• Published 22nd Feb 2012
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Griffin the Griffin - BlackWing

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The Part Where Stuff Happens (50)

The Part Where Stuff Happens

"And, here we are again, the Dominion. I just realized, we've traveled around the entire world."

"Kind of makes you feel, small, you know?" Trixie added.

"Yeah, It's a big world, and we've been all around it."


"Griffins! Hear me! You have been freed from your shackles. We are now in the land of our forefathers. Go! Return to your families! Become whole once more! Tell any who will listen to fly to Tailfeather. That is where we will organize and prepare our future, a future where we do not starve, we do not live in fear, and where we can feel joy! Go! Spread the word!"

At my speech, a resounding cheer erupted. I had spent most of the past two weeks motivating them while Maria and Selma worked overtime to make sure everyone was fed. Our food reserves were running low, but we didn't have to drop any off because I had taught the griffins on board how to get clams, how to use gems for basic survival spells like making fire and such. That way they could spread my knowledge throughout the Dominion without me actually needing to do it. This would ensure that when we returned after our time in Canterlot, we would come back to a large number of well fed, happy griffins, ready to follow where I lead. Most importantly, I had given them initiative. They were depressed to the point of not even wanting to get up anymore, but now they had a reason. They had a small sliver of hope, and it made their fires burn ever brighter. They disembarked, heading to their homes to reunite with friends and family, and to spread the word.


"So, what do we do now?" One of the unicorns on board asked.

"We head to Canterlot. I've already contacted Celestia, she'll make sure you get home. Same with the zebras."

"I... I can't believe it.... I'm finally going home...." An earth pony mare started crying in joy. Pretty soon, all the ponies on board were crying and smiling and talking about their friends and their families and who they'd see and what they'd do, as well as what they'd see and who they'd do. A little too much info there, but, they were happy none the less.

"Well, we should arrive in about a week. The air above Equestria is calm, so even though the distance is greater, we'll be moving much faster. That leaves... wow, three weeks before the wedding, geez. Well, we can do a food run, get some supply for the griffins, bring some with us to Canterlot for the wedding, then to the islands, then head back up for our second assault on Gem Fido."

"Let's not forget that there's going to be some sort of attack on the city around that time." Gilda reminded me.

"It'll all turn out. It's just supposed to be around that time. It might be over before we get there, or happen after we leave, or, it might be during the ceremony. If it happens while we're there, we'll just do our thing. It'll also mean our crew gets some action. They've mostly been stuck on the ship, I wouldn't want them to go stir crazy."

"Nah, we cats like our naps, and there's a nice breeze this high up." Nadene explained.

"Well, I still feel kind of bad about it but, they'll get to do their bit eventually. Well, let's go. Oh! I almost forgot, I gotta get Growl to paint our flag on the side of the ship. Tiny little flag is hard to see with this thing blinding everyone."

Celestia and Luna

"Ruin his fun? *sigh*. Well, pirates will be pirates." Celestia giggled.

"Troll, a trickster...... well, he pegged you pretty well sister." Luna laughed.

"Yes, I suppose he has, and he admits to being one as well. I have to think of more ways to get him."

"What do you mean more ways?" The younger sister asked.

"Well, I...."

"Wait, you pardoned him for THAT reason?"

"Well, in addition to the other ones, but yes. He seemed so proud to have a high bounty, I knew he'd be upset when he got pardoned." The sun princess laughed.

"By the way, how did that go with the press?"

"Well, I explained that his bounty was reflective of his ability, not his crimes, and that they were few, his service outweighing them heavily. They accepted it pretty easily. After all, I am their princess. They take everything I say pretty well."

"Although it's upsetting that he failed to take the diamond dog warren. It means his task will be far more difficult, due to them refusing leadership by an outsider. Perhaps we could ask Echo to take that position? He seems to have a good relationship with Griffin." Luna suggested.

"Yes, that may work. We'll have to discuss it with him should we meet. Other than that, we have 26 ponies of various types, and 20 zebras as well, to get home. Bringing them here to the capital in and of itself will be enough to get him in the public eye." The sisters smiled.

"Why can't everypony be this helpful?"

Mane Six

"So then he was all, 'Hey Ugly!' and the dragon was 'grr' and he laughed at it!" Pinkie was going over the battle with the CMC and Pip.

"And then he fell in the ocean and I had to drag him out of it. He looked like a rat had decided to go for a swim!" Dash joked.

"So, who would win in a fight?" Scootaloo asked.

"Me, hooves down. We had a sparring match on the deck and I beat him, although to be fair, he almost got me." Rainbow explained.

"So... they've been pardoned now, but, they still call themselves pirates....." Pip pondered.

"Yuppers. Not sure what they're up to now though....."

"Pinkie, Rainbow, come on! You're gonna be late for our picnic!" Twilight called over a hill.

"Quit your worrying Twilight, I'll be there in..."

"Yes, I know, ten seconds flat...."

Canterlot, Later

"And here we are. So, why is there a friggin bubble around it?"

"You warned them of a possible threat, remember?" Gilda smacked me on the back of the head.

"Right.... well, think we should knock?"

"You're kidding..." Trixie deadpanned. I just looked at her.

"Any way you try to 'knock' they'll consider an act of hostility."

"Not so lassie, I got the first one finished. Try er out." Steelhorn sauntered up with a fairly large looking laser on a mount. It hooked right into my armor for support so it was easier to move and wouldn't fall off, yet was still maneuverable as it was on the end of some kind of metal arm thing. (Think the miniguns from Aliens, how they had a support arm hooked to their waist for better mobility) It would clamp down on Trixie's hooves when she put them in it. It had a single, large gem set in it, so she could charge it and fire at the same time, making for a constant beam, and the size providing more power.

"It's about 1/3 the strength of the ship's gun, but constant firing means you can sweep in an arc. The hand held ones will be best against light or no armor, while this one can melt through steel in five seconds. At least, it should. This is the first test fire."

"Alright. Well Trixie, let's knock."


My unicorn rider hopped on my back, strapping her rear hooves into the harness, while putting her front ones in the side of the gun mounted to my back on the arm. She moved it around a couple times, checking mobility. It was easy to move since I was bearing the weight, and she just had to move against the resistance of the arm, which wasn't much. Her horn began to glow, and so did the shaped gem in the gun.

"Lumen." She pulled the trigger inside, sending a bright white beam into the shield bubble around the city. Of course it just burned the spot, not doing any damage to it. The beam went out. We waited a couple minutes and nothing happened.

"Should we try again?" Nadene asked.

"Screw it, Tiras, you knock." He brought the main gun around and fired it at the top of the shield, so it wouldn't hit anything if it passed through. It didn't, but the shield was definitely weakening from the beam. We saw a lot of movement from within, and after a couple minutes, a large number of armored pegasi, as well as some unicorns in airships came up to meet us.

"Surrender now!" They bellowed.

"Knock knock moe'suckra!" I cheerfully returned, bringing looks of confusion.

"What?"

"Lower the shield and guide us in, Princess Celestia is expecting us."

"And just who are you, and why did you attack Canterlot?" A unicorn stallion wearing fancier armor asked from the ship flanking us. He had the typical 'bro' accent. I would have expected him to be in a surfing competition, not guard's armor.

"We're the Griffin pirates, and we didn't attack. We were knocking. How else were we supposed to get your attention?"

"If you are who you say you are, why didn't you just send a letter to Princess Celestia?"

"This was more fun. Besides, she's busy, and we needed to test our newest weapon. Your shield held, that's good."

"You're not going in the city....." I face clawed and sighed.

"Fine then, send some chariots up here to take the slaves we rescued so we can be on our way." The much happier and healthier looking captives left their rooms and came up on the deck to prove our point.

"That won't be necessary." I turned around to see the majestic, enormous form of Princess Celestia glide in and land on the deck. All the ponies and zebra's bowed, as did the guards. She glared at me menacingly, and I shrank ever so slightly at the imposing figure, but then I recovered and gave a stupid grin.

"Hiya! Nice to see you again for the first time." I said in the cutest little kid voice I could manage. She lost her glare and wore a smile.

"So, you're this 'Griffin' I've been hearing so much about?"

"Yep, that's me."

"I have to say, you're shorter than I expected." She smirked. Oh? Trolling are we?

"Nah, you're just bigger than everyone else." Looks of shock came from the guards and ponies as I was basically insinuating that Princess Celestia was fat.

"Well, I have been eating far too many sweets lately. I must thank you again for warning me again about that cake, I managed to sneak an extra slice." We both smiled after she gave me a wink, and my crew broke out in laughter.

"Captain Shining Armor, lower the shield." She commanded. He opened a hole in it for us to pass through. I told Steelhorn over the PA we were good to go, and the ship slowly began moving forward.

"Wait a minute, you're Shining Armor, Twilight's brother?"

"How do you know Twily?" He became stern as he crossed the gang plank onto the ship.

"Do you even read the newspapers? I was under the impression that everybody knew about it at this point. Heck, slaves in the mines knew about it. Anyway, long story short, I saved her flank after she tried to arrest me. By the way, have you told her about your wedding yet?" His eyes went wide.

"Oh! I knew I was forgetting something! Between planning the wedding and bumping up security, it totally slipped my mind. I'll send her the invite."

"You're going to tell her in a note? Are you serious?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Never mind." Oh he's gonna catch hell for this. I think I'll just let him.

"Oh, where are my manners, welcome aboard the Possibility, while the captain is busy guiding us in, perhaps you'd like to take a look around?"

"I'll be tha one to give tha tooors." Steelhorn slid down a ladder from the bridge in the balloon. "After all, it's mah ship, yoor just rentin it."

"Yeah yeah, no need to get defensive. We'll give the tour together, besides, she still needs to meet the crew."

"Fair enough."


"Bridge, eatery, sleeping quarters, cannons, kitchen, tha best of tha best."

"Quite impressive, twenty five years it took you to build, all on your own?"

"Ya, I had to stop a couple times a get more materials, but I built her myself. Couple last minute additions by the brave captain here. I swear, head full of ideas, I'll never get to retire if I keep him around."

"Is that so....."

"Yeah, Twilight figures I should go to the academy and let them pick my brains apart. But, I have a schedule to keep, and that would take far too long. Maybe after, I'll publish a book. Then again, I don't really want to throw off Equestria's balance. Some things should remain unknown."

"Such as?"

"Nuclear fission." I deadpanned.

"Agreed." She said with some degree of shock that I knew about it.

'Duh, she raises a giant nuke in the sky every morning, of course SHE knows about it.'

"Well, now that the tour is over, would you care to introduce me to the crew?" Celestia asked.

"Right, of course. Well, there's me, then there's Gilda. She's the one who first found me passed out in the Dragon Badlands. We hung out for a while, did some training, planning and junk. And, then I got eaten by a dragon, but, as I like to say, I'm quite chewy, and he choked on me. That's when I got this." I pulled out Hades and held it up so it didn't sink into the floor. I twirled it a bit and put it back.

"Then, we met Trix in Stalliongrad after I got arrested for being a griffin. They wanted to sell my sword for bits! Well, she was in there because she had taken to stealing in order to eat, some sob story later, and we find ourselves busting her out. Then we saved BB on the border to the jungle."

"I can't help but notice you let her ride you around....." The sun princess pointed out.

"Yeah, it works. She can't fly and doesn't have the speed or endurance to keep up, and I get someone who keeps me in line, watches my back, and, you wouldn't believe it but, it's actually comfy having something there. I don't know why, but it is. So, we trained and fight as a single unit. It's pretty effective."

"And the diamond dogs?"

"Guys, say hello." Etch had his tail between his legs, while Growl was just standing there.

"Okay then.... Growl is normally quiet, but he's actually a brilliant artist. He designed out flag and everything. Etch, well, Etch is Etch. Hard worker, tends to talk a lot, although he's probably a bit scared of you which is why he's clammed up. You guys can go get back to work if you want."

"And... who is this? I don't recognize the species...."

"Hi! I'm Nadene! Griffin rescued my village from a bunch of meanies pretending to be them, and, I joined up so I could go on adventures. I'm a cat."

"Hi, um.... I'm... um... Maria and..... um..." She shrank and gave a whimper.

"She's just shy, Always has been. She's scared of a lot, she's still pretty much a kid and has been running most of her life, but, we look out for her and she's a fantastic cook. Nadene is a potion maker, Gilda is a ranger."

"Hi!" Shimmer popped out of Gilda's backpack.

"Oh.... hello."

"This is Shimmer, she's a baby dragon we adopted when we found her next to her mother after she passed away. Gilda's taken to raising her and they've become pretty attached over the two months since we found her."

"I see, well, has she met Spike?"

"No, unfortunately, Twilight forgot to take him with." Celestia face hoofed.

"I knew I forgot something. I was meaning to talk with her about that."

"Oh well. Then, we have Selma, the elder of the former Lemko tribe, big, beefy bunch of warriors, they were starving because the Romak were taking their food. Then you have Tiras over there on the gun, chief of the former Romak, stealthy ranged specialists. They were taking the food because their village got burned down by a dragon and they were also starving. The 40 or so cats you see are all that's left of both tribes. After I beat the dragon, found them food and negotiated between them, they named me their chief, and I merged the tribes into the 'White Wind'. Then I took them with me on this little campaign. Once we free the slaves we're going to send a bunch to uninhabited islands in the zebra archipelago and the southern rain forest. More food, less danger, more room."

"Won't that cause tensions with the cats and zebras?" Celestia asked.

"Well, the cats are mostly a peaceful lot, and there's still uninhabited areas of the forest, but, I'm hoping to get the tribes too. They're okay for the most part, even without a government, and are happy living their lives. They have an understanding and stay off each other's land. The zebras are a peaceful lot, and as long as we don't start moving in on their islands it should be fine. If problems show up, that's what I'll be there for."

"I see." She just looked around, taking everything in.

"And finally, you have Steelhorn, he's not actually part of the crew. We're just renting his ship and smith services for the duration of the tour. Shimmer is his apprentice. He acts all mean and greedy, but he's got a heart of gold and has wanted to sail his whole life on his ship. He wants to sell it after we finish test driving it, but, you're pretty much the only one who can or would buy it, me being the other."

"Well then, it's nice to meet you all, and I'd love to hear more of your adventures, but we're here." Celestia interrupted, as the ship docked at the castle, letting the freed prisoners off.

"They've had a rough time, make sure they get home safe. And say hi to Luna for me." She nodded and smiled. One of the ponies, a pegasus mare with orange coat and lime green mane, turned back to me.

"If it weren't for you, we would have been eaten by that dragon, which, after so long, I was actually looking forward to, having an end to the misery and pain. You gave me my life back. You gave all our lives back."

"Your point?"

"I, I'll never forget you."

"Pfft, whatever, get your flank home to your friends and family. You really want to thank me? Adopt a griffin. They could use some family too."








We began to sail away from Canterlot, the ponies down below looking up at the ship with awe.

"Grif, think we should give em a show?" Gilda asked.

"Oh, why the hell not? Musica a memoria"


Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul
Yo ho heave ho
There are men whose hearts as black as coal
Yo ho heave ho

And they sailed there ship 'cross the ocean blue
A blood thirsty captain and a cut throat crew.
Its a dark a tale as was ever told
Of the lust for treasure and a love of gold...

Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides
Yo ho heave ho
There are hungers as strong as the winds and tides
Yo ho heave ho

And those buccaneers drowned their sins in rum,
The devil himself would have to call em scum!
Every man on board would have killed his mate for a bag of
ginnys or a piece of eight, a piece of eight, a piece of eight
5 6 7 8

HULA WOKA HULA WOKA SOMETHING NOT RIGHT
MANY WICKY ICKY THINGS GONNA HAPPEN TONIGHT
HULA WOKA HULA WOKA SAILOR MAN BEWARE

When the money's in the ground, there's murder in the air,
Murder in the air!

ONE MORE TIME NOW

Shiver my timbers, shiver my bones
Yo ho heave ho
There are secrets that sleep with old Davey Jones
Yo ho heave ho

When the main sails set and the anchor's weighed
Theres no turning back from any course thats laid

And when greed and villainy sail the sea,
you can bet your boots there'll be treachery,

TREACHERY!

YAAAAAA YA YA YA AAAAAAAA YAAAAAAA

Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails
Dead men tell no tales!


We passed out of the shield and into the open sky. Once we were clear, I had the crew fire off an unloaded full broadside, basically just make as much noise as possible. After all, the song really just isn't the same if you don't fire the cannons at the end.



"He sure knows how to make a statement, doesn't he Luna?"

"That he does. So, what does he have planned for the wedding?" Luna asked.

"I think I forgot to invite him." Celestia replied.

"You're forgetting a lot lately...."

"I have a lot on my mind." She defended.

"Still, you should make sure he knows to come." The younger sister suggested.

"Whatever, if he want's to be there, he'll show up invited or not."

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