Serenade the Dawn

A glittering dawn broke the sweet haze of a half sleep. Aesa and I were camped outside of Ponyville; near the bridge entering the town's main area and market. I shook my partner awake and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"The early bird get's the rabbit. Let's get set up in the market square and get our presence known a bit. We'll work on playing in restaurants and hole's in the wall afterwards."
"You're the boss, Sven," she grumbled, blinking owlishly.

I gathered up the harness and pulled Aesa up from the quick nest we had made. The plain we had camped in waved in the breeze. Soft whispers from the grass and the rustles of the limbs welcomed the light of day to a waking world. With Aesa in tow, I set off into the town. From the bridge, we had a decent view of the small village, it's cottages with thatch roofs gave it a homey and down to earth feeling. A few early risers were setting up their stands already. Aesa went on ahead to pick out a good spot for us to play. I got a few odd looks as I walked through the slow hub of commerce in the small town.

Finding Aesa near a small fountain, we quickly set out our instruments. I went to working tuning my guitar as Aesa played a few bars on her lyre. A mint green mare trotted over, and began to talk with her excitedly about it. Ironically it seemed, we happened upon a town with another lyre player. While Aesa chatted away with the small mare, I started playing my music.

As the notes flitted through the market a few interested ponies came over to watch. With a small smile, I began. Today was shaping up to be a good day.

At around mid-day, Aesa and I stopped our small concert to have lunch. A small crowd had gathered to hear us play. I suppose they haven't seen very many griffons as a few of the colts and fillies inched close to examine us while we played. There was a smattering of applause and a few coins dropped in the open cases as ponies had passed by during the day. All in all, Aesa now had close to 40 bits each. Not a bad day at all.

Walking through the stalls, Aesa and I quickly decided that we weren't too interested in pony food. Approaching the last stall, an apple stand from the looks of it, I stepped up to the front. A small filly was behind the counter.

"Excuse me miss, are you the one working this stand?" She seemed a little scared at first, as were most children when someone they don't know speaks to them.
"No sir, this is my sister's apple stand. She'll be back soon." She had a decidedly southern drawl.
"Do you think she could watch our instruments when she gets back? My friend and I are very hungry." Her eyes lit up and she put on a winning smile.
"Well why didn'tcha say you were hungry? Buy some apples!" A frustrated groan came from around a corner.
"Applebloom, how many times do ah gotta tell you? Stop badgering people into buying-" she cut off quickly when she saw Aesa and I at the stand. "Griffons..." she said with an odd look.
"Hello miss, you must be the owner of this stand." I said doing my best to smile. Sometimes it's hard, what with a beak and all.
"That'd be me, yeah. How can ah help you?"
"My companion and I," I said, pointing at Aesa, "were hoping you could watch our instruments while went off to get food."
"Why don't you ask someone else? Ah might be busy." The mare glared at us coolly. I looked around noting the lack of customers at the stand, and looked back to the testy mare.
"Fine, I'll watch yer stuff. Gimme a few bits."

I tossed a few over. Frankly, I was dumbfounded that Aesa and I were getting the cold shoulder like this in a sleepy little town. The people from earlier had been quite friendly. The mare nodded at us before turning to the filly and saying, "Go get Rainbow."

Aesa and I winged off, heading into the forests to the west that a sign had designated the 'Whitetail Woods". The hunting was quick and the eating even quicker.

"I wonder what her deal was," Aesa said.
"Dunno, maybe she just didn't like griffons. The others seemed to not mind us."
"She just was really short with us. It was starting to bug me."
"That's probably what she wanted Aesa, you know how people can be."
"Yeah, I know. I have to deal with you all day don't I?"
"Oh Aesa, you wound me so," I said, clutching at my chest.
"Oh cry me a river, you big baby. It's your fault y'know. Tying to be all funny and cute."
"Just admit it, I am the funniest and most handsome griffon you have ever met."
"Oh yeah, sure, that's it," she said, pushing me over.
"Oh, feisty," I said, my back hitting the ground with a solid thump. "You're cute when you got all aggressive."
"Yeah well I might just get all aggressive on your butt later. We gotta go back to town and make some money remember."
"Since when did you get so wise," I said with a chuckle, rolling to dodge a swipe from her wing. "Alright, alright. Let's scoot."
"Might wanna clean off there first," Aesa said, gesturing at a nearby pond. "You're covered in blood."

Oh. Going back to the ponies decked in blood from my kill might not have been the best second introduction. I quickly washed off, making sure to splash Aesa, much to her chagrin.

"Alright," I said shaking the water from my feathers with a quiet chuckle, "let's get back there and hope that mare didn't let anyone steal our stuff."

The square was curiously empty. The vendors must have gone out for lunch. I walked to where the apple stand should have been.

A nice empty piece of real estate greeted us.

"Well shit," Aesa huffed, puffing up her feathers.

We quickly ran back to the fountain. The only thing there was a small note and a suspicious lack of instruments.

"Well shit, indeed," I said, slapping a claw to my face.
"What's the note say?" Aesa asked.

Ponyville Library
Big Tree down the road to the south
You're stuff is waiting there.

"Well, maybe they didn't steal it."
"Gee, that's encouraging," Aesa muttered. "Come on genius, let's go get our stuff back."

Aesa set off down the road, being sure to smack me with her tail. Feisty.

"Think this is it?"
"It's a gigantic tree with a door and a sign with a book handing from a branch. What do you think?"
"Sheesh Aesa, don't get all bent out of shape. What's got you all riled up?"
"I dunno, maybe some dumbo getting our stuff stolen on our first day in town."
"How the heck was I supposed to know they'd take it. And, it's not stolen if they told us where it is."
She threw her paws up in exasperation. "Fine fine, whatever. Let's just get it back."

I turned to knock on the door. Six pairs of eyes stared at us through the door window.

I knocked anyways.

The eyes shot down and some mumbled whispers seeped through the door.

"Seriously?" Aesa deadpanned.

The door opened and a purple glow picked us up and carried us inside.

"Well shit," Aesa and I said in unison as the door closed with a slamming finality.

The purple aura deposited us on the floor in the middle of the room. Bookshelves covered the walls, breaking only for a opening to a kitchen and a staircase to an upper floor. Six mares stood around us.

The mare from the apple-stand and a light blue pegasus stood to one side, glaring at us. A pair of unicorns, purple and white respectively, stood in the middle with a ball of pale yellow feathers hiding behind them. A pink blur seemed to be zipping around everything at random.

"Just friggen great Sven, you've managed to get us kidnapped by six mares."
"Oh, bite me Aesa, I didn't think they'd actually do anything."
"I might just bite the crap out of you."
"Oh, feisty."

Five pairs of eyes bounced back and forth between us as we bickered. The last pair's owner was busy walking across the ceiling using two sets of suction cups.

"Um, hi," the purple unicorn spoke up. "What are you doing in our town?" The yellow pegasus cowering behind her squeaked as we looked toward the speaker she was hiding behind. The blue pegasus zipped up into out faces, causing Aesa to snarl.
"Who are you? Do you know Gilda? What the hay are you doing here?" She demanded. Aesa reared up and buffeted the mare back to the line of her friends.

"Who are you to kidnap us and-" she started before being picked up by the purple and glued to a wall.

That's it.

I turned to the ponies. "Put. My. Mate. Down. Now." I said, menace behind every world.

Aesa blushed, and the unicorn took a step back. "She hit Rainbow." She said, looking for an excuse.
"You stole our sacred instruments and bits, and pulled us in here unwillingly. Mighty unwise to tangle with a griffon, more so two. I won't even begin to tell you how bad of an idea it is to attack one's mate."

The unicorn blanched, glancing at her friends nervously. She put Aesa down and they quickly circled up to whisper to each other.

I only caught snipets. "...steal?" "Gilda..." "...hit me..." "...Applebloom...nice..."

The glanced at us once or twice in pauses in their discussion before going back to whispers. Sighing, I sat down next to Aesa.

"You okay?"
"Yeah I'm all right..I've never seen you that serious before."
"Every griffon knows to protect the things they love."

Aesa blushed again and leaned up against me. We sat there, waiting for the ponies to finish their debate. I had a feeling we might be waiting for a while.

Before long, a small purple drake made his way into the library. Glancing at the circle of mares and then Aesa and I, he said "I'll get the tea set going," and headed into the kitchen area. Aesa looked at me. I stared back. No questions were asked.