In the morning, after West was satisfied with his mental state, he made his way out of the castle. He just wanted the fresh air to help clear his head.

Electing for a simple patrol around the more populated streets of Canterlot, he took it slowly. It took all his training to keep his face calm and unchanging.

“West?” He looked up in surprise at his name and turned to see Shining Armor and another grey guard pony.

“Yes, Captain?” he asked. “Was there something you needed?”

“I was showing this new recruit around when we came across you,” Shining answered. “This is Twisted Barricade.”

“Oh? Welcome to the guard, then,” West glanced to his right, down an alley, just for a moment.

“Are you sure you’re all right, West? I heard you had to leave early while talking with Cadence- ”

“Get down!” West shouted, his voice nearly overshadowed by the sound of clashing steel. West had pulled a sword out of a sheath at his side and blocked the gryphon assassin aiming for Shining Armor’s neck. He glared at the gryphon he was locked blades with and the gryphon glared right back with orange eyes, very unhappy that someone had interrupted him. Underneath a black hooded cloak, the assassin had forest green feathers, and orange fur. He carried a large silver blade: a Claymore.

The Gryphon gripped his blade with both talons and pushed as hard as he could, driving West back. West was only using his right arm, having to let go with his other, as the bruise on his elbow was acting up. He knew the gryphon was physically stronger than him, but he was definitely smarter. He placed his boot on his opponent’s chest and kicked with all his might, sending the gryphon into the alley he'd appeared from.

Shining was stunned at first, but blasted the gryphon with magic when he tried to rise, stunning the attacker for several seconds. West instantly closed the distance and was standing over the gryphon. They shared one last glare before West plunged his sword into the assassin’s neck, making sure to twist his blade to widen and deepen the wound. He held the gryphon until a sizable pool of blood had been let out.

“Captain,” West murmured, very aware he’d just killed someone. “You might want to check on Cadence. Someone might have targeted her as well. New recruit, cover his back.” He dragged the body with him farther into the alley until he was out of sight.

"Quickly! I have to check on Cadence!" West heard from around the corner, listening to the hoofsteps as they faded farther and farther into the distance.

"That would be wise... Captain," He muttered. Looking down at the body and the bloody sword, he hissed. Wiping the blood off of his blade, West slipped it silently back into place at his side. "Let's get you out of the city. Can't have some average citizen coming across your body. The uproar would never end."

He hefted the body onto his right shoulder and began walking, sneaking his way out of the city...

********

The meeting with the Gryphons had just ended for the day and Celestia sighed as she strolled down the hallway to her room, followed slowly by her sister.

“Tia,” Luna said once they were in the safety of the bedroom. “Did you hear anything from West?”

“No,” she muttered, “I heard he went out on a patrol of the city this morning, but that should have ended hours ago.” She lowered the sun past the horizon and turned to her bed. “Let us just get some rest. He’d better have a damn good reason for not being here when we see him tomorrow.”

Luna didn’t comment, she just raised the moon and joined her sister.

********

Vena was a frustrated gryphon guard. She didn’t like being ordered to follow that human through a forest, she didn’t like being put on this diplomatic journey, but she put up with it for her old friend, Empress Grizzleclaw. Vena had stone grey feathers, a small yellow beak, and dark brown fur. She wore an ornate looking suit of armor, black and gold, similar to how the royal guard armor looks.

She’d been ordered by the dignitaries to murder the human, but Vena felt like that was against what the Empress would want. So she’d tailed him for most of the day as he carried the dead body of another guard gryphon on his shoulder. He’d gathered dry wood on his trek through the forest and he finally set everything down in a small clearing.

He began layering the branches on each other in a lattice formation.

“What the hell is he up to?” Vena muttered as her curiosity got the better of her and she stepped out into the clearing, accidentally stepping on a fallen twig. West turned his head and looked her over, steel in his eyes. He stood and turned to face her. Neither of them had their weapons drawn, although Vena was wishing she had her sword in her talons.

“You’d be dead before you got the chance to even touch your sword,” West muttered, letting his cold words sink in before continuing, “Your armor is different. Why is that?”

“I’m a member of the Gryphon royal guard, who reports directly to the Empress,” she answered, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Are you here for revenge?” he asked, his face taking on a strange look, a mixture of sadness and resignation.

“N-Not exactly,” she replied honestly. “What are you doing anyway?”

“Something I read about,” West sighed. “I’m building a small funeral pyre.”

“You’re… paying your respects… to someone who tried to kill you?” she asked.

“Even though I feel no qualms when doing the act, I usually end up regretting having to kill people. I’ve taken more lives than I care to think about, so I decided that if I ever have the chance to, I’ll pay my respects to the people I kill.”

“I’m pretty sure Alex would like you,” Vena murmured. He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow and waited for an explanation. “Alex Grizzleclaw is the current Empress of the Gryphons.”

“Hehe, I see,” West chuckled as he placed the body on the wood stack. He went around and set up a ring of stones around the pyre. He pulled two stones from his pocket and leaned over the wood, striking them together, letting the sparks fall on the structure. It took him about a minute for a spark to ignite and a flame to catch on the wood. West gently coaxed it into growing, and it soon engulfed the pyre. “Goodbye, you old warrior. You’ve earned a long rest,” He murmured.

“May Grizzleclaw show you mercy,” Vena murmured, joining West by the pyre. He turned after a few seconds and sat against a nearby tree. “Are you going to stay here?” She asked.

He pointed up at the sky. “Yeah, I have to make sure the fire doesn’t spread, and I don’t want to disturb the Princesses while they sleep.” The moon was already high in the sky. “I’ll probably get chewed out in the morning, but hey, better them asking where I was, than having the entire population scream bloody murder… literally. What about you?”

“I was technically ordered to kill you by that one dignitary, but I didn’t because I felt that Alex would be against that idea.”

West smirked. “Are you close to the Empress?”

“We’re childhood friends,” Vena replied with a shrug.

“While I can’t speak for the Princesses at the moment, I’m sure that once the negotiations get summed up and things die down, that they’d be more than happy to have the Empress come and visit.” His voice faded off as he watched the fire continue to burn.

“I feel I should warn you," she said, mostly to fill the void of silence, "one of the dignitaries has been fiddling with a red crystal amulet every night. I have a hunch that nothing good will come from that.”

“Thank you for the warning. But here’s one of my own: if he touches either Princess, he forfeits his life.” West snarled, before smirking. "I hope the Empress won't mind losing him too much."

“Heh, if he messes up these negotiations, I may beat you to it,” she replied. "Alex won't mind, if he's stupid enough to deserve it."

“Actually…” West said as he thought the situation over, “I think the Princesses might beat both of us to ending him... If his actions are overly heinous.”

They both shared a laugh as the burning pyre collapsed in on itself, the fire eating away at the wood and burning away the flesh of the dead gryphon.

“I’m West, personal guard to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” he chuckled at her puzzled expression. “We were never properly introduced.”

“I’m Vena, personal guard to Empress Grizzleclaw,” she replied. Glancing over his torso, her eyes fell on the hilt of his sword, resting by his left hip. “That’s a strange looking sword. I’ve never seen a design like that.”

“Oh, this?” He asked. “This is a katana, a sword from my native world.” He stood and pulled the blade out of its scabbard, letting the firelight glint off of the cold silver metal. The blade curved slightly and West showed it off, swinging experimentally through the air a few times. “It’s not as easy to learn as, say, a longsword, like yours, but it’s balanced quite nicely for precise strikes and easy follow-ups.” He slid the metal killing device back into its home at his side. “It’s a pretty common design back on Earth, although, now, most people use them for decoration.”

"People don't use swords much?" She asked. "Back where you're from?"

"They used to," West got a far away look in his eyes. "But technology advanced, and the sword was soon replaced by... more efficient killing methods."

The pyre had burned most of the wood and the entire gryphon to ash, and was slowly dying down to embers, melting away at the final branches.

“Are you going to sleep?” Vena asked.

“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “And before you ask, no, it’s not because I don’t trust you. I’ve… been having nightmares every night for… most of my life. I haven’t had what people would call ‘restful sleep.’ Ever.”

“Isn’t… Princess Luna the Princess of Dreams or something?” she asked.

“Yeah, she is,” West sighed. “But the nightmares… were that bad, that traumatizing… Even for the few minutes it would take her to find my dream. I just… can’t.” He glanced at the ash pile as the final embers faded out of existence, leaving the lighting up to the moon, which has started its descent towards the horizon once more. "Were you going to sleep?"

"Nah, I'm not even close to tired."

“All right then. Instead of hanging around here with an ash pile, I think we should head back to Canterlot.”

“I thought you said you were going to wait all night.”

West shook his head, “I was only waiting for the fire to run its course and turn the gryphon to ash. Now that I've paid my final respects and I know that the pyre is not going to start a forest fire, I am going to begin the six or seven hour trek back to Canterlot. If you were planning on sleeping, then I’d stick around and make sure that you weren’t attacked by bandits, but since you’re not gonna sleep, we might as well leave now.”

“Bandits?” Vena muttered, tilting her head to the side. “I haven’t heard any reports of bandits in Equestria.”

"Oh? They were quite common back on Earth, but for Equestria... Timberwolves, rogue gryphons, Ursa Minors,” West listed. “Any number of beings could attack in the dark.”

“Fine, fine,” She replied, standing on her paws once more. “Lead the way.”

West started to, reaching the edge of the clearing before one last thought occurred to him. "Oh, yeah. A message for your Empress. Tell it to her the next time you see her." West cleared his throat as he walked. "I have confidence that we will get along, but if you or any of your subordinates betrays me, I will murder the offending party, even if it's you."

"Where is this coming from, West?" Vena asked through gritted teeth. She did not like anyone threatening the Empress.

"...I've been betrayed before. And I've murdered everyone who did so."

Author's Note

I put more space in between the paragraphs to make it easier to read

And before I forget, I don't actually know if there's an official name for the leader of the Gryphons, so I made one up