With each step forward, Rain and Shining found themselves fighting through numerous different monsters that were lurking in the depths of the Gravel Forge while Luna provided support for the two of them with the arrows she was firing from her bow. Some that appeared to be creatures from outside that have found a way to sneak inside, fire elementals that began to take form from the hot and dense atmosphere around them, bomb-type monsters who would blow themselves up in order to attack those that threaten it’s well being and even a fire spirit that could shift its form and change into a hand, dragon or a pony like figure. Fortunately, it was nothing that a bit of ice magic and perseverance couldn’t handle as the two knights and the white magus push forward and through the horde of monsters that stood before them. Even summoning the visions of both Nimbus and Steela to aid them when things got dire.

After finishing off the fire spirit that blocked the way out, Rain placed his sword on his back as he looked back at Shining and Luna. Before noticing Fidget as she was catching up with them. “Well, that was a pretty heated fight. Glad we don’t need to deal with him anymore.”

Shining though, just groaned as he sheathed his katana and looked back towards Rain. “Can’t you be serious for once? That last monster was no ordinary fiend…”

“Shining, come on… this is my serious face.” The knight was going to say something else, but it was around the time that Fidget joined up with them that one of the other dwarves that was in the cave just hurried over to them.

“What’s wrong, friend?!” Fidget spoke up, trying to calm the dwarf down. “The monsters are gone! You don’t have to worry about them anymore.”

However, what the dwarf said next… really caught Rain and his companions off guard as the panicking dwarf looked back towards them. “Me comrades! That armored bastard grabbed ‘em and took ‘em before me very eyes!!”

In Rain’s mind… hearing about an armored bastard meant only one thing. “Armor? Could this the work of the Veritas?”

“It sounds likely… however, I’m not so sure if it’s the same one that we encountered in Canterlot.” Shining brought up a rather valid point there. When they first encountered the Veritas during their attack on Canterlot, they learned that there were six of them amongst their ranks. If Veritas of the Dark was their leader, then it was completely possible that he sent one of the other members of the Sworn Six to track down the crystal at the Galewing Shrine.

However, there was still one other question that now began to formulate in Rain’s head. What could a Veritas possibly gain from abducting a few dwarves? It was something that he would have to think on later, because in that moment, Fidget was talking to the dwarf that was there and asking where they went. And the dwarf only had one reply. “He wasn’t so kind as to introduce himself! Just muttered about putting ‘em to work in Griffonstone, wherever that may be!”

“Work?” Luna then spoke up, puzzled by what the dwarf just said. “What kind of work?”

It was shortly after Luna asked that question that Fidget provided an answer for them. Turning around to face them as she began to explain. “When it comes to building and making airships, one dwarf is worth its weight in bits. There are a vast amount of parts that no creature but a dwarf would know how to make.”

“But that armored scoundrel… He abducted me friends and took off with them. Like the very wind, he did!” The dwarf spoke, still panicking as Fidget turned back around to face him.

“Wait… like the wind?” The griffon asked now, sounding surprised and a bit confused. “You mean they just came in here and vanished?”

“In any case, we should hurry over to this Griffonstone place that they were talking about!” Rain spoke up as the dwarf that was there agreed. Even going as far as to show them the way out so they could go catch the one responsible.

However, traveling to Griffonstone was not easy. In order to make it there, they had to cross through the rocky ravine that was Giant’s pass. The ravine itself appeared to be a combination of a grassy plane with a few trees, but also had the rocks and sharp cliffs that were part of the mountainside too. It was supposed to be what one would consider as a direct route to Griffonstone. Though, that was only if you took into account the monsters that were active in the area as well.

Of course, at one point in traveling over there did Shining say something that caught Rain off guard along with Luna as well. “Fidget, I think that we might know who could’ve possibly taken those dwarves…”

That immediately stopped Fidget in her tracks, turning around as she looked directly at the Unicorn. “Wha…?”

“Well, Rain and I think that it’s possible that they are the same group of villains who attacked Canterlot recently.” Shining explained, looking towards his fellow knight as he began to add on to what the unicorn was saying.

“They called themselves the Sworn Six of Paladia, but they refer to each one of themselves by the name ‘Veritas’,” Rain continued where Shining left off as he informed Fidget of what had been going on recently. “Their goal, as of right now, seems to be destroying the great crystals that are within the shrines.”

From that statement alone, Fidget was caught off guard. “They want to destroy the crystals?! Why the beak would they want to do something like that!?”

“As of this moment, that is something that we don’t know,” The crimson knight explained to her. “That is why we are on this journey. Whatever the reason for doing so is, we’ll stop them. We’ll stop them and we will free the dwarves.” In Fidget’s mind, it sounded like Rain was being serious. But she was really unsure whether or not the two knights were trying to be all ‘high and mighty’ so she could put more of her trust on them.

Which lead to her asking a question in order to verify their intentions. “For real, you will? You’re not trying to sound all big or anything like that?”

All that did was have Rain nod his head as he looked back at the Griffon. “We will. You have my word on that,” The knight told her, before proclaiming his determination with the next few words that he said to her. “As a knight of Canterlot, I will do my duty and make sure that those Dwarves come back home safely!!”

That just had Fidget grin a little as she pointed at the two knights with one of her outstretched talons. “Well alright then, I’ll make sure you keep that promise of yours. In fact, if you hold up your end, I’ll give you something worth your trouble. Call it a reward for your hard work.”

Now that had both knights look back at each other with a puzzled look on each of their faces as they tried to understand what she was saying. That was, until Shining decided to speak up and ask about it. “A reward?”

“Sure! You see, once I get that crystal that I need from the shrine and I finish my airship, I’ll let you come for a ride on it to anywhere you want to go,” She told them, just as they heard the next part of what she was saying as they saw what looked to be the reflection of bits coming off of her eyelids. “I’ll even give you the discount rate!”

“Um… should I be concerned that her eyes are sparkling?” Luna then asked, just before Fidget shook her head and began to refocus her attention on the matter at hand.

But as they were traveling, a different conversation began to emerge. And that was one that was based on what Fidget had just mentioned a few moments ago. “Fidget, you mentioned before that you need a crystal in order to power up airships and provide energy to travel… but doesn’t the government in Granitebeak provide those for you?”

“Well, yes… but it’s a little more complicated than that…” Fidget began to explain as they passed through a few trees. “In the Griffon kingdom, they only provide them for you if you are planning to build airships that would be used for times of war. They don’t give you the resources you would need to build common airships, so everything that I have gotten so far to make mine has been from scratch. Warships more profitable, my flank it is!”

“Wouldn’t you need a lot of bits in order to get all those resources though?” Rain then asked her.

“Heck yeah, which is why I have been trying to get bits anyway I could! Whether it’s through selling wares, doing commissions for items and so on. I don’t just like bits, I LOVE bits…” She said as if it was a declaration, making Rain and the others a little bit uncomfortable with how she phrased that. “But the friendship of the dwarves is the one thing that money cannot buy.”

“So there are things you value more than money after all…” Shining said, thinking that he was saying it to himself. Unfortunately for him though, Fidget actually overheard that statement and really did not like it.

“Of course there are! Jeez!!” She snapped, infuriated by the unicorn’s stray comments as she let out a frustrated sigh. “You sound like my brother, Gaven all over again.”

That caught both Rain and Luna by surprise as the white magus began to speak up now. “You have a brother, Fidget? What’s he like?”

Of course, Shining’s question did not exactly help the present situation whatsoever. And to Rain, the more that he added on to the conversation, the more that he thought that the unicorn was digging his own grave. “Is he just as greedy for bits as you are?”

“Oh you bet he is! Let me tell you-” It was around then that Fidget realized the full extent of Shining’s sentence as she began to snap directly at him now. “Excuse you?! Greedy!? ME!?! So we both like to make a few bits, who doesn’t?! You don’t need money, Mr. Canterlot Knight? I suppose you got those fancy clothes for free hunh?! Found it in a chest in some deserted back alley, did you?! …… I’m nothing like my brother, okay!?!”

The unicorn, who was stunned by the griffon’s outburst, tried his best in order to take back what he said before. “I seem to have spoken thoughtlessly. Forgive me, Fidget. I didn't mean to make you shout-”

“Wha……!?” She spoke up, and from how she reacted to Shining’s sentence, the griffon did not like his choice of words. “Who was shouting? I wasn’t shouting! This is the way I normally speak, so EXCUUUSE me, Mr. Unicorn! Mr… Blue eyes!! Mr. Prince!!” And with that, Fidget just happened to storm off ahead of them, leaving a shocked and startled Shining looking back at Rain and Luna as he asked one simple question.

“What in the name of Celestia…? Can somepony please explain to me what I said wrong?”

Rain himself just let out a deep sigh as he looked back at the Unicorn and shrugged his shoulders. “To be honest, I’m not really sure how to help you out here… Maybe you should at least hear out people before assuming that they are exactly like someone else. They might get offended by that.” A few moments after saying that to him, all three of them were able to catch up with the griffon, explaining to her that what Shining said was a simple mistake and that they wanted to hear her side of the story.

Fidget herself, just let out a deep sigh as she looked back at both of them. “Okay, look… I love bits… Love, love, love them. However, I don’t try to throw away my dreams in order to get my claws on it, understand?” At the last part of the sentence, Fidget was beginning to yank on Shining’s ear with her right claw as the stallion was trying to break free and withstand the pain.

“I get it! I get exactly what you mean!” He told her back, prompting the tinkerer to let his ear go as Fidget continued to speak to them.

“And that is why I’m not anything like my big brother at all.” The griffon glared at him, before letting out a deep breath as they began to climb up a breezy hillside. Though, in hearing what the griffon said, it provided more context on the matter as Rain looked back at Fidget and asked her an important question on the matter.

“You’re saying that your brother gave up his dreams in pursuit of wealth?”

At first, Fidget was silent… but after a few seconds, she turned back around to face Rain and his friends as she answered his question for her. “… That’s right. When he learned about how much money he could make by being an airship technician for the military, he signed up faster than a pegasus taking off at a flying competition,” Fidget adjusted the goggles that were on her forehead as she let out a heavy sigh. “Now all he does is just make machines of war… But I’m not like him. I’m not going to throw away my dreams or give up on them. That’s not the kind of griffon I am and that’s definitely not how I’m going to become the next Cid!”

“Sounds like a lot of things happened between the two of you.” Rain then replied back in order to keep the conversation going.

“Oh, so you actually want to hear more about what happened between my brother and I, hunh? Well, it’s not going to be cheap,” The griffon smirked, before rubbing the index and middle talons on her right claw. “It’ll cost you the equivalent of a knight’s annual salary. How about it?”

Rain blinked for a moment, before shaking his head as he looked back at the griffon. “That’s a little bit too rich for me. More to the point, why would a story even cost money?”

Fidget thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head and setting her claw aside. “Valid point… Still, ever since we were young, my brother and I wanted to become a Cid. We spent hours going through the Gustcloud Airship factory together, where they had displays of all the Cid’s from previous generations…” For a moment, the griffon seemed to appear as if she was upset… but then she turned around to see something right in front of her. “Oh hey, look! There’s the gate to Griffonstone.”

In the mind’s of Rain and his companions, that meant two things. One, it was possible that they could find the dwarves that were kidnapped in this village… and two, the one who abducted them could also still be lurking about here. Not to mention that the people in the village weren’t exactly that helpful either. According to Fidget, this place was once a striving symbol of the Griffon Kingdom because of their king and the relic called the ‘Lost Treasure of Griffonstone’. However, around the time of their fourteenth king, Guto, the relic was stolen by a monster named Arimaspi. Leading to Guto being forced out and also leading to Griffonstone’s decline. What was once an example of griffon pride had now become nothing more than a run down village.

Fidget had also informed them that the griffons who lived there had a bit of a quirk with their personality that she called ‘Griffonstone Greed’. Where, unlike those who lived in Granitebeak, the griffons in Griffonstone would want bits for everything. From simple things such as directions to overcharging for basic necessities like food and water. Even buying a bronze dagger from a blacksmith costed around four thousand bits, eight times the price of one in Canterlot.

However, they did not come here to ask for directions or purchase anything. They came here looking for dwares that were taken against their will. And sooner or later, they found one at the back of the town by a cliff overlooking the valley below. “Fidget, over here!!”

Upon hearing Rain calling out to her, the griffon rushed over to where he was. Seeing what looked to be an unconscious dwarf lying on the ground. “H-hey, are you okay!? Hold on, we’ll get you some help!”

However, when Shining and Luna arrived, their focus was on a completely different matter. “We should all be on guard,” Shining replied, reaching for his Katana as he looked towards Rain and Luna. “The enemy draws near.”

At first, things seemed rather quiet… but soon, everyone felt the wind begin to pick up from all around them. All while a voice was beginning to speak. “There is a truth to those who gaze upon the world from the heavens,” The nearby windmill was beginning to spin out of control now as the tower was separated from the rest of the building. Stone bricks flying everywhere as the voice continued to speak. “That is the ridiculous ugliness of the monsters who crawl within the dirt.”

Now Rain himself was alert as he drew his saber and held it in front of him. Armed and ready for if someone were to launch an attack. “Who’s there!? Show yourself!”

It was after he said those words that he felt something soar past the group from behind as they now saw a new armored figure floating in the air. However, unlike with the last Veritas, the armor on this foe was a dark green and the decorations on the helmet took the form of wings as it looked back towards them. “I am one of the Sworn Six of Paladia, Veritas of the Heavens! The earth and ground beneath you exist only to serve the heavens. And so, I will be having that dwarf back now.”

However, that statement did not go down well with the griffon who was watching this all play out as she snapped at the armored foe. “Are you kidding me!? He’s a living being, not… not a valuable family treasure that your wife took when she left you!!”

Despite the fact that the Griffon was trying to help them though… this was not the kind of help that Rain was really thinking. In fact, all it did was just make things worse. “Is that so?” With a twist of the their wrists, a current of air began to flow all around Veritas of the Heavens as a twin bladed spear emerged in his right hand and a shield on his left. The armor glowing from the amount of power that was being channeled. “Well, if it belongs in the earth, then perhaps I should see that it stays there… permanently!!!”

“Fidget, get back-!” The crimson knight barely had time to react as he held up his weapon in order to defend himself as the Veritas leaped into the air before slamming down on the ground. His spear causing a massive shockwave to form as it almost knocked them to the ground. Rain himself, swung at the Veritas as his blade collided with his opponent’s shield. Trying to throw him off balance. “Veritas of the Heavens! What is it that the Sworn Six are after?!”

“The heavens heed not answer the earth,” The Veritas spoke, pushing Rain back before swinging his spear as the blade barely missed him and Shining Armor. “It is the earth’s place to heed the words of the heavens.”

“Is that so?” The crimson knight retorted, looking towards Shining now as both of them had their weapons at the ready. “Then I guess we’ll have to force you to listen!”

“Heh… I wonder if you have that in you, denizens of the earth.” The Veritas of the Heavens taunted at them. It was in this moment that Fidget herself chimed in as she took out what looked to be a portable hammer and crossbow from her toolkit and stood next to where Luna was at right now.

“You’re gonna lose for sure, tough guy!! After all, you’re facing me! The one and only future Cid!”

That… had the Veritas of the Heavens pause for a moment… before saying one thing as he prepared himself for another skirmish. “… Cid.”

Rain noticed the brief pause and tried to use it as an opportunity to expose a potential opening. However, his opponent anticipated this move and after the knight swung forward, blew him back with a simple blast of air.

“Come on, this guy has to have some kind of potential weak point,” Rain thought to himself as he analyzed his opponent. “I could try to summon Nimbus, but I don’t think her abilities as a pegasus would be effective against him. Especially with how he could just easily move out of the way.”

Then, he began to think of something as he looked back towards his hands. “Hmm… What if I used my earth magic at the moment that he makes impact with the ground? It seems possible.” As he looked up, he watched as Shining himself was countering his opponent’s attacks. But it was also then that he noticed that the unicorn had magic around his hands.

Wind magic. “Shining, don’t-!!”

“Aerora!!” The azure knight shouted, sending a medium sized cyclone towards the Veritas. Only for it to bounce off their armor as their opponent looked back towards them.

“You call that wind magic?” He taunted as they saw what looked to be the same kind of magic forming around his hands and conjuring a whirlwind that was much bigger than Shining’s. “THIS is wind magic, you earthbound scum!!”

Running towards his comrade in arms, Rain got in front of him and used his magic to conjure a wall of stone in front of them. Blocking the magic that was coming at them as he turned to his friend. “Shining, wind magic is not going to work against him. In fact, I think it makes him stronger. We need to find another way to beat him.”

“How though?” They now heard Fidget speak up as she and Luna rushed over to group up with the two knights as Rain noticed what looked like some kind of crossbow gadget in Fidget’s hands. “If we tried firing at him with our weapons now, he could just as easily move out of the way.”

“Well, that’s something I’m trying to think on… Remember that diving spear lunge he did earlier?” Rain then asked. “If he does that again, I’m going to try and use some of my earth magic the moment that he makes impact with the ground. I know that it’s not exactly the best of plans… but it’s the only one I can think of at this rate.”

“Well, if that’s your plan then-” Unfortunately, Fidget did not have the chance in order to finish her sentence as the earthen wall that the crimson knight conjured began to crumble under the power of their opponent’s magic.

“Earthbound fools!!!” They heard the Veritas shout, just before they watched him soar into the sky above their heads. “Do you think you can hide from the wrath of the heavens!?!”

“Oh crap! Everyone move!!” Rain shouted as all of them attempted to get out of the way of where the Veritas was going to land. The shockwave of the attack knocking them down and breaking Rain’s concentration when he tried to cast his earth magic. Hitting the Veritas’ helmet instead of the spear.

From this, Rain realized something. Even though his spell had missed, it somehow was able to bypass the winds that Veritas of the Heavens had swirling around him and was able to successfully land a hit. Leading the knight to quickly get back on his feet as the Veritas turned directly towards him.

“You’re a bold one to think such an action will not go unpunished.” The armored warrior taunted him as Rain readied himself for another round. The same was said for his companions as Shining and Luna were also on their feet with their weapons drawn.

“I told you that I was going to force you to listen,” Rain glared back at the Veritas as the energy around his blade began to glow. Elements of fire and earth swirling around his crimson saber. “Too many people we know are counting us not to fail, so we can’t give up now!”

“Hmm… is that so?” For a moment, Rain and the others were expecting for Veritas of the Heavens to attack them again or possibly use an ability that they have not seen before. “I guess there is sport to be had in toying lowly creatures like you,” After that statement, the Veritas dismissed his weapons, turning around as he began to move away from where the knights and their companions were standing. “I shall let you live another day… We have been waiting over seven hundred years for this after all. I have little difficulty when it comes to delaying my pleasure.”

Before Rain and the others could do anything, Veritas of the Heavens took off. Soaring into the sky and disappearing within the clouds above them. As the knights sheathed their blades though, the human was not entirely thrilled with the outcome of what just happened. “Dammit… he just brushed aside our attacks like they were just specks of dust on his armor.”

“I know,” Shining sighed himself as Luna place her bow away and Fidget went to check on the dwarf that was still lying on the ground in an unconscious state. “But it’s a little odd though… he did not take us as a serious threat despite the fact that we have encountered one of his comrades before.”

Fidget herself decided to chime in on the matter as she looked back at the two knights. “Come on, we drove the bad guy away, see? Shouldn’t that be considered as a good thing?” Not long after she said that though was when she noticed that the dwarf was slowly coming to his senses as he was trying to understand where he was. “Oh, thank the stars. He’s waking up now…”

Yet, what the dwarf began to do after waking up… startled all four of them. He began running around in circles, screaming his head off as if he saw something that terrified him to his core. For Fidget herself, she never had seen any of the dwarves act like this before… and something about the whole thing made her extremely worried.

“W-what the-?! F-friend, w-what’s wrong!?! W-what is it?!!”

Her words did not stop the dwarf from running around and screaming, but he did say to Fidget what it was that shocked him. “I-i saw it, I did! I saw under the mask!!” He yelled out, which now got Rain and Shining’s attention as they looked back at one another. “I saw his face! Veritas!! I saw him!”

And as the dwarf continued to panic and Fidget became increasingly concerned for him, the only thing left that the dwarf had to say now was a pair of questions. “How could he!?! How could he do this to us?!!”

After the encounter with Veritas of the Heavens and what happened with the dwarf, Rain, Shining and Luna were all waiting outside of an inn that was in the center of Griffonstone while Fidget was making sure that the dwarf got the necessary medical attention that it needed inside. They had been waiting on her for the last ten to fifteen minutes, but eventually, the engineer returned back outside to look back at the knights and the white magus.

“How is he doing?” Rain was the first one to ask, wanting to hear what Fidget had to say about the dwarf’s condition.

The question led to Fidget shaking her head for a brief moment as she turned to look back towards them. “Not good. He’s still in complete shock after what just happened. The innkeeper’s going to watch him and make sure he recovers.”

Shining himself, just let out what sounded like a defeated sigh as he looked back towards the griffon. “I was hoping that we could ask him more about the identity of the Veritas, but that definitely appears to be out of the question for now.”

“You’re darn right,” Fidget responded as she shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t imagine what must have happened in order to put a dwarf… matter of fact, any creature at all, into a state of shock like that.”

Even though this sounded like there was nothing that they could do now, the unicorn himself thought otherwise as he cleared his throat and began to speak again. “Well, at least we now have a general idea of where Veritas could possibly be heading next. It’s likely that he’s going to be heading straight for the shrine where the crystal is.”

It was shortly after Shining said that statement that Luna had said something else. Out of concern for Fidget. “Fidget, you must want to stay here with your friend though… do you?” However, the alicorn was caught off guard when she first saw the griffon shaking her head from side to side in response to her question.

“No… even though I want to, me staying here won’t lead to anything good. Whatever happened to him, I can’t help them with it,” That was also when Fidget turned around to face the three of them. “And if I stayed here, who would be guiding you to the Galewing Shrine? I’m supposed to be helping you get there after all. I can’t go back on our agreement just because something cropped up along the way!”

With that, the griffon raced around to the front of where the trio was, shortly before taking off towards the nearest town exit. “So let’s hit the road! That crystal’s not going to protect itself!!”

It was shortly after Fidget said those words that Rain, Shining and Luna began to follow the young griffon. But not before Rain said one thing to his two comrades. “I have to admit… I like her enthusiasm.”

Author's Notes:

As their journey continues, Rain and his companions come to face with another member of the Sworn Six of Paladia. Veritas of the Heavens.

True to his name, he commands the winds to his will to the point that any form of wind magic against him just makes him stronger instead of hurting him. He sees the creatures who wander the world as nothing more then inferior Earthbound Scum, killing them without remorse. Based on his words and actions, he appears to have the same burning anger against the world as his counterpart, Veritas of the Dark. Which is strange, considering some of the puzzling crimes that he has also committed, such as kidnapping dwarves.

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This chapter was intended to be longer, but I felt that it would be easier to do more chapters for the Griffon Kingdom arc considering the amount of things that happen here. I'm planning on having Rain and the others summoning other notable figures from Equestria's past as visions that could help him and his friends in some of the area's that they are lacking when it comes to their current party (for example, a proper tank).

Let me know what you guys think of this chapter and tell me about what kind of visions from Equestria would you like to see being summoned. I am considering visions from Final fantasy later on once Rain has a chance to explore the Farplane a bit more, but for now, I'm trying to think of prominent figures during the 'Founders of Equestria' or 'Legends of Magic' eras.

Thank you for reading. Have an awesome day.
-Frost