Fulgora
The sky was heavily clouded, and the hot air was almost too thick for comfort. Humid and hot, the worst combination possible. It was incredibly irritating during a physical exercise such as flying. And as Chocolate Velvet had come to know, a furry coat and long mane added to the annoyance. Heavy armor completed the aggravation.
He could swear that even though flying for an alicorn was mostly a magical endeavor, the higher temperature lowered his wings’ performance. He wasn’t even an aviator in his previous life but concepts from his magicless world would often force themselves on his mind. Particularly when he was frustrated. And flying in that weather frustrated him very much.
As if that wasn’t enough, strange magic filled the air and it had him on edge. It was a difficult feeling to explain, like an itch. And a pervading feeling that something bad was about to happen intruded on his thoughts like water dripping from the ceiling.
Beneath him was a green and brown sparse forest of acacias and a depressing, slow flowing and muddy stream that did little to alleviate the unpleasantness. Exactly the same scenery from when he had arrived with Celestia.
He showed a solitary and goofy grin. What had changed? Celestia wasn’t flying with him anymore. Of course, flying around and doing stuff with a beautiful mare made things better. Who would’ve thought?
He groaned and rolled his eyes. He’d give anything to distract his mind from flying in that ugly and hot place. But he had a job to do, and he focused on that. Celestia’s letter must reach Luna, and for that to happen he must leave the area with the most intense magical interference surrounding Griffonstone.
Still, it was boring and something to distract him would be welcome. Maybe a colorful flying bird, or even some refreshing rain.
And as though fate was sore at being tempted, something happened. While his magical senses were nowhere near as precise as Celestia’s and Luna’s, the enchantments in his armor were quite spiffy. Their combination warned him of immediate danger, and in the present times, that meant ‘get your head down’. In his specific case, it meant ‘hide in the trees below!’
Without a second thought, his training took over and he spun in a sharp turn in the air into a dive. Immediately after, a bullet collided with his magical shield and glanced off harmlessly, followed by an echoing bang. He didn’t look for the source, instead simply dived. His gut feeling was that locating the shooter with all those clouds was near impossible.
Soon enough he opened his wings and landed forcefully among the trees, disregarding the leaves and branches on the way. Shallow grass and the soft ground did little to alleviate the impact on his knees, but he had worse things to worry about. He moved briskly in between the trees, until something crashed noisily between the branches.
He magically reached for his firearms, but he restrained himself. He didn’t want to shoot somecreature that might simply be desperate with all the poverty and the problems in Grifonia. Not with magical disruptive bullets, at least.
He did turn and scan the area.
“Hum… Hello?” He called and got no answer.
He could feel the magic his assailant radiated, though. It was definitely a griffon, and he landed some five hundred hooves from him. Chocolate turned immediately but couldn’t directly see them. The same trees that would protect him for distant shots also made it difficult to see and made for a cramped arena where his halberd would be a terrible weapon. He drew his sword and shield with his telekinetic magic.
The griffon shot at him, regardless. The bullet smacked on a trunk along the way with a crack and a telling shower of splinters.
Chocolate finally saw the griffon in between the wall of trunks. He clearly wore leather armor and a camouflaged cape. The chimeric creature, even if he was hard to see in the shade, in the middle of all that brown and green, still radiated magic, as did all living creatures. And Chocolate was trained to use his magical senses to home in on that magic. It made it a lot easier to find the griffon and his scoped weapon pointing in the alicorn’s general direction.
“How about we have a conversation?!” He called behind his shield and a thin tree that really didn’t provide much cover.
The griffon’s answer was another shot that lost itself in another one of the trees. Chocolate sighed and his ears drooped through the holes of his helmet. “Fine then.”
The griffon, wisely, didn’t want to close the distance and another shot rang and cracked against Chocolate’s shield. The force of the impact made him happy that Sarge didn’t let him slack on the magical fortitude training.
Chocolate focused his magic, despite holding his shield and sword, and yanked at the griffon’s long firearm. It didn’t work as the griffon wielded it with a strap across his shoulder and he just allowed himself to tumble with the momentum.
He had hoped to remove the weapon from the griffon, but failing that, Plan B he had drilled to exhaustion with the Royal Guard was to rush the enemy while they still tried to recover.
The griffon expected that and didn’t even bother standing. He laid on his side and leveled the gun on his shoulder before he shot at the brown alicorn charging at him. The bullet exploded on the magical shield again. Another shot went through but stopped harmlessly at the alicorn’s shield with the sigil of the Royal Pony Sisters.
As the alicorn closed the distance, the griffon stood and sat on his haunches. He aimed as precisely as he dared at the legs. But before he pulled the trigger the shield came out of focus and crashed against him. It sent him yelping on his back and against the wet earthy ground. The gun flew away in pieces.
“Last warning!” The brown alicorn in armor and white robes shouted at him, sword and shield in position. “Stand down!”
The griffon didn’t. Agile as a cat, he jumped on his hindlegs and drew a short and bulky weapon from under his cape. Chocolate didn’t have time to see what it was, but he managed to lower his shield in time. The weapon went off with a loud boom and wrenched his shield from his telekinetic control.
The alicorn yelped and reeled at the feedback against his magic, so powerful was the weapon. His vision became a blur, but training took over. He protected himself with the magic his feathers radiated into a shield. When the griffon pounced at him with a piercing scream, the blade of a dagger glanced off his reinforced magical shield. He could swear the thing ripped away a piece of his soul, so painful it was. Clearly an enchanted and thus dangerous weapon.
Practiced moves saved him again. The griffon held onto him, trying to pierce any opening in his armor around his wing, but he used the griffon’s weight and threw him to the side, quickly following with a thrust of his sword. Also a magical weapon, it mostly pierced through the griffon’s armor and drew blood when Chocolate stepped back and brought the weapon up to defend himself.
Right in time, as the griffon didn’t stand down and attacked him again. The knife was a superior weapon in such close quarters, but Chocolate also had his magic at his disposal. He reacted to the lunging weapon and caught it in the guard of his sword with a quick mental incantation that unleashed a lighting spell on the griffon.
His leather armor certainly had enchantments woven into it, but they were no match. The griffon convulsed with a pained cry and fell on his side. The sword came point down right above his armor and pierced through his neck before the alicorn grunted and pulled it free.
The griffon covered his wound with his paws. Smoke rising from his charred garment and natural covering, he reached for a pistol, and grimaced with pain and malevolence at Chocolate Velvet. The alicorn expected that and was faster. He drew one of his revolvers, cocking the hammer in a fluid motion. A single shot through the chest ended the griffon’s suffering. The alicorn didn’t look at the resulting wound from the magic bullet, but his magical senses told him the griffon’s soul had left its body behind.
Chocolate groaned again and frowned, scanning the area for any immediate threats, but found none. That griffon deserved a burial, but it was too out of the way for him. Warning the local authorities later of what had happened would be enough.
Returning his revolver to the holster, he spent a few seconds looking for his shield and found it next to one of the many trees. The blast from the griffon’s weapon had charred it because of the powder at point-blank range. He put the shield over his back with his sword and looked around the ground for the griffon’s weapon. Once he found it, he held it in his magical grasp to examine it.
It was a large bore, double barrel weapon. It had obviously serrated barrels and stock. He glared at the weapon as though it was guilty of something. Stupid griffons had everything they needed. Why did they insist on firearms and this stupid rebellious nonsense? They could even kill creatures all they wanted for food because Celestia allowed them. They were allowed. To kill! There was a reason The Sisters had resisted the ponies moved from the traditional muskets and crystal balls with enchantments. There was no need for war nor any of that whole nastiness. Just what the hell was wrong with those stupid catbirds?
Still, regret at killing the griffon hit him. It left the alicorn with a dull anger the griffon had forced him to fight and then kill him. Stupid catbird. So many things that he had to do, so many experiences, all cut short because of an idiotic ideology that failed thousands of years ago. Again, with a perfectly fine alternative that literally allowed everycreature to live peaceful and fulfilling lives. But no! Let’s start a war over a dead goddess. Or whatever the fudge that Harpy was.
Fudge. Fudge… Fudge! Great. He couldn’t even think ‘fudge’ anymore. Whatever.
He pouted angrily and stashed the griffon’s weapon in his armor’s saddlebags. He knew very well what that thing was, but he supposed he ought to show it to Celestia.
Finally, he looked up and walked a few steps back and to the side, looking for the best place to fly out of the forest through an opening in the canopy. He still had to send Luna Celestia’s message.
***
Luna walked out of the Ponyville General Hospital. The front yard was taken by white provisory tents which belonged to the Royal Guard and the county militia. They housed all the evidence the crime-oriented ponies had gathered and processed, as well as those still to be. Everything that could be scrounged from inside the facility, from feathers and fur to magical imprints and weirder scrying magic.
On the other side of the beaten dirt path were the significantly larger tents of the Royal Guard’s campaign hospital acting as the town’s medical assistance facility until investigation was done with the building.
While the Canterlotian authorities exaggerated significantly on the damage the two griffon ladies caused to the hospital, at least five ponies were killed. Four orderlies and a medical professional. Not to mention all the trauma the event caused to the patients and hospital staff.
She couldn’t be bothered to remember the details, but it seemed the event had been quite dramatic. Furniture was thrown to the floor and broken glass shattered everywhere. Gilda’s companion scavenged the emergency area for their stash of emergency healing potions and her method gave Luna some idea of just how desperate she was. They tried to stop her and, as a griffon, armed with talons and their superior strength, she ‘removed’ them from her way.
Luna wished they hadn’t tried to stop her or that they had just given her the potions. As expensive as those things were, they were not worth the lives of five ponies and all the grief that followed.
She sighed with closed eyes and stretched her neck. Investigators still weren’t done gathering all the evidence and the places where the ‘things’ happened still hadn’t been cleaned. Sure, she wasn’t new to grizzly images of dead ponies, but she could never get used to that. She wished she could will the images she saw in there out of her mind. Ironic that with all the things she could do, she still couldn’t help herself.
Luna sighed again. Poor foals… According to the staff, there were a trio of well-known fillies in the hospital because one of them was having a medical exam in the morning. She should have a conversation with them eventually. It should save her a few nightmare visits in the future. Although, with how sensitive to these things ponies could be, she was likely to be called into several nightmares anyways.
She worried about the griffoness though. The custodian officer had told Luna patients reported crying. That the griffoness repeatedly said she was sorry. One didn’t need Luna’s privileges or experience to know that was not normal behavior.
Another thing the custodian had told Luna was the griffoness that made that mess was called Grunhilda. An orphan from Griffonstone who had severe trouble with the law. When Luna pressed him for information, he said she seemed to be under the influence of something and that she almost killed a member of the Griffonstone’s Local Militia.
It seemed Luna owed the young griffoness a visit post haste. Things were not as simple as they seemed. They never were. But murder would never be acceptable and the young griffoness needed to answer for what she did.
The custodian officer came out of the hospital. A unicorn, white with light blue mane. Olive-green uniform and a cap that identified him as an officer of the correctional system. He approached Luna with a handkerchief in his magic and coughed before he stowed it on a chest pocket.
“Dreadful.” He grimaced. “Those two belong at Shatteredrock.”
Luna turned and stared at him. “One of them was shot and half-dead. The other seems to have some issues. She might be sick.”
“I believe griffons are all ‘sick’ anyway. But whatever you say, Princess.” He shrugged and glared at her with his vibrant blue eyes like she was stupid. “All I know is that the reason they made Shatteredrock was so that griffons that are too dangerous could be safely removed from society.”
“It frustrates me how some ponies can become so antipathetic.” Luna glared right back at him, but with the advantage of height. “How is it even possible? We were literally made to be kind and generous.”
“Uh… What?” He frowned and raised an eyebrow, but Luna only sighed.
“Don’t mind me.” Her ears fell. “Just tell me what you know.”
He cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, I haven’t learned much more. The griffoness Grunhilda carried her partner out of the hospital after she stole the potions, and they went to Ponyville’s teleporter. She forced the night crew to teleport them to Thunderpeak. But as your highness requested, I have kept from pursuing them and forbid my associates from doing the same.”
“Well, it is a shame that Ponyville’s local militia was not present because of the whole situation with Princesses Twilight and Cadance.” He shrugged. “They could have stopped the two rogue griffonesses.”
Not likely, Luna knew. Not with the state Ponyville’s local militia found themselves in. They would likely have been killed by the griffoness too. But she supposed that bringing that up with the unicorn pony would be a waste of her time.
“Thank you.” She nodded, finally. “And good job. I wish to meet them in their dreams before we make physical contact with them. That should avoid more creatures being injured.”
“That is your decision, Princess.” He offered a hoof. “The Royal Guard ought to be able to contain the pair. Anyways, I’ll be staying in the city’s hotel with my team. When the Royals are done gathering all the evidence from the scene, we’ll return to Canterlot and start on the paperwork. Unless your highness commands us to proceed after them to Thunderpeak and wherever they might have gone to.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it. Please, consider a more merciful approach in your judgment of these griffonesses.” Luna tilted her head a little. “Creatures who do bad things often have been influenced by unfortunate events. There are many evil beings in the world, but civilized creatures seldom are.”
“Very well, Princess.” The unicorn lowered and bowed to her. “I will keep that in my mind. But murder happened here.”
“I never said it didn’t.” Luna nodded. “What I said is that there are several reasons one might commit such heinous acts, and most creatures do not out of pure evil.”
“I understand, Princess.” He gave her a respectful, yet shallow nod of acceptance. “Now, with your excuse.”
She nodded at the pony, and he left her, turning to talk with a couple of Royal Guards waiting for him and they walked with him towards one of the tents in front of the hospital.
It seemed that visiting the two griffonesses in their dreams and talking to them was in order. But night was still far away, and she was unlikely to get much done in that place. Her job was done. She went there, she made her presence known, ponies became calmer, and the drama was relatively under control for the time being.
Of course, that not only being Equestria, but also Ponyville, Luna should appreciate the grace period. Priority number one ought to be understanding what happened to those griffonesses which caused an orphan to kill five creatures. It seemed obvious that her motivation was her friend’s injury. Commendable, but unacceptable and that begged intervention.
Luna frowned and she sighed yet again, almost convinced she should ask Celestia to end the day early. Several hours early. But knowing her subjects, that was a bad idea.
A spark of magic pinged her magical senses and distracted her from her thoughts. A magical letter was on the brink of materialization. And when it did, she deftly captured it in her telekinetic magic. A small, simple box of light cardboard tied with a ribbon that kept it shut accompanied a simple letter in the form of a thrice-folded paper.
It seemed that Celestia had asked Chocolate Velvet to send her something. The reason she knew was because the items had been dipped in her consort’s magic.
And the reason she knew it was from Celestia was because the ribbon holding the box was a cute, pink ribbon tied in a bulky knot with a pair of large ‘ears’. Like a bunny.
Luna rolled her eyes and regarded the folded paper. ‘Please open discreetly’, it asked in Celestia’s exquisite hornwriting.
Luna nodded and teleported away. Straight to her private quarters in Canterlot Palace, the entry room with the two thestral guards that straightened as soon as she manifested.
Walking inside, she didn’t turn to them, instead faced the stairs that led up to her room. “I must review an important communication from my sister. Kindly do not allow anycreature to disturb me.”
“Yes, your midnightyness!” She didn’t need to turn to picture the pair synchronously saluting her with their leathery wings as they spoke. The harsh military tone didn’t really fit the batpony lisp, but that was part of their charm. It also didn’t make her doubt their reliability or their loyalty.
She rolled her eyes. After all those years they kept calling her that. Actually amazing that they remained loyal to her. Before, after, and while she wore the mantle of Nightmare Moon. It was complicated, but it worked, and she had important matters to mind.
She climbed the spiral stairs. and they led to a small anteroom Luna used for relaxation and it had the door to the balcony. It had her painting stand with blank canvas and her piano. But none of that interested her at the moment as she laid on one of her blue couches and opened the folded paper.
My dearest sister,
I have found something that may be interesting. In Griffonstone lives an artificer griffon whose profession is crafting toys. Among his creations are delightful figurines of important creatures from our world. Curiously, while I do not know the griffoness I have asked Chocolate Velvet to send you, the griffon claims she has appeared in his dreams. To me, she is eerily similar to Lord Gilad’s mate, Lady Gwendolen, but as far as I know, she lacks the ability to enter creatures’ dreams.
I understand that this similarity seems quite pedestrian, but the resemblances are striking. My instinct is that this is worth investigating. If for no other reason, then for conscience’s sake.
Additionally, I have bought his entire collection and I must say that you look positively lovely in his version of you! Kindly don’t damage the toys unless you must.
Your adoring Sister,
Tia.
There was a squeak and Luna’s pet opossum jumped to the couch and greeted her with another excited squeal.
“Hi, Tiberius!” She giggled and petted the small creature, then scratched his belly once he rolled on his back and squirmed like an overexcited dog before he hopped to her back and vanished inside her mane.
She giggled again and smiled before she pulled the ribbon that closed the box. From inside, she extracted the painted wooden figures. She squinted at the small objects with an inquisitive frown and her ears perked forward. While Luna had never personally met the Maiden of Griffindell, one of the figurines definitively represented her.
The small figure indeed recreated her pious stare and black wings that looked like she wore a cloak. The resemblance of a cowl and her black paws she held before her chest were also in the photographs that Luna had seen of the griffoness.
Luna hummed with a curious stare and then turned her attention to the other image. A vicious and powerful griffoness of similar colors, sat on her haunches and holding a sword with the tip down to the ground and holding a black crown on her other paw. Her open wings showed a black and white striped pattern.
“Huh…” Luna frowned.
Her magic reached out into one of the small boxes in her desk downstairs and teleported it to her. Opening it, she extracted a photograph that showed Lord Gilad talking with some griffon Luna didn’t know. Next to him was Lady Gwendolen. She looked exactly like the one the griffon artificer had crafted.
Luna had never noticed it, but something about the way she held her paws together and her big eyes turned up like she was so innocent really rubbed her the wrong way. Also, the griffons really seemed to like the fluff in their chests, and hers was quite impressive in black and white.
Luna tilted her head, staring at the photograph with a frown. It was rather poor in quality, and Luna could barely see the fiercest features of her race. The statuette, however, with the open wings was exquisitely crafted and showed them much better. Wild eyes and a sharp beak, strong limbs, and a dominating posture. Her wings showed a striped pattern that was really nice under her wings, but her wings were black on the other side.
Luna hummed and squinted. “Could be the same, but that would mean little.”
She looked at Tiberius with his head poking out of her mane. “I can see why Celestia thought it was curious.”
Then she turned to the photograph she held in her magic. “But we really don’t know much about her to begin with.”
Tiberius whined inquisitively and Luna sighed, frowning at the two figurines she held magically before her. “I don’t know… It is strange to hear of a griffon lady showing up in griffon dreams. Well, not ‘that’ kind of dream… After all, I hear she is quite beautiful.”
Then she touched her chin with a hoof. “Hum… Maybe this is related to how the northerners see her as some sort of spiritual guide. Maybe that causes them to see her in their dreams and that’s all.”
Luna’s wings opened a little in annoyance. It had been some time she had been having trouble seeing the dreams of the northerner griffons and there was no reason the appearance of that griffoness, by itself, would trigger the system to warn her of violation. But her intuition lit up like a Hearthwarming tree.
She teleported to her a small box. A metallic box painted white and with golden adornments. She opened it with her telekinetic magic and searched the small card-like files until she found the relevant one. It was simply a rectangular piece of paper written with Celestia’s hornwriting.
Lady Gwendolen of Griffindell, born in the 7th of Hearthfire in the year 968 of the Solar Age.
- Mated Lord Gilad ‘The Lion’ Ironfeathers in the 22nd of Morning Star in the year 982 of the Solar Age.
- Nothing known of her prior to their mating ceremony. Birthdate is assumed, based on hearsay and sparse information from merchants.
- Quickly became a respected Lady of the Northern Halls to the point northerner griffons will sever a relationship with anycreature that speaks ill of her.
- Has adopted Master Grigory with Lord Gilad around the year 987 of the Solar Age. Non-official process, but it was later recognized by authorities.
- Has forbidden E.E.A. authorities from legislating within Snow Mountains Hold.
- Protects abattoirs from Federation Authorities.
- Credited by northerner griffon Loremasters (their community teachers and spiritual leaders) for the sharp increase in cultural distancing from the rest of Griffonia.
o Harsh discrimination of hippogriffs.
o Sanctioned privileges for leadership.
o Sharp distancing from most Federation’s efforts for social welfare.
o Hates cakes and sweets in general.
- Has never been seen outside of Griffindell. Doesn’t usually leave Griffinsky Mansion.
Curiously enough, Celestia had circled in red that she hated cakes and sweets.
Regardless, it seemed as though Lady Gwendolen was a mysterious middle-aged lady anyways. Could she have some sort of magical powers? Maybe as a witch? That would explain her presence in griffons’ dreams. Because, putting the carved and painted images, with the photograph in front of her, Luna couldn’t see a difference between the three versions of the griffoness.
Luna gasped and then she grinned. A griffon witch? That seemed like a really cool idea! She could be disguising herself… That was a curious symbology with the sword and the crown. But the meaning eluded Luna. Maybe it was related to… Oh no… Maybe it was related to The Harpy and the Emperor. But that was conjecture on Luna’s part.
Well, that helped less than she expected, but she made a serious and determined expression Tiberius mimicked. She would spend that night patrolling griffon dreams.
***
Luna had isolated herself the rest of the day and as far as she was concerned, it had been a peaceful and uneventful day in Equestria. Preparations for that important night consisted of hibiscus cookies, a selection of tea brews that included chamomile, lavender, and a Kirin green tea with magical properties. Additionally, an aromatic bath, several helpings of sandalwood incense burnings and opossum claw massage. She went for the strong stuff, but when the time came to act, she was ready.
As she brought the night she went to her bed, under guard of her loyal protector Tiberius (since Celestia hogged their consort all to herself). She decided she wouldn’t do anything too fancy. She would simply witness a few dreams and see what happened. That included Rainbow Dash’s friend and her friend too.
Once she slept, Luna popped into existence in her palace on the moon. No, it was not really on the moon; it was actually inside her own head, but she liked the magical scenario. It looked like a better version of the Throne of the Mind inside other creatures. Wide windows in the circular room with pillars that converged on the ceiling and held wide glass panes between them. Beyond the stars and the surface of the moon, but rather than a dead landscape of gray dust and craters, it was a sea of magical light. It shone with soft cyan and that evanesced as it rose above the surface.
The room itself was spacious and dominated by a long and curved table with the magical images that helped her monitor ‘the system’. And as she sat at her throne within the curved table, the magical images became alive with all the information she needed.
Additionally, Tantabus galloped by her with Tiberius holding on to her mane. Luna clopped her hoof at the armrest. “Hey! Hey! We are busy! There is important business at hoof!”
That caused the pair to stand at attention in front of her, on the other side of the table. Luna relaxed on her throne. “I’ll be busy closely monitoring griffon dreams, so I need you to deal with any low to medium-level nightmares that might bother creatures.”
Tantabus saluted with a hoof, and so did Tiberius with his paw, even if he was there just for fun and didn’t have any abilities or responsibilities.
After Luna’s helper teleported away and Tiberius started floating in the air since that was a dream anyways, Luna turned her attention to the magical images above the table. Her magical aura manifested around her horn, and she entered the magical commands into the magical system that would inform her of abnormal activity in griffon dreams.
With things on their way, she relaxed on her throne and waited. A few seconds later, she manifested a blueberry smoothie for her and then she paid full attention to what the system was doing.
More time passed and she hummed to herself with her ears pulled back. Already on her third smoothie and nothing happened so far that warranted her attention. All the system indicated were normal, out of the mill nightmares caused by the pesky creatures and that Tantabus dealt with before they even caused trouble with the lucid dreaming that bothered her subjects.
“Something is not right.” She moaned and hoofed at her chin, squinting at the list of dreaming creatures on the magical image. It was her intuition, her millennia of watching over dreams and chasing away Nightmares that told her something was wrong.
She started querying the system on specific griffons. In no specific order. And the system showed her the basic package of information: where they were, who they were. Vital signs. Any low level alerts the system might have generated.
Running out of patience, she decided to be less subtle. Her magic introduced the commands for the system to search for specific engrams popping up in griffon minds. Descriptions of the statuette Celestia had sent her. Engrams that might relate to Lady Gwendolen, such as ‘respect’, ‘traditions’, ‘Lord Gilad’, ‘King’, ‘Queen’, ‘the fate of Griffonia’, ‘hippogriffs’, ‘noble lords and ladies’… Anything that might relate to that griffoness who looked like Lady Gwendolen.
And nothing…
There should have been positive finds. At the same time, Luna knew very well something protected the northerner griffons from her ability to pierce into their dreams. Their free-will was involved and Luna wouldn’t bother them if they didn’t need her. But what worried her were not the northerners… It was that southerner griffons apparently dreamt about those things enough that the toymaker from Griffonstone saw that griffoness in his dreams. Truth be told, if the phenomenon was restricted to the northerners, it wouldn’t bother her.
Although, the more she thought about the northerners, the more the whole thing worried her. She frowned… The museum. The Cult of the Harpy. Too many random connections. Too many coincidences that she previously explained with the fact that the northerners retained their ancient traditions, but the subtle and unsettling magic she witnessed in the Break of Dawn made her realize she may not have been paying as much attention as she should.
She commanded the magic of dreams searched for the engram ‘Harpy’, but she was awarded no return.
It should have calmed her, but the reality was that artifacts of the which cult had surfaced should have brought a few returns among the ‘available’ griffons in the south. Militias that were involved, prisoners… After all, that secret seemed ready to burst into the public eye.
She was missing something. Obviously…
The northerners were protective of their culture to the point they would not typically teach their language. They would not discuss it with outsiders. There had to be something though. They were reaching out, in some way. Or the southerners wouldn’t be leaving the south towards the north. The Lion, or Lady Gwendolen should be showing up in their dreams, if only for the simple fact that they heard of them.
She could find a few griffons while they dreamt, and search their memories for information, but that would be a bit of a violation and would also take a lot of time. If she took too long, Gilda and that Grunhilda griffoness would be lost to her, as are the griffons that reach the northern hold of Griffonia.
The problem was that she was not getting results. And she didn’t fully understand why either.
She shoved her back at her throne’s rest and put her hooves to her face with an audible and unprincess-like groan. But she immediately calmed herself. Frustration and anger wouldn’t help at all. She closed her eyes. Which was rather funny, considering she was actually dreaming, but the gesture helped her focus. Her thoughts turned inward.
The northerner griffons protected their culture. And with the resurgence of the Cult of The Harpy, it was likely because of that. Had they never stopped worshiping The Harpy? Even after the fall of the Empire? Secretly? Celestia hadn’t found The Harpy, so it was a reasonable expectation that the griffons would let go after Emperor Grigor I died, since he was the one that spread the cult.
Or was he? Celestia never truly understood the Cult of The Harpy… What if…
She thought of the strange magic the Loremaster used on the contractor taking cargo to Celestia’s airship. Huh… The Loremaster. She was supposed to be a teacher. A spiritual guide of sorts. But not only did she seem to have an important part in the bizarre breeding program (Luna didn’t know how else to call it) Lady Gwendolen had introduced, but she also seemed to have access to a strange magic Luna had never seen before.
Although… Had she never seen it before? It was uncannily close to the magic the Loremasters used to have back in the days of the Empire. But they seemed to have vanished, and that was why that old griffoness had caught Luna by surprise.
Luna frowned and looked at the magical sea beyond the windows, past the magical images. How much discipline must it have taken for them to remain hidden for so long while also fomenting the culture of the northerner griffons.
Luna blinked a couple of times. Unless, they didn’t have that magic, and someone taught them. And the only griffons of note would be Lord Gilad and Lady Gwendolen. But Lord Gilad didn’t seem to be the source of that particular magic, or those ideas… His magic was different. And it was true the griffons from the Empire didn’t like hippogriffs, but they didn’t like any other race. That hatred against the hippogriff was new.
That seemed to point at Lady Gwendolen. After all, she was the one that introduced the breeding program. The problem was that Luna was back at where she was: suspicious of Lady Gwendolen, but not actually knowing anything.
Maybe the secret was in the magic the old griffoness used against the poor pegasus. Also, Luna didn’t have the same version of the system at the time and couldn’t examine the Loremasters and their magic. Back at square one, she sighed with an angry frown.
Maybe she was wasting too much time on that. She sat straight against her throne and her magic commanded the system to search for Miss Gilda and Miss Grunhilda. It returned an error.
What in the ever-loving fudge was that? ‘Query failed’. She tried again, and she got the same response from the system. A blank image with those outrageous pony ideograms in the middle. It shouldn’t be doing that… Was that how her mind interpreted an invalid response from the magical system? Did her imagination add such a flavored response? It was the most likely answer.
Did her magic fail to locate the two griffonesses? That shouldn’t happen. She stared at the words in the magical image and her hoof tapped her chin a few times.
What did she know of Gilda and Grunhilda? Not much. Even with what the canterlotian authorities had told her, the most she knew was that Gilda had injured a minor and ended up fleeing the city. The other griffoness, apparently, was under the influence of something and attacked Griffonstonian Local Militia officers and also fled.
That was unlikely, though. She was a young and technically homeless griffon lady that lived in a government office building. Unless there was foul play involved by her benefactors, it would be quite hard for her to have access to narcotics. How did the two even come into contact?
Luna racked her brain for an answer, and it took her a few wild theories before she finally came to anything logical. There was a publication that slipped under notice a few years ago, but Luna had paid attention to it because it concerned dreams. Something about the storms and weird dreams among griffons, published by a Griffonstone psychiatrist of little notice via the Bay County University.
Luna remembered. It was little known, but it had caused Griffonian weather authorities to tone down the frequency of thunderstorms.
She stretched her neck and stared up at the ogive ceiling with a frown, straining her memory. She could see the magical flux that came from Equestria to the Moon and the wavy colors helped her focus. It would be ideal if she had her copy of the published paper, but she recalled it well enough.
There was no way to confirm there were storms involved in Grunhilda’s case. Or even In Gilda’s case. But that was a possible approach to the situation from that angle. An annoyed growl and a determined squint later, she commanded the collective oneiric magic to scour the minds of griffons for the engram of ‘storm’.
The system was supposed to show her portraits of the griffons, with their names, like cards on the magical image. And it did, but the portraits were broken as failed photographs and their names were gibberish instead of names in the Griffonese characters.
“Huh!” Her frown changed to one of curiosity and her hoof returned to her chin. There were a lot of griffons… Hundreds of thousands of griffons. Enough griffons to fill an entire hold of Griffonia, perhaps? Wait… One of their names wasn’t gibberish.
Grinolf. The deserter sitting in a cell in Celestia’s airship. Even his portrait was the way it was supposed to be instead of the mess the others were.
Almost as though she was entering a dark cave, Luna hesitated. She magically commanded the magical system to lock into the griffon’s mind and everything worked as intended. Most importantly, he was asleep. And he was dreaming. The readings of his vital signs showed a substantial level of distress.
Not much she could do from there, though. Her horn lit with magic again and Luna closed her eyes. Her instinctual magic did its job and when she opened her eyes, she found herself inside a small house. Wood planks for floor and ceiling. Masonry walls with a window filled with darkness.
It was a cramped room with a sizeable hearth burning with a comforting fire despite the cold that seeped in. It made the small room cozy. Nothing but dark beyond the window, and the walls had stands with books, and hunting tools. An iron rack held a cooking pan over the fire and pieces of dried meat hung from the ceiling. In the back was a small table and a rustic staircase that led to the floor above.
Wait. There was no storm. Why did her magic identify the engram for ‘storm’ when there was no storm in his dream?
Grinolf sat on the floor, his back against fire, eyes trained on the door to the outside. It rested quietly in its place. Behind Grinolf, and past the fire, a dark figure of a griffon sat on a chair and fletched arrows. The figure spoke, and its voice was a deep tenor speaking in Common Equestrian, with a thick whistle-y accent. “The storm will be over soon, son. Don’t worry.”
Storm? Luna frowned.
“It never ends…” Grinolf whispered with the same accent. “It’s always raining.”
Luna walked around the young griffon with a curious stare. He couldn’t see her, she wasn’t there as far as he was concerned, but she could see his torn frown and focused eyes.
“Raining?” She tilted her head and checked the window. Nothing but the peaceful dark of night outside. Sure, his dream lacked details. No stars or dark shadows of nearby buildings, or even lights that would escape their windows. But there was no rain.
When Luna looked again, the old Loremaster griffoness had replaced the figure of the male griffon and spoke in the sing-song-y accent on Common Equestrian. “Can you hear the storm?”
Grinolf didn’t answer immediately, but his frown changed. His forehead crinkled with worry, and he barely opened his beak to let the words out. “I can hear Her cry.”
“She’s always out there.” Grinolf added.
Luna looked at the door, then back at him. Out there? Outside? Who?
“Trying to get in.” Grinolf added with a whisper. “All the time… Scratching at the walls, banging at the door.”
“You have to let her in.” The old griffoness chastised him.
“What?” Luna frowned further with a grimace of confusion.
That was when Grinolf closed his eyes and his feathers ruffled. He trembled and his whole body tensed.
“Stop.” Luna commanded as her horn shone and the whole scene froze around her. She frowned at the frozen, terrified griffon, summoning her crystal tablet to her. “What is it that you are seeing, Grinolf?”
It was a bit of a technical thing, and it involved her experience in reading his mental processes as they happened, but she could see that he was, decidedly, hearing something. Seeing things that she wasn’t. And that was a first. It was like someone had figured out a way to hide things from her magic. Luna had never had to deal with that sort of thing and nothing in the magical system that she had created had prepared it to properly show her what was going on.
That old griffoness, his mother, knew ancient magic capable of messing with the minutiae of the workings of a pony’s mind. And now, this. There was something out there that knew how to ‘game’ Luna’s oneiric magic. Her wings fell and she shivered as much as the young griffon in his dream, because it now made sense where his mother had learned that freakish magic.
It seemed obvious, but Luna had no real evidence yet.
Ancient memories stirred. The pony goddess that had sat at the Throne of the Mind may have used deep magic she didn’t truly, nor fully understand as she wove the minds of modern creatures. And now… Something older and dangerous may have slipped under Luna’s snout.
“Oh, my stars…” Luna didn’t know until then, but it seemed as though she could sweat inside the world of dreams.
Her heart thumped and her hoof shook as she turned to her blue crystal tablet. She was the only thing ‘alive’ in that place, but all her attention was on her magical tool. It didn’t escape her that she felt the exact same feeling of ‘messing with the forbidden’ other creatures felt when they were exposed to the deep magic that made minds work. She was messing with ancient and powerful, deep magic. And that always carried a foreboding feeling.
She poked into the system’s representations of mental processes and the individual parts that made up Grinolf’s mind. What were they doing? What was hidden in between the processes? Something stirred in between the lines of magical notation, older than time itself.
An anxious anticipation took over Luna again. Terrible memories surfaced only to sink again underneath the threshold of recalling. She was messing with her own mind in the process, but she must know.
Her horn shone brighter, and she commanded her magic to remove the veil that had been put before her. The entirety of the little griffon home blinked out of existence and the dream played around her again.
There was a storm outside. A torrential, world-changing hurricane. The heavy rain punished the roof and the walls. The window that earlier had only shown the dark of a peaceful night was pelted with heavy raindrops and the wind threatened to bring it all down. It howled like the snowolves of the Crystal Empire and Yakyakstan.
Grinolf sat on the floor, his back against fire, eyes trained on the door to the outside. It banged violently against its frame and the sound caught Luna unaware. She jumped and let her wings flare, casting a shocked glare at it before her eyes returned to the griffon.
Behind Grinolf, and past the fire, a large but faceless griffon sat on a chair and fletched arrows. He spoke, and its voice was a deep tenor in the High Griffonese. The sound of the rain almost drowned the words out. “The storm will be over soon, son. Don’t worry.”
A flash invaded the little house through the window and for a split-second Luna saw an open field with ponies. Concerned eyes scanned the sky and thunder shook the house. Or was it Luna herself that shook? It was the confined griffon home again that surrounded her.
“It never ends…” Grinolf whispered in the ancient griffon tongue. “It’s always raining.”
When Luna looked again, the old Loremaster called Gehenna had replaced the figure of the male griffon and she spoke in that same language made for the griffon beaks. “Can you hear the storm?”
Grinolf didn’t answer, but his frown changed. His forehead crinkled with worry. “I can hear Her cry.”
A resounding thunder echoed and filled existence with a flash. A piercing cry ran through Luna’s spine, and she screamed. Her hooves clopped anxiously on the wood floor, when the small room turned to an open prairie. She couldn’t see in the bright flash, nor the dark night, but feathers flew in the air and panicked neighs filled her ears along with the sickening sound of tearing flesh. In a split second everything was just the small griffon home again.
The smell of blood assaulted her senses and Luna threw herself against the wall with her back and covered her muzzle. She forced herself to remember that it was a dream, and that the events that intruded in her mind were recollections from so long ago they didn’t exist anymore. She must focus on Grinolf’s dreams, not on her own memories.
“She’s always out there.” Grinolf added.
Thunder clapped again and lightning flashed outside against a large shape of ruffled feathers walking outside the window. Luna covered her mouth and a muffled scream escaped her. It was impossible!
“Trying to get in.” Grinolf added with a whisper. “All the time.”
A monster growled outside, and claws rasped against the walls with a terrible grind.
“It cannot be!” Luna whined to herself, hiding behind her shaking wings and under her panicked, frantic breathing. “She was destroyed!”
“You have to let her in.” The old griffoness chastised Grinolf with a scowl. “You are a Child of The Harpy.”
The door banged violently. The sound reminded Luna of ancient siege weapons. ‘It’ pounded against the door like a battering ram against the reinforced gates of a city. Only a small portion of herself that remained rational reminded her that it was all metaphorical. It was a dream, but it had turned into a nightmare of her own.
Grinolf closed his eyes and his feathers ruffled. He trembled and his whole body tensed. The door sounded as though it would explode out of its hinges in counterpoint to thunder and the flash that illuminated the room from the gap under the door, showing something was there. It moved. Black talons pierced the wood and showered the floor with splinters.
In an instant, Luna was back at her palace. Sitting on her throne, chest expanding with frantic breathing and looking from one side to the other until she recognized her fortress. Grinolf had probably awakened and that returned her consciousness to her palace. The rattling on the door and the resounding thunder still echoed inside her head and she needed several minutes before she managed to control her breathing. She wrapped herself in her wings and her hooves shook against her chest.
Little Tiberius was there though. He floated to her and nosed at her forehead with a soft and caring squeak. Luna inhaled and held him cradled in the primary feathers in her wings. She smiled at him and landed a small kiss on the top of his head. “Thank you, Tiberius.”
After that she held him in her hooves and sat him on the table.
“Oh my gosh!” Luna gasped. “I have to tell Celestia!”
Tiberius squeaked and nodded extra fast before he started running on top of the table.
“No! Wait!” Luna stared at the magical images and Tiberius squealed, grinding to a halt before he turned to the princess again.
Luna almost doubted her eyes, but the griffons whose faces she couldn’t see and names she couldn’t read were normal in the magical image.
Her jaw hung open. She probably had understood something. She saw through the magic that disrupted her own. She could see Gilda. She could see that griffoness called Grunhilda. She still frowned, though, as she couldn’t find the Loremaster that was Grinolf's mother. Even if she asked the system to look for her through her affinity to him.
The old Loremaster still had tricks under her wings. Out of curiosity, she looked for Lady Gwendolen and nothing showed up either. Gilad? Nope. Their kid, Grigory, or his friends? Nada.
Her magic was still locked on Grinolf though, and the system had listed alerts of dream disruption and invasion by a Nightmare. Luna was sure that wasn’t a Nightmare, though. That was something much older, much more powerful and with a much deeper understanding of how minds worked. It seemed to have left Grinolf alone once he had awakened.
She focused on Gilda before that thing got to her and prepared to connect with her mind. But, she stopped right at the brink of her magic doing it’s thing. One of the images showed an old griffon called Gamaliel. He was old, in the later third of his life. Judging by his portrait. Yet, the images of his face broke for a split second, and his name turned to gibberish before returning to normal.
Did that mean the monster… ‘That monster’ was disturbing his dreams?
Luna watched with huge eyes for a few seconds, but nothing happened. Why was there no alert of harmonic violation? When a Nightmare, or anything attacks their dreams the system, her magic, is supposed to alert her!
She commanded her magic locked on him. His heart beat slowly, like a tired machine. His breathing was shallow and erratic. Gamaliel was sixty-seven years old and his brain activity in wave form showed Luna a tired creature. Ready to give up. He was dreaming, though. The magical image showed multiple level alerts for his failing body.
- Khet Class Harmonic Violation: severe organic failure
- Ren Class Harmonic Violation: damaged Self
- Akh Class Harmonic Violation: dream loop disruption – Nightmare Attack!
From those Luna knew he was physically sick, though she would have to delve deeper to see how. She knew he had suffered grave injury to his sense of self. It was a fancy way of saying that he was terribly distraught over his life and his psyche was damaged. And there was also the alarm of Nightmare attack that should have sounded metaphorical alarms in Luna’s head and directed the system to showing it to her. But it was like that part was suppressed.
Additionally, the map showed Mister Gamaliel was in Griffonstone. And an image showed Luna a griffon laying on the walkway, under a soaked piece of cardboard and next to a failing gas street lamp. Again, Luna's jaw hung open and her heart was ripped in two, seeing the old and tired griffon left alone under the rain. Rapid water ran in the gutter and there was not another soul in the dark street. Only the rain and the wind.
That was not supposed to happen! How did an old griffon end abandoned in the middle of the rain in Equestria? More precisely, in Griffonia… But it was still a part of the Equestrian Federation! That was simply not supposed to happen! There were several institutions, watchdog organizations that should have alerted authorities that this sort of thing was happening!
Luna scowled. “What in Tartarus is the Chancellor doing with the money the Hall of Friendship sends him?!”
She felt foolish. She knew there was corruption in the Griffonian government, despite Celestia’s efforts. But seeing that…
Even worse, that thing that hounded Grinolf’s dreams, was disturbing that old griffon. He was sick from exposure. He was too weak. He would not survive!
Maybe it was shame, but Luna didn’t want the griffon to expire not knowing that she cared. Flashing images of bloody fields and mangled pony bodies filled her mind with a sudden terror. Thunder echoed inside her thoughts. Every sense of self-preservation told her not to approach that monster again. But the old griffon was alone and vulnerable!
She would take precautions, but whatever she did, she couldn’t leave him at that thing’s mercy.
Luna focused her magic and closed her eyes. When they opened again, she was in the middle of an opulent sitting room in an imperial mansion. The room was almost as large as Luna's own resting room. Fine wooden panels covered the walls and ceiling, and large windows framed in purple curtains clattered with the rain outside. Thunder clapped and the dark beyond lit with lightning. But that was all. No prowling monstrosity in the dark.
There was a large and luxurious bar with many bottles of expensive drinks and fancy cups. A giant candelabra with thousands of crystals and gold dangled from the ceiling and provided a comfortable light. Luna could hear giggling and playing griffon cubs from beyond the magnificent doors and a sumptuous fireplace added its flickering light as well as warmness to the room.
The griffon sat on an armchair, wearing a rich bathrobe in purple and black. The old griffon was large and impressive. Dark brown with white on his head, but his feathers had lost their shine to age. His eyes were closed, but he seemed to be resting peacefully. He smiled at the sound of the playing cubs. Behind him, on the wall was a large flag of Griffonia with its reds and yellows behind the black griffon in the foreground. It sat above a green uniform of the Griffonian Standing Army with so many ribbons and medals Luna couldn’t count from a distance.
But she recognized at least a few from the many of the GSA deployments that assisted Equestria when it needed. When Nightmare Moon returned and the monsters of Everfree broke loose, for example. When the changelings besieged Canterlot, and others.
A beautiful stand made of the same varnished wood and clear glass held a saber and a flintlock pistol. Both richly adorned with gold.
Luna had distracted herself, looking at all the details and imagining their significance to the old griffon. Three sudden knocks on the door brought her attention back to the important matters.
Luna gasped quietly and immediately directed her stare to the door. Watched as the handle moved slowly and the door opened revealing a black griffon’s paw. And when the door opened whole for the creature to enter… Sweet stars, that was one of the largest and tallest griffons Luna had ever seen.
That figurine was loyal to a tee to the creature she saw. And that creature was loyal to Luna’s distant memories of the entity she had come to know as The Harpy. Just that thing’s presence was enough to almost send Luna into another fit of panic and ancient recollections. But her worry for the old griffon kept her pinned in place, happy that the ancient griffon goddess couldn’t see her.
Or so she hoped. The griffoness didn’t react to her presence, after all.
Large and elegant, the imposing creature walked around old Gamaliel on his armchair and she had a curious and interested expression. Her crown of black feathers made her seem regal as she circled around to stare at the old griffon and her tail with the black tuft swept as she turned. She didn’t say anything and just sat in front of him and waited.
His head, once hanging from his neck, trained at her and his eyes opened slowly. He showed a soft frown and his voice croaked when he spoke in Common Equestrian. “I know you…”
“My fair lady,” He started with a smile. “Who are you?”
She remained seated on her hindlegs, but she reached with her forepaws and held his head, holding him ever so softly. She spoke slowly and clearly in High Griffonese. “I am the anger in your chest. I am the heaviness in your heart. I am the voice at the back of your mind that makes you hide in shame when your head is laid upon your pillows.”
What in Tartarus was it that she even meant? That sounded like a threat, not something you’d tell a poor old griffon mister.
Luna watched as his face changed from his tired smile to a weary frown, but he didn’t speak yet. The white and black griffoness spoke again. “I am the cry in the storm you have avoided your whole life. I am the voice that brought you to life and that you have shut your ears to. I am the accusation that nags at your cravenness.”
“It was not my fault.” The griffoness took a few steps back and gave him space as he stood from his armchair and looked at the flag and his uniform. “I told them not to do it!”
His voice broke with sobbing. “I begged them to reconsider! But I didn’t have the courage to do anything! Even if I had the support of my griffons, I feared for my family, I feared for my own future! There was nothing I could do!”
“After the Operation Expressway,” The griffoness fixed him a harsh stare. “Your soldiers would have followed you. You could have stopped all that followed. Your love for your position and for the comfort you had surrounded yourself with has made you spineless.”
Luna gasped. What was she talking about? That sounded like the sort of thing that Luna should know about. Although, if the griffons were hiding information from her and Celestia about the military incursion into the north, it would follow that they had done it in the past.
How blind could she and her sister have been? Additionally, this whole interaction was wholly different from Grinolf’s experience and what Luna had expected.
“I cannot pretend that you are wrong.” Regardless of Luna’s thoughts, the old griffon grimaced and held her paws against his face as though he feared she would distance herself from him. “I didn’t want to get involved in any of that! I thought it was vile! But I still believed in my country. I still believed that the high command knew what it was doing. And I feared for my younger family and their career in the Griffonian Standing Army.”
“You allowed others to use you. You were loyal to the wrong griffons, you refused to see.” The griffoness accused as she opened her forepaws, despite his gesture, and her wings spread. “And the result was this!”
The mansion undid itself, replaced by the dark sky and the cold rain. His clothes were gone and so were the noises of the playing cubs. The griffon had already lost most of his composure, but he crumbled and dropped to the pavement. He sobbed and his fingers threatened to pull at his soft facial feathers.
“They took everything!” He cried. “My sons are under arrest and my grandchildren have been sent to the garrisons in the deepest holes they could find. All because I told them not to invade Snow Mountains! And I fear to think what they did to their families and my servants!”
“You misplaced your loyalty.” She circled around him. “You gave it to the wrong griffons. They cut your wings before you would have a chance to fly away. Even if you wouldn’t. And now, you suffer the consequences. Your betrayal was to your race, and should you have followed your heart, none of this would have happened.”
“I know!” He sobbed and his shoulders jumped with his upstarted breathing. “It is over. I am at the end of my life, and I have nothing left! I should have listened to my conscience. I should have honored the traditions my mother taught me.”
Luna’s feelings for the old griffon’s plight notwithstanding, it bothered her to no end that neither her nor her sister had absolutely any idea of what was going on. It was concerning, to say the least. Not only because of security reasons, but because that caused griffons a good measure of grief.
She wondered if that might have a connection to griffons wanting to leave the pony-friendly south for the north. Luna grimaced at those thoughts. It was possible that, despite their best intentions, she and her sister had screwed up. Bad.
While those thoughts practically festered inside Luna’s mind, the griffoness got tired of watching the old griffon crying. Or maybe she thought he had had enough. Her paws held his shoulders and she made him look at her, pulled his shoulders into a prouder posture. Her face was fierce with the very aquiline facial features of the griffons, and her expression was as accusatory as her words had been until then, but her tone softened. Even if it was barely perceptible.
“There is still time.” She told him softly. “You can see your family’s pride restored. You can free your kin and bring them the honor that is their birthright. Your time in the realm of the living is still not over. You can restore your honor and meet your ancestors with pride in the Fólkvangr, in the Stormy Eyrie.”
“How?” His face contorted in a pained frown. “I am old. And I have lost everything.”
“I have taken time to find you, but you will heal. You will be strong again.” She told him. “My Children thrive in adversity and now you know on which side your heart lies. You will know your brethren and they will know you. And they will take you home, back to the lands your ancestors claimed. You will live years long enough that you will see your descendants turned to proud lords and ladies of the northerner lands, respected vassals of The Lion.”
He didn’t say anything to that, but his eyes did all the speaking for him, and the griffoness went on. “You will conquer your failures and the skalds will sing of your proud return to our midst.”
“I don’t deserve it.” He whispered quietly, looking up at the taller griffoness.
Her grim stare didn’t become any more comforting, though, and thunder echoed in the sky while the bright flash of lightning illuminated the dark street. “There is no deserving. It is required of you. I demand it of all My Children.”
Luna expected the elderly griffon to react with dejection. At least some insecurity, but the old griffon changed before her eyes. “I hear you.”
Finally, the griffoness smiled. Just a little, but she liked something she saw in that griffon.
With that, he woke up and his dream ceased. Luna was pulled back into her throne in her lunar palace. She expected it, so instead of a surprised frown, her frown was one of confusion. She didn’t typically use the system to monitor for sick creatures as that is not within her responsibilities, and there was little she could do. In normal circumstances, she wouldn’t be required. She should’ve been warned something was wrong though.
Moreover, the entirety of the Griffonian political situation baffled her. Luna never was one to take much interest in the governance of the lands, much less in the intricacies of politics between realms in the Federation, but she knew when something was wrong. And the biggest giveaway of such wrongness was that there was another creature messing with dreams and that didn’t cause enough of a ruckus among the griffons that the system would warn her.
Whatever was going on, much like when Starlight Glimmer started messing with the magic of cutie marks, was voluntary.
A younger and less experienced Luna might have felt slighted at that, but if some griffons felt better with that griffoness, then there was something she ought to understand before she did anything. Whoever that griffoness was… Lady Gwendolen, or the ancient and supposedly destroyed entity that was known as The Harpy.
She pouted and started tapping her hoof at her desk. Celestia would almost certainly not be so open-minded. And such was likely the reason griffons who knew something was going on were so hush-hush about the whole thing.
At the bottom line, two things stayed with Luna. The first and meanest was that some other creature was messing around the oneiric realm. But she put her pettiness beneath her and considered what she had just witnessed. And the other was that, maybe, just maybe… The Royal Sisters may not be the best for griffons. Or, even if that wasn’t the case, griffons should be allowed to choose openly.
When she noticed, the image that showed her the griffon in the streets had changed. He walked under the rain, purpose on his steps and a strength Luna had no idea where he summoned it from.
The princess rubbed her hooves together and cracked her neck. Now she could actually see those griffons, she had many dreams to visit. She must understand what was going on before she did anything. That included Miss Gilda and Miss Grunhilda. She needed to understand things and decide on her course of action. And she was in a hurry, because if she noticed something was wrong, Celestia would too. And her older sister may not be as open-minded as Luna in that regard.
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I'm kind of surprised there isn't a King Sombra tag?
11170675
Really? Well, he is very important to the overarching alternate universe. Even more so than this story implies. But he doesn't feature in it.
I almost expected Gwendolen to turn towards Luna and say something along the lines of "They are My Children, the true people of this world. They are MINE, not yours!"
11170761
She couldn't see Luna, but I admit I've toyed with the idea.
Earlier draft that didn't make the cut:
♪
11171538
Well, damn. How am I going to write a horror story about a mentally unstable griffon tearing a hospital apart now?
11171797
No problem. It doesn't detract from the horror story about the mentally unstable griffon--it's just setting a level of priorities for Luna to deal with a greater threat. After all, you still have to account for why it took Luna so long to getting around to visiting Gilda.
Also, it may set up a possible solution for The Harpy you've not considered before: just throw the CMC at her--that's GOT to fuck up any deified birb's day!
11172053
Lol.
And just like that Chocolate now has an onscreen body count (not that he had a choice!)
To carry on the Westworld reference, it looks like The Harpy has managed to find a backdoor into the operating system of living beings that Luna wasn't aware of, even with her Admin privileges.... or is it actually the other way around?!
Not 100% sure but I'm going to take a stab and say that elderly griffon Luna dream-walked to this chapter is the same griffon officer that appeared in Fólkvangr, the one that was spared by Grunhilda for the role he played in the death of her parents. Even if he isn't that was still a genuinely heart warming scene. The Harpy can be an really inspiring speaker! When she's not some angry monstrosity clawing at the edges of one's dreams...
I haven't gotten around to looking but has that story about Grunhilda's little... excursion been posted on this site?
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No. The Harpy needs creatures to allow her in. Then she does what she did to Gilda. Remember that Gilda had the 'PonyOS system', same as Cadance and all other creatures. Complete with the four doors and the alicorn cutie marks, but missing the Tree of Harmony from the hall since griffons don't have the Elements of Harmony as Discord explained in Twilight's airship. When he's talking about how ponies 'generate' their minds.
You'll see that the dreams with the Harpy all have this engram of the storm outside (her memetic symbol in the griffons' memory is mountain and the lightning bolt), and her knocking at the door outside, or a monster trying to get in. The griffons needs to let her in because they have the 'true' free-will as she granted them from creation (they derive their sense of self from yearning something, and seeking to acquire it). Other creatures use the system created by the alicorn gods which the Harpy can't override without them 'opening the doors'. Which is why she was asking Discord for the key, because he can enter and mess up their heads. Which is what he was doing in Cadance's dream.
Back to Gilda, once she let the Harpy in, Mother returned Gilda's mind to the original system: hers. Changing the cave with the magic liquid and the crystal palace for a lake with the island and the tower. It is the 'safe space' she takes Gilda when the Windigos are trying to mess up her head in the latest chapters of Fólkvangr. You can see that Gilda's kind of slipping from what Luna wanted, and she is becoming too much like the Harpy, and the way she flies off the wheel and eats pony meat in the latest chapters are the big tells.
Which is why I stopped with Fólkvangr and Piece of Parchment for a while and am working and posting Collateral Damage. It's supplementary to Fólkvangr.
That said, when Luna is poking around Cadance's mind, trying to get her soul memories under control, the 'core' of the system, the magical notation of the mind, is in griffon characters, even if everything else is pony ideograms. The alicorn gods built everything from the legacy magic the Harpy created in the very first cycle.
While each alicorn has an inherent understanding of their 'portfolio' of magic, Life, the Mind, Love, and Friendship, the Harpy has an intrinsic understanding of everything because she created the basis for it all. Which is why she likes speeches like the one when she's explaining griffon penises to Gilda, talking to Godwin before the big orgy, and also when she's talking to Gilberta about the way cubs influence their parents, etc... Also why Gilad can do magic, literally commanding the land to obey, and the Loremasters can do magic and can worm subconscious commands into the minds of creatures. It was all taught by the Harpy and borrows on her 'magical authority'.
From the conversations in Piece of Parchment and Fólkvangr, you can infer that when the alicorn gods created the ponies, they made it so that they would vanish into the minds of the ponies, thus the Thrones. They jump started the pony mind, to make up for their lack of free-will, teaching them how think, like the theory of the bicameral mind. But the ponies didn't forget them and that allowed to them to summon the gods back from the incomplete process of the Black Sun that Cadance witnessed in the past. It is also the same way the griffons brought the Harpy back into existence, in the same period, but all the way around in the griffon lands. There is more, some details, but I'll let you read on.
And yes, it is the same elderly griffon. He's going to show up in Piece of Parchment too. I am going to write a horror story about Grunhilda's night in the hospital, but I'm still preparing for that. And it will certainly be posted on the site.