//------------------------------// // 04 - Under New Management // Story: Collateral Damage // by Metemponychosis //------------------------------// Gabby had taken the day off. She needed it after her adventure through Needle Row and the hospital. She asked a neighbor coworker to take the note to her boss and bunkered in her home with her crafting materials and gallons of soft Rosé Punches. A healthy breakfast later, she started her ‘Mental Health Day’. It yielded several cute little things, but the best was the new brooch for her saddlebags. By the end of the day, she was all peachy again, and when morning came, she left home with a new brooch in her working saddlebags and a peppy bounce on her step. She cheerfully greeted the milkgriffon on her way out of her front lawn. The young gray-green and green griffon with the blue cap looked so tired and dreary, but his face lit up with a smile when he saw her. Gabby even earned a polite tip of his hat. Old lady Gertrude, watering her flowers on the windowsill, too replied to Gabby with a similar joy. It didn’t matter the plants had withered and died; it was all about the attitude! A couple of cubs rolled past Gabby’s way, play-fighting over a doll. A bit too intensely for her tastes. “Hey, play nice, you two!” Ignored, Gabby rolled her eyes and frowned at the pair. Seriously, Miss Geraldine really ought to reign her cubs in. Gabby stopped for a second, looking at the row house in cyan. It had seen some better days. She never saw Miss Geraldine or her mate lately, either. He used to take such good care of the sidewalk, taking such pride in keeping it pristine and clean. Now the grass grew wild and in between the paving stones. Miss Geraldine no longer cooked her strawberry pies, much less left them on the window to cool. Gabby never found her spending the day yelling at the youngling rascals trying to steal them. Come to think of it, there used to be a lot of teenager toms that bothered her and Miss Geraldine, but they seemed to have vanished. Gabby did not miss the unwanted attention. She was sure Miss Geraldine did not miss her pies getting stolen. Or the older griffons in the neighborhood complaining of the youngsters and their antics. Sure, the neighborhood with all its row houses was not very rich, but it had its personality. Griffons were seldom friendly, but they all cared for each other in their own way. And the noisy teenagers frequently caused trouble, but they brought a lot of life to the street. Things had taken a sharp turn towards… a bad thing. What was it called? Did it mean anything? What had caused it? Gabby couldn’t remember, but taking a turn towards her job, she found an old warehouse which belonged to a young and excited couple. The hen had inherited it from her late dad. It used to be a rundown storage for building materials, and they had turned it into a shipping company. She ran the administration and her mate hauled orders around. Gabby knew because they had asked her some tips, and she helped to the best of her ability. All that remained was a husk of the building. Dilapidated and burned, missing its roof and showing its skeleton of bent metal. Broken cannons lied in the small plaza that served as a yard and a crater showed the black soil beneath with cracked stone tiles strewn about. Even with all the rains, the blood smears remained impregnated into the stone. The scene did not fit inside Gabby’s head. She knew what a cannon was, of course; the soldiers showed them whenever she went to the festivities in Fort King Grover. She knew their terrifying voice from when the soldiers fired them for the Blue Moon festival. Literally, once in a blue moon, when griffons tried to not be so… Griffon. Their thunder echoed in Gabby’s little home a couple of nights ago. She had never forgotten, of course, but she didn’t think about it until that moment. It also was not the first time she saw the destroyed warehouse, nor the abandoned cannons, but it finally hit her that something quite serious had happened in Griffonstone and she could not hide from it. A regret that she should not have kept avoiding the bad news in the newspaper crept up her spine. She quickly resumed her walk, eager to leave that place. After all, griffons still needed their mail delivered, no matter what happened in the town. It was her job to deliver it. Far from that place. The trip to the office was not much different from the usual grumpy griffons painstakingly responding to her greetings or being busy with something else. Something was different, though. Did the streets look dirtier, or did griffons act more jittery? They still walked along, but they were all so standoffish. Her destination was the city’s main post office. It distributed mail to the other offices, but it also distributed mail to the users within its region. Gabby was there for the latter job. It was a brick triangle building aiming at a small plaza with a fountain in the center. By itself, it was nothing out of the ordinary, with a double door entrance, black-painted wood, and glass, with a second and third floor like a stack of pizza slices. The carts would all be parked in the back, with a large sorting area and garage, but Gabby entered through the main doors after taking a deep breath and donning a smile. Merry greetings accompanied her first steps into the room but fell on gloomy colleagues and co-workers by the front lobby. No users. All the counters remained closed, with Gabby’s peers gathered at the front. “Gabriella,” her boss greeted her drily. “Good. Come in. We were just about to start.” An angry gray griffon with lighter feathers and a streak of silver to show for his age, Gerard beckoned her closer to the circle of griffons. All forty employees in the office were there. Almost like a party, but grim and quiet. “Yes, Mister Gerard?” she asked, keeping her smile, but the stares she received made her legs weak. The older griffon took a second, looking at her co-workers, and they gave him a shower of apprehensive stares in return. Gabby frowned and made an awkward chuckle. “Uh… Guys? What is going on?” “There is a new administration.” Gerard spoke lugubriously. “It might be the entire nation. I’m not sure, nobody really seems to know what is going on and my boss is… The entire Civil Services Department is freaking out. A lot of heads have rolled and some of them literally. Chancellor Gail is gone… nobody knows where he is, or what happened. There are talks of military personnel being executed… and all city services are getting scrutiny from whoever is in charge. And ah… They really don’t like the ponies. My superiors have ordered me to fire anyone who… has pony friends. So… I need you to gather your things, Gabby.” Gabby chuckled again with a confused frown. “Is this… This is not funny.” “You’re fired, Gabby.” Gerard told her drily. “Effective immediately, and I ask that you don’t take too long to leave. I… I am sorry, but I need to think of the others. And… Being associated with one who is friends with ponies is dangerous now.” “You…” her voice broke, and she turned around, looking at the others. She found sympathy, but most of all, she found fear. And no backing at all. “You can’t do this! I am a civil public servant. Nobody can fire me without just cause!” “This is not about you, Gabby!” Gerard raised his voice, sitting so he could use his paws for angry gestures that startled her. “They’re holding families hostage and demanding griffons living abroad return. I have to do what they tell me! Please, don’t make this any harder than it has to be!” She wanted to say something. To show how angry she was and tell them how unfair that was, but she failed to produce anything to say. With her eyes stinging and the moistness invading her plumage, she turned and dashed away from them, into the inner areas of the building. She passed a hallway and several doors before she reached the lockers. Gabby did not really have anything of hers to take. She just did what she was told and didn’t think about it. Maybe the little heart and feather magnets counted, so she collected them. What else was she supposed to do? “Gabby!” one of her colleagues, an older green and white griffon lady called Grena, came to her. Looking for support, Gabby turned and wanted to tell her how frustrated she was, but Grena’s utterly terrified stare gave her pause. “You have to leave!” Gabby’s confused frown became one of anger. “I know! I…” “No, dear! That is not it!” the other’s frantic shaking stopped Gabby. “There is someone looking for you! She said you’re dangerous and that they need to catch you, for the good of Griffonia. The others are stalling her, but Gerard is scared mindless. He is going to tell them you’re back here. You have to run. Now!” Panic took over the young griffoness and filled her with a frantic energy. It translated into looking at the door to the entrance and then the door leading to the sorting area. She stumbled on the words before she could talk properly. “I’ll… I’ll get out through the cart loading area!” “Good luck, Gabby! Be careful! She’s not alone.” The older griffoness told her, walking backwards, towards the entrance and giving her friend a final stare. “Good luck.” Gabby wasted little time pondering her options; she felt as though she had none. She also had nothing of value in her locker. Her documents and her money were still in her saddlebags. She kicked herself into motion and rushed down the corridor to the back of the building. The green door into the sorting area was closed, not locked—as it should. Gabby locked it behind her. The lights were off, and the mountains of small packages and letters untouched, but further down the doors of the garages were open. Bless her colleagues that left loaded carts abandoned in the garage and then just pulled them out in the morning like they were not late by some twelve hours. She didn’t bother with the lights and hurried past the bags of mail and piles of boxes all the way to the stepped garage where the gold-inlaid carts waited for their loads. It consisted mostly of a large indoor space for maneuvering the things into their bays and Gabby crossed it as fast as Rainbow Dash. Rather than galloping right out the garage doors, she hid behind the wall to look outside. One of the loaded carts was already leaving with cargo for another office, heavy with stuff under a tarp and ropes. She let escape a squeak when someone tried the locked door all the way back. “Ma’am!” a male voice told her in an anxious tone. Gabby squealed, tensing her whole body, and almost panicking when a griffon in green uniform rushed to her from the street outside. He was a dark shade of tan with pristine white on his feathers, quite young, and his yellow paw held hers before she flew away. His golden eyes were as scared as she was. A violent bang against the door and words uttered in a language Gabriella couldn’t understand sacred them both. The soldier’s words came urgently and hushed. “Ma’am, hide! Quick! Get behind the cart!” He shoved her into action, and his hurry made her act. Just as pair of loud bangs echoed inside the garage, followed by cracking wood. She hid behind the cart, and from beneath it, she could see back into the garage. Four griffons wearing green jackets and helmets of the Griffonian Standing Army rushed out of the doors and a very distinctive lady followed them. She was probably one of the most beautiful griffon ladies Gabby had ever seen. Way up there with the golden griffoness, but her beauty was different, shapelier. A beautiful yellow pelt covered her along with shiny feathers in the same color, but not like the one in the hospital that had a metallic sheen to her color. This one looked like a flower. A vibrant yellow, like a daffodil. A painting covered her right foreleg, a tattoo creeping up her limb, and then her neck and face on the right side. She even had a brooch on the feathers of her forward swept crest, but it was too far for Gabby to see any details. The young soldier that told her to hide went into the garage to talk to the pretty yellow lady and pointed towards the plaza. She didn’t believe him, even if two of the soldiers ran outside and in the direction he had mentioned. Gabby acted out of panic rather than forethought, and she bolted when the griffoness distracted herself by looking under the carts in the garage. From behind the cart and into the first alley she could find. She bumped into a wooden crate and broke something inside. Gabby never stopped but looked back at the angry griffons loading things out of an apartment and apologized. She ignored their angry shouts and leaped, flapping her wings. They took her at full speed in the cramped space between apartments. Windows and brick walls zoomed past before she managed to gain height in her panicked flight and went from the crowded alley into the clouded sky, hoping to Celestia nobody saw her. Finally, she directed her frantic flight to take her home. As fast as possible, but after cruising over a couple of blocks, she realized they would be waiting for her there and stopped to a hover. “Oh, no! What do I do?” she cried to herself, holding her paws together. Griffons flew around her, casting annoyed stares, but Gabby didn’t care. The bad griffons were probably looking for her right now. “Miss, are you okay?” a mid-aged griffon in shades of tan, wearing a brown beret hovered next to her as others started to stop and cast concerned or confused stares at her. All those griffons stopping by her, hovering above a busy street, were bound to draw attention she did not want. She squeaked when she saw one of them wearing a green shirt. She saw it was not a uniform in the next second, but fear drove her to flee and ignore their cries for her to stop. But flee where? Fly where? She saw in the last days they were everywhere and a panicked griffoness flying frantically above the buildings was bound to draw attention, too. Her lungs seemed incapable of providing her with enough oxygen. She was painting and her head started spinning. Panic took over her again, and she landed on the sidewalk. Not so many griffons in that street, but her panting and wide eyes still drew their attention to her. Annoyed glares and confused frowns scared her further. The shadows of flying griffons passed over her and made her squirm. Gabby forced herself to walk, trying to join the moving griffons. She grimaced, hiding it as best as she could, and did not know what she was doing! Two of the city’s local militia law enforcers, wearing their leather armor and carrying pistols and magical stun batons, came towards her in the opposite direction. A couple of mid-aged males, completely indifferent to her. Maybe they would help her? Gabby had grown up to think of the Griffonian military as the brave soldiers that would protect Griffonia if the other nations invaded. Or something like that. Under the peaceful rule of Princess Celestia, even if the griffon government was iffy, everything was peaceful. The military mostly helped Spike’s friends deal with monsters. The big ones that the military couldn’t ward off from the smaller cities. Meanwhile, the local militias kept citizens safe from bandits. They just helped when there were any problems. Gabby had read something about the northerner griffons being monster hunters. Something about the monsters up north being worse than the usual monster and the northerners dedicated themselves to keeping them from reaching the south. Why did those griffons have a problem with her? And why did the soldiers side with them? Her breath came out broken, looking at the two officers. What if they took her to the scary military griffons? She could not afford to take that risk. She must leave town. Somehow. Maybe go to Ponyville? She knew the princesses were busy with something important, but it would be safer if all Griffonia would become like Griffonstone. It sounded reasonable that it would if the military were trying to kidnap griffons at the northerners’ behest. She must flee the town, but she couldn’t just fly away to the neighboring one! They would find her. She needed somewhere she could hide. Like an airship, but airships and the teleporter, for that matter, had all sorts of controls of who went in and out. How was she supposed to flee the town like that? “Hey, you!” A griffon shouted from above. Gabriella’s wings flared, and she dropped to the pavement. The other griffons walking next to her stopped their conversations and distanced from her. Others understood quite fast what was happening and saw the griffon in a green uniform yelling at her from above. They fled before anything spilled on them and others backed away, still confused. Gabby was alone inside a ring of scared and worried griffons exchanging distressed stares and promises of not knowing her. When she locked eyes with him, a feverish panic bubbled inside her and her body did things like it had a mind of its own. Gabby backpedaled, and thoughts of what they would do to her flooded her mind. Dark rooms and sacks to cover one’s head left the pages of thriller novels and she winced at the horrible things they could do to her. They had her in place of someone else. She did nothing wrong. It had to be a mistake! “I didn’t do anything!” she cried. Her voice broke. “Please!” “Don’t move, ma’am! I said don’t move!” His aggressive voice startled her, and her composure was a dam already accumulating cracks. The two militiagriffons approached her. One by each side and the one on the left looked up at the soldier. “What is your business with this fine young lady, soldier boy?” “Keep out of this, sir. We are acting under the authority of the Griffonian Standing Army. I will charge you with sedition!” “Sedition?” The officer glared at the soldier above. “It is you, musket-jerking assholes, that sided with the northerners and helped them take over the city. And now you’re taking citizens away whenever those creeps point fingers. I know this lady. She is nothing if not a helpful and beneficial member-” A sharp bang interrupted him. Everything became red. Gabby barely understood what had happened before she heard the cries and flapping wings. A few feathers flew around her, and only then she noticed the warm stickiness on her limbs and in her feathers. The law enforcer lied on his side with a hole in his head oozing red, and the soldier held a gun in his paw. Gabby screamed. They kept yelling as she laid on the ground and covered herself with her wings and her paws, immediately regretting it because of all the iron-smelling stickiness. More bangs filled her ears and made them ring. Her mind blanched, her joints locked, and before she knew, someone had landed on top of her. They shoved her head against the ground. They yelled, but she never understood what they said. Had she passed out? One moment she was on the sidewalk, griffons started yelling and loud bangs surrounded her. Someone attacked her and pushed her to the ground. In the next, darkness surrounded her. A gloomy room offered her weird smells and stuffy air. Gabby inhaled a gasp. Her back and her chin hurt, and so did her shoulder. She was leaning against an icy wall covered in white plaster. The returning image of mister militiagriffon with a hole in his head yanked helpless sobs from her. What did they want with her? How far were they willing to go to get it? They killed that griffon. All that red. The warm, iron-smelling red. At least some kind creature had washed it off her, but she didn’t remember any of that and the metallic smell remained. They could not scrub the images that kept returning to her mind’s eye, either. A whimper escaped her, followed by more silent, meek sobbing. She held herself with all her strength, like she was afraid she would flee from herself. Her beak clicked trembly, and her quiet sobbing filled the room, and in its stillness, memories added screams and bangs to it. Eventually, a door grated open with a fresh breeze. Several tapping feet entered the room, and the door creaked before banging closed. Locks ground into place. The sound of flipping paper fluttered and finally, a voice caused her to look up. “You are Miss Gabriella. Is that correct?” asked a male griffon, stern and serious. The griffon stood by the table, sitting on the floor, and looking over a folder filled with papers. He purposely showed her black and white photographs of her. Gabby could see not much more from her position, but he was not alone. The old griffon lady Gabby had seen at the hospital was there, and so was the yellow one with the tattoo. It was a red henna painting of roses and vines on her right foreleg, shoulder, neck, and half of her face. The brooch Gabby had seen earlier made a pair of black and white wings stuck in her crest. A third one, wearing the same cape they wore, was there too, along with a couple of female soldiers, and they all stared at Gabby. Silently watching her while the male showed her the photographs. Telling her all about her routine and the things that she liked to do in her free time. All the things they knew about her. He was… Gabby didn’t like to make judgments, but she didn’t like him. A black griffon with a white head and an exuberant crest of snowy feathers and blue eyes. His uniform was impeccable, and he scared her. It was the way he looked at her, like she was unimportant, barely relevant. Like she was wasting his time, although he was there because of her. It was the disinterested look in his eyes when they aimed at her after looking at the papers. The icy coldness that touched her blood with his stare. “As you can see, we have a significant file brimming with information about you. We know many things, but I still don’t know if Gabriella is your name. I asked you a question, ma’am.” His voice came dry and direct. Devoid of emotion and emphasizing the word by which he called her like it was an unearned title. She wanted to answer his question; it was so simple. If not because it was polite, because she feared what he might do if she failed. She really did, but her voice collapsed. Her words became a sob, and she hid behind her wing again. “Ma’am, if you will not cooperate with us, you will force us to make a series of assumptions.” His matter-of-fact words and emotionless tone caused another whimper to escape. She wanted to help, but she couldn’t keep up. “I am,” she sniffled, looking up at him through her wing’s feathers. “I did nothing wrong. Why are you doing this to me?” “If that is the case, then why did you run, Miss Gabriella?” his tone turned frustrated. Intimidating. “Answer me, Miss Gabriella. Why did an innocent, good citizen of Griffonia flee when sought by the authorities?” “I was scared!” she whined and then sobbed, still looking at him from behind her wings. “But why were you scared if you did nothing wrong?” he insisted, letting his voice softer. “Help me understand, Miss Gabriella. Help me help you out of this situation.” She was terrified. Just scared. What was she supposed to tell him? They went to her workplace looking for her like she was a criminal fleeing from jail, and they killed a griffon just because he was trying to help. What else was she supposed to feel? She didn’t know what to answer. There was no answer she could give. “I will ask you again.” Her interrogator cut her thoughts short. “Why did you try to escape, Miss Gabriella?” “I just told you. I…” Maybe her mistake was letting her frustration and tiredness show, and she regretted it. The griffon abandoned his calm demeanor, replaced it with a wrath Gabby had seldom seen before. “I’m tired of this! Filthy liar!” he yelled at her so loud her ears hurt, and she found she couldn’t control how shaky her whole body had become. “You were ready to run back to your pony friends! What were you going to tell them, disgusting hooflicker?” “What was it? Who were you going to report to? Canterlot? One of your ‘friends’ in Ponyville? Perhaps Princess Twilight Sparkle’s assistant? What were you going to tell him, Miss Gabriella? What was your mission? Oh, you chose the wrong side in this mess, little hen. We have ways of making you talk you don’t want to see!” He was wasting his breath. All she understood from that point was angry yelling, danger, and panic. The little griffon lady shrieked and covered her head with her paws, trying to make herself as small as she could in her little corner of that gloomy and scary room. The yelling griffon only stopped when the old griffon lady went to them and held him by his nape, kindly pulling him away. “That is enough.” She said with her whistly and clicky accent. “Go take a rest.” He clicked his tongue and gave Gabby one last fiery stare before obeying and storming out of the room. The closing door startled a whimper out of Gabby again, but all she had to offer were more shivering and sobbing. Someone petted Gabby behind her head as she had hidden it under her wings. “Forgive that fool.” The old griffon lady told Gabby. “The intelligence branch of the military had to be purged. We are left with young officers who know little of the trade and are desperate to prove their allegiance. They were not trained by Our Mother to understand and to guide Her Children. And you are friends with some important ponies. You must understand you are dangerous in quite a few ways.” “I’m sorry.” Gabby sniveled, looking up at her. “I don’t know what is going on… It wasn’t wrong a few days ago.” She was difficult to define. She looked much older than Gabby had originally thought back at the hospital, and far from frail. In fact, her sheer physical presence fooled Gabby once again into thinking she was younger than the wrinkles in the corners of her eyes implied. She had such a strong, comforting touch and even with her northerner accent, her words soothed the shivers out of Gabby. “I understand, Gabriella. Change is often hard. My name is Gaetana of Thunderpeak, and you must understand that I am ultimately trying to help you.” “I’m sorry. I’ll try to tell you everything you want to know.” What followed were a series of questions about Gabby’s day-to-day life, after she confirmed Gabby was from Griffonstone and her parents from Greenland hold. All she had to say was that she worked at the mail office, and she made deliveries. Most griffons would find her life dreadfully boring, but the happiness at simply being alive more than made up for it. She loved her job and, more often than not, she just hauled letters around. Yes, she was friends with ‘those’ three fillies from Ponyville, but she never talked about anything out of the ordinary and had little contact with their sisters in Greenland. Obediently, she told Gaetana their names and addresses. Yes, she was friends, closely, with Spike, and he truly was like Princess Twilight Sparkle’s younger brother, but he was just a friend. She never talked about politics, about the Equestrian or Griffonian government, and just barely spoke about her job. It was quite boring, after all. At one point, not as nervous anymore, Gabby asked her what was happening, but Miss Gaetana told her that the more she knew, the more in danger she would be, so Gabby simply kept answering her questions. Even if they seemed strangely disconnected from one another or from the strange political climate of Griffonia. The old griffoness asked if Gabby had nightmares when the storms arrived at night, and no, she didn’t. She asked about Gabby’s eating habits and about her desires and aspirations in life. What did any of that matter? Gabby had no idea. Fear drove her to answer with honesty, anyway. At one point, the door opened and the scary soldier who was talking to Gabby earlier told Gaetana they had found them and that they already had mobilized. She became angry and told him she was to oversee all operations. Whoever they might be, Gabby did not know, and neither of them mentioned anything that served as a clue. Gaetana stopped her questions to Gabby, and the latter was happy because she was becoming tired and afraid she might answer something wrong. On her way out, the old griffon lady told the pretty lady with the henna paintings—whom she called Gervina—to take over. Fortunately, the soldier followed her and left Gabby alone in the room with the two caped ladies and a couple of female soldiers. “This would all have been much easier had you not ran from me, Miss Gabriella.” The pretty yellow lady said, both frustrated and sad. Her yellow fur was so much prettier up close, even in the ominous room. Velvety, like the petals of a flower, and her complex henna painting of vines and flowers made her a work of art. But she shushed Gabby when she tried apologizing. “I need to ask you some important questions about yourself and your family. This may be hard to understand, but some griffons are like weapons that Princess Celestia has engineered to harm our race.” How did that work? Gabby simply accepted it because she had neither the mental energy nor the understanding to counter what she was told. She wouldn’t know even how to talk about such matters, so she simply resigned to answering the other’s questions. A constant dread she might give her the wrong answer still hung above her. Had she ever had any diseases? No, neither her family. She had had no disease more serious than a few colds and some stomach or intestine conditions. Maybe a couple of rashes. Nothing dangerous or lasting, for sure. She gave lung diseases a special attention but had suffered from none. What about birth defects and difficulties at birth? None, to her knowledge, Gabby was born a perfectly normal griffon chick, same as all the rest of her family. Any difficulties urinating or evacuating her bowels? No, and no, all worked normally. Had she ever mated? No. Any close relationships? No, not like that. Ever had sex? No, with an emphatic blush, and she obviously birthed no cubs. “Are you telling me the truth?” Miss Gervina asked with a frown and Gabby babbled a positive response. Why would she even doubt her? Still, Gervina’s sustained frown showed she was not convinced. “Now relax. I need to examine you. It will not hurt.” Having said that, Gervina held Gabby’s cheeks and stared into her eyes. She seemed to look for details. The griffoness pulled Gabby’s eyelids, like the doctors usually would, but she also held her face and made her look to one side and then the other. And still holding her head, the griffoness pressed her fingers behind Gabby’s beak. The discomfort made her open her mouth and Gervina took several seconds looking at her beak and the soft insides of her mouth. Gabby’s urge was to back away, but the fear held her pinned. Truth be told, Gabby had absolutely no idea what the other griffoness was looking for and simply submitted to her examination, fearing consequences. No doctor ever had stuck a finger inside her mouth and then tasted her saliva at the tip of their talons. But she was not done. Gervina held her neck and her fingers massaged Gabby, expertly searching for something. From the base of her skull and down her neck, kneading her muscles without so much as prickling Gabby with her talons. While Gabby never understood what she was doing, at least it was almost pleasant. Sitting in front of her, Miss Gervina was about a head taller than Gabby, and so much stronger, too. Her presence was so intimidating and her touch so steady. She grasped Gabby’s shoulders to sit with her back to the wall instead of cowering in the corner as she was. Her fingers kneaded under Gabby’s shoulders before Gervina held her foreleg firmly and told her to not move. She poked her thumb’s yellow talon into Gabby’s skin under her leg’s plumage. Gabby startled, but resisted the urge to pull back, complain, or even whine. It was probably important, especially because Miss Gervina tasted her blood, too. Then she pulled Gabby’s wings open and examined her feathers. Primary feathers, secondaries, and even the tertial feathers. She pulled at a few and tested their ability to interlink and smooth out when she ran her fingers over them. When she urged Gabby to turn around and show her back, Gabby had started to feel like a product Miss Gervina was examining before buying. The constant stares from the other griffon lady with the blue cape and two soldiers scared any thoughts of rebellion away. At least until Gervina pulled her tail and ran it on her paw to examine the tuft of dark gray fur. Gabby pulled her tail back in between her thighs with a gasp. The larger griffoness firmly ordered her to stop and made her sit with her back on the wall again before pulling her tail away. Gabby closed her eyes with a blush while Gervina’s fingers pressed into her belly like she was looking to feel something inside her. “Stop tensing up. You are making it harder on yourself. I will not hurt you and I have examined hundreds of griffon ladies. You have nothing down here that other ladies don’t.” Gabby’s eyes shut so hard they hurt while Gervina’s strong fingers felt the little mounds of her teats and kept kneading over her groin. She supposed the other was feeling around for her organs, or something like that, but it hurt. Miss Gervina seemed to know a lot more than Gabby too. But her eyes teared up when her fingers kept pressing around her lady bits and into her labia. Finally, she withdrew. “There. It wasn’t so hard, was it?” Gabby closed herself with her wings again and let a soft sob escape her. Indifferent, the younger griffoness wearing a blue cape delivered her clipboard to Gervina, who started writing. The former then tried comforting Gabby, patting her head softly. “It’s over sweetie.” She spoke before turning to talk to Gervina. “What’s the verdict?” Gervina never stopped writing on the clipboard but responded with an aloof tone. “She is at least ninety-eight percent Saddani with some Shaddani, but it doesn’t matter. Her blood is so filthy with pony magic she might as well be a hippogriff. Her maidenhead is intact. At least she’s not lying. Normally, we’d just let her go with a notice not to leave the town, but she has some relevant relations. We’re sending her to Griffindell.” Gabby looked up when the younger griffon in the blue cape wiped her tears off. “I don’t know what any of that means.” “You are going to meet your future queen, sweetheart.” The griffoness soldier, bringing her a dishful of food, said with a cheery tone. “I wish I could get that luxury. You should eat. The worst has passed.” Gabby still didn’t really understand, but her nostrils filled with the smells of the food. Chicken fillets dipped in a brick-red sauce, and she was hungry.