When Gilda awoke, it was in a very shaky and dark room. It was stuffy, almost as if she had been placed in a coffin of sorts. Fearing of that possibility, the panicked griffon reached out to pound with her fists anything that could possibly shed some light so that she would know for sure. When her talons were seized in mid-air, the griffon cursed, her concerns now shifting into who had taken her captive.
She had been prepared to thrash about when a stern voice attempted to calm her. "It is alright Gilda, I am here."
With an accent clearly from a Griffia native, Gilda ran the voice through her head several times before she pinned down who it was. And when she did, she calmed down, an odd peace washing over her.
"Pops?"
A light literally went on the size of a light bulb directly above her head, illuminating the not so small chamber. It was sizeable; nearly as large as a bedroom, and with the same general shape as well. Gilda's attention, however, was fixated on the famaliar griffon whom only now released her wrists, allowing them to flop down to the floor that she lay upon.
Gilda's father had a sleek, black crow's head with the body of a midnight blue panther. His sharp, sea green eyes missed no movement, and his warm and inviting smile contrasted greatly with the faint lines of healed injuries from the past that covered much of the exposed bits of his body.
He wore a chainmail body suit with a steel breastplate, both riddled with runes that offered some levels of resistance against magic. He had no helmet
A large, rectangular shield with a large emblem brazened upon it nearly the size of a full grown griffon was propped up in the seat to the right of him. It bore the Griffia insignia, a griffon grasping arrows and a scepter in its talons, arrows on the left and scepter on the right. That shield normally would have belonged to a member of the Griffia Royal Guard, but it seems that her father had picked it up at some point.
Noticing Gilda looking him from head to toe, Gilda's father cleared his throat in order to return her attention to the matter at hand.
"Are you alright?" he inquired with concern, " I am glad that amulet offered some protection against the attack, but I am still concerned about what you may have seen before playing possum."
"Seen?" Gilda was confused, and not just because she had hardly seen anything worth mentioning, other than that ass kicking she gave the former champion. "All I recall is winning the championship title, and this stupid amulet dropping the curtain on me fulfilling a promise I made at the beginning of it."
Gilda's father laughed, apparently amused by this answer. "That amulet is designed to react to magic; GPF were required to wear them whenever in Equestrian territory as a form of both restraint and protection. It has the power to create a powerful illusion that gives the appearance of death, fooling both the trained and untrained eye. High enough levels of magic cause it to activate, and an inexperienced bearer like yourself would not have thought to take it off, something I had been counting on when I gave it to you."
The chamber rocked yet again, even as Gilda prepared her next question. She sat up and looked her father in the eye, her temper beginning to build at the obvious attempt to withhold information. Yes, he had explained the meaning behind why he had given her the amulet, but he had noticeably attempted to direct attention away from the incident that prompted the amulet's usage in the first place.
"What is going on? What attack are you talking about? And where are we going now?"
"Better tell her Antoine before she sends you to the bottom of the carriage," someone called out to the left of the duo with just a hint of sarcasm, "And of course before we get to the Castle. Canterlot looks like the ponies decided to have a giant party and forgot to omit the alcohol in the apple cider."
Antoine sighed in what sounded like defeat. He kept up silence and eye contact for a few minutes longer, likely to compose an appropriate response.
Meanwhile, Gilda attempted to make sense of what she knew. So they were on their way to the Royal Sister's Castle, in a carriage; already they were in Canterlot it seemed. This was no small carriage, and she knew from experience that chariots were far more common in Equestria than carriages, which meant that they were going to stick out. However, it was clearly intentional for them to stick out, or else they would be travelling in something far less eye-catching and unusual. Gilda concluded that this was not a standard GPF mission.
Antoine finally frowned, a sign that he was ready to begin delving into the details of the situation. The warmth in the carriage seemed to increase, to the point in which Gilda would have suspected that there were vents of warm air placed around the carriage for whatever reason.
"Excluding yourself and a few other characters of interest, those there at the fighting match were slaughtered," Antoine explained slowly and with clear signs of hesitation, "Butchered. Unicorn magic, dragon fire, even griffon talon marks were literally all over the place. Identifying a guilty party is next to impossible, but we have a fear that the two target organizations from Griffia and Draconia have banded together. Remember the letter that I sent you?"
Gilda nodded. He had mentioned in the letter something about important targets meeting with Equestrian co-conspirators; perhaps this is what they had been planning? If so, the main question was how in the world her father could have been so off, when the actual problem had been occuring an entire sea away. Not to mention if he was supposed to be in Griffia, how he managed to get to Equestria so relatively quickly, as it did not seem that much time had passed since then.
"Ponies, griffons, dragons, zebras... Except for you, by the time we got there, the perpetrators had already left. We helped the Guard investigate and clean up, but my primary concern was getting you out of there and preventing another attack." Antoine sighed yet again, casting a glance towards the shield. "A quick costume change and as of right now, we are King Grackus' only defense detail. He is easy pickings for the rebellion while he is here in Equestria, and it is up to us to make sure they don't take advantage of it."
Hold on, Grackus was in Equestria? King Grackus, her uncle? Gilda could hardly believe it; Grackus hated being on Equestrian soil. It was literally in his royal blood to despise being among the court of rivals that he could never beat himself. Not to mention it was beginning to seem like these targets were rebels rather than some large scale crime bosses wanting to disturb the peace.
Of course, this was her father's affair, and something that could be handled by Griffia; so why had she not been dropped off at home, or some other place further from the spotlight? And where was her championship belt?
"So why am I here? Uncle Grackus would not let me on his security detail if I were to pay him a salary for it. Not to mention I would rather be laying low back at my place than watching my Uncle's back." It was mildly personal, with him keeping for a wife a griffon who likely still wanted his niece dead and buried.
"You are staying within a day's travel of me just in case anything else goes down," Antoine answered, shuffling in his seat some, "In the meantime, we are going to do some father-daughter bonding."
Gilda smirked and sat up, poking at her father's breastplate in jest. "You might be a trained fighter, but I have had some training of my own in the past few months. I bet I can lay you out flat, even with your armor on."
Antoine laughed quite loudly, rocking lightly as he did so. When he composed himself, he placed a talon to Gilda's forehead and pushed her back onto her backside. "That shit you pull in the ring is not going to work on a griffon like me. But, I will entertain you, and for your mother's sake, I won't leave you with too many bruises."
The two laughed, the driver likely not fully comprehending the joke. Nonetheless, the driver called back, "We are almost there. Best be all suited up Captain."
Gilda looked around the largely empty carriage; she could have sworn that it had been a large chamber earlier, but now that she took into consideration that this was a moving transport, she would have expected there to be far more inside. No sooner had she thought this did some of the walls shift and move, eyes blinking and some yawning with beaks wide.
Startled, Gilda scrambled to her father's unoccupied left side, at last on a seat.
Antoine chuckled, nodding towards the others in the carriage. "Yeah well, you guys know the drill. We're here to defend Lord Grackus while he is here in Equestria; the only moving things that are not targets are the Royal Guards, though if they make any moves on Grackus they also get dropped. So really the alicorn sisters are the only ones off limits, not like you could take them on anyways."
The griffons in the chariot chuckled, a few making a distinct snicker that suggested that the joke was not that the alicorn sisters were mentioned at all, but that he spoke as if all of that was not already common knowledge.
Reaching to the side and grabbing his shield, Antoine rose from his haunches, strapped it to his back, and gave Gilda one last critical look. Gilda could hardly keep from laughing, as the large shield, while it definitely sheltered his back with the emblem facing outwards, truly did look rather awkward once he was on fours.
She had to wonder how he managed to get it off of his back in time for any real fighting. It was almost as large as he was, and no doubt quite heavy to lug around. Antoine changed his gaze to looking around the carriage, the shapes of eight griffons stiffening in response.
"At first, we are going to cause a bit of a scene, but after that, I want you lot to be harder to find than Princess Celestia's-"
"We get it," one of the disguised griffons interrupted, putting on a black mask, "Play nice, and fight only if needed. What are the odds of Grackus being in danger while staying in Equestria's capital?"
"Better safe than sorry," another chimed as the carriage came to a halt, "I hear things really went from bad to worse after yesterday's magical mystery."
After this was said, the back of the carriage burst open to the sight of Royal Guard members, all armed, waiting outside. Antoine nodded towards every individual griffon in the back before stepping out first, the clang and shifting of metal accompanying him. With his oddly free tail, he gestured for Gilda to follow, which she did promptly.
Upon exiting the carriage, very soon Gilda realized that they would be sticking out very sorely in the city. It was broad daylight, and with the exception of herself and her father, the rest of the force wore very dark clothing more suited for nighttime. Much to her surprise, upon the griffons exiting the carriage, the remaining griffons wore very little body armor, instead being dressed in black shirts, pants, and beanie hats.
Hardly something Gilda would have previously called a royal guard, rather than a band of crooks preparing to rob the Equestrians blind.
One of the Equestrian Guard ponies took one look at this and frowned deeply. "Uh, Captain Antoine, you do realize we can't just let you all walk around the city like that right? Already you have drawn quite the attention..."
"I am aware." Antoine eyed various griffons and dragons who had stealthily began leaving the square upon their arrival. "I am very much aware."
The backup griffons had daggers and throwing knives visible on belts around their waists, much to the uneasiness of the Equestrian Guards. Their expressions revealed very little, but the way they gripped their spears in their hooves told a very different story about how comfortable they really were.
They weren't, and for the first time since she stepped out of the carriage, Gilda let a small smile creep across her beak. Her father's wings poked out on either side of the shield as he stared at the large castle before them, its towering spires looking as if they could scrape the clear evening sky above them.
"I presume the king is already inside?" Antoine asked one of the pony guards, to which the guard nodded in response.
He smiled, stretched out his wings, and gestured towards the castle. "Go with the Royal Guards to get acquainted with where we can and can't go. Understood?"
The darkly garbed griffons saluted, and headed off with a group of the pony guards, the latter of which trotted as if they were on knives.. Antoine then looked towards one of the remaining guards with a wide grin. "Now then, where is Charles? He is supposed to have already been here to greet us."
The pony tilted his head, clearly confused by the question. "Charles? There is no creature by that name here in the Castle."
Antoine's smile faded, and it was replaced by a scowl. "Take us to the king's chambers at once."