“This is so exciting!” Ruby Drop said. The filly looked adorable in the little cloak she was wearing to match mine. “I’ve never been to Griffonstone before!”
“Neither have I,” I said. “Actually, I don’t know if anypony has been there in a long time.”
“Really? But there are griffons in Canterlot.” Ruby Dropped and hopped down from the airship window and sat down next to me.
“I know, right?” I shrugged. Some of my friends are griffons. Distant friends, but still. “It didn’t make sense to me either until I asked around. So you know how you’ve got an allowance that you use for school supplies and snacks and stuff?”
Ruby nodded.
“Grad students also have a kind of allowance that they can use for school. Usually, they use it to buy supplies and books, but they can also use it to fund research trips. These allowances are… well, grad students don’t get a lot of money, and the ones with a lot of their own money would take a research trip somewhere like Prance.”
“So Griffonstone is too expensive to go to?” Ruby asked.
“Exactly,” I said. “I don’t really understand it much myself, but the locals aren’t as friendly as Equestrians, and demand payment in advance for… basically everything. They won’t even tell you the time unless you toss them a bit first.”
“They don’t sound very nice,” Ruby said. I ruffled her mane. She blushed and pulled up her hood to cover it.
“We’ll be fine. I made sure we had enough to cover any expenses.” And if they really tried to fleece us I knew some very convincing illusion spells that would make pebbles look like coins. And even more convincing evocation spells that could turn griffons into phoenixes, briefly.
“If their king is wise, they’ll host us graciously,” Shahrazad said. She’d been on her best behavior for most of the trip. I think she was actually trying to set a good example for my adorable little student. “Though…” She scrunched up her nose in annoyance. “I have no idea who their king actually is.”
“Neither do I.” I rubbed my chin. It bothered me to be ignorant about something that should have been a basic fact. “The only books I found on the place were about five decades out of date. Equestria found two more princesses--”
“Three,” Ruby Drop reminded me.
My eyebrow twitched. “Yes. That many. So many princesses.”
Shahrazad coughed politely. “Ah, Sunset? You’re…”
I belatedly realized that some of the train was currently on fire. What happened? It’s a mystery! Sometimes, when I was in a bad mood and trying to hold it in, things would spontaneously ignite! It was a beautiful expression of the enigmas of nature.
“It’s okay, Miss Shahrazad. I’ve got this,” Ruby Drop said. Her horn lit up, and the fire died down and stopped. “Miss Sunset made sure I knew lots of spells that put out fires!”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, embarrassed.
The most beautiful Princess in the world sighed. “If I didn’t already know you were in a bad mood, beloved, seeing you set things on fire without noticing would be a sign not even a Diamond Dog could miss.”
“I know.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I had to center myself. Center myself. Twilight Sparkle flashed across my mind’s eye.
“Don’t worry! I’ll put that one out too!” Ruby said.
I really needed this vacation.
“I wasn’t expecting a royal welcome since we didn’t send word ahead,” Princess Shahrazad said, her voice strained.
“Good, because we sure as buck didn’t get one,” I said.
We weren’t alone on the platform, but only because the three of us had our luggage for company. One bag for me, one for Ruby, and five for Shahrazad. I couldn’t begrudge her that -- she was an actual Princess, after all. I could have asked for a few maids or servants to come with us.
I probably should have asked for at least a Royal Guard or two.
The station itself looked half-abandoned. It was the usual small building, just large enough for a ticket office and somewhere for the railroad workers to make a cup of tea. The roof was half-collapsed, and nopony had even made an attempt to clean in years.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” Shahrazad asked. She looked around at the… nothing at all. The station was more or less in the middle of nowhere.
“Yeah. To actually get to Griffonstone, we need to walk a bit. This is just the closest station. Ruby?” I looked over at my student. She produced a map and unfolded it.
“The station is here,” she said, looking it over. “So… we just need to follow that road, I think.” She pointed at a trail that had been cobblestones at one point and was mostly mud now.
I glanced over the map and nodded.
“Looks right to me,” I agreed.
“But, um…” Ruby hesitated and looked at the trail. I followed her gaze. Even from here we could see how it rose steeply among the rocks and into the mountains. “It looks a lot more vertical in real life.”
“I guess it makes sense since griffons could just fly there,” I said.
“I cannot walk that whole way,” Shahrazad said firmly.
“I don’t think I could either,” I agreed. “Okay, everypony get in close.”
I grabbed the luggage with telekinesis, Ruby and Shahrazad took my front hooves, and we vanished in a flash.
And reappeared further up the trail. I looked around for a moment, picked a spot, and teleported again. And again. It took a half-dozen teleports until we reached what looked like the edge of civilization, a huge ornate hoop-shaped gate across the road.
Shahrazad wobbled and sat down firmly.
“That was… I need a moment,” she said.
“Sorry about that,” I said, not actually sorry at all. “Some ponies don’t react well to being teleported.”
She dry heaved for a few moments, then held up a hoof.
“It’s still better than the walk,” she said, her voice strained. “Thank you.”
“Couldn’t you have gotten here in one jump?” Ruby asked. “It didn’t look that far on the map.”
I shook my head. “Not without having been here before. You already figured out why - the map doesn’t show elevation, and it’s not perfectly accurate anyway. If I guessed wrong it could have been bad.”
“How bad?” Ruby asked.
“Nopony wants to end up embedded in solid rock,” I said. “It can really ruin your day.”
“Oh.” She started looking a little sick herself.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Now that we’ve made the trip I can go right from here to the station safely. We won’t have as much trouble when it’s time to go back home.”
“Miss Sunset?” Ruby asked.
“Yeah?”
“Is it rude if I say that um, this place isn’t what I expected?”
“No, child,” Shahrazad said. “What would be rude is if I said what I was thinking, but only because you would hear such language.”
I nodded, completely agreeing with the sentiment. Griffonstone was supposed to be a capital city, the seat of a small nation, the golden capstone shining out over these mountains. Books had shown a small city perched in the mountains, with buildings built anywhere there was room for it. Thick, stout trees supported tiny homes. Brick streets surrounded by tough mountain grass.
That must have been a long time ago because now it looked like the whole place had been left to rot. Buildings were half-collapsed, everything was dirty, and the griffons I could see glared at us from the shadows under ruined thatched roofs.
Ruby Drop was a tough kid. She could handle hearing the truth. I took a deep breath. “This place is a shi--”
“Well, well, well, looks like we got ourselves a fancy little pony,” a griffon rumbled as he and his two dumbest friends landed in front of us.
“--thole,” I finished. I raised my eyebrow. “You don’t look like a welcoming committee.”
“We got a comedian!” The griffon laughed and looked back at his friends. They laughed too. “You might say we’re here to rob you. Mostly because we’re here to rob you.” He grinned. “Toss us your bits and you can leave. Otherwise, you might end up a little less fancy, if you catch my drift.”
He held up a talon, showing off his sharp little claws.
“Oh wow.” I felt something wash over me. These griffons had no idea who I was. I was totally anonymous, with no weird spies or sinister plots or meddling princesses. Aside from Shahrazad, but she wasn’t doing any meddling right at this moment. I felt a smile stretch across my face. “Ruby Drop, do you have the camera?”
“Yeah,” she said, getting it out of her saddlebags. “Right here, Miss Sunset!”
“This is so cute! They’re so dumb!” I grinned and skipped over to them. The griffons looked extremely confused. “Take a picture. I want to remember this moment!”
“This is going to end poorly,” Shahrazad sighed.
Ruby held up the camera and snapped a photo.
“Uh, maybe you don’t understand what’s going on,” the griffon tried again.
“I know exactly what’s going on,” I assured him. “It’s just so quaint. Sorry. I know you’re serious about this. I’m not trying to make you feel silly.”
My horn blazed with magic.
“Close your eyes, little one,” Shahrazad said, covering Ruby Drop’s eyes with a hoof.
“You acted like I was going to kill them!” I said.
“You would have been well within your rights,” Shahrazad said. “I’ve ordered ponies to be executed for less.”
I stopped and gave her a look. It wasn’t a look of surprise or disbelief. It was the kind of look you gave somepony when both of you were well aware why they were getting that look and they knew they deserved it.
“It’s just a suggestion,” Shahrazad scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, who puts a castle in a tree?”
“Griffons do, I guess,” I said. “Do you think the castle is the whole tree and all the buildings in the branches, or just the biggest, fanciest one?”
I knocked on the door of the biggest, fanciest one, because either way, we were going to go full Rarity and demand to speak to the pony in charge. And then one of my more common nightmares came to life.
Some ponies have nightmares about their teeth falling out and showing up at school wearing way too much clothing. I have nightmares about losing control of my magic and destroying everything around me. They weren’t entirely unfounded. I had a bad habit of starting fires when I wasn’t paying enough attention and my emotions ran away with me.
The doors tore right off their hinges and slammed into the ground.
“Oh buck-- uh--” I instinctively wanted to run and make somepony else deal with this. “I broke the bucking castle!”
“I think you only finished breaking it, Miss Sunset,” Ruby Drop said. She trotted in and looked at the doors. “The wood is rotten.”
“This place has been looted,” Shahrazad said, following my student into what proved to be a rotting throne room with broken windows and mushrooms growing in the corners. “Ah, not entirely. Look! There’s the throne. Or nest. Whichever.”
“But… where’s the bird in charge?” I asked. “Where’s the king? Where’s anyone?!”
“There isn’t a king,” a gruff voice said. I looked up. A griffon flew in through one of the shattered panes. She set down next to us and looked around, even more annoyed with the palace than I was. “Why are you ponies even here?”
“I was looking for someone with some authority.” I offered her a hoof to shake. “I’m Sunset Shimmer. This is Princess Shahrazad of Saddle Arabia and my personal student, Ruby Drop.”
“Gilda,” the griffon said. She didn’t shake my hoof. I just held it there awkwardly for a few more seconds and dropped it. Maybe it wasn’t a griffon custom. “If you’re looking for a king, we haven’t had one since before I was hatched.”
“Why?” Ruby Drop asked.
“The last one bucked up, let a monster in, and it wrecked the place,” Gilda said with a shrug. “After that, the king just left and never came back. Not that we’d let a loser like that stay in charge.”
“Great,” I sighed. “So the government fell and nopony noticed?”
“Nopony cared,” the griffon corrected. “All you ponies ever care about is your own junk.”
“So much for my vacation,” I sighed.
“You came here for a vacation?” Gilda snorted, sounding amused. “You dweebs must be even dumber than the average ponies, and I know some real featherbrains.”
“That might explain why we didn’t find any police in the streets anywhere,” I sighed. “So if there’s no king, who’s in charge? I’m not here to cause trouble, but a couple of real geniuses tried to mug us and I wasn’t sure what to do with them.”
“Eh, we usually just run them out of town if they’re bad enough.” After a moment, she looked at us more closely. “They didn’t hurt you or anything, did they?”
“No, but--”
“Whatever then, no squawk no fowl.” Gilda turned away, immediately losing interest. “You should probably just leave. There’s a reason any griffon with the bits and brains takes off as soon as they can. This place is a dump.”
“Thanks for the advice,” I said.
“It’s the only thing you’re getting for free, and that’s because I had pony friends a long time ago,” Gilda said. She spread her wings and took off, leaving us alone in the dilapidated mess of a castle.
Something crashed to the ground behind me. I turned around to find Ruby surrounded by a cloud of dust and standing in front of a collapsed table.
“...I didn’t do it,” she deadpanned. She really had learned from the best.
“Okay, the train isn’t going to be back until tomorrow, so we’ve got to at least spend the night in this mess,” I sighed. “I thought I was done with camping out in abandoned castles, but here I am again.”
Shahrazad looked around. “Ah, beloved, as wonderful as that sounds… I do not sleep in filth.”
“Ruby, you took Basic Household Spells, right?” I asked. She nodded. “Great. Could you cast Luster Fussed’s Dust Buster and clean things out? I’m going to see what I can do with some repair spells. Between the two of us, we should be able to get the place presentable pretty quickly.”
“I will supervise,” Shahrazad decided. She produced a woven blanket from one of her suitcases and laid it on the cleanest part of the floor, then pulled out several silk pillows and lounged on it. “You may begin.”
I lifted the door into the frame and held it steady while the repair spell did its work. I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty about how these spells work, but I had a lot of practice with this kind -- it restored damage from neglect and age and was almost like turning back the clock and erasing the worst parts of its history.
I know you’re right now thinking about some kind of metaphor and fixing my own mistakes and stuff like that, but knock it off. I wasn’t unhappy with my life. I had it good. Really good! And that’s why I’d fled the country again.
“Good as new,” I said, cutting off my own train of thought before it crashed into its own tail. “If somebody wants to get in here, they’ll have to knock. Or break a window. We’ll hear it either way.”
“I like this place!” Ruby Drop said. “It’s like a treehouse and a castle at the same time!”
I trotted over to where she and Shahrazad were sitting, grabbing a pillow and settling down. I sighed in relief, glad to get off my hooves. “I just don’t get how things got so bad around here,” I said. “Gilda said the last king left, but why didn’t someone else take over?”
“May I tell you a story?” Shahrazad asked. She smiled in the way that meant she was going to do it anyway.
“I like stories,” Ruby said.
Shahrazad nodded because Ruby had given her the correct answer. “Stories can teach lessons. They explain why things are, and how things used to be. This place reminds me of the story of the Wounded King.”
Long ago, when the world was younger, a healer was on a journey. A call had gone out far and wide for the greatest apothecaries and wise ponies in the world, and she came to answer that call. The journey took her to a small, ragged, poor kingdom on the very edge of civilization. The soil was poor, and the ponies that lived there were sullen and unhappy.
The ruler of this kingdom of sorrow lived in a castle of crumbling stone and splintering wood. He was suffering, sick and weak and not long for the world, just barely hanging on to life out of habit in the same way his kingdom hung on at the edge of the world.
“So, you have come to try and heal my broken body?” he asked when the healer came before him. He had no attendants, no guards, so it had taken the healer some time to find him where he sat in a room with no windows, reading by candlelight.
“That is my hope,” she agreed.
The king, suffering from a malady none had been able to treat, sighed. “I tire of tinctures and diets and treatments. You will be the last healer to try their hoof. I will be healed, or I will die.”
The healer was a wise pony, and unlike the others that had come to see the king, she did not bring exotic ointments and bitter herbs. Instead, she took the king to tour the land. He had no real interest in it, but he had given her a chance, and he was a fair and honest king and stayed true to his word.
He saw the dusty fields and the grey lapping sea on the shore of sharp pebbles and the dark and untamed forest and his heart sank further.
“Perhaps it is better if this land is forgotten,” he said. “There is nothing for anypony here.”
“That’s not true,” the healer said. “Where there is life, there is hope. Let me show you.”
She took him to the home of one of the sullen peasants. It was in some ways the opposite of the ruined castle the king had lived in for his entire life. The house had never been grand or beautiful, but it was well-worn and cared for, repaired when it was damaged, and though it had sheltered as many generations as the castle, it did so with the warmth of the love put into it.
The peasant family welcomed the king into their home and offered him all that they had. He shared a meal with them, and though it was poor fare, thin soup and grainy bread, he could tell how proud they were of it.
“We grew the vegetables ourselves,” the farmer said.
“In those dusty fields?” the king asked. It was a rude sort of question to ask a farmer, but the king didn’t know that.
“It isn’t easy,” the farmer admitted. “The land is tough and rocky. But though the soil is thin, it can be tended with care.”
The king understood it, in the way the farmer spoke. Not the words, but the feeling behind it. He spoke of the land in the same way he spoke of his family, with the same familiar and happy tone that he used to speak of his wife or his ancestors. He loved the land, and the king was moved by it.
“Tomorrow,” he told the healer when they left. “I wish to visit another of my subjects and speak to them.”
The healer agreed. For a year and a day they traveled the small land, spending time with every family that stayed. The king, who had been alone in his castle, met with ponies that had never seen him before. Some did not even know the name of the kingdom. All they knew was that it was home.
He ate with farmers, with ponies that gathered wildflowers in the forest, ponies that fished in the streams. He learned all the little problems of life the ponies had. The land was poor, and had been for a long time, but there was no single grand solution. There were only a hundred tiny ones, little ways to make life better for a few ponies at a time. He ordered bridges built to help travelers because he knew them by name. He had canals built to bring water and trade to the farms that needed it.
The land slowly became green and prosperous, and so did the king. Perhaps it was the exercise. Perhaps it was eating fresh food. Perhaps it was simply because his sorrows were lifted. He no longer sat in a windowless room in the heart of a rotting castle but spent his days among the ponies of his land, and all of them were better for it.
“What does it mean?” Ruby asked.
“The ruler and the land are connected,” Shahrazad explained. “If a ruler loves their land, then like any garden it blossoms. If they do not, the land withers.”
“It’s true,” I agreed. “It’s not literally the power of love--”
“Except in the Crystal Empire,” Shahrazad added.
“Except there,” I said, nodding. “But rulers that make sacrifices for the betterment of their land and work to make it a better place are the best kind of ruler. Princess Celestia spends hours every day just listening to the problems of the ponies who come to see her. She cares enough to make the world happier.”
“And that’s why Equestria is okay even with all the monster attacks?” Ruby asked.
“That and monsters in Equestria usually end up having a really bad time because of ponies like me,” I said. “Sounds like the one here must have gotten away with it.”
“Do you want to hunt it down?” Ruby asked, sounding way too excited about the idea of running around the mountains looking for some kind of beast.
I gave her head a soft pat. “The trail’s a little cold by now.”
“It’s strange, though,” Shahrazad said. “Power abhors a vacuum. Even if there was no legitimate ruler, surely someone would have tried to take over?”
“Maybe there’s a curse?” I suggested.
Shahrazad nodded slowly. “Yes… yes. That could explain it. It does seem like the sort of tale that has a curse.”
“We’ve got some time to ask around about it in the morning,” I said. “Do you have enough blankets and pillows for all of us? I don’t care how many cleaning spells we use, I don’t want to try sleeping in the nests that are still around this place.”
I was getting annoyed by the book. I was trying to study history and the words on the page just kept moving around and changing. I couldn’t even put the book back and try another one because the history section wasn’t where I’d left it!
“It isn’t the only thing that became misplaced,” somepony said.
I knew, implicitly, without having to look or read a word, that the books on the shelf in front of me were full of recipes. I could tell the library was massive without seeing a map. I even somehow knew it was getting close to closing time, despite the lack of a clock. The voice didn’t belong. It wasn’t part of the world that I instinctively understood.
“Please, allow me,” the voice said. Somepony tapped my head and-- I was suddenly aware I was dreaming, and the book melted out of my hooves like it was made of wet sand. I looked up at Princess Luna.
“Oh, hey,” I said.
“Hey indeed,” she noted. “You vanished. Again.”
“I didn’t vanish, I left a note!”
Luna raised an eyebrow. One of the bookshelves faded to a pane of black rock, and I could see events play out in the reflection. I scribbled something on a scroll and tossed it at a guard with a request, well, really an order, to deliver it to Celestia.
“You told my sister you were going to take Ruby Drop on a field trip.”
I sighed. “Not my best moment, I know. But I did take her with me! It’s not even all that far. The train even goes here, so it’s… you know. It’s not running away that far.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “I see you are already aware that you have erred. Will you be returning with another tale of wild adventure and a fiancee?”
“No! Well. I mean, Shahrazad is with me and I tried to call things off with her but she still thinks she’s going to marry me at some point and I’m about ninety percent sure that’s just because she thinks she won’t get assassinated as long as she’s politically useful--”
“Mhmm,” Luna intoned, raising an eyebrow. “I’m going to get Sister.”
“Wh-- Celestia?! But--” I frowned. “You can do that?”
“I am the greatest and most powerful alicorn in the world!” Luna declared. “The dream world, I mean.”
“We don’t have to involve her, do we? How about I write a letter?”
Luna rolled her eyes, and a sphere of sunlight and rainbow appeared beside her and popped like a soap bubble. Celestia appeared, looking startled for a moment before she focused on me.
“Sunset!” she grabbed me, pulling me into her chest with her magic. My forehead slammed into her peyral.
“Ow,” I mumbled. “Why did that hurt? I’m asleep.”
“Because I am an artist,” Luna said. “Sister, tell your wayward adopted filly to come home.”
“Sunset, are you in some kind of trouble?” Celestia asked. “Did you overthrow a government? I knew that mare was a bad influence!”
I struggled out of her grip. “I’m not in trouble! I’m not even that far away! I’m just in Griffonstone. I needed to get away from things. And for the record? There’s not even a government here to overthrow.”
“Don’t be silly, Sunset,” Celestia said. “They have a monarchy. The ruler should be King G… Grouter? Grouper? I don’t remember his name.”
“It was King Guto,” I said.
“Right. King Guto.”
“And he’s gone, apparently. The government collapsed. I was going to leave in the morning but there’s something about all this that just bothers me.”
“Of course it does,” Luna said. “You’ve never seen the fall of an empire. I suppose Griffonstone went the way of the Holey Griffon Empire.”
Celestia sighed. “Things change so quickly…”
It was early when the first knocks came on the door. They were sharp and rapid. Not the heavy blows of an authority figure demanding access, but more like when somepony had made the journey out to the old Everfree Castle to visit me. Just being in the old Griffonstone palace was making me think back fondly on a time when the only real stress in my life was figuring out what to eat for dinner.
“Yeah, yeah,” I groaned, getting up and walking to the repaired front gates, pulling the tall doors open as I approached. “If you’re here to yell at us about spending the night--”
An older griffon with balding patches and a look of concern and confusion let himself in, walking right past me and staring at the interior of the castle.
“Of course you ponies would do this,” he grumbled quietly.
“If you want, I can break everything on the way out,” I snapped.
He turned to glare at me. “No one asked you to come here!”
“I didn’t think I needed permission,” I said. Behind me, I was aware of Shahrazad and Ruby Drop waking up.
“That’s what’s wrong with all you ponies! You never think you need permission! You just show up without asking and just start… fixing things!” He fluffed himself up and stormed over to the big empty display plinth in the middle of the room and kicked it. “Ow! I think I twisted my ankle. This is your fault!”
“Feathering--” Gilda rushed into the room, grabbing the older griffon. “I told you not to bother the ponies!”
He tried to shrug her off. “They bothered me first with all their… helpfulness!”
Gilda growled. “This is Grandpa Gruff. He’s even older and more busted than... “ she trailed off and looked around. “Wow. You really just went and made yourselves at home, huh?”
“Did you like it better when it was broken?” I asked.
“No! Don’t be stupid!” Gilda rolled her eyes.
“Do you want some tea?” Ruby Drop asked, rubbing her tired eyes. “I’m gonna make some for Miss Shahrazad and me.”
“Yes,” Grandpa Gruff said instantly.
“Nnnn---” Gilda growled, then sighed. “Yes.”
Ruby nodded and started getting things together, starting up the kettle and producing more teacups from one of the suitcases. Shahrazad helped direct her, quietly explaining the flavors of the various teas she’d brought with her. She was surprisingly good with foals. And everyone, really, as long as she could manipulate them.
We gathered around the short table in the middle of the room. It was the only thing I hadn’t had to repair. Even with all the damage and decay around it, the griffons had left it alone. Grandpa Gruff ran a talon over the surface carefully, with a distant look in his eyes.
“Have you heard the tragedy of King Guto the Terrible?” Grandpa Gruff asked. He looked at our confused faces and nodded to himself. “I thought not. It’s not a story my idiot granddaughter would tell you correctly.”
“Hey! First, we’re not related! And second, I told them already!” Gilda sat back, folding her talons. “Monster attack, useless bird on the throne, everything’s bad forever. The end.”
“See? You didn’t tell it right!” Gruff snapped, pointing at her accusingly. “These ponies are going to leave thinking we just rolled over for some monster and gave up!”
Gilda stood up, puffing out her chest. “Because that’s exactly what happened!”
“I’ll tell you ponies what really happened!” Grandpa Gruff said. He leaned over the makeshift table, looking at us with the kind of evil intent I usually only saw playing poker against Fluttershy and her rabbit. That thing was a card shark.
“I do still like stories,” Ruby Drop said. “But I have to warn you -- Miss Shahrazad is the best at stories, so I have a very high standard.” She put teacups on the table in front of us, settling down next to me.
“I am the best,” Shahrazad agreed.
Grandpa Gruff coughed and held out a talon. I rolled my eyes and dropped a few bits into his grasp. They vanished so quickly I almost tried giving him more just to watch the old bird scramble.
“It all started with Griffonstone’s first king, King Grover. He was handsome, brave, strong, a lot like me, in fact. He united all the griffons and brought us together around a symbol we could all be proud of, the Idol of Boreas!”
Gildra rolled her eyes again and shook her head. “Ancient history, Grandpa.”
“It’s important to know where you came from before you get to where you are!” the older griffon yelled. “It was the symbol of Griffonstone, something all of us could look up to in pride. Did I ever tell you I saw it once when I was a chick?”
“Yes. Every day. Every feathering day!”
“Everything was great until the fourteenth king took the throne. King Guto. I had a good sense for birds, and I could tell right away that I didn’t like the look of him!”
“You were a toddler. You still had down instead of feathers!”
“I was very mature and wise for my age,” Gruff said firmly. “And I was right! Because one night, a monster named Arimaspi came to steal the Idol! He smashed right through the guards and stole the Idol. Not that he got far. Even the heavens were offended by his act, and lightning struck the beast when it tried to cross the bridge out of town, sending it tumbling into the Abysmal Abyss! The monster and the idol were lost forever, and on that day, we lost all of our pride. Griffonstone collapsed into sorrow and ennui.”
“That’s so sad!” Ruby said.
“It’s not that sad,” Gilda mumbled.
“It means I won’t get to see Miss Sunset blast a monster!”
Gilda evaluated that for a moment. “You know actually I wouldn’t mind seeing a monster get thrashed but yeah, you’re outta luck. And Grandpa Gruff’s little story leaves out all the important stuff!”
“I told the story correctly!” Gruff grumbled.
“Except for the part where you explain why losing the Idol was so bad,” Gilda said.
“Oh not this again,” Gruff hissed.
“What this plucked turkey didn’t say is that no one in Griffonstone used to use bits. They all used to use Talons, but you know what? The value of Talons was backed by the Idol of Boreas! Every Talon was like owning a tiny bit of the Idol, and when it was lost…”
“The currency became worthless?” I guessed. “But why would the money be backed by a single artifact? That seems really…”
“Really stupid? Yeah! So when it got stolen, the whole economy collapsed!” Gilda yelled. “No one wanted Talons, so we all switched to Bits. You can use them practically anywhere and if you get enough, you can get out of this dump.” She sighed. “At least for a while.”
“I get that, but why would it matter? A lot of currencies aren’t really backed by anything.” I said. “There’s no huge pile of gems and gold that sets the value of a Bit.”
“It’s based on Princess Celestia,” Gruff said.
Gilda nodded in agreement.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, starting to get angry.
“Oh beloved, even I know this,” Shahrazad sighed. “Long ago, in the early days of her rule, Princess Celestia came upon a small tavern--”
“Skip to the end,” I said.
Shahrazad whined and looked away. “One does not refuse the money of an immortal that could end the world were she so inclined.”
“Equestria’s economy is not backed by the threat of magical annihilation!”
Everypony looked at me. Ruby Drop shrugged.
“Dangit,” I mumbled. “Maybe it is.”
“So this Idol of Boreas,” Shahrazad said. “It had magical powers? Perhaps some kind of terrible curse that makes it impossible to recover?”
Grandpa Gruff shrugged. “How should I know?!”
“I assumed if it was truly so valuable, someone would have at least made an attempt to retrieve it,” Shahrazad said. “Is your pride so worthless that you cannot even bear the burden of fetching it from where it had fallen into a hole?”
“You really don’t know anything about the Abysmal Abyss?” Gilda said. “Ugh. I thought if any dweebs came up here to bother us they’d at least read a book first. Ponies love reading books.”
I flicked a bit at her. It hit her in the beak and dropped on the table.
“So tell us about it,” I said.
Gilda said something very rude under her breath and snatched up the bit. “You do that again and I’ll do something you’ll regret.”
“Noted,” I said.
“Come on,” Gilda said, getting up. “I’ll show you.”
I looked down at the deepest hole I’d ever seen, and I’d dug myself some doozies. A blast of wind hit me in the face then immediately changed direction like it was trying to suck me down into the void. Standing at the edge of the broken bridge was probably stupid bravado, but I wasn’t going to back down right away and look weak.
“Are the winds always like that?” I had to raise my voice to be heard over the explosive force of the cyclone.
“Yeah,” Gilda said, she shielded her eyes with one talon. “It’s impossible to fly down there! Even getting close is dangerous!”
“I can see why you never got the Idol back!”
“Hey, if you want to jump in and look around, there’s no law against it!”
“What about at ground level?” I asked. “Is there any way to get in there at the bottom?”
“You wish. Actually, all of us wish! We never found a bottom. As far as we know it just goes forever!”
I could see why she’d think that. There wasn’t even a suggestion of a bottom. It just went down into shadow that seemed to stretch on forever, like the sun wasn’t welcome. I cast a simple light spell and tossed it down. The ball of light fell, ignoring the winds, and just kept falling. Even at the edge of my casting range, I couldn’t see any kind of floor. I dispelled the light and turned back, taking a few more steps from the edge.
“Definitely not going down there,” I said. I stopped and looked around. From the edge here, I had a good look at all of Griffonstone. “I guess I can see why griffons would want to leave.”
Gilda glanced around us, then sighed and sat down next to me. “Yeah. The only griffons here are the ones that don’t have somewhere else to go. Anybird with talent or money left and never looked back. Just a bunch of dweebs and losers now…”
“So are you a dweeb or a loser?” I joked.
The griffon scoffed. “I’m great. I just… came back temporarily. Until I can figure out how to land on my paws.”
“I’ve been temporarily embarrassed before,” I said. “This is like, the second or third time I’ve run away from everything instead of dealing with it.”
“Let me guess, some kind of dumb pony friendship problem?”
I grimaced. “Yeah. Basically.”
“You want some advice?”
“How much will it cost?”
Gilda held out a talon. She probably wouldn’t have bothered if I hadn’t asked. I dropped a bit into her grasp. “Running away sucks eggs. You shouldn’t do it.”
“Wow, I can’t imagine what kind of wisdom two bits would have bought me.”
“No refunds,” she said. “Why did you run, anyway? You fixed that whole castle in like, a couple hours. It’s the kind of thing only a pony would do, but I guess it’s pretty impressive for a dweeb like you. None of the unicorns I ever met could do that.”
“...I always end up feeling second-best,” I said quietly. “I get jealous really easily because any time one of my friends gets anything, all I can think is ‘that should have been me.’” I shrugged. “And then I mope around for a while and avoid them because I’m not happy for them even though I should be. I usually have to find some kind of big monster and thrash it before I feel better.”
“Huh.” Gilda said. “That sucks.”
“Thanks for the emotional support.”
“What do you expect? We’re not friends. I had a pony friend, once.”
“Did you eat her?”
“I’d never eat Dash!” Gilda snapped, horrified. She recovered quickly, looking away and trying to look angry I’d even asked. “I mean… griffons don’t do that kind of thing, duh!”
“Dash?” I frowned. “Wait, you don’t mean Rainbow Dash, do you?”
Gilda froze, the feathers on the back of her neck ruffling like she was afraid of being bitten.
“You know her?” she asked, trying to sound casual even though her body language looked like a spooked rabbit.
“Rainbow ‘always talking about the Wonderbolts’ Dash?” I replied. “Who claims being short makes her more aerodynamic but still makes a point of always hovering because she hates ponies looking down at her?”
“That’s the one,” Gilda groaned.
“Small world,” I shrugged. “She did mention she knew a griffon, come to think of it…”
“Yeah well, we had a falling out, okay? So don’t mention me to her. She turned into a dweeb and… I ended up back here.”
“Temporarily embarrassed,” I suggested.
“Right,” Gilda mumbled.
“Wanna talk about literally anything else?” I asked.
“Yes!”
“How about you show me where you live?”
Gilda narrowed her eyes. “I don’t date ponies.”
“You’re not my type, either. I was going to repair your house if it’s in the same sorry state as the rest of this mess, as payment for showing me around.”
Despite having a very limited range of expressions with that beak in the way, I could still read Gilda like a book. She was trying to figure out if I was tricking her. And now she was looking at the rest of Griffonstone, trying to decide if the other griffons would think she was weak for accepting help from a pony and doing some kind of basic upkeep on her property. The clouds above us -- but not all that far above us, with how high Griffonstone was in the mountains -- rumbled, and even I could feel a storm coming in.
“Think you can patch the roof before the rain starts?” she asked.