Illumination, The Story of an Antagonist

Slowly, Gilda's cries calmed, her tears making way for the exhaustion that her form radiated. Your demented grin never left your face. Normally you would never be one for expressing your thoughts on your face, but this is too much and it's all working out so well.

... Which means Murphy's Law would be rearing its ugly head soon. You can't afford to screw up here, not with success so close. You take a breath and calm down, letting your grip on Gilda loosen to a gentle cradle.

As gently as you could, you lay the young griffin hen on the couch so that she may sleep. You rise and make your way to the bedroom where you get a blanket that you take back to the front room and drape over Gilda. Said griffin grumbles contently in her sleep.

Doing a mental recount, you remember that you have four days until you visit Boris to see the progress of the various projects you had commissioned. It’ll still be about a month until the Vähemmän of the Dominion strongholds come together in Koti Sydämemme to debate your leadership skills. How funny, you think to yourself, that the Vähemmän, the lesser lords of the Dominion, are the ones to decide your fate, the shoe-in for emperor.

Each of the five rule over a huge citadel around the borders of the nation. In addition, each of them hold hefty amounts of both military and political power thanks to their private forces and finances. That power is the key to you gaining the throne. You need to get them to swear loyalty to you if this is to go smoothly. This could be where Murphy’s Law comes into play. You really hope it doesn’t, but the best laid plans of mice and men...

But for now, you can do nothing but wait in that regard. In the meantime, however...

You stand from the couch and stretch, suppressing a yawn as you do so. Being you is hard work.

Looking back at the blanket covered Gilda, you feel the edges of your lips lift the slightest bit.

Leaving your room, you close the door behind you gently as to not wake up your guest. Taking a look out the window, you see that you still have quite a bit of daylight left, meaning you can get more done today. Should you go back to the library? The sizable stack of notes from a number of old books says no, but what else can you do to prepare?

Ah, you know.

“Why didn't I think of this earlier?” you idly ask yourself.

Finding an elevator, you take the rickety device down several floors to the floor with the troop barracks. From there, you make the walk to the training grounds of the Koti Sydämemme palace.

It’s always quite an experience to see this place, as rather than on the ground the whole training area is built off of one of the smaller towers of the palace. This leaves some of it hanging over the city like a bowl filled with dirt. Not the safest design, but it’s very eye-catching.

Finally reaching the grounds, you’re treated to a most impressive sight.

WHOOSH!

You feel a smile creep up on your face as griffins clad in leather-backed chain mail rush by overhead, buffeting you with their wake. Three formations of five in a delta pattern soar effortlessly through the air, as if they didn’t even feel the weight of their equipment.

Breaking off from the center formation, the two splinters accelerate forward and pass by each other in front of the third group. The stunt leaves only a handful of centimeters between each of them. In a scramble of steel and feathers, the fifteen griffons form back up into a single, large arrow-like pattern and divebomb the ground.

With hardly a meter left to spare, they pull up and shoot into the sky.

“Enjoying the show, Lord Anon?” a female voice says next to you.

You look down and see a light brown-plumed griffin hen in dinged up armor standing next to you, also watching the flying team..

“I always do, Reeni. I always do.”

Colonel Reeni, one of the higher ranked members of the griffin military, an old member of the Tuulenmuutos ace flying team, and one of the few in your inner circle.

She nods in a pleased manner, making the windswept feathers on her head bob. “I would have thought as much; they were trained to be the best after all,” she says with a hint of pride. She looks back up at you, “Any reason you’re here? I know that you aren’t one to waste time.”

How right she is.

“Indeed I’m not. You’ve had almost six months to get a feel for your superior’s opinions of me. What’s the verdict?” you ask, getting straight to the point.

Reeni sighs and kneads the abused dirt of the training grounds in her claws. “We might be running into a problem there. I haven’t found any signs of outright hostility, but quite a number of them seem to think that you are worthy of being cautious around. I’m not sure whether they truly suspect what is going on or if it’s just instinct keeping them on edge.”

You frown at the thought of the handful of generals wanting to keep their distance from you. It’s not a terribly huge problem, but it would still be a noticeable setback. Having their support would be an enormous boon in the upcoming political battles that you are sure to face while reaching for the throne. You can do without. You would rather not approach them and perhaps give them reason to be suspicious.

“...Very well then. I don’t believe it’s worth it to try and bring them over. As long as their suspicions remain as merely suspicions, then they should stay an inconvenience at worst,” you say reluctantly.

Reeni looks around in a shifty manner, something obviously on her mind.

“Something to say?”

She laughs nervously and lets a sheepish grin wander onto her face. “Am I that transparent?” she asks.

You give her no answer, but rather prompt her to speak her mind with a raised eyebrow.

Looking up at the still flying team, she starts off, “Sir, maybe we shouldn’t be giving all of this to ourselves. Maybe we should tell others. This is all for their benefit, right? So as long as we keep it that way, then I don’t see any reason to keep being dis-”

She stops once she looks up at you to see the glare she’s getting in return.

Reeni shivers, swearing that the temperature around her is falling and desperately tries to pull her eyes from yours, only to fail each time.

“Reeni... remember what we fight for... we do this so that others may not have to experience such a burden... or do I need to remind you?” you ask, your voice low and your eyes narrowed.

The colonel quickly shakes her head side to side, trying to form words that only come out as strangled gasps.

“Are you sure? I’m not above re-educating members of my group...”

“NO! I mean, no sir... It’s fine. I forgot just what we were doing for a moment. It won’t happen again, I promise,” she hastily forces out.

You let the hostile look on your face lighten up. “Good, be sure of it. We will talk later about the allegiance of the city’s defenses. I have things to be doing.”

With that, you turn and make your way back to the palace proper while thinking about what just happened.

You also force your heart rate back down to a normal level.

Intimidation. It’s such a useful, but so incredibly fickle tool, not unlike using a rapier in a fight for your life. Correct application can devastate an opponent in a single attack. One false move, however, can make it all for naught, leaving you at the mercy of your foe. You hold no illusions about your personal power. At the moment you are zero match for any griffin who would want to fight you.

If she had wanted to, Reeni could have leapt up and ripped out your throat with her claws, beak, or sword and there would’ve been nothing you could have done about it. She could have even taken all the information that members of your inner circle are privy to and twisted it around to make you the villain, meaning she would get away with killing you. You know she is intelligent enough to realize that as well.

But rather than do so, she chose to give in to her instincts and follow the flight command that all creatures are born with. All because she found you too frightening to stand against in any shape or form. Anyone can use the standard, “I’m bigger than you and will hurt you if you don’t do as I say,” and call it intimidation. But things such as that can only be used on the small and weak.

Exploit the subtle trappings and quirks of the mind, however, and you have a force that can stop an army dead in its tracks. Or even make them break rank and flee as if the hounds of hell were on their heels.

And it just so happens that you have an excellent grasp of how the mind of a self-aware being functions.

Some conditioning here, a few power plays there, and you have a potent weapon that’s perfect for forcing your will onto others.

Feeling your heart calming down, you begin the journey back to your room to check on Gilda.

Halfway through the trip however, right before you get on the elevator to the correct floor, a guard with an uneasy expression pulls you aside.

“Something I can do for you?” you ask, not bothering to hide your displeasure at being interrupted.

The guard nods and looks like he’s struggling to find words. After a moment he gains his bearings and addresses you. “Sir, we sort of... found an intruder trying to sneak into the restricted sections of the royal archive. She was muttering something about getting revenge before she was captured.”

What? Why do you need to be contacted over something like this? There are practices and penalties already in place for such a thing. Attempting to break into anything off-limits to the common public is a felony and almost guaranteed to earn a sentence of twenty or more years in prison.

“Tell me, you needed to come inform me of this, why?” you ask with the flattest look you can muster.

“You see, sir... she’s not a griffin.”

You blink in surprise, not expecting that little twist at all.

The guard looks over his shoulder down the hall, where raised voices can be heard. “We wanted to come to you and try to clear this up without some sort of international incident in our claws.”

Of course, international dealings even before you have your legitimate power base established. Lovely.

“Care to tell me more about all of this? I need as much information as possible if we are to fix this in a timely manner.”

“We’ve got nothing much, sir. She has been very... uncooperative. You’ll see in a moment.”

The sounds of struggling and raised voices down the hallway grow louder, until you hear, “Take your filthy claws off of Trixie immediately!”

“So Twi, what’s all this business about, again?”

Twilight Sparkle looks up into the bored, fluttering visage of her friend Rainbow Dash with exasperation. She’s not the only one, as the rest of her friends are gathered around within the town library as well, called here by its librarian

“Rainbow! Weren’t you listening all?” Twilight asks, obviously annoyed.

The rainbow-maned pegasus rolls her eyes, “Yeah, kinda. You were talking about how you, me, and the princesses got invitations to some big thing. Am I right?”

“Rainbow dear, this isn’t just any old get together that can be blown off on a whim. This is a chance to meet with the royalty of the Griffin Dominion and to see the next potential emperor. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event!” chimes in Rarity from her spot between Applejack and Fluttershy. “And it would simply be a travesty to refute such a generous offer. Why, I would take it in a heartbeat,” she says firmly.

“Ah dunno,” begins Applejack. “This looks like they’re tryin’ to butter y’all all up so this ‘Anonymous’ guy can git a good word from the princesses. What if he gits into trouble afterward and makes you all look stupid fur supportin’ him?” she asks cautiously.

Pinkie jumps in as well. ”Nahhh. That would be a mean trick. The letter says that this Anny guy is super far in the lead anyway. Why would he need any to help?” she adds in her usual chipper manner.

Applejack looks like she wants to refute Pinkie, but can’t seem to come up with an argument that would hold water.

“...It seems like it would be nice... but what if all the griffons are as mean as Gilda? You would have a terrible time.” Fluttershy says demurely.

“I think Gilda was just not the most even-tempered griffin around. Not all of them can be like that,” Twilight says with a nod. “I am curious, however. Dash, why are the only one to get an individual invitation? Princess Celestia offered to bring me along since her invitation allowed a guest, but why were you singled out?”

The pegasus shrugs. “Who knows? Maybe they just know how awesome I am!” she says with her usual bluster.

The others quietly laugh to themselves.

Even if she found the response funny, Twilight still can’t help but dwell on Dash’s personal invitation. Did she know someone important within the Dominion? Or is there something else at play here? For all she knows this could be some convoluted trap, but the fact that both Princesses Celestia and Luna would be there as well rules that out. What being could be insane enough to take on both of the celestial sisters at once?

Applejack’s voice interrupts her thoughts. ”Ah dunno girls, this still seems a bit fishy to me...”

“Darling, you worry too much,” cuts in Rarity. “I’m sure that this is just a gesture meant to improve some diplomatic relations. After all, the griffons are shut-ins to a degree as a race.”

The apple farmer looks like she wants to argue further, but just sighs and stops. No matter what her friends say, she can feel it in the pit of her stomach: This is only the calm before the storm.