Treason

by Trevosta

Training

Training

Gilda was up earlier than usual. She had never been in real battle before, and today she would be fighting for the freedom of her entire town, and several others.

She had witnessed the fighting that took place when her brother took over, the violence, the pain he caused... It was too much. She wouldn't sit by and watch her friends and family back home be beaten and enslaved. It didn't matter that it was her brother who was doing these horrible things, he needed to learn a lesson.

Even when she was just a little fledgling he was crazy. He learned that he was a golden griffon, the strongest and largest of them all, and went crazy. He claimed that he was the rightful king of the griffons, that all would bow down to him. Gilda had even started to believe him. She looked up to him, even when he looked down on her for being less than he was. It took her years to discover that his ramblings were just power hungry rants. Before she went to flight school, where she met Dash, he was talking about building an army, she left on poor terms with him after telling him to just fly away with his army and never return.

When she came back from flight school, her parents became increasingly more distant and uncaring, it even got to the point where she was fending for herself when the other fledglings her age would still hide under mommy's wing when there was a storm.

She pushed down any emotions that were forming from her little walk down memory lane and returned to the task at hand, breakfast.

She swooped down, seeing a stream right where T.C. said it would be. She flew just over the surface of the water, causing a small wake to form behind her. She spotted a school of fish and dunked her talons beneath the surface of the water, bringing them up with a decent size fish in each one. She swallowed the first one whole, then took off into the clouds. She perched on top of a low, puffy cloud that was just big enough for her, watching the creek below her.

She saw Thunderclaw buzzing in, the same way she had, fishing for his breakfast. She couldn't get over the fact that he had gotten over her. He used to have a huge crush on her, but now she was just a friend. She would never had admitted it, but she had a small crush on him too, but it was too much fun using his feelings to manipulate him. She could get him to do whatever she wanted.

Now he was in a serious relationship with her old best friend. She felt happy for both of them, even if the relationship was a bit weird. She couldn't help but feel that, now that they were together, she wouldn't be able to get to know either of them much better.

He had grabbed four fish at the creek below, but why did he need four?

Rainbow.

He was probably hoping that she would join him this morning, now that she had eaten fish, and slightly enjoyed it.

Gilda jumped off of her perch and soared after the other griffon.

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Rainbow Dash was curled up in her bed, simply trying to get some sleep. She had stayed awake late into the night, trying to wash the blood of that poor bunny off of her hooves, she couldn't get over the feeling that ending a life brought. She felt like a monster.

She knew that after time, the pain would go away. Eventually she could sleep again, but she also knew that it would need to get worse.

She was going to battle.

She would need to kill other things that can understand the concept of death, other things that she could have a conversation with.

She had never felt so alone as she did at that moment, and Rainbow Dash hated feeling alone.

After what felt to be hours, but were actually only a few minutes, Rainbow noticed something. There was a smell of something cooking. It smelled good, but she had never smelled it before. Whatever it was, it was coming from the kitchen.

She got up, going over the karate routines that she knew in her head, in case whoever was in there meant her harm. She pushed the door to her room open, carefully avoiding creaking, and began lightly walking down the hall to her kitchen.

As she approached the kitchen, she noticed the light was on as well as the small sizzle of something being fried. She poked her head through the entrance to her kitchen to see a griffon standing at her stove, humming lightly to himself and wearing a dorky apron.

"T.C.? Why are you here? And what are you doing?" Rainbow asked her boyfriend.

He jumped a little at the sound and turned to see her standing in the doorway, looking very tired. "Oh, good morning, Sleepyhead!" He replied happily. "I'm making breakfast. I have fried fish, fried eggplant, omelets, and apples." With each item he referenced, he motioned to a different dish that was spread out on her table. "I thought that you might appreciate a nice breakfast, and I was hoping that I could join you." he offered with a kind smile.

Rainbow just stared in amazement at the wonderful spread of food before her. "Where did you learn to cook like this?" she asked, momentarily forgetting the impending events of the day and gaining a smile.

"Well, food is essential to life; therefore, make it good." He stated, while flipping one of the fish fillets in the skillet. "Also, I spent two years tracking Gilda, I learned pretty quickly how to cook. Otherwise I would be eating raw fish all the time and that is disgusting." He said, remembering times when he would get sick from too much of the cold, scaly creatures.

"Anyway, dig in!"

The two of them sat down, eating until they were full. Then they heard a cautious knock on the front door. T.C. stood up to answer it, and when he opened it, he was greeted by the shameful face of the griffoness that he had a crush on for years.

"Gilda? Why are you here?"

"I, uh, was hoping to talk with you and Dash." she said, uncomfortably. He could see that she had something specifically on her mind, and he decided to let her in.

"Hey Rainbow, you have more company!" he sang, with an almost bird-like chirp.

"Who is it?" she asked as the two griffons walked into the kitchen, not bothering to turn and see while she was cleaning some of the dishes from breakfast.

"Hey..." Gilda said sheepishly.

"Gilda? Why are you here?"

"I just wanted to talk." She managed to say with desperation.

"Alright, we don't have to be at the farm for another hour and a half, so what's up?" Rainbow said, still unsure if she should be doing this.

Gilda took a deep breath before starting, "Listen, I'm sorry, ok? I was having a hard time at home, my parents treated me like crap, my brother was deranged, and I had very few friends. T.C. was the only who would talk to me, and I took advantage of him." She was starting to cry as she told her story.

"I put on a fake strong act and pretended to be completely under control. Really I just wanted to hang out with you Rainbow, I wanted to be with someone who actually was in control. Somebody who actually had everything figured out. But it seemed like you replaced me, you didn't care. You figured out how to be in control by leaving me for other friends." Tears were now openly flowing as the griffoness poured her heart out to the two closest friends she ever had, something she never had the strength to do before.

"Hey G." Rainbow spoke up, wrapping her hooves around her old friend, "It's ok. I forgive you."

"Wait." T.C. chimed in, "You were using me?"

She hung her head in shame. "Yeah..." she finally admitted.

"Hm... Well ok then." he said, just accepting that he was being used. "Well, it's a good thing that we are all on good terms, as we will be spending a lot of time together starting really soon." he said, bringing the other two into a group hug.

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Spectrum Dash was gathering some supplies for the battle with Red Arrow at the Pyrotechnic's workshop. He had already gathered light armor, provisions, backpacks, and goggles for each of his teammates. He had modified the armor to accommodate the 'supplies' that he was gathering with his old friend.

Once they had enough gathered together, they split the load into separate packs for each member of the team. Each pack included some food, first aid equipment, and some of Spectrum and Red Arrow's 'supplies' which were packed at the bottom in a separate container.

They were now on their way to the meeting place at the barn. Red Arrow could see his old friend and teammate disappearing, only to be replaced by a Captain. Spectrum began to see nothing more than troops. His old friends, new one, sister, and a griffon he didn't really care for; became nothing more than the troops under his command. He wouldn't let any of them die this time, but he wouldn't take it easy on them because of relation either.

The two pegasi landed, seeing Blue Angel talking with Rainbow and the griffons.

Immediately Spectrum spoke up, "AttenTION! Troops, put on these packs." the Captain said, while he and Red Arrow passed the pre-made backpacks out to the others. "Each one contains armor, which consists of a chest plate, goggles, and guards for your wings, provisions for yourself, medical packs, and a separate waterproof container which is not to be opened until I give the command. Do I make myself clear?" By now the others had put on the packs and all gave a nod, signifying their understanding. "Good, those containers hold the key to our strategy, they are of upmost importance. Also when you put on your armor, the backpack can be removed from the pack and the straps become the harness for the armor."

He donned his own gear then headed out in front of the others. "Do not let personal feelings get in the way of your fighting." He then turned around to face them. "Also, your wingman assignments are as follows: Red Arrow and Blue Angel," the married couple looked at each other and nodded, each knowing how the other fought as they had been partners for years, "Rainbow Dash and Gilda Highwind," those two were confused about the choice, but were cut off and unable to voice their concern. "As well as Thunderclaw Talon and myself. These are not only your wingmen, but also your training partners."

He stood next to T.C. and said, "Watch your wingman's back and they will watch yours. Train with your wingman, learning your strengths and weaknesses, as well as theirs. Strengthen each other, and learn to function as a unit. It should take four days to reach our destination, in that time we will be training, for the first two days we will work solely with our partners, after that we will be sparring with the other teams. Know your partner as well as yourself. If you know your partner's weak points, you can guard them. Do you all understand?" they nodded.

"Alright then, let's move out."

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The first day of travel/training went better than the Captain had expected. They made excellent distance, getting much further than he had expected. Also the others seemed to be picking up on their partner's weaknesses.

Rainbow Dash had discovered a significant speed advantage over Gilda, while Gilda had noticed Rainbow's poor blocking.

Red Arrow and Blue Angel were like watching a dance pair. They knew each other so well that they could predict what they would do next. The Captain knew this would happen, counted on it actually, hoping that having the two of them be so in sync would pose a bigger challenge when it came to the group sparring.

Thunderclaw was difficult for the captain to figure out, however. He didn't block blows, he absorbed them or deflected them. Using the Captain's own force, which he used a lot of, against him. Eventually the Captain was able to discover something to use against him, he was poor when switching fighting styles. When going from one to another, whether it be air to ground, or just the stance that was being taken, it took him a little while to regain his composure.

All in all Captain Spectrum Dash was pleased with the progress of his troops.