Chapter I: Afternoon Flight
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Monstrosity

Chapter I: Afternoon Flight

The sun sat in the center of the cloudless, blue sky, radiating life and warmth across the land as The Mare watched him perform a select few of his stunts for her.

The Griffin tucked his wings close to his body as he fell into a nosedive, and he swore that he could hear her gasp through the winds that whipped past his head. The ground slowly got closer and closer, and, right when even he thought he was going to make contact with the field, his wings shot back out, catching the current, and shooting him straight back out into the open sky. He sighed, and was almost certain she did, too.

The Griffin did a few cool-down laps after the stunt, allowing himself to return to a normal, more-relaxed state, then returned to his marefriend, who whooped and hollered as he touched back down next to the blanket that they had spread out.

"That was amazing!" she said, patting him on the back after he sat down.

"Ah, that was nothing compared to some of the other things I've got stored away," he shot back, winking before silently laughing at himself.

"Whatever, you egghead," she says, playfully punching his side.

"Ouch, I've never been more hurt," he calls back in mock-sadness as The Mare turns to open a basket to her left, a smile now on each of their faces.

The world appears to fall quiet while she rumages, the only sounds being the light breeze of the summer day and the occasional crinkling of wrapping from inside her basket.

The Griffin lets out a sigh, adjusting so that he lay on his back, stretching out his legs as far as they would go before crossing his fronts behind his head, lightly scratching himself with a claw. He looked towards the blue abyss above himself, thinking of what lay beyond, what went further out than the emptiness of space, and how astounding it would be to experience it first-hoof.

A chirp from his marefriend brings him back to reality, and he rolls his head just in time to see her place a bottle on the blanket, with two glasses folowing shortly after.

"Need some help with that?" The Griffin asks, standing himself up, but she shakes her head, accompanying it with a short "Mph".

She popped the cork, some of the purple liquid inside foaming over, but she quickly wiped it away, then lifted the bottle with her mouth, letting it slowly fill up each glass half-way. She set the wine down, then took a sip from her cup.

Well, it was more of a chug, she had to admit, but her coltfriend didn't seem to notice. In fact, he didn't seem to notice anything at all, as he'd gone back to looking at the sky. That simply would not do.

"Drink."

"What?" The Griffin asked, turning his head back towards her.

"You heard me: Drink."

"Why?"

"Just take the glass, for me."

He sighed, muttering something under his breath, then giving in and saying, "Fine, but only for you."

She cracked another smile, knowing the he was just trying to give her a hard time, and then watched with mild interest as he worked the glass around his beak, managing to not spill a single drop.

When he brought the glass down, she asked with a chuckle, "How do you even do that?"

"What? This?" he asked, raising the glass back to his beak, taking another drink. "It's really easy, actually."

"Doesn't look like it..."

"Really? Would you like me to show you?"

She was perplexed by his question, not jnowing how she could possibly be shown how to drink with a beak, other than watching him, of course. Still, seeing how no harm could come, she agreed, and he made his way over, gripping the glass with a taloned hand. He sat down, taking a final, little drink before beginning.

"Alright, so, you're gonna want to take your glass and bring it up to your mouth. Got it?"

She nodded, holding her still-full glass up with a hoof.

"Good. Now, bring it to your mouth. Watch, just like this."

The Griffin brought the glass back to the tip of his beak, and The Mare followed suit, bringing hers to her muzzle.

"Alright, the final and most important step. Are you ready?"

"Yes?"

"Great. So, you're gonna want to open wide and take a swig," he said, finishing the sentence by doing just that. "You try it."

She rolled her eyes, realizing that he hadn't been showing her anything meaningful at all, just how to take a drink from a glass. He laughed at his own actions, placing his glass back down on the ground and getting back on his back, still giggling as The Mare stared at him.

How could he be so carefree? How could she have been so lucky to nab somepony like him? Why did he care for her if she was a completely different species? Questions like these and more raced through her mind, and she could care less about the answers, just so long as she had him by her side.

She scooted closer to him, laying her head across his feathered chest, letting out a soft pur when he scratched behind her right ear. She let herself relax, increasing her weight slightly on top of him.

"So, my love, whatever should we do now?" he asks, trying his best to sound charming.

The Mare rubs a hoof underneath her chin, then rolls her head to see the bottle of wine still sitting over on the ground. She shakes her head, but another idea hits her, and she waists no time in making sure that The Griffin knows.

"What's it like to fly?"

"It's...it's incredible. You know, a pony like you is tied down here, walking on the ground, but not the pegasi and I. We can go really anywhere we want, at any time, too. It's something that can't really be described, I guess. Sorry about that."

"Oh, don't worry, that was wonderdul. Now, tell me what the wind feels like when it blows trough your feathers."

"Well," he began, and she closed her eyes, wanting to get lost in his words again.

She could picture herself soaring through a cloudless sky, much like today's, with the wind blowing through her mane, and The Griffin by her side. However, without wings, or even a horn to give herself a pair, she'd never be able to achieve flight, but she intended to change that today.

His rambling came to an end, finishing with one of his favorite quotes, "...and that's all I have to say about that."

The Mare opened her eyes slowly, allowing herself to come back to reality one step at a time.

"That sounds amazing."

"Trust me, it is."

"Well..."

He lifted his head up to look down at the top of hers, eyeing it quizically.

"Well?"

"Well, would you be willing to take me up for a ride?"

The Griffin was momentarily stunned as his marefriend's question washed over him. Take her for a ride? Would that kind of thing even work? He assumed it would, mainly because of the difference in both weight and size, but he was still unsure about the whole thing.

"Eh, ha...why would you wanna go up there? It's not *that great."*

"I want to go."

"But, we could switch things up, and you could ride me around like a pony! I know that's something you've wanted to do!"

"I want to go up there," she stated again, pointing a hoof towards the sky.

"Please, I don't know if I can..."

The Mare sighed, rolling her eyes at The Griffin's protests, knowing that he could make it with her, he just had to want to do it. She layed back down on the ground, letting out another, more audible sigh.

He let out his own sigh, knowing that she wouldn't give up, and would only pester him more and more until he finally gave in. Wanting to save both of them the trouble, he closed his eyes and inhaled before opening his mouth again.

"Fine."

Her ears perked up, and her eyes lit up.

"Really?!"

"Yeah, sure," he said, patting his back. "Just...just come hop on, and I'll take you for one, *one, lap."*

"I knew you would! Oh, thank you so much!"

She giggled uncontrollably as she made her way onto his back, wrapping her hooves around his feathery neck, not too tightly, though. She still cared for her own safety, reckless as she may seem at times.

The Griffin fave his wings a few test-flaps to warm them up, and when he thought they were properly primed for flight, he looked back, asking, "Are you ready?"

"Almost. Can we go high?"

He shook his head, "What?"

"Can we go high up into the sky?"

"Absolutely not."

The Mare gave him her best pouty look, widening her eyes and pushing out her lower lip as mich as she could, which resulted in a look that she knew would melt his heart. To top it all off, she even used the most innocent voice she could, something she rarely used outside of some of their more exciting nights.

"Aw, pwease? Jus dis once?"

He shook his head, clenching his eyes shut, trying his best not to look at her.

"Damnit, no. Not even "The Look" is gonna change my mind."

She pushed herself onto him even more.

"Pwease?"

The Griffin shook his head again, desperately trying to think of anything other than her, but found himself failing horribly.

"Ugh, fine, but you owe me."

"Yes!"

She hugged him as his flapping began again, slowly getting faster and faster, both of them leaving the ground, The Griffin's legs now dangling in midair.

He began to float forward, still gaining altitude as he went, feeling The Mare's grip on his neck increase, as well as the movement of her head turning left and right, possibly to observe the world below the two of them.

The Griffin leveled out, calling back to The Mare, "This good enough for ya?!"

"It's amazing!"

He smiled, looking back at where he was headed, closing his eyes momentarily as he let the wind blow through his feathers. He had made the decision to turn back around, but that was not such an easy task.

The turning itself was easy, of course, but keeping The Mare on his back was not.

He felt that they could make his sharp turn back around, but she wasn't holding on tightly enough, and had herself flung off of his back, her whole body thrashing around as it fell.

He tried his best to save her, he really did, but, in the end, was not fast enough, and shut his eyes tightly as a sickening crunch signaled that the one mare he truly loved was dead.

And then, he woke up.