Treason

by Trevosta

The Other Side of the Story

The Other Side of the Story

Thunderclaw was out for an early morning flight, mainly trying to get some protein. Dash was ok with him eating meat, but she didn't like to see him do so. She also told him to keep away from her friend Fluttershy's animals.

To do so, he flew away from town. He found a small stream, and some woods, he eyed up the stream and, with his powerful vision, located a large trout. He swooped down, catching the fish in one of his large talons. He then swallowed it in one gulp.

He looped back around, attempting to find another prey to help fill his stomach. He quickly spotted a rabbit and snatched it up.

After his breakfast, he started his ascent. His mind began wandering to the past few weeks, and all of the events following his arrival in Ponyville. He thought about Rainbow Dash specifically. He thought about how beautiful she was, how funny she was, and how proud his parents would be. They might be hesitant with the whole, 'pony' thing, but once they got to know her, they would love her. And if they didn't love her, Rainbow and Thunderclaw would just stay in Ponyville, or wherever she wanted to be.

He was so proud of her accomplishments over the last few weeks. She loved to show off the new stunts that Geronimo taught her, and T.C. loved to watch. He gave her suggestions on how to personalize her routine, and she took them to heart. Her routine was almost as much his as it was hers.

He was flying back to Ponyville, when he heard something off in the distance. He recognized the sound, and he hadn't heard it in over two years. It was the eagle-like screech of Gilda. He looked around, attempting to locate the source, and eventually he spotted it.

He could just make out a figure in the distance, and upon closer inspection, it was indeed a griffon, whether or not it was Gilda was still to be determined. So he decided to get a closer look.

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Rainbow Dash looked around from her vantage point on a cloud, she could see everything. She didn't like to wake up this early, but today she, and Geronimo, had their own plans later on and decided to get training done early. She had only one more day until she needed to be in Cloudsdale for tryouts. She could already feel her nerves building up, but she had practiced her routine so many times that she could do it flawlessly with her eyes closed, and with a heavy cross-wind. She had never felt this prepared for anything in her life.

Her routine was insanely difficult, and actually deadly to an untrained pegasus. The g-forces that she would pull were intense, the strain on her wings would be enormous, and she had overcome all of them. She went through the pattern one more time, before landing beside her instructor.

"How do you think I did?" she asked, breathing heavy.

"You did fantastically." he said with a smile. "So fantastically in fact, that I have decided to pass on some information." he said, secretively.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "What kind of information?"

"A stunt." he said simply, "A stunt that your brother was working on. He never decided on a name for it, he also never, successfully pulled it off." he added mysteriously.

"What's it like!" Rainbow Dash asked, excited.

"I don't know exactly." he admitted, causing Rainbow to look at him with confusion. "It is still in a theoretic stage." he began to explain. "My-" he cut himself off, "His thought process, was that if one were to perform a Sonic Rainboom inside of a thunderhead, it would change the structure of the lightning, rain, or cloud. We don't know for sure, because he never made it." he said, with his ears drooping, "he was on the verge of getting it, when we were called to battle..." he began to drift off. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you about that, but you have to promise me that you won't attempt it until after you get back from tryouts, got it?"

"What!?!" she screamed, "you can't tell me about something so awesome, and then tell me not to try it!"

"I can, and I just did."

"Augh!"

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Gilda was flying into Ponyville, determined to be rid of her sickening package. She was coming up on the town when he heard a familiar screech, one that made her forget about her mission.

It sounded like Thunderclaw.

She knew that he liked her, and she knew that he would do what she asked because of it. She also knew that she liked it.

Where had he been for the past year? She had returned to town after everything had gone bad here in Ponyville, and he wasn't there, and no one knew where he was.

So why was he here?

"Thunderclaw? Is that you?" she asked, while scanning the skyline for the other griffon.

"Yep." came the answer from overhead, she bolted out of fear, and got up beside him.

He was now laughing at her reaction, "What are you laughing at, dweeb?" she asked and punched him playfully in the arm.

He just shrugged and said, "I dunno. So what brings you here?" he asked, then pretended to remember something, "Oh, yeah, and WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS!?!?!" he screeched in her face.

She recoiled slightly, what was he talking about? Why was he so defensive? And why did he seem more confident, like he didn't feel like he needed to impress her? "Uh, what do you mean?"

"Your parents hired me to find you and bring you back. I searched for about two years, and didn't find a thing! My only lead led me here, to your friend Rainbow Dash, who had no idea where you were. So I thought to myself, 'I can't go back home without her, so I guess I will just stay here.' and that is where I have been for the last few weeks." he concluded.

"Oh, well, I came here, things fell through, and I returned home, over a year ago. Your family has been wondering where you are." she informed him, and he seemed to get annoyed. "So, you're living here now?" she asked, slightly disgusted.

"Yeah," he said, "Everyone is really nice, as long as you don't try to eat them or something."

"Whatever. Look I need to go talk to Rainbow Dash, so if you don't mind, I kinda need directions, so if you could show me the way, that would be fantastic."

"Sure thing, I was about to head over there myself."

"Why?"

"We are... really good friends."

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Rainbow Dash arrived at her cloud home, mad about Geronimo telling her about that stunt, and then telling her she can't do it yet. She understood not wanting her to do anything stupid two days before tryouts, but still couldn't he wait until she got back? Oh well.

She took a shower and sat down to relax for the first time in weeks, it felt great. She just sat there and looked at her latest 'Stunt Flier' magazine, and her eyes landed on what the next month's issue would be. 'The New Wonderbolt!' and she realized that it would be her, as long as she did everything right. But before that could sink in, there was a knock at the door. "Ugh, I just wanted to relax." she mumbled, then yelled, "Who is it?"

"It's me!" she heard the unmistakeable voice of her boyfriend say, "And I may, or may not, have a friend who wants to talk to you."

She opened the door and said, "What is that supposed to mean?" then she kissed him passionately.

"It means," he said, "That she may, or may not, be a friend;" he said, gesturing over his shoulder, "but she does want to talk."

Rainbow looked in the direction that he pointed in, to see, a now very confused, Gilda. "You..."

"Ok Dash, look, I know we left off on the wrong foot, but just hear me out ok?" she tried to rationalize.

Dash continued to glare at the griffoness, "Fine. Both of you, come in." she turned around and walked into the house, followed by Thunderclaw, and a very confused Gilda.

Gilda spoke up, "Ok, first, what in the world is going on between you two?"

Dash looked at T.C. confused, and said, "Didn't you tell her?"

He was smiling, "No. I thought that it would be more fun to watch her reaction to a kiss or something." he looked at his disgusted ex-crush. "And I must say it was priceless."

"Anyway, Gilda, why are you here." Rainbow attempted to change the subject.

"Oh, oh, oh..." she remembered why she was there. "Uh, it's what's in this bag." she said, holding up her cargo.

"What is it?"

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Geronimo and Applejack were together for lunch, taking a break from all of the work in the fields. They they talked about their past and they talked about Applejack's future, and then Geronimo realized something.

"I have no future." he said, with slight fear.

"Pardon?" she said, looking at his face.

"I don't have any plans for the future." he said, moving slightly towards panic. "I didn't have any plans for after the military. And I am NOT going to keep taking private students, Rainbow was special." he let out a deep breath, "I just don't know what to do with my life."

"Aw shucks, ya can live 'ere on the farm. Ye've helped us so much, ah don't know if we could go back to only two workers." she said nuzzling in to his coat.

"Thanks, I appreciate having some sort of plan."

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T.C. stood up to leave, "If this is a private thing, I can go." he offered.

"No, no." Gilda demanded, "It would probably be better if you stayed here for this." she reasoned, which made the other two feel slightly uncomfortable.

Gilda said to Rainbow Dash, "Ok, so you know how your brother was killed by some griffon revolutionaries?" Dash nodded, concern all over her face. "You, also, know how the one who killed him was a golden griffon?" Dash nodded again, but T.C. had realization growing in his eyes. "Well, it turns out, that the griffon who killed your brother was MY brother. And it turns out that he kept your brother's wings as a trophy." she then held out the bag. "And I brought them to you, I didn't know if you wanted them. He left the cave and left them in his room. I saw them and thought you might want to say some last goodbyes, or something." Gilda said, giving the bag over to Rainbow Dash, who looked at it with a strange mixture of fear, curiosity and longing.

"Thanks..." she managed to say to her old friend, "I really appreciate this." she said, looking into her old friend's eyes.

Gilda didn't know what to do then, so she did what she always did when confronted with a situation she was uncomfortable in. She left. "Well, goodbye you two. I hope I will see you later. Oh, yeah, I also put his diary in there; on page 32 you will see his account of the battle." Gilda said, before walking out the front door and taking flight.

Thunderclaw saw the look of pain on Rainbow Dash's face and he swept her into a huge feathery hug. She nuzzled her face into the feathers on his chest, and sobbed openly. He did everything that he could to comfort her, and finally, she calmed down enough to say, "We should look..." gesturing to the bag, that was now laying on the floor. "B-but, c-could you do it? I d-don't know if I can." she stuttered.

Thunderclaw loosened the drawstrings on the bag, and pulled the opening wide enough to see inside, he saw red feathers. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked the mare who was holding him tight.

"I-I'm sure." she said, hesitantly.

He reached his claw in, carefully, and grasped the item. He pulled it out and realized that it was definitely wings, and they were mounted on a wall mount, as one would a hunting trophy, and underneath of the wings, there was a small plaque, one that said,

Private Spectrum Dash, of the 51st squadron.
My Greatest Kill.

Thunderclaw looked at the whole mount in horror, unable to comprehend being that proud of bringing death. Rainbow Dash reached out and took the wings, as fresh tears began to flow again. While she bawled into her brother's feathers, T.C. pulled the diary out of the bag. He looked back at Rainbow and asked, "Do you want me to read it?"

She nodded.

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Geronimo looked at Applejack and started laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked, but he was laughing too hard to respond.

Eventually he was able to calm down enough to talk, "I just realized, that you are the Element of Honesty, and I am the Princess' personal lie. Can you imagine how confused she would be if she saw us together?"

She thought about it for a few moments then she started to laugh as well.

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T.C. turned to page 32 and began to read:

Today, I am planning some raids in the mountains. With 20 griffons to feed, i need a lot of supplies. But these towns should be a piece of cake to conquer. One day I, Gold, shall rule all of Equestria, and I will start with these small, mountain settlements. I have just picked up a new weapon, magically enhanced claws, if they work the way they are supposed to, I should be able to cut through anything, or anyone, that gets in my way.

A later entry, apparently from the same day, said:

It all went wrong. Everything went horribly, terrifyingly, wrong. The Air Force was called in. But it wasn't just any squadron, it was the 51st.
I was leading my troops away from a town, when we were attacked from behind. I turned to see the most awe-inspiring and horrifying sight ever. There were four ponies, wearing Air force flight suits, killing all of my troops. They were dropping like flies, and eventually all 19 of them, were dead.
The massacre left me, alone, against the four best aerial fighters that the world had to offer. My only hope to live was that one of them might make a stupid mistake, that I could take advantage of. Thankfully it happened; one of them, a certain Geronimo, attempted to fake me out, appearing like he was going to attack me head on and then duck underneath and slice me open, but I saw it coming, and ripped his pretty little wings right off his back. I then saw out of the corner of my eye, another one coming in to save his friend, and I took off his wings, then I realized that it was Spectrum, the best of the four, so I kept his wings as a trophy, something to show off my greatness. But instead of trying to kill the other two, I flew away, and took refuge in a cave, where I am currently.

After that, all entries stopped, as though he didn't care anymore and gave up. T.C. Looked at Rainbow, who was still crying, and held her tight for almost an hour.

After she calmed down she said, "We should go and show this to Geronimo, he should see these."

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Applejack and Geronimo were walking though the field when they heard somepony calling for them. Geronimo looked up and saw Rainbow Dash, and T.C. Flying towards them, and T.C. was carrying a bag.

They landed and trotted over to Geronimo and Applejack, who both immediately noticed that Rainbow had been crying. "What's wrong Rainbow?" Geronimo asked, concerned.

"An old friend of mine, Gilda," she pointed out to Applejack, who had met the griffon. "showed up today and gave me this bag." she said, gesturing towards the sack, that T.C. held in his claws. "and I feel like you should see what is in it."

Thunderclaw opened up the bag, as Geronimo reached in, and pulled out the mount.

He stared at it in disbelief, he looked at the wings that were in front of him. He felt them. He examined them. He then checked one more thing, he lifted them up, looking for one specific feather, and when he found it he let out a weak laugh, "These are definitely, Specs' wings, look." he said, pointing to a bright blue feather, that was tied around one of the wings.

Rainbow let out a small gasp, as she realized that he was pointing to one of her feathers. The first primary feather that she had molted, she showed to her brother, he then tied it onto his wing, as 'something to remember her by.' She was on the verge of tears again, but this time she held them back.

"Hey Rainbow, since you have to leave for tryouts tomorrow, do you think that I could hold on to these while you're gone? There are a few things I want to say to him." he said, looking sadly at the severed wings.

"Mmhmm." she consented, before taking off to get ready for the next few days.

No one there knew the ideas that were running through "Geronimo's" head at the moment, though, ideas that could give him a future.