//------------------------------// // Other Side (16) // Story: Griffin the Griffin // by BlackWing //------------------------------// Other Side TWO DAYS AGO "Twilight! Hey Twilight! Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggg, Spike?" A wall eyed pegasus mail pony called to the inside of the library. "Yeah, hey Derpy, Twi's busy with something or other, I'll take the mail. Why don't you just put it in the mail slot?" The little purple dragon asked annoyed. "Because it doesn't go in!" "Try turning it on it's side......." "Oh right, I forgot. Again. Sorry." After Spike took the mail, he brought it down to the basement where Twilight was nerve wracked. "How, how do I do this? I mean, I can do it, but I don't know HOW I'm doing it! Gah! This is frustrating!" "Still going on about that letter Twilight?" Spike asked. "Well of course I am! It doesn't make any sense! It's a hoof! It's flat and doesn't have any digits! How can I pick things up as if it had fingers? And pianos, they don't make any sense at all! Why would we make something that needs fingers to play?" She asked nervously. "That's what I've been saying this WHOLE TIME. YEARS I've been telling everypony this, and FINALLY somepony listens." Lyra was exasperated that she had somepony to share her insights with after all this time. "I think it's a magic field that all ponies have extending from their hooves, like magnets, except with innate magic, but I can't tell for sure, and that doesn't explain piano or musical instruments! If it was like a magnetic field, it would be a general area and lack the precision needed. I need more tests. At least the magnets made sense." Twilight argued with herself. "Ooooookaaaaaaay then. Here's the mail." Spike passed it to his pony sibling, who then tossed it to Lyra. Ignoring anything personal, she began to read the paper. "Hey Twilight, I think you might want to read this....." "Hey Rarity, Twilight wants you to come to the library, we're all having a meeting. I already gathered up Pinkie, AJ, and Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash called into the boutique. Rarity called back that she was coming, and would be there in a minute. After they all arrived at the iconic tree house, Twilight began her speech. "Sorry I've been out of sorts for the past couple days, this research has me stumped. I mean, how can we just pick things up with our hooves without any graspers?" "Silly Twilight, you just pick it up, see?" Pinkie exclaimed, lifting a pillow in her hoof. "Yes, I know how to do it, but I don't know how it works. Anyway, that's not why I called you here. THIS is why I called you here." The lavender mare slapped the front page of the newspaper to the wall of the library and pinned it up. Looking at the photos, they all stared at them seriously. "Trixie and Gilda are workin together as pirates? When the hay did that happen?" The orange earth pony asked. "About a week ago. Apparently this one, 'Griffin the griffin' is the leader. While Applejack and Fluttershy don't know him, the rest of us do all too well." At the mention of his name, Dash gave a hmph, and pouted angrily. Rarity had a tear in her eye, Pinkie looked solemn, and Twilight went a tiny bit red with anger, but not very much. "Griffin the griffin? What kinda name is that?" Applejack scoffed. "Sounds like sompony's got no originality." To which Pinkie stuffed her hoof in AJ's mouth. "Don't say that! It's a soft spot for him! When he came to town, I laughed at his name when I promised not to, and I hurt his feelings. He tried being nice to me and.... I blew it. He wasn't even mad afterwards." Pinkie explained. "I don't see how he's gonna know about it on accouta he ain't round here no more." Aj reasoned. "He has Griffin sense! He knew things he shouldn't have! He never met me and he knew about cakes and parties and pies and big mean meanie pants! Then he caught a pot that fell! He sees everything!" At which point Pinkie creepily turned her head all the way around, prompting all the others to put hooves to their mouths for fear of losing their lunch. "Wait, he's with Gilda.... then it was her." Dash said sadly. "What was her?" Fluttershy asked, not liking Gilda, but wanting to know more. "He told me he had a friend who saved his life. He fought and killed an 80 foot dragon by ripping one of it's scales of and diving down it's throat to save her. When he apologized for blowing his fuse after I, um, did some mean things to him, he told me it's because his friend was a runaway slave who's family is underground, digging up gems for the diamond dogs. I thought it might have been Gilda, and now I know it was." Dash explained. "Well, that explains her bad attitude." Rarity scoffed. "I was her only friend, and I couldn't see how much pain she was in. I made new friends, and I left her behind. Of course she'd get jealous and act out! And now she's all alone....." Rainbow began to cry. "She's not alone, she's with Trixie and Griffin. Look at this photo, she actually looks happy." Twilight pointed at the paper. "You, you're right! She's much better off." "That brings us to Trixie. While Griffin and Gilda's crimes have 'Assist in prison escape' Trixie's has 'Prison escape' and 'Jewelry theft'. It sounds to me as though she fell on hard times, took to stealing to eat, got busted, then those two broke her out. It, it's my fault she's like that." Twilight looked sullen. "Don't you be thinkin like that Twi, it's her fault cuz she was bragging and showboating! Ya had to show her up!" Applejack argued. "Yeah, but that was her job. She was a showpony, she's SUPPOSED to do that. And she didn't bring the ursa, Snips and Snails did. Even when she was way outmatched, she still tried to fight it. We could have just ignored her, but WE tried to show her up." Twilight responded. "I notice she isn't wearing her hat or cape, and the title doesn't say 'Great and Powerful' anymore." Rarity remarked. "Probably because when she went around tooting her own horn Gilda tried to strangle her." Dash said with a laugh. Everyone but Fluttershy shared a giggle. "What about him?" Fluttershy asked nervously. "That's the thing, he's an enigma." Twilight replied. "An eh what now?" Applejack asked. "A mystery." Spike explained the vocabulary. "It means we know next to nothing about him." "For example, he claimed to have a number of bad things happen to him, being betrayed by his friends, but the things could have only happened here in Equestria." Rarity piped up. "What do you mean?" Dash asked. "Well, for starters, he claimed that at a formal gathering among very important ponies, he had his garb ripped off of him to embarrass him at the event, but there are no such things outside Equestria that we know of." "That's right, the Dominion hasn't had a government for 900 years. Unless he came from south of the equator, but nopony knows what's down there, and if he had come from there, what was he doing up north? No, it must have been somewhere in Equestria, but who would do something like that? They'd have nothing to gain. Nopony get's satisfaction simply from hurting somepony else." Twilight thought. "Well, there is the alien thing." Spike added, to which he received strange looks. "Oh come on, he's not an alien, aliens don't exist." Dash interjected. "Well, we don't have any evidence proving that they don't exist, and to say they don't just because we haven't found any evidence that they DO is well..... ignorant." Twilight replied. "He told me not to 'murder him with questions', as if he thought I was going to talk his ear off. When I asked him why I might ask him a lot of questions, he told me no reason, because he was a regular griffin and not an interdimensional alien in disguise. By the way, by the face he was making, he's a worse liar than you Applejack. It made it sound like he was trying to learn more about our world, changing into the first thing he came across, being a griffin like Gilda, and then got stuck in his disguise. This also explains why his name is so ironic, and why he may or may not have abilities like the Pinkie Sense. While the odds are astronomical, it's the only explanation we have that currently makes sense." "Which explains why he was so awkward when he was here, he was trying to have a low profile, but he just keeps getting in a string of bad luck. Attacked by a dragon, attacked by diamond dogs, attacked by Rainbow Dash. Not knowing our laws or customs, probably got in trouble with authority too, so is now on the run, trying to figure out what to do next. It also explains the books he stole. He took practical knowledge on how to survive in the wilds." "So, he killed a dragon, but I beat him into the dust? Does that mean I'm tougher than a dragon?" Dash puffed up her chest. "Actually Rainbow, it means he wasn't trying. He probably doesn't want to hurt anypony, and just got forced into it." Fluttershy deadpanned in her 'Pinkie, I'm a year older than you' voice. "How can you tell?" Rarity asked the timid pegasus. "His picture. His eyes, they look, sad. He's got a smile on his face, but his eyes say that he's miserable just being alive. There's an endless amount of pain hiding behind them." AT THE TREE HOUSE "I can swing my sword-sword, that you can't afford-ford. Gonna be the lord-lord, when I raid the horde-horde. I CAN SWING MY SWORD-SWORD!...." "SHUT UP DUMBASS!" Gilda interrupted his song. "We're trying to sleep!" AT THE LIBRARY "So, to try and survive, he's picked up anypony useful he can along the way. They're all on the wrong side of the law for one reason or another, so they've teamed up to stick it out. But becoming pirates? That's basically declaring war on peace and harmony! Calling themselves the Griffin Pirates is like spitting on the princess herself!" Twilight was confused, Why was he doing this? "Well, he said that there are thousands of griffins living in fear of being eaten, and thousands more as slaves, and that he was going to get them out of the pit of despair or die trying." Rarity choked on her words. The thought of thousands permanently living in the conditions she was in for a single day was horrifying. "You mean, he's planning a full scale griffin slave rebellion?" Dash asked in disbelief. "I believe so. There's something strange about him though. They're pirates, but they aren't raiding or plundering. According to this article, they actually went out of their way to save Prince Blueblood and some of his escort that were taken prisoner by a group of dogs. They got no reward for it either." Twilight mused as to why they're doing such a thing. "Well, it don't seem strange ta me." Applejack said, receiving stares from the rest. "What? Who says he's out there just fer the griffins? They're all livin in slavery, which he wants ta change. If he just sat there on his flank while ponies got made inta slaves, he'd just be a hypocrite. Y'all already said he's a bad liar. He's tryin ta change the world fer the better, and this is his only way ta do it." "Then, why not ask the princesses to do something about it? They're super duper nice and wouldn't want anypony to be sad or grumpy!" Pinkie suggested. "Because the princesses have a lot on their plate already. Endless amounts of work go into keeping Equestria running the way it is, she can't just take over the Dominion too. It would be too much." "Ok, so that explains what he's doing here, and why he's doing it, but it doesn't explain how. How'd he get here, and why'd he choose our world?" Twilight asked. "His past experiences. They don't happen anywhere on this world except in Equestria, and those awful things that happened DURING them don't happen anywhere except OUTSIDE Equestria. Which means he really is from another world, where ponies are terrible enough to do things like that. He got sick of his life, and decided to leave. He probably looked around, saw Equestria, and said, 'Well, that looks nice,' and headed here, but somehow wound up in the dragon lands. That's when he came across Gilda, he found that their lives are just like his old one, and while he couldn't do anything about his, he CAN do something about theirs, seeing as how he has all that knowledge. Alien technology, although he didn't have any on him, he could probably make some. All in all, he's trying to make our world a better place, not just for ponies, but for everyone. The griffins enslaved by the diamond dogs, and the diamond dogs who have to enslave them so they get enough gems to appease the dragons." Rarity theorized. She wasn't as smart as Twilight, but she knew how the world worked. "Then what happens to the dragons?" Spike asked nervously. "Well, I hate to say it, but you saw that scale on his back. The handle was made from bone. He's probably going to kill them. He's done it once, and he'll probably do it again." Twilight realized her mistake when she saw Fluttershy curl up into a ball. "K....k...kill? D...d...d....dragons?" She stuttered. They couldn't tell whether she was worried about the killing part, or about the dragon part. "Well, unless he can find a peaceful solution to it, which, given the way he acted here, he'll try. But, me, Rarity, and Dash went with Spike to the dragon migration. They went to the Volcanic badlands. We all know how they are. They're brutes. They destroy just for fun. They cause ruin wherever they go. They won't listen to reason, and, if he's as strong as we think he is, he'll kill a lot of them. Among dragons, black dragons are the toughest. They limited themselves to eating only diamond and obsidian for years, meaning their scales are the hardest there is. He managed to beat it by flying inside it. Other dragons wouldn't stand a chance against his sword. It can cut stone like scissors through fabric. A diamond dog couldn't bite through it." "So, he's going to wipe us out?" Spike asked nervously, but also confused. He had been pleasant to the little purple dragon when he had been there. "No, he's probably going to go on population control. Finding the most destructive and evil dragons and putting an end to them, taking any who will change with him. Don't worry, you're safe Spike." Twilight reassured. "There, I mean, there must be another way..... killing... it isn't right...." Fluttershy stuttered. "Which is why he's a pirate, and why he needs to be stopped. You're right Fluttershy, there MUST be another way besides violence. This is something huge. I need to contact the princess with my theory, and we have to set out after him. We need to find him and convince him to stop." Twilight replied. "You know the most disturbing part about this?" Rarity asked. "What?" Dash replied. "Up until he arrived, none of us had any idea what's happening in the rest of the world. We were perfectly happy living our lives. I checked into my gem sources, almost all of them come from Gem Fido at some point or another. That means, up until now, I've been a profiteer of slave labour without even knowing it, and that's dreadful." They all sat and recalled their horrible underground adventure. "How could we be this dense? How could all of Equestria be this dense? We're living in this utopia while all this has been going on right under our noses." Twilight pondered, as she began writing a letter to Celestia. Dear Princess Celesta, In regards to 'Griffin the griffin', I believe I have determined his goal. He intends to incite a slave rebellion to free the griffins from captivity in Gem Fido, and murder a large number of dragons in order to decrease the population, which will in turn stabilize the northern provinces. There must be another, nonviolent, way to achieve this, and so we have set out after the Griffin Pirates in an attempt to sway them to peaceful means. We have also discovered that in all likelyhood, Griffin is actually an alien who came to our world to escape his own, only to find that outside of Equestria is the same as the world he left, and so decided to do something about it. This however, is only a theory, and while the probability of the existence of aliens is unlikely, it is possible, and this theory at the moment makes the most sense. Wish us luck on our quest. Sincerely, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Ps, I am still unaware as to the mechanism behind how we hold things without fingers. While I believe it may be a magic field similar to magnetism, centered around the hoof, I must run more tests. Magnets however, work by having unpaired electrons all spinning in the same direction, creating a field. I did not have to research that, it was in atomic physics 101. After having Spike send the letter, the group got prepared, in much the same manner as when they set out to stop a dragon from snoring. Fluttershy did not like the idea of running into the group of bandits, but it had to be done, for the good of Equestria. If need be, while she swore she would never use it on somepony else, she would use 'The Stare' on Griffin if all else failed. After getting ready, they set out towards the jungle after the group. What they did not know, is that they were being watched, and everything they said, overheard. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER BOUNTY HUNTERS YAY!" Of course, their outburst was heard by the mane 6 who then scolded them and specifically told them that they were not allowed to go because it was too dangerous, having Applebloom held by Big Mac, Sweetie Belle held by Rarity's parents, and Scootaloo with Mrs Cherilee. After they left the library, Pipsqueak snuck in, although he didn't need to as it was a public library, he didn't want to get in trouble for being there when it was unattended. He took the newspaper off the wall, bringing it to his own house. Taking the wanted posters, he hung them up above his bed, dressed up in his nightmare night pirate costume, and proceeded to swashbuckle against imaginary opponents next to the trio whom, despite their being newly formed, he already considered legendary for having taken the first step, something nobody had done for 600 years. What, you thought I was gonna send the CMC to die in some hair brained scheme to catch Griffin? Being used to having the trio pull this kind of thing, they were half expecting to be spied on, as that's what the three did whenever the six of them had a meeting. I made this chapter to give a bit of a look at the other side of what's happening, what the mane six are up to, as well as what happens on a daily basis with Griffin during all those "ONE WEEK LATER" moments. He doesn't always sing, it's normally something different every time, and it drives everyone else with him crazy. But, they put up with it anyway.