Faded memories, scattered fragments of consciousness, and twisting dreams were all that Sigfrid knew for what seemed to be an aching eternity. Technicolor warriors hacking down another village's defenders, horned horses with glowing axes and spears floating around them patrolling the outskirts of his home, and quadrupedal eagles clawing and pecking at packs of wolves through the trees, these visions and more warped in his mind until all was replaced by a long, low cackle that seemed to be coming from everywhere around him, resonating in his burly chest as his head pounded in agony, and finally...
Sigfrid opened his eyes, to see a much-too-purple wooden ceiling and what appeared to be a giant eagle's head in the outskirts of his vision. He heard muffled voices, which grew more clear suddenly when the tint of the world faded. None of the voices made sense, like a completely alien language, until his brain reconnected his mental dots and he began to recognize not only the voices, and to whom they belonged, but also the words that were being spoken.
"...lax, he's already re...iousness, at least a da...ule." Twilight, Sigfrid remembered, evidently aware of his condition. "So," she continued, "Sigfrid, how do you feel?"
A wheezing sound found it's way out of his throat, and like a dozen moose charging him at once, the pain hit him. Sigfrid spent a moment, turning his head with what he swore had to be an audible creak to survey the room, surprised to see almost all of the rest of the element bearers, as well as Gilda the Griffon. "Hurts everywhere, hurts like... it hurts like fire to a rotted wound," the viking rasped, devolving quickly into a coughing fit at the end which only racked him further with pain, "But I'm alive, so I'm obviously not too poorly off, eh?" He make a quick wink to Twilight and Gilda.
Twilight nodded, jotting some quick notes on a parchment fastened to a wooden board before Rarity spoke up: "Yes, if you've nothing else going for you, you're certainly quite resilient." She seemed to be just a little annoyed, by the way she trailed off, but either nopony noticed it or nopony thought anything of it.
After another brief pause, Twilight spoke up again. "Yes, and you've recovered much quicker than I expected, I didn't think you'd be awake for at least another day!"
"A day? How long have I been out? I can't think that it's been longer than a day, right?" he glanced around the room, realizing that only Gilda would meet his eyes, and her eyes told him his fallacy.
"A week, Sigfrid, you've been unconscious for a week. We had to drag Gilda out of the room the first couple days to make sure that she ate, and even Rainbow Dash wouldn't be bothered to move from the room for hours at a time. We were worried about you, you big whatever you are! You'd lost a lot of blood, and I'm pretty sure you didn't make it here with all of your bone fragments." The purple unicorn looked solemnly at the man. He opened his mouth to retort, make some smart comment, but her expression deadpanned and he suddenly couldn't find his words, resulting is a soft noise like a whimper.
"Yeah, ya big dweeb! You kept me an' Dash here instead of catching up! Instead," Gilda's voice warbled with emotion, "Instead I got a rockin' sparring match with ya, and then ya go an' nearly die before I could drop you off at Twinkle Star-"
"Twilight Sparkle."
"Twinkle Star," Gilda emphasized with a playful elbow, "and have her patch you up. You're lucky that I'm the best flyer this side of Griffenstone!"
"Now wait just a second, you mean the SECOND best flyer, you're just better at carrying things on your back than I am!" Dash interjected, barely holding back a great grin.
Twilight cleared her throat, "Alright, girls, I think that's enough fun for one day. I think the best thing we can do is let Sigfrid rest, don't worry, he'll still be alive tomorrow." The man was pretty sure he was supposed to miss the slightly worried glance that the unicorn gave him as she finished, but it didn't seem like it had anything to do with his odds of survival.
The rest of the visitors nodded and muttered a vague affirmative, and slowly began shuffling out the door.
"Do be more careful, darling, try not to get yourself killed, hmm?"
"You, um, had us all worried..."
"Gosh, ya big lug! I'm gonna have to throw a 'Survived a Timberwolf Attack' party! Or maybe a "Smashed a Bunch of Timberwolves to Bits!" party! OOH, or I can through them both AT THE SAME TIME! See ya there!"
Meanwhile, Twilight whispered something to Spike and levitated the parchment from her board, which he took dutifully, scribbled a quick remark, and padded into another room, following the librarian.
"Hey there, Sig, just wanna let ya know... I wanna thank you for what ya did for me. I was stressin' big time, just some stuff going on back home that I brought with, y'know? I don't get much opportunity to just spar, but it helps with the nerves. Anyway, thanks, and when you're feelin' better, we'll go for round two." Gilda winked as she said this, a faint hint of red touching her face as she, the only one left, sauntered out the door, pouncing into the sky as soon as she was outside.
Sigfrid gazed out the still-open door, a contented, if pained, smile on his face. With a little effort, he shut his eyes and let sleep overtake him.
This time, his dreams almost seemed to make sense.
A few days later, the great viking was up and about, and just a day after that a huge crowd amassed in the fields outside Ponyville, where a small ring of stones had been placed with a simple sigil carved into the earth in the center of the circle, filled with more stones. Here it was again that the great bear of a man that some had taken to calling "Timberfeller" was to have his second round with Gilda the Griffon. This time, there would be no weapons, just sheer martial skill put to the test, first to yield, lose consciousness, or step outside the ring would be deemed the loser.
"Hope you're ready for a good beating!" Sigfrid called, letting his bear-skin cloak slide off his shoulders, exposing his many, many scars and rippling chords of muscle that it had concealed.
"Pff, shyea right! You're goin' down harder than sack of hard potatoes! I just hope you don't go back to Twilight for another week!" Gilda chided, smiling wide and assuming a low, predatory stance.
"Hahah, tough talk! Can you back it up though? Remember, I was half dead last time anyway, and I still whooped your tail!" Sigfrid responded, similarly stooping with his right side facing his opponent.
"You got lucky! Dashie came by and distracted me!" The griffon scoffed as her tail twitched in anticipation, ready for Rainbow Dash to send her signal to start. Sigfrid cracked his neck, sizing up his foe.
Quick as a flash, a rainbow contrail flashed between the opponents, and before it had faded Gilda had already lept at the tensed man, who met her assault head on and tossed her aside, tendons visibly protruding from his skin in places. Before the griffon had time to right herself, the man was already on top of her, powerful legs locked around her midsection while his arms locked around her neck.
Gilda choked out a laugh as she clawed his legs loose with her hind leg and used her wings to toss him over her head, using his shifting position and a flick of her neck, she had broken his grip and sent him sprawling onto the ground. She gave two powerful swipes, gaining purchase on his chest with her second strike and leaving two long, angry red lines which immediately began to well up with blood. The crowd roared with excitement as the viking shouted something incomprehensible and caught a third strike from the side, pushing it wide and opening the griffon's chest to a relentless barrage of punches that sent her reeling a few steps back.
In the split second she took to regain her balance, he was already upon her again, kicking high to her face. Gilda had enough time to drop down, missing the kick, and swept Sigfrid's supporting leg from under him, leading to an unnatural sounding screech from the downed fighter. Before Gilda could strike again, the man rolled away and to his feet, sinking again to a combat stance which, much like his style thus far, was alien to Gilda and the lookers on.
Taking only a moment, the griffon decided to thrust a clawed talon towards her opponent, who stepped to the side and swept at her other talon, which was planted on the ground and supporting the bulk of her weight. With a yelp, Gilda planted her face firmly into the ground, while Sigfrid sent a mighty kick into her hind leg. With a lion's roar, she yanked her face from the ground and spun to face the fighter, trembling from the beatings she'd sustained. Not only was her opponent very resilient, but he hit hard. This time, Gilda took a defensive stance, wings quivering slightly as her forelegs trembled.
Sigfrid eyed the stance carefully, apparently recognizing it for what it was, and resolved to charge in, whooping at the top of his lungs, and darting off to the side at the last moment, which the Griffon evidently did not account for. Her intended strike, a vicious rending talon, was clumsily adjusted and only caught Sigfrid's thigh, scoring a slight wound but doing little else than stagger him briefly before he launched another volley of crushing blows, which Gilda was forced to take as she swung her talon back around, reversing it's direction, and catching the brawling man in the side, rending deep into the muscle and causing a fresh gout of blood to flow freely down his leg.
After a quick hop to the rear, Sigfrid again launched himself at his opponent, charging full tilt with a rage-filled roar in his chest, barely caring when he failed to completely dodge another vicious talon strike, and after delivering yet another brutal pummeling, he rolled around to her side and locked his arms around her midsection as best as he could, and began straining. The onlooking crowd became silent as he grunted and shouted in an alien language, blood pouring from his wounds, and finally he lifted Gilda from the ground, from which point he quickly tossed his body backwards and tossing the griffon fully out of the ring, with just a few extra scratches from her flailing limbs to show for it.
The silence dragged on for another second before everypony in the crowd cheered and stamped their hooves, while Rainbow Dash shouted something about the match being unfair by being decided by ring out. Sigfrid beamed, blood seeping from his face in a few minor cuts, as he approached his battered and disoriented opponent, extending a hand to help her up.
"You got some moves there, Sig, I'll give you that much!" Gilda said, slapping her talon into his hand and allowing him to help her up. "And crazier than a Minotaur in heat to boot!" She beamed and gave a curt little bow of her head. "You win this time, Sig. Thanks for the rematch, though, and if you need to blow off any steam before I head back home, be sure to let me know." She winked at him, "and it doesn't have to be in the arena."
Sigfrid tilted his head slightly, a flash of confusion on his face, before he shook it off. "It was a good fight indeed! I've fought bears that would have thought twice before trying to take you on, and they wouldn't have done too well either. It's good to see I haven't gotten too soft since I've come here!" He turned to the crowd and waved, "Let's get to that feast of Pinkie's, shall we?"
While the crowd cheered, Gilda leaned in close to Sigfrid, "Seriously, though, I'm probably gonna be leaving tomorrow or the next day. Be sure to write to me the next time you need to blow of some steam, just give it to Dash, she'll know where to send it. Oh, and don't be surprised if I show up out of the blue just to let off some steam, eh?" She chuckled again, and limped behind the battered and bleeding man back towards Ponyville.
The party was already in full swing when the combatants stepped into the library's atrium, with streamers and decorations galore. There was a huge cage that looked like a pile of wood, reminiscent of the broken and defeated Timber Wolves. After a triumphant introduction from Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Rarity approached the pair, pushing through the forming crowd and audibly gasping when they saw the blood, mostly cleaned up but still dripping from some of Sigfrid's more grievous wounds.
"Sorry, but what have you been doing all day?" Twilight asked, examining Sigfrid's wounds rather closely. "Because it really seems like you've been fighting. Didn't I tell you not to go out fighting yet?" Her purple eyes settled after a short while on the man's own, a rather cross look in them. Sigfrid sputtered an incomprehensible dismissal, flushing a little and suddenly finding the wooden floor much more interesting than it was just a few seconds ago.
"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you," Twilight goaded, and Sigfrid couldn't help but feel like he was a kid again. "I... we... tried to keep it a secret from you, it was just a bit of fun, and besides, I was fine!"
"Oh, darling, you really must find a past time that does not end every time with so much blood, though I guess at least you don't get your clothes ruined since you hardly wear any, but you still worry us dear!" Rarity, as usual, had some light make-up on, but Sigfrid noticed that today it looked a little shakier than usual, and near the eyes it seemed like it had been smeared slightly, which after a moment to reflect made Sigfrid feel a little worse.
Twilight spent a little more time evaluating the man's various gashes and injuries before she sighed and began to use her magic to speed the healing of some of the larger and more serious wounds. "At least you don't have any broken bones this time," she concluded, satisfied that he wasn't going to keel over from blood loss anytime soon, "And this time, if I catch you out fighting before I say you're healed again..." She left the sentence hang, the clear threat needing no words.
"Now, let's get back to the party!" Twilight said, suddenly smiling, taking all around by surprise.
Sigfrid spent some time introducing Gilda to some of the ponies at the party, since a lot of them were still a little uneasy about her appearance. A couple ponies gawked at the griffon's talons or beak, but most of them seemed to enjoy themselves with Gilda. Sigfrid had a couple ponies compliment his acting and asked about what sort of tricks he used for the blood, a few tried to enlist him in various endeavors, mostly including less-than-friendly creatures and promises of reward, which he begrudgingly declined out of fear for Twilight's vengeance.
It surprised Sigfrid just how many ponies there were present, even the Apples were there, though he suspected that they came partially to remind him that he'd been slacking with his adopted chores with all his "lazing about," loss of blood and broken bones notwithstanding. He did come to see a brighter side of Grannie Smith, and he could've sworn that Big Mac was talking to other ponies, and sometimes using more than four words to a sentence.
Just about the only thing that didn't surprise the huge man was the Cutie Mark Crusaders' antics, even trying to get his help to set up a dual, which Twilight and Rarity almost immediately shut down long before the idea got airborne.
Finally, the party wound down, and ponies began to go home, and Pinkie Pie almost by some means of magic cleaned up party decorations and banners almost as soon as they were no longer necessary. A table would lose the last of it's occupants, and before they were all out the door, it was already disassembled and ready to be taken to... wherever Pinkie stores her party gear.
Gilda sauntered up to Sigfrid, looking around and whistling. "Sure was a good party, eh Sig? Make sure Pinks gets an invite out to Griffonia the next time she throws another one, would ya?"
"Yeah, it was pretty good. I just wish I didn't have Twilight keeping track of me all evening. I swear, if I'd have so much as said the word fight I might have had some problems, I certainly would've been pressed to leave completely intact." Sigfrid chuckled, looking back at the Element bearers, who were all wrapped up in their own conversation. "So, Gilda, you're just gonna leave here? You can't stick around? I could use a partner in the ring from time to time, and some backup in the forest would be pretty nice."
The griffon tried, poorly, to bite back a laugh, "Oh, I'd like to, but I gotta get back to my folks. I kinda ran away from them, since I needed to unwind and all, but I do need to get back. I've got some, eh, responsibilities back home that I can't just drop for too long. I'll be back though, don't worry." She sent him a quick wink to accentuate her statement. "And if you head out to Griffonia, be sure to let me know and we'll totally hang, cool?"
"Yeah, that would be good, and if you come back out this way, you better make sure to let me know!" He let out a hearty laugh, completely missing the griffon responding, more to herself, "Oh I will." She coughed before continuing, "Anyway, it's about time I take off, you take care now Sig!" And, finished with her good bye, she walked over to Rainbow Dash and the other bearers, had a couple of quick words that ended in nearly all of the ponies blushing, and Rarity almost seemed livid for a few moments before Gilda finally signed one final farewell and just about ran out the door.
Sigfrid walked over to the circle, staring out the door as he walked, "So what was that all about?"
Twilight, still flushed from whatever had been said, turned her head away and quickly gave a noncommittal "Nothing." The man stared out the door for a while longer, until Fluttershy approached him. "I'm, uh, going home now, just so you know. Twilight said that if you want, you don't have to stay under her watch, so I guess you can sleep back in your room at the house, that is, if you want," the pegasus said, almost managing some eye contact here and there.
A few seconds passed by, with Twilight nodding to Sigfrid, affirming Fluttershy's claim, before the man nodded. "Sure, some sleep would do these cuts good." Some steak and ale would do them better, he thought, but he kept this to himself as he followed Fluttershy back to her cottage.