Second Movement: Part 9- Griffon Ensemble
Griffon Ensemble
Rainbow Dash stared at the statue for a solid minute. The curved horn was her focal point for a good half of that time, her eyes only occasionally shifting to the statue’s vividly-carved glare.
Martial Paw poked at her leg with a wary talon. “Dash? You alright?”
“Yeah,” she answered. She blinked once; just to be sure she wasn’t seeing things. “So, that statue…”
Martial glanced at it and shrugged. “It came with the palace, something wrong with it?”
“How many times have the princesses been to Felaccipidia?” Rainbow Dash swallowed a mouthful of air. “Like, at all?”
“Never,” Crested Barbary said from behind her. “They’ve always sent ambassadors or communicated by crystal ball.”
“Yeah, okay, I can see that,” she nodded. She turned to Martial Paw with glazed eyes. “Did you know that you have a statue of King Sombra in your foyer?”
“What!?” Martial and Crested reacted in synch. The griffons examined the statue closely.
Crested shook his head. “No,” he murmured. “No, Sombra never came to Felaccipidia. He couldn’t have.”
“The ponies and the griffons were never very close,” Martial said. “We all had our own issues to deal with.”
“Then what’s with the monument to unicorns in your palace?” Rainbow Dash pressed. “Who’s idea was it to put that thing in here? It’s the spitting image of Sombra!”
“Enough.” Crested Barbary grabbed her shoulder and led her down the hall. “We have more important things than artwork to discuss.”
Voices met their ears as they marched down the corridor, the growls and squawks of griffons arguing. Rainbow Dash’s knowledge of their native language had grown rusty over the years. “Hay, Martial, what’s going on?”
Martial clicked his beak and turned to Dash with a weak smile. “They’re talking about that crystal heart we found.”
“What about it?”
He turned his eyes back to the front. “How to use it against Equestria.”
Rainbow Dash snorted. “And how’s that working out for them?”
They reached a set of ornate doors with guards posted to either side. The armored griffons shot Rainbow Dash a confused glance, before saluting to Crested Barbary. The doors parted to reveal a large chamber, its high-vaulted ceiling reaching several stories into the air.
Desks lined the walls, stacked on top of each other until they reached the glass ceiling. Griffons of all sizes, shapes, and sub-species occupied the desks. Every last one of them was shouting at the top of their lungs.
“Politics at work, as usual,” Martial said. A glare from Crested silenced him.
The far end of the room held a hulking throne, crested with golden griffon wings. The red velvet upholstery gave it an air of regality. On the throne sat the largest griffon Rainbow Dash had ever seen. He was taller than any other griffon present, and his wingspan stretched half-way across the room.
His voice was the loudest.
“Shut up!” he shouted in Equestrian. “The expedition has returned!”
He settled back in his throne as the other griffons quieted down. He extended a talon towards Rainbow Dash and curled it back. “You! Come forth, daughter of the sky.”
She took a hesitant step forward. When Martial Paw and Crested Barbary followed suit, she found herself able to pick up the pace. She reached the throne in short order. Crested and Martial bowed low, but she remained standing.
The giant griffon bent down to look at her closely. “Why do you not bow before the king?”
“You’re not my king,” Rainbow Dash replied.
Crested Barbary swore quietly, but fervently. He continued to curse as the conversation continued.
“Indeed?” the king asked. He turned his head to stare pointedly at Dash. “Then who is your king, daughter of the sky?”
“Don’t got one,” she shrugged. “I thought you knew we had princesses and stuff.”
“As I understand it,” the king answered with a nod. He rose up off of his seat, towering over both Rainbow Dash and the other two griffons. As his wings spread out over the assembly, the best word Dash could think of to describe the display was “condor.”
He walked towards her, his massive frame shuffling from side to side. Instead of the stereotypical golden fur of a lion, his hindquarters were a dark brown. The short tail of a bear hung off his rear, and the dangerous claws of a grizzly armed his back legs.
“You may not see me as your king,” he growled. “But you will learn to fear the name Andean Ursagriff.”
“Your majesty!” Crested called out from his prone position. His grey-flecked feathers ruffled as he spoke. “We have returned with the artifact, and have brought this ambassador to keep the peace.”
King Andean’s head swooped down between Dash and Crested so that he could look at both of them simultaneously. “She? You brought her to broker peace?” He laughed, a frightening sound that sent shivers down Rainbow Dash’s spine. “She’s a fighter if there ever was one!”
His beak came so close that his breath brushed past her wings. “You’re a fighter, and you seem to have no concept of deference.”
She took a step back, her eyes darting for an exit. “Yeah, that’s like, protecting yourself, right? Heh, heh.”
“In my court, is certainly is.” He lifted a giant talon. “The best defense is quick deference.”
He swatted her across the room with a hefty flap of his wings. She slammed into an empty desk. The breath left her body in a whoosh of pain. She lay in a groggy state of consciousness as the courtiers laughed.
“If you want to last in Felaccipidia, daughter of the sky,” Andean Ursagriff said, “you will learn to be either more polite, or more durable.”
Martial flew to her side and gave her a talon to lean on. “Are you alright?” he whispered. “Any broken bones?”
“Just a little bruised pride,” she hissed through gritted teeth.
“If the pony wishes to keep the peace between our countries,” Andean announced, “then she will hold her tongue until such a time as she can give me the proper respect!”
“He’s going to be waiting for a long time,” said a female voice from Dash’s left.
Rainbow Dash turned to look for a familiar face among the crowds. “Gilda?” she asked. I could have sworn it was her…
The king sat back in his throne, eyeing the court. He motioned for Crested Barbary to rise.
“What did you expect?
These ponies are all idiots!
They only care for frivolities and peace
“Those multi-colored hides
Their enormous weeping eyes
They’re all children inside, you see!”
He was joined by a chorus of griffon nobles, all shouting at Rainbow Dash. Those near her spat, and those distant threw whatever they had on hand. She could feel her anger rising, her face growing hot.
“The pony-kin, elohim!”
“Not part of the real world!”
“Pony-kin, elohim!”
“Show them how we live!”
Andean Ursagriff shambled over to her, his sharp beak glinting in the light.
“They live in fairy tales
Oblivious of evil
Perhaps it’s time that they know war!”
“The pony-kin, elohim!
A nation of children!”
“Let Sombra’s vengeful heart come forth!”
The doors of the chamber opened, admitting Lord Gilded Wing. He carried the glowing crystal heart in his talon, holding it with near-reverence. His eyes danced around the room until they fell on Rainbow Dash, propped up by Martial Paw.
If he still had a beak, he would have smiled.
An iron muzzle was strapped to the crushed fragments of his mouth. It split into two halves, each connected to either the top or bottom of his jaw. The artificial beak ended in two dangerous points, perfect for cutting through flesh.
Whether animal or pony flesh was on the menu, Rainbow Dash couldn’t be sure.
Gilded raised the heart into the air. It pulsated weakly, its glow much dimmer than it was in the wastes. Even so, the griffon lord spoke with a cadence of triumph. His voice was tinny, echoed as it was through his iron beak. It lost none of its power and gravitas, and took on a sinister tone.
“Our hour has come nigh
The dark soul of a demon
Will aid in making our empire strong
“We’ll even out the score
Sunshine forevermore
We’ll show Celestia she’s wrong!”
Rainbow Dash leaped into the air. “Hey, you watch what you say ab-”
Martial grasped her mouth and pulled her to the ground. She struggled in his grasp until he whispered in her ear. “Are you trying to commit suicide by griffon or something!? Just wait it out, okay? Please?”
She settled down and nodded. She pulled away from him and shielded her face with a wing, letting the thrown objects impact her downy limbs.
“The pony-kin, elohim!”
“Stealing all our sunlight”
“Pony-kin, elohim!”
“They threaten us with night
“Their princess is corrupt
Preaching of endless harmony
While the sun is in her grip!”
“The pony-kin, elohim!
Hold the sword to our necks”
“Sombra’s heart will be our fix!”
Martial and Crested Barbary dragged Rainbow Dash outside the hall. They were unable to avoid the parting volley of thrown objects as the chorus reached its crescendo.
“Pony-kin, elohim!
The monopoly is over
“You’re superior
No!
More!”
The door closed solidly, shutting the three of them out.
Rainbow Dash spun on the griffons with a white-hot fury. “What in the flying feather was that!? ‘The princess is corrupt?’ What are you people frosting complaining about!?”
“It’s as we said on the ship,” Barbary explained as he led them away from the chamber. “The griffons have chafed for far too long under the watchful eye of the pony princesses. We now have leverage to use in our relations.”
“They weren’t talking about leverage, Crested!” Rainbow Dash stomped a foot on the marble floor. “They were talking about fighting! The king said war!”
Crested Barbary came to a fork in the hallway. He glanced to Martial paw and indicated the leftmost path. “Show Ambassador Dash to her suite; I have some things to attend to.”
Martial nodded as the griffon captain flew off. He gave Dash an uneasy smile. “It could have been worse, right?”
He was met by her level stare. “Yeah, I could have been bitten by a poisonous salamander, or had my wings broken, or been eaten by rabid bunnies.”
Martial coughed into his talon. “Alright, let’s find that room.”
The hallway stretched upwards quite a ways. The walls were lined with doors, and small ledges jutted out from their bottoms like airborne welcome mats. Griffons flitted about, going from door to door.
Rainbow Dash whistled. “I guess you guys don’t have a thing for indoor staircases?”
“Why bother?” Martial said with a flap of his wings. They flew up to one door in particular, near the top of the wall. He unlocked it and led her inside.
“Swanky,” she admitted. The suite was about the size of Fluttershy’s cottage, containing a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom loft.
“I’m, ah, glad you like it.” Martial tapped his talons on the ground as she surveyed the apartment. “It’s got a window and everything. Good stuff.”
Rainbow Dash flew to the loft and opened the window. It was far too small for anything bigger than one of the owl-tabby hybrids to squeeze through. In the distance, she could see the broken pyramid. “Huh, there aren’t even bars over the window, I’m impressed.”
“You’re a guest, not a prisoner,” Martial said. He joined her in the loft and sat beside her. “You’ll be treated well until your princesses can get all this sorted out.”
“As long as I kiss everybody’s plot?” Rainbow snorted. “This whole thing is stupid.”
“Yeah, it’s… It’s all weird.” Martial looked out the window as the sun set. The sky seemed to burn as it met the horizon. “I’m really sorry you got caught up in all this. It isn’t fair.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “I guess there’s gotta be a reason I’m here, though. I just wish I knew what it was.”
He glanced at her, his eyes trailing down to her wings. They were still covered with junk from the pelting she had received, but he didn’t much care. He clicked his beak, searching for the right words to say. He took her hoof in his talon and smiled. “It’ll all turn out alright, trust me.”
He looked into her magenta eyes and met a cold glare. She pried her hoof away and fluttered down to the living room. “That’s the thing, Martial, I did trust you.”
She walked to the kitchen and got a glass out of the cupboard. “I trusted you, I had fun with you, and… then this happened.”
Rainbow Dash briefly paused to admire the hot and cold running water spigot before pouring herself a cup. She leaned against the counter as he meandered through the living room. “If you want me to start trusting you, then be trustworthy.”
Martial’s head hung low. “We… we live in different worlds, Dash.” He took a hesitant breath in. “I… I gotta stay loyal to my king. I had to stay loyal.”
“I get that,” she nodded. “I can even respect that, but I’m not gonna trust you.”
Martial headed for the door, his wings spread in preparation for takeoff. He opened the door and turned back to her one more time. “I’m sorry, Dash, I’m really sorry.”
The door shut behind him, leaving Rainbow Dash a prisoner in a strange land.
Rainbow Dash was having a hard time sleeping. The unfamiliar bunk was the least of her issues. She could see the dark streets below, illuminated only by the moon and the occasional guard carrying a lantern. They were enforcing some sort of curfew. “Gugh, what? Are they worried that somepony’s gonna sneak into the palace and kill them in their sleep?”
A moment’s consideration brought an unwanted revelation to her. “Yeah, they probably are.”
She rolled over, turning her face from the window. The suite wasn’t much more inviting, and she fought the urge to leave a candle lit. “C’mon, Dash, nightlights are for sissies.”
The room was deathly quiet, even quieter than Ponyville at night. There was a complete lack of whispered speech, or wind in the trees, or even animal sounds. It was a little unnerving.
When a tap sounded against her window, Rainbow Dash bolted out of bed faster than any pegasus should be physically capable of.
She spun on the window with hooves held forward; ready to buck danger right in its grinning mouth. She gasped in surprise when she recognized the figure silhouetted in the frame. “Gilda? Is that you?”
The female griffon impatiently tapped at the glass again. Rainbow zipped over and unlatched it, letting Gilda stick her head inside. “Geeze, Dash,” she said. “You’re getting jumpy.”
“What are you doing in Felaccipidia?” Dash asked.
“I live here, genius.” Gilda rolled her eyes. “I was just visiting, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Rainbow Dash growled. “I remember a lot about that day.”
“Shh!” Gilda placed a talon on her beak to silence the pegasus. Far above, a guard passed by, his lantern concentrated on the ground. He swung the light-source back and forth, giving the wall a cursory glance. He passed with a grumble, and Gilda breathed a sigh of relief. “Keep it down, will you? We could both get in trouble.”
“I’m already in trouble!” Dash whispered. “Just in case you haven’t noticed the attitude I got today.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gilda shook her head. “Look, I just wanna talk.”
Rainbow Dash sat back, eyebrow raised.
“I think...” Gilda fidgeted with her wings. “I think you really need a friend here. Most of the people here want you dead. Or gone. Or dead and gone.”
“Yeah?” Dash leaned forward. “I kinda got that.”
“And,” Gilda smiled weakly, “I think you need me.”
Rainbow Dash lay back in her bed, keeping an eye on Gilda at all times. “You’re probably right, I do need a friend. A true friend.”
Gilda blinked. “And?”
“I need a friend who’ll stick by me no matter what,” Rainbow Dash said. “Who won’t throw a fit if I happen to have more friends than just her.”
“Are you still sore about that!?” Gilda clamped her mouth shut with a talon. Both the pony and the griffon held their breaths as they waited for a group of griffon guards to swoop in an arrest them. The guards didn’t come.
“Give me a break,” Gilda whispered a little more carefully. “That was years ago.”
“Yeah, and it’s not every day that I lose a friend.” Rainbow Dash turned her back to Gilda, her wings covering her head. “I’m still sore because it still hurts, you dummy.”
“Well, why’d you have to go and get such lame friends, anyway?” Gilda rested her head on her front leg. “If they couldn’t stand up for themselves, they had it coming.”
“Gilda!” Rainbow hissed. “You yelled at Fluttershy. Fluttershy! Remember her, little pegasus filly who could barely leave her house without fainting?”
“Oh,” Gilda mused. “She’s… nice.”
“You bet your pinions, she’s nice.” Rainbow Dash brought her face closer to Gilda’s. “She’s a great friend, and I’m lucky to know her.”
Rainbow Dash took off and paced in midair. “And you made enemies with Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie! Do you know how much effort it takes not to be friends with her? I used to think it was impossible!”
Rainbow landed beside the window, her eyes boring holes in Gilda’s head. “But no, you had to come back into my life and treat all my friends like horseapples.”
“And then you abandoned me for them!” Gilda gritted her beak tight. “You’ve always been loyal, Dash, what about your loyalty to me!?”
“Because you made me choose.” Rainbow Dash drooped. “You made me choose between the friends who were trying to get to know the other, and the one who was treating the others like dirt. I chose, just like you wanted.”
Gilda held back the uncool tears burning behind her eyes. “Yeah, well… You’re…”
Rainbow Dash waited for her to speak, her own eyes stinging. “I’m what?”
“You’re…” Gilda coughed hard. “You’re dead meat if you don’t stay away from my dad. Keep an eye out.”
“Your dad?” Rainbow asked.
“You know, Lord Gilded Wing.” She slipped from the window sill and hovered in place. “He’s bad news and he’s got it out for you. Later.”
Gilda flew away as quickly as she could. Rainbow Dash watched her go, a deep pit in her stomach. She latched the window, once again shutting out the outside world.
“Huh, Gilded and Gilda. Hindsight really is twenty-twenty.”
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Wait wait wait. Are you trying to redeem Gilda here?
...
Y'know, that's one of the things I love about this story. You have a lot of clever ideas that are executed quite well. I am really looking forward to seeing what you do with this.
Also, yeah. I figured out the tune of the song quite early on. Though I'm with Dashie on this one: I have no idea where all this hostility towards Equestria is coming from. You really managed to capture the sense of culture shock Dash is experiencing here. Nice work.
Just one point of contention:
I wasn't aware that frosting could be used as a replacement for an expletive, RD.
Redemption is probably the proper word for it. We'll see if her attitude improves.
Well, how well it's executed is still up for debate. We're still only 80,000 words in, after all. I have plenty of time to mess it up.
If David could do it with the psalms...
(He wrote psalms 'to the tune of' a whole buncha times, true story)
Noted. I'll have to create a nice little political intrigue chapter soonish. My idea's solid, I just need to bring a little more attention to it, is all. Give it focus.
Thank you, it's fun to write.
I have a feeling that the only pony who'd have greater culture shock than RD is AJ.
Hmm, AJ travels the world and gets into hijinks. That'd make for a fun story.
It is in my story.
I'm trying to make it a thing. It hasn't caught on yet.
See Key Change:
I'm not gonna stop unless you gimme a real reason frosting isn't a profanity.
2787156 ...
I feel like I should have some retort to that, but for some reason, I'm drawing a blank. I mean, the preferred term in the community is "bucking," but I suppose "frosting" could work.
2788286
To be clinical about this, I hold that both "Buck" and "Frosting" are equally silly terms for a horse to use as cursing. They're both quite innocuous words. Poor Applejack is a dog-loving applebucker. Pinkie Pie is full of frosting. It's as innocent as it gets.
It's all silly. I like silly.
If you want a retort, you can point out that "frosting" is not a funny word, while "buck" is. "Frosting" requires context to be funny, but I could say "buck" out of the blue and get some giggles. Therefore, "buck" is the superior cuss.
But it's still quite silly.
buckbuckbuckbuckbuckbuckbuckaw
Why the heck don't the griffons have guards checking the sky when, you know, THEY CAN ALL FLY!?
Also, I seem to be the only person reading this and going, "Yeah, the ponies had this coming."
3085696
Point. That's definitely a flaw in my writing. I think I'll take a few moments and revise that passage.
Or how the Fandom treats Celestia.
Thank you for the vote of confidence. I'll be doing my best to deliver and improve as I go.
The guards are only as smart as the author. I could probably remove that plothole, and heighten the tension, with an additional paragraph.
To be honest, your comment makes me feel that I'm taking the griffons in a good direction, if you're really sympathizing with them even a little bit. It's important for me that they be people, too.