Return to Sender

When I woke up today I was expecting to feel the full force of a hangover, I didn't even get to experience that feeling for some reason but it doesn't matter. What does matter is why the hell is Forge sleeping in my bed with me, why is she holding onto me like that, why does her breath reek of alcohol, and for god's sake why the hell is she drooling on my head?

Prying her forelegs off of my body I start to crawl off of my bed and land onto the floor with a thump and with a groan pulling myself up to a standing position.

Looking at myself in the mirror I can see that my eyes have shifted from its pale blue color to a more...reddish hue. There was still the pale blue in it but the outer edges have shifted to red, I guess this is part of a hangover that is just now clearing up. Seems like I slept it off last night.

Heading to the bathroom I did my daily ritual of wash my body, wash my armor, talk to myself in the mirror to remind myself of what I must do to keep this empire from falling apart and descend into madness.

Once I was done with my morning ritual I woke up Forge the only way I know how to.

I reeled my hand back and slapped her flank as hard as I can.

The effect was immediate as she woke up with a loud yelp, flailed her limbs around in terror as she let out a whinny of terror. I watched with a large grin as she kept on flailing around until she rolled off the bed and landed in a heap on the floor.

“Oh gods above...what the hell is wrong with you Skolas…” Forge said with a groan as I waited for her to get up off my floor and out of my room so I can move on with my day.

“I had to get your fat flank out of my bed somehow.” I said with a grumble, it’s almost like Forge is just trying to get me to notice her butt.

“My flanks are not fat…” I hear Forge mumble as she looks herself over while I waited for her to stand up as she takes her time just to get her faculties together.

“You’re right, they are corpulent.” I said with a grin, fully knowing what this will do to me in the future.

“Really now, using fancy words on me…” Forge said as she started to roll over of her back.

“Yes, and besides you should know that I am only insulting you so you can get yourself into shape, you're starting to get pudgy and you're not doing any favors with yourself.” And it’s true, she is starting to get flabby everywhere.

“I know you liked it when you felt my plot, I bet you’re a flank stallion!” Forge shouted at me with a smile full of mirth as I stop what I am doing which was stretching, how she knew that I like a little junk in the trunk is beyond me but I must deflect this before it gets out of hand.

“Forge, can we please have this conversation at a different time about what I am and what I am not for right now I have something of great importance to do. That dragon that we just picked up was working for the diamond dogs back from wherever the hell they are from, and I will be having a few choice words for him and his employers.” Smooth as silk.

It seemed to work because the giantess then decided to talk about something else.

“And how exactly are you going to be having that nice little chat with the big dogs?” I don’t know if it will work but I will damn well try!

“Why, with a communication gem of course, one that will be modified extensively. I will not lose this chance to talk to those that dared send a colony this far from home.” I just hope that damn thing works or otherwise I might have to send someone there in my stead.

“Uh huh...well...good luck with that...help me would you?” Forge said as I rolled my eyes as I walked over to her and helped her up, apparently she was still slightly dizzy from last night.

“Fine, just clean yourself up and get back to work...whatever you have to show me can wait for now, this dragon is at this point more important.” Way more important because that dragon can probably be my ticket to those dogs.

“Alright, but you better come down once your done because that project of yours is finished.”

“Excellent, keep it warm for me won’t you?” I said with a smirk.

“I will, just don’t expect me to do much with it though, the damn thing is confusing as Tartarus and I have no idea on how or where you learn of that infernal thing but it sure isn’t normal.” Well it should be confusing, its future grade technology.

“Don’t doubt my prowess Forge, just remember that with this, if it works, it will change everything. The power of the Golden Age and the Eliksni will bathe this land in its power.” And probably change this planet forever.

“Just don’t rely on it too much Skolas, can’t have your ego inflate bigger than your head now.”

“I take offense that you are saying that my ego is being inflated.” I said as we left the room.

The talking being over I grabbed my armor and donned it, my staff in hand and my shrapnel launcher slung by my waist I left my room with Forge in tow for the time being before going down  a separate hall to go down a few sets of stairs to head to the workshop.

I don’t know how well this talk will go but with my head enchanter there who will get what I need done right, my plan to talk to the head dogs and get rid of the dragon in one fell swoop will work flawlessly.

As long as the dragon can follow directions that is.

Entering the throne room with the dragon chained and bound to the floor, I sat down on my throne and eyed the dragon before giving the signal to release the bindings around his mouth.

“Bah! It’s about time somebody took that blasted thing off of me!” Garble said as he worked his mouth, trying to get the soreness to go away.

“And that blasted thing will go right back on if you don’t answer me truthfully, now tell me why are you here within the empire.” I said, lightly thumping my staff on the ground, letting it make a loud clinking sound.

“Why should I tell you why I am here? I am a dragon, I don’t answer to nobody but myself.” Garble said with a sneer as he tried to spit on me.

It doesn’t end well.

Garble was clocked upside the head then had his restraints tightened up.

“Now Garble the dragon, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, the choice is yours.” I said in my best Booty Warrior voice impersonation that I can do.

“Pfft, what are you going to do? Nag me to death?” OH, challenge accepted.

“Okay boys and girls, he is picking the hard way. Clear Cut, go get Chroma Gem, tell him to bring the cranial probes, the enchanting gems, truth serums and the shock collar.” I could have gone with the Booty Warrior method but I have other methods on how to get what I want.

“Yes Kell.” Clear Cut saluted me before turning to leave the large room to get Chroma from his office.

“Whoa there man! I was just kidding! I will tell you anything you want, at a price.” Wow, really now.

“Clear Cut, when your done getting the interrogating tools from Chroma, go down to Forge and grab one of her toys, get the jelly as well.” Clear Cut made a gagging sound before saluting to me again, I guess he was able to think of what I was going to use those tools for.

“Okay! Okay I’ll talk!” I actually thought that the last two would not even exist but it seems I was wrong in that regard...sometimes I wish I wasn’t even on this planet anymore.

“Excellent, now tell me why are you here.” Shaking that stray thought aside I went back to business, getting the information that I need from this stupid dragon.

“I was here because somebody stole the treasure that belongs to me and my boss.” That much I know about, hell I was the one who gave that order.

“And where exactly is this boss of yours?” Come on! Tell me!

“Uh...down south, like way south, past pony land and then east across the water.” Wow, such simple instructions. He could have at least remembered how far he traveled in exact miles or in estimations.

“Hmm...they are on a different continent...this might work to our advantage…” As long as they take a while to figure out what happened I can prepare myself for anything that might come at me from them.

Staring at the dragon I got up and walked up to him, stopping just out of his reach.

“Now tell me this, how loyal are you to your current employers?”

“Not really loyal, they just pay me to keep those dogs in line, they said that I can do whatever I want to make sure they work hard and not steal from them.” Excellent!

‘Hmm...loose loyalty and no restraints on the job...perfect blackmail material against them in case they try to make any demands...’

“Well then Garble, I have a proposition for you.” I said in the most evil fashion I can possibly do which to my good graces wasn’t that hard to do. Must be easy to do evil things when you're a villain.

“And that is...what exactly?”

“You go back to your employers, tell them what happened here, tell them who took their gold and their colony, tell them that their raid against us has failed and that if they try again then they will have more than just the Crystal Empire to deal with.” I said in an even tone, trying to not make it sound like a command.

“And what makes you think that I would even want to go back?” Ah right there is the million dollar question of obedience.

“Good question, Clear Cut and Chroma Gem, step forward.”

Hearing the sounds of hooves on crystal tile coming forward I let out a small chuckle as they bring in Chroma’s hold the probes, gems, needles, collar along with one of Forge’s toys...how the hell did Clear Cut even get that?

I think that we just doomed ourselves, mostly Clear Cut for taking that…thing from Forge.

“You see Garble, the Eliksni have developed ways on how to get others to talk when they refuse to. So many wonderful, painful, joyous ways to get them to talk and now we can see if it would work on dragons.” Come on! Take the fear bait!

“You wouldn’t do this! The dragon hoard would-” TAKE IT!

“Would what? Dragons are greedy, evil, and they only care for themselves. One dead dragon would only mean that your pile of gold and gems would be up for grabs. No one would turn an eye at your death, now you can do as I say or we can get to the fun part and start pulling scales, teeth and claws from you until you do.” Come the fuck on, take the damn bait!

Waiting for the dragon to say something I grab one of his claws and start to pull on it, not enough to hurt him but to cause discomfort.

“Well? I am waiting.” DO IT!

“Alright...I’ll do it…” YES!

With a look of defeat on Garble’s face I let out a silent manly squeal of delight.

“Good. Chroma, enchant the gems for tracking, shock, communication, listening and detonation for failure.” I said quietly to Chroma who nodded at me but from the look I am getting from the rebellious dragon, he obviously heard something.

“What was that about failure?” Time to lie!

“If you fail then I will simply have to find you and take your hoard for myself.” I don’t really need a dragon’s hoard of gold and loot but then again a little gold never hurts an empire’s treasury.

“Yeah right, good luck getting to the dragon isles and finding my cave.” If you’re dumb enough to go back to your cave then I can just tag it for later travel.

“Don’t underestimate me, I have been known to get what I want.”

Especially if it is a delicious El Diablo burger from Carl’s Jr, that damn thing may burn my mouth all to hell but it is so worth it.

“Bah, I still say you wouldn’t be able to find it.”

We shall see…

“So do we have an accord, you return to your employers and in kind you don’t get executed here for murdering four diamond dogs.” I said with a shit eating grin, wondering if he can sense it.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got a deal.” He growls out as I smile at him.

“Excellent. Chroma, put the gems in him, Clear Cut, when he is done release Garble from his restraints.” the two nodded at me as I step back a bit,

Watching Chroma implant and magic the crystal gems into Garble was an enlightening experience. It was at first boring to see the gems glow but as soon as they came into contact with the teenage dragon they started to melt and mold onto his body, blending into his scales before looking just like them with the small exception of looking like bumps.

The gems were implanted between his wings, over where his heart should be, and in the palms of his claws.

“What are these?”

“Your reward if you do your job and go tell your boss what happened here.”

“Huh...seems easy enough to say ‘Your plan was stupid.’ but hey, I get paid to say it.”

“...Yes…” That was way too blunt for my tastes but hey, if it gets the job done then it gets done.

“Well then, I better get going then.” And with that said I signaled those holding him in place to release him, his chains snapping off of his body as they clatter to the crystal tiles beneath him.

“Indeed, now go before I change my mind and use that...thing on you…” I said as I stared at the toy that Clear Cut brought in.

Without even saying a goodbye or even a fuck you Garble left immediately, being lead out by two guards.

Once he left the room I turned around and looked at the demoted guard with a worried stare.

“Lieutenant Clear Cut...how did you get that away from Forge?”

“Uh...I don’t know, I just walked into her workshop, looked around a bit and when I found it sitting on her bedside table I just grabbed it and left.” She just leaves it lying around?

Who leaves something like that of all things just sitting there! Hasn’t anyone told her to hide that shit? I know I hide my porn whenever people come over but seeing how I can’t access the internet here let alone my vast collection of smut, I am only left with three options and all three suck.

“You better put it back, I don’t even want to know what Forge would do to me if she finds out that I was going to use that as a torture tool on a dragon.”

“You can bet that I would ask you why you have taken that from my room and why that it would be use as a torture tool.” A familiar voice said as I hear the sounds of my brain gears grinding to a halt.

I felt my spine shiver as I turned around slowly to see Forge standing where Garble used to be and I saw Clear Cut quaking in his armor.

“Clear Cut, you have my permission to run like hell.” I am too scared to turn around to look at her.

“Thank you sir.” And with that said he quickly turned tail and galloped like goats on fire.

Looking back to Forge I saw that she was laughing under her hoof, trying hard not to let anyone know that she was snickering.

“I knew that would be a satisfying punishment attachment to his previous punishment of cleaning the latrines with a toothbrush.” Telling Forge before hand about my plan has made his punishment better.

“On that I can agree with you.” Life is good.

Chroma Gem was still standing there, waiting for the next part of the plan to be initiated.

“Now, Forge, Chroma, lets go down to the workshop, let's make sure that Garble is doing as I have told him and to see if my project has been completed.” With the three of us walking together the staff moved aside, including the guards as they clearly know that the three of us together can only mean something big is going to happen.

Walking past a set of sentries that are standing by the workshop’s door we walked past it and went down another flight of stairs, going deeper under the palace until entered a new refurbished room, there was crystals mounted on the walls and floor, all of them placed in such a way that one can look in them and see what the other side is looking at.

The room was currently staffed by six crystal ponies, all of them are unicorns as their horns are glowing their myriad of colors. On each crystal mirror was a live feed from one of the many lampposts that line the city streets, the security system working like a charm.

In the middle of the room was a flat mirror, and with a glow from Chroma’s horn it slowly sputtered to life and it immediately turned to a field of white that was moving rapidly, it was soon replaced with the sound of wings flapping.

It was Garble, flying as fast as his wings can take him and that made me smile.

“Excellent work Chroma, I knew your phasing gems would work on something that is resistant to magic but this really takes the cake to work on the body of a dragon. Something that is highly resistant to have complete immunity.” I still need to test if they are immune to arc, void or solar damage.

“Not a problem if you know how to work around those sort of things, I had my practice when I was busy dismantling all of Sombra’s old traps and curses that he has left behind.” There is a way to work around resistances and immunities?

“And where exactly were those traps and curses?” Please tell me I wasn’t sleeping in a bed that was rigged to explode.

“In the library, the treasury, his master bedroom, his personal armory and in the throne room.” Oh thank god...wait what? The bedroom? My bedroom!

“He had trapped and cursed the throne room? With what exactly?”

“A hidden door that leads down, his magic made it so that it wouldn’t be a problem to the palace. I have been studying on ways to do the same thing but so far it has only worked on small containers and the like.” A hidden room under the seat of power...brilliant.

“Can you replicate the effects to include rooms like the ones you found or the ones that currently exist?” Please say yes, I want a magical bag of holding.

“If I am given enough time to dissect the spell, learn from it, maybe I could replicate to enchant the various rooms of the palace to be more elaborate and confusing to any foreigners.” Well thats good, but I still want that magical bag of holding.

“Then hop to it, send me anything you find in your reports, with what I am trying to recreate then we will need all the space we can get our hands and hooves on.”

“As you say my emperor.” And with that Chroma walked out of the room and went back to his office of strange contraptions and poisons.

Once he was gone from the room I turned to Forge who was snoring a bit, apparently she is not even remotely interested in anything that is magical and arcane.

Nudging her on the neck I put some pressure into it, making the sleeping giant mare fall over onto her side. The fall woke her up, it was amusing for me to see her look around in a sleepy daze, yawning while trying to figure out what happened.

My response was to tell her that she fell asleep when Chroma Gem was talking about dimensional magic rooms that exist within the palace.

Her response was to say that it was a load of horse apples.

That was a very charming responds to hear from the giantess but then again it was to be expected.

“Okay Forge, lets have that talk now.” I said while crossing my arms, the two of us walking into an empty hallway so we could have some privacy.

“Finally, now spill it, are you a flank stallion.”

“Uh………………….” That is a flat out dead yes.

“You are not getting out of this. You will answer me and you will not leave until I am satisfied with the answers you give me.” I think I might be able to get out of this but the choices on how vary from outright murder, trickery with shiny objects and even throwing pocket sand at her.

“Shamefully yes.”

And I know that none of those would work except for murder, sadly murder is bad and should be frowned upon when it’s used on a friend who hasn’t done anything to deserve it.

“Okay, are you into mares and/or stallions?” Ah yes, the ‘Are you gay or straight’ question, typical.

“Girls.” I have nothing against other guys but I don’t like em that way, I respect em, hell even like gay people but I don’t adhere to being taken to pound town.

And seeing how she say said mares and/or stallions...I haven’t hit that level of desperate need of love and affection from something that looks like a farm animal, my mind hasn’t truly that low into depravity...but if it does then I can bet that Forge would be willing to take a round or two with me.

Fuck wow, can’t believe I even thought of it like that...the hell is wrong with me.

“I will take that as mares.” God damn it Forge, there is a difference in the two, one is a hot chick while the other is pretty much a horse, I am not hitting that level of desperate need just yet.

“Now then, what do you think about-” Before the giantess could even start to torture me about my low sex life, a guard comes galloping down the hall before skidding to a halt right before us.

“My Kell! There is a group of griffons here that are under a banner and are armed and armored. I can only assume that they hail from the griffon kingdom of Griffonstone.” Oh? This is interesting, what are griffons doing this far north?

“WellwouldyoulookatthatIhavesomethingimportanttodo,lovetohavethischatbutsadlyIhaveworktodobye!” I said as I quickly moved around her, barely grazing her body and moved like the wind through the halls with the guard in tow.

Once the two of us were far from the giantess I let out an exhale of relief as the guard that brought me up here started to give me details on what the griffons had on them.

Steel armor, steel wing blades, metal claws coverings, steel swords and spears. Their helmets cover the top half of their beak while staying clear from the eyes and went down their necks with ribbed metal coverings to allow partially limited neck motions. The frontal armor is segmented to allow full motion from the legs and wings, leaving vulnerable gaps in between the limbs that was only protected by underlying leather or fabric, and as for rear protection, its virtually non-existent.

When I was told of everything that the griffons had I then turned back to large double doors leading to and fro the throne room, if griffons are anything I have read in those books, they are patriarchal, carnivores, aggressive, dominative, proud warriors and they don’t take shit from no one except from those that can easily topple them.

“Private Dew Drop, bring them in with an armed escort, give the guards the signal to keep an eye on them, do not let a single one out of their sight.” I said as I quickly turn around and jogged to my throne, trying to make it look like to the griffons that I have been waiting patiently for them.

“Yes Kell, it will be done.” As soon as he turned to go gather our...guests, I went to the throne room and sat down on my slightly uncomfortable seat, staff in hand and shrapnel launcher on my back.

It didn’t take long for the private to return with our guests, they came marching inside in unison and they were looking around, checking corners and picking out what I can only guess are targets in case they are here under hostile intent or in the event a fight breaks out.

I made sure that the skulls I have on my belt are in full view of the griffons, Sombra’s skull on my right leg and the diamond dog skull on my left.

“Presenting an unscheduled guest and company, Prince Reinalt of the Red Wood Weald Kingdom.” Private Dew Drop said as he tried his best imitation of my announcer butler who is currently on break, his wife needs him at the moment to help her raise their little foals, all three of them.

Standing at the head of the griffon guard formation was the proclaimed prince, he was wearing what looks like a grey uniform dress shirt with what looks like four medals on the left breast region, a gold princely crown rests upon his head, gilded wing blades rest upon his feathery appendages and resting on his middle underneath his wings is what looks like a jeweled sword.

The prince had brown feathers, red tips on a few of them, platinum blonde fur, hazel eyes, and he looks like has been in a battle or two with the one barely seen scar on his beak.

“Greetings Emperor Skolas, I am Prince Tisis, second son of King Bloodbeak and grandson to High King Greto Shriekwind of Griffonstone.” Huh, so that place still exists...I might pay that place a visit...I wonder what other pieces of information that I have gleamed off the Crystal Heart is accurate.

“What brings a prince of the griffon kingdoms so far from home let alone unannounced into my lands?” I said as I leaned forward a bit into my throne, my two guards that are flanking me on my sides move up as well, matching my movement.

“Why we are here because we have heard of the news that the Crystal Empire has returned from its millennia long absence. We thought that being the kind neighbors that we are, that we would come here and give aid to you since the empire has been under the rule of a mad unicorn tyrant.” The prince says and for a moment there was silence until the leg that was supporting Sombra’s skull moves a bit, letting the bone rotating just enough to be seen in the light of the room.

“Well, that is very kind of you Prince Tisis, but we no longer require aid of any kind, we have become self-sustaining and self-relying six months ago. I am sad to say this but we do not require the assistance or charity of the griffon kingdoms in which we would be indebted to.” And in truth I just don’t trust you.

From the slight grimace that was on his face before it was quickly replaced with what looks like annoyance it would seem that his plan to get the Crystal Empire to be in debt to the griffons for supplying us with food, medicine, construction materials and other things out of the kindness of their hearts. I knew this plan because that is what Princess Celestia tried to do to us when their messenger came by.

“I see, well I would like to extend a hand from the international community and to welcome you to the next Council Meeting that will be taking place in Equestria three months from now to introduce yourself and the Empire to the world nations.” Hmm….so they have something like the United Nations here...I wonder what else do they have, the same currency?

I can tell that he is forcing himself to say this because seeing how we are a contact neighbor with Equestria and that the griffon kingdoms are not even sharing a border with us that they would have to either fly around or through Equestria to get to us.

“We will come to the Council Meeting, we hope that between our nations that there will be peace and prosperity through commerce and diplomacy.” I said before giving a curt nod, not once getting up from my throne.

The group of griffons stayed there for a while, the prince trying to figure out if there was a way to screw me over but I kept staring at him, my four eyes staring into his two, staring into his soul as a shudder ran down his spine.

He turned around started to leave, his guards doing the same, I guess he was trying to find a weakness within myself and those around me but when he found nothing but a hardened defence that would not oh so easily topple to the ground with just a hostile presence.

As soon as they left I waved Glittering Quill over and told her to write down everything that she can about the griffon that came here along with what him and his guards were wearing and using. I would later check on the old history books and see if there was anything on these griffons that I can study seeing how that they are aggressive predators of myth and legends back home on Earth.

Once they were gone I went back downstairs, heading straight for Forge’s workshop/room and it was there that I found the door closed and locked but I can still hear the sounds of metal being worked on and the occasional voice talking.

I knocked on the door, waiting for either Forge or one of her apprentices to come trotting to the door to open it up and see who was knocking but when no one did I took it a step further and pounded hard on the door with my upper fists to get her attention.

I ended up denting the door but at least someone came to the door and unlocked it for me.

Walking into the workshop I set my sights upon Forge who was busy making a new horseshoe to use and when I stopped in front of her she saw me before throwing the shoe into a bucket of water. She then led me to the greatest project that she and her team has ever created in service of the empire.

Walking through the doorway and down into the heart of the workshop I laid my eyes onto what our collective memory has recreated.

Standing in the middle of the room, unpowered, dismantled in two key places for obvious reasons, was a poorly constructed Vex Time Gate.

“Skolas...I don’t know whatever it is you had us put together, but this thing...it makes all of us feel uneasy, as if this thing itself is made by beings of an even greater evil than Sombra ever was.” You are correct, the Vex are evil, like really evil.

As I look at the Vex Gate I start to walk around it, letting my hands feel the strange contraption, the real Skolas knows exactly on how to make this thing work. He knows how to get it to pull from time the things I will need to make sure that no one will ever think of attacking the Crystal Empire ever again.

“Forge, this thing is the reason why I am here. It is because of something like this that I am even here when I was needed, hell its because of this damn thing that I am not rotting in a cold prison cell waiting for some stupid guardians to challenge me to a fight to the death.” And also the reason why that I am going to cheat my way to victory instead of trying to construct everything by hoof and magic when it can instead be taken out of numerous timelines.

As I tell her more about the importance of this gate I start to push the pieces back into place, connecting it once more to the gate as a whole.

There was a faint spark of power as it hums to life, the intricate metal wires that line the back of the gate start to glow a very faint white light, the gate was waiting for the code sequence to pull anything from space and time.

“You know Forge, if this gate works as it is supposed to, everything will change...hopefully for the better of the empire and not for its enemies.” I said as I start to feed into the gate the vex code into the machine, giving it the instructions Skolas once used to take his entire House from every corner of space and time to be sent to the Terminus to fight the Guardians that was after him.

Once the last piece of vex coding went in the gate slowly lost power, its energy fading away into nothingness as Forge lets out a snort of disapproval from behind me.

“Huh...looks like it was a dud after all, come no, we have a certain conversation to-” Forge was cut off as the gate sprung back to life, the entire metal cage in the back was covered in an otherworldly white glow, the hum from the gate was loud, ear-piercing and mind numbing to the weak-willed.

Watching the Vex Gate activate and churn with power all I could do was break into a weak laugh, slowly ratcheting it up in loudness and evilness as the gate started to do what I wanted it to do, pulling the object of my obsession from space and time to my location.

As the gate kept on powering up, the energy within started to crackle and bend, the object that I have summoned starts to materialize before my eyes, Forge started to back away from both myself and the gate.

Once the object has materialized the gate immediately turns off, losing power from a single use as the small, handheld object it the floor, perfectly wrapped in paper.

“Huh...Skolas...what the hell is that?” Forge said as she looked at the small object on the floor, it was still smoking from the entry it made.

Picking it up off the floor I can feel the heat radiating off of it, the ungodly sweet savory smell of cooked angus meat, seven strips of bacon, pepper jack cheese, jalapeno poppers, jalapeno coins and topped off with habanero bacon ranch sauce all held together by two fresh baked buns.

“This, my dear Forge, is the El Diablo, the world’s greatest burger back home.” I said, removing the rebreather from my face as I bring the steadily unwrapped burger to my mouth, I can just taste the juiciness in the air.

Without warning I bit down onto the delicious burger, the effects was immediate as I let out an orgasmic moan of delight as the sweet, sweet divine, heavenly taste hit my tastebuds like a freight train hitting a car going way over the safety speed limit.

I am not sure if I am disgusting Forge out or just getting a confused look from her but I was way too busy eating the hamburger in my hands. I was scarfing that burger down as if it was my last meal on this planet and by the gods it was well worth the once-a-day use on the Vex Gate.

“And that, my dear Forge, was what I was trying to create.”

“A special portal that can generate a meal? You wasted our talents and resources for a piece of meat!” Oh boy, here we go, mare has to talk crap about my grand idea just because I made its first use into something stupid.

“No, what I did was test what I can bring through time and space. I tried the smallest, most insignificant object from the multiple timelines and made it come through, what I did was an important step.” If I really wanted to test it I would have made it bring me an old fashioned grenade.

“An important step?”

“Yes, and now tomorrow we can begin with the construction of Eliksni technology, the power of arc will once again be within my hands, and soon the hooves of the crystal ponies.” And the power of Fallen weapons and vehicles.

“Are you sure it will work like that? I mean seeing that thing appear means it works but will it work on something bigger than that...El Diablo? I don’t want to see your hopes rise up only to be smashed like we were yesterday at the festival.” Ah yes...hopes being ruined like our bodies were when we were drunk.

“Do not worry about it Forge, all you must worry about is constructing several more of these Gates, I will need several of them up and running if we are to accelerate my plans for a protected empire. With a large mortar pool of Skiffs and Walkers we can without a doubt protect our lands from any and all outside influence, with the Light and Heavy Pikes we can traverse the lands without having to step onto the frigid ground and frozen water.”

“Skolas...wouldn’t any of this or any of the new ones break the laws of reality? I may not be some egghead but even I know that messing with reality can possibly destroy everything.” I highly doubt that any more gates would break reality, its not like I am dividing by zero? Right?

“Silly Forge, I am not messing with reality, I am messing with time, and I am not destroying anything, just altering things by pulling from the infinite amount of realities that exist, taking what I want and letting it sort itself out by creating a new alternate time stream from the new result. Time isn’t linear that is just how we perceive it, no time is an endless ocean going in every direction, up down side to side and all around, its pretty much an ever expanding ball that will never end until it decided that it wants to end.” Or I somehow manage to rupture space and time and destroy everything.

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Says a pony that can grip a hammer with a hoof with no real means of actually holding the damn thing.

“It doesn’t need to make sense, it just needs to do as it was intended to do. If the Vex can mess with time and space within the Vault of Glass then I can sure as hell do the exact same thing here.” And not tear the universe in half.

And not erase my enemies from reality, I’ve seen what the Templar, Oracles, Gorgons and Atheon is capable of doing, I will not follow them in their footsteps unless it is absolutely necessary.

“I…*sigh* whatever, if I keep on trying to think on this then I might lose my sleep and my mind. Just get more of these things up and running, I don’t know how long before anyone else decides to show up on our front door but bolts and blades won’t be able to repel anything for long, especially dragons since their scales are strong enough to deflect metal.” I said as I walked around the gate one last time, noticing that the metal mesh behind it was slightly distorted from use.

“And melt those meshes down, it would seem they break down after one use.” And with a bit of a huff from Forge the back part came undone and was soon bent and flattened to be fitted into the smelter.

Tomorrow, it will be a beautiful day, I can feel it it my nuggets.