21

Incivility

"This doesn't feel right."

Rainbow and Soarin' were on patrol, flying around a half mile in front of Thunderhead. The colossal cloud silently slid through the cool evening air unopposed. The sun sat behind the floating headquarters, casting a gigantic shadow on the ocean and the rocks lining the coast.

"How do you mean?" Soarin' said with a yawn.

"It's just..." Rainbow looked down at her hooves. "Ever since we took over the cannons, we haven't seen a single griffon. Don't you find that, well..." She looked at him. "Eerie? Especially after Trottingham?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Soarin' huffed. "I'm just glad we haven't seen one of those vultures out here, after what they did."

"So it doesn't bother you at all?"

He flew closer alongside her. "Of course it does. I..." He spun a hoof in the air then shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I'm enjoying the quiet while it lasts, trying not to think about what's next."

Rainbow sighed and looked ahead again. "I can't stop thinking about it. After all we've gone through, I thought it'd only get tougher. Not," she gestured to the sky in front of them, "nothing." She looked back to Soarin'. "Y'know?"

"I getcha," he said with a nod. "I think it's so empty out here because the griffons are all centered around Griffonstone, just waiting for us."

Rainbow sighed. "I don't doubt it. It's gonna be hell when we get there."

"I wish Cyclone and Typhoon would just win the war already."

"Ooh," said Rainbow, "think about it. If they've been there the whole war, and they still haven't broken through..."

"Damn," Soarin' muttered. "It already is hell."

"Hey," said Rainbow, "woah." She slowed down and looked down, squinting.

Soarin' stopped ahead of her. "What's up?"

Rainbow shushed him and pointed towards the spot where she was looking. There were two specks in the distance, barely distinguishable from the rocks below, and they looked like they were growing closer.

"Well," Soarin' said, "there are your griffons." He turned around and faced Thunderhead. "I'll go round up some pegasi."

"I'm not sure if we need to. Look closer." She started descending. "They're not wearing armor..."

"Dash," he said seriously, "wait."

"And look at the left one," she continued. A tiny white square caught glimmers of sunlight. "They're carrying a white flag." She started flying towards them.

"Dash!" He grabbed her tail. "Stop! Think for a second!" He let go, and she looked at him, hooves crossed. He groaned. "You're gonna trust some white flag? These griffons are monsters, remember? This could be an ambush or something!"

Rainbow thought for a moment. "Well, if it is an ambush, we can out-fly them back here. But," she smiled, getting excited, "think about it. What if this is an actual surrender, like a full-scale surrender of the griffons?" Soarin's eyes widened, and Rainbow nodded. "Exactly. Let's go."

"But are you sure we don't want some backup?"

Rainbow smirked and began flying toward the griffons. "Thunderhead's our backup."

Soarin' rolled his eyes and flew after her. "Alright, fine. But whoever they are, we're taking them back there. Don't want any scum slipping back to Griffonstone." There was a coarseness in his voice which even startled Rainbow.

They flipped down the visors on their helmets and dove down. The two griffons noticed them and shifted their flight to meet with them. Rainbow couldn't help but feel an insurmountable hatred towards the two griffons. How dare they ask to talk civilly when they committed mass murder? An entire town was gone now. She looked at Soarin', whose hooves shook in anger.

The griffon on the right looked familiar to Rainbow. She squinted, studying their face, then gasped, stopping dead in the air. Soarin' turned around, looking quickly between her and the two griffons. "What?" he whispered. "More griffons?"

"Gilda?!" Rainbow flipped up her visor and flew excitedly towards the griffons. "Gilda, is that you?!"

"Woah, Dash!" Soarin' flew after her. "Stop!"

"Dash?!" Gilda said, flying faster.

"Gilda?" said the griffon with the white flag, stopping in place.

Rainbow and Gilda hugged in midair, laughing. Rainbow couldn't help but flinch at the sight of Gilda's eyes, but Gilda didn't seem to notice.

"How the hell did you get way out here?" Rainbow said, playfully punching Gilda's shoulder.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing!" said Gilda, punching her back.

"Dash!" Soarin' barked. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Hey!" Gilda advanced towards him. "Back off, pal—"

"Easy, everyone," Rainbow said, flying between the two. "Soarin', this is Gilda, a good friend of mine. Gilda, this is my wingmate, Soarin'."

"Your what?" the other griffon said. "Oh!" She blushed. "I get it now. Sorry."

"Dash, Soarin'," said Gilda, shaking her head, "this is Gabby."

"Oh yeah," Rainbow said, "I remember you now."

Gabby nodded excitedly. "We saw that huge cloud, and we knew it had to be you. Well, not you you, but Equestria."

"Well," said Soarin', "let's get back to that cloud, shall we?"

The two griffons were led back to Thunderhead, catching the other pegasi there off guard upon landing. Soarin' had to keep explaining the situation over and over to everypony they passed until he finally got fed up and just told anyone who asked to shove off. Gabby kept close to Gilda, seemingly trying to withhold her excitement. They winded around a couple of hallways until they finally arrived at the cafeteria, where they got some porridge. To Rainbow's surprise, the griffons ate it without haste as soon as they sat down.

"So," Gilda said between bites, "why're you grey and black now? Hardly recognized you."

Rainbow' ears fell flat. "It's, uh..." She looked to Soarin' for help, but he too shifted uneasily.

"We lost our squadron," Soarin' said sullenly. The griffons stopped eating, looking between the two pegasi.

"So, uh," Rainbow cleared her throat, "there's more of you?"

"Yeah," Gabby said with a look of relief. "We're all hiding out in some abandoned bunker not far from here. We all had to evacuate Griffonstone when Gale started recruiting."

"Who's Gale?" asked Soarin'.

"He's the self-proclaimed king who started this war. He and his followers not-so-subtly had a parade commending their 'achievement' of killing Celestia." She didn't notice the two pegasi wince. "Started recruiting right then and there."

"Wait, how did they get so big?" Rainbow asked. "I didn't see anything like that when Pinkie and I were at Griffonstone, and your last letter didn't say—"

Gilda held up a claw. "That's because Gale recruited away from Griffonstone in the eastern part of the country." At Rainbow's confused expression, Gilda sighed. "I guess I should start from the beginning. Well," she looked at Soarin', "I don't know if you know this or not, Soarin', but the griffons were once all fighting amongst themselves, for gold, jewels, power, whatever.

"Then, a griffon named Grover discovered an artifact, calling it The Idol of Boreas. Using this, he united the griffons as one kingdom, and they made him their king. There was pride in every griffon, so long as they had the idol. Then, about fifty years ago, when King Guto ruled, an arimaspi attacked. It took the idol from us, and we pretty much lost our united identity then." She looked at Soarin' and Rainbow. "Do you know where arimaspi come from?"

"Uh... shoot." Rainbow hit the table. "I remember learning this, uh..."

"Aren't they in southern Equestria?" Soarin' asked.

"Yeah," Gabby said, "and a lot of griffons got angry. From what I've heard, Equestria was in charge of keeping the arimaspi at bay, keeping them where they were. When the griffons saw one take the idol, well, a lot of them blamed Equestria for it."

"Wait," Rainbow looked at Gilda, "why didn't your grandpa tell me and Pinkie that?"

"This sort of created a divide between the griffons," Gilda continued, ignoring Rainbow's question. "Most of the griffons wanted to fight Equestria, to take revenge. Guto refused. He didn't see the point, I guess. He blamed the arimaspi, sure, but not Equestria itself."

She sighed. "That only made griffons angrier. They felt betrayed by Guto, like they didn't know why he wasn't angry. The griffons were already at each others' throats because of the loss of the idol, and this division between the king and the rest split them apart more and more. Then, I guess, he felt like he had to smooth things over with Equestria, sorta fix their relations. Guto decided to sell the Griffish Isles to them."

"Ah," said Soarin'. "The Griffish Isles."

Gilda nodded. "There weren't any griffons there anyway, but it only made his problems worse. Now Guto had three things getting everyone pissed, and he couldn't really do anything about any of them. Pretty soon, riots started popping up throughout the kingdom, wanting him to be removed from power. It grew so badly that the country had a civil war."

"Gilda," Gabby interrupted, "wasn't Gruff with the king?"

"Yeah, he was," Gilda said curtly. "That's why he got his scar—got it in a skirmish."

"Why didn't they just ask Equestria for help?" Soarin' said. "We weren't exactly broke back then. We could've helped plenty."

"Guto had too much 'pride' to ask, I guess," Gilda said with a touch of contempt. "He respected Equestria as trading partners and all that, but I guess he thought asking for help would've been too great a hit to his ego. He didn't have to deal with the contention too long, though." She took a bite of her meal. "About a day or so after the isles were sold, he was assassinated. That's what really got the civil war going. Many of the rebels took the opportunity and focused on overtaking Griffonstone. Whatever was left of the government was fighting for control there. In the meantime, there were a bunch of rebels who fled to the isles, and they swore to kill any ponies who trespassed on their lands."

"How long were they there?" Rainbow asked, an idea forming.

"I think for about as long as the war went on, so probably around a year."

Rainbow turned to Soarin'. "Do you think those rebels made the cannons?" He raised an eyebrow. "Think about it. The hatch and everything was all rusted, the concrete was all chipped and cracked, and those computers looked like they were ready to collapse on themselves. If they made them, they could've attacked Equestia without leaving the island. Heh, like how the Pride was so eager to lob shells at us day in and day out."

"But if those rebels made it," Soarin' said, "why didn't they shell us when they finished it?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Maybe they didn't finish, and the Pride did. Anyway, sorry," she turned to Gilda and Gabby, "go on."

"Well," Gilda said, starting somewhat awkwardly after the digression, "the war dragged on for about year, like I said." Gilda cleared her throat. "The thing is, no one really knows or cares for that matter. There wasn't exactly a winner. I guess by default it'd be the king and his loyalists, since the rebels never managed to actually attack Equestria, but after a year, there really wasn't a government anyway. The war kind of devolved into a bunch of angry griffons raiding each other. Since the idol was lost, no one was unified. After a year, no one really remembered why they were fighting and just sort of stopped. That's when we really became isolated."

"Um, Gilda?" Gabby stood, pointing to a clock on the wall. "I'm going to head back to the others. They're probably worried about where we are." Gilda nodded.

"I'll come with," Soarin' volunteered, "so they don't think you're lying. How many did you say there were?"

Gabby sighed, her wings drooping. "Twenty five." She glanced at Gilda, who nodded.

He rubbed his chin. "Tell ya what. Let's go and invite them aboard." He stood and walked to Gabby's side of the table. "When we get back, I'll organize a party to take them west to Equestria. Anywhere back over there is probably better than that bunker."

Gabby stared at Soarin' wearing a huge grin. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" She hugged Soarin', who awkwardly hugged back. Gabby and Soarin' quickly bid adieu and ran out, stopping to ask some pegasi to accompany them. Three followed, and they left the cafeteria.

"Anyway..." Gilda stretched. "Back to the history lesson, I guess." She finished her bowl and put it aside. "I mean, unless, you're bored of it or—"

"No, no," Rainbow insisted. "Keep going."

Gilda sighed. "Nothing really changed around Griffonstone after the war sorta ended. Griffons lived their lives the best they could. Some managed to raise families, even in that hell-hole. Life continued that way for a long time—I even remember some of it. Then, I think about four or five years ago, there were some unionists popping up here and there around the city. The biggest one was called the Griffon's Pride, or just the Pride.

"Many griffons didn't get behind their ideas. They seemed too radical and 'all bark and no bite' to actually do much. All they really did was go south sometimes to loot some dragons, and I think once or twice they killed one. They got lots of support when they did that, but then it went away. I think they even had some expeditions to find the idol, but they didn't turn up anything, obviously. They were sort of against Equestria, but they didn't call for war or anything, just had resentment.

"There were other griffons, mainly opponents of the Pride, who went so far as to promise everyone that they would contact Equestria and tell them of the war and everything else that happened. Many griffons, especially those raising families for whatever reason, were hopeful. Equestria meant help and safety, and many flocked to them. But, for whatever reason, they didn't say a peep to Equestria, and many eventually left to join the Pride.

"Then, about a year ago, some guy named Gale became leader of the Pride. He shaped it into what it is now—he bred that hatred into violence—and he vowed to make Equestria pay. No one outside of the Pride took him seriously. Then, your Princess Celestia was murdered." Rainbow awkwardly shifted around, but Gilda continued on. "The first thing Gale did was torture and drown her phoenix in some twisted demonstration before he announced their victory, declared war, and proclaimed himself as King Gale.

"The griffons, they were..." She stopped for a moment and seemed to be in a sense of disgusted awe. "They were so happy when he said that. Not just the Pride, but... most other griffons, the ones who weren't interested in the first place. They pretty much unanimously accepted Gale as the King, and they joined the parade in the skies with Celestia's horn and wings, and they were all chanting 'The Swan is Dead, the Swan is'—"

"I get it," Rainbow said curtly.

"Sorry." Gilda continued. "I guess it was because Gale and the Pride actually did something after years and years of nothing. They recruited for their army, right then and there, during their parade. Well, for whatever reason, the griffons really liked it, and a bunch signed up to join them. They went for Grandpa Gruff, and they... they killed him." Gilda cleared her throat again. "Then we left, those of us who didn't want to join." She looked at her claws.

"Gruff?" Rainbow asked, reaching over the table and putting a hoof on Gilda's claws. "I'm so sorry, Gilda. I can't imagine..." She looked sadly at Gilda. "Is the rest of your family... I mean, are they...?"

Gilda sighed. "No, they're fine, I think. I don't talk about them much. We weren't exactly all happy with each other."

"Really?"

Gilda shrugged. "I dunno. I always got the feeling that my parents felt… stuck with me, like they couldn't do what they wanted to do because of me. They'd try to send me away somewhere, like to Junior Speedsters or Grampa Gruff's." Her face fell. "But then they had my sister, and it all got worse. There was always tension in the house, what with another beak to feed and the house falling apart every other day. Once my parents decided I was old enough…" Gilda paused for a moment and frowned. "… or actually, I guess, when they saved up enough bits, they left Griffonstone. My sister and I ended up moving in with Gruff, but she hated me. She blamed me for everything and then left, going alone. Haven't heard from her since." Gilda pushed her empty bowl aside more and drummed her claws. "I wonder where Gwen is now…"

Rainbow started and nearly choked on her meal.

"Whoa," Gilda reached over and patted Rainbow's back. "You okay?"

"U-uh, yeah, just," she coughed again, "just went down the wrong way." She cleared her throat. "Y-your sister's name is Gwen?"

Gilda nodded. "I'm worried for her, y'know? I mean, she only became a jerk because our parents skipped out on us. She was really my only friend before I met you. With everything that's been going on… I hope she's okay."

Rainbow's forehead began to prickle with sweat. She pushed her bowl to the side and rested her head on shaking hooves. She sprang up. "I-I gotta go. Bathroom." She turned and started running. Gilda stared after her, tilting her head to one side. Several other ponies turned to look. Gilda sat for another minute before slowly standing and following suit.

Rainbow was leaning against a running sink. She splashed her face with cold water and braced herself on the sink's edge. Attempting to catch her breath, she looked at her reflection. She looked at the scars running along her face. Images flashed across her mind of blood, rain, dog tags, clouds, and that griffon. She stared at the sink's drain, watching the water swirl into it. She was still shaking, focused on calming herself down. She didn't hear the door open.

"Dash?" Gilda looked at Rainbow, who didn't move. "Dash, you doing alright?" Rainbow closed her eyes and started choking up. Gilda walked over to her friend and stood next to her. "What's up, huh? What's going on?"

"I-I-I... c-ca-a..." Rainbow could hardly speak. She still hadn't opened her eyes. She splashed her face again and turned off the faucet. Stepping off of the sink, she turned to Gilda, eyes still closed, head turned to the floor. Her wings were drooping and her ears were flat against her head. Shakily, she started talking again.

"W-what does Gwen l-look like?" Gilda had a little intake of air, eyes widening. A terrible thought had entered her mind. She could feel her heart beginning to hop around in her chest. Rainbow didn't change her position in front of her. Gilda faked a smile and tried to retain her composure. She snuffed out the thought she had and looked back at her friend.

"Well, I guess she doesn't look that different than me." She looked up to search through memories long past. "Uh, s-she has dark purple on her feathers," Gilda gestured to her face and chest, "a beak like mine, except probably more gold. Her back half—legs, tail, paws—all like mine. Same claws, I guess. Um, her eyes,"—Rainbow flinched— "I guess they're also like mine, really."

She looked back at Rainbow, who was still looking at the floor. Gilda immediately dropped her smile. The thought returned, more valid now, it seemed. Though she didn't want to ask outright, Gilda wanted to know a few things from Rainbow. She tried to maintain a happy demeanor, but it took all of her willpower.

"You've seen her?" Rainbow made a little noise, which Gilda took as a yes. "Uh... where? When?"

"F-few months ago. Some c-clouds." She still refused to look Gilda in the eye.

"You sure it was her? There's a lot of griffons flying around—"

"Y-y-yes." Rainbow began crying again, her knees shaking. "S-saw her d-d-dog tags."

"Wait, dog tags?!" The thought intensified. She curled up her left claw into a fist. "Dash, did you fight her?" Rainbow whimpered and laid down. Her temper rising, Gilda grabbed Rainbow's collar. "Dash," she picked up and held the pegasus, "did you fight her?"

Rainbow turned her head away from Gilda, not able to look at her friend. In a tiny voice, Gilda heard, "I'm s-sorry..."

"Sorry?! What the hell did you do?!" Rainbow didn't say another word. Furious, Gilda whirled and slammed Rainbow into a wall. She began coughing, but refused to look at the griffon. Gilda growled at her. "Look at me!" She didn't move. "Look at me, damn it!" Rainbow still didn't comply. Using her free claw, Gilda grabbed Rainbow's jaw and forced her to look. "What. Did. You. Do."

Rainbow's eyes fluttered open, tears flowing down her cheeks. She made no move to defend herself, remaining limp. "I-I'm... I'm so sorry, Gilda."

Gilda held her there for a few moments, breathing heavily. The thought, it seemed, was true. Rainbow killed Gwen. She stared at Rainbow's eyes. They portrayed only regret, not fear like Gilda expected. Another terrible thought flashed in Gilda's mind to kill Rainbow, and it scared her, making her drop Rainbow suddenly. Gilda's breathing grew shaky, and she backed away from the pegasus, who slowly stood back up. She left the bathroom, tears welling in her eyes. Rainbow followed meekly after her, but, for the rest of the evening, she couldn't find Gilda.