West and Vena had padded their way from the forest at the base of the mountain all the way up to Canterlot and to Canterlot Castle gates on foot, taking approximately six hours and forty-two minutes. Having started at three in the morning, it was well into morning when they reached the gates.

They weren’t winded; having walked at a slow pace. West was glad to see the gates when they came into view.

Not wishing to disturb the Princesses with their negotiations, or, well, be seen by many ponies, he suggested that they enter through the side door, accessed through the Royal Gardens.

“Probably a smart idea,” she murmured. They trotted into the gardens, passing under an arch shaped hedge. There were a few ponies in the gardens: some caretakers making sure the hedges and flowers were properly cared for and one relaxing Prince Blueblood. The Prince’s blonde mane was brushed back away from his face, just the way he liked it, as he stood relaxing by the yellow tulips. He spied West and turned to address the new arrival.

“You; Guard.” The Prince snapped. West internally sighed.

“Yes, Blueblood?” West asked in his best monotone voice possible. Vena just rolled her eyes.

“Celestia is not happy with your performance, and I have come to…” His voice trailed off as West cracked up, breaking his stony face down into chuckles and guffaws.

“So… Can you tell me something that wasn’t overly obvious? I know that she wouldn’t be happy with me disappearing.”

“Now listen here! I’m here to fire you!” Blueblood burst out, not amused with the interruption.

“Ha! That’s a good one, Blueblood!” West chortled.

“I’m serious,” he deadpanned.

“And I don’t care if you are,” West retorted. “Unless I hear those exact words from Celestia’s mouth, I won’t believe them. I am her personal guard, not yours.” He tensed slightly, listening to the rustling noise to his right. “Vena,” he murmured, his voice instantly changing to deadly serious and commanding. “I don’t care if you have to drag him: Get Blueblood out of here, now.”

“Wh-“ The clash of steel made her cringe; a gryphon had emerged from the bushes, aiming for Blueblood. She was about to call West out and just help him fight when she noticed that four more gryphons had arrived and they were different from the normal ones. They made no attempts to conceal themselves, for one, but more importantly, they were huge; easily twice as big as a normal gryphon, with muscled forearms. (Some might even describe their arms as over-muscled.) They all carried silver Zweihanders, giant swords designed for use with two hands. They had rough metal breastplates as their only armor. It looked almost like it had been stolen from the diamond dogs, it looked that rusty, bent and overall not very useful.

“Vena, now!” West’s voice broke her out of her shock. He was standing in front of Blueblood – a stunned expression on the Prince’s mug – with his katana in his right hand, locked with one sword and his left hand holding back another as it bit into the flesh on his hand, fresh blood dripping down to the grass below. Vena jumped over him and landed on Blueblood’s back. She made sure that she had a secure grip on his chest before beating her wings and lifting him, still stunned silent, into the air.

Good girl, he thought. With that distraction out of the way, West deflected the blade to his right, which his was locked with, into the ground, transferring the momentum and lodging it in the ground, rendering it useless to the giant gryphon. He used the momentary freedom to stab into the gryphon who’s Zweihander he’d been gripping with his left hand. Circling the now dead gryphon and dropping the heavy blade in his hand, he took stock of the situation. Ok, so… One down, four to go.

He stepped back, out of the reach of their swords as they swung clumsily. A few of them tried to flap their wings and take to the air after the Prince, but their muscled bodies were too heavy for them to gain any lift.

Smart girl, taking to the skies, West commented on Vena’s decision. The gryphons, after realizing they couldn’t fly, turned back towards West, preparing to butcher him for ruining their plans.

“Spread out and surround him!” He heard, tensing at the deep, snarling voice. Holding his katana by his side, right next to his scabbard, and breathing in, West launched himself forward as one giant raised himself up to attack, striking once, separating the bird and lion halves, with as much blood spraying out as possible, turning and jumping onto the back of another.

“Get offa me!” The gryphon wailed, flailing his arms in a vain attempt to remove West from his back.

“I got ya, brother!” Another called, swinging the flat of his blade towards West. He ducked under the blade and let it slam into the back of the gryphon’s head. The gryphon he was riding jolted up before his eyes glazed and rolled back into his head. West kicked off of his back and onto the other gryphon, not the one who had swung, “I got ya, too!” He swung overhead this time, still careful to use the flat of his blade. West pushed off the gryphon at the last second as the sword was slammed down with enough force to create a small impact crater. West was not quite fast enough, however, as the blade caught his right ankle.

He stumbled quickly to his feet and stared down the enraged giant gryphon. “You made me hurt my friends!” the gryphon roared.

“You did that without my help!” West shot back. It took all of his concentration to dodge the gryphon’s next three swings.

“West!” He heard Vena’s voice from the air. “Hurry up! My wings are getting tired from having to carry this guy! And he started struggling!” The gryphon swung one more time, slamming his Zweihander into the ground, flinging rocks and debris from the force, before stopping to breathe.

West rushed forward and sliced up. Due to the sprain in his ankle, instead of slicing through his feathery neck and beheading the poor giant, he forcefully removed both of his arms, letting them flop to the ground with a meaty thud and a couple of blood streams. The gryphon whimpered and flailed his arm stubs ineffectually.

Vena had set the wriggling, obscenity-spouting Blueblood on the ground of the Gardens as a platoon of guard ponies arrived on the scene. Vena drew her sword as every one present listened to the hiss of steel on leather. She was the one who put the giant out of his misery, slashing from his left shoulder to his right hip with a sickeningly squishy sound.

West chuckled to himself as he glanced at his dripping blade. He had to vigorously shake himself to snap himself out of his giddy mood. He wiped the blood off on the inside of his sleeve, on the space in his armor where cloth shows. He slid the cleaned blade into its scabbard and addressed the guards, starting by indicating the two unconscious gryphons, “These two are not dead. While the priority is to protect Prince Blueblood, please get a detachment of guards to take these two into custody for questioning.” West froze and turned his gaze to the sky as he heard a soul-piercing sound.

A laugh, deep and cackling, was rolling through the air, coming from the castle as the sky darkened. The moon was forced into the sky as West was snapped back to reality. He whirled in place and pushed his body forward, favoring his left leg. He reached the door into the castle and entered, followed by Vena. He briefly registered Blueblood yelling, "Hey! Get back here! I'm not done with you!" But he chose to ignore him. "Maybe later, Bluebutt," he muttered under his breath.

“I have no idea what’s going on with the sky,” he muttered to Vena. “But my hunch says our best bet for answers is to go to the throne room, which is this way”

She nodded silently, following him through the unfamiliar corridors. They came to a junction, with more of the hallway ahead of them, or a turn left. West had planned on charging forward, except he heard a scream come from the left hall.

“That was Cadence,” He informed Vena, confusion in his voice. One glance down the hall told him everything: Another giant gryphon was standing in there, glaring as Shining Armor fired magic bolts at its head, in between it and his wife. “Oh, for…” He clamped his mouth shut and stepped into the hall, instantly jerking to the side as an arrow passed by his eyes. Another, more cautious look revealed a small, normal-sized gryphon sitting on the giant’s shoulder, a bow in its hands.

“I’ll back you up,” Vena whispered. “Though, if you can get that archer off the giant, I might be able to get us some answers. I am... quite skilled at various interrogation techniques.”

“Right…” he muttered back, sighing and drawing his katana, wincing at the cut on his left palm. He pushed off the wall and ducked from another arrow. The archer was good, and his eyes were trained on West as he passed back and forth between the walls, narrowly dodging all the arrows.

The archer was so focused on West that he didn’t see the magical blast from Shining Armor coming. The archer was dazed for a few seconds with a ringing in his ears. The giant roared in frustration at the barrier that Shining Armor had erected. He slammed his fists against it, causing the Prince to wince as well.

The archer saw West charge forward and through his daze shot an arrow, catching West square in the right shoulder. He barely slowed as he jumped to the giant gryphon’s back, stepping along the dark brown fur until he could reach the archer, who he then forcefully dragged down from his perch and threw to the floor.

Vena shot forward and placed a claw on the archer as he tried to rise, roughly forcing him back to the ground, pinning him there. West rammed the hilt of his sword against the giant gryphon’s temple, rendering him completely out cold as his eyes glazed over and he fell.

“Start talking,” Vena growled. “What did you expect to accomplish?”

“Bringing about the Master’s wishes,” The gryphon pulled out a dagger and drove it towards his own neck. Vena swatted it away, and slammed the gryphon into the ground again. She dug her claws into his feathery chest, eliciting a painful scream.

“Why are there giant gryphons?” she interrogated, twisting her claws in the common gryphon torture method. It is the most commonly used torture method in the Gryphon Kingdom, even if not many gryphons can execute the techniques with any degree of skill.

“Fine, Fine. Genetic Mutation!” he cried out. “This pill here,” He pulled out a small purple pill with a green helix design around it. “The Master made these and gave them to the select few he had chosen. He has one as well.”

“Who is the Master?”

“Geoffrey… the dignitary.”

“The one with the red amulet?”

“Yeah,”

West had been listening intently to the interrogation. “So, to be clear, Geoffrey is the gryphon with the coloration of a penguin suit?”

Vena and the archer both looked at him quizzically. “What is a penguin?” they both asked.

He chuckled and shook his head, “Never mind.” He turned around and stepped passed the unconscious giant. “Are you two all right?”

“Thanks for your help,” Shining Armor sighed with a hoof around Cadence. “They showed up behind us and said they wanted to talk. Then that one ate something and turned… huge,”

“Cadence, are you all right?” West knelt down to be more on eye level with them, cringing at his sprained ankle muscles.

“Yeah…” she mumbled. She wore a shell-shocked and scared expression on her face. “You’re covered in blood,”

“Probably,” he replied, standing up and turning away. “I’m glad to see that you’re all right. You too, Captain.” A cackle ripped through the air, sending a shiver down West’s spine. He started towards the throne room once more, followed by Vena, who had punched the archer into dreamland. He doubled his speed, clenching his teeth together at his leg, as whoever was laughing changed to screaming in pain.

He had his sword in his right hand and he broke the arrow from his right shoulder with the other, fresh blood spilling from the open cut. He took the sword in his left hand and let his right arm fall to his side as he ran.

A few ponies were standing around in the halls in confusion. West was unable to help alleviate their fears as he charged past them all. He only slowed to a stop when he turned the corner and saw the doors to the throne room splayed open, the guard ponies unconscious on the carpet.

He inched slowly forward until his head peeked around the corner and he had a good view of the entire room.

First, he saw Celestia, collapsed off to the right of the throne. She was glaring at the gryphons, so at least she was still awake and alive. Next, he saw that Nightmare Moon was standing in front of the throne at the top of the stairs, surrounded by a red aura. The aura seemed to be causing her pain.

West spied a red, octagonal shaped amulet around Nightmare Moon’s neck. Most likely that was the amulet Vena had warned him about. He’d done some research into Equestria’s history when he joined the Royal Guard. That research, coupled with a gut feeling he had, told West that Luna had been tricked into putting on the amulet and that had somehow triggered a transformation, or perhaps even a possession.

He saw the gryphon dignitary known as Geoffrey standing at the base of the stairs, only he was not the same as he was two days ago. He must’ve swallowed a Genetic Modifying pill, as he was tall enough to be on eye level with Nightmare Moon. He also held a wicked-looking crossbow in the claws of one hand, which West could barely see around the gryphon’s massive size.

The other two dignitaries were pressed up against either side wall, near West, really wishing they weren’t in the throne room right now.

“Unhand me at once!” Nightmare Moon roared.

Geoffrey just smirked and lifted a second red amulet, in his unoccupied hand, a little higher into the air, causing the red aura to intensify and burn at Nightmare’s flesh. “You should learn to give in already. You are to be my puppet as I take over Equestria, the Gryphon Kingdom, and all of Equus,”

Putting a few facts together, something in West’s mind… cracked. He stepped off out into the throne room and made his presence known by chuckling. “That’s quite the ambitious goal you have there.” He commented.

“Well, if it isn’t the insolent little hairless ape, thinking he’s so damned important now that he’s a royal guard. You’re just a little nobody, not even from this planet. I’ll be sure to crush you thoroughly when I’m king of the world. Oh, and if you're still alive, I'll be sure to find a way to your pathetic little planet, so I can send the entire populace to Tartarus.”

“Oh? And how are you gonna do that? Get my mistress to help you? There’s something you should know…” He’d been holding the katana by his side, as if it were in its scabbard, and he planted his feet firmly into the ground, leading with his left foot.

To those observing, West seemed to disappear, as he shot forward and slashed a long cut from the gryphon’s flank up to his left hand, which had been holding the red amulet, now shattered on the floor as West reappeared next to Nightmare Moon. The red aura faded from around her, and she breathed in heavily, something the pain wouldn't have allowed her to do.

Turning and staring down the furious gryphon, “My mistress, Nightmare Moon, bows to nopony.” He punctuates the line by pointing the bloody sword right at Geoffrey. “Especially not a filthy, inbred penguin such as yourself.” He left the gryphon to seethe as he turned to the mare next to him. He wrapped his left arm around her neck, mindful of the blade, and pushed his right shoulder into hers as a makeshift hug. “Sorry I took so long. Pretty pathetic for your guard, huh?” He pulled away from the embrace and looked her up and down, while she was still at a loss for words at his appearance. “Oh, boo, he ruined your perfectly terrifying image.”

“I do not care what I look like,” Nightmare Moon responded.

“Even if you don’t care, a conqueror such as yourself must always look her best.” He smiled. “And red just doesn’t suit you.” He whipped out his right arm and ripped the amulet from her neck. He held it in his hand as Nightmare Moon transformed back into Princess Luna, who stood in dazed confusion.

“Damn you to Tartarus!” Geoffrey screeched, putting his crossbow to use. What West hadn’t seen about it before was that the crossbow was optimized to fire three bolts at once.

The gryphon must have preemptively pulled the trigger as he raised the crossbow, for the first bolt hit West’s upper right leg, the second slammed into the right side of his torso, and the last bolt ripped into the side of his right shoulder. He dropped his sword, and fell to one knee, his wounds causing his leg to buckle under his weight. He stared down at the blade on the ground, unable to move his hands away from trying to stem the blood.

Luna wasn’t really thinking as she enwreathed the katana in her blue magic. West watched as the sword was lifted into the air and hurdled, with a cry of fury, at the giant gryphon, impaling him right in his neck.

Geoffrey gurgled a little as he collapsed onto his back, bleeding out from his neck wound, which had ripped open his jugular vein. He watched as Vena stepped towards him and took a hold of the katana handle. Just when it looked like she was about to pull it away, she pulled it down, separating his head from his shoulders and ending the last of his life. She kicked his head, making it roll three feet before stopping, just to make sure she'd finished the job.

West and Luna slowly descended the stairs, the former holding the wound on his leg with his hands, and the latter looking quite shell-shocked. Celestia had trotted over, and other than a few bruises, she didn’t look all that bad. She helped stabilize West when he nearly fell, all the adrenaline of the day finally leaving his system.

“Are you all right?” Celestia and Vena asked him at the same time before glancing at each other.

“Celestia, this is Vena, personal guard to Empress Grizzleclaw. Vena, you already know who Princess Celestia is.” West mumbled, trying to keep himself from passing out. “Is that going to be a problem?” he indicated the corpse of Geoffrey.

“Nah, it’ll be fine. Once I see what agreement was met, I’ll explain the whole situation to her.” A tap at her shoulder caused her to turn. The same dark, silent gryphon from two days ago presented her with an unadorned scroll. “Ah, thank you as always, Chad.” He nodded once as she looked over the results. She whistled softly once before rolling the scroll back up. “There won’t be a problem,” she murmured as she turned towards the door. “We will prepare to leave tomorrow.” As an afterthought, she added. “We’ll leave behind any other traitors… for their punishment.” With that, she stepped out of the throne room, followed quickly by the two living dignitaries.

West gently turned Celestia towards the side door and she soon took over and led the way into the halls, heading towards her bedroom.

Author's Note

Geoffrey's crossbow was inspired by the Avelyn from Dark Souls 2.

Next Chapter will delve into West's backstory, and depending on how I write it, may or may not include his confession to the Princesses.
We will just have to see...

On a semi-unrelated note, which i just came up with at... three in the morning: Seeing as it is nearly Christmas, I might just feel obligated to write a Christmas (or is it Hearth's Warming Eve?) themed Chapter.

Comments are always appreciated.