Burn the Land and Boil the Sea. {Open}

[Gilda]

Gilda was on the floor, nearly laughing her feathers off at the sight of Sea Swell retching from the rainbow. She hooted and hollered, pounding her fit into the cloud floor, barely able to contain herself. That was just the laugh she has been needing, barely able to believe this Pegasus actually did it. Ponies were always so predictably naïve, which made the sight all that much more delicious to drink up.

”Oh that was golden!” The cackling griffon exclaimed between fits of laughter. ”Should see yourself, got the one-two rainbow punch to the mouth!” Her laughing begun to trail away into short breaths. Nearby, the factory ponies turned to see the commotion. Now they curiously watched on at the spectacle, murmuring amongst themselves. Somepony shouted for the foreman to come deal with the disturbance.

”Don’t black out on me, tough it out. It’ll pass in a minute.” She said, padding over to the sickly pony. ”That was great; welcome to Cloudsdale, Swell.” In a gesture that may seem peculiar after such a prank, Gilda offered her a talon to help her back on her hooves. ”You took it pretty well, guess you’re tougher than you look. Next time you want to drink a rainbow, though, might want to just stick with Zap Apple juice.”

[mafipulater]

As Sea began to calm down from her panic, soon the only lingering effect of the rainbow was the burning aftertaste. But at least the worst of it was over.

Her hard hat must have fell off when she fell because Sea suddenly realized that the back of her head was aching. Whatever, she preferred her snapback anyway.

When the pegasus heard Gilda's laughter, a smile spread across her face. She hadn't been pranked in a long time - she nearly forgot how much fun being a part of a prank was. Taking Gilda's talon and pulling herself back up on her hooves, she said, "Thanks. It's been a while since I been pranked." Glancing at the puddle of spat-up rainbow on the floor, she continued, "Uh, I'm sure they'll take care of that, right?"

[Gilda]

”Yeah, no it’s cool.” Gilda explained, glancing with a cringe of disgust at the sight of rainbow vomit. In the distance, the sound wings approached in earnest. ”They totally got ponies to clean that up, think it’s like a union or something.” Certainly, Gild knew otherwise and hearing the quickly approaching whip of a stallion’s wings, she knew the jig was up – in a manner of speaking. She urged Sea Swell to get moving, ”Uh, yeah let’s roll-“

“What’s going on ‘ere!?” A large Pegasus with one of those silly pony mustaches, wearing the vest and hard-hat of a foreman. “Neither of ye s’ould be ‘ere, this is trespassing. I’m gonna have to ‘ave you both wai-“ Suddenly, Gilda struck out at the rainbow pool beside her and splashed a wave of the liquid rainbow into the foreman’s face.

”Bolt!” She yelled to Sea Swell as she kicked off the factory floor with a great flap of her wings and made a quick bee-line for the entrance they both had come through. She was fast, stronger than a Pegasus, her wings could kick up a powerful gust of wind, propelling her forward quicker than any pony. Coupled with the rush of adrenaline, she was already nearing the exit before the foreman could even register the burn in his eyes. She gave a quick glance back to make sure Sea was following.

[mafipulater]

"Uh-" Sea looked at the approaching forepony and then glanced back at Gilda. It hadn't really occurred to Sea that they weren't supposed to be here. But then again, it kind of made sense that the factory wouldn't be running tours at this time, and no one was really showing them around or anything, so maybe...

How in the hay did she mess something so obvious?!

Not that she really minded - a night of fun was exactly what she was looking for, and trespassing and leaving a present for the janitor on the floor was actually more than she was expecting. It had been a while since she was last caught trespassing someplace (well, it had been a while since he had even tried trespassing anywhere anyway), but she certainly remembered what to do in the event of being caught: run like hay. Taking the opportunity made when Gilda splashed the rainbow into the forepony's face, Sea ran for it. "Thanks for the tour, dudes!" she called lightheartedly behind her as she followed Gilda. "Sorry 'bout the mess I made on the floor!"

Sea was surprised at how quickly Gilda could move, but Sea was no slouch either. She wasn't nearly as quick as Gilda (and of course, Sea couldn't fly at all), but she hoped she was fast enough to get out of there without further incident.

[Gilda]

Gilda quickly slipped through the factory doors, skidding against the ground with her rearpaws, than launching herself straight up into the air above. She corkscrewed, ripping between several stormy clouds as her wings spun them into a flurry, billow mix of ice and cold. Assaulting the forepony like that was going to bring down the Pegasus workers like a swarm of hornets from a disturbed nest; this might buy Sea and her some time to slip away into Cloudsdale. She had to be quick, Sea would be just behind her and the factory workers just after. She spun the clouds into a stormy, volatile mixture with a few quick aerial acrobatics to form the mass. Ponies weren’t the only creatures that could manipulate the clouds. Gilda slipped under the storm cloud, clenched it with her talon and shoot back down towards the street.

As Sea Swell exited, Gilda released the cloud and narrowed her wings to cut through the air as keenly as a sharpened blade. In eagle precision, Gilda swooped over the grounded pegasus-pony and attempted to snatch her up and away within her talons on the wake of the plummeting storm cloud. Slipping out from under its shadow by a tails length before it crashed down onto the street and factory doors. A few meters away, Gilda landed and admired her handiwork. ”Sweet, keep those losers tied up for a few minutes.”She briefly waited for Sea Swell, ”Let’s roll, plenty more to see.” The griffon turned, flicking her headfeathers forward, signaling for Sea to move with her.

[mafipulater]

Sea Swell galloped out of the factory just after Gilda, with the factory workers just on her tail. As she burst through the doors, her eyes shot around looking for her griffon companion. When her amber eyes wandered skyward, Sea saw a plummeting storm cloud. "Woah!" she exclaimed as she ducked. However, Gilda had quickly picked Sea up and out of danger.

"Thanks, dude - those were some pretty slick moves," Sea said, impressed. Glancing back at the ruckus going on at the factory, she realized she wanted to be as far away from it as possible - and hope that the police wouldn't get involved. She hated dealing with the police.

Following Gilda's lead, Sea trotted away from the factory. She was impressed not only by Gilda's aerial acrobatics, but also her mischievousness. Sea hadn't met anyone so rad in a long time. "So, you get into these crazy hijinks often?"

[Gilda]

Gilda swelled with personal pride by Sea’s remarks, she loved the attention for her feats. It filled that little void inside her with warmth. She rubbed her talons against her chest. ”Yeah I am pretty awesome.” She said shamelessly. ”Weren’t too bad yourself. You know, bet I could improve your flying a bit. I know a few tricks that’ll get those nubs you call wings flying stronger and faster.” She said in an unusual act of charitable kindness. Maybe she was starting to like this pony more and more, or maybe she just wanted another training buddy since Dash turned into a total flip-flop.

”Ya’ know, if you’re interested. I won’t make it easy, going to take an ounce of dedication from you.” Gilda explained as they carried forth away from their site of mischief. ”But you’d be able to keep up with griffons the likes of me.”

[mafipulater]

"Wha - really??" Sea was surprised to hear Gilda's offer - not the fact that Gilda made it, but the offer itself. Turning, Sea took a look at her unfolded wings. She had never really learned to fly - her mother being an earth pony and therefore unable to teach her, and her father, though a pegasus, had no interest in sticking around to take care of his family, and even less interest in teaching Sea how to fly. After many failed attempts to teach herself as a young filly, Sea had given up the idea of truly flying. It never really occurred to her to try again - her music always took precedent since then.

But, then again, if it was being offered... why not? Sea didn't have any high hopes about becoming an amazing flyer - and in fact, if Gilda saw how poorly Sea handled herself in the air, she may retract her offer anyway - but it was at least worth a shot. And if she was going to go through with this, then she would definitely give it her all.

"You know what? You're on," Sea replied eagerly. Then, jokingly, she continued, "You might wanna take that last bit back though - you haven't seen just how bad I am by myself in the air."

[Gilda]

”Yeah! Here’s what we’ll do. The oinkers are gonna probably be cruising, looking for two. We’ll split for now but meet me tomorrow morning at the track near the stadium.” Gilda suggested, tilting her head towards the stadium in the distance, with a flash of a talon in the same direction. ”The Wonderbolts train there sometimes – if you’re into that. Anyway, catch ya tomorrow, yah?” She inquisitively chirped with a subtle flick of her head, flipping her head-feathers to the side. ”Hey, I’ve seen some pretty bad fliers, you’re not nearly the lamest, but all it takes is a push in the right direction and you can be worlds better. We’ll start slow though, I’m a little rough myself – last thing you want is a wing sprain or something.”

Gilda hoped her charitable offer wasn’t going to come and bite her in the tail later, yes Sea Swell was a horrendous flier, self-proclamation notwithstanding. But she never had witnessed anyone who was completely incapable of improving their performance, even a few fractions of wing-speed. Most importantly, it gives her an excuse to do some working out herself with incentive to not cut corners and bolt out for some cider or food. ”So yeah, see you there?” Gilda kicked up into the air, into a low hover over Sea Swell.

[mafipulater]

"Absolutely!" Sea said with an enthusiastic nod, feeling more empowered by Gilda's apparent vote of confidence. After seeing Gilda's feats of flight back at the factory, Sea was certain there was no one better to help her fly. "I'll meet ya there!"