Normal POV:
*A few minutes earlier*
The walk was long and silent with plenty of emphasis on LONG, I was walking for a good hour or so until I reached the entrance if the village and it was well past evening by then and the forest around me was quiet except for the occasional cricket chirp so not much to note it was a run of the mill forest and i’m sure I don’t have to describe a regular forest to anyone just guess. The only thing I could do without was the hunger because this was around the time I would have finished my dinner so at least I got to the town but unfortunately because of my hunger all my hesitation was removed with promise of dinner and help for my current predicament. The town itself was quiet and empty but that’s to be expected when you enter in the middle of the night, and the buildings were normal run of the mill fantasy buildings with thatch roofs on some and wood on others with the exception of a blacksmith at the corner of the intersection from what I could see. I started back up at a brisk pace into the town noting the various stores like a flower shop, tailor, and bakery that were as expected all closed for the night so when I reached the intersection I was pleasantly surprised to see an Inn and Tavern still open with the light from inside glowing from within.
“Finally my feet are killing me”
I voice my discomfort from the long walk in my old thin sneakers as I approached the open tavern hoping that the owner is sympathetic to weary travelers. When I was closer I briefly entertained the cliche of someone getting thrown out of the place around now and slightly hoped it would happen but was disappointed when nothing continued to happen when I stepped up to the two swinging doors that served as the entrance way and pushed them both open and stepped inside only to look back up to see various creatures staring at me in what I assumed was confusion and mild distress and after a quick glance around the room I could see why. There was a group of four ponies sitting at the bar openly sneering at me but what surprised me about them was they looked to be dressed like the thieves guild members from skyrim only ponified that included the knives that I could see so I simply pulled my hood down more to cover my face and walked to an empty booth at the back right corner of the tavern, as I passed I could hear them mumbling to each other.
“What is it-”
“Where does it come from”
“Is that a sword?”
I just ignored them and sat down in the wooden booth with a sigh and thought to myself for a moment
“That was much farther than it looked”
I mumbled to myself after a brief moment of rest and almost jumped when what felt like a claw tapped me on my shoulder and I quickly turned to see who it was and to my mild surprise what stood there was a griffin that was way bigger that what I pictured, i’m 5’10 and if I stood up straight his top feather would reach my chest. His colors were mostly grey with dark brown fur on his lion half and the grey on his feathers with them turning black once they reach his talons and his wings, his head was covered in grey feathers that were flattened smoothly over his head and lead up to his dark brown eyes which looked over his yellow beak. He was wearing only a travelers messengers bag that was slung over his chest and dangled to his left for easy access so otherwise he was a pretty normal griffin besides his height. I snapped back to reality when I realized he asked me a question
“Come again?”
He was caught off guard from my reply and shifted uneasily before he glanced around and repeated his question
“Um is it alright if I sit with you?”
Something about this makes me feel like he gonna ask me to do something for him but that might also mean free stuff if my video game knowledge is right so I gestured over to the booth seat in front of me and said
“Be my guest”
He nodded in return and turned to walk over to the seat in front of me and sat down and got comfortable, he glanced over at the group of ponies from before and turned back to face me.
“Do you know how to use that sword?” he whispered
Now he caught me off guard with the question and made me question the repercussions of saying no so I just said
“A bit why?”
He seemed to relax a bit with my answer and then got serious again
“I think we’re both in quite a bit of trouble now and we’ll need to team up to get out”
He nodded over to the group of ponies who were now snickering and pointing at me and him. They must be more like the thieves guild from skyrim then I thought, they’re going to either try to rob us or beat us up both involve a fight and we’re outnumbered separately but together we might have a chance, but he still asked me to help so i’m gonna try to get something out of this.
“I see what you mean but in return you gotta rent me a room at the Inn along with something to eat”
He hesitated for a moment and looked like he was going to decline until we heard a wolf whistle from across the tavern coming from the male unicorn of the group who held up a knife and made the “cut it out” gesture across his neck while grinning at us.
“Deal”
He quickly stuck out his talons for a handshake for which I obliged him and his claw felt smooth like metal but was warm and I could feel the blood pulsing from it and when I let go the deal was set now we just need a plan, we can’t fight them head on especially when they have two unicorns that can just toss us around with their magic.
“You can use those big things right?” I pointed at his wings
“Umm yeah just not for hours on end why?” if he had any eyebrows I imagine one would be arched right now in interest hopefully.
“Here’s the plan”
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3rd Person POV:
The human and Griffin stood from their respective seats and made their way towards the exit at a relaxed pace with the griffin in front and the human following behind which caught the attention of the earth pony who alerted his associates by rough slaps to their heads to get their attention he then pointed to the two leaving and rose to follow the two with a grin of his muzzle. The griffin left through the door first and the human next who checked behind him before leaving as well. The patrons of the tavern watch with bated breath at the two groups tried to leave and wondered what would happen to either side, on the outside the human was standing in the middle of the path a bit aways from the tavern entrance with hood obscuring his eyes and grinning as the four ponies exited the building with the earth pony in front and the pegasus next to him and the two magic users in the back.
“So I hear you got a problem with me?”
The human shouted over to the lead pony who arched a brow and responded
“If you and your griffin friend hand over all your valuables we might leave ya with yer lives” His tone smug and confident which changed to irritation when he heard the laughter from the creature in front of him, who calmed back down and said
“Don’t hold your breath, NOW!”
Three things happened after that exclamation, The griffin leaped from the roof and landed hard on the two unicorns heads slamming their heads into the ground knocking them out cold, the pegasus taking flight to dodge and the human rushing forward and swinging his foot into the neck of the earth pony who choked and passed out from the shock of no air getting to his brain.
“I said not to hold your breath” The human said
“You BASTARD!” yelled the pegasus in the air
He dived at the human as fast as he could and almost immediately got tackled out of the sky by the griffin who has WINGS and landed on the ground struggling with him but it he was immobilized quickly by the large size of the avian feline and gave up with a irritated sigh putting an end to what some would call a fight and others would call a steamroll.
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Normal POV:
“Well that went much better than I thought, I was ready for things to go wrong but it went pretty smoothly” I said to my new friend in relief
“I didn’t think just me landing on them would knock them out” The griffin said from on top of the defeated pegasus.
This even further proves my magical density theory because they began circulating their magic most likely and that lowered their density thus meaning a griffin is much heavier to them and stronger, that wouldn’t have worked on the pegasus or earth pony.
“Now let’s find out why your here” I stepped over next to the restrained pegasus’s head and leaned down so he would see my face
“You’ll be sorry once the boss gets here!” he smiled smugly at me and I just rolled my eyes
“ Aaand where is he?” He started to struggle again but was quickly stopped when he heard my feathery compatriot start growling
“Ok ok he’s at the next town over we were ordered to gather all of the valuables of this backwater town just call off your pet griffin” wow I didn’t take him for a squealer but we got what I wanted plus the griffin wasn’t even growling that was just his stomach I think. I look at the griffin who turned to look at me while wearing an annoyed scowl and I nodded at him he grinned and raised his right talon and swung it hard at his captive smashing him into unconsciousness.
“Well that was fun but we really should like tie these guys up right?” He pointed out after getting off of the downed pegasus. I turned to look at the unconscious group and was about to respond but a new voice cut me off
“No need fellas we got it from here” and walking out of the tavern was a diamond dog wearing a sheriff badge on his vest followed by a green unicorn wearing a similar vest except with a deputy badge
“Thanks to you two they won’t be terrorising the citizens anymore, before this our paws were tied due to them using loopholes in the laws but those are being amended soon” He held out a paw for a handshake or pawshake? … from both of us which we responded in kind and when finish the sheriffs face went serious.
“There is a 200 bit bounty for catching these four but because of them extorting all the money from us we don’t have much so if you could come to my office tomorrow we could discuss this more but for now we can put you two up for a room at the Inn” My eyes widen at the mention of 200 bits and dropped back from the mention of them stealing so much from them so we both nodded to the sheriff in agreement to visit his office tomorrow and the promise of a free room.
“If you give this to the owner of the Inn she’ll understand and give ya some dinner and a room, now I got to get to the jail to put these bandits in cells see you tomorrow” The sheriff pulled a slip of paper out of thin air behind him somehow and handed it to me before walking over to his deputy who had tied together all the ponies and started dragging them past us
“Were they waiting there the whole time?” I questioned my feathered friend when the duo were out of earshot. He just shrugged in response with confused look on his beak then said
“Let’s just get to the Inn, i’m pretty sure were both exhausted from today I know I am” then he turned and started for the Inn with me trailing behind wondering what we’ll get as a reward tomorrow instead of bits. The walk was silent but not uncomfortable just a tired silence that said that neither of us wanted to speak anymore and just wanted to get to the room.
We reached the Inn and entered only to be greeted by a well groomed female diamond dog smaller than the sheriff wearing a brown dress.
“Welcome to Gold Flower Inn how my I help you” he said with a soft warm voice, I handed her the slip of paper I got from the sheriff and she grabbed it and read it only for a moment before softly gasping and smiling at us then directing us up the stairs.
“I will be up in a moment with your dinners but for now here is your key” she reached under the reception desk and grabbed a key from somewhere and handed it to my because I was closer and pointed over to the stairs
“Your room number is 7 I hope you enjoy your stay” after finishing he walked away into a back room most likely to prepare some food. I shared a look with … I never asked his name so i’ll have to do that when we get to the room. We started our way up stairs and upon reaching the top we immediately could see room 7 so we just walked over and I used the key to open it showing me a sparsely decorated room housing two beds side by side with a desk in between them and a lamp on top of it and a closet on the right wall, there was still plenty of floor space left and to the right of the beds was a door leading to what I presumed was a bathroom. I didn’t need to relieve myself due to me not having anything to get rid of but my friend made a beeline for it while I walked over to the bed and laid down and then remember the sword on my back when it poked me so I took it off and leaned it on the desk then laid down for a moment just letting everything sink in.
“I am in my little pony and a few hours after waking up took out a group of bandits using only my wits and planning plus a kick to the neck” I thought to myself and allowed myself a grin in pride but it quickly went away when my thoughts turned to what the pegasus said
“Our leader is in the next town over” Does that mean I might have to use this sword sooner than I thought? This isn’t an RPG game where the enemies just dissolve into thin air each living thing has flesh and bone that can bleed and die from one strong swing of my sword, am I ready to take a life that I have no right to take bandit or not. Before I could continue my dark train of thought a knock sounded at the door right as the griffin stepped out of the bathroom with his feathers a bit damp and said
“Come In” and in walked our diamond dog host carrying two trays of what smelled to be fried fish which reminded my stomach decided to tell me by giving off a loud gurgle. She giggled and handed us our respective meals which was just two fillets of fried fish, the both of us said thank you before digging in with vigor. Something has never tasted better after so long so it was quickly devoured by the both of us and we sat in a comfortable silence that would have led to sleep if I hadn’t remembered something important so I turned to my roommate and asked
“Hey, what’s your name?” He looked back at me a bit shocked that he didn’t introduce himself then sat up and grinned then responded
“Triton, Triton Blackfeather. Your name?” I smiled at him and offered my hand to him
“Michael, Michael Mars. It's a pleasure to meet you officially Triton” He grasped my hand with his claw and shook it.
“The pleasures all mine Michael” I have a feeling this is the beginning of a long beautiful friendship.