Part 12 - Offers
Griffon the Heave-ho
by CrowMagnon
After dispensing a few quick orders to his subordinates to continue the Royal Guards' training in his absence, Shining Armor led Cadance and Gunther away to his private office. It was a simply appointed office by Canterlot standards. His desk, carved from rich, elegant mahogany by one of the city's premier artisans a hundred years ago from wood that was enchanted so that even after all that time, it didn't have so much as a scratch on it. Its craftsmanship and condition made it worth roughly the same as a mid-sized house in a town like Ponyville.
Aside from the stacks of papers occupying its surface, the only other decorations in the room were an assortment of pictures including a group photograph of his family, pictures of himself and his sister taken after they had each graduated from their Royal Guard training, and a crudely-drawn crayon drawing of Twilight beside a light blue unicorn filly, both of them smiling above the caption, "BEST FILLY FRIENDS FOREVER!"
Once inside, Shining shut the door and offered his guests a seat. "So, why don't we start from the top?" he asked, casually leaning against the desk. "What happened in that meeting that's got the two of you so freaked out?"
Gunther and Cadance shared a look, and the young alicorn gave Gunther a nod as she gestured for him to go first.
"Alright. Well... I can't speak for what the princess saw, but the Emperor made my grandmother an offer."
-----
Earlier...
"'Death of Identity,'" Grigori said as he looked straight into Gertrude's eyes. "It's a form of exile within the Empire. If you accept this compromise, Gertrude Snowheart will 'die' in the hearts and minds of the Empire's citizens. You will be marked so that every griffon who sees you will know that you are 'dead'. As such, you will be stripped of all rights as a living creature. You will prohibited from any form of communication or interference with the daily lives of the citizenry. You will survive only on what you can scavenge, or what is left as an offering, but you will be watched to ensure that you do not purchase or steal or ask anything of any griffon. Attempting to contact the living in any capacity will be met swiftly with 'exorcism.'"
"What?!" Celestia was on her hooves, the cool colors of her pastel mane growing brighter and more intense to the point that it was growing painful to look directly at her. "You can't be serious, Grigori! You're talking about inflicting a punishment intended for criminals on her!"
Joining her in outrage, Gunther bellowed, "It's absurd! She has done you no wrong, and you would turn her into some sort of... of living ghost? Just because you are afraid of losing your precious authority?!"
Despite the wrathful fury being directed at him, Grigori and Gertrude held each others gazes in a contest of will and unspoken communication until the Emperor said aloud, "Ten years. I can offer you ten years of life to oversee the Snowheart clan's integration into the Empire. Once your time is up, you will 'die' and be required to leave your clan behind. Still, you would be able to continue to exist as the Warden of Winter, if nothing else, and I am sure you will be able to find a newspaper from time to time if you want to know how they are doing without you."
"... You are asking me to abandon my clan," Gertrude quietly said. "They froze themselves for centuries, and after a single decade, you would have me forsake them to protect your power."
"It's a more generous offer than most would get," Senator Snaketail muttered venomously.
The Emperor added, "And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it ten more years with them than you expected to get when you awoke in this era?"
Gunther balled his talons up into fists and slammed them down on the table, freezing the wood where he struck it. "This is insanity! You can't expect the griffons of the Snowheart clan to stand for this!"
General Airstrike crossed his forelegs over his chest and replied, "Well that's up to the one who's at the center of this whole mess, isn't it?"
Gunther snarled at the Imperial griffons and turned to his grandmother. At first glance, he was heartened to see that she was calm and unyielding, as stoic as a snow-capped mountain in the face of the Emperor's "offer." But then he looked into her eyes, and clenched his teeth as his anger grew exponentially. He didn't even notice as jagged, unruly tumor-like growths of ice formed on his armor, and he practically launched himself at the doors while Gertrude calmly stood and followed him out.
-----
Shining Armor blinked a few times as Gunther slowly regained his composure. Merely the act of re-telling the meeting's conclusion had caused the griffon knight to lower the temperature of the room several degrees. "Dang. It's kind of hard to believe Emperor Buckbeak pulled something like that. Princess Celestia's never had anything but good things to say about him before, but this..."
Gunther clenched his teeth in frustration. "After all this time... after everything we've been through, the Empire chooses to destroy us like this!"
Shining Armor reached out a foreleg to punch Gunther in the shoulder. "Hey. We've got your back, alright? I'm sure the princesses will stand by Gertrude, no matter what. Even if the Empire goes crazy enough to send an army to get you guys."
Gunther let out a groan and snapped, "Don't you understand? They won't have to! Grandmother is going to do it for them! She is going to accept... and when she does, it won't even take the ten years she was offered before she dies, and the clan with her."
-----
"Okay, seriously, are you trying to get yourself killed?" Rainbow Dash asked as she finished mixing some herbs into a paste.
"Well it's not like you told me he was some kind of Tartaros-spawned demon," Gilda grumped as her old friend brought the concoction over.
"But I did try to tell you not to get too close." It had been tough to find an intact bowl after the griffon and bunny had exhausted themselves tearing Dash's place apart, so she used the bunny's food dish as a substitute in defiance of the glare he shot her way. Smearing some of it onto her hoof, Dash got to work rubbing it into the cuts and bruises that they had given each other in their tussle.
Gilda hissed at the contact, expecting the disinfecting paste to sting, only to be surprised when she felt a pleasant tingling sensation instead. "More zebra voodoo witch doctor stuff?" she asked while Dash applied it to a bite on her leg.
"Yeah," the pegasus replied with a wistful grin. "One of the first things Zecora taught me to make. Good thing too. You wouldn't believe the kind of spills I used to take. Let me tell you, falling into a blackberry bush really stings, but eventually I beat it into my head that I couldn't just fly over everything."
Gilda winced while Rainbow Dash turned to apply the herbal paste to the bunny. Her talons clenched as she asked, "So this is what you do, huh? Spend all your time chanting and frolicking in the woods, kissing critters' boo-boos? I can't believe you actually did it."
"Hm? Did what?" Dash asked while tending to the bunny's wounds.
"Turned into the lamest pony alive," Gilda snapped, startling both Dash and the bunny with her vehemence. They turned to look at the griffon as she paced around the cottage and ranted, "And you've got some serious competition there, because those new friends of yours have to be some of the most boring, uptight and uncool ponies in this whole boring, uptight, uncool country!"
Gilda looked around and gestured at the room. "Just look at this place! Cozy little cottage in a podunk town? Playing veterinarian? The Rainbow Dash I knew would've gone crazy if she had to live like this! She was fun to hang around with, and now you're just some... rhyming weirdo who's forgotten what it's like to be cool!"
After her outburst, Gilda took a deep breath and turned back to Dash and saw the pegasus's ears flatten. She saw Dash's body tremble ever so slightly, her eyes watering. The bunny beside her just stared in disbelief.
And then Rainbow Dash snorted and burst into laughter, and both Gilda and the bunny felt their jaws drop open as Dash started pounding her hooves against the wooden floor. Tears of mirth stained her cheeks as she let out a startling guffaw.
"Oh... oh, nice try, G," Dash replied as she reared up on her hind legs. "Might've been a good burn, except you forgot something. Who here's got hooves and helped save Equestria from a body-snatching shadow demon?"
Gilda's beak moved as she tried to sputter something out, but Dash interrupted by pointing to herself with her front hooves. "This mare, that's who. And don't you forget it! And as for boring..." Dash came up beside the gobsmacked griffon and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders. "You and the rabbit start cleaning up this mess, and I'll go set some stuff up. We'll hit the town and you can start fresh with my friends, who you will like when you give 'em a chance."
With that, Rainbow Dash let go of her old friend, who needed a moment more to get her thoughts in order. "I... wh... what? That's not... you're... what are you talking about?"
Dash looked back over her shoulder and shot Gilda a devious grin. "I mean we're going to prank some ponies. Zebra voodoo witch doctor style!"
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Interesting.
Wow, these other gryphons are jerks. At this point my vote would be for the unlikely response of "Screw you and get out of my country." from Celestia.
Hell yeah, Dash.
The living death thing, where did you get that idea? I ask because I saw something similar on a science-fiction anthology show. I think it was The Outer Limits, but can't be sure.
You threw me for a slight loop. I expected a different reaction from Rainbow Dash. Although I suppose that was your intent.
4944361
While she's not so hasty as to demand that immediately, I can assure you that she's certainly thinking that right now.
4944600
I can't really pinpoint a specific source of inspiration, other than cultures which punish members by shunning, taken to its extreme form. It came about because the challenge was to come up with a way for the Empire to deal with the issues surrounding Gertrude's nature without making Celestia up and threaten to drop a piece of the sun on their country.
Good
This is unnecessarily cruel and extreme.
This should be fun...
Pff hahah. Gilda finally met her match in a fight.
Damn, that punishment is cruel. Okay, I'm betting on either changelings or Mr Trick's new trick.
Oh, yeah, Dash and Gilda pranking the town together can only end well.
This version of Dash is really cool.
Wait... Light blue unicorn... Could this unicorn have been Great and Powerful?
Cya
Raziel-chan