//------------------------------//
// On the Griffon's Trail 
// Story: Bluebird 
// by Hammerhead 
//------------------------------//

After just a few days, Gallus was back in Canterlot, the predominantly unicorn city that was home to the Royal Palace and stood above the Royal Guard Academy. It prided itself on how fancy and wealthy it is, hence most of its residents dressed up in prim and proper, and like the Academy, all its buildings were clean and white with purple and gold features. It also meant that when Gallus waited at the platform, the locals passed him with either side-eyed glances or their noses pointed to the sky, assuming they paid attention to him at all. 

Fortunately, he was only taking a short stop in Canterlot, his actual destination was a bunch of mountains. He wasn’t going alone either, at the other end of the platform waiting for a small crowd of familiar ponies. Amongst them was an older Prench earth pony of light opal coat whose face lit up upon seeing the blue griffon.

“Ah, the griffon has arrived!” exclaimed Fountain Blue, one of the two leaders of the Royal Guard Academy’s Rockwall and Mountaineering Club, as he ran up and hugged Gallus. Gallus rolled his eyes at the earth pony’s overly affectionate behaviour, although the forced kiss on the cheek was new. “So glad you could join us,” he followed with a wide grin on his face.

Gallus took a moment to process the new greeting as he rubbed his cheek, it must be a Prench thing. “Yeah, glad to be here…” he replied slowly.

As Fountain Blue let Gallus out of the hug, an earth pony walked up behind him. It was the other leader of the club, and he was smiling too, although not towards the griffon outside of bemusement. “More like you’re glad our ticket has arrived” Whipper whispered behind Fountain Blue’s head sardonically, smirking despite knowing his fellow leader couldn’t see it.

Fountain Blue shushed his partner, “Tais-toi, mon ami,” he whispered forcefully through his bared teeth, holding his grin to avoid any suspicion. Luckily for them both, the sound of a loud whistle caught the attention of the whole group, as a new train arrived at the station.

“Well, looks like we’re all here on time,” Whipper announced to the whole group. “Let’s get going, then we can all start on our expedition.”





The team was big enough to take up nearly half of a single train carriage, sharing a set of cabins and reserving two for climbing and camping equipment. As ponies chatted amongst themselves, Gallus leaned himself against the window, staring out towards the moving scenery in boredom.

When he found out the first mountain range wasn’t the destination, he wasn’t too fussed, it was likely going to be the next one. When he saw the next mountain range, the other ponies weren’t leaving, it started to bother him. Then at the next mountain range, still not the destination, he furrowed his brow.

Eventually, he walked out of his cabin to knock on the door of the cabin across, where Fountain Blue and Whipper were staying. “Hey, how long till we get to these mountains?” he asked with frustrated curiosity.

The Prench pony smiled and raised his hoof. “Patience, mon oiseau bleu” he calmly replied. “We will meet them soon; it will be worth the wait.”

With a heavy sigh, a jaded Gallus walked back to the seat in his cabin and continued his window gazing. The train was passing by the mountains of Rainbow Falls, with its large white mountains as the backdrop, as it was going across a large river. Gallus wondered if he was going to climb whatever mountains were across the river.

As he continued to stare out towards the vast expanses, he could feel the train around him go quiet. Something about the mountain ranges on the other side of the river made it feel like home, but instead of the pleasant feeling of Ponyville, it was more unsettling.

He could hear the faint sounds of mocking laughter and some judgement. For reasons he could not explain, a distant voice started to emerge, a young male voice with a sneering intonation in it. “You want it back? Go and get it, you blue feathered freak”. It was clear the voice wasn’t a friendly one, Gallus’ eyes tightened shut as the voices disturbed him more. “Aw! What are you gonna do? Call your mom and dad?”

Suddenly, and fortunately, he would receive a wake-up call. “Gallus!” called out Whipper, his voice slightly muffled from behind the window he was banging on with his hoof. “Wake up! We’re here, time to get off.”





When the team got off the train, there was plenty of confusion about whether this was the right place. The area was completely desolate, save for a few trees planted on murky soil and the train station. Even then, the train station looked like it was long abandoned, a simple dilapidated building with broken windows and a door off its hinges.

Whipper was quick to have doubts, they knew that they were meant to meet a contact but given the state of the area around them, this felt like a scam. As the train had since departed, it would be an hour for the team to catch the next one. Fountain Blue was a lot more hopeful, ensuring his partner that all that was needed was a bit of patience.

Sure enough, that patience paid off. A creature flew down with a bag of stuff and landed at the side of the rickety train station. The creature was no pony, to the surprise of most of the team, but no more surprised was Gallus. It had dark scarlet wings, with a lighter shade feline behind, and in front were bright amber talons, a light greyish chest with vermilion shade, and a beak attached to an eagle-like head. It was clearly a griffon, and the eyelashes above its indigo eyes suggested a female one.

Fountain Blue beamed upon recognition of the contact, “Ah bonjour!” he graciously greeted her, although she hardly reacted or moved from her jaded stare. “We are part of the mountain trail, there is Whipper et moi, six earth ponies, one unicorn, two pegasi, and one griffon, all eager to climb your soaring highlands.” No matter how clear and eagerly he spoke, she remained unphased and unimpressed. Her only reaction was a small glance towards Gallus, before blinking and moving back to Fountain Blue with folded arms. “I presume you have our guide?”

The griffon moved one of her arms forward, presenting an open claw with her palm facing upward. “Ya got bits?” she asked in a grouchy voice, her talons twitched inward with the expectation to grab something.

“Of course…” Whipper remarked under his breath, he rolled his eyes as he found the request for money upfront typical amongst griffons. He pulled out a bag that jingled with coins inside to hand over to the griffon. Satisfied with the transaction, she pulled out a map from the bag and walked through the mountain trail with the two leads.





For all the long wait, the eerie derelict starting point, and dealing with a griffon who wanted payment upfront, the expedition was worth it. Climbing up, over, and through a real mountain range is practically similar, but the feeling of the course and rugged rocks and the cool and smooth breeze going through their coats and feathers was a whole other experience.

The team got to try out techniques that they previously could only do on walls with rounded bulges and grips on them, chimneying up parallel clefts, using their arms to bar into cracks, and plenty of opportunities for bouldering. Not to mention the views of Equestria in the distance were the greatest any of the ponies had ever seen, with dusk over the horizon.

Nopony was enjoying the climb more than Fountain Blue, leading the charge, determined to reach every high point. “Hey Whipper, does any of this remind you of our days in the Cheveaux Alpins?” he called out at one point in elation, his eyes almost glistened with nostalgia to some pastime in the Prench regions.

Unable to disagree, Whipper rolled his eyes and laughed for once, albeit begrudgingly. “If you mean climbing up a mountain with an over-enthusiastic Prench lieutenant, then I sure do” he wryly shouted back, as he made sure he was behind the rest of the team.

Even Gallus found himself enjoying the trip, there was something about the place that felt familiar to him that he couldn’t quite put his talon on. If he wasn’t meant to be staying on the ground, he’d be up in the skies flying between the formations, admiring the view from even higher.

As the sky was turning to dusk, the team reached their last climb of the day. It was a massive white cliff, angled almost overhanging. It towered over the group like all the other mountains, and yet apparently the top of it was the campsite. Any sensible creature with wings would just fly to the top, but being in the Rockwall and Mountaineering Club, of course, they’d have to climb up. The only thing that could assist them was a single rope that was hooked from the top to the very bottom of it.

“Well, at least they attached a rope to this one…” Whipper muttered somewhat cynically.

“Alright, I shall make the first ascent” Fountain Blue announced enthusiastically, seemingly persevering through the daunting task ahead as the light started to fade, in contrast to his fellow leader. “Whipper will hook you up and you begin to climb one after another.”

The Prench pony took out a device called an ascender, a mechanical brake that was attached to his harness and secured him to the rope and began pulling himself up the cliff. He made it seem effortless to hook his hooves into the mounds and cracks, all while releasing and locking the ascender to prevent him from falling down the rope. The rest of the climbers could tell he was just showing off as their heads slowly tilted upwards as he was moving with deadpanned looks on their faces.

Then Whipper made his way to the rope, prepared with more ascenders to hook up the next climber.

“Okay, who wants to be first?”

Suddenly, the other young climbers switched their sights to the rope at the bottom. There was a feeling of pressure being at the front, with every climber looking at you from underneath you, as well as the pressure of holding every climber behind you.

Internally, Gallus considered putting himself forward. He was a capable flyer and felt like he had a tolerance for any gripe from others. He took a few steps but was suddenly pushed to the side. “I’m going first” Cliffhanger, the sole unicorn of the group, announced arrogantly, before briskly making his way to Whipper to hook himself up.

Although annoyed by being pushed aside, and taking the credit of boldness for volunteering, at least Gallus could see the pressure subside as other ponies lined up. It also meant Gallus quickly had a new thing to be annoyed at, he was near the back of the line.

Being in the front had its downsides but being at the back was no better. Gallus waited for the longest to get his ascender attached to the rope, and then he had to wait while holding onto the side of a cliff, forced to keep a distance from the pony above. All the while, Whipper was beneath him, keeping his watchful eye on the climbers above, including Gallus.

The line moved in a slow and orderly fashion, pulling up with their forehooves and pushing up with their hind hooves on the rocks. But as Fountain Blue pushed the weight of his body over the cliff edge and stood the flat and level surface above, he caught the sound of the cliff as a portion of its side was scraped along with the jolt of the fixed rope. His heart stopped for a second, thinking one of the other climbers had fallen. He quickly turned back to peak over the cliff to see who it was.

The climbers below heard the same scrape and felt the same jolt, instinctively they moved their bodies away from the cliff to try and get a better view of the incident higher up. “What’s going on up there?” yelled out Whipper, squinting his eyes to focus as the light was fading.

Meanwhile, Fountain Blue at the top smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He could see Cliffhanger was hanging onto the side of the cliff, his hindlegs visibly dangling in the air. Although not the most comfortable scenario to be in, Fountain Blue felt reassured knowing the unicorn was still tightly attached to the top. “It’s alright, just a slip!” Fountain Blue bellowed down to the other climbers below, “Jaggy is secure, just needs to get his bearings!”

Cliffhanger tried his best to regain his footing on the cliff edge, but he kept on slipping on the rock face. Other ponies started to lounge on the ropes waiting, but Gallus continued to peer up and feel the jolt on the rope. “Something’s not right…” he uttered, feeling more subtle jolts from the rope, sensing something bad is about to happen. He quickly went to loosening the straps on his harness to get himself free, although somepony was in his way.

“Griffon, what are you doing?” Whipper confronted forcefully.

“He’s going to fall!”

“Stay onto the rope” ordered Whipper. “You’re not allowed to fly on this climb. Besides, there’s no chance he’s going to fall.”

In that unfortunate moment, Cliffhanger heard a metallic snap. His heart sunk, as did his body as he felt heavier all of a sudden, he didn’t have time to process what happened before his forehooves slipped off the rock.

Panic set in as Cliffhanger screamed during his rapid descent down the cliff, the other climbers almost helpless to catch him as he fell past them in seconds. The unicorn attempted to use his magic to levitate himself, but all he could muster was a few sparks from his horn.

As he got closer and closer to the ground below, he thought he was done for, that was until something clasped around his body, breaking his fall mid-air. The sudden break in his fall left him winded and shaken, breathing heavily as he was slowly being lifted to the top of the cliff. It took him a while to recognise that he was currently being held in the air by a pair of blue-furred arms with bright amber talons.

When the limp, wide-eyed unicorn floated at the top of the cliff, all he could recognise was a stunned and nervous Fountain Blue watching the unicorn being carried by a blue griffon. “Uh… great catch Gallus!” he elated with a nervously wide grin, clapping his hooves as Gallus gently placed Cliffhanger at the top.

Despite the obvious opportunity, Gallus then decided to fly back down the rope to fit himself back into his harness so he could continue his climb with the rest of the ponies.





Later in the evening, the team had their campsite at the top of the cliff, with tents and climbers surrounding a large campfire. Most of the climbers had relaxed and chatted happily, although not everyone had gotten over the fall that happened earlier.

Whipper and Fountain Blue went through each piece of climbing equipment, investigating how the climbing happened. In all their years, an accident like this was rare, and each harness, metal loop, clamp, rope, and ascender were clean and functional, all except one.

“This ascender was rusty, no wonder it broke, ” Whipper remarked, pointing out the reddish-brown corrosion and cracks around the latch. He stared longingly at the fire, unable to shake off his responsibility, attaching it to Cliffhanger without any doubt. “We’ve been officers in the Chevaux Alpins for how long, not once had a pony fall.”

Fountain Blue smiled and gave Whipper a pat on the back. “That may be so, but it’s a good thing we have flyers on our team, no?” he offered in reassurance, before sneaking a smirk and glanced towards a certain blue griffon.

Gallus was huddled by his tent, staring from the other side of the fire, he never expected much from this mountain expedition, yet for the griffon, the familiar settings, and catching a falling pony weren’t part of the program. As relieved as he was that he caught Cliffhanger mid-fall, and as nice as the surrounding mountains were, he couldn’t help but feel like he was where he shouldn’t be.

“Hey, Gallus, right?” Gallus heard someone calmly ask him, he turned to see who it was, only to see Cliffhanger kneeling next to him. “Thanks for the save back there.” He tilted his head towards the cliff edge the unicorn fell earlier.

“No problem.” Gallus nodded with a fake smile, before looking back at the fire.

“You’re a pretty good climber, you know.” The unicorn complimented with a smile. “Makes sense since you live around mountains…”

“Guess you can say I’ve done it since I was little…”

Cliffhanger’s ears perked up, “Ah I see, like a prodigy?” he queried with an engaged interest.

Gallus knitted his eyebrows and glared at the fire, “I’ve hated climbing since I was little too…” he said with a lowered octave.

With that, Cliffhanger’s ears lowered, his heart sunk. “Oh… any reason why?” he asked one more time.

“Because I was always forced to.”





It was more than a decade and a half in the past, in his old hometown of Griffonstone. Gallus was younger and much smaller. Unfortunately, Gallus wished he was bigger at that moment in time, at least bigger than three older griffons in front of him.

“Hey! That’s mine!” the young griffon yelled at the griffon with charred features and coat, the leader of the three. Gallus kept jumping up in the air, reaching up towards a push toy mouse, held up by the leader with his claw up over his head as he towered over Gallus up on his hind paws.

“Look at this cub trying to jump!” the leader told the other griffons with a sardonic sneer. “He should be able to fly right at his age!”

Poor Gallus kept on jumping, his wings weren’t strong enough to hold him in the air, untrained and unable to fly.

“Give it back!” Gallus called out once more and leapt again to try and grab the toy mouse. However, the leader had other plans, pushing him with a strong enough force to leave Gallus crashing to the ground.

The leader looked down at Gallus with a mean grin, tossing the mouse in the air. “You want it back? Go and get it!” The leader then threw it upwards, arching onto the top of the roof of a dilapidated wooden and straw house. Feeling both the pain in his arms and legs from the push, and the pain in his chest from the toy mouse, his lower beak started to shake, and tears started to stream from his face.

The older griffons found this amusing, “Aw! What are you gonna do? Call your mom and dad?” the leader ridiculed Gallus. As much fun as they were having, the fun was short-lived.

“HEY!” a much older voice bellowed from the distance, the three older griffons immediately turned towards the direction of the voice. “What is Grover’s name is going on there?”

The three older griffons’ eyes grew wide, recognition dawned on their faces, and it was bad news. “Grandpa Gruff is angry, scatter!” the leader yelled to the others, and the three flew off in different directions. They had narrowly escaped being caught by an angry griffon, with dark grey feathers and fur, yet his head was almost bald with exception to his eyebrows. His most terrifying feature was his left eye, which had a giant scar going down it, leaving him blinded.

“You darn scamps better not pick on any more griffons, or you’ll get beatings so bad you wish your mothers were giving you a spanking!” he yelled out, shaking his claws in a closed fist, angry that he didn’t get to discipline them himself. Grandpa Gruff, for all his strength, took long deep breaths to regain some air lost from the brief chase.

Once his breathing returned to normal, he set his sights on the melancholy smaller griffon lying on the ground. Upon meeting eyes with him, Gallus’ head lowered.

“Alright sonny, let’s go.”

Gallus slowly stood up, and the two began to walk down the street. However, Grandpa Gruff could sense that Gallus was unwilling to move far. The elder griffon turned around to see Gallus standing still, looking up at the roof of one of the rickety houses. Even with only one working eye, Grandpa Gruff could recognise the toy mouse resting on the straw. There was a clear indication that the elder could fly up to collect the toy, but Grandpa Gruff had other ideas.

“So, you want that back?” he asked rhetorically before he folded his arms and looked down on the young griffon. “Go up and get it.”

The younger griffon looked back and froze, unsure if Grandpa Gruff was serious, but also too nervous to ask or even plead for him to get it instead. After a solid gulp, Gallus realised from Grandpa Gruff’s hardened glare that if he wanted his toy mouse back, he had no other choice.

Gallus started trying to fly up, flapping his wings as hard as he could. But no matter how desperate he was, he couldn’t get higher than a few metres off the ground or last longer than a few seconds. He even attempted to jump up the walls of the decrepit building, but he wouldn’t get far before he’d slip and fall to the ground, scratching himself in the process.

With more pain in his claws and paws, tears streamed down his face, landing on the hard soil below. It felt helpless knowing he was either bullied or ignored, it didn’t help that it felt like it wasn’t just the other cubs doing it. Grandpa Gruff rolled his eyes at the upset, grabbed Gallus, and pulled him up to his paws and claws again. “You call yourself a griffon and you cannot climb? For the sake of King Grover, you have more than just wings ya know!”

Gallus looked back up to that roof, and after another sniff, he tried to climb the rickety house. He could feel the sores on his paws and claws as he held onto each protruding ledge and protruding brick. As much as it hurt, he persevered, he knew he was a griffon, it’s all he knew about himself. Sure, he couldn’t fly, but he had to climb up to get what he wanted.

It felt like hours, but once Gallus could feel the straw of the roof on his claws, he pulled himself up with all his strength until his chest could lie flat on its surface. With the toy mouse in arm’s reach, he hugged it tightly, laying on his side as he watched the other griffons flying by him in the distance.

His small victory was ended when Grandpa Gruff was in his line of sight, flapping his wings in the air with his arms folded and a judgemental scowl on his face. “You should quit crying if you don’t wanna keep being picked on,” he said, giving some firm advice to Gallus as tears remained in the ducts of his eyes. “Griffons are a strong and proud species; they don’t cry and get pushed around. You’re a griffon, aren’t you?”

Gallus pushed himself up and wiped away the tears with his arm as his feet dangled off the edge of the roof. “Yes, sir” he answered despondently, nodding but keeping his eyes pointed down to the ground below.

“Good, now come on.” Grandpa Gruff reached his claws out to pick up Gallus, his tone switched up, as the two had urgent business to attend to. “I’ve got a book to write, you’ve got shelves to clean up.”





It was the following morning of the expedition, the campsite quickly being torn down, and the climbers were on a long hike. The morning air was cold as the team made their way up a spiralling path up to another mountain, and it felt colder the higher they continued walking. Whatever was at the top of this mountain had better be worth it, Gallus and the other cadets of the Rockwall and Mountaineering club thought, the most they could make out by looking upwards were frail tree branches from what looked like a dead tree.

Leading the hike was Fountain Blue, who was happily humming his way long before he had an announcement. “Everypony, since the climbing trip was a success, we’re gonna celebrate with a treat!” The cadets tilted their heads out of curiosity, after all the climbing and camping they did, there were a few ideas for what a Prench mountain earth pony would consider a treat.

“Hope you don’t mind us visiting your home, Gallus?”

Gallus raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was being asked, and why Fountain Blue was specific about his home. To him, his home could have been the School of Friendship, his friends in Ponyville, or the Royal Guard Academy, anywhere if it wasn’t…

Gallus looked up with wide-eyed shock, in front of him was a golden archway with large chunks of redwood spreading outwards like a pair of wings. The entrance was one Gallus recognised more than anything in his life, along with the rundown buildings, the large decaying tree and the griffons that surround it.

“We’re in Griffonstone…”