The Traveler's Song
Written by Techy Kat
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Griffon
"Arrgh! Stupid weather ponies!"
A white-coated unicorn yelled while scuffing the wet ground with her hoof has hard she could. Rain spat out from the dark clouds above. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed violently as many ponies took cover.
As the unicorn walked robotically down the street, she continued to grumble to herself despite the torrential downpour.
"Dang it, Vinyl. Why today?" the unicorn stopped briefly to wipe her now-soaked neon blue hair out of her eye. "Octavia must be having it so chill, in that indoor theater. Wonder what she will have to say later."
As bolts of lightning continued to pond the city of Canterlot, young ponies and nobles alike were scared. Nothing like this had happened in many years. Usually, these sorts of weather theatrics were reserved for invasions, hostile takeovers, or evil laughs.
Or maybe for the sceams of a certain rainbow maned prankster.
"Watch out!"
Time seemed to slow down as the unicorn named Vinyl Scratch responded to the scream as she noticed a streak of lightning headed straight for her and her horn. The instant of time it would have taken to strike her felt like several long seconds.
Get out of the way you idiot!
A instant felt like afelt like minutes as she, frozen in fear, she mentally screamed at her hooves to move but noticed that they were not going anywhere. In fact, it Feeling a electrifying heat on her fac3, all she could do was squint her eyes shut, waiting for the pain.
"Hurrgh!"
For a second, Vinyl expected pain to errupt across her body. Not feeling anything, she quickly glanced up toward the sound she heard, then stared with wide-open eyes, mouth slightly open.
"What?"
A silver grey giffon has leaped with a flap of their wings into the path of the lightning above her into the line of the arc. For someone to do that so quickly must be quite fast. Yet, it was sure stupidity for someone to fly into something so powerful!
With nothing to ground the griffon, Vinyl was sure he was have been fried. Yet, what was happening was unbelievable.
Is the griffon actually redirecting the lightning into the ground?
After a second or two energy coursing down its wings, the lightning quickly was gone. The only thing remaining was the smell of ozone and of singed feathers.
Vinyl broke out of her trance and tried to stop the sudden decent of the griffon, who looked like he was about to fall out the sky like a rock, but failed.
Thud!
A muffled cry was all Vinyl could say before the bird collapsed directly onto her. He then quickly tried to get off of her, but without much success at first. After a few times, they were able to extract themselves from each other. Vinyl took in the griffon that most likely saved her from a lot of pain and felt a grin spread across her face.
"Maaaan! That was awesome! Didn't know griffons redirect something like that," Vinyl gushed, "but here you are who took it head on with bearly a scratch. Thanks man - I owe ya one!" All of a sudden a scowl overcame her face and then took one of her front hooves and slamed it into one of the griffin's shoulders.
A small groan of pain was uddered by the griffon who was still trying to get it's balance. It, or rather he, shot a small frown at her as Vinyl started to rant a bit.
"However, that was really stupid you know! " she started to yell, but then noticed the griffon's exasperated exasperation. "Not that I mind," she ammended, " but If you hadn't directed that lightning like you did, you would have been toast!"
The griffon just sighed. "I must say," he said in a eloquent voice as he trotted over to a small cart set underneathe a small ledge in a small alley. "Is it a custom of ponies to yell in others faces after someone tries to help?"
Vinyl briefly looked down at the stone road with a sheepish look.
"Well, not really. Sorry, just was worried that a pony - er, individual - would risk getting hurt for me. I appriciated it man!"
Vinyl suddenly creased her mouth into a frown.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name. My name is Vinyl Scratch, though my friends call me Vinyl."
The griffon gave a small smirk a little at her comment. "I don't usually play 'catch' with my name, sorry." His comment made Vinyl chuckle a bit. "Though, if you were meaning to ask me my name, it's Daviek Iron. Most everyone calls mr Daviek though."
Vinyl grinned, almost forgetting the rain. She had met one or two griffons before, but never heard of any using their wings to redirect lightning. She almost forgot they were out in the middle of a rain storm hat is until a rummble of thunder interrupted her thoughts.
Oh darn it! Vinyl thought, realizing just how late it was. She had been wondering the streets on the way home to try and calm her mind. Not having her usualy headsets on her made walking her only sure stress reliever. Tavi is probbably worried about me in this storm!
"Well then... it's been nice meeting you, but I better head back to my crash pad for the night," Vinyl said while turning to head down the way she was originally going. "It's good to meet ya man. Hope ya stay dry!"
A small polite smile was upon Daviek's face, his beek slightly open. "You too Miss Scratch," he said while giving Vinyl a small bow.
Vinyl turned to wave one of her hooves goodbye when she noticed Daviek was not going anywhere to get somewhere dry. She frowned slightly and her mind hesitated. She couldn't assume he didn't have somewhere to go, but a little voice in the back of her head made her decide to ask nonetheless.
"Um hey, Daviek." Vinyl scratched an ear with her hoof. "Not to be nosey, but don't ya have someplace better to be hanging around? This isn't really a good spot to be staying dry."
She saw what she thought looked like a nervous smile before it dissapeared behind Daviek's politely neutral face. He shook his head at her question.
"Well Miss Scratch," Daviek started, "I actually have been looking for a place to bed down for the night, but it seems all the hotels are packed this evening. I am not too surprised though after hearing of all the visiting ponies that currently here to go to a concert by a pony of the name DJ-PON3 I believe."
"How interesting!" Vinyl said abit carefully as she looked tried to look everywhere but the griffon, who had looked a little closer at her face. "She must be pretty good to fill up Canterlot."
Daviek let a small smirk creep onto his face. "Quite so! In fact, I remember hearing also that it was cancelled because of the weather. What a shame!" Another boom of thunder seemed to agree with his statement.
Either Daviek had made the connection and wasn't saying anything, Vinyl noted to herself, or he didn't know. She was happy eitherway.
"Well," Viny said while thinking for a second. "Me and a friend riht now a hotel room close by. Don't think there is a vacancy..." She suddenly gave him a wide grin. "But wait! How about you room with us? Im sure it wouldn't be too bad having extra roomate for the night!"
"That is," Daviek noted, "if your roomate would not mind. Besides, I would do want to impose on anyone like that."
"Oh, Tavi? Naww, she would be cool with it! I mean, it's not like you are her bigggest fan or something." Vinyl then quickly facehoofed as she realized too late that she had dropped to much information sabout who was actually the pony with her in Canterlot. As of recently, Octavia had been getting pretty famous with her concerts outside of Canterlot and Ponyville. Most knew her by her full name as well as her nickname given by Vinyl, even though the mare dispised the later.
Daviek's eyes opened up wide as a giddy smile quickly set on his face.
Craaaaabapples, Vinyl mentally sighed.
"Tavi? You mean Octavia, the reknowned cello player from Ponyville?!" Daviek now was really acting like a school filly - er - griffon. His smile kept getting bigger and bigger, totally a different griffon than the reserved and elite creature he had been seconds ago. "I had heard of her performing today, but sadly did not have the time to stop in at the music hall and listen to her play. If it means getting to meet her, I would love to take you up on the offer! If you would like, I will be happy to pay you whatever the charge is to add another individual to your room."
"Okay! Need any help carrying any of your stuff?" Vinyl asked as she again pushed her hair out of her eyes. She had noticed a small cart nearby under a small canopy. It was tiny, but had been packed to the brim of odds and ends.
"Sure, I would appriciate it. This cart has been getting a bit hard to move with all my stuff. Mind carrying the two grey duffelbags while I pull the rest on the cart?"
Vinyl lifted them with here unicorn magic and, surprisingly, they were quiet heavy for smaller sized bags. Straining a little bit, she maintained her mental grasp on them as Daviek hitched up to his cart. Soon, they were heading down the street toward a medium-sized hotel.
While walking, she all of the sudden noticed that sticking out of one of the bags she was carrying was a small letter. While this in itself would have fallen far from being strange - and boy had she seen strange - it was very surprising to note that it had a dark blue wax seal still attached with a crecent moon shape formed within.
Vinyl was tempted to gasp and ask what such a thing was doing in his bag. However, she decided on waiting until later when they got to the hotel roo. She sighed to herzelf a second time.
Well, I guess it couldn't get that more strange.
As their respective hooves, claws, and paws moved down the street, Vinyl had no idea just how wrong she was.