Griffonstone Part One! - A Fateful Reunion
Griffonstone always smelled faintly of dust and ash and, maybe only to Gilda, the scent made her think of scones. Her grandfather had always made them, every morning. She hated them, but she ate them anyway, because they were his, and a family had to have pride even if the flour was cheap and old and cut with something, and the acorns had gone off, and they barely had any wood for the stove.
Ponies who came to Griffonstone (and not a lot of them did) always wondered how things could have gotten as bad as they did. They didn't understand what happened when no one was in charge. When someone called for help and no one came.
"You grew up in this dump?" Twilight asked. She wasn't a subtle or delicate pony. Gilda appreciated that. It was one of the reasons they got along. And, Gilda had to agree, the town was a dump. A few more buildings had fallen down since she'd last visited.
"Yeah. This used to be my gang's territory." Gilda lifted a few fallen boards and found a familiar design in purple spray paint. "Heh. Still got a few of our old tags around." She tossed the boards back where they'd been.
"...If the buildings were made out of rock they would have lasted longer," Maud noted.
"They weren't built to last," Gilda said. "They were built quickly and cheaply." She winced as a few tiles fell from a roof behind them. "And badly."
"Why are we here?" Twilight asked. "I mean, no offense, it's great to get out of Equestria for a while, but I don't think there's anything worth stealing around here and you know I don't steal from anyone that can't afford to lose what I'm taking."
"Because of that." Gilda pointed. A cloud layer hung heavily over the city, making everything overcast and grey. For a long moment, Twilight and Maud couldn't see anything. Then they realized they were looking at the wrong scale. It wasn't something in the clouds, it was the clouds themselves, a perfect disk with sharp edges hanging perfectly still, even in the slight breeze of the mountains.
"What is it?" Twilight asked.
"It's a stadium," Gilda said. "It was built to host the Wonderbowl. You can't see much from ground level, but it wasn't built to be seen from the ground."
"Why would they build a stadium here?" Twilight asked. "Especially one that big - how could they even afford it when..." She gestured to the ruined buildings around her.
"Take a look," Gilda said, holding out a newspaper.
"Let's see..." Twilight skimmed the paper, unable to help reading it. "Wonderbowl to go on despite allegations of bribery during bidding process... community leaders say the influx of tourism will bring prosperity to Griffonstone... and a really nice looking pegasus mare on page three." Twilight leered at the paper, grinning. "I'd preen those wings anytime-"
Gilda snatched the paper back. "They bribed the officials in charge to get it here, and then they built a stadium with wages so low it was practically slave labor," she glared up at the clouds.
"That's rough, but there's not much we can do about it," Maud said.
"Sure there is," Gilda smiled. "Do you know how much ponies and griffons will be paying for tickets?"
Twilight bit her lip, doing the math. "Assuming it's about the same size as the last Wonderbowl, it's a mean of 50 bits per ticket, varying from 10 bits for the cloud bleachers to thousands for a box seat enchanted for cloud-walking. Sixty-five thousand attendees..."
"Three million, two hundred fifty thousand," Maud said.
"And the betting pool will be triple that," Gilda noted.
"Thirteen million bits," Twilight whispered.
"Better - most of it will be in Griffonian Talons. Paper money. Add in a couple million for money changers, and you're looking at a giant haul even if we have to leave the gold behind."
"Okay, you've convinced me," Twilight smiled. "I've never robbed a stadium before. It'll be an interesting challenge."
Episode 5
Griffonstone Part One! - A Fateful Reunion
"You're insane," Gerta said, flatly, as she looked at the unicorn standing in her office. He came with papers that said he was a royal guard, and a captain at that, but she was starting to think he was in fact a refugee from an insane asylum.
"I'm telling you, she'll try to rob this place," Shining Armor said. "My sources say Twilight Sparkle took a boat to Griffonstone, and there's no way she's after anything but the money."
"Captain," Gerta said, reluctantly, clearly not sure if she should be calling him that. "I think she'll find it difficult to steal from a building she can't even stand in. Unless she has a plan to strap herself to a balloon to keep herself from falling through the floor, I doubt some common thief will be a concern."
"She's no common thief," Shining Armor said, pacing. "You may notice that I'm walking just fine. She can cast a cloud-walking spell at least as well as I can."
"Even if she can do that, we have our own guards. This isn't Equestria, Captain Armor. Despite the Equestrian Accords, you don't have jurisdiction here. In fact, we don't even have an extradition policy." Gerta raised an eyebrow. "If she is here, and she's here to enjoy the games peacefully, I will treat her just like I do any other Equestrian and welcome her with open talons."
"You can't be serious! She's-"
"A pony," Gerta said. "If she tries anything, well, our laws are a little different than yours. The traditional punishment for theft is death, and since she's a pony, well, we're used to you trying to take everything from us. Our pride, our money, even you're trying to take our authority. We will deal with her ourselves if it comes to it."
Shining Armor kicked at the clouds under him as he left the office and walked out onto the surface of what the locals were calling The Disc. It was positioned right over Griffonstone, and made it invisible, covering it like sweeping dirt under a blanket. Even at the edges, you'd get a nasty case of vertigo but barely see anything of the city underneath.
"Hey, bro," Twilight said, from across the street.
Shining Armor's eye twitched. He turned to look at her. She was grinning widely, with a big novelty hat that had little Wonderbolts figures hanging from strings around the rim.
"Twilight!" He growled, stomping over to her. "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face here. Well, jokes on you! I just talked to the Director of Stadium Affairs, and I made sure she knows all about you and your tricks!"
"Okay," Twilight shrugged. "You know, you should relax a little, bro. We could get caught up, have a few drinks..."
"You're not old enough to drink."
"I'd sure hate to break the law!" Twilight laughed. "But actually, there's no legal drinking age here. I can drink all I want, though if I have more than a few I'd better stay away from the edge." She winked.
"That's it." Shining Armor grabbed her hoof and dragged her away from the street. "You're coming with me, and we're going back to Equestria, and you're going to go in front of Celestia and beg her for forgiveness and maybe they'll reduce your sentence-"
"You know, if I yelled for help right now, those nice griffons across the street would come over and make sure you stopped bothering me," Twilight whispered, still smiling. "Unfortunately, I'm told that sometimes when they're taking ponies in for questioning, they lose their grip." The string around one of the Wonderbolt figures hanging from her hat glowed pink and snapped, the wooden pegasus plunging down through the clouds.
"Are you threatening me?" Shining Armor asked, taking a step back.
"No, I'm warning you," Twilight said. "I don't want you to get hurt, and there are some unpleasant people around here." Her eyes flicked back to where a bird wearing nondescript grey was leaning against a wall.
"...One drink," Shining Armor sighed. "And only so I can tell Mom you're still alive."
"Great!" Twilight smiled happily, dragging him towards a bar. Or more properly, a pub, done up in the Trottingham style and made to look old even though the 'antique' wood was brand-new and Shining Armor could still see the price tags on some of the 'authentic' decorations hanging from the walls.
"This is... nicer than I expected," Shining Armor admitted.
"Up here they don't have any dive bars," Twilight shrugged. "It's all new, you know? Can't have something scary and actually authentic or else it'll scare the tourists away. They've even got a Hayburger Princess!"
"But griffons don't eat hayburgers," Shining Armor said. They slid into a booth, and he could see that the pub had a little menu on each table with drinks that had all sorts of fanciful names.
"Ponies do," Twilight said. "And ponies are the ones bringing all the money in. It's quiet now, but the big game is in three days, and by then this place will be standing room only. To tell the truth, I kind of hate it. It's awful below here but it's real, you know?" She turned to the waitress. "Two Falling Apples, please. Actually, make them doubles."
"Falling Apples?"
"Cider with a drop-shot of apple brandy," Twilight explained. "Ale is a little too bitter for my taste."
"You did always have a sweet tooth," Shining Armor smiled a little. "Look, I know you're not here just to enjoy the game, so can we please not pretend you're a tourist and talk about this?"
"Alright," Twilight shrugged. "I did always appreciate you, you know. You're a great guard. Captain Shining Armor, Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Equestrian Accord!" She giggled. "I think my line of work brings in more money, though."
"It's not about the money, it's about helping ponies," Shining Armor muttered. The drinks were put in front of them and neither went for them immediately.
"Look, if I was planning something," Twilight said. "And this is hypothetical, mind you. If I was planning something, you know I wouldn't hurt anypony innocent, and you don't have any jurisdiction here. Why don't you just enjoy the game? It should be really exciting."
"Not going to hurt anypony?" Shining Armor shook his head and slammed his drink back before continuing, the alcohol helping him work up to what he wanted to say. "What about all the ponies who came across an ocean to watch the biggest cloudball game of the year? Wonderbolts versus Equestrian Navy. You're going to tell me that you're not hurting anyone when you ruin a trip some of them spent months saving up for?"
"Actually, one of my friends is a big cloudball fan. We're not going to interrupt the game at all." She smiled. "So who's your team? Wonderbolts or Navy?"
"Navy," Shining Armor said, absently. "Just- please, don't do this." He sighed. "I can't arrest you, but as your brother, I'm begging you to reconsider. All the money is going to charity and the griffons need it. If you've been on the ground, you know that."
"Charity?" Twilight asked, hesitating.
"You didn't know?" Shining Armor frowned and grabbed one of the little menus, flipping it over to the back. It was an add for the Wonderbowl, which was kind of silly - nopony was going to be there except for the Wonderbowl itself. "Every year the proceeds go to a different charity. This year it's the Griffonstonian Reconstruction Fund."
"I- damnit," Twilight swore, sitting back. "I'm not going to steal from charity. I need to go talk to some people."
"I'll pick up your tab," Shining Armor said.
"Thanks," Twilight sighed. "Enjoy the game, Bro." She walked out, head hung low.
"I agree with Twilight," Maud said, as they gathered in a dive bar in the gloom under the stadium. "It's not right to take from charity."
The bar itself could have used some charity. If the pub up in the clouds above was a fake wash of class over a shell with no substance, the bar here was the salt of the earth itself. Everything was old, worn down, and comfortable in the way your favorite shirt is comfortable, even though it has a few holes in it and it's faded so badly that the colors are barely hanging on at all. It was almost empty at this time of day, though with the permanent cloud layer above it was impossible to tell what time of day it was at all without a watch.
"Feathers," Gilda sighed. "Okay. I'm not enough of a donkey-kisser to try and change your minds. Tartarus, I was thinking of giving my share to the birds here anyway. No point if it's already going to them, right?"
"Guess we're out of a job," Twilight smiled crookedly. She raised up a dirty glass half-full of something that had been brewed in a bathtub and distilled in the shed around the side of the building. "To honest crooks."
Gilda snorted and raised her glass. "And cops that make sense once in a while."
Maud nodded and raised her own glass. They clinked them together and downed the drink, which burned like fire and tickled like pegasus down at the same time. It was unpleasant but had a surprising sweetness under the heady grain flavor.
Twilight coughed. "Man, that's the stuff. Think they've got blood wine around here?"
"In a place like this?" Gilda raised an eyebrow. "They'll sell you something and say it's bloodwine, sure. But it's just gonna be grain alcohol with a rusty nail in it."
"I should have known I'd find you in a place like this," said a scratchy, cocksure voice from the doorway. Gilda groaned and put her head down on the table without even looking.
"Buck my life," she said to herself, voice muffled.
A rainbow-maned pegasus trotted in. Well, trotted was the wrong word. She was hovering just above the floor like she didn't want to dirty her hooves on it.
"Who's the cutie?" Twilight whispered.
"My ex," Gilda sighed.
"Is she any good, you know." Twilight wiggled her eyebrows. "Eh? Eh? Is she a goer?"
"Don't even feathering start," Gilda warned her. She turned around. "So how many bars did you have to look through before you found me?"
"Five or six," the pegasus shrugged. "Why don't you introduce me to your new friends?"
"Twilight, Maud, this is Rainbow Dash," Gilda sighed. "She's the fastest pegasus alive, in bed."
"That's right, I'm the- hey!" Dash glared.
"How did you even know I'd be here?" Gilda asked.
"I, you know," Dash shrugged. "I check. Before every show. Sometimes."
"Before every show," Twilight considered. "Wait, are you-"
"A Wonderbolt?" Dash grinned, flying up a little higher and puffing out her chest with pride. "You might just be looking at the youngest and fastest pony to ever make it onto the team. Autographs are free as long as you don't try and sell 'em."
"Gilda, you never told me you knew a Wonderbolt," Twilight admonished.
"We haven't exactly been close since, well..." Gilda shrugged.
"Since I broke it off because it looks bad for a Wonderbolt to be dating somebird with a price on her head," Dash said, frowning at Gilda. "I guess your tastes have changed, though I can't blame you - no other pegasus could possibly compete with this flank." Dash turned around and wiggled her butt.
"They're business partners," Gilda said. Dash stopped and looked at Twilight and Maud.
"Business partners, huh? So more petty criminals?" Dash prodded Twilight in the chest. "I better not see you jerks picking pockets or trying anything funny! This is a serious game!"
"We're just here to watch," Twilight said. "But if you want to do something afterwards, I can show you just how good I am at... picking pockets." She winked. Dash's cheeks turned red and she backed off a few steps.
"I'm not into mares like that," Dash said, quickly.
"...You're Gilda's ex," Maud noted, tilting her head.
"It's different if it's a griffon! Duh! Obviously!" Dash snorted. "I want a promise on your honor that you're not here to steal anything!"
"I promise, on my honor as a criminal and cutthroat, that I am not currently planning on stealing anything," Gilda said. "I mean, feathers, Dash. I'm not gonna hit a charity fund."
"Okay," Dash said, starting to relax. "Well, I'm here sort of incognito, so if you're really playing this cool, maybe I'll have a drink with you and your friends, if you ask."
Gilda rolled her eyes. "Dash, will you please do me the honor of having a shitty drink with me and my two awful friends?"
"I'm not awful," Maud said. It would have been a protest but there wasn't enough emotion in it to make it more than a statement.
"Okay, my one awful friend, and Maud."
"Thank you," Maud nodded.
"Sure," Dash smirked. "Since you asked nicely. What were you drinking?"
"If you have to ask, you don't want to get drunk enough," Gilda said, motioning to the bartender. Four glasses were set out on the bar, and Twilight pulled them over with her magic. All four shattered as a crossbow bolt smashed through them, narrowly missing Gilda's head. Two griffons had walked in with crossbows drawn, wearing the same nondescript grey as the bird Twilight had spotted before.
"But we're not even doing anything illegal!" Twilight protested. Gilda grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and pulled her down below the table before she could get shot.
Dash dove for cover, looking confused. "What the hay is going on?!"
"I don't think they care too much," Gilda said. "Maud, think you can handle this without wrecking the place?"
The earth pony was poised, ready to pounce, looking at the armed griffons. Maud's hoof struck out like a snake, grabbing a crossbow bolt from the air. She glanced at it before tossing it away. "Yes."
"This isn't going to be one of those times where you say-"
"That I don't kill people without being paid?" Maud asked. "No. I'm a little annoyed they spilled my drink." She stood up, and deflected another bolt away from her face. Spinning, she grabbed a shard of one of the broken glasses from the table and threw it with deadly accuracy, one of the griffons falling and grabbing at his eye. The second hesitated, looking at his partner, and that moment of hesitation was his undoing. Before he even turned back, Maud's hooves were around his neck.
There was a surprisingly quiet snapping sound, and he fell to the floor.
"It's safe," Maud said, after a moment.
"You just killed those guys!" Dash gasped.
"They were trying to kill us," Maud noted.
"And you grabbed crossbow bolts from the air!"
"It's not that hard as long as you have good reflexes."
"Are you doing anything later?" Dash whispered. "Because that was incredibly hot."
"This is not the time!" Gilda snapped. "Twilight, give them the once over and see if you can figure out who they were working for."
"I already know," Twilight said, casting a spell on them anyway. Their pockets emptied out, the contents gathering in a bubble. "It was in the paper, remember? 'Community Leaders say the tourism will bring prosperity to Griffonstone'. Well, these guys work for those 'Community Leaders', who I'm guessing are sitting in offices up there."
"But why would they want to kill you guys?" Dash asked, confused.
"Good question," Twilight admitted. "Maybe they're worried we wouldn't be the nice, honest crooks we are."
"You need to go," Gilda said. "Last thing you need is to be seen, miss incognito. You could have at least worn a hat, Dash."
"Why?" Dash asked, confused.
"Because you have a feathering rainbow-" Gilda stopped and took a deep breath. "Just get out of here. You've got a game to play and you don't wanna get caught up in this, right?"
"Right," Dash agreed. She hesitated on her way to the window. "Gil, I know things have been kinda weird between us ever since we broke up. Maybe we can hang out once this all blows over?"
"Yeah," Gilda smiled. "I'd like that."
Dash nodded and jetted out the window, leaving a rainbow trail.
"She really is fast," Twilight noted.
"Set all kinds of academy records," Gilda agreed. "She even did a sonic rainboom when she was a filly."
"I meant that she hit on Maud, then within a minute she wants to hang out with you." Twilight frowned. "Why didn't she ask me out?"
Gilda smacked her on the back of the head. "Come on. We need to figure out what to do next."
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
669 users online
981,212 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Liking this so far and nice how Shining Armor is Zenigata
Looks like mafia-related business, I'm interested.
I'm in love with this story. Aside from the fact that the characters are done perfectly, I'm enjoying the conflict between Twilight and Shining. Great job, I'll eagerly await the next chapter. Keep goin and stay golden^^
8041620 yes, Captain Shiningata is vest zenigata
"And the only reason I'm here is because the city had "stone" in its name."
I love all of the characters in this story.
Except maybe Shiny. He's kinda bleh. Also Rarity stabbing her friends in the back.
But everyone else is 100% awesome.
8047189
Canon Rarity does stab her friends in the back, then regrets it and makes up to it.
Nice job keeping Maud interesting while holding to her unemotive character.
This probably explains a lot about why Dash was dating Gilda to begin with.
Thief or not, Twilupin has standards. Stealing from charity is just low.