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// Legacy Prompt #26: No Escape 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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The griffon panted. He’d been running since the height of the day, and the moon was rising into the sky. He’d been pursued by the guards in the golden armour for most of that, but there was a reason that he had been chosen for this mission. He’d known that it would come to this. Fortunately, griffons were far more suited to long distance flight than the ponies, and that had been his saving grace thus far.

Ever so carefully, he allowed himself a moment of celebration, slipping the cloth off the artefact that he’d stolen from the Canterlot vaults. Perhaps, with this, the Great King would finally be able to make the ponies bow down and recognise the superiority of the Griffon Empire. He was just a soldier who dabbled in thievery-he didn’t know what the thing was, and he didn’t need to know. He had been surprised that both of the Princesses had been in the castle-his contact had said that they would both be away, dealing with some local lord. Still, it would only add to his reputation, stealing this thing from under their very noses.

He’d have to leave at first light in order to outrun the ponies chasing him, but for now, they were resting, and he would need to do the same. A moment later, he was curled up in a fork of a branch, breathing light. Above him, the full moon spread its soft light over the earth.

******

“You cannot escape.” The voice was imperious, commanding. The griffon looked around. He certainly wasn’t in the same forest that he had laid down in. Perhaps some unicorn trickery was at work. As mist swirled around his talons and paws, he heard the beating of wings.

“Show yourself, cowardly pony! I am not afraid of your magic tricks!”

“As you wish, thief,” said the voice, and out of the mists stepped the blue princess. Somehow, she looked bigger than he remembered here. “Relinquish the artefact, and you will be given leave to return to your home. Keep it, and we shall be forced to take measures.”

“You can come and take it from my cold, dead talons, princess,” spat the griffon. The blue alicorn sighed, and turned to trot back into the mists surrounding them.

“We warned you,” she said, just before she vanished. Then the ground under the griffon’s mismatched feet vanished. He fell, his wings suddenly useless, and then he was drowning in a pool of water. Sharks began to close in, and as the first one took a bite, he closed his eyes and screamed.

When he dared open his eyes again, he was back in the forest. Obviously, some fancy magic was at work here. The moon still shone bright overhead, and with what stars he could see, he could navigate his way home.

Except that there was not a single constellation that he could recognise. Nothing in the sky was the same twice. He would blink, and the patterns would change.

“You cannot escape,” whispered the blue alicorn, into his ear. He hadn’t even heard her approach, but with reflexes born of a lifetime of training, he lashed out, catching only air.

“You cannot run,” she whispered again, her breath hot on the back of his feathered neck. Again, he whipped around, finding only mist.

“We offered a chance to survive. Now, you will be hunted in the day by our guards, and during the night,” another swipe with his talons, and another miss.

“You will be hunted by us, in our domain. We have exhausted our capacity for mercy,” whispered the alicorn, and he swung one last time, and grinned when he felt his talons dig into flesh. Then the mists cleared, and he saw that his talons were dug deep into a perfect replica of himself.

And from behind, he felt the alicorn’s breath whisper over his feathers.

“Struggle, and run. It pleases us to see your futile attempts fail.”

The griffon ran, the alicorn’s laughter echoing through the forest on his tail.

****Time****

The next morning, the pursuing royal guards found a shivering wreck of a griffon, curled into a ball, muttering ‘can’t sleep, she’ll find me. Can’t sleep, she’ll find me,’ Over and over again. The artefact was resting by his side, so the guards took it and the griffon back to the Palace of the Two Sisters. 

Meanwhile, Princess Luna walked around the castle with an odd smile on her face, and only her sister knew what it meant.