Change is coming to Equestria. After Gryphons move into the Hoofson Bay Area Princess Celestia sends a trusted ambassador to negotiate, however when the ambassador goes missing, things begin to spiral out of control.
Change is coming to Equestria. After Gryphons move into the Hoofson Bay Area (deemed neutral territory by prior treaty) Princess Celestia sends a trusted ambassador to negotiate, however when the ambassador goes missing, things begin to spiral out of control.
The fourth in a series of stories starting from The Kindness of Strangers
Twilight Sparkle yawned loudly as she opened her eyes, the sun was shining in and she looked out her window to find that it was morning. She smiled; she had a lot to smile about these days. Things were finally on the up and up for her. The usual crises that plagued Ponyville had subsided for some time, and things began to look as if she would finally be able to live the quiet life one would expect from living in a small town. Ponyville had been a magnet for trouble since she’d first arrived here nearly two years ago.
Tomorrow was officially the first day of winter; however Cloudsdale wouldn’t start pumping out snow until the first of December. Twilight for one was ready for the fun that winter weather brought with it, and after everything she and her friends had been through the last few months... they needed it.
Almost all of them were living back at home now, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, still in Canterlot working to regain full control of her wings, Twilight was a little sad that she wouldn’t be seeing as much of her Pegasus friend this winter as she had the last, but then her and the others could always find some excuse to pop up to Canterlot and check in.
“Twilight Sparkle! I’ve made breakfast!”
Twilight smiled and got up from bed, trotting down stairs to find that Pinkie Pie had set the table for breakfast. Pinkie Pie had been living with Twilight for the last couple of days since returning from Canterlot. When Sugarcube Corner blew up in late October, it left Pinkie homeless. Mister and Misuses Cake had moved out of town, opting to stay with friends until the winter passed before starting the reconstruction of the town bakery. Everypony had been a little disappointed in that, but Sugarcube Corner had picked a bad time to blow up.
Was there ever a good time? Twilight asked herself as she sat down; she quickly decided that there wasn’t.
“What did you make?” Twilight asked.
“Eggs! Plus some of these grasses I found in your refrigerator,” Pinkie said. “I’ve never seen any of them before. Where did you get them?”
Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie’s labours; she recognised the grasses from her walkabout in the Mohoofie desert, the last of the bit gathered by Roy Melbourne, the kindly kangaroo who’d saved her from dying of thirst.
“Out west,” Twilight said giving a simple answer.
“It’s too bad there isn’t any more. They’re super yummy!” Pinkie said with a mouthful of grass. “We should go out there sometime and get some more!”
“I’m not going out to the Mohoofie desert again, at least not without five days worth of food, and a decalitre of water!” Twilight chuckled and ate her breakfast in peace.
...
Pinkie Pie departed from the Library soon after breakfast, skipping along to run errands. Twilight had to admit, she had no idea what Pinkie Pie did with her day now that her job and livelihood had been destroyed, but as Twilight thought about it, she figured that she didn’t know what Pinkie had done with herself even before the destruction of Sugarcube Corner.
Twilight had been keeping an eye on her friend; she’d arguably been affected the most out of all of them by what had happened that day in late October. It was a miracle that she even alive. Let alone the fact that there seemed to be no side effects from the high amperage electric current that she’d subjected herself to in order to save everyponies lives from Overdrive. The Alicorn that had made himself the highest authority in Ponyville before Pinkie used the superconductor coils she’d constructed in Sugarcube Corner’s basement, under the direction of the fragmented consciousness of Monty Ulhan, the earth pony colt who’d sacrificed himself not once, but twice to save Ponyville from certain destruction.
Twilight felt a pang of guilt in her heart, thinking of Monty always brought up bad feelings about his very preventable death.
She shrugged it off, it was in the past, she’d moved on, but she’d be a terrible pony if she’d just forgotten it completely.
There was a knock at the door. Good, Twilight needed a distraction; she went over and opened the top half of the Libraries door. She smirked when she discovered who had knocked. “It’s a public library Nightshadow.”
Standing in the doorway was the town’s Apothecary. Nightshadow, the all black unicorn with glowing amber eyes that Twilight found to be the most gentile she’d ever seen.
“I just didn’t want to barge in and interrupt anything,” Nightshadow said, giving her a mild shrug.
Twilight liked this about him; he was a lot like her in some respects. He was shy, clearly introverted, and a bookworm dedicated to the study of the world around him. They were a lot alike, with many of their interests overlapping. Lately, they’d been studying illusionary magic together.
Twilight wasn’t exactly the foremost expert on illusionary magic in Ponyville, no that title belonged to Trixie. Twilight had knowledge of many kinds of magic, Arcane, Elemental, Illusionary, and so on. But she wasn’t an expert at any of them. Most ponies specialised in one school of magic, like Trixie had with Illusionary Magic. Twilight was not specialised in any of them, instead knowing a broad variety of basic and intermediate level magic from each of the three major schools. Twilight wasn’t sure why Nightshadow had come to her about Illusionary magic, but she was willing to help all the same.
Nightshadow yawned; he quickly stuffed his hoof in his mouth trying to stifle it, but to no avail.
“My apologies, I had a rather late night last night. Up well past midnight,” Nightshadow offered up an explanation.
“Working on some special project?” Twilight asked.
The black unicorn cocked his head slightly, giving a nod in affirmation. “Yes, I suppose you could say that... Anyway, I can’t stay and chat. I received an urgent letter from my brother in Canterlot this morning, so I’m leaving town for a while...” Nightshadow’s voice trailed off a bit. “I guess I just didn’t want to leave without... you know, saying goodbye to you.”
Even under his thick black coat, Twilight Sparkle could tell he was blushing. She was too, but she hadn’t the faintest idea why. Her heart was beginning to flutter as it usually did when he talked to her.
Both of them were embarrassed by the situation, so Twilight did her best to get their conversation back to being less awkward. “When will you be coming back?”
“Don’t know. My brother is a doctor in Canterlot, and needs help with a patient. Apparently, they’ve exhausted all other forms of treatment with this one, and now they’re trying alternatives... Well, that’s what I do! Alternatives...” Nightshadow smiled at her. Twilight smiled back, the two waved their goodbyes, and Nightshadow trotted off around the corner.
Pinkie Pie poked her head through the still open front door, smiling at Twilight brightly. “You like him!”
“I... I do not!” Twilight blushed.
Pinkie Pie frowned, not believing her for a second.
“Okay... maybe a little.” Twilight said giving in slightly.
Pinkie kept staring.
“Okay! Okay! Yes! I do! I do!” Twilight said admitting it fully.
Pinkie smiled at her. “See? Now was that so hard? Have you two been out on a date yet?”
Twilight was caught off guard by her friend’s question. “What! Pinkie Pie, I don’t even think he likes me like that!”
Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow and shook her head slightly. “Right, Suuureee he doesn’t,” she said sarcastically. “You need to ask him out! Obviously he’s too much like you to have the guts to do it himself, so you gotta!”
“He’s going out of town for a while to help his brother with something. I couldn’t if I wanted to.” Twilight explained.
“Who’s his brother?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“He didn’t say actually... I didn’t ask either.” Twilight said.
“Boo!” Pinkie Pie said, sticking her tongue out. “Well I gotta get back to errands! Bye Bye Twi!”
Pinkie skipped off down the street again, doing whatever Pinkie Pie does.
Twilight merely sighed. “Pinkie Pie, you are so random!”
Nightshadow had made his way up the mountain towards the Equestrian capital city of Canterlot. He’d been to Canterlot only few times over the course of his unnaturally long life, and was pleased to find that extremely little had changed since the thousand year exile on the moon.
Things had been different then, much different, but as the rest of the country had changed around it, Canterlot stayed pretty much the same. After all, there wasn’t really much more space to build anything without carving into the mountainside, which would be disastrous as any part of the city above the digging would collapse onto everything lower. Nightshadow’s own chaotic tendencies were excited by the idea, but as much as he’d have liked to see it, there would be no way to manipulate even the weakest of minds to do it.
He’d arrived where he needed to be, just in time it seemed as Nightsinger appeared from a dark corner.
“You had better have an extremely good reason to pull me away from Ponyville during the day. Could it have not waited until Nightfall?” Nightshadow asked. Every milligram of meekness that he’d exhibited in Ponyville had washed away.
“It could not. One of my patients is taking too long to recover, everything I tried to accelerate the process has failed,” Nightsinger said.
“What’s wrong Nightsinger? Have more important things to do? Clearly, you didn’t inherit our patience.” Nightshadow said mockingly.
“Patience has nothing to do with it my brother,” Nightsinger said, shrugging off the insult. “Nightcaller has instructed me that this one needs to be well, and well soon, in order to carry out a task that will be given to her. I would not have called you here if I didn’t absolutely need it.”
“Very well. Show me to her.”
...
Rainbow Dash stretched her wings out, flapping them gently, she was absolutely beaming. “Better start getting wax on yourself now Spitfire, it’s not going to be long before these babies help me wipe the floor with you!”
“Clever,” Spitfire chuckled. “You’ve come a long way Rainbow. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Let’s be honest here, when am I ever not proud of myself?” Rainbow asked with a grin.
Spitfire laughed, giving the young Pegasus a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow kiddo.”
And with that, Spitfire departed from view. Rainbow Dash looked back at her wings, gently flapping them. “Not long now...”
“Perhaps, even sooner than you think?”
Rainbow looked up to find a black Pegasus, clad in a medical coat, standing with an equally black unicorn.
“Heya Doc! What’s up?” Rainbow Dash said giving Doctor Nightsinger a polite wave.
“I have some bad news, and some good news,” Doctor Nightsinger said with a reassuring smile.
Rainbow Dash frowned. “Can I get the good news first?”
“You wouldn’t have a clue what I was talking about if I did it that way,” Doctor Nightsinger said with a polite shrug. “The bad news is that you aren’t getting any better with your current line of treatment. I’m afraid we’ve pretty much passed its point of usefulness.”
Rainbow’s heart sank. “What’s the good news?”
“The good news is that my colleague from the Royal Apothecary society has developed an experimental new treatment that will heal you faster than you ever thought possible!”
Rainbow’s spirit’s soared. “How fast is fast?”
“Fast as in you’d go to sleep and wake up the next morning with full use of your wings,” the Unicorn said.
Rainbow’s mouth popped wide open. “Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! Sign me up!” She squealed in excitement. Imagine! She could be flying again tomorrow morning!
Nightsinger smiled. “I’ll leave you alone with Nightshadow here; he’ll explain to you the procedure. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” The black Pegasus gave her a smile and departed from the room.
The unicorn that had been introduced as Nightshadow sat down. He pulled a standard five centilitre vial from his saddlebag with his magic, it was filled with a green liquid the likes of which Rainbow Dash had never seen before.
“This is the treatment. All you have to do is drink it, you will find yourself falling asleep, and then you will dream,” Nightshadow explained to her.
“That’s it?” Rainbow Dash asked, it almost sounded too good to be true.
“That’s it. Small warning, the dream that you have while under the influence of this potion will be more vivid and realistic than any you have ever had in the past. It’ll look and feel exactly like you’re awake... Your dream could be about anything! Which unfortunately means it may also become a nightmare... Worse still, if it does become a nightmare, it’ll be one that you can’t wake up from until it’s over.”
Rainbow Dash gulped nervously, she didn’t like the sound of that, but the more she thought about it, the more she supposed that it would still be worth it. Besides, it would still be just a dream. Dreams can’t hurt you.
“I can also give you something that’ll keep you lucid while you’re dreaming, You’ll have total control over what your dream happens to be. You’d be able to change the world around with a single thought!”
Rainbow liked that idea a lot. She knew exactly what she’d dream about if she could have control over it.
“It won’t last the entire night unfortunately. Only about eight hours, you need to be asleep for twelve.”
Still worth it.
“I’ll go that route,” Rainbow said.
Nightshadow smiled at her, “I thought you would.” He pulled another vial, this one far smaller than the healing potion and glided it over to her.
Rainbow took it, it was filled with a murky white substance that was somewhere in-between a liquid and a solid. She drank the entire vial. “Ew! That’s disgusting!” Rainbow called out, the potion had been horrifically bitter.
“Potions aren’t exactly known for their taste,” Nightshadow said with a small shrug, he passed the second vial to Rainbow Dash, and she drank it in one gulp.
“Yuck!” Rainbow exclaimed, this one tasted even worse. “How do you expect anypony to be able to drink this stuff?”
“Because it works!” Nightshadow said.
Rainbow felt herself becoming very drowsy, she set her head down on her pillow and gently drifted off to sleep.
...
Rainbow opened her eyes; she was standing in the middle of a field outside Ponyville. She looked back at her wings with glee. She spread them and leapt into the air. Her wings flapping at high speed as she soared through the clear skies. Oh how she missed this!
Rainbow Dash pulled several loops, accompanied by several barrel rolls, high speed turns, and a good number of other aerial manoeuvres what weren’t even possible to pull off in the real world. Here in this dream world, she could do anything she wanted to do!
Off in the distance, Rainbow Dash discovered another flyer coming into view, another Pegasus? No... The colours weren’t right to be a pony... It was a Gryphon.
“Gilda?” Rainbow Dash called out.
The Gryphon stopped and hovered in midair a couple dozen metres from her, giving her a wave.
“What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked.
“I should think it obvious,” Gilda said with a smirk. “I’m here because you want me to be here.”
Rainbow Dash was a little confused by this, she didn’t think she’d had any desire to see Gilda again... But here she was. She was in full control of this dream, so clearly she did.
And then it hit her. “I’ve missed you Gilda,” Rainbow Dash had never really realised it until this point, but she did. Gilda had been her best friend when they were kids, but after the way Gilda had treated her friends in Ponyville last year... Well Rainbow Dash hadn’t actually gotten around to dealing with how she felt.
“I missed you too dweeb,” Gilda said, smiling playfully at her. “I’d be careful where you go with this, you in full control is going to lead me to saying everything you want to hear, whether or not it’s actually true.”
Rainbow Dash looked a Gilda in confusion, why in the world had she said that?
“That’s the, underused, rational part of your brain talking,” Gilda explained. “It’s trying to keep you from setting yourself up for disappointment.”
Rainbow sighed. “This isn’t nearly as fun as I thought it was going to be.”
Gilda smiled at her, closing in and giving Rainbow Dash a hug. “C’mon dweeb, no tears! Hey, bet I can beat you to Canterlot and back!”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “As if! You’re on!”
The Pegasus and Gryphon took off at high speed. Rainbow Dash had no intention on losing, forgetting entirely that it was her dream and that it was impossible for her not to win.
Rainbow Dash flew faster and faster, faster than she’d ever had in the longest time, she could feel it as her body had accelerated well past 700 kilometres per hour. Gilda was no slouch either; the duo rounded Canterlot and was zooming back towards their starting point.
The sky turned red.
Both Pegasus and Gryphon looked up to see what was going on. The sky seemed to be filled with fire, a long bright trail followed by a column of smoke, a meteorite? Rainbow didn’t remember asking for this.
The meteorite slammed into the ground at their starting point, sending a shockwave through the air that forced both Pegasus and Gryphon to stop in their tracks or get thrown about by it.
Rainbow Dash and Gilda landed by the impact crater left by the falling meteorite, it turned out to be a small metal sphere with strange writing printed all over it.
“The stuff that Apothecary gave you must be wearing off,” Gilda said.
Rainbow Dash looked at Gilda in confusion, how would she know about that?
“We’re in your head dummy. I know everything you do.” Gilda explained. Dash hadn’t even needed to ask. “Listen, if that stuff is wearing off, then I’m probably not going to be around much longer... even if I do stay, I’m not likely to be very helpful. Whatever happens, you can make it through this. Don’t get your hopes up...”
With a blink of an eye, Gilda was gone.
Don’t get my hopes up on patching things up with the real you... I got it. Rainbow Dash thought to herself, she frowned, she’d never realised just how much she’d missed the gryphon until now, even if she hadn’t turned out to be the nicest creature on the planet.
Rainbow Dash turned her attention back to the metal bit that landed in front of her, she climbed down into the crater. She raised her hoof and gave the metal ball a prod.
The ball turned pitch black and exploded into a cloud of smoke, the cloud roared at her, making a loud angry ticking noise as it moved.
Rainbow Dash panicked and took off running. She tried to fly, but when she flapped her wings she found that they just harmlessly fell to the side as they had when they were paralysed.
The black smoke went after her, she heard the ticking noise as it got louder and louder, she turned back to see that the black smoke could outpace her on foot, and without her wings there was no way to get away.
The Pegasus tripped, where she scattered to the ground. She turned over on her back and watched as the black smoke reared up, howling and crashing down upon her. She knew nothing more.
...
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and screamed at the top of her lungs. Doctor Nightsinger burst into the room, fearing the worst.
Rainbow was panting heavily. She looked around to find that everything was okay. Just a dream... More like a nightmare.
“Your friend wasn’t kidding.” Rainbow Dash said between breaths.
...
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile as she flapped her wings in the courtyard of the Royal Hospital, they felt stronger than ever, and she was ready for her first flight since being injured. She leapt into the air, flapping her wings and climbing to a height of 10 metres.
Doctor Nightsinger had joined her. “How does it feel?”
“I feel fantastic! My wings! Oh how I missed them!” Rainbow said.
She looked down to see Spitfire standing in the courtyard looking up at her. She smiled to the bright yellow Pegasus and gave her a wave. Spitfire joined them.
“You look great kiddo. How do you feel?” Spitfire asked.
“I’m fantastic! You ready for that race Spitfire?” Rainbow asked, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’ve been ready for weeks. The better question is, are you?”
Rainbow Dash looked over at her doctor, he nodded approvingly. She was ready to go home.
“Heck yeah! You, me, first one to Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash said, Spitfire agreed and the two pegasi dashed off at high speed towards home.
Rainbow Dash had completely forgotten her nightmare, but even more sinisterly, she had forgotten who had caused it.
Rainbow Dash touched down in the centre of town, Spitfire lagging just behind her.
“Ha! Told ya!” Rainbow Dash said grinning.
“Well I did always know you were something special,” Spitfire said with a chuckle, causing Rainbow Dash to turn a bright pink. Spitfire gave her a hug in accomplishment, smiling brightly at how far the young Pegasus had come. “I’ll see you ‘round kiddo, we’ll have to do this again sometime!”
“Heck yeah! I mean, if you can stand another whopping!” Rainbow said with a wink.
Spitfire merely chuckled, leaping into the air, and giving the young Pegasus a wave goodbye. Rainbow waved back, and the yellow Pegasus disappeared from view.
Pinkie Pie came skipping around the corner, stopping when she saw who was standing in the town square. “Dashie!” She cried out, leaping forward and tackle-hugging the young Pegasus. Dash was brought down to the ground, but didn’t care, she hugged Pinkie Pie back. Just as glad to see Pinkie as Pinkie was to see her.
“Oh my gosh! Do you know what this means!?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.
“That you’re going to throw me a welcome back party?” Rainbow Dash asked, figuring that she knew the answer.
“Well duh!” Pinkie said. “Come on!”
Pinkie Pie grabbed Rainbow Dash, carrying her off towards the Ponyville Library. Despite Rainbow’s objections to being carried.
...
Nopony was really sure how she did it. But Pinkie Pie had only forced them to wait outside for like, two minutes, at the most. When she finally let them come in, the Library was covered in party decorations and a banner that said: “Welcome Home Rainbow Da”
“Sorry about the banner! I ran out of room,” Pinkie said explaining.
Rainbow didn’t care. She was just happy to be back home with her friends.
“Hit it Spike!” Pinkie called out to the baby dragon that was standing at the turntable. But as he reached to lift the needle onto the record, he burped, and a magical fire brought a sealed letter from Princess Celestia.
Twilight frowned; this always seemed to happen at the most inopportune times. The lavender unicorn crossed over to the scroll, picking it up and reading it.
“I’m sorry everypony. But we’re going to have to cut this short.” Twilight said with a frown, showing the others the letter.
My faithful student Twilight Sparkle:
I have a task that I need you to accomplish, earlier this month, we received reports that Gryphons have moved into the Hoofson bay area, in direct violation of our treaty with the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms. As you should know, I attempted to solve the issue with diplomacy, sending Ambassador Lightdew to speak with the Hoofson bay Gryphons. As far as I can tell, Lightdew never arrived, and I sent a small detachment of the pegasi guard to investigate. They too, have gone missing.
And so here I ask of you, my most capable, and trusted confidant to travel to the Hoofson bay and discover the fate of Lightdew and the pegasi guard who went after her. I understand that your friend Rainbow Dash is a foremost expert on Gryphons, and I would ask that you take her with you; her knowledge of Gryphon culture would be of great use to you.
Gryphons are natural predators Twilight Sparkle, please be careful.
-Princess Celestia
Twilight looked to Rainbow Dash, who merely grinned at her. “When do we leave?””
Twilight smiled at her friend. “Thank you Rainbow Dash. Go and pack enough food and warm clothes to last you for a couple weeks. We’ll need to travel light. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “Walk? WALK? Egghead, if we walk to the Hoofson bay, it’ll take us a month! I can fly us there in a few hours!”
Twilight nodded in affirmation. “Yes, yes you can Rainbow. Ambassador Lightdew and the pegasi guard flew too... Look what happened to them.”
Rainbow frowned and looked at her wings. I just got these back...
...
Rainbow Dash and Twilight met back up at the edge of town, each of them had packed two weeks’ worth of food, enough for them both to get to Manehattan, where they could resupply and follow the Hoofson River up into the bay area. They each bid their goodbyes to their friends, and departed at a good trot.
“Twilight... I’m not sure how useful I’m going to be, I’ve only known one Gryphon in my entire life.” Rainbow Dash explained as she trotted alongside her unicorn friend.
“You’ll be fine Rainbow. You know more than I do. There was only one book on Gryphons in the Library, I brought it with me, but I haven’t had a chance to look in it yet.” Twilight said with a shrug.
The two mares continued on for a better part of the day, before coming into a fork in the road. To their surprise, another pony was trotting along the road that met with theirs, a pure white unicorn with a blue mane, wearing a pair of goggles and sporting a quaver quite mark.
“Hi there!” the unicorn mare said politely as she trotted alongside Twilight and Rainbow Dash. After a few minutes, of walking together, Twilight turned to the other Unicorn.
“Are you... following us?” Twilight asked.
“Nope,” the mare said with a grin. “I just happen to be going the same direction as you. The name’s Vinyl Scratch, by the way. Though you might have heard of me as DJ Pon-3.”
Twilight didn’t recognise the name, but Rainbow Dash did. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. “No way! I thought you looked familiar! I just didn’t want to say anything... This is so AWESOME!”
“I tend to have that affect on ponies.” Vinyl Scratch said. “So tell me, what are two mares doing walking north north east on a heading of twelve degrees?”
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to explain, but Twilight shushed her, they had been asked to keep their business confidential.
Twilight checked her compass and discovered that they were in fact travelling on the exact heading that Vinyl had talked about. Twilight looked at the mare and discovered she didn’t have one. “I could ask you the same question... and I could also ask how you know where we’re going.”
“I’m good at that kind of stuff man. Real good, only place worth going north north east on this road is Manehattan. Not to mention you seem to be carrying a lot of cold weather and camping gear. Don’t take a genius to figure out that you aren’t planning to stay in the city.” Vinyl said with a grin. “I’m going to the Hoofson bay.”
“Us too!” Rainbow blurted out, causing Twilight to facehoof.
“Far out!” Vinyl said, grin still on her face.
“You want to camp with us come nightfall?” Rainbow asked excitedly, Twilight facehoofed again.
“Sure thing! Walkin’ the roads is always more fun in groups!” Vinyl said.
The trio walked along the road for a couple more hours, Rainbow engaging in casual conversation with Vinyl Scratch. Twilight kept eyeing their new travelling companion with suspicion. They just happen to come across somepony else that happens to be going to the same place that they were? Too convenient.
Rainbow didn’t share Twilight’s suspicions.
Nightfall came, and they set up camp alongside the road. Twilight got a fire started and the three ponies sat around it, glad for the warmth.
“So Vinyl? How come you’re going to the Hoofson bay?” Rainbow asked excitedly.
“’Cause I can!” Vinyl said grinning. “Vinyl Scratch is a free spirit! I decide I want to do something, and then I go do it! Best part is that my job lets me set my own hours and I got plenty of money to do it. Regardless of how ridiculous it may or may not be!”
“That’s so awesome!” Rainbow said, squealing like a fangirl, which to be honest, she kind of was.
Twilight was not impressed. “Rainbow, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”
Rainbow nodded and the two ponies got up and went behind Twilight’s tent.
“What are you doing Rainbow! You know how important this Gryphon problem is! We were asked to keep it quiet and several times you’ve almost given it away to somepony you don’t even KNOW! I don’t trust this pony. Her story is a little too convenient. She just happens to be going to the Hoofson bay, where we’re going to deal with the problem of Gryphon occupiers?!”
“Gryphons are occupying the Hoofson bay?” Vinyl Scratch called out from the camp fire.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked back to see the goggle-clad unicorn still sitting by the fire, grinning at them. “I tried not to listen, I really did, but I can’t help it. I got really good hearing!”
“And you have the nerve to yell at me for almost giving it away!” Rainbow Dash said with mild annoyance. “You just gave it away entirely!”
“If it makes you feel any better, you’ve got every right to be suspicious... My friends have always described me as... a little out there.” Vinyl said, still grinning like a madpony. “I can assure you. Vinyl Scratch had nothing sinister planned for ya. I’ve seen things, pretty much everything Equestria’s got to offer. So I figured it was time to take a look outside it.”
“So why are you walking to the Hoofson bay in November? You could have flown in!” Twilight said.
“Why are YOU walking to the Hoofson bay in November? You could have flown in.” Vinyl said, turning their question around on them. She had a point. Twilight wanted to walk because everyone else who’d flown in went missing. Vinyl Scratch was walking for fun.
“I want to help you guys with your Gryphon problem,” Vinyl declared. “We’re both going to the same place, and let’s be honest; I really don’t have anything better to do when I get there.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight, Twilight looked at Rainbow. Vinyl Scratch looked at both of them.
The trio got up at the crack of dawn, packing up their camp and setting off for Manehattan. Twilight wanted to get as close to the Hoofson bay as possible before the weather started to take a turn for the worse.
It was the final day of November. At midnight tonight, they could expect Cloudsdale and the other pegasi cities around Equestria to start pumping out snow. Manehattan was still a two week walk from their present position. Something of which Rainbow Dash had to remind her of, as they wouldn’t get very far before snow hit.
Vinyl Scratch seemed unworried, laughing inwardly as the two other ponies argued with each other.
“Chill out everypony. We’re all friends here,” Vinyl had to remind them.
Twilight looked at her fellow unicorn and sighed. “I’m just stressed out... by things...”
“What things?” Vinyl asked.
Twilight muttered slightly that it was something she didn’t want to talk about, and with that, the white unicorn dropped the subject. Vinyl Scratch wasn’t one to pry.
In truth, Twilight was still bothered by what had happened in the end of October. Sugarcube Corner exploded, her friend Montana Ulhan’s suicide, Princess Luna being locked in an insane asylum, to name a few. Twilight had stopped blaming herself for these things happening... but that didn’t mean that she was over them. She shut her eyes, and the image of Monty Ulhan’s body hanging by his neck from the ceiling of his flat returned to her, just as vivid as the day it had happened. No, she would likely be haunted by that image for the rest of her natural life. It wasn’t something you could just forget. The most unlikely unicorn had helped her accept that it wasn’t her fault, Trixie, of all ponies, but there was nothing that could make her forget.
Rainbow Dash was flying several dozen metres in the air looking for a good spot to camp for the night. The first snow of December would be a heavy one. And they needed a place to sleep at where they wouldn’t find themselves buried under a tonne of snow come morning.
Vinyl Scratch was doing her best to make conversation with Twilight, but the lavender unicorn was clearly lost her thoughts, unable to give answers more than an “uh huh” or “yes.”
“It’s a good thing that you’re paying attention you know. There's always the threat of an attack by say, a dragon. The kind that eats the sun once every 30 days. It's a nuisance, but what can you expect from reptiles? Did I mention that my nose is on fire? And that I have 15 wild badgers living in my saddlebags?” Vinyl said.
Twilight had started paying attention, and took to glaring at the odd unicorn pony next to her.
Vinyl grinned at her. “I’m sorry, would you prefer ferrets?”
... Rainbow Dash was happy to be in the air. She could see so much from up here. And even though it was still very far away, she could see the Manehattan skyline from here. She was slightly annoyed, because she could fly there in a couple of hours. But no, they were walking.
Rainbow looked down to see Vinyl trying to make conversation with the egghead, but not making any progress with it.
Come on egghead! Open up a little! Rainbow Dash wanted to yell it at her, but chose not to. She was somewhat worried that Vinyl was getting the impression that Twilight and Rainbow didn’t like each other that much, which was far from the truth. Twilight was one of her best friends, and honestly, was the reason that she had even become friends with the others at all.
Before Twilight had shown up in Ponyville, she was acquainted with Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, sure. But Rainbow wouldn’t have gone so far to call them friends, but when Twilight showed up and the six of them ventured into the Everfree forest together, that was when each of them started becoming friends. Truth of the matter was she owed Twilight.
Rainbow shook her head, she was getting distracted. She needed to find a place nearby where they could set up camp, preferably sooner rather than later. First snow of the winter season was always a doozy. She spotted a clearing three kilometres up the road and five hundred metres into a small wooded area. Even the heaviest snow fall wouldn’t burry them alive there.
Rainbow returned to the ground and relayed the spot she’d discovered to the two Unicorns.
“It’s gonna be super-cold tonight. Cloudsdale kind of over does it on December first,” Rainbow admitted.
“I got ideas on how we can stay warm,” Vinyl said grinning madly. Rainbow blushed. It went right over Twilight’s head.
“I’ve thought ahead, and brushed up on a spell that’ll keep our tents warm on the inside,” Twilight said proudly.
“My way would have been more fun,” Vinyl said, her grin got even wider and Rainbow did her best not to show that she was blushing.
The trio made their way into the clearing and quickly erected camp. Twilight got a fire going and the trio sat down for dinner. Neither Rainbow nor Twilight could cook worth a damn. Vinyl Scratch surprised them by taking a few from what each of them had and whipped up something that she refused to tell them the name of, stating that it was “her personal specialty, and they didn’t need to know anymore than that.”
Rainbow had been somewhat hesitant to try it, considering that it had been prepared by the mischievous unicorn, but ended up giving in after Vinyl took her first bite.
“Vinyl, may I ask you a personal question?” Twilight asked her.
“My favourite kind!” Vinyl said grinning.
“What made you want to go to the Hoofson Bay?” Twilight asked.
Vinyl smirked, setting her meal down. “Have you ever woken up one morning and asked yourself ‘what the hell am I doing with my life?’”
Twilight and Rainbow were both caught off guard by Vinyl, who smirked again and continued her story.
“Suffice it to say, I’ve been a successful pony. I’ve got money, a job I love doing, and plenty of free time to do as I damn well please. Not going to lie to ya. Most of my adult life’s been oriented to hedonistic desires, the usual routine with me was wake up at six, in the PM, go to some club, party, get horribly drunk, go home with some random mare and/or stallion that I didn’t know the name of, ride the magic until six in the AM, and wash, rinse, and repeat. Do that for a couple years, and then one day you wake up and ask yourself, ‘Vinyl, there’s got to be more to this.’ Sure enough, same exact day, I run into a black earth pony on the street, and he says to me. ‘Yes Vinyl Scratch, there is more. Look to the north and you’ll find it.’ I’m pretty sure he was one something, but then again I was too. The more I thought about it, the more I thought he was onto something. So here I am. I been places, but the one place I’ve never been is north, the Hoofson bay. Ought to check it out ya dig?”
Twilight and Rainbow’s mouths were hanging wide open at Vinyl’s story, surprised to hear that ponies actually lived like that in the big cities.
“Are you crazy?” Twilight found herself asking without thinking, she snapped her hooves over her mouth as the words left her tongue.
“Indubitably!” Vinyl said grinning.
...
Night fell, and each of the ponies drifted off to sleep, in the distance, watching closely was an all black earth pony, amber eyes shining brightly. He watched as the fire Twilight Sparkle had built several hours before burned out. Snow was falling, Nightcaller was watching.
“Take a photograph. It’ll last longer,” A disembodied voice said from the darkness.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Our memory outclasses every photograph ever taken Nightshadow.”
Nightshadow glided out of the darkness, appearing in a wisp of smoke next to his brother.
“Your presence is not required here Nightshadow. Why have you come?” Nightcaller asked.
“The Rainbow one has forgotten her nightmare. I intended for her to remember it,” Nightshadow said confidently.
“Do not lie to me brother. You may be the master of deceit, but I know your mind intimately. You came for her,” Nightcaller said.
“Now you are the one being ridiculous,” Nightshadow scoffed.
“Whatever you say, brother, whatever you say.” Nightcaller said mockingly.
The two Siblings Nightmare stood watching the camp; they were long gone by the time morning came.
Twilight Sparkle had been right about one thing, snow had made the trio’s journey to Manehattan much more difficult. Ordinarily, somepony would keep the roads that connected the cities together clear, but nopony had been out to do it yet, considering that it had just started snowing several hours prior.
Twilight was more annoyed at their slower pace than both Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch put together. Although when she thought about it, Vinyl didn’t look the slightest bit annoyed, in fact she seemed to be enjoying herself, and every time Twilight looked at her she was still grinning like a madpony. Twilight thought Pinkie Pie was out there. Vinyl Scratch made Pinkie look tame. She also decided at this point that the two of them must never meet, or their collective insanity would rip a hole in the fabric of reality. Twilight found herself smiling at her own joke.
“You know something? I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you smile,” Vinyl said grinning at her. “You should do it more often. You’ve got a cute smile!”
Twilight thanked her, not realising what Vinyl was doing. Causing Rainbow Dash to facehoof, the egghead really needed to stop being so naive. Later Rainbow made it a point to speak to Vinyl privately, asking her to lay off Twilight when she clearly wasn’t getting it.
“Aww, but I’m having so much fun!” Vinyl whined playfully. “You just want her all to yourself don’t you?”
Rainbow turned a bright red upon hearing this, causing Vinyl to laugh. “Chill out! I’m just playing with ya!”
Rainbow had begun to agree with Twilight on one thing. She was worse than Pinkie Pie.
The days rolled into weeks, Rainbow Dash and Twilight had become well acclimated to Vinyl’s kookiness, they were glad to have her along for the ride, knowing full well that the trip would not have quite as... interesting, without her.
They were nearing the end of the first leg of their journey. They stopped for the night, had dinner, and spent a few hours telling stories. The sun had finally set when Twilight let out a loud yawn.
“I’m beat! I think I’m going to go to bed, I’ll see you girls in the morning,” Twilight said, she rose to her hooves and trotted off into her tent. Vinyl watched.
Rainbow Dash prodded her with her hoof after Twilight went inside. “Would you stop doing that?”
Vinyl looked at her and grinned. “Oh come on! It’s not like you haven’t looked!”
Rainbow blushed. “I don’t swing that way!”
Vinyl smirked at her. “Yeah, sure, that’s what I told myself at first too.”
Rainbow’s face turned an even brighter red, not form embarrassment, but from anger. “Why does everypony think that?!”
Rainbow cut her off. “I don’t care what everypony says! I. Am. Not. Into. Mares! Everypony back home thinks I don’t hear them talking about me. Gossiping behind my back! ‘Oh! I heard that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are secretly dating!’ and ‘I heard she was with Applejack!’ and ‘Rainbow can deny it all she wants, but we know the truth!’ I don’t know if you can tell Vinyl, but I. HATE. Gossip!”
“Rainbow, I...” Vinyl tried again, but was quickly cut off again.
“And you! You think what you’re doing is just harmless fun, well it’s not! Do you hear me Vinyl? It’s NOT!” Rainbow was really laying it into her, years of stifled rage were pouring from her mouth. “I’ve heard the same thing since I was a filly. ‘Rainbow Dash and that Gryphon are so cute together, they act like they can’t stand each other, but we know they’re totally into each other!’ and ‘she’s got a crush on Fluttershy! You can totally tell how protective she is of her.’ Well I’m tired of hearing it, and I don’t need it from you! You get me?”
Vinyl nodded, afraid that if she did anything else Rainbow would start yelling again. She didn’t instead she got to her hooves and stormed off into the trees.
Vinyl felt horribly guilty, she rose to her hooves and went over to Twilight’s tent. “Twilight? Can I talk to you?”
...
Rainbow Dash sat down on a fallen log, her face buried in her hooves, tears flowing freely. Her rant had brought years of buried emotions to the surface, emotions that she’d never dealt with properly were all swimming around in her head.
“Rainbow?”
Dash turned around to see Vinyl standing behind her, Rainbow Dash realised that Vinyl looked incredibly different without that grin on her face. “What do you want?”
Vinyl frowned at her. “I wanted to say, I’m sorry.”
Vinyl sat down next to her. “I was just... being me, and sometimes just being me upsets somepony. I don’t mean to do it, it just happens.”
Vinyl lifted her goggles of her head with magic, tossing them to the ground, this was the first time Rainbow had seen her without them. She kept them shut, but Rainbow could tell that she was crying too.
“You and Twilight are the first real friends I’ve had in a really, really long time. I am so sorry,” Vinyl said. Tears were dripping from her eye lashes onto the snow covered ground. “I just don’t want you to hate me for what I said.”
Rainbow Dash put her hoof around Vinyl’s shoulder, causing the unicorn to open her eyes and look at Rainbow. She gasped a little in surprise; the Unicorn’s eyes were blood red.
Vinyl frowned at her, she slid out from under Rainbow Dash’s leg, picking up her goggles and putting them back over her eyes.
Vinyl stopped and turned back around to face Rainbow.
“It’s not your fault, you didn’t do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that... I’ve just got a lot of feelings from fillyhood that I haven’t dealt with in a really long time. I was in the wrong, not you!” Rainbow said. She got to her hooves and went over to the Unicorn. “I’m sorry I went off on you like that. You didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t have to leave! I don’t want you to leave! Please don’t.”
Vinyl raised her goggles up and wiped away more tears that had formed in her eyes. “I won’t. I promise I’ll stop making passes at you and Twilight too.”
“Don’t promise that! You said yourself, it was just you being you, don’t stop being you!” Rainbow said with a smile.
Vinyl smiled back at the Pegasus and the two ponies joined each other in an embrace.
“Oh Rainbow!” Vinyl said in a seductive voice. “You’re so warm and soft...”
“Knock it off,” Rainbow said sternly.
Both ponies looked at each other and burst out laughing.
...
Morning came and the trio packed up their gear for what seemed like the thousandth time, and soon enough. The trio arrived at the edge of Manehattan. Just in time too, as they had eaten the last of their food that morning.
Vinyl led the group to her flat in the downtown area, they entered it to find a roomy, and very expensive looking one room flat.
“I thought you said you lived in Canterlot?” Rainbow asked her.
“One problem with having lots of money is that you tend to have a lot of stuff that you don’t need,” Vinyl said with a shrug. “I’ve also got a flat in Fillydelphia. Though I’m probably going to be dumping that and probably this one too... Actually I might be getting rid of my one in Canterlot too. I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet.”
Vinyl looked back at her friends and grinned. “I’m thinking about moonlighting as a hermit.”
“Vinyl you are so weird!”Rainbow said with a chuckle.
“Just figuring those out now are ya?”
The trio spent the night here, each of them grateful to have a proper night’s sleep in a warm bed. Tomorrow would be a long day of gathering supplies, and setting out for a place that was totally alien to them.
They would be going out of Equestria for the first time in their entire lives.
They spent less than a day in Manehattan, just enough to gather a few weeks worth of food, and once again, the trio of friends set out, walking along the Hoofson River towards the Equestrian border. Nopony lived in the Hoofson bay area, so there wasn’t exactly a road to follow. Worse still, the Hoofson River had frozen over and several centimetres of snow covered it. It didn’t exactly give them an easy trail to follow.
Rainbow had been relegated to the ground. Twilight didn’t want her flying at all for this leg of their journey; for fear that whatever happened to Ambassador Lightdew and the pegasi guard would happen to her. Twilight hadn’t realised this, but it had been equal to telling a unicorn that she wasn’t allowed to use magic, nevertheless, Rainbow understood that Twilight had done it because she wanted to keep Rainbow safe, and while the stubborn Pegasus was slightly annoyed, she didn’t make an argument about it.
As it turned out, Vinyl’s strange sense of direction proved incredibly useful. Twilight and Rainbow Dash had almost walked into the river several times, and while the top was iced over, a quick probing proved that it was only a couple millimetres thick. Not enough to hold their weight, and if they did fall in, the strong currents would have carried them off.
Two days of following the river later, they discovered, to Twilight’s major annoyance that the Hoofson River abruptly ended, and a quick check of a book later, that the Hoofson River and the Hoofson bay were not connected to each other in the slightest, rather they needed to follow another river, The St. Germain, in order to make their way into the Hoofson Bay Area.
Twilight’s book impressed upon the ponies that the Hoofson Bay Area was actually much larger than they anticipated. The actual bay itself was nearly 1500 kilometres long, but what was considered the bay area stretched a 4000 kilometre radius from the centre of the bay itself. Twilight had known that the Hoofson Bay Area was big, but not that big. Needless to say, upon learning this fact, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had become slightly discouraged by their task ahead, if they were going to find the Gryphons at all it would be nothing short of a miracle.
Vinyl was of course unworried, as she almost always was; both Rainbow and Twilight weren’t sure how she could remain so positive in the face of a nearly impossible task.
“You girls just need to chill; we’ll worry about it when we get there,” Vinyl said when asked about it.
They took Vinyl’s advice to heart.
...
It took them a week to reach the St. Germain River; they turned to the Northeast and followed it for as far as they could, where they eventually reached a crossing point built by parties unknown. The St. Germain was the northern most border of Equestria, why there was a bridge over it when the Hoofson Bay Area was designated uninhabited neutral territory between the Co-principality of Equestria and the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms, they could not say. It worried Twilight slightly, but Vinyl reassured her that she was worrying too much, and to quote, ‘needed to chill out.’
The bridge over the St. Germain turned out to be a Celestia-send, while there wasn’t a road leading to it from the Equestrian side, there was on the Hoofson Bay Area side, and once again, this worried Twilight.
Her mind drifted back to a time long ago, or at least, what seemed like a long time ago, but was actually in the order of two months, to her walkabout in the Mohoofie Desert, and her encounter with the kangaroo bounty hunter, Roy Melbourne.
“You know, I’ve got nothing against ponies... But ever since coming here, it seems like everybody doesn’t even know that there’s a world outside your borders.”
That’s what Roy Melbourne had said to her, and Twilight was beginning to see what he meant by it. She’d never known anypony who’d even been outside Equestria before, and she was starting to wonder why that was.
“Well, here we are,” Vinyl said. “We’re about to take our first steps out of Equestria for the first time... ever. Kind of exciting isn’t it?”
Twilight found herself more worried than anything else. She had no idea what to expect outside Equestria, but she stiffened her resolve, and the trio stepped across the bridge, out of Equestria and into the Hoofson Bay Area.
Twilight felt her bones chill. The moment they stepped of the bridge, they felt the temperature drop twenty degrees.
“What the...?” Twilight exclaimed as an icy wind chilled her, her teeth began to chatter and she instinctively recoiled back onto the bridge. The temperature rose twenty degrees and the wind died.
Twilight was more than confused at this point. She stood less than a metre from the Equestrian border, how could the weather possibly be that different a metre away? Vinyl and Rainbow Dash joined her, instantly noticing it too.
“We better put on warmer clothes,” Rainbow said.
...
The trio crossed again, noticing the change in the weather instantly, they were more prepared for it this time, and found themselves not as cold. Experimentation with the temperature would discover that the Equestrian side of the St. Germain held at 273 Kelvin. While the Hoofson Bay side was at 250 Kelvin.
If she’d had her say, Twilight would have stayed and tried to figure out why that was, but, oddly, Vinyl that reminded her they had more important things to deal with.
Twilight gave in and the trio marched onward along the road laid before them towards their goal.
Of course, they had no way of knowing for sure that this road would even lead them to wherever they needed to be, and despite Vinyl’s reassurances that she “had a good feeling about it,” Twilight had gone back to worrying. In truth, they had no idea where the Gryphons even were, and Vinyl’s assurances that either the ponies would find the Gryphons... or that the Gryphons would find them didn’t help.
They set up camp for the night, discovering that the temperature had dropped another 10 kelvin. It was unnaturally cold, even Rainbow Dash, who was more resistant to cold weather than the two unicorns, a pegasi trait that was needed for their line of work, found it to be mind numbingly cold. Worse still, they quickly discovered that Twilight’s warming spell wasn’t as effective as it used to be. Twilight had wondered if her magic had weakened since leaving Equestria, but eventually dismissed it, finding it preposterous and accounted it to the fact that it was nearly 35 Kelvin colder than the last time she’d used it. The trio realised that freezing to death had just become a real possibility, and resorted to sharing a single tent as to not need to spread out the effect of the spell.
One could tell it was serious when Vinyl didn’t make a joke about the three mares sharing a tent, like she had the first night they started travelling together.
Morning came, and the three mares awoke to discover that none of them had frozen to death in the cold of the previous night. They spent several minutes embracing each other, thanking Celestia that they had survived.
Twilight unzipped the tent and stepped outside, only to discover that an extremely sharp looking blade was pointed in her face.
Twilight Sparkle, Vinyl Scratch, and Rainbow Dash slowly made their way out into the open air. They froze; partially because of how cold it was, but mostly because there was a Gryphon pointing a weapon at them.
Twilight was more interested in the weapon, she knew what it was, but she’d only seen one before. The Gryphon was holding a rifle, its long barrel lined with an extremely sharp looking blade which protruded several centimetres out, so that the weapon could easily be used for shooting, slashing, or stabbing. There was a gap between the barrel and blade on the forward part where a Gryphon could grip without worrying about the blade cutting into them. The stock had a handle that protruded down, allowing for another grip where the Gryphon could easily pull the hair trigger. Out of the right side, a small metal bolt extruded, Twilight knew this was how the weapon was operated, because the firearm she had seen before, the one belonging to Roy Melbourne, operated in exactly the same manner.
The Gryphon was floating in the air flapping its wings, Twilight realised that this was the only way such a weapon could be operated, as Gryphons were normally quadrupedal like ponies were. Meaning this weapon had to be used when flying.
Twilight had been focusing on the Gryphon’s weapon. However, Rainbow Dash was more interested in its owner.
“Gilda?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
The Gryphon looked over at the Pegasus in surprise, but did not lower her weapon. “Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow nodded in affirmation, smiling at the Gryphon. Gilda scowled at her, raising the gryphon rifle above her head and smashing Rainbow in the face with the back end, knocking her unconscious.
“Pick her up,” Gilda said coldly.
Vinyl lifted Rainbow with her magic and set her down gently on her back. Blood trickled down from the pegasus’ stained rainbow coloured mane and onto the ground.
“March.”
Twilight and Vinyl certainly had little choice, they started walking. They didn’t ask where they were going they had a feeling that Gilda would... point them in the right direction.
They walked nearly an hour in what Twilight guessed was somewhere in the northerly spectrum, She wanted to ask Vinyl, who’s freaky accurate sense of direction would know, but instead, she had a more important question that she wanted to risk asking. “Do you want me to carry her for a while?”
Vinyl shook her head. “Unicorns aren’t exactly known for their strength.”
“You’re a unicorn too, Vinyl.”
“I’m abnormal,” Vinyl said. Twilight was somewhat surprised when her companion didn’t grin at her, as she normally would have upon making a statement such as this.
“NO TALKING!” Gilda roared at them, brandishing her rifle in their general direction. The two unicorn mares remained silent.
...
They walked for several hours. Vinyl was still carrying Rainbow Dash on her back, and showed no signs of tiring. Rainbow Dash did have the advantage of being both a Pegasus and a mare. Pegasi were lightly built to give them an advantage of manoeuvrability, not to mention that mares of all three races were smaller and lighter than their stallion counterparts. But even with this, Vinyl still had to have had some ungodly amount of endurance in order to have continued to carry her as far as she had. Twilight would have been lucky to have gotten a 20 metres carrying Rainbow. Vinyl had to have carried her 20 kilometres.
Twilight was tired. They’d made a much brisker pace than they did crossing countryside when they were still in Equestria, but even if Gilda wouldn’t have been there to maim her for complaining about it, she wouldn’t have anyway, because she knew that Vinyl had it so much harder.
Eventually they stopped, Twilight found themselves in the middle of a camp of some twenty gryphons.
“Look what I found!” Gilda called out triumphantly.
“Good for you Lance Bombardier!” one of the other gryphons called out. Twilight and Vinyl could tell that this gryphon was being sarcastic. Twilight guessed that “Lance Bombardier” was Gilda’s title.
“Make yourself useful Gilda. Go stick ‘em in the holding pen,” another gryphon called out.
“Yes sergeant!” Gilda called back, pointing her weapon at the ponies again and they marched again, this time only a short distance to a small fenced in area. Gilda forced them inside, shutting the door behind them and leaving without another word.
Vinyl lifted Rainbow off her back, gently setting her down on the ground, and subsequently collapsed from exhaustion.
...
She heard a creek flowing. That can’t be, they’d all be frozen over.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes; she looked around and found grass. She was lying in the middle of a field, the sun shining brightly over her head.
What in the name of...?
Humming, she heard humming, Rainbow perked her head up. She wasn’t in any old field. She was in the one just across from Fluttershy’s cottage. She could see it! She looked around and saw the familiar yellow Pegasus, holding a watering can in her mouth and allowing it to drain on several flowers at her hooves.
“I don’t get it,” Rainbow said aloud, half talking to Fluttershy, half talking to herself.
Fluttershy jumped little in surprise, typical Fluttershy, the meek Pegasus was afraid of her own shadow, let alone a sudden word from a pony who she probably thought was asleep.
Fluttershy looked over to Rainbow Dash, she opened her mouth to speak, causing her to drop the watering can, and was frightened by the noise it made, she squeaked, but otherwise quickly regained her composure.
“Oh good! You’re awake! I was afraid that you’d sleep all day... although I suppose that would have been all right if it was what you wanted to do...” Fluttershy said, her voice trailing off.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and got to her hooves, she felt a splitting pain, and clutched her head.
“Oh... my, Rainbow, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked as she made her way over. She gasped. “Rainbow... you’re bleeding!”
Rainbow was, she felt the warm sticky blood and found herself gulping. Fluttershy was deathly afraid of blood. She could tell that the meek Pegasus was nervous, but was surprised to see Fluttershy fight through it.
“Come on. We’re going to get that nice and bandaged up!” Fluttershy said reassuringly.
The two pegasi crossed the field to Fluttershy’s cottage, quickly bandaging Rainbow’s head before Fluttershy fainted from looking at it.
“What happened Rainbow? You weren’t bleeding when you went to sleep,” Fluttershy asked her.
Rainbow wasn’t sure. The last thing she remembered was setting camp with Vinyl and Twilight the night before.
“I don’t know... Last thing I remember was being at the Hoofson Bay...” Rainbow said.
Fluttershy looked at her friend nervously. “Um... Rainbow? That was like, four months ago.”
Rainbow didn’t believe it, how could she just not remember four months passing? Although, she did suppose it would explain the lack of snow if it was spring now.
“I need to find Vinyl and Twilight,” Rainbow said.
“Who?”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “How could you NOT know who that is!? Twilight is our friend!”
“I know who Twilight is!” Fluttershy squeaked, she’d been assertive towards Rainbow, but had surprised herself by doing it. “Who’s Vinyl?”
And then a realisation hit her, maybe Vinyl didn’t come back with them? “Doesn’t matter right now, we need to go see Twilight.”
...
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash knocked on the door to the Ponyville Library. The door opened and Twilight was standing in the opening, she smiled at her friends, but gasped in surprise when looking at Dash. “Rainbow! What happened to your head!?”
“I don’t know,” Rainbow shrugged. “Twilight, I need your help, where is Vinyl?”
Twilight looked at her oddly. “What?”
Rainbow facehoofed, which had turned out to be a poor choice of action, because it sent a throb of searing pain through her head, she ignored it. “Please tell me you know who Vinyl Scratch is.”
Twilight gave her a deadpanned look. “Of course I do Rainbow, don’t be ridiculous... I just don’t know where she is. I haven’t seen her in months. Neither have you, to the best of my knowledge.”
Twilight stepped out of the doorway, ushering the two ponies inside. They discovered they weren’t the only visitors to the Library. Sitting in a corner was an all black unicorn stallion with amber eyes, which for some reason looked very familiar to Rainbow Dash, but she couldn’t place him.
“Oh... my, I’m sorry, we didn’t know you had a guest Twilight.” Fluttershy said.
The black unicorn rose to his hooves. “Oh, don’t worry about me, I was actually just leaving. I’ll see you tomorrow Twilight?”
Twilight smiled at the other unicorn. “Of course,” and with a polite smile to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, he departed from the Library.
“What?” Rainbow Dash asked in surprise, “Since when?!”
“It’s been about... oh, five months?” Twilight said, embarrassment still filling her face.
“What?” Rainbow Dash said again. “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?!” Did you know?” Rainbow said, looking to Fluttershy, who quietly shook her head no. “Oh... well, um, we’re not like... official or anything. It’s just that, well, I’m not seeing anypony, and neither is he... and we do spend a lot of time together... maybe I’m being presumptuous but...” Twilight’s voice trailed off again, causing Rainbow to facehoof, sending another round of pain through her.
“Fluttershy? Don’t let me do that again.”
Rainbow was even more confused now than she had been back at Fluttershy’s cottage. Something wasn’t right here, and she intended to get to the bottom of it.
Vinyl Scratch looked up from her task, to find Twilight looking over their friend, still unconscious.
“I am too. Which is why we need to finish before nightfall, otherwise she’s going to freeze to death,” Vinyl said grimly.
The Gryphons had left the three ponies largely unsupervised, originally they figured it for an act of stupidity, but on finding that the metal cage that they had been placed in was a magic dampener, they discovered that the Gryphons were much brighter than they appeared to be.
A magic dampener couldn’t cancel out magic completely, but it could limit its uses to more every day, mundane things. Simple telekinesis functioned normally, it was the most basic kind of magic, and against their cage, the most useless. Which is why the two unicorns didn’t bother trying to escape, even if they did escape, where would they escape to? The Equestrian boarder was 50 kilometres from this camp, and there would be no way to outpace gryphons while trying to carry Rainbow Dash, though the more Vinyl thought about it, there would have been no way to outpace gryphons even if Rainbow Dash was awake, obviously, leaving her behind had never been an option, but the fact that even having her wouldn’t make a difference cemented their choice in place.
Instead, they were using their combined force to bring as much snow as they possibly could into the cage. The unicorns focused on survival, something that they had barely done the night prior, they knew that if they were left out in the cold overnight, they would perish, Gilda had forced them to leave all of their equipment behind except for the cold weather clothes that they had been wearing. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
They were building shelter, an igloo. It would still be cold tonight, but what made the cold so bad was the wind. It had been -20 degrees Celsius the night before, but the wind had made it feel closer to -50.
Keep the wind of their backs, -20 was something they could handle. At least, that’s what Vinyl kept telling herself. She looked back over to Twilight; she could tell that the lavender unicorn was discouraged by their situation. Maybe she’d been counting on her to keep the mood light, as she had for several weeks past, but Vinyl felt that her usual antics, while amusing, were completely inappropriate. This was a matter of life or death. Now wasn’t the time to be cracking jokes.
She tried to think of one anyway, and found herself unable to come up with anything. She wasn’t sure when she’d ever not been able to make a joke no matter the situation, but here it was. The funny thing about it was, Vinyl didn’t even need to be here. She didn’t have to come along with Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Hell, she’d just happened along them walking down a road in the middle of nowhere, complete coincidence.
No. Vinyl shook those thoughts from her mind, they weren’t helping. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were her friends. She followed them here because she was their friend. Friends don’t let friends go it alone.
Friends.
Vinyl Scratch had never actually had friends. She’d known ponies that called her a friend, but these had never actually been real friends. These were ponies that hung around her for the parties and various illicit substances that Vinyl’s lifestyle was generally known for.
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were real friends.
Vinyl closed her eyes for a moment, though Twilight couldn’t see that her eyes were closed because of her goggles, making it look like the DJ Unicorn was staring off blankly into space, and she thought back to her old life.
...
“We’re going to be late!”
Okay, maybe Vinyl had lied a bit. They had never been close, but Octavia definitely had been a friend.
“Just give me a moment! I’m almost ready,” Vinyl called out.
“It doesn’t matter! You’re just going to get there, find somepony to go home with, and whatever you’re doing is going to get undone in five seconds!” Octavia called back.
Vinyl missed Octavia; she was ever the realist, hooves on the ground, earth pony who was frankly, Vinyl Scratch’s equal and opposite.
“I’m done!” Vinyl called out, she exited her flat’s washroom clad in a bright red club dress and her trademark goggles.
“That dress would match your eyes if you’d ditch the stupid goggles!” Octavia called out with a smirk.
“Don’t be hatin’ on my goggles now,” Vinyl said with a grin. “Celestia help me I will take that cello of yours and beat you over the head with it.”
Octavia smirked, knowing full well her friend would never actually destroy her livelihood. Octavia being the first cello in the Manehattan City Orchestra, her cello was to her what a turntable was to Vinyl. This was part of the reason why they were friends, they were artists. They got each other.
The two mares departed from Vinyl’s flat, making their way down the streets of Manehattan.
“What do you know about Crash?” Octavia asked her.
“What’s that?” Vinyl asked, knowing full well what she was talking about.
Octavia deadpanned her. “Don’t give me that. I need you to promise me you’re going to stay away from that garbage.”
“Yes mum!” Vinyl said, grinning at her.
“Vinyl I mean it. You’ve already proven that you don’t have the greatest sense of self control in Equestria,” Octavia said. Understatement of the year award goes to Octavia for this one, Vinyl had remembered herself thinking. “The last thing I want is for you to go down that path.”
“C’mon O, trust me! I’ll be fine,” Vinyl said with a grin.
“Trust you? Always, trust the 30 crash dealers that are inevitably going to be here? Not a chance.”
Vinyl had loved that about her. Octavia had been a good friend, she cared, and she looked out for her friends. Vinyl missed her; Octavia’s rant had been too late. Vinyl was already addicted to crash. What had taken her so long to get ready was the fact that she had been dusting up.
Crash was a green powder substance that was commonly taken by inhaling it, usually through the nose. Vinyl had been introduced to it several weeks prior to this particular night. What wasn’t to like? When she was on crash, she felt amazing, though outwardly she didn’t act any different. She’d always been weird.
Octavia didn’t need to know, she was just being overprotective. At least, that’s what Vinyl had thought at the time.
The duo arrived at the club, try as she might, Vinyl wasn’t able to remember the name, but she did remember how she felt.
Crash highs didn’t last long. Vinyl would need to excuse herself for another one soon. She was quick to down a couple hard apple ciders in order to have an excuse to use the washroom. This had proven to be a mistake, as she had not only needed her fix, her binge drinking had sent her right on the path to drunken debauchery.
Oh how hard it was to dust up when you could barely see straight. Vinyl had excused herself, she’d also damned herself while she’d been at it. Octavia was a suspicious pony, always wanting to check on her to make sure she wasn’t doing anything wrong.
Though now that Vinyl thought about it, she probably just wanted to make sure her friend wasn’t dying, cold and alone on the floor of a Manehattan club washroom. Naturally, Octavia had walked in just as Vinyl was attempting to dust up.
“You know, I really shouldn’t be surprised, but here I am, surprised anyway,” Octavia said sadly.
“You worry too much O. I got this!” Vinyl had said. She realised now that she had been trying to convince herself just as much as she had Octavia.
“No you don’t, Vinyl. You’re an addict.”
“I am NOT an addict! I... I can quit anytime I want,” Cheesy. Vinyl Scratch was suppose to be the witty one. Vinyl barely remembered the rest. What she did know was that she had kicked Octavia squarely in the jaw when she tried to take away her stash, she’d had to go to the hospital for that.
She hadn’t seen Octavia since that night, the scuff up between the two had planted her in the hospital as well, (different one as to avoid altercations.)
She’d been forced to detox from crash, she’d gotten off it. She hadn’t wanted to at the time, but now she knew that it had been for the best.
Vinyl also fully acknowledged that her problem was far worse than what she’d remembered. Drugs tended to distort your view of reality.
She missed Octavia. She missed her friend, she wanted to go back, find her, make amends, but she was scared, very scared that Octavia would forgive her. What Vinyl had done had been completely unacceptable. She needed to hold herself accountable for that.
The last thing she ever wanted was to be forgiven.
It was morning and the strange noise threw Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch from their sleep, they jumped to their hooves in surprise, which turned out to be a poor choice of action, considering that the inside of their igloo only rose about half a metre at the most.
Their hasty awakening collapsed the igloo, burying the three ponies under some twenty kilograms of snow.
Panic set in. They needed to dig their way out, and fast, otherwise death by suffocation would be inevitable.
Vinyl and Twilight frantically attempted to dig, making little progress; they hit each other several times by accident until Vinyl finally poked a hoof through the top. She pulled her head out and gasped a breath of air. She felt relieved and horrified at the same time. She could breathe; two gryphons were sitting outside their cage, laughing at them, Gilda and another one that had been previously identified as “sergeant.”
Vinyl pulled herself out of the snow, and continued to dig into it, digging until she felt Rainbow Dash’s head, clearing away the snow and allowing the still unconscious Pegasus to breathe, something she was still doing.
Twilight pulled herself out as well, clearing away the snow around their fallen friend. They’d narrowly escaped a horrible death, and not by much.
The two gryphons were still laughing.
“What is going on here?! Sergeant Ironfeathers! Explain yourself!” an authoritative voice boomed.
“Just having some fun with the ponyfolk sir!” Ironfeathers said.
“Sergeant I expected better from you. This is NOT how we treat prisoners. You’re dismissed and both of you can expect formal reprimands in your permanent files.” The authoritative gryphon said.
Gilda and Ironfeathers stopped laughing, marching away in silence.
Vinyl looked over at this new gryphon as she walked over to the cage and unlocked the door.
“I’m very sorry for this, I expect better from soldiers under my command,” The female gryphon said, she entered the cage and helped Vinyl and Twilight clear the snow off their friends. “Damn them,” she said as she got a look at Rainbow Dash. “How long as she been like this?”
“Better part of two days,” Vinyl said, not sure how she felt about this seemingly kind gryphon.
“She needs medical attention,” Twilight said pleading for any help that would be given.
“I tend to agree, I’ll have my medical staff give her the best care we can... They don’t exactly know anything about ponies, but it’s better than her being left out in the cold.”
Vinyl nodded, picking up Rainbow Dash and carrying her to the gryphon’s infirmary, following the kind gryphon that helped them. Vinyl set Rainbow down on a bed inside, and turned to look at the gryphon. She clearly had some kind of authority in the camp. The ponies guessed that she was the one in charge.
The trio went back outside, and the gryphon turned to look at them. “I’m lef-tennant Razorwing, Third Artillery Brigade. I’m in charge of this garrison.”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, this is my friend Vinyl Scratch, our other friend is Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained. “Um, what’s Artillery?”
The gryphon lieutenant smiled. “I’ll show you,” she turned her head upward looking to a gryphon that was flying above them. “Bombardier Iorntalon? Spot me a target! Anything that’s not us.”
“aye aye sir!” the airborne gryphon called out, picking up a pair of binoculars from around his neck and looking around the landscape with them, clearly he found something that he wanted, and called out to two gryphons near a large, irregular shaped metal object, of which neither pony had a clue of what it could be. “Fire mission! Grid two-three-two-three, Fire!”
Neither unicorn understood.
One of the strange metal objects erupted in smoke; an extremely loud explosion from them sent the two ponies to the ground in surprise. Twilight figured out what they were quickly, they were guns. Really big, really loud guns, they put the gryphon’s rifles, of which she already thought were very dangerous to shame.
The gryphon lieutenant didn’t even flinch. “You hit anything Iorntalon?”
“Just some bridge over some river that nobody’s using.”
Twilight frowned; they’d clearly destroyed the bridge that they’d used to cross the S. Germain.
“What was that?” Vinyl asked, returning to her hooves.
“That, my little ponies, was the Quick Fire 26 Pounder,” Razorwing said with a smile. “Standard field gun of the Twin Royal Armies.”
...
Rainbow Dash perked her head up. She could have sworn that she’d heard a soft explosion somewhere in the distance.
“Did anypony else hear that?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight and Fluttershy looked at her confusedly.
“Hear what Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked her.
Rainbow looked out the window into the countryside, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
“Maybe I’m just hearing things...” Rainbow said with a sigh. “I’ve got stuff I need to take care of. I’ll see you girls later.”
Rainbow exited the Library, looking down the high street to find Sugarcube Corner standing on the lot in which it belonged. Rainbow did a double take when she saw it; she’d been so used to it not being there. She figured, what the hay, and decided to stop by and check the place out.
She entered; it was mostly empty, save for a single grey coloured Pegasus buying a Muffin from Mister Cake.
Derpy looked at Rainbow Dash as she walked in, jolting her head to the side, trying to silently communicate for Rainbow Dash to join her while Mr. Cake wasn’t looking. Rainbow understood and sat down with her.
Derpy casually ate her blueberry muffin in several bites, after finishing the entire thing; she leaned in close to Rainbow and whispered to her. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Rainbow Dash gave Derpy an odd look, the wall-eyed Pegasus had always been known to be the odd one out in Ponyville... but something inside Rainbow Dash told her that Derpy was onto something.
“I... I think I know,” Rainbow Dash said. “I just... I’m not sure what to do.”
Derpy smiled at her. “I’ll help you. Meet me later at the place.”
Derpy got up and walked out of the sweet shop. Well, Rainbow thought to herself, that was useful.
Meet me later at the place. Rainbow Dash was sure that was the single vaguest statement that she had ever heard in her entire life.
Rainbow Dash exited the sweet shop, discovering that there was a single cloud in the sky over Ponyville, it annoyed Rainbow Dash to no end that somepony left it there, she wasn’t the only weather pony in Ponyville, but clearly she was the only one able to do the job right.
She spread her wings and flew up to the cloud, but found herself not dissipating it. Instead, she found a scroll of parchment sticking out of it. That was odd too; paper shouldn’t be able to do that.
She picked it up and unrolled it.
Face east. When it comes, we must have our backs to it so it thinks no one is paying attention.
Well that didn’t make sense either. No, she took that back, it did. The Alicorn that called himself Overdrive used to sit on a cloud facing east all day when he was still alive... Did he write this? What did they need to have their backs to? Now Rainbow had more questions than answers, and she was growing frustrated because she knew that no one could answer them. She kicked the cloud, causing it to dissipate. For what it was worth, the skies were clear, unfortunately, it was the only thing that was.
Rainbow flew back to the ground; she tucked the note in a safe place until she needed it later, if at all.
Rainbow Dash looked down the high street to find Derpy Hooves was trotting at a good pace down it. Rainbow decided to follow her, figuring that she might be going to the place wherever that was.
She followed Derpy several hundred metres down the road to the outskirts of Ponyville. The walleyed Pegasus stopped walking, sitting down in the middle of the open field. She spotted Rainbow coming towards her and waved.
“This is the place?! We’re in the middle of nowhere!” Rainbow cried out in annoyance.
“Uh huh!” Derpy said with a smile. “The place is far away from Ponyville where nopony can hear anything.”
Rainbow wasn’t sure why, but that statement made her feel extremely uneasy. She shook the feeling away, this was Derpy Hooves, quite easily the most friendly Pegasus in Ponyville. Why in the world would she have any reason to be uneasy around her?
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Derpy said. “You need to be somewhere else.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Once again, thank you for being ever so helpful Derpy,” she said, her voice brimming with sarcasm. “And just where am I supposed to be?”
“Not here.”
This was getting her nowhere. “Is somepony playing a joke on me? Because you’ve never been this useless before!”
Derpy frowned at her. “Do you want my help or not?”
Rainbow Dash merely sighed. “Yes. I do, if you can help, please, do.”
Derpy’s smile returned. “There is something else you need to learn before you go.”
Rainbow Dash sighed again. “Yes?”
“Close your eyes,” Derpy commanded.
Rainbow Dash was getting fed up with the grey Pegasus, but humoured her by shutting her eyes tight. She felt a sharp pain in her flank; she opened her eyes and let out a scream in pain. Jaunting from her side was a long knife that had been planted through her left wing.
She looked at Derpy, who was grinning mischievously at her. “Don’t. Trust.”
Rainbow began gasping for air, and fell over onto her side, her eyes began to close and she felt the life slipping away from her.
They were no longer caged, yes, but Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch found that they were nowhere close to being free. Lieutenant Razorwing was kind, for a gryphon, she had given orders to those under her command that the ponies were to be treated with respect, but should they try to leave the camp, Rainbow Dash would be shot, shortly followed by themselves.
The camp was home to some twenty odd Gryphons, conversations with Razorwing revealed that this was half of what they were supposed to have. Everyone else had been lost as a casualty.
“A casualty?” Twilight asked.
“Of war? You know?” Razorwing asked. Both Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch were completely unaware that the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms were at war with the Commonwealth of South Island, and apparently had been for two or three years at this point. Razorwing scowled at their ignorance. “Gods damn the ponies. Don’t know anything going on outside their precious borders.”
Twilight now understood the reason that Gryphons had occupied the Hoofson Bay Area. They were mining for resources, cutting down the trees for lumber, gathering fish for food. In fact, several settlements scattered the area. The Hoofson Bay was home to nearly a thousand gryphons. Not counting soldiers, of whose numbers Razorwing refused to give them, on the count that they might be spies for the kangaroos.
Razorwing also told them of a kangaroo armoured cavalry regiment, belonging to the South Islander’s twentieth corps, had slipped into the bay several months ago, and took to launching hit and run attacks on gryphon encampments. She called them the Winter Rats, liking them to an infestation of vermin that they just couldn’t get rid of.
Twilight forced her to stop several times, asking her to explain what an “armoured cavalry regiment” and “the twentieth corps” was, causing the gryphon to become extremely annoyed with the ponies ignorance.
After several days of living in the gryphon’s encampment, Razorwing began refusing to even speak to the ponies at all; she had been getting tired of having to explain everything to them, even things that gryphon children would know.
In a few short days, Twilight had learned many things that she could never have in Equestria. Such as what “armoured cavalry” and “artillery” was. She’d been allowed to look through the few books that were lying around the camp; however, she was extremely disappointed to discover that she couldn’t read any of them. While the spoken languages of the gryphons and ponies were very similar, gryphon writings used a completely different alphabet, of which she was unfamiliar.
To make matters worse, Rainbow Dash had still not regained consciousness, forcing the gryphons to slide a feeding tube down her throat. Despite no longer being civil with them, Razorwing had not rescinded her orders to treat the ponies with respect.
Twilight had a nagging suspicion that this would not always be the case. She and Vinyl knew that if they did not come up with some kind of plan soon, either Razorwing would get fed up with them, then order their deaths, or the kangaroos would show up and they’d get caught in the crossfire.
Vinyl spent most of her days thinking and keeping watch over Rainbow Dash. There was no reason why Rainbow had been out this long. She was asleep, but nothing they did could get her to come out of it. They needed her awake if they were going to escape.
...
Rainbow Dash threw open her eyes, gasping in terror. She looked around; she was inside her house, lying on her bed. A quick inspection of her flank revealed that she had not even been wounded.
Oh thank Celestia! It was just a dream!
Rainbow Dash rose to her hooves and entered her washroom. To her horror, the bandage that Fluttershy had wrapped on her head was still there. Likewise, tucked under her wing was the note she’d found in the cloud.
What in the name of Equestria...?
Rainbow didn’t understand what was happening to her. Worst of all, she was incredibly hungry, she couldn’t think straight when her mind was so focused on food. She ate several meals worth of food... but none of it seemed to help. Rainbow didn’t understand. Then out of the blue, she started having trouble swallowing, and instantly felt full.
No rhyme or reason, it just happened.
Rainbow refused to leave her home. The world had stopped making sense to her, and if she went out there, she knew it would continue to make less and less sense.
A knock came at the door, she ignored it. Nothing good could come from answering that door, she figured, another knock, this time, followed by a voice.
“Rainbow Dash! Ah know yer in there! Get out ‘ere!” the voice belonged to Applejack. Wonderful the world was now so broken that Applejack could actually knock on the door to her cloud castle without falling, not to mention the effort it would have taken for her to actually get to the door at all.
“Rainbow! If ya don’t come out, ah’m gonna knock it down!” Applejack called again.
Fine. Whatever. Rainbow thought to herself, she went over and opened her door. She was a little surprised to see that Applejack was actually not standing on her doorstep; rather Derpy Hooves was struggling to hold her up so that she could knock.
“There ya are! Ah was worried sick about ya when ya’ll didn’t show up at the farm this mornin’ what were ya’ll thinkin’ worrin’ me like that!?” Applejack said.
Rainbow didn’t remember ever talking to Applejack about helping her on the farm today. Then again, she didn’t actually know what the date was, or if it even mattered in this world that she had deemed had gone crazy. “’Ello? Equestria ta Rainbow Dash! Come in Rainbow Dash!” Applejack said. Rainbow shook her head; she’d gotten caught in a lull of thought and had neglected to say anything.
“Yeah... I’ll be over in a little bit, give me a few minutes to get ready,” Rainbow said.
“Okay. Derpy, ya’ll can put me down now,” Applejack said.
“Oh thank Celestia!” Derpy cried out in an exasperated voice, she lowered the orange earth pony to the ground. “I don’t want to sound rude Miss Applejack... but you are really REALLY heavy!”
Rainbow shut the door. She really didn’t have anything to do; she just didn’t want to be around Derpy right now... She figured it had been just a dream... but how could she be sure?
...
Pom pom pom!
Twilight and Vinyl burst from the camp’s infirmary to find that two gryphons were crewing one of the smaller guns in camp.
Pom pom pom!
The gun fired in another burst, pointed at the air. Twilight and Vinyl looked up to see that a large metal looking bird was flying overhead. Twilight remembered that Razorwing had called this gun an “autocannon” and its main use was shooting down kangaroo aircraft. The metal looking bird must have been one of these aircraft. Twilight found it to be an odd sight. When Razorwing said aircraft, she’d thought hot air balloon.
Pom pom pom! Pom pom pom!
Twilight came up with a plan. She her horn began to glow and she flashed a bright beam of light into the sky. The Gryphons were far too busy to notice; otherwise they might have done something to her. She could only hope that the kangaroo operating the metal bird had seen it and would send help their way.
No such luck, an autocannon round struck the metal bird, sending it diving towards the ground, exploding several hundred metres above the surface. Twilight frowned. The kangaroo was dead, and so was their best chance for help.
Rainbow Dash perked her head up. She threw open her front door. The sound she’d heard had been faint. But she was sure that she’d heard it this time. Nothing in the country side indicated that anything had happened at all.
Rainbow Dash frowned, she wasn’t sure if she was hearing things or not, whatever it had been, it was frustrating her to no end.
...
Night fell. Twilight was even more discouraged than she had been before. Worse still, Vinyl was starting to show signs of giving up hope. The white unicorn had been the one to remain chipper the longest, but it seemed that a lack of real options on a course of action had started to affect her too.
Twilight was sure that she was going to die here, either at the talons of the gryphons, or possibly her own hooves.
She shook that thought from her mind. No, they weren’t that desperate yet.
A twig snapped behind her. She shot her head around, crouched behind her was a kangaroo, clad in a leather jacket and a goggled helmet, he was carrying a type of firearm that Twilight had never seen before.
It was a sort of short cylinder shape, with a long metal rod sticking out of the front.
He put a finger to his mouth and shushed her, waving her over.
Twilight approached the kangaroo slowly. He continued to wave her closer.
“I got your signal before my bird got hit,” the kangaroo said. Clearly he had been the operator of the metal bird she’d seen earlier. “I was able to bail out and call for help. My boys are going to be here tomorrow morning.”
The kangaroo handed her a small firework. “Set that off at dawn. Then take everybody you care about and run for cover. Got it?”
Twilight nodded. “Why are you helping us?”
The kangaroo smiled. “’Cause we’re the good guys!”
He disappeared into the darkness shortly after that. Twilight was quick to hide the firework somewhere the gryphons wouldn’t find it.
Then again, the sooner they escaped the better. Razorwing had become more frustrated with the ponies than anything else; their personal safety was in danger. If the kangaroos were really going to help them, then they couldn’t get here sooner.
The problem was Rainbow Dash. She was still unconscious.
Twilight had snuck into the infirmary, the gryphons had made the mistake of leaving her unguarded... or either they figured they just didn’t need to. Rainbow had been strapped down to the table, if she woke up, she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Rainbow?” Twilight asked of her friend, to which she received no reply other than breathing. “Rainbow... I don’t know what’s wrong, but we really need you to wake up!”
Twilight frowned, no response. “I need you to wake up!” In her frustration Twilight brought a hoof down onto the pegasus’ side.
It had an effect. Just not the one Twilight expected.
...
Rainbow Dash’s mind was in a haze. She’d completely forgotten what she was supposed to be doing. Nothing in this world made sense anymore. She made it to Twilight’s Library on her journey to... wherever she was supposed to be going, before stopping and sitting on the ground in despair. She didn’t see the point in continuing further, her mind had made the irrational decision that she was going to spend the rest of her life in this spot. She wasn’t going to move for anypony.
“Nightshadow... I, OH! Hello!”
Rainbow Dash looked up from her spot to discover that the Library window was open. Twilight had a guest, it seemed.
“I don’t know Nightshadow... I mean, I don’t really know what to... oh!” Twilight’s voice said.
“That’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to do anything... All you have to do is lie back... and relax,” this voice, clearly belonged to Twilight’s visitor, Nightshadow, the unicorn stallion that she had met the other day.
Wait a minute. Rainbow Dash said to herself. They’re not...
They were.
Rainbow Dash heard Twilight groaning loudly. She knew what was going on.
“Why am I hearing this?!” Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her lungs.
The inside of the library went silent. Rainbow looked up to discover that Twilight had crossed over to the open window, and was looking down at her, an extremely embarrassed look had formed on her face.
“Oh... Hi Rainbow Dash! What are you doing down there?” Twilight asked her.
Rainbow sighed. “Contemplating hanging myself after what I just heard.”
Rainbow kicked herself mentally, she realised how insensitive that remark had been. Twilight looked horrified. Rainbow Dash couldn’t take it anymore, she dashed off at full speed, not even bothering to fly. She ran a few hundred metres towards the outskirts of town and stopped. Why continue? There wasn’t a point.
She dropped to the ground, lying down, defeated, on the grass. This would be her new spot.
“Rainbow Dash? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. Rainbow Dash turned around to look at her. Obviously, she had departed from the library in a rush, her mane was messy, and her tail tangled.
“Go away,” Rainbow Dash just sighed at her. “I’m sorry for taking you away from... you know.”
Twilight frowned and lied down next to her. “Nightshadow agreed that helping a friend is more important than... that,” she was blushing heavily at the slightest mention. “But that’s not important now, you have my undivided attention.”
Rainbow sighed, she related to her what she remembered, how the world had stopped making sense, and she related the story of meeting Derpy in Sugarcube Corner, rounding out with her stabbing which seemed to have not happened. She showed Twilight the note she’d found in the cloud, for some reason, she still had it on her. She related her feelings of apathy about the world.
She told Twilight that she wanted to die. The world had become so wrong, and she no longer wanted a part of it.
Twilight didn’t say anything; instead, she just gave her friend a hug. Rainbow returned it. She smiled and whispered into Twilight’s ear. “You smell like him.”
Twilight turned bright red in embarrassment.
Rainbow Dash laughed, and she smiled at her friend. She felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her back. Life was returning to Rainbow Dash, she felt happy again. It was so small, so insignificant, but it was better than the depression she’d been experiencing.
“Rainbow?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah?” Rainbow replied.
“Rainbow... I don’t know what’s wrong, but we really need you to wake up!” Twilight said.
“Huh?” Rainbow asked. Oh wonderful, she was having a good moment, but the world was making it weird again.
An exasperated expression formed on Twilight’s face, one of panic. “I need you to wake up!” without another word, Twilight gave her a hard kick in her flank.
The world turned to white, and Rainbow Dash saw nothing more.
...
Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened, something felt wrong. She couldn’t breathe! There was something in her mouth and she was choking on it.
Twilight was panicking; she bit down on Rainbow’s feeding tube and slowly pulled it out of Rainbow’s mouth until it cleared. Rainbow took a good breath of fresh air.
“What did you kick me for?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight threw herself around Rainbow in a hug. “Oh thank Celestia! You’re okay! We’ve been worried sick about you!”
Rainbow remembered. Gilda! She had hit her!
“We need to get out of here.” Twilight said, she used her magic to start undoing the straps that held Rainbow to the table.
“Where is that gryphon!?” Rainbow Dash said, hate seething in her voice. “I’m going to return her the favour!”
Twilight stopped undoing the straps and ever so softly, she whispered. “Rainbow? I need you to trust me right now. We have more important things to worry about than revenge. If we don’t leave, right now, we’re going to die. You, me, and Vinyl are all going to die if we don’t get out of here. Do you understand?”
Rainbow understood, Twilight had basically said the same thing three times. She agreed, but made no promises that she wouldn’t go after Gilda if she saw her.
Twilight didn’t have time to argue, the sun was coming up, and she hurriedly undid the rest of Rainbow’s straps.
Pop! Vinyl had just set off the firework. Time to go!
Twilight and Rainbow Dash burst through the door of the Infirmary, only to find that their progress was impeded.
Gilda and Lieutenant Razorwing were standing just outside the door, Gilda was pointing her rifle at them, Razorwing held a smaller, claw-held version of it, but despite being smaller, Razorwing’s weapon looked just as, if not more menacing. There was dried blood on hers.
“My little ponies... Going somewhere?” Razorwing sneered at them with a sort of playful malevolence. “I think it’s time you joined your ambassador in an unmarked grave. Would you not agree Lance-Bombardier?”
Gilda smiled cruelly at the question. “Permission to personally take care of the pegaus, sir?”
“Granted.”
The mare’s spirits sunk.
Rainbow Dash’s ear twitched. She heard something, something the likes of which she had never heard before.
The gryphons heard it too.
Through the trees, a large sloped metal box on tracked wheels burst from cover at high speed, a smaller box on top it rotated towards the gryphons, Rainbow Dash recognised the danger from it and tackled Twilight to the ground.
The operators took this a sign, and a large flash was seen, followed by a cracking sound that definitely belonged to a firearm, but fired much faster than the ones they had seen before.
Gilda ducked, but Razorwing was caught in the fire, ripping her to pieces and splattering blood all over them.
Gilda panicked, dropping her rifle and fleeing into the forest. These were tanks.
The rest of the gryphon camp leapt into action. Gryphons crewed the autocannon, swinging it around and trying to take shots at the Kangaroo tanks that had burst from the tree line.
Vinyl Scratch ran to the fallen ponies, she ushered to them that they needed to move, and quickly.
Rainbow nodded, she looked down her right flank, disgusted to see that she was covered in gore that had once been Razorwing. Not the time to think about it. The trio of ponies took off towards the tree line.
The tank that had saved them from Razorwing manoeuvred through the camp and fired its main gun at the autocannon. Vinyl and Twilight noted that it acted much like the QF 26 pounder that they had been shown upon their arrival, but obviously on a much smaller scale.
The shell from the tank gun stuck the autocannon’s crew seating, turning the gryphons into piles of gore, and causing the autocannon to swing wildly, still firing off in random directions.
To Twilight and Vinyl’s horror, the autocannon had swung around and fired into a small cave in the mountain side that had never really been something for them to pay attention to. But what they did know of the cave was that was where the gryphons kept the ammunition for the 26 pounders. They had seen several gryphons caring ammo to and from it the last several days.
“Run!” Vinyl screamed. They did not want to be around that when that autocannon shell actually hit something. They did not have long to wait. The Kangaroo tanks had clearly taken notice of the danger and had already driven backwards at full speed trying to get away from it. The ponies had just turned to run when the mountain exploded.
...
Applejack was in the middle of her afternoon chores at Sweet Apple Acres, sweeping out the stalls in the barn.
“Applejack!” Big Macintosh called out to her. Applejack set down her broom and went outside to find that Big Macintosh, Braeburn, and Apple Bloom were looking off at the northern sky.
Applejack looked on in horror; there was a large cloud of billowing smoke that had to be several hundred kilometres high. “Big Macintosh? What am ah lookin’ at?”
Big Macintosh looked at his sister. “Ah don’ know. Whatever it is, it’s big, and its real high up if we can see it from here.”
...
Twilight was lying face down in the snow, she poked her head up in confusion, she turned around and looked back at the mountain, smoke billowed from the top of it, and small particles of dirt and dust were falling from the sky. The Gryphons must have kept the ammunition deep inside the mountain. It was still standing, but it had thrown the snow off, burying the Gryphon encampment under several tonnes of snow.
Vinyl Scratch and Rainbow Dash were lying beside her, the shockwave from the explosion had thrown them a hundred or so metres from the camp, they were lucky to have landed on soft snow, and missed all the trees around them, if they had hit one they’d surely all be dead.
Vinyl and Rainbow perked their heads up.
“We’re never doing this. Ever again,” Rainbow Dash moaned, slightly sore from the landing.
“Spoil sport,” Vinyl said grinning at her. Twilight smiled, not realising how much she’d missed the white unicorn’s insane grinning.
They were all alive, a little sore, but alive.
Twilight barely noticed the Kangaroo tank as it approached them from behind, stopping several metres from where they lay.
The top hatch popped open and a kangaroo poked his head out. Twilight almost mistook him for Roy Melbourne; the kindly kangaroo she’d met in the Mohoofie Desert, except this Kangaroo was much younger looking.
“Well lookie here! You all right down there little ponies?” the kangaroo said.
Yes, Twilight was sure that they were going to be just fine.
Twilight was glad to finally be heading back home. Her only regret was not being able to actually accomplish the goal they had been sent out to achieve.
Six kangaroo light tanks with bulldozers attached to them had unburied the headquarters building at the gryphon camp, and Twilight found the proof that she needed. Ambassador Lightdew and the pegasi guards that went after her were all dead. The ambassador’s chariot had been shot up by the autocannon team, there weren’t enough pieces left to recover. Twilight was glad she’d insisted on walking, otherwise they would have suffered the same fate.
Now they were lying on the back of a Kangaroo M3 Light tank, (whatever that meant,) driving down the mountain towards the St. Germain River, chatting with the tank’s commander, Sergeant Tebbs. Rainbow Dash was flying above them leading the way, the tank’s driver, a kangaroo called Corporal McNair couldn’t see Rainbow Dash from inside the tank, so occasionally, when Rainbow changed direction, Tebbs would pop back inside and give McNair a new heading.
As it turned out, they had Tebbs’ crew to thank for more than just giving them a ride. The tank they were riding on had been the one that had cut down Razorwing; it was also the same one that had sent the autocannon to shoot off wildly.
The road ended at where the Bridge they had crossed over from Equestria was. Twilight had forgotten that the gryphons had destroyed it. Rainbow Dash stopped moving, landing on the ground next to the tank.
Sergeant Tebbs looked over at the bridge, “Well damn! Gryphons went and blew that bridge to pieces... good riddance if I do say so myself.”
Twilight and Vinyl were more than a little confused, causing Tebbs to back up and explain. Unlike Razorwing, Sergeant Tebbs was genuinely kind, rather than just pretending to be to extract information. “When we put this road in, that bridge was already there. Every time the work crew got close to it, someone would start panicking, and have to be taken back to camp. Something was really weird about it. It was almost like it was trying to keep anybody from using it... but it was a ruddy bridge! Why put it up if you didn’t want anybody using it?”
Twilight and Vinyl shrugged. The bridge hadn’t been like that with them.
“Hold on a moment!” Tebbs said cheerfully, he popped his head back inside, only to come out a few seconds later. “Hold on tight!”
The M3 light tank accelerated to full throttle, ramping down the embankment, and up and over the other side in 10 seconds flat, the ice had cracked under the weight, but didn’t break up until after they were already across. The St. Germain had been about 30 metres wide, so it was quite the accomplishment. Twilight understood now why Rainbow Dash liked going fast. It was fun.
The tank continued onward, Sergeant Tebbs had made it perfectly clear that he was going to drive them back to Ponyville, saying that it didn’t feel right for him to let them walk all the way back in the freezing cold weather. Twilight had tried to explain to him that it wasn’t as cold on the Equestrian side of the St. Germain, but he didn’t believe them, saying it didn’t make sense. Twilight didn’t argue with him on that, because it truly didn’t make sense.
Tebbs noticed the difference in the temperature instantly. He looked at Twilight to explain, but she merely shrugged at him. She didn’t understand it either.
Twilight was actually kind of glad that Sergeant Tebbs had insisted on driving them back, instead of taking several weeks, it would be almost a day and a half before they got back to Ponyville. They drove on, stopping for the night in the spot they had stopped at just before making their way into Manehattan. Taking care to bypass the city all together, the last thing Twilight wanted was to cause a panic for the ponies of Manehattan, Twilight had personally thought that the kangaroo tank had been somewhat scary looking when she’d first seen it, Tebbs explained that this was a light tank, and really wasn’t all that scary in the terms of capability.
“Now, you want to see something scary, have a run in with a heavy tank battalion,” Tebbs said around the campfire.
Twilight, Vinyl, and Rainbow Dash had since become introduced to the Kangaroo crew of the tank they were riding on; Sergeant Tebbs was the one in charge, obviously, and Corporal McNair was the driver, Lance-Corporal Vickers was the gunner, and Trooper Willoughby had the job description of co-driver, but in actuality, he spent most of his time working the radio.
“Sergeant Tebbs? May I ask you a question?” Twilight asked him.
“You can, on one condition, you have to stop with this ‘Sergeant Tebbs’ nonsense. You, Twilight Spackle, can call me Percy.”
Twilight giggled slightly, from her point of view, “Percy Tebbs” was a funny sounding name. Though she figured she probably shouldn’t be laughing, their accents made her name sound funny too.
“How do you know how to speak Equestrian?” Twilight asked.
Tebbs looked at her funny. “Equestrian? I just thought you knew how to speak Wallish. I mean, we’re speaking Wallish right now! Nobody in South Island has spoken anything but Wallish in nearly two hundred years... Well I take that back, the Wallabies are still speaking wallaroo, but that’s it.”
That couldn’t be a coincidence... or maybe it could? The ponies of Equestria and the gryphons of the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms spoke languages that were similar with each other, the written language was different, but maybe the Kangaroo’s Wallish language was the same way.
Tebb’s ears twitched in thought, he hopped up from his seat and climbed into the tank, returning later with a rather large book that Twilight had never seen before.
“A Complete History of the Kingdom of United Welara, 1170 SE Edition.” Twilight said reading the cover. She had certainly never heard of this book.
“You can have it, that book is dime-a-dozen back home. That edition is thirty years old at this point, but there really isn’t much of a difference between the 1170 edition and the 1200 edition,” Tebbs said.
Twilight thanked the kangaroo for his generosity, tucking it into her bag; she would make time to read it later. Fortunately with this one, it was actually printed in a language she was able to read. Clearly there was some kind of connection between Equestrian and Wallish. This book would explain it, but it was rather lengthy, and she didn’t want to seem rude to try and go off and read it right now.
Soon afterwards, the group turned in. Tomorrow would finish their trip to Ponyville.
...
They only stopped occasionally, the kangaroos had come prepared. Strapped to the side of the tank were six large cans of fuel, or “petrol” as they preferred to call it. Willoughby had just emptied the third can into the fuel tank, the last one they’d need to get to Ponyville, leaving another three for the drive back, and an hour afterwards, the tank had finally pulled into Ponyville, stopping in the centre of town and killing the engine, and causing a huge commotion among the towns ponies, They had never seen anything like the tank before, and were naturally afraid of it. Twilight figured that considering what she had seen the tank do, it had the capability to be very dangerous, but fortunately, the kangaroo crew were friends.
“Calm down everypony!” Rainbow Dash said as she landed next to the tank.
Twilight and Vinyl hopped off, and from the crew compartment hatch, Sergeant Tebbs waved at them. “It was a pleasure driving you home!” he said.
Twilight and Vinyl waved back, thanking the Kangaroo crew for all they had done for them.
Tebbs smiled. “Start her up McNair!”
The tank’s engine, rather than making the normal idling sound they had gotten used to, made a new one.
Crunch! Sputter Sputter Sputter.
“Shut it off! Shut it off!” Tebbs called out. “Oh bloody hell!”
Tebbs hopped out and opened up the engine compartment, black smoke billowed out from the engine, causing Tebbs to yell out several of his more... colourful expletives.
“Moronic grease monkies!” Tebbs yelled out in frustration. He had previously explained that “Grease Monkey” was slang for a mechanic who kept their tanks running. “Bastards! When I find the idiot who was supposed to do preventative maintenance on this thing...”
Tebbs turned around and explained. “Our tanks were built to operate in a warmer climate, so they need a lot of work on them to make sure they don’t break down at the worst times.” Tebbs unstrapped the third can of fuel. “Not to mention that this ain’t even the right fuel for this model! We need 65 grade, this is 54... It CAN run on 54, but it builds up this sort of gunk that clogs the engine, it sits for even a minute in cold weather and it hardens. I’m going to have to rip out the engine block, take it apart and build it again from the ground up!”
Tebbs gave a polite smile to the ponies of Ponyville. “Well, looks like you’re stuck with us a while.”
“It could have been worse,” Twilight added with a small chuckle. “We could have gotten a ride home from gryphons...”
Gilda had stopped running. She figured she was far enough away now. She’d heard the mountain explode; their ammo storage must have gone up in flames she’d told herself. Adrenalin had worn off at this point, she was dead tired.
Then the reality of her situation set in. She had deserted in battle. She would be killed for that! Being executed for cowardice was not how she wanted to be remembered, but then, another thought came to her. All her comrades were dead. She was the only survivor! That meant she could tell the story however she wanted, and nobody would come along and give a different account of events. Gilda felt better about this, she could paint herself as a hero! Yes! She thought to herself, Lieutenant Razorwing had been injured and she pulled her to safety. She began rehearsing to herself. Then the kangaroos shot their ammo storage, and the shockwave from the blast threw her and the Lieutenant clear of the fight. Killing everyone else, Lieutenant Razorwing eventually succumbed to her wounds, leaving Gilda the only survivor. Yes! That would totally work!
Gilda felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders, she wasn’t going to die!
She wasn’t going to die.
In the distance, she heard a loud howling noise, followed by a faint ticking sound that was slowly beginning to get louder, and it was coming right towards her!
Ticka-Ticka-Ticka-Ticka-Ticka-Ticka-Ticka!
Through the trees a cloud of thick black smoke poured into view, it seemed to have a mind of its own, and it was coming towards her, the cloud stopped moving a few steps from her, where it seemed to evaporate, but in its place, where three ponies as if they had stepped out from darkness. The first one was an earth pony, the second, a Pegasus, and the third was a unicorn. Each of them was a pitch black colour, with amber eyes that seemed to look through her.
“Gilda Griffon,” the earth pony said. “We are very disappointed in you.”
“What? Who...? Who are you?” Gilda asked, her voice trembling in fear.
“Irrelevant,” The Pegasus said. “We know what you plan to do. You plan to lie to make yourself look good in the eyes of your fellows. You will tell the truth.”
“But... I can’t!” Gilda said. “They’ll kill me if I tell them the truth!”
“Gilda, Gilda, Gilda... What do you think we will do to you if you don’t tell the truth?” the Unicorn said. “We’re giving you a choice. Either you tell the truth, and be executed for cowardice. Or you lie, and then we hunt you down, and make you wish you had been killed.”
“There isn’t anything you can do to me that’s worse than death,” Gilda said. “I’ll take my chances.”
“Oh Gilda...” the Earth pony said. “We hate to be the one to tell you this... but you are dead wrong.”
The ponies turned back into smoke, charging at Gilda.