“-When time is lost and order found, he shall make the choice that dooms the world. To prevent this, he must be convinced otherwise-” Words from a transcript of a conversation between General Greenscale and the lord of chaos.

“Now... Do not mention that we have met. You will be a griffon that is new to town. Now, sleep. You will wake near your destination.”

True to her word, I did indeed wake up somewhere else. I was still furred, feathered, upset, and just barely, I suppose, not tarred.

See what I did there? That was a joke. Ha ha. I’m not actually laughing either, don’t worry.

Being a griffon... was a little weird. I mean, first off, I didn’t really even know what I was going to do about walking... or anything else as a griffon. Like eating. Sleeping. Evacuating wastes. The important stuff, I guess...

All I could see was grass. Cliche as it was, that was the truth, and I was SERIOUSLY getting tired of waking up in places I didn’t understand. Grrrr....

I was actually growling. That’s what it sounded like, GRRRRRR. Low in my throat, sounding like a wet cat, I continued growling as I noted this in astonishment just how I was growling. Not quite like a warble, not quite like anything else, not quite like breathing... more like... how best to say this? It was quite a bit like purring.

Not that I knew how to do that either.

So, instead of continuing the growl, I tried to stand up. My legs locked up when I even dared to try that, and I managed an almost... crouch before my legs flipped me off metaphorically and came undone from the position I was imagining, dumping me right back down.

I tried again. I managed to crouch on unsteady legs, my new tail... my new tail pointed straight out as inelegantly as you can please.

A... strange surge of pride went through me after a few moments of standing like this, feeling like a nice warm fire.

Here, I guess, I started purring. It was a deep warm rumble. I liked being able to do things, and the pride, while alien, was strong and powerful. It felt like... someone cheering me on!

I straightened my posture! I was a griffon now, and I wasn’t going to take my first steps quite so foolishly, so weakly. Ha Ha! Take that, GRAVITY!

More pride, then I took a step forward! I managed it! It felt great! Terrific, fantastic, all those words that mean the same blasted thing one by one by one by one at me! I felt all of those at that moment, washing through me like a torrent of awesome!

Then I took another step. And another. And another, just parting the long grass with my form, I took bold strides forward, alien pride flaring up and out, expanding through my form. It was exhilarating!

Then I realized I was literally just walking at a slow pace, less than a meter per second or anything even remotely respectable and my mood was blown as efficient as snuffing a candle. The pride was gone, and I was suddenly more concerned with my environment. After all, I was in a mysterious field without any explanation beyond the fact that I knew I was near a place called Ponyville.

Said town was probably full of ponies. Said ponies were probably going to be complete and utter jerks. I felt myself let out a low growl at that and clung to the feeling of irritation. How dare they inconvenience me so? I came from a long li- No wait, I didn’t come from any long like. I was Mark, son of Paul, son of James and some chick James met at a bar who stuck him with the child.

Yeah, but how dare they be such complete jerks to the first... well, maybe first alien that had ever ventured to their shores? Or planet? Come on now, I had to be special in that regard...

No, wait, Celestia probably had interdimensional visitors over for tea all the time. She did seem like the all powerful omnipotent being that could totally do that. Maybe she had tea with the President? Maybe I was going to be like... An interdimensional exchange student? How COOL would that be?

Probably not cool at all... And ‘sides that, she’d have told me if I was going to be something like that. Heck, if anything... she... acted like... she wanted me to cover it up or something. I mean, it’s not like she was going to go around claiming that I was an alien creature when I was so clearly a griffon.

I let out a happy trill at that. I was a griffon! Ignoring the fact that I was horribly lost with no real way of ever finding my way home that I had any idea of, and the fact I was probably never going to see my family again EVER... Being a griffon was pretty dang sweet! I mean... I could’ve been turned into a bird or something, but this way, I was all furry and...

And I REALLY couldn’t help but feel like I should be disturbed by how I was thinking. I mean... All I could see was grass... All I could hear was the faint rustle of grass as it moved against my skin and feathers and fur...

Oh my god! I have a tail! Tail...! I turned as fast as I could, a little giddy from discovery! I turned so fast I fell flat on my front and slid through the grass a bit before I realized I could just turn my head to look at it. It was long... Slightly tawny, and ended in a little furry tuft that was a dark color. At the very tip, it was more black than brown. How cool was that?

Alright, there was something wrong with me. I should not be this thrilled with being something that was not human! Though really, humans kinda suck- YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH. HUMANS ARE AWESOME! Grrrr... Self, get on your game. Humans are awesome and you know that! I mean, come on, they might not have wings... or you know, claws... Or a valid reason to li-

No... Ergh... Right... You know what? I’d deal with that later.

I shook my head really hard, and managed to crack my neck. I groaned a little, then jerked it the other way, letting the almost sickening crescendo of popping echo out into the grass! Finally, something new to listen to!

Oh wait, what was I doing? Hm... Oh! I was examining myself a little more. So far, I had determined that my rear half was a tawny color, and now I just had to describe my feathers as they were. Which, as they were, they were a dark bronze color with an almost delicate gossamer look to them.

I had wings! ...Could I fly? I could fly! FLY! Suddenly, the sky above made me feel hungry in a way that I couldn’t really understand correctly. It was just pure longing.

Oh. And I had a beak. That was a burnt orange color. And some talons. They were black. I thought my back claws were the same way.

Wow. This grass wasn’t pointless and all that cliche! It was also grass of exposition, and I felt so giddy and happy at the moment that I could hardly even describe it!

...Did I seriously just spend the last 15 minutes checking myself out? Man, if I wasn’t such a completely sexy specimen of griffon, I’d be concerned about how the rest of this journey into the unknown was going to happen.

… I decided to stop checking myself out before my mind pulled out a shotgun and killed the rest of my mind. Instead, I finally walked out of the grass. The sun was high up in the sky, the clouds were nice and grey, the birds were chirping...

And I was at the edge of a giant apple orchard. Terrific. Fantastic. Celestia couldn’t drop me at the edge of Ponyville, huh? No, I was going to have to come up with a reason why I was here AND come from some random direction.

I guess I shouldn’t have been so negative. I mean... This was apparently pony land, given that I had met what had seemed someone who claimed to control the sun who was a pony, and I was going to Ponyville, it was probably a safe bet that I was going to meet more ponies than griffons. Unless it was oddly ironic.

Hipster griffons?

Oh. Right, on with the story!

Author's Note

For skyblaze the bard. More should be coming soon... this was fun to write.