Unglued
"...and over here, we have the very famous Friendship Fountain!" the young pegasus who couldn't stop smiling exclaimed. "This spectacular monument to our strongest source of magic was founded all the way back during..."
"Yawn..." Kurt remarked out loud. He mimed a long, overplayed yawn right after it, and his friends did their best to muffle their laughter.
The dark gray pegasus ignored them, or was perhaps oblivious to any ridicule of his efforts, and led the group further out of the shade as he went on with his lengthy presentation of Fillydelphia's most important landmarks. They drifted closer and closer to the heap of marble statues, representing a sort of "friendship-orgy" drenched in sprays of water coming from all directions, and those in the group all gave silent thanks once they were in range of the cool vapor.
"Check it out, Kurt!" Syd whispered to his friend. He pointed one of his talons toward one of the figures on the fountain and giggled. "That mare's flank is almost as big as your mum's!"
"You're two-timing your sister with my mom now?"
"Syd likes the wide flank," Dave chimed in. "Especially if it gets wet..."
"Notice the anatomical precision?" their guide continued without skipping a beat. "The incredible attention to detail? All classic elements of the post-alicorn age, during which the great artists returned to..."
The three griffons kept mocking him and laughing at nearly everything he said. Even some of the ponies from their group had to stifle a laugh every now and then as increasingly ridiculous ideas began to spring forth about the true nature of the fountain.
"Um, excuse me!" someone called out all of a sudden. "What do those figures actually represent?"
The laughter immediately stopped. The pegasus' monologue came to a sudden halt as he searched, wide-eyed, for the source of the interruption. The heads of a hooffull of youngsters before him turned left and right, just as confused as he was, until they slowly split apart at the middle and revealed a fourth griffon in the back. The tour guide's eyes landed upon him, and the griffon immediately shrank together once he realized he was exposed.
"Great..." Kurt muttered. "'Mr. Goody Horseshoes' had to open his big beak..."
The pegasus' smile widened - even further than anypony around him thought possible - overjoyed at the prospect of someone actually taking interest in his long-winded speech. He then proceeded to explain how the statue of a unicorn mare with water shooting from the tip of her horn straight into an earth pony's mouth, while both were held aloft by a pegasus with outstretched wings that had water shooting out from the tips, had anything to do with "the magic of friendship."
-----
They had to spend well over ten minutes in the exact same spot, slowly baking under the afternoon sun, before the guide finally allowed them to move on. The temperature in Fillydelphia could rise to torturous levels this time of year, the weather patrols only taking action if there was a risk of drought, and there were few tall buildings or trees in this part of town. Thankfully, the water from the fountain was able to provide some relief. This was probably the reason why nopony decided to complain, nor went ahead and punched Frankie, the shy member of the griffon quartet, in the face for the delay he had caused.
"I just wanted to be nice to him," he muttered, mostly to himself.
Instead, they silently kept biting their own tongues and waited patiently for the end of the mandatory guided tour - another one of the many brilliant ideas Cloudsdale Flight Academy had planned for their little "vacation." The moment the pegasus leading their group called out "free time," the entire flock of hapless ponies dispersed, and even the griffons were looking forward to what Fillydelphia really had to offer.
Sadly, as it turned out, it wasn't much. "The City of Blooming Friendship" was about as lively as that nickname suggested, with very few (legal) activities to entertain a group of ambitious youngsters. With thinly veiled disappointment, the trio of griffon friends returned to the youth hostel their school arranged for them, hoping to at least get a good night's sleep.
Their desire for excitement, however, could not remain bottled up for too long.
"Are you sure about this, Kurt?" Syd asked. "I mean, you know what this does to him, right?" The dark brown griffon shushed him and crept further along the corridor connecting the rooms.
Frankie suffered from an extremely rare condition: Insania excrementum vespertilii. Unless properly treated by taking medication every single day, it would result in a rather wild combination of hyperactivity and a severely disfigured sense of reality. Or, as some of his doctors attempted to explain it, "it basically turns his blood sugar into cocaine."
"He's got a point, bro," Dave added. "Remember what happened last time?"
They had to suppress a laugh at that thought. The week that Frankie had been diagnosed with this condition coincided with last year's "school-arranged vacation" in Hoofington. The other three griffons did not find the city quite to their liking, quickly became bored, and decided to find out what might happen if Frankie were to "misplace" his medication.
The following morning, an unsuspecting mare walked up to him, and asked to exchange a banknote for some bits. Unknowingly, she thus managed to instigate Frankie's very own "crusade for the poor and helpless," which led to him randomly snatching tourists and ordinary middle-class citizens off the streets so he could gather them in front of the main office building of the city's sewer department. Once he built up a sizable group, he banged on the doors and demanded "food and shelter" for the confused crowd, shortly before losing consciousness and having to spend the next day in the hospital with no memory of his actions.
"So what?" Kurt hissed. "Besides, don't you remember how it ended?"
As bizarre as it may have been, the incident did manage to raise awareness in Hoofington about its less fortunate inhabitants. The following week, the very same abducted ponies even organized a charity and sheltering effort, which they funded from their own pockets.
All it took was one crazy griffon to come along and "save them..."
Dave wiped a tear from his eye once he managed to stop giggling. "Well... yeah, but... what if something really bad happens this time?" he asked.
Truth be told, while he could be annoying at times, Frankie was by no means crazy or malevolent. As a matter of fact, he was an incredibly empathic individual, and he always did his best to help those around him. His condition, if left unchecked, merely amplified this quality of his, turning him into a sort of "hyperactive savior."
Or, as the other three griffons kept hoping, "tomorrow's main attraction..."
Kurt shushed them both again and carefully opened the door they had been sneaking up to. He peeked in to make sure their victim wasn't in the room (the others were downstairs having dinner), crept inside, and approached the reclusive griffon's bed. Next to it, on top of the nightstand, he found what he was looking for: a small, translucent box of pills.
Kurt peeked behind his back one last time, making sure the coast was still clear. His friends nodded, and he emptied the contents of the box. After the last pill rolled out, he took out a box of his own, unscrewed the cap, and poured its contents out as well. He smiled as he compared the two piles of tablets, finding them to be almost indistinguishable, and proceeded to replace Frankie's medication with his own "medicine", which was basically a placebo that looked like the real thing.
Once he was done, Kurt quickly swept up the real pills, poured them into the fake ones' box, and tiptoed outside with a big grin on his face. There was no going back from the prank itself, but he knew Frankie was going to need his meds eventually.
About an hour later, the three friends crawled out of the window of their room, and quietly hovered up to Frankie's window to take a peek inside. Sure enough, he came straight back after dinner, and picked up his med box to take his final dose for that day. Syd and Dave could barely hold back their laughter, and even Kurt nearly lost it as they watched the unsuspecting griffon pick up a trio of "pills" from the orange container, gulp them down without a second thought, then calmly lie down on his bed and close his eyes.
Phase one was successful. Now came phase two...
-----
The moment Frankie came back to his senses, he knew that something was wrong. Very wrong.
His eyebrows furrowed as he fidgeted around under the covers, his entire body shivering despite the warmth in the room. Increasingly odd thoughts began to swim around in his head, keeping him on edge for no apparent reason, and he quickly pinched himself to make sure he wasn't still dreaming.
Strange, he thought. He was used to having odd dreams from time to time where he might feel the way he did now, but even those ended once he was actually awake. It's almost like that time I lost my—
His hind leg bumped against something. His eyes immediately shot open, and he quickly rose from the soft embrace of the mattress. His vision was blurry, the objects in the room appearing to be moving around, but he couldn't focus on them at the moment.
On the far end of his bed was a small black suitcase, a yellow sticky note attached to its handle with a bunch of lines scribbled onto it. Without thinking, his claw snatched up the note and brought it before his eyes.
THEY ARE COMING. WATCH THE SIGNS! YOU ARE OUR ONLY HOPE!
No, he thought. His heart was ready to burst from his chest. No, it can't be! How did they find me? I never told anyone!
A series of loud bangs on the door nearly made him jump out of his skin. "FRANKIE!" someone bellowed from outside. "GET OUT HERE! YOUR TIME HAS COME!"
"NO!" he screamed. "YOU WILL NEVER GET ME, FIENDS!"
-----
The three griffons were already laughing when they saw the reaction on Frankie's face once he read the note. But the best part was yet to come.
"Frankie!" the guide from yesterday exclaimed lazily. He knocked on the door of the shy griffon's room a few times, hoping that the kid wasn't shutting himself in after nobody volunteered to be his roommate. "Come on, it's time to get up! The tour is about to—"
He could not finish his sentence. The griffon with the light blue plumage let out a blood curdling scream, and a split second after the giggling trio managed to move out of the way, he flew straight through the closed window, which sent a cloud of shattered glass raining down onto the street below.
The three friends flew back together and quickly high-fived before they doubled over, laughing uncontrollably.
"That... was... AWESOME!" Dave said, barely able to breathe.
"His scream!" Syd joined in. "They'll think there's a dragon on the loose!"
"I'll be opening every window like that from now on!"
"Okay guys, enough!" Kurt stepped in. He quickly tried to catch his breath before continuing. "Let's follow him before we miss out on the rest of the show!"
-----
"Wheredoigowhatdoidowhatisgoingon— AAAAH!" he screamed. His free claw clutched his chest, feeling his heart as it put a jackhammer to shame, while the other one firmly held on to the case he found on his bed. A peek behind his back confirmed his suspicions: a trio of winged beasts were waiting in ambush right outside the window of his room, and they now appeared to be flying straight after him. The muscles in his wings burned as he struggled to propel himself as fast and as far away as he could.
I knew it would come to this, he thought. I should have prepared. I should not have let my guard down.
Eventually, after multiple rapid twists and turns while flying low through the streets, he was confident that he had managed to lose his pursuers. The exertion left him panting heavily, and his speedy attempt to escape resulted in him now hovering above the downtown area of Fillydelphia.
He glanced at the case in his right claw. Well, it doesn't matter now. There's still a job to do.
His first reaction was to open it, but then he remembered what the note said: "Watch the signs!" Taking a quick look around, gazing at the rooftops surrounding him, he noticed a pair of pegasi workers as they busied themselves with changing the cover on a large billboard. The new part that was already up read "CONTACT YOUR-", while the remaining half of the old one read "You could save millions—"
Of course! he thought. I have to find my contact! With that, he flew on with renewed confidence, comfortably unaware that the former was a section of a PSA suggesting regular medical checkups, while the latter was an advertisement for a local bank.
"Now then. Where do I find you exactly?" he pondered aloud. Sunlight bounced off the tall spires of concrete, steel, and glass that surrounded him, and he had to shield his eyes from the glare as he scanned the streets below, which were already bustling with activity.
After circling around for a couple of minutes, he finally managed to spot a possible candidate: an earth pony leaning against a lamppost on a corner, dressed in a white suit, shades, and a black fedora on his head. Hmm, Frankie thought, not exactly the most subtle outfit for such an op. He shrugged. Well, it's none of my business...
Aiming himself toward the pony, he quickly went into a steep dive.
-----
"Stupid shades," Slate grumbled to himself. He tapped his hoof against the post he stood next to with ever growing frustration. The shades in question only cost him about ten bits, and as it turned out, the low price was not because of a discount. The sun still burned his eyes through them, they barely managed to cling to his head, and more than once they threatened to simply fall apart.
"Stupid city," he muttered again. Fillydelphia wasn't giving him a very friendly reception so far, and he hated the idea of any more such "pleasant surprises" waiting for him during his stay.
A sudden gust of wind blew over him, coming from above, of all places. "Did my sky carriage finally arrive?" he thought. Just as he was about to look up, a large, feathery creature with equally impressive sized wings landed right in front of him.
His jaw dropped at the sight. The front of it resembled a large bird of some kind, its capital feathers white, while those on its "forelegs" and the primaries on its wings were bright blue. Upon noticing its tail swishing about, he realized that the rear half of the thing looked like that of a lion, only with a hide that matched the color of the aforementioned wings.
Is that... a griffon? he thought. He had never met such a creature personally before, and now one of them was standing right before him, staring straight into his eyes. Before he even had a chance to react, it began to speak to him.
"Special operative Frankie 'Ironclaws,' reporting as ordered!" he exclaimed. Standing at attention (as far as Slate could tell), he thrust his chest out proudly, head held high. Seconds ticked by, and the white coated pony merely blinked in surprise, having no idea what to make of the situation.
"Uh... Hello?" he replied awkwardly.
"I came here as fast as I could," the griffon went on. "May I hand over the container so that I may be officially equipped for my assignment?"
"Huh? Wait... What are you talking about?"
"Oh!" The griffon quickly lowered his voice. "I apologize. Meetings such as these require discretion. I will dispense with the formalities."
Is somepony pulling a prank on me? Slate wondered. Is this guy trying to distract me while someone else empties my pockets? He quickly looked around, but nopony else was near them at that moment.
Wait... I don't even have any pockets...
Something was pressed into his chest, and he instinctively grabbed it right before the griffon let go. Slate looked down and saw that he was now holding a small black suitcase with a combination lock beneath the handle. Lifting his head back up, he noticed the griffon looking at him expectantly.
"You want me to... open this for you?"
Frankie nodded in response, and though he gave a friendly smile, his imposing size and figure discouraged Slate from refusing him.
The stallion raised the case before his eyes and held his breath as he tried the lock. His hooves shook, and he prayed that he wouldn't have to start guessing a combination. Finally, the lock clicked, and he sighed in relief as the case popped open.
"Okay..." he said. "There's a, uh... t-shirt?" The moment after he removed it from the case, the griffon snatched it out of his hoof and put it on.
"Light reconnaissance wear?" he asked. "Huh... Makes sense for a solo op, I guess..."
"Uh... a large can of Red Minotaur?" Slate continued awkwardly. He lifted the can up, hoofed it over, and watched in horror as the griffon thrust the can into his beak and bit down, crushing it in an instant. He then quickly chugged down its contents before spitting the remains of the can onto the pavement.
"Give my thanks the quartermaster!" he said. "I really needed that!"
Slate considered dropping the case and running away, growing more fearful of this clearly deranged creature with every passing moment. The griffon's eyes even seemed to twitch every now and then. Thus, the stallion was relieved to find that there was only one more item left with which he had to "equip" the crazy kid.
A radio and a headset? What is going on here? He raised an eyebrow as he lifted the items out of the case.
"Uh... your, uh... 'comms equipment'!" he blurted out. Not wanting to waste any more time, he quickly gave both to Frankie, who nodded, placed the headset on his head, and handed the transceiver back.
"I believe you will need this for us to stay in contact," he said with a smile.
A large explosion rang out in the distance. Both of them swiveled their heads around, trying to locate its source, until a mare across the street screamed and pointed toward a thick column of black smoke further inside the city.
"That must be it! I may already be too late!" Frankie exclaimed. He turned back to the confused pony. "Thank you for your help, sir! I will be on my way now."
"Wait a second, what are you—?"
"Keep in touch! I may need intel along the way!" he said and tapped the earpiece on his head. With that, the obnoxious griffon's wings flapped hard, and he rocketed off toward the growing cloud of smoke that rose high above the city. This left behind a stunned pony with an empty suitcase and a radio in his hooves. In his confusion, he toyed with the device in his hand, flipping its switches back and forth, only to find that its electronics were completely gutted.
"HEY! WAIT! This thing doesn't even work!" Slate tried calling after him, but the griffon was too far away.
His ears perked up when he noticed somepony laughing close by. Turning to look, he noticed a trio of griffons perched on a rooftop. They kept pointing at him while laughing hysterically.
Slate facehoofed. "I hate this city..."
-----
"HELP! SOMEPONY HELP ME!" Petunia cried. She struggled as hard as she could to get to the entrance, tears streaming down her face, while the stallions in front of her desperately tried to hold her back. "My children are in there!"
The cream colored mare with the crimson mane had gone down to grab some snacks from across the street when the explosion happened. She rushed back and watched in horror as the top floors of the old office building were slowly consumed by the flames, billowing a thick pillar of smoke into the clear blue sky.
"This was bound to happen," somepony beside her said in a bitter tone. He hugged a filly closer as she cried on his leg. "They never fixed the gas pipes in the old structures. The whole place could go up at any moment."
Petunia's legs gave out, and fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. "My babies!" she wailed. "My poor, poor babies!"
Just then, something heavy landed next to her with a dull *thud*, followed by a couple of surprised gasps from the ponies around them. She looked up, her vision blurry from the tears, and gasped herself when she saw a large griffon standing tall before her, gazing at the inferno with a serious look on his face. On his chest, he wore a black t-shirt that read...
"What in the name of...?" she muttered. For a moment, the sight left her so baffled that she actually stopped crying.
"Command, I have reached the site," the griffon spoke into the microphone on his headset. "The building had sustained heavy damage. Possible insurgent activity. Awaiting further orders." He paused for a moment and held a claw to his earpiece. Nodding, he then looked down, straight at her.
"Fear not, dear citizen!" he exclaimed. "I will put an end to this abomination, and the fiends inside shall pay for what they have done!"
"Oh, thank Celestia!" she cried. Her heart raced as she watched the griffon fly off toward the top floors, ignoring the protests of those on the ground. Her foals seemed to have a chance after all.
Wait a moment... she thought. What did he say he was going to do?
-----
*cough* *cough* "Help! Somepony help us!"
Lily banged on the door as hard as she could. Smoke poured in from the seams and slowly filled up the room, burning their eyes and turning every breath into agony. Her sister was losing consciousness, and she herself felt weaker with every passing second.
"No! Wake up!" she cried. "Daisy! You have to stay with me!" Lily's hooves shook her, and she was relieved to see her sister's eyes flutter open again.
"Sis?" she squeaked. Tears stained her face, her eyes red from all the smoke. "I... I want to go home!"
Lily fought back her own tears as she kept banging on the door, screaming until her throat hurt too much. She felt the door growing hot as well, so she stepped back, sobbing quietly.
There was no denying it now. They were doomed.
"Daisy... I'm so sorry..." she whispered. Her sister's eyelids were drooping again, and her own vision darkened as well. The noises coming from around her became muffled as though she was hearing them from under a pillow. She thought she heard a shout, followed by the sound of wood shattering, and she thought it must be the fire as it brought the whole floor down.
Closing her eyes, Lily took what she believed was her last, agonizing breath.
Something grabbed her across her waist and picked her up. Her entire world lurched as they accelerated rapidly, and in a moment the roar and heat of the fire was replaced by cool air rushing past her. She opened her eyes and gazed at the cloudless sky above. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
"Thank you..." she whispered.
-----
"Lily! Daisy!" Petunia cried. She jumped up and down like a filly, laughing and crying at the same time as the griffon slowly descended with her foals under his arms. As soon as they landed, she ran straight up to them, relieved at the sight of both of the children being alive and well, albeit coughing and a little shaken.
She trotted forward, wanting to hug her children as close as she could, only to watch, mortified, as the griffon suddenly grabbed them both by their manes and turned them around to face him.
"All right!" he bellowed over the roar of the inferno, "What was the plan, you two? Out with it!"
"Ow!" Lily cried. "What plan? We didn't do anything!"
Petunia felt her jaw drop, and she was so shocked that she couldn't even move a muscle.
Is he... interrogating them?
"Don't take me for a fool!" he yelled. "I know a Tartarus Ritual when I see one! Why here? Why now? Tell me!"
"We don't know! I swear!" Lily was crying now. "We were stuck in that room and couldn't get out!"
A series of piercing screams and shouts came from the bystanders nearby. They looked around and noticed the ponies stare at the sky and point with their hooves. Following their gaze, they watched in horror as a giant passenger skyship slammed into a smaller firefighter carriage with a thunderous *BOOM*. The two objects became entangled in one another, the skyship's balloon suffering a large tear, and they both lost altitude slowly.
"So this was it, then?" the griffon turned back to them. "This is the abomination that you have summoned?"
He did not even wait for a response. Within the blink of an eye, he released them from his grip, flapped his wings, and blasted off in the direction of the damaged aircraft, his claw against his earpiece again.
"Command! We have a situation..." Petunia heard him shout before he was gone.
The mare felt a tugging at her legs, but she was still too shocked to react after what she had just witnessed. Finally, she looked down and noticed her foals wrap themselves around her forelegs, crying. Without thinking, she leaned in and hugged them tightly, bursting into tears herself.
"It's okay," she sobbed. "Shhhh! It's okay, my babies! You're safe now!"
She glanced back up at the sky, eyes landing on the blue and black dot that was the griffon, who kept rocketing toward the falling skyship.
It's all thanks to you, whoever you were... she thought. A smile tugged on her lips as she kissed her foals' foreheads. And whatever you were on just now...
-----
The gondola of the Crystal Fairy was in absolute turmoil. Ponies screamed and rushed about, panicking, most of them pounding on the doors, the windows, the walls, and pretty much any surface close enough to them. The flight attendants did everything they could to calm them down and restrain them to their seats, but they were too few and far apart.
A lot of good that will do anyway, the captain thought. He had seen enough accidents in his life to know how this was going to end. As the aging stallion struggled with the controls, he cursed under his breath. The best he could hope to achieve now was to steer the doomed aircraft in a direction that would at least reduce the casualties on the ground.
I should have steered away sooner... he thought. His lips were bleeding from how he kept biting them in frustration. I should have known there might be something behind that smoke...
One of the attendants informed him that the firefighters in the carriage were unharmed. The ponies were now holed up in the wreckage of their own craft as it clung to the hull of the Crystal Fairy.
"The more, the merrier," the captain muttered sourly.
A sudden lurch nearly threw him from his chair, and he braced himself as he felt the frame of the aircraft groan, their rate of descent rapidly slowing down.
"Impossible!" he nearly screamed. Jumping from his chair, he looked out the cracked glass of the windshield to search for whatever miracle was out there that now tried to save them.
"Who the hay is that?" he whispered in disbelief.
There was a griffon flapping its wings against the frame of their ship.
-----
"Command?" Frankie grunted through his gritted beak. His muscles bulged, the joints in his wings screaming as he struggled as hard as he could against the flaming abomination. "Command, do you copy? They've summoned... a giant... meteor... of all things!"
There was no response, save for a few bursts of static. He grunted in frustration and called to them again. Instead of a response, moments later, a song from his personal "crisis soundtrack" rang out from the earpiece.
Fair enough, he thought. Nodding his head to the beat while flaming debris rained all around him, he figured if he was to give his life to postpone the destruction of the world, he might as well do it to a good song.
-----
"Holy mother of... Do you guys see that?" Dave yelled.
"Whoa!" Syd joined in. "Is he really going to try and stop that?"
They both turned to Kurt, who had not said a word ever since they watched Frankie save those two foals from the fire. With a serious look on his face, he watched their "shy little classmate" slam against the falling aircraft, the deranged kid doing everything in his power to save those stuck on board and on the ground.
"Let's go," he said after a short pause. The other two looked at each other, wide-eyed, and turned back to him. He gave them a tiny smile, and his friends nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. They flapped their wings hard and took off toward the slowly descending wreck.
-----
"Come on!" Frankie groaned.
He could not hold on any longer. This was beyond his power. His limbs willed him to let go.
"NO!" he screamed and flapped his wings with renewed effort. The muscles burned, feeling like they might tear themselves apart at any moment. "I WON'T LET GO!"
All of a sudden, the weight seemed to become lighter.
Frankie blinked. Did I just get stronger?
A loud *thud* on his right side answered that question, followed by another one on his left. He glanced over, and his jaw dropped as the most majestic creatures in the world struggled by his side against the weight of the cursed rock. Their plumage was that of gold and diamond, radiating the light of the sun itself to battle the darkness raining down upon the city. Their voices were magnificent, both calming and inspiring as they called out to him.
"Do not give in, Frankie! You cannot allow darkness to prevail!"
"You must be strong! You are their only hope now!"
"We shall lend you our strength! You have to save them!"
-----
"FRANKIE! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Kurt screamed. All around them, the groaning and squealing of overstressed metal could be heard. While their combined strength managed to slow the descent of the wrecked skyship almost to a crawl, the immense strain they were putting on the frame now threatened to tear it apart.
"Fear not, dear Guardians!" he shouted back. "I will not allow my resolve to falter!"
"Frankie... this is... no time... for your stupidity!" Syd groaned under the weight of the ship. "We did all we could!"
Dave had nothing to add this time. He was too busy murmuring prayers, followed by a loud yelp when a steel cable snapped right next to him.
"The children!" Frankie cried out all of a sudden. "What abominable beast would put them there? We have to get them out, now!"
What children? Kurt thought. He then realized that Frankie was (literally) off his meds and concluded that he must be referring to the passengers.
"You sure you will be able to hold on?" he asked.
"I thank you for your kindness, dear Guardian!" Frankie replied with a smile.
Yeah, whatever... Kurt thought. "Syd! Dave!" he shouted at his friends. "You heard him! We have to get them out!"
-----
The radiant creatures left his side, and Frankie sighed in relief as he watched them release the bonds of the helpless children on the dark, molten surface of the meteor. A few dozen smaller, less majestic creatures soon joined in to rescue other the little ponies, who cried and hugged their saviors tightly.
His vision became blurry, and his grip on the surface of the rock weakened. Well... I guess that's it then... he thought. His mind drifted to all those children being rescued, and he smiled. At least they will be safe... if only for a few moments longer...
He could not save the world. But he would be damned if he did not do his best. And for a couple of minutes there, it really seemed as though he might prevail.
Frankie closed his eyes, his consciousness slipping away. There was a strange buzzing sensation, and the surface of the rock left the tips of his claws. He flapped his wings a couple of times to get close enough again.
Wait... what?
His eyes shot open, and he stared as the giant, unholy mass was enveloped by a golden aura. It left his clawtips once more, and he realized that they were no longer descending.
"Thank you, my dear griffon," a soft voice called out to him from behind. He turned around and was nearly blinded by the wondrous sight of the Princess of the Sun herself. Her horn glowed with the same bright glow of magic as the one caressing the rock. "Your efforts today have saved so many of my little ponies."
His surprise left him speechless, even as the wonderful creatures that assisted him before returned to his side. Celestia's smile widened a bit. "Your friends deserve praise as well," she said. "Were it not for them, you might not have been able to buy the time needed to avert a disaster."
There was a distant, ever growing roar. A gigantic crowd of ponies had gathered around them, cheering wildly for the heroes that saved their lives. Frankie gave a weak smile and tried to open his beak. The roar was deafening now, and his vision became blurry again.
"My friends?" he whispered. His wings went slack. "They are my friends?"
-----
"Woo-HOOO!" Syd and Dave screamed together. Even Kurt could barely contain himself as they watched the crowd around them, the ponies whistling, screaming, and stomping their hooves or waving them in the air.
"Frankie!" he yelled. "Frankie! We did it! We actually did it! Frankie?" He turned around, and his blood ran cold when he noticed his friend slump forward and fall toward the ground.
"FRANKIE!"
He did not fall very far. The skyship stopped at just ten feet above ground level, so it was more of a soft *thump* than a tragic *SPLAT*. The trio of griffons floated over to him, holding their breaths as they expected the worst. A loud snore, however, quickly dispersed their fears, and they laughed and hugged each other in relief.
"Okay," Kurt said. "I think it's time we gave him his..." He paused upon reaching into the pocket of his saddlebag, finding it empty.
"Looking for this?" Celestia said with a knowing smile. She levitated a small, orange box of pills before them. "Now, do you mind telling me what this is?"
They stared in horror, not daring to say a word. Frankie gave another loud snore from behind them. The young griffon smiled and began suckling his thumb.