Wait for it
Gilda’s remaining time flying was undercut by constant thoughts and worries about her impending meeting with Dash and, if Pinkie was right, all Dash’s loser friends. Although… one of those friends was Fluttershy and she wasn’t too bad, a weakling sure but not really loser material. Gilda narrowed her eyes in concentration as she tried to recall what other friends Dash had around Ponyville. Pinkie Pie was a given. She still might not really trust that pink nut but Pinkie had been helpful. She wouldn’t be too bad… hopefully. But who were the other friends? Everyone that had shown up at that party? She doubted it. It would have to be a smaller group…
She floated lazily though the sky while her mind continued to frantically work through all the ponies she had seen so far and whether or not any of them had been with Dash. However try as she might she couldn’t think of anyone that had seemed close to Dash other than Pinkie.
What if she thought about Pinkie’s friends? Her face fell as she remembered how the pink pony acted around everyone. Even Damien, a… whatever he is… that had never been to Ponyville before, was apparently counted among her friends within hours of his arrival. Close friends then, ponies that actually hung out with Pinkie on a regular basis.
Her eyes lit up in the middle of a tight loop. Twilight! Pinkie had rushed to her aid when she had thought Gilda was causing trouble. Would that make Twilight one of Pinkie’s friends? And would that make her one of Dash’s? Gilda’s beak twisted into a grimace. She’d never realized how little she knew about having friends. Her mind went back to anything she could remember Twilight saying. She had mentioned Dash! That they had been talking at the party! That surely meant they were friends… right?
Gilda nodded to herself as she skimmed the rooftops. They had to be friends. You don’t just go around telling everyone about the problems you have with old friends right? That made three ponies that she was sure she’d be able to handle. Sure she didn’t know much about Twilight but she had given free waffles, lunch, and had tried to help her work things out. She couldn’t be all bad right?
She didn’t even notice the small smile that had started to grow on her beak.
<-[XXXXX]->
Damien waved Rarity goodbye with a cheerful claw as he mentally rearranged his day. A small laugh bubbled up from his throat; back home he wouldn’t have been able to take breaks from his wards for anything. They were some of the only things keeping him alive in most circumstances. His talons drummed along his beak thoughtfully as his mind swirled with appointments and possibilities. He still had a couple hours before the fillies would get here. Enough time to get started on another round of wards perhaps? No, best just let the smoke dissipate. Rarity had been able to smell it clearly and he had to assume most ponies had similarly keen noses. The fillies would undoubtedly be more intrusive than her and he didn’t want to be held responsible if he ended up teaching them blood magic or something.
Could ponies use his kind of magic? It did just take belief and willpower, something he was sure the three little fillies had in abundance. Their personal reservoirs of power were, like all ponies, immense. NO! He quickly squashed that train of thought. He may be irresponsible, chaotic, and heedless of the safety of others at times but even he could see that giving all three of those walking disaster zones a single spell could and would come back to haunt him.
With a small shudder he returned to reorganizing his day. Doing more wards was probably out for the rest of the day. He had been planning on hunting down Lyra and Bon Bon. After Luna’s visit last night he figured one of them must have figured out what he was. Visiting Twilight was also on his list of things to do simply because that’s where all the books were. He still had a lot to learn after all.
He nodded happily to himself as he made his decision. Some more time at the library would do him good. Learn some more about Equestria, learn some more… relatable stories to perform when he got back into his storytelling, maybe even worm some state secrets from Celestia’s pupil! The last thought put a bouncy spring in his step as he gathered up his satchel and went through his customary checklist. It never hurt to be prepared after all.
<-[XXXXX]->
Twilight was pacing back and forth in the library, her thoughts raced as she contemplated the news she had received. The letter could have been a prank right? She had no idea when it had appeared on her desk. She had just woken up and it was there. But she doubted that anypony would actually try and pull a prank like this!
Her horn glowed as she levitated the scroll up to her face again and re-read it for what felt like the hundredth time in the past hour. Her eyes flick over a particular section several times. “As an outsider it is unknown what he is here for or even what he truly is or can do,” she read aloud. The letter wasn’t signed of course. That would have made the entire situation far too easy.
She shook her head as she tried to corral her thoughts. If this letter was true it would probably explain everything she had been wondering about Damien. Unfortunately it would also open up hundreds, thousands even, of new questions!
She mentally ran through everything she actually knew about Damien. He likes to tell stories, he is good at it, and he is good at manipulating others. That one was dangerous. Could he have been manipulating her too? Although his manipulations had been him trying to get Gilda to accept help. That can’t be all bad then right?
Another shake of her head. He can use magic even though he isn’t a mane, and those were the only type of griffon that could use magic, right? Does that mean he isn’t really a griffon? And what could his magic do anyway? All she had seen him do was take a picture of… something. She supposed it was a little more convenient than carrying around a camera and the picture was very high quality, another reason it had needed to die. That couldn’t be all his magic was good for right?
Her eyes widened. He was a strange being that had apparently headed right for Ponyville and had already made connections with herself and Pinkie. Two of the Elements of Harmony. With Gilda he had an excuse to get close to Dash too! Could he be planning on doing something with the elements? Should she send a letter to Princess Celestia? NO! She couldn’t do anything yet! She had to learn more about him, about what he was doing. And she would have to be as stealthy as possible about it.
Not ten seconds after she made her decision she heard the library door open.
<-[XXXXX]->
Damien mentally cursed his wandering eyes. What had originally been intended as a quick trip to the library had devolved into a shopping trip the moment he saw that several stalls that hadn’t been there yesterday had been set up. Of course as soon as he had picked up a couple artichokes and some asparagus he had remembered the pie he had gotten from Applejack yesterday. The pie he had eaten in a single sitting. Gates that thing had been good.
A predatory gleam shone in his eyes as he headed over to the cart. A grin quickly formed as he saw Applejack notice him.
“Well if it ain’t Damien. Gonna try and convince me to give ya a discount this time too?”
“But of course! The art of haggling is something one must always make use of!” He cast a rueful look around the market. “Besides, you’re the only one that comes close to actually presenting a challenge. So few of these ponies actually have the spine for true bartering.”
“Ah reckon they’re just a mite scared of ya. Griffon’s ain’t exactly know fer bein’ nice.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And I’m nice?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Ya don’t go ‘round roarin’ at everypony that gets in yer way. Ya don’t cause trouble and ya don’t bully anypony. Sounds pretty nice ta me.”
“Bah, I’m practical. There’s no point causing problems if it doesn’t benefit me.”
“Whatever ya say.” She gestured to the assortment of apple products in front of her. “What can Ah get for ya today?”
“Pies. Five of them.”
“Five? Didn’t you buy one yesterday?”
“Yeah… that ended up being my dinner. Didn’t want to deal with cooking at the time.”
“Ah see.” She pulled five delicious pies out from her cart. “Thirty-nine bits.”
Damien smiled and placed the money on the cart, then moved a full third of the pile off to the side. “How about twenty-six?”
“Not happenin’,” She moved all but one of the bits back to the main pile with a pointed look. “You moved here with Gilda right?”
“Yeah, met her in the forest, she helped me out so I owed her.” He moved some bits from the pile. “Loyal customer.”
“Two days ain’t proof of loyalty.” Applejack once again moved all but one bit back. “You know what she’s here for?”
Damien moved the bits around again. “Think she wants to befriend Dash again, though if Pinkie has anything to say about it she’ll be friends with half the town before the week is out.”
Applejack looked at his newest counteroffer for a moment before starting to move the one bit pieces around. “Thought so. You reckon she’s willin’ to go through all that or not?”
Damien quickly moved the bits around. They were down to changes of a couple bits between offers. “Think so. Got a lot of hurt pride. Get her feeling better and she’ll probably do anything. Why?”
Applejack moved a single coin. “Dash wants all of us to meet up later today. She was actin’ mighty suspicious ‘bout it too. Thought it might have something to do with Gilda.”
Damien narrowed his eyes at Applejacks offer for a few moments before nodding and sliding the remaining bits back into his pouch. “Probably. Gilda has a play date set up with Dash later. Sounds like she’s in for a shock.”
Applejack nodded as she let him place the pies in his satchel. “Reckon yer right. Take care now.”
Damien nodded as he glanced at the sun. He should probably be heading back home now. The crusaders were probably going to get there sometime in the next half hour if his guess was right. Humming tunelessly to himself he set off at a jog back home, a pity he hadn’t managed to actually stop at the library.
<-[XXXXX]->
“Gilda!” Twilight yelped as the griffon entered the library.
“Uhhh, hey,” Gilda said hesitantly as she rubbed the back of her head with a talon.
“I… didn’t really expect you to come back here so soon. You don’t really seem like the ‘book’ type.”
“I… Actually I’m here to ask you something.”
Twilight’s eyes widened slightly. “What do you need?”
“Well I’m meeting up with Dash later and Pinkie said that ‘everypony’ would be there. I kinda wanted to know what she meant by that.”
Twilight looked slightly confused. “I guess she meant all six of us.” At Gilda’s expectant look she continued. “Well there’s me and Pinkie. You already know us though. Then there’s Fluttershy, she-”
“Lives over by the Everfree. I already know her… a little.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, she always helped bandage me and Dash up when we got hurt doing stupid stuff.” She rolled her eyes with a smile. “We kept her pretty busy.”
Twilight smiled at the look on Gilda’s face. Maybe getting her to make more friends would be easier than she had thought. “Well next is Rarity, she’s a unicorn fashion designer.”
Gilda’s head moved back with an expression of disbelief. “Dash is friends with a fashion designer? Dash? Thinks that she’s already perfect Dash? Never wears clothing if she doesn’t have to Dash? With a fashion designer?”
Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle at Gilda’s disbelief. The two did make a somewhat odd pair. “Yes. Rarity is very meticulous about everything and a very generous pony. Don’t be surprised if she tries to give you a makeover when she sees you.” She paused for a moment. “She also really likes romance and drama so don’t be surprised if she acts a little… eccentric.”
Gilda merely nodded mutely at this. There was no way she was going to let some prissy little pony mess with her feathers if she had anything to say about it.
“Last is Applejack. She’s an earth pony farmer. She’s very strong and competes with Dash quite often. Anytime Ponyville has any sort of athletic event you can count on them both to be there.”
“That sounds more like Dash,” Gilda said happily.
“Applejack is a little like the opposite of Rarity, very down to earth and straightforward.”
Gilda nodded at this thoughtfully. “I was worried that Dash’d be dragging a bunch of dweebs along to try and push my buttons or something from what Pinkie said. I can handle you, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. Applejack sounds like she might be fun and I’m sure Rarity isn’t going to be too bad.”
“Everything will work out fine, trust me,” Twilight assured the still nervous griffon. She looked at a clock on the wall before continuing. “It’s getting close to noon; we better head to the restaurant if we don’t want to be late.”
“Uhh, sure thing,” Gilda said awkwardly as she headed for the door. Everything will work out just fine, she assured herself. She cast a furtive glance down the street. Just fine.
<-[XXXXX]->
Damien glanced back and forth as he stalked through the house, his talons twitching expectantly as he glared into every shadow and corner. The corridor was silent except for the soft click of his claws on the smooth wooden floor. He slowly passed through the doorway leading back to the foyer when he heard a soft intake of breath.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER AMBUSHERS CHARGE!” the three fillies cried out as they detached themselves from the ceiling and dive bombed towards Damien’s unprotected back.
Damien quickly found himself trapped under a giggling pile of ponies and couldn’t help but join in with the laughter. “Congratulations, you got me that time.”
The fillies all stood up immediately and examined each other’s flanks expectantly, only to moan in disappointment when their searching gazes were met with nothing.
“I was sure we’d get our cutie marks that time!” Applebloom moaned despondently.
Damien grinned. “That’s probably for the best; I don’t think ambushing griffons is a very useful special talent.” He laughed again as he saw the grumpy looks on each of the crusaders faces. “Maybe if you tried something more practical? I doubt many ponies got their marks simply by causing chaos with random stunts.”
Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up. “You don’t understand. You’re a griffon. You didn’t have to worry about cutie marks.”
Damien flicked her on the forehead. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t have trouble figuring out what I was meant to do. Made it harder actually. I didn’t have a handy little tattoo that appeared when I figured out what my talent was.” He smiled at the ancient memory. It was an undignified one to be sure but it had marked his start down the twisting paths of deception and subterfuge.
Scootaloo looked curiously up at the smiling griffon. “And what is your talent?”
“Books. Book and stories.”
The three fillies looked incredulously at him for a moment. “Like a librarian?” Applebloom piped up.
“Not in the slightest. My talents deal with what’s in books. The knowledge they hold and how it applies to the world. Stories shape reality and reality shapes the stories, knowledge tells you how to use the world and the world changes in response, an infinite cycle that those with the cunning to see it can understand and manipulate.” He grinned.
His statement was met with silence.
“Let’s try this again. People like to act out stories they like right?”
The fillies nodded at this, most of their ideas for cutie marks came from cool sounding stories.
“So if someone knows what stories a person likes they’ll know what that person will probably do. If I were to tell you a story about the fire breathers of outer islands, specifically how they performed their act.” He paused and shot the expectant fillies a stern look. “And I won’t. Then I would be able to predict what you three would likely do the moment you got out of eyesight.”
The crusaders did their best to look innocent. They somehow even managed to form little halos over their heads. Damien didn’t buy it for a second.
“As long as I know what stories you’ve heard and what you like about them I’ll be able to predict what kind of stunts you’ll try to pull. A hero will act out the heroic ballads, a romantic will go for the tragic romances and the like. Once I know that it becomes easy to figure out how to stop you from doing them. That’s what my talent means.”
“Could you teach us to-” Scootaloo began.
“No. My talents require me to read every book I can get my hands on and listen to every story I can. I doubt you three have the… temperament for such marathons of studying.”
All but Sweetie Belle looked thoroughly turned off the idea by the mention of studying. “Since you’re so good at figuring things out can you figure out what out cutie marks are?” she asked.
“I don’t know any of you well enough for that. Besides, isn’t the entire point of a cutie mark something that you find for yourself?”
They looked crestfallen at his inability to help them.
He rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t mean I’m unable to help you out though. I’m sure we can find your special talents soon enough.”
They brightened at that. “But nothing we come up with works. What if you tried to teach us something?” Scootaloo asked excitedly.
Damien lowered his eyes as he started running through a list of things he might be able to teach the fillies. Pretty much anything involving his previous occupation was probably a bad idea. Even with his limited exposure to the crusaders he knew teaching them how to make deathtraps, fight, either unarmed or not, or use magic, especially use magic, would end in disaster.
He doubted that hero slaying would be a well-received talent, along with demon summoning, torture, or any of the other less savory arts he had perfected over the years. His eyes widened in surprise when he realized just how few benign skills he had mastered over the years. He paused for a moment on sleight of hand but they probably didn’t have the necessary manual dexterity for most of the things he could show them. Cooking was something they had certainly tried before and he was not about to sacrifice the contents of his kitchen to them quite yet.
An evil grin slowly formed as he had an idea. “I don’t think anything I can teach you would work out. But I do know what always helps people come to terms with themselves and grow as people.” He looked down at the three fillies. “Let’s go on an adventure.”
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Yay Cutie Mark Crusaders. Adventure Time
. Good set up for the next chapter, I enjoyed this one a lot as well 
Yay an adventure. What could possibly go wrong?
Dun Dun DUUUUUN something is gonna happen....
"He can use magic even though he isn’t a mane." - What?
"Maybe if you tired something more practical?" - Did you mean tried?
"They somehow even managed to from little halos over their heads." - Did you mean form?
YAY CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ADVENTURERS!
246956
Earlier in the story it's established that griffons with manes are the magic users of the griffon nation.
248183
I forgot about that
CUTIE MARK CRUSADER BLOOD MAGES, YAY!
Scene:
"by the dark and unhallowed ones we demand you to use thine powers to show our marks!"
"See anything!?"
"No..."
"Awwww"
"Ok next idea!"
[youtube=GhMvKv4GX5U]
Adventure Time!
A (retired) Evil Overlord babysitting the CMC? This is gonna go to Pit real fast. Pit is his way of saying "Hell", right? And Gates for "Heaven"?
875060
I may be wrong, but the "pit", "gates", and "gatekeeper" sound more Greek to me. "Pits" referring to Tartarus and "gates/gatekeeper" referring to the gates to the underworld.
Quite the contrary. It would backfire far too quickly to qualify as ‘coming back to haunt him.’ Probably instantaneously.