A royal meeting

Assistance

Chapter 4 – A royal meeting

Princess Luna is in her sister’s personal meeting-room, walking in circles while blowing a few strains of her mane away from her face. He sister sits on a big, velvet silk-sofa, a worried expression on her muzzle.

“Celestia, what has gotten into thou? How can we trust this monkey creature with these serious matters?”

“Luna, the Griffons and Minotaurs were able to overwhelm our defences in Baltimare. Our second most heavily armed City! And we barely have any alliances. Everyone except the Yak’s from Yak-Yakistan turned down their help. I had no other choice but to ask for his help, sister.”

“B-But he is merely a disrespectful fool. Do you really think this fireball in the Badlands was this creatures work? He has no magical abilities and is weak. Simply a burden in the battlefield. Besides, he could be a spy and traitor!”

Celestia just stares out the window of the balcony doors and sighs. Her coat and feathers are clean again and shine in a radiant white. Could she really trust this odd creature who just appeared out of thin air? What if he is indeed allied with the Griffons and is just here to strike at the right moment. He would just need one of these ‘Dawn-devices’ inside Canterlot and he would be able to trigger it with one of those remote controls from a safe distance. Pictures of a destroyed Canterlot, burning and laying in ashes flash by inside her head. Her spine tingles and she shudders at this horrible thought.

Joseph is a weird and somehow funny creature indeed, but he could be considered quite rude and disrespectful. The nobles would demand his head if they knew how he treated the royal princesses. But, if he really were a spy, could he be so cold hearted to kill thousands of innocent ponies?

A gentle knock is heard on the double doors. Celestia steps down from the sofa and trots towards the doors. She opens it with her magic and smiles at her important guest. Her genuine smile turns into a nervous one as sees the human looking towards her with a silly smile on his face.

“Hello King Joseph. Thanks for finally arriving. We have much to discuss.”

“Sure. And sorry for being a little late. I made a quick detour over to the royal cuisine. Their pastries are bloody great!” Celestia’s ears perk up a little as she heard that, reminding herself that she had no pastries in months. Months! She quickly turns around and heads towards the big marble table in the middle of the room. The princesses take seat on one side of the table, the human sits down on the other side, facing them.

“Princesses, good news! I just called my scientists and they informed me that they could produce another dawn device with the remaining enriched ponium-356. They were even able to increase the yield to about 15 Kilotons. According to Oppenhoove’s calculations that is.”

“Splendid!” Celestia replies. “But we have a problem, King Joseph. I and my sister do not intend to hurt innocent ponies and griffons.

Princess Luna immediately steps in. “We don’t care about those vile gryphons, sister!”

“Luna, we agreed that we merely use this weapon as a leverage, so they give up Baltimare and retreat. We want as few civilian deaths as possible. You agreed on that, remember?”

Luna huffs but finally gives in, nodding her head a bit reluctantly.

Joseph just stares at the pony princesses and smacks his forehead with a palm while cringing.

“So, let me get this straight. Imagine you are about to win an important war. Your weak opponent suddenly threatens you with a new, apparently ridiculously strong weapon no one ever has heard of. Would you actually believe them and simply let your troops retreat from the land they just fought over?” Joseph shoots a questioning glance towards the two alicorns.

Luna raises her eyelids as he realizes the ugly monkeys statement made sense and quickly speaks up. “I would not believe such a foul bluff and would push my enemy to the last corner.”

“Exactly. The Gryphons would never believe you. Therefore, we must detonate one over Gryphon territory. If the emperor sees the destruction it produces, he has no choice but to retreat.”

Under no circumstances will I kill thousands of innocent Gryphons! Emperor Gryphanus is a horrible dictator and rules over his subjects with an iron claw! His poor subjects face enough hardships already.”

Joseph holds up a hand quickly “G-Gryphanus?” He tries not to laugh, but tears fill the edge of his eyes as he looks back and forth between the princesses who just stare at him. He tires his best not to laugh but a repressed, high pitched laughter escapes his mouth. He tries harder to stop, but his repressed laughter gets louder and higher pitched. He wheezes and finally calms down after almost half a minute, wiping his wet eyes, he looks towards the princesses with a silly grin on his face.

“W-What?” He chuckles. “His name is Gryph-anus, for crying out loud, a-and you are about to lose a war against him.” He stutters a little, his wheezing and giggling interrupting his ability to speak properly.

The princesses just stare at him for several seconds. Luna’s left eye twitches and she tries her best to not jump over the table and tear this rude monkey into pieces. After the muffled laughter finally quietens down, Celestia clears her throat loudly.

“Are you finished, King Joseph?” She asks, with an annoyed tone, glaring daggers towards him.

Joseph straightens his shirt and wipes his eyes again while chuckling a little. “Okay, I’m sorry. That was a little mean, but I simply couldn’t help myself.” Celestia stares towards Joseph with an annoyed and disappointed look while Luna continues glaring daggers at him, clearly clenching her teeth together hard behind her muzzle.

“Hmm. Quite a tough crowd once again.” He chuckles nervously and tries not to look towards the almost raging lunar Princess. She can indeed be quite terrifying. “Uhm.. W-Where were we again?”

“We agreed on, that we would not harm any civilians.” Celestia states, her voice calm and clear again.

“I see. That might be a difficult task. But I have an Idea.”

The Princesses ears perk up at that and Luna quickly replies, “Thou have?” Both Princesses look rather surprised.

“Uhm yes?” Joseph answers a little hurt. “Do you maybe have a map of the Griffon Empire, Princess Celestia?”

“Of course, King Joseph.” Celestia empathizes his title rather strong, then opens a drawer with her magic and pulls out a big map, which she places on top of the marble table. “Here you are.”

Celestia takes seat again and lets the human eye the map curiously. He stands up from his seat and walks to the left and right, analysing the map since it’s rather large. The Griffon Empire is a rather small Country, bordering Equestria, the Badlands and a vast ocean in the north. The scale showed that it was about 500 Kilometers long and 300 wide. Compared to Equestria, which was about four times as big, it seemed like a tiny little piece of land. After a while he points to a red spot near the sea and looks up towards the princesses.

“What exactly is this?”

“This is Gryphonia, the capital city with about 110’000 Gryphons living and working there. Next to the mountain is the Emperor’s Castle, from where he rules over his kingdom.”

Joseph holds his hands together and sits back onto his chair again while looking towards the celestial princesses with a pensive look on his face.

“Since you don’t want to drop our little bomb right into the middle of it, what if we detonate it riiiight there.” Joseph points to a forest nearby the capital city a few kilometres away from the city walls.

Joseph pointed to the Zenus-Woods. A simple oak forest nearby some cliffs which is bordered by the great Northern Sea. The Princesses look towards the map and could not come up with an argument to not use this area for the ‘demonstration’. The Princesses would have to accept the demise of many, many woodland creatures, but compromises must be made in desperate times. Celestia often told Joseph how she values every life deeply. But in the end, she must put her ponies and her Kingdom above everything else. What kind of ruler would she be if she wouldn’t?

After a while, Princess Luna narrows her eyes again and looks up from the map towards the human, who just raises his eyebrows in question.

“King Joseph. I appreciate your effort and help, and I must admit this plan sounds quite thought trough. But Thou see, we are sceptical of thee, King Joseph. Here you are, helping us, providing us with an apparently immensely powerful weapon. Something that, according to Celestia, could wipe out whole Cities with just the blink of the eye. But I don’t see the reason behind it. What would thou gain in assisting us?

“Are you saying you don’t trust me, Princess Luna?” Joseph holds his fingers together, hiding a smirk.

Princess Luna honestly nods. “This is what we intended to say. I don’t trust strange bipedal creatures who fall out of the sky and want to assist us in a war said creature has nothing to do with.”

Joseph gasps a little exaggerated and holds a hand to his chest. “Wow, I’m deeply offended, Princess Luna. But you are indeed right. Why should I, King Joseph the first, even consider helping you? Truly a great question.” He stands up and opens his back back, from where he pulls out a scroll, which he hands over towards the lunar Princess. A tiny smirk already forms on his lips as he sits back and waits for her to open the scroll with her magic.

A quick glance over towards Celestia reveals her embarrassment as her sister goes through the scroll. She tries to hide it behind her princess mask, but Joseph knows that she is secretly cursing him. Joseph looks back towards Princess Luna. Her left eye twitches slightly as she reads trough the scroll.

Suddenly, with a loud bang, Princess Luna smashes her hoofs onto the marble table.

“Cake-delivery?! Do thou think this is funny!? This is merely a disrespect against the crown. And for faking Princess Celestia’s signature, we could throw thee into the dungeons for eons, thou disrespectful fool!

Princess Celestia chuckles nervously and looks over towards her sister.

“Actually, King Joseph did not fake it. I signed the scroll with my own hoof.” Celestia smiles sheepishly and Princess Luna chokes a little, blinking rapidly as she stares at her sister.

Thou are jesting, right sister?” Luna laughs nervously and then looks over towards the human who just sat there with a serious expression on his face.

Joseph clears his throat. “Princess Luna, are you implying that irrigation and cake-delivery are a joke?”

Lunas eyes narrow again but before she could do anything she would later regret, Celestia steps in. “Please, lets try to hold a civilized meeting. Remember, we are here to plan how we can intimidate the Griffon emperor, so orders his troops to retreat.” Celestia sighs in desperation. She notices her mind wandering off again. Cake. Her mouth waters at the mere thought of entering her favourite patisserie and demolishing one of her beloved treats right from the display window. The princess shakes her head quickly. She needs to concentrate now.

“Sure, drop it onto his forest and I’ll trigger it at the right time, no biggie. I think that should be sufficient and the Gryphons and Minotaurs will retreat immediately, so relax.”

“I hope you are correct King Joseph.” Celestia states.

Joseph sits on a king-sized bed inside his guest suite. It was rather luxurious with chandeliers, marble floor and a bathroom that would be worth more than his own house he owned back when he was on earth.

“Earth… Seesh.” He gulps and looks down towards his sweaty hands which he rests on the bedsheets. They were trembling slightly. Joseph tends to get rather pensive and melancholic when he is not in his castle, doing silly and extremely dangerous things with his inventions. “I guess that’s it huh?” He asks himself, realizing that he probably would never see his planet anymore. All his friends. His family. His plans. Everything he liked or wanted to do. It’s Gone. Sure, he had his own little makeshift castle and the military power to achieve anything in this world. Quite something after just 6 months of work, but deep down he knew that he is just trying to repress his mind from the crushing reality with his activities in the Badlands. He was stranded in a fucked-up world, where talking ponies are the dominant species, alone with no friends. The only human on the entire planet. Heck, he is not even sure if this is the same dimension anymore. Deep down he hopes that he really is in a coma or on a intense acid trip, hopefully just dreaming this insanely vivid dream. The possibility is slim, but it still gives him hope. Joseph walks towards the big mirrors next to the entrance of his suite and stares at himself. His family and friends surely must think he is dead after being missed for so long. His eyes tear up and a sob escapes his mouth as he tries to wipe away his tears.

“S-Shit… I’m such a pussy”

A knock is heard on the doors and he quickly wipes his eyes clear. “Y-Yes, who is it?” He asks with a raised voice.

“Its me, Celestia. Can I come inside?”

Josephs eyes spring open wide. “Wait! G-Gimme a second!” He storms towards the bathroom and quickly splashes some cold water onto his face and hair. Celestia can not see him in this state. Getting rid of his clothes, except his underwear, he splashes some water onto his chest and grabs a big towel with which he covers himself.

“ King Josep, is everything alright?” Celestia’s motherly voice, filled with worry reaches his ears through the doors. She waits another few seconds.

As the doors are opened, Celestia blinks in surprise as she sees the human standing in front of her, a big blanked wrapped around his body while some droplets of water fall from his body onto the marble floor.

“I’m sorry that took me so long. I was about to exit the shower when you knocked, Princess.” Celestia merely nods and looks into his eyes, which were more reddish than usual.

Celestia nods. “Ah good to hear.” She then tilts her head slightly and looks deep into his brown eyes. “Are you sure that you are alright, King Joseph?”

Y-Yea. I’m just a bit cold.” He tightens his blanket and stares back into her eyes.
- Why is she acting like she’s concerned? -

“I see. I’m sorry that I have interrupted your bathing routine. I just wanted to inform you that dinner will be served in about an hour. The dining hall is right next to the day-court.”

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

Celestia smiles and nods her head. “Splendid. Take care and try to not get lost in the castle, Mister Wecksell.”

Joseph retorts. “I’ll try my best, Miss Sunny.” Celestia just rolls her eyes, but nonetheless smiles slightly.

Princess Celestia playfully and gently shoves the human away from the doorframe into his guest suite. “Go back and finish your bathing activities, King Joseph.”

“Will do Mam’” He holds his blanket with one hand and gives her a quick salute.

Celestia giggles at his antics and then closes the door. Her smile on her muzzle quickly drops. She knew that he wasn’t really taking a bath. He was hiding something behind his always so carefree and serene mask, and she was going to find out what it is…

After some well-deserved cake that is.

Author's Note

This chapter was brought to you by Zach Galifianakis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkuNpgACH0

Expect longer a longer delay til the next chapter drops. Life called me and apparently im not allowed to have any time to write for the next 2 weeks.

Do not forget to protect your cake, comment and rate <3