Boreas' Gaze

by TundraStanza

Ch. 2: Two Girls Spending the Night? Overrated

Gylpher couldn't believe what he was doing. He offered the crystal pony the seat across from his own at the table. He pulled out a bowl of grits from his rations and set it down in front of himself. He took in a beak full, swallowed, then cleared his throat.

"Why are you here?" He gave the pony a cursory look while idly rubbing the top feathers of his head.

She twiddled her hooves while looking down. Her long-ranged weapon was sitting on the floor currently under her hind hooves. Her tail was scrunched up and stiff at that moment.

"I... needed to see you again." She glanced at him before looking back at her twiddling hooves. "I, um... don't have anywhere else to go."

"This isn't a homeless shelter." Gylpher took another bite of his meal. "If you're looking for a handout, you've come to the wrong place."

"Then just put me out of my misery!" She banged her hooves against the table. "If you don't care about me at all, why did you save me in the first place?!"

The gryphon briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked up. "Call it a moment of weakness. I can't stand the sight of helplessness. But I also recognize I don't have anything of my own to offer the less fortunate. Those other troops just happened to leave behind something and I happened to pass it onto you." He returned his gaze across the table. "Don't take it personally."

"But you do have something to offer." Her body briefly shimmered, gaining a semi-reflective sheen. "Your voice and your eyes... something in those broke through the walls that trapped me in King Sombra's will. You have a gift. You could use it to help so many creatures."

"Geez, lady. You are all over the place tonight." He held up his talons, palm-side up. "Are you suicidal or an idealist? Choose your platform and commit."

"Says the guy who can't decide between being empathic and isolationist." She crossed her front hooves.

Gylpher coughed, then devolved into a full-on laugh. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha... We're just a couple of hypocrites in this bloody world. Name's Gylpher."

"Cold Quartz," she said in kind. "Nice to meet you."

He sighed and pushed his bowl to the center of the table. "Tell you what: I'll let you hang around for a couple weeks until you can either pay rent or find a new home." He pointed a talon over his shoulder at the nest way in the back. "As you can see, my roommate is hogging the bed to herself. So, you can either find a spot on the floor to rest your head, or sleep outside. Your choice."

Quartz nodded her head with a smile. "Considering my former boss worked me 24/7 with no overtime pay, the floor sounds heavenly."

"Great." Gylpher stood up and walked around. "Knock yourself out."

---

He had a terrible crick in his neck when he woke up. The sky wasn't any less red through the one or two holes in the ceiling. After stretching and pressing his hind legs against his wall, he looked around. His nest was empty. Had yesterday's events been a dream?

Shifting his eyes toward the other wall proved that wasn't the case. The crystal pony mare was lying on her stomach. Her breaths sounded like a cross between snoring and neighing. He thought that was weird. As he tried putting pressure on his neck to alleviate the ache, there was a knock on his door.

Gylpher blinked. "If Rukh managed to slip into my house before me yesterday, why would she need to knock?"

Shrugging his wings to himself, he walked over to the door and opened it a bit. A gold-brass alloy was startling enough to wake him up. His tail immediately swished straight behind him. He cleared his throat.

"Can I help you, sirs?" He held the door ajar with one talon while making an expression with his other talon.

"We have reason to believe some pony of Sombra's army has taken refuge in this residence." One of the royal guards flashed his badge. "We'll have to look around."

Gylpher deadpanned. "I live alone."

"All the same, it's better to be safe than to miss one rogue element," the guard insisted.

The other guard looked past Gylpher's head and gasped. "Sir! I see her inside!"

The first guard lit up his horn with a blue aura of magic. It turned into a field around Gylpher and pushed him aside. He struggled to move, but found he could barely flap his wings against the magic force.

"Quartz!" the gryphon called out.

Cold Quartz stirred, sleep still having a dazing effect on her awareness. That was the case, until some hoof-cuffs were clamped around her front and back, left hooves. She gasped at the sudden feeling of metal and struggled to slide away. This only left her flipping onto her back. The earth pony guard pinned her down and started dragging her toward the house's entrance.

Meanwhile, the unicorn guard's eyes fell upon the crystal, ice weapons scattered under the table. "What's this? Mind explaining why you have enough tools of Sombra's army for two archers?" He levitated the objects closer to him while glaring at the gryphon.

Gylpher grasped his talons for what he thought was squeezing his throat, but grabbed nothing but air. "They were... just lying on the ground... and I picked them up."

The guard glared at him. "If you're hiding your true allegiance, we'll let the judges in Canterlot sort you out." He floated out a pair of cuffs around Gylpher's talons. "You're under arrest under suspicion of aiding and abetting the enemy."

Quartz slammed her right hoof against the floor. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Gylpher growled while turning his gaze to the earth pony dragging Quartz away. "Let her go! She's not working for Sombra anymore!"

Both guards blinked at the outburst. "What?/What?"

He pulled at the small chain connecting his cuffs. "Yesterday, I saw her pull off her helmet and denounce the king. She doesn't want to be with him."

Quartz whimpered. "He's right. Something he said while I was still under the dark magic's control struck true to me. I...I won't keep fighting for a king that doesn't even care about us!"

"A likely story." The earth pony guard deadpanned. "You expect us to believe you turned tail on the leader of your entire empire just like that?"

"If you guys won't be satisfied without an arrest," continued Gylpher, "then just take me. I'm the one who refused to cooperate from the start. Don't take it out on her."

"Now hold on." The unicorn guard looked back at his current captive. "We can't just ignore a potential risk."

The gryphon's eyes shook as he stared at them. "You're in Celestia's royal guard, right? You're supposed to be better ponies than Sombra."

An invisible hawk called as a red-winged pattern flew into the guards' sight. A slight detour curved some thought processes. What were they doing, arresting a pony that was guilty of no more than begging and pleading? How could they stoop to Sombra's level of force? In a world overshadowed by fear, they ought to protect innocence where possible.

"Mm." The unicorn guard nodded before looking at his colleague. "Release the mare."

"Yes, sir." The earth pony guard turned the key and opened the hoof-cuffs.

Cold Quartz rubbed the wrists of her hooves and looked at them with her wide eyes. "... What?"

The guards trotted out of the house with their one suspect and collection of evidence. There was a long, valley path to trot before reaching the closest train station. From the top of a dying tree on the side of one of the mountains, Rukh watched Gylpher as he was led away.

---

It had been a while since he had been so close to pony-made centers. Despite a bit of grease and hardwood patches, the train station still looked inappropriately colorful. No amount of red sky could hide how gaudy the architect had been. There was, however, a bit heavier tone in the way ponies carried themselves here. Chatter was hushed, quick, and without a single song to break the monotony.

He was half-tempted to rattle his chains to an old lullaby, just to see if that would garner a chuckle or a gasp of horror. The idea of just flying away did cross his mind, but he simply breathed quietly while the guards stood on either side of him. He was the one who had offered to be taken into custody. Gryphons were many things that ponies found questionable, but they weren't liars.

"Wait!"

Gylpher looked behind at the familiar voice. The train was just pulling up to the station at that same time. But he was more focused on the sight of semi-shiny yellow and red galloping toward him. She slid to a stop.

"Let me go with you!" Cold Quartz leaned forward.

He tilted his head. "Quartz, this isn't exactly a Flight School field trip."

"You're the gryphon who saved me even though he didn't need to." She held a hoof to her chest. "I can't just sit around in your house, waiting to find out if you're going to come back safely."

"So, of all the things you could do instead, you choose to get close to a gryphon in custody?" He held up his talons, stiff in the cuffs. "You know that might look suspicious and get combined with your past, right?"

She smirked. "We're two hypocrites in this bloody world, remember? Following the logically safest path isn't our style."

"Keh." Gylpher mimicked her smirk. "I never should have taught you how to debate." He glanced at the two guards. "What do you think? Is there enough room on the train for a plus-one?"

The unicorn mulled it over for a bit. "It'll make the paperwork more complicated, but I suppose we can allow it."

Quartz patted Gylpher on the back. "So there!"

When the nearest boxcar opened, the four walked inside. Nobody noticed Rukh hanging out in the far back, even when she choked on the taste of a raw potato.

---

Immediately after stepping off at Canterlot Station, a blindfold was tied around Gylpher's eyes. He felt the hooves of the guard ponies pushing him along. Apparently, they didn't want him to see exactly where in the city they were going. While his talons were tied up, he had to occasionally open his wings for balance, so that he wouldn't fall over his paws.

"Would you watch where you put those wings?" grumbled the earth pony guard's voice.

"Right now, I couldn't watch them even if I wanted to." He tried to deadpan, but they could only see his beak for reference.

"Don't take your anger out on this prisoner." The unicorn's voice chimed in. "He came with us willingly."

The first voice simply grunted. Gylpher didn't hear either of them talk for the rest of the outdoor walk. It was only by the sound of a door opening and the feeling of a harder surface under his paws that he could tell they were in a building. Several steps and one door later, he was made to sit down. Magic removed the cuffs around his talons and the blindfold soon after.

He was sitting in a room surrounded by mirrors, save for one door near a corner. The unicorn guard told Gylpher to wait there. Both of the guard ponies trotted out and shut the door. Gylpher looked around more thoroughly. He spotted a couple cobwebs in the dents near the ceiling. A single lantern with fireflies inside hung from the center of the top.

The gryphon looked at the mirror across from where he was sitting. He ran his talons through the feathers on his head, but it looked like a couple refused to straighten out. He shrugged and started preening his wings. His tail idly swung under his chair. He lifted his head as a stray thought occurred to him.

He looked at the mirror across from him again and stared intently. There wasn't any sound. Yet he could see it in his normally brown eyes. Something else was there behind them. It looked like the image of a distant red bird, stretching out its wings. Was that some of the power Rukh had given him?

The door swung open, snapping his attention away from his reflection. An orange unicorn mare in a business suit marched inside. Her pair of shades blocked her eyes from his view. Her mane looked like some creature had mixed up the red and yellow paints and pressed them over her head simultaneously, leaving a heavy highlight behind.

"Gylpher the Gryphon." The mare levitated a manila folder in a teal blue aura.

He crossed his front limbs. "Who is asking?"

"More like confirming." She lowered the file to her eye level. "How cooperative you are might affect how quickly we can get you out of here."

"Somehow, I don't see leaving soon as an option, even if I talk." His tail swung side-to-side.

"Like I said, that all depends on you." The mare's magic pulled out some papers from the folder. "How much do you know about current events?"

"Well, there's a war going on between ponies and crystal ponies." Gylpher held his talon off to the side before crossing it again. "Kind of hard to ignore when half my neighborhood decides to get involved for kicks and bits."

"Uh-huh. And what do you know about these crystal ponies?" She floated five pictures in front of him.

He gave the printed images a small glance each. "No idea who they are."

"Really? That's curious." The mare floated the photos so that she could glance at them too. "Because a quick chat with all of them revealed that they all recall seeing a gryphon that looks exactly like you before we detained them."

Gylpher grunted. "Convenient that they left out the part where they attacked said gryphon."

"So you have seen them before." She slapped a hoof against one of the levitating pictures.

He shrugged his wings. "Look, they're not my best buds. I only saw them briefly yesterday. You want their birthdays and favorite colors? You'll have to ask someone else."

"Duly noted." She looked through the pictures again. "They attacked you? What were you doing at the time?"

"I was out rock-climbing." His tail swished.

"Rock-climbing? Inside the Abysmal Abyss?" Her brow rose. "A bit risky, don't you think?"

"No more risky than strolling through the Everfree Forest." He separated his crossed talons.

"Hmm." She pressed the photos into one side of the folder. "That doesn't sound like it would be enough to provoke them into attacking you."

He held out his talon, palm-side up. "We are still talking about the guy that brainwashed ponies and new recruits without provocation, right?"

She sighed. "I get your point. Now... how did you manage to get them to stop?"

"I don't know." He shrugged his wings again. "Maybe they were so used to fighting weaker ponies that the shift to facing a gryphon scared the fight right out of them? Not my fault they couldn't tell the difference between me and a wild beast."

The mare briefly peeked her light blue eyes over the rims of her sunglasses. "Some of Sombra's army has looked our dragon allies in the jaw and yet they didn't stop fighting. What makes a gryphon more intimidating?"

Gylpher held one talon just under his beak. "If a dragon were to swallow a pony, there would at least be a chance they could attack the inner organs and cause pain that the dragon couldn't immediately grab or remove. If a gryphon uses lethal force with their beak, it's a small enough piece of the pony that can't fight back from the inside."

The aura vanished from the folder and it dropped onto the floor.

"That is disgusting." A chill went up the unicorn's back.

"Well, the idea gave you pause." He crossed his talons again as his tail swished behind him. "Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

She coughed awkwardly and levitated the folder close to herself. "Weapons found on your home premises match those used by some of Sombra's scouting units. Where did you get them?"

"The crystal ponies dropped them before they ran away from me." He held his talon to one side. "I went ahead and picked them up. I thought maybe I could use them if some other ponies in Sombra's army tried attacking me."

"I see." The mare adjusted her sunglasses. "We're going to have to keep you here while we review this information. There's a chance you'll have to give a testimony in court before you can go home."

"Figures." Gylpher sighed.

"I apologize for any inconvenience." She trotted over to the door.

"Hey..."

She paused and looked back. "What?"

"You already know my name." He stared at her. "Might you kindly give the common courtesy?"

There was a faint noise similar to a crying hawk. The unicorn floated the folder onto her back. Slowly, she lifted a hoof and pulled off her sunglasses. Her cyan irises made eye contact with him.

"Sunset Shimmer." She then walked out, leaving Gylpher to himself and his reflections.

---

Through one-way glass, Cold Quartz looked on with concern. She could see the unicorn grilling Gylpher for information, but she couldn't hear a word from either occupant. She feared the worst.

"He won't die today."

Quartz jumped at the female voice. She turned and saw the white-and-green gryphon sitting beside her.

"You're... Gylpher's roommate, right?" Quartz waved a hoof slowly. "My name is-"

"Cold Quartz, I know." Rukh waved her talon dismissively. "I'm a lighter sleeper than Gylpher realizes. I heard everything."

"Uh..." Quartz twiddled her hooves. "How do you know they won't execute him, just under suspicion of treason?"

Rukh swung her tail around to gently lift Quartz's muzzle. "Even if they try to pass such a judgment, I won't let it carry through. He owes me a favor, and I will collect on it."

As Rukh pulled her tail back, Quartz had a number of questions. Yet the tone in Rukh's voice compelled Quartz to hold her tongue and take it. Quartz turned to look at Gylpher again. The interrogator was already on her way out. The remaining occupant of the mirrored room looked like he was laying back for a nap.
---

Author's Note:

Just because it's a "Dark" story, doesn't mean I can't make bad jokes in the chapter titles.
Be glad I didn't choose "Arrested Development".
...
Let's say there was a bit of an overlap where Celestia personally saw to the studies of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle in the original timeline. If, by altering the past, Starlight Glimmer made it so that Twilight did not get personally overseen by Celestia, it could have potentially given Celestia more free time to pay attention to Sunset Shimmer and nudge her away from the not-so-good vendetta. Inadvertently, this creates a world where the mirror to the Equestria Girls' universe never gets explored.

In summary: Yes, Sunset Shimmer exists in this alternate universe. No, she isn't a generic high school bully that turns into a generic demon villain. Finally, she took work as an interrogator during the Sombra war.