> The Ecstasy of Defeat
>  by AgentSnail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Beginnings


Just one more cart to push...

Just one more, Eldon was sure of it.  He wiped his brow with a talon, flicking the moisture to the floor in a quick motion as his stomach growled.  He peered over the edge of the steel container, staring at the coal momentarily, and sighed.  

"What do you think you're doing?!  Get back to work!"  A griffin yelled, raising a spear and taking a few steps over.  "You want your pay or not, laborer?"

Eldon didn't reply.  They never liked it when he said anything back, and he didn't plan for this time to be any different.  He simply lowered his shoulder and pushed once again, the cart squealing against the rails as it began to move, coalescing under the superior power of his hind legs.  That was something that had unfortunately gotten him picked for this job in the first place.

But then again, he was sure he didn't want to be one of the griffins that had ended up smaller than average, and was placed much deeper in these pits than the rest of them.  His thoughts shifted as the cart began to pick up speed, the kerosene lamps lining the walls becoming less useful with the barrage of light entering from outside.  

Eldon squinted his eyes as he moved from the dark of the mine into direct sunlight, beginning to pull on the cart and slow it down as he neared the end of the line.  It bumped into the small barricade at the end with a loud clack noise, earning him a loud scream of annoyance from one of the overseers.  He tipped the hopper of the cart over a moment later, watching the black stones roll down a chute into- somewhere, he wasn't really sure.  

In any case, a horn went off and Eldon stopped trying to push the cart back into the mine, allowing his sore muscles to relax.  A griffin walked by, tossing a few coins at him in disgust.  "You better try harder tomorrow."  He said, narrowing his eyes and leaving Eldon to pick up the measly amount of currency.  He looked it over, sighing as he realized that it was nothing special.  Sometimes they screwed up and thew in an extra cent or two, but this time they were bang on.

Which of course, meant less food for him and his brother.

The griffin let out a groan as his leg gave him grief, stiffly walking off the dig site and towards the market that he visited every night.  He went straight up to the same stand that he visited every day, waiting in a line that always seemed to accumulate mere seconds before he arrived.  

"Twenty cents per pound?!"  A griffin yelled at the front of the line.  "I can't pay that and expect to feed my family, I-"  he was cut off as an armored griffin grabbed him and pulled him away, the guy yelling and panicking as he disappeared around a corner.  At least he hadn't been beaten to a pulp like the guy from yesterday, and then dragged off.  The rest of the line quickly lost interest.

"Next!"  The griffin operating the stall yelled, causing Eldon to jump.  He turned and walked up to the window, unhappily plopping down most of his paycheck.  

"Are there any mushrooms in stock?"  He asked, fully expecting the answer to be no.  Nothing besides beef was ever in stock.

"Yes, as a matter of fact.  How much?"  Eldon counted the remaining coins in his palm, handing a few over.  "A quarter of a pound."

The female griffin nodded, turning to grab the mushrooms.  Eldon threw a talon out and stabbed a small piece of meat, pulling it back towards him and hiding it under his wing before she turned back around.  It wasn't a big piece, that would be stupid.  She would notice something big.  He picked up his food, turning and walking away with some meat, mushrooms and a small container of government issued soup broth.

He walked by a griffin body, unsure whether he was looking at a corpse or simply someone that had passed out from overwork and lack of food.  Down the street a guard watched a griffin slowly walk by, only to hit him in the back of the head with a police club as he walked by, sending the innocent guy to the ground.  The guards only laughed, turning and walking down the street as if they were invincible.

Eldon turned his thoughts back to the food bouncing around in his saddlebag.  Despite the fact that he knew he didn't have much to eat, he was still excited.  Tonight was a big night, after all.


___________________________________________


Steam rose from a pot's rim, a spoon breaking the mostly tranquil surface to rotate and distort the chef's expression.  Eldon smiled slightly, staring at his reflection in an attempt to distract from the hunger that he seemed unable to remedy.  Ever since the stupid griffon revolution, things had only seemed to get worse.  All of the promises, food, a say, freedom...  None of them had come true.  If anything they'd reversed, completely demolishing the gains the revolution had wrought from the hands of the monarchy.  And now, he had trouble figuring out which type of government he hated more, the rule of the king, or of the new "democracy" that supposedly ruled in the interest in the people.  

Elden stretched out a wing and slightly fanned the flames in the primitive firepit, hoping to use as little firewood as possible.  He poked a stick back into the embers with a talon, sighing as part of his claw chipped off.  He was starting to get scared, he just felt like he was beginning to fall apart.  He was constantly tired, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt like he had enough energy to do anything other than his job each day.  Ten hours in the mine tended to do that.

He made sure that he soup was simmering and not about to boil over before retreating into the corner of the room, off of the dirt and onto the wooden planks.  He stepped on the side of a floorboard and watched the other side pop up slightly, hinting at the treasure that lay beneath.  Eldon wedged a talon in between the lifted side and the floor, pulling up the board and setting it carefully against the wall.  He reached into the small space it covered and pulled out a couple books, cradling them like they meant the world to him.  In a way they did, any outside reading besides what was specifically allowed by the government was illegal, punishable by jail time at best.  

But even though Eldon knew this, he still couldn't help keeping the things around.  Ever since the government had clipped his wings (and the wings of the rest of the population, for that matter) he'd lost whatever solace he could get out of flying.  These texts had been his only escape from the hell this place had become, and he planned to make sure they survived.  He'd kept them in immaculate condition, or at least, in the condition that he'd received them in.  They were only small paperbacks, clear bends evident as he paged through a book related to the freedom of government he knew he'd never have.  

This was one of the things he owned that would surely result in a death penalty, possibly even a mock trial.  But he'd had them for so long, and they were one of the few things that his father had passed down.  Of course, his mother had left and his father had simply disappeared, probably taken for re-education.  He'd never known what had happened, and he hadn't let it bother him.  Until he knew what had happened to his father, he couldn't be sad about it.  At least, that's what he'd told himself, especially since he constantly feared being taken like his dad had been.  Yet despite the fear, he still felt lonely around here during the day more than anything else, at least until Cato came home from school.

Eldon looked at the clock, judging how far the hour hand was between numbers.  The minute hand hadn't been working for months, and he had lacked the money and the energy to get the only broken part replaced.  He hardly had money to buy food anymore, but he didn't really mind the hunger a whole lot as long as his brother didn't go hungry.  His heart seemed to almost break when the kid had to skip a meal, an event that was becoming more frequent.

But soon, he was sure they'd be hurting for food to such an extent that he'd have none of his food left to give, and he'd have to watch as the only other griffin that meant everything to him deteriorated before his eyes.  He'd been planning though, hoping for an opportunity to leave the chain link fences of this place behind and go north, where the author of his book claimed residence.  That all assumed that the author was both still alive and the government there remained the same.  But it couldn't really be worse then here, could it?

It seemed doubtful, at least.  He'd been stealing and storing little bits of food for months and he hardly had anything to show for it.  Each infraction was a crime in and among itself, and he knew if he didn't leave soon he could be subjected to a search, through actual suspicion or just by chance.  All he wanted was to get away from here, he didn't want to bring himself and his brother to death in the process.  Ironically, he was fairly sure those were just two sides of the same coin anyway.

Eldon heard the doorknob turn, quickly jumping up to place the book under the floorboard and fix up his hiding spot as his brother walked in, actually smiling as he closed the door.  

"What's got you so happy?"  Eldon asked, matching his brother's smile as he grabbed the book from its hiding spot once again.  

"They screwed up with lunch today and delivered double helpings of food.  And guess what?  The teacher actually turned a blind eye!"

"Sound's pretty nice," Eldon replied, checking on the soup again.  "Hungry?"

"Oh man, yeah!"

"I thought you said you got twice as much food?"  Eldon asked jokingly, putting on some well used oven mitts and pulling the pot onto a cooling rack.  "Sometimes I think you have a hollow leg."

"Hey, it still wasn't really that much..."

Eldon chuckled, his smile wavering as the oven mitt caught on the end of a talon as he removed the extremity and the claw chipped.  "Well I've made something kinda special, considering it's your birthday and all..."

"Oh, you did?!"  Cato asked, trying to get a look inside the still steaming pot.  

Eldon pushed him gently backwards, grabbing a ladle to stir the soup.  "Don't look, it'll ruin the surprise!"

"Come on, lemme see!"  The much smaller griffin yelled back, hopping around and flapping his equally flightless wings in excitement.  

"No, wait until I serve you."  Cato stuck out his tongue, clicking his beak in annoyance as he sat down at the table and crossed his arms.  

Eldon picked up a bowl, filling it with a large amount of soup before he started on his own.  He brought the stew over a moment later, setting it on the table in front of his brother.  "Now you can eat."

"Hey, you think I'll ever get as big as you?"  Cato asked, picking up a spoon but not yet starting to eat.

Eldon took a spoonful of stew, slowly slurping it down and savoring the taste.  "I'd say so."  He doubted it, even if he kept the kid fed.  Somehow he'd avoided having his growth stunted even with his meager diet, and somewhat dwarfed the other miners, many of which were twice his age.  Not that he was too old, almost eighteen by his count.  But even so, he somewhat dreaded having such a big structure to feed and acting as such an easy target for hard labor.  

Size was relative though, he was still a little smaller than the guards.  All of them were well fed from birth, and consistently towered over the population.  A feather fell out of Eldon's wing, clearly cut just above where he assumed the halfway mark was, snapping him from his thoughts.

"Hey bro, are you molting already?"

"I hope so."  He replied, running a talon through the feathers.  

"But won't you just need to get them clipped again?"

"No, shh.  Eat your food."

"But if you don't you can get taken away!"  Cato whispered, looking around nervously.

"Look, I'm going to let you in on a secret, alright?  We're not going to stay here."

"Where can we go?"

"I don't care, somewhere else.  Anywhere else."  Eldon replied quietly, sighing.

Cato stared, not breaking the eye contact until he put a spoonful of stew in his mouth.  "Where did you get mushrooms?!"  He asked rather loudly, picking up another in his spoon with a huge grin.

"They had them in stock.  Smuggled some extra meat out to save, though."  

"Do you have a death wish?!"  Cato hissed, making Eldon think that maybe his brother was realistically the more mature one.

Eldon threw his talons into the air.  "No, I want an actual life!  I don't want to live here, in constant fear that they search us and find the few things I care about.  I want to go north, to somewhere called Equestria, and actually receive something for my work besides sore muscles and hunger."

"Why would you risk everything for that?"  His brother asked.

"Because I don't want you to live like this for your entire life, I want you to learn in a school that doesn't teach you how to serve the government, and have friends that wouldn't report me if they got the chance.  I want to be able to follow through with what I'm sure dad would have wanted."

Cato went silent for a while, staring at his soup as a mushroom surfaced and then sank again.  "You know I trust you, right Eldon?"

"Yeah, otherwise I'd be gone by now."  He replied with a chuckle, scooping out a chunk of meat and slowly chewing it up.

"Good, if this is what you think it right, then I'm behind you one hundred percent."  The smaller griffin said, grinning with a more nervous air.

"It is, I'm sure of it."  Eldon paused, taking another sip of the stew.  "Now eat up, I'll tell you the plan later, alright?"

"How long have you been planning this?"

"As of today, seven months."  He said, frowning.  "Maybe a little more."

"You're insane, Eldon."  Cato paused, sighing.  "But if you manage get us out, my god.  What a brother you'll be."

"I'm not worrying about getting us out." Eldon replied quietly.  "I'll gladly go off to a camp or face death if it means giving you a life.  You've only flown once before they clipped your wings, and you probably don't even remember it."  A tear leaked out of Eldon's eye as his voice cracked on the last word, splashing into his bowl.  "I think that's one of the biggest reasons I want to get you out.  Flying is the greatest freedom, it's what griffins are supposed to find second nature.  And with all the other stuff combined, that's worth way more than just my life."

"You aren't...planning on dying though, right?"  Cato asked, his voice wavering as well.

Eldon didn't respond for a moment, taking another sip of broth.  "No, I'm not suicidal."

"Good, I was worried there for a sec."  The small griffin said, tipping the bowl to his lips and slurping up the stew loudly.  "Man, nobody makes as good of a pot of stew as you, Eldon."

"Glad you think so.  You want to grab the last bowl?"

"You sure?"  Cato asked, watching Eldon nod.  "Wait, no.  If we're getting out, you need to be at full strength.  I don't like watching you give me all of your food like this."  He poured the last of the stew into his bowl and set it in front of Eldon.  "Call it an early birthday present for you."

"But it's your birt-"  He made eye contact with the kid, and decided to drop it.  "Fine."  Eldon mumbled, finishing off his first bowl and moving on to the second.  "What's the square root of twenty five, Cato?"

"Seriously?  On my birthday?"

"I'll cut things short, but you need to know this stuff."

"For what?"  the smaller griffin asked, sticking out his tongue.  

"It's math, its uses are unlimited.  At least, when there's more to do than hard labor.  I want you to have more options than what I do."

Eldon gulped down his stew, not even trying to savor the taste.  He wiped his mouth with a talon and sighed, feeling the most full he'd been for a long time.  That sounded a lot better than it was, he realized with a slight bit of disappointment.  Either way, he'd still gotten a lot further on this hair-brained scheme than he'd thought he would.  But it was impossible to describe how much he hated this place.  There were no words that could accurately pinpoint his distaste.

"It's five by the way."  Cato said, filling the silence.  "Right?"

"Yeah."  Eldon rose, walking over to what looked like a wall.  Of course, knowing what secrets it held, he always operated under the suspicion that it was obvious, completely noticeable that the wall looked different.  And yet no one had cared, luckily.  He pried off a board, setting the nailed side against the wall.  All buildings were put together with screws nowadays, to prevent such tampering or show more easily that the boards had been tampered with.  Wood shavings were a sign that always stood out when someone was searched.  "Thirty times forty."  He said, hearing a groan from his brother.

"How am I supposed to do that?  The answer's like, a million!"

"Remember the zeroes rule?"  Eldon asked, smirking ever-so-slightly.

"Wha- oh!"  Eldon pulled off another board, fully exposing a saddlebag that he had packed with supplies.  He set it on the floor and checked it through, running through a list that he had tucked into a pocket.  Preserved meats, dried beans, clean(ish) water.  "Where'd you get all of this?"  Cato asked, looking at his brother's slightly annoyed stare with confusion.  "Twelve hundred?"

"Yeah.  I slowly grabbed these things over the last few months, never enough to grab attention, I hope.  But this is about five days worth of food tops, assuming we find some other stuff to supplement this with."

"And how far is where we're going?"

"I'm not sure.  But five days is pretty far, especially if I can get my wings to molt any faster."

"Wow, you've really been thinking about this for a while."

"Yeah, sorry about not telling you earlier, I just didn't want anything slipping out."

"Hey, come on bro!"

"What?"

"I could've kept a secret, you didn't have to worry about telling me."  Cato countered, looking annoyed.

"It's just a larger chance to be found out, no hard feelings."  Eldon rebutted.

"You're still on thin ice."  The smaller griffin mumbled back, crossing his arms.

"Oh god, whatever will I do?"  Eldon asked sarcastically, laughing as his brother punched him in the arm.  "Anyway, don't cry over spilled milk."

"But-"

"Shush, go to bed."

"But-"

"I know it's early, but I'll have to wake you up in the middle of the night."

"So why don't you sleep?"

"Because I've got to get things ready, alright?"

"Yeah, fine…"  Cato mumbled, not completely able to disguise his nervousness as he turned and walked into the other room.

Eldon watched him leave, quickly hauling the rest of the supplies from the hollow in the wall.  It was hardly anything, in the overall scheme of things.  Realistically, his harsh representation of the road ahead was nowhere near how hard things would really be.  They had maybe five days of supplies, basic survival skills, possibly above average intelligence, and some brute strength that was hampered by the lack of food.  

So things obviously looked good.

The griffin picked up a sheathed knife, removing it from it's cover and examining the battered metal.  It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was sure as hell better than nothing.  Eldon poked the tip with the flat at the end of a talon, flinching as a ball of blood quickly appeared.  Sharp enough to do damage, at least.  If worse came to worse and he had to fight off another griffin, this would do some serious damage if he could get it between the armor plates and into something important.  But then again, this was going from his total lack of fighting skills.  

Actually, that wasn't true.  He had worked in the mines for years, a heavy weapon would be almost second nature for him to use.  And yet this plan was appearing to have lower chances, as he realized without a ton of shock that he didn't actually have a hammer or a pickaxe.

So he'd have to make something then, like a primitive club of sorts.  There was the option of attempting to grab something from the mines, but that was more risky than anything he'd done so far by a long shot.  Do it yourself it is then.  

Eldon drew himself out of his thoughts and tried to be confident like he had felt earlier, when he'd told Cato that he'd get out no matter what, even if that meant dying in the process.  But even though he could tell the kid hadn't picked up on his fear, Eldon was scared out of his mind.  He was hungry, probably more fragile than he should be, and he had to look out for another griffin that was in no way able to defend himself.

But there was always a way, he liked to think.  On some minuscule level, escape was still possible.  The main thing he worried about though, besides getting caught, was the possibility of torture and the stupid mock trial.  Over the last year several griffins had faced the same fate over so called 'desertion,' followed by a public execution that was brutally slow.  Yet no one knew what exactly killed the griffins, there was some sort of needle, and then a horrific amount of screaming.  But Eldon had never looked away, or covered his ears, or tried to forget.  Sure, he hadn't been allowed to leave either, but still.  

The executions were supposed to instill fear into the hearts of the populace, show them that if they tried to escape the hell that was this country, that they would only be put into one that was about a million times worse.  And it worked, he was deathly afraid of whatever they put in those syringes.  But on the other hand, it only made him want to escape more.  It was sick, that they would do these sorts of things just to try to keep order, while the government griffons looked on as if they were about to get a raise.  Of course, those griffons that gave out the 'medicine for traitors' as they called it were the only ones that seemed to live comfortably.

And they only had to sell out any hint of their conscience to get there.

Eldon picked up a pair of wire cutters, clenching the lever together between three of his digits.  He knew it could cut through the fence, but then again it wasn't a fast process.  They would be in one place for at least two minutes, attempting to both not make noise and keep as low of a visual profile as possible.  And big as he was, that wasn't easy either.

Eldon raked a talon through his mane, trying to imagine what he thought he would be able to even do when he got to Equestria, assuming it still went by the same name, and even existed.  He really had no idea if it did, even though the author had explicitly stated that it was a work of nonfiction.  Even then, he hardly knew what ponies looked like.  There was a picture on the back with the author and his wife, along with what was either a midget or a foal, probably the latter unless they owned their own royal court.  

"I can't sleep."  Cato said as he stumbled back into the room, clearly looking tired but probably too nervous to actually get any shuteye.  

"You should keep trying, even laying there is better than nothing."

"I'm scared."  He continued, taking a small step back.  "I don't like it here, but it's all I've ever known."  A tear dripped from his face, hitting the ground and seeping between two floorboards.

"Hey, don't think about it like that..."  Eldon cooed, crouching down next to Cato and pushing his chin upwards gently with a talon.  "It's going to be better this way."

"But- What about Eris?"  He asked.  "I don't want to leave him alone!"

Eldon sighed, sitting down and leaning against the wall.  "We can't bring him, you know."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to chance our survival on some random kid!"  He yelled, immediately regretting the outburst.  He really needed some sleep as well.

"He's-  He's not some random kid, he's my friend!"  Cato yelled back, wiping an eye as he turned and ran back into their shared room, slamming the door behind himself.  

Eldon sighed and shook his head.  This was hardly a decision; he knew he couldn't bring some other kid along, especially because he would be taken from his parents.  And because it was a risk to Cato and him.  He didn't want to sound selfish, but at this point escaping with other griffins was the last risk he actually wanted to take.  He felt burnt out.  And tired, so very tired.

"A couple minutes couldn't hurt..."  He mumbled to himself, sprawling out in the armchair.


__________________________________________________________


Eldon woke up feeling refueled, the best he'd felt in who knows how long.  He was just glad that the clock only read one, which was about on time anyway.  At least he had a little luck going for him.  He ventured into Cato's room, putting a talon around the young griffin's shoulder and shaking him around gently.

"Do we really have to leave him?"  He asked, turning to Eldon with tears already in his eyes.  Had he slept at all?

"Yes, Cato."  Eldon murmured, sitting down on the bed and folding back his catlike ears that were mostly covered by a tuft of feathers.  "He has his whole family here.  Would you really want to risk another kid's life on this, when it's our idea?  If he came along and died, wouldn't that make it our fault?"

The other griffin stared for a moment before any hint of anger melted away and his head drooped.  "I guess."

"Look, if we get to Equestria, maybe we can send somebody back to get him."  That was almost surely a lie.  The military patrolled the borders nonstop.  Some veterans of a skirmish somewhere had marched through the village as some sort of propaganda stunt, trying to remind the griffins that it was the zebra mercenaries that they were really fighting.  It was a lot easier to control a populace when it was concentrated on a different enemy from the state.

"Really?"  Cato asked, forcing his older brother to refocus.

"Maybe."  Eldon replied, ruffling the feathers on the top of his brother's head.  "Now come on, I've got a saddlebag all ready for you."

"Aww, I thought you were going to carry everything!"

"What if we get separated?  You don't want to be completely out of food right away, do you?"

"I guess not..."

"Alright then, here."  Eldon said, picking the pair of bags up with a talon and placing them onto either side of the smaller griffin.  He adjusted the straps underneath his belly and stood back, nodding in the affirmative.  

"I hate these things."  Cato complained, hopping onto the armchair and laying on his stomach.  

Eldon only chuckled in response, craning his neck to preen any ajar feathers back into place.  He moved a few, enjoying the artificial feeling of calm that seemed to wash over him.  He'd always gotten some form of comfort from preening, whether or not he was actually accomplishing anything by doing so.  It was just one of those things, he supposed, not that it was seriously interesting.  In fact it was often rather boring to rearrange all of the feathers, especially when they had been clipped like they had been.

A wave of pride washed over him at the thought that they were growing, however, as he spread out his wings and observed the uneven feathers at the tips.  He was probably far enough through molting that he could be punished, but luckily no one had really noticed.  It wasn't an obvious thing, come to think of it, but it was still an amazing feeling to know that he would have the chance to fly again, and soon at that.  

Eldon swept his wings downward, feeling a lightness that although close to lifting his weight would never keep him in the air.  

"Can you fly?"  His brother asked, in a more shocked tone than he would have expected given the fact that their entire race could fly, normally.  

"Not yet.  But I told you about how things used to be, right?  That dad actually taught me to fly legally?"

"I dunno, you usually look all sad when I mention flying."  Cato replied, a slight tinge of grief washing over his features.  "I didn't think I'd be able to fly anyway, so I just kinda stopped asking."

"Aww, it won't be that bad."  Eldon said, grinning.  "As soon as you molt, I'll teach you how to fly.  Again, I guess, cuz I doubt you remember time you did.  But you'll pick it up."

"Promise?"  The little griffin asked hopefully.

"Yeah."  Eldon sighed, rearing up and stretching out his arms.  "Anything else you want to grab?  It's not as if we'll be coming back."

"Oh!  Hold on!"  Cato answered, hopping out of the chair and sprinting into their bedroom.  He came back out with their blankets, shoving them both into one side of Eldon's saddlebag.  Maybe the sad part about that was that they were thin enough to fit.  The older brother only let out another sigh, closing a flap of fabric over the bag as he grabbed some twine and set about attaching the knife's sheathe to one of his hind legs.  

"Do you think you'll have to use that?"  Cato asked, pointing to the knife and suppressing a yawn.

"I hope not.  I'm not the most experienced griffin when it comes to weapons."  Wasn't that was the understatement of the century.  The pair went silent for a while, neither appearing like they wanted to actually begin the journey that Eldon had planned for so long.

Finally Eldon took a step forward, grasping the doorknob and pulling the door open as a cold wind followed it inside.  He walked into the street, looking around at the completely deserted environment.  Cato followed along beside him, sticking to his side like glue.  He could hardly blame the kid, after all, this whole thing was starting to scare him as well.  More than it already did, anyway.

In any case, he'd memorized the route he had to take, and as he made a left turn the fence was already in sight, marking the end of a street.  He heard movement and jumped, hurrying off into an alleyway and nearly bumping into a trash can in the meantime.  Two griffins went by, swinging kerosene lanterns and laughing their heads off about something.  Eldon waited much longer than was probably necessary before getting up to move and knocking the lid from the trash can.

The sound rang out as it spun around, silenced as he smashed it flat with a talon.  There was some more talking, coming closer as Eldon grabbed Cato and pulled him against the wall next to the trash can as tightly as he could.  

Light spread across the ground, a few rats skittering away farther down from the duo.  Eldon couldn't even bear to breathe, his lungs painfully protesting as he tried to wait out the griffins.  

"You hear anything over here?"  The griffin asked, turning away and making the light waver.  

"It's probably just the rats, Rookie.  They're vicious little suckers."

"Will you stop calling me that Joel?!"  He yelled back, a chuckle filtering down the alley from the other griffin.  "Must just be the rats…"  The rookie mumbled, turning away.  Eldon let out a breath, his heart pounding in his chest.  His talons were shaking uncontrollably, one of them struggling to maintain its hold on his knife.  He took in several more gulps of air, turning and looking around the side of the trash can.

"Hey Joel, I gotta take a piss.  I'll catch up, alright?"  the rookie asked, his shadow following the other guard's.

"Sure thing, rookie."  Came the voice back, echoing down the street as the griffins moved further away.

Eldon found the area to be clear, and was now just down to the battle between his impatience and the fact that he would rather remain hidden.  

Without too much internal deliberation he began to move, pulling his brother onto his back and looking around.  He felt the kid's talons wrap around his neck, interlocking with each other just under his chin.  Hardly a few more seconds passed in his escape before he saw another light down the street, from the way he'd come.  Eldon took off at a fast trot, trying to balance his all consuming fear with the need to retain his energy for later.  

That's what everything came down to now, how long he could get this measly supply of food to last.  

"Eldon-"  Cato began, tugging at his brother's feathers.

"Shush."  He replied, flicking the talon away.  He was at the fence now, staring up at the imposing mix of rust and iron.  He reached into his saddlebag, feeling around for the wire cutters that didn't seem to be there.  He began to panic, pushing his palm around with more force in the pocket.

"Eldon,"

"Not right no-"  He stared, looking at the wire cutters his brother was trying to hand him.  

"They fell out.  Behind the trash can."

Eldon thanked the forces above.  Not to say he believed in a god, because that was illegal.  But in any case, they would at least make it out of this stupid fence.  He clipped through one of the links, moving down and clipping the next with a soft chinking noise that quietly sang out into the night, competing with the soft trickle of water as he got down to the final links and his heart rate sped up accordingly... wait. 

"Hold it."  A rather familiar voice said only moments later, as light shined over the area.  "What exactly do you think you're doing?  That's vandalism and attempted escape, both crimes punishable by death."

"I wasn't-"  Eldon began, turning around.

"Oh?  Then what were you doing?"  The guard asked, pointing his spear at Eldon's throat.  "If you don't mind?"

"I-"  He stopped, staring at the other griffin as one of Eldon's talons slipped down to touch at his knife.  

"You better just come with me."  The griffin said, reaching towards Eldon's wrist.  The latter griffin never really thought about how to retort, his only response to tighten the hold around his knife.

"No."  Eldon squeaked, squaring his back feet and staring into the guard's eyes.  His heart felt like it may explode out of his chest at any moment, the way it was beating.  It was so loud, he was surprised the guard couldn't hear it.

"Going against authority, that's another crime.  Don't just keep adding it up, guy.  I've not got all night."  The guard grabbed Eldon's wrist, twisting it painfully and making Eldon drop the wire cutters from his fingers.  He let out a shrill cry, Cato in silent tears on his back as Eldon tried to disguise his own noise.  His brother...  That was what made his blood boil, rage overwriting fear as he unsheathed the knife and stuck it upwards without a hint of logical thought, straight into the throat of the griffin.  

The guard let go, clutching at his throat, eyes filled with a look of disbelief and fear as Eldon pushed himself backwards against the fence.  The griffin staggered for a moment before falling onto his side, still staring up at Eldon.  The pool of blood spreading on the ground made him feel sick, his dinner threatening to show itself once again.  The choking seemed to go on for ages before the griffin went silent and Eldon allowed himself to begin to relax, but only slightly.  He'd just taken the life of someone, watched the light drain from his eyes.  

He knew he shouldn't, but he felt remorse.  He felt sorry for the griffin he'd killed in his prime, with one shot to the neck.    Another rendition played through his head, making him wheeze slightly as a tear slid down his cheek.  Cato was silently bawling into the back of his neck as the larger griffin tore his eyes away from the body, eyes wet as he continued cutting links in the fence.  

Only a few seconds went by before a hole was opened up the rest of the way, and Eldon stared through for a moment.  It looked too good to be true, not that replays of what had just happened weren't being subconsciously viewed over and over in his head and decidedly making things less than perfect.  He climbed through carefully, staring at the guard regretfully, before he reached back through and grabbed his knife, moving it around a bit and retching before it came free.  He bit the blade to hold it without thinking, his stomach contorting in disgust as his talon went for the lantern the guard had dropped, along with his spear.  This whole ordeal brought down their time to put distance between here and them down astronomically, although the fact that Eldon now had a lantern could allow for a little extra lead once they were in the dark of the woods.  It was off now, considering it had fallen over, but it had flints inside.  That was another advantage.

He did an abrupt about-face, before suddenly turning back to the fence again.  He hopped through, hissing as one of the sharp metal prongs drew a neat cut along his back.  Eldon knelt down next to the griffin, tapping him on the helmet and trying to give his best rendition of an apology, even if he really didn't need to express it in the first place.  It made him feel better, especially since he needed to take the guy's armor.

The plates of metal weren't too hard to strip off, first the helmet and then the chest plate.  He applied the same protection to himself, placing the helmet over his brother's head and smiling lightly as the little guy took a heavy breath and blinked away a tear.  Some more plates later, making sure to keep the small ones in his saddlebag to make movement easier, he was ready to go.  The same spike scratched against the armor as he went back through, feeling less defenseless than he had before.

Eldon turned to look at the outside world, somewhere he'd never been until now.  But he'd gotten through stage one of this hair-brained scheme, and now it was just down to getting away.  He broke out into a run, his legs making swish noises as they brushed through the tall grass, along with unilateral complaints from the sore muscles that hadn't gotten enough of a rest. 

Maybe it wasn't true yet, but he felt free.  The society he hated, the embodiment of his torture in this world, was behind him and getting further away by the second.  That was good enough for the moment, enough to push the thoughts of murder and fear a little further into the back of his mind.
> Travels
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Travels


"How are there so many trees out here?"  Cato asked, looking around wide-eyed.

"I don't know, I've never been in the forest before..."  Eldon replied, a tone of awe carried through his voice.  It wasn't the total darkness he had expected, the moon shining defiantly through the branches and illuminating parts of the ground.  New leaves were forming around in the branches, giving him what he was sure was enough cover from the search teams he knew would come.  

"Do you know how to use a spear?"  Cato asked, poking at the weapon where it was tied to Eldon's saddlebag and cringing as it swung slightly and clipped his shoulder.

"Ah!  I didn't think it'd be that sharp!"  Eldon cried out, cursing under his breath in words that Cato neither caught nor understood.

"Sorry!  I didn't mean-"  The little griffin started, before he was cut off.

"It's fine, better we figure that out now than when it really matters."  His older brother responded, stopping briefly to touch at the small cut.  It wasn't anything serious, at least.

Cato shifted, shimmying down Eldon's back slightly until he found a more comfortable position on his more muscular (and therefore less bony) flank.  "You ever thought about what it would be like to be fat?"  Cato asked, making Eldon suddenly burst out laughing.

"No, not really."  He replied after he'd begun to calm down.  "It's just extra weight to haul, it can hardly be a good thing."  

"Yeah, but think of all the food you'd get to eat if you were fat."  The smaller griffin replied, his thoughts clearly focused on food they didn't have.

"I don't think being fat goes along with having food to eat."

"Oh yeah?"  Cato replied indignantly, claws extending from his paws slightly and scraping against Eldon's flank.  "The only fat guy I've ever seen was the one that started telling us that stuff about how well the five year plan went, and that the populace as a whole is better fed as a result."

"You know that that's garbage, right?"  Eldon asked, his brother making a huff of confusion.  

"But he said-"

"Yeah, the only reason you can believe him is because of the fact that you don't remember what things were like five years ago."  Eldon paused, reaching a talon back towards his saddlebag before he gave up and huffed in annoyance.  "Reach into my left saddlebag," he instructed, watching the smaller griffin carry out the order, "and find something that looks like a little book."

"Ah!  Here it is, I think,"  Cato replied, pulling something out.  "What about it?"

"Look through the pages.  I kept track of the price of meat and my wages, and they pretty much stay the same.  Get a little worse, even."  Cato didn't respond, and Eldon took the chance to continue on.  "That's one of the reasons I hate those guys so much.  It's not really the labor or the lack of food, so much as it is the fact that everything's exactly the same as it was before the stupid revolution.  The only difference is that we get a lot more pep rallies, and we get lied to about how much better they're getting."

"So Equestria won't be like that?"

"I-"  He stopped, looking at the ground.  He couldn't say for sure that it wouldn't.  "No."  He replied, ignoring his own qualms.  "I'm not saying that it'll be perfect, but it won't take much to be better than this place."

"What did it say in your book?"  Cato asked, his voice cracking slightly in fatigue.  "About their leaders?"

"It's going to sound stupid when I tell you."  Eldon mumbled with a sigh.

"You said it was nonfiction, it can't be that bad."  The smaller griffin replied, giggling slightly.

"Their princesses are like gods, and apparently they move the sun and the moon."

"Yeah right, they say that about the ministers' emotions and the weather!"  Cato laughed, catching himself and quieting down.

"Yeah, well I can't disprove that one, or the thing about the princesses really.  For all we know it really could be.  But the people- the ponies, I suppose, live under a diarchy and elect their own mayors for towns.  They have a volunteer army, and one that apparently keeps to itself, so I've heard.  No guards roaming the streets or anything.  It explicitly states these things, because it talks about the Griffin Empire right afterwards and compares it.  There was this undertone of disgust in his writing, like he couldn't begin to understand how somebody could be cruel enough to rule a country like the king did."

"But you know he wasn't just a guy toting up his own stuff?  The same as they do here?"  Cato asked, making Eldon chuckle.

"I guess I can't be sure, but honestly, it's still better than-"  A stick broke in the forest and they both went silent, looking around in fear.  It was probably a good time to mention the fact that griffins had extremely good eyesight... in the daytime.  When it came to sight, the eagle half had seemingly won out, leaving Eldon with little to no night vision.  At least what he could make out kept the same hypersensitivity to movement that cats had.

He stood still for several more seconds, looking around nervously.  They couldn't be after him already, he'd only been out for a little over an hour.  Maybe they could have found out about the body and the hole in the fence, but even then Eldon had taken the guard's armor.  He craned his head around, looking at the plate of metal that protected the front of his shoulder.  The serial number staring back at him would delay them a few minutes, even if they still had the tattoo to go back on.

Cato didn't have a brand like they had started doing recently, thank god, but he had received his tattoo years ago, back when he had turned fourteen.  Eldon began to walk again, following the markings on his forearm with his eyes.  LB-422-C, his label as a member of the grand old Griffin Empire.  Griffin Republic, silly him.  He had only needed this under the new government anyway.  

Another stick broke, but Eldon ignored it.  There was no way they had found a griffin, figured the cause of death and the griffin killed, and then sent out a party after him already.  If he was lucky, as he so rarely seemed to be, the griffin may not yet have been found.  

The whole system that ran this country was like a huge machine.  It worked really well doing the same tasks and keeping itself running, but as soon as something happened that it wasn't prepared for, it seemed to almost need to stop and reboot.  Either way, that still only left him with a few hours.  

"How well are you concealing your tracks, bro?"  Cato asked, peering over his side and onto the ground.

Damn, he'd hardly thought of that.  His head snapped downward and he let out a sigh of relief, looking behind him a short ways at the packed dirt.  It hadn't rained for a few weeks despite the beginning of spring, and it was becoming hard to tell that he had even passed through.  Better safe than sorry, he thought, making his palms as flat as possible to try to eliminate the claw marks.  It wasn't very comfortable, but it didn't slow him down.  "They're concealed enough.  It won't be that easy to find us."

"I hope so."  His brother responded, fear creeping into his voice.  "On second thought, I don't really like it around here so much."  He seemed to draw back into himself a little, his voice quieting as he finished.

Eldon nodded, "I'd probably be worried if you said that you liked it."

Cato was silent for a while, the soft taps of Eldon's talons and paws the only sound coming from the pair.  The forest, of course, was alight with ambient noise.  An owl cooed, a bat rocketing above their heads as Cato looked on.  He hardly knew what to call things out here, considering how little life made residence in the cities.  There were rats, bats, and all other manner of vermin that could inhabit such a place, giving it that little extra layer of horror.  

There was one thing the government seemed to pity the griffins about, which only happened under specific circumstances, and was only what Eldon had heard through rumors.  Rabies had gone rampant a few years back when raccoons had begun to take part in the foraging alongside the rats.  That's the only time he'd heard of a government official looking remotely sad for something, when they had to kill a griffin that couldn't think to do more than bite at them.  But that wasn't really the government, that probably just resonated with a part of griffin nature that even the government couldn't interfere with.

From what he could tell, and that wasn't much, griffins had been a race of honor.  That was based off of a book that he assumed to be fiction, but it was better than any other assumption he could make.  It made sense, really.  Griffins never really broke when they were working, and Eldon was fairly sure that it was pride more than stupidity or naiveté keeping them like that.  It really explained why rabies was so saddening, it was probably one of the least honorable things that could happen, taking away one's control over their own body.  

At least they could offer any last words before a griffin was publicly put to death, and for many of the others that were caught for lesser crimes, their last words were all posted for loved ones and otherwise.  It was a sick practice, but from what he could see the government didn't really try to censor what the griffins wanted to say.  Too bad that was literally the most agreeable policy they had, especially given the fact that the griffin was under the effect of that syringe seconds later.  

Eldon shook his head and looked up at the moon above him, finding the thought strange that it could be the same one he saw through his bedroom window every night.  He felt like he was almost in a different world, so full of life and beauty, even at night when he had trouble making out large rocks.  It was just- such a strange feeling, to finally be free like he was.

That was a stupid thing to think, he didn't want to jinx himself already.  But given the brisk trot that he'd taken most of the way, he'd etched out a fairly large lead.  Even beyond that, he knew he was heading in the right direction.  Astronomy, despite the fact that it was probably the most useless thing he could possibly know before now, was also the thing that was allowing him to navigate.  

He only recognized a few constellations off the top of his head, but the end of Dólve's paw pointed him north, to where he hoped his destination would be.  

"Bro, can we set up camp already?"  Cato complained, tired of being jostled around on Eldon's back.

"I don't want to stop until I have to," he responded, "They'll be able to find us more easily if we stay close by, because they'll have to search less ground beforehand."  

Cato groaned and Eldon rolled his eyes, shoving a talon into his saddlebag and pulling out a blanket for the young griffin.

"Just put this under you then, and stay quiet."  Eldon murmured.

"I can't help it if I talk in my sleep!"

"Shh!"  He covered Cato's face with his palm, slowly dragging it down in annoyance.  "Just go to sleep, I'll wake you up of I need to."

"What if we get attacked?"  Cato whispered, looking around nervously.  "I don't want them to find us."

"Listen,"  Eldon began, breaking into a trot again.  "If they do, you're going to pull the string attaching the spear to my saddlebag.  That'll untie the bow, and then I'll grab that and throw it or whatever you do with spears.  Probably throw it.  then I'll pull out the knife, and try to see if I can get in a few more hits.  But when that happens, you need to run and hide."

"What about you?"

"If I win," which he probably wouldn't, "then I'll come find you.  Uh... safe word.  We need a safe word.  Beef?  No, too obvious..."

"Mushrooms!"  Cato yelled, before Eldon's palm slapped into his mouth once again.

"Be.  Quiet."  He said slowly, making sure even the little griffin could understand.

"You're.  No.  Fun."  Cato replied, making the elder griffin wonder if he had really thought it would just be a straight shot to escape at this point.  


__________________________________________________________


"Rookie?"  Joel asked, taking a turn through an alleyway.  He'd finished his beat by now, and had decided to turn back to look for the guy.  He was always lagging behind like this, complaining about how much he hated guard duty.  It'd been kind of nice with the silence, but by now the novelty had been replaced by a feeling of nervousness in Joel's gut.  

"You there?"  He asked, watching a rat scuttle across the area the lantern lit up.  He sighed, moving slowly along until he came onto the street where the rookie'd split off initially.  Joel had a kind of annoyance towards Rookie, but it wasn't as if they hadn't developed a friendship despite that.  'Course, being stuck with his squad mates 24/7 pretty much decided his friends for him.  

He reached into a satchel hanging around his neck, pulling out a slice of beef and chowing down.  He didn't really feel that hungry, but it seemed to help the feeling of uneasiness in his gut.  The griffin peered down another street as he exited the alley, picking his talon up after a step as it landed in something sticky.  He followed the trail around a corner, his eyes meeting the source and freezing.  

It didn't take his mind long to focus past his shock and onto the shiny crimson neck of the rookie.  His mind drew a blank as what his next course of action was.  He'd felled dozens of griffins and zebras alike, and here he was, just staring.  

Obviously he was just seeing things.

Rookie couldn't be dead, he'd been in the military almost as long as Joel had.  A curious side of his brain kicked in, and he reached a talon out to set down the lantern.  His talon went to the other fallen griffin's neck, pushing in and checking for a pulse that he knew he wouldn't find.  Joel felt his throat bunch up, but forced the feeling down.  He wasn't going to get emotional over this, he thought as his eyes began to burn with rage.  

Or maybe getting emotional was a good thing.

He wanted to kill the griffin that'd done this.  Actually, he wanted to keep them alive.  After all, what was the fun if they didn't scream a little?  Joel couldn't care less about the laws that whoever'd broken, or for what reason.  He reached down and closed Rookie's eyelids, before he placed two of his claws to the fallen griffin's forehead and closed his own eyes, reciting something under his breath.  The kid deserved some sort of death rite, after all this.  

He walked calmly off, only making it a few steps before his emotions got the better of him.  Joel let out an roar of total rage as he pivoted on a talon and bucked over a trash bin, the sounds continuing to echo through the town even when he'd stopped to regain his breath.  This fucker, whoever he was, would pay, and he would make sure of it.  

He would avenge Rookie, and if a few heads had to roll in the process, so be it.


__________________________________________________________


"Why won't you light, fire?"  Eldon asked the inanimate pile of sticks, making another strike of his knife against the flint, trying to get the bit of wood shavings he'd scraped from a tree with his talon to light.  

All of a sudden, he had light!  He leaned down, shielding it from wind, and blew on it a few times.  The fire took, expanding through the branches as he stacked some rocks around.  This was one of the few survival skills he knew, from lighting the fire in his house every day.  And what a job it had done, he thought proudly as he lowered Cato to the ground.  The younger griffin was fast asleep, murmuring something unintelligible as he hugged against his blanket.  

Eldon looked around, the partially hollow trunk of the biggest tree he'd ever seen providing ample cover as it grew up above him.  As if to shield him further, there was a circle of the things to cover up the hole on one side, all growing upwards into the darkness.  

He'd hardly imagined that things could be like this, different from the bits of meadows and woods he could see from inside the fence.  It angered him a little when he realized just how little he knew, and how much the government had kept from him.  Something made the noise of a blunt object against wood behind him and Eldon spun, his heart already beating as his talon found the knife on his second try.

Eyes looked at him in the dark, before walking a little closer and tilting to the side.  A deer walked out of the mist and into the firelight, continuing to stare at him with those little beady eyes.  Eldon had never seen any deer outside of dusk and dawn, and even then they had been from a distance.  But this was a lucky sign.  It meant that it was nearing dawn, and that he had gotten far enough from the city to keep the deer from being as afraid of him.  

The animal had long since gone out of favor for hunters, it was tough to take down such a fast animal.  That sounded stupid, after all, what was to stop griffins from flying after them?  But trying to shoot a bow from the air while in motion was a shaky plan at best, and realistically didn't have much of a chance at success.  Even then, the meat was meager and of a less controllable quality than with cows.  Those things though, wow.  He'd seen pictures of them when the government had been saying how much larger the cows were than last year blah blah blah, and those things were monsters of complete, succulent deliciousness.  

Eldon sucked up a drop of drool, shaking himself free of his thoughts.  If it was dawn then, he'd really need to get moving soon.  He had a hard time not resting more than he already had, but on some level he really didn't want to stop.  His legs hurt and his back was starting to do the same, but the alternative, even if they took hours to catch up, was inconceivable. 

At the very least, he'd diverged from the trail a couple hours ago.  He'd rested then, trying to ignore the sounds of life that filtered around him.  He'd tried to find ways to keep them from tracking him as easily, and for a while he'd not known much he could do.  What he'd come up with, after a fair amount of thought (though he wasn't proud it took him so long), was simply to fish out some of the smaller pads of armor from his bag and tie them to his paws and talons.  That seemed like a stupid idea, really, but given the fact that his divergence had been over mostly wood chips and leaves, it hadn't left much of a trace.

Hopefully that would throw off the griffins for a while.  He'd also, and he felt quite proud of this, gone and stepped in a patch of mud down the path.  The transfer to armor feet had been somewhat tedious, especially with the mud, but he'd checked his tracks and found nothing--that he could see, anyway.  The trackers that would come after him would surely find his trail again, he just hoped that he had wasted more of their time than his own.  

The fire gave some dying crackles as Eldon covered it with dirt, smashing the ashes into the ground as best he could without burning his palm.  He picked up his stuff again, carefully replacing Cato on his back as he let out a sigh.  He needed sleep, and he needed more food than they had.  As soon as the thought entered his head he knew there was no ignoring it, and Eldon quickly pulled a hunk of dried meat from his saddlebags, gnawing off a chunk and washing it down with water.  He drank greedily, knowing that water was much more replaceable than food was.  And even if it wasn't, trying to make it last would hardly be a good idea.  He knew the dangers of thirst, one of the many things he picked up from the mines.

A bird flew through the foliage, chirping happily as it buzzed through the branches.  Eldon stared after it, watching the bird stop to hover, wings a blur as it dipped its beak into a flower.  Whatever it was, it was kinda creepy.  His mind shifted to a world where those things drank blood instead of nectar, and an involuntary shudder ran the length of his body.  

He began walking, occasionally taking bites of food as he walked.  The sunrise illuminated the sky, and as soon as Eldon got into a clearing he looked back, staying close to the far side.  A smoke signal rose in the distance, its dark colors turning red as they rose to join the other clouds of a similar color.  Another puff rose, and Eldon squinted his eyes.  They looked far away, but they had definitely come this direction.  And the fact that other griffins could fly didn't really aid his position.

He simply turned and continued, spreading his wings once again.  A few feathers fell out, and he sighed happily.  It wasn't commonplace for griffins to molt this early in spring, and yet he was.  It wasn't really defiance, but it felt like he was laughing in the face of whoever ruled with these.   

Eldon picked up the feathers one by one, stowing them carefully in his saddlebag.  Whether or not they were cut, they still had some value to him.  Feathers were supposed to be of sentimental value, at least when it came to the primaries.  Of course, stashing anything was against the law, and he'd figured that that was one rule not really worth breaking.  Well, not more than a little, anyway.

So now, since the first time his father had told him to hold onto the primaries of his early childhood, he held more shed years later.  Sure, they were cut, but they still meant something.  Eldon reached backwards, pulling out two much smaller feathers from his saddlebag and smiling.  One was his, from the year Cato'd been born.  The other one was from his brother six months after that.  

Eldon stumbled, trying to correct the movement and failing as his face met the ground a moment later.  Cato rolled onto the ground, eyes opening as his talons flailed around at an unseen enemy.  "Where are we?"  He asked after a few moments, his breathing no longer audible as he began to calm down.

Eldon pushed himself off of the ground, spitting out some grit.  "I don't know.  Closer, I'd assume."

The kid looked around for a few moments, taking in his surroundings as Eldon tried to calculate the beneficial effects of passing out at this particular time.  His vision blurred for a few seconds, as he wavered back and forth.  Walking had instilled the monotone that made noticing pain and discomfort somewhat hard.  He'd just ignored it without knowing, been on autopilot, kinda.  Or just been too much in fear to give it any thought.

But now his limbs were back to aching, and he could hardly think of more than to lie down and sleep for a year or so.  He was still afraid, but now he was worried that he might just pass out when he didn't want to, and that would just make things worse.  

Eldon sighed, pushing the thought out of his mind for a few minutes.  Not sleeping would just hamper his ability to do anything of use later, but the one thing he didn't know was the length of time he could realistically go without getting some shuteye.  Without much more thought he found a bush that looked like it could hide him and set Cato down.

His eyelids drooped.  "Cato, listen.  Wait about an hour, less if you hear anything, and then wake me back up, alright?"  He mumbled, watching the smaller griffin nod his head, his eyes displaying the fact that he was clearly not fine with the idea.  "And if you hear anything that isn't natural, don't make noise when you get me up.  It's really not safe for me to be awake that long and expect to be able to fight someone if I need to."

"Y-yeah, alright."  Cato replied, taking off his saddlebag before he assisted his brother in doing the same thing.  The larger griffin simply collapsed, groaning as his muscles protested the sudden lack of repetitive movement.  His eyes were immediately shut, his mind still ablaze with worries and snapshots of worst case scenarios.  

But that seemed to wash away within seconds, his thoughts ebbing away into the darkness that immediately enveloped his mind.  Ambient noise from the forest blended into whispers, and he was thrust into dreamland.  


__________________________________________________


"Eldon, wake up!"  Cato whispered hurriedly, pushing at the griffin.  "Eldon!"

The griffin didn't move.

"Come on, come on!"  he continued, still receiving no response.  He panicked for a moment before he pushed on his brother's wing, spreading the feathers and hurriedly finding one that was cut.  Cato jerked his talon away, ripping the feather from the sensitive tissue as he slapped a talon over his brother's mouth.

Eldon rolled over immediately, eyes flashing around as he let out a barely contained yell into the palm over his mouth.    He shot to his feet, slapping on the saddlebags as voices yelled in the distance.  He looked around, grabbing a fallen piece of beef to shove into his mouth.  It was faster than trying to pack it away and better than leaving it, that was for sure.

"Do you ever shut up!?"  A rugged voice yelled, followed by some clanging noises and yelling.  "Nobody is going to save you!"

"No, I didn't- you can't do this!"  A feminine voice shot back.

"You were trespassing onto griffin soil, pony!"  He spat, as Eldon stared silently through the leaves of the bush.  He had apparently slept near a road, and as much as part of him wanted to run away from any hint of griffin activity, he stayed stuck to where he was.

"Somepony, help!"

"Some- what?"  Cato whispered.  "That sounds ridiculous."

"Shush, if they were bringing her- at least I think it's a her."  He craned his head, trying to get a better look down the road.  They weren't that far away, as a couple of griffins pulled along a cart that seemed to be made for the sole purpose of caging something.  

"Eldon, come on, let's leave before they get too close."

"No."  He said, as his brother's eyes went wide.

"What?!  If they find us they'll kill us!"  Cato whispered as loud as he dared.

"Yeah, but if we get that pony out she'll be able to show us the way back.  Deem us friendlies."  Eldon replied, as he pushed a leaf out of the way to get a better look.  The pony, as it turned out, was a shade of beige with a mane that was so red he doubted her ability to blend in with anything.  It was a wonder that she wasn't eaten by something before she was captured.  

Of course, this was nothing new.  Ponies came in every once in a while, to face some sort of punishment for spying.  Eldon never really understood how they hadn't started a war, but it didn't really look like those little pony things could kill something.  The picture on that book had left Eldon thinking that they were bigger than he was.  That would make sense, because then predators would have to fear a kick from something like that.  Maybe they still did have to fear kicks, but that mare was smaller than he was.  Not by a whole lot, but she didn't have wings or claws of any kind.

Eldon picked up his spear, staring at the three griffins and pony as they began to pass.  One of them was pulling the cart, so that left him mostly defenseless.  That left the other two first.  He had the element of surprise, so he could for sure take one out.

"Wha-"  Cato trailed off, staring between Eldon and the cart.  "You can't be serious."

"I am."

"You can't fight, what makes you think you can take these three on?"  A tear dripped down his face, making a wet spot on the ground below.  "You can't- you can't do this and leave me alone."  He finished, his voice cracking.

Maybe Cato was right, maybe there wasn't a reward worth the risk.  Or maybe this was the thing that would put them into the green.  

A couple of the griffins conversed below, as one broke off and headed straight towards Eldon.  The griffin grabbed his brother, putting a palm across his beak to keep him from making a noise.  The guard stopped, staring at the bush for a moment before he walked a little further away and pulled off some parts of his armor.  He began to relieve himself, and Eldon's decision suddenly became a lot easier.  He let Cato down and crouched, his claws leaving his paws and digging into the ground as the feathers on his neck prickled and his body flooded with the cool feeling of adrenaline.

He pulled the knife free of its sheath, gripping it tightly.  Eldon whispered something akin to a prayer under his breath, making sure his footing was sound.  Then he pounced.

	
> Room For One More
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Room For One More


Eldon dove onto the griffin, catching him by surprise and causing them both to tumble to the ground, rolling a few times before they came to a stop.  Eldon clutched at his knife, bringing it up towards the griffin's throat.  It was blocked by a talon, which the sharp tool neatly went through.  

The attacking griffin panicked, putting a talon across the soldier's mouth as he screamed out in pain.  It was muffled a little, but Eldon still heard noise from the others as they figured out something was afoot.  He looked away for a moment, still trying to pry the knife from the griffin.  Talons ripped across Eldon's face, leaving long cuts down one of his cheeks, all the way to his jaw line.  

All of a sudden the knife came free, a loud crack making itself known as Eldon grasped it with both of his talons, leaning backwards before he plunged the blade downwards.  It found purchase in the griffin's neck, and Eldon hardly skipped a beat as he pulled the knife and rolled from the body, picking up his spear along with the griffin's.  

He charged out of the brush, rearing up on his hind legs as he let the first projectile fly.  The remaining griffins didn't even need to move to dodge the blade, as it landed several feet to one side.  The second, however, was thrown much more carefully.  The weapon lodged itself in the back of the griffin that wasn't attached to the cart, as the other feverishly attempted to untie himself.  

The injured griffin only grunted and pulled the spear free, clearly glad that it hadn't penetrated far enough for the barbs to matter.  Eldon felt another wave of adrenaline to counter his sudden lack of ideas.  The griffin closed the distance between them in only a moment, laying a heavy blow on the same cheek that was torn to ribbons.  

The soldier didn't let up, throwing an eagle style punch straight into Eldon's exposed shoulder.  The inexperienced griffin cried out in pain, knocking away the claws that were digging into his flesh before they could do much damage.  He succeeded with a heavy blow, ducking under a spear thrust and gripping a talon around one of the soldier's front legs.  

The escapee pulled, tossing the griffin onto the ground a few feet away like he was throwing a small rock.  It must've been the adrenaline, some part of his mind mused.  He couldn't have done that under normal conditions, as sore as he was.  

But as soon as Eldon took a step forwards, the griffin was back to his feet, charging again.   He tried to block a punch that turned out to go somewhere else, and suddenly the air left his lungs.  Eldon stumbled backwards, barely moving his head out of the way fast enough for a spear to whistle past.  A blow broadsided him and he toppled over, looking up through tired eyes at the other griffin.  

They said something to one another in a whisper as Eldon focused instead on the mare, who had pushed herself as far back into a corner as she could, watching the three with wide eyes.  Then the air was knocked out of him again, as the two had simply come down to kicking and punching.  He tried to curl up into a ball, but every time he tried another kick just made him splay out in pain.  Talons dug into a spot without armor on his flank, digging more cuts on a journey towards his knee.  

Eldon heard the clang of metal on metal and opened his eyes again, moving to get up as the griffins became distracted by something else: Cato.

The kid had thrown a spear at the two, and had managed to hit the helmet of one, who was currently on the ground holding the helmet where his ear was.  

The older griffin pulled himself up, unsure as to how he was still conscious, and threw himself on the griffin once again.  The pair fell, as Eldon picked up the spear that Cato had thrown and jammed it through the griffin's chest.  As he moved to turn, a spear clipped his chest, making him double over once again.  It hadn't done much more than leave a deep cut, but everything just burned with pain by now.

The last griffin pinned Eldon to the ground, holding him there as he tried to get his friend to say something.  The griffin barely made a sound back, but the tiny rational part of Eldon's brain had made a plan by now.  He reached backwards as far as he could, gripping at a feather from his wing as talons dug into the back of his shoulder, worsening the wound the griffin had started earlier.  Eldon screamed in pain as his feather popped free rather easily, probably one that would be molted regardless.  He threw it back at the griffin, feeling it hit something that wasn't armor.

The griffin screamed in pain, tottering just enough for Eldon to squirm free and avoid a talon thrust towards his throat.  He'd stabbed the feather into the griffin's eye, and the guy didn't seem like he would recover fast enough to block another blow.  As it turned out, he didn't, and with a final spear thrust, Eldon found himself in the clear.  

So he threw up.  

Then he fell over, tears already in his eyes.  Dirt found its way into his cheek and burned, his eyes already overflowing with tears.  

He sobbed, not for the griffins, or only for his injuries, but for the fact that he knew this hadn't been worth it.  He knew even walking was going to be unbearably painful, and that meant more for Cato than it did for him.  If he wasn't there to delay griffins so that the kid could get away, well, he was pretty useless.  

Eldon didn't want to be useless.  Useless was what they called workers that were injured or old.  Useless was what they called his dad the week before he disappeared.  And now he was just another griffin that fell into that category.

"Eldon!"  Cato yelled, skidding to a halt in front of his brother as a few tears continued their momentum, landing on his brother's beak.  He felt his brother hug around his neck, sending a few bolts of pain through some cuts.  "You- Are you okay?"

He wanted to say no, to cry with the him for hours on end.  Those griffins- he had to kill them, and yet he felt grief over their passing.  Everything he'd been taught his entire life hadn't prepared him at all for this, and he couldn't find the will to stop his tears from flowing.  But he knew that they had to keep moving, that the best way to get this stuff out of his head was to get as far away from it as he could.  

"I hurt, but I'll be fine."  He mumbled, somehow keeping his voice somewhat steady.  Eldon got up, smiling a little as he ruffled up his brother's feathers.

"I'm gunna go grab our stuff, alright?"  Cato asked, looking like he was just happy to be alive.  

Attempting to quell the shaking in his arms, Eldon walked over to one of the griffins, searching through his bags for a key.  It didn't take him long to find one, and with a few more grunts and a stumble, he was on his way towards the pony.  He walked back into view around some bushes and she jumped, retreating back into the corner of her cell.

"Do- Don't come any closer!"  She yelled, and Eldon stopped.  "I- please, I didn't do anything!"

Eldon cleared his throat, a slight tinge of embarrassment seeping into his face over his breakdown moments before.  He knew he shouldn't care, but after this many years of not complaining, he just felt weak.  "I'm trying to save you."

She shifted, pushing herself back a little more into the opposing wall of bars.  "As what?  I'm no prostitute, if that's what you're getting at."  

Eldon looked to one side, watching Cato bounce out of the woods covered in luggage.  "I just want someone to lead me to Equestria, and I thought maybe you could be that pony."

She seemed to relax a little at that, allowing herself to look at other things besides him.  "Why kill three griffins to do that?"  The pony asked, her eyes focusing back on his.  "Seems like a little bit of overkill for a shot.  You're probably just like them."

"Look, I didn't come here to explain my fucking motives.  I don't need to."  He said cooly, annoyance beginning to solidify in his body.  "So I'll tell you what.  I can let you out and you can help me, or I can just leave you here."

"I-"  She said, eyes going wide.  "No, just-  Please?"

Eldon shook his head in annoyance, before he climbed onto the wagon and undid the lock, letting the door slide open.  The mare went to leave, but Eldon didn't move.  She quickly retreated again.  "No, don't kill me, please…"

"Listen."  He said, cutting her off.  "I don't know you, and I can't trust you.  But if you try anything, I will come out on top, alright?"  He continued before she could answer, partially enjoying the way he dwarfed her.  Maybe that was a little extreme, but it fit.  "I won't try anything against you either, because I would have no reason to.  Chances are, I hate the griffins more than you do right now, and I'm sure you're familiar with a certain phrase that's applicable?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend?"  She asked, her frown not changing.  "Like I would take any of that seriously.  I heard the other voice, you could have anypony out there."  The mare said, still trying to force herself as far away from Eldon as possible.

"It's just my brother, I-"

"You just took out three griffins!  I hardly got in a punch and a buck when they tried to capture me, and you stabbed them to death!  If you can do that, then I don't want to know what two of you can do."

Eldon raked a talon down his face, cringing as one claw slipped into his cuts.  He grabbed the lock with a talon and made to close the cell again.  "You know what?  This was a waste of time!  I risked my life for you, and all you can do is worry about yourself.  I-"  His front leg buckled under a sudden shiver, and he toppled to the ground.  The mare peered out over the edge of the wagon a moment later, watching him try to stop his shivering.  

The damn adrenaline was wearing off already.  

"Bro, I-"  Cato began, before his eyes locked onto the mare.  "What did you do to him?!"  He yelled, sprinting over to Eldon as the larger griffin rolled over to get up.  He was knocked over just as quickly as Cato rocketed into him, hugging his neck so tight it became hard to breathe.  Eldon pried his brother's arms away, taking great gulps of air.  

Oh, he hurt so much.

"Well?!"  Cato yelled, still awaiting an answer from the mare.

She sighed, her tired eyes drooping.  "That explains the voice."

Eldon ignored her, instead pressing a palm into his flank and attempting to slow the bleeding.

"The name's Roseluck by the way."  She said after a few moments of silence.

"Eldon."  He said, outstretching a bloody talon for her to shake.  She looked at it for a moment before reaching out a hoof and allowing him to gently take it in his grip.  "And that's Cato-"  he arched his back a little in pain before continuing, "my brother."

"I'm watching you."  Cato said, as the pony stared.  "I mean it, you better keep yourself in line."

Eldon grunted and slowly pulled himself upright, grabbing his saddlebag and putting it onto his back as Cato walked over and waited for Eldon to hoist him up.

Roseluck grimaced, looking at the cuts that were still oozing blood.  She hesitated a few times, stuck halfway between fear and slight gratitude, not that she wanted to admit the latter was there just yet.  She quickly trotted over, taking the saddlebag from Eldon's back and putting it on her own before he could react.  "I'm carrying this until I get you fixed up, alright?"  He noticed that she still kept her eyes on him, not dropping her guard for a moment.  Maybe the saddlebags were collateral.  

"I have rags in there to use as bandages, it's fine."  Eldon responded, pointing.

"Pfft, rags.  I'll show you where the good stuff is."  The mare said with a slightly forced grin, before she turned into the forest and trotted off.  Eldon's eyes widened and he threw Cato on his back before sprinting after her.  She was trying to steal his stuff!  

He caught up with her a few seconds later, as she was bouncing happily around a tree, and he began to feel stupid. And so very much more painful.  Maybe this mare was defective…

"You shouldn't run like that, you'll just reopen the cuts."  She said, making him narrow his eyes at her.  "What?  I can't act a little happy that I've been rescued?"  Rose asked, though her eyes and voice never really conveyed the smile.  It was still an improvement though.  

"Only to an extent."  Eldon replied, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly.

"Can I just borrow your knife?"  Roseluck asked, and he hesitantly handed it over, gripping at the spear instead.  She held the bladed side against the tree and punched the dull side a few times, as a blood red substance started to drip from below the blade.  "This sap has antiseptic properties, so it should help you heal up a little bit faster."  She said, scraping up a blob and pushing it towards one of Eldon's cuts as he jumped away.

"What if you're just trying to kill me?"  He asked, watching as she spread some on a little cut on her arm.  

"What do I need to tell you so that you'll trust me?"  Rose asked, watching the sap slowly flow around to the bottom of her hoof.  "At least enough to get out of here?"

"Why you were in that thing.  And if Equestria exists, and if it's still free."  Eldon said quickly, still eyeing her hoof.

"Well, in that order, I run a shop that sells flowers and other plants, though I specialize in roses."  She gestured to a picture of a rose on her flank, which Eldon stared at in confusion.  "Anyway, I was trying to find a few rare plants that only grow in the Whitetail Woods, and then those guys took me and called me a spy."

"And Equestria?"

"It's real.  Free and all.  What's it like here?"

"Just-"  He shrugged.  "Can you get that on me, and I'll tell you while we walk?"

"Sure, I guess.  It's been a little over a day, I'm pretty eager to get away from these psychos."

"Yeah, you seem pretty nervous."  Eldon said, moving a little closer.  She didn't attempt to move away, which was probably a good sign.  

"I'm just glad to be out of that stupid cage."  Her stomach grumbled.  "By the way, do you have any food?  I mean, I know I'm not really the best pony to give food away to, and you'd probably just keep it for yourself, but…"

"Yeaaaaaah!"  He yelled, the end of his response turning into a pained yell.  Rose looked up at him for a moment before returning to her work as a numb sensation began to set in, making the pain fade slightly.  Eldon sighed, feeling a little awkward as she moved to the cuts on his flank.  More stinging ensued, but he was at least ready for it this time.  The mare turned for some more sap before she moved up to his face, studying him as she went to fix up his cheek.  

"You'll tell me where you got some of those scars?"  She asked.  "All the old ones, I mean?"

That one caught him by surprise.  "Do you really care?"  No, she could just be trying to distract…  She had to be up to something…

"I think it'll help to pass the time."  She replied, attending to a few smaller cuts.  "I know there are better ways to meet, but at least talking will take your mind off of the pain a little.  Do you not want to talk about them?"

"I don't think I really ever have."  He said, watching her adjust his saddlebag on herself that didn't fit at all.  "I mean, most of them were before this kid ever said his first words."

"Was it a fight?"  She asked as they began to walk.  She showed no signs of returning the saddlebags, which worried him.  

Eldon laughed, and she furrowed her brow in confusion.  "Back where I live, everything's decided for you.  Your job, your pace, what you eat every day, when you get off the streets at night.  If you break any of those rules, chances are you'll be taken in the middle of the night and whisked away to wherever it is that they kill all of the griffins that break laws."

"Wait."  She said, trotting a little to keep up.  "Kill?"

"Well, yeah.  Apparently being out after nine is worth killing someone over."  Her jaw hung open.  "But then again, some of them kinda make sense, like murder.  Death seems about right for that, but then again..."  He looked away, thinking about the griffins he'd felled, through his own conscious will.

The mare seemed to read his mind.  "Don't worry about them, you didn't have a-"

"I had a choice, those griffins hadn't done anything to hurt me."  He said, feeling his face heat up as a tear fled down his face.  He shook his head, clearing his mind at least partially.  "But those guys that are coming after us, I wouldn't think twice to attack."

"Guys-"  She paused a moment, before the thought hit her.  "Ah, I'm guessing that you escaped?"

"Yeah."

"Punishable by death?"

He nodded.  

"Your life sucks."  She said, a little more bluntly than he would have liked.

"Not really."  He said, and Rose stopped abruptly.  

"How can you say that?!  Are you insane?"

"No, I just-"

"You can get killed for anything, you have all of these scars, you're being trailed by the same soldiers that treated me like an animal, and you seem to think that things could be worse."  She let out an angry sigh.  "Look, I don't know how optimistic griffins are, but what you're saying is just stupid!"  

Eldon tried to shush her, but she seemed intent on voicing her opinion.  Maybe this had been a stupid idea for more than the trust issue.

"Things may be able to get worse, but we're at rock bottom right now, as far as I'm concerned.  We've got a lot of hope, and everything involving getting back is hanging from one little thread of probability, especially after you got those cuts."  The mare tried to brush something out of her fur before she gave up and turned to walk away.  "Come on, you said yourself that we can't waste time."

Eldon sighed and followed her, his tail flicking from side to side in annoyance.  The three remained silent for a long while as Cato got bored and went back to sleep.  The lack of talk quickly stretched into the span of a few hours, and the mare still seemed intent on remaining silent.  Eldon wasn't sure if Rose wanted to simply keep talk to a minimum, or if she was scared.  It was an understatement to say that he couldn't read emotions too well.  At least, outside of Cato, but that kid was an open book.

Eventually Eldon spoke up, walking to the trunk of a tree to rest.  He gently set Cato down and allowed himself to collapse, breathing heavily.  Just walking was getting to be a chore, and he hated it.  Everything still hurt, despite the slight painkiller.  

"We've walked long enough."  He said shortly, looking through the branches of the trees at the noontime sun.  

Roseluck set down his saddlebag, quickly opening it and searching for something.  Eldon wasn't happy, but trying to stop her seemed pointless.  Pony or not, he probably couldn't expect to take her in a fight for a good while.  He felt so goddamn weak.

"What?"  She asked, a drop of drool dripping to the ground at the prospect of food.  "What is this?"  She asked, holding up a piece of jerky.  The mare bit at it, tearing off a chunk.  Huh.  Eldon had thought that ponies were vegetarians.

"What is this stuff?!"  Rose exclaimed, going back for more.  "It tastes pretty good!"

"It's beef."  Eldon murmured, watching the mare stop in her tracks.  

"What?"

"It's meat.  Beef jerky."  He shrugged.  "Try not to eat all of it."

Roseluck stared downward at the flat piece of meat, before she turned her head and spit out a wad.  "Oh Celestia!"  She screamed, wiping her tongue with a hoof.  "Ewewewewewewewew!"  

"Woah!"  The griffin yelled, pulling himself to his feet painfully.  "Don't waste it!"

"Why didn't you tell me I was eating meat?!"

"Why didn't you ask?!"  

She didn't respond for a moment, allowing her emotions to cool off.  "I don't think I would've cared if it hadn't tasted good."  Rose sighed, looking away.  "Do you have any plants to eat?"

Eldon debated saying no outright, or pushing the mare away.  She'd caused enough trouble, wasted a mouthful of beef…  But she'd also helped heal him, and she was still worth something as an asset, if nothing else.  Besides, she was good for conversation.  Or at least, she had the potential to be.  

"I have some mushrooms, but-"

"But…"  Rose said after Eldon trailed off.  

"They were supposed to be for my brother."  He sighed.  "Look, I'll be frank, but I don't want to keep dancing around these things.  I didn't rescue you because I wanted to save you."  She stared.  "I rescued you to help get me out of here, and honestly, I'd like to think that I made the right decision.  But look, none of us are going to get to Equestria if we don't at least work as a team, and have some primitive amount of faith in one another."

"So you didn't-"  She began, looking downward.

"How could I just rescue you?!"  he yelled, "Especially if you just became dead weight?!"

"But I'm not-"  Rose tried again, her voice wavering.

"Stop!"  Eldon screamed, and her mouth flapped shut.  "I know you can do things, and I know that you're intelligent.  All I want is for you to see the same in me, and know that if you don't look out for me the way I did for you, we won't get too much further!"  Oh, so much bluffing…  If anyone was dead weight, it'd be him right now.

The mare only stared.  Evidently he still looked like he had enough power around here.  "Fine."  She said.  "I guess I'll have to."

Eldon sighed, walking back to the tree.  He sat down again, his body suddenly allowing the pain to ease.  He still let out a grunt of dissatisfaction.  Rose watched him with her tired eyes, almost as if she was waiting for him to slip up.  

He let his eyes close for a moment, only to open them again a fraction of a second later.  They felt heavy, and he was still horribly tired.  Eldon let them close again, feeling his mind go foggy for a moment as he began dreaming about a good meal.  

When he opened his eyes again, Rose wasn't there.  Eldon moved to get up, but found that his shoulder was- there was a rag tied around the wound, along with the one on his flank. 

Eldon's blood froze, and he realized with no small amount of fear that he'd fallen asleep.  Cato was still asleep next to him, but as he turned his head this way and that, he couldn't find Rose.  His plan was falling apart by the second, and to make matters worse, he could see a few clouds of smoke rising a much shorter margin of space away.

"Rose?  Roseluck?!"  He yelled, looking feverishly for his saddlebag instead.  That was more important, and a saddlebag couldn't hear him yell.

The mare peered back into the small clearing, and her face flashed with a hint of worry.  The sun reflected off of a few pieces of armor she had put on.  "What?"

Eldon sighed in relief, looking at the stuffed saddlebags on her back.  "I thought you'd left."

She shrugged.  "Like I could fight griffins if it came down to it."  Roseluck walked over and sat down, taking off her saddlebags.

"How long was I asleep?"  Eldon asked, cringing at the dropping sun.

"Less than two hours."  She replied, opening one side of the saddlebag and grinning.  "Gave me time to go forage for stuff."

"Two?!"  Eldon blurted, annoyed.  He put a talon to his head, letting out a sigh of distress.  "I closed my eyes for two fucking seconds!"

"You needed the sleep."  She said.  "Don't think I couldn't tell that much."

"I could've waited."  

"Look, it's okay."  Rose continued, the corners of her mouth turning upwards.  "Look!"  She gestured to the saddlebag, and Eldon couldn't help but feel a little worry fly out the window.  It was full of berries, topped with at least a few leaves.  "I found blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and…"  She trailed off, picking up one of the leaves.  "This."

"And that is…"

"It has caffeine in it.  Usually, it's hard to find because it only exists in new growth in a high branched tree.  But I found a fallen limb."

"So, what's caffeine?"  Eldon asked, still staring.

Roseluck's jaw dropped a little.  "It helps you stay awake."

"How?"  The griffin queried.

"It's a drug, it just…"  She pointed to her head.  "It does something with your brain."

"Why?"

"I don't know!"  Rose responded, getting annoyed.  "It just does!"

Eldon decided to change the subject.  "So are those red ones kind of like blackberries?  Or are they just not ripe?"

"They- they're a separate berry."

"Really?"  He put a talon to his chin, looking at her with an air of disbelief.  His shoulder yelled at him, but the pain was notably less.  "How come my arm doesn't hurt?"

"I made a dose of some painkillers from willow bark."  Rose said, pointing to a bowl that was next to Cato.  "I made it strong, but I'm going to try to slowly take you off it as you heal.  Don't want you becoming addicted or anything."

"Huh?"

"It's just-"  She stopped, putting a hoof to her forehead.  "It's amazing how little you know."

"Well, it's not li-"

"Hey."  Rose interjected.  "I understand.  It's pretty crazy though, because the more you talk normally, the worse I realize it was over there."

Eldon shrugged, reaching over to poke one of the raspberries with a talon.  He put it into his mouth, grinning as the sour taste met his tongue.  "I guess these things aren't too bad."

"At least you can eat them."  Roseluck said, waiting for him to take another talonful before she closed the bag and transferred it to her back.

"Yeah…"  Eldon replied, before he jammed the berries into his mouth.  Rose watched, her mind unable to keep out the thought that the berry juice bore a slight resemblance to blood.  "Probably can't eat too many though."  He picked up Cato and put the kid on his back, eyeing Rose's use of some of his armor again.  She had put some on her fore hooves, and the rest around her flanks and her neck.  Parts that Eldon knew were meant for different parts of griffins seemed to fit on her in different places, especially given the size difference.  She looked like she could fight something.

"Do you want a weapon?"  He found himself asking, pushing away the part of his mind that said he shouldn't give her one.  But then again, he hadn't given a second thought to the berries…

"I-"  She looked away.  "If you want me to have one."  Eldon unsheathed his knife, handing it over.  Roseluck grabbed it in her fetlock, looking at the thing for a moment.  "Don't you need this?"

"I'll just use this spear."  He replied, picking the weapon up from the ground.  "And if we can fashion some sort of club, I'll use that."

Roseluck began to walk, handing Eldon another hoofful of berries.  He took them and nodded, tossing them into his mouth one at a time.  He was hungry, but there was nothing wrong with enjoying the taste.

"Wait, I-"  She gestured with the knife, and Eldon started.  

"Oh, the sheath?"  He took that off, wondering why he'd expected her not to need it.  He hesitated before attaching the thing to the outside of her hind leg, tightening it with a grunt.  Rose stared back with a blush, and carefully put the knife away.

Eldon took a step back, admiring her for a moment.  Her blush got a little worse.  "What's wrong?"  She sniffed at her armpit.  "Do I smell?"

"No, you look good."  He scratched his chin.  "Like a soldier, even with all of the missing armor."

"I'll take that as a compliment."  She replied.

"You should, you know."  Eldon said.  "Those guys are pretty awesome.  Well, not really awesome, but uh, they command a lot of awe."

"And you think I look remotely like that?"  Rose asked, holding up an armored hoof.

"Not really, you just remind me of that.  But I can kinda see why ponies haven't been hunted to extinction.  You look like you could kick some serious ass."

"Too bad I can't fight with this."  She said, pointing to the knife as she broke into a trot.  Eldon followed, easily keeping up with a lot less pain.  

"How about next time we stop, I teach you a little?"  He asked.  "I don't know much, but there's probably some stuff on stance I could apply, some steps and junk.  Worst case scenario, I'm sure hooves can be pretty painful."

"A good buck seems to keep most things away."  She replied with a grin.  "But yeah, nothing wrong with a little preparation."

"So how come you don't have a horn?"  Eldon asked, changing the topic.

"What?"

"Well the author in my book has a horn.  He says that other ponies can fly, so I assume that they have wings.  Why would there be ponies that have neither?"

Roseluck smiled, and Eldon furrowed his brow.  "Because we support everypony else.  Nopony else can grow food with any large success, so we do."

"Is that it?"  He asked, worrying that he might have offended her before she shook her head.

"We might not have any wings or horns, but we're stronger and tougher.  And we heal faster."

"Like how fast?"

"Not that fast, but it's noticeable."

"I'd love to heal faster."  Eldon said with a sigh.  

"Or maybe you heal as fast as I do, and those other ponies are just slow."  Rose continued.  "Besides, I've got the antiseptic on there.  You'll be fine in no time."

"Thanks for that, by the way."

"Hey, we have to look out for one another, right?"

Eldon nodded.  Maybe distrusting this mare had just been inefficient.  But going through it again, he couldn't really find much he would've changed.  


_________________________________________________________


Eldon looked up at the sun, or what he could see of it through the branches anyway, and felt a little grin appear on his face.  They'd made it through another day, and he knew that searching was all but impossible at night.  So they had some time to build up a lead again.  

The griffin let his shoulders droop a little, aches and pains picking up again as his thoughts began to wander once again.  The mare was a magnet for his brainwaves, and he threw a small glance her direction.  His first thought wasn't that she could be dangerous, so much as disloyal.  He didn't expect her to stick around this long, or even try to help him.  

If he were in her position, he would've taken off as soon as he got the chance.  Eldon averted his eyes as she looked over, furrowing his brow in thought.  It still bothered him, that she'd done things to him while he'd been asleep.  He trusted her enough, but some part of him couldn't get past the fact that she could've done anything to the bandages.  There were animals out here he'd never seen before or thought possible, so the same could go for plants.

But then again, he was important.  He was their protection, and he liked to think he was the mastermind of how things worked.  He'd survived in a place a million times worse than this, and he knew he would be the last to break.  That part gave him a little rush of pride. 

His stomach grumbled, and the mare peered over.  She stumbled at the same time, a fore hoof crumpling underneath her as she hit the dirt with a quiet yelp.  

Eldon's eye twitched, and a few neurons fired.  She'd helped him…

She yelped again, louder this time as he snaked a talon under her breast, gently pulling her onto her hooves again.  God, she was light.  Or he was just strong.

"Thanks."  She said quietly, a little blush running across her cheeks.  Eldon began to walk again, but she didn't follow.

"What's wrong?"  He asked, feeling Cato stir.

"I- Just tired, I guess."  She replied, sitting down.  "I feel so crappy."  Rose peered at him, looking to one side.  "I probably sound ridiculous, complaining without a scratch on me."

Eldon looked up, figuring it was dark enough to warrant stopping.  A few stars had begun coming out, slowly painting in the night sky.  He looked back at the mare, who was still staring at him, and shrugged.  "You're tired.  Probably didn't sleep too much when the griffins had you, and probably haven't slept since then.  I wouldn't have made it as long."  That wasn't a lie, he already doubted the health of his mental facilities, and it had only been a day or so.  To be honest though, that nap had worked wonders.

Rose's head drooped, springing back up again as she kept herself from falling asleep on the spot.  "I just need- something to do."  She mumbled.  "Not dead weight."

Eldon cringed, watching her stand again.  "Look, I didn't mean it like that."  He sighed.  "Besides, it's no use tiring yourself out when we can rest."

"Non- sense."  She replied slowly.  "I can help.  It's a team effort."  

Oh god, he felt guilty.  He never felt guilty like this.  He didn't like it. 

"No, you're not doing anything."  Eldon said forcefully, but Rose just ignored him and walked past.  "Firewood, I assume?"

"Kindling, act-"  He slapped a talon to his face.  These ponies were stubborn.  "Stop."

Rose turned away, swaying a little as she walked into the nearby woods.  "Make me."

Eldon groaned, looking up at the sky again.  There was just no reasoning with her when it came to this stuff.  He shook his head, walking to the side of the clearing to pick up a bunch of sticks.  He drew some rocks into a circle near a couple of trees at the edge and stuck the pile of sticks down to the side.  Rose tottered back, pulling some dry grass and chewed up bark from her saddlebag.  

Eldon stared at her for a moment, before he began striking the blade of the spear against the flint.  A spark took and smoldered, giving Eldon some time to blow the cinders into the beginnings of a flame.  It took quickly, and the griffin pushed some more kindling in along with a few twigs.  He built the fire to a low blaze, making sure to keep it from becoming too obvious.  With the kind of tree cover they had, there was no way things would shine through.  

Roseluck laid down next to the fire and closed her eyes, giving her limbs a stretch before folding her fore hooves back into her body.  Eldon dragged her saddlebag over, setting Cato down and returning to the berries.  The more he could eat of these now, the less he'd have to worry about them going bad later.  He just hoped he wouldn't get too bad of indigestion if he went overboard.  

But he figured that wouldn't be a problem anyway.  Griffins ate some plant material, and he was sure they had for decades.  Eldon wasn't really sure why, but he didn't question it.  More berry juice greeted his taste buds as he put a few more into his mouth and chowed down.  These things tasted amazing, way better than any of the fruit they had before.  Those tasted almost like dust when he compared them to these… whatever berries.  

He felt something poke his flank and jumped, grabbing his spear from the ground once again before he realized that Cato had woken up.  

The kid blinked at him through tired eyes and Eldon replaced the spear, pulling his brother a little tighter against his flank.  He stared at Roseluck across the fire, running through a range of expressions.  "How come she'd still here?"  He asked.

Eldon chuckled.  "Because she's helpful, at the very least."  He whispered.  "She fixed me up, got us food…"  He pushed over the saddlebag so that it was between them.  "Even fixed my pain a little."

"She- huh?"

"Called 'em painkillers.  Made it from some tree bark, but it's great stuff."  He let his eyes droop a little, and laid down on his stomach.  He stretched his hind legs and then his wings, leaving one at full span as he rolled onto his side.  "Can you wake me up in a few hours Cato?"

"How many's a few?"

"Five, we'll say.  Can you handle that?"

"Maybe?  How am I supposed to tell time?"

Eldon paused, before he pointed to a star by what little of the horizon they could see.  "When that moves below the tree line, that red one there, then wake us up."

"Alright."  Cato replied, watching Eldon drift off.  A wing fell over him a moment later, and the kid smiled.


_________________________________________________________


Roseluck awoke in a fit of shivers, her eyes finding the fire and staring at it with a look that could kill.  It was fire for Celestia's sake, and she was freezing her ass off a few feet away.  

"I see you're awake."  A voice said, and Rose jumped.  Cato stared at her from across the fire, and she sighed.  She tried to get her shivering under control, but it only got worse as some wind blew past and the fire flickered.  

"Y-yeah."

"And I hear that we're keeping you around."

"Look, I a-already got the talk, I-I'm not dead weight."

Cato peered at the bandages on Eldon, sighing to himself.  "You're cold?"

"A l-little."  She replied, hugging herself.

Cato scooted towards Eldon's wingtip, pointing to the wide open space.  "There you go."

"Oh n-no, I can't possibl-"  She began, before Cato cut her off.

"You're cold.  He's warm.  What could possibly be the problem?"  He shook his head.  "Ponies…"  He muttered under his breath.  

Roseluck stared for a few seconds before her shoulders slumped and her eyes took on the same tired look as before.  "Fine."  She whispered.  It didn't mean anything.  It meant nothing.  They were a team, he was just watching out for her, that was all.  And most importantly, she wasn't weak by accepting.

The mare plodded over, sliding beneath Eldon's large wing.  She felt warmer almost immediately, as the wind was blocked and new heat transferred to her body.  She pushed her back up against Eldon's side, feeling the down of his shorter feathers against her side.  

"Just a team, just a team."  Rose whispered to herself, trying to allay any remaining fear along with her slight dissatisfaction of building an emotional bond she wasn't sure she wanted.  This felt too intimate, but her mind was too tired to dwell on that fact.  Nopony would know anyway.

She quickly passed out again, feeling Cato push up against her as Eldon's wing curved around the both of them.

One thing she couldn't deny:  It sure made her feel safe.
> Trust?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Trust?


"Eldon."  Cato whispered, poking at the griffin.  His brother's eyes fluttered open, and the smaller griffin grinned.  He walked past the fire, getting their supplies together as the larger griffin re-entered the land of the living.  

Eldon felt his wing catch as he tried to pull it in, and looked over to find that Roseluck had planted herself under his protective feathers at some point that night.

"Don't worry about her."  Cato said, trying a few of the berries himself.  "I told her she could, cuz she was cold."

"Was she?  It wasn't all that cold last night."

Cato shrugged.  "She was definitely shivering hard enough."

Eldon wasn't sure if he was alright with the fact that she was sleeping against him.  But she felt warm now, and Eldon was happy to at least know that much.  As much as he wouldn't want to admit it, he cared at least a little for this mare--how could he not by now?  She'd helped him out and really been the one to foster trust between them, and he was thankful.  He'd never really known anyone that would go out of their way to help him, outside of Cato.  It just didn't make sense before.  Family always came first, and there was no way around that.

Not that he felt okay with it.  No, far from that.

But he was somewhat baffled about why she had seemed so nice so quickly, or why she'd fixed him up, or gone foraging, or any of it.  She could have left him behind to find, and take the pressure off herself.  

Eldon sighed, standing up and stretching.  Roseluck didn't budge, and Eldon simply scooped her onto his back.  He screwed with one of her arms for a while before it fell past his shoulder correctly and avoided the saddlebag, but she seemed to be fairly securely on his back.  One of her hind legs twitched and Eldon jumped, mentally berating himself for letting such a stupid thing surprise him.

"Hey, she's in my spot!"  Cato exclaimed, fluttering his wings.  "How come she gets to be there?"

"She's tired, kid."  Eldon replied as a grin spread across his face.  "You've just been sleeping like a baby this whole time."

"Hey, I woke you up!"

"Fine, but she almost passed out last night-"   He paused, looking at the darkness.  "Earlier tonight.  She's the only one that's going to have a shot at protecting you or carrying something heavy, so I need her rested."  Eldon chuckled, craning his head backwards.  "And besides, she looks kinda cute when she's asleep."

"Ooh…"  Cato sang, smiling.  "Eldon and Roseluck sittin' in a tree, C-O-U-RT-I-N-G."  he mocked, sticking two of the letters on the same beat.  

Eldon frowned.  "She's a pony."  He said.  "I'm a griffin.  Things won't happen."

"Oh, that's what you say…"  Cato continued, still getting a kick out of it as he skipped ahead.  "You make such a great pair, I wouldn't be surprised."

The older griffin shook his head with a chuckle, dismissing his brother's words without another thought.  The pair quieted down, occasionally sharing a slice of meat or some berries.  The forest was still slowly changing, as different types of trees suddenly became more common, only to be replaced by different ones.  There was something Eldon liked about the place, now that he was used to it.  

They came to a stream and Eldon stared at the water for a moment.  It was fast moving and clear, so it wasn't going to kill him.  He was used to crappy water anyway, but the pony worried him a little.  He didn't know much about how she lived, and her body might not have ever gotten used to things like this.

Eldon carefully transferred the rest of the water they had into one container, figuring that if she hadn't gotten sick from that yet that it was better to be safe than sorry.  He etched her name into one side with a talon, before filling up the rest of the bottles, minus the one that Rose had filled with painkilling stuff, and wading across the stream.  Cato followed, hopping across a few rocks and meeting Eldon at the other side.

A few more minutes passed and the mare shifted, slowly coming to life on Eldon's back.  She didn't say anything for a while, seeming content to run her hooves through little parts of fur around his shoulders and back.  Roseluck looked at the bandage on his shoulder, touching at it gently.  Blood had seeped through fairly badly, and she knew that they wounds hadn't been able to close very well.  She looked back at his flank, which seemed to be getting on alright, and then back to his shoulder.

Honestly, she wasn't sure how he ignored it.  One of the claw marks was adding to the blood stain as she checked it over, and the others definitely didn't look like a walk in the park.  And only yesterday she'd gone on about how tough earth ponies were.  

"You have all of these other scars from back home?"  Rose asked, tracing one with her hoof.  

"Yeah."  he replied.  "They don't like it when you get tired.  And one time we had to put out a fire."

"What did you do, anyway?"  She inquired.  "Do you mind?"

"What do you mean?"  Eldon asked.

"Well, if you don't want to drudge up old memories, I don't want to force you to."

"I don't care, really.  So long as you're willing to listen."

"It's not as if I have anything else to do."  Rose replied with a giggle.  "And of course I'm willing."

"Well, I pushed carts of coal out of a mine.  Sometimes I worked with a pickaxe or a sledgehammer as well, but most of that was when I was younger and smaller."

"How old are you now?"  She asked.

"Eighteen, I think."  The mare on his back spluttered.  

"I thought you were like twenty something!"  She exclaimed.  "You- how can you be that young?"

"I'm pretty old, really.  Most of the time griffins are out of the mines or dead in a few years, but I was going on six."  He sounded proud, which frankly disgusted Roseluck.

"Oh…"  Was all she said, trying to make her mind see things from Eldon's point of view.  She found that it was near-impossible, although she felt a rush of gratitude for breaking her out.  "How- how did it even get like that?"

Eldon didn't respond for a few minutes, sharing a glance with Cato.  "I guess,"  He began, his voice unsure,  "I guess I can start back from the first thing I really remember, which was one of the last times I saw my father.  I remember learning to fly with him, and if I think about it real hard I can still remember what the wind feels like through my feathers."  Roseluck stammered something out, before she gestured for him to continue.  "Anyway, about a year later there was this big revolution, and I know that he went off to fight.  It didn't last that long, and he was back within a few months, not to say that he fought from the beginning.  He talked about how well things were going, and the freedom that we would have without the rule of the king.  His name was Yeln, by the way.  Anyway, he brought home the first books I'd ever seen, and then Cato was born.  It was probably the happiest I've ever been, but obviously it didn't last."

Roseluck looked at the tips of Eldon's wings, pieces coming together on why they were misshapen, and why he hadn't simply flown away.

Eldon sighed, looking away as he tried to regather his thoughts.  "About a month went by, and then we got a curfew.  Soldiers started appearing around more, and things got steadily worse.  My parents had a fight around that time, and a few days later Mom was gone.  I still don't know what happened to her, and Dad never really seemed to be the same without her.  But he tried to never let us see that, and he put everything into raising us.  Years went by, and things got worse.  Controls tightened even more, and the leadership began to clip wings.  That's the day Dad disappeared."  Eldon extended a wing for her to see, a somewhat clear cut showing itself off near the end.  "And that's why I can't fly."

"Um."  She said, annoyed that she'd let anything exit her lips before she was ready.  "So it's just…  It's just you and Cato now?"

Eldon nodded.  "I always kinda hope that I'll see my mother or father again at some point, because as far as I know, they aren't dead."  The air went silent.  "So what about you?"

"Well,"  She began, her voice cracking before she cleared her throat.  "I guess you know that I have a shop that sells flowers and plants and things.  But I've got parents that live in the same town, and I-"  She sighed.  "I feel like an ass, telling you this."

"How come?"

"It just seems like gloating or bragging."  She replied, laying her head flat on his back.  

Eldon shook his head.  "Come on, it's something to look forward to, right?"

"Yeah, I guess.  You broke out for this stuff, and I'd say that it's worth it."  She paused.  "So what are you planning on doing when you get there?"

Eldon shrugged.  "Build a house, get a job…"

Rose sighed.  "If we make it back, I've got a guest bedroom with your name on it.  You deserve that, at least."

Cato looked back, a grin covering his face.  "Really?!"  He turned to Eldon.  "Did you hear that?  Can we?"

"I'd rather not."  The griffin responded.  "I don't want to be in anyone's debt."

"You wouldn't be, I'd be getting myself out of mine." 

"Maybe so, but I- I don't want to keep you from getting back to your life.  And stupid as it sounds, I don't want to build my existence off of someone else."

It was stupid, Roseluck thought.  But she knew in the back of her mind that she wouldn't have accepted it right away either.  She had done everything involving her business on her own through her own means, and she liked it that way.   Yet, in some way she figured that he wouldn't get along well in a society that didn't particularly love griffins.  There hadn't been any conflict with the griffin Empire very recently, but the occasional griffin that did pass through didn't exactly give the species a good name.  

Roseluck drifted through thought, thankful for the fact that she didn't need to walk.  She was a lot less tired, but her legs still ached.  She heard Eldon's breathing grow more labored, and it didn't take much for her to figure out that the painkillers were wearing off.  Even though she'd had some training in nursing and the like, that had all been on ponies.  She'd taken a big chance hoping that the antiseptic and painkillers didn't have an adverse effect on the guy.  Luckily they hadn't, but then she'd put in a much higher concentration of stuff that would have left a pony her size feeling woozy.

But Rose waited, wondering if Eldon would admit that he needed help.  In any case, she needed more water than what they had, so there wasn't much she could do now.  From what she could find, she'd used all of the bandages.  

Another twenty minutes passed as she drifted in and out of slumber, and they came upon another creek.  Rose forced herself awake, sliding off Eldon's back and pulling a water bottle from his saddlebag.

"We need to replace these bandages."  She said, poking at his bloody shoulder.  Rose chugged down the water, feeling the cool substance rush into her stomach and stave off her fatigue.  The mare refilled it with stream water, holding it up to what little sunrise light they had before nodding and walking back over.  

"Why the water?"  Eldon asked, hissing a little when she poured it over the cloth.

"We don't want it sticking to the wound too much when we go to replace it and pulling off the scab."  She sighed.  "Or however much of a scab you've allowed to form."  She ran out of water and poked at the wound, furrowing her brow.  "Would you mind submerging it over there?  We're supposed to have warm water, but this is the best we can do."

"But-"  He looked at the water.  It was almost definitely freezing snowmelt.  "Fine, if it'll help."  He set down his saddlebag and walked over, stooping down next to the water.  He looked at his shifting reflection and for the first time realized that he looked like shit.  His face was grimy and the bandage on his cheek was bloody, and he just looked so tired.  It could have been the moving water playing tricks on him, but it seemed so clear.

Rose gently pushed him to his side, easing his shoulder into the water and holding him steady.  Eldon started to shiver, but the mare didn't yield.  She knew he wouldn't thank her for forcing him to freeze his ass off, but it would hopefully be worth it.  Roseluck reached her hoof underwater, gripping a corner that had come loose.  She peeled it off and Eldon whimpered, some red tinged water making its way downstream.  

The griffin didn't need to wait to pull himself free, and rocketed to his feet.  He hugged himself, the same cut in his shoulder bleeding more slowly due to the cold.  There were a few more points where he was bleeding, but they were small.  She smiled, grating the bandage against a rock and watching the mostly congealed blood break free.  

"It's definitely healing."  Roseluck said with a smile, wrapping the damp cloth around his wound once again.  "I would recommend you not to walk, but I suppose that's out of the question."

"It'd be nice if it didn't grate together every time I took a step."

"Oh yeah!"  She exclaimed, pulling the cloth away before it stuck.  She went through Eldon's saddlebag before pulling free the bottle of painkillers and walking back.  Rose carefully poured it on, seemingly waiting until a certain point to stop.  Not that Eldon particularly cared.  He was too busy reveling in the sudden numbness that overtook his shoulder.

"I'll worry about taking you off of this stuff later.  It's better that we just get free first."

"I agree."  Eldon mumbled, his head still in the clouds.  "You've got to give me this recepe."

Roseluck bit her lip.  Maybe some of the water had evaporated, because he seemed a lot more mellow right off the bat.  If he was getting a stronger reaction, she wasn't sure how things were about to go.  "You sure you're feeling okay?  Not drowsy or anything all of a sudden?"

Eldon shook his head, grinning at her.  "Nope."  He set off again, hopping across the creek and up the other bank.

"What…"  Cato murmured, staring at Rose.

"I think I may have accidentally given him too much."

"Will it hurt him?"  He asked.  The mare paused, figuring that the two hour nap last time could have allowed the painkillers to wear down.  

"No, but he looks a little hyper.  Probably just like a kind of sugar rush.  I think there's some short-lived caffeine in that type of willow…"

"What's a sugar rush?"  The small griffin asked.

"I'll explain it later, alright?"

Cato nodded and stared at the stream, looking back at Roseluck.  "I don't want to beg, but you should ferry me across this."  He sighed.  "I don't like water, and there's a whole lot more than in the last one…"  He looked away, his face an angry red.  

The mare took her eyes off of Eldon, who was splayed out on the ground, sniffing at a flower and smiled, lowering her head towards the ground.  Cato caught on and crawled over her head, hugging around her neck when he got situated.  Rose waded through, poking at Eldon.  "How's it going?"  She asked, watching his eyes flick to hers.

"Better."  He replied, staring back at the sky.  "I think I'm good."

"You had me scared for a bit there."  She said, looking away.

"Yeah, I see you've got a new ride, Cato.  Walking too hard for you?"  Eldon asked, still looking a little woozy.

"Oh, hush."  Roseluck spoke up, nudging the kid back on when he went to move.  "It's no bother at all.  He's light as a feather."

"If you say so."  Eldon responded, pulling himself to his shaky feet.  He felt like running up a tree.  As soon as Rose had given him those painkillers, he hardly felt tired.  It was like a dose of immediately digestible calories.  

"You look hyper."

"I think you gave me a little too much."  He responded, digging his talons into the ground in an effort to dissipate the extra energy.  "I- well, it's better than the pain, but I don't like it."

Rose chuckled.  "I think you're the first pon-"  She paused, thinking.  "Sapient life form to dislike caffeine."

"Why would you like this?"  Eldon asked, pacing.  

"Because for most ponies, they shake off fatigue with it.  Of course, they ingest it, so it has less of an effect…"  

"Look, I don't care about why anymore."  He replied, running in place.  "You fancy a little running?"  he asked, not waiting for an answer as he took off.  Rose had trouble keeping up with her armor, saddlebags, and Cato, and Eldon quickly noticed.  

He stopped, feeling the high begin to wear off as soon as it started.  He put a talon to his head, feeling more tired all of a sudden.

"I see that's worn off."  Roseluck observed.

Eldon shook his head.  "That was weird."

"Well that's what happens when you get a bunch of caffeine to your bloodstream."  She replied, beginning to walk again.

Eldon felt himself blush, embarrassed that he'd let the stuff affect him at all.  "Do you know how much further we have to go?"  He asked.

"I wish I did."  Roseluck replied.  "But at this point, I just have a direction to go in and a road to follow."  She gestured sideways at the road, barely visible through the trees.  

"Yeah."  Eldon replied, sighing.  "God, I hate walking."

"Well, when was the last time you tried flying?"

Eldon stared at her, a huge grin breaking out across his face.  "Oh!"  He spread his wings, shaking out a few loose feathers.  The ends were still pretty far from recuperating, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying.  But man, the suspense…  He was so excited, the first time he was going to fly in years something that was so close at hand.  

Eldon brought his wings down slowly, twisting them around in their joints and getting them stretched out.  They felt a little sore from lack of use, but he was sure they would still work.  He'd kept them in fairly good shape, even if he looked like a moron in the process.  

His first actual flap downward brought his talons off the ground, and hit his brain with a sudden blob of excitement.  He'd gotten off the ground, and that meant that…

"You know, I'm no expert, but I think you're supposed to flap your wings more than once."  Roseluck said with a laugh, her voice filtering into Eldon's mind a moment later.

"I'm having trouble composing myself."  He shot back, noticing a bent feather in one of his wings that he quickly removed.  "You know, it's been a while, you better not be expecting much."  The mare just smiled and nodded, and Eldon shook his head.

He began to flap his wings again, rising off the ground shakily.  The wingtips had not grown near enough to keep him in control to a high enough degree, but he quickly found himself not caring.  He stayed below the canopy, smiling as Roseluck and Cato cheered him on.  He swooped forwards, slowing up without any form of skill.  His wingbeat went off rhythm, and he yelped as he spun to one side.  

Eldon lost sight of the ground for a moment as the world spun, and suddenly the dirt appeared once again, contacting his face in a blow he never felt as his vision went black.


________________________________________________________


Ice water splashed over his face and he bolted awake, sitting up quickly and looking around.  Roseluck put a hoof to his chin, turning his head a little to one side and then back again.

"That was a pretty nasty crash there."  She said, fear evident in her voice.  "You okay?"

Eldon's head gave a pulse of pain, but he nodded nonetheless.  "I'm fine."

Roseluck sighed and stuck a cold bottle of water to his head, making him realize just how big of a lump had already formed.  "You had me worried."  She said, looking to one side at Cato, who was uncharacteristically silent.  "You've got to stop doing things like this."

"I- I'll try."  Eldon responded, wincing as Roseluck put a little more pressure to his head.  

"Yeah, you better."  She continued, sounding a little annoyed.  "I don't want to have an extra thing to worry about, with everything else that's already going on."

"I'm surprised you're worried at all."

The mare appeared a little taken aback.  "Why's that?"  She asked, her voice rising.

"B-because we've known each other for a couple of days, and we're probably close enough that you don't need me anymore."  He slapped a talon to his forehead.  That was just about the worst thing he could say, even though he was thinking it.  

"I- you-"  She gritted her teeth, and Eldon pushed himself backwards a bit.  "What the fuck is it with you and your assumptions!"  Rose yelled, pushing a hoof into his chest before he could move any more.  "You're not just an expendable griffin to me, like you think you are.  And you better not think the same as me!"  She huffed, pausing as she thought of how to continue.  "We're a team, sure.  But I don't plan on splitting up after this is over, and going our separate ways.  I'd like to think that we're friends, and I'd like to keep it that way!"

Eldon stared, his back flat against the ground.  "You know,"  he began, "Pardon me for not taking your trust easily.  My entire life, I've never trusted anyone!  Never, because that's what gets you killed!  I know that you're friendly, and I'd love to trust you as much as you do me, but I just-"  His voice cracked and he trailed off.  "I just can't.  I'm sorry."  The griffin pushed the mare off and grabbed his saddlebag from the ground, tossing it over his back as he walked away.

Rose tried to get up to follow, but Cato grabbed her with a talon.  "He's not going to say anything."  The griffin said.

She shook her head.  "I'm still going to try."  She tried to jerk away, but he held on.

"He's gotten like this before, you know."  Cato continued, and Rose tore her eyes off of Eldon to listen, watching the older griffin lay down a ways away.  She was about to ask why, but the griffin explained himself.  "Back a bunch of years ago, I'm not really sure when, he actually did try to make friends and all that.  He had at least a few, from what I can get out of him."

"What happened to them?"

"Most of them are dead by now, I think."  Rose gasped and Cato gave her a look that said 'I'm not sure why you're surprised' and continued.  "I'm pretty sure he was numb to that by then, so that wasn't the issue.  But one of his friends ratted him out after some number of years, and a guard came by to search.  Of course, he found some things that we shouldn't have had, and wrote us up.  It was a death penalty for Eldon, and probably me as well.  If he was gone, I was way too young to survive in an orphanage."

"But he's not dead, so…"

"Yeah, he ended up giving away my dad's gold locket as a bribe.  It was one of the only things Eldon had left from his father, and he had to give it away because of some loser."

Roseluck chewed her lip, watching the griffin out of the corner of her eye.  She believed it without much question, by now.  He never seemed to have any good luck to speak of, at least not that she could see.  When they got back, she'd have to find a way to throw a nice party.  By nice, of course, she meant away from Pinkie.  She already knew that something like that wouldn't go well, not that it was a hard thing to figure out.

He wouldn't know anypony, and even besides that, something like that would probably make him nervous.  If he had a hard time trusting her fully, putting him into any sort of situation like that would be a nightmare.  Of course, if she did manage to talk him into staying with her, she wondered if he would worry about her being so close.  

No, that was just silly.  He'd already slept near her, and she knew he wasn't stupid.  She'd patched him up, and he'd started to open up a little.  Maybe he was referring to high stress situations.  If push came to shove, she assumed, he couldn't trust her to help him before she tried to save herself.

The thought hit her like a brick, and she sighed.  He'd already almost given his life for her, and part of her brain said that she wouldn't hesitate to do the same had he been in that situation.  But… that seemed pointless.  She wouldn't have.  Rose wouldn't leave his side now, but she knew she had a breaking point somewhere.  Eldon… she worried about the guy, maybe more than she should.  But he- if he'd freed her and she'd ended up on her own, she wouldn't have made it this far.

He was strong willed, and he showed it.  He never seemed to sleep, at least not near as much as she had, and yet through every cut, through every setback, he continued unabated.  He was stubborn, and maybe saving her had been a stupid decision on a whim, but he hadn't tried to stop in the middle.  He followed through, and Rose found herself feeling inferior.

The mare made a resolution in her head, nodding it as she finished.  She would get him to safety, even if she had to risk everything to get there.  And once they got back, well, she wanted to fix what he'd lost.  She could show him so many things he'd dreamt of having, yet the things he seemed to be missing, whether he cared or not, were things she could provide.

If she did nothing else, she wanted to show him that he could trust her; that he could trust ponies in general.  She didn't want him to end up suspicious of every move the townspeople made, especially when he was of a new species that the civilians didn't particularly love.  

Rose shook her head.  It was a daunting task, but it was something to take her mind off of the fact that they were being chased.  She got to her hooves and walked towards Eldon, hearing Cato tag along.  She offered him a hoof, which he took after a slight widening of his eyes.  

"You ready?"  She asked.  "With how far we've gone, there can't be too much ground left to cover."

"I hope you're right."  Eldon responded, feeling her nudge up against his side.  He peered over, and she stared back with a grin.  

"I know you don't want to, but you can trust me."

Eldon only nodded, looking away as she pulled her side away from his.  He was warm, for such a cold morning.  It put the fur on her side a little on end, before it went back to normal.  Roseluck sighed, looking at Cato on her other side.  He met her gaze a moment later, and she lowered her head to allow him to hop on.  He did, tugging on Eldon's ear and whispering something from her back.  

"Sure, we can buy mushrooms when we get there, Cato."  Eldon replied with a  chuckle.  The group sped up slightly, eager to arrive just that much earlier.

Naturally, in their haste they didn't notice the small clouds of smoke, looming behind them against the backdrop of the colors of sunrise.
> Teamwork
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Eldon stared over a meadow in the noontime, looking at the slight shadow of what he assumed was smoke against the white of the clouds.  A hoof touched his shoulder and he jumped, looking back at Roseluck with a slightly annoyed expression.  

"We're close, you know."  She said, pointing across the expanse of openness at a distant tree line.  "Those are the Whitetale Woods." 

Eldon peered into the sky again, looking at the trees and then back to her.  "It's a long way to go, if we're so out in the open."

"I was thinking the same."  The mare replied, leaning her shoulder against a tree.  Her wary eyes fell to Eldon, who stiffened suddenly and dove into her, pushing them both into the dirt.  "What?!"  She whisper yelled, pushing him away none too gently.  Eldon didn't respond immediately, the feathers near the back of his head moving as his ears tried to take in what sound they could.  He turned around a few times, looking through the darkened leaves towards the sky above, attempting to catch sight of whatever he was looking for.

"You see that?"  He asked, staying low to the ground.

"Obviously not!"  Roseluck whispered angrily back.  

"I'm pretty sure that was a griffin."  He replied, cursing under his breath.  Eldon crept back into the trees, pulling Cato along a moment later.  "They're closer than I thought."

"And we have to cross… that…"  Roseluck trailed off, pointing across the meadow.  "Shit."

Eldon sat down with a thud, holding his head in his talons.  "As soon as we go out there, we're screwed.  I can't fly well enough, and I can't run at full speed with these cuts.  Then we've got Cato, who I'll need to carry."

"So we'll just distract them."  Cato spoke up.  "Just light a tree on fire or something, that'll get their attention."

Roseluck and Eldon shared a look, before they both jumped into action.  Eldon pulled out his flint, tossing Cato on his back as the three tore back into the forest.  They moved quickly, making sure to keep themselves far away from the light that found its way to the forest floor.  Eldon skidded to a halt at a dead oak that seemed mostly separated from others around it, and pushed his side against the trunk, keeping his visual profile to a minimum.  He didn't need long to catch his breath, at least compared to Rose.  

But as soon as they were breathing normally, he took the knife from her outstretched arm, holding it out.  "Worst case scenario, it looks like rain soon anyway."  He said, grinning a little as he returned his attention to the tree.  "Now, we're going to light this and run, and as soon as it really starts to put off smoke we'll make a break for it.  Everyone got that?"  He asked, his eyes flicking around the sky through the rather thick branches.

"Go ahead."  Rose replied, her eyes turned skywards.  Cato gave a hum of approval.  Eldon nodded, pulling up his talon to drag through the bark.  It left a few divots covered with wood shavings, which he quickly scraped out and into his palm.  He made a little pile at the ground and lit it on his first try, working through nearby sticks as he chained the new fire to the tree.  The griffin picked up a larger stick, holding it in the fire as Roseluck pushed another over and stacked it against the tree trunk, watching the dry wood catch almost immediately.  It was a good thing it hadn't rained for at least a few weeks, otherwise they would have been hard pressed to get a huge inferno going at all.

Flames started to lick up the side of the tree and Rose tapped Eldon.  He nodded, pulling the stick he was holding from the fire, watching one end of it burn.  He started to light the grass, backing up as he did so.  He looked across the clearing, his eyes meeting those of a little furry animal.

He heard wing flaps, and with a thud, a griffin landed across the clearing.  They stared for a moment, slowly backing up as the flames drew in closer.  The little furry thing ran past, scared from its place by the griffin, and Rose took some steps away from the thing.  

"Don't get close…"  She warned.  Eldon wasn't sure why, it didn't look like it could hurt anything.

Eldon lost focus, a growl echoing through the foliage.  The soldier looked around, not keen on attacking with the fire and a chance of other threats.  But he didn't seem to have much choice, as a big fucking furry thing crashed through the bushes behind him, swatting the soldier out of the way with its oversized paw.

"Bear!"  Roseluck screamed, tugging at Eldon's arm as he passed the flaming torch back to Cato.  "That must've been it's kid, we gotta go!"

The three turned and sprinted off, and Eldon looked backwards long enough to watch the bear hone in on the griffin as more soldiers joined into the fight.  He focused on running, dodging between trees as they neared their original beachhead.  Roseluck arrived first, and though Eldon knew he had superior stamina, the mare definitely had him beat in sheer ground speed.

"Don't tire yourself out right away."  Eldon warned.  "It's a long way to those woods."

"Oi, so long as you can keep up, we won't have a problem."  She grinned back.

"You sturdy back there Cato?"  The larger griffin asked, watching his brother shoot him a salute.  Eldon felt a pang of nervousness, followed by the cool feeling of adrenaline that was becoming a lot more common.  Roseluck bent over and emptied her breakfast onto the ground.  "You okay?"  He asked, looking worried.

"It's just the adrenaline."  she replied, "I'm fine now."

Eldon didn't question her; he didn't have the time.  If she was sick and had trouble moving, then they would never make it out.  Some part of him probably would've stayed even if that was the case.

Rose took off first, and Eldon followed shortly behind.  The trio broke from the tree line at a sprint, quickly beginning the long journey across the meadow.  The grass wasn't above shoulder level, and it felt nice against Eldon's talons and fur as he swished through it.  By now, anything that could be a distraction was quickly used as one.  

"Cato, start setting this place ablaze!"  Eldon yelled back, watching the griffin maneuver and begin to run the stick through the grass.  It was dry, just like everything else, and quickly caught on fire, leaving a trail of blazing grass behind them.  It made a direct arrow to their position, but Eldon knew that griffin eyes wouldn't miss such obvious movement anyway.  

He looked up, feeling a twinge of gratitude over the fact that he was much closer to the tree line.  Eldon turned to look over his shoulder to a much less happy sight.  

Griffins.  Not as many as he would have expected, but every one with the same focus on their faces.  And they were all headed straight for him.  The smoke had hardly even started to build.

He ignored the cramp in his side and the pain in his shoulder, forcing himself to regain the distance he'd lost between himself and Roseluck.  

The trees neared, and so did the sounds of flapping wings.  

Eldon looked back again, planting a talon into the ground to turn as a griffin shot past his side.  Wind whistled past his flank, proof of the tiny amount of space between the spear the griffin was holding and his flesh.  He saw a lonely tree nearby and veered a little to the right.

"Rose!  The tree!!"  He yelled, watching her turn herself to meet him halfway.  Her hooves thundered next to him as they sprinted abreast, going past a tree with enough branches to screw up any dives that were in progress.  

They seemed to share the same thoughts as they targeted a new tree, the feelings of Cato shifting on Eldon's back going to the back of his mind.  

"Dodge right!"  The larger griffin heard, obeying the action without any thought.  By this time, anything with directional words was so ingrained into his head from commands in the mines that thinking about the order seemed a secondary task.  

A griffin swooped between the two of them, and they spread a few more feet apart for good measure.  The soldier seemed to be indecisive about who to go after, but quickly decided on Eldon.  He had a sort of rage in his eyes that Eldon had never seen, at least, not towards himself.  Guards were always composed- well, sometimes they laughed and made merry while they were hurting griffins, but they were never angry.  Eldon, despite the heavy breathing and the dryness of his throat, gulped.

Eldon looked forwards, his mind working at any capacity it could.  The griffin turned to stab at him but he slowed down, watching him fly past, his tail ablaze from Cato.  Eldon built up his speed again, and the griffin waved off a few of his comrades, stopping momentarily to douse the flames in his mouth.  Rose passed under another tree, with the land restricted griffin close behind once again.  

The griffin soldier peeled off a few plates of his armor, letting off a screech as he circled and dove.  A berry flew off of Eldon's back, followed by several more as Cato yelled back.  The griffin let a spear fly, watching it stick into the ground a few measly feet from Eldon as he pulled out a secondary knife.  

The soldier swooped and Eldon sped up, watching the griffin do the same.  The elder brother slowed just as the enemy went to go past, but the soldier expected the move and barreled into Eldon's side.  Cato went sailing through his vision as Eldon rolled, reappearing again before the kid disappeared somewhere in the grass.  

Eldon stopped rolling, out of breath and in pain.  His arm felt mostly numb, and whatever other parts of him weren't hurt like crazy.  He could take some solace in the fact that his arm wasn't broken, but not much.  The sky stared back at him, and he tried to take in a ragged breath, but found the air had been knocked from him as well.  His vision blurred as he finally managed to breathe.  

Eldon sat up, getting slammed back against the earth a fraction of a second later.  He felt the cold metal of a knife against his throat, breaking the skin as a griffin above him pressed down and grinned evilly. 

"It's been too long."  He said.  "And, you know, I wanted to make this slow, make you really pay for what you've done.  But now that I'm here, it sounds like a lot more fun to just get it over with.  

Eldon's talon gripped around the griffin's forearm, pushing it back for a moment before the griffin began to bear down again.  He held his grin, easily overpowering Eldon's strength.  It would have been harrowing if he wasn't abut to die.  To think that even him, abnormally strong among the griffin population, stood no match against soldier strength.  

His other talon clawed at the face of the griffin, leaving a small scratch that erased the griffin's grin.  "Fine."  He said, flipping the knife around in his talon to a jagged edge.  "But you just made things a little worse fo-"

The griffin grunted as he flew to one side, rolling a few times before he came to a stop.  Roseluck entered Eldon's vision and offered him a hoof, which he took.  She had Cato on her back already, and they quickly sped off once again.  Eldon looked backwards at the griffin, who had ended up with the air knocked out of his system.  He stared their direction, his eyes no longer with what little tinge of sanity they had.  Those were the eyes of a predator, with only one task in mind. 

The trio crossed the tree line, leaving the soldier behind.  They didn't stop, the issue of conserving energy no longer something to worry about.  Eldon fell in behind Roseluck, following her this way and that as she led them through around blobs of heavy foliage.  She began to slow, and Eldon found himself thankful for the rest.  When she finally came to a halt, they were looking over a small pond, completely shaded by trees.  

Roseluck grinned over at him, her expression wavering just a little before she lunged over and hugged Eldon.  "We…"  She stopped to breathe,  "We made it."  She whispered.  "Equestrian territory."

Eldon felt a buzz of excitement go through his system.  They'd taken all the problems of escaping, the trackers, the fighting… and stayed standing.  Eldon returned the hug, hearing the mare let out a slight squeak as he squeezed her.  

When he broke it off, she was just as out of breath but her mood hadn't dampened.  A talon went part of the way around his neck, as did another around Roseluck's as Cato decided to join in.  "We did it!"  He exclaimed.  "I knew you could do it, Eldon!  I knew it!"

Eldon let his flank hit the ground, gazing out over the stable surface of the pond.  He leaned his head over a few inches, looking at his own reflection.  He was bloodied and bruised, and as the others joined him he realized that neither had escaped the same fate.  Dirt covered his features, contaminating every feather, every hair.  He slid off his saddlebag.

He wrapped his arms around Roseluck and Cato and hopped forwards, pulling them into the water with him.  Rose let out a surprised scream, before they plunged into the pristine water and broke the perfect reflection.  The water wasn't deep; it was shallow enough that Eldon could touch the bottom with his paws as he kept his head above water.  

"You jerk!"  Roseluck exclaimed, splashing him with cold water.  Eldon shivered, knowing that he would have to get out soon.  Stupid snowmelt.  Most of the shivers were probably from the adrenaline wearing off, but it was still cold water.  Eldon chuckled back at the mare, quickly scrubbing himself down with his talons as a shivering Cato pulled himself onto Eldon's head.

"Hey, you're clean now, you should be thanking me!"  He replied, grinning like an idiot.

"Yeah, well I'm also cold."  She shot back, pulling herself from the water.  She shook herself a second later, turning around to look at Eldon.  "Also, you didn't see that."

"What?"

"Me shaking myself off."  

Eldon got out of the water and shook himself, sending water in all directions.  "How come?"

"Because it's not… it's not something ponies do."

"You just did it though."  He reminded, pointing at her.

"Yeah, but it's…  it's like something an animal would do, and we're civilized."  She said, looking away.

"Whatever you say."  Eldon replied, shaking himself off and flinging water all over.  "It works pretty well."

"Hurry up, they could follow us in here…"  She trailed off, looking around.  "We shouldn't celebrate yet."

Eldon stuck Cato onto his back, sliding the saddlebags on as well.  "Fine.  But they won't follow us into the woods.  The thing that makes the Griffin army formidable and tough to fight is the fact that they force enemies to fight on their terms.  I guess the other part is that there are tons of griffins anyway."

"And that soldier was even bigger than you."

"That too."  Eldon replied.  "But as long as we're in here, they'll try to wait us out.  It's not like that matters, though, if we're in Equestrian territory now, which sounds awesome to hear myself say."  Eldon did a little hop, jostling Cato around.  "I'm probably the most sore I've ever been, but I've still never felt so good."  

"I know what you mean."  Roseluck replied, grinning as Eldon continued to hop around happily.  "Those days in the cage, I never thought I'd end up here, with somepony like you."

"What do you mean, like me?"  He asked.

Roseluck shook her head, giggling.  "Nopony could have done what you did, and not given up.  You're not what I envisioned when I thought about somepony to save me, but you've more than fit the job description."

Eldon grinned, returning to his happy pacing.  "Thanks."  He said, fluttering his wings as he hopped into the air.  Roseluck muffled a laugh, pretty sure she had never seen him so overjoyed.

"God, I feel like I could do anything!  I feel so alive!"  He slapped his saddlebag back to the ground, pulling open a pocket.  "First resolution:  I'm never going to feel this hungry again."  He muttered, shoving talonfuls of food into his mouth with abandon.  

"Don't make yourself sick, Eldon."  Rose said, sitting next to him.  A different thought came to mind.  "Do you even chew?"

"Sometimes I bite things into smaller pieces."  He replied, tilting his head upwards and swallowing.  "Oh, that's so good."  He passed some beef back to Cato, and continued to eat.  

With no transition at all, he stopped and returned the bag to his back, looking over at Rose with a grin.  "I can't say that I'm not excited to see this town of yours."

"Oh, I never told you anything about it!"  She exclaimed, quickly mapping a pace as she trotted along.  "We've got to go to this place called Sugarcube Corner!  The mare there makes the greatest cupcakes!  And then there's the Apple family, that grow the best apples around.  I tell you, if I gain twenty pounds when we get back, I wouldn't be surprised."

"You hungry?"  Eldon asked, flipping open one side of his saddlebags again.  "We have a fair number of berries left.  There's some meat too, if you've changed your mind.  You seemed to like it enough."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm not really that hungry…"  yet as he stopped she hardly waited before she dug in.  She quickly became almost ravenous about it in the same way Eldon had moments earlier.  It was probably something about the idea that they didn't need to conserver their rations anymore.  If anything, they had waited a bit too long to eat them.  

To tell the truth, the fact that they were even close after three days, even if he had been trotting for most of it, was astounding.  The weather was perfect, the ground hard to track across.  He'd found this mare and she'd given him food, a place to stay after it was all over…  And for the first time in a long time, he felt full.  It seemed as if for once, luck had been on his side.  
> Tension
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"This forest is thicker than I remember."  Roseluck noted, looking around.  "I was pretty deep when they caught me, but I didn't think they had to move me this much further.  I don't even think I was in griffin territory yet, those bastards."

"Capturing a spy is a big deal for border control soldiers."  Eldon replied.  "It makes a career."

"But I wasn't even a spy!"  

"They don't care."  He replied, shaking his head.  "The government blames ponies for plotting and takes pressure from itself, and the soldiers get promotions."  He paused.   "Everyone wins," he finished sarcastically.

"What a perfect system."  Rose replied.  

"Do you ever think it'll change, Eldon?"  Cato asked.

"Eventually."  Eldon said.  "'Course, it might not for a really long time."

"Wasn't there any discontent?"  The mare asked, stopping briefly to stretch out a sore muscle.  

"There was, I think.  But you never know, and that's probably what keeps it from developing into something larger.  If I tried to start something, chances are nobody would even join in.  The government does a good job keeping us afraid."

"I can see why you're so happy."  Rose mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief.

"So what's going on around here?"  The griffin asked.  "Like, recent news and stuff."

"Well, we got a new princess a few weeks before I got taken."  She said, shrugging.  "So we're up to four, but I'm not really sure what the new one's supposed to do.  It's pretty much the two main sisters that matter."

"They're both female?!"  Eldon exclaimed, narrowing his eyes in confusion.  

"Yeah, I'm not sure if there's such a thing as a male alicorn."  

There were probably more questions Eldon should be asking, but he was still stuck on the female thing.  "So what've they got in terms of protection?"

"Uh-"  Rose began, not expecting the question.  "Some guards… the elements of harmony, I guess."

Eldon put a talon to his face, sighing.  "The what?"

"They're like, these little things that kinda… do stuff to stop bad guys."  She replied, screwing up her face as she tried to think of more to say.

"Why aren't they called the elements of destruction then?"  Eldon asked.  "Shouldn't they sound menacing and less corny, you know, so that they inspire shock and awe?  That's what everything is back home, and that seems to make sense.  Some of the names might not even be words, but they sound terrifying."

Roseluck took a moment to think.  "Well, they're called that because they represent six parts of friendship, and they act harmonically together."

"Oh…"  Eldon said, his face becoming a mix of several emotions.  Cato burst out in a fit of giggles on his back.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"  The kid exclaimed, his face turning a little red from his guffawing.  "Oh, let's be friends, that'll stop people!"  He broke into a new wave of laughing, and Eldon couldn't help but chuckle himself.

"Make fun of them all you want, they're real things!"  Rose rebutted, as Eldon finally cooled off.  

"Oh god, I really hope you're joking."  He said, and she shook her head.

"They already got used a few times, against a mind control thingy, and a god, and a… I think that was it."  She tapped her chin a few times before returning her attention to him.  "So they work."

"Until you take out one of the people, apparently."  Eldon noted.  "It's not like those things work without all the pieces, right?"

"Well, no, but-"  She paused.  "You know, it is kind of stupid.  I don't want my future to hang on Pinkie Pie."

"Who?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter.  As soon as we get to town, you'll know.  She really likes to make friends."

Eldon wasn't sure how such a being would act, really.  He'd only dealt with antisocial civilians.  "Is she nice?"  Was all he could think of to say.

"Uh… yeah…"

"Why the hesitation?"  Cato chimed in.

"Because she's nice to a fault.  And she's criminally incapable of taking a hint when you don't want her around."  She took a breath.  "Everypony just says that she eats too many sweets, but I think there's something legitimately wrong with her.  Nothing big, but she's just so- You know what?  You'll see for yourself."

"Is she dangerous?"  Eldon asked.

"No, not really."

"God, ponies are weird."  He said, shaking his head.  Roseluck giggled, and nodded back.

"As if, from a race of talking quadrupeds that have tattoos on their asses, you're just now catching on."

"Well, I try."


______________________________________________________________


Eldon grunted, falling backwards against a tree and giving his sore legs a rest.  The painkillers were starting to wear off again, and he was really feeling it this time.  Before he had just been dealing with a few cuts that admittedly hurt, but he was just so sore and worn out.  That sprint had been a lot longer than anything he'd done in a long time, and he wasn't built for running.  

"God, you look terrible."  Roseluck observed, pushing some of the feathers out of his eyes with a hoof.  

"Thanks for noticing."  Eldon replied sarcastically, shaking his head to try to displace her hoof.  She held it steady and began looking him over, poking him here and there with her hoof.  

"Well, you have way more bruises than I thought you did."  The mare noted.  "Hopefully these aren't all from saving me."

"They aren't."  Eldon replied with a shake of the head.  "Most of them were from before I even got out.  A couple days ago- a couple days before I left, we got this soldier in there that really liked to hit things with the stick they all carry around.  So he did."

"Is me knowing you just going to involve me perpetually feeling bad for you?"

"I dunno, you shouldn't."  Eldon said, watching her wet down his bandages.  They didn't come off with a lot of blood, which made him feel slightly better.

"Well I'm going to."  She replied.  "And I'm not going to put these things back on.  We're close enough, and as long as you don't do anything crazy, we won't have to worry about it, okay?"  

"Yeah."  He stretched his arm, enjoying the lack of resistance. 

"And when we get there, I'll take you to the hospital, get you nice and patched up.  I know a nurse there, so you don't have to worry about ponies shunning you or anything.  At least, not where it matters."

"Yeah…  I'm still nervous about that, though."

Rose looked away, her hoof still on his shoulder.  "We should get a little more painkiller in your system."

"Don't- I don't need it."

"Oh, shush."  Rose said, pulling out the bottle.  "You're too stubborn."

He opened his beak to retort, but let it close again.  "Fine."  The mare smiled gently, dumping a little onto her hoof before she spread it around what was left of Eldon's wound.  It felt like a muted version of last time, but as the feeling slowly spread she added a little more, repeating the process several times.  The griffin sighed, leaning his head back against the tree.  

"Better?"  She asked, rubbing her hoof against his shoulder gently. 

"Yeah."  He admitted, though to be honest, he didn't want to use a drug like this.  He didn't feel like he needed it, but she was probably right.  She had a knack for knowing when he was in pain anyway.

"It sucks, you know.  Seeing you all hurt like you are."  Eldon took that one with a little surprise, and had a little trouble doing anything more than staring.  Rose waited a few moments, before breaking the silence.  "You know you can trust me, right?"  She asked, drawing a little closer.

He didn't know how to respond.

"I know you have your issues with it and all,"  she continued, glancing over at Cato, who had fallen asleep.  "But it would mean a lot to think that you do."

"Yeah.  I do."  He said, but he knew it wasn't true.  Maybe a little, but every time she did something he still watched for treachery, tried to keep himself out of the way of things that she might attempt.  The risk was lower, but he still felt-- some part of him knew that he could trust her though, and every day that part of him ended up with a better argument.  

'Why hadn't she struck yet?'  It would say, only for the rest of him to come up blank.  'If she wanted him out of the way, it only took a moment.'  His mind continued, 'and she had her opportunities.'

But he just went in circles.  She could just be waiting for a good time now that he'd gotten her this far.  Eldon focused on her face again, immobile in front of his, possibly deep in thought the same as he was.  He wondered if she was pretty, a recurring thought that seemed to pop up whenever he least expected it.  It wasn't easy to decide on the attractiveness of her features.  To be honest, he'd never seen another pony before, and they all looked kinda weird.  Not ugly, just… different?

That brought up an interesting thought.  If they didn't have any griffins here, how did he expect Cato to actually meet another griffin and settle down?  The thought had crossed his mind before, but he had pushed it away.  To be honest, he didn't feel any part of himself that wanted a relationship in the first place.  Eldon just wished he could tell if that was because of the fact that he didn't feel he could trust them, or because he didn't have any interest in love in the first place.  He liked to think he could love something as a mate, if he had the chance, but it didn't seem plausible.

He sighed, and Rose jumped at the noise.  She chuckled, knocking a hoof against his shoulder jokingly.  "Guess you caught me in thought there."  The mare muttered, returning briefly before jumping out of her trance again with a start.  "I can't wait to get back to my real bed."  She pushed herself away, stretching out her back and yawning.

"As long as you have something better than the stupid thing I've been sleeping on."  Eldon muttered, glancing sideways as if the bed could hear him and would seek revenge.  

"I- Well, I have a guest bedroom, but there's no way I could have it ready the same day.  I had it in a state of disrepair for a while while I redid the shop, and it never really got back to the way it was.  I mean, I started, but obviously I didn't have a chance to finish."  She paused.  "I have a couch though, you can use that."

"Fine with me."  Eldon replied.  "I'd sleep on the floor if you wanted me to, to be honest.  You're already giving me a free house to sleep in."

"I wish I could do more."  Rose replied.  

"Ahh,"  Eldon said, waving a dismissive talon at her.  "You've already given me way more than I expected to receive."  He stumbled, glaring back at the rock that had dared to trip him.

"It still doesn't feel like enough."  She finished, and the pair became silent.

Eldon's thoughts drifted back to the griffin that had attacked him, and the revenge he was sure he was seeking.  It made sense, for a griffin to try to kill him over the loss of another soldier.  He'd seen what had happened a griffin that had injured a guard accidentally, and it hadn't been pretty.  This was probably another one of those cases, and just as unavoidable.  

He would've liked to think that he cared about the griffins he killed, but he didn't.  It was calming, in a way, to think that the world was probably better off without them, and that he had no reason to mourn their deaths.  But some part of him felt guilty, as if for some stupid reason his safety didn't supersede theirs.  He wondered where that left him and Rose.

He'd said he would protect her, and if that was against anything serious, probably lose his life for her.  But then again, he would probably try to save Cato first.  She was his friend, had his back, and had helped protect both him and Cato.  And so the decision became harder.

Maybe the problem he was having about this was the fact that it was no longer so simple.  Before, it had just been Cato and him.  If something happened, he watched out for Cato and left it at that.  But now, if something happened where he had to choose, it seemed to get harder by the day.  He couldn't choose Rose, and yet some part of him knew that in a lot of situations he should.  Family meant a lot, and it sure as hell meant a lot more than friendship, but he couldn't help but think around those bonds.  Rose did more.  She was his lifeline in this place.

And so, with his family on one end and his chance at a life, success and companionship around here on the other, he was left with something hard to decide on.  Factoring in the bonds, it was still Cato.  But if he continued to become closer friends with this mare, well, the pragmatic decision could rock the moral decision.

"You- you see that?"  Rose asked, pointing through the trees.  

"No."  Eldon replied shortly.

"I think that's where the forest ends!"  The mare exclaimed, looking at Eldon excitedly.  "Come on, hurry up a little!"

They sped their walk, the trees thinning out slightly before they ended entirely.  Eldon caught sight of cute little buildings, along with the faraway shapes of ponies going about their business.  They were of even more ridiculous colors than the houses.  These ponies were kinda starting to creep Eldon out.

"It feels too good to be true!"  Rose exclaimed, hopping in place.  She grabbed his talon and pulled him along, up a small slope towards the buildings.  Eldon got a feeling in his gut that he really didn't like.  He worried they wouldn't accept him, that he would be kicked from a place he'd risked everything to get to.  

"You sure they'll- you know, not try to kill me or anything?"  He asked.

"Pfft, no."  Rose responded, giving his arm another tug.  "Stop lagging behind!"

"But-"  He sighed, biting his lip.  "Fine."

Rose smirked, letting go and allowing him to follow along by himself.  "Now's no time to get cold feet."

"I know."  Eldon responded.  He opened his mouth to continue, but couldn't figure out a follow up.  Then it came to him, and he shook Cato awake, placing the griffin on the ground gently.  "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go… I have to piss."  He said abruptly, turning back towards the forest.  

"Always a pleasure to know."  Rose replied sarcastically, looking around without much of an idea on what she should do.  "You'll catch up?"  She asked, and Eldon nodded.  

He knew Cato would be safe, especially with Rose around.  He just needed a minute to try to get himself together; to purge himself of all the nervousness that had built up in his system.  Eldon paced back and forth a few times, shaking his head.  Whatever, it was now or never.

Rose took a few more steps and looked backwards, expecting Eldon to reappear any second.  Without him she felt… vulnerable, to say the least.  Maybe a little lonely, but Cato more than made up for that.  She grinned, peering back at the little guy as he yawned.

"Roseluck?!"  Game a high pitched, questioning yell.

The mare turned her head, situating her eyes on a familiar pink mare.  She actually found herself glad to see Pinkie for once, where she could ignore the fact that her ear was about to be talked off.  "Hi Pinkie!" 

Rose barely took half a step forwards before she was enveloped in a tight hug and Cato slid onto the ground.  "Oh!  Who's this cute little guy?"  Pinkie asked, leaning down to get a closer look at the small griffin.  "Where'd you find a griffin anyway?"

"Well, I-"  Pinkie gasped, her eyes focused on the tree line.  Eldon walked out, blood from a fresh cut smeared across his cheek with the usual sticks and leaves stuck all over.  She figured that the cut must've been from some branch or something, and it made him look just a little worse.  "Monster!"  The Pink Mare exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Roseluck and running away as fast as she could.  Roseluck's hooves dragged along the ground for a moment before she was able to get her footing and attempt to slow the Pinkie train.

"Pinkie wait, you don't understand!"  Rose screamed over the sound of pounding hooves as the energetic mare tugged her along.  

The party mare ignored her protests and turned, her eyes widening as she realized that Eldon had taken chase.  Pinkie put on a new burst of speed, and Rose responded by digging her hooves in further

"Where the fuck do you think you're going!?"  Eldon screamed after them, unable to run any faster with his sore muscles and injuries.  He slowed to a stop as he hit the cobblestones of a road, watching Roseluck have a mute argument with Pinkie as they disappeared into a crowd of ponies.  

Roseluck tried to pry Pinkie's arm off of her, but she couldn't find the energy.  She definitely didn't lack the will power.  Her eyes caught movement, and she could have sworn she saw wide wings disappear behind a building and out of her view.  

They blew threw a door and she hit the ground roughly, while Roseluck caught Cato in her hooves, flung off Pinkie's back by her trip.  "Sorry."  Pinkie said, looking winded for perhaps the first time in her life.  "Twilight!  I need your help!"

"Pinkie, you're misunderstanding-" Roseluck began, before she was cut off once again.

"Twilight!"

"Pinkie!"  The lavender mare responded, walking out of her library's kitchen with a book in her purple aura.  "I thought I told you that I was done with the explos-"  Her eyes caught sight of Roseluck and Cato, both silent as they studied the alicorn and waited for her reaction.  "What did you do?"

"I just- Roseluck got back, and I knew because my leg twitched and I got a headache, and that means that I was going to see somepony that I hadn't seen for a long time, so that had to mean Roseluck, because usually it only happens after some number of weeks or months, but she went missing, and those are worse circumstances, so I knew that-"

"So why are you here?!"  Twilight screamed.  Roseluck noticed the bags under her eyes for the first time, figuring that she probably had some of her own to match.

"Because this big monster came out of the-"

"Can I talk?!"  Rose yelled, pulling herself from the floor as the mares stared.  "Pinkie pulled me away from my friend, the one that saved me, and he was worried sick about even getting seen by ponies.  So you took me, took his brother, and left him all alone!"

"Your… friend?"  Twilight asked.

"Yeah!"  Roseluck yelled back, hoisting Cato onto her back.  "And I think I saw the guys that were after him too, so if we could just postpone this conversation until I actually give a shit, that'd be great!"  Some part of her cringed at her language towards a princess, but it couldn't be avoided.

Twilight took a moment to react, before outstretching a hoof to make contact with Rose's shoulder.  She followed the hoof with her eyes, watching it make contact with her dirty fur.  "Where?"  She asked, and Rose furrowed her brow.

"What?"

"Where did you see him last?"  

"Oh, over by the old road to the south of town that kind curves towards the-"  She felt her body almost collapse inwards on itself for a moment, before everything returned to normal.  Besides the fact that she'd ended up somewhere completely different than the library, anyway.  

She took several heavy breaths, shaking her head in an attempt to get rid of the residual feelings.  It made her feel a little sick.  Rose pulled her head upwards once again, looking around.  A couple of crates tipped over down the street, and she watched them for a moment.  Just as she turned away, another one flew across the street, crashing into the wall and breaking into at least a few chunks.

Eldon was close behind it, throwing a crate backwards as he tripped on the ones already tipped over, sprawling out along the road as a griffin leapt over him, pinning one of his arms to the ground viciously.  

He yelled out in pain as talons dug into his side, cutting lines through his skin with the super sharp tips and edges, which Roseluck's mind realized were probably filed.

"You think that borders are going to stop me?"  The griffin questioned, digging his talons in deeper and twisting them around as Rose sprinted to join in and help Eldon out.  "Nothing stops the griffin army.  Nothing stops me."  His knife was in his talon again, but Eldon broke the pin and kicked it away.  It slid across the ground towards Roseluck, and she skidded to a halt, stamping the thing into the ground and bringing it to a sudden stop.  Eldon didn't seem to be faring well, judging by the fact that his chest was crimson with his own blood.  She took a move forwards, only to stop.  He knew where she was, she couldn't just kick him off like before, because he would be prepared for that.  He could just kill Eldon at that point, and escape.

But Eldon's mind was far away from hers.  A fist blew away his thoughts like dust in the wind, and sent his mind reeling.  The griffin had him by the fur and feathers on the front of his neck, and didn't seem to be letting go anytime soon.  Eldon kicked out his hind legs as another punch hit him, and the soldier was forced away.  The two circled briefly, as Eldon felt for the spear at his side that wasn't there.  It must've fallen.  

He found Roseluck, bearing the knife a ways away from their circle, unsure what she should be doing.  At least she had Cato with her.  That was a huge relief.  She was having a hurried conversation with a purple mare, but he couldn't give the concentration to listen.  

"Why me?"  He asked the soldier.  "Why waste your time on a worthless civilian?"

"Oh, you're worthless alright.  And yet, you still killed my friend."

"Look, I'll give you everything I have-"

"I don't want your things.  I want your life."  He responded, pouncing before Eldon could react.  They rolled a few feet to one side, fighting to pin one another.  Roseluck screamed at the other mare, pointing explicitly towards the rolling griffins.  

"The one on the top- the bottom- The big one, Twilight!  Shoot it!"  Rose yelled, watching the other mare panic.  Before she could think, she shot forwards, determined to ease the pressure on her friend.  

"Come on, Eldon."  She whispered, beginning a lunge before they rolled again and she pulled back.  She followed through with her hoof, smacking the soldier on the cheek.  His talons slashed at her, before finding purchase in Eldon once again.  Roseluck cringed, freeing a tear as she watched what she could still see of Eldon's golden chest fur turn scarlet.  

"Twilight!  Fucking do something!"  Rose yelled once again, and the lavender mare jumped.  The griffins rolled again, and Eldon let out another yelp of pain.  Twilight's horn gave signs of life, as she moved a couple steps to one side for a better angle.  The armored griffin jerked his talon, and a line of blood splattered across Rose and her.  Twilight drew back, retching a little as she scraped blood from her muzzle and her horn faded slightly, the griffins rolling once more.  "Oh, Celestia."

"The heavily armored one, dammit!"  The botanist replied angrily, stepping in to strike the soldier when she had the opportunity.  She didn't want to admit it to herself, but Eldon was losing.  Quite clearly in fact.  Rose looked at Twilight's gleaming horn and gulped, before jumping into the fray herself.  She got in a good punch before she ended up on the ground and the soldier let go of Eldon, kicking him in the head with a paw as he walked towards her.  Eldon shifted, but didn't make an attempt to get up.  

Rose threw a hoof, only to get thrown aside by the griffin.  He looked at Twilight for a split second before a blast of magic blew him into the air, slingshotting him at least a hundred feet away as the mare finally got her angle.  A different griffin caught the soldier, returning him to the ground as several more griffins joined their ranks, a brief show of power before the group turned and retreated, over the woods from which they'd come.  

Within seconds, the tension could almost be cut with a knife.

"I'm- I'm friendly."  Eldon choked out, stealing away Rose's attention once again.  Twilight followed suit, though she felt her breakfast try to dislodge itself as she did so.  Whoever he was, he was covered his own blood, his brother already hunched over his body.  Rose slid off her saddlebags, just now realizing the fact that she'd still had them on, and ripped them apart into rags with her teeth.  She took the lines of fabric and began wrapping them around Eldon, looking up occasionally at the griffins down the street.

"He's-"  Her voice cracked, and she put a hoof to Twilight's shoulder, noticing the hue of green her face was turning as other ponies began to help how they could.  One was already wrapping a bandage around Eldon's arm, while another was applying pressure to a cut.  "We need a hospital."

"Friendly-  I'm friendly."  Eldon continued to mutter, as his vision began to fade.  Something hit his eye and he jumped, only to realize that it had been one of Cato's tears.  Despite the pain and the chaos around him, he felt calm.  He felt serene knowing that at least he had brought Cato all the way here.  He knew he didn't want to die, but at the same time he didn't feel afraid.  Rose's eyes looked into his as he began to move, and he found himself lost in the greenish-yellow hue, the wide darkness that filled the center of her iris.  

The color changed, becoming darker.  Blue, then purple.  He could just make out his brother's face in the convex mirror.  Why was he- Oh yes, he knew why his brother was sad.  It was because- because- He closed his eyes, only to open them a moment later.  Rose was talking to him, or mouthing words at him.  His ears were only picking up a hiss of white noise that disappeared as steadily as his vision.  

He reached out a talon, pushing it towards Rose.  She grabbed it, her eyes teary.  "Tell them that I'm- friendly."  He whispered once again, and she nodded.  A little smile graced her face as she tried to act like she knew he would be fine, and he let it stick in his mind for the final two seconds he kept hold of his consciousness.

	
> Visiting Hours
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Checking in again, Miss Roseluck?"  A nurse asked, looking up from a magazine behind her desk.  "Technically, it's not visiting hours until twenty minutes from now," the aged mare began, glancing at a clock on the wall.  Roseluck let her shoulders sag.  "but I tend to miss things, at my old age.  It wouldn't be that strange to simply miss a passerby, would it?"

"Thanks."  Rose replied, trotting by.

"For what?"  The old nurse replied, a sparkle in her eye.  

Roesluck made her way down the hall, stopping at a hallway intersection before she remembered the correct direction and continued on her way.  Three more doors passed on her side before she entered the correct one.

She teased around the flowers at Eldon's bedside table, placing in a few more that she had brought today.  A smile briefly graced her face, before she let it fade.  Some of it returned as she turned her attention to the bed, which was far too large for the griffin.  It had been the product of two beds pushed together, even though he really only needed a small slice of the second one.  Sometimes she liked to lay on one end of the bed, while other times she just sat in one of the chairs.  

Things were silent, other than the beeping of his heart rate.  She had eventually tuned that out, after she had gotten over how slow his heart beat.  The doctors had thought it was a bad sign when they'd hooked him up, and in a way it was.  The beeps were even further spaced apart, and those first couple hours had been- not good.  After they'd gotten Eldon there, she'd been kicked out, kept from seeing him for at least two hours.  It would've been nice if the clock in the lobby was working like it was now.  She rolled her eyes.  

So, after over a hundred stitches and a liberal helping of bandages, they'd mummified his torso and select parts of his hind legs.  It would've looked humorous if she couldn't see small dots of blood soaking through.  

She didn't screw up the time coming here twenty minutes early, to be honest.  Rose hadn't figured that they'd let her in early, but Twilight always showed up at the same time each day to question her and generally make her go on about what had happened on her excursion.  

Most of the time, they were silent.  She'd kept her mouth shut on everything that didn't explicitly involve the safety of ponies, or any injuries to her body.  But it just seemed fitting that Eldon tell about his own life, and keep some crappy second guess from getting written down somewhere.  And before Twilight came, it gave her time to think.  She watched Cato snooze against the lump Eldon made under the covers, and her thoughts went back to the same place.  

How would things be with them?

She thought it'd be easy, back when her only drive was to get back here.  But now, two days since this whole incident, she wasn't really sure.  Rose navigated over to the corner and sat down in her chair.  Alright, if she couldn't think of how to integrate them, she could start with what she knew.

She tapped her hooves together, thinking.  Her house could easily fit them, but she'd never lived with anypony before.  That was a negative.  It was definitely the right thing to do, and Eldon was her friend.  She wasn't sure what ponies would think of him now, but at least he would have a place to stay.

Rose was having trouble thinking of those parts.  They seemed pointless, as if beating around the bush.  She owned a flower shop, and there was no way she could possibly provide for them and keep a savings account.  She supposed that Eldon could work, and she knew he would want to do something to occupy his talons, but for who?  Then again, he could grab heavy things and fly, which was a lot more than a pegasus could do.  That wasn't to say he didn't have a fair amount of intelligence either, but it wasn't as if he had a lot of education.

The door creaked open, and Roseluck looked up with a sigh.  "Hey Twi- Lyra?"  

"In the flesh."  Lyra replied, putting a hoof to her chest.

"I told you that you didn't need to come by."  Rose said, looking back at the floor.

"Yeah, but when do I ever listen?"  The aquamarine mare responded.  "Besides, I need to spend time with somepony other than Bon Bon."

"I didn't think it was possible for her to annoy anypony."  The botanist commented, a little smile spreading across her face.

"It's not that.  She's too nice.  Like, most of the time, I'm okay with it because it compliments the fact that I can act like a jerk, but since you've been gone, it's just that all day."  She shuddered.  "Anywho, you still have yet to say anything about the details of getting kidnapped, besides the fact that it was by griffins with a cage and this guy brought you back.  Then there's the whole, getting chopped to pieces in front of a bunch of ponies and the new princess."

"Yeah, well…  It's his story to tell.  I was just the sidekick at most."

"You keep saying that, but I know it's not true.  You were just as involved in getting back as he was."  Lyra said, ignoring her friend.  "Maybe you weren't the one to do the fighting, but hey, you're not really a fighter."  Rose glared and Lyra shrugged.  

"What's your point, Lyra?"

"Just that you should take more credit for yourself.  I know you're attached to this guy, with good reason, but you're no mare to stand around and act pretty."  Lyra rolled her eyes.  "That's a job for Rarity."

Roseluck giggled, covering her mouth with a hoof.  "I suppose you're right about that much."

"Well yeah."  She replied, putting a hoof to her chest.  "I'm obviously always right."  

Rose heard the hint of sarcasm in Lyra's voice and grinned, leaning backwards in her chair.  "I wish he would just wake up already."

"Considering the blood stain in the middle of the street that they can't get off, I'm surprised he's still alive."

"Perks of being like an earth pony."  Rose replied, grinning.  "It'll be crazy to see what he can do when he's rested."

"What could he do before?"  Lyra asked, taking a seat.  Rose raised an eyebrow.  "What?!  You can at least tell me that much!"

"Look, I- fine.  He's like Big Macintosh, over at the Apple farm.  Except with claws and wings."

The other mare let out a low whistle.  "What scares me is the idea of well-trained griffins that are even larger."  

"And the fact that they aren't scared of the Equestrian border."

The two lapsed into silence for a long time, the beeping of the medical machines picking up the slack.  After a few minutes, Lyra rose from her chair.  "Isn't that heartbeat a little too slow?"  She asked, peering over at the machine.  Her gaze shifted to Eldon on the bed, and then to the lump of fur above the covers on the other side of the lump the larger griffin created.

"That's his kid?"  Lyra asked, reaching a hoof slowly towards Cato.

"His brother."  Roseluck corrected.

"He's a lot smaller than I would've thought."  She noted, stroking her hoof along the kid's head.  "Pretty soft, too."

"Yeah, well I got him to take a bath yesterday."  Rose replied.  "He didn't want to be away from his brother though, so it wasn't easy."  Nor was it a particularly fond memory.

"I'll bet."  


____________________________________________________


"Cato."  Rose said, holding up a towel.  "Bath."

"Roseluck."  He replied.  "No."

The mare facehoofed.  "You're covered in grime, and you smell funny."

"I'm fine with that."  

Rose opened her mouth to rebut, but closed it again.  She unraveled the towel, holding an end of it in each hoof.  

"What are you-"  Cato began, before she wrapped him in the towel and hugged him tightly to her chest with an arm.  His talons were pinned against his body, but his hind legs war flailing this way and that as she struggled out of the room.  A claw hit her arm and left a long cut.

"Calm down, Cato!"  She yelled, and he stopped struggling, looking up at her with what she figured was slight fear.  She sighed, and her voice softened.  "Look, you don't want to make Eldon sick, right?"  She asked, trying to get a view of her cut.  She'd need to wash that out right away.  

"Where are we even going?!"  He asked, and Rose grinned.  

"They still have a few tubs downstairs, so I got one ready for you."  She navigated down a floor and through a couple doorways, coming into a room with a pony and a nurse.  

"You got him here more quickly than I expected."  The nurse said, chuckling to herself.  She leaned forwards to whisper to an ancient-looking stallion in the tub, who whispered something back.  "He says he's surprised to see another griffin in Equestria."  More whispers.  "The last time he had any contact with them was when he was a youth."  The elderly pony smiled, giving a tiny nod.

"Chances are, this is all you'll see for a while."  Roseluck replied, setting Cato into the water.  "That warm enough for you?"  She asked.  He nodded, staring at the other ponies.

"How old is he?"  The nurse asked, as Rose handed over a bar of soap.

"Ten, I think."  If Cato disagreed, he didn't look like he was going to speak up.  "You saw the older one?"

"He was bigger than that one from a couple years ago, that's for sure.  I saw him right after my shift, and I'll tell you, that isn't a good way to end a day."

"Hey, don-"

"I meant the day he got all… torn up."  The mare sighed, washing soap from the stallion's mane.

"Rose, can you get my back?"  Cato asked, his voice shrill and embarrassed.

She took the bar of soap, sudsing it up between her hooves.  She started working from the top of his head, trying to think of a conversation to start.  Luckily, he started it for her.

"How'd you get this water so warm?"  He asked.  "It's not over a fire pit or anything."

The other nurse shared a look with Roseluck.  "Well, there's a water heater that does it automatically."

"How?"  

"It's like a fire pit under a different bathtub, except it heats up the water a lot more.  Then, when you want hot water, you mix it with cold water to get the right temperature."

"That seems like a lot of work."  Cato observed.

"It's all automatic, see?"  She asked, turning the faucet with a soapy hoof.  Cato stared.

"Can we go back to Eldon?"  

"Just stop moving, let me finish!"  Rose exclaimed, laughing as he squirmed.  She messed with the tassel at the end of his tail for a moment before dropping it back into the water and tipping him over.  He struggled to put himself upright, sloshing some water over the side of the tub.  

When he rose out of the murky water, however, he looked like a whole new griffin.  Everything about him was clean, and he looked like a kid again.  Rose smiled, letting him grip her hoof with a talon as she pulled him free of the water and wrapped a towel around the little guy.  

"T-thanks."  He stammered, as a draft cooled off his fur.  

"I just have to clean off my hoof, then we can go back, alright?"  She asked, and he nodded, still shivering.  He followed her over, leaning against one of her legs and making it damp.

"Isn't he a cute little guy?"  The nurse asked, putting a hoof to her chest.  

"When he feels like being cute."  Rose replied, with a shake of her head.  She turned and pulled Cato onto her back, and he quickly attached himself to her neck.  She felt her heart melt.  It surprised her that she felt such a bond with Cato or Eldon.  She had trouble making sense of how she felt for them, exactly, but she knew it felt stronger, somehow.

Maybe that was just what happened when you know that somepony would risk their life for you.  But some part of her hoped there was something more to it than trust and gratitude.  She just wasn't sure what, yet.


____________________________________________________


An hour passed, then two, and the memory faded.  Lyra had left halfway through the first, and Rose couldn't blame her.  But she herself had nowhere else to be, no family in Ponyville to speak of.  At the moment, she didn't mind.  Her friends seemed to understand, and she didn't want to leave him here alone when he woke up.  

She had shifted onto the bed and drifted into a state of slight-consciousness.  Hours passed without reason, though in the back of her mind, she knew that visiting hours usually ended around now.  They would have to kick her out as usual, because she wasn't going to move by herself.

Rose heard voices down the hall, and her ears gave a slight twitch.  The hospital had been rather empty in the time she'd been here, and though it wasn't uncommon to hear voices moving around, she assumed that the doctors were doing their rounds and ending visiting hours.  

They stopped at her door, and came into focus.  Rose remembered the fact that Twilight hadn't shown up just as the very same mare's voice registered in her head.  She still didn't feel like moving.

"Woah…"  Came a new voice, passing by her on the opposite side of Eldon.  Her ears pricked a little more, as a cyan mare with a rainbow mare walked into her vision.  It was strange that the head of the weather team was here, but not shocking.  Twilight was friends with the mare.  This just seemed like a weird thing to bring a friend to.  

Rainbow Dash, if she recalled correctly, leaned over Eldon, touching at his wing as Rose readied a hoof to strike with under her chest.  It was just a precaution, but she didn't really feel like trusting Twilight or anypony affiliated with her.  She'd hesitated for way too long, and it had left Eldon like this.  

"See, I told you I thought something looked off about his wings, Dash."  Twilight said from the foot of the bed.

"Yeah, they're all screwed up at the tips here…  Gilda's looked nothing like this."

"You mind acknowledging my presence before you tap around with the patient?"  Rose asked, sounding annoyed.  Dash let Eldon's wing drop back to his side, taking a step back.  

"Twilight just brought me here."  Dash said with a shrug.  "I know a few things about griffons, being friends with one for a while at least."

"I already know what's wrong with him."  Rose replied.  

"You could've opened up about that, you know."  Twilight replied in annoyance. 

"His wings are just cut, Twi."  Dash said, pointing at the uneven feathers.  "Like, with a blade."

"What do you mean, cut, I-"

"Wait wait wait!"  The blue mare quickly continued.  "I meant the feathers.  Like, clipped."

Twilight furrowed her brow.  "How can you know that, Dash?"

"I read.  Sometimes."  She responded.  

"Like I've said a million times, Dash, there's no need to be ashame-"

"It was in a Daring Do book."  The prismatic mare continued, ignoring Twilight.  "I'm starting to get bored of the fact that her wings don't work in most of the books.  But then again, they had a lot of explosions in the last one, so that's a plus."

There was a knock on the open door, before princess Celestia herself walked in.  Twilight and Dash bowed, and Roseluck tried to flip herself on the bed in order to do the same.  

"No need, Roseluck."  the princess said with a smile, holding up a hoof.  The flower mare stopped in the middle of her movement, a rather comical looking hoof sticking up into the air.  

"Why- why are you-"

"Ah yes."  The Alicorn began, making a hoof motion to what Roseluck assumed was a guard in the hall.  "I apologize for the delay, but it's not easy to move around in such a period of threat.  I needed a lot of guards."

"But princess, why come for- you're just here for Eldon?"  Roseluck pointed to the dormant body.

She nodded, her horn glowing as the curtains on the window slid apart, letting in the afternoon sun.  "And for the little one.  Twilight tells me that they came from the Griffin Empire."

"Yeah, they do."  Rose said.  "They saved me from some other griffins too."

"So I have heard."  Celestia asserted.  "But that is not what I am here for.  I wish to figure out who we are up against."

Roseluck gulped.  "Well, we were pursued by at least two dozen griffins, but one has a grudge against Eldon because he-"  Her eyes searched the princess's face for a few moments.  She didn't want to say it for a multitude of reasons.

"He…"  The princess urged.

"He killed the guy's partner in order to escape."  Rose said, looking aside.  The room grew quiet.

"Why?"  Celestia asked.  It was a simple question, but Rose didn't know how to answer it.  She thought for a few moments that felt like hours, her heart thumping in her throat.  

"To escape."  She said, resolutely.  No noise returned, and she felt a bead of sweat slide down her muzzle.

"Why would he need to kill somepony to escape?"  Twilight asked.  "Was he in jail?"

Rose put her head in her hooves.  "No.  He just-"  She huffed in annoyance, having trouble trying to explain something she already had trouble comprehending to the others.  And she was still stressed in front of the princess, with those cold eyes and that impatient look.  Maybe she was just imagining it?  

"I don't even think they have a jail.  They just kill everypony at the slightest thing.  He explained this stuff to me, and it still seems ridiculous.  I know it's true, but-  This is why I wanted him to explain."  She sighed.  "But he wasn't lying when he said that he was friendly.  He just wanted to come here to keep from having to worry about getting searched or taken in the middle of the night for owning a couple books."

The room was dead silent again.  Well, minus the usual beeping.  Cato nudged up against her side, staring at the ponies with huge eyes.  He had apparently awoken at some point.  Somehow his presence was reassuring.  

"Look, I don't expect you to understand."  Rose said, interrupting some whispering between Twilight and Rainbow Dash.  Celestia narrowed her eyes a little, but as far as the red maned mare could tell, she wasn't mad.  "But he needed to get out of there.  I don't know what you're thinking, or how you view the guy, but take my word for it.  He's friendly, just like he said."

"I see."  The sun princess replied shortly, her face unreadable.  "Twilight, if you will?"  She asked, walking towards the door as the smaller alicorn followed.  A few doctors nearly crashed a gurney into the pair in the doorway, and a mad bout of blushing ensued.  The princess offered an apology, busting out an incredibly convincing fake smile.  

"What say you, Twilight Sparkle?"  Celestia asked, watching the door close behind them.  She looked around the hallway, finding it mostly empty.  

"M- me, princess?"

"You're a princess, Twilight, you'll have to start making decisions sometime."

"I know, but-"  The lavender mare stumbled over her words, "this is the life of somepony, surely I should start with something smaller, like-"

"Twilight, you're a logical mare.  What would you do?"

"I- I mean, he rescued Roseluck, and he brought his brother here, but he's a target, so-"  She bit her lip, waiting for the princess to intervene.  She didn't.  "But then again, ponies haven't been threatened…  So we should let him stay."

"Unless…"  The princess suggested.

"Unless he… does something bad?"  

"Twilight, let me just say that the Griffin Empire and Equestria don't always see eye to eye.  I am thankful that he risked his life to save a pony he didn't know, but we must look out for the whole of our population over one unimportant escapee.  You should not grow attached to him, because though I am allowing you to decide his fate, I will intervene if he puts my ponies at risk."

"But he can stay here until then?"  Twilight clarified.

"I think we owe him that much."


__________________________________________________________________


"What are you doing?"  Cato asked, as a doctor pushed the gurney up to the side of Eldon's bed.  

"I'm just giving him a little medicine to make sure his wounds don't get infected."  The pony replied.  "Then I'll check his IV, and make sure that his blood work is still normal.  Or, the slightly less effective version of normal that we can test griffin blood for."  The pony spent some time manipulating some equipment, slowly drawing some liquid from a little container with a needle.  

"So, does that go in his mouth?"  Cato inquired.  It better, because it kind of looked like-

"No, we have to place it directly into a blood vessel."  the doctor replied, moving towards Eldon's shoulder.

"No!"  Cato screamed, making Rainbow Dash nearly fall out of her chair across the room.  "Eldon!  Wake up!"  He shook his brother's face around roughly, smacking the needle away.  The doctor took a step back.  Cato watched a golden eye slide open just slightly, staring at him for a moment before it went wide.  

Eldon sat up with a start, flinging Cato off his chest onto the foot of the bed.  His sight was blurry, he had trouble making out much in the room, but as he blinked a pony came into view, a needle in his hoof.  A Needle.  He balled up a fist and hit the guy straight in the nose, complete fear of the poison from back home filling his mind.  

He shoved himself off of the bed, unsure why they wanted to kill him, but completely sure that he didn't want to go out like this.  The griffin got in half a stride before he got to the end of the bed, wooziness taking over almost immediately.  His vision faded as his heart struggled to keep up with the sudden change in blood flow, and he no longer felt the bed under his feet.  

The window he had aimed for blew into a million pieces and he spread his wings, flapping them one weak time before he dropped like a rock.  He must've lost track of time for a second; the time of his fall seemed shorter than it should have.  Hurt just as much though, much to his distain.  

He managed to roll onto his side, briefly meeting the eyes of a blue mare that was floating above him.  She landed in front of him, peering down her muzzle at him.  She bent over, her breath flowing against his forehead.  

"Quite the escape artist, I see."  She said, grinning.  "Might want to wait until you have a better shot next time though, guy."  She twirled a hoof in the air, and Eldon started to rise, much to his chagrin.  He tried flailing his arms, but things just felt as if he was stuck in some sort of thick mud.  

"Let me go!"  He yelled, struggling harder.  Eldon felt his strength leaving him.

"No can do, big guy."  The mare said, rising with him.  "Apparently you've got information that the princess wants."  

Eldon let out a breath, stopping his struggling.  "So you need me alive?"  

She narrowed her eyes in confusion.  "Yeah, I… guess?"

"Awesome."  He murmured back.  His leg bumped the windowsill, hitting a sharp bit of glass and leaving a small cut.  By now he was beyond caring.  Eldon struggled again and whatever was holding him decided to let go, dropping him onto the bed once again.  Cato jumped on his chest, hugging around his neck.

"So I hear you need information?"  He asked.  "Guess that means you can't kill me if I don't spill."  

A tall white pony was in the room now, studying him.  "We did not have the plan to kill you, griffin."

"Likely story."  He replied, trying to figure out how they had moved him without touching any part of his body.  He crossed his arms, pushing himself backwards until his back was against the head of the bed.  "I've never once seen one of those needles do an ounce of good, so you can't honestly expect me to believe you."

The room became silent, but Eldon didn't back down.  He stared down the white pony, and she stared back.  Roseluck seemed to be acting a little nervous.  Whatever, he could outstare a pony.  Worst case scenario, he had a second eyelid for that. 

"Whatever you believe, we still mean you no harm."  The mare began.  "We only want information on the status of those other griffins.  We know not to kill you, because of your friend over there.  You can thank her for sticking around while you've been asleep, so I've heard."

"How can I believe you?"  Eldon asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Wouldn't you think that Roseluck would have warned you by now, or that your brother would have been taken away?  We're not jumping to any conclusions here, I hope."

"No, that'd be completely ridiculous."  The griffin replied dryly.  He stuck his arm towards the doctor.  "Just know that if this turns out to be poison, I'm taking your eyes with me."  He said.  A couple of the ponies gasped, but he wasn't sure why.  The mare, he assumed, was highly ranked, but bluffing was all he had right now.  Besides, she didn't seem to care too much.  

"Eldon, that's one of the princesses."  Rose hissed, and Eldon blinked.  Damn.  Whatever, this changed nothing.

He felt a prick in his arm and tried to resist the urge to yank it away.  No burning, which was a good sign.  His muscles tightened, before releasing again.  Eldon moved his arm, looking at the palm of his talon.

"See?  Nothing to be afraid of."  The purple one said.

"Bullshit."  He murmured, slightly glad that none of them seemed to pick up on it.  "Any of you got names?"  He asked, looking back at the doctor.  "Sorry about that."  He said, feeling a wave of guilt over the guy's bloody muzzle.

"I suppose it would be fair to address each other on a more personal basis," said the princess.  "I am princess Celestia, and this is Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friend Rainbow Dash."

"I'm Cato!"  Cato exclaimed, drawing a sudden mass of attention towards himself.  He shrank back a little in fear before eyes shifted elsewhere.  

"Eldon."  The griffin replied, though he was sure they already knew.  "But before I get into everything, how long is it until I get out of here?"

The doctor turned, stopping his cart at the door.  "You'll be fine, so long as you don't try anything too strenuous.  It'll be at least another day before you start to feel less drowsy, and then it'll be two weeks before you're up to full strength.  I doubt there'll be a whole lot of a difference after a while though."

"Thanks."  He replied, turning to the others.  "What do you know?"

The princess sat down in a chair, creaks of protest echoing around the small room.  "That the captain's driven by revenge over somepony that you killed.  I would like a little more explanation there, if you will."

Eldon scratched his head, adjusting his position on the bed.  "I- well…  Look, I'll just start from the beginning, alright?"  A few nods.  "I was born at least eighteen years ago, but there's probably some room for error in there somewhere."  The blue one murmured something.  "Anyway, I had a family at that point, and this little guy was born several years later.  But before that, there was a huge revolution against a king that used to rule.  My father took part, and they succeeded.  Things were slightly better for a few months, but the new government started to crack down and pen in the people.  I'm pretty sure my mother left a little after she gave birth to Cato, but she could have been taken for something she said as well.  My father never really recovered, but he eventually disappeared as well.  I'm fairly sure he ended up in some work camp somewhere, considering the fact that he hated everything the new government stood for.  Then they clipped our wings, put up fences.  Stricter curfew, no mobility between cities."

"I guess the worst part about that place is the fact that you never know what's going to happen, or when.  I could've been arrested the next day and killed for owning a book or stealing extra food."  He paused, his throat closing up a little.  She was still giving him that hard gaze that he didn't like, as if doubting his story.  If they didn't let him in after this, well, he didn't have anywhere else to go.  A tear of frustration ran down his cheek.  "I had to escape that place.  I wanted Cato to live a normal life, where he could have a shot at flying, and friends that wouldn't turn him in at their first chance."  Part of that seemed to resonate with Rainbow whatsit, and he continued.  "I didn't plan on killing anyone, but it was us or him.  There was nothing else I could've done."

A silence stretched on, making the rock in Eldon's stomach magically expand to the size of a boulder.  "So can I stay here?  Please?"  He asked, hoping that they would find some sort of pity in him if they didn't see his moves as justified.  Celestia glanced at Spear- Spare- Sparkle, and the smaller pony gulped.

"Y-yeah, you can stay."  She said.  Eldon only stared, trying to figure out if he was being tricked.  Why wouldn't Celestia speak for herself?  "B-but if you end up putting the populace in danger, we can't offer you asylum, alright?"

"Can he choose his place of residence?"  Roseluck asked, her voice shaky.  "And exercise normal rights as long as he remains in the country?"

"Uh- Yeah."  Twilight said, rubbing her fore hooves together.  "But like I said, you can't put the populace in danger."

Eldon let his head fall backwards against the wall, breaking into a huge smile.  Rose tackle-hugged him before he was ready, smashing his back harder against the head of the bed.  He didn't care, pulling an arm away from her back to grab Cato as he joined in.  "Thanks so much."  He wheezed out, his chest being constricted by Rose's hooves.  "I can't- I can't express how happy I am to hear that."

"I'm glad."  Celestia cut in, standing up.  "I'll increase the guard's presence here in case things… get out of hoof."  She turned, bidding goodbye to Twilight as she exited the room.  "We'll be in touch, Twilight."  Her voice echoed down the hall.  

Rose looked back at Eldon, blushing and pushing herself back a few inches.  "Soo, uh, you feel up to going home?"


________________________________________________


"Eldon, come back!"  Rose exclaimed, and the griffin turned from a few paces down the road.  "We're here."

He stared at the storefront, his eyes tracking past the first floor and onto the second.  "Really?"

"Yeah."  Rose replied, struggling to find the right key.

"It's big."  Eldon said shortly, and she chuckled.  Maybe with the shop it could be called moderate, but she was probably in possession of a house on the smaller side.  

"Glad you think so."  The mare replied, grinning as the key slid into the lock and turned.  The door opened, a bell rang, and the mare let herself inside.  

"Woooooow."  Eldon and Cato said in unison.  The store was thin, with a counter in the far corner.  Glass doors protected flowers along one wall, while all manner of uncut plants covered the rest of the room.  The place had a feeling of life to it that Eldon's house never had.  He liked it already.

"You want to see where you'll be staying for the first couple days before I get the guest room all fixed up?"  She asked, and Eldon nodded mutely.  She led him through a door marked 'employees only' and around a corner.  The hallway led into a small room with several chairs and a couch, a piece of furniture Eldon skillfully deduced to be his bed.  

"That it?"  He inquired.  

"Yeah."  Rose replied.  "Cato can fit on one of the chairs or a spare pillow, probably.  I figured that wasn't as big of a deal."

"Do I get to choose?!"  The little griffin asked, springing onto a worn chair with an ottoman and flopping onto his side.  His grin only got wider as he sunk a few inches into the seat.

"'Course.  The least I can do is let you pick.  Just try not to sit on the arms too much, because I think they're starting to go."  She paused, turning towards what Eldon assumed was a kitchen.  "So over here, we've go-"

"Sorry Roseluck."  Eldon interrupted, clearing his throat.  "But is it alright if I just sleep for a while?"  

She could tell he was tired; that much was obvious.  She smiled.  "Go ahead.  I should get some blankets, but do you want any food in the meantime?"  

"Maybe when I wake up?"  He tentatively vocalized, sitting on the couch.  

"Sure."  Rose replied, nodding her head for emphasis.

Eldon scratched at his forehead, chipping off part of a scab as he nodded back.  The mare turned, trotting upstairs.  She opened a closet in the wall, pulling free a pile of folded blankets.  The trip downstairs was faster, and she stopped to check inventory.  "You feeling cold, Eldon?"  She asked, sorting through the blankets.  No response.  "Eldon?"  The mare trotted over to the couch, but all she saw was the body of a sleeping griffin.

"You know what?"  Cato asked, and Rose turned her attention to the little guy.  

"What?"

"This place is way better than I thought it'd be."  He paused.  "You're way better than I thought you'd be."

Roseluck decided to take that as a compliment.  "I'm glad I was satisfactory."  She replied with a giggle, spreading blankets over Eldon's unmoving form.  He rolled towards the back of the couch, squishing his face awkwardly against the cushions.  

Rose felt heavy with happy emotions, though she couldn't hope to sort them all out.  One of them was relief though, she knew that much.  She didn't care about any challenges that arose from his living here.  It was nice to have somepony else in here for a change, anyway.  Made the place seem less empty and lonesome.  

The mare, a light smile still on her face, peered at the open armchair and grinned a little wider.  She could probably use a little rest as well.  She pushed herself into a corner of the chair, pulling a spare blanket around herself as she tossed one to Cato.  She fell asleep quickly with the realization that maybe this whole ordeal had left her life just a little better off.
> Recuperation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"It can't just go on forever."

"Yeah, I'm sure it'll stop pretty soon.  We ran out of the hot stuff a while ago."

"I don't get why it didn't stop running then.  You said that it would."

Roseluck opened her eyes, blinking away the grime that had gathered overnight.  She'd really passed out.  Eldon and Cato were staring at her kitchen sink, and she could only assume that they were wondering how it went on forever.  It went without saying that her water bill would be high this month.  Then again, she'd been gone for a week too, so that probably evened this out.  

Apparently she dozed off again, because the next thing she knew, Eldon was shaking her awake.  "Rose!  Your faucet keeps going forever!"

"Turn it off."  She mumbled, and Eldon moved out of her field of vision, returning a moment later.  

"How big is your water tank?"  He asked.

"It's- It gets filtered from a reservoir somewhere, and then water pressure brings it down through pipes from near the Canterhorn."

"I'm going to assume that's a place, right?"  

"Yeah, a mountain a ways east of-"  She yawned, stretching her hooves over her head.  "Ponyville.  How're you feeling?"

He shrugged, affectionately messing up Cato's feathers as the kid walked up.  "Better than I was a few days ago, I guess."

"I guess that's pretty clear."  Rose responded with a chuckle, eyeing the easily visible cuts along his cheek.  She wondered how visible the scars would be.  Hopefully not too much, although she didn't particularly mind herself.  But they were trying to make Eldon look friendly, and the bounty hunter look didn't do him well.  "You got plans for today?"

"Should I?"  He scratched his head.  "What do you think is fun?"

Rose bit her lip, mind screening most of the activities she could think of.  "We should probably stick together for a while, or make sure that you're around ponies that can help.  I don't want a repeat of what happened three days ago."

"I second that one."  Eldon agreed.

"Let's just write down things that you'll need to do, and then we can branch out from there.  Maybe you'll get an idea."  Rose grabbed a pad of paper from a small coffee table and flipped a few pages, pulling a pencil from the spiral binding.  "You wanted to get Cato into a school, right?"  She asked.  He nodded, and she scribbled it down.  "We can register that later this week, I suppose."

"Flying."  He said, and she wrote half the word before looking up.  

"For you or like lessons for Cato?"

"Either or."  Eldon responded, hearing Cato let out a few excited sounds as he took to racing around the room and buzzing his wings.

"Alright, flying and school.  Anything else?"

"I'll get a job doing something at some point."  Eldon said, staring into Rose's eyes.  "So write that down."

"You don't have to if you don't want to."  The mare replied, keeping her pencil still.  

"Look, I'm going to really bored around here if I can't find something.  I'm sure someone needs some hard labor anyway."

"Do you really want to just go back to that?!"  Rose shot back, raising her voice.  "Everything's completely different, you could do anything!"

"Yeah, but I was good at what I did.  I may as well start there."  He shrugged.  "That should be a good way to start to narrow it down anyway."  He looked around, taking in the house once again.  "So, is there anything you need done that doesn't involve things I don't understand?"

"I'm not letting you do anything today."  Rose said, crossing her arms.

"I don't think I want to anyway."  Eldon replied, grimacing.  "I'm kinda tipsy as it is."  

"You think you're tougher than you are."  The mare said with a smirk, poking him in the chest.  "How's about some breakfast?  I don't have meat, so don't ask.  Eggs should be pretty okay, right?"

"It's been forever since we've had eggs!"  Cato yelled, sprinting down the stairs.  Apparently he'd gone up them at some point.  He made a fast turn, trying to come to a stop on the kitchen tile.  He lost his grip and slid into a cabinet, flopping onto one side.

"Cato!"  Eldon exclaimed, propping him up.  "You okay?"  

Cato wheezed a few times, finally pulling in a breath of air.  "Just- landed funny."  He replied, trying to catch his breath.  

"So how many?"  Roseluck inquired, opening up a box of eggs.  

"Those are big eggs."  Eldon noted.  "Is six alright?"

"I'm going to need a bigger pan."  


_______________________________________________________


"Is it ready?"

"It would be if you stopped hovering over me, Eldon!"  Rose exclaimed, shoving him playfully back.  "Besides, if this is your first good meal here, I have to make it look presentable."

"You just gave Cato his, this isn't-" Rose covered his mouth with a hoof, shushing him.  

"Oh, shush.  You'll get it when you get it."

"But-"  

She turned off the magical flames that he didn't understand, pointing to her eyes and then to his.  "Be right back.  Don't eat it."  Then she disappeared out the back door, and Eldon wondered if this whole thing had been a plot to leave him hanging over food from the beginning.  That would be the definition of pure evil.

But after a minute or so Rose walked back inside.  She ignored the still hovering griffin and slid the omelet onto a plate.  Some sauce went on top, scribbled artistically.  She followed it up with some leaves, and then leaned over and set it on the table.  Rose grabbed a couple utensils, and stuck them next to the plate with a napkin.  "Try to look civilized, alright?"  She asked, taking the spot opposite from him.

"It's always something with you…"  He murmured, before digging in.  Roseluck watched him eat, not feeling particularly hungry herself.  She looked at the clock, noticing with a sigh that it was just after five in the morning.  Turns out the days of traveling at random hours had messed with her sleep schedule after all.  She rested her head on a hoof, staring out into her darkened backyard.  Rose could only see the corner of her greenhouse, and wondered for a moment how her plants had weathered her time away.  Her spice garden seemed fine, at least.

The ones in the shop were showing their lack of water, though a lot less than she would have expected.  Any wilting she saw had been turned around in a day or so, but she hadn't yet had the time to attend to her greenhouse plants.  She figured that they would hold up the best anyway, in such a warm and humid environment.

"Can I have some more, Roseluck?"  Eldon asked, looking at her.  

She looked at his plate with disbelief.  "Six eggs…  It took you a minute to eat those."  Eldon blinked, as if to say 'obviously'.  "I have some snack foods, but not really that much that I can make up.  We'll go to the market later today, alright?  It'll give you something to do."

"Yeah, that sounds nice."  He replied, watching the mare open a wide door near the stairs.  She peered her head this way and that, before pulling free a couple things.  She brought them to the counter, out of Eldon's view, and started cutting whatever it was up.  "What is it?"  He asked.

"Just an orange and an apple that look like they're still mostly good."  She stuck a plate with the slices on the table.  

"Do they taste good?"  Cato asked, swallowing some omelet and taking an orange wedge.  

"They smell good."  Eldon said, biting into the juicy slice.  He reached into his mouth after a moment, taking out a bit of rind.  "The outside part sucks, Cato."  

"How few things did you guys have access to?!"  Rose exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the air.  "I mean, you come over here and act like everything's futuristic, and it's not even close!  You didn't even know not to eat the side of an orange!"

"Hey, we knew about a lot!"  Eldon shot back, taking a slice of apple as he screwed up his face in thought.  "Just- not the same kinds of things.  Betcha a pony around here wouldn't know how to clean meat or… uh… "  He trailed off.

"Look, Eldon.  I don't expect you to know much about how we live, alright?  I guess it's just weird talking to somepony that doesn't understand the concepts for most of the more advanced things we have.  I can't believe your home was so backwards."

"Depends on where you look."  The large griffin said.  "I mean, I'm sure the leadership is plenty advanced.  You ever seen them?"  She shook her head.  "Yeah, alright.  I'm not sure why any of the inner ring would pass through, but when he did…  Wow, the craziness that went on.  I got an extra day off, it was so out of control.  Lots more guards."

"And he had expensive things?"

"They built a house for him to stay the night."  Eldon said, deadpan.  "Spared no expense."

Rose opened her mouth, scrunching up her eyes as she stared.  She moved her lops to pronounce the beginning of a word before deciding against it.  Eventually she settled on just one syllable.  "How?"

"How what?"

"How do they get the money?"

"I dunno."  Eldon replied.  "I pushed a heck of a lot of coal carts.  That's a good start."

"Yeah, but-"  One of her ears flicked backwards, and she turned around a moment later.  Eldon heard a faint jingle.  "Hold on, I have a customer."  She darted into the shop, shutting the door behind herself.  Eldon looked around, finding himself with a sudden lack of ideas on what to do.  He picked up a short list from the table, reading the words grocery list along the top.  He looked out the back window, wondering how dangerous it would be to go outside.

On second thought, he wanted a weapon as well.  More than a knife.  Images of pickaxes and hammers went through his head.  "Cato, let's do something."  Eldon said, scratching at his forearm.

"You were in a hospital bed yesterday, and you aren't supposed to be doing anything physical today."  Cato replied.  "Besides, Rose has soft chairs."

Eldon sighed.  "Well I need to move.  If there's a market, then it's bound to be full of ponies.  The griffins would be stupid to attack there anyway."  He took a few steps forward before Cato could protest, leaning his head into Rose's shopfront.  "I'm going to pick up the stuff on the grocery list!"  He exclaimed.

"Okay!"  She hollered back.  "Wait, what?!"  Eldon shut the door, figuring that she'd be after him in a second anyway.  The door shot open behind him, and he toppled over as the mare ran into him.  "Don't be stupid!  You're not going anywhere, and definitely not without me!"

"But I-"

"You have like a billion stitches, and we both know you couldn't fight anything."  

Eldon tried to move a talon to push her off, but Rose just pinned it with a hoof.  He strained, but all he got was out of breath.  "Get-  off!"  

"You can't even push me, Eldon!  Can't you just accept the fact that you made it this far, and wait a few days?"

Eldon looked away, stopping his struggling.  "I don't want to stay here because I'm afraid."  He muttered.  

Rose sighed.  "Look, we'll go get some stuff later today.  Until then, rest.  If you really want to do something, I'm sure I can find the use for a couple extra hooves, er, talons in the shop."

Eldon blinked, keeping his eyes closed for a moment.  He'd struggled for fifteen seconds, and he felt exhausted.  "Is it alright if I just meet you in there?"  He asked.

Rose nodded, climbing off of his body.  "But I swear, if you try to leave anyway…"  

"I won't."  He confirmed, taking her hoof as she helped him up.  He saw his reflection in the icebox thing, and his heart sank a little.  "You sure I'll get better?"  He asked.  He'd heard dozens of stories of griffins that had broken bones and never been able to work as well.  He may not have broken anything, but still…

Rose glanced at one of Eldon's hind legs, looking away again.  "Of course you'll get better."  She said, meeting his eyes.  "I've gotta get back though."  She said quickly, retreating through the door.  But she'd seen the pictures and cuts herself.  Maybe there wouldn't be a huge difference between what he could do before and now, especially with better food.  That was far from perfect, however.  The cut in his leg had clipped one of his tendons and while the thing had survived without much damage itself, the muscle damage was worrying.  

If stuff didn't come together the way it was supposed to, Eldon could end up with a pretty bad limp for the rest of his life.  The possibility of that much scar tissue was scary.  He already had his fair share of nerve damage, though he hadn't seemed to have noticed.  

Rose sighed, watching a pony walk by the windows.  She couldn't tell him, not until afterwards.  He hadn't sustained much damage to his wings, but she wasn't sure what the news would do to him.  It wasn't good to have him depressed while he was recovering.

A pegasus stallion walked inside, perusing her wares.  Rose didn't give it much thought.  She'd gotten a rundown of physical therapy, and applying it wouldn't be hard.  The fact that Eldon didn't know much would work to her advantage, as much as she felt like crap for thinking such a thing.  She'd buy him an ice-cream later today.  That'd cheer him up.  

Actually, beyond that, some red meat would probably make Eldon go bonkers.  As much as it weirded her out, it had tasted pretty good when she'd eaten a little bit.  It wasn't that hard to guess why he would want to eat it, even if it disgusted her.  

"Can I help you?"  She asked, walking out from around her counter space.  The stallion was looking at the flowers, and with a scratch of his head Rose knew he had no idea what he was doing.  He looked over at her and nodded.

"I just need a few for my mare friend."  He said.

"What kind of thing?"  Rose asked.  "Fight, spur of the moment, missed anniversary, event of some sort…"

"Spur of the moment, actually."  He said.  She couldn't help but be a little surprised.  

"So what can I get you?"  She asked.

He sighed, gesturing to the flowers.  "I mean, would it be too much to ask for you to get a few nice looking flowers together?  Last time I tried this I just cut my own and my buddy said that the colors didn't match.  They're all grey to me, like I was supposed to know."  He rolled his eyes.

Everything fell into place all of a sudden, and Rose smiled.  "Any time constraints?"  She asked, and he shook his head.  "Come back tomorrow after lunch, and I'll have a nice one made up for you.  But um, sir…"  The botanist paused, waiting to see if he would reveal his name.

"Slipspace."  He said, holding out a hoof with a grin.  "Pleased to meet you."

"Roseluck."  She replied, shaking his outstretched arm.  "Does your mare friend know?  If you don't mind me asking, I mean."

"No."  He replied.  "But then again, we haven't dated for long.  As soon as I tell a mare that, they treat me like damaged cargo.  I don't like it, but it'll come out soon enough.  At that point, she probably won't care, I hope."  He laughed, shaking his head.  "I don't know why I'm telling this to you of all ponies.  Tomorrow after lunch, right?"  Slipspace asked.

"Yeah.  But if you want me to slip in a hint, don't hesitate to ask."  Rose confirmed with a wink.  The stallion laughed, sending her a wave as he walked away.  Rose jumped, slapping herself in the face before she called after him.  "What kind of price range are you looking for, sir?"  

"Money is no object."  He replied, opening the door and letting it close behind himself.  It opened a couple seconds later.  "Actually, try to keep it under a hundred bits, alright?  That should give you more than enough to work with."

Rose nodded.  "I'll do it in ninety-nine."  She replied with a grin, and the stallion chuckled nervously as he exited again.  Rose counted to twenty in her head.  Then she proceeded to jump into the air and let out a celebratory yell.  The botanist toned it down after just a second, figuring that Eldon was sleeping.  But still, a hundred bits.  She wouldn't use then all, because the bouquet would end up looking like it was trying to compensate for something else, but she could use flowers she'd been itching to use, create artwork out of things that were out of her price range for cheap customers.  

Usually the only time she got anything close to a hundred bits was over remedies and tea she sometimes made and sold.  A rich pony in Canterlot, Mr. Pants, had been picking up most of her supply for about a year now.  Even he didn't pay her a hundred bits per box.  And with Eravel around, the boost in finances would be a nice thing to add to her bank account.  

Rose pushed through the door into the rest of her house, looking around for Eldon.  It barely took her a couple seconds before she found him, splayed out under the gentle springtime light streaming through her windows as the sun continued to rise.  His chest was moving slowly, and she was glad to see him asleep.  He looked kinda cute, minus the stitches and cuts she that stood out.  But beyond all that, he seemed rather tranquil.  His beak looked kinda like it was curved into a- she turned her head sideways, walking around him.  Yup, that was a smile.  

That just left Cato, who was chewing on a bit of beef jerky, comfortably snuggled in a pile of cushions.  "How's Eldon?"  She asked, and the kid probably shrugged, based on the way the pillows rose for a second.  

"He walked over there and passed out.  I built a fort, then it kinda fell on me like this.  I don't know what you were expecting to happen in twenty minutes."

"Just try not to touch anything.  I'll give you both a rundown of pony technology later today if Eldon feels up to doing that after we shop."

"Why's he so tired?"  Cato asked, shifting inside his pile.  "He slept for a couple days straight, he should be able to stay up all night."

Rose smiled warmly, taking a seat on the bit of the couch that Cato hadn't taken over.  He eyed her, as if she was taking territory he'd been about to grab.  "Well, when griffins or ponies heal, it's like they're constantly active.  So it's almost like Eldon's body is walking around and using up energy as he lies there.  The doctors just added a few things to get him back to strength sooner."

"Where's he walking to?"  Cato asked, screwing up his face in confusion.  

"No, I mean it's like he's constantly using energy."

"Oh, but to heal."  He filled in, suddenly comprehending.

Rose nodded.  "Yeah, that's the barebones answer, anyway."

Cato looked past her, checking that Eldon was still asleep.  He turned his attention to Rose.  "Do you care about him?"  He asked, pointing to his brother.  "Like, care, care?"

"I don't know what you-"

"I guess, you know how Eldon did all this for me?  I just-"  He ground two talons together, trying to pick his words.  "I mean, I- would you risk anything like that for us?"

Roseluck sighed.  Kids asked hard questions.  She nodded her head, opening her mouth to respond.  "When I met you two, I definitely wouldn't have.  I just wanted to get out, and if I needed to help Eldon to do that, so be it.  But he's a nice guy, and he grew on me."  That still didn't explain why she hadn't dove into the fight at her first chance.  "And I would definitely do the same now."  But would she?  Maybe that was one of the reasons Eldon had so much trouble trusting her.  She didn't think she would hop right into a situation like that, and attempt to keep him safe even if it could mean the death of her.  The sad part was that Eldon would probably do the same without a thought, and he had a brother.

That wasn't to say she hadn't helped him or saved his life, but she'd only seemed to join in when stuff was going her way.  Landing a punch was easy when you could wait for the opportunity.  He was a way better pony- griffin- being than she was.

"Roseluck, you okay?"  Cato asked, as a pillow hit her in the side lightly.  

"Yeah, just thinking."

"'Bout what?"  He asked.

"Your brother."  She replied, glancing over at his still immobile body.  "Look, I'm pretty sure he'll be fine over there, at least for the time being."  She got up, placing a folded blanket and a couple pillows next to him.  

"Is this a good time to ask why you have a flower on your flank?"  Cato asked, pointing with a talon.

Rose turned to look at her cutie mark.  "Yeah, I'm surprised you haven't asked about that.  It's my talent, it appears on ponies when they figure out their calling."

"So you figured out you were good with plants, and that appeared?"

"Well, it didn't really happen like that, but-"  She paused, thinking.  "Look, I'll explain it all later when we go out to market.  I'll have some examples of ponies to point out."

"Can that be soon?"  The griffin asked.

"As soon as Eldon wakes up and feels up to it, we'll go."  Rose took in a gentle breath.  "You want to help me watch the shop?"

"Might as well."  Cato replied, flaring out his wings and sending a few pillows tumbling to the floor.  He hopped to the floor, fluttering his wings to slow his descent.  Rose led him into the other room, hearing his talons clink at the floor as they entered her slate-floored shop.  "It smells nice in here."  He observed, stopping to sniff at a flower that was growing a bright yellow flower.  

"If you think it smells good in here, just wait until I show you the greenhouse."  Rose replied, walking behind her counter.  "Wanna see something cool?"  She asked, and Cato nodded unsurprisingly.  The mare smiled, opening a cabinet and removing a jar and a little plant.  She set them both on the counter.

"A bottle of bugs and a plant with green flowers?"  He asked, giving her a look of confusion.  "Maybe I don't know what cool is around here…"

"No, just watch."  Roseluck began, unscrewing the lid to the jar carefully.  The flies inside got excited as she flipped the jar over and removed the lid as she covered the plant in one motion.  "Watch the little flower bits."  

Cato watched the flies bump into the top of the jar several thousand times before they seemed to calm a little.  One drifted down a couple inches, landing on a flower.  It moved a few steps and the flower twitched, but the fly paid it no attention.  The fly moved again, and in a flash, the plant closed over it.  

"Woah!"  Cato exclaimed.  "Did it just- a plant that- with the fly?"

Rose nodded, knocking her hoof against the jar to dislodge a fly.  "It eats them for sustenance instead of getting nutrients from the soil, since it doesn't get much that way."

"How long until it eats something else?"

"Couple weeks.  Sometimes sooner."  Rose shrugged.  "It's like a cactus."

"Ooh, do you have those too?!"  Cato asked, losing interest in the plant as it ate its last fly.  

"I have a few."  She replied, moving away from the counter once again.  It was a slow day.  Rose walked around a small wall with displays on either side, pointing to some elongated miniature steps where she'd set out numerous types of cacti in cute little pots.  Well, she thought they were cute anyway.  

"Ooooh…"  The small griffin cooed, reaching out to brush along the spines of one.  

"I'm surprised you have as much interest in these as you do with that bug eating plant."  Rose observed, giggling.

"Yeah, well I used to have a cactus like this."  He replied, picking up one that was shaped like several rounded fingers all pointed upwards.  Not that Rose, or anyone else knew what fingers looked like.  The term just happened to be applicable.  "Until it died."

Was it the water?  "Do you know why?"

"I wish I did, because I liked that thing."  Cato let his head fall a little.  "I figured it'd be the one thing to survive easily, 'specially cuz that's what Eldon said when he gave it to me as a birthday present."

The little guy looked like he was remembering a dead relative.  Rose knelt down, putting a hoof around his neck.  "C'mon, Cato…"  she mumbled.  "You can have this one if you want."

She wasn't sure if she saw a tear in his eye, but he blinked it away far too fast for her to check.  "But- I don't have anything to pay you with."  He said, his voice wavering.

"It doesn't matter.  Call it a gift."

He set the pot down, lunging forward abruptly to hug her.  His arms hardly reached around her neck, and Rose couldn't help but smile, reciprocating with her own hoof.  "You two find the funniest things to be thankful for."  She began with a giggle, squeezing him against her for a second before she let him go.  "Tell you what, let's go find a board game and have some real fun."


_________________________________________________________________


Eldon shifted, the morning light in which he'd fallen asleep had fled long ago.  Words sifted through his dreams, intermixing with the mindless chatter between characters fading out of existence.  More mumbles, followed with a brief sharpening of the image in his mind's eye.  Something flew towards him and he jumped, feeling a wave of pain coarse through his body.  

"Aah-"  He gasped, jolting awake.  He was looking at a well painted ceiling in a house he only recognized after a few seconds.  Rose's head appeared in his vision a few moments later.

"You okay?"  She asked, looking concerned.  

"Yeah."  Eldon replied, almost in a whisper.  He cleared his throat.  "What'd I miss?"  
> A modicum of normalcy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Eldon pulled a hat from a hook on the wall, putting it on his head.  It sorta fit.  "So, do they sell meat around here?"

Rose laughed.  Of course that was the first question to come out of his mouth.  "They've got some fish, which'll work just fine.  We don't get a lot of red meat around here, but there's still some.  I know a mare that orders it for her animals, so I'm sure we could get some higher quality beef or pig or something."

Eldon nodded, absentmindedly picking at a bandage.  Everything was starting to flare up in pain again, but he didn't care to tell Rose.  He could handle it for a while, especially if waiting could mean that he'd be too tired to leave the house for several more hours.  

Rose pulled open the door out the front of her shop, holding the door steady for a moment as she turned to the griffin.  "Oh and Eldon?  Try not to attract too much attention, just in case, alright?"

"I'll try."  He confirmed, watching Cato jump and flutter onto Rose's back.  Maybe the kid would end up flying without any lessons.  Rose opened the door and Eldon shielded his eyes, stepping out into the day.  His eyes adjusted and they began to walk, immediate misgivings about his lack of painkillers starting to surface.  Every move he made, he pulled at some stitch or another.  It was impossible not to.

"Doing okay there?"  Rose asked, catching on to his pained face.  He tried to wipe the discomfort from his expression.  

"Don't worry about me."  He responded, speeding up a little.  It almost felt like his skin was tied a little too tight.  A pony seemed to move a little farther away from the limping griffin as he passed.  

Pretty soon, ponies grew more populous as they neared the marketplace, but they still cleared a rather wide area around them.  Eldon wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or annoyed.  He could tell which of the two Rose thought, judging by her angry stares.  

They stopped at a stall, and Eldon looked over the table at a spread of vegetables.  Some sorts of lettuce, some in colors other than green.  Maybe those weren't lettuce leaves anyway.  Some carrots, little dwarf ones in small bags… Some red thing with a little root sticking out of the bottom.

"Anything specific I can get you, Roseluck?"  The mare manning the booth asked, resting her head on a hoof.  

"Just some more of the same."  She replied, handing some bits over.  Maybe those were just really red onions?  No, they looked more like tiny potatoes.

"What about your friend?"  The mare asked, but Roseluck shook her head.  

"I'm not sure he'd know where to start."  She replied, taking the sack of vegetables and sticking it inside her saddle bags.

"Wait, hold on."  Eldon picked his words carefully.  "What are all of these things?"


________________________________________________________


"You know, Eldon, you could've just asked me."  Rose said with a sigh, watching the mare behind the stall converse with a different vendor, presumably over his. exotic questions…  

"I thought it was a good question!  I mean, it's not like I go around talking about things people say, spreading crap around like those two."  He shot back, tripping and landing in a heap as he took a bad step.  He was up before she could help, but it had definitely hurt.  "And besides, we didn't have those things.  I'm not sure why it has to draw attention when I ask."

"You're the only griffin around, Eldon.  Everything you do will draw attention.  You're just supposed to keep it to a minimum."  Rose said, stopping at another stall.  

"Ooh, is this cheese?"  Eldon asked, pointing to a wheel.  

"What can I do ya for?"  The pony asked, tipping his hat a bit to one side.  

"How'd you get it to be all these different colors?"  The griffin asked, looking at a wheel from a different angle.  "Is this even cheese?"

The clerk was taken aback.  "Of course it's cheese, I made it myself!"  

"But if there are only two types of cheese, some of these must be different things."  

The vendor squinted, not comprehending.  Rose facehoofed.  "You'll have to excuse him, sir.  He didn't have much where he used to live."

A bit of understanding passed across the pony's face, followed by a smile.  "Right-O!  So long as he isn't insulting my cheese wares… intentionally."

"Roseluck, this doesn't answer the fact that there are more than two products posing as cheese here."  The stallion slid a cheese tasting tray across the table, the cubes inside slightly distorted by the plastic cover.  

"Looks like your friend needs this."  He said with a chuckle.  

"But-"  Rose started.

"Nonsense.  It's on the house.  Besides, if he takes a liking to my products, he'll come back for more.  Then everyone wins."

"Glad you're frank about it, at least."  The beige mare replied with a smirk, putting the sampler in her saddlebag.  "Now, about what I came here for…"


_________________________________________________


"Ooh!  A blacksmith!"  Cato exclaimed.  "Let's go look at the weapons!"

"I don't think that's the best…"  Rose tried to interject, but the two were already running away.  Well, limping at a slightly faster speed, in Eldon's case.  Rose sighed and broke into a trot, a smile spreading across her face.  Those two seemed way too energetic and excited all the time.  She couldn't put into words how glad she was that they hadn't ended up depressed or otherwise damaged.  Mentally, of course.  Physically… not so much.

Maybe getting Eldon some sort of weapon wouldn't be a bad idea.  He couldn't stay hidden forever, and if the griffins didn't decide to move on he had a far better chance with more than a knife.  Rose got through the old door a few moments behind the griffins, looking around in the dim environment.  

"Can I help any of you?"  A pony asked, cleaning his glasses on a hoof.  He looked like he was about a thousand years old.  The Apple granny's soul mate, maybe.  When no pony responded, he continued.  "Tell ya what, I'll just give ya all the grand tour!"  He got up slowly, walking around the counter and towards a wall of hanging weapons.  

"If it's not too much trouble, of course."  Rose affirmed, gathering with Eldon and Cato.

He laughed.  "Number of customers we get looking for more than hardware?  I need the exercise."  He chuckled at his own joke, pointing a shaking hoof up the wall.  "Now at the top, we've got our spears.  Got a six foot to four foot range.  If you're looking for something really long, we've got pikes in the back."  He shifted down the wall.  "Here, we've got a variety of bladed weapons.  Starting from the top again, swords, machetes and knives."  

Rose chanced a look at Eldon, who was staring open-mouthed at the weapons.  Like a kid in a candy store, kinda.  She giggled to herself.  

"What about that one?"  Eldon asked, pointing towards a massive hammer that was hanging next to the door.  Probably not the smartest spot, Rose thought. 

"Oh, we got some style in you, huh?  Made that one myself, years ago.  Not surprising nopony's bought it, considerin' the difficulty of holding that between two hooves.  Looks like ya don't have that problem, though."  He paused.  "Go ahead, take it down and feel it."  

Rose cringed as Eldon reared up, sure that he'd pulled on some stitches somewhere.  He pulled the hammer from its hooks with one talon, dropping back to the ground in a sitting position.  He turned it over, and the florist immediately realized how intimidating he became.  

"How much for that?"  She whispered to the pony, who had retreated back to behind the counter.  She grabbed Cato as he tried to rush towards Eldon and held him to her side.  

"How much for it?!"  He asked back, and Rose face hoofed.  She nodded, and he let out a laugh.  "I'll see if I can't get ya a little discount."  He spoke up.  "Hey, griffin!"  Eldon turned around.

"Me?"

"Course, the one with the hammer.  See that door?"  He asked, pointing to the one they'd come in through.

"Yeah…"  Eldon replied, giving it a look just in case.  

"Well, hit it!  We've got a replacement, and I can't get my son to put it in because he says that this one works well enough or somethin'."

"Woah."  Rose said quickly.  "Look, he really shouldn't be doing too much in his condition, and-"

"Did I tell you the new price?"  He asked, whispering it in her ear.  

"Really?"  He nodded.  "Well, I dunno, he could pull at some stitches or open a wound, or-"

"Wait!"  The old blacksmith yelled, opening up the door and sticking his head out.  "Clear the road, 'less you wanna get hit!"  He backed inside.  "I think we're golden."

Eldon gripped the hammer tighter in his talons, enjoying the similarity to the feel of an old pick.  He reared up, swinging it backwards before he shifted his hind legs along a step and swung.

"Eldon, wait!"  Rose hadn't been sure what to expect.  The explosion of wood chunks and hinges made her jaw drop.  

"What was that?!"  A younger pony darkened with soot yelled, galloping into the room.  His jaw dropped similarly to her own, and they shared a brief glance.  "Where's the door?"

"Somewhere across the street."  The old pony responded.  "And on this side of the street, and in the middle."

"Why?"

"Because we've got a new door."  Rose handed him the remaining bits in her bag and moved to leave, aiming to avoid getting sucked into an argument.  As luck would have it, they made it out without any further scrutiny.  Other than the ponies that had seen a door blow into a million pieces from the hammer swing of a griffin that had been cut to shreds a few days ago, of course.

"You feeling alright, Eldon?"  She asked, watching his limp for signs that it had worsened.  

He looked tired, wincing slightly.  "I could deal with a little bit of sleep.  Didn't bust any stitches though."  He replied, hobbling along on three legs with the hammer on his back.  

"Sounds like a good idea."  Rose replied, grinning as she transferred the weapon to her own back.  She definitely couldn't deny how awesome that'd looked.


______________________________________________________________


"How long before he stops sleeping like crazy, Rose?"  Cato asked, watching the botanist as she checked his stitches anyway.  They seemed intact.  

"I dunno, a few days to a week."  She paused.  "Help me roll him over."  Cato nodded, bracing himself against Eldon as they struggled to push him.  After a few moments gravity took charge, his arms and legs thumping into the hardwood floor a little harder than Rose would have liked.  Somehow he remained asleep.  She immediately began bandaging up the troublesome cut on his shoulder once again, hoping that it would close a little more.  

Rose took a step back, admiring her handiwork.  She walked away, grabbing something.  Cato took a rectangular toy as Rose handed it to him.  "What's this?"  He asked.

"Well… Let me give you a slightly better answer on your earlier question"  The mare paused, sighing.  "It'll be at least a few days before he starts to return to a normal schedule, but I doubt he'll be that tired after tomorrow or so."  She sat down next to the little griffin on the sofa, making him bounce.  "And this is an etch-a-sketch.  I didn't really have that much laying around that kids would like, but I figured you'd enjoy this."

"How come?  It's not doing anything."  Cato inquired, a bit of annoyance in his voice.  

"Well, they were annoying to get to work with hooves.  They made a newer one with pinwheel dial things, but I figure your dexterity will avoid the dial issue entirely.  Essentially, if you turn them," she demonstrated, making a little line before her hoof slipped, "you get these lines."

Cato seemed much less annoyed.  He immediately began twirling the dials this way and that, making a random glob of tangles.  A moment later, he asked, "What if I want to get rid of this stuff?"

"Just shake it upside down."  Rose replied, smiling that she'd found something he enjoyed.  

"That's pretty cool!"  He exclaimed, drawing a single new line before he erased it again.  

Rose smiled down at the griffin, pushing herself from the couch.  Cato would probably be focused on that for a little while, giving her enough time to at least figure out what to do with this giant hammer.  She had nothing against giving Eldon a bit of defense, and the fact that the old blacksmith had brought the price down to basically free made it an obvious decision.  

Actually, it looked pretty good.  It fit Eldon's proportions, and considering the fact that he'd been mining stuff before, he probably had experience with heavy weapons like this.  Not as weapons, but not much could change, right?

So then, she needed somewhere to put it, as well as a good way for Eldon to hold onto the hammer.  Some sort of sheath but for hammers.  That way, it would give him a bit more freedom and maybe even make some griffins have second thoughts.  Eldon could probably retreat to a safe distance before they came back en masse.  

They wouldn't kill ponies, probably.  That would almost definitely mean war, and she was sure the Griffin Empire didn't want that.  These guys were rogue, their leader filled with anger for one griffin that had been granted amnesty.  Collateral damage didn't seem to be their thing, though she wasn't sure they'd care about offing Cato and her.  Not that she could really be mad that she was a target.  She'd probably be dead by now if Eldon hadn't shown up.  

So, where to put this?  It'd look nice mounted, rather than in some broom closet somewhere.  That reminded her, she still had to make up her guest bedroom.  And clean it.  So the afternoon was lost, whatever.  "Cato!  Keep an eye on Eldon!"  

"Sure thing!"  The kid responded, and Rose started upstairs.  It'd be nice to have her guest room filled for a change.  This house was so much less lonely with those two around, and she was starting to have trouble imagining how her life would have been without them.  

Rose laughed.  And to think that her life would have changed due to one overzealous herb run.  


_______________________________________________________


"Eldon, hey,"  Rose said softly, shaking the griffin's good shoulder.  "Wake up."

He murmured something inaudible, stretching out slowly on the floor.  He arched his back backwards, extending his arms above his head.  His legs went in the opposite direction, some low pops sounding in the quiet air.  He looked stiff as he pulled himself to his feet, and a moment later his wings slowly spread out, expanding into a wingspan that would put any pegasus to shame.  As he folded them back to his sides, Rose noticed tangled and bent feathers messing up the otherwise well-patterned surface.  If she hadn't known he'd had his wings clipped, she'd be hard pressed to find out now.  The ends looked uneven and ragged, but it didn't seem crazy that he could fly as soon as his injuries healed.

Eldon let out a groan as he tried to reach his head back to preen, evidently aggravating some cut somewhere.  He noticed her eyes on him and straightened up, presumably trying to make himself look tougher.  It didn't really look like a great performance, especially given the fact that he seemed to have hurt himself trying to look tough.

"It's not out of the question to ask for help, you know."  As if that made things simple.  Well, maybe they were.  Just because pegasi had a thing with their wings didn't mean griffins did.  

"I figured you wouldn't have much experience with preening."  Eldon replied, chuckling.  He spread one of his wings, moving to lay on the couch so that it reached across the rest of the cushions.  "But be my guest."  Rose moved to sit, his wing retracting out of the way enough for Eldon to extend it back over her lap.  The feathers flayed backwards at her, shaking slightly as his underused wing tried to keep its own weight steady.  Rose supported the tip with a hoof, and the shaking stopped.

"So before I start…"  She trailed off, taking a glance at Cato, who gave her a somewhat reassuring but tired thumbs up.  "Also, wouldn't it be easier for Cato to do this, Eldon?"

"I usually preen his wings for him, because he's not that good at it yet."

"Isn't that something that comes naturally?"  Rose asked.  She figured the Pegasi weren't taught.  

"Well, it's something you do after flying.  So yeah, I guess he could do a fine job on himself.  Probably couldn't carry that over to me though."  He paused.  "So anyway, the ideal practice with preening is to remove screwed up feathers and straighten the ones that are fine."

"So like this bent one then."  Rose said, prying it up with a hoof.  Eldon grimaced.  

"Yeah, but don't push them away like that!"  Rose let go, watching it return to its normal position.  "You get a good grip, like with your teeth, and pull it out."

"Doesn't that hurt?"  She asked, eyeing his feathers.  He wasn't dirty, but the idea of a bath came to mind.  She had to clean his wounds again at some point.  

"A little, but at the same time it feels kinda nice.  Like, after the bit of pain eases.  Molting makes most of the ones I pluck get pretty itchy, so it's nice to have those gone as well."  He jumped as she plucked the first feather with her teeth, watching her remove it from her mouth with a hoof.  His wings were softer than she remembered.

"Like that?"  She asked, handing him the feather.

"Yup."  He replied.  "Looks good."

"Feels better?"

"Dunno.  It's one of about a million, so…"

"Yeah, I can see that.  They didn't go to much of an effort to make you look nice in the hospital."

"They stitched me up at least."  He replied, jumping as Rose pulled another feather.

"Yeah, barely."  Rose replied.  "Only reason they let me check you out's because I can do a few stitches if yours get messed up.  By the way, how's the pain?"

"It's…"  He trailed off.  "It's not good, but it's better."

"Do you want any painkillers?"  Rose asked, and he shook his head.  That was good, considering the fact that they were sort of addictive.  "Alright, but don't hesitate to ask, okay?  It sucks to see you in pain."  Eldon blushed, turning away.  Rose managed to hold back a giggle that would've probably made his blush worse.  

"So are we planning on doing anything else today?"  The griffin asked after a few minutes of silence.  Rose straightened a few feathers with a hoof, thinking.  

"I dunno.  I want to get something made so that you can carry that hammer around.  I figure I can't just stick around all the time, and honestly, a hammer's way better defense than me."

"Don't sell yourself short."  He replied.  Hah.  As if she'd done much of anything.  "So where would we get a sling made?"

"Well, I figured we'd just go over to a tailor that I sort of know, and ask her.  It's what she does and I'd pay her, so I don't think many problems can arise."  Unless she was afraid of Eldon.

"Can we go now?"  He asked.  "I'm not tired right now, but the longer I'm up…"

"Yeah."  Rose nodded.  "I'll finish this up later."  She said as she gently pushed his wing aside and stood up from the couch.  "Just remind me to clean your wounds when we get back, alright?"

"Sure."  Eldon replied, letting his talons hang off the couch.  Rose wasn't really surprised that Eldon looked as bored as he was.  She knew he wanted to fly, yet even in a place where freedom existed he was still constrained by injuries.  Rose sighed, grabbing a couple of bandages and shoving them into a saddlebag.  She grabbed an apple from her countertop, staring at it for a moment.  

"Eldon, you eat apples?"  She asked, and he nodded after a bit of thought.  She tossed him the fruit, which ended up impaled on a claw as he moved to catch it.  Those things had gotten sharp quickly.

"So this mare," he began, taking a huge chunk out of the apple.  "She makes things for griffins?"

Roseluck laughed.  "No, but I'm sure she can do a few measurements.  Probably get something going out of polyester or leather or something.  Hopefully she's not out of both.  I could understand leather, I guess."

"Alright."  Eldon said, following her to the door.  "But really quickly, what's polyester?"
> Integration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rose knocked on a door, waiting a few seconds as muffled hoof steps echoed behind the thin wood.  Rarity opened the door a moment later, beginning a word before her face went through an interesting string of emotions.  She was staring at Eldon, her mouth a little agape.  Little hoof steps pattered behind her, and Sweetie Belle showed up next to her sister seconds later.  

"Rarity, that's the griffin!"

"I know, Sweetie."  She replied, getting her face in order.  "I'm just not really sure why he's here."

Eldon watched her eyes move over him, surely tracing the lines of stitches that criss-crossed his front.  He didn't really like it.  "We were trying to get something made… a sheath for a hammer style weapon?"  He tried.

"We figure that if griffins decide to cause a problem, he better have some form of defense."  Rose added.  "So something like this doesn't happen again."  She gestured to Eldon.

"Of course, come in."  Rarity said, stepping to one side as she held the door open.  Eldon limped through after Roseluck.  "So what are we looking for, here?  Anything special?"  There was a bit of waver in her confident tone, as she pulled out a selection of things to look at.  "We could do leather…  Just got a shipment in from the Griffin… Empire."  Eldon didn't react abnormally, so she continued.  "That would make a fairly sturdy sheath, and could be tailored to specifications of… what exactly are we dealing with here?"

"This."  Roseluck said, as Eldon grabbed the hammer from her back and she started to get feeling back in the flesh it had been resting on.  Rarity stared up at Eldon again. 

"Really?"  

"Tag, you're it!"  Sweetie yelled, hopping into the air and poking one of Cato's hind legs before scampering into another room.  A few things fell over.  

"Sweetie Belle!"  Rarity yelled, as the filly poked her head back out.

"What?"  She asked innocently, peering at Cato, who was staring back.  "Everything's fine!  I mean, I expected more out of tag, but…"

"What's tag?"  Cato asked.  The room went silent.  Rose sighed.  Same as usual.  It'd be nice if there was just a general book on this stuff, so this could stop happening.  Cato hopped off Eldon's back as Rarity started taking measurements, eyeing the griffin.  

"Well," Sweetie began, looking completely confused that someone could grow up without tag.  "Somepony's it, and they tag a pony that isn't, and then the pony that got tagged is it."

"Oh…"  Cato said, realization coming over his face.  "Some kid in my school tried to play that, but I guess he got transferred or something because we never saw him again."  

So then, this was the meaning of complete silence, Rose thought to herself.  It was funny from the standpoint that they were just talking about things that were normal to them, and shocking absolutely everypony they met accidentally.  Hopefully ponies would take enough pity on the two to allow them a more inclusive stay.  Eldon didn't want pity, but it sure seemed to be a helpful thing to have.  Not that Rarity was really getting seriously comfortable around him.  Eh, at least she wasn't scared.  That was good.

"I can get this measured out and made in a couple days if you leave the hammer here."  Rarity finally said, wrapping her tape measure around a hoof so that it was out of the way. "We can work on a price then, if that's alright.  I'm not really sure what'll be involved at the moment, but it won't be backbreaking.  The price, I mean."

Rose nodded.  "So are you going to school here then?"  Sweetie asked, gesturing to Cato, who looked at Eldon.  

"I hope so."  Eldon said.  "I'm assuming there's no law against that?"

"No, Eldon."  Rose said before the room could become silent again.  She turned to Rarity.  "He didn't have a lot where he came from, if that wasn't clear.  Not food, amenities or freedom.  You keep seeming surprised, so keep that in mind."

"How did you get out?"  Rarity breathed, eyeing the Griffin's scars once again.  

"I just broke out and left."  Eldon replied cryptically.  Images of the griffins he'd killed flashed through his mind.  "I don't really want to talk about it."  

Rarity composed herself, nodding.  "I see."  

"Well anyway, I guess we'll head out."  Rose said, turning for the door.  "Whatever price you set, I'll pay.  I don't want him to be unarmed for long."

"What is it you're so afraid of, if I may ask?"  Rarity inquired, rummaging through some fabrics half-heartedly with a hoof.  Sweetie and Cato were into their game of tag, if the noise in the other room meant anything.  Eldon hadn't seen them leave, come to think of it.

"That the griffins I escaped from try to take me back."  The griffin replied, sighing.  "And I'm sure they're not done trying."

"But why would they care?  I mean, you're not- I mean you weren't- in some position of power, right?"

Eldon shook his head.  "But they'll want to make an example out of me.  Run some fake, rigged trial and then sentence me to death.  It's one of they ways they keep order."  He paused, shaking his head angrily.  "That and I killed the friend of the guy in charge of tracking me down."  Eldon shut his mouth quickly.  Mistakes were made there.

"You what?!"  Rarity exclaimed, taking a step back in shock.  "You killed him?"  Eldon was taken aback.  Surely she wouldn't take their side, right?  "Roseluck, you never told me he'd killed anypony!"

"Rarity, you've got to be kidding me!"

Eldon cut in.  "Hey!  It was us or them, alright?!  I had no choice, and there's not a day that goes by where I don't relive those moments.  It'd be nice to live in a world where it's just so black and white, you know, but I don't have that damn luxury!  Why do you think I wanted to come here?"  He grabbed Cato as he ran by, putting him onto his back and stepping away from the mare.  "There's a reason I didn't want to talk about it."

"But-"  Roseluck tried, but he was already gone.  She turned to Rarity with a sigh.  

Rarity immediately took on a dejected look.  "It's alright.  I'll get him."

"You don't have to-"

"No, it's my fault anyway."  Rarity trotted over to the door, disappearing through it a moment later.


_______________________________________________________________________________


"Eldon, wait!"  Rarity hollered, catching up to the griffin a few strides later.  She was breathing rather heavily for the distance of sprinting she'd performed.  She needed to get out more.  He was looking at her now, waiting for her to speak.

"Sorry about that."  She said once she was sure her words wouldn't be interrupted by a breath.  It was longer than she strictly needed, but she wouldn't be caught in such an uncouth scenario out in public like she was.  Running around working up a sweat was bad enough.  "You're right about everything you said, and I should have just listened."

Eldon's gaze softened.  "Thanks."

Rarity smiled.  "You can come back if you want, I put on some tea just before you came so I'm sure it's ready by now."  There was a pause.  "If you want."

"Who'd you kill to get tea?"  Eldon asked, a slight smirk appearing on his face to allude to his humor.  The joke was probably a little too edgy but whatever.  "But seriously though."

"It's just... cheaper here."  

"Must be nice."  He replied, beginning to follow her back to her shop.  "Guess you'll be able to finish your game, Cato."

"So, um..."  Rarity began, trying to make conversation.  "How come we don't see more griffins coming from where you live?  Don't they all want to escape?"

Eldon sighed.  "I'm sure they do but it's not really that simple."  He paused as they came up to the door of the boutique and he pulled the door open for the mare, following him in.  Rose seemed to perk up a bit at seeing him again.  "A lot of things had to go right for me to get here, even months before the day I left."  He sat down on a small couch that Rarity gestured to, letting out a contented sigh when he was able to rest his sore body.  

"Months?"  The fashion designer asked, pulling a few of her supplies out of a drawer, including a tape measure.  

"Well yeah.  The breaking out part turned out to be easier than keeping under the radar before then.  Hoarding food is a crime, for instance.  That means any extra food.  Around here, I don't think it's allowed for the police to break into your house whenever they like, but if they had any suspicion, or just didn't like you they could get you sent away for just about anything.  So I bit my tongue and worked, picked up a coin or two off the ground when they weren't looking.  Slowly but steadily began my stash."

"But how did you know how to come here?"  Rarity inquired, taking a measurement of the hammer.  

"Books.  One of them was about your country, and it mentioned mine as well.  I had to figure out what a lot of the words meant myself, since they don't teach you much in school at all, but once I had the general locations of the two places it at least gave me a reason to keep working towards the goal of leaving, and made me think that there would actually be safety at the end of the road.  I was half right about that one."

"Don't worry, Eldon."  Rose piped up.  "Celestia won't stand for griffins scaring her citizens."

"Maybe, but I doubt she wants to cause a war.  I doubt killing these guys would do that, but I don't know.  And I'm sure she doesn't either."  He paused.  "Hey, how come the little purple princess told me about the terms of my asylum here, and not the big one?"

"Celestia and Twilight?"  Rose asked, and he nodded.  "You need to remember Celestia's name, Eldon.  She expected you to be a bit skittish that first time you met her, and not know anything, but they demand a bit of respect."

"I figured."  Eldon replied.  "I'll remember it, don't worry."

"Twilight came up with the terms of his stay?"  Rarity asked.  "Well, she did say something about the princess teaching her how to rule.  With all the crazy stuff that goes on around here, it's no surprise that they want another pony capable of taking charge."  She trotted over to him.  "I need a few measurements from you now, Eldon.  Mind raising your arms?"  

He complied, and Rarity measured around his chest in a few different ways, writing down each measurement on a piece of paper she had with her.  "When can I pick this up?"  Eldon asked.

"Well, seeing as you need it to help protect yourself, I'll try to get it done either overnight or the next day.  Swing by tomorrow, and I'll tell you where I am in the scheme of things."

"Sounds like a plan," the griffin responded, putting his arms back down.  "What is there to do around here?"

"For you?"  She laughed.  "Anything.  There's food, cider, the plays they put on down the street..."

"We can go out for dinner if you're feeling up to it, Eldon."  Roseluck interjected.  "They probably won't have meat that you'll want, but it'll still be new to you."

"What do you mean, 'that I'll want'?"  he asked, getting interested.

"I just meant that it's not a steak or chicken or anything.  Those are sometimes around, but more often than not meat is a sort of accent to a dish.  It's not super popular as a food by itself, but ponies don't seem to have much against eating it in small quantities mixed into something.  I guess there's seafood too.  I mentioned fish once.  That's a lot more popular than red meat, and they really like them in Canterlot."

"They'll eat anything in Canterlot if somepony calls it fancy."  Rarity mumbled, rolling her eyes.  

"I thought you were all over the Canterlot lifestyle."  Rose asked, smirking.  

"Yeah, and I still am, but sometimes I find myself wondering why.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the culture and the night life, but it has a quirk here or there that I don't care for.  I've often found myself being treated as an outsider among the cliques there, despite their apparent affection towards my designs.  One of the few that I've had a conversation with is Fancy Pants.  Sometimes I think he's the only relatable pony in that entire town."  

Rose took a glance at Eldon, who was listening to their conversation with interest.  Satisfied that he wasn't bored, she continued.  "Canterlot's old money, Rarity, everypony knows that.  The culture of that city peaked fifty years ago.  Now it's just a bunch of inheritees with no idea how normal life works.  You and Fancy Pants are a step apart from the rest because you had to work your asses off."  Rose paused, taking a glance around to check for children after her mental slip.  The sounds of hooves and talons were somewhat faint, so she figured she was in the clear.

"I understand that, Rose, and I thank you for your colorful compliment, but the only way to get anywhere in the industry I'm in is by getting a fashion line taken by one of those guys in Canterlot."

"Who says it's the only way?"  Rose grinned.  "You know what you're doing, and ponies love your dresses.  I mean, how many dress shops are there in Aploosa?"  

"I don't know."  Rarity conceded.  

"Well, you should put another one there.  These guys in Canterlot are only a barrier if you let them be one."

Rarity thought for a moment.  "I suppose you're right.  But surely I couldn't make all of those dresses..."

"I bet Fancy Pants could."  Rose grinned.  

"Maybe on second thought, I will get in contact with him."  Rarity smiled back.  "And with our tenacity, Canterlot wouldn't stand a chance!"  She disappeared into a closet for a moment, returning with a big square of leather.  "Guess I better get cracking, hmm?"


________________________________________________________________


Roseluck looked up from a bill, watching Eldon for a moment.  He was in her back yard doing something or other, currently messing with a metal tomato pole she had laying around.  He was a curious guy, sort of refreshing in a way.  Cato was helping him with part of it, although their bodies blocked out their project nicely.  Eldon's arm jerked sideways and came free with one steel pole from the structure.  He set the rest aside.

Rose's eyes widened.  Those things were cheap, but he'd just broken two welds!  Eldon looked around, possibly checking for griffins before he started to move around to Rose's front yard.  Rose followed him inside the house, watching him come into view in the street.  Now the griffin was looking at the old decrepit tree in the middle of the street that the stupid town kept saying they were going to replace.  Eldon held up the rod as if making measurements in his head, then picked up a hoofball, holding it up to the rod as well. 

Rose rubbed at her chin, trying to figure out his plan.  He put the rod behind the tree, grabbing the rod on both sides around the tree and bending it inwards.  His paws struggled for purchase before they suddenly found it and the rod bent in a smooth motion.  It reached most of the way around the tree, and with some jiggling Eldon got it off.  Now it resembled most of a hoop, and Roseluck was pretty sure she knew what he was aiming for.  

Eldon let himself rest for a moment, wiping sweat from his brow and laughing at something that Cato said.  Then he crouched, springing upwards at the tree.  One of his talons stuck fast in the bark, and with a few more talon holds he was up to what looked like a suitable level.  Cato passed him the pole from the ground, looking around at the ponies that had gathered.  Eldon jammed one side of the hoop into the tree, switching talons and repeating the action to the other side.  

She knew she should be running out there to stop him from doing stuff like he was, but she had a hard time keeping him from continuing something that he appeared to enjoying.  She just felt like a huge killjoy lately.  Rose sighed, but perked up as Eldon hopped down, grabbing the hoofball in one talon and trotting back from the tree.  He turned quickly, hopping into the air and letting the ball fly.  It bounced off the side of the rim, hitting a pony on its way down.  

Rose winced, wondering if she should intervene.  She made a brief movement for her front door before stopping.  Eldon was his own po- griffin.  He could figure it out himself.  To her delight, the pony laughed, dropping his saddlebags on the ground and taking a shot of his own.  That one missed too.  Rose shook her head, laughing.  She managed to tear herself away from the scene to go back to her bills.  With the days she'd missed being in civilized society, these things had piled up.  And she'd just now gotten around to getting them done.  In fact, her power bill was technically due tomorrow.  But the utilities companies usually gave a day or two of grace period with that stupid mare that worked in the post office and lost about half the letters.

Eldon had expressed interest in getting a job, which could be nice.  He definitely didn't need experience when he had talons like he did.  He had some of the dexterity of a unicorn and the mobility of a pegasus.  But then again, unicorns didn't really feel the stuff they moved, which often resulted in a lot of construction accidents.  Everything that moved had to be watched closely, and one small distraction could mess everything up.  Rose had worked in construction for a year or two before opening this place, and she knew the general chaos that went on.  At least now cranes were starting to get better, so hopefully unicorns would be obsolete soon enough.  It sounded harsh when she said it like that.

But with the way these bills were going, she might indeed need a little bit of extra money to push her though to the usual deals she had coming up in a few weeks.  She knew her pride would keep her from mentioning it to him.  At least she was pretty sure that his pride would keep him from staying cooped up in here any longer than necessary.  Ugh.  Maybe getting captured was more of a vacation.

Rose glanced back at the window, bursting into laughter.  Eldon had a full scale game going now, with about half of them wearing bandanas of various colors including Eldon.  He was trying to keep a pony away from the basket, but being careful to not make contact.  The pony passed the ball and a teenager dove into the way, deflecting the ball.  Eldon snatched it up, trotting out a few paces farther.  He must have been doing a great job working through the pain in his bad leg, because she hardly noticed his limp.  He threw a fast pass to an older pony, who bounced the ball around a stallion at least five years his junior to laughter.  He tossed it upwards, and everypony stopped to watch it arch through the air.  It went straight through the hoop, to uproarious cheers from the bandanna team.

Rose finished off a bill, getting up to leave.  The bills could wait a game or two.  


__________________________________________________________________


"So how'd you learn about this game?"  A pegasus asked, who Eldon had learned was called Thunderlane.  Rose had mentioned trying to make his stories sound at least slightly better.  Omitting details wasn't too hard, at least.  

"My father used to play this game, and he taught me it as a kid.  It's been years since I actually played it though, but I just happened to remember it today."

"Well it's a hell of a lot more interesting than hoofball."  He replied, chuckling.  The resting ponies joined together in a general consensus.  "What day is it, Tuesday?  You want to make this a weekly thing, anypony?"  He paused, as a few raised their hooves.  "Maybe Tuesdays and Thursdays, show up to whichever?"

"Sounds good to me,"  an older pony said, stretching out a hind leg.  "Doc says I could use a little more exercise."

"That okay with you?"  Thunderlane asked Eldon.  "After all, this is your game."

"I've got nothing else going on."  Eldon replied.  Rose had a slight grin, staring downwards in thought.  He wondered if she was as happy about the fact that he already knew ponies and was fitting in as he was.  

"It'd be nice if you all were't so tall."  Cato murmured, drawing a laugh or two.  

"Hey, you'll hit a growth spurt pretty soon."  Eldon said, poking him in the stomach and making him giggle.

"You know, you could always set one up at the school and he'd have some guys his own size to play with."  

Eldon grinned.  "You know, that doesn't sound half bad."

Rose jumped, looking at the position of the sun as she grimaced.  "Eldon!  We need to get Cato registered for school before the city hall people leave for the day."  She took a few steps away as Eldon got up, looking sore, but stopped to turn to the group.  "Thanks for joining in.  It was a lot of fun."

"Thanks for showing us the game!"  Thunderlane replied, followed by a chorus of thanks.  "See you on Thursday."

Eldon laughed.  "You know it."


_________________________________________________________________________


Eldon arose from his seat, following a pony down a corridor and into an office.  An oldish pony was sitting behind the desk, looking at them expectantly.  "You're the ones here to register a new child for school?"  She paused.  "I'm mayor mare, by the way."  She exchanged a hoof shake with the two adults.  

"Yeah, but I didn't think I'd end up seeing the mayor for it."  Roseluck said, looking around the rather ornate office.  

"Well normally I would have one of my secretaries give you the paperwork and then put it on the books, but the stallion that usually does it came down with quite the flu."  The mayor handed over a small stack of papers.  "I've taken the liberties of getting everything I could done ahead of time, as soon as I heard you were out there.  I heard about you two,"  she continued, looking at Eldon and Cato, and while I don't know your names, I assumed that you might want to get the little one into school as soon as possible.  Education is hard to come by in the griffin lands."

"How did you know?"  Eldon asked.  This was probably the first pony to even vaguely understand what was inside the Griffin Empire.  

"I've been in office a long time, and Ponyville has had its fair share of encounters with the griffins.  Being right on the border of an aggressive country does that to you.  In fact, we're receiving ten or so soldiers later today just in case.  Sent straight from Canterlot by Shining Armor, I hear."

"So Celestia's going to force them to have a stand off?"  Rose asked.  

"Technically speaking, from what I've heard about the royal power structure, Shining probably sent them of his own volition.  The princess, I'm sure, would not be adverse to that decision."  She paused.  "Anywho, fill those out and hand them back, and we'll get him registered in a few minutes.  What is his name, if I may ask?"

"Cato."  Eldon said plainly.  "C-A-T-O."

"Alright, got it."  The mayor replied.  "Last name?"

"Arnason."  It had been a long time since the name had crossed his lips.  It had come to mind so quickly despite the years of disuse.  "A-R-N-A-S-O-N."

The mayor recorded the name, and Rose handed her the stack of paperwork.  "Hopefully I didn't miss anything."

The mayor shrugged.  "I can fill in most of it myself.  So unless you missed something really important it won't matter, but even then you can just get me the papers tomorrow."

"Thanks for being so accommodating,"  Rose replied, giving a slight tilt of her head.  "I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem, really!"  The mayor responded.  "And I may as well make a good impression on our newest residents!"

Rose grinned.  It had turned out to be a quite a nice day after all.


______________________________________________________________________________


"What is this?"  Eldon asked, picking up the suspiciously filled sandwich and letting it hand from between two of his talons.

"Peanut butter and jelly sandwich."  Rose replied, pulling it from Eldon so that she could get it wrapped up.  "It's something we eat around here, and I had the ingredients.  And I figured for Cato's first day of school, he might as well have something normal-ish.  There's no point giving him something that will just estrange him on day one.  

"If you say so,"  Eldon replied, watching her a little more closely than she would have thought necessary.  He was silent for a while.  "Smells good."

"You want one?"  Rose asked, already making one for herself.  Eldon nodded.  

"Well why don't you go wake your brother up and I'll have one ready for you when you get back?"  Or ten, considering his appetite...

Eldon wordlessly left the room.  Apparently he wasn't much for talking in the morning.  But she doubted he slept that well in the first place.  He was clearly pretty sore when he went to bed, and it definitely couldn't have helped.  The physical activity he'd gotten yesterday was nice in a sense, because it kept him from healing poorly, but it also kept him from healing as quickly.  Choosing between only those two options, she'd much rather see him regain full use of his leg and be good and strong afterwards if it meant more pain now.  It was just a little hard, watching him like that.

She really did care about him.  This wasn't anything about debt, though she sometimes thought about it that way.  It was about him, and the bond that they had formed over their days in the wilderness.  He'd taken her under his wing, literally, and she would never be able to thank him enough for it.  But she was also left with a deeper sense of caring than the sort between brethren.  There was a long list of qualities she admired about Eldon.  He was pure, despite his society's ingrained brutality.  And he was generous and selfless and so on.  

Or maybe this was just more deliberation in her head that would never go anywhere.  That happened a lot, boring as her life often was.  She loved her job, and while it had its fair share of adventures out in the wilderness, she didn't need that much from the Everfree that she couldn't grow herself.  A few times she had contracted with Zecora and found things for her.  The zebra was very knowledgable about most plants, but those that didn't exist in her homeland were still shrouded in a bit of mystery.  That made it sound like she didn't know much, actually.  Well, suffice to say there were enough she didn't know as well as she did that Rose felt she was still of help.

And the knowledge went both ways, to a degree.  Zecora was somewhat reserved with her potion making, but she had occasionally given Rose a hint or two, which she had made sure to remember.  And she'd also thrown a few full recipes at her, like to fix poison joke and a few other small things.  Basically so that if Zecora left town, they could survive a few things like that.  Ponyville always seemed woefully unprepared for almost anything, but at least they had more soldiers coming into town now to help put up a show.  

Rose jumped as somepony banged on the door, getting irritated at herself for being so on edge.  Admittedly, she hadn't slept well because of a nightmare about Eldon that she only vaguely remembered, but still.  "Just a second!"  She yelled, finishing up a sandwich.  Rose opened the front door, wondering who would be by at such an hour.  When she opened the door to Shining Armor himself, she figured she still had to be asleep.

"Hi."  She said.  In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best thing to say to the pony with the largest amount of military power at hoof in Equestria.  "To whom do I owe the honor?"

"Well, technically I'm here of my own accord.  Celestia warned me about your guests, but I doubt we're going to have much of a problem from one refuge.  But I'm not here because I wanted to say hi."


______________________________________________________________________________________


Eldon walked out into the hall, ducking back in as he noticed an armored pony downstairs.  Why were there soldiers here?  He knew they'd be in town, but here in Roseluck's house?  Were they even soldiers?  He didn't know the uniform, and they could be mercenaries hired by the griffins.  Those existed, because he'd heard stories from the government itself about pony mercs.  Usually they weren't a reliable source, but there had to be at least one mercenary, right?

Okay, maybe that was overkill.  But why would they show up so soon after he'd arrived, and in such force?  "Cato," he whispered, setting his brother on the floor, "go hide in the closet, and don't come out until I tell you to."  

"But why-"

"Do it."  Eldon exited the room slowly and moved along the side of the hallway, peering down the stairs.  

"We've had a few run-ins with the griffins before.  Their government is unpredictable and so we worry about the validity of the stories that refugees tell."  Said a pony that Eldon couldn't see.

"How can you say that!"  Rose exclaimed, angry sounds following as she struggled with words.  "He got torn up by griffins, why would he do that just to turn on us?!"

The guard at the bottom of the stairs started to turn towards him, and Eldon dove to the floor.  It was a perfect maneuver, other than the fact that his elbow made a thump on the way down.  There was some hurried, muffled talking going back and forth, some of which he recognized as Rose.  Then after a few seconds a knife came free from its sheath and slow, deliberate hoof steps started making their way up the stairs.  

Eldon snaked around the corner, back into the room he'd come out of.  Okay.  So they might not be hostile.  They might just want to chat.  But what if they wanted to take him away and the princess had just put on a show for her subjects?  What if this was the end?  He couldn't take that chance.  He looked around hurriedly, but there was no place he could hide.  He was far too large for the closet, especially by the time they got here.  At least ponies weren't silent.  

Eldon waited for another step to sound out against the hardwood before he jumped sideways into the hall, catching the two ponies by enough surprise to punch the knife out of the white one's hoof.  It clattered on the ground behind the both of them, and Eldon grabbed a punch by the second pony, twisting and throwing the guard further down the hall.  He spun back just as fast, narrowly avoiding a punch and throwing one of his own.  It got caught in a blue aura, and after a brief second off balance Eldon threw a punch with his other talon, watching it get stuck as well.  The pony hit him in the gut with his fore hoof, pivoting on the other front hoof to go in for the finisher and buck him.  

Eldon swung himself forwards with the blue things, managing to make contact with a paw to the pony's cheek as he spun.  It knocked the guard backwards, distracting him enough to stop his weapon from working.  Eldon hit the ground on his back, rolling onto his stomach to get up.  He charged into the pony he'd thrown earlier, throwing them both down the hall.  Eldon got a glimpse of at least five more soldiers in the hallway behind him, and decided it was now or never.  Their leader, the one that had had the knife and the blue stuff, he assumed, was the key.

Eldon sprinted off, zigzagging down the hall.  He was maybe three feet from him when he lurched to a painful stop, his whole body becoming alight with pain for a moment.  It quickly drowned itself out with adrenaline as Eldon realized he was completely ensnared, and started straining to get out.  The pony's eye twitched, but otherwise the field was resolute.  Once he was sure Eldon was secure, he raised the griffin a few feet, looking him over closely.  Blood had begun to drip from one of his hind legs, presumably from some cut he'd opened back up.  He couldn't feel it, though.  There was still too much adrenaline pumping through him.  

"Where's the other one?"  The stallion asked after a few moments, making a gesture back to his buddies.

"Look, you can force me to leave as much as you want, but let him stay!  He didn't do anything!"  Eldon yelled, feeling tears well up in his eyes and cascade down his cheeks.  He'd hardly been here a few days, and it was already over.  After all those months of planning, and all the relief he'd felt having gotten here, only to be rejected.  "Why won't you let me stay?  I just want to live my life and fly and raise my brother not be killed because of it."  He saw thinly veiled confusion on the faces of the ponies, which in turn confused him.

"Then why did you attack us?"  

"Because I didn't have a choice!  I can't hide, and I just didn't want to get sent back."  He had never been so afraid or frustrated in his life.  The world he had know had seemed bad before, but now that he knew what it was like to have meaningful companionship and play games with other laughing individuals and not need to worry about a midnight raid when he was asleep, it made his old home seem twice as bad.  "I can't be sent back.  They'll kill me, and they'll make an example of it!  And they'll torture me for hours and hours just because they can."

"I know."  Eldon was lowered to the ground and the forcefield suddenly dissipated.  "I know what you thought you heard, but we don't want to deport you.  The military griffins that we sometimes see disguised as refugees like you still have old symbols reflecting their past.  They usually come from the training they go through or tradition, but there's always something.  Most commonly, it's a symbol on the talon somewhere that gives it away."  He paused, sighing.  "You're not the only one to react like this, though.  The spies always bide their time and wait for us to tell them what we're going to do.  But the ones that are desperate, that have everything to lose, they try to fight."  He put a hoof to his quickly bruising cheek, grinning.  "But man, can you griffins fight."  He gestured for Eldon to follow him, returning back down the stairs.

"That's why you have all the guys?"

The pony nodded.  "You can be tough to take down."  They made it to the living room, where Rose was standing nervously, a guard in between her and the stairs.  She ducked around him, jumping into Eldon and hugging him around his neck.  Eldon took the force with an 'oof', taking half a step back before he put a talon around her back.  

"I thought they were going to hurt you."

The white pony laughed.  "Us, hurt him?"  He paused.  "Oh yeah, I'm Shining Armor by the way, captain of the Royal Guard and co-ruler thing of the Crystal Empire.  Sort of, my wife does most of that stuff.  Doesn't trust me with non-military stuff, you see."

Eldon grinned, extending a talon.  "Eldon."  Shining shook his talon.  "Oh, Roseluck, could you perchance get Cato out of the closet upstairs?"

Rose nodded, letting out a few nervous laughs about the sudden friendliness of the males that had just beat each other up.  "So that was magic?"  She heard Eldon ask as she wandered upstairs, walking into her bedroom.  She'd insisted that Cato sleep in a real bed for the night before classes started, and she take the couch.  She'd made a small dent into the space she'd always used as storage, and she knew that the stuff farther in was bigger, and in a sense, easier to deal with.  Maybe Eldon could help her out a bit with the heavier ones.  

Worry settled into her heart.  She had seen the lines of blood popping up on his body just now, numerous cuts that he had opened up.  Definitely the bad one on his leg.  If he continued pushing himself like he was, he wasn't going to heal correctly, and he might end up making his life a lot harder in the future.  She slid open the closet door, watching Cato shrink back inside before he realized it was her.  

"Where's Eldon?"  He asked.

"He's downstairs.  He's fine."  Cato gave her a look that seemed to suggest she was under pressure to lie.  The tension ran thick.  

Eldon laughed downstairs, a hearty sound that Rose didn't hear often.  It always made her happy when he could find something to laugh at.  He'd probably kill her for the bit of pity that came out in her occasionally, but for all the time he was beaten down, he didn't seem to care.  Rose's thoughts shifted suddenly.  "Oh shoot!  You're going to be late if we don't get going!"  Before Cato could protest Rose picked him up and tossed him onto her back, trotting downstairs.  Eldon was still chuckling at some story Shining was telling, responding with a few words she didn't quite sort out from the rest of the conversation in the room.  Then it was Shining's turn to laugh.

"Hey Rose."  Eldon managed to get out between laughs.  

"We need to get this guy to class."  Rose replied, the guffawing of the two forcing her to grin.  She laughed to herself.  "Come on, no sense him being late on day one."

"I guess you're right."  Eldon replied, wiping a tear out of his eye.  He turned back to Shining.  "Hey, say hi when you come back to town."

"Actually, I'm going to be here for a few days,"  Shining explained, "I've got to get some things set up and then there's my sister.  You've met her I think, Twilight Sparkle?  Lavender with wings and a horn?"

"Oh yeah, she told me I could stay here first."  Eldon confirmed.  "Guess I'll see you around maybe."

"Yeah, I'll try to make a point of it."  Shining replied, twirling a hoof above his head in a sort of military signal before pointing towards the door.  His soldiers chuckled and followed him out.  The pony that Eldon had thrown tapped at a dented piece of armor and grinned as he walked through the door.  He shut it behind him, and the house became completely silent for a few moments.  

"Thank god that's over."  Rose sighed.  "I thought you were in a lot of trouble, Eldon."

"So did I."

"At least you're making friends.  I didn't know you were so charismatic."

"Neither did I.  But he was good at turning stuff into jokes.  Really funny guy."  Eldon replied.  He stamped a knuckle into the ground suddenly, making the hardwood ring out with a dull thud.  "Alright, let's get going."

"Wait, one sec."  Rose spoke up, stopping Eldon mid stride.  "You hurt yourself."

"It's fine.  I've had worse."  

"Let me see."  Rose replied with a sound of slight annoyance, parting the hair where the cut was.  The stitches were clearly still intact, so that was good.  She was worried he may have popped a few out with how it sounded up there.  But it was just a little cut next to it that had pulled apart, a shallow one that looked worse than it was.  But he kept pulling it apart anyway.  "We're going to have to jog, but this can't wait."  She trotted from the room, pulling a first aid kit from an upper cabinet in her kitchen.  "You think you can handle an extra stitch or two?"

"Ugh, why?"

"Because you keep pulling this cut apart and I want you to heal."

"Fine."  He paused.  "How many?"

"I don't know.  We'll see."  Rose poked him with the needle, slightly surprised that he stayed still.  She had experience with simple operations such as these, and they weren't foreign.  She'd had to repair herself from worse out in the Everfree anyway.  Rose shivered.  Way worse.  The needle went back and forth, Eldon's leg giving a twitch here and there.  Nothing she couldn't deal with.  

"There."  Rose said.  "Now we can go."  

Twelve more.


____________________________________________________________________________________


Eldon walked up the small hill towards the school house, getting a few looks from ponies around them.  Cato hopped off Eldon's back, fluttering to the ground.  At the rate he was going he might not even need a lesson.  Must be instincts.  

"Hey, be good."  Eldon warned.  "I better not hear anything about fights or backtalk or anything of the sort.  School is a privilege."

Cato gave Eldon a salute, scampering inside excitedly.  Eldon grinned, almost thinking he might be dreaming.  Maybe if his leg didn't hurt so much.  But Cato was in a school with a teacher that wouldn't hesitate to answer his questions, or try to brainwash him.  

"They usually don't go in so eager."  Eldon jumped, snapping out of his thoughts.  The red pony seemed to think it was funny as he chewed at some grass or something.  "Yer the new citizen?"  

It must be the grass making him speak like that.  "Yeah."  Probably wouldn't be good to ask him in case he was wrong.  

"Name's Macintosh.  They call me Big Mac, much to mah chagrin."  Eldon shook his hoof.  

"Eldon."  Letting his eyes shift around, he figured he was one of the few that saw eye to eye with this one.  

"Wish Ah could get mah critter ta go in there that easy."

Eldon refocused and shrugged.  "We didn't really have school.  I taught him some things, but I think I drilled in the gravity of the situation enough for him to understand."

"Ah see."  He responded.  Silence drew on, and Eldon wondered if he was going to be a mute for the rest of his life.  

"So what do you do?"  Eldon asked, quickly adding, "For a living?"

He pointed to trees with red things in them.  "We grow apples."

"Oh, is that what those are?"  Eldon asked.  Damn.  Well, may as well continue so as not to sound like an idiot.  "We didn't have those."

Mac glanced at Roseluck, who gave a slight nod.  He gave her a meaningful look.  "Shame."  Another pause.  "Anywho, Ah've got to get back ta work.  Ah'll be seein' ya around, Eldon." Mac walked past him, wandering back towards the apple trees.  

"He's notorious for being a man of few words."  Rose explained.  

Eldon nodded.  "So when should I come back to get him?"  The pain in his leg was quickly fading as the bleeding stopped entirely and with the momentary pause in movement.  

"They get out at three or so, so that's when we should be here.  But until then, you're resting."


_________________________________________________________________________


Eldon shot a hoop, celebrating to himself as Rose watched through the window.  Griffins only seemed to live until they tore themselves apart.  But his cut had scabbed over, and until she looked up and saw blood she wan't going to stop him.  The cut hadn't been pulling apart that much in the first place so there wouldn't be that much stress on the stitches.  She'd put in more than she thought she needed in case he didn't feel like laying down.  

And she'd also been productive in here, working on bills and a few shipments from Canterlot.  The storefront had been busy when she had gotten back, and Eldon had helped a little, but since then it had been quiet.  It was a moderately successful day of sales, and she was still getting the occasional pony here and there.  Eldon seemed to be a nice attraction.

Rose finished the last bill in a stack, putting them all into a neat pile and letting out a contented sigh.  She could just stick these in the bin across the street and play some sports with Eldon.  She didn't get enough physical activity this time of year anyway.  

She exited, thinking about changing the sign on the door before deciding otherwise.  She would see customers anyway, so there was no point in turning them away.  Plus, in a small town like Ponyville most ponies knew what she looked like, so seeing her in the street ten feet away wouldn't be hard.  

Rose got the lid to the bin open after a few tries and ignored the horrible squeal the rusty hinge made.  She put in her mail and punched it closed, making sure she heard them hit the other mail.  

"So how's it going, Eldon?"  Rose asked, turning to him.  He shrugged, taking a shot that bounced off the tree.  His reaction time was commendable, as was his speed in recovering the ball.  

"It'd probably be more interesting if we had a bunch of ponies to play with like yesterday."  He replied.  "But I'm totally down if you want to shoot a few with me."  Rose nodded and he tossed her the ball.  "You go first."

"I don't think I've ever lost worse than I'm about to."

"Oh, come on, that's no way to think about it."  Rose shrugged, bouncing the ball a few times to get the feel of it again.  She dribbled it to one side of Eldon, changing direction fast enough to get an opening.  She shot it from a long ways back, watching it sail through the air and through the bent tomato pole.  

"Woah, did you see that?!"  Rose exclaimed, shocked that she had made the first shot.  She had played some yesterday, but she had only tried to shoot once.  It had gotten blocked.  The rest of the time had been her playing some pretty good defense in her opinion.  She was good enough at this game to have fun while playing it.  

"Yeah, nice."  Eldon said, grabbing the ball and switching positions with her.  Eldon started his move, doing a similar juke to her.  But he was faster, getting more free space between the two of them.  He dribbled forwards and Rose struggled to catch up, diving to put a hoof in front of the ball.  She felt it make a bit of contact, and watched the ball go off target before she skidded on the ground.  

"Woah there, Roseluck.  It's just a game."  Came a new voice, followed by laughs.  Blue hooves hit the ground in front of Rose's face as she started to get up.  She dusted herself off slightly, not particularly worried about a little extra grit.

"Why're you coming by on a day like this, Rainbow Dash?"  Rose asked.  

"Cuz of him."  She replied, pointing to Eldon.  Roseluck gave him a quizzical look.  "Yo, Eldon."

"I didn't ask to be so popular."  He said with a shrug.  "You're that mare from the hospital, right?  I saw you there."

"Yeah.  Twilight asked me to look at your wings because she thought they looked weird.  Clipped to keep you from flying, huh?  Sounds like hell."

"I'll probably only realize how bad it was when I fly again."  

"Why not now?"  Dash asked, gesturing to the sky.  "Beautiful day!"

"Because last time I crashed and knocked myself out.  Until they look a little closer to wingtips, I'm not leaving the ground."

"Suit yourself.  Anyway, I'm really just here because Shining Armor said you're the reason the side of his face is a little blue."

Eldon turned a faint shade of red.  "I thought he was there to deport me."  He paused.  "So I hit him first."

Dash laughed.  "You've been here like three days and you've already bunched a guy that has to be at least the fifth most powerful pony in Equestria.  Hopefully it won't go outside us or you'll be swarmed with reporters."

"Not like a little press would be a bad thing."  Rose laughed.  "Free advertising is the best advertising."

"Ha, yeah.  Well I heard it through the grapevine, i.e. Rarity that you're concerned with defending yourself.  Because you bought a giant hammer or something."

"Yeah."  Eldon replied simply.

"Well I know a bit of martial arts, and if you want to I could spar from time to time.  There's nothing wrong with getting a little better, right?"

"Strength only works against ponies, I guess.  When would we start?"

Dash shrugged.  "I don't care, man.  Whenever you want.  I'm not doing much and the weather team is pretty idle this week."  She paused, looking at the goofball and the hoop.  "What even is this game?"

"I don't remember the name, but apparently it's a lot different from hoofball.  Basically you have to shoot this through the hoop, but you can't move without bouncing the ball on the ground.  There are other rules, but that's the short version."  Eldon chuckled.  "All I know is, its fun.  But I think probably I'll finish this game and take a nap.  Then how about at... what time is it anyway?"

"Twelve."  Rose said.  

"Okay, so lunch first, then nap."  Eldon laughed. 

"I bet you eat meat like Gilda, huh?"  Dash asked.  "I mean... like other griffins?"

"Yeah."  Eldon replied.  "How many other griffins would you say live in... Equestria?"  

"Probably at least ten thousand or more.  We've had a griffin population for a long time, before anypony can really remember.  You know, Equestria's got like ten million and they're not that rare along the coast so its probably at least a hundred thousand."  Dash waved a hoof dismissively.  "In any case, you're going to have a hard time not seeing some.  But according to Shining, the ones that escape like you are fairly rare.  And they're also usually in a sort of witness protection sort of thing.  I'm guessing you're going to be asked a few more questions by Shining for intel or something."

"You ponies seem loose-lipped with your information."  Eldon noted.  

"You two are the only ones hearing this.  Shining said he'd rather you know before his cheek gets punched off.  He laughed after that, but it was getting pretty swollen so I think there was some truth there."  Dash laughed.  "Anyway, I'll stop by in a few hours, after I've come up with a way to keep you from accidentally tearing me a new one."  She made a cutting motion across her neck.  "You know, literally."

"Yeah, see ya."  Eldon replied, watching the mare nod and turn, taking a few strides to get up to speed before she hopped into the air.  She gained speed quickly, disappearing beyond the houses of the town.  He turned to look at Roseluck, who was grinning widely.  

"Looks like you're going to get that taken care of."  She said, chuckling.  "I guess I won't have to worry about you so much anymore."

"You'll find a way."  Eldon chuckled, turning back to the storefront.  

"Yeah, you're right.  Probably right after you get beaten up by Rainbow Dash."

Eldon grinned, holding the door for the beige mare.  "I guess we'll see."
> The First Rule of Fightclub
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Yeah, so apparently boxing came from you guys, so these were easy to find."  Dash said, handing Eldon some gloves.  "I got a nice story from the guy at the store about the beginning of  this sport.  I don't usually box, but I figured it was a good idea for our first time, you know?  Lots of padding and stuff."

"So where are we doing this?"  Eldon asked, confused slightly at the foam and leather gloves before he figured out they had plastic cones on the inside to keep his talons from ripping the hell out of them.  He'd been wondering.  "I assume not here, unless Rose wants dents in her walls."

"I'd like to keep my walls dent free!"  Rose yelled from her storefront through the open connecting door, before returning to a customer with an apology as they continued their business.  The pony merely laughed in response, delving back into the conversation.  

"So yeah, there's a place in town that does stuff with fighting.  They mostly do martial arts, but there's also a boxing ring.  A few years ago they had a fight between two big important griffin fighters.  It was interesting to watch, especially with the punches they were throwing.  One of those in the right place without gloves and you're dead.  I mean, an average pony, especially a non-earth pony might be but them..." she whistled.  "They just shook those things off."

"Well we need an advantage or two if we're expected to come toe to toe with magic."  

"I suppose."  Dash replied, chuckling.  "We'll have to see if you can get in that one hit, eh?"  

"Yeah right."  Eldon replied.  "Those guys were pros or something."

Dash shrugged, watching him flex his talons inside the glove before taking it off once again.  With the kind of muscle mass he had, she doubted he was that far from their kinds of punches.  "You ready to go?"  She asked.

Eldon nodded.  "See ya later Roseluck!"  He yelled back to the flower mare.

"Don't kill yourself!"  Roseluck yelled back, out of sight.  She stuck her head through the doorway.  "Cato gets out of school at three, so in case I'm not there when it's time to pick him up, make sure you're watching the clock."

"Sure thing."  The griffin replied, "But you've got to remind me to check with the seamstress about the sling."

"Rarity?  Yeah, fine.  You've got to learn these names, Eldon."

"I've met her literally one time."

"Well it's not going to be the last."

"Touché."  Eldon responded, laughing.  Rose grinned.

"Well, get on with that then, you're burning daylight!"

Eldon waved a talon dismissively at her.  "If it goes on as long as you think it will, there should be no issue."

"I guess you'll have to prove me wrong."  Rose replied with a smirk, disappearing back into the storefront.


___________________________________________________________________________


"Okay, so basically boxing is just a bunch of rounds, and a judge ruling on who wins.  But since we don't have a judge and this is for practice, I'll just call a break when it looks like you need one."

"What about you?"  Eldon asked,  "What if you need a break?"

"Please."  Dash replied dismissively.  "I know you're strong and all, but you don't have the finesse, the pinpoint precision that it takes-"  Eldon laughed, cutting her off.  "What?"  

"You better live up to expectations."

"Yeah, you ready?"  She asked.  He stretched out his leg, , making sure it was good and loose.  It still hurt a little, but he was pretty sure it was close enough to healed.  Then he nodded.  

Almost immediately a punch flew straight for him, and Eldon only narrowly managed to get out of the way, deflecting her hoof with a jab.  Dash was on him again almost immediately, and he quickly found that his only option was to dodge the punches she threw by a margin that got smaller and smaller each time.  Either she was turning up the difficulty or he was getting tired already.  Maybe a combination of both.  

He kept a close eye on his surroundings, however, making sure to stay away from the corners.  The last thing he needed was a lack of space.  He was at least confident that he could continue to keep Dash from winning if he could stay in the open and have space to move.  While she had speed, he knew he could match her movements if he pushed hard enough.  He was heavy but his work and rations had forced him to stay light.  There was very little on his that wasn't muscle.   

A blow from Dash connected, hitting him square in the jaw.  He reeled, keeping the presence of mind to back up quickly, moving sideways to stay out of a corner.  He lunged towards her, throwing a heavy punch that whistled through thin air.  He ended up off balance, spinning around to face Dash and recover.  Either he wasn't fast enough or his mistake had dissolved all possibility of dodging her next strike, because he hardly had time to focus on her before a gloved hoof hit him in the other cheek.  His head jolted sideways, but he made sure to keep his distance again.  

"Look at you, the big griffin steering clear of a little mare like me."  Dash teased, giving him a moment to rest.  "Not so dangerous without your claws, huh?"

"We'll see what you think whe-"  Eldon hopped backwards, a punch sliding just beneath his chin.  

"Well, you've got good reflexes, I'll give you that."  Dash chuckled, watching Eldon closely.  He couldn't say the punches hurt a whole lot.  There was some force behind them for sure and it shook him up, but there wasn't much more than a slightly warm sensation in his cheeks.  He calculated his advantages again.  Unsurprisingly, he didn't see many.  He moved sideways from a punch, another glancing off his chin as he tried to move in the other direction.  There was height.  She couldn't get as good of an angle in the punches as he could.  That was clear, and the little rise she had to do to throw one upwards made it slightly easier to dodge.  

The other one lied in the number of hits he could take.  So presumably what he needed to do to get through her defense was to react to a blow in a way she wouldn't expect.  As in by not reacting.  

Eldon took one right between the eyes, his head jerking backwards as he reeled from the unexpected hit.  Dash had an easily recognizable rhythm that she tended to break from in the most unpredictable ways.  He could only assume it was her strategy.  Dash sent another punch towards the side of Eldon's head.  He braced himself, moving his head to meet her hoof.  The collision hurt, but put her off balance enough for Eldon to throw a punch of his own.  Dash got her other hoof up to block it, but it was solid contact.  

She slid backwards across the ring, coming to a stop several steps from Eldon.  She shook her hoof in the air, laughing.  "I can concede, I've never seen a strategy quite like that one."

"Well I don't have as much to work with when I can't grip your arms.  I'd say that'd be a pretty good advantage, if I could catch one."

"Yeah, well getting forced to use something else isn't a bad thing."  She paused, taking a few deep breaths.  Eldon grinned, glad he could at least get a fit mare like her slightly out of breath.  

"What're you lookin' so happy about?"  Dash asked, smirking.

"The fact that you're breathing heavily and I wasn't a pushover."  

Dash grinned.  "Always the optimist."

"No sense getting beat up about it."  Eldon jiggled a gloved  talon at her.  "Eh?"

"I don't know how good puns were where you came from, but they're actually the highest sense of humor here and I'm speechless at the eloquence of that execution."

"Really?"

"No, not really."  Dash laughed.  "I mean, it was a good pun, but a good pun is still a bad joke."

"Touché."  Eldon replied, chuckling to himself.  

"Well get ready again, because until you have to get your brother from school or somepony passes out, we aren't stopping."

"Sounds good to me."


______________________________________________________________________________


Eldon wiped blood from his mouth, staring at Dash across the ring.  She was far less damaged, but a few bruises were steadily appearing across her body, especially on her hooves where the vast majority of his hits had landed.  As a result they had become a noticeably darker blue.  

"I'm calling it."  Dash huffed, poking at one of her legs gingerly.  "You need to go get your brother, and frankly I want to get some ice on my legs before they turn into sausages."

"Blue sausages."  

"I bet they'd still look appetizing to you, huh?"  Dash smirked.

"Don't tempt me."

The blue mare laughed, pushing her way through the side of the ring and hopping onto the floor.  "We better get that cut on your face under control.  I don't want the citizens thinking that you're still getting beat up."

"It's not that bad."

"Yeah, well frankly you better hope you don't swell up.  Because honestly it looks like it hurts already."

"I mean, not that much."  Eldon lied.  It wasn't horrible, but he definitely felt beaten up.  But he knew he didn't bruise much at all, and under his feathers there was basically no chance that ponies would be able to tell.  Besides, their sight wasn't as adept as any griffin's would be, so it couldn't be that hard to hide something like that from them.

He'd evidently been lost in a combination of his thoughts and the throbbing pain for long enough to not notice Dash approaching him with a wet rag.  She pressed it to his forehead, wiping gently at the cuts.  "At least we know that you aren't going to stop fighting until you're dead, if you keep it up like you do here."

"I guess I'm pretty motivated to survive."

Dash laughed.  "Yeah, I guess."  She poked Eldon on the cheek, trying to keep his concentration on her, rather than wherever it was.  Not that he probably didn't have a lot to think about.  "Why all the deep thoughts?"  Eldon looked at her, and for a moment Dash thought he wouldn't tell her.  Maybe she'd gone a little too far.

He sighed.  "Well I'm glad we're doing this, and I'm thankful for the fact that I live in a society where I can own a weapon as well, but I can't help but think it's too little, too late."

"What do you mean?"  As if she didn't know.  

"Well I'm sure you've been told that the griffins that chased Roseluck and me out of the Griffin Kingdom are still alive and waiting out there somewhere."  He paused, rolling the facts over in his head and screening some out.  "Basically, long story short is that I also know that I need to integrate with this society as quickly as possible and as deeply as possible in order to make sure that I'm not under as much threat of getting kicked out.  Because in my mind, having some ponies stand up for me and say that I'm a good guy is important, right?"

"Right."  Dash confirmed, finding interest in the way he thought about the world.  How he needed to think about the world, unfortunately.

"And the other thing is that there's no way Roseluck can support herself and me and Cato on her shop.  I'm not saying that it's a bad business model or anything, but there's just no way.  So I know that my next priority is to get a job of some sort, and start paying my keep.  Besides, apparently even your most poorly trained workers get paid somewhat handsomely."

"It's not quite as handsome as you might think, but yeah."

"Well whatever.  I'll learn the currency conversion later, then."

"It's not really hard.  We've only got one type of coin."  Dash pulled the rag away, staring at it.  The part that she'd been holding to Eldon's forehead was crimson with blood, though he doubted that it was as bad as it looked.  It had started out damp, after all.

"You only have one?"  He asked.  "You just have the bite?"

Dash giggled.  "The bit.  And yeah."

"That's strange.  We have the big one, called the bracken, then the quarter and the tenth bracken.  I've seen a few twentieths, but they're pretty rare."

"Why?"  Dash asked.  

Eldon was silent for a moment.  "Well, what they did was adjust the prices very specifically, and they couldn't do that without small coins."

"You couldn't barter?"  Eldon stared.  "Yeah, duh, sorry.  But I mean, that'd get rid of the crazy deals at the market.  Whenever there's competition with low bit-valued items, the deals get crazy really fast.  It starts as one bit for one apple, say.  Then the second vendor undercuts them at like three bits for four, then two for three, and a bunch of crazy fractions with tons of apples."  Dash pushed some gauze onto Eldon's forehead, wrapping a bandage around his head to hold it in place.  "It looks like its slowing down, so it shouldn't bleed through.  A clean bandage won't look too weird."

"I guess."

"You know, you remind me of this griffin from years ago that came over here, made a name for himself fighting.  I don't know much about him other than the fact that he's called Jack and won a lot.  I assume that was his nickname or something but nopony ever really knew his name."

"Why do I remind you of him?"  Eldon asked.  

"Probably because I'm sure you'll pick this up quickly, and honestly I don't know much about you either."  She admitted.  "Hopefully you'll spill the beans a little more some time."

"Only if you do in return."  

"You've got yourself a deal, Jack."  Dash responded with a grin.  "Also, you have three minutes before your brother gets out."

Eldon looked at the clock, then Dash's smirk.  "Shit."


____________________________________________________________________________________


"So where's your brother?"  An orange filly asked Cato, blowing part of her mane out of her eye as they left the classroom.  "Isn't he that big one, probably the only other griffin around town?"

"Yeah, he is."  Cato grinned, proud that his brother had started to become known.  

"I heard he was gonna fight Rainbow Dash today, do you think he could win?"  Her eyes seemed to question him more than her words had, as if she had a huge sum of money bet on one or the other.

"I dunno, Eldon's strong but he hasn't had any training before.  That's why they're fighting... well, practicing."

She frowned.  "Oh, well what's he training for?"

He wasn't supposed to go into extreme detail.  That's what Roseluck had said, anyway.  Eldon had shocked a lot of ponies already, so he could see why.  "He wants to be able to defend himself against griffins that might want to hurt him."

"Why would they want-"

"Hey, let's not just grill him with questions, Scootaloo."  A white filly began, extending her hoof for him to shake.  He did, after a moment of thought.  She took interest in the way he wrapped his talon around it.  "It's too bad Applebloom had to go, she loves to meet new classmates.  But anyway, my name is Sweetie Belle, and hers is Scootaloo."

"Cato, in case you forgot."  The griffin responded, idly kneading the grass below him with his talons and enjoying its feel.  He still hadn't gotten used to all the greenery.

"Do you like it here, in Equestria?"  Sweetie asked.  "If you don't mind the questions."

"No, to be honest I worried that it would be harder to get ponies to talk to me.  I guess I'm not as intimidating as my brother.  I like it here, though.  It's nice and sunny and I can do whatever I want."

"Whatever you want?"  Sweetie asked.  "Lucky..."

"That's not what I meant, I mean there are still rules and stuff but only the ones my brother has, not the government."

"Oh,"  she replied, nodding.  "That's kinda weird."

"It's why we moved."  Cato replied, grinning.  "And it was a great decision!"  Talking openly about anything to the other young griffins would have put him on some list somewhere to be watched, his brother had said, but here he could say whatever he wanted.  There were social norms, he was sure, but that was probably the extent of it.

"So can you get a cutie mark?"  Scootaloo asked, pointing to his flank.  "Like, you know how Cheerilee has one?"

"Uh..."  He looked at his flank and shrugged.  "I've never seen them on griffins before."

"No cutie marks?!"  Scootaloo rolled her eyes, watching a pink filly walk up.  "How unfortunate."  The new pony continued.

"What?" Cato asked, confused.  "Why does it matter?"

The filly feigned shock.  "It's only the most important part of a foal's life, when they realize their special talent and get their mark."  

"So the mark represents it outwardly?"  He asked.

"Well, duh!"  She replied, giggling along with another filly.  

Cato turned to Scootaloo.  "I don't get why it's important."  He whispered, ignoring the additional giggling, though he could tell it aggravated Scootaloo.  "I mean, none of us are working yet, and I assume that you guys can do more than one thing well.  So like basically it seems like you should figure it out on your own."

"That's what happens, then it pops up.  Like confirmation."  Scootaloo explained.  "That's why we don't have ours."

"So like if you haven't learned about something in school that is your talent thing, you wouldn't be able to figure it out on your own.  But something knows that it's your talent, because the mark appears.  Do you like, subconsciously know the whole time?"  The group became silent.  "Or do you have the possibility of getting several marks but the first talent you find sticks?  So they found they were good at eating and shiny things?"  He asked, pointing to the spoon and the shiny thing, whatever it was.  

"I dunno, I guess."  Scootaloo said with a laugh before the other two could respond, now the offended looking ones instead.  

"Hey, Cato."  Eldon said, walking up to their little group.  "Sorry I'm a little late."

"It's no big deal, I had company.  And they explained how the marks work.  So that one over there is good at eating and the other one does something with shiny things."  Scootaloo and Sweetie were having trouble containing their laughter.  Eldon looked at the angry fillies with confusion.  

"Well I guess we should get going.  Say goodbye to your friends, Cato."

"Actually, we're just walking ourselves home, so can we go with you?"  Sweetie spoke up, the yellow one and the orange one tagging along

"Where's your sister?"  Eldon asked.  "I thought she would have been here."

The filly shrugged.  "She's probably working on some urgent deadline.  When she's not here after a few minutes I just go home."

"And you?"  He asked Scootaloo.  "I don't want to have your parents worry."  And make him look like a weirdo.

"Eh, they work way later than school gets out.  I walk home as it is."  She paused.  "I'm Scootaloo, by the way.  How come you look kinda beaten up?"

He chuckled, both at realizing what a slow pace he had to take to stay with the kids' walking speed and at the question.  He was sure he couldn't look that great, even if he didn't feel a lot of swelling.  "Rainbow Dash was trying to teach me how to fight more effectively."

That piqued her interest, for whatever reason.  "It doesn't look like you won."  

"Well no,"  Eldon affirmed. "But that's why she's the teacher."

"So, you got enemies that need a good punching then?"  She asked, grinning.  "Gotta beat 'em up?"

"Sort of."  He said, giving a nondescript answer.  "I like to be prepared."

"Well, mister..."  Sweetie began.  He realized he hadn't introduced himself.  

"Eldon."

"Yeah, Eldon.  We should get ice cream!"  He tried to remember what that was.  It hazily came to mind.  He was pretty sure Roseluck had some in her freezer.  That was strawberry, and he'd definitely eaten those things on enough occasions to know what they tasted like.  

"As long as you know your sister or parents aren't going to yell at me for doing it."  He replied with a smirk, knowing that they would probably just lie to get what they wanted.  Such were the ways of Cato, to a certain degree, and he assumed the lack of self control was universal.  Ice cream was a sort of delicacy anyway, so he couldn't say he wasn't curious.  It had been on his food bucket list for a couple days now since he remembered it existed.

They fillies looked at each other uneasily before giving him half smiles.  

"Eldon!"  A voice came, which he recognized as Rarity's before he had turned around all the way.  "I see you've become the new foal magnet in town."  Rarity cringed a little, annoyed with her wording.  

"Yeah, for some reason."  He scratched his head, missing her blunder.  "They want ice cream."  

Rarity glanced at the clock tower, a fair distance away.  "I suppose if they don't eat anything else before their dinners, I could make an exception."  She lowered her voice as the children rejoiced.  "Has Cato ever-"  Eldon shook his head.  If he had, Eldon didn't remember it.  But ice cream had never been a griffin food anyway, so there was no huge surprise there.  "Well then ice cream it is!" 


_____________________________________________________________________________


"What are cherries?"  Eldon asked, as a stallion behind the counter pointed to an ice cream flavor he'd asked about.  

"Dear, how do I explain cherries?"  He asked what Eldon assumed was his wife.  

She walked over from the bakery part of the counter, laughing.  "See, this is why we need the choice cut beef flavor I was talking about.  But it's like-"  She struggled to explain.  

"Ha, see?  Not so easy!"  

"Well just a little tangy but also sweet.  That's the bland definition."  She said, hoping that'd satisfy him.

"That's what he said about the raspberry flavor though."  Eldon noted.  He thought for a moment.  "Supposedly it's pretty hard to not like ice cream, so just give me the cherry thing."

"Black cherry or regula-"  The stallion started to ask before stopping himself.  His wife chuckled.

"There are black cherries?"  He asked.  "What do those taste like?"


____________________________________________________________________________________


Eldon sat down at a table with the others, looking down at his cup of various flavors.  He'd gotten a few things to taste so he knew what he wanted for the next time.  Then some other foals had gone and grabbed tasting spoons, which he hadn't known were an option because all of his acquaintances had known what they wanted.  It made sense to him now why they kept asking him if he wanted to try it, but he had just taken it as aggressive marketing.  They needed to write a book for him, because apparently his complete lack of understanding for free society continued to baffle ponies and annoy him at every turn.  

"What's up, bro?"  Cato asked, pointing at his expression with his spoon.  "Thinkin' you got the wrong flavor?"  Cato, of course, had gone for the most colorful and exciting flavor.  Maybe he should have just done that?  He shrugged internally.  At least most of the population knew the circumstances surrounding his appearance.  Hopefully they'd take that into account next time he acted strangely.

"I don't know yet."  He replied, throwing his emotions out of his mind as he took a bite.  Unsurprisingly he enjoyed it.  "Not this one, anyway."  

"So what's the coolest thing you had back where you came from?"  Scootaloo asked.  

Eldon crossed his arms, thinking.  He was too big for this chair.  Damn, nice focusing skills.  Okay, so he worked in a mine to find coal and iron ore.  Mostly iron.  He specialized in moving the carts because he was strong.  They hit him when he was tired.  Then he went to the market and bought food with slightly better than average wages which they ate as Eldon tried to undo the day's brainwashing on Cato and teach him something.  Then he slept and did it again.  He needed to spin something out of that in some way to make it at least sound like it didn't suck.

"The People's Palace."  He finally decided.  "It was this big building built before the revolution that got renamed.  I don't remember what the original name of it was."  His father probably did.  He had talked a lot about it.  Probably the only nice building left in that city, seeing as several had been demolished as relics of the old ways.  They loved to say how they'd basically been in the dark ages before the current regime.  Clearly, judging by the tech around here, that couldn't be true.  "Full of marble and these huge columns..."  He trailed off, not knowing much more about it.

"What do they do there?"  Scootaloo asked.  Persistent, that one.  

"Um... I think the local party members meet there sometimes.  The military goes in and out a lot too, so they probably have some operations in there."

"But if it's the people's palace, why can't you just go in?"  

All the hard questions.  "It's just like... a name, or something.  It doesn't mean anything."  He struggled to explain more, but ended up just giving an exasperated gesture.  "Apparently you have the royal city thing, so I'll have to go there sometime."

"Also Manehattan, which is really big."  Sweetie added.  "They have trains, but underground."  

"Subways, dear."  Rarity explained.  

Eldon took a bite of his ice cream.  "So they ship their supplies around the city underground?  Interesting."

"Well, they actually use them to move ponies."  Rarity explained.  "The city does business, mostly buying and selling things that aren't physically there.  Not much cargo comes out, other than what goes through the port."

"How can they all be shopkeepers, and sell imaginary things?"

"They just-"  She paused to think.  The more questions he asked, the less made sense.  Other ponies were looking.  

"Let me try."  A stallion said, placing a hoof on Rarity's shoulder.  "I do a little business with the Griffin Republic, or whatever they're calling it nowadays.  What'd you do when you were there?  Oh, and call me Rich, by the way."  Eldon shook his hoof.  That was a little bombastic of him to just call himself rich but whatever.

"I was in the mines."  He said shortly.

The pony nodded.  "Well then think of what they do like this.  The mine is its own business, and manages itself.  But if there are multiple mines owned by the same companies, they need central management.  Those guys are in Manehattan, working to make sure all the larger operations of the mines interact with other businesses and get where they need to go on time.  As companies get bigger, the executives, as they're called, grow larger in number as well.  It's a similar system to your government, in a way, but I'm sure it's much more fair."

"I can assume.  Thanks."  

"Oh, and in case it gets mentioned to you, companies can turn part of their companies public, breaking them up into little pieces called shares.  All of those together make a stock.  If you buy a share and it goes up and you sell it, you win.  If you short a share and it goes down, you win.  The other two opposites are losses.  It's worth a trip sometime, to see the world's last bastion of true capitalism."  Eldon nodded.  "Ahh, you know what?  I was in the middle of this, but you need it more than I do."  He slapped a book onto the table, earmarked and with colorful notes sticking out all over.  "Give that a read, and you'll be prepared for whatever the market throws at you, my boy!"  He looked at his watch, and with a hasty farewell, left.  

"I never knew that Rich would take such an interest in teaching the financially challenged."  Rarity jibed, poking him in the side.  Eldon turned over the book, called 'Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal'.  He'd just add this to his long list of things to do.

"Capitalism."  He said, feeling the word out.  He hadn't heard it often.  Well he had, but usually in the context of the government saying how bad it was.  It was definitely a new word to say.  "It's got a nice ring to it."  


___________________________________________________________________________


Hammer beats sounded, interrupting their parting words as the small group loitered around outside.  Eldon glanced at their source, watching a pony pound shingles onto his roof for a few seconds before losing interest.  

"In any case, Eldon, you may as well come."  She said.  "If you're around, of course."

"Yeah, I'd love to."  He responded.  He'd never been to a party before but Rarity had been very specific on how low key it was.  But also that there would be alcohol there, so Cato would have to stay home.  He knew quite a bit about alcohol, for a change.  He'd gotten drunk several times, usually on the day off he got each week.  But there was no one to be drunk with, and he just ended up feeling desperately lonely and irresponsible.  So he'd cut that habit before it could get off the ground.  This was social drinking, however, which he assumed more for the tastes of fine beverages rather than with the express purpose of getting drunk, and gave him a perfect opportunity to study the social practices of the ponies when out of the public eye.

"Well let me warn you about a certain pink mare that'll be really excited to meet you."  Rarity began cryptically.  "You're lucky she wasn't in the bakery because you would've had your ear talked off.  She'll try to throw a party for you or something as a welcome, so think about whether you want the attention or not so you can prepare an answer.  Her parties are almost always fun and age inclusive, so Cato could tag along and meet a few foals, though he seems to already have made a few friends."  She chuckled, pointing to the group of foals several steps away.  

Eldon grinned.  "I'm glad he's fitting in alright."  He was honestly surprised at how well everything had gone so far.  

Rarity beamed back, proud of her sister.  "Oh!  I just remembered.  Dash asked me when you were planning on flying.  Said she forgot to ask after because you had to go and her hooves were all bruised."

"I don't know."  Eldon said truthfully.  "I'd like to do it somewhere safer like over a pond, so that falling isn't as bad.  They say you never forget, but it's been years.  Cato's sort of experimenting with it, but his wings have a ways to go."

"Well I-"

The pony from the roof made a strange noise, hooves sliding along the shingles as he lost his balance, a rope he had tied around himself slipping from its knot around the chimney.  Eldon dug his claws into the ground, finding grooves in the cobblestones as he burst into as full of a sprint as he could manage.  He got under the pony as his hooves left the roof, flaring his wings and flapping them to slow down and raise him up on his hind legs.  He caught the pony in his arms, careful to not impale them with his talons, and let him down onto the ground.  He was lighter than Eldon was expecting.  Maybe he was stronger than he'd thought.  All he'd had to compare his strength to before had been pushing rolling piles of stones.  Admittedly that was a narrow test.  

Some clapping broke him from his concentration, and he folded his wings back in, turning to the ponies that had happened to be walking by.

"Did you see the wingspan on him?"  A pegasus asked another, who nodded accordingly.  

"Thanks..." The pony began, searching for a name.  

"Eldon."  Eldon replied, shaking the hoof of the pony, who introduced himself as Surehoof with a slight chuckle.  Apparently the name only applied when on solid ground.  "You know, I could do that for you if you showed me how to nail those on.  I stick a little better."  He pointed out, showing off a talon.  The pony nodded, wiping sweat from his brow.  

"To save me from doing the rest of that?  Sure.  What do you want for it?"  

The question bounced around in his head.  He wanted money.  But he didn't know how much money was acceptable.  What was too much money?  Could he say a number that was too high and scare away this pony from continuing to work with him?  

"Sorry, Darling."  Rarity interjected.  "He doesn't know the value of money around here yet."  She thought for a moment.  "He's a hardworking griffin.  Stronger than a couple ponies, I would assume."  She said the words playfully, as if teasing him.  He wasn't sure how to take her meaning.  "As soon as he gets going, I can't imagine he'll take too long.  Why don't you pay him overtime?"

"Well, I-"

"You could pay two ponies to finish just as fast, I bet."  She picked up one of his talons, pushing the pony's hammer into it for Eldon to grip.  It looked humorously sized.  "That's gotta be a one hit wonder arm right there.  And just look at that grip!"  Her eyes sparkled.

The pony put a hoof to his chin, thinking.  "I'll tell you what.  You finish as quickly as she's saying, and I'll give you that.  If you're that good, I'll spread the word.  A hired hoof of your size is always in demand."  He grinned.  "But I'm done thinking about this roof for today.  Can you be here at like nine tomorrow?"

"Of course."  Eldon responded.  "Should I bring anything?"

"Just your work ethic."  He replied.  "Thanks for not trying to scalp me by using that catch as an excuse.  But nice catch, by the way.  Very gentle."  He grabbed his fallen tools, bidding them goodbye and shakily opening his door.  

"Well there you go."  Rarity responded.  "Your first real job."

"Yeah."  Eldon grinned, tossing Cato onto his back as they started to walk in the direction of their homes, all the same way apparently.  "Roseluck will be thrilled to hear this."


_____________________________________________________________________


"Really?  Already?!"  Roseluck exclaimed, pushing against his shoulder with a hoof excitedly.  "I'm so happy for you!"

"Well I know it must be expensive to support us both, and even though you said it was no trouble I have a hard time believing that it isn't.  So expect a little boost in income around here."  

He staggered as the mare launched herself into him, hugging around his neck.  "Thanks, Eldon."  She hugged him tightly, happier than she cared to admit.  She had been legitimately worried for a while that she wouldn't have the money to support them forever.  They weren't in dire straits, but she didn't think she could turn a profit and avoid slowly eating away at her savings.  

Roseluck felt him hug her back, pulling her in a little closer.  Maybe he was feeling a little of what she was.  His feathers had become much softer, the smell coming off of him no longer of dirt, sweat and blood.  Well, there was some of that, but he'd been fighting.  Everything she'd seen him as that first day... scared, hungry and tired, not to mention bleeding all over...  She was so glad they'd gotten him out of there and safely back.  Eldon had survived the griffins' attempts to off him, and the fact that he smiled at all, let alone so often had to be a twist of the knife to everyone that had tried to keep him under their talons before.  And they even had a group of the royal guards here in town to investigate and scare off the griffins if they ever got too adventurous.  

She found herself liking the hug, remembering the night when she'd slept under his wing.  He was warm and emitted an aura of strength and intelligence, though she wasn't sure if the townsponies knew of the latter.  She was thankful that Eldon had come along at such a time, but after those nights together she struggled to not feel a little more than gratitude.  If he was a pony Roseluck would've taken him to a restaurant already.  Well, maybe.  She never was good at getting dates.  

But Eldon was a griffin and that made everything weird.  It wasn't even the griffin thing she was concerned about, not really.  It was more that he didn't really get romance or courting.  He needed to get used to it, maybe make a move on somepony himself before she wanted to let herself think that any of this felt at all right.  

She sighed, pushing herself out of his feathers.  Here she was again, deep in possibilities.  Roseluck wasn't even sure she liked him.  But at the same time she was pretty sure she did.  Maybe with him having a job things would get a little less busy and she could think with a non-fatigued mind.  

"Want a sandwich?"  She asked, shaking off her thoughts and walking over to the fridge.  "I picked up some actual meat for you today."

"Where'd you find it?"  

"They just butchered a cow in the restaurant down the street, and they never really know what to do with all that before it goes bad.  They were going to grind it up and freeze it for later but I offered them a few bits and they just gave it to me."

"Wait, it sounds like you're talking about a lot of-"  Eldon's jaw dropped.  "Woah."

"Yeah, what do you think?"  

It was a pile of packages, of every cut Eldon could imagine.  Well, except for the good parts of the cow that never seemed to be there when they got to the griffin markets, probably removed as 'tax'.  Now he figured it was the business that wanted them instead, but still.  "It's a lot of meat."  He responded.  The smell floated over, caressing his nostrils and making his mouth water.  More than he'd ever expected to have even in his wildest dreams.  

"A lot of the 'good stuff' is gone."  She said, making air quotes.  "Ponies aren't that great at using the whole thing like you guys probably are. Lots of waste. Meat is something you don't get often, like I said."  

"Weirdos."  Eldon responded.  "Must just not know how to cook it."  

Roseluck laughed.  "I'll definitely let you take the lead on this.  We'll see how fast you eat it, and maybe just grab stuff from the restaurant whenever they do another cow."

"Well, Rose,"  He began, pointing a talon up in the air excitedly.  "Dinner is gonna be great."  He looked at her stove, letting his finger fall slightly.  He had a wood burning thing, and this was gas.  And he had just ended up putting the blobs of meat down in the fire part where it was hotter and where he could really sear them.  "Just gotta figure out how to cook it."

"Well you should bring Cato along."  They both looked at the griffin, who was enamored in some book the school had given him.

"Oh yes."  Eldon said evilly, rubbing his talons together.  "Let the real education begin!"