Admittedly, it was not a place that most would want to find themselves, and yet, here she was all the same. Gabby, with a look of sternness about her, walked down the cold stone steps, the darkness of this place broken by the occasional lit torch upon the walls. Further and further she descended, until, at last, she reached the bottom. She stretched out her wings slightly before continuing her journey, which, thankfully, did not last much longer. For there was a wooden door just further along this hall, where two Lunar guards stood at either side. Upon seeing the Griffon Queen, they saluted, and she herself looked upon the door with narrowed eyes.
"...I would speak with her."
To their credit, the guards did not attempt to stop or dissuade her from this. Instead, they simply gave another salute, with one of them lighting up their horn, which resulted in the door opening for her. Gabby nodded to the guard who did this, before entering the room in earnest. Just like outside, there were fiery torches here, illuminating the room, which was divided down the middle by a row of iron bars. Even those who had never seen a prison cell before could recognise this one as such, and Gabby's distasteful look made it clear that this was not a place she frequented. But her eyes soon fell upon the one who lay beyond those bars, sitting quietly in a corner.
"Gilda," Gabby spoke quietly.
The female Griffon in the cell cast a glance in her monarch's direction, and frowned at the sight of her, before letting out a dry chuckle.
"Well, well, well...looks like the great Queen Gabby has decided to grace me with her presence."
Still staring at the opposing wall, Gilda continued.
"How's your dear old Dad?"
Gabby's face remained stoic, though her voice was of slight annoyance as she answered.
"My Father is adjusting to his retirement well, though it took some getting used to."
Turning, Gilda have the young Queen a look of scorn.
"So...did you get bored? Decide to amuse yourself by coming down to see the first prisoner of your reign?"
At first, Gabby said nothing to this insulting tone, simply looking to her fellow Griffon. Then, after thinking hard on the matter, she finally broke the silence.
"Are they treating you well in here?"
Gilda raised an eyebrow, shrugging her shoulders somewhat before pointing to the other side of her cell.
"They're not starving me, if that's what you're worried about."
Gabby turned her attention to what Gilda had been pointing at. It was a small table, upon which lay a bowl of soup with a slice of bread beside it. From the looks of it, it was most likely tomato. Looking back to her subject, Gabby sighed again, shaking her head slightly.
"Why, Gilda? Why did you do it? What were you thinking?"
Gilda looked to her, appearing amused by those words.
"Funny, I was about to ask you that question."
Gabby frowned.
"After everything the Lunar kingdom has done for us, why would you do something as stupid as plan a protest?"
Gilda returned to her earlier frown, speaking back in a sarcastic tone.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I had no idea that protesting was a prison-worthy crime all of a sudden!"
Gabby shook her head.
"You and your little group may have planned it as a protest, but how long would that last? You go out there, holding up your signs, speaking out against the Lunars, and how long before someone in your gang decides to go further?"
She took a step forward.
"How long before they decided that throwing bricks at the Lunar soldiers was preferable? How long before the protest became a riot, and we had buildings in flames?"
Gilda snorted to this.
"Gotta hand it to your new bosses. They've trained you well, if you're already thinking about your people like that."
Gabby narrowed her eyes.
"Trust me, Gilda, I didn't need any help in thinking about my people that way."
Though at first confused by such words, Gilda soon returned to her prior frown.
"Don't you see what's going on here, your Majesty? Those guys are coming in here and taking over the place! How can you blame us for wanting to speak out at that?"
Hearing that, Gabby turned away from her.
"Taking over? They're helping us, Gilda. Helping us far more than we could ever help ourselves."
With that, Gilda finally stood up, looking at her leader as if she was insane.
"But...how?! How can you possibly have so little faith in your own people?"
There was a silence after that, as Gabby thought long and hard about what had just been asked of her. Then, slowly, she turned back, looking Gilda right in the eye with an expression of utter seriousness.
"Let me tell you a story, Gilda. A story...about a young Griffon Princess."
Gilda seemed confused, but stayed silent as her monarch started pacing up and down her side of the cell.
"This Princess would spend many a day sitting beside her Father, the King. And her Father would tell her tales of Griffonstone's past. Its grandeur. Its prestige. The worth of its people. And the Princess would smile, adoring those stories and waiting eagerly for the day when she would lead them."
A pained look crossed her face as she continued.
"But when she would leave her Father's side, when she'd go to her room and look out of her window..."
She stopped, looking back to Gilda.
"...do you know what she'd see?"
Gabby didn't wait for Gilda to respond before carrying on.
"She would see a city crumbling, and a people with no kinship with one another."
Disgust took hold in her expression.
"As the years went on, that little Griffon saw things get worse and worse. She saw her city continue to fall into ruin, and her people becoming more and more aggressive."
Sadness flickered in her eyes.
"Ever since our gem mines ran dry a century ago, our people have had less and less to their name. Less to offer the world, and our decline has been slow and painful because of it."
She looked away.
"Eventually, things just reached rock bottom for us."
The Queen regarded Gilda with a frown.
"How many Griffons left home in the last few decades because Griffonstone no longer had anything to offer them? How many of those who remained turned to banditry, inflicting suffering on other peoples?"
At last, Gilda started to respond.
"Look, I'm not saying things were great. They weren't. Our name might have been dragged through the mud, but at least we were free."
Another moment of silence, during which, Gabby looked to Gilda as though she'd just spoken sheer lunacy.
"Free? Free?! If our people allowed themselves to become such sad, pathetic savages, then we didn't deserve freedom!"
Taking a moment to calm herself, Gabby rubbed her temples briefly.
"Gilda...you have no idea how bad things truly were. When you live at the top, it's easy to get a good view of things."
Gilda raised an eyebrow.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Gabby looked to her with disapproval.
"It means that I was there, beside my Father, every single time he received news of something bad happening in the city. At night, the streets were ruled by the gangs, with our guards too afraid to face them. And in the day..."
She paused, looking away from Gilda as though ashamed.
"...my Father would keep getting requests to double the troops in the city. And why? Because parents were terrified of what would happen to their children on their morning walk to school if he didn't."
Looking back to the captive on the other side, Gabby's face relaxed a little.
"But now? Now, those problems are being dealt with! The gangs are running scared. The guards are out, doing their jobs as though they actually feel they can do them for once. Heck, yesterday, I even saw children openly playing in the streets without their parents there to watch them. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've seen that?!"
Gabby measured her next words carefully.
"Gilda...having the Lunars help us was necessary. I never expected you or anyone else to be happy with it...but I at least hoped you'd understand."
Gilda considered that, thinking long and hard on her monarch's words.
"If you really felt that way...then why turn to the Lunars? Why not ask the Equestrians instead? We've known them way longer, and you know how they are about helping others and stuff."
Gabby frowned.
"The Equestrians? There was never any chance of them helping us, at least, not in the way the Lunars have. Celestia doesn't believe in interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. It's why she didn't get involved in that Changeling civil war a few years back."
Briefly, she looked away, frowning.
"Like everyone else, she would have been content just sitting it out, letting us fall to pieces."
Gilda sighed.
"Gabby...we Griffons need to fix our own problems. I mean...we're Griffons! A great and ancient warrior people! We can't just..."
But she was interrupted when Gabby let out a grunt of annoyance.
"Argh! There it is! The pride of the Griffons! Believe me, I've heard it year after year my whole life."
She looked to Gilda with scorn.
"And look where our pride left us! A failing state, too sure of itself to ever ask for help! Letting ourselves sink further and further, because we felt we were too good to admit that things were falling apart!"
The Queen narrowed her eyes to her.
"And you, and your friends, all so prideful, insulted at the Lunars coming in to fix our problems. Well, you know what? We damn well weren't going to fix them ourselves, now were we?!"
Moving closer to the bars, Gilda frowned right back.
"You're a fool, Gabby! The Lunars are just using you, can't you see that?!"
Gabby looked to her with incredulity.
"Do you see Queen Moon asking our people to join their army and fight her enemies? No! Do you see our people starving in the streets because the Lunars are hoarding all the food for themselves? No! Do you see Lunar soldiers roughing up Griffon civilians for the fun of it? No!"
She narrowed her eyes.
"What I see, Gilda, is you! Someone who doesn't appreciate what being a Queen means! When I sit in that throne, I have a responsibility to my people. A responsibility to do what is best for them, even if they hate me for it!"
The Queen moved closer to the bars herself.
"That's what leadership is, Gilda. Making the hard choices for the greater good. Because at the end of the day..."
For a moment, she stopped, taking a few calming breaths before continuing.
"...the wellbeing of my people, even screw-ups like you...is more important to me than some idealistic notion of freedom. Even if it comes to my own freedom."
Gilda stared at her, not believing what she'd heard, and when she spoke again, it was quietly, with a look of disappointment.
"You're not a leader, Gabby...you're a puppet."
Gabby's expression was motionless.
"If being a puppet and mouthpiece to a foreign ruler is the price I have to pay to give my people a future..."
Slowly, she closed her eyes, hanging her head slightly.
"...then I gladly pay it."
There was a deathly quiet as the two Griffons continued to stare at one another, their expressions never once giving away what they might have been feeling or thinking in that moment. But, at the end of it, Gilda let out a deep exhale, stepping away from the bars a little.
"Alright then...I guess we don't have anything else to say to one another."
She turned her eyes from the Queen, moving over to the corner where she'd been sitting before, and promptly sat there once again, giving a completely scornful look to Gabby.
"Enjoy the rest of your reign, Queen Sell-Out."
Gabby shook her head.
"I didn't sell our people out, Gilda...I saved them."
Gilda let out a scoff.
"You just keep telling yourself that."
Gabby stared at her, waiting for her to perhaps continue speaking, only to find that she had fallen into disinterested silence. Realising this, and shaking her head a little, the Queen turned from her subject, heading for the door. As if on cue, it was magically opened yet again by the guard on the other side, and as Gabby stepped out of the cell, she cast one final glance to Gilda just as the door was shut behind her. Now free from the gaze of the other Griffon, Gabby let out a long sigh, looking down to the ground for a few moments, only to be stopped from doing so when, all of a sudden, there was a deliberate coughing sound to her right. Turning, she saw that it was Lightning Dust, who was approaching her with a rolled-up parchment in her hoof.
"Difficult time with the prisoner, your Majesty?" the pegasus asked.
The Queen shook her head.
"Nothing I shouldn't have expected, Lightning."
The mare nodded, before then handing the parchment to her.
"Messages from your councillors regarding today's agenda. And also our report on the palace repairs. They're almost done."
Gabby accepted the document, giving it a quick glance before nodding and starting to walk past Lightning.
"Thank you. Glad to hear some good news today. As for the councillors, I'll get to them."
But, as she passed, Lightning looked to her, speaking up in a softer tone than usual.
"You needn't worry yourself with criminals like Gilda, your Highness. They don't appreciate how difficult a position like yours really is."
Gabby stopped for a while, taking those words in, before looking to her ally and nodding, her expression one of seriousness.
"No, Lightning...no they don't."
