Helpless To Help

by Mykola

Chapter 1

The bumping cart jolted Twilight awake. Her wings shot open in surprise, one of them hitting an unsuspecting Pinkie Pie next to her. Her eyes shot around for a second before she focused on the journal she had opened on the table. Drool stained the left page. Annoyed, she closed the book and placed it back into her saddlebag.

Somepony snickered. Another burst into hearty laughter.

‘You—you looked like a seal!’ Rainbow hugged her sides as she continued to chuckle.

‘Yeah!’ Pinkie seconded while she somehow managed to recompose herself. ‘A big, lavender seal!’

‘Very funny.’ Twilight rolled her eyes. ‘Are we there yet?’

Laughter died down as Pinkie's and Rainbow's faces became sullen. Although the train still rattled forward toward its destination, it shouldn't be too long before they reached it. Shouldn’t it?

‘We should've been!’ Pinkie groaned. ‘It's taking even longer than last time!’

‘The train has stopped like five times!’ Rainbow growled. ‘They keep asking for our passports! Start, stop, passport! Start, stop, passport!’

‘And you—’

‘Relax, Twi! Of course we got them your passport!’ Rainbow suppressed her laughter. ‘To be honest, you looked better sleeping than you do in that pic—’

‘I know.’ Twilight sighed and silently reminded herself to prepare for the flash the next time she went in to renew her passport. ‘It’s just a good thing that I figured out that we needed passports to enter Gryphoniya now, otherwise this trip wouldn’t have happened at all!’

‘It’s weird...’ Pinkie looked out the window at the approaching mountain range. ‘We didn’t need anything last time.’

‘We needed bits,’ Rainbow reminded her. ‘Hopefully that’s a practice they learned to do away with.’

‘We didn’t need too many bits—’

‘Pinkie, we didn’t have enough to return to Ponyville!’

‘I don’t remember getting anything back,’ Twilight recalled, ‘and that was half of my stipend from Celestia… What did you buy?’

‘A story and a rope.’ Rainbow’s eyes darted toward Pinkie twice, who kept her mouth shut tight.

‘Right…’ Twilight sighed.

‘At least we'll have some of those delicious griffon scones!’ Pinkie smiled.

‘And we’ll be able to visit the historic sites of Griffonstone!’ Twilight added.

Pinkie and Rainbow groaned in unison. This did little to dissuade Twilight, who set off into a fantasy about what she’d discover: old Griffon fortresses, the surrounding villages, the monoliths… the libraries!

The train jerked to a halt, catching Twilight off guard. Something moved outside the window—no, some things. Twilight and Pinkie looked out the window. Rainbow opted to fold her hooves and pout. ‘Again? Twilight, couldn’t you have gotten us the express? This is way too slow!’

‘Not too comfy either!’ Pinkie complained too.

‘I didn’t think to ask Celestia if we could. I just got the tickets,’ Twilight responded. ‘Besides, it’s not too bad—’

Twilight was interrupted when she saw a few griffons on their side of the cart pushing past with the brutal griffon invention: their slug-throwers. The sight unsettled her, but she knew that there wasn’t much those could do against her magic. Besides, she figured that nothing nefarious would happen anyway. After all, she was the Princess of Friendship—

The compartment door to the cart slammed open. A generously-sized griffon wearing an officer's uniform, flanked by two thinner griffon soldiers, stepped inside. The officer waddled up the aisle, calling out, ‘Papers, please!’

The other passengers in the cart held up their documents to the officer. The three griffons seized them and started to scan the tightly printed lines with gazes of steel. Twilight looked at her friends. When they produced their passports, she took the documents up with a quick levitation spell and proudly filed and displayed the documents. One of the soldiers skulked up to their row and grabbed the papers out of the air.

Twilight watched the soldier thumb through the pages of the passports quickly. His claws followed under the lines, though his eyes didn’t look over the document. Did he even examine it? The griffon closed the passports, looked toward the officer, and, unlike the rest, held them tightly in his claws.

He spoke, but it wasn’t Ponish. She couldn’t speak Griffish, but she knew Rainbow picked up on a bit—

‘What?’ Rainbow blinked. ‘That’s horsedung!’

The soldier stuffed the passports into a bag he had strapped around his body. The other soldier did the same. Twilight was about to object before the officer spoke in clear Ponish, ‘We are taking your passports. They will be returned when you leave through this checkpoint. We will issue you tickets of entry. They expire in a week.’

‘You can’t just—’ Another pony tried to say, but the protest fell on deaf ears. The soldiers and officers marched out.

Twilight pressed her hooves against the glass and watched as the officer signalled the train to leave. Rainbow was already on her hooves, but Twilight motioned her to sit back down.

Her thoughts were running wild, but she drew in a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Relax. Everything was going to be okay.

She didn’t even realize she said that out loud. All eyes in the cart were on her. She couldn’t admit her next thought out loud.

This was bad news.

---

Today wasn’t a day to write home about.

After spending three hours at the train station trying to obtain their “entry tickets,” Twilight realized they were far off schedule. She rushed Rainbow and Pinkie along to where they were supposed to stay the night, only to find that the innkeeper remembered they reserved a room a hundred bits later.

By this point, Rainbow and Pinkie were complaining that they were hungry.Twilight capitulated.

After a long meal, they were only seven hours behind schedule. Twilight figured they could at least visit the ruins of the old Griffonstone Castle—but even that was sectioned off. So they headed to the only establishment that they knew was open: a small local place that offered the local cuisine of Gryphoniya. It didn’t have anything that was suitable to an equine diet, so they settled on something “palatable”.

‘Well, today was great!’ Rainbow huffed. ‘Seriously, what’s their problem?’

‘They weren’t such party-poopers last time!’ Pinkie exclaimed as she sipped from her bronze cup.

‘I’d think that Gilda would’ve figured this all out by now. When she puts her mind to things, she can get stuff done quick—’

‘Friendship isn’t that simple.’ Twilight closed her journal. ‘Especially for a nation that lost its identity. Sure, everything isn’t going exactly according to plan, but—’

‘Twilight, nothing went according to plan!’

‘Yeah, I’m surprised you haven’t gone all cuckoo yet!’ Pinkie added, before looking down at the food she only took one bite from.

‘I don’t go “cuckoo” when things don’t go according to plan—’

‘You do!’ Rainbow snorted.

‘I do not!’ Twilight put her hoof down on the table. ‘Besides, if we can’t figure out what to do, we can just visit Gilda—’

‘How do you know her?’ an unfamiliar voice asked.

The three looked at the intruder. They didn’t expect anygriffon to butt into their conversation. He looked young. He had a bit of a crooked beak. His feathers were slicked back, his fur a spotted brown. The griffon prowled over to where they sat and looked at the three, his eyes lingering on Twilight.

He… smiled.

‘I, uh,’ Rainbow stammered, ‘we’ve been friends since the Junior Speeder’s flight camp. Why do you ask?’

‘Oh, I’m just surprised some ponies knew her. She’s a bit tough to get along with, but once you crack the shell, she’ll never let you down!’

‘Right...’ Rainbow glanced at Twilight, noticing the griffon staring at the princess. ‘Who are you?’

‘Me?’ The griffon took a seat beside Twilight. ‘Name’s Gat’.’

‘I’m Twilight Sparkle! It’s nice meeting you! And this here is Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash!’

‘Yeah.’ Rainbow half-smiled back. ‘Nice to meet you too.’

Pinkie didn’t respond.

‘Well, that makes three of us!’ Gat’ shrugged. ‘What brings you out here?’

‘Just visiting Griffinstone. Seeing our friends here and going to a few of the attractions.’ Twilight sighed. ‘W-well, we wanted to, but we haven’t yet.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Just some, y’know, roadblocks—’

‘These griffons aren’t letting us do anything!’ Rainbow interrupted. ‘They won’t even let us go into the old castle!’

‘Yeah.’ Gat’ rubbed the back of his neck. ‘The Interims have been giving a lot of griffons trouble the past few months.’

‘The Interims?’ Twilight blinked, unfamiliar with the term.

‘The sitting government. Ever since we lost the Boreas and the Kingdom shattered, we’ve been dealing with an emergency state that hasn’t been the nicest.’

‘That’s one way of putting it.’ Pinkie raised an eyebrow, her contribution a surprise.

‘... Right. So, they’ve been changing the rules recently. It’s been hard for everygriffon, but we’re surviving. The future can only be better, right?’

‘That’s right!’ Twilight smiled. ‘You said you know Gilda. Perhaps you’d like to join us?’

‘Gilda’s out of town.’ Gat’ waved his claw. ‘She’s on some business elsewhere.’

‘Why did she go?’ Rainbow raised an eyebrow. ‘Gilda doesn’t travel a lot.’

‘She’s native to Gakkovo. It’s nice this time of year.’

‘I thought she said she’s native to Griffinstone,’ Pinkie replied.

‘No, I remember her talking about Gakkovo.’ Rainbow dismissed. ‘Shoot! It would’ve been nice to meet up with her…’

‘Well,’ Twilight said, ‘you could still join us!’

‘Oh, I’d love to—but I don’t want to intrude!’

‘No, it’s really no problem! It’s not like our plans are going, well, according to plan…’

‘What did I say?’ Rainbow snickered at Twilight’s remark. ‘Anyways, Gat’, we’d appreciate the company. It’d be nice to practice my Griffish, too!’

‘Ah-ha!’ Gat’ laughed. ‘Then it’s a party!’

‘This isn’t a party—’ Pinkie tried to say.

‘Pinkie!’ Twilight chided. ‘It will be a party!’

‘Oh...’ Pinkie kept her eyes locked on the griffon. ‘Will.’

The griffon cocked his head to one side—puzzled?—then looked toward a waitress and muttered something in Griffish. She glanced at Rainbow, who seemed unphased by what their new friend was saying, before dots appeared to connect in her mind. Dash perked up, smiling.

‘Wait, they have cider here? I can barely get any back in Ponyville!’

‘It’s an expensive import.’ Gat’ shrugged. ‘But it’s a taste nogriffon can resist.’

‘What sort of taste—’

‘Pinkie! You know what cider tastes like better than anypony!’ Rainbow shook her head. ‘I didn’t even see this on the menu though. How did you know?’

‘Sometimes the things we’re looking for are not on the menu.’

The waitress circled back around, and set three mugs of cider between them before she immediately retreated. Gat’ fluffed his wings in anticipation and leaned in before he added, ‘Come! Drink! It’s my pleasure.’

‘Are you sure?’ Twilight asked. She looked at Pinkie, who kept a stern gaze on the griffon. Rainbow had already taken a gulp from the foaming mug and set it back down on the table. She observed Rainbow for a minute and wondered to herself whether—

No, she shouldn’t let Pinkie’s odd behavior set her off. Besides, when didn’t Pinkie act strange? She looked down to her own drink, then back up to Gat’s smile.

‘Please, it’d offend me if you didn’t drink!’ Gat’ responded. ‘After, I can show you the beauty of my homeland!’

Twilight took some comfort in that. After all, that’s what she and her friends were here for. He wasn’t going to let some mishaps sour her expedition. She leaned down and took a sip from the mug.

Comments

[Bicyclette]

A generously-sized griffon wearing an officer's uniform, flanked by two thinner griffon soldiers, stepped inside.

Nice detail here!

Especially for a nation that lost its identity.

Huh, never realized how much potential this had as a parallel with certain real-life places before…

No, she shouldn’t let Pinkie’s odd behavior set her off. Besides, when didn’t Pinkie act strange? She looked down to her own drink, then back up to Gat’s smile.

I like the idea of Pinkie being the extra-perceptive one.

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Promising start! Excited to see what’s next.