Patricia Sab Saqr is an adopted griffon, and the familes who care about her don't trust each other until Luna steps in.
Salon owner Maudlin Makeover of Cloudsdale loses her family in the Griffon Territories. Years later she discovers her granddaughter survived, adopted by the Clan Von Gryffon. Princess Luna risks war trying to resolve the issue and remake a family. Ruby Dream and Lofty are taken from My Little Alicorn by InsertAuthorHere Artwork by Newlifer on Deviant art Edited with help from Sessalisk who was referred to me by Inquisitor M and my good friend, who thinks of me as a cousin, Faerthurin.
When the clan Von Gryffon adopted orphans they were overjoyed. Every new addition to their clan was a blessing of untapped potential and they openly promoted the potential of being free individuals within the framework of the clan. The orphan’s legal guardian instructed them in flight, duty to the clan and defensive arts. The clan provided sport, friends and professional instructors, yet sometimes they studied foreign techniques.
Shameless Merchant Guild promotion for the annual aerobatics show drew an audience from every clan in a week's travelling distance and farther. The visiting Wonderbolts loved making new fans this far from Equestria and those fans thrilled at their maneuverability and coordination. One young Von Gryffon in particular was overjoyed when she got a group photograph signed by all three. She finally understood the trick to flying in formation and looked forward to teaching her entire clan.
Weeks later a wall-eyed mail mare arrived with a letter for the whole clan. A pony from Cloudsdale said their adopted orphan was her last living relative and was supposed to be living with her.
The elders of the entire clan listened to the letter being read out by the foal’s guardian and then roared in indignation. The stories of pony markings were terrifying and the idea that it was used to confine someone to a single role their entire life without a chance to change was horrific!
Acting decisively, her guardian asked two things of the elders. First he needed authority to speak for the whole clan and second he needed a Merchant Guild bounty on any trespassers into the canyons. Both were agreed to and while the clan trusted him, the guardian worried that his daughter would want to turn her back on everything he’d seen growing in her as a Von Gryffon.
The problem was, she was free to choose as an individual. Cloudsdale had attacked the one vulnerability his clan’s law allowed, and now he had no choice... he had to talk things out with the mare from Cloudsdale, this Maudlin Makeover.
-_==========_-
Like a statue Gunter Sab Saqr watched the mail mare depart and closed his eyes. He had defend his clan from mad cultists and had fought a whole war to do so, yet could he defend his daughter Patricia from her past? Taking off heavily, he did what griffons do when they feel down... he sang into the wind so nobody would hear:
“There was a girl... a very strange enchanted girl, She wandered very far... very far... over clouds to me. She was terrified, and sad of eye, Yet very wise was she. Because each day... each day she passes my way, And we speak of many things, Fools and kings, Yet this she reminds me: The greatest thing... you ever learn... Is just to love, And be loved... in return.”
Gunter sighed, resolving to settle this swiftly for his clan... and his adopted daughter, Patricia Sab Saqr who most knew as “Patty the Pegasus”.
Long ago there was a salon owner in Cloudsdale who was showing her daughter how to run the salon. At her daughter’s suggestion she allowed her to arrange discount services for ponies that did the same. The “Proper Price Network” improved costs and reputations, earning its founder the cutie mark of one hoof pulling up another.
Cloudsdale's admiration ended with pregnancy and a fleeing stallion. Whispering and laughter behind hastily closed doors saw discounts become leaner, though some were reassured seeing the family caring for their new foal.
When a griffon bounty hunter tracked the deadbeat dad to Saddle Arabia the foal's mother, the under-appreciated foal, a network lawyer, and her father set-out to restore their reputations. Busy with a bridal party, the salon's owner had to see them off from the salon’s front door.
That day passed... and then a week. That week became a month... and then two with no contact until a tattoo-bearing griffon approached the salon, confirming her worst fears. What made it worse was that she had lost everyone she trusted enough to confide in, so night after night she wept alone.
Sad, bitter years later she still had her contract with the Wonderbolts. When they were invited to the griffon territories for the first time in living memory she dutifully and quietly cleaned them up and polished their appearances to match their promotional photographs, silently feeling worse every time they mentioned the word griffon... which was a lot.
Upon their return they told her a tale of glory and, strangely, a pegasus filly, including the phrase, “She looked like a filly version of you.” Pressing the pegasus that said it against the cloud wall of her salon, Maudlin subjected him to ten minutes of intense interrogation before flying to the nearest legal firm.
-_==========_-
Princess Luna’s early evening found Maudlin sobbing in the salon's office. Looking up, she forgot to bow, her face a mask of despair. She’d seen the newspaper when she’d taken in her mail, reading the headline: “Griffons prize prying ponies!” and instantly felt drained of all hope.
On cue Luna's assistant Ruby Dream gave her a shoulder to sob on before Luna noticed the rest of the letters on her desk. She rekindled hope in her heart when she noticed the weathered letter and spoke softly. “Looking at this, I think the Von Gryffons want to discuss what is best for your granddaughter. Their Merchant Guild permits private security guards... if you would allow me the honour?”
Planning the trip and having already closed for the night, Maudlin dared to sing as she swept up:
“Hearing stories here and there, A happy family or just a pair, I was stuck in my black night. There's a glow I used to know, It felt like heaven's light.
Never again would I know, That warm and loving glow, Imprisoned in plain sight. No pony who had what I had, Gets another ray of heaven's light.
But suddenly Fate smiled at me Equal parts both hope and fright,
Can it be that she Might be returned to me? And as I close tonight, My dark clouds become so bright! I swear this is heaven's light!”
After a long, cold and dirty war the survivors returned to often empty homes, facing long days recycling materials, locating next-of-kin and grim burials. For one soldier a bottomless well of scouting and bounty hunting jobs numbed the pain of his loss.
Then a mare showed him a better way. Seeking the whereabouts of a stallion who'd fled his new foal, she was initially just another Merchant Guild client yet he showed unnatural flair, praising the client’s motherly virtue. Declaring that a single mother’s virtue was worth defending, his acceptance bore his full name and title.
Fully dispensing with his usual stoic mannerisms he sent her updates wherever he went, comparing what he encountered to what he’d seen during peacetime, slowly, one letter, one secret at a time, opening up to the mare in Cloudsdale. Soon she began to write replies, one letter, one secret at a time, disclosing details about the sire of her foal, what happened between them and his flight. Letter by letter the pair learned about each other. Letter by letter the griffon’s sorrow over his loss began to lift. Letter by letter the mare in Cloudsdale began to appreciate the foal she had and the confidant she was gaining.
Eventually, months later, his investigation came to an end. Sadly the stallion had died in a bar fight near Saddle Arabia. Writing with a heavy heart, he asked if there were any traditions he should carry out in the mare’s absence. The stunning reply took so long the griffon worried that she'd taken offense at his offer.
The mare requested a security escort within the territories. She wanted to meet him! Granted she had to verify the stallion's death, (her father and legal council would help finish the last of the paperwork) and she was long-overdue for a holiday with her foal (her mother was busy with a large bridal party), yet she wanted just to meet him!
He was floored! She wasn't chasing up money, or skeptical about his work, she wanted to meet him! Suddenly giddy, youthful hope bloomed and soon he gathered his old Fourth Guardian Squad as an honor guard to meet them near the clan’s canyons... only to find almost total tragedy had been waiting.
-_==========_-
Several furlongs before from the rendezvous point Princess Luna had left the party to chase down suspicious reflections of sunlight, trusting Maudlin Makeover to safely approach the canyons. Slightly before Maudlin heard the greeting song from its bluffs she saw the great griffon that slowly rose to meet them singing:
“You've been lost and felt alone. Now you navigate the globe, Finding what I hope for too."
"And the way we fly and float, Circumnavigating hope. Trying to keep control With you...”
That was when the rest of the greeting party and their Guardian squad on the ground began chorusing to back him while rhythmically beating the ground to accompany his voice.
“Every one of us was hurt, Every one of us was scarred, Every one of us was scared With you...”
He looked earnestly in the eyes of his guests above the chorus' crescendo.
“Our eyes closed, Our heads hurt, We were all brought low...”
Suddenly the music below him stopped and he sang in mid air amidst the sound of beating wings.
“Every one of us is scared, Every one of us is hurt, Every one of us has hope... ... For you.”
Meeting his earnest gaze, Maudlin Makeover flew beside him toward the canyons. As they landed the greeting party, including a naga and a wingless griffon began to lead them to refreshments set out for Ruby Dream, her filly Lofty and Maudlin Makeover. As they were introducing themselves and finding paperwork for their status as hired guards, Luna approached from the desert skys.
The greeting party took one look at her mane before their leader roared. “Guardians! To the walls!”
Luna found nothing save fragments of glass amid the sand, and though she planned to discover what had produced that much concentrated heat she was already behind schedule. Returning to the air she slowly resumed course under her sister's sun, soon seeing a greeting party. Bracing her wings for landing Luna heard a wingless griffon sound an unnaturally clear roar that echoed through the canyons. “Guardians! To the walls!” Hasty defensive lines suddenly sequestered all non-combatants, including her subjects.
Seeing Luna's uncertain landing the griffon marched forward, intoning that magic or manipulations from “The Mare Of The Moon“ would not be tolerated by her clan under the principles of the Merchant Guild. Sadly closing her eyes, Maudlin Makeover's bodyguard promised to show the whole clan she would qualify as safe and reliable before seeing curious eyes over the griffon's back.
Luna canted her head and the griffon sighed. “Yes Patty, your grandmother asked the Mare of the Moon to get her here safely.” A choked gasp caused everyone to turn. Maudlin Makeover was in shock. Taking halting steps toward the filly version of herself she heard “Grandma?” before scooping her up into both the clouds and a sobbing hug.
Smiling warmly at the sight, Luna noticed the strange sadness of the clan and one hulking griffon looking particularly deflated. Suddenly she realised two things. First was that the deflated griffon was the foal's legal guardian, Gunter Sab Saqr. Secondly the whole clan had adopted “Patty the pegasus”, and were contemplating the loss of a child they had raised since infancy.
-_==========_-
Amid great pumps feeding water to the whole canyon a kind-eyed naga with a nose piercing told Luna's party the first part of a familiar story. Patricia Sab Saqr bounced beside her grandmother as she spoke. “Amidst the prosperity and tyranny of the Royal Family Griffin an Equestrian mare arrived...”
-_==========_-
The mare was shrouded in night even when she was seen in daylight. All listened eagerly to her promises of freedom and equality. Before returning to fulfil her promises a rainbow burned her face into the moon during an unexpected eclipse. The all-seeing image of The Mare Of The Moon terrified the Royal Family into signing a Merchant Guild treaty. Now all disputes were settled as property matters and any individual failing to follow the Guild's decisions risked withdrawal of Guild protection and services.
-_==========_-
"Now all the records are kept acording to Guild standards and conventions." Reconstruction of the hall of records saw Ruby Dream admiring the restoration and transcription of even routine notations. Representing the Guild, a keythong with a carved beak called Ramel (“Sandy” when abroad) showed them through, picking up up where the naga had left off. "Now, where were we? Oh yes! The recent unprofitable activity..."
-_==========_-
When the moon’s “face” vanished amidst an unnatural night twisted dreams of griffon supremacy resurfaced via a lost cult. Using magic they sabotaged infrastructure across the territories. Their terror attacks were stopped when the cult members were rooted out, though many left terrible destruction before their end.
-_==========_-
"I personally oversaw the trials of the traitors. They wouldn't even negotiate by the end of it, Crying out to a code that noone else understood and unwilling to see why they were not honoring the values they professed to love." The falcon-headed white lion from the greeting party had a brightly tattooed beak to match her plumage and neck. She finished the story while Inspecting the food storage, Maudlin Makeover gasping at the cured and preserved meats section. Still it wasn't till the late afternoon that the elder checking new rope bridges, an ancient-looking minotaur, pointed to the ring in his nose and explained the magic ban of the clans. "The nose is how you show RESPECT. Let me tell you, it's not to the elders..."
-_==========_-
King Sombra of the Crystal Empire enslaved it's ponies and traders from distant lands. The griffons who escaped using magic songs, scarred their beaks removing the slave rings. The first wave of survivors became the Royal Family Griffin and anyone upholding their code was marked in homage to the slave rings they once bore. -_==========_-
By sunset at Gunter's cave Patricia was begging Maudlin to share tales of her mother. The sight brought smiles to the faces of everyone there as Ruby Dream began sharing the muffins she brought from Equestria.
Luna was only just returning from raising the moon far from the canyon as Maudlin turned from the eager foal to Gunter and solemnly queried the one difference from the foal she remembered. Patricia's bright white hair used to be gold.
Gunter sighed in the saddest of resignation. His voice was gravely and dull as he looked at his guests. “Anyone who can stay awake can hear that story.” Retrieving an old music box with an odd metal cylinder inside, he wound it so it's tinny, disjointed music accompanied his deep lullaby:
“A gentle breeze from Canterlot Mountain Softly blows to Horseshoe bay. It fills the sails of pony boats waiting, Waiting to sail your nightmares away.”
The foals began sagging, their eyes closing as the music sapped their strength. Luna's forelegs picked Lofty up as Ruby Dream readied a spare bed for her and Patty.
“It isn't far to Canterlot Mountain And your boat waits down by the quay. The Mare of the Moon so softly is singing, Soon she will guide your troubles to sea.”
Both the foals were laying on the comfortable borrowed beds as the song steadily came to an end.
“So close your eyes upon Canterlot Mountain. Wave good-bye to nightmares of that day, And see that boat from Canterlot Mountain Sail far away on Horseshoe bay.“
Stopping the box's sad chiming by closing the lid, Gunter noticed Patricia had taken longer than before to fall asleep. If he wasn't sure that she was growing beyond his capacity as a guardian before, he was sure of it now. Sadly, as his adopted daughter half-heard and half-dreampt, he began to tell the tale of Pepper Mint and her daughter's changing hair.
Once there was an intrepid, spirited pegasus travelling with her father, filly, and councillor to meet a Guardian she'd fallen in love with by mail. While getting water at a spring they were caught in a rock slide.
When the Clan Von Gryffon's Fourth Guardian squad flew out to meet them their supply officer found the only survivors: a dying mare and her crying foal. Looking into his eyes for the first and last time she spoke her last words: “Gunter? Protect my daughter.”
While the rest of the squad were still combing through debris the foal was being flown to the nearest healer. While the healer saw to the cuts, bruises and immediate state of shock as her hair changed from gold to white, it was the next few days that showed the rest of the damage setting in.
For the first week she was nearly catatonic and screamed in terror when called Emerald Heart. At night she suffered nightmares, crying out for her mother while the supply officer tried his best to comfort her. The clan's Guardian became her legal guardian, chosing to adopt her under his own family name: Patricia Sab Saqr of the clan Von Gryffon. The Merchants Guild sourced an enchanted zebra music cylinder to allow her to sleep, yet it was the clan who reported no pony survivor by the name of “Emerald Heart” as legally she no longer counted as such.
The foal's guardian was happy to raise her as his own daughter, as his whole family had been lost to the war against the cult. The whole clan was proud of her gaining the confidence to fly and inspiring others to recover from personal injury and loss. She became the beacon of hope for many... then years later, the Merchant's Guild held a show by The Wonderbolts...
-_==========_-
Sitting in the lounge, a curtain muffling sound from the foals, Gunter spoke in little more than a whisper. “My whole clan has worked to give her a home.” His stony gaze turned to Maudlin and Luna as his voice recovered a martial edge. “I wasn't selected right away as her guardian. Anyone who wants power over others must subject themselves to scrutiny from the whole clan. The more power, the more probing the scrutiny.
“Griffons are naturally powerful creatures and we distinguish ourselves by restraint. Some legends say we were forged as guardians of ancient treasures and knowledge, and perhaps that is why any blemish against one's character can stop their advancement.” His tone lightened substantially. “One objection kept me from being my squad's leader: Being too forgiving of a cultist. This didn't count against me raising Patricia.”
Maudlin Makeover suddenly confronted Gunter in hushed staccato tones. “You admit that griffons are violent? Constantly having to watch each other for irrational and destructive behaviour? Yet you wanted to raise an innocent filly?” She hissed her next word with disdain. “Orphaned in a broken desert fortress? You're monsters.”
Maudlin response saw Gunter struck mute as Luna stood between them. “Perhaps you know something about orphans that we don’t?” Quickly Ruby Dream produced a large photo album and Luna pried an otherwise hidden photograph out of the cover eliciting a gasp.
“No! He won’t understand.” While she was almost in shock Gunter studied the monochrome photograph of the Baltimare Orphanage and a filly smiling nervously beside a respectable stallion with a tie and an insincere smile on his face.
“A stallion that wanted a business trustee and tax deduction.” Luna spoke with the certainty of familiarity. “So to prove you were more than a benefit you ran the salon to make them proud, not just satisfied.”
Ruby Dream chimed in. “When you took ownership of the salon, you were happy to see your daughter innovate and create like you had. We were all proud of your family.” She smiled as she spied Patricia watching her grandmother from behind the curtain.
“I’m the only family she has left, her only connection to home. I can't lose her again.” The last word was a pleading whine. Gunter was about to reply when a small set of hooves cantered around from behind the elderly mare.
“Grandma? Daddy's objection was to being a squad leader, not my daddy. He's too nice for that.” Patricia looked over at Luna and Ruby Dream. “If no one here objects, can grandma stay with us if she wants?”
Thinking about it, Luna realised that the stilted glances of Cloudsdale high society may be less welcoming than the Merchant Guild and a welcoming clan, especially as she wasn't leaving anyone behind her. “I can arrange it so she can stay here.”
“Forever?” For the first time, Patricia, Gunter and Maudlin all looked oddly hopeful.
Chapter 6. Maudlin Make-Over's Beauty School for Griffins.
Patricia “Emerald” Sab Saqr closed the family album, looking at her foal. This was her favourite part of the story. “Then aunt Luna said your great grandmother could set up her first beauty school, and grampa Gunter learned cutie marks aren’t tattoos and really do appear by magic! Someday yours will too when you learn what you love.” She smiled as her daughter looked at hers, a cracked emerald heart with a bandage around the middle. Leaning over she kissed her forehead, leaving her to snuggle her plush bunny rabbit.
Returning to her husband of four years, her adopted griffon father with newly-carved beak and Princess Luna sitting in Maudlin Makeover's Beauty School for Griffins. Luna was smiling, the stars in her mane mirroring the canyon's night sky outside. Offering drinks to all, the toasts began.
“Hard in-law to impress.”
“Honorable... willing to go wherever was right.”
“The subject who opened the Merchant Guild to my kingdom.”
