Chapter 11:
Griffinstone

”You're not coming, Rainbow,” I told the pegasus as I repacked gear from my backpack into more unassuming brown saddlebags provided to me by the guard. Mainly things like ammo and my leftover zip tie cuffs.

“Oh come on, I can handle myself! I'll just… stay out of sight!” Rainbow exclaimed in response.

“It's out of the question Rainbow, they already went after you once I will not put you in danger again,” I completely rejected her proposal again. “That rainbow hair of yours just paints a massive target on your back.”

“I can just give it another colour!” Rainbow persisted, but there was a little doubt seeping into her voice. I finished stashing gear into my new bags and closed them, turning to face Rainbow directly.

“And what happens if we get revealed? We'd be in the middle of a hostile city with who knows how many griffins around us. You’d be a danger to both me and yourself.”

Rainbow huffed but didn't try to rebut me again.

“I'll be just fine on my own, Dash, it's just two weeks. And besides, Scootaloo is going to have some free time to spend now I'm not helping with her homework,” I finished, strapping on the bags over a mundane brown cloak that would hide my weapons and tactical rig. The sniper rifle remaining in Rainbow's care since I wouldn't be able to use it regardless. “I've got to go and see Captain Midnight, see you around Rainbow.”

Leaving the pegasus behind in the previous room, I entered the hallways and walked towards the situation room. The traffic around the room wasn't as bad as when I'd first entered but clearly busier than usual. The pony I was looking for stood by one of the tables and was listening to one of the analysts.

“Captain Midnight?” I said, saluting as she turned to me.

“Specialist Grey. I see you know the meaning of haste, I didn't think you'd be here so soon,” she commended, motioning for me to follow. “We've gotten you the appropriate documents, funds, and put together a brief to get you up to speed on the most recent information.”

The bat pony passed along a file and a few loose documents which I quickly stashed into one of my bags. “How much money is this?” I asked as I held out the bag of bits Midnight passed me.

“Enough to last you for at least four weeks. Just keep in mind that just about every Griffin will try to hike prices, they're extreme penny pinchers, you can barter off at least a quarter of the initial price most merchants give you,” she informed me.

“Thanks for the heads up.” I rolled my eyes.

“No problem. I also have this for you.” Midnight gave me a metal cylinder which after opening revealed a green candle with parchments rolled around it. “Dragonfire candle, burn anything and it'll be sent over to an analyst in this room. It's the most secure method of communication we have.”

“Not going to pretend to know how that works but that sounds really useful,” I smiled, stashing away the cylinder as well.

“Indeed it is, I'll have a covert team camp out in the neighbourhood as support if it's needed. They'll only be observing so they won't be immediate support but they might just provide you with an exit if you can hold out long enough. Now the Princess wanted to see you in her office. She'll have somepony drop you off at the station once she's done with you. Good luck out there.”

“Thank you, Captain,” I respectfully nodded, leaving her behind in the situation room. The Princess was seated behind her desk and looking over a stack of paper as she noticed me.

“Jack Grey, good to see you're done preparing. There's something I wanted to give you.” The Princess took me into a side room and produced a longsword out of a locker. It was of a simple design, the only really notable thing being the dark blue gem set into the pommel. The hilt was made of dark metal and grip of black leather.

“My sister and I know you have those weapons of your own but we agree that maybe you should carry something more visible to deter these 'Red Claws' from attacking you outright were your cover to fail.”

Sliding the blade from its sheath I looked it over, finding it was very well balanced before re-sheathing it. “Thank you but I'm afraid that if I would get into a situation where I'd have to use it I wouldn't know how.”

Luna smirked a little deviously, “When in doubt, stick them with the pointy end. I'm sure you can deal with any threat in your own way… but if not, the sword might yet surprise you,” Luna cryptically added. I couldn't help but chuckle at that as I wrapped the belts attached to the hilt around my body and tightened them. "One more thing, you work for me now so please refrain from starting an international conflict. It looks like we're only getting away with that incident at the consulate because you technically didn't work for us among a few other things. The other embassies in the city have all sent veiled messages to us to not try something similar there."

I cleared my throat and straightened up. “I'll stop myself from doing something stupid up in Griffinstone... I should get going if I'm to catch that train.”

“'Of course, I won't stop you from performing the task I myself gave you” Luna nodded as she flagged over a guard. “He'll show you the way out but won't join you all the way, we want the possibility of you being detected as low as possible.”

“That sounds like a good way to avoid surprises,” I nodded.

“I wish you good fortune out there, mister Grey, we'll speak via dragon mail candle.”

“Understood Princess,”

The train slowly rolled into the Griffinstone station, having travelled all throughout the night. The journey had been relatively long as the railway tracks around Manhattan had all been shut down. There were not that many others on the train, the ponies that had been shooting suspicious glances my way had already gotten off at prior stops. It wasn't that much of a bother anyway as I used the journey to catch up on sleep and read over my alias and the intel.

But now I stood at the bottom of the mountain on which Griffinstone was built. Somewhere up in the distance, I could see structures hanging on the trees and built into the side of the mountain.

Aaah, darn. I hate mountains.

Sighing I took the firsts steps on the path up to the city as the morning rays of the sun shone down on me. The path up was terribly maintained. Wooden railings that were limply hanging from rotten rope or entirely missing, paved sections contrasted by broken up ground.

If this is the path up there is already this bad...

Being careful with where I set down my paws I slowly but surely made my way up, taking a break halfway to eat something before hiking the last bit of the way to the top. The badly maintained houses that were scattered on the way up not heightening my expectations…

...yet even my low expectations were way too high for the absolute dump I was looking at.

It’s pretty much a slum… hell, slums have more cheer than this place. Wow, I actually pity anyone who has to live here.

Griffins actively tried to avoid each other on the street as I walked through, there weren’t even children running about the place. Sometimes two griffins would collide and exchange some harsh squawks.

These birds need to chill out big time.

Careful not to bump into anyone I looked around for an inn to stay at, a flash of colour behind me suddenly caught my eye but the moment I looked I found nothing there.

Strange… I swore I saw- Oh stop it you, she’s not here!

Shaking my head I continued on through the streets.

“Hey! Who are you!” A shout came from an alleyway. At first, I simply ignored the call but that became harder once two griffins blocked my path. “I don't know your face, stranger, what are you doing here?”

“Business,” I flatly stated.

“Of what kind?” the other griffin asked.

“The personal kind,” I growled back, looking around to see if there were more griffins surrounding me, finding it not to be the case. “Now if you two can stop bothering me, I want to find an inn.”

The two griffins looked at each other while I stared them down and was mentally noting their features so I could possibly recognise them later.

“Yeah, go ahead.” The leader of the couple said as he glanced down at the sword hanging from my side, stepping aside to let me pass. “There's an inn down the street. Hard to miss.”

“Thank you,” I told them, walking past and not looking back. Surprisingly, just like they said, an inn sat about four hundred metres ahead. The building was built on an old tree and looked remarkably well maintained compared to the rest of the city. Mentally noting its location for the night I got to a square and took a seat on a large boulder that lay on the edge of it.

Right, now to-

I swung my head to the side as I swore that I saw something in the corner of my eye, once again finding nothing of note where I’d imagined seeing something.

Fucking hell, Jack, you need to chill down this paranoia.

Returning to what I was doing I took out the intel file. One of the griffins at Trottingham had talked and given the name of a bar where he'd met his contact so I scribbled the name of the establishment down on my notepad. The file also gave me a small list of griffins I could trust, something provided by the ambassador.

I should also try to find where Gabby's uncle worked, pay their office a small visit. If they're helping the talons move around gear then that's a major issue.

Getting back up, I started to look around for the post office. The longer I walked through the streets the better a feeling of the tension in the city I got, Griffins looked around and were jumping at shadows constantly. It took me some time to find, but eventually, I stepped into the building.

“What do you mean, you don't know?!” a female griffin screamed at the clerk standing at the front desk. “He works here, right? You gave him a large shipment to deliver someplace!”

Standing at the entrance, I simply watched the altercation play out.

“G, I honestly don't know! We haven't given him an order for weeks, too many things broken due to him always being drunk,” The clerk defended, the other griffin screamed in anger and turned towards me and pushed me aside.

“Out of my way, dweeb,” she said as she handled me, flying off before I could say anything to her.

“My apologies about that, one of our employees got under her feathers,” the clerk sighed. “What can I do for you, sir?”

“I wanted to inquire about a possible employee too. Some griffin called Garrett supposedly works here,” I said, the clerk's eyes went wide.

“That's what Gilda was after too. What did that drunk get himself into now? I assure you, we did not give him your mail if he destroyed it! The post office isn't liable for that!” she barked, immediately deflecting blame off of herself. I turned to see if I could still see the particular griffin but this Gilda was long gone.

“Nah, there was something else I wanted to ask him… say, do you know where Gilda lives and point me in the right direction?” I asked, but I wasn't prepared for the response.

“How many bits are you offering?”

It took some serious effort to keep my exasperation in check. I'd been warned about griffin greediness by both the Lunar captain and a segment of the briefing but I'd written it off as a stereotype. I guess all stereotypes are bound in some truth... Simply reaching into the bag, I pulled out three bits and placed them on the table.

“Well, maybe if there were more-”

“No.” I moved to pick the bits off of the desk but they were snagged right from under my claws.

“Fine! G lives two streets east of here, her aerie is unmistakable. Actually paints the damn thing. Bloody waste of bits.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Thank you for the information.”

The clerk mumbled something unintelligible as I left to look for the house. It wasn't much of a search in the end as the house I was looking for was the only one in the area that didn't look like a complete dump.

After knocking on the door I waited for a response, hoping that Gilda had gone straight home after running into me at the post office. There were some muffled voices as the door swung open only a crack.

“What?”

“Miss Gilda?” I asked, hoping to confirm her identity. The door opened up a bit further so she could see me better.

“Oh, it's you. If you're after an apology for being shoved out of my way you can buzz off,” she growled.

“No, I just wanted to ask you why you want to know where Garrett is,” I calmly stated, Gilda's demeanour changed visibly as she nervously looked past me to see if I was alone.

“Look, I've got stuff to do. I had somepo-griff drop by unannounced and-”

My eyes narrowed at the slip-up and now hawkishly looking past Gilda and into the house, spotting a familiar set of Wonderbolt merch saddlebags. A set of saddlebags I'd seen used by one very particular pegasus…

For fuck sake! She fucking didn’t!

Pushing open the door, I barged past Gilda into her house and slammed open the door to her living room. A yelp came from the couch as I spotted the sky blue, rainbow-haired, pegasus sitting there.

“Hey! You can't come in here!”

“Rainbow.”

“I-I can explain!”

Author's Note

Final inspection of the barracks before going home is hell when your groupmates already have their mind set on home. Like, that's asking for the sarges to start fucking with you.

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