"You must go!" The king demanded to his young son.

"But father..." The son bean to tear up, feeling heavily confused and worried.

The king interrupted him,"NO! I'm sorry but it is the only way to keep you safe!" The king tried to reason.

The doors to the palace began to bend in ward as the attackers on the other side rammed the giant doors. One knight, who was next to the king's throne, guided the young gryphon away from his dad, the king. They stared at each other as the distance between them grew. The knight looked down at the young gryphon who was struggling against him, trying every possible way to break free. He sat down in front of him on his rump. The young gryphon looked up at the knight. The young gryphon examined the knight.

He wore silver armor that covered most of his dark brown fur and had heavy gauntlets on his talons. Large metal shoes were nailed in to the leggings of the armor. The knight lifted off his shinning helmet. He had mostly white feathers with a few black ones on top of his head. His beak was an autumn orange with a brown tip. He spoke gently for being twice the young gryphon's size.

"We have to go! I'll protect you but you need to trust me!" The knight looked at the king and then back at the young gryphon,"You'll see your father again someday." With these words the young gryphon hesitated, but then slightly smiled and nodded. The knight smiled back and slid his helmet back on, grasping the young gryphons talons in a firm grip.

The two were about to exit the stronghold when the doors busted open, a golden dust illuminating off of them, large burn marks in the middle of the thick, oak doors. The knight got in front of the Gryphon as they slowly made their way to the exit on the side of the throne.

Luckily, the shadows hid them from sight since large marble pillars filled the sides of the room. A long, velvet, red carpet lead from the doors to the king's throne. The gryphon guards all aimed their crossbows at the invaders. The unicorns put up magic shields as the earth ponies drew their swords. One unicorn with different shades of blue for his mane and a pure white coat walked forward, a shield on his flank that had magenta sparkles diagonally placed from the top corner to the bottom on each side f his flank.

"Gryphon king!" He shouted, the bowmen gryphons slowly getting taken out as they tried their best to return fire. The king just stared down at him,"You are charged with plotting against Equestria and the princesses that control it!" The stallion took another step forward, taking his spear and facing the point at the king. He wore a fearless expression.

"Oh my, is that why you crippled my kingdom, killing my guards and citizens and destroying my economy and infrastructure just because some filly heard me saying how I was jealous of the princesses?" The king narrowed his eyes.

The stallion spoke again, still defending his actions"That is not a valid plea, gryphon king! Your crimes are punisha-"

"My crimes?! You ruined the lives of hundreds of my loyal subjects just because you believed I said something you didn't like and yet you see yourself as the 'bringers of justice'?" The king kept composed even though he knew he would die nonetheless. He rolled his eyes,"Stupid ponies get more brain dead each generation..."

The stallion jumped at the king, seeing how he was only trying to delay the inevitable by talking.

The knight shielded the young gryphon's eyes. However, he could see through a small crack in his gauntlets. The stallion's spear made contact in the king's stomach. The king cringed in pain, the stallion stepped away. The young gryphon fluttered his wings.

"NOOOOO!" He shot away from the petrified knight and hugged the king, bawling his eyes out as the spear had penetrated the king and went inside the throne chair. the king looked at the young gryphon, now incredibly weak.

"Son.... No..... Run...!" The young gryphon seemed to block everything out at his ears began to ring. The knight dived in to get the young gryphon. The stallion held a hoof to his mouth and backed away, seeing how he just ruined another family and saw the effects first hoof.

The young gryphon hugged very hard as the king tried to push him away but ended up just grabbing his arm. The young gryphon opened his eyes and looked into his father's hazel eyes. He rested his talons in his father's grip.

"I love you dad, please don't leave me!" he wailed.

"Son....you..have to...go...!" The king became weaker.

Suddenly the grip began to weaken even more, the bright color in the king's eyes fading. The grip faltered and his talon hit the chair. His eyes went dull as he stared off into the blankness of the room. The young gryphon was now bawling out every tear he had in himself. The knight finally pulled him away, his armor deflecting a few arrows the guards were shooting at him.

"WE HAVE TO GO!" Echoed in the young gryphon's ears from the knight's beak.His vision began to only focus on his now dead father. The knight busted down the door to the outside, the guards in pursuit. His wings exploded apart from his sides and he caught an updraft of air. The young gryphon saw the stallion who did the deed and focused his eyes on him until they were out of sight.

He cried into the knight's cold, hard chest plates as they and hundreds of other gryphons fled from the now burning and destroyed kingdom. He was scared and confused.

The young gryphon looked up at the knight who also had a tear forming in his eye.

"I wanna go back!" The young one said.

"No... we can't... we have to find a new home now..."

"But I wanna see my father!"

"It's too late! I wish I could see him again but we need to make sure everygryphon else is safe too!" The knight sighed. He looked around the sky, all the gryphons both male and female, old and young had scattered and were just dots in the sky.

"This is ridiculous..." The knight began,"I bet they just wanted the Gryphon Kingdom to be demolished since they were scared of us!"

"Where will we go now?" The small gryphon asked.

"We should....find a place to camp...we need to rest up after what just happened."

The small gryphon nodded and held on to the knight tight,"Will things go back to normal?"

The knight hesitated to answer,"I-I can not say for sure, little Golden Talon, I-I just don't know..."

Author's Note

This chapter will probably be the shortest in the entire story. I just wanted to set the setting and give some context in a nice, small package. ^_^