For the draconequus, the ideas for the episodes of his talk show series normally take a couple of days in order for him to think on potential subjects that he would go over and discuss for an episode before he would do the research and begin recording everything. However, for this particular piece, the idea for it came much shorter than that and also covered something in which he only touched on briefly during his piece on Stereotypes amongst species. However, since this was something rather important that needed to be addressed, he couldn’t just slightly ignore the overly huge bear that was in the room.
And he wasn’t referring to Henry either. For this piece, he actually decided to mix things up a little and actually invite a few of his friends over to see a live taping for the episode. This included the Princesses, Fluttershy, her friends and yes… some of her animals too. Hence, the reason why Henry was here. So after everypony was seated and it was all quiet on the set, the intro for the episode commenced as Discord took in a deep breath and began to speak.
“Normally on this show, we like to focus our attention on complex, depressing and sometimes entertaining policy issues and/or public events like Rarity’s interesting choice of fashion and mane styles… or Poverty on the Moon… or how messed up and flawed some sections of Equestria’s charter school system is. A subject rather important but also boring for some viewers to the point that they don’t realize… we literally went over that topic last week!!” The images that followed included showing a picture of what looked like Rarity and Twilight Sparkle forming a spiky mane punk rock group and also a picture from space. “But unfortunately, we need to touch on a particularly different subject… At some point in the week, many of you have probably heard something about this.”
“The second annual Friendship Summit is set to be hosted this year in the Crystal Empire with hundreds of delegates from Cities in Equestria and around the world. Including many world leaders.”
Discord had that pause for a moment at he looked back at the camera and began to speak. “Now, at this point, you may be thinking one of two things. First, why the buck are you showing me something like this? And second, why the buck should I care? Well first, the Friendship Summits, despite being only going on for two years, is one of the biggest political events in Equus as a whole and also where all the highest ranking members of society get the chance to meet each other. Well, of course, other than the time Dragon Lord Ember did a superhero landing in the middle of Ponyville almost two weeks ago.” That coincided with an image of Ember landing on the ground after taking a deep nose dive… shortly before hearing somepony in the background shout ‘Superhero Landing!’. “The reason why I’m bringing this up to you tonight is because of this story that just happened to break out earlier today.”
“A very controversial leader has decided to make his presence known for the upcoming Friendship Summit held in the Crystal Empire. The ruler of Griffonstone himself, King Avarum, has declared that he will be arriving at the event, even though most legal analysts to Princess Celestia and also Princess Twilight say that he was never actually on the guest list for the event.”
That had some of the members of the audience, and even the special guests, look back at Discord in surprise as he took the chance to reply back. “So basically… You’re telling me that a overgrown walking feather duster just decided to invite himself into the castle at the Crystal Empire for more than just to clean every dusty shelf or frame that seems out of place?” An image of the King looking like a feather duster a made would use, but much bigger than the size of the maid itself. “That is just beyond me…… but here’s the thing. There’s more to this king than meets the eye and tonight, we’re actually going to talk about not just the king, but also the country of Griffonstone in itself and the state to which it’s in. Which is the reason for why this appearance is seen as controversial to the point that it makes what Blueblood had done for all these years look like child's play.” That, to the audience, caught their attention rather quickly. Including the image of Prince Blueblood looking rather shocked and startled to the point that he was scared out of his life.
“So let’s start with the actual country of Griffonstone… A place that most ponies know so little about… that’s it. End of sentence,” The spirit of chaos addressed, before mentioning something else. “Which is surprising… because Griffonstone is the closest neighbor that we have across the sea in the Hyperborean mountains and is also one of Equestria’s prime trading partners. Yet, if you actually go there… like when two of Princess Twilight’s friends went to go solve a friendship problem, this is what they saw.”
The next clip showed Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash trotting into Griffonstone… noticing that a lot of the kingdom was not only an entire mess, but any of the griffons that looked like decent normal ponies… were complete jerks who would want nickel and dime you each time you needed help with something. “Yes. The first time you think of Griffonstone, it may make someponies think of Toll Roads used to speed up travel in between cities for a small fee. Only in this case, the ones who are managing the roads are assholes, they inflate the toll for each moment that you are breathing and standing in Griffonstone and when they hand you the bill, they force you to pay up and it may leave a big burning hole in your savings account.” That was followed by an image of Rainbow looking all shocked and horrified the moment she saw a bill she needed to pay worth 100,000 bits… even though the normal toll would be actually 100.
“But it’s important here to point out that not all griffons are straight up jerks… in fact, if you remember Gabby from our second episode, you may recall this.”
“My father wasn’t really so optimistic about the ways of ponies or me coming to Ponyville in the first place. But I can’t just sit around in Griffonstone waiting for my life purpose to come to me. Instead, I thought that I needed to find it on my own and the only way I can do that was by coming here.”
“That… is not only heartfelt… but also very emotional…” Discord replied, before looking at it. “Because most recently, when we talking to her in preparation for this piece, we found out more about her father… and also found out what happened to him. His name was Gabriel and a long time ago, the feather duster of a king in which you saw earlier ordered a crackdown on those he defined as, and I quote, ‘a dagger pointed at the kingdom’s throat and must be destroyed’. This lead to several guards finding him, restraining him, beating him to the ground and just leaving him there to die. All in front of her and her grandfather, Gruff, who we had the chance to talk to most recently and this is what he said happened when he tried to tell the guards.”
“There were two of them there… just hurting and slowly killing him in front of his daughter no less. I turned to the first soldier and told him that he was killing my son… and all they said was ‘who gives a beak?’.”
“Did the second soldier say anything?”
“Yes, I tried to tell him what he was doing was wrong and all he then said was ‘who gives a sh*t?”
Many ponies gasped in shock and horror in response to that… and Discord had to take a moment to wipe some sweat off his forehead. “Look… I know this is supposed to be for fun, but for the exception of some gardening plants that just really get on your nerve, you can’t just watch someone or something die and say who gives a sh*t,” The image that showed up in that moment showed a collection of aging roses with very sharp thorns and somepony accidentally getting a actual thorn stuck in their side because of it. “What makes this story worse is that when the two soldiers in particular actually reported back what happened, the king actually promoted them instead of discipling them. Presumably to Lieutenant ‘whatever asshole’ and Captain ‘zero bucks given’.”
A brief pause showing the guards new appointed positions and one griffon looking like he was going to flip off the public was briefly shown before the spirit of chaos took a deep breath. “And unlike here… unlike here in Equestria, where we can be able to speak freely and not worry about bad things happening… that’s not the case for those who live in Griffonstone. In fact, a recent study shows that a vast majority of the population are not only seen as under the poverty line, but severely dislike the king and some of the things he’s doing. But guess what… It’s not just the common population that disagrees with him… Just watch this clip of an interview being done with a particularly important face.”
“Would you believe that King Avarum is doing the right thing for his people and for Griffonstone right now?”
“…… No. He may think that he’s actually doing the right thing and have the emotional intelligence to support that… but I don’t believe that my father is doing the right thing. Too many Griffons have been hurt because of all the things that he’s doing and I think when the two Ponies from Equestria visited the kingdom… it was a major wake up call for the griffon kingdom.”
Several gasps ran over the crowd for a moment as Discord tried to put up a paw and ask for the audience to hold their excitement. Then, he spoke. “You’re not going to believe this, but that is actually Jakob, the Prince of Griffonstone… speaking about his father almost like what would happen if you asked Luna or Celestia about Blueblood if he was allowed to rule for a day. Also… emotional intelligence? That sounds like a made up quality that you would find on a charter school report card run by Fleur De Lis.” Shortly afterwards, while the crowd was laughing, Discord had an image of a section on an imaginary report card called ‘Emotional Intelligence’ show up as he changed his vocal appearance to sound like that of the model. “Oh wow, Avy! For emotional intelligence, you got a smiling bunny! A bunny!! Yet, for actual intelligence, you got a frowning elephant, which is an F. An F, Avy. Let’s turn that frown upside down.”
That even got to the point where Rainbow in the crowd was laughing her flank off along with Pinkie Pie as Discord tried to have everyone settle down for a moment before he was able to go on. “Jakob himself agrees that his father isn’t doing the best for the country, but it’s not fully because he’s an asshole. There’s also a secondary reason for it and that is the fascination that King Avarum has for the ‘Lost Treasure of Griffonstone’. Something in which almost sounds like it was taken out of a manuscript for a Daring Do book long before AK Yearling’s retirement.” That was followed by what appeared to be a fake cover for a Daring Do book called ‘Daring Do and the Lost Treasure of Griffonstone’. “But to many ponies surprise… this is definitely real. And don’t take it from me… take it from one of the other griffons that came to Equestria named Gilda, who decided to come here after she learned that Friendship was worth more than money.”
“Back in the day and age of King Grover, many of the griffons were once as greedy as dragons. But they were united by the king and the relic that he used to unite the people called the idol of boreas and had Griffonstone become a glorious king. However, around the time of King Guto fourteen generations later, the relic was stolen by a monster named Arimaspi and that’s where everything fell apart. Guto was shamed, forced out as king and the city began to decline as well.”
“Yes, the main reason why Griffonstone has been in such a decline is because the one thing that gave the Griffons a united sense of purpose has gone missing. It’s almost similar to what happened to Princess Celestia during Nightmare Moon’s return… only this time, the main symbol of importance is still nowhere to be found,” That had most ponies laughing at that. But not entirely Celestia as she continued to watch her. “Now… you may all be wondering… how does this exactly relate to Avarum? Well, I’ll let Gilda explain the reason for that as well.”
“Throughout his whole ‘term’ as the enacting king, Avarum has sent numerous parties towards the Abysmal Abyss in order to try and find the idol. Instead of using the personal wealth that he has in order to try and fix the way things are now, he’s been funding expeditions to search for it and placed very stupid bans on things that are just part of normal everyday life in Equestria. Like Singing.”
“And what happened to those who do go on those expeditions? Where are they now?” The audience could hear Discord ask Gilda. However, her next response caught everyone off guard.
“They’re dead.”
Almost everyone gasped in response to that. Including Discord for that matter. “Holy sh*t. You wouldn’t normally expect that kind of a cold response from anypony at all… Except of course, for Maud Pie when you’re asking her about her progress on handling a rodent infestation,” The draconequus added as he had his voice changed to sound like Maud shortly after asking a question and showed Maud in what looked like a fumigation suit. “How is it going with the mouse problem? Are you getting them to relocate- ‘They’re dead.’ Okay, no need to ask anymore on that!”
Then Discord pointed out something else that was incredibly stupid. “Also… banning singing? That’s the most stupidest excuse I’ve heard of for a ban of any kind at all. I think that the griffons would only care about what the hell is going on in Griffonstone if the king decides to one day put a ban on griffon scones. I would guarantee you that there would be riots in the streets if they had bans on the one treat that gives griffons any meaning to their lives.” The picture changed to a random griffon armed to the beak with captions that read ‘GIVE ME MY F***ING GRIFFIN SCONES!!!’ Which, caught a lot of the audience by surprise and also got some other members of the audience laughing.
After the noise died down a little, Discord then got back to speaking. “So, to recap on what we got so far… We got a king who’s delusional on what’s right and wrong, him chasing a dream of uniting the people and only getting everything in Griffonstone back in order when he finds the idol and not get off his lazy ass to do something right… Yet, how does it impact here? Well… let me put it like this,” He said, putting up an image of what looks like a home for a moment. “First, picture the pony that is your neighbor… now, imagine that same neighbor having a complete and utter jackass of a coltfriend who doesn’t have them be productive, listen to his every demands and even forbids any single thing that she may use to get through on a daily basis. Now, picture Griffonstone as the neighbor… and the king as the jackass coltfriend.”
That image then showed the house, the neighbor… and what looked like a ponyshop altered photo of the King looking like a complete and utter jerk. “Now, as most ponies would tell you… if they saw a problem like this, they would speak out and try to tell them what they thought of them… Yet, here’s the thing… Remember when I told you that ban earlier on singing? It turns out that there’s now a law that forbids anypony who lives in Griffonstone or travels there to talk bad at the king or face severe punishments… and it’s really hard to not talk bad about him when he openly does that about us. Just listen to this as he arrived in Baltimare this morning.”
“That alicorn, Celestia I think it was, must be really busy if she has the time to eat cake so often and look the way she does. It must be the same with the other princesses too.”
That had the whole crowd stop what they were doing and gasp in shock as Discord picked it up from there. “Hey! Do you even realize who the hell you’re talking about here!? You’re talking about a princess who can easily lift up the sun with her magic, one who could banish your ass to the moon, one whose royal guard husband would want to punch you so hard that he’ll break your beak and the student of Celestia, who at one point was able to stand up to Lord Tirek and turn an entire meadow into a burning crater. All, who in which… are actually our special guests this evening and were sitting in the front row seats along with the rest of Twilight’s friends, Spike and Starlight.” The camera soon turned to show each one of them as they waved hello, despite the fact that there was a bunch of tension in the room as the camera turned back around. “Your words could be seen as a freaking declaration of war here, your majesty. My advice… don’t piss off everypony!!! Also… #DontPissOffEverypony.”
More laughter emerged from the audience, shortly before everyone calmed down a bit so Discord could prepare his final statements. “Listen… Griffonstone, I know that your country deserves better… but to be honest. You can’t exactly have it both ways. You can’t just allow for people to come travel over here and be like ‘notice me!’ only to tell those who come to your country not to say anything about them or anything that would seem upsetting or have any stupid bans on singing. You’re a country, not Shia LeHoof,” The next image showed a stallion in the acting business with a bag over his head saying ‘I’m not famous anymore’ as he is walking down a red carpet. “Yet… I find it a little surprising that the king himself is saying that everything is fine back home while he’s on that trip… So let’s check in and see if everything is truly fine.”
With the next tidbit, it went to a hidden camera that was placed at Griffonstone… and what was shown there really caught everyone off guard. Including the fact that some of the Griffons were holding signs that read ‘Griffon Lives Matter’ and they were chanting ‘No Justice, no Peace! No Freedom, no peace! No Equality, No Peace!’ and the last part of it being ‘No scones, no peace!!’. All in which, caught off guard as Discord looked back at the camera. “Wait… I thought the King said everything was fine! What the f*ck is going on in order to insight this kind of a riot?!”
“Breaking News out of Griffonstone, where many of the civilians here are outraged over Avarum's decision to inflate the price of griffon scones here by 300% in order to pay for his trip to the Friendship summit.”
“Dear Luna, is this guy NUTS!?!” The Draconequus then spoke up. “You had ONE job, King. One! And you still managed to buck it up somehow……” That caused the entire crowd to laugh uncontrollably as Discord himself soon picked up from where he left off. “And to be fair here… Gilda originally told me that Griffonstone didn’t actually have a king after what happened with Guto. So basically, the role of king itself had been vacant for years and Avarum himself even once claimed that he had the bloodline of royals in his ancestry, only for a historian to debunk that. And I believe that we both had handled a previous case here where somepony says one thing, but what they mean turns out to be completely different.” That was illustrated by when he put an image of both Blueblood and Avarum side by side one another.
“But wait… it’s gets even worse… Look what happened at the initial meeting of the Friendship Summit earlier today,” That was followed by a clip of Prince Blueblood actually meeting the griffon leader and getting to the point that they were even shaking hoof and talon. Causing multiple ponies in the audience to gasp and for Discord to almost have his head slam on his desk. “Oh Celestia have mercy… So we have the adopted prince with no royal bloodline connections whatsoever… meeting the king with no royal bloodlines whatsoever. I’m personally surprised that their hoofshake did not create a vortex of concentrated evil that did not drag all of ponykind, griffonkind and everyone else into a gaping maw of eternal darkness.”
That was followed by an image of both ponies and griffons alike getting drawn into what looked like a black hole like it was a doomsday action movie. “Now… to recap… we already addressed the problems here in Griffonstone. But there is one thing that we have not discussed… what are we going to do?” Taking a deep breath, he then said something to his audience that… caught a majority of them by surprise. “You know what? Let me rephrase that question. What does the audience think we should do? Because if this was a situation involving your closest neighbor, shouldn’t you have the chance to say something to them?”
“Obviously!” One of the ponies in the crowd called out. “They need basic rights! To be treated fairly and equally under the law!”
“They need to declare their freedom and independence. Griffonstone is likely fed up with how irresponsible this guy is acting!” Another one spoke up as Twilight and her own friends soon saw some more ponies spoke up. Issuing out their thoughts as Discord looked at them.
“Alright alright… all of you have a lot to say, but is there anything you want to suggest on what we can do?” Discord then asked… only for all of them to see two griffons emerge from the corner of the room.
It was Gabby and Gilda. And with both of them standing next to each other. “Now that you mention it… We have an announcement to make. We heard all of your suggestions and your demands… and we are having them be part of a new declaration of independence for griffons.”
“One that we want to call… Gabriel’s dream.” Gabby then announced, which made many ponies cheer for them. “My father wanted for all griffons to be free and equal like everypony here and because of you, tonight, we are making that happen!”
“Three cheers for Gabby and Gilda!” Discord declared, followed by three verses of ‘Hip hip, Hooray!’ as confetti began to fall down from the ceiling. “That’s our show tonight!! Thank you for making this dream come true for Gabby, Gilda and to all griffons everywhere! Goodnight!!”
Meanwhile…
“Umm… Mr. Avarum sir?” One of the ponies that was monitoring the delegate hall for the Friendship Summit spoke up in order to get the attention of the Griffon leader while he was speaking with that of Prince Blueblood. “Is it just me… or is there an angry mob outside with torches and pitchforks?”
“What exactly are you talking about?” The griffon king asked as he went to a window. Outside, he could see ponies, griffons, changelings and other walks of life outside, some of them holding signs and torches as they were chanting one single phrase that soon began to echo through his mind.
“Gabriel’s dream!! Gabriel’s dream! Gabriel’s dream!!!”
Naturally… he only had one response to that. “Oh feathers…”