An hour into night, Spike belched. The brilliant green flame covered the bookshelf that he was dusting. A scroll materialized, falling to the floor.
He frowned, grumbling, “Geesh, I’m glad it wasn’t a real flame. Twilight would have my scales if all of these first editions were sneezed out of existence.”
He picked up the scroll and opened it. It was a long scroll with instructions and magical formulae.
He raced up the stairs to the bedroom, calling out, “Twilight! The princess sent a letter and it’s urgent!”
The purple unicorn trotted over form her she had been writing in her journal of magic research. Magically levitating the scroll, she read it aloud:
“My dependable Twilight Sparkle,
Below is a spell to temporarily disrupt the magical aura of a powerful object. The Memory Stone is called a repository of living memories because the chief’s life force was used as the guiding mind for the stone. The stone itself is considered alive and it does not know that the rest of the village is gone.
Casting the spell once an hour will daze the living essence enough for anypony to carry the stone out of the Everfree Forest, which supplies the stone with all of the raw magical energy needed to store and retrieve new memories.
The reason for the behavior of the griffons is that long ago, before the arrival of the K’klattcha, the beetles lived underground eager to find a way to the surface to rampage and conquer. The griffons, ignorant of the violent nature of the beetles, agreed to scout a way for their population to emerge into the surface world in a place other than the cold mountains. The warm Everfree Forest was perfect and the griffons were paid handsomely for their efforts.
When the K’klattcha broke through, Stratum’s ruined village was the first to fall to their pincers. Nopony survived, but the last living chieftain recorded his memory of the event and the griffon who discovered the crack in the rocks. Living memories are more convincing than simple verbal accusations. With a functioning Memory Stone, one pony could convince entire populations of a past event that contradicts history books.
Knowledge of this event is embarrassing to the griffons. If this event were commonly known, then Canterlot could renegotiate our peace treaty to our advantage, including the possibility of land concessions. The King of the Griffons does not wish this to happen. However he learned of the Memory Stone, he has decided to send his scouts to steal it while his Air Force threatens us from the northern border.
If we gain the stone, he may attack. In that case, we must engage them at the border and not over populated areas. If they gain the stone, then they will do so by force and Stratum’s group is in mortal danger.
We will not allow any harm to befall our subjects. Twilight Sparkle, you must learn this spell and make haste to Stratum’s camp. Take a strong pony with you to help pull the cart faster out of the forest. On the path where the Everfree Forest emerges in to Equestria, I will send a team of unicorns to bring the statue to Canterlot. They will pool their energies to transport artifacts which may resist on their own. The statue will not allow itself to leave the ground as long as it is in the Everfree Forest.
Make haste, my faithful student. If we can receive the statue soon, we might be able to diffuse the Griffon King before he becomes too entrenched to back off with dignity.
Yours faithfully,
Princess Celestia”
Twilight looked up from the scroll with a determined look on her face. Mentally, she calculated what she needed to take along for the trip.
Spike fearfully, asked, “Twilight? Does this mean there will be war?”
The purple unicorn stomped a front hoof and declared, “Not if I have anything to say about it. Pack my saddlebags for a long trip. I’ll need to swing by Sweet Apple Acres to pick up Applejack for the trip.”
The baby dragon began stuffing one side pouch of the saddlebags with daisy and daffodil sandwiches. He asked, “When do we get back?”
Twilight stuffed a couple of geography books and spellbooks into the other pouch and said, “Oh no. I need you here in case something important happens. The princess will need to be notified immediately if any griffons attack Ponyville. Would you tell the others, please?”
Spike, proud to have an important role, saluted and sped off to Carousel Boutique to start distributing the news.
Two days later, Fluttershy was going through her morning routine of feeding her animals. She had just brought worms to the birds in her trees when her ears turned to the sky.
Tilting her head back, she thought she heard a sound…like a whistling. Still there was nopony in the air.
Waving it off as just a stray thought, she turned to decide where she would go to collect some fish.
Suddenly, the whistling sound started again from above. Looking up, she saw a pair of griffons descend from above. They emitted a war shriek, paralyzing the kind pony.
One griffon landed in front of her while the other landed behind her. The griffon in front snarled at the yellow pegasus, “You! Tell us where you hid the ruby statue!”
Fluttershy curled into a ball and began to tremble openly. She shakingly answered, “I-I-I don’t h-have any st-st-statue.”
The griffon shrieked loudly, brandishing a razor-sharp blade affixed to the middle of his wing joint. He leveled it at the yellow pegasus, who recoiled away from the weapon.
She bumped up against the griffon behind her, feeling trapped. Looking up, she recognized the other griffon’s face.
“G-Gilda? What are you doing here?”
The first griffon barked, “Never mind her. You’re gonna tell us where that statue is, or else…” He swung his wing in a vicious backslash across Fluttershy’s door. The blade bit deeply into the hardwood, carving a long gash across her front door, doorframe, and outer wall.
The yellow pegasus gasped and began to cry. The first griffon looked around and saw all of the animals on the property. Some were trying to ineffectively surround the griffons. Others were cowering. One was a tiny, annoying rabbit who kept kicking the griffon in the foot. He got an idea.
He threatened, “If you don’t tell me exactly what I want to know, then we’re just going to have to ‘ask’ each and every one of your little friends here.”
Fluttershy’s pupils shrank to tiny dots. She threw herself at the footclaws of the threatening griffon and begged, “Oh, please-please-PLEASE! Don’t harm my little friends! I promise you I don’t know! If I had it, I’d give it to you right now and that’s the truth! Please, take me instead!”
The aggressive griffon smiled a nasty smile. Gilda knew what he was thinking. Redclaw was never known for his sense of mercy.
She spoke up, “Uh, hey! That won’t be necessary because she’s gonna tell us who’s really got the statue!”
Both the aggressive griffon and the yellow pegasus looked over to her inquisitively.
Gilda explained, “Look around, it’s like a hotel for crawling things. Why would they store such an important thing in a place where some things are just gonna build nests all over it?”
Fluttershy nodded, agreeing, “Yes, it’s not here!”
Trying to seize the momentum, Gilda grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders and brought her up to her beak.
Staring her in the eyes, she demanded, “All right, Klutzershy, now talk! Who’s got the magic statue?”
The kind pony babbled, “W-w-well, the o-only one around for m-magic stuff is Twilight. Sh-she went into the E-E-Everfree Forest the d-day before ye-yesterday.”
The aggressive griffon slapped his foreclaw across his face in frustration. He griped, “That means the unicorn already has the statue!”
Gilda said, “Well, we better report this. We can’t fly into the Everfree Forest by ourselves. We’ll need reinforcements.”
The griffons snarled at Fluttershy and then flew off. Fluttershy trembled and then sobbed. Several birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and otters came over to comfort her.
Angel bunny just kicked her in the flank. She looked up at him. He pointed deliberately at Ponyville.
Drying her tears, she declared, “You’re right, Angel. I have to warn the others! Take over for me while I’m gone!” With that, the yellow pegasus flapped her wings steadily and raced towards the Ponyville.
Suddenly, half of the assembled animals heard a rumbling from their stomachs. Realizing the huge task that lay before him, Angel slapped his paw to his face and rubbed it downwards strongly.
Minutes later, Fluttershy burst into Carousel Boutique.
She screamed, “RARITY! I need help!”
Immediately, the white unicorn galloped from the kitchen into the main showroom…and proceeded to get her legs tangled in measuring tape, trip, fall into a pile of shiny fabric, knock a box of patterns off of a table, hit an inclined broom, launch a box of glitter into the air, spin around on the floor, get the flailing ends of the cloths tangled in multiple fitting dummies, and stand upright in a shower of glitter amongst six captured dummies.
Fluttershy momentarily forgot her trouble and clapped her hooves together in astonishment. “Um, that’s really impressive, Rarity. What do you call it?”
Embarrassed, the white unicorn began to struggle within her web of fabric and tried to speak dismissively, “Oh, it’s just something I threw together at the last second. Now what is the matter, dear?”
The yellow pegasus stomped her hooves into the floor and recited rapidly in a single breath, “Oh Rarity it’s so terrible there were these two griffons and they were so mean and they carved my door and they threatened my poor animals friends now what did they do to deserve that they want the magic statue twilight went to get but I didn’t have it I would give it if I had it but that doesn’t make me a traitor does it no I don’t think so we just gotta warn Princes Celestia!!!”
Ceasing her struggles to conserve brainpower in the face of the longest run-on sentence of her life, Rarity made a decision.
She called out loud, “Pinkie Pie!”
A whooshing sound precipitated the flinging open of the front door to the fashion shop. A dust cloud surrounded the pink earth pony, who stood at attention like a soldier. She saluted and replied with a big smile, “Yes, ma’am?”
Rarity ordered, “Get Spike!”
The pink one saluted and then raced off towards the library.
The sound of a big splash echoed into the shop.
“AAAAAHHHHH!!!” The sound of a very young dragon screaming echoed into the shop.
Pinkie ran back inside the shop and saluted, “Done.”
The white unicorn had made very little progress in untangling herself. Looking over to the front door, she did not see anything resembling a dragon.
She fussily demanded, “Pinkie, where’s Spike?”
Pinkie Pie replied truthfully, “Back at the library. He’s probably still drenched after that huge water balloon.”
Fluttershy smiled, and then smiled wider. She tried to smother her smile and almost succeeded.
Rarity sighed greatly and then moaned, “Please bring Spike here.”
Pinkie replied, “Okie dokie lokie!” She raced over to the library, grabbed Spike in her mouth, and then raced back to the boutique. She put him down in front of Rarity.
Spike asked flatly, “Pinkie, wherefore you strike me in my shiny scales with that ice-cold water balloon?”
The pink one pointed a hoof at the white unicorn, explaining, “Rarity ordered me to do it. She must have had a reason.”
Spike gazed at the glittery unicorn of his dreams, all tied up in colorful streams of fabric and surrounded by dressmaker dummies.
He plaintively asked, “Rarity? Why would tell Pinkie to do that? What did I do to upset you?” After a moment, he asked in confusion, “Are you trying to be a pop star now?”
Rarity’s temper soared to maximum.
Her white coat turned red as she screamed, “GET ME OUT OF THIS NOW!!!”
The others jumped into action, untying her and brushing the glitter off of her coat.
Rainbow Dash flew in through the open door and said, “Geesh, what happened here? It looks like a tornado swallowed up one of your fashion shows and then threw it up all over you.”
Rarity glared at the blue pegasus, clearly not amused.
The pegasus landed, subconsciously walking behind Pinkie Pie.
She offered diplomatically, “I heard all the screaming and thought I’d help.”
As the others finally succeeded in untying Rarity, the white unicorn stated imperiously, “Spike, take a letter.”
Confused, he looked around and asked, “What could we learn about friendship from this?”
Rainbow Dash jested, “That Rarity needs supervision when in one of her creative moods.”
Pinkie Pie answered, “That somepony needs to be clearer with her instructions lest some otherpony might wind up wasting a perfectly good jumbo water balloon.”
Fluttershy offered, “Um, maybe…that glitter makes everything better?”
Rarity carefully swept the last of the glitter from her mane and said, “Fluttershy, tell Spike what you told me. Spike, you need to write this down and send it to the princess. It’s urgent.”
The baby dragon shook off the water, and then produced a quill and parchment, ready to transcribe.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and reiterated, “Oh Rarity it’s so terrible there were these two griffons and they were so mean and they carved my door and they threatened my poor animals friends now what did they do to deserve that they want the magic statue twilight went to get but I didn’t have it I would give it if I had it but that doesn’t make me a traitor does it no I don’t think so we just gotta warn Princes Celestia!!!”
The dragon blinked…and then blinked again.
He scribbled a couple of words down and then politely asked, “Could you please repeat that last part?”
The yellow pegasus smiled gently and said, “Of course, which part was that?”
Spike wisecracked, “The part after ‘Oh Rarity’.”
Rainbow Dash laughed loud and hard, curling a foreleg across her midsection.
“Ah, ha ha! Ha ha, hee hee! Ho ho, hee! Man, you can’t better than this! You guys should do this for the next talent show. You’re guaranteed to win!”
Rarity summarized, “Fluttershy was attacked by griffons at her home. They threatened to hurt her animals if she didn’t give them the magic statue Twilight’s going after.”
Fluttershy added, “They had blades on their wings. They’re very sharp.”
Spike rapidly scribbled a quick note to the princess and then sent it off with his special fire breath.
Sitting at a long table laminated with a map of Equestria and the surrounding territories, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia gazed at the dozens of reports, lists, and figures of ponies and griffons. Also sitting at the table were over a dozen of high-ranking armored pegasi.
The dark alicorn turned to her sister and stated, “I don’t like this, sister. It makes no sense.”
The white alicorn asked, “What does not make sense?”
Luna pointed at the northern border of Equestria and pointed out, “If they were going to attack, why would they assemble and then wait for us to assemble also?”
General Ironhoof, a pegasus with a brown coat, black mane, and gray eyes, spoke up, “They have attacked. There have been three aerial battles thus far. All three were draws.”
Princess Celestia added, “My sister makes a point. All three battles were directly over the border, not clearly on either side. They clearly have been choosing the sites of each battle. Why not make battles in pony territory?”
The general objected, “They attacked Horseshoe Hill.”
The white alicorn refuted, “Minor damage only. They carved up the front faces of the buildings and drove out the ponies. When your squadrons arrived, they fled.”
Ironhoof reasserted, “Because they fear us! They would have killed everypony if we had not arrived!”
All of the armored pegasi stomped their hooves in support and whinnied.
Princess Luna patiently declared, “My sister states that they did not have to wait for you to arrive. They could have killed half of the town while you were still on the wing. They waited until you arrived, put up a front, and then retreated. It was never their intention to harm anypony.”
General Ironhoof frowned and asked, “What are you saying, Princess?”
Luna said plainly, “War is not their goal. They want the Memory Stone and they’re willing to do anything to get it. If we move our Air Force away, they’ll attack. If we don’t, they’ll do something else. I wish I knew how they were going to get the stone if they can’t use the spell to transport it.”
Suddenly, a scroll appeared before Princess Celestia in a flash of magical fire.
Using her horn’s magic, she levitated and unrolled the scroll. She read it silently, grimacing at the end.
She declared, “Ask and you shall receive, my sister. Small patrols of spare griffons are using wing blades to terrorize ponies into being willing to give up the Memory Stone if they ever see it coming out of the Everfree Forest.”
General Ironhoof thumped a hoof upon the table and offered, “Just tell me how many to draw from the front lines and we’ll garrison our western borders!”
Princess Luna pointedly asked, “How many can you slip away without being seen by the griffons?”
The armored pegasus frowned and replied, “None. They’re watching us like hawks…er, griffons. They’ve got eyes of eagles. They miss nothing.”
Princess Luna cautioned, “If they see us sending reinforcements towards their operatives, they may panic and start an all-out war.”
Princess Celestia read the letter again, trying not to dwell upon the terror that befell the gentle yellow pegasus she knew well.
She ordered, “General, fire up the mobile outpost. It’s time we upped the stakes. Send it to take position over the farms west of Ponyville.”
The general replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. However, we’ve only got a skeleton crew on it now. Who are we going to send on it as fighters?”
Celestia continued giving orders, “Send word to Steele. He needs to make pegasus armor. This model needs to be light and the joints flexible. It specifically needs to block a blade without making the pegasus too heavy to fly, turn, or fight in mid-air.”
Princess Luna nodded and said, “I will head up this project. Who is going to wear the armor?”
The white alicorn spread her wings wide and looked up to gaze at the assembled table. She issued her command, using her full confidence.
“Bring me Spitfire. I need the Wonderbolts!”
The next day, the citizens of Ponyville marveled at the sight of a huge cloud shaped like a small castle with a road next to it flew overhead and headed westward to the farms.
Soon, flyers came drifting down overhead. Several ponies picked up flyers and read them. Many excited voices were raised to the skies, calling their friends. In time, several dozen pegasi headed towards Cloudsdale for the rare event.
Rarity frowned as she began sweeping all of the flyers away into a wastebasket outside of her shop. She grumbled as she did her chore.
“Inconsiderate pegasi. Dumping their refuse onto us without a thought. I have a good mind to go up there and teach them a lesson about littering.”
Suddenly, a happy, bouncy pink dynamo sailed in from above and landed in front of the white unicorn.
She shoved a flyer into the white unicorn’s face and shouted, “Rarity, Rarity, Rarity! This is her big chance! She’s always wanted this and now it’s here!”
The unicorn pushed her energetic pink friend backwards and focused her gaze upon the flyer.
“Hmmm…’Are you the best flier in Ponyville? Prove it at the open tryouts for the Wonderbolts today.’ Say, that’s happening in just an hour from now!”
Pinkie Pie hopped up and down faster than anypony had seen her do before.
Her mouth was a blur as she agreed, “Yes! Yes! Yes! She needs to try out! She’ll make it for sure!” She grabbed Rarity by the shoulders and demanded, “Where is she?!”
The white unicorn gently pushed the pink earth pony backwards and advised, “No more cake before breakfast, dear. I haven’t seen Rainbow Dash today. We need to find her.”
Just at that instant, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew over from the direction of the library.
Fluttershy consoled her friend, “Oh, Rainbow Dash, I’m sure nopony remembers.”
Pinkie pointed her hoof at the blue pegasus and shouted, “Found her! What do I win?”
Rarity showed the flyer to Rainbow Dash and stated, “Darling, have you seen these? I’ll bet the Wonderbolts would love to have you try out. You’d be a horseshoe-in after winning the Young Flier’s Competition with a sonic rainboom.”
The blue pegasus looked away and mumbled, “Oh, that. Well, it’s not the right time. I gotta train for something like that.”
Pinkie’s face scrunched into a confused ball as she said, “Train? You’ve been training every day of your life! You even slack off from weather duty to train. This is the right time!”
Rainbow Dash angrily glared at Pinkie and said firmly, “I’m just not up for it, okay? Maybe next year. I’m just not ready now.”
Rarity insisted, “But dear, you could really help! You’ll be asked to safeguard ponies from the attacks of griffons. You’d be a bona-fide hero! You do want to help Twilight and Applejack come home safely, don’t you?”
The blue pegasus growled in frustration and took off for the sky. She made a beeline right for her house where nopony without wings could bother her.
Pinkie Pie and Rarity just stared after her with their jaws hanging open.
Fluttershy gave them a sad look and asked, “Just be patient with her. This kind of thing brings up some bad memories.”
Rarity queried, “But her dream is being offered to her on a silver platter. Why is she resisting?”
The yellow pegasus informed the others, “Remember how she never finished flight school? Well, this is something to do with that.”
Pinkie Pie just mentioned quietly, “But this is her dream. She won’t give up her dream, will she?”
Fluttershy flew up after Rainbow Dash at a normal pace. She knew where the pegasus would be.
She called back, “I’ll talk to her.”