How To Train Your Batpony

by peter

Chapter 2a [edited]

Warning. This chapter has spoilers for “Diplomacy by Other Means” by Georg.
It also has a small dark section, but no gore, just nasty language implying it.

“Pinkie said you wanted to see me, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked as she zipped in one of Golden Oak Library's open windows.

“Rainbow Dash! Thank goodness Pinkie Pie found you. It’s Gilda.”

The pegasus pony’s ears twitched, and she gave an aggravated snort while a mingled feeling of regret and anger caused her normally good-natured countenance to sour. “What has she done now?” she asked while going over the possibilities in her mind. Pinkie Pie hadn’t mentioned Gilda, and her ex-friend certainly hadn’t sought her out. If she wasn’t just causing general chaos, that left a disturbing possibility. “She hasn’t been bullying Fluttershy, has she? Cause if she has, I’ll--”

“Hah, as if! So that’s what happened. She tried to get tough with mom, and mom messed her up good. No wonder mom was so stressed. She hates being mean, even to jerks,” a high pitched voice said in a gloating tone of voice.

Eyes wide, Rainbow snapped her head around and stared at Curry Comb, who was sitting on the floor, her legs crossed, with a massive book laid across them. Rainbow hadn’t even noticed the small snipe was there, she had been sitting so quietly she had blended into the background. Which was really weird, because even after all this time to get used to her, Rainbow still thought that Curry was one weird looking critter. Maybe the little snipe blended in so well because her current outfit matched Twilight’s coloring? Or maybe it was just a human thing?

Curry didn’t even look up from her book while these thoughts ran through Rainbow Dash’s head. She carefully turned a page as the pegasus watched her. “Hey, Griffons eat ponies! No wonder mom was so rough on her,” Curry exclaimed. Strangely she seemed to find the concept more exciting than horrific to go by the expression on her face.

Twilight Sparkle frowned as she took a close look at the book Curry was reading. A pair of glasses floated up off her desk and onto Twilight’s muzzle. Rainbow grimaced as her friend shifted into lecture mode while Spike appeared out of nowhere, pushing a chalkboard showing several drawings of ponies and Griffons in poses of peaceful cooperation. Using a hoof to push her glasses up her muzzle slightly, Twilight said, “Actually, that was a very long time in the past, and even then it was not a common thing. It was mostly practiced by the most barbaric of the Griffon tribes. Those tribes don’t exist anymore. I think that reference book is a bit out of date.”

“Yeah, like the ones that says Dragons are mindless brutes who live to collect treasure and eat maiden ponies,” Spike interjected. “They don’t eat ponies either.”

“Well, she must have done something! Or, Mom wouldn’t have messed her up,” Curry said stubbornly.

“Wait, wait! Hold on, Time out! What do you mean, Fluttershy messed her up?” Rainbow Dash yelled out, as she finally registered what Curry was talking about.

Curry placed a finger on the page to mark her place and looked up at Rainbow Dash like she was slow or something. “Just like I said. I was wondering how come something as awesome looking as that griffon got so badly mauled. But, according to this book, griffons are mean, nasty, vicious, brutes, who don’t practice proper hygiene. So she likely pushed Mom too far. What’s hygiene, Miss Twilight?”

“Well, Curry, that means the author does not think they bathe as often as they should.”

“What? And that makes them bad?” Curry said, her expression showing that the reliability of the book she had been reading had taken a serious downturn. “I bet they never ate ponies either.”

“Well--” Twilight started to say as she clearly wrestled internally between telling the truth or using a reassuring lie. Rainbow Dash knew if she didn’t stop her friend before she got going, they’d be here all afternoon as Twilight produced a whole shelf of books as references, and maybe even the dreaded and much to be feared, pie-charts.

“Hold on. Hold on! You expect me to believe that Fluttershy messed up Gilda?” Rainbow Dash looked over at Twilight. “My Gilda?”

“Sure did,” Curry said enthusiastically. Then her eyes narrowed as she asked, “What do you mean, your Gilda?”

Ignoring the little snipe, Rainbow looked over at Twilight. “Ok, enough with the jokes. What really happened?”

“Hey,” Curry protested.

“Well, I’m not sure about the how. Curry came in a little while ago with a letter for Princess Celestia. Fluttershy wanted me to have Spike send it. She said that Gilda had been badly injured, and she needed some expert medical attention, only Fluttershy didn’t think that---”

“Gilda’s hurt? For real?” Rainbow shouted, her previous annoyance vanishing like water on a hot stove-top, leaving only a residue of worry behind. She hadn’t really registered the seriousness of the situation up until then. Thinking that with Curry involved it could have simply been that Gilda had gotten a face full of mud or something even nastier from one of Fluttershy’s critters. Foal level pranking. Seriously injured? That was not foal stuff! Before either Twilight or Curry, could respond she vanished, the backwash of her departure sending papers swirling and blowing over Twilight’s chalkboard.

“Darn. I wanted to ask her for a ride back,” Curry said.

“If you wait till I hear back from Princess Celestia, I’ll give you a ride,” Twilight promised as she gathered up all the objects disturbed by Rainbow Dash’s exit.

Spike levered up the chalkboard from where it had fallen on top of him.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelled out as she came zooming in to land on her friend’s front stoop. Throwing open the door she lunged inside, only to come to a screeching stop as she took in the sight of Gilda curled up in a big pet bed, looking like she’d just gone three rounds with a tornado. “What the heck?”

“It looks worse than it is. Is what I’d like to say,” Fluttershy’s soft voice came from behind a pile of furniture. “Only, that would be fibbing.”

Rainbow Dash’s head swiveled back and forth between the unconscious griffon and Fluttershy as the shy pony emerged from behind her makeshift barricade, wearing a cooking pot on her head and with a frying pan tied to her chest.

“Are you okay, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked in concern, looking for any visible wounds.

“Oh. I’m okay. Mostly. I’m a little bit stressed. But. I’ll get over that. Gilda is the one I’m worried about,” Fluttershy said in a voice that was high pitched and a bit flat in tone. Not at all like her usual manner of speaking. Clearly, Gilda had traumatized her severely. If the griffon hadn’t already been unconscious and wrapped in bandages, Rainbow would have invited her up behind the clouds for a little ‘talk.

“What’s happened to her? No. Scratch that. I don’t care. She likely deserved it,” Rainbow said, even though she was fighting the urge to check out Gilda. Only the fact that Rainbow knew Fluttershy would have done a far better job of looking after Gilda than she ever could allowed her to put on a detached attitude. “Just tell me what’s wrong with her.”

Fluttershy’s voice took on a flat clinical tone that seemed eerily calm to an increasingly worried Rainbow Dash. This was so not like her friend. “I’m most worried about her neck. That’s why I immobilized it. I think she may have some pulled ligaments. But, I can’t be sure, one or more might be torn. I am sure that she has a simple break of the left front leg. I’m not as sure if she’s broken or cracked her left wing. It was swelling and I didn’t want to take any chances so I splinted it just to be safe. I think she may also have some cracked ribs, but I’m fairly certain none of them are broken. I didn’t want to compromise her breathing so I didn’t wrap her barrel, but it would be a very bad idea for her to move much. I don’t think she has any internal bleeding. Her stomach is flexible, not hard like it would be if her body cavity was filling up with blood and fluids. There is no sign of blood on her beak or the smell of blood on her breath, so I am pretty sure her lungs have not been hurt or punctured. She’s breathing easily, so she does not have a collapsed lung.”

Listening to Fluttershy’s litany of injuries, and possible injuries, caused the mercurial pegasus’ anger at Gilda to disappear. Bad as Gilda was, she hadn’t deserved this. “Who did this to her?” Rainbow Dash asked in a furious voice. “Cause whoever did it is in for a serious cloud-stomping, courtesy of your’s truly."

Fluttershy ducked her head, letting her mane fall forward to conceal her face. “I’m afraid it was all my fault,” she whispered. “I reacted without thinking, and… well, it all happened so fast. I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t. I’m really, really, sorry.”

A snake would have had trouble matching Rainbow Dash’s jaw drop. She recalled Curry’s insistence that Fluttershy had ‘messed’ up Gilda. It wasn’t that she didn’t think Fluttershy couldn’t be brave as a lion if her friends were in trouble. If Gilda had threatened Curry or Angel Bunny, Rainbow could easily see her giving the griffon the stare and a good talking too, but actually, physically, messing up the bigger, predatory, griffon? No way. It just couldn’t happen. Yet… Rainbow took another look at Gilda. Something really had done a number on her, and Fluttershy didn’t lie. She might not speak up if she didn’t want to reveal something, but she didn’t lie. Is this what motherhood did to a pony? Turn them twenty percent, no! two hundred percent, more scarily awesome?

“So, now what?” Rainbow asked, torn between making sure that Gilda had a chance to recover, and making sure Fluttershy didn’t end up in the clink. After all, there was a new sheriff in town for the first time since the last one was stolen by Appleloosa.

“I’ve sent for a doctor who might know something about Griffons. Doctor Steady has written some very informative essays on large predatory birds and I hear that he is the foremost expert on griffon biology in Canterlot.”

“We can’t wait that long,” Rainbow said, vibrating with the need to do ‘something.’ “Hospital! We need to get her to the hospital.”

“No!” Fluttershy said, placing a firm hoof on her friend’s shoulder. Both the “no” and the action was so out of character that Rainbow actually stopped in place, though she continued to vibrate from the need to move.

“Griffons are large predatory carnivores. Putting one in a hospital full of sick, injured ponies would be a very bad thing. There could be a panic, and ponies could get hurt.”

“Gilda wouldn’t! She’s might be a bully, a bad friend, mean, nasty, cruel, callous… wait, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah. But she’s not a monster.”

“Oh no, I would never say she was,” Fluttershy said. "I’ve given it lots of thought, ever since,” she gestured toward the comatose Gilda. “Sick ponies won’t recover quickly if there is a large predator in the hospital. Even if she was in an isolation ward, they still might find out. I wouldn’t respect a doctor who would take that sort of risk with her patients.”

“You had a freaking lynx in here three weeks ago. Along with injured mice, not to mention your bunny.”

“The critters understand the rules. And they trust me,” Fluttershy said in a matter of fact tone.

“Well. Gilda isn’t a critter.”

“Yes. I know,” Fluttershy said, and while her tone of voice was still flat, Rainbow got the feeling that her friend had just insulted Gilda far worse than Rainbow had a moment before.

“So, ain’t you worried about their recovery with Gilda here?”

“Most of the critters have decided to get an early start on getting their dens ready for the winter and have moved out. All the birds are getting ready to migrate and have decided to use the outside birdhouses if they are not sleeping in the trees. So, the house is nearly empty, well, except for,” Fluttershy glanced over toward the unconscious griffon.

“I thought you said the critters trusted you,” Rainbow interrupted Fluttershy.

“Oh, They do. And I trust them. But, I’m very, very sorry to say it. I just don’t trust Gilda. I’d feel ever so much better knowing my friends are safe.”

“What about Curry?”

Fluttershy looked sad as she said, “I was hoping Applejack, or maybe Rarity, would put her up for a few weeks. Just till Gilda is better.”

“Are you going to use the Stare on Curry?”

“What? No! I’d never!”

Giving a shake of her head, Rainbow put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, “In that case, you had better figure out how to make sure Gilda and Curry can stay in the same place safely because trust me, that squirt is not going to let you send her away. So, what can I do to help?”

Fluttershy ducked her head again, and whispered, “Well, if it’s not too much trouble. I’d understand if you can’t do it. Or if you had other, more important plans.”

“Just spit it out, Shy!” Rainbow said firmly. “You know you can ask anything. Nothing could be more important than helping you.”

Fluttershy lifted her head to reveal her eyes. As Rainbow watched the thin veneer of detachment her friend had assumed bled away, revealing a wet, pleading expression.

“Will you stay with me? And Curry? Just till Gilda is well enough to leave?” Fluttershy said in a voice that sounded just a step away from a total breakdown.

Leaning forward, Rainbow enveloped the trembling pony with her forelegs and wings. “As long as you need me,” she whispered into Fluttershy’s ear.

Riding Pinkie Pie was a bit like riding a carousel pony, on springs, in a bounce house. It took a little getting used to, but if your stomach wasn’t too full it could be a lot of fun. Or so Curry had discovered since coming to Ponyville. She was currently perched on the pink pony because Spike had insisted that he wanted to come along and see for himself if Fluttershy had really messed up Gilda. That would have left Curry walking as Twilight could not carry two and Spike’s short legs gave him the priority. Fortunately, Pinkie Pie had shown up at just the right time to offer a hoof, or more correctly, four of them, along with a strong back.

“So this Gilda. She’s not as bad as the book says, right?” Curry questioned Pinkie Pie.

“She’s a real grumpy pants, and bad at sharing, with a lousy sense of humor. But there is no such thing as a bad pony.”

“But, she’s a griffon.”

“Oh, riigght. I forgot. In that case, she might be a really, really, good griffon, but that might make her a very, very, bad pony. She really, really, liked Rainbow Dash, though. So I don’t think that she could be mean and nasty deep down all the way to her toesies.”

“I read a little about griffons after she came to Ponyville last time,” Twilight said.

“How many books was that?” Curry asked, having by now started to get a handle on Twilight speak.

“Well, I only had a few in the library, and most of those were like that reference book you checked out, very out of date. I borrowed a half-dozen of the most recently published from the Royal Library, and they were a bit more up to date. Then I had the Archives pull a selection of Griffon History and Mythology books, just to get some background. Oh, and I reviewed all of the Diplomatic Corps summaries of all major battles and conflicts between ponies and griffons for the last few centuries.”

“So is Gilda bad because she’s a griffon, or just bad?” Curry asked, rolling her eyes slightly as her expectations of Twilight were met and exceeded by a large margin.

“It’s not that simple. Gilda is an individual. You have to judge her on her own merits. That said---”

“Here it comes,” Spike interjected.

Twilight ignored him and continued as if he had not spoken. “Not much is known about how griffons came to be. Or, how much of their behavior is driven by primal instinct, and how much by the intellect. They seem to be a merger of lion and eagle, but whether that is simply coincidence, or some long-ago mage created them by combining the two, is not known. Discord has been given credit by some for their creation, but it has never been confirmed. Many researchers have taken the view that they do share the characteristics of those two creatures and that their behavior can be predicted based on that. The problem with that theory is that the natures of lions and eagles don’t always line up.

“Eagles mate for life and are very antagonistic toward any other eagle that invades their territory. Lion’s do stay together with their mates, but rather than one male and one female, the male lions tended to collect harems, much like male ponies did in ancient times. If a stronger male lion could drive off his rival, he took possession of the defeated lion’s harem as his own, again much like ancient pony culture. The female lions would accept the stronger lion as their new mate. Eagles cleaved for life to just one mate and very seldom sought out another if that mate perished.

“How romantic,” Pinkie Pie gushed.

Ignoring Pinkie Pie, Twilight continued as if she had not been interrupted. “Because griffons have the head of an eagle, the researchers think that means their reproductive instinct is to mate for life, and that is borne out in most of the histories we have of their race."

“Well, that’s just silly. Everypony knows that it’s the heart that controls love. And they have the heart of a lion, so they likely want lots and lots of lovers. Well, if they’re stallions anyway… What do they call a male griffon?”

“A Drake, or Tercel. A female is a Hen, but two of the authors I referenced were very adamant that it was extremely unwise to refer to a female griffon as a hen within her hearing. As to head versus heart, Griffon’s seem to mate with a single partner, but they are intelligent beings. I don’t think you can base your attitude about their likely behavior on animal instincts.”

“So, what has this all have to do with Gilda being bad or not?” Curry asked.

“Well... Nothing,” Twilight confessed.

“Oo, oo, but what if the head guys are right, and Gilda thinks like an eagle? Wouldn’t that mean she wouldn't want to share Rainbow Dash with any other pony?”

“That’s just silly. They’re not even the same genus,” Twilight said dismissively.

“What does how smart they are have to do with it?” Curry asked.

“That’s genius. Genus refers to their taxonomic classification.” Seeing the blank look on both Pinkie Pie and Curry’s face, she sighed and said, “They are not the same species.”

“Plus, they’re both girls,” Curry said, nodding her head in agreement with Twilight’s point and adding what she thought was a telling one of her own.

“Rrriight,” Twilight drawled nervously, exchanging a look with Pinkie, who looked a bit offended at the expression on Twilight’s face. She rolled her eyes and mimed zipping her lips to indicate she wasn’t stupid and knew that there were some sorts of parties that fillies and colts didn't need to know about till they were older.

“But it might work the same way with friends, right?” Curry asked. “Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are lousy at making friends. Today at school Silver Spoon was really upset because she thought Di might be making other friends than her. Maybe Gilda is like Silver Spoon? Maybe she got all mean because she thought she was losing Rainbow Dash as a friend?”

“She was a poopy head before that,” Pinkie Pie opinioned. “But, she did get pretty upset when I kept trying to join them for some fun. Maybe you’re right,’ Pinkie rubbed her chin with a hoof, which did really weird things to her gait. “We need to show her you can have more than one friend. Yep, that’s what we should do. Throw her a great big party to show her that she doesn’t have to only have one friend. She can have lots and lots of friends.”

“That didn’t work out so well last time, Pinkie,” Spike said. “I think she’s just a jerk.”

Any further discussion came to an end as they reached Fluttershy’s cottage. “We had best be quiet,” Twilight advised. “If Gilda is injured, we don’t want to startle her.”

“We’re here! Don’t worry! We’re not going to hit you with big sticks or anything like that!” Pinkie Pie yelled at the cottage. She looked over at Twilight. “There, that should fix the problem.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and knocked on the door with a hoof. “Fluttershy?” before she even got the name all the way out the door was wrenched open and Rainbow Dash stuck her head out and hissed. “Will you be quiet! She just got to sleep.”

“Gilda?” Twilight asked.

“No, dummy. Fluttershy. She is totally wasted from dealing with Gilda. But, yeah, Gilda still hasn’t woken up yet. Have you heard back from Princess Celestia?” Rainbow asked, trying, poorly, to conceal her anxiety.

“Yes. She has arranged for the foremost expert on Griffon biology to come and check Gilda out. He’s a unicorn, so she’s going to send him in a chariot. She’s also going to send Gilda’s Wingmaster. Apparently, he was in Canterlot when Princess Celestia got Fluttershy’s letter.”

Rainbow nearly exploded, her wings snapping out as she lifted up a dozen feet. “You have got to be kidding me! That’s all we need. Do you know what Wingmaster means? It means they are the baddest of badasses, the King of the Roost. It means that he can kick the butt of every other griffon in his aerie. The only way you get the job is by beating the crap out of the last one, and they don’t pull any punches. Gilda’s Wingmaster is her dad. But that doesn’t cut her no slack. He hates ponies. He was always down on her for having me as a friend, even though we tried to keep it on the down low. And now she’s gone and let herself get hurt by a pony!

“I can’t believe Princess Celestia is letting a jerk like that come here! I hope she’s sending a whole bunch of Royal Guards to make sure the creep doesn’t decide to slice and dice Gilda for getting herself beaten by a pony. He’s just the sort of Griffon to do that.”

“Wait. Do you know that? That Gilda was beaten by a pony? Do you know what pony?”

“I told you. It was mom,” Curry said in an annoyed tone of voice as she slid off of Pinkie Pie’s back.

“Well, I sorta heard something,” Rainbow said nervously, rubbing the back of her head with one hoof and not meeting Twilight’s eyes. She glanced back over her shoulder into the open cottage. “Maybe it would be a good idea to have Fluttershy and Curry staying somewhere else when this Wingmaster shows up.”

Twilight blinked, processing the information in front of her. “You’re joking? Right? You’re not trying to tell me that Fluttershy really did attack Gilda?”

“She didn’t ‘attack’ Gilda! I think. I’m sure it was to protect Angel Bunny. Maybe Gilda threatened Curry. Look. I don’t know. But you know Fluttershy. There is no way she’d do something like that without a really good reason.”

“I know that! I’m having more trouble with her being able to do it at all!” Twilight said. “I can’t imagine Fluttershy hitting anypony, for any reason.”

"You're going to love me," said Rainbow Dash with an absolutely straight face. "Remember? The Gala? Not one of her better moments. But, I think this might be because of Curry; she’s never been a mother before. You’ve seen what she can do when her friends are in trouble. I figure you got to think ‘ten times that’ if someone threatened Curry.”

“I told you. My mom kicks ass,” Curry said smugly, as she pushed past Rainbow Dash into the cottage.

Curry spared a brief glance for the still unconscious griffon, but most of her attention was on her mom, who was sleeping on the rug. Somepony, Rainbow Dash most likely, had placed a blanket over Fluttershy, leaving only her head visible. Her expression looked weary and careworn. Curry knelt beside her and brushed her mane up off her mom’s face with a gentle stroke.

“She didn’t want to leave Gilda alone,” Rainbow Dash explained as she followed Curry into the room. “Look. I’ll stay here with Gilda and wait for this expert and the Wingmaster to show up. You and your mom can go and stay with Applejack."

“No,” Fluttershy said, lifting her head. She sent a troubled look toward Gilda and gave a sigh. “It’s my fault. It’s my responsibility. I’ll stay and take care of her.” While the words were said softly, there was a firmness under them that indicated that the yellow Pegasus was not going to be swayed on this subject. “But you should go, Curry, or you could go and stay with Rarity if you rather.”

Curry pulled a cushion off the barricade Fluttershy had created opposite Gilda and settled herself down on top of it with a stubborn tilt to her chin. “I’m not going, If you make me go, I’m just going to sneak back first chance I get.”

“Fine!” Rainbow said in exasperation. “You’re both idiots.” She dropped down on her haunches with a thump between Fluttershy and Gilda.

Twilight sighed and pulled her own cushion out of the pile with her magic, and then another one while she said, “Spike and I will stay as well. But, I’m positive Princess Celestia would not have sent the Wingmaster if she thought there would be violence. Especially as she was sending them to Fluttershy’s house. I really think you’re exaggerating the risk, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow’s only answer was a loud snort as she glared at Gilda’s comatose form. “I wish she’d wake up. I got some things I want to say to her!” she said with some heat.

“Yaayyy, sleepover!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Where is Fluttershy hiding the chocolate and marshmallows now? Never mind. I’ll find them.” The pink pony began to sniff loudly, turning her body in a circle until she suddenly went rigid with her nose pointing one way and her tail sticking straight out behind her. Her eyes focused on a particular tin can, one labeled in big bold letters, 'Icky Medicine.'

“This is such an honor, Optio Pumpernickel,” Professor Steady said, as he nervously checked his saddlebags for the hundredth time to make sure that none of his monographs had blown out due to the slipstream caused by their headlong chariot flight. "Although I am the foremost expert in Griffon biology, I never thought I would be privileged enough to be called on by Princess Celestia's personal student. This is quite an honor."

Pumpernickel adjusted his sunglasses and kept his mouth closed, avoiding a sharp response that would have been far more suited to his outspoken mate. Instead, he simply silently fumed over his present 'foalsitting' job while other guards did the much more preferable task of flying the chariot. He could not even use his unique title to force a swap with one of the other drivers and get away from this yammering fool, due to direct orders not only from his wife, but his superior officer and in an act of ultimate betrayal, Princess Luna. He settled for glaring across the backs of the chariot drivers while they flew onwards to Ponyville, unwilling to suffer divine retribution for the act of stretching his wings and flying alongside for even a few minutes.

After all, he was fully healed from his little foray into Griffon politics, with a certificate from the Flight Surgeon and times in his cross-country training that was rapidly returning to his prime. He could handle the flight from Canterlot to Ponyville more easily than the unfamiliar Day guard in the traces next to Shadow Dash. It took a lot of practice for a Nocturne to keep proper synchronization with a regular pegasus, and this pegasus kept getting his feathered wings out of step with his more experienced partner and making the chariot wobble.

The scarred Nocturne could only indulge in petulance for so long before he was forced to admit what was really bothering him: worry for Gilda, and her young niece. It would be a very bad thing for Princess Sun Shines on the Misty Mountains at Dawn Through Early Morning Hazy Skies if her aunt was no longer between her and any would-be challengers to the 'throne' of their tiny aerie. He had grown very fond of the little fledgling, and the thought of her at the mercy of some would-be usurper caused him to grind his teeth together in frustrated rage.

The most galling thing was that Sunny had only been back home for a few days after spending six months in the Crystal Empire with her father, the Aerie’s Ambassador.

She had been under orders to study the kingdom’s magic, as well as the magic of friendship. It had really just been an excuse to give her some extensive contact with another, more peaceful, culture, and from all the reports that he had read, the little griffon had flung herself into the learning process beak-first. Sunny was smart, nearly Twilight Sparkle smart, in some areas. It would be criminal to waste a mind like that.

Six months in the Crystal Empire had allowed Sunny an opportunity to be educated outside of her insular clan and time for the crystal ponies to get used to their modern neighbors. He had high hopes it would help break the cultural deadlock that had trapped her aerie in the past. That particular flock of griffons was gliding over the brink of extinction despite all their protests to the contrary. The truth was, in his opinion, that it would only take one more period of typical griffon politics to push them over the edge.

Now the entire carefully constructed edifice he had almost died helping create threatened to come crashing down because Sunny’s idiotic aunt had not been able to restrain herself, and just had to come to Ponyville and open up old wounds.

And this was where he came into the equation. The Night Guard did not meddle in politics, in particular, Griffon politics, and both Princesses had been extremely lenient about his past actions, possibly because of the blood he had shed in defense of an ally, and possibly just because they did not want to look like fools. In just a little over six months, he had expected to be able to pass the title of Wingmaster onto Gilda and slide gently out of the perch of power, but Gilda getting beaten up and possibly crippled was the last thing he wanted. True, she had promised to kill him in the challenge ring in retaliation for him killing her father, but in Griffon terms, that was almost dating. Trying to apply pony principles to griffon behavior was a good way to get killed, and in this case, get a lot of other griffons and ponies killed too. As much as he wanted to uphold the honor of the Royal Guard, on this visit he was going to have to be a Wingmaster down to the beak and claws of the title.

Some might have found his attitude a bit strange, given he was almost universally feared and hated by Sunny’s aerie, after having defeated both their First Heir and Wingmaster in the challenge ring, and been giving a good show against Gilda until their 'break.' There was blood between them now, and although there was nothing he would rather do than throw the whole hated job on top of Gilda and let her reign over the squabbling pile of backstabbing griffons, the thought of what would happen to Sunny as a result restrained his urge.

He was not a Griffon, and even though he held the title of Wingmaster and was technically in the middle of a succession fight with his First Heir, Gilda, the habits of his aerie were something to be fought, not embraced. Because if he didn't pound some sense into their flat skulls with his own example and by helping Gilda mature into a worthwhile leader, the idiots were likely to do something to bring the wrath of the Royal Guard down on their aerie, and there was no doubt which side of that conflict he would be on.

Gilda herself had been very emphatic in regards to her stated intent to kill Pumpernickel in the challenge ring as revenge for him killing her father. Pumpernickel was not worthy of the title in her eyes, and the honor of the challenge only a weak fiction to excuse his actions. In this regard at least he understood Gilda perfectly. Duty and honor were harsh mistresses, held in high regard by pony and griffon, but the definition of the words varied by the race of the ones using them. If everything went perfectly, Gilda would emerge as a respected leader of a growing flock, with Sunny growing into a leader on her own eventually.

But not if Gilda was a cripple. When he had fought her father Talon in the challenge ring, he had managed to drive one steel-shod hoof into the big griffon's spine, crippling him and ending the uneven fight. Talon had died at his hooves rather than surrender as a cripple, and if Gilda was injured that badly, she would either kill herself or be killed by one of her family upon her return to her home.

Pumpernickel's introspection was interrupted by a question from the other passenger in the chariot. “Pardon me, Optio. Are we going the right way?” The professor asked in an uncertain voice as the two ponies, one pegasus, one Nocturne, pulling the chariot, bypassed Ponyville and headed toward the edge of the Everfree forest. The Night Guard looked over the side at the mostly unoccupied land underneath them. He found the view pleasant, but It was unlikely the Canterlot resident next to him had ever seen this much nature in the rough before.

“Yes!” Pumpernickel said in a clipped voice as the chariot started its descent. He could see Fluttershy’s cabin ahead of them. Many of his friends would have been surprised to see a certain amount of trepidation on his face as he contemplated their goal. But then, they had never been the recipient of one of Fluttershy’s disappointed looks. The battle-scarred Nocturne gave a shudder at the memory. She might not have normally been in Princess Luna’s class, but Fluttershy was far stronger in certain situations involving her friends than anypony who didn’t know her could believe. Something he had found out first hoof.

Once they landed, Pumpernickel and his 'guest' took a moment to stretch their legs before visiting Fluttershy's house, and the Night Guard caught a glimpse of something behind the house that made him duck out of sight of the rest of the group for a minute. There was a bloody section of fence splintered by impact and with a few feathers still scattered around that could only have been the result of Gilda's 'accident.' A series of scuff marks indicating a heavy body in a rapid uncontrolled tumble were quickly tracked back to a jumble of leonine paw prints, talon marks, hoof prints, and several of the biggest clawed paw prints he had ever seen. After a moment of thought and a rough reconstruction of the scene of the crime, he carefully walked around a few more times, taking great care to put his hooves down in the paw prints until they were unrecognizable.

After all, he didn't want Fluttershy's friend to get in trouble.

Pain! Gilda groaned softly as she pulled herself up out of a deep, dark blackness. Her mind fogged from a headache that was worse than the hangover from a three-day bender.

The sound of a hoof kicking at a door went through her skull like an ice-pick, and she was distantly aware that it had been that knocking that had woken her to her current hell.

A high-pitched voice that lacked the timber of a pony or the scratchy background tones in a griffon’s voice, called out, “I’ll get it.”

“Oh, good. That should be the expert,” Gilda heard a vaguely familiar voice say. The sound of it sent a shiver of dread through her for some reason. She tried to rise to her claws, and let out a gasping scream as the aching pain she’d been feeling rose to new levels of agony.

She tried to twist her head around to look at the parts of her that hurt the worse, and almost blacked out at the agony that radiated from her neck.

“Oh, you mustn't. Please stay still,” a far too familiar pony urged Gilda as she rushed to the griffon’s side. Gilda felt herself flinching backward from the sight of Rainbow’s dweeby friend, bringing on new agonies, and a fractured recollection of events. Chasing the coward, cornering her prey, Fluttershy lunging toward her, hooves laughably extended as if she thought she could fight off Gilda, and then--- Pain--- blackness---

Gilda stared at the yellow marshmallow of a pegasus as she gently pushed Gilda back down on the soft bedding. “You mustn’t move. You might injure yourself more. The doctor is here now. Everything will be okay. You’ll see.”

“Let me go, Dweeb,” Gilda said in what was supposed to be a roar of outrage, but came out like a petulant squeak from a chick. Rainbow’s friend was lying, even if she didn’t know it. Nothing was going to be okay. She had been defeated by a pony, critically injured, and not by a warrior in armor, but a cornered little mouse of a pony who was afraid of her own shadow. She was going to die, and it was all her own fault. She was an idiot a dozen times over.

“Do what she says!” another voice ordered, and Gilda endured the tortured pain that came from moving her head to look at Rainbow Dash as that pony scowled at her in anger. “I can’t believe you did this,” her former friend ranted. “I knew you were a jerk, but I never thought you’d stoop this low.”

“Umm, everyone. Frankenstein’s pony is here, and he says he wants to see Gilda,” that strange voice from before said. Gilda kept her head still but rolled her eyes enough to make out the strangest creature she had ever seen. It was as tall as a pony, but only because it was standing up on its hind legs, leaving her to wonder how long it would be before it fell on its face. It was a strange enough sight to distract her from the pain she was feeling, but something much more distracting loomed up behind the weird little creature.

“Wingmaster?” Gilda croaked out in shock. She felt shame as the thought, “I don’t want to die.” flashed into her head. She lowered her head as if from weakness, but really because she didn’t want anypony to detect the fear that was bubbling up inside her.

The Nocturne Royal Guard could not help but think that for a pony who was supposed to spend his life in the shadows as an unseen mysterious creature of the night, he seemed to be spending a lot of time in broad daylight having both ponies and griffons staring at him like some sort of circus oddity.

“You’re Gilda’s Wingmaster?” Rainbow Dash gave Pumpernickel a long, searching look along with a gesture indicating a certain lack of talons and a beak on the expected owner of the title. "Can't be. Gilda's dad is the biggest jerkiest jerk of a griffon I've ever seen. And you sure the buck ain’t him. What are you trying to pull?"

“You didn’t say anything about a Wingmaster being a griffon or a pony. You just said he was the meanest badass on the block. He sure looks the part to me,” the little creature called Curry Comb said in admiration as she ran her eyes over his body. There was no horror in her expression, but a lot of sympathy. Even as he watched, her eyes took in a particularly nasty knot of scars along his side and she winced slightly.

“Well, there was nothing in any of the books I read that stated a Wingmaster had to be a griffon, but I would have thought that it would be one of those things so obvious it didn’t have to be written down,” Twilight interjected with a crestfallen look of somepony who just had their best friend lie to them. “Clearly I would have been wrong. Again.”

“Oh dear. Whatever happened to you, Mr. Pumpernickel?” Fluttershy asked. Her voice did indicate horror, but he got the impression it was not at his appearance, but rather at the thought of the violence, he had gone through to get his injuries.

“Looks like he went a few rounds with the Tasmania Devil,” Curry remarked. The sympathy in her voice seemed to be shading toward being horrifically impressed as her visual inspection of his body turned up more and more evidence of recent trauma, particularly when Pumpernickel flicked his membranous wings in irritation.

"I still don't believe it," opined Rainbow Dash. "Gilda's father is the biggest, nastiest griffon I've ever seen. If you're really the Wingmaster for her aerie, you would have had to--" The pegasus took a second look at the dense patchwork of scars across the bulky Nocturne, spaced in parallel lines about the distance between a large griffon’s claws.

“That is a very long story, and right now I really need to talk to Gilda alone. Miss Fluttershy, the specialist that Princess Celestia sent is outside. Would you mind giving him the details of the situation? You might be needed to translate, Miss Sparkle,” he added wryly.

Rainbow Dash gave Pumpernickel a long assessing look before heading for the door. As she walked past him she said in a very soft voice, “Go easy on her will yah. She’s paid enough.” Before he could acknowledge her words, she yelled out. “Come on, Curry. You can go ask the guards who flew in Stitches here some questions about basic training.”

“How do you know there are guards?” Curry asked.

“You gotta learn to listen, squirt. I heard them coming a mile off. One pegasus, one nocturne, wearing half-armor,” she added, showing off. “Funny time of day for a nocturne to be on duty. Must be on account of Lumpy.”

“That’s not nice,” Curry said as she exited through the door.

“Nah, it’s hilarious,” was Rainbow’s response as she followed the snipe out the door, Twilight Sparkle and Spike had left before them with Fluttershy, so now it was just him and Gilda in the room. He looked over to make sure the door was shut, and then leaned in close so his mouth was only a few inches from her ear.

Gilda hunched down into herself in an unconscious effort to put as much distance between her and the terrifying apparition looming over her and whispered, “Guess I don’t get to kill you in the challenge ring after all. Go ahead. Get it over with.”

Pitching his voice so that it wouldn’t carry past Gilda’s ears, Pumpernickel spoke in a voice that was no less intense for its lack of volume. “Coward.”

“I’m not---”

“Shut your beak, coward! You don’t speak. I don’t want to hear one single puking word you have to say,” the furious, and suddenly terrifying Nocturne snarled in the same quiet voice. He lifted a heavy hoof and pushed it down on Gilda’s back just below the temporary cervical collar that Fluttershy had secured around her neck and in the exact same place that same hoof had slammed into her father's spine minutes before his death. It was a very graphic reminder of how dangerous and lethal this pony was. As if she needed such.

“I thought you were an adult. I was wrong. You’re a pulling little chick. Now you are going to listen to me. You are going to stay here. You are going to let the nice pony who bandaged you up look after you. You will not hurt her. You will do everything she says when she says it, and you will not try to kill yourself. Do you know why?”

“Because you’re a pussy. Because you don’t have the guts to do what has to be done.” Gilda croaked out in a defiant voice.

“Maybe. But I sure as dragon shit am not stupid enough to let an immature little puke like you goad me into killing your scrawny carcass just because you've got a few scratches. Your father was insane and had to be put down. You're just stupid! Stupid can be fixed; sometimes you just need a big enough stick.”

Gilda cringed further down with every word, but the big Nocturne followed until her beak was flat against the floor. She took a painful breath before responding in a near whisper, "Pathetic! You don't deserve to be my Wingmaster if you can't even follow our traditions. I'm a cripple, and cripples are killed. I can feel the bones in my wing rub together with every twitch. I'll never fly again. Do your duty as Wingmaster, pony. Kill me!”

“Okay, maybe you are too stupid to learn. Frankly, I could care less if you fly again. I don’t even care if you walk again. The only thing I care about right now is keeping what happened to your busted carcass secret until your niece and my Second Heir is safe. Did you think about Sunny even once before you went flapping off to Ponyville? Had she even been back in the aerie for a day before you ran away? Are you so afraid of a fledgling that you would abandon your nest in that way? How do you ever expect to become Wingmaster if you can't face your fears? What kind of a Wingmaster abandons her nest that way?

“I'm going to do everything in my power to keep this screw-up a secret until Sunny is safe, one way or another. Because you know what will happen if she should ‘accidentally’ fall off a cliff before she can fly? Your entire aerie will go up in flames as every single one of those stupid idiots gets dragged into the resulting power struggle. I won’t even have to hunt down the bastards myself. They won’t live through the next winter because they are all too stupid to realize that the old ways are gone, and good riddance, because the only thing of any worth in your whole stinking aerie is Sunny.”

Gilda squeezed her eyelids tightly together, squeezing tears out at the corners as she said in a voice that was half-sob, “You don’t think I don’t know that? You don’t think I don’t know how badly I’ve messed things up? You don’t think I don’t know I might as well have snapped Sunny’s neck myself? Don’t you understand? My wing is broken, maybe my neck. If it were only my leg, maybe there would be a chance. I can’t return to the aerie under my own power. I’ll be killed the moment I arrived if I let myself be carried there. The only way out for Sunny is for you to take the job you earned. You have to return to the Aerie, be Wingmaster. Watch over her until she is ready to take leadership of my aerie" Gilda was openly crying by the time she finished.

“Not going to happen,” Pumpernickel said in an implacable voice. "Listen well to my words, First Heir of the Misty Mountain Aerie, Daughter of Talon, Granddaughter of Slashing Spur! You will cooperate in all ways with the Element of Kindness! Her voice is my voice till you rise to greet the morning sun in one months time, and return to our aerie! This I do command as is my right as your Wingmaster!"

“You can’t just order me to do something impossible and expect me to do it,” Gilda protested, her words distorted due to her beak being pressed against the floor.

“Welcome to my world,” Pumpernickel said, lifting his hoof from her back and walking away without a single look back.