I was going about my normal morning duties when Spike burped up a letter. Princess Celestia had previously informed me that she and Griffin were going to have a match. She'd already sent him the time and location, and was just waiting on his reply. According to her message, he'd agreed to keep the fight private. Having a public audience would strain relationships between the nations, and, according to her, the whole reason for this was because Griffin wanted to prove a point, not needlessly shame the loser. I expect the real reason is they're both hoping to avoid any possible collateral damage. There would be media present however, to document it for the newspaper, as something like this would be impossible to keep quiet, and there would need to be an explanation for their fight, as well as the outcome and what was gained or lost.

Each side would bring an entourage. Rainbow Dash, Luna, Cadence and I would be there for Celestia. Fluttershy didn't come because she hates fighting, same with Pinkie. Applejack was too busy, and Rarity wanted nothing to do with such unladylike business. For Griffin, only Gilda and Seth would be there. Discord would be the referee.

We all met at the Canterlot arena. It was closed off to the general public for the day, and would serve as the venue for the event.

"Are you certain you want to go through with this?" Celestia asked.

"Yes." Griffin replied.

"I know, but it's customary to ask the opposition if they have any second thoughts."

"In order to make sure every last opportunity for a peaceful resolution has been exhausted, I know. I read up on old Canterlot duel tradition. I hereby declare our differences cannot be reconciled with words. Satisfied?"

With that, Discord floated over, carrying a stack of papers, wearing over sized glasses, and a fancy lawyer suit. He sighed, since law is a subject that is boring as hell, and began.

"In accordance with the honorable combat law of year 322, Griffin and Celestia, do you agree that no legal action can be taken for the assault about to commence?"

"I agree." They said in unison.

"Good. The rules are that you are to fight until either one of you gives up, or is unable to continue due to unconsciousness, injury, or death. The wager for this fight. If Celestia wins, Griffin is to act as military and disaster situation adviser to Equestria for so long as he is capable, up to the standard age of retirement for griffins, which is 95. If Griffin is the victor, The entirety of the late King Sombra's Library, laboratory, and all it's contents, currently the property of the Crystal Empire, will have ownership transferred into his name." Cadence nodded.

"Now that the legalities are out of the way, are you gonna get ready?" Griffin asked.

"What do you mean? I am ready." Looking at Celestia, she looked the same as always.

"Oh for goodness sake, if you're not going to take this seriously, then I guess I'll have to. Discord, can you make me human for this? I'm getting tired of her crap." With a snap of the chaos spirit's claws, Griffin the human stood in the arena.

"I don't get it Twilight. Why'd he do that? She can fly, and now he can't. He's giving up a major tactical advantage." Rainbow asked me.

"Yeah, but he's gaining speed. As a griffin he can fly, but he's a lot heavier. He might have a higher top speed, but like this he's got more agility. He's decided that adaptability will be more important. What I don't get is why he's ticked off. I mean, Celestia she looks the same as she always is."

"Sister, take off your regalia. Also, you agreed on no weapons. Your shoes could do damage." Luna whispered to her sister as Griffin took off his own shoes and gloves, so that he was bare foot in the sand of the arena floor. He also took off his shirt, leaving only his loose fitting pants. He wasn't overly muscular, but he was definitely fit, not like he was when he was in the hospital.

Griffin and Celestia stood in the arena, 15 paces apart, and stared each other down. Each trying to get in the others head, trying to figure out what the first move would be. For Griffin, he already knew. By turning human, and robbing himself of flight, he made it so Celestia's opening move would be to fly, to gain distance, and then rain spells down on him from above. In knowing this, he knew that instead of reaching for Celestia herself, he'd take hold of all the air in the arena, and pull it downwards. He'd do this every time she'd try to fly.

Celestia on the other hoof, was not expecting that. Given his display in the throne room, when he broke the doors right off their hinges, she was expecting an immediate offense, and would take to the air to dodge, then try to shield herself. She knew that she didn't know the extent of his powers, and knew that was a disadvantage, so she'd buy time to figure out what Griffin was capable of.

"Begin!" Discord shouted as he teleported into the stands, with a bag of popcorn and an ultra-extra large soda.

Celestia immediately took to the air and put up a shield. Griffin raised his arms, then swung them down in a large, sweeping motion, bringing the alicorn crashing to the ground. Her shield absorbed the impact and she stood up unscathed.

As soon as she landed, Griffin immediately rushed towards her, hands open. She fired a pair of quick magic blasts, but as they reached their target, he smacked them away, his palms flashing with each contact.

'I can't let him touch me, but I can't fly.' She thought as she teleported to the other side of the arena. As though anticipating this, Griffin contorted mid stride and sent a large ball of red magic towards her. It missed wildly, impacting the floor instead and kicking up sand in front of her, blinding her. Celestia shielded herself once again, just in time to guard against another impact, this one from his fist. Her shield cracked, but held, and she felt herself sliding back a few feet from the strike.

When she looked at him she expected to see a face full of rage, or intense focus, but what she saw was dull. Uninterested.

At this close range, Griffin hammered her shield again and again, pounding on it and deepening the crack that had formed in her magical barrier. She couldn't shoot back, since she was already using her horn to cast the shield. She couldn't escape, as he would not relent the pressure he was putting on her. She'd have to take a chance.

Just as Griffin wound up for a big hit, she lowered her shield, pointed her horn directly at him, and began casting as strong of a magical blast as she could, given the short time frame. Just as she closed her eyes to focus on the spell, she heard a sickening sound.

*schlick*

The sound of flesh being torn. She could feel... something... impaled on her horn. She could feel the wet warmth of blood running down it's spiral grooves onto her forehead, and she could feel an iron grasp on her mane.

Her concentration broken, the spell she hoped to cast fizzled out. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Griffin's left hand had been run through completely, the hand he was now using to grab her mane and hold her head in place. Now, even if she managed to throw him off, her horn would be caked in blood, and she'd be unable to cast.

She thrashed back and forth, trying to throw him off, to loosen his grip and get some distance, but she couldn't seem to dislodge him.

"Gotcha." Griffin gave a big right hook and delivered a crushing blow to her left temple. Her body tingled, her vision swam, and she heard a ringing in her ears. He gently pressed the flat of his right hand to her nose, his palm glowed, and she was flung across the arena, smacking hard into the barrier wall.

His hand still dripping blood, Griffin sat in the warm sand of the arena, very calmly.

"You know, it's funny. Back when I issued this challenge, I thought for sure, I'd lose my cool, go berserk and try to kill you. I thought I'd be so pissed off, so furious that once I started wailing on you I just wouldn't stop. But I'm not. I'm not mad anymore that you didn't come and help me try to rescue my family. I may have more brute force now, but I'm a lot less lethal than I was before. If you came with me, you'd probably have gotten in my way."

Griffin sighed.

"I realized something. As much as I hate you for being too weak to help, I realized that my friends died because I also, was too weak to help them, and I hate myself for that just as much. I might not be mad that you didn't come to help, but I am mad that you weren't strong enough to make it an option. At the same time, it's my own damn fault I couldn't save them. I've already been punished for it by losing the people I care about. And now you've been punished for it by having me beat the tar out of you. Maybe next time someone gets down on their knees and begs for your help, you'll be able to do something."

Celestia's head lolled about on her shoulders before finally slumping down into the dust.

"Hey, Discord, you gonna call it?"

The draconeequis hadn't even been paying attention to the match, and had instead entertained himself with a hackey sack, missed the bag when Griffin called his name, grumbled at his loss, then came over and declared him the winner. Griffin left the arena as the medical team on standby saw to his fallen adversary. Cadence passed him the deed to Sombra's private tower in the Crystal Empire, then he met up with Gilda and Seth.

"So, who wants to go see the crystal ponies?"

"I do!" Seth cheered.

"Griffin, your hand." Gilda remarked, reminding him of something rather important.

"Yeah, it's fine, see?" While the hole in his hand remained, the wound had already closed and stopped bleeding. The metacarpus of his middle finger had broken off, leaving the digit incapable of motion independent of the rest of the hand. "I'll get a doctor to heal it up once they're done dealing with Celestia's blunt force trauma."

"Doesn't it hurt?" Seth asked.

"Nope."

Author's Notes:

Dear readers, to all those of you complaining that the story takes too long to update, or the outcome doesn't make sense to you, or anything else, please remember that writing a story is HARD, even more so for the ultra expansive worlds like this one.

The closest explanation I can come up with is this. Picture a game of tick tack toe. Every third move, the board expands by 1 around the edges. it starts with a 3x3 square. Logically, X goes in the middle as it promises the most opportunities to win. Then O goes in one of the corners, because that's the next highest number of possible win scenarios. X then goes in the opposite corner, because again, most possible win scenarios. Except now, keeping the same center point, the board is 5x5, and there's not only X and O, but V as well. V is going to go in the new corner, to block X from getting 3 in a row, and now O can either move to block X, or get two in a row to force X to block them from getting a 3, except after that move, that's the third move, so now the board is 7x7, and we introduce player H.

Each player is a character in the story, and the board is the ever expanding world. Does O strike out on their own and try to score? Or do they help V to stop the tyranny of X, and form an alliance? Is there a betrayal later on? And what of the newcomer, H?

Each player has to make moves following the most logical choice for their piece, just as each character does the most logical thing for that character's personality, which, depending on that character's personality, the move they make might not make any sense at all, or, someone makes a mistake and puts their letter in the wrong box.

Now then, imagine this game of Tick-Tac-Toe that is forever expanding. And let's introduce a rule that if you want to place your letter somewhere, there has to be a route of blank spaces from where you are to where you're going, and if all your pieces get totally boxed in, you get eliminated.

Now then, you're playing on a board that's 301x301, and not only that, you're playing ALL the players, and trying to make each of them win, but since you're also all the other players, you don't want them to win too much, and you have to look at the entire board every time you want to make a move. Your mind starts breaking down, you begin making mistakes, you start forgetting who's turn it is.

Does this all sound complex and confusing? Good, but not good enough. As I said, this is the closest explanation I could come up with. It's still doesn't completely explain the amount of effort that goes into a story to make it a good one.

And, for those of you wishing I'd update my other stories more often, try playing three or four of these games at a time.

http://pre03.deviantart.net/28ef/th/pre/i/2011/086/a/f/jthm___insane__me__noooo____by_nocturnalmoth-d3ckoxo.jpg No, I didn't ask permission to use this artwork, because screw you, that's why. They should be glad I'm giving them free press.