Author's Note: This particular tale is dark and not suggested for young kids.
Old Favors
Once upon a time, a hungry griffon was fleeing from a mob of angry ponies. They had spotted him prowling around their village and now they sought to kill him. He ran and flew, ran and flew, feathers ruffled and panting for breath, until he spotted a peasant-pony walking home, pulling a cart loaded with sacks of grain.
“Do me a favor, little pony, and hide me in your bag,” begged the griffon, “for a mob is hot on my trail.”
The peasant agreed, emptying a sack into the ditch. “Hide quickly, then.”
No sooner had the griffon crawled in and the peasant tied the bag shut than the mob caught up to her. Strong pegasi landed all around her and hardy earth ponies tossed up puffs of dust as they skidded to a stop. “Have you seen a griffon run by?” they demanded.
“No, I haven’t seen any griffons,” the peasant replied. And so the pegasi rose back into the air and the earth ponies raced off over the horizon, still searching.
“Come out, griffon, for your hunters have gone,” said the peasant, releasing the beast.
But no sooner had she done so than the griffon grabbed the little pony up in his talons. “If they’re gone then nopony will hear me devour you!” said the griffon.
“Oh griffon, griffon,” moaned the pony. “I saved you from your death and now you want to eat me!”
“Such is the way of the world. Old favors are soon forgotten,” replied the griffon.
But the pony argued, “Who says so? Only you. I say differently. Come, let us walk along the road and put the question to the first one we meet. If they agree with you, you can devour me. But if not, let me go.”
Well, the griffon agreed and they both walked along until they met an old cow walking slowly up the road. The peasant said, “Oh little old cow, settle our argument. I hid the griffon in this sack and deceived the hunters, saving him from death. Yet now he wants to eat me, claiming old favors are soon forgotten. Say it is not so!”
The cow looked from the pony to the griffon from eyes sunk in her gaunt face, and then she gazed at nothing for a while, chewing her cud and thinking hard. At last she said, “For twenty years I lived in the village, nourishing everypony with my own rich milk. Yet when I grew old and my udder withered, they drove me from their midst, and now I walk aimlessly down this road. Yes, truly old favors are soon forgotten.”
This was not the answer the pony wished to hear, so she begged the griffon to wait until they found another traveller to put the question to. The griffon grudgingly agreed, and off they went.
After a time, they came across an old sheep walking slowly along the road. “Oh little old ewe, settle our dispute,” said the pony. She poured out the whole story, how the griffon wished to devour her, no matter that she had saved his life.
The sheep looked from one of them to the other with her strange, slit pupils, and then she thought for a time. Finally she said, “For twenty years I lived in the village, and my own soft wool kept everypony warm when the winter wind blew. But when I grew old and my wool became poor and coarse, they drove me from their midst, and now I wander aimlessly without flock or home. Yes, it is true, old favors are soon forgotten.”
“You see, I am right,” said the griffon, but the pony begged him to wait until they met one more creature along the road, and the griffon finally relented.
They kept walking and soon they met a little changeling along the road by the forest.
“Oh little changeling,” said the pony, “settle our argument.” And she began to tell the story. But when she reached the part about the griffon hiding in the sack, the changeling acted bewildered.
“But how did such a large griffon fit in such a small sack?” she asked again and again, and would not believe the tale, although both the griffon and the pony insisted that it had happened that way. Finally the griffon stuck his head inside the sack to demonstrate.
“They must have been dim-witted hunters if they were fooled by that!” said the changeling incredulously, and then the griffon had to crawl all the way in to show the changeling how it had been.
“Well, little pony,” the changeling said, “show me how you tied the bag.”
So the peasant tied the bag shut.
“Well, little pony,” said the changeling, “show me how the hunters galloped away.”
The pony began to trample and pummel the bag with her four hard hooves.
“Well, little pony,” said the changeling, “tell me what the griffon said when you let him out.”
The pony swung around, kicking the changeling in the head and killing her, saying, “Old favors are soon forgotten.”
This is based heavily on the Russian tale "Old Favors Are Soon Forgotten", which left me depressed for two days straight after reading it. (In the Russian tale the peasant saves a wolf and meets a horse, dog, and finally a fox.) An example of how folktales are not necessarily straightforward and moralistic. Sometimes they're meant to disturb, and not in the "I will grind your bones for my bread" way.
Wait... So when they get to the changeling, who is helpfully fooling the griffon into getting back into the bag so the pony can trample the shit out of him, the pony kills the changeling?
That's just wrong.
Another excellent fairy tale, and yeah, this one's pretty spine-chilling.
That's messed up. Sometimes the only lesson in a folktale is that people are bastards.
As an aside, I've been wondering what a pony version of the parable of the scorpion and the frog would be like, or if it would be basically the same. I've had a hankering to use it in a story to explain how Discord could have once been friends with Celestia and Luna (a popular fanon idea) and still betray them; "It's my nature."
This was a fun read. I always enjoyed the old folktales like this.
Eh, this kinda rubbed me the wrong way.
We'll never know if the pony killed the Changeling because everyone in fairy-tales is a jerk, or because he actually thought the Changeling wanted a demonstration.
Did you mean the pony killed the griffon at the end? And they keep talking about how they will ask the next "person" they meet. There has to be a different way to say that - maybe "creature"? Fluttershy used that word as a catch-all in Dragonshy.
Funny thing, I heard a Chinese folk tale which was pretty much exactly this. Probably says something about something or the other.
And to be fair, the pony was talking to a changeling, who are pretty much Always Chaotic Evil. And hey, once burnt twice shy, huh?
This is just like a Chinese folktale I read once.
Damn, that is messed up! yeah, fairy tales aren't all sunshine and rainbows, kids!
1325598 Well, I think it was a pretty good demonstration to the reader at least.
*hmms and thinks* So the pony is a communist.
1323201>>1325598
New favors are forgotten even quicker, it seems.
*Laughs* reading all these folks saying this was confusing and bad and such and honestly, i grew up on these things so it didn't phase me. I agree it's a bit darker but no less true. Old favours are often soon forgotten sometimes.
Now that was just depressing.
...though I couldn't help but laugh when the changeling pointed out (finally) how ignorant of the laws of physics these fairytales tend to be.
That or everyone is Pinkie
That's fucked up. Absolutely, totally, completely fucked up.
Old favors may be soon forgotten, but grudges are eternal. That's probably why changelings hate ponies so much, because they go around murdering helpful people.
Woah. That pony was an asshole.
Either that or ponies just really hate changelings. Even when the changeling went out of its way to help you, you attack it. Jerk.
Yay! Changeling story!
*Reads it*
the pony who came up with this is getting kicked.
in the face.
repeatedly.
still a good fic!
What the...
Seriously. That changeling's death barely had more meaning than Hedwig's!
I recall a similar story with people in it instead of animals, but never mind that.
The point is that I liked it.
This did nothing but confuse the hell out of me.
I think the pony was an asshole because he would not gain anything for killing the changeling while the griffin would get fed and the cow and sheep where no longer contributing to the town so his death was pointless.
This reminds me of a story about a witch who could transform into a white hart and a boar and she basically kills a wedding couple. After I finished that story my initial reaction was 'WTF was that?!' These stories are brilliant.
I dunno I think there was an important "Do not trust the cannibal at your door." lesson in there, especially for early ponies. Unlearning empathy was as important a survival tool as empathy itself in the old days; humans tend to anthropomorphize just about everything we come in contact with, assuming we can relate to it because we see a bit of ourselves in it, but the rest of nature is rarely so understanding. "The fox may be cute but it will eat your chickens or give you rabies and then you'll starve.", you know?
Its cruel by our standards, but the changeling killed the griffon without a thought, is it that much of a jump for the pony to assume she was of equal value to the wily changeling? A lot of people see the cute bug-like changelings and forget how horrible they must be for just about anything in Equestria. Alternatively the fable could've become popular after a changeling attack on a pony settlement.
1319999
I thought it was based on an Indian story called "The Tiger and the Brahmin", where a Brahmin saves a tiger from a cage and is almost eaten when several other animals argue that the tiger should do it, until a jackal takes pity and helps trick the tiger back into the cage. Of course, that has a happier ending, where the Brahmin spares the jackal who helped him.