Chapter 10: A Web of Treasure

It was a quiet and peaceful morning of eating whatever food we could find around the house before realizing that we would probably need to go out and buy some actual food when we got back. I (thankfully) did not feel any noticeably adverse affects from the drinking I had done the night before and was able to even kind of look forward to what Griffonstone might bring for us. I had actually never been there and Griffons were still somewhat of a rare sight in central Equestria even with the increased friendliness they had been becoming known for in the past several decades. Dash Venture, or should I say Grit, had several famous adventures in Griffonstone where he thankfully detailed a good bit about what it was like there so I at least wouldn't be going in not knowing at all what to expect.

“Remember guys, Griffons love treasure and money and they are probably going to be easier to deal with if we aren't stingy with it.” I said to my friends.

“Something tells me Jackpot will be getting along with them quite well.” Enyi commented as we left the cab that was dropping us off at the train station.

“If that last check from Silver is any indication he does seem good at acquiring bits.” Scarlet added.

“I'll take that as a compliment!” Jackpot said with pride as he hung his multiple saddlebags, both full and empty, over his back.

“Well it was meant as one.” Scarlet said to him.

As we entered the station we were met with a....how should I put this....silly surprise. Silver was there with a very large pack strapped to him. It must have been four or five times his size and he was visibly struggling to simply hold it up.

“Um Silver, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Simple, I'm coming with you!” he beamed.

“You sure about that? You remember what we told you about what happened in Vanhoover right?”

“Yeah well Griffonstone is so far away and I'm paying for this after all and I want to come!” he seemed very adamant about this.

“Um, excuse me for asking but what exactly is it you do again?” Scarlet asked coming up from behind Silver.

“Shipping and packaging of course!”

“So your like some kind of mailpony?” Scarlet said with some concern.

“Well its a bit more than that Scarlet. I manage pretty much all of it all over Equestria.”

“It just really doesn't seem safe for somepony with your uh....skills to be put into any potential danger. And don't you also have to um..you know...run your business?” I told him.

“Oh please Ivory! I've always wanted to go on an adventure like in the Dash Venture books and I've got other ponies who can cover for me for a bit so it's no problem!” his face just looked so sad when he said this.

I looked over ant Enyi and Jackpot who had finished unloading all of our stuff and Jackpot just shrugged at the idea while Enyi's face seemed to share the same concern as Scarlet's. It might not be such a bad idea to bring somepony like Silver to Griffonstone and he is correct that he is paying for all of this.

“Fine you can come, but if something bad happens I think you should try to stay out of the way.”

Silver's face lit up with happiness, “YES! I promise I won't slow any of you down! I've got everything set up, food, warm clothes for the mountains, guides, everything! You'll see just how useful I am!” Silver sped away with his oversized pack onto the awaiting train before any of us even had the chance.

“He seems eager.” Enyi said as he walked up besides me.

“I hope he doesn't regret it later.” I said back.

“Do you?” Enyi said, looking over at me.

I turned my head towards Enyi staring at him for several seconds, “Not all of it.” I said still eying him up. I think he noticed, mostly because he gave a small smile before heading onto the train with the others. Jackpot gave me a little nudge as he trotted past me with his own little snicker on his face.

“It's gonna be a long train ride ya know.” he whispered in my ear as he passed giving me a little bit of a blush.

We all boarded the train, Silver and Jackpot with their packs, Scarlet and Enyi each with their books and myself with Sparky adorning my front hoof.

It would be well over a full day of train riding and then a long walk up the mountains to get to Griffonstone proper. The city had, according to all reports of the time (I had never actually been there myself) grown exponentially since the days when Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends helped the Griffons open up their city to the rest of the world. I've read multiple books on the renaissance of Griffonstone and how, when Grit had gone there and established an Adventure Incorporated center, the Griffons had set to work exploring their kingdom and learning more about much of the history that had been lost following and preceding the time when they had kept the Idol of Boreas.

“Ooh this is going to be so exciting! I've always wanted to visit Griffonstone!” Silver excitedly squeaked out as the train had begun rolling out of Canterlot station.

“Yeah it's a pretty nice place nowadays as long as ya don't let the Griffons know how much money yer carrying.” Jackpot said as he relaxed himself into a padded seat in our private (of course) car.

“I too have heard of the greed of the Griffons. Many ancient stories of my people tell of battles fought between us over various treasures.” Enyi added.

“Come on you guys, that was a long time ago. Sure Griffons still love their bits but they are quite the friendly bunch. Why, I've known several Griffons back in Vanhoover who were very kind and generous and wonderful people!” Scarlet piped out at them.

“Grit always told me that Griffons were very intelligent and that's why they were so good at getting bits.” I said.

“I have done business with several Griffon companies in Equestria and I have always found them to be very shrewd and savvy in this regard.” Silver said, “But I always saw it as a positive trait that made dealing with them to always be exciting.”

“Remember guys, the Griffons have one of the most successful branches of the CMC anywhere and Griffons are very proud and noble as well!” Scarlet huffed.

“Well if there’s one thing I heard it's that the city itself is pretty amazing looking.” I said to the others, “I hear it's a massive tree that grows on the top of mountain peaks and that the Griffons have built an almost floating city where you can see for miles in every direction.” my eyes grew wide at the possibilities.

“The city is pretty cool looking I will admit.” Jackpot said while reclining himself in his seat, “When I was there last...” Jackpot paused for a second, “When I was there last they had built this massive statue to some Griffon named Gilda.”

“So you've been there!” I said almost squeaking, “Tell me more!”

“It was a while ago, I don't remember all of it.”

“What, how could you not remember!”

“I was just a kid Ivory.” suddenly I remembered what Jackpot had told me about his childhood and it kinda made sense. He probably didn't want to remember what happened since it probably wasn't anything good.

“Yeah Jackpot, you don't seem to be the kind of pony to pass on talking about yourself.” Scarlet said.

“If he doesn't remember then he doesn't remember.” I said giving a slight nod to Jackpot.

“Well in any case it seems that we shall all get to see it when we arrive.” Enyi said.

“Yes, and here’s hoping it will be just as amazing as I'm hoping it is.” said Silver.

In the car we were in were several seats placed out in the general area but in the corners of the car were several stalls that acted as private rooms for each of us. Silver had placed his rather large pack on one of the open seats in the main car area while Jackpot took up a whole other one. We each ended up picking a stall for ourselves and over the course of several hours milled about the car doing whatever we could not to get too bored.

“Psst. Ivory.” Jackpot whispered into my ear.

“Huh, what is it?” I answered.

“Ya know Enyi has been alone in his room for quite a while.”

“Yeah, and?”

“This could be your chance.”

I suddenly began blushing, “What! You mean just go inside and just ask him.” I said almost too loudly but luckily Scarlet was in the opposite corner talking to Silver and so didn't notice my little outburst.

“Why not? You might not get as good an opportunity as this for a while ya know.”

It was kind of annoying that Jackpot knew I had a crush on Enyi (thank Celestia he didn't know about the kiss) but he was probably right in this situation. This would be a good opportunity to at least talk to him some more and maybe...and I mean MAYBE talk about something more.

I nodded to Jackpot and began walking towards Enyi's stall in the train car before gently sliding it open.

“I will admit, the Equestrian countryside is quite beautiful to look at.” Enyi said while looking at the window before I could even step into the room.

“I have always been quite fond of it.” I said back to him as I walked in.

“It is very different from my home.”

“Whats it like, your home I mean and not just that little bit I saw?” I asked sitting down next to him on his booth seat.

“Great fields of long tall grass stretching out from cities built of glass.” Enyi said almost nostalgically.

“Nice rhyme, and you really have cities made of glass?”

“Well not really but many important buildings are constructed out of a very special gemstone that is found only in my country that when worked properly gives off the appearance of glass.”

“Wow, what's this gemstone called?”

“We call it wazipata. It means clear-stone.”

“That's pretty cool. I would like to see it one day if I could.”

“Yes but that is not all. Near the town where I was born is a string of great mountains that stretched for hundreds of miles. Forests grew near the base of these peaks surrounded by clear lakes which would reflect the stars every night to create wondrous lights.”

“Wow, I mean that sounds just amazing!” I was genuinely in awe of that.

“Yes my people would create such colorful stories about these lights in our past and even now they are still considered sacred to my people. We called these lights egwuine which means dancing lights.”

“What kinds of stories did you tell and do you know any of them?”

“I know them all yes. The Zebra believed that these lights were spirits of both ancestors and those that live beyond the world.” Enyi's tone of voice changed here. I could hear the respect and reverence in his voice as he talked.

“Wait wait wait, what spirits?”

“We call them the Valazama. The word is difficult to translate but you could consider to be similar to meaning our family or our ancestors or even our parents. They are the beings that we believe created us and all other living things although now they are mostly revered as traditional parts of our culture that few truly believe in but all still respect.”

“So its kinda like a multiple god system like what...”

“No no no, you misunderstand. We do not consider them what you call deities but as I said with Valazama they are our parents, our ancestors and our families. We would see them as a child saw their parent, not as some god or ultimate power but as what came before us and looks after us while we remain young.”

“So you see them more as family or friends; somepony who you respect and admire?”

“Yes, but as with parents they do not hold all the answers. The Valazama are wise and very knowledgeable but they do not know everything and we as Zebra can even in some cases attain wisdom and knowledge to rival or surpass them. That is what the stories say anyway.”

“That's pretty interesting, so the Zebra believe or believed that these spirits were more like family than some all powerful overlord. That's kinda how we ponies look at Celestia and Luna, they are so kind and wonderful to everypony even though they know and have seen more than any of us. They can still make mistakes and do not know everything but everypony loves and admires them greatly.”

“Indeed that does seem to be a good comparison. But unlike your princesses these spirits have little power now other than being respected parts of our culture and even though few still believe they actually exist their names are still held in high regard as examples to live up to.” Enyi spoke with a fondness that I had never heard in his voice before. This part of him was very soothing to watch and I would be lying if I didn't find it just the least bit...alluring.

“What do you believe?” I asked out of my own sense of genuine curiosity.

“I think that they are just stories but that they are good stories that teach us both good and bad things. They give us a view into our past and how Zebra thought and acted in our own antiquity.”

“Do any of these spirits have names?”

“Ah yes, some are named in our stories. There was Ukweli and his lessons of honesty and integrity and there were the siblings Imbu and his sister Unqala. They were the most popular and are said to have taught us how to speak and sing and tell stories. Without them we would have no way of learning or recording what we have learned.”

“So they must be especially important to you then huh?”

“Yes they are! They taught us to speak and sing, knowledge and wisdom do they bring! That is what we storytellers say anyway.”

I was just sitting there taking all of this in with nothing short of massive curiosity. My face was pretty telling that I was very interested in this and Enyi most certainly saw this as he continued speaking.

“Wow, thanks for telling me this. I know you said that Zebras don't usually like telling outsiders about things like this so it means a lot that you would.” I was starting to blush just a little bit as I began thinking about another question to ask him (you know the one).

“You are most welcome, I have the feeling that you do have respect for what I say and I can see genuine interest in your eyes.” I blushed a little more. “You and Scarlet I see have an interest in learning more and I would not mind speaking to you more of this but I must say I am more wary of Jackpot.”

“Wait, why don't you like Jackpot?”

“It is not that I dislike him it is just that he seems rather distant and unempathetic to others at times. I do not see him as a pony who would care enough about others to remain with us and his constant rudeness does admittedly irritate me.” Enyi's voice turned to its normal tone.

“Jackpot cares but he just seems, to me at least, to have trouble expressing it but that might be because...” I stopped myself here. I wasn't sure I should be blabbing what Jackpot told me in confidence to anypony, even Enyi.

“Why would he have trouble?” Enyi turned his head to look at me and I think he saw what I was thinking in my eyes or something because he backed off, “If I wish to know I will ask Jackpot.” Enyi smiled at me and I smiled back.

The next moments were both awkward and tense (for me at least). Enyi had gone back to staring out the window and I just kind of stayed sitting next to him for several minutes. I didn't want to leave but at the same time I really didn't want to just sit there looking nervous for too long without actually saying anything. I needed to take Jackpot's words to heart, this would be the best time to actually talk to Enyi about...well anything (just do it!).

“Hey uh..Enyi?”

“What is it Ivory?”

“Um...remember when we first met?” not the right thing to say here.

“Yes, you threw up on me if I remember correctly.”

“And uh...” I was really red, “You remember back when we were in my room?” I was trying to connect something that probably shouldn't be connected but I was nervous and just trying to say anything at this point.

If I had the courage to look at Enyi's face right now I would have seen that it was at this point probably nearly as red as mine.

“Yes.” he said raising an eyebrow.

“Well uh...whaddya say?” my voice squeaked and quickened as I said this.

Enyi paused for a second then sighed, “I thought you might do this.” Enyi saying this disheartened me. Enyi put his hoof beneath me chin and lifted up my head towards his, “This is why I did not ask you sooner.” he said now with a smile on his face.

To say I had a smile on my face would be the understatement of the fucking century. I immediately jumped into a he hug with Enyi my face almost in tears.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” I looked at Enyi, my eyes so wide and teary they were nearly popping out of my face. Enyi just looked back at me with a smile as he chuckled a little at the face I was making.

“You are very enjoyable to be around and I do enjoy our little talks very much. Plus you...” now I could see him blushing a little bit, “...are quite cute.”

YES! HE THINKS I'M CUTE!!

I sat there on my seat staring at Enyi with a smile on my face as he did the same. It had to be about five or ten minutes before one of us actually said something.

“Ok, now what do we do?” I asked.

“I uh, do not know exactly.” Enyi said rubbing his head with his hoof.

“Have you ever had a uh.. a girlfriend before?” I asked shyly.

“No. Have you?”

“What? A girlfriend?”

“Oh wait, I meant boyfriend...or girlfriend. It really does not matter to me.” Enyi gave off an awkward smile.

“Are you talking about Emerald Flake? We're just friends so don't worry or anything.”

“So you have never...”

“What!? No! I mean not that...what I mean to say is that.....no I've never had a special somepony before.” I definitely sounded as flustered as I was, if not more.

“I would have thought with you being around Jackpot so much and all.”

“No, Jackpot isn't like that! Or at least I don't think he is. You know I really don't know what he's like come to think of it.” I said continuing to sound flustered.

“Well let us not talk about it now.”

“Yeah, lets just think about us right now.” I slanted my gaze down from Enyi as my redness started to intensify on my face, “You wanna kiss again?”

“Forgive me if I think we should wait on that a bit.” Enyi said while definitely remembering what happened in my room. Me probably bringing it up earlier didn't help either but I was still disappointed nonetheless. “We could just cuddle?” Enyi asked with slightly less hesitation than myself.

“Ok!” I said a bit too eagerly.

I slid myself over closer to Enyi on our seat and slowly and nervously leaned over onto his side as I felt him relaxing himself on my side at the same time. Enyi felt nice. He was surprisingly soft and comfortable to be leaning on which only made me happier in this moment. I took little glances up towards his face and saw that Enyi had a little smile of contentment on his face which made me excessively glad to see I wasn't the only on enjoying this.

We must have spent hours like this since before I knew it I had actually fallen asleep and I think it was safe to say Enyi suffered this same fate as the whole time neither of us moved from our respective spots.

*****

KNOCK KNOCK

The two rather noticeable and loud knocks on the door woke both Enyi and myself from our nap.

“Hey you two alive in there!” I heard Silver's voice yelling through the door.

It was only too late that I realized that I was half asleep and was in fact on a booth style seat in a train car when the loud knock jolted me awake. I took a step right off the seat from my laying position and tripped over myself while grabbing on to the nearest thing I could to try and stop the fall. Of course the nearest thing was Enyi who was also sleeping and I only ended up dragging him down onto the floor with me with a loud THUD!

Silver burst into the room when he heard the us hit the floor only to end up staring awkwardly at Enyi and I tangled together on the floor.

“Uh, we were just going to go over the plan for Griffonstone so whenever you two are uh...ready...you can meet us in the main car ok.” Silver swiftly left the room and I swear he was trying to hold back a laugh or something.

When Enyi and I had managed to get up and untangle ourselves we each went out to meet the others who were now all sitting on the various seats in the main car. Silver was sitting straight up patiently waiting while Jackpot was laying on his stomach while Scarlet Aloe was applying some kind of spell to his hurt wing.

“Gotta admit, that spell there works pretty well!” Jackpot said excitedly as he stretched out his now healthy wing.

“Yeah, those books I got from the Adventure Inc. library had some really nice spells in them.” Scarlet said now with a sense of pride of her own, “But still be careful. Your wing might look healed but this spell really only affects small surface level injuries so the internal bone and tissue are still not recovered yet, so no strenuous flying or your wing might still fall off!”

“Yeah yeah, I'll be careful.” Jackpot dismissively said while lovingly stroking his wing. This lasted all of a few seconds before Jackpot looked up at Enyi and me with a devilish smile on his face, “Well well, look who finally decided to finally come out! Have fun in there you two?” He sarcastically said while wiggling his eyebrows.

“We fell asleep.” Enyi matter of factly said.

“Oh I’m sure you did.” Jackpot said mockingly.

“Well what else would they have done?” Scarlet said while looking at Jackpot quite confused.

Jackpot's face lit up like Hearthswarming lights, “Jackpot don't!” I said sternly to him.

“Don't what?” Scarlet said looking more confused.

Before Jackpot could open his mouth Silver interrupted, “Well I think It's time to tell you all what exactly I have planned out for us at Griffonstone.”

“Yes, please do.” I sighed in relief as Enyi and I sat down in an empty seat near Silver.

Silver cleared his throat, “Well the first thing we're going to do is meet a local guide that I hired that is going to take us to the site. After we meet her we're going to take a quick stop in the Griffonstone library (SCORE!) where she will give a quick rundown about the site and any information the Griffons have been able to uncover, thought you might be interested in that Ivory.” Silver said turning his head to face me.

“I think I will.” I said with a grin.

“She'll be enjoying more than that.” Jackpot said just having to interrupt to make a dumb joke.

“Shh! Don't interrupt.” Scarlet said to him.

Silver continued, “After that She's gonna take us right up to the site where we can ideally poke around at our leisure.”

“Where exactly is this place?” Enyi asked.

“Oh uh, its a bit eastward in the mountains around Griffonstone. I was told that a recent avalanche uncovered it and that's why its a relatively new site.”

“Well then I think it's pretty safe to say Sable and Goldie haven't gotten to it yet.” I said mostly thinking out loud.

“Right, and this should make this trip a whole lot easier than Vanhoover.” Jackpot said holding back a yawn.

“Let us hope so.” Enyi added.

The remaining time on the train went by pretty calmly. Silver kept rifling through his giant pack probably trying to see if he packed everything he wanted. Jackpot sat pouting in the corner as Scarlet kept poking at his wing and looking back at her medical spell books trying out whatever she thought might help. Enyi and I spent the rest of the ride together talking about what we thought we might see in Griffonstone and at this site Silver had found for us.

*****

When the train pulled in at the station we all eagerly exited to see the large mountain ranges now in front of us. I think Silver finally realized he might have over packed just a little when he saw how far up the path to Griffonstone went. His massive pack was not going to make this an easy climb for him and by extension us.

“You know Grit always told me that the first time he ever came to Griffonstone was with princess Twilight to help her begin building the Griffonstone library.” I said straining my head to look up as high on the mountain as I could from our angle.

“Yeah I remember that library. It just screams Twilight Sparkle.” Jackpot huffed as he was now carrying part of Silver's stuff along with his own.

Silver had nearly collapsed about half way up the mountain and now Enyi, Jackpot, Scarlet and I had split his large pack between us the best we could to give him a break. When we finally got to a point on the trail where we could see Griffonstone it was even more amazing than I could have imagined.

Jackpot noted that it seemed the great tree the main section of the city was built on had grown a lot since he had last seen it. The tree had dozens of large branches stretching out in every direction around the trunk of the tree and on each branch multiple houses. On one branch could plainly be seen the emblem of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Griffonstone headquarters and right above it was perched a large stone structure with the familiar face of Twilight Sparkle on it looking ecstatic by being surrounded by books. Even beneath the tree itself new sections of the city had been built on great platforms that had been both carved and built onto the side of the mountain winding down it a good ways before cutting off near the bottom. And at the top of it all stood Castle Griffonstone, looking ever so resplendent in the afternoon sun as it had since the Griffons started managing and repairing it many years ago.

“Ooh, pretty.” Scarlet commented as she stared up at the city where even from here we could see hundreds of Griffons fluttering about above the many buildings that dotted the upper city.

“Always liked Griffons ya know.” Jackpot said as we neared the front gate of the city, “They love money almost as much as me.”

“So we've established.” I said back to him.

“I must admit I have never seen a place quite like this.” Enyi muttered out as he was too busy staring up and down and all the high and low buildings as well as the many Griffons that dotted the ground and sky.

We crossed the main gate into Griffonstone where not far from the entrance a grey and blue Griffon sat straight up with a large smile on her face. When she saw us approaching she bounded up from the ground and happily hopped over to me and my friends.

“Whoa! You must be the Ponies from ADVENTURE INCORPORATED!” she said putting great emphasis on the last part of her sentence.

“Uh nice to meet you ms...” I said putting my hoof out.

The Griffon eagerly grabbed my hoof with both her front paws and began to violently shake them.

“Call me Patches! Everybody does ok!”

“Ah, Ms. Giselle!” Silver said eagerly as he came forward. “I'm glad to see you were able to meet us here today.”

“Wait, Giselle? I thought you said Patches?” I asked, puzzled.

“Well technically it's Giselle but I like Patches better.”

“Why?”

“Oh it's a great story about an ancient trickster and a treasure horde, ooh I just love it so muchI wanted everybody to call me Patches!” this Griffon was just a whole other kind of hyper.

Suddenly Patches' eyes grew super wide as she spotted my cutie mark and pushed me down and stuffed her face right into it.

“Whoa! Your cutie mark is sooo cool! I love these things! They come in so many kinds and colors and shapes and....WHOA! Your cutie mark is so weird! Compasses don't work that way ya know. And I would know, I'm an expert!”

“Are you now.” Enyi said hesitantly.

“WHOA! A ZEBRA! I’ve never seen a Zebra before! Oh please do one of those rhymey things you guys do!” Patches' eyes grew even wider as she stared expectantly at Enyi.

Enyi just stood there with a confused look on his face for several seconds as Patches slowly pushed herself closer towards him, her face growing ever more smiley.

“You seem full of energy, you should use this....cleverly.” Enyi said slowly as Patches was now inches from his face.

“WHOA! You do rhyme! That's so cool!” I gave Enyi a worried look to which he just shrugged.

“Well anyway Ms. Giselle we are...” Silver tried to start talking but Patches immediately interrupted him.

“Oh I'm sooo sorry! I was so focused on meeting you I forgot to ask your names oh stupid Patches!” Patched smacked herself on her head several times.

“No need for that dear.” Silver said quickly flapping over to the now sad looking Griffon and taking her claw in his hoof.

I trotted a few steps closer to Silver and the Griffon, “Hello I'm Ivory Star and this here is Scarlet Aloe, Enyi and it looks like you know Silver Chaser here.”

“WHOA! Your THE Ivory Star! WHOA! ADVENTURE INCORPORATED didn't just send anypony they sent Grit Stratum's actual apprentice and the hero who saved all of Vanhoover! WHOA!” Patches was on the verge of a complete fangasm while once again greatly emphasizing Adventure Incorporated.

“Wait, What!? What do you mean famous and saved Vanhoover?” I asked quite confused.

“DUH! It's all on the radio, you know, It's your Hero! HERO STUDIOS!”

“Wait, what exactly has Hero been saying?”

“Only that your the most awesome pony since Grit Stratum in his prime and how you saved an entire Island from a bunch of evil ponies!”

“Wait, you actually get Hero's station way out here?”

“Yeah, well I mean sometimes. We get some things every few days before the connection cuts out. We've been meaning to have Hero send somepony out here to set up a real connection but we're all just so busy with so many other things that I guess we just never got around to it.” Patches said giving of little laughs a she spoke.

“So you haven't heard anything about Grit recently?” I asked now beginning to feel a bit depressed again.

“Well I heard he died and that was super sad, like I mean SUPER sad but you know your here now so it's like he's still here and that's just soooooo cool!”

She hadn't heard then, about what the Canterlot guard had released about Grit and how most ponies in Equestria probably viewed him now. At this point I kinda envied her, reminding me of myself from when I was a kid and had first met Grit. But now I would definitely need to have a word with Hero in Marewaukee when we got back from this excursion of ours.

“So your a Grit fan huh?” Jackpot said slyly stepping forward, “You know I worked with him for a super long time and even went on his last adventure with him not to mention I was at Vanhoover with little Ivory here.”

Suddenly Patches turned towards Jackpot with even wider eyes, “WHOA! Tell me tell me tell me tell me!” Jackpot gave off a cocky smile as the Griffon girl was nearly drooling at his hooves.

Scarlet rolled her eyes as Jackpot stood there looking very pleased with himself until Silver interrupted.

“Yes yes We would all love to hear all about it but remember I'm paying you to do a job and time is something we really don't want to waste right now.”

Patches backed off from Jackpot (to his annoyance) and sadly walked over to Silver giving a long sigh, “Your right. I'm sorry I just got a bit excited is all.”

“It's all right Ms. Giselle, we all go a little crazy sometimes but for now we're on the clock.” Silver said patting her head.

“Yeah, Silver said something about a library?” Scarlet said putting herself into the conversation.

Suddenly Patches perked right back up, “Oh yeah! The Griffonstone library is a wonder to behold! One of our greatest accomplishments since lady Gilda put Griffonstone on the right track!

“Well then please lead the way beautiful.” Jackpot suavely said as he did a little bow and pointed his hoof out.

This time Scarlet, Enyi and myself rolled our eyes almost in unison.

Patches pushed out her wings, “Ok then follow me!” she then lifted off the ground and zipped away from us so fast the dust didn't even have time to hit us in the face before she was gone. We all just stood there in a daze for a few seconds before Patches zipped right back to us. 'Aren't you coming?”

“Well, Jackpot here can't really fly at the moment and Silver,” I looked over at Silver and though he was better than he was he was still very obviously tired from the long trek up here, “he's pretty tired and probably couldn't carry any of us.”

“Oops! Sorry, got carried away again!” Patches said giving off a slightly awkward laugh.

This time she walked with us as we all climbed our way up the trunk of the great tree that sat at the heart of Griffonstone. The library of Griffonstone was admittedly impressive as it sat on one of the largest branches that protruded from the tree that the city sat on. It was definitely about the size of the Canterlot Royal Library but still pales in comparison to the A.I HQ library that was built into Canterlot Mountain.

The inside was equally as impressive as the exterior. Everywhere I looked my face grew wide as I saw the countless books that were piled in great shelves that seemed almost to grow out of the walls and floors of the library. Some shelves grew high into the tall ceiling reminding me of the great chambers of the A.I library back in Canterlot but this place was much better lit and filled with Griffons swooping and soaring around with claws full of books of various shapes and sizes.

“It's busy in here.” I commented almost tripping over myself while straining my neck trying to view the entirety of the interior.

“Yeah! This place has really helped us Griffons reconnect with our heritage in a way we never thought possible!” Patches beamed. “No longer will all our history and knowledge be lost as the books rot outside in the elements! Now we can keep them safe and cherish them so the next generation can learn from and add to our collected knowledge!” Patches beamed again becoming somewhat teary eyed.

“Ah yes, this place is truly beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the lovely young Griffon showing it to us.” Jackpot said suavely as he bounced his eyebrows up and down in front of Patches causing her to giggle.

I decided to ignore Jackpot and instead focus on how much amazing stuff could potentially be here. “Oh what I could learn here.” I said still in amazement of the massive collection of knowledge unknown to ponies.

“It is really pretty in here. I like all the tree carvings how the shelves just grow out of the walls and ceilings.” Scarlet said eying up and running her hoof across a short but slender shelf of books, “Ooh, so smooth.”

“Yes yes, this place is quite interesting but we have a mission to do and we're all on the clock right now.” Silver pointed out to the rest of us who really weren't paying attention to him at this point.

Silver eventually had to bop me on the head to break my trance and the rest of the group soon followed. After feeling a little embarrassed we all followed Patches up a series of ladders and stairways that crisscrossed through the high up areas of the main chamber of the library. After a while it became detrimental to look down as we had gotten pretty high up and the walkways were annoyingly small.

“Sorry about this guys, Griffons can fly so walking paths were never really a priority for us.” Patches chuckled embarrassingly.

“You know sometimes being an Earth Pony really sucks.” I said trying to keep from getting too dizzy as I looked down at the sheer drop tot he floor of the library.

“Do not be wary of the edge, I shall catch you, this I pledge.” Enyi whispered in my ear soliciting a blush and low satisfying moan from me.

“WHOA!” Crap, Patches heard. “So romantic! And a rhyme!” she was perhaps a bit too excited about this situation.

Jackpot gave me one of those looks he has when he comes up with some naughty joke or whatever he thinks of when trying to troll me while Scarlet gave off a little chuckle and a soft pat on my head as she walked past.

We finally arrived at a hallway built into the side of the interior wall as Patches led us deeper into the library. We stopped at a small round room just inside the short hall where a large book sat on a table in the center of the room.

“It's not much but Mr. Silver is paying for it so here ya go! In this here book is all the Griffons have found out about the site we're all going to tomorrow!” Patches said with a grin.

“Well then, lets get this started shall we.” I said while eagerly staring at the large book that was laying before me.

Patches was right, there really wasn't much here. Only a few pages of this book were filled in and what was there was more like randomly jotted down notes than any kind of description of what we were looking for.

The little description that was given did say this: Mountain ledge, only one path on the ground that leads to it, very narrow. Large flat rock face with strange carvings and undecipherable letters. Large tree carved into the center of the stone (Griffonstone?). Style of the lines indicates that site is older than Griffonstone so perhaps it is some form of schematic? Near the bottom of the tree is a ruined image of several Griffons holding weapons out to something. The carving must have broken off or been removed as there is evidence of cracking around where the Griffons are facing.

“There!” I said pointing to a line near the end of the last page of writing. It says here what the undecipherable word was, look familiar?”

“Yes. It is the word for Greywing from Abila's journal.” Enyi said looking at the Pre-Celestial Script that had been jotted down in the book.

“Greywing?” Patches said scratching her chin, “There's no mention of a Griffon by that name anywhere in our histories.”

“How far back do your records go?” Silver asked Patches.

“Since the reign of Grover and the finding of the Idol of Boreas. Records really weren't kept from before that time and what little there was was ruined before the library was built.” Patches said growing a rather sad expression on her face.

“Aww don't worry there beautiful, we'll get this here ruin figured out for you in no time.” Jackpot said sounding even more flirtatious.

I rolled my eyes, “You said we're going there tomorrow right Patches?” I asked.

“Um yeah, it takes a while to get there so if we left now it would be to dark to really see anything and the mountains are dangerous at night if you can't fly.” Patches said while still blushing at Jackpot.

“So where will we be staying?” Scarlet asked.

“Oh, I got us a nice room in the castle.” Silver said proudly.

“Wow, fancy.” Jackpot said somewhat impressed.

After looking and taking mental notes of the rest of the book we all turned around and climbed back down onto the ground floor of the library and headed towards the castle.

When we arrived it was even more stunning than the library. The whole building was constructed of ancient stone and it rose even higher than the library in some places. Patches led us through the grand foyer where richly dressed Griffons sat and talked amongst themselves giving us only passing glances as we walked. Patches decided to be really nice and led us past the throne room which despite having been empty for more years than I could count remained an impressive sight to behold. Seeing the stone pathway that led up past the stoop where the legendary Idol of Boreas once sat and the old throne that sat further up the stone stairs gave me goosebumps.

“Yup, pretty cool isn't it!” Patches happily said behind me as I stared blankly into the room.

“Cool is right. Oh the stories this room could tell.” I pondered out loud as my gaze shifted about the tall ceilings and high passages of the throne room.

It does look very old.” Jackpot said impatiently behind me.

“WHOA!” I said, “Look, is that the window that Arimaspi broke to steal the idol!” I shouted pointing up to a single paned window high up on the wall.

“We think so.” Patches answered eliciting a sigh of awe from me. “I'm gonna be honest, I thought not many ponies bothered to learn Griffon history but that's Grit Stratum’s protege for you!” Patches said putting a big smile on her face.

“I think we should be getting to sleep soon.” Scarlet interrupted, “Early to bed, early to rise as they say.”

It was beginning to get late out and I was getting pretty tired so after a quick group ok Patches led us all to our rooms.

“So Ivory, I'm guessing you're gonna wanna share a room with Enyi tonight?” Jackpot asked in his usual cheeky tone.

I just froze where I was standing realizing what Jackpot had just asked. I slowly turned my head to see him trying to hold back a laugh. The others were looking at Enyi who seemed just as surprised as me at that statement. We each looked at the other and I will admit I gave it a thought before Silver (Oh thank Luna) interrupted.

“I payed for a room for each of us. Wouldn't want it to go to waste right?”

“YES!” I said quickly and eagerly. “Wouldn't want to waste bits, not here anyway haha!”

Jackpot looked a little disappointed as Silver took a deep breath and Scarlet stood there just looking confused at the situation. Even Patches put on a somewhat noticeably forced smile in the situation as she showed us which rooms were ours in the castle guest quarters. I locked my door, shoved my face under the large pillows that were on the large bed and just screamed internally about how much I hated Jackpot right now. No matter what I did for the rest of the night I couldn't get the image out of my head and when I did eventually drift off to sleep I was thinking of Enyi.

*****

The next morning I woke up very refreshed after having slept in a wonderful and very comfortable bed. I sat up and stretched my legs out to help my body wake up. My front hooves were a little sore but that quickly dissipated once my body fully woke up and I walked around the room a few times.

I opened my door and slowly walked out into the hallway when I looked over and saw Enyi walking down the hallway towards me from his room.

“Good morning Ivory.” Enyi said while finishing off a yawn.

“Morning.” I said giving him a smile.

He gave me a quick hug (*squee*) and we then continued down the hallway. At the end we turned a corner to see Silver talking with patches while looking over a map that showed Griffonstone and some area around it.

“Ah! Morning you two. Hope you slept well?” Silver asked in a friendly tone.

“Of course they slept well!” Patches beamed. “Griffon beds are the best in the world!”

“Yeah, I slept pretty well last night.” I said while giving a small yawn myself.

“It was indeed a restful sleep.” Enyi said after me.

“Whatcha two doing?” I asked.

“Oh, we're just going over the last details of the route we're going to be taking to the site.” Silver answered.

Jackpot and Scarlet now came trotting around the corner.

“You sure my wing is usable now?” Jackpot asked her sounding both hopeful and annoyed.

“Well it should be, I mean I don't want to give you any false hope but well...these books might not be good for all I know and...”

“You know you can just say yes or no right?”

“Well it's a new spell and it's not really that good of a spell and I don't know how good I am at it and...”

“Like I said, yes or no.”

“Well um, you still shouldn't do anything strenuous because um...”

Jackpot let out a long and loud sigh, “Ugh.”

“Leave her alone Jackpot, she's just trying to help!” I yelled over to him.

“Yeah I know but it's like she just doesn't know what she's doing some times.” he answered.

“Well it's a new spell and I just don't know how good I am at it yet.” Scarlet said back.

“Then just tell me straight!”

“I was trying!” Scarlet huffed back, “You just kept interrupting me!”

“What kind of spell are you two talking about?” I asked.

“Well it's a low level healing spell that I just read about from on of the books I have and it just sort of heals a bit of surface level injuries.”

“Scarlet here said she could use it to help heal my wing here but then went on to say that I still shouldn't use it!” Jackpot said in a rather upset tone.

“That's because the bones in your wing and anything else outside the surface level injury wouldn't be affected by this spell or at least not as much!” Scarlet said back sounding just as upset.

I slapped my face with my hoof in exasperation, Patches just stood there trying to keep her smile while Silver kept looking at the map.

“Well if she says not to do anything strenuous then you should listen to her.” Enyi said.

Enyi trotted out of the hall and back towards the main foyer of the castle grumbling to himself as he walked passed us. Scarlet stood there looking a bit depressed while Enyi went over to try and cheer her up. I quickly followed him (partly because I didn't want Scarlet having him all to herself) and joined in his attempts to cheer up our friend.

Silver and Patches soon finished what they were doing with the map and with Silver gathering his large pack up we all trotted out of the castle and set out to whee Patches said the site we were looking for was. The walk was not an easy one as Griffonstone was pretty much surrounded by mountains and with Jackpot's wing still not at one hundred percent we decided not to fly much while getting there. Patches would give us some short trips over dangerous terrain but aside from that our group stayed mostly on the ground. It was at this point that Silver's pack came in handy as he had packed his own climbing equipment so as not to have to buy it from the Griffons. Patches kept advocating that the Griffons had the best climbing equipment ever but Silver's gear was more than adequate for what we needed. When Silver eventually and inevitably began to become exhausted by his large pack Scarlet cast her stamina spell on him since we didn't have any towns to rest at while out in the mountains.

“Isn't that going to tire you out as well?” I asked her.

Scarlet was indeed huffing a bit from using it, “Not that much for just one pony but a somewhat tired me is better than an exhausted Silver right?”

It took all morning and went well into the afternoon but after hours of hiking with Patches leading us we managed to discover a small path at the base of a large and near completely vertical cliff. The cliff was very tall and we all had to strain our necks to look high enough to just see the top from the bottom.

“This whole area used to be covered in snow but an avalanche managed to clear this whole area out which allowed us Griffons to just stumble on this little cliff ledge here!” Patches beamed.

“So we gotta climb this whole cliff?” Silver asked with some despair in his voice.

“Yup!” Patches said excitedly, “Isn't it just so exciting!”

“Riveting.” Silver moaned.

Patches led the way up the small pathway with me following close behind with Enyi, Jackpot, Scarlet and Silver bringing up the rear. Several spots on this small path felt almost like they would give way at any second but Patches seemed almost instinctively to know which spots were safe to step on and which ones weren't.

We finally reached the top and when my head could finally reach over the top ledge of the cliff and I was able to see this site I stopped in my tracks and stared at the large wall as my friends got stuck behind me.

“Um Ivory! Hello! Equestria to Ivory! Move please!” Jackpot shouted behind me.

I realized I was kind of blocking the path so I moved to allow my friends to get up and when they did even Jackpot seemed almost entranced by the sight that stood before us.

“I read that description but that doesn't do this justice.” I said in awe of what I was seeing.

“Indeed.” Enyi answered from behind me.

In front of us on the cliff was a large and smooth wall which stood about eight or nine times my own height and was nearly twice as wide as that. Right in the center was carved a massive tree that stretched from the ground to the top of the wall. Hundreds of branches and limbs shot off of it in every direction as rays of light were carved off to the sides giving this stone carving an almost ethereal look to it. All around this tree were carved Griffons flying in many directions with all of them wearing intricately carved and highly decorated armor and carrying spears and long axes. And right there near the base of the tree was the broken carving of a group of Griffons extending their weapons to a section of the wall that had obviously broken off.

“What is this?” I said still in complete awe of the massive work of art in front of me.

“We think this is some early vision of Griffonstone or perhaps another city that no longer exists.” Patches said from behind me.

Scarlet had gone up to the wall and was inspecting many of the smaller images of Griffons that were carved near the base of the wall. Enyi had gone over to places where writing was and had taken out the journal and begun to write down some of what was written there. Silver went straight up to the center tree and seemed almost entranced by it as he stood there just staring. Jackpot also seemed transfixed on the large carving but he just stood near the back staring at it as a whole.

“This is amazing.” I said almost speechless.

“Yeah, it's pretty cool.” Patches said while staring at the carving herself with wide eyes.

“This definitely mentions Greywing.” Enyi said as he inspected the carved writing. “Although the rest of this I cannot properly translate.”

“I'll help you!” I said as I quickly sped my way over to him.

“Your help would be much appreciated.” Enyi said with a smile.

I nestled myself up next to Enyi as I began to take a look at the writing. My gaze darted between the journal and the wall as I started to piece some of the words together.

“Hey Enyi, what do you think this means? O melio eranama, o cala a sera frol, an morole cal quol esse se lore as sore ye erdimol.” I asked him.

“I do not know but if I must guess it seems like a song or perhaps a poem.” he answered back.

“Yeah, the rest looks pretty weathered but I think we can get some of these words.”

“Yes, I see them. The O there is the word 'a'. And the a is 'of''.

“So then let me see here...esse se is 'in her'.” I thought out loud. “Oh and the as is 'with' I think.”

“Yes, that does seem to match what we already know.” Enyi said.

We began to pour through the notes bot Grit and we had taken and what we had translated from Abila's journal. We found some more words we had forgotten about and managed to get the first part down.

“A beauty unparalleled, a coat of gentle gold.” I read, “Yeah definitely a song or poem.”

“What of the last part there?”

“Hmm. You have any guesses Enyi?”

“Let me see here...something about the sky being in her hair or mane.”

“Yeah, morole, what does that mean?”

“I think it means dark...no wait...darkened.” Enyi said looking back at the journal.

“So, the darkened sky was in her mane?”

“It seems so.”

“She sounds lovely.” I said looking back at the inscription.

“Indeed.”

“Hey!”

“What? You said it.”

“You're not supposed to agree with me on that!”

“Well it is a flattering description.”

“Let's just finish it.” I sighed. Enyi let out a small chuckle as I said this.

“A beauty unparalleled, a coat of gentle gold, the darkened sky was in her mane with...something.” Enyi read.

“This sounds like a pony, not a Griffon.” I said.

“Yes, you are right. This does indeed seem to be describing something other than a Griffon.”

“I wonder who it's about?”

“I do not know.” Enyi answered.

We continued to look through our notes and Abila's journal for the last few words and after several minutes did in fact manage to find them or at least words that were close enough to mean the same things:

A beauty unparalleled, a coat of gentle gold

the darkened sky was in her mane with power yet untold.

I hummed it to myself as we finished the translation.

“Beautiful.” I said after finishing.

“Griffons certainly do have a way with words.” Enyi said.

“Over here!” Jackpot yelled from the far side of the wall.

“What is it!” I yelled as the rest of us congregated to where Jackpot was standing.

“More of that writing of yours.” Jackpot said.

Indeed there was more writing and it was even a repeat of Greywing's name with a bulls-eye like image carved right beneath it.

“Looks like a keyhole to me.” Jackpot observed.

“Ah yes it does.” Silver added.

“So then where's the key?” Scarlet asked.

I put my hoof up to the image, “Whoa! Careful Ivory! Be careful with that, it's really old!” Patches squeaked from behind me.

I heeded her advise and gently pressed my hoof against the target and rat it along the carved letters and picture. I then gently tapped my hoof against the wall and it was then I could feel it.

“There's an open space behind here.”

Jackpot then tapped his own hoof gently against the wall with his ear pressed against the stone, “She's right. This is a door.”

“But how do we enter?” Enyi asked.

“No idea.” I answered. I quickly got an idea as I glanced down as Jackpot's saddlebags and then over at Sparky which was still on my hoof.

On second thought that would probably be a bad idea so I gave my head a shake and got the thought out of my head. This was then replaced with a new and probably better idea but an idea that would be tricky to pull off.

“Hey Enyi?”

“What is it Ivory?”

“So this door probably has some kind of key or something needed to activate it right?”

“That would be logical yes.”

“Well, I think we should fan out around this area and look to see if there is anything else beside this wall here.”

“That's not a bad idea Ivory.” Silver said.

“Worth a shot.” Jackpot added.

“Ok, Jackpot and I will stay here and see if we can find anything else while Enyi, Patches, Scarlet and Silver can spread out around the base of the cliff and look around there.”

“That sounds like a sound plan but would it not be better if we searched together?” Enyi asked.

“Jackpot can find treasure, that's kind of his thing, and with my know how we can be doubly effective. I need you and Patches to fill that same roll for the other group ok Enyi.” I said giving him my best puppy dog face.

“Very well, I see your logic.” Enyi nodded and smiled.

With that Enyi and Patches led the others back down the small path while Jackpot and I stayed up near the wall. I looked over the edge as they descended and gave a friendly wave once they all reached the bottom safely.

“So Ivory, what's your plan here exactly?” Jackpot questioned me.

“Did you bring the helmet?”

“Of course.”

“Well I don't see any keyholes on this door here so I wanna see if the door is activated using magic.”

“Probably should have kept Scarlet here then.”

“Only us two know we have the helmet and I don't want to upset Enyi by risking Scarlet being the one to tell him we have it.”

“Fair enough.” Jackpot said as he nodded his head.

Jackpot set down his saddlebag and reached in with his muzzle and pulled out the helmet wrapped in cloth. He unwrapped it and set the helmet down in front of me. I sat down next to it and with my front hooves gently placed it on my head. It fit just as perfectly as ever as my entire body was suddenly filled with energy and Sparky perked up and once again grew to encompass my forehoof. I walked over to the wall and once again placed my hoof on the target symbol and much to my annoyance nothing happened. I began to trace my hoof along the slender lines of the carving looking for anything that could work while Jackpot looked on just sipping on his flasks.

“Dammit, it's not working.” I said frustratedly.

“Try different spots.” Jackpot said while he sat down and reclined on the ground.

I walked along the wall and tried connecting my hoof and even the helmet itself against different points on the wall. I got back to the spot where the Griffon warriors fought the unknown enemy and stared at it. I ran my hoof along this part as something inside of me was screaming that this was important.

“Jackpot, come here!” I called over to him.

Jackpot hoisted himself up and gently floated on his wing over to me. When he landed I looked and saw a twinge of pain on his face as he quickly tucked his hurt wing in once he landed though he tried to hide it.

“What is it kid?” he said.

I slid the helmet off my head and put it on his.

“You look. You're the treasure hunter.”

I saw his face light up the moment the helmet once again slid perfectly on his head. I swear I could see it almost change size as it fit over his mane as if my some magic. Jackpot's wings shot out as the slight pain in his face disappeared. He floated up and around the great tree carved in the center of the wall as he slowly rose in elevation from where I was. When he got to the upper branches he stopped and started looking around as he floated bot up and down and side to side across the branches. Jackpot arrived at a spot on the tree I had not noticed before as there was something that had been carved right into the branch that could not be seen well from the ground.

It was here that Jackpot slid his hoof onto the strange image when a stream of visible magic shot out from the helmet and into the carving. Jackpot recoiled somewhat as the blast had undoubtedly surprised him but he was able to catch himself in the air before he fell too far. The tree suddenly began to glow a luminescent blue as magical energy began to spark and crack in the air around the wall.

“What did you do Jackpot!” I shouted as Jackpot remained floating in the air as the entire cliff wall now began to shake.

“I don't really know!” I heard him shout back down.

Jackpot quickly landed next to me as the tree suddenly began to split in half and the entire cliff began to shake violently. The image of the tree suddenly cracked down the middle and split into two massive doors which then proceeded to swing open with a rush of air than nearly knocked Jackpot and me off the cliff side.

When I finally pushed myself back up from the ground I saw Jackpot quickly gathering up all of his flasks that had shaken right out of his saddlebag. The helmet was no longer on his head but the saddlebag had some bulk to it so it's whereabouts were not hard to guess. I looked up back at the wall and saw that when once there had been a solid wall of stone with ancient carvings there now was a massive open doorway that went about as high as the tree had gone.

“Wow.” is all I could say as I stared in utter awe at the massive doorway.

“You all right kid!” Jackpot shouted as he ran back up towards me.

“Yeah yeah, I'm fine.” I said still transfixed on the massive opening in the former wall.

A swooshing sound suddenly came from behind me as Patches landed with a thud in front of Jackpot and me.

“You two all right!?” She panted frantically.

“Yeah we're fine.” I answered.

“Enyi sent me up, he and the others are climbing back up the path but he wanted me to make sure you two we're ok.”

Jackpot trotted over to the cliff edge and looked down, “Don't worry, Ivory's just fine!” I saw his smile return, “Though she might need you to kiss some boo boos that she was too embarrassed to show me!”

“I can take care of any injuries!” Scarlet shouted back up.

Jackpot turned his head towards me, his wings now slightly extended. He just winked at me before trotting past towards the doorway into the mountain.

Enyi quickly clambered his way up the cliff and ran straight towards me, “Ivory, are you ok! The mountain just started shaking and...”

“I'm fine Enyi, I'm fine.” I said giving him a hug.

“Your bracelet.” Enyi said noticing the now extended Sparky.

“Yeah, Jackpot found this carving further up and when he pressed it a whole bunch of magic started whirling around and Sparky here seems to have noticed.” I still felt uncomfortable lying like this but obviously we still needed the helmet and I now felt more than ever that I wanted Enyi to never leave.

“What was he saying about you being hurt?” Enyi asked.

“Oh, that was...that was just Jackpot being Jackpot.” I said blushing a little.

“Oh....OH!” Enyi said probably realizing what I meant and blushing a little himself.

Scarlet trotted up to me and Enyi, “Where are you hurt Ivory?”

“I'm fine Scarlet. Jackpot was exaggerating.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Well if anything starts hurting just tell me ok.” Scarlet said with a look of relief on her face.

“Sure thing.” I said back.

Silver came up last just staring with utter disbelief on his face and the change in the landscape that had occurred. Patches was standing next to him with much the same expression on her face.

“Ivory, this is amazing.” Silver said.

“Yeah. I don't really know what to say.” I said back.

“I say let's go in!” Patches excitedly said.

“We might as well.” Enyi said putting his hoof around my shoulder.

We all lined up right on the precipice of the now opened doorway that towered over us. The inside was a large stone room that with the light now flooding into it was covered in carvings of it's own. Enyi took a step forward, the look of awe in his eyes fading as a new look took over his face. I looked quizzically at him as he started to walk straight forward towards a very specific carving on the right side of the now opened room. We all followed him wondering what exactly he was looking at and when he stopped at the wall it became pretty obvious.

“Enyi, do you know what this is?” I asked him.

“Yes.” as he said this I got a better look at his face and the look on it was not a happy one.

The carving he had stopped in front of was kind of hard to make out but after staring at it I realized what it was. It was some kind of large bulbous creature that had multiple legs stretching out of its body on each side of it. It's face, or what seemed like its face, was covered in small beady eyes that even in carving form gave me the chills.

“Enyi?” I asked now slightly worried.

“Lazilob.” he said.

“What's a Labisob?” Jackpot said trying and failing to pronounce the name Enyi had just said.

“I've heard you mention that name, Lazilob, before.” I whispered to Enyi, “What is it?”

“She was one of two.” Enyi mumbled.

“Two what?” Scarlet asked.

“You saw one, on the bridge at Numnah.” Enyi mumbled in response.

I tried to think back to when I first met Enyi and when we first entered the lost Zebra city and looked at carvings on the bridge that led to the city. After a few seconds I managed to recall the image of the dragon that Enyi and Grit had mentioned.

“You mean that dragon you said could eat cities?”

“Yes.”

“Whoa! So this is an actual dragon!” Patches said still excited.

“No, Lazilob was no worm, she was...well she was...most similar to a spider I suppose.”

“I guess that explains the legs and eyes.” Silver said still staring at the picture on the wall.

“So what exactly were Lazilob and this dragon?” I asked.

“Lazilob and Balaur are two demons from our ancient history. Balaur was the more destructive of the two but Lazilob was the more feared and hated.”

“Wait, if this dragon wrecked more stuff how do you hate this spider more?” Jackpot asked.

“They were demons spawned of the Darkness. Each had their own magic and Lazilob ate light itself and could spin webs of unlight that sucked all life from wherever she went. Fields withered, forests died, crops failed, starvation and disease followed her and she was known to devour my people by the hundreds to sate her unending hunger.”

“Ok so that sounds...pretty bad.” Jackpot said now a little shaken himself.

“So what's this picture of a Zebra monster doing here in a Griffon ruin? Do you know what happened to these two monsters?” Silver asked quickly.

“What came of Balaur we do not know but of Lazilob it is said that she threatened the kingdom Abila had created so she went to do battle with the beast. Abila took all her greatest warriors and ultimately succeeded in driving the beast away but Abila herself died in the battle.”

“Shit.” Jackpot muttered to himself as he clutched his saddlebag.

“So his thing killed Abila?” I asked Enyi.

“Yes, this is why we hate her more.”

“Then maybe she came here and that's why her picture is here.” Patches said.

“Yeah, but if this is Greywing's tomb and he died before Abila how then why is this image inside of it?” I asked.

“Perhaps it was added later but what I do know is that we should not enter here. If the image of Lazilob in set into the entrance as it is then this place is cursed.”

“Nonsense!” Scarlet yelled, “No such thing as curses.”

“Maybe in pony magic but for us Zebra curses are very real.”

“Still, we need to go in.” I said. “If we leave this place and Sable finds it then you bet he will go right in and take whatever it is that's in here.” I said to Enyi.

He grumbled a bit, “I suppose you are correct. But we must be very careful.”

“We will, I promise.” I said putting my hoof under Enyi's chin and nuzzling his muzzle.

Enyi's face lightened as he let out a smile, “Ok Ivory, but we should not split up in here.”

“Fair enough.” I said softly.

At the far end of the room was one small door that led down a long staircase and into darkness. We walked towards it and past all the many carvings and writings that filled the walls of the main room of the ruin. If I had the time I would have certainly loved to stay there and just examine everything here but the rest of the tomb awaited and I didn't want to stick around too long in case Sable and Goldie were also on the trail of this place.

Silver reached into his pack and took out several flashlights which he handed out to the rest of us. These very quickly came in handy as once we started down the staircase the sunlight began to fade and complete darkness set in. With the light of the flashlights we slowly clambered down the long and twisting staircase following the smooth and well carved stairs down into the ruin. It soon seemed like forever as the stairs just kept going and going and going with no end in sight.

“You know what this reminds me of?” I asked.

“Princess Twilight's battle against king Sombra?” Scarlet answered.

“Good guess.”

After what seemed like an eternity we finally reached the bottom of the stairs and entered into another room that split into three different paths. This instantly made me regret that promise to Enyi as picking the wrong path would certainly waste time if not get us completely lost.

I really had no idea what to do here. I had promised Enyi we wouldn't split up but I mean come on a hallway that split into different paths! What were we supposed to do in this situation!

“I think we should take the left path.” Jackpot said finally breaking the silence.

“Why?” Scarlet said next.

“I have a feeling.”

“Well Jackpot seems to know how to find treasure so if his instincts say left then I agree with him.” I said.

I looked over at Enyi and he nodded in agreement. Silver and Patches also agreed which left Scarlet as the only one who was unsure but she came around after Jackpot pointed out that they might as well just pick a path and go down it.

Jackpot led the way as the left path began to slope ever slightly downward the further we trotted down it. As we continued down the light from the flashlights began to dim as more and more time passed.

“Hey guys, anypony here notice how we're kinda losing light?” I said.

“We shouldn't be. Those flashlights should last for days with the magic crystals I have powering them.” Silver said in reply.

“Well they are going out it looks like.” Scarlet said.

“Ooh, spooky!” said Patches.

“I don't wanna get stuck in here if these lights go out.” Jackpot said looking back at the rest of us.

“Wait one second.” Silver said as he slid his large pack onto the floor and rifled around until he found another flashlight. “Here, this one is fresh.” Silver used his wing to flip it on and it fared no better than the other lights that we were already using.

“This does not bode well.” Enyi said.

“Should we turn back?” Patches asked.

“I don't think anythings wrong with the flashlights but they are certainly dimming.” I added.

“Let's go on a bit further and if they continue to dim then we'll turn back.” Silver stated and we all agreed.

So we continued on and on and on and on into the dark as the flashlights continued to dim slightly but not to the point where we were in total darkness.

“Unlight.” Enyi whispered into my ear.

“No way that monster is here.” I whispered back to him (although it was mainly to ease my own growing worry).

“Look, a glow up ahead!” Jackpot shouted. He immediately ran ahead of us and disappeared into the bright glow that was coming from around a nearby corner.

“Jackpot! No splitting up!” Enyi yelled as we all chased after him.

When we turned the corner we all stopped in our tracks at the glorious sight that sat in front of us. Another large chamber but this one was instead of carving was filled with TREASURE! Piles and piles of it in fact. Mounds of gold and gems of all kinds littered the floor as Jackpot was already rolling around on the floor with the biggest smile on his face that I have ever seen. Everywhere I looked there was some kind of precious metal or gem or...piles of armor and weapons as well. All of them were gilded in gold and silver and around them was laid goblets and cups made of various shining metals as well.

“There’s gotta be millions of bits worth of stuff in here!” Jackpot yelled happily.

“Tens of millions.” Silver said, himself somewhat awed by the amazing sight.

Even Scarlet and Enyi were already staring closely at several suits of Griffon style armor that hung on diamond encrusted pegs in the corner.

“Ancient Griffons monarchs would often be buried with their treasures but I've never heard of one this rich.” Patches said herself in awe as well.

As everypony ran around the room just looking at whatever they could I saw out of the corner of my eye Jackpot slipping several small wingfuls of gold coins into one of his empty saddlebags.

“What are you doing?” I whispered angrily to him as everypony else was busy inspecting the various treasures.

“Oh come on, the Griffons didn't even know this existed until literally right now. They won't miss just this little bit.”

“Put it back.” I harshly whispered.

“Seriously, come on Ivory just a little bit.”

I swung my head around towards the others and they still hadn't noticed. Jackpot did have a point, the Griffons really didn't even know this existed and if he took just a small bit nopony would actually notice. But on the other hoof I didn't want Jackpot getting into trouble like Grit had done so I just shook my head and pointed hard towards the ground to signal my displeasure. Jackpot reluctantly slid the few coins back to the floor and moved on while grumbling to himself.

“Ivory, there appears to be another doorway leading out of this chamber.” Enyi said from the other side of the room.

I walked over to it but the moment my hoof stepped beyond the bounds of the chamber I felt something very strange about the floor. My hoof seemed to almost sink into it and it felt very soft to the touch. When I tried pulling my hoof up it stuck to the floor until I yanked with my full strength and fell backwards back into the treasure room.

“Ivory! Your hoof!” I heard Scarlet yell as I sat back up.

I lifted my hoof up only to see it covered in...in...CELESTIA'S STIFFENED TEATS, spider webs!

Enyi ran over and took a look at my hoof, “We must leave now!” I wholeheartedly agreed at this point.

“Um, guys!” Patches yelled as we all turned to look through the doorway we had come from.

Within it were several dots of light that seemed to emanate from nothing and that seemed to just stare at us. After a second several more appeared, then several more after that. A sudden chittering sound began emanating from the hall as we all backed up towards the web covered doorway.

“Shit.” Jackpot huffed as the chittering increased.

“I say we run for it.” I said.

The others apparently agreed as we were all soon running at full speed down the web covered hallway. Now when I say full speed I mean as fast as we could go while constantly tripping over the sticky substances that now covered all the walls and floors. The flashlights seemed to dim even more as we ran down the hallway which ended up only freaking me out even more.

“Ivory, look at Sparky!” I heard Jackpot yell.

I looked down at my hoof as best as I could while still running to find that the crystal that was set in it was now glowing and was glowing much brighter than the flashlights. Thank the princesses for this thing and thank Emerald. I thought as hard as I could about light and being able to see. In fact I don't think I ever thought about something so hard in my life as wanting to be able to see right now. I clenched my eyes shut and just kept running forward as the tapping and chittering of hundreds of legs began echoing throughout the halls.

Suddenly even my closed eyes beheld the light. Sparky exploded in an aura of purple and clear light as everypony in the group stopped at the sudden surprise of being nearly blinded for a second. The light soon faded into a gentle glow but the good news was the chittering had stopped (or at least quieted down) and we could now fully see where we were going.

“I knew this was a bad idea.” Enyi said.

“Are you ok Enyi?” I asked running over to him.

“Yes I am. I must say that Sparky of yours is quite helpful.”

“We're all ok thanks for asking!” Jackpot yelled as he rubbed his partly blinded eyes.

“Now what do we do?” Scarlet asked with obvious worry in her voice.

“Keep going.” Silver said.

“We can't really go back anyway.” Patches added.

“What exactly do you know about this Lazilob?” I asked Enyi, “Do your stories say she had any children of her own?”

“None that I know of though these stories are thousands of years old and date back to the old Zebra Empire.”

“How exactly did Abila drive this thing away?” Silver asked next.

“She had a team of about a dozen Zebra heroes who used flaming weapons and powerful acidic potions to fight her off.”

“I'm guessing you don't have those in that pack of yours eh Silver?” Jackpot asked.

“Afraid not.”

And at that we kept on going forward. Moving through the dark and web filled hallways was not pleasant one bit. Every so often eyes would pop up from the dark behind us and we would hear the feet of the spiders echo through the halls. I was spending the whole time wondering if they were surrounding us and leading us to where we would be eaten easier.

After another eternity of walking and getting covered in webs we finally came across another large chamber. This only grew our worry as the entire room was filled with webs that seemed to absorb the very light that Sparky was giving off. We made sure to hurry along and out of that room as soon as we could and not look back.

Once we entered the next hallway the chittering suddenly returned as specs of light appeared all over the darkened web chamber we had just left. This time I saw the vague shapes of many legged things moving through the dark as Sparky's light seemed to only penetrate so far.

We decided to run again so as to quickly pass through the hallways without getting overtaken by the spiders and by this point moving through the webs seemed just a bit easier. The next chamber, which came much quicker than the last, was also filled with webs but strung within them was more treasures from coins to helmets to cups of all shapes and sizes and made from all manner of shiny things. They seemed to hang from every wall and ceiling and we ended up needing to push past many of the hanging threads of treasure that dangled close to the floor.

“Wow, how rich was this Griffon?” Jackpot mused as he stared longingly at the countless hanging treasures.

“Richer than any Griffon tomb I've ever seen or heard of.” Patches noted.

“Giant balls of gems Ivory! Look at them all, like chandeliers of shiny silk!” Scarlet said staring up at the ceilings which did indeed contain wound up silken balls of dimly shining gems.

“Will this darkness ever end!” Enyi shouted out as we entered another hallway.

“Quiet Enyi. We're trying ok.” I whispered to him while holding his now shaking body. “He's not doing too well guys.”

“Ivory! Look!” Silver yelled as suddenly spiders, actual giant fucking spiders began creeping from the fucking walls and ceilings.

“That's our cue! Run!” I shouted as I pulled Enyi along as our group ran further into the dark.

Even Sparky was now starting to dim as we continued running further into the spider infested tomb. Behind us the ever growing sound of thousands of legs skittering across the floors and walls as the spiders closed in on us.

As we entered the next chamber which was much the same as the last there were several very large and very bulbous spiders waiting for us. They were easily three or four times my size which grossed me out immediately. Their round beady eyes centered on us as mandibles and clawed feet sprung from beneath them. They made horrible shrieking sounds (quite unusual for spiders I know) as they pounced across the room at us.

Without thinking I raised Sparky and let my emotions do the rest as a spark of purple magic shot out and blasted one spider square in the face. It crumpled onto the ground while the others dispersed. We just kept running as I noticed Enyi getting more and more jittery and nervous. To be fair we were all like that but he was way worse off than the rest of us were at that point. We exited this chamber with several dozen spiders crawling after us but with one more blast from Sparky they stopped and disappeared.

“Ok, I'll admit it. This was a mistake!” I screamed as we continued to run and stumble our way through the darkening rooms.

When we entered the next chamber a large spider leapt at us from the ceiling and knocked the whole group over. I heard Enyi scream and I looked over to see the monster on top of him. Before I could act though Jackpot rammed into the spider and though seemingly missing it the spider still backed off. Jackpot proceeded to chase it using his wings to simply provide lift and speed. The spider ran off into the dark, easily avoiding Jackpot, as Enyi lay there completely paralyzed in fear.

“ENYI!” I screamed as I ran over to him. “Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok!” I was near hyper ventilating.

Scarlet scrambled over and glossed over Enyi with her eyes, “I don't see any bite marks, just some small bruises but its so dark I can't see that well.”

“Scarlet please, can you do the stamina spell! Just a little bit so he can move!” I begged.

Scarlet nodded as her horn glowed red and then a small ball of light flew off and lightly landed on Enyi. I could now see him breathing again as his head started moving. Patches and Jackpot hoisted him up and tossed Enyi over Patches back before we continued moving.

“Will this place ever end.” I heard Silver say behind me.

“I don't know ok!” I shouted back while still running.

The next chamber we found now was so shockingly different I actually tripped over the floor because the webs seemed to disappear completely from it. I looked up and Sparky began to glow a bit brighter as the room was thankfully clear of those horrifying light eating spider webs.

“Oh thank Luna! Thank Celestia! I swear I'll never make you watch my dreams of you two again if we get out of this!” Jackpot wailed.

“At least this room is web free.” Patches said gently setting down Enyi.

“I wonder why that is?” Silver pondered.

“Let's just rest for a minute here before we do anything else. I don't hear those things as much. Maybe they don't like this room for whatever reason.”

“Whatever that reason is I now love it.” Jackpot said taking several deep breaths.

I walked over to Enyi and sat down next to him staring into his eyes, “You ok?”

“I think so.”

“I'm sorry, I guess I didn't realize how seriously Zebra believe in this Lazilob.”

“This simply proves she is real.” Enyi said weakly.

“Looks like it.” I said back.

“Ivory, there's the exit to this chamber!” Patches shouted as she flew across the room. She peaked in the doorway and flew back to us. “Looks empty but then again it's too dark to see properly.”

“Give us a minute.” Silver said panting heavily.

“Gather round me everypony!” Scarlet called out.

We all came to her when her horn began to glow a bright red and she scrunched up her face and started sweating from the effort. The spell was cast and our energy came back while Scarlet collapsed from the strain.

“I got ya.” Jackpot said, helping Scarlet up.

“That's all I got for now.” Scarlet panted.

“Thanks, no offense but carrying you around is still a bit better than we just were.” Silver said.

Jackpot helped Scarlet move the rest of the way as we carefully trotted down the hallway. Sparky was now shining brighter as the webs no longer soaked up its light and we were able to go forward with a bit more confidence.

When at last the hallway ceased we found ourselves on one last chamber that was once again free of webs and giant spiders. With Sparky lighting it up I saw that the walls were once again covered in carvings of none other than Lazilob and many of her spider horde. Small dots of blue light provided a natural ambiance to the room that felt quite nice compared to the previous ones.

This chamber had a lot of stuff in it the closer we looked. In the center of the large chamber was a staircase that led to a pedestal with a stone sticking up from it that split the room into two sides. I began to walk up the stairs and saw on either side of the pedestal that there were shallow holes in the ground that lined up with the wall. I hopped down over to them and saw more Pre-Celestial Script carved into the ground beside them.

“These are numbers.” I said counting five rows of five holes each.

I hopped back up to the pedestal and inspected the other side which was nearly identical. I trotted up to the rock on the top and saw that it had writing on it. I ran back down and slid Enyi's and my translation journal and began to read, look to the stars for they hold the answer. What the hell did that mean. There were no stars in here and we had no way of getting outside to stare at them.

“You know just how much I hate puzzles.” Jackpot grunted as I related to them what the stone had said.

“Well Griffons usually put tricks and traps like these to protect their inner sanctums. This is probably a sign that we're near the main vault or maybe even the tomb itself!” Patches said with her usual excitement that in this situation was kind of getting on my nerves by this point.

“Let's just hope there's a shortcut out of here or something once we get to this inner sanctum.” Jackpot sighed back.

“Well then we should probably try to find out what exactly this puzzle is so we can get out of here before the spiders come back.” I said, looking back towards the spherical holes that had been carved into the two sides of the room.

“You said the stone mentioned something about the stars right?” Enyi said in the dim glow of the chamber.

“Yeah but I don't see any stars and there is no way we can go back where we came from to see any.”

“I say let us look around this room a bit and see if we have missed anything.”

“Good Idea Enyi.” I looked over at the others. Scarlet was laying down near the wall of the chamber resting while Silver watched her. Patches was floating around the walls looking more at the carvings while Jackpot was standing around looking miserable.

“Whoa!” Patches yelled. “I see something down on the floor there!” She yelled while pointing to the far corner of the room.

I ran over to see what she was pointing at and laying there in the far corner were about ten small spheres carved with more Pre-Celestial Script on their outside.

“What are these for I wonder?” I asked myself.

We gathered them up and placed them in the center of the room by the base of the stairs. I sat down near them trying to just figure out what exactly this whole puzzle room meant and what the point of these spheres was.

I sat there for a good long while trying to piece this puzzle together when a loud clunking sound suddenly popped up from behind me. I will admit that it caused me to jump a little (maybe a little scream escaped me but nopony could ever prove that). I quickly turned towards the noise to see that it was just Jackpot messing around with some of the spheres. He had dropped one when he tried to pick it up with his wing and had obviously still felt some pain as his wing gave way to the sphere dropping on the ground. The sphere rolled away at the impact until it conveniently settled into one of the holes that permeated the floor of the chamber.

“I'm an idiot.” I said as I ran over to the sphere.

I looked down the row of holes and saw that they extended all the way to the wall. I looked at where the ancient numbers had been carved into the ground and counted the same number of rows as there were spheres.

“I think these spheres are supposed to go in these holes here.”

“How do you know?” Patches asked coming over by me.

“The number of spheres matches the number of the rows of the holes and it just kinda makes sense when you really think about it.”

Jackpot and Enyi came over and inspected the rows themselves.

“Ivory, look at where the holes meet the wall.” Enyi said pointing to the end of the row of holes.

Indeed there was something interesting there. Each row was relatively evenly spaced and directly where they hit was wall was a set of the blue dots that permeated the ceiling. I trotted over to them and began to inspect these dots closer.

“I thought they were just a light source but they're...they're constellations.” I said looking closely at them.

“You mean like star pictures?” Patches asked.

“Yeah, images made from stars which means...” I looked up towards the ceiling and sure enough the dots there began to form images from various constellations, “This puzzle has something to do with these.”

We all started staring back at the wall and the ceiling incessantly. The ceiling was covered in the constellations as numerous copies of each one dotted various spots around the roof of the chamber.

Suddenly Patches picked up one of the spheres in her claws and flew it over to a hole on the furthest row from us. This row had an image of the constellation Lyra and as Patches placed the orb in the hole it suddenly lit up with an orange tinted hue.

“Patches, what did you do!” I yelled excitedly.

“Oh I uh just counted the number of constellations and put the ball here in the hole that had the same number listed.”

“Beautiful and smart, not bad.” Jackpot cooed from behind Patches.

Ignoring Jackpot I quickly began to count all the number of the various constellations that were pictured on the ceiling. The others did so as well and soon we had placed all of the spheres in their correct spots resulting in a soothing glow from all of them as a stone slab on the far wall gave way to one more hallway.

We all trotted over to where the new passage had just opened up with Jackpot helping Scarlet make her way over with us. Any initial excitement I felt for a potential way out of these dark tunnels was dashed when we stepped into this new passage. Sparky once again began to dim and no light whatsoever could be seen through the dark tunnel prompting us to move back to the puzzle room.

“How much you wanna bet that there's gonna be more giant spiders down there?” Jackpot said sarcastically.

“It's not like we have much of a choice is it? Either we go back to get eaten by giant spiders or we go forward and maybe get eaten by giant spiders.” I answered in an annoyed tone.

“Not very good prospects either way.” Enyi added.

“Well I say we go for it!” Patches said still trying to sound upbeat.

We all lined back up at the entrance of the new passageway, each one of us no doubt dreading exactly what we would find in there.

“You know what guys, anypony think its weird that none of the spiders have followed us in here or that there's no webs or anything?” I said this trying to sound like I was being smart while in reality I was just trying to stall from going into the new passage.

“Yeah I did notice that.” Jackpot answered a bit too enthusiastically to not get the meaning of my tone of voice.

“You know if we just stand here talking the spiders will probably forget whatever reason is keeping them out of here and just come on in right?” Silver said(Luna dammit).

“Hey Jackpot, you got any cider left in your bags?” I asked.

“Yeah, here ya go.” Jackpot slid Scarlet down, much to her annoyance, and began digging through his saddlebag. I could hear the clinking of empty flasks as he dug his muzzle through his bags.

“How much of that have you had already?” Scarlet asked from the floor.

“You mean since we've been in here or the whole trip?”

“Ugh, never mind.” Scarlet said a little uncharacteristically brusque.

After a few seconds Jackpot pulled out a partially full flask and after a quick gulp passed it on to me. I grabbed it in my hooves and eagerly gulped down the remaining liquid; it burned a little going down but by this point it felt like heaven as the strength of it soon hit me. I coughed a little after draining the flask but the feelings ease and comfort the drink gave me far outweighed that mild discomfort. At this Jackpot helped Scarlet back up and after hesitating only a few seconds more I plunged muzzle first into the darkened hallway.

Sparky once again began to dim as the familiar feeling of stick webbing began to ooze around my hooves. I could see the small silvery strands glistening in the dull light of Sparky as the hallway gave way to a set of stairs that declined at a rather steep angle. This was not comfortable getting through as the passage really started to get narrow and with Jackpot practically carrying Scarlet it was slow going.

“I don't hear anything.” I said from my position in the front.

“Let us hop it remains as such.” Enyi answered from right behind me.

I don't like stairs. I never really have but it really wasn't until right now that I absolutely hated them. Imagine spending Celestia knows how long on one staircase, covered in magical light absorbing spider webs, in the dark, in a confined and narrow passage with two other ponies, a Zebra and a Griffon all stuffed right behind you. It was hot and stuffy with the only real comforting feeling I got was whenever Enyi would 'accidentally' brush up against my flank. To top it all off Jackpot and Scarlet began bickering about healthy eating habits or some other topic I really didn't care about. At least Silver and Patches seemed to get along well enough and were each professional enough to not start needlessly talking while we all remained cramped in the narrow staircase. When Patches did start talking, mostly because Scarlet and Jackpot began roping others into their little arguments, she had that optimistic tone that at this point was just really starting to annoy me.

“Oh thank Celestia's glowing butt!” I yelled as I finally stepped hoof into a large open space.

“Fina-fuckin-ly!” Jackpot yelled from behind me as he too showed visibly happiness to be out of that cramped stairway.

My joy was short lived when after stepping fully into the new room Sparky's light suddenly shut off and disappeared completely.

“Oh shit!” I yelled almost without thinking.

“Language!” Scarlet yelled from somewhere near me in the dark.

“Oh like anypony cares about that in this situation!” Jackpot's voice then shouted out.

'Will you two please just be quiet!” I heard Silver finally yell out from somewhere.

Just when I thought that this was the moment the spiders were going to all jump out and eat us Sparky began once again glowing softly in the darkened chamber. Around us were once again piles of treasure and I mean PILES OF TREASURE. These ones seemed to rise four or five times my own height as jewels and gold and so many other precious and shiny things began to sparkle and reflect the light of Sparky.

This would have astounded us if not for...lets just say...the elephant or in this case GIANT FUCKING SPIDER in the room.

“Luna and Celestia's exploding mare-holes what in the name of Equestria is that!” I shouted as at the other end of the large chamber a large shape loomed overhead. It was like nothing I had ever seen before; it was a spider...no it was like a spider but not quite. This thing sat on a large bulbous body on what looked like some kind of large platform or scaffolding. It's legs (it had many) were laying at it's side without any motion whatsoever. On the beasts face were several black round eyes surrounded by even more empty sockets that dotted it's face.

“Lazilob.” Enyi moaned as his hooves fell from under him and his body hit the floor with a thud.

Lazilob's body seemed to be made up of four or five large sections with dark splotches of...well...I really didn't know what they were. We all stood there expecting her to leap up at any moment and devour us but after about a minute of standing frozen in abject terror I opened my eyes to discover I had in fact not been eaten.

“Um guys, what's going on?” I asked as my friends also began to realize nothing had happened.

Scarlet pushed herself away from Jackpot and with wobbly legs slowly approached Lazilob.

“Whoa there Scarlet!” Jackpot called out, “No way I'm letting you near that thing!” Jackpot leaned forward to try and stop Scarlet from getting closer but a quick flick of magic towards hi hoof was enough to knock Jackpot off balance and onto his face.

“Just look at her.” Scarlet said transfixed on the hulking form before us.

“I am and she looks like she could eat us all in one bite!” I called out to Scarlet while beginning to run towards her.

“Scarlet do not go near her!” Enyi shouted out following me.

“Please, just give me a minute!” Scarlet yelled back at us, stopping me and Enyi in our tracks.

“Just be careful!” Silver called from behind me.

“See if she can talk!” I heard Patches shout out.

“Look at her face.” Scarlet said as she neared the massive arachnid's body, “Most of her eyes are missing.”

“Yes and there is probably a good reason for that!” Enyi shouted in a worried voice.

“Correct, and the reason is that she's dying.” Scarlet stated matter of factly.

“What!” We all shouted in near unison.

“She can hardly even move them anymore.” Scarlet said as I looked on and saw two of the few remaining eyes move slightly downwards towards where Scarlet was standing.

I stood there and watched, hearing only the sound of gulping as Jackpot swigged down more of his cider.

“Her legs are so old and tattered.” Scarlet said softly as she walked along the massive body of Lazilob. “She probably can hardly even see anymore also.” Scarlet pointed out to us.

“That does not mean she is not dangerous!” Enyi continued to shout worriedly as he began taking small steps towards Scarlet.

“I think I see it.” Jackpot of all ponies blurted out.

“Wait, what!?” I said.

Jackpot now began walking towards Lazilob, Silver and Patches slowly followed him. I looked at Enyi and then back towards Scarlet as we both now followed suite.

“What do we do?” Patches asked as she stood right up to Lazilob's motionless legs.

“We kill her.” Enyi said.

“WHAT!” Scarlet shouted out, “THIS IS A DEFENSELESS CREATURE!”

“This creature has killed thousands of my people.”

“Yeah, thousands of years ago! Maybe she's changed!” Scarlet sounded very distressed.

“I agree with Enyi.” Silver coldly said staring up at the near lifeless gaze of the spider.

Even Enyi looked a little surprised at that ad he confusedly yet gratefully stared at Silver.

“Well I think Scarlet's got the right of it.” Jackpot said getting even stranger stares from both Enyi and Scarlet.

“I thought of all of us you would agree with me Jackpot?” Enyi said.

“Well you thought wrong.” Jackpot answered him.

“Um, I also agree with Scarlet and Jackpot.” Patches squeaked as she continued to gaze amazed at various parts of Lazilob's body.

Enyi then turned towards me. I could tell by the look on his face he expected me to agree with him on this. Enyi wasn't exactly wrong, I mean this thing is supposedly a monster and not even mentioning those other spiders which were probably her children or something gross like that.

“Ivory.” Enyi said straight at me, “This monster is evil. Remember she killed Abila and countless of my ancestors.”

“Ivory!” Scarlet started pleading, “She can't defend herself and she certainly can't hurt us one bit.

I have to admit I was thinking the same as Scarlet but still, Enyi had a real point that this creature was at one point a horrifying monster that committed great harm to Enyi's people and was the one who killed his greatest hero. This and the fact I didn't want to upset him so soon in our relationship made me extremely unsure as to what I felt we should do.

“Remember Goldie.” Silver whispered into my ear, “This is the same for Enyi as she is for you.”

Princesses dammit he was right. I was hiding something from Enyi on the excuse that I needed it to get justice for Grit and make Goldie fucking Grail pay for what she did. If I sided against him on this how could I really keep justifying that fact to myself by not letting him get his.

“Ivory! Don't you dare hurt her!” Scarlet pleaded.

“Why do you care so much?” I asked, looking at Scarlet.

“It's just...it's just...It wouldn't be right Ivory. Ponies aren't supposed to act like that. Think about it this way Ivory; She looks like she is imprisoned here, maybe this is what the Griffons and Zebras from that time sentenced her to. None of those other spiders really hurt us and thinking back it really looks like they were just leading us here, don't you think?”

“Come to think of it yeah.” Jackpot interrupted, “Nopony but Enyi even really got hurt and he mostly got bruises from when that spider knocked him to the floor.”

“Do you not think that counts as an injury!” Enyi said now somewhat angry.

“Well it does but is it really that bad. Ivory actually blasted some of them so really we hurt them more than they hurt us already.”

“I am surprised Jackpot, I surely thought you would side with me on this matter.” Enyi said to him still somewhat confused.

“Listen, you don't grow up like me without seeing some things you don't much like and let's just say I'm not into hurting something that can't fight back.”

“Well Scarlet, what would you want us to do with her then?” I asked getting a look from Enyi.

“She looks like she's in pain. Maybe we could try and do something about that?”

“Like what?” Enyi huffed.

“Well I don't know any anesthetic spells but maybe we could try and rearrange some of her legs, they do look like they are in somewhat awkward positions.”

“This is a mistake! She is evil, we should not be helping her!” Enyi yelled back at Scarlet.

“I agree.” Silver said, “Something like this shouldn't get our sympathy.”

“I'm surprised at you Silver!” Scarlet said now very upset, “You didn't seem like that kind of pony.”

“What? How can you be sure this monster here wouldn't kill us all if she was able? Enyi is really the only reliable source of information on her and he says she has only ever been a plague on the world.”

While they all argued I stood there thinking to myself. I kept looking up at Lazilob's eyes( the ones that were left anyway) and seeing how darkened and dull they were. Scarlet was probably right on her not being able to see very well if at all and one look at her tattered and shriveled legs told me she couldn't move either. Even with this I could see Lazilob was still alive as her eyes would move back and forth with whoever was talking.

“I wonder if Lazilob can understand us?” I said out loud.

“With all of Scarlet's yelling she probably does.” Enyi huffed again.

“You're yelling just as much as I am mister.” Scarlet huffed and nickered right back.

Jackpot trotted up next to me, “I get why you're hesitating. I wouldn't want to upset Enyi if I were you but if my opinion means anything Goldie would have killed this spider without a second thought.”

“So what do I do then huh? Enyi is right about her being evil but Scarlet is also right in that she is completely helpless.”

Jackpot took a deep breath, “You're right and I guess I don't really know but I'm just saying I would leave her alone.”

“Scarlet may have had a point about those other spiders though.” I said garnering a quizzical look from Jackpot, “They really didn't hurt us and thinking back on it it does look like they were leading us here with blocking off our exit and all.”

“It's a mystery I guess.” Jackpot answered while shrugging his wings.

“Hey Enyi?”

“What is it Ivory?” Enyi stopped arguing with Scarlet to answer me.

“What did you feel when that spider jumped you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Answer as best you can please.”

Enyi stopped talking as a look of deep thought came onto his face, “I jumped back when I saw it coming towards me and I remember hitting the floor.”

“What did the spider feel like to you?”

“What did it feel like? I suppose once I hit the floor I really did not feel much other that terrified.”

“So you didn't actually feel the spider on top of you?”

“I suppose not...no.” Enyi looked thoroughly confused by this sudden realization.

“The spiders were leading us here or at least to that puzzle room.” I said mostly to myself.

“They wanted us to find Lazilob.” Patches, finally saying something, answered.

“What do you mean?” Enyi asked.

“Those spiders were illusions.” Patches said.

“What!?” We all said.

“Look here.” Patches was standing off to the side where she held a small box-like device in her claws. She pressed down on a small button and suddenly a spider jumped out before quickly disappearing into the floor.

“What is that?” I said completely in awe.

“There's a bunch of them behind Lazilob's legs.” Patches said pointing to a small corner where she had slightly moved a part of one of the legs and sure enough there were several of these boxes there.

“What the hell does this all mean exactly?” Jackpot said confused and scratching his head.

“Griffons often put puzzles and traps in their tombs remember. I think these spider boxes were one of them.” Patches exclaimed.

“A defense that leads somepony further into somewhere? Really?” Enyi said in disbelief.

“I think Lazilob controls them.” Patches said while looking closer at the box.

“Then she wanted us to come and help her!” Scarlet beamed.

“Or she was leading us here to devour us.” Enyi said back.

“How could she! She couldn't hurt a fly how she is!” Scarlet huffed back.

While they started to all argue again I walked up towards Lazilob's face. It was just high enough off the ground for me to not be able to reach it but I could still look into her eyes. What I saw was emptiness and loneliness at having spent an eternity in the dark alone. I just couldn't believe that this creature had been a city devouring demon like Enyi claimed she was. She just looked so weak and helpless, like one push and she would crumble to dust. I gently put my hoof on the front of her body and stroked it slowly. I could feel a slight shiver in her as I did this and when I tilted my head up I saw her eyes looking straight down at me. They just looked so sad that I put my hoof down and turned towards my friends.

“We're not hurting her.” I said.

Scarlet's face lit up and even Jackpot gave a sigh and look of relief while Enyi turned away nickering silently to himself. Silver just gave a quizzical look as if he were pondering something while Patches just continued to stare in awe of the massive spider-like creature that lay before us. When I put my hoof gently back on Lazilob Scarlet joined me as she gave a huge and dominating smile of pure happiness.

“Thank you Ivory.”

I looked back at Enyi with an apologetic look on my face before turning back to Scarlet, “I just couldn't hurt her, not like this.”

Just then a loud and large groaning sound was heard as the room began to shake. Piles of metal and treasure began to shake as bits and pieces began to fall and clang and clatter on the ground. Lazilob began to actually move causing us all to back up away from her in an effort to not be squashed by her large body. Then in a momentary flash she seemed to disappear before our very eyes, melting into the darkness of the webs of unlight that surrounded her.

“What the...” is all I could say.

The room stopped moving and in the spot Lazilob had formerly been in a pale light glowed forth as a large stone box replaced he large body. Sitting on top of this box was a statue of a large Griffon with a kindly smile on his face and a silver cloak in his outstretched claw.

*****

When we had taken the cloak on the claw that held it out was written Compassion in Pre-Celestial Script. The exit to the tomb, and a tomb it was, happened to be directly behind the sarcophagus of Greywing. The door led to a sheer drop of about two hundred feet that thank Celestia none of us fell down. Patches and Silver carried us down, with Silver having to leave his giant pack for last in order to actually carry anypony.

When we at last breathed the free and open air it was well into the night and near dawn of the next day. We slept, uneasily, at the foot of the cliff until about noon and it was well into the afternoon when Patches finally got us back to Griffonstone. She had kept the silvery cloak with her the entire journey back which did not afford me the luxury of seeing what magical effect it had but after the shield I was not entirely disappointed by that. Patches had even taken one of the illusion boxes for study by the Griffon library and to compel possible near future expeditions into the tomb.

We were able to sleep one more night in the palace before setting out back for Canterlot on the train the next morning. All that while I didn't talk to Enyi and I couldn't tell if he was angry for me not siding with him or that his decision had proved to be the wrong one.

The train had been underway for several hours and Enyi had taken to sitting alone in the same stall he had been in on our way over to Griffonstone. I must have stood outside the door for hours before building up the courage to go inside.

“Um, Enyi. Are you ok? If you want to be alone I under...”

“Please stay Ivory.” He said softly.

I trotted up and sat down on the seat right next to him.

“I'm sorry for not siding with you but...”

I didn't have time to finish as Enyi quickly turned around and planted a kiss right on my lips. I immediately melted down to the seat as he released the kiss.

“You did what you thought was best. I may not agree with it but do not think that it means I do not like you anymore.”

“Hehehe.” is the sound that I mumbled as I remained melted on the seat a blissful smile on my face.

Enyi stroked my mane and chuckled a little, “Our first fight so soon huh? Well I think I now know a bit more about you and you me.” he let out a little sigh as he turned his head back out the window as I laid my head in his lap.