Author's Note

Since this chapter is similar to one from the Endings and Beginnings story, I decided to release it early.

2: Second Adjustments

Friday, October 15, 1007 A.L., Gryphonia

It was just past three in the afternoon that October afternoon when an exhausted Gregory walked into his camper. Beside him, an equally exhausted Gabby barely had the strength to trudge into the camper beside him. Fortunately, it was the weekend and the two had the next two days off. They both walked over to the couch and collapsed onto it, both sighing at the same time. Gregory on the right and Gabby on the left. Gabby leaned against him, taking in a deep breath and exhaling once more.

Gregory couldn’t really blame her for being so tired. Ever since the news came in about the invasion of Canterlot and the complete and total destruction of Ponyville, the post office had been run ragged. It had gotten so bad that after only two days of Gabby being run ragged, Gregory decided not to wait a week and instead go in that next day, Wednesday, and start training to help. Not even Gregory was sure what was happening, and he’d been one of the sorters in the main mail room. He knew that Geoffrey had sent out a few letters to Equestria, more specifically to Princesses Celestia and Luna, but there had yet to be a reply from either of them. There had been more letters sent out to the changeling territory, mostly to one Emperor Jason Wright, with a few to Queen Chrysalis as well, but those had been returned with harshly handwritten notes on the envelopes that just read RETURN TO SENDER.

It had been such a busy two and a half weeks that Gregory had very little time to think about what had happened to Equestria. He asked his boss for extra hours in the hopes that he could earn more money to get a train ticket to Equestria to try and help, only to be told that the train to Equestria was being stopped at the border for any non-pony for an indefinite period.

So, for the next two and a half weeks, he’d focused more on his job, although he’d had to mentally focus harder than he ever had to, mostly because he felt himself going through the five stages of grief. Grief for the ponies he’d hoped to visit, and grief for their loss. Gabby had tried to be supportive of him despite not knowing the cause, and he was truly grateful to her. But he wasn’t ready to talk about it.

The Wednesday that marked the start of his first day, he woke up from his patchy sleep completely angry. He held it in, however, as he wanted to make a good first impression for his new coworkers. That didn’t stop Gabby from noticing his behavioral shift later that day. During their lunch break, she’d pulled him aside and asked what was wrong, but he just told her not to worry about it and that he would be alright. She didn’t seem too happy to hear that, but she accepted it regardless. In a way, she reminded him of Pinkie, and he wondered what she was thinking about all this. If he had to guess, she would be in her darker Pinkamena persona. The others were probably just as distraught at having lost their town and livelihoods to a monster in human form.

His anger stretched into Thursday and lasted until Friday afternoon. Gabby wisely stayed out of his way as he held the anger back while at work, but after work that first week he had gone to the outside of the city to scream into the Abysmal Abyss in an attempt to get all of his anger out of him. It had worked only for a couple hours each time, only for the anger to return in full force. Anger directed at mostly this other human who had destroyed everything he’d hoped to see. The human who had attacked an innocent race for seemingly no reason. He had particularly dark thoughts that first week, thoughts that he had never had before. Murderous thoughts.

It was during those screaming moments on Friday, September 24th, after his shift where he screamed for so long that Gabby had finally had enough and pulled him away from the edge, yelling at him in terror. It was at that moment that his anger vanished, only to be replaced with a heavy feeling of depression as he finally broke down and sobbed hard. Gabby had immediately hugged him close, allowing him to bury his face in her plumage as she ran her talons through his hair gently, trying to soothe him as best she could.

When Saturday came around, he began feeling his anger ebb away, only to be replaced with a strange feeling of worry and fear for the future. He was afraid that if the gryphons found out that Jason was a human like him that he’d be considered an enemy and locked up simply for being the same species. And part of him wondered if he could blame them for reacting that way. After all, how was he any different from Jason? He couldn’t explain why, but he felt like he was blaming himself for something that was clearly not his fault. But as he’d learned throughout his life, emotions aren’t rational.

Unfortunately for him, those feelings only lasted for the weekend before a heavy weight felt like it was pressing down on him. The feeling of being overwhelmed and hopeless struck him with full force in the middle of his second Monday shift. He could barely concentrate on his work and had to constantly pinch himself so he could concentrate on the job. He had to force himself to wash himself and even to eat to keep up his strength despite it making him feel nauseous.

Fortunately for him, nobody seemed to notice his behavior except, of course, for Gabby. She tried a couple times to get him to open up, but he was still not ready to talk to her about it. He would sometimes hide from everyone during his breaks to cry and let the emotions flow away, and it helped for a time. He didn’t even want to leave the house for that week unless it was for work. Gabby was patient with him, but Gregory continued to struggle. He was afraid, too. Afraid that Gabby would think less of him if he told the truth. Or worse yet, be afraid of him.

As Gregory looked down at his friend, he had an epiphany. He’d been the one who wanted to use that mishmash of technological parts he’d found on the Dark Web to create the portal to come to Equestria. He’d been the one who wanted to abandon his life on Earth to come see his favorite ponies and befriends them. Now he needed to be the one to accept things as they were. One of his favorite songs had said it best. “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see. Que sera, sera.”

Gabby, who had been spending time with him in his camper for the past few days and only going home to sleep, looked up at him and her turquoise eyes widened when she saw the expression on his face. “Gregory, your face…it looks better.”

“I…yeah, I’m feeling a little bit better than before,” he admitted as he turned to face her fully. The two were sitting outside the camper, enjoying the cool autumn evening air and sunset to their right. Gabby did the same, sitting on her haunches as she faced him as well. “I’m not back to one hundred percent yet, but I think I’ll be fine eventually.”

“Are you ready to talk about it now?” she asked in a small but hopeful tone. “It’s fine if you’re not, but…”

“No, I think I’m ready to give it a try, at least,” he said, and he meant it. He knew that the Gabby from the show and the Gabby he knew now were similar enough that he could at least trust her. Even if she didn’t want to be his friend anymore-

He reached up and smacked his cheeks, getting rid of the lingering depressing thought. This startled Gabby who moved closer. “What did you do that for?!” she asked in alarm.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said with a self-deprecating smile, “just trying to knock some sense into myself.” He swallowed, then took a deep breath and exhaled before facing her once more. “Okay, I’m ready now.”

“I’m all ears,” Gabby said sincerely.

To even his surprise, the words just came tumbling out of him faster than he could comprehend. He told her that the moment he’d heard the name Jason that he associated it with a human name. He mentioned that he had so desperately wanted to meet the ponies of Ponyville, but when he’d heard about this other human’s invasion, he felt angry, ashamed, afraid, every gamut of negative emotions. The more he talked, the more he felt his emotions rising back to the surface, but in a way that felt more freeing than anything he’d felt in the past two weeks. The words kept on coming out of him, and soon he realized that he was very close to revealing the whole truth to her. The truth about My Little Pony and where he was actually from.

When he clammed up, Gabby looked at him worriedly. “Gregory? What’s wrong?”

He inhaled and blew out from his mouth slowly. If he wanted to really make friends in this world, he had to at least trust someone. Slowly, he pulled out his cell phone. “There’s something I’ve been hiding ever since I got here,” he admitted, “but it’s something that I’ve been too afraid to tell anyone.”

Gabby smiled sincerely at him. “Silly Gregory, we’re friends now,” she said with a tender tone. “You can trust me with your secrets.”

“Even if it means bringing your entire worldview into question?” Gregory asked in an attempt to make sure she understood the gravity of the situation. He was actually considering telling Gabby about what her world really was, or at least, what he thought it had been before finding the instructions for creating a portal on the Deep Web. He half expected nothing to happen when he’d first tested it, of if it did work he thought he might end up in someplace like the Backrooms, but when his first test was not only successful, but had brought back images of a real life Ponyville onto his camera which he’d stuck through on a tripod and set with a timer, he’d been incredibly excited.

He’d spent the next year and a half purchasing things he would want to take with him, downloaded hundreds of books which he put on multiple kindles, put every single episode of the show on his phone and laptop, settled any kind of matters he had, upgraded his car to a tough truck, bought a camper trailer, started buying a few guns and ammo (he wasn’t stupid and knew he needed ways to defend himself) then on the last day he was on Earth, donated all but a hundred dollars to a few different charities. The rest of his money he took with him more as a keepsake than anything else.

“What do you mean?” Gabby asked cautiously.

“I mean, what if I told you something that made you question your very existence?” Gregory asked.

She tilted her head in a remarkably birdlike manner before she chuckled. She reached out and pinched his arm gently. When he flinched as he felt the pain, she said, “I exist, see? You exist, too. I promise, no matter what you show me, I’ll be alright. That’s a Gabby Guarantee.” She gave Gregory a thumbs up and a wide smile.

Gregory couldn’t help it. He chuckled. She was a lot like Pinkie, but at the same time she was her own being. He slowly unlocked his phone. “You’re incredible, Gabby. You were always my favorite gryphon in the show.”

“Show? Favorite gryphon? What do you mean?” Gabby asked, tilting her head again.

Gregory said nothing as he scrolled through his phone until he found the episode he wanted to share. He clicked on it, scrolled to the appropriate scene and unmuted the video. Holding it up behind the couch so they both could watch, he hit play.

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders! I can’t believe it’s really really you! Ha ha, hahahaha!”

“This…gryphon…not cranky!”

“How in the bloomin’ apples did you know who we are?”

“Know who you are? KNOW WHO YOU ARE?! Why, I’ve heard about you from everypony in Ponyville! I’m so excited to meet you, I could just EXPLODE! I’m Gabriella, but you can call me Gabby since we’re friends now. Pleased to meetcha!”

When Gregory hit pause and looked back at Gabby, she was staring wide eyed at the miniature screen. There was a look of disbelief in her eyes as she followed said screen which Gregory was pulling away. When he turned the screen off, the spell was broken and Gabby blinked. She looked back at Gregory. “What…did you just show me?” she asked breathlessly. “I never said that…and who are the Cutie Mark Crusaders? But that’s my voice…it has to be!”

When he heard the fear in her voice, he felt a lump in his throat, but he soldiered onwards. “What I’m about to tell you is one hundred percent the absolute truth. Please believe me, please.”

Gabby stared at him for a little while before straightening, taking a deep breath, exhaling, then facing him with a serious expression. “I’m listening,” she said in an incredibly serious tone.

Gregory carefully began to explain where he was from. How back on his actual world there was technology like this that could show images and videos. How there was one show about ponies in Equestria that until recently even he had believed was just a fictional story. How he had discovered a means to travel from his world to this one to meet with the characters he loved as well as simultaneously trying to find a better life in Equestria. How something on his end must have gone wrong and how he’d foolishly not put a camera through during his crossing over to check for dangers and how he’d fallen. “And, well, you know the rest,” he said quietly.

“I…I don’t…I just…fuck…” Gabby was saying.

He was completely blind sighted by her use of the F-Bomb, but he could hardly blame her. He’d done exactly what he’d said would happen. He’d shattered her view of herself and the world. He stood up. “I’m…gonna go for a walk for a bit and give you some space,” he said. “That okay with you?” She silently nodded, so he grabbed his noise cancelling earbuds, his phone and his jacket and walked out into the street, finding a song to listen to.

He walked down the street, looking at the dilapidated and crumbling city around him. The city itself was a marvel of engineering that he doubted humans would have ever created. Despite the city being a complete mess, the gryphons all seemed to be happier than before. Not only that, but he thought back to the past few weeks, realizing that he’d seen a few gryphons cleaning things up around their own houses, although it was more patchwork than anything else.

There was still a lot more that needed to be done, of course, and one of the biggest was their water sources, a lot of which came from wells which were all old and dirty. Not only that, but the plumbing situation was horrendous. The water that did come from the faucets that still worked was always dirty, not to mention that the pipes themselves were made out of lead. Gregory had used one of the water purification bottles that he’d brought to purify some of the cleaner looking well water. When Gabby volunteered to taste it, she’d said that it was identical to his bottled water in taste, so he hadn’t been too worried about water.

Most gryphons who passed him gave him a nod of acknowledgment, and more than a few gave him an actual smile. He knew, of course, what they called him when they thought he wasn’t listening: Bearer of the Idol, Hero of Gryphonstone, and other flowery names. Now that he had begun to accept that things in this world were nothing like how they were in the show, it felt weird to be this accepted by gryphons of all species. Then again, he reasoned that they’d lost a part of themselves when the idol was lost, and it seemed as if they’d found it again when he’d accidentally found it and returned it.

As he walked, he found that more and more gryphons greeted him with a few words. Feeling that it was rude for him to just nod and greet them without hearing what they had to say, he stopped the music, took his earbuds out and put them back in their charging case. With the noise cancelling off, he heard the sounds of gryphons around him talking and laughing with several cleaning the streets of filth and patching up their houses.

Still, even with this shift in the gryphon’s attitude, a large part of him was still worried about what Gabby would do when she was finished processing what he had just told her. He knew it was silly to think that she’d not be his friend again, but emotionally he couldn’t help but fear that.

He was so lost in thought and in taking in all the new sights before him that he nearly ran into a gryphon walking the opposite way on the street towards him. Mere seconds before they collided, he saw the gryphon and moved to the side quickly, but a bit too quickly as he stumbled over a small pile of swept up dry roof thatch. He fell onto his behind onto a small yard in front of a random house.

“Ah, sorry about that,” a familiar male voice said apologetically as the gryphon he’d nearly run into ran over and held out one of his claws towards him to help him up.

Gratefully, he reached out and took it, letting himself be pulled to his feet. “I wasn’t looking,” he said as he brushed the dirt and thatching material off of his behind. “It’s not your fault.” When he looked up at the gryphon, he almost started to gawk.

Standing in front of him, with a mildly concerned look on his face, was Gallus. The light blue gryphon before him looked a bit thin and he could even see patches on his body where no fur was growing, or at least, where they hadn’t been growing before. He thought he saw new growth there, but he couldn’t be sure. Quickly recovering from his shock, Gregory smiled. “I’m alright.”

Gallus nodded. “Well, that’s good then.” His mildly concerned look turned to one of curiosity. “Hey, I’ve seen you around with that female Gabby a lot.”

Gregory held back his true feelings and didn’t break the smile, or tried to. He was sure it fell a bit. “Yeah, she and I spend time together,” he said. “She’s like my personal guide through Gryphonstone.”

“Cool, cool,” Gallus said. Without either of them saying anything, the two began walking down the street side by side, just walking down the slight incline that led towards the main circle of the city. As they did, Gallus spoke up again. “Our city must look like shit to you.”

Gregory raised an eyebrow at that, then shrugged. “Well, it’s definitely seen better days,” he admitted, “but it’s a testament to whoever grew it that it’s still standing after so long.”

“Heh, that’s a polite way of putting it,” Gallus said with a derisive snort. “This place has gone to the dogs, and I don’t mean the diamond dogs.”

Gregory only smiled a bit, then held out a hand. “Name’s Gregory. What’s yours?”

Gallus shook his hand firmly. “Gallus. And I know who you are already. Everygryphon in the city knows your name by now, I’m sure.”

He scratched the back of his neck. It was his turn to be nervous now. “Yeah…still not quite used to that,” he admitted. “Back where I’m from, I was just another human working in some grocery store. Here? Being some celebrity? It’s a bit weird. Still not used to it, yet.”

“I can only imagine,” he said with a smirk. “Must be kinda nice.”

“Eh, I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest,” he said. “Shit just happened, and I went from nearly dying to becoming a city hero.”

“City hero? Hah! You’re a hero across the former Empire!” Gallus said with a chuckle.

“News spreads that fast?” Gregory asked.

Gallus gave him another smirk, then held up one wing. “We can fly, you know?”

“Lucky you,” Gregory shot back with a smirk of his own. “I wish I could fly.”

“It is pretty sweet,” Gallus said.

“And a bit inconvenient for me,” Gregory admitted. “This city is non-flying people impaired, if you get my meaning.”

“Ah, yeah, that must suck balls,” Gallus said with a hint of pity in his voice.

“Eh, I’m adapting for the most part,” Gregory replied.

The two continued on in silence for a bit, Gregory putting his hands in his hoodie pocket while Gallus began hovering beside him, keeping pace. Gregory fell into his thoughts again, but they now seemed clearer than they had been in the past couple of weeks. The brief conversation between him and Gallus seemed to have helped in that regard. He looked back at the young gryphon who was looking at Gregory. This caught him off guard for a bit, but he recovered and asked, “So, what do you do around town? Jobwise, I mean.”

Gallus simply shrugged. “Anything I can do to earn talons, really,” he said.

Gregory had learned from Gabby that the talon was the official currency of the continent, although they did accept bits as payment since they were a bit comparable in value, both being made of nearly the same amount of gold. “An odd-jobs guy, huh?” he said.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Gallus said.

He sounded a bit down about that, so despite his current mood, Gregory decided to give him some encouragement. “Hey, you’re earning money for yourself, and that’s honorable. Take pride in that.” He used the word pride because he knew that word was sacred to the gryphons.

Gallus didn’t reply, instead nodding and smiling a bit. The two wandered the streets after that, Gregory allowing himself to get a bit lost in the hustle and bustle of gryphons going about their afternoon, cleaning, talking, watching little gryphon cubs playing, and generally letting the hopeful faces on the vast majority of gryphons boost his own spirits. He wasn’t sure why he was walking with Gallus, but he appreciated the company.

The two had walked for about half an hour before he came upon a large destroyed building near a large intersection. Old, weather-stained papers were scattered around and there were plenty of books either falling apart or just collecting dust on exposed and rotten bookshelves where books still sat.

Gregory recognized the place instantly since he’d seen it in The Lost Treasure Of Griffonstone. The two were now standing in what remained of the Gryphonstone Library. Only, unlike how it was portrayed in the show, it was larger and dirtier than it had appeared in the episode itself. This place seemed to have been untouched for years, if not decades.

“Yeesh, this place has gone to tartarus in a handbag,” Gallus said as he picked up a book, looking at it with a scowl.

Gregory picked up a book himself, reading the title that was written in the book: Tales of Egrypt Vol 6. He reverently opened it and looked at the ancient handwritten stories briefly. He looked over where Gallus had tossed the book in his claws away. “Whoa there!” He rushed over and picked up the book that Gallus had discarded. Coincidentally, the book was the previous volume of the book in his hand.

“What?” Gallus asked, a look of confusion on his face. “It’s just some old dusty book.”

Oh, if Twilight heard that, she’d be piiiiised, Gregory thought as he looked around the area. He found a discarded shelf that was fairly empty. He gently placed the books on said shelf after dusting it clean. “Not true,” Gregory said as he picked up another book, this one titled Prideland Recipes, and held it up. “Each and every book written has some sort of value within it.”

“Even if the value is that of garbage?” Gallus asked. “All books have inside them are silly stories.”

As Gregory put the book back onto the shelf, he shook his head. “Books are very important for any sort of civilization,” he explained calmly. “They can contain anything, not just silly stories, as you call them.” He turned back and looked at Gallus. “They can contain historical records, recipes lost to time, and even-aha! Here!” He ran over to a book he had spotted and picked it up, brushing the dirt and broken wood off of it. Holding it up, he pointed to the title. “The Life, Times, and Thoughts of Emperor Gultus the Third.”

Gallus looked a bit curious now, but was probably trying hard not to look it. “Okay, so?”

Gregory shook his head. “This is a valuable piece of history,” he said while flipping carefully through said book, starting at the Table of Contents. “It can tell us things about the past that nobody was there for.”

“Again, so what?” Gallus asked.

“Hold on, I’m getting to-aha!” Gregory said again as he found what he was looking for. He quickly but carefully flipped through the book, coming to the chapter in question. He walked over and knelt next to Gallus, showing him the chapter title.

“The Third Gryphon-Dragon War and Gultus’ Thoughts,” Gallus read, which surprised Gregory a bit considering that nearly every sign he’d seen on businesses were pictographs. “I’m…still not following you here.”

“Well, my point is this: those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Gregory explained.

That seemed to catch Gallus’ attention. He looked at Gregory with a raised eyebrow. “You think we’ll go to war with the dragons again?” he asked.

Gregory almost sighed. He had part of the point, but not all of it. Then again, he reasoned that when the gryphons had been living as they had for what must have been centuries, why bother with stuff like this when things never seemed to change? “I don’t know much about gryphon history to know the answer to that,” he said. “Do you know why the gryphons and dragons went to war?”

Gallus frowned, then shook his head. “Nope.”

“Me neither,” Gregory said, “but this book might be a useful way of learning what happened and why so that it doesn’t happen again.” He stood back up and put it back on the shelf. “Does that make sense?”

“I think so?” Gallus said with uncertainty.

“Well, the point I’m making is this: don’t underestimate the power of a good book,” Gregory said as he picked up another one, brushing it clean. “Like this one.” He pointed to the title, which read The Imperial Mage. “This looks like it could be a fictional story or not,” he continued. “Reading fictional books can provide you with some entertainment. You can imagine the scenes in the book and enjoy the story within.”

“Hmm,” Gallus said, stroking his chin with his claws thoughtfully.

As Gallus sat in thought, Gregory continued his impulsive cleaning up of the scattered books. He picked up old scrolls which talked about old gryphon trade agreements with other nations, books that had recipes for every conceivable occasion, and even some old nursery rhymes for younger gryphons.

Looking around, he eventually saw a large crumbling stone statue sitting in the middle of what once had to have been the main lobby of the library. A circle of bookshelves, some still standing, some sagging from overexposure to weather, and others completely destroyed, surrounded the statue. Gregory walked up to the statue, looking at the covered face of the gryphon on it. He reached up onto his toes and gently removed the book, revealing an aged but still majestic looking gryphon face. Looking at the title of the book, he almost snorted, as the name on it read History of the Emperors of Gryphonstone.

How ironic, he thought as he set it aside gently. He then knelt down and moved the books that covered the feet of the status. As he looked, he saw that the statue itself looked like it had been buried underneath dirt, so he began to dig at it. He was rewarded by seeing that he was correct, and that there was some sort of inscription on the lower half of the statue base that was still covered.

“You find something interesting?” Gallus asked, coming over.

“Maybe. Could you help me dig this up?” he asked.

Gallus shrugged, then began using his claws to dig away at the dirt faster. Gregory tried to use his hands to dig away, but the farther down he got, the harder the soil became. Looking around, he saw a rusty discarded piece of metal which he grabbed and began jamming into the dirt to loosen it. He would then dig away the dirt with his hands before returning to jabbing the ground with the metal piece. Finally, however, the two of them reached the bottom of the pedestal and cleared away the dirt. This revealed a stone plaque with writing on it. The two of us looked at it as we read the following:

EMPEROR GROVER

FIRST OF HIS LINE

UNITER OF ALL GRYPHONKIND

“ALL KNOWLEDGE IS SACRED. I HEREBY DEDICATE THIS LIBRARY TO THE PRESERVATION OF ALL GRYPHON KNOWLEDGE. MAY IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME AND MAY ITS BOOKS BE A LIGHT AND A HELP TO FUTURE GENERATIONS WHEN ALL OTHER LIGHTS GO OUT.”

“Oh wow…” Gallus said. The young gryphon’s eyes were wide with astonishment as he mouthed the words inscribed on the statue. “I’ve never seen this before…I didn’t even know it was here.”

Gregory nodded. “This statue’s probably really old,” he said as he stood and brushed his pants off. “Looks like this library is more important than anyone here realized,” he said.

Gallus used his tail to now gently lift up a nearby thin book, looking at it with a renewed interest. “Hmm…” Without another word, he spread his wings and flew away, book in his claws still.

Instead of being insulted at Gallus not having said goodbye, Gregory felt a bit of satisfaction at having hopefully given the young gryphon a new perspective on books. He put his earbuds back in, started playing an ebook he hadn’t listened to before, then resumed what he was doing, picking up discarded books from the now open aired library, and placing them on shelves so they were at least semi-protected from the elements. He was no librarian, and if the library ever was rebuilt, he wanted them to be salvageable.

He was trying to lift a shelf that had fallen when he heard a voice calling out something from behind him. He paused his ebook and turned back to see who had spoken. With brown furred, brown winged, white plumage, gray feathers around her yellow eyes, and yellow beak and talons, there was no doubt he was looking at the infamous Gilda. Of course, he remembered his brief first meeting with her a couple of weeks prior, but since then he hadn’t seen her around. She was dragging an old rickety cart behind her with the same dry and disgusting scones she had made in the show. “Sorry, I was distracted,” he said apologetically, “what did you say?”

Gilda rolled her eyes, and in her gravely voice, simply said, “You’re gonna hurt yourself lifting that, you know.”

“Yeah, good observation,” he said as he looked back at the fallen shelf again. “Such a shame, though.”

Gilda groaned, rolled her eyes, unhitched herself from her carriage, then spread her wings and flew over to him. “On three,” she said as she reached down to grab the bottom of the shelf. Gregory reacted quickly, reaching down with her. On the count of three, the two lifted the heavy shelf off of the ground, pushing it up into a standing position. Once the shelf was stable, the two let go and Gilda looked back at him. “There. Can’t have the Idol Bearer getting hurt because he tried lifting a shelf that was too heavy for him.”

“Ah…yeah, guess not,” he said. “Thanks, Gilda.”

She turned on him suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him. “How’d you know my name?”

“Gabby told me about you on one of my first days here,” he said honestly. “I’m sure you remember me. I’m the weird human who spaced out and was staring at you.” He mentally kicked himself for his unnecessary words, feeling embarrassed.

“Yeah, I remember,” she said dismissively as she turned back to her scone cart and began setting it up. “Kinda creepy.”

“Yeah…I’m really sorry about that,” he said as he approached the cart to get a closer look at it.

“Eh, I’m over it now, don’t worry,” she said. “I was having a worse day than normal and lashed out. And it wasn’t just to you.”

“Still, it’s a bad habit of mine, and I’m still sorry.”

“You’re good.”

When he reached the cart, he saw that it was made of very old wood, the normal brown having faded to a dark and dull gray. The planks holding it together were uneven and had holes in them. The oven was made of bricks. There was a hollowed-out stone with an oven door made of a somewhat rusted metal archway on the back as well. There was small covered smokestack coming out the top of the small fire oven. Gray smoke came out of it, and he could smell something that made his stomach turn, but he didn’t show it. “Are these the gryphon scones I’ve heard so much about?” he asked, looking at the uneven display shelves on one side of the cart.

She nodded. “Yeah, they’re my specialty,” she explained casually.

“Mind if I try one?” he asked, pulling out his change purse which jingled with talons. He pulled out one and held it up.

“Knock yourself out,” she said, taking the talon from him and handing him one of the gray scones.

Learning his lesson from the episode, he broke off a small piece with a large effort and took a tentative bite. If the smell had been revolting enough, the taste was downright toxic. It was also hard as a rock. He looked at it carefully, then looked back at a somewhat expectant Gilda. “Lemme guess, no refunds, right?”

To his surprise, her eyes lowered sadly and she held out the talons he’d just given her. “Here,” she said gruffly. “Nogryphon wants to buy my scones anyway…”

Surprised by this, Gregory simply pushed her claw back. “No, keep it,” he said, “but maybe I can give you some help? I have a few scone recipes I could share with you. They’re going to waste in my care, anyway.”

“Help with what?” she asked.

“Help with making scones gryphons will want to buy,” he said. “What’s your recipe, anyway?”

“That’s a secret,” she said defensively.

Gregory raised his hands. “Okay, okay, that’s fair,” he said. “Hold on, I’ve got a few other scone recipes you can look at.” He pulled out his phone, opened the kindle app and found one of the cookbook’s he downloaded before arriving. He walked over and held it up for her to see. “See, look at this recipe,” he said. “Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cold unsalted butter, heavy whipping cream, egg and vanilla extract. And then there’s this other one.” Gregory showed her a few other recipes, then turned to her. “What do you think?” He, of course, knew the problem she was having, but he didn’t want to come off as a cooking expert. Especially since he wasn’t one.

“Is baking powder really that important to have?” she asked, sounding more curious than anything else.

“I’m no baking expert,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure it is. If I remember right, I read that it makes the scones fluffy instead of hard. Do you guys have baking powder here?”

“Yeah, but it’s expensive,” she said. “We import it from Equestria, and they hike the prices for it over there for us. One jar of the cheapest stuff is ten talons at least.”

“Jesus, that’s almost a third of a day at my job,” he said incredulously. “Does the recipe you have call for baking powder?”

“Yeah…but I’ve been trying to just improvise,” Gilda admitted. “Nothing’s worked so far.”

“Here,” he said, reaching into his bag and pulling out fifteen talons which he handed to her. “Go buy some. And keep whatever change you have left over.”

“Wait, are you sure?” she asked, looking surprised at what just happened.

“Think of it as an investment in your enterprise, Gilda,” he said with a knowing smirk. “You can’t sell these here. They’re liable to break someone’s tooth. You need the proper ingredients, That way, you can sell what you do have, then use said profits to buy more ingredients, and in the end make profit altogether. Capitalism at its finest. And if there’s one thing I’m sure you gryphons value highly, it’s the almighty talon.”

“Well, not as much as we used to,” Gilda said, “but…thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said. “Go ahead. Get those ingredients.”

Gilda didn’t need to be told twice. She hitched herself up to her cart and practically sped away towards the upper marketplace level. When she was out of sight, he turned back to the destroyed library. “Okay,” he said to himself as he walked over to a nearby table, took off his jacket, set it down, and faced the books, “I can’t let this slide. It’ll be a good distraction anyway.” And thus, he resumed to work cleaning up the books, gathering them and setting them either on shelves or in as neat of stacks as he could manage. Some of them, sadly, were damaged beyond repair, the words within faded and the pages sticking together. However, the majority were somehow still more or less in decent condition. The pages were a bit coarse, but if he was careful, he could turn the pages without breaking them.

About half an hour after he started, he heard someone land behind him and wander towards another section of the library. Turning and pausing his book again, he saw that Gallus had come back. The young gryphon was picking up a few books, dusting them off with a dirty yellow rag before placing them down as carefully as he could. His back was turned to the human, who curiously approached. “You came back?” he asked.

Gallus turned quickly when Gregory spoke, then shrugged. “Yeah,” he said in what sounded like a bored tone as he began piling books in his arms and carrying them towards the other stacks.

“Well, thank you,” Gregory said, “but what made you wanna come back and help me? Just curious.”

Gallus sighed. “That book has some good stories in it,” he said, “and I finished it pretty quickly. Besides, you gave me a lot to think about, and I’m bored. Needed something to do before I go back to my place. Exercise might do me some good, anyway.”

Gregory looked closer at the young gryphon. “I see,” he said with a frown. “Well, you shouldn’t overexert yourself. Just do what you can.”

“Hey, what’s going on over here?” an older female gryphon voice asked. She had a light maroon fur coat, the general yellow claws and beak, and white feathers on her plumage and head, albeit with a few light green ones mixed in, the same green as her eyes. She was wearing a simple greenish gray scarf around her neck and had, of all things, golden hoop earrings attached to the sides of her head where Gregory assumed her ears were. As she approached, she looked around the old library, then at Gregory. Her eyes widened. “Are you two…cleaning this up?”

“Yeah,” Gregory said. “It’s about time I did something instead of moping around at home all depressed.”

“Mind if I help?” she asked, looking at a large pile of books.

“Sure, I don’t mind, miss…?” Gregory prompted.

“Greta,” the older gryphon female said with a small smile.

“Nice to meet you, Greta,” Gregory said. “Well, if you want to help, could you start over in that pile? I’m just trying to keep the books from falling apart, and I’m not entirely sure what to do with them after they’re all stacked up and found.”

“Sure, I can do that,” Greta said, and with that she flew off towards another corner of the open-air library.

“Never seen her like that before,” Gallus said, sounding slightly surprised. And Gregory had to agree with her. If this was the same Greta that the cartoon version of Gilda said she’d known in the show, it was indeed a surprise to see her so helpful. Then again, he had to remind himself that things had changed within the gryphons. With a small smile, he put his earbuds away again and went back to work.

The sun was just beginning to set when Gregory called it for the night. In total, about twenty gryphons had joined the impromptu cleaning crew. Most were carefully stacking the books into piles, but some were actually cleaning the statue of Grover. Anyone who saw the unearthed writing seemed to regain some respect for books. The temperature was dropping fast, and Gregory had to put his jacket back on an hour before they stopped. Still, he was impressed by how much progress had been made so far. A few of the gryphons who’d arrived to help had carts with them. They would stack the books in them and would carry them to the Eyrie to keep them safer from the elements than they had been, then would come back and reload. Even Gilda helped by baking some new scones and selling them for cheap to those who were working. And with the baking powder added to the scone recipe, Gregory instantly became a fan and promised a slightly smiling Gilda to purchase any scones he wanted only from her.

As he was thanking the gryphons who had volunteered to help even when they didn’t need to, out of the corner of his eye a familiar arctic blue gryphon flying over to where he was. She had a worried look in her turquoise eyes, which turned to relief when she saw him. He continued thanking the other gryphons, then let them go. As they walked away, Gabby flew up to Gregory, looking slightly at the ground nervously. Gregory tensed up, waiting to hear just what she had to say. Neither of them spoke for a while, unable to really look each other in the eyes.

At last, Gabby spoke. “Gregory…I’m sorry.” He felt a lump rise in his throat, but when she continued, he only grew confused. “I’m sorry for how I reacted back there. I didn’t mean to chase you away from your home.”

“You didn’t chase me away,” Gregory said. “You needed time to think. We both did.”

She slowly looked up at him, some slight tears in her eyes. “I…there’s a part of me that still really doesn’t want to believe what you showed me,” she admitted, “but I know you wouldn’t lie about that.” She held out her claw. “Let’s go back to your home, Gregory. We’ve both had long days, and we should probably have some dinner then go to sleep.”

Gregory yawned and stretched, looking up at the darkening sky. “Not a moment too soon, I shouldn’t wonder,” he said. “Yeah, after the long day I’ve had? Sleep sounds perfect to me.”

“We can talk more about things tomorrow anyway with clearer heads,” Gabby said with a small smile.

Gregory returned said smile as the two began walking back towards the center of the city. “Yeah, that sounds good. I could use a clearer head.”

“Not too clear, now,” Gabby said in a slightly teasing tone as she hit his legs with her tail, “don’t want you spacing out too much now, do we?”

As the two laughed, Gregory felt his spirits lift a bit. He should have known Gabby wouldn’t have done anything to him just because of his revelations. And he felt things would be alright in the end…