The Ties That Bind

by Scyphi

Logbook

Apparently, the only truly excitable thing that happened after that was while Aquila and Blueblood were being let out the interrogation room again, as Aquila unexpectedly swung a punch at Kibitz and gave the unicorn a black eye. She claimed (among other things) that this was “comeuppance” for all the trouble he’d caused. Otherwise, Kibitz shouted after Gallus and Spike for a moment longer, but once it was clear they weren’t returning, he clammed up and refused to say another word after that. He let himself be cuffed and arrested only begrudgingly but was nonetheless detained without further event.

“I don’t get it then,” Spike said when they all gathered later that evening for dinner, using the chance to update everyone on these happenings. “Why try and rile me and Gallus up in the first place? It clearly didn’t help him.”

“My best guess?” Ditzy replied, having shed her eyepatch and helmet while joining them and Twilight. “He figured that if he was going down, he wanted to bring you two down with him however he could. And if he couldn’t get you killed as originally planned, then he at least wanted you to discredit yourselves by getting you to lash back.” She then gave the two a pleased grin. “Fortunately, that’s why ignoring him like you did was so brilliant—it robbed him of having even that by proving yourselves the better creatures.”

“I’m proud of you both for doing that, by the way,” Twilight added with genuineness as she set down her fork—like the rest of them, she had mostly finished with her meal. “A lesser creature would’ve taken the shot anyway.”

“Oh, well, thank you,” Gallus replied, taken aback by the praise. He’d actually been questioning whether or not he should’ve taken the shot anyway ever since passing up the chance to, wondering if it’d really been tactically sound let alone about getting some comeuppance of his own. So to get such praise for it did fill his heart with warm reassurance that he’d made the right call.

“Anyway,” Ditzy continued, “the point is that Kibitz is refusing to confess anything. But at this point he almost doesn’t need to, because now that word of his capture is getting around, everyone else has been very willing.” She smirked. “You should’ve seen Diorite’s face when I informed him that we had Kibitz and he realized the jig was up. Now he’s suddenly a whole lot more interested in giving up information.”

“Probably in an attempt to try and save himself,” Spike concluded with a mixed expression.

“It’s a similar story for our assassin friend,” Twilight went on. “We’d learned that when she snuck into the palace, she brought with her a cart as part of her cover and left it parked on the grounds outside. She claimed it shouldn’t have anything relevant by deliberate design, but when searched, a bomb was discovered hidden within it that even she hadn’t known about.”

“A bomb?” Gallus repeated in horror.

“Don’t worry, it was successfully disarmed,” Twilight quickly assured. “But its timer was very clearly set that, had the assassin not been caught, she would’ve been in the middle of hauling the cart back to a prearranged safe house when it exploded, taking out both the cart and her.”

Gallus’s eyebrows went up at that. “Ditzy, what did you say the first rule to a successful assassination was?”

“Kill the assassin,” Ditzy answered without hesitation, “so to avoid leaving any loose ends. No doubt Kibitz had that bomb put there for exactly that reason.” She smirked again. “But as a result, that assassin is now all too happy to throw Kibitz under the carriage and come clean on everything too.”

“I also have ponies going through Kibitz’s office in search of clues as we speak,” Twilight added. “He was apparently already in the process of systematically destroying his records, but we’ve still found plenty he hadn’t gotten to yet.”

“All of it is more than enough to confirm that Kibitz is indeed the creature we’ve been looking for,” Ditzy concluded more gravely. “You know…in case there was still any doubt at this point.”

Spike sighed, slumping in his chair. “Well, he had successfully played the part of the faithful advisor for three princesses and a whole lot of years,” he mumbled glumly.

“And he’d been sitting there right in front of me that whole time,” Twilight added, her expression transforming into a glare. She suddenly slapped the table with her hoof in anger. “No wonder he was consistently staying one step ahead of us at every turn, he was in every meeting we held about it. We were practically giving him all the information he’d needed without anyone ever suspecting a thing!”

A heavy silence fell for a moment as they let Twilight fume over the betrayal for a moment.

“So…what’s going to happen to Kibitz now?” Spike asked, sounding uncomfortable.

Twilight heaved a small sigh and forced herself to calm down. “He will stand trial for his crimes,” she promised, “as will all the rest of the conspirators. So the courts will be the ones to determine their final fates, but once it’s all over…I expect all of them will be facing several years in prison at the very least.”

Gallus harrumphed at that. “And good riddance,” he muttered under his breath.

Spike twiddled his thumbs uncomfortably for a moment. “Do you think we’ve really ended it then?” he asked. “What if there are other conspirators still out there that we don’t know about, ones that could step in and fill Kibitz’s place?”

“That’s why we’ve been thoroughly interrogating all of the ones we’ve captured, getting everything we can out of them,” Ditzy responded reassuringly. “So far all the information we’ve gotten confirms that all conspirators are accounted for or have already met their end. Most are even ones we already knew about, such as Diorite, Gene Type, Commodore Garrett…but there’re a couple extra we can confirm were participants now too.” She motioned to Gallus. “For example, we’ve learned the identities of the griffons that attacked Gwen at her home.”

Gallus inhaled sharply without meaning to at that news. He found his talons involuntary gripping the edge of the table. “…and?” he prompted after a split second of steadying himself.

“All of them just common thugs hired as muscle and were never very high on the totem pole,” Ditzy assured. “Turns out there were only four in total. As we already knew from Gruff, one was taken out the night of by Gwen acting in self-defense. A second died from overdosing on drugs a couple years later. A third, amusingly enough, is already in prison for unrelated crimes. Which just leaves the fourth who’d been left mostly to his own devices ever since, so long as he kept his beak shut.”

“I’ve been coordinating with Lord Gestal about him, by the way,” Twilight added. “Turns out he’s committed several crimes of varying seriousness in the years since which the griffon authorities have been seeking to arrest him for. Luckily for us, Kibitz had briefly contacted him back when you two were in Griffonstone, so to task him with searching for you. But that meant we had an address which I passed on to Gestal. He’s since reported that the authorities raided that location and have successfully taken him into custody.”

Gallus let out his breath he didn’t know he was holding, relieved to hear this.

“We’ve also learned more about who the leaders of this conspiracy were,” Ditzy reported.

Spike furrowed his brow. “I thought Kibitz was the leader,” he said.

“He is now, but originally he was just one of three working together. Each of the three was responsible for matters pertaining to their native region. So Kibitz was naturally in charge of the Equestria side of things, Rhyolite was another leader who handled things in the Dragon Lands—all not especially surprising given what we knew about either of them already. However, it’s the one in charge of the Griffon Kingdom region that interested me the most.” Ditzy again glanced in Gallus’s direction. “Tell me, Gallus, are you familiar with a Lord George?”

Gallus’s eyes bulged as he leaned away from the table in shock. “You’re pulling my tail!” he shouted, stunned.

“I…take it that’s someone significant then,” Spike surmised, taken aback by Gallus’s reaction.

“Lord George was a very prominent member of the griffon lords and of considerable influence in the griffon government,” Twilight summarized.

Gallus snorted. “He was more than that,” he breathed as he remained stunned at this reveal. “Griffons thought of him as the last of the old traditional lords, the ones who governed back before the collapse of the griffon monarchy. Everyone respected him, thought of him very highly, he…he was almost royalty. When he passed away back when I was around six, the state funeral held for him was enormous and griffons everywhere were holding their own commemorations honoring his life and career.” He remembered it very well because many of those commemoration ceremonies involved large public feasts, offering plenty of food that he, still a street urchin at the time, could easily steal pieces of without anybody noticing—he’d eaten well that day. But opting to keep that detail to himself, he instead looked gapingly at Ditzy. “You’re saying he was involved in this conspiracy too?”

“More than that—he started it,” Ditzy elaborated, to Gallus’s further shock. “In fact, according to what we’ve learned, it had all been his idea. Like you said, he was an old traditional lord, which meant he didn’t take well to the decidedly non-traditional idea of two different species being romantically involved like Gwen and Spark were. He had even more issue with it when…well…”

“…I was hatched,” Gallus concluded, his heart sinking in dismayed understanding.

Ditzy nodded sadly. “According to Diorite, he saw this as a…corruption…for both species and did not want to tolerate it. So, as we’ve been told, he decided to do something about it. When the rest of the lords refused to get involved for varying political reasons, he started rallying together like-minded creatures so to secretly plot an…intervention. Rhyolite was second to join in, followed by Kibitz once it became apparent some Equestrian influence would help.” She sighed. “Or so we’ve been told. Of the conspirators we have in custody now, none of them had the chance to actually meet George before he died except for Kibitz.”

“And of course Kibitz won’t own up to it,” Spike concluded.

Ditzy nodded again. “Any others involved in the conspiracy while George was still alive have since passed away for one reason or another. Even Diorite never had the chance to meet him in person, or so he’s been swearing. So we are operating a bit on second-hoof information here. Even if Kibitz does wise up and decide to cooperate, we’ll probably never know the full story of how George fits into this exactly, just that he did.”

Gallus had developed a thousand yard stare, contemplating how much of a blow to the lord’s revered reputation this was. “There’s going to be so many griffons deeply disappointed to hear this,” he mumbled.

“To be honest, Gallus, I’m not sure Lord Gestal will believe me if I tell him,” Twilight admitted in acknowledgement of George’s powerful reputation. “Further, I have fears there could easily still be plenty of creatures out there who would be inclined to support George regardless of his views, so publicizing his involvement may not be to our advantage.” She took a deep breath. “But I have to wonder if I even really need to. Either way, George has already passed on. We can’t exactly press charges against him now. Nothing we do is going to change that. So perhaps it is better to focus on who we can hold responsible for these terrible deeds instead.”

“I guess it is more important that we make sure all the conspirators can’t cause any more harm anyway,” Spike reasoned. He glanced around at everyone at the table. “Which we have done…right?”

“Yes, so far as we know,” Ditzy said, “Unless there’s someone out there we haven’t been told about.”

“Which is why I’m going to keep you both under guard for just a little longer, until we’re further along with getting this sorted out,” Twilight told Gallus and Spike, “Just…as a precaution and a reassurance for myself.”

Gallus smiled a little. “Yeah, I understand, princess,” he replied.

“But I really think it unlikely there’s any more stragglers at this point,” Ditzy said. “Most conspiracies are usually light on numbers out of necessity. After all, the more creatures you bring into it, the harder it is to keep it secret. And we’ve accounted for a fair sum of creatures now. Besides, it’s the power and influence of the creatures you have participating in the conspiracy that really makes it work, and I daresay it had plenty of those.”

“Unfortunately,” Gallus said with a sigh, pushing aside his long emptied dinner plate so to lean his head on the table.

Spike glanced at him in concern. “Something wrong, Gallus?” he asked. “You still seem…stressed.”

“I don’t know,” Gallus admitted. “On one side I’m glad we’re finally ending this whole mess, but…on the other side, it all still feels so…” he paused, searching for the right word. “…hollow, I guess?”

“I think I know what you mean,” Twilight said, her gaze turning distant. “We’ve stopped the conspiracy but not without serious harm still being done.”

“True,” Spike agreed sadly. “How many creatures have died throughout all of this?”

“Too many,” Ditzy replied immediately. “And it was too many from the moment of the very first death. No one should’ve had to die for any of this. But, despite all of our best efforts, death has happened anyway. The most we can do now is making sure it ends with that and no more follow.”

“Maybe that’s what it is then,” Gallus said. “I guess I don’t feel like I’ve actually gotten as much…closure…out of this as I thought I would.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Gallus,” Twilight said. “If it helps, I do wish I could do more to help you both get that closure, but…”

“It’s okay, princess,” Gallus said, sitting up. “I know there’s only so much any of us can do about it. Besides, you’ve done far more than I could’ve ever asked of you. Seriously. I…probably owe you quite a lot.”

Twilight, not unsurprisingly, shook her head. “You don’t owe me a thing, Gallus,” she said. “If anything, I feel like I’m the one who owes you more.”

“Well, you all can figure out who owes who what later,” Ditzy quipped with a grin. “For right now, I recommend savoring what victories we’ve gotten. And they aren’t insignificant victories either. We got our guys in the end, and in doing so still helped to save lives, ensuring more deaths shouldn’t be coming. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but that alone is enough to help me sleep peacefully tonight.”

Spike chuckled a little at that. “It is nice knowing that weight isn’t pressing down on me anymore,” he agreed.

Gallus also had to nod in silent agreement, even though he hadn’t managed to fully relax just yet. He supposed a part of him was still afraid to, just in case their worst fears proved true and this really wasn’t over just yet. But still, seeing Kibitz taken into custody had unwound so much tension in of itself, it left him feeling somewhat exhausted. Like Ditzy, he figured he was probably going to be sleeping well tonight.

The brief silence that’d fallen around the table at that point was then interrupted by a polite knock on the dining room doors followed a moment later by Raven entering the room. “Oh good,” she remarked upon seeing them in there, “I was hoping you’d all still be here.”

“I assume you have something to report, Raven?” Twilight asked.

“You could say that,” Raven said as she joined them at the table, a bundle of something being carried in her magic. “As you know, I’ve been busy helping the others sort through Kibitz’s office in search of clues.”

“And?” Ditzy prompted, interested. “Find anything new?”

“Yes and no,” Raven said, taking the bundle and placing it on the table. “We’re still uncovering several secret documents pertaining to Kibitz’s actions for his plans, of course. But while they provide a clearer picture of what happened when, we haven’t found much that really tells us anything new we haven’t already learned. So we’ve mostly just been documenting it as additional evidence to hold against Kibitz and his cohorts later down the line.”

“Every bit helps, I’m sure,” Spike said encouragingly.

“Indeed,” Raven agreed with an approving nod. “The more evidence we have, the stronger a case we build against these creatures. But that’s not why I came here.” She removed from the small bundle an unassuming book of medium size and with a worn navy blue cover. “While going through Kibitz’s office, we found this hidden in the back of one of his desk drawers. The moment we realized what it was, I knew I should bring it straight here.” She nodded to Gallus and Spike and, instead of giving the book to either Ditzy or Twilight as one would’ve expected, she instead slid it over to the two brothers. “I think that if it should be in any creature’s grasp at this point, it should be you two.”

Gallus pinched the book by the corner of its cover and pulled it closer so he and Spike could examine it better. However its cover was completely unmarked except for the word “LOGBOOK” being imprinted on it in big serifed letters.

“A logbook?” Spike repeated skeptically, raising a questioning eyebrow at Raven while Gallus opened the book to its front page. “No offense, Raven, but I don’t see how we’re relevant to what’s just a travel log for—”

He was cut short when Gallus abruptly let out a sharp grasp and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him closer so to see the book’s front page on which was a preprinted template for identifying its owner:

THIS BOOK IS THE
PROPERTY OF
___Spark (Dragon)___

The name had been filled in on the provided line in very casual print, but still written to be clearly legible, leaving no doubt as to the name of the logbook’s original owner. Through his heart-pounding shock as the significance of what he held in his talons sank in, Gallus found some amusement at the idea of Spark apparently thinking it important to specify himself as a dragon precisely, like it wouldn’t have been immediately obvious. He allowed Spike, also in wide-eyed shock, to reach over and reverently grab one side of the book, moving it so it was more centered between them and making it easier for them to stare at the front page.

Gallus had almost entirely forgotten about the others in the room until Ditzy pointedly cleared her throat. “You, uh, wanna fill in the rest of us?” she prompted.

“It’s Spark’s,” Spike summed up in a breathy voice, making him sound almost winded. Gallus supposed that made sense, considering the surprise had hit like a boffyball to the gut. “This is Spark’s book.”

Ditzy and Twilight’s eyes similarly widened and looked to Raven for an explanation.

“I only flipped through it long enough to confirm what it was,” Raven first offered as a disclaimer. “But it appears Spark used it as a record of his botany studies, the travels he made doing so, and later just a journal of his general life.”

The latter point was what made the book feel all the more special to Gallus considering what information it could hold about the father he’d scarcely known.

“But…how…?” Twilight stuttered, still trying to grasp this reveal herself.

Raven could only shrug. “All I know is that Kibitz had it, though for what reasons I can only guess. I don’t know how he managed to lay hoof upon it.”

Ditzy, meanwhile, had been rubbing at her chin thoughtfully with one wingtip. “I assume it came into the possession of the conspirators the same time they got ahold of the photo album and the bloodline stone,” she reasoned. “As for why, they probably thought it might have relevant information needed for their plans.” She shrugged herself. “Or they feared there was some secret within they didn’t want discovered.”

“But if that’s the case, then why not just destroy it immediately upon finding it?” Twilight asked. “Why hold onto it for all these years?”

“I suppose Kibitz will have to tell us, if I can ever get him to talk,” Ditzy replied. “Until then…I don’t know, maybe he just forgot he had it?”

“I don’t really care about the whys,” Gallus suddenly declared, resisting the urge to press the book to his chest and never let go—it was only fair that he share that privilege with Spike too. “I’m just glad to have it at all.” He reverently ran his talons along the edge of its cover, one of the last pieces he had of the dragon who’d fathered him.

“That’s why I brought it to you in the first place,” Raven again reiterated. “Not only did I think you’d both be very interested in reading what it has to say, I believe possession of it should fall to you two anyway, as Spark’s next of kin.”

Twilight nodded to herself, agreeing. “I’m sure Spark would’ve wanted that, had he ever gotten the chance to say as such.”

Gallus felt Spike shudder beside him, not out of fear but at the strength of the emotions flowing through him. It struck him how unusual it must seem to be so worked up about what was an old and unassuming looking book to anyone else. But at the moment, this little book was perhaps one of the most important things the two of them could have. It was Spike who, after a long pause, summed it up the best. “This could hold secrets about the family we never had,” he murmured in a whisper, “clues what it might’ve been like, had they…” he trailed off, leaving the rest of the statement unfinished.

“It could tell us their thoughts and feelings about…well…” Gallus began, but he too trailed off, leaving it unfinished. Ultimately he felt like he didn’t need to—they all knew what he was thinking.

The others watched the two of them stare at the book for a long moment in silence. “So…what does it say?” Ditzy finally inquired.

But neither Gallus nor Spike had quite mustered the courage to turn past the book’s first page yet. Now feeling pressured to change that, Gallus took the book and turned to a random page towards its middle. “Ah, well, let’s see here,” he said as he locked eyes on the nearest start of an entry and, without taking in anything about what that entry was about, proceeded to read aloud.

“We had a bit of a scare today. We needed to stock up on various supplies for around the house, so we all flew out to a little griffon village called Alpbeak nestled in a valley deeper in the mountains. It’s out of our way for a supply run when we have Griffonstone literally right there next to us, but given how things currently are, we figured going someplace where we weren’t as known was better. And while the Alpbeak griffons didn’t seem comfortable having us around, they recognized we were just visiting and figured that the sooner we did whatever we were there to do, the sooner we’d be out of their plumage again.”

“Sounds like this was around when the persecution Spark and Gwen faced neared its peak,” Ditzy interrupted in a mumble, thinking out loud.

“Shh,” Spike swiftly shushed her and motioned for Gallus to keep reading, which he did.

“At first everything went fine. Gwen was familiar with the village’s history and gleefully pointed out everything of historical significance to the rest of us. I myself thought the terrain was pretty but admittedly more focused on completing the task at paw. Perhaps because of that, we weren’t keeping as close an eye on a certain someone like we clearly should’ve been because we both looked around and realized, to our natural horror, that we were suddenly missing our littlest member.”

Gallus’s narration started to slow and turn more solemn as he realized just who it was Spark was talking about.

“A hasty search ensued. Poor Gwen was nearly hysterical and I was about ready to turn the whole town upside-down myself. But when we looked into a nearby candy shop, there was Gallus, the little scamp stuffing his beak to his heart’s content. Needless to say, neither of us were particularly pleased, but when we sat down to scold him, us being upset apparently bothered him enough that he gave us the candy he hadn’t eaten yet, trying to make it right again. That’s Gallus for you though—independent enough to go pull stunts like this entirely on his own but sweet enough to still be thinking of others at the same time. He’s a special kid, and not just because of his mixed parentage.

I admit, I often lay awake these nights, wondering if we can actually get through this okay and if I actually have the strength to endure it long enough to get there. But then I look at this sweet, sweet, little thing the universe has blessed us both with and…I know little in this world will stop me from at least trying, if just for his sake.

Either way, I cannot iterate just how very glad I am to have him as a son.”

Gallus trailed off from reading there, staring down at the words as his heart filled with such warmth, he was surprised his chest wasn’t glowing. He re-read that final line to himself repeatedly, a grammatically simple line yet the meaning it brought to him so important…

“…Gallus?” he heard Ditzy ask cautiously after a moment. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah…yeah, I’m okay,” he managed to reply numbly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s just…you’re crying.”

“Am I?” Gallus rubbed at one eye with his talons and was startled at how wet they came away as. “Oh…I guess I am.” Somehow, he couldn’t really be bothered by that. He suddenly remembered Spike and glanced down at him to see the dragon had already wrapped himself around his torso in a hug, looking up at him with moistening eyes as well but also a soft grin that somehow summed up the sheer…joy…Gallus was feeling at the moment.

A moment of silence passed as the others looked on at the scene for a moment before Twilight spoke up. “Real quick, does anyone else have anything else we need to discuss?” she asked swiftly. When both Raven and Ditzy signaled that they did not, Twilight nodded conclusively and stood. “Then let’s adjourn for now.” She gave an understanding glance in Gallus and Spike’s direction. “I think this is a matter the rest of us should offer some privacy for.”

Gallus merely nodded in thankful agreement. He suspected neither he nor Twilight knew just how right she would be about that.

---

He and Spike took the logbook back to their room, sitting down together on the bed so to read it through in full, this time starting at the beginning. Spark had initially started the logbook so to catalog his botanical research as he journeyed, opening with a brief and to the point explanation of who he was, what he planned to do, and why he was writing this. In this, Spark made clear his interest in plants but wasn’t finding other dragons sharing that interest, much less supporting him. Most seemed to think it a foolish endeavor and teased him for what they saw as something silly. So instead he decided to stop bothering with them and go and learn more about plants himself.

As such, the first several entries were very factual and technical, simply covering how he’d travel to such and such location, got such and such items, and did such and such tasks or studied such and such plants. They ended up not spending as much time reading this part as the really only interesting details were the occasional sketches of plants Spark drew or some of the places he traveled to—at one point Spike realized a coastline Spark described visiting was near Mount Aris and the rest of hippogriff territory. He’d also appeared to have flown within Equestria’s borders a couple of times during this period, though rarely much further inland than its own coast.

Finally though, there was that faithful day in the Griffon Kingdom. Spark, it turned out, had actually been to the Griffon Kingdom a couple of times before this—Gallus even recognized one of the plants studied in a previous visit as a hobo fruit bush. But this visit was when he met Gwen for the first time. It went pretty much as Gruff had described it, though Spark never spoke about either of them being lost or needing directions to anywhere. Instead, to both Gallus and Spike’s amusement, Spark spoke of Gwen more with annoyance, going on about she wouldn’t stop bombarding him with needling questions he wasn’t really interested in answering. Yet even then, he conceded the encounter ended “positively” for them both, meaning the seed was nonetheless planted. And it wasn’t long before Spark found an excuse to see Gwen again by offering her an old minotaur goblet from his hoard, figuring she’d be interested in it as a historian.

“That’s actually very significant,” Spike commented on the matter. “A dragon doesn’t just give up something from their hoard like that.”

And shortly thereafter, Gwen returned the favor by inviting Spark to the Griffon Kingdom and showing him a plant she thought would interested him, which he was and went on about it for a couple of paragraphs. Nonetheless, it didn’t take much reading between the lines to see what the two were really doing was finding excuses to visit each other, and multiple more instances like this soon followed. But what was obvious to others apparently wasn’t so much to Gwen or Spark as they spent most of this in denial. That is until they spent an evening just talking about life and Spark started to catch on to just how much they’d bonded.

“I feel like we had some sort of…connection…that evening,” Spark wrote about the experience later while mulling it over, “Something more than before. I almost dare not speculate as to what…but the truth of the matter is that I am finding myself thinking of Gwen any chance I can and looking ahead to when I can next see her, to the point of actively looking for opportunities just to do so, and no matter how I turn it over in my head, my conclusion is still the same: I think I am starting to fall in love with this griffon.”

Fearing it may not be both ways though, Spark cautiously kept this revelation to himself, though it ultimately proved unnecessary as during their very next visit Gwen ended up blurting out her own feelings and that settled that. Understanding the uniqueness of their relationship, they initially planned to take it slow. In fact, when Spark wrote about intentions to take Gwen to the Dragon Lands, he planned to keep it “fully appropriate” between them all throughout. But as Gallus and Spike already knew, fate had other ideas, and in the very next entry Spark admitted upfront that he had, in his own words, “added Gwen to my hoard.” Which was indeed the sort of euphemism Gallus thought it to be, because he had to discreetly (without Spike noticing) skip over most of that entry due to Spark getting a little more detailed than either of them needed to know.

Besides, Gallus figured there were still things that should remain between their parents.

From that point onwards though, Spark’s tone in his logbook changed, becoming less matter-of-fact logs of his journeys and studies and more a personal diary about settling down with Gwen. He wrote of Gwen frequently, so much so it was undebatable he loved her with all his heart. And while none of the entries were ever written by Gwen’s talons, it wasn’t hard to see from the context that she similarly loved him too. Even when they fought as every couple does (such as a shouting match Spark detailed them having after making a costly mistake while building the house they’d eventually move into), there usually accompanied guilt for doing anything to hurt that bond between them, even if briefly, followed by swift attempts to make amends.

Spark, in fact, ended up giving up a large part of his own hoard so to finance them having someplace comfortable to settle down, and another part he ended up having to abandon in the Dragon Lands as he simply wouldn’t have the means to take it with him. The remainder went into their pooled savings so to fund any future expenses, meaning in the end Spark sacrificed pretty much total claim to his hoard for the sake of this new life he’d chosen. Tellingly though, Spark claimed not to regret it, saying “I have a new and even better hoard now,” and wanted the “old” hoard to go towards the new family he was building. Even though it probably should’ve been obvious by now, Gallus was again quite impressed by how much Spark was willing to give up for those he loved.

The couple fully believed it would remain just the two of them though. “We expect we will never have kids of our own,” Spark wrote not long after they’d settled down, “But we’ve decided we can live with that, so long as we have each other.” So it was rather entertaining to read of their shock upon producing the egg that would hatch into Gallus, stuck somewhere between swearing it should be impossible and daring to hope they’d been wrong after all. As they could not secure a doctor that could (or would, given the egg’s controversial lineage) confirm one way or the other, they weren’t even certain the egg was fertile until, about a week after it was laid, candling it at last clearly revealed the developing embryo inside. Spark, in his joy, even produced a detailed sketch of said embryo.

“That’s a sight that’s just as bizarre as it is heartwarming for me,” Gallus mumbled aloud while studying the sketch, “considering I’m that embryo.”

Spike laughed. “They were just excited to have you, Gallus,” he assured.

Gallus decided that was putting it bluntly, since Spark went on to regularly produce similar updates until hatching. When he wasn’t doing that though, he was fretting about whether or not he could be the father that chick would need, something Gallus related to more than he expected, as it wasn’t too different from his fretting about being a brother to Spike. Though, of course, parenting brought a whole different set of challenges. For example, it turned out Spark greatly disliked changing dirty diapers, sought to avoid it if he could, and frequently griped about changing any particularly bad ones Gallus produced as an infant (it was noted that fried potatoes didn’t seem to agree with him at that age, a surprise to Gallus considering he had no problem with them now). Also in his youth, Gallus was apparently bad about preening his wings, annoying Gwen so much that Spark often teased her about it (before being reminded that he couldn’t talk since he had not a single feather upon his own wings).

But even in spite of all that and more, Spark never spoke poorly of Gallus. Even after an instance of him getting ahold of the logbook and scribbling over some of the botanical research Spark still did in his free time, ruining it (and which Spark chose to leave in the book as-is, managing to guilt-trip Gallus years later and from beyond the grave), Spark couldn’t bring himself to speak ill of his young son, despite how clearly this act infuriated him. In fact, reading about how both parents looked after him, played with him, and above all, loved him meant a lot to Gallus, much more than he’d been prepared for.

Nor, it seemed, was Spike, who reacted much the same way when, late into the logbook, his own egg was laid and Spark went through the same joyful gushing he had for Gallus, complete with sketches of candling Spike’s egg and the developing embryo inside (they were amused to find that Spike’s spines were clearly visible very early within the egg). As Gwen had gotten the honor of naming Gallus, Spark was assigned that honor this time. He’d brainstormed a few potential names in the logbook, resulting in unintended amusement over the names Spike could’ve had instead.

“I could’ve been named Pyro?” Spike had even blurted out at one point. “Aww, that would’ve been an awesome name to have!”

Unfortunately, Spark never got the chance to settle on a final name. Gallus noticed fairly early on that his father didn’t like talking about the growing discrimination he and his budding family faced, often avoiding getting into it in favor of focusing on happier times. But it was still there, and its growing and unrelenting presence wore on Spark and Gwen quite a lot, to the point Gallus suspected there were indeed many sleepless nights between them fearing what else might come.

One of only a few times Spark truly and openly wrote about it was one night almost immediately following Spike’s egg being laid, in which Spark seemed to suffer an emotional breakdown and his writing proceeded into a downward spiral. He deeply feared whether he could really protect his family from the threats starting to surround it to the point of wondering if it was futile to try. It was almost devastating to read, so much so Gallus wished he could reach into the logbook so to hug and reassure Spark. His past self must’ve had the same idea though, because near the end of this self-depreciating entry, Spark abruptly stopped this talk before explaining that young Gallus had awoken and refused to go back to sleep unless he was snuggled tightly against Spark’s side, something Spark found immensely calming.

“I almost wonder if that was Gallus’s whole idea,” Spark, now in a better mood, concluded his entry with. “Somehow, he could sense his father’s misery and wasn’t about to let that stand unless he did something to make it better, which would be just like the little guy.”

Gallus had to agree. That did seem like something he’d do.

But all of this heartwarming talk still couldn’t change the ending. The logbook stopped abruptly with Spark talking about leaving for the Dragon Lands with Spike’s egg just before it all unraveled. That last entry was mostly discussing the plan of action and how Gallus and Gwen would be staying behind, something that Spark was less than comfortable with. But he felt they’d be much less safe if they came with him to the Dragon Lands, even with Dragon Lord Torch’s promises of protection, and Spark clearly worried about that far more. Gwen seemed confident everything would work out though, so partly because of this, Spark ended what ultimately proved to be his final entry in good spirits.

Thus knowing that both Spark and Gwen would instead be dead before the end of that same week only made it all the more tragic.

Yet despite that, Gallus found reading the logbook still removed some of that lingering disconnect between himself and the parents he otherwise only scarcely remembered, making them feel more real and not so distant and abstract. It also made him wish all the more they hadn’t been taken so cruelly from him—they’d truly been the parents he’d always wanted. So even when it grew late and Spike, weary from the day’s many dramatic events, decided to turn in, Gallus remained awake, trying to use this treasure trove of clues to further piece together that past life.

It was while going through the logbook once again that Gallus realized there was yet another creature to consider in all this and, with that in mind, asked to be escorted down to the medical wing where Gruff still lay unconscious in his cot. He was looking a little better in that his face wasn’t so pale and his breathing more obvious, but while the doctors were now confident Gruff would recover eventually, his condition otherwise hadn’t changed from the previous evening. Nonetheless, considering the major victory they’d achieved today, Gallus felt like Gruff still shouldn’t be excluded—he had helped get this victory too, after all.

So, not minding the guard reverently standing by the door, Gallus sat in a seat across from Gruff’s bed and went back to the logbook, this time looking for references to the elder griffon. Spark, it turned out, didn’t mention Gruff all that often, despite him definitely being present from time to time. In fact, for about the first half, if Spark mentioned Gruff at all it was usually out of disdain. The two really hadn’t gotten along at first, with Spark’s complaints often consisting of unkind remarks about Gruff’s trademark vitriol. It’d seemed it was returned from Gruff as well, as Gallus got the impression that part of the reason Gruff went unmentioned so often was because he was trying to avoid Spark.

However, Gwen had a fair bit of respect for Gruff—not surprising given Gruff got along with her well enough—and didn’t approve of her husband’s initial distaste for him. At one point Spark noted her telling him that there was more to Gruff than his abrasive exterior. Further, she saw him as a friend and wished Spark would too. Spark remained slow to try though until a time where he’d gone into Griffonstone for an emergency supply run with a still infant Gallus. While on the way back, he was harassed by an extremely rude griffoness who called Gallus a name so vulgar that Spark, though clearly incensed about it, refused to repeat it in the logbook. It was about then that Gruff abruptly appeared on the scene and came to Spark’s defense by, in Spark’s words, “chewing up this griffoness and spitting her back out” enough that she finally backed off.

Gruff claimed to have done it more for Gallus’s sake than Spark’s and left again as quickly as he’d appeared. But the act still left its mark and slowly their views towards each other started to change. And the more the harassment grew over time, the more Spark counted on Gruff as a valuable ally. By the time Spike’s egg had entered the picture, Spark saw Gruff as “the best supporter we have” and at one point admitted he didn’t know where he and Gwen would be if it hadn’t been for Gruff assisting where he could.

Reviewing a few of these comments to himself, Gallus heaved a sigh and briefly glanced up at Gruff lying there before him. “You know, in the end, you left a mark on Spark,” he mumbled aloud as if the other griffon could hear. “I…don’t know where you two were at when…the worst happened. But just before that point…Spark started to think highly of you. And of course Gwen always respected you from the start. They saw something in you…something I’m starting to think I’ve been missing.” He bowed his head, suddenly ashamed. “Or maybe something I haven’t been allowing myself to see, so used to thinking of you in a…negative light that I couldn’t stop.” He ran his talons over the edges of the logbook’s cover, mulling it over in his head. “You weren’t wrong before. I don’t like some of things you did in this whole mess…at least not where it concerned me. That’s something I still think you could’ve…should’ve…done better. But…maybe I’ve also been unfair by not considering just how…difficult…the situation you were put into was.”

Gallus let the logbook fall into his lap at this point and leaned back in the chair, letting his head thump against the wall behind it. “I guess what I’m trying to say here is…I still owe you. A lot.” He snorted to himself. “Heck, let’s be honest here—you saved my life…maybe even more than once, depending on how you look at it. And if there’s one thing you’ve proven to me through all of this, even if it wasn’t obvious…you were still looking out for me. And…I still should thank you for that much.” He paused for a second then made a bittersweet snicker as he reached up to massage his brow, realizing the state of the griffon he was saying this to. “Not that I’m ever going to tell you that while you’re awake, obviously.”

“…joke’s on you then, boy.”

Gallus froze at the sudden sound of the faint, but still audible, voice and bolted upright to see Gruff’s eyes open, blinking away sleep as they slowly took in his surroundings.

Gallus overlooked Gruff effectively eavesdropping in his palatable relief. “Gruff!” he cried as he leapt from the chair and to the griffon’s side while the guard, equally surprised at this unexpected event, swiftly turned around and poked his head out the door so to call for a doctor. He took in the elderly griffon’s state, noting he looked like he’d only just woken up. “You’re awake! How are you feeling?”

“Like I got beaned in the back of the head by a steel bar,” Gruff replied in a grumble, wincing to himself at the ache of his still bandaged head. His limbs stirred as if wanting to rub at the source of the pain, but they seemed too stiff to do so after lying unused for as long as they had. “…what happened, exactly?”

“You’ve been in a small coma, Mr. Gruff,” came the reply as the doctor from the previous night strolled purposefully into the room. He gently waved Gallus aside so to have room to examine Gruff. “We were wondering when you’d come out of it again.”

“A coma?” Gruff repeated, his brow furrowing. He went quiet for a moment, allowing the doctor to calmly check him over. Gallus suspected Gruff’s still-groggy brain was trying to recall the relevant information on what a coma entailed. “…how long was I out, then?”

“About a day,” Gallus provided for him.

“A day?” Gruff snapped, jolting as if to pick himself up, but not only did the doctor swiftly stop him, Gruff only got part way before his stiff body prevented him from continuing anyway.

“We brought you here for treatment,” the doctor patiently explained once he’d assured Gruff wasn’t going to try that again. “Now that you’re awake and conscious, I’m confident you’re going to recover fine, but to be sure—what’s the last thing you remember before waking up now?”

“Uhh,” Gruff groaned as he attempted to reassemble his memories. “I was…with all those pony guards, moving stuff from the airships into that caged off area of theirs.”

“The evidence locker,” Gallus realized.

“Good, that suggests you’ve suffered fairly minimal memory loss since you were attacked not long thereafter, or so I’ve been told,” the doctor noted approvingly.

“Attacked?” Gruff repeated, initially looking like he didn’t understand, but then his eyes went wide as it suddenly all came back to him. “Attacked!” He grabbed the doctor’s hoof. “There was this pony intruder, wearing all-black and hiding in the shadows, doing something with the locker thing! I think they were trying to sabotage it! They must be involved in this whole—”

“Gruff, Gruff!” Gallus intervened here, cutting him short with a grin. “It’s okay! We’ve already nabbed her!”

“You have?” Gruff said, twisting his head to look at the younger griffon with his good eye. His brow then furrowed. “Wait, her? Just how much have I missed here?”

Gallus’s grin turned smug as he realized he’d have the honor of filling Gruff in. “Quite a bit actually.”

While Gallus filled Gruff in, the doctor continued with his brief examination. Fortunately, his diagnosis was positive all across the board, showing Gruff was recovering nicely from his injuries and there shouldn’t be any additional complications. That said, the doctor wanted Gruff to stay put for observation at least until morning and to continue to take it easy in the meantime. Gruff, still somewhat groggy from coming out of his coma and overall low on energy, did not object so the doctor left them to it. Not long thereafter, Gallus had nearly finished getting Gruff back up to speed.

“So our guy was Kibitz?” Gruff repeated incredulously, trying to process the new information as quickly as it was given to him, “That stuffy bureaucrat with the mustache?” When Gallus nodded, he huffed to himself. “I mean I’d thought there was something…off about that guy from the moment I met him, but…I certainly didn’t think he’d actually be the guy.”

“No one did,” Gallus assured, “Not until all the right clues finally fell into place. I’m thinking that was the whole point though—he’d made sure he was in a position where he could hide in plain sight.” He let out his breath in a slow whoosh, reflecting on how close a call it’d been. “It’d nearly worked too.”

“Nearly,” Gruff repeated and allowed himself a smirk, “which just wasn’t quite nearly enough for him now was it?”

Gallus had to chuckle a little. “No, I suppose it wasn’t.” His gaze turned distant as he reviewed all the chaos he’d been put through the past several days. “Honestly, though? I’m more just glad it’s over now.”

Gruff harrumphed at that. “I’ve heard that before,” he grumbled, clearly still wary about jinxing it. Gallus, in fact, wondered if he should knock on wood as a precaution. But before he could finish that line of thought, he noticed Gruff visibly sadden. “And it’s a bittersweet victory either way. Kibitz and his sort still got part of what they wanted.”

Gallus felt his heart chill at that thought and reflexively pulled the logbook close to his chest. “I’m well aware of what’s been lost in all this, Gruff,” he mumbled.

Gruff took notice of the logbook for the first time at this point. “What is that you’ve got there anyway?” he asked.

Gallus held it out for him to examine then take when Gruff reached out to grab it. “A sort of journal Spark had kept before…things went bad. They found it in Kibitz’s office along with other documentation he still had of his schemes.” He watched Gruff flip through it briefly without comment. “It’s actually been kind of enlightening to read, seeing Spark’s views on how it all went down.” He paused then added, “He appreciated what you tried to do to help, by the way.”

Gruff scowled at that and, as if it had soured the logbook’s appeal to him, he hastily stuffed it back into Gallus’s talons. “How foolish of him then,” he grumbled bitterly, no doubt thinking about how much had been in vain anyway.

Gallus felt his grip on the logbook tighten. “You did more for them than you think,” he argued back, suddenly unwilling to let Gruff berate himself. He took a deep breath and decided to address what had originally brought him down here. “You know, I meant what I said earlier.”

“Oh, we’re actually going to acknowledge that happened then?” Gruff replied, a faint teasing tone underlying it. “I’d figured you were just going to pretend I’d hallucinated it or something.”

Gallus didn’t share in his humor. “Gruff, I didn’t want to admit it before. But…if it weren’t for you, I don’t think we would’ve gotten to this point.” He lowered his gaze but remained resolute. “Regardless of where you and I stand on each other…I need to give you credit where credit’s due. You played an important role in getting this victory too.”

Gruff’s gaze turned sad again. “It’s not the one I wanted though,” he mumbled. He averted his gaze so to hide the shame clearly still weighing heavily upon him. “So you keep that credit. You deserve it more anyway. You’re the one that got Kibitz in the end after all.”

A long and somber silence fell after that.

“What happens now that we got Kibitz anyway?” Gruff then asked, changing their focus.

Gallus blinked and shrugged, figuring that was obvious. “He’ll stand trial for his crimes, first and foremost.”

“What, did you miss or something?” Realizing Gallus wasn’t following, Gruff looked back at him again. “You’d said you had him at the end of a crossbow, right?”

Gallus stared at him blankly before his brow narrowed slightly. “I didn’t take the shot, Gruff.”

“What? Why not?” Gruff seemed to genuinely not understand why. “He certainly would’ve!”

Or more likely had someone else do it for him, Gallus thought bitterly to himself but he still understood what Gruff was getting at. “I didn’t want to be like him, a creature that selfishly hurts others. It only would’ve proved his twisted ideas of what I was to him, and I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction, that final victory, not when he’d already had so many others.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if he wasn’t around anymore to care,” Gruff pointed out.

“I’d care, though,” Gallus persisted before moving to curtail any further argument on the matter. “Look, this is just…the sort of creature I want to be.” A moment later, grinning faintly as inspiration struck, he added, “I guess you could say it’s part of my code.”

“…code?”

“Dragon code—it’s something Spike was explaining to me.”

Gruff went quiet for a moment, studying Gallus closely. Seeing he wasn’t going to sway on the matter, he started to relent, but his gaze nonetheless saddened considerably. “But…what of your parents? You can’t avenge their deaths this way.”

“They didn’t want vengeance,” Gallus corrected, leveling his gaze on Gruff. “All they wanted was the same thing I always wanted.” He gave the logbook a squeeze. “A family.” He inhaled sharply, ignoring how much his throat shuddered doing it. “But that the likes of Kibitz wouldn’t let them have it is his problem to deal with now.”

They fell quiet for another long moment.

“At least you still have your brother,” Gruff then finally noted.

That made Gallus wish he had Spike here with them, suddenly wanting to hold the little dragon close. “Yeah,” he mumbled, making a sad but hopeful grin, “I do.” He wiped the wetness that had started to form in his eyes. “And you helped ensure we got that much.”

Gruff, for a moment, didn’t react. But slowly a faint smile appeared on his beak as he accepted that one victory. “I owe you both so much more than that, though,” he admitted with uncharacteristic openness.

Gallus looked down at the logbook again. “I don’t know if they would agree with you on that, Gruff,” he replied slowly, and to prove it, again offered the logbook to Gruff.

Gruff looked at it reluctantly, not really wanting to accept. But, finally deciding to at least entertain the thought, he took the book from the younger griffon once again. He held it before him in silence for a moment, balancing it on his chest and seemingly pondering how to proceed. “I’ll get this back to you as soon as I’m done with it,” he vowed solemnly.

Gallus however simply grinned and patted him on the foreleg as he rose to depart. “That’s okay,” he assured as he did so, feeling Gruff would need the privacy. It was getting late anyway. “You take all the time you need with it.”

He did still consider Gruff’s words while lying in bed and waiting for sleep to take him though. The old coot wasn’t wrong, after all—Gallus had a creature that’d ensured the murders of his parents dead to rights…but he’d passed up the chance. And he found buried somewhere deep in his core was a fiery and bloodthirsty part of him that wished he’d fired that crossbow anyway…and then some. There was indeed a passionate want to see that stallion dead within him. But when replaying the confrontation back in his head, Gallus also knew this didn’t change anything—he still would’ve passed up the shot anyway. For all of the same reasons he’d told Gruff, but also because he knew that, no matter how much it felt like it should’ve…doing so wouldn’t have brought his parents back. It’d only contributed to the horrifyingly vast amount of blood that’d already been shed throughout this whole mess.

And so Gallus fell asleep thinking, with confidence and reassurance, that the world didn’t need him shedding just a little more…and thus was all a little better for it.

Author's Note:

It's already been well established now that Spark and Gwen loved their kids through second-hand accounts...but that still doesn't quite compare to hearing it from, effectively, the creatures themselves.

Mostly just need to tie up loose ends at this point, so only two more chapters to go!

Comments

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Really hit us in the feels with Spark's logbook there man, also glad tough old bird made it though!

Still wanna see the rest of the Young 6 reactions regarding Gallus/Spike sibling reveal & all they went though, especially Smolder's reaction!