened up randomly and sucked only you through. It is an extremely rare occurrence and only has it been documented to pull a living being through once before, who was unfortunately dead on arrival.”

“So… I'm stuck here?”

“I'm afraid so. Just as well you're happy with your form as a Griffon as Integrating with pony society as a human might prove to be more than a challenge.”

I let the fact settle a little. I mean, I was content with my body and with this new world that I was was a part of, but it did hit me kinda hard to know that I'd never be able to go back if I wanted to.

“I'm sorry, Sky. Would you like to go back to being a Griffon now? I'm done taking notes for the time being.”

“Yeah, I think I would. I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't even really think about the fact that it would be impossible for me to return.”

“I can imagine how you must feel, but don't forget that you have friends here. I am willing to get to know you, and I'm sure that Rainbow and my other friends will be welcoming as well. It's not much of a consolation, but you and Gilda are more than welcome to take the spare room in my library until we can find a place for you to live.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” I wiped a tear out of my eye. “I'm just also worried about what Gilda wants to do now that she's here and her wing is healing properly. I don't know where she wants to go or if she'll still want to be with me, you know?”

“I'm sure that wherever she wants to go, she'll want you with her. I only knew Gilda for a short while, but the way she was acting around you definitely made me think that you were special to her. I doubt she'll give you up easily.” Twilight smiled warmly as her horn lit up, pulling a jar off of a nearby shelf filled with bright blue flowers.

“If you would like now, you can breath in some of the poison joke fumes again and we'll get you back to being a Griffon.”

“Thanks. Honestly, the sooner I'm out of this body, the better.”

After a few hours, the transformation begun again and I was back in my Griffon form. It stretched my wings out, happy to see that they had returned to me in a clean condition rather than being matted and twisted like last time.

There was a knock on the door before both Gilda and Rainbow Dash came barging in, regaling us with stories of their running race through the town. I smiled happily as Gilda told her story, happy to see that she and Dash had made up and were the best of friends again. I really did hope that Gilda wanted to stay here, at least for a while. It wasn't just because I liked this place, but Gilda seemed legitimately happy here. I hadn't seen her like this before and I didn't want it to stop.

“Then, Gilda jumped over this cart of cabbages, just skimming the top! You should have seen the ponies face when he saw one of his cabbages hit the ground, it was like his wife had died!”

“Yeah, well I would have won the race too, had you not flown to the finish!”

“Sounds like you're jealous, huh?”

“I am totally gonna whoop your ass when I can fly again.”

Gilda gave Dash a playful punch and chuckled before turning to me and Twilight.

“So, how'd your tests go?”

“Not too great.” Twilight said with a somber look on her face. “We found out that even if she wanted to, Sky can't return to her old world. She got here through a one way micro wormhole that only opened up for a split second. Or at least, that's the only logical explanation.”

“Ah, damn. Well, you seemed pretty set on staying as a Griffon, right?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “As I said before, I wasn't really set on changing back in the first place, it's just a depressing thought that I can't go back even if I wanted to.”

“Oh well.” Gilda shrugged with a blank face before moving to my side.

“Oh yeah, Twilight’s also offered to let us stay in her spare room for the time being.” I added with a smile.

“Ah, thanks, Twi! I was wondering where we were gonna stay tonight, so that's sorted.” Gilda smiled at Twilight and put her foreleg around my shoulder.

“Speaking of that, it's getting pretty late, I'm just about ready to hit the hay. You?” I asked Gilda.

“Yep, sounds like a good idea. Can't wait to sleep on an actual bed again. Thanks again, Twi.”

“No problem, Gilda. I'd do it for any of my other friends.” She smiled warmly. “I'll show you your bedroom.”

Chapter 4

Author's Notes:

Hey everyone! Thanks for waiting more than a year for these chapters, here is the soughta cloptional bonus chapter, for your masturbational pleasure.

Gilda and I walked into into the spare room that Twilight had set up for us and I looked around at the contents. She had set up a very basic double bed with a table in the corner and a few books had been piled on it. The books interested me a bit as I was willing to learn more about this world I was in, but the bed was infinitely more enticing right now. I groaned in relief and flopped down on the bed, reveling in the softness of the mattress and duvet.

“Oh my Goooood, Gilda. I never knew how much I could miss a bed until now.”

Gilda walked up behind me and them crawled onto the bed, joining me in mutual satisfaction.

“Oooh, I hear ya there, Sky. This bed is incredible.”

“Yeah... “ I moaned again, content in lying there in silence for a while. Gilda seemed to have other plans as she rolled over to face me.

“So, Sky. How are you liking Ponyville?”

“Honestly, it's kinda nice. I can't tell right now if my enjoyment is coming more from how much I missed being around modern society, or if I actually like the place, but I do think it's the latter.”

“Good, cos I was thinking… Maybe you'd want to stay here with me for a while? I mean, I don't really have anywhere else to go, and I actually seem to have gained new friends since I came back. It just seems like a waste to give that chance up, ya know?”

“I think I do, Gilda. Honestly, I'm happy to go wherever you go.”

“Aww, lame.” She smiled warmly and placed her lips against mine. I leant into the kiss more than before and found myself more than eager to continue it. As the passionate kiss got ever more passionate, a warmth began to spread through my belly down to my groin and I began moaning in pleasure as my arousal increased. I could tell my moans and our kiss were doing similar things to Gilda as I heard small moans start to come from her as well. I pushed even further into the kiss and picked up the pace, writhing my tongue around with hers and feeling the texture of it. It was probably from the fact that we were in a much more private and relaxing environment, but I felt myself utterly enthralled by the passion that we shared and began to moan ever louder. Gilda’s claws began stroking my torso up and down, sliding against the nipples that I had hidden beneath my fur and feathers, eliciting a higher pitched, shorter moan than usual from me. She continued stroking me, going lower and lower with her claw every stroke until it began to come in contact with the skin just above my clit. I pushed my hips upwards, begging for her touch as I squeaked in pleasure.

“P - please, Gil… I… I need it…”

Gilda took a break from her own moaning to smile and giggle at me, causing my cheeks to somehow flush an even deeper red.

“You need… What? Tell me what you need.”

“I need… you… your claws… I want them.”

“What do you want me to do with-”

“Fuck me!” I shouted, louder than I probably should have. I lowered my voice a bit. “Please, Gilda. I need you to fuck me.”

“I think I can oblige.” The beautiful Griffon said before slowly sliding a singular claw into my dripping cunt. I groaned a long and high pitched groan of satisfaction as I felt the amazing appendage slide into me. I looked down at Gilda’s crotch which was equally as wet as mine, so I brought my own claw down and began rubbing her labia slowly. She moaned deeply and pulled me into a kiss but didn't stop her own claws progress, which had now slipped entirely into my snatch. She swirled it around in me, driving me to shudder and speed up with my own rubbing. I looked into her beautiful amber eyes with a half lidded stare and kissed her again, trading saliva with her and thrusting my hips in time with the thrusts of her claws. I began to feel a familiar pressure building up Inside of me and my moans became quicker in frequency and higher in pitch the closer I got. Just as I felt like I might be reaching the point of no return, Gilda suddenly pulled her claw out of me and brought it up to our faces.

“No, Gilda… I was so close.”

She grinned, brought her dripping claw to her beak and began slurping my juices off of the appendages. She grinned and rubbed my snatch again for a few seconds before bringing her claw back up.

“Why don't you have a taste?”

I immediately opened my beak and stuck out my tongue, licking the claw with great fervor. I let my juices swirl around in my mouth, reveling in the familiar taste, feeling the heat from in between my legs somehow increase even more.

“Oh god, Gilda, please… I need to cum! I need it so much!”

“Nah, not yet.” She chuckled, moving away from me and leaning over toward the bag she had brought in with us. “I have something a little more exciting in mind.”

Just as I began to imagine what it might be, Gilda pulled out a quite large, phallic shaped object with what looked a bit like like a butt plug on one end and the rest of the dildo on the other. It's strange shape confused me a bit, but as long as it eventually went inside me, I didn’t really care.

“Oh my god.” I whispered and began rubbing myself in anticipation.

“Pretty cool, right? Dash gave it to me as a thank you present.” Gilda turned the dildo over a few times. “This bit,” Gilda motioned to the butt plug shaped thing. “Goes in me, and this bit…” She motioned to to the rest of the vaguely horse dick shaped dildo before grinning her signature cocky grin. “I think you can guess where it goes.”

I responded by scooching back on the bed and spreading my legs wide, giving my girlfriend a generous view of my dripping Griffon pussy. Gilda took the dildo and slid the plug slowly into her cunt, the sight causing my heart to race in anticipation.

“Now, this thing isn't exactly small, so I'm gonna warn you. It might hurt a little the first time going in, but it doesn't take long before it starts feeling really, really good.” She said while moving forward to place herself between my hind legs and to position the dildo near the entrance to my pussy.

“I want it.” I moaned and bit my lip. “I want you. So bad.”

She pushed forward slowly with her hips and the slightly tapered dildo pressed up against my soaking entrance. I took hold of Gilda’s head and pulled her in for a kiss, inadvertently causing the head of the dildo to pop inside of me. I moaned heavily into our kiss as the seemingly huge dildo pulled my walls apart. Even with this new alien object inside of me, I still felt empty inside and so I edged down a little, letting it slide just that little bit deeper. I could tell Gilda could feel my heat radiating from my cunt, and she began slowly sliding herself deeper and deeper.

I gripped my legs around my girlfriend as I felt my insides part more and more, my body eagerly welcoming every millimeter of the rubber dong into me. I felt the dildo start to widen suddenly at a particular point along it and thought it might be finally hilted before the extra girth popped inside of me. I yelped and looked down between our legs only to realize that the dildo was only about half way inside. Holy fuck, how big was this thing? More than that, how deep was I? Would it even all fit? Gilda felt it was her duty to answer that for me and slammed her hips forward until her hips met mine. The sudden thrust and sensation of fullness finally pushed me over the edge and my mind was filled with incredible pleasure, radiating from everywhere in my body but concentrating at my groin. I felt myself clench against the lifeless cock inside me as I attempted to milk It of the cum that would never come. I kissed Gilda clumsily as my body continued to spasm from the incredible pleasure I was feeling. I never wanted it to end.

“That good, huh?”

I nodded quickly in reply and began to writhe my hips against her, trying to somehow push the dildo even deeper inside.

“And it didn't even seem to hurt you. You sure you sure you didn't get up to anything with Twilight and her “experiments.”?”

I shook my head. “No way! This body… me… I'm only for you. No one else.”

“Hey, relax. I was just pulling your leg. But don't get too relaxed yet, I am definitely not done fucking that tight pussy of yours.”

I couldn't even reply as the dirty talk was causing me to clench on the object even tighter, distracting me from whatever response I could have thought of. I felt felt a huge surge of pleasure as the ridges of of the cock glided out of of my pussy at the same time that I clenched down on it. Gilda began to speedily pull out and then slam down on me, every time she did so splattering a small amount of her juices against my legs. Gilda closed her eyes, letting her hips thrust on autopilot, sliding in and out over and over as the pressure began to build inside again. I pressed my forehead against hers, feeling her warm breath on my face as she fucked me intensely. I rocked my body along with my thrusts, enhancing the pleasure that both of us felt.

“Gilda, I'm - Ah! Fuck… I'm getting close!”

“Yeah? You are? Like it when I pound your pound your little pussy, huh? You know, I think next time, I'm gonna eat you out until you cum in my mouth.”

That pushed me to breaking point and I came hard, pulling Gilda into a strained kiss as I did. My wings involuntarily spread out wide, shuddering as the muscles were filled with an insane spasming pleasure. Gilda came not too long after and I could tell that she was trying her hardest to kiss as well, but ended up pulling away and screaming, her wings trying to spring free of her bindings as all of the muscles in her body convulsed rapidly. My orgasm faded a little faster faster than before, but I looked at Gilda to see that hers was still going full ball, her thrusts still pushing the remnants of my orgasm to the limit. The plug shot out out of her pussy and and a small stream of her cum poured out along with it, clearly having gathered throughout our fuck session. My rapid clenching did the same thing to my end of the dildo and a it was flung toward the end of the bed. Eventually, Gilda’s forelegs gave out and a she collapsed on me. I angled her head toward me and I kissed her with as much passion as I could muster. She returned with short but passionate kisses, whispering “I love you” every time she pulled away for a breath. Eventually, she collapsed fully and let out a huge sigh of satisfaction.

“I've… never… cum like that in my life, Sky.”

“Me…” I panted. “Me neither. Oh my fucking god…”

“I love you, Sky.”

“I love you too, Gilda. Thank you.”

“For what? I should be the one thanking you. I've never felt… that close to any of my partners, but you… you make me feel so close. Like nothing could ever go wrong.”

I smiled and kissed her cheek tenderly, brushing the sweat dampened feathers out of her face. I stared into her beautiful golden eyes and felt my heart surge with content. This must be what true happiness feels like.

“Yeah, Gil. I know what you mean.”

I felt Gilda shudder again and a liquid dripped onto my thigh that was resting beneath her legs. An idea popped into my head.

“Hey Gilda, lie on your back.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Trust me. Lie on your back and close your eyes.”

She did as I asked and spread her legs, either on impulse or because she knew exactly what I wanted. I lowered my head between her legs and stuck out a claw slowly circling her hole with it. I suddenly plunged a claw inside began to finger her, thrusting in and out while curling my fingers toward me. I felt her clench around me and her back arched as she lay there and enjoyed the feelings I was giving her. I lowered my head again and in a split second, removed my claw from her pussy and plunged my tongue as deep inside her as I could. I heard her gasp for air and try as hard as she could to stifle her screams of pleasure. Wanting to hear those treasured sounds again, I began sucking on her clit, pushing the tip of my tongue around her clit’s hood.

That got me exactly what I wanted and Gilda couldn't hold her moans in any longer. She let out a long groan as more of her juices pooled up inside her only to be lapped up by my greedy tongue. A few rapid thrusts later and she came, a large amount girl cum shooting into my mouth. I lapped at her clit as she came, earning me even more moans of pleasure. I could tell Twilight could hear what was going on if she was anywhere in the house, but I didn't care. This was payback for turning me back into a man today.

After what seemed like a whole minute, Gilda finally stopped moaning and relaxed with another heavy sigh. I pulled myself to her and brushed her cheek with my claw.

“Want a taste?” I chuckled, remembering that she had done this for me earlier. She leaned in for a kiss and I let her take the remainder of her cum out of my mouth. She hummed into the kiss and I could feel a smile forming as we made out.

I pulled away and let myself flop down next to her, finally exhausted after the most intense lovemaking I had ever experienced.

“You do know you're amazing, right?” I giggled, looking at the incredible girl next to me.

“No… No way. You. You're amazing.” She panted, basking in afterglow of her most recent orgasm.

“Fine. We're both amazing.”

“S-sure.” She smiled, still catching her breath. “Let's go with that.”

“You know, Gil… I'm really glad you asked me to stay here with you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I was kinda worried about what you wanted to do after we got back. I was thinking, like, “Is she gonna want to go back home?” or “It's she gonna leave me here and go alone?”.”

“Of course not!”

“I know, but I always fear the worst. I'm just… I'm really glad I met you. I'm really glad I fell out of the sky, and I'm really glad you saved my life. Thank you.”

“No problem, Sky. I would go through the pain of hurting my wing a million times over if it meant I could have met you.”

Chapter 5

Light filtered in through the open window and a fresh morning breeze carried in the scent of dew on grass. I yawned, enjoying the warmness of Gilda next to me and the sensation of the light breeze against my feathers. It was a fresh breeze, the kind of breeze you feel after being stuck in a stuffy room for hours, or just after a warm shower. I knew that it had to end and life had to continue eventually, but for the moment, I was enjoying the fact that Gilda was curled up around me and had a foreleg draped over me. I felt her stir and her body shudder as she yawned widely.

“Hey, Gil. Sleep well?” I slurred groggily, my body and mind still in the process of waking up.

“Hmm. Not too bad.” She hummed with a surprising singsong tinge to her voice.

“You got any idea what you wanna do today?”

“Not really. I could walk you through some basic flight exercises if you want. We don't have to do anything big, but it's a good idea to start learning the technique before trying for the real deal.”

“Sounds…” I yawned again. “Sounds good to me.” I lay my head down once more, trying to get a little bit of extra rest in before I had to get up. Gilda seemed happy to comply and hugged me closer.

After about fifteen minutes more, I decided I wanted to get up and forced myself out of Gilda’s grip, sitting up and blinking rapidly to get the sleepy feeling out of my head quicker. Gilda sat up eventually and began to do the same as I had done.

“I'm kinda hungry.” She murmured, punctuated not long after by a growl coming from her stomach.

“Oh jeez, you really are. Come on, let's get some food.”

After we finally pulled ourselves out of our bed and made our way toward the kitchen, we found a small dragon looking thing cooking french toast and wearing an apron. The little guy was humming away when we walked in and turned a around when he heard us walk in.

“Morning!” He said cheerily. “Don't worry, Twilight already filled me in with what's going on, so I won't freak out like I did last time.”

“Uh… good?” I said, a little confused. I walked over to a table in the centre of the room and sat down. The Dragon laid out two plates of French Toast in front of us and smiled happily.

“Bon apetit! Just be happy I didn't burn it this time.” He smiled before laying out two more plates. A few seconds later, Twilight walked into the room and sat down at one of the seats. She absent mindedly began eating her piece of toast, seemingly oblivious to our presence.”

“Morning, Twi.”

The unicorn jumped a little and dropped her fork onto the table.

“O-oh! Hey, girls. I kinda didn't realize you were there. Heh, sorry.”

“Yeah.” Gilda chuckled. “We noticed.”

“So, I see you've met my number one assistant, Spike?”

“The dragon? Yeah, he kinda made us breakfast.”

“What breakfast?”

“Uhh… the one in front of you?”

“What? Oh, silly me.” She shook her head. “Still half asleep. So what do you have planned for today?”

“Well, I was gonna see if Rainbow Dash wanted to help me teach Sky some flying basics. The doctor said the splint and bandages can come off today, but it's probably not gonna be in full working order for a few days yet.”

“Sounds good to me. I was gonna go meet up with Applejack and Rarity and inform them of the situation so they're not shocked you've returned. Fluttershy is still out of town until later today, but I'll be sure to let her know as well. If you wanted to, we could meet up for lunch after you have some lessons and after I talk to Rarity and AJ?”

“That sounds pretty good to me.”

“Yeah, sounds sweet. But before that, I'm gonna devour the fuck out of this toast. Going almost a week without properly cooked food is not something I'd like to do again.” Gilda licked her lips before diving into her meal.

After breakfast, Gilda and I asked Twilight to fetch Dash again before traveling ourselves to the space beneath her cloud home where she was waiting for us.

“Hey nerds, you ready to learn how to fly?”

“Only one nerd here dash, and only one pony. Unfortunately, they're one in the same.” Gilda quipped and shot Dash a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah. At least I can fly.”

“Ooh, cheap shit, Dash. Anyway, I was thinking that we'd show Sky some basic exercises and techniques before getting her up in the air. Last time she was further than one meter off the ground, she was kinds falling to her death, so I don't wanna push this too far.”

“Neither do I.” I added. “To be honest, I'm pretty excited to be learning how to fly using my own wings, but I'm still pretty unsure about this shit.”

“Only one way to find out.” Dash grinned and flew toward us. “Let's get to work.”

“So now that your wings are spread, slowly bring them down towards your hind paws.” Gilda described the action to me as best as possible and I tried my hardest to replicate it. I slowly flapped downwards, feeling the air catch in my feathers and force me forward and upward slightly. I wasn't pushing fast enough to actually gain any lift, but the amount of push that this slow flap gave me hinted toward what I could achieve.

“Good! Now as you raise your wings up, tuck them closer to yourself. This eliminates the upward drag.”

I followed along and found myself able to replicate what she requested vaguely easily.

“Woah.” I smiled as I felt myself becoming more and more used to manipulating my wing muscles. “You know, you're a lot more intelligent than you let on, Gil.”

“Hey! I never said I wasn't smart, I'm just not a huge egghead like Dash and Twilight.”

“I heard that!” Rainbow called out from her napping spot on a cloud nearby.

Gilda laughed before continuing.

“Now, practice doing this faster and faster. The faster you get, the more lift you'll get and the faster you'll go.”

I did as she said and after a while, I felt myself much more comfortable with flapping faster.

“You're doing great, Sky. Now, angle the flaps forward and backward to change between generating forward and upward lift. You'll want to angle it back almost as far as possible if you're gonna want to hover.”

I tried as she described and soon enough found myself hovering about ten centimeters off the ground. I hovered for a few seconds before losing balance and falling, landing back on my paws.

“Holy crap.” What I had done started to sink in. “I just flew.”

“Pretty amazing, huh?”

“Pretty awesome, more like!” Dash called out.

We practiced for another hour or so, alternating between Dash and Gilda teaching me what they knew. I had just managed to fly forward about ten meters before I saw Twilight approach, flanked by an orange pony wearing a Stetson and a white unicorn with a perfectly styled mane.

“Hey, Sky!” Twilight called to me. “How's the flying lessons going?”

“Not too bad. Managed to get a pretty good hang of the basics.”

“That's wonderful. Anyway, these are two of my other friends, Rarity,” She said, motioning to the unicorn. “And Applejack.”

“Howdy!” Applejack greeted me with a shake of the hand. Err, hoof. Claw. Whatever.

“Hello, Sky!” Rarity said. “You really must let me try a few of my new styles on you. I never have had the chance to sow for a Griffon before, and from what I've heard, you seem much more open to the idea of trying on dresses than Gilda.”

“You got that right.” Gilda mock gagged before smiling.

“M-me? In… a dress.” I blushed at the thought. I wouldn't lie, the Idea of me in a pretty dress sounded kinda good for some reason.

“I kinda want to take you up on that, Rarity.”

“Splendid!” She clapped her hooves together. “If you like, we can go to my boutique after we've had lunch?”

“Sure. Sounds great.”

“So where would you like to go for lunch?” Twilight asked.

“Well, me and Gilda are completely new to this place, so why don't you show us where you like to eat?”

“Well I believe that the new Hayburger serves a fish burger, so we could go there if you like.”

“Sounds good to me.” I smiled and we headed off for lunch.

“So Sky, what did you do before ya came to Equestria?” Applejack asked with half a bite of burger still in her mouth.

“I worked at a zoo.”

“A zoo, eh? Ah'm sure you'll get along with Fluttershy just fine then. She loves her little critters, heh.”

“Eheheh, yeah…” I neglected to mention that I didn't actually like animals at all when I worked there. Who knows, maybe I'd enjoy spending time around the animals in this world more.

“Ah run the little farm just outside of town, Sweet Apple Acres. I know you don't really have a place to stay, so if if’n ya like, Ah can set you up in the granny flat we built out back last fall. We originally built it fer Granny Smith, but she wasn't to keen on it. Said it was like puttin’ her in a nursing home. Given that you n’ Gilda work for yer keep, Ah’ll pay ya a few bits too.”

“Holy crap, AJ. That's really nice of you.” Dash said.

“What do you think, Gil?” I looked to my side at the Griffon who had already devoured her burger.

“Sure. Thanks a lot for the hospitality, I really didn't expect this much of of a welcome seeing as all I did when I was here first was be shitty to you guys.”

“Gilda, Ah can tell when someone is lyin’ to me, and the second Ah saw you, I could see how truly sorry you were.”

“But I didn't even apologize to you directly.”

“Actions speak more than words, Gil.”

“Jeez… Thanks everyone. For real.”

“It's no problem at all.” Rarity smiled and daintily bit from her meal.

“I’m just glad to have one of my best friends back.” Dash grinned.

“Yes, you should have seen her!” Rarity exclaimed dramatically. “She was moping around for days after you stormed off from the party! I've never seen her that down before.”

Dash laughed and rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

“Anyway, if everyone else is finished, I believe Sky and I had some business to attend to.” Rarity giggled happily and we began to move to the entrance.

“Oh Sky, Ah’ll come get ya from the boutique in a few hours to show ya the farm!” Applejack called out as we left and I nodded in response, waving on claw to the group.

“So, this is where I live and work, Carousel Boutique!”

“Woah. Fancy.” I stared around the extravagant shop front, observing all of the pony shaped mannequins with clothes of various types on display.

“It is? I thought it was quite humble, honestly.”

“No, this is pretty fancy. I mean, fancy for me. All of the clothing stores I've ever been to have been filled to the brim with boring mass produced clothing, so it's probably much fancier seeming to me.”

“Well, regardless, it works for me and I have many happy customers coming in and out every day. One of the advantages of being in a small town is that there's hardly any competition.” She giggled as we walked through to the back of the store.

“This is my workshop!”

The room was filled to the brim with scraps of fabric, half finished outfits and sheets of paper with sketches all over them.

“I know it's messy, but it's a sought of organized chaos, so to speak. So, what kind of dress would you like made?”

“I dunno, really. Maybe something that I could wear out for a date with Gilda? Was thinking of maybe taking her out somewhere for dinner tomorrow once we've gotten a little more settled in.”

“Ah, my favourite type of dress to make! Now, would you like it to be sleek, or puffy?”

A few minutes later and Rarity had sketched up a simple picture of a Griffon wearing a silver dress. It perfectly showed of the more lithe parts of the body and left room to show off the main attraction, the wings. It was perfect.

“Holy crap, Rarity. That's amazing!”

“I'm glad you like it.” She said while levitating a yellow tape around my body, taking various measurements for the dress. I sat in relative silence and let her take the measurements, only moving when she asked me to so she could measure other parts of my body. As she was measuring, a small white pony unicorn walked in. She had a pastel violet and pink mane and a coat just as white as Rarity

“Hey, sis!” She squeaked out.

“Hello, Sweetie! This is Sky, she's a friend of Gilda’s.” Rarity paused her work to introduce us. “Sky, this is my little sister, Sweetiebelle.”

“Gilda, isn't she that really mean Griffon lady that was here a while ago?”

“Yes, well she's had a… How would you say it, a reformation of types. She came here with Sky yesterday and apologized for how she treated us all. Dash forgives her and so do we.”

“Oh. Cool. So anyway, can Scootaloo and Applebloom come over for a sleepover tonight? Please, please, please?”

“Absolutely, just clean your room first.”

“Yaaay!” Two other young girls popped out from around the corner and they all cheered in unison, sprinting down the hall and up the stairs.

“One of these days, I'll say no, and they'll have to all go home. They're so used to me saying yes, that they come over anyway.” Rarity made small talk as she took the last of the measurements.

“And we’re all done! If you wanted to go wait in the front room, I'll bring you some tea and we can wait for Applejack to arrive together. I should have the dress made by tomorrow and I'll come drop It off at Sweet Apple Acres for you.”

“That sounds great, Rarity.”

“So, Sky.” Rarity said as she poured a dark steaming liquid into my cup. “Tell me about Gilda. I hardly know a thing about her, and you seem to know her quite well.”

“Well, she definitely likes to take risks. I mean, she saved me even though it meant damaging her wings. She also kinda initiated the whole… Relationship thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad it happened, but it was very fast.”

“Ah, how romantic. Love at first sight?”

“Not exactly. Maybe once she saw me as a Griffon, yeah, but not before that. I was a guy before and she's not exactly attracted to guys.”

“O-Oh, I see.”

“Yeah. She's also a lot nicer than she lets off. She really regrets how she acted toward you all and I know that she's changed. That willingness to change is partly why I fell for her so easily as well.”

“Well, if Applejack believes her, then so do I. She's always had a knack for telling when ponies are being honest.”

“Somepony say mah name?” A voice came from behind us and we turned to see Applejack walking in with Gilda in tow. I stood up and walked toward Gilda, pecking her on the cheek when I arrived, earning me a blush back.

“Yes, we were just talking and having some tea, waiting for you to arrive. Would you like some too?” Rarity offered a cup to Applejack.

“Er, no thanks, Rares. You two lovebirds ready to head of?” Applejack asked.

“Yep.” I smiled.

“Yeah, just don't call us lovebirds.” Gilda answered with vague disgust on her face.

Applejack chuckled and continued out the door.

“C’mon then, Ah can't wait for you to meet mah family!”

It was a short walk and in no time, we arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. A pleasant scent of apples wafted through the air as we walked through a gate to the farm. The farmhouse was charmingly rustic and was the kind of farm you'd imagine from a storybook. Bales of hay and farm tools were strewn about the yard and a large red pony with a yoke around his neck was lifting large buckets of apples onto the cart.

“Hey Mac, this is Gilda and Sky, the Griffons Ah was telling you about before.”

“Eeyup.” He said and got back to lifting the buckets.

“Big Macintosh is mah big brother.” Applejack said we got closer to the farmhouse. “He'll be showing you what jobs to do throughout the day. I'll give you a few days to settle in before getting you to help out.”

We walked in the front door and Applejack called out from the bottom of the stairs.

“Applebloom! Come down and greet the girls!”

“Uh, did you say Applebloom? I think I saw her at Rarity’s. She's gone over there for a sleepover.”

“She has? Gosh darn that filly. She better’ve told Granny she was going, cos Ah sure as heck didn't know.”

“Eh, what's that?” An ancient looking pony with a green coat wobbled her way in.

“Granny! Did Applebloom tell ya she was going for a sleepover tonight.”

“Yes! She did! Or, uh, I think she did. What were ya askin’ again?”

“Ugh, nevermind. Granny, this is Gilda and Sky, they're gonna be staying in the flat we built for you and helpin’ out on the farm.”

“Good! Always nice to have a few more workin’ hooves around here! Err, paws. Whatever you girls have.”

“So,” Applejack said. “Wanna go check out yer flat?”

We walked out the back of the house and saw a very small looking flat attached to the back of the farmhouse. It must have only been maybe two rooms, max.

“Here it is. Ah know it's a bit cozy, but it'll do ya for the time being.” Applejack said as she pushed the front door open. Inside was a very small living room with a basic kitchen and two doors to the back.

“The door on the right is the bedroom and the door on the left is the bathroom. Ah’ll let you two explore, Ah got a few jobs to do before the stores shut. Dinner is at six!” She shouted and closed the door, leaving us to check out the flat alone.

“So…” Gilda said, looking around the room nervously. “Will I get to see you in that dress any time soon?”

I giggled and walked over to the small couch to sit down.

“Only if you're good.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Depends. Who can truly say what is good?”

“...You lost me.”

"But you'll have to be even better to get me out of it..."

Gilda blushed and glanced at me, annoyed.

"You are such a tease, Sky."

I laughed and beckoned Gilda over to the couch with me.

“How could I not when you're so easy to mess with? So what did you get up to while I was with Rarity?”

“Not much. Dash showed me around town more. We had some drinks at the local bar and I met a few of the ponies in the weather team. They seemed ok, but... I just… I saw re way they looked at me, Sky. Like they thought I would bite their head off. Do I really look like that?”

“No. Not to me, at least. All I can say is keep being true to yourself.”

“That's the problem! I want to be angry. I want to tell them that I'm not a bad Griffon, but doesn't doing that prove to them that I haven't changed?”

“I get what you mean, but it isn't black and white. I'd be annoyed if people judged me on stories they heard from their friends too. That doesn't make me a bad person. Griffon.”

“See, that's another thing. This town is so small that everyone knows everyone. News travels fast. I'd be surprised to find one pony in town that didn't hear about “That horrible Griffon that betrayed Rainbow Dash and all her friends.”. What, I just ignore that?”

“I know, it's unfair. It really is. I wish I could make it all better, it's just that I can't.”

“I know. I'm sorry, I don't expect you to be able to fix it for me, I just wish I could do something about it.”

“Me too. I know you've changed and that you're happier for it. Eventually, they'll forget about the old Gilda and get to know the new one.”

“I hope so. Thanks for listening to me. Again. I've never had a shoulder to lean on before. You don't know how much it means to me.”

“Yeah I do. I've never had one either, so that feeling Is definitely mutual.”

I smiled and then yawned, the days activities finally starting to take effect on my energy.

“Jeez. I didn't do that much today, but I already feel exhausted.”

“Yeah, me too. Probably should hit the hay once dinner is done.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

Dinner time eventually came and we both went to the farmhouse. As we walked in, the smell of soup could be smelt all throughout the house. We sat down at the dinner table and were surprised to see Applebloom sitting at the table with a blank look on her face. Applejack walked in after us and was equally as surprised to see her.

“Applebloom? Ah thought you went to Rarity’s for a sleepover tonight. Why are ya here instead of having fun with your friends.”

“Me and Scootaloo had to go home. Ah think she's sick or somethin’. Ah dunno.” Applebloom said grumpily.

“Really? She seemed fine this morning, did Rarity say what was wrong.”

“Yeah, said she's got some disease Ah never heard of called “heat”. Sounds like a made up disease to me.”

“Heat?” I said. “isn't that when-” I stopped myself, realizing that this world was filled with ponies. If they were anything like the ponies from my world, they would definitely go through estrus.

“Applejack, what's heat?” Applebloom asked innocently.

“Uh, well, ya see…” Applejack was sweating bullets. “W-when a little f-filly reaches a certain age, they g-go through... heat.”

“But what is it? Do all filly’s get it? Does that mean I'm gonna get sick eventually?”

“Not exactly, Bloom. It's not so much a d-disease as it is something that happens naturally you can't avoid.”

“Is it bad? Rarity said that other ponies usually can help when you have heat. Do you think Ah could help Sweetiebelle?”

Applejack’s face turned completely white and she began stuttering even more.

“Uh, N-not exactly, B-Bloom it's only s-something ya do with yer special s-somepony. That's enough for now, Ah promise ah’ll tell ya more when yer older. Ah better have a word with Rarity about what she's filling yer heads with.”

Throughout the whole conversation, Gilda had turned stiff and was completely unmoving. I held her foreleg to get her attention, but that only seemed to make her even less responsive. I never took her for the type to get nervous around sex talk.

“You look like you've seen a ghost, Gil. What's wrong?”

This snapped her out of her stupor. She looked at me nervously, visibly sweating. What could have made her like this?

“Sky, I forgot to tell you something important.” She whispered in my ear. “Griffons have heat too.”

Author's Notes:

Not much to say. Hope you enjoyed this chapter