Griffinstone United

"Two days, Carrie, two damned days!"

"Oh, boohoo, we've all been starving," Carolyn said, jabbing a claw at him.

"Easy to you to say, you've been drunk the whole time," Alexander shot back before giving a glare to Blaze, the dragon immediately cowering back. The two had been arguing day and night, Alexander constantly complaining, but Blaze refrained from saying that last bit. He did not want to be the center of the output of his anger, so instead he had kept his distance, always lagging back behind the two. This time, however, it seemed that he couldn't hide from his rage.

"And you!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the mountaintops, making the tall dragon shrink back and quietly whimper. "You had the chance to get us all a meal that would sustain us for more than a week if we conserved properly, but no, you just couldn't kill such an innocent fucking animal!"

"Oh, give the kid a break," Carolyn butted in, Blaze thankful even as his stomach grumbled. "He's vegetarian like the ponies anyway."

He slowly started to back away while he had the chance, before he was mentioned again. While the Griffinstone people might've found it funny, Blaze hated their arguing. They were constantly at each others' throats, and it gave Blaze a headache on another note. Both had

The mentioning of them reminded Blaze of what had happened. Alexander had fell, got caught in the wind, and latched onto Carolyn — she had made that very clear almost every hour — who Blaze had tried to save, but he had ended up being carried along with the wind. Blaze didn't even regret it; it was one step away from his horrible anxiety and shyness. Plus, Carolyn was much more friendly with him, though she was also drunk most of the time as well, as Alexander had pointed out.

Blaze had always been the runt of the litter, never able to harm an animal like the other dragons. Instead, he always stayed away from 'hanging with' the guys, staying with all of the creatures in the Dragonlands, whether they were giant beasts or tiny, fluffy bunnies. He'd heard rumors of a pony in Equestria named Shutterfly or something along those lines, and she had been able to talk with animals. Blaze could only wish that he had that ability.

Of course, not being able to harm an animal also meant no food for a dragon. Dragon society, if you could even call it that, was harsh; if you were weak, you'd die a weakling, and that was exactly what Blaze was. The result of him never harming an animal was him being thinner than a toothpick, which led to him always being picked on and teased. Back in the Dragonlands, he didn't have any muscles, though he really didn't have too much compared to the strong dragon soldiers in the Red Gear's barracks now. But he barely had enough to fly with his wings back then, that was his point. That meant that he couldn't defend himself or fly away from dragons like Punk.

Punk. It was a fitting name, to say the least. He had always wanted to stand up to the lard ass, but Blaze never had the courage. By himself, the pig might lose in a fight against Blaze, but he had created his own little gang to keep him protected at all times. Blaze didn't know why people would stick with him since all Punk did was sit on his fat ass sticking food in his mouth twenty-four-seven, but he suspected that he paid them to stick with him. It was well known in the Dragonlands that Punk was rich in gemstones, though Blaze didn't know how he didn't go bankrupt since he ate them all the time.

Anyway, if you even looked in Punk's direction, you'd face his thugs. Blaze had once saw a friend that tried to stand up to him, but Punk himself had crushed him with his enormous, fat blob of a stomach. And so, Blaze just endured the hazing that was forced on him. Everyone knew that he was weak, and everyone beat him up every once in a while, but Punk did it almost daily.

The Dragonlands was in a state of crisis before it fell like Equestria, and Blaze knew it all too well. Lord Ember was the new ruler of the Dragonlands before it collapsed, and Blaze had to admit that he had a crush on her. Rival dragon lords had laughed at the frail dragon that was Ember, saying that there was no place for such a small girl. She tried to prove them wrong with her argument that dragon lords could be smart, not just strong, but it failed miserably. She tried to create a stable government and cities, but they all turned corrupt or were ruined, about the same time that Equestria fell into ruin.

Being in a thief gang was nearly the only way to survive in the Dragonlands, scamming the rich and whatnot. Blaze also had to admit that, after being bullied by Punk all the time, scamming the rich was an alluring option.

Oh, how wrong he was in that.

He had tried to look for some underground gangs that would accept them, but they all laughed and turned him away. At the time, opposing dragon lords and their kingdoms began to think of completely ravaging Lord Ember's kingdom, slaughtering and raping any that they found in their wake, and some did start attacking. There were many different kingdoms in the Dragonlands — they were vast — and each of them had different values, besides the handful that were all just rampaging despots. Sadly, all those others were farther inland, and Lord Ember's kingdom was just on the shoreline.

After a month of searching, Blaze was finally accepted into a thieving gang full of sly females, all of them snickering and grinning by Blaze's arrival. He was fine with being in a crew of girls at the time, but things inevitably got worse.

On their first job, they were planning to sail through a lava canal and murder a trade boat that was stocked full of gemstones. Blaze had been anything but helpful, preferably not killing anyone except for when he was asked to by the crew leader, Scratch. They all noticed his weakness quickly, and he soon became their bitch, at a lack for better words.

For a year, he was beat by them every night. What little food he got that wasn't meat was stolen or plucked away with a laugh and a punch to the gut. Of course it got worse, and he became their plaything for whenever they were feeling horny with nothing to do, but he wouldn't go into detail on that topic. In short, he was forced to stay with them, for what else could he do? He had no other options.

Or that was until the griffon recruiters came.

They claimed that they had flown all the way from what they called the Red Gear, the griffons. Word spread like wildfire, and Blaze ran away from his crew immediately, eager to sign up. Anything to get away from the brutal Dragonlands. Just like that, him and a couple dozen other dragons were put on a ship and sailed back to the Red Gear's empire, leaving the place for good. The last Blaze had heard, Ember had also ran from her position, flying away to an unknown location, though it was a common theory that she was kidnapped.

And here he was now, in the mountaintops with two griffons under a sky of cloud that never let up and never held back its freezing contents, after a year of training with their strange weaponry and building a small fraction of the other dragons' muscle. He shouldered his rifle; it was a unique design for snipers, with a scope to magnify his sight from a long distance.

He looked back at the two griffons, both in one another's face. He sighed, slowly walking up towards them, his clawed feet burrowing in the snow with each step. He wanted to get away for a little while, and he had an excuse. It worked last time, but that was when Alexander had gotten tired of Carolyn and followed him, only to find him watching a small pack of white rabbits.

Immediately, their shouts were heard in full force. He winced, burdened with the task of trying to talk through their dispute.

"...damn alcoholic!" Alexander screeched, jabbing his claw at her.

"Um, hey," he uttered, but neither paid him attention.

"And? So what, I drink whiskey from time to time?" she said through a gritted beak.

Alexander laughed. "Time to time, huh? Time to fucking time? You drink a bottle every damn hour." This caused Carolyn to blush immensely. She was obviously insecure about it, Blaze noticed. He had always been good at reading expressions; it was something one picked up as a scamming con-artist, even if you weren't a good one.

"Um, hey," he asked, tapping Carolyn on the shoulder. She looked up.

"Yes?" Carolyn asked nicely, ignoring Alexander and happy for an exit from the conversation.

"Well, um, I was just thinking that I'd go scout around the area," he said in a hushed tone.

"Oh, and make sure to not gather us food, like you did last time," Alexander yelled over the rising wind. As Blaze walked off, he realized something. He had accidentally chosen a side in their constant debates, both by gaining Carolyn's respect and banishing any that he had from Alexander. It worried him.

He pulled his heavy rucksack off from his back and started looking through it as he walked, bored but eager to be away from the two. Back at Craggle Creag, he had purchased tons of books along with Ellie, though the griffon had mentioned something about bringing books from home. He was big on reading; it was an escape from the real world, an opportunity to get away from life and put yourself in a fictional world that was so much more interesting than the bland one that they lived in. And he needed that more than anything right now.

His idea was to find a quiet place to read, and that was it. They had been traveling through mountaintops for the whole of yesterday and only now has the land been getting less steep and mountainous. It was mostly hills and valleys now.

Blaze had brought some books with him as well, but not many. One of the books he had purchased, however, was an old book that told of the Dragonlands, or at least from a griffon's perspective. It was funny to him, how dragons were described as volatile, vulgar beings, and then there was him. He never felt like he fitted in, and that was because he didn't. He'd want to object to the claim of all dragons being horrible, but he couldn't; it was true, with him being an exception. And he knew it firsthand...

He stopped, something in the distance catching his eye just as he crested a very tall hill. The whole trip had been a mix of bleak greys and dull whites, but there was a large patch of green afar. He stuffed the thick text into his sack and walked forward, gasping.

No, it was more than just a patch of green. It was a vast meadow, bare of snow. There was an enormous gap in the clouds that seemed near impossible compared to everything around the field, the sun shining down with majestic beams. The beautiful piece of land continued on for a long time, only stopping at another mountainside.

Blaze dropped his sack along with his jaw and continued onward down the hill, the snow becoming less and less thick. It was some sort of village, with giant tents and huts built around the meadow, a small patch of farmland not too far from the center of the charming town, ripe crops bursting out from the ground, somehow growing in the frigid temperatures without any hindrances, along with a couple trees that were full of bright green leaves, each one shining like an emerald.

But that wasn't even the most fascinating part. Blaze could see figures roaming about, and after a further observation, he realized that he recognized the creatures. He'd read about them in books, centaurs they were called. With the lower body of a horse, and the upper body of something else, unbeknownst to any scholar or researcher. The most famous of them had been someone named Tirek, but no one knew where he came from. It was a secret, known by none.

Blaze was shaking from excitement rather than the cold when he realized that he had just found out the secret.

He quickly started flying back, snatching his rucksack and dashing towards Carolyn and Alexander's direction, biting his lip eagerly. This is so amazing!

***   ***   ***

Everyone stared at him as he walked across a dirt path, the red creatures giving him curious and suspicious glances. Nearly all of their upper bodies' skin was red, or at least a shade of it. Their piercing eyes made him very uncomfortable. He wanted to run somewhere, make himself scarce, and hide, but there was nowhere to go. So instead, he continued with the tall centaur that was leading him throughout the village, quickening his pace so that he was beside the lumbering figure rather than behind him.

"You and your companions are welcome to stay with us for as long as you all like," the centaur, his name was Tawil, said, his voice deep but welcoming. He looked down on him with black eyes, yellow dots the size of pinpricks inside. Two curved horns grew from his head's sides. "But I must ask, dragon, why do you come to Gladendale? It has been very long since a visitor, years upon years."

"Um, well, it's a long story," he mumbled, scratching his neck. "Where are my friends, though?" Tawil had saw them first and took it upon himself to give Blaze a tour across the camp with pride, his stride even and confident. Carolyn and Alexander had been led in another direction by two other centaurs.

"Ah, I see. I've let some friends take your friends to our guests' tent to be nourished and fed properly." He stopped suddenly at the entrance of large tent made of the same fabric as Blaze's sack, two guards with stone-tipped, rough spears standing on either side. "Please, head in," he said, bowing in respect. He silently said 'thank you' and walked through the flaps that danced in the light breeze.

So far, the centaurs seemed like an amazing people to Blaze. They were very respectful and well-mannered, despite their rough-looking appearance. They all donned similar robes or were topless, and held makeshift weapons, all basic, but some had very strange weaponry that Blaze just couldn't describe. They all spoke in a strange, accented tone that was very exotic to him, and though he hadn't seen much of it, their culture seemed quite complex and beautiful.

The inside of the tent proved just that. Exquisite, handwoven banners hung on the thick walls of brown cloth, a campfire in the middle of the tent sending flickering shadows across the room. Some logs had been cut so that they'd serve as seats, and to the side were tables covered in various herbs and spices. Masks were also stuck to the wall, each one carved in a unique pattern. Blaze gawked for only a moment at the female centaur chopping patiently at one of the tables, his eyes glued to her enormous breasts that were barely covered by a thin robe of many patterns. He shook his head, remembering that it was rude and sat down quietly. Tawil followed.

"Meril," he said as he sat down, "please fix me and my guest a drink, if it isn't any trouble." She nodded eagerly, as did her bobbing breasts before she disappeared through the tent flaps, Blaze transfixed before stopping himself. They sat quietly, one another across from each other, the fire crackling and popping between them. He wore no robes like some, his bare muscles glistening in the firelight.

"So, Blaze, is it?" He nodded, and Tawil continued. "Well, I understand that you have many questions about us, it is normal to our kind. After all, it seems that centaurs are unremembered by history, and Gladendale is the last surviving camp of centaurs. But before you begin, and I hope it doesn't trouble you, but we'd like to know about you and your companions. I'm sorry if I am prying into your life, but my kind has been forced to be skeptical of any who approach us, with all that we have endured it has only come naturally. Also, it has been a long time that my kind has seen a dragon, besides her pets."

"Oh, it's nothing at all," Blaze said, raising his hand, wondering who 'her' was. "Er, well, I don't really know where to start, Tawil. I don't know too much about my friends, we were actually just partners in this military squad, but you should probably know that Carolyn and Alexander hate one another. But, um, in short, we got split up at this place called Thunder Gate, and so them and I have been traveling through the mountains. That's when I found you guys."

He stopped, remembering something. "Oh, um, before you get the wrong idea, I'm not like most dragons. I know that we're supposed to be 'mean' and 'scary,' but I'm different."

Tawil smiled. "I figured." A thoughtful expression seemed to pass through his face before he asked a question. "Do you, by any chance, know a griffon by the name of Ellie?"

The dragon frowned, puzzled. "Um, yeah, she was in our team, but we got separated."

"Mm, what a shame. Ray was really looking forward to another meeting with the young girl." He had spoken almost to himself before looking up, sitting up straight. "I suppose that you'd like to know about us, correct?"

Before Blaze could respond, Meril pushed through the tent's entrance, two mugs of ale in each hand as well as a plate of baywraps — rolls of thin, flat bread stuffed with boiled barley and vegetables — balanced on top, though the young dragon was more focused on other sections of her.

"Thank you, Meril," Tawil said while taking the plate and the mugs, Meril bowing, and Blaze swore that she was just trying to stir up a certain region of Blaze's, for he got an eyeful of her bountiful breasts. Not that he didn't like it, of course.

"You are excused," he said, and she silently left. Blaze pouted at the loss of eyecandy, taking his cup and a baywrap with a 'thank you.' They sat silently as Blaze took a sip of his mug until Tawil used the opportunity to speak up.

"Now, I must warn you, the historical tale of us centaurs is a long one."

"Wait," Blaze stopped him, setting down his mug and grabbing his rucksack, "is it okay if I take notes on this?"

Tawil chuckled. "No need, Blaze. We have a library filled with the the knowledge that we could recover of our ancestors and beyond, though the 'beyond' part is in a strange language that we have studied for years, but we still have no clues to what the books mean. Of course, it is still invaluable."

"Of course," Blaze said, the scholar side of him agreeing with these centaurs and their beliefs. He had the opportunity to be a scholar when he had come, but he was simply too shy for that, even if it was what he really wanted to do. He loved any new knowledge, and excitement overrode any possible anxieties at this point. He took a bite of the baywraps, noting how delicious they were.

He didn't talk until he had swallowed. "These are great!"

He raised a hand, closing his eyes. "Please, don't thank me. Meril is the one who procured them, one of our best cooks. Personally, I am no good at the culinary arts." He looked up at him, his expression suddenly serious. "So, are you ready to hear of our long story?"

"Yes, please, I'd love to," Blaze said, trembling with giddiness, all of his anxieties and fears suddenly washing away to the bottom of his mind. Instead, all he could think about is how amazing this opportunity that he'd gotten was. Well, that and Meril, whom wouldn't leave his mind very easily. He eagerly sipped at his warm ale and tasty baywraps as he listened carefully, making sure to pick up every word.

"Well," he said, clapping his hands together, "it all started long ago. Now, we sadly cannot tell of our people's beginnings, for they have been lost to time as well as 'Her Highness,' but we can tell that the people before us were very advanced in technology, evidence being some of the things that us centaurs at Gladendale have acquired. Our only hypothesis on what happened was a quick and sudden wipe-out of life.

"However, one thing that remains is the Empty. The Empty has been in the world for ages, corrupting anything it can get its hands on, assuming it even has hands. Like our ancient ancestors, we do not know much of the Empty, even though we have live with it forever. It is an... entity, at a lack of better words, that can take the form of anything it touches. It knows nothing but hate, death, and decay, and we have lost many friends to the Empty, for they strayed too far away and were swallowed up, returning back to us as an abomination against any kind of life.

"The Empty lies to the farthest and tallest peaks to the northeast, and it thankfully cannot move from where it came from. I mentioned someone named Ray before, if you recall. Well, he has always believed that we could harness the elements of the Empty and use them for ourselves. While my opinion differs from his, I will not try to output any bias onto you, for a free mind is the best thing for a smart man to have. Anyway, Ellie had been a sort of student of his, always sneaking away from her home so that she could practice in his arts. One day the two took a trip to the Empty's location for a close study, and she returned baring strange powers that were even beyond Ray's abilities, though he still kept teaching the young griffon, quickly understanding her abilities."

"Wait," Blaze said, holding up a finger as he swallowed a bit of baywrap. "What kind of powers did Ellie get?" He certainly didn't know that Ellie personally knew these folk.

"Well, the Empty leaves a strange touch on people. It is common that it will simply corrupt and taint someone beyond salvation, but in Ellie's case, she was touched but left physically unaffected. She gained a magic similar to Necromancy. Though many suspected something in her to be mentally tainted. We can't know until she returns, I suppose."

He shook his head after a moment. "Enough of the Empty, however. It is no worry to anyone unless they seek it out. Let us get back on track. Now, you see, my people have always held tradition over most things, as well as knowledge and respect for those who are deserving. We have had few that disagreed, such as a certain centaur that many Equestrians know as Tirek, but that is besides the point.

"You see, my people used to be plentiful in these lands, with griffons minding themselves to the south while we minded ourselves. Many creatures that others have come to known came from these lands, if our historical library is to be correct. Timberwolves and limewolves lived here before migrating to Equestria, the bones of the earliest accounts of ponykind were found north of our camp, of course they are now in our library for study, as well as many other unique creatures.

"Well, my kind has lived in relative peace for a long time. We had grand feats that made all centaurs proud. All of it changed, however, when a mare known as Queen Lilac arrived."

"Queen Lilac?" Blaze asked, eagerly leaning forward.

"Yes. What Equestrians would call an alicorn, I believe, and they are ageless, or at least appear to be. She arrived along with a small army of wizards and mages that she called Peacekeepers, who could pull on one's emotions, though they were anything but. She asked if she could settle there, and we eagerly accepted her request, wanting to learn of the alicorn. The last thing we learned were her intentions for our lands, however.

"One day, she turned against my kind with an incredible power, turning the weather against us all along with many of the creatures that roamed these lands, once peaceful. This earned her the title of the Goddess of Ice by some. She struck quickly and brutally, multiple ancient dragons completely demolishing our cities under her control, along with many other guardians. Her monoliths rampaged through our villages, crushing and murdering anything the golems of ice and stone saw. It was a... bad time.

"Many believed her to have been touched by the Empty, for she had begun to rise the dead, using them in her armies. The theory would certainly answer her sudden turn on us, though I believe that her intentions were always cold-hearted. And so my kind went into hiding, though some like me had braved through it all and defended against her forces, using our own might, our studies of the Empty, and the strange things that we had salvaged from our ancient ancestors."

He let it sink in, Blaze restlessly waiting for him continue. This was absolutely fascinating.

Then, something clicked in his head.

"Wait a second," Blaze said, thinking, "so if Queen Lilac is some sort of evil weather-controlling goddess, that would explain why it's getting so cold back down in Griffinstone and the Red Gear, along with the attacks, right?"

Tawil grinned with a nod. "You are very keen to pick up on that detail."

"Wait, but how is this area free of snow? And it's so warm!"

"Ah, well the answer to that is simple: magic." After a confused glance, he elaborated. "You see, centaurs have a magic of their own, similar to how many unicorns have spells and how the Empty has its own touch. Our magic is of a more spiritual level, however, and it would be very hard for me to explain right now. It wouldn't bother you if I skipped this detail, would it?"

"Oh, not at all!" Blaze said. "Go ahead with the story."

"Alright. So, our kind has slowly been dying out, and this is all that remains of my people, because of Queen Lilac and her overwhelming forces and powers. We've kept her at bay for the most part, but our defenses have slowly been waning. I am sorry that you have come upon us at such a state."

"Don't say sorry," Blaze said, surprising himself. "It's the Queen's fault, not yours."

Tawil grinned. "I appreciate your support, but the truth is that we have been failing to keep our kind thriving. The only things that have helped us are Ellie's occasional visits, the strange technology we have salvaged, and ourselves, but all of those beams of support have been lessening immensely. Last year our village had four hundred occupants. Now, after a monolith was let loose through our camp, we are only of a hundred. Luckily, the Tallow Wicks further north have taken it upon themselves to protect our young, bless their souls."

Blaze frowned once again. "What's a Tallow Wick?"

"Creatures similar to ponies, but also quite different. If it does not trouble you, however, I'd rather that you and your friends find out yourself. You see, in such dire times, I was actually wondering if you were all willing to help our village out. Now, I understand that you all have your own lives and-"

"Of course we'll help!" Blaze blurted out, cheeks going red as he quickly sat down. "Er, I mean, I'd love to, and I think it might be a good opportunity for us to try to find the people that I got separated from."

Tawil smiled deeply at this. "I could not thank you further for this, and neither can my people. And I believe that you will gain quite the recognition here by doing this. You may become a hero to my people, for all we know."

He blushed deeper. "Well, I don't know about that..."

"It could happen," Tawil reasoned. He looked behind him before covering his mouth and whispering, "I saw how you looked at Meril, by the way. I'm sure that you will also get many of the ladies' recognition."

His cheeks were redder than the sun now, blazing hot. "I, um, uh..."

He laughed, gesturing that it was a joke. He awkwardly chuckled along with him, eventually laughing as well.

Tawil eventually stopped, silent for a moment. "Ah, but seriously Blaze, I cannot thank you enough for the support you offer. And we are in need of many things. We do the best we can, but our best has never been enough against the Queen. I am glad that you can help us. In fact, I believe that there is a certain job we have for you and your friends to-"

At that moment, another centaur burst into the room, a spear that dripped a dark purple liquid in hand, robes smeared with both the strange liquid and crimson stains. He rushed over to Tawil, eyeing Blaze as he looked on curiously.

"Master Tawil, something horrible has happened," he said, panting. The larger centaur put a hand on the guard's soldier.

"Calm down, Alvin," he said, giving him time for his breath to steady. Blaze got up and walked near them, watching earnestly. Eventually the panicked centaur looked up, breath stabilized. "Please, what is the matter?"

"Master Tawil, a pack of Unrights had just appeared out of nowhere, and they've attacked the camp! Only one of us were injured, but guest Alexander was hurt immensely, and I believe he's been Touched. You must come quickly!"

Blaze was still processing this when Tawil threw his mug to the ground, galloping to the doors before stopping, looking at the skinny dragon. "Well, come along! You're friend has been hurt!"