The Return of Darkness

I slept for a few hours with the usual, no dreams, mentality. I yawned and stretched and was immediately bored. The storage area in which he was in, in a cage, was almost pitch black. I could feel the ship sway back and forth like an oversized baby crib. Still bored, I did a quick night vision spell while taking account of how big my internal mana pool is. To my surprise, it was two-thirds the size to Celestia. Happy that I had enough energy available to move the moon, but not make the stars. I worked out a spell that would allow me to turn myself into a dragon again, and if I remembered that a dragon can grow with greed in their hearts. I could use that to my advantage.

In my head, I put together the spell in just a few moments. According to the laws of the Words of Power, this spell was a seven-word spell. which would require a large some of my mana to accomplish. The Words are raw power, but efficiency is lacking. I did a rough estimate to how much mana it would cost to do, and I was not happy that it would take half of what I could dish out. No matter, at least, I have a mana batteries ready to be used in a just in case scenario.

Bored again after I just made my life easier in the future if I need to access my armor and weapons. I decided to explore the ship to see what was being transported. I left the cage and walked back to the crate that I punched to see what was inside. The crate itself wasn't all that fancy to look at, but I know from first-hand experiences that looks can be deceiving. I took a look into the crate and found something very troubling. I opened the crate and pulled out a familiar weapon that had a tag on it that said; 'Staff of Destruction for the study of the University of Magic.' I wondered how the fuck did a Barret M82 found its way into Equestria and a fucking perfect conditioned one too! I went deeper into the crate and found a journal. I opened it up to see if it held any answers.

The Staff of Destruction was used during the Nightmare Moon war as an anti-dragon slayer. Dragons feared this weapon and the Griffins that used it. This weapon is heavily enchanted to give it unlimited ammo as well as protect it from all damage of any kind. The Griffins of the time, more notably, The Black Knights that aided Nightmare Moon. Used variations of this weapon in combat. Today, however, The Staff of Destruction is the last of its kind, as all models like it were destroyed during the Griffin War five-hundred years ago. No one knows where this weapon originally birthed from, but many believed the Griffins of old knew, but that information is lost along with the Kings of old.

'Well, I guess that's a good reason to add to the list as to why Celestia went apeshit on the Griffins. They had weapons that would utterly destroy her army in just a few hours,' I made a note of in my head.

I took the gun and the journal back to my cage to add an invisibility enchantment with my new rune inscriber. It took me a few hours to get it right, but once it was in place. The M82 now called, Silence, was holstered on my back completely invisible and ready to deal damage again.

I waited for a while for Volt to get me up for our arrival at the port town of; Port Town. If the name of the town wasn't stupid enough, then nothing else is. Couldn't the idiots that named the town to be a little creative? Like seriously. If I meet the pony that named the town, I'm going to smack him.

My wait didn't last long after I finished working with my new gun as Volt came down with Steampunk to pick me up and bring me topside. They passed by the crate that I fixed before anyone could say anything and opened up my cage. "Come on runt, let's go," Steampunk said in a bored tone. I simply nodded and followed to two topside.

I sat beside Volt on the bow of the ship and watched the rising sun come over the horizon. Volt didn't care about it all that much though as he was more focused on our journey back to his lab. Steampunk left us be to do her own little thing in the town, which to my growing surprises, had a port that made Manehattens look like shit.

'Ten bucks says that the rebels would try something while I am here,' I thought cynically.

Just as I made the thought, I heard something off. There were several, heavy stepping individuals coming up behind us. A few of them sounded like they were wearing armor of some kind. All of them sounded like other Griffins.

'Well, I guess I owe myself ten bits,' I chuckled internally.

'Yes, yes you do.'

'...'

'Nope, not happening.'

'Dang it.'

There was a slight cough that broke my train of thought followed by an order to turn around nice and slow. Volt did so while I felt the air around us to gauge how many individuals were with us. I quickly counted ten and with a flex of my wings, I prepped my new gun that was somewhat convenient to find for my new situation.

To my surprise, there were only three Griffins in heavy armor while the rest were wearing leather. Steampunk was in the lead with a smug look on her face. I quickly gathered my mana to do my dragon transformation spell and got ready to induce a forced greed growth, but then I thought against it. Having that card to use would be a waste in this situation. Since these rebels find me to be a threat, I need to make sure I am a big threat and showing my ace now would be a bad idea.

"Any last words before I hand you two to the White Claws?" Steam snide. I gave her a smug grin and took notice of all the Griffins. All of which are just grunts, but the leader of the three armored ones looked like a general. She gets to live.

"Yes, yes I do," I said as I stood on my hind legs and took hold of Silence, which a head longer than me and aimed the invisible dragon killer at one of the three armored rebels. They gave me a confused look to the motion, which gave me the opportunity to kill my first target.

*BANG!*

Mendez watched in horror as her most trusted Captain loose his head to a cloud of red mist and a bright flash of lightning and the boom of thunder. His blood splattered all over the deck, giving the light oak a haphazard paint job of irony crimson. She couldn't react in time as five more explosions erupted right in front of her, killing the sergeant to her left and the Griffons in the air. The rest quickly hid behind cover as the Tom made a motion that looked like he was reloading his invisible weapon, but it was fruitless.

The target jumped on Steampunk and quickly knocked her out cold as the rest of her comrades died from the invisible weapon that went through the wood like air. Mendez stood there, petrified. The Tom was aiming his weapon right at her. He gave her a wicked grin as he made a motion that looked like he holstered it on his back while Volt took the helm of the ship and began to move it out of port. She trembled as the young Tom approached her as he pulled out a military survival knife out of thin air and brought it up to her throat. She couldn't move, she couldn't fight, she couldn't speak. She was bolted in place out of fear. What she feared the most, however, was his azure eyes that were cold as a windigos heart yet all knowing like an ancient dragon with the power to boot.

"P-P-Please don't kill...Me," was all that she could say. The young Tom giggled with glee. "Of course, I won't kill you as you need to give your boss a message. Do you want to know what that message is?"

Her heart raced in anticipation for her demise as she nodded rapidly in response. "Good," he said, pulling away his knife. "Tell your boss that the Prince has returned. The true Prince of the Griffins and there ain't no mage aiding in my quest for ascension. Now," he paused, bringing up his hand which was covered in sickly black mist. "Get lost." Before she could react, she was back on the shore, watching The Maze Runner continue to its destination. She failed, she knew she failed, but that's not what concerned her the most. The fact that the Tom was on his own, terrified her to the deepest parts of her soul.

I slumped down on the bow shaking. Never have I felt so sick in my life. After I shadow teleported the Griffin to shore, the adrenaline vanished as quickly as it came, and I vomited my breakfast over the bow of the ship. This wasn't how I felt the first time I killed someone, it felt hollow and empty, like the life that I took was worthless, but now? Now I feel like I should have the first time.

I felt sickly, like what I did was never supposed to happen. My body trembled at the notion that what I did was the cruelest thing that I could have done, but this didn't last as I forced myself through it to clean up the ship before we made it to Trottingham which was just five hours away. 'I guess I grew a heart when I came here,' I noted.

I did a few spells that got rid of the blood and stains while High Voltage threw the dead bodies overboard. Steampunk got a big memory wipe with false memories that she was knocked out by accident from a crate that fell from mismanagement. Volt was still stupidly happy that he got to be my slave, which made me realize that the spell that I used must have had an affection effect to it. I made a note of that if I had to use that spell again.

Once the ship was clean and nobody was chasing us down. We made quick pace to the island without much problem. When Steampunk came to. She gave me a frown and asked Volt as to why I was still above ground to which he responded by saying that I was needed for my sight. A decent excuse but that didn't sit well for Steam.

We made it to Trottingham by evening and quickly docked in the port. Volt had several things that The Maze Runner was transporting, one of the crates was the one that used to hold my gun. They were all loaded onto a carriage and were transported to his lab. With us right behind them after we said goodbye to the misinformed Steampunk.