White Curse

by Jumpitydude

Chapter 19

Gallus rested his head on his legs as he stared out the window of the train. It felt like it had been forever since he had been "home". The main reason? It never really felt like a home. It felt like a place to live until he found a home. And that home is in Ponyville, with his friends.

Why was he going back to Griffonstone again? Oh, right. Being around his friends was starting to become stressful. More and more, he would compare their feats to his shortcomings, and it would make him either sad or angry. He loved his friends more than anything, but right now? He needed to get away.

"Next stop, Griffonstone Station! Next stop, Griffonstone Station!"

Gallus grabbed his bags and got up, positioning himself by the door. The sights outside the window on the door were only familiar to him from when he first went to the school. Thinking about it, that felt like forever ago.

The train screeched to a halt. His friends would sometimes complain, but the noise never really bothered him. At least, not more than the sound of the doors sliding open. Which is odd, since he was easily bothered by certain sounds when he was younger.

Stepping onto the platform, Gallus looked left. Plenty of Griffons were "reuniting" in their usual way (bickering and arguing over the train not moving faster). Turning his head right, he saw a Gabby.

*FWOOM!*

"Oof!" Gallus started laughing as he started rubbing Gabby's wings. "Long time no see, Gabby!"

"It really has! I haven't seen you since the festival!"

"Get up, you two." Grandpa Gruff walked up behind the young girl, with Gilda close behind. "You're causing a scene."

Gabby pouted and moved off of Gallus. Gallus stood up and stared the crotchety old guy in the eye.

"Hello, Grandpa Gruff."

The old Griffon let out an annoyed sound and turned around, leading the younger Griffons away from the station. "When Gilda said you were coming back, I thought you had gotten in some serious trouble. I can't figure out why you decided to come back of your own will, especially after you practically begged me to let you stay there."

Gallus rolled his eyes. "It's just for the day. I'll be headed back tomorrow. I just needed some time away from there."

Gruff took to the sky. "Whatever your reason, you better not cause trouble here. Especially after what was found recently."

Gilda turned to Gallus as they took flight. "A group of Griffons went spelunking recently to try to bond, and they found an invaluable treasure."

Gallus' eyes went wide. "Wait, does the Idol of Boreas actually exist?"

Gilda chuckled. "It does, but that's not what they found."

Gabby took Gallus' claw. "It's something that belonged to a Griffon hero from a thousand years ago."

A thousand years ago? Gallus turned to Gabby. "Was it Gabriella?"

Gilda suddenly turned her whole body towards him. "Wait! How do you know about her? Was that letter Dash sent true? Did you actually pass out studying?"

"What?" Gruff turned around to stare into Gallus' soul. "Since when were you trying to become an egghead?"

Gallus was taken aback but remained calm. "I let something my egghead friend say get to me and decided to try and do better than her on a test. I spent too long studying, passed out in my room, and slept through the test."

Gruff squinted then turned back towards Griffonstone.

"So..." Gabby leaned in close to Gallus. "Did they let you retake it?"

Gallus chuckled a bit. "Yeah, the teachers are pretty understanding."

Gallus and Gabby continued to talk about the School of Friendship while flying towards Griffonstone, with the occasional quip from Gilda. Eventually, they landed in the middle of Griffonstone. Three of them walked for a bit before realizing Gallus had stopped.

"Did Griffonstone always look like this?"

Gilda chuckled. "We've been renovating some things. Some of us have been particularly excited by the artifact."

Gabby grabbed Gallus' claw. "Come on! You've got to see the artifact!"

The four of them walked over to a large building that Gallus was SURE was not there before he left. The walked up the stairs, entered through the doors, and went into a room that was guarded by no less than four Griffons.

The moment he stepped into the room, Gallus remembered something Silver told him the first time he went to Mt. Aris, back when Silver got the Land-Sea Bow. "The moment auntie pulled it out of its bag, I thought, "This is mine. It belongs to me"."

This must be how she felt.

The artifact belonged to him.

Gabby waved her claw in Gallus' face, causing him to flinch. "So you are awake. I was starting to wonder."

"Sorry, it's just..." Gallus looked at the artifact. It was sitting on a pillow in the middle of an otherwise empty room. "For such an important artifact, there's not much protecting this."

"Are you doubting the security we set up?"

Gallus yelped and almost fell over from the sound of another creature in the room. Even more shocking, it wasn't a Griffon. "A Dragon?"

"Name's Singe. I'm Incendia's apprentice." Singe limped forward a few steps. "Well, I say "apprentice", but it's more like I'm her delivery boy."

Gruff coughed a bit. "Incendia's a shut-in but is one of the best stone-crafters in the world. I overheard someone mention her name at the family friendship thing at the school."

Singe placed a hand on the wall. "The walls are lined with gems that block magic. And the floor is lined with quartz gems that can trigger an alarm when activated."

"And don't think flying can help you." Gilda pointed at the ceiling. "They put gems up there that can force flying creatures downward. You'd have to pull a Sonic Rainboom to not be affected by them."

"Hey, Singe?" Gabby stared at Singe's leg with an uncharacteristically vacant look in her eyes. "What happened to your leg?"

Singe shrugged. "Dunno. Blacked out for a few days a while back, woke up with a limp. Is there a reason you want to know?"

"N-not really. Just curious."

Singe cracked his neck. "Anyway, once the floor is active, there's no getting in this room without letting everyone in this building know. Not without using a long-lost magic of some kind."

Gruff raised a claw. "And there will always be two Griffons on guard at a time, as well as one last trick up my sleeve."

The dragon looked at the artifact. "To be honest, this feels like a bit much for a simple looking bell. It doesn't even seem magical."

Gallus looked at the bell resting on its pillow. "Well, think of it this way; How would Dragons react if the Dragonstone Scepter lost all of its magic somehow?"

"It still belongs to the Dragon Lord. Even if it isn't magical-" Singe suddenly smirked. "Ah, I get it. It's a cultural thing. Even if it's not significant now, it was at some point in the past."

"And this is very significant to the Griffons right now. Many of us assumed the original owner wasn't real. A fake created to be a symbol of friendship within a friendless race." Gilda smiled at the bell. "Having the Angel Bell means we have proof she existed and that gives us hope that we can be better than we have been."

Hearing that made Gallus' heart sink. He needed the Angel Bell for numerous reasons, but stealing it could result in his race regressing into selfish jerks again. The kind of creature he didn't want them to be.

"Gallus?" Gabby put her wing over him. "Are you okay?"

Gallus sighed. "Yeah. I think the train ride is getting to me."

"Alright then. Tour's over." Gruff grabbed Gallus by the tail. "Let's get you home. You'll probably just sleep the whole time you're here anyway."

---

"Never a dull day on this job."

"Of course not. We work nights."

The first guard chuckled at his co-worker's joke. "Fair point. At least the pay is good."

"You can say that again."

Both Griffons were told not to let anyone past them under any circumstances. Easy enough, when you're armed to the teeth. However, neither of them expected anything other than a brute force entry. Or at least, nothing as clever as this.

*Shwooooooom*

Both guards looked at the doors. "What was that?"

One of them opened the door. No one was inside, let alone near the bell. He stepped his paw inside the doorway, then stomped a few times.

"Did they install a faulty floor? Stupid-"

"It's not that. All of the stuff was tested earlier. Someone must have shut it off."

"Who would do that?"

"You have to ask?" The guard drew his sword. "Stay here. I'll turn the alarm back on and find them."

The other guard watched the first one walk away, then drew his own sword. He had to be ready.

"NO!" *CRASH!"

His head snapped to the other hallway. "Clumsy little pest!" He took off.

No sooner had he gone down the hall than the thief slipped in through a window behind him. Wasting no time, they darted through the doorway and right for the bell. As they reached for it, the gems on it started to glow, furthering their conviction. Once they had it in their claw, they stood there shaking. As soon as their mind cleared up, the snapped their claw.

"What the-" Both guards returned at the same time. "Why did you leave your post?"

"I heard the intruder from the other hallway." The guard held out a piece of a broken vase. "That clumsy moron must have bailed."

"If they were that loud-" He looked inside the room. "... No."

His partner followed his gaze. The bell was gone. "HOW?"

They both ran in, intentionally triggering the alarm to call for backup. But it was all in vain. By then, the thief had gotten home and fully hidden the bell.

---

Hey, Silver?

I knew you wouldn't remain silent the whole time!

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, what would you have done if you couldn't keep the bow?

What do you mean?

Like, what if you had to steal the bow in order to keep it.

If you're referring to unlocking your power, I'd ask to just touch the tool, assuming you can find it. If you can't, then slip in a touch when you can. Either way, you don't need the tool itself to get its power. You just have to touch it once.

Gallus looked at his claw. ... Yeah. I suppose that's a good point.

Why do you need to know?

No reason.

... Okay? I'll see you when you get back.

Gallus sat perfectly still for a minute.

"GALLUS! GET DOWN HERE!"

Hearing Gruff's voice caused Gallus to pick up his bags and trudge downstairs, where he found two more Griffons in the building.

"Gallus!" Gabby rushed into his arms. "Gallus! It's horrible!"

Gallus hugged the young Griffon. "Gabby? What's wrong?"

"The Angel Bell is gone!" Gilda looked more frightened than Gallus had ever seen her before. "Someone stole it!"

Gallus glared at the guards. "I thought the security there was flawless."

"The thief was more clever than any of us expected." The guards then explained the events of the night before; The system turned off, one guard went to turn it back on, the other chased a sound, and the bell was gone by the time they got back.

Oddly enough, Grandpa Gruff didn't seem all that bothered by it. "I knew someone would screw something up. I'm always the one that has to handle this kind of-"

"Grandpa! What are you saying?" Gilda practically had steam coming out of her ears. "The Angel Bell is missing!"

"No, it's not!" Gruff reached behind some things stacked on the top shelf of one of his bookshelves. "Because right back here..." He pulled his claw back out wrapped around something. "Is this!"

Everyone else in the room gasped. "The Angel Bell?"

"When I ordered the security stuff, I also had Incendia create a copy of the bell!"

Gabby was squealing softly. "That was so smart!"

Gilda just stared at the bell. "I didn't realize you could think that far ahead."

Gallus was smiling, but he was very confused. He knew for a fact that the bell that was stolen was the real one, and the one Gruff had was the fake. So why was Gruff presenting the fake as the real one? Did he make a mistake? Was he going senile? Gallus wanted to say something, but couldn't without revealing something he wanted to keep secret.

The guards shared a look. "The higher-ups are already looking into another guard to watch the controls since everything else worked right. They'll be really happy to hear about this."

Gruff tossed the bell over to the guards. "Don't let anyone get this one!"

The guards saluted before leaving.

Gilda slapped her claw on Gallus' shoulder. "Well, it's time for you to go."

Gabby gasped. "Already? But you just got here!"

Gallus rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. "Sorry. The school didn't give me much time off. I'll see if I can come back at a time when I can stay longer."

"Aww." Gabby pouted the whole way to the station.

---

Gallus stared out the window idly. Something felt off, but he wasn't sure what. Is it because of... He looked down at his claw.

With a flick of his wrist, the Angel Bell appeared in his claw. It was completely silent for some reason. Was it broken? Did it know he didn't want it to chime? He flicked his wrist again to make it disappear. Having an artifact like that out in the open is generally a bad idea.

"Oh, right."

Gallus got up. The car he was in was empty, but he wasn't about to take chances. He stepped into the bathroom and locked it.

Gallus!

"Just hold on, Sandbar."

He opened the window and snapped his claws.

Comments

[Mother3Forever]

Oh my god... Grandpa Gruff KNOWS.

[Yoshifan30]

Oh wow grandpa gruff thats clever ill give you that