[Scene Skip]

"Well... That's not something you see every day." One of the horses muttered as they looked out of the window of the tower at the fading blue light of the explosion.

"Yeah. It was like a nuclear explosion, except, you know. Without the mushroom cloud or radiation." A mare thestral stated as she looked out through the same window at the spot where the falling cauldron had exploded.

"Well the mushroom cloud not being present doesn't matter. But we have no clue if that explosion contained whatever infected Father. Or if it contained something else." The horse stated as he levitated a spyglass over his left eye and tried to get a better look at the spot of the explosion. Trying to see if there was anything that might hint of some kind of fallout from the explosion.

"You mean the Creator? Huh... Father. It fits. But back on topic. I think we would need to investigate ground zero of the explosion with spells or specialized equipment. Which we would have to develop. Without such preparations would it be damn near impossible to even see if it there was any manner of residue." The thestral mare and horse stallion began a drawn out discussion of what could or would not work as a sort of sensor to spot radiation or energy signatures.

Cursed Blessing meanwhile had gotten up on his legs again and was standing by the bed where his creator, having finished throwing up, was resting his face in his hooves whilst sitting on the bed. The alicorn was fine physically but he was no doubt exhausted mentally. The elderly looking horse pressed a hoof to his creator's neck and checked his pulse whilst also making sure that there were no remaining boils on his body. "Creator. How do you feel?"

"Like I have been sick with fever, cramps, stomach flu and dehydration. All at the same time, and none of those being side effects. Whilst being struck in the chest and head by a jackhammer." The alicorn stated with a sigh as he rested his tired eyes into his hooves.

The first Horadrim nodded and gave one of his fellow mages a nodded, causing them to leave to retrieve some refreshments. "We will get you something to drink. But first, how was it that you got afflicted by those boil like tumors?"

Maleficus sighed and lowered his forelegs, looking down at the one which had been afflicted by the strange sickness. And spoke out whilst rubbing the recently restored limb. "I never got to see what you described, I was unconscious before I got a look. But I can only guess that it was either one of the griffins' weapons or that strange gas that caused it. Though I am leaning more towards it being that strange glowing artifact that I crushed, along with the talon of the one wielding it, with my hoof. It released a blue flash of light when I crushed it."

The elderly looking horse nodded, contemplating what he had just been told. Then he got worried as he realized something. "That may be the case... wait... Creator. Did you just say that you crushed the artifact barehoofed right?"

Maleficus looked up with a confused look on his face. "Yes?"

The old horse leaned forward, his eyes very much worried. "And you crushed it with your left hoof right? While someone else was holding it?"

Maleficus nodded, still a bit confused. But as he responded, he slowly began to realize just what Cursed Blessing was getting at. and an unease sensation began to fill his stomach. "Yes I did why do youuu... oh.... oh no..."

The two looked at each other for a few seconds, as the entire room fell silent, as everyone began to realize just the seriousness of the situation. And then as one the alicorn and horse turned towards the gathered equines in the room an screamed out at them. "GET THE COMM ORB TO CANTERLOT!"

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia leaned into her throne, rubbing her head. The throne room was a bloody mess but it had been cleaned up rather professionally in a short amount of time. Even the cracks in the marble had been repaired. But the mood of the room was tainted, the slaughter that had recently occurred within it was still fresh in the air.

It had only been a day since she had returned and the scars of the battle were clear. Buck, they were even more intense then when the Rattenfänger and the Dragons had invaded.

All of the nobles and commoners within the city had been in a state of shock and had needed to be treated gently as to not risk their health. Nopony of those who had been within the central keep could give a proper recounting of what had happened within the throne room. But from what little information her knights and mages could gather had Maleficus used his flail to break the griffin soldiers within the room before brutally beating up the admiral barehoofed.

There had apparently been a moment when all ponies within the throne room had blacked out, but some of them could remember witnessing Maleficus beating up the large griffin who had been holding the throne and them hostage. It was not much to go by.

But what her mages had found out was that whatever had been blocking the signals of her Comm Orbs had been either destroyed or disabled during that fight. As a all Comm Orbs in Canterlot had managed to send out signals once more. Few could respond however so whatever was causing it was no doubt something the griffins had spread out to better utilize against her nation's communication system.

It was both impressive and aggravating that her freshly made Communication Orb Network had been rendered null and void so quickly. But the fact that whatever the griffins used could be disabled or destroyed was good news. Although nopony knew just what that was. Since no one could remember or properly describe anything that could have caused it.

Sighing she looked down at the floor where she had seen the broken bodies of the griffins. It was no longer any blood around but she could still feel it. The sensation of lives being snuffed out filled the room. It was making her uneasy and uncomfortable.

The room had only been cleaned recently and her throne had been replaced with another one, a temporary replacement until a new one could be constructed. As her old throne had been taken hold of by the griffins had she come to the conclusion that would need a new seat of power, not willing to be reminded of her failure as a ruler that someone had attempted to take her city by taking the throne.

She leaned back a bit in her cushion covered wooden throne and looked up at the ceiling, wondering what options she had now with her failed crusade and the attacks of another nation on her head. This was her third attempt and it had ended with her losing. Sure she may have obtained a statistic victory but in the end had she lost to Maleficus' strategy and knowledge.

Her train of thought was broken by the clattering hooves of a messenger carrying a satchel that was containing something that was glowing through it. "Princess Celestia! One of the Communication Orbs are glowing! It is the one connected to Lord Cursed Blessing of the Horadrim Kingdom!"

She looked over and motioned for the messenger to give her the content of the satchel. "Give us the orb, it must be important for Lord Asclepius to contact us."

The messenger walked over and opened the bag, pulling out the pulsing Comm Orb. As he pulled it free from its container and held it out was it suddenly engulfed by a golden aura as Princess Celestia used her magic to telekinetically grab hold of the sphere and levitated over to her own hoof.

As she held the orb she activated it and spoke into as an image of the elderly leader of the Horadrim Kingdom began to appear within the crystal itself. "This is Princess Celestia, what doest thou wish to tell Us?"

The elderly horse let out a sigh of relief, as if afraid he would not have gotten connected. Which she could understand seeing how almost all of the nation's Comm Orbs were still being blocked by whatever the griffins had. "This is Asclepius speaking. I am glad you are alright Princess Celestia, we have received little words from much of the nation for the past two days. We have managed to fight off or decimate the invasion forces attempting to siege our lands and several of your homes. And we have obtained a lot of information about them. But first I am afraid I have grave news. We have the possibility of a dangerous epidemic on our hooves."

Dire news indeed. But it was news for her. There had been no reports of anyone being afflicted by any manner of lethal sickness. "What do you mean Lord Asclepius? We have received no words of any manner of dangerous sickness spreading."

The old horse sighed and pulled out a vial containing a glowing fluid of some kind. It was impossible to tell what it was or what it truly looked like through the sphere. "We have discovered that one of the griffin artifacts contains a dangerous substance. If exposed to any living tissue it creates glowing blue boil like tumors at a rapid rate. Those boils are filled with a liquid made up of the internal magic and life force of those afflicted by the substance. And they keep draining the magic until the body no longer can produce it. I do not need to tell you how dangerous such a sickness is."

Celestia sucked in air harshly through her teeth at what she had just heard. Such a sickness was the bane for any creature containing magic. Which was most of the living beings in the world from what she knew. "Aye. This... this is foul news."

Her heart clenched as the old horse gave her a sad smile before he continued. The news growing even worse. "But not only that. The liquid if allowed to touch anything, will mutate it wildly, it is raw magic and it act erratically. We do not know if the liquid is what spreads the disease but we know it is dangerous. And even then there is another great danger about this sickness."

She grit her teeth and closed her eyes. Trying to prepare herself to what more dangers this already lethal disease could have.

Sadly enough she still opened her eyes and stared in disbelief. As the elderly horse lord began to describe what could only be described as a horror story. "One of our warriors was afflicted by the sickness, boils were growing up along one of his leg. We had to have his leg amputated and then attempted to destroy it b dumping it into a cauldron of lava. The lava began to glow blue and began to intensify the heat of the lava. We had to throw it off the island as it soon grew far too dangerous. It exploded around five kilometers away from us and yet the force of that explosion was still enough to push aside the clouds, shift our sky ships about fifty meters and shake the entire fortress island of Grithenburg. That cauldron was about thirty galleons worth of lava."

There was a moment of tense silence filling the throne room as Celestia and those who were listening absorbed the information they had just been told. Chills were running down their spines.

And their worries were only growing more intense as the Horse Lord pulled out a scroll and began to open it whilst speaking to her. "We do not know what else this sickness may cause outside of this but it is extremely dangerous. You need to quarantine anyone who shows the following symptoms before it is too late. The symptoms are as following. Drowsiness, nausea, tiredness, fever, they will then go to sleep for a few hours, until finally a sudden intense pain wakes them up as these boils grow out of their flesh and this is followed by abrupt unconsciousness."

Some of the ponies in the room had to press a hoof against their mouths as to not throw up at what came next. "After that the boils will start spreading from the afflicted area to the rest of the body, they looks like glowing fleshy mushrooms. You need to cut off the afflicted area before the boils can spread and then dispose of it quickly, or at least put it inside an isolated contained to not risk it spreading. Do not try to use fire or heat to dispose of the boils. The mutated lifeforms created by the liquid inside the boils can be safely destroyed by fire however."

"Princess. Those symptoms." Celestia looked to her right, one of her Sun Knights who had been fighting the siege.

She gave him a nod as to confirm his words. "Indeed thou are correct Sir High Stance. Those symptoms are identical to what is afflicting our prisoner Admiral Thalon."

The alicorn turned her gaze towards the orb once more and gave her friend a respectful nod. "Thank you for your warning Lord Asclepius. We shalt do Our best to prevent this disease to spread."

The elderly horse gave her a nod and a few words before turning off his end of the Comm Orb. "I shall leave you to your work Princess. I will be sending words to you about what we have found out about the Griffinsm and if we find out anything else about this disease. But I will also be contacting you in then ear future about how we should handle these Griffins. This invasion cannot go unanswered, unlike the Draconic Incursion is this not a lone clan, but a foreign nation. It needs to be handled soon. I will see you soon, be safe."

As the orb stopped glowing and the image disappeared Celestia put it aside on the cushion on her makeshift throne and stood up. She pointed her hoof at the group of worried soldiers, nobles and servants and began to bark out orders to them."Send words to the medical wing! Isolate all prisoners and have the Admiral taken into a secluded room! Have a division of mages aid the medical personal to isolate any pony else who may be afflicted! And somepony get Us the Royal Doctor!"

[Scene Skip]

"They have received the warning Creator." Cursed Blessing stated as he returned the Comm Orb to the messenger who had retrieved it for them.

Maleficus let out a shuddering breath as he slowly stood up from the bed , his bones creaking and groaning loudly as he did so. Though the sound grew less and less and his movements became more smooth and light. "Good. Hopefully I didn't cause another disaster this time."

"You could not know that these invaders were utilizing such dangerous artifacts Creator. If anything is the fact that you were the one afflicted by the disease a good thing. No one else on this planet would have been able to recover so quickly from it. And it allowed us to discover the cause of the sickness in a relatively short amount of time." Maleficus just snorted and shook his head at those words.

He then stood up on his hind legs and began to stretch his body. Raising his forelegs and moving them apart, pulling on his hind legs and spread out his wings before slowly moving them. He kept making slow and steady reaching movements with all of his limbs one by one or two at a time.

For some reason was his internal magic slower to regenerate then it had been before. And that worried him. A lot.

After a few moments of slow stretches the alicorn felt that his body could move properly again. A horse entered the room, carrying a tray with a tankard and some glasses, and he felt his dry throat remind itself and decided to rectify that.

He walked over to the horse with the tray and took the tankard from the tray with a grateful nod before downing the entire thing. Not bothering with a glass, instead he hefted the entire thing to his lips and raised it ups while raising his head. Cool refreshing water gushed down his mouth and throat. After gulping down the final drop of life giving liquid he put the tankard back on the tray the horse was holding.

The alicorn then began to walk out of the room. Speaking out to Cursed Blessing as he did so. "I am going away for a few days. I will be keeping my beacon with me so you can contact me if you need to. You will need to handle the Equestria and Griffin situation whilst I am away."

"What about us Creator?" One of the thestrals asked in a curious voice.

The alicorn just spoke back, not even looking back as he began to walk through the doorway. "I believe you and the wyverns need a home base of your own. The horses will help you with the planning. But the construction and location will be up to you. But do keep in mind that you need to keep the connection between yourselves, the horses and myself a secret. So try to keep the architecture, culture, government and armaments different from the horses."

All the horses and thestrals in the room looked at one another as their creator's words registered in their heads. By the time the awkward silence had filled the room was Maleficus out in the halls and moving in an unknown direction.

The silence lasted for a good while until Cursed Blessing coughed into his hoof and spoke out to the group of thestrals. "Well then. No meaning in standing around and staring at each other. Let us move to one of the dining halls and have a meal whilst we discuss what to do."

"Did you just say 'whilst'?" One of the thestrals asked with a raised eyebrow.

The elderly looking horse blushed and shook his head. "Sorry, Celestia's constant use of that pony based Olden English accent of hers has apparently affected me slightly."

[Scene Skip]

Up on the roof of the tower Maleficus looked out over the lands beneath the clouds. He was leaning on top of one of the battlements whilst doing so. Thinking.

About how the hell he was meant to get back to Canterlot without risking exposing himself. "I cannot go there by sky ship t would take too long. I cannot fly so that's out. Any wyverns I take will no doubt be spotted before I even pass the mountains."

He thought and thought. Around him horses were moving around whilst the thestrals were laying down on any comfortable spots they could find to sleep and rest. Whilst along the inner walls of the massive fortress rested the wyverns. All of his latest creations were exhausted from their last endeavor and he would not disturb their sleep.

*If only I could find a way to teleport. I know no one who has even developed such a spell yet. And if there are any magical creatures with such abilities do I doubt they would be out in the open. The only thing I got that is slightly similar are the Black Beacons and the Comm Orbs. But those only transmit sound and/or images... Except...* He raised his head from where he was resting it, and a look of realization began to fill his face.

"It could work... I mean... I can transmit my mind and essence through them... Why not.... why not my body?" He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out his black beacon. Examining it closely he frowned a bit before pulling out his light screen, which was in its default shape of a white blob of gelatin like mass.

He walked over to a more empty spot on the tower and put down his beacon upon its surface. Then he spread out the solid light screen and left it hovering over the black beacon and spoke out a command to the magical device.

"Verbal Command. Initiate Interface Connection. Interface Command. Scan Object. Additional Interface Command. Planetary Trace of Scanned Object." The screen lit up with moving bars of blue symbols and numbers. While a white light shone over the black beacon. The interface screen hummed for about five minutes until there was a loud crackle from it. And then an image of the planet appeared on the screen.

The planet was glowing in a beating white light once every third second. After the seventh there was a sound of a bell from the screen and the image of the planet was zoomed out and over thirty black dots appeared upon the surface of the planet. And Maleficus got an excited smile on his face as he saw one of those black dots marked down near Canterlot.

But then he frowned, as when he pressed the black dot by Canterlot the message [Object Obscured] appeared on the screen. Tracing his hoof over the screen he tried to get a good look of the location, but it was deep within the mountain directly north of Canterlot. Possibly underground. "The Beacon must be buried beneath something that is interfering with the connection. Probably not safe to attempt to use it. Best try another one."

The second closest beacon was in the Everfree Forest. He pressed the symbol marked in the forest and smirked as an image appeared. It was an image of a large hill in the middle of a swampy looking location.In a deep put on top of the hill lay the black Beacon. Pressing his hoof against the image of the beacon his smirk grew as the message [Connected] appeared on the screen.

"Perfect. Now I just need to work out how to transport myself through the beacon. Not to mention I will need a proper disguise to not make Celestia unlike to suspect me." He grabbed hold of the beacon beneath the Interface Screen and held it up above it, focusing his magic through it. And looked on the screen, he saw the beating black dot marking that the beacon he was holding was active, it was marked on the southern east coast of Equestria.

*Good I can trace my intact beacons. Now let's see. I will need to get the beacon on the other end to activate. I should be able to do so through the Interface.* His thought were racing as he sent a command to the Black Beacon in the Everfree Forest. And his smirk kept its wideness as he saw the message [Object Activted] appear on the screen.

He closed his eyes and focused feeling the magic through the beacon and nodded with satisfaction as he felt the connection to the new beacon. It had a different sensation then the beacon Cursed Blessing was taking care of. It was difficult to put to words but if he could it would be like comparing the fur of a cat with the claw of a bird.

The beacon of Horadrim had a smooth sensation when connecting to it, but the sensation was rough when you left it. Like having your brain itching as you were disconnecting a straight and clear phone call. While the beacon of Everfree felt sharp and distinct, and yet had an uneven and curved presence, like you would have to move along a curve to reach it.

He traced the line and he reached the point and he could feel the connection to the beacon. The first thing he did was look through it, he could see the crater and the sky as well as the various trees and vegetation. It looked more like a jungle then a swamp.

Nodding to himself he had managed to connect through the beacon. now, he needed to figure out a way to move his body through the connection. He stood there for a long time, eyes closed, as he began to channel his magic through the beacon, trying to convey a functioning transport command through the Interface and the beacons.

After an hour he let out a huff of frustration as he made no progress. It was easier to transfer his senses and essence through the beacon then transporting his body. If he could only figure out a way to properly utilize the connection between the beacons he could transport his entire self, body and mind as one, to mimic a gateway system.

The problem was how to properly engage the connection to allow his body to move through safely. After all, the beacon was not the largest of objects so it might be that he needed to handle the size difference between his body and the beacon to properly transport himself through it.

*...Wait a moment... I already have a way to do that!* Realization filled him and he focused his magic over his body, and his physical shape seems to melt into a black miasma before melding into the floor as a shadow. The beacon lands on the stone with a clink and the shadowy shape of Maleficus swims towards the beacon before pushing itself against it.

*Okay. Let's do this!* An equine head took shape on the edge of the shadow, three open holes letting lights through marking three eyes. Each eye was narrowed and focused at the black pyramid before them.

The shadow rose up as black miasma rose and the floor began to vibrate as Maleficus focused his magic through his shadow shape and into the beacon. Within the core of the darkness there was a shining light of some kind and Maleficus let out a mental cry of triumph as his shadow form slipped past the moon glass and moved towards the light within the beacon.

It was like a swirling mass of black ichor being swallowed by a tiny dot of light. The light growing brighter the more of the shadowy miasma moved through it. And then as the final wisp of shadow slipped into the glowing light within the beacon, the beacon flashed brightly before the light disappeared. Leaving the beacon laying there on the stone floor of the tower.

[Scene Skip]

The world around him was pure white, the only thing he knew was that he needed to move forward. After a few seconds he could see something approaching from the vast white void. A black dot, which began to grow larger as he approached. He could see a black circle, within it was a shivering image of a crater, a cloudy sky and murky plants seen on the upper edges.

Maleficus just kept moving, it felt like he was swimming, and yet there was nothing around him. As he reached the spot he thought he saw something in his left blind spot. But as he slowly turned around to look, his head touched the black sphere. And he was gone from the white void. Even as an almost incorporeal and incomprehensible shape floats between the two black dots that marked the beacons, looking with curious misshapen eyes at where the alicorn had moved.

Before turning away and floating off to somewhere else within the white void.

[Scene Skip]

The Everfree Forest was the wildest and most dangerous of woods within the land. And yet it was serene and calm as well, its dangerous plants and animals are not enough to remove the beauty of nature that flows from this wood. But this serene calmness is broken, as within the murky and swampy area of the forest, within a deep crater upon a hill, a black pyramid starts to glow white.

A loud zapping sound is heard and the bright light flares up, brightening the entire area and even parts of the tree crowns. There is a loud thump as the light fades. And as it fades it reveals a certain alicorn stallion, lying on his back, both of his forelegs crossed in contemplating frustration, as his head is buried into the side of the crater.

*Why does this keep happening?* Maleficus thought to himself while standing up from the ground. His head moving out of the ground without any resistance, the entire area down to his neck covered with mud and muck. His horn flares with crimson light and he shakes his head as he snorts out dirt and snot out of his nostrils. Muck, mud and dirt flies all over the crater for a few instances, splattering upon the ground with loud wet smacks.

Dragging his hoof through his mane and over the crevices of his pelt, jaws and horn the black pelted alicorn made certain he had removed all of the wet dirt from his body. After rubbing his eyelids clean of dust he opened his eyes and looked around.

"No one around. Well that is to be expected. This is the Everfree Forest after all. Hmmm... better get my disguise in order." After muttering his thoughts out loud Maleficus pointed a hoof at the black beacon resting upon the ground. A runic circle appeared beneath and above the beacon, and a pulsing green light began to flow over it. It would be interesting to see how much magic he could grant a body using beacon as a catalyst in its creation.

"The horses have internal magic which they can utilize externally with practice, even if not as efficient as a unicorn or pegasus. But what if I created a body with the ability to channel magic externally to an even greater effect then a unicorn?" A strange smile grew across Maleficus lips as he mutters this. It looked slightly crooked, adding a slight sinister element that had not been there before. And as he thought about the possibilities had an almost absent look came into his eyes, as if he his mind wasn't all there.

A sudden gust of wind broke his deluded state and he blinked before shaking his head, still maintaining his magical power. After clearing his head he returned his attention to the glowing beacon and tried to remember where he was in the creation progress. "Where was I??"

After a few seconds he nodded to himself, as he finally remembered what he needed to do next.

Standing up on his hind legs he placed his left hoof up against his muzzle, bit his lips with his fang, and let some blood smear over his hoof. Holding out both his hooves over the beacon he focused, crimson light emitting from his eyes and horn.

A bright light hid the ritual and its catalyst, but as it kept glowing was a sickening sound emitting from it. A sound that was like the sound of tearing and ripping flesh and bone. Maleficus began to trace his bloodied hoof in a half circle, and began to focus on how he wanted the new body to look like.

*...Young... not yet adult... male... tall and slightly skinny for a horse foal of five years age... highly developed magical tissue... located within the cranial and bone matter... essentially making him a living wand... colouration of the pelt... grey... colouration of the mane an tail... white... colouration of the eyes... blue... red tribal marking upon the forehead... the Horadrim Symbol...* Through his mental focus he kept weaving and tracing his bloodied hoof over the glowing mass that was growing before him. And as he finally reached the final part he lowered his hooves and let the magic fade.

Before him stood the soulless body of a five years old horse colt. Gray pelt with white mane and tail. Sky blue eyes. A bit skinny but tall, slightly smaller then a young adult pony. The crimson symbol of the Horadrim painted upon his forehead.

After inspecting the body he nodded to himself. Nothing was out of place and he could not sense any deformations or mutations. Now he just needed to possess it.

Once more Maleficus shifted into a mass of darkness which at first engulfed the horse foal body, before seemingly being absorbed through the eyes, mouth and ears. There was a moment of silence, before the body suddenly convulsed and the eyes lit up with eyes, as Maleficus tried to breath in a body that hadn't had the opportunity to even breath yet.

"Ha! Ha! Gods! Ha! Forgot! Ha! To Develop! Ha! the muscles! Ha!" After a few moments of rapid breathing while using his magic to enforce and develop the muscles and organs to work on their own, Maleficus rested his young face in his hooves, trying to regain control over his breathing.

"Gods... it's so much easier creating a body by altering and shifting one based upon my original body. Why did I think it would be the same when creating a body clone from scratch?" After his small moment of self lecturing the small horse stood up from the ground and began to walk around a bit. Getting the feeling for his new legs. He then began to carefully climb up the side of the crater.

What lay beyond the edge of the deep crater was a large ruin covered by vegetation. There was the remains of a crumbled old wall and what looked like a collapsed large building, now overgrown by trees and bushes. To the left of the larger structure was another structure, this one not as overgrown. It was the remains of a foundation of a square building, toppled and decayed columns and pillars lay scattered across the ground and a partly overgrown staircase.

"What's this place? It looks... Roman? Greek? Similar in architectural design at least." The disguised alicorn muttered as he walked past what had once been a gatehouse of some kind. He looked left and right, taking all the sights of the ruined structures and walls trying to discern their purposes and why they were built here.

His hoof hit something, he looked down to see the upper half of a large equine head made out of some fine marble like stone, it was almost completely covered with moss and dirt. He followed the trail of fragments and saw a crumble stood in front of the staircase, looking down curiously down, down into the dark crevices he could spot among the roots and vines covering the underground entrance.

"Well at least I can tell it was made by ponies. That much is certain. But I am curious what lay down there. Sure looks like it was important if they even built a separate shrine for it." Raising a hoof the young horse body of Maleficus ignited a white aura from said hoof an tore off a good shunk of the vines from the cave entrance, warping some of the old and dry vines around a moist wooden stick.

*Huh the magic of this body is working great thus far. That felt almost as easy as when I am casting magic in my alicorn body.* He though to himself with a proud smile as he looked at the levitating torch. Before lighting said torch on fire by holding a floating candle sized flame in the air just above his hoof, before pushing the candle size flame against the plant matter of the torch. And watched as the improvised torch began to burn after a few moments.

Letting his newly made light source float above him he began to walk down the stairs and went past the remaining vines covering the entrance. He came into what looked like either a mausoleum or a shrine of some kind. There were several dozens of broken and intact pots around, as well as what looked like a big open sarcophagus, with its lid resting against its side.

He walked around the sarcophagus, even looks inside of it, noting that it was empty. Clearly something had laid in there a long time ago but it was long gone. Shaking his head he looked at the walls and the pots, trying to spot anything interesting.

"More then probable that tomb raiders cleaned out this place centuries ago. Doubt there's anything of value left here except for a few... trinkets..." His voice trailed off as he spotted something at the back of the room ,behind the sarcophagus. There was a big cave entrance, a natural cave entrance, that had no doubt been blocked by a door once. But which had rotted away ages ago.

He walked past the cave entrance and floated the torch into the chamber. There was a deep staircase carved out of the moist rock, leading fifteen meters down. Maleficus followed the stone steps deeper into the cavern. Until he reached a seemingly dry and empty chamber, where he could see a stone altar with an old bowl, probably a palce to place offerings. And on the walls behind the altar, he could see something painted upon the wall.

And so he raised the torch a bit, not bringing it too close as he did not want to risk damaging the cave paintings. And what he saw. Was not what he had been expecting.

"...What the actual fuck?" The light of the torch illuminated the large old cavern wall. And upon it, painted in a clearly old caveman, or cavepony in this case, art style, was the image of a running skeletal pegasus, covered in green flames. And if it was as old as Maleficus suspected, had ponies probably not even developed civilized societies when it was made.

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia was standing outside of the Central Palace of Canterlot. The palace itself was kept locked while she had servants and healers make sure there were no residue of whatever had infected the admiral.

Next to her stood a white pelted mare with red mane and tail with the cutie mark of a red heart with a bandage roll, a small medical bottle and a jar of leeches next to it. This was the Royal Doctor, Health Care, who was her personal healer and one of the most experienced and knowledgeable healers in Canterlot.

They were both walking away from the palace, towards a carriage that would be taking Celestia and Health Care out of the city and towards a certain location. Her adviser Solid Pink would be handling the businesses and errands of the city and the Sun Court during her absence.

As they entered the carriage Celestia finally asked her doctor something she had been unable to until they were in private as they were now. "What have thou found our Lady Health Care?"

The young but brilliant healer smiled and brought out her notes and scrolls on what she had discovered about the ailment to her Princess. "It is fascinating our majesty. This sickness is unlike anything I have ever seen in my life or read about in any of our records."

Celestia already knew this but let her speak of it, as it was best to let the brilliant, if slightly weird, doctor to have her moment. "And how dangerous doest thou think it may be?"

Health Care's face turned serious and she pointed at some of the notes she had made while explaining. Just how deadly the disease was. "Deadly. If we hadn't cut off the admiral's leg he would have rapidly shriveled up as those boils drained all of his body's internal magic and body fluids. I can assume that these boils, when the victim is dead, will alter the magic fluid within them and erupt into a cloud of spores or mist that will spread the disease further."

"This be a hellish disease." Celestia stated with a frown as she thought about how she and Solid Pink along wit Health Care had rushed into the castle's medical wing to see the Admiral's entire talon transformed into a mass of tumors, spreading rapidly up towards the rest of his body. She had been forced to tell the healers to cut off the admiral's foreleg as to not risk his death.

The leg had then been placed within a glass container, which she had personally disposed off by filling the jar with conjured acid. Thinking that it would be a valid option as heat was not. That had proven a mistake as the acidic mass had transformed when coming in contact with the liquid magic and became an acidic slime monster.

At least five of her guards had nearly been grappled and devoured by the creature before she vaporized it with a blast of intense fire and plasma. Those guards were still quivering from that experience.

Her trail of thoughts were broken when Health Care spoke up again. "Indeed. It was a good thing you disposed of the leg before it had time to rot or the disease might have spread further then the amount afflicted thus far."

"Five servants, two healers, six guards and one of the sun knights. Along with a high ranking military prisoner of war. All beings We now hath to place in a quarantine prison." Princess Celestia murmured as she looked out of the window of the carriage. She could see where they were heading, even though it was a fair distance away. They were heading south east, towards the Valley of Dragons, where a large tower, isolated for miles, would be the future home for those who had been afflicted by the Magic Pox, as the ponies had begun to call it.

She intended for it to only be temporary, and once the ponies in question were determined to be clear and healthy, she would have them released. At least, that is if they are not bearing any risks in spreading the disease any longer.

[Scene Skip]

A lone griffin was slowly creeping through the thick jungles north west of the Dragon Coast as the settling sun makes the already dangerous vegetation even more so. The griffin was clad in a plain travelers cloak with a sidebag strapped to their left side. They were not lost, no, they were heading a direct line towards a specific location. One they had already scouted out days ago.

They soon reached an open clearing next to a round, almost spherical, stone covered with moss. Pulling out a lantern from their side bag the griffin flew up to the top of the rock and lit the candle with some flint and steel. They then waved the lantern up in the air, swaying the light in the fading light of the approaching night.

The griffin just stands there, still holding up the lantern, waving it once every third minute. Before they freezes, as thy feel a sharp blade pressed against their lower spine. A dark, but feminine, voice speaks up from behind them. "Are you alone?"

Lowering the lantern the griffin responds, not turning their head to look at the person holding a blade against the spine. The voice is light but still clearly masculine, marking this griffin as a male. "Yes. Just as promised. I was the one requesting this after all, not much sense in breaking the terms I stated myself."

The blade is removed and a pony clad in a combination of leather, chain mail and plate armour with a solid bar visor helmet, steps out of the shadows. Sitting down on the boulder next to the nervous griffin the mare nods and speaks out in a no nonsense fashion. "Good. What do you have to report?"

Letting out a breath of relief the griffin blew out the candle of the lantern before pulling out a scroll. he hands it over to the pony who is quick to open it and read it. While the griffin explains what he has found out. "Things are bad in Gryphon. King Craver's artificers have begun constructing something by the Thunder Mountain. It is top secret and those who even dares to question about it are dragged of to join the army, work in the mines or just disappear all together. But at least he's not as active with his 'feasts' because of this project taking up his time."

The pony kept reading the report. But asked the griffin a question while reading through it. "What manner of project do you think it is?"

He just shook his head and rubbed a claw over his hood covered head. Brown feathers spotted beneath the dark brown hood. "It is big whatever it is. And from what I can tell, was it started by his most loyal servant, Lord Archos Ironbeak, son of Earl Cahal and next in line to rule the Ironbeak Clan and in turn control most of the Eagle Coast. He is a smart griffin who is famous for developing traps, plans and tactics for not only battles but political and emotional agendas as well. This griffin is the main reason why King Craver managed to topple his father."

Pulling out a sketched image of a regal griffin with a cold look in his eyes the pony nodded. Before resuming reading the report. "So whatever this project is it will have great significance for the King's ambition to loot Equestria."

Nodding the griffin looked up at the darkening skies, his talons nervously tapping against the rock beneath them. "Correct. I also fear that my position as messenger will not be enough to give you better information. They are already suspicious of me and have started giving me fewer missions."

At this the pony looked up rapidly, giving him an intense stare. "So quickly?"

Sighing the male griffin just nodded before explaining his suspicions. "Lord Archos is good at what he does. If it wasn't for him then I doubt the King would have even taken a seat on the throne. Even if I have only spied for a two days is it still enough for some of his agents to notice. I didn't get any new duties after lunch, which is not a good thing for a messenger in the Royal Palace."

The mare slowly stared at him before turning her eyes back to the report. Completing it, and pocketed it in a saddle bag. "Hmmm... Very well then. You have upheld your end of the bargain. And so shall we."

A hopeful look come into the griffin's eyes. "Then?"

Nodding the mare got off the rock and pointed at him. "Yes. You and your younger siblings will be given permission to settle within Bangcolt and kept safe from King Craver's court. Return here with your family and we will guide you to the colony."

"Thank you Lady Dragon Slayer." The sheer relief and joy in the griffin's voice and stance was clear as he bowed his head almost so low that his beak scrapped against the boulder he was sitting on.

The pony called Dragon Slayer just waved a hoof at him before motioning for him to get moing. "I am no lady, and there is no need to thank me Chull. It should be the other way around, as without you offering us this information, we would know far too little about what is going on within that kingdom of yours. Now get your siblings, we will be waiting."

It would be an hour later that a relieved Chull would come with three small griffin chicks, each only about three or two years old, sleeping in a claw woven basket of straw. He would be meet by the mare named Dragon Slayer and a dragon named Clash. Who would lead him to his family's new home. The Equestrian colony of Bangcolt. Narrowly evading being tortured and executed for treason, and having his siblings served as the king's next supper.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 7/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 24 Days]

The morning sun rose up in the distant horizon, granting sun light once more to the surface of the nation Equestria. And a certain disguised alicorn was sitting on a rock outside of the ancient shrine he had discovered yesterday. Currently he was finishing writing some lines with a quill in a large tome with a cover made out of black cragadile leather and pages made out of transmutated swamp wood.

"Okay that should do it. I have sketched the cavern and the ruins. Now I just need to figure out where to go from here. This is jut insane. How could there be a depiction of myself from nine thousand years into the past? It doesn't make any bloody sense!" Growling a bit in frustration he slammed his small hoof again the cover of the large tome he had created. The book was the same size as his young body, making it a bit awkward to carry, if you're not a skilled magic user capable of levitation heavy objects or making them lighter.

After a few moments of intense frustration he just let dropped his face into his hooves and let out a long and dragged out sigh in frustration. It was so nerve-wracking to even consider the option that he had somehow time traveled, but the other option was that the ancient ponies had foreseen his arrival, and no one had bothered to record the warning properly.

There were so many possibilities that it made his head hurt just thinking of a third of them.

He then slammed his left front hoof against the ground, making an imprint, as he began to shout out in frustration. "Argh! Dammit! I can't let this distract me any further! I need to get to Canterlot and see them! This new discovery will just have to... have to..." His shouting trailed of as he got a contemplating look on his face. As he began to consider something he hadn't thought about.

Maleficus turned to look at his book and. He thought about what he had just considered and then he closed his eyes and began to mutter and began to figure out how his new idea could work in his favour. "If it is... well it would... yes... and now that I think about it... indeed... this could work better then my initial idea!"

A wide happy grin appeared on his face and quickly reached out and took his tome and strapped it to his back. He then looked around the swampy area for a bit before pointing eastwards. "Time for action!"

And then he began to gallop through the trees and bushes of the Everfree Forest. Running straight towards the east.

[Scene Skip]

Princess Celestia was sitting in her carriage taking her back to Canterlot. The inspection of the tower had gone well, Health Care had decided to remain behind as to make certain that the tower would be ready for the patients. The young and genius healer would do her utmost to make the facilities of the tower top notch.

So Celestia had complete faith in her personal healer's abilities to handle the tower. So for now she was travelling alone in the carriage back towards Canterlot. She had to admit that it had been nice to not be part of the court for an late day. Although to sleep in the carriage had not been pleasant, as even if the cushions were soft and comfortable, was it often that she slipped off them when rolling around in her sleep. So even if it had not been the worst thing she had ever slept in was it not something she enjoyed.

But the true reason why she endured it was because of a set of features she had installed into the carriage.

The carriage's interior was rather large, with two large cushions as eats, each cushion big enough for four ponies. Or two alicorns. Between the cushions stood a small table, with enchanted cup ware and teapot. No matter how harsh the carriage would shake would the cup ware and teapot never spill or fall.

And there was also a single silver tray, which could be swiftly filled up with sweet cookies, pastries or other baked goods from two cupboards hidden in the walls of the carriage. From which Celestia was currently levitating several cupcakes, muffins and cookies with an eager grin.

After two hours of sipping tea and munching on various sweets she heard something. The tapping of a hoof against the carriage, the guard on the upper seat wanted to speak with her. She opened the left side doorway and spoke out loudly over the sound of the carriage's wheels rolling over the road, she had to put a little effort to be heard. "Yes?"

The voice of the Sun Knight protecting the carriage and its pullers cried out from above. "I have spotted somepony up ahead by the Y pathway of the road! They appear to be a single pony, a young pony, walking northwards from the southern road.!" Celestia blinked at that, that was not what she had been expecting. She hadn't even heard of any ponies travelling from the southern road before.

The Southern Road was often called the Ghost Road since nopony had walked along it since it was constructed. It was built along the eastern border of the Everfree Forest and ended just before the river that ran eastwards from the Everfree Forest and into the Foal Mountains and out to the sea. What lay past that river was the Unexplored South.

Nopony had come from there and nopony had traveled there. At most there was a singular outpost, a fort by the name of Plain Mane Fort, no other structures could be found in the south. Too many ponies fearing the Everfree Forest to even be willing to live close to it.

But something was bothering her. Even if the pony had come from the south. How could they have survived on their own? Were they truly a single pony? Or were there more ponies ahead or after them? "Art they truly alone?"

After a few moments the knight responded. "Yes your majesty. Not another soul to be seen for miles. I think they are lost, well either that or they only just recently found the road. Hard to tell."

She thought for a moment. This was a sensitive situation. It was a stranger on the road, it should be okay to help them. But she was the Princess and she would no doubt get scolded by some of her officers for taking risks by helping a stranger on the road. Especially when she was in a carriage with only a single guard and two pullers, no matter how powerful she was.

"We would like to see this stranger for ourselves before deciding anything. Just a moment." Closing her eyes she focused her magic and shifted into the shape of a pink pegasus with pink mane and the cutie mark of a sun over a rain cloud.

She got off her cushion and stepped over to the doorway and leaned her head out to look out. Again, she was not expecting what she would see.

The young pony walking along the road looked to be only ten at most. Easily a juvenile. So why were they alone out there on the road. Was this pony a refugee? An orphan? So many questions.

Finally she decided to find out herself. And now that she could see that here was no real danger, she did not feel like it was any issue in giving the young pony a ride in the carriage. She turned her head to the guard sitting on the front of the roof of the carriage and spoke out ti him. "Thou may offer the young foal a ride to Canterlot. It is fine if they decline, but We shalt have thee extend the offer in any case."

The knight nodded and Celestia stepped back before sitting down once more on her cushion. The door was left open and she closed her eyes and focused her magic through her eardrums, listening as her guard greeted the young traveler.

"Hey there young traveler." A bit informal but perhaps that was the best option, this wasn't an adult and if they were bothered by advanced etiquette they would no doubt had not bothered walking the road.

A young male voice answered the knight's question. Giving Celestia the knowledge that the strange young foal was a colt. "Hello there. Fancy carriage. And even fancier armour. Are you not worried about bandits with all that fancy stuff and so few guards? I mean you look like a big treasure chest being dragged around for kicks." And apparently a slightly rude if intellectual colt at that. Although she did find the description funny, if a bit childish.

"Few bandits in these parts, too close to Canterlot and the Everfree Forest for their lot's taste. And even then do I doubt they'd want to risk the ire of the one we're carrying." Now that was a bit too much information. The knight should have realized that she did not want her identify revealed or hinted at like that.

"Ah. Makes sense. So what do you want? Well not to be rude but I doubt you'd normally stop and talk with a complete stranger." Good. It was wise to be cautious. This young colt had a bright had. Even if he was being rather hypocritical about not being rude since he had been that since the conversation started.

"Want to offer you a ride to Canterlot. You look like you've been walking for a while and we're heading in the same direction. So I was told to offer you a ride to the city. You are free to deny it as it is an offer, not a demand." That was a decent explanation, if a bit oddly worded. They could at least have used one of the fake names she frequently used when walking out s a pink pegasus. But she could not fault them since she doubted many of her guards could keep track of her various alternate identities.

"Eh sure. You look too fancy, not to mention not clever enough, to be some kind of scumbag stealing travelers or children off the road to sell as slaves." There was a momentary pause as the words of the foal struck the knight and the ponies dragging the carriage.

A suffering sigh was release and the guard just muttered. "Get inside before I change my mind you rude little brat."

"Okay Stuffy Mcstuffington." The door opened and the young foal climbed into carriage. Celestia wondered if this was how she had been as a foal, and if so, she would apologies to her mother if she saw her in the future.

Her Sun Knight didn't appreciate the snark of the foal and retorted, only to be interrupted before he could even state his name. "My name is-"

"Don't care!" The foal just stated as he closed the door to the carriage behind himself. And turned and waved at the staring pegasus who looked like she was trying to figure out what had just occurred. "Sup lady! Thanks for the ride!"

He walked over to the free large cushion and sat down on his rear on it. Rather then laying down on it like most ponies did. The colt was humming a strange tune while opening his large tome onto his lap and pulled out a quill from inside his mane and began to write in the book.

There was a moment of awkward silence as the carriage began to move once more. Celestia sipped her tea and ate some cookies before she asked the young colt why he was alone on the road. "Why were thee doing out there on the road all alone young one?"

The foal didn't look up from his book and just responded while writing. "Oh I am going to see the Order of the Golden Cross at Canterlot."

Her ears perked at that, was this young pony seeking to join one of the biggest knightly orders in the land? It would be a good thing for him, as it might make him learn to not be so rude. "Oh? Doest thou seek to join them?"

The young colt surprised her by snorting and waving his left foreleg as if stating ''no way". What? Pffft! No! I am not going to join a knightly order! I am going to ask them permission to use their library for my research. I am also going to ask the Princess if I can use her library as well but I'd like to see the library of the Temple of Law first."

She blinked a few times before she started laughing at the sheer audacity of the young colt before her. It was so hilarious it made her crack into laughter. "Hahahahaha! Oh my! You art an ambitious little pony!"

With a confused look on his face the young colt stopped writing and stared at her before stating. "Pony? I am not a pony!"

Coughing a bit as she regained control over herself she took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Absentmindedly pulling back a lock of mane over her ear she looked at the colt, a bit confused as to why he said he wasn't a pony. And so she poured herself a new cup of tea to drink while asking. "Well then, what art thee then if not a pony?"

The young colt smiled, put away his quill into his mane, stood up on his hind legs on the cushion. With his book held to his side, and pointed a hoof towards the ceiling of the carriage. And proceeded to speak out as if he was proclaiming the next greatest thing since butter. "I am a horse of the Horadrim Clan! Sure I am only five but I am still a horse."

"Pffffft! Hurgh! Kaaa! Huuu! W-what!?" The pink pegasus spat out the mouthful of tea she had been drinking, coughed violently before staring in shock at the foal she had thought to be a ten years old pony foal.

Once again the young foal proclaimed proudly to the interior of the carriage. "I am a horse! A proud member of the Sages of the Horadrim Clan!"

Celestia stared for a bit before she tried to figure out what a horse foal was doing so far from home. From what she knew were the horses were caring and protective of their foals as their entire species were rather limited in numbers and not to mention having been extinct until three decades ago. "W-well. What is one so important as thyself doing so far away from home?"

The foal rolled his eyes and sat down onto the cushion, holding out his left hoof and levitated a cupcake into it with a crimson glow around his hoof. Making Celestia realize that this young foal, was rather talented as a mage, thus confirming his status as a member of the Horadrim Clan. "Oh gramps is always busy and doesn't let me do stuff on my own. He keeps doting on me like I am made of glass and won't let me leave the rest of the Clan. Ever."

Slowly she began to realize, just what this meant. "So thee..."

With a proud grin the colt looked at her, before nodding, confirming her suspicions. "Ran away? Yes. Not the first time even. Only the longest I've managed to keep away from that grumpy old goat."

Her brain froze for a bit before she asked, slightly stuttering, the foal a rather straight to the point question."B-but why!?"

With a determined look on his face the young foal stood up once more and pointed his hoof towards the heavens. Shouting out his ambitions to the world, or rather, the carriage. "Because I need to prove something to those useless old stumps who call themselves the wisest, smartest and all around better then those less then a century old!"

Celestia stared for a bit before coming up with a response to that."Aaaand what may that be?"

A grin grew on the foal's muzzle as he held up his book above his head and shouted out once more. "I am going to prove to them that knowledge, research and achievements are not exclusively to the adult and the old. And if what I am trying to prove is correct then it will affect all of Equestria!"

Chuckling a bit at that Celestia thought it adorable that a foal only half a decade old thought he would be able to prove the knowledge of those decades, if not centuries, older then himself wrong. "And what doest thy theory consist of?"

What he said next made her brain freeze and you could almost hear glass breaking in the background. "That the soul fragments of a greater entity is creating both heroes and villains across the world. And has for unknown ages."

Celestia stared at him. Long and hard. For about a minute, the foal just kept grinning and holding up his book. Before she finally stated. "...What?"

The foal sat down again, huggging his book to his barrel. Grinning childishly with glee as he resumed his dialogue. "I have discovered a pattern in the few notes and books about pony and horse history. There have always been a rise of villains and heroes. Evil rise, Good rise, then there are five outcomes. Good wins, Evil wins, Both lose, Both wins or Nothing happens. And many times it is a combination of the various outcomes. Like for example Evil win, then Evil lose, then neither wins. And so on."

Celestua was getting an awkward and uneasy feeling inside of her. And it wasn't gas. No. What this colt was saying. Was making her nervous, about just how authentic it might be. "...Aaaannd?"

"This has been occurring for such a long time that no one has bothered trying to figure out WHY this consistent pattern happen. But then I discovered something a year ago while sneaking away from my gramps' guards while near some creepy old." The foal grinned and opened his book and showed a drawing of an old ruin. In the ruin was a crude cave painting that gave Celestia chills as she saw what the cave painting was depicting. It was a crude wall painting of a pegasus skeleton covered in green flames.

The foal kept talking eagelry while pointing at the image of the cave. "I found an old ruin built around an old cave, and within it was an old cave painting. From what I was able to discern with my spells and lessons of archaeology could I determine that the wall painting was a least a thousand years old. And it depicts a skeletal pegasus, on fire, running through a forest. It had been made at least nine centuries before Maleficus Victoria first appeared!"

She stared, mouth open, before trying to speak up. Only to be interrupted."...Wha-"

The young horse kept going, not noticing that he was interrupting the pink pegasus mare as her mouth opened to speak outwards of shock. "This gave me my first realization! Maleficus has always been spoken off as a recent danger, a calamity that was wrought upon us recently through some sort of dark magic. But this disproves that! In fact, if what I was able to determine from the runes, hieroglyphs and mosaics within the ruins around the cave I was able to discover something,"

Celestia was having a hard time digesting all of this information and grabbed the left side of her forehead while muttering out in stutters. "W-what?"

"A set of mosiacs depicting a falling green star, which is shattered in the heavens above ancient pony and horse cities! But what was interesting is what comes next! The mosaic depicted the fragments of an equine skeleton reassembling itself, but it also depicted green shards that fell from the explosions. And how they landed upon ponies and horses."

Realization began to fill her and she stared at the foal. "Wait, thou cannot be seriously meaning to say-"

And yet again she was interrupted by the young foal as he stood up on his chair, held up his big book over his head and cried out with a grin. "Yes! If what I could translate is correct then the ancient ponies foresaw the arrival of Maleficus! Not only that! They also discerned that when Maleficus was broken against the surface of the world his SOUL was shattered as well! Spreading out across the world and landing upon several ponies and horses! And guess what the mosaic protracted those horses and ponies as later!?"

The truth dawned upon her and she stared with glazed eyes at the book. Muttering absentmindedly. "...Heroes and villains."

"Exactly!" He cried out with a wide grin and pointed his left hoof at the stunned disguised princess, almost booping her nose.

The young foal just went into a rant, hugging his book to his breast as he spin around on his cushion. "Maleficus impacted our world centuries before his second arrival! The ancient equines no doubt managed to banish him somehow, probably sending him into the heavens with some kind of spell or ritual! But that did not solve the anything! The ancient ponies only delayed the danger and he fell down here again as the Green Star! And this time he landed in OUR time period! Shattering a second time! Spreading his already fractured self even further!"

Still spinning around the young foal laughed in joy as if talking about one of the most terrifying and nerve wracking theories Celestia had ever heard about her old foe was a wonderful subject. But she began to see it more and more. This young foal, he was smart beyond his years. His theory, growing ever more outlandish, growing ever more insane. Made sense. "This might not even be the second time this has happened! It could have happened several times and we just don't know it! And each time has all equines species risen up and grown stronger through events of hardship! Maleficus is not only a source of strife, conflict and fear but also a source of development, courage and unity! He's like a living contradiction!"

Celestia just stared in silence at the utterly adorable scene of the young horse spinning around on his cushion, rambling out whilst pointing a hoof towards the ceiling. If the information he was telling wasn't so serious and not to mention dangerous, she would have been smiling and cooing at the sight. "So my theory is this! The tales of some of the strongest heroes of the ages and the vilest of villains can be traced back to Maleicus' shattered soul! They were all pieces of Maleficus' psyche brought to life as their own individuals! and after they die their soul rejoins Maleficus, making him more whole and thus stronger in every aspect! IF I can prove it, it will turn the head on the entire history of equine kind! I just need to find out all I can about Maleficus and all the heroes and villains his fragments soul may have manifested as! It might even be possible to trace his fragmented soul parts to the main soul and track him down!"

"Thou shalt have it." A cool and collected voice spoke out from his side.

"Gramps keeps telling me that my research is too raw and unrefined whilst the elders think it is folly to consider my theories a possibility. And I know my theory is wild and all bu- wait... what did you say?" The young horse's rambling trailed off slightly as his brain finally registered the words and he stopped spinning around on his cushion, and starred, staring in confusion at the pegasus mare in front of him. Hugging his book to his barrel as he looked with wide, big and confused eyes at the stern looking pink pegasus.

"We said, thou shalt have Our permission to visit all known libraries within Equestria, at thou leisure." Celestia said with a strong and clear tone. Her eyes sharp and her face in a serious expression that would intimidate even the most stoic of nobles.

He blinked. Slowly. And then slowly responded to the suddenly serious pegasus mare who had allowed him to ride in her carriage. "Uh... ookay... but... don't I need to ask the Princess for that to be... you know... legal?"

A smirk grew upon the pink pegasus' muzzle and a golden light engulfed her body. Reverting her to her true snow white pelted shape with the prismatic mane and tail. Crown and horn displayed with magnificent glamour. "We art Princess Celestia of Equestria, the Solar Monarch, and thou hath Our permission to enact your research young foal."

"Huh... you're a lot prettier then those painting I've seen." The young foal said with a childish grin as he looked at the revealed form of Princess Celestia.

There was a long and drawn out silence before Celestia's serious expression broke and she had to press a hoof against he muzzle to try and not break out laughing. But utterly failed. "....snrkk! Bwhahahahahaaa! Oh thou art a delight! Tell Us young Horse Lord, what be thou name?"

"Oh that? I am Ciaphas. But gramps only calls me that when he's angry at me so I generally go by my pony name. Decades' Gain. Nice to meet you Princess." The foal said with a sunny grin before reaching out with a hoof to shake.

Princess Celestia smiled at him and accepted the offered hoof and shook it. While outside the wagon moved over the drawbridge and past the gatehouse, into the busy streets of Canterlot. "Nice yo meet thee as well young Decades' Gain. Welcome to Canterlot."

[Scene Skip]

Spathathos, also known as Sword Bearer, blinked with bleary eyes as he woke up. His head hurt. His entire body hurt. His vision was fuzzy and he was certain he couldn't see through his left eye. He tried to open his mouth and speak but his mouth and tongue were dry and his throat was raw, thus he let out a hacking cough instead of speaking out comprehensible sentences.

He heard a gasp from someone nearby and his pulsing head made it hard to hear what they were saying but he still managed to make out the words. "He's awake! Somepony call the healers!"

Groaning he tried to turn around, but he felt his body was restricted by something. Blinking slowly he soon managed to make out more of the room. And he noticed that his body was mostly covered with thick bandages and his lower left leg was in a splint and so was his left foreleg. He could only assume that what was covering his eye was also some manner of bandages or similar.

"Spathathos are you okay!?" The worried face of Cute Justice emerged out of a doorway, along with two ponies clad in white robes bearing medical supplies in pockets.

He opening his mouth and tried to ask for water. But even speaking a single word was hard, and he had to lick with his dry tongue over his lips to prevent them from cracking and bleeding. "Wh...whaa......whaaath......"

One of the healers took note of his request and shouted out towards the doorway were he could guess some minor healers or servants were located. "Get him some water! He is severely dehydrated!"

In just a few moments a large wooden bucket with fresh water was brought in, along with a mug. Cute Justice scooped up water from the bucket, the healer gently helped him lift his head. Before helping him drink the water. He let out a breath of relief through his nostrils as the cool sensation of water flowing down his mouth and into his sore throat. It was a cooling and comforting sensation was filling his body.

Coughing a bit he spat out a logie of blood and soot. Letting out a breath of relief he leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes, slowing down his breathing. A wet and cool cloth was rubbed over his forehead and he felt his fatigue ease up a bit and as a side effect felt a bit more awake. "Oooh... that's better..."

The healer nodded, being satisfied with his apparent state and left the cool wet cloth on his forehead for a moment before removing it. Putting it back in a bowl of water to clean it. She then nodded to the worried looking Cute Justice before leaving for another patient. "He should be fine for now Captain. If you need anything just call for me or one of my colleagues."

Cute Justice nodded and sat down next to the heavily wounded horse. Taking the now clean wet cloth and washed his blood stained muzzle and removed some of the grime from his eyes. She looked at him and asked him how he felt as she washed his face. "How do you feel Spathathos?"

He let out a groan, smacking his lips as the wet cloth cleaned away the blood from them. And he opened his eyes slightly, but quickly closed them as he felt strained just opening them. "Like I have been kneaded and folded like a dough and left to bake in the sun for days... the water helped though... so how did the fight go?... I take it we won?"

The pegasus mare let out a chuckle as she brushed the wet cloth over his closed eyes. Carefully soothing his sore eyes while also cleaning his slightly dirty and dry eyes. "The Griffins tried to charge over us when their ships were lost. But we managed to hold them back long enough for them to lose conviction and either surrender or flee."

"Ah... good... what hit me by the way? I was shooting griffins when something struck the back of my head..." He could remember it, him standing on the tower by the siege engines. Shooting down charging griffins with his bow. Then a sudden impact struck his head and he blacked out.

Cute Justice chuckled a little at that and removed the cloth, cleaning it up in the bowl of now slightly dirty water. "One of the ship's exploded and a large chunk of metal struck the castle and sent a rain of rocks and boulders into the air. You got hit in from above by one of the larger pieces and was nearly crushed beneath it."

"Ah... that explains it." He mutters as it dawns on him just how lucky he is to be alive. For if the boulder that struck him had managed to damage his body this much then he would more likely then not been dead. Especially considering it struck him on the head before slamming him down to the ground.

"...You nearly died. Your legs on your left side were broken and had to be set with splints. Your ribs were fractured, some broken ,your spine bruised and your skull was fractured. You have a heavy concussion and is lucky to not have brain damage or being in a coma." Her voice trailed off slightly after she spoke and he felt the wet cloth return, cleaning up parts of his jaw and chin and down his throat.

"Yeah... That's the risk with war and battles... We all risk our lives doing what we can to win and survive..." There was an awkward silence in the air and Spathathos wasn't sure just what it was about but he was feeling a bit... anxious? Yes anxious. But he couldn't figure out why.

"So why did you put me to sleep and put me away like a sack of hay?" She sounded cold and yet curious. And he was certain that she was giving him a dead and cold glare. Possibly thinking that he made her fall asleep on purpose.

He was quick to confess that he never intended to do that. "I never planned to do either of those things..."

"What do you mean?" Her voice was still cold but not as tense so he felt like he was moving the conversation in a safe direction.

"Well I tried to warn you that the wine was strong... but you had already downed it all... and you suddenly started speaking in a timid and adorable manner... before hugging me and falling asleep..." He wasn't sure why but he felt like the room was getting warmer for some untold reason.

"...And then?" Her voice was a bit low by now but he could have sworn it was slightly hitched. As if she was gasping slightly.

"And so I put you in a safe spot so you wouldn't be harmed... by the central stone column inside of the tower... with a pair of large shields covering your body..." Spathathos had actually had no idea where to put it. He had even considered ordering someone to take her to safety, but there had been no soldier free to do so. So he had to do with what he had available.

"So you didn't have your way with me then?" The way she spoke was almost like she sounded... disappointed!? Oh gods was she actually considering such acts to be normal!? Or was that just a fetish of hers!? What kind of childhood had she gone through!?

"No I did not... I am no scumbag who takes adv-mph!" His words were cut off by a pair of lips claiming his and he tried to widen his eyes, only for the wet cloth over his eyes to making that redundant. The sweet taste of apple fritters and strawberries filled his mouth as a tongue slide inside. And he slowly relaxed into the kiss and returned the attention.

The kiss ended with a loud wet sound of releasing lips and panting mouths as Cute Justice rubbed his head and spoke up in a husky voice."Mmmmmpah! You get better soon Ser Spathathos. For I am not going to let the future father of my foals be a lazy couch potatoe. No matter his injuries."

He gave no response, just laying there wide eyed and staring at the darkness of the cloth covering his eyes. Then the sound of a female voice humming a joyous tune was heard as Captain Cute Justice left the medical chamber.

After five minutes of silence the Myrmidon muttered out in a slightly baffled voice as he slowly reached up with a shaking right hoof and removed the cloth from his wide and dazed eyes. Staring at the ceiling with the most awkward boner he had ever had in his entire life. "What just happened?"

[Scene Skip]

Grand Music and Happy Meal were both sitting on the third floor of their mother's newest Eatery. Grand Feast had decided to name if the Grand Apple Eatery, after her husband's family and her own. It was the day before the grand opening and they had all decided to have a family dinner together.

Their children, Cutie Pie, Twinkle Twinkle and Grand Symphony, were all at school working on their studies. The twins were already growing well into their studies and Cutie Pie wanted to work as a baker like her grand mother while Twinkle Twinkle was more interested in stories, melodies and folk lore. And Grand Symphony could always be seen reading books about various kinds, but most held some manner of connection to mechanics and clockworks.

Sure they were three little balls of overly energetic cutie mark seekers whenever they had free time ,or sometimes even when they didn't, but that made them just all the more precious. Grand Feast's younger children were all doing their own things as they had grown older.

The twins Sour Green and Sweet Red were both working to improve the standing of the Apple Clan and to improve their family recipes. Sour Green was interesting in making Apple based beverages while Sweet Red was more inclined towards food. Grand Harvest was making progress in making the clan less nomadic, having bought up, refurbished and organized several plots of lands to plant and farm apples of all kinds.

Pink Lady was actually engaged to a young unicorn by the name of Arcane Lore, the two enjoyed each other's company and were actually friends since their school days.

And finally Grand Meal had decided to join the Order of the Golden Cross and was already showing great promise. Having finished his training as a Recruit and just recently earned the title as a Knight Warden. His promotion party had been very loud and cheerful and the two clans had gathered together.

The Blue Grass Clan had officially become part of Lady Grand Feast's noble house, as subjects to her domain and will. With the clan concentrated upon the city of Canterlot they were able to progress and aid not just each other but also the city, the Apple Clan and the newcomers who came to the city. They had sort of become the unofficial greeters and guides of the city to newcomers as they had such good knowledge of the city and each other.

Thus at the moment were both the Apple Clan, the Bluegrass Clan and the Cross Clan, which also included the former holdings of the Grand Clan, rather wealthy and well connected through out Canterlot and Equestria.

Both Grand Music and Happy Meal had been given specific missions to handle during the Third Crusade, but when they had noticed the blocked signals of the Comm Orbs they had ordered a retreat towards the city. They only returned yesterday evening to discover what had occurred. Luckily had none of their close family been injured, taken captive or harmed. But several of their friends and distant relatives had either been wounded or kidnapped during the raid.

So things were tense. And so they were here in the restaurant which had been planned to be opened two days ago, to have a moment to relax.

"Do you ever wonder how things might have gone had Grandpa Maleficus never saved us all those years ago?" Grand Music asked Happy Meal as they sat by the table, putting out the plates and silverware onto the table cover.

Happy Meal just grinned at him and shook her head. "Nope. Not once."

Chuckling Grand Music just nodded while placing down the napkins. "Hehe. Indeed. You are not one to let what could have happened in the past bother you in the least."

"An' dont ye forget it mister!" She stated loudly while pressing her flank against his, grinding their cutie marks against each other. Grand Music blushes slightly but smiles at her and leans over to kiss her when there is a loud knocking from the lower floor by the entrance.

"We are not yet open fer business but ye may enter!" Grand Feast shouted out from the kitchen as she was putting a large tray with food and drinks onto her back. She walked out of the kitchen and looked towards the door to see Princess Celestia entering the eatery.

The Princess gave the mare a smile and a slight nod in greeting as she entered the eatery. "Hello Grand Feast. Art thee busy or may We take up a short moment of thy family's time?"

"Of course yer highness. Yer just in luck, we're gonna eat dinner and we have plenty to share." The not so young mare said with a smile to the princess. And then blinked a bit in surprise at the sight of a young foal trailing behind the princess, a big book strapped to their side.

She lead the duo to the floor where her two children were and Happy Meal and Grand Music both stood up to salute the Princess when they saw her come up the stairs. Only for their mother to give them a stern look. "None of that nonsense by the dinner table! Sit down!" The two knights quickly sat down, unable to deny their mother's command.

Celestia grinned at the sight, young Decades Gain smirking at the sight as well. The alicorn then stepped forward and spoke to the trio. "We won't stay for long, We only wish to convey our greetings as well as to hath thee meet somepony interesting."

Seeing this to be his que the young colt walked forward with a grin on his lips as Celestia presented him to the gathered family.

"Grand Music, Happy Meal and Grand Feast, we'd like to introduce thee to somepony whom seeks permission to use thy Order's Library. This is Decades Gain. Also named Ciaphas, he's a young horse colt of the Horadrim Clan." Celestia waved at the young colt carrying his book next to her.

The young foal grinned at them and waved. "Hello. This place is neat, smells good too."

Grand Music blinked slightly at the sight of the foal. "Greetings. I am-"

Only to be interrupted by the foal's gleefully stating his introduction for him. Grand Music, one of the adopted Grandfoal of Golden Cross, Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Cross, as well as its founder. Husband to Happy Meal, the second adopted grandfoal of Golden Cross, as well as the sole Enlightened Knight since the founding of the Order."

He then turned towards the older mare and spoke out with a smile. "And this pretty lady is Lady Grand Feast, Lady of the Grand Clan, the Cross Clan and the wife of the young Apple Clan chief Applejack. Adopted heir of Golden Cross."

Celestia chuckled at the incredulous stares of the three ponies. "We were just as surprised by this young colt's knowledge when We meet him. He wishes to utilize the libraries of thy Order to research a theory of his. We hath already given him permission to utilize the Royal Library and public libraries of the city and castle. And now We seek to ask for thou permission as well."

"Oh... Well... Sure I see no reason to deny you this request." Grand Music said, a bit confused as to why such a young foal knew so much about him and his family.

"Thank thee Grand Music. We shalt leave for the castle to continue Our work efforts in handling the griffins. Does thy wish to come with Us young Decades Gain or doest thee hath other plans?" She turned and asked the young foal who was sniffing the hot pie on the table.

"Nah I am good. I will remain here for a bit before I leave for the temple to read those books." He then reached over and grabbed a piece of pie and put it on a small plate given to him by Grand feast. And then began to eat the pie with an eager smile.

Celestia nodded and turned towards the others and gave them a small nod before leaving the eatery. "We wish thee all a fine day. Farewell."

There was a short awkward silence as the group ate. And after a few moments the young foal looked towards the door, making sure nopony was around. And swallowed his mouthful of pie before putting the plate on the table. And then spoke up in an older and very familiar voice, his eyes attaining a crimson glow ash e did so. "Well now that, that's out of the way. I hope you have been alright for the past couple of years. For I have missed you all greatly."

There was a long and stunned pause. Before it all clicked into their heads. Just whose voice it was coming out of the foal.

"Maleficus!?" All three ponies shouted out in shock at the glowing red eyes of the cloaked young horse in front of them.

"Hello there youngsters, it's been a while." The grinning shape of the disguised alicorn state as he waved at them, his voice making it almost comical in how unfitting it was for the young looking body he was currently possessing.

"Ye stupid pony!" An angry Grand Feast shouted out and marched towards him.

"Wait what? What did I do?" Maleficus was genuinely confused by all of this and let out a yelp of surprise when Grand Feast grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him up to give him a stern glare.

"Oh ye stupid self sacrificing dolt of a pony! Yer not escaping mah lecturing this time!" Maleficus wasn't sure why but those words made him feel like he was shrinking. Both physically and mentally.

"W-what do you mean?" He was not liking where this was going.

The glare seemed to grow even more intense as she sat down on a chair and put him over her lap and raised her free hoof. "Do not think Ah have forgotten how ye darn near turned into a lifeless husk the last time ye saved this city!"

"Oh you can't be- ACK! DID YOU JUST SPANK ME!?" Cried out the disguised alicorn in utter flabbergasted voice as he felt a sting he had not felt since he had been a very young human child.

The old mare glared back at him. Unwilling to listen to his nonsense and raised her hoof to smack his flank again. "Shut yer trap and take yer punishment like a grown pony!"

Maleficus rolled out of her lap and got up on his hind legs, rubbing his left flank with his right front hoof while pointing his left at her and shouting out in anger. His face red in humiliation. "I AM OVER THREE TIMES YOUR AGE WOMAN! I AM WELL PAST THE AGE FOR SPANKING! IF ANYTHING I SHOULD BE THE ONE DEALING OUT THE PUNISHMENT FOR DISRESPECTING YOUR ELDER!"

The mare just stepped forward to grab him again, only for him to duck aside like a slippery eel, moving beneath a table and appearing on the other side. And a stand off ensued as the two glared at each other from each side of the table. "I yer gonna act like a reckless colt ever time Ah see ye then Ahm gonna treat ye like one!"

Happy Meal and Grand Music looked at each other as they listened to their mother and grandfather arguing. They then, as one turned around and walked down the stairs to evade the craziness. *Buck this, we're out.*

They could come back later when things had cooled off.

[Scene Skip]

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" A griffin flew with a loud cry out of a tree, his large sword swinging down towards the head of an armoured horse. The blow missed the intended area and instead struck the dense and dry sand road next to the horse.

A powerful hoof slammed out and punched the griffin in the gut, making him fall clutching his stomach, trying not to retch. He tried to make another attack onto for the horse to send a kick to the side of his skull knocked him unconscious.

The horse was dressed in a light brown kimono, a straw hat placed over his head. On his sides were a pair of long katanasas well as a well made saddle bag. Pulling his strawhat back he revealed a beige and white coloured horse with a very youthful appearance, his fur smooth and shining, almost like that of a foal. He was also very lean and not as muscular as most horses.

"These baka sure don't realize that ambushes lose their purpose when you scream out before attacking." He stated with a snort as the griffin laid on the ground. Behind him he saw two ponies killing and defeating four other griffins with well placed strikes.

"Don't you mean bakas? I mean... I don't actually know much of your language yet but... doesn't baka mean idiot? So why do you say baka for idiots as well?" A young pony asked curiously as he walked up to the horse leading their little patrol.

"Baka is the word for both idiot and idiots. It is the context of the meanings and the common sense of the listener to understand the reference and meaning of the word. Plus it lets me call others baka without them realizing it." The horse gave the young horse a wink before looking towards the road they were heading down.

It was an old forest road with thick foliage covering the sides of and thick bushes and roots ruining much of the path. They were part of an independent expedition heading towards the unexplored region of the Hayseed Marshes. A mission given to them by the Order of the Golden Cross in return for a great monetary reward. Plus any griffin soldiers or bandits they captured or killed along the way would be given as bonus rewards to the group.

There were ten of them. Four horses, himself included, each a former member of the Horadrim Kingdom military, now working as mercenaries. Five ponies, two unicorns, two pegasi and one earth pony. And finally, their final member was bit different. And he had just spotted him on the road ahead, and shouted out to him. "Hey Natch! Anymore ambushes or are we clear for now?"

"None from what I can tell lad." Came a gruff voice as a griffin came walking down the road, bearing a chain mail armour without any military markings. His name was Natch and he was a deserter of the Griffins' Royal Navy, not wanting to become a chick killer for a mad king.

The mercenaries had been defending a small village from the invasion, when one of the griffins suddenly started attacking his own when they started grabbing foals. Crying out about cowardly chick killers and spineless cretins. After five hours of intense fighting they had managed to defeat the invaders. And Natch had offered to be made prisoner, surrendering peacefully.

But the mercenaries had him join their group instead, which was more logical as the village didn't have a proper jail and the tower nearby was nearly destroyed and had no proper holdings either. So Natch was allowed to be made a member of the mercenaries, in return that he would be on parole for a year. The Order of the Golden Cross would keep track of him and his group and if he would act up in any fashion he would be arrested.

That was tow days ago and the group had been offered this expedition mission by the representative of the Order in the village. As the marshes needed to be explored. Not to mention a large number of deserters of the Griffins were out in the wilderness acting as bandits or guerrilla fighters. This would keep Natch away from the nervous villagers and give the mercenaries a well paying job, if risky.

"Good. Now then. Let's see our progress. We have reached... about twenty miles southwards by now I believe." The horse stated as he pulled out a map from a iron cylinder from the pony following them. He looked around for any proper landmarks before nodding. And began to jot down marks upon the map, using some tools to make sure he wasn't measuring the distance incorrectly.

"Hey Yōhishi! I see a big building in the distance!" A voice from above cried out. A blue pelted and yellow maned/tailed pegasus dressed in leather and chain mail cried out from above the tree lines.

The horse, now recognized by the name Yōhishi, japanese for parchment, looked up curiously. "What does it look like!?"

"It is tall... overgrown... made out of... yellow rock... pointy... has a...what do you call the shape that has a square base and four triangular walls on all four sides that meet at a point at the end!?" The voice cried out again.

Yōhishi sighed and rubbed his forehead before speaking out. "A pyramid!"

"Yeah that! I see a yellow overgrown pyramid! It's bucking big and with several large staircase along its entire structure. It's about thirty miles south west of your location! It stands on a tall hill by a waterfall and a rough looking river that is running in a southeastern direction in a diagonal angle! The river comes in a curved way from the eastern side of the Foal Mountains!" Nodding Yōhishi noted the new markings

He would have his aerial scout finish the finer details themselves but for now it would work as a reminder. "Be sure to mark it down on your notes!"

After a moment he could practically imagine the pegasus trying to mark down the landmarks to the beast of their capacities. Not the best of artistic talent but enough to give him more materials to work with when he would be making the map properly. "Okay! Shall I tell Lucky Star to check it out!?"

He instantly shot down that idea. As it was not a very sensible one. "Let's leave it for now! Those kinds of building are normally very well defended by magic, traps, beasts or a combination of some or all of those!Tell the others to meet us by the clearing five miles south of our current location! We need to prepare camp!"

*Not to mention that is one of the Horadrim's secret research facilities for the Mana Engines and Project Skyheim. Better to send words to the Kingdom to warn them that we have found the facility. They will need to evacuate it and seal it up before the ponies go to investigate it.* Yōhishi thought to himself as he looked towards Kabuto, another horse, this one dressed in a thick samurai armour wielding a polearm. Kabuto adjusted his helmet a little, signalling him that he understood what he was trying to tell him.

Kabuto would be sending the warning to the Kingdom, since he was the one holding the Comm Orb given to them by their superiors. After all, the entire purpose of this Mercenary group was to act as one of the many ears and eyes of the Horadrim Kingdom in the name of their Father and Creator, Maleficus.

"Got it!" The voice cried out again and he heard the flapping of wings as the pegasus flew off.

Sighing the horse put away his map into the canister and turned towards the others, watching them having looted the griffins and leaving the alive ones tied by a tree. They would return in a day or two with a wagon to drag them with them, unless they got free. Or were killed by animals. But it was not like they had a lot of options since they were in the middle of the Hayseed Marshes. So safety was not a luxury many could afford. So they settled on looting the bandits and soldiers and leaving them either tied up dead, or alive, by the ancient road.

Hell they had been lucky so far that the road wasn't a wet mud bath considering how moist the air was. But he wasn't willing to risk it much longer. And they would need to make camp soon, hopefully before rain bogged them down with mud and water. "Let's get to our future camp site. I need to get to work on detailing the map better. And some rest is needed as well. These scattered groups of soldiers and bandits sure ain't giving us much time to rest."

There was a moment of cheer from the other mercs before the group continued their trek southwards. Noticing soon how the once dry road was growing wet and mucky after only half a mile. The air was filled with flies, rotting wood and the scent of swamp gas. And soon a few hours later, they would be busy making camp while rain fell upon their bodies.

Yet another day for the Adapting Mercenaries, one of the smaller but more successful mercenary and adventurer groups in the East Coast.

[Scene Skip]

In the Library of the Order of the Golden Cross stood the High Priestess of the Old Religion, or the Old Faith as some ponies liked to call it. Which was mostly a joke on her as that was her name and she did not really appreciated it being used for such a crude joke. Currently She was looking at a sight she had never before witnessed upon her long life.

Sitting by a large table was a young colt, with a lot of books gathered around him. Now the sight of a foal reading lots of books was not that strange. But what was, were the subjects of books themselves and the speed of which the foal was reading them.

Historical records, mythical legends, heroic figures, unknown tales, unproven theories of the past, inventions, origins or various methods and items, so many subjects. Yet all related to some manner of historical or highly influencing moment in the history of ponies.

And the young colt was reading through each book at a rapid pace. It was like he was speed reading the book's content at the same speed as a squirrel was chewing a nut. Which one would not think of being that fast but squirrels could chew up a large sized nuts in less then five minutes. And when comparing that to a large sized book, you get that its a very rapid process.

The young colt frowned and put aside the book marked with the title 'Great Heroes of the Lost Kingdoms by Old Stories'. He began to write down upon a large tome he had brought into the temple on his own while muttering loudly. "Okay so there was a pegasus named Storm Warden who summoned a storm to defeat a rampaging phoenix. Notable for having overcome the normal limits of pegasi physiology to create a storm strong enough to destroy a mountain without any support. No proper dates of when it occurred but when compared to the tale of Stone Splinter the earth pony warrior it seems like they occurred about sixty years between each other based upon the historical events in the background."

Old Faith looked at the young foal in curious marvel. That such a young foal held such high intelligence. He was only five summers old from what she had heard, a horse foal of the Horadrim Kingdom. And he was very smart and perceptive for his age.

She wasn't exactly sure why she had stopped and looked upon the young foal for so long. But for some reason she felt like she was meant to meet this young foal. But she could not figure out why. She had been guided here for a reason, but she now needed to figure out what to do.

The foal had opened another book. This one marked with the title 'Possible Inventors of the Pre Chaos Age by Wild Theory'. Readong it the foal looked over one of his earlier notes and drew a line and began to note down years and occurences. "Okay... so water wheels were created to replace windmills after a hundred and fifteen solars, aka summers, of inefficient wind.... and apparently pegasi refusing to give wind for free... and the unicorns did not wish to do it because it felt like a laboring work... that's a possibility... hmmmm... How would that fit with the timeline of the arrival of the windmill? It was made before the Unification War and the Great Migration... it would fit... Could the water mill have been invented at the start of the Unification War?"

The old priestess opened her mouth and corrected the young cold before she knew what she was doing. "Watermills had been made a bit before the Unification Wars young one."

The colt turned around and looked at her in curiosity. And he then turned back to look at the timeline he had made and rubbed his head."Huh? Really? But the dates seem so close to it. And I haven't seen many watermills.... so it could have been lost during the war..."

"No silly colt. The watermills were never properly used because dah unicorns an' pegasi back then did not like them earth ponies not being reliant upon them magics. Thus they reduced elevation of all water ways through magic an' weather, casing dah floods to flow slower. Thus making dah water mills inert. It be one of the reason tension rose but it not be war just yet." She explained while pointing out to the young colts the lines in some of the books.

"Then that means that the story about Captain Jaw Breaker's patrol and the Commander Thunder Spear's squadron by the watermill farms never occurred! Without those and considering the lackluster records of their names in the Unification War it means they never existed! Perfect! now I can scratch out those two from the historical figures." The foal cried out triumphantly and quickly dragged his hoof over four pages worth of text, altering the notes he had made on the non existing figures and their fights with some manner of spell.

The elderly priestess helped the young colt through out the day. Helping him find the real historical figures among the fake and made up stories of the past. And the more they found out ,the more excited the foal became. And yet, the foal was also looking more and more anxious and nervous. The information he was discovering was both encouraging and yet for some reason, very disheartening for the foal.

Old Faith did not know what her aid to the young foal would cause in the future. Nor would she realize just how much of an impact she had upon not just the kingdom of Equestria and Horadrim with her little studying hour with the young colt. She would never find out any of these things.

But Maleficus Victoria, would carry her words and aid in his research for centuries. Until he would eventually find out the horrible, but actual truth of the past. But that is for a future chapter for another Tome.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 9/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 22 Days]

A black talon scrapped over a surface of rock by the side of a soothing calm spring in a large glade. The talon belonged to a castle sized dragon with black claws, azure stomach scales and dark grey to murky blue scales on the rest of the body. With a row of purple and pink tinted fins lining the spine from the head to the tail.

Upon a long neck was a large serpentine head with a thin snout with a set of antlers resting upon the back of the skull. Two rows of almost sabertooth like tusks were jutting out from the inner side of the jaw to the tip of the chin. A massive pair of dark blue, light blue and turquoise coloured wings with feather like scales rather then elathery membrane finished the touches.

This was Fry, the Dragon Lord of the Stomfang Clan. And he was waiting for someone.

There was a loud thump behind him and the dragon lord finished scrapping his talon against the rock, leaving a carving that was more like a painting upon its dark gray surface. And he spoke out in a voice that was like rumbling thunder. "You took your time Pyre. You never get to our meetings in time."

A large four legged dragon without any wings strode into the glade. His body was covered with thick rectangular scales in dark brown colouration, upon his back from the forehead to the very tip of his tail were thick rounded bone like outgrowths that looked like weather worn mountains. These growths were covering the entirety of his upper body in a small evenly shaped mountain range.

The head was long and slightly on the thin side but had a good height, almost brick shaped, with a sharp angle down from the snout, over the front muzzle, and ended with an out jutting chin. Small jagged teeth filling the large mouth. Sharp jagged scales lining the lower jawline and the tip of the chin.

A pair of clear green eyes were set beneath a set of ridged eyebrows and the front half of the skull, past the forehead, were thick plate like scales. Along the stomach were rows of plate like scales that looked like a huge contradiction to his mountainous like back. The dragon had no wings, instead he had a long tail with a massive club like growth that was larger then his own head, and yet he weaved it around like it was as light as feather.

This was Pyre, the Dragon Lord of the Ironclaw Clan.

Snorting out smog and ash from his nostrils the wingless dragon shook his head. "Please. You know very well that I am not as fast as you flying types. But in return, none of you can properly fight me without risking your lives."

"Same old since we were hatchlings I see." Fry said with a smirk which the other dragon lord returned.

"Indeed old friend. Indeed. So." And Pyre's eyes turned serious as he looked upon the carving made on the rock. "This is them right? The 'Dragon Slayer' I have heard so much about these past couple of years?"

Fry nodded and motioned for the carving of a helmeted pony with a sword made out of dragon scales piercing the throat of a large dragon. "Indeed. This pony has gained quiet the infamy. Many dragons, include those of my own subjects, fear them more then they feared Talos."

"They are ruthless and efficient in their hunts. Doesn't even leave bodies for us to bury in the ancestral chambers. They never harm eggs but they are not unwilling to kill younglings if they are foolish enough to attack them." Pyre stated with another sort of smog and ash from his nostrils.

Fry sighed and looked at the image of the recent gossip of their kin. "Indeed. The new Lord of the Rockfire Clan, Clash, has declared the ponies to never be interfered with by his clan. I can understand this, seeing how his clan is at an all time low since their failed hunting expedition. And I believe he too fears this Dragon Slayer."

Pyre sighed also. He knew of the dangers of the ponies, he had been given words by his son Ember and he knew that the dragons as they were now could never hope to defeat them. But not every dragon were able to think before acting. "But neither Fang nor Scar consider the ponies to be of any threats. The Skyhorns or the Frostfires will no doubt assault the ponies if they keep interfering with the Dragon Lands. Their folly if anything. From what my son has told me are the ponies of equestria equipped with weapons meant for killing our kind."

Fry pulled out a barrel from a side by the rock, opened the cork, releasing a sweet scent into the air. He sniffed the beverage within the barrel before drinking half of the content with a happy smile. "Indeed. Yet another reason for this meeting. My daughter Skyfire and I have decided to have her travel to the ponies' village of Bangcolt to seek a non aggressive pact with them. In return for us trading various goods with each other we will also not attack each other. Nor will we take actions upon each other should the ponies be attack by other dragons or other dragons being attacked by ponies."

"Indeed. I have intended to offer the same thing with my son Flare as my emissary. But even if the Skyhorns and Frostfires keep to themselves do I doubt those pesky griffins will keep from causing trouble. Annnd what are you drinking?" The larger dragon asked curiously as the sweet scent filled the glade.

"A pony drink called apple juice. It is actually quite tasty. I brought several barrels for a large selection of metals and ores. Do you want one?" Fry asked while holding out an unopened barrel

Pyre accepted it and drank it. Smacked his lips before downing the entire barrel. "Mmmm! This is one of the best things I have ever tasted!"

"I know right? Fresh spring water is good and all but this is like drinking an entire tree's worth of apples!" And so the two dragon lords sat down in the glade, talking and laughing while drinking apple juice together.

[Scene Skip]

Celestia was sitting by her desk a later afternoon when a knock was heard on the door. "Thou may enter."

Solid Pink, guiding a slightly tired looking Decades Gain, entered the room. The young foal sat up on the chair and downed the cup of tea offered to him ,before blanching and sticking out his tongue. Not liking the taste of the bitter sunflower tea. "Gods this taste like old socks!"

Celestia snickered lightly but soon recovered and gently asked the young foal of his progress. "So young Gain, how doest thy research progress? We heard thy hath been a very studious and eager worker to prove thy theory."

He just sighed and pulled out a stack of papers, notes he had written. And placed them on Celestia's working desk. It was a stack of five pages. Each side of each page written upon. THAT was something Celestia had actually never seen before. She had never seen someone write on both sides of a page before.

While she looked over the strange writing style the foal spoke up and began to explain his progress. "So far I have managed to record at least twenty historical figures I believe are connected to Maleficus' shattered essence. Five inventors, six warriors and nine artists. Each of them have similar mindsets in their behavior and have similar levels of ingenuity that is very uncommon. I also managed to discern at least sixty made up or misinterpreted historical figures."

"That is... worrying." She stated, looking through the notes the colt had given her with a worrying look on her face. She knew several of these names from the stories her mother had once read her. Some of these figures had been alive long before recorded history. She had actually thought them to be made up. And here and now they had been determined to be real because of a few intact texts and a young foal who had managed to read through these barely coherent texts and discern the information for what was truth and lies.

"I will need to visit the locations mentioned in the record to prove their accuracy and truth. Cannot leave things for just words and books or we will got nowhere. I will be making a trip after I finish with my research to find the places and try and discern the truth of the documents." The young colt stated with a determined look on his face.

Celestia nodded and read through the notes. Making out at least five historical figures she had never actually heard of. And some that she had. On both listed as Fake or Plausible. It wasn't the truth or the proof of the colts theory but it was indeed a great progress. "Thou hath not recorded much information. But considering thy project We can more then likely assume that thy real proof will be physical and not theoretical in nature."

"Yeah. I have only made a little progress so far but that's mostly because of the incomplete information from during and before the Age of Chaos. It makes it very difficult in reading anything since many of the letters are either gone, misshapen or in six different languages at once. Much of what I've read is only fables and stories without any concrete records. And those few I find are sometimes contradicting if made by unicorns, earth ponies or pegasi. So I need to get physical proof that can be analyzed so that I can properly prove my theory." The foal shook his head, completely unsatisfied by his progress. But Celestia could tell that, the fact that he had made so much progress thus far was amazing. To discern which information was real or made up was not easy, and the fact that he had still come up with so much in such a short time was nothing short of genius.

There was a sudden knock on the doorway, "Thy may enter", Celestia said.

And then a group of guards and a messenger entered. Ever since the sabotage of the Comm Orbs had been discovered would messengers and comm orbs be on constant guard to keep things safe. Among the guards were five horses, each give by the Horadrim Kingdom to guard the most valuable of locations and beings of either Kingdom.

The messenger cleared his throat a bit before holding out the glowing orb for the Princess to receive. "Princess Celestia. Cursed Blessing of the Horadrim Kingdom wishes to speak with you."

Accepting the Orb Princess Celestia placed it upon the table and activated it. And the image of Cursed Blessign appeared upon the orb. "Greetigns Cursed Blessing. We art happy to talk to thee once more."

"Greetings Princess Celestia. I bring words about our current situation with the griffins. Their forces have been broken and scattered. Much of it retreating back over the ocean. And my War Lords have gathered much information about their nation, their traditions, gears and even their political situation. And I can safely say tat we cannot avoid war with these people." The elderly horse stated with a grim look on his face through the crystal orb. A look that Celestia mirrored as she felt uneasy of engaging another nation in war. She would need to see the information herself. But it was far more likely that war was her only option, and if so was she not going to do so halfheartedly.

"Oh great... it's gramps." Decades Gain muttered from his seat. And at those words the elderly horse blinked. Before the image turned around and he found himself staring into the face of Decade's Gain.

The old hors'es mouth opened. As if trying to say something. But he couldn't find the words. "....Wha...."

Luckily, or unluckily, the young colt was more then willing to have the first word. As he waved at him cheekily and leaned over to smirk at the orb from above. "Hey gramps! How are things with the other elderly and stuffy stumps and rocks at home?"

Celestia blinked. and then her eyes widened. As the fact that Decades Gain, was the grandfoal of Cursed Blessing. And she began to realize, that this situation might come to bite her in the flank if things went badly.

The leader of the Horadrim stared in shock at the sight of the young foal. And then he glared at him through the orb before he started shouting. "Deckard Ciaphas Cain! Where have you been for the past week!?"

Snorting the colt just held up his hoof as if to stay, talk to the hoof. "Oh stuff it gramps! I was in the Everfree Forest researching!"

Cursed Blessing went silent and stared for a while, then grew red in his face before he started ranting again. The crystal ball wobbling at the force of his voice as it exploded out of the sphere. "I told you to never go there again after the last incident!"

Once more Celestia stared wide eyed. So the foal had not only gone and ran away from home to complete his research. He had done so by entering the most deadly forest in the nation, A SECOND TIME APPARENTLY, to investigate a set of ruins. Most likely the same ruins he told her about in the carriage a few days ago.

"Well I did and so there's nothing you can do about it! Ptrrrrrrrrrrr!" The foal stuck out his tongue blew a raspberry at the crystal orb containing the image of his ranting grandfather.

"Deckar Ciaphas Cain! When I get my hooves on you, you are in for more then a grounding for this!" Once again the old horse started screaming out his outrage. The other ponies and horses in the room looked at each other awkwardly. Not really eager to be standing here while listening to the leader of the Horadrim Kingdom berating his less then well behaved grandfoal.

Celestia's curiosity finally made her step forward and cough a bit. Breaking the elderly horse's ranting. Before speaking up in a wondering voice. "Wait. If We may ask. Why doest young Decades Gain have... so many names in his horse name? And why doest thee call him by different names when doing so?"

"Oh that's just gramps who thinks he's being clever. He combined my pony and horse name by making my pony names into horse names. Or at least similar in sound, and combined them with my original horse name. And thus allowed himself the pleasure of shouting at me with a name longer then one or two words. I think he believes, or at least feels, it gives him some sort of righteousness over me for being able to call me by more all of my names when he wants to chastise me." The young foal said with a deadpan look at her while behind him the flustering, outrage and sputtering sound from the elderly horse were all very clear. The sight made Celestia mentally struggle to not break down giggling.

"Ahem. Lord Cursed Blessing, whilst young Decades Gain is a bit rash and rude. Has he truly proven himself in these last few days. He has proven that several historical figures has a deeper connection to the present then originally assumed. And he has also managed to disprove at least five dozens of historical figures as false through contradicting information and falsified records from a few centuries ago. Thus we would like to ask that thou let thy grandfoal remain with Us for a while and keep up his work in revealing the truth and lies of our recorded historical documents."

After a moment of silence Cured Blessing gave his 'grandson' a stare and spoke up in a calm voice. "...Your not gonna rush off into danger while doing this?"

"Why would I? I have two huge libraries to read through. Not even counting all the bookshops and public libraries in the city." Decades Gain stated with a grin to his grandfather's image. Who gave a long and drawn out sigh of suffering.

"Fine boy. You can stay and do your research. BUT! I want you to keep up your studies and I want reports on your progress in both your research and your studies. I will be sending over one of your favourite teachers to keep you from skipping classes." At that Decades Gain blanched and Celestia had to cover her mouth to not show her smirk as she tried to restrain a strong urge to giggle.

"You can't be serious! I am one of the best spell casters in the Clan! I can cast spells better then YOU, you old stump!" At this Cursed Blessing just rolled his eyes at the whining of his grandson.

He then gave out a sot sigh before he looked at Decades Gain and spoke up softly. "Power and talent means nothing without the knowledge and wisdom to use them properly. Do no forget that. And don't worry. It will only be once a week rather then every day. Since I know you will more then likely try to skip off your studies if you get bored with them."

"Alright fine! But I am still going to keep researching my remaining free time here until whatever buzzkill you send gets here." The colt stated with a snort before leaving the chamber, slamming the door shut behind him. Leaving the two monarchs to look at the door with raised eyebrows.

Celestia then giggled slightly before snorting as she recovered and spoke to the sighing head of Cursed Blessing. "He truly is a talented foal Lord Blessing."

He shook his head and looked at the door with a sad, if proud, smile on his face. "Aye. Much like his mother he holds great knowledge and a keen mind. And like his father he has a lot of power and talent when it comes to the matters of the arcane. But he is still young, not even a decade old and he's far too rash and acts out on his own far too much. Even with his high intellect and power is he still only a foal and needs to have his power and talent refined rather then just using them all willy nilly."

"True. But to rebuke and constrain his talent will sometimes only hinder or even cripple it. It may be for the best to let him be free to utilize said talent to his own desires. At least under proper supervision of course. But for now. We believe thou had a message for Us concerning the Gryphon Kingdom." She sat down on her seat once more and looked at the orb with a serious look on her face. While Solid Pink emerged out of a shadowy corner, bearing a scroll and quill, ready to record what was being said.

A grim look appeared on Cursed Blessing's muzzle and he began to report his findings to the Princess. "The griffins may have been beaten back but they still have large amounts of soldiers and even more air ships. They will be able to send off another invasion force within a few weeks unless we take the initiative. I am talking a full scale counter invasion of Gryphon."

Celestia was a bit taken aback by this declaration from the Elderly Horse. She had never considered him to be a warmonger, but she felt like this was not just a desire for war. But more like he felt like there was no other option. "Does thou truly think it to be necessary?"

Cursed Blessing just nodded and gave her a blunt and straight response. Delivering a disturbing blow to her calm as he spoke of what the ruler of the Griffins wanted. "Aye I do. From what I have heard have at least a thousand ponies, foals and young adults, been taken to cross the sea towards the Gryphon Kingdom. And from what I have found out. Is their King, going to eat them."

"...what?" Was all she could muster out of her lips as the words she had just been told made her brain freeze in shock. And she instantly began to recall the horrors she had witnessed and heard of during the Draconinc Incursion.

The elderly sage just kept going. And the verbal blows of reality made her almost puke as he began to describe the depravity of the twisted King. "King Craver of the Gryphon Empire is a cannibalistic tyrant who killed his own father to claim the throne, and has been using his power to expand the military to not only expand his nation but also to control his people by force. And he does so not do this to control them, it is more like a side effect. His real goal is to steal their children. Unhatched eggs, chicks or young adults. To be taken to his castle, where they are to be killed and cooked in his kitchens to then be served for him to eat. He has apparently decided to update his palate, by using his invasion to try and taste young pony flesh."

"Gods... what... what kind of monster art he!?" Celestia cried out, standing up from her seat, slamming her front left hoof onto the table. Her eyes burning with fury.

Cursed Blessing could only grimly look up at her from the orb and gave his honest opinion. "One of the worst kind of monster your majesty. A twisted and deranged sociopath with the position of a ruler over a nation."

Celestia is silent for a while. Then she turns towards her adviser and grits out orders to her with a barely controlled fury. "Solid Pink... prepare messengers and send words to all forces within Equestria a call to arms. Ask only for those willing to cross the sea to fight for the freedom of not only ponies and horses, but griffins as well. We art going to war. But We shalt not force anypony to join this war, unless they wish too."

"As you command Princess." Solid Pink bowed to her Princess and backed into a shadow, seemingly disappearing within it.

Celestia looked at the orb with the silent Lord Cursed Blessing and pulled out a stack of empty parchments and a quill. Not even noticing how her dialect slightly shifted as he focused her attention upon the orb. "Tell us all you know about the Griffins Lord Cursed Blessing."

And he did. And Celestia took notes about the discoveries about the griffins. And would be spending several hours writing it all down. All the while posters, messengers, heralds and Com Orbs were sending messages out across the lands of Equestria. Calling to arms to fight against the tyranny of a twisted King who would feast upon the flesh of the young and new born, even his own people.

The words would shake Equestria to new heights. And more then a few would join the call. Not to just protect themselves, but to free all beings in the world from the threat that was King Craver.

And once more Equestira began to prepare for war.

[Scene Skip]

Within a deep underground chamber was a certain griffin Lord walking along the catwalks positioned through the large chamber. Ahead of him was an artificer, one of the few griffins who had studied and developed minor magical abilities. Including the priceless knowledge of creating magical items through forgotten runes and rare reagents.

"How goes the project Artificer?" Lord Archos asked the young griffin leading his way. Both the lord and the artificers were both dressed in a thick white painted protective leathery looking robe, a sort of protective gear.

The young artificer was quick to answer the noble. As one was not one to leave the unspoken ruler of Gryphon waiting. "It goes at a rapid pace milord Archos. We have managed to construct the base of the structure his majesty has asked of us. We have even managed to infuse it with the Tears of Sorrows. It is yet to be tested but our theories and initial assumptions shows promise. It will be at least a thousand times stronger the the handheld vial we had used for the hand held anti magic prototypes."

They walked down a set of stairs. Flight was forbidden in the chamber as it was too dangerous to allow flight within it. Lord Archos nodded at the artificer's comment and gave a rapt response. "Good. Let us see how well you have progressed."

They reached the bottom of the large chamber and blue light was shining upon a large contraption standing upon the center. Where several griffins dressed in protective gear were pouring glowing blue liquid into several open latches in the twisted and wicked looking structure.

As the artificer and Lord approached the griffins shouted out that the chambers had been filled and started moving away from the structure. Removing all ladders, ropes and buckets they had been using to prepare it.

It was shaped like a hexagon at the base, at least two meters in thickness. And jutting out from each of the six points of the hexagon platform were six meters long V shaped spikes. They were about a meter thick in radius at the base before becoming thinner until it reached the razor sharp tips.

Within the lower half of each V shaped claw were filled with the blue glowing mass the griffins had just been pouring into it.. Making the entire structure look like the underside of some manner of hexagon shaped crab with glowing legs.

The artificer presented the structure to the Lord in a flourish. "Here it is Lord Archos. The first artifact of the pair the King asked for."

Nodding Lord Archos looked at the artifact and from what he could tell was it very wicked and imposing in design. Very good. Now they would now just need to find out how effective it was. "Impressive. What do you call this... contraption?"

The artificer grinned at the question, obviously proud of the name they had given their project. "We call it the Tearful Talon. We are about to test the first prototype. We managed to get a pony prisoner from the raid to be used for our test."

"Ah good. Let us see how it goes." Lord Archon stated as two griffin soldiers came carrying a chained unicorn who was whimpering and shivering in tearful terror as the griffins dragged them towards the contraption.

"Here milord." The Artficier stated while holding out a transparent fishbowl shaped helmet to the noble, who gave him a raised eyebrow before putting it on.

As the crying pony was dragged to the contraption the artificer put on his own bowl helmet and as the griffins chained the pony in place they were quick to fly away. The artificer then pointed a talon at the artificer and shouted up towards the darkness shrouded ceiling of the chamber. "Activate the Tearful Talon!"

A blue humming sound began to fill the air and the claw like appendages of the artifact lit up, before moving. The two griffins looked on as the contraption began to do its work. And the pained screams of the young unicorn filled the chambers.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!!!!!!" Yet neither of them reacted to it. And just kept looking upon the effects of the artifact upon the unicorn. Content in watching the wicked and cruel torment keep going. The vocals of the pony almost about to go out when it happened.

"-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-*SHLACK!!*" The cry of the young unicorn ends as their voice is replaced by a guttural sound of splattering of liquid. Like someone had punctured a highly pressured balloon of filled with near liquid mud and splattered the content all a solid surface.

A splatter of blue ooze was lying upon the glass orbs and robes of the two griffins. None of them bothered by the gruesome death of the prisoner. And the artificer called for a cleaning crew before he began to explain. "Cleaning crew to the Main chamber!"

"As you can see is it a bit overwhelming for the regular creature. If we were to put a griffin within it they would pop like a boil before they have a chance to scream. Griffins produces far less Tears of Sorrow when they pop then ponies do." The artificer commented as the blue liquid blocked his vision through the bowl helmet. Soon griffins armed with artifact water hoses quickly washed away the blue ooze from the two griffins as to make sure nothing of the liquid material remained. The mixture of blue water and glowing blue ooze was then sucked up by a manual water pump into a set of glass containers.

Pulling off his cleaned helmet Lord Archon nodded in satisfaction as the pair began to leave the chamber. "Impressive... if a bit messy. No doubt King Craver will love it."

The artificr nodded and as they came up the catwalk again he was given a set of papers by one of the cleaners and he held it out to the noble to read. "We still do not know if this will be as effective against an alicorn as it was against that young unicorn. But if not, can we attempt to make an even more powerful version of the Talons if so asked. It will take much longer to do so though."

Nodding Lord Archon handed back the report to the artificer who placed it in the talons of one of the assistants. The two left the chamber through a heavily guarded gate and as it closed behind the. The Lord commented to the artificer. "Ah most excellent. The King will be pleased by the result. Have these Talons ready for deployment when we need them."

[Scene Skip]

But while the griffins were making their efforts to handle the two alicorns. Were things moving rapidly in Equestria.

The news of the Griffin threat and their crazed King had filled the kingdom. A call for volunteers for the invasion of Gryphon had been spread out over the regions of Equestria.

Over twenty thousand ponies volunteered to join the war effort. Almost all of them were members of the military already, most of them of the bronze or silver armies. As Celestia would not be officially using the Three Armies of Equestria for this invasion, was she only asking for volunteers. As the horses would be bringing forces as well for this conflict.

A total of ten thousand horses, all of them veterans and volunteers, would join as ground troops for the invasion. The horses had even brought out several dozens of new ships for the battle, ships they had been working on as new cargo ships, but would now be used for a militaristic purpose.

Maleficus kept using his disguise as Decades Gain and researched the past of the ponies. Trying to find a connection between the cave painting of himself and the ancient records. Of what remained at least. He was still hopeful that not everything had been lost during the Age of Chaos.

He spent time with Happy Meal, Grand Music, Grand Feast and their children. He took on the shape of a shaggy looking black earth pony, offering the name Hungry Shaggy. He was promoted to Uncle Shaggy within a few days of enjoying the company of the foals and the grown up children. It was hard to keep his truth a secret but he kept a straight face and kept making jokes whenever people asked him about his origin, and so far it was working.

But he knew it would not last. Nothing good ever did in this world. And so he kept his interference to a minimum, trying to keep himself from giving away too much while also acting like the weird and friendly uncle who would come to visit from time to time. Mostly focusing on his research into the ancient, forgotten or lost history of the ponies.

He knew that was coming. And he wasn't sure if he could do much to aid them. So he played around with his Interface connection to various Black Beacons across the planet. While around six were impossible to reach for one reason or another. Was he able to connect to one on the Eastern Continent.

And that's when he got an idea. One that had him chuckling and giggling childishly at the silly idea he just had. And so he began to work on it. Utilizing the beacon not a reagent but a medium, to create what he wanted on the other side. IT would be a wonderful surprise for both sides of the ensuing conflict.

Unaware that his creation would find a different use then the one he intended to in the near future.

But soon the time came, as the forces of Equestria and Canterlot gathered upon the grassy fields near the Dragon Bone Shore outside of the city of Baltimare. The location where the first wave of dragons had been slaughtered, and later pushed out of Equestria. Many of their bones still remaining beneath the watery waves.

[Scene Skip]

[Current Date: 11/7 - 128 AD]

[Time Remaining. 20 Days]

The morning sun rises over the lands of Equestria once more. And yet even as the heavens were clear clouds, was the rising morning sun obscured by lines upon lines of gathered horses and ponies. Standing in a massive formation before the large coastline.

In front of them, revealed by the sunlight, sat the massive floating fortress of Grithenburg, floating upon the surface of the ocean just a few hundred meters off the beach. The massive shadow of the, not currently floating, castle blocking their point of view of the horizon.

Standing upon a large balcony stood Cursed Blessing with the Warlord Thunder Hammer and Princess Celestia with General Rough Stock. Celestia's horn was glowing golden as she raised the sun to shine upon the world once more. Above the skies floated a fleet of over a thousand sky ships. Of which fifty were of an entirely new design.

Cursed Blessing looked out over the rows of horses. And he walked to the front of the balcony.He stood up on his hind legs, his long white wooden staff resting against the rocky floor as he took a deep breath, before screaming out to the masses.

"We have fought and suffered. But still we stand! There is a new threat to our great nations! The Griffin King Craver!"

The horses raised their hooves and slammed them against their chests. Causing the sound of echoing clangs and thumps of flesh as they were wearing a wide variety of armour, and some none. Crying out to their leader's speech. "AOU! AOU!"

"In the days ahead we will be fighting the desperate, the cruel, the unwilling and the twisted!"

Again they slammed their hooves against their chests. And Clestia looked at the scene in marvel. She had never before witnessed such a synchronized cheer. It was... inspiring."AOU! AOU!"

"And yet we shall overcome them all! For we fight not for ourselves but for the freedom and safety of ALL!"

The elderly horse kept screaming out his words to the army gathered before him. Their hooves pumping and their voices roaring to respond to their leader. "AOU! AOU!"

"Let the ground shake with your hooves! Let the sky roar with your spirit!"

All horses now stood up on their hind legs, it was in perfect unison ,the sound of their weapons and armours moving echoing across field and land. And they stamped their hooves and punched their chests. And chanted out once more! "AOU! AOU!"

"Let evil shiver with the strength of your hearts! Let the darkness flee as we bring forth the light!"

Once more they repeated it. And their voices rang out over the coast, even reaching to the city of Baltimare. Where over a thousand bystanders were staring in wonders from the walls and outskirts of the city. At the sight of the chanting soldiers and the speech of their leader. The ground rumbling with their stamping hooves. "AOU! AOU!"

"LET THE HAMMERS OF HORADRIM FALL!"

And with a final cry the Horse Lord of the Horadrim slammed down the pommel of his staff upon the center of balcony. A flash of light emerged from the staff. And a powerful music began to fill the air as large flying ships the size of small forts began to float down from the fleet above. As the armies of the Horadrim Kingom, did not cry out again, but instead began to sing.

[Start Marching Song: When the Hammer Falls - Clamavi De Profundis (Original Song)]

[Disclaimer: Yet again I do not own this video. Please support the official release and the song's creator Clamavi De Profundis. For the songs they make, many of which are based upon the old tolkien stories, are awesome.]

[Lyrics Altered by Staadnauthursil.]

The horses stood tall, their hooves pressed against their breasts. And their voices began to ring out across the coast. High above in the Sky Fleet were twenty of the new, and massive, ships starting to descend.

"High in the Skies."
"Where the Mountain now Flies."
"Glorious forge."
"Singing forgotten tales of the Horse."
"Tranquil as the night."
"Where the blacksmith makes his light."
"When the hammer falls."

They were massive. 110 meters long. 22 meters wide. 40 meters tall. With rows of enhanced oars. And the design similar to that of the trimere. But far more bulky and massive. A total of six watch towers placed in groups of two in the center on each end of the ship. These, were the Syracusia. And the voices of the horses were rumbling from beneath their cloud layers as they descended downwards, as if to greet them to the world.

"When the hammer falls."
"And it sounds through the halls."
"When the hammer falls."
"Freeing treasures from the walls."
"When the hammer strikes."
"And the kingdom comes to life."
"When the hammer pounds."
"Like the thunder in the clouds."
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

Celestia stared in wonder. General Rough Stock also stood in awe of the massive war ships, their frames built as massive cargo ships capable of transporting a massive amounts of cargo and troops with their sheer bulking size. Each ship was easily large enough to house two thousand ponies and/or horses. Cursed Blessing, rubbing his sore throat, smiled at the sight of the newly constructed ships landing upon the grassy field with loud resounding thumps.

"Of legend and myth."
"Is the craft of the smith."
"The molten metal poured."
"And pounded into sword."
"From the fire is made."
"Every Equine axe and blade."
"When the hammer falls."

The rears of the ships were facing the singing armies of Horadrim. And as they sang were massive mechanical wenches rotated, and a large cargo door began to open from the top of the back of the ship, slowly being lowered down to a massive land bridge. The horses kept singing, standing with their hooves to their breasts, heads high, as the cargo doors finally slammed into the ground with loud booms.

"When the hammer falls."
"Forging weapons for all."
"When the hammer falls."
"Songs of battle fill the halls."
"When the hammer flies!"
"Lines of armored Horses arise!"
"With the hammer’s roar"
"We go marching off to war!"
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

And then they began to march forward. Without removing their hooves fro mtheir breasts they walked forward, their weapons held in salute in the other. And the ground shook and rumbled as knights, vikings, samurais and spartans alike stomped up the wooden cargo doors of the massive ships. One row of soldiers at a time, the music and voices still singing out loud and strong.

"The Griffins came to our lands."
"And we fought them hooves to claws."
"Sweat and blood."
"Turned the ground to mud."
"Equines and Griffins in mortal strife."
"As they sought to vanquish every life."
"When the hammer falls."

The gathered pony armies were stationed just south of the horses, awaiting their own transports. They too had been standing in rows and ready to move out. When twenty Syracusia ships flew down with loud booms and landed before them. Massive cargo doors opening in the same manner as for the horses. And the ponies, stood up on their hind legs, saluted in the same manner. and sang out with the horses' own song and began to march into the massive war ships.

"When the hammer falls."
"Back our enemies crawls."
"When the hammer quakes."
"Griffin cowards’ bones will break."
"When the hammer cracks."
"And it beats their armies back."
"When the hammer’s boom."
"Sends the monsters to their doom."
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

Both armies marched onto the ships. Their rumbling hooves shaking the ground, leaving deep tracks as each soldier stomped over the grassy earth and onto the wooden land bridge. Leading deep hoof marks of the first unified army of the horses and the ponies. The first joint effort, to strike against their common foes. And as the final row of troops entered the holds, the cargo doors were lifted up to close the rear.

"When the hammer falls!"
"Then our victory calls!"
"When the hammer falls!"
"Songs of glory fill the halls!"
"When the hammer flies!"
"Mighty heroes now arise!"
"With the hammer’s sound."
"Live the Horses high above ground!"
"When the hammer falls!"
"When the hammer falls!"

As the final door was slammed shut the ships' oars shimmer and crackled, before letting out rumbling thunder and lightning. Before slowly rising up from the soil of Equestria. And began to rise up towards the Sky Fleet. And as it did so, began an even louder rumble to occur.

And as the final notes of the song were being sung. Rose the floating fortress island of Grithenburg out of the waters of the Celestial Sea. Clouds of rumbling thunder emerging beneath its massive rocky shape as the island sized fortress rose up like a waking leviathan. And then, as the final notes began to ring out, the Sky Fleet, carrying over thirty thousand troops and one thousand sky ships. And one Fortress grade Sky Island. Began to float eastwards.

Towards the Gryphon Kingdom.

[Scene Skip]

Deep within the foal mountains there was a large black pit. It was one of the sites were the horses had ripped out mountains to created their floating Sky Island homes. Leaving lakes of hardened obsidian and lava behind.

And upon the surface of this specifically lake of hardened magma there stood a large group of black figures. And they were carving a massive complex runic array upon the surface of the obsidian itself. Dark clouds were gathering above in the heavens as the summer rains began to fill the mountains.

Something that could flash flood this obsidian crater into a lake rather rapidly. And yet these dark figures did not care.

Then as the final line was carved into the surface the dozens upon dozens of figures moved into a circle at the center. And there they held out sharp hooves and began to focus their energies. And slowly a glow began to fill the air in the enter between these hooves. A light one might have considered to be bright, and yet it was dark and murky, like the thickest of swamp water.

And then, one of the lines in the array, began to be filled by a violet light. as if being filled by a glowing liquid. And then another. And another. More and more the lines these figures had carved began to be filled out by glowing violet light. Until it all gathered into a massive twisted diagram.

Then a figure walked out into the center of the formation, the figure was dressed in pitch black robes, white freckled feathers dropping down from beneath. As the figure reached the center they pulled out two vials. And a dark clucking chuckled emerged from the robed figure's cloak. Each vial containing a red liquid, that almost seemed to be glowing with power. "And so... it begins..."

A bright flash of lightning arched across the skies. And for a short moment it illuminated the face of the hooded figure. A white freckled and red combed chicken head looked with twisted purple eyes upon the vials, the left eye having two pupils, the right, having no pupils at all.

[To Be Continued]

Author's Note

Staadnauthursil: That's another chapter down. I am... sorry for my lack of updates and reviews recently. But at the afternoon of the 7th of August, 2019, after struggling with a series of physical illnesses that had become more and more serious the past six months, my mother... died. Her Funeral was in the late of August. I have... had a difficult time finding motivation or inspiration to write. Or focusing on my life in general. My lack of proper economy is also a rising issue, not making things easier for me to handle. I have only just recently moved to a new place, and am working on getting some of the things in my mother's home in order, checking through many old memories as I do, and thus my muse is at an all time low.

Pinkie: That's so sad! *Cries*

Staadnauthursil: I... I also cannot help but feel... responsible for it. I knew she was ill, I often helped her out, almost daily. But I thought she would pull through. I should have gotten her to the hospital sooner, then things might not have gone so bad. Not to mention... this story. The prologue I wrote when I first made it, it was... it was not meant to become real... you know? I mean, I never thought back when I wrote it, that she would die so soon. I am thirty now. And according to the prologue I wrote two years go, she died when I would be thirty. I even wrote that it would be in the summer... and now I feel so guilty for even writing it.

Pinkie: Don't you dare blame yourself! Your story was not the cause for your mother's death! Nor did it influence it!

Staadnauthursil: I know... I know I should not blame myself. My siblings have told me as much, that I am not responsible for her death. That it had only been a matter of time. But I can't help but feel guilty. I can't really ignore it. She died too early, she was only sixty five. The coincidences are a bit too close for comfort too. But. In the end. I love writing. I loved, still love, my mother. And I know at least this much, she would not want me to abandon my work because of some coincidence. She was grateful for me taking care of her, for keeping her company, she told me this, often. So what kind of son would I be... if I... just stopped... It would not be right. So I will try to push on, I will keep writing. Ad hopefully... both my parents will be happy with me... wherever they are now. and I hope they are at peace, together.

Pinkie: You just get better Staady, and keep writing. You will make it through, just like the rest of your family.

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