“RAEL, GET YOUR SCRAWN ASS IN THE RING”
Mr. Talon was mean. I spread my wings, and with one flap, was able to glide into the ring.
"JR. YOU GO FIGHT HIM, SHOW HIM HOW A REAL GRIFFIN FIGHTS!"
Jr. was his son, Talon the Youngest. He was a big griffin a good head taller than I, and his entire body was rippling with muscles, just like his father. He was fitting of his father's name, both had the same dark grey plumage, and a flat black coat to cover their bodies. Cold amber eyes shone like a jewel encrusted in jade. This pair were the toughest pair of griffin's in the whole village.
What was I? Well, I was the smallest griffin in any sort of schooling. I was the "runt bitch" of the duke. His only living heir, and mind you, there were others. Life in the duchy wasn't easy, you had to be useful. Accidents happened, and the duke, my father's, only sons slaughtered by a lowly nightstalker.
They had been fighters. I... wasn't. Guns? Swords? Sure I could do that, you get to me when I'm disarmed though, and I'd have problems. Like so.
Talon charged, using a sweep from his wings to close the distance quickly. I was like a deer in headlights, and froze. He slammed into me, not even needing to use something as glorifying as 'technique', getting atop me and pinning me to the ground was enough, and a somewhat suggestive position. He had me helpless, getting ready to slam closed claws against me, knowing what he could do, bones would be broken in the process.
"Enough"
My father, Duke Gale of the Nether Peaks, or in Equestria, the Bucky Mountains. His voice was smooth as silk, but commanded attention with its volume. It was once the seat of a the entire south of the Griffin Empire. It bordered the Equestrians, and had been battle tested for nearly 1000 years, holding independent from both the northern griffin kingdoms, and the constant encroachment from the Equestrians. But it could not hold. My great-great-grandfather submitted to Griffin rule after the Great War started, for something as simple as safety.
The Griffins then hired out their own soldiers, mercanaries, turning royal houses against each other, creating the first Talon groups. Fighting in war to the south gave each a supply of megaspells, and the day the bombs fell was the day that most of the cities of the Griffin Empire were destroyed. That was... roughly 150 years ago?
And now the line of Dukes, going back for more than a thousand years ago, ends with me, the least impressive member of royalty in... ever.
Father was observing me today, likely deciding whether or not I would stay in this school.
"RAEL, THAT'S SOME OF THE LEAST IMPRESSIVE FIGHTING I'VE EVER SEEN, I'VE SEEN A SNAIL MOVE SLOWER!" Talon Sr. roared into my face, his choice of words somewhat nicer than normal, present company likely being the reason.
"MAGGOTS, LETS GO WASTE SOME BULLETS", Talon roared.
Firerarms were something I could do! I picked up a bolt action rifle, It had seen many a range session with me, but it was chambered in .22, so it lacked the oomph guns that the class was using.
Accuracy of my shots made up for it, a tight cluster pock marking the center of the target after the command to open fire was given.
I turned back from my target after I had emptied the 5 round magazine. He was gone.... And he stayed gone for the rest of the day. I went to bed a rumble in my belly...
Dawn crested the horizon over the Bucky Mountain Range. The great peaks haloed by the sun, it was an awe inspiring sight. The sun began rising over a griffin village. Merchants began opening stalls, men began to stir, preparing for their daily hunt. Women and children began their tedium, maintaining the household, flight school, fight school. As the sun cleared the tip of the tallest mountain, the men were gone, trying to find just a bit of more game before the traders make it to mountain.
I was making my way flight school, flying, not walking like many other students in my class. I shot over rooftops, clearing them by inches, ducking beneath clotheslines and pulling vertical on to shoot down into the courtyard.
I was early, my mother hadn't even rolled out of bed when I had raced out of the house, but the courtyard wasn't empty, I was now surrounded by a flock of older guys... they were certainly bigger than me, and stronger...
"Hey runt, you fly into anymore walls lately?"
"Take out any clotheslines?
"The only thing left you have to run into is the mountainside, you dweeb."
Yeah, I wasn't the best flyer; I went too fast for my own good.
The bigger boys closed around me, three of them ready for the daily dose of 'toughing up'. I slowly backed up, I wouldn't fight, it would just get myself hurt more...
"H-hey now guys, no need for this, I don't think Mr. Talon really meant that you nee-"
They moved as one, the middle boy snatching my throat in his talons, while the others pushed me back, slamming me into the wall.
"You think my daddy was lyin' when he said that beatin' ya would make ya tougher? How'd ya think I beat ya everyday in fight school, ya couldn't hurt a radroach!"
The two on the sides pushed me to the wall, pinning me and Talon Jr. let my throat go, I gasped for breath.
"You couldn't hurt a fucking fly! Maybe you'd have better luck crashing into your enemies!"
Talon Jr. backed away, signaling to his buddies to let me go, and I slumped down from the wall.
I can't believe they didn't beat me u-
Pain, pain is a real bitch. Pain coursed through my body, radiating from my shoulder, I couldn't keep from crying out as that fucking asshole kicked me, pony style, back into the wall.
Tears welled up in my eyes. But he wasn't done. Turning and pouncing on me, I tried to roll away but the pain in my shoulder overwhelmed me, and I ended up collapsing, he got atop me and simply punched, wild punches bruising my chest, my back, my wings.
"Class, Attention!"
My mother's voice called, echoing across the courtyard, Talon Jr. scrambled away, but I just lay, pathetically my shoulder still burning.
"RAEL! Move your ass and get in line!"
I struggled to get on my feet. Oh yeah... My mother is the teacher of flight school, real bitch about it too, pushing me all the time trying to push me harder than the rest of my class, when I was by far the best flyer...
I managed to limp into line, lifting my claw completely off the ground but each movement felt like a railroad spike into my shoulder.
"Now that Rael has joined us, we can begin, take up the skies, and find a wing mate, Rael and Talon, you're together."
Oh shit...
Turns out, Talon wasn't great at flying, I mean, he could fly, but he was awkward, his muscled form was twice my size, but that just made his wings more awkward on is frame. I was trying to fly in a way that minimized my movement. I was sore sure, and my shoulder was reduced from a railroad spike to a dull throbbing, but moving just made everything hurt. My wings carried my mostly limp body across the sky.
Finally, my mother, flying at the head of the class, motioned for us to land, and Talon looked relieved, I just dutifully followed him in to land. He landed hard, almost crashing into the ground, which, had I been more courageous I might of laughed at, but I settled behind him, gently setting down, careful not to put weight on my injured leg. Before I noticed, Talon turned around, and had his claw on my injured leg, and yanked on it, sending spikes of white hot pain throughout my body.
“What the fuck!” I yelled, tears welling in my eyes.
“Step on it” Talon said.
And, I did, and it hurt… so much less… Wait, did he just be… nice?
Before I could say another word, he stalked away, heading straight toward the water trough.
“Class dismissed! The trader’s are a mile out, so Fight schools is exempt for you, even if you desperately need it” With the last remarks, my mother’s glare came down on me. “Go get cleaned up.”
I turned, preparing to bolt, my wings spreading to their fullest when I heard my mother call,
“Rael!”
I grudgingly turned, tucking my wings back by their sides. I turned to face her, my eyes directed at my feet.
I caught a smile out of the corner of her eye, horribly uncharacteristic.
“Talon again?” she asked, I nodded slowly; she put a claw on my chin, raising my eyes to meet hers. “Don’t worry about him, he’s had a hard life, he doesn’t mean real harm to you.”
She started to turn away, motioning slightly for me to follow, and we began walking home.
“Today, there aren’t just traders coming, this is an important diplomatic meeting”, she said. Why was she telling me, I wouldn’t even be there… I would be in the sky trying to emulate the great Pegasus Rainbow Dash.
"You will be present with your father and I, and I have a gift for you."
"A gift", I said, the surprise not hidden in my voice at all.
"Yeah well we couldn't have you show up to a meeting with the Enclave wearing nothing!" She replied, as we arrived to our house.
She pushed the door open, the door not even having a lock, and I saw the most beautiful suit of armor and it looked, perfect for me. I brushed by my mother, and ran around the me-sized mannequin.
"We had the smithy make it perfectly sized for you; nothing else in our armory would fit someone so small."
The armor was matte black with silver plates, matching my own coat and feather colors. There was a .22 automatic pistol in a hip holster on the right, the pistol itself was beautiful, a black pistol in perfect condition. There were plenty of pockets, pouches, and hooks for various implements of storage. And, there was some sort of strange device mounted on the left leg of the suit.
"What's this?" I asked my mom, who had closed the door and entered, and was pointing that device.
"That, is a Pipbuck 3000G, I'm told it's useful, but to be honest, no idea how it works, I'm told it was supposed to be implemented on griffin mercenaries during the war, and we were given as a sample from the Enclave last month, the test subjects reported having augmented vision, as well as some sort of inventory tracking spell." My mother explained with a shrug.
As she explained I un-holstered the pistol, checking the chamber, sure enough, the firearm was loaded, and the insides seemed incredibly well maintained, only a bit of wear showing through the old gun. It fit in my claws perfectly; I checked the clip, seeing it only held 10 rounds. I reloaded the weapon, flicking the safety on, and then returned it to its holster.
"I don't know what to say..." I said, my mother turning to go into her room.
"Get dressed, we have some ponies to impress, and hopefully get some good supplies out of it." My mother turned the corner into her room, and I began putting the suit on, it fit like a glove, I held out on the left sleeve for last. I slid my arm in tentatively, but there didn't seem to be a proble-
"Ahh!" I exclaimed, the pipbuck tightened around my arm, and a yellow HUD appeared in the corners of my vision. "Whoa..." I could tell where my mother was, and I couldn't see her. A yellow bar corresponded to her position as she strode out of her room, her armor matching my own, albeit that had seen some wear and tear. Her signature revolver was holstered at her hip, a massive thing; it was polished to perfection and cleaned almost religiously, the thing fired rifle rounds for crying out loud!
"Ready?" she asked, a cold tone of authority returned, similar to how she spoke at the academy.
I simply nodded.
My mother and I were waiting in the town square, a reception party gathered, trade stalls flocked the edges, brimming with wares, from jewelry, manufactured and scavenged, to food stuffs to firearms. Near anything you could hope for.
My father had gone out to greet the traders, but I could see them already, Pegasus guards circling them lazily in the distance. A notification appeared in the corner of my eye, "Radio Signal Discovered: Enclave Communications Network", intrigued I hit some buttons on the pipbuck, and suddenly it was playing. I noticed some sound started playing out of a little bulb attached to the Pipbuck. I picked it up and slowly put it inside my ear, the small noise suddenly sharpening into a male voice. "...pare to enter the village, all units WAIT for the signal this time, otherwise command will have your wings." The male voice cut out, leaving a soft static in my ear.
What operation?
A call resounded throughout the square, "They're here!"
And an eerie calm descended upon the village. The gathering usually wasn't this big. Every hunter was present, and still in his gear. Hell, the whole village seemed to be up in arms, what was going on?
My father walked with a caravan of ponies, their carts few, and covered. The ponies looked... scary. They didn't live up to their likeness in books, these ponies had glassy eyes, and dark metal plates covered the entirety of their bodies, the only thing setting them apart from one another being their wing color and tail.
They were well armed as well...
"Come, let us talk in the hall" My father's smooth, charismatic tones echoed across the courtyard.
The ponies didn't let their guards down but a trio broke off and followed my father. He slowly approached, and a small nudge from my mother made signaled me to follow her into the town hall.
My father stalked into the lodge behind us.
He waited for the ponies to enter behind him and I didn't realize it before, but ponies were big even the smallest among them was several inches taller than me, was I really that small? He waited still for the door to be shut behind them. I took off, one flap from my wings to send me gilding across the room, I nudged the door shut, and turned to see the trio of pegasi turned, weapons pointed at me.
My father came to the rescue, quite literally, his voice still showing that same charisma he never used on me. "This is my son, Rael, and my wife, Teela. I must ask why you have chosen to break the contract set forth by my predecessor."
"Silence Griffin, you will comply to the Enclave's demands or you will be put down as rebels."
My eyes widened, the ponies had turned back to my father. They were threatening us? Why was I the only one out of the loop!
My father lost some of its charm, but gained an edge in his reply, "You realize that making threats isn't a very good policy for diplomacy, perhaps you could reconsider your 'offer' before making enemies of the Chief of the Bucky Mountain, the Grea-"
"Commence Operation Reckoning."
A flash of red and my father's talking ended, his whole body glowed red, a bright flash followed by nothing... Nothing but ash...
"GALE!" My mother roared her revolver already in hand, she fired, but these ponies were indestructible! I'd seen nightstalkers heads fly clean off after a hit from my mother's revolver!
But even as she got shots off, she took them, and the red light consumed her as well... I realized I hadn't moved... And these ponies were turning toward me! Oh shit oh shit oh shit shit. I backed up, my rump bumping into the door.
The door! The pegasus finished rounding, and I heard voices in my ear, separating from the light static. "He's just a foal!" A distinctly feminine voice sounded, what was a foal? "Foal or not, we have orders, put him down", Him, they were talking about me? I was a- A red flash filled my vision, and my chest was on fire...
How'd I get outside? When did this chaos happen?
This being the battle... no... massacre that was wrapping up, before my eyes. Ponies shot their red lights into the crowd, piles of ash littered the courtyard, with a smattering of corpses on the side, there was not a single pony corpse to be found, and bullets sparked off the ponies harmlessly.
Wait? I'd been shot? I looked down at my breastplate, a black scorch marked where my pain originated from, I rolled on my feet, and my wings spread. With one powerful push, I shot in the air, climbing over the town hall, and taking off horizontally.
"Little fucker, he took off!"
"Clean-up teams, small male headed your way, keep your eyes sharp"
Wait, what? They planned this? What the actual fuck? They were slaughtering griffins by the dozens, and they planned this?
Red flashes shot by my vision, "Affirmative, target found".
Well, fuck these people, fuck ponies, fuck the Enclave.
I poured on the speed, weaving between the peaks of rooftops.
"Uhh, he's losing me, I can't match that fucker, can I just shoot him?"
"Keep on the pursuit Starfire, Squad Eleven, rendezvous on Starfire's Tag"
I’d reached the edge of the village, I climbed, shooting over the wall, and I saw my haven. The valley the dive could provide me with the speed to get away from these Enclave fucks.
“Squad Eleven ETA? He’s breached the perimeter of the town”
“2 minutes tops, keep up pursuit, shoot him down Airpony!”
I took my cue, and dove. The town was built on a Cliffside, convenient against defending against a land based assault. I was diving down this sheer face, wind pulled at my cheeks. I kept my wings flapping I had to pick up speed, I was going fast, but not fast enough! Red streaks flashed by me. Air built in front of me, actively resisting my going forward, I knew this feeling, I’d gotten here before. I had to push faster, that pegasus was still on my tail. I kept my wings flapping
“Sir! He’s approaching supersonic!”
“What!”
I kept my wings moving, each stroke a just a subtle push forward. I was streaking toward the valley. Red flashes danced below me, ahead of me, and above me.
“Sir, I can’t pursue, he’s gonna crash into the mountainside!”
No. Because fuck you, fuck your mother, and fuck Talon.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A resounding clap shot through my ears, and the resistance in front of me was gone. I was moving, fastOH SHIT VALLEY. Pulled up, hard, my hind legs brushing the uppermost branches of long dead trees.
“What the fuck! He’s supersonic, no fucking way I can catch that!”
“Roger, I see the trail… How the fu- -did a grif- -nboom, conta- -derbolts for pur-”
I kept flying, my heart racing through my chest… Holy shit! I’d pulled it off! Rainbow Dash’s signature move, the sonic rainboom! Fuck you Mom, can’t do it my ass!
Mom.
Oh god.
My mom… My dad… My whole fucking town, everyone I ever knew?
I hit something, and everything went black...
Author's Note
Thank you to Kkat, Somber, No One, Tofu (especially this guy), and Delvius for creating my wonderful little headcanon to play around with. I recommend reading their stories first, as they're much better than mine.
Edit: Added a better introduction.