A Griffon's Farewell

by 1jckuhn

Notifying the others

Starlight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were just packing up inside the castle when they heard Twilight and Spike walk in.

“Howdy, Twi. Howdy, Spike,” greeted Applejack.

“We need the five of you in the map room now,” said Twilight, her tone sounding serious and urgent.

The cheerful smiles from the five ponies faded looking at Spike and Twilight’s expressions. Not only did they look serious, they also seemed like they were badly shaken up. Without a word, they shuffled into the map room and sat down in their respective chairs. Once they were all seated, Twilight took a deep breath and began to speak.

“Girls,” she began. “This isn’t going to be easy for me to tell any of you this.”

Twilight began to tear up again and the others began to worry about what she was going to say. Eventually, Twilight steadied her emotions long enough to say the next three words.

“Gallus committed suicide.”

For a moment, everyone just stared at the Alicorn. 

“N-No,” stammered Rarity. “This has to be some sort of cruel joke.”

She turned to Spike, “Spikey-Wikey, please tell me that you and Twilight are joking.”

“We’re not, Rarity,” Spike responded, his voice cracking as he spoke.

Both Dragon and Pony then proceeded to recap everything that had unfolded in the last two hours, from the prank that ruined the tree and decorations to helping Silverstream to the nurse’s office. When they had finished, everyone had begun to tear up, even Applejack.

“Oh, my Celestia,” Fluttershy whimpered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "That's horrible.”

“I’ve closed off his room until a coroner gets there," Twilight said. "I also need to notify Grampa Gruff of what’s happened.”

“I can write a letter to Celestia and Luna to tell them what happened,” Spike offered. 

“Thank you, Spike,” Twilight said.

With that, Spike dashed off to write the letter, while the Ponies stayed in the map room. He returned ten minutes later with a note from the Princess.

“Celestia said that Luna and she are on their way,” Spike explained as he read the letter over. “Unfortunately, it’ll probably take them longer than usual to get here because of the storm. They’re also picking up Grampa Gruff in Griffonstone.”

Twilight didn’t care. As long as the Princesses got here, she didn’t care if it took until midnight. However, the Alicorn gulped upon hearing Grampa Gruff’s name.

“I don’t know how hard he’s going to take this. Gallus may not be related to him, but he still does deeply care for him,” she said to herself.

Grampa Gruff let out a groan as he sat on the couch in the living room. He didn't understand it. Throughout the whole day, he was feeling perfectly healthy. Then, at about six o' clock, the old Griffon was hit out of nowhere with a terrible feeling inside his stomach that had stuck with him for the past hour. His discomfort was only heightened as he looked up at the clock. It was a quarter after seven and there was still no sign of the Griffon he considered his grandson, Gallus. He should've been home at least two hours ago. The blue Griffon was to be helping him set up for the Blue Moon Festival.

“Where could he be?” he asked himself.

Presently, there was a knock at the front door and the old Griffon felt his nervousness fade away.

“That must be him now,” he said, his face lighting up with a rare smile.

Grampa Gruff let out a groan as his claws and paws made contact with the hardwood floor. His unexpected illness had weakened him considerably and it had limited his ability to move at his normal speed. Slowly and carefully, Grampa Gruff trudged to the front door, mindful not to jostle his stomach.

"When we're finished setting up, I need to have a talk with that kid about being on time," Grampa Gruff thought grumpily as he approached his front door. "I understand he has friends at the school, but he knows how important it is to-"

Grampa Gruff's thoughts stopped dead in their tracks when he saw who was waiting for him on the other side of his front door. Instead of Gallus, there were four stallions, all wearing golden armor and stoic expressions.

“Are you Grampa Gruff?” one of them asked.

“Yes, I am,” Grampa Gruff said.

“Do you know this Griffon?” asked the same guard, holding up a picture of none other than Gallus.

“Yes, his name is Gallus. He lives with me,” said Grampa Gruff.

The guard looked down at the ground, his expression saddened, and he let out a sigh. Then, he looked back up at the old Griffon.

“We’ve come here by the order of the Princesses. You need to come with us,” he said. “There’s been an incident. Gallus has died.”

"W-What?" The old Griffon stammered.

"There has been an incident. Gallus has died."

Grampa Gruff couldn't reconcile that in his head with a young and healthy Griffon like Gallus. This couldn't be right. Gallus couldn't be dead.

“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I think I misheard you. Could you please repeat that?”

“There’s been an incident. Gallus has died,” repeated the guard for the third time.

Grampa Gruff started to feel his whole world beginning to crumble around him as the last three words uttered by the guard kept replaying in his head.

"H-How? What happened?" he asked.

"We don't know exactly," the Guard replied. "From all indications, though, it sounds like it was a suicide."

Grampa Gruff went pale. No longer was his stomach plagued with the unrelenting ache that it'd been dealing with for the past 75 minutes. It was now completely numb along with the rest of his body. His mind slowly shut down as he stared wide-eyed and beak slightly agape at the picture for what felt like the last two weeks of the year. Then, a surge of energy shot through the old Griffon's whole body as his mind instantly restarted and began to race with all sorts of different scenarios of why this was happening. At first, he thought this was some cruel prank or they had the wrong house, but the picture looked exactly like Gallus and these Guards didn't seem like the types of creatures to joke with such a serious matter like this.

“Give me a second, please,” he said. “I need to grab a coat.”

The guard nodded and Grampa Gruff closed the door. Quickly, he grabbed a coat, scarf, and gloves before running back to the front door. He was led to a covered, white chariot with a golden trim. It was Celestia and Luna’s back-up chariot for whenever it was raining or snowing out and they didn’t want to be subjected to the weather conditions. The old Griffon walked inside, was given a quick greeting from Celestia and Luna, took a seat between the two of them quickly, and the Royal guards took flight and set off for the School of Friendship.

The Element Bearers had returned to the student dorm rooms, nervously anticipating the arrival of Celestia, Luna, and Grampa Gruff any minute. A medical team had just pulled up and was just starting to assess Silverstream’s injuries. Twilight peeked out the front door, hoping to see any sign of the Princesses. Through the thick snowfall and dark sky, she could see a chariot pulled by four white Pegasi with golden armor preparing to land. She felt both a sense of relief and of dread as she watched them approach.

The moment the chariot stopped, Grandpa Gruff and Princesses were out the doors. As they stepped outside, they noticed the silhouette of another chariot. They could also see the silhouettes of two ponies carrying a stretcher walking toward the school building itself. Grandpa Gruff could feel himself getting nauseous as he approached the front door of the students’ quarters. It was like the icy chill of death that had previously enveloped Twilight and the others earlier had now found its way to Grampa Gruff. The Princesses and he walked inside and were immediately greeted by the sight of the Element Bearers, Starlight, and Spike, all of whom were looking sad and worried.

“Please tell me this is some type of joke,” pleaded Grampa Gruff. “I won’t be mad with any of you if it is.”

The looks of sadness from the eight creatures confirmed it wasn’t.

“Twilight, what happened?” asked Celestia.

As she did for the others, Twilight began to recap everything that had led to the Griffon ultimately ending his own life.

“The coroner is on their way here,” the Alicorn finished.

Luna, Celestia, and Grampa Gruff just stood there with blank expressions, processing every word. Then, Twilight spoke up again.

“Has he expressed any depression back home or possibly some suicidal thoughts?” she asked Grampa Gruff.

“No, he hasn’t,” Grampa Gruff recalled. “I rescued him out of a winter storm in January of 2011. He had a high fever and would’ve likely died had I not taken him inside. When I asked him why he was out there with no mom or dad, he told me that he had never known his parents. He was hatched at an orphanage on the other side of town. He said he escaped because the staff was cruel to the kids. All he had with him was a small pillow. No food. No winter clothing. He was outright terrified of going back there and he begged me to let him stay at my house. I felt sorry for him, and I decided to take the role as his grandpa. He was a well-behaved kid who was mostly quiet and kept to himself. Most of the time, I could barely get an answer on how his day at school was. I found out in January of this year that he was frequently bullied, and the staff did nothing to prevent it. In fact, they expelled him for finally fighting back. I was so angry with how poorly the staff acted there and I hired a tutor for him for the rest of the year. I was on the verge of hiring another tutor for this year until I ascertained of your school opening. So, I sent him here instead. He did open up and sent me a few letters home telling me how great it was over here.”

His usual crabby, demanding tone was gone. In its place was a tone that was about as quiet as Fluttershy’s and his voice was cracking as he spoke, almost as if he was about to burst into tears in front of everyone.

"This makes no sense," Twilight said. "Why would he lie about his past like that to you?"

"It doesn't make any sense to me either," Grampa Gruff sniffled, tearing up. "Although, there were some days when he didn't even want to get out of bed or he had shown a general disinterest in activities as he entered his teenage years, but I had just brushed it off as him going through a phase."

The others pondered over the last sentence Grampa Gruff had said. While all teenagers were moody and went through phases, it also could also be a possibility that these changes in attitude may reflect that things may not be going so well in their lives.

“I need to see him,” said Grampa Gruff. "Will you please take me to him?"

Twilight hesitated to answer for a second before speaking, “Yes, I will.”

Slowly, the old Griffon followed Twilight to Gallus’ dorm room. She slowly opened the door and let Grampa Gruff inside. She flipped on the lights and straight ahead of them both, lying on his back on his bed, his eyes peacefully closed, and body motionless, was Gallus. It was almost enough to make the old Griffon puke. He walked over toward the lifeless body and caressed his cheek. It felt cold and hollow. He could simply not comprehend it. The Griffon he had taken in almost seven years ago could not have been the same Griffon that was laying before him. At that point, Grampa Gruff couldn’t hold back his emotions. He buried his face into Gallus’ still chest and sobbed silently. The Princesses walked over and wrapped him in a hug. 

They were only able to do this for a few minutes before a pony entered the room. She was a yellow Unicorn with a moderate blue mane. She was wearing a black vest that read, “Coroner,” on the front. She was wheeling a stretcher of her own in front of her. On top of the stretcher was a black body bag. The Unicorn sighed heavily as she looked at the sight before her.

“Poor kid,” she said to herself.

She opened the body bag, placed Gallus inside of it, levitated it back on the stretcher, and pushed the stretcher out of the room. Grampa Gruff followed her out the door until she stepped outside back into the cold. Just before the door closed, Grampa Gruff caught it and stepped outside right after her. He took a few steps before stopping dead in his tracks. He watched through the thick snowfall as the coroner loaded Gallus’ body into the back of another chariot before walking to the front, hitching herself to the vehicle, turning on her horn to act as a light, and riding off toward the medical examiner’s office. The old Griffon just stood there, staring blankly as he watched the coroner disappear from sight. After what seemed like an eternity, he turned around and slowly plodded his way back inside. The moment he closed the door behind him, Grampa Gruff was wrapped into a hug by Twilight.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered. 

The others joined the hug as Grampa Gruff began to cry again. All eleven creatures stood in the hug for a full five minutes without saying a word or moving. At last, they, reluctantly, broke away from each other.

“You’ll be staying in the guest bedroom in the castle tonight,” Twilight said. “Tomorrow, we're searching his room to see if we can maybe find why he never told the truth to anyone about his past."

“OK,” said Grampa Gruff. He would’ve insisted on doing it tonight, but he, as well as everyone else, knew that they needed time and a night of sleep to fully digest everything that had transpired.

“We’ll also be staying,” announced Celestia. “We’re going to be assisting you all in the healing process.”

With that, the Ponies, Dragon, and Griffon all made their way back to the castle.