Spies and Griffons

Compendum Magica Arcanum, by Star Swirl the Bearded; Translated by Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 9: Memory and Mind Spells: The methodology of memory spells is fairly simple, compared to spells dealing with reality manipulation. They require less raw power to sustain, but unlike physical spells they require a certain presence of mind; memory spells dealing with personal leyline interaction can cause confusion and schizophrenic tendencies to arise. The only remedies to the damages that can stem from these spells are willpower and intelligence.”

Whiteness. Everything was made of white light. Emerald was briefly disoriented. For a few seconds he couldn't remember where he was or how he had got there.

“I can’t ever get over how cliche this spell is,” a voice from behind him said. Emerald whipped his head around and looked at Twilight. She was sitting on a floor that blended exactly with the whiteness of the air, and her horn was glowing with purple light.

“Uhhh... what are you doing there?” Emerald said nervously, gesturing toward her horn. He had been trying his best all day to keep his uneasiness hidden, but all the weird stuff was getting to him. First the invisible camp, then the spark on Twilight’s horn, and then this.

“Just maintaining the memory spell,” Twilight said, launching into lecture mode. “The spell slowly drains power proportional to the emotions, senses, and events revealed and-” Emerald effectively stopped her by jumping a foot into the air and hovering there, waving his hooves around.

“This is the memory spell? I thought you were just going to check if I was lying!”

The mare responded annoyedly, “I am just checking. This is how I’m going to do it.”

Emerald shook his head. “I mean I thought you were going to, I dunno, point your horn at me and just magically know I was telling the truth.”

“I did say it would feel like reliving your memories. Weren't you even listening?”

Emerald was definitely not prepared for this, but he didn’t want to act oddly in front of Twilight. If she was right about the "reliving" part (and she probably was), she would see the reason for his hidden apprehension before long.

“Uhhh... Hello?” Twilight waved her hoof in front of his face. “Are you okay?”

“Totally! Completely! I guess I just misunderstood you, about the spell thingy,” he said, a little too enthusiastically. “When do we start?”

“As soon as you stop derailing my train of thought completely,” she replied. “You know, you remind me of someone.”

“Who? Is he awesome?”

“She’s a mare, and yes, she would probably describe herself as awesome,” Twilight said. “Okay, quiet now. The show’s about to start.”

Emerald looked around again, but he could still only see blankness. He glanced at Twilight, but she was obviously busy. Her horn was wrapped with three layers of magical overglow.

Suddenly, the whiteness faded, and all of Emerald’s senses dulled. Then, with a barrage of sensory information the world exploded to life around him. The air smelled of salt, the wind was cool, and the sun was shining brightly. He was standing on dark wooden planks, and the everything rocked around him.

While most of the sights around him were perfect quality, Emerald could sense a vague sort of floatiness around them. He could only focus on certain things. For instance, the boards beneath his feet were wispy and ethereal, but the snapping ropes and the mast above him were sharp and defined.

Oddly, Twilight was standing next to him.

Emerald almost asked about the problems with the memory, but Twilight beat him to it. “The memories are as perfect as they can be, but your brain can’t remember everything, so the memories are boiled down to just the important parts.”

“So is the mast ‘important?’” Emerald asked this as a joke, but Twilight took it seriously.

“Well, it must be. This is your memory,” she said.

“Ohhhh... yeah. I forgot,” Emerald pawed the vague planks below him. He couldn’t even feel the texture of the wood, even though he knew it was rough. “This is the griffon ship Bloodhold Marauder.”

“What happened here?” Twilight looked around brightly.

“Watch.” Emerald’s grim tone surprised her. She was about to ask him what was the matter, when a loud bang from the other side of the ship startled her.

She whipped around, her ears twitching to catch the sound. Emerald pointed with a hoof to a door on the lower deck towards the end of the ship. The heavy wooden door flew open, and three griffon pirates stumbled out, pulling a larger griffon through on a rug. Twilight gradually approached the four sailors. None of them acknowledged her existence in any way. Emerald remained standing where he was.

Another griffon pushed his way through the door. He was holding a bloodied cloth to his eye and he had a look of pure hatred on his face. Twilight scooted back towards Emerald from the sheer intensity of the glare.

“Is he dead?” The new griffon said this with a rough voice as he tied a bandage around his bleeding eye. The other griffons nodded viciously. “Good. Dump him overboard.” The three griffons rolled the largest griffon up in the rug and threw him over the ornate railing on the side of the ship. Twilight gasped a little at this and looked to Emerald.

“What’s happening?” Emerald guessed that Twilight had never seen a dead body treated with such disrespect before. Actually, with her sheltered lifestyle, she probably hadn't ever seen a dead body at all.

“Shhh. Just watch,” Emerald said darkly. The door opened again, and two more griffons came out, bearing a chained form between them. With a gasp, Twilight realised that it was Emerald. She looked between the two. The Emerald from the memory looked healthier and his green coat was shinier.

“Well, well, well,” said the griffon who was ordering the others around. “If it isn’t our little ‘limeback,’ scared without his captain.” The pent-up rage and fury in his voice was evident. “Not so confident now, are you?”

The memory of Emerald looked into the griffon’s eyes and spat in his face. The griffon roared and savagely backhanded the pegasus so hard that he was knocked unconscious. “Take him to the hold!” The griffons marched off to the front of ship, and as they moved out of sight behind the mast, Twilight turned to the real Emerald.

“What happened there?” She demanded this with an odd mixture of emotions in her voice. Emerald couldn’t decide if Twilight was suspicious, nauseous, or sympathetic. He decided to just go for neutrality.

“It was a mutiny. The dead griffon was my captain, before the others killed him.” His voice was sounded oddly flat, even to him. Twilight looked at him with concern.

The surroundings started to spin around them, until they coalesced to a point just behind Emerald’s vision. He turned his head to look at them, but the remained unseen. The two ponies were back in the blank white area between memories.

He sat down. “These memories are out of order. Is that normal?”

Twilight didn't answer. She knelt down in front of him and asked softly, “Are you okay?”

Emerald stood up immediately. “I’m fine.” He shook his head and looked back to Twilight. “Why are the memories out of order? Dramatic effect?” It was a weak attempt at humor, but Twilight burst out in laughter disproportionate to the funniness of the joke.

“Ummm...” she said, suddenly aware of how awkward the situation was. “Ummm... the same way your brain decides what to focus on when the spell brings back the memories, it also decides what to show first. The spell is really just a question that your unconscious mind answers, and it answers in the best way it can.”

The world spun again and exploded into light and sound. “It’s happening again,” he said. “I’m gonna get a headache if this keeps up.”

When the surroundings pulled themselves into their proper places, the two were back on a boat. It was smaller than the Bloodhold Marauder, of the Japaneighs variety. It had one large folded sail, and a round, smooth hull. Moored along beside it was a much larger ship, swarming with griffon pirates.

“It’s this way,” said Emerald as he started walking to where the two ships met with Twilight following uneasily. He heard whinnies and yells, mostly from ponies, and varied griffon war cries. As they neared the planks connecting the two ships, a barred door just astern of the main mast on the smaller ship burst open. Out came two griffons and a pony, all holding one bucking stallion between them with much effort.

The stallion could have easily been mistaken for Emerald, if not for his bright blue wings, mane, and tail. Other than that, he was the same bright green shade. He was screaming a name, over and over, “Mara! Mara!” Suddenly a griffon shot out of the sky and landed in front of him. His feathers were completely black, and he had a rapier strapped to his waist.

“Hello,” he said in a smooth accent. “I do not believe I have made your acquaintance. I am Captain Ransom.” He gave a flourishing bow.

The blue-and-green pegasus raised an eyebrow. “Charmed.” It was the same kind of response the younger Emerald had given in the previous memory: short, prideful, and conceding nothing.

The griffon captain chuckled and brought his face close to the pegasus. “I believe you know why I am here. I only need the cargo. When you give it to me, I will leave you in peace.”

“You’ll never get it. It’s not for the likes of you.”

“Oh, really? Guards, bring it up.” Two griffons came up from the hold, struggling with a huge, ornate, wrought-iron chest. The black griffon knelt down on his knees and opened the chest. It had obviously held something before because there was a depression in the red velvet interior, but now it was empty. Captain Ransom smiled and laughed. “I expected as much. You know where it is, I presume? Hidden somewhere on the ship, under lock and key?” The pegasus said nothing. “Oh, you want to play the game like this? So be it then.”

He made a gesture with his claw, and the same griffons who had brought the chests up went belowdecks again. They emerged a minute later, holding two captives; a pink and purple unicorn mare and a bright green pegasus colt, barely old enough to walk. It was obviously Emerald, and he wasn’t even bound or gagged. In fact, the griffon just set him down on the wooden planks without a second thought with his back to the mast.

The real Emerald was staring ahead grimly, eyes set.

“I thought you might need a bit of... assistance, with your choice,” said Captain Ransom with his silky smooth voice. “Let’s start with the mare.”

Twilight flinched as the first mate came up with a brazier of hot coals. Emerald watched as she huddled down and closed her eyes. She probably hadn't expected the energetic Emerald to have such a terrible past. His emotional shields prevented anypony from even suspecting that he might have dark secrets.

The screaming carried on for far too long, but when it cut off, suddenly, the stallion in his chains was quaking with rage. Emerald averted his eyes from the smoking body on the deck, but stole a glance at the younger Emerald, who was hiding in the shadow of a barrel.

“Are you ready to tell us now, my friend? We still have your son here, if you need any more help making your decision.” The griffon looked expectantly at the shivering blue-and-green pegasus.

“I-I’ll never tell you,” he said.

“Awww, such loyalty. You put your duty to Equestria even before your own family. Let’s call your bluff, shall we?” The first mate started moving menacingly towards the young colt, gradually getting closer and closer with the hot coals. The pegasus looked away, straining against his chains.

It was hard to believe. He was betraying his son. He was betraying Emerald. The real Emerald was breathing shallowly, but his eyes were riveted by the scene.

Twilight wanted to cut the spell off, but a morbid fascination held her. The first mate pulled a coal out of the brazier with a pair of tongs, and the green colt whimpered pitifully.

The green-and-blue pegasus reached a decision in his mind. Suddenly, he spun and bucked his captors with enough force to shatter bone. He leapt at the first mate and the brazier was knocked into the air, spitting fire everywhere. Emerald winced as an ember rolled along the planks to Twilight's legs, but it passed straight through them without her even noticing.

The green-and-blue pegasus screamed, “Fly, Emerald! Fly!” As he yelled, he held down the first mate as he was ripped at by savage claws. The colt edged into the open, and just as Captain Ransom dove for him he jumped into the air and rocketed away at fantastic speeds.

He was incredibly fast, even for his young age. As his father bravely distracted the griffon pirates, he spun away over the ocean. The world started to fade again, breaking at its seams.

Blank. Everything was blank. Emerald lay on a patch of whiteness suspended from nothing. He rested his head on his forelegs and closed his eyes. Twilight watched him, the visions of what she had seen still burning in her mind.

She finally gained the courage to speak. “Wh-What exactly happened there?”

Emerald paused before replying with a breaking voice. “Those ponies... they were my mother and father. They’re dead now. After I had been sold to him as a slave about four months ago, Captain Ransom made that painfully clear to me.”

“What did the griffon—Captain Ransom-want?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that it was worth killing for.”

Twilight approached Emerald and nuzzled his neck gently. He tensed up at the touch, but he didn't push her away.

“It’s happening again.”

The world swirled in place.

Again, they found themselves on a ship. It was the same ship from the first memory, the Bloodhold Marauder. The sky was dark, and the wind was bitingly cold. Griffon sailors were spinning around, trying to secure whizzing ropes and flying pieces of cargo.

A large griffon stepped out from the same door he had been dragged out of in the first memory. He was perfectly alive. He wore a pegleg and a tricorn hat, and he appeared to be enjoying the storm immensely.

“Batten down the hatches, Whisky! We need to be prepared before the real storm hits.”

“Aye-aye, Cap’n!” This was shouted by a small, windblown griffon that had happened to be in the captain’s vicinity at the time.

“Cap’n, cap’n! I’ve sighted something, out starboard!” This was shouted down by a griffon in the crow’s nest.

“Yeh what? How could you spot something in this weather?” The captain squinted upward.

“I’ve got sharp eyes, cap’n! You might want to take a look at it, sir!”

The griffon captain pulled out a spyglass and scanned the horizon. Emerald shivered and looked around. The ship was cleaner than it had been before. Probably all the saltwater and the rain had scoured the sides.

“It’s a pony! A baby pony!” The captain grabbed another griffon out of the air and shoved the telescope at his face. “Look at it! It’s a baby pony, all alone!”

Emerald knew the look on Twilight's face: it was the same reaction that many ponies had to the Captain.

“I’m goin’ to go fetch it,” the captain told the griffon he was holding to the deck. “Keep an eye on my ship, will yeh?” The griffon nodded helplessly, his wings pinned to his sides by the over-enthusiastic captain.

The captain launched himself off the ship with his powerful wings and started flapping towards the ‘baby’ pony. Twilight looked to Emerald for explanation. He looked like he had recovered somewhat. “That’s me up there,” he said with a ghost of a smile on his face. “That captain is the same one who was... killed earlier. His name’s Crazy Beak.”

Twilight smiled a bit before replying, “Well, he certainly seems... eccentric.”

Crazy Beak was on his return from the brief trip, and he was carrying the pegasus Emerald in his arms. He held the now-unconscious ‘baby’ Emerald up.  “Look what I found!”  Crazy Beak yelled to the sailor, “Take ‘im to the galley and get him dried off!”

The griffon responded quickly, happy to be out of the rain.

The world started spinning again, returning to the whiteness from before.

“I had been flying for a day and a half, when Crazy Beak took me in. I was probably four at the time, easily old enough to speak, but young enough that the memories are still fuzzy. I stayed with the crew for about fourteen years, learning from them. They became a sort of second family. But when Crazy Beak was murdered by the mutineers, they decided to cash in on the money that Captain Ransom had on my head. I guess he still had a bone to pick with me.”

“So they sold you as a slave to Captain Ransom, and you were on the Nevermore since then?” That put him at about nineteen years old, around the same age as Twilight and her friends.

“Yes.”

The whiteness started to break apart, but in a different way than before. It was spinning somehow, bending and shifting in ways that the mind should not have been able to perceive. Emerald looked to Twilight with a puzzled look in his eye. “Is it over? It hasn’t really proven that I’m not a spy.”

“Yes, it has. The spell answered my question.” She went over and stood next to Emerald. “And even if it hadn’t, I trust you now.” She nuzzled him comfortingly, and this time he didn’t tense up.

The world broke apart completely, until it was completely dark again.

Emerald felt a gentle nudge on his shoulder. “Wake up.”

“I’m awake, I’m awake.”  He cracked open his eyes and saw the wood of the desk. He lifted his head up and shook his mane. Twilight looked drained from the sustained spell. It had to have been a couple of hours at least. Emerald looked outside through a crack in the tent flaps. The sun was setting. “Wow. That took longer than I expected.” He paused in thought for a moment. “What happens now?”

“Well, your name is cleared with me, so you’re free to go.” Twilight stood up from her chair and stretched, her vertebra making popping noises as they cracked. She wanted Emerald to elaborate on what exactly had happened in the memories and fill in the gaps, but she thought it would be better to wait until he was in a better place emotionally. “Seeing as you’re currently homeless, you’re welcome to stay here in Ponyville, and we would value any knowledge of griffon pirates and culture you may be willing to give us.”

“Wow. Recruiting already? It’s a pony-eat-pony world out here,” he said with a grin. “I wouldn’t mind a job.” He got serious, and a grim look returned to his eyes. “Don’t tell anyone about what you saw. I don’t need everpony feeling sympathetic for me.”

“Don’t worry,” she replied. “I would never do that without your permission.” She looked him in the eye and said, “Still, you may want to tell somepony at some point. Keeping your feelings to yourself is never a good thing to do. You need to find some friends to confide in.”

His grin returned. “Really? I thought I just did.”

“You consider me a friend?” Twilight seemed surprised by this, but she looked pleased at the same time.

Emerald leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “This is a secret, so do you promise not to tell anyone?” She nodded uneasily. He shifted his eyes left and right before responding in a hushed tone, “I really don’t have that many friends, so I have low standards.”

Twilight laughed at this. “Shut up,” she said, obviously joking. “I’ll help you meet some real friends. I know some really nice ponies who live in Ponyville. We can head over there.”

Emerald turned serious again. “If anyone asks, I’m was just visiting Ponyville from somewhere far East. If we don’t elaborate then nopony will ask.”

“Don’t worry. You can trust me.”

"Thanks," he said. He smiled. It felt like his first genuine smile in weeks.

A sudden thought popped into his head. "I have no idea of where Blue Eyes is."

Suddenly, there was a shout from outside. "Fire! Fire on the north stands!"

Both ponies looked to each other and rushed out into the dwindling sunlight.