Prologue:

Ricco

An underground arena bustled with activity. Music blared in the background, but all the real attention was down at the pit, some would say. The pit was just a sandy floored area surrounded by rickety wood planks. Two griffons were fighting claw to claw inside. If you don’t know anything about griffon fights, no holds are barred. This was a fight to one of them were knocked out, or even dead in some cases. One Griffon was easily twice the weight of the other, who was trying to use his small size to his advantage. The bigger of the two swept a claw and tripped the smaller, then slammed into its side, pushing out all the air in its stomach.  The bigger picked the smaller up and  threw him into the side, snapping some planks like twigs. An announcer blared from a radio somewhere.

“RICCO THE CRUSHER WINS AGAIN!!!” The announcer shouted, “CAN ANYONE STOP THIS ROUGH AND TUMBLE GRIFFON?!?!

As I was in question I decided to said nothing. I just walked to the other side of the arena and slumped down, taking another drink from my Cider. A random griffon jumped down from the crowd into the pit. the crowd roared.

“I’ll fight ‘em.” The new griffon said.

“It seems we have a challenger.” the announcer said, “Let’s get this thing started!”

I immediately got up and  kicked the other griffon to the ground. When the griffon tried to get up, I punched his face, sending the him right back down.

“T-That’s not fair!” The griffon said, holding his nose.

“All’s fair in a fight to the death!” I said, before kicking sand into the griffon’s eyes.

I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and smashed his head into another side of the arena, knocking him unconscious. The announcer blared loudly again.

“NO ONE CAN STOP THIS GRIFFON FOR ALL IT’S WORTH!!” The announcer said.

I was tired of all the noise and fighting, I’ve probably paid for this month’s rent, and today’s dinner twofold with all of these matches. I spread my wings and  jumped over the barrier and walked away, not looking back until I got to the winnings table.  When I did, the other griffons didn’t say a word. I picked up the forty thousand bits and walked out and flew to my apartment. When I reached my door, I looked to see if the paper had fallen from the opening between the door and the wall.

Of course it hadn’t.

I looked back up and opened the door, closing and locking it before doing anything. I walked over to the closet and opened it to find my flintlock pistol, peppered and loaded for anything. I looked over to the weapon I’d had no use for yet. It was like a musket, but had a longer barrel. It also had a telescopic lens on the top of the firing mechanism.

Knock, knock, knock.

I picked up and hid my flintlock pistol in my wing. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. It was the griffon from the ring, the one I kicked sand into. I open the door and hold it open with one hand.

“What?” I said, trying to sound uninterested.

“Give me my money back.” He gritted through his teeth.

“No.” I said, I put my hand on the trigger.

“You cheated.” The griffon unfurled his wings

“No, I didn’t.” I said again, pulling the firing pin back.

“YES YOU DID!” The griffon pulled out a shotgun.

But I was faster.

A .75 caliber round dug into the griffon’s skull, not leaving the other side. He dropped, dead, to the ground. I simply closed the door and waited.

…

…

…

AHHHHHHHH!

“There we go.”

I picked up my things, as quickly as possible. dismantled the strange weapon and put it into a bag, along with a few days worth of food, a nice suit I’d had forever, never finding a time to wear it, and my bowie knife. I took down everything I’d taped up over the years. I took out one of my primary feathers and placed it in the front of the door. I thought it over, and decided it was a good idea to take out my bowie knife and hide it in my feathers. I looked over the room one last time. Everything still out was replaceable.

Knock, knock, knock.

I looked at the door, then to the window. The window seemed more friendly than the door right now. I covered my front with my wings and lunged through the window. I opened my wings as soon as I heard the door give way.

“Hey!” One called. The accent was different than my own, but I couldn’t place it.

I was at least thirty meters away from my home when I felt myself fall over, it was like a gigantic wasp had stung me on the wing, I felt the ‘venom’ streak through the rest of my body. I was shaking, face-first in the dirt, cursing from the pain.

I heard movement behind me, I tried to unfurl my wing, but only found it numb. The Flintlock had fallen at my side, I made an attempt to reach for it, but it was kicked away before I could get my claws on it.

I didn’t see claws, or paws smacking it away. I saw hooves, large, but weak looking, pony hooves.

“W-w-what... the f-fuck...” I said.

The male pony grabbed under my beak and stared me in the eyes, speaking quickly and aggressively.

“Are you Ricco Porvet?” He asked.

“And what if I am?” I countered breathlessly.

“Look, I don’t care what went down back there, I only care who you are and if you are the Griffon I am looking for.” He said, squeezing my wing with his unicorn magic.

“Yeah, so what?” I said, not thinking about the pain.

The pony dropped my wing and pulled me up, I stood a bit taller than him, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to my size.

“I need you to come with me.”

“Last time someone said that to me, and I listened, I was beaten senseless in the back of a shed.” I said, surprising the unicorn with my bowie knife.

The unicorn looked down at the blade, but looked back up at me.

“Well I assure you, Princess Celestia won’t be hosting any private beatings to any griffons.” He said. “It is against our way to torture.”

Well, I did recognise the name Celestia.

“You say that now.” I said, putting the bowie knife away.

“Ricco, Celestia needs you,” He said. “Do you know what the Elements of Harmony are?”

“Sure...” I said, “but why do I care?”

“Because you’ll get a good pay to get them back.” He said. “And, judging by your ego, it will be easy peasy.”

“Okay, smarty pants, which type of the Elements of Harmony do I have to save, the ponies themselves, or the stupid necklaces?” I asked, I only act stupid to throw people off.

The stallion chuckled to himself for a second, then looked up with what looked like a tear in his eye. “Fuckin’ both.” He said.

“Huh, need to think about this for a second.” I said, pretending to be thinking.

“No time to think, we have to act.” He said. “I will teleport you to Celestia directly, we have two others working with you to get them back, once the deed is done, you can get your pay, and go back to this place.”

His horn flared up with magic before I could speak, a blinding light threw me away from him and I felt a spinning sensation. Then, just as fast as I could contemplate what was happening, I was someplace far different.

Two ponies sat in front of me, a large, white mare with both a horn and wings, sitting upon a great throne, and a smaller, pink mare with only wings. She stared at me for a few seconds, then turned away, showing off the back of what now looked like light armor.

“Well fuck you too.” I said to the pink mare, then turned to the white mare, “Celestia, I presume?” Next Chapter: Prologue: Cloud Skipper Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes