Chapter 19: Of Prisons and Planning
“She’s your mother.”
Kalyn was pacing around the cell he shared with Rell, wings and feathers fluffing up in agitation. White padding with a splint ran the length of his broken wing, gauze wrapped around his middle to keep it immobilized.
“Yes, she is,” Rell said simply, huddled in the corner of the cell.
Novell’s eyes followed the tinker’s movements, his own wounds tended to in a similar fashion. The griffons had been adamant on taking them prisoner, but had offered them healing just the same. Fierce, but honorable, the pegasus thought, glancing with longing at the hallway between his prison and the griffon’s. Their cages were across from one another, with Quills, the Professor and Amber beside Rell and Kalyn’s. Pensive and Whisper shared his.
“Rell, I know you couldn’t tell me, but why did you court me? I’m just a failed inventor from the lower Aeries. You’re... you.” Kalyn seemed obsessed with the answer.
Professor Search cleared his throat, drawing the young griffon’s attention to the cell he shared with Quills and Amber. “Love has no reason, my boy. It just exists.”
The tinker paused at that for a moment before resuming his pacing. “I’m sorry. I’m just... nervous. I’ve been locked up before, but this is the Matriarch’s order! What’s going to happen to us? What are we going to do?”
“Nothing is going to happen to us,” Rell replied woodenly. “Mother will let us out as soon as the Hippogryphs are quelled. We must simply wait.”
“Wait for a whole species to be wiped out?” Whisper asked from beside Novell, her nose pressed up against the bars. Bandages and poultices littered the mare’s body from the various wounds she’d sustained inside the mountain. “And what’s going to happen to Rez? Do you think your mom’s just going to let him go?”
Rell stared back at the questions blankly. “He’ll be allowed to live, a curiosity and a pet.”
“And you want that for him? What happened to you? Havoc’s still out there!” Quills snapped. “You were so full of fight before we got here. Did you just give up?”
The griffon’s claws scraped across the stone floor and her eyes glittered dangerously. “Of course I did! Mother agreed to let Rez live if I didn’t fight! Why else do you think I sit here like a mewling kitten, waiting for the end of this slaughter?”
All of them grew quiet at the admission, though Novell had already guessed as much. He had seen the look pass between mother and daughter on the way to the Invention Aerie. It had been a warning and a threat. The pegasus sighed, continuing to watch Kalyn’s agitated movements and trying to come up with something to get them out of this mess.
They had tried to get a message out to somepony who could put the information about Havoc to good use, but the jailers had refused to deliver any such thing. They were stuck, with no ally who could help them. Not even teleportation worked—Kalyn had told him this section was warded against all spells, a place Hippogryphs and other magic-using races were kept confined.
So they waited. Quills lay against her mother, head laid protectively over the mare’s neck, while the Professor examined his notebook, giving his cellmates space. Pensive slept, recovering from his overuse of magic and Whisper fed a leaf to Swirley, who had by now shrunk back to his regular size.
Hours passed, the torches lighting the area flickering and sending shadows across the wall. Novell grimaced, wondering what was happening outside the walls while he was trapped here, unable to lift a hoof against Havoc’s machinations. Every so often he stretched his once-more wounded wing, feeling the pull of irritated tendons. It would heal soon, he knew.
All the while, the white pegasus thought about Whisper. The orange mare was in love with him, she’d said, but was that just because they were about to die? He almost gave voice to that thought as soon as it slipped into his mind, but he checked his tongue. At least I’m learning something, the pegasus thought with an inward grin.
Eventually food was brought to their cells. Cold meats and potatoes were given to the griffons, neither of whom seemed altogether interested in the meal. They picked at the meat with their claws and speared the potatoes, eating mechanically.
The sight and smell of meat from another living creature still made Novell uncomfortable. The pegasus could tell it made Quills somewhat ill as well, judging by the way she was chewing her own food with an expression of disgust. Of course, it could also be that these salads are as soggy as a raincloud, Novell mused.
A few minutes after the food arrived, Pensive woke from his slumber, eyes more alert and alive than before his collapse at the mountain. The pony’s head rose from his folded legs and he looked around, seemingly unsurprised by his surroundings. We are imprisoned again, the unicorn thought dryly through their telepathic link.
Of course we are. It’s a running theme for us, Novell responded the same way, his eyes falling closed once more. He put away his thoughts of escape and returned to the questions he’d saved for the other pony. What happened in the mountain?
Pensive didn’t answer right away. I was fused with the hippogryph. It was... different.
I imagine, Novell thought wryly. But why did you fuse? How did it happen?
The stone, the other mused, chewing on his own plate of soggy vegetables. Havoc’s power of shifting forms lay within the stone. When Rez gave it willingly to me, that ability became part of me. I... this one must admit that this one panicked when the power filled this one’s body. It was unlike anything this one has felt before, except...
Except what? Novell asked when the unicorn trailed off.
Except when I received my mark from you, Novell, Pensive thought, and the pegasus could feel his friend’s eyes boring into the side of his head. Regardless, when this one panicked, this one accidentally fused with the nearest ‘combination ingredient’, as it were.
Rez, Novell surmised, to the feeling of a mental nod from his companion as the unicorn grew more comfortable with the topic.
Indeed. This one—I do not hold the amount of raw magic Havoc does, so I cannot shift forms without another to help me, it seems. Even now, there feels like there’s something missing when I attempt the spell.
You tried to turn into something? Novell asked, opening one eye to look at the unicorn.
Pensive nodded at the bars. Before Kalyn explained the dampening fields around this chamber. It is difficult to explain, but while I can feel my magic would have no effect here due to the fields, there is still a... hole.
Novell rolled that idea around in his head for awhile. Even if the unicorn had to have some other entity to transform, the opportunities it could afford the party on their quest to stop Havoc were staggering. He re-estimated their chances, already beginning to form new strategies against the chaos god.
Well, go back to sleep for now, Pensive. There’s nothing you can do now and Quills said you need rest to restore your reserves, the pegasus thought with a ruffle of his wings. I think we all need a little bit of rest.
Time passed, the rough, wooden plates were taken away and the companions waited. There was little else to do.
*****
The piercing squeal of iron hinges resounded through the small prison. Novell awoke from his half-doze, thoughts coalescing together with little difficulty. Even so, the pegasus wondered what was going on—the next meal wasn’t for a few more hours, if his predictions were correct.
Voices began to echo through the stone halls, another series of hinges squeaking in dismay while a distant clanging of metal on stone struck in a measured report. Novell moved closer to the bars, staring as best he could down the hallway to the large oak door standing guard over their particular wing of the prison. He closed his eyes and attempted to listen to what they were saying. Any news would be welcome at this stage.
“What are they saying?” Whisper asked softly, her breath hot on his neck.
Novell’s eyebrow twitched in surprise, but he otherwise didn’t react. “I can’t tell. They’re getting closer, though.”
“It’s Scrolls,” Quills said suddenly, moving away from her mother for the first time and closer to the bars of her own cell.
Now that the pegasus had that thought in mind, he could recognize the persuasive tones of the young stallion’s voice. Whatever the colt was saying, someone else was responding, their voice somewhat exotic and teasingly familiar.
He opened his eyes as Scrolls and his mysterious companion drew up to the doorway. By now, everyone else was awake and staring curiously in the direction the noise was coming from. Professor Search glanced at him with bushy, upturned eyebrows, a clear message: help seems to be coming. Novell nodded in reply.
“Open it, Sir Renault, if you please,” Scrolls asked crisply and clearly.
When the door banged open, a large, armored griffon padded through first, eyes suspiciously moving from one cell to the next, almost as if he expected one of them to be attempting a prison break. Scrolls walked in next, his eyes brightening as soon as he saw his sister. His eyes widened even further when he saw who lay next to her, a reaction quickly covered by a smirk.
“Well, well, well, you found her then. Wonderful. Didn’t I tell you they would, Akun?”
Novell blinked in surprise at the next entity to walk into the prison. Akun, the zebra information broker they’d met when they first arrived at the Invention Aerie, smiled benevolently, nodding in confirmation to the young stallion.
“Indeed you did, my young friend, and your forethought I must commend.”
“Spare us your rhymes, zebra,” another voice said before stomping loudly into the steadily filling room. “I’ve had enough of them for one lifetime.”
It was Steelfeather, the pegasus from the embassy. Unlike the others, his eyes were filled with anger, silver armor decking his body. It was a war garb, Novell realized, heavier than the kind royal guardsman wore. That was the source of the clanging he had heard earlier.
The armored pegasus glanced at the prisoners with disgust and contempt. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let ‘em out.”
“Please excuse my gruff companion, Renault,” Scrolls smoothly stepped in. “He’s impatient and ill at ease in these confining spaces. Pegasi, you know.”
The griffon seemed to accept that, though he still eyed Steelfeather with annoyance. “Fine.”
Novell’s cell was the first to be opened, the sturdy iron bars sliding away on the heavy hinges. Unlike the door, these were silent and well-oiled, a strange detail until the pegasus remembered they were infused with magic. I have a habit of getting myself into magical prisons, don’t I? the pegasus thought dryly as he stepped out.
“Nice to see you, my boy—” Professor Search began before being interrupted by Quills rocketing into her brother and wrapping her hooves around him.
“Don’t ever leave me again, Scrolls,” the young mare muttered into her twin’s coat.
Scrolls just smile and ran a hoof down her back. “Might have to, but I won’t like it when I do.”
Quills slugged him in the shoulder. “You have no idea what I just went through. We almost got killed several times, we rescued mom and we blew up a mountain! Well, technically Novell did that, but still.”
“Huh. Well, I didn’t blow up a mountain, but I did save a few lives here myself. Also kind of got myself embroiled in a clan war, kissed a griffon and made a couple of new friends,” Scrolls replied, waving his hoof around on each point for emphasis.
Akun chuckled at that, speaking in a low tone. “He is modest, your friend. He did much more than that in the end. But that is a story for another time—right now, we must commit a crime.”
Novell drew his eyebrows down at that. “What do you mean?”
The zebra just smiled mysteriously and winked in reply.
“Alright, alright, everypony, let’s go, move it out,” Steelfeather called out loudly, snorting and stomping at the ground. “Hey, Sir Renault, what are you doing? Open up the griffon’s cell too!”
Novell turned to the conversation as the griffon responded with a shake of his head. “No authority over griffons. These be prisoners of the Matriarch herself.”
Steelfeather growled. “Fine! Scrolls, I’ll be stepping outside see Darkmoon. See if you can get... what you need out of this buffoon.”
Scrolls disengaged from his sister and moved past the Professor and Pensive, who were tending to Amber. “Renault, Renault, let’s not be so hasty to make snap decisions. I believe you heard my associate Steelfeather here humbly request a transfer. After all, these griffons were in, ah, ‘cahoots’, as you say, with my friends here. Very much an Equestrian matter, this.”
The guard leaned down to look the colt in the eyes, his beak turned down in a snarl. “You are lucky the Equestrian Embassy took interest in this matter, but their reach extends only so far. The Matriarch left specific orders that—”
Akun stepped forward at that moment, holding up a hoof. Novell caught a flicker of gold powder just before the zebra blew it in the guard’s face. To he griffon’s credit, he drew back and clamped a claw over his beak, but by then the pollen had already taken effect.
“Dazey powder,” Novell whispered as the griffon continued backward, falling to the ground after attempting one last, lazy slash through the air.
Akun nodded, his teeth gleaming white in the torchlight. “Indeed, young pegasus. A staple of my race’s, but that is a fact you already knew, no? Ah, but it seems fate has drawn us together, though I daresay the information to be gathered here has done the same.”
“I’m beginning to grow troubled by just how much you know, Alchemist,” Kalyn said through the bars, his voice suggesting familiarity with the zebra. “But this time I am glad to see you.”
The zebra nodded and pulled a vial from his bag, gingerly unstopping the flask with his teeth. “As am I, Kalyn Pinfeather. Perhaps more of your father’s designs will suffice as payment for this rescue?”
“Come now, Akun, I’ve given you more than enough to trade for helping me release my friends,” Scrolls pouted, a smile curving across his muzzle.
Akun winced as he twisted his head to pour a green liquid on the bars, which began smoking and crackling like burning popcorn. “You wound me, young stallion. I only wished to—”
“Get more out of the bargain than you already have,” the colt responded dryly. “I’m aware.” Scrolls turned to the rest of them, gesturing to the door. “Everypony else, please move into the hall. The Dazey powder won’t last long and the last thing we need is an enraged griffon attacking us in a confined space.”
Professor Search furrowed his brows as he carried Amber out of the room in his telepathic grip. “Perhaps leaving you here was a grave mistake. You’re even sneakier than you were before.”
Scrolls grinned widely. “I take that as a compliment, Professor.” It fell away when he stared at Amber. “Keep her safe.”
“This time, I will,” the Professor replied, nodding his head toward Pensive. “Come along, Pensive, Quills. We’ll follow Steelfeather’s clanging steps—that pegasus is entirely too noisy for his own good. You know, this reminds me of the time I saw him last, actually, in this very dungeon. Of course, he was the prisoner, but there were extenuating circumstances, not the least of which was a rampaging baby firefrog and the Matriarch’s consort...”
Novell nodded for Whisper to follow the three ponies as the Professor’s voice became indistinct. The mare complied, rubbing an affectionate wing across his neck. He shivered, watching her grin evilly on her way out. Swirley winked and shifted through a barrage of colored messages just before he disappeared that could only mean trouble for the white pegasus. Novell shivered again.
When he turned back to the griffon’s cage, the portion that connected the keyhole to the rest the doorway was slagged. Akun was already stuffing the green vial back in his bag. Scrolls gingerly stepped over the griffon guard, who was sound asleep and whistling snores through his beak, and opened the cell door with little difficulty.
“After you,” the young stallion said, bowing.
Kalyn brushed past him, looking nervous but determined. “I’m probably going to see this place again soon, but I hope I make enough difference that I can see it again. Rell?”
The female griffon stayed where she was, staring up at him with those fierce, golden eyes. “We shouldn’t. Rez will be hurt. I can’t leave, as much as I want to.”
“Rell, there’s no time for this.”
“He’s right, you know. Only about ten minutes left before the guard wakes up,” Scrolls put in calmly.
Rell shook her head, her claws once again gouging the stone. “I can’t, Kal’. If I go out there and he dies—”
“We can save him,” Kalyn cut her off, his eyes boring into hers. “But only if you help me. After all, I’m the thinker...”
“...and I’m the warrior,” the other griffon replied softly, nodding her feathered head. She stood up, walking past Kalyn with a determined glance that matched the tinker’s own. “Fine, I’ll come. And Kal’?”
The tinker looked at her quizzically. “Yeah?”
“This is why I courted you,” Rell muttered, snapping her tail in his face and disappearing down the hall at a swift lope.
“My, my, what romance we have here. My people do say the best place to find your other is in the prison of their embrace,” Akun said, eyes glittering mischievously at both Kalyn and Novell, “but I do not believe this is what they meant.”
“As much fun as trading quips would be, I think it’s rather time to go,” Scrolls put in, stepping past the others and stopping at the door. “Coming?”
“Off we go,” Novell replied with a small smile.
*****
The corridors of the prison were just as dreary as the cells they were kept in. Slick flagstones exuded a chill from between the cracks in the floor, the pitch-dripping torches doing little to combat the cold.
Novell quickly caught up with the rest of his friends, Amber still unconscious and floating between the two unicorns in the party. The two griffons were at the front, Rell padding silently down the halls with Kalyn right behind her. Whisper was walking beside Quills, the older mare glancing around at the corridors like there were enemies at every turn.
Scrolls and Akun were conversing softly as they went, their tones too low for the pegasus to make anything out. Judging by the way they’re talking, though, they either have a plan or are coming up with one, he thought, chewing on his lip. Still...
The pegasus strode up to the two conniving friends, wondering idly at how swiftly friendships occurred. “I hope you two have a way of getting us out of the prison. When we were brought in, there were more than a few griffons between us and the exit.”
The earth pony looked up at him and waved a hoof as if dismissing the notion. “The Matriarch brought most of the guards with her when she went to war. In fact, she brought most of the criminals too, to act as front-line warriors. Very... brutal. Besides, Darkmoon said not to worry about any that left, that he would ‘handle them’.”
Akun smiled, his teeth gleaming in the low light. “The magi is as powerful as he is wise. I would trust his word.”
Novell sighed. “But there’s still going to be guards, maybe even ones patrolling through these corridors. I’ve seen griffons fight before, Scrolls. Not something we want to run into without being prepared.”
“Hmm. You’re probably right,” Scrolls admitted. “Hold on, Professor.”
The old unicorn stopped just before the next corner. “What is it?”
“We need to configure the group a little better. Steelfeather and Darkmoon should be at the entrance, but if they aren’t we need to be ready for anything,” Scrolls replied.
Novell nodded in agreement. “Whisper, I need you to be in front of the Professor to defend the rest of us if Kalyn and Rell get involved in a fight.”
The mare nodded resolutely. “I can do that.”
Rell’s eye tracked to him, dilating slightly. “I do not enjoy the thought of attacking my own kind, even if I am trained to do so. They are just guards following their duty.”
“Not like that stopped you when we were captured,” Quills muttered.
“I’m not comfortable with it either,” Kalyn agreed, “but this is about more than us, more than a few guards. This is about the Kingdom. Besides, you know nonlethal techniques, don’t you?”
“They will not be so confined by such rules.” Rell clicked her beak in frustration. “I hate this.”
Novell didn’t enjoy the thought of it either. Just imagining having to fight other ponies in more than a tussle sent a sympathetic frown across his face. As if sensing his disquiet, Whisper bumped slightly against him as she moved to the front. The pegasus rustled his wings at the touch, nodding to the mare to know her message was received. No use dwelling on things when they had a goal in sight.
Rell glided forward like a wraith, peering around the corner, already back in what Novell thought of as her huntress stance. It was the way she held herself lower to the ground, stalking like a cat seeking to remain utterly silent. Her claws didn’t even scratch against the stone like normal, each talon and paw placed with the utmost care. The griffon glanced back at them after a moment’s examination, beckoning to them with a flick of her tail before vanishing around the corner.
The rest of the party followed as silently as they could, but with hooves, walking quietly was nearly impossible on hard surfaces. A quick conference between Professor Search and Pensive later, however, resulted in a small spell that dampened the sound they made against the stone. It wasn’t enough to completely cancel out all sound, but hopefully it would be all they needed.
A shame these corridors are so narrow. Flying would be so much quieter, Novell thought with a flex of his wings. Of course, not all of us are pegasi, either...
“Why are we here?”
The young, growling voice drew the pegasus out of his thoughts. He froze in place, taking in his surroundings as the rest of the group stopped around him The corridor they were in was ending a few meters ahead, uneven steps visible and leading upward in a spiral staircase toward the exit. Novell remembered stumbling down those steps on the way inside.
“Because the Matriarch ordered us to be,” another responded gruffly, with the distinctive click of a beak.
Rell glanced back toward Novell, motioning everyone to remain quiet with one paw. When the pegasus nodded, she stalked ahead, slow and sure. Kalyn followed her a few seconds later, attempting to imitate his friend’s gait. He succeeded, though it was clumsier in comparison.
A light flickered yellow against the spiraling stone. “They’re just ponies. What are they going to do besides sit in their cells and preach friendship?”
“You’re young, Sill, but don’t underestimate them. Ponies can be fearsome opponents when they want to be. They can control the weather, wield magic and their kicks can knock you out cold,” the older griffon replied, coming into sight with a torch in his claws. “I should know. I once—”
Novell didn’t get to know what happened once, because that was the moment when Rell sprang. The huntress leaped through the air, impacting the old griffon with cold ferocity, knocking him to the ground. Before the other could respond, Kalyn joined the fray, tackling the younger griffon in a solid hit.
It was over in a matter of seconds. Rell delivered a savage strike against the torchbearer, rapping the griffon’s head back against the stone with an audible crack. Novell winced at the sound, a strange sickness overcoming him. This wasn’t the way any thinking creature should behave against another. But we have no choice...
Kalyn had more trouble with his own opponent, receiving a batting talon to the beak. The tinker was stunned, almost tumbling backward down the stairs in his daze. He recovered himself before that could happen, snapping his head forward and impacting the younger griffon square in the forehead. The guard went limp and Kalyn shook his head—Novell knew that had to hurt.
“Kal’,” Rell started concernedly before being cut off.
“I’m fine. Just... just dizzy,” the tinker said, holding his head in both claws.
Whisper strode forward, frowning. “Let’s hurry. These can’t be the only sentries in the place. Best if we move before they or we are found.”
The group continued on, wending their way up the spiral staircase. More torches lit the walls at even intervals, the sound of water dripping against stone competing against the pitch dripping from the fire. Novell noticed the cold, looking concernedly at Amber cocooned in her shell of magic.
Why isn’t she waking up? Is it because of what she’s been through?
Pensive’s presence blossomed in the pegasus’ mind. She has been awake for ten years, Novell. Staring out at the cave, aware of it all. Her mind is healing and the only way for that to happen is rest.
How do you know? Novell replied unhappily, shivering at what the earth pony had been through.
Because the stone held her memories, which are now part of me. When two become one, such a fact is unavoidable.
Novell felt sick. And how do you know that?
Pensive remained silent for a moment, his telepathic connection seeming to bore into the pegasus’ mind. Because Havoc is the one who said those words. His memories are stored in the stone, as well. The stone is what called to me in the mountain, why I knew what to say. It was the reason I knew how to make the hippogryph hatchling give me the power. It is how I knew to combine with his body to create the solution to our problem.
They reached the top of the staircase, just the slightest hint of puffing breath issuing from the Professor. It was otherwise silent and, with Rell’s signal to continue forward, only a corner followed by another hallway remained between them and freedom.
“What if there are guards outside the prison?” Kalyn whispered, barely audible to Novell’s ears.
Rell clicked her beak, her feathered face pensive. “Then we deal with them.”
Scrolls whispered into the quiet, “It should just be a skeleton crew maintaining the outside. As I said before, most of the griffons have left for war.”
“Always be prepared for any eventuality, young pony,” Akun admonished softly. “But in this case, I believe our friends in high places have things well in hoof.”
“Steelfeather and Darkmoon,” Quills guessed, glancing at the zebra. “They’re here for more than just to get us out of here. But why did Steelfeather leave us earlier?”
Akun’s eyes glimmered with glee. “So as to not be implicated. A noble pegasus like Steelfeather with questionable loyalty and many years still ahead would reflect badly on the Equestrian political front. But an old unicorn with a fondness for one of the prisoners, almost a grand-daughter to him... well, age has its ways on a long-serving mind, as even the griffons know.”
“So Steelfeather won’t be outside the prison, either,” Novell said. “Can Darkmoon handle himself?”
Quills nodded fiercely. “He can. He may be old, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t powerful. After all, he didn’t just walk into his position.”
“Then let us leave and be prepared either way before we’re discovered,” Professor Search put in. “The glow of my magic isn’t the stealthiest method for escaping a prison.”
“Very well. Kalyn, follow close. Whisper, keep to my left. We’ll attack in an arc if we encounter any resistance,” Rell said with authority.
The two other fighters nodded, flanking the huntress as the group continued down the corridor. Novell and the others let them walk ahead a few paces before following, the end of the dreary corridors in sight.
Rell reached the door first, with Kalyn and Whisper on her tail. They stopped, the huntress staring through the heavy iron door. It had a single closed slat inlaid in its face at eye level, one that could be used to look through the door without opening it.The griffon’s claw slowly reached out, pressing it flat against the door. She looked at Whisper and Kalyn one more time, receiving a nod from both of them.
Rell pushed the door open, the hinges squeaking loudly in the narrow hall. She slipped out, stealth already made moot, with her two compatriots on either side. Novell and his companions followed a moment later when no sound came from the exit.
“Good morning, everypony,” Darkmoon said blandly, laying down in the middle of the cave in the midst of five griffons.
Whisper was standing next to Rell, her mouth hanging open. “How did you...”
The unicorn glanced around at the bodies with a bemused expression. “A simple sleeping spell, of course. They hardly expected it, though,” he paused, poking a hoof at a particularly large griffon who’s claw was inches away from him, “this fellow shook the first one off. Your kind truly are more resistant to magic than even I expected, young Kalyn.”
“How do you know me?” the tinker asked with confusion etched across his beak.
Darkmoon smiled amiably. “Scrolls mentioned your name when we came here to rescue you, though I have heard of your father’s works in the past. His monocle in the Royal Library is quite something.”
Kalyn blinked his yellow eyes at that. “I... never understood how he manage to imbue magic in it.”
“I helped him, of course!” the old magister replied, standing shakily to his hooves. “Ah, these old bones betray me.”
“Careful, Elder.” Rell rushed forward to help him, holding him as he stood up completely.
“Thank you, my dear,” Darkmoon said to her before glancing to Novell. “Now, we must be going, everyone, before the relieve guard arrives. Young Light please explain to me as we go exactly what happened that you managed to anger the Matriarch, of all griffons, and end up in this ghastly prison.”
“Where are we going?” Whisper asked.
“To the embassy,” Novell replied, receiving a nod from Darkmoon. “And then to stop Havoc.”
*****
They gathered in the upper floor of the embassy, arranged around a magical projection of the Griffon Kingdoms powered by a spell of Darkmoon’s. The light from the image lit everyone’s face a faint blue, all of them staring at Novell as he finished explaining the events that had unfolded in the mountain.
“...so the Matriarch decided to lock us up,” the pegasus said, flexing his wings. A small twinge of pain shot through it, but otherwise it seemed to be healing swifter than before.
Steelfeather snorted, stomping the ground with an iron-shod hoof. “This is ridiculous. You performed a sonic rainboom? Inside a mountain? That’s preposterous.”
“Hey!” Whisper started, only to be shushed with a raised hoof by Darkmoon.
“Calm yourself, young Wind,” the old pony said softly. “While Steelfeather is understandable in his doubts, the exact reasoning behind the mountain’s demise is irrelevant. What interests me is this stone you said you... absorbed, Pensive Coalescence. You say Havoc was after it, that it contains his power?”
Pensive nodded, stepping forward a bit. “Indeed, Elder. When my originator was imprisoned in the mountain near the Everfree Forest, his powers were cut off from him and stored in various places throughout the land. From what I can gather of the stone’s memories of the incident, Discord had originally kept them himself to taunt his brother, but when the Princesses arrived, they were split to be kept safe.”
“Leaving one in the care of each of the races that border Equestria,” Professor Search offered, his logbook open in front of him. “One to the Dragons, one to the Camels, one to the Griffons and the last to the Hippogryphs. Each contains a power to be safeguarded by the races, one that I believe may be used by the holders themselves, though to an extremely limited extent.”
Darkmoon nodded. “The Staff of Will the Griffons carried was long said to be a power from before Discord’s first banishment. I was not aware of this stone that lay in the care of the Hippogryphs, however. Even more curious is the circumstances by which the Staff was stolen, since it can only be given rather than taken.”
Quills grimaced. “The Matriarch lied about it being stolen.”
“That's impossible,” Rell said immediately, glaring daggers at the young filly.
The earth pony stared straight back at the larger creature’s eyes. “No. You may not have noticed, thanks to your little spat of anger, but the Matriarch was carrying a staff, one that looks suspiciously like the one she was given to safeguard. Only there was one difference—the gem that tops it was gone.”
“That’s right,” Novell muttered, remembering the strange sound the staff had made when it touched the grass outside the mountain. “It sounded like the staff was cracking against marble, even on the ground. But where did the gem go?”
Kalyn tapped his claw against the wooden floorboards. “It can only be given. So if it wasn’t stolen, the Matriarch had to give it up. But she would never...”
Rell stared at the other griffon, realization sparking across her features. “No. Not even she would be that foolish.”
Scrolls snorted angrily. “Would someone please connect the dots for the rest of us?”
A cold chill swept down Novell’s back as he figured it out. “She gave it to Havoc.”
“What?”
The room was shocked into silence before the Professor broke it, his eyes wide. “My boy, that is quite a jump to conclusions.”
Novell shook his head. “No, it isn’t. Something has been bothering me ever since Havoc passed us up in the mountain. How did he shapeshift if he hadn’t received the stone’s power yet?”
Professor Search opened his mouth, a hoof up, but no counter argument came out.
“It’s because each stone isn’t specifically linked to one facet of his power,” Novell continued. “They all have to have some kind of cumulative effect. I mean, we all know he’s shapeshifted before, has teleported before. Those abilities should have been taken away completely, but they weren’t. That has to mean that he can become more powerful not only specifically, but generally as well. The first time we saw him, he could only take the form of himself and a small blue ball of light. Now a full grown hippogryph? It has to be that he was given the piece of his power.”
“That would explain why the hippogryphs have suddenly become more hostile toward the griffons,” Darkmoon mused. “The Staff of Will no doubt has Havoc’s ability to manipulate the races, to coerce them to his own ends just as he did before the reign of the Princesses. The stories told of this entity before even Discord were terrible. War and strife took hold in the hearts of the just and noble.”
Steelfeather growled. “Then how are we supposed to defeat something as powerful as that? If we would do battle with him, what is to stop him from manipulating us, forcing us to fight our allies?”
Akun chose that moment to speak. “If we are to understand how to stop an entity such as this, we should refer to the past. How was this ‘Havoc’ stopped before?”
“He was tricked into a trap,” Quills snorted derisively. “But that’s not likely to work again, especially since we’re not as powerful as Discord.”
“Not necessarily, my dear,” Professor Search said, squinting at his logbook through his glasses. “We may not have the power to perform such a feat ourselves, but we do have a source of power that may well serve our purposes to delay Havoc.”
Possibilities ran through Novell’s head before he picked the most likely one. “You mean the Hippogryphs, don’t you?”
“Such was my thought, yes,” the Professor replied with a nod, casting his gaze about the room. “If we can convince the Hippogryphs to see Havoc as their enemy, and if we can flush him out of the disguise he assumed back in the mountain, then we may have a chance at turning them against him. After all, they are a proud race and it would anger them greatly to have been used.”
“So... how are we going to do that? In case you hadn’t noticed, even if we stopped the Hippogryphs, the Griffons are still involved in the fight as well,” Whisper added, waving her hoof at the mystical map. “We have to stop them, first.”
Quills nodded. “And even then, how would we channel their powers into something that could stop Havoc? They are more likely to attack individually or by clans than together.”
“Darkmoon,” Novell said after a moment of silence in the room. “Do you know of a Hippogryph by the name of Tombfeather?”
The old unicorn glanced at the pegasus and shook his head. “I cannot say that I do, young Light.”
Novell furrowed his brows, remembering what Tombfeather had told him before he had left the mountain. “What of the eggs that were traded to form the truce between the Griffons and Hippogryphs so they could hold back the Dragons? Do you know anything of them?”
“Ah, yes, I do. A tragic story, especially considering the importance of the family lines entrusted to each race,” Darkmoon replied. “Is there a reason behind these queries, lad?”
“Rell was granted custody of a Hippogryph hatchling by her mother, the Matriarch,” Novell said, watching Darkmoon and Steelfeather glance with surprise at the griffon.
Rell whistled through her beak in a snort. “I suppose keeping it a secret any longer is useless. His words are true, though I am most definitely not on her side in all of this.”
Novell flexed his wings, a plan coming together in his mind. “The fact that the Hippogryph hatchling was being hidden from his species is something I have been puzzling out ever since we found him with Rell. When I was in the mountain, I talked with the guardian who warded over the tombs of Hippogryph ancestors.”
Steelfeather hissed in a breath. “A Hippogryph grave site? Yes, I suppose that would make the Griffons declare it off limits. I always wondered.”
“Tombfeather, the guardian, told me that the hatchling under Rell’s protection was unusual for a special reason,” the white pegasus continued, trading glances with the assembled ponies and griffons. “He is the egg that was given to the Griffons to form the truce. That’s why he wasn’t sensed by the Hippogryphs. It wasn’t the progeny of anyone currently living.”
Everyone reacted in different ways to the news, Darkmoon and Steelfeather trading uneasy glances, Professor Search dropping his logbook to the floor. Quills and Scrolls’ eyes widened, something flashing through them.
The twins spoke in unison, “The text!”
“What text?” Whisper asked in confusion. “And what do you mean Rez was the egg in the truce? Wasn’t that like thousands of years ago?”
“Something like that,” Novell said, glancing at the twins. “What text are you two referring to?”
Scrolls tapped his hooves on the ground excitedly. “There’s a text in the Royal library back in Canterlot. It’s from the Griffons, one of many tomes copied over when the Princesses still ruled together. In it were various... well, I wouldn’t call them prophecies so much as a series of guesses and hopes. There was one that said—”
“—the Griffons were suspicious that the Hippogryph egg entrusted to them was replaced with a fake sometime during their care of it, but that they needed the truce too much to let the fact be known,” Quills took over from her twin, eyes alight. “When the egg was eventually destroyed, many of these scholars agreed that should they find the real egg, they should raise it as their own with Griffon interests in mind. Strong, magic blood runs in the real egg’s veins and the Hippogryphs would band under its rule due to that. They are—
“—magically attuned, after all, even more than unicorns, and value such strength of magic. But it was never found by either the Hippogryphs or Griffons; elsewise they would never have returned to war against the Griffons or been ultimately suppressed and allowed to live in the valleys around the Kingdom,” Scrolls finished.
“And now my son is under my mother’s cruel claw,” Rell said bitterly, scratching grooves in the wood with her talons. “She must have known, as the Matriarch. She is supposed to be the sum of all wisdom and knowledge. But where did she find the egg?”
Novell had his own guesses about that, but there were more important matters to deal with first. “That’s irrelevant right now. We need to stop Havoc. To do that, we need Rez.”
“Where is the Matriarch right now?” Kalyn asked, turning toward Darkmoon.
The unicorn tapped his lip with a hoof, his horn brightening momentarily and causing a new figure to appear on the map in front of them. “There. One of our agents is within her camp, just outside the area where the Hippogryphs are gathered. I believe they will attack as soon as the Matriarch’s armies have arrived, which should not be long.”
“We’ll never get there fast enough in the balloon we took to the Twin Talons,” Whisper muttered, her wings flapping agitatedly. “It’s too slow, even with me and Novell helping.”
“Novell and I,” the white pegasus corrected absently.
“Whatever,” the orange mare snorted darkly.
Novell shook his head. “Sorry. I’m just... I miss the sky and...”
“Captain Skycrasher!” Quills said excitedly. “She can get us there on time! But I don’t know if they’ve fixed the hole...”
Akun smiled, the zebra having been quiet nearly the entire meeting. “You are referring to the Southern Belle, yes? My agents supplied the lumber for the reconstruction and my workers helped the good captain with the repairs, for a decent price. It is nearly, if not already, finished.”
Darkmoon nodded, his horn flashing and squeezing the map into a small ball of magic that he drew back into his head. “Very well, our course is decided. We have the means and a plan, but there is still the problem of freeing this Rez from captivity. The Matriarch’s armies make attacking her directly quite improbable.”
“Don’t you mean impossible?” Whisper snorted, stomping her hoof against the ground.
The unicorn smiled and shook his head kindly. “Nothing is impossible, my dear.”
“And I’ve got a plan for that, anyway,” Rell said, clicking her beak with finality. “Just get me close to my mother.”
*****
“Fly? Now?” Skycrasher asked groggily, squinting up at Quills from her place under a table in a local bar. “Hon, we’re grounded. Matriarch’sh ordersh.”
Rell clicked her beak impatiently, glancing around at the bar where the rest of the crew was passed out on tables, below tables and even one pegasus in the chandelier above them. “We need to leave now, Captain. More lives than you can imagine rely on our haste.”
The maimed pegasus sighed and stretched before getting wobbly to her hooves. “Well, I guessh I should tell you this ishn’t the firsht time I’ve been, ah, grounded in an inconvenient place. I ushually had time to prepare for thoshe, though...”
Novell held a hoof out to keep the mare from falling to the side, mindful that the others were already waiting near the Southern Belle, waiting to board. “What do you need?”
“Well, firsht off, I’d like another drink,” she replied, motioning to the bartender, who was a sour looking buffallo. The large ball of fur and horns kicked out a hind hoof, smacking against a massive keg that only just outsized him, sending a burst of liquid into a waiting mug hanging on the buffalo's horn. With a deft shake of his head, the buffalo sent the mug sliding into Skycrasher’s waiting hooves.
“You can barely stand as it is,” Rell pointed out disgustedly.
The blue pegasus rounded on the griffon, her white mane sashaying about her face in a disorganized mess. “Lishten, griffon I—heh, that rhymed—I can... captain the Shouthern Belle no matter how... how unsteady I and me crew are. In fact, we’re even better with a few roundsh in ush! Right Rigs?”
“You got it, Cap’n... Cap’n Shky!” the skinny unicorn mechanic piped up, his head popping up off a nearby table to look blearly at the group. “What’re we talkin’ ‘bout?”
Clank rolled to his hooves with a burst of steam and a clanking step. “She’sh talkin’ bout pilotin’ into the comin’ shtorm drunk ash a shkunk, o’ course! Wait... where are we again? Dromadry?”
“Lash Pegashush, I think,” Rigs replied, scratching at the scruff on his chin.
“Oh,” the larger of the two replied, glancing into an empty mug with sadness on his face. “I know a mare here.”
Captain Skycrasher drained her cup with a satisfied gasp before slamming it on the bar and fishing around for a few bits in her flight jacket pocket. “‘Ere ye go, ‘keep. Alright you cloggin’ thunderheadsh, get up! Up, up, up! We’ve got a ship to fly!”
A chorus of groans came in reply as the unsteady ponies shuffled to their hooves.
Skycrasher nodded in approval, nearly falling forward with the weight of her head and turned to Novell. “Sho where are we flying, ye handshome fluff o’ feathersh?”
Normally the white pegasus would have blushed, but he remained serious. “We’re flying into a war, Captain.”
“Oh,” the other pegasus replied, goggling her eyes at him before shrugging. “Okay, well let’sh go. Wouldn’t want to missh the party.”