Good Morning Mr. Journal, Keener here.

It’s been a couple of crazy days with the restoration of the estate here in Griffonstone, I’ve been put in charge of getting the necessary materials for the construction and maintenance of some parts of the main building and the small cottages where part of the help lives. Did you know that in most parts of Griffonstone a griffin family can sell years of servitude in exchange for a piece of land or a house?
Technically what most families do is they ask for the nobility for a job, work a couple of years and Bam!, you got yourself and your family a house and land. Now it sounds like a fairy tale right? yeah I guess, most Noble Lords in the past did that type of contract in order to gain loyalty among their house banners also expand their territory allowing the development of the land and it worked, but that was in the past, after generations of noble griffins living in luxury and forgetting the virtues of chivalry that their ancestors used to lived by, many figured out a way to exploit said laws and traditions.

Such was the case with the estate we were given by the King, the servants and some families that live close to the mansion are, in some legal and twisted way, enslaved to the land. The first lord agreed on fulfilling the old contract of servitude but then he passed away and his sons took over saying that the verbal contract was made to their father and that it wasn’t their responsibility to fulfill a contract since they weren't a part of it.
I know some lawyers would love to have a part in this, but in some way they were right, sadly they sold their mansion and ever since lord after lord that came did the same, bought the land force the commoners to a life time of servitude and then sold the land, repeating the cycle again and again.

When we were given the land and the servants came to do the old dance with us, we talked over many subjects, when they told us their story we just gave them what was rightfully theirs in the first place. The look on the majordomo was hilarious, he thought he was dreaming we told him that his piece of land was his and that he could do whatever he wanted with it, signed a title of the land and the building that came with it on the spot and gave it to him. He kept it close to his chest with relief going through his face, poor guy. That same day We told him that if he wanted he could come work with us tomorrow morning and that we could discuss payment and everything else.

His entire family and many other griffins came with tools, food and plans and were set to work.
Anyways I’ve been put in charge of going to different parts of Griffonstone and Equestria to get specific materials and some supplies while I’m in those places.

Whew...right now I feel like I want to talk about what happened in Branwick, alright back where we left off, I know it’s opening a bad wound but I feel like I have to explain myself about some guilt and feelings about THAT day.
Okay, after we got ourselves sorted of that mess with the dragon and the burial and burning ceremonies, we picked ourselves up and began planning what to do then, where to go and if we could get some answers about the strange magic that we used that night. I was in a state of guilt, and still am only that I manged to deal with it with time. We lost people and to be honest I never felt as bad as I should be and that’s what was wriggling my brain. Normally when it comes to losing people close to you is heartbreaking but losing people that you barely met for a couple of days isn’t exactly sad, I know I sound like a monster without a soul, but I didn’t know those folks, I mean, we didn’t spend that much time together, we just been going with the flow of the situation for a couple of days, hoping something would come out and explain why we were there in the first place.

I joked with Austin and Otto, talk with Nap about Italian football and even got caught checking the ass of Cali and Lucy form time to time, but now....they were all dead. The only thing left of them were some of their weapons, ammo and personal belongings, other than that and their nicknames we knew nothing of them aside form what they decided to share during our little “adventure”. It didn’t felt right calling them friends back then and doing it now feels insulting. Am I wrong readers? I guess you folk can judge better from your point of view.

I guess if we didn’t rush into dangerous situation we could have become something more than just acquaintances. The real deal was for Milla and Aliana, they lost someone close to them and it tore their heart apart. I’ve learned that Prag was Milla’s big brother and that he always took care of her carrying the heaviest of burdens of their past life, Aliana knew Prag since they were little and it kinda looked like that they were more than just friends. Still seeing the bodies of the people that came with us into this new world was surreal and bizarre in a grim kind of way.

And then is the whole slaying of the dragon and the enemy that we fought over, a demonic goat that knew of our kind? a Minotaur using magic to mutate normal beings into monsters? and finally that undead dragon? Not without forgetting the whole magic bullets that we shot that night W T F, right?, Viking Elsa bayonet charging into the mouth of a dark souls knock off gaping dragon and me having elvish runes glowing out of my shirt into my hands, It was just weird.
The captain told us about the glowing runes of the sawmill and their origin, something that predates back in the dark ages of their people, a time of strife and heroes, it sounded really good and all but it didn’t explain why we were able to cast or call their magic into us. That’s when Iron Beak decided to tell us more of Equestria and that the only “people” that could tell us about magic were the ponies since part of their species are fully connected to the whole magic development, not to say the griffins didn’t have wizards of their own, just not on the same arcane level or quantity as Equestria.

Also the dragon we killed? yeah it wasn’t a fully adult, The marks of magic being induced into the flesh gave indications of a some sort of transmutation that this poor creature was forced to grow and the whole process that came with where simply side effects, those griffins that had some experience with magic or at least basic knowledge told us that it was the work of someone whom barely knew how to wield magic and it was sloppy and rushed, I guess our friend the Minotaur was an apprentice and wanted to know how far he could go with his little experiment.

So without any other alternative we decided to go to Equestria in order to know more about magic and maybe just maybe find a way home, we were half way finishing packing and leaving when the Captain and Iron Beak came with a scroll telling them to bring us to the king, apparently the newly crowed king Grover wanted to reward us for our actions. Even with the heavy ambience of loss and sorrow still in our minds and hearts, the idea of discovery and meeting of royalty gave us a 180° on our mood. We had to...otherwise all of this suffering was for nothing. Besides my inner kid wanted to know if I could throw fireballs or lighting, if I could do that then Harry Potter got nothing on me. Guns are cool, but raw power coming out of your fingertips? it’s something we all want to try at least once in our life. It’s a shame that we lucky few are the ones going to live the good part of this experience, so in the end we chose to pospone our roadtrip to Equestria and decided to meet the king of the kingdom.

Traveling was easier this time around the knights were to accompany us to the capital, which was both a good thing and bad, the knights were respectful to us but wanted to know more about us humans in general, the moment we told and showed a little of our world, music, knowledge, etc. They were completely in awe, what to us was the most mundane thing to them it was a luxury only a few could have, computers the size of a mirror that could fit in our pockets and play orchestrated music? check, bags with solar panels that turn sunlight into energy for our electronics? check and don’t get me started when we told them about the galaxy and everything space related, even Captain Silver was listening when we told him that we put a flag on the moon.
The “bad” thing was that the young knight Leonie became obsessed with us, some of our technology wasn’t completely alien to them but it was something that you only find in certain places, besides our most basic things looked like way more advanced that theirs in major ways. In some places the had industrial revolution vibes, like Jules Verne steampunk culture and in other places well might as well be a simple medieval village with a water source. The whole distribution was weird but it worked for them I guess.
And don’t get me started with the music, that made the knights just fly closer to our sides even when we put our little portable speakers at full volume, listening to free bird while you are flying in a chariot with an open canopy and having griffins doing barrel rolls? Fuck Yeah Mr.Journal, just straight out of a rock music video and it made the whole trip easier on our spirits too.

After a while the young knight Leonie started asking question after question and me having the worthless content of the internet stored in my head began telling her, did that shut her up? of course not but I was just trying to keep the subject of weaponry and our war history out of the conversation as much as I could.

Thankfully the girls began asking questions of their own, in order to get to know more about this place, specially about how magic works and if they could give us a basic course on what they know about it. It kinda felt like a Q & A from there, still the griffoness never tore her eyes out of me and Elsa and after what we pulled off in Branwick, I think we got ourselves a fan of Humanity, I just hope that number stays in 1 don’t want to deal with any followers for the moment, just imagine a griffin magically appears in a furry convention on Earth, disaster 100% guaranteed.

Now I know some of you want to know whether we can use magic or not, well the answer is not that simple, when it come to magic we can’t “make it” we can be a conduit of it though, like getting zapped with magic won’t have the effects on you but you’ll feel like drinking tequila only without the flavor and having all the effects of a hangover.
Getting zapped multiple times could knock you off, a full barrage could kill you, maybe haven’t tried it yet and don’t want to risk it too. But when it come to “use” magic spells we can do in a primitive way like using a muscle that you didn’t know you had until you felt it and then boom it’s how you do it, how concentrated you are and believe it or not how you felt on that moment, pure raw emotions can affect the spells like throwing a punch in blind rage.

Also we can't choose which spell to cast, like we absorb whatever comes and we spew it out. That night on Branwick we wanted to kill that dragon and the little magic that was stored in those runes amplified with the residual magical attacks on the tower with the Minotaur gave us just the kick to go full Avatar.
We haven’t tried to practice much with it since we want to go home and the idea that we can store the type of “fuel” that brought us here gave us the inspiration to just keep it in store just in case we need to punch through whatever barrier comes in our way. So far we haven't felt any diferent and we want to keep it that way.

But me being the immature idiot that I am decided to try to do a Palpatine impression in an empty room on the Villa, nearly got myself self electrocuted in the process but got at least full 5 seconds of “POWER, UNLIMITED POWER!!!” then I felt like being tasered and cattle prodded from almost all sides, Human 0 - Magic 1.

Anyway the whole trip was some what relaxing, a little turbulence on the way, but pleasant none the less. The knights began describing the hot spots of the Capital, the places were you can get a nice drink or were the food is delicious, most of the descriptions they gave us were places they frequented since even though they were noble born, they still followed a militaristic way of life and restrictions were high, specially with Iron Beak breathing down on you. I guess the knights of the realm have a reputation to uphold and the officers keep them in line.

He got his name when he became an officer fighting the colonial forces of Equestria back when Griffonstone was disputing the claim of some islands on the northern coast or so they said. Ever since then he built himself a reputation like major Payne, so unless you grew on the Capital walls, the only thing you were going to know for sure is when to get your R&R when you are out with your friends. And now we were about to become the first humans to witness on first hand the Capital city of a new species, their culture and history, starting first with no other by meeting with their royalty.

As we approached the castle the more nervous we got or at least that was my case, have you ever seen a castle? an actual castle that isn’t a ruin or turned into a museum? I guess you lucky few do, the whole thing screamed to be out of a fantasy story but we could see clearly the defenses of that place, like scorpions batteries in different places and fortified towers, guards making their rounds, you know the typical thing you would expect from a medieval fortification.
Now it was in front of our eyes, the once crumbling castle that was left to fall into disgrace had a new shine and apparently the restoration work was far from over, it looked like time did a number on this structure, still we could see the look of determination on the workers and every griffin who was tending to repairs or busy with their work, no matter how mundane it was, they carried it with an air of pride and focus.

It was amazing to see them like this, Captain silver told us about their new king, a distant descendant Princeling who was simply tired of seeing his people fall into disgrace and decided to do something about it, I know I said it all before but the changes he made around, the way he carried himself and others, made everygriff believe that the only way forward was to remain objective to the present instead of longing for the past. After losing their relic on that accident with the ponies, a lot of noble griffins wanted to make Equestria pay, Ferdinand decided to step up and threw a speech on how the griffins simply lost their way and that every simple griffin from the highest to the lowest had a degree of responsibility on what happened.
It did made sense and when he decided to step up to claim the throne with the help and approval of many their support was made clear. Little by little his ideas to bring modernization into the traditional way of life in the kingdom allowed even the most uptight noble open to his ideals, either they adapted to the changes or their country would suffer the same fate like many others in the known world.

He sounded like a great guy and after hearing what happened to us in the forest and the whole business with the dragon, he wanted to get even with us and reward us for our help and sacrifice, as we approached the side of the castle his personal guard came to greet us at the landing platform. Here’s another thing you folks might not know, some griffins are freaking huge, not giant like but close enough and with their wings spread to increase their size in a way to intimidate, chills man chills, I was just amazed by the display.

The whole capital was placed on a Giant tree that looked dead and hollow, houses and roads were built on the base but the castle was on the top, and with a change of a monarch the whole place looked like it was healing a little bit, green spots appeared in the dry branches that spread on the top of the tree.
New construction were being made all around going even further to the fields below the mountain, it was the sight of progress and now here we were, in a castle being greeted by the griffin version of a space marine, and behind them a flock of nobles wearing official uniforms and what it appeared to be the nobility closest to royalty and the rest of the court.

The crowd got closer to meet the knights who faced the horrors on their borders and to finally meet the humans who fought along side them, their murmuring was loud and their glances at us wasn’t hostile but it really showed that they were surprised to see us, I guess rumors flew faster than us, the eyes of every griffin was right on us. On that moment the crowd made way to a couple of announcers and in the middle the High king of Griffonstone forever named Grover even though his name was Ferdinand, a tall griffin with a colorful brown with some blonde hairs going through his hide, like the guy was born with golden streaks and his lion part was covered by the purple cape he carried.

The knights stood in a line presenting arms awaiting for the orders from the personal guards, but nothing came the huge group of griffins just stood there in silence watching us, looking at our movement. Aliana was getting impatient and decided to mess around with them, slowly bringing one hand on her pocket and pulling slowly a small pocket mirror and started using the sunlight to reflect it in the faces of the bigger griffins, Captain Silver pulled his wing over her hands in a motion to stop her, some of the knights were smirking though even Iron Beak appeared amused.
We were about to bow along with the knights when all of the sudden we heard him speak ”Don’t, do not bow to me, it is us should we bow to you, young heroes, In the name of King Grover and all of Griffonstone I thank thee for the length of your efforts and sacrifices, I know there is nothing I own that I could give you to replace the loss of your loved ones, but whatever favor you ask, I’ll do my best in my power to grant it to you.”
We thanked him and his gaze went towards the knights who were standing in position puffing their chest and looking forward.
The king thank them for their service and had a little words with Iron Beak and Captain Silver, what did he said? don’t know, as soon as he finished saying a few words, he invited us to a banquet with the rest of the court so we may re tell the story of our arrival and our time in this kingdom. He said that we were more than welcome to stay as long as we wanted and that many ambassadors of different kingdoms were coming to greet us later in the day, but first he would allow us to rest.

And that was our first day in the Capital, I know this sounds of little importance but you must know that despise our arrival, the rumors that a new enemy just breached the borders of the kingdom and a dragon no less, it looked like war was on their doorstep, just in time when a new king was crown and hope was rekindled all through their country?, is it any wonder they would like to pass our arrival on the castle as just another formal greeting?
Don’t exactly know the length of the rumors themselves but I for once know they are greatly exaggerated for sure.

Talk to you soon Mr.journal.

Michael Keener.

Author's Note

Here's a filler, had a few days that completely left me without any will to write but I managed to force myself into it again.
Hope you people enjoy it.