//------------------------------// // The Show // Story: Heart of a Griffon // by GreyTheGriffon //------------------------------// Grey had finished making the bed quickly and was laying down on top of it carefully, idly flipping through Incantation as Explained by Clover the Clever. There was still a little bit of time before the show, which Grey decided to kill the same way he always killed time: his magic books. He was settled in nicely for reading when Twilight knocked on his door, to which Grey called out for her to come in without looking up from his book. “Hey, Grey.” Twilight said as she pushed open the door with her magic and stepped inside. “We’re all gonna meet up and have breakfast before the show. You should come too.” Twilight’s statement was very matter-of-fact, which, combined with the fact that it was a statement and not a question of if Grey wanted to go to breakfast, killed Grey’s initial intention of just staying in the castle until the show. He nodded at her, flipping his book’s built-in bookmark into the page he was on, then closed it. He got up off the bed, taking extra care to tuck the book securely under his wing before walking over to the bookshelf, where he gingerly placed it, taking his time to make sure it was perfectly placed on the shelf. Twilight raised her eyebrow at Grey. “Nervous?” Grey quickly turned around to deny the accusation, accidentally knocking his oh-so carefully placed book off the shelf with his tail. “Me, nervous?” Grey chuckled halfheartedly. “No, not at all!” He gave an entirely unconvincing smile. Twilight shook her head, then walked over to Grey, placing a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “It’s fine to be nervous. You’re meeting a lot of new ponies, after all.” Grey gulped. “But I promise you these ponies are nice. I’ll introduce you to them, how does that sound?” Grey fidgeted a little. “Sounds good. I’ll try to make a good first impression, Twilight.” He turned back to the bookshelf, intending to put the book back up quickly, but the saddlebags he left on the floor caught his eye. He walked over to the shelf, set the book on its flat end on the shelf, then threw the saddlebags over his back, making sure they rested under his wings. “Alright,” he said with a more chipper tune, “Let’s go.” Twilight turned to leave, Grey following behind as soon as he had grabbed his special backstage pass ticket from his suitcase and stowed it away in his saddlebags. “We’re going to a small cafè in Cloudsdale so we can go straight from breakfast to the show. I’ve got a cloudwalking spell ready for Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity already.” Grey tilted his head slightly, but kept quiet. “We didn’t feel like paying for a hot air balloon for those three to get up there, so we’re gonna carry them up.” Twilight looked at Grey as she said that last part, like it somehow pertained to him.  He raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Okay? There’s two pegasi and you, so that covers the three non-fliers.” “It would, but Fluttershy told me she’s afraid she’d drop whoever she was carrying. Since they all know I’m bringing a winged creature with me, I told her she wouldn’t need to carry anypony. You’re okay with that, right?” Twilight kept walking forward, having broken eye contact with Grey before she asked if he was okay with carrying somepony. He huffed. “Yeah.” He told her audibly, then whispered under his breath, “Yeah, ten out of ten first impressions, Twilight, carrying somepony bridal-style or like a cat. Ought to be a smooth transition from that to being buddies.”  The two walked in a palpably uncomfortable silence, which was mercifully cut off by a very loud gasp from a poofy maned pink pony, whose appearance, save for the colors and lack of wings, reminded Grey of Surprise. She ran at them with unexpected speed, knocking Grey off his center. “Hiya! Twily mentioned that she had a new roomie and that must be you!” She grabbed one of Grey’s talons off the ground and shook it with enough vigor to cause the rest of Grey’s body to shake, eliciting a giggle from Twilight. “It’s super duper cool to meet you! I would’ve thrown you a surprise party to welcome you to the town, but I didn’t know about you ‘til yesterday, and Twily said I’d see you today and that I could throw you a surprise party some other time!” She threw her hooves over her muzzle. “Oops! Forget I said that. I’m not gonna throw you a surprise party.” She punctuated her last sentence with an exaggerated wink. Grey blinked. “Uh, don’t worry, Pinkie, I don’t think I caught a word of that anyway.” The other four mares had made their way more composedly to Grey and Twilight while the former was assaulted with the mental onslaught that was a first interaction with Pinkie Pie. Twilight spoke up, fulfilling her promise to cover introductions. “Grey, these are my friends I told you about. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.” She pointed at the mare each name belonged to as she said them.  Grey waved to them all with a wing. “Hello.” “Alright, the show is in two hours, so we have a good bit of time to get breakfast, but we should still get up there quick. Are we all ready?” She looked over to Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity, who all nodded in response. She cast her cloudwalking spell on the three, then prepared to lift Pinkie into the air. Rainbow Dash paired up with Applejack, swiftly scooping her up and even more swiftly flew her to Cloudsdale, the edge of which was right overhead. Grey watched her fly up there, astonished by her speed, even though she was carrying another pony. As his gaze was transfixed by the clouds above him, he also spotted Twilight set Pinkie down, Fluttershy following close behind.  His loss of focus was cut through by the clearing of a throat. “Grey, darling, we need to get up there with the others.” Shoot, he still had to take Rarity up there. He took to the air, mumbling a small apology, and hovered behind her. “Uhh, so how do you want me to-” “Yo!” A rough voice called from above. “Grey! Get you and Rarity up here! I’m hungry!” Because of the interruption, Grey didn’t get the chance to ask Rarity what would be the least embarrassing way to pick her up, so he just wrapped his arms around her torso and flew up to meet the others, unceremoniously dropping Rarity a few inches onto the clouds. He put a talon up to his beak and issued a hushed apology when he saw Rarity shaking a little from surprise. No time to dwell on that for either of them, though, because the others were already walking toward the restaurant, Rarity and Grey being beckoned in that direction by Rainbow. The seven of them sat themselves at a large table at Sunny Side Up, a hole-in-the-wall breakfast spot in Cloudsdale that Rarity had wanted to try for a while. Five of them were excitedly discussing the show they were about to see (especially Rainbow Dash), but two remained quiet, Grey and Fluttershy. The former was half-listening to the conversation, trying to find a reasonable place to insert his own two cents, but no such moment had presented itself.  Grey shifted around in his seat, twisting his back to crack it and idly observing his surroundings. The conversation of the other five buzzed over his ears passively as he waited for breakfast to be over; he probably wasn’t going to be adding to the conversation. He felt a nudge coming from his left, where Fluttershy was seated. He looked over to her, making eye contact.  “Um,” She blushed a little. “Th-thank you for carrying Rarity up to Cloudsdale. I know that must have been a little awkward, but I just couldn’t stop worrying that I might drop her if I was the one to carry her up.” She hid her eyes behind her mane partially. Grey’s expression loosened a little. “You know what? No problem. And hey, remember the other day when you asked if I was okay? Thanks for that.” Grey smiled. Fluttershy pushed her mane aside and smiled back. “You’re very welcome.” The conversation was easier to slide into now that Grey had started talking, even if just to Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was dominating most of the conversation because of her sheer energy, as well as the fact that she was especially excited to see the show since she wanted to be a Wonderbolt one day. She excitedly told Grey about her aspirations with a single quick, difficult to understand sentence when he asked why she was so extra-excited for the show. He remembers thinking at that moment that she was lucky to have an obvious avenue to follow her dream. He was interrupted from being cynical by Rainbow Dash eyeing him up and down. “Y’know, I’m a bit jealous of griffon wingspans. You guys can catch more wind with those things, right?” Grey nodded a little absently. “Thicker feathers, too. Makes it harder to take you out of the sky for long.” Grey just tilted his head. “Yeah, you’re pretty lucky to be a griffon. So many natural advantages in the air!” Grey furrowed his brow, but Rainbow just kept talking. “Yeah, griffons are really cool. It’d be pretty neat if I could be a griffon, even if just for a day.”  Twilight’s ears perked up. “Yeah, that would be neat, wouldn’t it?” Twilight said quietly, then continued more audibly. “Oh would you look at the time! We’d better head to the show!” Twilight had already calculated the bill, leaving a medium-sized bag of bits (including a 30% tip) on the table, clearing the seven of them to head to the show. Because of Rainbow’s status as a reserve Wonderbolt and Grey’s special ticket, the six girls plus Grey all got seats up in the box, which excited the group a great deal, Grey going along with the excitement despite not caring too much about the better view. There were still a little bit longer until the show officially started, which made more time for talking. Grey was less inclined to talk than at breakfast, so he just fidgeted with his talons and shifted in his seat, waiting for something to happen. The something that did happen came in the form of Rainbow Dash giggling softly to herself as she scooted closer to Grey, an unreadable grin on her face. “Hey Grey, I wanna get to know you. Is there anything like, weird or cool you can do?”  Grey did have one weird-ish thing he could do; he could screech just like an eagle. It was something all griffons could do, Gilda having been particularly fond of doing it to scare Grey, but it was still ‘weird’ enough to fit Rainbow’s request, Grey thought. He wouldn’t be sharing it, of course, even thinking about somecreature hearing his ‘eagle screech’ gave Grey a vaguely unpleasant feeling, like a shadow in the pit of his gut. “Hm. Y’know what? How about you tell me about the Wonderbolts? I’ve heard of them before, but only the name. They’re a group of talented fliers, right?” Rainbow scoffed. “‘Talented’ is an understatement! The Wonderbolts are the most awesome death-defying stunt team that ever awesomed!” Rainbow threw her hooves into the air for emphasis, her wings springing open out of excitement. “They used to be this kick-butt military group, right? But Equestria’s been at peace for decades, so they just do stunt shows now. But they’re still trained to be all kick-butt and awesome, so if there ever was a crisis, they’d handle it.”  “Military group, huh?” Grey turned so his entire body was facing Rainbow. “You’re a reserve Wonderbolt. What’s the training like?” “Dude, it’s brutal. Like, every day when we come in we-” Rainbow was cut off by the stadium’s PA system crackling to life before playing a prerecorded message meant to rouse hype in the crowd. Rainbow and Grey faced back toward the center of the stadium, watching intently as several pegasi in blue and yellow uniforms soared into the stadium from doors in the sides. Rainbow excitedly pointed out who each Wonderbolt was, Grey listening and watching for Surprise to appear. “OHMIGOSH!” Rainbow pointed a hoof down at the arena, using the other to grab Grey’s shoulder and shake him. “That’s Spitfire! She’s the captain of the Wonderbolts, and the coolest one out of all of them!” Grey wiped Rainbow’s hoof off his shoulder and gave her a look before noticing a white pegasus with a poofy yellow mane hovering in place. He gasped deeply, then pointed at the pegasus, his other talon grabbing Rainbow’s shoulder and shaking her. “Rainbow look! That’s Surprise! I met her on the train on the way to Ponyville and she was really cool!”  Rainbow made a show of staring into Grey’s eyes for a moment, then quickly swiping his talon off her shoulder. Grey set his talon down next to him. “Oh, sorry. So yeah, Surprise gave me this special ticket to this show that apparently lets me go backstage after the show. Pretty cool, right?” Rainbow looked at Grey for a second and slammed her hoof down lightly. “Dude. No way! Because of my reserve status, I get to go backstage too! Now we can hang out after the show too!” Grey grimaced a little on the inside, but he refused to let it show. “Really? That’s great!” He said through his teeth. “This is gonna be a great opportunity to get to know you!” Rainbow turned her head back to the stadium and smacked Grey on the shoulder a little. “Yeah, yeah, but that can wait until after the show.” Rainbow leaned a little closer to the stadium out of excitement and interest. Grey cocked his head to the side, then turned back to the stadium, a worried look on his face. He was looking forward to seeing Surprise again and he was enjoying the show, but he had a feeling that his time backstage was going to be difficult.