3-7 Recap · 10:06pm Oct 31st, 2015
Here's your recap for tomorrow's update! 
“We’ll be dividing our group into two teams," Twilight continued. "Team A will consist of Donut, Simmons, Church, Caboose, Washington, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and myself. We’ll go to the Crystal Empire and track down those ruins.”
“Um… Twilight? I have a question,” Fluttershy declared timidly. “If your team is going to the Crystal Empire to find the ruins… what’s the other team going to do?”
“Team B is going to Canterlot,” Twilight said boldly. “They’re going to sneak into the castle and stop Project Freelancer from destroying it.”
“As you may recall, I installed a spell matrix throughout the Canterlot Castle that would allow me to monitor all of the goings-on within its walls,” Celestia explained. “Somehow, Project Freelancer’s agents have gained access to that spell. They’re watching our every move this way.”
“Who’s Gilda?” Donut asked.
“Nobody,” Rainbow said in a dangerous low voice. “Just an ex-friend who turned out to be a big, stupid… jerk!”
“U-um…” Fluttershy started, before momentarily shrinking back when Rainbow’s angry glare made a beeline for her. “It’s just… i-it kinda looks like she’s sorry.”
“What?” Rainbow all but growled.
“W-well… Gilda looks like she wants to get back in touch. Maybe she feels bad about everything that happened?”
Lieutenant Graywing took another sip of her foul-smelling griffon coffee before she continued briefing Sunny and Silversteel. “Your jobs will be relatively simple: Stay here and keep an eye on the palace. You’re both earth ponies, so you’ll be more inconspicuous. As soon as you see the targets leave, report to me and I’ll fly ahead and alert the CO. He’ll be waiting to ambush them with the rest of the company.”
Twilight opened her pocket dimension and brought out their transcription of Recolta Bogada, along with a relatively recent map of the Frozen North. “According to what we found, the ruins we’re looking for are at Stonespire Mountain, less than a couple days’ walk from here. We can’t miss it.”
Shining adjusted his black scarf and raised his protective eyemask. “Twily, you know better than I do the things that live in the North. On top of that, our scouts have reported activity from a very large unidentified company of sellswords in the area. It would really make me feel better if you had an escort.”
Carefully, Twilight peeked out of the tower looking through the sniper’s scope and tried to get a bead on one of their attackers. She found one, and her fears were confirmed when she saw a figure resembling a griffon moving cautiously forward, firing wildly and inaccurately with a Battle Rifle. Adjusting her sights, Twilight spotted a couple of ponies and a zebra crouched behind a fallen tree, all using assault rifles. They seemed just as inexperienced with the weapons as the griffon, letting the recoil “walk” their weapons upwards with every burst of fire. Twilight was reminded of her own brief experience using the weapons. Just behind them, a group of diamond dogs were moving up, similarly armed.
“They aren’t human soldiers,” Twilight reported, lowering her rifle. “It looks like the sellswords my brother warned us about!”
“So why the hell do they have human weapons, then?” Church asked. Twilight was wondering that herself.
“That doesn’t matter right now,” Washington said, taking another shot. “Based on the gunfire, I count at least fifty of them down there, and that’s not including the vapor trails coming from the cloud formations above. They may not have the training to use their equipment, but they’ll completely overrun this position if we stay here.”
Twilight glanced out to where the sheer icy cliff their tower stood against opened up into the Emerald Pass. “We can flee into the pass. They won’t be able to flank us in that tight space.”
“Yeah! It’ll be a shooting gallery once they start lining up to go after us!” Church exclaimed. “Even I couldn’t miss them.”
“A system of ice caves runs all around the pass, we can hide in there once we’ve forced them to back off,” Twilight continued, having turned ignoring Caboose into an art form by this point.
“Okay, now we just need a way to create an opening,” Washington said, taking another look at the stretch of open ground between their tower and the pass. The sellswords had proven to be lousy shots so far, but with so many gunning for them, one or two were bound to get in a lucky shot if their targets spent too much time out in the open.
“Leave that to me!” Rainbow exclaimed, spreading her wings. “I can distract them long enough for you guys to get a good head start. I’ll create a signal, then you guys run for it.”
“Okay, what’s the signal?” Church asked.
“Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it!”
“Applejack, can you carry the unconscious diamond dog?” Washington asked as he loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle. “When we get out of this, I’d like to have a little chat with him.”
“AUGH!” Rainbow screamed as a sudden jolt of pain shot through her wing, and before she knew it Rainbow was falling towards the ground. Landing hard on her side, Rainbow rolled and skidded until she came to a stop in the snow. Groaning in pain, Rainbow forced herself to her feet and clutched the damaged wing, feeling a sticky wetness. Drawing her hoof back, Rainbow saw a fresh bit of blood running down it.
Then the griffon was upon her. The wind was knocked out of Rainbow as the large avian body-checked her back to the ground. Rainbow struggled and thrashed with all her might, but the larger griffon was quickly able to hold her down. Breathing heavily, the two combatants glared into each other’s eyes until the griffon’s own suddenly grew wide.
Rearing her head back, the griffon looked down at Rainbow with an expression of pure shock before whispering in a familiar rasp, “Dash…?”
Rainbow studied the griffon and suddenly her features grew familiar. Rainbow recognized the light brown coat, purple tipped feathers, and light amber eyes and scowled as she heard a second set of wings flap, announcing another’s arrival. The large male griffon with the eyepatch that Rainbow noticed earlier stepped up behind the familiar one pinning her down.
“Nice work, Gilda,” he said in a deep rasp. “Good to see you’re earning your keep.”
Gilda looked over her shoulder at the imposing griffon with a smile that seemed slightly nervous. Wincing from another spike of pain, Rainbow looked away from her old “friend” and down at her bloody wing; at the wound that had so thoroughly been reopened.
