The Old Triple-R: Rumor, Reason, Revenge
The cottage had her trapped again, pinned at a time when she needed to know what was going on beyond the property's borders. And she couldn't escape, not when she truly needed to do so -- but there were others who could freely arrive and depart. Some of them even did so more or less according to the appointment book. And when they came, they brought words. News of the world beyond.
They usually didn't bring the right news.
Fleur was encountering some difficulty in reaching the desired headline.
She didn't understand. She'd been so good at gossip...
...or rather, she'd once been in a position where ponies were eager to tell her whatever they felt themselves to know. And once she'd found that position, she'd been absolutely extraordinary at maintaining it.
(With lofted ears. Fleur felt herself to be an all-planet ear-lofting champion. It was entirely possible that she held the world record for Looking Sincerely Interested and if she didn't, then the one concerning Not Having Pulled A Facial Muscle In The Process just had to be hers.)
It might have surprised those who didn't understand escorts to learn that the majority of those positions were upright, and most of them required wearing a dress. Having a large audience within totally-not-listening range was optional.
But the key aspect was that they'd come to her. Because she had been the most beautiful mare in Canterlot. (Fleur was vaguely willing to admit that somepony in the capital might have somehow surpassed her for raw potential, but knew she could beat that contender out on makeup.) And she was available for those who had the bits for the hire -- but that was just going to be one pony at a time -- or on a particularly interesting night, up to three.
But her clients still wanted to make themselves look good, and with so many others... they would all feel as if they had to impress her.
So they would nose the latest gossip into her custody. Doing so freely, of their own will, and with occasional pauses because they'd just run out of actual rumors and were now at the point where they had to make something up. A mare who'd been moving through the most refined of Canterlot's inner social circles had rapidly recognized that sorting the true from the This Makes Me Look Good (Or At Least Makes That One Look Worse) was an essential survival skill. This was followed by finding ways to make ponies keep talking, because a few would abruptly realize that they were moving beyond the borders of what they should have said.
There had been occasions when her best tactic had been to appear fascinated, but -- vacant. Perfectly willing to let others place thoughts in her head. The less she visibly understood, the more they would say. It was like confiding in a particularly well-groomed pet and given what she generally did with any real information, that companion was probably a parrot. One who had to be especially careful about choosing what to repeat back, as opposed to those portions which might be suitable for a blackmail letter. Because her talent allowed her to know -- but on an especially good night, the gossip would suggest a target to verify.
Others wanted to see the rough appearance of thought from her, but dreaded anything which approached authenticity. A few had hoped for lively debate (which they generally wanted to win), and just about all had been listening to see if she let something slip going back. But at the core, it had very much been about impressing her. With how important they were, how much they knew (or could invent in a hurry), and the total of that equation was supposed to somehow equal But With You, It's Going To Be Real. Because an escort could be hired -- but even when in the company of a client, a mare who hadn't committed to leaving the working life at somepony's side was going to be seen as available.
The bulk of Ponyville's herd knew she was with Fluttershy. They weren't trying to impress her any more, and it made gossip a little harder to come by.
However... there were a few ways in which her current environment didn't completely sabotage her. She'd even encountered the occasional small boost, and that usually worked until the moment she tried to rely on it.
Some ponies wanted to remain in the area while their companions were being groomed. This was something Fleur generally discouraged, because a pet who didn't like the experience was going to look for salvation and if their pony was in the immediate area, the pitiful howls weren't going to stop any time ever. (In the case of Shaddap, Joyous remained in direct view because if she wasn't, the miniature husky inevitably decided the only way to alert her pony was to become THAT MUCH LOUDER.) But if the pony was around... well, it wasn't as if grooming was particularly exciting to watch, and a few quick uses of Fleur's field tended to defuse the snapping-based levels of excitement before they really got going. Ponies could become bored while watching a grooming. Then they talked.
There was also the examination room. That was... usually just Fluttershy and the animal who was being treated. Or Fleur and same, if the scope of what had to be done was within her current lessons. And there were times when they did it together. But if another pony was there with them...
On a good day, it would be exceptionally minor: Fluttershy's told your puppy that she won't die from the claw trimming, but it'll probably help if you smile a lot while it happens. They would give instructions via demonstration: the medicine is delivered this way, and don't let her pretend she's swallowed. Or...
...in the worst of times, some ponies would talk. Almost endlessly, about anything at all, just so they wouldn't have to truly think about what was happening. It was displacement: Fleur understood that. Some laughed when they were afraid, because even that pushed things back.
They talked. Babbled. Wept. Using every sound possible to put off the final word, because that was going to be goodbye.
It was possible to use that state as a way to learn things. You just had to be willing to pay the price. The first part would come in staring at the ceiling for hours, unable to sleep while the ghosts of past selves galloped around the borders of the nest and stabbed their horns at the restless, self-loathing presence which failed to rest at the core...
The Fleur who had tried to dominate the whole of Canterlot -- perhaps there was no true difference between that mare and the one who existed now. True change... she didn't know. She had always been willing to do so many things, working through just about any avenue possible, and very few of those routes had been legal.
But she'd always drawn the line at exploiting a death.
Fleur and Fluttershy had a number of things in common. For starters, they both knew death. Intimately.
They had both brought death.
Fleur had killed first.
(The dreams were changing.)
It was a fairly quiet day, and Fleur was glad for that. Zephyr's ongoing not-distant-enough presence --
there's more mane in front of her face
-- was enough of a stressor. And when it came to veterinary duties, there was never a good time for an emergency -- but Fleur was fully aware that this really wasn't it.
There was very little which they had to work on together: a portion of wound stitching (because in fact, the puppy could not make the high jump between the fence slats, and a licking tongue would probably need to be reminded about that again tomorrow) was the worst of the lot. And with the increased client traffic had come a need to frequently operate separately. Splitting the load.
Fleur was now doing the majority of the grooming. It was easy for her. She was perfectly accustomed to adjusting her own appearance: bringing animals to their best was mostly a matter of accounting for form and leaving most of the finer powders out. And this was a day when she wanted to have the pony companions in the room, because most of them were going to talk.
They were talking. Ponies were a social species. Long periods of silence seemed to exist on the challenge level which would have made for an exceptionally boring sport.
She was just having some trouble in directing what they talked about.
There had already been six grooming sessions. Fleur was now fully updated on how eight children were doing in school. One of them was dating for the first time, and a former escort could always be approached by a nervous parent who wanted to know about the first warning signs of a truly bad coltfriend.
They always talked about their children with her.
They trusted her with their children. Implicitly.
There had been another failed stick.
She didn't want to hear --
-- and she had to look interested. More than that: she had to do so in the manner of a native Equestrian, because a Protoceran who used a mask in place of a face always needed to make sure it was moving properly. Doing so with the right timing, on the proper cues, so she could continue to pass. Something which had always worked, for encounters of short to moderate duration.
Except that now I live here...
She was having trouble steering the conversation. And she wasn't quite ready to ask about the mirror pool (whatever that was), because 'It's classified' sounded just as annoying when it emerged from the mouth of a civilian. Inquiring about Passing Shower would have potentially required explaining just why she wanted to know -- or having a good lie ready to substitute: either way, Fleur wasn't quite ready to chase that down. Discovering what had happened to the previous weather coordinator was a lesser priority. It just felt like something which she would hear eventually -- and if she was going to actively try for that story, then Rainbow remained the best possible source.
There were two significant problems which needed to be monitored, and her capacity for doing so was limited. Being trapped at the cottage didn't exactly help. But there were clients coming in, she was putting them into a situation where they would want to talk because there was only so much sheared fur anypony could watch drop before their hooves began trying to draw patterns in it, and the steering...
The first goal was to get ponies talking about Zephyr.
There was a price for being too direct.
"The new stallion on the weather team?"
"Yes."
"Have I seen him with anypony?"
"Or anyo --"
"...so you're attracted?"
Which had clearly been an attempt at humor, and remained so even after the client had left. It just didn't do anything to help her swallow back the bile.
If Zephyr's unfortunate existence did enter the verbal flow, then certain commonalities would bob to the surface. 'Isn't he handsome?' came up a few times: this usually required Fleur to adjust her field and make sure the shears were still properly lined up with the canine's fur, as opposed to the mercy act of going for her own throat.
A few ponies had seen him flying around. One pegasus offhoofedly mentioned that there was something odd about the way he moved in the air, but... she couldn't pin it down.
Nopony seemed to have caught him actually adjusting the weather -- but who truly watched that? Unless it was Rainbow at work, and then it was mandatory because you had to make sure she wasn't kicking in some spontaneous extras. Also, if you weren't watching, then you wouldn't know when to start backing away from the very-near-future crash site.
Word of the damage which had been done at the market... that didn't seem to have spread too far. Or if it had, then the ponies in the grooming area hadn't associated the incident with him.
For those residents who knew of his existence (and it was hardly everypony), Zephyr was mostly just... scenery. Just about nopony even seemed to know he was related.
The herd had another topic on its collective mind.
"...and of course I recognized her! I was at that party! Has anypony told you about the party?"
"Actually --"
"-- it started with the hoof buzzer --"
Six minutes and most of a leg trim passed.
"-- and I've just been staying out of her way. I don't know why she would ever come back here, not after that! But I just hope she's gone soon." A slow head shake. "Griffons. What can you even do?"
"She smells like blood. All the time. How are you supposed to talk to someone when all you want to do is run? ...well, you're studying to be a vet. I guess you're used to blood. But for the rest of us... the blood..."
"Pillows are behind you and to the right."
"...oh. Thank you. That's... very considerate. Have those pillows always been there?"
No. Just since two faints ago.
"I saw her yesterday. While I was walking Terri."
"Oh?"
"I think she was watching my dog."
"They focus on movement --"
"-- d-d-don't they eat dogs?"
The eventual sworn plan, in its post-editing form, looked something like this:
* Acquire a primary school International Studies textbook. This was probably going to require paying for it, because the library couldn't be involved.
* Discover exactly what was being taught.
* If -- no, when sufficiently offended, write the editor with corrections. Also, demand a refund. And mail back the remnants of the textbook, because Fleur was going to take out her frustrations over the expected idiocy on something and since the library wasn't involved, Twilight could just deal with it.
She had a few minutes between grooming sessions. Sweeping up fur was a necessary constant or, given the way emotions tended to reflect in an active field, crushing the remnants into little spheres was equally effective.
They didn't know griffons. They didn't understand griffons. Just about none of them had ever been in a griffon's presence for more than five minutes: the mode number was 'zero'. The majority probably wouldn't have been willing to enter the Aviary on a dare, and attending a proper barbecue was the stuff which bad horror movies were made of. The boldest might have been expecting a triple-serving of dog.
Griffons kept canines as pets, because just about every sapient wanted to be greeted with love when they returned to their home. Connecting with their dearest friend.
If they would just let themselves understand...
But they didn't know griffons. It felt as if they didn't want to know --
-- and the outer birdsong went off.
Not strangers.
Not a visitor.
...oh.
Mail's here.
And the mail had a sense of irony. Or, at the very least, possessed a certain feel for timing.
It was possible to glimpse a grey form and golden tail as the delivering party ascended, moving over the trees, and -- Fleur occasionally wondered what the mailmare knew. She had to at least suspect something. She was more intelligent than most believed. So few ponies received letters from beyond the borders, and when the stamps were so distinctive...
But she had been discreet. And... perhaps it was remotely possible that Dulci might no longer possess the same level of anger regarding Fleur's existence. The pegasus had learned that somepony found her beautiful, and... it was producing changes. Slow and uncertain, much like the relationship, but... change.
Maybe some ponies do change.
And others don't.
Or can't.
Fleur held the letter within her field, making sure to keep the energy a little more intense than the usual. It was easy: excitement reflected itself in magic, and the brightness ensured that nopony in the sitting room would be closely examining the bubble's contents.
I'll read it later. One thing to look forward to.
Except that she couldn't write back with the news they were longing to hear.
...maybe I'll read it tomorrow.
Home was beyond her reach. The cottage exerted a perpetual gravity, and there were more appointments coming in.
She had to get back to work.
The griffon typically doesn't use a name when she thinks of herself. There's seldom any need. She knows who she is.
If the ponies have anything right (and there used to be occasions when she wondered about that, as opposed to holding the negative as a full-time conviction), it's that a name can provide some level of definition. But it's a rare person who gets to name themselves. Even for those who legally change their definition (or at least the surface label), there's always something to change it from. Another person was the first to define them. Maybe two. Maybe lots. And the griffon knows that one of the problems with allowing other people to have any degree of say over your life is that they're just about always going to get it wrong.
For a while now, she's been defining herself. As herself, by herself. As the clear resident expert on the entity residing within her own skin, who's better suited?
She generally doesn't think of herself by a given name. But if she does... then it's almost always 'Gilda'. Because that's how the one she loves first knew her, and so that's who she'd rather be.
Even so, the griffon seldom thinks of herself by name.
She hardly ever thinks about anyone else at all.
(There's one exception.)
She's flying towards the pony capital, and it always looks wrong. Too many buildings rest on the ground, and that's a choice. The deliberately wrong one. They have earth ponies, just like home. An earth pony can potentially grow any kind of tree. So not planting baobabs and constructing on top of that... it's a mistake somepony made and because the vast majority of ponies are idiots, they just kept on making it.
The tiercel finds it's easier to spot things like that now. She can think more freely, now that her thoughts aren't anchored to a chain. No more confinement, forced channeling, or being bound by the expectations of others. She thinks what she wishes and flies where she will. Because she has a goal, and she's going to achieve it.
She can win.
In the event that she somehow suffers a minor defeat or two along the way to the true victory, then she can win the next time. Because as long as she's willing to keep fighting, then there's always going to be a next time. Losses are like the bonds created by the cast-off chain. They only mean something if you let them. And she's free.
(There's one link left. A sole remaining anchor, and she hasn't realized that. And still, there's a free weight of metal whipping around, with one end completely loose and fully indiscriminate in who it hits. Metal doesn't care.)
It's a long flight to the city, and it feels a little longer every time she has to make it. Part of that comes from knowing she's putting that much more distance between herself and Rainbow, after it took so much to get back --
-- temporary, it's only temporary --
-- and another portion comes from her own form. A griffon can stalk for a very long time over the ground, following bleeding prey until the target is fully exhausted -- but flight takes more energy. On the hunt, it's used for closing the gap in a hurry, along with extending the categories of creatures which can be hunted and giving the griffon a few extra ways to maneuver while on the attack. Very few among her species are endurance fliers. A daily commute, getting around their hometown, and a touch of sport. That's it.
Also, flying more than the average means a corresponding increase in consumption. Of fruit. The griffon body processes those sugars more quickly than the proteins from meat. A species which frequently likes to pretend it's composed of pure carnivores tries to culturally gloss over that little fact, but... keeping up with Rainbow required a lot of fruit. She got used to it.
For a griffon, it's a long flight. Sometimes it's made that much longer by her refusal to use most of the main air paths. Those are protected, and what's the average pony? Something which can barely manage to exist inside the world's most controlled environments, and turns into a completely helpless ground-fallen bundle of tremble outside it. So she challenges herself. Cut across part of the wild zone, just so she can find out what might try to chase her. (Nothing yet.) Skimming the trail used by the zeppelins is giving the willfully afraid a chance to see what a real predator looks like.
Sometimes she practices little stunts during flights. Because she's going to try out for the Wonderbolts eventually, and she has to stay sharp.
(Sometimes she doesn't. For days. The longest period of not remembering to do so is now over a week.)
Flying in Equestria. Stuck among the weaklings. But this time, there's a difference. She isn't going to leave until she has what she wants. Because she knows what Rainbow truly desires, and this time...
...this time, they're going to leave together.
She likes to use memories to keep herself focused on the goal. There's one which is repeatedly pulled out. It's what initially got termed as their 'makeout session'. The result of a carefully-arranged dare. It took a lot of verbal rigging to set things up, and...
...it's one of the most precious memories of her life.
She reviews it every day or so. She dreams about it. She relives it over and over...
(Her memory of that day has become what she wishes it had been.)
...she's getting so close to making it all real again...
(The little giant said Rainbow didn't feel that way.)
(It's a lie.)
(It's a reason to make the unicorn hurt.)
There's a huge storm cloud ahead. A wild stray. Rainbow would be able to tell how many ions were crackling within, and do so with a simple glance. The griffon just skims it, as close as any of her species would dare in the presence of power waiting to discharge.
A griffon is not a pegasus.
A griffon has no innate resistance to electricity.
No capacity for redirecting it.
A griffon hit by a bolt can die.
But she takes it on. Clears the cloud, skimming the vapor with the edge of her left wing as a mark of victory. And then she laughs, because she lived.
Dominating a storm.
At least portions of the weather aren't weak. The wild parts, because the ponies just have to tame everything else. It makes the entire nation into something irritating. But she has a goal and if reaching it means putting up with a few weaklings, then so be it. All the more sapients to dominate. And they're all so easy...
...nearly all...
...the little giant doesn't count.
For anything.
What kind of work can a griffon find in Equestria?
First, you need to find a place which accepts the presence of griffons. That's hard, because this nation is just about all weaklings who won't venture outside of their self-arranged comfort zone. Not freaking out at the sight of someone who isn't from their trio (or quartet) of species is an advanced challenge. The tiercel stopped in a few of the smaller settled zones on her way to Ponyville and all too often, she was the first to do so. Spot an intruder into their barely-integrated pony paradise, and so many would run.
It's beyond irritating. The situation quickly turned offensive. And it also made shopping for supplies more difficult, especially since she hadn't worked out her job yet and her resources were running out. Admittedly, having just about everypony clearing the area gave her some potential freedom in committing theft -- but even that comes attached to a ponycentric problem.
Put bluntly: it's a lot harder to dominate through theft when outside of Protocera. Because if she happens to get spotted, the only person who's going to match the suspect's description is her. And she can't snatch everything she needs, because doing too much of that starts to feel like scavenging. She's a predator. As far as she's concerned, theft which isn't being done for immediate domination will eventually turn demeaning.
But let's say you're a griffon who needs work, and you eventually reach the pony capital. A place which has a small population of your own species, and so can have the majority of its residents put off the stupid fainting spell until they get out of sight. And to be really specific about it, let's also say you're a ranch kid.
(She used to be a ranch kid.)
(That was another link.)
(The sundered chain rasps against her soul.)
Something which comes with a particular set of skills. And when you bring those skills into pony territory -- what can you actually do? Especially when you're avoiding other griffons because eventually, one of them is going to realize that you're free. Simply failing to deliver a proper foreknee bend can get some odd looks, because that's done on instinct and she's better than that now. And when they recognize the presence of a tiercel who's defining herself, they...
...extended proximity to the pride is a risk.
But the ponies don't know. A species which voluntarily traps itself in the name of survival is in no position to understand what freedom looks like.
The little giant still doesn't count. Because Fleur Dis Lee isn't a pony.
Oh, sure: it's a unicorn's body. She'll have to figure for a unicorn's universal capabilities before any future fight. The one which the tiercel is guaranteed to win, because now she knows that much more about what she's up against.
...her dominari didn't work.
Ponies usually just...
...but that's not a pony.
The tiercel has seen how she moves. Heard her speak. That's a Protoceran off her territory, and a griffon can come in just about any form. All that matters is the heart, and that's obviously right.
It begs a few questions. Like what the little giant is doing in Ponyville, or why she's bothering to make herself look so weak. And the tiercel plans to acquire those answers. Because you study your prey, and then you use any vulnerabilities against it. It's how she can guarantee the upcoming victory.
So her dominari failed -- the first time. There's always been rumors about certain herbal concoctions. Things which get blended with select extracts of monster bile. Creations which temporarily increase the potency of griffon magic. Even if the side effects are anywhere near as nasty as the stories claim, they all sound survivable. It's something which her opponent wouldn't be ready for. It's possible that there might be a source near the Aviary.
But it takes a double griffon to create such a thing. Heart and body.
The only way to find the stuff would be to --
-- she was thinking about something. She's fairly sure of that. There was something on her mind and now the pony capital is that much closer.
Sometimes thoughts get lost in the joy of flight. It happens.
(It doesn't.)
What was she...?
...oh, right. Finding a job in pony territory. As a ranch kid. Which means her training is in survival. She can be in close proximity to monsters and live. Not just that: she's capable of corralling a number, and knows what has to be done in order to keep the unnatural alive. Breathing, breeding, and, when you finally make that stop, tasty.
It doesn't really translate well to the current environment.
There's a few zoos around. Most of those specialize in natural animals. For the ones which add a few monsters, it's almost always smaller specimens. Things the ponies can hope to confine and -- there it is again! -- control. And when it comes to the job of keeping it that way, those positions are almost always filled. Frequently by griffons. Too many griffons, added to a scant number of ponies who have marks for the work.
(Rainbow's mark is perfect.)
A few research institutes take it further. That's where you find the big stuff, along with the ponies who study it. Trying to spot weaknesses and vulnerabilities: there isn't that much of a concern over flavor. And again, that's where the griffons wind up.
She's heard rumors claiming a few very small ranches exist in pony territory. The places which supply the scant number of butcher shops. Which would indicate griffons in quantity. Place herself too close to a full chain...
The tiercel can do a little butchering herself, but she's nothing special there. Also, you need something to carve, and when it comes to hunting...
She's been keeping herself fed. Most of the time. But hunting for all of her meat... it takes more time than she'd suspected. And that's just bringing down enough for a single tiercel. Supplying even a single display case in a shop would take more waking hours than she has.
Besides, proper butchery requires a full set of tools. Talons and claws don't cut it. Or rather, they do -- but everyone's going to know that's what you used.
And that's just about all of the ranch kid skills eliminated. So what's left?
How about... just being a griffon?
She gets to the capital a little earlier than intended, and has to spend some time in avoiding the mobile, furred-and-feathered traps which populate the streets and air paths. The near-total elimination of that issue is just about the only thing Ponyville has going for it. And once she and Rainbow leave together, there won't be anything vital left at all. Certainly nothing which gets left behind.
Avoiding griffons means she can't get too close to the butcher shop. (At least the pony capital has a proper butcher shop.) Not that there's much point, because pony magic is doing something to confine the bloodscent. She can't even breathe her fill and pretend it's a meal.
She's hungry. There wasn't very much hunting today. Not with the flight to consider, and having to check in with the inferior.
...well, of course he's inferior. Just look at him. Or better/worse, listen.
She finds a place to perch and wait, well above the shopping district of the Heart. No bloodscent drifts up to her, and the griffon sense of smell is weak for just about everything else. At least it lets her pretend that the ponies don't reek.
Thinking about her goal.
(It gives her something where she can still think at all.)
Rainbow...
...Rainbow is chained. And the pegasus doesn't see it. Can't even feel the weight of the metal which lashes her to Ponyville and so many of the idiots within those borders. Something which keeps her tied down, bound, confined, and the Rainbow whom the tiercel first met would never allow any of that to happen.
The griffon loves the pegasus. And when you love somepony... you want them to be free.
There's just a few. small. problems.
She was forbidden from going after certain parties. An extensive list of names. She's been honoring it because the command was nosed over by somepony who deserves respect. She can't violate that.
(Not yet.)
It's a fairly long list of links, and she can't try to directly cut through any of them. Even when it would be so much easier that way.
(Maybe if she was stronger.)
(If she and Rainbow swapped positions...)
But right now, the most important thing about that list is that the little giant isn't on it. Clear out Fleur, and there's going to be room. Enough space for a griffon to snuggle close.
(Fleur doesn't deserve --)
She knows the unicorn is Protoceran. That makes it easier, because she knows how Fleur is going to think. Unlike the inferior, because that's a pony who needs someone thinking for him. It didn't take much time with him to realize that he knows less than he believes himself to understand. Although that part is kind of automatic, since he somehow seems to believe he knows everything.
But he's also a resource, and since some portion of their individual goals happen to align...
He's in a position to get her information. On Rainbow and, should he be able to reach the cottage where she cannot (and the hunting would be so good), Fleur. And once she has that knowledge, a full understanding of the prey...
Stalk.
Observe.
Evaluate.
Pounce --
-- Sun's been lowered. She wonders when that happened.
It doesn't matter.
Time for work.
Her skills aren't needed. Or rather, they aren't needed in a place where she can practice them in safety. Isolation.
Very few ponies understand dominari, and a few of the ones who do want griffons to use it on their behalf. In theory, it's possible to make money that way. It's the same theory which prospectively allows someone to make a living by scavenging (ugh!) lost money off the street: you just have to find it. Locating ponies who want to hire griffons for magical attacks isn't exactly something which can be done on instinct. And if she did come across one? Then she's risking arrest, because it's possible that the target pony will realize what was done, there might be other witnesses, the use of that magic on an unwilling target is treated as assault, and a griffon out of Protocera remains easy to identify.
Being hired to clear out animals, or certain categories of monster... too much competition.
She can hunt for herself. It can take a lot of time, but it keeps her alive. But she needs currency for more than food. She can't hope to steal everything. Some items require purchasing. A number may even mean more that way.
But she's still a griffon.
And what she eventually realized was that in order to earn money, all she has to do -- is be a griffon.
The ponies like to define things. Settled zones are bound in terms of safety. Get too close to the edge and that's the fringe. Move beyond that, and they're in the wild. And probably collapsed onto the ground in a defensive curl.
They see the world through the lens of fixed definitions. They don't think, because the words do it for them. And so ponies fail to see that everything has a fringe.
Including the Aviary.
There's a little piece of Protocera in the pony capital. It has homes and shops and entertainment of all sorts. It also has a fringe. The place where the lines start to blur. And that's where she works. In one of the only pony cities which accepts a degree of griffon presence. Just about the lone place where it's possible at all.
She avoids the actual Aviary. She wants the outskirts, the section just beyond any possible border. The little clubs, which set up so close because... maybe someone will cross.
It's an event, and it doesn't happen on every night. For the most part, there's just a touch of mixing, and no more. Anything truly serious usually has to move deeper in.
The fringe is where the curious go first. The curious and the shy. Those who aren't quite ready to make a move on their own.
So she thinks for them.
The little clubs are... usually somewhat stifling. They're made for pony bodies and spaces and priorities. A griffon might be somewhat welcome there, but they aren't going to be comfortable for long. Everything looks and sounds wrong, she's glad for the poor sense of smell because that's one less thing to deal with, but if she actually eats something there, then the taste is usually...
...it's food.
She has to make sure she's the only griffon present and because such clubs aren't always great on windows or outdoor sections, that usually means getting through the door. Which, all too frequently, requires paying the insult known as a cover charge. She tells herself that it's spending money to make money.
Sometimes she grooms herself before entering such clubs.
(She's been forgetting to do that.)
Did she...
...it doesn't matter. She had more important things to take care of. Besides, part of this is about making sure there isn't much of a selection anyway.
She gets inside. Looks around, stares through lighting which is at the wrong intensity while ignoring every note of twisted false music. And she's looking for ponies. Trying to spot the way they look at her.
There's a certain reaction, hidden among the subset of Not Trying To Get Away. A little catch of the breath. A change in the way they hold their tail. The eyes widen, the nostrils flare, and you can see that they're dreaming. She walks in and somepony starts to fantasize, because they're shy and experimental and curious and not quite ready to go all the way across the border. Take this city's population, factor for it not being home, and there's still going to be a few dozen ponies who are curious. The fringe is where they come to dream.
She makes dreams come true.
So she didn't groom. So what? Maybe they're hoping for more of a primal experience, right? The rough look. A little blood around the beak is hardly going to hurt.
It doesn't take long to find that look. And when it happens, she approaches the pony.
She doesn't care what they look like. Gender is irrelevant, and species almost so. It does help if they're a pegasus, of course. They could never be the right pegasus, but that lets the griffon tell herself that she's practicing. Getting ready for that true first time, when all of the experience will let her be at her best, and Rainbow will...
They're shy. Because they're ponies, and that's usually just another word for 'afraid'. But it usually fades when she makes her intentions clear.
Followed by the price.
The annoying ones are those who actually inquire about her escort's license.
She's vaguely aware of how the pony nation manages such things. She's extremely knowledgeable for one subcategory of the information: namely, the fact that such services are inherently limited. Because too much of this nation is ponies. That applies to just about every profession under Sun and in this case, especially those which mostly operate under Moon.
Are there any griffon escorts? She's guessing... not really. She'd bet on the population topping out at two, and 'zero' is the more likely number because the mere prospect of meeting a griffon escort is what gets most of her clients moving. She's filling a completely unoccupied market, as well as what's suddenly becoming a much more urgent need. Curiosity transmutes in a hurry when placed within the crucible of proximity and desire. It becomes hot and hard.
(The interactions are cold and bleak.)
But some of them ask about her license. As if they can afford to be picky. She's a griffon. She's willing to be a griffon for them. With them. Shouldn't that be enough?
She knows a little about pony escorts. For starters, she's aware that getting the license requires several moons of classes. Why is that necessary for having sex? And she's lost so much time already, so much time without Rainbow, this lets her practice and maybe she gets a pegasus mare on a given night and she can pretend that pegasus is...
Some will ask about her license. She's come up with a few excuses. She left the paperwork at home. (No interaction ever goes to her home, because that would mean having one.) Does it look like she can carry anything in her total lack of outfit? Or she just recites a number. No matter what she's done, it's worked for her.
(She's been lucky.)
The truly (and abruptly) bold try to negotiate. She only goes along with that if it gets them out of the club all the faster. Away from the stupid herd.
But this pony isn't too bright. Curious, but... not smart. Almost on the level of the inferior, although dropping the rest of the way down would take some work. Still, it's enough to make the griffon briefly wonder if the pony can think it all.
It doesn't matter. She can think for the pony.
They start to leave the club, abandoning one source of endless wrongness for what should be a lesser infliction. She makes sure to brush feathers against fur. The pony seems to like that.
Think for this mare.
For Rainbow, when the time comes.
Practice.
(And she wakes up in the bed after and it isn't Rainbow it's never Rainbow no matter what she does and she stalks out as her head and wings droop and she has to do it again and again and...)
(The person she is -- that's all she has...)
She'll do anything to make it happen.
(There's one link left.)
(Only one.)
Labor towards the goal. To be with the one she loves. For a lifetime.
To make Rainbow recognize that it's been love all along.
Perhaps she'll love enough for two, for a time. Until it's real.
And then they'll both be free.
Gilda goes to work.
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Oh. Oh dear... Oooooh dear... This will not end in the way Gilda wants it to...
You know, it's very ironic that in hunting Fleur, Gilda has become an escort of a sort herself. I really enjoy it when an author slowly reveals the why of a characters moral compass.
11570993
Indeed she may think she gets fleur but she doesn't know a thing. Fleur is tougher than most ponies not just because where she grew up but because of what she experienced as a child. She learned how to be strong in order to protect herself and now fluttershy. Though as far as the baby thing goes maybe they need to talk with a doctor about it considering it doesn't seem to be working.
11571003
Yeah. & What Gilda seems be unaware of or ignoring is
1) There's laws against what she's doing.
2) Canterlot cops are probably the best in EQ at spotting & stopping what she's doing.
Prediction
This Will NOT End Well
oh this is *painfull*. Gilda. Girl. your going about this *alll* wrong.
Wow. That's Fluffed Up
With who her prey is she underestimating those prey even zephyr can surprise her when everything goes down
It’s good to finally get into Gilda’s head and see her perspective, skewed as it is. She is just barely hanging on, and it’s sad to see (I always liked her character on the show). It also sets up an interesting tension in me as a reader because, honestly, being free of this chain of domination that her society runs on *does* feel like it should be a positive thing in some ways, yet is very clearly part of her deterioration.
The prior chapter’s glimpse into Zephyr matched up fairly well with his portrayal in the show, at least in broad personality. Oblivious, not outright sinister, despite the effect he’s having on his sister. I’m still intrigued to learn what’s really going on with him and what his motives truly are.
The strain from Fleur wanting to hunt Zephyr and knowing that Gilda is hunting her and Rainbow is well done, as was the reminder of her Escort ways as a lead in to Gilda’s new ‘job’, as well as contrasting it with her current status in Ponyville. She’s become one of your most fascinating characters.
As noted Gilda thinks she is a Predator. But she hasn't killed a sapient.
Fluer has. This will not go the way Gilda thinks it does.
Oooff. Gilda is slowly losing herself and I actually feel worried for her now. She doesn’t even understand that rainbow will never break her links give how she is the element of loyalty, though I worry she might be getting involved with rainbows decision to join the wonderbolts or not. And when she finds out that Zephyr has an unhealthy crush on rainbow, well…
Hope we get a look at the Royal Guard from Gildas perspective sometime. She seems all about sorting the world into predators and prey, she’s rejecting the chain of dominations duty to protect those weaker. The Guard is about protecting those stronger than themselves, and they’ve got some real ‘monsters’ in both roles!
Ohhhh oh damn. Really starting to feel bad for her and Rainbow cause both are going to be hurting for years after the dominos fall.
👍
To add to the already-mentioned reasons why Gilda's plan will never work, there's the fact that Rainbow is the Bearer of Loyalty, and as such I suspect that she highly values fidelity in a romantic partner. For Gilda to whore herself out while claiming to be in love with Rainbow is something that I suspect Rainbow will take even worse than most people would.
Gilda no. Nooo no no. Don't do that. You're making some BIG mistakes.
So Fluttershy hasn't told Fleur that she is regional champion for The Quiet Game?
I'm getting the feeling that Griffins who "loose the chain" start loosing their sentience as well ... and isn't that a horrible thought?
Oh boy, this is certainly a train-wreck in the making.
Nothing about this is going to end well, it is only a question of how much collateral damage Gilda is gonna make before she fully crashes.
Just what on earth happened to make her break? It can't all have been Rainbow rejecting her that time, can it?
Sure the party made it all worse, but something was going on before even that,
Poor Gilda is obsessed with Rainbow Dash, latching onto her in desperation between her longtime love for the mare and her need to have SOME connection to someone else.
There are things about her situation that make me worried for her, but also for everyone around her. For her to do escort work like this puts her at risk for STDs, if there are any that can jump between creatures, and also at risk of pregnancy assuming that ponies and griffons are compatible. She could very well be carrying a hippogriff, which would at least give her a link to latch onto.
Then there’s the worry for everyone around her; if she views most ponies around her as prey, how long until she hunts one? Until she starts killing and eating ponies because she views them as less than sapient?
11571797
I mean. They're not in anything even resembling a relationship; I don't see any issue. It's just escort work. Fidelity doesn't exist until the relationship has at least started. The real problem Rainbow would have is the whole ILLEGAL escort work issue.
Uhh... I can see some problems here. Starting - and it might as well be ending - with this little fact, which Gilda herself know about:
Imagine the quality of info from such a source.
Something I’ve not brought up is some of the insinuation about Gilda’s use of the Dominari here. She’s insinuated to be using it and with the talk about thinking for the other party, that brings up issues of consent. I wonder how much her marks are really making their own decisions once they are cut off from the herd.
11572708
I don't think that's an issue, the way she talked about dogs show that she is still sane despite acting crazy.
And she's not going hungry, so there is no motive here.
11572383
On the "losing their sentience" thing... You talking about the blackouts? Like:
Those gaps in her memory sure are concerning.
We know that Ponies can Fall into their marks... And personal hypothesis, if you gathered enough Fallen of the right marks to form a town or something, they would Herd up and start a totally mindless / mark-driven / herd-controlled town.
Griffons' dominari and chains might be actual magic as well? We've never seen a Griffon POV that's not Gilda, so we dunno how proper chains feel / work?
11573930 Yeah, exactly. It feels like Gilda is turning feral.
Wait ... new horrible thought: what if Griffins aren't sapients with magic, but are sapient because of magic?!
So other ponies are noticing Something Is Off about Zephyr's wings/flight, and Gilda is selling little pieces of her sanity. This is going to be a spectacular train wreck when it finally hits...Something.
(Could be Rainbow, might be the cops, maybe Gilda literally bites off Too Much...Anybody's blame at this point!)
This is painful. It feels like every character is stuck in a state of helpless struggle, and the ones who have some idea of what to actually do are either unable to put that into practice or have gone wholly delusional. I am looking forward to more, if only in the hopes that something breaks sooner rather than later. I’ll happily take a crash over the current slow downward spiral.
Alright, caught up with the latest 2 chapters and I have things to say regarding both of them. Even writing this on a computer rather than my phone which i use to read all my fanfic. About to post a damn novel so, sorry ahead of time.
First Zephyr, darn you Estee for making me feel sadness for this character, i knew you'd make me sympathize with them... somehow. Alright, so from what I've seen of Zephyr, a few things are immediately clicking into place, especially since we now see inside his head. I'm gonna rip the bandaid off early and say this, Zephyr comes across as Autistic. I'm not sure where on the functionality spectrum he is, but I'd say Medium to High functioning. A number of things from his internal monologue really cement this thought for me. first is that he HAS an understanding of the world, and in his mind it is illogical that no one else seems to share it. In fact he barely seems cognizant that he is the odd duck out. This isn't like Blue blood whose just so absorbed in himself he doesn't care about anything that isn't Blue blood. Zephyr seems to be someone that KNOWS other people can have different viewpoints, but he doesn't understand HOW or WHY they do. Speaking from experience, Autism general (but not exclusively) makes someone extremely resistant to change or changes to the status quo. Over a long enough time the very idea is, well terrifying. it's something I struggle with. I'm on the high functioning end, I've gone through a LOT of therapy to get my independence and get to a point where i can recognize my own pitfalls. its still not perfect, its so very easy to fall into my grove and NEVER want to leave it, ever. Zephyr seems to have come to this understanding early on, being pamper and spoiled by his parents and he just expects, assumes that THAT is the natural order of there world. I have a feeling that no one has taken the time to explain WHY that's not the case, and WHY his behavior is wrong. Being Autistic often means you can;t just 'pick up' on social ques and norms. They have to be explained, often in minute detail to be processed and comprehended. once they are, then they can stick. Explain why something is the way it is, and why it has to be that way. Even if you don;t understand it, you know that it is, and you can accommodate.
The second thing is that Zephyr places a LARGE emphasis on how he hates being thought of or seen as stupid. If I don't understand something, because it was never explained to me and I'd never even consider it otherwise, being thought of or mocked for my perceived lack of intelligence HURTS. He seems to have already developed multiple coping mechanisms to hide when he doesn't know something, or doesn't understand. Again this is alluding to the fact that he knows his limitations and is trying to mitigate them. His plan, as a few before me guessed, is possibly that he was cut off with the example that 'If your sister can handle it, then you can too' so that by proving she can't, everything goes back to normal. its flawed logic that any nuerotypical can see, and even i can understand why it will fail. but at the same time... i can see WHY his internal logic justifies it. If he is Autistic, it means his brain is processing the information it has the only way it knows how. His logic makes sense to him because it aligns with what he was taught and what he understands. Life was X, Y event occurred, Now life is Z. Remove Y from equation, Life defaults back from Z to X. He's desperate to return to the comfortable norm, as someone similarly opposed to change on a soul gripping level, i can understand how and why he's afraid of growth. For me, change is scary, for better or for worse.
As for his wings, he might in fact have some level of Savant-ism, particularly with Pegasi weather magic and manipulation. And his fear of the ground, the things there... yeah that checks another box as well with me. its about texture, and sensation. I have extremely high tactile sensitivity, other frequent Autistic sensitivities are to sound and smell. i suspect he may have a Smell/Touch sensitivity. When i touch the wrong texture, its a psychosomatic response. In the most severe cases I can actually start to suffocate, my lungs seize and it feels like I'm choking on dust. If this is all the case, he needs help, someone that can actually understand what is going on in his head and coach him through it. You won;t be able to toss him into an unfamiliar situation and expect to figure his way through it. He'll freeze, collapse, break down, or desperately claw for a way back. I've certainly been there.
As for Gilda... Shes losing it, badly. The loss of time is a damning indictment of how unhealthy her behavior is, and shes clearly putting herself in dangerous positions. Health wise she has no idea if she could be picking up anything nasty. Additionally shes taking away her partners ability to consent, and they have no idea about it. If Dominiri magic lingers, and that is Canterlot, someone is going to notice eventually. Shes slowly going feral, if that last link breaks... its going to be bad. She wants something that's never going to happen. Rainbow doesn't fly that way, that relationship cannot be, and that shes internally justifying dominating Rainbow, forcing her to see things her way with magic... This is going to end up so badly, but there's another reason why. Fluer has bested Gilda, however she wants to justify it. Gilda acknowledges that she is a Griffon, one that has herself linked. She hasn't yet asked, who is above her. If she finds out its Fluttershy... one of the ones that Rainbow made her promise not to touch... shes not going to understand. She 'bested' Fluttershy long ago, she sees her as weak. it will insult her, having been beaten back by someone who was below a 'weak' link. She may lash out, attempt to beat Fluer by beating Fluttershy. But Fluttershy is SO much stronger than most give her credit for, and if she tries to use Dominiri magic...
The Stare
The Stare reads SO much like Dominiri magic it makes me think if she has some griffon Blood in her somewhere. If Fluttershy can outstare a Cockatrice AS IT WAS PETRIFYING HER... I don't think that Gilda will overcome it, especially if she is going feral. That might be the one way Fluttershy can justify using it to subdue her, if she loses her sapience, becomes an animal... Fluttershy is good with keeping predators in line.
This is all going to become a spectacular train crash
Chapter 18:
"His sister lived on the fringe. If that didn't prove she wasn't up to taking care of herself..."
Funny, that; I'd say successfully living on the fringe for so many years was rather more an indicator of the opposite.
"and reminders that the sky was where life began"
...Except, even pegasi prefer to birth with a solid floor under them, in case the foal isn't one, and the ground is where the food comes from.
"..the beak opened"
"...the beak opened"?
"Or to him, which was a lot more fun."
...Yeeeeah, I think maybe the things you're thinking of her doing to you are not in fact the things she's been thinking of doing to you. Just a hunch.
Well, an interesting look at Zephyr's perspective, there.
Chapter 19:
"win the nexttime."
"win the next time."?
"and the Rainbow whom the tiercel first"
"and the Rainbow who the tiercel first"?
I think, at least.
Oof, well.
I'm low on time, but glad I got to these chapters at last; thanks for writing, Estee!
11575031
I think that's very plausible. One of the things that gets repeated over and over again in the Continuum is that full sapience among ponies is not their "rest state", so to speak, that it requires a small but constant effort to be more than just the herd, to think and act as individuals. Sapience in general seems to be more fragile for the races of the Continuum than it is for us.
11581923
You expect Zephyr to be trained in pegasus midwifery?