A New Start

A New Start

Story 4

Chapter 5: The City and its Ponies

By: FluttersIsAwesome

I awoke the next morning to the sound of faint grunts. It was coming from my window, so I lifted the blinds and saw Cobalt outside. He was under a large oak tree branch. He had a number of wooden logs surrounding him, each tied to the branch with a rope. As I watched, he kicked one, setting off a chain reaction. One by one, the logs met one another and flew back. Physics took effect and each log came rushing towards Cobalt.

Awestruck, I watched as he dodged each log with fluid motion. Each maneuver led into the next, and none of the logs even touched him. Eager to see how he did it, I left the room and found the door entering into his back yard. When I stepped out, the morning dew cooled my paws as I walked through his well-kept, lusciously green lawn. I began clapping to let him know I was there.

He stopped moving to look at me and waved. "Morning, Gilda. You have a nice nap?"

I nodded happily. "First time sleeping on a bed. It felt nice." It really did. As I cracked my neck, I noticed that not even one joint in my body felt the least bit stiff; I was used to waking up in my cave feeling like a wooden plank.

"Really? They didn't have beds back home?" He shot me a puzzled look, so I shook my head.

"We had 'nests', piles of twigs and leaves that were hardly comfortable to sleep on."

A hearty laugh escaped his lungs as he patted my back. "Being a griffin isn't easy, is it?"

His sarcasm was a welcome change in typical pony attitude. Shaking my head again, I looked up at the clear morning sky. "Sometimes I wonder. Being a pony has its advantages, but so does being a griffin." I flexed my fingers a bit. "For example: a griffin can hold objects without using their mouth."

Putting his hoof into my open hand, he smiled. "And we don't need special gloves to walk on stone."

I don't know whether it was from how oddly nervous having his hoof in my hand made me, or if it was because I was offended, but my feathers puffed out slightly. Seeing this, Cobalt grinned and patted my back.

"You hungry?"

Before I could answer, my stomach began to growl loudly. A nervous grin crept across my face as I looked up at Cobalt. I began to think that trying to force his lips out of that smile would take nothing short of an army.

He put his arm around me and we walked toward his house together. "Griffins are predators, right? Well, if it means anything, most Luvenhëgen residents keep various meats in their homes. Do you have a preference?"

I thought for a moment and decided to answer his ever present humor with a little of my own. "Got anything that's not already dead?"

His laugh was quickly becoming one of my favorite sounds to ever come out of a pony. He leaned in close to me and pointed in the direction of the Raishi settlement. "The Raishi have about 1,200 acres of open hunting grounds. Just tell them I have you permission to hunt there, and they should be pretty lax with you." Before opening the door, he patted my back. "They've got a wide variety of wild game in those woods, so feast. When you're done, meet me in the city square. I took the day off today, so I can take you on the grand tour, sound good?"

I nodded in spite of the fact that I had absolutely no clue where the square was. After seeing my perplexed look, Cobalt spoke again.

"From the settlement, you'll be able to see the big clock tower down here. Just keep going in the direction of the tower, and you'll arrive into a large, open area with various shops lining the walkways. You'll see me there, alright?"

Without thinking, I gave him a quick wink and a grin before taking off toward the large forest behind the settlement.

After Gilda was out of sight, I yawned and entered my house. Maybe early an early morning workout after a night like last night wasn't such a good idea. I made my way to the fridge, dragging my hooves across the hardwood floor of my living room and onto the tile of the kitchen, all without noticing the pink-maned, light-brown filly on my couch.

"Hey there, Romeo."

I swiveled around quickly to see my youngest sister, Cerulean, lying on her back, cozy as can be on my couch. When she looked at me, she waved her hoof with short, lazy rises and falls.

"That's cute, Cobalt. You've got yourself a griffin girlfriend~" She puckered her lips and made rather obnoxious kissing noises as I opened the fridge door and grabbed a granny smith.

Shooting her a cold glare, I bit into the apple. "It's not like that, Cerulean. She's new here, so it would be rude of me not to welcome her."

Any time my little sister scoffed, I always imagined a self-proclaimed know-it-all about to school somepony about a subject they truly know nothing about. "Cobalt, listen here. I may be seventeen, but I know a few things about these kinds of situations."

Turning to her with a smirk, I decided to humor her. "Really? Well then, enlighten me, love-guru."

I got along with most ponies, but my sister was always an exception to most rules of decency and conduct. Seeing her scowl at my remark helped return the smile to my own face. "You instantly take a liking to her, hug her without hesitation, invite her into your home despite not even knowing her for a full day, and now you're offering her access to your food. Don't think I can't tell what this-"

Loud noises, such as the slamming of hooves onto marble, never failed to shut her up. "I know it's a difficult concept for you to understand, but it's only natural for me to be friendly to newcomers. Just because I'm nice to someone doesn't mean I'm in love with them, that concept only applies to compulsive bitches like you."

My sister had never admitted defeat in an argument, but most of the time it was because arguments ended the way this one did. If Cerulean took more than five seconds to respond to a comment, you automatically won the dispute.

I left the house with a smug grin and headed toward the square when I was stopped by a yellow unicorn mare. Her soft blue mane was tied into a ponytail and her tail was in a loose braid: my lieutenant, Seabreeze.

She waved at me energetically and ran to meet me. "Hey there, Cobalt!"

She knew how I was, so my response was no surprise. "I'm gonna have to penalize you for not referring to me as "Sir", young filly." It was a double whammy; I was off-duty, and she was much older than me.

Most ponies in this city had at least a decent sense of humor, but Seabreeze had my favorite kind: the "laugh at any good joke" sense. She laughed at everything just about, and my sarcasm was no exception. Putting a hoof on my shoulder, she grinned at me. "Nice of you to take that griffin in."

Never before had I ever shown Seabreeze a straight face. However, when she brought up Gilda, my smile couldn't help but retreat. "You too?"

Yet another giggle. "Almost everypony knows. Cobalt, you know how fast word gets around in this city. If even one pony saw you with her excluding Cyan, you should've expected everypony else to have found out about it by now."

I could do nothing but sigh. She was completely right, so I was left with no way to fight back.

She however, kept her smile. "You've got such a good heart, Cobalt."  Tapping my chest with a hoof, she turned to leave. "If I hear that she has treated you badly, or if you have treated her badly, I'll gut the one at fault."

My grin returned, and I made my way to the square to wait.

* * *

"Oh lord... I'm so damn-" a loud burp finished my sentence for me. I struggled to remember the last time I had eaten that well. "Guess it's time to see Cobalt."

Under normal circumstances I just brushed off something that tapped my shoulder before a take off, but I was in foreign territory, so I turned to see Soul looking straight at me.

"You may want to clean up, sweetheart. Lord knows the ponies down in the city will just love seeing their friendly neighborhood griffin covered in leftovers."

I hadn't even noticed until he pointed it out, so I let him lead me to a secluded lake. The clear, shimmering water looked gorgeous as it reflected the sunlight shining down onto it.

The friendly wolf patted my back. "Go ahead and take a dip, it's a cinch to clean."

I did so. Diving into the cool water definitely refreshed me, and after I swam through the lake and resurfaced, my feathers and fur were spotless. Literally ever bit of dirt, dead skin, and leftovers from my meal were gone. In exchange, however, the lake had become disgustingly black and murky. I shot Soul an apologetic look as I touched down. "Sorry about the water..."

He held his hoof to my face. "Did I not say that the water was easy to clean? Watch this, my fine feathered friend." He placed his left paw on the surface of the water, then followed with his right and his two hind paws.

I watched in awe as he walked across the lake's surface like it was solid ground, cleaning the water with each step. "H-how are you-"

By now I had learned to stop speaking when Soul interrupted me. "We are gifted beings. It's difficult to explain, so I'll put it simply: I am the most powerful of all Raishi, and Celestia herself considers me an equal. I have almost no limits, therefore next to nothing is out of my reach."

I couldn't help but laugh as I pointed toward the sky. "I'm pretty sure that is out of your reach."

I don't recall ever regretting something I said before, aside from the time my words got me kicked in the face by Nova. Before my very eyes, large, burgundy-scaled wings sprouted from Soul's back and pushed him up off the ground.

"Any more feats you would like to see?"

I began to shake a bit; his presence was slightly frightening now. Shaking my head, I took off toward Luvenhëgen at full speed, eager to see what Cobalt had in store for me.