Natie wasn’t surprised to hear where Sam had disappeared to. He always did prefer to perch himself somewhere high up to be alone. She always thought he took too much inspiration from his old 90’s movies for that though. It did take a bit of time to find the right castle turret that ponies saw him climb up to. It was also convenient to find a power line leading up to the turret’s spotlight that she could electrically ride up on.

That was certainly something she hadn’t expected to see in this world: the wonders of electricity. Natie did some research from the previous night and was surprised to learn that although Equestria’s development was fundamentally somewhere in the Late Modern Period, they also had many household amenities closer resembling Post Modern technology. Natie was at least glad they had a power grid that she was able to syphon off of, although the electricity here seemed somehow a bit different, like there was something else in the charge she absorbed.

She’d have to look into it later, as she sprang out from the spotlight in a crackle of electricity. Her body reassembled from the ions that they broke down into to travel the power line, and she was able to see the world through her regular eyes again, eyes that fell upon the sulking wire conduit on the other side of the turret.

Natie walked over to lean over the parapet wall, just as Sam was doing. The view she was granted was one of the city of Canterlot. Stretched out before her in all its glory, it was the first, and only, city built on the side of a mountain that she knew of. That, too, was also hard to believe until she saw it herself. She, like her peers, just had to chalk it up to this world’s laws of physics not being like their own and had to move on.

However, as grand as the view was, Sam was not enjoying it like others who would, if in their position. Instead, his head laid atop his arms with his eyes cast down. The only acknowledgement he gave to Natie’s presence was a short huff of air through his nose.

Natie tried to start the conversation, “You know, it wasn’t-”

“Just stop, Natie,” Sam cut her off, “I know what you’re gonna say, and you’re wrong.”

The wire conduit tilted his head to look away from Natie. She wasn’t about to let him brood in peace like he was trying to though.

“Sam, come on. It’s only been one day. I thought you were the one that said that you wanted to do this.”

“Well, that was before how badly I screwed up.”

“You didn’t screw up.”

“Yes, I did!” Sam pushed up to look Natie in the eye, snapping back, “I thought I could help. I thought I could be like you and be a mentor, but I can’t!”

Natie’s brow furrowed, “Who said you needed to be like me?”

Sam didn’t reply to this… not at first anyways.

“...You know I’m no good at being a leader. Hell, I’m not even decent at making a good plan,” Sam said.

Natie took a step closer to the wire conduit, “But you still tried.”

“Yeah, and look where that got me,” Sam cynically laughed.

“This isn’t about you, Sam!” Natie shouted, before taking a deep breath to calm down, “I know you, Lu, and Isabelle had it tough when Bertrand caught me in that trap. I know you tried your hardest to keep the others together til you all rescued me. And, I know it really hit you hard that your plan nearly failed when you rescued me, but right now, right here, this isn’t like back in Memphis.”

Sam wanted to lash back at her, but the electric conduit wasn’t about to give him a chance to keep beating himself down.

“We’re not fighting a battle here, Sam. It’s not life-or-death. We’re just here to try and help these people...ponies...griffons, what have you, become more comfortable with their lives as conduits. Every little bit helps, even if you don’t think so,” Natie’s voice softened a little more, “Even with Gabriel.”

“But didn’t you see what happened?” Sam countered, “I tried everything we were taught, and I still couldn’t get through to him.”

“It’s not exactly your fault, Human.”

The gruff voice was followed by a quartet of hooves clacking down the stony tower. The human conduits turned to see none other than Aegis Flare, who had flown up to meet with them after helping to escort Gabriel back to his room in the castle.

The pegasus approached the human conduits to elaborate, “Gabriel is a bit of special case to our program here in Equestria.”

Sam and Natie looked at each other and then back to the pegasus with questioning looks.

“I can give more details later, but after you left, Equestria started experiencing anomalies. Conduits then started to appear here in Equestria within the last few months. I was among some of the first. It took me some time to get used to my new abilities, but some other ponies that became ‘activated’ exploited their powers for their own benefit. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna appointed me to head a team that oversees cases involving Conduits. This also included cases of those that wanted to learn how to control their abilities, like Simple Piece and High Exposure.

“Like I said, Gabriel is a special case, as he is a member of the Griffon Empire. He is a courier between our nations, but he became ‘activated’ here in Equestria, while he was on a delivery job. Relations can sometimes be a bit fickle between ponies and griffons,” Aegis Flare looked away in a bit of shame, “Some consider our relation with the griffons unnecessary. This leads back to Gabriel. I’ve thoroughly been over his report.”

Natie and Sam were completely invested by what they’ve both heard. There were many questions they had, but the pegasus still had a little more to explain.

“On the day he became ‘activated’, a group of ponies had been harassing him in the city of Baltimare. It came to the point where these ponies got physical,” Aegis Flare sighed deeply, “Gabriel put two of those ponies in the hospital.”

Both of the human conduits gasped.

“It wasn’t his fault though. Like me, and the few others so far, Gabriel had no real control over his abilities. I’ve tried to explain this to him when the Griffon Empire released him into our care, but...I feel like he hasn’t accepted it for himself.”

Sam and Natie mulled over this new info, especially Sam. He thought that he was a horrible teacher, that it was his fault for not giving the griffon the proper instructions. Though now, he understood why Gabriel was having trouble. He was like him back in Curdan Cay. Sam shared a look with Natie, to which she understood and gave her approval. Sam still didn’t know if he was cut out to be a teacher or mentor, but he did know what he could do for the wayward griffon in that moment.

“Cappy,” Sam finally spoke up, “Where’s Gabriel now?”

Aegis Flare gave the wire conduit a quizzical look, but answered, “The eastern guest wing of the castle. Why do you want to know?”

“Because, I need to talk with him,” Sam replied with a smile, before leaping over the parapet to the ground below.

Aegis Flare’s wings instantly sprang out for him to give chase to the wire conduit. He knew he always meant well, but the former captain couldn’t help but feel a little worried. He was stopped by Natie, who blocked his path with an outstretched arm.

“It’s alright. He’s much smarter than most give him credit for,” she said, “He’s reckless and impulsive, but once he’s put his heart and mind to it, there’s almost nothing that can stop him.”

Aegis Flare folded his wings back to his sides and relaxed, a hint of a smile touching his features.

The gruff pony gave a short bark of laughter, “It’s funny. I know exactly what you mean.”

--o0o--

A short knock came from Gabriel’s suite door. Though before he could tell whoever it was to leave, it swung open to reveal the Wire Wraith himself.

“How’s it going, Gabe?” the wire conduit casually asked as he strolled into the room.

The startled griffon tried to tell him to get out, but the words kept getting stuck in his throat. Not to mention, a lot of his attention was on trying not to spatter even more ink all over the place, like he had been doing since he’d gotten these powers. He’s already ruined the sheets he slept on multiple times already, just like now, as the wire conduit’s presence made his anxiety skyrocket.

He wished he was allowed to wear that dampening collar, like before, but the other female human that stayed behind with Aegis Flare at the training ground refused to let him. Why couldn’t she see he was dangerous without it? Tears threatened to cloud his vision once more.

Sam watched as the griffon curled in on himself on the bed before him, obviously trying not to seem like a threat or accidentally lash out. The suite the ponies had put him up in was much like his own, only there were plenty of ink splatters covering the surfaces everywhere. The griffon himself looked miserable. His plumage and fur was all askew or matted, not unlike it was before, but Sam was trying not to mention it, out of respect. He wasn’t quite sure what a healthy griffon his age should look like, but Gabriel also looked a little on the skinny side.

“P-Please, leave,” Gabriel finally worked up the strength to say.

Sam sighed, “Sorry, can’t do that.”

“I d-don’t want t-to hurt you,” Gabriel meekly spoke out.

Sam didn’t reply this time, merely walking across the room to grab the writing desk’s chair to pull up to the side of the bed and straddle on backwards. His arms laid over top the back rest, and his head followed suit to lay on his arms. The griffon had shifted to the far end of the bed away from Sam, still avoiding eye contact. They sat there like that for a while, in the silence...

...until Sam spoke out, “I heard about what happened with you in Baltimare.”

This was one of the few times that the griffon had looked up toward Sam, but there was fear in the griffon’s eyes upon hearing this. More ink seemed to leak from his talons to drip to the once white sheets of the bed below.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Sam threw up his hands defensively, “No judgement here.”

“Why?” Gabriel sullenly asked, “I hurt those ponies, and-and I didn’t mean to. I was only trying to tell them to back off, and then it...it just happened. They were right! I’m a m-monster!”

The wayward griffon was openly sobbing at this point. He covered his head with his claws, like it was going to hide him away from the world.

Sam’s expression hardened a little, “Hey, listen here. You’re a Conduit, not a monster.”

Sam shushed the griffon before he could protest, not that Gabriel could speak even if he tried. His words kept getting choked up in his throat from his uncontrollable fits of sobbing.

“I actually used to think the exact same thing about myself, when I first manifested my powers,” Sam offered, much to the griffon’s surprise.

Gabriel had heard the tales about the Wire Wraith. Heroic, Confident, Strong, he’d heard it all. Then, just today, he had met him, along with three other humans, that were just as strong or brave. He watched as the wire conduit before him fiddled with a couple strands of his namesake between his fingers. Even now, Sam seemed so self-assured in his abilities, unlike him. It was hard to even imagine such a powerful being as fearful and miserable as he did right now.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. I wasn’t always a badass, like I am now,” Sam continued, playing with the strands of wire all the while, “It actually took me years to figure that part out. You wanna know how I got over that fear?”

A part of Gabriel wanted to say no, because that part of him still could only see himself as the freak of nature those ponies told him he was. Though the other part of him, the part that still had a sliver of hope, sprang forward. The griffon nodded his head eagerly. Sam looked Gabriel in the eyes, and although the griffon wanted to look away, he resisted the urge. The wire conduit gave him a hard look, but then, his expression softened into his usual welcoming smile.

“I found a way to use my powers for a little fun,” Sam answered simply.

Gabriel was confused. He expected something a little more profound, something virtuous or wise. Yet, that was all Sam said, and then, he went back to fiddling with the wire he was playing with in his hand. Gabriel was almost mad. He felt cheated, like he was meant to be given an answer that would solve all his problems, and he got nothing.

“I want you to check this out,” Sam said, cutting the griffon off before he could speak.

The wire conduit rose from his seat. More wires emerged from his hands, swirling and bending to his will. The display of control and power mesmerized the griffon. Sam flicked his gaze toward the griffon to gauge his reaction, satisfied to see he had his attention.

“It took me a long time to get to where I’m at now,” the wire conduit explained, all the while bending the wires into a maze as tall as him, “There were no shortcuts, no easy-to-follow guides. I had to work at it every day.”

The wires at first appeared to move about randomly, but as Sam’s speech went on, Gabriel could see the wire conduit was in fact, moving each strand in a specific way, into a specific place. He was creating a frame of something before his very eyes.

“There were times when I got frustrated because I failed to control my powers, times when I felt like I would never amount to anything but what others told me I was,” Sam continued, “A ‘freak’, a ‘devil’, or even a ‘monster’. There were even times when I felt like I should’ve just given up entirely. All of that was because the way I was being taught to use my powers was to only fight with them. One day, I got tired of that, and then, I got bored. I took a piece of wire and bent it. Then, I wrapped it around another piece, and then another, and then another.”

Sam’s last few statements were punctuated by him attaching a few more wires to his creation. Gabriel gasped as the wire frame finally took on enough shape for him to make out what it was. A griffon. The frame was minimal, but the shape was unmistakable. As Sam braided the last length of wire to attach as the tail, the wire griffon came to life and spread its wings. Gabriel could see the strands of wire that connected from the griffon’s tail to Sam’s fingers, and how he used them to manipulate the seemingly fluid motions of the previously inanimate wire griffon. It was awe inspiring, and simply amazing to watch.

Gabriel was mesmerized by the wire frame, even as it stopped moving after striking a majestic pose. He wished he could do something like what he just saw. His internal thoughts were interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. It surprised him, as it was Sam who had done it. Gabriel hadn’t realized that wire conduit had gotten so close, or that he was practically on the edge of the bed when he had tried to get a closer look at the wire frame. He was about to move away when Sam offered his hand. Gabriel looked down to see another frame, one that fit in the palm of the wire conduit’s hand. It was crude, simple, and nowhere near as detailed as the wire griffon, but Gabriel could tell it was a little stick-version of a human.

Sam held the human figure up as he spoke, “I don’t see my powers as a curse or something to fear. At least, not anymore. I chose to find something else to use my powers for, something I could enjoy doing, something that made me happy to have my powers. I chose to create.”

Sam took one of Gabriel’s talons and placed the little, crude figure into his claw. Gabriel himself was speechless. He had seen how the other Equestrians trained earlier that day. Sam had tried to teach him with the same methods, to no avail. The griffon had been scared, scared that no matter how much help the humans offered, he’d still never be able to use his newfound powers for anything other than hurting others. However, he now had two examples, one even in his very claw, that showed him the complete opposite.

He turned his head up to meet the wire conduit’s cheerful expression, and for the first time, did not have the urge to flinch or shudder. The sorrowful feeling inside him that had felt like it had a death grip on him finally began to loosen. The overwhelming sense of a relief that replaced it was almost too much for him to handle.

“C-can you teach me to create, too?” Gabriel asked.

The wire conduit smiled even more brightly, a feeling of accomplishment and relief of finally finding a way to help the wayward griffon settling in him.

Sam chuckled as he replied, “Of course I can, but you also need to find the way you want to create for yourself. I make wire frames because that’s what I can work with. You’ll need to figure how you can create with your ink.”

Gabriel almost became crestfallen again after hearing that. He shook his head to shake the encroaching thoughts of despair away and think a little more clearly. Sam said that ‘there were no shortcuts’, and that he needed to figure out his own way to create with his ink. It was hard. Gabriel wished that he could just make wire frames like Sam, but that was something he just wasn’t able to do. So, he thought a little more.

‘What can I create with ink?’ Gabriel thought to himself.

His eyes wandered around the suite for some sign or inspiration, but nothing seemed to jump out at him. His frustration was starting to build, and it seemed like he was about to just give up and go back to wallowing in his own self-deprecation. That is, until his eyes landed on the writing desk on the other side of the suite. Or, more specifically, the fresh stack of parchment laid out on top.

Sam moved out of the griffon’s way as he climbed down from the bed and followed him to the desk where he was focused on. Gabriel picked up one of the pieces of parchment, feeling the rough surface of the blank canvas before him. He never considered himself an artist, and he only used to doodle in the dirt back in Griffonstone when he was fledgling. He turned to Sam, but the wire conduit merely gave him a few gestures of encouragement.

Gabriel automatically reached for the quill and inkwell when he remembered that he was supposed to do this with his powers. He placed the sheet of parchment down on the desk in front of him and extended a claw toward the paper. His claw halted just short of the parchment’s surface as he realized that he had no idea what was going to draw.

He panicked for a second. His mind racing to find something that he could use as inspiration. His other claw squeezed around something, and he raised it to find that he was still carrying the little, human wire figure that Sam had given him earlier. He looked back at the much larger, and more intricate, wire frame of the griffon Sam also made. The ink conduit frowned as he wished he had the same level of talent as Sam did, but he then remembered something else Sam had said.

‘It took me a long time to get to where I’m at now...I had to work at it every day.’

Gabriel still felt a tinge of jealousy, but he was going to try and take what Sam had said to him to heart. Taking a deep breath, Gabriel closed his eyes and reached into himself. He felt the wellspring of his source start to awaken to his call. He imagined his arm as the tube that reached down into that well to draw out his power. The sensation of the ink flowing up was again, in a sense, comforting, and also still strange. He could feel the ink reach the tip of his outstretched claw and sit there, just waiting to be unleashed at his command.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. It was more like a crowd of voices, all of them calling him all sorts of nasty things. Through his closed eyes, he could see a blurry image of two ponies being loaded onto an ambulance, all because of what he did. His breath quickened, and the negative sensations began to overwhelm him.

“Gabe.”

Gabriel snapped out of his trance as Sam called out to him and placed his hand on his shoulder. The anxious griffon looked up to see the wire conduit’s encouraging smile. The grip he had on his shoulder was also merely that of a comforting presence. All of that combined banished the harsh whispers and images from the griffon’s mind, and he set back to work on the parchment that now had a few droplets of ink from his once shaking claw. Gabriel did his best not to let that get to him and continued.

His claw touched the parchment, and ink bled out. Gabriel grunted in concentration to keep the flow more steady. He moved his claw up, and then down, creating a downward ‘v’. He extended another line up from the tip of that ‘v’. His strokes became more fluid, and less shaky, as he went, emboldened by each stroke that came before.

Sam watched as the griffon worked, eager to figure out what he was drawing, and yet, he also wanted to look away and leave it as more of a surprise. The suspense was terrible, and he hoped it would last. The jet-black lines Gabriel stretched out were starting to fan out more, and Sam could tell at once the thing he was trying to draw out.

“Needs more color,” Gabriel mumbled to himself, becoming a little tired of the singular, blackness.

He concentrated a little more, and the ink from his claw started to shift. The shade became lighter, almost silvery. Gabriel extended the rest of his claws out and scratched about from the tips of two of the black lines. It looked like a jumble of wispy, silver lines, but Gabriel was okay with that. However, he wanted more. He had only used a quarter of the parchment, and the rest was almost like it was calling to him.

More lines of black came forth, and then, he added splashes of color. The whole ordeal felt it lasted for hours, as he fell into a trance. Before he knew it, however, he was finished. The ink conduit looked over his work and smiled at the outcome. By no means was it a masterpiece, but to him, it was worth more than that.

“Wow, I’m impressed!”

Gabriel squawked in surprise, having forgotten that Sam had been there beside him the entire time. He saw the wire conduit was inspecting his work, and somehow, that made the griffon feel embarrassed. He tried covering it up, even though he knew the wire conduit probably already saw the whole thing already.

Sam chuckled even more at Gabriel’s actions, “Ah, come on. You’ve got yourself a one-of-a-kind ‘Picasso’ there. Let’s get a better look at it.”

“O-okay,” Gabriel relented.

He uncovered his work, and Sam picked up the piece of parchment to inspect. Sam himself was no art critic, so it’s not like he could judge the griffon’s work. He even used to have trouble making simple wire frames himself, so he had no excuse either. Looking over the drawing, there were still plenty of flaws though. Flecks of spilled ink dotted the empty space. The outlines of shapes were either too thick or thin in places due to Gabriel’s inexperience with control. Sometimes, the colors bled into clashing hues, again from the lack of experience. Regardless of all that though, Sam could see that the griffon put his heart into this piece.

Four stick figures, humanoid stick figures, were all striking various poses. From their ‘hands’ stretched shapes and colors that were all too familiar to the wire conduit. Wispy, silvery strings on one. Jagged, grayish-brown squares from the next. Then, blue, barbed lines and funneling, reddish-orange columns from the last two sets.

“I know it’s not all that good,” Gabriel timidly spoke up, “I haven’t drawn in a long time. I’ve never tried it that way before, and-”

Sam cut him off, “It’s perfect, Gabe.”

For the first time since discovering his newfound abilities, Gabriel was happy to have them.

Author's Note

Hey, look at that, I've got a new chapter done already! I'm actually trying to put a little more effort into getting chapters done faster, but I won't compromise quality for quantity. If it takes a bit longer for some chapters I hope you'll be okay with that.

With that, Gabe seems to be coming to terms with his new life. Sam has found a way to help like he wanted to, and the Equestrians have the full support of their human friends to help them too. It seems perfect, doesn't it?

Thanks Regreme, for your continued help in being my editor and proofreader