Our destination was located in a somehow relatively shady part of Canterlot. The most ‘multicultural’ place, and the locals tended to avoid it for some reason. I was kind of scared of the place at first, Cheery made it sound like some kind of lowly suburb inhabited by a lot of non-unicorns, but somehow, there was something interesting there and our destination was precisely a restaurant in that area.
I saw earth ponies, the ones without horn and wings, some pegasi too, and only a scruffy unicorn here and there, but unlike any of the Canterlot unicorns, those seemed more agreeable, like the unicorns from Ponyville. I also saw a minotaur… A minotaur!
The elitist and exclusive unicorn society of Canterlot was nowhere to be seen here in this small part of the city. Probably the only place where non unicorns could live in peace in the city, able to commute to their jobs but at the same time out of sight of the more idealistic projection of the city’s society.
When a unicorn gives you the nose up treatment is almost even funny, they look adorable and inoffensive, but when a griffon looks at you the wrong way, with those sharp beaks and cracks his claws… that makes a chill run down my spine. When we didn’t run away on the spot, that griffon just kept watching us suspiciously from a distance and that was it. We rounded the next corner and he was gone.
Surprisingly enough, the rest of the creatures here just looked in our direction and gave me a curious glance before carrying on with their business. Kind of like the coldness of a populated city. At least I would rather have that than the outright hostility from the high society.
Streets weren’t as pristine and well maintained as the ones in the main city, and the buildings looked almost like a pony version of a human city, just big brick and stone cubes. I guess not as tall because they don’t use concrete and steel, but stone, bricks and wood.
“Here we are! I knew I remembered this place from when I was a student.” Cheery proclaimed.
It was a square-ish building made out of red bricks, small windows and a couple of smoking chimneys. It had a sign painted in what looked like a very angulous and straight version of the regular flowy Harmonian characters. There were also a couple of swords and crossbows painted on the sides.
“Uh… the… Stone of the Griffon?”
“Yeah! It’s a griffon restaurant. The one and only in the whole Canterlot. I know there are a couple of them in most big cities, but it’s the closest one I could think off.” She answered.
“And it serves… griffon food?” I hesitated.
“Of course! Isn’t it great?” She answered with enthusiasm.
“And… what exactly makes the griffon food so special?” I had to ask.
“Uh… well… you see… I thought you would… because it’s been so long and…” She suddenly deflated, like physically struck.
It wasn’t intended as a depreciation of the food, more like I had no actual clue of what griffon food looked like, I was about to correct that interpretation mistake when the smell hit me. Something delicious was being grilled, and it was definitely not a veggie grill.
“Wait… you mean… meat?” I asked in low voice, kind of the habit when talking about something that made ponies uncomfortable.
“Of course, duh… But if you are not THAT interested, we could go other places… I thought you would absolutely adore this surprise.”
“Yes! I mean… that was… incredibly thoughtful of you. I would actually love to eat some meat but… what about you?” I asked.
“Uh… well, I think they also have vegetarian dishes and… well, I’m not really too uncomfortable around meat eaters and… I wanted to make this special for you.”
“If it’s not too expensive…”
“Oh hush, you pesky stallion, it’s on me, you shouldn’t be worried about that!”
“But I am, because I don’t want to abuse your hospitality.”
“Are we a couple-for-the-day or not?”
“…Yes?”
“Then I get to treat you, I need to do this, it’s personal.”
“I will treat you back someday.”
“Don’t you dare, Smarty, don’t you dare!” I was starting to get scared, but I saw the corners of her muzzle twitch, suppressing a smile.
“Okay, okay… full Equestrian experience where the mares treat the stallions.”
“And it’s not that expensive.”
“Uh… for a regular vegetarian pony you know an awful lot about this place.” I teased her back.
“Student times, truth or dare game… imagine the rest.” She explained.
“Oh, so you got dared into eating meat!?”
“Nah, one of my friends got the dare and we all went there to check if she did it.”
“Yeah, yeah… one of those ‘it was a friend’ kind of story.” I teased and she stuck her tongue out to me.
We went inside. It had that slightly worn appearance of a town eatery, those kinds of small places where they make delicious and cheap food. The interior was also made out of rough red bricks, but with some decorative tiles drawing some geometric patterns and weaponry themes like swords and armored griffons. Along the walls were low tables with long benches at each side, and a few more round tables in the center for bigger groups, I guess. And the whole place had a shady and smoky appearance. The smells of cooking were so much obvious in here.
There were some patrons in there, most of them griffons with some kind of light armor made out of bronze plates and rough fabric. The Equestrian Royal Guard logo was printed in the chest plate, so they were hired by ponies?
I’ve heard of some special units from the Royal Guard that weren’t composed exclusively of ponies, but seeing all those griffons in the same place was kind of shocking. And almost all of them immediately noticed us the moment we came in, they stared or whispered amongst each other. Yep, not creepy at all.
There were also a few pegasus and an odd bipedal furred gangly creature. Those didn’t pay us much attention. Oh, and what looked like a big version of Sunset’s dragon assistant, likely just a bigger dragon.
“Well, well, well, that’s an oddity…” I heard a griffon approaching us with a tray, pen and paper.
“Uh, excuse me?” I hesitated.
“An earth pony, I mean. You guys rarely come up to this place. Oh, well, and also you, whatever you are, welcome to the Griffinstone. Please, take a seat.”
He took us to an empty table and we sat near the wall, so we could look into the rest of the place and enjoy the atmosphere… and watch our backs, I suppose.
“Not one of our regulars I see. Have any idea about what will you take, or want the menu?” The griffon waiter asked.
“I would like to take a look at the menu.”
“And for the lady?”
“Uh… same.”
The griffon gave us the menus and went on with the rest of his clients. Cheery seemed a little bit intimidated, but kept control of herself. This was meant to be enjoyable for the both of us, but she seemed to be having a hard time relaxing.
“Hey, Cheery, are you okay?”
“FINE! I mean, yes, I’m fine. Are you enjoying this place?” She nervously answered.
“I’m mostly okay, but you seem nervous.”
“I’m a grown-up mare, stop worrying so much about me.”
Yeah, she’s not completely okay but will carry on with whatever she has planned for me. Kind of adorable, but a little bit uncomfortable too.
“Maybe it is you who is scared about so many predators around.” She whispered.
Yep, a little bit, but not as much as she is right now. Well, if putting the focus on me helps her calm down, I’ll play along.
“Kind of, it’s all new an all. Those weird different creatures around. But I used to go to a similar place back before I ended up in Equestria.”
We took a look at the menu. There were vegetarian options, but not a lot of them. Most dishes had at least a small amount of meat or fish by the look of it. Not the most pony friendly place, and actually the only other pony appart from Cheery was a pegasus who was eating something that looked like fish. Probably she could find a vegetarian option to go along.
But if she wanted me to enjoy this place, I should probably do that and stop worrying so much about her. Another look at the menu revealed that dishes didn’t have the ingredients printed near them, so you had to take a guess. By the look of it, most dishes were about chicken, pork meat, salmon or other kind of fish.
“Have you decided yet?” Asked the griffon waiter.
“Actually no. Would you be so kind to give us some suggestions?” I asked
“Griffon cuisine is famous for the chicken, but if you ask me, I would say pork is tastier. Back in the mother land we had other meats, but those are not allowed in Equestria. If you are a meat eater and want something special, I would suggest the roasted pork.” He explained.
“You cook it in a wood oven?”
“Is there any other way to cook such a glorious piece of meat?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I guess not. I’ll take that.”
“Wise choice. And for the lady?”
“What’s a Griffon Salad?”
That earned a chuckle out of the waiter
“An inside joke. It used to be a trap for those snob ponies who wanted to ‘taste’ the ‘authentic griffon cuisine’ but didn’t want any meat. Ponies ask for salads, and those snobbish enough and stupid enough to think they know everything are likely to ask for that, as it is a salad and it is part of the ‘griffon cuisine’ as they dare to call it.”
“So, you put meat in it…” I concluded.
“Oh, a smart one, I see. Yes, we put some fried chicken mixed up with the veggies.”
“I’ll have that! The griffon salad!” Cheery said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I came here, I might as well be part of it. Seems tame enough, yet it has some meat in it for me to try and see what all this fuss around meat is all about.”
The ungainly bipedal furred figure howled and a griffon wolf whistled at Cheery, now we got the attention of some of the other creatures that were having dinner.
For drink we took beer, they made it in house, so we ought to try it. Cheery wasn’t as familiar as me with this kind of drink. Maybe too sour for her, but for me it was fantastic, it tasted like an exotic craft beer from a local brewery. And that’s most likely because it WAS just that.
The food arrived some time later. A generous piece of meat roasted to perfection and accompanied by some baked potatoes and seasoned with spices. Nothing too complicated, as griffon food looked like no nonsense, honest food.
I appreciated the sight before me, and the aroma of it and then took a look at the mare in front of me. She wasn’t so sure about her choice. It was what appeared to be a Caesar salad in front of her. She looked at it like if it was going to jump at her at any moment, specially at the brownish golden squares that were mixed into it.
“Is this… the meat?” She pointed with a fork to one of the small nuggets.
“I suppose it is.”
“You suppose?” She asked, a little bit surprised that I didn’t give her a straight answer.
“It looks like it, but I’m not familiar with griffon food. It looks like a particular kind of salad that I used to like.”
“Your species also put meat in salads!?” Her surprise grew.
“Yeah, we humans do eat meat so, some of our salads have it in their recipes.”
“But… salads are meant to… they are…”
I just shrugged and cut a piece of meat. It had the perfect balance and a layer of roasted fat, after contemplating it for a little, I ate it and it was… well, it was glorious. Just imagine glorious but add the fact that I hadn’t been able to get a good piece of expertly cooked meat in ages. I sighed, closed my eyes and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.
It was Cheery’s turn. She had forked one of the offending unassuming golden-brown squares and was pondering it.
“You know… When we talk about meat, I always imagine a bloodied and disgusting piece of carrion or something equally disgusting. But this… this looks completely normal. If it wasn’t for the fact that I know what it is, I wouldn’t give it a second thought.”
“That’s probably the intended deal, to be unnoticeable until it’s too late.”
More than half of the creatures were already looking in our direction, waiting for the pony’s reaction to meat.
There was kind of an expectant atmosphere around Cheery. She took a deep breath, took the bite in her mouth and started to chew carefully. At the beginning, her face was that of someone who was going to swallow a particularly disgusting medicine but was determined to do so. Then, slowly, her face turned more neutral and then she was looking into the distance, lost in thought as she finally dared to swallow.
“I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that I had just eaten a piece of meat or the fact that it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.”
And suddenly, the restaurant exploded in a small ovation. Griffons clapped their claws and cheered, and the other creatures joined. Listening to the small ruckus, the waiter came back to check on us.
“So, by the look of it, you ate some. How was it? Did you like the meat?” The waiter asked with a smirk (a smirk with a beak, that ought to be illegal!).
Cheery was blushing and trying to become as small as possible, but the attention was on her. The other meat eaters seemed delighted about the pony eating meat and some of them were carefully listening to her reaction.
“It was… kind of savory and… uh… I don’t know. If I didn’t know it was meat, I would have said that it was kind of nice?” She hesitated.
“So… you liked it?” The waiter asked again.
“Uh… yes.” Cheery answered for the delight of the other creatures, wolf whistles, cheers, squawks and howls were heard.
“It is always fun to see the reaction of a grass eater tasting real food for the first time.” The griffon winked at her and went back to his business.
After that, we ate in relative silence, enjoying our meals. Cheery seemed a little cautious about hers, a little embarrassed too after the small spectacle, but she was eating it, including the chicken.
When I was distracted going to the bathroom, she paid for the food, as she said she was going to do. She didn’t even let me know how much it was, and frowned menacingly when I tried to gain access to that information. It was her treat, and she wanted me to have a good time.
After finishing our meals, we had to go back to the train station to catch one of the last trains to Ponyville, as we weren’t planning on staying the night in Canterlot, one of the most expensive places and indeed one of the most expensive days of the year when, without a doubt, hotels would try to earn some extra money because of the holiday.
The ride back home was quiet. Most of the passengers were also silent, as it was already night. Some other couples were in companionate silence, other lonely ones were just catching some extra sleep.
We just sat there, contemplating the nocturnal scenery. The stars and moon were extra bright tonight to celebrate the day. Coincidence? Or Princess Moon doing astrological shenanigans that I would shove into the ‘don’t think too hard and just roll with it’ pile of things. One way or another, this allowed the night to be especially bright and very pretty to contemplate, both the sky and the landscape illuminated by it.
We sat on the train bench. She put her forelegs on my lap and rested her head on my chest, and I just petted her mane and neck, and she showed her appreciation of the gesture with the occasional nuzzle. If I didn’t think too hard about it, everything seemed fine in the world.