“Hey Esmerelda!!” I called as I touched down on the entrance to her cave. I heard a lot of shifting from inside.

“Sharky? Is that you? I didn’t even call for you...” Her voice rumbled out from the depths of the cave.

“Yeah, sorry, but I need your help.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble! As long as you don’t mind doing something for me...”

“Uhh, sure. What?”

“Well, actually it’d be more accurate if I said ‘do something TO me...’”

“Okay, what?”

“Well, I want you.”

“... Toooooo?”

“Do me.”

“A favor?”

“No, just me.”

“... Look, I don’t have time for word games. There are four unconscious gryffin assassins in my friend’s house and I need you to help me carry them to the Empire before they wake up and kill my friends.”

“... My request can wait, take me to the house, quickly!” Esmerelda dashed out of the cave and launched herself into the air, clearly willing to put the needs of a fundamental stranger above her own. I felt pretty proud of her at that moment. Then I ran and jumped off of the cliff myself before winging my way in front of her to show her the way.

-----------------------------------------------

“Hiii guys!” I shouted as I approached RD’s house. Thunderous wing beats sounded behind me. RD and Gilda stuck their heads out of the house only to gasp and squeal a little as they took in the pure size of Esmerelda. “I’ll get the bodies and be right back Esmerelda!”

“What?!” I had forgotten her head was way above me. I flew up to her head and repeated myself. This time she just nodded and I flew into the house. Soon afterward, Esmerelda was holding all the gryffins and we were ready to go. The girls came out of the house and I turned to Gilda.

“Hey Gilda, which direction is the empire?”

“How the fuck should I know?”

“... What?”

“Dude, moving empire. I have no idea where it is.”

“... Dang it. Well, I’m sure if we go back to where it was last, we’ll at least be able to see where it went.” The girls nodded in agreement. “So where was it last?”

“What?! I thought you’d know!” Gilda screeched.

“How the hell would I know? I was wandering aimlessly when I found you and you took me to the empire! I have no idea which direction I was headed, or which direction you took me!”

“Hmph... Well, I think I remember the way I took to get here, so we can just go back that way.”

“Ok Gilda, lead the way!” RD shouted over Esmerelda’s wing beats. Gilda turned to the east and started flying, the rest of us in pursuit.

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Hours later, we were all resting on Esmerelda’s back while she kept going at her surprisingly fast flight speed. Her endurance was amazing. We had finally reached the ocean, and I stroked RD’s neck as I looked to the horizon for signs of the kingdom. Dash and Gilda were both laying on either side of my lap, dead tired. I wasn’t totally unwinded myself, but I wasn’t exhausted either. Esmerelda’s head was dead set on the north-eastern horizon.

“Hey! I think I see it!” She called. I squinted in the direction she was staring, but I couldn’t see anything. Gilda lifted her head off my lap and peered in the direction Esmerelda indicated.

“Hey, yeah! That’s it!” Gilda agreed. I leaned forward and tried to see what they saw, but to no avail. RD looked just about as confused as me, but the others were dead set on the horizon. After a few more minutes of flying, a little squiggle showed up on the horizon. I facepalmed as I realized that the others had much better vision than me and RD. Being half-eagle and a dragon, their eyes were bound to be much stronger than mine.

“Oh yeah, that’s it!” RD agreed as the squiggle grew and expanded to include the edges of the horizon to both the left and right, once again amazing me with the sheer size of the cloud continent. I frowned suddenly as I realized that we hadn’t heard a single peep from the assassins the whole flight. I flew gently away from Esmerelda and below her to see her talons. Sure enough, the gryffins were all clinging to her limbs for dear life, too terrified to even dare to move.

“What bitches... Well... cowards will be cowards I suppose.” I flew back to Esmerelda’s back and grinned at RD. “Well, you enjoying your day?”

“Heck yeah! This is more exciting than another day clearing clouds, that’s for sure!”

“Well, that’s good... Wanna race to the empire and warn them that the oncoming dragon is friendly?”

“You had me at ‘race’.” She grinned and spread her wings eagerly. In an instant, we both blasted off of Esmerelda full speed.

“Bwah!” Esmerelda shrieked as she actually rocked back in mid-air from the combined forces of our takeoffs. My takeoff power was higher than RD’s, so I had a little distance on her in the beginning. As the kingdom came into focus, RD actually started gaining on me! I forced myself to fly even harder, flapping as if my life depended on it. By the time that we actually touched down on the kingdom, she was dead even with me.

“What’s up Sharky, gettin’ slow already?” RD teased. She knew she would have won if the race had been any longer.

“I... I don’t know... I’m supposed to be just as fast as you!” RD seemed to think for a moment.

“Maybe it’s all your muscles.” She offered. “They might weigh you down or mess with your wings or something.”

“Hey! It’s the hero!” A gryffin called.

“Dammit, is it too much to ask for them to at least know my name?” I groaned. I turned to the quickly growing crowd of gryffins. “Hey! I need to tell you all something!” I roared over the increasingly loud crowd. The cluttered rumble that had been coming from them settled down to a loud collection of whispers. “Look, there’s a FRIENDLY dragon on the way here...” The group seemed to suddenly get nervous.

“F-friendly?” One gryffin piped up nervously.

“Nah, it’s here to destroy you and fuck bitches... I think you’ve got enough bitches.” The gryffins suddenly started freaking out, screaming and taking off in random directions. I shouted and ran around trying to get them to calm down, but all I managed to do is look stupid. I had totally lost control of the situation.

“Well... that could've gone better...” RD observed. I glared at her.

“Yeah, I never would have guessed.” I sighed heavily. “Well, at least when Esmerelda actually shows up they won’t be able to hurt her....” A bunch of gryffins dressed in plain steel armor ran out to the edge of the cloud, led by a frantic civilian gryffin. They were working together to haul a huge ballista and aim it at Esmerelda.

“... Can that hurt her?” RD asked nervously. I groaned as they loaded an enormous bolt into it.

“Yes, I’m willing to bet it can.” I darted over to the soldiers. “Hey! Stop! That dragon is with me!” Three more ballistas appeared nearby, along with a huge amount of soldiers that weren’t pulling ballistas. Obviously this was some sort of prepared dragon response team. One of the gryffins turned to me with an angry scowl. He was the only one wearing full armor, rather than a breastplate and helmet like the others.

“You brought that thing here?!” He screamed as he turned to me. I frowned as I realized that he was the guard captain I had gotten into a bar fight with. His scowl deepened as he realized who I was. “Hey! Grrrr.... Get him! He’s allied with the enemy dragon!” He roared to his subordinates. I facepalmed.

“Really? You wanna go for a second round bro? Alright, but remember you brought this on yourself!” I brought up both of my fists defensively. I didn’t want to kill them, so my bare hands were my only real option. However, none of the gryffins charged me. The captain whirled around angrily.

“What’re you doing?! I said get him!” He raged. The gryffins didn’t look like they wanted to disobey him, but they seemed more afraid of me.

“But... he’s the hero!” One soldier shouted. The captain growled.

“Yes, of EQUESTRIA!!! We’re the GRYFFIN EMPIRE! Thus, he is the enemy! Now get him!”

“Enemy? Dude, I’m here because I captured some gryffins that tried to assassinate the freaking princess. The dragon is a kind dragon, she’s just carrying the captives.”

“Lies! Don’t try to lure us into a false sense of security!” The captain seemed to only be getting angrier, but the rest of the soldiers seemed to be torn.

“Look, how’s this? I’ll let you put restraints on me, cuffs or whatever. You hide these ballistas behind some buildings. When the dragon comes, if it attacks, kill it and I’ll let you execute me. If it doesn’t, let me go and leave peacefully.” The captain seemed to not like the idea, but there was an overwhelming agreement from the others. ”WHAT?! You’re just gonna let him tie us up like a bitch?!!”

“Grrrr.... FINE!” The captain conceded angrily. This guy had a lot of anger in him. I moved to him and allowed him to tie me up. He seemed to take great joy in hog-tying me, simply trying to embarrass me. I actually was a little upset, but I didn’t really let it bother me. I think he tried to tighten the knots to be painful, but again, I wasn’t really bothered. RD ran over to me soon afterward.

“What the heck did you do to him?!” She screeched. “Let him go! No--”

“RD, calm down! I’m just doing this until Esmerelda gets here and proves she’s nice.” I interrupted. I guessed she hadn’t seen our agreement.

“What?! Are you kidding me?! This is ridiculous! You’re just gonna let them do this to you?!”

“That’s what I said! Trust me, Esmerelda will get here, be nice, and everything will be fine.”

“I know it’ll all be fine, but why the buck are you letting them do this to you?! You’re not some criminal that needs to be tied up!”

“I know, but they don’t trust me, so I’m going to give them a reason to trust me.”

“They shouldn’t need a reason! You’re a hero! Even these dumb gryffins should know that!” RD gained a few angry stares from some nearby soldiers as they moved a ballista behind a building.

“Uhh... RD, calm down a bit. You’re gonna get jumped or something if you keep going like that.”

“I don’t care! This is an outrage!”

“Calm the hell down! It’ll be over in a few minutes.” RD still seethed with anger, but she sat down beside me huffily rather than continuing to scream. By the time I had lost all feeling in my hands, I heard Esmerelda’s thunderous wingbeats approaching. It wasn’t heralded by screaming, so I assumed the guards had cleared citizens out of the immediate area. The beats came to a halt over head.

“... Sharky?” Esmerelda called out nervously. “Where are you?” She whipped her head around, searching for me. After a few minutes of searching, the captain hissed in displeasure.

“Yer right, I know a harmless pansy when I see one, and she’s one.” He admitted. He reached to untie my bonds, but I simply strained my arms and legs and snapped the rope. He grunted. “Showoff...”

“Showoff? Yeah, you’re right, I guess I was showing off a little. Anyway, Esmerelda!” I shouted back to her. She managed to hear me over her loud wings.

“Oh! There you are! Can I set these gryffins down now and land? My wings are getting tired...”

“Uhhh, hey, you guys.” I addressed the soldiers. “Can you do me a favor and restrain these gryffins when the dragon sets them down? They’re the assassins.” A few of them nodded and stepped forward to volunteer their services. I gave Esmerelda a thumbs-up. She stared at me for a while, clearly not understanding the gesture. I rolled my eyes and flew up to her.

“Well, can I put them down now?” She whined a little. I laughed.

“That’ll do Esmerelda, that’ll do.” She gave me another blank stare. “... Just put them down.” She dropped them right away, letting them fall to the cloud. Once they had been tackled and tied up, Esmerelda dropped to the cloud exhaustedly. I landed next to her face and patted her snout thankfully. She exhaled lightly and smiled at me in return.

“A-anyway, where d-do you want us to ta-take these guys?” A soldier asked behind me. His voice was broken not by stutters, but small noises of exertion as his captive wrestled against him.

“Well, unless I’m mistaken, the king would like to see his daughter...” I began to explain as Gilda leapt off of Esmerelda and walked over to me. “And meet the ones that tried to kill her.”

---------------------------------------------------

“Thank you for bringing them to me.” The king grumbled as the assassins kneeled in front of him. They were tied with more rope than needed to restrain even me. The soldiers that had helped me carry them had been dismissed, and Esmerelda was waiting where she had collapsed on the cloud. Gilda was standing unnecessarily close to me, which meant I had to keep a hand on RD to keep Gilda from breaking my link to her.

“No problem sir, they gave me the name of their employer as well, if you’d like to hear it.” The king’s face was quickly taken over by a huge smile.

“Then they have no use to me as prisoners... Guards! Take these maggots to the Arena...” The gryffins that stood near the throne leapt into motion, grabbing and dragging away the assassins. They immediately started screaming for mercy and begging for forgiveness. Which struck me as odd. “Now, tell me the name.” My attention snapped back to the king.

“Byron, they called him Byron.” The king’s expression filled with confusion.

“What? That’s not possible...” He muttered.

“What’s not possible sir?” He turned to me with a vacant expression.

“Byron... Byron is dead.”

“Well, so am I technically. Twice over. Look where I am now.” The king waved a talon dismissively.

“Begone warrior. I appreciate the capture of the assassins and the return of my daughter. Be assured your deeds will not go unrewarded, and leave with the knowledge that Gilda will be safe now.”

“Darn right she’ll be safe, because she’s staying with me.” The fire returned to the king’s eyes and he looked to be barely refraining from growling.

“Excuse me, whelp? Who do you think you are to come in here and tell me what will happen to my daughter?”

“Easy, I’m the freaking hero of Equestria. Who better than me to protect her? My reputation alone should provide ample protection.” The large gryffin snorted at me.

“Pfft, hero of a bunch of weak ponies. Any gryffin warrior could pull off looking like a hero among those softies.”

“Oh really?” I asked with slight strain in my voice. “Then how about you send me a real gryffin warrior so I can fight him? Then we’ll see if your claim holds true.” I still didn’t think much of myself as a hero, but I knew I could own any gryffin this guy sent to me. Instead of getting angry like I expected, he grinned at me.

“I have a much better idea...” He turned in the direction the guards had gone. “Guards! Come to me!” He turned back to me. “We have another volunteer for the Arena!”