Simplified

I don't think I've ever felt so uncomfortable sleeping in my life. Then again, I've never had to lie in a bed while my back looks like a crime scene, causing my sheets to look like a freshly killed body had been carted off in them. But Smolder deeply insisted that she'd right the wrong that had been committed against her. Unfortunately, that 'right' had to be written over the same claw marks that Ember had left in my back and shoulders. It wasn't exactly fun, especially considering that Ember drained me bone dry just the hour before.

From the moment I wake up, I'm already praying to Faust above that Ocellus isn't in a mood to start our day off with a romp. I doubt I can get it up right now, much less for the next few hours. Keeping up with the physical demands of two dragonesses is tedious enough, and I don't need to be goaded by the changeling with no available off-switch.

Wouldn't you guess it, she's the first one I run into when I walk into the kitchen, along with a happy Gabby. "Morning to you." As I reach into the fridge, she sees the gruesome wounds carved into my back. "Yeouch! Smolder really didn't let you off easy on last night, did she?"

"Much like how you two gave Zenobia a hard time last night, Smolder wanted to make sure that her marks were something to remember." I respond as I pull out an empty carton of orange juice. I roll my eyes and toss the carton into the trash. "I swear, dragon mating has to be some of the most painful shit I've ever experienced in regards to sex."

"I thought you could handle stuff like that." Gabby states truthfully.

"Yeah, we are. But her claws went beyond the outer layer of scales. It's bad enough that Ember had already dug into my skin, Smolder dug even further than that."

"Yikes." Ocellus grimaces. "I bet that shower doesn't feel too great either."

"It doesn't." I groan as I reach into the fridge, thankful that I believe in replenishing stock before running out. I sit the unopened carton of orange juice on the counter and grab myself a glass. "Like I know that dragons leave their marks, but I didn't really enjoy getting carved into like my life's in danger."

The changeling's lips turn sour as she seems displeased by my confession. "I'll get on her about that."

"It's not like it'll matter at this point."

"I bet to differ."

Smolder walks into the room, giving off a yawning stretch as she proudly greets me. "Morning, big guy."

"Morning."

"How's the back?"

"Let's just say you dug in way too deep for what was needed." Ocellus answers crossly.

The orange dragoness chuckles timidly. "Sorry for that. I know today's your day, and I'm pretty sure that could hinder his performance a bit."

I take my turn to address her also. "Look, I get that female dragons are competitive at times. But was there a reason for digging even deeper than what was already done to me?"

"Well she marked all over my marks, so it's customary that I have to reclaim what was mine. Maybe next time she can mark you elsewhere, perhaps in some other fashion. There was no need for her to go after where I got you to begin with. That was just being petty."

"And you making the marks even deeper isn't just that?" Ocellus rebuts.

"Sorry. Dragon rules are dragon rules." She turns back to me and kisses me on the cheek. "Don't let one rough night scare you off of me. I still want you around, big guy."

"My back hurts." I sweetly remind her.

"I know." She says as she gives me a hug. "But I'll make it up to you. Promise."

"How so?" I ask.

She deepens the hug, grabbing me by the back of my neck. "Depends. What do you want from me?"

Ocellus coughs purposefully to get our attention, reminding us that it's her day to get close to me. "I'm sure I can think of something. But I'll need time to look into it."

"Sure. Maybe on my day, I'll let you do to me whatever you want."

"Just as long as it doesn't involve you clawing at my back again."

"No claws, on dragon's honor." She responds with a claw to the heart.

"Good." I reply as the sound of lumbering hooves clop into the room. Now enters a disheveled Zenobia, who's wearing tired bags under her eyes and a fowl grimace rested on her lips. "Oh, well good morning to you, miss quiet."

She walks right through me, almost as though she hated the world she lived in. "Fuck off..."

"Huh, you're seem pretty irritable today."

She scowls at me, marching up to me with every last bit of her frustration set on her sleeve. "Irritable? YOU WOULDN'T FUCKING SAY! They tortured me for a whole goddamn night! I was made to sit on some stupid vibrating saddle with no way to free myself, no way to speak on it, and no way to FINISH! It was terrible!"

I look over to Ocellus, who cracks a sinister smile. Smolder answers for her. "Oh yeah, slipped my mind that Olla and Gabby got a hold of her and kept her on a chastity spell. She's probably been stuck on edge since they started last night. Apparently Olla's gonna keep her on it until late Sunday evening."

"Oh yeah, that is pretty damn cruel." I comment.

"Isn't it!?" The alicorn shrieks. "Augh! I can't stand it! I need to find some mode of release!"

"Sorry, it's been done to me before, there's no way around it. Trust me, I've tried." I politely warn her.

"FUCKING HELL!" She screams, using her magic to pull at Gabby feathery scruff. "I just want you to pull that thing out and let me sit on it for a few hours."

"It won't work like that. I've already been there, so I would know."

I shake my head and issue a soft rebuke. "Ocellus, can we promise not to torture everyone with that damned spell?"

Gabby quickly rebounds with a counterargument. "Oh no no no. Surely you'd understand that with our situation being what it is, that I wouldn't accept it if she wasn't formally brought into the fold as you and I were made to endure similar traumas. We've set a precedent, you and I." The griffon snickers as she gingerly traces a talon down the back of the Ponyland imperial. "And now we're going to keep at it, because I know how it feels to be broken. Now you'll know what it means to be robbed of all of that."

The mare stomps her hoof with a sound objection. "If you're going to fucking touch me, at least find the fucking knowledge on how to finish me, you feathery bitch!"

Smolder quirks her brow at the princess. "Uh, is she always this volatile?"

"When she's obsessively horny." I reply.

"Right..."

I take a final sip of orange juice before taking my glass to the sink and giving it a quick wash before placing it into the cabinet and heading back upstairs. "You guys can make breakfast since you're doing what you're doing. I'll be upstairs doing a bit of morning study."

Gabby shouts back at me as I leave the room. "Don't get too engrossed! Last thing you'd want to do is make Ocellus mad!"

As I get back to the third floor, I plop down to the couch and grab me another one of the books for research. I apparently seem to have it bookmarked for the area where there is the talk of a pony being used as a controller of a creation of nightmarish proportions known as 'The Congregant'. It seems that the monster is derived of many fallen ponies, all utilizing the skeletal frame of an Arimaspi to help maintain it's stability and shape.

As I start to get into the topic, I hear and feel somepony breathing behind me. "Hey, is there anything important with you reading books of black lines?" It's Hestia, who surprisingly shows interest in my literary indulgence.

"Lots of information."

She posts herself over my shoulder, being a bit invasive after initially showing me the cold shoulder just yesterday. Perhaps she's in a better mood. "Ooh, is it information that we're not allowed to see?"

"Definitely that part."

She crawls over the back of the couch, lurching over my shoulder and squinting at the book in my possession. "Something to do with the museum?"

"You could go in that direction." I close the book, realizing that her unfamiliar closeness isn't going to make me feel comfortable enough to keep going. So I address her directly. "You seem to be hovering over my shoulders a lot this morning. Thought you'd be pissed off at me over Thursday still."

"Well... I was actually hoping you'd be able to do me a favor. Just a teensy itty bitty bit of a favor. Nothing too wild or out there, just a small molehill of a request."

"Let me guess, you want me to set you up with Rarity for a fitting?"

"That would be FANTASTIC!" Her eyes sparkle at the idea, but then she shakes her head. "But not exactly what I was angling for. Well... not the only thing."

"Okay, what is it?" I ask with a sigh.

"I knew I could get you to reason with me a bit." She flies over my shoulder and plops herself next to me on the couch, her wings fluffing as she lands. "So... a thing happened last night. Apparently Amor got asked to join in on the fun that was going on downstairs while you and Smolder were... I guess you could say, righting over wrongs."

"Well they're firmly written in my spine now. So what happened with Amor?"

"Turns out he thought about joining in, really considered it. But then he, well... chickened out. He felt pretty upset about the fact that he had been here for as long as he's been, but hasn't gotten any chance to make the first move. I'm sure you're already knowing where this is going by now."

"He had reservations because of his personal feelings towards Twilight." I surmise.

"Not only that, but he's been trying his best to, and I quote, 'give the princess his best and his all in good faith, quality, and quantity.' I may not like the topic of explicit matters, but even I know how to read the context of his answers. He's... a boy, and boys do like to be imaginative when it comes to their crushes. But apparently there was some sort of incident that he feels really crappy about that he won't talk to me over. He called himself a disgrace for some reason."

If I'm correct, she probably means the morning Ocellus teased him into making a mess in the dining area. "I know what happened with that situation. And out of respect for him, I'll just say nothing of it."

"Well in that case, he's been pretty hard on himself, like really hard on himself. He says that he's not worthy of being a suitor of the princess, but he's still trying to make himself presentable as one. Then he goes from brimming optimism, to crushing defeatism. It's an endless cycle with him, he lacks the confidence to engage but gains the courage to try it all again, only to talk himself out of it and start from square one. And with the whole war brewing up between our two nations, a lot's been getting to him. At this point he doesn't know if he can even approach her anymore."

To be fair, half of that isn't his fault. "I can understand why."

"In terms of peace, he doesn't feel that your plan with Zenobia will work either."

To be fair, even I have my doubts over it now. "Honestly, it is a wild shot in the dark. I'd be surprised if it did show any of the desired results after that disaster of a press conference. That start was all the media could stick to, never mind her sticking the landing towards the end."

"Yeah, she's not exactly the kind to stick to a script." The lesser blood princess adds. "We may not talk much, but I know her. The only reason why she's even doing this is because she's infatuated with what attention you've been giving her, attention she's known little of throughout her life. You might think it'll stay transactional, but she's attached to you. Whatever you did to her in Ponyland, she's clearly in for more of it."

"All I did was sex her up, at her request. If that's what she asking for, then I'll give her what she wants, anything to keep things favorable, and keep her docile."

"If you say so." She mutters with uncertainty. "But I don't think you realize it, she's aware of what she's feeling. And she knows a lot more than what many of us had ever labeled for her. At some point, she'll be looking to unload a lot of baggage on you, and you'll have to carry that weight."

"I think we figured that out in Foalsom. 'You're all I got now' is what she said before she threatened to blow all of us up in the marina, including herself. Can't get anymore blatant than that." I comment as I look out the window, seeing a passing airship in the far distance heading up to the north. "Look, it's like that airship out there in the distance. You know it can't fly on it's own, it's gotta have some sort of fuel source to keep it going. If it doesn't stay fueled, or motivated in this instance, it's gonna fail and hit the ground. And with her, there's very little that's keeping her motivated right now. And if I have to be a source for the time being, I have to be willing to do the part, even if it inconveniences me most of the time."

"I do engineering too you know, I know how an airship engine works. Engines are fickle, they can be sturdy so often, but even the slightest thing out of place and something's bound to go wrong. If you try to go outside of the manual, you better have a worthy substitute." She plants her hoof into my chest. "If not, you won't be flying high for very long." She lowers her hoof and hops off the couch. "That's Amor's situation right now. Sir Fencer was the last remnant of Adelphos' personal detail, a protector much like how he protected Amor. Those two weren't just close, Fencer was much of the brother Amor lost. With him gone, there's nothing to protect him, to speak with him, to offer honesty and advice, too little to keep him motivated... other than what's obviously got his heart in sutures. And with no attention, those sutures won't hold for long."

In a way, I feel for him. I can at least remember myself being in that same position years ago. My heart captive by the desire of an unrequited love of some pretty mare with a plan, a figure, and personality. While the results vary, I know mine all too well. We may be the same age, but I can still try to at least have him see that there's more to it beyond a failed crush. But in order to do that, he has to experience it. "So you think I should find some way to do for him what I'm already doing for Zenobia?"

"Not you exactly. But I'm sure that we all know that's a longshot with him being stuck here." Her ears perk up, almost like she had to carefully insert a disclaimer. "Not that there's anything wrong with the place, it's nice! But seeing her again is the only thing that keeping him up to this point."

"You want me to see if I can pull a favor for him."

"If it's not too much trouble." She clasps her hooves together, pleading for her brother's sake.

"That's a tall order, not quite as much of a 'molehill' like you called it."

"Anything to keep things favorable?" She tilts her head with a sheepish grin.

Already knowing the result of this impending contact, I grimace and accept the consequences to follow. "She should have a clear schedule tomorrow. I see what I can do."

Meanwhile over Canterlot...

At last reaching the destination of their voyage, the three princes look down at the mountain-anchored metropolis overlooking the lands to the south of it. They stare at the city in silence for the better part of fifteen minutes, neither one of them wanting to openly confess their thoughts over the exotic city below.

But at last, Eros gives credit to the city's structural integrity. "At last, here in the crown jewel of our enemy."

The avaricious prince scowls and devalue s his brother's compliment. "Well it's more of a polished stone, if you want to be generous. I wouldn't give it anything more than that."

"Now now, Xerxes, let's be fair. A city sat in a perilous position on the side of the mountain is itself an engineering marvel of itself. Plus the waterfalls cascading down the side, and also doubling as a moat for the main entrance into town is a daring aesthetic. To know that erosion isn't so much of a threat as the growing populace all inhabiting such a small focal point is something to be studied." Xerxes scoffs at the rebuke. "While they are our enemies, we should respect their accomplishments."

"I'll respect them as much as I do the multitude of creatures infesting their streets."

Eros steps around his older brother to politely engage with the spiteful stallion. "Again, Xerxes, we do as they do. We say as they say. Nothing to give ourselves away too soon, are we clear?"

The displeased imperial rolls his eyes and turns his back to the lavender-accented prince. "End my suffering."

Xerxes departs from the bridge in anger, marching out in silence as Eros continues to expand on the plan with his elder sibling. "Grumpy ones aside, I think our next objective should be to find someplace to hide away our vessel. It would be a strange thing to have our airship come into city airspace with no announced arrival. Perhaps there are caves or ravines on this mountain we can utilize."

"Wouldn't that give us away anyhow?" The one-eyed prince inquires.

"There's no need for worry Agamemnon. Their peasants don't build their cities under the ground like ours do."

The pair go back to viewing the city in the distance below. "All this economic freedom. And the regulars live like they own something worthy of note. It's almost disgusting."

"If you ask me, it should be easier to blend in that way."

"I'd rather sit through a thousand deaths."

"Oh come now, we know what you'll do when you get down there. You'll find a local tavern, get highly intoxicated, bed some average quality mare, and come back with yet another forgettable night and a hangover worthy of note."

"That's if they even got the liquor worthy of it." Agamemnon mutters with a stifled chuckle. "The mares on the other hoof, they might have a few of fairly good aesthetics. I can at least see the bright side of this, compared to Prince Killjoy."

"I'd wish he could do something other than complain. It's not like it's our fault that he signed off on five thousand plus souls to meet with the Doctor beyond." Eros tilts his head towards his brother. "Unless you feel partially culpable as well."

"I gave no such order." The one-eyed prince defends. "And you know me. I never get into fights I don't think I can win."

"Then you know that this whole thing is solely on him."

As the two continue to go back and forth over their thoughts of the disgruntled Xerxes, the aforementioned prince storms back into the private chambers of his sister. He immediately sits himself before the mirror, expecting a conversation to strike up in response. "That damned fool, Eros."

The candle lit beside the mirror flicker from an orange flame to a white one. A whisper speaks from beyond the looking glass. "Frustrations abound, my dear servant."

"You have no idea, to have a brother constantly rub the things you do in your face like it's nothing. I'd rather be dead than live another moment under his instruction."

The spirit draws an airy sigh. "Perseverance is the source of power well grown, authority well nurtured."

"I know you are who you are, but platitudes do not fare well with me at this moment. Forgive me for my insolence, it is difficult."

"And your sister has known greater strife, surely you should be able to take the marginal amount of her plight. After all, in spite of her frequent discredit, she has remained loyal to me. Surely you should be able to show similar strength." A ghostly mouth forms in the looking glass, mouthing the words spoken. "If not more."

"I take about as much pride in this as she does in the country she's betrayed."

The candle flickers at the prince's revelation. "Betrayal?"

"She's offered to broker peace between our two nations, undercutting our father's declaration of war." Xerxes walks from the nightstand, going towards the wall where a few weapons lie in wait for use. "There's no doubt in my mind she's been poisoned against us by none other than that pathetic dragon slave of hers."

The whisper replies with a curious drone. "Dragon slave? Do you by chance reference the one she's introduced me to?"

"The one and the same."

"Ah." The spirit confirms. "I recall he was from Equestria."

"Which is where we are now, seeking the holy mother."

"How ambitious." The disembodied voice sweetly invokes pride in the news. "You say you are in Equestria right now?"

The prince's anger stirs once more. "Overlooking this pathetic excuse of a capital Canterlot."

The mirror now shows an eye, looking down to the stallion with the disconnected smile. "Fortune has truly favored you, my dearest disciple."

"Disciple?" The prince turns back to the mirror, flustered at the title given to him. "I-I-I am not worthy─"

"You stand in your sister's place, now doing what she cannot. Now I bid unto you the favor once anointed to her."

The prince bows his head with reverence, overwhelmed with disbelief and pride. "I am without words."

"If I recall correctly, they have dismantled all that I have created in favor of their narratives. But I believe that there is hope beneath where the light touches. And wherein lies that hope also lies kindred company." A second eye shows in the mirror, pairing up with the first and aligning itself with the speaking mouth. "Fortune is yours to command, all you must do is seek it."

"How shall I, my lord?"

"You must send for the remnants of my most ardent followers, my lackeys of both past and current. You will meet with them first."

"And what then?"

"If they seem confrontational, merely tell them these words: All drinks on the dock."

In the parting message, the image of eyes and mouth disappears from the mirror, the candle flame flickers from white back to it's usual orange glow. While the message initially causes the stallion to brim with optimism, a moment of perplexity soon follows.

"All drinks on the dock? We're nowhere near the sea. Perhaps a river front?"

Ponyville...

"You WHAT!?"

I grimace as I thank my lucky stars that the phone is sitting on the table on speaker as opposed to being in my ear. My proposal falls on deaf ears. "Twilight, seriously, two hours of your Sunday shouldn't be that hard of an ask, perhaps even one."

But Twilight's stance is adamant on the issue. "I'm not going for this, you know I don't like him!"

"Did you even give him the chance? He's already given up on everything he knows and understood throughout his life, I think if he's willing to go that far for you, you should at least be able to hear him out for just a little less than sixty minutes."

She does bring up a valid point. "Just because he makes the decision to abandon his life for me doesn't obligate me to entertain him in any way. If I don't like him, then I don't like him. That should be the end of this discussion."

Unfortunately, I still had to play devil's advocate and try. "Twilight, he's here for you."

"And that's not my problem. Should've thought about that before abdicating and sneaking off to Equestria the first time."

"But you said that your whole reason for not being with him is religious differences. Now he's changed that."

"I never said that was the reason I didn't like him." She explains. "My reasons are my own, and I don't have to justify to you why I don't feel attached to someone who I don't believe is a good option for me."

I do understand her preferences, but at times the limitations her list of qualifications heavily restricts her options to ones that have only ended in disappointment up to this day. I continue to fight against her over her strict prerequisites for a partner. Plus I know tomorrow's her self-proclaimed day off. "Twilight, who do you have as a date for your Sunday time slot?"

She stops for a moment, stammering under her breath before pivoting on the subject. "Well if you need to know, I didn't have plans like that for this week. I have other things, like a war to avoid."

"And you don't think a conversation with Amor would help with that?" I challenge her.

"You know above all others that his position is an inconsequential one in their imperial hierarchy."

"So you'd rather talk it up with Zenobia some more then?"

"That's not─ugh!" Her show of frustration at my poking holes in her logic is subverted by yet another pivot to an off topic matter. "Anywho, let's get on with important matters. Next weekend coming up is supposed to be our monthly Friendship Summit, which was already put off for a week because we wanted you back home for long enough to get rested. Then a war got conveniently dropped off at our doorstep. So yeah, consider your Saturday booked."

Figures she'd turn this into another thing to put on my plate since I started asking her about Amor. Her spite knows no limits. "There you go, always dictating my schedules for me."

"Well I'm not giving you a choice. This won't be like our usual meetups, it will be mandatory. So you'll need to plan your week and travel logistics accordingly."

"Oh yeah, like the last thing you sent me on didn't nearly kill me."

"Now you're just overreaching! I'm not going to go back and forth with you over this! We're meeting next weekend! It shouldn't take that long! And you'll be back home in a timely manner, give or take a twenty-four hour period! That's final! Now I'll see you then, and don't you dare call me asking me to spend time with Amor again! Bye!"

I facepalm myself, already feeing more upset than I was having to initially make the call. "So damn annoying."

Ocellus enters into the den, seeing my show of bitterness. "Something the matter?"

"Oh no, just more of a forced schedule on my part. Next weekend is yet another Friendship Summit. Dammit, I just got back home, I just started to get back to being comfortable, there's peace in the house... Everything's too much these days."

"Any specific day?" The changeling inquires.

"Next Saturday, bleeding into Sunday."

"Really? That's total bullshit." She gripes, especially with it being on her day of all of them. "Well if it could make you feel any better, we could make it a joint summit with us also. We can make a weekend of all of us element bearers, both past and present?"

"That could work for both you and Smolder, Gallus and Silverstream would be on board. Yona and Sandbar would probably join in on it. But I don't think it would work for Gabby and the others here." I freeze with a sudden revelation arresting my thoughts for the moment. "Oh yeah, Yona's gonna be in Manehattan to help Coco with the regional line, and Gallus is running security over that way. That automatically rules out both Silverstream and Sandbar."

"Well, we can all go to join you." She suggests.

"If you think you can pull it off." I let the idea marinate a little more in my mind. Frustration starts to give way to satisfaction as another nuisance formulates for Twilight. "...Actually, I should totally bring Amor with us. He would love the opportunity to see how friendship works in the grander scale of running a country."

The changeling groans at my idea. "Why would you do that? You know she doesn't like him."

"And, that's her problem, just like how she put my life in danger and changes my schedule without consent, I'll do whatever it takes to mess up her mood for the day." I reply. "Plus she needs to open her standards up a bit anyhow. She doesn't even try to get to know him when he's literally a good guy who cares about everyone around him, genuinely. Even when they discriminated against me in Ponyland, he looked out for me as best as he could. I want her to see that since she doesn't get to see that side of him, mainly because he's constantly holed up here with us. Plus, it's my responsibility to keep an eye on all three of the imperial siblings throughout their stay until otherwise. So it's only fair that I force this issue, just like she forced me to bring him home at my life's peril." I plop back onto the couch and go through another one of the books I have set aside. "Besides, he's got stories. Twilight loves those."

"Ehh... If you think it will work."

"It might not. Still gotta try." I reply confidently.

"Okay. Just don't get yourself into trouble over this. I'd hate for there to be a rift between you and Twilight over something like this."

"It's all good." I reassure her. "And besides, if she gets upset, we'll just not talk for a week and reconcile. Happened the last time and we almost came to blows. It'll be fine."

"Alrighty then. I'll be downstairs getting ready for the evening." She flies up to give me a kiss. "Don't take too long with this, because I'm not Gabby. I'll hunt you down."

"Noted." As she leaves from the room, I hear the sound of water sloshing from within the pool. I look back to see Hestia shaking herself off from her dive and putting on a towel to dry herself off. She walks up to me on her way in.

"Huh, I guess you are big log of loveable personality. I'm starting to see why Zenobia got attached." She hovers up to pat the top of my head with praise. "I think it's pretty admirable that you're willing to take the heat for Amor. That's a plus in my book. Thanks for looking out for him."

"Yeah, I don't mind it. But I don't want to tell him what's going on just yet. It would suck for me to build up some expectations, only end up with disappointment when the time comes."

"See, that's what I'm talking about! You're like the biggest hard softie I've ever met!"

"Again, he looked out for me. Both of you did. You could've notched us in for a date with the imperial guards after our escape attempt. I owe you big."

The pegasus mare chuckles lightly with an eyeroll to dismiss her contributions. "Honestly, it it wasn't for the madam representative, we wouldn't have gotten very far. The credit you give to me should be to her. I sure do wish to see her again, give her my regards."

"Maybe in due time. She's off in protective custody, undisclosed location. Maybe we might run into her one day."

"Hope so." She replies with a sigh, looking up to me.

"What?"

"So... You wouldn't happen to know a library around here, would you?"

I chuckle at the thought of our current location. "Well... funny story about that."

The Greater Empire of Ponyland Meanwhile at Midnight Castle...

Night has fallen in the industrious nation of Ponyland. The refineries of the outer reaches bellow with waning laborers. By the wagonload, more and more ores are hauled into the hulking forge, all to be smelted and refined into hardened steel. Large anvils ring with the rhymical sounds of red hot sheets meeting with the hammers held by disciplined crafters of the molten crucibles. Sword and spear, beam and bolt, bullet and gun, rivet by rivet, the tools used for warfare's symphonic rhapsody are created, maintained, and even repurposed for lesser things. The red glow slowly dies in many foundries as the night firmly claims the sky. The war machine is but a breathing organism, all at the behest of it's imperialistic brain, who sits firmly upon his throne.

The emperor rests idle, watching quietly as his most trusted advisor walks through the doors. He paces himself with a brisk trot, bringing with him a printed newspaper. He hails towards the sitting alicorn. "Your highness, there is news from the international community."

Gabranth bows before the exalted ruler, offering the article for him to read. The emperor gazes with disinterest. "Oh wonders, how there is always a comment from the mumbling drivel that is the others. I can't possibly wait to hear what they have to say."

"Sire, I understand that is your way of saying you care not for their utterings, but it is a troubling trend we are starting to see."

"It can't be that troubling."

"Well sir... it's about Princess Zenobia."

Once more, he dismisses the article as an issue of non-importance. "Oh great, the girl has proven herself an international embarrassment yet again. I've grown to care less for her, she's much like her annoying mother."

"She's trying to broker for peace between Ponyland and Equestria."

A scoff leaves the emperor's lips. "That's laughable."

"She's in Equestria now."

"Well, guess she's taken so much of a liking to that dragon that she's fellating him politically. Not that it'll get anywhere than a dragon's seed spilling from her nethers... again."

"They say she's legitimate, but her reason is dubious and mired in controversy."

The alicorn narrows his eyes at his trust advisor. "Oh that's new. Tell me more."

"I understand this does not surprise you your highness, but some word leaders have taken a preference to having her speak on the country's behalf. Perhaps those public speaking lessons have ended up to her advantage, her mother's diligence in her early development shows."

He folds the newspaper, rising from his throne slowly. "World leaders say this now?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Well it won't matter much anyhow." His horn glows a pink aura, creating a similar flame on the article, burning the papers and the words on them into a smoldering whisper. The emperor walks towards one of the tapestries depicting his own birth. "Once Militades takes to his assignments in the north, we'll find much more of an agreeable position. All we have to do is convince those straggling cultists to put up a good front, make them seem far more intimidating than they actually are. If we supply them with some of our lower-end weaponry, we should be able to see more of a genuine effort to unseat the city-state of the north. Maybe some use of guerilla tactics should shelve off their forces in the tundra. Isolate the Crystal Empire, force them to act on that. And then with their attention focused to that front, we strike at their shores with extreme prejudice. A fight from the east, the west, and the north. We leave them with no room to breathe, strike hard, strike fast, and we strike decisively."

"Yeah, they won't even see it coming." The emperor's eyes bulge as an unfamiliar voice speaks next to him. He looks to his immediate left, seeing a cream colored unicorn standing next to him. The stallion smiles back at the confused emperor. "Nice wall rug, by the way."

The confusion on the emperor's face soon wipes clean as he hollers to the rafters above. "Centuries!" A moment passes, but nary a hoof, a shuffle, nor a voice can be heard responding to the emperor. He hails them again. "Centuries, seize this intruder this instant!"

"Oh yeah. I figured that my appearance would get a lot of unwanted attention. So I paid your boys upstairs a visit." The stallion clops his hoof against the marble floor, causing a piercing loud clack to sound throughout the room. Shadowy tendrils sprout from beneath his hooves, crawling up the pillars and seeping into the rafters, in turn slowly lowering down a host of thirty stallions, each blanketed with expressions of horror on their faces. "These are your guards, right?"

As each of them are sat peacefully aside, Gabranth barrels a cold stare bearing an edge akin to sharpened steel. "You dare disrespect─"

Sniper Shot interrupts the ranting advisor with a raised hoof. "Before you do that, and I mean really think about it, what do you think happened to these other guys? Do you really see yourself joining them?" The advisor grumbles, but falls silent as he look at the faces of the numerous dead littering the walls of throne room. "Yeah, we need to have a serious chat."

The emperor whispers to his underling. "Gabranth, deal with it."

The armored stallion summons a pistol and points it towards the head of the invading stallion. The intruding unicorn chuckles. "Yeah, I see I'm not that important to you, gotta send your lackey to deal with the real figure behind the scenes."

"The emperor does not waste words on that who is unworthy. You are but a mere mouse invading a den of greater beings."

"Really, I wipe your personal security detail, drop them right before you to show the kill count, even walk into this dark-souls, bubonic plague looking ass castle, and I'm not even to be acknowledged? You must really think highly of yourself to see me being that low. So maybe I should change it up then, help you realize what you're dealing with." The stallions horn glows silver for a few seconds before a bright flash shines in the room. But in the place of the stallion is a human, who's hands glow a dying white aura. "Now... do I have your undivided attention?"

The emperor's eyes widen, but narrow back to a show of indifference, trying to maintain a stoic impression of the unexpected visitor. "So, you're the rouge apostle."

"And you're the bastard who couldn't keep his hooves off of Kali, that was until she put her hoof down and decided that your son's act of ignorance was enough to deny you a little bit of playing around." The man folds his arms. "Funny though, she was strongly considering letting you hit, thought it would sweeten the deal of getting our guards some decent lodging. She was trying her best to get that done, and yet... your son got in the way of that too. Man, kids these days, I swear."

Gabranth looks to the emperor, who motions him to stand down. At last, he takes a more direct approach in speaking to the visiting human. "So you are here for what purpose?"

"You called for a war. I don't think you'd want that."

"And why do you think that is."

"Well... let's just say that my wife isn't the only one who can raise the sun." He says as he walks closer to a window. He places his hand on the stained glass panel, gently touching it with a bit of his magic imbued. The massive window shatters in an instant, the human shielding himself from the falling debris. "Plain and simple, if you think you're winning with raw numbers and weapons, all you're doing is gathering your guys into a really large frying pan. That's what happened out at sea when your sons came for us. Now I'm not the brightest tactician out there, but I do remember that going against an eldritch cosmic horror is not the best booster of troop morale. Trust me on that one, I would know."

The emperor continues to show disinterest in the man. "And I'm to be entertained by your idle threats?"

"Sir, we have eighty year old tech that can wipe your entire city clean from a map like bleach to bloodstains. And yes, that does include your civies down in the caves below. There is no discrimination, you can be royally high and mighty all you want, you'll be royally subatomic and your shadow will stand as a reminder of where you stood in the moment the vapors got to you."

"Well I find that hard to believe."

Nondis purses his lips as he nods in thought. "Let me broaden your scope a little. Our current year─back in my world─is 2022 Anno Domini. Let's go back to the year 1945, that's about 77 years ago. On the day of August 6th of that year, a flying machine known as an airplane, notably titled the 'Enola Gay', dropped a singular device unto the waking town of Hiroshima, Japan. The small device was a bomb the size of a large bicycle. I want you to imagine it, a bicycle falling from the sky, and it never even touches the ground. It had a parachute on it to slow it's descent into the city, just for the boys who dropped it off to get the fuck out of dodge before the fuse could blow. And when it did blow, it blew away 70,000 lives in the blink of an eye, vaporizing flesh, bone, wood, and steel. Another 50,000 lost their lives from the resulting toxic residue, which fell upon the ruined city like ashen snow. The bomb's name was 'Little Boy', one of three siblings to be made for the purpose of ending a war, only the second would be used, the third was stripped back down and utilized in terrifying research on the effects of radiation on a human body. Now to note something of key importance, those three were only the smallest ones my home country has ever given birth to."

"And you have said weapon?" He appears as though the human is bluffing his story.

"The modern variant. Much smaller package, but it has equally devastating results, results that are not for you to see, but for your country to experience, that is if you continue along this route."

The emperor maintains his stoic nature. "Well let's say that I call you on your bluff. What then?"

"Well I'd have to say that I'm glad my phone is in the pocket dimension where my collective is." The man looks out to the destroyed window, seeing the starry sky above. He snaps his fingers as he turns away from the window. "It's a pretty night out. Those stars are really something, Twilight really put a lot of work into her nights, even when she's not around. Granted, they aren't like Luna's, but she does a good job cultivating these formations. Would be a shame to have that interrupted, especially with the auroras being as bright and beautiful as they are."

"And yet no sign of your bluff." The emperor claims as his words are capped off by a bright light illuminating the sky as if the day has returned shortly after ending the hour before. His face runs pale as the light cast an overwhelming presence over the entire region. As it fades back out, only a bright explosion is seen in the distant sky above. The emperor and his advisor stands quiet as they watch the the horrifying explosion dissipate gradually.

The man speaks quietly to the pair. "Star light, star bright, the last star you'll see in life, you'll wish you may, and with all your might, but it won't be just you who'll die tonight."

An enormous shockwave crashes through the city, shattering every glass window in the castle. The jagged shards embed themselves in the bodies of the dead guards around the room. Gabranth shields the emperor from the hazardous fallout, he then checks on the mystified ruler. "Your majesty..."

"Eighty years of research, perfected only sixty years ago to the boundaries far too destructive to be seen as a reasonable response to any act of violence. And to think it was the downsized-to-half version that was set off, that we know as Tsar Bomba." A rumbling sounds from beneath the human, a large shadow claw rises from the floor, one from that of an arimaspi. It provides a seat for the human in the palm of it's claw. He sits high above the pair of stallions, looking down at them with a smirk on his face. "Now, my darling wife has sent me here to talk with you. And if I know Celestia, she wouldn't dare let me leave without striking terms."

"Your wife?" The emperor questions.

"Celeste Delanise Valkyrie-Haines, formerly known as Princess Celestia, my beloved sun to my weeding self. She is my mare, and demands that we bring this to an end before dinner our time. She is the one your stupid son by the name Xerxes demeaned and insulted, and attacked with no provocation. That was our ship that sailed the seas. And if you need further proof of my pedigree..."

He holds his hand out, summoning the golden halberd that his wife so often wielded in her time of battle. The pole of the enchanted weapon is slung upon his shoulders.

"So even if we are retired, try to think of this as a very important event. If we hadn't renounced our powers before our exchange of vows, you would simply be paid a visit by none other than the King of Equestria himself. A distant flex, of course. But if I have to stress the importance of this meeting, then by all means I shall. So do yourself a favor, old man, and tighten the fuck up. This is a triple threat, not only am I a human with tech far outclassing yours, I'm also the man who claimed what your family sought to claim for generations. And thirdly, I am the last thing your so-called Doctor has ever made, the last thing of his legacy." More of the arimaspi arms rise from the ground around the pair of ponies, creating a forest of risen claws in the throne room of the imperial alicorn.

"And bonus point: I don't hold a crown on my head, so that makes me a pawn on the board, here on your side, on your baseline, upgradeable to whatever I deem necessary to cut you down, should you refuse. So to summarize this moment in three words... Check, your move."

No longer able to hold his stoic face, the emperor resigns himself to reluctance as he gives Nondis his reply. "What are your conditions?"

The man leans forward in his shadowy seat. "Let's start from the top then. Shall we?"