Prologue
Rainbow Dash's brow became lined with more and more sweat each passing second. The air outside was warm and humid, flowing through the open window of Twilight's library as if invited in as an esteemed guest. Her time awake now exceeding well over 36 hours, her eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion.
"Why are they hunting me?", she whispered to herself in horror, "I didn't ask for any of this. I don't even know who any of these people are. Assassins, Templars, Altair, Ezio! I just want things to go back to the way they were!"
By the time she had finished talking, her whispers had been converted into a full-blown shout. But she didn't care who heard her. The only thing she was concerned with at that moment was finding the Elements of Harmony. They were the only things that could restore the world she held so close to her heart.
She reached over to the opposite end of the desk, gripped the quill with her weary hoof, and brought it upon the creamy white parchment laid out in front of her, as the thoughts that occupied her mind were brought down into the ink.
"My name is Rainbow Dash. Tonight is Hearth's Warming Eve. And it's been over three months since they arrived. They called themselves the 'Templars'. I don't know what that means, or what they're looking for. All I know is that they took my Twilight. I'm going now to help defend Canterlot and the princesses from the attackers. Maybe after that's done, I can get her back. And if I never return..." she paused, as a tear formed within the corner of her eye, the beautiful crystalline structure of the water gently cascading down the side of her face, and ultimately down unto the wooden floor, "Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, I want you guys to know that you're my very best friends, and that you mean more to me than anything else in the whole world. I'm so sorry I'm leaving alone, but I don't want to put any of you in danger. I want to thank you for always being there for me. For standing by my side even when I would have left you to die. I love you..."
The last three words were crookedly scribbled, and made barely legible by the many tear drops that now fell upon them.
She gently rolled up the scroll, and placed it on Spike's bedside. Rainbow Dash then made her way over to the open window, ultimately jumping briskly unto the sill. She felt the warm air flowing through her mane as she looked out onto the horizon. She found it funny, how on her right, there lie the peaceful grasslands of Equestria, the waves rippling about along it's surface as if all was well. And on her left, the fires of war raged about violently, men and ponies dying left and right.
Her wings then extended, the serrated blue edge of her feathers made ready for the journey ahead. Haunched over, knees bent, and heart ready for war, she prepared herself, and after a hop, skip and a jump, She leaped out into the Equestrian night.
