Gilda entered the large silver hall, home of the Griffon king, Protor. Gilda and her Lackey approached the King, and she began to speak, “Your mission is complete, my King. We have stolen ‘The Bang’, and detonated it on Canterlot.”
Protor’s expression went from stern to angry. “You were supposed to bring it back!” yelled the King. “For this failure, I have no choice but to do this.” He pulled a Pistol from his end table and aimed it at her Lackey. He fired the gun, and Gilda’s companion slid across the floor, a bullet in her ribcage.
“No!” shouted Gilda, as she ran to her friend.
“It’s fine. The wound isn’t fatal. If I wanted to kill her, I would have shot her in the head.” Replied the King, not caring about the situation and gingerly putting his gun away. Gilda, festering with anger, leaped at Protor, and pinned him to his throne by the neck with her claw.
“Listen, you,” Said Gilda in her artificial mask voice, “Griffinium has had enough of your tyranny, and now I have to do what no one else has the guts to do.” She lifted the king, and threw him across the hall. Protor recognized this as a formal duel, and stood at the ready. Gilda soared into the air, and landed on three legs, with one claw in the air forming a fist. Protor hovered, before charging his opponent. Gilda leaned out of the way, and as the king’s head passed, she delivered a crushing blow to Protor’s left Temple. He skewed out of flight, and landed in a heap of his own limbs on the other side of the hall. Gilda inspected his body, but he grasped her back left leg, spun around onto her back, and put Gilda into a chokehold. He now understood that this was a fight to the death, and he had a secret weapon. He jumped into the air, kicked the back of Gilda’s head, and flew to his end table. Gilda saw that he was reaching for what was on the end table, but after that blow to the head, she was doing her best trying not to fall over. Protor grabbed his gun, and pointed it squarely at Gilda’s head. He fired the gun, just as Gilda’s Lackey jumped in the way. The bullet sliced through the air, and embedded itself into the Lackeys skull. She fell in a heap on the floor. “No!” Gilda shouted again, “Sister!” she faced Protor again, her eyes deadly daggers, digging into the king’s mind. She leaped, but Protor was quicker on his feet, and pulled the trigger on his gun. Nothing happened. Gilda smashed into the king with such force that his ribs broke, and he impacted the far wall of the hall. Gilda pinned him once again to the wall, but this time, she pulled out her claws. She stabbed them into Protor’s stomach, and threw him on the ground again. He got back up, determined not to lose this duel. Gilda delivered a crushing left hook, followed by a right hook, and finished off with a deadly uppercut. Protor hit the ground, and slid a few feet on his back, before trying to stand up again, but Gilda was already on top of him. She forced her claws down on the King’s windpipe, and a violent kicking from her opponent occurred. Eventually the kicking stopped, and Protor went limp. Gilda stood again, checked his pulse, and confirmed her suspicions: He was dead. Gilda immediately rushed to her sister.
“Sister? Are you okay?” she asked, already knowing the answer, but too afraid to embrace it.
“Yes,” Replied Gilda’s sister, “yes. My soul is at rest, knowing that I helped you become queen of Griffinium.”
“But-“Gilda began
“No.” replied her sister, “No; I’m not going to make it. Just promise me one thing, alright?” she asked.
“What? Anything?” Gilda pleaded. If she did not fulfill her sister’s last wish, Gilda would forever live with a guilty conscious.
“Do you remember your old friend from flight camp?”
“Rainbow Dash? Yes. How could I forget that she just shunned the one person who knew her since birth, for a few lame ponies? What about her?”
Her sister only managed to get out two weak words: “…..Kill…..Her…..” Gilda’s sister let out a final sigh, before going completely cold.
It was on. No one would get away with killing the sister of retributor Gilda. She would kill Rainbow dash, no matter what. She dawned the crown of Griffinium, took the king’s pistol (with a few extra magazines) and set off, on course for Appleloosa, where she expected Dash to be.
* * *
Applejack and Rarity climbed over a golden hill, to look out at Appleloosa. Rarity complained, “I still don’t see why WE have to go out for help from Appleloosa.”
“Cuz, Rarity,” said Applejack, “Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight are all missin’, and no one in camp is fit enough to go all the way to Appleloosa in the blistering heat. Also, I needed a partner.” Applejack stated smugly.
“Ugh, I can see why no one is fit enough for this. My hooves are killing me, and the dust has settled so deep in my coat that it’s going to take weeks of grooming to get it all out.” Complained Rarity some more.
“Ah know, you’ve been whinin’ about it the whole time.” Applejack sighed, as they went down the last plain into Appleloosa.
“And to think, I’m still going to have to walk all the way back to the camp.”
“Would you forget it, Rarity? Listen, why don’t you stay in Appleloosa while I go back to the camp. When we find the other four, we’ll come back for you, kay?” queried Applejack.
“Fine. But don’t forget about me, okay?” said Rarity.
Applejack’s cousin Breaburn suddenly appeared in front of the two ponies as soon as they entered town, “Howdy, there!” he said, “Welcome to Aaaapleloosa!” he shouted standing high in the air and waving his hooves.
“Hey, there, cousin.” Said Applejack.
“Hey, to you, too, cousin! What brings you and your friend here to Aaaapleloosa?” He said doing his standing thing again.
“Let’s talk in Private, Breaburn. Rarity, you go enjoy yourself.” As Applejack walked off with Breaburn, Rarity stepped into the local saloon, ‘The Salt Block’.
Breaburn and Applejack entered the office of Sheriff Silverstar, where Applejack began the conversation, “Ah’m sure you’ve heard about that Train Crash out of Town.”
“We sure have, but we thought nopony survived it.”
“You were wrong. Me and Rarity were only two survivors. There are about seven more that have started to make a camp, but we’re low on food, so they sent us to see if Appleloosa would be kind enough to take us in.”
“We sure are!” said Sheriff Silverstar, who was also in the room. “We’ll have a caravan of Ponies there in a jiff. Would ya’ like a ride?”
“Sure. Let’s get moving fellas.”
* * *
Rainbow Dash soared through the Air alone. It was one of her favorite things to do. But this time, she wasn’t doing it for fun; she was doing it to find the Train crash. When she woke up, she was in the middle of the desert, with no train in sight, and the only thing to see was the huge Firewall only a few miles away. She was forced to watch in her incapacitated state as Ponyville was ripped apart. Soon after, she got feeling in her wings back, and started to fly down the tracks. But she’d been flying for hours, and still no train wreck. Suddenly, Dash smelled smoke and looked behind her to see a huge airship with smoke coming out of one engine coming straight for her. She dodged the airship, and watched as it shattered across the desert, in a huge fiery torrent of destruction. Dash looked up to see an epic battle between three more airships. Two were smaller, and carried the symbol on the train griffon on their balloons, and the third was a larger, longer, purple airship with Zecora’s Cutie mark on its Balloon. Rainbow flew up for a closer look. On the two smaller airships, there were Griffons, and one of them had Gilda on it, but wearing the crown of Griffinium. On the larger airship, several zebras were battling griffons, and others were manning the 50 guns, including cannons, explosive cannons, harpoon Ballistae net guns, and precision sniping rifles. Gilda spotted Rainbow, and ordered the helmsman to redirect the airship to go straight towards rainbow. Before her vision was obstructed by Gilda’s airship, the cyan Pony watched the other griffon airship be ripped apart by explosions, cannonballs, and harpoons. Rainbow realized that the Airship was following her, and she decided that she wouldn’t run away from a fight. The thought to herself, what would Daring Do do? She soared onto the airship, and incapacitated two Griffons immediately with her kicks.
She delivered a crushing blow to another Griffon, who ran up to her, and when one air-Charged, Dash swung with her left hoof. Her blow connected, but Rainbow felt immense pain, until she remembered that her left hoof had been cut by a mugger. She was still able to expertly disable Griffon after Griffon, paying no mind to why they wanted to kill her. Eventually, the airship was empty, except for Gilda. She charged Rainbow, and tackled her over the edge. Both could fly, so being off of the airship made no difference. Gilda wanted this to be quick, so she pulled out King Protor’s gun, and fired at Rainbow. She was able to Dodge most bullets, but when one finally connected, it connected with her wing, sending her in a free-fall into the desert below.
* * *
Twilight woke again in some kind of constraint. Her hooves and neck were attached to a metal plate via shackles. “Wha-“she said, “Where am I?”
“Ah, good. You’re awake.” Said a mysterious voice. Twilight could see nothing but a bright white light being shined upon her. A silhouette stood in front of the light, and twilight recognized it as the monster that attacked her on the train. She could now make out its figure, and its face was even more disgusting than she could have imagined. It was covered in wrinkles, and instead of a snout, it had just a mouth across its face. Its nose protruded from its face, standing alone, and both of its eyes face forward at her. As the beast started examining her, she could see that its upper hooves were not hooves at all, more log arms with odd creations at the end of them. A center that resembled a hoof, and five smaller legs coming off of it. What was this creature? Was it from another dimension? Another universe? Twilight had no Idea. She could only ask, “Who-and what-are you?”
The creature chuckled, and said, in an odd male voice, “You’re so naïve, my little pony. I’m Damian, and I come from a land very different from this. Me and my army were teleported here from our world, Earth. You see, magic exists in only your dimension, and in ours, science replaces magic. And now, since I’m here, I’ve decided to conduct a bit of research on you. I’d like you to meet your fellow test subjects.
The room lights came on, and Twilight could see the two other Ponies in the room with her: Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy…