The whole of the Manehattan Fates and White Glass finally arrived at the Baltimare/Fillydelphia railroad. Immediately, White Glass eyes spotted the slaughtered corpses of the remains of the Vanhoover Branch. Heading down the hill, the others finally saw them too, both shocked and appalled by their deaths.

White Glass trotted to the body of the Tan Doctor, following the trail of blood he left behind, while Black Glass examined the slain Black Bruiser. Black Glass hummed, already knowing what had happened.

“Looks like the griffon got him,” Black Glass mentioned.

“And this one,” White Glass called, “hoo boy, does this one look interesting. No doubt he was hit by the train, but what’s this wound on the back and front of his neck?”

“Perhaps the human had a projectile and shot him,” wondered Slicer, “and then he stumbled onto the tracks.”

“No,” interrupted Doctor. “I’ve seen that device of hers work before. She has hooks that can fire off and grab onto higher places and they pull her up. My guess is that she shot it at your Doctor and pulled him in front of the train’s path with her wire.”

“But look at this,” Black Glass said, picking up an empty syringe and the box it came in. “It seems he hit someone with the cockatrice lilac, but they found his antidote.”

“No doubt that griffon helped. And to think, we might have actually been able to kill one of them.”

“And we’re still set on capturing them?” asked Slicer, irritated.

“Yes,” answered White Glass. “This human must be brought to Commander on his orders.”

“But she’s just going to kill us if we try,” Bruiser said. “I say we just end them and get it over with.”

“Do not fret, Bruiser,” said Black Glass. “From this point forwards, we are all going to attack the two of them at once. Five of us versus three of them, neither of them can wield magic while three of us can; there’s no contest.”

“So then what is the plan?” asked Slicer.

“Here is what we do,” he planned. “White Glass, Doctor, and I will take care of Annie and the guard. You and Bruiser take down Annie. Bruiser, you keep that griffon on the ground, Slicer, you make sure she stays down.”

“Hgh,” she groaned, “yes, sir.”

“Of course,” mentioned White Glass, “the human is the most dangerous of the three, so we need to take no chances with her.”

“What about the guard?” asked Doctor. “He will still need to be dealt with.”

“Yes… but I would not worry so much about him. As long as that human is able to fight, we are all in danger of being killed. She’s already killed at least two of my ponies, and she will stop at nothing to make sure we reach the same fate. Once she’s out, Gilda and the guard will easy pickings.”

“I have only one question,” Slicer asked.

“Yes?” Black Glass wondered in an annoyed tone.

“When do we go? I want to make the human pay for what she did to me.”

Black Glass looked down at the human foot prints that were in the snow.

“These markings look somewhat fresh,” he said. “We should go now if we want any chance of catching them.”

“Then let’s,” Slicer agreed. “Commander does not like being kept waiting.”

Black Glass, White Glass, Bruiser, Doctor, and Slicer galloped into the woods, leaving their fallen brethren behind.
________________________________________________________________________________________

The snow had finally stopped and a large patch of blue had appeared in the sky, allowing the sun to shine its light over Equestria as it began its descent to make way for evening.

Gilda, Annie, and Flash Sentry ran to the top of a tree-laden hill, nearly slipping and falling on the thick blanket of snow that had begun to settle on the land. Once they reached the top, Gilda’s left-back paw slid underneath her, causing her to topple over onto her left side. Gilda let out a loud groan and lied down to breathe. Annie and Flash, seeing her, stopped and turned back.

“Gilda,” shouted Annie, “get up!”

“I can’t!” Gilda groaned.

“Yes, you can! Now, hurry!”

Gilda spat on the ground away from Annie and Flash Sentry.

“I still taste blood in my mouth,” grunted Gilda, “my ribs and face hurt, I’m tired, and I’m sick of this. At this point, I’d rather be dead.”

Annie ran back to Gilda and knelt at her side.

“Don’t say stupid things like that,” Annie scolded. “We’ve already come this far; if you really wanted to die, we could have just left you rotting in Manehattan.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Gilda complained. “I took that hard of a beating from an earth pony. I won’t stand a chance against Slicer or the unicorns.”

Gilda was on the verge of tears, consigning to her fate. Annie squinted, knowing she’d have to reveal herself.

“If you die,” asked Annie, “how will you be able to see your friend in Ponyville again?”

Gilda gasped, knowing that she had figured it out.

“But…” said Gilda. “I said my friend lived–”

“In Manehattan,” interrupted Annie, “I know. However, on the train last night, you had said that if you hadn’t received the letter that targeted your friend, it would be sent to Vanhoover. If your friend lived in Manehattan, then the Manehattan Fates would take the job. Hell, they’re stationed in the same city.”

Gilda knew she had caught her, and just bowed down as Annie continued to uncover the truth.

“And you had also told me that you were hoping to live in Ponyville at the beginning of your investigation. Seeing as how Vanhoover takes care of the Ponyville jobs, you must have been concerned for the safety of a friend who was living there… perhaps the one you were hoping to stay with.”

“Alright, alright!” shouted Gilda, raising her hands guiltily. “You found me out. Yeah, my friend lives in Ponyville; sue me!”

“So… you still lied to me?”

“What would it have mattered? Once you brought me to safety, I would go on living my life like normal. I would never see or think of her ever again… not that I want to.”

“But you care enough for her that you killed somepony for her sake?”

“Shut up!” Gilda shouted, her eyes red and wet. “You don’t know anything!”

“Then tell me,” Annie said. “Who was this pony? Why would you kill for her?”

Gilda clenched her teeth, not wanting to tell her anything, but fighting the guilt she would feel by withholding it. Finally, Gilda let out a defeated sigh and admitted it.

“Rainbow Dash…” she mumbled.

“Huh?” Annie and Flash Sentry both questioned.

“Her name is Rainbow Dash. The only friend I ever had.”

Annie, while shocked to know that one of Gilda’s friends was also one of her friends, kept quiet, knowing that it had no point in this discussion.

“The only friend?” Annie asked.

“Yeah,” she admitted, sitting herself up. “My mom and I lived in Cloudsdale when I was a cub, and I had joined the flight camp there. Being a griffon among a bunch of ponies is really hard, especially when you’re the only one…
________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilda, much much younger, walked about the military-like environment of the flight camp, a metal lunch box held in her beak. However, with the fluffy buildings and numerous obstacle courses, Gilda looked wondrously and excitedly at her surroundings, finding it much like a giant amusement park.

*PTWPK*

The browned core of an apple struck Gilda in the cheek, causing her to drop her lunchbox on the cloudy surface. As she rubbed the sore spot, the sound of two colts laughing turned her head towards the sound.

One of the colts had a light-cocoa-colored coat with a brown tail and a very stylish mane. The other was a darker, desaturated brown with a sandy-colored mane and tail, his mane draping over his eyes. Neither one had their cutie marks. Gilda watched hurtfully as the two colts approached her, the light brown pony blocking her front, the dark-brown pony from behind.

“Whoa,” the dark-brown colt spoke, “who let the freak of nature in?”

“I’m no freak of nature!” Gilda defended. “I’m a griffon!”

“And what’s that supposed to be?” the cocoa-colored colt asked. “A cross between a cat and a chicken?”

“Lion and eagle…” she tried to correct over the two colts’ laughter.

Gilda, feeling herself overpowered, began to crouch down into submission, tears forming in her eyes. The laughing of the light-brown colt was replaced by a hard oomph as he fell down to the ground by the buck of another foal.

Gilda looked up to see a light-blue filly with a messy rainbow colored mane, several of the hairs loosely sticking out. The filly looked furious as the pony she hit got herself up.

“Why don’t you leave her alone?” she called out. “What did she do to you?”

The dark-brown colt, running to his friend, stood before the filly with him, unsure of who she was.

“Who the hay are you?” asked the light-brown pony.

“My name’s Rainbow Dash!” she declared. “Remember it, because I’m going to wipe the floor with you this summer!”

The two colts looked at Rainbow Dash with a mixture of anger and fright. As badly as they wanted to take her, they did not want to get in trouble with the teachers if they won, or with their fellow ponies if they lost.

“Whatever,” the brown-pony grumbled. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Both ponies sulked away, defeated and holding whatever piece of their dignity they had. Gilda, seeing the bullies leave, stood up and meekly approached her savior.

“Wow,” she said, “that was really cool of you to do that.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Rainbow Dash assured her, brushing her back hooves on the cloud. “Those guys were jerks. Say, who are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before!”

“Me? Well, my name is Gilda. I’m a griffon. I’m like a mix of a lion and an eagle.”

“Cool! We should totally hang out!”

“Really? You want to?”

“Of course! It’s not every day that a pony gets to be friends with a griffon!”

“Sure! I’ll… hang out!” she said with a nonchalant shrug.

Rainbow Dash ran around Gilda and picked up her lunchbox, carrying it in her own mouth. Gilda made a happy smile as the two of them walked around the campgrounds together, talking and giggling away.
________________________________________________________________________________________

“Funny thing is,” Gilda forced out a chuckle, “we were two of the worst flyers in the camp. Those two would continue picking on us, calling her ‘Rainbow Crash’ and me ‘Gil-duh,’ putting more energy in the ‘da.’

“It didn’t matter how many times we failed on those first few days. We still had each other’s backs, and that’s all that mattered. We would sleep over at each other’s houses all summer, practicing our drills and lessons until we each became two of the better flyers in the camp by summer’s end. After that, we went to school together, and then we both went to do the next level of camp the next summer.”

Flash casually listened in on Gilda’s story while Annie continued to stay by her side.

“It sounds like you and Rainbow Dash were really close,” Flash Sentry spoke

“It really sounds like you were close to her,” Annie said. “What happened between you two?”

“It’s a bit of a long story," stated Gilda, "but you deserve to know…”
________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilda flew down to the camp, seeing all the older fillies and colts looking up at her. Landing on the cloud, she turned about her to look for Rainbow Dash, only to not see her anywhere. Looking and walking around, Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. Gilda stopped, wondering where her friend might be.

Just then, both the light-brown pegasus colt and the dark-brown colt came out before her, each one sporting a cheeky, taunting smile. Gilda, seeing them, snarled viciously. The light-brown colt now had a cutie mark featuring three basketballs while his companion had none.

“Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Gilda demanded.

“Oh, her?” confirmed the dark-brown pegasus. “Last I heard, she got kicked out. Something about snoozing in class.”

Gilda found herself staggering back, devastated by the news.

“What?”

“Yeah,” confirmed the light-brown pegasus. “Looks like your friend ain’t coming back to protect you now.”

“Which means you’re all ours,” added the dark-brown pony.

Both colts began to approach Gilda, who was fighting tears as they snickered in their victory.

“St– Stop!” cried Gilda. “I’m warning you!”

“What are you going to do?” asked the dark-brown colt. “Cluck us away?”

“Or maybe she’ll lay an egg!” joked the light-brown colt.

Gilda couldn’t move back any further, fearfully cowering down as they approached. As their laughs grew louder, Gilda’s tears began to stop and her sadness began to morph into pure anger. Hearing their hoofsteps come closer, Gilda’s eyes shot open, sighting the dark-brown colt.

Gilda leapt onto him with a shrieking roar and pinned him to the ground. The loud noise attracted the other foals as they gathered to see the fight. The dark-brown pony wailed in agony as Gilda’s balled talons struck his face, neck, and chest without mercy or foreseeable end. The light-brown pony could only watch in sheer disbelief as Gilda laid waste to his partner.

A teacher, a light-orange pegasus stallion broke through the crowd of loudly-murmuring children and wrapped his arms around Gilda. Even as the two were separated, Gilda continued to thrash her arms at the gasping, bloodied colt. As Gilda was dragged further away, the students looked upon her with fear at the monster that she had turned into.
________________________________________________________________________________________

“After that, I was expelled from the camp too. I later found out that Rainbow Dash wasn't even expelled; she was just sick that day. I suppose they had to try and kick one of us out.

“My mom was furious with me; said that none of the other schools in Cloudsdale would take me for what I did; scared for their own foals’ safety. She then shipped me off to go to the Griffon Empire where my uncle lived. I never even got to say goodbye to her.”

Annie kept silent, wanting Gilda to carry on.

“For most of my days, I lived in the Griffon Empire. Sure, I was respected more there for being a griffon like them, but... my days in Equestria made me, as they liked to put it, a ‘softy.’ It didn’t seem I couldn’t go anywhere without being made fun of, but it was home at the time. Once I was old enough and got a decent enough education, I left for Ponyville again to look for my old chum.

“After finding one of the old employees still working at the camp, they told me that Rainbow Dash moved to Ponyville as part of their weather team. Seeing her again was one of the happiest days of my life. That was when she showed up.”

“Who?”

“Pinkie Pie, one of Dash’s newer friends. Gosh, just the way she’d laugh all the time; so annoying, and only reminded me of the laughter I faced in flight camp.”

Annie nodded, remembering Pinkie Pie in her old world well.

“Admittedly, I treated the ponies there like dirt, much like how they once treated me, and Rainbow Dash broke off from me after I tore at Pinkie Pie in front of her and several of her friends. Sure, I might have tried to look cool on my way out. Truth is, I cried all the way back to Cloudsdale where I reunited with my mom.”

“And I assume this is where you went to Manehattan and joined the Fates?” asked Annie.

“Yeah. Like I said, for a time, I really liked it. The pay was good, I got to travel a lot, and, for a time, it was a good outlet to vent my hatred for the ponies who led me to where I became. Then, soon enough, that’s when I was inducted as a member myself, and I found the letter that requested the killing of Rainbow Dash.

“It was then that I realized what a mistake I had made. I felt like I could never forgive Rainbow Dash back then, but I didn’t want her dead. That was just too far. Soon after, I flew down to Baltimare where the letter was sent. I had a bone to pick with him…

“And that was Flash Fly?” asked Annie.

“Yeah. I broke into his house that night and asked why he would do such a thing. He merely responded that his niece got humiliated by her at a Wonderbolts training camp. That moment, I snapped, both from Rainbow Dash going on to better things without me, and the fact that someone wanted her killed for being a great flyer, which I always knew she was.

“I flew him to his dock behind his house and held him under the water until bubbles had stopped. I then burned the letter and flew back to Manehattan, hoping that no one would be the wiser. But they had found out, and they framed me for Stinkin’ Rich’s murder, and now I’m running for my life with you and Flash.”

Annie could see that Gilda’s tears were once again starting to form in her eyes.

“I really despised Rainbow Dash for picking her pony friends over me,” Gilda choked up, “but not enough for her to die. I could never do that to the only pony who showed me any kind of friendship. I bet she’s over in Ponyville right now, and she doesn’t even care where I am.”

“Gilda…” cooed Annie.

“I’ve made so many dumb mistakes in my life, and I deserve to die… I just don’t want to die without telling her I’m sorry…”

Gilda dug her face into the palms of her talons and let her eyes drain into them and onto the snow. At that moment, Annie’s heart broke for the forlorn griffon. Like her, she had experienced a cold life and could not communicate with others, except for the one person they truly cared for. While Annie’s loved one was already dead and gone, Gilda’s was still alive. Much like Twilight had done for her on Earth, her purpose was clear now.

“Gilda,” Annie cooed again, slowly wrapping her arm across Gilda’s back and onto her shoulder, surprising her, “I won’t let you die. Even if I die trying, I guarantee you’re going to be able to tell her you’re sorry.”

Gilda looked to Annie, whose face looked honest and determined; a face she could trust as much as she could trust in a true friend. Gilda leaned into Annie, taking comfort in her sympathy. Annie gently rubbed Gilda’s soft fur as she restored her strength and will to fight.

Flash Sentry smiled, finding their bond even more heartwarming than before. At that moment, a glimmer caught Flash Sentry’s eye. Approaching them from behind, hidden by the faraway trees, he could see White Glass, Black Glass, Bruiser, Doctor, and Slicer approaching them.

“Guys!” Flash Sentry warned as discreetly as possible. “They’re here! They’re coming up the hill!”

Annie and Gilda brought themselves out of their embrace and turned to see that the five assailants were indeed on their tail. Annie and Gilda stood up, knowing a fight would take place soon. Signaled by their full appearance, Slicer flew high above the trees and into the sky, her bladed cestuses on her arms.

“Leave her to me,” Gilda said. “I’ll show her who she’s messing with.”

“You sure?” wondered Annie.

“Just go!”

Annie back up slightly before she darted down the front side of the hill with Flash Sentry, hoping to lure in the others. Gilda and Slicer locked eyes as the three other unicorns ran along the bottom of the hill to go after Annie. Even as Bruiser galloped up the hill, Gilda was ready for Slicer and Slicer only.

Slicer lunged down with her arms to her side, maximizing her speed. With a mighty pounce, Gilda launched herself at Slicer, talons out and ready to strike.