Chapter 12:
Intel

“Go on then, tell me why you completely ignored me,” I said venomously. Gilda was still tense as she looked between me and Rainbow.

“Well, you see… I, uhm… Oh come on, I couldn't just sit back and do nothing!” Rainbow exclaimed as she tried defending her action. Her stature shrunk though as she took in the true size difference between the two of us as I loomed over her.

“That was exactly what you were supposed to do! I guess I won't have to worry about you being captured then, miss awesome. I'm sure no-one saw you and reported that sighting prompting any claw to be hyper-alert for any sighting of you.” Sarcasm was dripping from my voice.

Gilda stepped to the side and looked at Dash too. “Your friend here’s right Dash, this place isn't safe for any pony right now and most definitely not anyone connected to the princess.”

I glanced at the female griffin, she seemed to be knowledgeable of what was going on and if Rainbow trusted her… she might be a very decent source of information.

Rainbow huffed stubbornly, fueling my frustration further as I felt like bashing my head against a wall. “So what now? We both know what happens if these griffins find out what train you're on, and I'm not walking all the way to Manehattan again.”

“I could help with, I don't know, spying on griffins?”

“Dash, you are literally a rainbow coloured target waiting to be snatched up the moment you leave this house. You really didn't think this through, did you?” I sighed as I buried my face in a claw.

“What did you mean by walking to Manehattan?” Gilda spoke up, looking between me and Rainbow suspiciously.

“We were on a train from the north down to Manehattan and got stopped… kinda had to flee and walk all the way to the city from there. Twilight was there as well,” Rainbow quickly summarized.

“Right… Hey Rainbow, it was nice to see you again but I really have stuff to do and a griffin drunk to track down,” Gilda suddenly broke off, trying to leave the two of us behind.

She knows way more than she’s letting on.

“You mean Garrett?” I asked, stepping in the other griffin’s way.

“Exactly,” she hissed back, trying to pass me regardless.

“He's dead.”

“He has someone with him who- wait, WHAT?!” Gilda exclaimed as she processed what I'd said.

“He's dead. Died in Canterlot a day ago.”

“No, no, no, he can't-” Gilda's breath went up as she started panicking, grabbing a hold of my cloak to pull me closer. “T-There was a grey griffin, a small one, with him. She has nothing to do with whatever that jerk was doing!”

“She's fine G, Gabby is in the castle with the princess,” Rainbow said in an attempt to calm Gilda down. “Seriously, I've never seen you worry about someone like this.”

“She's family,” Gilda growled. “That bastard was never up to any good.”

“You got that right, Dash and I caught him with enough explosive material to flatten multiple houses…” I said as I grabbed Gilda’s wrist and slowly pried her claw off my clothing before falling silent again as I went over the assessment of the explosive yield from the intel brief in my mind. “...or one really big mansion.”

“And? He just wanted to kill ponies, right?” Dash questioned while Gilda tried to keep calm.

“No, I don't think so. Remember where we found him and his cart?” I asked to see if Rainbow still knew, pacing around the room as gears ground in my head.

“Uhh, at the market?”

“Not exactly, we stopped them while they were moving away from the market. If he really wanted the maximum casualties he'd have halted right in the middle of that place and blew up his payload. He had another target.”

“Kinda hard to figure out now he's not here to tell us,” Dash grumbled.

“But we can speculate. The street we were on, if we'd walked all the way up it where would we have ended up?”

“The palace. That's where I was leading you, remember? But he would have never been able to get that cart into the walls itself without the guard noticing with how on edge they were,” Rainbow replied. Gilda still looked panicked as she sat back down to listen in but she was clearly nervous about something.

“So not the palace… on the way up, what kind of districts do you run into on the way there?”

“Well, first you'd go through the upper districts where all the nobles live and right before the castle itself you have…” Rainbow paused as she made a connection. “...the embassy district with the griffin consulate.”

“I think now is a good time to send a letter to ask if any important griffin figureheads were present in Manehattan, Trottingham, or any other site where they found explosives.”

“The post office is compromised, they check every letter that gets sent out of Griffinstone,” Gilda spoke as I dug through my bags and pulled out the cylinder with the dragonfire candle.

“Good thing that I have a more reliable line to send messages.” Using a lighter I set the candle aflame, a parchment immediately materialized from the fire. Breaking the lunar guard seal on it I opened the scroll and read the contents. “It seems your absence has been noted by ERGIS, Rainbow. They want me to check if you haven't followed me.”

“Guess you have the answer to that,” Dash sheepishly said as I started writing a small report on the pegasus' status followed by a request for them to look into any griffin casualties from the Manehattan bombing and possible targets in the foiled Trottingham bombing. The moment the letter hit the flame of the candle it burst into fire and a puff of smoke escaped out the window.

“Well, that was way easier tha- why are you watching me like that?” Gilda was looking at me with a shocked and slightly terrified expression.

“You’re the demon of Stoneweed forest, aren’t you?” A little fear started creeping into Gilda’s voice as she tried keeping it steady.

“Uhh, what?” I simply replied. “Sorry, I’m not sure where that forest lays.”

“It’s the one we walked through, Jack,” Rainbow pointed out for me. Gilda swallowed nervously as she backed off into a wall.

“So the two ponies they mentioned… that was you and the smart dweeb, right Rainbow?”

“Hey-”

“Miss Gilda, you seem to know a remarkable amount of information. I would like to know how you do know the information you know.” I got ready to tackle her if she tried to flee, she wasn’t carrying weapons so capturing her would be my priority.

“They talk about you in their reports and messages,” Gilda answered, her voice wavered as whatever she’d read had clearly made an impact.

“Pray tell, how would you have access to those reports?”

“Gilda?” Rainbow frowned in concern as she got off the couch and stepped next to me.

“I-I have sources, okay? I copy them. Stuff has been going on around here for a while you know.”

I stared at her, going through possibilities in my mind. She’s probably not part of the claws themself, otherwise she wouldn’t need sources to get those reports…

“Miss Gilda, we’re going to take a walk,” I told the other griffin. “Rainbow, if you hear gunfire then you’re going to take the candle, my notepad and pen, and book it out of here. You don’t come looking for me or anything stupid. Clear?”

Rainbow looked away and muttered something.

“I said, am I clear?” I repeated, much harsher in tone as I really wanted to make sure she wouldn’t follow me this time. If Gilda turned out to be part of this organization then she’d have time to get out while I’d make a stand.

“Completely,” Rainbow said through a clenched jaw. I got my pistol out and chambered a round into it before holstering it again, Rainbow frowned and gave me a concerned glance.

“Good. Gilda, follow me.” The female griffin stayed close as I left the house and Rainbow behind. The moment I was sure we were out of earshot of the house I stopped Gilda dead in her tracks. “I’m going to give it to you straight, if you even dare to call for anyone’s help for some reason I’m ending you right there. Rainbow might trust you, which is a point in your favour, but I don’t know anything about you.”

“A-Alright, so you want me to earn your trust?” Gilda stammered.

“In a way. What is your opinion about ponies, Gilda?” I asked, as I walked in a random direction, making sure no-one was too close nor that I’d give Gilda an easy escape.

“It’s complicated… do you mind going to someplace where I can more easily explain?” Gilda asked.

“Depends on where that place is,” I replied, letting Gilda take the lead.

“A few streets from here, a place called the pits,” Gilda answered. “Nogrif goes there nowadays so it should be private as well.”

I nodded, sticking close to Gilda as she led me to the place she'd mentioned. As we arrived there I found that these ‘pits’ were just that: fenced off holes in the ground with raised viewing galleries around them. Gilda took a seat in one of the empty galleries, motioning for me to join her.

“So, want to explain why we’re here?”

“I’m surprised you don’t know actually,” Gilda admitted, pointing at the pits. “They were kind of a big deal around here.”

“Well, I’m not really from around here so feel free to indulge,” I stated, making sure no-one was watching us.

“They’re the fighting pits, we used to have tournaments here. Some small, others large. On some days to settle grudges or simply to see who was the better fighter.”

“How far did those fights go?”

“Not to the death if that’s what you’re thinking of. The type of fights were varied but they were to measure skill, not to take out the opponent,” Gilda let out a deep sigh as she looked out over the field.

“So how long have these things been shut down? Can’t have been yesterday, this place looks pretty run down,” I pointed out to her.

“Decades, I wasn’t alive when they were closed. Heard all of the stories from grandpa Gruff.” We both stayed silent after that as Gilda was staring off into nothingness and I gave her some space to get her thoughts ordered.

“Gilda?” I eventually broke the silence.

“Yeah, sorry. You asked me about my opinions of ponies,” Gilda got back to the original topic. “You see, I’ve been to Clouddale’s flight school so I got to know more about ponies than other griffins around here, it’s also where I met Rainbow. But I also got to hear about how Griffins used to run things from grandpa Gruff. This place wasn’t closed down because we wanted to, it was closed because the ponies themselves closed them.”

Gilda looked over to me if I was getting what she was saying. “Go on.”

“Ponies and Griffins aren’t the same. We’re predators, they are not. What’s good for them is not necessarily good for us,” Gilda looked at me again to see if she could gauge me but I just kept myself impassive. “Everygriff is pent up with the status quo, I don’t think there’s anyone who disagrees with that around here, but some take that much further than others.”

“The Red Claws,” I pointed out as an example.

“Exactly. Now don’t get me wrong, I want independence just like any other Griffin but I know how much we rely on ponies for our food. We can’t just cut ties and wave goodbye, and definitely not bite the hoof that feeds us… literally.”

“I see.” Standing back up I walked down the gallery, stopping at the pit’s edge and leaning on the fence before jumping in out of simple curiosity. The pit was quite a bit larger than a boxing ring but not so much that you could easily run circles around an opponent.

“What are you doing?” Gilda asked in confusion.

“Why hasn’t anyone simply started these pit fights up elsewhere?” I asked ignoring Gilda’s inquiry.

“Once a transaction is done or an agreement made we honour it,” Gilda simply replied. “When our last king fell we made an agreement with the Princesses. I think you can piece it together from there.”

I flapped my wings and got back out of the pit, trying to make it look as steady as possible to hide the fact I could fly like shit. So they’re greedy but honourable… I guess that’s why the Claws had to fight their way into the consulate instead of just bribing their way through.

“I think I’ve heard enough,” I told her. “You said something about sources and reports back at your house, right?”

“Yeah?” Gilda asked, still looking tense.

“Calm down, you passed in my book.” I walked back in the direction of her house. “You’ve got copies at your home?”

Gilda nodded as we swiftly walked back to her house. Gilda opened a closet near the front door and pulled out the floorboard, revealing a box. She carried it back to the table in the living room and waited for me to come in as well. I gave Rainbow a nod of approval as she looked between us to see how our conversation had gone.

“Most messages you can read are pretty mundane, some interesting but what are probably the most important ones are written in old Giffonian,” Gilda explained, pulling out three of the papers and showing them to me. “Unless you studied that dead language you’re not going to have much luck with those.”

Old Griffonian my ass, this is German...

“Die Sprache wird von mir selbst noch genutzt,” I smirked as I got out my notepad and started translating the three messages to English. Gilda stared at me with wide eyes while I did so.

“How...”

“Don’t bother G, you’re not gonna get the answer anyway,” Rainbow said as she looked through the more mundane messages. Meanwhile, my smirk had completely dropped away as I read the content of the first of the three papers.

The unknown event up north has attracted the attention of the sun-tyrant, from what my sources can gather her personal student with an attache has gone to investigate days ago by the time you receive this. I need you to send someone up there to verify and if true send a force to capture them. The student has to survive at all cost, her value to our cause as a bargaining chip is immeasurable. Her attachee and anyone else are more expendable.

You know what to do.

-Ca

“Well, that confirms beyond the shadow of a doubt who was after you and Twilight, Rainbow,” I said as I passed the translated version on for her to read.

The final shipment of the new experimental weapons is on its way, I will remain here for a while longer to take care of some of the more unsavoury zebras that can’t be trusted to keep their mouths shut.

-Ze

“Gilda, how old is this message and do you know anything about shipments of weapons coming into Griffinstone?”

The other griffin shook her head, “There’s mention of shipments but never their content in the other communications I have. And I got that particular one two weeks ago from my source, that last one is the most recent.”

“Do you have an estimate of how many shipments came in?”

“A lot. If the boxes all contained swords… enough for a small army.”

I need to get my claws on one of these weapons, if they're experimental they probably aren't swords... there are just too many unknowns here.

I was about to take a look at the third parchment but right as I did three loud bangs came from the front door. “Grimmfeather! Open up!”

The three of us froze, looking between each other, a second set of bangs sent us in a hurried frenzy, stashing all the paper back into the box.

“Rainbow, get to the kitchen and hide beneath the table under the window so they can’t see you from outside!” Gilda hissed before looking at me. “You! hide these papers, they can see into the hallway from outside so I can’t stash them in their hiding spot!”

“Grimfeather! Last chance or we kick this door in!”

“I’m coming, you impatient chickens!” Gilda shouted back at them, mouthing at me to hurry up as she walked to the front door. I immediately got the dragonfire candle from Rainbow.

I hope the analysts like their birthday present...

After lighting the candle a new message from the other end came through but without the time to read I simply stashed it into a pocket along with the untranslated one before torching the entire contents of the box. A large puff of smoke went up and disappeared into nothingness as all the paper was sent over to Canterlot.

“We know you have someone over, Grimfeather, one of our people saw a pony with a cloak enter your house!”

Time to take the heat off of her.

“Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure that whoever you have watching G here is fucking blind if he thought I was a pony,” I growled at the two griffins at the door who I immediately recognized, just as they did me.

“You!” the leader of the two exclaimed, “What is he doing here, Grimfeather?”

“Personal business, remember?” I sarcastically said, making him grind his beak.

“Look, I know him from Cloudsdale alright. Old acquaintance,” Gilda smoothly lied as he and I glared each other down.

“Fine, but we’re watching you,” He eventually growled, turning around and walking off. Gilda immediately closed the door, slumping against it as she let out a relieved sigh.

“I think you just saved our feathers there.”

“Not getting ratted out sounded like a good idea,” I told her, turning and walking to the kitchen where Dash had disappeared into. “I told you that you’d be seen, didn’t I?”

“Yeah yeah, you’ve made your point,” Rainbow grumbled. Shaking my head I pulled the letter from ERGIS out of my pocket and read it.

“The Lunar Guard is arranging an extraction for you, Rainbow. It’s going to take a few days to get everything set up though,” I told her as I re-folded the paper and stashed it under my cloak and got out the candle again to apologize for the dump of letters, sending a quick note explaining why I had dumped the pile on them.

“You sent all of those letters to the ponies?” Gilda asked.

“Yes. Is that a problem?” I raised an eyebrow.

“No, I did tell you to get rid of them after all and I've read them regardless.” Gilda shrugged as I got out the last letter and quickly worked to translate it.

“Is Trottingham significant to the Griffin’s, Gilda?” I asked as I read through the content of the letter.

“It’s the pony city most responsible for delivering our food. Why do you ask?”

“When did you get this letter?” I continued, holding out the parchment.

“Yesterday?”

“Fuck.”

All Trottingham cells are ready to strike. All outward communication will be cut at dawn after which we shall take control of the city.

Griffinstone must be ready to do the same.

Good luck our brothers.

-Tr

Author's Note

Well, there is some more context from the griffin side. This chapter got a serious change with the re-writes I've been doing. Hopefully it's good ^^;

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.