The Son of Earth

A soft breeze blew through the towers and skyscrapers, picking up smoke, newspapers, and feathers as it went. Large airships, their wooden and metal hulls standing fast in the breeze, hovered docked to mooring stations that rose far above the rest of the city. But the breeze paid these no heed; it passed through the ropes, through the decks, around the behemoths, towards its final destination.

A lone gryphon looked out of a window in the highest floor of the tallest building. He stared out at the city below - his city - before taking his royal scepter and crown, and donning his gold-trimmed purple robe. The cold marble floor of the hall, with the stone, brass, steel, and gold walls adorned with muskets, rifles, swords, crossbows, and various other weaponry, did little to cool the steadily warming rage in his breast. He walked down the thick red carpet, garnering salutes from the heavily armed guards on either side, before taking a seat on the lone throne that sat under a massive banner, adorned with the ornate royal coat of arms.

Two brass doors stood, steadily, on the other end of the hallway. They slowly began to open, quickly stealing the royal gryphon's attention from his cigar. He grunted as a familiar face walked through the massive doorway, flanked on both sides by heavily armed guards. The leader of the group bowed low, her navy-blue overcoat's brass buttons touching the ground as she began to speak.

"Good morning, Kaiser Vyman. It is an honour to be in your presence," the gryphon at the front said. "I come bearing news from the industrial sectors."

"Good morning, Fleet Commander Skylar. Your presence is welcome here," the Kaiser replied, his deep voice reverberating through the halls as he crushed his cigar in a talon before throwing its mangled remains on the ground in front of him. It smouldered for a few seconds before dying. "Tell me, have they finally made themselves useful and achieved the necessary production levels?"

"Yes, my lord," came the reply. "However, there has been a complication."

The Kaiser growled in reply, his gaze becoming harder. "What have they done, lost their blueprints again?"

"It is nothing that we have done. Indeed, it is our enemy."

The Kaiser growled again. "Have you grown too soft to stand up to the Equestrian defense? You know as well as I that their dirigibles could not even dent one of our dreadnoughts or carriers."

"It is not that," Skylar said as she sighed. "Our intelligence services have reported on the power of the Equestrian's new allies, the Humans."

"What about it? Have we finally debunked the myths of their power?" the Kaiser said, a small smile forming on his beak. "If so, let us strike immediately."

"No." Skylar said. "We have not debunked the myths; we have confirmed them, and more."

All colour drained instantly from the Kaiser's face. "What do you mean?" he said in a hushed tone, gesturing the guards away with a flick of his talons. The guards grunted in reply, filing out into corridors on either side of the throne room.

"Their ships... are indeed, vastly superior to even the Sesal-class, especially in terms of firepower," the Skylar said, sighing. "It would be a good course of action to potentially try to broker a peace -"

The sound of the Kaiser hitting the side of his chair could be heard even several stories down. A sizable chunk of marble flew off of the side, shattering against a strip of steel. "No." he said firmly. "We cannot afford to back out of this war. If we do not follow through with this war - and win - our people will lose what tenuous faith in their government they still have. We cannot allow that happen, lest we be overthrown. I think we can both agree that in these desperate times, that is exactly what we do not need."

"But-"

"We cannot risk the sanctity of this Reich. Our forefathers did not fight tooth and nail against the Torins fourteen hundred years ago so that we would allow all that they built, all that they set in motion, to crumble to ashes and dust."

"But we -"

"Silence!" the Kaiser said. "Have you even seen the news lately? Rylus Province is running out of iron in its mines. The Leonar duchy has stated that if we don't get a new source of coal soon, they won't be able to keep up production. And here, in our very own capital Varmot, there have been reported revolutionary groups popping up. Unless we can win this war, we'll run out of materials for production, our economy will go down the drain, and a nationwide revolution would not be far off. We must win this war."

"Understood, sir," said Skylar. "Shall I ready the fleet to fly?" she inquired.

"Not yet." the Kaiser replied firmly. "We must wait for an opportunity. Do our spies have any information on when the human ships will next leave?"

"On the seventeenth of Woodfall, they will depart for the Crystal Empire for a military festival," the fleet commander replied, her magenta eyes locked on the Kaiser. "We should have nearly two weeks on the southern front before they appear."

"Good. Our fleet will depart on the twenty-third of Sunsky; we will arrive off the Changeling coast of the Badlands on the twelfth of Woodfall and declare war on the eighteenth."

"Yes, sir," Skylar replied, bowing again. "Shall I distribute the orders to the fleet?"

"Yes." the Kaiser replied, a smile forming on his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the herald began, his voice carrying over the tangled mess of walkways, wires, pipes, and ships that formed the military dock. "Today we have a set of orders direct from the Kaiser himself!" Various cheers and applause rose from the crowd; it was exceedingly rare that the Kaiser would directly order his fleet.

"We are to begin moving southeast in two days, to park off the coast of the Changeling Badlands and wait for the declaration of war to be issued. Once it is issued, on the eighteenth of Woodfall, we will crush the meager Buffalo and Equestrian resistance, then move north through the Buffalo lands into Equestria. Once we enter Equestria, we will have to destroy the Human ships; we will do so by staying at range, and moving so that their cannons can not hit us. Once we have destroyed the human vessels, we will shell Canterlot into surrender; and from then on, Equestria and all its resources will be part of our glorious Gryphon empire!"

More cheers, applause, and shouts of approval rose from the crowd, and already the banners of some of the ships began to fly. Skylar watched all of this from the small observation deck on her ship, the Meadowlark. It hovered above the city, just underneath the cloud layer. Its five-hundred meter long steel hull hung in the sky above the twisted mess, with thick black smoke pouring out of the four massive smokestacks and searchlights scanning through the ground below. She sighed as she turned around and went through the door into the womb of the ship.

A finely decorated room, walls lined with paintings of various sights such as the Pilgrim Isles or the Dark Sea, was in the center of the ship. A desk with a red velvet chair stood in the center of the room; a variety of books and papers, as well as a quill and inkwell, stood on its smooth wooden surface. Skylar slowly walked over to the desk and sighed as she took a seat in the chair. Opening one of the drawers, she took in her talons a bottle of whiskey and a glass cup. She slowly poured a glass and took a long drink, before setting it down harshly on the table.

"I swear," she said to herself. "One of these times, his crazy ideas aren't going to work, and we're going to end up angering something that kills us all." She took another ship. "Well, I just hope I'm not around for that."