Gilda rose up over Griffonstone, only sparing a moment to glance back down at the crowd below her. The narrow street was packed with griffons, all of them watching her as she caught a thermal and banked towards the main square. She wanted to get away from them as fast as possible, to get back to her bakery and away from all the attention.
She had no idea if she had done the right thing. It seemed wrong to punish a griffon for taking food that he had always taken. It wasn’t his, but did that really matter? The rule of Griffonstone had always been that if you could take it, it was yours. Did the fact she was now a princess change that?
She wasn’t even sure if it was the right sort of punishment to give him, forcing him to do work—unpaid work—for others. It was about the most humiliating thing you could make a griffon do, but it was the only thing she could think of as punishment. What else could she have done? And it was making the town better, at least for a few griffs. Wasn’t that what she was supposed to be doing?
A quick glance down told her that she had overflown the square, so she tilted her wings to circle back around. There was a lot of activity going on below her, with ponies setting up tents and others pulling carts into the square. She wasn’t surprised to see that three of the princesses were standing outside of her shop; the only one missing was Luna.
With one last twist of her tail, Gilda descended, flaring to a soft landing right in front of the trio of mares. Without a word to them she walked back into her bakery. There was no sign of Luna inside, just Greta and Skychart, watching her as she returned to her seat and dropped down into it with a heavy thud. The princesses followed her a few moments later.
Gilda had never done anything like that before. Sure, she had been in her share of fights, pinned griffons and ponies to the ground and even broken up a few scuffles. Yet she had never tried to solve why the fight was happening in the first place. It was a stupid fight, but the kind that happened all the time in Griffonstone, more so in the fall as everygriff struggled to hoard food for the winter.
Her introspection was brought to a quick end as the door to the shop was flung open and Luna trotted in. “That was commendable!” she declared, her voice too loud for the space they were in, causing it to reverberate off the walls. “It was truly outstanding how you quickly grasped the nuance of the situation and found a solution that punished the perpetrator as well as provided aid to others. The fact that you did so in a way that would leave him in a position to start a profitable business, as well as encouraging the injured party to do the same, was a shining example of leadership.”
Gilda could only stare at Luna, her beak hanging open, as the mare sat down at the table, a wide grin on her muzzle.
“I had my doubts about my sister’s choice, but having seen you in action I do believe that she did indeed chose well,” Luna added, glancing at Celestia for a moment.
“I just did what seemed right at the time,” Gilda replied, looking down at her claws. “I didn’t consider either of them starting a business.”
Celestia chuckled softly, giving a sidelong glance to Twilight. “In most situations, leadership is doing what appears to be the correct course of action at that moment. It’s rare that you will have to mull over a decision, but when you do, it will be because it is critical.”
Gilda looked over the four ponies. “So, this is all just a big shell game?”
“It’s more like a game of chess,” Cadence replied. “You have to think about the big picture, to see how your choices will affect it, but you have to be quick to adapt to any opportunity that might present itself.”
The griffon hen blinked, then slowly shook her head. “I have no idea how to play chess.”
“I can teach you,” Twilight said with a smile. “It’s an interesting game with a lot of deep strategies. I’m pretty good at it myself, but I wouldn’t play against Celestia. She is a grand master of the game.”
The elder princess just smiled at that. “I have had a few centuries to practice.”
“And yet you have never won against Fluttershy,” Luna teased, gently jabbing her sister with the edge of her hoof.
Gilda just looked between Celestia and Luna, watching the two of them act like children. It seemed incredible that these two mares were among the most powerful creatures in the world, yet they hardly seemed to have the maturity to stock up for the winter.
Cadence cleared her throat, “Well, as interesting as that might be, we’re not here to discuss games. We are here to help you make some immediate decisions about the future of the Griffon Kingdom. That includes the overall structure of the government,” she spoke with the tone of a mother annoyed with her chicks.
“Please,” Gilda said, glad someone could take control of the group.
Twilight’s horn began to glow as a pair of thick books were lifted from her saddle bags. “There are a number of different forms of government that have been proven to function in the past. From the Canterlot System to Mazin’s more… pugilist style. Each one has their advantages and drawbacks, which must be carefully considered when making your decision.”
She set the books down on the table, then reached back into her bag to pull out a thick stack of notecards, a large smile on her face as she aligned them all together. “Now, starting with the Canterlot System—”
Thankfully, a knock on the door brought a temporary reprieve from the oncoming lecture. It caused Twilight to scrunch up her nose in annoyance as she set the cards down.
Greta quickly went to the door, pulling back the cover on the window to look outside. “It’s one of your guards,” she said. With a quick twist of her talon she pushed the door open, allowing the stallion to step inside the shop. He was wearing different armor then the other guards Gilda had seen, the most striking change being that it was silver and not gold.
The pony turned to Celestia and gave her a quick salute. “You Highnesses, the secure wagon has arrived. I have the guards moving it behind the building for the time being.”
“Thank you,” Celestia replied with a slight nod of her head. “Gilda, this is Captain Sidereal Equinox of the Equestrian Guard. I would like for you to work with him until we can arrange a more permanent security detail.”
Gilda narrowed her eyes, giving the stallion an intense look. He seemed like any other pony to her, with a blond mane and tan fur that was marred with white splotches. She wasn’t sure she wanted some pony providing ‘security’ for her. “Surely there must be a griffon in the royal guard,” she finally said.
“There are three, but all fairly low ranking. They do not have the skill or the security clearance for this task,” Celestia replied.
That didn’t make her feel any better.
The stallion used his magic to pull off his helmet, allowing his mane to fall along his neck. He gave another quick salute, but this time to Gilda. “A correction your Highness, I’m not part of the Royal Guard, but the Equestrian Guard. The royal guard serve at the behest of the princesses, protecting them and their homes, whereas we serve the country as a whole.”
Gilda didn’t see how that was really any different; in the end a guard was a guard, no matter what sort of armor they wore.
“For the moment, my main concern is with protecting the secure wagon,” he continued. “Anything else will be at your discretion.”
She wondered how true that would be if she told him to leave. The last thing she wanted was some unicorn hovering around and telling her how to do things the pony way.
Greta was quickly at his side. “We should speak later tonight. There are some griffons that aren’t pleased with what has happened and I would be more comfortable if there was a guard on duty.”
Gilda shot her a dirty look. In response, the green hued griffon snorted and shook her head. “Don’t forget, this is my home too.”
With a grimace, Gilda realized that with everything that had been going on, that fact had slipped her mind. If there was any griff who had the right to ask about security it was her housemate. “Fine, whatever,” she said, dismissing it with a wave of her talon. “Now what is this about a secure wagon?”
“It will be best if we show you,” Celestia said, rising from her seat. “Do you have a piece of jewelry, something with a large gem that you can keep on your person at all times?”
She shook her head. She had never really had jewelry before, other than a few talon rings. Though in the past weeks, several griffs had given her pieces of all sorts and sizes. Necklaces, broches, tail bands and rings. Many of them had been hidden away for decades, protected from thieves and family, it felt wrong to take them, yet it felt just as wrong to refuse them.
“Well, we can address that later,” the elder princess said, then motioned to Sidereal.
The stallion put his helmet back on, though not all his mane made it through, causing it to sit at an odd angle on his head. He turned and walked towards the back of the shop, the rest of them following. He pushed through the door into the kitchen and with a quick flick of his magic, he unlocked the back door and stepped out into the small area behind the shop.
It wasn’t much back there. It consisted of a small fenced in area covered with paving stones, a dead garden and the privy in the back. The wagon in question was sitting in the very middle of it. The wagon was enclosed, with every corner and seam held together with thick bolts and then covered in metal. There was a single door at the front, which had no handles or any way to look inside. A small set of stairs had been placed by the doors, so a pony could at least walk up to it.
Celestia strolled right up to the wagon as the glow of her magic started to focus on the large amethyst gem in the center of her golden chest piece. With a twist the gem lifted out of the setting and floated up to the door, touching it at the center. There was a small flash of magic between the gem and the door, followed by the sound of shifting metal. As she pulled the gem away, the door opened outwards.
“Look inside,” Celestia said as she stepped out of the way.
Gilda walked past the mare and grabbed the door, pulling it all the way open and revealing what seemed like a normal looking wagon. She climbed up the steps and in through the door, which was small enough that it scraped across her wings. The inside of the wagon was lined with small cubbies filled with boxes. Most of the boxes were the size of her fist, but others big enough to hold a cake. Each one had a small golden plaque with a number on them, which had a matching plaque on the cubby.
Picking one at random, she slid pulled it free; nearly dropped it as it was much heavier than she had been expecting. Cradling it up against her keel, she walked backwards out of the wagon so she could turn around. She gave a glance at the princesses, then to her friends, before she lifted the lid off the box.
It was filled to the brim with bits.
She stared down at the box, the bits shining in the sunlight. She had no idea how much money she was holding, other than it was more than she had ever seen in her life. It seemed unreal; this little box was worth more than most of Griffonstone… and there were many more of them in the wagon.
Gilda ran her tongue across her beak before slowly putting the lid back on the box as her eyes scanned the sky above them. There were no griffons around to spy on them, but that didn’t mean anything. “How much?”
“In the box, or the whole wagon?” Celestia replied with a smirk.
She pressed the lid down tightly onto the box, like it might explode in her claws. “Either?”
“Two hundred thousand bits,” the princess replied.
She hadn’t even realized she dropped the box until it floated past her in a light blue field, the guard moving it back into the wagon. All the work she had done to fix up the shop, to get the stoves, the counters, all the work outside… that had added up to only a few hundred bits. Now suddenly she had been given access to more money than she had ever conceived of.
Gilda turned to look at Greta and Skychart. “Do not tell anygriff about this, at all. If word about this gets out, the riot will burn the town.”
Skychart nodded while Greta made a zipping motion across her beak.
“The wagon is reinforced with both steel and magic,” the guard said, stepping out of the wagon and pulling the door closed. It shut with a thump, a hint of a glow shining through the gap around the door. “It would take an army to rip it open, or an alicorn.”
She just ignored him for the moment and instead turned to Celestia. “That gem is the only thing that can open the wagon?” She asked, poking the gem in question with the tip of her talon.
“My sister’s will open it, and Captain Sidereal has a gem as well,” Celestia replied. “Once you find a gem of your own to use, I will cast the key spell onto it.”
Gilda looked back at the wagon, her head spinning at what was held inside. The ponies had promised a great number of things, food, aid, and bits. She knew that the train the princess had come on had brought food and medical aid for the griffons, but she had yet to see it for herself. Here was proof, real, tangible proof that Celestia was going to be as good as her word, that she really was going to try and help them build the griffon kingdom into something better than it had once been.
“Thank you,” she finally said, giving the princess a small smile. “This is going to help more than I can say.”
Celestia returned the smile, “I’m sure you’ll come up with something for tomorrow, once the treaty officially comes into effect,” she replied.
She rolled her eyes at that. What kind of speech did Celestia think she would give? She was a griffon, not a princess… well not that kind of princess. She had no idea what she was going to say at the ceremony tomorrow, and was just planning to take it by wing.
“And once that is done, we can start moving the troops across the border,” the princess added, almost as an afterthought.
That brought Gilda up short, her head snapping around to look at Celestia. “Troops? What the buck are you talking about? You’re not going to need troops to pass around the supplies, we can arrange that for ourselves.”
“It’s only a single brigade of the guard, and it’s not about the supplies. There are some issues that need to be dealt with, and only once the treaty is in effect can they be handled.”
Gilda just glared at the mare, eyes narrowing, her wings starting to fan out and tail trashing behind her as every worry, ever fear, she had about the princess’s motives suddenly started to crystalize inside of her. “How big is a brigade?” she asked.
“Fifteen hundred ponies,” the guard answered.
A low growl started to build deep in her chest, vibrating under her keel. Fifteen hundred armed ponies, marching into the Griffon Kingdom. She couldn’t believe it! She couldn’t believe just how stupid she had been to trust the ponies!
Luna stepped forward, placing herself between Gilda and Celestia. “I believe my sister may have neglected to tell you one of the driving factors that brought about our treaty.”
Gilda spat at her hooves. “Of course, you have a real reason. I can’t believe I fell for the dung you were spewing, about doing this out of the goodness of your heart, about wanting to help us. You never wanted to help us at all, it was just a convenient way to get what you wanted. You never cared about griffons!” her voice was starting to rise with each word, wings fanning out almost to her full span.
“There were—” Luna started to say, but was cut off as Celestia stepped to her side.
“Queen Chrysalis has created a new hive outside of Garnett Point. She and her changelings are a threat to everyone, griffons and ponies alike. She must be dealt with before she can bring harm to you or your griffons,” Celestia explained in that damn perfectly calm tone of hers, not a single sign of any sort of guilt for what she had done. She probably couldn’t feel anything of the sort.
“And you didn’t think to tell me this when this bullshit started?” Gilda snapped, “You didn’t think we deserved to know that there was a threat inside of our country, our homes? Did you even think that maybe, just maybe, we should fucking know?!”
That didn’t seem to faze Celestia at all. “There were more pressing concerns at the time,” she replied.
Gilda had to hold herself back from raking her claws over the mare’s face. She had no idea what could have been more pressing than protecting her griffons, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “I see,” she growled out, her tail tuft lashing almost too fast to see as her talons dug into the ground. “Is there anything else you conveniently forgot to tell me about?”
“I don’t believe so,” she answered, looking as smug as ever. “Well, if there are no further issues, we still have much that we need to discuss.”
Gilda just continued to glare at Celestia even as she turned away, like somehow the conversation was over just because she wanted it to be. She should have been told; then she could have tried to do something instead of just sitting around worrying about running a country. Now she was going to have to deal with over a thousand armed ponies marching their way through the kingdom to Garnett Point. They would have to go almost the whole length of the country, through Griffonstone and Grover’s Gap to get there.
How would that look to the everyday griffon? Being told that ponies were going to help only to see a bucking army? They would think it was an invasion… and they wouldn’t be that far off. Having Celestia send her army into the Kingdom was an insult to them and to what little pride they had, and she wasn’t going to idly sit by and let it happen.
Gathering herself, she thrust out her chest and fanned her wings out. “You are not going to bring your army into the Griffon Kingdom,” she declared.
Celestia’s mask seemed to crack for an instant, showing a flash of anger. “Once it becomes part of Equestria, you will find that I can.”
A smirk crossed over Gilda’s beak and she realized that the princess was wrong. “No, no you can’t. Section twenty-six, point seven. Outside of a state of a national emergency, the Griffon Kingdom is responsible for the defense of its own borders, unless military aid from Equestria is explicitly requested. I have not, and will not, request that. If your army sets one hoof in my country, I will personally take it out of your hide.”
That brought the older princess up short, mouth hanging slightly open in surprise.
“Yes, I finally read the damn treaty!” Gilda snapped. “I’ve read it so often I’ve nearly memorized it. That’s how I know I’m right, aren’t I?” she asked, the question being directed at Princess Cadence.
All the other princesses had been standing by, watching all this unfold, various looks of horror and disappointment on their faces. Cadence jumped at the question, her wings snapping for a moment before being pulled tight against her back. “Yes, the Crystal Empire has the same clause in our treaty.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “You don’t even have one guard, let alone an army.”
“Not yet we don’t,” she replied, then glanced back at Greta and Skychart, they were both watching in silence. Neither one of them were the sort of creature that could put together an army, that left her with only one choice. She turned her attention to Sidereal Equinox. “So, you’re supposed to be working with me, well I want you to put together the start of my own guard, made up of griffons.”
The captain took a step back. “I don’t think that—”
“Captain, if that is what she wishes, then I will release you from any other obligations,” Celestia said, her smirk starting to return. “Once Gilda realizes how serious this situation is, you can coordinate my guard.”
“Yes, Princess Celestia,” he said, giving her a salute. Though from the tone of his voice, he didn’t seem happy with the order.
Gilda snorted. “You know what, I think we’re done for the day,” she said, then turned and stalked back into her shop, grabbing the handle of the door with her tail and slamming it closed in her wake. She knew it was a pointless gesture—her friends were still outside and she was going to have to talk with the guard at length about what he knew about these changelings—but for now she was just done with all of it.