Author's Note

Hey you guys sorry for the delay, but I finally managed to get this chapter done. Like always special thanks to my editor Codex92 for editing and helping me with ideas.

A bit of fair warning to all you mlp fans, this chapter will be changing the events of history, hence the AU tage. But it isnt too much of a change to disrupt the flow completely.

Also i must apologize for the ending, I won't spoil it but what takes places is something I'm not used to writing for, so it may seem flat or not as impressive.

Lastly I'm not sure if you guys can or can't not, but im unable to see my other stories that I posted, including this one on my profile. Thankfully with my editor help I found the link and saw it was still here. So if anyone is having troubles let me know. I'll post this on my blog as well.

Thank you all for supporting me. And please help support my editor Codex92 by checking out our collab Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescuers of Harmony and tell us what you think.

Kingdoms part 1

(Toothless POV)

My eyes slowly fluttered open as I woke up from another dreamless sleep. From the moment I arrived in this world, I've yet to have a single dream, nor any nightmares. While the no nightmares part was nice, not being able to have dreams made me feel hollow. The moment I close my eyes and fall asleep, I'm in an empty void for what feels like seconds before waking up to a new day. I was always well rested physically, but mentally, I was indifferent.

A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. I got off the bed and made my way to the door to open it. Thankfully, the door had a handle-like doorknob rather than a round one, which made opening the door that much easier for me. When I opened the door, I found a gem canine standing outside. She was another dalmatian breed much like Pongo, but her features were more slim where as Pongo's were more squared. She wore a light blue dress shirt with a dark blue skirt. "Good morning, Mr. Noir. Hachi sent me to let you know that he, along with Ms.Glenda, are in the lobby waiting for you." I nodded and followed her as she led me to the elevator.

Once we had gotten to the bottom floor, I could see Hachi and Pongo chatting while Glenda was sitting on a couch, waiting for me with a smirk that didn't bode well with me. But before I could take no more than three steps out of the elevator, I was quickly bum rushed and tackled to the ground by fifteen spotted puppies. All of which were either teething on my tail or ears or just giving my face a tongue bath while they bounced up and down on top of me. And I'm not sure if it is because they could see that one of my wings is damaged or not, but none of the puppies ever came close to my broken wing. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

When the mother and father managed to get their pups off of me, I could see Glenda snickering uncontrollably. 'She knew about the puppies…Traitor.' I glared at the griffon as Pongo and his wife got their puppies off me, apologizing once again for their actions. I shrugged and gave one of the puppies a playful nuzzle to show there weren't any hard feelings.

"Alright, you two. Time to go." Hachi called out as he was walking out the door. Glenda and I said our goodbyes (well, more like I waved goodbye) as we left the inn.

We were making our way to a different railway station than the one we used to get here. Along the way, we went through the restaurant district and saw Tony and Joe as they were setting up their restaurant. They called out with hellos and good lucks as we waved to them. It's been so long since I had interacted with other nice creatures besides Glenda that it feels like a breath of fresh air.

After a good deal of walking and exchanging pleasantries, we had made it to one of the stations where some of the mining cars waited. As we got into our cart, I noticed that Hachi had a side bag on him. I wasn't sure why he had it since he didn't have one while giving us our tour yesterday, but I paid it no mind. Once we were nice and settled, Hachi nodded to one of the workers, who pulled a lever to get our cart moving down some tracks. And much like before, we were moving incredibly fast to where the wind blew heavily on our faces, giving that rollercoaster vibe.

We traveled through different tunnels, seeing glowing gemstones, and little waterfalls that came from above. It was a very calm and relaxing ride in my opinion, and made me feel pretty happy. But we had arrived at our destination after a good ten minutes. We stopped in a cave similar to the one we were in when we had our first ride yesterday. Like before, he pulled out a stone from his cloak and brought it up to the wall, which opened up a door. As it opened, rays of sunlight shined in through an opening at the far end of the cave. "I'm afraid this is where we must part ways, my friends." Hachi stopped at the exit. "If you continue north from here, you should reach Griffonstone within the afternoon."

Both Glenda and I looked at each other, rather disappointed. "Is this really goodbye? If it weren't for you and the others, I don't know what would have happened to us."

Hachi gave his chin a scratch as he thought to himself before giving us an answer with a smile. "Don't think of it as goodbye, but so long till next time. I'm sure our paths are bound to cross again." He reached into his pack and pulled out a large brown sack that made a jingling sound. "Until then, take this. You're gonna need it when you get to Griffonstone."

He tossed the brown sack over to Glenda, who fumbled it in her talons before getting a good hold on it. She undid the knot that kept it shut and looked inside. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she looked up at the gem canine. "We can't take this. This is a lot of bits." I looked over to get a better look at the contents of the bag and saw a large amount of gold coins.

Hachi waves it off. "There’s no point arguing. You're gonna need those to get the proper gear and equipment to search for the idol. Consider it as a gift from a friend." He said with a warm smile. Both Glenda and I moved in and gave him a hug, one he was happy to return.

We made our way out of the cave and turned around to wave so long to our friend. He returned the pleasantries and walked back into the caves back to his home. Speaking of home, I turned to see that, off in the distance, was what I had guessed to be Griffonstone.

Sitting at the top of a split mountain, Griffonstone seems to be built on an old tree centuries old, the branches bare of leaves and replaced with homes on the branches or around the tree.

"Well, there it is." Glenda spoke up. When I looked at her, she sounded choked up. "My home." A few tears trailed down her check, dripping down to the dirt. Sensing that she needed some comfort, I leaned my head down to gently nuzzle the top of her head, which she returned. "Thanks, Noir. I'll be okay, I promise." She gave my back a few pats and started to walk ahead of me. "Come on. We’ve got a long way to go."

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Four hours…Four hours of walking and climbing up a damn mountain!! I never realized that without my wings, walking this much in this body could be so tiring. And to make matters more annoying, Glenda decided about halfway up the mountain to ride piggyback!! So not only was I walking for myself, but for her as well. "Come on, Noir, we're almost there!" She is lucky I'm too damn tired to be angry right now.

Thankfully, we, and of course I mean me, had reached the summit and the entrance to the griffon kingdom. Glenda hopped off and stretched her limbs. "Mmm. Boy, that sure was one heck of a climb, right, Noir?" I was laying on my belly, panting and breathing heavily as I finally got the chance to catch my breath. If I had an extra digit, I'd be giving her the bird, pun intended.

After a few more minutes of catching my breath, I stood back up and followed Glenda as she led us. The moment we walked through the golden archway, we immediately saw the state that this kingdom was in. The ground was littered with pieces of scattered paper, broken branches, and hay, which smelled of mildew and feces. Then there were the houses, all of which either had holes in the walls or roofs, or looked as though they were about to fall over by even the gentlest breeze. And amongst this pitiful kingdom were griffons of different shapes and colors. Some were nesting on top of the rickety houses while others walked along the street. However, whenever we see two griffons get too close to each other, they would squawk and screech at each other before walking away. 'Well...this place is, ahh…charming.'

We started to walk in towards the center of town, where we caught a glimpse of the castle, or at least what remains of it. Much like the other buildings around here, it has plenty of holes and was on the verge of collapsing, and there was mold and fungus growing out of the corners. A throne could be seen at the top of some stairs that overlooked a stump, which Glenda explained to be where the golden idol once stood.

"If I remember correctly from the stories, the idol should be somewhere inside the Abysmal Abyss. With any luck, there might be a chance that the idol could still be down there. But as for how far down, I'm not sure." She said hopefully.

As we walked to where we could purchase some climbing gear, I found myself colliding with someone, causing them to fall over. "Hey, watch where you're going, dweeb!!" I saw that it was a griffon with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle, pretty much exactly how they are typically described back in my old world, except the tip of her feathers were a light faded purple. The griffon I had bumped into got back on all fours and stomped her way to me until her head was pushing against my own as she glared daggers at me. "What's a filthy dragon doing here anyway?" I wasn't too keen on her attitude and realized she was in the mood for a fight. I pushed back, snarling as I bared my teeth.

But before we could have ourselves an old school street brawl, Glenda moved in and pushed us apart. "Cut it out, you two!" She gave me the usual glare that I knew meant it was time to back down, then she glanced at the griffon. "Look, I'm sorry that my friend bumped into you, but that’s no-"

"Friend?" The rude griffon cut in. "Griffins don't do friends." She scoffed as she took a step back. "Only lame ponies are into that friendship crap."

Glenda was visually pissed as she moved up to the griffon, standing straight up, which actually put her a head taller than the other griffin, who took a step back. "Well I do, and if you’ve got a problem with that, then you can take it up with me." She said through gritted teeth, getting the other griffon to back up further.

The griffin was slightly surprised to have someone stand up to her, but her look of surprise turned to a small grin. "Well, I'll give you credit for having enough backbone to stand up to me." She stepped forward with less attitude and held out her talons in a fist to Glenda. "Name’s Gilda."

It was Glenda's turn to be slightly surprised, but it only lasted a few seconds as she tapped her own fist against Gilda's. "I'm Glenda, and this guy behind me is Noir." Gilda looked to me, to which I tilted my head up in a "sup" gesture, which she returned with her own.

"Well, as much as I want to stay and chat with you dweebs, I got to get back to my cart. Those scones won't make themselves." She waved and headed off.

"Well, she was…um, normal actually, given the other griffons act the same around here."

'If that's what normal looks like around here, I hate to see what weird would look like.'

"Incoming!!" Without any other warning, something collided with my body, sending me and the object tumbling and rolling on the ground. I found myself laying on my back with something, or someone, on top of my chest. "Ughhh. My head." The creature on top of me groaned, sounding female. "Are you okay?" She asked, which actually caught my attention. I looked up to see a griffon on top of me. She has cyanish gray feathers and fur from her head to her body, the area beneath her chin white, while the feathers on her wings were a heavily darker shade of cyan-gray. "You're not hurt are you?" She asked while leaning in closer.

I gave a small nod, to which she let out a sigh of relief before sliding off my chest. What's more, she helped lift me back on to my feet. "I'm really sorry for crashing into you like that, Mr. Dragon. I wasn't paying attention while I was delivering the mail." I glanced at her side, and sure enough, she had this brown mail bag with a picture of an envelope with wings on it. "And I guess I was going too fast to pull up before crashing into you." She lowered her head down in a rather sad expression. Considering she had already apologized and actually seemed sincere about it, I simply leaned in and gave her head a brief nuzzle. She looked up, giving her a smile and waved the whole thing off. This got a small giggle out of her as she backed up. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you. My name is -"

"Gabby?" Glenda interrupted, getting both our attention. Glenda has this look of both shock and awe as she moved in closer to the griffon. "Is it really you?"

The griffon stared at Glenda, squinting her eyes before they shot open and charged toward her, wrapping her in a hug. They let out chirps and squawks as they bounce up and down, and while it’s really cute, their screams are so high-pitched that I had to cover my ears. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! It's you! It's really you!!" Glenda squealed.

"I thought you were gone forever!!" Gabby chirped, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held onto Glenda. "When I didn't see you or your mom around, I thought you had left Griffonstone. What happened?"

Glenda looked a bit upset, but went and told Gabby everything from why she disappeared and why her mom was most likely not around anymore. She told her the time she spent in the arena as slave, all the way up to when we met, and then this moment. Gabby's eyes were filled with tears as she heard the stories of her long lost friend and all the hardships she had to endure. All she could offer was her heartfelt apologies for what she and I had gone through and wanted her to know that if we need anything that we could count on her.

So for the next ten minutes, Gabby and Glenda took some time catching up and talking about what has happened in Griffonstone since Glenda was taken away. Gabby informed her that nothing major changed aside from newborns and how the shops remained the same, much like the griffons, unfortunately. After that, we, and by we, I mean Glenda, told Gabby our plan for this kingdom, and asked where the nearest supply store was. Gabby pointed us in the direction we needed to go, wishing us the best of luck and took off to fulfill her mail route.

We walked over to the supply store to purchase the necessary equipment needed to head down to the Abysmal Abyss. While the store was practically falling apart, they did have the bare necessities that we needed, and we bought all the rope they had, along with a head lamp. The griffon who manned the store couldn't say a single sentence without mentioning bits. She offered to be our guide to the abyss for the right price, but we happily declined since Glenda knew the way. Bullet dodged. That griffon seemed like the kind who would leave you hanging off the edge and wouldn't offer you any help unless you had bits.

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After a good amount of walking, we had reached the mouth of the Abysmal Abyss, and could feel the strong winds blowing out. I peaked my head over the side to see down this crack in the ground, leading only to pitch-black darkness the further I looked down.

"Alright, bud. So, somewhere down there is the idol, and flying isn't an option. We'll need to rappel down by rope. Now obviously, I'm the one who’s gonna go down, so I need you to-" I stretched out my good wing, stopping her from moving further. I shook my head and patted my chest, telling her that I was gonna be the one to go down. "What!? No! You are not going down there. You have a broken wing, remember?"

While she did have a valid point, and if it were any other creature, she would have won this argument. However, I'm not just some other creature. I placed my paw on one of the nearby boulders and flexed my claws, which dug deep into the rock. I looked at her and removed my claws, showing her how deep they had penetrated into the stone. She seemed hesitant as she held her chin in deep thought before looking at me, knowing full well that I was the best choice. "Okay, fine. You win. But if we’re gonna send you down, we need to get you ready."

First, she made sure to tie my bad wing down to my body so that the winds wouldn't cause it to flare out and injure me further. Next, she tied some ropes around my waist and around my tail. And finally, she had tied the end of her rope around a tree to make pulling me back up much easier. "Alright, bud, we're all set when you are. We only have enough rope to go down a hundred feet down." I gave a brief nod before making my way toward the edge.

Stealing my nerves and hoping my plan actually works, I lower my arm as far down as I could reach and dig my claws into the wall, doing the exact same with my other front claws. I looked at Glenda to see if she was ready with the rope, which she nodded as she gripped the rope tightly. With that, I slowly and carefully moved my arms down further until my right back leg could dig its claws into the wall. To my relief, it was successful, and I did the same with my other hind leg. I made sure to take each step slow and with caution as I climbed down face first, and thanks to the rope attached to my lower body, I didn't have to worry about it falling forward, which allowed me to climb down with ease.

I wasn't sure how deep I had gone since I dared not to look up and risk losing my grip on the rock wall, but I made sure to keep track of my surroundings. On occasion, the wind from the abyss would howl with powerful winds that almost pushed me off the wall. The deeper I went down, the more the winds that howled against me sounded like the moans of those who were unfortunate to fall down into this unforgiving chasm. But as I heard the last howl, something seemed off about it; the sound was like a low, ghostly wail. Where some would panic and run, I knew better. Sounds like that can often be made when winds pass through something hollow. So deciding to investigate this sound, I carefully followed it till it got louder and louder. Eventually, after passing one large rock, I saw what it was that was making the sounds. Sitting on a ledge was the remains of a skull from some large goat-like beast. 'Wait, isn't that the same thing that took the idol all those years ago? If so, then that would mean...' And as if on cue, something glinting in the darkness caught my eyes. I looked over to the opposite side of the wall and saw it. There, laying on its side, was a golden idol that looked like a wing and talon with a crystal orb in the center; the Idol of Boreas. I was completely stunned that I hadn't heard the sound or the rope attached to my tail was slowly snapping.

Unfortunately, Glenda took this moment to start pulling at the rope, trying to bring me up. 'No no no!! I almost got!!' I screamed internally, knowing that I can't tell her what I found without words. I tried to pull myself closer to the idol, reaching out my claws to grab the thing. But just as the tip of my claw touched the idol, the rope snapped, sending my body crashing into the edge, which crumbled and sent both me and the idol falling.

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(Third person POV)

Glenda's body fell back as the other end of the rope snapped, the sound of Noir's scream filled the air before dying down. "No! Noir!!" She screamed as she quickly ran to the edge, looking around to try and find her friend. "NOIR!!" She called out one last time, waiting for any sign of her friend. But there was nothing. Not a sound except for the howling wind. She slowly crumbled to her knees and couldn't hold back the tears, knowing that no creature could survive that fall.

Another powerful howl came from the Abyss as if to taunt her as it had swallowed her beloved friend. But amongst the wind's howling was the sound of something flapping. Glenda perked her head up in time to see something black shoot up into the air. Her eyes widened as she saw Noir barely hovering above her, his good wing and tail flared out. His tail was moved over to where his bad wing was acting as a way to compensate for his broken appendage. She watched as he tilted his body forward, causing his body to move out of the winds coming out of the Abyss, making him fall to the ground with a light thud.

Glenda ran up to the dragon, who had his arms out and ready for a hug. However, the griffon jumped up and punched the top of the dragon’s head, causing him to yelp as he held his head. "What the buck is wrong with you!? Why did you pull away when I was trying to pull you up!?" She screeched. But after a moment, she felt the tears well up and moved in to hug her companion. "I thought you were actually gone." She weeped as her friend brought his arm to hold her close.

They stayed this way for a good while before Glenda pulled away, wiping her tears away and catching her breath. She looked at what had remained of the rope, seeing that it was less than what they had started with. "I don't know what we’re gonna do now. This was all the rope that store had, and I doubt we'll find any more or even enough to go deeper down."

As she held her head low, knowing that she had failed her father's wishes, Glenda could hear her dragon companion sniffling and looked up to see his lips quivering. "H-hey, Noir, come on. Don't cry." As she raised her paw to pat his side, her dragon friend started gulping in air quickly before letting out dry heaves over and over with his eyes rolled back. "Eww! Noir, what are you-!?" Before she could finish, the dragon lurched forward and something wet and slimy came out of its mouth. "Gah! Noir that's nas-!" Her words caught in her throat as she looked once more at the object that was spewed out. It was something made out of gold with a crystal orb in the center. "N-noir…is that?"

Leaning down, Glenda carefully picked up the Idol of Boreas out of the puddle of bile and slobber. "It's the idol!!" She squawked in complete shock. She set the soaked idol down and wiped her talons on a leaf that was on the ground nearby. "You actually found the idol." She said as tears once again started to flow, but these were tears of joy. "You found it!!" She shouted with joy as she moved in to hug her dragon comrade, now able to fulfill her father's quest.

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(Toothless POV)

After we had cleaned the idol of my slobber, something that Glenda wouldn't stop complaining how gross it was, we made our way to town and got ahold of Gabby and told her the good news. It took us a couple of minutes to reign in her excitement, but once she was calm, we told her to try and round up as many griffons to where the old castle was. We told her to say that someone was giving out bags of bits to any griffon who came. Needless to say, when they did show up to see it was a lie, we had a lot of angry griffons.

We practically had all of Griffonstone waiting out front. Glenda, who was at the top next to the throne, tried to get their attention. "Everyone, please settle down! I promise you that this will be worth your time!!"

"Oh yeah!? What gives you the right to tell us what to do, huh?!" One griffon shouted from within the crowd.

"Yeah, who do you think you are?!" Another called out.

Taking a few deep breaths, Glenda closed her eyes to prepare her speech. "I am Glenda, I am the descendant of Griffonstone’s last ruler, King Guto."

"Oh, you mean the failure of a king who let the Arimaspi steal our precious idol!?" A griffon who was old and looked like he had the head of a buzzard with a red fez. "The same king who lost the griffon's pride!? Why would any of us ever listen to you and your pet dragon!?" I turned to look at Glenda, who had taken a deep breath before pulling out the idol from her pack and holding it up so all could see. The effects were immediate as all the griffons let out a collective gasp and looked in awe. The elderly griffon stepped forward and quickly rubbed his eyes. "Is that the...the..?"

"Idol of Boreas? Yes, it is." The crowd started to murmur in surprise as they all looked to the idol. "I, along with my friend, went to the Abysmal Abyss and retrieved it. Now I stand before you as your new queen of Griffonstone." She said with pride in her voice with a stoic expression.

Every griffon slowly bowed their heads to both their idol and the new ruler of the kingdom. But this wasn't where it would end. "My fellow griffons, we have all fallen into ruin, but it's not because we lost our idol. It is because we let a hunk of gold be our symbol of pride."

This of course got somewhat a negative response from the elderly griffon. "How dare you refer, the Idol of Boreas as just a hunk of metal!? It was the pride of Griffonstone all those years ago, and will now be its pride once more!" Many of the other griffons had nodded their heads in agreement with the old timer.

But Glenda wasn't gonna let this slide. "We never needed this idol to have pride. We are already a species full of it. We are described as noble and majestic creatures that know how to fight, hunt, and conquer!!"

"How dare you call yourself a griffon if you can't pay proper respects to that which had made our kind so well respected!" The griffon elder retorted, getting others to agree with him again.

It seemed like they could turn against us at any second, but I had faith in my friend. "I never needed this idol to tell me that I'm proud to be a griffon, or how much pride I had. And neither do any of you!" This managed to get the crowd to quiet down just a bit. "Yes, the idol was the envy of all other creatures, and that made us feel proud that we held such an artifact. But it shouldn't have defined us and our identities."

"We are a race that is a force to be reckoned with, a respected race, and we are just as fierce as the dragons. But now, all Equestria sees us as are nothing but money-grubbing creatures who can’t do the simplest task without thinking about bits, and that our integrity can be bought and abused if some creatures waves a coin in front of our beaks. Is that how you all want to be seen as?!" This caused a large number of the Griffins to shout out "No!" while the others lowered their heads in shame at the reality of what others see them as.

"Then help me make the griffon kingdom a place of pride and honor like it was before. Help me make this kingdom be known throughout all of Equestria as a noble country."

"So what? You want us to change our ways at the drop of a hat?" Gilda called out from the crowd.

"I'm not ordering you all to give up your ways, for I know that will take time and dedication." All of the griffins nodded in agreement without hesitation. "But I do want you all to take pride in the fact that you are griffons, and to embrace your skills to help make this kingdom better than what we let it get to today." Some of the griffons in the crowd were actually starting to get excited, even puffing out the chest with a sense of pride.

"We will be great once more, but it will not be because of some shiny piece of metal. We are the ones who will make it great on our own!!" Glenda screamed at the top of her lungs with a smile on her face

"YEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!!" The griffons cheered.

And this was the beginning of the reconstruction of Griffonstone, and the reign of it's new ruler, Queen Glenda.