//------------------------------// // Dark Horizons // Story: My Little Pony: Exodus // by AstonMartinLover //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash streaked towards her cloud mansion at speeds that made Iron Man look like Tank. Without the propeller. She was wearing her sweaty, Wonderbolts trainee uniform, her pride exploding, radiating from her person, as she tore through the sky, and the laws of physics. She flared out her wings and began a slow glide towards her front door. She took a splash in the rainbow waterfall to wash away the sweat of a day of aerodynamics trials. Spitfire had told her that she was a definite maybe for the Wonderbolts next year. Maybe! For Wonderbolt trainees, it was the most hope you could ever grab onto. "TANK! Good news, get your hardshell out here!" Rainbow Dash called, as she began taking off the soaked uniform. "Dash?" A voice called from her living room. Whiplash's head jerked up. She knew the voice well. "Gilda?" She asked, walking into the dark living room. A light flickered on in the corner, and Gilda's face was illuminated. Her optics were reddish, and wet. Dried tears ran down her feathers, and an empty bottle of cider sat next to her. "Dash..." Gilda said, her voice cracking. "Dash, I know we don't talk a lot anymore..." "Gilda, what are you doing here? Is somethin wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked, as he stepped closer to the griffon. Gilda nodded repeatedly. She turned and sobbed into the side of the couch. "Gilda...." "Dash, I'm sorry things got so bad between us...I'm so sorry...." This was not the Gilda that Rainbow Dash knew. Strong, proud, and a bit cruel. But...crying? No. That wasn't Gilda. "Gilda please just tell me what's going on?" Dash asked. Gilda looked up at her, her eyes deathly serious, her face looking horrified. "They...they declared war. The Griffin Kingdom." Dash cocked her head to the side. "War? On who?" "ON YOU!!" Gilda replied, more tears coming to her eyes. "On Equestria...I'm so sorry Dash, I don't know what to do....I can't....they're my people!" Rainbow Dash nodded, immediately feeling out of her depth. All the flight manuals in the universe didn't include anything on what had occurred in her living room. The pegasus wrapped a wing around the griffin. "Shh....okay, its okay. Its gonna be okay." Dash couldn't fool a newborn. She sounded scared too. "Dash....they drafted me into the army. Their army....what can I do?" Rainbow Dash backed away from her, absolutely overwhelmed by the situation. Unlike most issues, a letter wasn't going to fix this. 'Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that we're about to be invaded....by the way, any friendship lessons left?' "Okay Gilda. You can...you can stay here for now, okay? You're my...my friend." Gilda looked up at her, for a moment, there was joy in her eyes. Then it disappeared. "I can't Dash. I gotta go." She said, shaking her head. "They'll need me back soon, I can't....I don't wanna hurt you, or anypony else, but I can't...they're my people..." Rainbow Dash nodded. She understood. Kinda. "Okay Gilda. I gotta go talk to some ponies." She embraced the sobbing griffin and smiled. "Its gonna be okay." She turned and flew out the door. "They're my people...." Gilda repeated, sounding broken. Princess Celestia watched from her balcony, as her horn slowly lowered the sun, and prepared to give way to night. "War. Here." Princess Luna said, walking up behind her older sister. "I know. I do not wish to go to war again." "I can't." Luna said simply. "You know I can't. Sister, when I waged war in the days of old, I was...." "Skilled." Celestia said with a smile. "No sister. I was...a killer. I killed so many..." Luna and Celestia had both been warriors during that dark age. Before Equestria. When they had the choice of fighting or dying. Nopony wanted a return to that barbaric time. "So many who would have killed you if you hadn't." Celestia said, as her part of the shift, ended. Luna's horn powered up, as she began to raise the moon. "But sister, surely you see...that age...that war...it changed me then. It put me on the path to being Nightmare Moon. And I simply cannot risk returning to that path, not now, not when things are going so....so well." Celestia nodded, running her hoof gently along Luna's mane. "I know sister. But the war is not here. We may yet be able to negotiate our way out of this, with the Griffon King." Luna paused, her focus on the moon, unbreakable. "And if we cannot?" Celestia sighed. "We will use...stronger means to end this war quickly." Luna 's horn faltered for a moment, but then regained control, as she finished placing the moon in orbit. "Surely you cannot mean...." Celestia nodded. Luna's mouth gaped. "But we were told....so long ago, when we last....called upon him! He does not wish to be summoned..." "It does not matter what he wishes." Celestia replied. "The security of our kingdom, and our ponies, is at risk." "But....Twilight Sparkle....the elements of harmony, surely they can be called into service again?" Luna asked. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. The elements of harmony. But certainly not warriors. Not like they had been. "No. I have already taken some irresponsible chances with my student...I will not ask her to take part in a war." "But she is a princess now, it is what we princesses are FOR!" Luna replied. "No....it is what HE is for." Celestia replied simply, her tone suggesting she wanted this conversation to end. She looked up at the moon, as her thoughts fled to their first war, millions of years earlier. She closed her eyes. "Our father must be summoned."