Chapter 11

Firefly

“Oh, Sunbutt’s here too!” I shouted up at the Princess sitting up in her throne that probably costed more than half of the houses in Haywaii. “Can’t wait!”

“Firefly!” Cloud Skipper shouted at me, covering my mouth.

Celestia didn’t seem bothered by the insult, which bothered me. “You clearly weren’t lying.” She said to Ricco.

Ricco only shook his head.

“I’m so sorry, Princess.” Cloud Skipper said, trying to hold me close to him.

“It isn’t your fault, Cloud Skipper.” She said, looking down at us.

Celestia suddenly raised an eyebrow, looked down at Ricco, then down to Cloud and I again.

“Cloud Skipper... have you... developed feelings for her?” Celestia asked awkwardly.

I wanted to shout at her, maybe say he was just my fuckbuddy or something that would catch her off guard.

“Princess, no offense, but I find that off topic in the situation.” Cloud said professionally.

“Cloud Skipper, I will decide what is on and off topic, answer the question.” Celestia said.

Cloud sighed, then looked at me, I tried to bite him through his hoof, but failed.

“Yes, Princess. I love her.” He said.

Suddenly, there was a great weight on my chest, kind of like when you get the wind knocked out of you, but somehow in reverse.

“Ah, very well.” Celestia said, leaning down at me and touching her horn on my head.

My eyes shot open, a sudden blinding light enveloped the area around me. I somehow saw the events of us all meeting, and all we did together, the fights and the talks, the jokes and secrets we shared, the good and bad things together, the things that made us who we were.

“Friends.” Celestia said.

When the light faded, I immediately looked around, confused.

I felt instantly horrible, not ill, but I was sickened by myself, the way I acted and my attitude towards my friends and peers. The things I wanted to say made me want to run away from the people I thought so bad about.

“Firefly?” Cloud Skipper asked, letting me away from him.

I almost spoke, but choked up immediately. I looked to him, then the princess, her eyes were full of worry. Cloud looked hopeful, tears welled up in my eyes and I made a girlish whine.

Then I ran.

I quickly found our old room, slamming the door and locking it behind me, gripping my hair and falling down onto the bed. I let tears fall from my eyes onto the pillow, soaking it within a few minutes.

“Firefly! Open up!” Ricco shouted from outside, slamming into the door.

It would only be a few more hits until the door broke, Cloud and Ricco rushed in and grabbed me, trying to get me back to my senses. I didn’t want to talk to them and say something else that could hurt them in any way, so I barely moved in their grasp.

After a few more minutes, they decided to climb into bed and wait. I was going to talk to them. I felt too bad already, it would only take something else to break Cloud and I away from each other. Ricco probably wouldn’t forgive me as it was, I cursed myself over and over, mentally abusing myself as I laid in bed.

It would have been a few hours before I finally fell asleep, dreaming about possible consequences of the horrible things I said. My mind eventually burned itself out and I slept peacefully.

When I opened my eyes again, the darkness of the night greeted me. I heard some commotion outside of the door, ponies were talking in very hushed voices, stopping every few seconds.

I looked into light that was coming out from under the door and tried to count how many were out there, after a few minutes I had seen a pair of claws and nothing else, I guessed that Ricco was outside talking to Cloud or someone.

I got up and turned on the light, quickly heading for the door until I heard a rustle from behind me.

Jumping forwards, I whipped around and saw Ricco and Cloud sleeping in their appropriate beds.

I disregarded them and turned back to the door, going to find out what-

I stopped dead in my tracks, if Ricco was in bed, who else had griffon claws in the castle.

Just as I reached for the door, it opened up and two griffons tackled me, smashing a rag into my face that smelled horrible and held me down.

A punch from one of the unknown griffons dazed me, then I inhaled the scent of the rag again, sending a wave of drowsiness through my head. Another punch made me black out for a few seconds and the smell drove pulled me from consciousness.

The last thing I saw as one huge griffon put me up on his back was the other signing a note and slipping it under Ricco’s pillow, who despite the entire ordeal hadn’t even moved from a sleeping position.

Light immediately burned into my brain when my eyes opened. My head hurt badly, for reasons I didn’t exactly know.

I tried to reach around for Cloud Skipper blindly but found my hooves behind my back they had fallen asleep or something, because I couldn’t feel them at all.

Snapping me awake was a jet of ice cold water splashing against my face, it made me choke as it got into my mouth, I sputtered and coughed as it continually shot at me, soaking my fur and mane, getting in my eyes and everything else.

“Stop!” I shouted, the water seemed to intensify, getting colder and more powerful, hitting my face and head again.

I gurgled on the water and spit it out, coughing and shouting at whoever was doing this to me.

After a few squeaks in the background of the sound of spraying water, it stopped altogether.

Dripping water was the only thing I could hear in my waterlogged ears, someone was saying something, but I couldn’t make it out.

I whipped my head around a few times, getting some of the water out of my ears so I could hear.

“-you see what we have to do to get what we want?” Someone said, it was an accent like Ricco’s, definitely from a griffon. “Ricco, as you can see, we have your little girlfriend. So, if you don’t get us what we want, it will end up like last time. Which I don’t think you want to bring up.” He said.

“What do you want?!” I shouted at him.

I hear steps nearing me, his claws tapping on the floor that I couldn’t see through the lights around me.

A teeth-grinding punch knocked me sideways, sending whatever I was sitting in and me to the floor with a menacing crack.

“You need to wait your turn, little lady.” He said, all I could manage to see were his claws on the ground in front of me.

He cleared his throat and walked away.

“As I was saying, we will need at least five million bits in the next three months.” He said, “At the end of the second month, I will give you our location and you will bring the bits.” He explained with a chuckle. “In the mean time, me and the boys will have our fun with her. You remember the fighting club, don’t you Ricco?”

His voice sent chills down my spine, and the freezing water didn’t help. What was that he said about two months? He was going to keep me for two months and then give me back? What kind of ‘fun’ had he been talking about?

So many questions circled around in my head.

I was sat back up straight.

“I didn’t think you liked ponies, Ricco.” The griffon said, inhaling near my mane. “I can see why... I always have liked my girls... tight.”

The lights were turned off all at once and the world came into view very slowly, I was surrounded by griffon’s, all watching me with evil smiles. The griffon in front of me seemed different than the rest, he had black and white feathers and silver fur, he looked like some kind of royalty.

I followed his gaze to his chest, then down, then down some more until I was met with a horrendous sight.

The griffon had seemingly been... excited by this whole ordeal and had grown fully erect. I was in awe as he picked up the wooden chair I was in and broke off the legs so I was sitting much lower to the ground, and I knew exactly why.

He was at least six or seven hoof lengths easily, with a width that would make any pony jealous. Something like that would tear me in half.

I looked up at him with pleading eyes, which seemingly made him smile brighter.

“Please...” I said, trying to move away.

He moved me against a wall and stood himself up, shoving his putrid length into my face. I put my head down and tried to scoot against the wall to get away.

When I failed to comply he grabbed the sides of my head and pressed hard against them, the pressure on my skull started to hurt instantly, the sides of my head felt like they were being crushed.

I gritted my teeth and tried to think about something other than the pain, but it hurt so badly it made me want to scream, but I didn’t want to open my mouth at all.

After a few seconds, he let go and growled angrily. He looked back at the camera and smiled.

“She’ll give in soon, she won’t have any choice but to eat somehow.”

I thought about what he said for a second, then squeezed my eyes closed, not wanting to imagine what he was talking about, even though I already knew.