Chapter 9

The humans were greeted as the proper customs dictates when it comes to greet a veteran of a campaign or a renowned hero, after all when it came to help his subjects,the humans without a doubt in their hearts offered their support asking for nothing or barely nothing in return.

The so called trespass or “crimes” could be swept aside for the time being, the knights in all their wisdom expected them to turn and run or to fall like many other refugees into either bandits or beggars, and yet, here they went into the fire, literally in some way, to help a forgotten town in the border of his kingdom.
Losing most of their group in the conflict and still having the strength to push forward, that is a characteristic that most if not all griffins can respect. Their display of old griffin magic and their so called “immunity” to the attacks of that foul Minotaur brought great interest to the king.

Magic isn’t something that everygriffin can do, sure some are more adept to it thanks to the use of staffs and wands, but most of the knowledge of old magic was all but lost, still everyday new books and grimoires were restored thanks to the help of historians and guilds, so learning or rediscovering griffin magic and spells is still a slow and complicated process, and with the appearance of new educational ways of learning the arcane arts, griffin wizards regardless of experience or academic achievements, became a expensive luxury.
As the old saying goes, knowledge is power and many noble houses like to hoard that kind of power for themselves. When news came that this small group of humans were leaving the country, the king thought of a way to both gather them and reward them for their service and if with little luck, get them to work for him. That way he could protect them from foreign and domestic opportunists without looking like he was forcing out his way.

Ferdinand wanted to change the ways of governing the kingdom but from time to time he felt like he was falling little by little to the roads of tyranny, if it wasn’t for some of his friends in the guard making jokes with him when no griffin was looking or having a small talk in the privacy of his chambers he thinks he would have fallen a long time ago. He never liked the idea of forcing his way, but the traditionalist griffins were always fighting with the new generations of nobles, it was like the past and future weren’t allowing the present to exist. Still those conflicts forced him to choose either side whenever a debate or problem arose, and with the crown on his head,he felt that his image as a ruler of the kingdom was being questioned every time. The idea of bringing the humans wasn’t just to learn of their magic and protect them from others but to distract the court and the landsmeet representatives with a new opportunity, and maybe to bring them both to the problems that the kingdom was having on the present. Perhaps to have a new chance to give his race a new fresh and first impression to a new world was what they needed now.

When the humans arrived he could not believe their appearance, the reports his knights gave him days ago described them like tall, hairless monkeys, but now that he was seeing them face to face, the reports could not be far from the truth.
Sure they had some semblance to the primates but barely, in truth they looked more like a whole new species, their faces were more detailed and contained some fine features, the females were tall and standing straight with their backs, their faces thin with long hair and their eyes...oh their eyes, soft but fierce like he had seen on some other female griffins guards. Their bodies showed the developed muscles on their arms and their busts were...well they were Big, bigger than he expected drawing most of his view to them. With soft pinkish skin adorning their faces and thinner figures with some well detailed proportions on their bodies , they moved nothing like monkeys or looked nothing like the warriors that were described in the reports he received, maybe he expected the closest thing to a minotaur or some creature in between. The reports said they fought with the fierce foulness of a barbarian and here they looked more civilized like a noble from Canterlot or his court.

The male on the other side looked exactly like a male counterpart, more muscles, taller than all the females, and his so called “hands” were bigger and thicker than the others, Ferdinand could see that his shoulders were broader than the rest and his limbs were bigger, still he was surprised to see that even with his physicality, the male looked even more nervous than the rest of them in this situation. What was really the surprise was their clothing, resembling most of the modern fashionable look that he had seen on urban places in the world like Manehattan, but with strange materials, that and the fact that most of the clothes wore strange language and words unknown to him.

They all arrived with their belongings , but he could see their weapons on their backs like “spears” with a hole on their tips. “rifles” he thought the reports said something about their strange weapons that allowed them to gain a superior strength on their enemies, stronger than any crossbow and capable of shooting with an accuracy and speed that ignored even the forged steel armor of the enemy.

He guessed it was a good idea to be ready if the situation went south and having the Hussarian guards was his way to ensure safety to all griffins welcoming the party.
Still surrounded with knights and guards they showed no signs of threat or aggression, Ferdinand was still studying their faces when he saw one of the females who pulled out a little case with a small mirror and began to use the reflection of the sun to shine at the biggest Hussarian close to her, after seeing the newly famous Captain Silver stopping her from further shenanigans, with a small smile forming on his face Ferdinand knew he was going to liked them. So after the formal greetings, he decided to have a conversation with them without the nobility, to learn from their point of view their side of the story.

For little knowledge he could get the so called human were like a mix of both Griffin and Equestrian when it came to personalities, they talked open and friendly like the Equestrian he knew all of his life, but their eyes showed a little of that wild and dangerous look that most griffins who lived a rough life or those who were present serving on the military had.
Even with the Hussarian guard and the knights present the humans talked without fear and a little nervousness, that doesn’t mean they didn’t know how to properly address the king but for most of their speech the idea of an authoritative figure brought a little of rejection from them, apparently their history with politicians and Tyrants from their world showed them to not trust anyone with power, regardless how much they had. Still regardless of everything in this situation the humans payed a high price and the Griffins in whole were in debt to them. Ferdinand could see that one the humans female had a sorrowful look on her face, the pain of loss that the king was quite familiar with.

Surrounded with his closest of friends Ferdinand knew he could bring himself to be more open to the humans and began explaining their choices if they wanted to accept them, he explained the whole situation with his crowning and what appeared to be the first steps of a plot to unstable his rule on the land. he offered the humans a chance to stay and in return they will have a place to stay for the time being, he will accept them as nobility of the land and give them a small location for them to use for whatever purpose, and that further details will be discussed once they met with the rest of the officials later that day. That way the humans could get a proper leveling of their choices and don’t feel forced to make one that quickly, that honesty is what brought a sincere look on the faces of the humans, giving for the first time in their life a chance to put their trust in monarch.
The welcoming party event was as formal as it could be, later in the day the humans and the knights were allowed to clean themselves and look presentable for the night when more nobles and representatives of the neighboring kingdoms would come to meet them.

News of the conflict in the borders of the kingdom flew faster than expected with the Equestrian sisters and the Queen of the Hippogrifs showing concern about the threats that came from the East. The dragons being true to their nature were either isolated or didn’t care about the whole thing, but the rumors that said that of one of their kind was used as an experiment, THAT itself rose some attention on the south of their territory, but as long as no drake venture outside of their mountains the dragons were safe, the last thing Ferdinand wanted was to have a shouting match with the newly crowned Princess Ember or to draw a new conflict with the dragons.

Early in the night, the ambassadors were greeted one by one as they were being presented on the steps of the castle, on the balcony of their chambers the humans were looking out the small line of guests, the girls of the group were absolutely enjoying themselves gleefully pointing with their fingers at the carriages belonging to different dignitaries, when the ponies arrived and feathers and horn made and appearance the so called female “adults” began their high pitched song and dance reminiscing the Disney like classic tales and going further back to the age of 10.

On the other side of the room Michael Keener, who has been the voice of reason of the group, the responsible adult, the newly appointed leader when it came to deal with their situation, who was doing his best to remain calm during his conversation with a king of a country, was now having the closest thing of a nervous breakdown, it didn’t help that he buttoned wrong his attire for the night or that his new friends were singing like the muses of the movie of Hercules.

After learning the knowledge of the kingdoms of the known world thanks to Ferdinand, he realized that magic is far more complicated that he believed in the first place and that Alicorns are a real deal, more over one of them is capable of entering the dreams of her subjects, even more over the biggest ally of Griffonstone was Equestria, and to ado even further the damage he may or may not knocked out was supposed to be the kindest of rulers in the world, doesn’t matter if it happened in a dream. On Earth you can’t say you want to kill the president “On Minecraft” without having the federal agencies breathing down on your neck the moment you post that on the internet.

The fact that he remembered bits and pieces of that encounter and like puzzle pieces they all felt into place didn’t make his feeling on the whole situation any more easier , after the final thought went through his head, he remembered how he looked at her flank before he Myke Tyson’d her out of unconsciousness or out of dreamland whatever the expression you are looking for.

Even though no Alicorn was present at the moment their ambassadors were there and now they all have to mingle with them, Kenner knew that even if he would sound like a madman if he told them what has happened a couple of days when they arrived on this world or even if the girls would believe him, they would began asking questions, one of those being why did you look at the ass of a princess and then punched her on her face?, just the idea of being called a depraved monster in front of everyone was enough to give him a cold sweat, this was reality after all not some forum or a smash or pass challenge on the internet. He felt that he needed to save some face even if it meant to deny or ignore every allegation that they were going to throw at him if the truth came out.

Earlier that day, The king in all his glory decided on that moment to ask him,since the expression of his face went a little pale when he mentioned a certain solar princess during their talk , Michael couldn’t remain calm and told the king if he would tell him if he took the secret to his grave, Ferdinand expecting something worse accepted, when truth finally came out, the griffon king couldn’t keep his dignity any further and laughed out loud, after getting some air in his lungs he promised to protect the human if any of the Princess demanded his head then laughed again.

Guilt was overcoming him until the girls saw at the new arrivals, the Queen of the Hippogriffs have arrived in a very colorful carriage with her daughter no less, probably to get to know the heroes of Griffonstone and to properly meet the newly crowned King Grover. It was all a display of opulence and grace, the one you would expect from royalty, everything looked like she was the one leader of their country that didn’t let their ambassador to represent them alone.

That was until a open carriage appeared on the sky bringing the attention of all viewers, the Alicorn sisters have arrived surprising everyone on the vicinity, and while the girls were in awe looking at them, Michael felt a lump on his throat and looked further down the balcony thinking “maybe the fall would kill me faster” as soon as that thought went to his head, a maid knocked on their door to let them know that the king called for them to present them.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, haven't being on the best moods latetly and work has been very demanding.
Good new getting a new PC so may post new chapters in the near future.