A Method to his Madness

by Luna-tic Scientist

6 -- Better living through chemistry

Equilibrium awoke in the late afternoon, completely undisturbed by the heavy weather promised by the dark clouds from the evening before. Stretching carefully, she winced at the stiffness down her left side, the flesh tender and bruised under mud-caked fur.

"I'm going to have to get going, I think," she muttered into the silence. These gryphons had probably taken a considerable risk; if State Security -- these 'Red Talons' -- returned and found her, then protesting that they hadn't known she was there would almost certainly be futile. She stood and took a few painful steps, then started to pace around the inside of the barn to loosen her stiff muscles.

As she walked, she started to assemble a set of simple panniers from the discarded bits of rope, plastic sheeting and cloth scattered across the cluttered workbench. By the time it was complete the sun had nearly set, so she filled them with as many of the turnips as she could comfortably pack. Trotting over to the barn wall she then picked up one of the things she'd made the day before; holding it carefully in front of her eyes she peered into the cloudy glass, studying the contents.

"Well, it looks okay," she said thoughtfully, rotating the stubby glass jar. Inside, almost completely buried in a mixture of metal swarf and white and yellow powders, was a small glass bottle, half full of an oily yellow liquid. The top of the little bottle was fused shut; a tricky task that required her to use her magic to get the glass to a yellow heat while simultaneously pinching the opening closed. She really wasn't happy with that seal, but at least it was better than trusting concentrated acid to a normal bottle cap.

Opening the outer jar she stuffed the free space tightly with straw, then did the same with the other three jars and carefully placed them in her makeshift panniers, separated by more straw. Even with the padding, the hard, round shapes were obvious against her flanks. Try not to kick these ones, Junior. She started walking again, changing to a careful trot, ready to drop the packs at an instant's notice if she heard the sound of glass breaking. Not that I'd have enough time, she thought nervously. She'd not done this kind of chemistry for years, and never on this scale.

That complete, Libi took the packs off and looked thoughtfully at the remaining material she'd collected. Most interesting was the pile of dusty burlap bags she'd found stuffed behind the bench. They were all rodent damaged, but still had a great deal of usable -- if coarse -- fabric. It's cold enough in here now, she thought, watching her breath fog in the still air, Celestia knows what it will be like outside after midnight. She spent the next hour or so crudely cutting the bags to size, then wrapping several layers of them around all the bits of her body she could manage.

By the time she'd finished, the sky had darkened and she looked like a particularly lumpy sack of potatoes. Almost none of her coat was visible apart from her eyes; it itched terribly, but was actually quite warm, although she wouldn't be winning any races while wearing it. Picking up her panniers once more she tied them in place, bouncing up and down gently to settle the makeshift harness just below her withers. Finally ready, she shuffled over to the door and peeked out.

She could see the farmhouse, looking warm and inviting in the cold draught that blew through the crack in the door, but there were no signs of anything else moving apart from the distant dots of cattle. Easing the door open, she sniffed the air and listened carefully in all directions. Somewhere to the north, in the direction of the city, was the sound of aerodyne rotors, but it was very faint. Looks like their search pattern has moved on, she thought, then took a few steps away from the barn, her head up and scanning the sky.

The clouds had mostly been swept away by the high winds tailing the storm. In the darkness this far from the city the clear air made for excellent visibility; the lack of light pollution meaning that the star field was more dense and magnificent than she'd ever seen before. For a moment it took her breath away and she just stared, then her mind settled back to more mundane thoughts. Nothing moved against those stars, at least not as far as she could see.

"I might miss a really high flying gryphon, I suppose, but that high up they'd have trouble finding little old me among all these cows," she murmured. Feeling emboldened by the silence and stillness, Libi broke into a stiff trot and headed towards the steep forested slopes that lined the river valley.

Over the years the gryphons had expanded what was a pretty narrow valley by flattening the lower slopes of the foothills that hemmed it in, leaving them with far more arable land suitable for the large cattle they seemed to favour. One side effect of this was that the valley floor was now artificially flat and the valley walls were far steeper than they otherwise would have been. She'd travelled along the tree line to reach this place; this time she headed further up the slope to stay deep within the forest.

The ground here was poor, thin soil and loose rock, but still managed to support a thick growth of spindly pine trees that weren’t useful for much besides fuel. That was where the feedstock converter would have come in, the unicorn thought wistfully as she picked her way between the trees, take that otherwise useless scrub timber and reprocess it into feedlot food pellets for the overused grazing lands. It was an ideal setup; the gryphons didn't have any use for the land and they had more than enough of the little trees to supply the converters planned for their available farmland.

"Can't see that happening anytime soon," she said sadly, leaning against one of the trees for a quick rest. The gryphon engineers could install the rest of the equipment easily enough, but there was no way they could get the thing calibrated without a unicorn specialist. Levering herself upright again she started to walk, following the contours of the mountainside as they wound their way up the valley.

A few hours later, while negotiating a particularly thick patch of spindly trees, she heard the first rotors. She'd heard the occasional whisper of noise before, so faint amid the deadening effect of the trees that she almost thought she'd imagined it, but this was much louder. It swept through one of the high passes between the peaks, down the mountainside and on into the valley proper. The first aerodyne was followed by several more, each thrashing the tree tops with their rotor wash and turning the world into stark black and white with their high-powered lights.

Equilibrium froze, one hoof half over a fallen trunk, eyes scanning the gaps in the canopy for any other movement. With coloured blobs from the searchlights still filling her vision she nearly missed them. Wide winged shapes gliding silently in the wake of the aerodynes, black silhouettes occluding the stars. They rushed past on occasional wingbeats, all heading towards the farm she'd been hiding in. Horseapples, she thought, biting the insides of her cheeks in worry, that's torn it. Putting her hoof back down she pushed through the thicket, breaking into a risky trot over the unstable and cluttered terrain.

An hour later and the sound of rotors was still loud inside the valley. So far nothing big had flown overhead; all the lights and noise seemed to be concentrated around the margins of the valley, but she was sure that she'd have missed a lone gryphon overflight. Is there any big wildlife in these woods? she thought, anything that might be a distraction? Deer perhaps -- Libi remembered that there were bears and deer in these kinds of forests -- although it seemed unlikely any would be left this close to a city full of hunters.

Sticking to the heaviest cover slowed her down, but gave her a little hope that she might elude the night vision equipment they were bound to be using. She racked her brain for anything else that might give her away; she'd left hoof prints, but only in the soft farmland -- up here in the forest with so much exposed rock, any attempt to track her would be very difficult. I hope, she thought. A good forensic unicorn with a lot of time on her hooves could use any stray hairs she'd shed as the basis of a tracking spell, but these were gryphons. Was there some bit of technology unknown to Equestrians that could see her through all these trees?

Then she heard the barking.

Libi's blood ran cold as the realisation hit her. But how are they working tracker dogs through this dense forest? she thought, breaking into a stumbling canter. Even pregnant and with this improvised clothing there was no way a creature with the bulk of a gryphon was going to match her speed over this terrain. The barking was getting closer now, and through a sudden gap in the trees she had her answer.

The gap, a scar in the forest caused by a small landslide, was only ten metres wide at this point, but ran for a good distance both up and down from her position. A little way down slope she saw a gryphon hovering above the treetops, a smaller four-legged shape strapped to its belly. As she watched, afraid to cross the slope where it might see her, it dropped to the ground then rose again without its canine passenger. Fresh barking rose up, followed by the sound of paws on the loose scree. A small spot of red light appeared in front of the dog, flicking out in a straight line up the slope. The dog started to trot in that direction, casting about with its nose, obviously sweeping the ground for her scent. The gryphon controller started to circle, performing its own search pattern, occasionally directing the dog to check some opening in the trees.

Libi's eyes widened in horror; if she crossed the gap now that dog was bound to find her as soon as it crossed her trail, even if its handler didn't spot her in the open. Ears flicking backwards she tried to gauge the distance to the dogs that were following on her direct trail. Too close! There's no way I can get round this open patch before they reach me. The dog coming up the slope was still several hundred metres away, but it wasn't coming the direct route; its handler was being thorough and checking every likely spot she might have used.

Nothing for it, she thought then, with one eye on the circling gryphon, started to pick her way over the bare ground, trying to stick to solid rock or dirt. She was about half way across when the gryphon completed the back half its circle and started up slope towards her. Libi froze, then sank smoothly to the ground, lowering her head to rest it between her forelegs. Just a rock, just a rock, just a rock, the mantra ran through her mind, praying to Luna that all the gryphon was equipped with was an image intensifier. All this lumpy clothing should be excellent camouflage in the monochrome view of a starlight scope.

The little red light came on again and the breath froze in her throat, but the beam directed the dog to a clump of trees and it obediently headed in that direction. Another few moments and the gryphon started its turn, heading away from her. Libi started to breathe again, heart sounding so loud in her own ears that she felt sure it would be heard all the way to Razorclaw's capital. Carefully she climbed back to her hooves and started towards the relative safety of the forest.

Out of one eye she spotted the dog again, it had stopped halfway to the location its handler had directed it to and had its head held high, making little movements like it was sniffing the air. Abruptly its head swung around and it let out one short howl, before running directly up the slope towards her. Overhead the gryphon started to turn again, much faster than its previous lazy sweeps. Cursing under her breath, Libi dashed for the trees, now only a half dozen paces away, unmindful of any noise she might make.

Under the branches she risked a little magic, lifting out one of the glass jars from her pack and holding it above her head. By feel she opened the jar and took out the straw packing, then resealed it. After so long in these dark woods the pale yellow radiance of her magic was like sending up a flare, enough light that she had to squint even though she couldn't see the source directly. If that doesn't get the birds on to me, nothing will, she thought grimly. She'd planned for this, but even in the relative safety of the barn it had seemed a long shot. Out in the woods, alone, cold and scared in the dark, it was absolutely ridiculous.

"Don't be silly, filly," she said in a tone that was only a whisker away from a hysterical giggle. "You're not alone, you've got all these soldiers and their hounds to keep you company." With that she threw the jar in the direction of the treeless area, then turned and ran into the woods. Behind her there was a thump as the jar hit the ground, then nothing. Dammit, I knew I should-- There was a deafening explosion and the world turned a dazzling orange.

A light so bright it seemed to be solid shone through the trees behind her, as if Celestia herself had brought the sun down into the little clearing. Little bits of something -- a mixture of dirt, gravel and glass splinters -- rattled through the trees around her, a few striking her on the rump as she ran, but doing no damage. The brilliance was over within half a second, leaving only the gentler yellow of burning leaf litter. Equilibrium stumbled on, half blinded even though she hadn't been looking at the flash. "Next time keep your damn eyes closed, you idiot," she muttered, slowing her headlong flight to assess what she'd done.

Breathing heavily and starting to sweat inside her bulky clothes, Libi came to a halt and held her breath, ears straining to make out any sounds. There was the voice of an angry gryphon and the yelp and whine of an injured dog, but nothing else. Then the wind shifted and the voice turned to a cough, followed by the rapid flapping of wings and more yelping. Through a gap in the canopy, Libi caught a glimpse of the gryphon flying away, something cradled in its foreclaws.

She grinned, muzzle twitching, when she caught the merest whiff of the acrid vapour from her improvised incendiary. "Nasty stuff, sulphur dioxide," she murmured, accelerating to a careful trot. Behind her there was a roar of engines as an aerodyne moved over the clearing, sweeping the area with its searchlight, then the fainter sounds of gryphons landing on the scree slope. For a brief moment she wished she'd had the foresight and time to rig a tripwire firebomb, but as with most things you saw in the movies, she was sure it would be far harder in real life. Especially when they're right on your tail. Hopefully her pursuers had seen the same films and would think she had tried to trap her trail...

Half an hour later she came to another open area, this time a space cut by fast flowing water, full of large boulders and completely bare of cover for about twenty metres. Looking around, Libi could see nothing threatening apart from an aerodyne hovering over patch of forest near her first escape, its light sweeping this way and that through the trees. It was about half a kilometre away, far too close really, but seemed to be focused on whatever it thought it had seen.

Taking a chance, and knowing that the group chasing her would be getting closer and closer, she stepped away from the trees and trotted over the gravel. This particular area was relatively flat, beds of gravel either side of a shallow river. The river was low at the moment; from looking at the treeless state of the banks it was obvious it could rise to twenty times its normal flow with heavy rain. Libi looked at it in distaste, then pulled up her leggings and stepped into the icy water.

The cold was breathtaking, but she forged on across the river; the water was fast, but fortunately not coming above her fetlocks.

"Freeze, pony! You are surrounded!'

The voice boomed from somewhere in front of her, while four bright torch beams pinned her from all sides. Libi cursed inside. So close! "By Luna's starry mane, couldn't you have done this before I walked into the river!" she screamed at her captors, the whole absurd situation suddenly making her furious. They didn't answer. The aerodyne she'd hoped wouldn't see her abruptly roared overhead, illuminating her and the whole river bed with its powerful lights, revealing a half dozen gryphons emerging from hiding spots all around her.

Under that glare the little glow from her horn was invisible, so she used that cover to get a hold of the three remaining jars in her pack, then threw them with the full force of her rage at the hovering aerodyne. She couldn't see it, the light was blindingly bright, but it was close and hard to miss.

The pilot's quick reactions nearly spelled disaster for everyone; if he'd ignored the projectiles they would have hit the armoured nose and done little more than singe the paint. As it was, he jerked the noisy machine sideways, almost managing to avoid the jars.

All three impacted somewhere on the vehicle's left hand fan, the fast-moving blades smashing the glass in an instant. The chemicals inside ignited with a brilliant orange flare that nearly outshone the searchlight, then were thrown out by the downwash to rain over the group below. Lacking confinement there was no explosion and no near instantaneous reaction, but everything still burned.

The oxidant was consumed in a flash; what really caused the problem was the metal swarf Libi had mixed in with the powders to give the formula a little more 'go.' These bits were big enough to burn for a few breaths, long enough to reach the ground and still be alight. Spots of white fire, propelled by the downwash, were blasted over the little group; Libi felt a half dozen land on her back and head, hot enough that she could feel them through her burlap sacking clothing.

Her highly flammable clothing. Her eyes went wide and her rage was replaced by terror in an instant; unmindful of the cold, she dropped to her knees and rolled over in the icy water, dousing the fires. Struggling to stand in the now waterlogged clothes she started to pull off the cold material, desperate to get the stuff away from her body before she lost any more heat.

A hard object knocked her back down into the water; coughing and spluttering as the shock made her inhale some of the river, she couldn't resist as a set of talons dragged her through the water and out onto the river bank. Still fighting for breath she was rolled over onto her back, then more claws ripped through her soggy clothing, pulling her free of the cloying mass.

The dragging didn't stop until she was under the lights of the now landed aerodyne and surrounded by angry gryphons, all wearing the same insignia as had been on the very first vehicle outside the feedstock converter plant. The one holding her throat pulled her up to its eye level and stared malevolently at her.

"Get me the toolkit," he snarled, "we'll show this pony what we do to witches!"

Her captor then grabbed hold of Libi's horn, using it as a handle to force her head into the rounded pebbles of the river bed. She started to struggle, but other strong claws held her fast. Libi's heart nearly stopped when the heavy metal box was slammed down next to her. Another gryphon started to rummage through the tools, grunting with satisfaction when he obviously found what he was looking for.

The gryphon transferred his grip to her head, long talons wrapping around her skull with painful force. The tough, scaly hide dug into her flesh, the rounded pebbles doing the same on the other side. From this angle all Libi could see was the white and chocolate brown feathers on the gryphon's chest, starkly illuminated by the aerodyne's lights.

Still struggling she whimpered in distress, trying to move her jaw enough to form recognisable Gryphic words. "N-no, please, won't resist anymore, just don't hurt me--" She broke off as the gryphon tightened his grip, making any further speech impossible.

Her captor leaned forward, crushing her head into the pebbly surface and whispered in her ear. "They want you alive, but no one said anything about being intact," he hissed, holding a fine-toothed saw up in front of her eye.

"Trooper Attacks From The Sun, what do you think you are doing?" The voice caused an immediate lessening of the pressure on her head. Libi recognised the speaker; it was the gryphon who'd been in the meeting room back at the feedstock converter when all her problems had started.

"Flight Leader Reaper Of The Weak, sir! We are ensuring the prisoner can be successfully restrained for transport."

"I see," said Reaper, planting his foreclaws on either side of Libi's head.

"I won't use my magic, I promise. My foal, please," Libi pleaded, her voice high and thin.

"Probably not," Reaper said in clear Equuish, dipping his head to look down at her. He tapped one claw on the tip of her horn. "Still, after all the trouble you caused I don't think I entirely trust you." He gazed off into the distance for a second, then stepped away. "Carry on, trooper," he said, switching back to the guttural tones of Gryphic.

"Yes, sir!" the gryphon replied with enthusiasm, then looked down to stare into the Libi's frightened eye. "I told you we know how to deal with witches," he said to her with a malicious grin.

Libi whined as Attacks rested the saw against the base of her horn, then drew the blade sharply back. "Stop," she whispered hopelessly, but the gryphon just pushed the blade forwards and started to saw in earnest.

There was no pain; the horn bed was well below the skin, so the horn itself was dead and had no feeling. What made Libi scream was the sensation of her magic slipping away. She'd lived with that faint, almost subliminal sensation ever since she came into her power. A subtle buzz that underlay every moment of her life since fillyhood, that aura of potential surrounding every object she could see. As easy as reaching out a hoof she could change that potential into motion, an ability to manipulate the world in ways unavailable to any pegasus or earth pony.

And now it was fading.

Tears rolled down her muzzle, dampening the cold pebbles beneath her cheeks. Deep in her belly, Libi's foal twitched and kicked, reacting to her stress and the change in its mother's magical field. It wasn't her own power she was worried about; even though it was like a pegasus losing her wings, her horn would regrow in time. Her foal, though... she knew her foal was a unicorn, knew also that its mother's magic was essential to normal development of its own power. A feeling of terrible desolation washed through her and she went completely limp.

Unicorn horn was tough stuff and the gryphon had to apply some considerable force to get the blade to bite. Vibrations resonated down the semi-crystalline spiral shell, horribly loud due to direct conduction through her skull. When the gryphon finished, he released her head, stepping back and gesturing his friends to let her up. Libi felt the pressure lift from her hindquarters, but stayed where she was, her mind probing the gap that should have held her magic like a tongue compulsively feeling the gap left by a missing tooth.

"I think you broke her," said another of the soldiers, laughing roughly.

"Get up," Attacks From The Sun snarled, jabbing Libi in the shoulder with one talon. "I said, get up!"

Equilibrium climbed mechanically to her hooves and stared at the ground, eyes blank and unfocused. The cold bit into her, the downdraft from the aerodyne's still spinning rotors driving all heat from her soaked fur, but she didn't notice it. One of the troopers picked something up off the ground and dangled it in front of her eyes.

"Hey, pony, you missing something?" he jeered.

She looked up and stared at her amputated horn for a long second, its glossy cream surface already seeming to have lost its lustre, then returned her gaze to the stones between her hooves. She didn't move when they locked the collar around her throat or attached it to straps that ran over her withers and between her forelegs. She didn't move when they slid the poorly fitting conical hood over her head and muzzle, locking it tight with a chain passed behind her ears and through her mane.

Prodded into motion by sharp talons, Libi was driven stumbling over the river bed and into the rushing air underneath the aerodyne. Here she paused, then was lifted bodily onto a cold, hard metal surface. More claws shoved her against a wall made of the same freezing material and locked straps over her torso.

There was a roar of sound and a feeling that she'd suddenly doubled in weight as the aerodyne accelerated into the sky.

Comments

[Luna-tic Scientist]

Smaller chapters but more frequent -- I hope this works for everyone?

[Blaster M]

I was counting down the chapters to this bit at the end

[Mix-up]

What would you say for a cover art?

https://www.deviantart.com/amalgamzaku

[ascendant]

Oof, heavy ending. I wonder, should we feel any sympathy for gryphonkind? I've gathered an impression that the only reason they're in the position they are now is from pony kindness. They feel very different from the dogs as an antagonist race and their culture seems incredibly primitive and backwards. While the dogs position could be appreciated in a twisted way (they created the ponies, and treated them like animals because of dogmatic teachings), their technological and cultural advantage seemed supplemented by ponykind. The gryphons tech seem to run on pony handmedowns, and their magitech completely unsustainable - it feels like an accurate capturing of Gryphonstone in that they wouldn't even achieve a feudal / subsistence farming level existence without external help.
It's true that we don't have an Ellisif or Korn yet (maybe/probably we will later) but I wonder what it is that gryphons even bring to the table that ponies would interact with them. On the other hand, they don't really need to bring anything tangible of course (friendship is magic). If Luna suggested a hot extraction of all the ponies and cutting gryphons loose to crash and burn, I'd take her side though.

[Pseudosapien]

That IS heavy, and hard to read. Was really hoping she would be okay. I hope we get a better view of these griphons now though, their motives are so unlikely. We've seen how Discord can influence them, but is he powerful enough to drive the whole society?

[Luna-tic Scientist]

9598766
Because you figured how it was going to go?
9599309
With no direct access to magic, the gryphons are reliant on normal physics. This works well enough, up to a point, but you can do so much more with magic and technology. There's also the effect of the average gryphon's personality -- they just don't cooperate as well as pones. This is an unfortunate part of their heritage as a soldier species -- not all of them are like that, but they tend in that direction. It's not quite fare to say they only exist on pony hoof-me-downs -- they have their own tech, it's just not as good. I would draw parallels with North Korea, but that's not quite right either. So they import magic to help them with stuff they can't do any other way.
Should you feel sorry for them? That depends on what you think is doing on!
9599753
That's an interesting question. What limits would you place on Discord's power? The show only ever shows him creating gross physical manipulations and mental alterations on a one to one basis. This always seemed a strange limitation to me.
===
A bad end for Libi, but rest assured this is not her final act. She's a tough mare.

Thanks for reading, folks!

[Cedric Bale]

I was super relieved at Libi's mention of unicorn horns growing back, and then was immediately scared again for her kid when she mentioned it's development relying on her magic. I know they're being manipulated, but that's likely influencing opinions and stoking existing fires, not making masses of individuals cruel who otherwise aren't, so I still feel justified in hating at least some of these gryphons.

[ascendant]

9600550

With no direct access to magic, the gryphons are reliant on normal physics.

Yeah, but what I was picking up was something of a flavor difference between dogs and gryphons. From the previous stories, I got the impression that if you took away the ponies from the dogs, you'd still have the same thing but with lesser efficiency. From the gryphons, I'm getting the impression that if you took away the ponies, they'd collapse into something that barely constitutes a society - a mirror of Gryphonstone in the show, unable to maintain even their nonmagical tech after a generation or two.
As far as what's happening and whether I should feel sorry for them, with what's in front of me I'm leaning towards no. Discord's using the best tool for the job - the gryphon core seems to already be base fear, hate and corrupted pride. He's just enhancing what was already there, something the ponies don't have. But that could also be a distaste I have for giving Discord Q-level reality manipulation power; I feel that his manipulations should be... how do I put it.... More than superficial, but not by much and definitely less than real?