Closer to Heaven

Chapters

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Closer to Heaven—Original 2012 draft

1

Somewhere near the Palomino Desert - Unknown Time

“Yo, Gilda. How long do you think we’ve been flying?” she asked me as if I would know.

“For the last time, Dash, three days!” I spat back perhaps a little more harshly than I should have. The fatigue was starting to get to me.

“How the heck have ya been keeping track of time?” Dash asked me with some bewilderment.

I rolled my eyes in reply. “It’s this neat little invention called a ‘watch.’ You should try it sometime.”

Dash said nothing right away, instead only letting out a grunt. “Right," she finally added in an unsure tone.

There was silence between the two. During that time, the only sound that we could hear was the beating of our wings.

“So… uh… Gilda... Penny for your thoughts?” Dash asked, breaking the silence between us.

“Do you even have a penny on you?” I snapped back, once again far more harshly than I should have.

“Look, I just wanna talk!” Dash shouted back at me.

I sighed and glanced back at Dash. “You know, for a Wonderbolt commander, you sure don’t act like one.”

“I’d rather not remind myself of that right now. War’s not really my thing,” Dash said, her tone austere and weary.

“Yeah. Knowing you, you’d rather be loafing around on some cloud," I said, memories of my rainbow-maned friend sleeping entire afternoons away returning to the forefront of my recollections.

“...You can be such a flankhole sometimes, you know," Dash replied with feigned annoyance.

“And you can be such a lame dweeb sometimes,” I countered. I let the air hang silently for a bit before speaking again. "How long ‘till we get to Canterlot?” I asked in the hopes of diverting our conversation.

“You’re the one with the watch!” Dash furiously spat back.

“Dash!” I sternly shouted back at my companion.

“... If we keep flying like this, we might make it by nightfall tomorrow," Dash answered after a few minutes of silence.

I nodded. “Thank you!" I answered before exhaling and shaking my head. "Geez, you can be so hard sometimes..."

There was more silence between us as we continued flying. I couldn't really speak for Dash, but I wanted to keep my beak shut both to conserve some energy, as well as to not further antagonize Dash.

The silence between us didn't last too long, however.

“Hey, Gilda,” Dash again started.

“What?” I flatly replied.

There was a pause in Dash's breathing for just the slightest of seconds. “Why are you still wearing that armor? Isn’t it uncomfortable?” she asked.

I, on the other claw, wasted no time with my words. “The thing’s enchanted. I’m probably still only flying because of it.”

“I still think you should get rid of it,” Dash said in a mellow yet distant tone. "It... doesn't look good on you."

I again rolled my eyes. “Then how about you get rid of that jumpsuit?”

“N-no!” Dash stammered out her reply.

The corners of my beak rose. “Hmm… thought so. Now stop complaining, and keep flying!” I said in as commanding a voice as I could manage given the circumstance.

There was silence between us once again. Yet this time, something about it felt different, as our wingbeats began growing less and less even in their rhythms. It was almost as if the emotions in our hears was being audibly exemplified. I could feel a chill in my spine as I truly began to absorb the tune in the air. It spoke of bad things to come, almost like a curse one knew would strike soon, yet couldn't be predicted or stopped.

Such a terrible feeling to have in the middle of a war.

“Gilda... do you think Equestria will survive?”

Dash's question gave me pause. While I would have loved to pull the optimism card and assure my companion that everything would be alright, I honestly couldn't see a good end for anyone.

“Normally, I’d say something witty about your typical pony hero complex and its ability to kick anyone’s ‘flank’ back to whatever manure pile they crawled out of. But… Well…”

Even if by some miracle the war ended tomorrow, so much damage and suffering have already been inflicted on the world that it would take decades, if not centuries, to rebuild. And that wasn't anything when it came to the people the world over.

Dash was quiet at my words. Even without turning around to see her eyes, I could tell that she too had the same sentiments I did. Only, she probably had seen far more than I had...

“I think we should save our energy," Dash suddenly said in a deadpan and reserved tone.

“Yeah… let’s…” I answered back, not sure if I was glad for the suggestion, or deathly worried about what it really entailed.

Closer to Heaven

War had come with no warning. It bathed the land in fire and blood. My home, as awful as it was, was taken. Those I almost considered friends were stolen, and even the portable oven my grandpa had left me got snatched right out of my talons.

Everything was gone...

Well, except for Dash. She flew just a few meters ahead—tired, sweaty, hungry, battered, and bruised. In truth, I wasn’t in any better shape, and no matter how much my wings begged for rest, stopping just wasn’t an option.

Damn, everything north of the Equestrian border had been hit by Sombra’s armies. Getting a good look at the ground, I could make out the remains of a metric ton of dead Royal Guards. That, somehow, didn’t ease any of my concerns, if I could find it hard to believe. Canterlot had better be worth it. A nice bed, three full meals, and plenty of pampering. I wouldn’t settle for any less!

A flash of memories and I remembered what happened. No. I shouldn’t think about me. There is no room for me.

“Hey, how you holding up there?” I shouted at Dash as loud as I could manage. My vocal cords were already getting sore.

“Tired,” she replied, not even bothering to look back. I could see she was losing the luster in that rainbow mane of hers.

“You sure you okay?” I asked, well aware that it was a stupid question. Of course, she wasn’t okay!

“Hey, G,” she called out in a weak and raspy voice, “I don’t think I can keep going for today.”

“Oh, come now! You telling me that Rainbow ‘Boom’ Dash is going to let a little fatigue get the better of her?” I said in a playfully mocking manner. She was twice the flyer I would ever be. There was nothing she couldn’t do if she wanted to.

I waited for Dash’s usual quip, but when twenty seconds passed with no comeback, I started to get concerned; Dash wasn’t one to let a jab to her ego go unpunished. By the time my mind caught up with reality again, I had flown right past her by at least a few dozen meters. “Hey, loser! What are you doing lagging behind?” I shouted once again, still getting no response. With a groan, I turned around. “What? did I strike a nerve or some—” I felt the breath leave my lungs the instant I saw the reality.

“...Dash…?” She had stopped flapping her wings, her breathing rapid and raspy, and eyes rolled to the back of her head. Before I could even move an inch forward, she dropped like a rock.

“Oh, you’ve got to be KIDDING ME!” I shouted, plunging down as swiftly as my wings would allow. “Hang on, loser!”

In that instant, I don’t think I’d ever flown as fast as I did.

I ended up missing my mark, and rather than grabbing Dash by the torso, I grabbed her by the forelegs. Without wasting any more time and energy, I brought her up into my arms. Her head rested against my chest, her breathing rapid and irregular. I could feel her body temperature getting higher with every second. “Dammit. Dash, have you been flying all this time with a fever!?” I looked down at some of the scabbing wounds on her torso, and couldn’t help but wince when I saw small patches of white growing in some.

“Damn it all... You’re a real saint for not hating me right now…”

It was one heck of a struggle keeping a proper trajectory. Dash wasn’t that heavy, but the added weight—coupled with the fatigue my body was finally starting to show—made things harder than they should have been. By the time I had dropped enough altitude that we wouldn’t kill ourselves if we decided to stop moving, my wings had started to go numb.

“Don’t you dare die on me!” I said to Dash, trying to rouse her by giving her a couple of nudges.

“Stupid... I’m… Rainbow... Dash! I am... the greatest flyer… in the whole world…” She wheezed out, giving me a look of annoyance and what seemed like regret. I almost retorted at her insult, but I kept my gullet shut. It was for the best that I didn’t say anything I’d regret later.

With every passing minute, Dash grew weaker. I desperately looked for someplace to land and rest. Anything would do, even if it was the insides of some dead dragon! But there was just nothing. Nothing!

Thinking back to what we had endured, I found it unfair I was the one who was not only flying but making all the decisions.

Dammit, it should be Dash! She was the hero; the leader! I cursed the training I no doubt had been put under while in Sombra’s mind control; it made me tougher than I should be—had any right to be. Screw him, and his army, and everything about him! If I could claw out his entrails, I would do it without any hesitation!

No. Relax. Have to relax. Deep breath. Color blue. Homemade griffonscones... Getting angry isn’t going to help you right now. Only cooler heads prevail in times like this.

I breathed in deeply and resumed my search. For a moment, I considered using a cloud for support. As luck would have it, none of the ones nearby look like they could take our weight. I cursed the fact that most weather factories around Equestria had to be put on light workloads. As if making clouds wasn’t as important as sending good pegasi to the meatgrinder! That decision really had wreaked havoc on the surrounding agriculture, leading to my current predicament of crappy clouds that weren’t dense enough to support even a pegasus foal.

Oh, I wanted to punch something so badly right now…

Just when I had started to give up hope, I saw it: a small town—or what was left of it anyway. It had been burned down and most of the buildings were in ruins. Still, it was something, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Hey, I think I found us a place to rest!” I said, almost tearing up from the excitement and relief. Of course, I kept my eyes away from Dash’s. The last thing she needed to see was her friend getting all choked up.

Dash didn’t say anything. She just held onto my neck tighter.

Carefully, I flew even lower. With the same care a mother would take with her child, I shifted Dash’s weight, gliding into an easy landing despite the awkwardness of our situation.

Once I knew my feet were firmly rooted, I let my wings fold. A sharp pain shot up my back the instant I did. Using all the restraint I still had left in me, I swallowed the scream and curse down, both for Dash’s sake and for fear that undesirable ears could be listening. I tried slowly extending my left wing, only for the pain to once again shoot up my spine. It was one heck of a cramp alright.

With a defeated sigh, I let my wings rest. I wouldn’t be flying anytime soon.

The former town was nothing more than a burnt out husk, houses being total write-offs for the most part. There had clearly been a fight if the discarded weapons and half-buried pieces of dented armor were anything to go by. Yet, the weirdest part was that there weren’t that many corpses. Whoever brought the fight must have cleaned up their mess before leaving. That or scavengers were to blame.

Regardless, the implications unnerved me. The last thing I needed was having to worry about something lurking over my shoulder.

“Gilda,” Dash started, her voice so soft, I barely caught it. “Hey, G!” she said again, this time louder. “You can… put me down... now. I… I can walk!”

It took a few seconds for my mind to fully register my friend’s words. A part of me was absolutely excited that she was talking again. Yet, another part wondered if my mind was playing a trick on me. After some careful consideration, I decided that it in Dash’s best interest that I ignore her. At least until we had shelter. Then she could bemoan all she wanted.

Of course, Dash being Dash, she replied to my silence by jumping right out of my arms, much to my shock and horror.

“I said… I can wa—” she began, but was cut off as her legs buckled, causing her to fall on her stomach and eat dirt.

I held back a dry chuckle and rolled my eyes. Without a word, I picked her up again. but this time, I put her on my back, her head resting right on top of mine. I winced as her weight added extra pressure on my wings.

“Not a... word to... anypony. Ya hear!?” Dash grumbled, the defiance in her tone slowly vanishing with each word as acceptance finally entered into that thick skull of hers.

“Sure thing, loser. Not that anyone would believe me anyway.” Pride had always been one of Dash great shortcomings. Still, its presence filled me with relief.

At least the war hadn’t taken that from her yet.

We must have spent an hour looking for shelter. Whenever we thought we had found something, an issue arose to make it crappy: a hole in the floor, crumbling walls, or even too many skeletons.

Just when it seemed like we would have to settle for a roofless husk of a house, I spotted a large overturned supply carriage. It had taken quite the beating, as told by the shattered wheels. Still the sides of the cargo area—aside from scratches, the occasional stuck spear or arrow, and a few eye-sized holes—looked intact.

“Hey,” I started, giving Dash a light pat on her barrel, “I think I found us promising shelter.”

“Wonderful,” Dash said in a dismissive tone. I was half tempted to give her a jab, but that would have to wait.

Cautiously, I pulled the rear panel doors open and got a good look inside. Somehow, the carriage looked more spacious that it should have been possible. I could see some discarded pieces of cloth and leather alongside a dozen broken boxes that had once probably held weapons and armor. What shocked us the most were the two crates of brand-spanking-new canned Apple Acres apple rations. I could tell by the shifting weight on top of me that Dash’s was also gawking at our lucky find.

“Hey, Dash. Maybe our luck hasn’t gone and screwed itself over just yet.”

“Of course not!” Dash replied, her tone now considerably chipper. “No bad luck so long as I’m around!”

I shook my head at that. Never change Dash. Never change…

With food a guarantee, the carriage's cargo bay would make for decent enough shelter. Now we had all we needed to survive. Still, a part of me was not happy with that, and with some daylight still left, I could set out to scavenge the town for anything useful. After all, why just survive when you could just as easily thrive? Dash agreed with me on the idea but worried nonetheless.

“Relax. Place’s empty and dead. Besides, I won’t be gone for too long.”

“You sure about that, you slowpoke?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, hardy har, har. Just wait here and don’t do anything stupid.”

Dash lay her head down. “Like I have much of a choice.”

Her words stung more than they should have.

It took a few hours, but as the sun set, I came back to the carriage with a bag full of supplies strapped to my back. Dash’s look of surprise more or less said everything that needed to be said.

Before the last rays of light faded, I set out to making a campfire from the remains of the crates, a piece of dented armor as a base, and some matches I found in our little resting spot. Once I got the fire going, I started rummaging through what I had dug up. Aside from a very lucky find of a full medical kit, I found a folding iron pot, some spices still in their containers, two metal bottles full of water, and a few more cans of food slightly past their expiration dates.

It was those cans that I settled on cooking. After all, who knew when we would have the luxury of another camp-out.

“You sure we can eat these?” Dash asked me as she gave the cans of food a good look. “You do realize they’re expired, right?”

“You’re more than welcome to chew on wood,” I monotonically retorted.

She placed the can back down. “You know what? Screw it. I’m already feeling like crud. I honestly can’t get worse.”

A part of me hoped she was right about that.

With inventory done, I set out to try and cook our food. Though, to be fair, it really was just heating up the grub with water and the spices I had found. Getting those ready had been no issue. The problem now were the cans, damn things.

After glaring at them for half a minute, I set them down and looked at my talons. In theory, my nature-given tool could get the things open… but I could also snap it right off my finger. I didn’t want to think about how painful that would be.

My head perked up when I heard something slide across what would have once been the wooden wall on the carriage. What looked like a mixture between a dagger and very small sword—painted blue, and sporting a white string that looked as if it had once carried some kind of charm on it tied at the back of the handle—greeted me.

I reached down and picked the all-too-familiar weapon, noting how odd the handle felt in my grasp. It didn’t feel designed to be grasped at all. Then again, it was made for ponies, so they probably had to bite on the handles to even use them. Yet another reason I was glad for having talons.

I looked up to Dash, opting to play dumb rather than potentially saying something unsavory. “This yours?” I asked.

She gave me a nod in reply. “Was. Don’t really need it anymore,” she said with a half-formed smile, “Just thought you could use it. Y-you know,” she pointed her hooves at the cans. “For those.”

She wasn’t wrong, It was just odd thinking of Dash having a weapon like this on her. I still had a bit of trouble wrapping my mind around her role in the war, so imagining her flying around with a blade on her was almost a surreal image. If anything, it was more fitting for me than her.

“Thanks,” I said, picking up the first can. “Saved me from possible pain and agony,” I finished with a grin and chuckle.

Dash, however, wasn’t exactly looking at me, her eyes set on the floor. It just didn’t feel right.

“Hey!” I shouted, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling okay? Is that fever of yours getting bad again?” I hated having to pussyfoot around the issue, but in this situation, it was for the best.

“I-I’m okay!” Dash said as she finally turned to look at me, a broad grin forced on her lips. “I was just... deep in thought. You know, after all we’ve been through.”

I inwardly sighed. “Yeah,” I said, once again relaxing my body. I wanted to so tell her that it was all okay, that she didn’t need to suppress anything anymore. But maybe it was for the best that I let it go. It was all in the past at this point.

I turned my full attention back to the cans. Dash’s weapon made short work of them.

I was half-shocked at just how proficient I was at cooking canned goods. Then again, before this mess of war broke out, I had been a baker. Just not a very good one. I really hoped the results wouldn’t be as… unsavory as those attempts.

When I was done, there was plenty to go around. I really wasn’t feeling that hungry, both because of the enchantment on the armor, and a lingering sense of unease I couldn’t quite put a name to. A part of me already felt sorry that’d I would have to get rid of the armor sooner or later. It had proven useful so far. There was also the fact that it was among the few things in life that I could claim were mine. Almost made me take back some of the insults I had tossed at Sombra earlier in the day.

Almost.

I let Dash take the majority of the meal. Maybe it was the baker in me, or maybe I was just starting to lose it, but it felt good to see that my work was appreciated. As she took bite after bite, the color of her mane started coming back. Her appetite eventually made me curious, so I took a bite of my own creation. It was surprisingly bearable, all things considered. Dash wasn’t saying anything, at least. She was either too hungry or didn’t care about my ‘cooking’.

I’d like to see the best chef in Equestria try and do any better with the stuff.

An hour later, Dash and I had consumed every last scrap. I took our last ten cans of food and divided them between my haversack and Dash’s newly gifted saddlebags that I had found while scavenging. I omitted the fact that I had to pry it out of a pony’s skeleton. I set my eyes back to the weapon Dash had given me. Somehow, it felt wrong to bring her attention back to it. Instead, I stuffed it in a compartment near my left wing.

A part of me hoped I wouldn’t have to use it anytime soon.

With food out of the way, I brought out my next—and perhaps most important—find, the medical kit. We sat next to the fire, the cold air blowing in from the wastelands. It really made the fire inviting. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much to say. We kept silent as I started healing some of Dash’s nastier superficial wounds with dabs of alcohol. She kept her eyes on the oddly mesmerizing flames through the half-hour it took.

“Hey G,” Dash suddenly said, breaking the silence. “Do you remember our first day at Junior Flight School?”

“How could I forget?” I said, a smile forming. “We crashed into each other face-first. If it wasn’t so funny in hindsight, I’d have said it was totally lame.”

“Yeah,” Dash replied. “Your beak did a number on my teeth. How long did I end up needing braces for?”

“You know, I don’t remember. I think it might have been a year?” I gave a shrug. “But meh, who was counting?”

“Duh, I was,” Dash said with a giggle.

I laughed softly, rubbing my beak as the memory of the event flooded my mind. “One heck of an introduction, if you ask me,” I said, the sides of my face feeling warmer than they had before.

“Yeah…” Dash said, “Oh, you should have seen the look on your face!”

“Oh yeah?” I said, a broad grin forming over my previous smile, “You should have seen your face, you little dweeb!”

I laughed heartily, and Dash joined in shortly after. Thinking back to Junior Flight School made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Those were the days when we both did what came naturally to us: fly better than anyone else in this burning world. The memories always made me smile; they were among the happiest I had.

I sighed, finishing cleaning the last surface wound on Dash’s chest before moving on to the main event. “I’m sorry about this, but I have to give you some stitches before the infections get worse.”

Dash audibly gulped. “Can we skip that step?”

I set my eyes on my friend, shaking my head in reply.

She sighed in defeat. “Let’s... get this over with…”

I moved to the first major wound on her chest, readying myself for what was to come. With a dab of alcohol, I firmly pressed my claw on the injury, feeling the muscle underneath shift as Dash let out a weak, yet sharp hiss of pain. I readied the needle and string, dipped both in the alcohol, and steeled myself.

Once again, I was about to hurt my only friend.

“Hope you don’t hate me for this,” I said, placing the needle’s sharp point at the ready.

“Hey, you broke me! Now you get to fix me!” Dash retorted. “And I can’t hate you…” she looked at the floor. “Tried that already. Didn’t work…”

I pierced the skin, causing Dash to yelp in agony.

“What about that time you said we weren’t friends anymore?” I said, shocked I had brought up that old painful memory.

“Oh, now you’re just being unfair!” Dash snapped back. “That time, you were being a jerk! Especially to Pinkie!”

The needle made a return journey as the first stitch was complete.

“And you were being an inconsiderate ass,” I spat back, not bothering to check my volume.

“Hey, I wanted all of us to be good friends! You can’t fault me for trying!”

“I—” I started, but cut myself off, instead focusing on the next stitch. I sighed and thought about it. It felt like a lifetime ago, but it really only had been little over a year since that disastrous meeting. Only by a small miracle afterward, did we even reconcile. Not that it had mattered much in the end, as the Crystal War came to ruin everything all over again.

“Look,” I started, finishing the second stitch and moving right along. “I was a jerk. Yes. Was I wrong for being so selfish? Yes. Would I take it all back if given the chance? Absolutely! It’s just that…” I bit down on my tongue and steeled myself. “I got all jealous and angry and...” I shuddered. “Please, don’t make me talk this…”

Dash turned her head sideways, her right eye looking straight into mine. “Why are you bringing all that up anyway? You already apologized! Not only to me but to Pinkie too. It’s all in the past, and that’s where it should stay!”

I clenched my teeth. “I brought it up again because… well… Just, look at you!” I put a claw on my chest. “The injuries I’m patching up right now? I caused them! Me! No-one else!”

“You were not in control of your actions,” Dash said in a cold, distant tone.

“What if I was?” I asked, my voice cracking from the flood of emotion welling in me. “Who’s to say that the helmet didn’t just take my innermost desires and turn them into reality?”

“We both know that’s a lie!” Dash shouted. “You may be a jerk, yes, but underneath all those feathers of steel you have built up over the years, you have a heart of twenty-four karat gold!”

I was left stunned by Dash’s words. Not just because I had never imagined something like that coming out of her lips… Well, actually, very much because I never imagined her saying something like that coming from her lips first place!

“Dash, that was…” I started, the initial smile plastered on my beak quickly forming into a flat stare, “...really sappy…”

She shrugged. “Eh. One of us had to play that card sooner or later.” she gave me another punch on the shoulder and a wink. “I’ll take the hit this time, G. But you’re next, ya hear me?”

I chuckled at that. It was as good a chuckle as we would have for a while. Especially after I asked the question that had been tearing at me for a while now: “Dash, What happened? Where did things go so wrong?”

“Well, I would point to the Crystal Empire coming back.”

I gave Dash a flat look. I shouldn’t have been surprised by her reply. Honestly.

She sighed, confirming my fears. “In all honesty, I don’t really know what to tell you,” she said as she stood up and sat next to me. “Everything’s just gotten so complicated!” she wrapped her hoof around my neck, smiling as she did. “But it shouldn’t matter right now, so stop being so lame. It’s not fitting for you. The past’s in the past! What matters now is that it's just you and me, and—” she pointed to the other wounds still in need of tending, “—a few dozen more stitches.” She smiled determinedly.

I felt the corners of my beak rise at that. Dash’s optimism was starting to get to me. With newfound energy, I finished my work, wrapping her wounds up in bandages to make sure the stitches wouldn’t become dirty until they had properly closed.

By the time I looked down at my clock, it had already got to be close to ten. I was surprised at how fast time flew by. Then again, there was that old saying about time slipping by when least noticed. There was also our talking to factor in. Couldn’t deny it was nice to hear from my old friend again.

But, naturally, I needed to know more.

“Hey Dash, just what were you up to before this whole mess of a war broke out?”

“Well…”

In the following hour, I learned of Dash’s work as a weather team manager, her eventual acceptance into the Wonderbolts, her many travels to Ponyville before it got turned into a food factory, and the fleeting friendships she had made with a few ponies there—chiefly among them that pink nightmare, Pinkie.

I really didn’t want to remember her; chiefly, because she was so lame. I mean, rock farmer? How do you even farm rocks? Wouldn’t it be mining at that point? Eh. I guess it didn’t really matter. Heck, I was technically a baker before all this! Who was I to bash someone else’s occupation?

“Hey, Gilda,” Dash said, taking me out of my momentary train of thought. “How did it feel, being under Sombra’s mind control?”

At last, we had come to a question I dreaded. Yet, something in me was compelled to tell the truth.

“...I honestly don’t know what to tell you,” I said in as muted a tone as I could manage. “When you are turned, you are outfitted with enchanted armor.” I motioned to my body with one of my talons. “Part of it is a mind-control helmet. But you already know that.”

Dash nodded in response.

“When that thing gets put on you… well, it is lights out for who you are. Instead, you start to see the world as warped and… evil. Everything that isn’t an ally of yours is a nightmare! You are aware that your body is following the commands of something else, yet you can’t do anything about it but scream! Scream, scream, scream! Until eventually, you just stop thinking. Or you go crazy...”

Dash put a hoof over her mouth, the color draining from her face.

I looked down at the floor. “For me, the last thing I recall as myself was Griffonstone being conquered. Neighbors and… neighbors—” I really couldn’t call anyone there ‘friend’, now that I really thought about it, “—being taken in chains. At least, the ones that didn’t fight back. The ones that did ended up in a ditch.” I closed my eyes as memories that felt alien to me flooded back in. “The majority of us got shipped straight to the Crystal mines. Those that were young and fit were fitted with the helmets.” I sighed, opening my eyes again and setting my sight back on Dash. “That’s the last of the memories that I trust. The rest is a din of madness; all horrid, all vicious.” I gave her a weak smile. “But hey, it’s alright. I endured. Somehow...”

“G…” Dash softly whispered to me.

“I don’t know how long I was out for, but the next set of memories as myself were of you, bloodied, pissed, standing over me glaring, with a blade stuck to the left side of my face!” I diverted my sight from her. “No doubt because I probably killed a lot of your good friends and hurt you pretty bad.”

Dash’ mouth hung agape. I couldn’t blame her, either.

“G…” she started, her tone doing nothing to hide the horror in it. “Griffonstone... was taken two years ago,” she said in a shaky voice. “Y-you’ve been out that long...”

I gave my friend a shrug. There really wasn’t much else I could give her in reply to that.

Dash shook her head. “I’m… sorry. I mean, what can I say after hearing that?”

I bitterly chuckled. “What is there to say? War’s Tartarus. I’m just glad it was you who ran into me. Anypony else would have removed the helmet with my head still inside it.” I felt the corners of my beak rising.

At my words, Dash’s eyes began to water. She diverted her gaze away from me, soft sobs escaping her lips.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, a part of me already knowing full well what she would say…

**** **** ****

“Commander Dash!” A voice erupted through the enchanted microphone on my helmet. “We’ve got flyers coming in fast! Half of ‘em seem to be griffons too! Damn it all, that means we lost Griffonstone!”

For starters, ouch! Too loud! That was soon followed by the actual words sinking in. They stung me in a way I couldn’t explain. A part of me chalked it to the fact that another territory had fallen to that monster’s control, but there was something else there. Rather, someone in that place that I hadn’t entirely been fair to. Someone who was now probably dead. Or worse.

I didn’t want to think about what the ‘worse’ could even be!

I clenched my teeth so hard I could hear the scraping. I was so done with the war! Everything about it was horrible and lame. Already, I had seen too many good friends die because of Sombra. If I ever got near him, I would give him such a beating that he would still feel it even when he rotted in Tartarus!

I calmed down enough to give out the order. “Wonderbolts, spread out and take the flyers one on one! Keep them away from our ground troops, and watch your sixes. Griffons are a lot faster than they look.” I looked down at our ground units, a mixture of gold barded and black clothed ponies. “Ground troops, watch yourselves and keep up the pressure. We’re close to breaking their ranks!”

“Copy, Commander,” the whole squad replied to my command in unison. I still found it hard to believe that I was in charge of not only a squadron of Wonderbolts, but also a whole battalion of ground troops. When I had become an honorary Wonderbolt, I could never have imagined being given such an honor.

And such a hassle. Then again, I was the best flyer there ever was. It was kind of expected.

“Commander!” A yell shook me right out of my train of thought. I turned towards the rookie who had yelled. Rather than seeing the young colt engaging a foe, I instead saw his lifeless body plummeting towards the snowy ground below.

I blinked a few times to get the image out of my mind, just in time to see another of my squadmates swatted right out of the sky by a blur of black and green.

“I’m hit!” Another of my squadmates yelled. This time, I caught the attack as it happened, the griffon moving with such speed that their talons—already sharp enough to slice through flesh as if it was butter—not only pierced through the plates near the wings but also sliced the two appendages clean off.

I readied myself for a fight, but I was set upon by a group of enemy flyers. I set my attention to fending them off, all the while trying to ignore the din of screams erupting in my ears.

With the last of my attackers now a body plummeting below, I diverted my attention back to my squad. We were down to only ten flyers, myself included. My ground troops weren’t faring any better, their numbers down to less than half of what they had been a mere hour ago.

Through clenched teeth, I gave the order:

“All remaining forces: Full retreat!”

“Look out, commander!”

Before I could process the warning, a blur of black streaked by me, her talons raking my side, tearing at the armor plates and making a few deep cuts in the process.

I dove away and pushed myself faster than before, the world becoming little more than a blur of colors.

“Commander, are you alright?”

“I’ll live,” I replied. “It seems our ace fighter’s got her eye on me now.” I felt a smile creep on my lips. “Good.”

“Are you insane!? She’ll kill you for sure!”

I laughed at the warning. “Please, I’m Rainbow Dash! She’ll be the one hitting the dirt today!”

I began flapping my wings faster, my body traveling beyond the boundaries of our battlefield. “Keep the remaining flyers away from the eggheads as they cast their teleportation spells. I’ll lead our little killer elsewhere. Even if I can’t take her out, I’ll at least make sure she’s not a thorn on our flanks!” My brow creased at my next words. “Don’t follow me. That’s order.”

There was silence for a moment before a shaky voice replied on the other side of the intercom. One I had not expected, yet welcomed all the same. “Dash, you better come back in one piece. Or else!”

I chuckled. “Or else what, Lieutenant Pie?”

“Or else I’ll kick your flank myself!” Pinkie yelled at the top of her lungs.

I was left half-surprised, and half scared. “Fine. Kick my flank. I’m still going to make this griffon pay!”

“RAINBOW DA—” the voice cut out to static, and then died completely. It was the sign that I had passed the ten-mile range for arcane communications.

Eh. Boring conversation anyway.

The sound of beating wings caught my ears. I chanced a glance back and spotted the blacked-armored griffon, her talons stretched and thirsting for violence. She had taken the bait. And really, why wouldn’t she? She’d have to be mentally challenged not to!

I looked ahead and scanned my surroundings. We were nearing the Galloping Gorge borders. We had now covered close to fifty miles in less than ten minutes! Had I not been so preoccupied with staying alive, I would have been quite proud of the three-hundred miles per hour my body was traveling at without even trying. Still, I had not made my decision to show off. No, I had flown away so that my friends and family would have a chance to survive this Tartarus.

I reached my head to my right and drew my weapon. With a deep breath to steady my nerves and ready my body, I shifted my wings and made a sixty-degree turn to the right, losing the majority of speed in the process and nearly causing my lunch to come flying right out. The G-forces nearly made my vision go black as blood was pushed to the back of my body, but it worked; my assailant kept on flying.

I moved in for my strike, but at the last second, my target made a six-degree turn of her own, only this one aimed towards the ground.

I lost track of her for a second, only to once more make eye contact. Unfortunately, she appeared from behind, her figure rapidly followed by a slash of her talons to my face.

My helmet took the brunt of the blow, shattering as if it were made of porcelain. Even so, I still took a good wallop to the head. I knew the instant I felt a torrent of warmth cascade down the left side of my head that part of my ear was now gone.

“Augh! You little bi—” I did not finish my words, as my assailant moved to the front and launched a flurry of strikes. My armor absorbed the majority of hits, but more than a dozen slashes got through, leaving deep bleeding wounds on my chest and sides. With one haymaker to the top of my skull, she sent me plummeting towards the ground.

For the first few moments, I was still too dazed to think. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and I found freedom in the fall, air rushing around me like waves of water. I greeted the wind like an old friend. It was powerful and cleansing.

As I fell through it, I felt the turmoils of my life lifting away. I found peace, and I would have done anything in the world to keep it...

“Wake up!” I shouted to myself just in time to spread my wings and recover just seconds away from hitting the ground, dodging a direct lunge at my falling being. The griffon was barely able to keep herself from crashing against the ground after my move.

Damn. Should have waited a couple more seconds…

I took a painfully long breath, teeth clenched as a fiery sensation began to supplant the pain enveloping my body. I bit my blade’s grip tighter as I spread my wings.

Once more, my momentum changed. Only this time, instead of changing course altogether, I stopped moving midflight. The sudden stop made my vision go completely black for a few seconds, the rest of my body feeling ten times as heavy in the process. During that time, I only had my hearing to rely on.

My ears twitched as the sound of a piercing swoosh passed by me. With vision still dark, I shot myself forward, gathering more and more speed with every flap of my wings. I could feel my body start to elongate and my ears ring. My vision began to return just as the griffon’s figure came within inches of me.

At that instant, I launched my attack.

To my shock, the griffon opted to try and return my assault, not with a riposte as I would have expected, but with a blow directed at my chest. The first dug right into my gut, knocking all the air out of my lungs.

In turn, my own blow struck her helmet’s topmost portion, the sharp edge becoming trapped in the ornamental mane and pair of small red horns at the forehead. Even so, the momentum was such that it caused the latches keeping the helmet attached to the armor to snap.

We both fell. My vision was still too blurry to make out the face of my attacker. In turn, I doubted my foe could even see properly, as she fell in an uncontrollable spin.

In the time it took for us to hit the ground, the past returned to me, giving way to regrets I had. I wished I could’ve done more with my life. Things had just turned out so wrong! Everything about everything was just… wrong! I was just thankful I had fought to the end. At least, I could use that as browny points when I got to whatever afterlife awaited me.

When I came to, I was first surprised I was still alive. Then I spotted my assailant. She was already up but was too distracted by her surroundings to notice me. Her white plumage looked eerily familiar from the back, but I put it out of my mind.

Once more taking up my blade, I stood back up. I did my best to ignore the deep soreness and numbing chill falling over my body. With one final deep breath of air, I lunged at my enemy, ready to finish what I had started in the sky.

She turned to face me just in time for us to both hit the ground, my blade once again missing, though only by mere millimeters. It still made a cut on the griffon’s cheek as it buried itself in the snow to the left side of her head. I readied myself for a second strike, one I would not—and could not—miss.

Then my eyes regained their full sight, and they met her’s. Eyes filled not with hatred or anger... but fear, confusions, sorrow.

Time all but stood still at that instant as she asked a single question to me: “D-Dash…?”

**** **** ****

“G-Gilda. I-I…” Dash let out a hiccup, using a hoof to wipe her snout. “It-it-it never even crossed my mind, to… to… to...” her hooves fell on my shoulders. “At that instant… I-I-I was ready! R-ready… to...” she wrapped her hooves around my body, pulling me into a deep embrace. “It was luck that the blow missed!”

I kept my arms limply on the side, vision starting to cloud from the tears forming in my eyes despite my every attempt to stave them off.

The only reason I was here now was because of chance...

There had been no fated meeting, and no grand rescue; only chance had spared my life, with only a few seconds of difference between me being embraced by the only family I had left, and me being some headless rotting corpse on an empty battlefield...

At that moment, the only thing I could do was laugh. While Dash wailed her heart away, I laughed.

Laughed as the tears flowed down the side of my face.

2

Somewhere in the San Palomino Desert - 6:15 AM

Dawn arrived quickly. Too damn quickly, if I was being honest. The light served as an unwanted alarm I couldn’t slap away. Not even turning my back on it was effective. Defeated, I opened my eyes, groaned, stretched, and noticed two important things in the process: first, the pain on my wings was gone. Second, the sun rays shining in were golden.

I walked over to the carriage's already open doors—which we should have closed, now that I was looking at things in hindsight—and set my eyes skyward to confirm my suspicions. Clear skies far as the eye could see.

“Damn,” I said to myself. “Would have loved to have some cloud cover.” I walked back inside and convinced myself nothing bad would happen. At least it wasn’t all terrible, as I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had seen the sky so clean and clear. It was either a very good omen. Or the sign of our coming doom.

I was crossing my fingers that it would be the former.

I walked towards Dash, stopping only a few inches from her. She’d been smarter and had decided to sleep further inside. Seeing her slowly breathing figure gave me relief. Probably because it told me that she was still alive. Too bad she couldn’t keep on sleeping like I knew she wanted. There would be plenty of time to loaf around once we got to our destination.

“Hey, doofus. Wake up!” I said, giving her a couple of nudges on her relatively unharmed back.

She yawned in reply and swatted my hand away. “Five… more... minutes,” she mumbled in between snores, her eyes never once opening. She looked so peaceful that I almost felt bad about waking her.

Almost.

“Wake up!” I shouted louder, this time poking at her back a little harder.

“Go away!” she retorted, this time livelier, but still very much in the grips of slumber. I sighed, smiled, and shook my head—it couldn’t hurt to give her those five extra minutes, especially considering how she still needed to heal. In fact, I didn’t want to take any chances. The last thing we both needed was for her to pass out mid-flight again.

“Keep on snoring then, you lazy buffoon,” I whispered just loud enough for her ear to twitch in reply, but soft enough that the message had stayed mostly with me.

Quietly, I stepped outside.

With Dash snoring away like a small chainsaw, I was tempted to do some scouting. It was a good idea, but then I remembered that we still didn’t have a real destination outside of a vague general direction. Rather than wasting time trying to figure that out, I decided to form a plan—Tartarus knew Dash wouldn’t even consider such a thing. She might have been the best flyer Equestria had ever seen, but if there was one thing she sucked at, it was planning ahead. Sometimes I wondered if she even planned anything to begin with.

I licked my finger and gauged the wind’s trajectory. “Hmm... Southbound gale.” I looked to the horizon, spotting a massive storm front far in the distance, “With a good chance that it will only get worse,” I said to myself with a grimace. Not good. Would probably make getting out of the desert harder, assuming we didn’t run into patches of Sombra’s troops first—in which case, we could kiss our asses goodbye. Might even have to camp out again near the Macintosh Hills. That would make the trip last thrice as long! Couldn’t afford that.

I tapped a claw on my beak. “Maybe if we fly westwards towards Los Pegasus?” I was sure the city had managed to hold out—assuming it wasn’t an active battlefield. Dash would probably know.

I sighed and sat on my haunches. As crappy as it was, at the very least it was a plan. Dash wouldn’t like it, but not like we had much of a choice. At least with Los Pegasus in mind, we could potentially expect some relief, even if the city was an active battle zone. Heck, that would probably make things easier. Dash would get medical treatment and be reunited with her forces.

It really was the best outcome, all things considered.

With that settled, there was just one last thing to do. I flapped my wings a few times, just to make sure, before taking flight. With my refreshed muscles and freedom of Dash’s wounded form, I could zip and dart for miles on end within a matter of seconds again! Had the situation not been so dire, I would have kept on pulling air stunts until the sun set. Instead, I had to pull myself back to reality.

As expected of a desert, the surrounding land was pretty much barren. Not a sign of anypony—or anything living, for that matter. As I kept scanning the horizon, a few thoughts entered my mind. Some involved the potential of hunting a few small animals for my needed protein. Others involved plans on rebuilding my griffonscone cart. And at least one of those thoughts involved how Equestria’s soldiers would react to seeing me wearing Sombra Trooper armor. Something told me they wouldn’t exactly roll out a red carpet for me, even if Dash spoke in my favor. At best, I would be detained, questioned, and ultimately put into observation. I mean, I wasn’t really sure if anyone else had ever broken free of Sombra’s control. At worst, I’d probably be executed for fears that I was a spy.

It really did come down to just one option, and I groaned at it.

In truth, I was more than hesitant to do it. It really was only because of the armor that I had made it this far. Without it, I would probably be in worse shape than Dash! Heck, the fact that she only needed what essentially was only cloth on her back spoke volumes to just how strong she really was. Sure, she was missing the helmet and nearly all of the plating that made up the actual armor, but she didn’t need enchantments on those pieces in order to be awesome. She just naturally was.

After some more thought, I decided to keep the armor, at least for the foreseeable future. Dash would probably back me up on the decision as well. It was still fully functional, after all. I’d be a fool to get rid of it.

There was a sudden shift in the wind, carrying with it an ominousness. I detached my senses from everything except that sensation, focusing to the point that everything else faded into black.

Then I heard it; footsteps and hooffalls, chattering and laughing, the clanking of steel on steel—all getting closer by the second.

I swooped down towards the nearest intact brick wall and pressed myself against it, slowing my breathing down and going so far as to put a claw over my beak to muffle myself. I carefully leaned over the wall to see the source of the sounds.

The culprits were a band of mixed beings; two unicorns, three pegasi, two griffons, and a minotaur. The equines carried makeshift armor and swords slung on their backs—no doubt the source of all the metal noises—while the griffons sported similar makeshift plating, albeit thicker. They also carried poleaxe types I was unfamiliar with.

The minotaur, however, was the one that worried me most. Not only was he the most heavily armored of the group—sporting a full set of plate armor that covered every inch of his body save for his cloven hooves—but he also carried a war hammer almost twice as large as he was. Worse, he had to be over two meters tall, at the very least.

I studied them all carefully, trying to take stock of just who they swore allegiance to. Right away, I could tell they weren’t aligned with Equestria. Still, the lack of markings and black color told me they weren’t part of Sombra’s army either. Sombra was many things, but a fool that let his forces parade around in pieces of makeshift armor, he was not.

There really was only one conclusion I could come up with, and it wasn’t exactly better than Sombra’s army: bandits.

The bandit conclusion could explain the ponies and griffons. After all, Equestria was probably no stranger to lowlifes and criminals. But that didn’t give answers as to who the minotaur could be. His armor was far too pristine to be something cobbled together by thievery. It looked well taken care of—almost as if it had just come from a smith’s forge! If he was indeed some kind of bandit, he no doubt had to be the leader, or at the very least someone of enough standing, maybe even a warlord. Either way, he and his cronies were bad news. The day, much like the wind, had just gone southbound.

I grimaced, my heart beating through my chest and gut-churning to the point that whatever hunger I had quickly turned to nausea. I slinked back into cover and breathed deep and slow. Had to calm my nerves before I had a breakdown. Needed to remind myself that I was still hidden, too. All I had to do was get Dash and get the heck out of Dodge, It really was that simple.

So, why didn’t it feel simple?

I began my trek back to the carriage, making every effort to move as quickly and quietly as possible. Thankfully, being part feline meant I had a bit of an advantage in that department. Even so, keeping quiet took more focus than it should have. By the time I reached her, Dash had finished waking up and was preparing some of the ration cans. She trotted up to greet me with a wide beam on her face, completely blissful to the danger steadily approaching us.

Before she could open her mouth to speak, I quickly closed the distance between us and clasped her snout shut with my hand. “We’re not alone,” I whispered to her so softly, she probably had to read my beak movements to even get a gist of the message. “Got a group of not-so-friendly guys outside,” I continued, slowly moving my hand away from her snout. “Bandits, if I had to take a wager on it.” I felt my brows crease at my words.

Dash’s eyes widened as she processed the information. Meanwhile, I backed towards the doors of the carriage and had myself a look over the situation. I could hear the ruffians, but I couldn’t yet see them. Chances were they couldn’t see us yet either.

“Of course. It just had to be bandits,” Dash whispered, edging closer to me. “That’s what we get for stopping in a literal no-pony’s land!”

I turned to face her, my eyes narrowing at her words. “Well, excuse me for finding us a place to rest.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Jab wasn’t at you, not that it matters. We can talk about it once we fly the heck out of here.”

I shook my head. “Bad idea,” I said, not even bothering to hide the growing alarm in my tone. “They're bound to notice us flying, and they have five flyers. Damn, I can’t see them from this angle!” I rushed deeper into the carriage, setting my attention though one of the gashes on the cargo wall. I had to adjust my angle until I finally spotted their shadows reflecting off an eastward facing wall not far away. Sure enough, they were poking around, turning over the remains of the once thriving community.

“So, what’s the plan?” Dash asked as she again moved next to me.

“Well, I was thinking we could spring a surprise. Some confetti here, a cake there. You take the singing, while I prepare a party game or two,” I replied without really checking myself. I turned to face Dash, hoping that my words had gone over her head.

Her flat, almost pitiful look, told me otherwise. I sighed, and after mentally slapping myself for that slip of sarcasm, my expression turned steely and grim. “You know damn well what I would suggest we do. But I sure as Tartarus am not going to risk it, especially after I spent half the night stitching you back together!”

Dash gave me a jab on the shoulder. “Hey, I can fight! Did you already forget that I’m in command of a whole Wonderbolt division?”

I turned to her. “Look,” I started, trying to keep my voice as low, yet impactful, as possible, “It’s not that I doubt that you can fight—honestly, I don’t. Heck, I probably wouldn’t be here right now if you didn’t know how! It’s just that I’d rather not have to kill anyone now that I’m no longer under Sombra’s command.”

“But they’re bandits! Probably would kill us both just to amuse themselves!” Dash was now the one to grind her teeth in rage. “We can’t just ignore this! Who knows how many other ponies they’ll hurt!”

I shook my head. “What we need to do is sneak out, not get ourselves killed!” I turned away from her. “We’re unarmed and outnumbered, seven to two!”

“Only seven of ‘em?” Dash asked with bravado in her tone. “Please! I can take on a whole squadron all by my lonesome!”

I so wanted to shout at her for being so full of hubris.

“No!” I whispered through clenched teeth. “We fight them, we’ll wind up as smears on a wall!” I backed away from the crack and grabbed Dash by the shoulders. “Don’t be stupid! Better to flee now and fight another day than just wind up pointlessly dead.” I tried to keep as much worry out of my voice as possible, but I had never been good at keeping emotions in check.One of the main reasons Dash and I had gotten into that damn argument more than a year ago.

Dash didn’t meet my gaze for a few seconds. Even so, I could tell by her lowered ears that she was deep in thought. My eyes drifted to the left side of her head—to what remained of her ear. It looked as if it had been torn right off.

Seeing it filled me both with a deep rage, as well as an almost overwhelming sense of regret. I couldn’t quite understand why, though, and maybe it was better that I didn’t.

Finally, she looked directly at me again. Her eyes, though filled with much regret, were also resolute and steely. With a simple nod, she informed me of her decision. “I still don’t like that we’re running,” she added in her usual cocky voice, “but you’re right. Fight another day.”

“You’ll find some way to get back at me. I know it,” I said with a growing smirk on my break.

“Yeah. I’ll make you my second in command! You’ll get to do all the paperwork and oversee training the fresh meat.” She chuckled at her words. “Oh, how you’ll suffer. You might even beg me to fire you by the end of the month!”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to do unsavory work in the past.”

It was good to have a laugh or two before facing down the Grim Reaper. I mean, if you couldn’t laugh in the face of death, why live at all?

“So,” Dash started, her whole attention set on me. “What’s our real plan of escape?”

“Well…”

**** **** ****

I jumped out of the carriage first, looking around for the brigands and making sure our supplies were well secured in their bags.

When I was sure the coast was clear, I waved to Dash. After ensuring her own saddlebags were secure as well, she jumped out and rapidly covered the distance between myself and the carriage. From there, we moved from cover to cover, until we had made some good distance between us, the carriage, and wherever the thugs were. By the time we could clearly hear what they had to say to each other, we were well into our escape route.

With a nod towards Dash, I set our plan into motion. I would have said a small prayer too, but I didn't know if any deity was actually listening. Not that it mattered to me; Griffons were either atheist or just plain greedy. Piety just wasn’t in our nature.

I picked up a sizable piece of rubble and chucked it as far as I could, where it struck a burnt metal roof, causing a loud clank.

“Hey, did ya hear that?” one of the griffons asked, getting the attention of the rest of his cronies. The minotaur, who had been sitting down by a nearby burnt house stood up and motioned with his head at the source of the sound. I could hear the crunch of gravel under feet and hooves as the thugs scrambled away.

I was more than pleasantly surprised it had worked out so well. Maybe we weren’t as screwed as I originally had predicted.

I motioned my head at Dash again. She nodded and moved ahead towards another wall a few meters from where we were. I took one last look at my surroundings and raced after her, keeping my figure as low to the ground as possible.

“Guess it was nothing,” I heard one of the thugs say from a position that was far too close for comfort.

“Yeah. Probably just the wind knocking something down. Or maybe some animal.”

“Hey, I wonder if the boss will let us go hunting for meat later?”

“Nasty. You griffons really have to have your meat that bad?”

“Hey, I don’t go criticizing you for eating nothing but hay in the middle of two buns!”

They were getting close again.

I started to sweat under my feathers. Instinctively, I hit the ground, frantically looking for anything else to throw. As my talons dug into the dirt, they struck something that didn’t feel like loose gravel or stone. As I pulled it out, I recognized the thing as a fire gem. The dull crystalline orb had been buried in the dirt by what looked to be hundreds of scrambling hooves. Despite that, it was still intact, even if it wasn’t glowing. Instantly, a part of me thought of using it. Toss it far enough away and let the thugs run to the explosion.

As soon as that idea entered my mind, I shot it down. The risks were just not worth it. I didn’t even know if the thing was functional to begin with!

I put the gem in one of my armor’s waist pockets before I did something stupid with it. Maybe it would still work, but I would have to set it up just right for it to not backfire.

By the time I found another sizable rock to toss, the bandits were practically on top of us. I could already feel them breathing down my neck.

I shot Dash a mournful glance and clenched my fists tight. She shook her head and set her eyes on the group of thugs.

“Dammit…” I whispered to myself as I reached for the weapon I had told myself I wouldn’t use. With its alien grip in my hand, I took a deep breath—I’d be opening more than cans with it this time, even though It was like a butter-knife compared to the weapons the thugs were carrying.

I motioned for Dash to stay low, though I knew well she wouldn’t. She was a fighter.

When the first of the bandits turned the corner, I leaped into action, taking on the two unicorns first. They didn’t have time to react as I drove the blade into the first one’s foreleg and slashed at the second’s face with my talons. Seconds later, Dash jumped out of cover with a flying kick, smashing into one of the griffons. He groaned as he flew back, breaking through a wall behind him with enough force that what remained of the house came down around him. Dash then grabbed the other griffon by the arm and flipped him over herself, smashing his head onto the floor.

I withdrew the blade from the first unicorn’s limb and used the hilt to smack him over the head, giving him a one-way ticket to the dreamlands. As I did, the unicorn I had swiped at tried to attack me with her weapon. Fortunately, the mixture of injury and blood on her face made her swings reckless and aimless. With a punch to the side of her face, I sent her reeling straight to the floor, where she remained, coughing and wheezing.

With the two unicorns out of action, I turned to the remaining baddies. To my shock and relief, Dash had moved on to incapacitate the other two griffons. The first one she had slammed against a wall so hard that he was still stuck in it with an addled look on his face, while the other griffon looked as if his spine had been twisted in a way that wasn’t at all natural. He was somehow crawling away as best as he could, though, so he was still very much alive.

I made a mental note to never again piss off Dash.

Then, I sensed it: a sequence of small quakes beneath my feet, deep and heavy breathing, and the very air turning hot around us. I only had a second to process it all.

I turned to Dash and tackled her without a second thought, hitting the ground just as the battering ram-sized hammer of the minotaur swung above us, picking up loose dirt and rubble along its path.

“Sweet Holy Celestia!” she shouted, “What the hay was that!?”

I got back up, helping Dash to her hooves. “If I had to take a wager, it was our minotaur friend.” I spun around, ready to face off against our remaining foe.

Only to find emptiness.

“Where did he go?” Dash asked. It was a good question. I mean, how could we misplace such a large piece of meat? More thoughts started running through my mind as the adrenaline continued to increase. We had to end it. Time was not on our side.

I knew what we had to do, even if a part of me hated it. “Dash! Now’s our chance!”

“No way!” she retorted, a grin forming on her lips. “We can win this! Two versus one!”

I grimaced. “Are you insane? We have a golden opportunity! Let’s not get carried away!”

Dash scoffed. “Please! You’re being overly cau—”

Her words were cut off as a barely visible silhouette formed right behind us. What followed was something big and hard smashing against us with such force that I doubted even a train could have mustered it.

With what little time I had, I set myself in front of the hammer’s impact zone.

My body took the brunt of the assault, my ribs feeling as if they had shattered into a million pieces. My armor dented in parts and shattered in others, pieces flying in all directions. Dash and I went soaring right through a brick wall, our bodies barely stopping once we had broken through.

When I finally got my eyes to open again, red tinted the left side of my vision. Something warm and reeking of copper dripped down the side of my face. It stung real bad, too. One of my arms felt even worse, with parts ablaze in pain, and parts completely numb.

Dash was next to me, thrashing and screaming in agony as she grabbed on to her left wing. Or rather, what was left of it. A frigid something formed in the pit of my stomach at seeing that.

Despite every last nerve in my body screaming in pain, I stood back up. Despite every part of my functioning brain demanding that I run, I moved towards the slowly materializing minotaur. With a sneer, I glared daggers at him.

“Gotta admit, you are a tough one!” he said, tossing aside what looked like a small necklace charm, causing his figure to become fully visible again. “Most melt after a single swing of Iron Will’s hammer!” The minotaur spoke in a heavy, over-the-top voice that suited someone giving out a seminar more than a soldier. “Unfortunately for you, you hurt the Will’s friends! And I pity the fool who hurts Iron Will’s friends!”

“Who... are... you?” I wheezed out, less out of curiosity over the obvious, and more to buy Dash enough time to slink away unnoticed.

The minotaur heartily laughed. “Iron Will shouldn’t be surprised you’ve never heard of Iron Will. That’s something I’ll have to rectify in the near future!” he replied. “Not that it matters!” He raised his mighty weapon, his face growing steely and grim in the process. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, little bird!” Despite its size, he could lift his weapon as it if was a weightless stick. Even if he missed, the force of impact nearby alone would damage me. In my state, even that would be enough to make me crumble.

But I couldn’t yet let go. I had come too far to just let myself die like a coward!

When Griffonstone fell, I hid. When Sombra captured me, I begged... Forced to serve, forced to kill, forced to live…

I would at least choose how to die!

Then, it hit me like a freight train. The fire gem I had found earlier—it was still in one of my pockets! Though, I didn’t even know if it was charged.

Either way, I was already dead. No harm in one last grasp for life.

The only issue was how I could use it?

Dash’s blade! But... It had flown right out of my hand and landed right behind Iron Will...

Damn, It was a long shot, but I could tie the gem to the weapon and… Yeah, it could work!

With what remained of my energy, I dove between the minotaur’s legs just as he smashed his hammer down. Struggling to get back up, I reached into my pocket, pulled out the fire gem, and avoided a stomp from the oversized bull as I crawled away, grabbing the blade in the process.

“You won’t get away that easy, little birdie!” Iron Will shouted.

I replied by jumping on his back before he could complete his turn. I dug the talons of my good hand into his armor, hanging on for dear life as my bad arm barely grasped onto the fire gem and the blade. Using my beak, I tied the string around the gemstone and blade’s handle. It wasn’t the strongest of knots, but it didn’t need to be.

“What are you planning, lil’ birdie!?” Iron Will roared.

“Going out... with a bang!” I shouted back at him as I grasped my hand around the gemstone hard enough to form a crack on it.

Without any more hesitation, I plunged the blade down with all the might I could still muster with a half-broken limb. The force was such, that as soon as the weapon made contact with the bull’s armor, it pierced right through the metal to the sinewy wall of muscle below, embedding itself an inch into his shoulder.

The attack snapped whatever bones hadn’t already been broken in my arm before, sending indescribable agony racing right into my brain. Instinctively, I let go with my other claw, falling to the ground, screaming and writhing in absolute pain.

So much for going out with a bang...

“That hurt!” Iron Will shouted as he reached an arm to try and pull out the blade from his shoulder. “You’re just digging yourself an even deeper grave at this point!” His fingers made contact with the blade’s handle, their oversized girt causing the already broken gem to finally shatter.

The blast of fire was so bright I had to cover my eyes with my good arm. Iron Will roared, reeling backward a few feet as his right arm limply hung to the side. Smoke and fire emanated from the spot, and despite the absence of blood, I knew there had to be a sizable hole where the blade had once been.

I struggled back to my feet, my three still functional limbs barely managing to keep me standing. I was already going numb, both from the pain in my broken arm, and the creeping cold slowly enveloping the rest of my being. While I would have loved to say something witty, the truth was that I was weaponless, armorless, wounded, and barely hanging on to consciousness. There really was nothing more I could give.

One last glance back at Dash, only to notice the spot where she had been lying empty.

I collapsed, a broad grin plastered on my beak despite the growing circle of darkness around my vision. Despite it all, I felt happier than I had been in a very long time.

One more breath of air... and I started to let go. This would be a good death, one my ancestors could be proud of.

One step closer to heaven.

3

"Leave her alone!" I heard a familiarly loud voice cry out at the top of her lungs.

I perked my head up to confirm my suspicions. Despite all the punishment she had already taken, Dash stood between me and Iron Will, all her previously treated injuries reopened, the bandages I had used on her the night prior damp with fresh blood, legs trembling and ready to buckle from what was no doubt pain and fatigue, and worse yet, her destroyed left wing hanging limply to the side, dripping blood, and damaged far too much for anything less than amputation. Yet, despite all that, she stood tall, hooves firmly planted on the ground, and face as steely as I had ever seen it.

Slowly, I tried to rise, my only functioning arm reaching out to her. You don't need to do this anymore. Run. Leave me. Live. Survive!

All things I wanted to desperately to shout at her, yet all things I couldn't say. The only thing I could hear coming out of my beak was garbled groaning. If anything, my attempts at speaking only made Dash' ear perk sharper, the hairs on her coat standing on end as I could her teeth grinding in rage.

Iron Will laughed. "You are a fool, puny pegasu—"

"The name is Rainbow Dash!" She shouted, interrupting the bull's words. "And my friend is NOT a 'lil' bird!" she stomped her hoof on the ground. "Her name is GILDA!"

Iron Will scoffed. "It doesn't matter!" he said, smile still plastered on his lips. "The Will doesn't care about names. The only thing the Will cares about is victory!" his face grew grim, "And payback." He pointed a finger at me. "Your friend hurt the Will's arm. She will pay him back for it with her life!" His eyes fell on Dash. "The Will has a beef with you too, but the Will already got most of his payment from you," he said, his sight falling on Dash' mangled wing. "Step aside," he chided, raising his hammer, "unless, you want to also die." The bull's eyes fell on me, the deep-seated rage burning in them powerful enough that I could feel them boring a hole through my broken body.

Dash did not move an inch. In fact, she took a wobbly step forward. "Hey, you muscles-for-brain lug, didn't you hear me earlier? LEAVE. HER. ALONE!"

Iron Will shook his head. "Don't it ever be said that Iron Will doesn't warn his opponents."

"Do. Your. Worst!" Dash hissed through clenched teeth.

Iron Will raised his weapon again. Despite the use of only one arm, he could still carry his weapon as if it was completely weightless. Worse, Dash wasn't moving. If he slammed down with the thing, she would be crushed!

I began crawling forward, desperate to reach her. Despite the cold overtaking me, I still had just enough strength to shove her out of the way. Maybe then she would finally take the damn hint!

"R-r-run," I croaked out so weakly that my words probably got lost in the wind. "L-l-li-ve!"

Dash was still rooted in place like the brave idiot she was!

"P-p-ple-ase!"

There was the sound of thunder from somewhere not far away.

My ringing ears managed to pick it up, though just barely. Iron Will also heard it. Unfortunately for him, his change of priority came too little, too late.

A rock the size of my head smashed into his face, shattering with so much force that his horns broke right off. The first rock was followed by another, this time aimed at his stomach. The second blow knocked the air right out of him and caused him to drop his weapon, which fell on the ground with a very light quake.

The rocks were followed by two figures garbed in black and dark brown. The first was a raspberry-coated pony of a straight rose mane. Her partner was of a bluish persian coat and sported a short grayish blue violet mane. Both ponies took turns attacking the stunned bull, their every blow seemingly strong enough to break granite.

Finally, the two united their attack to deliver a final uppercut to the minotaur’s head, their combined blow so powerful that Iron Will went flying into the air almost fifty meters before falling back down to the ground, where he landed right on top of his discarded hammer. The ensuing dust cloud prevented me from seeing the results, but judging by the quake felt on impact, it couldn’t have been pleasant.

I laughed at my turn of fortune. And to think I had resigned myself to death just minutes earlier…

“Gilda!” I suddenly heard Dash cry out.

“Dash…” I started, not caring about the intense taste of iron and copper in my mouth. “I… We… You…”

She dropped on her knees and grabbed my downed body, holding me in her forelegs in what some would have called a lover's embrace.

I placed my good hand on her shoulder to help myself up, but to no avail. I was too broken.

“W-what you did... h-how you fought... I-t w-was... unbelievably stupid!” she sobbed, holding me even tighter, eliciting far more pain than it should have. “...But it was also incredibly awesome, a-and brave!” She looked me deep in the eyes with those cerise eyes.

I laughed at her words, at once all too conscious of my broken ribs. She was one to talk. Sure, I had fought the muscle-bound idiot, but I hadn't dared stare him down like she had!

She really was amazing...

I almost didn’t notice the darkness finally claiming me.

Almost.

**** **** ****

“Told you we could win!” Dash continued as another roll of bandages was applied to my bleeding head by a medic pony named Red Heart. “Even if it did cost a little… more than expected,” she finished, her smile sweetly bitter, sideways glance set on her now missing left wing.

Once again, I found myself unable to say anything. I mean, what could I say?

“Hey, don’t worry too much about it!” she replied, her tone—while still solemn—now holding some cheer. “Equestria’s got some good mechanics. Watch, the wing they’ll make me will be twenty percent more awesome!”

I really hoped she was right about it. Then again, this was Dash I was talking about. If I had learned anything in the last few days, it was that with her, anything was possible.

“Commander Dash,” the voice of the raspberry coated pony rang out. “The prisoners are ready for transport. The minotaur, Iron Will, is still unconscious. We’ve already taken special precautions for him. We’re just waiting for your orders.”

“First Lieutenant Pie,” Dash started, saluting her comrade. “Good job on the operation. Give my thanks to your sister as well.”

“Rock solid performance,” the voice another pony replied. Dash turned to the source, the smile on her face growing instantly.

“Ah, Second Lieutenant Maud! We were just talking about you! Excellent work, and thanks for the save.”

The pony named Maud kept a completely neutral expression to Dash’s compliment. “I am also very happy that we were able to help. Thrilled, in fact.” A part of me found it extremely hard to believe this pony wasn’t sporting the largest smile in the world right now.

Dash turned back to facing her First Lieutenant. “I’m curious, though. How did you manage to track me?”

It was now the pink pony’s turn to grin. “I have my methods,” she said in a tone that almost sounded coyly cheery. “A ‘sense’, if you will.”

It took me a few seconds to finally recognize the earth pony as none other than Pinkie Pie, the pony who had once upon a time caused Dash and me to bicker so.

“P-pinkie!?” I blurted out, unable to keep quiet any longer. “W-what are you doing here?”

She turned to face me. “Gilda! You’re awake!” She cleared her throat before continuing. “I’m glad you are doing well. When you passed out, we feared the worst.” She turned back to face Dash. “The commander already filled us in on your situation.” She let out a sigh. “I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you again. Even in these bad times.”

I bitterly chuckled. “Yeah. A lot’s happened.” I turned my eyes back to Dash. “At least it’s over.”

“For now,” she said in a shockingly monotone voice, putting our current situation in a bit of context.

“Comm—Dash,” Pinkie started, her eyes falling on her beaten leader. “We have a squad of mages awaiting your orders not far from here. We’ll be back in Canterlot before noon.”

“Perfect. I can’t wait to get out of these desert!” Dash said enthusiastically.

“But I was just starting to catalog the sediment in this area,” Maud interjected, her tone still as monotone as ever. “I even found a new friend for Boulder.” She showed a small, off-colored rock in her hoof. “Everypony, meet Jim. Jim, everypony.”

I gave the small rock a wave—not really sure why—before turning to face Dash. “Can’t wait to get to Canterlot too...”

**** **** ****

We began the trek towards the teleportation zone. It had to be set up a half mile away in case the eggheads screwed something up. Pinkie led the squad that had found us, all fifteen of them surrounding the seven bandits that had given us so much trouble. A part of me felt relieved that despite their injuries—one of them was almost half-covered in a body cast—they were all still alive. Even Iron Will, the one who had very nearly killed us, was being led in chains, four burly-looking guards in heavy gold barding keeping him within spear's reach.

I very nearly tripped due to not paying much attention. Much to my shock, Dash grabbed me by the neck and placed my injured arm over her neck for support. She held me on her left side, my chest rubbing against the stump where her wings once was.

I was instantly filled with shame.

"Hey," Dash said. "Why the sudden long face? We're alive, aren't we? We're on our way to Canterlot! You've ever been there, have you? Oh, you'll love it."

"Dash..."

"They have everything! Good places to eat, plenty of shops, lots of bakeries!"

"Dash."

"Oh, and don't even get me started on the academy grounds! You'll feel right at home, I know—"

"Dash!" I finally shouted. "Geez, I forgot how much you can flap those gums of yours." I sighed and gave her a weak smile. "To answer that earlier question. I'm... so... sorry..." I said, already feeling tears well in my eyes. "If you hadn't run into me, you'd still have your wing."

"Is that it?" Dash said, a smile forming on her lips. "Like I told you earlier, I'll get an even better wing. Besides, the way I see it, I didn't lose a wing," she tapped her forehead against mine. "I paid it... to have a sister back."

We both laughed at that; we deserved it after everything we had been through.

“Now. Not a word of this to anyone, you hear me!” Dash said with a bright toothy grin on her lips.

I laughed. “Sure. Not that anyone would believe me anyway!”

“Very true,” Dash replied, the wide grin on her lips only growing wider. “I am too awesome, after all.”

“Correction,” I interjected. “We are awesome.”

For the first time in a while, I could look up to the sky and enjoy its promise of a bright tomorrow.

For the first time in a very long time, I was truly closer to heaven.

“So, Commander. About that flank kicking I owe ya,” Pinkie said as she began walking next to us, a smile forming on her lips.

Author's Note

Thank you so much for reading. More appreciation if you've commented. Writing this story was a bit of a blast from the past for me. The reason will become obvious if you move on to the next section. If you do not, then that's more than fine.

For now, I move on to work on other things, including "Life and times of Nighty", as well as another one-shot project that's been in stasis for far too long.

If you decide to, I will see you in the next 'chapter'. If you leave off here, then I give you my thanks once again.

So until next time, farewell.

Closer to Heaven—Original 2012 draft

Author's Note

Howdy Folks! If you are reading this message, it means you've made it through the redux of "Closer to Heaven." I can't tell you how happy that makes me, as reworking the story for its second (and last) chance was quite the trip down memory lane for me.

It also made me punch myself several times for ever thinking this story was good enough to publish five and a half years ago. For those wondering, yes, I did take the story down. Both because of its lack of polish, as well as the fact that it was no longer capable of standing on its own.

You see, this story originally wasn't quite so stand-alone. It and the original draft of "Salty Shores" (another story I must give proper justice to in the near future) were part of the "Pony Noir" universe. When that particular canon died—the reasons being many, but the chief contributor being my inexperience at the time—it took with it all future and present stories with it. "Closer to Heaven" was the first victim of that purge, as the story more or less served as a direct prologue to Dash's character in the Noir universe. Sad to say, but I didn't have plans for Gilda to make it in this original draft, so her fate on this story was a very important part.

So, if you have the stomach for it, I invite you to look over at Closer to Heaven as it was once. Hope you enjoy it, if nothing else because you can't stop laughing at how much of an idiot I once was. This story has not been given any alterations to its original content. What you see here really is what once was.

Closer to Heaven—Original 2012 draft

Unknown Location - Unknown Time

"Dash, how long do you think we've been flying?"

“It’s only been three days since we left Cloudsdale, Gilda - it feels like weeks at this point, though.”

“How’ve you been keeping track? I can’t even see the sun through all the smoke.”

“It’s a pegasus thing G.; griffins just don’t have our talent for weather.”

“Right, I completely forgot about that...So what’s your special weather talent telling you about those clouds up ahead? They’re blacker than normal...do you think Civil Protection torched another town?”

"...I don't want to think about that Gilda… It was bad enough when they came to Cloudsdale looking for Rebels, but then they started butchering civilians... They took pleasure in the deaths of all those innocent pegasi..."

"...How long till we get to Ponyville, Dash?"

"If we keep flying like this, we might make it by nightfall. If we aren’t shot out of the sky on the way there that is."

"...Maybe we should fly a bit higher, you know, so we won’t get spotted...”

"I can’t fly any higher Gilda - I don’t have the energy to climb. It’d be a lot harder to breathe in the thinner air too. It’s not worth the risk of tiring ourselves out even more.”

"…but Dash..."

"Gilda, are you- you aren’t afraid are you?"

"There’s a war going on Dash! You’d have to be insane to not be at least a little afr-”

"Gilda - please…"

"...Yes Dash, I’m scared - more scared than I’ve ever been in my entire life... “

“G.... do you think we'll survive?"

"I know we will. I’ll make sure we do, one way or another...”

Closer to Heaven

War came with little warning, bathing the once peaceful Equestria in fire and blood.

My home was lost, friends and family long since passed; almost everything I once held dear was gone... except Rainbow Dash, though even she could be lost in the blink of an eye.

She flew just a few feet ahead of me - tired, sweaty, hungry, battered, and bruised. I wasn’t in any better shape. No matter how much my wings begged for respite, I knew stopping wasn’t an option. There weren’t any decent clouds around and there was nothing below us but burned fields and leveled forest.

The area had been hit hard by Civil Protection - The ‘Demons in Red’, according to the nickname that the Rebels had given them. I was still wearing their same armor, but more out of necessity than choice.

Getting a better look at the ground, I could make out the charred remains of the rebel forces that had tried to fight them. The firebombs had done their job; there was nothing left but ash. The smell of burnt flesh was alluring to my animal instincts, but it shook my core; it sickened me more than anything. I tried to take my mind off of the devastation below. It wasn’t an easy task.

None of that mattered now though. Dash and I would be in Ponyville soon; we’d be safe there at last.

Looking at Dash, I could see she was starting to lose the luster in the sky blue coat of hers: a clear sign of fatigue.

Just hang in there Dash, you'll be safe soon - I promise…

"Gilda," she suddenly called out to me. Her voice was weak and strained. “I can’t go on any longer...I have to stop...and...rest...” She had stopped flying and started falling.

“Hang on!” I shouted, diving quickly and grabbing Dash as gently as I could with my talons.

Her breathing was irregular and strained. Another second or two and she would have really started dropping like a rock. She looked too tired to even manage gliding properly.

It was a struggle to maintain a proper trajectory - Dash wasn’t heavy but the added weight, coupled with the fatigue that was setting in, made it hard to maintain altitude. If I’d had one of those fancy new jet-assisted personal flight packs - J.A.P.F.P’s for short - to help keep me airborne, things might have turned out differently. At the moment, my own wings were starting to give out and I began to panic. Dash looked pale and thin hanging underneath me.

“Stay with me!” I shouted at her, trying to rouse her by giving her a gentle shake. She was wheezing and looked at me with what seemed like regret. She’d only had a few pieces of bread and some rain-water since we’d escaped from Cloudsdale three days ago, so it was no wonder she was in such bad shape. As a soldier as well as a griffin, I was much more accustomed to going days and even weeks on nothing but water. It also helped that I wasn’t as lean as Dash - a little extra fat helped out on long flights. She was a civilian pegasus though, plucked from the streets with little in the way of training. She was unlikely to survive under such harsh conditions; she hadn’t gone through what I had, or done the things I’d done...

I had to act fast. I looked around desperately for some place to land and rest, even if it was for just one night. There was nothing but devastation as far as the eye could see. The landscape was like a scene straight out of hell. What few clouds were nearby didn’t look like they could take our weight either...

When Cloudsdale was occupied by the Regime, the weather factory was shut down immediately. It wreaked havoc on the surrounding agriculture, but the worst part was that no new clouds were being made. The few “natural” clouds that now littered the skies weren’t dense enough to support even the lightest Pegasus, let alone a fully grown griffin in battle-armor - Dash and I had learned that the hard way.

I continued to scan the horizon and then I saw it; a small town - or what was left of it. It had been burned to the ground and most of the buildings were in ruins, but it was intact enough to serve as shelter for the night.

"Dash, I think I found us a place to rest!" I said, almost tearing up from the excitement and relief.

"Gilda…" was all Dash could utter as she held tightly onto my neck.

I began our descent as slowly as I could, gliding all the way instead of diving like I’d wanted to. Flying straight wasn’t easy considering how tired I was, and touching down wouldn’t be easy either, especially since I was still holding Dash. Nonetheless, we made it down in one piece, but I had to hover for a few seconds more; I had to put Dash on the ground before landing properly. Once that was done, I picked her back up again, cradling her in my arms like a child.

I let my wings down and a sharp pain shot up my back; I knew I wouldn’t be flying again anytime soon. It felt like the worst cramp possible - most likely a result of sheer muscle fatigue. Flying for three days straight would do that to one's wings. It took all the restraint I had not to scream out some curse; I didn't know who could be listening.

The small town was nothing more than a burnt out husk. The houses were total write-offs for the most part. There had clearly been a fight here; there were empty bullet casings, dud shells that had buried themselves in the ground, broken armor, and a wrecked tank. The weirdest bit was that there weren’t many corpses.

Whoever brought the fight must have cleaned up their mess before leaving.

There was a large overturned supply truck not too far away. It had taken quite the beating, as told by all the bullet holes and gashes in its side, but it was mostly intact. Carefully walking towards it, I kicked the rear panel doors open and behold, two crates of brand-spanking-new canned rations rested among the other dozen or so broken boxes. At least we’d have something to eat that night.

I carefully set Dash down and she opted to sit on her haunches, her breathing no worse than before. She saw the rations and smiled. She looked about ready to pass out. The crates were easy enough to tear or smash open; the problem would be the cans themselves. Damn things, those cans. Luckily I always carried a dagger in my breastplate for deadlier emergencies. It’d work just fine now though. I grabbed an armful of the rations and headed back over to Dash, who was smiling as much as I was. We had some food and the truck would make a decent enough shelter - neither of us would be dying that night.

I hoped.

The sun finally set not long after we found the food. I managed to make a little makeshift campfire from several small twigs, and the remains of a couple of the crates from the truck. I emptied a couple large caliber bullets of their gunpowder which helped speed the lighting process along. Once that was set up properly, I rummaged through the bags we were carrying when we left Cloudsdale. Luckily, I had thought ahead to bring a small folding pot with us. Once the cans were opened, I had to try and ‘cook’ the stuff, though it really just meant heating it up with a bit of water to soften it a bit.

One of the first things I learned in basic training was just how Celestia-awful the rations really were. They were dry, hard as a rock, and tasted more like gunpowder than actual food. Learning to ‘cook’ the damn things was the only way to eat them, and even then you couldn’t avoid the terrible taste without an entire pantry’s worth of spices. If there was one good thing you could say about the rations, it was that they were sustenance. They were edible and would keep you alive long enough to get a decent meal in your stomach. Too bad the ‘decent meal’ part was at least a day away.

There was plenty to go around but Dash ate her share slowly. As she ate, the color started returning to her face. I choked down some of the awful stuff, if only to make sure I didn’t starve. The years of eating the concrete hadn’t made it any easier to swallow though. Dash did her best, making a face every time she took a bite, but she never once complained. She was either too hungry or didn’t want to say anything about my ‘cooking’.

I’d like to see the best chef in Equestria try and do any better with that stuff.

After about an hour, Dash and I had eaten our fill. With plenty left over, I threw whatever was in the pot away. I took the last ten cans and divided them between my haversack and Dash’s saddlebags. There was plenty of room after we used the first-aid kits to treat our minor wounds.

We sat next to the small fire - the cold air blowing in from the wastelands making its warmth that more inviting. There wasn’t much to say so we kept quiet at first, looking instead at the oddly mesmerizing flames as they danced in the breeze.

Dash broke the silence and I was glad she did. I never did appreciate stillness.

"Hey G," she suddenly called out, "do you remember our first day at Junior Flight School?"

"Of course!" I said with a smile, "How could I forget? We crashed into each other face-first. If it wasn’t so funny I’d have said it was totally lame."

"Yeah," Dash replied, with a broad smile, "Your beak did a number on my teeth. I needed a lot of work done after that. How long did I end up needing braces for?"

"About a year and a half? But who was counting?" I laughed softly, rubbing my beak as the memory of the event flooded my mind. "Still though, one hell of a first kiss if you ask me." I said with a slight blush.

"Yeah…" Dash said, "you should have seen your face!"

"Oh yeah?" I said with a coy smile, "You should have seen your face you little dweeb!"

I laughed heartily, and Dash joined in shortly.

Junior Flight School had been where Dash and I had met for the first time. Thinking about those days made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Those were the days when we both did what came naturally: fly. The memories always made me smile; they were among the happiest that I could recall.

I sighed, looking at the fire. "Dash," I said in a soft tone, "What happened? Where did things go so wrong?"

Dash stood up and sat next to me, tightly wrapping her hoof around my neck, smiling as she did. "The past is the past Gilda; what matters now is that it's just you and me." She smiled determinedly. "Once we reach Ponyville, it's nothing but clear skies! Just think about it! No more war, no more pain! We can start that flight team you and I always dreamed of!" She smiled with excitement, "We'll call it the Rainbolts!"

"Still fixated on that flight team huh Dashie?" I asked, looking at her with the same smile as before. "Wonderbolts not good enough for you?"

"Not anymore," Dash said, "at least not since they joined Civil Protection."

"Right." I replied solemnly. The Wonderbolts, once the best team of fliers in Equestria, had been pushed into military duty by the Regime. Now they flew recon missions and engaged in aerial combat every once in a while. It kept them from being tossed onto the front lines which often meant certain death.

"Gilda." Dash said, her eyes suddenly filled with sorrow and her voice much more serious. "Why’d you leave? Why’d you join Civil Protection?" She asked.

I started to stammer. I was shaking and my chest felt heavy. "I-I-I... I don't really know…" I lied, looking down at the ground to avoid looking at her. I was ashamed; I knew damn well why I had joined Civil Protection, but I still tried to explain it away as nothing more than an error in judgment.

In my youth, I had to live with the knowledge that both my parents were top fliers as well as the embodiment of what a warrior griffin should be. Their reputations had forged their identities long before their wedding, which took place on a battlefield.

They both expected great things of me and I tried to live up, as best I could, to their aspirations for me.

Fate’s a bitch that way.

Both of my parents died in an air raid shortly before my 12th birthday, leaving me to fend for myself.

I was alone and lost from then on.

My Aunt and Uncle raised me, but they didn’t seem to care that much about me. They shipped me off to Junior Flight School in Equestria the first chance they got. I’d get the training I needed and be out of their feathers at the same time.

Thankfully, Flight School turned out alright. I managed to prove what a great flier I was and I got to meet Dash. The better I got at flying however, the more I felt the need to live up to my parents’ other reputation: I needed to become a warrior. I joined Equestria’s Civil Protection force once I graduated from Flight School since the Royal Guards wouldn’t take me - something about ‘keeping tradition’ and some other nonsense. Joining Civil Protection was the chance I needed to move up in the world and start my military career. I wanted to do my parents proud more than anything else - I dedicated myself to a life in the Civ. Pro.

I couldn’t have known what would happen when war broke out in Equestria.

When the Regime took control of the nation, they changed the very foundation of Civil Protection, turning the once cherished force into their own personal death squadron.

As ashamed as I’m now, I need to be honest: I became an assassin - a killer without remorse. I murdered innocent equines because I held onto the delusional beliefs the Regime force-fed me: we were supposed to bring order back to Equestria by any means necessary. I didn’t see at the time that my parents wouldn’t have wanted that life for me. I had power I craved and I had gone drunk on it.

Everything was going according to plan for The Regime, at least until the Rebels appeared. They grew in numbers with each new day and soon the Civ. Pro. launched an all-out war against them.

I killed all that stood against the Regime; there was no need for remorse when you were just following orders.

Things changed the day I was ordered to kill Dash. She was the fastest courier the Rebel forces had at their disposal, making her a prime target. When I found her on that cold winter evening in Cloudsdale, I was wearing my helmet - it was my mask, something to hide behind. I had been dispatched with three other griffins, all of us lusting for her blood. Rainbow Dash was an enemy of the Regime, which meant she was nothing more to me than a target to be eliminated.

She tried to fight back, but I didn’t care. I slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground. I was blinded by sheer fanaticism - cold, calculating, ruthless, and deadly.

She cried and begged for me to let her live as she struggled to get up. I didn’t listen. My talons were ready to dig into her flesh, to tear her limb from limb. She whimpered and cowered on the ground, completely helpless - waiting for death.

I was so close to slashing at her that I could practically feel her warm blood on my face, even though I was wearing my helmet.

I smiled...and then it happened.

Dash looked up at me, her eyes wide with fear...and I saw myself in them. I saw what I had become. I was a faceless killing machine. My helmet and visor had turned me into another pawn in the Regime’s army.

In that moment I saw in her eyes what she must have been seeing - a monster.

I froze, claws at the ready. I turned to look at my comrades - they all looked the same - they all looked just like me. I wasn’t a warrior and I certainly wasn’t helping myself or anyone else. My parents would have been ashamed of me - they would have screamed at me, begged me to stop the madness and take a good look at where I had ended up.

I knew in that instant that I had allowed my thirst for power to consume me. I was about to kill the only friend I had - the only person that still cared about me; I would have done it too. I had killed hundreds of Dashes. Every pony I’d ever killed had loved and felt loved by someone.

This time was different.

In that moment that I looked at Dash, I opened my eyes and saw the world with clarity for the first time in a long time. She was there, breathing shallowly and haphazardly, expecting me to kill her and she didn’t even know that it was me.

I remembered the promise I had made to her, the oath I had sworn to protect her until the moment I died. No one could have forced me to break that oath then, and yet here I was about to do it myself. No one was above the oath - neither servant nor master nor slave nor emperor; not even Celestia herself.

It had been a cold, starry night when I had sung the song; a song as old as my kind, filled with a deeper meaning than most could understand. It was an oath; a vow reserved only for those whose commitment can never falter. On that starry night, I had made a promise to Dash in the form of the song, sung in the tongue of the ancients, representing an unbreakable pledge to protect those you loved more than anything else against all odds, until your dying breath...

My comrades - three bloodthirsty and equally amoral griffins - approached and demanded to know ‘what the hold up was’. I didn’t say a damned thing. They tried shoving me out of the way to get to Dash, to ‘neutralize their target’. I stood in front of them, arms stretched and talons at the ready. I wouldn’t let them lay a single talon on Dash while I was still breathing. My hate for Civil Protection, for the Regime, and for myself boiled over - I couldn’t control myself as it overloaded my senses and filled me with an uncontrollable, primal rage.

I killed them on the spot like the scum they really were. Their dying screams echoed through Cloudsdale and were lost amongst the countless others.

When I finally removed my bloodied helmet and revealed myself to Dash, the look she gave me was worse than any of the horrific punishments I deserved. She was crying again, tears streaming down her face, but it was different this time. She wasn’t crying out of fear or even pain - she was crying because I had betrayed her.

I fell on my knees and begged, groveling before her, for her forgiveness. She didn’t say anything, just looking at me, as if to say that I had hurt her worse than any blow could’ve.

I couldn’t bear the guilt of everything I had done. In a moment of weakness, I reached for a service revolver that one of my former ‘comrades’ had been carrying. I whispered my last apologies and put the gun to my head, ready to pull the trigger and stop the madness.

I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the hell that surely awaited me.

That’s when I felt her hugging me. Opening my eyes I saw that Dash had tossed herself on me, weeping sorrowfully. She shouted at me, her voice hoarse from crying. “Gilda! Please, don’t do it! I--I--I...”

I dropped the gun and hugged her back, as tightly as I could. It only lasted a few seconds but it felt like an eternity. It was all the time I needed to realize who my real enemy was.

That day, I became a fugitive in the eyes of Civil Protection.

I looked up at Dash, the memories still fresh in my mind, and sighed. It was time to come clean.

“Dash, there are some things that you need to know about me...” I started off, scared of what would come.

***

By the time I had finished telling her everything, I was ready to start crying. I wanted nothing but to crawl into a hole and die of shame.

Dash looked at me with a deep sadness in her eyes. She could understand the suffering, she had always been able to, but she still looked disappointed. I held my head in my talons as I broke down and really did start crying.

"I'm a monster…" I muttered to myself, "I’ve killed so many…"

"Gilda…" Dash said soothingly as she looked me in the eyes: "You did what you had to do to stay alive...you killed because you had no choice. You wouldn’t have done it for the pleasure; you were manipulated into killing for the Regime, just like everyone else was and still is." She bit her lip, "I’m not exactly innocent either G." She looked into the fire while she continued: "You aren't the only killer here...I’ve caused some deaths too you know." She looked at me, crying again. "I was a courier remember? I was delivering bombs to locations, and when they went off...” She was choking on her words. She took a deep breath before continuing. “I knew all along, but I didn’t say anything..." She turned to hug me suddenly as the tears started streaming down her face. "This war’s done nothing but destroy lives, one way or another... Everyone has some different ideal that’s supposed to solve everyone’s problems, but they’re all wrong! More and more ponies are dying every day! If only Celestia were here, she could put an end to the hate..."

“I want this war to be over just as much as you Dash. I can’t wait for the day it’s over.” I held onto her as tightly as I could. “All we can do is stay alive and pray that the Old Gods are listening...”

"But what if no one is listening? What if Celestia never comes back? What if the war never ends?"

"It will Dash; I can promise you that... The war will end, one way or another..." I closed my eyes and prayed.

Don't worry Dash; a promise is a promise. I'll never let anyone harm you...

Unknown Location - 6:15 AM

Dawn came quickly, and the sun’s rays made their way into the transport Dash and I had used for shelter the previous night. As I opened my eyes and stretched out my wings, I noticed two very important things: first, the pain in my back was gone which meant I’d be able to fly again. Second, the rays shining in were golden and bright which meant the sky was clear. I finished getting up, stretched the rest of my body, and slowly walked over to the truck’s doors. Opening them and looking up at the sky, I saw that it was the clearest and bluest it had been in a while.

I couldn’t help but smile to myself. The clear blue skies meant there weren’t any fires raging on the horizon, which in turn meant no large Civil Protection squads were within range of us.

I raced back inside towards Dash, trying to be gentle as I nudged her awake. She yawned, swatting my hand away and asking for five more minutes of sleep. She looked so peaceful. I sighed, rolling my eyes - it couldn’t hurt to give her five more minutes. She’d almost died on me yesterday, so she deserved it, and I didn’t want to take any chances with her.

I decided to step outside and let her sleep while I planned our flight path. If the winds were favorable we could reach Ponyville by day’s end, if not sooner. If we were flying in a headwind instead, the trip could take longer and possibly require another camp-out. Flight time was the least of my concern now though, I had to make sure the skies were actually safe.

I took a look at my surroundings, just as basic training had taught me. Even if a location seemed quiet or safe, there could be enemies hiding and waiting for you to make even the smallest wrong move. If there were any hidden snipers or soldiers around, I had one major thing going for me: my armor. From a distance, and maybe even up close, it’d help me blend in, since it still had all the markings of my dead unit. If that didn’t work and someone decided to try and take a potshot, it was still fully functional combat armor, so it’d offer some protection against most attacks.

Dash on the other hand, was unprotected. I had tried to give her something to wear when we left Cloudsdale but she refused, saying it’d only slow her down. She was certainly fast, but she wouldn’t make it far without anything to protect her. Even the fastest pegasus (and Dash was quite possibly the fastest) couldn’t outfly a .50 Caliber round unless they knew it was coming - and you’d never know it was coming until it was too late.

Thankfully, things were pretty quiet this morning. There was a gentle breeze blowing and nothing much to speak of other than the now fully visible bodies that littered the ground, burned to cinders by what I could guess had been firebombs and flamethrowers.

There was a sudden shift in wind direction when I heard it; the unmistakable sound of ponies talking.

I pressed myself against a nearby stone wall, using every ounce of restraint to stay calm. I pulled out the small pair of binoculars I’d put in my haversack and quickly spotted the sound’s source. There was a squad of Civil Protection troopers not too far away. Five pegasi, two unicorns, and three griffins were marching and flying towards the town. The equines had assault rifles slung around their backs and the griffins walked on their hind legs, carrying good-old-fashioned melee weapons - those three were the ones to watch out for.

I studied the squad as best as I could, trying to take stock, when I found myself staring at the griffin that was leading the group. His heavy armor - heavier than everyone else’s - told me he was in charge. An exoskeleton complete with heavy plating wasn’t something they just handed out to a rookie.

I gulped when I saw his insignia - a griffins’ open hand on crossed feathers.

Only one griffin had earned to right to bear that insignia: Captain Thanatos, or ‘Red Death’ as they called him.

During my time as a trainee, I’d heard stories about Thanatos’s many endeavors, most of which included destruction of epic proportions. You almost couldn’t separate rumor from fact when he was called ‘unstoppable’ and ‘untouchable.’ There’s always a grain of truth to a rumor though. Thanatos had earned his reputation for one simple reason: If you were fighting him, you were already dead.

My heart beat through my chest. I looked back at the transport truck - I needed to get Dash out of here. There was no telling what kind of torture Thanatos would put her through if he got his talons on her.

It wasn’t far, but I made every effort to be as quick and quiet as possible. Griffins aren’t very light on their feet. Keeping quiet took more focus than it should have.

Dash had just finished waking up on her own when I walked through the doors. She smiled and was going to say something when I quickly clasped her mouth shut. The words had formed on her lips already.

I gave her a serious look and whispered at her to, “Be quiet! We’re not alone.” The paranoia must have been visible in my eyes because she froze up.

“There’s a Civil Protection squad outside. They’re trying to find something and I don’t want it to be us. I shouldn’t have to tell you what’ll happen if they catch us” I finished.

Her eyes widened as she tried to process it. I let her go of her mouth and backed towards the doors of the truck.

“I thought this town had been burned and left to rot” she whispered, edging closer to me.

“I thought so too, but Civ. Pro. obviously isn’t done.” I replied.

“Can we fly away?” Dash asked.

“No, they’ll notice us.” I replied. I peeked through a gash in the cargo hold; sure enough, the troopers were poking around, turning over corpses - the Equines giving them a good stab with their bayonets and the griffins giving them a jab with whatever weapon they were holding.

"We need to sneak out." I said, turning to face Dash. "Once we have enough distance, we’ll fly away as fast as we can."

Dash was clearly concerned. "Sounds risky…" she said. "How many soldiers are we dealing with?"

"Ten." I replied without looking back at her.

"Ten?" Dash asked with bravado. "We can take them."

I wanted to shout at her. “No!” I whispered through a clenched beak. “They’re heavily armed, we’ll be slaughtered.”

I backed away from the doors and grabbed Dash by the shoulders. "We have to sneak past them" I said, trying to keep as much worry out of my voice as I could. “Stay low and keep quiet. If things go bad, you need to fly away as fast as your wings will carry you. Don’t look back.”

Dash actually took a step back; she was scared now. "What about you?" she asked, "We’re flying together right?"

"No." I brooded. "I'll keep them busy long enough for you to get far enough away."

She crept up to my side and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t worry G, everything’s gonna be fine. We’re getting out of here together, I promise.”

I smiled, nodding at her. I didn’t think it was possible, but it was reassuring.

I hopped out of the truck first, looking around for the soldiers. It didn’t look like they were nearby so I waved Dash out too. She jumped out and pressed herself against the nearby wall; I followed suit, ducking behind a mound of dirt and rubble beside her. I could hear the soldiers talking, but I didn’t pay attention to what they were saying. All that mattered was getting out alive. Moving from cover to cover would be difficult with the soldiers closing in. I tried to think of something and decided to try and distract them - to shift their focus somewhere else.

I picked up a small piece of the rubble and chucked it as far as I could, to the north of our position. It struck the burnt out tank I had seen earlier with a loud clank that apparently caught their attention. I could hear the crunch of gravel under their feet. I leaned around the corner, sticking my head out just enough to catch a glimpse of them. Sure enough, the troops - a couple of griffins - were heading over to check out the sound.

I waved at Dash again, motioning for her to move up to a larger wall a few feet away from our own. She nodded and raced towards the wall in a blur of color. The night’s rest had done her good; she was back to her old self.

I took one last look around and raced towards the wall as well, pressing myself against its edge so I could lean over and look around it.

I started to sweat under my feathers when I heard the soldier’s chatter getting louder and louder. I panicked; they didn’t see anything of interest, so they were heading towards us again.

I looked at the ground frantically, trying to find something else to throw when I found what took me a few seconds to recognize as a grenade. It was dull, metallic and buried in the dirt, but still intact. I wanted to pull the pin right there in order to cover our escape, but I realized we wouldn’t be able to get out of range of the nearby equines’ rifles fast enough. I had to clench my beak and wait.

Taking out the griffins would be the easy bit. Griffins don’t even like guns let alone use them. Give us an axe, sword, lance, or even a dagger and we’re happy. Better yet, let us fight it out with someone using our bare claws, and let the poor sap stitch their face back together. In hell. The centuries of griffin warfare made almost any weapon just as deadly, if not more so, than any gun. Within range, a melee weapon never runs out of ammo, never jams, never misfires and rarely misses - never misses if you’ve had any kind of training. It’ll cut through whatever you swing it at and kill it just as fast as a gun, but much more quietly.

They also look cooler too.

Lances provide plenty of range, axes the raw cleaving power, and swords the surgical precision when in the hands of a trained griffin warrior.

I put the grenade away before I did something stupid with it. If I used it now, I’d only attract more unwanted attention. I needed to come up with something else, and fast.

The griffins were practically on top of us - I could hear their heavy breathing. There was nothing else I could do. I took off a chest plate and pulled out my faithful dagger. I’d be opening more than cans with it this time. It was like a butter-knife compared to the swords the two griffins were carrying, but it’d be just as deadly in my talons. Their footsteps were getting louder and louder, which meant they were getting closer and closer...

I tightened my grip on the knife, ready to drive it into the first one I saw. I gave Dash one last glance, motioning for her to run as soon as the troopers rounded the corner. She took a few extra steps back, the fear written all over her face.

The soldiers turned the corner. I leapt into action, jumping the pair. They didn’t have time to react as I drove my knife into the first griffin. I managed to slide it straight through a seam in his armor and hit either his lung or his heart.

He wouldn’t be getting back up.

I left the knife in him as I hurried to deal with his comrade. She managed to draw her sword, but she never got to swing it; I ripped her throat out with my talons and she gargled, falling to the ground in a pool of her own blood.

I pulled the dagger out of the first one and wiped the blood off on his feathers.

Dash was standing in the exact same place as before, a look of shock and horror plastered on her face.

I would have been furious if a couple ponies hadn’t sauntered over and opened fire on the wall we were hiding behind after seeing the two bodies on the ground. I should’ve tried to grab those swords sooner.

I tackled Dash without a second thought, hitting the ground just as the hailstorm of projectiles pierced the wall right where she was standing.

"Dammit Dash!" I yelled at her in both rage and fear, "Why didn't you run away?!"

"I…I…" She just stammered as she looked at me.

She was scared. Scared of the soldiers, scared of dying...and scared of me.

I couldn’t do anything but scowl as I scooped Dash up and ran from the wall to a collapsed building nearby.

"Dash!" I said in my most commanding voice, "For Celestia's sake! You've got to fly away! I'll hold them off for as long as I can."

"NO!" she shouted between sobs, tightly grabbing onto my chest. "YOU'LL BE KILLED!"

"If you don't get the hell out of here, we both will!" I had to force her off of me. "Don't be such a foal! Fly already!"

I put her on the ground and stood in front of her, claws raised to attack the ponies that were chasing us when there was a sudden explosion and a loud yell directly behind us. My eyes widened; I knew what was coming. What was left of the building collapsed and there was a single griffin left standing behind us, axe in hand. It was Thanatos.

We were already dead, it was just a matter of when.

He screeched again, charging at us with bloodlust in his eyes. At least, there would be bloodlust in his eyes if I could see them; he was wearing a fully enclosed helmet to match his heavy armor. He swung the axe with power and speed that could only come from decades of real combat experience.

I pushed Dash again and jumped out of his way as fast as I could. The blade whipped up a dust storm as it hit the ground, leaving a terrible fissure behind. I covered my face as the cloud engulfed the area and I could hear Dash coughing as she tried to breathe through it. It was hard enough to focus before I had to worry about being able to breathe too. Thanatos didn’t have that problem though, his helmet probably had its own filtration system.

I coughed, swatting at the air as I stumbled towards where I heard Dash coughing. When I found her, I grabbed her by the hoof and led her away from the dilapidated building. We needed some fresh air.

As I opened my eyes, my heart skipped its umpteenth beat that day. The equine soldiers were waiting for us, guns aimed and ready to open fire.

There was no escape now; they opened fire.

Everything slowed to a crawl in that moment. I could see Dash’s face contorted in terror as she looked back at me. She had teared up, probably realizing that this town would be our grave. I looked into her rosy eyes and saw myself - I was terrified too.

The bullets were closing in and I knew they wouldn’t miss. I only had one choice.

I dove in front of Dash, knocking her to the ground below me. I stretched out my arms and wings to protect her with my head held low, looking right at her. She was crying harder than ever before, the slow splashes of her tears on the ground, like falling bombs, the only thing I could hear. She knew full well what I was doing and what was about to happen.

In those last instants, I smiled softly at her, unable to say a single word.

The bullets caught up with me and pierced my wings first before hitting my armor. I clenched my beak to the breaking point as I swallowed the agony. They ripped through my wings first, before slamming into my back.

I fell on one knee, seeing bits of my wings fly past me onto the ground and my blood flow down my back. I could only cry as I wished things wouldn’t end this way. I couldn’t let things end this way.

The assault didn’t let up and I heard my armor start cracking. It had spared me from the brunt of the hailstorm until its plates started breaking, falling to the ground in chunks just like my wings had. I did the only thing I could and closed my eyes, thinking of happier times - simpler times - when Dash and I did what we did best: fly.

I couldn’t keep my mind off of the horrible reality for long though - it was hitting me as hard and fast as the bullets being fired at us. The tears rolled off my beak as the last shot found its way through a broken plate and pierced my chest from behind.

The equines stopped firing long enough to survey the scene, reload their rifles and murmur among themselves.

The last thing I heard as I fell to the ground, blood pooling around me, was Rainbow Dash’s scream. My vision was blurry, but I could see her face was close to mine, her teary eyes showing an unfathomable sadness. She screamed to me, screamed my name, but it sounded so distant - like an echo.

I wanted to reach for her, to hold her once last time. I wouldn’t be that lucky. I couldn’t even speak, let alone move.

I wanted to let her know how I felt - I didn’t want to let go until I could tell her the truth.

I had made a promise - I swore an oath to protect her...and here I was dying...

I wanted to live... I wanted to save her...