Greater Teleport.

As soon as I appear in the air just a few feet away from the entrance to the main volcano I make eye contact with several dragons flying out of the volcano.

“It's the bladesinger! What are you doing here? Negotiations finished yesterday. Thanks for-”

Intimidation Check

17 + 2 + 3 = 22.

All I did was flare my aura while staring into his eyes, but I suppose that's enough to warrant intimidation. Within a second the Drake is frozen stiff. A couple of his friends start to fly towards me but the largest one in the group, an adult black dragon calls out to them.

“Stop! Go alert the Dragon Lord. The standing order for the bladesinger is flee on sight, we cannot fight him.”

During the initial stealth mission into the Dragon Lair.

“One last thing, though, father. Did you upgrade the status of that creature like I advised in my report?” Ember asked her father as she left to check on Grogar.

“I did. Now go.”

Ah so that's what Ember meant back then. I won't lie, if the dragons have standing order to flee on sight against me that's a pretty big ego boost. It should speed up this rescue operation as well.

As soon as the younger drakes hear of the flee on sight order they take off. Leaving just me and the black dragon in the air. Reaching out with telekinesis I envelope his entire head and neck with Divinity and pull him through the air to me.

“Where is she?”

“She's in the volcano half a glide from here to the northeast. It's the one that's heavily guarded.” I just stare at him for several seconds in contemplation. I'll allow him to live.

I release the telekinesis and let him go. He seems a bit surprised so I just motion with my hand for him to fuck off. Assuming half a glide is half a mile, I should be able to see the volcano from here. Squinting my eyes I can make out a tunnel on the side of a volcano roughly a mile away with four of the humanoid dragons standing idle outside.

I can't remote sense or scry inside the volcano, just like how I can't do the same when targeting Nightmare. So, she's likely in there. I can scry a few hundred feet above the opening of the volcano and when I do so…my blood boils when I see the state of the alicorn.

For the first time since Daybreaker…something in me snaps.

3rd Person POV

“My Lord! The bladesinger is here! He's moving towards the prisoner!”

“What? It hasn't even been a full 24 hou-” The Dragon Lord and every dragon around him freezes as they feel an intense pressure surge through the entire volcano. Torch immediately realizes he has to move. “Go find the goat and send him to the prisoner. I'll go stop this fool myself.”

Using a nearby tunnel that leads to a magma duct the Dragon Lord swims to where Nightmare is being held. Using this method allows him to arrive just before Ignis. Torch feels uneasy when he surfaces and decides to fly up and out of the volcano. His first thought is that the report was wrong and it’s Daybreaker who is attacking them, but he quickly realizes that is not the case.

The elf is walking towards the volcano where Nightmare is being held. His normally silver ethereal hair has turned into blazing inferno, and the iris and pupils of his eyes are no longer visible. Instead they are just shining pure golden light.

Torch is unsure of how to approach this because for the first time since Grogar bestowed him power, he is unsure if he is stronger than his opponent. Unfortunately the Dragon Lord doesn't get the luxury of more time to contemplate as he watches the four guard drakes stationed outside the volcano fly down and approach the bladesinger.

“Halt!”
“Stop there, creature! This is your only warning and chance to turn around. Our Lord has declared any non-dragon who approaches this prison shall be swiftly executed.”

Torch considers shouting at the young drakes to warn them to flee, but he's too late. The Elder Dragon can only widen his eyes as the bladesinger simply points at all four guards and mutters a single word.

“Die.” He didn't yell or scream the word, just simply stated it, but Torch could feel the power of the word from his position several hundred feet away. Not even a second later all four drakes go stiff and collapse. Laying crumpled, limp, and unmoving on the ground.

Ignis never even stopped walking during the entire exchange and another second later he simply steps over the corpses as if they were just garbage in his path.

Torch tenses as the elf slowly lifts his head and makes eye contact with the Dragon Lord. The dragon contemplates his next move when suddenly the elf vanishes and an instant later the enormous distance between them is closed. The two simply glare at each other as the elf hovers just a few feet in front of the Dragon Lords head.

“Do you understand the consequences of your actions, bladesinger? Countless pony lives will be extinguished if you continue. All of this for one pony?”

“I’m going to retrieve my fiancée, dragon. If you think this one pony is worth the destruction of your entire territory then feel free to try and stop me. You will not succeed, though.” Torch has lived for centuries and through those years he has accumulated no small amount of wisdom. His pride as a dragon, no, as the God of Wind compels him to kill this bladesinger. But, that wisdom gnaws at his mind. It's whispering something that he cannot ignore.

You cannot win.

Unfortunately the stereotype of a dragons pride is not entirely unfounded. In this case it proves true as Torch squashes the whispering in his mind and unleashes a mighty roar. He holds up his arm and prepares to cut the bladesinger to ribbons.

Ignis was ready for this, though. He knew Torch would never surrender. As soon as he saw the Dragon Lord start to tense up, just before he was able to roar, Ignis began channeling a vast amount of Divinity in his arm. When Torch raised his arm to prepare his wind slashes he was surprised to see the bladesinger had already raised his own arm. The next thing Torch knew, his vision was filled with golden light as a raw beam of Divine energy poured out of the elf's hand.

His entire head and upper body are engulfed in a raw beam attack that sends the massive dragon hurtling through the air. He slams into the ground and slides almost 100ft, leaving a huge tear in the landscape. Torch groans and rolls back to his feet with scorch marks all over half of his body and smoke wafting from his scales.

When he looks up he just glares at the bladesinger floating there with his palm pointed at the Dragon Lord. Torch considers where to go from here, now that he's taken an attack from the elf he is confident that they are somewhat evenly matched. Before he can retaliate a familiar voice growls out into the air.

“Stand down Torch. Go guard the prisoner, he might not be alone.” Grogar emerges from a nearby shadow right to the dragon and orders him to leave. “Let's have a conversation Mr. Ferrum. My name is Grogar.”

Ignis doesn't respond or acknowledge the goat he just starts flying down into the volcano. He's about to call out to Nightmare now that he can see her in the birdcage hanging over magma. Before he can however he's suddenly flying face first into dirt.

Teleportation? But there was no flash or any kind of transition. I was flying down into a volcano and then I just… was here.

Ignis is able to react in time to not eat dirt, flipping around he slams his feet into the ground and stands up. “I said I wanted to have a conversation Mr. Ferrum. No need to be so rude.”

Ignis looks at the goat just a foot or so away and glances around. He quickly realizes Torch is gone. Looking back down to Grogar the elf finally acknowledges him. “Then talk. What do you want?”

“I wanted to thank you, of course. If it wasn't for you I'd still be sealed in the accursed void. Deprived of my senses and floating for eternity. I also wanted to propose an alliance. I quite detest these dragons, but they were the most willing to work with me. If you were to join me…no creature could ever even glance at your loved ones the wrong way. We'd be unstoppable. You want the same thing I want!”

The standing rage doesn't leave the elf's face. “What do you mean? How did I unseal you? What exactly could you be trying to achieve that aligns with what I want?”

“When you came here you traversed through the void I was trapped in. I detected a new surge of energy in the void and willed myself to it's location, but by the time I got there the opening was already nearly closed. You were there and on the other side of the opening I could see a lavish bedroom and a creature that looks like you but a much darker complexion.”

Drow. It must've been my sister, but why don't I remember that? “Was I conscious?”

“No. There was another creature similar to you. His skin was wrinkly though, I imagine he was your elder. He glanced at me and completely froze me with his power. Then he opened another tear in the void that led to an apple orchard and deposited you through it. Then he disappeared. He didn't join you in Equestria, he just simply vanished, but that freed me and just before the tear in space closed…I slipped through.”

“And then you bioengineered a False Hydra, unleashed it on Canterlot, and killed countless innocents. Got it. That still doesn't explain what goal you could have that I share. There is nothing I have in common with you. You are VILE!”

Grogar just chuckles for a few seconds. “We both want Harmony out of the picture.”

That actually gives Ignis some pause. “You think the two of us could put down Harmony? She's basically an Overgod, I doubt we'd be no more than an annoyance.”

“Does that mean you're interested? I have some pertinent information that reveals how we can deal with her. You agree to work with me and I'll disclose everything.”

“And if I say no? Are you going to try and stop me from rescuing one of the loves of my life?”

“Of course not! I don't care what you do with that blighted corruption you call a mare. The dragons wanted her and this is entirely their doing. My work with them has no involvement in this particular endeavor. But…”

“Oh here we go…”

“If you were to decline, I'd be quite cross with you. I might even be so inclined as to impede you here.”

Ignis just sighs at the stereotypical villain. Then he thinks to himself for a moment before responding. “I want the intel first. How can we defeat Harmony? Also how are you able to prevent me from scrying on Nightmare or teleporting her away from here? It has to be you that dragon seems too incompetent to do something like that.”

“You communicate with her avatar on a daily basis and you think I'd give away this information without some kind of guarantee? If you share this with Celestia or Harmony all of my plans are dead in the water. As for your other question, I've simply saturated her with my source of magic. I should've done the same thing at the negotiations instead of using standard anti-magic, you could think of it as… me claiming my territory.”

“Your Divine Realm.” Ignis is able to put two and two together, but as he thinks about Grogars words something finally clicks. “Wait..you claimed my mare? YOU?!”

“I assure you it's nothing so vulgar. Her cage is just imbued with an abundance of my magic. Although I did have to dig into her mind a bit when the dragons requested some information. There was no permanent damage, however.”

It happens in a fraction of a second, faster than any creature could've reacted. Golden jagged lines started to burn themselves into Ignis’ skin as a result of the elf dumping Divinity into his blood, muscles, and bones. In an even smaller fraction of a second a hand wrapped itself around one of Grogars horns before slamming his face into the ground.

“HOW DARE YOU?!” The bladesinger screams at Grogar.

Ignis is about to start repeatedly bashing the villain into the ground when Grogar suddenly turns into black smoke and gets blown away with the wind. Ignis can only hear the ibex laughing as the smoke disappears. The elf just turns his attention towards the volcano and his form blurs a bit before disappearing and reappearing at the entrance of the volcano.

As soon as he enters the volcano he spots Nightmare Moon in a cage. That cage is hanging from the tip of Torch's tail while the Dragon Lord himself is perched on the opening at the top of the volcano.

“Torch. Put her down.”

“Are you sure you want that?”

If his eyes were visible through the golden light he'd be rolling them. “Put her down on solid ground. You cliche bastard.”

“You understand this means the war is back on, right? If you take her back to Equestria then your cities will burn.”

“Ignis, please! Just leave!” Nightmare tries to plead for Ignis to abandon her. Not only because she can't bear the thought of thousands dying because of her, but also because she can see the jagged, almost rune-like lines all over the elf's body. She can see that he's pushing his body too far.

“Or I could just kill you, Torch. Kill you, take my fiancée back, and let your daughter be the new Dragon Lord. Problems solved, wars over, you're dead.” As Ignis comments this he puts his hand on his Moonblade and starts to unsheathe it for the first time since he arrived.

“How about a bet?” Ignis cocks an eyebrow at the dragon. In response the dragon flies down and lands on the other side of the platform Ignis is on, about 100ft away.

“You will walk towards me, walk, and I will unleash my wind slashes on you. If you can survive the onslaught and reach her cage then I'll let both of you leave. If not then you can try to kill me, but I hope you're able to do it faster than I can drop her cage in magma. Oh and it's still war even if you play my game and win.”

Although Ignis is enraged he still realizes that the game is probably his best chance. He's fairly certain he can kill Torch but because of Grogar he can't even grab the cage with telekinesis. That means he'd be at a severe disadvantage if he had to kill Torch while also trying to secure Nightmare. “I'll play your game.”

Without even waiting on a response Ignis takes one step forward and then another. Walking at a brisk pace towards Torch. Torch gives a sadistic smiles as he holds out his hand and targets the elf several times over.

The sound of flesh being slashed and blood spattering on stone is the only thing that can be heard. One cut appears diagonally across the elf's face, another four or five across his torso. With every step the amount of open cuts all over his body, face, and forehead steadily increase.

After the first 30ft Torch feels his uneasiness return to him as he watches this bipedal creature. He's completely drenched in blood with at least 100 deep cuts all over his body, but he just keeps taking deliberate and confident steps forward. The entire time his eyes are unblinking and he maintains eye contact with the Dragon Lord.

Another 20ft pass and the unease has evolved to unsettled, nearly disturbed. Torch starts to wonder if this creature is even real.

Suddenly Ignis is enveloped in white light and one step later all of the blood is gone and all of the cuts are rapidly closing.

Level Up.

The Dragon Lord instinctively flinches away from the elf out of fear. With renewed vigor he holds out two hands and doubles the amount of slashes being unleashed on the elf.

“Relentless Faith.” Ignis turns completely golden as he activates the Hope Domains capstone feature. For the next six seconds nothing can touch him.

Torch is breathing heavily now as panic starts to set in. Ignis is only 25ft away and he looks like he's in even better shape than he was when they started. The elf returns to normal as the feature runs out, but he just activates it again.

This time Ignis stops walking forward. He just stands there completely invulnerable, glaring into Torch's eyes as the dragon attempts to dice him into tiny pieces. His golden skin from Relentless Faith starts to shine and glow intently. Now even Nightmare is confused as she's never seen this before.

Divine Rank 6
Salient Divine Ability: Divine Fire Mastery - Fire Domain

As soon as Ignis is done glowing Torch stops attacking, he stops being hostile entirely. He can instinctively tell something has changed. The aura of the creature in front of him is not the same as it was just seconds ago. The glare from Ignis no longer feels like a glare from hatred and revenge, it's like the glare of someone looking annoyed at an insect that just bit them.

Torch sets the cage down, nearly trembling, before flapping his wings with immense force. Flying out of the volcano with such reckless abandon that he crashes into the rim of the opening and sends massive chunks of stone and boulders through the air.

Ignis ignores the fleeing dragon and rips the door off of the cage containing Nightmare. Then he carries her bridal style out of the cage and removes the ring on her horn. No words are spoken between them the entire time.

Once the ring is removed Ignis uses a sixth level Cure Wounds to fully heal the alicorn. Then he uses Greater Restoration to mend any lasting conditions. It's only then the Nightmare finally speaks. On the verge of sobbing.

“This…this is wrong Ignis. You can't forsake the kingdom just for me. After everything I've done…”

“Sure it might be for the greater good.” Nightmare is surprised at how gentle his tone is compared to how ferocious he was just minutes ago. “I might be dooming Equestria, it's true. But, Equestria doesn't mean anything to me without you. If doing this makes me the villain, then I'll happily play that part.” The declaration leaves her speechless and wide eyed as she just stares at Ignis.

He gives her a soft smile and then teleports Nightmare back to Canterlot.

“To think you would evolve into a being in the same realm of power as me, in such a short time. Do you have an answer for me, Ignis?” Grogar calmly speaks to the elf from the entrance of the volcano.

“Go fuck yourself. Stay out of my way and watch me kill the Dragon Lord.”

“I'm afraid I can't do that. If you aren't going to join me then I can't afford to lose the resources and support from the dragons. I'm afraid it'll have to be a fight.”

“So be it.” Ignis sighs and his power surges back to life. Grogar feels a shiver go up the back of his neck this time, giving him a level of excitement he hasn't felt in a long time.

“Extraordinary.” Ignis leaps forward with his Moonblade ready to strike, and faster than Grogar can react he swings for the goats neck. Ignis is almost disappointed with how easy it was, until his sword passes harmlessly through the goat as he turns into smoke again.

“Cheap tricks seem beyond a creature with your level of power, Grogar.” All Ignis gets in response is another chuckle from Grogar.

All this time Grogar has been in his lab in the main Lair of the dragons. In front of him is the pod containing the prototype Tiamat. He considers what to do now that his illusion has been killed again, but suddenly he feels the ground start to violently shake and rumble.

Unbeknownst to him, Ignis gained Divine Fire Mastery when he selected an Extra Domain at Divine Rank Six. This makes him immune to fire and heat and also allows him complete and full control of ALL non-magical fire. It also let's him cast any spell that has a spell descriptor of fire. In this case the control of all non-magical fire is what has caused the ground to shake.

You see, when you fall into lava in Dungeons and Dragons, you take fire damage. Stone to Magma and Magma Wall are also considered fire spells. By this logic, magma is fire. Ignis jumped into the magma pool in the middle of the volcano where Nightmare was being kept, and from there he assumed control of all the magma in a six mile radius.

“Erupt.” The dragons are apparently immune to magma so the only creature this should harm is Grogar. It will likely still be extremely annoying for the dragons which is all the motivation Ignis needs. Once he's commanded the magma and can feel the planet shaking beneath him he flies out of the volcano.

As soon as he clears the rim he watches as massive pillars of lava shoot up from the countless volcanoes around the area. Hundreds of dragons are expelled along with the lava as it continues pouring out. He glanced around until he spots Torch barking orders to that Winter dragon Ignis saw last time.

“COME HERE TORCH!” Ignis shouts at the dragon as he zips through the air towards him. Half a second away from impact Ignis activates Alter Size and becomes Colossal.

Torch is so large that they are actually around the same size now, but this only causes Torch to freak the fuck out even more. He never expected an angry bladesinger God the same size as him would ever drop out of the sky and dropkick him.

Before the fight can continue four massive tears in space appear next to the colossal elf. Shadowy tendrils shoot out and bind both of the elf's wrists. The other two tendrils pierce through his torso, causing Ignis to cough up blood. Blood that now looks thick and golden instead of bright red. Ichor.

“You. You are lucky I was able to save my notes and materials. You nearly set me back a century in my research. You have successfully angered me bladesinger, so if that was your goal you have succeeded.” Grogar appears in front of the kneeling and impaled elf looking furious as he unleashed his verbal tirade to Ignis.

Ignis is barely listening to him as his mind tries to understand what just happened. One second he was about to brutally murder Torch, the next second he's impaled through the chest and his wrists are bound. Did he vastly underestimate Grogar?

Activating Relentless Faith for a third time the tendrils catch fire and disappear. Once freed Ignis returns to normal size and flies away as fast as possible. After one second of flight he teleports back to Canterlot.

As soon as he appears in Luna's bedroom he is tackled into the bed by two alicorns and a pegasus.

Once all the commotion has settled down the elf just looks at the three mares with a slight frown. “Grogar is stronger than me.”

He expected some shock or surprise but instead Luna just thwaps him in the back of the head with one of her wings. “Duh! You didn't have to go fight him to learn that, I bucking told you he was powerful!”

Ignis finally relaxes and let's out a small laugh. “That's true you did warn me. It just unsettles me because now it means that I can't fight him alone. I hate asking any of you to risk your lives and help me, but I think it might be our only option.”

“I like where your head is at, but Ignis I have a new mission for you instead. You're going to spend a week in Ponyville.” Luna casually gives the order to her knight.

“Why?” Ignis doesn't seem to have a problem with the assignment based on his tone. He's just genuinely curious.

“Your objective is to reintegrate Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville and make sure she's capable of using her Element. I think even if all of us came together to fight Grogar we wouldn't be able to win without suffering our own losses. Losses I'm not willing to concede, especially when we have the Elements of Harmony. They should be sufficient to seal away Grogar once again.”

“Wait, you're willingly sending me away to spend an entire week with another mare? I'm not interested in her like that but I'm surprised the normally jealous Luna would do such a thing.”

Luna just rolls her eyes as Force giggles at the comment. “Moonie is going with you. I want you to help Twilight during the day and comfort Moonie at night. I'm only doing this because I know you're not interested in young Sparkle.”

“Comfort Nightmare?” I glance at the other alicorn and notice that although she is smiling she still has matted fur under her bloodshot eyes. What did they do to her? “I can do that.”

Without any prompting he leans over and gently kisses the alicorn just under her horn. “So I gotta get Twilight's mojo back so she can blast Grogar with the rainbow beam. Got it. Did you guys notice my status change in the party?”

“Yeah you leveled up and now you're also the God of Fire! Oh that's so cool.” Luna actually fan girls a little bit and it makes Ignis feel a bit fuzzy to see her react like this to him.

“Party?” Force looks a bit confused.

“Oh right. I unlocked a party system feature for my unique magic. Here it's easier if I just invite you.” Ignis attempts to invite Force but scoffs when he sees the error message.

Incompatible. Please select a creature with a minimum Divine Rank of zero.

“I guess I can't invite mortals to the party. Before I ascended I could only invite mortals, and now I can't invite mortals. What an annoying little feature. You were basically the only other pony I wanted in the party anyways.” He looks at Force who is still confused. “So, basically I can see this little window in the air and it has Luna and Nightmare present. I can see their health and if any status conditions are applied to them like Restrained or Stunned or Unconscious. It's insanely useful.”

The three spend the next several hours talking and cuddling. The next morning Ignis goes to breakfast and sits next to Twilight.

“Sup Sparkle?”

“Good Morning, Ignis. I heard you're taking me back to Ponyville today?”

“Indeed. I'll basically be acting as your personal guard so you can feel as safe and comfortable as possible. I can perform essentially anything you ask of me, and hopefully you'll be able to use the Element of Magic again. How you feeling? Think you'll be okay?” Ignis doesn't realize it but basically every time he talks to Twilight he sounds like he's talking to a child.

“I'm looking forward to it. I miss my friends a lot…but some part of me is still afraid. Anypony could be…something else.”

Ignis just gives her a headpat. “It'd be weird if you weren't afraid. I think I have a solution for your fear though. I'll tell you about it once we're at the library. You finish eating, I need to talk to the Night Guard captain before I go. She was expecting me to assist her this week so I'll have to let her know about the change of plans.”

“Oh I can just go back to Ponyville next week instead, I don't mind!”

“Hah, nah it's aight. It isn't gonna change the plan too much. I'll just need to teleport up here for an hour or so every night after you go to sleep. Like I said though, don't worry about it.” With that said he uses Remote Sensing to find his most faithful follower and after making sure she isn't doing anything embarrassing or sleeping he teleports to her.

“AHHH! OH…oh. Sir. Please warn me before you just APPEAR in front of me. Oh I think I'm gunna faint.”

“Haha, sorry Captain. I got assigned a new mission from Luna so I'll be spending the next week in Ponyville. Our mentoring sessions are gonna have to be done remotely through telepathy, and the training sessions I'm hosting with the guards needs to be moved to the right a few hours instead of right at the beginning of shift.”

Elytra seems a little surprised when he mentions Ponyville. “Ah okay. That should be easy enough to adjust, but why did you come see me face to face to tell me this?”

“Do I need a reason to see my most faithful believer? You really have done a lot for me Elytra. If you need something, anything, don't hesitate to ask. Hell, if you want something feel free to ask. I feel like I don't do enough for you.”

“You give me strength and the ability to save my comrades. I could not ask for more, Sir. I will keep that in mind for the future though. Am I really your most faithful?”

“Oh yeah and it's not even close. I can feel your devotion almost every second that you're conscious. There was a small gap of around ten minutes a couple of days ago. I was so curious what could've happened, I thought perhaps you'd taken a nap. Do you have any idea wh-”

It's quite a rare sight to see a changeling blush, but this changeling has almost entirely gone crimson. “Sir…please don't make me say it.”

Ignis quickly puts two and two together, and makes a silent “ohhh.”

“My bad. Yeah you know what it's probably good that you weren't thinking of me while you were uh…intimate. But hey I'm happy for you! Is it a steady relationship or were you just having a fling?”

Elytra kicks her foreleg across the stone floor a bit. “It's…I don't know what it is. It's so strange being with a non-changeling for any reason other than feeding. I'm not even sure if these feelings I have are romantic or just my body telling me I've found a reliable food source.”

“I thought you don't get hungry anymore now that you've become my follower?”

“I don't, but I still eat. You don't need to eat anymore either, but I still see you in the dining hall.”

“Of course, but what I'm saying is…look, your body wouldn't be screaming at you to secure a food source if you're never hungry. What do you feel when you're around them?”

“Her. Honestly Sir, I appreciate this, but you are the last creature I want to talk about my love life with. I mean that as respectfully as possible, it's just too embarrassing.”

“Fine~ be that way. I could get you in a room with Princess Cadence though? I bet she would be the perfect person to help you with this.”

Elytra seems a bit pensive but finally relents. “If you could do that I'd appreciate it a lot, Sir.”

Ignis finds himself just staring at the smiling changeling. For some reason she almost reminds him of a puppy. Without warning he squats down and gives the drone a hug. “S-sir?! Is something wrong?!”

The elf pulls back and stands up. “Nah, you just looked adorable and I wanted to give you a hug. Anyways, I'll talk to Cadence before I leave and give you a time and place. I'll see you in a week!”

Just like that he's gone.

Sigh. “His Radiance is becoming more and more strange by the night. I suppose it's not a bad thing, though. Much better than the state he was in a few days ago… It literally made me sick just to look at him.”

Elytra comments to herself as she walks back to her resting place in the tunnel system.

Back to the dining hall

“Alright got that taken care of…Cadence.” The alicorn looks up from her pancakes with a deadpan stare and eyes of an extremely tired mare. “Oh wow. You okay? Anyways, my guard captain Elytra is having a love problem. I was hoping you could help her out? She doesn't feel comfortable talking to me about it. If you don't have time or don't want to the-”

“No! No. I actually love doing exactly what you're asking of me. I just don't get too many ponies seeking that kind of assistance. If she's your guard captain then she's likely heading to bed right now…have her come by here tomorrow morning and I'll help her out over a nice breakfast.”

“Well.. shes a changeling so she doesn't really eat? I'll send her here around 30 minutes from now, tomorrow. So you can just take her to your office when you're done eating.”

Ignis does not miss Twilight tensing up when he mentions the species of his captain. “She's a good one Twilight, promise. She doesn't use transformation magic at all and she was the daughter of the old queen. The peaceful queen that Equestria had a good relationship with.”

With all of that taken care of he gives a temporary goodbye kiss to Luna and Force before motioning Twilight and Nightmare to his side so he can teleport them to Ponyville.

One flash of light later and the three arrived in the library. One extremely startled and fainted young dragon later and the three are giggling.

Hopefully nothing happens during this week long assignment….

Author's Note

I wrote this chapter on my phone so if its messier than usual that's why. Oh and thats definitely why the paragraphs are all almost one or two sentences, I thought the paragraphs were way too big on my phone so I kept breaking them up. Now that I'm looking at it on PC I might've been too liberal with my paragraphs.... oh well

This chapter lets Ignis and Grogar actually speak to each other, gives Grogar motivation to start actively participating in the war, and let me give Ignis some BAMF scenes. He takes a lot of L's and I think its good to give him some W's every now and then as well. There's a Honkai Impact 3rd reference in here that I wonder if anyone will spot...

Also...I gave the bug a hug. Be grateful, hmph. I know it seems like Ignis is like super chill and nonchalant about what Nightmare went through once he rescued her, but just trust me on this one. For now we're just gunna say she got lots of love and positive vibes during the "several hours" of cuddling I off screened. During the week in Ponyville though they will gradually ease Nightmare into talking about what happened to her. Ignis at the moment believes the best thing for her right now is to not treat her any differently and act as he always would have.

This way she doesn't feel pitied or think shes a burden and it lets her feel comfortable until shes ready to talk about it. :D

Also really really debating on adding book horse to the harem. Personally always been a fan of the nerd, but not sure if I want to add her to the MC Romance in this fic. Their relationship to me feels more familial to me, and Ignis would not wanna boink his own kid, even if its just metaphorically his kid. I can obviouslly tweak that relationship over the course of the week as the two get closer, and it wouldn't be that out of left field to bring her into the herd. It was kinda hinted at the very first time he returned to Ponyville after Nightmare Moon and Twilight observed him summoning Callisid that Luna saw her as competition.

So the groundwork is definitely there. I think my biggest reservation is that it feels too "self-insert" and I was kinda trying to avoid that. Might just say fuck it though, tbh. I can tell you that in the original plan for the entire outline of the story, there's two more characters that are for sure gunna get added to the herd. Does adding Twilight make that too many members of the harem? Hm.

Twilight also is supposed to live in Ponyville, so having her join the herd would be a bit awkward in that aspect.... hmmm. I have several chapters to come to a decision so I'm just gunna play it by ear.

Anyways enough rambling about future plot decisions.

Thanks for reading! <3