Where to start...
I remember how it all began. It seems so long ago now, I can’t help but find it funny. It was a gentle summer night, and I was walking down the street. No wait, that isn’t the beginning. But this story needs an opening, something to explain the strange events that have led me to where I am today.
I guess, the real beginning was then a little filly was almost mistaken for food. Research had not revealed the name of the gryphon, but I do know what happened to him. He was flying over Equestria, heading towards a common hunting ground for gryphons in the area.
The Everfree forest was the perfect place to get a meal, without worrying you were going to get in trouble for killing a smart creature. No pony liked it very much, and some were downright mental about expressing it. But a gryphon has to eat doesn’t it? I-ah-I know a gryphon that tried a vegan diet. You end up feeling so tired, and then instinct takes over. Er, well that’s what I’ve heard anyway.
So the filly was walking on a path near the trees, and the gryphon saw her from very high up. Thinking it was just another meal, he dove for the filly and scooped her up, intending to kill her quickly. When a scream split the air, ponies dashed toward the sound, and he stopped and blinked in shock. Landing on the ground he let her go and apologised profusely, saying his instinct got the better of him.
The filly, shocked and a little dizzy, took a moment to recover before gazing to the worried gryphon. She saw he was worried and genuinely guilty over his own action, and forgave him. Of course, that was when trouble arrived in the form of a six ponies.
The filly was scooped up by an earth pony, and fussed over. The gryphon apologised once more and explained the situation. The ponies understood and decided to forgive him, he left on a happy note. As he left, more ponies approached the scene and one of them explained the situation, and the crowd dispersed and everyone went home.
The next day the whispering happened. And what happened next really rakes my claw-er hooves, yeah I mean hooves. So at first it was all in good fun, people joking about how they were glad their children hadn’t been taken. The next day it grew to pondering if it could happen to them, as it happened to the filly. The day after it became full on paranoia for most ponies.
So the news spread, and tensions began to rise between gryphons and ponies. Soon there were arguments, and almost claw-er hoof fights breaking out all over Equestria. When a gryphon representative came to speak to all of Equestria, he was met by such caution and fear that he left in disgust a day later.
My story starts during the middle of this tension.
Walking down the path in Canterlot, I was on my way to a date. As dark brown colt with white hair, and not the biggest of brutes for that matter, meaning I had trouble getting mares to notice me.But today, the mare of my dreams had said yes, I was ecstatic. Pausing at a local garden I picked a rose, holding it carefully with my hoof as I trotted with the remaining three legs toward the fountain. Cliché I know, but she was a huge sucker for cliché’s.
Turning the corner, I saw her. Every hair on her body sang of her beauty, it was no wonder she was a big-time model. I had never thought this day would come.
“Aqua Light, I bring you a rose in hopes you will enjoy my company tonight.” I glanced around, seeing if we were alone before bowing my head and offering the rose, trying to imitate a knight. She took the rose and giggled, smelling it as she tried to hide the blush on her face. I turned around to gaze at the stars to hide my own, she liked it!
“Oh Scythe, you are so sweet. I brought someone I want you to meet” she spoke, her voice of angel's tears. As in they wept at the beauty of it. You know, because she’s beautiful and- never mind it was a joke.
I turned, “who is it you want me to meet?” My eyes flickered to a large stallion walking up the street, and my heart gave a very loud and gut wrenching thud. No, she couldn’t be, please not her too!
“This is my boyfriend Starlit Dance.” I remember wanting to drown my head in the pool. Especially when the colt saw the rose and gave me a warning glare. I smiled, trying to hide my breaking heart.
“How wonderful, you two must be very-happy-together” was my reply. The rest of the night went ok. We went to the movies, they kissed, we made a wish at the wishing well, they kissed, we went to the bar to get some drinks, they kissed. Eventually I faked being sick and left, feeling very alone despite the night with company.
I had been rejected by every mare I had grown close to, all I wanted was someone in my love life, someone to be my special somepony.
“Sometimes I wish I could just hit the reset button. Boomp! Congratulations, Here’s your new life!” The alleyways were dark at the time of the night, but I knew my way around them well. I continued talking for a while about my own inability to find a nice mare to settle down with.
“Just face it Scythe, you were never meant to find a girl to settle down with.” I heaved a sigh, and my head fell down and I paused to recollect myself. It was only a few more streets to my home, and at least my cat would be waiting for me.
I would like to say the next event happened magically. Like a hatch opened up underneath me and swallowed me up. But really all that happened was I heard someone approaching from behind, and raised my head to see who it was only to meet blackness. I woke up with a splitting headache after, so I’m assuming they knocked me out with a brick, but then again maybe it was a dictionary. It felt more like pages then a hard object, but I couldn’t be sure, I was knocked out remember?
Waking up that day, was the second worse experience in my life. Even today, nothing except one thing has compared to the pain I felt as I awoke. Opening my eyes, it took me a moment to get used to the blinding white light reflecting from the white walls. I was also on some kind of bed used to treat patients, white in colour. I was also wearing a thin cloak, also white. I was propped up slightly so I had a good view of the completely closed off room. Thinking back I should have been worried right then.
The wall in front of me had a mirror, probably one of those schmancy one way windows they use so you can’t see them but they can see you. There was a door, but I didn't have a chance to see if it was unlocked. I was still a little dizzy and probably couldn't have stood up even if I had tried.
The door opened and five unicorns came into the room, followed by one pegasus. He glared at me, before saying something to the door. Realising my ears weren’t working I tried to glance up to where they were, but it was just out of eye-straining range. A few more unicorns walked into the room, so I quickly counted them. There were now 10 unicorns, another fact that should have alerted me to the fact something was up.
They made a circle around me, the pegasus standing just outside of it. So there I was, in the middle of a magic circle, 10 unicorns charging up a spell. Needless to say, I finally started to realise I was in deep cow dung.
Their magic charged, I opened my mouth to try and say something, all aimed at the device above me, and then they fired. As the magic hit me everything was suddenly surrounded in a light green magic. After a moment I realised it wasn't around everything else, it was around me. And then the tingling started.
It started over my body, things shifting, and some kinda of prickling enveloping my entire body. It wasn't until I raised my hoof that I realised what was happening. I could only watch in mute horror as my hoof turned into some kind of claw. I turned my head, eyes widening in shock to see my tail almost being pulled out of my body as it changed shape. My wings spread wide, I saw them grow bigger and winced at the sound of bones breaking and reforming.
I glanced to my back legs, opening my mouth as I felt it began to harden. Everything began to blue, and suddenly I couldn't see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. I glanced around the darkness, frantic. What was going on? I tried to move in a direction, something held me in place. I struggled against the magic, mute to the world. For a brief moment the tingling around me faded, and I began to fall unconscious. I did catch once sentence before falling into the abyss as the tingling began once more.
“It's working!"
I woke up, blissfully free of pain. I was having trouble moving through. It was as if my entire body structure had changed overnight. Which is had, but we’ll get to that.
I remember working out I could hear first. There was water dripping somewhere nearby. My sense of touch had retreated to only my feet and face now, and it felt stone. The smell was bad, but by that time my body was used to it. My mouth was dry, I was really thirsty. And finally, I opened my eyes.
At first I had a strong sense of vertigo, my view felt much wider and, well hi definition. All it took was me to focus on one of the bricks at the farthest corner of the room outside, and I could see the tiny bits that made it up. Well I couldn’t see atoms, but you get what I mean.
Carefully working out where my arms were, they flopped into the air and slapped onto the ground on either side of me. They felt really weird, but I needed to stand up. That was my first goal.
It was shaky, and I fell down a few times but eventually I was standing on four wobbly legs. With that done, I looked down at my feet and gasped in surprise, loosing my balance. Landing on my side, my front leg was finally in full view, and I could only gaze at it in mute shock. It was a bird claw!
I glanced at my back feet, and they were completely different, almost cat like. I also saw my tail for the first time, long with a little tuft at the end. It was then I noticed my wings. Not only were they a different colour, well my entire body was a different colour, but they were huge. Not only that, I was bigger, in all directions. No it wasn’t me getting fat.
Standing up again, a little easier this time, and glanced around my area for a mirror. Finding none, I walked over to a puddle in one corner that had formed from water dripping from the ceiling, and realised it was reflective enough for me to see my face for the first time.
My eyes were the only thing that hadn’t changed. I had a beak, my ears were gone, and I had feathers all over my body. By back was brown for the most part, my tail and wings a slightly lighter shade. My claws were even lighter, but my head was pure white. The top feather had a brown tip though, was that my hair? No matter how I looked at it, I was now a gryphon.
After that, I glanced around in confusion. I was in some kind of cell. Outside the cell was a long corridor with many other cells, all empty. At the end was a large steel door.
Opening my mouth I tried to speak, but all I got in return was a raspy cough. I looked over to the pool of water, and then grimaced, giving in. Dipping in my newfound beak, I found it was similar enough to a mouth, it just wasn’t a part of my head and more like attached to it. Well that is how I saw it, I'd never studied anatomy.
A clang, I turned. The metal door had opened, it was one of the unicorns and the pegasus from earlier. I opened my mouth and tried to speak again, and found my throught obeying my demands slightly. However now there was a new problem, how to speak using a beak. You would think it would function to similar, but no. Gryphons don’t have movable lips, so you can only really make ‘aah’ and ‘ll’ sounds. Took me an entire week to relearn speech.
“He seems to be stable, how are the readings?” It took a moment to work out who had said it, even with good eyesight. The new ‘ears’ were not as good for hearing. The unicorn seemed to be the one talking, although my memory is a bit fuzzy. But we’ll get to that.
“We can probably put him through recovery today, and have him training by the end of the week.” The pegasus then turned and left through the door, glancing back once before leaving. The unicorn nodded to herself, and unlocked the door and entered the cell, spell on her horn.
“You should still be able to understand me, follow me.” I didn’t want to follow the unicorn of course, but as I glanced about the room, unable to speak just yet, what other choice did I have. I tried again, and she chuckled.
“Don’t worry, we will answer your questions soon."
My memories of what transpired during that week are a little fuzzy, but I will explain what I remember. I was taken to a room, and taught how to speak with a beak, and shown what I would be eating from now on. It was meat, so of course I refused. However, hunger gets the best of us. After that I was taken to another room and explained…Well I’m not sure but I have some idea of what it was about. All I know for sure is they asked me to do something, and I said no.
Needless to say, they didn’t take that too well.
I have been talking to a unicorn I know, and I’ve been told it was some high level ‘memory forget’ spell. I wouldn’t know much, I was a pegasus before the ‘operation’ after all.
So now we’ve gone over what I can’t remember, lets start at where my memories kick off. And before you ask, yeah there is some reason I remember the past. But that would be spoilers no?
So, I awoke in a small room, phantom memories chasing my tail. For a brief moment, I was still a pegasus, but as soon as I opened my eyes the new ‘false’ memories kicked in and I remembered everything. Basically, they re-wrote only a few key facts to ‘reduce the effects of a resurgence,’ whatever that means.
Mainly that I was ever a pony, and that I had held no resentment to gryphons. There was one other fact they changed. Call it what you will, they put this strange impulse into my head that said ‘I want to be a spy for Equestria and keep every pony safe from my own race’ or something like that. I think that was it, everything else was the same.
I hopped out of bed and preened my feathers, my tail swishing. Walking over to the basin nearby I poured myself a cup of water and drunk greedily. I was treated well during that time. After that a knock came at the door, and as I opened it a gryphon greeted me.
“Hey, I’m Ace. I’m here to help you with orientation and stuff.” He was a regular gryphon for the most part. Brown all over except for the head which was white. He had red eyes and red feather-tips on his head though. It made him look a little mischievous.
“I’m Scythe, nice to meet you,” I replied. We left the room, and I didn’t think to look at the number. Thinking back, it was strange how I always knew where it was anyway. Maybe it’s that bird instinct thing that helps you find home. Pigeons use it right?
“Anyways training will only be for another week, lucky you. Sadly there aren’t any other gryphons here so it’s just us training. Day 1 is survival skills, 2 is basic fighting, 3 is stealth, 4 is agility and dexterity, 5 is problem solving, 6 is better combat, and 7 is basic defence in the morning, and advanced survival skills in the afternoon.”
I absorbed that, curious as to why I was being given all these lessons. However something made me hold back that day, telling me not to ask too many questions. It was probably a good thing I obeyed. I have a feeling if I had of asked too many questions they would have killed me on the spot.
So I was shown where the classes would start, where I was and was not allowed to go, and I made a new friend. We spent an hour or so talking in my room about our interests. He was more ‘sportsy’ then I would ever be, but he was a nice guy. Eventually I asked him how he got here.
“Well…” he trailed off, catching my attention.
“I’ll tell you another time, why don’t we get some rest for tomorrow?” Of course I noticed his immediate change of subject, but I wasn’t going to force him to speak. So I gave a smile and nodded, and he headed for the door.
I still had no idea why I was there.