Friends and Enemies

by ObabScribbler

Confrontation at the Castle

Disclaimer: Combatively not mine.

A/N: Inspired by the song ‘Bones Shatter’ by Hedley. Originally that was going to be the title of this fic, too, but I came to my senses in time. Feedback is appreciated, please!

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Friends and Enemies

© Scribbler, December 2012.

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1. Confrontation at the Castle

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Rainbow Dash twisted her body into a nearly perfect circle. It made her spine ache but let her pull off a perfect loop, which had the added benefit of avoiding the claws aimed at her stomach. The griffin was big and wore the dopey expression of one whose brain had not yet caught up with his eyes. He looked startled when her hind hooves made contact with his head and he dropped out of the sky.

“Score one for the good guys!” she crowed.

She looked around for more invaders, but the part of the battlements she had been assigned were now clear. Her legendary speed and total lack of caution had made short work of them, to the point that she wondered whether she should seek out her friends in case they weren’t faring as well. Each had his or her own special skills to repel those who would have breached the walls, but, as ever, Rainbow Dash held true to her core belief that nopony could pull off daring heroism like she could.

She should have paid more attention. All the griffin warriors she had met so far screeched right before they attacked. It was like some sort of ritual they all performed no matter what; even though it let her know it was time to kick more tail-feathers. The breath left her lungs in a whoosh as a solid body burst from a cloud bank and cannoned into her so fast it was a blur. She flapped reflexively, but that didn’t stop her being slammed against the very walls she was defending. She kicked out, but the starburst behind her eyes momentarily dazzled her.

“Dash?” said a shocked voice. The weight crushing her against the stonework vanished abruptly. She fell several feet before righting herself and weaving drunkenly back into position, raising her hooves in a parody of boxing.

“C’mon – ugh – is that all you got?”

“Damn it, Dash!”

She blinked. It couldn’t be. The invading griffin army were all outsiders. King Claw had declared war specifically because he thought Equestria sat on land that rightfully belonged to the tiny mountainous country of Gryphona. Gryphons famously hated any griffin cousins who had settled in Equestria or didn’t think ponies were the enemy. There were no sympathisers in their ranks and any who showed weakness got an up-close-and-personal demonstration of why they were called the Claw Army.

Rainbow Dash shook her head, but the face before her remained the same. “Gilda? What the hay are you doing here?”

Gilda’s expression vacillated between guilt, anger, defensiveness and the cool indifference Rainbow Dash remembered so well. It was an uncomfortable mix to see and, apparently, experience.

“I didn’t know you’d be here!” Gilda said accusingly.

“Well, duh. Invading army? Poisoned princesses and a besieged capitol city to defend? Awesomely brave and dramatic heroic acts to be performed? What part of that doesn’t sound like me?”

Gilda looked around, as if expecting more griffins to appear and back her up at any second. She turned back and hissed, “Get out of here, Dash.”

“Uh, how about no?”

“Dash! Stop screwing around. I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“Do you know what my superiors will do to me if they find out I even gave you the option to go? Leave. Now! Before it’s too late. The rest of my squadron is on its way. I’m just the fore-flier because I’m the fastest. I was supposed to scout things out but when I saw there was only one pony here …”

Rainbow Dash’s expression hardened. She shoved down memories of falling bodies and bursts of stained feathers. There had been more pegasi here at first, all eager to defend the castle while healer unicorns worked to leech poison from Luna and Celestia before there was no country left for them to rule. If King Claw could rid himself of the two most powerful ponies, he figured the rest of Equestria would fall to his forces. For that reason he had targeted Canterlot with the kind of determination Rainbow Dash could have admired if not for the whole psychopathic megalomaniac douchebag thing.

“Why the hay are you even here, Gilda?” she demanded.

Gilda’s expression also hardened, but into pure resentment. “Where else was I supposed to go?”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re seriously asking me that?”

“Well duh.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “This isn’t exactly primo timing to goof around.”

“This is Equestria, Dash. There aren’t many opportunities for griffins who like to fight here.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash’s jaw actually dropped open a little. ”You’re telling me you joined the bad guys because you didn’t like how peaceful Equestria is? That’s … that’s insane!”

Gilda’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be a doofus.”

“There’s only one doofus here and it’s not me.”

“There was more to it than that!” she spat.

“So explain it to me, because I can’t believe you’d be that stupid without–”

“I was a laughing stock, Dash!”

Rainbow Dash paused. “What?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

“So … what, now you’re blaming Pinkie Pie for this most epic of epic bad decisions? Or are you blaming me and a few dumb pranks? Which you totally overreacted to, by the way.”

“Among other things.”

“Ponyfeathers!” Rainbow Dash snorted. “That’s complete ponyfeathers! You looked silly in front of a few ponies at a party and that made you want to destroy all Equestria? I don’t buy that!”

“It’s not like that!” Gilda’s neck feathers fluffed out in frustration and anger. Her eyes thinned to slits and her tail lashed behind her. “It was more complicated. It IS more complicated! You never got that about me – you always want everything to be simple, but it’s not, Dash!”

“So explain it to me!” Rainbow Dash yelled back. Her nose wrinkled as she added, “And use small words, if you think I can’t understand complicated ones.”

Gilda snarled, her claws bunching as she spoke. “I burned a lot of bridges before I came back to Ponyville to see you. Didn’t you ever wonder why I never made contact after Flight School?”

“I figured you were working, like me.”

“Yeah, because weather patrols totally welcome job applications from griffins.”

“Did you ever try?” Rainbow Dash demanded defensively, though she knew no creatures except ponies had ever worked to control the weather in Equestria. She told herself it was just coincidence; that no-one except pegasi ever wanted to do the work, but Gilda’s hostility planted seeds of doubt she didn’t have time to weed out right now.

Gild looked shifty as she replied, “Well, no, but I knew that’s what would happen if I ever did, so why even bother? I lived by my wits; did some wheeling and dealing, stuff like that.”

“Legal stuff?”

Again, she looked shifty. “Mostly, but it … I made mistakes. Pissed off the wrong ponies. Pushed my luck too far. Things got hot and I had to disappear for a while. I figured I could hide out with you until everything blew over, but that was a big fat bust.”

For the first time since Twilight got the letter about the attempted assassination and they all set out for Canterlot, Rainbow Dash’s resolve wavered. She remembered some of the things Gilda had got up to in school and could easily imagine her falling in with the wrong crowd and getting in over her head. “Things were that bad for you?”

“Yes.”

“You never said anything.”

“Yeah, like I’m gonna fess to those kinds of screw ups to someone who performed the first sonic rainboom in decades when she was just a filly? Someone tapped to be the next Wonderbolt? Someone who helped save the entire frikkin’ country from Nightmare Moon? Yeah, right.” Bitterness clung to Gilda’s words like decay that had started at the core of the apple and worked its way outward to the surface. “I couldn’t afford to stick around after that. I had to get out of Equestria. Who was I gonna ask for help after everything that went down?”

“It was just some stupid pranks! For Celestia’s sake, G, you could have told me the truth! Did you think I’d turn my back on you if you’d been straight with me?”

Gilda looked away. “King Claw’s generals gave me a chance when I needed one. I owe them – and him.”

“No way!” Rainbow Dash reared, cycling her front hooves at her friend. “Turn back, G. There’s no way you’re getting past me and I don’t want to fight you.”

“I don’t want to fight you either, but –” Gilda stopped at the sound of an approaching battle-cry. She turned her head to stare at the clouds and then back to Rainbow Dash with panic in her eyes. “Just go already! Please, Dash; escape this while there’s still time.”

“I already told you: no way!”

“Dash, please!”

Gilda had rarely ever said please in all the time they had known each other; right back to when they met on the first day of Flight School, when they had tussled over who got to be team leader in their practise group. The desperate note in her voice added a fresh layer of surreal to the situation: Equestria on the brink of all-out war; trained warriors trying to get at the princesses and finish what their comrades had started; griffins fighting ponies; ponies fighting griffins; and now her estranged best friend telling her to become a deserter so they DIDN’T have to fight each other. All this needed was a couple of flying pigs and it would be complete.

“Dash,” Gilda pleaded. “You’re my friend but I can’t stop them hurting you. Get lost already!”

A burst of magic on the east side of Canterlot reminded Rainbow Dash why she was here. She had spent enough time around Twilight to recognise the fallout of one of her spells, even at this distance. “Sorry, Gilda. I got a job to do and this is it. It’s nothing personal,” she threw out with a small, fierce smile, like she used to use right before she and Gilda kicked off on some new crazy race they had dreamed up. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I would’ve helped you if you’d told me the truth before.”

Regret flashed briefly over Gilda’s features. “Dash, I –”

The clouds parted as a dozen brawny griffins broke through, each wearing the red tunic and gold insignia of King Claw. The biggest at the apex of the V screeched and went into a dive when he saw Rainbow Dash, leading the others straight towards her.

“Gilda Goldfeather!” he shrieked. “What are you waiting for? Attack!”

Gilda gave something slightly too long for a blink and shot forward. It was her last concession to their friendship. Her claws opened and her beak erupted in an impressive battle-cry. Her form was perfect; she was a streak of gold and white against the brilliant blue of the Equestrian sky.

Rainbow Dash grinned without humour, already planning the acrobatics she would use to avoid the squadron’s attacks and knock them out of the sky like all the others. It never even occurred to her that these were majorly bad odds. Hadn’t she once helped defeat an entire changeling army? This was no biggie for a pony like her. Not even Gilda.

She gave another fierce smile and beat her powerful wings. “Bring it!”

Comments

[Regidar]

Dat watermarked coverpic.

[Ice]

'eh not bad but maybe it could use a little less.... aggression?

[Tachyon Xenophile]

More!

[Eurobeat11]

Finished? Is it posed to be a cliff-hanger? We need a trilogy.

[Darksonickiller]

YOU MUST CONTINUE PLEASE!

[Tyek]

It's great as is but I think this has a lot of potential. It'd be great if you turned this into a multichapter.