The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi


Weird Griffon Rules

Valey stepped out onto the deck of the Immortal Dream, expecting a facefull of rainwater and getting absolutely nothing. She stood in the doorway for several seconds, blinking, looked up... and finally realized what was happening: the pink energy comet that empowered the ship didn't just repel windigo blizzards, it acted as a stabilizer in weather of all kinds. The rain bent and fell away from it, its trajectory altered by an invisible forcefield, and the parted waters plummeted thickly down just past the railings. She could probably even stick her hoof out and touch it.

The deck was still cold, mountain storm air settled across it with less wind than she was expecting, and she quickly hugged herself with her wings. Oh well. All she wanted was to stretch her legs; it wasn't like she was going flying anyway...

Then the stern entry opened, its staircase leading to the cargo bay and the opposite end of the cabin corridor, and Slipstream stepped out, wrapped snugly in her brightly-colored pegasus sweater.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, voice carrying all the way across the deck. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Valey spread her wings, crossing the distance effortlessly. "Interrupting stuff? Like what?"

Slipstream dug at the ground with a hoof. "Nothing. You looked like you were thinking, is all."

"Me? Thinking?" Valey put on a silly grin. "Nahhh. Just wandering around 'cuz I'm bored."

"Oh." Slipstream turned away. "I come out here to think a lot. And watch the sky, and the land below us, though that's sort of hard to see right now because of all the rain."

"Huh. That's cool." Valey shrugged. "That mean you want me to leave you alone so you can think, or something?" She waggled an eyebrow. "There are certain kinds of thinking that are a lot funner than others."

Slipstream reddened. "Yes! I mean, no, there aren't! I mean, I..." She froze, then deflated. "I'm thinking about the Empire."

Valey nodded. "Sounds pretty boring. Definitely not on my list of priority things to think about."

"I'm being serious, here," Slipstream murmured. "I didn't say anything when everyone was deciding where to go because this doesn't feel like my party or adventure and I still feel like an outsider along for the ride, but... it looks like it's getting to you, and..."

Valey narrowed her eyes, suddenly serious herself. "Hold on," she said, keeping her tone slightly gentler than it could be. "You also knew about this whole 'Empire hates bats' thing?"

Slipstream wilted. "I'm a travel guide! I give ponies information at a skyport kiosk. Part of that includes knowing all the major things to and not to do in other cultures, and that includes everything the Griffon Empire counts as a heresy against their goddess. One of those is persecuting batponies, and I didn't know for sure but figured it might mean that had been a problem in the past, because you don't make rules that aren't needed. But I didn't say anything because I didn't want to make it look like it was me who didn't want to go, since I'm the newest and didn't really do anything in Ironridge and probably shouldn't have the same say as any of you. I didn't realize it would hurt you that much..."

"Woah. Issues alert." Valey stopped her with a wing. "First, finding out seriously stank, but at least half of it is the whole 'batponies are actually loathed somewhere else' bit. I'll deal with going there. Still gonna be better than what I had in Ironridge, since I've got friends this time. Second, are you saying you don't want to go to the Empire?"

Slipstream shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"Right on that one," Valey apologized, shrugging. "'Cuz I'm pretty sure unless your reservation was stupidly huge, it wouldn't make us choose a war zone or smelly yaks over weird griffons. No offense. So what's up? And don't worry about inconveniencing us, or something."

"It's just..." Slipstream sighed. "I think Gerardo is hot."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "I think a ton of ponies are hot, you included. Sounds normal to me."

"No, it's..." Grimacing, Slipstream tried to break eye contact, settling for looking at the wall of rain rushing past. "In the Empire, inter-species relationships are also forbidden unless you're a sphinx. That doesn't mean earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, but it does mean ponies, batponies, griffons..." She hung her head. "I said it doesn't matter because I haven't been able to get him to notice me and I don't think he's interested back, but it still feels... Well, you have worse problems than I do. So you can maybe relate."

"You know, these griffons are starting to sound like uncool dudes," Valey remarked, leaning against the railing. "What other stuff is against the law there? Littering? Defacing public art? Flirting with the wives of public officials?"

Slipstream frowned. "It's not that they're trying to be killjoys. I've known I like griffons for a long time now, and studied where these rules come from. I needed to know to answer questions for my job, too. In almost all cases, it's their goddess trying to look out for her subjects, like the one protecting ponies like you from persecution. It's heretical to practice piracy, for one, and everyone benefits from having safe seas. Incest is also an offense against the Goddess, which makes a lot of sense because with the way their noble houses are set up, if it wasn't, the sphinxes would become so inbred their population would collapse due to genetic defects and they'd die off. I think the rest of the population is asked to follow that as a matter of fairness, but also because it's a good idea. With this one, though, I think it's to protect the pony and griffon citizens from split loyalties if anything ever went bad between the Empire and the batponies to the north, but then she makes it between all races so it doesn't come across as unfair to batponies anyway. And griffons and ponies can't have offspring together anyway, so I guess they don't think of it as a big loss. It just... Well, it doesn't make a difference to me, I guess."

"Urrrgh!" Valey dramatically slapped a wing to her forehead. "There go all my ambitions of becoming a pirate. My life is ruined." She peeked above it with one eye. "Seriously, though, huh. I... guess I get that? I mean, I'm already going to be getting the stinkeye, I presume, so how much worse will things go for me if I maybe occasionally glance at someone we pass in the streets?"

"I really can't say." Slipstream hung her head again, drooping. "I've read about this, not been there myself. And in Ironridge, shipping to the Griffon Empire is handled by other nations since they don't have their own air fleet, so I don't see locals very often at all. And when I do, they're asking about Ironridge, not talking about their own home."

"Boo. Lame." Valey flopped down on the deck. "Well, here's hoping we run into a benevolent stranger who can actually explain all this stuff and give us some pointers for staying out of trouble." She blinked. "Hey, speaking of running into stuff... you have any idea how long this trip is supposed to be?"

Slipstream shook her head. "The world is a very vast place. Cargo and passenger ships make the trip to the Empire in just under two months, depending on their speed. The closest Varsidel city is about two weeks out, flying night and day. But most commercial dirigible ships move about half the speed of a pegasus trained for long-distance. Smaller ones that aren't tuned for energy efficiency or have less-safe, hobbyist upgrades can triple that speed or more, and with this ship... I'd estimate we're three or four days from the ocean, and then a week to a week and a half to cross that, if we go straight east."

Valey blew on her bangs. "So basically a really long time. Huh. I'm way faster than an endurance flier, so I'm going to have to zip ahead, down to the ground and check for anything interesting to bring back, or even just get a break from this ship before we get out to sea. That sounds really boring."

"I wouldn't know," Slipstream murmured. "But... you're okay with all that? That I knew the Empire had some sort of history with your kind, and didn't-"

"Hey." Valey cut her off with a wingtip to the lips. "Pretty sure everyone here is rocking some major baggage, except maybe Birdo. If not speaking up about the Empire hating my guts when we were making our decision is the thing you feel worst about, congratulations, you're the happiest and most stable pony here." She winked. "Seriously, don't worry about it."

Slipstream breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. That... means a lot."

"No problem." Valey grinned. "Now I just need to find someone I can hit on where we're going without getting arrested..." She blinked. "Hey, what is the punishment for any of this stuff, anyway?"

"It depends." Slipstream shuffled awkwardly. "On the nature and duration of the offense, how much malice it's done with, whether it's repetitive... You'd have to ask Gerardo what the exact system is, but I know the Goddess judges heretics herself, sometimes."

"Okay! Okay." Valey backed up, eyes wide. "Yeah, that sounds a little... Yeah, gonna avoid that, then. Bananas. Guess I'll have to be on my best behavior after all. I hope Birdo can get me a concrete list of exactly what's banned and what isn't so I don't stuff something up by accident."

Slipstream's ears perked. "Oh, I should be able to do that. At least, a little. The ones I mentioned are the big ones, though. No having unions with your relatives or anyone of a different race, unless you're a sphinx and it's with an unrelated pony or griffon. No persecuting or declaring holy war on the batponies. No piracy or criminal attacking of trade routes." She paused, touching her lip with a hoof. "Now that I think about it, if they're very tightly enforced, you shouldn't have any trouble from others at all, and if they're not very tightly enforced you probably will be safe from the rules, too..."

"Just as long as they're not selectively enforced. Meh." Valey folded her wings and started trotting away. "We'll get there when we get there, and then we'll see just how much this Garsheeva deserves my respect."