Sleep is supposed to bring tranquility to the mind, to bring calm to the usually tumultuous sea of thoughts. The stillness of sleep is supposed to smooth the rough waters of thought and allow the reflection of swirling, twinkling dreams overhead to become visible and even tangible.for a fleeting moment.
Sometimes though, the mind would not rest. It would toss it’s owner to and fro, dashing their hopes of rest against the rocks of insomnia and restlessness. The vociferous minds that experienced periods of panic instead of calm were unlucky in the eyes of the world.
One such poor creature, a young mare named Twilight, was inundated with thoughts that mirrored their state of mind, an uneasy ocean. Picking up an innocent vessel and dashing it against the crashing waves that blanketed the surface of the water. She felt it though, every toss from crest to crest, every jostle and every vicious movement. It was less like a dream and more like a devilish memory that dared to defy her rest.
She could feel the spray of the waves against her skin, she could feel the wind toss her hair and threaten to lift her off of her feet. She could feel everything, even the distinct sense of terror that accompanied all of the sensory input.
It was a nightmare.
She was tossed into the air, her eyes caught a glance of what was beneath her. It wasn’t the sight of a sturdy wooden deck that she was expecting, instead it was the roiling waves that filled her heart with dread. Before she could react, she plummeted into the depths and was taken away by the current.
====
Twilight coughed and sputtered as she pulled herself further up the beach. Seawater flew from her mouth, her lungs expelling the unwanted liquid as she rolled onto her back. The harsh sun beat down onto the beach, and onto her aching body as well.
Deep breaths came in ragged succession. The mare closed her eyes, not yet ready to face the world around her. She was still trying to comprehend what exactly happened onboard the boat. One moment she was trying to sleep, unsuccessfully of course, and then she was thrown into the ocean and fighting for her life.
It took a few minutes, but Twilight finally opened her eyes again. The sun was directly overhead, making her squint her eyes. She let out a groan and rolled to her hooves, standing up and shaking the seawater from her coat. The sand still clung to it, but she couldn’t exactly worry about that now.
There were questions to answer before she could worry about sand in her fur. Mainly, where was she and what happened to the other ponies aboard her ship? What about her mission to speak with the Griffon King? It was surely delayed now, and he didn’t like to be kept waiting.
She shook her head and took in her surroundings. The beach was rather barren, just littered with driftwood and bits and pieces of her ship. No sign of other ponies or living creatures at all. The treeline started about fifty feet away, conifers raising high into the air, framed by massive snowy peaks in the distance.
Wherever she was, it wasn’t an island. Those mountains were too far away and too big to be confined. So that narrowed it down at least. Knowing where she was headed on her ship, it probably placed her at least on the same continent as where she wanted to be. So that was a start.
“I could just wait until night, the stars could probably help…” Twilight muttered to herself, looking up at the bright blue sky above. But night? That was most likely eight hours away, and staying on the beach for that long wasn’t the best idea. A view from above would be much more beneficial until night.
With a quick light of her horn, a warm sensation quickly enveloped Twilight’s body. She felt the water evaporate from her body and most of the sand dry and flake off. Only a sigh escaped her lips as she let the magic fade from her horn. Her wings spread wide, shaking any loose sand from her feathers as she began to flap her wings.
She rapidly rose above the treetops, getting a good view at the sprawling wilderness before her. Decades of studying maps of the world flashed through her mind in an instant, attempting to spot any recognizable landmarks that she could orient herself with. Alas, distant peaks and ranges of mountains with sprawling coniferous forests gave no clue to her specific whereabouts. It told her she was in the northern hemisphere, but she already knew that.
The most she could say was that she was definitely on the griffon home continent of Griffonia.
Twilight knew enough about Griffonia to help herself, at the very least. There were numerous cities dotting the continent, usually ports or carved into the very mountains that criss-crossed the regions. But there were also villages buried in the ancient forests that were quite common.
Whether any village she found would speak her language or be welcoming of her presence would be another thing entirely. She would have to rely on the magic of friendship to guide her if either of those happened to be the case.
She needed help, and she was going to get it one way or another. So with a deep breath and a steeling of her resolve, she flew into the expansive wilderness before her.
====
Within an hour of flying she had spotted a griffon in the distance rising from the trees. It hadn’t spotted her as far as she could tell, so she tailed it from a good distance and skimmed the treeline so she could duck into the thicket if she had to.
It wasn’t that Twilight didn’t like griffons, but the few she had met usually were awfully distrustful with a nasty streak to boot. So any confrontation would be best to avoid for now. It seemed to be keeping its eyes on the ground, searching for something.
Tailing the creature went on for some time, weaving its way above the canopy until it finally spotted whatever it was looking for. It dove beneath the trees and Twilight followed, keeping a good distance away and noting its behavior. Hopefully it was headed home, where she could approach it peacefully and openly
Instead, the griffon landed in a clearing that was dotted with flowers and tall wild grass. Twilight perched in a tree above it, pushing the bristly branches away with her magic to get a better view.
The griffon, now not a little speck she was following from half a mile away, was a brown and white blotch in the almost perfect serenity of the wild field. It’s head stayed on a swivel, those beady bird eyes absorbing everything around it. Twilight only buried herself deeper in the tree to hide her particularly pastel purple from view, hoping the greenery would be her friend.
The hybrid cat-bird was just standing there, alert and on edge, it’s head rotating slowly. Surely it had spotted her and was just looking for the pony princess that was tailing it now. That had to be it, her cover was blown.
Just as Twilight was about to reveal herself to the griffon, she spotted something moving through the tall grass. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it was parting the grass wherever it went, and was slowly moving towards the griffon’s backside.
Twilight’s mind raced, what preyed on Griffons in Griffonia? Mountain Lions? Cougars? Wolves? She couldn’t let this thing pounce on the poor bird like that, she had to do something!
“Watch out!”
The head of the hybrid swiveled in an instant towards her, pupils dilating to take up most of its eye. Twilight launched out of the tree she was hiding in, right in the direction of the griffon. Her horn lit up and she pointed it at the thing in the grass, charging up a concussive spell to just get whatever it was away. Everything moved in slow motion in the next few seconds; the griffon flared its wings and started to move away from the advancing threat, and whatever was preying on it leapt from the grass. Twilight couldn’t get a good look at it as her bolt of magic hit it dead on and sent it tumbling through the grass.
She landed, her hooves skidding across dirt as her horn smoked with excess energy. The alicorn panted and huffed, sweat dappling her brow as she narrowed her eyes and focused on where the unknown creature disappeared.
The tall grass shook for a moment, before something stepped forward and into view.
Twilight couldn’t seem to focus on the thing in front of her. Her eyes refused to stay on it for more than a few seconds, but she didn’t want to let it out of her sight.
It had too many eyes, and they were too big. They took up too much of the thing’s head as well. The number and shape of its limbs morphed and changed by the second and made it difficult to keep track of. The borders of it shimmered and looked permeable, the air and things around it regularly deformed and made it impossible to truly get a feel for what it looked like.
Her head began to throb in pain the more she tried to focus on it and determine what it really was. The baseline she could gather is that it was vaguely canine shaped. Why did the eyes keep moving and changing? How many teeth did it have? Rows upon rows of every kind of appendage and feature, all moving and writhing around the ever-changing borders of the beast.
It snarled and growled, the noises sounding both distant and inescapable. It only made Twilight’s head ache even more. Just the mere presence of this thing brought pain somehow. She closed her eyes and charged up her horn, firing a couple of blasts into the general direction of whatever that thing was.
The lances of purple magic didn’t hit the aberration, nor did they even scare the thing. Instead it leapt at the pony with it’s ever-changing amount of legs. She felt pressure on both of her wings and on her stomach as it pinned her to the ground.
Finally she had to open her eyes again, the form of the borderless beast towering above her. The shifting eyes all seemed to focus on Twilight, every single one of them splitting and producing more and more eyes with increasingly expanding pupils until the full form of it was covered with glaring orbs.
The alicorn could feel her mind shrinking away, the throbbing in her skull reaching a fever pitch as it stared at her. The face of the thing split horizontally, revealing an endless pit that spilled the light of the cosmos onto the pony’s face.
Twilight couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t look away from the creature’s throat as more and more of that ethereal light bathed her form. Memories came up and left in an instant, ones she wasn’t even trying to recall. It started from her shipwreck, then went backwards. Every single moment of her life was dragged out of her mind and exposed to the pit.
This went on for an eternity, things ripped out of her mind and tossed back as every part of her being started to melt. The ‘mouth’ finally closed, and the creature slowly stepped off of her and bounded away.
The sound of branches cracking and leaves rustling accompanied the gradual lessening of the pain in Twilight’s head, finally letting Twilight close her eyes again. Her vision swam behind her eyelids as everything started to readjust to normal once again. After a few minutes she let her eyes open to the world beyond once more.
She looked to the griffon, who still stood in a wide stance with its eyes focused on her. Twilight opened her mouth to ask if the creature was okay, but her vision began to swim again, this time much worse than the first. The combination of exhaustion from flying all day and the shipwreck finally taking its toll on her body. The alicorn’s mind finally gave way from the assault, and her world faded into darkness.
====
Twilight groaned as she opened her eyes again, regretting her seemingly new habit of passing out and waking up in strange new places. Now, judging by the ceiling alone, she was in a house and at least on a bed. So at least it was an upgrade to the beach.
Slowly, her hooves found purchase on the mattress beneath her, stuffed with straw to the point of almost being comfortable. The soreness and pain from before she passed out hadn’t relented yet, instead the toll on her muscles only catching up with her more after rest. Her wings ached and her head pounded almost as much as they did before.
The late day sun shone through a nearby window, casting long shadows over the entire small room she found herself in. There was a chest of drawers near the bed, a glass of water set atop it. Other than that, there was really nothing of note in the room. Some discarded clothes and an empty picture frame on the wall as well but nothing to identify the occupant.
Twilight assumed the water was for her and lit up her horn, a simple levitation spell being about all she could handle at the moment. The water was about room temperature, not that refreshing but still welcome nonetheless. She guzzled down the water, drinking down the entire glass in a few seconds. She took deep breaths after, letting her eyes rest for a moment.
“You are awake.” The voice came from the direction of the door, heavily accented and masculine. She opened her eyes to see the griffon from the clearing, the one she had stalked for the better part of the day, standing in the door.
“Oh, yes.” Twilight cleared her throat and gave the best smile she could. She knew that she didn’t look as regal as she would like at the moment, but she could at least be cordial. “Thank you for bringing me to your home. I-” Twilight debated telling this creature about her predicament and decided in favor of it. “-was in a shipwreck. I washed up on shore and was looking for my crew or help.”
“What were you doing in griffon waters?” There was something off about his voice, Twilight couldn’t place it. While she wasn’t the best with gauging social cues, she knew that something was off. He was too stiff, his eyes looking somewhere slightly above her head and not directly at her. Then there was the dry, inflectionless way he spoke.
“I received a summons from the King. We were headed to Gull along the coast from Equestria and a storm caught us.” There wasn’t much hiding the fact that she wasn’t a normal pony, every creature in the world knew what a horn and wings meant on a pony. Trying to deceive this griffon could only bring her trouble.
“The Father wants to meet you, pony.” The sudden change in conversation gave Twilight a bit of social whiplash. She blinked and looked at the griffon, hoping to find a shred of context in his big yellow eyes. Instead she only found the same disinterested glazed over look he wore since he opened the door.
“Who?” Twilight questioned, her head cocked to the side. Father could mean this griffon’s actual paternal parent, a rarity in their culture to know one if not both of their parents. Or he could mean a religious figure, but Twilight wasn’t aware of any religious followings among the griffons. They were a simple, spartan race that focused on self-reliance and stories of heroism rather than religious myths.
“The father. He waits. Come.” The simple statement was punctuated by the griffon turning around and leaving the room, not waiting for another question from the pony in the bed.
Twilight scrambled to her hooves, the intense swimming in her head making her stumble as she stood. The sensation left her as quickly as it arrived, the water doing something good for her condition for now. After a deep breath she followed the beast into the room beyond.
The house consisted only of the bedroom and this one other room, which contained a desk, a fireplace and a set of shelves taking up an entire wall. The scent of dried spices filled the stale air, having not been used in quite some time it seemed.
“They wait outside.” Was the only order she was given, her savior simply pointing a raggedy talon at the front door. Wings twitched nervously on her back as she looked towards the door, wondering just who ‘they’ were.
“O-okay…” Twilight uttered with the most confidence she could muster, which wasn’t that much at the moment. The distance with which her griffon host spoke only served to sqwindle that confidence even more. There was something wrong here, she could feel it in the very air. The answer to what exactly it was laid outside of the door and with whoever this ‘Father’ was. She trudged forward, placing a hoof on the door and shoving it open.
Outside, the sun hung low in the sky. The clouds overhead were painted with beautiful shades of pink and orange and the smattering of buildings cast elongated shadows upon the dirt ground. If it weren’t for the locals, it might be a picture perfect moment.
About a dozen or so griffons milled about the cluster of buildings erected on dirt. Their eyes carried the same glazed over indifference that her host had. On top of that, they all looked partially emaciated; skin sticking to their ribs and missing patches of feathers around their head. If she didn’t know any better, it seemed like a city besieged.
The faint noise of an organ pierced the air of the village as well. It wasn’t really a tune, either. Just a constant droning of eerie organ sounds. It added yet another layer of dreariness to the already miserable atmosphere.
Two griffons approached her, both glad in rusted metal armor and carrying aged and dull halberds. They looked healthier than the others, but not by much. They stepped towards her, both speaking in concert in the same droning tone.
“Move. To the church.”
That’s when the building they were talking about caught her attention for the first time. Shrouded within a copse of trees, an old wooden spire rose above the town. A bell could be seen gleaming in the evening sun, hanging in the belfry and looking ready to ring.
A handle to her side got her moving. The aggressiveness of the guards caused her to feel less like a visitor and more like a prisoner. Now knowing her position and her current physical state, she couldn’t exactly argue. Going along with these two and speaking to this ‘Father’ was her best bet.
The trek through the griffon village was short, but depressing. The air itself seemed saturated with an intense feeling of dread and sadness. Colors seemed drained of their vibrancy, making everything look a shade of gray or brown. It all weighed so heavily upon the soul of the Princess of Friendship. Seeing a place so sad and in need of the magic she could provide just made her heart ache.
Even as they made their way towards the church, they were met with no curious looks or lengthy gazes. The depleted citizens simply went about their day, which was to say they wandered around aimlessly.
Soon the trio were at the doors of the decrepit church, the gray wood peeling and splintering away. That nervous feeling that had been building in her gut since her host back in the house spoke only increased in intensity. This Father figure was inside, and she wasn’t sure if she was prepared to meet him.
Twilight entered the church, old doors creaking as they were pushed open by the two griffons accompanying her. She stepped in, the organ music she had been hearing throughout the town coming to a crescendo in the supposed holy place.
Rows of pews split by a ruby red carpet lay in front of the Princess, at the end was the organ in question with a cloaked figure playing the dirge that haunted the town. Other than the bright carpet and the organ, the rest of the building was plain and humble. Wooden pews, handcrafted and well worn, and windows that let the early afternoon light flow into the room in volumes.
The scent of stale air and copper saturated the place, making the pony scrunch up her nose as she stepped inside. Her hooves caught on rough wood floors, very out of place compared to everything else. The wood was old, haphazardly placed down and not as refined as the spots around it. The more she looked around, the more of this she saw. Age had taken its toll on the building.
Twilight pushed any thoughts out of her mind and gave her head a little shake, forcing a pleasant smile onto her face. She was here to solve a problem, whatever it may be! She had to make a good first impression on this Priest, the one she had only been told is called ‘Father’.
“Go.” Both of her escorts ordered simultaneously in their droning voices.
So the alicorn went. She trotted down the carpet, that faux smile on her face. It slowly began to fade as she got closer, to be replaced with the expression of confusion mixed with curiosity. The sun shone around the figure playing the organ, reflecting on what looked to be thin metal wires coming from behind the instrument and going into the cloak.
There weren’t just a few either, there were dozens of these wires.
She stopped dead, maybe six feet away from the Father. Her eyes darted around the organ and the figure, her brain trying to piece together what was happening before she dared venture closer.
“I feel your eyes on me, Child…” Father spoke, his voice deep and raspy but layered with something else...something unnatural. It sent chills up Twilight’s spine and made every hair on her body stand on end. Ancient prey instincts fired up and told her to turn tail and run now, but she didn’t listen.
The Father turned towards Twilight.
She regretted not running.
Under the cloak was what had once been a griffon. Large patches that had once been covered by feathers and fur were bare, tumorous growths sprouting up and bulging outwards. His claws, now shining and metallic, spasmed and twitched. But his face...missing an eye, skull exposed to the air and those metal wires digging deep into skin.
“What…” Was all that Twilight managed to get out, her stomach churning the longer she looked at him. She didn’t know if he was alive or not, but if he was it wasn’t through any natural or magical means.
“I am the Father.” It spoke again, it’s beak opening awkwardly when forming each word. “That is the name they gave me.” That beak clicked and twitched, never fully closing and never truly stopping. The whole body was like that, always twitching and moving..never a moment of stillness.
“Are you...the griffon? Or something else?” Twilight was forcing herself to speak to this monster, her curiosity beating out her terror for the time being.
“Something else…” The creature responded, the beak clicking. “I use this body. A tool. Given to me by them.”
Whatever was in the organ was using this poor griffon as a puppet, only talking through him.
Twilight hoped it wasn’t painful, but she knew it was.
