“Is it just me,” Kailani said, wrapping her arms around herself, “or is it getting colder?”
Sunny frowned. She had noticed that, too, though she had hoped she was just imagining it. It was close to fall now, but the weather was still unusual for this time of year. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” she assured her friend. “We are flying further north now - that must be it.”
Kailani frowned but didn’t argue.
The group was flying above the Celestial Sea (except for Little Braveheart and Brooks - they were in a basket that was floating on the water, being pulled along by Ash and Sunny), headed towards Griffonstone, home of the griffons. Kailani in particular was interested in meeting them - while hippogriffs were half pony and half eagle, griffons were half lion and half eagle. From what Sunny had read in the Journal of Friendship, griffons were typically rude and grumpy, so she was hoping they could talk to a nicer one.
And while the Legion of Doom may have skipped the buffalo and kirin because they were well hidden, there was no way they would skip the griffons.
“Are you okay down there?” Ash called as the basket skipped over a wave.
“We’re fine!” Little Braveheart called up at the same time Brooks cried, “No!”
“A little bumpy!” the buffalo amended after the kirin sent her a fierce glare. “Maybe you could go slower?”
Ash turned to Sunny, and the earth pony sighed. “I’m sorry, but I want to get to Griffonstone by nightfall - we don’t have a lot of time to spare.”
“What makes you think they’ll listen to us?” Imara asked, flying alongside Sunny. “Every other creature we’ve met hasn’t believed us, or even bothered to hear our story. What makes you think the griffons will be any different? Oh, and maybe someone else should do the talking,” she added pointedly, glaring at Ash. “Because it would be really nice if we didn’t have to run for our lives everywhere we go.”
Ash blushed, and Sunny wished she could drop her rope and hug her friend. At the buffalo camp, being under pressure from the buffalo to tell them why they were there, the poor dragon had stammered and gotten them to believe the wrong message - that ponies did want to rule the world and would destroy all other creatures to do it.
“Maybe you shouldn’t talk, either,” Sunny said cooly, “since you’re the reason we’ve got an army of angry changelings on our tails.”
That shut her up, and Ash gave a little chuckle that caused Imara to send her a furious glare.
Kailani gasped. “Look!” She pointed ahead, to a large dark mass in the distance. “Griffonstone.”
They all stopped, hovering in midair, the gray waves lapping gently against the side of the basket, as they stared at their destination.
Sunny took a deep breath. “Okay, every creature,” she said, turning so they all could see her and taking charge, “we need to find a place to land and hide until we can talk to the griffons. Any creature have any ideas?”
“What about there?” Brooks suggested, pointing to the shoreline, where a group of trees was bunched together. The greenery was so thick that Sunny couldn’t see two feet into the green mass - which hopefully meant that any griffons wouldn’t be able to, either. She nodded and led the way.
The beach was very rocky and made of gravel instead of sand, which scraped against the bottom of the bucket as Sunny and Ash pulled it onto land. Brooks immediately leaped out and raced towards a bush, hiding his head behind it as his lunch came back up for a visit.
“That was fun!” Little Braveheart wobbled on her thin legs as she staggered around until the ground stopped moving. She shook her head and grinned. “Can we do that again?”
“Let’s not,” Brooks spoke up weakly before ducking behind the bush again.
Sunny winced. “Um, okay, every creature. Kailani and I will go scout it out, and-”
“Woah woah woah, wait.” Imara stepped forward, raising an eyebrow. “What about me? I can turn into a griffon, remember?” There was a flash of light as she transformed. Brooks unfortunately looked up right at that time and saw it, his eyes going wide. He sat down on the rocks, muttering, “Why me?”
“Wouldn’t I be a better choice?” the changeling demanded waving one of her claws and spreading her large wings for emphasis.
“You are going to stay here and protect the others,” Sunny told her, “and no fighting. That’s final.”
Imara groaned and stalked away into the trees. Little Braveheart followed eagerly, wanting to see where the adventure would take them next. Ever since the Peaks of Peril, she had grown an attachment to the changeling and followed her everywhere.
“Will you be okay?” Sunny asked, turning to Ash and studying her with concern. “I know you and Imara don’t always get along, but-”
“I’ll be fine,” the dragon insisted as she helped Brooks to his hooves.
Sunny nodded. “All right, then. Kailani, you ready to go find some griffons?” She paused. “Kailani? Are you alright?”
“Hm?” She blinked and tore her eyes away from the sky. “Sorry, I was just thinking.” The hippogriff looked back at the sky and frowned. “Do you… do you feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“Something’s… off.” She shivered. “Like a… scale’s been tipped or something. I’m not sure. But something is not right in the world right now.” Kailani narrowed her eyes at the northern sky, at the dark clouds she could see gathering on the horizon. “And I think it has something to do with this new weather.”
This thought deeply unsettled Sunny, but she tried not to let it show. Spreading her golden wings, Sunny lifted into the sky, saying, “Come on! Let’s find a griffon now and worry about strange feelings later.”
Griffonstone was a very drab and gray city, with most of the houses having straw roofs, some even being perched on the branches of large trees like nests. The cobblestone streets were cracked and had large chunks of stone missing, exposing the dirt beneath it, up from which poked some weeds and small plants that were quickly discouraged from growing and flopped over onto the ground.
As Sunny and Kailani landed on the outskirts of the town and began to wander through it, they were surprised to find that nearly every griffon they passed either ignored them or glared at them - though there were far more of the former than the latter.
“It’s so strange,” Kailani whispered to Sunny as they walked. “It’s like they don’t even notice us.”
“Maybe visitors from other tribes are frequent occurrences?” Sunny suggested, though she didn’t look very convinced. She approached a griffon and gently tapped her on the shoulder. “Excuse me, miss, my friend and I were just passing through, and we were wondering if you knew where we could speak to your leader?”
“Do you have any bits?” the elderly griffon asked in a raspy voice.
Sunny was taken aback at the rudeness. “W-well, no-”
“Then get lost, kid,” the griffon snapped, turning around and coughing into her fist before moving on.
“Wow,” Kailani whispered. “That was rude.”
“Yeah,” Sunny said, her heart breaking inside. “Maybe griffons really are just all rude and greedy.”
“I’m sure that’s not the case,” the hippogriff said hurriedly. She gasped and pointed behind Sunny. “Look! A library!”
The building was made of stone and had four pillars supporting a triangular roof in the front, with only one floor, but it was clearly in need of repairs. The stone was chipped, and the roof was lopsided, as if it threatened to slide off at any moment. Despite this, the faded and cracked sign hanging over the door gave Sunny hope.
“Libraries are good, right?” Sunny asked her friend as they entered.
The inside of the building, too, was very worn and clearly unused. A lopsided desk stood just a few feet from the door, but there was no one behind it - in fact, there wasn’t another living soul in the entire building. Sunny felt her heart plummeting and turned to leave when Kailani grabbed her arm.
“Look,” she whispered, pointing to the far corner of the library. There, surrounded by books and stacks of paper, was a young griffon, full grown but small for his age. He had rich plum feathers, a bright contrast to the dull grays and browns Sunny had seen outside. He wore a pair of round reading glasses on the tip of his beak, and was alternating between reading from a thick leather-bound volume and taking notes with a quill.
“Excuse me? I hope we’re not interrupting,” Kailani said as they approached.
The griffon looked up suddenly. “Um… hi?” From the way he looked at them, Sunny got the feeling that he was expecting something - something he hated but was normal for him.
“We want to speak with your leader,” Sunny said, and from the way the griffon’s eyes widened at the sight of her, she knew that some of her suspicion was correct - ponies were a rare sight here, and one griffons were at least mildly afraid of. That is, if their brains weren’t so consumed with being rude all the time.
“Oh,” the griffon said, standing up and twitching his tail to rid it of several papers that were clinging to it. “We don’t have a leader.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope. Here, it’s just every griffon for himself.” He sighed and looked at the floor. “Even if you’re different.”
“We’re all different,” Kailani supplied, offering her claw to him. “Hi. I’m Kailani, and this is my friend Sunny. What’s your name?”
“Hugo.” He took her claw with his own, and they shook. He studied her. “You’re not a griffon.”
“Nope,” Kailani agreed. “Hippogriff. Part pony, part eagle. Though sometimes there’s a sort of fish component thrown in there, too. And Sunny’s a-”
“Pony,” Hugo finished, eying her with both interest and mistrust. “We know all about you.”
“Really?” Sunny tried to act like this wasn’t a big deal, but her heart hammered inside her chest. “What do you know about us?”
He glanced at the floor, suddenly embarrassed. “You’re rich,” he said simply. “You’ve been hogging all the money and wealth for yourselves and letting the rest of us sink into poverty without looking back - you like it when other creatures are suffering because it makes you feel good about yourselves.”
“That’s different than what they told every creature else,” Kailani muttered to Sunny out of the corner of her mouth. “Hugo, I know this is going to be hard to believe, but the creatures who told you that? They’re lying. Ponies aren’t rich - at least, not all ponies are rich, and they certainly don’t like other creatures living in poverty. Sunny’s here to help - she wants to unite the world instead of dividing it. She wants to be friends with you all. And if you want, you could help.”
Hugo snorted. “Good luck with everyone else,” he said, a bitter note in his voice. “They’ll never listen to you if you can’t fly.” He nodded to Sunny’s wingless back - she had put away her alicorn form for while they were in the city.
“Can’t you fly?” Sunny asked, purely curious, though she knew at once that it was not the right thing to say.
He glared at her. “Why don’t you go ask anyone else?” He unfolded his wings and flapped - nothing happened except that his notes were thrown into disarray. “I was born lame - I’ve never been able to fly, and I never will.” The bitterness faded away into sadness. “I wish I could help you on your quest, but I assume you want griffons who won’t drag everything down.”
“That’s not true,” Kailani insisted, putting a claw on his shoulder. “We’ve got two other friends who can’t fly, and we still bring them along! We’d be happy if you joined us.”
“If the griffons don’t have a leader,” Sunny thought out loud, “they aren’t likely to go to war with us anytime soon.” She turned to Hugo. “You’re welcome to join us - we’ve got some yaks to convince.”
His eyes went wide, and Sunny knew he had heard of them and had always wanted to meet one. “I’d love to,” he said, his voice filled with elation. Then he frowned. “But how are we going to get there? The Celestial Sea is too vast to swim, and the old bridge connecting this to the Crystal Mountains was destroyed ages ago.”
“We’ve got a very sturdy basket,” Kailani offered.
Hugo looked horrified. “A basket? Oh, no no no no no.” He began digging around in the mess of books and papers, searching for something specific. “What you need is something more sophisticated… something that can cover more ground… something like this.”
He pulled out a paper and showed it to Sunny and Kailani.
“Hugo,” Sunny said slowly, “you are a genius.”
Hugo beamed.