The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Everything Gerardo Can Offer

Gerardo and Slipstream stared as Felicity continued sucking up to Blue, explaining how much she disliked extended flying and wished there was an easier way to get wherever he wanted to take her. Gerardo sidled closer to Howe. "Is this really a plan?" he breathed.

Howe shrugged, keeping his voice down. "It's what we could come up with. That coat was free, was it not? That nightly maiden decided it would be sufficient to convince them she held all of our class and currency. So she accompanies them to their lair, lets them think they have it all, and if she has to abandon that garb and hasten away when our time finally arrives to flee this landscape? No loss, no gain."

Gerardo frowned. "Where are Harshwater and Starlight?"

"Homeward bound, as of the moment we received your message," Howe whispered back. "What was that ruckus about?"

"Equestrian soldiers, and their princess," Gerardo hissed. "They apparently have quite the quarrel with the local griffons, and these griffons with them. I think it would be wise to follow their lead and lay low for as long as we possibly can..."

"We still need food, dude." Neon Nova shrugged. "We're even lower than we were a week ago."

"We got some," Slipstream groaned, laying in the mowed grass. "Then abandoned it by the tracks a ways south of here..."

Gerardo nodded. "True. Though I suspect-"

Suddenly, the sound stone crackled with Gunther's voice. "Who's listening?"

Everyone frowned, Howe and Neon Nova looking to Gerardo and Slipstream for advice on whether to answer. Gerardo took the stone in a talon. "Safe to speak, I take it? What was all that about?"

"Yours is a welcome voice, my friend." Gunther's volume grew, until Blue looked over with a quirked head. "I take it your groups have met up. Who of my subordinates are around?"

Blue cleared his throat, stepping nearer. "Do you possess a device that allows you to speak with my dearest and most trusted friend?"

"This isn't the time for insults. Is everyone primed for battle?"

"Battle?" Gerardo blinked. "What in the world is going on up there?"

Red, Chartreuse and Violet all peeked over a nearby hilltop, the former two looking blindingly eager.

"I'm in the pass, up by their fort. The Equestrians are having a bad time. Apparently those fools kept themselves in a sealed bunker rather than going out to assess the damages. And you'll never believe what they let escape."

The three hiding griffons drew closer, and Blue gasped, clutching his spear gun. "You couldn't mean...?"

"Yep." Gunther audibly licked his beak. "Forget about Gerardo. We have bigger fish to fry. Gerardo, hope you weren't counting on them to stick around. The Equestrian princess is going to be back your way very soon, and she's specifically interested in your lair. If you don't want to be robbed blind and kicked north of the border, you've got an hour at best to come up with a plan. Everyone else, grab the stone so we can communicate and head north to meet me. Pay them whatever they want for it, we need this advantage. Going silent now. I'm hunting."

The four griffons assembled in front of Gerardo, Slipstream, Howe and Neon, even the usually-stoic Violet betraying her anticipation. "It seems the circumstances have changed," Blue said, holding out a talon. "We require that stone of yours, and swiftly. Name any price for it. We will honor debts, and asylum is hardly off the table. You heard what he said about their princess."

Neon Nova raised an eyebrow, glancing over the rims of his broken shades. "You know only a unicorn can turn these on, right?"

Red snorted. "Black isn't a unicorn, and he could use the other end."

Howe winced and tapped his forehooves. "Would you believe us if we said special circumstances?"

"If you're offering any good or service..." Gerardo narrowed his eyes. "Tell us exactly why you're feuding with the Equestrians, and why they're supposedly so keen on securing their border."

Felicity loudly cleared her throat before Blue could reply. "Darling, are you really sure you want to give up on our sound stones like that? They're rather valuable, as you can see..."

"One on its own does us little good," Gerardo sighed, shaking his head. "Gunther already possesses the other. I'd rather get what I can for this." He looked up. "You have that much honor that you'd acknowledge debts, you say?"

"That I do." Blue bowed, touching a talon to his breast. "Much as I desire your wealth, I believe good business is the best way to ensure we have a maximally-profitable relationship in the long term. That said, it would truly be a pity if you were forced out of the area while I still owed you, but there would be understandably nothing I could do..." He innocently glanced away. "As for the Equestrians, who can ever parse their motives? Barbarians, the lot of them. We quarrel because they robbed us years ago of a great right to all griffonkind, one we are finally about to reclaim. We must strike expediently and without delay. What else do you desire?"

Red growled, pointing a talon at Felicity. "How much for those clothes? And the sword that goes with them?"

"What, these things?" Felicity looked herself over. "How much have you to offer? I do think I look rather good in a male's clothes, and wasn't planning on seeing them leave..."

Violet frowned. "We left all of our money behind to carry your food."

"Which still isn't here, by the way..." Howe tapped his hooves together.

"So all deals are off, then?" Felicity tilted her head. "I see the way you're eyeing these. What claim have you to them, and why do you want them?"

"This is a waste of time," Violet droned. "We need to move."

Blue winced. "But we need the communicator! And furthermore with such a powerful heirloom and weapon on our side..."

"As fell fate would have it, those sound stones are already our heirlooms," Howe countered, jutting his hips.

Neon Nova hesitated. "And they're heavily armed and desperate to make a deal..."

"We are not about to rob you!" Blue winced harder, looking like he had been punched. "Do we look like Equestrians to you!?"

"Actually, there's an idea." Gerardo tapped the remaining sound stone, holding it up. "You say that you want this stone for a strategic or military advantage, and you just said these clothes and sword somehow confer one as well? If you could have one of the two, which would be greater?"

"We were ordered to take the stone-" Blue began.

"The regalia!" All three others cut him off as one. He slumped.

"Felicity, undress," Gerardo commanded. "I believe I have a satisfactory arrangement. You may have this regalia, but not the sound stone."

Felicity gave him a sultry look, making a show of slipping out of the regalia.

"Not that I know what's going on, but you call that satisfactory?" Slipstream frowned.

"Indeed." Gerardo flipped the stone in a talon and caught it. "Should you all feel like abandoning us to Equestrian mercy, they will inevitably get this stone and trace you through it. I have told you little of how it works, but unicorns of the caliber they possess can effortlessly use one in a pair to trace the physical location of anyone who has touched either within the last week." He flicked his tail at Howe and Neon Nova, trusting that they would keep quiet. "So if they really are that much of a threat, we'll call in what you owe us and say keeping them off our backs will be suitable payment for that regalia. Otherwise..." He pocketed the stone. "You're in exactly as much danger as we are."

Red seethed. "Does Black know it does this?"

Gerardo chuckled, shaking his head. "Information is a commodity, my friend. And he neither asked nor paid."

"Here you are, darlings!" Felicity finished wiggling her rump free from the regalia, presenting it held on her wings.

All of the colored griffons growled, looking desperate to call Gerardo's bluff yet none of them wanting to be the one to ruin it if he was telling the truth. "...You have yourselves a deal," Blue choked, swallowing as he accepted the regalia. "I see you're as well-versed in the ways of Griffonstone as they come. Fly on my mark!"

He slipped the regalia on over his suit, the accents shining in the darkness in a way unlike they had for Felicity. The glittering rapier shone at his side, and he spread his wings, leading the four as they blasted away in a truncated vee. Within seconds, all traces of the griffons were gone.

"They left to the north!" Howe grinned. "And our noble flagship is to the west. Dare we call this victory?"

Before anyone could reply, Harshwater skidded to a stop, carving a furrow in the earth as she landed. "False alarm," she panted, mane stuck to her forehead with sweat. "The Equestrians absolutely saw us and didn't stop. Whoever gave us that warning was lying through his teeth. If the griffons get here, don't..." She trailed off, blinking at Gerardo. "Am I too late?"

Gerardo winked. "As a matter of fact, I just finished dealing with them myself. Whether or not we ever see them again, they'd all have to be infinitely better actors than I give them credit for in order for us not to have the upper hand."

"But they did say the princess herself was heading our way..." Felicity rubbed her chin, shivering now that she was completely unclothed.

"They lied the first time, they might be lying again." Harshwater took several deep breaths, swallowing and regaining her composure. "Or they have bad information, or whatever. Do we have any reason to remain here? How likely is it we're being watched?"

Gerardo shrugged. "On the one side, there would have to be one beyond the five I've seen so far. On the other, their leader likely has seen our real ship from the air."

"Then there's nothing we can do about that," Felicity sighed. "Something tells me that whatever we do next, being all grouped up wouldn't hurt at all."

Comments

[alamais]

Food tho.

[Phoenix Kitten]

Gerardo chuckled, shaking his head. "Information is a commodity, my friend. And he neither asked nor paid."

They seem to know that Gunther is fond of that saying, and that Gerardo turned it against them is amazing.
That got me to smile for the first time in 3 days.

[ZanyZapper]

And you'll never believe what they let escape.

In his spare time, Gunther writes clickbait headlines!

"Eight times the Equestrian guard let serious threats escape! Wait til you see number 3!"

[Dream Seeker]

9857184
1: Nightmare Moon, the queen of evil!
2: Discord, the lord of chaos!
3: King Sombra, a terrible tyrant who enslaved an entire empire!
4: Tirek, a magic-stealing centaur bent on world domination!

(Pity I don’t have time to write full articles :P )