The Mountain People
I need to be honest with myself and clearly say that this is a pretty underwhelming place, considering the fantastical creatures that inhabit this settlement.
Can’t say I’ve been able to see creatures that have two sides that are from completely different animal families. I mean… they are clearly avians from the front, but then you have the mammalian side behind…
I’m not an expert on genetics, I can’t see things that small after all, but I can look at these creatures and say without a doubt that they are an impossibility. Just thinking of the many incompatible genetics makes my head spin!
We approached the settlement slowly and some of the guards went ahead of us in order to keep the creatures calm… or as calm as they can be, because I’m seeing some of them getting quite rowdy.
“The griffons are not as compassionate as the Yaks, even if they share some penchant for violence. Sadly this is usually directed towards others,” Luna said, suddenly appearing at my side and almost surprising me.
“I can see that, dear. They remind me of the peoples that used to live back in what we call the medieval times,” I said -getting a questioning look from young Luna- so I decided to continue, “It was a time when iron and forge were the staple for all the economies and wars ravaged all across the land using the tools created with them. Petty kingdoms and empires sprawled over the land and they appeared and rose as quickly as they eventually fell.”
“I can see the similarities. They were once a proud kingdom as prosperous as Equestria, but by my sister’s accounts it seems that they were driven by a virtuous monarchy that lost all their power and prestige when a relic was stolen from them. Apparently it was the only thing that legitimized their power over the rest of the griffons, and without that…” Luna explained as she sagged a bit, “they just fell for their most base desires. Truly a sad ending to one of our past allies. I still remember the times me and my sister attended to the courts of the high king of Gryphos…”
“But I thought this was called Griffonstone?”
“Ah, but we are both right. This is now called Griffonstone, but back in my day we knew it as Gryphos. As with many other things, time changed the name of this place,” she said while scrutinizing everything around us, “I find disturbing the state of the once proud capital. Everything is almost run down to the ground…”
“It happens sometimes, dear…” I told her, trying to comfort the poor filly in some way, “Thankfully it will remain that way in your memories, and as long as you don’t forget them they will never fade away completely,” I told her, getting a small smile out of the young alicorn.
“You are right. Can’t argue with that… it is still hard to see it this way.”
“Let’s change the subject then, we will worry about that later. So… tell me about this griffons.”
“What do you want to know?” she simply stated.
“Well… how come they are part avian and part mammalian?” I asked, getting an awkward laugh out of her.
“Question of the millennium there, Gaia. We can’t even start to fathom where they came from. They predated the Discordian Era, so we know for sure that they weren’t created like other chimeras that roam the wilderness. Still, they behave much like one if left without a proper education.”
“That’s hardly enough to say that they are like roaming monsters, dear. That’s a bit harsh, even for you,” I told her, finding a bit surprising that she thinks like that, “Anyone without the teachings of society will turn like an animal, wild and untamed. Instincts are ingrained deep within the brain and when you can only rely on yourself they take command. Survival above anything else.”
“…I never thought about that. Ponies don’t survive on their own without learning the skills beforehoof. At least we don’t know of any proven case so far,” Luna elaborated, putting one of her famous troubled looks on.
“Even herbivores can survive on their own, given that they do not fall to predators. If other prey species exists that it’s easier to hunt so it can be left alone, a single individual can survive indefinitely if the mental state doesn’t deteriorate much,” I told her as I was reminiscing about the times of the great dinos back home. Some of them roamed alone until they answered the call of reproduction! Not the norm with all of them of course, but there are still some animals that behave that way alive and well.
“It may be so, but I need to remind you Gaia that some things don’t apply here, even if we don’t exactly know why at the moment,” Luna said, promptly leaving me without the metaphorical wind under my wings.
“Oh poo, you are not fun,” I maturely replied before ruffling my wings a bit. Boy I wanted to get out of this wooden thing now, “How much before we land? I can’t wait to take a look around. As sad as it looks at least it has a strange way to make itself unique. Can’t say I’ve seen many condemned but still inhabited cities like this one!”
“It shouldn’t take very long now. I think we’ve already paid all the toll taxes, even the false ones, and we should get out of the airship soon.”
“False ones? Are these people robbing you?” I asked, curious about the social dynamic between these two species. Luna just shrugged with her wings as if not really interested about the fact they were losing money.
“Griffons are greedy and they want all the money they can get, and while we can repel them if needed I find easier to act like hard to get and then give them what they want. They’ll leave us alone once they’ve got what they wanted,” she explained as we saw one of these transactions happen just besides the airship.
Honestly, I don’t know how to feel about that.
Despite the optimistic expectations from Gaia the lukewarm reception form the griffons was hardly a surprise for Luna.
Many ill-willed looks were received and a lot of shady deals were offered by the most unscrupulous griffons around, but they were quickly routed out of their way.
Gaia was not enjoying much this stop herself, if her pensive look and uncharacteristic quietness was of any indication. Luna and Twilight had tried to get her to talk, but just received non-committed responses from her. Luckily they found a small group of griffons that were more open to some light questions and curiosity from Gaia, so that gave the equestrians a brief respite from the unwanted tension around them.
“I wonder how they managed to fall so low… They used to be prideful but noble, and now they only fight for scraps…” Luna muttered to herself as Gaia was, for the first time since they arrived, having a good time, “Did everypony… everyone ignore their plight?”
“I am not sure. Not even the history books know exactly about the fall of Gryphos beyond the Idol of Boreas… like many other things they seem to be missing as well,” Twilight Sparkle said in a measured tone, walking slowly towards the lunar princess, “I had my views challenged for a week and lately I’m finding our historical documents regarding our neighboring nations to be unreliable at best… I hate to think that some books aren't as accurate as I thought,” she grumbled, getting a raised eyebrow from her fellow princess, “Don’t get me wrong, I know that knowledge is to be challenged and many revisions have been done to older books to incorporate new discoveries and whatnot… it’s just that the information we had were from those revised editions…”
“Could it be that this information has been edited out?” Luna asked, always suspicious of the deals that usually happened during her precious night.
“No, I’m sure it’s a fault of ignorance. I’ve read most revisions of History of Equestria and I can assure you that the authors and editors have been consistent with the information that was already in the tomes,” she succinctly said as she looked around, “It just seems that ponies found… not important to talk about the other species and they just… fell into obscurity.”
“Sadly that is a hard truth if ever was one. Even the once friend nation of the Hipogriffs is silent to our emissaries… and I’m sure that you know everything about my night ponies already,” Princess Luna said as she exhaled, looking at the curious young griffins approaching Gaia without the look of greed of the adults observing them, “It appears that centuries of prosperity have left our ponies content with their lives inside the nation, not wanting to know what’s outside. We’ve stagnated in more ways that you can imagine,” the dark princess stated, leaving Twilight unsure of her words.
“What do you mean? Magic and technology have advanced leaps and bounds from your own time! We now have steam-powered machines, and many of our creations are also powered by magical batteries in a new field called the magitech, by popular adoption of the term I might add. We are not adventurers, sure, but when were we?” Twilight defended as she numbered the most significant discoveries of the last millennium.
“You can point those out of more than a thousand years? You dears sure are relaxed with your science, but if we compare the absolute stagnation of your neighbors so far I suppose you can think yourselves as the fastest-advancing nation on the world,” suddenly the voice of Gaia said, appearing from behind both mares without any of them noticing.
“G-Gaia! H-How?” Twilight tried to ask before doing a fake cough as if clearing her throat, “I mean- I DO think we are the most advanced nation so far and I don’t say it with arrogance but with proof. One of the main exports of Equestria is in fact technology that later is-“
“I didn’t say that, dear. I said exactly want I wanted to say,” she simply stated with a motherly smile on her muzzle, confusing Twilight even more,
“But you said-“
“She said that compared to other nations we could be considered fast researchers. Never questioned our technological level,” Luna replied, getting a slow nod from Gaia.
“Very good! Now don’t take my words for granted, but so far you don’t know much about your distant past so we don’t have a proper scale…”
“My mom was once a chick like me. Is that much deeztunt?” suddenly a griffon young said between Gaia’s mane while at some distance an indignant ‘Oi!’ could be heard as well.
“Sure is my fluffy boy, but let me talk now, ok?” she said to the griffon that was now giggling like mad.
“Gaia…”
“As I was saying, you don’t know your distant past, but we know ours and even from several inhabited planets. In one of those they discovered fire roughly five hundred thousand years before they were able to use steam engines… but they developed flying machines heavier than air in the span of a few decades. You still use those older machines, just look at the airship we came in! How long has been since you ponies discovered the steam engine?” Gaia explained as she pressed the bookish princess.
“… Two hundred years at most...” she reluctantly admitted.
“And there’s my point. You should be able to split atoms and you just enjoy rides in steam trains,” Gaia said as she ruffled her wings, getting the young griffon to laugh. That last sentence threw Twilight out of the loop, while some strands of hair snapped out of her mane.
“You can hardly compare us with your societies, Gaia. We had to go on our own while we were without guidance before the princesses came to us in our time of need,” Twilight morosely stated, getting Gaia to ruffle her mane.
“Aw, don’t be like that. I wasn’t comparing my children with you anyway. Just some primates we saw along the way.”
“…You were not? Then compared to your children how do we fare?” Luna asked, bracing herself for the absurd response she was going to get for sure.
“Oh, they discovered fire and then over six thousand years later were already leaving the planet. Neat, right? They make me so proud!”
And there it was. ‘Luckily Twilight seemed prepared for-there she goes’ Luna thought as the lavender princess just fell down, stiff as a table.
“Oh dear, I think she got cramps all over her body. Is she eating enough potassium? I think I saw some bananas aboard. Let me get them for you, Luna. Honestly, I swear you ponies have the worst eating habits!”
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
1,047 users online
298,407 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Nope, hooves off those bananas, they're spoken for!
Only 6000 years from Prometheus to Phoenix? Someone sure was desperate.
Is the part about relic a reference to the fic called "The Griffons Rise", or is it canon? I honestly don't know, as i stopped watching the show after the 4th season and never managed to get back.
Hey, cake is perfectly good diet!
Twilight.exe has experienced a fatal error please reboot your princess and run a diagnostic.
9502524
yupp its a Season 5 episode where its mentioned i think 8 or 9
good story but they are pretty bad bakers it seems ^^
If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?
9502524
Nah, the Griffons canonically had this relic and it dropped down a ravine when monster/beast/creature tried to steal it, only to fall from the rope bridge to his death while still holding it.
You can still find the relic and the skull of the thief if you manage to brave the strong winds that prevent flight down there.
9502524
The relic is cannon and seen in the show on the episode it is mentioned in... and promptly lost forever.
just wondering when gaia will learn the idol is still there and just fly down to get it
Might not be as accurate as I thought
This chapter is why we love you Gaia.
9502626
The almighty plot device that ended all the plots containing it.
It is not that ponies are better than other races it is just that other races do not have a sun moving princess to protect them from all disasters.
Basicly the ponies are in easy mode and the other races are in normal.
I’ve always found it interesting how the existence of magic makes authors assume science would fall by wayside.
Congratulations, Gaia. You broke Twilight.
dinos?
Given how lopsided the tech development in Equestria was, I always assumed that Celestia was quietly stealing textbooks from the Equestria Girls universe.
9502626
Maaaaagic.
9502951
And how do we know that? sure, they don't have a sun moving princess, but in cannon we didn't see much of the outside world. I could guess for example that Queen Novo could take care of the tides, and while Queen Chrysalis leave too much... we don't know if there is a semi-god being in other races that was not mentioned. Just look at Discord, he is not a pony.
You mention a species of primates who advances tech relatively quickly that given the same timeframe ponies have they've reached the atomic age.
It kinda makes me imagine if the 'Gaia' of humanity met this Gaia, would they get along?
Heck, humor this idea: The Trilobites come from SimEarth but the humans are playing Civ....while the ponies play Cities:Skylines
9503679
As long as the minotaurs or one of the other nations of Equus aren't playing one of the Total War games. :D
"I hate to think that some books as accurate as I thought"
Missing word(s)?
9502547
Your right they need more variety than cake! Banana Bread, Banana Cream Pie, Banana Muffins, Banana split, banana smoothies. Celestia should demand a proper diet per Gaia's recommendations!
9503191
Again
I feel simultaneously insulted and complimented.
To be fair the train simply run by magic considering have you ever seen a cool car attached to the friendship express ever. That and the technology span is really weird. We seen everything from hydroelectric dams and electric lightbulbs. I mean really the ponies just don’t have a desire to get into space. May I remind you why the space race happened was because of the foreign nation fear
Depressed