The Legend of Archenold

Chapter 5

The Silver Griffin

"How are you doing?" Archenold asks Derpy as she lays down in her bed still bruised from being jumped.

"I'm doing better." Derpy reports as she moves her head to look at Archenold. "Thanks for tending to me."

"Any time." Archenold replies with a smile.

"You should meet my daughter sometime. She's just as nice as me." Derpy suggests.

"I was hoping to. Seeing how you treated me, I thought your daughter would be just as nice. Dinky, was it?" Derpy nods yes. "You know what I don't get?"

"What?"

"How they call her the Silver Griffin when she isn't even a griffin." Archenold replies still puzzled at the thought.

"Sometimes, there are things in this world that just cannot be answered." Derpy responds sagely. "Hey, could you help me to the dining car?" Derpy asks with a stomach growl following afterwards. Archenold helps Derpy out of bed, supporting her as she leans on him trying to keep balance. They head towards the dining car where they are served a nice breakfast full of exquisite foods and fancy assortment, all of which consists of a vegetarian's diet. The two enjoy their meals, when Archenold notices something that disturbs him.

"That... That older pony. She's been watching me this whole time. I feel uncomfortable." Archenold informs tilting his head to a wrinkly old pony who had her eyes turned towards him.

"Yeah. I noticed to. Creepy, right?" Derpy responds as she finishes her meal. "Wow. I'm stuffed. I need to get this recipe sometime! Although, I still think muffins are better." As if a response to the statement, the waiter hands Derpy a plate with a muffin on it.

"Compliments to those farm ponies over there." The waiter says tilting his head towards Apple Jack and Big Macintosh who are sitting at a table chuckling. This makes Archenold laugh a little as well.

"Wow! Thanks!" Derpy thanks as she digs into her muffin. The waiter heads off to take more orders for other ponies. Derpy finishes her muffin and lets Archenold help her back to her bed.

"You stay here and rest, okay? I have to use the bathroom." Archenold lies. Derpy nods in acknowledgement and turns toward the wall. Archenold leaves the room to find that older pony. He searches everywhere, but doesn't find her.

"Who ya lookin fer?" AJ asks Archenold when he bumps into her accidentally.

"A creepy old pony who has been staring at me during breakfast." Archenold replies giving AJ a puzzled look. He walks past her to continue searching, when he notices sompony else staring at him. "Hey. What are you staring at?" Archenold interrogates. The pony doesn't respond. "You able to talk?" Still no response. Archenold's suspicion rises. "Seriously? No answer? what are you, mute?" The pony slowly nods yes. Archenold doesn't buy it.

"Ok fine. I can talk." The mare responds finally.

"O...k, so, you haven't seen an old pony around here staring at me, have you?" Archenold replies suddenly a bit weirded out.

"Can't say that I have. Why, is the Black Hoof after a dangerous pony or something?" The mare asks. Archenold stares.

"And how the hay do you know about the Black Hoof? More specifically, why would you ask that question in the first place?" Archenold interrogates with his wings starting to rise in a position of offense. The mare surveys the area for a second the responds.

"Come with me to my room. It's more secure there." The mare walks off towards her room with Archenold following behind, still suspicious. Archenold enters the room and looks back to see the mysterious mare looking around quickly before closing the door. "Okay, so you have questions and I got answers. For the main question floating about in your head right now, I am in league with the Silver Griffin. I supply her with intel on special targets and supply her with all these kinds of weapons." The mare smashes a button on the wall next to the door to activate some machinery. Archenold's jaw gapes open as he sees beds replaced with surfaces assorted with nasty weaponry such as bi-claws, tri-claws, assault rifles, pistols, tactical knives, magazines for all the guns, along with heavily plated armor. Not to mention a couple of add-on goggles painted silver. "That along with this extra button to supply my favorite candy cane even though it isn't anywhere near Hearth's Warming." She pushes another button and holds out her hoof as a compartment opens up on the other side of the room and launches a candy cane at her. She catches it and unwraps the plastic to start eating it. Archenold just stares at the scene before him. He then breaks the awkward silence after a couple minutes.

"So, this whole room right here is pretty much a safe-house?" The mare nods as she she continues sucking on her candy cane. Archenold observes the equipment further noticing the hi-tech attachments to each of them. "Damn. That's some pretty serious weaponry for one pony." Archenold comments as he heads to some equipment closer to where the mare is.

"Hay yeah. I mean, why wouldn't an assassin or mercenary need lesser equipment?" The mare asks rhetorically.

"So, where is this Silver Griffin anyways?" Archenold asks in curiosity spiking the mare's suspicion. The mare presses the previous button again, hiding all the weapons. She takes the candy cane out of her mouth, sucked on so much it started to form a sharp tip at one end of it.

"Why would you want to know?" Archenold cant gather the right words to answer. After a small moment of silence, the mare holds Archenold against the wall and attempts to stall him by stabbing his eye with the candy cane, only for Archenold to grab hold of her hoof and knock the candy cane away. Being caught off guard, the mare trips Archenold. Taking advantage of her time, she runs to the window, bursting through it while grabbing onto the top of the window, flipping herself up onto the roof. Archenold hurries up and follows after her.

"Get back here!" He shouts after her as he lands on the roof. He gives chase as the mare  runs towards the front of the train. Occasionally, he jumps over a few signs and lights in his path. He soon comes across this one structure just low enough for him to slide under. He slides on his back, head flying backwards as he attempts to dodge the obstacle, only for it to impact his nose with great force. He pushes the pain aside and keeps pursuing the mare. He is just about to get her when she jumps down between the next two train cars and enters the train in a hurry. Archenold continues on, running after her. He is about to burst through the door when it opens outwards towards him, causing him to fly off the train. He gets back on quickly using his wings to fly back on the train. He then jumps down between the next two train cars as a door opens with a surprised look. "Surprise, mother bucker!"

The mare immediately turns around and rushes through the kitchen again, grabbing a bottle of cooking spray. As Archenold runs after her bumping past a few chefs who shout at him angrily, the mare throws the cooking spray against the wall next to a stove causing it to spray potentially causing fire to fly at him. He dodges the attack by sliding on his back again, this time unscathed. He then jumps up afterwards to dodge a knife being thrown at him. Giving up, the mare moves on to the next train car. Archenold bursts through the next doors to find himself in a storage room. He immediately hides behind a metal office desk as he sees the mare equipped with an automatic rifle.

"Try getting me now!" The mare taunts. Archenold starts thinking quickly as he hears her hoof steps coming closer and closer. He then sees a fire extinguisher. Perfect! He waits for her to get into place before pulling out the pistol he stole earlier and shooting the extinguisher causing it to implode, sending the mare flying in the opposite direction from the extinguisher. The mare flies into a cardboard box full of mines. Hearing beeping, the mare panics, when Archenold grabs her by the shoulder and pulls her behind the metal desk, safe from the blast, if not bruised a little from the metal desk launching towards them with some force.

"I'm guessing this is one of the safe-houses too?" Archenold holds the mare into a threatening position of an impending neck snap. "Now tell me who you really are!" He interrogates, tightening his grip starting to choke the mare a little.

"Okay! Okay! just... *cough* let go!" The mare pleads for her life. Archenold lets go of the mare letting her collapse to the ground to catch her breath for a minute. After gathering her breath, she gets up, coughs, then looks Archenold straight in the eye as her gets up to meet her at eye level. Then, she takes a hoof and reaches just above her neck, pressing an invisible button. Her disguise flashes blue for a second before disappearing to reveal a pony in a heavily armored black suit with the familiar silver goggles add-on. She then takes off the mask and the goggles to reveal her face, causing Archenold to go wide-eyed in astonishment. Before him is a more purple unicorn with a blonde mane and tail, looking rather similar to Derpy, about his age. "I'm the Silver Griffin."

"Oh...my...Celestia..." Archenold says breaking another moment of silence.

"I know. Mom would be so bucking pissed if she knew. I never wanted anyone who knew mom to ever find out my secret. Well, I guess you can go tell her now." Dinky slumps to the floor in defeat. "I feel so awful right now." She admits.

Archenold takes a think about what he should do.

"Y...You know, she was going to find out sooner or later." Dinky looks up, still saddened. Archenold stares into her her pretty amber eyes, trying to think further. He then comes to a decision after his stomach growls. "Tell you what. I'll decide what to do over lunch. I'm getting hungry. If you want to join me, I suggest you put on that disguise again. I don't want you getting into more trouble until I've come up with my decision." Archenold decides.

"Right." Dinky puts her mask on and activates her disguise turning herself into a different mare than before.

"Let's..." He hears the sound of the authorities arriving. "Let's go back on the roof." They both head out the back door just in time as the guards investigate the scene. They silently get onto the roof and sneak past the guards from above until they get to a section where they wouldn't be suspected. Soon enough, they sit down at the dining tables to eat some lunch. They both just go with a simple dandelion sandwich.

They both eat their food in silence when it comes, saving their drinks.

"So, where did that gun come from? It sounded way too powerful to have been bought at a conventional gunsmith." Dinky asks curiously.

"Stole it from the Black Hoof. You know, before I escaped in the trash pits." Dinky nods in acknowledgement.

"Quite a nasty pistol that is. Why didn't you just use your bow?"

"Because despite the force this bow could give upon the target, the arrows I have are only sharp enough to pierce flesh and wood. Not metal. If you want to take a look at the design, go ahead." Archenold offers.

"Could I?" Archenold takes off his bow and gives it to Dinky who examines it. "Y...You think you could teach me archery sometime?" Dinky asks causing Archenold to raise an eyebrow.

"You need archery lessons? I thought you would know." Dinky shakes her head no as she hands back the bow.

"I only trained myself with guns and tactical pursuit. Not older weapons." Dinky confesses.

"I see... I might take up on that offer." Dinky raises an eyebrow.

"I thought you had to figure out what to do with me first." Archenold just smiles.

"Yeah, I decided not to get you into trouble. You...almost seem just like your mother. Too nice to be in trouble." Archenold replies causing Dinky to shift her gaze to the floor with a small blush.

"Thanks." She then looks up to notice Derpy coming into the room. Archenold looks back and notices her as well.

"Good thing you have a disguise option on that suit of yours." Archenold looks back at Derpy and waves at her.

"Hi, Archenold!" Derpy greets with a big smile on her face in her usual cheery mood. "Who's your marefriend?" She teases.

"Oh, come on. Just because a mare happens to be nice enough to join me for lunch, doesn't make her my marefriend." Archenold responds.

"Yeah, I'm just messing with you." Derpy admits.

"I see you're doing better. A lot better." Archenold observes. Derpy flutters her wings in happiness.

"Yeah! My legs and hooves feel refreshed." Derpy replies with glee.

"You friends with Archenold here?" Dinky asks trying not to be seen as an anti-social stranger.

"You have no idea! He saved my life!" Derpy answers proudly.

"They were just a group of thugs beating you up. I highly doubt they would have taken your life." Archenold argues.

"It felt like they were going to." Derpy responds with her wings lowering as her smile fades in remembrance of the traumatizing event.

"Well, good to know any friend of Archenold's is doing just fine." Dinky then takes the last bite out of her sandwich and gets up from the table. "Well, I'll be off now. Nice meeting you two. Archenold, if you ever want to talk again, you know my room number." Dinky offers.

"Right. See ya." Archenold waves by to Dinky as she heads towards her room. Archenold then notices a train guard enter the dining room from the opposite side of the train car. "I best be going too." Archenold gets up and walks with Derpy back to their bedroom where they meet up with Apple Jack and Big Macintosh who were talking to each other. After a half hour of chatting, Archenold decides to visit Dinky. Upon arrival, he knocks on the door.

"Who's there?" Replies the familiar voice from behind the door.

"You know who." Archenold replies. Soon enough the door opens to reveal the same room, without the stash of weaponry showing. Only beds and shelves.  The window is now only slightly broken, probing Dinky was tending to it with her magic abilities.Archenold notices Dinky sitting on one of the beds, using her magic to move a brush as she finishes brushing her hair.

"Hello again." She greets, looking at Archenold with a slight smile.

"Hi." Archenold closes the door behind him. "I would like to continue where we left off when your mom came into the Dining car."

"Yeah?" Dinky listens as she opens a drawer in the dresser next to her bed, putting the brush away. Archenold gets distracted looking at her, when he remembers why he was there.

"So, yeah, like I said, I'm not going to tell Derpy." Archenold starts lamely.

"Yeah. Thanks again." Dinky thanks smiling warmly at the thought of his last reply.

"How come you got into mercenary in the first place?" Archenold asks, breaking into her thoughts.

"Umm...I'd rather not talk about that right now. Maybe if you explain why the Black hoof wants you dead?" Dinky answers questioningly.

"Alright fine." Archenold goes into great detail about how he ended up where he is now. He feels happier knowing that by the engaged look he was getting that Dinky was interested in the story.

"Wow. Seems like you had to go through some serious shit there." Dinky reflects.

"Yeah. Now I believe you owe me a story?" Archenold urges.

"Right... well, It began when I was younger. When I was a filly to be more specific." Dinky begins. "I was in school, doing my normal thing. I went to my locker to get my books in order for my next class. I entered the classroom when I saw Miss Cherilee walk up to me in front of my desk staring down at me."

23 years ago...

"Dinky, principle Ivy would like to see you." Cherilee informs with worry.  The whole class starts going "ooh" until Cherilee shoots them all a glare, even though she rarely does. Confused, Dinky gets up and trots over to the office where she is seen immediately.

"D...Did I do something bad?" Dinky asks in a higher pitched voice.

"No, Dinky." Principle Ivy reassures. "I called you to my office because... well... Have you seen Petal around?" Dinky shakes her head no. "Well, I'm aware she's one of your best friends, and I thought I'd let you know, we got a call from the police." Dinky twitches. "We were informed that she was found unconscious in her house, everything ransacked. She is currently in the hospital being brought back into consciousness. She's still alive but, her mother, I can't say the same. She was hurt bad in the assault." I honestly don't know why she told me this story. It was just... out of nowhere. It's true I haven't seen my friend, but she didn't have to call me to her office to tell me that, you know? However, what she told me next came to play later on. "This random pony is still out there. Be careful when you get home, Dinky. Don't worry if there are police officers stationed nearby your house. They're there for your security, but I can't help shake the feeling that the pony could still do bad things. Remember this when you get home. Be very careful." Dinky blinks at the news given to her. "You are dismissed. Be very careful, Dinky. We all care about you."

Dinky gets up and heads back to class and finishes the school day. As expected, there was extra police officers in the area when she got home on the bus. feeling nervous, she walks home, looking at a few officers who just smile at her. She goes to bed, then wakes up the next day to see her room messed up. She gasps as she sees clothes torn apart and thrown on the floor, furniture knocked over, a couple of plants fallen down and broken, and the door wide open. Dinky gets out of bed when she feels a stab of pain in her side. she examines the source of the pain to find a fresh wound in her side, still bleeding. Who the hay would hurt a filly anyway? I wasn't doing anything to the pony and I was asleep the whole time. I wonder how the buck I was able to sleep through it, but the pony bucking harmed a filly! You know what I mean? Dinky ignores the pain a little bit and gets out of her bed, dropping to the floor in pain. She holds a hoof to the wound as she trudges out of her room to find the whole house had been ransacked.

She searched through the debris when she heard moaning. She looked over in the direction of the noise to see her mother lying on the ground, breathing heavily. "Mom!" She shrieks in horror as she goes to rush to her side. She sees multiple wounds and gashes all over her body.

"Dinky... Call...*cough* call the police..." She orders weakly. Dinky looks outside to see a police officer coming into the area. Dinky rushes to the door and opens it, shouting to the police officer.

"HELP! My mom has been hurt!" The police officer hears her and gallops over quickly to see the wound on Dinky, causing him to stare in shock.

"What happened, little girl?!" The police officer asks in confusion.

"I...I don't know. I woke up and this happened." Dinky lets the officer inside who drops his jaw when he sees the huge mess. "My...My mom, she's been hurt badly." Dinky repeats as she heads back over to Derpy. The police officer looks over to see the bloody pony lying there, breathing a lot slower now.

"I need an ambulance here, NOW!" The officer shouts the transmitter on his chest as he goes over to grab a few tissues and rags to cover the wounds.

"Is... Is she going to be okay?" Dinky asks the officer in worry.

"I don't know. Do you have a father?" The officer asks.

"Well, there is this one pony who is like a father..." The officer looks at her.

"Call him." Dinky gets up to grab her cell phone on the ground in her bedroom which is cracked, but still functional. She calls the pony.

"Doctor? Mom was hurt." She reports to the Doctor.

"Yeah? What happened?" The pony asks in a British accent.

"Somepony broke in and ransacked the house. I think mom tried to stop the pony." Dinky replies. On the other end, the Doctor starts talking to himself.

"I'll be there as soon as I can, Dinky." The call ends. Dinky gallops over to the front window to see a blue police box fading into existence. The pony who exits is a brown pony with his spiky mane and tail darker than his skin. He is a stallion about Derpy's age with an hourglass as his cutie mark. He gallops over to the house with worry. He enters the house, mouth dropping and eyes wandering at the scene set before him.

"Sir? I'm going to need your help with investigation after we get her onto the ambulance that should arrive soon." The officer informs as he looks over to the Doctor.

"Umm...of course. Yes, let me just..." The Doctor starts looking through the debris for something specific that might have been taken. He finishes his search at a computer monitor in the study. The monitor screen is cracked, flickering images. The computer is obviously on, but the Doctor keeps staring at the monitor. He then pulls out a metal rod with a blue, rounded end and points it at the computer. He presses a button on the rod and a blue, fluorescent light emits from it. Soon enough, the monitor freezes an image on the screen. One specific image that sets off his alertness. The image shows a pony's hoof. The skin is black and the text on the bottom of the picture says "Black Hoof". The Doctor turns away from the monitor to activate the metal rod again, this time switching to the next image. This time, it's a document with words in bold saying "Project Jade". The document goes into great detail about the project and what will happen. At the end of it is text in red saying "Ponies will die" in a font that makes it look like blood. His attention turns behind him as he hears a small "ow" come from behind.

"Doctor, is everything alright?" The Doctor smiles warmly at Dinky.

"Yes. Mom will be fine. You just go to bed and relax. I'll take care of you until she's better." Dinky smiles back.

"Okay. Also, the ambulance is here." Dinky informs.

"Fantastic." The Doctor rushes out to help Derpy into the ambulance. Dinky goes to her room and uses her magic to clear her bed of any debris and lays down in it. All in the meantime, the monitor flickers back to the Black Hoof image. It zooms out to reveal the full image of a very familiar pony, smiling deviously. The image turns into an animation as the pony starts laughing maniacally before the monitor shuts down completely.

A couple hours later, Dinky wakes up feeling slightly less pain in her side than before. She gets out of bed to find the house a mess still, wishing it was all a dream. "Doctor?" Dinky calls. She notices him looking around the Debris along with the officer.

"Yes, Dinky?" The Doctor asks as he keeps searching through the debris, talking to himself making mental notes.

"I'm scared. What if the pony comes back when night comes?" Dinky confesses. The Doctor looks up at Dinky and smiles.

"Don't worry. He won't be back. It was a one-time event. You're safe now. As soon as we're all done here, we'll clean this mess up and the house'll be back in order. Okay?" The Doctor reassures.

"I'm not scared of that." Dinky replies, getting the Doctor to think. "I...I'm going to get something to eat." Dinky heads to the kitchen where she opens the fridge. The first thing she sees is a muffin. Tears start forming in her eyes as she remembers the good times she had with Derpy. Along with those awkward moments where Derpy accidentally did something that made Dinky laugh. She keeps thinking of her good moments, along with what the principle said. The way she thinks of it now, it seems like Ivy's mother probably died. She collapses to the ground sobbing, worrying if her mother would share that fate. She looks up when she feels a hoof on her shoulder.

"Dinky, we're both worried about how this will all turn out. I've been in this kind of position once before and trust me, it is not easy at all." Dinky sniffles once before speaking up.

"W...What happened?" The Doctor closes the fridge before sitting down at the grabbing two chairs and placing them at the table. They both sit down as the Doctor explain.

"She...She was helping me save lot of lives. I was in this room where there was a pathway to stop the station from imminent destruction and there were these huge fans spinning way too fast..." The Doctor goes into great detail about how he stopped the situation and the cause of the other's death. "She burned up because she was organic. A living tree." The doctor finishes up.

"A timberwolf?" Dinky asks in great confusion.

"No. No not a timberwolf. Something you wouldn't understand. Not in this dimension at least." The Doctor explains. "That damn human deserved to die for what she did." The Doctor says as he gets off the chair and walks away a bit angry from the memory. Dinky just sits their wondering what he was talking about. Then, he speaks again.

"Hey, I think I found something." He reports. The police pony comes over to check out what the Doctor had found. The Doctor steps aside to reveal a tri-claw with blood stains on the blades, along with some black fabric and a torn off piece of flesh. "This tri-claw here is unimportant, but the skin and fabric, that's another story." The police pony looks at the Doctor questioningly.

"What do you mean the weapon isn't important? That's probably how Derpy was assaulted." The Doctor gives the police pony an emotionless look.

"Nope. The skin here is blue. That and have you taken a closer look at her scars? None of the wounds were parallel to each other. This means, she was probably wounded by a knife." The Doctor reveals. The officer forms an o with his mouth in revelation. "The pony, however, was blue as shown by this torn flesh here. That's all I can pick up from this." The Doctor reports.

"Now how the hay did you figure all that out? Are you some kind of detective?" The officer questions. The Doctor just smirks.

"You have no idea."

Present day...

"After that, we never found the one who did it. However, one clue led to the fact that the pony traveled in time because that police box was gone. Doctor Hooves was stuck with us." Dinky says starting to finish her story. "I found out that Ivy's mother had died in school the next day which only worried me more. I was relieved to see mom was doing just fine, but seeing her there with all those wounds, it...it was unbearable. The next few months, mom was fully healed and decided that Doctor Hooves and she were at a turning point in a relationship and decided to marry. That day even though it was supposed to be full of joy for me, I was thinking. My rage was building up inside me at that pony and I decided I would take that tri-claw and learn how to use it. I took technology courses in school which helped me come up with everything I needed to become the Silver Griffin. I've been trying to find a way to locate that blue pony and when I saw you at the main base, I got suspicious. You sure as hay are not the pony I was looking for." Archenold gets off the bed he was sitting on and thinks for a moment.

"That pony... You said he was blue and along with the story he was supposed to have a wound with three parallel scars?" Archenold questions with serious alertness.

"Yeah." Dinky replies. Archenold chuckles.

"That's strange. Daring Do told me that the one who killed my father after my mom died at my birth held three scars just the same."