“Gilda, I’m talking to you!” The griffin snapped back to attention as fast as she could in a hull history class. Some of her peers stared at her at her, some even dared to smile as they held in their laughs. For those who did, she showed them her talons and gave a sadistic smile. They gave an audible gulp and went back scribbling on their papers. “Now Gilda if you please, answer the question.”
“Uhhh…” She started looking around the room to try and find some sort of clue. From the black chalkboard, to the death stare the grey pony gave her, to some of the Junior Flyers’ papers. “Uh, could you repeat the question?” The whole class roared in laughter. The teacher however was not as amused.
“Typical answer coming from a griffin. And they told me you were gifted.” She paused and looked around the room for her next victim. “Now, Rainbow Dash if you could answer-”
“I’d hate to break it to ya Ms. Chalk… Er-”
“It’s Chalk Dust!” She stamped her hoof down in frustration.
“Yeah, whatever. Point is I study probably as much as she does.” She explained, pointing a hoof in Gilda’s direction. The teacher held her hoof to her forehead, asking herself why she was teaching a history class for wanna be wonderbolts.
“And why would that be Rainbow Dash?”
“Surely you heard of the time that I did a sonic rainboom before!” She got up from her seat and started to fly around the room, exploding with excitement. “I, Rainbow Dash, am the best flyer in all of Equestria! Who needs to learn history when I’m a living legend and future Wonderbolt? Why, they would see my speed and probably accept me in an instant!” The teacher held up a ruler just in time for Rainbow Dash to smack right into it. She fell straight to the ground, rubbing her hoof to her face.
“Need I remind you that to get into the Wonderbolts’ Academy, you must have decent grades? In your case, passing.” She gave a long stare at the pastel blue pegasus. “An inflated ego won’t get you to the top. Go back to your seat now.”
Dash gave a nervous laugh before walking to the back of the room. The teacher piped up once more, “Can anyone answer the question! So help me Celestia if I don’t get...”
“Show off.” Gilda gave Rainbow Dash the hushed remark. She stopped in her tracks and gave a villainous look.
“It’s not showing off if you back it up.” She returned, a smug smile inching up her face.
“Ha, please. I could beat you in a race even if I had both wings tied behind my back.”
“Oh, and what makes you so sure?” Dash got a bit closer.
“Griffins are the best. Flyers. Ever. Period. No pony has ever gotten close to beating my kind.” Gilda went nose to nose, locking eye contact. Ponies around them started to look at the two.
“Oh really? Then what about the Equestria Games since, I dunno, forever?”
“Do I really have to split you two up?” Chalk Dust came trotting up the aisle.
“Oh you know those are rigged for you to win. We don’t even try.” Gilda slouched back in her seat, examining her right claw while putting her other arm on the back of the seat. The class started softly chanting, “Race, race, race.”
“Really? I bet you can’t prove it.” She tossed her mane and looked away for a moment, slipping the words, “Because Griffins are so slow, they would get third place in a two pony race.” Gilda thought it wasn’t a good dis, but when the entire class gave a round of oooohhhhs so she had to get up from her seat. Chalk Dust stood between the two just in time.
“Sit back down, NOW!” She commanded, but the fire inside Gilda prevented her from caring. The rainbow maned pegasus gave a sly smile which only helped to stoke the flame.
“You. Me. Race at 5. Behind the officer’s tent.”
“Can’t wait to win again.”
“Both of you return to your seats this instant!” The teacher yelled over the cheers of the other Junior Flyers. “The rest of the class shut your muzzles right now!” The chaos slowly ended as Rainbow Dash took her seat, slouching back in the same cool manner Gilda did previously. Gilda also sat back down, despite her longing to injure that narcissist. Chalk Dust took back her usual position at the front of the class, trying hard not to imagine a chimera eating up the whole class so she could go on her trip to Los Pegasus.
“Now, back to the question. The reason that the griffins lost the 25 year’s war was due to a plethora of things. The great strategic planning from Celestia is one factor to be noted, but the most prevalent variable was the amount of soldiers ponies had at the time. The reason for this was because, what?” Gilda raised her claw in response. ”Ah, you aren’t sleeping? I’m surprised.”
“Let me answer your question with another question. How are months and Rainbow Dash’s half mile sprint similar?”
“Oh for the love of-”
“They both are measured by calendars.” The teacher walked out of the room as the rest of the students went wild. The two competitors glared at each other and giving a toothy grin.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Don’t you understand what this is?” Kerri was careful to pick up the book. “This-this is the real history of The Griffin Kingdom! The real thing that happened during and before the 25 Year’s War. This is simply incredible! I can’t even imagine-”
“Now wait, how do you know that this is the absolute truth?”
“The same reason that I know that whatever history books we have now are not true.” She put the book back down on the pedestal and started pacing around the dimly-lit room. “You see, they there was a massive libricide.”
“They? Who’s they and what is a libricide?”
“It’s a book burning and it was enforced by the Equestrian Empire. Didn’t you learn that in history?” Kerri looked at her sister who looked back at her.
“Pft, I didn’t go to school to learn, it was all about flying.”
“Oh, uh right.” Kerri went back to pacing, increasing her speed by how fast she was talking “There was a mass libricide 25 years after the war. The explanation was very vague as to why they were doing this, but if you were caught having one of these banned books you would be locked away for a very long time or executed. They claimed that the past was all false and was biased against ponies, and now this!” She pointed at the book as if it were some sort of monster. “This is from before, and we could get in a bunch of trouble, and we can’t-”
“Sis, stop for a moment.” Gilda rested her claws on Kerri’s shoulder. She stopped moving up and down the stone floor and returned to a normal breathing pattern. “You are getting worked up over a book. Trust me, no griffin and no pony will find this book.” Kerri looked up at her sister.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s been down here for 350 years and-”
“So what’s inside of it? We haven’t even opened any of the pages yet.”
“Oh yeah! I guess that’s kind of important.” Kerri walked back up the pedestal that held the ancient texts. She gulped, thinking a scorpion or something was hidden within as a trap to make sure no griffin ever opens the document ever again. Reluctantly and carefully she opened the cover ever so slightly to reveal the first page.
“What’s it say?” Gilda started to walk up to it.
“The Complete History of the Griffin Kingdom, and the Tyranny of Equestria. Duh.” She turned to the next page which held the table of contents. The names in red ink read name like, “What We Thought was the End” and “25 Year’s Scorn”. The first chapters caught her eye though. It was full of pre-war history from, “The Earliest Years of Griffin-kind” to “The Great Compromise and Violation.”
“There! We should start there! Maybe it has details about who actually started the war and broke the truce between the kingdoms. Oh this is so excellent!”
Gilda gave the snide remark, “Woah, when did you become such a nerd?”
“I prefer the term intelligent.” She shot back. “Besides, what else do you think I do all day? I can only clean a dirt floor so well. Oh! I’m turning the pages and they smell like an elder’s house!” Gilda turned away, looking back at the entrance to make sure that the coast was clear. They would be in massive trouble if anyone caught them, even though Gilda is hailed as a hero. A griffin’s got to eat, and if someone is turned in for obtaining a banned book, they get to live in an athlete’s home with an athlete’s pay until death. Then a screech rang through the cave. Gilda turned around to see Kerri once again stumbling backwards, her eyes wide in disbelief.
“Hey, shut up it’s just a-“
“An empty book.” She finished the sentence. She looked back up at her sister. “Gilda the book is empty. The whole book is empty. THE WHOLE BOOK IS EMPTY!”
“What?” The older sister went back to check the empty pages of what was thought to be a full book. Old pages were all that remained, as if the ink ran away from the paper. She opened and closed the book again; just to make sure she wasn’t being fooled or if there was any magic used on it. Setting it back down, Gilda took two steps back. Kerri brushed up beside her.
“There’s just no way. How... what the-“
“What the hell!” Kerri filled with rage and stepped back towards the pedestal. “We were supposed to go free! This was our salvation!” She grabbed hold of the brittle binding, and dug her claws through the delicate white pages. She threw the book towards the end of the cave, narrowly missing Gilda who was in shock that her sister could be this angry. She then proceeded to stare at the grey floor, chest puffed out and shoulders squared.
“What did you do that for?”
“Gilda, I don’t want to hear it right now, please leave me.”
“Kerri you just torn up old documents, ancient texts-“
“The only ancient texts in that book were the chapter names and the title of the book! And since when have you become interested in the books or even me?” The younger sister glared straight at Gilda. “You never paid attention, you were always worried about flying and going to be an athlete but you dashed those dreams because your pride got in the way didn’t it?”
“You take that-“
“And another thing, you never appreciate what little we have, and you expect more. Maybe Dad is right. Maybe you did blow it!” She walked closer and closer. “We could have had all that you ever wanted and we wouldn’t be stuck in the hole that only gets deeper. Athletes may be assholes, but they could never compare to you!” At that point, Kerri got too close both physically and emotionally. Gilda swiped at her sister’s face. Orange feathers and blood dropped to the floor. There was a moment of silence, and then a scream of pain.
“I thought I loved you.” Escaped Gilda’s beak as she flew out of the cave; leaving her sister to bleed on her own.
The cut went from her left cheek down to her beak. Crimson beads fell off the tip of her mouth unto the ancient texts. She applied pressure to her wound, trying to allow the cut to clot. She sat down on the cold floor, a tear shedding from her eye, wanting to disappear forever. I can’t even pretend it was better for her. Kerri rested her head on the book. A feeling of regret welled up inside her. Gilda has been carrying alot of baggage for a long time, it’s not my place to add more to her pile. She knew she would eventually return home, and face her only true friend who now would never want to see her face again. Closing her eyes, she listened to the waves crash against the rocky wall and wishing she could the same. She let her emotions get the best of her all over a stupid book and she took it out on the wrong person.
She quickly wiped away the tears and got up from the book which was stained with blood. But the stains were forming in strange symbols, almost like-
“Impossible!” Kerri opened the book to the first blank page after the table of contents. Letters and hieroglyphics began to form, red in color. She started to flip through page after page, each containing more words and pictures meaning words, but only showed up when there was a presence of blood. Kerri let go of her wound and started to let the blood drip onto each page, magically creating the ancient text that was to be expected. Eyes wide and mouth agape, she couldn’t believe what was happening before her very eyes. Insensible yes, but a step in the right direction! She jumped and smiled, ready to tell her sister.
But would she care. Wouldn’t it be best to keep this to herself? No, not after she was the reason I came to this cave in the first place. I wouldn’t have tripped on that rock otherwise. If she wouldn’t have cut me, then I would have never found out how to activate the scripts; she has every right to know about this! But first, I have to finish up the pages.
Page after page, she bled out the writings, determined to solve this mystery no matter the cost. She knew this was going to be for the greater good, maybe even restoring the former glory of the griffin kingdom! There wouldn’t be slave labor, and there may even be room to create artisan jobs like professors, metal workers, and hopefully writers. She couldn’t stop thinking about the idea that she may become a writer some day, creating a loving culture out of oppression.
After some time daydreaming, she came upon the last page. Her cut seemed to close itself so she reopened it, letting the blood drip on the page, forming a readable language in between the tares in the book. What? Kerri waited until the letters were evenly distributed to reveal cursive writing.
Recipe for a delicious breakfast,
Main Dish: Fruit Kolash, preferably peach-apple tart
Side Dish: Toast, Flavored with Yam butter W/sugar
Drink: Whatever you want to Drink.
If you experience nausea, carrots and turnips easily remedy all of the symptoms. When preparing, make an evaluation; adherents always tell the principle understanding of how you did on your piece of work. And know this, ponies yearn; live intently loving great food. The audience, not yourself, is the most important. Always remember this.