My Little Griffon: The Red Paw

Change
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“Whether it is for the best or the worse, change is never easy.” ~Anonymous
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(Two weeks later)

“Still nothing?” Clive asked, looking over at Huntley.

“Still nothing,” Huntley confirmed.

“Ugh, the groom’s her fucking brother! You’d think that they’d send her and her friends to Canterlot by now. I mean, it's not like she left on bad grounds or anything,” Clive grumbled.

“Why does it matter?” Ales asked a second before Huntley did, “We care about them returning to Ponyville, not leaving it. It wouldn’t matter if he let her know a day or two in advance so long as she and the other five returned. Why are you getting so worked up about this?” She asked, getting a stare of approval from Huntley who was going to say the same.

“Because I’m getting bored. Intelligence has a few codes cracked for Fulton’s case, but we’re stuck here planning on what we’re going to do about ponynapping these six bitches. I wanna see a bit of action, you know?”

“Good things come to those who wait,” Huntley said.

“What are you, my mother?” Clive asked, getting a glare from both Ales and Huntley.

Before either could reply, there was a knock on the door and Clive opted to get it. He unlocked the mechanism and opened it, revealing Gilda, “You’re early,” Clive said, stepping back to let her in.

“Yeah,” Gilda said, entering the room. From behind her, Clive raised an eyebrow, that wasn’t how he would have expected Gilda to react.

Clive closed and locked the door, “Everything alright, Gilda?” He asked suspiciously.

“Now that I’m here it is,” She said. Gilda burst into green flame, causing everygriffon in the room to jump. After a fraction of a second, Gilda was replaced by a blackish equinian creature with ice blue eyes, semi-opaque bug-like wings, an upwards curving horn, and holes punched through its lower legs and tail. To sum it up, the creature was a Changeling.

The creature opened its fanged mouth before Clive, whose jump had been more of a tackle, knocked the creature back and pinned it to the ground.

“Where is she!” He growled in the changeling’s face. He wrapped a paw around the creature’s neck, applying enough pressure to choke, but not enough to deny speech.

The surprised changeling tried to push his assailant away but received a kick to the gut.

“Where’s Gilda!?” Clive roared.

“I don’t...know!” The changeling struggled to say, “I...took her form...because she had left!”

Clive glared down into the creature’s eyes, searching for deception and finding none. Done interrogating, Clive tightened his grip around the changeling’s neck, “Wait! Wait!” The changeling barely manage to choke out. Clive released the pressure around the changeling’s neck, and the changeling gasped for air.

“Talk, bug-brain, before I decide to splatter you against the fuckin wall!”

The changeling nodded, its voice was raspy, as if it hadn’t had water in a long time, “We understand that we have an enemy in the Equines. Our queen desires your services in order to defeat our common enemy. After all,” The changeling smiled, “The enemy of my enemy is my...gack!” Clive’s paw wrapped around the changeling’s throat again.

“The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, you little shit. What do you mean by us being enemies with the ponies, who told you that?” Clive glared and released his quarry’s neck again.

The changeling made a dismissive noise, “On the outside it may appear that you and the ponies are friends, but it is what happens behind closed doors,” the changeling indicated the door to the room, “that proves my point. Do you think that your intelligence service is the only one worth a damn? A species that can take on any form can be quite good spies, you know,” the changeling grinned at the implication, “Taking the Elements of Harmony hostage doesn’t sound very neighborly to me. Now before you go choking me again, listen. You and I, our species at least, have a common enemy in the ponies. Apart we could do some damage, yes, but combined the possibilities are endless!”

“Is this just some way to mooch off of our operations to get a little piece for yourselves?” Clive snapped.

“Um, Clive, wouldn’t it be a better idea to take this bug to the king?” Ales asked.

“Before we know what the little bugger wants? No,” Clive turned back to the changeling, “Go on.”

“You are well aware of the wedding taking place in Canterlot, we are as well. As you know, we feed off love, so what better host than a bride or groom?” The changeling smiled wickedly, “You may have noticed the magical shield over Canterlot? Pony spies discovered our plans of attacking Equestria and that shield repels us. However, we know that it is the groom who is the shield bearer. If our queen were able to take the place of the bride and then leech off of the groom’s love, she could eventually lower the shield, allowing us to take Canterlot!”

“But the shield is where your problem comes in,” Huntley observed, getting a nod from the changeling, “Let me guess, you want us to get your queen inside the barrier so she can ‘work her magic’ and weaken the shield.”

“Correct,” the changeling said, “In return, once we had captured all of Equestria, the Griffon Kingdoms would receive a sizable area as compensation for your work.”

“How much land?” Huntley asked, his mind going into calculation mode.

“And what’s going to stop you from turning on us once you’re done with the ponies?” Ales asked.

The changeling looked at her and laughed, getting a punch to the gut from Clive who was still pinning him down, “We feed off of love, remember. Not corruption or greed, you griffons have barely any love that we could use. With your lack of magic, it would be far easier for us to take over the Griffon Kingdoms than Equestria, but Equestria is ripe with love! And to answer the question of land, that is to be taken up with your king. So what say you,” the changeling looked to Clive, “Shall we go and see your king?”
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Clive had expected something more interesting during the confrontation, but it was actually rather boring. The changeling explained the situation while the king silently listened and after a few words and a decision on the land gained, he agreed on the spot.

The griffons were dismissed, told to go and find a way to allow the changeling queen in.

“I’m surprised that he just agreed like that,” Gilda, who had joined them before they left the room, commented, “What if the changelings fail?”

“I’m not,” said Huntley, “No matter the outcome, it’s a win-win situation for us.”

Gilda and Clive gave the elder griffon odd looks and Ales answered with what she hoped Huntley meant, “If the changelings win, Equestria falls and we get some land. To top it off, the changelings are weakened by the battle and are in a position of recovery, giving us an opportune time to strike and eliminate them as well as the ponies. On the flipside, if the changelings are defeated then the ponies are in a state of recovery, giving us a chance to attack them at their weakest moment and eliminate them. No matter what, the odds are in our favor.”

“Exactly,” Huntley rasped.

“Never thought about it that way,” Clive said, more to himself than to anygriffon.

“Wisdom comes with age and age comes to those who wait,” Huntley said, chuckling quietly to himself.

“Yes, mother,” Clive said, trying to imitate a child’s voice. He laughed, but received a questioning look from Gilda and glares from the other two griffons, “We’ve got a shield to break, let’s not tarry!”