Chapter 1

The clamour of the crowd could still be heard with tremendous volume as Gryph retired to his studio room. He picked up a water bottle and sprayed half the contents into his mouth and the other half on his face.

“Woo! Now THAT was a show!” he exclaimed as he threw himself into his chair.

He swiveled around and gazed into the mirror and began fixing his mane that had become matted in sweat from the rigorous performance he gave, he opened his mouth and groomed his teeth with his tongue to ensure they were spotless. Gryph then heard a knock on the door just in the knick of time as he finished his grooming.

“Its open”! He said.

There stood Twilight Sparkle, The Princess of Friendship, practically spasming as she tried to compose herself.

“Gryph, that show was amazing! And that song! It was so beautiful! Nopony has ever done something for me like that before” She exclaimed.

“Heh heh, I’m glad you liked it, it was a pleasure to compose and perform” he said with a light chuckle.

Gryph felt almost as if time had stood still, he was here, alone, with Twilight. The moment could not be more perfect, he thought as his heart started accelerating.

“Say Twilight, would you like to-”. A sudden chill passed through the room.

“you might want to fix the Air conditioning in this room” Twilight said as she shivered slightly.

“A stellar performance as ever Grypheth. You never disappoint.” said a voice seemingly from nowhere.

Twilight’s blood ran cold, for she recognized that voice’s smooth Trottingham accent with a calm yet almost psychopathic and condescending tone.

“Oh no” Twilight said under her breath.

Twilight noticed as Gryph’s shadow began to stretch across the wall behind him and take a more ghastly form. Out from the shadow emerged a beastly creature, it resembled a pony though looked almost demonic. He had dark grey skin and stood on his hind legs. The creature had bat-like wings, goat-like horns, a draconic tail and red cat’s eyes. His head adorned with a white mane done up in a ponytail and a curved unicorn horn was planted into his forehead. The creature’s smile barred a pair of crescent fangs like that of a manticore. The creature was a Vampony of a long extinct species.

Twilight dealt with this monster before and knew exactly how to counter it, but she could hardly be prepared for Gryph’s intervention.

“Blitzeo!” Gryph yelled in delight as he ran up and hugged the beast. Blitzeo hugged him back and smiled.

“How you doing bud? Haven’t seen you in a while” Gryph asked.

“I’ve been about, hither and thither. As per instructions of our mutual Friend”.

Blitzeo walked over and bowed towards Twilight. “Hello, Princess” he said smugly.

“Hi Blitzeo” Twilight said with a sigh.

“Hold the phone, You two know each other?” Gryph asked with enthusiasm.

“I could ask you two the same thing” Twilight replied.

“Well, if you must know dearest princess Twilight, I began wandering about to learn more about ‘the magic of friendship’, as per your decree. Truthfully, I understand very little still and my ideals have hardly been swayed. However, just as I was racking my brain to near insanity in my attempts to understand it, I stumbled into a music parlor where I met Grypheth. I was bewitched by his music, we began to talk about art, music, magic etcetera and we have been associates ever since. ” Blitzeo said all the while being as condescending towards Twilight as linguistically possible.

Twilight swallowed her pride, not allowing Blitzeo’s taunting to get under her skin. Despite her annoyance with Blitzeo she felt an odd sense of pride. As with many of her former enemies, Blitzeo had meant to destroy Equestria at some point but after many arduous defeats, the Princess of Friendship and the Vampony made an alliance, however uneasy it may be.

“Guess you made a friend then didn’t you, Blitzeo?” Twilight retorted as she gave Blitzeo a smug glare.

Blitzeo looked dumbstruck, “ I.. I suppose so. What’s your point?” He said after a noticeable pause.

“What about you two then? How did you two meet?” Asked Gryph.

“Well Thats -” Blitzeo said nervously.

“Blitzeo kinda tried to destroy Equestria and create a perfect utopia of darkness”.

Gryph’s eyes shot open. “Dude...seriously?” he asked.

“Well…she’s not wrong, but my ideas are certainly more nuanced than that” Blitzeo replied in his defence.

Twlilight could swear her heart had stopped, she had just made the moment incredibly awkward, clearly this was a detail Gryph had not known about his new friend. Her mind raced as she looked for a way to remedy the situation.

Gryph approached his friend who was at this point avoiding eye contact with him. He placed his hoof on the vampony’s shoulder.

“No need to worry dude, we all get hurt and we all sometimes just want to get mad and shout. I may not know exactly why you did what you did, but I don’t blame you for doing it and honestly, it doesn’t matter, you’re a cool pony and my friend, thats all that matters.” Gryph said sympathetically with a smile.

They stood there in silence until Blitzeo spoke, “Thank you Gyph, I...appreciate that” tears welling up in his eyes.

Twilight was relieved to have avoided an awkward situation and even happier to see her former enemy coming around on making friends. Twilight furthermore was delightfully surprised to see how much of a compassionate and loving soul Gryph was. He was truly the magic of friendship incarnate and exemplified the Elements of Harmony.

“Lets all get a picture to commemorate this moment” Gryph said grabbing his camera.

They all huddled together for a picture with Twilight to the left, Blitzeo in the middle and Gryph on the right.

“I certainly hope this isn’t some elaborate plot of yours” Twilight whispered to Blitzeo through her teeth as she smiled.

“I wouldn’t dream of it Princess” Blitzeo hissed softly through his fangs.

The camera flashed and buzzed as a polaroid slip slowly printed out from the bottom slot. “This looks just awesome guys” Gryph said as he examined the photo.

“Well I must be off, I have some delicate experiments back home that I must attend to” Blitzeo said.

“Oh! You still working on that petrification curing salve?” asked Gryph.

“Actually, I finished that last wednesday, turns out my hypothesis of using gold pine sap was correct, but the sap must be freshly harvested for the salve to work effectively, I’d be more than happy to extrapolate on the details at another date.” Blitzeo explained.

“Sounds like a plan to me buddy!” Gryph said happily.

“Hey Blitzeo, you mind if I stop by as well, that salve can be an important breakthrough in alchemical medicine! And I’d love to hear the details” Twilight interjected.

“I’d be happy to share with you as well Princess” Blitzeo said with a genuine tone.

Gryph and Twilight said their goodbyes to their vampiric friend as he teleported away in a zip of purple light. While back home tending to his experiments he pondered. “Hmm, had I known he would receive that truth so well, I would have told him sooner...She’s changed too… I wonder if it’s him. Perhaps there is a bond stronger than friendship going on between those two”.

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