My Little Griffon: The Red Paw

Past
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“The past is behind us and it follows in our footsteps wherever we go.” ~Anonymous
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Gilda loosed another bolt. At one thousand feet per second, it impacted the target with a thwack and a twang. As she reloaded the crossbow-like weapon, her mind wandered back to that fateful day...

Gilda stepped back to admire the poster on the wall. Unlike the wall’s parallel brother, only one large poster covered it. The poster was done in the red and gold of the Griffon Kingdoms colors with black coloring as well. A silhouette of a griffon was imposed on a golden rising or setting sun. The griffon’s profile stood proud and strong with a fist raised to the air, the words ‘Fortitudo, Unitas, Facultates’ displayed in red below him. The only reason that Gilda knew that meant: ‘Strength, Unity, Ability’ was because some smart-ass pony had told her so.

Throwing a look to the opposite wall showed that its cloudy surface was entirely covered in different Wonderbolt memorabilia. The owner of said posters looked at the lone poster on the opposing wall. “Pretty cool, Gilda...” a younger Rainbow Dash squinted, “What does: Fortitudo, Unitas, Facultates mean?” She asked, mispronouncing the words with ease.

“Strength, Unity, and Ability in some old forgotten language. The three prowesses of the Griffon Kingdom.” Gilda gave a salute to the poster, placing her right hand over her left shoulder and bowing her head.

It was later that day, during a break in practice, that a voice had spoken from behind Gilda. “You’re a fine flier.”

Gilda turned, expecting to see some pegasus colt. They were always trying to be friendly to the only Griffon in flight school and they very rarely got what they desired from her. That said, she was surprised to see a Griffon watching the clouds above her, he flicked his gaze to her. “Alger,” he said, holding out a paw to shake.

Gilda took the offered appendage and was met with a steel hard grip which she returned, “Wow, I never expected to see another griffon here in Equestria. I’m Gilda.”

Alger gave a gruff nod, “You’re one of the best fliers here, Gilda. Top in your martial arts class as well.”

Gilda smiled at the praise, “Having digits helps,” she said, wiggling her talons, “So what brings you around these parts?”

“You.”

Gilda raised an eyebrow, “Um...come again?” She asked, not sure if she had heard Alger right.

“More specifically, your loyalty to the Kingdom and your representation of it as a foreign exchange student here. If one pairs your abilities with your loyalty, that creates somegriffon with potential in my department back home.” Alger said, only now did Gilda notice that Alger held a small file in one hand.

“So...you’re offering me a job?” She asked, looking from the file to the face of the griffon in front of her.

Alger nodded, “If you can pass a simple test then there’s a job waiting for you at home. The pay is good and the cause is better,” Alger held forth the closed manilla file and Gilda took it. But Alger didn’t immediately let go, “Know that this is not a job for the kind of heart and that it involves danger and guts.”

“I don’t think you’d be here if I lacked either,” Gilda said with a smile. The smile was returned and Alger let go of the folder. Gilda flipped it open and looked at the front page. It held the mugshot of a filthy looking earth pony with the word: Target written above. Gilda snapped the folder closed quickly and looked around suspiciously. “You want me to kill somepony!? Isn’t that...you know...” she met Alger’s eyes.

“Illegal?” he finished, “Only when you look at it from one point of view. Open the folder and look at the bottom right of the picture. Gilda did so and gasped, her lower beak dropping as she stared in awe at the stamp at the bottom corner of the picture.

Alger closed the file before anypony saw the contents.

“That’s the royal seal!” Gilda gasped, looking up at Alger again, “The king’s very hand used his very own personal seal to approve of this!” Gilda looked at the closed manilla folder as if she could see through it to the stamp and as if that the stamp was made of gold.

“You will find everything that you need in that folder. Finish the job within this week and you will have yourself a job, fail or don’t complete the task and we will move on. Know that we will deny any affiliation to you if you are caught.” Alger said, lifting his wings to leave, “May the winds guide your journey from your back.”

Gilda nodded proudly. To be told that by a griffon like Alger was an honor, “You as well,” she said.
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Gilda had studied the file for two of her seven given days. Her target was a low end drug dealer known by the codename: ‘Lacrosse.’ It wasn’t until later that Gilda had known that some drugs that originated from Lacrosse ended up killing the daughter of a griffon in some high end business. The griffon wanted Lacrosse dead and the job had been given to her since the pony only had one guard and was almost always high on his own supply. He would be simple...or at least he should have been...
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On day four, Gilda had found out that Lacrosse would be in a bar in the city of Fillydelphia below. The folder had contained a thin razor wire garrote that was easy to conceal as a thin necklace.

Knowing that it would be awkward for her not to invite her cyan friend, Gilda had invited Rainbow Dash to come along. She knew the pegasus had a very low alcohol tolerance and after a few drinks, Gilda could slip away without being noticed.

“I heard about this place down in the town, you wanna come?” Gilda had asked.

“Hell yeah, a night on the town would be awesome,” Rainbow Dash shot to the door after Gilda, “What’s this place called?”
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“The Drunken Lamb?” Rainbow Dash read the neon sign before following Gilda in.

It had only taken a few drinks before Rainbow Dash was an incoherent idiot. Gilda had spotted Lacrosse and his lone guard when they had entered, sitting alone at a corner table. Lacrosse had bloodshot eyes, yet more proof that he took his own supply as often as he sold it.

Dash didn’t even notice when Gilda left her seat as Lacrosse headed over to the restroom with his guard in tow. Gilda began to get nervous, the her heart seemed to drown out the music as she made her way slowly to the restroom.

Fortunately for her the restroom was unisex, as ponies weren’t exactly the most modest of creatures, and had multiple stalls. She wouldn’t draw any undue attention by heading in.

The floor was tiled, and it led around a corner before heading into the main room of the restroom. Lacrosse’s guard leaned against the wall, facing the door. When Gilda entered, she froze as the dark coated pony eyed her with an indiscernible look. She gave him a nervous smile, hoping he couldn't hear her nervous heart doing double time in her chest.

The pony looked away when she passed him and she threw a kick into his jaw as hard as her muscles could do so. With a grunt of pain he collapsed on the ground. Gilda’s head snapped around to the main area of the restroom. Lacrosse must have been in one of the stalls, as he was nowhere to be seen. Before she could move, however something bit into her rear leg and she let out a short yelp of pain.

Gilda turned to see the guard pony getting to his hooves, a bloody knife held in one of them.

“Shit,” Gilda cursed, throwing a punch to his face. Despite her speed, she was tangoing with a professional. The pony caught her paw with his free forehoof and twisted, she rolled with the twist so he couldn’t injure her arm. Using her wings as leverage, she rolled right in the air as the knife cut into the area where she had been.

She escaped the knife, but she hit the tile floor hard. She wasn’t used to anything besides a soft mat and the tile was nothing like what she was used to hitting. She saw stars as the pony put away his knife, never saying a word, and began to press his hooves on her throat.

She grabbed the two heavy pillars of muscle and tried to break free, but couldn’t. Thinking fast, Gilda grabbed the razor wire garrote and sliced it across the backs of the pony’s hooves. Blood began to pour from the wound and the pony’s grip lightened enough for Gilda to push away. The pony yelled out in pain and anger and stared at her with a death glare.

She hissed at him and vaguely heard somepony say something from one of the stalls. Her adrenaline infused body ignored the stall, focusing everything on the pony in front of her. He placed a hoof forwards, but then winced in pain and fell forwards.

Seeing her opening, Gilda shot forwards and grabbed the knife from the pony’s sheath. She grabbed his head by the chin and rammed the knife into his neck. Blood quickly flowed out from the wound and after a quick gurgle, the pony stopped moving.

Gilda let out a massive sigh of relief and collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. She had just killed a pony...but he had threatened her life. She acted in self defense.

Her thoughts were cut off as a light grey head with bloodshot eyes peeked from behind a stall door. Remembering her mission, Gilda got back on all fours. She had one more pony to kill.
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The crowd was too focused on the live band, Manetallica, performing on stage to notice the beat up and bloodstained griffon exit the bathroom and collapse onto the floor. All of them besides Rainbow Dash.

“Hey Gilda,” the cyan pegasus said, putting her face in Gilda’s when she approached. The griffon could smell the alcohol on her friend's breath, “Ya don look too good, wha happened?” she let out a small hiccup. Gilda simply passed out, from blood loss or shock, she didn’t know.

She woke up in a hospital. Dash had realized something was wrong a few minutes after Gilda passed out and had dragged her to the nearest hospital. She was too fatigued and still too drunk to form coherent words at the reception desk but the doctor had seen Gilda’s wounds and taken her to get fixed up.

Everypony had been filled with questions and Gilda had explained that when she went into the restroom, there was another pony there. That he had killed the guard and Lacrosse. He had beat her up before escaping and she had crawled out to get help. The guardsponies who had come to ask her for investigative purposes had believed her story and had never found the culprit.

Dash, the loyal friend that she was, had stayed with Gilda until she could recover fully. Alger had shown up one of the times that Dash was passed out on a couch. “You did good,” he had said, “Welcome to the family.”
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Gilda had dropped out shortly thereafter. During training for Special Operations, she had met Clive and they were selected to be a ‘pair.’ Two griffons that stayed together throughout their missions. One didn't always have to be a direct part of the mission, as had been the case with the Ponyville one...

As thoughts of Ponyville came to mind, Gilda realized that she was aiming her crossbow-like weapon, known as an Arcumsire, at the target and was ready to fire. On the target she saw the idiotic face of the pink earth pony that had ruined everything. Gilda growled and loosed the bolt, it struck its mark right in the target’s head.

“You safe to approach now?” Clive said from behind and to the right of her. Too many times Clive had bothered her when she was deep in thought. Startling her from a trance-like zoned out state was similar to poking a venomous and highly agitated snake.

“Yeah, what’s up?” She began reloading the Arcumsire again, not looking away from her task.

“Just checkin up on you,” Clive said.

Gilda sighed and placed her weapon on the bench in front of her, “If we’ve got a mission then just tell me.”

Sure enough, a glance back showed that he had a manila folder in his grip. Gilda held out a paw for it and opened the folder when she received it. As she parced through different documents, Clive began to explain the situation.

“We’re working in conjunction with two other pairs to pull this one off,” Clive said, “Target’s some piece of shit trying to bribe his way into the Interius Circuli. The griffon thinks that he’s invisible but his antics got picked up almost immediately. We’re using six since this is one slippery douche and we can’t let him escape. We’re Infil Two, but just be happy we didn’t get SHTF duty. Anyways, what was on your mind? You were standing there for a minute before you came to.”

Gilda snapped the folder closed and looked to Clive, “The past.”