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Flight 19

by Goldenarbiter

Chapter 19: Interlude: Midnight's letters

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Illustrated version: Google Docs

Interlude: Midnight’s letters

Fluttershy,

Our trip into the mountains thus far has been an... interesting one, to say the least. Since my last correspondence We’ve come across a diminutive gryphon who is apparently the son of a wealthy militant commander or some such, and were stopped by a border gate asking us for our papers.

I also now realise I’ve been writing this letter as if it were a report... My apologies, The last night has been... stressful. After what almost started a war (or at least felt like it would) at the gates, we were shown the entrance to a trading village of the gryphons. Now, when I say Trading village, I say it only because that’s how William, the young gryphon, described it.

When I imagine a village, I think maybe ten families, and a few local businesses. What we found there was nothing short of a full interracial city. There were hundreds of gryphons, dozens of ponies, and countless other species that I have no name for. There were many stalls just out in the open, that traded for anything from finely crafted jewelry, to various magical reagents, to common food stuffs.

Not to mention the location of this marvelous ‘village’. It was underground. There was a tunnel wide enough to fit two carriages side by side for caravans, and then once we cleared that, we entered what we at first thought was the village. That turned out to just be the antechamber. From there, we entered the ‘village’ proper. Clawttowa, which was the name of the village (I wish you could hear the way they say it, their accents are so very odd), was a cavern that went on for as far as the eye could see in every direction but down.

The sights, the smells, and the atmosphere were overwhelming. Eventually, it turned out that young master William had a rather large purse after he ran away from his family, the poor dear; they had been pressuring him to enlist in the Gryphon National Army. We, on the other hoof, didn’t bother to bring any real amount of gold... I mean, it seems silly now, but we just never thought we’d need any bits out in the wilderness. I have seven to my name, and the funny thing is, everytime I try to spend them on something, nopony will let me.

So, on the condition that some of the men buy William alcohol (which none of us were pleased with, but the laws in this land are far different than our own, and it was the only way we were legally getting funding for our voyage.), we all split up to go about getting what we needed.

The human officers, Stivers and Taylor, went to go and purchase some dried meat for the rest of the humans. As disgusting as the prospect of eating meat is, I feel that we are slowly getting used to the humans omnivorous ways. All of our NCMs went to a local pub to relieve some tension, and give the gryphon his requested beverage, while myself and Golden went to purchase supplies for the rest of our trip. Admittedly, I got sidetracked by the aforementioned jewelry stand, much to my embarrassment, while Golden was picking up some apples (which were delicious, by the way).

NCMs are non-commissioned officers, sergeants and corporals. I keep forgetting this isn’t an after-action report. I bet you’re laughing while you read this bit, too...

While perusing the jewels (window shopping is free), I ran into one of the last ponies I expected to see. Princess Cadence. Turns out that her and Golden Sword went to school together. It also turns out that she is dating General Armour, and has been for some time now. How I never noticed this, I will never know. Don’t you dare tell anyone, either! That I didn’t know, I mean.

Anyway, after grabbing something for herself, Golden, Charlie, and George found their way back to the table, and The Princess called Golden out by some pet name she gave him in school (Goldie, can you believe it? When I heard that I could have just died laughing, but he was right there), and hugged him in public. She is most definitely not Princess Luna nor Celestia.
Not that there’s anything wrong with hugging in public or anything like that

Anyway, when we tried to get away from The Princess to go and check on what trouble the others had got into (yes, they’d gotten into trouble, I’ll get to that in a minute), she stopped us, and said that were weren’t leaving without me getting something from the jewelry stand. She also said that she would pay for it, since we wouldn’t be able to afford anything luxury wise due to a very strict budget of whatever we could scrounge up.

I ended up with a rather nice set of sapphire earrings, which Taylor thought were quite fetching, but I don’t get what everyone was going on about. I think Princess Cadence was hitting on me at one point too. Wait... I probably shouldn’t wr Anyway, When we reached the tavern, low and behold, there is a bar fight in the making and our boys are in the middle of it. Turns out that one gryphon thought little William was a thief, and his brother was there, and his friends were there, so they all decide to gang up on the poor little gryphon. Good thing all of our NCMs were there to stand in the way, drink alcohol on duty, and probably escalate the fight.

When we arrived, the scene was a mess, the bartender was hiding behind the counter, saying ‘No blades’, while the large group of gryphons drew knives, and ours drew swords. Luckily The Princess was there, or else someone probably would have died been seriously wounded.

After the fight was resolved, The Princess left to head back to Canterlot, and we decided it was time for rest, and I just looked at the clock in the room I’m boarded in for the evening, sweet Celestia, it’s almost two in the morning...it’s eerie how you lose track of time when you’re underground like this. And by ‘We’ I of course mean ‘Me’. Some of the boys are still down in the bar, drinking. I just decided that now would be a good time to write this stuff, while it’s fresh on the mind. Also, I think I’m going to tell Charlie soon. See what he thinks about all of this.

Have a pleasant night, and remember, the south is bucking cold.
~Midnight.

Next Chapter: Chapter 15: The Widening Gyre Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 27 Minutes
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