Letters From a Little Princess Monster

by Georg

91. Tripartite - Part Nine

Letters From a Little Princess Monster

Tripartite - Part Nine

---

Awareness trickled back slowly for Green Grass, along with a terrible numbness along his hindquarters that for a few terrifying moments he thought was a side-effect of being eaten by a Windigo griffon. Even the slightest motion sent jagged needles of pain through his muscles, and clotted chunks of frost concealed his coat all the way down to a club-like mass of ice where his tail should have been.

“Greenie!”

The small and beaked face of Princess Sun Shines was nearly pressed against his nose, and her panicked eyes helped take some of the panic away from him. The entire corridor was frosted with a sheeting of rime ice, along which Stargazer and the tiny griffon princess were pushing his unconscious body. He was further away from the doorway than he last remembered and Green Grass expected to see a headless griffon corpse in their wake, but instead there was a vaguely griffon-shaped pile of shattered ice at the center of the frozen scene.

“What… happened?” he managed from a dry and frostbitten throat.

“Plummets’ dead,” said Stargazer in a near-whisper, not relenting in her headbutts for one second until he bumped into the bottom step of the staircase. “You killed him!”

“He turned into ice,” said Sunny weakly while she babbled. “I knew something was wrong when they brought out the feast, I knew it, but I didn’t think my uncle would turn into ice and I went to look for you and couldn’t find you anywhere then I saw him hammering on the doorway but I was afraid and hid and when you hit him, it was nothing but ice and your body. We’ve gotta get you out of here! Come on, up the stairs! Hurry! We’ll sneak you out to the road and to the earth pony village, but you need to climb!”

“Can’t,” managed Green Grass after one convulsive effort that barely let his hindquarters twitch. “Legs… too numb. Take Stargazer instead.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” snapped Sunny, looking like a much older griffon than her true age. She dropped what little of Green Grass she had been able to lift and shot up the stairs, calling back over her shoulder, “I’m getting Aunt Gilda. Stay here!”

The macabre humor of the situation let Green Grass make a brief dry chuckle before heaving his forelegs up on the first step. Stargazer scurried closer, her eyes as large as saucers and trying to look in all directions at once, but she most certainly would not be able to carry his substantial weight, and there was little chance that Sunny would be able to bring her aunt back to save their lives.

“Go on,” he rasped. “The rest of the griffons are gathered together like Plummets said, so you might be able to reach the village before they… Just go. Forget about me.”

“I… don’t think I can walk that far,” admitted Stargazer. She held one foreleg across her belly and breathed out in a short huff of white breath in the arctic cold of the corridor. “I’ve been having minor contractions most of the day, and they’re getting worse.”

“Then start down the path to the valley and hide when you go into labor,” hissed Green Grass through the pain. “Mares have had foals for thousands of years without help, and there’s enough trees on the side of the mountain for you to find a good hiding spot. Go!”

She made it half-way up the stairs before hesitating, then scurrying back down to Green Grass. “I’m afraid,” she whimpered.

“I can’t protect you here. I can’t protect you anywhere. This is the worst place in the world to be right now. Think of the foal.”

Instantly, Green Grass knew he had said exactly the wrong thing. Stargazer wrapped her forelegs around her own chest and sagged onto the stairs like a puppet with her strings cut. “I don’t care!” she spat. “That thing in my belly should be dead! I’ve hated it ever since I found out I was pregnant, but I lied to myself. Lied to you! Lied to Sunny!”

Her coat was cold, but far warmer than his own frost-clogged self, and Stargazer nearly nudged him off the stairs with her abrupt shove. Her tears were warm against his neck, and she snuffled for a time before adding very quietly, “If it wasn’t for you, it would be dead, and so would I. Should I hate you or love you for that?”

“I don’t know.”

Green Grass could not bear to hold her while waiting, but he did not move while she huddled close. It seemed so strange that he had grown closer to a mare who he had pretended to be her husband, while his legal wife was far away, and oblivious to his imminent demise. At least he had been married and discovered a small portion of what it meant to be a husband before he died, but it would have been nice if both of those experiences had been with the same mare. It occupied his thoughts for a fairly short time until the skittering of griffon claws could be heard from above, and to his great relief, the feathered bulk of Gilda lunged down the stairs.

“By the First Egg!” One powerful griffon arm swept Green Grass up, and he barely kept from crying out in pain when Gilda tossed him over her shoulder like a bag of beans. “What are you doing down here, Greenie? Come on, Stargazer. Hurry!”

“He killed Plummets!” Little Sunny fluttered around her moving aunt as they traveled up the stairs, talking as fast as she could. “Uncle Plummets was going to kill Greenie, and Greenie killed him first. Bam! Two hooves right under the chin! I was trying to warn Greenie first, but Plummets got there first and I couldn't stop him and I thought he was going to die, but BAM!” The little griffon made a loop and nearly ran into a wall, then hurried to catch up with her aunt’s rapid pace.

“We need to hurry,” snapped Gilda. She got a clawed hand around Stargazer’s mane and boosted her up the last few steps. “Hurry up!”

“She’s been having contractions,” managed Green Grass between gasps. “Don’t think she can run all the way to the village. Can you carry her? I’ll be fine on my own.”

“You’re both coming with me,” snapped Gilda. “Because of my father.”

“He’s turning into a Windigo.” Green Grass winced as a rib bent on Gilda’s sharp shoulders, but as long as they were moving, he bit back any cry of pain. “You need to stay away from anything he tries to feed you. Killed Milk Toast over a week ago. Plummets was going to kill me. Kill us. Kill the foal. Kill everycreature if they turn all the way into Windigo. Sounded like he was controlling the griffon Emperor, and probably all the griffons he brought with him on his tour. Gotta find some way to stop them. Wait.”

Green Grass looked around with a sudden chill. “We’re not headed for the downhill aerie exit.”

“Of course not.” Gilda reached out and almost casually swatted her niece to the floor with a solid thud, just as easily as Green Grass could swat a fly with his tail. The little griffon let out one brief squawk and went limp, then Gilda picked her up by the leonine tail and tossed the small griffon over her back also. “We’re going to the feast.”

“Run, Stargazer,” gasped Green Grass. “Run!”

But he was too late. Grabbing the pregnant mare by the mane, Gilda dragged her along as she walked through the outside door and into the frigid rush of air beyond. The prickling sensation of impending thunderstorms cut into his nose while the low rumble of thunder cut off whatever other gasped words he could muster.

The council circle was the center of all griffon colonies, a wide circular area where their Wingmaster could address his entire flock at once. Three ranks of wooden perches surrounded the central ring, a large area covered with sand with a mound in the center. Time and negligence had left several of the back perches collapsed into splinters, but all the rest of them were currently occupied by dozens of griffons, who all looked at Green Grass with glowing blue eyes.

The small pile of tied-up pony servants heaped to one side looked at him too, but with expressions of terrified resignation. Gilda dragged all three of her captives over to the pile of impending sacrifices and tossed Sunny right on top, followed by dragging the trembling Stargazer to the edge of the pile, but when she wrapped her claws around Green Grass’ ice-clogged coat, a powerful voice from the center of the council circle called out.

“Wait!”

❅ ❅ ❅

A chill numbness far more than the growing frost on her beak kept Gilda from feeling. She should have felt terror when she realized just what was in the joint feast with the Emperor of Griffons. Or revulsion enough to throw it up. She could not even feel fear at what she was becoming. The strength. The acuteness of her already sharp senses. The power.

All it cost was her soul, a dark and loathsome thing that had never been worth a single bit.

She was doomed, doomed to the Underdarkness, where griffons went when they dishonored their ancestors. No amount of penance would be able to buy off their wrath, even though Talon held her will subservient in a grip of frigid iron. A twinge of emotion had momentarily threatened to break through Talon’s icy control and free Gilda when she backhanded her niece into the wall, but it was only for a flash, and the numbing cold flooded back into her heart.

Cold helped her not feel.

Cold helped her not think of Sunny’s anguished cry.

The fledgeling was the only bright spot in this pestilent stone hive, a cheerful pinfeathered bundle of curiosity and joy who had rubbed off against every griffon who touched her life. Even that faker Canterlot pony had fallen for her cheerful attitude, and could be suckered into telling or listening to stories for hours on end.

Now both of the innocents were going to die, eaten by…

“Bring the child to me.”

Wingmaster Talon crouched directly in the center of the open area of the council circle, a massive griffon far larger than he was a few days ago, but twice as fierce and ugly. The transformation to Windigo was deep beneath the surface, and had been going on for weeks if anygriffon had been able to see the signs. His coal-black feathers had begun to fade, which age might have been able to excuse, but the flickers of blue in his golden eyes should not have been ignored by everygriff until it was too late.

At least Gilda should have seen the corruption growing when her father became so cold to the rest of the griffons. When he stripped her of leadership authority in the aerie and passed the title over to the cruel Plummets, who treated the pony servants as little more than pests. When he struck Green Grass and nearly killed him. The hapless mensch couldn’t be more harmless on the surface, and liked nothing more than to sit and listen to griffons talk about how great they were all day. Sunny adored him probably more than her own father, and Gilda had considered him as… a friend.

Now the pony was nothing more than another trembling coward who could not even struggle when Gilda tossed his skinny body onto the ground like a bag of ice cubes. It brought a chill down her back far stronger than the icy breeze through the council circle, or the frost on her own beak, but it was nothing compared to the dagger of ice that stabbed through her heart when she tried to rebel against the beast who had once been her father.

“The child,” hissed Talon, his eyes so blue they blazed with cold malice. “Obey me! Bring the child.”

She wanted to fight his chilling control over her body, but the sheer glacial power of his will crushed what little warmth she had in her heart, and she stepped over Green Grass in the pile of sacrifices when she leaned forward to pick up her groggy niece. The snap of a beak drew her up short.

The Emperor had brought two dozen of his family and court associates for his visit, which was the opening the Wingmaster obviously had been waiting for. The celebratory feast had given the Wingmaster and his son power beyond anything Gilda had seen before, and that power had trickled down to those who ate the tainted meal, driving them into a blood-frenzy at his command. As a symbol of Talon’s newfound power over the Emperor, his majestic airship was first to fall, the thick skin of the vessel feeling like paper beneath her claws and terrifying the untouched with the rapidity of its destruction. The freedom of the remaining griffons and pony servants did not last long, because once the flagship of the Griffon Empire was ruptured and shredded across the mountain like a child’s toy, it was their turn to be wrapped in rope and tossed into a pile for the upcoming sacrifice. Powerful griffons would make powerful Windigo, and the ones who would not command were doomed. Particularly those who were weak, and expressed their sympathy for other weaklings.

The emperor’s own son was one.

Prince Sky had fought when Wingmaster Talon had overwhelmed them all, had fought when Sunny had fled the feast and Gilda gave in to her own weakness. He had fought when his own mighty father’s golden eyes glazed over to blue, forcing himself to expel their meal in his face when he had discovered what it contained. It was bizarre to think of throwing up as an act of defiance, but it had purged his body of the tainted meat enough for Sky to spit out venomous words against the Wingmaster while the rest of the griffons bound him and tossed his struggling body into the pony pile. Now, he was a prisoner doomed to consumption, just like the rest.

“Don’t.” The word was muffled by the ropes around his beak, but Prince Sky’s golden eyes locked onto her own, giving a plaintive plea that made her hesitate.

“The Windigo’s control is weaker now,” rasped Green Grass from where he was sprawled out on the cold ground. “Fight it, Gilda! Fight him for your niece!”

“Aunt Gilda?” The pinfeathered body in Gilda’s claws shifted and looked up at her with golden eyes. The love, even confused, in that familiar gaze gave off a warm burst that cut into her cold heart. “What’s going on?”

While Gilda fought for control, Green Grass twisted around with a rattle of his ice-clogged coat so he could face what her father had become. He only gave her one plaintive glance before launching into his obvious distraction, but the warmth in his blue eyes gave her a needed thread of hope to cling onto in her turmoil.

“Doom!” he hissed. “Your time has come and gone, monster! Your son is dead, and you will be next when Celestia drops the sun on your head! Oh, yes,” managed the gasping pony. “She knows! I told her student, and even now, Princess Celestia is bringing the Royal Guard to slay you and free the others from your influence.”

Jabbing one hoof in the direction of the cloud-tangled sky, Green Grass fairly shouted, “When the three tribes united, they drove your kind out of these lands like vermin! United, they reached out to griffons and plucked them from your cold grasp! United, they brought the fire of friendship that burned your kind into nothingness!”

Nothing but silence answered the pony’s strident declaration, although the corrupted Wingmaster ever so slowly shook his head, allowing the frost-tipped feathers to jingle slightly with his motion.

“That was then,” he breathed. “This is our time now. Even Celestia’s magic will have no hold upon us. Our people will fill the skies, and drive you petty squabbling vermin into the darkness where you belong. Unlessss….” he hissed, letting his pale tongue lick around the edges of his beak and across the sharp teeth inside.

“Sunny,” whispered Green Grass out of the corner of his mouth. “Run. Run to the Ancestor’s Shrine and beyond! Wake the Old One!”

“The Old One?” A burst of cold air washed down from the center of the council circle, and the budding Windigo gave a short cackle of ghoulish laughter. “The dragon of this mountain is over a thousand years old, and has passed into the Forever Slumber. If he was a threat, I would have slain him already.”

“The Dragons never fell to your corruption,” spat Green Grass, “Even they lacked your lust for power.”

“And you ponies were blameless?” This time the monstrosity’s laughter was long and hard. “Pegasi drank the blood of their own children to fly with us. They slaughtered their entire families for our power. I can feel the same desire in you. For control.”

There had been confidence flowing off the scrawny pony, the feeling that was letting Gilda build her own will, and it cut off like a knife. The whirling of the storm clouds overhead sped up, and the rumble of thunder could be heard from beyond their darkness, but all Gilda could see was those terrible blue eyes of the monster.

“You already have the cold heart of a killer,” growled the Windigo in a voice like blowing snow that spat little pieces of ice across the cold ground of the council circle. “Your mind is strong, but your body has always been crippled. Weak when you were born, weak when you grew up. Killing my son was a fluke, but once you drink the blood, you will finally gain the power that has always been withheld.”

“No,” gasped Green Grass weakly. “I’d rather die!”

“Oh, you will,” gloated the Windigo. “Die in your weakness and be reborn into power. Gilda, bring the child and the coward. We will bleed her to see if this pony is worthy of our blessing.”

Comments

[Georg]

And three more chapters in the arc as promised. Nothing bad can come of this, right?

[Danger Noodle]

It says something about your writing that I can remember exactly what was happening from 1.5 years ago. So, if it takes another 5 years to finish this arc, I'm confident I'll still remember what was going on.

Also, damn these cliff hangers hurt.

[Greenhorn]

11108414
As long as they are good chapters. I don't mind one bit.

[Sky_Paladin]

One of my oldest, favorite stories updating? What a great start to 2022!

[Edguy0009]

I got an OC that's half windigo, she'd be able to kick the butts of those windigos.

[The Chronicler]

11108414
I'm gonna have to reread this arc when it's done, because I don't remember what's going on too well.

[Georg]

11108636 11108432 Yeah, guess who else has to re-read older sections to fill in memory spots while writing new sections....
11108478 One would think I had lots of time to write over the last two years. Thankfully, my wife found all kinds of things to keep me busy.

[The Chronicler]

11108760
Mood

[Bloody_Tofu]

Wooot!!! Thank you thank you. This and it’s prequel are comfort stories for me. Stories I reread when I need the good feels.

[Kenshinryuu]

Damnit Gilda, where is the griffon Rainbow Dash said was cool??? DON'T GIVE IN AND FITHT!!!!

[Pinklestia]

I guess they should have done the Hearts Warming play around there...

[Nyerguds]

11108414
*Cackles with lightning in the background*
"It's aliiiiiive!"

[Nyerguds]

She held one foreleg across her belly and breathed out in a short huff of white breath in the arctic cold of the corridor. “I’ve been having minor contractions most of the day, and they’re getting worse.”

Another one on the way? Sheesh! They're popping out like mushrooms!

er tears were warm against his neck, and she snuffled for a time before adding very quietly, “If it wasn’t for you, it would be dead, and so would I. Should I hate you or love you for that?”

Don't love him too much; he's taken

It seemed so strange that he had grown closer to a mare who he had pretended to be her husband, while his legal wife was far away, and oblivious to his imminent demise.

Oof. I'd say "give her some credit" but it took a bunch of foals to decode your message

Green Grass looked around with a sudden chill. “We’re not headed for the downhill aerie exit.”

Oh no... Gilda...

“Your mind is strong, but your body has always been crippled. Weak when you were born, weak when you grew up. Killing my son was a fluke, but once you drink the blood, you will finally gain the power that has always been withheld.”

Welp. At least he bought a little bit of time...