Stroll

by re- Yamsmos

Obstacles

Failure. Definitely not something Octavia was exactly used to in her life. Though she absolutely refused to act like a snobbish prune, she had to admit to herself that when it came down to it, she knew what she was doing. She wasn't like Golden Harvest, who had trapped herself inside her own maze during her birthday party, and she surely wasn't like Roseluck, who had apparently dated the same stallion twice in a single year expecting different things apart from his usual creepiness and swindling.

Stupidity was something that usually accompanied failure, and while Harvest and Roseluck weren't exactly stupid, they certainly failed in relying on their own thoughts. That's just the way Octavia saw it. And Octavia accepted it, though how willing she was doing so remained to be seen by both her and the others around her. That's what it really came down to though wasn't it? Failure was a part of being foolish, dare she say stupid, and Octavia didn't really want to think herself stupid. So no matter what it was, Octavia would do her best, and her best always seemed to be enough.

Failure wasn't really an option, and taking on possibly impossible projects was just a thing of hers–

Oh. Now she knew why she had agreed to all this. With a piece of rope tightly wrapped around her foreleg and a large Magicarm aimed at her head, it was very simple to realize that fear was the largest player in her decision making process then. The griffon who had done the first and was now doing the second growled at her from within the confines of his gut, and Octavia decided that maybe intimidation was a key portion as well. Swallowing a lump down her throat, Octavia attempted to stare straight ahead so as to not rouse any anger within the armored griffon.

Her foreleg was getting achingly tired. By Gods this was worse than when it got tired during concerts. At least during those times she could move it if she wanted. Here, it was splayed toward the clouds above as if she were about to start pumping a hoof at some kind of rally, tied to a tree stump that she had no way of telling was even still alive. As far as she knew, the trees in the Everfree Forest most certainly weren't something to easily distinguish in the age factor. Some were dead, some weren't. Simple as that.

Octavia fussed her face up. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't caught a good glimpse of the tree as she was taken to it. Maybe there was a broken stump or something that had a sharp edge or something. After all, it was just rope. A smile crept onto her face, and so Octavia decided to look back with complete optimism in her head and motion. In her mind, the mare found a tree stump reaching the height of the top of her head, with brown oak burnt to crisps from previously survived forest fires, and with a single branch sticking out at her, snapped in half for its sharp and blistering inner skin to cut her rope off.

Instead she found a large tree easily dwarfing three of the griffons in height, with large green leaves fanning outward into the orange sky with so much strength that they didn't sway an inch from the dreadful wind that was sweeping through the area. Octavia shuddered. She wished the griffons would at least be so kind as to create a fire or something. As far as she could tell, they weren't complete idiots. Even their armor and feathers couldn't protect from the cold.

Looking back toward the main group, she found them still huddled over the box as if they were two down in the fourth quarter. Clearing her throat, Octavia opened her mouth to speak, but felt a prodding at the side of her head that felt very familiar. Gulping, Octavia looked to her left and found the griffon baring her teeth at her. Scrunching up her nose, she spat, "Is that really necessary? I am already tied up. There's no need to point that at me as well..."

The barrel of the Magicarm slowly inched forward, and Octavia drew her head back to avoid its steely contact. Looking down past her nose, she glared at the weapon and ascended her gaze to stare back at its owner, who returned the gesture and bore her teeth in the confines of a dark bronze beak. Screwing up her face, the mare scrunched up her nose as she thought about a response. Looking from her left and to her right, she let her tongue slip out of her mouth and proceeded to blow the largest raspberry that had ever lived. Stopping—her tongue flopping down to rest on her bottom lip—she raised a brow as she found her armed captor looking elsewhere.

Trying to follow her line of sight, Octavia caught the sign of sudden movement and tensed up, a large claw wrapping around her right foreleg and raising her back off that part of the tree behind her. Watching as another pair of claws appeared, Octavia gave out a quick gasp and shut her eyes, straining her neck to stare into the darkness on her left. Instead of what she had assumed to be a killing blow, Octavia felt the rope around her foreleg give way and finally snap in two. Thinking quickly, she scrambled to her hooves to see if she had a chance of escape.

In the middle of the clearing were the other Griffons, who looked to be in a slight panic as they quickly grabbed their things and began to walk out of sight. Brushing dust off her body, Octavia quickly turned tail and raised a foreleg to sprint away into the dark thick of the Everfree woods, out of the Griffons' sight but most certainly not out of their mind. It was only a split second after she began to flee when her aggressive captor shoved her weapon into the mare's path, quickly following it up by stepping in front of her with a sneer on her face and a growl in her throat.

Octavia backpedaled, her eyes glancing swiftly to the left for her next method of desertion. The Griffon, catching sight of it, raised her gun at Octavia, mouth open in the beginning of a horrible order. The Griffon stopped, however, as the sounds of screaming came from her party members. Lowering the weapon, her eyes grew wide as she took a step back, almost identical in form to the mare currently frightened in place. Octavia breathed in heavily.

And then a bright green beam found itself hitting the Griffon's armor, knocking her into the ground in less than a second with nothing but a short grunt emerging from her beak. Octavia spun, wondering just what had occurred. She barely saw what looked to be the start of a firefight, her vision instead meeting a bulky figure that took her in his claws and threw her into the ground with an explosive shout.

"Get the hell down!"

Comments

[the other sans]

found the griffon bearing her teeth at her

1. Baring.

[Silver Flare]

Octavia looked to her left and found the griffon baring her teeth at her.

Gryphons have teeth?

I know the show staff has animated gryphons with teeth, it just seems odd to me.