//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 - A Brief History of Griffons // Story: Lessons From Ponyville Elementary // by Blade Star //------------------------------// Equestria, while a large nation, is not the only major power on this world. There are several other Great Powers that occasionally cross paths with the ponies. Aside from the harsh, volcanic regions of the Dragon Lands, where the typically nomadic dragons congregate, there is also Equestria’s biggest ally; the Griffon Kingdom. I’ve never actually met a griffon personally, but they are said to be quite different from ponies. The strange half eagle, half lion hybrids are capable of flight and walking on clouds, just as the pegasi of Equestria are. But their temperament is remarkably different. They don’t exactly buy into the whole friendship concept. The Griffon Kingdom is a lot like a lot of human countries, deeply capitalist and based around personal greed. The kingdom is more a loose confederation than anything else; a bit like Germany in the mid 1800’s. In the past, attempts had been made to turn the place into a single unified empire. That ultimately led to several long, protracted wars with Equestria, each resulting in the griffon’s defeat. Today though, the reconstituted kingdom is fairly peaceful, and an ally of Equestria. Still, as a rule, the two species rarely mix. So, it came as quite a shock to me, when Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash went gallivanting off there. I had just gone into Sugarcube Corner to grab a cake. Pipsqueak’s birthday was in a couple of days, and the class was planning a little surprise party for him. Since we were on schedule work wise, I decided that we could afford to skip one lesson to wish him a happy birthday. I was hoping to pick up the cake, and then grab Pinkie to see if she would help us plan the party. I was surprised at the response I got. “Oh, no. Pinkie isn’t here I’m afraid, dearie,” Mrs. Cake responded when I enquired about the energetic party pony. “She got called off to Princess Twilight’s castle about an hour ago. Something about that map thing, I think.” I frowned at that. Those little quests the map sent them off on could sometimes last the better part of a week. Evidently, I would need to do this on my own. Thanking Mrs. Cake for the…cake, I headed off to see Twilight, to see if I could get any more information. Twilight’s front door was, as usual, unlocked. Heading inside, I found the lavender alicorn sitting in her chair at the map, staring despondently at the images it showed. Each of her five friends’ cutie marks, along with her own, were displayed, hovering around the map. At present, her mark, Applejack’s, Rarity’s, and Fluttershy’s were sitting on Ponyville, as they usually did. Rainbow’s and Pinkie’s however, were quite a distance off, sitting across the ocean in the territory of the Griffon Kingdom. Squinting carefully, I could just about make out a tree like structure, covered in nests. “I’d heard Pinkie and Rainbow had been sent off on a mission,” I said, startling Twilight out of her ennui. The alicorn jumped out with a start before spotting me. “Oh, Margaret, it’s you,” she replied. “Yes, they’ve both been sent to Griffonstone to deal with a friendship problem there.” I took a seat in Fluttershy’s chair. “I didn’t know the map extended its range that far,” I said. “That’s one heck of a trip. Any idea what it’s like over there?” I didn’t know much about the world outside Equestria, and Twilight was a fountain of knowledge. Plus, lecturing always seems to cheer her up. I was right, for she soon perked up a bit. “Oh, it’s so interesting,” she exclaimed, levitating over a book. “The settlement of Griffonstone if of huge historical importance. It’s the resting place of the Idol of Boreas, and one of the most prosperous cities in the kingdom. It’s a shame the map sent Rainbow instead of me. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about going there.” She laid her head down the table again. “Why do I never get to go to sites of incredible historical importance?” “What’s Rainbow got against griffons?” I prompted. Rainbow was many things, but she didn’t strike me as a racist. Twilight sighed to herself. “Gilda,” she replied. I was at a bit of a loss. “Er…who’s Gilda?” I asked. Twilight sat up and activated her magic. It created a small floating image. It was like watching television. It showed Rainbow arguing quite fiercely with a griffon in Sugarcube Corner, standing in front of her friends with her wings flared out. “Gilda was Rainbow’s friend at Junior Speedsters when she was a filly. They lost touch for a while, but the pair met up again when Gilda arrived in Ponyville. Unfortunately, Gilda was a bit of a…” Twilight paused to think. At that moment, Spike came in, carrying a stack of books. Evidently, he’d heard our conversation. “She was a jerk,” he declared. “And a real bully too. She made Fluttershy cry and even tried to upset Pinkie. Rainbow tried to stop her, but in the end, they had a really bad falling out, and Gilda left. And Griffonstone was Gilda’s old hometown.” Twilight nodded. “That about sums it up,” she finished. “Griffons in general don’t really see friendship as being that important. They tend to argue more than anything.” “I can see why the map might send an envoy from the Princess of Friendship there then,” I replied. “It sounds like they could use it. Do you think Rainbow’s up to it?” Twilight promptly nodded. “Of course she is,” she replied, sounding a little offended. “I’m certain Rainbow can help fix whatever needs fixing. The map wouldn’t have chosen her otherwise.” Fair point, I suppose. I got up to leave. “Well, I’d best be getting out of your hair,” I said. “Plus I need to get this cake somewhere safe. The class is going to have a little party to celebrate Pipsqueak’s birthday in a couple days. Do you think you could stop by, Twilight?” “Sure, I’d love to,” she replied, nodding her head. A couple of days later the missing pair returned to Ponyville, luckily none the worse for wear, though they were both pretty tired from the journey. Well, Rainbow was. I’m not sure if Pinkie Pie even sleeps given how hyper she can be at times. Sadly, they’d not gotten back in time for Pipsqueak’s birthday party, but we’d muddled through. The young colt had had a great time during his little celebration, and the cake had been top notch. As I headed to the schoolhouse in the morning, I came upon Rainbow talking with Lizzie about her little adventure. “And then,” Dash went on. “Gilda pulled me up and out of the ravine, and the idol disappeared. Real Daring Do type stuff.” I walked up to the pair. “Hey, Dash. Hello, Lizzie,” I greeted. “How was Griffonstone, Rainbow?” Rainbow grinned. “It was awesome!” she exclaimed. “Okay things started out a little slow, but Pinkie and me had a great adventure.” “Come on then, story time,” I prompted. Rainbow began her tale anew. “Well,” she said. “It turned out all that stuff Twilight said about Griffonstone being the ‘centre of griffon unity’ was all way out of date. The place was a dump when we got there. Turned out that idol thing the egghead kept yapping on about had been lost ages ago to some monster. None of the griffons were friends with each other. And literally everything cost a few bits.” “Anyway, we ended up running into Gilda. And let’s just say our friendship hadn’t recovered since we fell out. I figured that they needed that magic idol thing back to reunite them again. You know, like how the Crystal Heart unites all the crystal ponies? Pinkie though just started talking about how nopony in Griffonstone ever sang, and how there were no bakeries.” To be fair, the number of large scale musical numbers I’ve seen in just Ponyville has been…shall we say a tad excessive. So I guess no singing would be a bit weird to them. “So we split up,” Rainbow went on. “Pinkie hung around with Gilda and the other griffons, while I tried to get down into the Abysmal Abyss. That was where the idol was supposed to have been lost. But I got stuck down there; my rope gave out and I busted my ankle in the fall, and then that jerk griffon wouldn’t help me unless I paid him.” “Luckily, Pinkie and Gilda came to help. But before they could throw me a rope, the ledge gave out beneath me. Pinkie dived after me and stopped me falling, and Gilda held her a little further up. But then, Gilda spotted the idol resting on a ledge. Trouble was, if she grabbed it, we’d all fall, and with the winds in the abyss, we’d never get out again. And what do you know, Gilda left the idol and pulled us up. Turns out she wasn’t a total jerk after all.” “So you two are friends again then?” I asked. Rainbow nodded. “Yeah. It was stupid the way we fell out with each other. We went through all of Junior Speedsters together for pony’s sake. She’s kind of like a ‘friendship ambassador’ now for Griffonstone, teaching the other griffons about friendship.” “Sounds like a result to me, Dash,” Lizzie chipped in. “Think you’ll head back sometime?” Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe,” she replied. “It was kinda interesting. Ponies don’t know that much about griffons, and it sucks that there can be such big differences between us.” That was when an idea hit me. Why not have a bit of griffon history in the school curriculum? We already did Equestrian history, things like Hearth’s Warming, the princesses, and the expansion on the frontier. Why not add Griffon history to the list? It would certainly be good for the kids to broaden their horizons a bit. I snapped my fingers as the idea solidified. “Rainbow you’re a genius!” I declared. The pegasus smiled smugly and puffed out her chest. “Yeah, I know,” she replied. I rolled my eyes at that. “You’ve just given me a great idea; teaching the foals at school a bit about Griffon history.” “How are you going to do that though, Mam?” Lizzie asked. “Dash just said we don’t know much. It’s not like there’s going to be any kids textbooks on the subject.” I thought for a moment. There was only one real possible solution, wasn’t there. “Then I guess I’ll go pay Twilight a visit. You said yourself Rainbow that she knows a lot about Griffon history. I’m sure she could help.” Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, your funeral,” she replied. She then turned to Lizzie. “C’mon, kid. We better get that ground fog around Ghastly Gorge cleared up.” The pair then took off into the sky, with Rainbow’s signature rainbow wake trailing behind her. I got to the schoolhouse just as the little bell on the roof began to toll. Heading inside with the foals, I quickly greeted Cheerilee and asked if I could talk with her for a minute. After she’d set the youngsters to task on a vocabulary test, we went to the front of the classroom to talk. I pitched my idea to her about having somepony come in to give a short lesson on Griffon history. Cheerilee was intrigued. “Hmm, that does sound quite interesting. And it would be a nice change of pace for everypony. I can’t see the harm in it.” I smiled. “Brilliant. I’ll head over to Twilight’s at break time then. Want me to keep an eye on this lot for a while?” Cheerilee nodded. “I’ll watch them at break,” she said as headed for her office. At the door, she briefly turned around. “Oh, they’re going to peer mark these vocabulary tests by the way.” I nodded in understanding, and Cheerilee went to next door to catch up on paperwork. Morning break soon rolled around. I was scheduled to cover the science lesson after lunch, but I had some free time until then, around an hour and a half. The foals were all playing on the play equipment in the playground. It was a shame really, ever since that thieving bugger Tirek blew through town the climbing frame, slide, swing set, and tether ball have been looking a bit worse for wear. Hopefully we’d be able to get a bit of funding at the next governors meeting. Heading back to Twilight’s, I soon found myself in the library, as I had a few days ago. I came across Spike with a mop and bucket. The crystals that make up the palace must be a beggar to keep clean. I mean, even the smallest mark would probably show up on them. Still, at least Twilight helps him out too when she can. Although I don’t think her attempts to ‘make it into a game’ will ever quite catch on. “Hello there, Spike,” I greeted. The young dragon paused for a moment and rested against the mop. “Oh, hey there, Margaret,” he replied. “Here to see Twilight?” I nodded. “Yes, I just wanted to run an idea I’ve got by her. Is she in the library?” Spike grinned. “C’mon where else is she gonna be?” he quipped. “Oh, and thanks for letting me come to Pipsqueak’s party the other day.” “No worries. Here, tell you what, if I have time when I’m done talking to Twilight, I’ll stop and give you a hand with that.” I gestured to his ongoing housework. Spike smiled and I headed off deeper into the castle. I found Twilight for once not reading, but writing. Finding that her own data was outmoded was something the lavender alicorn would not stand for, so she was busily correcting it and writing her own article on Griffonstone. As I sat down at the table, I spotted an envelope addressed to the Equestrian Historical Society. “Hey, Twilight, can I talk to you for a minute?” Twilight looked up from her work. She looked a little tired. I hoped she hadn’t pulled another of her all night study sessions. “Sure,” she replied, setting her quill down in the attendant ink bottle. “I suppose I could use a break anyway.” “Oh, been working long on this have you?” I asked. She had a couple pages of notes on her desk. Still, she shook her head. “No, I’ve been taking it fairly easy. I’ve only done the first seven chapters.” Turning slightly, she revealed a stack of papers some two feet high behind her. To be fair, this is the pony who considered my husband’s copy of War and Peace light reading. I did my best to mask my surprise and disbelief. “Oh, well in that case,” I continued. “I wanted to ask you about possibly helping me out with a lesson.” Instantly, her ears perked up, and the small pony took on the demeanour of a terrier sniffing at a rabbit hole. “I thought, since all this business in Griffonstone, maybe we could do a lesson or two about Griffon history, broaden everypony’s horizons a bit.” Twilight thought for a moment. “That sounds like a great idea,” she proclaimed. “And I know just the pony who can help us. Spike!” Grabbing a bit of parchment, she got up and trotted over to the baby dragon, who had come running at her call. “You’re writing to the princess?” I asked curiously. I know I was already asking a princess to help out in a lesson, but I didn’t think it would bring down Celestia herself. “Not Celestia,” Twilight answered. “It’s one in the afternoon; Shining Armor should be giving his weekly report to the princess about now. I remembered that there’s a Griffon serving in the Royal Guard at the moment; Major Hartwin. I can’t think of anypony else who’d be better qualified than a griffon.” That was true. There is no better source than straight from the horse’s mouth, or the griffon’s beak as the case may be. After dictating a short letter, which Spike dutifully wrote down, Twilight had him incinerate it with his fire breath, which sent it off toward Canterlot faster than any pegasus. I stayed with Twilight, and as promised, lent Spike a helping hand with the housework while we waited for a response. About ten minutes later, Shining Armor, via Celestia, wrote us back. He’d asked the major, who’d said he’d be more than happy to give a brief lesson, and that he would come down on Monday. Satisfied with that result, I bid both pony and dragon goodbye and went to give Cheerilee the good news. I got back to the schoolhouse just as break ended. Telling the kids to head inside and take their seats, I went to find Cheerilee. I quickly let her know that Major Hartwin would be coming down on Monday. Cheerilee seemed well pleased. “That’s great!” she exclaimed. “You better go ahead and tall everypony then. I’m sure it’ll be something they can look forward to over the weekend.” I nodded, it is always nice when you see kids legitimately excited by the prospect of learning. Heading back to the classroom, I found the foals all chatting amongst themselves. A quick call for quiet got that to taper off. “Alright, everypony,” I began. “I’ve got a little bit of good news for you before we start our science lesson. I just had a talking with Princess Twilight, and she’s arranged for a griffon soldier to come from Canterlot to give a short lecture on Griffon history.” The class quickly began to chattering again before bombarding me with questions. “Ooh, is he gonna teach us how to fight with swords?” Pipsqueak asked. “Or how to do that really cool loud roar?” Featherweight added. “Is this because of how Rainbow Dash saved Griffonstone?” Scootaloo joined in. I rolled my eyes. “Alright, everypony, calm down,” I pleaded. “He’s going to be teaching you a little bit about Griffon history.” At this Diamond Tiara broke in. “Oh great,” she grumbled. “So we have to listen to some mutant featherbrain talk about how he eats worms all day long? If we’re going to sit through stupid history lessons like that, why don’t we just have my daddy come in and talk about how he founded Barnyard Bargains?” Silver Spoon giggled next to her. Did this filly not have a single good bone in her body? “Well, if you aren’t interested, Diamond Tiara,” I replied. “I’m sure you could go next door with Ms. Cheerilee and do some extra maths worksheets.” That shut her up. Aside from her, everypony seemed really excited by the prospect of meeting a griffon, and they all headed home that afternoon in good spirits. On Monday morning, I headed off to the schoolhouse as usual. Roger had headed off to the train station a couple of hours earlier, so I locked the front door behind me. Given how quiet Ponyville usually is, that’s seen as something of an oddity by most of my friends. But I lived perilously close to Birmingham, and you never do break security habits. After checking the door was locked, and briefly heading back inside to reassure myself that I hadn’t left the stove on, I headed down the road toward the schoolhouse. The weather today was a little overcast, and brown or orange coloured leaves from the trees were steadily starting to litter the path. Arriving at the schoolhouse, I found the place quite busy. The foals were still outside playing on the equipment. Again, I looked at the sorry state of it all. Perhaps I could enlist my son and Big Mac to maybe come and at least do some temporary repairs? Before long it was going to become a serious safety issue. I certainly didn’t want to see any of the kids getting hurt. Heading inside, I found Cheerilee in conversation with both Twilight and a large griffon. Presumably, this was Major Hartwin. He was about the same size as Shining Armor, albeit a griffon rather than a unicorn. His head and front half were that of an eagle, white plumage around the head, neck, and chest, which turned a light brown around the shoulders. A sharp hooked, and bright yellow beak was in the place of a snout. His forelegs too were those of an eagle. Like Discord, they ended in sharp looking talons, which presumably had better grasping abilities than hooves. His rear half was that of a lion, a dark caramel coloured coat connected to a long feline tail. On his sides were his large wings, again, those of an eagle, though like pegasi wings, they didn’t seem to be large enough to allow for flight without magic. He wore no uniform, but just by his demeanour, you could tell that this one someone you didn’t want to tick off. I walked up to the pair as they continued talking. Cheerilee turned and introduced me. “Ah, Margaret, good,” she said. “This is Major Hartwin, just arrived from Canterlot.” Given the similarities of claws to hands, I offered a handshake. The griffon shook my hand and, luckily, didn’t do any damage. Those claws did look very sharp after all. “A pleasure to meet you, major,” I replied. The griffon smiled. “Please, ladies,” he replied. “You are not soldiers, just call me Hartwin.” His accent while sounding mainly Equestrian, had a touch of a German accent to it, or possibly somewhere in Eastern Europe. He reminded me a little of Aloe and Lotus from the spa; they both hailed from Stalliongrad in the far north. “As you like, Hartwin,” I agreed. “So, what do you have planned out for the foals?” Hartwin smiled, an odd concept for a creature with a beak. “Well, I thought I’d talk a little bit about Griffonstone first, since it’s been the local buzzword recently. And believe it or not, that place was my old hometown when I was just a chick. After that, I thought I might talk about my own history a little, give them a snapshot of life in the Kingdom. After that, I’m sure there’ll be more than a few questions, so we can fill the rest of the time with that.” “Sounds like a plan to me,” Cheerilee declared. “I think we’ll both sit in on this one too. I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing this.” She then noticed the small case that was standing next to Hartwin. Say, what have you got in that case?” she asked curiously. Unlatching it with a claw, Hartwin explained. “I thought a few visual aids might be useful. Something for the young ones to look at and examine.” He began to rummage through the small collection. “Let’s see, there’s a few photographs, badges and medals from my father’s time in the service, some coins, and, ah, my old officers cap. I don’t mind letting them play around with this stuff. It’s better than having it all sit around gathering dust.” He closed the case again and the three of us headed for the classroom as the school bell began to chime. I was taking the lesson today, so I settled myself down behind the desk at the front, with Hartwin standing next to me. Cheerilee meanwhile, grabbed a spare seat and sat down in the back of the room. The class soon filed in, and quickly noticed the out of place griffon. In the manner of young children of all kinds, there was a lot of curiosity, particularly from the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It took a bit of effort to get them all to take their seats. Only Diamond Tiara remained unimpressed. When everypony was seated, I began. “Alright, good morning, everypony. Today we have a special guest for our history lesson.” I turned to Hartwin. “This is Major Hartwin,” I said. “He’s an officer from the Griffon military, but at the moment he works for Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard in Canterlot. He’s kindly agreed to teach you all a little bit about Griffon history, so pay attention to what he has to say.” I turned to Hartwin and gestured for him to begin. He nodded in return. “Well, good morning everypony. As Mrs. Owen said, my name is Major Hartwin. I come from the city of Griffonstone in the Griffon Kingdom.” Scootaloo quickly piped up. “Hey, that’s where Rainbow Dash went last week. I heard she helped the griffons find their lost idol.” I jumped in myself. “Scootaloo, you don’t interrupt me when I’m teaching, do you?” I warned. “Listen to what Major Hartwin has to say.” “Oh, yes, Mrs. Owen” the pegasus replied dutifully, falling silent again. Hartwin smiled and looked at the filly. “Well, er, Scootaloo was it? Yes, my old home did see a visit from Rainbow Dash not so long ago, and we did end up finding a very important idol. Well, briefly anyway. How about I tell you the story of the Idol of Boreas?” The foals all nodded in agreement. “Well, the idol was once one of the most important artifacts in the whole kingdom. It brought the Griffons together and allowed all the warring tribes in ancient times to come together and form the Griffon Kingdom. Instead of always fighting with each other, it inspired them to seek peace with one another, to trade rather than take what they wanted by force. It sat next to the original throne that sat in Griffonstone. “But the idol was lost many years ago. An evil creature called Arimaspi came to try and steal it away from us. It was a horrid monster, with goat like horns, and one huge eye. He was obsessed with wealth and sought to keep the idol for himself. Our soldiers tried to protect the idol, but the beast was too strong. It took the idol from its resting place and fled. But our brave soldiers, led by King Guto, chased the demon, eventually cornering it on a rope bridge above the Abysmal Abyss. The king slashed the ropes holding the bridge up, and the demon fell to its death, but took the idol with it. “The defeat of Arimaspi was both our greatest triumph and defeat. The idol was not seen again, until not so long ago, and sadly, it has never been recovered. But nowadays, most griffons remind themselves that it was just a piece of gold. And it was greed that made Arimaspi become who he was.” Hartwin went on to explain what happened next, how, after King Guto’s death, the kingdom became unstable. The longstanding alliances between the factions began to break down. Ultimately, the once peaceful kingdom descended into a bloody civil war. It emerged ten years later as the tyrannical Griffon Empire, led by its first and only emperor. The new nation, held together by force quickly grew unstable. In an effort to placate his people at home, the emperor did what any good dictator does; turn to foreign policy. Through propaganda and cunning deception, he convinced the people that Equestria was the cause of all their woes. The green and pleasant land would be ideal territory for the griffons, and a welcome change from the cold and inhospitable lands of their own battle scarred country. The First Griffon War, as Equestrians call it, was not particularly long. The griffons could not stand up to the power of magic, certainly not when the princesses themselves joined the fray. The griffons were defeated in just over a year, and forced back to their original borders. The emperor however, managed to hang onto power. Despite their defeat, the griffons soon engaged in a second conflict a decade later, this time trying to convince Yakyakistan and other nations to form an alliance against Equestria. When this was uncovered, the Equestrians launched a preemptive strike. This time fighting on the Griffons own soil, the conflict was fiercer but again ended with Equestria’s victory. That however, only served to destabilise the regime further. The imperial government collapsed, the emperor executed for treason. The empire broke up and the griffons again descended into squabbling nation states, one of which, a long-time supporter of the empire again sough vengeance against Equestria. Declaring himself the new emperor, this warlord threatened to declare war against Equestria. However, through means that to this day are unknown, Princess Celestia managed to broker a truce and got the wannabe emperor to surrender large portions of his personal estate to her. The last war in recent griffon history was a final civil war, which Hartwin, much to my surprise, referred to as the ‘Great Patriotic War’, though known as the Third Griffon War in Equestria. It saw what started as a small coalition eventually uniting the majority of the states, and bring to heel those that still wished to engage in warmongering. This new nation, dubbed the Griffon Republic, existed only for a few years until King Guto’s rightful heir could be found, thereafter it returned to its status as the Griffon Kingdom, albeit with a new capital city, as by then Griffonstone had fallen into disrepair. After that lesson, which seemed to greatly interest the class, Hartwin turned his box of tricks. The colts in particular were interested in his medals, and Button Mash certainly looked good in Hartwin’s dark green officer’s cap, ill-fitting as it was. In the end, Hartwin simply let the foals have a look. They all rummaged through the gas masks, field glasses, uniforms, medals, and anything else they could get their hooves on. Kids do seem to learn more when they actually have a chance to interact with something, instead of just reading about it in a textbook. Hartwin seemed to enjoy the experience too. After all, living in Equestria at the moment, I guess that he doesn’t run into his own kind too often, or get to talk about his own country. Eventually, the bell rang and we had to call it quits. The foals were all sad to see Hartwin go, but we had other lessons to get on with, and he had his post to get back to. All in all, Cheerilee decided that the lesson had been a success. The vast number of ponies converging on Twilight’s castle that evening, looking for books about griffons, certainly seemed to illustrate that point.