Part I:
Enemies
In the clouded skies of a freshly dead world, an odd pair danced. Standing out against a nearby snow peppered mountain was a pegasus with a soft blue coat and colourful mane flying with great speed at her partner. Passing within inches of her was a griffon with purple markings around her eyes and at the tips of her head feathers. The couple wore ragged combat armour with holes scattered across where it had failed in its duty, the accompanying scars beneath each telling a story of victory snatched from near death. They cork screwed through the sky as they sang words that no longer held any meaning to another living being on the planet's surface.
Junior Speedsters are our lives.
Sky bound soars and daring dives.
Junior Speedsters, it’s our quest to someday be the very best.
With the last words of their chant, they swooped in to land from opposite directions on one of the mountain’s outcrops. They slid to a stop before one other, leaving twin trenches in the snow; sweat shone on both of them, their fogging breath was ragged.
The pegasus was the first to speak. “Wow, I guess I am old,” said Rainbow Dash between pants, a youthful smile pulling at the wrinkles of her face. “I never used to get this worn out on the camp chant.”
“Hey, at least we pulled off the whole routine without crashing for a change,” the griffon said with a dull look on her face. She clucked her tongue in her beak as she ran her talons over her head feathers, straightening them forward.
“It’s not my fault your big clumsy griffon wings got in the way, Gilda.” Rainbow said with a snort. The pegasus closed her eyes as she caught her breath. "Thanks for doing that for me. For a second there, I wasn't, ya know, here." She opened her eyes and her expression melted, Gilda had thumbed open the holster on the underside of her chest.
"You ready?" the griffon asked, drawing out her customized sub machnine gun.
The pegasus sighed, the last traces of her joy leaving with that breath. "Yeah, I guess there's no talking you out of this." She widened her stance.
"No," Gilda said coldly, she reached down with her beak to the knife sheathed next to her neck. She pulled the blade partially out before pushing it back into place, satisfied with the smoothness of the movement. "So how do you wanna do this?" she asked, eyeing Rainbow over, her gun aimed down and away. Her eyes shifted to the small bags across the pony’s haunches. "You gonna get your weapons out or do you want to surprise me?"
Rainbow let out a single hollow laugh. "No weapons to get, I had to leave the Up-and-Up in a hurry."
The corner of Gilda's mouth tugged downwards. "Wouldn't be the first time I shot an unarmed pony," she muttered to herself, a trace of disappointment in her voice.
Rainbow's eyes locked onto the handle of the knife next to Gilda's long, feathered neck. "Wouldn't be the first time I took on a griffon unarmed, and killed her with her own weapons."
A smile crept across the griffon's face, "Oh-ho, is that a fact? Sounding a bit cocky there, Rainbow Crash. Thinking about rushing in close, grabbing my knife, cutting my throat as you go and then jamming it in the big hole in the side of my armour?"
The blue pegasus clenched her teeth; that was almost exactly what she had been thinking. Her enemies in the war never saw her coming, so surprise and speed had been her greatest tools. With the one gone, she didn't know if she could rely on her speed anymore. Not at her age, and not against a griffon who had much of the same training from the same teachers.
Gilda shrugged, shoving her gun back in its holster. She only chuckled as Dash's eyes went wide. "Truth is, I only got one bullet left in my buddy here. So I was thinking-"
"Don't hurt yourself," Rainbow shot instinctively.
Gilda glared, her expression soured. "I was thinking maybe we do this the old fashioned way, not as the trained killers we both are. But real old school, griffon versus pegasus. Pre-Equestria style." A hint of a smile formed behind her beak.
"I'm sure your masters won’t be pleased with their dog playing on their bit," Rainbow warned, pacing in a slow circle with Gilda's eyes following her.
"They just want you dead, Dash. And they want your head to get past those dorky defensive do-hickies on that whatever-the-fuck-you-call-it. They never gave me a time frame, so I can kill you for days." Gilda dug her talons into the snow, her tail whipping excitedly through the air. "It's just you and me here."
Rainbow stopped pacing and lowered herself into a ready position. "You want a shot at the title, Gilda? Is that it? You wanna see who's the tops between us?" Dash pawed the ground, her eyes full of fire.
"Why not? You got something better to do, dweeb?" Gilda flared her wings, a wide grin on her face.
"You wanna play? Let's play." Rainbow licked her lips. "1-2-3-go!"
They launched at each other, kicking up snow in takeoff, leaving the rocky ground bare in their wake. The instant before they collided, Gilda grabbed at the pegasus’s worn barding and twisted to the side, sending them both spinning. The griffon threw her, sending her tumbling toward the sharp face of the mountain. Rainbow flapped furiously to break her spin, turning an instant before crashing against the rocks, flaring her wings and bringing up her hooves.
She struck hard, absorbing the force of the impact , legs coiled tight against her body. Glaring, she released the pent up energy, shooting off the rocks with enough kick to make any apple bucker proud.
Like a bullet, Rainbow Dash was little more than a blur streaking towards Gilda's head. The griffon’s display of shock was brief, dropping low and bringing her talons up; she was going to use the pegasus's own speed to eviscerate her. 'Just what I wanted you to do,' Rainbow thought as she beat her wings once, adding a few inches to her altitude while bringing her back right low. Gilda never even saw the hoof before it struck just above her left eye. The griffon was sent rolling across the snow as Dash whipped overhead.
With a smile far too young for her face, the rainbow haired pony turned her head back and called out, "Catch me if you can, Gilda!" She followed up with a loud raspberry.
Gilda looked up from the ground, rage etched into her face, letting the blood from her cut reach her eyes. Rainbow looked away as the temporarily blind griffon screamed in frustration, digging her talons into the ground as she prepared to launch.
As fast and as hard as she could, Rainbow pounded the air with her wings. She had always been proud to boast about being the fastest pegasus alive, but Gilda wasn't a pegasus. As kids, at Flight Camp, Rainbow had always won the short range races, but Gilda dominated when it came to stamina. Gilda would catch up eventually. Once she caught up, Rainbow's only hope of escape would be a dive, but there was only so much air between her and the ground and Gilda would be on her in a second if she went for an aerial climb. She knew that her best bet to lose her pursuer would have been to play hide-and-seek around the mountain, but then it would have only been a matter of time before Gilda found Spike. Rainbow couldn't let that happen, so she flew on, leading the griffon away.
When Rainbow chanced a look back, she found the griffon was further back than she feared, but a lot closer than she hoped and quickly getting closer. Dash saw that she had packed her fresh cut with her own feathers, making for a grisly looking bandage. For a moment their eyes locked. There was neither mirth or anger in Gilda's eyes; it was the look of a predator on prey. She would not be giving up the hunt.
The pony wracked her brain for anything that could give her an advantage. She found herself remembering something from long ago, lying atop a bookcase while an excited voice below read from a book. "Long before the reign of the Royal Pony Sisters, before even the union of the three races, griffons were the most common threat to ponykind. The earth ponies would lose them by dodging into thick forests, the unicorns would use their magic to disguise themselves, while the pegasus ponies would hide amongst the clouds and mountain top caves."
The memory faded as Rainbow's own thoughts bitterly added, 'Yeah, but I just flew from the only mountain in the area, I don't have anything to camouflage myself with, the forests are radiation choked deathvilles, and if I go into the cloud layer, I'll probably run into a pegasus patrol who will shoot me on sight. So thanks for nothing,egghead.'
‘If I could just somehow ground Gilda, maybe break one of her wings, I'd be able to get away. Of course, my best attack would be an aerial dive from above. And the best way to do that would be if Gilda was already grounded. Great.’
Rainbow came up with increasingly unlikely plans to get the griffon to land. 'Maybe I could convince her there was a Stable full of hot griffon studs nearby and I knew the secret knock to get in. Wait, does she even like guys? I'll just say both are in there, play it safe.' A dot on the horizon caught her eye. ‘If that’s what I think it is...’ She veered off in that direction, a new, less stupid plan hatching as she went.
The pegasus glanced back to see how much closer her pursuer had gotten while she was was lost in thought. She turned just in time to see a set of talons coming straight at her face. Her wings locked to her side and she dropped like a stone, managing to only lose a chunk of multi-colour mane to the deadly razors. She reopened her wings, going into a steep dive. ‘Radiaton, schmadiation, if I can’t slow her down, I could die long before I have to worry about cancer.’
Fortune smiled on Rainbow Dash. Below, she spotted a large orchard of trees next to a ranch house. She hoped a plan would present itself when she got there. ‘At least the trees don’t seem dead, I guess the radiation isn’t so bad here. Maybe.’ She aimed for the outer-most edge of the grove, and began to spiral inwards towards the center and, hopefully, a plan.
Leaves slapped her face as she flew, dodging the thicker branches and weaving in between the trees. Behind her, the sound of branches being snapped let her know that Gilda was behind her. Close behind her. The pony bit her lip and started looking for her brilliant plan to get out of the situation alive.
The fleeing pony scanned around in the half seconds she had between dodging, the first thing she noticed were nozzles jammed into some of the trees. Rainbow had seen that before. She knew what it meant, and the wheels turned in her head. She saw hoof prints in the ground, maybe a day old; this added the grease of plausibility to the wheels turning.
The weaving continued as she looked for the right combo, an upright bucket under a nozzle. She was running out of time. While she was getting tired, she knew Gilda wasn’t. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw what she was looking for. Two buckets that would be within reach in the next pass around the orchard. She dodged behind the thickest tree and went low, catching both buckets by the handle with her forelegs; she let go the breath she had been holding at the confirmation that they were full. 'Phase one complete, now for phase two of operation "Please Don't Let This Griffon Kill Me",' she thought to herself.
The pony was rewarded with a look of shock on Gilda's face when she spun round the next tree and charged her head-on. "Head's up, G," she called as flew inches above, upending both buckets at the same time.
The thick brown liquid inside slapped onto the griffon's back and wings with a wet plop, sending her tumbling to the ground. Gilda landed on her back, plastered to the grass and dirt, leaves and twigs stuck to her wings.
"What the hell is this groudy gunk?" she shrieked at the hovering pegasus as she kicked at her filth caked feathers with her paws.
"Try looking around sometime, Gilda," the raibow pegasus chided as she pushed down on a sapling. "This is a maple orchard. Enjoy the sweet, syrupy taste of defeat." She had bent the sapling back until it was touching the ground and settled herself on top, the force of her flapping wings holding it in place. "Anyway, I still got a job to do, but feel free to stick around."
"Ugh," the enraged Gilda stopped thrashing and went still as she regarded her former friend in disgust. "Stick around? Really? I swear, I'm gonna have to kill you on principle alone for that one."
“What,” Rainbow asked with feigned innocence. “Was the line too sappy?”
Gilda groaned, leaning her head back. “Seriously, I’m going to kill you. A lot.”
Rainbow Dash winked, folded in her wings, and was catapulted into the sky. She opened her wings and angled for the pink spot on the horizon, ignoring the three competing thoughts screaming in her head. 'She was down and mostly defensless, you could have taken her out for good,' a voice much like her own scolded. 'She joked with you, you should have tried talking with her more. Maybe you can remind her of old times, you don't have to be alone out here,' a youthful voice pleaded. 'That orchard was cared for, there's a pony alive there, probably sick from radiation. You coulda searched, coulda found them, coulda helped them.' a disciplined voice berated. It was only the last voice she paid any credence, 'You made a promise, you will keep it.'
She knew hadn't bought too much time, minutes at most. Back when they were kids, she and Gilda had preening races where they'd mess up their wings by rolling around in the dirt and seeing who could get flight ready first. Gilda had fingers, thumbs, claws, and that beak. She'd be up and airborne soon, and while the colours may have faded some over the years, Dash's rainbow tail would be a shining beacon under the permanently grey skies.
The pink dot was getting bigger. A lot bigger. Way bigger than she expected. 'This isn't just a Pinkie balloon that was knocked loose, this is a full on air ship,' she thought as the enormity of the blimp before her became clear. A regular Pinkie balloon was just a platform attached to a big pink balloon with a big pink face on it. This one seemed to have a small building hooked under it, and the balloon was much much bigger, with a three dimensional tail and face. It even had little legs to complete the look. She flew from behind the massive tail and saw gold letters emblazoned across the side, "Pinkie's Party Passage". The building on the underside was dark brown with a yellowish roof made to look like cake frosting dribbling down the side; even the windows and balconies added to the cake-y appearance.
'I remember her talking about that, but I never got to see it in the oversized canvas flesh,' Rainbow thought as she reached out and lightly touched the back right "hoof". Letting out a little sigh, she dipped low and went looking for the main entrance. Round the front of the building was a large set of doors, the sign above advertised that any ponies getting on or off should be careful on the gangplank. Beneath that it read, "Pegasuseseses welcome any time". She couldn't stop herself from smiling before pushing the doors open.
Stepping into the main lobby, she was greeted with an oppressive silence. Right away, Rainbow knew that she wouldn't find a pony alive in there. Nothing had walked through these halls in sometime, a layer of dust hung on everything. Despite this, she couldn’t help but feel the cheerful atmosphere the building once held.
The chandelier over head was nothing if not a cupcake suspended upside down, complete with muticoloured lights giving the look of sprinkles. The two desks, marked “check in” and “check ya later” respectively, had splatters of colour across their formal surface as though the cupcake overhead had dripped frosting over them. Even the floor was stylized like a giant cinnamon bun. The whole thing reminded Rainbow Dash she hadn’t eaten in the last day.
She took another step forward, suddenly blinded by a flash of light coming from the center of the chandelier. Rainbow fell back on her haunches, opening her eyes to a smiling pink pony standing in the middle of the room, the grey stripes in her mane making her look like a candy cane.
"My name is Pinkie Pie. Hello!" the hologram announced happily with a wave of her forehoof.
While every instinct in her body was reminding her that Gilda would be catching up to her soon, and that she had no time to waste, Rainbow Dash sat quietly and watched her friend talk.
"And I love to see you smile, but smiles are in short supply these days," the shimmering pony said, the corners of her mouth pulled down. "Everypony is worried about what tomorrow will bring and Equestria keeps changing and it can seem awfully dark and lonely. So me and my team worked real hard to make this ship to show you all that it isn't that bad and to turn those sad frowns upside down."
Pinkie's face returned to it's naturally smiling state, framing her mouth with her forehooves. "Pinkie's Party Passage, or The P3, was built to show any and all that, though times are hard, the world is still a wonderful place. We'll be going to all the best sites and with ponies coming and going all the way, so you're sure to make lots of new friends," the ghostly image stood on her hind legs and waved her forelges in the air. "So give me a great big grin and get ready to join the party!" She dropped back to all fours and took one step forward, looking Rainbow in the eyes.
"Just remember, wonderful friends, at the P3, the hard part isn't finding a party, it's knowing when to say goodbye." She waved her hoof one last time and the image faded away.
Rainbow wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. It came away damp. She stood back up with shaky legs and forced herself to look away from the spot where the image of her best friend had just been standing, reminding herself that this was for her. She got back to work.
/// /// ///
It was only minutes after Rainbow had left the the lobby that another figure stepped into the echoing halls. Gilda silently looked over the trails in the dust leading down one of the long halls to the cabins. The hologram of Pinkie Pie sparked to life, making the griffon pop her wings in surprise and ready her claws for a fight. Seeing it was nothing more substantial than a shadow, Gilda gave the image a sneer and continued the hunt for her quarry.
At least, that's what Rainbow Dash guessed had happened after watching Gilda disappear in the main entrance from just inside the cloud layer. "I'm sorry Pinkie, but there's no one left to enjoy your cruise ship," she whispered at the face of the balloon far below.
She left the cloud and began a steep dive aiming right at inflated pink back. 'I bring it down, trapping Gilda inside for a few hours and use the rainboom to launch me to Canterlot, after that I'll be able to hide from her wherever I want, she'll never find me,' she thought as the wind resistance picked up. 'I'll be alone.’
"Oh you shit!" Gilda screamed from below as she burst out of the main doors, tearing them from their hinges. She flew straight at Rainbow Dash. "Trap me in a big popped balloon? Was that your lame ass plan?" she roared.
"Gilda, get outta the way, I'm not stopping!," Rainbow called back as she got closer to breaking the sound barrier. 'If I catch her in the blast, she'll still be knocked for enough of a loop for me to get away,' she quickly rethought her plan. 'But if I hit her straight on-,' she didn't finish the thought.
"You wanna play chicken with a griffon, chump?" Gilda bellowed, bringing her talons to bare.
Rainbow searched the griffon's face for any hint of fear or friendly recognition. She found only grim determination. 'It's now or never,' she thought desperately as the air went elastic around her.
"NOW!" Gilda roared loudly beating her wings harder than Dash had ever seen her. In an instant, there were claws at her throat, both of them thrown back into sky. Gilda hammered into the pegasus's stomach with her free hand.
"The first time I saw you do your little Sonic Rainboom, I was impressed.” She delivered another heavy blow to the pony’s stomach. “After seeing you do that tired trick a few more times, I noticed that you slow down right before you break the sound barrier. The more ya know, huh." She delivered a blow right between the pegasus's magenta eyes and released her throat, letting her fall.
"This is your last chance! No more games! You're gonna fight me and you're gonna do it right!" she called down after her tumbling body.
Rainbow's vision went from double to just blurry as she tried to shake off the beating. She saw Gilda glowering above her, waiting for her to recover before attacking again. 'Gotta regroup,' she thought and flipped over in the air, bringing her wings out. She zipped back inside the P3. Above her, Gilda screeched with disapproval.
"Great, so now the trap is the plan," she chided at herself as she blew past the lobby and down the hall. She ducked into a room marked "Dance Hall" noticing the heavy doors and rapidly trying to jam ideas together into something resembling a plan. The vast hall was completely empty, but gave a strange haunted feel with the walls being painted to show the silhouettes of different types of ponies performing various dance moves. Off in the corner of the brightly tiled hall, on a raised bit of floor was a pile of instruments and next to the main doors was a bin full of canes and umbrellas, leftovers from the guests and entertainment. She decided on the least stupid thing she could think of, grabbed as many canes as she could fit in her mouth, and stepped behind the door.
Mere seconds later, Gilda blew into the hall. "I said no more games, Dash." She seethed, flapping in the air. "That includes hide and seek!" She slammed a discarded cello into the piano, destroying both.
Taking the opportunity, the pegasus slipped around the door and back into the hallway. She slammed the doors shut at the same moment Gilda saw her, sliding the canes into the door handles just as they shook from the impact of a pissed off a griffon. Several canes cracked with the first hit.
"What are you, five?" Gilda called through the door as she continued pounding at it. Rainbow didn't have long.
As she turned down the hall marked "Cabins" she was struck by a horrible odor. She knew what she'd find behind the brightly coloured doors and that it was the last thing she wanted to see, but she needed to buy more time. She kicked open every other cabin door. Inside, the smell was unbearable. The carpets beneath her were covered in designs to look as though covered in confetti and the walls had streamers painted across them, the colourfulness mixed with horror of what she saw before her felt like some pervese joke. Rancid bodies lay neatly on the beds made to look like slices of pie with whipped cream pillows, empty medicine bottles and needles on the floor finished the story. 'You saw the world end from the comfort of your flying hotel,' she tried to stop herself from thinking. 'You didn't get caught in any of the blasts and you were protected from the worst of the radiation, but the ship's computer kept going, showing the sites of the apocalypse. You didn't want to see any more.' The next room had two ponies with a small body peeking between them. 'I don't blame you.'
The mint swirled speakers lining the ceiling crackled to life and a familiar, bubbly voice spoke through them. "Attention party goers, this is your computer pilot speaking! We'll soon be approaching the main city of Equestria's fierce and funky flyers. That's right fillies and gentlecolts, we're almost at Cloudsdale!" Rainbow's heart stopped. "Just as a reminder, all earth and unicorn ponies should remain on board unless you speak with our cloud walking spell specialist."
Rainbow Dash fought a panic building in her. She had seen Cloudsdale after it had been hit, once, from miles and miles away. It had broken her heart. She couldn't stand to see it up close. She was torn between a desire to flee out the nearest window and to hide in a closet until they had passed to their next stop on the ghoulish tour. Her thoughts stopped at the next room. It wasn't that this room was filled with nearly a dozen decaying ponies, it was one body in particular that gave her pause; a unicorn wearing a fancy ensemble which she recognized.
She knew it wasn't her. The colour was all wrong, but the dress and ridiculously over-sized hat were Rarity originals. Rainbow Dash herself had served as a model for the dress as a favor for the fashionista during its design. She thought of the uncomfortable hours standing as still she could as the the unicorn had circled her. If Rainbow had so much as shifted a hoof she was met with endless rebuke. The time passed at a crawl as notes were written, alterations were made, frills were added and immediately removed, and the dozens upon dozen of pins jammed in, each one pricked her at least once. She would give anything to be back in that shop facing that slow torture.
The sound of the distant ballroom door shattering let her know she had run out of time. Only one plan had come together in her mind since leaving the griffon to tear apart the ballroom. It was not a good plan. She swallowed the bile rising in her throat as she thought of what she was about to do.
She climbed onto the pile of bodies.
/// /// ///
The sounds of claws softly clicking on the tile floor was deafening as it got closer. The progress would stop each time she came to a door, if open, the pause would be a few seconds long and then resume. If the door was closed, a splintering crack sounded before the trek down the hall. The pegasus held her breath as the sound of claws came to the doorway.
"This is just pathetic Dash," Gilda said with a sigh. "Get up, if you make me dig you out of there, I'm gonna make you regret it." The griffon slammed a fist against the door frame. "I said get up! Stop fucking cowering, I see you hiding there." Gilda stepped in the room, her wings famed in the door way. "Okay, you wanna do this hard way? I'll drag you out and throw what's left back in there before I burn this stinking mausoleum to the ground." Gilda grabbed the armoured shoulder peeking from the pile of rotting ponies. She froze when the moldy coat with patches of putrid flesh raised into view.
Rainbow Dash dropped from the ceiling. Gilda had only started turning her head up before the light went out on her. The over-sized hat went snug and tight over the griffon's head. The fancy dress wound round the griffon’s forearms and wings, then the jacket belonging to one of the stallions, then another dress. In seconds the griffon was on the floor, her tail lashing the air and her upper body bound tight to her body in very expensive fabric. Rainbow Dash landed gently and touched a hoof her chin while the griffon flopped on the room's floor. "Fabulous."
The pony gave the room a glance over. Deciding that the candy cane lamp on the nightstand was the heaviest thing in sight, she grabbed it up in her mouth and turned to the writhing, swearing griffon. 'Nap time, G,' Dash thought to her as she craned her neck back. Gilda's right paw struck the cyan pegasus's chest hard enough to send her stumbling back. Three ragged and deep claw marks on her chest greeted her when she looked down, the blood seeping down her coat as the lamp fell from her mouth.
"Oh hey, I think I hit something," Gilda sneered, a pleased smile crept along her mouth. She rolled onto her back paws and stood up. "Gimme a sec, Dash. I'll be right with you." Her neck snaked forward bringing her sharp beak to her cloth binding; in one snap, she was half free.
"Oh shit."
Rainbow was on her hooves and running down the hall. She took to the air and flew down the first staircase she saw, barely noticing that the sign said she was flying towards the dining hall. She heard another snap, she flew faster. She came out of the enclosed spiraling stairwell to find her self surrounded by bolted down tables cover in plates and cutlery, all the room encircled with half wall windows. The tables all had that friendly pink face on it, each pulling a different silly expression. A stretched out hat dropped through the stair well as Dash flew to the far wall. Through the windows, she saw vehicles, billboards, furniture, and countless bodies dotting the landscape; they were directly over where Cloudsdale had been ruptured by the Megaspell. She turned back to see talons grip either side of the stairwell before Gilda's face emerge from the shadows.
"No place like home, right?" Gilda said climbing slowly out of the starewell. "Thanks for the outfits, Dash, but you have lousy taste in fashion."
Rainbow jumped to the nearest table, kicking a metal serving tray for all her worth. Gilda pounced right, but not before it gouged her shoulder. The pegasus pony kept kicking and throwing anything she could reach, most of it embedding into the wooden tables the griffon dived behind. When a spoon struck her between the eyes hard enough to make her eyes water, she let out a ear splitting roar.
"No more weak kiddie games," she growled digging her talons in the underside of a table with Pinkie scrunching her face as if holding back a laugh. With a grunt, she wrenched the table top free of its stand, whipping around and lobbing the table straight at the pegaus's neck like a discus. Rainbow flattened to the floor, ears plastered to her skull, as the flung table whirled overhead and crashed through the far window. She raised her head in time to see Gilda flying at her face.
Talons snagged her mane, dragged her onto her back, and flung her against the half wall beneath the smashed window moments later. Her vision focused in on a pouncing griffon, talons aimed at her face. With no time to dodge, the old pony opened her mouth and chomped down on the eagle-like hand. Gilda shrieked at the pain as her hand poured blood. She brought her free hand in to stab Dash in her chest. The pony slapped the blow sideways with a foreleg and pinned the arm flat against her side by bringing her elbow down.
With both her hands pinned to keep her from using her talons, Gilda lifted the pony and slammed her back against the windowsill. Rainbow kicked at the griffon's stomach and though she grunted with each blow, she kept pushing with her hand clamped in the pony's mouth. From the the corner of her eye, Rainbow saw her destination, a large sliver of glass; Gilda was going to impale her.
For seconds that lasted forever, Rainbow's head was forced closer to the lethal shard. Her eyes darted from the approaching glass blade to Gilda's face. The griffon's features were calm, as though what she were doing was the most natural thing in the world. Rainbow saw herself reflected in Gilda’s eyes, her mouth covered in her former friend's blood as she gnashed her teeth.
Far below, the table crashed loudly to the ground. She barely noticed it over the sound of their own struggling. The only sound for miles, until other sounds began to join in. The air became full of the distant noise, something between a gargle, a roar, and a hiss. Both pony and griffon paused as it became more intense, looking down at the landscape below. The bodies were rising from the grave of Cloudsdale. They took to the air in packs of dozens and flew straight for the blimp. They were screaming.
Gilda and Rainbow Dash released each other with mirrored looks of horror.
"What the fuck-" they asked in sync, interrupted as rotting pegasi smashed in from all directions. They gnashed their teeth and snapped at the air as they hungrily descended.
Special thanks to:
Roogna
Stonershy
Candybag
NTSTS
For helping me edit.
And to Kkat, for mashing these two crazy world’s together and somehow making it stick.
Cover pic:
http://naroclie.deviantart.com/art/Reunion-258132017
The story will continue.
