Showtime.

The plan that Dash and I had eventually put together involved me swooping down on her as she stopped to cool off from her flight practice, at a small lake with a waterfall near the edge of the Everfree Forest. She’d feign romantic interest, and then hopefully a jealous Gilda would appear, and try to rescue their “friendship”. I say it like that after a thought that occurred to me when I had Dash by the throat last night... the mare seemed used to a gryphon’s touch, which made me wonder if there was anything more to them than initially met the eye.

The plan itself felt somewhat off, and I did wonder why she’d chosen the romance rather than something such as me chasing her to make an attempt on her life, but Dash insisted that the easiest way to get her attention would be that way.

I think her point was that Gilda would be pissed off that she’d found a new gryphon.

Rainbow's sleek, sky-blue form dropped towards the water, wingtips catching it as she banked in for her landing. I joined her a few moments later, gliding in through the waterfall and tackling the attractive pegasus. She pretended to resist for a moment or so, before giving in and letting me pin her on her back, dragging my beak roughly up and down her neck, breaching her coarse blue coat and rubbing against her skin. My claws concentrated themselves with rubbing the wings that were rapidly stretching to their full potential underneath her, wrapped around them like they had been when I was with Luna. I gently tugged the part of the limbs that her primary feathers attach to, and she rewarded me by giving a long, drawn out groan of my name, nice and loud.

“Y’know you could do anything to me right now... right?” the mare said, whispering to me. I drew a claw down her toned athletic stomach, the tip gently scratching through her coat, making her gasp again as I found a spot just below her ribs that was particularly sensitive.

We canoodled for a bit more, exchanging kisses and massaging each other’s wings, before Dash finally wrapped her forelegs around my neck, pulling herself up off of the wet ground to kiss me.

That was the signal, she’d seen Gilda.

I turned my head, seeing a shape through the curtain of water as I started kissing up and down the mare’s neck, running against her hairline, with a tangy taste of raspberries on her - kind of like those fancy drinks served in Canterlot’s gay district; which is a story for some other time. I kept my eyes on the now growing shape watching us, daring her to intervene by trailing a claw up and down Dash’s abdomen, making the pegasus purr with affection.

I kept running different scenarios through my mind as I continued to tease and please the rainbow-maned beauty, closing my eyes for a moment. I wondered how I’d break the ice with Gilda, let alone convince her to take me back to where she had been banished from. I opened my eyes to a curled wet fist hitting my face.

I woke some time later, soaking wet, staring up at the sky. It was dark now, and Dash had gone, presumably fleeing after I was attacked by Gilda; whom I had noticed was watching me as I rolled over, clutching my face. She simply sat there as I groaned, my eye feeling like it was going to throb it’s way out of my head and onto the floor.

“Long time,” her raspy voice said, conveying her level of anger.

“I... I came looking for yo-”

“So you decided to f*ck a pony when you couldn’t find me?”

“It wasn’t like that. She said you’d appear if we...”

“Look, I know you’re not Dorian, even though you look like him and have his dad’s rings.”

“How did she know?” I thought, giving myself a quick glance over, expecting for the magic to have worn off in one way or another, before eventually giving up and asking her.

“Dorian was gay. Like, really really gay. He wouldn’t have hooked up with one of my old flames even to get my attention. So, who are you?”

I sighed. It was always annoying when my cover was blown in such a fantastic fashion, but at least I was able to give her a half-truth to satisfy her need for knowledge.

“I’m an ambassador from Princess Celestia’s court. We’re looking to open trade negotiations with your father’s clan and well, part of the conditions were that I bring you back.” I lied, not breaking eye contact. She simply sat there, for a fair few minutes, her eyes looking at me, then at the sky.

“So, you thought that Dorian would be able to convince me.”

“Ye-”

“He tried to kill me. My own father, tried to kill me for protecting a friend, for protecting that flip-flopping loser.” Gilda replied, scowling in the direction that I assume was the way Dash flew off after our encounter, “I am not going back.”

Now, at that moment, my face was still hurting, and I was not really in the mood to be taking orders from some stupid bloody child - especially after she’d sucker-punched me in the middle of something I had been starting to enjoy.

“Yes, you are.”

“Bite me. I’m gone.” she growled, stretching her wings out. I knew that if I didn’t get a hold of her now, then chances were she’d be gone for good, and I really didn’t have time for that. I did something stupid and grabbed her ankle as she tried to take off.

She roared, obviously pissed off, and kicked at me with her free pawed-foot as she flapped her wings again, lifting me off of the ground. I dodged it, and buried the claws of my left hand in her thigh. She roared again, and turned to lash at me, beak snapping near my face as we fell the few feet to the ground. As she fell on top of me, my guard training kicked in, and I quickly flipped the gryphon onto her back. The dirty little bitch then brought her hind leg up between mine, giving my 'meat and two veg' a slight pummelling before she rolled me onto my back, her talons around my throat.

Looking up at her, I could see the little cow grinning as she started to throttle me. I had just enough strength to throw a right hook into her jaw, and we rolled once more, tumbling down a muddy slope, still exchanging punches.

The fight finally ended with me sat on her back, one of her forelegs twisted around her back and held between her wings, still sticking out as if the crazy bird was trying to take off again. I jammed my knee in her side, to make her back legs give up and finally make her accept defeat.

“Get off me, plothole! I’m supposed to be on top!” She screeched, struggling again.

I wasn’t quite expecting that, and still in full guard-mode I ignored it, twisting her into submission.

“Now then... you, sweetheart, are coming with me.” I growled, bringing my free clawed hand to the struggling gryphon’s throat, “Do you understand?”

“Ambassador, my ass.” she panted, before shaking her head and spitting out a mouth-full of blood, “Going to read me my rights?”

I’m still not quite sure to this day why I did it, but I laughed and slapped her arse - the way she grunted told me that she had a bit of a thing about being the one being dominated for once.

Kinky little slapper.

“Now, if you can keep from trying to fly off or hit me, there is a reason that I want to take you. Firstly, you can get me close to him in the first place. Secondly, if the negotiations go south, as I’m thoroughly expecting them to, then I can have you installed as his replacement.”

“You’re going to kill him?”

“If I have to.”

“Have you killed before?” Gilda asked, flicking a bit of mud from one of the purple-tipped feathers above her eyes, after I allowed her to get back onto all four limbs.

“Yes. Many times.” I replied, not bothering to preen myself and looking out into the nights sky, an odd scent on the air, familiar to me as a pony, but foreign and strange to the heightened senses of my current body - the scent of lavender, a perfume.

“I guess you’re pretty powerful, huh?”

“Not unstoppable.” I said, still trying to work out which direction the scent of the perfume was coming from.

“You’re gonna get ripped to shreds, dude.”

“Probably. Want to come and watch?” I replied, winking. Something was starting to tell me that I’d be bagging my first non-pony soon. Mostly, it was the fact that she kept dropping little lines whilst her eyes wandered, trying their hardest not to settle on me - whilst all the while her body language said she was ready for a fight, angled shoulders, a confrontational stance, flicking tail held high, that sort of thing. Eventually, she picked up enough courage to look me in the eye.

“When do we leave? I want to get this over with.”

I heard something snap in a bush nearby, and froze, holding on to Gilda to prevent her trying anything.

“Rainbow Dash, we’ve been searching all evening! Why did you insist on dragging me of all ponies out here?” a rather posh sounding voice asked in the scrub.

“Y...yeah, Dash, I’m sure Gilda’s long gone, she’d have lost that new gryphon by now, surely?” Spike’s voice said, from the same direction, “Shouldn’t we have found Twi-”

“She wouldn’t have gone without a fight, and I don’t see anything of them here.” Dash’s voice said, “I know things ended badly for Gilda and me, but this guy was bad news.”

“Can’t you simply fly up and look for them?”

“The trees are too thick, can you give me some light?”

“What if he’s still around? I don’t think we should be hanging around...” Spike said again, obviously trying to convince them to leave.

“I... I guess you’re right, Spike. We’d have better luck tracking them in the morning. I just don’t want to hear that he’s hurt her.”

“Then why did you help him to find her?” the unknown voice asked, with an almost condescending tone.

“I don’t know. He just had this... air to him, like he could save her.”

I grinned. I’ve always had that intoxicating effect on mares, but I didn’t think I’d had that much of an effect on the blue pegasus currently rustling her way through the bushes looking for tracks. Slowly, I turned to Gilda and spread my wings, pointing at the sky with one orange talon. She took the hint, and we both silently shot up into the clear, dark night, two silhouettes against the landscape.

Next Chapter: Part 4 - Flashback Estimated time remaining: 16 Minutes