Rainbow Dash followed Laetitia and Twilight at a leisurely pace, letting the pair talk with as much privacy as could be granted, given the circumstances. They were an odd group, and she still had some trouble understanding why Twilight had insisted on bringing her with them, and still leave the others behind.

Still, there were some advantages to the situation. For one, she was on an adventure with the coolest princess. Also, and she felt a bit guilty about it, without Fluttershy or Pinkie, two of their companions wouldn't feel uncomfortable. Without Fluttershy, Alejandra was more at ease, enjoying her conversation with Galahad and Gabby, and without Pinkie Pie, here, she had a chance to try and fix something she should have tried to fix a long time ago.

"So, can we talk now, or are you still going to ignore me?"

Gilda's response to her words was to basically tense up, then try to act normal, but that didn't fool Rainbow Dash. She had known Gilda for years. Ever since they were nothing more than a cub and a filly in flight school. They had been the scrappy pair, ready to get into any and all fights, more often than not getting owned at the beginning, until later on they both had learned how to fight for real.

Rainbow knew all of Gilda's body language. The sway of her tail; the slight increase in speed, the tension on her shoulders when she wanted to argue, but chose not to. The way her wings trembled was Gilda's tell for an energetic comeback. Her head held higher and back was her defensive tell-she was clamping her beak hard. Her eyes were focused entirely ahead.

If anypony had asked who knew Gilda the best, Rainbow would have stepped forth immediately. And it wouldn't be bragging. It would be fact.

It was also a fact that Gilda knew her just as well. She could—and had—manipulated Rainbow at times with her knowledge of what made her twitch. Up to the point, in fact, that it had finally broken their friendship when she had attempted to sabotage Rainbow's friendship with Twilight and the others.

Ever since, she had seen neither tail nor beak of her erstwhile friend, and now, out of the blue, she was here, with Alejandra, Luna—well, Laetitia—Galahad, and some cub, on their way to some mysterious place Twilight had insisted in dragging her to.

And Gilda had completely refused to talk to her at all during the whole trip so far.

"Gilda," Rainbow Dash tried again. "Come on, talk to me."

"Why?" Gilda growled. "I don't have to talk to you at all, Rainbow Dash. I'm here for Alejandra, Gabby, and Galahad."

"Look," Rainbow Dash said, "the way I see it, we can continue ignoring each other, or we can try and fix our friendship."

Gilda snorted. "Friendship? You left me for your new buddies, Rainbow Dash. So far, only that one—" she pointed at the armed and armored Twilight, "—doesn't look or act like a total dweeb. But the rest? Uncool."

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "My friends are not dweebs, they're just different from you. But they accept me as I am, and they would accept you too."

The griffon snorted. "If they're not dweebs then why did Battle Princess Twilight not bring them along?"

"That has nothing to do with them being that."

"Well, she brought you, the toughest of your bunch, me, Alejandra who's a soldier from another universe, Galahad who's an assassin… and an overachieving cub. How exactly does that not clarify that the dweebs were left behind."

"Seriously, Gilda?"

"Seriously what, Dash? You don't like it when I point out the obvious?"

"Hey, I'm trying to fix things between us, here!"

"That's all fine and dandy, but what if I don't want to fix things?" Gilda snapped. "Can you deal with that? Huh? You chose them over me. I got the message loud and clear."

"But that's not what I wanted!" Rainbow Dash said, feeling her anger boiling. "I wanted to have my friends! All of them! Including you! You don't have to be their friend, but do you have to stop being mine?"

Gilda's beak clamped shut again, and Rainbow Dash knew she had scored a hit. But whether that would help at all was anypony's guess. She kept her eye on Gilda, trying to guess what would come next, but as they walked, the silence became too much.

"We lost Twilight a few months ago," Rainbow Dash said. "You might know a bit about it, since you know Luna's not Luna and that Alejandra is a soldier from another world. But maybe you haven't heard that one night, my friend was gone."

Gilda's head was tilted just so, and Rainbow Dash smiled a little. At least she was listening.

"We didn't know what was going on, only that somepony had broken into the castle and stolen her Element and this pony… she was ruthless. She had broken a guard's legs, and had almost killed two more. And then she had thrown Princess Luna at four more, and somehow tackled Twilight through an inter-dimensional portal and we couldn't even follow her!"

Gilda slowed down a little, matching her pace to Rainbow Dash again.

"Obviously she's… sort of okay," Rainbow Dash continued, glancing up at Twilight and Lu-Laetitia. "But… for the longest time we only had letters. About how all her friends died. Or that she was captured. Or that she had watched a traitor be executed. Or that she had gone out to kill…"

Rainbow Dash trailed off, glaring at the ground for several steps. "I could have lost my friend a thousand times over. And I thought back on how lucky I was to have friends that were alive and safe… and I thought about friends I had lost. I thought about you." She took a deep breath. "Things just… escalated. Twilight came here because of the black vines Discord planted, and I was all over the place talking to soldiers and guards about trauma."

She carefully nudged Gilda's shoulder. "It would have been nice to have my best friend around."

Gilda snorted, but she didn't growl or push her away, which was encouraging.

"So yeah," Rainbow Dash said, letting out a slow breath. "I'm sorry I was a lousy friend and didn't reach out when things calmed down."

"Ah, stop it." Gilda finally relented, glaring at Rainbow Dash. "You know how we griffons…" she glanced at Gabby. "Well, most griffons are. We're grumpy, ready to fight and rough all around. Your town… Ponyville, is something we'll never have because we can't get our claws off of each other's necks. Your friends there have it easy. It's hard relating to ponies that never had to struggle for food or education. I had to compete to get to go to flight school. We griffons aren't born with a paw already crossing the line." Her growl was less angry and more frustrated. "They don't understand where I came from."

"No," Rainbow Dash admitted. "They don't. But they're not bad ponies. They really wanted to give you a chance."

Gilda looked away, frowning, and Rainbow Dash let it be. She knew her friend well enough to know that saying more would not get her anywhere. It was time for Gilda to make up her mind on that front.

Still. It felt really nice to be walking next to her again.

It was then that she heard Gabby gasp, followed by an enthusiastic, "I see it!"

She looked up, trying to see among the trees, blinking in confusion when she realized it was just a small cottage in the middle of the woods. Why were they even here?