(Lumix, Thirty seventh , Nine Hundred and Ninety fifth Celestial Reckoning, Galloping range, Two hours flight from Highreach, one day’s flight from Hard Stone.)

‘Heh so long dweebs, can’t believe those idiots fell for the old document switch, ‘bout damn time I got out of the feathering militia. Now to get this letter delivered to the guard captain at hard stone, and I’m free.’ Gilda thought as she soared over the mountainous terrain along the griffon border of Equestria. Looking below, the young griffon could see massive expanses of green forest covering mountainsides below. Small lines cutting through the forest, revealing the long expansive stretches of road between settlements.

‘Once I’m out of the local perch, the first thing I’m gonna do is search for my featherbrained friend and keep her out of trouble’ The griffon spots a flash of purple as she passes over a more open area of the forest. ‘Hmm…’ Pausing in her flight, the courier satchel wrapped around her midsection, bounces softly at her hips while hovering. Fluttering her wings slightly, she turns herself around and glances in the direction of the clearing she had seen the pony, only to find weeds and field mice. ‘Must’ve been my imagination.’

Turning back around, the young griffon flairs her wings wide, and shoots off like a rocket. Her path leading her along the road, towards the great fortress of Highreach. Weaving and pinwheeling past trees like a speeding bullet, cloud pillars begin to replace tree tops. A finish line is beaconed off in the far off in the distance, a condensation barrier forms just above her head. Flight goggles appear around her eyes along with a familiar uniform worn during her school years with her good pegasus friend.

Suddenly another pegasus in uniform appears next to her, grinning in challenge, Gilda begins pumping her wings for speed. Her body flowing like the wind as she presses herself faster and faster across the cloud field, dodging around cloud pillars and pulling over bars, The pegasus however over takes her, flying just ahead before turning over onto his back and flying backwards and giving her the most horse apple snear she’d ever seen.

Grimacing, Gilda pumps her wings even harder, pushing herself even faster as she tries to catch up with the cocky speedster. ‘Only one pony ever beats Gilda Steelfeather in a race, and she’s not you.’ Gilda rages as she shoots past the cocky pegasus, forcing him to roll back onto his stomach as he tries desperately to get back into the race. Gilda grins as she looks back at the pegasus, seeing him fall far behind. Returning to her rhythm, dodging and weaving amongst the cloud pillars, avoiding the occasional bar of cloud trying to block her path.

Gilda grins widely, feeling the wind flow past her face, and over her feathers. the feeling of flight just helping her move onward past the intense burning of her flight muscles. ‘Nothing can beat this.’ She thinks before a brown sheft, flies through the lower cloud barrier, missing her by inches, as she wheels around it. ‘What the-’ ”Buck!” Suddenly the world around her goes up like smoke, the clouds disappearing in a flash and the feeling of the junior speedster flight suit replaced with that of her heavy leather scout barding.

Another streak of brown bursts through the air, this time stabbing into the armor around Gilda’s shoulder. “Gah.” A beam of blue magic Soars through the air and bounces off a clear shield that forms around her, the crystal around her neck glowing slightly as it deflects another hostile spell. Reaching behind her back, Gilda grasps her weapon of choice, her precious custom job talons, A pair of gauntlet shaped claws, that wrapped around her original talons extending their reach and sharpness.They glowed with a silvery sheen as the enchanted metal took effect, making sure the talons never came off unless she willed them to. Reaching around her back once more, Gilda pulls out her Tribalistæ, A crossbow with three cross pieces, and a trigger for each on the main grip, the bow itself already loaded with exploding tipped bolts.

Smiling wickedly, Gilda flies forward into the target zone of her new opponents, Taking aim at a nearby pony, with a blue coat and green mane. With a simple twitch of her foretalon, the first bolt fly’s from her bow, finding a new home in the ground next to the earth pony’s foreleg. “Shards.” She cursed silently as she passes the pony, wheeling out of the way of several bolts that had been launched in retaliation. Another glowing spell bolt bounces off Gilda’s shield before she can finish passing through the blockade of projectiles. Finally seeing the end of the assault range, the griffon presses her wings for more speed, trying her hardest to escape the attacking bandits below. However as she passes the last unicorn, a shadow passes above her. Before Gilda has even a chance to react, a set of claws rake across the plumage of Gilda’s left wing, luckily only pulling tufts of blumage with them.

“Gah, My wing. Molting eggshells, you molting feather brains are in for it now. I’ll make you wish you had never been hatched!” Gilda screeches as she folds her wings and dives after the griffon that had startled her, not giving any more attention to the opposition on the ground as she gives chase after her feather stealing rival. Wings spread wide, Gilda pulls her crossbow forward, aiming her remaining two loaded shots just ahead of her opponent, and fires the first one, on his first twitch, Gilda aims forward and a bit more to the left pulling the trigger and releasing the third bolt into the air. Her aim unerring in midair, Gilda watches with grim amusement as the first bolt passes harmly as her opponent pinwheels into the seconds path, causing it to strike right in the joint between his left wing and it’s socket.

With a slight nod to herself, she kicks herself into action, and dives even faster towards her stunned opponent, With her steel clad claws outstretched towards her victim, pony crafted projectiles passing both above and underneath her as she approaches the earth below at an alarming rate. At the last second, Gilda reaches the hawk, Swiping her talons forward, Gilda spreads her wings and shoots across the ground at a dizzying speed, for a few seconds before she’s able to pull back up into the air, warm life fluids drip from her claws as she grips the shredded remnants of the other griffons throat. As the world comes back into focus, Gilda finally begins to notice several points of flaring pain along her body, the most painful one being in her wing, taking the form of an arrow that had pierced through the appendage while she was rolling out of her dive. Several other wounds were spread across her body, most of them being grazing injuries. One however turned out to be a piercing bind, with a bolt getting lodged into her right hind leg. “Ugh!” She groans trying to move the limb while climbing away from the ‘ground plodders’ killzone. “Aaaagnh!” Pain flairs suddenly through her other wing as a telekinetically thrown blade pierces through the feathers and skin of the appendage.

“Feathering hornheads! My hawking wings,” ‘I can’t believe they got my hawking wings. Falling! Gotta control my fall.’ Flaring her wings straight out, Gilda tries to control her descent, as she falls down from the air. “Ssssssss...” She hisses as the wind finally catches on her feathers, keeping her aloft even as the gentlest breeze burns her wound like a pair of meat hooks pulling the skin apart. Gilda’s vision begins to fade as the ground rushes towards her, with a final jerk of her wings, she lands… Well more crashes with grace, if even that. Tumbling head over heel over rough gravelly ground, before slamming into a tree and bending her spine slightly around it, what breath remained in her lungs was knocked out by the sudden jolt.

After half a second of stunned shock, Gilda finally manages a great gasp, filling her lungs once more with much needed oxygen. Coughing a bit, Gilda tries to regain her footing, her padded scout armor deflecting a bolt from one of the bandit ponies that managed to finally catch up with her position. Looking up, Gilda sees the earth ponies sillouette against the backdrop of a midday sun.The wounded griffon tries to take a step back and feels her left hind paw brush against the bark of the tree she had just hit, looking into her left claw, she notices that she had dropped her crossbow at some point. ‘Damn, all I have left are throwing knives and three feathering shock runes.’

Crouching low, Gilda barely avoids another bolt aimed straight for her head with only a pause to unlatch another knife from her belt, with a flick of her wrist, the lethal three inches of griffon steel buries itself into the ponies throat just as he finishes reloading his hoof mounted crossbow. He falls over as he attempts to both stem the bleeding from his throat with one hoof while aiming towards Gilda with the other. Gilda pays no more attention to the dying pony as she grasps one of the shock runes from her flight satchel, and whispers the activation word into the rune, before tossing it over the hill where she had been hearing more movement. “Daggertail watch out!” A pony calls out just as the glowing rune crests over the top of the hill and out of Gilda’s sight, followed by a brilliant flash accompanied with a crackling sound.

Exhausted and bleeding, Gilda begins trekking towards the hill she had tossed the rune, intending to finish off whoever had received the brunt of her lightning grenade. Before she can reach the top, the shadow of a pony falls upon her as one of her opponents crests the top of the hill. Not even looking towards the unicorn depicted in the shadow, Gilda flicks another knife at the pony, while coiling her three working limbs for a leap. At the distinct fizzle of an object being deflected by a magical barrier, Gilda springs into action, leaping forward. She nearly closes the distance, falling short by a couple feet, however the unicorn cries out and falls to the ground as Gilda’s amulet reacts by dispelling the shield and shocking the unicorn with it’s residual energie’s. Limping forward Awkwardly, Gilda reaches down and forces her claws through the ponies neck, and pulls out several spinal vertebrae before he can get back up and be a threat again.

At the sound of gravel crunching, Gilda rises and reaches for another of her daggers, while trying to focus on the location of her next target, however before she can even react, she’s struck with something heavy slamming her to the ground, A blue field pulls the great warhammer away. Armor cracked along with her lungs, Gilda struggles as she pushes herself over to the right, barely dodging the second swing of the great melee weapon. Pushing herself to a standing position, Gilda glances upon the now visible opponent. Standing just at the top of the hill is a black coated stallion with pink and yellow highlights running through his lavender mane. He has a cutiemark resembling A trio of rose petals. With a furious snarl he telekinetically lifts the hammer once more pulling it back again for another strike.

However fast he was, Gilda was faster, pulling her foreleg up, Gilda reaches into the pouch containing her throwing knives. ‘only one left?’ Glancing down, Gilda sees a small collection of her knives scattered below, but even as she glances, she goes through the motion and tosses the knife with a flick of her wrist. The gravel shifts underneath her, and she over corrects, missing the throat by inches, however instead she hears a cry from above, as the pony collapses onto the ground his hammer landing on top of him and pinning him to the soil below. The severed length of his horn bounces down the hill along side the knife gilda had thrown, The stallion looks up in fear as Gilda approaches his prone form, grasping one of her scattered knives along the way.

Lifting the knife into the air, she hesitates for a second, listening for any other nearby noises as the stallion below her begins whimpering, apologizing below her while begging her to spare him. Hearing nothing, Gilda stabs the knife down hard into the base of his skull. The three and a half inch blade piercing all the way through his neck, silencing him for good. Gilda, seeing the coast is clear, steps over the stallion’s body and reaches for the top of the hill. Just as her eyes peek over the top of the hill, she ducks back down narrowly dodging several bolts aimed towards the ridge. ‘Buck, Out of… knives, Two lightning runes left… Tired, Exhausted… Can’t take much more...’ Wearily lifting one paw off the ground, Gilda reaches into her other pocket, and pulls out both of her lightning charged runes.

Suddenly a dizzy spell surges through her body, causing her to lose balance and fall onto her side, Gilda grasps onto the runes as tightly as she can, assuring that she wouldn’t drop them. After several seconds, the world rights itself around her, and she rolls back onto her stomach, Acting swiftly, Gilda whispers the activation word onto both of the runic tablets. With another breath, Gilda steels herself, with a small grunt of pain, Gilda tosses the glowing runes over the top of the hill. A split second later, several voices barely begin to call out before two flashes and a wall of electrical energy washes over the top of the hill.

Gilda lays there, her vision fading as the last bit of adrenalin finally runs its course through her bloodstream. Voices, shouts from a distance yet close call her attention, yet she cannot answer, due to the sheer exhaustion her body is feeling. Her life blood running down the hill below her mixing with that of the ponies she had slain. Her last scraps of sight are of an orange earth pony reaching the top of the hill and aiming his crossbow straight at her, a flash of purple light and the darkness of sleep finally takes her.

Darkness, a shadow plays on the edge of her vision, even as the world around her remains perfectly pitch black. No source of light to speak of glows in the distance to shine her way, yet she can still see things, nascent shadows within the dark. Time passes with neither beginning or end, the lack of stimulus would drive most creatures insane, yet the single watcher remains unmoved by the lack of true sensory feedback. Her exhaustion expanding even into her mind as her consciousness assembles itself within the dark. After a time a light appears within the darkness, as Gilda’s thoughts finally coalesce into one entity.

With thought finally returned, the realm of dreams finally begins to take shape. fuzzy at first, they take a defined sharp tone as the young griffoness enters into a small pony home. “Hay Rainbow Dash, I’m back dweeb. I even brought your favorite flight suit and goggles.”

“Gilda?” The rainbow maned pegasus responds incredulously as she turns around from her current project and faces the door. “It’s you, I thought I’d never see ya again chickie.”
Rainbow Dash launches herself at Gilda like a bullet arms outstretched for a hug, only to slam face first into the griffon's claw.

Gilda looks upon her friend sadly. “Sorry Dash, maybe in the real world.” As Gilda says this, the dream world explodes into mist and fades away, back into the endless void she had been formed in. however not much later, another shaft of light pierces the darkness as consciousness begins to take her once more into its embrace.

Exhaustedly, Gilda opens her eyes, The blurry world around her somewhat coming into focus yet stubbornly remains vague and occluded. Grunting a bit, Gilda attempts to stand, however before she can even fully lift herself to a sitting position, a dizzy spell overcomes her and she collapses back down.

“I wouldn’t recommend trying again, you’ve lost a lot of blood, and it will take at least a week to replenish enough to sustain your active body, not to mention the strain of flying. I’ve managed to mend your bones back into place with one of my potions, however your muscles need some time to mend properly.” A voice says from the side, a purple hoof appears into Gilda’s peripheral view, and presses down upon her chest. “You should rest for a few more hours, if you push yourself too soon you might end up injuring yourself permanently.” A lavender glowing flask with a bluish white substance within, lowers to her lips. “Here, drink this, it should help replenish your blood.” A suddenly dry throat finalizes Gilda’s decision, with a small movement, she latches her beak over the lip of the lowered flask and drinks greedily of the contents therein.

“Glurk” Suddenly the griffon begins sputtering spilling the azalia flavored concoction over her chest and upon the ground beneath her. “Muffkrrgle” ‘What the feather is that stuff!’ she try’s to say, mumbling. A few strands of the Gooey liquid dripping off the side of her beak. ‘What sort of potion was that, I can barely stand drinking health potions as it is. What kind of fucking healer is this?’ She angrily mulls over in silence for a few moments before the voice returns.

With a resigned sigh, Twilight begins once more. “Now I know the restorative potion doesn’t have the best of tastes, however that is not the point. You need the medicine to heal your wounds and mend your body. Even if the herbal potions I’ve been providing are different from the one you get from your own guard captains.” A second white bottle appears within gilda’s view once more. “It’s a bit easier to drink the potion when you just swallow without trying to taste it.” The glass carefully places itself against Gilda’s beak once more. Opening her mouth as wide as she can, Gilda covers the lip of the flask with as much of it as she can, trying to push the beaker past her tongue before drinking down the liquid as fast as possible. After three gulps the bottle finishes emptying itself down her throat.

The empty beaker pulls itself from Gilda, as the purple blob comes back into view and speaks lightly. “Now rest, you’ll need it for tomorrow.”

‘Wait wha...’ the light dims and everything goes dark, underneath a purple field. Gilda falls to sleep before she can even finish the thought.

The first thing Gilda notices as she wakes up is the uncomfortable jerking and bouncing of the floor below her along with the somewhat loud sound of wooden wheels rolling over hard gravelly ground. ‘Where am I?’ is her first thought while lying on her side, as feeling begins to return to her extremities. ‘Ow’ “Ssssssssss-hhhhh” She hisses as the pain of her wounds finally hits her, the jerking of the wagon suddenly stops as her near cry of pain makes itself known.

The bell like tone of magic activating announces the presence of a unicorn much to Gilda’s dismay. ‘Great I’ve just been captured, how dishonorable can this get? they even took my armor, gah this hurts, wait, why am I untied?’ Rasping sounds from the front of the wagon can be heard as the pony that was pulling it is unstrapped, after several moments of silence the board closing the bed of the wagon lowers itself in a magenta field of magic. Revealing a young lavender unicorn mare with a somewhat maintained straight cut mane her chin barely cresting over the wagons lowered gate.

The young inquisitive unicorn, leaps onto the back of the wagon, the structure creaking slightly from the added weight, the pony then walks calmly over to Gilda and begins to look over her bandages, after a few seconds, she finally looks into Gilda’s golden eagle eyes. “Good, you’re finally awake, I apologize for the pain, I ran out of saffron a day ago, and I didn’t have any fellis juice to help you sleep.” the pony’s smile was belied by the pained look in her eyes.

Gilda stares at Twilight with a deadpan gaze, her beak not twitching an inch. “And just who the flying feather are you?” ‘Gah this hurts.’ “besides what are you a healer pony of some kind with the equestrian military?” ‘No uniform, but she could be off duty, really what are the chances? I hope she’s not civilian. That would just.... No, not even going to go there.’

“I’m, sorry?.” Twilight responded with genuine surprise, her eyes widening. Facehoofing, the lavender pony begins to respond. “I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Glimmering Wisp. I’m a traveling alchemist, I’m glad I made it in time, those bandits almost had you.” Twilight smiles with a somewhat more sincere joy in her complexion.

Gilda groans, slamming the back of her head into the bed of the wagon, and instantly regretting it as a headache begins to set in just beneath her right temple. ‘I hope she’s not… Only one way to find out Gilda you old chic.’ Looking back up at Twilight, Gilda gives the purple mare a serious look over before sighing and asking the question bugging her from the depths of her mind. “Please tell me, do we atleast have some local guards or at least a pony ranger near by.” The confused look Twilight returns to Gilda’s question confirms the griffons worst fears. Slamming her head back down the griffon just groans even louder than before.

A worried look of concern colors Twilight’s features as she looks at the griffons strange actions. “Um, miss… Miss, I’m sorry but, what’s wrong?”

Gilda looks up at the young unicorn above her, Lifting her working left foreleg to her head and rubbing her temple soothingly a few seconds before she responds. “What’s wrong? What’s WRONG! What's wrong is the fact that I, Gilda Steelfeather of the Iron claw clan am now bound by oath to surrender a life pact to a pony. You specifically for being the one to save me in a dire situation.” Gilda gives Twilight a look that could cut straight through glass cleanly. “I was trying to climb out of the Talon wings with an honorable discharge, but not like this.” With another frustrated grunt, Gilda slams her working hand into the side of the wagon she had been laying in.

Ears splayed back, Twilight asks. “Is there any way I can avoid taking your life?”

Gilda gives twilight an incredulous glance before slamming her unbandaged arm against her forehead and releasing a slightly forced laugh. “Oh come on, if it were possible I’d be doing my damndest to trick you into releasing my sorry flank.”

Head tilting to the side and frowning a little Twilight allows another question to come to her lips. “Why not?”

“My oath to the Talon hierarchy binds me to our code both magically and spiritually. Should a warrior be defeated in battle yet not die, they are to surrender their lives to their foes, being captured by the enemy means you are their play thing until they're done with you, if saved by fellow warriors from either allied forces or your own company doesn’t count. If you are saved by a civilian, then you are to either surrender your life to them, Should the warrior not surrender their lives to the civilian that had saved them, then they are marked and banished unable to return to their home lands lest they be slain on sight.” Grimacing Gilda continues. “There are of course several other situations with similar consequences.”

Twilight gives Gilda a blank stare in response. “Umm… I’d probably understand you better if I knew these words. What is a Civilian exactly also could you explain what you mean by code?” The young filly asks, her brows furrowing in annoyance.

“Wait, seriously? Don’t they teach this kinda stuff in school?” Twilight has the grace to blush slightly in embarrassment at her apparent lack of academic accomplishment. One look is all that Gilda needs to read the thoughts Twilight’s face. “Really, you never went to school?” Gilda asks in shock.

Twilight nods half heartedly, rubbing her leg with a hoof. “I never did make it past my fourth year.”

“Ughh.” Gilda groans dramatically again before pinning Twilight in place with a piercing glare. “Alright but I’m only explaining these once. The Talon code for a trained griffon warrior is keeping ourselves above the regular populous in both skills and morals, and a Civilian is an average creature that would be considered a non combatant, or in most cases non military.”

Twilight frowns slightly her eyes going dark for a second as she mulls over the new information. ‘Military? Hmm that could mean anything, though I think it means something along the design of an organization… Maybe one to protect others from violent gangs such as the one that was about to kill this griffon.’ Looking up at Gilda once more with a small nod Twilight asks her next question. “Would the guard be similar to a Military?”

Gilda rubs her beak with her working foreclaw. “You know what yea lets go with that, anyway they both represent an order of peacekeepers with the official authority to protect and serve the greater needs of the nation or public.” With her arm back down, Gilda glares straight into Twilight’s eyes. “Either way, you are not in an official capacity or a representative of the armed forces of either Equestria or the griffon Aviary States. and as such you are defined as a civilian, and by the magic that binds our oaths, it is demanded of me to surrender my life to you, because I have failed in my duty as a warrior to withstand all foes in the protection of both myself and any civilian nearby.” ‘Ugh I can’t believe how lame that sounded, I mean seriously they had to include a binding on our memories so we remember our oath, Ughh if I could just find the leader of those bandits, I’d break his neck before skinning him and leaving his coat out to dry, while eating his fucking meat.’

Twilight’s horn glows slightly as she feels for the spell held within gilda’s mind, Twilight studies it calmly with a critical eye and finds a few interesting paths in the magical makeup of the spell before releasing the latent spells and cutting off the magical flow through her horn, and begins muttering to herself. “Interesting, I’ve heard that they existed and even read about them, but I’ve never seen an active geas before. So you swore unto a geas upon entering the griffon military?” Twilight says after a few moments of silence.

Gilda simply nods in response.

Her smile widening by the second, Twilight begins to bombard Gilda with Questions. “ Oh, Oh. How was the geas cast? How long has it been active? How does it feel when the geas take control and force you to follow its guidelines? How can you tell when it’s you thats speaking or the geas? What kind of magic was used in it’s casting. What can you tell me...”

As the questions kept coming Gilda felt her rage begin to build, rising at a massive rate until. “SILENCE!” She roars, her feathers bristling while Twilight closes her mouth in the middle of her next question cowed into silence.

“Um sorry. I just really... Like learning new things.” Twilight sheepishly starts again.

Gilda gives up and just leaves her foreleg over her beak, letting out a loud groan. “Ughh, of all my luck, and I get stuck with a bucking book worm.” Suddenly something clicks and Gilda zeroes her focus on Twilight. “Wait a minute,” the young griffoness exclaims pointing a finger at Twilight. “if you didn’t go to school How do you know how to make potions, and for that matter, how do you know enough about medicine to bandage my wounds instead of just washing them out? It just doesn’t add up.”

Twilight raises an eyebrow in response. ‘Really?’ “I trained under a zebra shaman for several years, I was lost in the woods when she found me, I really don’t remember much from before I woke up in the forest.”

Gilda winces slightly, feeling a headache coming on. “So, if you’re a shaman’s apprentice then what are you doing out here and not with her?” The griffon asks reasonably.

Twilight reverts to her usual smile before answering. “I actually graduated from apprentice to journeyer, Now I’m traveling the world and learning what I can before I return to seek out the final test to become a master under her tutelage.” Suddenly the magic surrounding the wagon cuts off as Twilight loses focus while reminiscing over her time with Zecora. With an eep, Twilight is launched off the back of the wagon and flies over Gilda’s head, landing and rolling on the road for a few seconds. Finally having stopped, Twilight stands back up and rushes back over to the wagon and the muffled grunts of it’s griffon occupant. “Are you Okay?” Twilight asks as she ceases her rush and stands above the injured griffon.

“I’ve had worse. Besides what was that for?” Gilda responds sourly.

“Sorry, I kinda got distracted.”

“Ughh, how the heck did you even get this far with such a low attention span?” Gilda screeches flailing her working limb wildly in Twilights direction. “No, don’t answer that! I already have enough of a headache as it is.” Suddenly the wagon jolts as another body perches itself on the back. “What the,” Turning around Gilda looks into the vivid green eyes of a mottled brown scaled drake. with only a seconds realization, “SHIT!” Gilda screeches again as she tries to push herself from the creature.

As Gilda struggles to get away from her perceived threat, messing up her bandages in the process, Twilight scowls at the drake barely standing on the back of the wagon as it chortles at the griffons frantic struggling. Twilight sends several graphic images over her link and watches as the drake stops laughing and starts squirming before flapping his wings and zips away from the scene. ‘You and I will have words later young drake. and there will be no playing around tonight either.’ She sends as well, with a straight face her temper blunted slightly by her need to calm the griffon shivering like a leaf in Fall. Reaching over the side of the wagon, Twilight rubs a hoof along the back of Gilda’s neck and coos softly, “Sorry about that, Fang tends to be jealous of anyone that travels with me.”

Gilda glares at Twilight and opens her big fat beak. “You travel with a shell damned DRAGON! Are you insane?!”

As Gilda regains her breath, Twilight only raises an eyebrow at the griffon’s vehemence. “First, Gilda. Fang is a drake, not a dragon. Second,” Sharp glint appears, cutting through through Twilight’s eyes. “Don’t you dare attempt to injure my son, or I will show you no mercy.” To strengthen the statement, Twilight summons her magic and straightens out the bandages roughly, forcing a muffled screech from the griffon. “Understand?” Twilight smiles as Gilda squeaks a small yes.

Turning around with a small huff, Twilight telekinetically lifts the front of the wagon till it levels with the back, then begins strapping it to herself in silence. After double checking that the straps are properly tied and tightened, Twilight begins traveling down the road.

Her head resting on the side of the wagon, Gilda watches as Twilight silently pulls the wagon, the only strong noise coming from the rumbling wheels of the wagon. A sympathetic grinding of the gears in gildas head causes thoughts to begin pestering her, one at the top of the list being ‘How can a pony with hooves move so quietly over the gravel covering this road, especially with my weight and the wagons added to her own?’ Lazily Gilda looks down at the pony’s legs, expecting to see bare hooves Gilda is surprised to see small leather shoes covering her legs almost half the way up. With this baffling surprise, Gilda begins to look closer at her new companion and finds many new interesting discoveries, such as a network of scars covering the lavender ponies back just under the skin, with the near perfect vision of an eagle she is also able to note the perfect polishing of the lavender pony’s horn, not as a sign of vanity but as most trained griffons have learned, a perfectly polished horn is only representative of either a princess, or an archmage strength unicorn. ‘The elder was right, these ponies are crazy, shells this unicorn probably slaughtered those bandits that almost killed me damn it, the geas still demands that I surrender to her, even if she is strong enough to take down a wing of our best, she’s still a civilian.’

The wagon bounces over a rough patch causing gilda to blink once then roll off the side and back into the bed of the wagon, taking care not to aggravate her injuries in the process. ‘Damn that horn was terrifying, what did my old teacher in magic tell me? Oh right, “Only a unicorn that uses massive amounts of magic on a daily basis can have a horn that smooth.“ I think if I remember correctly the magic burns the horn clean… I really wonder? Would it be so bad to be bound to a pony like this? I mean atleast she can hold her own in a fight if what I saw of her wounds said anything about her prowess. That’s not even talking about physical strength, I don’t even think our strongest would be able to walk this quietly with as much weight as wagon and myself put together, not to mention whatever is in those saddlebags of hers.’ Quietly, Gilda mutters. “Who is this pony.”

Twilight’s ear twitches as the utterance is spoken. Several minutes later the silence is broken as well as Gilda’s reverie by Twilight’s spoken words. “If you wish to know, I am actually a bit more trained than your average alchemist, I was taught by a Zebra shamaness, Unlike your average potion brewer, she taught me the ways of how to harness the powers of all the magic around me instead of just the plants I brew, such as concentrating the fire around us into light without the use of my horn.” As demonstration, a soft blue glow of light coalesces before Gilda’s eyes without even a flicker from Twilight’s horn.

“What the? bu-How!?” ‘I’ve never seen a unicorn use this type of magic before. Maybe the Runemasters in the sisterhood of the sun, but definitely not a unicorn.’ Gildas jaw hung open at the blatant defiance of some of the fundamentals of pony magic she had learned from a young age. Taking a calming breath the griffon starts again. ”How did you learn such magic? I thought only Griffoness runemasters could summon spells without alicorn foci?”

Walking down the road holding a smile filled with her familiarity at the subject Twilight answers. “Actually Casting without a horn is possible for all creatures since each one has magic at it’s core, however to harness this magic more effectively, A group of ponies called unicorns developed horns as a form of protection from the dangers of the natural world. I learned how to cast magic through my body rather than just my horn from my mentor, she taught it to me as a way of helping me control my magic more carefully.”

Gilda stares blankly at the glowing light for a few seconds as the wheels of the cart grind softly along the ground, she jolts again as another piece of information clicks into place. “Wait, since when do zebra shamen teach ponies their sacred arts.”

Before the griffon could spend another second panicking Twilight responds. “They don’t, I’m technically not a pony anymore, I may have been born as one, but after I had gotten lost in the everfree forest I came across a group of timberwolves who had destroyed my natural magic, in most cases that would kill a normal pony, however I had just awoken from a strange and powerful magical event or so my mentor told me, as a result I had lost all sense of direction and was lost until I came across a clearing and stumbled across my mentor’s home. ” A nostalgic smile spreads across Twilights face. “She took me in and took care of me, after a few days my memory still hadn’t returned and I didn’t remember enough to know whether I would be able to find them or not, so I stayed and eventually become her apprentice.”

“If you’re her apprentice then why are you out here?” The griffon asks stumped.

“Don’t you remember what I said before? I graduated from apprentice status and am now a journeyer learning from the world until I learn enough to return for my final mastery test.”

Gilda slaps a paw to her face as she remembers the little bit from earlier. “Fine but if you're a journeyer then why are you on the outskirts of Equestria? The border regions are dangerous!”

Twilight raises an eyebrow at the last statement. “Dangerous?”

“Yes.”

Twilight releases a small gust of air from her lungs before speaking again. “I honestly haven’t noticed a difference. The world out here is actually a bit safer than the forest I trained with my mentor in.” Twilight pads along the road silently her eyes drifting from various points of interest, including several hiding spots that could have easily hid an ambush if her sharp hearing hadn’t told her differently.

“Wait, how could out here be any safer than any of the nearby forests, I mean it’s not like you could run across a dragon at random that’ll tear you limb from limb?” Gilda scowls her disbelief shown clearly on her face.

Twilight lets a small mischievous smile show on her face. “Actually, The forest my mentor lived in is called the everfree forest, unlike these tamed woods out here, the everfree at least the deeper parts contain some really nasty surprises for the unweary. One of which is a potent potion ingredient known as the vampire rose. It’s nearly impossible to tell it from it’s crimson cousin, it has the capability of binding it’s prey in thorny roots then sinking several needle thin protrusions that stick out of it’s bud into the victim before draining the poor creature of it’s blood in a matter of minutes. The poison secreted by it’s thorns ensures that the ensnared creature is paralyzed throughout the process, if the prey ingested enough of the toxin to be incapacitated that is.”

“Yea right, as if.” Gilda grunts skeptically.Out the side of Gilda’s vision is filled with magenta light as the right flap of Twilight’s saddlebags flip open, A second later a red rose bud floats out in the same magenta field and stops before Gilda’s face. Gilda looks at the regular seeming flower before asking. “The buck is this supposed to be?”

“Take a look at the yellow strings and follow them to the base.”

Deciding to humor the pony, Gilda follows Twilights instructions and finds several stiff green rods hidden within the mess of yellow pollen strings. Squinting her eyes, she reaches forward with one of her claws to touch one of the stiff barbs. “Huh, what are - YEOWCH!” Yanking her arm back she barely hears Twilights snickering laughter over the immense pounding in her head. “The ‘BUCK’ was that?” Looking at her withdrawn hand, Gilda notes a small stream of blood flowing down the side of her forefinger.

“Hehe i’m sorry, I should have warned you, the flower bud is still alive and would have drained you if you had let your hand linger within it’s petals reach.” A second thought comes across Twilight and she asks. “Oh, how’s the puncture? I can’t see it from my angle.”

“You spot shelled flightless chick, that bucking hurt, the heck are you worrying about a stupid cut that’s still bleeding!” Gilda says with as much indignation as Cherry Spice when he couldn’t find a good deal on trading goods.

Twilight’s ears perk up. “Still bleeding you said?”

Gilda folds her arm against her chest and looks away from the pony snorting childishly.

“Good, means I don’t have to administer any anti toxin. The cut should stop bleeding in a minute or two. Just try to relax.” Twilight says her trot not changing pace once throughout the entire conversation, even as she lights her horn and places the flower back into her bags.

Deciding to listen to Twilight’s advice, Gilda lays back and lets herself rest.“Tch, fine but were not done talking there’s still stuff I need to know before I’ll fully trust you.” Even with the occasional bump aggravating her injuries she’s able to get into a semi comfortable position while she looks out into the scenery around them.

Twilight nods silently out of Gilda’s sight. “I can understand, now get some rest, I’ll wake you when we reach the campsite.”

---

Looking over the Campsite with a critical eye she finds everything in order from the small camouflaged tent, to the low light stone pit bonfire, to the circle of dense trees and shrubbery. A small rocky carn at the edge of the camp denotes the hidden entrance behind it, stepping forward, The tan coated pegasus with a general compas cutiemark grasps her pith helmet in her mouth and flips it back onto her head with a single flick. Helmet back on, the pony walks past the fire and into the small one pony shelter.

Releasing a small sigh the young pony shivers slightly as a chill wind blows across her fur despite the insulative trappings of the tent. laying down, the pegasus pulls the covers over her shivering form, the cheerful crackling of the fire out side keeping her company for the night, as well as the slight creaking sound of a nearby wagon passing by as she slowly drifts off.

‘Wait, what!?’ Instantly the adventurous pony leaps to her hooves, eyes wide and fully awake, before she darts out of the tent and past the bonfire. Reaching the carn at the edge of the small clearing, she stops. Crouching down low, she begins to creep forward in the direction of the oncoming wagon, looking carefully into the darkness in hopes of spotting the object.

After several minutes a dark shape crests over the edge of the hill in the distance following the path of the road, the rolling wagon being a few hundred meters distant, normal pony’s wouldn’t notice the slight rumbling in the ground or the distant creaking sound of wood scraping against stone or metal in protest to it’s motion, however several years hunting ancient treasures in long forgotten tombs in ancient pony nations had honed her hearing and responses to both nearby threats of fellow artifact hunters or traps hidden within the ancient buildings or tombs. The pegasus sits in place, watching the pony in the distance, her eyes locked upon both the cloak upon the pony’s back and the slight bulge denoting both saddlebags and the yolk strapping the wagon to the small pony’s midsection. Looking from her slightly high vantage point, the pegasus even sees the form of a gryphon laying in the back of the wagon.

“Who could be traveling this late at night?” She asks herself in a low voice, the light of the moon could clearly be seen just over the eastern horizon. ‘At least they won’t find this campsite, being a hundred meters off the road, a bit inconvenient, but definitely safer than the alternative. How the buck did Ahuizotl find me at the temple of Amun? There’s no way it could have been coincidence.’ After several moments, the pegasus watches the distant cart and its puller as it’s about to pass by, a few seconds it reaches the passing point when suddenly the pony pulling the cart, a unicorn as the pegasus could tell with the small and pointed appendage sticking out of it’s forehead, turned to the side and started walking off the road straight towards the pegasus.

‘The buck? Did she see me, how?’ Not taking a chance she turns around and the young pegasus darts back to her campsite as silently and fast as she could, leaping over the fire, she stretches her wings and flaps them once clearing the low flames and reaching the tent within a few seconds. Landing with a small clop, she enters the small structure and begins rooting through the blankets she had been preparing to sleep in only minutes before, after a few seconds she finds what she was looking for, an old moss coated bronze key. Grasping the key tightly under one wing, the pegasus exits the small tent and ventures over to the small carn at the entrance of the camp and placing the small object inside the collection of small rocks and pebbles and putting them back in place, that done, she walks back to the fire then away once more over to one of the nearby trees, she kicks up some dirt and generally disturbs the roots before tamping the ground back down leaving it as a sign that she had hid something there. She does this for several minutes to various objects surrounding the campsite including the fire pit itself tossing a few spare pieces of parchment into the fire and pulling small pieces of them out partially burned.

Thoroughly tired and feeling somewhat accomplished the pith helmeted pegasus collapses next to the fire pit waiting as the wagon closes in on her campsite. Not even a minute later, the wagon stop, from just the sound, the adventurer could tell that it was just outside the entrance. Small muttering could be heard, along with a small thud and curse, considering how gruff the voice sounded the pegasus decided that the other voice must’ve been the griffons. The ruffling of leaves a second later notes their approach. The first thing the adventurer sees is a female griffon shuffling through the bushes, barely standing on three legs, with one forelimb bandaged snugly to her chest, the second to come through is the unicorn, the small bit of muzzle that peeks from under the cloaks veil, shows lavender fur, however the razor sharp horn peaking from the top of the cloak sets the adventurer even more on edge. ‘Shit what sort of archmage visits out this far into the wilds, I smell a trap or my names not Daring Do?’ Something that also sets the adventurer ill at ease is the feeling of more than two pairs of eyes staring into the clearing. Daring raises her head as if surprised as the two travelers enter the clearing. “Huh? Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there.”

The lavender pony returns Daring’s smile with a simple nod, before turning to the griffon and asking, “Is this campsite taken, or is there room for two more, my patient here ran afoul of some nasty bandits and needs a good place to rest.” The lavender pony turns to face Daring, her eyes pierce from underneath the cowls shadow staring straight into the pegasus adventurer’s soul.

‘Shit, I haven’t seen eyes like those since I had to steal the jade mirror from that one elder dragon.’ Shivering a little from the memory but keeping her cool as best she could, she answers the unicorns question. “Maybe, however before I share my camp with strangers I need to know a few things. My name is Alune Keeneye Yearling, what is yours?”

“Wait, yearling?” the griffon squints her eyes to get a better look at Daring, “Wait a minute you’re that archeologist from a few years ago, Daring was it?”

Daring places a forehoof on her head, feeling a headache coming on. “Fine. Cat’s out of the bag, I’m actually Daring Do the adventurer, I should have guessed I couldn’t use my pen name around a talon trained griffon. That still doesn’t explain why a Talon wing scout is traveling with a Canterlot archmage. Also how did bandits manage to wound a Talon so bad?”

The wounded talon sits down next to the fire and opens her mouth preparing to speak when the cloaked unicorn interrupts. “Gilda go and rest, those wound will never heal if you keep moving around like this. I’ll take care of Miss Doo’s questions.”

“But-”

“You will do as ordered, or I will not give you anymore pain relieving potions.” The lavender filly says warningly, giving Gilda a hard stare. After a few seconds the griffon backs down and lays on her uninjured stomach, laying her head on her good forepaw and looking dully into the fire.

Returning her gaze to Daring, the unicorn notices the surprise on the ponies face. “Something wrong?”

Jerking back to reality Daring Do quickly answers. “Huh, oh no. Nothing wrong, it’s just, I’ve never seen anypony ever talk to a talon like that, I’m mostly impressed that you’re able to intimidate one, a scout at that. By the way, I didn’t catch your name, would you mind telling me?”

A small lavender pulse of light intermittently bursts from the unicorns horn, flipping the hood from around her head and revealing a young lavender unicorn mare, with a straight cut violet mane with a two tone pink stripe running through it, the winning smile revealed completely negates the effect of the unicorns predatory gaze. “Sure, my name is Glimmering Wisp. My companion here,” She says waving a hoof in Gilda’s direction. “is Gilda. I’m a journeyer alchemist, by trade, and my companion resting by the fire was formerly a talon, however extraneous circumstances have caused her to form a more... Permanent contract as my bodyguard. For now however, I am tending to her wounds until she is in a condition to fulfill her tasks as a guard.” Gilda ignores the words, neither confirming or denying them, only to be seen staring deeply into the fire when Daring takes a quick peek in the wounded griffons direction.

“Fine, just one more question, then. Have you ever heard the name Ahuizotl?” Daring asks seriously, scrutinizing Twilight’s reaction as closely as she can, watching for any sign that the pony before her was lying.

Raising an eyebrow Twilight tilts her head to the side questioningly. “Who is Ahuizotl? Sounds like some sort of paleoponian creature.”

As if a great weight were lifted, Daring lays down comfortably on her stomach, a mental sigh runs through her body before she speaks again. “He’s actually the only one of his kind that I know of in existence, he has blue fur, and looks kinda like a diamond dog, except he has an elongated jaw and a monkey like tail with a hand on the end. He-“

Eyes widening, Twilight quickly interrupts. “Actually I think I did see him, a few days ago at least. He ran off after I finished off the last bandit that was attempting to kill Gilda here, he must’ve hired them to take out Gilda though I can’t really understand why?” Twilight rubs her chin thought.

Daring responds almost instantly, “You said she was almost knocked out?” Twilight nods. “Then I know exactly why he did it, since he’s technically a civilian and not an enemy of the state or any of the Talon brigade’s clientele he could engineer the situation to where he could bind your griffon friend to him via the life oath, He know’s the Talon codex from top to bottom, and can take advantage of the binding oath. Your friend is very lucky you came along and saved her from such a fate. A life oath would allow him to use her as a scapegoat during a ritual.” They both look over at the injured griffon who was now ressing at the edge of the flame, eyes closed her breathing slow and steady. Seeing that the griffon was asleep, Daring turns back to twilight only to find her still looking at the griffon, an unreadable look being held upon her face before she releases a sigh and returns to the conversation at hoof.

“Do you happen to know of a flower called the Anasgiah?” Daring shakes her head negatively. “It is an ancient flower with magnificent healing properties, first found by the Nipponese before they became a nation, It actually thrives amongst the ancient cherry blossom trees, of their homeland. Of all it’s healing properties, its most powerful is the fact that for ten minutes when ingested, it can preserve the life of a single creature even when their body has passed beyond the point of death, the flower can extend the time a healer can use in order to heal the body to a point where the patient can start healing on his or her own unaided. When I had left on my journey, my mentor gave me her last one as a gift for the journey. When I found Gilda, she was already past that point, I regret that my skills in the healing arts aren’t as well trained as I had hoped however the flower was more than enough to help me make up for my incompetence.”

Daring looks between Gilda and Twilight a few times before settling on Twilight with a confused look, “Wait a minute, really!? First, did you know about the blood oath of the Talon brigade?” Her eyes narrow in suspicion.

“Not until Gilda told me, it was after she had awoken earlier today that I learned about that. Apparently she is bound to me by oath and life bond because I was a Civilian that saved her from a situation she should have been able to take care of herself.”

“Good, cause I would have sent you away if you had taken advantage of your charge.” Daring growls softly, before turning around and heading towards her tent. “You can stay and get some rest, just don’t interrupt me while I sleep.”

As Daring reaches the tent’s entrance, she notices a slight glow to her right, turning to investigate she finds the key she had spent so much energy trying to hid earlier, floating right before her eyes in a soft lavender glow. “I assume you ‘accidentally’ misplaced this, I wouldn’t leave my keys lying around, if I were you. You don’t know who could find them.” All Daring could do or say in response was twitch her eye erratically, and just stumble out a few half formed words, before just biting the key out of the unicorns magical grip and storming into her tent for the night.

Outside, Twilight lights her horn, pulling forth her sleeping mat and laying it flat along side the fire opposite of Gilda’s sleeping form, with a small smile, Twilight lays herself down comfortably upon the mat and rests her eyes for a bit. ‘I’ll write the journal entry in the morning. Fang?’ Several images come forth a small vision from another perspective invades her thoughts without resistance, of watching herself from above. ‘Coming to bed, little one?’

In answer a small gust of wind buffets Twilight’s mane as a scaled creature barely half her size settles down next to her, after a few moments their breathing becomes steady and their heart beats slow as they fall asleep.

Several minutes later small sniffling could be heard as Gilda shivers in the cold dark of Night. ‘How the buck did I get caught up in this stupid mess.’

Author's Notes:

This chapter wouldn't have been possible without the help of my great friend and prereader, janushyde.

Moon Shade A good editor if you need a quick fix, anyway I finished the chapter on Newyears day then said F*ck because I realized I still needed to wait on my editor and prereader to help my get it ready for presentation. Anyway 4 days past my scheduled release it's here, I hope you folks like it.

Also Griffon warriors are terrifying.