Myths and Birthrights
By Tundara
Book Two: Duty and Dreams
Chapter Twenty-Two: The War of the Summer Sun; Gilda and Rainbow
Gilda lay awake all night watching the stars. Her thoughts drifted across the years.
Back to her school years with Rainbow Dash and Blinka. How Blinka would follow her and Dash around like a bad smell, constantly asking questions and being an annoyance. Gilda and Dash were the coolest kids around, and of course Blinka wanted to be included, and of course Gilda and Dash did everything they could to get rid of her. They’d been so rotten to her, going so far as to once trick Blinka into hiding in a dumpster while they went off to watch a race.
Yet, despite all the teasing, rough housing, and meanness, Blinka had been there for Gilda when she’d hit her lowest.
Gilda had trouble remembering which of them had the idea to immigrate to Southstone and ‘rejoin the great Griffon city’. It had been Blinka, right? Or was it her? One of them had read an article in the newspaper. No, it had been their great uncle’s ramblings that had set them on the path, hadn’t it?
Snorting at her own faulty memory, Gilda rolled over and began to prepare for tomorrow. It was going to be a long, hard day.
Still, she couldn’t get over the brief encounter with Dash.
What were the odds she’d run into her old friend the day before rushing off on what was by all sane estimations a suicide mission? Were she a more religious griffon, she’d have thought Faust involved in some manner. Faust, however, couldn’t give a falling feather for a griffon.
It was a coincidence. Nothing more. One of those strange quirks that sometimes happened.
Just like her being saved by Zubu.
She traced a talon over Zubu’s staff, the wood worn smooth where he’d used it as a crutch for years. With her talons and magic, Gilda didn’t need any weapons, nor did she require the staff as a focus for her spellwork. She couldn’t leave it behind, however. It was the only reminder of the blissful few months she’d known the crotchety ancient zebra. Already the memories were becoming like a dream, one from which she’d been cruelly awoken.
Zubu had been a harsh teacher, but an effective one. He’d taught her so much in the few months they were together. Little sparks of static danced between her talons.
Her heart clenched at the constant reminder of her mentor, and his loss. How she wished he and Orenda were still with her, instead of these strange hairless, smelly apes.
Following Zubu’s death Orenda had disappeared, vanishing with a rattling scream that flayed the hearts of all who heard her. The kitsune had been bound to Zubu, and with his death, part of her had died as well. If she’d been his apprentice longer, perhaps Orenda would have joined with her, rather than vanish.
The subject of bonding with a spirit never came up during her training. One of many subjects Zubu’s untimely death prevented them from touching.
There’d been so much for her still to learn.
Those lessons he’d managed to impart she put to use. Her inner eye turned inward, balancing on a precipice. With a gentle nudge it fell over the edge towards her magic.
Down a gaping well her consciousness descended into the metaphysical core. The rush of the descent was a calming sort of exhilaration without the ripple of wind ruffling her feathers. Just the simple sensation of falling.
And then it was over and she was looking at her reserves of magic; a pool of aether large enough to fill a public swimming pool. Not too shabby, for a griffin. Pleased, she opened her eyes.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, ghostly movement making her heart quicken and talons tense. She stared, but nothing was there. After a few seconds she began to relax. The soft padding of feet on damp grass behind her twitched Gilda’s ear to the approach of Highpriestess Urufaust.
With Zubu and Orenda gone, the stink-apes were her only company.
“You seem restless,” High Priestess Urufaust noted as she came and sat down next to Gilda. She stretched out her long, coppery limbs, adorned with thin bands of gold, simple sandals on her feet. Gilda wondered again why griffons were so afraid of such frail looking creatures, and shrugged off the thoughts.
Gilda responded with a snort. “Got a lot on my mind if I’m going to get my talons on the general’s throat.”
“Is that what he’d want?” There was a slight upward tick to one of Urufaust’s brows. The subtle motion was so unnerving compared to normal pony and griffon facial expressions. So sedate and barely detectable. And frustrating.
“Don’t be featherbrained,” Gilda dragged her talons through the ground. “Zubu was always going on about not getting revenge. But he is dead. He doesn’t want anything anymore. Same with Blinka. All I have left is getting back at the molly that took Blinka away from me. If all you’re going to do is spout moralistic garbage at me, than go away.”
The High Priestess spread her hands and shook her head. “Then instead let me offer a bit of advice.”
“I just said I don’t want your moralising.” Gilda began to pace in front of the human, but her gaze was fixed on the lakes of lights down on the fields. After a few turns she came to a sharp stop and rounded on Urufaust. “Why are you even here? I went through that damn test to go to that island. You and Zubu went and did some ritual, and then we were off running towards Southstone. What did your magic show you?”
Urufaust replied with a mysterious smile. Raising a slender finger, Urufaust pointed upwards towards the twinkling stars. As she pointed a spot of light popped into being, the new star twinkling brightly. Gilda blinked in surprise, then snorted and shrugged her wings.
In a soft, almost sad whisper, Urufaust said, “The Nightwatcher revives her stars as she prepares to battle for the souls of this world.”
Her finger dropped to the field covered by thousands upon thousands of distant cooking and lookout fires. In the distance steaks of fire reached up to slam into Southstone’s lowest wall.
“Tomorrow, three armies will clash, and the fate of the disc will be chosen.”
She faced Gilda, and then bowed.
“This is as far as we take you. The rest is up to you. There is no place for us in what is to occur tomorrow. That is what She showed us. May Fate smile upon you, Gilda the Deathtouched.”
Urufaust turned and vanished into the night, and was never seen again. Unseen and unheard, the men that had guided Gilda this far had gathered. As one they placed their fists over their chests, bowed, and then they too slipped away. Even with her sharpened senses Gilda couldn’t keep track of the humans as they began the long trek back to their jungle sanctuary.
“Cowards,” Gilda snorted, but she smiled, and wished them well from the bottom of her heart.
Still smiling, Gilda hefted Zubu’s staff, and cast a minor illusion to give her the appearance of wearing a cataphracts heavy armour. Gliding down the hill, she approached the griffon army and began her long awaited infiltration.
As she approached movement caught her attention. In groups of ten to twenty griffons broke off from the camp and flew around the side of Kiligrifjaro where the mountain would hide them from the eyes of the zebras. In the mountain’s shadow they then flew upwards and joined with those that had left earlier to gather the clouds that clung to the mountain. They kept away from Southstone Spires, many zebras keeping watch on the city for any attempt to enter it before daybreak. Slowly, the cataphracts were abandoning the main camp, only a token force being left behind to maintain appearances while the bulk took station overhead.
Quickly, Gilda altered the angle of her approach and slipped in behind and joined one of the groups heading up to the cloud cover. Clouds tried to stick to her like cotton candy strands. She had always hated flying through clouds and taking part in weather duties. Gritting her beak she powered through the clingy clouds until she broke out and saw arrayed around her on the glowing white surface thousands of cataphracts. Their silvery armour glimmered in the moonlight, dazzling in the velvety pre-dawn. Commanders directed groups into forming rain showers to further help hide what the griffons were doing.
“You there!” barked one such commander at Gilda. The knots on his shoulders and plume of his helm indicated he was a hecatontach. Flying over, the aged commander gave Gilda a quick glance over. “What unit are you with?”
“Rock Crest, ” Gilda responded, snapping out a salute.
“Rock Crest? Thought you lot were all wiped out last month,” the commander snorted, then indicated a group of other oddly assorted griffons. “Join up with the other remnants than. You’ll be under General Hydros in the vanguard.”
After exchanging salutes, the commander went off to direct and sort through the next group of arrivals.
Grinning at her luck, Gilda headed towards the group of remnants, and began helping them with organising the clouds. It was long work getting a good, thick layer of clouds formed and naturally drifting over the battlefield. As she worked Gilda found her eyes continually pulled towards Southstone Spires. Now she was closer she could feel a perverse aura of wrongness about the city. Her magical senses recoiled, and she couldn’t look too long at the city before her stomach would begin to churn and bile fill her beak. Her fur crawled being near the city, with its glimmering blue barrier. Part of her wondered where the pony-like shell over the city had come from. It was only a small part, as she tore her gaze away from the city to look for the one griffon she wanted, needed, to find. But the general was nowhere to be seen. Gritting her beak and biding her time, Gilda continued to work. The sun had risen by the time they’d finished, and by word of mouth alone been called to fall into squadrons.
From below the clouds the roar of battle could be heard as only a dull hum pierced by the bangs of cannons. At one point there was an extended rumble as one side charged the other.
Gilda hadn’t seen the general at all throughout the dawn and morning, and then she emerged along with two other generals. They spoke very briefly, finalizing some last details, and then they each went to their armies.
Gilda slid silently through the cataphracts to reach the front lines. Her blood raced, sweat beading her brow in the muggy morning air. A few griffons shot her looks, but shifted to make space. Her illusion held. Slowly she made her way towards the front ranks.
General Hydros marched back and forth inspecting her prized soldiers. Her scowl was severe, a hungry flame in her golden eyes. Resplendent armour glittered and battle talons clicked on hard packed cloudstuff with each step.
Taking a deep breath, General Hydros launched into a carrying speech. A passionate speech that poured fire into the hearts of her soldiers. Behind her a hole tore open in the clouds, one of a few such gaps in the clouds to make them seem more natural, but the only one around which the griffons gathered.
“The sun rises and darkness falls! Look to the east! Look, and see our home besieged! Foul powers have stolen her, and now zebra zealots seek to claim her for themselves! If we fail this day then the time of the griffons will have truly passed! If we fail this day then all hope will be lost! Our final hour is now! Your greatest hour is now! Beneath us lay those fields that have been home to griffons since the birth of the disc. They are our home, and now they are trampled by invaders. But it shall not remain so! Let them hear your cry! Let them hear you and shake in fear. A fear I do not share, though I know we go to our deaths. Because I go beside you, my brothers and sisters. We charge! We charge into death’s jaws! We charge into glory! We charge into history! Sound the horns!”
Her speech over, General Hydros spun and leaped over the side and dived towards the zebras. With her followed all that remained of Gryphonia. Resolutely, they followed her into hell. The last charge of the cataphracts.
Gilda’s beak twisted into a grin as she raced after the general.
Twenty-five thousand in number, the cataphracts dived and dived. Banners flew high and proud above a solid battlecry. Horns bellowed their approach as they broke into five deadly wedges. The zebras barely had time to get over their shock at so many griffons appearing right in their midst before talon or lance tore through flesh.
In the tumult and initial rush Gilda lost sight of General Hydros. She swung left and right, zigzagging through the battlefield as it broke down into personal struggles of life and death. Zebras were picked up and then dashed against the earth. Griffons were flung from the sky, the new zebra weapons showing their true worth. Only in the very center where the zebras kept their supplies and had their medical triage were the griffons truly able to run rampant.
Everything depended on the quick wits of the commanders and the steely hearts of their soldiers to respond without panicking. In some places the griffons decimated the frightened zebras. In others it was the griffons cut to pieces. It was bedlam and chaos, and in it Gilda searched for General Hydros, hoping that the general yet lived so she could be the one to end her life.
Minutes bled together, Gilda losing track of time as weaved through the fighting all around her. It took all her skill and training to avoid getting entangled in the battle.
With a flip and twist she spun over a charging trio of zebras with hoof-cannons, a tug off her out-streatched talons pulling them off balance. A griffon ordered her to fight, and she sped away. She spotted the general’s flagbearer, landed, slid under a cart as it overturned covered in flames, and launched herself back up.
Vengeance was close now.
Gilda could taste it on the wind, bitter and unfulfilling.
General Hydros and her most trusted cataphracts cut through the zebras, and began to angle skyward for another charge. At the bugle of a horn hundreds of griffons formed up on her flanks. They spiralled to the base of the clouds, several hundred griffons strong, looped over, and dived back towards the bloodsoaked fields.
Unencumbered by armour, Gilda easily outpaced the cataphracts. Her eyes were locked onto Hydros’ back. She flew with all her might, with all the fluid speed granted to her kind by their avian heritage.
Vengeance was within reach at last.
Blinka would be avenged.
“Gilly!” A foal cried in joy as Gilda passed the walls, wings tucked to her side.
For a fleeting moment Gilda caught sight of Talona leaning over the parapets surrounded by a trio of unfamiliar fillies. Then she plummeted past and there was only the tail of her target.
Closer and closer she drew towards her prey, and still the general failed to realise the danger giving chase.
Out of the corner of her eye Gilda spotted a flash of prismatic mane. Rainbow Dash rolled into a sharp dive, urged on by Pinkie Pie gripping her neck, and for an instant Gilda thought her friend intended to intercept her. Rainbow’s angle was wrong if that was her intent, taking her towards the walls of Southstone rather into the melee. Twisting her head around Gilda saw Talona and two of the fillies falling in twisting tumble as they grasped onto each other.
Time froze for Gilda.
Before her lay vengeance.
Behind fell a trio of fillies.
Desperation bent Rainbow’s athletic frame. Hooves stretched out towards the falling fillies, she ignored everything but reaching them in time.
They were why Rainbow had come to this forsaken place.
And Rainbow would never reach them in time.
Gilda had to choose. Either continue her pursuit of General Hydros, or save the fillies.
“You have to help your friend.” Gilda swore she heard Blinka whisper in her ear.
Indecession wracked Gilda.
She was so close! So close to the only goal that had kept her alive these past few months! She could already taste Hydros’ blood in her beak and feel it squish between her talons. What did she care about some stupid ponies?
A rainboom cone formed around Rainbow Dash, and still she would fail to reach the fillies.
“Gilda, you have to forgive yourself,” Blinka said, and Gilda felt ghostly soft talons touch her shoulders. “Save them. Save them like you tried to save me.”
Taking a last look at the diminishing shape of General Hydros, Gilda flared her wings and flipped over onto her back to form a net.
The fillies screams came to a sharp end as they were grasped in Gilda’s arms and wings.
“I gotcha squirts,” Gilda said, trying her best to be comforting as she braked their fall.
“Gilly!” Talona giggled, thinking everything a big game.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s been a while.” Gilda patted Talona on the head and quickly glanced over the other two fillies. Both seemed unharmed, just frightened. Around them the last of the cataphracts swept past.
“Hold tight,” she said ordered, and clutched them to her chest.
She started to roll again, the trio clutched tight, when fire and pain roared through her body from the top of her shoulders to the tip of her tail as she was flung side-long into an uncontrollable spin. She tried to correct, but her right wing refused to respond. The reason became evident when she noticed it tumbling away from her. With only one wing, she wrapped herself around the fillies and braced as best she could for the inevitable crash, darkness encroaching the edges of her vision.
“Gilda!” Rainbow’s voice pierced the haze of pain threatening to consume her.
At the very last instant Rainbow grappled her, and together she and the five ponies tumbled, bounced, and rolled across the trampled grass into the massed ranks of the zebrican army. Blood filled her beak, throat, and lungs. Her breath came in a sodden, haggard gasp, and then stilled. The darkness swarmed over her senses, and Gilda felt herself continue to fall even as her body rested on the earth.
Darkness gave way to bleak grey fog. Around her milled griffons and zebras guided by black coated pegasi. Everything was strangely quiet, except for the distant hum of someone singing off-kay. Crinkling her brow Gilda followed the singing. The fog thickened until Gilda could barely see the tip of her own beak, and then it thinned at the bank of a dark river dark as tar, and just as thick. To her left dozens of rickety docks thrust out into the placid waters, while ahead was a small campfire.
And at the campfire sat a very familiar figure.
“She was big and strong, in her eyes a flaming glow!” Came Zubu’s raspy voice in a familiar mockery of singing. “Most griffons looked at her with terror and fear. But to village toms, she was such a lovely dear!”
Wearily, Gilda asked, “Do you have to sing?”
“You don’t like?” Zubu asked, looking up from the campfire. With a wave of his crippled leg he bade her to sit beside him. “I thought everyone from the western continent loved to sing and dance.”
Blinking, Gilda shrugged and trudged next to him. Wait, hadn’t she been falling?
Gilda shook away the thought, compelled to sit next to her master.
“Do I look like some lame featherbrained pony?” Gilda snorted, staring into the flames.
The conversation felt so familiar. So very familiar.
“No,” Zubu replied soberly. “You look like a hero.”
“Huh?” Gilda’s head snapped up. That wasn’t familiar. At all.
“I am proud of you,” he continued, prodding the dying flames with the tip of his staff. “The wise and mighty Zubu trained a very good pupil. But you have much to learn still. Much to accomplish. If you choose, that is.”
A chill slid up Gilda’s spine. She looked around the river bank, and saw that they were not alone. Thousands of zebra staggered in ragged lines towards hundreds of rickety docks set along the river’s banks. Wounds of a great battle covered every single one of them, some with missing limbs or hunks of flesh.
“Am I dead?”
Zubu was quiet for an uncomfortable period. “Hmmm, yes and no. There is still hope for you. The wise Zubu gave you the necessary runes. If you try, you can still grasp onto the faint warmth and reclaim life. Or, you can rest. Zubu would be glad of the company. It is lonely here without Orenda and a noisy, stupid appentice.”
“I’m not ready to die,” Gilda declared right away. “Someone needs to go back to Equestria and tell Blinka’s parents and siblings how she died. Someone needs to tell them how she lived. How she saved me.”
But, she stayed by the fire, staring into its flickering warmth. She stayed next to Zubu, reluctant to leave her master. He poked the embers, sending up a little plume of sparks and smoke. Together they watched the flames begin to gutter until only a few glowing patches of red-white remained. Leaning over, Gilda rested her head against Zubu’s brow, and she was happy.
Heavy, cloying breaths clung to Rainbow’s face, turning her already damp fur into a soggy mess. Wiping her face with the back of a hoof did little to alleviate the discomfort. At least it was better than focusing on the heavy lump draped over her back.
“Pinkie, when we get back to Ponyville, you’re going on a diet,” Rainbow grumbled under her own breath.
“Why?” Pinkie shifted on Rainbow’s back to pinch her pudgy sides, and almost slipped off, only saved by Applejack’s hoof flinging out to catch her.
“Careful sugarcube,” Applejack scolded very softly. “It’s a very long drop.”
Pinkie blinked her huge baby blue eyes and tilted her head upside down towards the ground. She flashed her biggest, unperturbed smile, and righted herself in a swirl of limbs. “Oopsie! Sorry, I forgot. Again.”
Rainbow’s eye did not twitch in a very Twilight-eque manner.
“I swear, you’re putting on more weight than me, and I’m the pregnant one,” Rainbow tried to roll her shoulders a bit to loosen up a knot that had been gradually forming the last hour or so. Pinkie just giggled and patted Rainbow on the head.
“Ahem, may I remind you, that we are surrounded by battle-ready griffons?!” Soarin hissed through clenched teeth.
Pinkie clamped her mouth shut and mimed zipping it tight.
Feathers ruffled, Rainbow made a little grunt and tried to get comfortable in the middle of the cloud. As if to accentuate Soarin’s warning there was the soft crunch of cloudstuff as a griffon walked past only a pony-length overhead. Rainbow’s heart sped, adrenaline flooding her veins as her body tensed, ready to either race towards the city, or hual the griffon into the cloud. Whichever seemed better in the moment. The steps passed, but it would be far from the last time someone came near their hiding spot almost smack dab in the middle of the griffon army.
As uncomfortable as it was having Pinkie lay on her back for hours on end, the clouds pressing in on all sides was worse. Laying inside a cloud was vastly different than lounging atop one. It was like being in a bathtub of cotton candy. Cloudstuff stuck to her face and belly, and got in between the feathers of her wings. She continually had to preen to prevent it from building up too much. A task made more difficult with by Pinkie straddling her.
Soarin was in the same predicament, rolling his shoulders and trying to get at the edges of his wings without dislodging Applejack.
Pinkie and Applejack couldn’t even help. Other than being cold, miserable, and damp, they were unaffected by the clouds.
Rainbow’s thoughts wandered as boredom settled in a drab cloak more oppressive than even the dew on her fur. Twilight had been captured again, that much was obvious. It was the only explanation why she hadn’t put a stop to the battle. Nothing else made sense, and it wasn’t without precedent. In fact, it seemed to becoming more and more common. Discord, Chrysalis, and Leviathan had all caught Twilight in some fashion.
Which would make busting her out and kicking Hades’ flanks all the sweeter.
Rainbow’s ears perked up as there was more movement overhead, a subtle reverberation running through the clouds from thousands of griffons standing on the pliant surface. There was an anticipatory tension, like the clouds themselves held their breath, and then there was a rush as multitudes of wings buffeted the clouds. Poking her head out the bottom of the clouds, Rainbow saw the griffons begin their charging dive towards the masses of zebras below.
Nodding to Soarin, they waited another minute then stretched their wings to fly out of the clouds.
Rainbow had to struggle, her wings sodden with moisture from waiting so long in the clouds. Hugging the tops of the clouds, they approached the shimmering blue shell encapsulating Southstone Spires. Through its opaque surface a crowd could be seen gathering in the lowest ward. Unwilling to test its hardiness by trying to fly through the barrier, Rainbow and Soarin flew along its edge.
Reaching out a hoof, Rainbow was rewarded with a sharp jolt that rippled up her leg and into her shoulder. Grunting, Rainbow shook her head at Soarin.
They were going to have to find some crack in the spell if they were going to enter the city.
A sharp tug on her ears was the only warning given Rainbow of the presence of danger. Sol at their back, a trio of griffons dived with talons extended towards the group of ponies. Rolling sharply, Rainbow felt the lead griffon’s talons pass through the fur on her belly. Tucking her wings tight, Pinkie blowing a raspberry at the griffons, Rainbow swooped down through the clouds. She lost sight of Soarin and Applejack, her last image of them Applejack giving a griffon a fierce buck at it attempted to collide with Soarin, and then slipping off his back. Eyes wide, hooves flailing, Applejack flopped into the clouds, Soarin already diving after her.
There were few fliers alive as good as Soarin. He’d catch Applejack. Confident, Rainbow focused on preserving her own and Pinkie’s hides.
The winds whipped across her face as she dropped through the clouds. Pursued by griffons on either side, she was driven towards the chaos engulfing the fields before Southstone Spires.
A griffon closed in on her flank, and with a spinning buck Rainbow sent it careening into Southtone’s magical wall. There was a crackle, like a fly hitting a bug-zapper, and then the griffon fell limp, smoke trailing behind it as it plummeted towards the city streets. Rainbow cringed, and almost was hit in the side, an uppercut from Pinkie knocking the griffon away.
Griffons swooped and climbed all around them. In the throes of battle-rage they screeched and joined the pursuit. Pinkie was like a bright, pink flag proclaiming them to be enemies to both sides. Zebras hurled spears, and their hoof-cannons barked with fiery purpose.
Zig-zagging hard, the familiar thrill of danger and racing filled her body. Laughing as both griffon and zebra missed by at least a pony-length, she began to taunt her pursuers, luring them in before darting away just as another blast came from below.
“Come on, slow-pokes, I’m even carrying somepony, and this is the best you can do?” Rainbow taunted brazenly over her shoulders, Pinkie adding a raspberry and pulling down the bottom lid of one of her eyes.
Part of her understood just how much danger they were in, and what was happening all around them. It was the same part that told her she had to make sure Pinkie never learned the truth. With so many wounded littering the golden fields, it was only a matter of time until Pinkie figured it out.
Arcing away from the ground, Rainbow climbed away from the battlefield just as the griffons swarmed around the base of the clouds for another charge. A dark blue streak against the grey backdrop approached, and then joined up on her flank. Behind her a very persistent group of griffons continued to give chase.
“We need to retreat!” Soarin yelled. Applejack, more than a little wind-ruffled, clung tight to his back, her face a white sheet underneath her orange coat.
“Twilight needs us!” Rainbow shot back, angling herself between the city dome and the reformed griffon charge.
“Rainbow! Rainbow! Lookie!” Pinkie tugged sharply on Rainbow’s ears, wrenching her head up and pulling them into a tight loop-the-loop that put them behind her pursuers.
Following Pinkie’s thrusting hoof, Rainbow spotted the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing at the edge of the wall. Four fillies, staring down at the carnage of the battle below, unaware that Rainbow was above them. Her heart leapt into her throat in disbelief. When, how, what? She wanted to sputter, but there was no time.
As she watched one of the fillies—the one she didn’t recognise—reached trying to grab at a passing griffon. There was a surge from the crowd around them, and then a tiny ripple in the shield as an orange, a lighter yellow, and a black pony were pushed over the edge.
“Apple Bloom!” Applejack yelled, reaching out a hoof towards the tiny specs tumbling down the cliff.
Rainbow reacted instantly.
“Pinkie; hold on!” Was the only warning Rainbow gave as she tightened her wings into a sharp dive.
In her ears Pinkie gave a whoop of excitement as they plummeted through the swarm of griffons.
Left, right, left, left, back on target; Rainbow continually had to alter her angle to avoid hitting a griffon, slowly her down just fractionally enough.
Magic flowed from Rainbow’s wings as she willed herself to dive faster than she’d ever gone before. The fillies were so far below, and so near the terminal end to their fall. Tightening her magic further and further until it condensed into the tell-tale ripple of an eminent rainboom, Rainbow and Pinkie screamed towards the ground.
Every fibre of her being focused on the trio of falling fillies, on pushing through the final barrier. The foul air around the city clawed at Rainbow, trying to hold her back, and sapping the rainboom energy. With a silent crackle the rainboom burst forth, scintillating energy lancing outwards, impacting the walls of the cliff and tumbling in a multihued wave over the battlefield. Rainbow reached out her hoof towards the fillies as if it would slow them enough for her to grab them before their fall reached its terminal end.
And then there was Gilda, soaring up to halt their fall, cradling them in gentle wings.
Rainbow’s relief was only momentary.
As Gilda turned to carry the fillies to the ground a chorus of bangs issued of the zebras. Gilda spun and her wing fell away less than twenty feet from the ground.
And still they were out of Rainbow’s reach!
A sharp tug on her ears only narrowly prevented Rainbow from plowing straight into the ground trying to grab at Gilda and the fillies. Four bodies tumbled and bounced over the sunbaked earth. Performing a tight loop at rainboom speed, possible only through the magic saturating her and Pinkie, Rainbow landed next to the sprawled fillies and mortally wounded Gilda.
Even before Rainbow came to a sharp stop Pinkie had bounded off her back and headed towards the fillies, leaving Gilda to Rainbow.
Ignoring the thunder of battle all around her, Rainbow bent down with angry tears welling in her eyes. To Rainbow’s horror, Gilda didn’t move. Only a jagged stump remained at the base of Gilda’s missing wing, bone peaking through torn flesh. First aid training kicking in, Rainbow pressed her hooves over the stump in an effort to stem the blood flow.
“Come on, Gilda,” Rainbow growled, Gilda’s hot blood squelching between her hooves.
Hardy nature protecting her, Apple Bloom was the first to get to her hooves, standing just as Soarin landed. Still unsteady, she was almost knocked onto her flank as she was tackle-hugged by Applejack. Scootaloo and Talona were plucked up by Pinkie as zebras surrounded them with a wall of spears.
The zebras parted, Lord Halphamet emerging into the circle along with six other dahkirt, each flanked by their ifrit companion. Face hidden behind his chanfron, the tense line of his jaw and flash of his eyes created a merciless visage.
“Take the godling,” Halphamet barked to his underlings. When Applejack made to charge the nearest zebra, he thrust a hoof at her, “Contain yourself! The Empress commands that the godling is to be safeguarded, but made no mention of the Elements of Harmony. Whether we assist you or abandon you will be determined by how you act.”
“She ain’t yours to take!” Applejack scuffed at the earth and snorted.
“And she is not yours to protect,” Halphamet pointed out as three of the dahkrit approached where Talona huddled between Applejack and Apple Bloom.
Rainbow was only paying partial attention to what was going on around her. She couldn’t stem the flow of Gilda’s blood.
“Applejack, I need your help!” Rainbow shouted, trying to find a better position for her hooves, but only causing more blood to cover her legs. “Applejack!”
Torn between Rainbow’s plea and protecting a filly, Applejack swung her head back and forth between her friend and Halphamet. “You swear you don’t mean her no harm?”
“I make no claims on the Empress’ designs, only that her commands were to safeguard Talona, and to bring her to Zerubaba.”
“Fine!” Applejack snapped, her entire body shaking with anger. “But only because Princesses Luna and Fluttershy are in Zerubaba. And, we’ll be following you soon as we can, so you best take real good care of her, ya hear? Otherwise you and I will have words.”
Halphamet shrugged his utter indifference, and turned with the dahkrit as the took Talona and vanished into the ranks of the zebra army. Talona’s cries of, “Gilly!” shrank, and then were subsumed in the general noise of the ongoing battle.
Ready to call for Applejack a third time, Rainbow was instead shoved aside by a zebra in a white cap with a red cross on its brim. Potions, poultices, and bandages tumbled from open saddlebags, and her white habit was stained with dried blood over the sleeves and collar. The zebra went to work at once, but quickly stopped, shaking her head sadly.
“This one was friend?” She asked in stilted Equestrian. Rainbow nodded. “Is gone. Dead.” The medic stood, and quickly trotted away, looking from someone she could save.
Rainbow sat there, staring in total shock at Gilda’s body. She barely noticed the zebra army withdrawing, or when Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo wrapped her in a tight hug. She shivered, and tears run in thick streams down her face. She just sat there, resting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.
“She saved us,” Scootaloo said, his voice faint with her own shock.
“I think I remember her coming to Ponyville a few years ago,” Apple Boom said. “She a friend of yours, Rainbow?”
Mutely, throat too thick with emotion to speak, Rainbow nodded. Furiously she scrubbed the tears from her eyes, but they immediately came back.
“I hate to be ‘that pony’, but we need to get out of here,” Soarin scanned the skies still filled with swooping and screeching griffons, body tense as he stood guard over everypony else.
“Help me carry her. I am not leaving her here,” Rainbow slid under one of Gilda’s legs, Applejack joining her by lifting up the other side. Together they balanced Gilda’s limp frame in a fire-pony’s lift, and started to make their way towards the distant hill on which they’d left Fleur.
They’d gone only a few steps when the resounding roar of ‘Talona’ broke across the battlefield. A hundred vivid tongues of lightning lashed the earth, and the skies boomed with thunder.
“What now?” Applejack demanded, warily watching the skies.
The zebras only a short distance away vanished into a sudden fog rolling down the mountain. A thick fog, cloying and impenetrable as the clouds had been. The oppressive stench of decay and death filled Rainbow’s nose and clawed down her throat. Struggling with Gilda, Rainbow suppressed a revolted shudder. Next to her, Soarin clamped his mouth shut, narrowed eyes scanning through the unnatural fog.
Underhoof the ground shook. Black figures flitted past, a few, and then more and more. Rainbow couldn’t make them out fully, but the unnatural, jerky motions set her teeth further on edge.
“They got out of the city?” Scootaloo whimpered, pressing herself further against Pinkie Pie. “How did they get out of the city! Hades made it so they couldn’t!”
“What is going on Scoots? What are these things?” Rainbow demanded as the group pressed into a tight circle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo surrounded by the adults.
“Dead griffons,” Apple Bloom said.
As she spoke misshapen horrors Rainbow had only ever seen in paintings and her nightmares emerged from the fog. Fur hung in loose patches around gangrenous flesh. Heads hung at broken angles on withered necks. Hungry mouths hanging open, black tongues falling from jagged beaks, the undead advanced on the ponies.
Shoving her way between Applejack and Soarin, Apple Bloom dashed towards the monstrosities. A moment later Scootaloo joined her, glittering armour jangling as she darted beside her friend. They skidded to a stop in the middle between them and the adults. Rainbow slid Gilda off her shoulder as Applejack shouted for her sister to stop. A line of tension kept the air taught, Rainbow held by concern that any movement would cause the ghouls to lunge at Apple Bloom.
“Apple Bloom! Scootaloo, get back here!” Rainbow and Applejack ordered through clenched teeth.
At any moment the ghouls would pounce. Rainbow slowly fell into a half-squat, ready to intercept the first one to make a move. Her heartbeat was like a tirade of hammers in her chest. They’d just saved the fillies! They couldn’t lose them now.
To everypony’s astonishment, Apple Bloom marched right up to the closest mishappen griffon, and swatted it on the nose as she would an especially bad dog. “Go on! Shoo!” Apple Bloom raised her hoof again.
It gave a sharp hiss, and absurdly backed away.
Rainbow’s mouth fell open. This monster, covered in patchy fur and rotting flesh, whimpered. It whimpered!
“Get back to the city! Mr. Hades is going to be mad you got loose.”
The dozen horrors on either side clacked their dry beaks at Apple Bloom and then raised their heads like dogs hearing their master’s whistle. Snarling they withdrew, merging back into the fog.
“What in Tartarus is going on?” Gilda wheezed, propping herself up on trembling legs, from next to Rainbow.
Tension snapped. Rainbow jumped away from Gilda, expecting her friend to have become one of those horrific monsters. Instead, a very much alive Gilda pushed herself up to a sitting position. Joy, relief, confusion bucked Rainbow in the head. She blinked a couple times, trying to figure out what was going on between Apple Bloom chasing off the undead like they were pests on her porch, and Gilda miraculously coming back to life.
Never one to question good fortune, she tackled Gilda into a bone crushing hug. Beneath her Gilda grunted and grit her beak tight.
“Wait, you were dead!” Rainbow pushed Gilda to hooves’ length.
Her eyes darted over Gilda, from her bruised face, to the stub of her wing. Pink scar tissue stretched over the stub. Gilda turned her head to look, and tipped off-balance. She lurched against Rainbow, and without support would have fallen over.
Putting on a cocksure grin unreflected in her grimacing eyes, Gilda said, “Guess I won’t be flying anymore, huh?”
Tears rimming her magenta eyes, Rainbow gave a soft punch to Gilda’s good shoulder.
The disc jumped underhoof, almost knocking Rainbow and Gilda over. Scootaloo stumbled against Apple Bloom, and Soarin splayed his hooves to keep his balance. Pinkie was the only one who seemed unaffected. She’d moved a little to the side, tugging at the edges of her some-what limp mane as she peered into the obscuring fog.
“What in Tartarus is going on out there?” Applejack demanded as she joined Pinkie, putting on her most withering glare.
Sharing a look, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo gasped, “Sweetie,” and sprinted off into the heavy fog.
Slowed down helping Gilda, Rainbow slowly followed as Applejack, Soarin, and Pinkie Pie all dashed after the fillies.
Bouncing backwards, Pinkie waved to Rainbow. “Don’t worry Dashie, we’ll find the girls! Catch up when you can!”
Rainbow ground her teeth together as Pinkie too disappeared in the grey morass, leaving her alone with Gilda.
After a few moments Gilda let out a chuckle. “Look at us. The fastest fliers in Cloudsdale, left behind like a couple sad lumps. It’s good to be back.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow sighed, a smile forming as they slowly followed, Gilda’s steps sluggish and dragging in the dirt. “It’s good to have you back.”