A cry of immense pain escaped Rainbow Das's lips as the cold steel of Gilda's blade began to dig deeper into her chest, inching closer to her heart painfully slowly. Her hooves quivered with muscular stress as she desperately tried to resist the Griffon's pushes, only slowing the blades path to her heart but never ultimately stopping it.

Gilda grinned, talking quietly and calmly "You've always been a failure... It was alway your friends that saved Equestria, never you... Think about it... Tirek... Twilight did all the work whilst you lay in his bubble cell... Sombra... Crowd control whilst Spike... EVEN SPIKE is better than you..." She chuckled, teasing the mare as he blade pushed deeper "Look at you now... Without them you're nothing"

"Ugh! Nnngg!" She growled, one last energy draining push only halting Gilda's blade for a moment before it returned to its slow continuation. Her hind legs squirmed, pinned by the Griffons own.

"Face it... You're going to die... I should have done this when I had the chance..." She growled, her eyes lighting up as she prepared to plunge the dagger the final inch, piercing the mare heart.

The sound of hooves clopped against the tiled floor, Gilda swiftly turning as one of the civilians, a blue stallion, swung what looked like a chair leg towards her head. The Griffon was quicker, however, grabbing the end of the instrument and yanking, pulling the stallion into her blade. The small attack gave Dash the time to throw a rough punch whilst her rival was distracted, crumpling Gilda's jaw as she watched her attacker fall to the ground nursing his stab wound.

Rainbow took a moment to recover, before pumping her wings hard and throwing herself across the floor to put she distance between her and the Griffon to give herself some more time to recover. Gilda slowly rose from the floor, rubbing her jaw bone and glaring across the room to Dash. She would have dispatched of the stallion there and then, but she'd be back for him after scalping Dash and claiming that rainbow mane. "Yet again you rely on someone else to get by!" She roared, picking her sword up off the floor and opening her arms "Yet you continue to act as if you're the best thing since zap apples"

Blood oozed from Dash wound, soaking her chest fur and drying into a rough red stain on her cyan fur "You were always in my shadow, Gilda. I'm not surprised you're so sour. You were always destined to just be a wing pony, it must tear you up inside to watch me achieve such marvellous things from that shithole of a home in Griffonstone. No wonder you invaded"

She twirled her sword in a claw, walking closer and closer "You've done enough of your talking, always a talker" She growled "Time to put you in your place once and for all" The Griffon launched herself towards Dash, sword out front as she spiralled in the air, lunging straight for Dash's face.

"Oh shit" Dash yelped, dropping to the ground as quickly as she could as Gilda span over her, just missing and landing behind her. She didnt take a second to rest, spinning on the spot and slashing and lunging at the mare.

Dash stood on her rear hooves, using her wings for extra support and speed as she jumped back and flipped to avoid the slashes.

Gilda was fuelled by pure rage, roaring as she mercilessly slashed in the mares general direction, forcing Dash to take emergency action and use every skill she possessed to desperately avoid Gilda's onslaught. The Griffons garage was tiring her, however, her slashes beginning to slow as Dash continued to dodge.

The cyan mare bode her time, avoiding each hit before swiftly capitalising on a lethargic swing by the Griffon, lunging forwards and landing a hoof on her beak, then an elbow to her temple, before bucking the sword out of her claw, sending it sliding across the room. Dash was a natural fighter, but the training she'd put herself through had only sharpened and defined her technique, plus she'd learnt better discipline whilst fighting and some new, dirty Pegasi tricks. She sucked in air as her attack continued, yet again on her rear hooves and using her wings for support as her fore hooves assaulted the Griffon, Dash's turn to be on the front foot as her hooves connected again and again with Gilda.

Gilda stumbled backwards, unable to recovery from the previous hit as three more rained down on her, eyes blurry and mind concussed as Dash didn't hold back, beating her to a pulp. It was only a matter of time before her backwards stumbling led to her tripping and falling backwards, her mind too slow and body too bruised to halt her fall, landing hard on the hard tiles. Blood ran into her eye from a long cut across her forehead, blinding her, face covered in bruises and cuts.

Dash let out a low growl, kneeling over her old friend, slowing her hits but increasing the power behind them, each time her hoof connected with Gilda's face it snapped her neck from one side to the other, before she reached down and wrapped her hooves tightly around her neck.

Gilda weakly managed to dig her claws into Dash's forelegs, banging on them desperately as the mare began to squeeze her throat, choking the life out of her.

Rainbow Dash stared down at Gilda, holding her grasp around her neck as the Griffons squirms go weaker and slower as the lack of oxygen began to cause her brain to shut itself down, her eyes beginning to cloud over, head resting against the cold, hard floor. Dash looked down at Gilda, her eyes locked on the Griffons cold, dead eyes for a long few minutes, the mare slowly standing and finding her hoof daggers and reattactching them before retaking her position knelt over Gilda.

"You're not coming back from this one... They wont even be able to identify the body" She hissed at her dead friend, beginning to swiftly and brutally slash her cold face over and over until all that was left was a bloody mess in a pool of blood on the town hall floor. Dash wiped her blades on the Griffons chest tuft, standing and approaching the crowd that had now surrounded the crumpled stallion, the Commander kneeling down and tearing a length of material from her armour, tightly wrapping it around his cut stomach. "I only know basic field aid" She muttered "And I doubt there will be many hospital beds left after today, so if you can find a professional, I would do so" She nodded at him, before quickly trotting out of the front door.

Dash cantered down the streets of Cloudsdale, eerily empty but for the fallen soldiers littering the street like the autumn leaves. There were a few Pegasi fighting Griffons in the sky, but nowhere near as many as there had been, Dash slowing her canter to a walk. Something didn't seem right at all... If either side had won then there would be groups on the streets, surely? The Pegasi capital was apparently completely empty, not a single Pegasi or Griffon in sight, which was a good thing Dash supposed?

Dash was wiped off her hooves by an earth - or cloud shaking explosion, the mares ears ringing as she glanced around, dazed by the pure shock of the explosion, trying to figure out just what was going on. As she was just managing to get to her feet, an identical explosion erupted in the square infront of her, the shockwave taking her off her hooves again, throwing her back, hitting hard against a wall. Another explosion could be heard not too far away.

Rainbow dragged herself desperately down the street towards the Town Hall. She didnt know what was going on, but she knew she had to get the stallions, mares and foals from the building. Everything in her mind was screaming at her that they were in serious danger as another explosion cracked behind her, the cloud blown into oblivion, falling away from the rest of the city.

Turning the corner and spotting the Town Hall, Dash managed to get herself to her hooves, cantering as quickly as her battered body could carry her towards the doors. She got halfway down the street towards the Hall, before it was enveloped by a fireball - an explosion erupting directly below the iconic building, disintegrating it and anything unlucky enough to be inside. The explosion took Dash off her hooves yet again, but the mare was determined to not stop.

"No..." Dash muttered, her walk turning to a trot, the trot to a run, and the run to a canter towards the hole in the clouds where the building once was. She knew at that moment there was nothing more she could do to save her beloved birthplace, the city she'd spent her foal hood and young adult life, where she had worked and achieved so much. With tears clouding her vision the mare weakly rolled off the cloud city, free falling towards the ground before deploying her wings and landing, looking back as more explosions ripped the city apart. Cloudsdale split into fractured pieces, parts falling to the ground as others disappeared into nothingness.

Dash's legs trembled, giving way as she fell into a crying wreck, smashing her hoof hard into the ground as she lay like a newborn foal, crying her eyes raw as she watched Cloudsdale disappear.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading.