Heart of a Griffon

by GreyTheGriffon

The Night Before The Show

After embarrassingly being led back to his room and saying ‘good-night’ to Twilight, Grey wasted no time throwing himself onto his bed, softly purring as he rubbed his face against the blanket and, as he crawled closer to the same spot he slept in last night, the pillow. He was glad the door was shut, his embarrassment from earlier would have doubled if Twilight heard him purring.

After a short moment of considering just falling asleep on top of the blanket, he went with the better, slightly more involved option. He lifted the blanket, resting his head on the pillow, then haphazardly tossed the blanket over himself. He briefly considered how not making the bed in the mornings was unbecoming of any resident of a castle, but the blanket he was now comfortably covered by was just too darn soft, so he quickly drifted away from any thoughts about the many expectations he’d been saddled with.

With his thought processes running at half their normal capacity from the sleepiness that a comfy bed inflicted upon him, Grey allowed his head to sink fully into the pillow, completing the best position for a restful sleep.

---

Grey opened his eyes while simultaneously lifting his head off of his crossed arms to see loose hay accompanied by the ugliest shades of gray in the floor, ceiling and walls. He blinked a few times, then slowly rose to a standing position. He looked around, revealing a familiarly cramped living space that amounted to a hollowed out boulder, completely empty save for a shelf above his line of sight, containing nothing except for a book bearing Princess Twilight’s likeness on the cover.

He rubbed his eyes with one arm, trying to figure out his surroundings. Was moving to Ponyville a dream? Must’ve been, since he was in his own home.

With nothing better to do, and his magic books only serving as a reminder that he was apparently too much of a coward to take the leap, he flew outside. He wasn’t really looking where he was going, so he bumped into a white feathered griffon pretty quickly, eliciting a hushed apology, which, as was custom to most griffons, was completely ignored.

“Hey, watch where you’re flying, idiot.” The griffon Grey bumped into didn’t even turn around before she started what was probably the same thing she said to anygriff that bumped into her. Once she did turn and see Grey, however, her tone changed. “Hey wait, magic guy. Didn’t you say you were gonna leave for Ponyville yesterday?” Grey shrugged, he couldn’t even manage a simple disinterested ‘yeah’. “Hm. Well, wanna buy a griffon scone?” Grey perked up upon hearing that. He had been looking down at the ground during the entire ‘conversation’ thus far, but only one griffon in town sold griffon scones, and she was neutral with Grey rather than antagonistic like most everygriff else.

“Hey, Gilda.” Grey leaned forward the slightest bit, like he wanted to steal a hug from her, but he quickly rescinded his own incomplete, unperceived request. “How’s everything?” Gilda gave a low volume, monosyllabic laugh before responding.

“Grey, it’s Griffonstone. Everything sucks.” Upon seeing Grey’s eyes get a little watery, Gilda’s expression softened. But not too much, this was still Griffonstone after all. “Uh, you good?” Grey’s eyes only got more watery as he fought to keep a grip on the situation. After all, it wasn’t that bad, he had only been given what he thought was his dream, only for it to be a literal dream, and he was still stuck in this horrible city where there were only 4 griffons who didn’t hate him, and-

That was it. The realization that he was still stuck in Griffonstone broke him. The two were standing on the ground in a semi-remote part of town now, so Grey just fell onto Gilda’s chest and began sobbing many years of held-back tears into her feathers.

By instinct, Gilda’s arms held onto Grey, both to keep him from falling onto the ground, and to give him what was some evidently much-needed affection. In turn, Grey’s talons fell over Gilda’s shoulders, though they didn’t need to; Gilda was supporting Grey enough to keep him from falling. Gilda tried her best to ignore the passing griffons giving them a weird look, instead focusing on the full-grown griffon in her arms bawling his eyes out. She couldn’t help but be embarrassed by the situation, but she wasn’t going to leave Grey on his own right now, even if she didn’t understand why he was crying.

After what felt like a million years for the both of them but what was only about 5 minutes, Grey unlatched himself from Gilda gently, standing on his own four legs again. He was still crying, but with less intensity than before. He walked over to the side of the road and sat down, motioning with his head for Gilda to join him.

“Thank you…” He said with a shaky, almost inaudible voice.

“Uh, no problem. Now what the heck was that about?” Gilda had moved over to the side of the road as well and laid herself down. It was better for them to be out of the way for this conversation anyway. Grey had rested his head into his crossed arms such that only his eyes were visible, looking forward at the ground.

“Mmm.” Grey’s noncommittal response annoyed Gilda, so she smacked him lightly on the top of his head with a karate-chop.

“C’mon dude. I’m trying to lend you some help here.” Gilda got up as she said this, starting to pace idly between Grey and the road. Grey continued to watch, offering nothing to Gilda.

Just then, as if on cue with Gilda leaving her spot on the side of the road, a large chunk of rock fell from above her, and it was absolutely going to land right on top of her. Grey looked up at Gilda and, naturally, noticed the rock, which had maybe 3 more seconds until impact.

“GILDA LOOK OUT!” Grey screamed at the top of his lungs while simultaneously holding one talon up toward her. Gilda froze at Grey’s screaming, completely unaware of the rock hurtling toward her very breakable body.

Then, the rock stopped.

Grey’s eyes were closed, but Gilda’s mouth went agape in surprise as she saw a yellow aura around Grey’s talon, then turned to see a large rock that was definitely big enough to kill her if it had landed on her surrounded with an aura of the same color, though it hadn’t made contact with anything; it was being levitated.

“G-Grey! Open your eyes! Look at what you’re doing!” Gilda said, a trembling talon pointing at the rock in front of her. Grey opened one eye slowly, Gilda’s command acting as just that, as well as confirmation that she was still alive. He saw his talon first, wrapped in an aura colored the same striking shade of yellow as his eyes, then the rock, coated in the same hue. His mouth fell agape, his talon shaking. He stared for a short while before he brought his talon down and curled up on the ground.

“Grey?” Gilda questioned, looking extremely confused. “W-what the heck?! What was that? Wait, why do you look so upset?” Grey sniffed.

“It’s okay, Gilda. Thanks for trying to make me feel better.” Gilda’s expression changed to a more neutral one, the important realization having been made. “It’s okay, really. I think I’ve had this kind of dream before.” The tears started to flow again, though not vigorously enough to impede Grey’s speech. He continued with a softer, quieter tone. “I wish things were like this between us in the real world.”

He looked up at the moon, accepting the lonely stillness the rest of his dream would likely be made of. It had happened once or twice before, and whenever it did, he was unable to move past the whiplash of using magic, then realizing it wasn’t real. It was worse this time, since instead of a two-point whiplash, a third point was added due to thinking he was back home.

As these thoughts passed through Grey’s mind unbidden, though unresisted, the moon suddenly began to glow.

A dark blue alicorn with a glorious flowing blue mane that reminded Grey of the night sky descended toward him, landing where Gilda was a moment ago, the space now free since she had disappeared. Dream logic and all that.

Grey stared at her, dumbfounded by her sheer ethereal presence, and although he had spent a great deal of time learning about magic and in turn, pony culture and history, he did not recognize her. He sputtered a little bit, trying to form a coherent response that wasn’t just ‘what?’ or ‘huh?’ or some other single-word expression of confusion. Thankfully, the mystery mare spoke up before he had the chance to embarrass himself.

“Good evening, Grey.” She paused for a moment, waiting for some kind of reply. “I take it from your expression that you do not know who I am. I am Princess Luna, Princess of the Moon.” Grey perked up upon hearing the name and pointed at her.

“Oh! You have dominion over the night and the dreams of your subjects! I read about you once, but I’ve never read a physical description or seen a picture of you!” In his excitement, Grey had gotten up from his lying down position into a standing position, finding that he was about a head shorter than the princess. Upon realizing this, he looked up to meet her eyes and blushed a little. “Wow, you’re tall. I’m actually a little taller than Princess Twilight and-” Grey stopped in the middle of the first step of what was about to be pacing, realizing that this visit was probably business. “Sorry, you’re here for a reason, right?”

Luna smiled at Grey’s excitability, it reminded her of Twilight. “Yes, I am here about this dream. You seemed so quick to accept this as a dream once you used magic.” Grey leaned away from Princess Luna just a little. “Tell me, Grey. You want to be a wizard, yes?”

“Y-yes. Yes I do. It’s been my dream ever since I was a cub.”

“Then tell me, do you believe that it is possible for a griffon to use magic?” Grey was taken aback by the question. Of course he believed it was possible! Otherwise he wouldn’t even be here.

“Yeah, it’s gotta be, right? Weirder things have happened in Equestria.” Luna raised one hoof, which, although he had very little experience with Equestrian royalty, still effectively silenced Grey.

“No, Grey. Your dream is an ambitious one, and I applaud you for chasing it as far as you have.” She spoke matter-of-factly, but not sternly in any capacity. “But achieving it requires that you truly believe that you can do it. Not just that it is possible, but that you will be the one to make history.” Grey gulped. Maybe he had bitten off more than he could chew. “I cannot give you this mindset, only you can.” Luna turned around and started walking, motioning with her wing for Grey to follow.

“We’re going to see a show tomorrow…” Grey mumbled under his breath. “Should I just stay home and get a headstart on poking through those history books I was going to go through with Twilight?” Luna kept walking, though she seemed just a little surprised by Grey’s question.

“Now, Grey, there are two things wrong with that course of action. One, you promised your friend you’d see the Wonderbolts show. Two, abandoning plans like that in order to focus on work can lead to a dangerous mindset of prioritizing work over everything else. Besides, this will be a good chance to meet Twilight’s friends. They’re good ponies.” The two were walking to nowhere in particular, the surroundings having changed to a nondescript forest due to Grey’s thoughts having moved on from Griffonstone.

“It’s a bit much, I’ve only known Twilight personally for like, a day, and now I’m meeting five other ponies? I don’t know if you could tell, but I’m not exactly the most social creature out there.” Grey’s neck lowered a little, while Luna only smiled.

“Well, Twilight seems to have taken a liking to you.” Grey perked upon Luna saying this. “Trust me Grey, all you need to do is put yourself out there, which you’ll be doing by spending time with Twilight’s friends.” Grey started to say something, but Luna continued first. “Now, I know that it might be a little difficult, but I know they won’t try to make it more difficult for you.” Luna looked up at the sky, the rising sun in the waking world being reflected in the dream world, providing a signal that the two’s time together was almost up. Grey picked up on this without Luna needing to say anything.

“It was cool to meet you.” Grey swung an arm back and forth casually as he said this. “Am I gonna see you again?” Luna had stopped and turned to look at Grey, what with there only being about 1 minute of conversation left before the dream would end.

“Not for a while.” Grey opened his mouth to ask for clarification, but a raised hoof from Luna silenced him with the same unexpected effectiveness as before. “Listen to me, Grey. I know you’re nervous about meeting Twilight’s friends, but I want you to promise me something.” Grey gulped. He didn’t like making promises he wasn’t sure he could keep. “Promise me that, even if you don’t end up making friends with Twilight’s friends, you’ll at least stay amicable with them.”

“I…” There wasn’t time for Grey to be hesitating, but he was. “I’ll try my best.”

Luna tried to intervene, to get Grey to definitively promise that he would keep his relationships with Twilight’s friends at the very least neutral, but the dream was already ending, a fact shown by the area around the two starting to fade to white.

---

Grey opened his eyes slowly while simultaneously rotating his head on his pillow. The softness was familiar last night, but now he was experiencing a strange sense of jamais vu. Unlike yesterday morning, Grey climbed out of bed soon after he was fully awake, not wanting to be in it anymore. He looked at the clock, which displayed 9:24 A.M., then to his bed, the blanket falling off the edge slightly. He sighed, and began making the bed.

Author's Note:

Hi!! Sorry about Chapter 6 taking a while, I've been less motivated to work on HoaG recently. Despite that, here's Chapter 6! Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all at Chapter 7!

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