You look the weapon over again with a frown. The talons on the end are just as sharp as a griffon’s, only much stronger. Factor in your advanced strength and you wouldn’t even have to try to kill somepony with this. You weren’t really thinking of using this as a weapon, were you? How could you live with yourself if you ended somepony’s life?

And yet…

You don’t have to use it as a weapon. The claws are stationary; maybe you could use it to scale walls, or cut rope. You’re reluctant to abandon the object entirely, as it could be used as a simple tool.

In an effort to ease worry about any future shenanigans you play, you explain that you’re a little unstable and may have Multiple Personality Syndrome. This draws some sad expressions from the pair, so you try to reassure them that it’s mostly harmless. You decide to leave out the part about the locks. They can’t know about the locks…

The armory itself has another stairway leading further down. Heading down there is the only obvious choice you can think of for what to do next. At least, for the moment.

You hold your hoof to your head and stumble a little to really milk the crowd. Then you relay your clever ruse and choose your weapon, the Clawed Griffon Gauntlet. Your range will be shorter then with the other choices, but that short range should provide you with more control. You’ll have to walk on three hooves while it’s equip, meaning you’ll move a little slower. But you should be better able to navigate through narrow passages than with the Spear or Staff. Plus, you’ll be able to block with it and still strike with your other hoof. Everything is a give and take.

Once you speak it, your two companions seem confused by your added objective, but agree to it. After all, who are they to argue? You don’t exactly have any reason to be helping them in the first place.

You stand, seemingly enraged and point to each of the two in turn while making your devious proclamation.

They both look at one another, then around the room presumably for any cards. But, finding none, they settle for questioning what in Equestria you’re talking about.

You sit on your haunches, cross your forelegs, close your eyes, and speak your command with a powerful presence.

When you’re answered with silence, you open one eye slightly to find Princess and Namy staring at you awkwardly.

You and the artist currently known as N-Amy follow the theoretical Princess of Equestia behind the divide on the far left corner of the room. There’s a staircase going down that you both descend before meeting back up with Celly in what appears to be an armory.

Around you are a few weapon racks, mostly bare, and a few pieces of armor. The armor is sized for griffons though, making your previous discovery of this building’s origin less significant. Aside from possibly a helmet there’s nothing a pony could wear.

While the three of you lay out the armaments available, you trade stories. Prince-Cel, get it, like pretzel? Anyway, she says a client of hers gave her a free ticket for a tour of this place. It was suppository very expensive, so when no one was here she waited a day. But something came in the night and attacked her; that’s what she and Fake-a-tron were talking about when you showed up.

Whatever it was stole something from her, but she wouldn’t say what.

The artist formerly known as N-Amy says she flies around here all the time, but today something struck her in the head and knocked her out of the sky. When she came to something was stolen from her as well.

She also wouldn’t say what was stolen, but that she was more interested in getting revenge on whatever attacked her. Also making sure no pony else gets hurt, but she may have only mentioned that to save face.

They both said what they saw of the assailant was some sort of enigmatic, shadowy creature. But Princess said it scurried away on four legs when she saw it, and Namy said it floated like a mythological wisp or shade.

You tell them that you met an old traveling pony who said he climbed this mountain every year. Unfortunately for him, he was too old and weak to do it again and asked you to. You felt bad for him and agreed. This morning before you left you found a key tapped to your front door with a note. It had rained the night before and you couldn’t make out what it said. But you saw what looked like the word “mountain” and knew it must have been from the old pony.

The whole time this is going on, you drop some of the joke names you came up with and seem to get a few smiles here and there.

In front of you are a few weapons. You’re the only one strong enough to pull a bow string, so it’s already decided that you’ll be taking that. Princess took the only mace and the one helmet small enough for a pony. Namy took both knives and a chain of some kind. Looks like you’re left with either a Staff, a Spear, or you could try using a Clawed Griffonian Gauntlet.

You rear up, put your fore-hooves on your hips and ask if Fakerton has any better ideas. She looks confused. You clarify by asking if she has any past experiences that would give her more knowledge on the subject than you. She shakes her head “no”, taken aback by your sudden mood shift.

Princess doesn’t seem interested in this minor tiff and continues on behind the divide and out of sight.

You stop at one of the chairs, fully intent upon smashing it for firewood and, reflecting on the knife musing from earlier, possibly a blunt weapon to use if need be. However, upon closer inspection you realize the chairs are all made of metal. Steel to be specific. The cushions are gone, likely removed long ago or stolen. You find the welding to be pretty high quality too. You also notice that the screws holding the back and sides together are made of a different material. Easily mistaken at this size for oxidized copper, the screws are actually made of jade. Incredibly significant because the use of jade as a building material is a feature found exclusively in Griffonian culture.

You quickly trot up to one of the shelves and notice the same thing! By this point you’ve drew the attention of the other two ponies, who stand by an opening into a backroom. You relay your findings to the pair. The “Princess” seems genuinely impressed! Fake Namy doesn’t appear to know whether or not to believe you.

You decide not to use your real name and introduce yourself as Lyra while trotting to catch up. It would have been clever, but the pegasus introduced herself as Fake Namy and the unicorn as Princess Celestia. Lot of good that did.

You ask if they have any food, and they both say no. The pegasus just flew up here in a matter of an hour, so didn’t bother. On the other hoof, the unicorn has been here since yesterday and already ate all of hers.

Not that you were actually planning on poisoning them, but useful to know considering that makes you the only one with any food left.

You turn away and hide your face as blood rushes to your cheeks. Flirt…? With them? You’ve never done that before. Certainly not with another mare, let alone two!

You steal a glance toward the pegasus. She’s smiling; must think this is still part of the act. She seems athletic, which is normal. Pegasus often are. Her mane and stance are somewhat… What’s the word? Butch? That’s a little crass… Oh well, it’ll have to do. Not like she can hear your thoughts.

You try to catch a glimpse of the unicorn, but all you see is her behind. It’s… nice? Ugh… This is stupid. You just aren’t attracted to either of them. However… The unicorn’s posture, the space between her steps; it’s not natural. She’s concentrating on her movements, as though she’s trying to conceal something about herself. You could be wrong, but you’re pretty good at this sort of thing.

You shake it off for now and trot up to and past the pegasus, giving a generic, informal salutation, as though you’ve done it a hundred times before. The pegasus seems willing to play along. The unicorn turns back with widened eyes. When you give her the same treatment, she reverts back to that annoyed look of hers and continues on, following behind you. The three of you head through the sizable doorway into the structure.

You were right. A large table sits as the prominent feature of the room. The figure you thought was a third pony was a large chair on the other end of the table. In fact, there’s lots of smaller chairs too, but you couldn’t make them out before. Looking around at some of the shelves, carvings on the walls, decorative weaponry, something stands out to you. You’re not huge on history, but these fixtures definitely look foreign.

The other two ponies pass you while you take in the room and head around the table to the other side of the hall.

You decide the payoff will be worth it and begin your approach. You rear back on your hind legs and begin doing the robot! Or your best approximation anyway. You get about half way before losing your balance and rushing forward. Followed by falling and skidding across your chest.

You open your eyes at the sound of laughter. The pegesus evidently thought that was pretty funny! The unicorn still seems concerned about your mental stability.

Pushing yourself up and brushing yourself off you bid the two ponies, young mares about your age, hello and introduce yourself as a locksmith. You go on about a wrongly accused pony that needs to be freed, and the pegesus seems a little concerned. She goes as far as to offer her assistance in freeing the imaginary inmate before you tell her it was a lie and run off in a snaking, comical path, with an equally comical forced laugh.

From behind, you hear the pegesus snort a laugh or two before mentioning that she wished she’d brought food for the show you’ve been putting on. You turn back around in time to hear the unicorn drily recite a trite one-liner before turning around and heading back toward the building.

A cupcake filled with dark magic! What a silly thought! Of course, you have no access to magic, but you do have a small pool of knowledge about potion-crafting. You can’t seem to think of a plant that contains something as vague as “dark” though.

Not that you’d do such a thing even if you had one. They haven’t done anything to you. In fact, they’re just standing there. Looks like they’re waiting for you to do something.

The lockpicking thoughts from earlier won’t leave your mind, so you begin shouting toward the two in a non-hostile voice about it. You ask if they have, or know anypony with lockpicking tools, and about how you want to try it out on the gate you opened, or anything with a lock really!

The two ponies glance between one another, still very much perplexed at the situation before them. They remain silent, but are probably questioning your state-of-mind. A nagging in your head reminds you that proper etiquette would be to introduce yourself, and probably apologize for the previous outbursts.

And yet…

Another side of you finds this pretty funny! You wonder how far you should go with this gag and whether or not they’ll hold it against you later.

While probably not the best time to think about it, your mind can’t help but wander to lockpicking! Your master knows how, and you’ve brought it up before, but he seems hesitant to teach the subject. Which isn’t very nice. You’re responsible! Maybe a little too easily influenced, but on a whole you’re a good pony from an honest upbringing! You’d never abuse such an important skill!

What he would tell you, though, is that proper lockpicking requires a whole set of tools. Tools you don’t have.

Your nervous energy gets the better of you and you start to wave at the shadowed figures and babble about ghosts, which you totally don’t believe in. Two ponies emerge with perplexed expressions, a pegesus and a unicorn. You note that they also have saddlebags and seem a little disheveled, as though a little weary from traveling. The unicorn seems a little more tired than the pegesus.

You’re still shouting distance away from the pair, you’re just pretty good at noticing these types of things.

You shuffle forward uncomfortably a little ways; ruins aren’t exactly known for being safe. Not that you’re worried about its structural integrity so much as the possibility of monsters or ghosts.

Not that you believe in ghosts! I mean, who does that really? Ah haha…

…

As you squint your eyes, you see that there does appear to be some things inside the building. You can clearly make out what appears to be a large table, complete with chairs. Also, possibly two or three living entities. You definitely see movement, but have no way of telling what’s causing it.

Past experience glancing outside during daylight from within dark enclosures suddenly smacks you with the realization that whatever is in there more than likely already sees you!

You pause for a moment to contemplate using the knife as some sort of defensive weapon.

It’s really small, and pretty hard to use with your hooves. You could try using it with your mouth, but in a combat situation you’d be just as likely to wind up swallowing the thing by accident. And swallowing a blade isn’t a pleasant thought. No, it’s more of a utilitarian type of thing. And even within that, it’s probably not even sharp enough to cut a rope. What a hunk of crud!

Anyway, if you have to defend yourself, your hooves will likely do better than the knife on your multitool.

You put the key into the lock on the gate and turn it. The tumblers fall into place and the gate doors give way.

The structures behind the gate are more visible now. Archways hoof-made from stone line a short little trot before reaching a similarly fashioned stone building. It all has a very ancient feel to it, with cracked runes lining the sides. You don’t recognize the style of the stonework, though. Ancient architecture isn’t exactly your forte.

The building has no door. There may be stuff inside, but you can’t tell from this distance, as you haven’t taken another step forward yet.