4/23/78
Steadclaw,
Harmony told me I should try to get a hold of you again, so… hi. I don’t really know what to say to you.
I’m not expecting to hear back from you, but screw it, may as well try.
Cotton
6/4/78
Steadclaw,
I bet you don’t remember what yesterday was.
We’re hosting in the castle ballroom tomorrow. Most of the girls in our my class gave me affirmative RSVPs. So did the cousins and my buddies from Central. It’s going to be awesome.
I realize I never found out when your birthday is was. Has to have been before mine since we never talked about it before you left or during our other letters.
Cotton
6/27/78
Steadclaw,
Finals finished on Friday. Aunt Twilight helped me and the girls study again. I’m officially a graduate.
I decided not to go to college. Aunt Twilight’s pretty upset about that. I’m starting an apprenticeship with one of the local bakers next month instead. Took some serious effort to get that gig.
Gem hosted a graduation party yesterday and invited everyone in the class. Yeah, even me. Party got broken up, though—Novamac led the charge. He caught me having ONE drink and told my dad. Dad grounded me for a month. Figures.
7/4/78
Steadclaw,
My apprenticeship starts tomorrow. Not sure how it’s gonna go down, but I have to get up pretty damn early. Then I have to go straight home afterward since I’m grounded. Yay.
Let’s see how I do on my first day.
7/23/78
Steadclaw,
First couple of weeks have been pretty good. Mr. Cookie Cutter is pretty firm, and he makes me stay in the back to keep baking, but otherwise it isn’t that bad.
Grounding is almost over. Geez, this month felt like a year.
8/6/78
Steadclaw,
I don’t know if I can do this anymore. I know I said I was done, but I thought that sending you more letters to fill you in on what’s going on would make it feel like you were still writing. I thought it would make me feel better.
It doesn’t.
Daddy asked me again why I was bothering to send you letters. I usually just shrugged and he’d send them anyway. I guess he won’t be asking again, because I’m not writing again.
Goodbye.
8/17/78
Steadclaw,
I heard a customer ordering a cookie platter today, saying something about ‘celebrating a pony’s life instead of moping around like everypony else usually does.’ I wasn’t sure what they meant at first, but a little while later I figured it out and it got me thinking.
I wasn’t sure if you were really serious in that last letter you wrote, but when I didn’t hear from you for a long time, I figured you were. Despite that, I thought that after a few months you might change your mind and decide to finally respond to my letters, but you still haven’t. After I heard that customer, though, I realized there might be another reason I’m not getting any letters from you.
Are… are you dead?
Oh no... no, please no...
At this point , I kinda hope that he died , because it would be a wonderfully tragic narrative.
I just imagined him being injured in the mine and writing her that letter to get her to move on without telling her that he is dying... Or him being dead straight up and Gilda writting that last letter pretending to be him (I have seen a movie with that idea before...)
okay i'm calling it gilda or his mother found out what he did and kicked him out.
My bet is that some ultra-nationalist gryphons discovered he was a "pony lover" and threatened his family unless he broke ties. Now mail in and out of Gryphonstone is being censored - especially to Canterlot Castle. The heavy mining and military recruitment is obviously a sign they're preparing for war, and they don't want any information leaking.
9456022
Can see this being a thing. The strange acts of Steady's workers (going from somewhat helpful and social, to actively shunning him); him and his family being known "pony-lovers"; his mom having a steady decline in sells (despite Gilda having revived the famous Griffon Scones, and started the path towards bettering / revolutionizing Griffon Culture); his Grandmother not at all subtly keeping on telling him to get the fk out of Griffonstone, and to Canterlot; the strange increase on Military Growth, and steel production (which most never really saw its way to the nations infrastructure).
I can totally see that.
9455900
9455907
I agree with both statements. Hope to Best Princess (Sunset Shimmer) that Steady and family are simply detained for being pony sympathizers / The Chroniclers' theory. Rather than him being dead.
9456078
9456022
It really does smell of some sort of military build up, and that something has happened to Steadclaw and his family. The fact they were slowly being shunned spoke volumes, not to mention the increased military and mining.
I can foresee a very angry Dragon and three Princesses in the near future, not to mention a very angry Discord.
We're at war with the Griffins they attacked Manehatten
damn I'm in the Air Force
you are the air force
Here comes the brut squad
You are the brut squad
I'm a weapon of mass destruction
can't top that
the ghost of Rarity compels you! with fashion!
Goddamn it, stop breaking my heart.
You're killing us with the wait.
9456135
One can only hope at a those three angrily charging the gates. Wasn't it mentioned earlier in the story that Luna was miffed at not having ridden Spike into battle unlike Celestia did? Or am I remembering another fic where future Spike was ridden into battle before the story starts officially and Luna felt miffed?
Still. Cadance, Luna, Celestia, and Twilight will be massively enraged (possibly Flurry Heart), add in Discord. Well. I really hope that is something that happens.
9456159
While those are good points (and you could "possibly get away with the AU Tag ... personally I would've thought that it followed everything but the School of Friendship (and potentially Glim Glam ... don't know if she is a thing in this AU; or Best Princess (Sunset Shimmer)).
But yeah, I could understand not wanting to go back and alter what was already written. Kind of sad though, since it sounds like the only good holiday that Griffons have. Makes them seem a little sadder knowing that they never knew the joys of regifting though.
9456446
No, that was mentioned in this story xD Celestia riding Spike into battle.
Wow... why don't you shoot my heart instead?
9456784 Eh. I just like to go with earth pony magic.
Spoiler alert: zombie steadclaw responds... yesssssssss.
9456758
Yep it's at least an okay shipping. I guess sometimes I just got annoyed by certain things being everywhere in every story. I like it if they do something different once in a while, but I guess that is harder if the whole fanfiction site is about one show.
Just holding on for dear life that this story doesn't have a sad tag.
9456022
I had the same feeling at the sudden about-face in Steadclaw's last letter. It was far too out of character for him and the clues point towards forced coercion or blatant forgery. And if it's really war, ugh, what the hell are those featherhead generals thinking? Too bad Twilight couldn't use the feather as a focus for a scrying spell to see where Steadclaw is and maybe if he's alright.
the letter chapters just works so good. shocking over the last few but i still love it.
9456571
Yoish! Now it's Luna's turn then. That'll be epic.
9457357
...
...
Now that I think about it, I'm wondering why not? I mean that feather is atuned to Steady, so that means that Cotton could go to Twilight and say something like, "Here's Steady's feather. I'm worried about if he's alive or not, can you scry using it?"
She does it, and sees that the Griffons are holding him and his family prisoner. Or that there's trouble and he needs saving. Then BAM! Army of Angry Deities and a dragon flying off to crush them.
well this story just took a major turn
is it strange I read all 34 chapters of this story in less than a day?
Damn...now that’s a cliffhanger.
Either that, Steadclaw is an ass, or someone is deliberately sabotaging things for them (like a bitch family member who burns the letters when no one's looking.)
I'm just reading it now but I have a theory on the situation: Gryphons became a militaristic dictatorship as shown with recruiting school attendants. At some point someone realized a random gryphon that came back from Equestria is getting letters from Canterlot Castle. It outright screams "SPY IS IN DA BASE!", add to that suspitious packages and coins (gryphons can tell).
So I think Steadclaw was apprechended, his found letters were thought to be some sort of code, a one way ending was written for him and he was put into a re-education camp. If the story has the balls to talk abaut smexy, I could see this happening.
this goes great with the theory I had in the first part.
it was a kind of strange turn when he wrote that last letter. i feel as if there is going to be a war.
P.S these chapters have a 'Papers Please' Vibe to it