//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Visitors 
// Story: Agent Con Mane in Mission to the Griffon Kingdom (to be rewritten) 
// by Fairytail 
//------------------------------//

	Cloak Daggers sat behind his desk feigning paperwork in an effort to avoid the thick mugginess of the morning. A particularly dense patch of moisture had rolled into the Great Storm Cloud overnight, turning the Nest air into soup. But despite the thickness of the humidity, Daggers found himself wearing a thick autumn cloak-- a favorite of his with red lining.
Something was wrong. He could feel it on the wind. It was as if the powers of Harmony were just fading away. This didn’t bode well as far as Daggers was concerned. Roseluck had still not yet contacted him. His son reported that he was not followed by the usual tail and that made the chill in Dagger’s spine all the more troublesome. He needed to tell Con Mane. Daggers couldn’t help but feel that Con Mane had to leave the Griffon Nests before something terrible happened.
The words on the report he had been writing danced before him. He couldn’t even remember what the report was about. Daggers sat up from his desk and indulged in a bar of chocolate. The good stuff imported from the NLR. Perhaps he just needed a lie down. He was growing old and he worried for this heart. He thought to invite that rather pretty pearl colored filly over for a while. She had recently grown fond of his money and she was good at pleasing him. But deep down Daggers knew it was hopeless. His heart would not keep still.
Daggers made his way to the futon on the far end of the room while exaggerating his aches and pains to nopony. The futon was an Avant Decor or some other expansive make. The middle of the worn, blue seat had sagged from continuous use and weight. Daggers imagined the pearl pony fitting within the recess quite comfortably. Her eyes closed and pining for Daggers’ hooves on her body. No, Daggers thought, his heart certainly wasn’t up for it.
Daggers was just about ready to fall into the embrace of the futon when a massive tremor launched him off his hooves. He safely landed on the furniture as half of his office collapsed in a deafening roar. Daggers coughed and futilely tried to wave away the massive cloud of dust. The western wall of his beautiful home was reduced to rubble. There was no sign of the desk at which Daggers had been sitting just moments before. Only a gaping hole with a clear view of the Great Storm Cloud remained.

Joe could not believe his eyes when he saw the state of Cloak Daggers’ rug shop. There were no ponies or Griffons gawking at the spectacle. He figured the residents of the Nests were either so used to this sort of destruction that they learned to ignore it, or the Griffons had ordered them to ignore it. Joe climbed through the hole in the wall to see Daggers’ Unicorn son clearing the rubble while the Pegasus son tended to his shaken father.
“So tell me,” Joe greeted Daggers lightheartedly, “who won?”
Daggers smiled meekly at Joe and slowly rose to shake his hoof. “I had visitors.”
“A bomb?”
“No. And it wasn’t magic either. No, something rammed my wall with raw power, I’m sure of it. Luckily for me, I was resting on the settee for just a moment.”
“But what could have the power to do this?”
“I think I may have an idea. I cannot understand this sudden beach of the truce. It is quite unlike our Griffon friends to break the peace this way.”
“It’s my fault. My arrival stirred up the pot.”
“It may be because of you… Or there may be another reason. Let’s find out”
Daggers shook the feeling back into his legs and led Joe to another room in the house. A rather large rug of Zebra design hung like a curtain. Daggers slide the rug to the side and pressed against the wall which pivoted to reveal a dark tunnel.
“Another secret door?” Joe was impressed. “How many of those do you have?”
Daggers chuckled heartily, “Well if you knew, they wouldn’t be a secret. Follow me.”
Daggers ordered one of his sons to close the door and rug behind them. Joe lit his horn and illuminated the passage. Large stone steps descended into a massive underground chamber. It was one gigantic catacomb, so large that the other walls and even the ceiling were lost to darkness. Large stone support columns rose out from the still, mirror-like water that covered the entire floor of the chamber. At the end of the stairs, a small gondola with a single punt was moored to a hook. A lantern hung from the end of the boat and Joe lit it with a small heat spell.
Both ponies carefully climbed into the boat and Daggers undid the rope. He punted the boat further into the cave until the stairs left the sanctity of the lantern. The chamber seemed to go on for eternity. Joe felt strangely ill. Lost in an endless void of water, darkness and repeating columns. The air was heavy with moisture and tickled every inch of Joe’s skin. Aside from the occasional phantom drip, the sound of the punt and boat moving through the water were the only sounds to be heard.
“An ancient Griffon King built this place as a reservoir 1600 years ago.” Cloak Daggers explained, “Weather Factories didn’t exist back then so they had to come up with more clever ways to get rain water up into the sky. This reservoir was part of that system. Now I am one of the few remaining commoners who even knows about it. I bet you are wondering how big this chamber is? It runs underneath the entirety of the Griffon Nest. Go far enough and you’ll eventually be under the Griffon’s Capitol cloud city. Luckily for us, we only need to travel a few city blocks. This is my daily exercise. One in the morning and three in the afternoon.”
Joe was mesmerized. He got over the creeping fear of the surrounding darkness. Now the void was somehow beautiful. An underground sanctuary cut off from the political wars and daily struggles of the world above. The steady flow of the punt was therapeutic.
Joe was torn away from his thoughts when Daggers suddenly started coughing. His cough was heavy and full of phlegm. Daggers beat his chest a few times until the cough went away and continued punting. Joe looked up at the Pegasus with concern. “You ok, there, Daggers?”
“It was just some moisture getting caught in my throat. You need not worry.”
The small boat arrived at a small stone dock. Joe tied her up while Daggers took the lantern and led Joe into a slightly elevated cavity in the stone. Mounted in the cavity was a mirror, tilted at a slight angle. It’s glass reflected the darkness of the catacomb.
“We’re underneath the Griffon Archives.” Daggers said, “This magic mirror is a present from the Equestrian Royal Guard. I had it installed while the archives were undergoing massive construction.”
“Clever,” Joe commented, “but wouldn’t the Griffons notice the other mirror in the office?”
“This isn’t a standard two-way mirror, my fiend. It’s magic allows us to see through the wall behind it. Unfortunately, it isn’t the most optimum angle.” On cue, Joe and Daggers’ reflections changed into an image of a simple office. The image was as clear as any window. Because of the angle of the mirror, it looked like Joe was seeing the room through a mouse hole near the floor. Several Griffons were standing around a table but only the ones standing on the far side of the room could be seen entirely.
“You know, MARE was right about you.” Joe said.
“About why I stay in this mad business?”
“Well obviously being a rug sales pony was too boring for you.”
“My friend, I didn't know you were a mind reader!” Daggers laughed with his massive teeth in full display. Daggers turned his attention to the mirror and pointed out the important details and identities to Joe. “There is already a meeting going on. At the head of the table is the Griffon Military Commander. On his left? Gozlovsky, Chief of Security. Opposite him? Guile, one of his agents. I can’t see the other Griffon. The one the Commander is shouting at.”
The Commander’s eyes were red with anger. His beak flashed quickly, his wings were flared and bristled and he was the type of Griffon that talked with his claws. His talons waved around in a pantomime that seemed comical without the luxury of sound. The recipient of his anger was unseen. He must have been standing just outside the range of the mirror.
“Well whoever he is, that Commander is giving him hell for something.”
“It’s too bad we can’t hear as well as see.”
“Tell me,” Joe asked, “does our filly, Roseluck, ever come into this room?”
“Sometimes, with messages.”
The argument within the Griffon war room continued. The Griffon Commander continued to bark at the unseen Griffon. But his look of anger quickly changed into a look of utter panic. A looming shadow enveloped the Commander and the fourth Griffon came into view. Except it wasn’t a Griffon.
“The Minotaur!” Daggers’ exclaimed. Surely enough, on the other side of the enchanted glass, was the towering frame of a Minotaur. Towering a good two heads above the Griffons, his bovine face and massive horns were just barely visible. One of his horns was badly damaged. It was cracked and worn and significantly shorter than the other one. His fur was very short and fine. The corpse grey skin of his impressive muscles bulged beyond the hair. The crest of the Griffon Kingdom was branded into his left bicep. The hair of his lower half was significantly thicker. It was black and thick, especially around the extremities. “So he’s back…” Daggers’ continued, “A mercenary the Griffons use as a killer. Just the monster for ramming down my wall. I’ve had trouble with him before but he stayed out of the Griffon Kingdom for over a year now. Why has he returned? Take a look. You should memorize that face. This monster kills for pleasure.”
The animosity in Daggers’ voice was disturbing. Joe watched as the Minotaur talked back at the Griffon Commander. The Commander looked three inches tall next to monster, in more ways than one. The silent argument suddenly stopped as the Minotaur and the Griffons turned their heads away from the mirror in unison. The door on the far side of the table opened. Due to the angle of the mirror, the table blocked the view of the door but Joe could certainly make out the distinct hooves of a pony.
“That’s probably Roseluck.” Daggers explained, “She’s the only pony who is allowed in there. How does she look to you.”
Roseluck walked around the table in a wide arc-- probably out of respect and/or fear for her superiors-- so Joe did not see her face. When she came back into view she was so close to the mirror that all Joe could see were her legs. Four well hoofecured hooves attached to four slender yet toned beige legs. Her flank sat high and tight on her hindquarters and the rose of her flank followed the gentle curve of her haunches. The tip of a deep red tail with a Unicorn Cut drooped low and grew high off the croup. “Well…” Joe answered with a smirk, “I’d say from this angle, things are shaping up nicely.” The beautiful curves walked out of sight and out of the room. “I got to meet her. Can you get me a plan of the archive?”
“I wish I could.” Daggers said solemnly.
Joe turned to him and pleaded at him with a stern eye. “Oh come on. The architect had to have left a file somewhere.”
“I’ll get onto that.” Daggers was visibly still disturbed. He would not take his eye off of the Minotaur. “I need a little more time to deal with that stinking monster!” Daggers turned off the magic mirror in frustration. “It would be better if you didn't stay at the hotel tonight. Come with me.”
“Alright, but where are we going?” Joe asked.
Daggers turned to him with a cheeky smile. “My friends will take care of us.”