The air was a bit chilly, Gilda noted as she pumped her wings through the clouds over Equestria. She’d missed the train to Ponyville after sleeping in, and was now flying in an effort to still make it on time. A long way to go, but she might be able to get there before evening in the very least. She shivered, the griffoness hadn’t slept well and was still incredibly tired- the cold wasn’t helping.
 
She cast her eyes about down to the rolling landscape far below, looking for anything that might make for a good roosting spot to rest for a few minutes before continuing her journey. A small granite abbey caught her eye, beside a long dirt road that lead through the plains. That’d make a good spot, she thought as she angled her wings down to approach the building.
 
Gilda circled the abbey twice, but it seemed to be deserted… nobody was around. The abbey was small, with a short piled stone wall around it and a tall bell tower which she fluttered up to land upon. When she approached to land she found the spot taken by a lifelike gargoyle of a griffon, etched in stone with a look of terror on its face.  
She jumped, somehow not having seen it on the way down. “Woah… gnarly.” She mutters to herself as she inspects the statue and moves around the tower to look for a different spot.
 
Each of the four corners had a ledge, but three of them were taken up by masterfully crafted gargoyles just like the first, but completely unique from one another. They’d all weathered differently as if they had been erected at different times. She didn’t pay them much mind, she wasn’t an art connoisseur… she was just tired and wanted to sit. With a yawn, she sets down on the ledge and ruffles her wings, settling on her haunches.
 
Gilda sighs softly, glad to be off the wing as she scans her eyes around. It was a rather peaceful spot, though she wasn’t sure where it was exactly. Probably still in the Griffon lands, given the gargoyles.
 
An itch wanders into her feathers, idly moving a talon up to scratch it but… she finds her talon stuck to the stone as if by glue!  
“The buck…? Who glues a building, gah!” She grumbles, testing her other talon to find it too was the same. A quick wiggle reveals that her rear was similarly stuck in this sitting position.
 
“Well that’s just great…” The griffon mutters darkly, glancing around to make sure nobody would see her like this.
 
She pulls at the ‘glue’ again with more force, trying to yank her talons away from the stone but to no avail. It was almost like they’d merged with the stone…
 
…merged with the stone.
 
Gilda snaps her eyes down to her talons and yelps, seeing the colour was draining from them rapidly to turn mottled grey, matching the stone of the building on which she sat. Each digit on her talons becoming rigid and immovable, the stiffness creeping up her arms.
 
“GAH! Bloody… wha…” She couldn’t form words through the alarm on her mind as the stone marched across her hungrily, squeezing and solidifying every inch where it crept. The griffoness shuddered as the stone layer met her chest and sept into her body, her spine tensing up and turning as rigid as her talons now were. Inch by inch, moment by moment she watched in fear as it began to move both up and down her, towards her legs and up across her back, fusing her wings in place.
 
Within moments there was a crackling sound as her frantically swishing tail locked into place at its base, followed in turn by each vertebrae in its length. She groans and winces, the cold stone squeezing in on her haunches and compacting them into a new statuesque state. Gilda squirms as much as she can in her growing prison, flexing her paws as they too fall under the spell of the stone, first her heels then down to her toes.
 
“H-hheel…p…” She wheezes, trying to call out for help as her breath seems to vacate her lungs. Her chest had frozen in stone, both inside and out, locking away any movement and breathing that remained.
 
Her tailtip twitched feebly at the end of its stony length before going still, leaving just her head atop the solid stone body what was soon to be nothing more than a gargoyle. The griffoness’ eyes crossed as she saw her beak tip losing its colour as well, with a cold touch flowing over her face like frigid water. Her head freezes, forcing her gaze out toward the plains away from the building as it takes over her eyes, preserving them too in lifelike stone.
 
Gilda hears soft crackles and pops echo throughout her body as her petrification draws to a close, body settling into its permanent form. Her mind reels, valiantly attempting to move and break free, to take wing once more, with no success.
 
She was trapped… the fourth of a set, a gargoyle on the edge of an abbey. Naught but an element of its architecture… She should have realized what this was. The other griffons, they all made sense now. But there was little she could do about it except wait- Maybe someday someone would come and find her… she hoped.
 
She hears the flutter of tiny wings nearby, followed by the sudden scratchiness of a small bird landing atop her granite head.
 
A pigeon.
 
Well that’s just great.
 

 
A bit of fun petrification practice~! Paw style referenced and learned here from the fantabulous Keihound (Cassius):D