Rainbow Dash travels to the North Griffin Confederation to try and make amends with her old friend Gilda, and in the process accidentally unleashes and ancient ghost. Now she will have to save the town of Altenprow. A Skitchverse story.
Friendship is Magic.
But sometimes, friendships can be broken, as was the case with Rainbow Dash and her friend Gilda. Now at the behest of Princess Celestia, Rainbow Dash travels to the North Griffin Confederation to try and make amends with her old friend.
But when an ancient ghost is accidentally unleashed, Dash and Gilda will have to work together to save the griffin town of Altenprow, before the town is devastated or they're both arrested by the State Security Ministry.
Rainbow Dash's eyes snapped back to the griffin sitting behind the low wooden desk. The customs officer met Rainbow's stare with her own stern glare, motioning the pegasus forward with a talon.
“It's your turn. Papers. Please.”
Stepping forward, Rainbow Dash suppressed the urge to snort and roll her eyes. The building was sparse, designed to be efficient, with minimal furnishings and only a few government posters on the walls all written in Griffish. This was probably why the griffin side of the border station was mostly empty; she was the only traveler at any rate.
Dipping a wing into her saddlebags, Rainbow pulled out her fresh Equestrian passport and dropped it on the desk. Picking it up, the griffin quickly leafed through it, shooting her a questioning glance.
“Empty. Not traveled much before?”
“I've been busy back home.” Rainbow shrugged, “You read the papers, right?”
The customs officer did not rise to the bait, instead moving into a series of questions.
“Destination?”
“Altenprow.”
“Purpose of visit?”
“Recreational.” Rainbow answered evenly, rattling off the responses that Princess Celestia had drilled into her head, “I'm going camping.”
To punctuate that response, she waved a hoof at the oversized saddlebags that rested on the ground next to her. The agent flicked her eyes to them, motioning to a pair of guards who began to search the contents.
The moments ticked by, punctuated only by the sounds of rummaging and the agent drumming her claws on the table. The guards eventually seemed satisfied with what they found and nodded back at the agent.
Her expression turned on a dime as she stamped Rainbow's passport and presented it back to her, a wide smile crossing her beak.
“Everything seems to be in order! Enjoy your stay in the High Confederation of Wings frau Dash. Currency exchange is to to the right on the way back to the train.”
- - - -
“Damn, it feels good to stretch my wings again!” Rainbow thought as she cut her way across the sky, her rainbow mane and tail whipping about in the chilly northern air.
Truthfully, she would have just flown to her destination from the beginning, rather than spend two days cooped up in a train. Unfortunately, the griffin were very picky and exacting about how creatures crossed their borders. But now she was free to fly wherever she pleased.
As she flew on though, her mind wandered back towards how she found herself in the North Griffin Confederation in the first place.
- - - -
Rainbow Dash forced her nervousness back down into the pit of her stomach as she wandered through the bowels of Canterlot's palace, following a looping set of directions that had been provided to her by Princess Celestia.
Being summoned by the Princess was nerve wracking enough, but wandering around in the depths of the castle? It sounded like the kind of thing that would be in one of those adventure books Twilight liked to read.
Pausing in front of a set of double doors marked with a golden circle, Rainbow took a deep breath and pushed them open. Her eyes grew wide at the combined ornate library and meeting room. Princess Celestia sat at the head of a massive circular table, patiently waiting for the element of loyalty.
“Princess?”
Celestia turned her warm gaze and equally warm smile towards Rainbow Dash, motioning to one of the spots at the desk.
“Please, make yourself comfortable. We have an important matter to discuss.”
Nodding, Rainbow lowered herself onto a full pillow. Her eyes caught the golden nameplate that was set on the portion of the table, clearly indicating that the spot was somehow tied to the High Confederation of Wings.
“What's this room, princess? It looks all official and stuff, but Twilight never mentioned it from her studies with you.”
“Back when I was training Twilight, there was no need for it. But the times do change. This,” Celestia motioned to the room around them with a hoof, “Is the headquarters and meeting room of the Golden Ring.”
“The what now?” Rainbow blinked.
Celestia smiled. “It's an organization of like minded rulers, creatures and adventurers....” She paused, glancing towards one of the paintings on the wall that depicted an older gray coated stallion with an hourglass cutie-mark, “Well, we are all dedicated to protecting the world from threats.”
“And that's what you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Well, in a way, I suppose. I wished to speak with you about your friend, Gilda.”
Rainbow failed to suppress a dismissive snort. “Ex-friend, more like it.”
“Hmm. Yes.” Celestia frowned slightly, “Which is what makes the request I'm about to make...awkward, to say the least.”
Rainbow blinked as she tilted her head in a questioning manner.
“What do you mean, princess?”
Celestia sighed, ruffling her wings.
“Gilda has served as an agent of mine in the High Confederation of Wings for many a year now. But, since the incident between you two in Ponyville, she has all but dropped out of contact.”
“And you think she's in trouble?” Rainbow blinked.
“In a manner of speaking, at least. Her own friends, have informed me that she seems to have fallen into a deep depression.”
Rainbow almost fell off her seat. The Gilda she knew had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and a fiery temper to match. The thought of her just laying in bed, doing nothing...
A soft cough from Celestia caught her attention again.
“And you want me...?”
“To go talk to her.” Celestia explained simply, “I can not ask you to forgive her actions, but I am hoping that perhaps you could talk her into action again, or failing that, get her to live her life again.”
Rainbow's head was swimming. This was a lot to take in. A large part of her didn't want to see that griffin again. But, the loyalty that had lead her to claim her element stirred in her heart. She was loyal to the princess and loyal to her friends. And Gilda, well....
“All right,” She nodded, “I'll do it princess. I'll try to shake Gilda out of her funk.”
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia beamed, “Now, here is what you need to do...”
The instructions that followed were clear. Rainbow would use camping as her cover, travel to the forest slightly to the east of Altenprow, and then meet up with Gilda's home grown group of friends. Then they'd loop back into town proper and Dash would speak with Gilda.
It was a little bit of cloak and dagger in nature for a simple conversation, but Celestia clearly laid out the reasons why she felt it was necessary. What Gilda was doing for the monarch of Equestria, as well intended for both nations as it was, was technically high treason under griffin law. And a direct and public visit by one of Equestria's heroes would certainly cast more suspicion her way.
A slight smile did cross Rainbow's muzzle as she left the office. Heading across the border, conducting almost spy work. It was an adventure, to say the least, like something out of those Daring Do novels Twilight always liked to blab on about.
“I just might have to give those a look.”
- - - -
Rainbow's bout of reminiscing was interrupted by the sudden sensation of her over-stuffed saddlebags shifting on her back. Glancing at them, she watched the straps slip down her sides some more their buckles loosened.
“Ugh.” She groaned, winging over into a slow spiral loop so that she could come into a landing and re-adjust her pack.
A vast coniferous forest stretched out below her hooves, the sea of green rapidly growing closer as Rainbow Dash adjusted her flight path to drop through a slight gap in the tree line.
Flaring her wings, she wove through the branches of the pine trees and landed just in time, the saddlebags having almost completely slipped off. Sighing and grabbing the strap in her teeth, she began to re-adjust it.
For a few minutes the sounds of leather being stretched, metal clanking, and Rainbow Dash grumbling through her teeth echoed through the clearing. She had just gotten things re-adjusted when she realized something.
It was deathly silent.
Rainbow Dash wasn't as attuned to nature as Fluttershy, but even she could pick up on just how wrong her surroundings were. She was used to hearing the sounds of nature around Ponyville. Birds, insects, small animals. Even the Everfree had a certain natural rhythm to it (weird though it was). But aside from the trees and herself, Rainbow Dash wasn't sure there was anything else alive in here.
Letting go of her bag straps, she straightened up, taking a fuller stock of her surroundings. It was obviously a very old forest. Some of the trees looked large enough that she was unsure that Princess Celestia would be able to wrap her forelegs around the trunk.
She was also surrounded by fog.
“Where the hay did this come from?” She frowned, quite sure that it hadn't been there when she had first landed.
Frowning, she crouched down, lashing out with a powerful buck to disperse the offending fog. It melting away at her strike, Rainbow Dash was greeted by green moss growing over bleached white bone, accented by the red of rusty equipment.
The forest floor was strewn with skeletal bodies that had definitely not been there when she first landed. Rainbow wasn't well versed enough in history to identify them as anything other than “old”, but it was plain enough to see that the skeletons were a mix of ponies and griffins; the pony bodies out numbered the griffin ones by a great margin.
Gulping, Rainbow beat her wings, rising into the air to move away from the site of the ancient battlefield. The fog seemed to be growing thicker as she continued to rise, almost as if it was alive and responding to her attempt to get away.
The living nature of the fog triggered something in Rainbow's mind. A warning given by Celestia that had slipped her mind in the boredom of the train.
“Do not trespass through the forest immediately north of griffin border. The Teutonburg still bears scars from ages long past. More than history haunts that place.”
Something moved out of the corner of her eye. A dark blur of shadow that sent a chill down her spine. Swearing under her breath Rainbow threw caution to the wind, throwing extra power into her wings.
Bursting through the branches, she basked in the sunlight, as it pushed the unearthly chill from her bones. Falling back onto her original path, she shook the image of the bone yard from her head.
“What is with this country....”
That dark forest was far behind her by the time she set up camp on a small ridge that night. But as she bedded down before her fire, she couldn't shake the slight chill that ran down her spine.
- - - -
The next night, Rainbow was huddled down in front of a fire that she had built. A dull ache from flying all day pulsed through her wing muscles, and her stomach was rumbling, but she had reached her target destination.
It was a forest to the east of Altenprow. A much more normal forest, thankfully, with birds, small animals and all of the other proper foresty things that Fluttershy could talk about until Rainbow would want to fall asleep.
After building a camp site, she had caught a quick nap and was now eating a quick dinner. “When are these griffin going to show up anyway?” She muttered, wolfing down another carrot.
A rustle cut through the underbrush and the camp site, Rainbow's ears swiveling to catch the sound.
“Who's there?” She demanded, jumping to her hooves and taking on a defensive stance.
For a moment the small clearing remained silent, save for the soft crack and pop of the fire as it danced away. Then the silence was shattered as an explosion of movement erupted from the bushes. Rainbow beat her wings, throwing herself backwards as three griffin bounded into view.
The first two appeared to be siblings by Rainbow's guess. Large and well muscled, their reddish-brown feathers were contrasted by their black hindquarters. Their movements were full of a confident swagger as they strode into the clearing and sat down next to the fire.
They were followed by a griffin that reminded Rainbow Dash distinctly of Fluttershy. She was hanging back, her eyes fixated on the ground, her snow white feathers matching well with her yellow hindquarters. But she took a seat next to the fire all the same.
No one said anything for a moment, pony and griffins just staring at each other before the brothers exchanged glances and then looked to the white feathered griffin. Coughing, the older of the two elbowed her in the side.
“The phrase Whitewing. Ask her the pass phrase.”
“Oh! Right.” She grinned nervously, taking a deep breath, “What gift does the light bring?”
“The light brings assistance to all who are willing to ask.” Dash responded.
“See?” The older brother grinned, “I told you Agid. Celestia wouldn't leave her uninformed.”
Agid waved a talon at his brother, dismissing the jibe. “Hush, Adelulf. We should set to delivering our rainbow colored package.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, getting to her hooves and kicking dirt over the fire. “Lead on then.”
Setting back off through the forest they took a winding circuitous route , Agid and Adeluf leading the way, Whitewing walking alongside Rainbow Dash. Dash glanced from griffin to griffin as they walked along in silence, the tension in the air as thick as the fog she had seen before.
“So,” She finally interrupted a few minutes later, “I can't help but get the feeling that I'm not exactly welcome here.”
“Quiet.” Agid hissed, “We aren't sure if we were followed here or not.”
Frowning, Dash turned her own gaze towards the tall black shadows of trees that surrounded them. Even with the aid of the moonlight shining down from above, picking out anything from the collection of black blobs that was the forest was basically impossible.
After walking for what felt like quite a while to Rainbow Dash, motes of light became visible in the distance. As they approached, they became more vivid, and the tree line began to thin out ; the wilderness falling away as the hallmarks of civilization became more prevalent.
“Frau Rainbow Dash,” Adeluf drawled, waving a talon at the city before them, “Welcome to Altenprow.”
Altenprow was larger than Ponyville, a proper city for thousands of griffin to live and work in. Set atop a ridge of rock that overlooked the nearby valleys, the city was arranged in a vertical manner; narrow winding streets that weaved between orderly stacks of buildings.
Like most cities in the High Confederation, it was heavily industrialized. Great black clouds of smoke rose from factory smokestacks scattered about the skyline. She could even make out an airship tethered to a tower on one of the upper levels.
The brothers continued to lead the way, entering the city via a street that was smaller and narrower than the others. A glorified alleyway, really.
“So,” She asked, “How is Gilda doing? Celestia said she was depressed?”
“Shhh!”
Dash frowned.
“So, how did you all meet?”
“Quiet!”
As they continued to move through the city, Dash felt her annoyance grow. They were just pulling her along, saying nothing, treating her like some kind of obligation. She had to guess that they were angry over what happened with Gilda themselves.
Rainbow was still lost in thought as they stepped out of the alley and onto one of the other streets of the city and continued to resolutely trot onwards, missing that her entourage had dropped back in the crowd.
“Well, well...I must say that I am surprised to see one of Equestria's heroes in our little city.” Came a deep, calm voice from directly in front of her.
Looking up, Dash found herself face to beak with a large, almost rotund looking, griffin. His tawny hindquarters coat was graying from age but his mottled black and white feathers were impeccably cleaned.
His expression was what really put Rainbow on edge, however. While a smile played across his beak, his amber eyes were devoid of warmth. Instead they drilled right into her, probing for any kind of weakness.
“Uhh...yes.” Rainbow blinked, “Who are you?”
“Ahh. Where are my manners. I am known as Horst, and I am in charge of security for Altenprow.” His smile grew wider, his glare all the more probing, “What brings you to my city?”
“Camping.” Rainbow responded, keeping her jaw set.
“In the middle of the town?”
“I wanted to come in and experience a real griffin town. Maybe look around, experience some authentic griffin cuisine.”
“Well, there are plenty of fine restaurants in our city. Allow me to escort you. It's only proper for a visiting dignitary.”
“Oh no, that's fine.” Rainbow smiled, “I'm a very independent pony. I'd like to go and find something myself.”
“Please.” He placed a claw on her back, “I insist. We wouldn't want you to get lost.”
Frowning, Rainbow Dash allowed herself to be lead away.
- - - -
“Und for you, frau?” The waiter griffin asked in his very thick accent.
“Ummm...”
Rainbow stared at the menu, trying to work out what the long strings of consonants and vowels actually meant with very limited success. Horst sat across form her at the table, having insisted on joining her for dinner; he hadn't eaten yet, or so he claimed. Frowning, she pointed at a random item.
“Schwabischer Kartoffelsalat.” The waiter finished for her, rolling his eyes at Rainbow's butchered pronunciation, “It iz a warm potato salad served vith mustard.”
“And this?”
The waiter peeked at the item. “Brieschen. Those are sweetbreads.”
“Give me the salad and the sweetbreads then.”
As the waiter walked off, Dash scanned the rest of the restaurant. The place reminded her of the Cafe in Ponyville. A nice kind of working class restaurant, full of people enjoying a night where they didn't have to cook for themselves.
While most of the other patrons were griffin, she did notice a few ponies eating in one of the corners of the room. It was easy to forget that ponies lived in nations outside of Equestria as well.
Horst picked up on Rainbow Dash's observations, nodding towards the pony families.
“Surprised to see them?”
“Not really.” Rainbow lied as she tried to play it off, “Everycreature knows that ponies are like...everwhere.”
Horst shrugged. “Most visitors from Equestria are surprised that ponies would want to live in any country aside from the land of the pony sisters.”
Rainbow shrugged, falling back into silence. The uncomfortable tension hung in the air until the waiter returned, balancing a few dishes in his talons. She looked over what she had exactly ordered, raising an eyebrow at the little pink bits scattered through the potato salad.
“Is that...?”
“That would be bacon.”
Dash made a face, pushing the plate aside and instead grabbing one of the fried sweetbreads and popping it into her mouth.
She immediately regretted it.
The spike of salt and fat. The rancid taste that made the bile rise in the back of her throat. It wasn't bread, it was meat.
Spitting the mess out, she fired a glare at Horst that would have blasted him across the room if looks could kill. In a form of response, her host speared one of the sweetbreads on the end of a talon and popped it back like it was candy.
“You could have warned me.” Dash growled.
“My apologies. It slipped my mind. Tour guide really isn't my job. Besides, you come to our country and don't bother to know our customs?” He chuckled, wagging a talon as if she were a rebellious child, “You'll forgive me frau Dash, but that sounds just a tad bit arrogant.”
“So, what's the point of all this?”
“Why, I have no idea what you mean.”
“Come on. You're trying to make some kind of point, so why not just spit it out?”
Horst's arm lashed out, spearing a few more sweetbreads that were snapped down in quick order. His expression had lost it's false joviality; now his beak matched his intense amber eyes.
“It is my suggestion that you finish your camping, and then do us all a favor and just leave. While you Equestrians do believe your own propaganda about friendship being “magic”, we do things differently here. And we will handle our own affairs.”
Getting to his feet, he gave Rainbow a curt nod.
“Enjoy your meal. It's on the state for tonight. Consider it an expression of courtesy to a true Equestrian hero.”
She glared at him as he left, not taking his eyes from the griffin until he was completely out of sight. Once he was gone, she raised a hoof to flag down the waiter again.
“Can I get you anything elze frau Dash?”
“Is what he said about my dinner being covered by the state tonight true?”
“Yes.”
“Good!” Rainbow beamed, “Put every creature's dinner on my tab and bring me a mug of hard cider...and a plate of this potato salad without the bacon.”
- - - -
Thirty minutes later Dash strode confidently from the restaurant, her belly full of potato salad and booze.
“Best trip to the High Confederation of Wings ever.”
“Glad you're enjoying yourself.”
She glanced towards the voice, spying the annoyed form of Whitewings as she nervously tapped her talons against the street.
“You're supposed to be taking this seriously.” She whispered.
“Hey, I got to stick a really big tab to a jerk of a griffin! What's not to smile about that?”
“You're supposed to be here to help Gilda!”
“And if she was here, she'd think this was hilarious!”
Clacking her beak in frustration, Whitewings grabbed one of Dash's forelegs. “Come on. The others are back at the house already, we need to...”
A blood chilling scream cut through the night, making Whitewings shriek in shock and cower for a moment. Dash on the other hand, spread her wings and immediately flew towards the scream.
It wasn't a long flight. A large crowd had gathered on the next street, and as she grew closer, she could see what they were gathered about. One of the ponies from the restaurant was holding what Dash assumed was the body of his wife in his forelegs, sobbing.
She almost wanted to throw up again when she saw the body. The head had been removed, sliced off clearly at the neck. The wound seemed to have been burned shut as it was cut. She really wasn't sure if that made the situation better or worse, in all honesty. Whitewings squeaked in fear behind her, just as horrified at what she saw.
Rainbow was about to ask what could have caused that when an icy chill ran through the street. The lamp posts all flickered for a moment as a black shadow coalesced upon one of the nearby roofs.
From the neck down, the figure was a pony mare that seemed to be forged out of living shadow, clad in ancient Equestrian armor. The wings, covered in ceremonial wing blades, spoke to pegasus heritage. From the neck up, however, the figure was the headless unicorn laying on the street.
Dash could almost feel Whitewings trembling behind her, the griffin's voice was almost a squeak.
“T-t-the H-head-head-less H-horse!”
The Headless Horse snorted, pawing the tiles of the roof with a ghostly hoof.
“SEIGFRIED!” She shouted, voice echoing with the vocal tones of two different mares, “GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS!”
“Rainbow Dash...we need to go.” Whitewings whispered, glancing about, “We don't want to be here when the State Security Ministry shows up!”
Dash winced, her wings twitching in agitation. “But, that thing just killed somepony!”
“And I’m sure they’ll make her pay for it.” She hissed, tugging at Dash’s tail, “But we need to go!”
Frowning, Dash reluctantly allowed herself to begin to be dragged away. At least she did, until she heard someone from the crowd shout back up at the ghost.
“Why did you do this? What do you want?”
It was the husband of the fallen mare, his whole body shaking as he pointed a hoof at the ghost. “Tell me why you took my wife!”
Rainbow Dash could feel Whitewings trying to drag her away again. She pushed the griffin away, focusing on the ghost. The Headless Horse turned her stolen head towards the poor stallion, seeming to almost come out a reverie of sorts.
“I am here...to free you from bondage.” She explained, her double voice now speaking in both Equestrian and Griffish at the same time.
Rainbow Dash blinked. The other ponies and griffin in the street mimicked the gesture, looking and muttering at each other. The Headless Horse seemed undaunted however, slowly striding the length of the roof; her eyes only left the ponies below to observe the approaching griffin guard for a barest moment.
“Yes...I, General Hurricane, have come to lead you ponies back home. Back to Equestria.”
One of the ponies in the crowd barked angry Griffish words back up at her. Hurricane tilted her head towards the pony, confusion racking her borrowed features.
“Your home? You call this land full of barbaric carnivores “home”? Is your brain addled?”
Dash shuffled her hooves. The ghost claiming to be General Hurricane had just committed murder but she couldn’t help but partially agree with the apparition. She had never entirely understood why ponies chose to live outside Equestria when they could live there instead.
But the ponies and griffin that made up the crowd were united. Their initial shock and fear melting away, anger and indignation rising in their place. The Confederation character on display as they began to taunt, jeer and threaten the ghost, their confidence being further bolstered as more and more guard arrived on the scene.
Hurricane snorted dismissively, her wings twitching in anger. “Fine. Then I shall make my position clear! This city has until tomorrow night to begin evacuating its pony population to Equestria! If this city still holds one pony in its talons, then I will accept them into my new legions to fight for Harmony!”
A flurry of rifle fire rang out as the guard, incensed by the threat, attacked. It was for naught, however. The bullets passed through her incorporeal form, eliciting no more than a laugh from the ghost and a cacophony of noise from the slate roof.
The form of General Hurricane coiled into a ball of shadow, before shooting off between the buildings, leaving the crowd stunned into silence again.
- - - -
“Think they’ll do it?” Rainbow Dash asked as she followed Whitewings along, “Evacuate, I mean.”
“You met Horst.” She responded, letting that sentence speak for itself.
Dash frowned, her wings twitching again. “I can’t shake the feeling that we should be doing something to help.”
“He’ll arrest you. He doesn’t want you in the city, let alone playing hero.”
“Do you even know who General Hurricane is?” Dash snapped, an angry energy finding its way into her stride, “She’s one of the great-”
“One of the great Equestrian heroes, I know.”
“Do you know why she’s a ghost? Why is she doing this?”
Whitewings paused mid stride, Dash bumping into her. The bookish griffin whirled about, raising an eyebrow incredulously. “You know her as a great hero, but not why she’d hold a grudge against us? Just what do you know?”
“Well, she help founded Equestria.” Rainbow began.
“And?”
“...That’s about it, really.”
The look of disbelief on Whitewing’s face was very familiar to Dash. It was that mix of exasperation at a lack of knowledge, and the desire to begin educating at once, that she had seen play out on Twilight Sparkle more than a few times.
The griffin shook her head, beginning to walk again, launching into a lecture as she hurried along. “Before Celestia and Luna took over ruling Equestria, Princess Platinum had a go. After she named herself Queen, of course.”
“And Hurricane…”
“Was named grand general of all Equestria’s armies. And then Queen Platinum decided that all ponies must be united under the banner of Equestria. Even those who lived under ‘foreign kings and despots’...”
“Including here.” Dash finished, the implication clicking in her mind, “She’s still fighting that old war…Why’s she the Headless Horse though?”
“Oh, that’s because after the battle, she challenged one of the great heroes of the griffin tribes, Siegfried, to single combat. ” Whitewings elaborated, her speech becoming a little quicker now, “He took her head. I’m more wondering what she’s doing here. No creature goes into the Teutonburg forest. It’s a dark and foreboding place.”
Dash looked away from the griffin, ears drooping as deep sense of guilt washed over her. The mare that was dead on the street back there was dead because of her. She had stirred the grave of General Hurricane.
After walking in quiet for a little while longer, Whitewing’s voice cut through her gloom.
“We’re here.”
Gilda's house was larger than Dash expected, and looked like the remains of a previous era. The exterior marble facade was intricately carved and stained with soot that had had not been scrubbed away yet. A statue of a griffin warrior, wings spread wide, was set above the entrance way.
Pushing the door open, Whitewings lead the way into the main living room where the twins sat, tearing into a roasted chicken; it sat on a low coffee table between two long sitting couches. Scowling at the roasted bird, Dash took a seat across from the pair, while Whitewings climbed upstairs.
“I’ll see if I can pry Gilda out of bed.” She said simply.
Not wanting to watch the brother’s eat, Rainbow turned her attention to the contents of the room. Much like the exterior, it was nicer than Dash had expected. Full of antique furniture, the contents were various states of maintenance; the rug was patchy and threadbare in places, and nicks and gouges stood out on some of the furniture.
A particularly battered looking cabinet stood out against one wall, notable to Dash for the fresh padlock that kept it sealed tight.
“So...what’s in there?” She asked, pointing at it.
Agid and Adeluf, Dash still had a hard time working out which was which, looked to the cabinet then back to Dash.
“That’s classified.” One commented dryly.
“Sworn to secrecy.” The other elaborated.
Dash sighed. She was really beginning to hate this trip. She wanted to do something about that ghost out there, but she had no idea what to do.
Damn it. I wish that Twilight was here. She’d be able to whip together something to deal with General Hurricane. She gazed out one of the living room windows, watching the lights of the industrialized griffin city twinkle in the night. Out there, somewhere, was one of Equestria’s founders. Things were so much simpler months ago.
“Never thought I’d see you looking all mopey Dash.”
Gilda was at the foot of the stairs, her fur and feathers disheveled from a lack of care. She peered at Dash with a bemused expression for a moment, before an annoyed mask settled into place.
“So,” Gilda sighed, “Celestia sent you?”
“She did. Told me that you were acting all depressed and asked if I could help you out.”
“Well, go ahead and march your flank right back to Equestria.” Gilda grumbled, striding across the room and snatching up a piece of chicken, “I’m not interested in working for sunbutt anymore.”
Dash grit her teeth, not rising to the dig at the princess. “She isn’t asking you to go back to work Gilda. She’s just worried about you.”
“That’s what she says at least.”
That, however, Dash didn’t let slide by.
“Alright, enough of this garbage!” She snapped, jumping on the table and marching right up to Gilda, “You’re just trying to make me mad so that I’ll leave!”
Gilda blinked at her a few times, her expression neutral. “That’s what you say, at least.”
“Oh, come on! I’ve known you for years Gilda. Since when do you just roll over and walk away from something you’ve decided to do?”
“When I’m no good for doing it anymore.”
Dash thrashed her tail, grinding her teeth for a moment. She’d need to try a different tact.
“What about that ghost out there?”
“What about it?”
“Aren’t you going to do something?”
“Not really.” She shrugged, “The guard and SSM will handle it.”
“This is your town Gilda. If some ghost rolled into Ponyville and killed some creature, I’d damn well do something about it! Or,” She smirked slightly, going for the attack that had always worked so well in flight school, “Are you chicken?”
Gilda’s body instantly tensed up, her leonine tail twitching angrily as she glared right back into Dash’s eyes.
“Dash...you’re crossing the line.”
“Am I? You’re the one who was so upset over our fight that you decided to hide in your house for a month! And now you’re just gonna sit back and do nothing when a spook killed one of your townsfolk? I thought one of your great ancestors was a king or something.” She narrowed her eyes, going for the knockout blow, “You’ve become a coward, Gilda.”
That got a reaction. Tackled about the barrel, she was slammed up against the wall, the cabinet rattling from the strike. Dash grunted from the impact. It was hardly the worst strike Gilda had given her during a wrestling match. She still had the scar on her right foreleg from their last go around.
“I’m not a coward Dash.” She hissed, pressing her beak right next to Rainbow Dash’s left ear, “You know better than to call me that.”
“Yeah. I know. But it got you moving again.” She responded, bopping Gilda on the head, “Come on. You can’t just sit there and hide.”
“And how am I supposed to do anything for Princess Celestia when I drive my oldest friends away? Answer me that, Dash! Friendship is supposed to be magic!”
“Gilda…” Dash sighed, “You made a mistake, assuming that Pinkie Pie would somehow make us not friends anymore...or whatever the hay you thought would happen there. But if Twilight was here, I’m sure she’d have something to say about how everypony makes mistakes.”
“That sounds like empty talk.”
“No, it’s the truth.” She sighed, “‘Cause I made a pretty bad one myself.”
Gilda cocked her head, blinking at the admission. A slight snort escaped her beak, disbelief quite evident on her features. “Seriously, Dash?”
“I’m the reason that ghost is here.”
Silence fell over the room, their beaks dropping open in shock. Dash kept talking, quickly moving to an explanation of exactly what she meant. “I stopped in that forest near the border to adjust my pack. I saw all the bones…” She shuddered slightly, “Celestia warned me not to do it, but it honestly slipped my mind…”
“And she followed you here.” Whitewings whispered.
“Yeah. Which means that mare’s death in on my hooves. And I want to make it right.”
Glida stared at her with a dumbfounded expression for quite a bit, not quite believing what Dash had just admitted to her. Then a slight smirk crossed Gilda’s beak.
“You do know that the State Security Ministry will probably arrest you if we get caught, right?”
“I know.”
“You don’t care, do you?”
“Nope.” Dash grinned back.
Gilda released her hold, dropping Rainbow Dash back to the floor. A deep belly laugh shook her form as she clapped her friend on the back, almost bowling the pony over.
“Alright. I’m not back on for Celestia’s whole deal, but I’m all for kicking a poltergeist out of this town!” Spinning around she pointed to Whitewings, her eyes blazing with energy again, “Whitey! We need a necromancer! ….The banishing kind, not the take over the world kind.”
“Huh?” Wings blinked, shocked at Gilda’s sudden change of mood.
“Come on!” Gilda urged with a wave of a talon, “You pay attention to the magical community of this city. Is there any creature that can help us banish a ghost, or are we going to have to go out of town for this one?”
Whitewings nervously clacked her beak and ruffled her wings. “Well…there are runecaster’s in town, but they aren’t really good for dealing with ghosts. I mean...maybe if you just want to out and destroy it.” She muttered.
Dash winced. “Can’t we just...I dunno…” She waved a hoof idly, searching for the right words, “Send her home? Have her pass along and just not be a ghost anymore?”
“Oh...well.” She frowned, drumming her talons on the armrest of one of the couches, “There might be some creature that could do that. A sheep moved into town last week. Kind of a traveling mystic type. He might be able to help.”
“Well, let’s go then!” Dash shouted, jumping into the air. Without waiting for a response, she flew for the door, “We gotta move before General Hurricane kills again!”
- - - -
It had taken them a few hours to work their way back across Altenprow. They stayed on the lowest level, working through the back alleys and side streets to avoid the patrols of the night watch. Dash and Gilda both shared the desire to not be caught by the powers that be.
It proved to not be that difficult, in the end. The lowest level of the city was also the most densely packed, in terms of housing and factories, which lead to plenty of hidden pathways to sneak through. With Whitewings in the lead, they eventually came to a building that- in Dash’s opinion at least- looked completely identical to all the other buildings in the row.
Save for the two stern looking griffin who were flanking the door, muskets resting on their shoulders, lanterns resting on the ground next to their claws. A light was on in one of the upstairs windows, and they could just barely make out two shadowy shapes moving around within.
“Great.” Gilda sighed, “Looks like someone had the same idea we had.”
Dash glanced up at the night sky, flicking her tail as she mulled her options over. The street wasn’t well lit, which would explain why the guards had lanterns. Looking to the roof of the building they were standing next to, she ruffled her wings.
“I’m going to try and get a closer look.”
Propelling herself into the air, she softly landed on the roof. A glance towards the guards revealed that they hadn’t seen or heard her yet. Smiling to herself, she flitted a few more roofs down, before flying across the street and working her way back towards the house that was her target.
Moving into a steady hover, Dash slowly lowered herself down into the alley between the mystic’s house and the one next to it. The room that she had seen the shadows moving in was situated on the corner of the building, and had windows that faced both the alley and main street.
Flitting a little closer to the alley window, she peered inside.
The bedroom that she found herself looking into certainly fit the idea that it belonged to a mystic of some description. Talismans of varied origins were hung from hooks on the walls, while teetering piles of books were shoved into corners and under a battered looking desk. A library via the way of a yard sale, really.
The room was also occupied.
Dash found herself staring at the back of a familiar looking griffin. Horst. The other creature in the room was an elderly looking ram. He was white coated, or at least he was once; now it was more a speckled white and gray. A wispy dark gray beard stood out on his chin, and one of his curved horns was broken in half. His figure was portly, complete with fat cheeks that were puffing with indignation; presumably over something that Horst had said.
Frowning, she very, very carefully slid the window up a few inches. With a proper gap opened, she swiveled her ears towards the window and listened. Thankfully, both seemed to be speaking Equestrian.
“...and I don’t care how many times you threaten me!” The ram sputtered, “What you’re asking me to do is monstrous!”
“I am asking you to deal with a spirit. Isn’t that what you do?”
“You want me to break her into pieces. To destroy her.”
“And you have a problem with this? She killed a mare and took her head!”
The ram resolutely stomped a hoof. “Horst, why do you think that most of the world- including your own government- have declared Necromancy illegal?”
“Creatures don’t want to see their families remains disturbed, of course.”
“It is more than that!” The ram snapped back, “Higher level necromancy disrupts the natural cycle of life and death. It denies creatures the ability to move on, or, even worse, drags them away from their end fate.”
“I do not-”
“The point is,” The ram interrupted, cutting across the griffin, “As horrible as that fate is, at least with undead they can be properly sent on to the afterlife by those who are skilled. But to destroy a spirit? Truly snuff it out like a candle before the wind? You forever deny them that right. And I won’t be a part of it.”
Horst angrily drummed his talons against the wood of the floor. Dash suppressed the urge to snicker at the griffin’s obvious agitation.
“You are showing a callous disregard for every creature in this city, Herr Ragora. I am very much inclined to make you suffer for that.”
Ragora’s lips curled back in the beginning of a sneer, his eyes flashing in anger, the shadows around his body seeming to grow deeper. For a moment, Ragora looked downright intimidating. But then it was gone and the harmless old ram was back.
“I am very old, and have seen no end to the suffering of this world.” He sighed, “There is nothing you can do to force me to do things your way. Besides,” Now he snorted dismissively, but then smiled widely, his voice taking on an almost singsong quality to it, “My way is beeettterrrr! I can send her on to the Elysian Fields.”
“How is your way better?!” Horst shouted, jumping forward and slamming his claws to the floor so hard that he carved gouges into the wood. “You say that you can do this, but how?”
Ragora turned, diving into one of his piles of books and trinkets. A moment later he emerged again, a wooden box hovering in the magical glow from his unbroken horn. Trotting back over to Horst, he slowly, almost cockily cracked the box open.
Dash blinked at what was revealed as the lid swung open. It was a small brass bell, polished to a mirror shine.
“It’s a bell.” Horst frowned.
“I can see that.”
“Are you familiar with the city of Tambelon, Horst?”
The griffin sputtered at the name, his eyes going wide.
Rainbow Dash frowned.
I really need to start paying attention more when Twilight talks about history.
“Yes Horst. This is the last bell from the Grand Shrine of Tambelon.”
Horst seemed more unsure now. “Even if you do have that bell to send her along, the legends have always stated that you have to touch the bell to the target. Is this true?”
“Well...yes.”
“And my men will get torn to pieces! I have city guard at my disposal! The nearest landsknecht regiments are three days away if I sent an emergency telegram now. And this is a mare who tore through whole regiments and that took Seigfried himself to kill her!”
Having heard more than enough, Dash sighed, fired the window open, and hopped fully into the room. Horst twisted about, a mixture of anger and disbelief on his face at the blue pegasus before him. Dash grinned back at him, waving a hoof.
“Sup?”
“And this day just keeps getting better.” He faceclawed with a very deep sigh, “You were the kind of child who touched the stove, even when your mother told you not too, weren’t you Frau Dash?”
“Yeah, I know.” She huffed back, angrily flapping her wings, “You wanted me to get lost. But that was before I saw the ghost of an old Equestrian hero behead someone.”
“This is a Confederation matter.”
“It’s also an Equestrian matter!” Dash snapped, shooting into the air and getting right in Horst’s face, “Or are you going to tell me that if it was the ghost of your Seigfried rampaging through Canterlot, that you wouldn’t want to get involved?”
Horst was back to drumming his talons on the floor.
“And how can you help? Are you some kind of grand warrior that Celestia’s been training?”
“Hey! I’ll have you know that I am Rainbow “Danger” Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria and the pony who personally put the hurt on that Collector jerk! I can clear a sky of clouds in ten seconds flat and do a Sonic Rainboom! You want somepony fast enough to deliver the bell to the ghost, I’m your pony.”
Horst pinched his beak with a claw, letting out a very slow and exasperated sigh.
“Do you have any idea what kind of diplomatic incident this will cause if you get killed on this insane venture? I should lock you up just to protect you from your own insane bravery, and my country from the wrath of your princess!”
“You do that, and more creatures are going to die and you know it.”
The griffin’s eyes rapidly darted from Dash to Ragora to the bell and back again. Dash could almost see the mental dance happening in his head. She had him.
“Scheisse!” Horst swore, “Alright Frau Dash.”
Grabbing a few pieces of paper off the nearby desk, he quickly scribbled something down and angrily flicked one towards Rainbow Dash and another towards Ragora.
“Be there. In two hours. Then we’ll engage in this farce.”
He swept for the door, to the room, slamming it behind him.
- - - -
Horst was still fuming when he stepped back out into the street. Being essentially blackmailed into accepting Equestrian help….
“Pushy ponies throwing their weight around.” He mentally snarled. “In more ways than one.”
<“Something wrong sir?”> One of his guards asked.
<”No.”> He responded, dropping back into his native tongue. <”Should have brought my jacket.”>
The guard blinked, tilting his head in confusion. <”It’s not that cold, sir.>
<”No, but I left my cigars in the pocket.”> He sighed, drumming his talons on the cobblestone. A nervous habit that he really needed to kick. <”We have work to do. I want you to go and round up the six best fighters you think we have. Send them to my office. Inform them that they will be engaged in ghost hunting.”> He paused for a moment before adding in another order. <”And put a pair of eyes on Gilda’s residence. I refuse to believe that Rainbow Dash just stumbled upon this location.”>
<”Yes sir!”> Both of them barked, snapping off a salute and taking wing.
Horst followed suit, but headed a different direction, towards the highest point of the hill the city was built upon and the building that served as Altenprow’s administrative hub. It was a two story rectangular affair, two marble wings built off of a central box that was topped with a wrought iron and glass dome.
It squatted off of a cobble lined square, a large griffin statue perched in its center. And to Horst it was basically a second home, as his intense dedication to his job kept him working late into the night, most nights.
That was probably why he was still single, in retrospect.
Landing outside the entrance, he stalked right for his office, giving brusk nods to the workers in other departments as he passed. Closing the door behind him, he set to work. He approached the telegraph line first, beginning to tap out a series of messages.
First he sent a message to the Duke of Ahant’s office, informing him of the situation and his concerns. Then he sent a similar message to the Chancellor’s office. The higher ups in the State Security Ministry would probably chew him out for bypassing protocol like that, but at this point he didn’t give a damn. Finally, he tapped out a message to the Confederation’s resident diplomat in Equestria, advising her of the possibilities and warning her to “start coming up with ways to smooth this over, in case this goes straight into the sun”.
Then he walked to his desk, opening the central drawer and checked his pistol. It was rune marked, as befitting his office, enchanted to deliver extra impact and damage. Sighing, he carefully loaded a bullet into each chamber before slapping the cylinder shut. Placing the gun on the top of his desk, he sat back on his haunches and waited.
“I hope that pegasus knows what she’s doing.”
- - - -
“You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing!”
Gilda and Rainbow Dash sat across from each other in Ragora’s room locked in the passionate throes of an argument in the way that only two good friends could be. Dash had brought Gilda and her friends up to speed on what the plan was, and Gilda had reacted...poorly.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“He wants to arrest you! He doesn’t like you!”
“He needs me!”
“And when you’re done he’ll arrest you!”
Ragora and Gilda’s friends sat on the other side of the room, watching the back and forth between griffin and pony.
“Are they always like this?” Ragora asked.
“They haven’t been talking in quite a while.” Agid observed, “So I would actually qualify this as an improvement.”
“Better to see passion than coldness, I say.” Adeluf nodded in agreement, “They’ll work it out one way or another.”
Gilda angrily clacked her beak. “Dash…”
“You’re not talking me out of this Gilda. It’s my fault that she’s even here in the first place. I am going to fix this.” She shrugged, “Simple as that.”
“She’s got fight in her, I’ll give her that.” Ragora nodded.
“That ghost is going to kill you!” Gilda shouted, jabbing towards the window with a claw, “General Hurricane was one of the greatest fighters of her era!”
Dash shrugged. “She’s not faster than me. All I have to do is touch her with the bell.” She looked at Ragora, “Right?”
“That’s all you have to do, yes.”
Nodding, Dash got to her hooves. “Look, Gilda…I forgive you okay. But I’m still going to fix my mistake.
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“No. You’re not. I’m not supposed to be seen with you, remember?”
Gilda began to pace, her tail thrashing. “You just want me to sit back and do nothing while you risk your life?”
“You want to do something? Stop being devastated over the past, do what Princess Celestia asked you to and then come and visit me in Ponyville once this is over with.” She waved a hoof towards the ram spiritualist with a hurried motion, “Come on Ragora. Let’s go meet up with Horst.”
Gilda watched helplessly as Dash lead the way out of the room, Ragora following along with his box. Once they were gone, Whitewings shot a nervous glance at Gilda.
“What do we do now?”
“I say we go after her.” Adeluf said.
“I say we handle Celestia’s orders.” Agid argued back, “If there’s a time we can sneak out of town, this is it. They’ll be distracted with General Hurricane.”
“And abandon her friend?”
“That friend told her to go.”
“Just, everycreature shut up for a minute, I need to think.” Gilda growled, rubbing the side of her head.
She had told herself that she wasn’t going to do secret actions in the Confederation anymore. That she had somehow screwed up badly enough that she was useless for what Celestia wanted.
And then Dash had to go and show her how to really bounce back from a mistake.
“Lets get back to the house. I want to be packed up and ready to go within the next few hours. We’re heading for the peak.”
“But Rainbow-” Adeluf began, only to be cut off by a raised talon from Gilda.
“I didn’t trust her before, and it cost me. Not making that mistake again. She says she can take General Hurricane, and she can do it. Besides,” She sighed, “If what’s sealed away in the peaks gets loose, it won’t really matter.”
The room was quiet, as no one had a good counter to that fact.
Rainbow Dash idly wondered how much Princess Celestia would chew her out for going off script like this as she looked up at the center of Altenprow’s government. Sitting next to the statue of some old griffin hero across from the building’s entrance, she was certainly in the thick of things now, that was for sure.
Ragora sat next to her, looking more bored than anything else as he took in his surroundings. The ram was an odd one, seemingly unconcerned with the concept of going after a beheading ghost. She wasn’t sure if it was bravery or insanity, really.
Of course, I could say the same about me.
Horst came striding out of the administrative building, a rune carved pistol strapped to his side. He gave her a curt nod as he approached. Six members of the Altenprow guard were right behind him rifles slung over their shoulders.
“I am obliged to try and talk you out of this one last time.” Horst growled.
“Not gonna happen.”
The griffin officer rolled his eyes before turning towards Ragora.
“Do you have a way to find her?”
“Of course.” Ragora grinned, his unbroken horn lighting up, the bell from Tambelon hovering before his head. A white aura formed around the bell, that was then matched in his eyes, “Dealing with the undead is what I do.”
“Lead on then.”
- - - -
Ragora’s efforts lead them back towards the lowest tier of the city. It had been relatively slow going at first, as the ram’s lack of flight slowed them down. This had eventually been resolved when, in a moment of frustration, Horst had ordered two of the guard to just carry the ram.
In the end, they had come to a warehouse among Altenprow’s factories. The building was quiet, the windows boarded up and the doors chained shut.
“Should have known.” Ragora nodded sagely, “Ghosts are naturally drawn to abandoned places such as this.”
“You don’t say.” Horst snarked back, “I am overjoyed that ours is conforming to proper undead stereotypes.” He paused for a moment, looking around the area with an increasingly angry look on his face, before turning to face Rainbow Dash, “It occurs to me...how are you going to be able to see her in the night? Not many street lights around here.”
It was true, Dash realized. Aside from the lanterns that some of the guard had been carrying, the whole block of factories they were currently standing amongst were shrouded in darkness. No need to keep the lights on when there were no workers about.
“Okay, that makes things a little more difficult….” She began.
“Oh, for crying out loud. Just forget the spellcaster here.” Ragora grumbled, his good horn once again lighting up as he wove a spell, wrapping it around the group.
Dash felt a tingling sensation descend on her eyes for a moment, that caused her to rub at them furiously with the back of her hooves. It faded a moment later, leaving her blinking as she looked about at her surroundings again.
The difference was like night and day, literally. The darkness had somehow retreated, leaving her able to see like it was the middle of the day, despite the moon and stars still hanging in the sky.
“Woah.” She blinked, but smirked all the same, “That’s kind of weird, but cool.”
“There.” Rogora nodded, passing the enchanted bell over to her, “Problem solved.”
Horst sighed, drawing his pistol. “Very well. Prepare yourself. My men and eye will lure her out.”
Dash nodded, taking to the air as Horst and his guard moved towards the doors.
- - - -
The chains on the front door were broken away by two of his men, Horst stepping into the main floor of the warehouse first. The weight of the revolver in his claws- usually a comforting factor- felt wholly inadequate as his eyes swept the room.
The warehouse had obviously been abandoned for quite a while. A clawful of dusty crates, marked with the sigil of an airship company long defunct, and occasional piles of abandoned parts, lay scattered about the floor. He mentally sighed; such a waste.
His target, the ghost of General Hurricane, was currently engaged with one of those piles. Crouching down, she poked at an engine cylinder, seemingly unconcerned with how her hoof kept passing through it and more perplexed with what it actually was.
<”Get ready to run.”> He whispered, motioning for them to take aim.
The ghosts’ head snapped up, fixing them with an angry glare. They hadn’t been quiet enough, it seemed. She took a step forward, flaring her ghostly wings in an aggressive display, her borrowed head snarling.
“What griffin is so brave enough to stand before General Hurricane?” She demanded in two voices, one in Equestrian, one in Griffish.
“I am Horst Kraller.” He answered in even Equestrian, keeping his revolver trained on her, “Officer of the State Security Ministry for Altenprow. You shall cease all operations and allow a...contracted spiritualist...to send you on to the afterlife, or you shall be destroyed.”
General Hurricane blinked- a very living gesture- before throwing her head back and howling with laughter.
“Very well. Shoot her!”
The gunfire shot an angry retort back General Hurricane’s way in a flurry of noise and smoke, the latter actually obscuring the ghost for a moment in a white haze.
“Fall back!” Horst barked, having no intention of sticking around to see the results. His men rushed for the door, as he brought up the rear, keeping his revolver raised. .
The form of General Hurricane burst from the smoke, ethereal wing blades spread wide, shooting right for him. Swearing, Horst raised his revolver in a knee jerk defensive measure. The edge of Hurricane’s right blade impacted against the metal of the gun with a clang, angry sparks flying, the runes blazing bright in response.
Acting more on instinct than anything else, Horst reared up on his paws, lashing out with his free talon. Grabbing the horn of her borrowed, and very corporeal head, he flipped her as hard as he could.
Tumbling over with an undignified squawk of surprise, her ghost body phased through the floor, stopped only by her un-ghostly head.
Horst didn’t hesitate. He just ran.
- - - -
Rainbow Dash circled overhead, bell of Tambelon clutched between her hooves, watching the spooked griffin come tumbling back out of the warehouse. They scrambled across the street from the entrance Horst quickly urging them back into some kind of firing line.
An angry, roiling mass of shadows slammed through the door a moment later before reforming into the enraged looking General Hurricane. Dipping a wing, Dash immediately dropped into a dive. Stretching her forelegs out before her, she kept her grip tight on the bell, aiming right for her target.
Hurricane lept for Horst. Dash shifted her wings to adjust her her course. The remaining distance closed in a moment and she was less than an inch away…
Hurricane’s ghostly body curled up into a ball of shadow, recoiling away in a sudden, flowing motion. Swearing, Dash flicked the bell to a wing, her hooves slamming hard into the cobblestone street.
The general reformed a few feet away, raising a shadowy eyebrow as she looked Rainbow Dash over.
“Conscripting poor deluded pony “citizens”? I’ll make you pa-”
Dash threw herself forward again, transferring the bell back to her hooves with a flick of her wing. Hurricane snarled, pointing her wing blades forward to ward the charge off. Dash rolled to the left, the tip of her wing brushing against the street as she shot past General Hurricane.
The general twisted about, chasing after her with a screech of rage.
“Traitor! I am trying to save your ungrateful hide from these monsters!”
Snorting, Dash ignored the angry shouts, pumping her wings harder to gain some more distance. Counting off a few beats in her head, she flipped into a loop, coming around and swooping towards General Hurricane from behind.
The wing blades hissed through the air, General Hurricane’s whole body twisting into a corkscrew, to slash at her attacker. A few locks of red and orange mane fell from Dash’s head, the Element of Loyalty flaring her wings not a moment too soon.
“Aww, come on!” She shouted, patting at the slice in her mane, “You’re totally ruining my look!”
“I was aiming for your neck, race traitor.” General Hurricane shouted, twisting back into a proper pony shape. Rushing for Rainbow Dash, she angled her wings forward again, the phantom blades growing longer and more wicked looking.
Dash pulled her wings close to her body, letting gravity take over for a moment. Hurricane shot past, but then pulled an on the spot one eighty spin, immediately diving back after the falling form of Rainbow Dash.
“Damn.” Dash swore, quickly rolling over and returning to powered flight.
Once again, the distance between the two of them grew, Hurricane not able to keep up with Rainbow Dash’s speed.
Once again, Dash swung back around in another complicated loop, that was blocked by General Hurricane’s insane maneuverability and malleable body. She swore as she was forced back again, General Hurricane grinning wide with her borrowed head. While Dash knew that she was faster than the good general, it didn’t mean anything so long as she was more maneuverable.
“You can not win.” Hurricane pointed out, “I am a better fighter than you, trained to be a perfect weapon for the advancement of Equestria. You are an ignorant foal, shaking a hoof those who know better while you scrape and beg at the griffin’s talons.”
“Hey! I don’t scrape and beg to anypony!” She shot back, puffing her chest out, “I’m loyal to my friends and Princess Celestia-”
“Princess...Celestia?” Hurricane gaped, “You say that the immortal sun is a princess? And, you are somehow her representative?”
“Well...no.” Dash frowned, “But she does rule Equestria and my loyalty is to her!”
General Hurricane’s expression wasn’t so much one of disbelief, as a it was an expression questioning Dash’s very sanity; mouth agape, face scrunched up with one eye squinted and the other open as wide as it could go.
“If you are loyal to Equestria, then why are you trying to stop my righteous-”
An angry screech echoed through the air, Horst dropping from above. Grabbing the general by her horn with one talon, he jammed his revolver right into her side with the other and opened up. Hurricane roared in pain, the runic enhanced bullets tearing into her incorporeal form.
“You will REMOVE yourself from my city!” Horst bellowed.
Hurricane’s wings bent at right angles, stabbing backwards and up at Horst, one slicing into his right shoulder, the other digging into his left side.
“I’ll carve you up.” She hissed back.
“The hay you will!” Dash swooped in, slamming the Bell of Tambelon in between General Hurricane’s wings, as hard as she possibly could, “Like he said. Remove yourself from his city!”
A discordant tone pealed out, echoing between the rooftops and streets of the city. A while glow sprung to life around the bell, flowing across the shadowy form of the general.
“NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo….” She screamed, her body fading away. The severed head dropped, Horst managing to grab its horn and stop the fall, wincing in pain from the wounded shoulder.
“Scheisse!” He swore, rubbing at the wound with his good arm, “That hurt.”
“That was insanely brave.” Dash smiled, “You’re my kind of griffin Horst.”
“I am overjoyed to meet your lofty standards Frau Dash.” He shook his head, extending his good claw, “The bell please. I shall return it to Ragora. You will go home.”
“Really? After I helped you out?”
“That is why I am not arresting you.” He eyed her, “I am still convinced you were here for reasons other than a vacation.”
“Fine, fine. But if you’re ever in my neck of the woods, feel free to pay me a visit. Ponyville’s a friendly place!”
“Of course it is.”
- - - -
Two days later, Rainbow Dash sighed as she stared at the golden circle marked door before her. She stood there for quite a while, nervously shifting from hoof to hoof, before finally deciding to just go with it and push the door open.
Much like last time, Princess Celestia was already there, sitting at the head of the massive circular table. A tray with a warm pot of tea and two cups rested on the table next to her. Smiling warmly as Rainbow took her seat, Princess Celestia bowed her head towards the pegasus.
“I am glad to see that you’ve returned safe and sound Rainbow Dash. I am to understand that you helped Altenprow deal with a wraith?”
Dash blinked.
“You heard about that?”
“Yes. The griffin ambassador was slightly concerned that I might declare war if you died in that battle.”
“Eh heh hehe.” She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head, “Sorry about that princess.”
“No apology necessary.” Celestia shook her head, pouring each of them a warm cup of tea, “What you did was very brave.”
“It wasn’t that brave.” Dash pouted, tapping a hoof against the table, “It was my fault it was there. I didn’t listen to you and I landed in the Teutenborg.”
“And I should have told you why landing there was a bad idea.” Celestia sighed, ruffling her wings, “My desire to protect you was...misplaced in this regard.”
“Protect me?”
“I am sure that Whitewings told you of the the first Confederation-Equestrian war from the griffin perspective?”
“Oh yeah...how Queen Platinum wanted to unite all the ponies everywhere.”
Celestia nodded, taking a sip of her tea. “The fact that some of Equestria’s founders had a rather reductive view of what harmony is something that I’ve never been pleased about. Especially since they have come to be viewed as heroes.”
She bowed her head again.
“I am sorry that you had to deal with the ghosts of the past Rainbow Dash. I should have taken greater steps to resolve the problem, but considering the historical context of how that war got started-” She trailed off.
“No!” Dash interrupted, slamming her forehooves on the table, “Princess...you’ve done so much for us and for Equestria. Just because General Hurricane was actually some kind of monster…”
“But she wasn’t.” Celestia smiled sadly, “When alive, she was misguided, but still an honorable warrior.”
“What do you mean?”
“The nature of being a wraith,” Celestia sighed, “Twists one’s thoughts and desires towards their worst incarnations.” She ruffled her wings, sighing a bit deeper this time, “Everything right and just about the pony in question is warped.”
“Ahh.” Dash muttered, rubbing the back of her neck, “Well, if it’s alright with you princess, I’d like to head back to Ponyville now. Kind of...get over this.”
“Of course.” Celestia nodded, “If there’s anything else you need, feel free to write me. One question before you go, however. How did things go with Gilda?”
Rainbow Dash smiled. “I think she’s back on her talons. Before I left, she had her old fight back in her.”
It was a flurry of activity in Altenprow’s administrative building, griffins and ponies rushing every which way as they engaged in the business of government. It was a scene that Far Odyssey- Confederation messenger- was quite used to, having delivered no small amount of telegrams to government buildings.
Weaving his way through the creatures about him, he paused at the door of the office of Horst Kraller. It was closed. He knocked a hoof against the door and waited, frowning when it didn’t open.
“Can I help you sir?” A passing griffin tiercelet asked.
“I have a telegram for Herr Kraller. It’s marked urgent.”
“Alas, he left two days ago.” The griffin smiled sadly, “Herr Kraller is currently on an airship to the north, chasing after some creatures of interest. I am his assistant, however, so I can take it in his name.”
Far Odyssey shrugged, pulling the envelope from his saddle bags and handing it over and extending a hoof for a tip.
Passing over a few silver claws with a roll of her eyes, Horst’s assistant casually broke the seal with a claw and read. As Odyssey trotted away, her eyes grew wider and wider. Reaching the end of the telegram, she hurriedly ran down the hall, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Send for a squad of guard! Now!”
- - - -
TO HERR KRALLER
IT IS OF VITAL IMPORTANCE THAT YOU DETAIN THE RAM GOING BY THE NAME OF RAGORA.
INVESTIGATIONS CONDUCTED BY MY ASSOCIATES AND I HAVE REVEALED THAT THE ACTUAL MYSTIC KNOWN AS RAGORA WAS KILLED TWO WEEKS AGO. THE BELL OF TAMBELON YOURS CARRIES MUST BE RECOVERED.
JACOBY FLYNN
- - - -
The house door was smashed to pieces, guards rushing through the halls, into rooms and up the stairs towards the second floor. Brandishing weapons, both melee and ranged in their talons, they ruthlessly swept the house for any sign of the ram who had called himself Ragora.
But the house was already empty.
- - - -
Rarogra smiled as he carefully as he slid out of the carts harness. It was no longer something he required.
Leaving it on the side of the road, he strode deep into the wilderness and away from civilization. Up the sides of mountains, down into gullies, backtracking, taking sudden detours, everything and anything to throw possible pursuers off the trail.
After traveling for what felt like hours, he paused, glancing about for any nearby creatures hiding in the underbrush, or waiting to spring out at him. However, once he was satisfied that no such events were likely to occur, he slid the bell from Tambelon around his neck and began to change.
The patchy white and gray coat darkened into a deep bluish-black, his broken horn repairing itself back to a proper ram curl. The eyes, so full of warmth back in Altenprow, took on an angry, red glow. And, finally, his flat teeth grew into razor sharp fangs.
Chuckling to himself, he reached a hoof up and gave the bell around his neck a casual ring. The spirit of General Hurricane was pulled back to the living world, thrashing against the tendrils of magic that bound her to the bell.
“I must really thank those two.” He chuckled, “It is so rare for one of my targets to be so readily delivered into my hooves.”
The headless ghost hissed, continuing to thrash against the magical bonds.
“Yes. I imagine that you do hate me.” He chuckled again, “But I have such plans for you my, my little pony. Vae victis.”
- - - -
The cold wind whipped and slashed through Gilda’s feathers and fur. The raging superstorm that coiled around the tallest mountain of the Storm Peaks, and had thusly helped name the whole range, rose before her group.
Even at this distance, she could feel the clashing air currents whipping about the edge of the storm front. Many griffin had tried to push their way through the depths of the thunderstorm, and failed.
“Feels...different.” Agid observed, hovering in place and letting the air rush through his outspread wings, to get a feel for the air currents. The griffin had spent some time studying weather patterns in Cloudsdale, many years ago, and while not able to control the weather like a pegasus, had a better feel for how it worked than most of his kind, “Weaker than before. Winds are dissipating.”
Gilda glanced back at the supercell. Weak with that monster was a very relative thing. But it was still a very bad sign.
“Alright losers!” She barked out, channelling her inner military commander, “We’re going to that peak, and we’re going to seal this thing away! Let’s move out!”
Swooping towards the edge of the storm, it was hard to not be intimidated by the massive wall of grey that reached into the stratosphere. It was like assaulting a cloud keep of the storm giants of legend. Then they were through the edge and being battered about by the winds and rain within.
It didn’t take long for Gilda to realize just how right Agid was about his proclamation. The last time she had worked her way through the storm, the wind shears had been powerful enough to knock her askew and the clouds were wracked with lightning.
Back then, it had taken every ounce of skill she had developed from flying with Dash to find a safe path through the clouds. And even then, it had taken her a few attempts, and some broken bones before she had finally pulled it off.
And, while the winds were still strong, they weren’t that strong. And there was no lightning. Just snow being tossed about in flurries. Frowning, she pushed onwards, trying to ignore the sensation of being watched that followed the group through the cyclone and the way certain clouds almost seemed to be alive, coiling into serpentine shapes that towered over them, before collapsing back into the formless mass.
It was a sensation of supreme claustrophobia that descended upon them as they continued onwards, the wind rushing past them almost feeling like breath on the backs of their necks, the rumble of thunder almost sounding like the roars of some kind of primal beast.
Suddenly, they were free, having burst through another gray wall of cloud, the warm sunlight beating down on their backs. Folding their wings back, they dove towards the jagged spire of granite that jutted out at an odd forty-five degree angle from the rest of the peak.
No snow rested upon this part of the mountain. Just the dark rock laid bare. Well, the dark rock, and the glowing griffin runes that had been carved into it. Landing neatly on it’s surface, Gilda nodded to Whitewings.
“Get the blood.”
Whitewings complied, reaching into her bags and pulling out an ornate crystal phial. Full of deep red blood and stoppered with an eyedropper, the liquid was constantly changing shape. Forming into a circle, then a square, then a triangle, then a diamond and back to a circle.
The blood of Discord. The only thing that could keep the monster in the storm contained.
Flipping the bottle upside down, she drew a dropper full of blood before rightening it. Taking a deep breath, she lowered the dropper over the largest of the runes and squeezed. The warm redness tumbled through the air, still twisting and changing shape as it fell. But, it was unable to fight gravity and splattered against the runework.
Nothing happened.
“...Aren’t the runes supposed to be glowing?” Glida blinked.
“Yeah. They’re supposed to be glowing. And if they’re not glowing and the prison is getting weaker-”
“Gilda…” Adelulf interrupted, “You should take a look at this.”
Swinging her head about, Gilda winced at what the brother was pointing at. They hadn’t noticed during their initial approach, but part of the rune work had melted away, the rock there fused into something more like obsidian.
“Damn.” Gilda sighed, “Pretty much exactly what Celestia was afraid of. The wards are damaged.” Pinching her beak with a talon, she took a deep breath, “Alright, if we book it for Equestria, maybe we can pick up some support-”
“Gilda!” Whitewings yelped in surprise.
What now? She thought, twisting back around and following the griffin’s outstretched claw. The bow of an airship was slicing its way through the clouds, bursting into the open air like a giant, angry bird of prey. And as it buzzed fully into view, armed griffin threw themselves from the deck, rapidly surrounding her and her friends.
The last griffin that landed, much to Gilda’s annoyance, was a face she had hoped she had left behind in Altenprow.
“Hello, Horst.” She frowned.
The state security officer just smiled back, nodding his head towards them. The troops moved at once, some keeping their weapons trained on them, while the others proceeded to slap irons on them.
“Hello Gilda.” He continued to smile, eyes roaming over the runes, “I believe you have some explaining to do.”
Gilda could have sworn she heard the storm laughing.