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Gilda saw the finish line first, despite the fact that Rainbow Dash was ahead by a few feet. Having an eagle's eyes had its advantages, after all. There was maybe a hundred yards left in the race. Rainbow Dash had been dominating most of the race, but was starting to show signs of fatigue. If Gilda was going to pull a victory out, this was her last chance. The griffon dug deep into her reserves and flapped her wings just a bit harder, inching further forward until she was batted in the face by Rainbow Dash's rainbow tail. Another burst of speed and she was now above Rainbow Dash, her long beak just a few inches out ahead of Rainbow Dash's snout. Looking down, Gilda just happened to catch Rainbow Dash's eyes. In the magenta was the look of shock, confusion, and... what was that third one?

With a gust of wind, Rainbow Dash pulled ahead. She was lighter and faster than the griffon, better designed for raw speed. Gilda was an absolute brute by comparison. She could win races with endurance and plow through obstacles, but in a straight shoot, Rainbow Dash would always have the edge.

Gilda was OK with that. In fact, she slowed her flight down just slightly, not enough that Rainbow Dash would take notice, but enough that the blue pegasus' victory was assured.

Rainbow Dash's chest broke through the stretch of crimson banner that served as the race's finish line. A roar of applause erupted from the spectators. Every pony in Cloudsale was suddenly on their hooves, stomping the ground and making an awful racket as their champion, the undefeated Rainbow Dash, casually fluttered into the winner's circle (which was actually a circle made of her fans.) Gilda was slightly worried her rabid fan base might tear their hero apart in some perverse display of adoration, but Rainbow Dash seemed to know how to handle them. She fluttered a bit off the clouds and encouraged the applause by lifting her arms, like a conductor guiding her orchestra, turning the awful noise into some sort of pseudo-song.

Eventually, the crowd calmed down. Rainbow Dash signed some autographs and then quietly excused herself, fluttering away from the festival. Gilda soon joined her, and at a more leisurely speed they fluttered about Cloudsdale. "It's a good thing you love my rump so much, you spent the whole time staring at it," Rainbow Dash snickered, giving Gilda's muscular foreleg a little punch.

Gilda rolled her eyes, and nodded, her wings casually fluttering as she continued forward.

"Honestly G, I thought you would put up a bit more of a fight. You fly like a cow."

Gilda forced a chuckle. "Moo," she muttered, then fluttered ahead. Rainbow Dash had no trouble matching her speed.

"I mean, damn. It's like your feathers are still wet with yolk. What happened with you?"

"Just didn't have the eye of the tiger I guess," Gilda said, and once more picked up speed. She flew along, until Rainbow Dash suddenly appeared in front of her, forelegs crossed over her thin chest and a look of annoyance on her features.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "G, I know you let me win. Why?"

Gilda fluttered there a moment, unsure what to say. She thought of denying the accusation, of course, but Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly stupid. The griffon shrugged nonchalantly and said, "I know you like to win, Dashie. And besides, you had all your friends in attendance. And Cloudsdale is a pegasus city. It's a pegasus holiday, today. I didn't want to start another riot. And we've only been talking to each other for a few months now. And-"

"You thought that I would be mad at you if you won."

Gilda purplish white cheeks flushed crimson. She looked down, wings still flapping to keep her in the air, until she felt a thin set of forelegs wrap around her neck. A moment later, Rainbow Dash's body was gently pressing against her chest and she held herself there for several moments. Eventually, Gilda wrapped her arms around Rainbow Dash's back and hugged her, squeezing her just a little tight against her muscular chest. It wasn't until Rainbow Dash gave a gasp and wheezed that Gilda realized she was probably hurting her, and eased the pressure.

"G," Rainbow Dash said. She thought a moment, and then started with, "Gilda, you're my oldest friend. And I know we had a few problems in the past, but I really need you to try and move on from it. I am sorry about what happened. I don't think I ever actually said that. But I am sorry about it and I am happy we are back to racing and flying. I missed having a racing buddy. I really want you to be in top shape when we do race, alright? I promise, if you beat me, I'm not going to be mad. I'm going to be proud of you. You got that?"

Gilda gave Rainbow Dash another squeeze. "Yeah," she said softly.

Rainbow Dash waited several moments before saying, "OK G. You can let go of me now."

Gilda quickly opened her arms and allowed the blue pegasus to flutter a few feet back. Rainbow Dash was giggling to herself as she turned and began to flutter on, back to the Wonderbolt Academy. "Oh, G... uhm, there's something that I forgot to tell you. It's about the academy. See, you kinda gotta be... uhm... well, you kinda gotta... You gotta have hooves. See, the floor isn't made for claws or paws, and they have a strict policy about that."

Gilda stared a moment. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "So what? You got a transformation potion in your saddle bag that'll turn me into some equine dweeb?"

Rainbow Dash giggled nervously. "Well, not exactly."

XXX

Rainbow Dash walked with such conspicuous nervousness, one might actually think she wasn't nervous at all. She trotted through the hallways of the academy with a clear mix of jubilance and utter terror. Several of her flight mates asked if she was alright, and she quickly said yes before zipping further down the hallway. After one such speedy escape, she ended up crashing into Soarin', who was balancing a large cherry pie on his crown.

Soarin' landed with a groan. The pie, knocked into the air, spun for several moments before he managed to leap into the air. Hooves out in front of him, he just managed to grab the pie by the rim and catch it, before gravity pulled him back to the ground. He landed with another crash, but thank Celestia, the pie was alright. "You alright, Dash?" he asked quickly.

Rainbow Dash was concerned with her mane. Several times she straightened it out and made sure it was perfect, before looking to Soarin'. "Yeah, I'm good. How are you? Is your pie alright?"

Soarin' chuckled. "Mmhmm. I asked your friend Applejack to get in touch with her friend Miss Jubilee, and see if she could send me a pie. You want come back to my room and we can share it?"

Rainbow Dash smiled, and blushed. "Well, I certainly wouldn't mi-owe!" Glaring at her mane, Rainbow Dash scratched as some painful itch. "Not today, Soarin'. I'm pretty beat after that race with Gilda."

"The griffon, right? Maybe I can come down to Ponyville some time and meet her. Ponies have the speed but griffons have the power. It'll be interesting to see what strategy she uses when flying."

"Griffons and strategy. Two words that go together like... waffle iron and rump. Owe!" Once more, Rainbow Dash furiously scratched an itch in her mane. "I'll be in my room taking a power nap, Soarin'. Please don't disturb me, alright?"

Soarin' nodded, and watched as Rainbow Dash zipped down the hallway, disappearing around the corner, leaving only a trail of rainbow light. If it was another pegasus, perhaps he would have found that strange. But this was Rainbow Dash, after all. He found little strange about her.

When Rainbow Dash was safely in her personal quarters, she locked the door. She set her saddle bag down and then leaned over her desk. Scratching a hoof through her mane, she managed to dislodge a shrunken Gilda, who had been clinging rather tightly to her scalp. "Did you have to keep biting me?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Gilda opened her beak to speak. Being so small, her voice came out as more of a squeak than a proper griffon's roar, and it took all of Rainbow Dash's focus to keep from laughing hysterically in her friend's face. "You got all the stuff?" Gilda asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Got it all." Rainbow Dash trotted to her saddle bag and spent a moment with her head inside it. Because her head was down, her hips were in the air and her tail wagging side to side. Gilda would be lying if she said she didn't stare. Eventually, the rainbow pony lifted her head and revealed a small jar carried gently between her lips. Housed inside the glass were finely minced blue herbs. She brought the jar to the table, and then retrieved a second jar, this one filled with some sort of fluid. She bit the top of both jars off and spat them aside, before scooping a small amount of the blue herb out. The blue hoof slipped into Rainbow Dash's large mouth and for several moments she suckled and licked, making lewd noises the entire time. When she was sure she had licked every bit of herb, she curled into a cute ball on the ground, ready to shrink.

Gilda fluttered off the table and to the ground. She came to stand before Rainbow Dash's large face and spent a few moments staring at her. Shrinking Violet, of course, caused those that ingested it to shrink. It also had the odd side effect of causing drowsiness. Gilda still played it safe, and waited until the blue pegasus' breathing had grown heavy to venture close. She dug her claws into the ground to keep from being pulled forward or blown back, and carefully moved closer when she could. Soon standing before Rainbow Dash's snout, Gilda planted a little kiss onto the enormous lips, before settling down under her chin and waiting for Rainbow Dash to shrink.

When Rainbow Dash woke, she was resting on something fluffy. Warm drool had trickled out of her mouth and saturated the fur beneath her head, giving it an odd smell. She realized, after a moment, she was resting on Gilda's side. Rainbow Dash sat up and yawned, wiping a few strands of drool away with her hoof. She nudged the griffon until she was awake with her.

"How long have I been out?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Few minutes at the most. Do you feel alright?"

Rainbow Dash nodded, and flapped her wings. She fluttered only slightly before she plopped down to the ground. Being smaller meant her wings had to work much harder to keep her in the air. She and Gilda had spent the past few weeks training their wings and strengthening the muscles in their back so they could fly when at their smaller size. It still took several stretches before Rainbow Dash's wings were loose enough she could take to the air and even then it was a struggle. Gilda, who was always a strong flyer, barely showed any signs of difficulty, and reached the table with the jars first.

"So we got the antidote right there," Rainbow Dash said. "We just have to bathe in it and we'll be back to normal."

"I know the rules, Dashie."

"So what do you want to do first? See the Hall of Fame? Play some pranks on Spitfire? Visit the boy's locker room? Bet Soarin' is taking his afternoon shower with his cherry pie."

Gilda spent a moment thinking to herself. "You remember last time you took some Shrinking Violet, when I was grounded?" she asked. "You remember I took a bit too much Shrinking Violet and ended being the size of a mouse to you?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah, I remember. What about it?"

Gilda's cheeks were slowly turning red. "Well, the truth is, I sort of enjoyed it. I sort of enjoyed being smaller to you like that. The truth is, Dashie, I've always kind of enjoyed being around you. I always liked being alone with you."

When Rainbow Dash let a giggle escape her lips, Gilda's heart turned to stone, and plummeted into her stomach. But the laughter wasn't mocking or cruel. It was kind and full of life, like the time in school Rainbow Dash added red dye to Gilda's shampoo and turned her face pink. Rainbow Dash calmed down. "G, I know how you feel. I've always known how you feel. Even if I don't feel exactly that same way, you're still more than a friend to me. You're my sister."

Gilda smiled as best she could with her beak.

"I guess I have a thing for chickens."

Gilda let out a very feline growl. Rainbow Dash laughed. The griffon walked over to the jar of blue herbs and scooped out a clawful. She smiled at Rainbow Dash, before she lifted the clawful to her mouth and licked it clean. Although Gilda felt the tingle of fatigue, she was strong enough to fight the stretch of fatigue that was tugging at her eyes. It made the process of shrinking far more surreal. Her entire body tingled and her skin burned, and she let out a mix of a growl and giggle. Rainbow Dash sat down before her and smiled as the griffon gradually grew smaller, until she was the size of a mouse to the already mouse sized Rainbow Dash. When finally done, Rainbow Dash scooped the griffon up and set her down in her mane. Then, taking to the air, Rainbow Dash headed for the air vent that would give them access to the entire complex.

XXX

There was a knock on Spitfire's office door. "What?" Spitfire called out, and Soarin' trotted inside. Spitfire was seated at her desk, slamming her hoof print onto pictures of herself. The Wonderbolts were going to be putting on a show in the coming week and the pictures would be sold at the souvenir stands.

"How you doing, Spitty?" Soarin' asked. The glare that Spitfire gave him answered his question. He trotted deeper into the room and had a seat before her desk. "I want to talk to you about our policy against griffons."

"What about it?" Spitfire asked.

"Cadet Rainbow Dash was racing a griffon named Gilda earlier. Rainbow Dash won, but the griffon put on quite a display. I can't help but think that the griffon could have a lot to teach us, and she could be an asset to the Wonderbolts."

"You know the policy, Soarin'. You also know why the policy is in place at all. You know what griffons eat, right?"

"I looked into Gilda's record from the Junior Speedster's Academy. She has a long list of disciplinary problems, but she was always a strong flyer. A couple griffons in our ranks might help with operations requiring brute force."

Spitfire sighed, and shook her head. "Soarin', don't bring it up to anyone else, alright? You'll get the same answer I am giving you, only with more cursing and demotions."

Soarin' opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. With a sigh, he turned and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. Spitfire resumed her tedious work of stomping her hoof print into the pictures but soon began to grow uncomfortable. Her belly rumbled. It was noon, and the heat of the day was increasing steadily. She opened a small refrigerator beside her desk and took out a jar of jam and a chilled glass of iced tea. From a cabinet, she pulled out a few pieces of bread and some peanut butter, and placed them on the desk. Bothered by the heat, though, she fluttered over to the A/C unit and turned it on full blast. She gave a sigh of relief as coolness filled the room and got under her fur and feathers.

"Oh buck me," Rainbow Dash muttered as a gust of cool air rushed through the ventilation shaft. Gilda quickly dug her claws into the metal and braced herself, but Rainbow Dash's hooves were not nearly as efficient for keeping her in place. Her scream echoed through the ventilation shaft, booming loud even when she had flown out of site.

"Only for you, Dash," Gilda muttered, before releasing her claws and spreading her wings. The rush of cool air hit her like a charging bull. The force was enough to knock the wind out of her lungs, and the instinctive breath of coldness actually made her lungs burn. She twisted and brushed against the smooth metal of the shaft before finally slipping out a ventilation grate and into an open room.

Flying was nearly impossible for the shrunken griffon. She was a slave to the breezes and gusts in the room, and spent several awful moments spinning dumbly in the air like a hatchling tossed out of the nest for the first time. All the while, her wings beat furiously, and eventually she managed to right herself. The speed at which her wings needed to pump was exhausting. She knew she could not fly for long, but for now, her powerful body could keep her in the air. Her sharp eyes skimmed the interior of the office, searching for a hint of Rainbow Dash. At last, she noticed a splash of seven colors, and focused on the tall glass of iced tea that sat on Spitfire's desk.

"Dash!" Gilda screamed. Reaching the tall glass, she carefully braced herself on the rim and looked down. Exhausted from the fall, Rainbow Dash had managed to brace herself on one of the ice cubes, but now seemed completely tuckered out. "Rainbow Dash!" Gilda screamed again. Gilda looked over her shoulder, watching as the massive instructor casually took her seat at the desk. Spitfire spent a moment looking over her papers, before turning her attention to her sandwich and licking her lips.

"Stay afloat," Gilda said to Rainbow Dash, before flapping her wings furiously. It took three tries, but at last she managed to take to the air and buzzed towards the instructor's face. Spitfire's attention was not on her. Instead, the giant was assembling her sandwich. She applied a generous slather of peanut butter and then reached for the zap apple jam.

Gilda's wings were aching and her chest felt like it was on fire. Regardless, she fluttered before Spitfire's massive face and screamed as loud as she could. Spitfire simply applied a generous portion of jam to her sandwich. Her mouth suddenly opened very wide as a yawn overtook her. Gilda was treated to a horrifying sight as the lips spread, revealing a maw as large as the grandest caves of Equestria. Drool dripped down the lips and dull teeth like stalagmites and the pony's massive pink tongue rolled out. She took a deep breath as she yawned, and it took all of Gilda's strength to keep from being pulled into the sweltering cavern. The direction of the winds changed quickly. Spitfire exhaled and Gilda found herself unable to fight the warm gust. Like a broken bird, she plummeted through the air, finally crashing onto the sticky jam coating of the sandwich.

For several moments, Gilda found she couldn't move. Her body had sunk into the apple goo. Try as she might, she could not find the proper leverage to push herself out. She still tried, and at last managed to get her wings free, then one of her arms.

Spitfire, meanwhile, wiped a strand of drool from her lips onto her arm. She casually picked up the glass of iced tea and brought it to her lips, before sipping a large gulp down. The taste was pleasant on her tongue, and she slowly tilted her head back and opened her mouth wider. Off in the distance, she heard a faint scream. She lowered the glass and once more wiped her mouth. She expected to see Soarin' standing in front of her again, probably wanting to talk about the academy's anti-griffon policy, but she saw no one. "Bucking griffons," she muttered.

"Buck you too!" Gilda screamed, still struggling with the gooey jam's embrace. "Buck you, dweeb! Buck you. Whine about what we eat? At least for us it's not cannibalism! I'm going to get big and tear your throat out with my beak and eat your entrails!"

Spitfire's ears twitched. She looked around the room, but saw no one. She could have sworn she heard a distant caw. Shrugging, she picked up the second piece of bread and placed it on the sandwich, before picking it up. Her tongue slipped over her lips and she opened her mouth wide. She brought the sandwich to her gaping maw.

"Buck you!" Gilda kept screaming. Squirming and struggling, she had managed to worm her way to the edge of the sandwich, though the pressure of the loaf of bread on her back was keeping her pinned. She cringed as Spitfire's warm breath washed over her, and then watched with utter horror as half the sandwich was placed in the instructor's mouth. Because of how wide Spitfire's mouth had opened, there was still light washing in, giving Gilda a disgusting display of the pink walls of the cheeks and tongue. She was actually happy when the lips closed and she was left in darkness. Anything was preferable to staring at the ugly, pink prison.

Spitfire chewed, and Gilda was tossed around mercilessly in the maw. The massive tongue rose up and pressed the portion of sandwich (and Gilda) against the roof of the mouth, squishing the bread into goo and paste. Then Spitfire tilted her head back and gulped, before washing the mouthful down with a long drink of iced tea.

The pulsating muscles of Spitfire's throat squeezed the food and gradually worked it down into her belly. Defiant to the end, Gilda screamed and wiggled every inch of the day. Even after landing in the belly, where the air was thick, stale and hard to breathe, Gilda screamed until her lungs were too fatigued to make a noise. So she began sloshing and struggling towards the nearest wall, intent on scratching her captor if nothing else.

"Gilda!"

The griffon lifted her head, and strained her eyes to see through the darkness of Spitfire's belly. "Dash?" Gilda screamed.

"Gilda, I need you to come to the sound of my voice. Fly slow, though. The air is thick so keep your lungs strong."

Despite the ache in her chest and back, Gilda took to the air. She stumbled along, fluttering closer to the sound of Rainbow Dash's voice. Rainbow Dash called out to her every few moments, giving her something to home in on despite the awful echo inside the belly. Blind where she was going, she actually crashed into Rainbow Dash. The shock of hitting something caused her to fall, but Rainbow Dash stretched her arms out and managed to catch the miniscule griffon. She held her friend close against her chest. "You OK?"

"We're in a giant stomach!" Gilda screamed.

"G," Rainbow Dash said quickly. "Just stay calm, alright? Stay cool. While ago, I ended up in Big Macintosh's belly and I managed to get out mostly intact. Applejack managed to get out of me too. It's not exactly fun or pretty, but we'll be fine."

"We're in a giant stomach!" she screamed again. The griffon was silenced when she was squeezed into Rainbow Dash's chest. She could not see her of course, or smell her. She could barely hear her over all the sounds of body: the pound of Spitfire's heart, the gurgle of her gut, the rush of her blood. But Gilda knew it was her, and that calmed her down slightly. "Hey Dash," she muttered.

"Yeah G?"

"You really got to get better friends."