//------------------------------// // (F) Disappointment // Story: Horsemen and Ponies // by Dark Krystal //------------------------------// Hours had passed or at least he thinks so… Well the sun has moved to the middle so it should be noon. Famine was happy that he had found a pathway heading towards the mountain with the treehouse town. He eventually makes it to the base mountain. "Thank Lucifer there's a fucking path up this mountain." He looks up past the convenient or made stone bridge above him and to the treehouse town in the distance. He shakes his head already getting annoyed once again at this distance and starts to walk the path. ……Time Passes…… He yells to the sky and punches the rocky walls of the mountain, shaking the area and making a bowling ball sized crater. “This is…” He throws his arms into the air and screams. “FUCKIN’ RIDICULOUS!” his eyes looking up at the town that still towered over him with its looming shadow. The sky was starting to go down, giving off a faint orange glow in the sky but despite the beauty it only added more to his rage. Knowing he was spending most of his day in this strange world TRYING to get to a town for answers! He buries his face in his hands and continues trucking on. ………More Time Passes……… After so long… So much time… So much annoyance and small rock destruction he made it. Standing in front of some strange Golden Arch with red wood on the side that he guessed is supposed to represent wings… Though too broken to tell now. The surrounding area put him off however, compared to the boring mountain path that barely had plant life this was…… Brown, dry, plenty of dead trees to go around, more rocks, and looking over. Large houses on the side within birds nests on the dead trees. Maybe he let his expectations get the better of him because he can help but lower his eyebrows and frown at the state of the land and these twenty second made homes. “Amazing.” He says in a toneless voice while closing his eyes and shaking his head. He decides to get answers from a nearby house via picking up a rock throwing them at the house. Getting no responses he drops his rocks and growls, turning towards the arch to glare down at the town in the distance. “This trip up this mountain better be worth it……or someone is going to die.” He walks the path into town and stops after a bits. Frozen in place with his eyes wide he sees the town in front of him, the town he’s spent hours walking to…… The town that would give him answers. Was a complete. Utter. Fucking. Dump. No dump isn’t even the best way to describe this town, garbage? No. It reminded him of the fucking slums, he wouldn’t be surprised if the moment he walked by an alley in this town something would fucking mug him. The houses outside the arch were shitty, but the houses PAST the arch were somehow even shittier. Having the same roofing, wood type and basic design yet they were either broken, filled with holes, no roofing, collapsed in on itself or just destroyed completely. The ground was covered with ridiculous amounts of straw, sticks, ripped papers and feathers. Barrels were around and probably filled with alcohol because there’s no way anyone sober would live in this garbage dump of a town. He then notices the residents. The Mythical Griffons… Griffons? He rubs his eyes to make sure. No doubt, the residents were griffons. Small, weak, mean looking assholes. Nothing like human mythos would say. They were possibly the only thing that saved him from turning around and jumping off the mountain at that moment. He does something breathing exercises before walking down the steps and down to walk the shitty path. To his surprise the griffon’s saw him and… Didn’t give a fuck. I mean some did, gave him wide eyed looks then hid in their shitty homes or booked it but most glanced at him then went back to normal. He honestly couldn't believe their lack of fucks but he could understand. It made some sense, these creatures were most likely already suicidal because they live in a complete shithole or didn’t have to fear being taken over because who would want to be the king of this shithole? A desperate megalomaniac that’s who. Walking further into town only proved more that the entire town was nothing but slums. Nothing more than more barrels, broken houses, straw and some gambling griffon’s in alley's just to add on to the oh so lovely slum feeling. He decides to no longer gloat over the towns shitty look. This clearly isn't earth… So it was time to find out WHERE he was. He spots a female griffon, grey lower body and black upper body, golden eyes and green scarf around her neck. She was sitting in a small alley playing with die in her talons. She looked like almost the perfect embodiment of a piece of shit who knows the layout. He strides up to her giving his "I mean business" face. She looks up at him and gives a surprised look before going back to her bored expression. “What do you want, bub?” She says uncaringly. “Who’s the most……mnnn… “Knowledgeable” person in this place?” He asks while crossing his arms. “I’ll tell ya.” She smiles and leans closer to him. “For a couple bits.” He didn’t even know beaks could smile so that caught him off. The expression on his face showed her he had no clue what “bits” were. “Money.” She opens her hand up. “I ain’t got mone— ” She’s walking away now. “Oi!” He runs up to her who just looks at him and with narrowed eyes. “Look bub, I ain’t speaking squawk unless you got the bit’s to open my mouth.” He glares. 'yup she was a piece of shit alright.' She looks at him expectantly as he tries to figure out how to make her talk without pissing off all of the slumbirds, he then notices the pair of dice still in her talons and smirks. “Let’s play for your mouth then.” “Huh?” She looks at him confused. “You got die, let’s use ‘em.” “Why? You ain’t got nothing for me if I win.” “I’ll be in you’re debt. I can pay you with my services.” He picks up medium-sized flat rock from the ground and crushes it in his hand, making her face expressed shock at the act and a hint of fear but that is soon replaced with a grin. “Fine.” He smirks and lets her lead him to good spot to sit down and play. She looks at him then at the die in her talons before closing her hand up and shaking her fist with a focused expression on her face. "What's your guess?" She looks at him. “Snake eyes.” “Huh?” She looks at him, raising a brow. “Double one’s. It’s called snake eyes.” He rolls his eyes as he explains to her. “Huh……that’s kinda cool to call it like that.” He rolls his eyes. When she opens her hand up and the dice fly out onto the ground between them. After a minute they both look at the dice and see the results. Snake eyes. She curses to herself as he smirks. “Snake eyes. I win.” He says as he points to the die with a smirk. “Yeah, yeah whatever……” She looks away with annoyance clear on her face. “Well? You gonna stay true to your deal? Or are you gonna cheat me?” He stands up and looks down at her. She huffs and picks up her dice again before standing up. “I don't cheat." She looks at him with a glare briefly before going back to her normal look. "Hn." "Hmpf. It's probably Gruff, who you want.” “Okay, where can I find him?” She pauses for a moment before sighing. “I guess I can do an extra and take you…” He hides his annoyance at the fact she thought she was doing extra but at least it would save him time. He follows her as she leads him. “What’s your name?” “First you beat me, then you make me take you to gr—” “I didn’t make you.” She stops and gives him the stink-eye before walking again. “Whatever, bub. ……It’s Griselda.” He didn’t figure she would have a nice name… He honestly thought she’d have a more dumpster baby like name. She takes him probably the most stable house he’s seen…… So far at least. “Here we are. Just knock on his door or tell him you want to know about our history and he'll come bursting out…” “Thanks, Griselda.” He gives her a thumbs up. She huffs and starts to walk away. “I’ll be here for a long while(maybe…). So if you want to hit me up with another game of rolling die then just come find me. I’m I'll be pretty easy to find around here.” She stops and looks back, the two have stare down before she smiles. “Alright bub, I won’t lose next time.” He scoffs. “Keep dreaming, bird.” She rolls her eyes and spreads her wings before taking to the air and flying off. He gives a small smile. 'She's a piece of shit but not a total piece of shit. Maybe next time he’ll actually let her win.' Taking her luck and using it against her might be disastrous for her but it’s not his problem. He turns and bangs on the door with his fist. After a while he hears footsteps rushing to the door making him back away as the door slams open. “WHO!? WHAT!? WHAT’S GOING ON! IS THE IDOL BACK! WE UNDER ATTACK!?” A elderly griffon with barely any feathers on its neck and head, wearing a red cup-like hat yells out and looks around in panic. Famine winces hearing the griffon’s voice and cringes at the lack of feathers on gruff’s face. The featherless, disgusting, saggy skin of the griffon. He wanted to blind himself for seeing all this detail. “Disgusting…… No, you old coon.” Gruff turns his head and stares wide eyed at the biped before flying up and getting close to him, looking him over with his blind eye for some reason. “What are you And what do you want!?” The griffon hovers in the air with arms crossed, clearly not trusting him. “I'm someone who wants to know about this pla—” “Well why didn’t you say so!?” Gruff puts an arm around famine’s shoulder making him cringe more at how close he was now. “I’ll tell you the history of Griffonstone! For a price of course…” He snickers and opens his hand to the man. “I don't have money but I uh… I REALLLLY want to know?” He looks at the griffon questionably. He really couldn't care less about the history of this shitty town he just wanted to know what this country was called and information on it. “Hmmmmmmmm……” The elderly griffon looks over the man once more than smiles. "Then you can pay me with your services! You look young and strong!” “Okay………works for me.” He squints at the griffon. Gruff's smile grows and he gets back on the ground. “I’ll tell you the whole tragic tale of our town then……follow me fledgling.” Gruff turns and starts walking, Famine sighs and shakes his head while he follows behind. “They say when our treasure fell into the Abysmal Abyss, our pride went with it. King Guto was the last king of Griffonstone, and we all lived miserably ever after. The end!” Gruff finally ends his tale. The two had sat up in the old ruined throne room of Griffonstone. Famine was sitting on the stump where the idol once rested on. “………………………” “Wow you guys are pathetic.” He says bluntly while pinching the bridge of his nose. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” Gruff squaks loudly making him wince. “You guys are fuckin’ pathetic! How the fuck do you let the loss of a fuckin' golden idol affect you!" He raises his arms up to remind them of their surroundings. “THIS MUCH!?” “Silence! You don't understand!” Gruff huffs and glares at the man. “I can understand that you guys are actual fuckin' dumbasses! Seriously how did the loss of a shitty replaceable statue lead to an entire kingdom looking like a complete dump!? Like how fuckin' long ago was that!?” “Many years ago back when I was young……I was uhh………Uh………I Forgot.” His anger subsiding as he raises his claw to his beak to think about it. Famine facepalms. “You remember the entirety of Griffonstone’s history but not your exact age…?” He sighs. “Look i’m just saying I’m pretty sure you can go down to that abyss and get it back as retarded and as ruined as it probably is by now…… Or you can actual put effort into recovering!” “Oh really!?” Gruff walks up and reaches up to poke Famines chest. “And how would an outsider like you know! You didn’t know squawk about us or this town before you came!” “Yeah but still! Have you thought of… I dunno! Cleaning up the town or repairing your shitty buildings!?” “We don’t have the money to do it! Since we lost our idol the other creatures don’t respect us and without a leader we can't make an alliance or trade with Equestria!” 'The country close to this place is called Equestria? Huh… after hearing Griffonstone I expected worse.' “That………actually makes sense” Famine sighs and Gruff puffs out his chest with a smug look on his face. 'This place is so fucking stupid……a entire kingdom controlled by a single treasure. There's no doubt it would've fallen sooner or later with that unstable foundation.' He walks over to the edge of the ruined castles entrance and looks down below. The shitty town of Griffonstone stood before him. "…………………………" 'Still……It's kind of sad. To have kids grow up in this place and learn to be assholes like me, all because some shitty kingdom whose sole foundation was a shitty treasure.' Famine clenches his fist up as unpleasant memories go through his head. Silence falls between the two, Gruff looking around the castle with some sadness and a sigh. "You still do have a point, fledgling. We did fall rather easy…" Famine looks over to the old griffon. "For our once great kingdom to turn into this state over what is a piece of junk in other creatures eyes……" Gruff lets out a bitter laugh. Famine looks at the old griffon with some pity. He shakes his head knowing he is about to regret what comes out his mouth. “This town is savable……it just needs a solid foundation. How about I try to make that foundation and make this dump return to its glory?” Gruff turns around and looks at him wide eyed. “What!? You’re not a griffon! Why would an outsider help us out?" “Because I am CLEARLY THE ONLY PERSON IN THIS FUCKIN’ KINGDOM WHO’S GODDAMN NOT INCOMPETENT! You guys and you’re town are so… Fuckin’ PITIFUL!” Famine crosses his arms as he glares down at griffon. “Be grateful I'm helping you out at all! I’ll show other creatures and Equestria that Griffonstone isn't going to kneel over and just die like this!” Gruff scoffs but smiles “Well then fledgling! I look forward to see how you can drag us out of our misery!” Famine is clearly uncomfortable receiving the griffons acceptance and looks away. “Whatever, it’s late you should go home, you old fucking coon.” “You don’t have a place to stay.” He looks at him questionable as Gruff walks past him before looking back. “Well! Come on already fledgling! I’ll let you stay at my home! In turn you better restore the glory of Griffonstone!” He coughs and wheezing before take flight and heading down back to town. “Wait what?” But it’s too late and he facepalms. “What did I get my self into…?” 'I shouldn’t be fucking around with a town! I should be searching for the others and getting back to hell!' Yet. The thought of abandoning this town…… It made him feel like shit. Seeing the fledgling’s play in such a dump with sad expressions ma they…… Reminded him of what he was like before he became “Famine”. He sighs. “I really can't let this go……” Famine walks to the entrance of the castle and looks up the sky. Beautiful…… Filled to the brim with stars and a full moon, he gives a small smile and looks down at the town. “I’ll make this place better than it ever was before.” With that he jumps off and falls into town with a determination in his eyes.